Polish (3) — George Verwer

Praise the Lord for His Word. I'm very excited about some of the books that I've discovered have been put into Polish since the last time I was here. And I hope that you will take the opportunity to get some of these books.

Spiritual Reality and the Christian Life

Our subject this morning is spiritual reality. And amazing enough, someone gave me these two books this morning, both on the subject of spiritual reality, and that person did not know what I was going to speak on.

They're books by the writer we mentioned yesterday, Mr. A. W. Tozer, who's now in heaven. A man of tremendous spiritual capacity, who was known because of his deep knowledge of God Himself. I'd like to just mention the titles in Polish, please.

I have read both of these books and really found them a very powerful spiritual message. Another famous writer is a man named C .F. Lewis. And this is one of his books, now available in Polish, about the subject of love, the four kinds of love.

This morning I've been listening to a cassette tape by John Stott. An outstanding leader in the church, in the Anglican Church in England. I wonder if you have any doubts, intellectual doubts, about Christianity.

This is a book answering intellectual questions. And we believe that spiritual reality includes the whole man. Body, mind, emotion, intellect, the whole man. We are not believing in any form of intellectual suicide.

This man, C .F. Lewis, was converted to Christ from atheism and agnosticism. Many of the greatest Christians in the world today are actually scientists. For the last ten years, the man who has been the leader of our work in the Middle East area, among the Muslims, is a graduate of Oxford and London Universities, a doctor's degree in biochemistry, and yet he has spent his life up to now as a missionary in Turkey, and he's been living in Lebanon for the last five years.

Even though his life was continually in danger, he had bombs explode between him and where those lights are. He, with his family, stayed in Lebanon all that time doing scientific research so that they could witness for Jesus Christ in that country.

And I think it's important to understand this. Because sometimes our Christian faith is described as some kind of escapism for people who can't really face the intellectual strains of life. I think as we examine some of these great books by C .F. Lewis and John Stott and others, we will change our mind as to what is an escapism.

And then lastly, a book by Billy Graham on being born again. As I shared with you yesterday, it was through this man's preaching that the final step of faith took place in my life when I was born again.

Now, how many of you read Christian books? Raise your hands. That is very encouraging. That must be the world record for positive reading of Christian books. And I think we should be thankful for those who have the ministry, this is not a commercial business, for those who have the ministry of getting these books published in the Polish language.

Now, I want us to read from the Word of God, the Gospel of Luke, Chapter 8. Luke, Chapter 8. We're only going to read this in Polish and save the time. But I'd like you to be quiet just for one minute.

How many people, when I speak slowly, can understand English? Ah, that's very nice. You get double blessings. Also, you'll be quiet for one more minute. I have brought some special personal English books and music cassettes and teaching Bible cassettes and they will be available for donation basis over here later on in the morning.

That's just for those who are learning English in preparation for working in India, praise the Lord, where they speak English. Okay, Luke, Chapter 8, verses 4 through 18. Over to you.

Chapter 8, verses 4 through 18.

Freedom to Worship and the Reality of the Holy Spirit

Praise God for His Word. Let us pray. Father, we thank You for Your Word. We thank You for bringing us together this morning for the tremendous freedom we have been given to worship in this way. The freedom to distribute Your Word.

The freedom to share our faith. We thank You for the reality of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Speak to us, O God, now as we wait upon You. For we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Some of you know that spiritual reality is a subject that's on my heart, perhaps more than any other subject.

In many places, especially in some of the other countries further west, I'm thought of as a missionary speaker. So I often get asked to speak at what they call a missionary conference. I don't know if in your churches you have missionary conferences.

That's usually a period of two or three days when all the teaching and all the ministry is focused on world evangelism. And usually it includes special times of prayer, intercessory prayer for world missions.

Monday evening we are going to have a world missionary prayer meeting right here. And we're going to have information and we're going to be praying for at least 20 different nations that I have visited right around the entire world.

It's going to be one of the most exciting times of this whole conference. Now, also because I am thought of as a missionary speaker, there are some churches where they will not let me speak because they are not believing in world missions.

Wrestling With Doubts About the Bible

And as you probably know, there are many Christians that don't even really believe that the Bible is God's Word. In fact, in some circles it has become very intellectual, very popular to criticize and to point out the so-called errors in the Bible.

And when I was converted to Christ and then a year later I went off to university, I studied under men who enjoyed destroying our faith in the Bible. And I studied theology. And I studied under some theologians who just felt it was so wonderful to show the contradictions in the Bible.

And I had many questions. And I read many unbelieving books. Written by atheists, written by agnostics. And I went through a great struggle in my life. And the great question was, is this truly God's Word?

Now, let us understand, many, many people do not believe this is God's Word. I have read many books that just completely ridicule the Bible. In some countries they have the humanist society. I don't know if you have that in Poland.

When I lived in India, I came across the Sri Lankan humanist society. Sri Lanka is that little nation south of India, looks like a great teardrop, drops off India into the ocean. That's Sri Lanka. And they're in the midst of a war in that country right now.

It used to be called Ceylon. I hope you'll pray for that country. Terrible bloodshed is taking place. Our ship has visited Sri Lanka many times and tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands have received the Word of God through that ministry.

And this atheist humanist wrote all these books for me as a gift. And as I was reading these books, and I've read other similar books, I couldn't believe some of the ridiculous arguments against the Word of God and against Jesus Christ.

Here I was reading this agnostic humanistic book, and my faith in God was just growing. You know, there's a very famous book in Germany. It's called The Misery of Christianity. Comes from the Lutheran Church.

From a man who was a Lutheran, and then he turned against the Church. That sometimes happens. People say that hundreds of thousands have become agnostic because of that one book. Books are very powerful.

So I decided to read that book. I don't know why I read all these books. Again, my faith was greatly strengthened. Why was it strengthened? Because this man was unable to attack the Lord Jesus Christ.

He had to attack the Church. And he had to attack things that were part of his own subjective experience within a particular Church that had hurt him personally. He had to attack things that were part of his subjective experience within a particular Church that had hurt him personally.

We say in English, he held up a straw image. In other words, a false image of Christianity, and he attacked that straw man. He didn't attack the real Christian faith. And I just believe with all of my heart that there are honest answers to honest questions.

I'm glad you are going to have these discussion groups this morning so that you can express yourself. Not just sit there like such a lovely good looking group of people listening, you can open your mouth and prove also that you have something to say.

And I hope that you will say something. And not be afraid that you will say something stupid. Because if you never in your life say anything stupid, then probably you will never say anything. I remember when I first went to live in England, when I came to Europe.

I first lived in Spain and studied more Spanish, I speak Spanish. And I was also studying Russian, very important language, but then in God's providence I ended up living in England. And when I went to England I was told to be very, very careful of trying to mobilize these English women into evangelism.

Because for us spiritual reality includes sharing your faith with other people, that's part of it. And we believe the Holy Ghost brings the Holy Ghost, how does that go in Polish? So everybody should be sharing their faith.

But I was told these English girls are very quiet and very shy. And they are especially frightened by loudmouth Americans. So I thought I would just do a little investigation. And I don't know very much actually about Polish women.

Are they mostly shy or mostly outgoing? How many are shy? Raise your hands. Nobody. Must be a language problem. But I found that most of them were very quiet. Until you got them on one of their favorite subjects.

Sewing or cooking or boys. Or if you ended up getting married to one. And many Englishmen do. And someday you do something wrong in her kitchen, her holy sanctuary kitchen. Then you will discover she is a public speaker.

Spiritual Reality Produces Witness and Joy

And you know I believe, I believe this with all my heart. When we have reality in Jesus Christ. He is real to us. We love him. We know him. Then we will be able to speak of him no matter how shy, no matter how quiet we are.

God is wanting to baptize us with Holy Spirit reality in these days together. We know that what happens here in these days can only be the beginning. The greater challenge comes when we leave here. Jesus said if any man come after me let him deny himself.

Take up the cross. Every single day and follow me. That's what Jesus said. And you know we are not here to listen to the philosophy of man. We are here to look into the word of God. And you will find those words of Jesus Christ that ring with reality in Matthew, Mark and Luke.

And similar words in the Gospel of John. So the foundation for spiritual reality is the fact that God has given us his word. We therefore can know the truth. We are not just some kind of evolutionary clones wandering around on the face of the earth.

One German atheist said we are just fungus growing on the face of this earth. What a view of man this is. Just fungus little grows on plant life and destroys it. Bacteria. No we are created in the image of God.

Even Albert Einstein who certainly was not a Christian believed it was impossible to understand the universe and its science without believing in a supreme creator. Don't be intimidated in your Christian faith by clever questions or clever answers.

Go back to the word of God. Go back to God himself in prayer. By the way some of the very best Christians today are those who have been saved from atheism. And they are not of one nationality. They are not just from one particular kind of nation with one particular kind of government such people are from almost every nation in the world.

Some nationalities have more freedom to travel. That is a great mystery of prophecy. I minister in many countries where the people are not able to travel very much. For many years I lived in India. In India most of the people don't have money to travel.

By all the wonderful godly people I have met in that country. I wonder if you have ever heard the name of Bakht Singh of India. He is now more than 80 years of age. He has been a living example of the reality that there is in Jesus Christ.

God has used him and his co-workers to begin over 400 churches. And the thing that marks his life simple faith in the living God.

He walks with God. I have moved with him. I have walked with him all night.

Every day he just spends so much time with God and it is seen in his practical life. I saw the same thing when I came here to Poland 20 some years ago. And I was speaking in a place called Gdynsk. And I had a very unusual man as my interpreter.

I have met many people around the world but this man was very different. And when I was speaking the message in English I could see that he was just taking in what I was saying like some kind of a... a blotter that had been in a desert.

And then he shared it with the congregation. This man was another, one more great influence on my life, Brother Proba, who some of you know of. I was speaking to a group of Muslims some time ago on the Afghan border.

Reasons for Following Jesus Christ

They were all strong Muslims of Afghanistan background, Afghanis. And my message was 10 reasons why I am still a follower of Jesus Christ. Now that sounds a bit strange to some people. Now why should George Verwer, you know, give 10 reasons why he is still following Jesus Christ?

Some of you know Mr. Halesby's book from Norway, Why I am a Christian. There are a number of books like that. There are no books that I know of why I am still a Christian. Get that word, still, that's important.

Why did I share in that way? By the way, many, many of those Muslims started to speak to the Lord Jesus Christ after that meeting. This is one of the hard things, isn't it? To believe that people from other religions need Jesus Christ.

It seems so narrow-minded, doesn't it?

I found out a great deal that they really believed that Jesus Christ is hell. And I wrestled with that question.

But again, if the Bible is God's Word and we believe it is, what does the Bible say? The Bible says there is no other name given among men whereby we must be saved. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth and the life.

No man cometh to the Father except through me. That is very clear in God's Word. It is normal to struggle with this question. Great faith is not made in the absence of doubt and questions. Spiritual reality is not in a vacuum, is not in the absence of struggle and doubt and questions.

Faith and reality is in the midst of the question and the doubt and the struggle. We never arrive in our Christian life where we have total faith, no more questions, perfect fellowship with God. The Bible says the flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh.

In the book of Galatians, the two are at war with one another. And I believe that Jesus Christ is the way, the truth and the life. And that is what is being proclaimed here each evening. That's why if you do not know Jesus Christ personally as your Lord and Savior, you need to take that step of faith and become sure of your eternal salvation.

Reality is found at the foot of a cross when we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. But we know that conversion is just the beginning. We then must grow in our faith. I shared in the beginning how many times people expect me to be a missionary speaker and that may be partly true.

But my greatest burden is what I'm talking about right now. Maybe you can write down this little expression Reality first, geography second. Now the word reality is very strong in the English language and we know that when we speak through interpretation sometimes there are problems.

The main reason I do not come to your country more is mainly because I don't know the language. And after learning Spanish and failing to learn Russian I don't have the energy to learn another language.

The Parable of the Sower and Genuine Spiritual Fruit

But this word reality means a lot in English. Let me just say a few things that it means. Speaking spiritually. On a practical level there's all kinds of realities. Boom! I just hit him on the head. That's reality.

It actually happened. If he developed a headache that is reality. My wife tells me that sometimes the way I am moving so fast gives her headache. That's reality. This is reality. This is the wood. It's not fantasy.

It's not my imagination that I am standing here. Have you ever suddenly felt maybe you were dreaming instead of living right now you were actually dreaming so you pinch yourself or pull your nose to see if you're awake?

Now if I suddenly declare to you that I am actually Napoleon Bonaparte I have come back Napoleon Bonaparte. Then I have come back to revisit Poland. Then this would be unreality. One of the great problems we have in the world medically is called schizophrenia.

People enter into unreality. People that actually believe they are Jesus Christ we've had them stand up in some of our pulpits. Until he gets up, I am the Lord Jesus Christ. Unreality. I think we know the difference.

And when we speak about our Christian faith if we have reality we are as the seed referred to in this parable that falls into the ground and brings much fruit. And I hope that you'll study this parable.

Then it speaks about seed that doesn't bring any fruit. Or that brings false fruit. Just notice verse 15 for a moment. But that on the good ground are they who in an earnest and good heart having heard the word keep it and bring forth fruit with patience.

Real fruit. That's what we want here in these days. And that will have the basic spiritual ingredients.

And that will have the basic spiritual ingredients.

Peace, Forgiveness, and Joy in the Spirit

Number one there will be deep peace of God in our hearts. Many of you have read the book Peace with God by Billy Graham. Get that book. There are many old copies around. That night that I was converted to Jesus Christ the peace of God came in my mind.

We often say into our hearts but we are also referring to the mind. And that is because we know that we have been totally forgiven.

Of all sins.

The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses from all sins. So a Christian who is living in reality he or she knows that they are forgiven. Hallelujah, they are forgiven. By the way, I believe spiritual reality creates enthusiasm.

And what a great problem in some of our churches in dear jolly England and we have people sitting in church supposedly they are on the way to heaven and they are yet sitting there with these long faces like an empty Pepsi-Cola bottle.

How can this be? The Bible says the fruit of the Spirit is joy. Do you have a word in Polish for joy? Then I pray it may explode in your heart in these days and you would know the joy of God every day of your life from this moment on.

Spiritual Reality Does Not Erase the Human Factor

Now I want to jump from here I want to sit down there in my mind I'm just sitting back there behind that girl and I want to play the role of the skeptic and I want to react to what this loud mouth preacher just said.

I want to talk and whisper to my friend my cynicism. This guy is just an actor nobody lives that way all that joy and happiness business he's a phony, he's just doing it because he's a public speaker and he's been trained how to speak in public.

He talks about joy and all that but it's because he's been trained to speak in public.

Blessed are the skeptics, for they shall be saved. I don't blame you for being a skeptic. If I were sitting where you are sitting listening to this, I would have many questions. But you can go and talk to my wife who has been living with me for 26 years.

Think of the miracle of God. And you can ask her if this joy, this enthusiasm is only something that I do here when I'm publicly speaking. I overheard her talking to someone the other day. I was just, you know, listening and the person was saying why is he so enthusiastic, why is he so excited.

What's happened. And I wanted to listen to her answer. I was eavesdropping and I heard her say he's always laughing. And I can share with you from the moment Jesus Christ came into my heart the reality of God became my reality.

The joy of the Holy Spirit the peace and the zeal, the Bible speaks about zeal. Even the most immature baby, weak, stumbling, stumbling Christian can have zeal. Anybody who knows Jesus can have zeal. That's no big deal.

Now some of you I can see by your faces are getting worried because you are afraid that if you become a spiritual Christian living in reality that you are going to become like me. This is where you need wisdom and balance.

You can just relax. You are not going to become like me when you are filled with the glory and the power of God. It does not destroy, get this, write it down. It does not destroy the human factor. Now I always love to preach when I have my wonderful deaconess sisters present in the meeting.

I'm very linked with some deaconesses down in Germany. The whole big army of them live together in this one place. They have a Bible school, they have many things and they have such a great ministry. Can you imagine how strange if one of them came up here and started jumping around like I am speaking.

That's not the way God works. We are all different. My wife and I are very different. Someone said things that are opposite like magnet, they attract. And in a few days when I really start to feel free I'm going to tell you a little bit about our interesting marriage and the problem of communication in marriage.

Accepting Oneself as Created by God

The royal road to reality. So reality is Jesus Christ living in us. It will involve the fruit of the Spirit Galatians 5 .22. But it does not destroy the human factor. You will still be you. It's so important to understand because I counsel people all the time who are in bondage.

They are trying to be somebody else. They are trying to be Billy Graham. Or they are trying to be some famous spiritual woman. Or they may be trying after reading many books to be a combination of all these people.

Absolutely if you want to know God you must be willing to accept yourself. You must be able to somehow look in that mirror and look at your life and say I am created in the image of God. God doesn't make any mistakes.

I had a real struggle with this as a young person. I wanted to be big make a real hit with the chicks the women and somehow I didn't grow very big my mouth and my nose. And one day I was reading an article in a magazine and it had a picture of a skinny fellow like me at the beach, down at the beach with a beautiful girl and along came a big strong good looking guy you know, sort of like Henry Holmes.

He just knocked this skinny little fellow out of here and he took the girl. I thought this is what's going to happen in my life. I'll never get a wife. And then at the bottom of the magazine article it says you also can be a real man.

Writing today for Charles Atlas. Muscle Building Weight Training. So as a young boy I wrote dear sir, I am in need of your help. Please send me information, I sent a letter and for about six months I was lifting weights.

I was eating extra food. After six months I gained about half a kilo. Now we can laugh, it's good to laugh sometimes the truth goes in the deepest, in the oil of laughter so you can laugh. But many are not experiencing reality in their Christian life because they have not accepted themselves.

And that's filled with regret and worry and various kinds of fears. And when Jesus came into my life I began to accept his love for me very slowly. I learned this through much struggle, through much failure.

I became relaxed about myself as a young man of 19 years of age and I began to accept his love for me. And that's when God sent me to Mexico. That's when this work began. I realized God created me. He had a purpose for me and that I didn't have to be ashamed of this little body and this long nose.

Now of course I had struggles that time for some time my wife and I lived in Thailand with all the lovely Chinese people. They have very much flatter noses and they are amazed at our noses they look. And in Thailand if they don't like a foreigner they call him a long-nosed foreigner.

That's what they call us from the West Europe here I was a young enthusiastic missionary giving out tracts in the streets of Thailand and a man came up to me and instead of reaching out and taking the gospel tract he just looked at me and he slowly reached out and touched my nose.

I thought I was going to lose my missionary call right on the spot. Now I can thank God for my nose better to smell with. Can you thank God for yourself. Maybe you are not as smart as you want to be. Maybe you feel your brother he is so clever and you are such a dingy dum dum.

In some western countries people worship beauty. Miss America, Miss England, Miss Congo and many many women are deeply struggling with inferiority because they are not as beautiful as their older sister and jealousy comes in.

What a trick of the devil himself. I'm going to tell you God's faces they are all beautiful to him. These are all areas of deception and unreality. Reality is that God loves you. God has a plan for your life according to his will.

Growing Through Failure, Fellowship, and Faith

You can be a seed that fell into the good ground and you can bring forth much fruit. As a disciple of Jesus Christ. Maybe you have failed the Lord many times. Reality includes knowing what to do when you fail, knowing what to do when you sin.

Failure is the back door to success. Don't be afraid of failure. Because you'll never accomplish anything in your life without some failure we don't just pop from unreality into reality overnight in its total sense.

We don't just pop from unreality into reality overnight in its total sense, yes, for a second.

As we repeat it but through God's discipleship program through the word of God through fellowship through sharing our faith through taking steps of faith through spiritual combat day by day we grow in grace and reality and it's a lifetime purpose.

Many are discouraged in their Christian life because they are impatient with what God is doing. Don't make that mistake it takes time to make a man or a woman of God. The human factor will always be there with the weakness and the mistakes sometimes our physical disabilities our emotional and our mental weaknesses and things reality is not.

In the absence of these things we walk by faith in the midst of these things with our eyes on Jesus Christ. Let us pray oh God, as we go to our discussion group help to be a time of realistic fellowship.

We thank you that so many here are people in whom the seed of the word of God has fallen and is bringing forth fruit. Lord, we thank you that you accept us and we by faith accept ourselves as ones created in your image.

Father, we believe this is a gift from you and we receive this gift by faith and we are believing that you are setting us free free to be real free to be the people you want us to be to live in your joy and peace and presence all the days of our lives not in the absence of failure and sin and struggle but in the midst of it through fellowship and communion with your people worship you in Jesus' name together.

Amen.