The Instrument God Uses

I grew up in Northern Ireland, and so I have one of those corrupt accents that maybe isn't always easy to listen to because it's neither this nor that, but a little bit of many things. And I've been in Western Canada for the last 34 years living, but before that we were in Northern Ireland. Let me just give you a short testimony about the grace of God, because I'm not here today because I'm smart, and I'm definitely not here today because I'm an expert on revival, but by the grace of God. I was 15 years old when I picked up a gun in Northern Ireland and got involved in terrorism there. Have you ever been to church before with a terrorist? Ex-terrorist, I hasten to add. But because of the faithful witness of a man that I worked with, he talked to me about Jesus every day, and he really didn't care what people thought about him. He never even told me what denomination or church he belonged to, but I knew that this man loved Jesus, and it's because of his faithful witness, and I got so fed up with him witnessing to me that I decided as about 17 at the time, I'm going to read the Bible and prove him wrong. Now that's a good reason for reading Scripture, isn't it? To prove a Christian wrong. And as I read through Scripture, as you know what happened, I didn't prove him wrong. I met the Lord Jesus at 1.30 in the morning on the 16th of, or 13th of August, 1969. You have to forgive me, I've never forgotten that moment when Jesus walked into that little room and said, even though you have been a reject all your life, I'll take you. And you know the love of God that swept into that room is just the same love of God that comes in revival when he moves in, in his strength and power. The first human being I ever got to tell that I was a Christian was the next morning when I bumped into my mother in the hallway, and I said to her, guess what happened to me last night? And she was afraid, she kind of cringed. She knew all about her second son and what a rotten character he was, and she said, what have you done now? You know, for a little tough guy who hadn't any experience of bowing the knee to anybody, I just stood there and wept, and she got more worried looking, and eventually I managed to say just one word, Jesus. Now, she'd heard me use his name as a swear word, but she'd never heard me say it with tenderness like that, and all of a sudden she realized what had happened. She came and put her arms around me, and we had this little prayer meeting in that hallway, and she said to me, John, I have prayed for you so long and so often, and I suspect I'm not the only one in this hallway today who is in the kingdom as a result of a mother's or a grandmother's prayers, and I thank God for the word that we've had so far today, and the reminder that prayer and revival are absolutely inseparable. Some years ago, Duncan Campbell was asked to speak on the instrument that God uses in revival, and he preached on Ezekiel 37 and gave these headings to his message. He said, the instrument that God uses is a man of vision. You know, that's the story of the dry bones in the valley. Not only a man of vision, but a man of the word of God. Not only a man of the word of God, but a man of faith and obedience. And then there's one other thing, and to be a man with a burning message. And I'd like us to think about this subject for a few moments, the instrument that God uses in revival. And if you have your Bible, turn with me to Luke chapter 1. I'm just going to read verse 15 through 17, and then I'll move over to Luke chapter 3, verses 1 through 9. We're just going to comment a little bit on this Scripture, and it is my prayer that God would encourage you this afternoon, because sometimes there is the thought that He could not use me. But you know, He can use any one of us, fully surrendered to Him. So Luke chapter 1 and verses 15 through 17 say, For he will be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink. He will also be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother's womb. And he'll turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God. He will also go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make Redding a people prepared for the Lord. You can just turn over the page or so to the third chapter and the first nine verses. And here, Luke chapter 3 and verse 1 says, Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of Aeturia, and the regent of Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene, while Annas and Caiaphas were high priests, the word of God came to John, the son of Zacharias, in the wilderness. And he went into all the region around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins, as it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare the way of the Lord. Make his path straight. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill brought low. The crooked places shall be made straight, and the rough ways smooth, and all flesh shall see the salvation of God. Then he said to the multitudes that came out to be baptized by him, Brutivipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance, and do not begin to say to yourselves, We have Abraham as our father, for I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones. And even nigh the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Father this is your word, and we ask you, touch us through it and in it, and add your blessing and draw us deep into your love and grace and spirit. In Jesus' name, amen. I want just to take two thoughts really. One is the messenger, the instrument that God uses, the messenger, and there is revival in the land of Israel before the first coming of the Lord Jesus. And as we look at the one here, John the Baptist, let's just think about what Scripture says of his character. It tells us that he will be great in the sight of the Lord. In verse 15, he will be great in the sight of the Lord. What a wonderful thought there is even just here. He's not concerned about being great in the sight of people, but he is great in the sight of the Lord. And everyone, as you think about revivals, you see men who have been used by God, and there is this principle in their life. They're no longer concerned with the fear of men. It's gone. And there is a sense of liberty and freedom and victory in their heart, because they don't really care what the world says anymore. He's only concerned with pleasing Him. You know, I got to speak at a man's breakfast a few years ago when my oldest son was in Bible school in his first year, and I went after in that community to the Bible school to see my son, and they'd given me $50 honorarium, and I know starving Bible school students can always use a little extra, so I had that in my pocket to give to him, and I shared that with him, and we were walking around the campus together, and my son Andrew, he didn't seem to want to let go. Every time I would say, you know, I think I'd better head for home, he'd move into another subject. And you know, I'm Irish and slow, and it takes me a while, but I realized he's got something on his heart. And as I started to investigate that, I said to him, what's going on? And he said to me, Dad, you know, I've always wanted to be an actor, and I said yes, and you're a good actor. And then he said, but Dad, God is calling me to be a pastor. Now you could have knocked me over quite easily. I said to him, well, you know what that's about. You grew up in the pastor's house. You know all the things that go on, and all the politics, and all the twisting and turning that goes with it. And then he gave me this statement, and I've used it so often since. He said, yes, Dad, but I know God is calling me, and I'm learning to live my life for an audience of one. And I thought, man, that's it. That is it. Isn't that the same principle that you see here? Great in the sight of God, living life for an audience of one. There's absolute authenticity here. And as my dear brother Gerard de Toy often says, impact comes out of intimacy. And that is where the power comes from in this man's life, and for you, or for me, or for anyone else. It will come out of intimacy with the Lord. Secondly, in this verse, or in this text, we see that he is to be strong in spirit. You'll find that in verse 80 of chapter 1. So the child grew and became strong in spirit, and was in the deserts till the day of his manifestation to Israel. Now I want you to notice with me, it does not say strong in will. It says strong in spirit. Because I believe that one of the things that happened when he was in the desert is that his will was broken, and his life completely surrendered to the Father. You know, it's an amazing thing when you don't own anything. Because then, nothing owns you. And we live in a very materialistic society. I appreciate that. But it is absolutely freeing and a place of victory in a person's life when they no longer own anything. I didn't even realize the total value of this until just a few years ago, sitting, waiting at a traffic light to turn left. In the left turn lane, in my little car, and there's a girl turning this way, and she did it when the light was amber or yellow. And there's a fella coming this way, and because it hasn't turned red yet, he has the right of way. Well, who knows? Well, they connected right in front of me. Kaboom! Big T-bone. That was bad. But what was even worse is it slid right over and hit the front of the car that I'm sitting in. You know, those are times when you can have an Irish moment. I mean, I could have bounced out and slammed the door of my vehicle and said, What kind of drivers are you anyway? Can't you even see that when the light's turning you should have caution? Instead, I sat there and said, Dear Lord, somebody just hit your car. It is absolutely freeing when you own nothing, and when Jesus owns it all, strong in spirit. The text goes on to tell us He was clean of heart. There's holiness in His heart. As you look there in verse 15, the Nazarite set apart, filled with the Holy Spirit, says verse 15, guided, controlled by the Spirit of God. Don't you love how it tells us in that first chapter that when Mary came to visit, the baby leaps inside Elizabeth's womb, full of the Spirit, long before birth. Wonderful. So, you see a little bit of His character here, the instrument that God uses. And secondly, you see His call. It is clear in its purpose. In verse 16, He will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord, their God. That's clear. There is to be a turning. There's an absolute purpose to this man's life. He's to turn people back to God. Now, what does that say to you about the society and the nation to which He is coming into, that He is born into, that He is called to minister to? Where were they? Not walking with God. Because if they're going to turn to God, they're far away from Him. Does that sound familiar? America and Canada? It seems to me that sometimes we look at all the stuff that's wrong, but oh how God has worked to send His faithful servants at just the right time and do that work of calling people back to God. In the song of Solomon, chapter 5 and verse 2, you get this picture. The bride says, as the bridegroom knocks, Listen, I've gone to bed, taken off my shoes. Do I have to get up and put them on again to come to the door? What is happening? The Lord is calling to His bride. Where is He? Inside or outside? This is the interactive part. You can shout back at me. He's outside. Let me give you a verse that we use in evangelism all the time. Revelation 3 and verse 20. Jesus is speaking to who? The church. I stand at the door and knock. Inside or outside? Outside. But the specific call on this man, this Baptist's life, is to call them back to God. Isn't it a wonderful thing when you see people come back to God? I was preaching once when my sons were both young and I gave the invitation at the end of a gospel message and I had a very hard time closing in prayer because my two sons were standing at the altar to give their hearts to Christ. But my youngest son then spent some time away from the Lord in his late teens, early twenties. Do you know? He would talk to me, but he would never talk to me about Jesus. I want to tell you. Before I came down here, I spoke with him and this is what he said. I'm praying for you. What happened? God sent a young woman into his life that called him back to that sense of intimacy with God. John the Baptist had a clear call and he is working together with God. Henry Blackaby always says, Find where God is working and work with him. The timing is perfect. God is at work. He has sent his servant. He has given him the fullness of the Spirit. But, you know, you and I, we live in a day of opportunity. I'm sorry, I look at all the stuff that's wrong and I just see the word opportunity because so many in years past must have looked at it and said, It seems physically hopeless. But God, and he's not finished yet. You look at the commission of this man, John the Baptist, in Revival. You'll see it here in verse 17. It speaks about going before the Lord in the spirit and power of Elijah, but then the commission is to turn the hearts of fathers to the children and the disobedient to wisdom. That's his commission. He is to minister and reestablish Godly family values. We tend to think about revival as that great happening that impacts many hundreds of thousands and millions, and that's true. But the strength of any nation is the family or the lack of it. Isn't it? He is called to call them back to the Lord, back to his values. One of my privileges a few years ago was to go to a place called Oxford House, Manitoba. I'd been asked to go and teach classes on how to lead people to Christ. In a native Indian reservation community, we went, and you know you're in a remote area when the co-pilot gets out of his seat, comes back down the plane, picks up your suitcase, opens the back door, hands you your suitcase, and says, there's a little hut over there. Go and somebody will meet you. And twenty minutes later, Carl Epp, a missionary to that community, sure enough did come and meet me. And he said, saw the plane coming in, John. And we started on a Friday night and taught about evangelism and did three sessions on Saturday. And then the people there said, listen, if we came together, there are four churches in this community, if we came together, would you preach on Sunday morning? And I said, okay. And on Sunday morning, we had this massive crowd. Four churches together. Forty-seven people. So you know the average church size. Ten. After Sunday morning, they said, listen, the plane doesn't come back until Tuesday. Would you preach again tonight? And I said, okay. And after Sunday night, they said, listen, the plane doesn't come back until Tuesday. Tomorrow night, how about if we all meet over at Stanley's house? He has a big house. And would you just sit and answer questions? Now I'm scared. When somebody asks you that, what's the first thing you think? What if they ask me something that I don't know? And so, I said, well, you know, it would help me if you could write some of the questions down and I could get them ahead of time and have a little bit of time to pray and think. And so at 6.30 on Monday, the meeting was at 7 p.m., and at 6.30, they handed me seven eight-and-a-half by fourteen pages with questions. And in that massive 30-minute time slot, ten of which were taken driving to the meeting, I whipped through those pages. All of the questions except one were about the Holy Spirit. The other question was about the authority of the Word of God. So when we started at seven, I took ten or fifteen minutes and answered that one question about the authority of Scripture. And then I said, let's have a Bible study. We're going to start in John chapter 14, and we're going to just work our way through some of the New Testament thinking about the ministry and work of the Spirit of God. Almost eleven o'clock that evening in 1 Corinthians 14, I drew that study to a close with these words. So you see, as you think about the work and the ministry of the Holy Spirit, His work is to glorify Jesus. And because many are searching for one particular gift, you need, as a people, to ask yourself the question, do I want this gift for His glory or for mine, so that I'll look to Him? I didn't say one word that night about the family, not one sentence about the family. And we had, at eleven o'clock at night, prayer time. And lo and behold, as we went to prayer, it began in a very ordinary way. Johnny Chubb, the brother who started the prayer meeting, started to pray just ordinary prayer. Lord, thanks that we could be here. Thanks that we have the freedom to look in Your Word together tonight. And then there was a long pause. So long, in fact, that I opened my eyes briefly to see if he had gone or if he was still there. But as I opened my eyes and looked across the room at him, I heard him go, and then he started to pray. And as he prayed, he said, Oh God, You know I haven't been an honest Christian. Oh God, You know I haven't been a good husband to my wife. Oh God, You know I haven't been a Christian father to my children. And as he poured out his heart to God, the Lord met him there at the foot of the cross. His wife prayed next. You'll never guess what she said in her prayer. Oh God, I haven't been an honest Christian. I haven't been a good wife to this man. I haven't been a Christian mother to my children. To make a long story short, that prayer meeting ended at seven o'clock in the morning. We had revival. At seven in the morning, that man, Johnny, said, Come over to my house for tea. And I said, Well, I'm actually with Carl. I don't know if I can do that. And I don't know where you live. And Carl said, Oh, let's go. So at seven in the morning, we went over and the kettle was put on and we had a cup of tea. And then that man said to me, I wanted you to come to see something. I've never forgotten it. He has six children and he just lined them up like steps of the stairs. He got down on his knees right in front of that oldest boy and said to him, Son, I've failed you. Forgive me. By the grace of God, I'm going to be a Christian dad. Would you pray that the Spirit of God will fill me to the place where I can live honestly before Him and before you? He went right down the line. All six of them. Now, I've kept tabs with that family and I'm happy to say this. Every one of those six children continues to follow the Lord. Even the younger ones. And they have a real sense of God's purpose in their hearts and in their home because the Lord used that night of prayer and revival to turn a father's heart to the children. But notice that it happened with brokenness and humility. In verse 17, John the Baptist is to call for righteousness. One of the things that I think about in Canada as I listen to our news broadcasts is this. Why does it never talk about what's right? Only about what's expedient or what's politically correct. But revival is to call people back to righteousness. We become careless. I'd have to admit to that in my life there have been times where I have become too careless and almost desensitized to the place that you hardly notice some of the things that go on. I remember being in a meeting with some clergy with Billy Graham one day and he said this, I am shocked that I'm no longer shocked at what I see on television. You hear what he was saying? There is desensitizing that goes on. And revival is to call us back to righteousness. And in chapter 3 and verse 4 we see that he is doing this to prepare a people for God. Over there to chapter 3 and that fourth verse is speaking about preparing the way of the Lord. It's not to prepare us for something else but for the Lord in our families, in our communities, in our churches, in our nations. And it is how many voices that God is going to use. This is where I can get done right Irish and excited. Did you see in this text it says the voice of one. How many are you? One. And if he can do it here he can do it again as we've been reminded today already. Let's think for a couple of moments before I close about the message that the messenger is to bring in this third chapter from verse 4 and following down to verse 9. You see it's a message from God. That's the Word of God in Isaiah chapter 40 that is quoted right there. And it is not about programs or philosophies. It's just the Word of God. And it is a clear call. You know there is this lie around today that if the church were ever to preach about repentance and hell and those kind of things nobody would come. So I just want to show you the lie. Look at the beginning of verse 7. As he is preaching it says he said to the multitudes. So why would it be different today? It is to the multitudes that that message was proclaimed and has been through the centuries. And when the church is faithful to proclaim it God is faithful to touch lives through it. It is a clear, very clear call. About a year ago I was with one of our men from Revival Fellowship, Richard Sibley. And we were driving down the street and he said to me do you know Jesus said I will build my church. You go and make disciples. But he said I think we've got it backwards these days. It seems to me that we're saying Lord, we'll build your church. You go and make disciples. And I thought that's a piece of wisdom I'm going to hold on to. Because I think so often it is true. It is a life changing message. Think about this text from Isaiah. Preparing the way of the Lord. Every valley will be filled. What are the valleys? They are the deep things and the divisions that come along in our lives. They are the things that sometimes we don't even want to acknowledge are there. They are things like hardness of heart. And I'd have to confess there are times when my heart is so hard. How about you? Does it just happen to the Irish? I think not. It can happen to any one of us. What about the backbiting and complaining and gossiping and all of those things that divide? Every valley will be filled up. In meeting after meeting we watch God's people as the Spirit of God confronts hearts. And when we are real and honest with Him there are so many valleys, aren't there? But our text says they are all to be filled in. It happens at the cross. The mountains are to be brought low. What are they? High places. Pride. Ambition. Power. I was preaching in a little church in western Saskatchewan and a lady came up to me after the service and said, Thanks for the message. I wonder if while you're here you could do me a favor. I said, Well, what is it that you're looking for? She said, You could tell our pastor it's time to go. I thought to myself, Oh joy! How did I get to be so privileged? I said, How long has he been here? Three years. We only keep them three years. I said, Oh, well do you believe God called him here in the first place? Oh yeah, I was on the committee. I've always been on the committee, she said. Now if I had been smart and kept my mouth shut, she wouldn't have got mad at me. But instead I said to her, Do you believe Jesus is the Lord of the church? Oh yes. So I said, Then get off his seat and let him be the head of his church and stop trying to manipulate it and control it and drive it in the way that you want it to go. And friends, if there ever was a day when we need a real brokenness in our hearts, this is one of the issues. Who's in control? Make the crooked path straight and the rough way smooth. You see, this man came with a clear message from God. A life changing message. It was a message of truth. As you look there at verse 7, he's not very complimentary about where humanity around him is. Brutal vipers. Who warned you? Boy, I don't think he would win a popularity contest. Do you? But you see it. There it is. In clear Scripture. It is the message of truth that draws people. The multitudes were there because he was speaking the truth in love. It was a challenging and confronting word. Who warned you? It's in Ecclesiastes, I think, chapter 3, verse 1. It says, God put eternity in our hearts. That's who warned us. There is a time coming, isn't there? And it's challenging because he says to them, Bring forth fruit worthy of repentance. You see, where there's no fruit, there's been no life change. And where there's no life change, there's no act of God. And where there's no act of God, there's no real spiritual life. In this man, there's no trust in the flesh. No trust in the self-life. And the self-life, you know, is what trips us up. All the me and my stuff. You heard me say I'd been involved in terrorism and how I came to the Lord. Six years later, I was a preacher in Northern Ireland. And I had a friend, a very close friend. His name was also John. He came to the Lord a little bit after I did. We walked together in preaching ministry. He's a far better preacher than I will ever be. We had such a close friendship, I could tell what he was thinking and he could tell what I was thinking. And we got used to being in a place, living life under the threat of death every day. In fact, we got to the place with this where we could joke about it. Whose turn is it to be threatened this week? But on the 12th of September, 1975, the threatening stopped. My friend John came home from the grocery store with his wife Agnes, his two sons, Graham, nine, and Neil, seven years of age. He carried in some bags of groceries and set them down in the kitchen on the counter the same as you or I would do week by week. And his nine-year-old son, Graham, had just enough time to run into the kitchen and say, Daddy, there's a man! And there was a man with a 38-caliber special pistol like the one I used to carry. My friend John was shot twice in the head and once in the shoulder in front of his wife and two children. Hollywood says when you get shot in the head, it's all over instantly. But Hollywood knows nothing about real life. He died 20 minutes later just as the ambulance came into the yard. And the next day, I took those two little boys out just to get them out of the house. And as we drove along, they would say things like this to me. Uncle John, that's like the car they drove away in last night. Uncle John, that man's got a coat on like the fellow last night. Eventually, we stopped in a parking lot and I said to those two boys, Your daddy is more alive today than he has ever been. He is with Jesus. And if you follow Jesus, you'll see him again and nobody will take him away from you. You know, we can know the right things to say, but that doesn't make the heart right. I went through his funeral and all of the mechanics that goes on with it and I knew all the right things to say, except on the inside there was civil war. Hit back. You know who's responsible. You know there'll never be an arrest made for his murder. Get even. You know how to do this. There's this tug of war that goes on in the heart. And there's great fear. What if somebody ever finds out what's going on in my heart? A friend of mine was preaching at our church one Sunday night while all this was going on in my heart. He did a strange thing. At the end of his gospel message, he said to people, if you don't know Christ, get up and come and meet Him tonight. And then he said, if you have failed the Lord and you need to make things right, you get up and come and meet Him right here tonight. And then he did a strange thing. He said, there's one person in here and you know who you are and you know you need to meet the Lord tonight. And he said, over what's going on in your heart? And I sat back there and said, oh God, I'm fine tonight. And I walked down to the front and he came right over to me and said, John, I don't know what this is all about, but the Lord gave me something to say to you tonight. I don't understand what's going on in your life. And I said to him, trembling, you better say it. And I expected him to expose me as a fraud. But Richard looked at me and said, only two words, Jesus understands. You know all the stuff that we try to hide? He knows it. He understands it. I wept so hard that night I soaked my friend's suit. I think I crinkled up some pages in his Bible. He just held on to me for about 15 minutes and said, Jesus understands. You know, that's one of the great lies that we face. If we ever get really honest with God, what will everybody think? And that night at his advice, that's when I got alone with the Lord. I just said, God, I'm a fraud, and I'm a fake. And I'd heard people talk about being filled with the Holy Spirit, but to me it was just a concept until that night. I said, Lord, I don't want to be a fake anymore. I want you to take it all. Every bit of it. I'm just going to lay it down, Lord. There is no reason in the world why I should get the opportunity to come to Indianapolis and talk to you or go anywhere else in the world and speak a word for Jesus except this. It's His work. And when you're surrendered to Him, He'll lead you and take you to the places where He wants you to be. And He'll give you the Word that He wants you to use. It all comes back to the foot of the cross. John came with a strong message. The axe is laid at the root of the tree. Fruitlessness causes judgment. We can blame the politicians. We can blame the other places in the world for our problems. But fruitlessness causes judgment is what this verse says in verse 9. Dear church, we need to bear fruit. The fruit of real repentance. Lastly, let me say it was a gracious message. For grace is extended to us in His call to repentance. In His call to make straight His pathways. It was a message of great hope. And we are in a time and place of great hope in these days. The instrument God uses is not a complicated instrument. It's a surrendered instrument. Let's pray together. I wonder as we go to prayer, as the Lord has been speaking to our hearts, is there enough hunger in our hearts this afternoon, in this last session of the afternoon, to seek Him and to say to Him, Lord, I'm tired of living the Christian life in my strength and for my glory. And so, Lord, I come to You in repentance, in honesty, and say, Precious Lord, would You take me and fill me with Your Spirit? Forgive me and cleanse me from my sin. And make, Lord, Your purpose, Your call to me so clear. I wonder if in your heart of hearts this afternoon, you might just cry out as I do from my own heart, Lord, I want to be an instrument that You can use. Father, it's not about what I know. It's about Your purpose. So in surrender to You, come and take it all. In Jesus' name.