Mike Attwood concludes the Church History Series by discussing the significant impact of John Wesley and John Nelson Darby on the church during the 1700s and 1800s. He emphasizes how Wesley's revivalist preaching and Darby's rediscovery of prophetic truths, including the rapture, provided hope and a new direction for a skeptical society. Attwood highlights the importance of prayer, holiness, and the need for evangelism in contemporary Christianity, urging the church to embrace its mission in a world increasingly indifferent to God. He reflects on the open door set before the church, encouraging believers to rely on God's strength in their weakness.

Well, good evening. It seems to me that this week has gone by quicker than any previous year. At least, they say the older you get, things go quicker, so maybe that's the reason why. But it just seems to have flown by. I can't believe this is the last session that I'll be taking. But anyway, I'd like you to turn to the Book of Revelation again, please. And I'm going to be reading about the church in Philadelphia, although we still have a little bit to do in Sardis before we can really kind of jump into Philadelphia. But I want to just begin by reading the Word of God anyway. And we'll read chapter 3 and verse 7. It says, And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia, write these things, saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth, and no man shutteth, and shutteth and no man openeth. I know thy works, behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it. For thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name. Not seeking a name for yourselves, but you've not denied my name. That's going to be significant in the light of the things that we're going to be talking about. And I want to just read from verse 10. Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation or trial, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth. That's an indication of the pre-tribulation rapture there. Anyway, that's sufficient for our readings. And tonight, really, what we're going to deal with as we consider together our final session, I want to, we kind of tried to set the scene this afternoon about what was going on in this society, the age of reason, the age of revolution, and just all of these, this ferment in society, and just this idea that God is no longer kind of needed, and natural kind of explanations, and science kind of shows he's no longer necessary. And so how did God deal with that? Well, I want to talk tonight about two Johns. And the reason I'm going to kind of talk about two Johns is that their lives spanned two centuries. And so one of them is John Wesley. He lived from 1700 to 1791. So just about the whole of the 1700s was John Wesley's century. And we're going to look at him and others as they related to him, but the impact he had on a very skeptical, godless world through preaching the simple gospel. And we'll think about John Wesley. And then when we look at the 1800s, we're going to look at another John, John Nelson Darby. And he lived from 1800 to 1882. So again, his life spans most of the 1800s. And we're going to think about him and others that interacted with him. But just to kind of give you what really was God's answer to all of this stuff going on, and the answer simply is this, revival. That was God's answer. Revival, incredible revival. And how did that revival come? It came through preaching, but there were other things going on. There was this new discovery of prophetic truth. This idea, I'll keep you from the hour of trial, especially when we get to the 1800s. That rediscovery has always been there in the scriptures, but a rediscovery of the imminent return of Christ and what we call the catching away of the church. That gripped the hearts of a generation and had a profound impact. So as well as tremendous preaching that gave people in the skeptical world a new heart, it was the message of you must be born again that funded out. And people were given a new heart. And then this message of the rapture of church gave people a new hope in this skeptical world. There's a hope for the church of God. And Darby, one of the things that he spoke on, in fact, I've got the book in my lectures in Geneva on the hopes of the church of God. Tremendous book. And so this idea of the rapture of the church, tremendous stuff. And then it was a season of pioneering. New horizons were opened up. Mission activity. In the 1700s, the Moravian Brethren, great missionary zeal, reaching out all over the globe. And they're going to have a play in this. Remember, these are the followers of John Huss that go to a given respite and care by Count Zinzendorf. And they actually, on his estate, there was the beginning of a prayer meeting amongst the Moravian Brethren that would last for a hundred years. Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, somebody was praying on Count Zinzendorf's estate. And it went on for a hundred years. So we might say that preceding the preaching was some serious praying that was going to have a great impact on society as a whole. And so pioneering. 1700s, you've got the Moravian Brethren. The 1800s, you've got men like Anthony Norris Groves, William Carey, Hudson Taylor, C.T. Studd. This is the era of tremendous vision of reaching the world with the gospel. And so a great time of pioneering. New horizons. People are lifting up their eyes. They're looking on the fields. They're seeing their wife ready to harvest. And they're going, young men leaving universities, the kind of prime of England, so to speak, and going to mission fields where life expectancy was in months, not years. And yet they were queuing up to go. What an amazing thing. This was a tremendous time. God says, I've set before you an open door. And you've got a little strength, but boy, they went through that open door. And it was a tremendous time. And then it was a time of praise. Preaching, prophecy, pioneering, praise, new hymns. 1700s, a fellow called Isaac Watts. And up to that point, all they're doing is singing metrical psalms. Some of the Reformed churches, the Presbyterian Reformed church, to this day only sing metrical psalms. Because the psalms are the word of God, but a lot of it is wrong dispensation, imprecatory psalms, all that kind of stuff, right? Take not your Holy Spirit from me. I'm afraid I can't sing that. I'm sorry. Even in the modern form, I can't sing it. Because he's not going to. No matter how well I sing it, he is not going to take his Holy Spirit from me. So anyway, that's what they're doing. And anyway, he criticized these psalms and said they're not good. And his dad says, well, can you do any better? So he said, okay. And so he started writing hymns. And we know some of the hymns of Isaac Watts. And beautiful hymns. And actually, he wrote 9,000 hymns. And then, of course, Charles Wesley. And it's interesting, just want to say this, that a lot of the hymns in our hymn books are 1700s and 1800s. And there's a reason for that. Revival puts a new song in people's hearts. And out of that revival came a whole new hymnology. And he said, we haven't had many new hymns in recent years. We haven't had many revivals in recent years either. Right? And so a lot of the hymns today are coming out of carnality, not out of spiritual zeal. And they show it. And I'm not saying that there are some. We sung one this week that was good, that's newer. I'm not saying all the old is good and all the new is bad. But in a sense, just the incredible productivity in writing amazing hymns during this time frame. So Charles Wesley, 6,000 hymns. Fanny Crosby, 1,000 hymns. So right there, you've got 16,000 hymns produced in this 200. Just talking about three writers. Prolific, right? Because not only is there this new heart and new hope and new horizons. There's a new hymnology that's coming out of revival. So let's just go back to Mr. Wesley. We said 1700 to 1791. And of course, he was one of 19. He was the 15th of 19 children. And one of the sons of Samuel and Susanna Wesley. And his mother, Susanna, had quite an impact on his life. He said, actually, I learned more on my mother's knee than from all the theologians of England. The impact of a godly mother, huh? Isn't that amazing? And she would spend one hour with each child each week. Now she's got 19, right? But in that one hour, she'd just get them alone and just go through and speak to them. And so it had quite an impact. But something else had an impact on him when he was five years of age. The parsonage, his father was an Anglican preacher. The parsonage was on fire. They thought they got everybody out, but they realized that little John was still inside. And they saw his little face in the upstairs window. And they were able to save him. And he says that his mother had said to him, you're a brand book from the Virgin. God has a purpose for your life. And you're saved from the fire. And through his preaching, multitudes would be put from the eternal burnings through his gospel preaching. But he went to Oxford University. And while he was there, he was the founder of the Holy Club. And as Harold rightly said, these men weren't even saved, but they had a desire to live holy lives. And they wanted to live disciplined lives. And they got the nickname Methodists because they had a definite method to what they did. They had to read through the Greek New Testament. That was one of the things they did. They visited prisons and tried to alleviate the poor and the sick. And they had a kind of plan of action of what they were going to do. And they were very diligent, but none of them were saved. But they had a great passion for holiness. It's a pity that those that are saved didn't have such a passion for holiness. We can do with a new holiness movement. Because I'll tell you, one of the problems with Christianity today is that often our lives are so little different from the world. And we need to rediscover the idea of personal, practical holiness. But these people were passionate about it. And they got ridiculed and they got a lot of rejection and all the rest of it. But they formed a friendship. And some of these individuals, Charles would have been one of them. George Whitfield would be another one. Another guy called Benjamin Ingham, less known. But very effective, he ended up being an Arabian preacher. These men, from this group, God was going to save a bunch of these men. And they were going to have a profound impact in their generation. And so he, as well as Charles, decided that they would go to the new colony of Georgia. And they would go there as missionaries to the Indians. So as they're going to Georgia on the ship, there's a horrendous storm. And on the ship are some Moravian brethren. And John Wesley is petrified for his life. And these Moravians are singing hymns and worshipping God. And it's cool as cucumbers. I mean, they're just not frazzled but big. And he is impressed with these people. They're going to have a big part to play in his life as we move on. But he's impressed with them. And he says, I'm going to Georgia to reach the Indians. But who will reach my soul? Because he knew he wasn't saved. Isn't that amazing? Imagine people going to be missionaries. And Georgia wasn't the Georgia it is now. It was pretty primitive and basic. Going to be missionaries and not even saved. But that's what he wanted to do. And they get there. And, of course, his missionary labors were a disaster. What else would you expect from an unsaved man? What kind of message does he have? But it was a disaster. And he came back. And when he came back, he went to a Moravian meeting. Because he'd been so impressed with these people in Aldersgate Street in London. And in 24th of May, 1738, a man called Peter Bowler, a Moravian preacher, was reading the preface to Martin Luther's commentary on the Epistle to Romans. Interesting. So now we've got another one of these little church history connections. Martin Luther, who we talked about in the last session, reading the preface to his commentary. And as he heard Bowler read this, he said, My heart was strangely warmed. And I knew that he died for me, even for my sins. And John Wesley was born again. So now, a man with a passion for holiness, a disciplined life, now has a message to preach. But he's not kind of convinced about it. He's a churchman. Loyal Anglican. And he believes that you can only preach on consecrated ground. But he's another one of the Holy Club. George Whitfield had got saved. And he was preaching the new birth. And that message wasn't welcomed in the Anglican church. And more and more doors were closing to George Whitfield. So George Whitfield went outside the church and preached the gospel in the open air. He went to Bristol. And there were a lot of miners in Bristol. And again, I think Harold mentioned that they preached maybe three times before breakfast. Well, part of it, they would wait for the miners to come off the night shift. And they'd come up the shaft covered in coal, all the rest of it. And they would stand at the face of where all these guys were coming and preach the gospel. And they said that as Whitfield would preach the gospel, you could see furrows as tears began to kind of give out a white scent in these black faces. And multitudes of these coal miners came to Christ in Whitfield's preaching. And Wesley criticized him. He said, what are you doing? You're not preaching on consecrated ground. And anyway, Wesley, as he was reading through his Greek New Testament, he came to Jesus and the Sermon on the Mount. And he said, uh-oh, maybe it is okay to preach outside. Because Jesus did. And so he began to preach in the open air. And his labors began. And he was tireless in his labors. During his lifetime, he would travel. Some said he traveled over 20,000 miles on horseback preaching the gospel. He would travel through all weathers, all conditions. Oftentimes, he'd get to a place, his overcoat would be just drenched. Because in England, it rains in between the showers there. That's why it's so green. And so he's drenched. And he would take his coat off and put it there by the fire. And steam would be filling the room coming from his jacket. And he's shivering because of the dampness. And if you ever had the dampness over there in Europe, you know what I'm talking about. And then, I mean, traveled for hours on horse. He would preach. And multitudes would come to Christ. And the interesting thing is this guy was a brilliant intellectual. Fluent in five languages. He went to Germany to see Count von Zinzendorf and learned to speak German on the boat going over. I mean, this guy's a brilliant intellectual. And he's reaching minors. And he's reaching kind of the ordinary common people in his message. And the interesting thing is that Wesley and Whitefield were great contrasts. Whitefield was called the divine dramatist. He was very dramatic in his preaching. In fact, the true story of Benjamin Franklin. Actually, this Benjamin Franklin wrote this. Whitefield had started an orphanage in Georgia for Negro orphans. And it was a constant drain on his resources. He was constantly having to collect money to care for these orphans. And so he was preaching in Philadelphia. And he preached the gospel. And then he would take a collection for these orphans. And Benjamin Franklin said, I'm not going to give him a penny this time. Because every time he heard him, he ended up giving him money. So he said, as he began to speak, he said, I decided I'll just give him a penny. But by the time he finished, he said, I emptied my pocket and gave him everything. Such was his eloquence, his ability to communicate. On the other hand, Wesley hardly moved. He just stood there and spoke. And people criticized him. You're not a very dramatic preacher. So to kind of satisfy him, he got his hanky out. And ever so often in a message, he'd do this. That's Wesley, right? But the power of God was upon these men. In fact, Whitefield tells of these men. They had an all-night prayer meeting before they really went out. And he said that at this prayer meeting, he said it was like Pentecost all over again. Not that they spoke in tongues or anything like that. But it just seemed like the power of God came upon these men. Took England with the gospel. But not just England. John Wesley made 21 trips to Ireland. Three months at a time. Every year from his labor's beginning. I've got this six-volume set. History of Irish Methodism. Begins in 1741 and goes all the way to 1859. Amazing book. Can't put the thing down when you read it. So exciting. And these guys, he would go up to three months. Everywhere they went, people were stoning them. But they wouldn't stand down. They would preach. And tremendous work of God was done. All over the British Isles by these great men of God. Great men. Now they had some unusual ways and some quirky ways. But I'll tell you, Wesley was a very disciplined man. He got up at 4 a.m. every day. And went to bed at 10 a.m. every day. And he could account for every second of that day. It would be used as a law. Incredibly disciplined. Even on horseback, he would read. He didn't want to waste a second. So he'd be reading. Reading his mind as he's on horseback. Don't try that when you're driving. But anyway. But again, he just was a man who was incredibly disciplined. But he did believe in Christian perfectionism. He did believe. Mike, you said he went to bed at 10 a.m.? 10 p.m., sorry. Okay. Yeah. He did believe in Christian perfectionism. That you could have a second blessing. And that basically your old nature could be eradicated. Which would be wonderful if it were true. Right? I mean, I'd sign up for that if that was a possibility. Right? But nevertheless, I don't want to take away anything from him. He emphasized holy living. And lived a life that was characterized by holiness. And sometimes people say. Well, Gandhi said about Christians. He said, I like your Jesus, but I don't like your Christians. Because sometimes you don't live a very holy life. So again, great emphasis on that. He also believed you could lose your salvation. And we don't agree with that. Whitefield didn't. But nevertheless, the nation was gripped by the preaching of Wesleyan Whitefield. And the difference between the two. Whitefield, they said, was a better preacher. But Wesley was a better organizer. And one of the things that he did is he. Once he saw people saved. He would get them in small accountability groups. And he would really kind of disciple them. And get people to disciple them. And so he managed to preserve a lot more of the truth of the Bible. Than Whitefield did. Another thing that what they would do is. Whenever the work was dying low. It seemed like the zeal was going out. They'd stop everything. And they'd have a week of prayer and fasting. Until revival would come out again. And that's quite a lot. It's over a hundred people. It's tremendous to think about these things. So there's the 1700s. Amazing, amazing time. They said. Historians. Secular historians have said. That Britain would have fallen to revolution like France. If it wasn't for the preaching of John Wesley. Isn't that amazing? So that takes us to Philadelphia in the 1800s. The brotherly love. And there's this man called John Nelson Darby. Born in London, England. And he was educated at Trinity College in Dublin. In the classics. He was a classical medalist in Greek. And he became. He trained as a lawyer. He was called to the Irish bar as a barrister. Prosecute and attorney. But he never practiced. Because he had a conscience. And he thought. That I could use my skills as a lawyer. To get somebody off who's really guilty. And he didn't want to do that. He realized the danger of practicing law. That actually if you're good at it. You can actually get somebody off who really should be. Justice should be meted out. And you could get him off. So he didn't do it. Instead he went into the Church of Ireland. Which was the Anglican church in Ireland. And he was given a parish in a place called Callary. In County Wicklow. Not far from Palescourt House. Very beautiful place. If you ever go to Ireland. You've got to go there. Very beautiful place. A very significant place. Prophecy conferences were held. At Palescourt House. Where many of the men that we have come to appreciate. Met together and said. Lord give us light from your word. And the grace to obey it. And a lot of prophetic truth came to light at those conferences. But basically. Let's jump in ahead. He was a parish clergyman. But he took his responsibilities very seriously. And would go and visit Irish Catholic peasants. And share Christ with them. And through his labors. Over 800 Catholics. Came to put their faith. In the finished work of Christ. Remember the first time I ever read. The biography of Dalby. When I heard that. He was my only spirit hero. 800 Roman Catholics. Went to the Savior. And they called him. The Catholics called him the Irish Saint. Because he lived a very sacrificial life. I mean he. You know. He visited them. Going through bogs. And all kinds of difficult conditions. To get to them. To share. And the priests wouldn't do that. And so they could see. There was something about this man. And they listened to him. But then something happened. That old ugly church state thing. Began to raise its head. The Archbishop of Dublin. Archbishop Magee. Said that any Catholic. That was converted. Had to swear allegiance. To the Queen. The head of the church. And Dalby. Felt that this was a bridge too far. It's hard enough for a Roman Catholic. To accept Christ. When you've got such peer pressure. From the family. It's like. It's betraying your family. It's betraying the nation. But many of them. The Irish were Republican. They weren't fond of the British. Why? I have no idea. But they weren't. My wife would tell you. If you asked her. She would tell you exactly why. Because she's Irish. But they weren't. And so. Asking them to swear allegiance. To a foreign head of state. And associate in that. With the gospel. And that's the problem folks. That's when the church state. Mixture. Is an abomination. It really is. And linking the gospel. With anything. Whether it's a political party. Whether it's a national entity. The church is international. Every tribe. Tongue. People. And nation. It knows no boundaries. Right? So we've got to get rid of this nationalistic mentality. It's got nothing to do with Christianity. But that was the mentality. That just was prevalent. And so Darby felt he had no option. But to resign. There was a lot of other people at that time. Who were really kind of disillusioned. With what was going on in the church. Denominationalism. Was kind of. The Protestant denominations were vying for. For people to join them. And once you joined one. You really had to cut yourself off. From others. And there was a doctor. Called Edward Cronin. And converted Roman Catholic. But he just said I want to have fellowship. With all God's people. I don't want to have to. Put myself in one camp. And so a group of these people. Got really worried about. Being able to meet together. On the grounds of the one body. To the name of the Lord Jesus of all. In 1826. In number nine Fitzwilliam Square. In Dublin. They began to meet to break bread. Just a handful of them. The oldest was 31. The youngest was 19. Mr. Stokes. Kind of a youth movement. Quite amazing really. But the fact that they broke bread. Without a clergyman. Present. Because remember we said. When people came out. Of Catholicism. They brought a lot of baggage with them. And one of the big pieces of baggage. Was the clergy laity system. And the idea of somebody. Giving thanks for the world. Who wasn't a clergyman. Or a Protestant priest. Was kind of revolutionary. These guys met to break bread. In scriptural simplicity. And that movement wasn't just in Dublin. You would say that's where it began. But it was a move of the Holy Spirit. There was a missionary called Leonard Strong. In British Guiana. Working amongst slaves. He saw the scriptural pattern. And began to meet that way. There were people in New York. So began to meet that. They didn't know that each other existed. Here's where we were in Kilkenny. There was a guy called the Earl of Carrick. Who lived at Mount Juliet. It's now a very posh golf course. But it used to be the home of the Earl of Carrick. And he was an advocate. He was asked to kind of update. Be on a committee to update. The Book of Common Prayer. In order to do that he went back to scripture. And he tried to make it biblical. And the authorities didn't like that at all. And they said no we can't do that, we can't do that, we can't do that. And he said what's the point? You're not interested in what the word of God says. So he began to study scripture. And he began to break bread with his servants. If you will believe us. And he had no idea anybody else was doing it. In the whole world. Until he went to Palace Golf. He got an invitation to the Palace Golf Conference. And found there were other people doing the same thing. And it was, there's no question. This was a move of the spirit of God. People were going back to the simplicity. That there is in Christ. And as well as this rediscovery of church truth. In 1832. Dali fell off his horse. And got quite a severe injury. He ended up having to stay at his sister's house. And he was in the room just meditating one day. On the prophecy of Isaiah. And he said there's got to be a future for Israel. Scripture's clear. And so he began to teach. That replacement theology needs to be replaced. And began to unfold what we know as dispensational truth. So this was an age of tremendous rediscovery. Of the text of scripture. It's always been there. But these men discovered these things. Things that Randy's been talking about this week. Gathering to the name of the Lord Jesus. The priesthood of all believers. Remembering the Lord in scriptural simplicity. All of these things. Prophetic truth. The rapture of the church. All of these things are now coming together. And not just becoming things that they like to talk about. But actually gripping their hearts. Jesus could come back at any minute. We'd better get busy. We'd better get this message out. We'd better start telling people about. And Darby. If you've ever read Darby's writings. The first question you might ask is what's the code? Like how do you get in? Because he wrote in a very convoluted style. You want to know what the code is? Read his evangelistic writings. They're amazing. First and foremost. The gospel preacher. They said that he rarely ever preached the gospel. Without somebody getting sick. And by the way. These men. This movement went along with revival movements. Because there was a tremendous revival. That was taking place at this time. The 1800s was a time of tremendous revival. Especially 1858, 1859. See it started out pretty much as the aristocracy. A lot of these early brethren were lords. They were captains in the navy. You read the chief men among the brethren. As well as looking at their amazing whiskers. They were amazing aristocrats. A lot of them. But the interesting thing is that. When the 1859 revival occurred. Hundreds of ordinary people were converted. And came in to the movement of just gathering in simplicity. The biggest meeting place was in Plymouth, England. And they say that there was often 700 to 1,000 people there. And so they wouldn't accept any name. How people just looked. Have you ever talked to somebody. Often on the airplane. I get told to say what do you do. I say I'm a preacher. And the first question out of their mouth is what denomination. And I said I'm not. Don't want any denomination. And guys are nuts. They've got to put you somewhere. Well I'm a companion of all them that fear his name. They're like that. So anyway. You understand the story. So these people. Who are you people. And so they just said we're just brethren from Plymouth. Using the word brethren the way the Bible does. That relates to every child of God. We're just brethren from Plymouth. And from that. The nickname. See the Methodists got a nickname. Well this was a nickname. It wasn't a name that they. They were gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus. And so it was a tremendous time. A time of great revival. It continued to grow. And around the world. The writings of these men. Prolific writers. Men like Macintosh who are still enjoying the fruit of his labors to this day. Great teachers. Great evangelists. It was just a tremendous move of God. And. It really had a profound impact. Now of course a lot of these people we've been talking about. They kind of were at the same time as others. We haven't really mentioned. People like D.L. Moody. Same kind of well later in the 1800s. But nevertheless still in the same century. People like Spurgeon. Same century right. So a lot of different things going on. Tremendous work of God going over the scene. Great missionary endeavor. Anthony Norris Groves. Going to the mission field without a mission board. Going to the mission field. Just simply trusting the Lord alone. To supply not just for him but for his whole team. Goes to Baghdad as a missionary. His wife dies in a bubonic plague. I mean these guys paid a price. Ended up in India. And it's interesting how people like Hudson Taylor. Were greatly influenced. By men like George Muir. But there's a wonderful story about George Muir. We know the story of George Muir and the orphanage and all the rest of it. There was a time where there was riots in Nanking in China. Over the activity of the China inland missionaries. And these riots caused Britain to send some gun boats in. To rescue the missionaries. The old British gun boat diplomacy. If there's a problem send in a gun boat. Which is what they did. But anyway there was a big debate on the House of Parliament. About what are we doing with these inland missionaries. That are going in. Outside the British protectorate. Of places like Hong Kong and Shanghai. They're heading inland. What are we supposed to do with these people? And because of the publicity. All of a sudden all the finances for the CIN. Just dried up. So George Muir wrote. To Hudson Taylor. His friend. And he said. I will personally undertake to support every CIN missionary. Until this storm has passed. And every month he trusted the Lord in prayer. To provide the support. Not only for the orphans. But for every China inland missionary on the field. And he did that until support picked up again. And then he stopped. All these guys are all intertwined. Their lives are intertwined. It's just amazing. But it was a tremendous, tremendous move of God. Now I said something earlier today. And I want to just kind of reiterate. By this illustration. What I meant. About apologetics. Having limited value. Cambridge University. There was a series of lectures. Called the Vampton Lectures. And it was all about science and the Bible. And the idea was to kind of show. That these guys were wrong. That Darwin was wrong. And the rest of it. And anyway. They had no impact whatsoever. On Cambridge University. Not long afterwards. Dale Moody came. A shoe clerk from Massachusetts. Who butchered the English language. And these Cambridge shooters. What is an ignorant American doing. Coming to speak to the elite of England. But he was a man full of the Holy Spirit. And preached with power. First night. They actually piled up chairs. In a pyramid. To try and disrupt the meeting. When they were singing. They were whistling catcalling. And it didn't look like a great start to a gospel campaign. But Moody preached with such power. That the ringleader was the first person saved. Before the end of this campaign. 101 Cambridge undergraduates. Had surrendered their life to Jesus Christ. You see all I'm saying is. Apologetics didn't work. The old old gospel. Preached with conviction. By a relatively ignorant man. Supposedly. But a man. Who knew his God. And knew his Bible. And preached with power and simplicity. And out of that hundred. Seven of them. Were the Cambridge seven. That went to China. And impacted as they went around. The youth movements of England. Impacted the whole of the British. Youth at that time. And that generation. And so I say all that to say this. I really appreciate. Randy's last session. I can remember it exactly. He talked about the church. There's an outward. There's an inward. The one and others. There was an upward towards God. Did I get that right? And I think many of our assemblies. That I know of. Are doing quite well. In the one and others. At least our assembly. The people love each other. They love being together. It's a really nice assembly. I don't think God remembers me. As good as anyone I've ever been in. They understand why they're there. They know what it's about. And it's delightful. But if we have a weakness. It's the outward. And we're not all evangelists. But second Timothy. Kind of pulling a few strings together here. Chapter four verse five. Says what? Do the work. Of an evangelist. And I think we need to just stop praying. Lord we've got to somehow. Everybody in our assemblies. They're all interrelated. We all know each other. We're all kind of intermarried. We're getting as bad as the Mennonites. And the Amish. We need some fresh blood here folks. We really do. And we've got to go out. And so we need to be praying. That God would work in that way. And not neglecting the other. All three. Very very important. And then I just want to say something about Laodicea. I didn't want to spend much time on Laodicea. Simply because most of us are living in it. And the interesting thing about Laodicea is. That's the one where the Lord says. I stand at the door and knock. Can anybody hear my voice? The interesting thing is. I wonder. The Laodicean assembly. As they carried their Bibles to the meeting. Would they say where two or three. Are gathered together in my name. But he wasn't. He was outside the door. Asking for the individuals. Would you like fellowship. And I think it's just good to ask ourselves a question. Because I think a lot of contemporary Christianity. I honestly feel. When I hear about what's going on. In the wider evangelical church. I find it nauseating. And I would have no. I mean I would rather. Stay at home. Than go to some of the big shows. That are going on. I don't see Christ in it. I'm sorry. What I see is. Slick professional shows. But I don't see much of the Lord Jesus. And so I think we have to understand. What Laodicea is. So I think we need to. Just really ask ourselves. How are we doing? This church. Philadelphia. I've set before you an open door. No one can shut it. You have a little strength. I love that. You have a little strength. If you only got a little strength. What are you going to do? You have to depend entirely on him. In weakness. His strength is professed. Right. And many of us. We're weak. Right. We need him. The prayer meeting is the place. Where we express. We need him. We can't do this Christian thing. Without you. A tremendous place. To find ourselves. And then. I've kept you from the hour of trial. Don't you love the fact that. Yeah. The world is going to get a lot worse. Tribulation is horrendous. Isn't it? My dear said. There's never been a time like it. Nor will there be a time like it. I look at the Holocaust. I imagine. Can't imagine. Could it be worse than that? Well, yeah. It's going to be worse than that. Our destiny. We're not looking for Antichrist. Amen. We're looking for Christ. The heavenly hopes. Of the church. The heavenly people. With a heavenly destiny. It's only when you start to confuse. Israel with the church. That you get really messed up. In every area. Prophecy. Government. Involvement. All the rest of it. It's all about. Living for the wrong world. We need to grasp these truths. That were recovered. Back in the 1820s. And make them fresh. To our hearts. All over again. So, let's pray. Father, we're so grateful for this little glimpse. Of the history of the church. And we're so thankful that. In a form of skeptical age. You raised up these. These men. Who trusted you. Believed in you. Believed in the power of the gospel. Preached it with conviction. And saw a nation. Turned upside down. Lord, how we praise you. For what you've done in the past. But we would say. Will you not revive us again. That your people might rejoice in you. And we'll be so quick. To give you all the glory. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.