Sin in the Camp — Duncan Campbell

Isaiah’s Warning About Sin and the Need for God to Come Down

You will find our reading this afternoon in the Prophecy of Isaiah, and we shall read part of chapter 59—Isaiah chapter 59. Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot see, neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear, but your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.

Then, in verse 14, and judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off, for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter. Yea, truth faileth, and he that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey.

And the Lord saw it, and it displeased him that there was no judgment. Then two verses in chapter 64. Oh, that thou wouldest rend the heavens, that thou wouldest come down, that the mountains may flow down at thy presence, as when the melting fire burneth, the fire causeth the waters to boil, to make thy name known to thine adversaries, that the nations may tremble at thy presence.

Amen. May God add his blessing. I notice that a watch has been left here in front of me, and seeing it there reminds me of an incident at a convention in Ireland some years ago. After an address given by myself, a young man came to me.

He was a chemist in a drugstore, and handed me a little parcel, and said, take that. I'm sure it will help you in the pulpit. Naturally concluded, being a chemist, that he was giving me something to ease my throat.

But on going to my lodgings and on opening the parcel, I found a small alarm clock to help me in the pulpit. I suppose he thought that I was keeping the good folk a little too long. Well, now, a little long last night.

You see, when you invite a preacher from the Hebrides, you must be prepared for a fairly long address. But you seem to be very patient, and you'll pray for me, I'm sure, this afternoon. Now will you turn with me to the prophecy of Isaiah, and to chapter 64, and to that very familiar passage, to rend the heavens.

That thou wouldest come down, that the mountains might flow down at thy presence, as when the melting fire burneth, the fire causes the waters to boil, to make thy name known to thine adversaries, that the nations may tremble at thy presence.

O God, that thou wouldest rend the heavens. You will notice that the prophet here is giving expression to what appears to be a burden. Indeed, to the heart cry of many today, God do something, and the heavens come down.

The previous chapter, and how it closes, we are become as they over whom thou never barest rule. Now I'm reading from the Gaelic revised version, slightly different to what we have in our English. We are become as they over whom thou barest no rule.

Now it seems to me that you have there a description of a state of lawlessness and utter disregard for God, or for anything pertaining to it. Now it seems to me that that, in the mind of the prophet, was argument for revival.

Those of you who are familiar with the writings of Finney, will remember that again and again, a statement similar to that which I have made, that the law condition of the church, a fitting argument for confidence and belief in the God of revival, to do something about it.

You will notice that the prophet here has a burden, but he has also a deep-seated conviction. A deep-seated conviction. His burden, his conviction. No human effort of itself could save the situation.

That is written clearly and largely across this passage of scripture. You will remember that chapter one gives us a picture of the situation. A sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupted.

Here the prophet clearly indicates that nothing can happen. The situation is so desperate. The general attitude of men, so indifferent to the things of God, no, nothing can happen unless God comes down.

My dear friend, is that your conviction? That nothing can possibly happen unless God comes. But he goes on to say, or to suggest, that if God comes down, if there is a manifestation of God moving in the realm of the supernatural, and revival is supernatural.

Revival as a Supernatural Manifestation of God

Oh brother, remember that. It's supernatural. In revival you're caught up in God. I had a letter some time ago from two of our workers who were in the midst of a remarkable movement in the field of revival.

This was true revival. Whole communities were touched. One town swept by the mighty power of God and desperate characters brought to a saving knowledge of the truth. I happened to be there one night assisting them.

And one morning when out for a short walk, a contractor in the town met me and said this. My, wasn't that a remarkable meeting last night? I was never in such a meeting. Do you know that my wife, three of my children, all in their late teens, and myself were gloriously saved at four o 'clock this morning.

In a letter some days afterwards, one of the girls in the midst of that revival said this. It's a wonderful move. It's greater than ever. There's deep conviction of sin. God is let loose. Have you got that?

God is let loose in the place. He is in the field and we are caught up in God. That's the language of a heart in touch with revival. And that, I think, is the conviction that has gripped the prophet. God come and mountains will flow before his presence and nations will be made to tremble and terrible things will happen and things that we looked not for.

Now it seems to me that the time has come. And what I say in this camp meeting, when we must face ourselves with honesty and with sincerity, and I would say also with an open mind and open heart, ready to listen to God.

Oh brother, listen. Are you ready to listen to God? We read that his arm is not shortened that it cannot see, nor is his ear heavy that it cannot hear. But I fear that there are many of God's dear children today whose ear is heavy.

I pray that we may have ears today to listen. As we are going to face this question, we're all interested in revival. At least I would say most of us. And I can well believe that the question is being asked.

God has the answer. It's the God of revival. Why is he not doing something about it? I think that was suggested in the remarks by the chairman. Why is revival not coming? With all the praying and all the conferences and conventions and camp meetings dealing with this great truth, why is God not coming down?

Why is he not coming down? Now it seems to me that you get an answer to that question. We must go back to chapter 59, the portion that I read. And there we read again, but your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you.

All your sins have sent God into hiding. Is that the answer? Yes, my dear people, I would say that sin in the Christian church, not in the world, nothing about saving grace, he doesn't hinder revival.

He can't be revived. What he needs is life. And I would say that the basic reason why we are not seeing revival meeting is because there's sin in the camp. There's sin. I feel that we have got to deal with that.

The devil is not greatly concerned about getting between you and work. Oh no, you can work and work and work again. He doesn't mind that so long as he can keep you from God. As long as he can come between you and the God of revival.

Sin in the Camp and the Ethical Test of Salvation

I wonder if you have noticed the sins listed in the portion that I read in chapter 59. Here you have the prophet's assessment of the situation. And you will notice that he begins by saying judgment is turned a way backward.

Judgment is turned a way backward. My dear people, the test of salvation is in its ethical results. Some people will say to me, yes, I believe, but I'm not changed. I remember after that great crusade in London conducted by an American evangelist, a group of nurses came to me, brought to me by the matron of a hospital, an infirmary in London.

These were nurses who had responded to an appeal. Oh, they had responded to an appeal. And they were counseled and they made a decision, were registered as converted. But here they were in my presence and making this statement.

Yes, we believe in the gospel decision relative to the appeal of the gospel, but we are not changed. We are not changed, converted, but not born again. Often arrested by a passage in the gospel by John.

It's in the second chapter and I think the 23rd verse where it is stated that many believe and they saw the miracle, but Jesus did not commit himself to them. What do we learn from that? That Jesus had no confidence in their belief.

He had no faith in their decision because the word goes on to say, because he knew what was in man. And I would make bold to say that this is one of the supreme causes why revival tarries in America. This gospel of sinning to recognize the supernatural or face the implications of, you know as well as I do, there's a cry today in America and in Great Britain is preach a positive gospel, preach a positive gospel.

And the possible gospel is invite men and women to believe in Jesus Christ. But I want to say this evening that there is a negative side as well as a positive side to the gospel. Oh, there's a negative side to the positive gospel and not his repentance and forsake his ways under the unrighteous man's thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy.

When? When he forsakes his wicked ways. Oh, my dear people, this is a truth we need to proclaim. Oh, we need to proclaim. And here I think I ought to mention the difference between simply believing in the realm of human faith.

My dear people, you're not saved by human faith. But the faith that saves is never alone. God is in it. I had a prominent evangelist in Scotland. Might I say also that he came from America. We get many evangelists from your country and in course of his address, he used an illustration.

And in the illustration, he referred to a person going on board a ship because he had faith in the captain that he would bring that ship to the desired haven. Or a man going on board a plane, he has faith in the captain and crew and the plane to take him to his destination.

And this, dear man, then went as far. Exercise the faith that you put in the ship, the captain, the plane and the captain in the promise of God and you're saved. I would say to your people again, no more damning advice was ever forged from the anvils of hell than that.

You are not saved by human faith. You can believe and you can believe again and be damned eternally. All that you have is the faith that you exercise, the faith that brought you to this meeting today.

A speaker would be speaking, addressing the meeting. But my dear people, that's near human faith. We are saved by the faith of the Son of God. Crucified with Christ, cried the apostle. Nevertheless, I live, yet not I, but Christ he liveth in me.

And the life that I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God. Dear people, that's saving faith. May I also draw your attention to another thought right in the very center of that great text.

Christ in Us, the Hope of Glory

The difference between Christ being revealed to us and Christ being revealed in us. My dear friend, you're not saved by Christ being revealed to you. They're in hell today for the revelation of Jesus.

That doesn't save you. Christ revealed to me. Yes, but I'm saved when Christ is revealed in me. This glorious hope I have hath an anchor to a soul both sure and steadfast. That's Christ in me, the hope of glory.

Oh, my dear people, get that truth. Proclaim it to congregations. But it's not Christ revealed to me. Or you can have your emotions stirred when that happens. Of course you can. And you can be moved to go to the altar.

But you go to the altar in your way to hell. Oh, my dear people, I know these are hard words. But there's a cry for reality today. Oh, may God get us away from this doctrine of simply believism. But notice further in this passage of scripture, there is reference to the justice of God.

Justice standeth far off. You have that in verse 14 of 59. So the goodness of God is preached, but his severity is overlooked. Heaven is preached and we sing about heaven, but you seldom hear people singing about hell.

You seldom hear people singing about the severity of God. And yet this is a truth and a doctrine that is written largely across the records of God. At a meeting of ministers some little time ago, I was asked to give a series of addresses on the Holy Ghost in revival, or the Holy Ghost in evangelism, I should have said.

The Goodness and Severity of God

But they allowed me to select my own subject for the closing meeting. Now it was a minister, a meeting of ministers of the leading denominations in England. There will be a little over 80 gathered in that conference.

I choose as my subject for the closing meeting, the goodness and the severity of God. The goodness and the severity. Merciful God, but a just God. A God whose moral attributes were equally balanced. And I spoke along these lines.

At the close of the meeting, five of the leading men who had arranged for this conference, requested that I should meet them in the vestry. Well, I naturally thought perhaps they're going to pay my traveling expenses.

But my dear people, that was not in their mind. When they gathered into the vestry, shut the door the chairman, a doctor of divinity, a prominent man in evangelism. The type of man, the three of the five there, brought coaches loaded to Haringey to listen to Dr. Billy Gray.

Oh, they were interested in evangelism. And they were men who had arranged nights of prayer prior to the conference that I'm referring to. But would you believe that I was faced with the question, Mr. Campbell, do you really believe in the hell of the Puritans?

Do you believe in the hell of the Puritans? And I looked at them and asked, what do you mean by the hell of the Puritans? I believe in the hell in the word of God, Old and New Testament. The Puritans believed in it.

Would you believe that I had to listen to the following words? Mr. Campbell, if we knew that you believed in the hell of the Puritans, you would never have been asked to address this conference. My dear people, that's the day in which we're living.

I'm sure that Lord Samuel was right to remark to you he was a Jew, speaking in the House of Lords and quoted by the Daily Express, one of the leading papers in England. This is what he said, how we find to our dismay that the vices of Sodom and Gomorrah are rife among us.

The moral law is weakened because the dogmas of heaven and hell no longer grip and control conduct. Was he right? His words to me prophetic. The doctrine of heaven and hell no longer conducts or controls conduct.

When Jesus, my dear people, when Jesus spoke about hell, and have you discovered that for every time Jesus spoke about heaven, he spoke 13 times about hell. Read your Bible and discover that. And I maintain that when Jesus spoke about hell, he was not fully humanity.

The embodiment of eternal truth spoke of what he knew. Oh, my dear people, let's get this truth home clear. Justice standeth afar off. Standeth afar off. And that is definitely true today in your country and in mine.

Truth, Anointing, and the Danger of Empty Orthodoxy

But then you will notice further that in the same portion it is written, truth is fallen in the streets and truth faileth. You'll get that in verse 15 of 59. Speaking to me of this great truth, the teaching truth without the anointing of the Holy Ghost is helping the devil to damn souls.

Amen. Oh, my dear people, it's true there is nothing on earth today so deadening us preaching without heaven's anointing. Oh, I dread the thought that I should ever stand before a congregation without heaven's anointing, without having my address speak in prayer.

Oh, brother ministers, how much time do you give to waiting upon God? How much time do you give in the morning to the morning watch? My expectation is from him. And you rise from your knees, possessed of the spirit of expectancy.

God is going to do something. My dear people, I believe that God is doing something in this meeting. I believe that God did something in last night's meeting. My dear people, God was here and God was speaking.

And I believe that God is speaking today. I wonder how many of you have read a passage in Spurgeon's lectures to his students. In one of his lectures, he tells of a dream that one of the Puritans had.

As far as I remember, I think it was Boston, the Puritan, who wrote that great book, The Sevenfold Testimony. Boston, the Puritan. Well, this Puritan, whoever he was, had a dream. And he dreamt that while walking through the town, he saw the devil preaching at the street corner.

Suddenly he made this discovery that he must be a fundamentalist. Boys, he was preaching the gospel. The gospel. Getting men to know that he believed the word of God from color to color. So the Puritan went over to him, faced him with a question.

Are you really the devil? Of course I am. I'm the devil. And you're preaching the gospel. Yes, I'm preaching the gospel. Preaching the gospel. Because I have made this discovery that my best weapon for the damning of souls is to get men to preach the gospel without the anointing.

My dear people, be careful that you're not helping the devil without the anointing. That is why I used to say to my students in Edinburgh, oh, be careful in dealing with souls that you're under heaven's anointing.

Be careful that you have the anointing that comes from above. In case in your endeavor to counsel a seeker, you're helping the devil to damn him. Oh, brother ministers, take this to heart. Take this to heart.

Spurgeon says that when he read this, that he trembled. And I trembled again and again in face of it. Oh, my dear people, the devil is cunning. Oh, he's cunning. If he can get you to preach a fundamental gospel, my, he'll make a fundamentalist of you.

I tell you he will. So long as he can keep you from God and from the anointing that comes from on high. Oh, brother minister, see that your sermons are steeped in prayer and refrain from preaching unless you consciously know that the dew of heaven is on your soul.

Oh, my dear people, truth is fallen in the street. My dear people, it seems to me that it's in the streets in your country today. In spite of all your crusades, in spite of all your decisions, in truth, regenerating truth has fallen in the street and the devil is tramping triumphantly over it.

Oh, may God help us this afternoon. May God help us. But you will notice that there is a further statement here. Verse 15 again. He that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey. What a statement. What does it mean?

Holiness, Separation, and Moral Conduct

The man who will take his stand for righteousness, for truth, for holiness, for holy ghost separation. Oh, brother, sister, cry for separation today. You know that you'll not mind me saying this, but I feel I've got to say it.

I can't understand Christian women who seem to delight in showing so much of their body. My dear people, it grieves me. It grieves me to my soul. Why? I read recently of a minister interviewing a young Christian girl who was seeking blessing.

And in course of conversation, he asked her, why was it that she seemed to delight to show so much of her body? And she said, because I love to show my legs. My dear people, my dear people, you may not accept that.

And you may say what the dear lady said, the widow of General Dobbie of Malta. She was chairing a meeting for me outside of London. It was a meeting convened and conducted by a certain woman's association.

There were several hundred of them. I was the only male among them. And I spoke along similar lines. I was really dealing with that great truth, Christ in me, the hope of glory. And at the close of the meeting, she was overheard to say, that was a wonderful address.

But we must not forget that the dear man was born and brought up among the hills of Scotland. And he has his own theology. Well, my dear people, my theology makes me mystical. I declare that if I'm spiritual and mystical, it's because the root of my Christian experience is in the realm of mystic.

Oh, my dear people, we've got to be true to the word. The man who takes his stand for that truth will not be popular today, I can assure you. A man said to me not so very long ago, Mr. Campbell, you ought to have been alive a hundred years ago.

They would listen to you then, but they're not going to listen to you today. And I said, brother, as long as I've got the smile of God, it matters not what people think of me. I am thankful to God that I was delivered from that.

When God in his mercy baptized me in the Holy Ghost, I tell you with clean pride, God can do it. God can do it. But brother, I believe, I believe the time has come when men and women of similar convictions must prove of living, purity of conduct.

We need that today, dear people, because it's fallen in the streets. But further, you will notice this, that confidence is born in the soul of the prophet. All the situation is bad, but not beyond hope.

Revival, Repentance, and the Breaking of Barriers

When thou camest down, suggesting God you did it, you can do it again. When thou camest down, the mountains flowed before thy presence. You see, he declared that a new manifestation of God would put to shame the sins of the people and the false confidence of the ungodly.

If God came down, if God came down, miracle would happen. Mountains would flow. And you remember that he speaks of a melting work. The mountains, oh, the mountains will now flow. They're melting. And I would say the mountain of indifference, the mountains of opposition, the mountains of Lord's thunder, the mountains of the mountains.

Oh, see the mountains flowing before his presence. That happens in revival. Oh, that happens in revival. I saw a thing happening when we were right in the midst of the revival. I tell you, it shook me at the time.

It shook me. We're right in the midst of this mighty move. I couldn't preach. I simply couldn't preach because of the cry and the crowd kneeling around the pulpit. Oh, from every corner. Some were standing outside listening through the windows that were open, came in and they're now on their knees beneath the pulpit.

And suddenly in the midst of all this, a young woman got out into the aisle and began to dance the Highland Fling. Began to dance the Highland Fling. I just couldn't understand it. The minister who was sitting beside me bent over and said, Brother, do you think it was the Holy Ghost that taught her that step?

Well, I was a step dancer and I knew that the step was all right, but I couldn't believe it was the Holy Ghost that taught it. But what I'm trying to get at, here was a young woman stirred to her very death because she saw her brother crying to God for mercy, who was a drunkard.

A drunkard. He's crying to God for mercy. And it would appear that this was the only way that you could express it. It's the only time I saw it. But I did not condemn it. Emotion has a place. We are emotional beings and in regeneration, God touches every part of our mortal flame.

When I say that, don't misunderstand me. I detest emotionalism. And there's the difference. People getting onto the bandwagon. Oh, may God save us from that. May God save us from dead emotionalism. But I still believe that when God moves, oh, there's a warming.

There's a warming. You can see brothers going to one another, embracing them and saying, I'm sorry, brother. Oh, I misjudged you. I know such a brother here who knows the Baptist chapel that we have in Edinburgh.

He was a student in the city. And he knows this chapel well. A crowded church, crowded every Sunday. But I remember when it was ministered to by Dr. Graham Scroggie, that great Bible scholar and teacher.

People, I would say, to Campbell Morgan, they were, I would say, in the same field. And one night, while I was a student in Edinburgh, I was in the service, evening service. And the address has been given.

And he gives out the hymn in which you have the words, thy love unknown has broken every barrier down. Now to be thine, yea, thine alone. Oh, Lamb of God, I come. And at that moment, that great preacher sprang to his feet, lifted his hand and cried, you're singing, you're singing a lie.

Boys, I tell you, that shook us. You're singing a lie. This love unknown had broken every barrier down. We would have revival in Charlotte Chapel tonight. That was all he said. Sat down. And then a movement in the congregation.

And up the pulpit, to the pulpit, went one of his deacons. And for the whole congregation to hear him, he said this, Dr. Scroggie, I'm sorry for my criticism of you. I'm sorry, my. It took something to say that, I'm sorry.

There are some, dear people, find it extremely difficult to say that they're sorry, but a Christian never finds it difficult. If he's a born again Christian, oh, he can say, I'm sorry. He'll go to his wife, put his arms round her neck and kiss her and say, my dear, I'm sorry.

That's a mark of a Christian. But that night, a wave of revival broke out in the church. And we were there for 20 minutes to midnight. Revival. This love unknown broke down the barriers, broke down the barriers.

The Early Church and Supernatural Power

Oh, thank God for the Holy Ghost in the midst of my personality. I want to ask, before I sit down, as it's coming about time that I did that, I'm going to ask, is it really true that his love unknown has broken down every barrier in your life?

My love unknown has broken every barrier down. Is that true? Now, I could give out that hymn, I'll get our song leader to lead it, and you would sing lustily. But would you be singing truths or singing a lie?

Singing a lie. And you're singing the laughing stock of devils in hell. Oh, my dear people, let's face it with honesty and with sincerity. I believe that the early church conquered because there was confirmation of God's presence among them by supernatural utterance, supernatural revelation, and supernatural demonstration of God's power.

Oh, for the supernatural demonstration. Yes, you can have the stirring of the emotions there, of course you can. Oh, let me say again what I felt last night after that great address by the Dr. Appelman.

It's Pentecost. It's Pentecost. It's the living link between the eternal purpose of God and a world that must inevitably possess of God for America and an America that must inevitably. Surely our crying need is for a Pentecostal recitation.

My dear people, as a country you've known revival. As a country you've known times of repression. I think of Edwards. I think of Finney. I think of Billy Sunday with all his extravagances. And he had some.

But my dear people, he saw souls saved. And he saw them genuinely born again. And we cry today, God, do it again. Do it again. But there is a challenge here. What shall we do? What can we do this afternoon?

Human Responsibility in Seeking Revival

Well, I believe, dear people, that we can do something. I know that revival belongs to God, and in that field God is sovereign. I've said that repeatedly. But let me say again that I do not believe in any conception of sovereignty that nullifies man's responsibility.

God is the God of revival, but we are the human agents through which revival is possible. And that brings me to this closing thought. I'm sure you must have read that passage in John 12, when the Greeks came to the disciples and said, we would see Jesus.

If there were in this meeting this afternoon, I believe they would be saying, oh, we would see revival. We would see revival. We would see Jesus. But can you find one single passage in scripture that suggests that they saw Jesus?

If you can, you can show it to me perhaps tomorrow. A single passage that makes clear that they saw Jesus. But I do read this, that Jesus went. Having said this, he went and hid himself. But between the desire expressed and Jesus hiding himself, you have that great statement from the lips of Jesus, except a grain of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone.

But if it dies, it bringeth forth much fruit. I will tell people that in that statement, we are presented this afternoon with a challenge. Are you prepared to die? Are you prepared to face the implications of Calvary, dead to the world and all its toys, its adolphant, its fading joys?

Jesus, my glory be, Jesus, according to another passage that I quoted already, knew what was in man. Oh, he knew. He knew all that was in the heart of the Greeks. And he knew, not they weren't prepared.

Were they, Greek philosophers? Interested in doctrine. They could have been. But I believe that Jesus saw and Jesus knew that they would not face the implications of Calvary when confronted with it. And he quoted the truth.

Except a grain of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone. But if it dies. And then he went and hid himself. And I make bold to say they never saw him. Oh, brother, you're interested in revival.

Oh, you're interested in revival. And revival will come to your heart. It's got to begin there. The moment with honesty and with sincerity, you say yes to the implications of Calvary. He will come after me.

Let him follow me. Let him deny himself and pick up his cross and follow me. My dear brother, sister, that is the challenge that is facing you and facing me this afternoon. And I believe that God is bringing us this afternoon to a crisis in this convention.

It will depend on how you react to the crisis as to whether we're going higher with God or miss the way. Oh, may God help us. May God help us. Amen.