Divine Appointments - 01 Marvels of Redemption — William MacDonald

God's Wonders in Creation

Who also wrote, God Moves in a Mysterious Way is Wonders to Perform. It was suggested that we might go on with this subject today, which we're glad to do. We thought about the wonders of God in creation, and it really is breathtaking.

Last week I was speaking to Rick, they have, I don't think I told you this, they devised, the scientists have devised a new clock based upon the vibrations of a molecule. Is that right, Rick? Based upon the vibrations of a molecule, and it will not gain or lose a second in a million years.

Now that's wonderful that God can design molecules that vibrate with such precision and accuracy, isn't it? Actually, the whole world about us is filled with wonders. I think there's nothing that God has made that wouldn't take a lifetime of exploration to see the wonders of it.

God's Wonders in Providence

Well, we talked about that, the wonders of God in creation. Then we talked about the wonders of God in providence. How he's moving men and women on his board, you know, and a marvelous sequence of moves, and the marvelous timing of moves, and everybody here, whether you know it or not, we're all involved in that.

Whether a person's saved or not doesn't make any difference. Still, God is sovereign of the universe, and he's working all things according to the counsel of his own will. And then last week, of course, we talked about the wonders of God in redemption.

The Marvels of Redemption

And we quoted some men as saying that probably the wonders of God in redemption, in the salvation of souls, is greater than the wonders of God in creation. And I think that's true too, I really do. But you think of the marvelous ways in which he hunts down men and women, boys and girls, and brings them to himself.

Mitsuo Fushida's Conversion Through the New Testament

One of my favorite stories, and I know a lot of you have heard it, but it doesn't hurt to hear it twice, and some here haven't heard it, is the story of a man who went from Pearl Harbor to paradise. His name was Mitsuo Fushida, and he's the Japanese who led the attack on Pearl Harbor.

And as you know, it was a very successful attack from the Japanese point of view. It was when Japan entered the war, and when America declared war. And you can imagine how ecstatic Mitsuo Fushida was, because he had practically crippled the United States Navy.

So many of our ships were tied up there in Pearl Harbor, and many of them were now under the surface. I only know of one ship that made it out of the harbor that Pearl Harbor morning. And the war went on, America awoke like a slumbering giant, and pretty soon the wheels of industry started moving, and ships started being built, and the Navy got back into trim, and then there were some terrible battles out in the Pacific area, and pretty soon the tides of war turned against the Japanese.

And then you know how Japan was brought to the place of surrender. They had to surrender, and Mitsuo Fushida was furious, absolutely furious. And he determined to bring the United States to a world court, and try the United States for war crimes, for the treatment of prisoners of war.

So he decided that he would start amassing his evidence, and to do that he had to interview prisoners of war. Some of these men were held prisoners of war in this country, and so he made arrangements to interview them.

And he was looking for stories of terrible atrocities that had been committed against these men. Instead of that, as he questioned the men, he found out that when they were in internment, there was a lady who used to come and visit them.

And she used to bring cookies to them, she used to bring cake to them, she used to bring candy to them. And she brought a little book to them, a little booklet she gave them, and it was called the New Testament.

And the men were puzzled by this. They used to say to her, why do you do this, we're your enemies, why do you bring us these things, why do you show this kindness to us? And all she would ever say was, it's because of a prayer my parents prayed before they died.

Her parents had been missionaries, Christian missionaries in the Philippines, and the Japanese came in, of course, to the Philippines, and they executed these missionaries. And that's all she would ever say to them, it's because of a prayer my parents prayed before they died.

And he heard this over and over again, and it wasn't exactly what he wanted to hear. He wasn't getting the information he wanted to bring America before a world court. But you know, in the providence of God, a copy of that little book came into his hands, the New Testament.

So he decided he would read it. And he started with Matthew, and he got nothing out of it, whatever. And he read Mark, and it didn't say a thing to him. And he started reading Luke, and when he came to Luke chapter 23, verse 34, he read these words, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.

And without anyone telling him, except the Holy Spirit, without anyone telling him, he knew what prayer those missionary parents had prayed before they died. And he got down on his knees and received the Lord Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior.

No human instrument involved, just that unknown lady, I don't even know her name. And but by himself, he got down on his knees and accepted the Lord Jesus as his Lord and Savior, the man who led the attack on Pearl Harbor.

And he spent the rest of his life traveling throughout the world, preaching the unsearchable riches of Christ. And he's in heaven today. And if you're saved by the grace of God, you're going to meet Mitsuo Kishida.

Maybe you'd like to sit down on a tree on the hillsides of Emmanuel's land and hear him tell the story. That would be rather interesting, wouldn't it? Let him go back to Pearl Harbor. Let him tell about Pearl Harbor.

Let him tell the end of the story. It'll be quite thrilling, won't it? God's a wonderful one. Who would have ever thought that that man would have ever come to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ?

But that's exactly what happened. The Lord did it. I like to tell how a young fellow was saved by overhearing the gospel. Out in Honolulu, on the base, in the naval base in Honolulu, a sailor was witnessing to a fellow sailor.

And unknown to him, there was another sailor around the corner listening. The guy around the corner got saved. He just overheard the gospel. The man he was witnessing to, as far as I know, never got saved.

But the one who overheard the gospel wasn't even intended for him. But he got saved. Only the Lord could put those things together, couldn't he? The marvels of God in redemption. God is infinite in the variety of ways in which he works.

Dick Kegler and Burt Graves: Salvation Through Christian Witness

And on that same base, I've told you, some of you before, the story of Dick Kegler and Burt Graves. They used to go out on the basketball court after duty hours, and they used to shoot baskets. And Burt was an outstanding Christian fellow.

He's still living. He's in Wheaton, Illinois. And when the other fellows would be cursing and swearing, Burt wasn't cursing and swearing. And when the other fellows would lose their temper in a basketball game, Burt never lost his temper.

And Dick Kegler was watching them all. He was watching these fellows. And he noticed all that. It wasn't that Burt Graves had ever forced the gospel down his throat. He hadn't. But he had lived the life before him.

And one night, Dick Kegler went up to Burt Graves and said, Burt, he said, you're different. You've got something I don't have. I don't know what it is, but I want it. You know the rest of that story, don't you?

It was easy for Burt to lead him to the Lord that night. Absolutely easy. He was just ripe. Just like fruit, ready to be picked. And with light feet that night, Dick Kegler started going back to the barracks where he was housed.

And in order to get there, he had to pass through the tennis courts. And the tennis courts were partitioned by burlap. And he got down on his knees. And there in the tennis court, he started to pray. Just after having received the Lord, he's going back and he started to pray and thank the Lord for his so great salvation.

And another sailor came along and said, what's the matter, Mac? You're sick? He said, no, he said, I'm praying. Do you want to pray with me? Of course, the fellow beat it as fast as his legs would carry him.

But you know, Dick felt that was his first opportunity to speak for the Lord. No, I'm praying. Do you want to pray with me? Well, that is remarkable, isn't it? That a fellow saved a few minutes ago would be found on his knees in a tennis court, praying and didn't particularly worry about somebody else seeing him.

A Stolen Bible and the Conversion of Wilbur McNaughton

Didn't bother him at all. Last week, I told you the wonderful story about MacKay, the doctor, and how the Bible his mother had given him. I forgot to tell you how he had pawned the Bible in the meantime.

And finally, it came back to him years later. Well, a similar thing happened to my friend, Ernie Tatham. Years ago, A .H. Stewart, who was really a great evangelist, he was having some meetings up in New Brunswick, and he had two or three young men, Ernie Tatham and a couple of other young men, working with him.

And every morning after breakfast, they would get out their Bibles, and they would study the Bible together. And this particular time, they were going through the book of Exodus there in New Brunswick.

Mr. Stewart had a Bible that had been given to him by H .A. Ironside. They were really good friends, and it was his most treasured earthly possession, that Bible. And this morning, he wrote in the margin of it, in the margin of where they were studying, he wrote, We finished reading Exodus today in Campbelltown, New Brunswick.

Just that simple thing. We finished reading Exodus today in Campbelltown, New Brunswick. Well, then the series of meetings came to an end, and Mr. Stewart returned to his home in Guelph, Ontario. I checked out on the map today, and I figured it was about 900 miles.

And his car was parked out front, and some men broke into the car and robbed it and took his Bible. And of course, he reported to the police, but the search was fruitless. The police were never able to solve that crime.

Thief was never caught. Eight years later, Ernie Tatham was having meetings 150 miles from Guelph, Ontario, where the theft had taken place. And at the end of one of the meetings, a lady, one of the sisters there in the assembly came up and said to him, Have you heard what happened to Wilbur McNaughton?

And he said, Well, who's Wilbur McNaughton? He just figured he said it. He said, Well, I thought you'd know. He's the town drunk. And when he's drunk, he's very, very hard to get along with. She said, Anyway, he's been converted.

What a change, she beamed. I'm going to let Ernie tell you the story. You know, she went on. He was never much for church. In fact, whenever he goes on a drunk, everyone's scared of him. But now it's wonderful.

He's become a Christian, and he's a new man. And guess what? He found the Lord through reading a big Bible that a fellow gave him. Somebody had given it to this fellow, and the fellow said he didn't want it.

And he asked Wilbur if he wanted it. And Wilbur took it. He passed it on to Wilbur. And before leaving the chapel that night, this lady promised Ernie Taysom that she would try to get Wilbur to come out to one of the special services.

And sure enough, he showed up one night at one of Ernie Taysom's meetings. And Ernie said to him, I hear you've trusted Christ. He said, is that correct? And Wilbur said, that's right, he said. And he told him how he got a hold of this Bible.

And he would take it home. And he took it home, and he would start to read it. And his wife was hostile. She did not like this fact. She was disinterested. And usually he read it secretly. But as he, the more he read it, the more his interest deepened.

And late one night, he was reading John 14. And it seemed the Lord reached out to him and beckoned him, beckoned him to trust him, to commit his soul to him. He seemed to hear Jesus' voice and to see his wounded hands.

And for the first time, Christ became real to him. And he yielded himself to the Lord, spirit, soul, and body. And alone in his room that night, he became a genuine believer, born again Christian. He'd never be the same again.

And noticing that Ernie, that he was holding a big Bible, Ernie said, is that the book that you were reading? And he said it was. And he passed the book to Ernie. And Ernie opened the book. He just opened the book at random.

And it came to the end of Exodus. And he looked in the margin and it said, we finished reading Exodus this morning, Campbelltown, New Brunswick. It was the Bible that had been stolen from A .H. Stewart in Guelph, Ontario.

Now, who but the Lord could ever put that together? Incredible. Absolutely incredible. And we finished reading Exodus today in Campbelltown, New Brunswick. Ernie wrote, my heart began to race with amazement.

I could scarcely believe my eyes. Look at this, my Christ. I was with A .H. Stewart in New Brunswick the day he penned this comment. And the friends around him in the chapel there gasped and shook their heads.

So the next day, Ernie called A .H. Stewart. And he heard a great shout of astonishment and joy. Stewart had despaired of ever finding the Bible that had been stolen. Now, years later, in a village 150 miles away from his home.

Just think of that. In a village 150 miles away from Stewart's home, the Bible reappeared. Having been God's sovereign instrument in leading a lost man to Jesus Christ, the Savior, there was only a remote chance of it ever being retrieved.

And Ernie says, I was probably one of the only two or three people on earth who could positively identify it. And whenever Mr. Naughton heard the full story, he gladly gave the Bible back to Mr. Stewart.

And Mr. Stewart, in turn, replaced it with a fine copy. Paul says, how unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out. The reason I have that story is I wrote to Ernie Jatham and I said, what is the most wonderful incident in your experience?

And he had plenty of experiences with regard to the salvation of a soul. And he sent me that story. Marvelous, isn't it? When you start to think about it. I don't think I told you the story about Chris.

Chris's Deliverance from Addiction Through the Gospel

I was down in Missouri some time ago at a conference and somebody said to me, have you met Chris? I said, no, I don't know Chris. I said, tell him to come down and tap me on the shoulder and introduce himself.

So afterwards, a young fellow came down at the end of one of the meetings, blonde-haired fellow, and he identified himself as Chris. I said, are you a Christian, Chris? He said, yes, he was. I said, tell me the story.

He sat down and he told me how, as a young fellow, he was brought up in a Roman Catholic family, but lovely, lovely parents. Parents who stood with him through thick and thin. And he was invited to a three-day party and he, as a young fellow, he really wanted to fit in with the crowd.

And that peer pressure almost cost him his life that night. He overdosed and had to be taken to a hospital. The Lord saw him through. Then he began to sell and to use marijuana. And some of his friends said, look, Chris, get out of marijuana and get into cocaine.

That's where the money is. So Chris did. He dropped marijuana and started to peddle cocaine and he started to use it himself. And he soon built up a very brisk business. He sold half a pound every week.

This is in Omaha, Nebraska, this took place. He started using it heavily. And one day when he was really deep into drugs, using it, he went to his parents' home. And he was really startled to see the house filled with police.

He rushed past everybody into the bathroom and he flushed $17 ,000 worth of cocaine down the toilet. Then he took out his knife and he went out and he threatened his father. He said, you get those police out of this house.

Threatening his own father with a knife. Actually, there were no police in the house. It was just the effect of the drugs on his mind. He was suffering a king-sized case of paranoia. $17 ,000. At another time, he flushed $10 ,000 worth of cocaine down the drain and then he tried to take his life.

And when he was released from the hospital, he was flat broke. So he went back to his parents' house. In the meantime, his brother Mark had come to know the Lord Jesus. And Mark said to him, you know, I'm going to a Bible class tonight.

Why don't you come with me? So Chris went to the Bible. He didn't want to go. He didn't want to go to the Bible class. He went to the Bible class with his brother Mark. And there was an elderly lady there.

They just called him Grandma. He didn't know any other name for her. Just Grandma. And at the end of the meeting, Grandma started to talk to him. And when she started to talk to him, everybody quietly left the room.

And he said, that's funny. What are they all leaving for? And she took him to 1 John 5 .13. And she suggested that he put his own name there in the verse. These things have I written unto Chris, that believing in the name of the Son of God, he might know that he has eternal life.

She went over the gospel with him, step by step. And she took him to Ephesians 2 .8. Showed him that we're saved by grace through faith, not of ourselves. It's the gift of God. And to do that night, dear Chris passed from death to life.

There in the home, as Grandma was speaking to me, he passed from addiction to freedom in Christ. That's wonderful, isn't it? Not only his soul was saved, but his life was saved from dope. Just like that.

And after that, of course, he was baptized there in the chapel in Omaha. And his parents were there in the audience. I wonder what emotions must have swept through their souls. They've never been back since then.

I checked recently, and the parents have never been back since then. They cannot help but know the tremendous change that has come into their son's life. Marvelous, isn't it? Who but God could ever work it out?

The Farmer Who Was Driven to Pray

And God, as we said last week, he sometimes uses some very unconventional methods. The evangelist was talking to a farmer one day, and the evangelist said, fine day, isn't it? And the farmer said, yes, it's indeed a great day.

And the evangelist said, I hope you thank the Lord every day for his mercy to you before you leave home. He said, you do pray, don't you? And the farmer said, no, I don't pray. He said, you don't pray?

He said, no, I don't pray. He said, what do I need to pray for? He said, does your wife pray? He said, she can pray if she wants to. He said, do your children pray? He said, we've never brought them up to pray, but they can pray if they so desire.

Well, the evangelist said, I want to make a deal with you. He said, I will give you $10 if you promise me that you'll never pray again the rest of your life. And the man thought, what an easy way to get $10.

So he promised that. He promised that he would never pray again for the rest of his life. He pocketed the $10 and congratulated himself. But that night he began to think about the deal. And he said, what have I done?

He said, I promised that I'd never pray. No matter what problem might come into life, no matter what crisis might come into my life, I'd never pray. I must not pray. He said, when it comes time to die, might I want to pray?

He said, I'll have to stand before the judge. Maybe I'll wish then that I had prayed. The more he thought about it, the more troubled he became. And his misery increased as he thought of the burden of sin that was coming down upon him.

His wife could see that he was in deep soul trouble. And she asked him what was troubling him. And finally, he told her about his promise. And she said, the devil tempted you and you have sold your soul for $10.

That thought drove him to distraction, so much that he was not able to work for several days. Well, that evangelist was having the meetings in that area, preaching the gospel. And he figured that this man would come back, would come to the meeting.

Sure enough, one night this man showed up at the meeting. And at the end of the meeting, the farmer raced forward with $10 in his hand. And he said, take it back, take it back. The evangelist said, what's the matter?

You want it $10? And he said, you didn't need to pray. He said, but I must pray. He said, I must pray. I don't pray. He said, I'm lost. Soon he was on his knees crying out to God for forgiveness and for salvation.

The sovereign spirit of God had erected another sinner and made him a member of the family of God. I don't recommend that you do that. Offer people $10 if they promise they'd never pray, but it works.

You see, the spirit of God is sovereign and he can use a method at one time that he might never use again, might never use again. I'm sure you were all shocked when I told you that offering a man $10 if he promised he'd never pray again.

The Blind Evangelist and the Promise of Sons and Daughters

But it was the word of the Lord. It was the right thing to say at that right, at that particular time. That resulted in the salvation of that man. The wonders of God in redemption. J. Oswald Sanders tells of a blind evangelist, a blind soul winner.

And he was trying to win this lady to the Lord. And he went over the, you know, the verses of the Bible that we all go over. John 3, 16, Romans 10 and 9, John 5, 24, all of them. He just couldn't get into this woman's head.

And he used all the illustrations of the gospel that he could think of. And nothing seemed to work with her. Finally, he said, look, he said, I can't go anymore. He said, I have reached the end. I don't know what to say to this woman to bring her to the Lord.

He said, if you've got something that you want me to say to her, you tell me. And as he was praying, a verse of scripture came to his mind. It said, and you shall be my sons and daughters, says the Lord God Almighty.

And he said, well, that's a funny verse. Never heard that used in the gospel. And you shall be my sons and daughters, says the Lord God Almighty. He asked the Lord to confirm it. And the Lord seemed to confirm it.

But he couldn't understand how that could have anything to do with a person's salvation. And after remonstrating with the Lord, he came to realize that nothing else would do. So he told the Lord he'd use it.

And he went to visit the woman and explained to her what had happened and how he had run out of ideas in order to get the gospel across to her. He had told her all he knew. And so he asked for the Lord for a verse.

And he said, you shall be my sons and daughters. She said, does it say that? And he said, yes, that's what it says. You shall be my sons and daughters, says the Lord God Almighty. And he said, why do you ask?

Well, she said, all the other verses you gave me were about men. He that believeth. She said, you never said anything about women getting saved. He that heareth my word, him that cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast out.

Does it mean women too? Does it include daughters as well as sons? And the woman was saved. Now, of course, there are a lot of lessons in that one is it's wonderful to be in such touch with the Lord that he could put an unlikely.

I was going to say absurd, not absurd, but you know, you would think of it as being absurd. How would you ever win anybody to Christ with that verse? But he used it. Sanders says, who but the Holy Spirit could ever have helped the woman out in this way?

She had an absurd objection. Yet a soul who depended on the Holy Spirit received from him the verse that brought salvation to her. And then Oswald Sanders said, how dependent on the Holy Spirit are we?

The best personal evangelism, evangelism where we cast upon the Lord and where he tells us what verse to use, not simply for spiritual laws, you know, not just a canned message, but a particular verse for a particular occasion.

Jeremiah's Living Waters and the Conversion of a Dancer

Similar situation happened to a young woman whose passion was dancing. To her, the ideal of life was to spend your life on the on the dance floor. Nothing could be better than that. And evening after evening, she glided over the floor in the arms of her friend.

And life couldn't give her any anything more than that. And yet one night she was there on the dance floor and she remembered a verse of scripture from Jeremiah that she had learned as a little girl, came with convicting power into her heart.

For my people have committed two evils. They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewn themselves cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water. If you could say, you've forsaken me, the fountain of living water, and hewn up yourselves cisterns, broken cisterns can hold no water.

Mel Trotter's Conversion and Ministry

Her life was transformed. She lived to tell forth the excellencies of him who called her out of darkness into his marvelous light. I'm sure many of you have heard the name Mel Trotter. Anybody hear Mel Trotter, that name?

Well, Mel Trotter was a young fellow brought up in an Irish home in the United States, back in Illinois, in that area. And he was an engaging young fellow. He had the gift of gab. He loved to talk and he made friends wherever he went.

He was a bartender as a boy and a drunk at the age of 17, at the age of 17. And so he decided when he would become a barber because he could talk while he was cutting. He could talk, talk, talk. But liquor got an ever-increasing hold on him.

The chains of addiction wound themselves around him. And he made a lot of resolutions to go straight, but they all ended in failure. And during one of his times of being sober, he married a young lady named Lahi, a lovely young lady.

And it was only after several months that she realized that she had married an alcoholic. He was fired from his job and he decided to sell insurance. And then he and Lahi had the joy of having a little boy born into the family.

And again, Mel tried to straighten out. And he moved his family to a house in the country, 11 miles from the nearest saloon. He was going to straighten out, but he didn't straighten out. And one night, he took his horse and went to the saloon and exchanged the horse for liquor and started for home.

He had to walk, didn't have a horse. He had to walk home. And the cold brought him to, so that by the time he got home, he was fairly sober, full of good intention. Then he moved to Davenport, Iowa, and he steadily went downward.

He'd be away for days at a time. One day, he was away for 10 days. And he returned home shaking and miserable to be met by his sorrowing wife, who told him that the little boy had died. Their baby had died that morning.

And Mel was crushed by sorrow. And at the open casket of the little boy, he promised God and Lahi and the dead little boy that he would never take another drink. And two hours after the funeral, he was drunk.

The story persists that he had taken the shoes off the baby in the casket and pawned them the liquor. I mean, how low can a man go? Please. Well, Lahi promised the Lord to serve him in any way she could.

She covenanted to pray for Mel and to keep on believing that somehow God would make Mel his own. And in the months that followed, he disappeared entirely, drifted aimlessly from town to town, begging, stealing, and selling his own shoes for the price of a drink.

He drowned in shame and guilt. He blamed himself for the death of the little baby and the promise that he had made there at the open casket haunted him. By this time, he was barefoot and disheveled. And he landed in Chicago in the freight yards.

And he made his way out of the freight yards to the street. And he went into a saloon. Oh, he was begging panhandling for the price of a drink. Made his way into a barroom. The bartender called him a barefoot bum and told him to get out and walk to Lake Michigan till his hat floated.

And so he staggered along the sidewalk, probably on his way to Lake Michigan. And a small man with a bushy head of curly hair took him by the arm and led him through the door of Pacific Garden Mission.

As soon as he got in his seat, he went right off to sleep with his head against the wall. And Harry Monroe was speaking. And he had called upon all the men in the mission to pray for the wreck of humanity that had just come in.

So the whole meeting was turned into a prayer meeting. And then Harry Monroe started to preach the gospel. And by this time, Mel Trotter was sufficiently sober to realize that a religious meeting was going on.

And the words began to sink into his consciousness. And at the end of the meeting, when Harry Monroe gave an invitation to trust Christ, Mel Trotter's hand was the first to go up. 9, 10 p .m., Harry and Mel Trotter knelt together at the old worn altar.

And Mel asked the Lord for forgiveness and received Christ as his Lord and Savior. A new name was written down in glory. And Lottie heard about it shortly afterwards. Mel Trotter lived to become superintendent of the Pacific Garden Mission in Chicago.

Then later, he established the Union Rescue Mission in Grand Rapids, Michigan. We've always known that as the Mel Trotter Mission. But it's really the Union Rescue Mission in Grand Rapids. He had part in founding 67 other rescue missions in this country.

And he became one of the most powerful evangelists of his day. One of his favorite sayings was, One thing God never remembers, that's a confessed sin. One thing God never forgets, that's an unconfessed sin.

Good, isn't it? One thing God never remembers, confessed sin. One thing God never forgets, an unconfessed sin. I grant that these stories we've given have been dramatic and unusual. But it's still true that every one of our conversions is a supernatural, miraculous work of the Spirit of God.

Just think how innovative God is. How unpredictable and resourceful. He never repeats himself. There's only one Mel Trotter conversion. None of us is exactly like that. Sometimes, some of us believers who are brought up in a Christian home, we feel disadvantaged.

We feel, when we listen to these dramatic testimonies, well, I didn't have anything like that, you know. And we feel that somehow we were left behind. But actually, we should be grateful to the Lord and rejoice over the guilt and shame that we've been spared.

God's Sovereign Work in Every Conversion

I think what staggers the imagination is that our great God, at one and the same time, is working this all over the world at the present time. You know, saving people, influencing their intellects and their emotions and even their footsteps.

Why did Mel Trotter walk by the Pacific Garden mission that night on his way to Lake Michigan? Why was that dear man with a bushy head of hair out front at that time? Why did he take him by the arm and lead him in?

I tell you, the full story will be the subject of eternal amazement and of endless worship. What a wonderful God we have. If there's anybody here today who has never experienced this marvelous, miraculous, supernatural work of God, you can.

Although the circumstances of conversion are different, the way of salvation is the same in every case. You just have to come to the place where you're willing to confess that you are a sinner. You need to be saved.

And you have to renounce any hope of ever saving yourself, don't you? You have to believe that the Lord Jesus died as your substitute on the cross of Calvary, and then just by a definite act of faith, commit your life to him for the salvation of your soul.

Prayer for Revival and Redemption

When you do that, you can know in the authority of the Word of God there's a new name written down in glory. Shall we pray? After we pray, Daryl will come and meet us, closing in. Father, we're breathless when we think of the marbles of your redemptive ways in the world.

We think of some of these trophies of grace that we've been talking about this morning, and we just worship you and the Son of your love, the Lord Jesus, the Savior of the world. Father, we confess that we don't see as much of this as we'd like to see.

We'd like to see more people coming to the Lord here at Calvary Bible Chapel, but it seems something is withholding that blessing. Father, we do cry to you that you would come in in a great work of the Holy Spirit of God, and that we might see men and women, boys and girls, crowding to glorify you.