-
It's a great honor for me to be here.
-
I've heard about this conference from Mark
-
for so long and never thought I'd be able
-
and privileged to speak to you.
-
I'm so pleased to be here.
-
I want to speak to you
-
from the first letter of Peter chapter 1
-
and verses 8 and 9.
-
1 Peter 1:8-9
-
"Jesus Christ, whom having not seen,
-
you love.
-
Though now, though you see Him not,
-
yet believing, you rejoice with joy
-
inexpressible and full of glory,
-
receiving the end of your faith,
-
the salvation of your souls."
-
I want to speak to you tonight
-
on the privileges of being a Christian.
-
I could speak to you
about the responsibilities
-
of being a Christian,
-
and referring to this same passage.
-
All privileges lead to responsibilities.
-
Mom and dad, they know Jesus Christ
-
as their Lord and Savior,
-
and they speak warmly to you about Him,
-
and they tell you you need Him
-
and it would wonderful if you had Him
-
as your own personal Lord and Savior.
-
And that's a wonderful privilege.
-
There are millions of boys
and girls in the world -
-
they've never heard of Jesus Christ.
-
That privilege though
brings responsibilities.
-
What will you do with this Jesus
-
who is called the Christ?
-
Or, you may on Sunday's come to a church,
-
and it's not just a very formal occasion,
-
and people dress up,
-
chant and behave in predictable ways,
-
but the climax of the service,
-
after we've sung and prayed to God
-
is that God speaks to us through His Word.
-
We feel something of conviction and joy
-
in hearing about Jesus Christ.
-
Now, that privilege - it's not
given to lots of people.
-
It's given to you, and privileges
bring responsibilities.
-
So, you must not just be
a hearer of the Word,
-
but you must do what
the preacher tells you to do.
-
And so here tonight, we're going to look
-
at the privileges rather
than the responsibilities,
-
because I want to speak to you about grace
-
and not about law.
-
You know there are people who think
-
it's really a very hard life -
the Christian life.
-
You got in your car.
-
Your neighbor said, "where are you going?"
-
"We're going to Denton in Texas."
-
"Oh yes, are you having a vacation?
-
Going to the rodeo?"
-
"It's a conference.
-
We're going to hear the Bible preached."
-
And after you drove off,
-
he turned to his wife and said,
-
"Oh, what a life... what a life."
-
"They're going to hear the Bible."
-
They think it's a joyless life.
-
And sometimes we do emphasize
-
the places we don't go to,
-
and the practices we don't approve of,
-
and the language we don't use.
-
People think they have to give up so much
-
if they are to become Christians.
-
We Christians never think like that.
-
We've given up what we could never keep.
-
And we've gained what we will never lose.
-
And Peter here in these verses
that I've read in your hearing,
-
Peter tells us about some
of the great privileges
-
that a Christian has.
-
And the first great privilege
that a Christian has
-
is he has someone to believe in.
-
Verse 8, Though you don't
see Jesus Christ now -
-
now - not today, but one day -
-
but now you don't see Him,
-
but you believe in Him.
-
How is that possible when
I as a boy in school -
-
I was converted in 1954
-
in a little Baptist church up the valley.
-
Just an ordinary conversion.
-
And I witnessed to my friends,
-
and some of them would say,
-
"Well, seeing's believing."
-
As though that just
destroyed the whole case
-
for Christianity.
-
Some of you - you never
saw your grandmother.
-
She died when you were a baby,
-
or perhaps before you were born.
-
But your mother tells
you stories about her,
-
and the love she showed,
-
and how she protected your mother
-
when your mother was very vulnerable
-
at one time in her life.
-
And she talks about the
fun they had together
-
and what a lovely person she was.
-
Do you believe in your grandmother?
-
You never saw her.
-
But, of course, you do believe in her.
-
You believe in her through the testimony
-
of someone who did see her
-
and whose life was changed by her.
-
And that's how it was
with these Christians
-
in what we call today Turkey,
-
but then in Cappadocia, Asia, Bythenia.
-
These places in the
opening verses he tell us,
-
he's addressing the Christians.
-
Jesus Christ never went to Turkey.
-
He went to Africa.
-
He never came to Europe.
-
When He was a baby,
-
He went to North Africa, didn't He?
-
To Egypt.
-
He was there and protected from Herod.
-
But that wonderful evangelism of His
-
over three years and then He gathered
-
500 people - His flock.
-
And they all went different places
-
speaking of the transforming power
-
of His life and His resurrection.
-
They shared it with people everywhere.
-
Some came to Turkey,
-
and they said, ah, we've
got good news for you.
-
And we can't say that, can't we?
-
Everybody in America,
-
we have good news for you.
-
We have a Savior for you.
-
We have a Teacher for you.
-
We have a Great Shepherd
-
who'll look after you and protect you.
-
I have good news for
everybody here tonight.
-
Good news about Jesus Christ.
-
And so, they wanted to
know more about Him.
-
They came to believe in Him,
-
and believe big truths,
-
so that these two
letters that Peter wrote,
-
they were full of meaty doctrine
-
and a great concept of God
-
and of Jesus Christ.
-
Because Peter, you see, was an eyewitness.
-
He was there.
-
He was there when Jesus called him
-
when he was tending his nets
-
with his brother.
-
He was there on the
Mount of Transfiguration.
-
He was there in Gethsemane.
-
He was there in the Upper Room.
-
He went into the tomb and he saw it.
-
It was empty, but the
grave clothes were there.
-
He was an eyewitness.
-
And that is how we are Christians
-
in Denton tonight.
-
We are here not that Jesus ever came
-
to America,
-
but because people who
were His eyewitnesses -
-
Matthew, Mark, Luke, John,
-
Peter, Paul, James, Jude, and others -
-
they saw Him.
-
And they recorded this extraordinary life.
-
The most wonderful years
-
in the history of this planet
-
when Jesus lived -
-
the most wonderful week,
-
the most wonderful days
-
at the end of His life.
-
No days can compare to them.
-
And there's a record of them.
-
And we believe because of this.
-
I was saved, I said, in '54,
-
and a few other boys in '55,
-
and we started a Christian gathering
-
in school.
-
And one of the boys,
-
he was called Neil Kinnock.
-
And Neil Kinnock then became
-
a prominent politician.
-
He led the Labor Party
-
in a couple of general elections
-
against Mrs. Thatcher.
-
And he was interviewed.
-
People were interested;
asked him questions
-
about his religion, and he said,
-
"Well, I just admire Christians,
-
but I could never take
-
a leap into the dark."
-
That's what he said.
-
And so I wrote to him.
-
"Dear Neil, remember those days
-
when we had Bible studies,
-
and you came along
-
and you were interested?"
-
You know, becoming a Christian
-
isn't a leap into the dark.
-
It's coming to the Light of the world.
-
It's coming to Jesus Christ.
-
And we learn about Him
-
and we want to know more about Him.
-
We ask questions.
-
We feed our minds and our understanding,
-
and our affections are stirred,
-
and our conscience is troubled too,
-
but all about Him.
-
And then we believe in Him.
-
It's a special word here.
-
Not believe about Him,
-
but believing right into Him.
-
You know, there's a great database -
-
you teenagers, you know
what a database is?
-
You all know about IT much
more than we oldsters.
-
There's a database in which every piece
-
of the Greek language has been recorded.
-
People like Plato and Aristotle
-
and the philosophers,
-
and then Thucydides the historian,
-
and then the great dramatists and poets.
-
All of that - every bit of Greek
-
that men have ever found.
-
Classical Greek.
-
It's all on this database.
-
And then, common Greek as Greek changed
-
over the years and it came
to the New Testament,
-
and the New Testament's on it too.
-
And then it's added to all the time.
-
They find pieces of parchment
-
preserved under the Egyptian sun.
-
Letters to a wife from a soldier.
-
Bills and contracts.
-
And then they are published,
-
and immediately then the people who run
-
this website, they add it to it.
-
So, it's an enormous help
if you are a scholar.
-
And so, say you take this phrase now
-
which Peter uses here,
-
which is used in the New Testament
-
about believing into someone.
-
So you type it in,
-
and then you push a button
-
and then it searches very quickly
-
through all this Greek.
-
And then it prints out.
-
And you have a piece of paper
-
and you look at it,
-
and to your surprise,
-
the only place in all the world
-
where this phrase to believe into someone
-
is found is the New Testament.
-
In other words, it was invented
-
by the Holy Spirit.
-
It was invented by the apostles -
-
it's the same thing -
-
to explain to us what is the nature
-
of saving faith.
-
It's not believing about Him,
-
but it's believing right into Him.
-
Being joined to Him.
-
Jonathan Edwards called saving faith
-
"a connecting grace."
-
It plugs us in.
-
It grafts us into Christ and His life,
-
and we become joined
-
unbreakably,
-
eternally to God the Son.
-
So that His life is yours,
-
and your life is His.
-
That's what a Christian is.
-
You can only explain the heroism
-
and courage and the wonderful patience
-
of a wife looking after her husband
-
when he gets forgetful
at the end of his days,
-
and she's so wonderfully
patient and loving,
-
because the strength
and the patience
-
and the joy and the peace
of Jesus Christ is in her.
-
What a privilege to be a Christian!
-
Let's compare it to a
proposal to marriage.
-
You know, a young man and woman,
-
or older man and woman,
-
they get married too, you know?
-
They meet in a conference like this.
-
They talk to one another,
-
and then, oh, they talk, and they talk.
-
So the father comes home
-
and he says, "Where's Cindy?"
-
"She's on the phone again."
-
Upstairs. There she is talking to
-
this man in her life.
-
And they sit together
-
and they eat together and they walk.
-
And she's watching him.
-
She's looking at him.
-
She's evaluating him.
-
How is he with his parents?
-
How is he with her parents?
-
How is he with other women?
-
What are his values?
-
What are his ambitions?
-
What does he want to do in life?
-
What's his goal?
-
Is he patient and humble and sweet?
-
Because when you go into marriage,
-
there's no backdoor you can get out of
-
if it doesn't work.
-
You don't think like that -
-
a Christian - if he's getting married.
-
And finally, on a moonlit night,
-
he gets down on a knee
-
and he brings her a little box
-
and he proposes.
-
"Will you marry me?" he says.
-
And when she says, "I do,"
-
it's not because of the moonlight
-
or the ring.
-
It's because she's grown in appreciation
-
and knowledge and understanding
-
and wisdom and love.
-
And she wants to go where he wants to go.
-
And then we say this phrase:
-
"They were joined together in marriage."
-
Now that's a picture
-
of what it is to become a Christian.
-
You come to church
-
and you listen to the preacher.
-
You have young people's meetings
-
and conferences and there are camps.
-
And there are books you read.
-
And you hear about Him.
-
And you grow in your understanding
-
of who this extraordinary
-
uninventable Person is.
-
And your heart is drawn out to Him.
-
When He says, "Come to Me,"
-
then you know the One who you're going to.
-
You've learned about Him
-
and you know why you need Him.
-
When you think that the future
-
is just impossible without Him,
-
and you are joined together with Him.
-
You trust in Jesus Christ.
-
Let's talk about trust.
-
I think faith is a rather
strong Latin-based word.
-
Rather hard and tough word: faith.
-
But trust is a nice Anglo-Saxon word
-
and it's a gentler word, isn't it?
-
Trust is something you know -
-
you've got it or you haven't got it.
-
You can measure that, can't you,
-
when you wake up in the night
-
and you turn over
-
and you look at the digital alarm clock
-
and it says 3:30,
-
you know how accurate those clocks are.
-
You can trust it.
-
They're reliable.
-
A wife trusts her husband.
-
He's not home tonight.
-
It's late for him.
-
He's usually home at this time.
-
But you trust him.
-
You know he's not fooling around.
-
The children said they'd be
home by half past nine,
-
and now it's ten.
-
Something's happened.
-
You trust them,
-
because that's the sort
of children they are.
-
That's the sort of husband you have.
-
And so too, this is the
distinctive characteristic
-
of the Christian;
-
the distinctive privilege
that every Christian has.
-
We trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.
-
We do.
-
Our lives are not falling apart
-
because we know the One
-
who's in charge of our lives.
-
He's got all authority in
heaven and earth, He says.
-
He's in control of our lives.
-
I believe in Him.
-
I've never seen Him,
-
but I know who my heart believed.
-
I know this Savior -
-
the Jesus of the Bible.
-
The Jesus my mother and father knew,
-
and the preacher knows,
-
and my friends know.
-
I'm safe in His presence.
-
I trust Him.
-
Take my life and let it be
consecrated, Lord, to Thee.
-
That's the voice of trust.
-
That's a Christian.
-
That's salvation.
-
That is eternal life.
-
We trust everything about Jesus.
-
Everything that He's done -
-
especially when He died on the cross
-
and He cried, "It is finished!"
-
We trust those words.
-
We don't have to make a contribution
-
because it will be us,
-
and it will be spoiled by us.
-
We can't make a sinless contribution
-
because we drink iniquity like water.
-
So we trust in Him; in what He has done.
-
In His achievements, in His righteousness.
-
His perfection.
-
His loveliness. His beauty.
-
And in His atoning death.
-
We trust in these things.
-
My friend, Reg Burrows, he's a pastor.
-
He's retired now.
-
He was shaking hands at the door
-
with people as they
left one Sunday morning.
-
An old lady came up to him
and she shook his hand.
-
She said, "Oh, Mr. Burrows,
-
I hope I manage to do enough
-
for God to accept me."
-
Now, it's very helpful to a minister
-
when somebody says something like that,
-
because then we can understand
-
just where they are in this journey
-
into a living, saving relationship
-
with Jesus Christ.
-
A remark like that tells us
-
that they haven't understood Christianity.
-
They haven't understood the gospel.
-
They haven't understood grace.
-
They are showing their lostness.
-
They think God's made a contribution,
-
and then we need to make a contribution.
-
Then God will accept us.
-
But, we are saved
-
by the achievement of Someone else;
-
by what that Person did.
-
That's what saves us.
-
We never manage to do enough.
-
We never do.
-
Because of ego and pride
-
and self-pity,
-
and all the things that spoil our lives
-
in this world.
-
I've never prayed a sinner's prayer.
-
I've never done a zealous action.
-
I need at the end of every day to say,
-
"Sorry, Lord, about today."
-
"Forgive another day, Lord."
-
My best things - I have to say that.
-
We are saved by the achievement
-
of Somebody else
-
who never had to say "sorry"
at the end of every day.
-
The lovely beauty...
-
holy, harmless, undefiled,
-
separate from sinners,
-
higher than the heavens -
-
this is the extraordinary life
-
of the Man Christ Jesus.
-
The Son of God.
-
Saved by what He did.
-
Christmas comes and then we have
-
"The Sound of Music."
-
All those lovely songs.
-
Maria, in the end,
the stern grieving widower -
-
the Captain - he collapses before her
-
and wants to marry her.
-
And she can't get over it.
-
She is just amazed.
-
She's just a simple peasant girl.
-
Got a good voice.
-
There she is.
-
And so she sings then.
-
She's puzzling over why is it
-
that God has allowed this fellow
-
to fall in love with her.
-
And she sings, and you
remember what she sings?
-
She sings, "somewhere
in my youth or childhood,
-
I must have done something good."
-
That's what she says, doesn't she?
-
I helped an old lady over the road.
-
I was kind to my parents.
-
I wasn't nasty to animals.
-
I was patient with people.
-
God saw all that and so He
gave me this rich dude.
-
I have three daughters,
-
and my youngest - she was born
-
with a silver spoon in her mouth.
-
So it all works out for her.
-
She passes, goes to university,
-
meets Glenn - a lovely fellow -
-
marries him,
-
gets a job as a teacher,
-
has three children.
-
She tells me the next thing.
-
I say, "How is it that everything seems
-
to happen to you like this?"
-
She says, "Somewhere in
my youth or childhood,
-
I must have done something good."
-
She knows it's a heresy.
-
And she likes to tease her
old man about it, doesn't she?
-
Now the Christian doesn't think like that.
-
We don't think like that at all.
-
The Christian says
-
because of everything
that Jesus Christ did,
-
God has blessed me.
-
Oh, what wonderful blessings!
-
I've got Him. His mercies
are new every morning!
-
His faithfulness - it's immeasurable.
-
You can't see the east or west of it.
-
How kind, how good,
how patient He is with me.
-
He's forgiven all my sins.
-
And so a Christian has
someone to believe in.
-
We want to believe in
such a Savior, don't we?
-
I am trusting Thee, Lord Jesus,
-
trusting only Thee.
-
Trusting Thee for full salvation,
-
great and free.
-
That's the response to this amazing love,
-
that Jesus had seen the file on us.
-
He'd seen it. He knew.
-
He knew about everything.
-
The things done in darkness.
-
The things that God has veiled
from those who know us best,
-
that we're so ashamed of.
-
He still loved us.
-
He still loved us.
-
We're joined to Him by saving faith.
-
Well now, who are you going to believe in
-
if you say no to my Savior again tonight?
-
Who are you going to trust in?
-
It can't be Hollywood,
-
after all the ugly disclosures.
-
The foundations have gone there.
-
That's hollow and ugly.
-
Sportsmen?
-
What figures are there?
-
Philosophers?
-
Writers?
-
If you reject my Savior Jesus Christ,
-
who have you got to look into
-
when you get married?
-
When you get children and they're sick?
-
When you've got bills to pay?
-
And you're getting older?
-
And the grandchildren are
quite demanding too?
-
You're getting nearer death.
-
Who have you got?
-
Who do you have if you
say no to Jesus Christ?
-
Who have you got?
-
Look, there's this wonderful privilege.
-
A Christian has Someone
-
to believe right into; to trust.
-
He can rely on Him completely.
-
And the second great privilege
that a Christian has here:
-
A Christian has Someone to love.
-
Verse 8: "Whom having not seen, you love."
-
And it's the same illustration I use again
-
about your grandmother.
-
Mom takes you upstairs
-
and she puts you in bed.
-
And you say, "Tell me a story, Mom."
-
She says, "Oh, it's late tonight."
-
"Tell me about Nana.
Tell me about Nana."
-
"Oh please... please, Mommy.
-
Please tell me about Nana and the cows."
-
"Oh, you've heard that story..."
-
"Tell me, Mommy."
-
So, she starts to tell you how
-
she went blackberry picking with jars
-
in a field and you were picking,
-
and the cows got very curious
-
and they all started to
come nearer and nearer,
-
and then they started
getting a bit faster.
-
And how your mother got
a bit frightened as they came.
-
And she picked her up then -
-
her daughter, your mother -
-
carried her over the stream
-
and dropped her over the wall
-
and clambered over the wall.
-
The cows all came.
-
And looked at her. Looked at your mother.
-
You love the story.
-
And when your mother tells it,
-
you know, her eyes are filled with tears
-
as she remembers that wonderful person
-
who loved her.
-
And you love her.
-
You love her, though you never saw her,
-
you love her because your mother
-
whom you just adore -
-
your mother loved her
-
and owed her so much.
-
When you read a great biography
-
of Lloyd-Jones or Spurgeon,
-
in the end, you love these people.
-
You love them.
-
You don't want it to end.
-
You start to read a few pages less
-
because you don't want it to end.
-
You're so filled with admiration
-
that the world has seen
-
so terrific a person as some
of these people are.
-
Peter tells us what he'd seen.
-
He told them.
-
We went into the room together.
-
It was just James and John and I.
-
There were some others there -
-
Jairus and his wife,
-
and there was just
the little girl and Jesus.
-
There were seven of us in the room.
-
They're all spellbound and they listen.
-
They know the story,
-
but oh, they love to hear it again.
-
And He went over to the bed
-
and He held her by the hand -
-
her cold, dead hand.
-
And He said to her,
-
"Talitha cumi."
-
I am sorry, that's our language -
-
it's Aramaic.
-
I just see it so vividly in my mind.
-
My mother said it to me
-
when I was a boy by Galilee.
-
My mother would wake
me up in the afternoon.
-
She normally would just sleep
throughout all the afternoon.
-
I wouldn't sleep at night.
Talitha cumi, she'd say.
-
Get up, now, get up.
-
And you build up this picture.
-
And it's a wonderful picture.
-
And you start to love -
-
not only believe in Him -
-
but to love this Man.
-
He's pure gold.
-
He's so approachable.
-
Women absolutely trust Him.
-
They bring their little children
-
and they give them to Him
-
for Him to hold,
-
and He prays God's blessing on them.
-
And that comes, not because
-
they'd actually seen Jesus -
-
because the Pharisees saw Him,
-
and they saw Him raise Lazarus
-
from the dead.
-
That didn't make them
Christians - seeing Jesus.
-
If Jesus came back today,
-
you might think,
-
oh, I'd believe in Him then.
-
No, you wouldn't.
-
There's a real coldness in
your heart towards Him
-
about having Him as your Lord,
-
to serve Him for the rest of your days.
-
You always have an excuse.
-
It's always so inconvenient
just now, isn't it?
-
Just never quite the convenient time
-
to be trusting in Jesus Christ
-
and repenting of your sin
-
and starting to follow Him.
-
You need a work in your heart.
-
Jesus calls it the drawing.
-
The drawing out
-
of the poison of unbelief;
-
the drawing of new affections
-
for Jesus Christ.
-
"No one can come to Me,
-
except the Father who sent Me draw him."
-
You need to be drawn.
-
It's not just the physical sight,
-
but the drawing of love.
-
He wraps cords of love around you,
-
in a meeting like this,
-
and He starts to pull you to Himself
-
out of your unbelief.
-
He's just tugging you saying,
-
"I'm saying this to you.
-
That's why I sent the
man from Wales there.
-
That's why I brought you here
-
that you might know
this Jesus for yourself,
-
and that you might love Him."
-
And we do love Him.
-
Now when I say that,
-
everybody here's who's a Christian feels:
-
Oh, I wish I did love Him more.
-
Oh, it's my chief complaint
-
that my love is cold and weak and faint.
-
I'm sorry that I don't love Jesus more.
-
Every Christian - the most
mature Christian here
-
and the youngest Christian
is saying that just now.
-
When I say, we do love Him.
-
We say, but I do love Him.
-
I do love Him.
-
I love the Lord.
-
Oh, for grace to love Him more.
-
That's what we feel.
-
And every one of us is feeling that.
-
Sometimes we feel if we
had a better preacher
-
we'd love Him more.
-
Well, we always want to
blame something out there,
-
and the trouble is in here, isn't it?
-
There was the great preacher Isaiah,
-
and he was preaching -
-
what poetry, what passion, what pathos!
-
The greatest of all the writing prophets.
-
And there he is and he
was preaching to them
-
and telling them of the
Messiah who would come.
-
"All we like sheep have gone astray.
-
We've turned everyone to his own way,
-
and the Lord has laid on Him
-
the iniquity of us all," he told them.
-
They didn't understand.
-
It was to them as if
he was getting excited
-
about a branch of bleached wood
-
blown by the wind in the desert.
-
A root out of dry ground.
-
There was no beauty that they desired him.
-
And he says, who has believed our report?
-
To whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?
-
And he's talking about
a touch from heaven.
-
You've got to have a touch from heaven.
-
It's no good my laying hands on you.
-
You don't want a touch from a Welshman.
-
But oh, you do need the touch of God.
-
Oh, you must have that.
-
And you must be in your praying say,
-
"Lord, touch me."
-
"Lord, don't let me go away untouched."
-
A Christian, then, is someone
-
who has Someone to believe in,
-
and Someone he loves.
-
My mother was converted
-
through the influence of an uncle -
-
my grandmother's brother - Uncle Oliver,
-
who was converted
in the 1904 revival.
-
Well, he couldn't go anywhere -
-
he'd see a crowd of people,
-
he'd speak to them.
-
And he'd carry a text around town.
-
He had children's meetings.
-
And he's see my mother then
-
for years afterwards
and he'd just say to her,
-
"Do you love Him, Bess?"
-
"Do you love Him?"
-
Because in the simple way
-
sometime during the first World War
-
in 1917 or 1918,
-
she'd given her heart to Jesus Christ.
-
That had immense influence over me
-
twenty years later.
-
She sung hymns to do every chore.
-
When she vacuumed and when she washed
-
and she cooked and she dusted,
-
she would be singing,
-
"How sweet the name of Jesus sounds..."
-
"O, for a thousand tongues..."
-
My friend Brian - my best friend -
-
he said to me when we were about 15,
-
he said to me, "Your mother's
remarkable, isn't she?"
-
I said, "Yes?"
-
He said, "The way she sings hymns..."
-
I thought, oh, his mother
doesn't sing hymns.
-
I thought every mother sung hymns.
-
Do you love Him?
-
Do you love Him?
-
That's the great challenge, isn't it?
-
Why do we love Him?
-
Why is it impossible for
us to stop loving Him?
-
Well, because of His teachings.
-
When it was said His
disciples came unto Him,
-
and He opened His mouth and He taught them
-
saying, "Blessed are the poor in spirit,
-
theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.
-
Blessed are they that mourn,
-
for they shall be comforted.
-
Blessed are are the pure
in heart, they shall see God.
-
Blessed are the meek,
they shall inherit the earth.
-
Blessed are they that hunger
and thirst after righteousness,
-
for they shall be filled."
-
William Shakespeare never said
anything as wonderful as that.
-
Charles Dickens? Never.
-
All the great American writers,
-
European writers, Tolstoy -
-
they didn't say anything
-
as wonderful as Jesus.
-
Sometimes, you know, we read the Bible
-
and it's wonderful.
-
The Word of God.
-
The words of Jesus -
wonderful words of life.
-
We have them.
-
We love His teaching.
-
We love His tenderness.
-
We love the way He saw the dirty feet,
-
and He did something about it.
-
He took the basin of water
-
and the towel,
-
and He washed 24 feet.
-
He got the donkey dung off them,
-
dried them.
-
They sat around in embarrassment
-
as He humbled Himself.
-
What a Man!
-
He had so much on His mind then,
-
and He did that.
-
He loved His neighbor as Himself.
-
How wonderful...
-
We love Him when they drove nails
-
through His hands and feet.
-
He didn't say, "You wait
till My Father gets you!"
-
He said, "Father, forgive them.
-
They don't know what they're doing."
-
We love Him, don't we?
-
We love the Lord Jesus Christ.
-
We love the way He died for us.
-
You know what happened a week ago today
-
in Carcassonne, in France?
-
And we know about it because
-
one of my former students, Elizabeth -
-
she's living there now.
-
She came to faith in the church
-
my son-in-law pastors in London.
-
She was baptized by him,
-
and she came and studied
art in Aberystwyth
-
and got first.
-
And she met Hisham,
-
and Hisham is an Arab.
-
His father in Tunisia is an Imam.
-
And through the testimony of his brother,
-
he came to faith.
-
And oh, he made such progress
-
and such growth.
-
And they live in Carcassonne.
-
He's the pastor of a church there,
-
and she's expecting their sixth child.
-
And last Friday, a week ago today,
-
an Islamic terrorist went
into the supermarket
-
and started killing people.
-
And then he took the
check-out girl Julie hostage.
-
The police arrived.
-
There was a very brave,
wonderful policeman,
-
Arnaud Beltrame.
-
And he went up unarmed and he said,
-
"Let her go and I'll come instead of her."
-
Oh, the terrorist was very
pleased to get a policeman.
-
And she came out and he went in.
-
And he cut his throat and shot him dead.
-
And the marines went in
and there was a gunfight.
-
And the terrorist was killed.
-
A week today.
-
And Julie, this check-out girl,
-
they talked to her
afterwards and she said,
-
"He gave his life for me.
-
He had himself killed
so that I could live."
-
Now, what does a
Christian congregation do?
-
Well, they are active.
-
They go around the
supermarket the next day
-
in the area where this terrorist grew up,
-
and they gave out a special
leaflet that he's written -
-
a little booklet called "Are We in War?"
-
And last night then,
they hired the local cinema,
-
and the cinema people dropped the movie
-
and they showed then the film,
-
"The Case for Christ,"
-
the story of Lee Strobel's journey
-
from atheism to living faith.
-
And they had a book table out,
-
and it was full of French Bibles
-
and tracts and leaflets.
-
Everyone went.
-
170 people tried to get into a room
-
with 150 chairs last night.
-
They wrote to me this morning about it.
-
We love Him because He gave His life.
-
He gave His life - a hard life.
-
Not a trashy life.
-
This beautiful, perfect life.
-
And He gave it as the Lamb of God
-
without spot and without blemish.
-
He gave it in sacrifice,
-
because that is how God is.
-
That is the nature of God
-
that without the shedding of blood,
-
there's no remission;
-
there's no forgiveness.
-
God demands a lamb.
-
God provides a Lamb.
-
God becomes the Lamb.
-
He finds the Lamb in His own heart;
-
in His own bosom,
-
and He gives Him - His own dear Son.
-
He died for me.
-
He gave His life that I might live.
-
We love Him.
-
Well, now, if you say
no to my Savior again,
-
who have you got to love?
-
Who do you have?
-
Who is there?
-
A couple of years ago,
-
we finished our lunch.
-
The children went next door
-
where the TV set is
-
and where they do this sort of thing.
-
We had coffee and shortbread cookies.
-
There was a bit of a silence.
-
Glenn then said,
-
"If there was some great figure,
-
some great leader in the world today
-
you'd like to meet,
-
who would it be?"
-
Well, now, that is a conversation stopper.
-
And we waited and we thought.
-
Britain and our politicians and Europe
-
and Asia, India, China,
-
Africa, the America's.
-
Now we can thank God that there are
-
some governors and congressman,
-
vice-presidents -
-
we'd like to meet them.
-
We were silent and then my wife said,
-
"Nelson Mandela.
-
I'd like to meet Nelson Mandela."
-
Yeah, that would be typical of some men.
-
But, my friends, if you're
going to reject Jesus Christ,
-
whose picture are you going to put up?
-
Whose books, whose speeches,
-
who will travel to listen to?
-
I've got someone now.
-
I'm going to follow him.
-
Here is Someone.
-
And you can believe in Him.
-
You can trust in Him.
-
Here is Someone you can love.
-
And thirdly, here is Someone
-
who makes us full of joy
-
inexpressible and glorious joy, he says.
-
Verse 6.
-
Now there are times when we weep
-
because we are Christians.
-
We can break our hearts.
-
We can have a grief we don't shrug.
-
Things really hurt us.
-
And we experience pain.
-
I couldn't be a faithful
servant of Jesus Christ
-
and tell you it's going
to be joy all the while.
-
There's a joy that seeks us in our pain.
-
There's a strength from heaven
-
that helps us in our losses and crosses.
-
But there's a joy
about the Christian life.
-
The apostle was caught up
to the third heaven.
-
We're told that the converted eunuch
-
went on his way rejoicing.
-
We're told when Philip preached in Samaria
-
the place was full of joy.
-
He could have said, "full of repentance."
-
He could have said the Ethiopian
-
went on his way repenting.
-
And that's true - or believing.
That's of course, true.
-
But he says, oh, he was a joyful man
-
after he met Christ;
-
after he confessed Him.
-
There was something in his heart
-
that had never been there before.
-
There were joy bells ringing
-
in his heart.
-
His chains had fallen off.
-
His heart was free.
-
The prison doors were opened.
-
He had a liberty that
he'd never known before
-
in his life that God gives us.
-
Such joy.
-
It's "joy unspeakable" is
the old King James phrase.
-
Indescribable.
-
How do you describe emotions?
-
How do you describe flavors or scents?
-
How difficult it is to use words
-
to go into another medium?
-
And so, he says, oh, I wish
-
I could describe this joy to you.
-
It's so real!
-
It means that my back is bleeding
-
and my feet are in stocks.
-
No bed - midnight.
-
And yet, my friend and I
-
can sing together to the Lord.
-
And the whole prison can know
-
what joy has come into the prison
-
because two servants of
Jesus Christ are there.
-
And it's in pictures like that
-
that we begin to see that joy.
-
The disciples were full of
joy in the Holy Spirit it says.
-
That's not saying they were regenerate.
-
It's saying much more than
that they were regenerate.
-
It's saying, ah, Jesus Christ was so real
-
and joy-giving to them.
-
What a privilege it was
-
to be a servant of Jesus Christ.
-
What joy!
-
It's indescribable.
-
And it's full of glory.
-
In other words, it's not manufactured.
-
It's not change the lights;
-
turn the lights down,
-
and let's sing and repeat,
-
and repeat again, and say,
-
"now, won't you come?"
-
And a long, long appeal
-
just to get people out of their seats.
-
I mean, if Jesus was here,
-
I'd be telling you all
to come to the front,
-
but the Word is nigh you.
-
You've heard the Word. It's nigh you.
-
It's in your heart. It's in your mind.
-
The word of faith that
I've preached to you,
-
it's as close as that.
-
That's how close Jesus is.
-
You don't need to come to the front.
-
He's there.
-
He's been speaking to you tonight.
-
My Savior.
-
Where two or three gather, He's there.
-
He's here.
-
What a blessed Guest has joined us
-
in this conference tonight!
-
Joy inexpressible.
-
And it's full of glory.
-
In other words, it's not human tricksters
-
and human psychologists
-
and man-manipulators.
-
It's God present.
-
The glory of God.
-
The joy of heaven to earth come down.
-
It's that.
-
It's God's reality.
-
My friends, we live in an age
-
where people are crying out
-
for happiness, aren't they?
-
On Monday morning, there will be
-
thousands of people all over America
-
going to a doctor and saying,
-
"Can you give me a little pill?
-
I'm feeling depressed."
-
And there will be young people
-
with all their life before them.
-
It's alcohol and it's drugs.
-
Isn't it?
-
That's the reality.
-
And relationships -
-
if you say no to my Savior,
-
I'm saying, do you know
-
what your future's going to be?
-
The ruin of your friends
-
and brothers and sisters;
-
members of your family.
-
The mess they've made of their lives
-
because they've kept Jesus at bay;
-
arm's length away, not in them.
-
Not believing in Him.
-
This joy is full of glory.
-
It's so pure. It's so heavenly.
-
And it doesn't cloy.
-
We don't get fed up with it.
-
Who are you going to turn to for this joy
-
if you reject, again, Jesus Christ?
-
Here is Someone - you can trust Him.
-
You can love Him.
-
He gives you joy.
-
And last of all here,
-
He helps you achieve your goal in life.
-
There's a goal, there's a purpose in life.
-
There is.
-
You're on this planet.
-
You've been given life for a purpose.
-
You're receiving the goal;
-
the end of your faith -
-
the salvation of your souls.
-
You've got something
-
that will never be taken from you.
-
You've got a purpose in life.
-
This is a frustrated generation.
-
Your friends in school, you know,
-
they don't know what life is all about.
-
That's why they're trying drugs, isn't it?
-
They have a goal, they say,
-
I'd like to earn $100,000 a year.
-
And then, they get $100,000
-
and they grumble about taxes,
-
and you can't do much
with $100,000 these days.
-
It wasn't as sufficient;
-
it wasn't a strong enough goal to live for
-
for a greenback dollar.
-
And then, they never attain the goals
-
they set for themselves.
-
They're unrealistic.
-
And many have no goals at all.
-
But Peter says we receive;
-
we get...
-
We get what we were made for;
-
why God made us;
-
why He redeemed us;
-
what our purpose in life is.
-
Man's chief end is to glorify God
-
and enjoy Him forever.
-
We never do it perfectly.
-
We would do it perfectly,
-
but we achieve more and more satisfaction
-
for the Lord.
-
I do it for the Lord.
-
Not for me.
-
The goal.
-
We receive the goal of our life -
-
the salvation of our souls.
-
That's how it ends, isn't it?
-
You're not just a body.
-
You are a soul, aren't you?
-
You are.
-
An animal is just a body.
-
I put a jug of water down
-
and he'll drink it;
-
give him some food and he'll eat it.
-
I'll bring a mate and he'll copulate
-
because he's just an animal.
-
People who aren't aware
that they are souls
-
resort to the animal
dimension of their lives,
-
don't they?
-
Eating, drinking, copulating.
-
I drive up to Aberystwyth -
my town of 50 years
-
along the cliff tops
-
in a road from (unintelligible)
-
and there's a view
-
that's just particularly moving to me.
-
The green grass of a large field
-
goes down to the cliffs,
-
and then there's the Irish Sea
-
and the sun is setting,
-
and there are some cows in the field.
-
It's a beautiful sight.
-
Do I hear one cow saying to the other,
-
"Lovely sunset tonight, Blodwyn."
-
No, I don't. And the other cow saying,
-
"Yes, it is a great sight,
isn't it, Gladys?"
-
I'd be a vegetarian if cows could
-
speak to one another.
-
But they can't.
-
They just look at the grass;
-
at their instincts. That's all.
-
They don't see the glory of God.
-
They don't see it.
-
Your soul is ruined by sin,
-
and you're not seeing the power
-
and glory of God in this world.
-
My Father made it.
-
Through Jesus Christ, He made it.
-
Without Him was not anything
made that was made.
-
This is my Father's world.
-
This is my Savior's world.
-
And that's what your goal is -
-
to please Him and honor Him,
-
and look forward to being with Him,
-
and to a new heavens and a new earth,
-
when He will descend
-
this groaning universe,
-
and there won't be one rogue molecule
-
in all the world that doesn't show
-
the righteousness of Christ.
-
A new heavens and a new earth
-
where righteousness dwells.
-
I want to be there.
-
I want to see that.
-
Come with us.
-
It will do you good.
-
Come with us.
-
Don't be in unbelief any longer.
-
Don't go on now finding
another excuse tonight
-
why you're not going
to trust in Jesus Christ.
-
But you're going to come to Him.
-
Now coming to Jesus Christ
-
is a movement of your inmost being,
-
your heart, your life,
-
as the Holy Spirit takes the Word
-
that's been preached to you about His Son,
-
and He makes you ready
-
to saying,
-
"I'm not going on any
longer in my unbelief."
-
"I'm going to turn from it."
-
"I'm sorry that it's been so long."
-
"I'm sorry that I've had one
vain excuse after another."
-
"And from now on,
-
I'm going to trust in Jesus Christ."
-
Now, you've got to say it.
-
There's no formula at all.
-
But you've got to start speaking
-
to Jesus Christ about you and Him.
-
Just somewhere quiet.
-
Now, of course, we pray. Now.
-
But you keep praying
-
until you know He's answered you.
-
You keep praying until you have
-
the inward witness of the Holy Spirit.
-
And you'll know.
-
You'll know by a peace, a trust,
-
a joy, a rest.
-
Because He promises that.
-
"Come unto Me all ye that labor
-
and are heavy laden,
-
and I will give you rest."
-
Oh, I can cope with a
crowd this size, Jesus says.
-
If all of Denton comes;
-
if all Dallas, if all Texas,
-
all get into their cars and buses,
-
because Jesus is here.
-
I can cope.
-
All men with their antagonisms,
-
or women with their phobias,
-
or children with their anxieties.
-
You come. You come.
-
You give your heart. You give your life.
-
It's just a movement now -
-
private movement.
-
You begin to talk to Him
-
about your future.
-
And you say it's unbearable without Him.
-
Why you've been away
so long - you're sorry.
-
And from now on, you're
going to follow Him.
-
We want you.
-
That's why Jesus Christ has
brought you here tonight.
-
Do you know that?
-
That's really the reason.
-
That you could have
these wonderful privileges -
-
Someone to believe in
-
and love and give you joy,
-
and you have your souls saved.
-
And you see the purpose in life.
-
I can't understand how anyone
-
can hear this offer
-
of what the Lord will do for you tonight
-
and go away saying "no!"
-
How can you do that?
-
When He's brought you here
-
and He's telling you
of His wonderful benefits;
-
these wonderful blessings and privileges.
-
You come to Him.
-
You come to Him just as you are
-
to just what He is now:
-
this welcoming, loving Savior.
-
"He that comes to Me,
-
in no way will I cast them out."
-
However bad it's been;
-
however hypocritical.
-
You may be thinking,
-
oh, if the people sitting next to me
-
knew what sort of man,
-
what sort of woman I was,
-
they'd move away in shock.
-
You come. You particularly come
-
to this Savior just as you are.
-
Let's pray.
-
Lord, You have brought us here
-
to meet with Jesus Christ.
-
How privileged we are!
-
There are people meeting
the prison warden tonight.
-
There are people seeing a doctor
-
and a surgeon tonight.
-
There are people meeting crooks.
-
There are people who are
going to hurt them tonight.
-
There are men who are
going to abuse them.
-
But we've met with the lovely,
-
loving, sweet and holy Jesus Christ.
-
Oh, thank You for being here, dear Savior.
-
Thank You for Your kindness
-
and patience with us for so long.
-
Now, we come just as we are,
-
without one plea.
-
Without any excuse.
-
Please take us.
-
Please receive us.
-
Please, from now on,
-
help us to live with Thee and for Thee.
-
We ask it for Your greater glory
-
and our eternal good.
-
Amen.
-
Now we'll sing our last hymn.