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Now I havenít put it in so many words,
but if youíll analyze what I just told you,
do you know what it is?
Humanism.
That I was simply using the provisions of Jesus Christ
as a means to improve upon human conditions
of suffering and misery.
And when I went to Africa, I discovered that they werenít
poor, ignorant, little heathen running around in the woods
looking for someone to tell them how to go to heaven.
That they were MONSTERS OF INIQUITY!
They were living in utter and total defiance
of far more knowledge of God
than I ever dreamed they had!
They deserved Hell!
Because they utterly refused
to walk in the light of their conscious,
and the light of the law written upon their heart,
and the testimony of nature, and the truth they knew!
And when I found that out
I assure you I was so angry with God
that on one occasion in prayer I told Him
it was a mighty little thing Heíd done
sending me out there to reach these people
that were waiting to be told how to go to heaven.
When I got there I found out they knew about heaven,
and didnít want to go there,
and that they loved their sin
and wanted to stay in it.
I went out their motivated by humanism.
Iíd seen pictures of lepers,
Iíd seen pictures of ulcers,
Iíd seen pictures of native funerals,
and I didnít want my fellow human beings to suffer
in Hell eternally
after such a miserable existence on earth.
But it was there in Africa that God began to tear
THROUGH THE OVERLAY OF THIS HUMANISM!
And it was that day in my bedroom with the door locked
that I wrestled with God.
For here was I,
coming to grips with the fact that
the people I thought were ignorant
and wanted to know how to go to heaven and were saying,
"Someone come and teach us!",
actually didnít want to take time to talk
with me or anybody else.
They had no interest in the Bible
and no interest in Christ,
and they love their sin and wanted to continue in it.
And I was to that place, at that time,
where I felt the whole thing
was a sham and a mockery,
and I had been sold a bill of goods!
And I wanted to come home.
There alone in my bedroom
as I FACED GOD HONESTLY with what my heart felt,
it seemed to me I heard Him say,
"Yes,
will not the Judge of all the earth do right?
The heathen are lost,
and theyíre going to go to Hell,
not because they havenít heard the gospel.
Theyíre going to go to Hell because
they are sinners, who LOVE their SIN!
And because they deserve Hell.
ButÖÖ
I didnít send you out there for them.
I didnít send you out there for their sakes."
And I heard clearly as Iíve ever heard,
though it wasnít with physical voice
but it was the echo of truth of the ages,
finding itís way into an open heart.
I heard God say to my heart
that day something like this,
"I didnít send you to Africa for the sake of the heathen,
I sent you to Africa for My SakeÖ.
They deserved Hell! But I LOVE THEM!
And I endured the agonies of Hell for them!!!!
I didnít send you out there for them!
I SENT YOU OUT THERE FOR MEÖ
Do I not deserve the reward of my suffering?
Donít I deserve those for who I died?"
And it REVERSE IT ALL!! And CHANGED IT ALL!!
And RIGHTED IT ALL!!
And I wasnít any longer working for Micah
and ten shekels and a shirt!
But I was serving a living God!
I was there not for the sake of the heathen.
I was there for the Savior
that endured the agonies of Hell for me,
who didnít deserve it.
But He deserved them, (the heathen)
Because He died for them.
Do you see?
Let me epitomize, let me summarize.
Christianity says,
"The end of all being is the glory of God."
Humanism says,
"The end of all being is the happiness of man."
And one was born in Hell,
the deification of man;
and the other was born in heaven,
the glorification of God!
And one is a Levite serving Micah,
and the other is a heart thatís unworthy serving the living God,
because itís the highest honor in the universe.
What about you?
Why did you repent?
Iíd like to see some people repent
on Biblical terms again.
George Whitefield knew it.
He stood on Boston Commons
speaking to twenty thousand people and he said,
"Listen sinners ñ
youíre monsters ñ
MONSTERS OF INIQUITY!
You deserve Hell!
And the worst of your crimes
is that criminals though youíve been,
you havenít had the good grace to see it!"
He said,
"If you will not weep for your sins
and your crimes against a Holy God,
George Whitefield will weep for you!"
That man would put his head back
and he would sob like a baby.
Why?
Because they were in danger of Hell?
No!
But because they were "monsters of iniquity",
that didnít even see their sin
or care about their crimes.
You see the difference?
You see the difference?
The difference is, here is somebody trembling
because he is going to be hurt in Hell.
And he has no sense of the enormity of his guilt!
And no sense of the enormity of his crime!
And no sense of his insult against Deity!
Heís only trembling
because his skin is about to be singed!
Heís afraid
and I submit to you that where as fear
is good office work in preparing us for grace,
itís no place to stop.
And the Holy Ghost doesnít stop there.
Thatís the reason why no one can savingly receive Christ
until theyíve repented.
And no one can repent
until theyíve been convicted.
And conviction is the work of the Holy Ghost
that helps a sinner to see
that he is a criminal before God
and deserves all of Godís wrath.
And if God were to send him
to the lowest corner of a devilís Hell forever
and ten eternities,
that he deserved it all!
And a hundred fold more.
Because heís seen his crimes.
He's not been convinced he's caught
but he's seen his crimes.
This is the difference between twentieth century preaching
and the preaching of John Wesley.
Wesley was a preacher of righteousness
that exalted the holiness of God.
And he'd stand there for the 2 to 3 hours sermons
that he was acostumed to deliver in the open air
When he would exalt the holiness of God,
and the law of God,
and the righteousness of God, and the justice of God,
and the wisdom of His requirements!
And the justice of his wrath and his anger!
Then he would turn to sinners
and tell them of the enormity of their crimes
and their open rebellion and their treason,
and their anarchy.
The power of God would so descend upon the company,
that on one occasion it is reliably reported
that when the people dispersed
there were 1800 people lying on the ground,
utterly unconscious!
Because they had a revelation of the holiness of God
and in the light of that
theyíd seen the enormity of their sins
and God had so penetrated their minds and hearts
that they had fallen to the ground!
It wasnít only in Wesleyís day;
it was also in America, New Haven, Connecticut, Yale.
A man by t he name of John Wesley Redfield
had continuous ministry for three years
in and around New Haven.
Culminating in the great meetings in Yale Ball,
the first of the Yale Balls back in the 18th century.
The policeman were accustomed
during those days,
if they saw someone lying on the ground,
to go up and smell his breath.
Because if he had alcohol on his breath theyíd lock him up;
but if he didnít, he had Redfieldís disease.
And all you needed to do
if anyone had Redfieldís disease
was just take him into a quiet place
and leave him until he came to.
Because if they were drunkards,
theyíd stop drinking,
and if they were cruel,
theyíd stop being cruel,
and if they were immoral,
they gave up their immorality.
If they were thieves,
they returned what they had.
For as they had seen the holiness of God,
and seen the enormity of their sin;
the Spirit of God
had driven them down into unconsciousness
because of the weight of their guilt!
And somehow in the overspreading
of the power of God,
sinners repented of their sin
and came savingly to Christ.
But there was a difference!
It wasnít trying to convince
"good" man that he was in trouble with a "bad" God.
But that it was to convince BAD men
that they had deserved the wrath and anger of a Good God!
And the consequence
was repentance,
that lead to faith,
and lead to life.
Dear friends, thereís only one reason
one reason for a sinner to repent:
and thatís because Jesus Christ
deserves the worship and adoration and the love and
the obedience of his heart.
Not because heíll go to heaven.
If the only reason you repented, dear friend,
was to keep out of Hell,
all you are is just a Levite
serving for ten shekels and a shirt!
Thatís all!
Youíre trying to serve God
because Heíll do you good!
But a repentant heart
is a heart that has seen something of the enormity
of the crime of playing god
and denying the just an righteous God
the worship and obedience that He deserves!
Why should a sinner repent?
Because GOD DESERVES THE OBEDIENCE AND LOVE
that he refused to give Him!
Not so that heíll go to heaven.
If the only reason he repents
is so that heíll go to heaven,
itís nothing but trying
to make a deal or a bargain with God.
Why should a sinner give up all his sins?
Why should he be challenged to do it?
Why should he make restitution when heís coming to Christ?
Because God DESERVES THE OBEDIENCE that He demands!