The Revival Hymn (Video)

Now I ask you, what is the philosophy of mission? What is the philosophy of evangelism? What is the philosophy of a Christian? If you'll ask me why I went to Africa, I'll tell you I went primarily to improve on the justice of God. I didn't think it was right for anybody to go to hell without a chance to be saved. And so I went to give poor sinners a chance to go to heaven. Now I hadn't put it in so many words, but if you'll analyze what I've just told you, do you know what it is? It's humanism. That I was simply using the provisions of Jesus Christ as a means to improve upon human conditions of suffering and misery. And when I got to Africa, I discovered that they weren't poor ignorant little heathen running around in the woods looking for someone to tell them how to go to heaven. That they were monsters of iniquity. They were living in utter and total defiance of far more knowledge of God than I ever dreamed they had. They deserved hell because they utterly refused to walk in the light of their conscience and the light of the law written upon their heart and the testimony of nature and the truth they knew. And when I found that out, I assure you, I was so angry with God that one occasion in prayer I told him that it was a mighty little thing he'd done. Sending me out there to reach these people that were waiting to be told how to go to heaven. When I got there I found out they knew about heaven and didn't want to go there. And that they were loved their sin and wanted to stay in it. I went out there motivated by humanism. I'd seen pictures of lepers, I'd seen pictures of ulcers, I'd seen pictures of native funerals and I didn't want my fellow human beings to suffer in hell eternally after such a miserable existence on earth. But it was there in Africa that God began to tear through the overlay of this humanism. And it was that day in my bedroom with the door locked that I wrestled with God. For I hear I was coming to grips with the fact that the people that I thought were ignorant and wanted to know how to go to heaven and were saying, someone come and teach us actually didn't want to take time to talk with me or anybody else. They had no interest in the Bible and no interest in Christ and they loved their sin and wanted to continue in it. And I was to the place at that time where I felt the whole thing was a sham and a mockery and I'd been told a bill of goods. And I wanted to come home. And there alone in my bedroom, as I faced God honestly with what my heart felt, it seemed to me I heard him say, yes, will not the judge of all the earth do right? The heathen are lost. And they're going to go to hell not because they haven't heard the gospel. They're going to go to hell because they are sinners who love their sin and because they deserve hell. But I didn't send you out there for them. I didn't send you out there for their sake. And I heard as clearly as I've ever heard, though it wasn't with physical voice, but it was the echo of truth of the ages finding its way into an open heart. I heard God say to my heart that day something like this, I didn't send you to Africa for the sake of the heathen. I sent you to Africa for my sake. They deserve hell, but I love them. And I endured the agonies of hell for them. I didn't send you out there for them. I sent you out there for me. Do I not deserve the reward of my suffering? Don't I deserve those for whom I died? And it reversed it all and changed it all and lightened it all. And I wasn't any longer working for myself and ten jackals in a jar, but I was serving the living God. The longer I live, the more I find I don't know. Two years ago, God gave me... Why did you repent? I'd like to see... Somebody trembling because he's going to be hurt in hell. And he has no sense of the enormity of his guilt and no sense of his... He's only trembling because his skin is about to be stained. This is the difference between 20th century preaching and the preaching of John Wesley. Wesley was a preacher of righteousness that exalted the holiness of God. And when he would stand there with a two- to three-hour sermon that he was accustomed to deliver in the open air, and he would exalt the holiness of God and the law of God and the righteousness of God and the justice of God and the wisdom of his requirements and the justice of his wrath and his anger, and then he would turn to sinners and tell them of the enormity of their crimes and their open rebellion and their treason and their anarchy. The power of God would so descend upon the company that on one occasion... There were 1,800 people lying on the ground utterly unconscious. ...God and in the light... Good man, and he was in trouble... ...the redeemed who were determined by the grace of God to be part of the bride. And to be part of the bride, you have to be divorced from everything in the world. We have a witness of some of you who's going to an eternal hell according to our theology, but we talked about some tribute to them. Whisper in my ear that Satan has moved you up. He says you're getting to be dangerous to his kingdom. He says you're spoiling his plans. You're thwarting his purposes. You're pulling down his stronghold. We're not pulling things out. We're building pretty little churches and little rooms for people to sit around. If Jesus came back, he wouldn't cleanse the temple. He cleansed the pulpit. We're in grave danger when we let our accomplishments become the ground of our confidence. Oh boy, how we want to be esteemed. How we want to be respected. How people should realize what precious gifts of the Spirit are given. You know why they don't? Because you stink with pride, that's why. John died in 1791, converted at 35. So in that round it makes 53. Add them together, it makes 88. Because he was saved at 35, preached for 53 years. I believe that the only ones whom God actually witnesses by his Spirit that are born of him are the people, whether they say it or not, that come to Jesus Christ and say something like this, Lord Jesus, I'm going to obey you and love you and serve you and do what you want me to do as long as I live, even if I go to hell at the end of the road, simply because you are worthy to be your loved and obeyed and served and I'm not trying to make a deal with you.