Would you turn with me, please, to the
Book of Revelation and Chapter 1.
The first chapter of the Book of Revelation,
reading from verse 9.
I'm taking the liberty of reading the Living
Bible paraphrase.
I'm careful to say paraphrase, not translation, of
this chapter because I think it's very vivid.
Revelation Chapter 1, verse 9.
It is I, your brother John, a fellow
sufferer for the Lord's sake, who is writing
this letter to you.
I too have shared the patience Jesus gives,
and we shall share his kingdom.
I was on the island of Patmos, exiled
there for preaching the word of God, and
for telling what I knew about Jesus Christ.
It was the Lord's day, and I was
worshipping, when suddenly I heard a loud voice
behind me, a voice that sounded like a
trumpet blast, saying, I am A and Z,
the first and last.
And then I heard him say, write down
everything you see, and send your letter to
the seven churches in Turkey, to the church
in Ephesus, the one in Smyrna, and those
in Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.
When I turned to see who was speaking,
there behind me were seven candlesticks of gold,
and standing among them was one who looked
like Jesus, who called himself the Son of
Man, wearing a long robe, circled with a
golden band across his chest.
His hair was white as wool or snow,
and his eyes penetrated like flames of fire.
His feet gleamed like burnished bronze, and his
voice thundered like the wave against the shore.
He held seven stars in his right hand,
and a sharp double-bladed sword in his
mouth, and his face shone like the power
of the sun in unclouded brilliance.
When I saw him, I fell at his
feet as dead.
But he laid his right hand on me
and said, don't be afraid.
Though I am the first and last, the
living one who died, who is now alive
forevermore, who has the keys of hell and
death, don't be afraid.
Write down what you have just seen and
what will soon be shown to you.
This is the meaning of the seven stars
you saw in my right hand, and the
seven golden candlesticks.
The seven stars are the leaders of the
seven churches, and the seven candlesticks are the
churches themselves.
A word of prayer together.
Lord, what can we say to you this
morning, but that we desire that thou wilt
light up our hearts with your glory.
Fill us with a vision of the risen
Lord Jesus.
Stab us awake, spiritually awake.
Get us involved in the mightiest task this
side of heaven.
And make us not to be ashamed on
the day of thine appearing.
Lord, have mercy on me.
Clothe me about with the spirit of the
Lord.
And may I be the Lord's messenger.
In the Lord's message, amen.
The greatest purpose that God has for each
one of our lives is that we should
relate the Great Commission to the day in
which we live.
Each one of us, as a priority of
necessity, has a portion in this.
It's not optional, it's obligatory.
Your missionary responsibilities begin at the moment of
your new birth.
Just a moment to say one or two
things about the world in which we live.
It's a much smaller place than we think.
It is merely an overcrowded neighborhood, a global
village.
That's all it is.
There isn't a place in the world more
than 24 hours traveling distance from another.
And if the United States allow us to
get the Concorde into the air, that'll revolutionize
travel at supersonic speed.
The world is far smaller than we think.
Because of this, the task is far greater
than we think.
The haves and have-nots, black, white, red,
yellow, all flung together with the inevitable tensions
which we all know and which we all
see today are the outcome of it.
I need scarcely remind you that the net
increase of the world population is 75 million
a year.
It took from creation till the dawn of
the past century for the world population to
reach a thousand million.
It has now reached four times that amount.
Four thousand million people alive today.
Sixty million people die every year.
That's 1,200 an hour, 120 a minute,
two a second.
Every tick of your watch, two people out
into eternity.
Between the time of the beginning of this
meeting and its closing, about 15,000 people
will have gone out into eternity.
The relentless tramp of people without God going
out into eternity.
The task is far greater than we think.
The time is shorter than we think.
When the disciples gathered around Jesus and asked
him, tell us, what kind of a world
will it be when you come back?
He told them in the 24th of Matthew,
which I suggest you read on your own
sometime, it will be a world at war.
A world in which there's famine and pestilence
and earthquake.
A world in which the church is persecuted.
A world in which the love of many
has grown cold.
A world in which there's an increase in
missionary interest.
And a world in which there'll be masses
of people who couldn't care less, as it
was in the days of Noah.
And in that world, I live today.
I don't know what may be your view
of his return, but I believe at any
moment, in any time, Jesus could come again.
And I'm sure the hour is later than
we think.
Dangerous when we start talking about times and
seasons, but I question whether our little children
will ever see old age.
Jesus is coming fast.
The time is shorter than we think.
And the price is greater than we think.
The price of getting the job done, I
don't mean in terms of dollars and cents,
I mean in terms of personal commitment and
involvement.
What's your favorite verse in the Bible?
John 3, 16.
God so loved the world that he gave
his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in
him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
Listen, my friend, listen.
You have no right to put your name
in the whosoever in John 3, 16 until
you have faced the challenge of the whosoever
in Mark chapter 8.
I give them to you.
Whosoever would come after me, let him leave
himself behind, take up his cross and follow
me.
Whosoever shall save his life shall lose it.
Whosoever will lose his life for my sake
and the gospels will save it.
Whosoever shall be ashamed of me in this
wicked generation, of him shall I be ashamed
before my Father which is in heaven.
I cannot claim the privileges of relationship to
Christ until I'm prepared to accept the responsibility.
No, I cannot claim salvation unless I'm prepared
to accept discipleship.
The cost is greater than we think.
And I've had to ask myself again this
morning three questions and answer them to my
satisfaction, to the Lord's satisfaction.
I put them very quickly and lovingly to
you.
Do you believe that the cross of Jesus
Christ is adequate for the salvation of all
men everywhere, from creation until now, until his
second coming?
My answer to that from the Bible is
yes.
He is not willing that one should perish
but that all should come to repentance.
Do I believe therefore that all people automatically
will be saved because Jesus died upon the
cross?
That is the gospel of universalism.
I would like to believe it but I
cannot believe it.
Were I to believe that I'd have to
tear out the book of Revelation, whole chunks
of the gospel of Matthew and whole sections
of my Bible.
No, all men will not be saved.
The cross of Jesus is adequate for the
salvation of all but effective only in the
lives of those who repent and believe.
My third question.
Can anybody be saved without hearing the gospel?
And at once I find myself right in
the middle of Romans chapter 10.
Whosoever shall call upon the name of the
Lord shall be saved.
How shall they call upon him in whom
they've not believed?
How shall they believe in him of whom
they've not heard?
How shall they hear without a preacher?
How shall they preach except to be sent?
No, I'm forced to the conviction that all
men cannot be saved and nobody can be
saved except to hear the word of God.
Now I'm not entering into the fate of
the heathen.
That's too big a question for now but
I know that the judge of all the
earth will do right and to know that
every man will be judged according to the
light which is received.
I don't mean to suggest that every Christian
should apply for overseas services, service, but I
do know that we all ought to be
asking at this conference, Lord what do you
want me to do?
And one day as a missionary of another
generation has put it, as long as there
are continents still stranded in utter darkness, the
burden of proof lies with me to show
that the circumstances in which God has placed
me are meant to keep me at home.
Now how may I know where and how
I'm to be involved?
Look with me at this chapter.
The call of God to John came in
a very unlikely place.
Write the things which thou hast seen.
That was an unlikely place and incidentally at
an unlikely time of his life.
He was 90.
Bit late but never too late to start
again.
And if I may just interject this quickly,
the thing that thrilled me in many a
mission field is to see people who have
retired from business doing a tremendous job down
in the jungles of Brazil and Africa.
Men of 65 going out to serve the
Lord on the mission field.
It's a place for everybody.
It came in a very unlikely place.
Here was John, as the Living Bible puts
it, shut away on the lonely island for
telling what he knew about Jesus Christ.
Does that ever happen today?
Oh yes it does.
Ever read Leslie Lyle's book, Come Wind, Come
Weather?
The story of communism takeover in China?
If you have, you'll remember that in it
there's the incident of a student at a
university, I think in Shanghai.
Who was witnessing to the Lord and the
communist guards came along with handcuffs.
And as they came to arrest her, she
held out her arms and said, I am
not worthy.
Communism cannot kill that spirit.
John was in Patmos for doing just that
very thing, telling what he knew about Jesus
Christ.
He was a key prisoner, the only man
alive who'd seen the risen Lord.
So they had to banish him and put
him out of the way.
And it was there, in a very unlikely
spot, that this call of Christ came to
him.
Now may I say to you this morning,
this is a very likely place for the
call of Jesus to come to you.
What could be more likely than at a
prairie missionary conference here at Easter?
Than that Jesus would speak to you about
missions and service and his will for your
life.
But you may think I'm a very unlikely
person.
I'm the only Christian in my home.
I'm a very shut-in sort of person.
I work on a farm miles from anywhere.
He could never possibly want me or use
me.
Quite sure about that?
Are you quite sure about that?
You think you're in an unlikely place.
It isn't the crowd, it isn't the busy
throng that creates the opportunity.
May I say to you today that all
through this week, in meetings, out of meetings,
day and night, there's our Heavenly Father who
has been watching us, screening us.
I don't mean like a night watchman on
the march.
I don't mean like a policeman, but I
mean watching us.
Is that man faithful?
Can I trust that girl where she is
to live to capacity?
Is she obedient right now or is she
fooling around?
Does he really mean business or is he
too occupied with the opposite sex?
Where is his thoughts day and night?
Are they on me or on the anything
else but me?
Dare I trust that man with the biggest
service, biggest theater opportunity?
Dare I?
All the time in my life, everywhere, in
the most unlikeliest place, Jesus is screening me,
watching me.
The call of God comes in a very
unlikely place.
Am I living to capacity, to obedience right
where I am just now?
Then may I say the call of God
came after a most unexpected revelation.
Look at verse 10.
John says, I was in the Spirit on
the Lord's day.
Now that is not Sunday.
But it is the day of the Lord.
So often spoken of by the prophets in
the word of God.
It's as though this man was lifted out
of himself and his day and age and
placed among the tremendous scenes in the judgment
day of God that he might write what
he saw.
A spectator of the judgment day.
I heard a great voice as of a
trumpet.
I can't disconnect that in my mind from
the fact that when Jesus comes, he shall
descend from heaven with a shout, with a
voice of an archangel, with the trump of
God.
Nor indeed with the great truth of 1
Corinthians 15, 52.
We shall not all sleep, but we shall
all be chained in a moment.
In the twinkling of an eye at the
last trump, the trumpet shall sound and the
dead shall be raised incorruptible.
I heard a voice, the voice as the
sound of a great trumpet.
I turned to see and I saw seven
golden candlesticks.
From verse 20, I learned that these are
the seven churches.
And seven is the number of completeness always
in the Bible.
And here's the whole body of Christ throughout
every generation from the first to the second
coming of Jesus.
John sees the church like seven golden lampstands.
Useless things, lampstands, unless they're burn and blaze.
Lampstands can't do that, but that's what we
have to do.
That sounds a total contradiction.
Let me illustrate.
My daughter is a missionary with the African
Mission in Central Africa Republic.
I was out there one day with her.
One time my wife and I were there
and she, my daughter and I, walked along
a jungle path one night in Africa, where
there were no sounds except the strange noises
of an African jungle.
It was a brilliant moonlight night.
The moon was full, the stars were shining.
The sort of night that makes people who
are in love want to hold hands.
Because I think it's Paul Rees who says
that moon controls the tide as well as
the untide.
I assure you that it was my daughter
I was with.
And we were walking along this path together
and she said to me, Isn't the moon
shining brilliantly?
And I said, yes, it's wonderful.
And then I said, you know how stupid,
we're both wrong.
Because the moon can't shine.
The moon can't shine.
It is only a lump of lackluster material
which has no capacity to shine.
But, by the way, our astronauts have confirmed
that, if you need any confirmation.
But it maintains itself in relation to the
sun.
And, as it moves in orbit in relation
to the sun, It, it catches the glow,
catches the light and reflects the light into
the darkness of the world.
And, as it moves in orbit in relation
to the sun, It, it catches the glow,
catches the light and reflects the light into
the darkness of the world.
Ah, that's a Christian!
That's my involvement, everywhere, all the time.
I can't shine.
Nothing in me has any capacity to shine
for Jesus, but I turn my eyes upon
Jesus, look full in his wonderful face, and
praise the Lord, I catch something of the
glory, and the reality, and the warmth, and
the thrill, and the love, and shine reflected
into the darkness of the world.
Isn't it thrilling to be a Christian?
Tell you, there's no government on earth can
do that.
There's no education on earth to do that.
There's no philosophy on earth can do that.
There's nobody can shine for Jesus.
I'm a Christian, his child.
You remember that John the Baptist was a
burning and a shining light.
He shone because he burnt.
And my friend, here's the whole church throughout
all generations like lampstands, golden costly lampstands.
And, and as the church in every generation
has trusted him, looked to Jesus, turned their
face heavenward, counted on a miracle, looked to
him to work on their behalf, they've burnt
and glowed, burnt and shone all through every
generation.
And the Holy Spirit in them has caught
fire.
But look, in the midst of them, one
like unto the Son of Man, and that
is the fulfillment of his promise.
Lo, I am with you all the days,
all the days, right in the midst.
Oh, what a comfort that is to some
harassed Christian with all his problems on the
mission field.
The whole church throughout all generations and in
the midst, one like unto the Son of
Man.
It's Oswald Chambers who says, if I may
quote, missionary enterprise must be based on the
passion of obedience and not on the pathos
of pity.
The thing that makes a missionary is the
sight of Jesus Christ.
When the need is made the call, it
is artificial enthusiasm and never stands restrained.
Only one thing will, listen to this, personal
relationship to Christ of a man who has
gone through the mill of God's spring cleaning,
until there's only one purpose left, I'm here
for God to use me as he wants.
However, do I get to that position, a
sight of Jesus?
What did John see?
As I try to, I try to show
you from these verses, I, I honestly tell
you, I'd rather, I'd rather disappear.
I'd rather disappear.
His eyes were as a flame of fire.
Living Bible penetrated, penetrated like a flame of
fire.
And they penetrate you and they penetrate me
through every moment of every day, like a
flame of fire.
Power to read hidden secrets, hidden desires, hidden
lust, secret sin.
Power to bring to light and search every
heart.
Power, penetration to examine my motives, my self
-centeredness, my selfishness, my self-preservation.
Oh, should I not pray as I speak
to you, and you pray too.
Oh God, search me at any cost.
Bring hidden things to light.
Gaze into my soul.
Shift the camouflage, remove the veil I put
over it.
Lord, Lord, I've got no talents.
You can't use me.
I didn't ask for your talents.
I asked your heart.
Friend, where is Jesus in your love life?
Think of you, think of that.
Some of you who've been just fooling around
this week, making love.
Where is Jesus in your love life?
First, second, third, or one of the old
friends?
Lord, no talent.
I didn't ask for your talents.
I asked for your heart, for you, for
your worship.
But Lord, what about my business?
And he says to me, do you mean
to tell me that material things matter to
you more than spiritual?
His eyes as a flame of fire, his
voice as the sound of many waters.
Living Bible, his voice like the thunder of
the waves that break on the shore.
Isn't that tremendous?
Have you ever listened and been overawed by
the waves of thunder on the shore?
I don't know where they do as much
as they do in Durban in South Africa.
And if I stand there on the shore,
I'm absolutely overawed as I listen to the
Indian Ocean crash, crash, crash perpetually on the
shore.
See, God can speak to some people with
a still small voice, because they're near.
To a lot of us, he's got to
use a megaphone, because we've got so far
away.
He used a megaphone to Jonah.
Huh?
Huh.
Said to Jonah, go to Nineveh.
No thank you Lord, I want a Mediterranean
cruise.
I'm after Tarshish.
And when he got to Joppa, a boat
labeled Tarshish was waiting for him.
Not a bit surprised to find that.
Always the devil has a ready to, ready,
a ship ready to take you out of
God's will.
And he went on his Mediterranean cruise, but
I tell you, he was running from God,
and God ran after him.
And God thundered at him with a storm
voice, as the sound of the waves, thundering
on the seashore.
Has that voice penetrated this week?
God has spoken to many people in a
still small voice.
He's spoken to others with like an alarm
bell, trying to wake you up and stab
you into conviction, into personal responsibility, but you've
still evaded it.
He spoke with a voice like thunder on
the seashore.
And in his right hand was seven stars.
Verse 20 tells me that these were the
ministers of the seven churches in his hand.
Oh my friend, my fellow preacher, my fellow
missionary, what a place to be in the
hand of a risen Lord.
That's protection anywhere.
But what a responsibility to be in his
hand.
You notice that out of his mouth went
a two-edged sword.
Not out of his hand, but out of
his mouth, a two-edged sword.
And listen, the Word of God is a
two-edged sword.
And what God speaks out of his mouth
through a man held in his hand, that
is authority.
And nothing else is.
That's what the mission field needs.
That's what the preacher needs.
That's what the pulpit needs.
That's what every child of God needs to
witness to Christ.
What God speaks out of his mouth through
a life held in his hand.
Do I know anything about that?
Oh God help me.
God help me.
For often being like a preacher who had
in his notes, argument weak, shout louder here,
that text just corners me, corners, holds me.
It's as if Jesus right now almost gets
me, gets me right in the corner and
says, look how about that yourself.
What God speaks through his mouth, through a
man held in his hand, that's authority.
Is your life in his hand?
Then God speaks through his mouth through you.
And his countenance was, oh listen, his faith
shone like the power of the sun in
unclouded brilliance.
His voice, his countenance was like the sun
shining in his full strength, his faith.
My friend, any thought about the face of
Jesus?
Oh that will be glory for me when
by his grace I look on his face.
I wonder, I wonder, I really do.
Someday we shall see his lovely face, one
bright golden morning, his lovely face.
I wonder.
I know that heaven has no need of
a sun, for Jesus, the face of Jesus,
lights up the whole universe.
Then the face of Jesus.
But say, say, this was the face that
Judas kissed and then betrayed.
This was the face that men spat on.
This was the face that men struck.
That will be glory for me when I
shall look on his face, will it?
Excuse me, but have you ever spat on
Jesus' face?
Have you ever, like Judas, kissed him and
then betrayed him?
Oh you stood up at meetings galore.
You responded to full-time service, but you're
still here.
You responded to an invitation over and over
again.
You bowed your heart and head before God
and said, Lord, Lord, I'm yours and I'll
never, this thing will never happen again.
But, but I tell you it has.
You kissed him and betrayed him.
You mean to tell me that will be
glory when I look on that wonderful face?
I just feel like getting out of it.
Out the way.
I wonder how many people I'm speaking to
this morning have since dawn done that very
thing today.
Last night, yes Lord, today betrayal.
And one day we shall see his face.
Lovely thing.
And may I ask you to notice, lastly,
that this, this revelation was followed at once
by an unqualified surrender.
When I saw him, I fell at his
feet as dead.
Please observe that when John saw Christ that
day, it was not joy, not a thrill,
not excitement, not, not, not a sort of
emotional upheaval.
It was fear.
And you may disagree with me in you,
if you like, but it's a deep conviction
of my heart that I never know the
indwelling Lord and his strength in my life
until I've been afraid of him.
John fell at his feet as dead.
And I'm wanting to say to you that
to venture into Christian service on the mission
field, on the ministry, without that measure of
surrender which has left you emptied, stripped, slain
at the master's feet, is sheer presumption.
The highway of Christian service and witness is
thrown with casualties, wrecked testimonies because of failure
right there.
Our surrender has had reservations.
It has been the surrender of talents, but
not of self-will.
The yielding of gifts, but not the giving
up of my rights.
The result has been marriage, out of the
will of God, between one person called to
the field and one who isn't, and the
outcome shipwreck, sometime on your knee alone.
Read that great hymn of Francis Ridley Haverkill's
consecration hymn, Take My Life and Let It
Be.
And observe this, that it isn't until she
reaches the last line, but one, in the
last verse, that she gets to the real
point.
Take my silver, my gold, my hands, my
voice, my heart, my will, and then, then
take my self, and I will be ever,
only, all for thee.
The last thing that we give up and
give to Jesus is ourselves and our rights.
That's what he's looking for from us all.
I had a letter from a missionary not
so long ago.
I want to read a paragraph of it.
You don't know him, and you don't know
what field it is, and I'm not betraying
any confidence.
Pastor, I was considered spiritual on deputation work
at home.
I was rebuked for being too serious, having
my nose in my bible too much.
It's different out here.
I saw more souls saved as incidental result
of preaching during furlough than I have in
years of service on the field.
There's nothing but death and discouragement.
My zeal lags.
My interest wavers.
My temper sours.
My zeal grows cold.
My faith weakens.
My weaknesses multiply.
The bible seems remote.
Pastor, where's the joy?
Where's the fire?
Where's the victory?
Oh yes, I know the answers.
I know the verses.
But problems, problems, problems, and the greatest of
these is myself.
Pastor, this takes more than a commentary on
Spurgeon's notes.
This is total war.
And my friend, my dear friend, for every
one of us in this place, it's not
only total war, but total defeat.
Unless I hear a voice, I turn to
see.
I see him, and I fall as dead.
I deceive.
Have you ever read Spur, um, Churchill's war
memoirs?
A bit of an exercise, but it might
be worth doing it.
It all is so irrelevant now in the
light of subsequent events, but it wasn't irrelevant
then.
He records in one volume entitled, Our Finest
Hour, the story of the Battle of Britain,
and tells of one night when bombs were
raining as they did every night for months
down upon it.
He went to an air force base in
the southeast coast.
It was evening time, and as he approached
in the darkness, he just saw six aeroplanes,
fighter planes, on the air force base, on
the, on the tarmac.
He went up and looked at them, and
they were riddled through, shot to pieces.
He said, they'll never fly again.
And he went inside, and he saw 12
men, six gunners, six pilots.
They hadn't had their uniform off for three
weeks.
They were bloodstained.
They were bleary-eyed.
They were exhausted.
They were chain-smoking, drinking coffee.
Masses of it.
And just as Churchill got there, a telephone
from Royal Air Force Headquarters in London.
Enemy approaching, over channel, estimated strength 500.
Churchill recalls that immediately, every man dropped his
coffee, stamped out his cigarette, fastened his uniform,
his belt around him, and dashed for those
six shot planes.
And within a minute, they're all in the
air, six of them, to fight, 500.
And before leaving, one of them simply sent
a message to air force headquarters.
Message received, and understood.
And they went.
It was total war.
Their obedience was taken for granted.
It was never questioned.
My beloved friend, I want to say to
you, my last word to you, is this,
that you and I are not in a
picnic, in a fun and game situation.
We're not playing at anything.
We're in total warfare.
We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but
against principalities, powers, spiritual forces of evil in
heavenly places.
It's total war.
Can Jesus take my obedience for granted?
Message received, and understood.
Let's pray.