Good morning, everybody.
Thank you very much.
I'd just like to know I'm on speaking
terms with you so far, anyway.
May I just say two things to you
before I speak, if that isn't being very
Irish.
The first reason, there were two Scotsmen and
two Welshmen, two Irishmen and two Englishmen who
were cast up on a desert island and
lost for six months.
At the end of the six months, when
they were found, the two Welshmen were singing,
the two Irishmen were fighting, the two Scotsmen
were talking about home rules of Scotland, and
the two Englishmen, well, they weren't speaking to
each other because they hadn't been introduced.
Now, we are in a time that what
we think to be reserved, other people think
being snooty.
And the great help to me is you
took the initiative and came up and said
hi, when I'm having meals or see you
from time to time, because I want in
these two days to get to know you
as much as possible.
And the other thing is that though I
was in Chicago for nearly ten years, during
that time my British accent got a bit
liberated, but I'm conscious that it's been sharpened
up again.
And I hope you don't have too much
problem with what I'm saying and understanding it.
I hope it won't be more than half
and half anyway, and that I'll try and
make it quite simple.
Now then, let us turn to read a
portion of the Word.
In a very familiar portion, one of the,
while you're looking it up, it's Matthew 14.
Matthew 14.
One of the most amazing things to me
about the Bible is that when you've read
a portion of it, say, hundreds of times,
you really think, well, you know it all.
Then suddenly it begins to live and take
life to you all over again.
This happened to me just recently in regards
to this particular portion, and it's from my
experience of it that I want to speak
to you today.
Matthew 14.22. And straightway Jesus constrained his
disciples to get into a ship and to
go before him unto the other side while
he sent the multitude away.
And when he had sent the multitude away,
he went up into a mountain apart to
pray.
And when the evening was come, he was
there alone, but the ship was now in
the midst of the sea tossed with waves,
for the wind was countering.
And in the fourth watch of the night,
Jesus went unto them, walking on the sea.
And when the disciples saw him walking on
the sea, they were troubled, saying, it is
the Spirit.
And they cried out for fear.
But straightway Jesus spake unto them, saying, Be
of good cheer, it is I, be not
afraid.
And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if
it be thou, bid me come to thee
on the water.
And he said, Come.
And when Peter was come down out of
the ship, he walked on the water to
go to Jesus.
But when he saw the wind boisterous, he
was afraid.
And beginning to think, he cried, saying, Lord,
save me.
And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand and
caught him and said unto him, All thou
little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?
And when they were come into the ship,
the wind ceased.
Then they that were in the ship came
and worshipped him, saying, Are the truth, thou
art the Son of God.
May we just bow our heads and hearts
in a word of prayer.
And would you echo in your heart the
prayer which I would offer on your behalf
and mine.
Speak, Lord, for thy servant here.
Speak just now some message to meet my
need which thou only dost know.
Speak now to thy Holy Word and make
me see.
Some wonderful truth thou hast to show to
me.
For Jesus' sake.
Amen.
I just want to say a word to
you about what I have in mind for
this week.
It is certainly not to be an hour
when you are taught more doctrine There are
others here far more able than I am
to do that.
And you're in classroom all day and every
day.
But I want, if I may, these few
mornings, just to speak to you heart to
heart concerning the problem of communication.
The communication of our faith.
The primary task of the whole church, of
every Christian.
And don't leave it all on the fact
that every one of us here this morning,
right now, is either a missionary or a
mission team.
You don't become a missionary because you get
a degree and go abroad.
Right now, either a missionary or a mission
team.
If your life is rightly related to the
Lord Jesus Christ, you're a missionary.
If it isn't, you're a mission team.
And our whole theme will center around that
focal point of our personal relationship to the
Lord Jesus Christ.
For this is the key to everything in
our life.
And as our thinking together on the subject
of the priority task of the church, I
want to say just four very simple but
very important things that we should bear in
mind.
First, the world is much smaller than we
think.
Actually, it is no more than just a
neighborhood.
I left Glasgow in Scotland in May.
One Saturday, had lunch with my wife at
the airport.
And rang her up from New York when
she was just sitting down to her evening
meal.
You see, it has shrunk into a mere
neighborhood.
The world is smaller than we think.
And because of that, the task is greater
than we think.
Because all cultures of every nation have been
crowded together with the inevitable tensions and conflicts
which arise out of that fact.
And also, of course, the cause of the
tremendous population explosion which has taken place in
the 20th century, about which I don't need
to say anything, you know it all.
But this all makes the task far greater
than we think.
And third, the time is shorter than we
think.
I think one of the most thrilling spiritual
exercises is to read your daily newspaper alongside
your Bible.
And if you see unfolding all that the
Lord Jesus said would happen in these last
days, it puts a sense of urgency into
our feet, into our minds, and into our
hearts.
The time is shorter than we think.
We're not responsible for the evangelization of the
generation that has gone, nor responsible for the
evangelization of a generation yet to be.
But we are responsible for this one.
And the time is shorter than we think.
And fourthly, the terms are costlier than we
think.
It's going to cost us a great deal
more than we ever imagined.
This generation will never be won for Christ.
No city will be won for Christ through
mass evangelism.
Now please don't take your pencil and postcard
and write to Billy Graham and say that
I'm having a crack at him.
And certainly not.
Because during his crusade in Chicago I was
vice chairman of the committee, and backed him
100%.
I would do the same again, at any
place, at any time.
But he actually said to me, in those
days in Chicago, that if the church was
doing its job, I would be out of
work.
He was quite right.
When I left Moody Church in 1962, I
left behind about 40 people who were in
the discipleship class, all of whom who had
been converted at the Billy Graham crusade.
I rejoiced in them.
Many other pastors in this city, just
one individual for Christ.
I'd have left behind 2,500 people in
the discipleship class.
You see the difference is as big as
that.
To have an evangelistic crusade, a mass evangelistic
crusade in a big city would cost half
a million dollars.
To have what the church really needs wouldn't
cost a cent.
But it would cost every one of us
everything in terms of personal commitment to Christ.
And it's that that I'm concerned about in
these days.
The terms are costlier than we think.
So here then you will bear in mind
during these mornings, these simple propositions.
The world is smaller than we think.
The task is greater than we think.
The time is shorter than we think.
And the terms are costlier than we think.
And I'm going to approach this theme from
five different angles.
And our first one this morning will be,
a relationship which must be restored.
And that brings us straight to the message,
to the portion of scripture which I read
to you a few minutes ago.
As I was reading this portion, the words
of the 30th verse of Matthew 14, came
home to me with tremendous personal force.
Matthew 14, verse 30.
Let me read it to you.
But when he saw the wind boisterous, he
was afraid, and beginning to think, he cried
saying, Lord save me.
Just those three words went right home to
my heart.
Because they spoke to my personal experience.
Here they are.
May the spirit of God ring an alarm
bell in your soul this morning.
Beginning to think, how gratifying Those words, when
they live to me afresh, spoke to my
own personal spiritual experience.
I wonder if they don't do exactly the
same to you today.
Somehow, there's been a loosening of our hold
upon God.
A slackening in our devotion to him.
A carelessness in the cultivation of our inner
life.
Whether that thinking is hardened due to some
tragic moral breakdown, I wouldn't know.
Or whether it's just been gradual.
But wherever I go, I find today that
people of every age group are involved in
a rat race.
They're on a conveyor belt from dawn till
night.
Seven days a week.
Too tired to pray.
Too weary to read the Bible.
Study.
Examination.
Higher academic standards.
The business, the family, the home.
All these things tell up for us with
tremendous force.
The warning, beginning to think.
Old standards have been given up.
Disciplines have been abandoned.
So much easier to go along with the
crowd.
We never thought it would happen to us.
We were called into the ministry.
We thought we'd be immune from it.
But we haven't been.
We've been given places of spiritual leadership and
responsibility, and we thought this itself would be
an inoculation of this thinking process that we
found was nothing easier than to lose the
word of God in the work of God.
Beginning to think.
The scholars who have come to this campus
with all its associations and tremendous history which
has been of worldwide blessing to millions of
people.
And you thought that coming to Moody Bible
Institute would be preventive.
But you found it accelerating the process.
So much easier in all the rush just
to abandon the one thing that really matters.
And you know it's noticeable to yourself because
when you begin to think you get irritable.
Your boiling point gets low.
You're on the defensive, on edge.
You keep people at a distance from you.
You don't want them to know about it.
But they do know.
They can see the tensions and the strains
and the pressure.
They watch you pressing the panic button every
now and again.
And they wonder what's the matter.
You don't know the reason for it.
Beginning to think.
What did Peter do in such circumstances?
He cried out to God, Lord save me.
Now that's a very short prayer.
But under the circumstances I don't think that
it could have been much longer.
The water was probably up to his chin
at the moment.
He was desperate.
So desperate indeed that he just had time
to cry, Lord save me.
How I thank God for short prayers.
We're not heard in heaven for our correct
evangelical phraseology.
We're heard because of our confessed sense of
peril and danger.
Prayer that shoots like an arrow right to
the heart of God from my heart.
It goes straight to the throne in heaven,
Lord save me.
A confessed sense of need.
One great hindrance to the operation of miracles
in life is the absence of any sense
of need.
Faith works best in the context of desperation.
I never read in my Bible that God
removes the man's hills.
But I do read that he removes the
mountains.
I don't read that he deals with a
mild headache.
But he does deal with impossibilities.
Faith works most convincingly when there's no other
way out.
Not much use believing God if all the
time we leave just to wear this cape
in case he doesn't work.
But he'll either shut up for a miracle.
No, it's a horrendous thing when you get
to that place in your Christian life.
When you've got just no other way out.
When you cry, Lord save me.
How often I've prayed like that.
When pressures were overwhelming.
When it was impossible to frame words.
When I was too tired to think.
Oh Lord save me, keep me strained.
Lord save me, don't let me make a
wrong decision.
And when the enemy comes in like a
flood and attacks me.
Lord save me.
Now what intrigues me about this type of
description.
Is to notice how the Lord goes about
answering the prayer of a man or a
girl who's dead.
The fellow, the girl who just knows they
haven't got any other alternative.
And they shut up to God and to
him working miracles.
I trust that there are many in that
category here this morning.
It's a wonderful place to be in.
Do you notice the divine pattern of deliverance.
First of all do you notice that Peter's
doubts were abused.
Verse 31.
O thou of beautiful faith, wherefore didst thou
doubt?
The first thing the Lord Jesus did was
to expose the real cause of his thinking.
And firmly but lovingly he goes and penetrates
to the root of the whole cause of
thinking.
A breakdown in his basic relationships was brought.
Wherefore didst thou doubt and believe?
Without faith it's impossible to please God.
When you begin to doubt God's ability to
save you in a particular situation.
It isn't that you stop practicing the principle
of faith.
But rather that you put your faith in
something of someone else than the only one
who is worthy of it.
The only trustworthy object.
And you begin to think.
Everybody lives by faith.
Everybody.
Life can't exist without faith.
At any level.
A friend of mine who happens to be
a minister in the Church of England.
Was travelling recently from England to Australia.
And he decided to go by ship.
Sensible man.
He got some real excursions.
He set about six weeks.
But when he got aboard the boat.
He imagined that he had reserved a single
cabin.
But he found that there was someone else
occupying it.
Another man.
And he began to unpack his belongings with
one eye on his luggage and another eye
on his travelling companion.
And the more he looked at him the
less he felt he could trust him.
And just after a moment the other man
went out of the room.
The cabin.
So my friend took the opportunity of his
absence to wrap up all his personal belongings
in a little case.
And presently the other man came back.
So my friend went out with his valuables
to find the postman of the ship.
And he pondered and he said.
I'm sorry to bother you but.
I imagined I had a single cabin reserved.
On this boat.
But I find I haven't.
There's another man in my cabin.
And the more I look at him the
less I feel I can trust him.
Would you mind looking after my valuables on
the voyage?
So the postman said certainly sir.
I'd be glad to.
And turned round with a smile in his
good groom.
It may surprise you sir to know that
your travelling companion has just been here and
said exactly the same.
You see.
It is absolutely impossible in any situation to
exist without faith.
It was unbelief which drove our first parent
from God.
Has God told that thou shalt not eat
of the fruit of every tree?
Was the question which Satan sowed into the
mind of Eve.
With disastrous results for the whole human family.
It wasn't that she stopped practicing faith.
But she put her faith from the wrong
object.
Instead of believing God's truth she believed the
devil's lies.
And unbelief led to rebellion.
And that's the root of all sins.
And therefore the path which God has decreed
to the way to restore a broken relationship
with him.
Is belief until the Lord Jesus Christ is
born shall be saved.
Wherefore didst thou doubt?
Why has your confidence in God ceased?
I suspect very strongly in Peter's case.
It was because of winds and waves.
You remember when he left out of his
ship to come to Christ.
He had no problem with winds and waves.
He forgot about them all.
But he became increasingly conscious.
Of the waves and wind which had troubled
him on the boat.
You troubled him.
When he trusted the Saviour.
And he began concentrating on winds and waves.
And he began to think.
Now this isn't only Peter's trouble.
My friend it's yours and mine.
Why have you begun to think?
Why did I begin to think?
I know.
Because they gave our time and our concentration
to battering with life's problems.
And storms and pressures.
Until our spiritual horizons grew so dim.
That we almost ceased to exist.
Tragedy.
That can happen to a Christian.
Or a Catholic.
Absorption with storms and winds.
Drove us off our true samples.
And removed us from the source of strength
and power.
Which Cologne could proper think.
And we found ourselves living within the limited
resources.
Of our own strength.
And the battle was too much for us.
And we began to think.
And we lost the sense of the presence
of the ones.
Who had power to control the storms.
Wherefore did you dance?
There's the Lord exposing the basic trouble.
The basic cause of thinking.
Unbelief.
But do you notice?
In this rest.
Not only did the Lord rebuke his doubts.
There came a moment when he reversed his
defeat.
Immediately.
Verse 31.
That is immediately Peter cried Lord save me.
Immediately Jesus took him by the hand and
lifted him up.
And the downward trend of thinking was reversed.
A new power.
Another person had taken over.
And Peter found himself in the hands.
Of one who could lift him up and
deliver him.
From the storm Jesus had taken over.
Now that's exactly what you need and what
I need.
Today.
Not just a visit to church.
Not just three years at NBR.
Not a mild dose of religion.
Not a correct understanding of doctrine merely.
But a God.
A master.
A Lord.
Who can take hold of me and lift
me up above the storm.
Enable me to cry.
Forgive me using a very childish illustration.
But I hold in my hand a barrow.
Interesting enough when I bought it.
Here in Chicago.
Ah.
The advertisement.
Advertisement.
Said that.
This pen will write on butter.
Or will write in your butt.
Well now that was quite inventive.
Because I don't usually write on butter.
Certainly never in my butt.
But I was very grateful.
I have been through the years.
For the times when it's written on paper.
And.
Look.
I'm holding this pen in one hand.
And I want to make it stand upright.
You want to do it?
Now I'll try and make that pen stand
upright.
And I just can't do it.
One thing that I can do.
It would fall.
Collapse.
I can't do it.
There's only one thing that can make that
pen stand upright.
It's when another hand.
Comes on it's palm above.
And then holds it.
And then it's upright.
That hand can't do it.
And the more it tries the more it
goes on falling.
But there comes a moment when I acknowledge
that that hand can't do it.
Therefore another hand comes and takes over.
And the pen is now steady.
It's upright.
Now that's exactly your trouble.
And mine exactly your need.
As long as I go on trying to
stop myself thinking.
I go on going down.
But when I acknowledge I'm beaten.
And the total failure.
I never can be anything else.
Then God comes in.
And calls out Lord.
And then there he went away.
Ten minutes later he came back.
Looked over his shoulder.
The Bible had been stained with his tears.
But the words non quo had been called
out.
And Jesus was Lord.
That moment her life had passed out of
her own hands.
She now recognized that she belonged to another.
Not to herself.
Incidentally.
That lady lived for thirty years to be
a missionary.
Incidentally also to her brother's husband.
I can't guarantee that.
But we do know that the will of
God is good and acceptable.
And perfect.
But the slave never did take his turn
to his master.
Not to Lord.
Sanctify Christ as Lord in your heart.
Said Peter.
Why is it that Brom Christians live in
victory.
As you can tell by looking at them.
They're rejoicing in it.
And some live in hopeless defeat for years.
Why should that be?
It isn't that some have the Holy Spirit.
And some have not.
Because all have.
Every Christian born again.
Has really.
The difference is simply this.
That some have recognized Jesus.
And some haven't.
Some have a theoretical Christ.
Some have a doctrinal Christ.
Some have an experimental Christ.
And they know Christ as Lord in their
heart.
And they'll crown Him as their King.
Has it ever happened in your life?
Some people have Jesus.
But that's still their own must.
Some people have Jesus and He is their
must.
We're written for a very strange form of
government.
We call it a constitutional monarchy.
I'll explain that in a minute.
In June it was, I think.
Oh yes, June the 13th.
It was my wedding anniversary.
1953.
Our present Queen was crowned in Westminster Abbey
in London.
It was the day foretold by the weather
prophet.
Likely to be the finest day of the
year.
At the port in dawn or dusk.
Like it can ever do around there.
Stream down.
But those of us who saw that very
moment on television will never forget the moment.
When the Archbishop of Canterbury, the head of
the church in England.
With the crown in his hand turned to
about 4,000 people in that ancient historical
building.
And said to them, my lord, ladies and
gentlemen.
I present to you your rightful sovereign Elizabeth.
Do you assent to pay her homage?
In just one word.
Ring out an echo to that vast building
in London.
At that moment.
The word.
I.
And 4,000 people representing every stage of
life.
In London.
Had acknowledged her to be their rightful sovereign.
And he turned and placed the crown on
her head.
And that day.
She was our Queen.
We all love her.
She's a Christian.
Born again Christian.
And we respect her.
But listen.
Never from that day to this.
Has she made one decision.
Never once.
Harold Wilson and company do that.
For better or worse.
You see, we have a weird government system.
We have a Queen who is on the
throne.
Number one.
But we have a government who make all
the decisions.
And we strange Britishers.
At least the English part of Britain.
Sort of like it.
A Queen who is above every party.
And who signs every document that the government
presents to her.
And puts a signature, a rubber stamp to
it.
And then a government who make every decision.
That's a constitutional monarchy.
Very strange.
Very, very strange.
But that has somehow or other.
Infiltrated itself into 20th century Christianity.
In which, I mean.
Supposing I asked you folks here in this
auditorium.
Is Jesus Christ your Lord?
You would say yes.
Well, I come back at you.
Very lovingly.
Amen.
But I trust that Holy Spirit penetration.
And I said to you.
Who makes the decisions?
Who chooses your life partner?
Who chooses your career?
Who chooses how you spend your money, if
any?
Who makes the decisions?
Listen.
God refuses to be a rubber stamp to
anybody.
Thank the Lord Christ as Lord.
Lord save me.
And immediately.
The downward trend is reversed.
And Peter experiences the thrill of the upward
pull of a living Christ.
Who gave him power.
In the moment of the peace.
But he must be Lord.
A relationship which must be restored.
Is that so with you?
Why?
Is that so essential?
What happened?
Forgive me if I use just another illustration,
really, to show you what I mean.
You all know my good friend, I'm sure,
Stephen Alford.
Speaking at his spiritual life convention recently.
And after one meeting, I was travelling back
to Chicago.
This was my home at the time.
It was a very foggy night.
Snow was falling.
Wintertime.
When I got to Kennedy Airport, all the
planes had been cancelled.
So I hung around for a couple of
hours.
And eventually, somebody said, one plane flying to
Chicago.
And everybody made a diagnosis.
So I managed to get in.
On the last seat.
Right at the back.
Right at the very back.
I don't know, but I suppose there'd be
about 160 others.
People, all swarming in.
Setting down.
And the snow was falling like it nobody's
business.
And outside, as I looked out through my
little window, there were four men on the
wings, shooting it off.
Defrosting them.
And I suddenly remembered, just the sort of
thing you would remember in a moment or
so, that the weight of a jet plane,
fully loaded with passengers and gas, was 250
,000 pounds.
And I looked right away into the distance,
and saw the back of the pilot's head.
And I said, oh Lord bless it.
I wasn't fearful, but certainly preoccupied.
Presently, the engines began to turn over.
And we crumbled to the end of the
runway.
And we stopped.
And when we'd stopped, I looked out of
the window and wondered why.
Here were the four men back.
With the lad on the wings, sweeping away
the snow.
Defrosting them.
The whole situation was most unpromising.
But suddenly, there was a tremendous roar.
And if you travel economy class in a
jet, you know what it's like.
It was a roar.
And that plane gradually took speed.
And with a flurry of snow, went along
that runway.
And when it had reached a speed of
about 150 knots, the pilot pulled a stick.
The nose went up in the air.
And it began to soar, and soar, and
soar, and climb.
Until it reached 35,000 feet.
In a brilliant moonlight, starlight night.
And in less than two hours, I was
back in O'Hare Field.
Was that just something that happened by chance?
Oh no.
Is it something that might happen or might
not happen?
Oh no, it must happen.
Why?
Well you see, this reason.
At a speed of 150 knots, another law
came into operation.
Until that moment, the law of gravity had
held that plane on the runway.
But at 150 knots, the law of aerodynamics
began to take over.
And the sheer thrust of four jet engines
inside the plane was so tremendous, that it
overcame the law of gravity and kept it
in projection.
And the plane soared through the storm.
Recognize this verse?
The law of the spirit of light in
Christ Jesus hath set me free from the...
Hallelujah.
When I say Lord save me, and I
know that it's desperate, and I know there's
no other way out except He takes over.
Lord save me.
At that moment, at that very moment, He
stretches out His hand and lifts me up.
And I experience the upward pull.
Do you know that in your life?
Or are you defeated?
You're still your own master.
Managing your own business.
Trying to run your own life.
Trying to do your own stuff.
He is in you.
Every one of us knew that, not of
the theory, not of the doctrine, but as
an experience that each one of us has
God in our heart.
Heaven goes a week, 24 hours a day.
It would revolutionize Christianity.
Every one of our lives would be absolutely
revolutionized.
If we believe, not theoretically, but experimentally in
our heart, that we carry God inside us.
And all He wants is to be God
in us.
For you and I to get out of
the way, and let Him get into business,
and into control, and take over.
Glory.
And until I get to the point of
desperation, until I, as long as I think
there's some other alternative, that after all I'm
not so bad as the Bible says I
am, and I'm prepared to give Him 95
% of the commission, but I want 5
% for myself, as long as I go
on talking about it like that, just a
word in conclusion.
Which isn't easy to say from this platform.
But which I want to say to be
honest.
You notice, Peter's doubts were rebuked.
His defeat was reversed.
And then, his dilemma was removed.
Verse 32.
Immediately, when they got into the ship, the
wind ceased.
Now you notice the order of this.
Doubts rebuked.
Defeat reversed.
Dilemma removed.
The last in order of treatment, was the
first in order of desire.
May I repeat that?
The last in order of treatment, was the
first in order of desire.
Lord save me, get me out of this
mess.
Lord deliver me from this situation.
Lord save me, I can't take it anymore.
Panic button.
And the Lord ignores that.
The first in order of treatment, was to
rebuke his doubts.
And then reverse his defeat.
And finally, to remove the dilemma.
Because you see, the Lord is concerned about
dealing with the man, first of all.
As long as we're in defeat, the dilemma
remains.
Situations get worse.
The pressures increase.
The hopelessness of it all, seems to become
increasingly powerful and real.
But when we come to the point of
trusting Christ completely, the dilemma moves.
Moses knew the secret.
When he took three million people through a
wilderness, he didn't say, Lord deal with these
awkward people.
Lord get rid of them.
Lord send them away, I don't want them.
I don't want them either.
No, they're always grumbling, complaining.
He didn't talk about it.
The problems were far too big for him,
he just said one thing, Lord, I beseech
you, show me your glory.
That's all that Moses needed.
That's all that you and I need.
Just a touch.
And you see, what I want to say,
in conclusion, is that the circumstances in which
you are thinking are brought about by your
heavenly Father in order that you come to
the place of saying, Lord.
Just four years ago, I was preparing my
message for a Sunday, it was a Saturday
afternoon, in my study in Edinburgh.
As I was writing it out, I suddenly
lost control of my hand and it wandered
all over the paper.
I called out to my wife, I found
I couldn't stand up.
I had some idea of what might have
happened and before long I was sure.
In five minutes I couldn't speak, I couldn't
walk, I knew that I'd had a cerebral
hemorrhage which is a stroke, might well have
been fatal.
I was helpless and in a few minutes
reduced to childhood.
Spiritually, I couldn't pray, read my Bible for
months.
Mentally, couldn't think, couldn't concentrate.
Physically, I was weak as a child.
This situation lasted for about seven or eight
months.
One time I suddenly found that the devil
was hurling everything at me.
I thought just like him to take advantage
of a situation like this and he began
to put into my mind simple thoughts.
Temptations that I thought I'd got rid of
for twenty years came back with overwhelming force
and I had no power to resist.
Temptations of impurity, temptations of bad language, temptation
to blow my top with my wife and
children and the experience of a father who
had reverted to childhood in the midst of
all this.
When I was absolutely desperate I cried out
to God and said, Oh God, get me
out of this mess.
Lord, take me on to heaven.
I can't stand anymore this attack of the
devil.
I can't lie here like this.
I don't want the last memory my wife
and family have of me to be a
man who lives like a cabbage and helpless
for all his life.
Lord, save me from it.
Get me out of it.
Take me right away.
Let me die right now.
And it seemed to me as though I
had no vision, no dramatic sense of God's
presence.
A conviction came to my heart, born of
the Spirit, who said to me, You've got
all this wrong.
Satan hasn't got the slightest thing to do
with it.
You've been blaming the devil.
This isn't from the devil.
It's from me.
I had to bring you to this point
in order that you might understand that this
is the kind of man with all the
temptations to impurity and sinfulness and bad language
and blowing your top.
This is the kind of man you always
will be but for the grace of God.
And I knew in theory that now I
knew in experience that God is not in
the self-improvement business but is in the
Christ-replacement business.
He's never been attempting to make me a
better person.
But he's always been wanting me to get
out of the way and make room for
him.
And then he said to me, Just take
a look and a long big think into
the past thirty years.
And I went back to the time when
I started the ministry in London.
Fourteen years over there.
Ten years here at Moody Church.
Two or three years in Edinburgh.
And I saw a building up of a
situation which was pressure, problem, work.
Oh I thought it was so spiritual.
For I was working like any slave for
the sake of God's dear.
Seven days a week.
Fourteen hours a day, sometimes more.
No time for home, no time for family,
no time for anything but work, work, work.
And I had substituted work for worship.
Service for heart surrender.
And I recall how I had spoken to
congregations many times and demanded from them an
obedience to truth which literally I wasn't prepared
to give myself.
I had substituted orthodoxy for obedience.
So proud of being a fundamentalist.
But literally in my life there were points
in which I was not obeying God.
And I had substituted the Bible for God.
So proud of my neat outline.
Three points, introduction and conclusion.
All points beginning with the same letter.
So proud of it all.
Built up over twenty years all this.
So proud of it.
I substituted my knowledge of truth for my
knowledge of God.
You remember Paul's great life ambition that I
might know him.
Not that I might know truth.
The one is important, of course.
But it's only, it's only the gateway to
the other that I might know him.
And I saw it all.
And I tell you, I could do nothing
but weep.
I wet my heart out.
And I knew that I was at the
end of my rope.
And when I knew that, from sinking sands
he lifted me.
With tender hands he lifted me.
From shades of night to planes of light.
Oh praise his name.
He lifted me.
And here I stand before you one hundred
percent well.
Restored.
But he brought me to the place when
I was absolutely finished in my soul.
I'm not suggesting that God is going to
do that sort of thing with you.
But I am suggesting that he will insist
on the principle of a relationship which must
be restored.
And will use anything and go to any
means until you're prepared to say, Lord, no
good.
Save me.
Cleanse me from my sin, Lord.
Take me as I am, Lord.
And make me all thine own.
Keep me day by day, Lord.
Underneath thy sway, Lord.
Make my heart thy palace and thy royal
throne.
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and
the love of God.
The fellowship of the Holy Spirit.
Cleanse us all, now and always.