Welcome to From the Pulpit and Classic Sermons.
Each week we bring you a different message
from some of history's greatest speakers in the
Christian faith and powerful sermons for modern preachers
too.
This week we have Roy Heston with his
message, Dryness.
It's a great joy to be back in
the United States and especially in California where
my wife and I have so many precious
Christian friends and I do thank God for
the way in which this conference has been
organized, calling together those are hungry to meet
the Lord Jesus from right over this area.
And already I'm sure we've been conscious of
the Lord Jesus.
As we've drawn near to Him this morning,
He has drawn near to us.
I'm on my way back to England from
Brazil, an old hunting ground of Dr. Pearson's,
and God has blessed us very much there.
God is doing great things in that land
and there's a band of men whose hearts
God is newly touching and giving them a
fresh vision of revival in the simple gospel
way that we shall seek to learn together
here in this conference.
And so I believe God is working in
this simple way in the hearts of His
church all over the world just now.
There are two wonderful brothers just now in
Australia, two Africans who've been for years leaders
in revival in East Africa.
And even now they've been spending months going
up and down Australia.
One is a bishop through no fault of
his own.
He never wanted to be the bishop and
they didn't usually appoint revival minded men as
bishops, but he said well you know what
I am?
They said we don't want to be anything
else.
And another is a schoolteacher.
Men on fire who are giving the same
message as we shall be seeking to learn
together here.
And all over the world God is doing
this quiet but new fresh working of His
Spirit I believe.
Just nothing special, no special emphasis but taking
us back to Calvary.
Back to learn again those first lessons from
which the church is always in danger of
departing.
So I believe this conference is fitting into
a glorious, gentle, precious working of God to
bless and revive and refresh the church that
through them the living water shall flow to
others.
Last June there was an international conference along
these lines and Dr. Pearson was there and
Mike Markham was there and Ben Lee Masters
is coming in a moment, as well as
people from 22 different countries.
And there we had a wonderful sense of
the Lord Jesus adequate for the needs of
the world and beginning first with His own
church.
So these are great days in which to
live and I believe God is purposing to
do a fresh work for this great widespread
evangelical church in America, beginning with humble people
like ourselves.
So we don't know where this river will
end.
I've been on the biggest river in the
world, the Amazon, in the last weeks.
At the mouth it's 200 miles across and
the fresh water extends two miles, 200 miles
into the Atlantic.
And yet somewhere that mighty river was just
a little tiny stream.
Now who can tell from the tiny streams
that will begin to flow in our hearts
what the God design should come.
So let's be full of expectancy, hungry and
eager to learn.
And I would like to say do come
to as many of these meetings as possible.
It's a very short conference and I would
say it'll be worth laying aside every other
thing to come if possible to the whole
series.
The memoirs of Field Marshal Montgomery have recently
been published in England and they're some wonderful
stories of the inner history of the war.
And he tells that whenever there was an
acute situation, when perhaps the enemy were adopting
new tactics, he would call in his other
generals, over whom he was chief, for special
consultation.
And the notice calling them in was marked
priority.
And no matter how many things those men
had to do on their own sector, when
they got that order they had to drop
everything to give this priority.
They might meet in the woods somewhere and
they'd have that priority conference.
Now I believe we could, and I believe
it's right to call this a priority conference.
Not because certain people have come to speak,
we're just simply pointers to the Lord Jesus
Christ.
But you know really some people who say
they're too busy in the Lord's works to
come.
We have to say this again and again
in Brazil.
But you know a whole ministry can be
changed here.
What everything used to be so busy with
our ministry, which may be for all we
know on exactly the wrong lines.
The harder we try, the shorter we're going
to say.
When here Jesus has come to share with
us some secrets that may change everything for
us.
That may bring a new day.
And so I would suggest then that we
mark this conference priority.
And though there are other things to do,
just as they had to drop them, I
believe the Lord is asking us to drop
other things for this short time.
We might spend it together learning of the
Lord Jesus and telling him we're not quite
satisfied, we haven't quite got the answer.
And I know that he's going to help
us.
Then a little word of testimony.
In these last days I found a little
shadow across my path and on my heart.
And it was a shadow of this conscience.
And I found myself getting just a little
anxious.
The devil was telling me that people were
looking to me, which of course isn't true
because it's a team of us going to
work together.
And he was telling me that I hadn't
got anything.
And that of course had the effect that
it was designed to have, of getting one
striving and trying to get something.
I believe that's why the devil accuses you
of what you haven't got.
To get you to strive in your own
strength to get it, or to be it.
And he just knows that in that place
we're not seeing Jesus as the one who
is the supplier of our need.
And so I confess to you that that's
how it's been with me a little bit.
And this morning I found myself getting just
that bit tense and striving.
And I praise the Lord for meeting me,
showing me that.
Because you know the trouble is with all
these things, for a long time you don't
see them.
And the devil designs that you shouldn't see
them.
And you know the devil designs that we
shouldn't see these things.
It's a victory when at last you say
Lord something's wrong, will you please show me.
And I'm praising him, he showed me.
And he gave me a wonderful verse this
morning that's helped me no end.
Isaiah 51, 12.
I just passed it on, this isn't the
message.
But just to start with.
Isaiah 51, 12.
I even I am he that comforteth you,
who art thou that thou shouldst be afraid.
Now you know when you have that phrase
who art thou in scripture, it invariably is
a rebuke to pride.
Who art thou?
And I had to see again that my
fear, and my striving was pride.
I haven't got what it takes.
The Lord said whoever said you had.
I'm doing this.
What a wonderful scripture.
I am he that comforteth you, who art
thou that thou shouldst be afraid.
Sheer presumption to be afraid.
It's really a funny subtle form of pride.
I feel the Lord put a word on
my heart, and it may well be that
perhaps before we finish, someone else of our
brethren here would like to add something.
They're free to do so.
Now before we come to the word, I
would like us to turn to Ezekiel chapter
47.
Ezekiel 47.
And now having read that Old Testament scripture,
I want to turn you to the scripture
in the New Testament, which I believe refers
us back to that.
Let that scripture then be in the background
of our minds as we turn to John's
Gospel chapter 7.
Chapter 7.
And here's something which I think is going
to make us thirsty and full of desire
on our first coming together this morning.
John 7 37.
In the last day, that great day of
the feast, Jesus stood and cried saying, If
any man thirst, let him come unto me
and drink.
He that believeth on me, as the scripture
hath said, what scripture?
It can only refer to one scripture.
I've hunted through my Old Testament to find
what scripture the Lord was referring to.
Because nowhere do you actually get those literal
words.
He's referring to the whole passage which we
have just read.
He that believeth on me, as the scripture
hath said, out of his belly, or if
you would prefer it, out of his inner
man, shall flow rivers of living water.
This spake he of the Spirit, which they
that believe on him should receive.
For the Holy Ghost was not yet given,
because Jesus was not yet glorified.
Now I just want to read that verse
again in a slightly different way, which I
believe is absolutely warranted.
In the last day, the great day of
the feast, Jesus stood and cried, this is
the first day actually, but it's message is
the same.
If any man thirst, let him come unto
me and drink.
And he that doth so, as the scripture
hath said, out of his inner man, shall
flow rivers of living water.
For a long time I regarded those things
as two experiences.
That to come to the Lord Jesus and
drink was one thing, but it was another
experience, probably ushered in by a very great
climactic blessing, after which rivers of living water
would flow from me.
I knew the first, but I didn't know
the second, and for long I strove to
get to that place, to fulfill whatever conditions
were necessary that the rivers might flow from
me to others.
But I've come to see that I was
wrong in thinking that.
The man who comes to him is the
one who believes on him, and therefore it's
the same man.
If any man thirst, let him come unto
me and drink, and out of the inner
man of such and one shall flow rivers
of living water.
As I come to him and drink, those
living waters flow to others.
And if they're not flowing to others, it's
just because I'm not drinking enough.
I'm not coming enough.
In other words, we could call this the
outcome of the income.
A blessed outcome is promised for those who
are willing for the blessed income.
As I come to him and drink, in
all my need and deceit and thirst, and
see grace has got a place for me
there, and as I get my burdens lifted
and my heart satisfied at the feet of
the Lord Jesus, and as I simply testify
to that new drink I've had, those living
waters will flow to others.
Rivers of them, out of a new experience
of grace myself, and others will stoop and
drink and live too.
Let's think for a moment or two about
this income.
The Lord Jesus says to us this morning,
if you're dry, if you feel a bit
cold, you've lost the vision a little bit,
he says, come to me and drink.
Now most of us feel that when we've
got cold, and dry, and we're thirsty, and
dissatisfied, that somewhere along the line there's a
big stick waiting for us.
That we've been very very wrong, which of
course is true, and that when we're wrong
there can be little more than some sort
of a big stick promised from God.
And very often when we come to a
conference, in spite of all we may know
with our heads, we come just a little
penny.
Now what's the challenge I'm going to have?
What am I going to be told?
What terrific, excruciating challenge am I going to
face?
It's all because we've got such a wrong
conception of the Lord Jesus, and of the
grace of God.
Jesus says come and drink, that's all, what's
going to happen?
You're thirsty, come and have a real good
ice cold drink.
Even if our dryness is the fault, and
it always is, of sin.
However, whenever I'm dry, whenever I'm dissatisfied, when
the grace of God isn't filling my heart,
it's because something's gone wrong in my relationship
with the Lord Jesus.
That's all right with the Lord, doesn't make
any difference, come to me then.
We'll get that relationship right so quickly, and
you'll drink, and you will be satisfied.
And so here's this wonderful word of the
Lord Jesus.
When I was thinking about our conference, I
wondered whether perhaps the word of the Lord
might be come and done.
But he said no it isn't, it's come
and drink.
Well it's all right, in California sometimes you
need drink more than you need food, you
get so hot.
And so the word of the Lord Jesus
to us as we come to spend this
time together is, if any man says, any
of us a little dry, not really on
top, a bit down, come to me and
drink.
But I'm just for such people, that's what
I came for, that's what grace is for.
The grace of God is like an ocean
of water, seeking depth that it might fill
it.
And so that's his word to us as
we gather.
Anybody thirsty, any knob is not really crazy,
anybody down, there's a Jesus, I'm here for
just such people.
This isn't a conference for excellent people, it's
a conference for failure.
And deep, if we only knew it were
all that.
And there's a place for such people at
the feet of the Lord Jesus.
And so there's that lovely word, if any
man thirst, let him come unto me and
drink.
Now I've been asking myself, why is it
that we do get dry?
Some people have been dry for years.
You can tell they're dry when they pray,
dry.
You can tell they're dry when they preach
or teach, it's all dry.
They haven't been melted lately.
They're busy, but dry.
As I say, we can be in that
condition for years, and come to the place
where we believe, well that's the Christian life,
we really can't expect too much.
Oh I know the hymns say this and
that, and there's the wonderful promises, but really
that's just what, that's just preacher's talk.
The real thing is always dry, after the
first flush.
And we just get used to living in
a dry, thirsty place, until we meet somebody
who's got a testimony.
And you see a heart satisfied, praising, raging,
having found the answer, having found the solution.
And that makes us thirsty.
I praise the Lord it was that which
helped me, and my wife, back in 47
we were in evangelistic work, and were utterly
defeated.
My wife groaned under my ministry, and now
I don't blame her.
It was so dry, really dry.
It had seemed to be power, and people
thought there was the first time they came
to a meeting, it was only, but it
was a power of self-effort, and later
they realized it.
Hadn't always been so, but it becomes so.
And the thing that aroused our thirst was
to meet some, who might not be very
eminent preachers, but they had a testimony.
And their hearts, their cups were full, and
running over.
And they knew Jesus as the one who
daily satisfied them.
And things began to happen in a fresh
way, as we were challenged by the testimony
and lies of those who were coming to
Jesus, they got dry too.
Oh yes, that was their testimony, they knew
what to do.
And they were all the time coming to
Jesus and drinking.
And I had to learn again, that simple
gospel secret.
Well now, why is it that we get
dry, with all that that means, of deceit
and barrenness?
Well now this passage of John 7, obviously
links up in our mind with John 4.
John 4 is that famous passage where we
have the story of the Lord Jesus speaking
to the woman at the well.
The difference is of course, that John 4
only speaks of the income.
John 7 goes further and talks about the
outcome of the income.
But for the moment we're thinking about the
income.
And here's a woman who was dry.
She was thirsty, both physically and morally and
spiritually too.
And we read in verse 7, Jesus saith
unto her, give me to drink.
Verse 9, she says, How is it that
thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me,
which am a woman of Samaria?
For the Jews have no dealings with the
Samaritans.
Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou
knewest the gifts of God, and who it
is that saith to thee, give me to
drink, thou wouldst have asked of him, and
he would have given thee living water.
The woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast
nothing to draw with, and the well is
deep.
From whence then hast thou that living water?
Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which
gave us the well, and drank thereof himself,
and his children, his cattle?
Jesus answered and said unto her, Whoso drinketh
of this water shall thirst again.
But whosoever drinketh of the water that I
shall give him shall never thirst, but the
water that I shall give him shall be
in him a well, rather a spring leaping
up into everlasting life.
Now that woman was thirsty because she was
drawing from the wrong well.
She was drawing from Jacob's well.
And she knew it was a very deep
well.
She had a very long rope.
And after perhaps sometimes she toiled away on
the handle of pulling the water up, it
was only to find that she hadn't got
to the bottom of the well.
So she would try again.
She knew the toil of it, and she
couldn't understand what Jesus was speaking.
And on many occasions she'd try again, and
she really thought she'd got to the bottom
of the well, and she was sure there
was some water in the pail.
But on the way up it hit against
the side, and by the time it got
to the top it was empty.
And there were many, many occasions I like
to imagine when she worked so hard on
that well, and so often got so little,
sometimes nothing at all.
You've been listening to the From the Pulpit
in Classic Sermons series.
This week you heard Roy Heston with his
message, Dryness.
Tune in next week to hear Ben Crandall
speak about garments of praise on From the
Pulpit in Classic Sermons.