No one will ever save another who is not all on fire with unquenchable zeal for lost men and women. That is the absolutely essential quality for successful soul winning. That is the reason why many preachers lack conversions in their work. Young men are being turned out from many of our modern theological schools and entering the ministry lacking this all-consuming passion for souls. I know a man who tells me that although he has been in the ministry for twenty-five years, he cannot trace anything he has done directly to the conversion of a soul. I think an …
The book of Jonah is the most charming bit of autobiography in the Bible, a drama of real life in three acts; a masterpiece of inspired story. The fascination of the book lies in its candor; its charm in its graphic descriptions. Short—a matter of five minutes reading—four chapters, forty-eight verses, 1,328 words; it is a study for time and eternity, a marvelous unfolding of the secrets of the soul. It is of interest to us because it is the story of a man who was a minister; an open air preacher, a city evangelist, a missionary, …
I was in Len Broughton’s Tabernacle some time ago, and was greatly impressed with the way the singing and preaching seemed to carry themselves along. A few nights afterwards, Dr. Broughton came to the platform late. We had already started the singing. He tapped me on the shoulder and said, “I am sorry I am late; we over-ran the time tonight.” After the meeting, I said, “What did you mean by over-running the time?” He said, “Our prayer meeting.” I said, “Do you have a prayer meeting before the service each night?” He said, “Oh yes. You haven’t been allowed …
I made a statement not a great while ago that wherever we journeyed in different parts of the world, we had fount it literally true that wherever men were holding to the authority of the Scriptures and the deity of Jesus, the approval of God and men seemed to be given to them, but wherever we found in our journey around the world men disposed to question the deity of Jesus or the authority of the Scriptures, we found the work suffering.
Let me speak of four things this morning that enter into all successful Christian work.
“If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me” (Luke 9:23). “And there followed him a certain young man” (Mark 14:51).
I want to talk to the young people and especially the young men. I want to talk to you about a full priced religion, the kind that is not afraid to face a Gethsemane and a Calvary and that holds not its life dear unto itself for the sake of truth and righteousness. One of our English poets [Thomas Hood, 1799–1845] has said:
“Now that God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do His will, working in you that which is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.”—Hebrews 13:20–21
I do not know who wrote the Epistle to the Hebrews; and if it did not sound so irreverent, I would be inclined to say I do not care very much. There are many professors in our theological chairs …
“Preserve me, O God: for in thee do I put my trust. O my soul, thou hast said unto the LORD, Thou art my Lord: my goodness extendeth not to thee; but to the saints that are in the earth, and to the excellent, in whom is all my delight. Their sorrows shall be multiplied that hasten after another god: their drink offerings of blood will I not offer, nor take up their names into my lips. The LORD is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup: thou maintainest my lot. The lines are fallen unto me in …
We are unprofitable servants; see if we are not. A good business contractor would not hire men to carry cement and sand on their backs a hundred miles to build a house when he could ship it on a railroad car to the spot; it would be unprofitable. God could use angels to tell the millions of Earth about Jesus; but He has chosen an unprofitable method and shut Himself up to us to do it. Listen!....They are depending on you. If you do not tell the folks in your circle, who will?
Growing up on a farm in southern Saskatchewan, Canada, I could never identify with peers who didn’t know what they intended to do when they grew up. As for me, I wanted to preach. When we’d get home from church, I’d sometimes climb the stairs in the old farmhouse and pretend I was standing in front of a congregation, leading the singing and preaching the sermon. And when Billy Graham rose to fame in the early 1950s, he became my hero. I listened to The Hour of Decision and read everything I could about him and his family.
It is a long way from Boston to Chicago, especially in hot weather. There is nothing in the world that would bring me this long distance and three nights on a sleeper except a conference of such importance as this,—not even the Republican Convention. This is infinitely more important than that.
The Kaiser’s throne is being sold for old junk, and he sits on a sawbuck. Was there ever such a sudden, rapid, startling, marvelous, unbelievable transformation as that? If half a dozen years ago any man had ventured to prophesy that this would be the fact today, his sanity …
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