|
A SERMON
THAT EVERY PROFESSING CHRISTIAN MUST READ
TEN
SHEKELS AND A SHIRT
By: Paris Reidhead
INTRODUCTION
And today I would like to speak to you from the theme "Ten
Shekels and a Shirt", as we find it here in Judges Chapter 17. I'll read the
chapter and then I will read a portion also from the 18th to the 19th chapter as
the background might be clear in our minds. "And their was a man of mount
Ephraim who's name was Micah". A little background if you please. There was a
situation where the Amorites refused to allow the people of the tribe of Dan to
any access to Jerusalem and they crowded them up into mount Ephraim. It is a sad
thing when the people of God allow the world to crowd them into an awkward
position. So they were unable to get to Jerusalem and we find, out of this comes
the problems that we are about to see.
JUDGES 17:1
There was a man in the hill country of Ephraim whose name
was Micah. He said to his mother, "The eleven hundred pieces of silver that were
taken from you, about which you uttered a curse, and even spoke it in my
hearing, - that, silver is in my possession; I took it; but now I will return it
to you." And his mother said, "May my son be blessed by the Lord!" Then he
returned the eleven hundred pieces of silver to his mother; and his mother said,
"I consecrate the silver to the Lord from my hand for my son, to make an idol of
cast metal." So when he returned the money to his mother, his mother took two
hundred pieces of silver, and gave it to the silversmith, who made it into an
idol of cast metal; and it was in the house of Micah. This man Micah had a
shrine, and he made an ephod and teraphim, and installed one of his sons, who
became his priest. In those days there was no king in Israel; all the people did
what was right in their own eyes.
Now there was a young man of Bethlehem in Judah, of the Clan
of Judah. He was a Levite residing there. This man left the town of Bethlehem in
Judah, to live wherever he could find a place. He came to the house of Micah in
the hill country of Ephraim to carry on his work. Micah said to him, "From where
do you come?" He replied, "I am a Levite of Bethlehem in Judah, and I am going
to live wherever I can find a place." Then Micah said to him, "Stay with me, and
be to me a father and a priest, and I will give you ten pieces of silver a year,
a set of clothes, and your living." The Levite agreed to stay with the man; and
the young man became to him like one of his sons. So Micah installed the Levite,
and the young man became his priest, and was in the house of Micah. Then Micah
said, "Now I know that the Lord will prosper me, because the Levite has become
my priest."
JUDGES 18:1
In those days there was no king in Israel. And in those days
the tribe of the Danites was seeking for itself a territory to live in; for
until then no territory among the tribes of Israel had been allotted to them. So
the Danites sent five valiant men from the whole number of their clan, from
Zorah and from Eshtaol, to spy out the land and to explore it; and they said to
them, "Go, explore the land ." When they came to the hill country of Ephraim, to
the house of Micah, they stayed there. While they were at Micah's house, they
recognized the voice of the young Levite; so they went over and asked him, "Who
brought you here? What are you doing in this place? What is your business here?"
He said to them, "Micah did such and such for me, and he hired me, and I have
become his priest." Then they said to him, "Inquire of God that we may know
whether the mission we are undertaking will succeed." The priest replied, "Go in
peace. The mission you are on is under the eye of the Lord."
JUDGES 18:14
Then the five men who had gone to spy out the land (that is,
Laish) said to their comrades, "Do you know that in these buildings there are an
ephod, teraphim, and an idol of cast metal? Now therefore consider what you will
do." So they turned in that direction and came to the house of the young Levite,
at the home of Micah, and greeted him. While the six hundred men of the Danites,
armed with their weapons of war, stood by the entrance of the gate, the five men
who had gone to spy out the land proceeded to enter and take the idol of cast
metal, the ephod, and the teraphim. The priest was standing by the entrance of
the gate with the six hundred men armed with weapons of war. When the men went
into Micah's house and took the idol of cast metal, the ephod, and the teraphim,
the priest said to them, "What are you doing?" They said to him, "Keep quiet!
Put your hand over your mouth, and come with us, and be to us a father and a
priest. Is it better for you to be priest to the house of one person, or to be
priest to a tribe and clan in Israel?" Then the priest accepted the offer. He
took the ephod, the teraphim, and the idol, and went along with the people. So
they resumed their journey, putting the little ones, the livestock and the goods
in front of them.
THE LEVITE
Well there's the story. This isn't part of the actual history
of the Judges, this is a gathering together of some accounts that enable us to
see the social condition in that period when every man did as seemed right in
his own eyes and there was no king in Israel. So we understand that Micah was
unable to get to Jerusalem and perhaps for some kind of devote reason he decided
he would build a replica of the temple on his own property. He built what he
thought would be an appropriate building and he made the instruments of the
tabernacle, for these are part of the furnishings the ephod included among them,
but then he also gathered some of the things from the people around him; the
teraphim, the images which God had forbidden.
But you see nevertheless there was a desire to get along as
best he could. So he took a little bit of the world and a little bit of Israel,
that which had been revealed by God, and he sort of mixed them up, until he had
something that he thought might please the Lord. Then of course he was delighted
beyond words when a wandering young preacher came along from Bethlehem, Judah.
He was a Levite, his mother was of the tribe of Judah. Though he himself was a
Levite, God had given permission through Moses that the Levites might marry into
other tribes and they might join themselves to other tribes.
So this young man didn't like the living, and every Levite was
provided for, but he had wanderlust and an itching foot and so he started off to
see if he couldn't do better for himself than was being done. He felt that being
a Levite was good but there should be opportunities associated with it, and so
he came to the house of Micah. There he waited and there he was invited in and
asked to become the priest. And Micah made a deal with him, he said "You'll be
my priest, be my father and priest, then I'll give you ten shekels and a shirt."
It says a suit but you understand that the people of the day wore what would be
called a gelavia, a long sort of an outsize, well I was going to say a
nightgown, I don't know if that is exactly what it is but it is appropriate at
least, something like that. And he gave him a suit of clothes or a change of
apparel and his food and ten shekels a year.
This was a pretty good living for him and so he decided that he
would stay there and enter into the mixture of idolatry and so on that was in
the house of Micah. But the people of Dan came along, they were suppose to have
driven out the Amorites but the Amorites were too difficult, and they wanted to
find someone that was a little easier to get out. And they came to, as you've
read, to Micah's house and the Levite told them to go ahead. Then you find that
they discovered that there were people after the manner of Zidonians at Laish.
They were peaceful and no one was there to protect them, and so they figure this
would be a very good place to take some land for themselves. When they came with
the men that were sent to conquer this area they figured that since they found
the land through the young Levite, it would be splendid to have his
assistance.
And so they went into the house of Micah, took all the things
that he had made and it cost a good bit of money, because at least two hundred
shekels had been given for this one piece of furniture. And so they just took it
all, made it theirs and took the Levite. Rather hard on Micah, but you'll notice
the young Levite was able to adjust himself to this. It was amazing how flexible
he was and how easily he could accommodate himself to such changes when there
was a little rationalization along the way. As soon as he could begin to see
that it was far more important to serve a tribe than one man's family. And he
could minister to so many more, why he could see the wisdom of this and he could
justify it. With no real strain of conscious he could make the adjustment, hold
his hand over his mouth while they took the furniture out of the little chapel
that Micah had built. But he was a wise man nonetheless, rather than go along at
the front which put him in a place of danger or at the rear which put him in a
place of danger, I say he was a wise man, he put himself right in the middle. So
that if Micah had sent any of his servants to get him he was safe with soldiers
on every side.
PRAGMATISM
What can we call this and how will it apply to our days
generation. Would I be out of line if I were to talk to you for a little while
about utilitarian religion and expedient Christianity? And a youthful God? I
would like to call attention to the fact that our day is a day which the ruling
philosophy is pragmatism. You understand what I mean by pragmatism, pragmatism
means if it works it's true. If it succeeds it's good. And the test of all
practices, all principles, all truth, so called all teaching, is do they work?
Do they work? Now - according to pragmatism, the greatest failures of the ages
have been some of the men God has honored most.
For instance, whereas Noah was a mighty good ship builder, his
main occupation wasn't ship building, it was preaching. He was a terrible
failure as a preacher. His wife and three children and their wives are all he
had. Seven converts in 120 years, you wouldn't call that particularly effective.
Most mission boards would have asked the missionaries to withdraw long before
this. I say as a ship builder he did quite well, but as a preacher he was a
failure.
And then we come down across the years to another man by the
name of Jeremiah. He was a mighty effective preacher, but ineffective as far as
results were concerned. If you were to measure statistically how successful
Jeremiah was, he would probably get a large cipher. For we find that he lost out
with the people, he lost out with royalty, even the ministerial association
voted against him and wouldn't have anything to do with him. He had everything
fail. The only one he seemed able to please was.... God, but otherwise he was a
distinct failure.
And then we come to another well known person, the Lord Jesus
Christ, who was a failure from judging all the standards. He never succeeded in
organizing a church or denomination. He wasn't able to build a school. He didn't
succeed in getting a mission board established. He never had a book printed. He
never was able to get any of the various criteria or instruments that we find
and are so useful, I'm not being sarcastic at all, they are useful. And our Lord
preached for three years, healed thousands of people, fed thousands of people,
and yet when it was all over there were 120..., 500 to whom he could have
revealed Himself after His resurrection. And the day that He was taken, one man
said "If all the others forsake you, I'm willing to die for you." He looked at
this one and said "Peter you don't know your own heart. You're going to deny me
three times before the cock crows this morning." So all men forsook Him and
fled. By every standard of our generation or any generation, our Lord was a
single failure.
The question comes then to this, what is the standard of
success and by what are we going to judge our lives and our ministry? And the
question that you are going to ask yourself, "Is God an end or is He a means?"
And you have to decide very early in your Christian life whether you're viewing
God as an end or a means. Our generation is prepared to honor with single honor
anyone that's successful regardless of whether they settled this problem or not.
As long as they can get things done or get the job done or well it's working
isn't it, then our generation is prepared to say well you've got to reckon with
this.
And so we've got to ask ourselves at the very outset of our
ministry, and our pilgrimage, and our walk, "Are we going to be Levites who
serve God for ten shekels and a shirt?" Serve men perhaps in the name of God,
rather than God. For though he was a Levite and performed religious activities,
he was looking for a place. A place which would give him recognition, a place
which would give him acceptance, a place which would give him security, a place
where he could shine in terms of those values which were important to him. His
whole business was serving in religious activities so it had to be a religious
job. He was very happy when he found that Micah had an opening. But he had
decided that he was worth ten shekels and a shirt, and he was prepared to sell
himself to anyone that would give that much. If somebody came along and gave
more, he would sell himself to them. But he put a value upon himself and he
figured his religious service and his activities were just a means to an end and
by the same token God was a means to an end.
HUMANISM
Now in order to understand the implications of that in the
twentieth century, we've got to go back 150, 100 years at least, to a conflict
that attacked Christianity. Just after the great revivals in America with
Finney, the Spirit of God having been marvelously outpoured onto certain
portions of our country, there came an open attack on our faith in Europe under
the higher critics. Darwin had postulated his theory of evolution, certain
philosophers had adapted it to their philosophies, and theologians had applied
it to the Scripture. And so about 1850 you could mark the opening of a frontal
attack upon the Word of God. Satan had always been insidiously attacking it. But
now it was open season on the Book, open season on the Church, and Voltaire
could declare that he would live to see the Bible become a relic and just have
it placed only in museums; that it would be utterly destroyed by the arguments
that he was so forcefully presenting against it.
Well, what was the effect of this? The philosophy of the day
became humanism. And you could define humanism this way, humanism is a
philosophical statement that declares the end of all being is the happiness of
man. The reason for existence is man's happiness. Now according to humanism,
salvation is simply a matter of getting all the happiness you can out of life.
If you're influenced by someone like Nietzche who says that the only true
satisfaction in life is power and that the power is its own justification, and
that after all the world is a jungle. And it is therefore up to the man to be
happy, to become powerful, and become powerful by any means he can use. For it
is only in this position of ascendancy or as we saw in the worship of Molech
that one can be happy. This would produce in due course a Hitler who would take
the philosophy of Nietzche as his working operating principles and guide and
would say of his people that we are destined to rule the world. Therefore any
means that we can use to achieve this is our salvation.
Somebody else turns around and says, "Well no, the end of being
is happiness, but happiness doesn't come from authority over people, happiness
comes from sensual experience." So you would have the type of existentialism
that characterizes France today, that's given rise to beatnicism in America and
to the gross sensuality of our country. Since man is essentially a glandular
animal who's highest moments of ecstacy come from the exercise of his glands,
salvation is simply to find the most desirable way to gratify this part of a
person. And so this became the effect of humanism, that the end of all being is
the happiness of man. John Dewey, then an American philosopher influencing
education, was able to persuade the educators that there were no absolute
standards. Children shouldn't be brought to any particular standard, that the
end of education was simply to allow the child to express himself and expand on
what he is and find his happiness in being what he wants to be. So we had
cultural lawlessness, when every man could do as seemed right in his own eyes
and we had no God to rule over us. The Bible had been discounted and disallowed
and disproved according to what they said. God had been dethroned, He didn't
exist, He had no personal relationship to individuals. Jesus Christ was either a
myth or just a man, so they taught, and therefore the whole end of being was
happiness. The individual would establish the standards of his happiness and
interpret it.
LIBERAL, FUNDAMENTAL or...NEITHER?
Now religion then had to exist because there were so many
people that made their living at it, so they had to find some way to justify
their existence. So back about the time, in 1850, the church divided into two
groups. The one group was the liberals, who accepted the philosophy of the
humanism and tried to find some relevance by saying something like this to their
generation, "Ha, ha, we don't know there's a heaven. We don't know there's a
hell. But we do know this, that you've got to live for 70 years! We know there's
a great deal of benefit from poetry, from high thoughts and noble aspirations.
Therefore it's important for you to come to church on Sunday, so that we can
read some poetry, that we can give you some little adages and axioms and rules
to live by. We can't say anything about what's going to happen when you die, but
we'll tell you this, if you'll come every week and pay and help and stay with
us, we'll put springs on your wagon and your trip will be more comfortable. We
can't guarantee anything about what's going to happen when you die, but we say
that if you come along with us, we'll make you happier while you're alive". And
so this became the essence of liberalism. It has simply nothing more than to try
and put a little sugar in the bitter coffee of their journey and sweeten it up
for a time. This is all that it could say.
Well now the philosophy of the atmosphere is humanism; the
chief end of being is the happiness of man. There's another group of people that
have taken humbridge with the liberals, this group are my people, the
fundamentalists. They say, "We believe in the inspiration of the Bible! We
believe in the deity of Jesus Christ! We believe in hell! We believe in heaven!
We believe in the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ!" But remember the
atmosphere is that of humanism. And humanism says the chief end of being is the
happiness of man. Humanism is like a miasma out of a pit, it just permeates
everyplace. Humanism is like an infection, an epidemic, it just goes everywhere.
So it wasn't long until we had this, that the fundamentalists knew each other
because they said "We believe these things!" They were men for the most part
that had met God. But you see it wasn't long until having said "These are the
things that establish us as fundamentalists!", the second generation said "This
is how we become a fundamentalist! Believe in the inspiration of the Bible!
Believe in the deity of Christ! Believe in His death, burial, and resurrection!
And thereby become a fundamentalist". And so it wasn't long until it got to our
generation, where the whole plan of salvation was to give intellectual assent to
a few statements of doctrine. And a person was considered a Christian because he
could say "Ah hah" at four or five places that he was asked. If he knew where to
say "Ah hah", someone would pat him on the back, shake his hand, smile broadly,
and say "Brother, you're saved!" So it had gotten down to the place where
salvation was nothing more than an assent to a scheme or a formula, and the end
of this was that salvation was the happiness of man because humanism has
penetrated. If you were to analyze fundamentalism in contrast to liberalism of a
hundred years ago as it developed, for I am not pinpointing it in time, it would
be like this:
The liberal says the end of religion is to make man happy while
he's alive, and the fundamentalist says the end of religion is to make man happy
when he dies.
But again! The end of all of the religion it was proclaimed was
the happiness of man. And where as the liberal says, "By social change and
political order we're going to do away with funds, we're going to do away with
alcoholism and dope addiction and poverty. And we're going to make HEAVEN ON
EARTH! AND MAKE YOU HAPPY WHILE YOU'RE ALIVE! We don't know anything about after
that, but we want you to be happy while you're alive!" They went ahead to try
and do it only to be brought to a terrifying shock at the first World War and
utterly staggered by the second World War, because they seemed to be getting no
where fast.
And then the fundamentalists, along the same line, are now
tuning in along this same wavelength of humanism. Until we find it something
like this:
"Accept Jesus so you can go to heaven! you don't want to go to
that old, filthy, nasty, burning hell when there is a beautiful heaven up there!
now come to Jesus so you can go to heaven!"
And the appeal could be as much to selfishness as a couple of
men sitting in a coffee shop deciding they are going to rob a bank to get
something for nothing! There's a way that you can give an invitation to sinners,
that just sounds for all the world like a plot to take up a filling station
proprietor's Saturday night earnings without working for them.
Humanism is, I believe, the most deadly and disastrous of all
the philosophical stenches that's crepted up through the grating over the pit of
Hell. It has penetrated so much of our religion. AND IT IS IN UTTER AND TOTAL
CONTRAST WITH CHRISTIANITY! Unfortunately it's seldom seen. And here we find
Micah, wants to have a little chapel, and he wants to have a priest, and he
wants to have prayer, and he wants to have devotion, because "I KNOW THE LORD
WILL DO ME GOOD!" AND THIS IS SELFISHNESS !!! AND THIS IS SIN !!! And the Levite
comes along and falls right in with it! Because he wants a place! He wants ten
shekels and a shirt and his food! And so in order that he can have what he
wants, and Micah can have what they want, THEY SELL OUT GOD! For ten shekels and
a shirt. AND THIS IS THE BETRAYAL OF THE AGES !!! And it is the betrayal in
which we live. And I don't see HOW GOD CAN REVIVE IT! Until we come back to
Christianity. As in DIRECT AND TOTAL CONTRAST WITH THE STENCHFUL HUMANISM that's
perpetrated in our generation in the name of Christ.
I'm afraid that it's become so subtle that it goes everywhere.
What is it? In essence it's this! That this philosophical postulate that the end
of all being is the happiness of man, has been sort of covered over with
evangelical terms and Biblical doctrine until God reigns in heaven for the
happiness of man, Jesus Christ was incarnate for the happiness of man, all the
angels exist in the..., Everything is for the happiness of man! AND I SUBMIT TO
YOU THAT THIS IS UNCHRISTIAN !!! Isn't man happy? Didn't God intend to make man
happy? Yes. But as a by-product and not a prime-product!
REVERANCE FOR LIFE
It was that good man that's so admired by the fuzzy thinkers of
our day, out there in Africa, dear Dr. Schweitzer. Bless his heart, he's a
brilliant man. A philosopher, doctor, musician, composer, undoubtedly a
brilliant man. But Dr. Schweitzer is no more Christian than this rose and he
would call it a personal insult if he were to say he was a Christian. He doesn't
see Christ as having any relevance to his philosophy or life. Dr. Schweitzer is
a humanist. Dr. Schweitzer was sitting on the bow of the boat going up the broad
Congo river toward his station, watching the Belgian government officials with
their high power rifles, shooting at the crocodiles sunning on the mud flats
along the river. They were expert marksman. They would use these dumb-dumb
bullets that would explode inside the crocodile and just SEND THEM SPINNING UP
INTO THE AIR, from the contraction of muscles. You say, "How do you know so much
about it." Well to my shame, I was guilty of the same thing in the Nile. And
they were there, this was what their sport was, they bagged them, and they kept
count, and they'd put strings around the place where their gun was, and have a
little place for the gun and then they'd tie knots so that they could see how
many crocodiles they killed. A COLOSSAL WASTE OF LIFE!
And it was there that Schweitzer saw the essence of his
philosophy. And do you know what it is? Three words - reverence for life.
REVERENCE FOR LIFE! Crocodile life....., human life....., and other kinds of
life. My friend, George Kline who was with us last week and is going back to the
Gaboon, was just about 50 or 60 miles away from this Dr. Schweitzer's station.
You know Dr. Schweitzer is so convinced of reverence of life that he doesn't
like to sterilize his surgery. He has the dirtiest surgery in Africa. Because
bacteria are life and he doesn't want to hurt any of the good bacteria with the
bad, so he just sort of let's them all grow together.
His organ broke, someone had sent him out an organ and the
means of playing it. Mr. Kline is an expert organist and an organ repairer as
well so he went over to see Dr. Schweitzer, and Dr. Schweitzer said, "George do
you think you can fix my organ?", he said "I wouldn't be surprised, let me try
it". So he took the back off and to his amazement he discovered a huge nest of
cockroaches. With characteristic, American enthusiasm and zeal George started
trampling all over the cockroaches not to let a one of them get away. And the
good doctor came out, his hair standing straighter than it had for a long time,
and because of his anger he said "YOU STOP THAT RIGHT NOW!" George said, "Why?
their ruining your organ." He said, "That's alright, they were just being true
to their nature," he said, "you can't kill those." So one of the boys came in
and said, "It's alright Mr. Kline." And he reached down very tenderly, picked
them up, and put them in a little bag, and crimped the top, and he put each
cockroach in, and they took them out into the jungle and let them
loose.
Now here was a man that believed his philosophy, reverence for
life. UTTERLY COMMITTED TO IT! UTTERLY CONSISTENT! Even when it came to the
matter of cockroach or a microbe. Do you see? This is humanism, this is
consistency.
NOW I ASK YOU WHAT IS THE PHILOSOPHY OF MISSIONS? WHAT IS THE
PHILOSOPHY OF EVANGELISM? WHAT IS THE PHILOSOPHY OF A CHRISTIAN?
If you'll ask me why I went to Africa, I'll tell you I went
primarily to improve on the justice of God. I didn't think it was right for
anybody to go to Hell without a chance to be saved. So I went to give poor
sinners a chance to go to heaven. Now I haven't put it in so many words, but if
you'll 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 weren't 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 THEN 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 He'd 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 didn't want to go there, and that they
loved their sin and wanted to stay in it.
I went out there motivated by humanism. I'd seen pictures of
lepers, I'd seen pictures of ulcers, I'd seen pictures of native funerals, and I
didn't 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 didn't 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 loved 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 they're going to go to Hell, not
because they haven't heard the gospel. They're going to go to Hell because they
are sinners, WHO LOVE THEIR SIN! And because they deserve Hell. BUT, I didn't
send you out there for them. I didn't send you out there for their sakes."
And I heard as clearly as I've ever heard, though it wasn't with physical voice
but it was the echo of truth of the ages finding its' way into an open heart. I
heard God say to my heart that day something like this, "I didn't send you to
Africa for the sake of the heathen, I sent you to Africa for My sake. They
deserved Hell! But I LOVE THEM !!! AND I ENDURED THE AGONIES OF HELL FOR THEM
!!! I DIDN'T SEND YOU OUT THERE FOR THEM !!! I SENT YOU OUT THERE FOR ME !
DO I NOT DESERVE THE REWARD OF MY SUFFERING? DON'T I DESERVE THOSE FOR WHOM I
DIED?"
And it REVERSED IT ALL! AND CHANGED IT ALL! AND RIGHTED IT ALL!
And I wasn't any longer working for Micah and tens 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 didn't deserve
it. But He deserved them. 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 Levite serving Micah,
and the other is a heart that's unworthy serving the living God, because it's
the highest honor in the universe.
WHAT ABOUT YOU?
What about you? Why did you repent? I'd 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, you're
monsters, MONSTERS OF INIQUITY! You deserve Hell! And the worst of your crimes
is that criminals though you've been, you haven't 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 didn't even see their sin or care about
their crimes. You see the difference? You see the difference? The difference is,
here's 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 !!!
He's only trembling because his skin is about to be singed.
He's afraid and I submit to you that where as fear is good office work in
preparing us for grace, it's no place to stop. And the Holy Ghost doesn't stop
there. That's the reason why no one can savingly receive Christ until they've
repented. And no one can repent until they've 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 GOD'S
WRATH. AND IF GOD WERE TO SEND HIM TO THE LOWEST CORNER OF A DEVIL'S HELL
FOREVER AND TEN ETERNITIES, THAT HE DESERVED IT ALL! And a hundred fold more.
Because he's seen his crimes. He's not been convinced he's caught, but HE'S SEEN
HIS CRIMES!
THE PREACHERS
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. When he would stand there with the two to three
hour sermons that he was accustomed to deliver in the open air and 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,
and 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 they'd seen the enormity of their sins
and God had so penetrated their minds and hearts that they had FALLEN TO THE
GROUND!
It wasn't only in Wesley's day. It was also in America, New
Haven, Connecticut, Yale. A man by the name of John Wesley Redfield had
continuous ministry for three years in and around New Haven. Culminating in the
great meetings in the Yale Ball, the first of the Yale Balls' back in the 18th
century. The policemen 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 they'd lock him up, but if he didn't, he had Redfield's disease. And
all you needed to do if anyone had Redfield's disease was just take him into a
quiet place and leave him until he came too. Because if they were drunkards,
they'd stop drinking, and if they were cruel, they'd 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.
THE DIFFERENCE!
But there was a difference! It wasn't trying to convince a 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 consequences
were repentance, that lead to faith, and lead to the life. Dear friends, there's
only one reason, one reason for a sinner to repent and that's because Jesus
Christ deserves the worship and adoration and the love and the obedience of his
heart. Not because he'll 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! THAT'S ALL! You're trying to serve God because He'll 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 and righteous God the worship
and obedience that He deserves!
Why should a sinner repent? BECAUSE GOD DESERVES THE OBEDIENCE
AND LOVE THAT HE'S REFUSED TO GIVE HIM! Not so that he'll go to heaven. If the
only reason he repents is so that he'll go to heaven, it's 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 HE'S COMING TO CHRIST?
BECAUSE GOD DESERVES THE OBEDIENCE THAT HE DEMANDS !!!
I have talked with people that have no assurance that sins are
forgiven. They want to feel safe, before they're willing to commit themselves to
Christ. But I believe that the only ones whom God actually witnesses by His
Spirit and are born of Him, are the people, whether they say it or not, that
come to Jesus Christ and say something like this, "Lord Jesus, I'm going to obey
you, and love you, and serve you, and do what you want me to do, as long as I
live even if I go to Hell at the end of the road, simply because YOU ARE WORTHY
TO BE LOVED, AND OBEYED, AND SERVED, and I'm not trying to make a deal with
you!" Do you see the difference? Do you see the difference? Between a Levite
serving for ten shekels and a shirt or a Micah building a chapel because God
will do you good AND someone that repents for the glory of God.
Why should a person come to the cross? Why should a person
embrace death with Christ? Why should a person be willing to go, in
identification, down to the cross and into the tomb and up
again? I'll tell you why! BECAUSE IT'S THE ONLY WAY THAT GOD CAN GET GLORY OUT
OF A HUMAN BEING !!! If you say it's because he'll get joy or peace or blessing
or success or fame then it's nothing but a Levite serving for ten shekels and a
shirt. THERE IS ONLY ONE REASON FOR YOU TO GO TO THE CROSS DEAR YOUNG PERSON.
And that's because until you come to the place of union with Christ in death you
are defrauding the Son of God of the glory that He could get out of your life.
For no flesh shall glory in His sight. And until you've understood the
sanctifying work of God by the Holy Ghost taking you into union with Christ in
death and burial and resurrection, you have to serve in what you have and all
you have which is under the sentence of death: human personality, and human
nature, and human strength, and human energy. And God will get no glory out of
that!
So the reason for you to go to the cross isn't that you're
going to get victory, you will get victory. It isn't that you're going to have
joy, you will have joy. But the reason for you to embrace the cross and press
through until you know that you can testify with Paul "I am crucified with
Christ" (Gal 2:20), it isn't what you're going to get out of it, but what He'll
get out of it, for the glory of God. By the same token: Why aren't you pressed
through to know the fullness of the Holy Spirit? Why aren't you pressed through
to know the fullness of Christ? I'll tell you why? BECAUSE THE ONLY POSSIBLE WAY
THAT JESUS CHRIST WILL GET GLORY OUT OF A LIFE THAT HE'S REDEEMED WITH HIS
PRECIOUS BLOOD IS WHEN HE CAN FILL THAT LIFE WITH HIS PRESENCE AND LIVE THROUGH
IT HIS OWN LIFE.
The genius of our faith wasn't that we were going to go through
the motions like a Levite that was hired to serve God. No, No! The genius of our
faith was that we'd come to a place where we knew we could do nothing, and all
we could do would be to present the vessel and say Lord Jesus "You'll have to
fill it. And everything that's done will have to be done by You and for You."
But, oh, I know so many people that are trying to know the fullness of God, so
that they can use God.
THE POWER OF THE SPIRIT
A young preacher came to me down in Huntington, West Virginia.
He said, "Brother Reidhead I've got a great church. I've got a wonderful Sunday
School program, got a radio ministry, growing, but I feel a personal need and a
personal lack, I need to be baptized with the Holy Ghost, I need to be filled
with the Spirit. And someone told me God had done something for you, and I
wonder if you could help me?" I looked at the fellow, and you know what he
looked like? ME. Just looked like me. I just saw in him everything that was in
me. You thought I was going to say me before. No, listen dear heart, if you've
ever seen yourself you'll know you're never going to be anything else than you
were. For in me and my flesh there's no good thing (Rom 7:18). He looked like
me.
He was like a fellow driving up in a big Cadillac, you know, to
someone standing at the filling station, saying "Fill'r up Bub, with the highest
octane you got!". Well that's the way it looked, he wanted power for his
program. God is not going to be a means to anyone's end. I said, "I'm awfully
sorry, I don't think that I can help you." He said, "Why?" I said, "I don't
think you're ready". I said, "Well suppose you consider yourself coming up with
a Cadillac, you've talked about your program, you've talked about your radio,
you've talked about your Sunday School and church. It's very good. You've done
wonderfully well without the power of the Holy Spirit".
That's what the Chinese Christian said, you know, when he got
back to China. "What impressed you most about America?" He said, "The great
things Americans can accomplish without God." And he (the young preacher)
accomplished a great deal, admittedly without God. Now he wanted something of
power to accomplish his ends even further. I said, "No..., no, you're sitting
behind the wheel and you're saying to God give me power so I can go, You won't
work, You've got to slide over." But I knew that rascal, because I knew me. I
said, "No, it will never do, you've got to get in the back seat." And I could
see him leaning over and grabbing the wheel. "No," I said, "it will never do in
the back seat." I said, "Before God will do anything for you, you know what
you've got to do?" So he said, "What?" I said, "You've got to get out of the
car, take the keys around, open up the trunk lid, hand the keys to the Lord
Jesus, get inside the trunk, slam the lid down, whisper through the keyhole,
'Lord look, fill'r up with anything you want and you drive, it's up to you from
now on'".
That's why so many people you know do not enter into the
fullness of Christ. Because they want to become a Levite with ten shekels and a
shirt. They've been serving Micah, but they think if they had the power of the
Holy Ghost they could serve the tribe of Dan.
It will never work. Never work. There's
only one reason for God needing you and that's to bring you to the place where,
in repentance, you've been pardoned for His glory. And in victory you've been
brought to the place of death that He might reign. And in the fullness, Jesus
Christ is able to live and walk in you.
Your attitude is the attitude of the Lord Himself, who said, "I
can do nothing of Myself" (John 8:28). I can't speak of myself. I don't make
plans for myself. My only reason for being is for the glory of God in Jesus
Christ. If I were to say to you, "Come to be saved so you can go to heaven, come
to the cross so that you can have joy and victory, come for the fullness of the
Spirit so that you can be satisfied." I would be falling into the trap of
humanism.
I'm going to say to you dear friend if you're out here without
Christ, you come to Jesus Christ and serve Him as long as you live whether you
go to Hell at the end of the way BECAUSE HE IS WORTHY!
I say to you Christian friend you come to the cross and join
Him in union, in death, and enter into all the meaning of death to self in order
that HE can have glory. I say to you dear Christian if you do not know the
fullness of the Holy Ghost, come and present your body a living sacrifice, and
let Him fill you so that He can have the purpose for His coming fulfilled in
you and get glory through your life. IT'S NOT WHAT YOU'RE GOING TO GET OUT
OF GOD, IT'S WHAT'S HE IS GOING TO GET OUT OF YOU.
Let's be done, once and for all, with utilitarian Christianity
that makes God a means, instead of the glorious END that He is. Let's resign,
let's tell Micah we're through. We're no longer going to be his priests serving
for ten shekels and a shirt. Let's tell the tribe of Dan we're through. And
let's come and cast ourselves at the feet of the nail pierced Son of God and
tell Him that we're going to obey Him, and love Him, and serve Him, as long as
we live BECAUSE HE IS WORTHY!
THE LAMB WHO WAS SLAIN
Two young Moravians heard of an island in the West Indies where
an atheist British owner had 2000 to 3000 slaves. And the owner had said, "No
preacher, no clergyman, will ever stay on this island. If he's ship wrecked
we'll keep him in a separate house until he has to leave, but he's never going
to talk to any of us about God, I'm through with all that nonsense." Three
thousand slaves from the jungles of Africa brought to an island in the Atlantic
and there to live and die without hearing of Christ.
Two young Moravians heard about it. They sold themselves to the
British planter and used the money they received from their sale, for he paid no
more than he would for any slave, to pay their passage out to his island for he
wouldn't even transport them. As the ship left its' pier in the river at Hamburg
and was going out into the North Sea carried with the tide, the Moravians had
come from Herrenhut to see these two lads off, in their early twenties. Never to
return again, for this wasn't a four year term, they sold themselves into life
time slavery. Simply that as slaves, they could be as Christians where these
others were. The families were there weeping, for they knew they would never see
them again. And they wondered why they were going and questioned the wisdom of
it. As the gap widened and the housings had been cast off and were being curled
up there on the pier, and the young boys saw the widening gap, one lad with his
arm linked through the arm of his fellow, raised his hand and shouted across the
gap the last words that were heard from them, they were these, "MAY THE LAMB
THAT WAS SLAIN RECEIVE THE REWARD OF HIS SUFFERING!" This became the call of
Moravian missions. And this is the only reason for being, That the Lamb that
was slain may receive the reward of His suffering!
This page may be copied and distributed freely as long as it is
not altered.
|
