As we come to the final message in
the series of this year's Reformation Month messages,
we turn to the book of Joshua, chapter
1.
Joshua, chapter 1.
We're going to commence reading in verse 1.
We read the first nine verses of the
chapter.
Joshua, chapter 1, verse 1.
Now after the death of Moses, the servant
of the Lord, it came to pass that
the Lord spake unto Joshua, the son of
Nun, Moses' minister, saying, Moses, my servant, is
dead.
Now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, thou
and all this people, unto the land which
I do give to them, even to the
children of Israel.
Every place that the sole of your foot
shall tread upon, that have I given unto
you, as I said unto Moses.
From the wilderness and this Lebanon, even unto
the great river, the river Euphrates, and all
the land of the Hittites, and unto the
great sea toward the going down of the
sun shall be your coast.
There shall not any man be able to
stand before thee all the days of thy
life, as I was with Moses, so I
will be with thee.
I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.
Be strong and of a good courage, for
unto this people shalt thou divine for an
inheritance the land which I swear unto their
fathers to give them.
Only be thou strong and very courageous that
thou mayest observe to do according to all
the law which Moses my servant commanded thee.
Turn not from it to the right hand
or to the left, that thou mayest prosper
whithersoever thou goest.
This book of the law shall not depart
out of thy mouth, but thou shalt meditate
therein day and night that thou mayest observe
to do according to all that is written
therein.
For then thou shalt make thy way prosperous,
and then thou shalt have good success.
Have not I commanded thee?
Be strong and of a good courage.
Be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed.
For the Lord thy God is with thee,
whithersoever thou goest.
Amen.
The Lord will add His own blessing to
the reading of His precious Word for His
namesake.
Verse 2 of Joshua chapter 1 commences with
words that should ring not only in the
ears of Joshua, but in the ears of
every man of God.
Moses my servant is dead, now therefore arise.
Joshua was called to follow a great man.
He was called to carry on a great
work, to battle a great enemy, and to
win a great victory.
His peculiar task was the task of bringing
to a glorious fullness and completion the work
which Moses, the man of God, had begun.
When I read these words that concern Joshua
following on from Moses, I'm struck with the
fact that this is precisely where those of
us who are heirs of the Protestant Reformation
are called to stand.
We follow in the train of great men.
When you read the history of the Protestant
Reformation, you can only stand back in amazement
and say, surely there were giants in the
earth in those days.
Has the world ever seen a day like
the day of the Protestant Reformation when the
greatest intellects on earth were combined with the
greatest piety, the greatest devotion to Christ, the
simplest, and I use that word advisedly, the
simplest reliance on His Word, the purest presentation
of His Gospel?
Has the world ever seen such a day
when so many giants of the faith trod
the earth and did such great things for
God?
We follow great men.
We are called to carry on a great
work.
I understand that the Reformation was a multifaceted
series of events.
It had its political ramifications.
It had its cultural, social, and economic sides.
But most of all, it was a spiritual
work The driving force was a desire for
the preaching of Christ, the spreading of the
Gospel, the saving of souls, and indeed the
saving of nations.
It is not too much to say that
the single most potent ingredient in what went
to building what we now call Western Civilization
was the Protestant Reformation.
We are called to carry on that work.
We are called in doing so to battle
a great enemy.
We have been singing of that enemy.
This, for Martin Luther, was no mere little
rhyming poem.
This was for Luther the statement of his
experience.
This was for him everyday life when he
spoke of the prince of darkness grim and
then triumphantly said, We tremble not for him.
That was more than poetry.
That was reality.
Luther came as did all the men of
the Reformation face to face with the concentrated
opposition of the powers of hell.
As will every man in every generation who
seeks to stand for Jesus Christ, for what
our covenant-emptying forefathers used to call the
crown rights of King Jesus.
We take our stand for those.
Then certainly we will be called to battle
a powerful enemy who will come at us
from every side under every guise who will
use friend and foe to attack us who
will come from the outside as he did
in the early church and then from the
inside as he did much more successfully even
in the early church we battle a great
enemy but we are called to win a
great victory.
I would to God that we could get
back into the hearts and minds of the
people of God in the day in which
we live that the cause of Christ is
a triumphant cause.
I would to God that we could get
away from the defeatism that has so gripped
the evangelical cause for such a long time.
The notion that we are in the last
days.
Evil men will wax worse and worse.
So all we can do is sit back
and wait for the coming of the Lord.
Now let's understand something.
These are the last days.
But then let me back that up and
say these have been the last days for
2,000 years now.
Let me say these are the last days.
Let us not fall into the trap of
putting an X by a year on a
calendar and saying beyond this we expect nothing.
I don't know where we are in the
prophetic plan of God.
I do not know where the hands of
the clock are on the clock of prophecy.
We are in the last days.
Evil men, as we see every day, are
waxing worse and worse.
But you see the logic of the Holy
Ghost in Scripture is the very opposite to
defeatism.
How did the psalmist pray?
It is time, O Lord, for Thee to
work.
Why?
Because they have made void Thy law.
Because evil men are waxing worse and worse.
Because we are in an age of terrible
apostasy from truth.
That is a reason to pray for God
to work, to expect God to work, to
see God work, and to live in victory,
not in defeat.
We are called to win a great victory.
And I don't want to get into a
survey of church history tonight.
But let me tell you if we do
not see in our nations in the West
a significant moving of the Holy Ghost with
power, then ours will be the first generation,
and what a shame it is, the first
generation since the Protestant Reformation, not to see
an outpouring of the Holy Ghost with power
to make such an impact on our society
as to change its course.
The Reformers saw it.
The Puritans saw it.
The Scottish Covenanters, who were called to dye
the heather of Scotland red with their own
blood, they saw it.
The Pilgrim Fathers saw it.
The Jonathan Edwards, George Whitfield, John Wesley era
saw it with a mighty moving of the
Evangelical Awakening.
The next century saw it again with multiple
movements of the Holy Spirit of God.
I have often said that it is a
shameful thing that here in America God's people
know next to nothing.
Even preachers know next to nothing about the
progress of one of the greatest revivals in
the history of the world when for thirty
or forty years there was a mighty constant
movement of the Holy Ghost across these states.
And this state and North Carolina and then
moving westwards and then moving northwards were all
vitally involved and yet we live in such
utter ignorance of what God has done.
But we come to our generation.
We have more Christian schools than ever.
We have more higher education than ever.
We have more money than ever.
We have more churches than ever.
We have more professing Evangelicals than ever.
We have more of everything except the power
of the Holy Ghost.
May God forgive us Unless we see a
movement soon our generation will go down in
shame as the greatest failure in the history
of Protestantism.
I thank God that's not true in every
part of the world for why we have
fumbled and faltered and failed in other places
men have been filled and used and blessed
to the saving of hundreds and thousands and
millions to the glory of our Savior's name.
But we are called to victory.
Oh, that that would again grip the hearts
of the people of God.
Oh, that that would grip the hearts of
men and young men in the church of
Jesus Christ.
That we would realize that we have a
peculiar task and that is to see come
to a glorious fullness a work that has
begun has been begun by greater men than
we.
But you know we can do nothing until
like Joshua we heed the call of God
and as the Lord says arise rise up
oh man of God have done with lesser
things that's the call we will do nothing
we will amount to nothing however successful we
are in any other endeavor we will amount
to nothing until we as a people rise
with Joshua to meet the challenge and obey
the call that God has set before us.
Last Sabbath evening I spoke to you from
the words of the Lord Himself through Ezekiel
in chapter 22 verse 30 I sought for
a man.
And I want to continue the theme of
that because we're still thinking of the subject
wanted men of God men who will epitomize
the best features of the reformation as I
pointed out last week men of one book
men of one book men who feel the
power of the word of God in their
own souls men who have a real grasp
of the gospel of Jesus Christ wanted men
of God I want to proceed with that
this evening and I will show you that
when we're talking about the need we're talking
about the need for preachers with passion and
with power because not only is God looking
for men of one book and men who
feel and experience the power of the word
men who know the gospel but men with
a passion to preach Christ this passion to
preach was one of the outstanding hallmarks of
the reformers I suppose Luther is the prime
example Luther was many things he was a
musician of no mean ability he was a
poet he was a philosopher he was a
lawyer he was a theologian he was a
pastor he was a controversialist he was a
soldier in the army of Christ he was
a leader of men he was also temperamental
pig-headed, stubborn and all the rest of
those things that make up the mix of
very interesting people but most of all as
a man of God Martin Luther was a
preacher he was a preacher he wasn't alone
I pointed out last week and this shows
you just how sovereign the spirit of God
is when the Lord Jesus said the wind
bloweth where it listeth he was saying nothing
but the truth the spirit of God moves
as he will in utter and complete freedom
and sovereignty before Luther had ever kneeled his
theses to the door of the church in
Wittenberg before Luther had ever launched upon his
public career as a preacher of the gospel
and a reformer in the church Zwingli had
started preaching the Seum Gospel in Switzerland Zwingli
had sat at the feet of the famous
scholar Erasmus Erasmus leaves a lot to be
desired he's one of those characters in history
who just makes you shake your head he
knew so much he directed men so clearly
and yet he seemed so small spirited in
other ways so impoverished spiritually you have to
stand back and simply leave him to God
who is his judge but Erasmus taught Zwingli
there is but one thing that we have
to seek for in the holy scriptures and
that is Jesus Christ Erasmus would do well
if he could be resurrected to teach a
whole lot of university professors and bible professors
the simplicity of the scriptures whatever else you
learn of Hebrew or Greek or hermeneutics or
this or that your whole method of bible
study is gone awry if it blinds you
to Jesus Christ I have books by learned
men lining the shelves of my library and
some of them I look at and I
wonder how can so great a mind so
brilliant an intellect be so absolutely blind they
can come to the scriptures and they find
little or nothing of Christ they can give
you the bare bones they can give you
an analysis of words and grammar and syntax
and usage but there is little or nothing
Erasmus was right there is but one thing
that we have to seek for in the
holy scriptures and that is Jesus Christ that
found its way into the heart of the
young Oryx Wingly and it burned its way
into his soul for he did seek Christ
and he found him and then he started
to preach him it's an interesting story in
his life that he was called by church
authorities to the monastery in Ein Sidlen and
there he was given the task of doing
research and then preaching and teaching when he
got there he found that much of his
income was raised from the gifts of pilgrims
who came on purpose to that place because
it was a place where there was a
revered image of the Virgin Mary the monastery
carried above its gate this legend plenary remission
of all sins is to be found here
and people came and they paid lots of
money to be able to see the Virgin
to be able to get their sins forgiven
when he got there and found this situation
Zwingli began to preach the very opposite the
monastery said here you will find remission Zwingli
taught them you can meet with God anywhere
then he began to give them the heart
of the gospel Christ who hath once doesn't
sound very revolutionary to us but remember in
the context of medieval Roman Catholicism reverting to
the once or the once for all sacrifice
of Christ was an invitation to draw down
upon your head all the wrath of the
papacy because that one little emphasis was a
strike at the heart of the entire system
upon which Rome had built her superstitions Christ
who hath once suffered and offered himself on
the cross is the sacrifice and the victim
who makes satisfaction then he added even through
all eternity he didn't mean that Christ kept
on offering through eternity, he meant that that
one offering is efficacious right throughout all eternity
what then about Mary what then about indulgences
what then about the so called ability of
the popes and the priests to forgive sins
of those already in purgatory no no the
young preacher was preaching he is saying he
has made this satisfaction unto all eternity for
the sins of all believers the message was
pure and clear and simple Christ alone saves
and he saves everywhere the result of course
was predictable people believed it and people got
saved and of course once they believed that
message they stopped coming to pay into the
coffers of the monastery to see a statue
of the virgin Mary but of course once
they stopped paying Zwingli's income went down, there
was nothing to pay him with anymore a
loss of income but the saving of souls
you see the reformers were men who preached
from conviction nothing could stop them nothing could
stop them when Patrick Hamilton returned to his
native Scotland after studying for some time under
Luther he knew that he was taking his
life in his hands, royal blood flowed in
his veins but he knew that even that
could give him no protection but yet he
went knowing that death stared him in the
face yet he went to preach Christ and
was murdered for his troubles George Wishart the
man through whom most probably John Knox was
saved certainly Knox's mentor knew when he set
out on a particular day to go preaching
he knew it would be his last Knox
believed it too and he went to go
with him and Wishart stopped him and he
said no one is sufficient for a sacrifice
and yet he went and sure enough he
was done to death Dr. Pinozzi and God
willing will be here Wednesday evening in the
persona of Hugh Latimer again it's a tragedy
that his name is almost lost to evangelical
Christians Hugh Latimer who is he?
Hugh Latimer was appointed a bishop of the
church in England a simple man but a
brilliant man a faithful man a preacher a
preacher of great repute and great ability as
I demonstrated last Sunday evening a preacher of
incomparable faithfulness and courage in standing preaching to
Henry VIII when Bloody Mary took over the
throne of England Latimer's days were numbered and
he was burned at the stake burned at
the stake because he preached Christ his words
to Ridley Nicholas Ridley another bishop dying beside
him in the flames have gone down as
some of the greatest most defiant most triumphant
words ever spoken in the English tongue they
were a prophecy as well as a defiance
speaking through the crackling flames speaking through the
pain that wracked his dying frame Latimer cried
fear not Master Ridley we shall by God's
grace light such a candle in England this
day as I trust shall never be put
out those were preachers of conviction that's
what the church of Christ needs in America
today do you notice when we were singing
Martin Luther's great hymn the boundless confidence that
he had in the word that he preached
when he was speaking of Satan and all
the satanic hosts against him he said one
little word not an army not a prince
one little word will fail him that's the
confidence these men had in the word that
they preached they believed what Paul said the
gospel is the power of God when I
lectured homiletics some of you may laugh at
the thought of me lecturing homiletics you hear
my homiletic lack of skill and you say
how could he ever teach others well sometimes
the more prone you are to make mistakes
the more you know the mistakes to miss
and you can tell other people what they
should do and you can say do what
I say not what I do but anyway
I used to give the students a list
of ten things that Martin Luther laid down
for every preacher some of them are very
simple some of them are very profound he
should be able to teach plainly and in
order God save us from ramblers who haven't
a clue what they're talking about and they
have no idea how to talk about it
you know I've gone to churches I remember
going to one church when I was on
vacation and I always like to try to
get a fundamentalist church if I can get
a fundamentalist church that's going to stand up
for the Lord Jesus and preach Christ that's
where I want to go there may be
Baptist, there may be Bible churches, there may
be Presbyterian there's something more important than the
label and I was on vacation in a
particular place and I went to a little
church knew very few people there I didn't
hold that against them I hoped that we'd
be an encouragement to them but when I
got there I must confess I was totally
underwhelmed I found no interest
in a visitor being there I found the
preacher even in such a small church had
been so busy with a school I'm all
for Christian schools but God help us when
schools become the tail that wags the dog
so busy in a school he hadn't the
time to study to preach if we don't
have time to study to preach we are
not called to preach I have no right
to be in this pulpit unless I come
with a message from God I have no
right to be here I found this gentleman
could not and I mean this literally this
is not some overstatement he could not fashion
even the first sentence of his message I
found that as he rambled there was hardly
a complete sentence anywhere I was at a
loss as to what he was trying to
say the greatest blessing I had was the
reading of the scriptures a minister should be
able to teach plainly and in order people
should know what he's talking about where he's
coming from where he's going to and when
he's got there and when he's finished there
should be something in the hearts of the
people that says that was a message not
a sermon not a sermon he said he
should have a good head not a big
head, a good head he should have a
good power of language now here I get
on to my hobby horse I'd better be
careful preachers, and some of you young fellas
who are training to be preachers remember words
are your craft the English language is and
I suppose I'm being very very self-serving
when I say this and more than a
little prejudiced it's a unique language the greatest
language in the world I tell people you
think of the French language is about 300
to 330 thousand words in it's vocabulary that's
true of most other European languages the English
language is approaching three quarters of a million
words in it's vocabulary what does that tell
you?
there's a word for everything there used to
be a program on the radio here when
we came at first I'm very sorry they
took it off where's Charlie?
I'm very sorry, I think it was in
WMU there's a word for it a woman
from the Greenville Library put these out over
various stations and she had a strange way
of speaking, a strange accent well more strange
formation of words than accent but it was
fascinating just to listen to her there's a
word for it, and there is a word
for it you get preachers that are so
lazy their vocabulary is almost zero they don't
know the meaning of the words they use
they don't know the nuances of the words
they use, they never bother to find out
how they may construct sentences that will carry
the flow of the message a good power
of language he should have a good voice
and pray to God that he doesn't have
little things going across his vocal cords as
I have at the moment that makes mine
even more difficult to listen to than usual
a good memory and then I took this
one very much to heart he should know
when to stop he should know when to
stop Scott Heater gave me I thought he
was giving me a whole sermon of Martin
Lloyd Jones on a CD the rascal gave
me just a little snippet I thought it
was one hour and two minutes, it was
one minute and two seconds but he gave
me these seconds for a reason Lloyd Jones
was preaching and he said I'm only going
to give you my headings in other words
I'm not going to preach, I'm only going
to give you my headings he was an
old man, you could tell that from the
voice, he was an old man when he
was preaching this and then he stopped and
he said may God forgive me may God
forgive me, shame on me I was going
to tell you I wasn't going to preach
because I was thinking that you would think
it was too long and then he said
this if you're thinking that it's too long
and you need to get away, you do
not know what Christianity is was that strong?
why did he say that?
I'm talking to you about the things of
eternity eternity and yet we have people and
they're so interested in wrapping the church service
up in 45 minutes or 60 minutes that
they may go having paid their lip service
like a bunch of idolaters having said to
God this is the most important thing in
the world but let me now get to
the lesser things I'll give God 45 minutes
or an hour and then I'll get to
things that don't matter and I'll give them
the rest of the week Lloyd Jones was
right may God forgive us may God forgive
us and shame on us too, I know
when to stop, you may not think I
know when to stop, I know when to
stop may not be when you think I
should stop I love Dr. Paisley's statement for
it's analytical skill, I don't like the fact
that it happens but I've quoted this before
sermonettes breed christianettes little sermons little christians he
should know when to stop he should be
sure of what he means to say then
he gets to the real heart of it
remember this is written in the reformation period,
this was not rhetoric he should be ready
to stake body and soul and goods and
reputation on the truth of what he's preaching
those were the preachers of the reformation here
I'm standing with a message from God, I
will stake my life on what I'm preaching,
do you know many preachers like that?
I don't think so I don't think so
he goes on about studying diligently and suffering
himself to be vexed and criticized by everyone,
when you look at all that Luther says,
he's saying we need preachers who are men
of ability we need preachers who are men
of diligence we need preachers who are men
of utter, absolute conviction wanted men of God
when I think of preachers like that, I
think of a man like William Farrell red
headed, hot blooded quick tempered volcanic in his
oratory but my absolutely intrepid in
his stand for God a flaming zeal to
preach, nothing could stop that man, he was
so consumed, he was a priest of course
of the Roman Catholic Church, very wisely he
held on to that title for a while
and when he would travel around, he would
go to the local church and being a
priest he'd stand up and preach he'd walk
in at times and the priest would be
going through his mumbo jumbo, he'd walk up
beside him, move him off to the side
and he would take over and start to
preach there were times when the whole congregation
got saved including the priest and he'd just
moved out of the way there were times
of course when it put him in danger
one occasion they took him out they cocked
a gun, they put the gun to his
head to blow his brains out, pulled the
trigger and it wouldn't fire did it stop
him?
no sir a man of ability, a man
of diligence, a man of conviction a man
of fire a veritable Elijah if you want
to see into the heart of a Reformation
preacher, see this same Farrell on that fateful
night and I don't mean that in a
bad sense, I mean a night of destiny
when the young John Calvin was merely travelling
through Geneva spending a night as anonymously as
he possibly could in the inn of course
to this day when you go to Europe,
it's not easy to be anonymous, I remember
when we went to Geneva in the getting
back now the 1960's, 1970's when the Pope
went the first time from the Reformation to
Calvin's Geneva we went there to witness against
him took our lives and our hands to
do it, but God brought us through it
anyway when you registered, the police came round
every hotel, they got all the registration cards,
they knew who was there why they were
there, how long they were there where they
were going, they knew all about them and
that's the way it was when Calvin went
the word got around John Calvin is in
Geneva and Farrell went and he said I
want you to stay here he said no,
I can't do that I have my plans
Calvin was a scholar, he was an academic
he was a student, he could do more
good for the Reformation, writing and disseminating his
writings back into his native France he was
sickly he had a host of illnesses weaknesses
of body pains and aches and he said
that he was going for rest to work
in the quietude of rest and the flaming
red head stood before him and said God
curse your rest, I want to tell you
that got his attention God curse your rest
and Calvin admitted he put such a fear
of God in him that night that he
gladly stayed and so changed the history of
Europe we need preachers, we have had enough
of PR men in the pulpit we have
had enough managers in the pulpit we have
enough business men who know how to run
an operation I'm not saying preachers are going
to build the biggest churches they may or
they may not I have to face this
before God if God is glorified in my
preaching to a dozen then my only reason
to exist is to glorify Him I have
no other reason no better reason but certainly
no other reason we were singing tonight the
words of Charles Wesley I only breathe to
breathe thy love if God is glorified then
so be it that's enough, I don't know
that being a preacher will give you the
biggest church or give you what the world
calls the greatest success but I will say
this our churches are dying under the hands
of cold meticulous managers give us preachers give
us preachers perhaps at least one of the
greatest sustained demonstrations of the power and success
of preachers standing for the central truths of
the Protestant Reformation is to be found in
the history of the Methodists, Whitfield and Wesley,
the founders of Methodism were many things but
above all they were preachers did any English
man ever preach like George Whitfield he was
Spurgeon's ideal as the greatest of preachers we
call Spurgeon and I tend to agree to
be quite honest the prince of preachers I
don't think the world in any language has
ever seen quite the equal of the great
Baptist preacher but if you would ask Spurgeon
who is the prince of preachers he would
have told you unhesitatingly George Whitfield a man
who moved both Britain and America though America
was yet in its infancy but moved both
Britain and America with the power of gospel
preaching and though Wesley was not the preacher
that Whitfield was he lacked much of his
friends warmth and charm and preaching skill yet
John Wesley was a powerful and effective preacher.
It may come as a surprise to some
that I put Wesley and the Methodists right
there in the Reformation tradition but that's where
he should be let me tell you what
John Wesley said the sooner we get preachers
like this back in our pulpits and I
say this as one who strongly disagrees with
many of the outstanding features of Wesleyan theology
but oh I would to God we had
Wesley's heart listen to what he said I
desire to have both heaven and hell ever
before my eye while I stand on this
isthmus of life between these two boundless oceans
think of that that's where I stand as
a preacher my life is but an isthmus
on the one side the boundless eternity of
heaven on the other side the boundless eternity
of hell and every man and woman and
child I ever address is going to live
forever in God's heaven or in God's hell
is it any wonder a preacher like that
shook England he set it ablaze with controversy
when there weren't clergymen to preach he sent
out unordained preachers and he knew the kind
of men that he needed as I look
at America today as I look at the
work of fundamental and reformed and evangelical churches
today as I look at the work of
the free Presbyterian church today I echo these
words of John Wesley he said give me
one hundred preachers who fear nothing but sin
and desire nothing but God will you emphasize
that do you say you're called to preach
or have you ever come to say you're
called to preach here's the mark of a
genuine preacher give us men who fear nothing
but sin who desire nothing but God and
said Wesley I care not a straw whether
they be clergymen or laymen such alone will
shake the gates of hell and set up
the kingdom of heaven upon the earth these
are men to shake the gates of hell
and in Wesley's day and Whitfield's day they
did cause that's the kind of man God
gave him although there were failures among the
Methodist ministers but he described his own first
assistants as poor ignorant men now let's stop
for a minute that may convey something to
us that it wouldn't convey to him they
were not university educated some of them could
use the Greek and the Hebrew some of
them many of them were men of considerable
intelligence but they did not have access to
the universities of Oxford and Cambridge which were
really the domain of the Church of England
of which Wesley was still a member and
a minister but these he said were poor
ignorant men without experience learning or art but
simple of heart devoted to God full of
faith and zeal listen to this seeking no
honour no profit no pleasure no ease but
merely to save souls fearing neither want pain
persecution nor whatever man could do unto them
that's the spirit of a Reformation preacher that's
the need of the Free Presbyterian Church in
North America and I tell you unless and
until God raises us up men of this
spiritual calibre we may multiply numbers we may
add churches, we may send out men and
ordain them, they will be what I talked
about last week quoting C.T. Studd, they
will be no better than chocolate soldiers and
they will fail in the day of battle
these are the men, Reformation men preachers of
the calibre of Joshua who will stand in
the gap to carry on the work of
the gospel we need preachers wanted men of
God to preach it is said that Spurgeon
advised his students that if God has called
you to be a preacher do not stoop
to be a king is there is there
can there be a more honourable calling this
side of heaven than to be given the
task of being an ambassador for Jesus Christ
wanted preachers who are men of God but
if they are going to preach listen to
me they must be men of prayer men
of prayer men of the secret place I
have often said and many a time when
I say it I feel I condemn my
own heart but it is true nonetheless no
preacher can ever be greater than his prayer
life I found it interesting that John Bradford
one of the English martyrs of the reformation
period in his writings the very first thing
I think it is the first thing that
appears in the writings of Bradford is the
preface that he wrote to a translation of
Melanchthon on prayer that was Luther's assistant on
prayer Melanchthon was one of the world's great
theologians his common places represented the first attempt
of the reformation to put out a systematic
theology but theology is one thing a very
important thing unless there is a praying minister
with a praying people the work will go
nowhere some of you may remember that over
a number of Wednesday evenings I took as
the text of what I was teaching on
prayer the work of John Knox the great
Scottish reformer despite the antiquated English and all
the rest of it Knox's teaching on prayer
to this day throbs with a vitality a
reality a spiritual power that very few modern
preachers can even approach if you want to
know why John Knox single handedly almost single
handedly saw Scotland become from the most barbarous
nation on earth, the cradle of the Christianity
that ultimately forged this nation if you want
to know the reason for it you'll find
it in John Knox on prayer and you'll
understand then why Mary Queen of Scots feared
she said the prayers of John Knox more
than ten thousand soldiers men of prayer men
who can get alone with God John Wesley
told his preachers and of course days were
different then they rode around in horseback and
all the rest of it, they had hours
of solitude but he gave his preachers this
advice without sticking to the figures I think
he has something that preachers nowadays need to
get a grip of he said you should
be men of reading if you can't afford
books I'll supply them to the tune of
five pounds that was five months salary so
it was a lot of money I'll supply
you with the books, you read them then
he said read a little and meditate and
pray much he advised that every one of
his preachers would make sure that every day
he spent at least five hours alone, away
from the company of people we have
reached the stage where ministers get up in
the morning blearily they make their way to
the coffee percolator they grab a cup of
coffee they flip on the television that's their
day begun they have a few minutes quotes
devotions and then they're into administering churches and
schools and programs which no doubt are all
very good but you talk about a minister
today getting hours away from the company of
people and it's laughable but I'm going to
tell you this until we get ministers who
can get alone with God we will never
have ministers who will amount to anything in
the work of God they must be men
of prayer they must be men who are
set for the defense of the gospel that
means they're able to discern the dangers of
today not living in the past not fighting
the ghosts of battles already won men who
can discern what's facing the church of Christ
today men who are dedicated to oppose every
threat to the gospel both effectively and courageously
whatever the cost men who are equipped to
teach and to establish God's truth we need
men like that there's only one way that
preachers can become such men you may be
called of God but that in itself is
but the beginning we've read in Joshua as
to how he was to walk how this
book of the law was not to be
out of his mouth or out of his
mind that's the pathway of the preacher set
for the defense of the gospel we need
that we need preachers who are men of
prayer who are set for the defense of
the gospel who are not going to work
things out in terms of the cost of
their stand in dollars and cents who are
not going to work things out in terms
of who is going to like or dislike
their stand sometimes you've got to take your
stand and say whatever it costs us wherever
it leads us whatever it entails this is
where I stand I well remember when our
Toronto church was in its very very early
stages it had had a very rough baptism
the government of Ontario decided that if they
could possibly manipulate the law to keep Frank
McClelland out of Scotland or out of Toronto
they would do it the Attorney General himself
broke the law in an attempt to do
so and Frank went in anyway the newspapers
were in turmoil they were depicting these Irish
bigots Frank McClelland is everything from the devil
downwards I well remember a picture they showed
of him you know you can get in
close with a certain kind of lens this
was almost a fisheye lens don't tell Frank
I said this I don't think he's going
to qualify for the world's most handsome man
to start with he and I can get
along like we would say in Ireland you
could lick thumbs to the elbows that means
we're in total agreement he and I would
not win any beauty contests but this made
him look positively scary that was deliberately done
this is the monster the church was born
in a baptism of fire it was meeting
in the rented premises of a school then
it was announced Billy Graham was coming to
town Graham is going to compromise with Roman
Catholics with liberals he's going to preach a
pseudo gospel and by the way I don't
want to get into this tonight but there
you have the real problem not just his
associations but what has mostly been preached as
the gospel is only a pseudo gospel and
that little church had a decision to make
do we take a stand or do we
not if we take a stand we are
going to be in worse shape than we've
ever been before if people were against us
before they're going to be against us more
now they said well whatever it costs this
is where we stand we're going to take
a stand for Jesus Christ and they did
humanly speaking it should have been the death
of them they came under attack from the
Christadelphians because they also were standing against Graham
only they were standing against him because they
thought if he preaches what the Protestants call
the gospel they're against that and so the
little church was in another controversy and any
military man will tell you it's not a
good idea when you're stretched on the ground
and you're small in numbers to fight on
two fronts simultaneously but they did that anyway
and they were battling the cultists in the
one hand and the compromisers in the other
hand it should have been the death of
them but God that was the beginning of
the years of blessing and of growth and
of proving God in our Toronto church and
God has seen fit to take that witness
across Canada for the glory of his name
this is what we need but I would
have to say with this I'll close for
I do know when to finish we must
not be blind when we study the reformation
and what we need today as men will
epitomize the best features of the reformation that
means we need men of large heart and
vision who will practice the widest charity toward
differing brethren but never yield an inch to
the enemies of the gospel if the reformation
has a failure this is where it is
there are shameful scenes that one must admit
with grief in the reformation that Luther would
not even shake the hand of Zwingli because
of a difference of opinion on the meaning
of this is my body is a shame
to the name of Christ that the Anabaptist
preachers of good repute allowed themselves to stand
side by side with zealots who were willing
to shed blood was a shame that the
reformers were unwilling or unable to distinguish between
the two and stained the protestant reformation with
the blood of Anabaptist preachers is a shame
before God and I make no excuse I
do not by the way include in that
what most ignorant people do and even most
non-ignorant people do and that is the
execution of Michael Servetus in Calvin's Geneva Servetus
knew the law he was a vile blasphemer
Calvin allowed Unitarians to come and go from
Geneva unmolested but when Servetus came particularly and
deliberately to overthrow the order of the city
to be the mouthpiece of the libertines he
became a political pawn he broke what he
knew the law to be and he knew
the punishment for doing so I do not
include him though I think it would have
been better to deal with him otherwise but
there are shameful failures because you see the
best of men at best are only men
have we got any better than our forefathers
listen to me and I'm going to be
very blunt here when Bill Jones the man
who runs the New York gospel mission with
an opportunity to do a magnificent work for
God when Bill Jones could have premises that
are now going to go to waste and
rack and ruin but could have premises from
which to launch a mission with impact this
great city and throughout the world the opportunities
withdrawn because says the preacher you don't
agree with me on the timing of the
rapture that's where we've come to in fundamentalism
we've got to the place and this is
a shame to us as fundamentalists we've got
to the place we are the heirs of
the men who fought the battles for the
faith in the 1920's in the 1930's and
through the 40's and the 50's men who
took a great stand for God men who
knew how to train the big guns on
the big enemies in the early days of
the fundamentalist movement you had Baptists and Presbyterians
standing together and men of other denominations standing
together they didn't agree on every little detail
but they agreed on the person and work
of Jesus Christ they agreed on the great
truths of the gospel, they agreed on the
infallibility of scripture they agreed on what really
mattered they stood together that was a good
day and a victorious day when across America
you had apostasy going into reverse gear but
what has happened we've become so inward looking
that you find fundamentalists fighting fundamentalists over some
opinion while the world goes on to hell
God give us men of heart men of
vision I like what Rod Bell chairman of
the fundamental Baptist fellowship president of the FPF
I like what Rod Bell said when he
went up to Canada was preaching in our
church there at a fundamental conference and some
Baptist brethren up there got in touch with
him and they said that's a Presbyterian church
and if you go there you will never,
never be invited back to our churches I
like what Rod said he said I am
first a Christian I am second a fundamentalist
and I am third a Baptist in that
order these are my people Christians and fundamentalists
these are my people and if you don't
want me back then I'll not be back
I like that attitude it's the attitude of
a leader and a gracious man of God
and I say publicly a man I greatly
admire that's the kind of man we need
I lay before you the need tonight and
I say this to all of us to
pray about but I address this particularly to
young men in this church young men saved
by grace with as the Lord wills your
lives before you the Lord says I sought
for a man not a machine but a
man the work of God is never going
to be won by computers we can use
them but it's man in the front line
man not apologies for man not cardboard cut
outs man that's the need when you look
at that need you can only throw up
your hands and say with Paul who is
sufficient for these things I remember when God
began to speak to me about the ministry
I wanted nothing to do with that not
because I was afraid of the battle though
I never found myself particularly courageous I was
not holding back for fear of the battle
it was not because of the cost and
to be a free Presbyterian minister when I
came in meant you were coming in to
abject poverty without the thought or the hope
of ever getting beyond well to be poor
actually had a huge increase in income just
to reach the level of poverty that's where
we were that didn't bother me what bothered
me how can I ever do this work
I'm afraid of people believe it or not
afraid of people especially females I
remember going into a hospital to visit a
friend my own family almost passing out possibly
the heat the smells dealing with people was
never easy who is sufficient but then
Paul answers in the next chapter 2nd Corinthians
chapter 3 verses 5 and 6 and he
says our sufficiency is of Christ He it
is who makes us able ministers or sufficient
as ministers and I learned a great lesson
I am no intellectual and I don't say
that with mock humility I am no intellectual
I realized I had a very very limited
area of talent if that but I knew
I had the call of God I quickly
came to this well maybe not so quickly
because I remember times of turmoil of feeling
the how can I continue how can I
ever do the work of God feeling a
failure and then having to come to realize
if God calls me if God is with
me if He gives me a message then
I need nothing more and I can go
with the authority of heaven fearing not the
face of man who is sufficient the work
of the Christian ministry is the greatest work
on earth but in many ways it's the
loneliest and the hardest the most trying you
go from great highs to terrible lows you
rejoice with those who rejoice and immediately you're
in the valley to weep with those who
weep you do your best and as Luther
said you've got to suffer yourself to be
vexed and criticized by everybody and anybody your
best is never good enough but you have
a savior who is all sufficient I have
a Christ who is able to save anybody
and I can preach unto everybody and when
I look back over these years and forgive
the personal reminiscence but I'm speaking to young
men to whom God has been speaking and
the struggle is in your heart can I
ever be sufficient as a minister of the
gospel I look back over those years when
I wondered could I ever preach could I
ever amount to anything and feeling the answer
must be no and I ought to be
honest tonight when I look back I still
would answer no and yet my mind goes
to one scene after another seeing little children
come and put their faith in Christ and
go on with God seeing drunkards converted and
made sober filthy harlots washed and made clean
religious pharisees humbled brought to Christ husbands brought
in and answered a prayer and saved churches
built up to send out missionaries of the
cross is it worth it to serve Jesus
when Martin Luther came to the end of
the way was it worth it all when
John Calvin or John Knox died and I
look back was it worth it all it's
worth it all and yet the best has
yet to be for one of these days
we're going to stand before the Lord and
I think of the words of the old
hymn it will be worth it all when
we see Jesus you'll never be sad that
you gave your life to the service of
Christ when you stand before the Lord America's
dying tonight for the want of men of
God, men who know Him, men who love
Him, men who will burn out for Him
America's dying tonight for preachers consumed with the
message of redemption through Christ's blood justification through
His merits received by faith alone that my
friend is the need of the hour I
sought for a man as the Lord looks
over this meeting tonight can He find one
are there those to whom God has spoken
on whose heart has been placed the nail
pierced hand of the Saviour I sought for
a man do not waste that life in
the follies of this world on things that
will not matter in eternity remember to stand
where John Wesley stood on the isthmus of
life between the oceans of eternal heaven and
eternal hell and as you stand there that's
the time to cry out by Thy grace
O God I will arise Thy will will
be my command here am I here am
I body soul and spirit redeemed by precious
blood I give my life away take and
let it be consecrated Lord let
us bow our heads in prayer let us
all pray in
just a moment this meeting will be over
we have a great gospel and we have
a great Saviour we have the only gospel
we have the only Saviour if tonight you
are not saved it's Christ you need if
you've got a religion it's just a surface
thing it's Christ you need we invite you
to Him flee from wrath to come and
I want to tell you if there's a
desire in your heart to be saved then
there's a desire in Christ to save you
come and welcome to Jesus and if you
are saved some of you perhaps to whom
God has spoken tonight or in other times
about His service wanted men of God I
sought for a man is there in Isaiah
to say here am I Lord here am
I I want to do Thy perfect will
if God calls you to preach don't stoop
to be anything else if He doesn't be
what He tells you to be wherever He
sends you to be it but oh wherever
you go whatever you do be a man
of God if you'd like to talk with
Dr. Barrett Mr. Braham or with me would
be happy to help you to Christ come
and let's talk it over with the Word
of God God before us it is time
to seek the Lord Father in Heaven bless
Thy Word to every heart and after the
feeble faltering voice of man is silent Lord
speak on God speak on to every soul
we confess that we do stand on this
narrow isthmus that we call life we stand
between Heaven and Hell two boundless oceans of
eternity God have mercy on sinners tonight Lord
save them for Jesus sake God have mercy
on America tonight by raising up a race
of preachers whose hearts the Lord has touched
send out men not just in this denomination
but Lord as you see the cause of
Christ the Bible believing cause, the Christ exalting
cause, the cause that preaches a free justification
by faith alone in the merits of Christ
alone Lord we pray for the cause that
exalts the blood and the book and we
ask in Jesus name raise up men after
thine own heart who will go forth to
preach Christ answer prayer visit this generation with
a mighty reviving Lord let us not have
this shameful testimony we alone have failed to
prove God in our day and generation Lord
let us see thee work visit us soon
with revival pour out thy spirit with power
and turn many, many to seek the Lord,
part us with thy blessing and keep us
in thy fear be our portion tonight and
evermore we pray in Jesus name Amen