Polish (4) — George Verwer

They have found some new books, and I want to mention these books, I didn't even know that we had these outstanding books. I don't know if the name Ralph Chalice means anything to you. He was a missionary in North Africa, and then most of his life in France.

He is an Englishman who knew French so well that he wrote his books in French. They had to be translated back into English. He was a man used in a great revival ministry. And I was involved with him for about 25 years.

Much older man. And just a few months ago, he was promoted to his heavenly reward. And this is one of his books called Jesus, which is available in Polish. And it's a very small book, so it won't take you long to read it.

Another man who I had the privilege of knowing was Paul Little. He was killed in a car crash. But his books continue to speak in a tremendous way around the world. He was involved very much in the student movement.

And he wrote this book about faith, knowing reasons for our faith. It's a very, very excellent book also to give to someone who may have doubts about the Christian faith. And then a book by a very intellectual man.

This man recently had a debate with one of the leading Muslim scholars in the world. Again giving the reasons for our faith. Tens of thousands of people have come to Christ through the ministry of Josh McDowell.

And this is an evangelistic book. Also very good for believers to strengthen their faith. And the title is More Than a Carpenter. So there are three more very, very excellent books that I want to recommend.

And if it's too rainy to sell the books out there, they'll probably bring them inside the back of the tent. Also after lunch we just have a few English music tapes and books that we are going to probably display for the final time.

Obedience and Ongoing Commitment to Jesus Christ

And if it's raining we'll probably do that here in the tent. I'd like you to turn now to the Gospel of Luke. Chapter 9. One of the longest chapters in the Bible. Sixty-two verses in Luke chapter 9. We're speaking on the subject of obedience and real ongoing commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ.

We're going to read Luke chapter 9. And we're going to read from verse 57 through verse 62. Read in Polish.

Read in Polish.

I'd like also to read Romans 12, 1 and 2. We have eleven chapters of great theological truth. And I'm sure as you've studied the book of Romans, your heart has just been greatly warmed and challenged.

And then we have this transition to chapter 12 where we have this chapter of exhortation about following Christ in a practical way. Very strong words from God. Read Romans 12, verses 1 and 2. Read Romans 12, verses 1 and 2.

Let us just pray together. Father, it's hard for us to realize that tomorrow will be our last day here together. We thank you for what we are learning. We thank you for your word. We believe that these last two days are going to be very important.

Lord, there may be some who are tired. You know each one of our special needs. And we do now with all of our heart commit ourselves to you not only to hear your word but to obey. That we may know the reality of real ongoing commitment in our lives.

We pray in the name of Jesus. Amen. I think it's important to understand that each message that I have been sharing is linked with the previous messages. And if we get into a strong message about obedience to the Lord Jesus without having some degree of victory in terms of accepting ourselves and basic faith then probably we will not get very far.

It's easy when we hear a strong message about obedience to just feel very condemned and to feel very weak and very inadequate and so we hear the message and nothing happens. There are many strong words in the New Testament on the subject of following Christ with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength.

Spiritual Training and Growth as Christ's Disciples

Many people at this present time, their minds are caught up with the goodwill sporting events going on in the Soviet Union. In the western countries everybody is talking about the Commonwealth Games. That's a very big thing in their thinking right now.

I don't get much time to watch sports. I'm not against that. I just have other things to do. But when I do watch sports or read about some of these people it challenges my own heart because often sportsmen are very committed to what they are doing and they go through very intensive training.

Many Christians that talk to me, they want some one experience that's going to solve all their problems. But they are not willing to be trained as a disciple of Jesus Christ. As I read about the New Testament Church in the Book of Acts I see a church where people are growing stronger and stronger and stronger in their faith.

I remember some years ago when I was ministering here in Poland I shared from the Book of Acts the marks of a New Testament Church. And I found people were very responsive to what the Word of God said about this.

Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 9. As we think about real commitment and obedience this is a very strong passage of Scripture. And it's interesting that God uses the analogy concerning sports. Verse 24 to verse 27.

Please read and take note in your notes. Billy Graham, speaking to a group of students many years ago said if you are not willing to learn a disciplined life you will never live for Jesus Christ. Perhaps you have come to know Jesus Christ as your personal Savior here during these days.

That's wonderful. I've already shared how that happened in my own life. But now that must be followed by God's training program which we have been emphasizing each morning. That must be followed by day by day obedience to the Lord Jesus.

Loving Christ by Keeping His Commandments

Jesus Himself said in the Gospel of John If you love Me, keep My commandments. That puts the responsibility on us. Sometimes we tend to feel it's spiritual to say, oh, I can do nothing. I am so weak. I am such a great sinner.

I can do nothing. That sounds good. There is an element of truth in that. But it is not the whole picture. If you turn in the book of Philippians you will find the Apostle Paul had something quite different to say.

He said, I can do all things through Christ who strengthened it in me. I know the verse, but I can't find it. What number is that? 419. No, no, not 419. 413. 413. Please read that. I can do all things through Christ who strengthened it in me.

Humanity, the Image of God, and Sexuality

We are not computers. We are human beings created in the image of God. So beautifully emphasized by the late Dr. Francis Schaeffer. Man is a special created being. Created in the image of God. That means we have free will.

We have creative power. Billy Graham who speaks quite openly on the subject of sex says this is our creative power. We should not be surprised by the tremendous sexual energy that we sometimes have. And if it's channeled, if it's used in the right way, it creates, it does great things.

If it gets out of control, if it's used in the wrong way, it is destructive. The Bible talks a lot about the mind. In Romans 12, 1 and 2, we spoke about the renewing of the mind. We choose to some degree what we think about.

That's why it is good to gather in this way and to spend extra time thinking on the Word of God, hearing the Word of God, memorizing the Word of God. And we must determine before we leave here that every day we're going to have our own mini-conference, just like this is a big conference, we're going to have our own mini-conference right in our own heart, in our own room, with our Bibles open before God.

Running the Spiritual Race with Discipline

Now, what are the key verses when we think about living this life of total commitment? We think of running in this great spiritual race. We know that takes training. We know it takes discipline. When I was reading about some of these sportsmen, this young 18-year-old tennis player from West Germany, Boris Baker, he just won Wimbledon again.

At 18 years of age, I saw a replay of this on television. I heard him being interviewed over the radio. And he has shared only one thing in his life is of any importance.

Tennis. Nothing else.

They asked him about whether he had a girlfriend. He's not against girls. But he said he has no time for girls in his training program. He was only 17 when he first won Wimbledon. That's the most important tennis prize in the world.

He didn't even have a driver's license yet. He has all the money anybody could ever want. He has no time to spend it. He has no interest in a car. That man could say to live is tennis and to die, I don't know what he would say.

And you know, there are many, many sports people like that. You have some from Poland. The Soviet Union has many. East Germany has many. What about in the Church of Jesus Christ? Where are the young people who can say to live is tennis and to die?

Where are the young people who can say to live is Jesus Christ? Other things do not interest me. Just to love Christ, to serve Christ, to live for Christ. And it's interesting how these sportsmen discipline their bodies.

How many great sportsmen do you find just before the game smoking a big cigar? How many great sportsmen do you find just before the game smoking a big cigar? It's almost a guarantee that you'll never win any sports.

Also that you can get a nice overdose of cancer. I have people that tell me, oh, I cannot possibly give up smoking. I cannot live without smoking.

I cannot live without smoking.

Christian Discipline, Habits, and Perseverance

Let us not think a man cannot be a Christian if he smokes. That is not the issue. There are Christians who smoke. Spurgeon, the great Baptist minister, smoked. He also suffered from many illnesses, including extreme depression.

My brother-in-law smoked. And then he got cancer of the throat. You know, he never had trouble. He never smoked again. He never could stop. Just could not stop. But when he got that cancer, he went into the hospital, down the throat with a big knife, and fortunately the operation was a success.

He never smoked again. That's many years ago. So if any of you are having a problem in this area, and you're unable to stop, there are still other possibilities. And then you will stop. Or you'll be dead.

I understand there's no smoking in the grave. But a lot of these problems, a lot of these problems, are because we are not really disciplined people. And you know, this is why I like to speak to young people.

Because as people get older, they do not change easily. Now, I did not say they don't change at all. My own father was converted to Christ after me. He was already an older man. And I saw God change him.

I saw God set him free from many habits. And then my dear old dear mother got converted to Christ. She was a little more difficult. Because she was religious. And sometimes the more religious you are, the more difficult to come to the feet of Jesus and really be born again of the Spirit of God.

Because we have religious pride. We have some people in our countries,.

They are very religious.

They tell about their grandfather. Their grandfather was a pastor. And his father was the founder of this church movement. And their mother sang in the choir for 50 years. And they have so much religious credentials.

And it's hard. Sometimes for a religious person to repent of his or her sins and come humbly to the feet of Jesus Christ and receive the free gift of salvation. And mother was a Methodist. And she was religious.

But she had not been born again. And come to know Christ personally. But she also took that step of faith and came to know Christ personally. In a quiet way, her own way. And surrendered her life to Jesus Christ.

Then my sister, she was a sportswoman. She then surrendered her life to Jesus Christ. God brought our little family back together because we were coming apart. And you know, sometimes the hardest place to be a disciple of Jesus Christ is in your own home.

Persevering Through Failure and Sin

And I would really beg of you with all my heart. Don't get discouraged if you have some failure in your own home. If you're a human being and you're living with other human beings you will have problems.

No matter how spiritual you are. No matter how fast you're running in God's race. You're going to have some problems. Because we all have so much to learn. And some of us have problems with our tongues.

My problem is very serious. My tongue is going faster than my brain. I don't know if any of you have that problem here. But it has got me in difficulty with my mother, my father, my wife, my daughter, my son.

Almost anybody that gets near me I have problems. And yet for my whole Christian life I have been working on more self-control. Reading and memorizing the Scriptures. Listening to hundreds of Bible messages on cassette tape.

Putting into practice everything I've seen in the Word of God. And yet I still don't have 100 Christian. And when I'm even with my own mother and father they were all Christian. Or when I'm with my own children they're grown up now, they're in their twenties.

So easily I say the wrong thing. Are any of you having this difficulty? Are any of you gifted in saying the wrong thing? So that somebody else is hurting or they don't like what you're saying or they think that you're signing back.

And I want to emphasize that as we follow Jesus Christ as a disciple there will be failure. There will be sin. We will not be perfect. And we must therefore refuse the fire and dark of discouragement that Satan will try to bring on our way.

Cooperating with God in the Christian Life

Now as we follow this road of commitment and obedience and discipleship realizing that we have to learn to run the race that means as we read in 1 Corinthians buffeting our body bringing it into subjection something incredibly important we must understand.

There is your part and there is God's part. It can be a family. Living for God is a cooperative program between you and the living God. First God gave his son the Lord Jesus Christ. That is emphasized here every day.

Then you in response must believe on Jesus Christ when you give your life. Then God puts within you his Holy Spirit. And gives you the ability to understand his Holy Word. Now it's your turn again to get into God's Word to take steps of faith and obedience and the whole Christian life goes on in this way.

One of the keys to live in this way is found in Galatians. Galatians 2 and verse 20 and I want you to memorize this one of the most powerful verses in the whole Bible. Yes, Galatians 3 .20 I wonder if we could all read that together from our Bible.

Because this is one of the keys that turns the door of walking and living with Christ in power all of your life. So many mighty men of God have emphasized this. Some call it the crucified life. Some call it the victorious life.

Tomorrow we will see how this is tied in together with the privilege of personal revival in the Lord. Let us read that verse everybody together. Many, many Christians have written to me and they said I tried to live the crucified life.

I'm trying to be a better Christian. I have this problem with my temper. I'm trying not to lose my temper. But the more I try the more I lose my temper. I'm trying to get victory over loss. But the more I try the more I seem to fail.

Many, many people are experiencing great failure in their Christian life.

Because they are trying to live the Christian life in their own energy, their own strength. You can't do it. You can't do it. Many men of God.

Have written on this subject. He has a story of that great missionary Hudson Taylor. Some of his troubles when he was first working in China how he was trying so hard to be the good dedicated missionary.

And finally he discovered what's called in one book Hudson Taylor's spiritual secret. What's called in one book Hudson Taylor's spiritual secret. That the power for living the Christian life was indeed Christ himself.

And this can only be released in us. As we are willing by faith to see self crucified. All of us know there is something in there in the mind that wants its own way that easily gets upset that is the self life.

Some psychiatrists call it ego. There are different names.

Crucifying Self and Putting Christ on the Throne

I don't know if you have ever visited England where I live. But we have a very interesting government. We have a queen. We have a queen. And she is considered the head of the country. We sing about the queen.

We pray for the queen. I mean it's a big deal. And sometimes of course in the past we had a king. But in fact the truth is they don't have any power. They don't have any power. She is just a figurehead.

The power is in the hands of another woman. She is the prime minister.

Margaret Thatcher. And she has these other ministers. They are the people with the power. Now that perhaps can work for a government. I will not debate that subject. But it will not work for the Christian life.

That kind of government is called a constitutional monarchy. Doesn't work for the Christian life. Yes. Many Christians are trying this form of government. They have King Jesus. All King Jesus. Sunday morning we are all sitting in church.

And Jesus we are singing about him. We are praying about him. And we are taking communion together. We remember you Lord Jesus. We love you Lord Jesus. We have songs in English that are something like Jesus King of my life.

And I crown him Lord of all. And sometimes we even argue about things. But the truth is for many of us.

He has no real practical power in our life.

That is in the hands of prime minister himself. I don't know how that sounds in Polish but in English it is very strong. I've had the joy of preaching all over the English speaking world. And calling for a revolution to throw the prime minister out of power and put King Jesus back on the throne of their lives.

And if you want to live for God if you want to be a true disciple of Jesus Christ then prime minister himself has to go. No more constitutional monarchy. No more little games we play with the mouth. But self is crucified.

And Christ is put on the throne. I want to ask you are you living this way? Each day denying self taking up the cross following Jesus are you taking up my word? I have to leave here tomorrow and though it's not in some ways sad to think about it for me I may never see many of you ever again.

And we think of the fact that we've had these days together and it's been a very meaningful experience we separate. I am not important. These are not my words. If someone criticizes me don't feel you have to give a great defense.

There are many interesting stories going on about me. I am very surprised some of them arrived here in Poland long before I did. Don't have to worry about me. You can pray for me. But you need to be concerned about the word of God because you are taking that with you in your home in your heart.

And I can show you dozens of other verses that are tied in with this great concept in Galatians chapter 2 and verse 20. In fact Jesus himself said if any man come after me.

Let him deny himself. You know.

Some of these sports they have to deny many things in their life when they are in training. For their love for sports and the prize they win they lay aside many good things. And if you are going to follow Jesus in obedience in a serious way then sometimes you are going to have to be willing even to lay aside some of the good things.

Discerning Good Things from the Best

The good can be the enemy of the best. Let me just share a few good things that if they are kept in balance no problem but so easily they become enemies of the best. And they bring us into spiritual compromise.

The first thing I have on my little list is called the good the enemy of the best. Number one.

Are relatives. Do you have relatives? Uncle? Auntie? Grandma? Relatives? They are good. God bless all the relatives.

But sometimes we get trapped in a situation where we are always trying to please our relatives. And a good thing I am being attacked by this enemy fly or something. We can be pressured into compromising in our walk with God in our desire to keep everybody happy.

The good becomes the enemy of the best. We have had young people that have wanted to serve Jesus Christ with us as a missionary. And they made out their application forms and they were going to go and serve Jesus Christ in India.

But Grandma did not like the idea. And of course this little girl idolizes her Grandma my Grandma. And so Grandma invites her over for a big piece of pie gets her all ready and then gives these five reasons why she does not need to go to India.

Like you are not going to get any more pie if you go to India.

And any other nice reasons.

And you know it is not easy to go against the opinion of relatives and close friends.

And they can even talk against you and give the idea that actually.

It is too bad this fellow is getting a little bit touched. He has been in too many of these rainy tent meetings. And I have heard I have heard of some countries where people get excited about Jesus Christ and they start praising the Lord and somebody comes along and they say to the parents this is too bad.

Your son is mentally ill. Your son is mentally ill. And it is such a problem having him around the house looking at him. He is up there praising Jesus. He starts praising. We will help you. We have a special institution for him.

You just sign right here and we will take him away. They took me but they did not want me. And believe me there are people who are in prison today simply because they got excited about Jesus Christ. Not a simple issue.

Not a simple issue. But I remember studying the book of Daniel when they said Daniel if you worship God you are finished. And he did a very unwise thing. He went up to his room he opened the window and he had a praise meeting and he worshiped God.

And he got himself in one big mess because of that. Now, you know, you are not necessarily Daniel. He was the prime minister of the nation. It was a special situation. I do not want all of you to go back to your village and stand in the window for two hours blowing your gospel trumpet around the town but there are times when it will be difficult to follow God.

Health, Trusting God, and Missionary Calling

And good things can become enemy of the best. The second good thing and this is a very big problem in the United States is that and that is called health. Health becomes God. The most important thing is our health.

And you get people taking twenty, thirty vitamins a day to keep perfect health. Spending one hour a day working, just working on their face, mud packed and all kinds of special oils and things. It is one of the biggest businesses in some countries.

And I am sure you may have something similar here, I do not know. It is a hard area. It is a hard area. God wants us to take care of ourselves. That is taught in the word of God. But we can say, well I cannot possibly go serve Christ in India.

So many diseases. Appetites. And people of course when they think of places like Africa immediately they have these fantasy ideas. Giant malaria mosquitoes flying in. Huge jumbo cockroaches tearing missionaries off of their shoulders.

Cockroaches. Big bugs. Anyway it is the area where we need to find the balance. We have to take care of ourselves. But we have to trust God. And if He has told us to evangelize the whole world that means the places where it is hard also to keep good health.

Education and Faithful Priorities

And then the third good thing that becomes the enemy of the best is education. Education becomes like a little God in many of our cultures. I am in favor of education. What I am saying is these things must find the right place in our lives.

Some people just literally sell their spiritual life where I live in order to get a degree. They must have a degree at any cost. And what if you live in a country where you cannot get a degree unless you compromise your Christian faith.

One of the hardest decisions a young person can ever make. Number four, our future. Number five, our homes and our material possessions. Number six, our social times together. Number seven is television.

Number eight is food. Number nine is sports. Number ten is clothing. And possessions. And followers of Jesus Christ. One of the greatest exhortations in the Bible is where it is said in Philippians that we should do all things in moderation.

Do you have a good word for that? Self-control, moderation. There's place for all these things. Even in the life of an absolutely committed spiritual believer. But under the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

Secondary to the Kingdom of God, to the Word of God, and to following Jesus Christ. And you know, I don't think we'll ever have it all sorted out in an easy way. You know how some people get into cults and extremism in their religion?

Because they want quick, easy answers.

To incredibly difficult, complicating issues. And I want to give you this warning. And I mean this with all my heart. You are very hospitable people. You're very loving people. And here in Poland now, with the freedom you have, people are being invited to come in from other countries.

Some come without being invited. And some of these people who come, they're going to have their special doctrines. They're going to have their easy answers. They're going to say, if you do this, and you do that, you will be a happy Christian for the rest of your life.

And some of them will come with their cassette tapes. Some may come with their books and their films. And in the next decade here in Poland, I believe there will be a great need for wisdom and discernment in handling all the new imports that are going to come from around the world.

And I have been so helped through the word from A .W. Tozer. To be a Christian today with all these different movements and groups and voices and messages and cassette tapes, you need to develop reverent skepticism.

When I first read that, I thought, I was hungry for God.