Who's Begging Now - c.m. Ward — From the Pulpit & Classic Sermons

Welcome to From the Pulpit, each week we bring you a different message from some of history's greatest speakers in the Christian faith, and powerful sermons from modern preachers too. This week we have C .M. Ward with his message, Who's Begging Now?

It's revival time across the nation and around the world. And now as we join in honoring Christ our Savior with millions across this nation and around the world, it's revival time everywhere.

Welcome to From the Pulpit, each week we bring you a different message from some of history's greatest speakers in the Christian faith, and powerful sermons from modern preachers too. And now as we join in honoring Christ our Savior with millions across this nation and around the world, it's revival time everywhere.

Praise God, Jesus has opened up the way for salvation. The choir now brings a message of positive hope and joyful confidence in the song, Leaning on the Everlasting Arm. And now it's testimony and song time for everyone with your friend and the friend of millions, C .M. Ward.

This has been a wonderful week for me, friends. Not only have I received word from folk all over the world who have given their hearts to Christ, but I have received hundreds of requests from revival time members asking me to send my special Mother's Day card to their mother.

One day alone I received better than 1 ,500 letters asking that this request be filled. The last 48 hours I've heard from so many friends asking me, well, Brother Ward, if it isn't too late, would you please send one of your special greetings to my mother?

Well, to all of you in my audience, my answer, of course, is yes, I will. God bless all of you, dear friends. I wouldn't leave out one dear mother. So even if your letter gets to me a day or two late, I'm going to go the extra mile and see that your mother gets a personal and very special greeting from me.

All I need, of course, is a letter from you giving me your mother's name and address, and I'll work late at night rather than ever permit your dear mother to feel that she's been left out. I mean that.

God bless you. I'm for every wonderful praying mother in this audience. And there are letters from everywhere this week, but the one I'm going to share with you is pretty dear to my heart. Many years ago, in my evangelistic work, I was able to win a young man to Christ who has since found his life's work in Africa, and he writes me from Kenya right in the midst of the bloody Mau Mau trouble.

Brother Ward, 24 years ago, you laid your hand upon my shoulder during an evangelistic campaign and started me toward God. I sense a way out here in Africa listening to Revival Time through Radio Ceylon that in your broadcast ministry, you're still reaching out a friendly hand to lead men toward God.

The awful happenings out here, Brother Ward, remind us that we haven't any time to lose if we're to complete our task. This truly demon-inspired Mau Mau, with its horrible, obscene oaths, has rooted deep into the hearts of these great African tribes, and only spiritual revival can tear away this obsession and bring deliverance.

Brother Ward, it's 24 years since you led me to Jesus Christ, and I haven't forgotten you. Please ask your Revival Time audience to pray for my wife and myself, our 11-year-old boy and our 9-year-old girl, as we work for Jesus in the midst of this terrible African uprising.

You know, neighbor, a letter like that gets a hold of you. Now I know that Jesus not only saves, but Jesus also keeps, and I want you to sing an old-fashioned gospel song for that friend and his little family out there in Africa.

And as you sing it now, picture that little missionary family in the midst of that terrible environment of murder and treachery, and then let them feel your faith and prayer as you send them this song.

We're going to sing tonight, What Can Wash Away My Sins, and the answer is, Nothing But the Blood. Let's all trust the blood. Everybody sing. Now here is Lil' Sonberg with a very special song for all the mothers among our radio friends.

Mothers' prayers have followed me.

Read my Lord from day to day, God's coming home, my daughter, come night and day, coming home, coming home, our mother's prayer.

The Rich Man, Lazarus, and the State of the Heart

For this radio service, your Revival Time evangelist, C .M. Ward, speaks on the theme, Who is Begging Now? The text in two parts, and he desired to be fed with crumbs and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue.

This account reduces life to bread and water, neighbor, and it's a page out of the Bible that sets forth the truth in the plainest of fashions. First of all, Jesus is not trying to say that you go to heaven because you are poor, and you go to hell because you are rich.

It isn't the state of your pocketbook so much as it is the state of your heart. The dogs had a better conscience than the gentleman on the boulevard. The Bible says that the dogs came and licked the beggar's sores.

That was the only hospitalization he ever had. His canine friends did the very best they could for him. And it'll be a solemn moment in the universe when God calls upon the animal creation to testify against man's inhumanity to man and man's unfaithfulness to his God.

Simple animal sense would cause us to go God's way. God didn't have to speak twice to the animal when he wanted them to march into Noah's ark. The wisest of earth could stand around and scoff at God and laugh at the ark and prove so easily that it would never rain while the animal obeyed its creator.

The lion in the Persian pit of capital punishment will hush its roar in reverent respect for God's servant Daniel. Two she-bears demanding more courtesy from their cubs than parents were demanding from their crop of juvenile delinquents in Elisha's day would be so startled at the blasphemy of the younger generation and their mockery of old-time religion that they themselves would open war against such rivals in decency.

Crows will bring meals on time to a preacher being tracked down by bloodthirsty Jezebel. A whale will give a submarine ride to one of God's evangelists. A mule will try to reason a man away from his willful backsliding.

And dogs will lick Lazarus' sores. What makes a man's heart so hard for God to reach? The answer is right here on this page of the Bible, neighbor. The answer is selfishness. The Bible says that this man was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day while an honorable but unfortunate man sat at his gate every day asking but for a crumb.

How selfish and hard can men get? Well ask the American prisoner of war from Korea. He'll tell you, oh yes, the human heart will so often put animals to shame. That's why this man went to hell. Now there's a second truth that Jesus presents in pretty plain fashion.

Death as the Common Denominator

It's the truth about death. He says that rich men die as well as poor men, that politicians will die and voters will die, that scientists will die and ignorant will die, that athletes will die and the sick will die.

This is the way it's written on this page of the Bible. And it came to pass that the beggar died. And the very same verse records this fact. The rich man also died. He couldn't bribe death. His influence couldn't cheat the undertaker.

All of his financial assets couldn't demand a special deal. Death is a common denominator. That's what Jesus is saying here. And it's interesting to see what Jesus says about these two men and death. He says about one man, the beggar died and was carried by angels.

He says about the other man that the rich man also died and was buried. One man's honors began after death, while the other man's honors ended with the burial committal in the cemetery. To one man, death meant a glorious release.

To the other man, it meant the end of every privilege he'd ever enjoyed. His life had become worthless a long time before they ever buried him. He might have found life in feeding the poor, in binding up the wounds of the sick, in sharing his wealth with the underprivileged.

But he buried himself in his purple, and his fine linen, and the heaped up food on his table, and behind locked gates of his private estate. He was dead inside a long time before some physician pronounced him dead on the outside.

I want to ask you, neighbor, in this hour, what will the record say about you? Will a band of angels come to gather you home, or will they simply bury you? That's what you must decide. Don't deceive yourself.

Death is more than a chapel service. It's more than a beautiful casket or a new suit of clothes. It's more than a headstone. Death is a report card. It's a final auditing. It's the figures on the scoreboard.

And in this hour, I want you to think. I want you to answer this question. How will I die? One man can die in purple, but rotten inside. The other man can die full of sores on the outside, but clean as a whip on the inside.

They say clothes make a man. Don't you believe it? It's what's behind the clothes that count. And there's a third lesson that Jesus writes so that all men may read. It's this. The justice of God cannot be limited to this life.

The Justice of God Beyond This Life

There's another world, whether men want to believe it or not. The Bible says some men's sins are opened beforehand, going before to judgment. And some men, they follow after. Here's an example of that truth.

One man begged for bread in this world, and the other man begged for water in the next world. And as long as there's a God in heaven, neighbor, there'll be an evening of process. Folks so often get an idea from what they see on this side of eternity that it pays to be a rogue, that a good man gets a raw deal, that it's smart to be crooked, that the only law to live by is to get all you can, hold on to all you get, and let the next fellow look out for himself.

King David was so troubled about this that he wrote about it in one of his psalms. Let me read it to you. As for me, he said, my feet were almost gone, my steps had well nigh slipped, for I was envious at the foolish when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.

They are not in trouble as other men, neither are they plagued like other men. Their eyes stand out with fatness. They have more than heart could wish. They are corrupt, and they say, how doth God know?

And is their knowledge in the Most High? Behold, these are the ungodly who prosper in the world. They increase in riches. Verily, I have cleansed my heart in vain. I have washed my hands in innocency.

All day long have I been plagued and chastened every morning. And when I thought to know this, it was too painful for me, until, said David, I went into the sanctuary of God, and then understood I their end.

Jesus pulls back the curtain, neighbor, and he lets us take a look into eternity. And here on this page of God's book is the echo of eternity. Son, remember, he said, thou in thy lifetime receivest thy good things.

Likewise, Lazarus' evil things. But now he is comforted, and thou art tormented. One man took the good things in this world, and used them selfishly and sinfully to his damnation. The other man took the sorrows and the heartaches of this world, and he made them lead him to God and paradise.

If I had to, I'd rather beg on this side of the grave than the other side. The word here is, remember, don't think you're getting away with anything. God's keeping the books, mister. If we suffer, we shall reign.

If we shut God out of our lives here, he'll shut us out of himself in the life to come. You've got to look farther than the grave, neighbor. Look into eternity in this hour, and then and then only give me your final answer on how you want to live.

Repentance Must Happen Before Death

And there's something else that speaks to us in this page in the Bible. It's this. Changes have to be made on this side of the grave. The only second chance is the second chance you get in this life and not the next.

I don't know whether the rich man made a will before he died or not, but I know he tried to make one after he reached eternity. He said, I'd like to contribute something toward the gospel. I'd like to warn my family not to come here.

I'd be in favor of sending Lazarus back to life and let him preach in my hometown where I lived so many years when I was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day. He said, I pray thee, sir, thou wouldst send him to my father's house, for I have five brothers that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment.

There'll be plenty of people in hell with a missionary spirit. They never had a dime to give toward spreading the gospel in this world. They said the church was always begging for money. It doesn't matter to them that two-thirds of our world are hungry and diseased.

It doesn't disturb them that 55 of the hospital beds in America are filled by mental patients and there is an immediate need for beds for 329 ,000 of others. They think it's a waste of time that 52 martyrs have given their lives for Jesus Christ in Columbia alone since 1948.

These folk never think of the gospel in their purple and their fine linen and their sumptuous living until it's too late. Then they want a special miracle. My friend, let me tell you that the only special miracle that God will ever provide for our salvation was done for all of us when he gave his son to die in our stead on the cross of Calvary.

Take a tip from me. You'd better do your supporting of preachers on this side of the grave when you have the chance. And Christ would have us know one more thing. There's a great gulf fixed so that they which pass from hence to you cannot.

The Great Gulf Fixed Between Heaven and Hell

Neither can they pass to us that would come from thence. Mankind has bridged most distances. Perhaps in our lifetime, man will bridge the distance between Earth and Mars or the moon with his rocket ships and nations will be racing to establish air bases on other planets.

Let that be as it may. One thing is certain, neighbor. No false doctrine, no wishful thinking, no ingenuity of man, no new translation of the Bible will ever build a bridge between hell and heaven. Men's hearts would have to change first.

And this man was just as selfish after death as he was before. It's still cool my tongue. Send him to my house. There's no heaven in this man's soul. There may be remorse, but there's no repentance. There's torment, but there's no confession.

Death does not change a sinner. A funeral sermon may preach a dead man into heaven, but that's only preacher's talk. Men's sins follow them into eternity. How wonderful in this hour that on this side of the grave, any man who would change sides may do so.

It's up to you in this moment. There aren't enough devils in hell to keep you from becoming a Christian if you want to. And there aren't enough angels in heaven to keep you out of a lost eternity if you're determined to squander your soul.

Christ opened up the way. Only in eternity can it ever be said that neither can they pass to us that would come from fence. Today, you may change sides. And with all my heart, I urge you to do so. I want you to do now what you will wish you would have done one minute after you reach eternity.

The Present Choice of Salvation

This is the moment of your choice. To you, the Creator has given a free will. Yours is the responsibility to exercise that will for good. Eternity is a long, long time in which to remember. Don't wait until the gulf is fixed and you are forever a lost soul.

Neighbor, change sides now. Will you pray with me? O Christ, help us not to live so selfishly and so unconcerned about our souls that we will never know what we have missed until it's too late. Help us to see who is at our gate this moment.

O Christ, we ask Thee to wash us as white as snow in this hour. We need something more than that which might cool the tip of our tongue. We need our lives renewed through Thy redemption. Grant us this cleansing now.

Amen.

You've been listening to From the Pulpit. This week you heard CM Ward with his message, Who's Begging Now? Tune in next week for another powerful message from God's Word on From the Pulpit.