God's Dynamite Or an Old Dud — E.A. Johnston

God's Dynamite and Ineffective Christian Living

I believe Vance Havner summed up the Christian life when he said, If we serve such a dynamite God, then why are so many of us living firecracker lives? I'll go one step further than Vance Havner and say, If we serve such a dynamite God, then how come there are so many duds for God?

They don't even make a pop like a firecracker because they fizzled out a long time ago. At least a firecracker will make some noise every now and then, but you never hear anything from an old dud. The title of my message today, friends, is God's Dynamite or Just an Old Dud.

A lot of Baptist preachers are taught to have three points in their sermon, and often they are alliterated. But I only have one point in my message today, friends, but my message is in three parts. And if you'll bear with me and hear me out, I believe this may be one of the most important messages you'll ever hear.

It can change your life. It can completely overhaul your walk with God and give you the intimacy with Christ you've always longed for in a vital walk with Him. It can transform you into a stick of dynamite in the hands of God.

Like I said, I have a three-part message today, friends. The first part is a story I want to tell. The second part is a scripture passage that ties it together. And the third part is an exhortation to do something about what you've just heard.

George Whitefield’s Evangelistic Exhortations

When I was writing my two-volume biography on the life of the British evangelist George Whitefield, I learned when he first came to a town, he didn't preach a long sermon in a formal setting, but rather he would often give a brief exhortation in a village inn.

In fact, near Newburyport, Massachusetts, at Cares Landing, at the Merrimack River is a plaque, and near that plaque is a house on the river. And it used to be an inn where Whitefield would often grab a bite to eat and then give an exhortation to his hearers.

His journal states that in 1740, on one such occasion, he stood on the porch of the inn there and addressed 200 hearers in the yard, exhorting them to do what his Bible said. This last part of my message today, friends, is the most important part, as it pertains to you personally, for if God speaks to you today, you must comply with Him.

Sam Jones and the Unbroken Bronco

Well, let's get to the first part of my message today, friends, and that's a story I want to tell. If you've heard me tell it before, please listen more carefully to it again, because the scripture I've chosen today ties it to it in a new reality I've never used before.

This is a story about the evangelist Sam Jones. Sam Jones was at home in Cortersville, Georgia, when he received a telegram from Texas inviting him to go preach to the cowboys of southwest Texas. Well, he prayed about it, and he got on a train and went to Texas, and for two weeks he preached the gospel of Jesus Christ to the cowboys of Texas.

When it was over, as they came to the end of the campaign, the cowboys wanted to give Sam Jones a love offering. They felt the laborer was worthy of his hire, and they had received wonderful blessings from his time among them.

But there was a problem. They had no money, not a single dollar in any of their pockets, and they didn't know what to do, and they allowed Sam Jones to go back home to Cortersville, Georgia, with no compensation or love offering of any kind whatever.

Well, Sam Jones went back, and a number of weeks passed by. Then suddenly one day he received a telegram. It was from the cowboys of Texas. It read like this, We are sending and we are shipping you a carload of broncos.

And Sam Jones scratched his head as he looked in amazement at that telegram. Oh, what am I going to do, he said, with a carload of wild horses in the small town of Cortersville? Well, his friend was standing beside him, and he said, Why, it's easy.

Hold an auction sale. Sell the broncos and you'll get your money. You can get your love offering then and put it in your pocket. Well, Sam Jones thought it was a good suggestion, so he held an auction sale.

He sold the broncos, all except one. He kept the finest-looking bronco for his son. He wanted to give that bronco to his son as a gift, and that's what he did. But the son had never in his life been on the back of an unbroken bronco, and Sam Jones wondered what he could do.

He called the cowboy to him, who had brought the carload of broncos to Cortersville. He said, Will you take this bronco? Will you break them so that my son can ride them? Yes, sir, said the cowboy. I'll be glad to.

How much will you charge? Fifteen dollars, said the cowboy. All right, said Sam. Take them away. The cowboy disappeared with the bronco. Two weeks later he came back. Is he broken? said Sam. Yes, sir.

He's broken. Can my son ride them in perfect safety? Yes, sir. Your son can ride them in perfect safety. All right. Here's your fifteen dollars. The father thought that before allowing his son to ride the bronco, he'd better mount himself and make sure that the cowboy had broken the bronco.

He started toward the bronco. The cowboy came running up, waving his hands in alarm. Why? said Sam. What's the matter? What's gone wrong? Oh, said the cowboy. He's only been broken on one side and you're mounting from the wrong side.

Oh, said Sam. That will never do. My son might make a mistake and he might mount from the wrong side. How much will you charge me to break him on the other side? Fifteen dollars, said the cowboy. All right, said Sam.

Take him away and break him on the other side. Well, another two weeks passed by and again the cowboy came back leading the bronco. Is he broken? said Sam. Yes, sir. He's broken. Both sides? Yes, sir.

Both sides. Your son can ride them in perfect safety from either side. All right. Here's your fifteen dollars. Well, I like that story, friend, because it's so true. You know, the average Christian is only broken on one side.

He'll do this, but he won't do that. He'll go here, but he won't go there. He'll give God just so much of himself but still hold something back. He's like the bronco. He's only broken on one side and then he wonders why God doesn't use him more.

He doesn't realize he's only been broken on one side and God cannot rely upon him. God cannot trust him. The man God uses is the man who's been broken on both sides. But some broncos don't break so easily.

They are more stubborn, more hard-headed, more self-willed. People are like that, too. At times, God has to use more drastic measures with us to get us to comply with him. Listen to me, friend, and get the wax out of your ears so you can hear me.

Besetting Sin and the Need for Complete Repentance

I believe what separates the men from the boys is sin. The reason you are a dud for God is because you tolerate sin in your life. You have a besetting sin that keeps tripping you up and you never can get any lasting victory over it.

Why, after all, it's a besetting sin, you think, so you'll just have to live with it. That's the message of the modern pulpit, but that's not the message of the Bible. We have numerous biblical examples of men who fell into sin but they were not controlled by it throughout their life.

King David fell into moral failure with Bathsheba, but after that incident, he was broken over his sin and broken off from his sin. He never sinned like that again. In fact, in Psalm 51, we find the vivid picture of a man completely broken before God.

Psalm 51, 17 reads,. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise. Notice, friends, the word broken is twice mentioned here for David is broken on both sides and that word contrite speaks of something that's been ground to powder.

David's double sin of adultery and murder drives him to heartfelt repentance, to be completely broken on both sides, a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart. King David never fell into those same sins again.

He never kept falling into adultery and murder and keep confessing it and repeating it. No, Jesus never preached a sin in religion. And I need to make a distinction here, friends, about what's called a besetting sin, a grievous sin area in your life that keeps popping up and controlling you.

You have no victory over it. You've grown accustomed to having this sin cohabitate in your life and you write it off as your besetting sin that you'll always have. It'll always be there, tripping you up and making you stumble so you excuse it as something ordinary.

But there is nothing ordinary about sin in the life of a believer. It's a contradiction. Yes, we have a sin nature and a bent toward sin. But when Christ Jesus saves us, he saves us from the penalty of sin and he saves from the power of sin.

We gladly take his Savior's side for the penalty of sin. But there are some who refuse to submit to his Lordship's side for power over sin. Let me use some biblical examples of men who have sinned in Scripture.

Peter’s Restoration and the Example of Apostolic Victory

Peter fell into gross sin by denying his Master that dark evening in the courtyard of denial. But Peter wept bitterly afterward and was completely broken over that experience. And he never, ever repeated that same sin again of denying Jesus.

Oh, he had his faults. He had to be rebuked by Paul for his compromise with the Jewish believers at the dinner table. But Peter had no besetting sin. He kept repeating over and over like some of you do.

You have a besetting sin because it's your pet. You fondle it and you take pleasure from it. You've not been broken by it. It's time for honest talk, friend. It's time for honesty before God. And because of your besetting sin so called, you are a dud for God.

He can't depend on you. He cannot rely on you. The Peter of Pentecost didn't have a recurring sin problem. When Peter preached, it was dynamite. His ears cried out under conviction of sin. Men and brethren, what shall we do?

Paul’s Crucified Life and Consecrated Christian Service

The Apostle Paul didn't have a recurring sin problem. He lived the truth of Galatians 2 .20. I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live. Yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. In the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.

Paul knew full well what it meant to live the crucified life. Men that God has mildly used as sticks of dynamite in his hands, men like John Wesley and George Whitefield, were consecrated men who lived lives of holiness unto God.

They didn't have a recurring sin problem. They had their faults, but God could depend on them in any given circumstance. They were broken men, men I've known personally. They were sticks of dynamite in the hand of God.

Men like Adrian Rogers and Stephen Olford were men in whom Christ was prominent because they gave the Lord Jesus first place in all things. Wesley and Whitefield and Adrian Rogers and Stephen Olford didn't have a recurring sin problem.

It's ridiculous to think they ever did. Men like that lived in the atmosphere of another world because they were sold out for Christ and the sake of the gospel. They knew the reality of the Christ life for the self life.

These men knew what it was like to be sticks of dynamite in the hands of a holy God. All these men I mentioned made a big noise for God. But you're just an old dud because you like it that way. You like your sin because you're not broken off from it.

You're not broken on both sides. There's still rebellion in you. Well, we've come to the last part of my message today, friend. The exhortation. And it is here where I wish to exhort you to do something about what you've heard today.

Surrender, Conviction, and the Indwelling Christ

In fact, if God's been dealing with your soul through this message and you are under conviction by his spirit, it's your duty before God to obey his revealed truth to you. It would be a gross sin to disobey him and harden yourself against him.

Are you ready to submit yourself to God? To submit completely and be broken on both sides? On Calvary, that bloody cross, on that bloody cross the Son of God held nothing back. He gave his all. He hung there in utter surrender to God the Father.

He had work to do on our behalf as a sin substitute where he loved me and gave himself for me. And if God has spoken to your heart today, friend, then you have work to do. You've got work to do with God right now.

Right now. Find a quiet place. Slip away. Get quiet with God. Give your all to him and ask him to make you dynamite in his hands. Let me lead us in prayer as we do business with God. Great God, you know our frame, Lord, that we are just dust.

You know our need of thee to deliver us from the power of sin. We need power from above to live above this world. I pray right now for these here today who've been touched by this message, who your Holy Spirit has brought conviction to, that your Spirit will bring change and transformation to their life, infusing them the Christ life for the self life where the indwelling Christ is given undisputed rule and reign in the heart and life.

Bring change today, O Lord, I pray for these precious ones now in the strong name of Jesus. Amen.