Worship & God Wants the Best — George Verwer

This recording was made in a derelict factory in Belgium where Christian young people had come together to study the Bible and to pray. Because many nationalities were present, some groups who could not understand English were divided off to have sessions in their own languages, and some of these groups can be heard from time to time in the background as they sang and worshipped the Lord.

We hope and trust that you will not be distracted by this, but as you listen, you will rather rejoice to know that many of them are young people from Spain, recently converted. Everybody's worshipping separately this morning, except our Dutch-speaking brethren who are there with their headsets.

And we also expect there may be a few visitors coming in this morning. Before we go into our worship service, I'd like you to turn your Bibles to John, just for a moment, John 4, the Gospel of John, chapter 4.

The Meaning and Purpose of Christian Worship

I just want to say a few words about what worship is and how important it is, because I know there are probably some who really, if you're honest, you don't know what worship is. You don't know the difference between worship and just a prayer meeting.

And this has been proven many times by people who, in the middle of a worship service, start praying and interceding for missions and for their grandmother or for whatever else may be on their mind. But when we come to worship, then the purpose is to worship.

Now, if someone in their prayer prays for somebody, we're not going to worry about that. But the main purpose is to worship the Lord and to lift our hearts in praise to God. And worship means adoring and praising God for who and for what He is, regardless of gifts, regardless of blessings, regardless of answered prayer.

God is God. He is holy. He's a God of love. He's omnipotent. He's a God of truth on all so many things are involved in the Godhead. His perfect loving power. And, of course, we also worship the Lord Jesus Christ.

This is the thing that marks the Lord Jesus so completely apart from all other philosophers, whether it was Buddha or Confucius or anyone else. He received worship, and He says in His Word that He was seeking worshipers.

Notice chapter 4, verse 22. You worship, you know not what. We know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth.

For the Father seeketh such to worship Him. God is a spirit. And they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. You know that the Lord is seeking worshipers even more than workers, though you never can really separate the two.

Worship as the Source of Christian Service

Real Christian service, real dynamic evangelism, will always spring from the life that is in communion with God, from the life that knows fellowship with God. And I believe with all my heart that the missing jewel in the church is the jewel of worship, of real worship, not just sitting listening to a speaker.

That's not worship. That may prepare our hearts. It may be a great blessing. But allowing our heart to go out in communion with God, you don't need to be speaking. During the period of silence, there should be worship, as our hearts go out to God, and as we call upon Him and worship Him and praise Him and give Him glory.

And I believe that today we're too caught up with our activities. We're too caught up in our activistic ways, and we miss out on being still before God. The Word says, Be still and know that I am God.

And I believe that this worship service this morning, in many ways, will be a failure or be even hypocritical. If you and I, in our personal lives, don't become more accustomed to worshiping the Lord.

And I would say that every man who loves God should take at least a half day or a full day or longer each month and get completely alone with God. Without such times in my own life, I wouldn't have made it past the second year here in Europe.

I would not be here today. There comes a time, and it seems to me it should be each month, when we must get away from all the hustle and bustle of Christian activities and get alone in the presence of God.

And certainly that also to some degree should be our daily experience. Many people have a dry, quiet time, are not getting through in their quiet time because they haven't learned the foundation of a solid quiet time.

Worship Before Petition

Worship. They say, Oh, God doesn't answer my prayer. I've been praying for so many things. Every quiet time, I've been praying for funds. I've been praying for this. I've been praying for that. God's not answering my prayer.

The problem is, you're going at it backwards. You're putting your needs and the needs of the work first. You're seeing man's viewpoint instead of God's viewpoint. First, worship, praise. I have some prayer times, worship times, when I don't ask the Lord for anything.

I just come to praise and to sing. He's the only one that appreciates my voice. No one else. Not even my wife. And we need to learn what it is to praise the Lord and to lift our hearts to the Lord. This is what we were created for.

We weren't created so that we could be lost and then saved. That only brings us back to the beginning. We were created that we may worship God, that we may love God. And when we're saved, that brings us back to the beginning.

And if you're saved, you're not at the end this morning. You're at the beginning. Now you can begin to manifest and to declare the glory of God and to have a love relationship with the Lord Jesus and with the living God.

Acceptance and the Glory of Christ

He says, no longer call you servants, but friends. And we can come this morning totally accepted in Him. Ephesians 1, 6 and 7. Complete in Him, Colossians 2 and 3. And as you look through the Word of God and you see all that Jesus is, the Alpha and the Omega, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace, and you see all that Jesus is, you just want to bow down and worship Him, love Him, praise Him, regardless of whether He's answering your favorite prayer, regardless of whether He's given you what you want, because His name is wonderful.

I believe a revolution in worship would bring a revolution in almost every other area of our life. Our evangelism this summer must spring from hearts that are communing with God, not from people who are being kicked around the continent by some excited leaders.

Our evangelism must spring from a deep sense that we are God and we are in contact with God. He is real. This is what we want in this movement more than anything else, that one word, reality, which means to me, firstly, communion with God.

My God is real. I talk to Him every day. I walk with Him every day. I commune with Him every day. It doesn't matter what others are saying. It doesn't matter if the work is going right or wrong. It doesn't matter if everything is topsy-turvy or the truck is broken down or the team is off doing the wrong thing.

I know my God and He fills the longing of my heart. Everything else is water above the top of the glass. The sufficiency of Christ is experienced more in worship than anywhere else. As we calm ourselves before God, as we cast our worries on the Lord, and that's not easy this morning, to push other things out of your mind.

You have to do that. It's an act of the will. I don't know about you, but when I come to worship the Lord, I may have to do that twenty times in one meeting. Maybe more. I'm worshiping and praising and something, some other thing comes in my mind.

Especially when you're in the middle of a conference like this and you've got to push it out. But you know, every time you push something out of your mind and return to the Lord in your mind, every time you do it this morning,.

Even if you have to do it thirty times, that in itself is an act of worship.

That's a choice. You're saying no to other things and yes to the Lord and to communion with Him. Let us realize the Lord is seeking worshipers, not just this morning, all summer on your team. The Lord should be first.

Quiet Communion and Honest Prayer

I know many men who would rather speak to others from the pulpit than speak with God in the quiet place. And that's why we don't have anointed preachers in the twentieth century. Because unless a man has a deep relationship with God in the quiet place, he has no right behind the pulpit.

And the Bible says, the Spirit bringeth life, the letter killeth. Some of you want to be preachers. You want to be witnesses. You want to be soul winners. Then get on your knees. Learn to commune with the Lord of Lords.

We go to Bible schools. We go to seminaries. We go through our courses. We study this and that. But where are those? Where are those who are getting a degree in worship? Of how many men can it be said, here's a young man who knows reality in worship?

I haven't met many people who had such a reputation. May God give us a balance and show us what the priority is. Not how many tracts you give out this summer. Not how many villages you cover. Not how many people you impress.

It's not how many spiritual dinners you serve up in a devotional time. But it's whether you know your God and are communing with Him and walking with Him and loving Him and receiving love and giving love.

Not a matter firstly of feelings. Something deeper than feelings. No feelings often get involved. Let us worship Him this morning. Let us not worry about the noises. Let us not worry about any disturbance that may come in here.

It was said of Brother Lawrence that in the midst of the work in the kitchen where he worked in menial work for 14 years, one of the most godly men who ever lived, that in the midst of the noise and the rattling of the pans, his heart was communing with God.

May we commune with Him this morning.

Someone may pray and you can't hear them. It doesn't matter. Just pray in your own heart. Maybe someone prays in another language. Commune with Him in your heart. Tell Him about your problems. You don't have to pretend to Him.

He knows your heart is crying. He knows you don't know even the first 5 about worship. He knows that you maybe don't even feel like being here. You'd much prefer to be in bed. He knows. You don't have to pretend, when I worship the Lord, I unload all my emotions on Him.

My bitterness, my hatred. And then it doesn't end up getting thrown out on other people. If any day I'm gentle, it's only because I've probably taken it out on the Lord in the morning. Lord, You know my heart.

You know I feel miserable. You know I'm sick of this whole movement. Sick of preaching. Sick of people. Lord, I want to go into the wilderness. I want to die. Or whatever else may come on my mind on that morning.

So I throw it all on the Lord. And He says, Okay, George. You've had your session. Now get going. And you know, I want to tell you, Psychiatrists, Psychologists will tell you that there is a tremendous therapy in prayer and worship.

And we see that God had it in His Word long before the psychiatrists ever said it. So don't start worshiping the psychiatrists, most of whom are going these days to be psychoanalysts. But bow down before the living God and pour out your heart before Him, your burdens, your problems, your cares, and lift your soul.

Let Him lift your soul in communion. You know, if you miss this, regardless of whatever, what anyone else says to you, if you miss this, this communion, this worship, this reality, you've missed O .M.

Because more than anything else, this is what God has been trying to build this movement on.

As many times as we try to run in other directions. Let us worship Him.

Malachi's Rebuke of Defiled Sacrifices

For our closing message in this part of the conference, could we turn to the last book of the Old Testament, the book of Malachi, chapter 1. We'll begin reading with verse 6. Malachi, chapter 1, verse 6.

The Son honoreth His Father, and a servant His Master. If then I be a father, where is mine honor? And if I be a master, where is my fear? Saith the Lord of hosts unto you, O priest, that despise my name.

And ye say, Wherein have we despised thy name? Ye offer polluted bread upon mine altar. And ye say, Wherein have we polluted thee? And that ye say, The table of the Lord is contemptible. And if ye offer the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil?

And if ye offer the lame and the sick, is it not evil? Offer it now unto thy governor. Will he be pleased with thee, or accept thy person? Saith the Lord of hosts. And now I pray you, beseech God that he will be gracious unto us.

This hath been by your means. Will he regard your persons? Saith the Lord of hosts. Who is there even among you that would shut the doors for naught? Neither do ye kindle fire on mine altar for naught.

I have no pleasure in you, saith the Lord of hosts. Neither will I accept an offering at your hand. For from the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the same, my name shall be great among the Gentiles.

And in every place incense shall be offered unto my name. And a pure offering for my name shall be great among the heathen, saith the Lord of hosts. But ye have profaned it in that ye say the table of the Lord is polluted, and the fruit thereof, even his meat, is contemptible.

Ye said also, behold, what a weariness is it. And ye have snuffed at it, saith the Lord of hosts. And ye brought that which was torn, and the lame and the sick. Thus ye brought an offering. Should I accept this of your hand, saith the Lord?

But cursed be the deceiver, which hath in his flock a male, and voweth and sacrificeth unto the Lord a corrupt thing. For I am a great king, saith the Lord of hosts, and my name is dreadful among the heathen.

God Wants the Best

If we were to give a title to this portion of the word of God, I think we might very well call it, God Wants the Best. That's the closing thought I'd like to leave with you at the end of this portion of our conference.

God wants the best. Let me say this afternoon, God deserves the best. He deserves your best, and he deserves my best. And you hear his heartbeat in the first chapter of the last book of the Old Testament, crying out to a people who had profaned his name.

I think you understand the background of this chapter. All through the Old Testament, under the law of Moses, God taught the people to bring to him sacrifices that were without spot and blemish. Why did he do that?

Well, it was an expression of his greatness, of his majesty, of his holiness, of his righteousness, of the very fact that God deserves the best. In fact, when he gave us a Bible, he even started the Bible that way.

In the beginning, God. Put God first in everything. Well, of course, the people would go out to the flock when the time of making an offering came, and they would look around in the flock. Here would be an animal, a fine animal, fine specimen, no spot, no blemish, no torn ear, no blindness or anything else.

Well, that was the animal they should offer to the Lord. That was also the animal that would bring the best return in the local market. And so a tension arose. God was far away. God was in heaven. They didn't see God.

And so there was the temptation to sacrifice the glory of God for present material gain. And that's exactly what was happening. They would sell the good animals down in the market where they would yield substantial return, and then they would take some ragged, poor animal and say, in effect, it's good enough for God.

You say, a shocking thing that any human being would ever behave like that in the presence of God. Yes, a shocking thing. And it's going on every day among Christian people at the present time. How's that going on today?

Giving God Our Children's Best

Well, let me tell you. Some of you have read the life story of Isabel Kuhn. Isabel Kuhn was brought up in the western part of Canada. For many years, her mother was the chairman of the women's missionary group in that church, encouraging the work of the Lord in the foreign field, encouraging other young people to go out to the mission field, raising funds for the mission field, and all the rest.

One day, Isabel Kuhn came home to her mother and said, Mother, God has called me to the mission field. And her mother said, Over my dead body, Isabel. That's the way she finally went. Over my dead body, Isabel.

And Isabel waited in western Canada until her mother had died, and then she went out to China for God. What does it mean? Well, it means that anybody else's children, yes, by all means, they should go to the mission field.

My child, I don't know, that would never do. A friend of mine was visiting in a Christian home. There was a fine young girl there in the home, and he said to her, What are your plans for the future? She said, Oh, I'm in nurse's training.

I'm planning to become a registered nurse. He said, I hope you keep the work of the Lord in view. He said, You know, there's tremendous need in the work of the Lord today. Somebody was listening out in the kitchen.

The one who was listening out in the kitchen steamed up to the door, and she said, Don't you talk like that to my daughter. She said, That isn't what I have planned for her. That's what Malachi is talking about here in the first chapter of his book.

How many Christian parents today are holding the work of the Lord before their young people as a desirable way to spend their lives? How many? I fear not too many. The idea today seems to be to make a name for yourself in the world, to get along materially, to live in a fine home in suburbia, have a good car and all the rest, and give the fag end of a wasted career to the Christ of God.

Tell me, is it true or not? I fear in far too many cases it's true. Deep within many hearts today there lurks that idea, anything is good enough for the Lord. I'm challenged by the words of the Lord in this chapter.

He says, Offer it now to the governor and see will he be pleased with you. And you know, this is exactly the thing, that in our dealings with our fellow human beings, especially those of fame or position, we don't treat them the way we treat the Lord.

And how well Malachi knew that. He knew they'd never go to the queen with a lamb like that, but they'd offer it to the Lord. And this speaks to my heart and it breaks my heart in many ways. When I think of men of the world today, when I think of politicians and statesmen today, when I think of their tirelessness for their countries, their traveling over land and sea, working indefatigably on into the night, the wee hours of the morning, men of vision, men of wholehearted devotion to the cause they serve.

And I think of the spirit among so many Christians today, tired and weary, and just get along comfortably for ourselves and leave the rest to the Lord. I think of communists today and their zeal and their fire for their cause.

I think of the sacrifices they're willing to make and I put myself beside them. Christianity in general beside them. And I think what in the world has happened. I think of nuns today who have taken on religious orders and lives of devotedness and all of that to their cause.

And I think of so many Christian young people today who think, well, I've got to think about myself. I've got to think about my future. And so they relegate the Lord Jesus Christ to some inferior closet of their lives.

I fear in too many cases. I think of musicians today and of the way they practice. Somebody said to Paderewski once, how did it happen? How did you get where you are? He said, by practicing till my poor fingers were nearly worn to the bone.

Men are willing to do that for music. They're willing to do it in the arts. They're willing to do it in the sciences. How many are willing to do it for the Lord? You know, it's a strange thing that in many countries of the world today, when Christian young people are called up into the armed forces, when fellows go off into the army, people give them a gay send-off, you know, and congratulate them and all the rest.

The next thing, the fellows are training, crawling under machine gun fire. Nobody thinks anything of it. That's perfectly all right, isn't it? And then they perhaps go out into war with all its mud and blood and stench and all the rest.

And maybe that young fellow will even lay down his life for his country, and people applaud, and they think it's perfectly respectable to do so. And if that same young fellow had stepped out for Jesus Christ fanatically to serve him with all his heart, people would sit at home and cluck and think there was something the matter with him.

And many Christian parents would be affronted if they saw their young people out on the streets of some foreign country being stoned for the Lord Jesus Christ. Listen, God wants the best. God wants the best, and he richly deserves it.

A Life Completely Sold Out to Christ

That's what he's looking for from our life. What would be, what would constitute a perfect sacrifice as far as the Lord Jesus Christ is concerned? Well, I think the first thing that we would have to say is this, for a person, for a young person or old person, either to be completely sold out to the Lord Jesus.

Wouldn't this be it? To be sold out to the Christ of God. I think of a young girl who went to Moody Bible Institute some years ago. While she was there, she sat down in her room one day, and she wrote out this covenant with the Lord.

Lord, I give up my own purposes and plans, all my own desires, hopes, and ambitions, and accept thy will for my life. I give myself, my life, my all, utterly to thee, to be thine forever. I hand over to thy keeping all of my friendships, my love, all the people whom I love are to take second place in my heart.

Fill me and seal me with thy Holy Spirit. Work out thy whole will in my life at any cost, now and forever, to me to live is Christ, to die is gain. Her name, Elizabeth Alden Scott. Later she married a young fellow named John Stam.

They went out to China, and they were privileged to seal their testimony with their blood in China. It was a perfect sacrifice. She didn't offer to the Lord something that was torn and maimed and blind.

She said, here I am, Lord Jesus, I give myself to thee. Wonderful, isn't it? I think that we need, in order to be perfect sacrifices to the Lord, we need a vision of the high dignity of serving the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Dignity of Serving Christ

Nothing so wonderful in all the world. Wasn't it thrilling when Spurgeon said to his son, my son, I should not like it if God called you to serve him that you should dribble down into a king. My, we need to capture that vision again today, don't we?

I should not like it if God called you to serve him that you should dribble down into a king. The dignity of being an ambassador for the Lord Jesus Christ. The dignity of representing his interests here on earth.

I tell you, it would put something into our step if we really realized it day by day. And then I think we need, too, a vision of the vanity of doing what unsaved people could do just as well. Remember that young man that came to the Lord full of zeal and enthusiasm, determined to follow the Lord, to obey the claims of Christ.

But he said to him, first, let me go home and bury my father. The Lord Jesus said to him, let the dead bury their dead, but go thou and preach the kingdom of God. What did he mean by that? Well, I believe he meant this.

There are certain things in life that can be done just as well by unsaved people as by saved people. There are certain things in life that only a Christian can do. Don't spend your life, don't have as the main passion and thrust of your life doing what an unbeliever could have done just as well.

Mind you, it doesn't take any immense skill to dig a grave six feet long, so many feet deep, and so many feet wide. Anybody can do that. Don't make that the main passion and thrust of your life. Be indispensable.

Go thou and preach the kingdom of God. Then I think, too, that in order for our lives to be a perfect sacrifice to God, we need a fresh baptism of the transience of earthly things, a realization of the transience of earthly things.

The Transience of Earthly Things

I love to repeat what Jim Elliott prayed, Lord, deliver me from the dread asbestos of other things. And I want to tell you today, dear friends, that material things have a clutch on the lives of people.

It's a bondage, as we heard last night. The Church today is immersed in worldliness. You say, what do you mean by worldliness? I believe worldliness is the love of passing things. Worldliness is the love of passing things.

And I want to tell you, the world is a bank that's about to break. And people who are wise don't put their riches in a bank that's about to break. They don't lay up their treasures there. One day in this very city, Spurgeon was walking along, and in the morning, as he was on his way to his office, he saw some birds building a nest in the tree in the park.

He was coming home later on in the afternoon. The men were there with their axes ready to fell the tree. The poor birds building their nest in a tree that was about to be taken down. And I fear that that's what all too many Christians are doing today.

They're building their nest in a scene that's doomed to the destruction of God. Peter says, seeing then that all these things shall be destroyed, what manner of persons ought he to be? A vision, a realization of the transience of material, earthly things.

And then a willingness to forego social security in a worldly sense. You know, during this week, we've been talking about forsaking all to follow Christ. And the thing sounds most incredible. Forsake all to follow Christ, you say, well, how would I live?

It's ridiculous. In fact, Spurgeon was talking about this one time, and the man came to him and he said, how would I live? He said, I have to live, don't I? Spurgeon said, I don't admit it. He said, we have to serve God and please him.

And that's the truth. That is the truth. We're always thinking of self and how we live. Actually, the fact of the matter is we'd probably live far better, wouldn't we? Pleasing God and obeying his commandments.

Our obligation is to obey him in all things. His obligation is to care for us. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you. And I believe a perfect sacrifice would be, would involve a willingness to forego present pleasures and get into the word of God, study the word of God, and make it the man of our counsels.

Prioritizing Scripture Over Worldly Education

I believe this with all my heart. People are wasting their lives on education that doesn't count for eternity and neglecting that which really does count, the book that will be with us through heaven's golden years.

A friend of mine was speaking in Evanston, Illinois, recently. His name is Robert Little. He was ministering the word of God, and it was pouring forth from him by the power of the Holy Spirit of God. At the end of the meeting, a man with white hair came up to him and said, Oh, Brother Little, he said, When I hear you ministering the word of God, your knowledge of the word of God, he said, more than anything else in the world.

He said, I'd like to have that. I'd like to have a knowledge of the scriptures like that and be able to read and understand and explain the scriptures the way you do. He said, Tell me, how can I do it?

Mr. Little looked at him and the wrinkles in his face and the white hair in his head, and he said to him, It's too late. And there does come a time in life when it is too late. That's why it's good to stand here before so many young people this Sunday afternoon and urge them to forgo present entertainment and pleasure and really invest in that which is going to count for a long eternity.

Choosing Reproach, Suffering, and Dependence

Willingness to forego comfort. You know, a lot of us think we're quite clever if we can go through life comfortably. But as our dear brother has just been telling us, the cross is something you deliberately choose in life.

You can shield yourself from the cross. You can cushion yourself from the cross. Any Christian with half a wit could do that. The Lord Jesus is calling us to deliberately choose a pathway of reproach and suffering and discomfort for his name's sake.

A perfect sacrifice would involve a supreme love for the Lord Jesus Christ, wouldn't it? I think we're all clear on this. Years ago, the poet Ruskin was courting a young woman in this very country, and she was a born-again believer and he was not.

And when he proposed to her, she said to him, I have a question to ask you. And he said, what's the question? She said, do you love Jesus Christ more than you love me? And he said, I would have to say that I do.

She said, then I couldn't marry you. Wonderful, isn't it? A supreme love for the Lord Jesus Christ. I believe that's the type of sacrifice that he is pleased with. And then I think a perfect sacrifice would involve a willingness to move, to pull up our roots, to be mobile for the Lord at any time.

Do you know it's possible to become so encumbered with material things, with real estate and all the rest that we wouldn't be able to move if God called us? A young man came into my office within the last couple of years, and he said, oh, he said, I'm just so sick of it all.

He had a good job, very good job, as the world counts it. He said, do you know what? He said, I'd like to pick up that phone and call my boss and just tell him he can have the job. Well, I said to him, Warren, tell me something.

Well, how much do you think you and your family would have to have to get along? And he said, well, I don't think we could do with much less than $10 ,000 a year. Well, needless to say, I didn't encourage him much further.

He was so encumbered, so many debts and all the rest, that really if the voice of God came calling to him that day, he'd be anchored down securely. And I believe that God is calling his people to lives of mobility.

I really believe with all my heart that the life of the Christian should be a perpetual crisis of dependence upon the living God. And that's exactly what the flesh hates. Our lives should be a perpetual crisis of dependence upon the living God.

God is always trying to stir up the nest in our life, and we're always trying to feather it. Isn't it amazing? Well, God is speaking to hearts today, and maybe he's speaking to yours. And then I suppose that a perfect sacrifice would also mean a willingness to die for the Lord Jesus Christ if necessary.

Sacrificial Devotion and Loyalty to Christ

Jim Elliot again, he is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose. What does it mean? Well, it means you're going to give up your life anyway. How do you want to give it up? Would you like to be an accident statistic?

Would you like to be a cancer statistic? Or would you like to pour it out in loving devotion at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ? God wants the best. He deserves the best. Will he have the best from us?

And then I would think that a perfect sacrifice would involve something else, and that is an unflagging loyalty to the Son of God. You know, we live in an age of compromise. We live in an age of lack of conviction where people aren't willing to stand up and be counted.

And a lot of people who call themselves Christians today are willing to put themselves into places where the testimony of Jesus Christ is compromised. A lot of young people today are anxious, are so anxious for academic prestige, especially, I'm thinking, in the religious realm, that they will go to get degrees, to get earthly honors from men and institutions that hate the Christ of God.

I can't understand it, frankly. We have a school not too far from us, and that school will not give a Ph .D. degree to anyone who is known to disbelieve the virgin birth of Christ. You have all kinds of young Christian fellows, and they'll never be satisfied until they get a degree from that institution.

Why? Why get a degree from an institution like that, especially in spiritual things and religious things, when these men are avowed enemies of the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ? The Lord Jesus wants the best.

He doesn't want us to come to Him with that which is ragged and torn and blind and blemished and all the rest. He wants this life, your life, my life, poured out to Him without measure and without reserve.

Yielding One's Life to Christ

I have said before, and I say it again, that the Lord Jesus comes knocking on every heart's door. Sometime during life, He comes knocking on every heart's door, and He waits for our answer. Will we live for self and lose our lives?