Revival Sermon: William Chalmer Burns (Psalm 110:2)

Psalm 110:2 and the Will of Fallen Man

Welcome to the Whole Council Podcast. I'm Jon Snyder and we have a special treat for you this week. We have Andrew Davis. Andrew is a pastor, retired now, from Wales. He and his wife Pam have come and preached here a few times and when he was here last, we got him to read some sermons by preachers who have long been dead and he read one by William Burns.

Now Andrew Davis has one of those great voices, you know, it's the kind of voice that I wish I had but don't. So he reads a sermon by William Burns. Who's William Burns? Burns was a friend of Robert Murray McShane, Andrew Bernard and others in the early 1800s in Scotland.

And when Robert McShane and other ministers went to see Israel and to see the spiritual condition of Christianity among the Jews, he was asked to fill in at McShane's church. McShane was a very godly, earnest man, very prayerful that God would send revival, whether it was through him or through William Burns.

And Burns, also a young man, was mightily used and God used the preaching of Burns at that time to begin a wonderful season of grace in those churches. After a number of years of preaching with great power in Scotland, in Britain, he even traveled over to North America, he was offered a number of large churches.

He refused that because he had it on his heart. He felt for many years he had been convicted by the Lord that he should go and serve as a missionary. And so he turned his back on the large crowds and the big churches that were offered to him.

And he went to China and became a missionary there. And the early years of his labors there really saw almost no fruit. But we see the wisdom of God in all of this. In spite of his friend's confusion, why would you do that?

The Lord was using you here. Especially we see the wisdom of God because he became a mentor as an older believer to the young Hudson Taylor, of course, whom God used to reach countless thousands. Well, I hope that you benefit from listening carefully to what William Burns preached in those days of great revival in Scotland.

The Will as the Ruling Faculty of the Soul

My text is from Psalm 110 and verse 2. Your people will be willing in the day of your power. The will, my friends, is the ruling faculty in the soul of man. And a man's character is very much determined by the prevailing bent of this power within him.

The memory recollects the past. The imagination plans and devises what is new. The understanding deliberates. The conscience pronounces the law of right and wrong. The desires and affections draw and impel.

And above all these, the will sits as it were supreme, pronouncing the final decision and thus determining what is to be done. If you get a man's will, you have him on your side and may reckon on his support.

Whereas, although you may convince his understanding and delight his imagination and move his affections, yet if his will remains opposed to you, he does not go with you. And thus, my friends, the state of the will is always made a matter of the first importance when asking where a man stands with God.

It is the high point of man's depravity that his will is opposed to the will of God, that he does what God forbids and leaves undone what God commands. Jehovah says, you shall. Man defiantly answers in practice, if not in words, I will not.

Jehovah says, you shall not. Man again replies, I will. He seeks to be independent of Jehovah, to be as God, to be a law unto himself, to follow his own will instead of receiving the holy law of his creator and making it the guide of all his resolutions.

This is the state of the fallen soul by nature. And therefore, my friends, when God brings back in his infinite love the souls of his elect people to his service, he makes them willing. This psalm tells us that he has exalted the Lord Jesus as mediator to the right hand of universal power.

He promises him that his enemies will be made his footstool. But he also promises that those elect ones whom the Father gave him to redeem and whom he purchased to himself with his own blood will be willing.

And when the will is renewed and brought into the service of Jesus, the way is prepared for every other faculty to be restored to holiness and every thought is being brought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.

In this promise, two things you notice require explanation. First, the nature of this willingness which Jehovah promises that Christ's people will have. Secondly, the nature of that day of Christ's power in which this is to be accomplished.

In endeavoring to explain the former of these topics, I remark, the nature of this willingness. Firstly, Christ's people are willing to be saved by his imputed righteousness. Unconverted sinners imagine that this willingness is easy to attain.

Many who are entirely unrenewed are confident that they have it. They know they are sinners, and in times of distress when death is near, they are afraid of the wrath of a holy God and gladly cling to anything which promises them safety.

They want to be delivered from hell and would be glad to know that the righteousness of Christ had been accounted to them and that they were forgiven. This is the kind of willingness for Christ's righteousness the ungodly possess.

But it is not a saving appropriation of Jesus. It is the faith that many people who profess to follow Christ possess and is little better than the universal desire for deliverance from pain. It is very different from that willingness for Christ's imputed righteousness which his true people have.

The unconverted do not have a true and humbling conviction of personal unrighteousness. The sinner may see that God will not accept what he has done and that he will charge him with the omission of thousands of duties, but then he does not feel nor acknowledge from the heart that God is right to do so.

He does not humbly pass sentence against himself according to the judgment of God, but proudly thinks, at least in his own heart, that his sin is not really heinous enough for God not to forgive it. Then again, although he desires the blessing of Christ's obedience, he does not really value it properly, nor does he see the glory of it, nor is he willing to venture his soul's eternity upon it and it alone.

So you find that although such sinners profess that Christ is all their hope, they are unwilling to be convinced that they are great and flagrant sinners. In reality, their chief trust is founded not upon what Christ has done, but upon what they are themselves.

But when there is a true willingness to be saved by the imputed righteousness of Christ, the person is truly convinced of sin and feels assured that he cannot be saved by any efforts of his own and that it would be entirely just of the Holy God to cast him forever from his sight into the place of punishment.

Then again, the person, while seeing himself to be all vile, obtains some appreciation of the glorious perfection of the work of Jesus and its superlative excellence in the sight of God, and he rejoices in the thought of being allowed to rest on this for salvation, not only because it is sufficient to procure his deliverance from wrath, but because it also gloriously satisfies the demands of God's justice and vindicates the honor of his holiness.

Willingness to Come Under Christ's Kingly Power

And then secondly, Christ's people are willing to be brought into subjection to his kingly power. This is a still more clear and decisive mark of a true convert than the one which we have just noticed.

Those who desire Christ's righteousness merely from carnal motives without any humbling knowledge of themselves or any just esteem for its excellence will always be found to shun the yoke of Christ. The end of their religion is peace, and if peace could be obtained without a true love for the God who is holy, that would be to their taste.

But in every person whom Christ makes willing, there is a supreme desire to be brought under dominion to Christ's love, a holy hatred of all sin, and a real longing that Christ would come and set the heart free from every lust and passion and idol which oppose the law of God and dispute his supreme place in the affections.

It is true, as all real converts know, and as the Lord has so finally taught us by St. Paul, that the power of sin, though broken, is not destroyed, the flesh still wars against the spirit, and the will, which is only partly renewed, still seems to consent to sin.

But even in such cases, the man sins with a divided will. There is a secret wrestling against the desire to sin, and after a time, the holy spiritual will shows its supremacy, and the soul is humbled in deeper self-loathing and contrition.

The soul of the true believer is not free from sin, but would be if it could. However, it is not so. Although the will is renewed, sin still dwells in the members. The believer would do good, and yet evil is present with him.

He delights in the law of God according to the inward man, and being unwillingly detained in bondage, he cries out with the apostle, O wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death?

And willingly adds, rejoicing in Christ's kingly power to deliver him from sin, I thank God through Jesus Christ my Lord. And then thirdly, Christ's true people are willing to bear the cross in following him.

It is one of the marks, you know, which Christ gives of the stony ground hearers that in times of persecution they fall away. But it is not so with Christ's true people. They give themselves to him without reservation, and are glad to have him instead of all else that the world holds dear, even at the expense of life itself.

We may not be called upon to make the supreme sacrifice, but there are many other things that test the reality of the loyalty of God's people to Jesus and his preciousness to them. They may be called to confess his name before his enemies and those who are his professed but half-hearted friends.

They will have to endure many other trials, especially at the beginning of their new life when companions see the change in their character and try to draw them back through smiles and frowns and bribes and reproaches to their former life.

But the true believer is willing to bear the cross. He finds it hard and painful, but easy in comparison to parting with Jesus. He naturally fears and shrinks from suffering, but by grace he fears sin even more.

If there is no alternative but either to deny his master or die for his name, he is enabled to be faithful still, yes, to rejoice that he is counted worthy to suffer shame for his holy and blessed name.

The Day of Christ's Power

And now the second thing, the nature of the day of Christ's power. There are three things to be said here. First of all, this day is the time of his exaltation to the mediatorial throne. The psalm speaks of him sitting as a priest and as a king.

It is on this throne, at the right hand of the majesty on high, that he wields the scepter of universal dominion and rules in the midst of his enemies on earth. It is from this throne that he sends forth that power which makes his people willing to obey him.

Jesus, you know, exercised his kingly power even before he came in the flesh and offered up that sacrifice on account of which the Father exalted him, and thus the saints under the Old Testament were brought in subjection to his law.

But it is most properly after Christ ascended up on high that he received all power in heaven and earth, and therefore the latter days or the times which stretch from his ascension to his second coming are more properly called the day of his power.

It is in these days that the great multitude of his redeemed are gathered under his scepter. In these times, my friends, blessed be God, we are privileged to live and are therefore called to look for the fulfillment of the glorious promises that relate to it alone.

Then secondly, it is the day of Christ's power when the gospel is fully and freely preached. The gospel of Christ is called the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

It receives this grand description because it reveals Christ crucified, who although to the Jews he is a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, yet to those who believe, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.

And thus, you see, my friends, that whenever the Lord intends to grant Dave his saving power to sinners, he raises up and sends forth ministers who determine with Paul to know nothing except Jesus Christ and him crucified.

When God is frowning upon a people, he does not always remove the public ordinances from among them, but he withdraws the teaching of his spirit from those who come forward to preach his word, and the pulpits become filled with men who know little or nothing of the power of God in their own hearts.

And thus, although the preacher may study with diligence and discuss with all the power of argument and learning and eloquence, that preaching of the cross which is to them that perish foolishness is lacking.

The glories of Christ person and work with all the rest of his unsearchable riches are forgotten or but slightly and seldom mentioned. So although the minister may preach and the people hear from day to day, the power of God is absent and souls perish unconvinced and unconverted.

When, however, the Lord in his mercy returns to a nation or a city to gather out of them a people for his name, he raises up ambassadors who know from personal experience the evil and the guilt of sin and have been led by the spirit to rejoice in Jesus as all their salvation and as all their desire, the chiefest among ten thousand and altogether lovely.

And then, my friends, the matchless glories of Emmanuel are displayed, his preciousness is opened up, and his love to sinners and his willingness to receive with the open arms of his infinite love all who feel their ruined condition and are anxious for deliverance are proclaimed and magnified.

And thus a day of grace from on high is introduced. Sinners are awakened and are drawn to receive the Lord Jesus being made willing in the day of his power. And then thirdly, the day of Christ's power is the time of the outpouring of his spirit.

The doctrine of Christ crucified is called the power of God because it is the instrument which God employs in pulling down the strongholds of sin and Satan. But yet, my friends, this doctrine is, after all, but an instrument which cannot be effective unless it is wielded by the almighty Spirit of God.

It is by his divine agency alone that sinners are loosed from the bondage of Satan and brought into the glorious liberty of the children of God. This truth is often demonstrated in the experience of every Christian, and especially of every Christian minister.

The truth of the gospel is often preached with clarity, fullness, earnestness, and affection. Sinners are taught their ruined and perishing condition under the broken covenant of works. Christ is freely held out to them and urgently pressed upon them.

And yet, they remain despisers and rejecters of the Lord from heaven, and the minister of Christ is often found in sadness to exclaim, Who has believed our report, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?

The people hear, and are perhaps attentive, and begin to reform many of those sinful practices in which they formerly indulged, but yet, their hearts remain unconvinced of sin, and unenlightened in the glorious knowledge of Christ, and unconverted to God.

There is still little seeking of Christ in secret prayer, little alarm experienced on account of sin, and few serious efforts to receive the Lord Jesus as he is freely offered. But oh, how changed is the scene when the Spirit is outpoured!

Then the hearts of God's people become full to overflowing with love for Jesus, and are drawn forth in vehement desires after his glorious appearing to build up Zion. They spend much time in the secret place and in united prayer.

They are cheered by the gladdening hope that the Lord is soon to listen to the groaning of the prisoner and save those who are appointed to death. The ministers of God also are in general particularly enlivened and refreshed in their own souls.

In private they are deeply humbled in soul before the Lord, and have an uncommon measure of the spirit of supplication for sinners given to them, with ardent love to Christ, melting compassion for perishing souls, and vehement desires for their salvation.

And then, when they come to preach Jesus, they are evidently anointed with the Holy Ghost, and with power they speak with holy unction, earnestness, and affection, and sometimes hardly know how to leave off beseeching sinners to be reconciled to God.

And then observe the condition of the hearers at such a time. Formerly, no terror could awaken them from their sleep of death. They still said peace and safety, although sudden destruction was coming upon them.

But now, a few words are enough to pierce their inmost heart, and make them cry out often aloud and against their will,. Men and brethren, what shall we do? Formerly Jesus was held forth and was despised, but now every word that tells of his love is precious.

His name is as ointment poured forth, and sinners are filled with an agony of desire for a saving union with him. Men and women and children retire from the house of God, not to profane the evening of God's day in idle talk or idle strolling.

They have much business to do with God. Their doors are shut, their Bibles are in their hands, or they are crying to God upon their knees as they are conversing with the godly, and obtaining the benefit of their counsel to guide them on the way to Jesus.

These, my friends, are, you know, some of the marks of a day of the power of Jesus. When the Spirit is poured out from on high, and sinners' hearts are moved, the iron sinews of their necks are relaxed, and their brows of brass are crowned with shame.

They flock to take refuge under his wings like doves to their windows. They rejoice in his love as men that divide the spoil. Satan is discomforted, his captives are set free, and God is glorified. Such times of refreshing as these have been often experienced, and are destined to be still more gloriously displayed in coming times.

The day of Pentecost, the Protestant Reformation, Revivals in Scotland, England, Ireland, especially in Scotland, The Holy Spirit has come. Jesus is here. God is glorified. Blessed be his name. Amen.