Meeting a Need — Duncan Campbell

In your prayers. That, of course, is in the will of God. I was saying to somebody today you can't do at 73 what you did at 53. But a dear sister mentioned to me today about another sister who is over 80 and God is blessing her ministry.

So that encouraged me. Now will you turn with me for our reading to the Gospel of Jesus Christ according to St. Mark. We are going to read some verses from chapter 14. St. Mark's Gospel and chapter 14 and reading from verse 12.

The Passover Preparation and Betrayal in Mark 14

And the first day of unleavened bread, when they killed the Passover, his disciples said unto him, Where wilt thou that we go and prepare that thou mayest eat the Passover? And he sendeth forth two of his disciples and saith unto them, Go ye into the city, and there shall meet you a man bearing a pitcher of water.

Follow him. And wheresoever he shall go, say ye to the good man of the house. The master saith, Where is the guest chamber where I shall eat the Passover with my disciples? And he will show you a large upper room furnished and prepared.

There make ready for us. And his disciples went forth and came into the city and found as he had said unto them, and they made ready the Passover. And in the evening he cometh with the twelve, and as they sat and did eat, Jesus said, Verily I say unto you, One of you which sitteth with me shall betray me.

And they began to be sorrowful and to say unto him, One by one, is it I? And another said, Is it I? And he answered and said unto them, It is one of the twelve that dippeth with me in the dish. The Son of Man indeed goeth, as it is written often, But woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed.

Good were it for that man, if he had never been born. Amen, and may God add his richest blessings. Will you turn with me now to the gospel according to St. Matthew and to chapter 21. And you will find the words of my text in verse 6.

The Disciples’ Obedience to Christ’s Command

And the disciples went and did as Jesus had commanded them. The disciples went and did as Jesus had commanded them. I want you this evening to come with me to this New Testament story. A story with which most of you, if not all of you, are familiar.

It is a story in the life of Christ that speaks of a need. And how that need was met by the action and by the obedience of two disciples and an unnamed man. How true it is that obedience has proved to be the key to untold blessing.

I believe, dear people, that quite a number, not a few, have entered into very real blessing during these days. I believe that. Somehow I find it in my soul that God has been speaking. And there are those in this meeting, and some have gone from the camp, who have obeyed God on some issue.

And their obedience has brought untold blessing to them. And I believe that that blessing will flow in the community in which they find themselves. But let me say this. That obedience is ever a fundamental condition for blessing.

That can never be disregarded. The Holy Spirit is given, oh let me say it again, is given not to those who talk about it, not to those who pray about it, but to those who obey. Well, here we have it. But oh, let me further point out that there is no moral virtue in obedience unless there is a recognition of a higher authority in the one who calls for obedience.

No moral virtue unless I'm obeying God. Not a preacher, not an association, not a church, but listening and obeying to the voice of God. My dear friend, tell me, have you heard his voice? And have you obeyed his voice?

Because you recognize his authority and the voice that speaks from the throne of God. Oh, it is said here that they did what the Lord commanded them. Of course it is true that obedience presupposes an unreserved yielding to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Surrendering to the Lordship of Jesus Christ

You remember, oh I drew your attention to it before, you remember when Paul fell on his face on the Damascus road and bowed before the authority of the one who spoke from heaven. At that moment he recognized the voice that spoke of the lordship of Jesus.

And he bowed before the authority and before the authority of the one who spoke from heaven. Oh brother, tell me, have you been moved by that authority? Has the voice of God been so clear and real to you these days that you recognize the authoritative note in it?

God is speaking. God is speaking. You remember that it is said of Abraham that he obeyed and received an inheritance. Yes, isn't that wonderful? And I would say the man who sincerely meets with God and obeys the voice of God, the inheritance is there waiting for him.

And perhaps in this case the inheritance is the baptism of the Holy Ghost. What, oh what an inheritance. Well, we read of the early disciples that they obeyed the voice of God rather than the voice of man and they went out and turned the world upside down.

I heard or rather read some little time ago words spoken by Socrates. He is addressing the men of Athens and in his address he said this. Men of Athens, I hold you in the highest esteem but I will obey God rather than you.

Now friends, it takes courage. Oh, it takes courage to take that stand. But as I said to the pastors this afternoon, the day may come and that soon when courage will be demanded to stand against the prevailing sin of our day.

You see, here are men and through their obedience their life became, what I say, a walking incarnation. My dear people, that's just what should happen. Oh, is your life a walking incarnation of Jesus.

I'm constantly, oh I'm constantly thinking of that. The life also of Jesus manifest through my mortal flesh. A new incarnation of Jesus. And men, women being made conscious of it and feeling the impact of it, bringing the fear of God, bringing conviction of sin and bringing the realization of the saving grace of the Lord Jesus Christ as Christ moves freely through every avenue of my personality and me handing to Him every key of every room in my life.

Complete Consecration Without Reservations

My dear people, that is where we want to get to tonight. Oh, I wonder if I'm speaking to any and you're still holding on to one key. Oh, you've given much during these days in so many ways. Oh, yes, you've given.

But you know that there is a reservation in your life. A reservation. In effect, you're saying I'm quite prepared to go so far with the teachings and with the ministry and the impact of these days. But, oh brother, is there a but in your life?

I'll follow the but, my dear brother. The honesty and the measure of your consecration and your relationship to God is decided by the but in your life. I want you to think of that. I already quoted Hanson Taylor.

He will have all or nothing at all. And I do trust that he will get all this evening. I believe, dear people, we're going to have a wonderful meeting. A wonderful meeting. I'm looking forward with glorious anticipation to the closing message.

I'm telling you that, dear people. From the lips of that dear man of God. Waiting with anticipation. This is the confidence that we have in him that if we ask anything, if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.

And if we know that he hears us, we know that we have the petition. Oh brother, sister, what are you asking? Are you asking that God might visit us? And that God might come and satisfy the hunger of hearts?

That are longing for God perhaps more than they ever longed in their lives? My dear people, this is the confidence. And I ask that in this meeting you will lift your heart in prayer and in intercession and cry, God, satisfy us early with thy mercy that our souls may rejoice in thee.

Oh, I would love to see a wave of rejoicing in this meeting. When my dear brother here was singing that chorus that has in it, I'll not turn back. My took to my mind a wonderful scene that I witnessed.

A crowd, I couldn't tell you how many of them, there must have been over a hundred. And between three and four o 'clock in the morning they're walking along the beach, no thought of going to sleep. No thought of going home.

And they're lustily singing the only English chorus that they could sing. No turning back. Led by that remarkable singer, Mary Morrison. No turning back. Oh, the thrill of it. Rejoicing and singing in the realization that God had set them free and that they were hungering for more.

And my dear people, not very long after that quite a number of them, including the girl that I mentioned were baptized in the Holy Ghost. I was in the room when God came. And it came in such a wonderful way that that dear child of God cried, Oh God, hold your hand, my young body can't contain you.

That's an experience. My young body can't contain you. It would appear that God had swept into every avenue of her personality filled with Christ and Christ alone. Oh, that that may happen tonight. My soul would be moved to its death and I would rejoice in God my Savior.

The Lord’s Need and the Gift of Help

Now this is an interesting text. And to begin with, I have here this thought. The need expressed. The Lord hath a need. Here is an expression of need that must be, would I say, the cause of wonder. That the God who created the universe should find himself expressing a need.

Was not the wealth of the world at his disposal? Was it not true that by the touch of his hand he flung worlds into space? But here he is in his humiliation expressing a need and publicly expressing it.

And I believe, dear people, that that need hath gone ringing down the corridors of time. God in need. My dear people, what is he needing? Will you face that question with me? There is a very arresting word in the prophecy of Isaiah.

I looked and there was none to help. And I wondered that there was no one to help. I'm quoting from the Gaelic. I love that passage in Corinthians, speaking of the gifts. And in the midst of the record there is reference made to the gift of help.

And I believe, dear people, that there are those here who have that gift. While they may not be able to preach or to organize meetings, oh, they're possessed of a desire and a consuming love for Jesus just to help.

And I want to ask again this evening, do you really desire to be in the place where Jesus can come to you and help himself to you? Because he wants your help. He wants your help. Perhaps he wants your help in the place of prayer.

Can he help himself to you? He wants your help to witness to others of the saving and sanctifying grace of Jesus. I wonder, Pastor, when you return to your congregation and to your community, and Jesus comes to you and he says to you, I want you to help me because I want you to proclaim the blessing that has come to your heart through sanctification and the baptism of the Holy Ghost, if that has happened.

What would your reaction be to that? Would you say, God, help yourself to me. I want to help you. Well, here it is. Jesus expressing a need. Will he be able to count on you to fulfill for him that need?

Standing in the Gap for Christ

Now I put this to you again. What stand are you prepared to take when you face your congregation? I told you already what it costs me, and it's going to cost you, brother. It's going to cost you. When God in his mercy filled me again and I gave my personal testimony in the pulpit on the following Sunday morning, on Monday I got the resignation of five of my leading elders.

Oh, they weren't going to have a fool in the pulpit. But my dear people, there comes a moment when we've got to be prepared to be fooled for Christ's sake. And I ask, oh, I ask you, dear brother, what stand are you going to take when Jesus comes expressing a need?

Brother, I want you. In other words, brother, I need you. The gift of help that comes through the baptism of the Holy Ghost. My dear people, that is something that comes when we're rightly related to God.

I want to help. I want to do something. I want to take my stand for truth and for righteousness. And further, I believe that God tonight is expressing a need and asking who will stand in the gap for me this evening?

Who will stand in the gap for me tomorrow and the morrow after that? Stand in the gap.

And build up the hedges.

And I tell you, dear people, there is a cry and a need for such men today. And my prayer is that men and women will leave the campgrounds either tonight or tomorrow persuaded that God is entrusting them to stand in the gap for Him and to lift aloft the cross of Jesus, hold it high and strong and sound the praise of Him who saved us and swell the battle song.

Oh, my dear friend, will you be such a person? Will you be such a man? As I already said, a walking incarnation of spiritual energy. Somebody asked Henry Ward Beecher, what was the secret of his ministry?

And his reply was, I am good reflectors in the pew. My, I tell you, that to me has a message. A good reflector, not just a good spectator. Oh, the Lord deliver us from here spectators. You'll find them running after great preachers.

Prayer Meetings as the Measure of Congregational Spirituality

Oh, they go to London and they search for the great preachers of the city. Men like Dr. Maston Lloyd-Jones and John Stock of all souls, Langham plates. These are perhaps the outstanding preachers in the city today.

And men flock to listen to them. And I would just speak of them as sermon takers and spectators. But go to the prayer meeting, go to the prayer meeting and you won't find them there. Reflectors in the pew, they're there every Sunday.

Oh, they're at the prayer meeting every week. My dear people, I wonder how many of us believe that you judge the strength and the spirituality of a congregation by what you see in the prayer meeting. You don't judge the spirituality of any congregation by what you see in church on a communion Sunday.

That's not the criteria. I believe that the measure of your impact in your community, the measure of your spirituality is not what is seen in your church on Sunday but what is seen in your prayer meeting on Wednesday.

That's the measure of your spirituality. That's the measure of the impact that as a congregation you're making in that particular community. Good, oh, good reflectors in the pew but getting through my message, how was the need met?

God’s Foreknowledge and Human Responsibility

Well, I would say that it was met, first of all, by the foreknowledge of God, by the foreknowledge of God. I believe, oh, I believe in the sovereignty of God. I'm glad to believe that my background is Calvinistic.

You've got to recognize this, that according to the portion we read, he knew that there was an ass there that could be used. He knew the day and he knew the place and he knew the time. And that speaks to me, my dear people, of the sovereignty of God, the foreknowledge of God.

Jesus said to the two, you'll go and you'll meet a man with a pitcher of water and you follow him. I'm sure that Boston was right when he said that every born-again believer has God's work for him, born with it.

And, of course, the writer was right when he said every man's life is a plan of God. Oh, how solemn are the words of God to Ezekiel. Son of man, I have set thee as a watchman and thou, oh, thou shalt speak to warn the wicked.

There you have the fulfillment of God's purpose and God's condition. And at the same time, man's responsibility. First of all, the foreknowledge of God. Now, I can't get away from that. And then man's responsibility and response.

You will notice that by the obedience of the disciples led them to action and there was a move. The Lord hath leaped. Oh, that was the talisman. Something that produced extraordinary results. I'm not suggesting that need must ever be the motivating power.

But in this case, it was. His need was paramount, just enough. Yes, but enough that was serviceable. And I can well believe that there are those listening to me who are asking the question, can I be of service?

My dear friend, this should determine the action. If there's a need, Christ is coming to you this evening and saying, can I help myself to you? Can I help myself to you? Help me to meet this need that is heavy upon me.

And I believe it was heavy upon him. That takes me, brother, to my last thought. What was involved in their obedience? First, I would say a recognition of the fact that what was to meet the need must be loosed.

Loosed From Secret Sin for Obedient Service

Must be loosed. Yes, a good ass, well fed, and I believe could bray well. Oh, you could hear it. But notwithstanding a good ass, well fed, and could bray well, could shout. The animal was bound. And I'm speaking to some here tonight.

Oh, they can bray well. Well fed. A good testimony that can be listened to. But conscious at this very moment that you're not loosed. There's something, oh, there's something binding you. I heard someone say not so very long ago, the greatest hindrance to revival is not loose living, but secret sinning.

You believe that? Not loose living, oh no, but secret sinning. I was at a conference not so very long ago, and a dear brother came to me. He was badly involved in debt. Badly involved. But that was not known among the convention speakers.

And that dear man came to me and said this, Brother, I'm scared stiff lest I be found out. Scared stiff lest I be found out. Listen, a prominent minister. Scared stiff lest I be found out. Yes, again I say, not loose living, but secret sinning.

God may be coming to you this evening and putting his hand on something in your life. Something in your life. Something unclean. You would be ashamed and troubled if your wife knew of it. You would carry on in the dark.

Oh, my dear people, we do want to face this. And we want God to deal with the hidden sin. The hidden sin. Whatever it is. Oh, it may be this, that, or the other thing. But God has put his hand upon it.

And I'm going to ask you, what are you going to do about it?

For it is sin shall not prosper.

But he that confesses and forsakes shall find mercy. My dear brother, sister, that is God's word to you this night. He has need. Loosen and let him go. And I see, because of the obedience, action is demanded.

God may say to you tonight, I want you to go to that brother and confess your sin. I want you to go, sister, I want you to go to that sister and acknowledge your criticism of her. I want you to do that.

Obedience, yes, followed by action. They obeyed and went, are the words of our text. Now, just a word, a word to the young people. Now, quite a number have come to me during this camp week. And they told me that God had been speaking to them about full-time service.

The Cost of Answering God’s Call to Service

And I'm glad to hear that. May I read to you something that Maxwell of Prairie brings before such young people. Here it is. One may live for a career which is but self-expression or for the savior which is self-renunciation.

Still addressing the young people, he said, Christ cannot share the control of a person's life with a mere career. In plain language, do you really love Jesus enough to want to waste your life for him?

Are you willing to forget all about a future for yourself? Do you want to walk with me intensely enough to turn you from the beckoning world? I leave that with you, young people, and I want you to face it.

One is grieved. And I heard of a convention held in Bethany, of the Bethany Fellowship. Read this in their magazine. When an appeal was made for volunteers for the foreign mission, 50 students offering themselves in three years had passed through a Bible college.

In four years' time, only one is on the field. The two others who arrived on the field packed up and came back to America within two years. Oh, my dear people, there's a cry today for honesty, sincerity, and reality in facing the call of God.

Obedience as Life’s Final Retrospective

And here it is. Now I close by asking this question. What is it that is going to yield the greatest joy in the retrospect of life when I'm just about to face the Master? What is it, I would say, dear people, that at every step of the road I obey God, at every step of the road I obey God?

And they went. Amen.