This morning I want us to leave the
more historical material that we've been looking at
and to come to a text of the
Word of God.
It is in the book of Deuteronomy chapter
32 and verse 36.
Deuteronomy chapter 32 and verse 36.
And the reason I move to this text
is that it seemed to me that we
had covered a fair amount of historical material.
I did have more which I had expected
to get through, but we have been through
a certain amount and I think sufficient.
And it would be a pity if there
were lessons that ought to be underlined which,
for lack of time, we did not touch
upon.
It seemed to me, therefore, that from a
text of the Word of God such as
this one we could draw certain concluding lessons
and applications which I hope will also be
encouraging to us.
For the Lord shall judge his people and
repent himself for his servants when he seeth
that their power is gone and there is
none shut up or left.
Now these words, as you see, are part
of the Song of Moses.
That is to say, part of the farewell
discourse of Moses to the children of Israel
as they were about to cross the Jordan
and enter into the land of Canaan Moses,
by the direction of God's Spirit, was given
to understand that he would not enter the
land and before, therefore, the people move on
Moses has this final opportunity to address them
and to give them the counsel of God.
And in this remarkable portion of Scripture he
speaks to them and gives them, by the
inspiration of the Spirit a kind of preview
of their future history.
There is a survey of times that were
yet to come laid out before them.
And if you read through this chapter you
will see that what is particularly underlined is
the peril that would afflict them in future
days of becoming careless and indifferent and negligent
in the cause of God.
They would enter the land, they would conquer
the land but a time would come, says
Moses in these earlier verses when they would
wax fat and kick when they would become
self-satisfied and self-complacent and when neglect
and indifference would seize hold upon them.
The consequences of that backsliding would be to
provoke the judgment and the chastisement of God.
And we have in the verses preceding this
verse a prolonged statement of the judgment of
God that would come upon the land in
the day when they turned aside from the
God of their fathers.
And that judgment would culminate as we read
in verse 35 with their foot sliding in
due time though they would suppose that they
stood secure.
To me belongeth vengeance and recompense.
Their foot shall slide in due time for
the day of their calamity is at hand
and the things that shall come upon them
make haste.
There would, in the case of a large
number of the people be a final judgment
which would remove them from this earthly scene
and would indeed consign them forever to the
wrath and to the judgment of Almighty God.
Now after that section of warning we have
a new note struck in verse 36.
There are another group of people who are
spoken of here in the day when the
land would become apostate and the majority would
have forgotten God.
There would nevertheless remain, says Moses a number
who were still His people and His servants.
They would be few in number.
But concerning these people we read in this
36th verse that the Lord would judge them
and repent Himself for His servants when He
seeth that their power is gone and when
there is none shut up or left.
Now let's first of all clear the meaning
of these statements in verse 36.
The word judge in this verse means not
to be understood in terms of an act
of sentence or condemnation.
It is rather God acting on the behalf
of His people in order to deliver them.
Now I am sure you are familiar with
a number of instances in the Scripture where
the word judge is used in that sense.
We read for example that God is the
judge of the fatherless and the oppressed.
He is the judge of the widow.
That is to say those who have no
one to plead for them on earth who
are helpless and bereft of human comfort let
men beware what they do to such persons
because God is their judge.
That is to say He is their protector.
He will act for them.
He will plead their case.
And so also of the Messiah who was
to come we read in Isaiah chapter 11
that with righteousness He will judge the poor.
And therefore this word judge is not infrequently
used in the sense of pleading the cause
of a party of taking up the case
of someone.
And that is the sense here in these
words.
God will judge His people that is to
say He will defend them and He will
act on their behalf.
And in addition He will repent Himself for
His servants.
God will be moved to turn from affliction
to blessing.
He will repent.
He will take away from them those chastisements
which were necessary and He will turn to
them again in the abundance of His mercy.
He will repent for His servants.
And the time when He will do this
is indicated by the closing words of the
sentence when He seeth that their power is
gone.
When they are an enfeebled and weak and
helpless people.
When there is none shut up or left.
When there is no garrison shut up in
the city to defend them.
When there is no soldier left in the
field to act on their behalf.
When there is none shut up or left.
When all earthly help has failed them and
no comfort is at hand for their relief.
Then God will act for His people and
for His servants.
So that this verse is a gracious promise.
It is introduced by the word for in
our English version the word which is elsewhere
frequently translated but or nevertheless.
I have God says spoken of the judgment
that I will bring upon a people.
But nevertheless I will for my people repent
and for them I will act and I
will do it when they are in this
weak and helpless condition.
When He seeth that their power is gone
then He will judge His people.
This verse then teaches us not simply a
promise upon which God acted in reference to
Israel but it leads us I believe to
the very heart of that which God does
in His kingdom throughout all generations.
It is true it had fulfillment in terms
of the Old Testament church.
They did go into Canaan and they conquered.
And they conquered because they were clothed with
divine strength.
They were told the eternal God is thy
refuge and underneath are the everlasting arms.
As thy days so shall thy strength be.
And they would drive out the heathen though
God said though they have chariots of iron
thy shoes shall be as iron and as
brass.
And as thy days so shall thy strength
be.
And we see the fulfillment of that in
the book of Joshua.
But as we look on in their history
we see other things.
We see Israel conquered by the Philistines.
We see Samson blinded and in his prison
house of Gaza.
Further on in time we see the whole
nation in Babylon with their hope withered and
lying as it were like dead carcasses in
a valley.
And these are conditions which came about because
their power was gone.
They no longer conquered.
They were no longer strong.
But they were weak and helpless.
And it is of such times that this
verse speaks.
When he seeth that their power is gone
not then, then God will raise up his
people and he will restore them once more.
And so it has been through the ages
of New Testament history.
The early church was empowered with the Spirit
of God.
They were sent out to turn the world
upside down.
They were given the assurance that their risen
Lord had all power in heaven and in
earth.
And the church knowing his presence in their
midst went forth to do his work.
But then as we see other ages of
the church we see a different scene.
We see that God's Spirit has been breathed
and that God has been provoked.
And the people of God become as it
seems like the world.
They also become careless and indifferent until the
very end of God's cause sometimes seems even
to be at hand in the world.
And it is then that this promise has
been once more fulfilled.
God judges his people.
God pleads for them.
God once more pours out his Spirit from
heaven and clothes his people with new strength
so that the church which was like an
army of dead bones is raised up to
do the work of Jesus Christ.
So much then for the general meaning of
this text.
Now as we look at it then I
want us to spend perhaps the major part
of our time on the first head which
I have and it is this.
If we read here of the power of
being God before we know whether our power
is God before we can judge the true
condition of the church we have to ask
the question what is the power that God
expects his people to have?
The peril is still with us as it
was with the church of Laodicea and other
churches of supposing that they are strong and
rich when they are not.
And that error and that delusion occurs because
men misjudge what is power.
What then is the power that God expects
us to have?
In answer to that question I think we
must say in the first place that the
power which God gives to his people is
the power which comes from his truth from
his word, from his statutes.
Is not my word, God says, like as
a fire and like as a hammer that
breaketh the rock in pieces.
The word of God is quick and powerful
and sharper than any two-edged sword.
And the strength which the church possesses is
not a strength which they have in themselves.
It does not reside primarily in their feelings
or in their experiences or in anything of
that nature but it resides in the fact
that the church is the pillar and ground
of the truth.
And it is the truth which is the
strength and the sword which is given into
the hands of the church.
Now if you read through this book of
Deuteronomy you will see again just how frequently
this is brought out before the people.
Look at verse 44 for example of this
chapter that we have open.
Verse 44 of chapter 32 And Moses came
and spake all the words of this song
in the ears of the people, He and
Hoshea the son of Nun.
And Moses made an end of speaking all
these words to all Israel and he said
Set your hearts unto all the words which
I testify among you this day which ye
shall command your children to observe to do
all the words of this law for it
is not a vain thing for you because
it is your life.
Their prosperity, their salvation would depend upon their
adherence to the statutes and to the words
which God had given to them.
So on right through Deuteronomy chapter 4 Verse
40 Thou shalt keep therefore his statutes and
his commandments which I command thee this day
that it may go well with thee.
Chapter 6 The words that we have there
in verses 6 and 7 And these words
which I command thee this day they shall
be in thy heart and thou shalt teach
them diligently unto thy children and talk of
them when thou sittest in thine house and
when thou walkest by the way and when
thou liest down and when thou risest up
in all that they did the word of
God had to be possessing them.
Thou shalt talk of it by the way
when thou sittest down, when thou risest up
and so on through Deuteronomy.
And thus also when Joshua was sent into
the land he was sent you recall with
that commission that this book of the law
shall not depart out of thy mouth day
nor night for thou shalt meditate therein and
then thou shalt make thy way prosperous and
then thou shalt have good success.
Now there are many other texts that probably
occur to you also but the truth is
this great principle that the church is dependent
for her strength upon the word which God
has put into her hands and into her
hearts.
Let them cleave to that word.
It is the word of salvation.
It is the word which convicts which cleanses,
which humbles which restores.
It is the word of God which does
all the work in the church of Christ.
And therefore when we think of revivals this
will invariably be found that a revival is
essentially a recovery of the word of God.
It is bringing back to the very forefront
of the thinking of Christians the truth of
the word of God in their beauty and
in their power.
Now I must at this point say something
which I did not say earlier and which
would be a grave omission if I passed
over it.
We pointed out how often a revival can
be actually dated.
That is to say that on a certain
day just as in a similar way on
the day of Pentecost the Spirit of God
was poured out upon a people.
Now that is true.
But it is equally important to say that
frequently the greatest revivals have been preceded by
a gradual quiet movement of the Spirit which
has preeminently been concerned with a recovery of
the truth.
It is as the truth is recovered and
restored to the church that we may then
expect God graciously to own His truth and
honor His word.
And therefore it is equally true to say
that a revival often begins in the broader
sense silently and quietly.
You must have beaches here in the United
States which are not like the beach down
here but are long, almost flat beaches.
We have many of them like that in
Britain.
When the tide goes out it seems to
go out and out and out and then
when it begins to turn the ground, the
beach, the sand is so flat that you
hardly can see it turn.
It is almost impossible to tell at what
point the tide went furthest out and when
it began to come back in.
And so it is in times such as
the Reformation of the 16th century.
Tide had gone right out and no one
could really tell the day when in monasteries
and in quiet places the word of God
was again being uncovered and the truth began
to be restored.
Or to use another illustration of the same
thing Dobini says how in the time of
Calvin in Geneva he says, speaking of the
mountains that surround Geneva that when the sun
comes up in the morning it first strikes
the tops of the mountains.
And so he says when the truth of
God is recovered it first of all penetrates
to certain persons in the church, ministers of
the gospel but then Dobini says how when
the sun rises higher in the heavens its
light begins to fall upon all the valleys
round about.
And that is as so often been.
The truth is recovered.
It begins in the hearts of a few
but then it is recovered widely in the
churches.
Now this is indeed I believe something that
without presumption we may say God is doing
in our day.
And we ought not to neglect it.
There is a revival of truth.
There is a hunger for the word of
God.
Especially if it could be seen amongst the
younger generation and amongst young people.
And I say this is a marvellous thing
for the truth is the church's power.
And in every revival it has been the
truth which pre-eminently has led the way
to the restoration of the church.
Maybe I could just take a moment on
a slight digression but it really comes in
at this point.
I had intended to say something earlier in
the week on the serious controversy which developed
in the United States in the 1830s with
regard to revival and evangelism and particularly to
what were called the New Measures.
Now Nettleton and Griffin and Alexander and many
others were very deeply opposed to the New
Measures.
Now you say you don't know what the
New Measures are but I assure you, you
do.
Although perhaps you don't know the name.
The New Measures so called were introduced in
the North about 1825 and the idea was
simply this.
When people were brought together in numbers the
great thing it was said was to prompt
them to action.
They would no doubt be stirred by the
sight of many people present in a service
and if they could be brought to action
that would be a decisive turning point bringing
them to salvation.
So the New Measure particularly was what was
called well in those days the anxious seat.
The front of the building was often kept
clear and people were called upon to submit
to Christ and to show that they were
submitting to Christ by coming to the anxious
seat.
Now you are familiar now with what I'm
talking about.
That did not begin did not begin in
the whole of Christian history until early in
the last century.
Now why did it begin?
Now some people think it was just a
difference of method but they greatly err.
It was a difference with regard to what
is necessary to salvation.
The old leaders of revival believed that to
bring people to Christ what was needed was
not a mere excitement of the will but
the truth had to lay hold upon the
mind and if that happened under the power
of the Spirit of God the will and
the emotions would follow.
But they said you can touch people's wills
you can move their emotions you can make
them weep but if the truth is not
implanted in the mind it will last perhaps
days, perhaps months but then it will fail.
The true power of God resides in the
fact that His word comes into the mind
and therefore Griffin and Alexander and all these
men most resolutely opposed the altar call, the
invitation system because they said it confuses together
and it brings together those who are merely
temporarily excited and who make a public, a
confession of faith when as yet we have
no evidence that the truth has really come
through to their mind and heart.
And for them that change in evangelism was,
I cannot really put it too strongly it
was a disaster of enormous proportion because it
was diverting the churches they believed from what
until then had been their greatest work namely
the full and complete preaching of the word
with nothing else leaving the truth to be
applied by the Spirit to the consciences of
men.
We cannot determine the time of men's regeneration
we cannot bring them to Christ but the
word of reconciliation we must preach and preach
with the Holy Spirit sent down from heaven
that is what they believed.
Let me give you one quotation from Edward
Griffin.
He is writing to someone in Britain and
this person in Britain had asked why it
was that revivals were so frequent at that
time in America, early 1800s when they seemed
to have ended in Britain and Griffin gives
many reasons and they are very fascinating but
one of them is this it is in
terms he says of the truth which is
being fully preached he says the unparalleled spread
of knowledge under which the young grow up
and demand to be fed with truth instead
of noise all these causes operate to produce
great plainness and directness in public preaching and
to confine preaching to a naked, pointed, condensed
exhibition of truth of the whole truth without
any abatement or disguise even of those parts
which in some places would be considered strong
meat thus he says the sword of the
Spirit naked and glittering is brandished before all
and it is not likely to be brandished
in vain it was the truth he says
it was the means that God so blessed
and let me just give you one quotation
from Archibald Alexander in which he speaks of
the peril of the departure of the church
from this preaching to the new measure style
he says my mind is full of apprehensions
respecting the affairs of our church I have
never suspected that the new men and new
measures would so soon prevail in the supreme
judicatory of our church if the Lord intends
good for the church our exertions, he means
his opposition to these things, will prosper but
if we are to be handed over to
the men of the new religion bound hand
and foot then we must yield and mourn
in secret places over the departed glory we
old men shall soon leave the stage the
burden and heat of the day will soon
come upon you young men you will have
great need to be strong and stand up
bravely for the religion of your fathers then
he says the new revival measures connected with
the new theology are gaining strength and popularity
every day the stream is deepening and widening
and will shortly pour forth such a torrent
as will reach the whole surface of this
land now he was not talking there of
liberalism of straight denials of scripture but he
was talking of superficial evangelism of decisionism of
the altar call these were the things which
they regarded as to give you the words
of Nettleton which I see before me he
said it would undermine the fair fabric of
our evangelical churches and spread a system far
more unscriptural and pernicious than Wesleyan Methodism now
there is no more time to speak of
that but I believe that the principle is
here the power of the church is in
the truth of the word of God you
know perhaps the illustration from Greek mythology how
Augeas, the king of the Appians had stables
that were filled with cattle and oxen and
for thirty years these stables had not been
cleaned and Hercules was presented with the challenge
of cleaning the Augean stables and to do
it in one day and Hercules did it
but how did he do it?
well he diverted the course of these two
rivers the Alpheus and the Penaeus and these
rivers were diverted so that they flowed through
these foul and filthy stables and that is
what God does with his truth the psalmist
says he sent his word and healed them
and delivered them from all their distress in
the reformation in the 18th century these revivals
were the sending forth of the light and
power of the word of God and men
were willing to live and to die for
the truth let us pass on then coupled
with the power of the truth is of
course in the second place the power of
faith and what is faith but our acting
in obedience in living obedience upon the truth
when we read the scriptures we find do
we not in every place that when there
are exploits written of the people of God
when they triumphed when they were given great
victories the secret in so far as it
was to be found in them was that
they believed the promises of God you know
the 11th chapter of the epistles of the
Hebrews how from Abel onwards who offered unto
God a sacrifice more acceptable than Cain to
Abraham and Moses and all the fathers we
go on and the scripture says the time
would fail us to speak of Gideon and
bear out of Jephthah of David also who
through faith subdued kingdoms and wrought righteousness and
obtained promises and quenched the violence of the
fire and out of weakness were made strong
it was through faith this is the victory
says the apostle John that overcometh the world
even our faith if thou canst believe said
our Lord and Savior all things are possible
to him that believes the man and the
woman who adheres to the promises of God
in faith they will overcome they will be
overcome and God will honor them now that
I say again is illustrated throughout revival history
it would be a terrible thing if we
left each other this week in our thinking
on revival with some kind of thought in
our minds that it may be the chance
one day we shall see these glorious things
and until that time we must wait and
sit and perhaps be a little hopeful no
my friends that is not what the Scripture
says the Scripture says we must believe we
must have faith and that faith must be
exercised upon the truth and the promises of
God and God will not fail those who
believe upon Him I'd like to give you
one last quotation from the Alexander family this
is from J.W. Alexander and he's writing
in New York in the midst of the
1858 revival and at the very end he
has a little book which I had great
difficulty in obtaining and in the end I
had to borrow it from Westminster Seminary in
Philadelphia The Revival and its Lessons by J
.W. Alexander and at the very end of
this book this is the final lesson which
he leaves with his readers having spoken of
revival he says unbelief as to the power
and willingness of God to do this is
at the bottom of all our neglect and
wrong action in this matter if for a
moment we fancy such an event as the
conversion of our degraded and dangerous classes the
incredulous principle replies behold if the Lord would
make windows in heaven what might this thing
be?
an awakening which would shake the dry bones
in all the lowest populations rousing them from
filth and drunkenness and raising up an exceeding
great army to fight the good fight of
faith is more than we dare ask of
God and yet brethren it is not more
than we may reasonably expect on scriptural grounds
nor more than the eyes of the church
shall joyfully see in the day when by
the Spirit the church will rise to the
height of faith and entreaty written in 1858
when the church rises to the height of
faith and entreaty well then she will receive
above that which she asks for thanks so
it has been throughout the history of the
church William Carey sailing to India in 1793
went forth by faith George Whitfield sailing the
Atlantic those 13 times in the 18th century
he went in the strength of faith so
it must be with us the second power
that we are required to have is the
power of faith and thirdly in a word
although indeed it is a subject on its
own the power of prayer I draw your
attention to the verses in Hosea chapter 12
and verses 3 and 4 we have in
those verses Hosea 12, 3 and 4 a
reminder of what happened when Jacob was returning
to the land and to face the wrath
of Esau and how he was filled with
fear and dread at that prospect and there
at the brook at Peniel he met with
God and wrestled with Him till the breaking
of the day and we read these remarkable
words in Hosea by his strength he had
power with God yea he had power over
the angels and prevailed he had power over
the angels and prevailed and it was then
that God said thy name shall be no
more Jacob but Israel for as a prince
thou hast had power and so on we
were reminded yesterday of the revelatory character of
names in scripture and the name Israel is
a name given to the church in the
old dispensation to remind them that their strength
they were printed because through prayer their fathers
had overcome if ye abide in me and
my words abide in you says Jesus ye
shall ask what ye will and it shall
be done unto you the effectual fervent prayer
of the righteous man availeth much it works
it has power is any afflicted says James
let him pray what can prayer do?
it can restore the backslider it can heal
the sick it can do all that is
necessary for the glory of God and the
spread of His truth and let us not
think well those who prayed were extraordinarily gifted
men no he says Elijah was a man
of like passions as we are yet he
prayed and through Elijah's prayers God closed the
heavens and reopened them so that the rain
fell and thus it has been through the
history of the church God's will is that
His people should hold Him to His word
and that they should plead His promises before
Him in prayer and this is the Holy
Spirit's own work in the heart of His
children to lead them to pray and in
that prayer is indeed their strength John Bunyan
puts this so perfectly in that account of
Christian and hopeful when that sad day came
that they fell asleep on the ground of
giant despair and were taken into doubting cast
and fastened up in all their chains in
that miserable hole and then they were alarmed
and terrified by the giant as he threatened
them with various things and showed them as
he said the bones of pilgrims that he
had smashed and broken in pieces and so
it will be with you he said and
here were Christian and hopeful in this miserable
dungeon until Bunyan says on Saturday night they
began to pray and they continued to pray
through the night and about the dawning of
the day Christian he said stood up as
a man of age and he said to
hopeful oh what a fool I've been I
have in my bosom a key called problem
which is able to open every lock in
doubting time why that good news brother said
hopeful that good news brother pluck it out
of thy bosom and try and so they
did but it was the prayer that preceded
the problem they took hold upon the promises
of God and they were out through those
grim doors and their chains were off so
it is with the church we are helpless
and we are bereft of strength but God
has commanded us to pray and he has
told us that we shall not seek his
face in vain and when the church is
truly a praying church then she is closed
with energy and fire from heaven these three
things then I believe need to be said
what is the power that we are expected
to have it is the power of truth
of adherence to the word the power of
faith and the power of prayer now my
second head I will pass over I hope
in a few minutes it is just this
and you could think it out yourselves what
happens then when the power is gone this
is the power the church is expected to
have what happens when that power is gone
now the answer to that question you will
find written in this chapter when that power
is gone then sinners perish because we see
in the context here that it was in
the day when the servants of God were
few and weak and shut up in that
day the great majority were going on the
broad way to destruction unworn left by God
and so it has ever been when the
church becomes negligent and indifferent and cold the
world goes quietly to wrath and condemnation God
says to his people they shall hear the
word from my mouth and give them warning
from me but when the church ceases to
hear that word and to give warning then
sinners perish verse 22 a fire is kindled
in mine anger and shall burn unto the
lowest hell a little later on oh that
they were wise verse 29 that they understood
this that they would consider their latter end
when the church is clothed with power then
it is that men are pricked in their
hearts they feel that the word of God
has laid hold upon them and even though
sometimes they may remain unconverted they can be
subdued by the powerful influence of the word
of God and restrained and held back but
in the day when that power is gone
there is no restraint Habakkuk says the law
is the law is flat that is what
happens when the power is gone if you
look at some of the biographies that we
have been mentioning and many others you will
find in the case of these men that
God raised up as leaders in revival there
was laid upon their souls this great burden
of those who were perishing perishing just because
the church had become so neglectful and careless
that is how revivals so generally begin consequence
then sinners perish also as you will see
in this chapter when this power is gone
from the church then Christians become timid and
ineffective those who are or should be filled
with strength are the opposite verse 30 how
should one chase a thousand and two put
ten thousand to flight except their rock had
sold them now this is not the one
being the believer putting the world to flight
but it is the opposite I commend to
you on this chapter Matthew Poole's commentary on
the Old Testament I think he is very
good on some of these rather out of
the way passages look at Matthew Poole on
verse 30 and the principle that is there
is simply that when we lose the power
of the spirit of God we become concerned
about the approval of men we become men
pleasers we become timid we become effeminate and
feeble that has always been the case and
the other side is when the spirit of
God is restored in power to the church
men become filled with holy boldness and they
do not fear to offend the faces of
men they speak to their consciences and to
their faces my friends how we need a
revival of such speaking in our day and
lastly here we learn from the passage and
from the whole of scripture that when the
power is gone from the church then God
himself is dishonoured for God's people represent him
in the world this people have I formed
for myself they shall show forth my praise
when Israel marched into Canaan with power the
heathen feared their God they did not praise
Israel but they trembled at the presence of
the God of Israel and when the Holy
Spirit filled the church in the days of
Pentecost in the days of the Acts of
the Apostles it is the consciousness of God
that came upon men as they beheld the
church and when then the spirit of God
is breathed in the church the people of
the world instead of seeing the church as
the representative of God see them as of
weak and worldly people and they do not
fear God and the reason the world does
not fear God today is because there is
so little fear of God in the church
when the church fears God then it will
not belong under the blessing of God's spirit
before the world fears God there will be
no fear of God in the world when
that fear is absent from the church you
know the story perhaps of George Whitefield preaching
in Boston, New England many children were gathered
into the kingdom of God and they drank
in his preaching one little boy said he
made God look big and another boy who
died not long after when he was dying
he said to his parents I want to
go to Mr. Whitefield's God you see under
the preaching of the glorious gospel of Christ
these children had got an impression of the
greatness and the compassion and the wonder of
God he made God look big now that
surely is what Christians are to do and
if anyone here thinks that there has been
too much emphasis upon the doctrines of grace
upon the electing grace of God I assure
you my friend it is not so because
the honor and glory of salvation is to
be given wholly to God and these are
the doctrines which show forth that glory which
is His I mentioned a little while back
of this controversy over the new measures I
want to give you I can put my
hand on it and I don't think I
can but I can remember it ah yes
here it is a quotation from Edward Griffin
toward the end of his life when these
changes were coming in evangelism he wrote a
book on the divine efficiency and the purpose
of his book was to demonstrate that God
has to change the will that God renews
the heart that man cannot do it of
himself he said when I wrote this book
and when I sat down to work on
it I was out of health and I
was so lame that I could take no
exercise it occurred to me that to write
that book without exercise might cost me my
life but I was so affected with the
dishonor cast on God by denying Him the
glory of efficiently sanctifying the heart that I
said with tears I will write this book
and die meaning I will write it if
I die and I wrote it he said
with a tender regard for the divine glory
which I was defending I never wrote a
book with so much feeling of this sort
nor any such except one and that spirit
moved in those letters zeal for the glory
of God when strength departs God himself is
dishonored now then the application of these things
I believe is already before us what power
have we my friend what power have you
what do you know of the power of
the word of God are you able to
say on this Friday morning having been together
these last days that we have known something
of our hearts burning within us as the
scriptures were opened to us do you know
have you felt the truth of the word
of God coming to your conscience that is
the power you need it is to know
the glory of God in the face of
Jesus Christ as that glory is set forth
in His word to have it written upon
the fleshly tables of our hearts by the
Holy Spirit and the power of faith and
the power of prayer my friends let us
examine ourselves in the light of those questions
and then at last what does this verse
and passage teach us on the recovery of
this power well it teaches us just this
it teaches us that God judges He revives
His people He restores them not when they
become faithful not when they turn from all
their sins and fully surrender themselves not when
they do this or that but what does
God do verse 36 He does it when
He feels that their power is gone when
there is nothing to move God except the
misery and the need of His people then
for His own glory's sake for the sake
of the gospel which saves the ungodly then
He comes to work amongst His people in
other words and you will see it brought
out more fully in verses 38 and 39
and verse 40 God restores a knowledge of
Himself and that knowledge is the knowledge that
God is sovereign and omnipotent and full of
compassion and we can be at our very
lowest and our least deserving and in those
conditions God comes to us to restore us
as Peter poor Peter denying His Lord with
oaths and curses and then does Jesus come
to Him and call Him again to Himself
and commission Him to go out to the
world so God does with His church it
would be a poor gospel that told us
today that if only we will fully surrender
or do this or do that and perform
certain conditions then God may bless us that
is not what the scripture teaches the scripture
teaches that God for the glory of His
own name for regard to His own truth
will come and lift up His people and
do it even when their power is gone
for when we were yet without strength even
then Christ died for the undaunted let us
then fasten our hopes upon the character of
God Himself and upon all that we have
been hearing this week of His glorious name
therein lies our hope and our comfort that
God is all that He has declared Himself
to be and let us then be cast
upon the name of God and God for
His name's sake will surely bless us now
as I close I must just take two
or three minutes at the most to say
a word of profound thankfulness for the time
that we've had with you these days you
know that we British people have a reputation
for not being good at opening our hearts
and I think that's true but I cannot
really tell you how much we have felt
the encouragement and blessing and hope of this
conference we had long anticipated for many weeks
and indeed months we had been looking forward
to it and we believed that it would
be a time of blessing and we believed
that partly I think because of the encouragements
or indeed a good deal because of the
encouragements that we have already had in fellowship
with several of you that we will go
from this place deeply encouraged now there are
just two things that I want to say
in regard to the cause of Christ at
this moment the two things that give me
greatest thankfulness are these one is that through
the recovery of the truth that we have
lived to see there is also a recovery
of the old unity which was known in
bygone centuries a unity of those who cleave
to the doctrines of grace and which transcends
denominational differences which transcends geographical distances and which
brings together in the spirit of prayer and
oneness yourselves many of us in the British
Isles and in other parts of the world
I do believe that for the first time
for many long years there is a recovery
of the kind of unity which existed in
the reformation period and in the 17th century
and that is no small blessing and we
need to guard it for the adversary of
our souls would do all that he can
to disrupt us but we believe that God
has blessed us with a spirit of oneness
and of brotherly love and we rejoice in
the work of literature for example that we
are enabled to print books by Anglicans and
Presbyterians and Baptists and Independents who are men
who have this spirit who gave themselves to
the doctrines of God's Word who love the
old Confessions and Catechisms and we believe that
that is a unity which undergirds us and
is so strong that we pray that by
God's grace nothing will ever sever it in
this life till we be joined in the
Church Triumphant I say that is a cause
then of great thanks there is a new
unity which is appearing in the earth and
secondly we should be profoundly thankful that there
is a new note a new school of
preaching also emerging and we have felt it
have we not this week we do not
want to hear sermons that flatter us we
do not want to hear sermons that simply
please our feelings but so many others have
come this week because we want ministry that
will search us and humble us and convict
us and that ministry does not come from
men it does not you would not have
heard the preaching you have heard this week
if it had been left to men not
one word which you have heard similar to
what has been given God has graciously been
restoring the preaching of His Word and how
thankful we should be for that how much
more we should pray that this work will
go on let us covenant to pray one
for another and pray that across oceans and
continents the Spirit of God will be poured
out in great reviving power for His name's
sake Amen let us pray O Lord our
gracious and almighty God we bow before Thee
help us to bring to Thee the sacrifice
of a broken and a contrite heart do
Thou enable us to repent deliver us from
all our carelessness and indifference and so stir
up our hearts by Thy truth and by
Thy Spirit that we shall long to love
Thee with all our being we thank Thee
for the blessings of these days we believe
Thou hast not left us alone Thou hast
not forsaken Thy people for Thy great name's
sake and therefore we pray Thee to continue
with us and to teach us how to
pray bless O Lord the preaching of Thy
Word to us further this morning may we
all be knit together in the bond of
love and truth bless our homes and families
bless our churches to which we shall return
grant that in our midst we may experience
the shout of a king and know the
authority of Thy salvation O God hear our
cries and accept our thanks and praise as
we ask it all in the name of
our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ Amen The
preceding lecture or message was recorded by the
Banner of Truth Trust in Carlisle, Pennsylvania by
the Reformed Baptist Family Conference or the Reformed
Baptist Pastors Conference held each year in New
Jersey and Pennsylvania and distributed through the Mount
Olive Presbyterian Church Tape Library at Bass Field,
Mississippi with permission Permission for the reproduction of
this tape for the purpose of distribution should
be requested from the sponsors of these conferences
The Grace Baptist Church Pastor Walter Chantry Carlisle,
Pennsylvania