S. Our Golden Opportunity

OUR GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY Dr. W. A. Criswell Acts 18:9-10 01-17-54 In our preaching through the Word, we have come to Acts 18:1-28. And this is the third sermon that the pastor has preached on Acts 18:9-10. And the sermon tonight will be the fourth sermon on that text. Used to, I felt a great compulsion to hurry. And in these last several years, I have just quit that. When I come to a place in the Bible where so many things cry out to be spoken, I just stop. If there are six sermons on one text, then we just wait before going on to those six messages. So this morning for the third time, Acts 18:9-10. This is a revival. Look at it: “Then spake the Lord to Paul in the night by a vision, Be not afraid, but speak and hold not thy peace: For I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee: for I have much people in this city" [Acts 18:9-10].

"Be not afraid, but speak and hold not thy peace: for I am with thee. And I-I have much people in this city." The Lord and this city somehow, the two go together. I used always to think of the Lord as being out there on the mountainside by Himself. And that is right. And on the waters alone at night in Galilee. That is right. And in the little city of Nazareth. That is right. And as you look at the Lord more closely, you will find in His heart the compassion for the big cities. The Bible says that our Savior steadfastly set His face toward the city-the Lord and the city. The Bible says that the Lord deliberately, volitionally chose to die in the city-the Lord and the city. And the Bible says that when the Lord came and saw Jerusalem, that He we wept over the city-city. And from His throne in heaven today, He has compassion on the city. "For I have much people in this city." And in the glorious incomparable faith chapter, the eleventh chapter of Hebrews, speaking of the old patriarch, the Bible says, “confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. . . , seeking a better country; . . . "wherefore, God also is not ashamed to be called their God, for He hath prepared for them a city” [Heb 11:13-16]." And in the twenty-first chapter of the Revelation, "And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem coming down from God out of heaven" [Rev 21:1]-the city of God. The work in the city is hard and laborious and disturbing and difficult. The reason the Lord appeared to Paul in the night in Corinth was because of the immeasurable, illimitable, indescribable discouragement of the missionary as he sought to build the work of Jesus in the city. In Athens, he left discouraged and in Corinth the prospects were no easier, nor the future any brighter. And after laboring there in the great city of Corinth, Paul purposed in his heart to leave. It was then that the Lord appeared to him in the night in a vision saying, "Paul, not so, not so. You’re to stay in this town in the heart of this vast city, for I have much people in it." The discouragement of the city are not peculiar nor are they local. They are vast. For the spirit of those who work for Christ in any place, in any state and in any country, in the sixteenth chapter of the First Corinthian Letter, Paul, writing to this person from Corinth, said: "I have determined to stay in Ephesus-the great capital city of Asia-I have determined to stay in Ephesus unto Pentecost. For a great door, and effectual has been opened unto me and there are many adversaries" [1Co 16:8-9]. And it is always true. And there are many discouragements-many despairs, many adversaries. I have been pastor of most every kind of a church to speak of.

Fourteen years I have preached out in the country and in the small villages. The church was easy. There, I would preach a sermon Sunday morning and Sunday night, Saturday night. Oh, that would do until I came back again. Those fine people, out plowing in the field and thinking about the services, turning over in their mind what the pastor said. Going home, no place to go, meditating on the Word. When I came back, there would be a multitude of things. Many of them would ask me about the sermon I preached two weeks ago, or a month ago if it were quarter-time or half-time church. In the small towns where I was pastor, we would have a revival meeting. Everybody from the ends of our road, from the parts of the creek, from the head of the hollow, everybody came. And if we had a big preacher from the city, why, it was an event. It was an epoch in the life of the small town. In the city, why, they hardly know you are here. They pass you by the thousands and the thousands. They are in a rut. They are busy. They are building empires. They are making fortunes, or losing them. There is always entertainment. There is a show. There is a brothel. There is a wrestling match. There is a sortatorium [solarium]. There is a Fair Park. There is an operetta. There is an opera. There is everything. And the people in the city are engrossed. And the poor preacher and the poor missionary and poor Paul, the work in the city is difficult. And the Lord appeared unto Paul in the night saying, "Paul, you are not to leave. You are not to despair. And you are not to be discouraged. For I have much people in this city." So here we are in the middle of it, in the heart of it, in the center of it. And how are we doing? How are we faring? Well, good. Good. And while in our church and its ministry, Sunday morning it looks good. Our Sunday school and our preaching attendance and our financial program and the ministry of the organized life of our church, it looks good. And I am grateful for it. And I do not think I could stand in this pulpit and say that this Sunday or last week or last year or any year I have been here, I have done my share. Have you? As fine as we do, and as good as we have done, and with all that we have poured into this ministry, we still can do better, much better, a lot better.

I look at our Sunday school. I have said before, repeat it now, I have not changed in that purpose. I think any Sunday that we fall below three thousand in attendance, we are not doing good. We are not doing as good as we ought. We should do better. Oh, this week, Dr. Dobbins speaking to us about our Sunday school, I conceded to him we had a solid barrier there. These fellows that drive these jet planes say that up to about seven hundred fifty miles per hour the plane will do pretty good. But somewhere is a barrier, a solid barrier that exceeds the speed of sound. And when they broke that, the plane trembled and quivered. And it had a tremendous effort to break through the sound barrier. But once he said you are on the other side of it, then you can see it is easy. And in our Sunday school, we get to twenty-seven, twenty-eight, twenty-nine hundred. One time we went over three thousand-weeks, months ago-but we stagger at it. We stagger at it. The furthest barrier for our Sunday school used to be about three thousand. And we quivered. It is hard. Yet we can do it. The people are here. They are God’s people. "I have much people in the city." Our Sunday school-let us rise to do it. We can. By the spring, every Sunday there ought to be at least three thousand down here being taught the Word of God.

I look at our baptisms. The people we win to Christ. We have another solid barrier there-three hundred. We win two hundred seventy-four, two hundred seventy-one; two hundred seventy-three. But we never get to that three hundred and beyond. We can, we ought, we must, we should. "I have much people in this city." And in our leadership, there are not nearly, not nearly all of our people in places of responsibility. My impression of the church is that a few of you do practically all of the work-three or four hundred of them; five or six hundred at the most. Out of the thousands that belong to this communion and fellowship, three, four, five, or six hundred of us carry all of its responsibility. And in the whole setup, as I look at it, grateful to God for it, thankful to heaven for the work that we have done, but oh, we can do better. We can do better. And we must. We can. We shall. And we will. Now how?

I have two or three suggestions to make in the time they have. First, we will do it. We will achieve it by keeping in us and working it around us, the spirit of youth. You see, you expect me to say pray and to visit and to win souls. That is right. But these are some things we do not ever mention and we must never forget. First, the spirit of youth. To the young, to the vigorous, to the active, to be alive, to be quickened, to be counted, the church with a spirit of youth all through it. Everywhere. Everywhere. The big day, let them come. The great hour, we shall arrive at. The spirit of youth.

Oh, this week, listening to my old professor teach that class, Dr. Dobbins, several times he referred to a church saved in my memory as I try to pastor this downtown church in the Dallas. And it was a tremendous church. In Louisville, Kentucky, in the heart of the city. And it had a gloriously eloquent pastor. His name was Carter Helm Jones and he was the pastor of the Broadway Church in Louisville. One of the richest churches in America and within of the greatest and one of the most famous. I heard Carter Helm Jones when I first went to the seminary. Eloquent, oh, he had everything that a polished orator ought to have. He stood in the pulpit where he unraveled I suppose in school, this eloquent symmetry about the Lord Jesus. Carter Helm Jones’ father was the chaplain to Robert E. Lee in the Confederate Army. I remember one time Carter Helm Jones describing when his father, the chaplain sent him to Robert E. Lee with a message. Doctor-and Robert E. Lee in reply to that message got on his horse, Traveler. And he picked up the little boy, Carter Helm Jones, and placed him in the saddle. And so they rode together in answer of the appeal of the chaplain-his father. Oh, he was everything. And the church loved him. And the people thronged to hear him. So they came to the Broadway Church to listen to Carter Helm Jones. And Carter Helm Jones died and the church died and desired just to listen to a master sermon of the brilliant orator. And they lost their young people, and they lost their babies. And the church groaned in his heart, in his soul, in his outlook. And the church died. And you would drive down Broadway in Louisville, Kentucky. And where that glorious church of Carter Helm Jones once stood, there is an empty used car lot there now. The church is gone. The stones are gone. The spire is gone. The building is gone. Everything is gone. Just a memory of some of our-who knew us there and who knew the great preacher, Dr. Jones.

My, dear people, everybody in this church has to stay young. Everybody. Everybody. All of us have got to stay young, all of us. Nobody here growing old. Our faces may wrinkle; but our hearts, never, never, never. Staying young. Seventy years young. Seventy-five years young. Eighty years young. What do you mean by that, Preacher? I mean, that in the outlook and in our vision and in our planning and in our work, all of us are like kids, working for God. There is a tendency among people, as there are pastors, you have seen it and maybe get a lot of myself. A kid, listen to him, man, he has got all of his life ahead of him. What if he makes a mistake? And when you get older, you get more conservative. I need to harbor this little bit they have. I do not have but so much. If I were to lose it, I could not rebuild it. I could not reclaim it. So you get cautious and very conservative and hard to enter into a new program. No. No. All of us young. All of us. Look at them. Every deacon I have matches a sixteen year old-every one of them. Now, if you had the spirit of the sixteen year old and had the head of a seventy year old man, what a board of deacons we would have. Ah, ah, our hearts are young, our spirits of young. We are not old, none of us, any of us, nobody among us. Oh, I see it, let’s go. Let’s do it. Sure we can. Sure we can. If we have that spirit and it has made our life and our spirit.

Robert Browning, whom I grew to love down there majoring in English in Baylor. Robert Browning, after he grew to be an old man-eighty years. He lived impetuous life. He was a young fellow in repartee, in doing, in coming. Until he died, he filled of the intensity of everything. You notice that little poem, "Come." That is all, "Come," "Come."

Grow old along with me!
The best is yet to be,
The last of life, for which the first was made:
Our times are in His hand
Who saith "A whole I planned,
Youth shows but half; trust God: see all, nor be afraid!"

Grow old along with me!
The best is yet to be.
The last of life, for which the first was made:
Our times are in His hand
Who saith “A whole I planned.
[Youth shows but half,] trust God, see all, nor be afraid.

[Robert Browning, “Rabbi Ben Ezra”]. And when they buried Robert Browning, they had one of those songs, melancholy, cadaverous protocol, funeral services. And he had a friend, an artist by the name of Berne Jones. And I copied from Berne Jones what he said about that funeral of Robert Browning: "I would have given something"-this is from his friend Berne Jones-"I would have given something for a banter or two, and much would I have given if a chorister would have come out of the auditorium and rent the air with a blast of a trumpet."

I have a problem with some preachers. I have a problem with them. "Look how solemn I am and morose I am." You can meet preachers, "I am the most sober, decorous, conservative, dead and starchy critter you ever saw. I got religion. I got religion." Listen, you are no better than a funeral service. Man, you are not dead. God just moved us from this life. To a better one to come. You that remain behind (inaudible). You hold it high. I have just gone to another land and another country, the wish of God. To be young in your heart, in our spirit, in our interest.

We have more kids down here, come on down. Come on down. I beg you to come on down. They are going to be in our school. They are going to be in our gym. They are going to be in our activity center. They are going to be in our craft room. Come on down. Come on down. Well, Preacher, Charles Evans said in his old age; he said: "You know I can do as much as a young man for about one hour a day." Come on down. Come on down. Come on down. Give us that one hour. Come on down. Eight of you think it by relay. You give an hour, and then turn it over to somebody else. You turn it over to somebody else, but stay young with them. With these kids down here, meet with them, play with them, eat with them, be with them. Go out to the camp with them. Come on, grab a hold. Be with them. Our church will welcome them. I do not know of a honky tonk, I do not know of a fancy cigarette, I do not know of a quart of rum. It is fun to [be] going down there to that downtown Baptist church. Play with them and grow with them and watch your church. Watch your watch. Problems at home? A headache like this to keep up with them. Do it. Do it. Oh, what it means to the church. Play with them. Stay with them-young, all of us young.

Well, my time is done. I want to say one or two other things. It will keep your church vibrant and alive-the spirit of youth, the spirit of movement, of conquest, of attack-not afraid. No, sir. The Lord appeared unto Paul in the night and said, "Be not afraid. Be not afraid." There is not any problem we cannot whip. There is not any task that God wants done that we cannot do. We can if He wants it done. To move. To move. To attack. To advance. One of those Greek warriors told Philadadus. He said, "Sir, the barbarians are like the sands of the sea in number. And they shoot their arrows until the very sky is darkened." And Philadadus said, "Fine, fine. Then there will be no sun in the shade." We have many problems to face. I know. I know. The world has never been malleable and pliable in the hands of God’s servants. It has always been hard and bitter and unresponsive.

I went to an Associational Baptist Meeting one time and the preacher [said] everything was going to the dogs. Everything was in the hands of the Devil. And he left me with the most woe you can describe. Dr. Andrew, the secretary, got up and he started off his speech with a little sentence. He said, "My dear brothers, the world has always been bad." That is right. It has always been bad. It was bad yesterday. And it is bad today. And it will be bad tomorrow. The world will be unmalleable in the hands of God’s people. That does not matter. That does not matter. Go on. Do it for the Lord. In the times that are distressing, with the threat of atomic war and with the threat of a worldwide conquest under communism. And now with the word of the recession and depression. But the world has always been full of wars and recession. When I was preaching in the thirties, they used to say, "Oh, if we can just get out of the thirties, we will be all right." But the forties were as fierce as the thirties. I do not know what the fifties are going to be. It does not matter. A fellow compiled a little table. He started in 1396 B. C., clear through to 1954. And in those years, we have had three hundred [thousand] one hundred years of war. And two hundred and sixty-seven years of peace. And from the fall of the Roman Empire until now, the wars have been getting fiercer and more vicious and more intense and longer and in driving greater destruction and numbers of men. It has always been that way. It will continue to be that way. I think God looks to the end to the final Armageddon. The days will never be propitious. The hours will never be favorable. We must keep these things in our hand. Whatever the discouragement and whatever the time, and whatever the hour and whatever the day, move, advance, go on. Go on. We have a thing to do for God. And if He wants it done-if He wants it done, the resources and the evilness and the wherewithal and all that it takes, God will place in our hands. Let is just do it. Let us just do it. This last week, I was reading like a lot of times I do, I like to go back and read about those old days. Paul and the prophets and those Greeks and the world in which they live. And in this last week, just for my own soul’s doing, I read once again the story of the Leonidas, King of Sparta, and the Battle of Thermopylae. The Persians came across-of Darius and Artaxerxes, came across like the world’s key was opened. They came by the hundreds of thousands. The brother of Aeschylus, the great Aeschylus-the brother of Aeschylus, held on to a Galle with one hand and it was severed with a Persian. He held with the other hand and it was severed with a Persian. And he held on with his teeth. And Leonidas he had six thousand Greeks with him. And he could have held that pass indefinitely. But a traitor showed the Persians a secret trail. And Leonidas found himself with the enemy in front and the enemy in behind. He repeatedly dismissed all of his group’s allies and kept his three hundred warriors by his side. For it was against the law that a Spartan soldier should ever flee in the presence of the enemy. He stood there with his three hundred Spartan soldiers attacked in the front and attacked from behind. And they stood there until the last man was cut down. And then the council described this epithet above their grave Battle of Thermopylae.

Stranger-stranger with this word
We pray thee of Sparta,
Here we are in distraught
Faithfully keeping the law.

[Or, "Oh, stranger, tell the Lacedemonians that here we lie, obedient to their traditions"-ed., Herodotus 7.228 quoted in Edwin M. Yamauchi, Persia and the Bible (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1990), 206].

"Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life." Some people say that means the crown of Jesus. If you hang on we will be saved. No, what Jesus said be thou faithful in spite of death. "If it costs you your life, and I will give you the crown." "I will give you the desire of your heart. I will give you the achievement as a reward and recompense for your effort. "Be thou a good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of thy Lord. I have much people in this city." Oh, blessed church, fellow members, it is our golden day. It is our opportunity. Our time to come.

All right let us sing our song. Let us sing our song. While we sing it anywhere somebody you, somebody you give his heart to the Lord. You come and stand by me. Somebody you, put your life in the fellowship of the church. While we sing the appeal, you come and stand by me. Is there a child here today, or a family here today, somebody, you today anywhere. In that topmost balcony, from side to side any where; while we make appeal. While we sing our song. Today, would you make it now? Would you make it? Into that aisle and down here to the front. Stand by the side of the pastor.