In this sermon, the speaker reflects on the lack of justice and salvation in the world, drawing parallels to historical events such as the Vietnam War, the tragedy of the boat people in Cambodia, and conflicts in Afghanistan and Poland. The speaker emphasizes the need for Christian leaders to have a humble and prayerful attitude, rather than relying on education or human power. They highlight the importance of seeking God's guidance and being open to the leading of the Holy Spirit. The sermon concludes with a call for preaching that is empowered by the Holy Spirit, as it has the potential to save nations and preserve Western civilization.

Good evening, everyone. I'll have a drink. Good evening, everyone. That's better. Thank you so much. I'm hot. I remember our Labor Day in Chicago, out in Lincoln Park, temperature 100, humidity way up there. And I saw a dog chasing a cat, and they're both walking. That's how I feel under the blaze of light here. But it's a great joy to be back in, well, what to me is home, because I have so many friends who pray for me, for my wife and family constantly. I left Britain about two to three weeks ago, and we'll be going back there again on Thursday, only for a week, to go on to Japan for three conventions, Japanese Keswick conventions. And I just asked the Lord something. Lord, I don't want in my time of life to try and be clever. I don't want to be anything but honest. And somebody said of my preaching last week, I couldn't understand their accent. They came from Georgia, so you'll have to put it into Georgian. But they said, you know, what I like about your ministry is you have no maggots in your manner. You don't see that, nor did I. But I remember that the children of Israel had manner every day, and they didn't eat it daily, that I have maggots in it. And all I asked Jesus to do for me was, when I came to Moody here, a school for which I have such a love, where I've often preached here at Founders Week, mainly when Dr. Culbertson was principal president, Lord, just help me to discharge the burden that seems to be coming on my heart as a minister with increasing power, increasing conviction. And help me to get it through. Would you pray that I might be able to do that, and that you on the receiving end may find the Holy Spirit speaking to you? Just a word of prayer together. Would you bow your head in your heart and echo the prayer which I offer on your behalf and on my own? Speak, Lord, in the stillness while I wait on thee. Hush my heart to listen, in expectancy. Speak, O blessed Master, in this quiet hour. May I see thy face, Lord, and feel, and feel thy touch of power. In Jesus' name. Amen. Let me first just put two verses from the old book together. Together. First, Ezekiel chapter 22 and verse 30. Ezekiel 22 and verse 30. And I sought for a man among them who should build up the wall and stand in the breach before me for the land, that I should not destroy it, but I found none. And Isaiah, or Isaiah, depending which side of the Atlantic Ocean you come from, Isaiah 59 verse 16, and please open your Bible at this chapter and keep it open there. He saw, that is God saw, that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor or no one to intervene. Then his own arm brought him victory and his righteousness upheld him. You often read in your Bible of the need for every one of us to seek after God. Ask, and it shall be given to you. Seek, and you shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened. Jeremiah 29 verse 13. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. Seek ye first, said the Lord Jesus, the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you. But did you notice in the two verses that I read to you, all that is in reverse. It's not people seeking God, it's God seeking a man. The Lord sought for a man, and he's always doing that. Not for a group of men, not for a drama group, or a beat group, or a rock group, or a singing group, of which there are scores around the world. I can only speak with some measure of authority concerning my own country. But if you know anything about Britain, you will know to what an amazing extent Christian entertainment has taken over in evangelical circles. But God is looking for a man. He saw that there was no man, and wondered, wondered, that there was no one to intervene, or no intercessor. In the book of Revelation, every letter to the seven churches closes with this statement. He that hath an ear to hearing, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. Just one man who will get off the evangelical treadmill, and take time to hear what the Lord would say. In all the frantic rush and feverish activity of today in our churches, often with a very good object, of course, often, he doesn't stand a chance. It's A. W. Toser, such a friend to me in Chicago days, such an encourager, who says in his book, I think, In Pursuit of God, that if the Holy Spirit were withdrawn from our churches today, 95% of what we do would go on, and nobody would know any difference. And if the Holy Spirit were withdrawn from the New Testament church, 95% of what they did would stop, and everybody would know the difference. That's not popular preaching, but it hits me right between the eyes, right between the eyes. What a dichotomy there is between in the church meeting, between the nice, neat, orthodox, sound evangelical prayer, which opens proceedings, and the relieved benediction with which they finish. And what goes on between all the time in which the Holy Spirit hasn't even had a vote. But we ask ourselves, how can we possibly intervene in society today? And the answer of the word of God is, there is no area in which the Christian can intervene in society except one. And that is intervention through prevailing, battling, victorious praying. He has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places, and I must get in there and claim all that God has for me in Jesus. And there's nobody in competition except the devil. And by some mysterious sovereign permission of God, we wrestle not with flesh and blood, with principalities and powers, and forces of wickedness in heavenly places. And if God would seek an intercessor to intervene in society today before it's too late, before Western civilization goes to damnation, he's got to find a man who's brave enough, bold enough, big enough, and small enough to intervene on his behalf. And it's encouraging tonight to me to remember that these words in the Bible are still true. If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. I would say it's an immense encouragement with a world in this turmoil and the Western world especially, that there are those to whom the Lord has spoken on this issue, who are now being used as intercessors. I think particularly of the ministry in Britain of Evelyn Christensen from this country. I think of Northern Ireland tonight, so sadly misrepresented in the mass media as a battle between Protestant and Roman Catholic. It's nothing of the kind. The IRA is not the Irish Republic Army, it is the International Revolutionary Army, stemmed from Moscow, armed by Moscow and assisted often by funds from the USA. They don't care whether it's Protestant or Roman Catholic, all they want is a united Ireland under their authority, the back door into Britain. And they're making a do of it. I was there just three weeks ago in Belfast when there was a tremendous parade in the streets to launch a third force to attack. And I was speaking at a meeting of a thousand young people on fire for Jesus. I find in a country like that, the church wide open to all that God wants to do with them and in them and through them. I think of that dear man of God who will be here to speak to you from this platform later in the week, George Wormer. He was a student at MBI when I was pastor at Moody Church. At one stage of my ministry there we had seven all nights of prayer on a Friday night, seven successive Fridays. He came every time, stayed all night. I don't know that he had permission to do that, but I didn't ask him, I didn't concern me. All I knew was there was a young man from the institute really, really praying, really pleading with God for revival. And how mightily God has used his ministry worldwide. And you will never go to an OM conference without finding on the program a night of prayer. I've been to many of them. I've been challenged by the spirituality, by the zeal, by the enthusiasm, by the boldness in prayer. And I think also of the church in South Korea. That great church in Seoul, from which a bell rings every morning, five or six o'clock. Hundreds of people turn out to pray, and they're praying that God will give us one Christian country in the world before Jesus comes back. Population 38 million, 12 million already outstanding Christians. The Lord seeks for a man. He found one at BNBI in George Worwell. Got any more? In a portrait gallery, picture gallery in London, national gallery. Visit it sometime when you're there. You will see a picture of General Booth, the founder of the Salvation Army, sitting at a table with his open Bible and his glasses in front of him, his face lifted up to heaven in prayer. And one night, the custodian of that gallery was closing the doors on the public. And he went into that room and he found one man who had not left with the remainder of the visitors. He'd stayed. And he was on his knees looking at that picture and crying with tears in his eyes, crying, Lord, do it again, do it again. And I confess to you that this is my burden. Please don't think I preach at you. I share that burden with you. Because the thing that's marked the failure in my ministry has been that. The unwillingness to get alone, the unwillingness to get aside, the unwillingness to take time with God has made me sometimes spiritually bankrupt. And eventually led to a severe cerebral hemorrhage about 14 years ago, from which I nearly went to heaven. But I didn't. That's an obvious comment. But my dear friend, oh, as I saw those pictures tonight, and all the voices on satellite that are seeking to get through to the earth, I thought of a greater voice and a mightier voice and an omnipotent voice who would do anything to find an intercessor to get through. And we won't give him time. All Christians who are honest would acknowledge that this is the weakest area in our lives. A well-known Christian leader, who would be known to you by name, but who would prefer, I'm sure, to be anonymous, said, when I go to prayer, I find my heart so loath to go to God. And when it's with him, so loath to stay. We can always find time for the things we think most important, don't we? What does that mean in your prayer life? To most of it means curtailing the time I spend with God. Martin Luther, when asked about his plans for the next day's work, said, work from early to late. In fact, I have so much to do, I will spend the first three hours in prayer. Dear Dr. Tozer would phone me at Moody Church in the early days of our ministry and said, brother, if you have fellowship, if you want help and encouragement, I'd love to pray with you. Come and join me sometime on the south shore of Lake Michigan, any morning between April and October, between five o'clock and eight. A bit early. I lived at Lincoln Wood at that time. I didn't go often. But when I did go, I tell you, I tell you, it was like treading on holy ground. There was A. W. Tozer flat on his face on the sands before an open Bible. That's what made him the man he was. Week after week, I heard him on WNBI on a Saturday morning preaching the Word and preaching with such terrific authority and power and unction that you simply couldn't sit or stand anywhere and be neutral. You knew that man was in touch with God and he spoke with all the authority of God. Of course, when he was here, everybody thought he was a bit queer, didn't mix with people. Of course he didn't. He didn't socialize, naturally, for only 24 hours in a day. But I tell you, his books are now the best sellers. If our view of the importance of prayer is anything like that of Jesus, well, if prayer could be dispensed with in any life, it surely could have been dispensed with in the life of the spotless Son of God. But you check me on this. Read sometime Mark chapter 1. In the morning in the synagogue, teaching, healing, casting out demons. In the afternoon in Simon's home, healing his mother-in-law. In the evening, great crowds gathering and he healed them and cast out demons and spoke to them. And after a day like that, in the morning, rising a great while before day, he departed into a solitary place and prayed. And that wasn't one occasion only. Great crowds gathered around him and he withdrew from the wilderness. He went along to pray before choosing any disciples he had a night of prayer. And above all, at Gethsemane, he sweated great drops of blood as he prayed, Father, not my will but yours be done. Both our Lord and Paul made it perfectly clear that real prayer like that is not a sort of happy ten minutes sort of chat with God. Jowat, J.H. Jowat says, all true vital praying makes a drain on a man's vitality. True intercession is a sacrifice, a bleeding sacrifice. Jesus performed many mighty works without any sign of strain, but of his praying, it's recorded in the Word that he offered up prayers and supplication with crying and tears. I was with Stephen Alford, one of my closest friends whom you all know, I'm sure. I think it was, if I remember rightly, at Columbia Bible College, speaking to the students. When we'd finished, we were going off together to catch a plane back here, and one of the students came up to us with his notebook in his hand and pen. He said, gentlemen, gentlemen, just a minute, tell me, what's the key to Christian leadership? I was ready to put it down. I'm sure he expected a three-point address with introduction and conclusion and all points with the same letter. A masterpiece, he expected. Well, he didn't get it. If you know Stephen Alford well, bless him, you'll know that he had the answer before I had time to think. He said, son, I'll tell you any word. You want to know the secret, the key to Christian leadership, here it is. Bent knees, wet eyes, broken heart. That's it. That's all. My hope, your hope, is not in a theological degree. It's not, it's not in any standard of education. It's in the living God who comes and fills my heart by His Spirit and fills me with himself. Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord. The priority of prayer. But think of the price of it. One thing and one thing only opens the door of heaven. If you glance at me, with me, at chapter 58 of Isaiah, the opening verses, cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet and show my people their transgression and the house of Jacob their sin. Yet they seek me daily and delight to know my ways as a nation that did righteousness and forsook not the ordinance of their God. They ask of me the ordinance of justice. They take delight in approaching to God. Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou seest not? Wherefore have we afflicted our soul and thou takest no knowledge? Behold, in the day of your fast you find pleasure and exact all your labors. Behold, you fast for strife and debate and to smite with fist of wickedness. You shall not fast as you do this day to make your voice be heard on high. There was a people complaining to God that they were fasting continually but had never start to enjoy the feast of blessing he had for them and God's answer to them was to point out they were going about it the wrong way. He turned the whole, the whole responsibility for his apparent inaction upon them if they accuse him of inactivity. He points to their sin. Chapter 59 and verse 2 and verse 3. Your iniquities have separated between you and your God and your sins have hid his face from you that he will not hear. For your hands are defiled with blood, your fingers with iniquity, your lips are spoken lies. Your tongue hath muttered perverseness. What a plight to be in. He is a people who shut their eyes to God's law and he shut his eyes to their deliverance. That's repeated over and over again. Don't you think that the language of verses 9 to 11 in chapter 59 could be repeated today? Therefore is judgment far from us, neither doth justice overtake us. We wait for light but behold obscurity, brightness but we walk in darkness. We grope for the wall like the blind and we grope as if we had no eyes. We stumble at noonday as in the night. We are in desolate places as dead men. We roar all like bears and mourn sore like doves. We look for judgment but there is none for salvation. But it is far from us for our transgressions are multiplied before thee and our sins testify against us for our transgressions are with us and as for iniquities we know them. Do you mean to say you can't relate those words to what happened in Vietnam a few years ago? South Vietnam invaded by North Vietnam. American troops go in to drive them out and stop at the border and and General Abrams says if I had my own way I could finish the whole business in two weeks but he's not allowed to. Next comes Cambodia, Campuchia, the boat people, the tragedy, tragedy of that. And then comes Afghanistan and then comes Poland and a few little noises from the west but everybody's scared stiff of communist power, absolutely terrified of it. Justice? No. Why does everything go on like that and proceed as though God was dead? That ought to make me think and it does. It's not only true nationally but it's true personally for if I have a wrong relationship with him. No matter what else is right, inevitably that shuts the curtain to his purposes being fulfilled. I have found, oh my, it's not easy to say this but I found that God's overflowing grace in adequacy for my life in every situation is never in conflict with his demands for holiness. Be ye holy for I am holy. Lord I can't, no I know you can't, I don't expect you to but you can when the Holy Spirit really conquers you and controls you then you live like me. Stop playing religious games and mean business. Yes Lord, I understand. Your grace adequate for my life, never in conflict with your demands for holy living. And because I shirk those demands I promptly begin to form committees in my church, massive business programs, keep everybody working, work harder than ever, get engaged in Christian work and forget to pray and leave it all out and prayer gets cussed out altogether. How long is it since you spent half an hour alone with Jesus and told him you loved him? This year, I had a choir in my church in London, front row of the choir, fellow, nice chap. One Sunday morning I did what every other preacher does but he doesn't tell anybody, huh, he looks to see who's there, who isn't there. That day that boy was missing, I thought where is he? So I look round the church, oh he's over there, sitting beside a very attractive young lady. I thought that's interesting and the next week I didn't trouble to look over there, I went straight there, ah there they were and they were holding hands, I thought that's very interesting. Before long they come to me and ask me about their engagement and fixate for a match etc. I was delighted because they're both such lovely Christians but you know something, I didn't tell them this, I'm going to tell you. Before, before when he sat there in the choir, after the services were over he chatted with all his friends, you know, talked to them all, didn't hurry, and she, she chatted with her friends. Oh but now, but now, when I pronounced the benediction you couldn't see them for dust, they were away on the road rejoicing in the intimacy of love, rejoicing in being alone together. Do you love Jesus? How much, how long do you tell him so? And the Lord has a nasty word for that which I wouldn't dare use myself but he said, you hypocrite, you people worship me with your lips but your heart's far from me. Brethren, said Paul, God says he's not deaf, verse one, that if I want, if I want him to hear my prayer, I've got to break down the barrier between him and me and I've got to forsake and abandon what I know is not his will but which I hold on to because I like it. The paperback which I prefer reading to my Bible, the girlfriend, the boyfriend who's doing me no good. Brethren, said Paul, my prayer and my heart's desire for Israel is that they might be saved. My prayer, my prayer to God for them is that they might be saved. Did you know there's an awful difference between my prayer and my praying and for prevailing prayer so many of us wouldn't give the time or wouldn't pay the price and the church has lost its attack power when the devil is launching all full scale assault upon us but if I'm willing for what's involved I could be and tonight could be a watershed for you and the one side of that watershed half-developed sense of values, wrong priorities, frustrated casting around for spiritual shortcuts to exorcise a sense of failure, substitute other things, put other things in place of the main thing, forget it, forget it but over the other side of the watershed new standards and new touchstones and I begin to learn, learn how few things in life really are essential but how essential are those few things and one of them is my prayer. See my praying, that's how I pray in public. It's clothing my words with a vocabulary which is acceptable to the congregation, acceptable in the church to which I belong. It won't hurt anybody, it won't offend anybody, it covers everything that's quite right and nice but very, very rarely does it open up and do I open my heart to the real crying need in my own life. Oh God, my sin, my failure, my breakdown. Lord, Lord have mercy on me. Oh no, that would be my prayer but my praying, my praying, oh no, that would never do. If I really let people know what my need was at a prayer meeting, I'd be excommunicated from the church. If my breakdown in public had received the same publicity as Simon Peter's, no pulpit committee would look at me. My prayer, and so we play religious games and we think we can fool God and pull wool over his face by praying, uttering good, sound, evangelical prayers. Praying for people's sicknesses, praying for their illness but never, never for my own deep need in my heart but my prayer. Oh Lord, my burden. If you want it expressed clearly, let me just quickly read three verses here in Romans 8 and you'll clue on. Romans 8 26. The spirit also helps our infirmities for we know not what we should pray for as we ought, of course we don't, but the spirit himself makes intercession for us with groanings which can't be uttered or, as other translations have it, with sighs too deep for words. And he who searches the hearts knows the mind of the spirit because he makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God. Do you begin to see it? He knows our weaknesses, he knows we don't know what to pray for as we ought, we're stumbling hopeless at it, but he, he, he knows, he knows our weaknesses and he makes intercession for us with sighs too deep for words. Do you know something about that? Lord Jesus, my burden, my failure, my sin, Lord deliver me, Lord, Lord, it's me, not somebody else, me. Come right now into this great building and Lord save me from breakdown. Don't you know that the only good thing about any of this is Jesus? Don't you know that you don't try to make your life better by more praying, more study, more work? No, the Lord is saying to us all, please, please get out of the way, let me in, let me reproduce my life in you. His burden is, as Paul would put it, my little children, I travel in birth till Christ be formed in you. For this cause, I bow my knees before the Lord, Jesus Christ, that you might be filled with all the fullness of God. That's the burden of heaven and the Spirit knows, knows the mind of the Lord and he puts that burden into my heart and I find myself beginning to echo the cry of heaven. I didn't know what to pray for. Oh, this perhaps may narrow down the many, many things and people I vaguely pray for, but it places on me the burden of God for my life. I want that man to reproduce my life in him and I won't be satisfied, I won't leave him alone till he begins to grow. Oh Lord, that's my burden too. Save me from being a wicked old man, I want to be like Jesus. Lord, you've said you want to fill me with all the fullness of God, that's what I want, my burden, my prayer. And when the Lord teaches us to pray like that, something happens. May I finish? I have to finish. Forgive me. Lord, it's A.J. Gordon who said, You can do more than pray when you have prayed, but you can never do more than pray till you've prayed. Can I repeat that? You can do more than pray when you have prayed, but you can never do more than pray until you have prayed. David cried, Oh God. Isaiah cried, Oh that thou would rend the heavens and come down. Hannah, in bitterness of soul because of the barrenness, cried, Oh Lord, my prayer. The O doesn't exist anymore in our prayer meetings and we play religious games while society goes to hell. It was said of John Wesley, he had the unusual combination of a cool head and a warm heart. If I only have a cool head, do you know what I'll do? I'll play everything safe. I'll have open-ended discussions, set up masses of committees. In fact, I'll do anything but ask the Lord really to fill me with his fullness and get out where the action is. Anything but that. I used to play rugby football. That's why I shift around the pulpit a lot, I think. A year or two ago, of course. And one Sunday morning, early this year, last year, sorry, I was confined to my home because of hip trouble and I turned on the TV. It was a religious program coming from a place called Bolton in Lancashire. The Methodist Central Hall, nobody there, one man reading from Wesley's diary. Roughly, it was this. Went to Rochdale today. The people jostled me, pushed me around, wouldn't listen. And my friends, my helpers said, you'll never get anything happening here, come on, let's leave them. So reluctantly, I left. No blessing in Rochdale. The next day, came to Bolton today. Oh, the people in Rochdale were like lambs compared with these. When they heard me, they spat at me, they threw bricks at me, they kicked me, they knocked me down. And when I was on the ground, they trampled on me. And I just said, Jesus. And in a moment, they went right back. And there was silence. And for 30 minutes, I offered Christ to them. And many, many people repented and turned to him. Why? Because on 24th of May, 1738, Oh, Lord, for the witness of the Spirit, oh, for the witness of the Spirit. And my heart was strangely warmed within me. And a rigid, formal Episcopalian became a flaming evangelist. With all the unction, all the power and all the utterance of God, the Holy Ghost in his life. Preached 8,000 sermons. Went 8,000 miles, rather, in a year on a horse. Preached 1,000 sermons in a year. Because he knew what it meant to pray. Oh, thou who camest from above the pure celestial fire to impart, kindle a flame of sacred love on the mean altar of my heart. Oh, thou who at Pentecost didst fall, do thou my sin consume. Come, Holy Ghost, on thee I call, Spirit of burning, come. And that preaching saved Britain from revolution. And it's only that preaching that can save Western civilization today. And my last word. Oh, you say you're putting a lot of burdens on me. No, I'm not. As a matter of fact, I'm removing them. For my Bible makes it clear in Isaiah 59 that God's purposes may be delayed, but they can't be thwarted. Verse 16 will still be true. He saw that there was no man wondered there was no intercessor. Therefore, his arm brought salvation to him and his righteousness, it sustained him. Yes. And verse 19, when this enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him. Yes. But I am forced to the conclusion, I am forced to the conclusion that God finding no intercessor went to business himself and destroyed a nation. I come from a country which 70 years ago was the greatest world power anywhere. British Empire, everywhere. Now, nothing. Third rate little island, nothing. Hasn't got a navy, hasn't got an army, got nothing. Constantly on strike. Morals, hmm. At the beginning of the century, 85% of the people went to church. They didn't all, weren't all converted, but they went to church. Now, 2%. Morals used to be based on the Bible. Now, they're based on television. In other words, there aren't any. Watch it, America. Watch it. Watch it. This country is going the same way. And there's only one thing can say, can find, can save it. Oh, Lord, you wonder. Is there no one to intervene? Is Moody Bible Institute capable of producing another George Webber? Another 50 of them? Another 100 of them? Another people who care, who share, who dare for God? If they do, God's found his man. And my prayer is that this week, this week, at this Founders Week, the Lord will find his man. But I'll tell you, I'll tell you, brother, sister, once you do, if you say yes, you put your life at risk. Oh, eternally safe, but at risk. For you see, the moment you begin, you begin to care, care about people. The moment you begin to care, you live dangerously. If you don't care, oh, you can be a fundamentalist, squeeze your way into heaven, all right, build on a good, sound evangelical church. Oh, fine, you'll get there. You'll make it saved by the skin of your teeth, saved as by fire, with nothing at all. But if you care, it hurts. It hurts. And you begin to dare. Well, of course, our church committees, most of them need a great big dose of Holy Spirit and vitality to drag them out of their ruts, 18 inches deeper is a grave, drag them out of their ruts, which are so comfortable, computerized, and cushy, and get out where the action is, and tell about Jesus. And when you begin to share him with others, you don't ask the fellow in a skid row how he's got hurt, what's the matter with him? You become that man. Only Jesus could do that perfectly, but you and I can get right alongside that man, that girl, where he is, and share, and care, and dare. Oh, is there no one to intercede? He wondered that there was no intercessor. I pray with all my heart, Lord, Lord, find your man, find the woman, find the girl who just put everything else to one side, and seek first your kingdom, first your glory, first your faith, and go out where the action is with all the fire of the Spirit of God in their hearts. Let's pray. Lord, I have sought to unburden my heart, but so inadequately, forgive me. And Lord, please, find your man here, find your woman, find people who are in business with you, without reservation, total commitment, total abandonment to your will, and grant there may be people who, like the Lord Jesus, turn away from the crowd, turn away from the busy program, turn away from things, and seek your face. You shall seek me, and find me, when you seek for me with all your heart. Lord, do it again, and do it in MBI, right now. Spirit of the living God, fall afresh on me. Lord, answer prayer, for your name's sake. Amen.