“I am trusting thee, Lord Jesus”. We need to trust God – He wants to be trusted, and He wants to trust you and me, too. This morning, when baptism was announced, there came to me a little baptism in Mexico. Only seven or eight gathered around the brook to be baptised. Just before we went down, a brother asked me if it would be alright to leave his keys in his pocket when he was baptised. I said, “I suppose so, I don’t think they would rust”. “It isn’t that that is on my mind”, he said. “I can’t baptise my home or my car, but if I have my keys in my pocket when I am baptised, I will be reminded that every time I put the key in the door of my home ‘this is a consecrated home and nothing will enter the door of this home that doesn’t please God’. And every time I put the key in the car I will be reminded, this car will go no place that doesn’t honour God”. I said, “Baptise your keys”. I wish all the keys in Mexico were baptised!
To me the Gospel story is the most precious message ever sent from Heaven, because this Gospel story came to the world by Jesus. There is nothing I enjoy more than a part in a Gospel meeting, to try to have a message to help someone be drawn by the power of the Gospel to follow Jesus and have their eyes fixed on Him. Paul could say, “I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation”. When the Gospel came to you and to me, it didn’t come alone, it came accompanied – not in word only but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power. (1 Corinthians 2:4). I was brought up a Baptist and went to many evangelistic services; I listened to some wonderful preaching by ministers who were educated in seminaries. They preached in such a way that people were moved by emotion. But what puzzled me was the question, “Do you want to be a Baptist, a Methodist, etc.?” Dad said, “Be a Baptist”.
I heard a man preach a wonderful sermon, Jesus Christ the same, yesterday, today, forever – and after the service he charged $50! It was always accompanied by a collection. When I listened to the Truth of God, the preaching was so different. I enjoyed it so much that after the meeting, I went up and offered the preacher $5. “No, we don’t want your money”. It was the first time in my life that a preacher had refused my money. I saw the power of example, those who were living and teaching what Jesus had taught. It wasn’t just accompanied by example, but by the power of prayer. They prayed for me when I didn’t know how to pray for myself. This salvation didn’t only come accompanied by the power of the Gospel, the power of example and the power of prayer – it came accompanied by the power of love. Those four powers had a tremendous effect on my life and I am thankful for it brought a change in my life that I hardly realised.
I worked as a book-keeper in the lumber yard. The boss’s daughter used to come down to the office to help me. Her father thought quite a bit of me, and didn’t hinder anything. Then he asked me to go to the theatre with his family. “No, thanks, I’m not interested, I have something else to attend”. One day he came to me with a special ticket for a special show. “My wife, my daughter and myself are going, there’s your ticket”. I didn’t want to be ornery (stubborn) about it, so I went there with them. I sat in the same place I had sat in many a time, but that night I was a most miserable boy sitting there. I sat through it, and afterwards I told the boss, “I sure thank you for bringing me with you tonight”. He said, “I would like to do it a lot more, but you are not so willing”. I answered, “No, and if you ask me again, I am not going to go either”. I didn’t realise that I had changed that much. At one time I would have spent anything I had left over at the theatre, but it had lost all interest for me. A new life had been born – that is the power of the Gospel. It is called the Gospel of God , because He is the author, it is called the Gospel of Christ because He is the Redeemer, it is called the Gospel of Salvation because that is its purpose and of Hope because that is the result.
I would like to share with you this evening something that has meant a good deal to me from the book of Zechariah. There were things that the angel showed to Zechariah. We are glad that God doesn’t ask us to believe without being shown. The angel was the messenger. A faithful messenger is one that is willing to receive a message and to deliver it. In the telegraph office in Mexico City there are boys waiting their turn just to carry a telegram. As soon as their name is called, they take the telegram, jump on their bikes and deliver it to the address. The same thing happens with the mailman. He delivers a letter to your house, and sometimes he doesn’t know the value of the letter that he puts in your hand. The message stays’, but the messenger goes on. The big job that the Lord has is to get messengers in shape to take the message. In this book of Zechariah God gave a message to the angel and the angel delivered it. “I saw” – it is repeated over and over. He remembered a date – do you remember the date when you first listened to the Gospel? If you do, you do better than I. We know the day we were born because someone told us.
Zechariah 1:8 – “I saw by night . . . I will show thee what these be . . . these arc they whom the Lord hath sent to walk to and fro through the earth”. The Lord showed to him His messengers. Sometimes we can see by night better than we can by day. Wasn’t that true in the case of Nicodemus? Some say that Nicodemus was an important preacher or a great man among the Pharisees and that Jesus was so humble, that he had to come by night. Others say that he was too busy to go by day. There are different ideas as to why he came by night. They say all cats look like black cats at night. But I feel that the reason Nicodemus came by night to Jesus was the same reason as you and I came – in the darkness of our soul. We couldn’t see until the glorious light of Heaven shone into our hearts. Paul was blind and became a little child. “What wilt Thou have me to do?”. That was a motto that Paul carried all the days of his life. The Lord didn’t send him to one of the apostles, but to a humble child of God. lie came and said, “Brother Saul”, he recognised that he had changed, from Saul (big) to Paul (little).
Zechariah 1:18 – “Then lifted I up mine eyes and saw, and behold four horns . . . these are the horns which have scattered . . and the Lord showed me four carpenters . . . these are come to fray them, to cast out the horns”. There are two powers that work, one for destruction and one for construction, and are still at work in the world today. The devil’s purpose is to destroy, to ruin, to tear down all that God wants to build up. We are thankful that the Lord has faithful builders. We used to sing a hymn, and I think it is coming back in the new book, “We are building day by day a temple that the world cannot see”. Noah obeyed to the letter of the word and he was 100 years in building. We are building for eternity. There was only one window in the ark – I believe God didn’t want Noah to see the death going on around him. One man was a long, long time coming to Gospel meetings, and the day came when he was finally moved. I said, “All the time you were coming you were on the outside looking in, but now you are on the inside looking out”. He said, “Never! There is nothing to look out on. I am keeping my eyes in”. Noah built the ark for the saving of a family – just one family. And when Jesus comes there will be just one family saved, and that is the family of God. God doesn’t want an organisation; He wants a family of brothers and sisters.
Solomon was a builder too. He built a house for God, according to the plan. The first twenty years of Solomon’s rule the kingdom prospered. He built two houses, one for God and one for himself, but the sad thing was he accomplished his desire after twenty years and began to go down and down until we hardly know if they were saved or not. He began to bring into the kingdom things that should never have been brought in – peacocks and monkeys – what good are they? They were just to entertain. People would like to bring things in today, just to entertain, but that is the way down.
Paul was a builder – “another foundation can no man lay than that is laid . . . every man’s work shall be made manifest”.. (1 Corinthians 3:11). In sending God’s servants two by two, people say it can’t be done now, it is out of date. They say that the bumble bee cannot fly because its wings are too short and the body too heavy and out of proportion, but the bumble bee doesn’t know anything about that so he just goes on flying around. People look us in the face and say, “You can’t do that now”, but we are still doing it. Isaiah 28:21 – “For the Lord shall rise up . . . that He may do His work, His strange work; and bring to pass His act, His strange act”. To the world it is strange – they cannot understand it. Acts are just what you are doing, and people don’t know how it works, they marvel at it and recognise that it is something different. One man came to convention for the first time and after he had eaten a meal, he said, “What do I owe you?” I said, “You don’t pay”. He marvelled, “You mean you are feeding that whole crowd and you don’t take any pay? Well, that is a queer thing”. He had never gone where he hadn’t had to pay.
Zechariah 2:1 – a measuring line. “And he said, Run, speak to this young man”. 1 used to think all the prophets in the Bible were old grey-haired men, but it tells us clearly, this young man. When the Lord takes a messenger, he doesn’t measure how long we have been in the way. We may have been in this way a long, long time but haven’t made much progress. He doesn’t measure our head; He measures our heart. Is your heart getting bigger or is it shrinking up? The Lord wants a hearty people, not a heady people, to be making progress, not at a stand-still. Some come into the Way and lope along, not getting very far but others come in with lots of zeal. It is good if we cut everything that holds us down. Jesus told His disciples to lose the colt. The woman who was bowed down for eighteen years – the devil had her bound so she could see nothing above, only what was around her feet. How long were you bound? Eighteen years she was bound and her vision was then lifted – she could see what she never saw before. You would know the story about the two men from the country who went to town to buy supplies. They crossed the river and tied up the row boat while they went about their business in town. But they went to the tavern and drank more than they should have, and when they got out, they hardly made it to the boat. They got in and each took an oar and rowed and rowed until they were completely worn out, and they went to sleep. In the morning they awoke – “Where are we?” They were still at the same place because they forgot to untie the rope.
The things that he saw in this chapter, the Lord wants us to see also. Maybe we won’t feel very big, but let the Lord do a work in us. “And he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him”. Satan never misses a meeting and never misses a chance to hinder. He goes on every bus and plane, and never has to pay either. His purpose is to resist, to hinder. Joshua had someone to defend him. “The Lord rebuke thee, 0 Satan . . . is not this a brand plucked out of the fire?” We are thankful that the Lord picked us out. You remember that Abram was found in the land of Mesopotamia, the land of the Chaldeans. Genesis 11:31. If he had stayed, all that he had lived for would have been reduced to ashes. He obeyed, and the Lord blessed him and made him a blessing. 2 Samuel 6:14 When David brought the ark home he danced, but he wasn’t swinging a woman around. There was real gladness in his heart. He went to bless his home. If we could leave this place tomorrow night and bless our home, be a blessing in the church and be a blessing in the neighbourhood, this convention would not be in vain. Lot was also taken out, the Lord brought him out. Genesis 19. – that righteous soul – I suppose it was possible that the poor fellow just lost hope – such an irreligious bunch there in Sodom. But the Lord remembered him and brought him out. He didn’t have a very good finish, sad to say. Daniel was saved from the burning fire. That fire had no damage on him. This world is a fiery place. But not even a hair was singed and his clothes had no smell of fire on them.
Zechariah 3:3 – Joshua was clothed in filthy garments and stood before the angel. Isaiah 52:1 – the first garment to be put on was strength. Then the other garments follow – humility, obedience, faithfulness – these are the garments that are always in style and the things that the Lord values and appreciates. Zechariah 3:4 – “I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee and I will clothe thee with change of raiment let them set a fair mitre upon his head”. A mitre is a crown. He was a king. God wants us to have power to reign over anything that would destroy. I have a little kingdom that I need to reign over – my cars arc members of this kingdom. What was that you said? I have to reign over that! We heard this afternoon that if we can’t say anything good about someone, better not to say anything. I have eyes, too, and they need to be watched pretty closely. You may see a magazine or book – “I’ll just look at the pictures in it for a little while” – then you get your nose in it and you can hardly lay it down!
My father was blind, and he was sorry for us boys. “When you are going past the picture theatre, you look at the signs and think how much you would like to be in there. But I can walk right by there and it doesn’t bother me at all!” My father never ceased to thank God for the day He opened his eyes. My Mum and Dad were both blind, never saw each other and never saw their children. We two boys didn’t get by with just anything we wanted. I had to pay dearly sometimes. I was coming home from school one day and there was a ball lying on the footpath. I took it home, bounced it around. Dad said, “Where did you get that ball?” “I found it.” “Where did you find it?” “It was lying out there in the street.” “Well, where?” “In front of the Thompson’s house.” He was the banker. Dad said, “Didn’t you know that was their ball?” “Yes, I suppose it was.” “Tomorrow you will take it back. You will go right to the house and say you are bringing back the ball that you stole from them last night.” I said, “But they will think I am a thief!” But I went up next day, with my feet pretty heavy. Mrs. Thompson came out, but I didn’t tell her I stole the ball. I said, “I am bringing back this ball. I picked it up and took it home last night.” She said, “Don’t you have a ball?” “No, I don’t.” “Well, for being such a good, honest boy I just want to give you this ball”. It really was mine then. I owe an awful lot to my mother and father and we owe a great deal to those that tried to put into us a fear of God even when they were in darkness themselves.
When the Gospel came it won my parents’ hearts. I hadn’t gone to the meetings but they did. That story is too long to tell here, but Mum and Dad decided and I went to that first meeting. It touched my heart, and when I heard my mother pray for me, that brought me down. I sat in the meetings and three weeks later I decided at 21 years old. The next year I went into the work. My Dad said, “Son, we will never cease to pray for you”. That’s one thing I have missed most of all now – the prayers of my parents. My brother said he would take care of them until they died and then he would go into the work, too. But Mother and Dad didn’t co-operate – they kept on living! When my brother got to 29 years old, he married, and they had a daughter, who later had three children, all professed. When I went back home in 1943 my nephew was born. He went on to do very well as a draftsman. But when we met at a convention, he wasn’t satisfied. He said, “I am still free. What would you do if you were me?” I said, “I don’t want you to have the feeling that your uncle wants you in the work. That wouldn’t last”. He said, “I will write you a letter after I pray about it’!. I still have the letter and that was twenty years ago. He thought he had some hard decisions to make, but the Lord won. “Where should I offer?” He went into the work in Illinois for about 16 years and then he came to Mexico. Today he is labouring in Mexico City, 16 million people, a tremendous field. He was there when the earthquake took those 2000 buildings down, but not one of the saints was hurt. We are thankful that the Lord is still able to send messengers out into the harvest field.
Truth Archive 