Good morning.
It's a privilege for me to be here
again to share a word with you, all
the way from South Africa.
And I see I'm preaching to my dad
again.
That's quite a shame.
I'm normally many times in tears as he
lectures there at our college.
And very rarely do I get to speak
to him.
Could we please open our Bibles to Matthew
chapter 26.
Matthew chapter 26 verse 36 to 39.
Then cometh Jesus with them unto a place
called Gethsemane, and saith unto the disciples, Sit
ye here while I go and pray yonder.
And he took with him Peter, and the
two sons of Zebedee, and began to be
sorrowful and very heavy.
Then saith he unto them, My soul is
exceeding sorrowful, even unto death.
Tarry ye here and watch awhile with me.
And he went a little further and fell
on his face, and prayed, saying, O my
father, if it be possible, let this cup
part from me.
Nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou
wilt.
Now the Bible says a good shepherd giveth
his life for the sheep.
He didn't have it taken away from him.
He laid it down.
Nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou
wilt, he said.
Let us pray.
Father, thank you that I can stand here
again and share with thy precious word.
And as I always claim, Lord, but it's
the same words that I mean every time.
John 15, without me you can do nothing.
Father, I beg you that you will work
in this meeting.
You long to work in the lives of
men.
And I ask that, as the psalmist said
in Psalm 119, You will open up our
eyes that we may behold wondrous things out
of thy law.
And I trust that you will, because she
said, Ask and it shall be given unto
you.
She said, We have not, because she asked.
And I ask that you will open up
our eyes today and speak to us.
In Jesus' name, Amen.
You know, Isaiah 53 verse 6, it's a
famous portion in the scriptures.
Isaiah 53 verse 6 says, Oh, we like
sheep have gone astray.
We have turned everyone to his own way.
And the Lord has laid on him the
liquidity of us all.
An entire world from birth, there's about 7
billion people out there right now, has gone
astray and turned everyone to his own way.
And one by one, as they die, most
of them, I can almost guarantee you most
of them are falling into a bottomless and
endless hell.
These sheep that have gone astray.
But Ezekiel 34 verse 5 to 6, says
these staggering words of the scattered sheep.
And they were scattered because there is no
shepherd.
And they became meat till the beast of
the field, when they were scattered.
My sheep wandered through all the mountains and
upon every hill.
Yea, my flock was scattered upon all the
face of the earth, and none did search
or seek after them.
Now that's terrifying words, none did search or
seek after them.
Now you might ask the question, why did
none search after the scattered sheep?
Was it because God didn't want them to
be found?
Was it because God chose that they would
not be found ever?
If you read Ezekiel 34, two verses later,
in verse 8, neither, this is the reason,
neither did my shepherds search for my flock.
But the shepherds fed themselves, and fed not
my flock.
Neither did my shepherds.
The shepherds God chose to go to look
for the scattered flock.
Search for my flock.
But the shepherds fed themselves, and fed not
my flock.
It's a sad thing when shepherds do that.
Now I was in South Africa recently, obviously.
And just before I came to America, I
was in a large convention.
And on the way to America, I had
to go and sleep over the person called
Mr. De Bruyn.
He was about 50 years old, and he
lived in a large city called Voxburg in
South Africa.
And there as I stayed over by him,
he told me how that 20 years back,
God had laid upon his life, had told
him, definitely, that he was called to full
-time service.
And he took the forms of a theological
college there in South Africa, of the Ezekiel
Church, and he filled them out, because he
knew that God was speaking to him.
And then at that same time, at the
works, where he was working for the railroads,
SPURNET, the Railway Association of South Africa, they
offered him promotion.
They offered him more, a better job, more
money.
And as he weighed in the balance, the
call of God, and promotion, he chose promotion.
So 20 years later now, his son-in
-law, his daughter-in-law, the man he
thought called to the same church, as a
full-time, into full-time service.
And he took the forms that his son
-in-law had given to him, to give
over to the people that had to be
given to.
And at this conference where he gave it
over, he jokingly said, this is my form.
And the man jokingly answered, if it was
15 years back, it would have been another
story, brother.
But not now.
And he said to me, I believe as
we were driving in the car to the
airport, I'm not proud of what I did.
I'm ashamed that I turned down the call
of God.
And you will be staggered how many people,
for money, for promotion, or for their own
dreams and aims, give up the precious call
of God.
Matthew 9 verse 36 to 38 says, you
all know this, But when he saw the
multitude, he was moved with compassion on them,
because they fainted and were scattered abroad, as
sheep having no shepherd.
Then said he unto his disciples, The harvest
truly is plenty, but the labour is a
few.
Pray ye therefore, the Lord of the harvest,
that he will send forth labourers into his
harvest.
You see, God longs to send forth labourers,
when he sees the multitudes that are scattered
abroad and need a shepherd to bring them
in.
For he is not willing that any should
perish, but that all should come to repentance.
Although some chose darkness rather than light.
God longs to send forth labourers, so that
more souls can be saved.
And today he sees the scattered sheep, as
he saw the multitudes in those days.
You must be blind not to see the
need of this world.
In England, 3% of the population, approximately,
go to church.
About 1% of that, I think, call
themselves born again.
In one country, in Mozambique, there's one million
people who do not have one Bible in
their language.
And not one person starting churches in that
whole nation of people.
God sees the multitudes.
And like he did in Matthew 9, he
is moved with compassion on them, I can
guarantee you.
For the Lord said, I am the Lord,
I change not.
God wants to send forth labourers.
Of course, not everybody is called.
Now, I'd like to ask you a question
today.
And I'd like you to listen carefully.
Are you, if you imagine yourself, you know,
as a young child, you can imagine things.
If you imagine yourself to be a bottle,
are you a bottle in the water, that
is, the sea?
Or are you a bottle on the seashore,
in the sand?
And what do I mean by that?
Well, if you're a bottle in the sand,
then you're still stuck in your aims, ambitions,
dreams, and plans.
But if you're a bottle in the water,
then you've said to God, I abandon myself
to thy will.
If you've allowed yourself to be thrown into
the water, you've abandoned yourself to the will
of God.
And you've said, not my will, but thine
be done.
And you know, two things, one of two
things can happen to that bottle that abandons
himself to the will of God.
Either God can wash him up onto the
shore again and give him his dreams and
his ambitions to become a doctor, like I
wanted to become an actuary or something.
Or, and this is glorious, he can send
you forth across the way to active service
as a shepherd to bring in the lost
sheep.
But as long as you're in the sand,
God cannot send you.
And even if he does, sand doesn't move
much.
In our country there was a man, his
name was Ethelbert Smith.
He was known, when he was alive, as
the godliest man in South Africa.
In our, he was in our mission.
And it is said that no man, although
there were many, in God's mercy, preachers who
was used mightily of God in our mission,
there was no man who brought more soul
to God in South Africa than Ethelbert Smith.
But there was a time when Ethelbert Smith
was in the sand, as I put it.
Just after he got saved, a few weeks
after he got saved, God showed him through
a little booklet called Just Gloria, The Life
of a Lent Messenger.
He worked for three years as a missionary
and then died.
God showed him clearly through that book that
he was called to full-time service.
But he had a big idol in his
life which he was not willing to give
up.
A big idol in his life which he
was not willing to give up.
And for a few years he did not
go forth to join the ranks of our
mission as God had called him.
And so one day God spoke to him
again and in the night time he said,
eventually as it had been broken, he said,
Lord, thy will.
And then he went forth and he was
used mightily of God.
So as I said, no man in our
mission, 80 years of history and many, many
preachers has ever brought so many souls to
God as that man Ethelbert Smith.
But let me ask you a question in
hindsight.
If he had not given up that idol,
if he had stayed in the sand, do
you think God might have written these words
of him?
Same words almost as in Ezekiel 34 verse
8b, My shepherd did not search for my
flock, but my shepherd fed himself and fed
not my flock.
Are you a bottle in the water?
Are you a bottle in the sand?
Or perhaps you're a bottle in the shallow
water?
You say, if God calls me.
You know the bottles in the shallow water,
those that say, if God calls me, I
will go.
But your heart is toward the sand.
In such a way that if God ever
did call you, you'd say, no, it's not
the call of God.
Like Peter said, so easily Lord I'll die
for you.
But when it came to the test, he
denied Christ, but I, before the cock crowed
twice.
The call of God is a precious and
holy thing.
It is so precious, I don't know if
you could estimate the value, ever.
Now there's two things we're going to examine
on the call of God.
The first thing is, who does God call?
And secondly, how does God call?
Who does God call and how does God
call?
Let us first examine who does God call.
1 Corinthians 2 verse 27.
Who does God choose to call?
But God has chosen the foolish things of
the world to confound the wise.
And God has chosen the weak things of
the world to confound the things which are
mighty.
And God has chosen the base things of
the world.
My dad said, at a recent church, the
only qualification God looks for is if you
love this book and love God with all
your heart.
Do you think you are too young or
uneducated for God to ever choose you?
Do you think you are too young or
uneducated for God to ever choose you?
Deal Moody of your land, I don't know
if you've ever read a book on him,
he was greatly used to tens of thousands,
some estimate millions, who read through him.
What qualifications did he have?
He had grade 8, standard 6 in our
land.
That's all he had.
Someone once said, I haven't been to college,
but I've been to Calvary.
And that's what God looks for.
Do you think you're too old?
Is that the excuse for staying in the
sand?
Oh, God could never choose me.
I'm way too old.
I don't see anybody too old in this
room.
But if you ever thought that, for an
example, George Muller of Bristol, when he was
70 years old, God laid upon his life
to go forth, touring the world.
And for 20 years, till the age of
90, he toured.
In those days in ships.
And spoke to over 3 million people.
And was used mightily of God till the
age of 90.
Perhaps you think you're too weak.
Not an athlete, not a good speaker, not
good looking or something.
I don't know if you've heard of Zak
Poonam there in India, I think the story
goes, he was preaching to a conference there,
and he asked those of you who feel
led of God to go forth, to act
of service, to preach, or to be a
missionary out to the tribes there that have
not heard the gospel.
Could you come forward?
And a group of people came forward there.
One of the people that came forward was
a person who didn't have the use of
his legs.
He came forward on a stick.
He took a stick and hit him to
the ground and pulled himself forward later.
And he hit him to the ground again
and pulled himself forward a little more.
And eventually, inch by inch, he got to
the front of that room.
But didn't stop there.
Inch by inch, he went out of that
conference afterwards and started up towards the mountain
and over the mountain to the other side.
Eventually, he got to the tribe there, which
had never accepted the gospel.
But when he came there, they accepted the
gospel.
In a country now which has only 1
.5% of the entire population that calls
themselves Christian.
God has chosen the weak things of this
world.
Do you think, do you think you've got
too little wisdom?
You know, my dad used to say of
me and Glenn there in college, they've got
a lot of fire but very little wisdom.
And I think I agree with him.
You know, I remember when me and Glenn
decided we want to do children's meetings.
And we were the two boys that volunteered
for the children's meetings all the time.
And the very first time that you were
called out to this town called Worcester in
South Africa to help with the children's meetings,
we had to travel quite a few hundred
kilometers, a couple of hundred miles too.
And when we got there, we were shown
this big hall with lots of white chairs.
I still remember those white chairs.
And we thought there's going to be lots
and lots and lots and lots of children.
So we bought lots of sweets, took all
our pocket money and bought sweets for the
children.
And we decided in those days to have
what is known as a puppet show for
these children, with these hand puppets.
And you know what happened?
The very first night when they had meetings,
only three children came.
And we traveled all these hundreds of kilometers
and only three children came.
But you know how pathetic we were with
our puppet shows?
I don't know if you're this bad, but
we were so shy of those children.
When I, I think I had a puppet
show and then he had a puppet show.
And first they said I had my puppet
show.
And my puppet, well I was so shy,
they glimpsed that my puppet forgot to open
his mouth.
The funny thing was when he had his
puppet show, he was so shy that his
puppet forgot to open his mouth.
And so it went on.
In case you doubt what the word of
God says, and I'll just read it to
you again, but God has chosen the foolish
things of the world to confound the wise.
And God has chosen the weak things of
the world to confound the things which are
mighty.
And God has chosen the base things of
the world.
I often say from the pulpit, and I
mean it from the bottom of my heart,
if God can use me, he can use
anybody.
If God can use me, he can use
anybody.
I'm so pathetic.
So we've examined who does God call.
Now let us look at how does God
call.
You might ask, how did God call me?
I remember at college, I used to sing
this song.
And I'm not going to sing it to
you, because I've got a very bad voice.
I generally sit out of the choir.
But I'm going to read a little bit
of it to you.
I used to sing this from the bottom
of my heart, because I did not have
a calling.
Send me forth, O blessed Master, where our
souls in sorrow bowed.
Send me forth to homes of want and
homes of care.
And with joy I will obey the call.
And in thy blessed name, I will take
the blessed light of the gospel there.
Call me forth to act of service.
And my prompt response shall be, Here am
I, send me.
I am ready to report for orders, Master,
summon me.
And I'll go on any errand of love
for thee.
And I used to sing that from the
bottom of my heart, because I wanted to
be sent forth.
I put myself in those ways, and I
said, God, you know, sometimes you put yourself
in the ways, and God throws you back.
But I wanted to be sent.
And I remember there, in South Africa, last
year, from the 21st to the 23rd of
November, Peter Schultz, born again in Revival in
1940, greatly used of God, now old and
he's 70, suffering from some kind of sickness,
but still so used of God that young
people are in tears as he preaches, and
broken.
When I was at this youth camp, and
Peter Schultz was the preacher, I remember in
the very last meeting on Sunday, I was
turning about in my Bible, thinking of how
disobedient I'd be, in different ways, since God
had given me the assurance of salvation.
And then I suddenly read there of how
soul was rejected because of disobedience.
And I felt so down.
I felt terrified.
And Mr. Peter Schultz was preaching there in
the front.
And a thought came into my mind, I
must get up.
I must get up and run to the
front to kneel down to pray.
And just as I thought that, God near
Peter Schultz said, if I was you, I
would get up and run to win souls.
And tears started to come down my face.
Suddenly God said, you have been called.
And I looked down at my Bible, I
don't normally do this, but there I read,
in my Bible, it just opened up on
this page, and I saw underlined piece, Nahum
3 verse 18, I read
these words, And
Glenn, he was sitting next to me, put
his arm around me, he didn't understand why
the tears were rolling down my face.
I felt that God could choose such a
base man, a young man as me, to
go forth to act as a servant.
That's why God called me.
Now God can call in many ways.
He can call you over a short period
of time in a moment, or He can
call you over a long period of time.
He can call you as a young boy,
He can call you as an old man.
He can call you to circumstances, or He
can use the advice of God in a
man as well.
The one way in which God definitely calls
a person, is when the Holy Spirit starts
to work in you, in a way you've
never understood before.
The Holy Spirit starts to work in you.
This is Paul said, Woe unto me if
I preach not the gospel.
To give an example of this, Dr. Colin
Peckham of the Faith Mission, there in Scotland,
he used to be my dad's principal about
30 years back I suppose, I don't know
how old my dad is now.
But he has been greatly used of God.
Even in his 70s now, you hear the
stories about in Japan, in the large conferences,
these hardened men are seeking God in brokenness
under his ministry, across America too, across the
world.
He has been greatly, greatly used.
But there was a time as a young
man where, he suddenly felt this drive of
the Holy Spirit to preach.
And he wondered, Could this be of God
or is it me?
Could this be of God or is it
me?
And he went for the advice of a
very godly man in South Africa who is
still alive, 89 years old, Mr. Finnymore, brought
my great granny to the Lord, at revival
in the Durban Central Prison.
A godly, godly man, still on fire for
God at 89 years old.
And he asked Mr. Finnymore, Mr. Finnymore, I
don't know what to do.
I don't know if I'm called or not.
And Mr. Finnymore said to me recently, I
would never do this to other people, because
it's very dangerous to tell someone something like
this.
But when he saw this woe unto me
if I preach not the gospel in Mr.
Pecker, he looked at him and he said,
Colin, it's obvious you call.
And that, as I understood, gave Colin peace.
And he went forth to act of service.
Not only that, as I said, he got
greatly used across this world, Dr. Colin Pecker.
God often confirms his calling through the word.
You know, I remember March 2003, this year,
I was struggling, wondering if the devil or
myself had told me of that calling there
at the youth camp.
And as I wondered, had God called me
or was it myself, I was in a
struggle.
Until I went to listen to the preaching
at a monthly meeting there of Mr. Drosty,
an old man.
And after the meeting, I met Mr. Peter
Stoltz again.
And I hadn't told him at that camp
that I was called.
And so he came up to me and
said, I'm so glad to hear that you
called of God.
And he was full of joy and happy.
And I looked at him, you know, I
was struggling, and I said, oh, yes.
But from him I walked ten meters away,
about ten meters.
And as I walked about ten meters away,
I opened up my Bible.
And it opened up at random, at Nahum
3, verse 18.
Thy shepherd slumber, O King of Assyria.
Thy nobles should dwell in the dust.
People are scattered and no man gathereth them.
And there God confirmed my calling.
God often confirms calling through the word of
God.
You know, God was serious when he said
to his disciples, Pray ye the Lord over
harvest, that he will send forth labourers.
He was very serious when he pointed to
them.
You know what happened to those twelve disciples?
Ten of them went forth to act of
service.
One of them chose money, Judas.
He betrayed Christ for money.
Many people throw...
God doesn't joke when he calls people.
Could we please bow our heads?
And when your head is bowed, I'm just
going to read Matthew 9, verse 36 to
38 again.
But when he saw the multitude, he was
moved with compassion on them.
Because they fainted and were scattered abroad.
A sheep having no shepherd.
Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest
truly is plenty, but the labourers are few.
Pray ye therefore, the Lord of the harvest,
that he will send forth labourers into his
harvest.
And I'd like to ask those of you,
as you can see as I stutter through
my sermon, I'm one of those weak and
base things.
And I'd like to ask those of you,
perhaps you've given a full surrender in other
ways before, but as far as your future
goes, as far as your future career, your
life, your dreams, those of you who want
to tell God today, that I want to
jump into the sea and abandon myself to
the will of God, that if he wishes
he can send me anyway, with all my
heart.
Those of you who wish to tell God
today, with all your heart, that I want
to abandon myself to the will of God,
so that you can either wash me unto
my dreams, or send me across the sea
to act of service.
Those of you who wish to tell God
that today, concerning your future.
And God is listening and God is looking,
I can guarantee you.
I wish you to raise one of your
arms.
Thank you for all those hands.
And perhaps there's one of you, I'm going
to pray for those hands now, but, perhaps
there's one of you, like as I heard
the call, also I heard the voice of
the Lord saying, Whom shall I send?
And who will go for us?
Then said I, Jeremiah, send me.
Perhaps there's one of you, the Lord is
touching his heart, today, to go forth, to
full time service.
And if you are, I would wish that
you would tell me, because I'd love to
pray for you.
That's the one great thing that will keep
a person, is a prayer of the saints.
You know, Paul asked every single church to
pray for, except the backslidden church of Galatia.
That's how important prayer was to Paul.
I'll pray for those who've lifted up their
hands.
Father, thank you for all those, that said
that they wish to be, bottles in the
sea.
And Lord, I know that you long for
people willing, to go.
And not all are called, but that, you
are pleased, when people throw themselves into the
sea.
And say, Jeremiah, send me Lord, if it
be thy will.
And so we take this offering Lord, of
their future, and we give it to thee.
Hitherto we asked nothing in my name, therefore
ask this we may receive.
Lord, in thy name, we present this offering.
In Jesus name, Amen.