Knowing You — Glenn Meldrum

For more messages by Glenn Meldrum and in his presence ministries. Go to www .IHP min Istry .com. You are welcome to make additional copies of this CD for free distribution.

Why was Paul the radical that he was. Paul was a radical. Paul was a radical to the bone. But I want to look at why Paul was a radical. I believe there's a reason why Paul was a radical and I believe that if we come to the point to understand What made Paul the radical and begin to plead with God that we might become that I believe God can make Paul's out of us.

Just as the scripture tells God is not a respecter of persons what he's done for one person. He can do for another. He's not a respecter of seasons of places of nationalities. He is willing to use anybody That he can grab hold of that wants to be grabbed hold of and so he will do it and do it willingly If we will but allow him.

But in Ezekiel. The 22nd chapter is a very sobering verse a very disturbing verse. But it's in the 22nd chapter of Ezekiel in a 30 for 30th verse. He says I've looked for a man Among them who would build up the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land.

So I would not have to destroy it. But I found none. So I will pour out my wrath on them and consume them with my fiery anger bringing down on their own heads. All they have done declares a sovereign Lord.

What is he plain and simple saying he says I look for a man that I could pour my power through. To demonstrate mercy to a people and I could not find a man. So the only thing left to me was justice and I had to judge the people as a result.

History demonstrates that there were times where God could not find a man could not find a woman to stand in the gap. So he judged the nation. He judged the people he judged the town. But equally as much we have a history that is full of accounts of men and women who stood in the gap and God Used them to pour out mercy and when you want to look at it and we're in the most Dynamic expression of it which I'll touch on it a little bit is in the expression of revival where revival is the most dynamic Powerful thing the most aggressive thing that we can do to touch a perishing world.

There is no more powerful No greater weapon than to see the glory of God unleashed through her to touch a perishing world. And if you look at the life of Paul, you'll find something though. The Bible language does not speak it in that way when we look at it.

We will understand something that everywhere Paul went there was revival. So Paul was a radical. God found a man who would stand in the gap. So as a result he poured mercy through the man. He poured mercy to touch a perishing world poured mercy to change lives and we'll look at that and we'll look at what was really His heart right from the beginning of his salvation.

He was a radical. Not a year later not after he went to Bible school. Not after he got some experience under his belt and he matured and started learning how to do it right from the very moment of salvation.

The radicalness of the gospel was being made manifest and actually what happens with Paul the more he matures the more radical he becomes. Now we have kind of the opposite concept we mature and we tame down.

That is what I have seen in my own church in Detroit. My church in Detroit was a very radical church. They were taken off the street. So they were very radical and I don't want to say this in a bad way.

But it is the reality that I have seen and it is the reality I've heard from many other churches that had similar origins as what mine was. What happened with our church as these converts came out of drugs and came out of the craziness of their life?

And they started walking with Jesus. They started getting jobs. They started changing then they got married when they got married and they started having kids and then you stop seeing them. Those who were once radical on fire.

They'd be in the worst parts of Detroit. Ministering on the streets then all of a sudden they have no time because they are so busy about everything else the priorities of life. Got totally changed and yes.

They needed to then be husbands and parents or wives and and parents and that and take care of the business of life. But now the business of the kingdom got so set aside that you saw the effect. I felt the effect in my church in Detroit and one sense was so overwhelmed going.

How do I turn the tide God? How do I bring back the radicalness that it once knew that it once experienced? How do I keep people in a place when they start prospering to keep a fire burning in them? How do you accomplish that and Ultimately, I'll tell you at that point in my life.

I had no idea. I Had no idea how to accomplish it and I won't tell you I'm too much smarter today. But I can approach it from what I'll be preaching this evening. Act 17 6 here's the testimony of Paul from a worldly man.

These who have turned the world upside down have come here to. It was in Thessalonica. That's a testimony of a worldly man here. They are enraged that Paul has come to town. He's turned upside down the world.

Now, you know, I made a statement earlier that God's not a respecter of persons. So what God did through Paul can he do through others? Now we can go and say Paul was a special man, but I don't really believe that.

I believe there was qualities that God could use in the man. He grabbed hold of it. They'll never be another Paul. So God's not looking for other Paul's but the the truth is that God can take people and use them in Tremendous ways such as what he used Paul.

He's not looking for education or or all these other things that Paul ended up having. He can use simple people and history is full of it. History is full of it. Smith Wigglesworth was such a man that God used a totally Uneducated man that only learned how to read because his wife started teaching him how to read the Bible.

He never read another book in his life other than the Bible. So God can take the uneducated. He can take the educated. He can take any person and grab hold of them and do tremendous exploits through. But there are some keys about it that I believe are very important in Acts the 19th chapter in 26 verse.

Here's Paul in Ephesus and it says and you see here and this is another testimony of an unsaved man Demetrius. This is Demetrius the silversmith that caused Paul nightmares in another place. He says remember Demetrius, but you know because he's caused me much damage.

And so it says and you see in here how this fellow Paul has convinced and led astray. Large numbers of people here in Ephesus and practically the whole province of Asia. He says that man-made gods are no gods at all.

Ephesus was a major city. It was a Roman colony. So it was a major metropolis. So let's be conservative with it. Let's say that Ephesus had maybe 50 ,000 people there. 50 ,000 people. I Want you to think about 50 ,000 people how many people would have to get saved?

For the silversmiths to get angry at their industry. Let's make it in a more realistic manner. How many people are in your community here? How many people would have to get saved until the bar owners started getting angry at you?

How many people have to get saved before the drug dealers started rising up enraged because they're losing their business. We have to understand the impact of what happened with the revival that was happening with Paul.

So many were being saved that the silversmiths were enraged because they were losing their business. What was their builders making idols? So many people are being saved they were no longer buying idols giving them the family friends and all the all the fetishes.

They were the businesses were hurting. This was not a riot of the issue of religion. It was a riot because these men were greedy and they were losing their business. So Paul was a man who turned the world upside down because something burned inside of him.

Something raged inside of him the power of God was made manifest. For a reason and God wants to do that in his people today. The question is can he find a people that will stand in the gap? Will he find a people that will say yes Lord, let it be me no matter what it costs.

That's really what he wants to do. That's really where he wants to bring us. I made a statement about revival that revival is the most radical work that the church could ever do. I don't believe there's anything more Valuable that the church can do than to seek the power of God unleashed through her the change of perishing world.

We can do evangelism and you know, I don't want to say this in a bad way. I want to say this in a right way for right understanding. But Billy Graham precious man with this world will have a tremendous loss when that man passes away.

I don't know if anybody that can fill those shoes of that man, but yet you take the Billy Graham Crusades and You find a keeping rate of those who come forward only three to seven percent depending on what part of the country world they're in.

So you have a thousand people come forward only five percent. Let's say you make a make an average between a five percent of those people walk with God. Only five and I rejoice that five percent of them will walk with God.

It's better that some of them do then all of them go to hell. That's good. But when you go into revivals of old you find 85 keeping like the 1904 Welch revival you go into the into the revival is all touch on in a couple of minutes the Irish Revival of 1859 there were whole parishes and when it refers to to an old writings of parish.

It's not the idea of a building of a church of a parish. It was the whole city the village. So the pastor was a pastor not of his church. He was a pastor of the village. He was a pastor of that whole parish and whole parishes when they but went when God swept through there was not one Backslider from the midst of them.

Parish after parish after parish because the power of God was so unleashed conviction was so great. That people never turned back to it. Never turned back to their sin. So let me give you a couple accounts from pastors in the revival of the 1859 Irish revival in the 1859.

Irish revival is a by-product of a revival that broke out in New York City in 1857 which was is commonly called the prayer meeting revival. Then it was a layman. Jeremiah Lamphere was the man that God used to spark that revival and Jeremiah Lamphere Was saved through Charles Finney and through the revivals of Charles Finney and he attended Charles Finney's Church in New York City and so ultimately we can see that that Jeremiah Lamphere was a by-product of the revivals of Finney in New York City alone in That revival in the prayer meeting revival New York City had a population about seven hundred thousand at that time.

50 ,000 were saved. 50 ,000 were saved in that revival in New York City alone in America at that time a million people came to Christ. It jumped the ocean and a million people were saved in the United Kingdom.

500 ,000 in England. 300 ,000 in Scotland. 100 ,000 in Wales. 100 ,000 in Ireland. What God is able to do in a short period of time when he finds men and women that he can entrust his presence to. What he's able to do is is astounding is mind-boggling and he is the same yesterday as he's always been.

And he's just looking for men and women that he can entrust his presence to. 1859 in the city of Ballymena Pastor said when the great outpouring began worldly men were silent with fear. Careless men sobbed like children.

Drunkards and boasting blasphemers were awed in the solemnity. Languid believers were stirred up. Ministers who had often toiled in heartfelt sorrow. Suddenly found themselves beset by inquires and wholly unequal to demands which were made so many were being saved.

The ministers Couldn't even keep up with it. Reverend John Stewart outside the city of Coleraine said hundreds have been converted to the Lord. Some stricken down when the Spirit of God came upon them like a rushing mighty wind.

Others converted when he spoke to their conscious by his still small voice. The first effect of the revival was that fear came upon every soul. Then the church was filled to suffocation. And we went to the open fields to declare the message of mercy to a hungry and thirsting population.

Of all the stricken ones I do not know of one backslider. What were the stricken ones. That was a term that they used in that day and age of people that were hit by the power Of God with such force that they were knocked to the ground sometimes unconscious sometimes trembling sometimes as weeping and wailing.

But of all those that had such a divine Confrontation that they were overwhelmed with their sin. Not one of them in that revival backslid. Not one of them. Reverend William McGill in the city of Dundrod Said I have leaned over the prostrate bodies of men and women laboring under strong conviction of sin.

I've heard the sighs and groans of breaking hearts and witnessed with a feeling of wonder and all the mental agony of tear and terrible struggle of souls wrestling with the powers of darkness. When the battle was won I heard with almost equal wonder the shout of victory.

The revival spread with amazing speed. After the evening sermon people went out laboring under deep conviction. The graveyard was immediately filled with groups praying around the prostrate bodies of men and women.

Some were in trances others were crying for mercy. Some fell into the arms of friends or staggered and dropped to their knees. A few Fled from the tear of the scene. There were no backsliders from this revival in Dundrod.

What God is able to accomplish when he can find the people. When he will find a people desperate enough to pray in the move Of God and desperate enough to take it forward on their knees and desperate enough to see a perishing world safe.

No matter what it costs them. God is able to do it. He's not a respecter of persons. Let's begin to look at Philippians the third chapter now. I Believe Philippians 3 really reveals the heart of Paul.

The third chapter begins. Basically Paul giving his worldly credentials. And so he goes through his worldly credentials to you and I they mean nothing. So we read his worldly credentials and we're not we're not moved by it in the least.

And he says if anyone thinks he has reason to put confidence in the flesh. I have more Circumcised on the eighth day of the people of Israel of the tribe of Benjamin a Hebrew of Hebrews in regard to the law of Pharisee.

As for zeal persecuting the church as for legal listic righteousness faultless. And we read those things we say so. But we have to understand a little bit about Paul in that day and age. The first thing is he was a Pharisee as a Pharisee.

He was a wealthy man. Pharisees were wealthy individuals. They were the religious political leaders of the day and age. So they were the movers and shakers of society. Some believe that Paul was even on the Sanhedrin Council.

Which would have put him to a place of authority higher than what many have have commonly thought. But one way or the other Paul was educated by the very best of the day by Gamaliel. He had this great education and it says he was more zealous than all of his equals.

So here was a man driven with a purpose. He had an agenda. And so his agenda was not pure. It was not a pure agenda because he had this religion in him. Legalistic righteousness that wasn't about relationship with God.

It was holding to the letter of the law. But there was another thing he was driven with political power and wanting to have that power made manifest through him. He was a man driven if we would think of it today we could think of it as a Politician that is fighting and clawing trying to get the head because he wants to be the the big cheese of a state or ultimately of a nation the fighting coin to get somewhere to be as somebody and when you begin to look at the Credentials from what the reality was of it.

You begin to say well this man was an impressive man in the world. What is our stories though? Each of us have our own concept of what it meant to be a successful worldly person. Each of us did and so I could go through this room and ask each of us what it was and would all depend on.

Where we were in the world before we became a Christian. I came out of the drug culture. So as a result my concept of worldly success would have been out of the whole drug culture. But there could be others in the room that your concept of worldly success would be to have a roll of hundred dollar bills in Your in your pocket and you're driving the most expensive cars that there are and just have all kinds of money that you can just blow and and flaunt before people.

Maybe another would be that that you were a philanderer. And you just thought what was most important that you could have as many women as your your heart's desire. Or maybe there was something a little more a little more nice that that maybe as a woman you wanted this wonderful country home that's this white clapboard house and and just Have a wonderful husband that loved you and and three kids and a big dog and and so on and just have this dream of what?

It meant to be successful in a home. One way the other we all had concepts of what it was to be successful. Now understanding what Paul and the emphasis Paul put upon his success is very important when we begin to read Beyond this and see what moved the heart of Paul because until we understand that he was a very successful man.

And that he was a man driven by his success driven. Until we understand that we will not really understand the great extent of what he's really saying here. And so let's begin in the seventh verse of the third chapter Philippians.

But whatever was to my prophet I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more I consider everything a loss compared to surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord for whose sake I have lost all Things and consider them rubbish that it may gain Christ and be found in him.

Not having a righteous of my own that comes from the law. But that which is through faith in Christ the righteous that comes from God and is by faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings.

Becoming like him in his death and so somehow to attain to the resurrection of the dead. I believe these verses fully Define why Paul was a radical that he was why God used the man the way that he did.

They came across the CD that had a song that came out of this section of Scripture. And let me read to you one verse and wife heard the first time this verse I broke down weeping. He says all I once held dear built my life upon all this world reveres and Wars to own all I once thought gain.

I've counted loss spent and worthless now compared to this. Knowing you Jesus knowing you. You have brought me to weeping was that one little term there wars to own. I Remember what it was to be a worldly man without Christ.

I Remember the loneliness that ate at my soul. I remember the agony. I remember the absolute hopelessness that I had. I felt trapped. Not even understanding what trapped was but I felt trapped and didn't know how to get out.

But didn't know there was anything to get out to. I had no concept of it. Didn't know that that that there was any remedy for my situation. I was miserable inside. I was feeling hopeless inside. And so what I do.

I gave myself over more and more to drugs to try and drowned it out and. So what I was doing as a young man was clawing was fighting was striving was warring to own. Was warring to have purpose and significance to have value in my life.

I wanted to be loved but couldn't find in my home because of my sinful home. It did not exist in there in a real way. And so you go in other ways looking for it. You go in other pursuits trying to find some value some acceptance of individuals.

The warring the clawing the fighting the striving. How many of you remember what it was to be a lost man a lost woman. How many of you remember the state of your heart apart from Christ and the pain and the sorrow of what it is?

The tragedy is we begin to forget. We forget what we were and when we forget what we were we forget what they are right now. Every unsaved person on this planet. I don't care where they are whether they're rich or poor whether they're seemingly in in prosperity and in Popularity or whether in total obscurity.

Nobody knows they even exist. Every single person in one way or the other is warring clawing fighting striving to have an obtained because every single person is Aching to be loved aching for purpose aching for something of value.

Every single purpose no matter where they are in this life. No matter what's going on. They are all clawing and fighting and warring to own. Paul was a perfect example of that. It's what he was doing.

But yet in the midst of his religious political pursuit He felt absolutely destitute absolutely barren absolutely empty. Thinking he was doing God's service by persecuting the church. But yet the whole thing he does is causing him a greater agony and turmoil and pain inside his own heart his own life the warring to own the warring to own.

You know what? I'm talking about. He wants to bring us back to that place. He wants us to understand it to understand that doesn't mean that we have had to live a crazy life. Those who have lived a crazy life and understand what it is to be forgiven is it is a tremendous privilege.

But I think it's a greater privilege never have to go the craziness of life. But yet the same in the same thing has to come to both of them those who have lived some crazy life in the madness of this world or those who have grown up within the church and however they Come to their salvation experience both of them must come to the same identical point that they must see the Reality of sin the absolutely hideousness of it and come the point to understand the greatness of the gift of God to forgive us.

When we understand no matter where our life has come from when we understand the tremendous gift of what we have been given of this Great salvation that he purchased us with his own blood that he went and rescued us that he reached out in his divine Tenderness and pulled us out of our pits of despair.

When we understand that we begin to see something that there's only one response in return which is the abandonment of our life only one thing fitting and so here was Paul warring to own clawing fighting striving a Man thinking of that.

He was a man of purpose of value and also none the Damascus Road here's God being a good God and so he in mercy and love knocked him to the ground and Blinded him and in the act of blinding him then opened his understanding to that which he was helpless to see of himself.

Our sin today will still blind us. Apart from the grace of God opening our understanding and on that Damascus Road when he was undone Three days he was in repentance three days. He was blind until forgiveness came to him.

You know you go into into history and you see the revivals of Finney. There was times where Finney would preach one particular count he said just a half dozen words and the conviction fell on the people with such force that they were weeping and wailing all over the Floor and they were in repentance for three days.

You go on to the Belgian Congo revival the revival that lasted almost 40 years moving from place to place to East Africa and Accounts would be conviction would fall upon the people and they'd be in repentance for three days.

Would you want to know what we have no idea? What is to truly be convicted in a tremendous way of our sin because we still don't understand it. Even after I preach the message this morning. I don't understand it.

It takes a divine encounter to begin to really begin to see the truth of it. And so God brought conviction so great upon Paul that three days. He was in the agony of his soul. He would not eat he would not drink.

God was upsetting that man's life to beginning and end. Because only when his life would be upset would he begin to be able to see the reality of who Jesus was and what Jesus? Really wanted to do. Only in that place that he was blinded.

Blinded naturally that he could begin to see spiritually. Could he come and make this tremendous statement about the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus? Why would Paul leave all of his worldly success?

Why would he leave his wealth? Why would he leave the comfort of his position of the the position? He could have had that he knew was waiting for him in the future. Whatever that might have been. How is it that Paul would give that all up.

Forsake it all to go on a life that now he would be pursued and hated and beaten and mocked that he would now be a criminal. Why would he do such a thing? Because of the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus in that confrontation on the Damascus Road.

Something so real broke into his life. He saw the reality of who this God was. He saw the reality of mercy. He saw the reality of love and it was only one response was the abandonment of his life the total giving up of everything that he Had everything that he owned everything that he desired every ambition that he had.

Because he saw him who sits upon the throne. He saw him who was crucified for he saw the reality of this God. Why don't we abandon our lives is what we should do because we've not seen his reality. We are not truly convinced that he is worth the surrender of everything that we own of everything that we have of every desire of every Ambition we are not yet convinced of it.

Paul turned the world upside down because he was a man who saw the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus. Let me ask a question here. What is the greatest privilege that man will ever experience.

What is the greatest privilege? We could say heaven. Eternal life. Could say all kinds of things, but you know, there's only one prize and that's Jesus himself. Do you know when you and I die? And we begin to walk through them pearly gates.

Your family members may be standing there waiting for you. There may be friends waiting for you, but you want you're not gonna care. When you walk them go gates and you just get a glimpse a little bit of the one who sits on that throne.

There's only gonna be one thing that's going to overwhelm your heart one thing that you're gonna want to do and you will run to his feet so that you can fall at his feet and Just weep and Thanksgiving that he would accept you that you would be his son forever there after a millennia.

Then maybe you might look around. But it will take at least that before you can even begin to deal with the magnificence and the wonder of this God. We do not know him. Really. We do not know him. Really.

We barely scratch the surface. We have hardly even seen him because if we really saw him our lives would be so ablaze with his purpose with his desire. Serving him would be such an easy thing and if he could ask any of thing of us and we would say yes Lord at The drop of a hat there would be no debate.

No question. No nothing. We would take all of our prosperity all of our time all that we are and lay at his feet and says anything you want God you want me to be a workman in the marketplace? I'll work in the marketplace.

You want me to be a missionary? I'll be a missionary. I don't care. All I want is my entire life to give glory to you if we all saw him if we knew who he really was. Roger Ellsworth made the statement.

He says we want God to do great things. But we don't want it intensely enough to seek it or to run the risk of having our lives disturbed. But one cannot take hold of God without an intense longing for God.

You know, we say we want to see a move of God see God's power poured out. But we're not willing to pay the price. I remember reading this one account in one of Jim symbol his books a Pastor from Australia came to his church just to visit.

He came in cognito. He didn't want anybody know that he was there. But somehow he found out that this man was there Similar finds out and asked him to come up to the platform and he says would you just say a few words of the congregation?

And so he went to the congregation and just made this short little statement. He says you can tell how popular the church is by who's there Sunday morning. You can tell how popular the pastor is by who there is Sunday night.

You can tell how popular Jesus by who's at the prayer meeting. How popular is Jesus in this church? That's the reality of it. You see if we understood who he was We'd be at his feet. I'm not gonna take the time to go into the Hebrides awakening.

But the Hebrides awakening was as every revival every revival is birthed in prayer never been one that has not been birthed in prayer. That's why if a church doesn't become a praying church, there's no hope of revival.

It will not come it will never come. It will never come. But yet the converts that came in to that revival. Those who were saved became like those who prayed in the revival and you know what the prayer meetings were the prayer meetings were two nights a week.

From 10 o 'clock at night to 4 or 5 in the morning. You know how they gauged the backsliders of that revival those who stopped going to the prayer meetings. Do you want to know what by that revival? We would not even be considered saved.

Because we have no time for God, but we have time for everything else. We have time for for business. We have time for for fun. We have time for television. We have time for ease and relaxation. But do we have time for him.

If I knew who he was it would burn and rage in my bones. If I knew who he was I could not resist being at his feet if I understood the Surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus. I would lay my life down my treasures If I understood who he was.

Well, I was Paul the radical that he was because he knew the surpassing greatness of Christ Jesus and as a result. You know what happened? He could make the statement then I Consider the world them as he put it Rubbish that I may gain Christ.

The only way that he could look at the world and consider it rubbish or I like the King James how it puts it dung manure. The only way that he couldn't he could look at the world rightly was that he had to see rightly who this God was.

Until I have an overwhelming view of who this God is of his beauty of his magnificence until that really happens I will never have a right view of the world. And so until I have that right view of God somehow the world will still be pretty to me in its own ways.

It'll be glamorous. It'll be the idea that life's about ease or fun or prosperity or one thing or another. Because I look to everything else other than the prize being to walk with Christ an unbroken fellowship.

That is the prize to walk with him an unbroken fellowship. That's what we were created for. That's what we were purchased for to walk with him an unbroken fellowship. Is that the prize of our life? Is that what drives us?

Is that the thing that moves us? Is that the thing that brings the point that we will literally do anything that he would ask or give up anything? He would want of us. Are we really yielded as what we think?

Because the only way that he could consider the world as rubbish was he had to have a correct understanding of who the Savior was. I have to have the point of reference until I have the point of reference of what is truly holy and beautiful.

What is truly lovely? I will never know what is truly ugly. And you want to know why the church is still enamored with the world. Let me share something with you that I think is so disturbing. This is the reality we face as Non-christians.

We fought we warred we clawed we strive to have stuff to make us happy to pursue things to bring purpose in our life. We come to Christ and somehow we start giving our life to him. We start walking with him, but some way or another.

However, it happens. Somehow the fighting and the clawing to own starts coming back into our life and we now think I'll be happy when I have another house. I'll be happy when I have another car. I'll be happy when I have a better job.

I'll be happy if I have another wife. I'll be happy when. And it's all put into another place in another time. We go back to the same identical thing of fighting and clawing that we have not found Jesus to be more than enough.

We need Jesus and Jesus and stuff Jesus and money Jesus and comfort Jesus and ease whatever the Jesus end is. We have not found him to be more than if why could Paul turn the world upside down. Because you know what?

He didn't need Jesus and anything else. He didn't even need Jesus and his own body. That's why he would give his backs to the Snyder's. That's why he would allow himself to be beaten and stoned. That's why he would allow himself to go hungry for the sake of seeing others saved.

That's why he would allow himself to be abused and taken advantage of because there was something more important than his own body of his Own ease his own comfort his own rights. And the only way he came to that place Was he had to see the reality of who this God was and you know where that revelation came?

It came on that Damascus Road. That was the beginning of the revelation not the end of it. Just the beginning of it and he saw the reality who this God was and there was only one result. Why is it Paul abandoned himself and in just a few short days time?