We're going to turn to this passage which
Mr. Wendell has read to us.
2 Corinthians chapter 9.
Now for my small share in this ministry
and this privilege of fellowship this week, we
have been taking a theme in these morning
sessions and considering the challenge to every Christian
to communicate Christ.
On Monday we thought about communication.
Revival.
The revival of the life and power of
the Spirit of God in every believer.
On Tuesday we thought of the motive.
The love of Christ constrains us.
That love which just fills our hearts and
which so desperately needs to be revealed to
the world.
On Wednesday morning we thought about the message
which we must communicate.
That of the sovereignty of Jesus Christ.
Expressed in the life of the love of
God.
And revealing the real happiness and real peace
in a world which is refusing authority at
every level.
Last evening we thought about the one thing
which blocks communication.
The demand for our own Ishmael.
For our own way.
And I trust that many of us faced
reality last evening and submitted to the plan
of God.
But that's only the beginning.
I remember when he was married.
And he turned to his bride and said
to her, well thank God that's all over.
And she said my dear it's only just
beginning.
And when you face the crisis in the
Christian life.
Where you're saying with all your heart and
looking into the face of Jesus.
And you're saying Lord it's no longer me
but Christ.
That's just the beginning.
The beginning of what Hudson Taylor describes as
the exchange life.
In which it's no more what Hudson Taylor
does for God that matters.
It's what God does in and through Hudson
Taylor.
I hope all of you have read or
will read.
His wonderful life story.
Which is written in two volumes.
The growth of a work and the growth
of a soul.
Indispensable in every minister's library.
Now today I want to take this passage
of scripture and speak to you.
About the life of continuance.
And taking as my text and basis for
the message.
But seeing it in the like of its
context.
Second Corinthians the eighth.
God is able to make all grace abound
toward you.
That you always having all sufficiency.
In all things may abound.
Unto every good work.
Now you will observe as we read this
passage this morning.
That this wonderful text or verse comes right
at the very heart.
Of an earnest appeal that Paul is making.
For financial help from the Corinthian church.
To the Christians at Jerusalem.
He has boasted everywhere of their generosity.
And he writes about the matter in case
his boasting proves empty.
And he writes to the Corinthian church to
ensure.
That their promised contribution would be ready.
When Titus comes.
And not have to be wrung out of
them by pressure.
And I trust that that will be the
experience.
In our faith from his eyes and on
the Lord's day.
God loves a hilarious giver.
And each must give as he purposes in
his heart.
But finance is not the burden of my
message.
That's secondary.
That takes care of itself.
Paul is lifting this whole matter of finance.
Into a deep spiritual area.
And laying down a principle.
Which goes to the very heart of the
Christian life.
And I have and want to call it.
Law of supply and demand.
That is what this chapter is all about.
God's law of supply and demand.
And I'll just give you the three points.
That we're going to look at today.
And then we'll see the ground along which
we're traveling.
There is first of all here in this
verse.
A provision that is absolutely inexhaustible.
A provision that is inexhaustible.
God is able to make all grace abound
toward you.
And that leads to a practice that is
inevitable.
That you always having all sufficiency.
Is all things may abound to every good
work.
And this all results.
Because of a principle that is inescapable.
Verse six.
He which soweth sparingly shall reap sparingly.
He which soweth bountifully shall reap bountifully.
Now let's just for a minute or two.
Consider this provision that is inexhaustible.
The Christian life in all its varied experiences.
Is no more and no less than the
outflow from the fountain of life.
Who's source is at the very throne of
God.
You remember that Jesus said to the woman
of Samaria.
That drinketh of the water that I give
him shall never thirst.
Never thirst.
For the water that I shall give him
shall be in him.
Not a well but a fountain.
A fountain of water springing up into everlasting
life.
Now bless the Lord.
That's his plan for you and his plan
for me.
An outflow of life that has its source
from the throne of God.
That comes to us at the moment when
we are born fresh.
An outflow of life from the great giving
of God in Jesus Christ.
And you notice how Paul piles on the
superlative.
God is able to make all great abound.
And that word abound is the same word
as is in Matthew 5 and verse 20.
Where Jesus said accept your righteousness.
Exceed the word, exceed the righteousness of the
scribes and Pharisees.
God is able to make all great exceed
toward you.
In order that you may have all sufficiency.
And that word sufficiency is the same word
as Paul uses in writing to Timothy.
In the first epistle and the sixth chapter
and the sixth verse where he says.
Godliness with contentment is great gain.
Contentment, that's the word.
So that you may have all content in
all things.
So you see friend, when you're living in
the plan of God it takes the pressures
off.
It takes the heat off.
And you have all sufficiency in all things.
I may have said to you before, I've
got the world's best forgettery.
I can't remember.
But God's purpose is to make us all
like Jesus.
And he achieves this by enlargement through pressure.
You see men in a burning fiery furnace,
that's pressure.
And in it they meet one like unto
the Son of God, that's enlargement.
And I don't know about you, but I
believe in every Christian life.
God is constantly putting us through pressure.
In order that we may find sufficiency.
I wonder what God has been putting you
through these days.
You remember that wonderful verse in 1 Corinthians
chapter 10.
God will not suffer you to be tempted
beyond that you're able to bear.
But will with the temptation, not before it,
and not after it.
But will with it.
With the temptation provide a way of escape
that you may be able to run away.
No I see some shaking of heads.
I must have got that wrong.
Provide a way of escape that you may
be able to bear it.
But friend, if God provides a way of
escape, what do you want a way of
escape for?
You don't want to, you want a way
of escape only that you might get out
of it.
Oh no.
He will provide a way of escape that
you may be able to bear it.
I never understood that verse really.
Until one day I saw in a factory
a man testing a most valuable piece of
machinery.
Actually it was part of an aeroplane engine
that was being made.
And he was putting this machinery under pressure.
Severe pressure.
And he had a safety gauge.
Which marked the pressure, the point at which
the pressure reached danger.
And he knew that if it got beyond
that, it would damage this machinery beyond repair.
So he was submitting this machinery to intense
pressure.
And that gauge was gradually mounting until it
reached danger.
At that point, he released a safety valve.
In order to allow the pressure to escape.
So the way of escape was not for
the machine, but for the pressure.
Now that threw tremendous light to me upon
that verse in 1 Corinthians 10.
He will not allow you to be tested
beyond that you are able to bear.
But will with patience, with the test, find
a way of escape.
For the pressure.
So that you may be able to bear
it.
So that you may be able to stand
in the pressure.
Now you see, he has promised us that
all grace will abound toward us.
So that we may be having all sufficiency
in all things.
And that we may abound to every good
work.
So that in our Christian lives there is
no situation.
There is no pressure.
There is no circumstance.
In unable to stand.
Because his grace is sufficient.
It is all grace.
And is abounding grace.
Do you find that today?
What a wonderful thing it is to find
contentment in Jesus.
What does he mean by grace?
Well of course, that's one word which sums
up all the blessings that come to us
undeservedly through Christ.
Primarily I suppose the word grace means a
disposition in the heart of God.
In the nature of God.
And it's revealed in his undeserved, spontaneous, eternal,
pardoning love.
But God's dispositions are never idle.
And so grace means love in action.
Expressed in a love that knows no end
of its endurance.
No end of its patience.
No fading of its hope.
Grace is God's love in action.
But grace is never fruitless.
And therefore the greatest meaning of the word
is all the blessings and all the lovely
beautiful things.
That take place in a life in which
the indwelling Christ has come.
To reveal his glory.
Grace is love in action.
Grace is God's love in action.
But grace in my life is God's love
revealed in my heart.
Very briefly and inadequately that grace which results
in the fruit of the spirit revealed in
my life.
Galatians 5, 22.
The ninefold fruit of the spirit.
Love in action.
In action in the heart of God.
In action in the life of the Christian.
In the life of every one of God's
redeemed people.
Therefore grace be gracious.
Get that.
Grace results in graciousness.
God is able to make all grace abound
toward you.
There are not many graces.
There's only one.
And that which God in his grace gives
to us is what?
It's Jesus.
And that grace.
Oh it's many sided in its expression.
But it's one in its source.
Jesus only.
God is able to make Jesus abound in
your life.
Now my friend.
You can never have all the gifts of
the spirit.
That's controversial territory.
I'll leave that for tomorrow.
We're getting near the end of the week
and you won't be able to climb on
my back for long then.
I'll leave that for tomorrow.
You can't have all the gifts.
You can have all the grace.
And the two are in a totally different
character, category.
Don't confuse them.
You can have all of Jesus.
Indeed.
It is Paul's prayer, you remember?
For the church at Ephesus.
Which is more a circular letter than a
letter to a local church.
When he prayed that you might be filled
up with all the fullness of God.
What a wonderful thing.
That you can have all of God in
you.
And when God gives himself.
He doesn't do it reluctantly.
With a little finger of his hand open.
And let out a little at a time.
But God's hands, God's nail pierced hands are
wide open.
And this house is all pouring itself out.
With no limitation on heaven's side.
And I remember a husband and wife.
Who had about three or four children.
And the wife went away for the weekend.
And took with her all of the kids
except one.
And he was the smallest of all of
them.
He was a little boy.
So his daddy was left at home.
With a task of caring for this little
boy.
He hadn't done it before.
He was a bit scared.
And the little boy wasn't quite knowing what
was going to happen.
And so his daddy took him into his
bedroom at night to sleep.
In his little bed for him.
And that little boy wouldn't stop talking.
Talked on and on and on.
Which of course was revealing that he wasn't
quite at home.
Felt a bit nervous.
And his daddy said will you be quiet.
And so he settled down.
The boy thought the boy was quiet.
No he began to talk again.
He said will you stop talking.
Be quiet and go to sleep.
So there wasn't a sound.
And then daddy.
Oh his father thought here we are again.
Daddy.
And his father said.
Oh yes what is it.
Daddy.
Is your face turned this way.
And he said yes son it is.
Thank you daddy.
And there wasn't any more.
Not another sound.
The boy went to sleep.
Calvary tells me that God's face is always
turned my way.
And he doesn't give.
With a little finger.
And all the others tight shut.
He gives with open hands.
Open hands on which there has been the
pinch of a nail.
And he gives and gives and gives again.
There is never any limitation in God's signs.
No wonder that Paul concludes this chapter.
Thanks be unto God for us a peaceful
day.
Now because of this provision that is inexhaustible.
And never runs out and never runs dry.
And never grows stale and never is limited.
And is always coming to us like a
fountain that pouring out from the heart of
God.
Then that must lead to a practice that
is inevitable.
That you having all sufficiency in all things.
May abound unto every good work.
Now you see the result of this absolutely
inexhaustible supply from God.
From his side must lead to the experience
of.
If I may use the expression the base,
the receptacle of my life always being full.
If God is always giving I must always
be receiving.
And that's the thrilling thing about the Christian
life.
As long as I go on receiving.
As long as I go on believing I
go on receiving.
And so my life and your life ought
to be full.
And Christian experience is an ever increasing capacity
for the fullness of God in my heart.
That's God's intention for me.
As Jesus put it.
He that believeth into me.
How to his inner man shall flow.
A trickle?
No.
A drop?
No.
A river?
No.
A stream?
No.
Rivers of living water.
This spake he of the Holy Spirit.
Which they that believe on him should receive.
My grace is sufficient for you.
I think that's the understatement of history.
A masterly divine understatement.
Isn't it any more than sufficient?
Oh yes I suppose so.
But how much more do I need than
sufficiency?
Do I need anything more than that?
The only place where you have sufficiency is
in the heart of God.
The only place where you have enough is
in Jesus.
His grace is always proportioned.
I trust you're enjoying that this morning.
Because when I enter into the knowledge that
this is always enough for me.
That takes, it takes all the drudgery out
of Christian living and turns it into luxury.
Strength for every task.
Strength to carry the cross.
Courage to bear the sorrow.
Patience to persecution.
And all that comes to me out of
his fullness in Jesus Christ.
You know these words?
He addeth more grace when the burdens grow
greater.
He sendeth the strength when the labours increase.
To addeth affliction he addeth more mercy.
To multiplied trials his multiplied peace.
It was the great saint Thomas Fuller who
once prayed.
Lord either lighten the road or strengthen my
back.
And God will always do one or the
other.
As thy days so shall thy strength be.
God never puts his army into a blundering
attack against some powerful enemy.
Only to find that they are discomforted and
beaten.
He lays his command upon my life.
And then he infuses his power in his
own life within me.
And always makes my back firm enough to
bear every demand he puts upon me.
Say do you know what God expects from
you?
I'll tell you.
Fancy a preacher having the audacity to tell
every nunny in a congregation what God expects
of them.
Oh no but I know because I know
what he expects of me.
Shall I tell you one word?
What expects of your life?
Nothing.
Ready for it?
Failure.
Got it?
Total, absolute, complete, hopeless, out and out, failure.
He's written you off and me off as
an absolute work out.
Any comfort to you in that?
Say but God has given to you his
Holy Spirit that you need never fail.
Not that you cannot fail.
Not that you cannot go down.
But you need never fail.
And I don't know anything which takes the
tension of life as that does.
That brings peace to my heart.
Whatever situation I may have to face.
All through my future life I have a
Saviour who is adequate for it all.
But without him I'll fail every time.
Once I try by my own strength to
do what God intends to do in me
I'll go down.
That's why so many Christians bite the nails,
take tranquilizers, drink masses of coffee to try
and find peace.
Oh, you know, you know, I think it's...
You can check on this because I'm not
sure I'm speaking just off the cuff.
First Chronicles chapter 4, I think about verse
23, there's a little group of people, they're
descendants of...
and they dwelt among hedges and plants.
Nothing much glamorous about that.
They just did the hard work in an
obscure place.
And listen, there it says, there they dwelt
with the king for his work.
It's wonderful when you dwell with the king
for his work.
For when you're dwelling with the king, you're
dwelling in the area of all the resources
that are adequate for every situation.
But I tell you, if you start dwelling
with the work for the king, that's misery.
Which are you doing right now?
Eh?
Are you dwelling with the work for the
king?
And you're working like any slave for the
sake of God, dear son.
Friend, if you're doing that, the edge of
a breakdown.
You'll crack, you'll break.
You can't do it.
You start dwelling with the work for the
king, that's misery.
Which are you doing right now?
Eh?
Are you with the work for the king?
And you're working like any slave for the
sake of God, dear son.
Friend, if you're doing that, you're on the
edge of a breakdown.
You'll crack, you'll break.
You can't do it.
You fail.
You're dwelling with the work for the king,
within the limitations of all your own resources.
Oh, but if you're dwelling with the king
for the work, you're all right then.
Oh, hallelujah.
Yes.
As thy day, so shall thy strength be.
And see, as you're with the king for
the work, you're constantly being filled up with
all the fullness of God.
And I tell you, it doesn't matter what
happens and what may come to your life,
there's never a bundle of affliction that can
touch you.
There's never a storm that can hit you.
But it's all wrapped up in a bundle
of grace that's sufficient.
The basin must always be full.
Not merely for my enjoyment, not so that
I can get into a wonderful little holiness
huddle with a lot of other Christians and
say, my, aren't we getting good?
But for the benefit of other people.
I don't often quote from Moffat, but I
want to quote from him now, for I
think his rendering of verses 12 to 14
is masterly.
The service rendered does more than supply the
wants of the saints.
It overflows with many a cry of thanks
to God.
It shows what you are.
It makes men praise God for the way
you have come under the gospel of Christ,
which you confess, and they are drawn to
you and pray for you on account of
the surpassing grace which God has caused to
rest upon you.
You see, you see, when you have all
sufficiency for all things and abound in every
good work, it's making you an attractive Christian.
People begin to ask, that you can, as
you do, when you're really facing a crisis.
There's something about your life which is so
attractive, and so wonderful, and so calm.
Why?
People begin to say, I wonder what it
is that he's got that I haven't got.
Attractiveness.
You remember in John's epistle, he says, that
which we have seen and heard, declare we
unto you.
He had heard a preacher, but he had
seen a light.
And when they saw Jesus, they said, we
beheld his glory.
The glory as of the only begotten of
the Father, full of grace and truth.
Full of attractiveness and doctrine.
I say it to my shame, but how
often as a Christian, and as a preacher,
I've been full of truth, but I've been
empty of grace.
I've looked back upon my ministry many, many
times, and I've had to say to myself,
I wonder if the Lord Jesus would ever
look like that.
So unkindly, so censorious.
Oh, very sound, very orthodox, very correct, but
devoid of attractiveness.
May I say that the trouble with most
of us, I'm not being unkind, but just
realistic, is not that we're unorthodox, but we're
unattractive.
I don't mean physically.
But I mean spiritually.
Most of us spend most of our time
running after unconverted people who run as hard
as they can away from us.
You look up the Acts of the Apostles,
and you will find that the first movement
of evangelism following Pentateuch, the first movement, was
not the church going out to the world,
it was the world coming into the church.
I don't mean wilderness.
When this sound was heard, the multitude came
together.
There was something so attractive and so dynamic
and so supernatural that had taken place in
the life of these disciples that they were
amazed.
And they all came together.
That's why God gives us grace to make
us attractive.
And that's, ye may abound unto every good
work.
You can put it in another way if
you want to.
But let me just say this, that there
have been terrible evils arising from the way
that some evangelical preachers talk as if the
end of God's dealings would ask for the
sort of vague kind of salvation which was
little more than a way of dodging hell.
But the New Testament tells me that God's
purpose is that I might be filled with
His fullness.
That I may abound unto every good work.
We all love Ephesians 1, 8 and 9.
By grace do you say, through faith, that
not of yourselves, it is the gift of
God.
Not of works, lest any man should boast.
We love that.
But remember that followed by verse 10 which
says, We are created in Christ Jesus unto
good works, which God hath before ordained that
we should walk in them.
2, 10.
Confused in your mind the good works which
can save nobody with the good works which
are the inevitable result of salvation.
You are created in Christ unto good works.
A correct creed is intended to result in
a Christ-like character.
And if it doesn't, if it doesn't, it's
worthless.
You may be fundamental and believe your Bible
from cover to cover and yet go to
hell.
I remember a friend of mine, oh you
know him, Major Ian Thomas.
He came to Moody Church some years ago
during my pastorate there.
And he preached a sermon entitled Unsaved Believers.
That rocked the place to the core.
But it's true, a dreadful terrifying possibility.
If, I repeat, if a correct creed doesn't
lead to a Christ-like character it's invalid
in New Testament experience.
And the avalanche of grace that reaches us
from the throne of God in Christ is
supremely for the reproduction of a character which
will make men see our good works and
glorify God.
And salvation which doesn't issue in that is
certainly not authentic.
Just think, how could it possibly be that
the grace of God in Christ should be
in him and evil when he is truly
living within them.
That's fantastic.
Grace, again I repeat, makes us greater.
Now this inexhaustible provision in your life must
result in this inevitable practice.
Oh how my heart trembles and my soul
is burdened.
Even maybe for someone within the sound of
my voice this morning whose life is an
absolute denial of this principle.
Who professes the glory in the salvation which
is all of grace.
Who claims to rejoice in forgiveness of sin
by grace.
And yet whose life is absolutely empty of
this very quality of graciousness.
To claim to have received the grace of
God in forgiveness and yet fail to display
the grace of God in life is a
total contradiction to the New Testament.
It reminds me of the elder brother in
the parable of the prodigal son.
And my friend, allow me to say if
this graciousness was revealed in Christian lives then
Christian people wouldn't be so divided as we
are.
We'd treat the church a little more kindly.
I don't care what a man's label is.
Whether he's Episcopalian or Anglican or Presbyterian or
Plymouth or Baptist or anything.
Doesn't matter to me.
But he may like to fish in that
pond.
Well God bless him.
But if that man has Christ in his
heart he's my brother.
And that man deserves my fellowship and I
deserve his.
And that's the church.
Who are all united in life in Christ
and have received from the fountain of grace
in God.
And therefore though we may disagree at least
we disagree agreeably.
And not so disagreeably that we break fellowship.
I tell you if I started to preach
a sermon on the subject of baptism we'd
have a real old time this morning.
But I wouldn't do that you see.
If you want to show down have it
but on a major issue.
Don't major on minor.
Reveal in your heart the grace of God
which may disagree with your brother in Christ
and all sorts of issues.
But to heaven's sake don't go and form
another independent Bible church.
We need them like we need a hole
in the head.
Don't do it.
I tell you the history of half of
them doesn't bear examination.
It's a split from something else.
Because you don't believe what I believe I'm
going to start off my own work.
Grace doesn't allow that.
Grace shows love, understanding.
Grace shows the love of Christ in a
man's life.
Now the only question remaining this morning that
I have time to deal with is just
this.
If this provision that is inexhaustible leads to
a practice that is ineffable how is it
experienced?
Only through a principle that is inescapable.
And there is something in this verse which
has absolutely shocked me.
Shocked me, wakened me, stabbed me.
Awake.
Listen.
God is able to make all grace abound
toward you.
It doesn't say He will.
It says He's able.
And He put the whole weight of responsibility
upon you and me to make His ability
an operating reality in my life.
God is able but He puts the responsibility
on me to make it real and experienced.
And there are conditions.
I may have access to the fountain of
life.
It may gush out from the heart of
God.
It may flow down by my side and
pass me by.
And the reason why the breakdown why the
lack of display in our life of all
that heaven supplies Oh may God help you
and me to ask that question and never
stop asking it until I have the answer.
If God is able to make all grace
abound toward me that I may have all
provisions in all things why, why am I
still so unpleasant so hard, so censorious so
critical, so unkind Why?
Why is a home like they are?
Why is love gone out of them?
Why are they just kept together in many
cases for the sake of appearance?
Why?
Why are we so ungrateful?
Well I believe it's because we've learned about
heaven's law of supply.
But what about the demand?
There's a principle here and it's a principle
of harvest.
And I can't escape the conclusion that verse
6 is intimately related to verse 8.
As I sow so shall I reap.
Galatians 6.8 If I sow to the
flesh I shall reap corruption.
That doesn't mean I'm necessarily immoral.
But I sow to myself.
If I feed the old nature I'll get
the consequences.
Putting it very crudely and very simply very
practically If I haven't learned P.V. knob
control I'll reap the consequences.
I'll prefer the ball game to the prayer
meeting.
I'll prefer the TV show to witnessing the
Christ.
I sow to myself of course I'll reap
corruption.
If I prefer the novel pardon me suggesting
it but the novel with just the shade
of doubtful in it just the shade of
the doubtful if I prefer that to my
Bible I'll reap the consequence.
If I sow to the flesh I'll reap
corruption.
If I sow to the spirit I'll reap
life everlasting.
And if I want God's supply of grace
which never runs out then I must show
God that I'm in business.
That I must show him that I must
care that I care.
I must sow and sow and sow.
I said to the people who responded last
night to the invitation and who remain to
this after meeting there isn't any short cut
to holiness.
There isn't any instant method.
How sparingly we sow in the spirit.
How praise how little we meditate upon the
words.
Examine this morning your sowing.
Years ago more years than I care to
remember I used to play rugby football very
actively.
And I was a candidate for the English
team.
And it was my life's ambition at the
time to play for England in football.
So do you know what I did?
I got up every morning at five o
'clock I didn't know there was such a
time till then.
I got up every morning at five and
I ran round the suburb of North West
London for an hour ten miles.
Hard.
Then I went to my business.
I was with a firm in London as
a chartered accountant and I went down to
town.
And after business at night I went to
a running track.
And I ran a further ten miles.
And then I had half an hour skipping.
And then I came to my apartment I
wasn't married at the time and I put
on rugby clothes.
Now perhaps I don't need to tell you
this in Canada but in English rugby you
haven't any armoured plating.
It's simply a sweater and shorts.
And I put on my football clothes and
I went to one corner of the brick
wall of my apartment and I pushed with
my shoulder against that brick wall.
Pushed and pushed and pushed as hard as
I could.
And I went to another corner and pushed
with this shoulder.
Hard.
All that went on for perhaps an hour.
Nobody saw me except my landlady and she
thought I was nuts.
It didn't matter to me what she thought.
You see I was determined when I turned
out on Saturday afternoon to play a game
on a football field before about 20,000
people I was determined I was to be
100% in.
And if anybody hit me and tackled me
my, they wouldn't want to do it again.
They'd hit two shoulders like concrete.
And they did.
You know, I never ceased to thank the
Lord for those days of training because they've
stood me in tremendous stead physically ever since.
You have to care for your body.
You know what Paul said about it?
And you, of what he said?
I'm using, I'm using Philips translation of the
last bit of 1 Corinthians 9 when he
said I am no shadow boxer.
I do not beat the air.
I buffet my body and I did it
blow upon blow lest having been preaching and
pretending the rules to other people, I should
be disqualified.
He didn't fear that he would lose his
soul but he did fear that he would
be put on and God could go on.
Oh, what a terrible thing that is for
a man to have been used but to
be out of the battle.
How many people stop living years before they
die?
You know, stop caring, stop doing anything.
Retire and go to Florida.
Finished.
Out with everything.
My friends, listen.
If you want to know the grace of
God sufficient then you've got to discipline your
life and you seek the faith of God
and you pray and you buffet your body
and by the power of the Spirit you
keep it in subjection.
I shall be speaking more on that subject
tomorrow.
But I'm telling you examine your sowing.
If I was prepared to do that, which
I never did, to try and win fame
at Rugger how much am I prepared to
do for Jesus?
There's nothing more easy in the work of
God than to lose the word of God.
Busy and bound to substitute word for worship
orthodoxy for obedience.
Being so proud to be the fundamentalist but
you're demanding from a congregation or from a
people obedience far bigger than you're prepared to
give yourself.
Examine your sowing.
He is able to make all grace abound
but I've got to sow.
My friend, do you ever knock and knock
at the door of heaven till God has
met your need?
God's supply is there but He's never heard
your demand.
I was reading this morning in my quiet
time that lovely verse, that lovely psalm Psalm
130 the 6th verse of which says My
soul waiteth for thee more than they the
morning yea, more than they that wait for
the morning and I thought yes.
Do you ever have a sleepless night?
A night where you can't sleep and you
toss and you turn and you stand up
and you sit down and you get up
and you turn the pillow round the other
way and you shift the clothes over you
and you turn this way and that way
then you look out the window and it's
still dark and you say yes, oh when's
the morning going to come?
Is this night ever going to end?
Perhaps you never have nights like that.
Well, I do.
And you long for the morning Oh if
only this night was ending My soul waiteth
for thee more than they that wait for
the morning yea Does God hear you demand?
Does he hear you ask and ask and
ask and go on asking and show him
that you mean business you shall they shall
seek me and find me when they seek
me with all their heart Oh he is
able but his supply depends upon my demand
Now just one last thing that I'll take
two minutes to say and then I'm through
and you're saying to me some of you
this morning I agree with you, I know
what you mean but frankly preacher I've lost
all desire to sow I've lost an abstract
of the word I've no heart concern for
others I I just don't like going to
prayer I just want don't want my bible
anymore and I've lost all desire for it.
I maintain my scripture union portion each day
and read it two verses and then I
pick it up and that's all and I've
found my heart has turned barren and my
spirit has tore and I tell you if
I'm honest with you you're saying to me
if I'm honest I've got a chip on
my shoulder today I'm serving the Lord with
a chip on my shoulder terribly difficult to
stay in the job he's given me the
work he's given me I've just turned sour
can God do anything with a life like
that I tell you he can and this
just gives me more hope than ever as
I see in verse 10 that God goes
one step further the extra mile so to
speak he that ministers seed to the sower
when I don't want to sow when I've
lost my taste for the word when somehow
my bible has dried up and I've turned
sour what can God do for me I'll
tell you he ministers and that seed is
Christ he knows my heart he knows our
barrenness he knows our sourness and so he
puts into my heart seed life which will
produce longing desire appetite for his word and
for himself I tell you there's no one
nearer the Lord today no one nearer being
blessed no one nearer the heart of God
than the man who's turned sour and barren
and his heart is cold knows he isn't
right and he can't get himself right well
except a corn of wheat fall into the
ground and die to bite the load but
if it dies it bringeth forth much fruit
he gives himself continually as the seed in
my heart which will recreate me the hunger
for God how wonderful is the grace of
Jesus and if you are facing the preacher
or facing the Lord more than that looking
to him with a sour barren cold heart
don't try and pretend that it's not and
don't try and alter it but come to
him and tell him all about it and
he'll minister seed and he'll create in you
the longing for himself as the psalmist David
said my bones waxed old through my
roaring day and night thy hand was heavy
upon me my moisture was turned to the
drought when he tried to hide from God
when he tried to hide his sin tried
to camouflage it when I kept silent my
bones waxed old through my roaring dryness barren
ah but then when he spoke when he
met God when he assessed it it came
to God as he was how wonderfully he
was able to say that God restores and
heals and forgives and cleanses and he can
do that first day because his grace knows
no measure let's pray