True Christianity - Part 2 — Joshua Daniel

Resisting Distorted Cultural Pictures

Now, some of us get indoctrinated by the media and therefore we form a completely wrong picture. Let us be very careful. You know, many people in the East have a very wrong picture of America, for instance.

You see, the picture that was given to us as students was a dissolute people, a thoroughly immoral people. What was the picture? From Hollywood. Now, that was a picture that many people have of America.

So when we talk about the Eastern countries and so on, to just think of people in terms of what we saw or read in the newspapers is an ignorant thing to do. But as I laboured amongst many of these nations, I found that the hardest of them would respond to the Word of God.

Recovering the Living Gospel

It is wonderful when you present the living Christ. Everybody says, we want him. I need him. I must have him. But when we only present a form of religion and we ourselves are satisfied with it, what are we doing?

We are demolishing the real gospel, if such a thing is possible. What a sad thing is happening today. Just because we have gotten so very busy and we don't have much energy left over, and our worries are so many, and we have gotten deflected from the narrow way of obedience to God's Word, we have lost that power and we must go back to God and recover it.

The Temple Dedication and the Fire of God

Now, if you turn to the dedication of the Temple, 2 Chronicles and the 7th chapter, you see the first verse. Now, when Solomon had made an end of praying, the fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices.

And the glory of the Lord filled the house. The fire came down from heaven. You know, my dear friends, we can perfect the art of preaching. We can have a perfect theology. We can have lovely kind of conveniences and a beautiful situation where we can meet.

All these things are peripherals, absolutely unconnected with the heart cry and the answer to the heart cry. The heart cry generally does not come in the midst of a very well cushioned life. Generally does not come there.

Hardship, Adversity, and Spiritual Awakening

Somehow we are so constituted that it is only under some kind of pressure or some kind of hardship that we suddenly wake up from our slumber. When everything is even paced, everything is flowing smoothly, everything is going pretty well for us.

Oh, that's no time when our spirit prospers. Well, it need not be so. It should not be so, but it is so. Suddenly when there is an adversity falling upon you, then you wake up with a shock and say, whence have I fallen?

How did this happen to me? I thought I'm pretty good. You know, friends, we don't need that kind of shock treatment, do we? The shock treatment is only for people whose heart has stopped beating or something.

Heart Cry and the Glory of God

But this was a normal procedure when the temple was dedicated. It was with a heart cry. Let your eye be upon this place. Let your ear attend to the prayer that is made in this place. It was a heart cry that went up to God.

And the result of that heart cry was fire came down from God. And the burnt offering consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices. And the glory of the Lord filled the house. Sometimes, you know, I go into places of worship and I can't remember where it was.

I said, now let the bazaar come to order. It was like a bazaar. People were talking, you know. That's supposed to be the house of God. And they were getting ready for worship. I said, now let the bazaar come to order.

Well, you know, friends, don't let our places of worship decline to that level. But, you know, you only need to look away for a little while. But the trends of today are such. The influences of today are such.

People do not even come and sit in the Lord's presence and still themselves. They must still be yapping. I can't understand that. That's what they have been doing in the car till they came. That's what they do on the steps of the church.

And that's what they will be doing right after the service. Till the sermon and its effect is washed out, washed away. But inside also, they must yap interminably. But when Solomon went to the Lord at the dedication of the temple, the glory of the Lord filled the temple.

Holiness, Unworthiness, and the Burning Bush

And the priests had to leave the place. I like that. You know, a real sense of unworthiness ought to grip us. When Moses met the Lord at the burning bush, what would have happened to Moses? His life would have been lost just caring for those sheep in the wilderness.

But when he went and approached this burning bush, which was not being consumed, and the Lord spoke to him, Take thy shoes from off your feet, for you're standing on holy ground. Now, you know, can't we make this holy ground?

Can't we make this the burning bush? Where we get our life's purpose? That's where Moses got his life's purpose. Have we got 20 lives to live? So that we can expend some 15 of them the way we please, and the remaining we can give them to God.

My dear people, we need the fire of God showing us our relative position, putting us in our place. Sometimes we are not in our place. I want to be in my place. I am only a servant. You know, I don't like all the adulation and the praises and all that kind of thing.

Long introductions before I speak and so on and so forth. I don't like all that. I like to be put in my place so that the Lord takes the field and I have to get out fast, unable to bear the awesome glory of God.

Solomon's Prayer for Humility and Healing

Now, this was the answer to Solomon's prayer. And then the Lord, 12th verse, please. And the Lord appeared to Solomon by night and said unto him, I have heard your prayer. I have chosen this place to myself for a house of sacrifice.

If I shut up the heavens and there be no rain, or if I command the locusts to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among my people, if my people which are called by my name shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face.

You know, wealth and power is not a very conducive element or place for a humble spirit. When you've got everything, you feel self-contained. You've got everything. You've made it. You're fine. But that humble spirit, if my people humble themselves, now is that not almost the minimum that God can ask of you and me?

What more should God ask? You know, there are some heathen people who imagine the need to go right up to the Himalayas, to some of those caves where the icicles appear like gods. There are heathen people who will traverse thousands of miles if they can find a vision of God.

You know, they beat us hollow when it comes to devotion. I see that kind of devotion amongst the heathen. My dear people, after all, is this not the very least that God can ask of us? If my people humble themselves and seek my face, I will heal the land.

You see, that's the focus. I will forgive their sin and heal the land. How much healing this country needs. To begin with, you know, before a little bit of civilization came to this continent, you know, there was the Spaniards and others who treated the inhabitants of this country very cruelly.

And, of course, some of the colonists. They were adventurers, seamen. They were not necessarily Christians, not at all. Their savage dealings with the local people, the inhabitants. All right, if we trace some of the sins of our countries, there is much to repent about.

National Repentance and Historical Wrongdoing

Much to repent about. Yesterday I was being told of how Haiti was turning the corner, however, by a dictator, a despot. Industry was coming and people were beginning to work and many things were happening when some of the political powers in this country interfered and put almost a criminal in charge and completely destroyed that country.

And now when missionaries are trying to lift up Haiti again, they are finding it so difficult because half the population has not got any employment. Now, you know, this miserable politics which is so corrupt today, I don't know the inside of all these things, but it is only when some discerning people who know what is happening tell me that I get to know this.

But when evil is done, unrighteousness is done, we should be able to humble ourselves and speak out against it. That's a Christian conscience. And God requires that we should humble ourselves for the sins of our fathers.

You know, my dear people, some families have a whole history of wrongdoing and it just comes and grips the children and they follow that same pattern all over again. And now there are countries in Europe with no spiritual light.

It's so sad. Communism has left such desolations. No idea of God. All they have is some grottos, some images, some where they put some candles or stuff. You see, friends, we have got to get real about some of these things and humble ourselves.

Christianity's Witness in America and the Nations

Let us humble ourselves at least for America because when America does evil, the whole world knows that America has declined from its immoral stature. And let them know it. We're not worried about that.

But it's an evil influence. And unfortunately, this thing is identified as the Christian position, which is wrong. When did America become synonymous with Christianity? These are poles apart today. But that is how the world and history looks at America.

So we are actually living at a time of great crisis and being big talkers and being troubled about tiny little ant bites and little matters that agitate. It's completely irrelevant. Totally so. We were hearing about Daniel this afternoon.

How his life impacted that whole intercontinental kingdom. Where there are laws, unrighteous laws, were rescinded. Now, how many unrighteous laws are coming into England and America today? Unrighteous laws.

Seeking the Risen Lord in a Time of Crisis

What a sorrow. Oh, my dear people. God can elevate us or lift us to a position of reality when we really are relevant. Our Christianity is relevant for the times in which we live. Let us pray. Let us tell God, Rabboni, Master, is it Thou?

Master, my soul's desire, is it Thou? Or is it just a form? Or is it just an empty body? Or is it Thou? Let us have our risen Lord. Tell God, I want Him. I want You. I want this risen Savior. At a time when things are getting really chaotic, I need You, Lord Jesus.

Do with me whatever You please. But let me be relevant. Let not my religion be unrelated to Your glory. Oh, loving Father, forgive us, we pray. How easily we are satisfied with the program, with the activities, with the forms, and with all the show of religion.

Hear our humble prayer. In Jesus' holy name. Amen.