Needed Men Who Mark Eras

I was at the funeral of my homiletical mentor, Stephen F. Olford, and Adrian Rogers stood facing me with his arms folded across his chest and a serious look on his face. Adrian Rogers asked me this question. He said, Do you know what concerns me? I replied, No, Dr. Rogers, what concerns you? He unburdened his heart to me by saying, What concerns me is, I see God, calling up men like J. Sidlow Baxter and Stephen Olford, and I look around, and I don't see any comeuppers.

That's what the old boy said. And he was called up to heaven himself shortly thereafter, and he was right. What's needed today are men who mark eras.

Why don't we have Martin Luther shaking the church today? Why don't we have George Whitefield thundering in our midst? Where is a young Charles Spurgeon holding his hero's spellbound? Where can you find D.L. Moody turning the city upside down? I believe it's a great judgment upon a land when God removes his prophets and does not replace them. Are we so foregone as a people that no stir can rouse us to go out and do great things for God? Are we so dead asleep that we're content with the snoring of the status quo at church on Sunday? Where are the men today? Among us, who God raises up that mark eras and epochs in the church? Where is the trumpet blast of a young evangelist who's so sold out to Christ and the gospel that entire towns are shaken in revival? Where is the young Evan Roberts hidden in prayer for 11 years before God thrust him into the midst of the Welsh revival? Where is the flaming John Song who can awake an entire continent for God? Why are things so dry and barren? Why is death everywhere? Why is laughter the only sound we hear from the church today? What's so amusing about our desperate spiritual declension? What's so funny about the moral decay in society? Why are pastors more like circus ringmasters or late night TV comedians than prophets of God, who make a kingdom tremble by their prayers like John Knox did to Bloody Mary? Where is the young John Wesley who cried, give me 100 men who fear nothing but God, and hate nothing but sin, and I will shake the gates of hell? In 2 Chronicles 16, 9, God's word declares, for the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect towards him. Like Adrian Rogers said, where are the comeuppance for this generation? Who can turn the world upside down for Christ and the gospel? What's needed today are men who mark eras, men like the Apostle Paul, Luther, Wesley, Whitefield, Knox, Edwards, Finney, Spurgeon, Moody.

Each shared a calm denominator, a fire in their belly. They were so eaten up with the gospel and thirsty for Christ and filled with the Holy Ghost. They could not stand idly by while others perished.

They saw nothing but eternity, worshipped the Holy God and served the risen Christ, living not for earth nor its gains, but living only for heaven and its rewards. When they preached, they linked the devil with sin and the cross with salvation. They preached hell and its fire, and Christ and him crucified.

Not one of them feared king, queen, or pope, and not one of them sought the compliments of men. God, raise up some men who can mark an era today.