Sunday Night Meditations 15 Message and Song - 1950's — Welcome Detweiler

We are happy to have this privilege of bringing to you this gospel program. Our one desire is to turn your thoughts from the things of time and sense to the great eternal issues that cause us to worship the living God.

Since we have been redeemed by the precious blood of Christ, we love to sing His praises and to exalt Him as the only Savior of sinners. This is Welcome Detweiler speaking and inviting you to listen to the entire program.

The Blessings of Seeking the Lord

O Lord, at all times His praise shall continually be in my mouth.

My soul shall make her boast in the Lord. The humble shall hear thereof and be glad. O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt His name together. I sought the Lord, and He heard me and delivered me from all my fear.

They looked unto Him and were lightened, and their faces were not ashamed. This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all his troubles. The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear Him, and delivereth them.

O taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man that trusteth in Him.

Unto Him be all right or delight, to be kept from all wrong when at home or abroad.

Live always as under the eyes of the Lord. Whatever you think, never think what you feel you would blush in the presence of God to reveal. Whatever you speak in a whisper or clear, say nothing you would not like Jesus to hear.

Whatever you read, though the page may allure, read nothing unless you are perfectly sure. Your consternation would not be seen on your look if God should say solemnly, Show me that book. Whatever you write, though in haste or in heed, write nothing you would not like Jesus to read.

Whatever you sing in the midst of your glee, sing nothing His listening ear would displease. Wherever you go, never go where you'd fear God's question being asked, What doest thou hear? Turn away from pleasures you'd shrink from pursuing, If God should look down and say, What are you doing?

We pray thy blessing to rest upon thy word as we seek to exalt our blessed Lord Jesus Christ.

And we pray thy blessing on these gospel hymns in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. My subject for this sermon is how can we make this world a better world and this subject should be of some degree of interest to every listener.

The Need for a Better World Through Better People

I am sure that you will all agree that there is room for some improvement. Some may be more alarmed than others but there's at least a general sense in which everyone would be happy to see a better world.

Hundreds of experiments have already been made and many have helped while others have failed to accomplish anything. I think we're generally agreed that in order to have a better world we must make the people of the world better.

The rattlesnake, the mosquito, the bean beetle and other like creatures have caused only minor difficulties thus far. It's the badness in man that has caused and is causing the major part of the world's grief and unhappiness.

So our problem in making a better world is really how can we make a better man? A logical question will arise. Can we breed a better race? And this question is clearly answered in the negatives in the word of God.

The history of the human family has proved that all men are born with a sinful nature. They are not bad because of bad environment. They are bad long before they are influenced by surroundings. To hope to build a better world by breeding a superior race is blind optimism.

The Limits of Education and Moral Reform

Another reasonable question may present itself. Can we train or educate an ordinary man to become a better man? The history of the human family has proved that this can be done but the results are so discouraging and limited that it cannot be called a successful experiment.

Crime, suicide, immorality and all other forms of devilment will be found existing in about the same proportion among trained men as among the less cultured. The grip of degrading habits holds no less control on the cultured than the illiterate.

Education will make a more adaptable man, a more clever man. But I doubt seriously whether we are able to say that it will make a better man. But how can we make a better man? Let me make one more guess.

We must bring him under the influence of religion. We must make him afraid to be bad. We must give him a long list of don'ts and solemnly admonish him. If he does not obey, he will be severely punished.

This method of making a better man may sound better than any other. There is only one major thing wrong with it and that is it will not work. The influence of religion may cause a man to spend one or two hours of the week in the church building and you have at least kept him out of mischief for that period of time.

But the influence of religion will never make a better man so far as the need of his soul is concerned. You may christen him. You may sprinkle or dip him in church water. You may put his name on the sacred robe.

You may give him a responsible position in the church and by so doing you will detain the outward expression of his badness. But you have not made a better man. You have only made a religious man who will hide his sins under his cloak of religion.

Saul of Tarsus had religion. In fact, he had too much religion. It made him bloodthirsty. It has never made a better man. In the few years that I have closely observed various means used in an effort to make a man better, I can say so far as permanent results are concerned, I have never seen a man made better unless he is brought to Christ and that's entirely different from bringing him under the influence of religion.

Jesus Delivers the Demon-Possessed Man

In the fifth chapter of Mark's Gospel we have the record of a bad man who was out of control and although many varied attempts were made to bring him under control, all the experiments had failed, leaving the man an impossible case.

Impossible so far as man's vain efforts were concerned. He was a man who lived near the town of Decapolis in the country of the Gadarenes. He was a wild man. So wild that he dwelt among the tombs and wore no clothes.

The people of the district had often tried to subdue him by binding him with chains and fetters, but he broke their chains. They tried to tame him, but he did not respond. His cries from the mountainside or from the cemetery shrieked through the night as he cut himself with sharp stones.

He was really demon-possessed, which made him a terror to the whole neighborhood and it seemed as though he would never be brought under control. One day the people of Decapolis heard that something strange had happened to the man and they came out to see for themselves.

Instead of finding him unclothed, running wild among the tombs, they found him clothed, seated, and in his right mind. A miracle had taken place. Someone had done what was considered to be impossible.

The Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, who had just subdued the raging troubled sea, demonstrated his power not only over the elements, but over the demon powers of darkness. Demons are the missionaries of Satan, and their work is to ruin both the body and the soul.

The demons, two thousand or more in number, were making a slave out of the poor man. The Lord Jesus was equal to the occasion. He did not try the fetters nor the taming. These methods were useless. They would have left the man still possessed with a legion of demons.

Christ went to the source of the trouble, and in a moment Satan's slave was set free. As the Lord Jesus Christ left him, he said, Go home to thy friends and tell them how great things the Lord has done for thee, and hath had compassion on thee.

And he departed and began to publish in Decapolis how great things Jesus had done for him, and all men did marvel. This incident in Mark chapter 5 is only one of many incidents that have proved that unless you bring men to Christ, you need not expect any permanent improvement.

New Birth and Salvation by Grace

We have often said, and it bears repeating, that Christ did not come to make bad men good, nor to make good men better, but to give life to dead men. And this is only accomplished by the new birth, at which time divine life from heaven is imparted to the soul.

However, when a man is born again, he becomes a new creature in Christ Jesus, and he always becomes a better man, and remains a better man. Those who have been taught to object to the terms of eternal life and salvation by grace alone will tell us that when you preach salvation by grace, you encourage loose living.

It will cause people to say, now I can do anything I want to, and I'll still be saved. Such statements are only used in foolish arguments by those who do not understand the way of salvation. For I have proved beyond any shadow of a doubt that the proclamation of salvation by grace alone, without any human merit, will always produce a better man.

Not only for a few months, but he will be a new creature, permanently changed. When this effect is not seen, you may rest assured that the man did not get to Christ, even though he may make such claims.

Perseverance in Christ Versus Empty Profession

A good dose of religion, without getting to Christ, will produce a jackrabbit change, a few big jumps, and it's all over. No wonder some people believe in the falling away doctrine. I believe in the falling away doctrine, too.

Falling away from empty professions. You can counter them. They will do it every time if you give them enough time. But there is no such thing as falling away from Christ. That has never happened, and it will never happen.

Perhaps I'm speaking to someone who has made a few religious jumps, but you're wondering why you have not seen a permanent change in your life. Why do I fall back continually? I don't want to, but I do.

I must say very sincerely, I'm afraid you never did get to Christ. Perhaps you did get very close to the real, but I doubt if you will ever be satisfied until this important matter is settled. I repeat, you will never make a man permanently better unless you bring him to Christ.

The Sinner’s Need for Christ’s Finished Work

He must see his lost condition in the presence of the Holy God. He must acknowledge that he is utterly unable to make himself fit for God's presence. He must rest the salvation of his soul entirely, not partly, entirely on the finished work that Christ accomplished when he died as the guilty sinner's substitute.

It was John Newton who wrote, Legion was my name by nature, Satan raged within my breast, never misery was greater, never sinner more possessed, mischievous to all around me and to myself the greatest foe.

Thus I was when Jesus found me filled with madness, sin, and woe. The maniac of Mark chapter 5 is a picture of every unsafe person, for he is by nature a wretched soul and his condition is hopeless so far as man's efforts are concerned.

Your religious neighbors have meant well when they tried to tame you. The arm of the law has only performed its duty when you are taken by force and chained, but neither of these have reached the source of your trouble, for God's word says that you are a sinner by nature and God only can control that sinful nature.

He does it by offering to every sinner a new nature, a new life, and by so doing the entire man is changed. No longer to live in a manner that is unruly and wild, but with all powers brought under control, Christ and Christ alone can produce this change.

The age of miracles is by no means past so far as God is concerned, and when I see a sin sick slave of the devil coming to Christ, the miracle of a changed life takes place and we witness an entirely new man living for the glory of God.

Bringing Helpless Souls to Christ

I fear that many energetic Christian workers have never learned the difference between bringing helpless souls to Christ and getting to do better and reform. You are wasting your time when you plead with unsaved people to merely join the church and do better, for you have not helped them, you have done more harm than good.

Unsaved people are looking for something real, something that will last. They have already seen too much of the cheap imitation. Like every other citizen, I am interested in making a better world, and I know of no better way or better method than to bring men to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.

If you do not know the Savior, you are contributing to this world's ills, and I ask you to turn to Christ and receive salvation and power to live for His glory.