Power of the preached word — Fred Tomlinson

For those of you who may be joining us by the internet, I'd just like to say that you've joined a Zoom meeting that basically is under the umbrella of the Mackenzie Christian Fellowship in Abbotsford, Canada, and we welcome you to join us and if in fact you'd like to contact me or us at any point you can do that through our website.

The address is mackenziefellowship .com. It's very easy, mackenziefellowship .com. Thank you. The the way the Lord has been leading me yesterday and today has been very interesting because if I was to describe to you just now the opposition that I've had while preparing this message, you would agree with me that Satan does not want me to share this with you and I won't take the time to describe what has happened, but it's there was one point where I was on the verge of tears, I think, but here I am and here we are together.

You know, there's a hymn that we've loved singing for a long time. Charles Wesley didn't write it, but it's a great hymn and one of the verses goes like this, and I want to invite you to make it your prayer this morning.

Speak Lord in the stillness while we wait on thee. Hushed my heart to listen in expectancy. Speak O Blessed Master in this hallowed hour. Let me see your face Lord, hear your word Lord, I've forgotten what the line is, and feel your touch of power.

Amen. I invite you to listen with your heart. You know, for me to say to you this morning that we live in a changing world, that would be very likely the greatest understatement of the whole of the history of this planet, I think.

Human Need in a Rapidly Changing World

It's so obvious to every one of us, even the younger people among us can recognize, even in their short lifetimes, in the last couple of years, in the last months, almost in the last weeks, so much has changed and is continuing to change.

So much so that for me to provide examples of that would be just redundant. You don't need it, it's obvious. But there's a sense in which I can't resist just saying something. And while I was sitting here before we got started, I was thinking of this whole concept of talking from my own study here and yet sitting alone and yet there's very likely, you know, several hundred people who will be listening.

That's just amazing. But I was thinking about the first manager I had when I started work a very long time ago. And I can still vividly remember him bragging. I mean, it wasn't just once, but he would regularly come in and be bragging to us.

And he was bragging about his new television set. We hadn't yet learned the abbreviation TV, so it was either the television or the telly if you were in England. And I remember him bragging about it. He said, you know, he said, the screen, it's a whole 12 inches wide.

And yeah, the picture's in black and white. And then he would go on to describe just the enjoyment that he and his wife were having with this newfangled device. And now look at me here, just looking at my computer screen or a little camera.

And here we are, how things have changed. But you know, there are things that have never changed. One of those things that I'm thinking about just now is human need. Let me just read a letter to you. I received it this week from someone who will remain nameless.

And it's typical of many letters that are going around at the moment, and we've received quite a few. This person said, I love to watch and listen to your teachings, Pastor Fred. I am 75. I'm widowed and deaf.

I can read lips in person close up. I'm vocal and do not sign. It is very hard. I don't attend church because I can't understand the preacher. I watch my favorite pastor on one program and several others on YouTube.

I love your teachings and I'm adding you to my list. She's a very wise person. She said it's hard to even watch the CC. I guess that's the closed captioning. As I currently have a cataract on my left eye and my vision is a little blurry.

My brain gets tired from constantly striving to hear and read lips. I am saved. I trust my Lord Jesus no matter what. My faith is in him, Christ alone. I'm also caring for my elderly widowed mother who is currently in a nursing home bedridden and on oxygen 24 -7.

She is 91. She can't hear or lip read. I sit with her two hours a day, which is all they will allow, and write to her on a dry erase board. I tell her Jesus loves her. Mum is saved also. Any advice or word would be greatly appreciated.

I confess I'm weary and if it were not for Jesus I could not go on. He is my blessed hope, my Lord and my rock. Thank you and God bless you. That's one letter. There are others. We had another one that was passed on to us which we shared in our prayer meeting a few days ago.

Human need comes in so many different forms, doesn't it? But the fact of human need is something that's ever been present and will continue to be present as long as the Lord allows this world to continue as it is at this point in time.

Looking at the same issue from a different point of view, man's need of God will never change. It's just the fact that not every person recognises the fact that God is in a position to meet our human need and minister to us as we find ourselves in things that we cannot change in any way.

The Unchanging Gospel of Jesus Christ

The fact is the Gospel, the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ will never change. It's timeless. Essentially the story of the Gospel is that God in the person of Jesus Christ came into this world to meet the deepest roots of human need.

He is the world's only hope. There is no hope to be found anywhere else. We could spend a long time, we could spend hours expanding all this and thinking about these things. But I'd like to just share a few words this morning to you as to Christians who are living at this time in this rapidly advancing world of knowledge and yet simultaneously is careening toward a gaping catastrophe.

While I believe that God is using even this Covid issue for his own purpose and I believe that he is using it in his own unique ways to further prepare his bride. But at the same time we recognise that that which is taking place around the world today and right in our own societies is an opportunity which the enemy of our souls is seizing.

And he's seeking to ensnare men and women, professing Christian men and women and to discourage them like this lady whose letter I just wrote to you. To bring discouragement and also distract us from what a hymn writer called, it was Charles Wesley actually, the central point of bliss.

He was referencing the Lord Jesus himself at the time. The all important thing for us as professing Christian men and women is that we maintain a very precise and fixed focus. Listen to the Apostle Paul and what he had to say.

Paul's Pursuit of Knowing Christ

I'm looking into Philippians chapter 3 and in verse 8 and down a little way he says,. But what things were gained to me, those I have counted loss for Christ. Yea, doubtless I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and do count them but done that I may win Christ.

And be found in him, not having my own righteousness which is of the law, but that which is through faith, the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith. He goes on, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his death if by any means I might attain to the resurrection of the dead.

Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect, but I follow after if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do, he goes on, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth to those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

Wonderful. Those words are the words of a man who was focused. There were all kinds of events that were taking place around him, there were those events which were impacting him in a very adverse and painful way in the course of him fulfilling his calling and his ministry.

But he was a man who, he tells us this in Galatians chapter 1, he knew why he was conceived in his mother's womb. He knew why he was born into this world. He wouldn't have realised that at first, but he came to a point where of course he had that encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus and everything changed as a result of that.

And looking back, he was in no doubt at all that he had been chosen by God and called of God and that God had a very distinct purpose for his life. And from his writings we can see so plainly and clearly that he maintained his focus on him.

And I was reading again one of my favourite epistles this morning which is the second epistle to Timothy, where we're left in no doubt at all that even in the most adverse and frightening human circumstances, expecting the executioner at any moment, he was at peace in his heart, his mind was razor sharp and the things of the Christian gospel were uppermost on his mind as he communicated with Timothy.

He was a man who was focused. And this, for each one of us, is such an important, in fact a crucial factor for us. We live in a world which, even apart from the Covid issue I've mentioned, it's filled with so many distractions, especially in our culture, I'm sure.

Guarding a Consistent Focus on Jesus

So many distractions and they come in so many different ways to us, but always the ploy is to draw us away from that central point of bliss and to turn our eyes from Jesus. And I want to spend this few minutes here with you just encouraging you to consider this fact, the need for our focus to be clear and to be fixed and consistent and to walk through our daily lives in the light of this fact.

We ourselves also should know, as did Paul, that the reason that we are alive today is because God ordained it so and that he has a purpose for each one of our lives. And I appreciated the remarks I read earlier from Watchman Nee reminding us that we're not to spend all of our lives hoping that we can relive the past, but God has given us this particular moment.

And in this very moment, may God find my heart and your heart also reaching out to him and focused upon him and looking to him to empower us and enable us to maintain that posture for the whole duration of this journey.

Amen. Growing in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus, moving on from one experience of his glory to another experience of his glory by the Spirit of the Lord. What a wonderful prospect. May God help us in truth to do that.

The Internet and the Impact of God's Word

You know, while referencing the Internet a few moments ago, we can't forget it because it's right on top of us here now. Its impact, it has pros and cons, you and all about that as well. But in the midst of it all, and with that in mind, that is the Internet, let us just consider something that is crucially important to us.

It's not the only thing, but it's very, very important, and we must understand it very clearly, and that is the impact of the Word of God. You know, I'm just wondering how to say this. Permit me to just draw a contrast as I go ahead here.

A Life Shaped by Consistent Biblical Ministry

I'm looking back into the past to do this, of course, but I was born into a home where my parents belonged to a group known as the Plymouth Brethren. And until I was 25 years of age, I never attended a meeting in any other denomination or any other group.

We kept very much to ourselves. The only exception to that, to be totally honest, would be that in my junior school days, I went to a Church of England school. And so on Church holidays, you know, special holy days, we went to the church that was associated with the school.

That's the only time I went outside of Brethren meetings. I read the King James Bible exclusively, and we attended, as young people, many, many meetings, many every week. Not only were we encouraged to read the Bible and study the Bible, we had even sessions in one of our youth sessions on just publicly reading the Bible, and so on.

This was my life. There was no such thing as internet preachers. There was no such thing as CDs and so-called worship recordings that you would listen to. All that was unknown to us. And in saying all of that, it would be very easy to either critique what I've said or be critical of it and say, well, you know, there's pros and cons, certainly.

And I admit this, pros and cons to being so isolated as I was. But, you know, as I grew up through my teens and into my early twenties, I, along with those other young people that I was part of, we knew what we believed.

We understood what was being taught, because we sat under that ministry consistently. It wasn't always the same person speaking. We didn't have pastors, but the elders rotated, and we had elders from other assemblies who would come and speak in our meetings as well.

And, you know, I'd like to say, just as a parenthesis here, that a lot has happened in between the time period I'm talking about, and there are a number of things that I see rather differently today than I was taught at that time.

That's just a parenthesis, by the way. But the fact that I wanted to emphasise, and this is my point, that I was consistently under particular ministry, and someone would say, well, that's for better or for worse.

Yes, I agree with that, as I've said, but nevertheless, that was true. However, in complete contrast today, we have the internet, and preachers and preaching reminds me of a smorgasbord, and I'd like to go on record as saying, I don't go round listening to all kinds of the preachers on the internet.

Discerning What We Listen To

In fact, here's another parenthesis for you. I was greatly blessed by someone who was ministering, this was after the days of my brethren experiences, who discouraged me from listening far and wide, but to be very discriminating in what I exposed my mind to, and I pass that on to you.

But on this smorgasbord, clearly there are all kinds of preachers, there are different personalities, and different presentations and performances and topics which are being covered, and so on. My own conclusion, whether you agree with me or not, I don't know, maybe someone will tell me.

People seem very bold on the internet. But it seems to me that the so-called Christian community today is really quite filled with what I think of as being doctrinal dabblers. And so with this new arrangement where people can basically sit at home, I wonder whether people will ever go out to church again after this period.

Some will, of course, but there'll be those who won't, I think. But you can choose, you choose what to listen to, so you choose what suits your taste, or what you agree with, and what you choose to believe.

And there's a sense in which, if we're not careful, everyone's doing that which is right in their own eyes. Do you remember where that passage or phrase comes from in the Bible? And all this, at this particular point in time and in this way, is without little or no accountability to anyone, because we're lacking the very rich benefits of being together.

We remember the scripture which says, forsaking not the assembling of yourselves together. We're doing today in this strange way, and it's the best we can come up with, and it's got some very real advantages, as we know.

But at the end of the day, we need one another, and that's so important. Let me talk about myself a little bit more. I don't make a habit of this, although I did do it just a week or so ago. But when I was 25 years of age, that was a pivotal time in my life.

A Personal Encounter with the Preached Word

I was married, I can see my wife right now as I'm speaking to you, and we had one child together. I had a great career, and my theology was set. I was a member of the Christian Police Association. However, God, and I believe this to be true, God caused circumstances to converge in such a way that I found myself sitting in a meeting that I had passionately argued against.

Because it was wrong, so much was wrong as far as I was concerned. You know, as I sat in that meeting, I would never have thought, and I know I never thought of Acts chapter 2 as I sat there. But looking back on it all, there were certainly some similarities and some contrasts.

Of course, I was not a religious Jew sitting in that meeting, and that was not Jerusalem, it was downtown Liverpool in an almost derelict house. And the preacher, he was not a professional fisherman. But as his message progressed, my heart was screaming inwardly, and I'm telling you the truth, my heart was screaming, maybe not with exactly the same words, but you'll recognize the words I'm just about to quote.

Men and brethren, what shall we do? I was in inward turmoil because I was being exposed to preaching of the Word of God in the hands of the Holy Ghost. I'd listened to some great preaching prior to this, but this was different.

God was there, and God was meeting, was ministering in that situation. I've said when I've given my testimony on other occasions, and this is absolutely the truth, that as I sat in that meeting listening, I had hot and cold sweats, and there's no question in my mind if I'd been sitting nearest to the door instead of packed in an upstairs room in this house, I would have left before the meeting finished.

But the fact is, I was exposed to the Word of God, the Word of God which the Apostle tells us is living, and it's powerful, it's sharper than a two-edged sword, and it was cutting to the quick in my heart.

The Gospel Coming in Power and the Holy Spirit

It was like a laser illuminating my soul. I'm not exaggerating, it was the truth, certainly. I was experiencing what the Apostle Paul talked about when he wrote to the Thessalonians, and he said this to them in his first letter, for our Gospel came unto you, not in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance, as you know what manner of men we were among you for your sake.

And then he continues on, that's chapter 1 and verse 5 if you're interested, of 1 Thessalonians. But I was sitting under that kind of ministry. Paul, he put it all in a different way in 2 Corinthians chapter 4, where he speaks, there's a very wonderful context here that I apologise for breaking into, but he says in verse 5 of chapter 4, for we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus our Lord, and ourselves your servants for Christ's sake.

For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Then he goes on with that 7th verse, for we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us.

Amen. That was happening to me in that room when I was exposed to the word of God in the hands of the Holy Spirit. It was light, Paul here is talking about, he references, to illustrate his point, he references that primordial darkness that once existed and God cried out into that darkness, let there be light.

And the whole universe lit up before ever there was a sun created. And Paul is using that as a very powerful illustration of what God does as he ministers to us. His word comes and he illuminates our inward condition, he makes our inward state exposed, he sees it already, he exposes it to us.

I had never felt so unclean as I felt in that meeting that I've been referring to. And yet to all intents and purposes, I was living a good Christian life. But in his presence, that's where we see ourselves as we truly are.

And it was in that upstairs, almost derelict room, that God gave birth to something in me that has only grown since that day. You do know, I'm sure, that the true measure of your spiritual life is not the number of preachers you listen to or how well informed you are on doctrines and issues that many are focusing on.

Refining the Focus of Spiritual Life

But the true measure of your spiritual life is based on what you allow God to birth in your heart and in your life. Would you permit me to extend some advice to you, whoever you are? I don't know what's going on in your life, I don't know where you stand on the sort of spectrum of the kind of things I'm sharing just now.

But can I encourage you to seriously consider narrowing your field? It was Job, a long time ago, he gave some grace advice. He said, stop chasing the wind. You know, in so many ways we find ourselves, and this is certainly happening today with the internet availability, where we're chasing sensational issues.

But I want to encourage you, because I believe it's the Word of God for us today, to listen for that certain sound. Do you remember, it was Jesus who said, my sheep know my voice. He went on to say, and when they hear it, they will follow me.

There is something which is a mystery to us. I can't define it in some spectacular way. I know what it is in my own heart and my own life, and likely most of you listening to me do also. But there's something unique, there's a certain sound about the Word of God when he speaks to our hearts that we recognise.

And we need to narrow the field of what we're listening to. We need to discern, we need to be discerning and sense where we hear that voice and focus in, set the coordinates and focus on that. Like the Apostle Paul in the passage I read to you just earlier, when he said, this one thing.

It was Chuck Swindoll, I remember, I was in my car and I heard him say this many years ago. He was quoting that text, this one thing I do. And he said, not many of us can actually say that. He said, if we were being more honest, we would say, in these many things I dabble.

Isn't that true? But God is looking to refine our focus, sharpen our focus, that our focus there may be fixed on him, that I may know him. Amen. And it's not merely knowing about him, but it's knowing him.

Knowing God Through His Word

Whom to know is life eternal. You know, back in those older days of my life, a man of God once said to me, we were together for just a few minutes. I sensed that he wanted to communicate something to me that would be very meaningful to me.

And we both knew that we were only going to be together for just moments. But he said, Fred, really get to know the Lord and soak yourself in this book. He was holding the Bible as he said that to me.

Really get to know the Lord. That doesn't happen just because we listen to just sermons that live, or live our lives according to our own choosing. But it's the result of having a definite focus and attending to the things that are most important, the most critical, and maintaining that focus.

When we've done that, we really enjoy some of the words of Charles Wesley. I think he put this so well. This is a verse that every one of you listening to me will know, I expect. But in this, this is like a summation of the gospel here.

He said, My dear friend, is that your testimony this morning? This is what God has for each and every one of us. Let's be very careful that we attend to these issues of our hearts in the light of the Holy Scriptures that God has given to us.

And let us refine our listening so that we're listening only to that which edifies and helps us to come to know him ever more perfectly. Amen. If this message has been a blessing to you, please leave a comment if you're watching on the internet somewhere.

And I can be contacted, as I say, at mckenziefellowship .com. Hope to have your company next week. God bless you. Thank you, Fred.