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God's Purpose for Us
G.W. North

George Walter North (1913 - 2003). British evangelist, author, and founder of New Covenant fellowships, born in Bethnal Green, London, England. Converted at 15 during a 1928 tent meeting, he trained at Elim Bible College and began preaching in Kent. Ordained in the Elim Pentecostal Church, he pastored in Kent and Bradford, later leading a revivalist ministry in Liverpool during the 1960s. By 1968, he established house fellowships in England, emphasizing one baptism in the Holy Spirit, detailed in his book One Baptism (1971). North traveled globally, preaching in Malawi, Australia, and the U.S., impacting thousands with his focus on heart purity and New Creation theology. Married with one daughter, Judith Raistrick, who chronicled his life in The Story of G.W. North, he ministered into his 80s. His sermons, available at gwnorth.net, stress spiritual transformation over institutional religion, influencing Pentecostal and charismatic movements worldwide.
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Sermon Summary
In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of believers working diligently in God's vineyard. He encourages the audience to believe in the imminent return of the Lord and the need for people from all nations to hear the gospel and be saved. The preacher also highlights the parabolic teachings of Jesus, particularly the parable of the Sower, as foundational lessons for understanding deeper spiritual truths. He emphasizes the need for believers to present a perfect account of their ministry to God, focusing on the importance of teaching the truth as it is in God rather than simply entertaining or pleasing the audience.
Sermon Transcription
I would like you to turn with me to the Gospel according to Matthew. You will know that Matthew is led of the Holy Ghost to present the Lord Jesus in his kingship. And in the 21st chapter, in verse 5, we read, Tell ye the daughter of Sire, behold thy King. Behold thy King. At that juncture, of course, he came meek and lowly, and he was riding upon an ass, upon a foal, the coat of an ass, the coat, the foal of an ass, sorry, and so on. We know the wonderful truth that we always think of on Palm Sunday. Or at least we used always to think of it. I don't know whether we follow the calendar quite so closely these days. But it is in this vein that I want tonight to browse with you in the Scriptures as they come to us in the 19th and 20th and 21st chapters of Matthew. For I suppose that we all know that chapter and verse divisions were not inspired of God, and that as the section opens in the 19th chapter, we may expect truth to be unfolded. If you turn then to the 19th chapter, you will see quite clearly that at this point in his earthly ministry, Jesus finishes the sayings he has to say in the 18th and preceding chapters, and he departs from Galilee and comes into the coasts of Judea beyond Jordan. And you will know that now he is starting on the last phase of his earthly itinerary. He is going to finish up on the cross. And this section commences here. And it's a wonderful thing that as you trace the ministry and the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ through the Gospels, you find that he begins in simplicity, and I was going to say down on the primary level. And then he begins to add, and he begins to teach more, and he reveals more and more until he finally moves up to a peak. I suppose that John's Gospel is the greatest illustration of this, really, and that you find that it records his very first miracle, which was merely turning water into wine. I mean merely as compared with the greater miracles that were to follow, not merely on the human level. But that's all he does. He just says, oh, well, you'll run out of wine, have you? Well, it's easy, and he speeds up the process and puts the water through the vine himself and turns out the wine. Is that right? Well, that's all wine is, it's water that comes through the vine. Hallelujah. All right. But you see, now having sold that simple idea, he teaches the tremendous parabolic truth of the vine in the 15th chapter. He starts like that, and he sows the seed of thought and the idea. And he gives the relative spiritual teaching and lesson, and he, you know, he builds up all the way through that Gospel until you come to the final holy of holies in the 17th chapter, and on you go to the cross and away into glory. Amen. That's the way he starts. All right, now. You find this same thing in Matthew's Gospel. And having done the things he has done, taught simple basic things like the parable of the sower, of which he says, this is the comment made in Mark's Gospel, by the way, you'll find it in the fourth chapter of Mark, but the great parables of the kingdom, commencing with the parable of the sower, chapter 13, he says of this parable, well, when they said, now, show us this parable, he said, well, don't you know this parable? If you know this one, how will you know the rest? You see, that's a key parable. And he teaches key things, beginnings at the beginning. He moves on, moves into deeper truths, more fundamental ministries, that is, more fundamentally connected with the spiritual side of everything, changing force from kingdom of heaven to kingdom of God, and moving on into the great spirit of the Lord, utterly, say in John chapter 14 and 15 and so on, as he gets to the end. All right. It's a wonderful and glorious thing. So then, in this 19th chapter, this is how we read. That he comes to Judea, and he's going now to teach them great inward spiritual secrets. I wonder if you want to learn. If I said to you, hands up now, stand up, if you really have come tonight, not just for something to titillate your ears, or something like that, or to see a miracle perform, that may well be done, but the greater miracles can never be seen, they're always in the spirit. Anyway, only the effects of them can be seen. Or have you come because, deeply down inside, like there is that I must confess unto it in myself, there is a yearning to go on and on and on. If I mistake not, that's been the burden of the prayers that have been prayed. I tell you this, that as you get older, and I'm not the oldest person here, but I'm old enough to be able to tell you this, the more you realize how short the time is to achieve the ends for which you were born on the earth. And more and more you seek to know the great callings and yearnings of God and their fulfillment in your life. And if you haven't got that about you, I despair of you, for this is really the commencement of all things that are real. And so, Jesus now, having taught them so many things, in the context of this question, verse 3, they come to him and they're tempting him, the Pharisees, and they say to him, is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause? And he answered and said unto them, have you not read that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female, and said, for this cause shall a man leave father and mother and cleave to his wife, and they twain shall be one flesh, and so on. And it isn't that I want to deal with a great subject of divorce in our meeting tonight, but to show you that it is in the context of this, the law Jesus chooses to bring people back into the original truth. It is a fact, beloved, that mankind has fallen away from the original truth, and out of the original image of God. He has gone awry in every department of his being, in his thinking, in his acting, in his marrying, to come down to this very banal, earthly, fleshly level. He's gone wrong. And so the Lord comes back, and he always does this, and these are the words I want you to catch now. In verse 4, he brings us back to the beginning. At the beginning. Amen. Praise God. This is very wonderful. If you go back in your thought, and you will know your Bible, and I'm going to take a nice long time tonight, so relax. You'll be sitting there for more than an hour, so get comfortable, and have your Bibles well open. I've got three chapters for a text, so I'm all right. Amen. You will know, if you're familiar with your Bibles, and of course you are, this great word in Genesis, in the beginning, God. And the whole purpose of Jesus Christ, beloved, is to bring us to God. Peter puts it this way, he suffered the just for the unjust to bring us to God. That's right, to bring us to God. Hallelujah. And so he takes this opportunity, and he has a marvelous way of taking any condition, in any context, pretext, or what it may be, and he will bring us back to the thing as it is in the heart of God. And with regard our lives on this earth, beloved, it is the Lord's intention that we should be as it was in the beginning, in the great, may I put it, dream of God, if he dreams, in the great imagination of God's heart, in the thought of his mind, and in the purpose of his will. Jesus came with the vision of man as God wanted him to be. Stamped all over him, and was that man, and is that man, and lived that man, and taught that man, and taught that man. And he, beloved, has one intention with your life, do you want him to go through with it? To bring you back into that for which he came, for which he lived, for which he died, and did everything he did, and now lives again. To do this for us, beloved, and I must confess that reading this anew today, waiting before the Lord, my heart became agog with life, and it thrilled my being. At the beginning, at the beginning, glory, at the beginning, glory, that's where he starts. Do you really want to know what God has in his heart for your life? You say you're a Christian, I don't doubt that, I don't question that, you say you've had experiences of the Lord, I don't know what you might claim along the line of spiritual experience that you would pick and choose from according to the domination you belong to, I suppose, I don't know how far you've come, or what you may have claimed, but, oh, beloved, God's got something for your life. He gave his glorious Son, and he's speaking now out of the depths of his heart. And in all the incidents to which we are going to look, and whatever we shall see, whether it be parable or straightforward statement of Jesus, you will find that the burning heart of the King, speaking in his majesty unto us, brings forth from the original concept, that in the heart of Jesus was never marred, and in the mind of God has never been changed, and that the Spirit of God has come forth from heaven to bring this about, and make it real, so real in every one of us, that we might be the fulfillment of the heart of God unto him, and be like Jesus whilst we're on the earth, and satisfy the Father for Calvary. Do you see that that's what God is after? Are you prepared to go through, mind you, he's bringing out his peak teaching here, as I've already said, he's going to say some things that will make your heart catch its breath, he's going to make you look now, he's going to teach his teachings before he goes to the cross, he's got but a few short weeks now in which to get out this end teaching of all, and he's going to say it, and so we read down through this chapter, and this is what we read, he says, verse 12, Now listen, if you're able to receive that saying, receive it! I don't know whether you are, are you able to receive that saying? He's going for the highest now, he's talking to his disciples, these men whom he is wanting to endue latterly with power from on high, he's seeking now to imbue them with the ideas, the drives, and the urges of his own heart, oh how he longs to bring men and women into this, for which he himself left heaven, for Jesus Christ made himself a eunuch for the kingdom of heaven's sake, Jesus Christ set himself aside in purpose of heart, to fulfil his father's will and do the business of the kingdom, and his heart is going out for men and women who will come this way, if you find it say in the 17th chapter of John, you will remember and perhaps, if this may explain or bring some light upon some words that could be mystifying in that 17th chapter where the Lord Jesus is praying, he says, for their sakes I sanctify myself, that's right, that's what a eunuch does. A eunuch for the kingdom of heaven sanctifies himself though he be thrice sanctified already. Jesus was the author of sanctification anyway, like he's the author of anything else, and yet in purpose of heart, so that men and women may know the love of God as they should know it, and have the power of God reaching down into their deepest needs, this glorious man set himself aside for God, and for heaven, and for salvation, and for men. There are some things that he only expects you to receive if you're able to receive it, I doubt if anybody unbaptized in the Holy Ghost could receive it, I doubt it. These men at that time weren't baptized in the Holy Spirit, you see these men had an apostleship to fulfil, it wasn't a matter now so far as Jesus was concerned of getting them to heaven, it was a matter of whether or not these men who had professed, and we shall see it lower down, it's in the mouth of Peter to forsake all and follow him, it's whether or not they would go through in the deepest issues of natural and physical and earthly life, to be God's and God's alone. Hallelujah, this is the thing that he's wanting to bring to the hearts of those who are near enough to him to listen, the wanting to go on. And he goes on from thence, as though that were not enough, and this is the way he speaks, you'll find soon after this, that they bring little children to him, you see and it's contrasted with this great statement, they bring little children, and the Lord Jesus wants you to see that there is a place in your life where you can come as a little child to him, and we indeed we all have to come here, and in verse 15, he'll put his hand on you and he'll bless you, and we're told in Mark's gospel he puts them on his knee, and he loves them and he blesses them, and praise God I expect we've all been at a time in our life when we just longed and ached for that. When we wanted Jesus to get hold of us, we needed someone to embrace us in eternal arms, we needed someone with a heart of compassion and love and tenderness, someone to bless us, someone to be father and mother and brother and shepherd and guide and saviour and healer and everything to us. Hallelujah, he takes us beloved like that, he does, he does that, he says you suffer the little children to come, such is the kingdom of heaven, but deep down in his heart he wants you to hear this, a great cry, do you want to stop a little baby all your life, sitting on Jesus' knee, cuddled up in arms of blessing, you would think so. You go around, at least I do, go around the country and this is the sort of cry and there comes a time in our life when we all ought to be there and let us have hearts of compassion for those that need it. Beloved, if there's anybody in this meeting tonight and you're needing that, I want to say to you that now, by the power of the Spirit, you can sit down on Jesus' knee, I say you can find a lodgment in his heart and you can feel his hand upon you and know his blessing that you'd lead so deeply and really, you don't know that. But some of you ought to be getting on a little bit beyond that. A young man comes to him, he's a rich young man, called the story of the rich young rulers, following straight on after him, and you know what he says, what good thing must I do that I may have eternal life. Now I want to tell you straight away, if you haven't got eternal life, you can't do anything good or bad to get it. You're on the wrong track. Hallelujah. You have to have this as a gift or you can't have it at all. That's the glory of it all. It's wonderful. I want to tell you that having eternal life is better than having a blessing, and more important than having a blessing. Hallelujah. I'm not sort of preaching on that tonight, but I'm very tempted. But when he spoke like this, this is what Jesus said, verse 21. He never expected this answer, if thou wilt be perfect. Now you see, he's back at the beginning. You see, that's what it was in the beginning, perfection. That's right. That's what it was in the beginning, man belonged utterly to God. Adam was here to replenish the earth for God. He was God's Adam. He was God's man only. Here comes a man. And he says, what good thing can I do to have eternal life? And the Lord said, do you want to be perfect? That's what I want to know. In this eternal life, it's only perfection. Anybody who doesn't want perfection, don't ask for eternal life. That's right. It's a tremendous thing, beloved, to know this wonderful thing. And his heart is moving on. He can't get away from it. This blessed Lord Jesus Christ, for you must remember, that as the Son of God and as a man on this earth, he had to present his true account when he went home to his father. Of course, it's a foregone conclusion that he would, being the perfect Son of God. But he had to give a perfect account of his ministry. And I must confess, beloved, that if ever the day comes, and it will come, I know when I stand before that same lovely eye and that same burning throne, and I shall have to give an account for what ministry is mine. Then I want to tell you what Jesus told you and move down into the depths of the truth. I don't want just to tickle your ears with nice stories and jazzy choruses and things like that. I want you to know the truth as it lies in God. And this is what he says to his disciples when he's dealt with this man. He said in verse 24, if you read it, there it is. What did he say? This is what he was saying. You know what was wrong with that man? He couldn't go through the eye of the needle. That was his trouble. You see, people come and they say all sorts of things, and they make big claims, and this man knelt down in the road, and he looked as though if ever there was a goer through her, it was him. But Jesus said, do you want to be perfect? Will you go through the eye of the needle for me? You see, is this really the standard? Go through the eye of the needle. I know, Jesus' mind was on Calvary. There came a time when that blessed man and all his love and all his life was dissolved into blood and water and poured out, and in its droppings his life would have gone through the eye of the needle. He was so refined and so moving in his love for man, and he said, I'm a worm and no man anyway, and his bones were out of joints, and he was melted like wax, and the water flowed from him and his love flowed from him, and because blood's a bit too thick, it was watered down with his water, and it would have dropped through the eye of the needle. That's Calvary talk. And the man couldn't take Calvary. He couldn't take it. You see, I want you to know this. This is the love of Jesus Christ to you. We sing about God so loving the world that he gives his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him shouldn't perish but have everlasting life. I want to tell you that love, God's love for you is greater than that. That's a fundament, that's a beginning, that God's love for you is to ever think that you could become a fellow with his son, of whom he said that he's anointed him with the oil of gladness above his fellows, that we should be fellow with Jesus and be in the fellowship of the son, and we should be honored with the thought of God that we could rise to such a manhood and such a life, that it should be so refined and shed out for the love of God and for men, that it could drop through the eye of a needle and the agonizing of a Calvary of men and women should be saved. That's what he thought about you, and that was the vision in the heart of God, and that's what he wants for you. Blessing upon blessing, that this should be thought for you in Jesus' heart. Alas, the man didn't know he came, he said what good thing shall I do? He hadn't got a clue, we all stop there, God has mercy upon us, and he does. We don't know what we're talking about. We come to Jesus and all is good, we hear a preacher man preach, we respond to a text or a book or a sermon or a prayer or something, and all sorts of things are transacted, and they're real on the level in which they're transacted, God knows. But in the heart of the eternal there's a thought for you, that he should take your poor life, twisted and perverted and ruined and spoiled and hellish, and he should raise it up to this place as though he held it in his hand and said, I want to make you like my son, I want to make you entirely like Jesus. Have you got a life that can be laid down for the world? Oh, not to redeem it, one life was sufficient for that, God's only life in Christ. But the world lies out there unredeemed, insofar as response to that bloodshed, they lie all around you, they're in your home, they're in your street, they're everywhere, across the sea, in your very family perhaps, might be the wife of your bosom man. I was away over in America not so very long ago, some things I should never forget, I love the Americans, I don't think I should go and live there and if God tells me to go, but never mind. I went with some kind of trepidation, but never mind, the Lord was there, and God blessed, but I, this is, I should never forget at the end of, I think it was eight days of glory in the presence of the Lord, when God moved and saved hundreds of people, and they responded unto the gospel, and all sorts of things happened, but I should never forget it, a man, I was having supper on the last night, and my, they have some suppers in America, you ought to go there, I tell you, I learned to eat some wonderful food out there, and it was supper time, and when we were just going to sit down, and my host, he came to me, there's the principal where I was, he said, there's someone wants to talk to you outside, brother, will you go out, and I went outside there, the door, and the nurse said, a man, and he was a lovely brother, I remember seeing him amongst the thousands who had come during the course of the week, I remembered him because he was a member of the staff at the place where I was, and in his hand he had a box, a cardboard box, and he came to me, and he was shy, and he was trembling, he hadn't got the gift of the gab like some preachers have, I suppose, and he was a bit stuttering, and he was all like that, but he was lovely, you could see the loveliness on him, and he said, I want to thank you brother, we can't thank you enough, I want to tell you what God's done for me this week, he said, and my wife, she discovered she wasn't saved this week, she said, he said, and she got saved, and he said, and my brother, God's met him and his wife, and he said, I want you to accept this little present, and I looked inside, I won't tell you what was inside, except that they hadn't been married very long, he'd just been married a month, and his wife, and I looked underneath, and it was one of their wedding presents, because you see, beloved, the wife of his bosom that he thought was saved, wasn't saved, see, the tears ran down his face, and I loved him, that's right, Jesus looked at this man, and he loved him, read Mark's account, says the disciples, see, couldn't go through, sounded all right, didn't it, looked all right, leading in the right, thousands like that, thousands like that, the king poured his life as it were through the eye of a needle, and you might live it, won't you, won't you, how real are we, if thou wilt be perfect, blessed Lord, for having this standard of perfection for me, I hadn't got an idea when first I came, I didn't know how high thy life reached, I didn't know the breadth, the magnitude of the stretch of thine arms, I didn't know the sweep of thine eternal spirit, I didn't know, but oh God, I want to come out of the kneeling dust of the road, or just sitting on your knees, I want to be a man as God counts a man to be, that's what I want, I want to be there, thank you Lord for ever thinking it, I don't count your standard too high, precious Lord, I don't say it's too high, I cannot attain unto it, for thy mercy is above the clouds, and I know that God can do this thing for me, and if he can get a response in my heart, if he can get something more than outward showmanship, if he can get something more of deeper inward spiritual intent, where I'm not trying to impress anybody, or God forgive me if I seem to have judged this ruler, that he was only seeking to impress by kneeling in the road, this I know that God teaches us, this blessed Christ, he teaches us the inner realities of our souls when we come to him, and he makes us know what we are in all truth, in the end he's looking for men and women who go through with him unto the end, he finished up with no man, and if in mercy the blessed Holy Ghost had not come, where should we have been, praise the name of the Lord, let's go on shall we, and in this great 20th chapter he says, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is a householder, and he tells this glorious story, you know how that he goes out in the early part of the day, or let's just read it here and there shall we, goes out in the early morning verse 1 to hire laborers into his vineyard, laborers you know, not candidates for heaven now, laborers in his vineyard, see what we're talking about, laborers in the vineyard, this thing seems to have become an obsession with him now, praise God, he was always reckoned to be mad, Paul was reckoned to be mad, I don't think a man's ever got anywhere with God until he's obsessed, it's a lovely madness, I've been mad like this for years and years, it's good, it's sanity by God's standards, and he goes out and he hires people into his vineyard, and in verse 2 he agrees with them, the laborers for a penny a day, and he sends them into the vineyard, you know what happens, he goes out again and he finds some more, and he sends them in, and he goes out later, and he finds some more, and he sends them in, and then it comes night time you know, and when they that were hired about the eleventh hour, verse 9, they received every man a penny, and when they came that were hired about, but when the first came, they supposed that they should have received more, and they likewise received every man a penny, and when they had received it, they murmured against the good man of the house saying, these last have wrought but one hour, and thus made them equal unto us, which have borne the heat and burden of the day, I don't know what union they belong to, but what I want to tell you, that God is looking for laborers in his vineyard, and he won't have any unionistic principles in it, and if you're a shop steward, or a secretary of a union, or something like that, you won't get anywhere in God's vineyard, but on those, the kingdom of heaven has no communistic principles about it, it's a theocracy, it's not a social state, please God I'm not very happy with the one I'm in, the tremendousness about it beloved, is this, he answered them and said, friend I do thee no wrong, didst thou not agree with me for a penny, take that thine is and go thy way, I will give unto this last even as unto thee, is it not lawful for me to do what I like with mine own, that's the basis of it, that's the basis of it, when you come beloved, to belong to the Lord, and give your life to him, the basis of it all is that you must recognize God's total sovereignty, and in the matter of working, if you have borne the heat and the burden of the day, that's entirely up to the Lord, he called you at the beginning, you ought to be rejoicing in that for being allowed to work in his vineyard, for 40-50 years, and it's not the other person's fault if he never called them until the 11th hour, he can do what he likes with his own, amen, praise God, hallelujah, that's wonderful, you've got to recognize that, that in this everybody's equal, hallelujah, that's wonderful, I look at these apostles of whom we've been speaking, they were very privileged men, but they haven't got one advantage over us, beloved, in this great matter, now you will see that many are called and few are chosen, I suppose lots of you have chewed over this text, and wondered whether you're a Calvinist or an Arminian, about it, but there it is, many are called and few are chosen, well the fact of the matter is beloved, that these apostles were chosen, listen, look at the end of the 19th chapter, you want to make it a theological thing, I want to make it a practical thing in scripture, here it is, verily I say unto you, verse 28, you which have followed me in the regeneration, when the son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, you also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel, they were chosen for that, you won't sit on those thrones, they will have chosen for that, hallelujah, but you're called, hallelujah, you're still one of the cult, hallelujah, and God's got a choice place in his heart, and in his kingdom, and in his regeneration, hallelujah, for you, what you are to see beloved, is that God is expecting you, in answer to this, to give yourself utterly up to this, it doesn't matter to whom, to God, whether you graduate or whether you don't, see, it doesn't matter, it happens to the Lord, whether you were born in a stable like elect Jesus, or whether you were a poor prince Charles, born in Buckingham Palace, or wherever he was born, it doesn't matter a scrap to the Lord Jesus Christ, on these issues beloved, it only matters that you see the privilege that's conferred upon you, and my dear young people, and you older ones too, there's no let out at any age, if you've been called by God, and he's laid his hand on you, he's expecting you, to give up everything for the call, everything, he's expecting you to make that absolutely the first, and highest, and greatest, that's what he's expecting of you, everything else is secondly, thirdly, fourthly, or millionthly, no matter about that, so much, the thing that matters beloved, is that somehow, we become imbued with this great thing from God, to take hold of us, that nothing counts, nothing, only as it is placed in juxtaposition, and correct relationship, with the call of God, and the work of God, in his great vineyard, do you not realize beloved, that because a nation was given a vineyard, and a wine vat was digged, and a tower was built, and a choice vine, and a hedge was put round, do you not realize that because this nation, did not render the fruits of the vineyard, when the sun came, he destroyed, do you not realize this, your call into this vineyard, a better vineyard, a greater vineyard, hallelujah, this is it, and if that work, which you do on this earth, cannot be bent, and made to come, into the higher service of the king, how shall you account, for the work wherein you wasted your life, how shall, hallelujah, do we believe that the end is near, do we believe that the Lord is coming, do we believe that many nations have got to hear the gospel, do you believe that people have got to be saved, do you believe it, how badly do you believe it, or how well, this is the tremendous thing, beloved, this is why people are spending their lives running round, encircled round themselves, because the great, hunger in the heart of God, has not come to fulfillment in their lives, praise God, it's lawful, for the Lord to do what he likes with his own, Jesus, do you know what he's expecting you, beloved, he's expecting you, to work, work, equal with everybody else, in his vineyard, He first went to see him, I went to see him, he was so stoned deaf, it was painful to try and make him hear, couldn't reach him, he was dying of cancer, all swollen up with cancer, I remember him, so my wife, thank God for a good wife, she'd been reading a book, and it was about somebody, a Yorkshire fellow, I've forgotten his name now, that God saved, he'd been a terrible fellow, he'd been a white beater and a prize fighter, and he'd been a drunkard, and I don't know what, and God saved him, and God made him an evangelist, a real Yorkshire evangelist. I've lived in Yorkshire, and some of them, they're real goers, some of them. And I remember, she said, well, take in this book to read, dear. So dear took the book. To people that know us, I'm big dear and she's little dear. And I took the book, and I gave it to him to read. Deaf as anything he was, read it. I went back a week after, and he sat up in bed, and he said, if God can do it for this man, he can do it for me, he said. He said, amen. Hallelujah. And I tell you, within five minutes, he was there, and he was all swollen with cancer, and we prayed for him and his stomach went down like that. Hallelujah. Next time I saw him, he was out of bed, shining like a light. Glory be to God. But this is the point at which he said, I wish I'd known this 40 years ago. He was 70, 40 years. He'd have loved to have borne the heat and the burden of the day. I know, for when his other daughter came, he told her. And when her husband came, he told him. And when the neighbors came, he told them. Wouldn't you? That's right. You're called, beloved, to bear the heat and the burden of the day. You young people, you do not know the privilege that is yours. You don't know it. How young are you? Supposing I say at the other end, brother, how old are you? That's right. God can do a delights with his own. This is the way you come. As it was in the beginning, you see, where we started, as it was in the beginning. Does he likes with his own. So far as God is concerned, eternal principles change not. They are the same now as ever they were and ever will be. And when we come to the Lord, we come on this glorious basis. Lord to serve thee, I don't care how or where, but to be thine, utterly thine. This is what he's looking for. And as we go further down this chapter. Oh my word, there's a time going, don't you? I'll tell you when it's a bit late. We go further down this chapter. We read this, that he takes his disciples in verse 17 and he's going up to Jerusalem, you see, he's on his last great tour. He's moving up to Jerusalem and the sons of Zebedee in verse 20, they come with their mother and they worship. And this is what they say. Grant, this is what he said, grant that these my two sons may sit the one on thy right hand and the other on thy left in thy kingdom. I suppose this must be one of the loftiest ambitions that can fill a human heart. I don't suppose anybody wants to blame these two or this ambitious mother. You want to be aware of what your mother does. The scripture says, listen to what the scripture says, all the psychiatrists sought to read the Bible. They don't know the Bible says this. They think they've discovered something in this mother-child relationship. But listen to what God said in Ezekiel, listen, thy mother is a vine in thy blood. Did you ever read that? They think they've discovered something, these psychologists. It's in the Bible. Thy mother is a vine in thy blood. It's true, the mother-child relationship, it's true. But they think they've invented something or found out something. They should read their Bibles. They'll really come to truth then. They'll come a lot quicker than reading Freud and a lot cleaner. And here's the truth. What a tremendous thing it is to say, Lord, I just, this is what I love to do, Lord. Oh, it must be wonderful to sit one on your right hand and the other on your left. That's marvelous. And listen to what Jesus said. What are you really? Here it is. He said to them, you don't know what you're asking, really. Are you able to drink of the cup that I should drink and to be baptized with the baptism that I'll baptize? They say, bless their hearts, bless their hearts. They say, we're able. He said, you shall. You shall indeed drink of the cup that I drink of and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with. But listen, listen. Don't think that's the qualifying thing. But if you do that, you'll sit one on my right hand and one on my left. Are you really going for hope of gain? Are you really wanting to serve for reward, even this highest reward? What are you really after? Are you wanting that which Father has already prepared for someone else? You know, beloved, this subtle self motive, Jesus has to deal with it and deal with it in such a manner, our loftiest ambitions, beloved, often do nothing other than fountain up from the pit. They seem so wonderful. They sound so great. But the motive behind them and the desires from which they come have got to be dealt with by the Lord Jesus Christ. And bless the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. I do declare unto you, even as I know what little I know since the mighty cross of Christ has begun to work in my life and the blessed and all powerful Holy Ghost has come and has taught me of him. I know that as they drank that cup and were baptized with that wonderful baptism of the Lord Jesus Christ, they lost this self-born desire. It went. This I know. Glory. What have you got in your heart? What is it really deep down in there that you're seeking? I want this, I want that. It sounds so good. Oh Lord, make me another Elijah. Oh Lord, make me another Spurgeon. Make me another Billy Graham. Make me this, make me the other, or whatever you think. Oh beloved, these are great men. Don't touch their names. Don't tarnish them by mention. Leave them alone. Perhaps if you were a Billy Graham, the name of Billy Graham would be in the mud more than it is now, I don't know. The thing about it beloved is that God calls us to the highest, the very highest and the best and you've got to come beloved. You've got to come. Quickly now because of the time I want you to drop down with me because the rest of the disciples when they heard this they were very angry. Why? Because they wanted it. That's right isn't it? That's why they were angry. They weren't angry because it was against divine principles. They were angry because it was against their selfish lusts. That's why they were angry. They were all a wicked lot of sinners still. Unchanged, nor could be changed till that cross was raised and that blood was shed. With all the things they'd been allowed to do and devils they'd cast out and healings they'd seen and lepers cleansed and parables they'd listened to and I don't know what. They were as unchanged as old Adam. Yeah, it's terrible isn't it? It took God all of Calvary to break that, all of it. Not nice teachings and somebody coming and saying to whom else can we go thou hast the words of eternal life. I want you to notice they said words, it wasn't blood. They hadn't got the blood of eternal life, they'd only got the words. Amen. But you can have the blood of it. Don't stop in John 6 come with me into the Acts of the Apostles where the blood's been shed. Go there. I know that now it takes on a new meaning looking back through the cross. That wonderful teaching but that's all they had. You see that's what he said to them in John chapter 15. He said you're clean through the word I've spoken to you. He couldn't say you're clean because I've washed you in the blood. Because they hadn't been washed in his blood. That's right. Oh beloved, it's so wonderful. I know he was going to wash them in his blood. I know that in his heart it was all prepared and planned. But don't you stop there. You be clean through the blood that he's purging you with. That's right. Hallelujah. That's God when he's gone through the eye of a needle. That's God, beloved, when he's come right through in finest glory and absolute power. And you can reach where your need is. And they're arguing with these disciples and they're very angry about it. And Jesus said, verse 25, you know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over you. And they that are great exercise authority upon you. But it shall not be so among you. But whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister. Whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your slave. Even as the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many. Amen. Jesus came to be a minister. There are lots of people talking about being ministers. There's lots of talk about ministries in these days in which we live and in the circles perhaps through which we move. And thank God for a great reviving along this line. We need to know every man a minister, body minister. If this be the standard, do you think you qualify? It wasn't gifts that made Jesus a minister. It was a life, an attitude, a nature that made Jesus a minister. Hallelujah. Jesus comes to minister. Oh friend, are you here? In the next chapter it says, he's your king. Glory. He's your king. And the Lord wants you to move on this earth as a king. He wants you to move to men and women in these powers of God. He wants you to be a slave. I don't know whether you want to be great, do you? You see, it's a thing for Jesus to say, isn't it? He that will be great among you. He'd really put the ball in their court, hadn't he? What can you do when he said that? Do you want to be great? Do you want to? Do you? No, no. None of us want to be great, do we? That's right. He'd really put the ball in their court, hadn't he? But you see, beloved, he talks to truth and the true situation. They did want to be great. Lord, I want to do something great for you. I want to do something great for God. Do you? Well, here's a good qualification. Go and get yourself a bucket and some hot water and a scrubbing brush. Do you want to do something great for God? That's right. Go and be a slave. Isn't it a wonderful privilege? Well, I thought it was having mighty gifts, prophecy, healing, discernment, word of wisdom. Really do something great for God. No, no, beloved. That's not the way. You understand that, don't you? It's not the way. He said, just be a slave. I came to minister. And isn't it lovely, beloved? And let's end on this note, shall we, tonight. That Jesus is here and he just wants to minister to you. He's come to minister. He wants to do something for you. He wants to do something to you. Go on, let it sink in. He wants to minister to you. Now, what is it you want done? What is it you need? It's here, look. We read two blind men, verse 30, the end of chapter 20. They're sitting by the highwayside, you see. And they cry out, have mercy on us, O Lord, thou Son of David. Jesus stood still and called them and said, what will you that I do to you? They said, Lord, my sight, my right to see, my right to see, glory. You see, wasn't it wonderful, beloved? He wants to do something for you. And he wants to be able to send you out in the world to do something for people. He wants to make you a real minister. He wants to have you as it was in the beginning. In the beginning of the great Christian era is Jesus. He's at the end of it too. He's the beginning and the end. And he wants to have us all like himself, in every degree, in our proper relationship, as saved people. He wants to have us like himself. But are you really here, beloved? Are you? Lord, I'll take this standard of perfection. I won't think it's higher than high. I will think it's normal, as it is in thy heart. Lord, I won't talk about leaving all and forsaking all and following thee. I'll just be what you want me to be, Lord. You can put me through the eye of a needle now, Lord, please. I want to. I want my life to come up to Calvary standards utterly. I want you, Lord, to make me expendable and outpourable. I don't care, Lord. I really don't. Help me, Lord, beyond tonight, where I'd make the statement. But looking away into the future, I don't care, Lord. You will have my life. Wasn't it Jim Elliot who said that he is no fool who gives what he cannot keep in order to gain what he cannot lose? Amen. And so his life became expendable and poured out to God. He died young. Do you want to? I don't mean because you think, well, life's not worth living, but because you know that this is the only life that is, really, and there isn't any other life at all. Are you coming, beloved? Are you coming right through to God? How far have you come? You've come as a little child, God bless you. You needed his blessing. You needed a bit of love. You needed to feel those great strong arms wrapped around your never-dying skin. Eh? And you wanted to know you were one with Jesus, and though other people couldn't suffer you, he suffered you. And even if disciples didn't understand you and regarded you as this, that, or the other, these people regarded these children as a nuisance. He loved you. He wanted you. Now you come. You can come if you're there. I don't know, perhaps you may be in this room tonight, and you know that deeply, really, in there, you've never truly come in this manner like a little child would climb up on the knees of God and wait for those strong hands to stoop down and lift you up and say, come on, I've got you now. It's all right. He puts his hands on you and it blesses you in that blessing of God that maketh rich and addeth no sorrow whatsoever. And you're there. Now you come. If you've never come, come now. Come deeply and come really in whatever you do. Don't you come as a sophisticated man or a woman. Don't you come with any sophistras or notions to God. Come like a little child. You know you're a frightened little thing inside there. The boastings and the shoutings and everything else, they don't matter much. Your long-headed arguments don't count now. Now count less when the shadows start to go down for you. There's no argument against death or against eternity. You've got to go. Jesus' eternity himself steps into time and he says, come now. And you, you come and you can sit up on his knee and know his love and have everything poured over you. Is that what you want? Know this, that he wants to make you as it was in his heart in the beginning when he said, let us make man in our own image, after our own likeness. And he wants to make you like that. And what he'll do for you, beloved, if you go on with him, if you let this blessed one come and call you into his vineyard and into his service and be the Lord of your life, and if you come up to his great standards of perfection without effort of your own, to know that be as good as you can, you can attain unto it. But he endows you with it and gives you this great eternal life. It's his own. He knows he can develop it. He knows he can make it all he wants of it in you. He knows he can. And you'll do it as surely as you say, Lord, here I am. Take me. I'm not asking for more than anyone else. Lord, I come without a penny. I don't even want to say you'll give me a penny, Lord. I just want to work for you. Glory, glory, glory. Amen. You want to be his, dear. You want to be a king as God wants to make you a king, wants to send you out that you can reign in life where sin abounds, grace much more abounding, where the work of the enemy is, there you can move because, beloved, you've gone not to be some great one getting ready for a throne, but a humble one prepared even to be staked out finally on a cross. That's right. He'll make you what God wants you to be. Let me ask you a question. Now come up clean and answer it. You may answer it loud publicly or silently in your breath. Are you what God wants you to be? Are you what Jesus Christ died to make you and lives to assure unto you? Are you? You must answer these questions. Hallelujah. Jesus was passing on to Calvary. What are these things that go on in your breast that can get excited in you and become all wrong because somebody says something out of place or out of turn? What are these things that really don't want to be down there, slave of everybody, that you want to be up there where everybody thinks you're great? What is it? Oh, for God, for God. It's not that for God, it's God for you, my good man, my good woman. It's what God in Christ could be in you. I love. Hallelujah. And then he wants to send you right out. Are you ready? Are you ready? Get hold of your life. Use it lest you waste its precious worth and have it for his glory. Now, I don't know. I think it's time we prayed. I think that we all did business with God now is the correct thing for us. He's here. He wants to minister to you. If you've come in this room tonight and you're needing the ministry of the Lord for anything, you know, whether it be physical or mental, neurological, spiritual, you know what your need is. He's here to minister, to meet your need. The vital thing, beloved, is that he wants to meet you spiritually. He has laid bare his heart. He comes to you, daughter of Zion. He's your king, he claims to be. He comes meek, he comes lowly, he comes humble. He may have spoken to you through an ass of a man tonight, but he's the king that's speaking. Daughter of Zion. Are you ready? Daughter of Zion. For a woman of the world, for a child of this age, what are you? A man of God. What are you? Here's the call of God. Come. He'll meet you. Will you? I gave you an opportunity to respond here. Would you come? You need not be in public response, but would you? Lord, the eye of the needle. What a death. Flood and water, friend. Flood and water. If God should evaluate your life thus, how nobly you'd walk in the steps of your master. Glory to God.
God's Purpose for Us
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George Walter North (1913 - 2003). British evangelist, author, and founder of New Covenant fellowships, born in Bethnal Green, London, England. Converted at 15 during a 1928 tent meeting, he trained at Elim Bible College and began preaching in Kent. Ordained in the Elim Pentecostal Church, he pastored in Kent and Bradford, later leading a revivalist ministry in Liverpool during the 1960s. By 1968, he established house fellowships in England, emphasizing one baptism in the Holy Spirit, detailed in his book One Baptism (1971). North traveled globally, preaching in Malawi, Australia, and the U.S., impacting thousands with his focus on heart purity and New Creation theology. Married with one daughter, Judith Raistrick, who chronicled his life in The Story of G.W. North, he ministered into his 80s. His sermons, available at gwnorth.net, stress spiritual transformation over institutional religion, influencing Pentecostal and charismatic movements worldwide.