I don't believe you can be friends with
a great man of God without that man's
life rubbing off on you.
We aren't familiar with Cornelius Winter today, but
he was a young man when he became
a personal aide to George Whitefield toward the
end of Whitefield's large life.
Cornelius Winter came from a troubled past, was
converted under Whitefield's preaching, and traveled with Whitefield
on his last preaching tours to America, and
he was with Whitefield the last week of
his life.
When I was in Rottingham Tabernacle, near Bristol,
a favorite place where Whitefield loved to preach,
I sat in Whitefield's chair and held his
walking stick in my hands as I spoke
with the curator of the church, who told
me that Cornelius Winter preached his first sermon
in the chapel there, and preached his last,
before going home to Painswick to die.
Cornelius Winter had a remarkable influence upon William
Jay, the well-known pastor, who was converted
under his preaching.
I say all this, friends, because I don't
believe you can be friends with a great
man of God without that man's life influencing
your own.
Such was the case with my homiletical mentor,
Dr. Stephen Oford.
Spending time with him in his study, talking
about revival, spending time with him in prayer,
watching him and observing him, and being under
his preaching, influenced me.
It touched my life in profound ways.
Stephen Oford preached two great themes.
The Lordship of Christ, and the exchanged life
in Christ.
Galatians 2.20 was his life verse.
I am crucified with Christ.
Nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ
liveth in me, and the life which I
now live in the flesh I live by
the faith of the Son of God, who
loved me, and gave himself for me.
But for years that verse troubled me.
I pulled back from its ramifications of a
personal crucifixion.
Who in his right mind wants to live
on a cross?
A cross is a place to die, but
it's no place to live, especially for a
man who was in the prime of his
life, as I was at the time.
Then I met Stephen Oford, and he shared
with me how he lived such a life
of surrender in his holy walk with God.
If you ever heard Dr. Oford preach, friend,
you know that he had a mantle of
authority and an anointing of the Holy Spirit
that was so profound upon him, his preaching
was life-transforming.
Dr. Oford shared his secret of a holy
life with me one day in a study.
He said the following.
We are to walk beneath an unclouded heaven
with our Lord in a daily walk of
surrender to him.
If a sin temptation arises and darkens the
sky above, a threat in the hand of
our walk with God, he would stop everything
and pray, nail it, Lord, nail it.
When he told me that, I saw that
a cross was a good thing for sin.
Sin should be placed on that cross and
be crucified.
Then I realized I'd been looking at Galatians
2.20 from the wrong end.
I had been previously focused on the crucified
aspects of it and did not want to
embrace the crucifixion, the flesh repels from such
things.
But I had to realize that after the
shame and pain of the cross comes the
glory of the resurrection.
And I had to come to realize that
if I focused more on the last half
of Galatians 2.20, I'd be better able
to digest the first half of that remarkable
verse.
I began to breathe the reality that the
Son of God loved me and gave himself
for me, that redemption means buying back, and
that he had bought me with his blood,
and I now belonged to him, I didn't
belong to myself any more.
And if that was true, that I now
belonged to him, I had to give up
everything to God.
Jesus held nothing back at Calvary.
How could I hold anything back from him
once I focused on his love for me?
In going to the cross for me, that
he died for me, he took my sins
upon him as my substitute.
He bore the curse, becoming a curse for
me.
He bore the turned face of the Father
and took the wrath of justice upon him
so I would not suffer the penalty of
sin in a place of punishment for sin
called hell.
Jesus did all that for me.
When I finally saw that, it wasn't hard
to give all up for him.
I have a life to live, and I
choose to live it for Jesus, who loves
me so.
He lives in me and gives me power
that I don't have of my own.
Power over sin.
He nailed every sin of mine on that
bloody cross.
And as I walk with him beneath a
cloudless sky, if a sin cloud should appear,
which it often does, I know where it
needs to go.
To the cross.
I can now say with authority, Nail it,
Lord.
Nail it.
Let us pray.