The Challenge of Every Christian - Part 2 — Alan Redpath

The Christian Challenge and the Motive for Communicating Christ

Would you open your Bibles with me this morning, please, at 2nd Corinthians, chapter 5, the portion which was read to us a moment ago. And let me read to you from verse 17. First of all, let me remind you that in these morning hours we are considering the challenge to every Christian to communicate Christ.

And yesterday we thought about the need for something more than mere testimony and evangelism, the need for the breakthrough in Holy Spirit revival in every one of our lives. Today we're going to consider the motive.

The one thing that concerns us more than anything ought to is that the average Christian is not overworked but under-motivated for something more than mere testimony and evangelism, the need for the breakthrough in Holy Spirit revival in every one of our lives.

Today we're going to consider the motive. The one thing that concerns us more than anything ought to is that the average Christian is not overworked but under-motivated. And verse 17 of this chapter says, If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature.

All things are passed away. Behold, all things are become you. Here is Paul's definition of a Christian, and I think it is one of the most dynamic and revealing definitions of a man of God found anywhere in the Word of God.

If any man, not a few people who live on one standard and some who live on another, but if any man be in Christ, that is, in his life the great miracle of the new birth has taken place, he's been born from above, and like the branch is in the vine and the tree is in the soil, he's in Christ.

If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. New, as the word is, not in the sense of recent, as you might buy a new coat to replace an old one, but new in the sense of being a totally different kind of person altogether.

Living Letters paraphrase, puts this verse, When anyone becomes a Christian, he becomes a brand new person inside. He is not the same anymore. A new life has begun. If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation.

For at the moment of his new birth, there has come to live within him a new life. And because of this, he's governed by a new principle, he's arrested by a new motive, he moves in new company, and he is committed to a new objective.

Contrast there, if any man, all things have become new. Not if some people, then some things, but if any man, then all things have become new. Now, here's the New Testament definition of a Christian. And God has put me into a corner this morning and asked me, in the light of that kind of definition, what sort of a person are you?

What right have you got to stand up at this conference today and ask people about this question? And in the light of some things which confront us in these days, I believe this is the most significant question God can ask any of us.

And he has driven me into a corner to answer it. And I have his permission, I believe, that he may repeat the medicine as I preach the word to you, and he may drive us all into a corner and force each one of us to ask it, what kind of a person are you?

We who claim to be in direct succession to the Church, in the New Testament, in the line of inheritance, and we who profess to be in Christ, have we this same experience? What kind of people are we? Now, you will notice that this verse begins with the word, therefore.

And whenever you have this word, it is obviously the outcome of reasoning and argument. And Paul, in defining the terms of what a Christian is, has come to this inevitable conclusion and summation of his argument that if this man is in Christ, then he is a totally different kind of person because of certain evidences and characteristics about him.

The Evidences of a New Creation

Go back with me, will you, in the context, please, to verse eleven. We are made manifest unto God, and our trusts also are made manifest to your consciences. In other words, there are some things about us because we are in Christ which are so self-evident that we don't have to argue for them.

They are manifest to God, and I trust that they are also manifest to you. But remember, as Paul goes on in his argument in verse twelve, and again I quote from Living Letters and paraphrase this verse, are we trying to pat ourselves on the back again?

No! I am giving you some good ammunition. You can use this on those preachers of yours who brag about how well they look and how well they preach that don't have true and honest hearts. You can say that at least we are honest on that very down-to-earth.

And that's the way we want to be this morning. Our hearts in heaven, but our feet on the ground. And be honest and realistic with God. We don't commend ourselves to you. We don't boast. But we are giving you something to glory for on our behalf.

Some things that ought to be self-evident in every Christian, which, give them away. He doesn't have to have a formula or some things he can say to justify his Christian experience or some doctrines on which he stakes his reputation.

No! His very life gives them away. It betrays him that he is under a new management, under a new master, and he belongs to God. He's a new creature. Now Paul begins to produce these evidence which support his argument.

And what are they? I want to look at them very carefully because these betray me. And these are the arguments which betray us all as Christians. Not what I believe, but how I behave is the thing that matters.

And if my belief doesn't affect my behavior, it's useless. People are, oh, you've no right to expect that anybody should be interested in what I believe and come into our churches and listen to our sermons and watch our programs.

They're fed up with that. But we've every right to expect that they watch how we behave. And Paul says, firstly, in verse 14, in my life, there is revealed a new fervor. The love of Christ constrains us.

The Constraining Love of Christ

Not his love for Christ, but the love of Christ. I have been seeking to meditate upon this in the early hours today. What does it mean? And I confess to you that I have come to this pulpit speechless to express what my heart wants to concerning the love of Christ, the love of Christ that is eternal, that has no beginning and no ending, the love of Christ that forsook every right he had, that is utterly selfless, he'd nothing to gain and everything to lose by scooping from a throne to a manger.

The love of Christ, why, the highest place that heaven affords was his by sovereign right, but he forsook it all. And he humbled himself and made himself of no reputation. The love of Christ that was so patient that went on loving and loved his own even unto the end, even though they loved him not and received him not.

The love of Christ that took the shame and the spitting and the despising and the jeering and the scoffing and the crown of thorns. The love of Christ. The love of Christ that took him right to the cross.

The love of Christ that bared his heart to the spear. The love of Christ that took the sword of the justice of God and did buried in the heart of Jesus. The love of Christ. Paul sums it all up in the last verse of our chapter.

And again I quote from Living Letter. God took the sinless Christ and poured into him our sins. Then in exchange he poured God's goodness into us. Oh, the love of Jesus. And the Holy Spirit had shown this to Paul and it wasn't any theory to him.

He'd seen something of the glory of heaven's love that stooped so low. And he says, Now this is the love that got hold of me and thrilled me and gripped my heart. For it's the love of Jesus for a hell-deserving sinner such as me, a man who's rotten through and through.

The love of Jesus. And this love constrains me. Now, I don't know much about Greek. I've never been to college to learn any. And it would be better for me if I had. But you get on quite well with the commentary and you can do quite well if you've got good cordons and you use it with any intelligence.

And I find in my concordance that this word, constrain, has several meanings in our English language. It could be used this way. The love of Christ restrains me. Just like the rain upon a horse that holds it back and keeps it in check and keeps it on the right path and guides it round the corner.

Paul says, The love of Jesus has so got hold of me that it keeps me back, that it holds me in check from doing the thing that would bring disgrace to His name. Lord, I can't behave like that now because of the love of Jesus.

Your love for a dirty, hell-deserving, rotten sinner like me? Lord, I can't behave like that anymore. The love of Christ holds me in check. Next time the devil trips you up and gets you involved in some course of conduct of which you are desperately ashamed and wants to put you on the ground and put you on your back and make you feel that you're useless and hopeless and always will be, there's one thing that keeps you back.

There's one thing that won't let you do it. There's one thing that will keep you back from damnation and ruin. It's the love of Jesus. It restrains. He holds a rein in His hand and when I would get out of His will, He pulls me in and checks me and holds me and guides me around the corner.

The love of Jesus. Another meaning of that word, I understand, is the love of Christ coerces me. I think it's Jameson Forsterton Brown's commentary upon this verse that says there is an irresistible object which has so controlled the life of a Christian that he lives with one objective in view to the elimination of any other possible consideration.

This one thing I do just like a river in flood is dammed up and restrained and then hemmed in and takes all its power in an increasing flow until it bursts into the ocean. The love of Christ, says Paul, constrains me like that.

You see, if any man be in Christ, he is a totally different kind of person. Something has so gripped his heart that the world says he's a fool. He's a fanatic. The world allows you to be enthusiastic about everything except religion.

I was in Lancashire some time ago at the place in England where I now unfortunately live because it rains and never stops raining at least with one or two exceptions and I was in a town called Blackburn and on a Saturday afternoon at 2 .30 there were 22 men in the pouring rain kicking a bit of inflated rubber around around a football pitch and they were called Blackburn Rovers and Manchester United and there were 40 ,000 people around that ground yelling themselves hoarse over a bit of inflated rubber.

Oh no, I haven't done anything against football. If I was younger, I'd be playing it still. But I tell you what the world gets enthusiastic about. Do you mean to tell me that I cannot be enthusiastic about the love of Jesus which has so captured my life and got hold of it and driven it until nothing else matters to do the will of God?

The love of Christ constrains. Like that. My doctor told me that I haven't to preach for more than 20 minutes and I must never get excited. I've broken those rules twice a day for four years and I'm still here, so hallelujah anyway.

Passion, Faith, and the Reality of Salvation

I tell you I can't help getting excited this morning and every morning. For if any man be in Christ oh my, he's a new person altogether. Somebody's saying to me perhaps you know, preacher, it's faith that saves you.

Yes. That faith works by love. And if your faith hasn't got hold of you so that in some measure, in some measure your life is being driven, driven, driven by the Holy Spirit contrary to all your natural desires along another course altogether I'm telling you it's invalid in terms of New Testament salvation.

It was that great preacher, the ex-virgin who once said, and listen to it once said what value is the grace which I profess to receive which leaves me exactly the same kind of man as I was before I received it?

An unholy life is an evidence of an unchanged heart and an unchanged heart is an evidence of an unsaved soul. I want to let that ring in my heart like an alarm bell this morning. You can be orthodox and sound but lost everything in your head and nothing in your heart.

Now, says Paul, this fervor has been revealed in my heart constrains me and I would remind you that anybody who has counted for anything in life has always been a man like that who is gripped by an overwhelming passion oh, you two are bad men as well as good men and that's why you have your Caesars and your Napoleons and your Hitlers and your Khrushchevs and your Mussolini's and your Stalin's and all the rest of them but that's also why you've got your Wesley's and your Whitfield's and your Johnson's and your Finney's and your D .L. Moody's and your Billy Graham's and your C .G. Stubbs.

Listen, it's passion and not profession that puts power into Christianity. And Paul had looked with spirit and lightened eyes into the heart of God and the love of Christ for him had gripped him and propelled him and impelled him along one line to the exclusion of any other attraction.

If anybody says to me this morning or wants to say to me, Gloriousness, good night what awful bondage that thought of life must be I'm telling you that Paul would answer you and I'll answer you too with a faint echo but true sincerity when I say that he found and I found and many of us find that that which we now love to do is to do the will of God and the amazing miracle of Christian experience is that it is God who worketh in you to will and to do His good pleasure.

Why the constraining power of Jesus' love has so transformed that human heart that he loves holiness and hates sin and that which governs a Christian's life the whole week seven days a week and so tremendous and terrific that he hasn't any room for any other secondary consideration.

Rivals in his life are eliminated. Gone. And he's the happiest man alive. Oh, now some people would say that that kind of religion is too emotional. But wait. I notice here that there's another evidence of this man whose life has been completely transformed.

Recovering Spiritual Fervor and Experience

He has not only a fervor. Oh, you know I look in vain for some great old hymns that I used to sing that I cannot find in hymn books. Do you remember this one? One of Charles Wesley Jesus, thine all-victorious love.

Shedded my soul abroad. Then shall my heart no longer rove. Rooted and fixed in God. For that in me the sacred fire Might now begin to glow. Burn up the dross of base desire. And make the mountain flow.

O thou who at Pentecost didst fall. Do thou my sins consume. Come, Holy Ghost, on thee I call Spirit of burning, come. The O's gone out of our singing and out of our praying. Oh, that you and I today might catch the glow.

That's what we want. That's what we've lost. Plenty of doctrine, but no experience. Oh, for the glow to come again. Well, you see, that comes when a Christian realizes certain things. Would it be very unkind of me or would I simply be basically honest?

As I say, we've lost the glow because Jesus isn't real. Oh, yes, he's real as a point of doctrine. I believe in God the Father and in Jesus Christ as only begotten Son. But I mean he isn't real. Fifteen months ago I was in Australia and on Christmas Eve I got a letter from my daughter.

She was 17 at the time. And she wrote to me and she said, Daddy, I've got a boyfriend and he's fab! I think that word means fabulous. He's fantastic. He's smashing. I think to an American audience the words would be cool or neat or perhaps even groovy.

But at any rate, whatever it was, she was absolutely on fire. And the next week another letter came with reinforcement. And I could hardly believe my ears or believe my eyes. And, you know, I knew this fellow.

He was leader of our young people's work at Charlotte Chapel. And, well, he's a nice enough chap, you know. But I could hardly wait to get home to see if this could possibly be the same man. Oh, but it was.

It was. And I'm telling you, she so was in love with him that, well, I mean she could even tell her father. And when a girl tells her father about a fellow, it's pretty serious. She loved him, you see.

Oh, I'm not being scathing. Only facing some realities in my own heart. Why don't I speak about Jesus more? Of course, on the platform, you do. Because that's what we're here for. Why don't I communicate Christ?

Why don't I talk about Him to other people? Why don't I go around? Why isn't this the consuming theme of my conversation at all times? Why is it that I turn off the spiritual tap and turn on the sexual tap so easily?

Why do you do that? I tell you because we've lost the plane. And we've lost the glow. And we've lost the thrill. And we've lost the warmth. And the reality of Jesus. And that's simply because somehow we haven't understood the facts.

And because we haven't understood the facts we're defeated Christians. And because we're defeated Christians there's nothing to say. And the devil gives three cheers in hell. What are these facts? Well, just look at them quickly.

Substitution and Identification in the Cross

I've spoken to you about the fervor that constrained Him. The fervor in His life. In the life of the Apostle that was revealed. Now hear the facts that are realized. What are these facts? Verse 14. Because we thus judge with spirit, in light and mind and eyes, eyes opened, not by intellectual understanding but by revelation from God, that if one died for all then we all died.

That's the literal translation of that verse. If one died for all then we all die. And Paul rejoiced in his constraint for that which gripped him wasn't emotion. It was based upon two dynamic facts. One, substitution.

Two, identification. Bearing shame and scoffing rude in my place condemned He stood. Healed my pardon with His blood. Hallelujah. He's my Savior. Oh, He died for all. He was wounded for our transgression.

He bruised for our iniquity. The chastisement which procured our peace was upon Him. And the great fact of the substitutionary death of the Lord Jesus is basic. And is that which begins to kindle the fire and the flame in our hearts.

But that isn't the only fact. There is another one. It's a fact of identification. If He died for all then we all died. And I see in the cross today as never before. And I mean that. It's dawning, dawning.

Only in the kindergarten I ought to be in the back row of the congregation here listening to others. But I see it. I begin to catch the thrill of it and the reality of it. I wonder if you're as slow in picking up things as I am.

We're all made in the same mold. Some of us a bit moldier than others. But some of us are a bit slow to pick something up. And I'm picking it up, friend. It's thrilling me in my heart today as I preach it to you.

Paul would tell us, the Holy Spirit would tell us that just as by my first birth I was involved in condemnation, guilt, sin and judgment, so by my second birth in the Lord Jesus I am involved in a new nature, a new life which has died and risen again.

And in Him I die. In Him I was buried. In Him I rose. In Him I ascended. And though my feet are firmly on the ground, my heart is in glory. I'm as good as there already. Heaven's in my heart and my heart's in heaven.

And the Spirit of the risen Christ governs, dominates, rules my whole personality and universe. I'm identified with Jesus. His victory is my victory. His resources are my resources. His grace, my grace.

His patience, my patience. His strength in adversity, my strength. His meekness, my meekness. His power to overcome, my power. I'm identified with Him. And just as I was one with Adam by my first birth and was rotten completely, so I'm one with Jesus in my second birth.

And all His life and all His resources are mine seven days a week in the person and power and grace of the indwelling Lord. To illustrate, here's a man who has escaped from prison and a search has started and the police come out to look for him.

And the news gets round that the man's dead. So the cops call the search off because of the fact that the man's death means the law has no hold on him anymore. No power to enforce its condemnation. He's dead and therefore he's free.

Freedom from Sin's Power

When I was a slave of sin, I hadn't any power. And I'm not speaking of unconverted days. I'm speaking of Christian days. And I'm comforted to find that the Apostle Paul would back me up and say, that's right.

The good that I would, I do not. The evil that I hate, that I do. Oh boy, oh boy. What a dreadful experience, isn't it? To get converted. To get all your sins forgiven and go on sinning. Most people are settled for that sort of salvation.

Insurance policy. Delivered from the past guilt. Hope of heaven. Now, sweat it out. Do it yourself, kid. Try hard. Oh. And you just about go round the bend with a nervous breakdown. And take tranquilizers and coffee by the mass.

And you've no ability to overcome. And you're poor and vile and wretched. And you're no different. Oh, by Christ. But, but, but, but, wait a minute. Don't let me let you think that I'm any different because I'm not.

I tell you, and this isn't dramatic, truth. It's truth. There's no sin on earth which I'm not capable of committing thirty seconds after this meeting is over. But for the grace of God. I'm rotten. And I still am rotten.

And always will be rotten. Hallelujah. You know, this is a diversion, but, excuse me, but, oh, it's so thrilling. You see, I used to, I'll let you into a little secret. I used to get terribly upset when people said anything nasty about me.

You know, gossip. When any member of my church board ever sort of let off about the pastor, my word, I was on his doorstep. Saying, what exactly do you mean by saying that? Terribly sensitive. Terribly sensitive.

Terrible. I just want to be known. I've learned a lesson. I haven't matured. I've learned a lesson. I'm just learning. Because it doesn't worry me whatever anybody says because I know perfectly well that no matter what they say, it isn't one hundredth part as bad as the truth.

So why worry? Hallelujah anyway. Let them talk. Doesn't matter. Doesn't matter. You see, you see, I'm just as rotten a sinner as I ever have been and always will be. But I'll tell you something. I've stopped wrestling with it and fighting with it.

I've nestled into the heart of Jesus. Because in Him, in Him, I'm dead. In Him, that sort of life is finished. In Him, there's victory. In Him, there's power. Oh, in Christ, I'm dead to sin. But sin is never dead to me.

And what a wonderful thing that in Jesus, we're set free not only from the penalty but from the power. And a new and a mightier force has come into our hearts by this fact of identification which sets us free from the power of it.

Because now, hidden in Christ, why, when the devil comes at me, what can he do? He's only trying to bluff me. He only tries to knock me out of a position in which I'm secure and make me start trying once more and then I go down again.

But if I abide in Christ and stay there at the cross where I belong, then all the resources of heaven are mine every day. Do you understand what I mean? Boy, I came over here on Sunday from Vancouver in an hour and a quarter or something in one of these wretched things called jets.

And I mean that because I'm thankful always to get out of them. But I tell you, I tell you, that plane was full. Matter of fact, I'd booked on the wrong day by mistake, and the phone was fully booked but they managed to get me in.

And before we started from the ground, the pilot said, Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. We're glad to welcome you on board Canada Airlines, Air Canada. But he said, there's a storm approaching us from the northeast and we're expecting considerable amount of turbulence.

So I recommend that you keep your seatbelts tightly fastened. So I said, well, thank you very much. And I duly fastened myself down. And then I remembered what once before in a similar situation I remembered, that somebody told me, somebody told me that the weight of a jet, a Boeing jet, fully loaded with all these passengers in it plus gas, was 250 ,000 pounds.

Phew! It's not a thing you would remember in a situation like that. And so when we went along the runway, I wasn't fearful, but very prayerful, and I said, Now Lord bless him. And then, then, then I tell you there was a roar like nothing on earth.

And if you travel economy class in a jet, you know, it roars. And do you know this? It went along the ground, bang, bang, bump, bump, until it got to about 145 knots. Reloaded, dump, dump, dump, on the ground, and I thought, well, is this thing going to get off before we get into that runway?

Or are we going to land up in the ocean? And then, then, oh, hallelujah, then, he pulled a stick, and he turned the nose up in the air, and it began to soar, and soar, and soar, and it rose until he sent a message through.

Our altitude is now 35 ,000 feet. You can relax. Was that an accident? Oh, no fear. If it had been an accident, I wouldn't be here now. Was it just something that might have happened? Oh, no, no. No, it wasn't.

It was inevitable. What had happened? I'll tell you. I'll tell you. Did that pilot say, Law of Gravity ceased to exist? I'm finished with you. Scratch yourself. Slay yourself. No, he didn't. He acknowledged the Law of Gravity gladly, but at 140 miles and knots an hour, he was in possession of power to put into operation another law, and that was the law of aerodynamics.

Through the sheer thrust of four giant jet engines in that plane, that law overcame the Law of Gravity, and it soared above the storm into a blue sky. Get me? Ah, my friend, I'm just learning it, but I hope you're in the same school.

It's a wonderful school to be in. I'll never graduate, but I'll get to heaven. Wonderful to be in it every day. I am learning that the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ has set me free from the law of sin, and He makes me climb.

Mind you, sometimes there's turbulence. Sometimes it's tough. But I tell you that as long as the Law of Life in me is liberated and free and unhindered and moves that power, it keeps me up. Have you ever felt the upward pull of Jesus?

Have you? Oh, the upward pull of Christ in the storm. Have you? Well, if you have, you ought to be sitting up on the roof shouting, Hallelujah. Why? This fervor that Paul had is based on a fact, on the eternal fact that God has put His people on resurrection ground.

And just as one day 40 years ago I took forgiveness through the blood of Christ for all my sins, now, now, 40 years later, I take deliverance through the power of the Spirit from the principle of sin in my heart.

I took the one by faith and took the second by faith. You don't gradually sort of batty away through and gradually escape and gradually improve and gradually make yourself better and gradually get delivered.

Bless your heart. God is never in the self-improvement plan. He's in the Christ replacement plan. You get out of the way. Let Jesus in. Let Him through. Let the power of His Spirit through you. And know the secret of being crucified with Him, slain in the self-life, that He might pour His risen life through you.

Fellowship with Christ and Other Believers

Amen. Now, just I'm finished now. Except I want to say just one thing more. Excuse me. A postcript. Oh, but you see, this isn't all theory and doctrine. I hope you realize that. And I hope today that some of you who have been wallowing in the mire of defeat, burdened under pressure and under burdens that are intolerable, will suddenly see the answer and get out from under them and find Jesus lifting you up.

But you see, the result of this will be a fellowship that you recognize, a fervor that you, a fervor that you realize, and some facts that you realize, and a fervor, a fellowship that you recognize. Listen.

Verse 15 and 16. He died for all that they which lived should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him which died for them, and rose again. Wherefore, henceforth, know we no man after flesh yet, though we know Him, have known Christ after flesh yet, now henceforth know we Him no more.

I wonder if you've ever noticed the significance of those verses. You see, when I get hold of the facts, the love of Christ constraining me, based upon, based upon this amazing, amazing truth that He's taken a worthless sinner and put him in Jesus, every day, then this means, this means there's a fellowship.

A fellowship Godward and a fellowship Earthward, vertical and horizontal. Henceforth not living unto themselves, but unto Him which died for them and rose again. You see, my friends, the love of Christ for me has been answered in our heart by our love for Jesus.

Your nature doesn't love Him, never will, can't, but the first fruit of the Holy Spirit in you is love and love, the love of Jesus comes that He may impart to you a love for Christ and it's shed abroad in your heart by the Holy Spirit and you have now in you a love that knows no limit to its endurance, no end to its trust, no fading of its hope.

It can outlast anything. In fact, it's one thing that stands when everything else has fallen, the love of Christ, the love that the Spirit has begotten in you because you're born again and a new nature which loves and answers back and sends back to heaven the flame of love.

You know, it's beautifully put by that man, F .W. Faber, in a hymn. He used to be a Unitarian. Listen to him. I want to say these sort of things to Jesus and we mean them, don't you? Listen to him. O Jesus, Jesus, dearest Lord, forgive me if I say for very love thy sacred name a thousand times a day.

I love thee so, I know not how my transport to control. Thy love is like a burning fire within my very soul. Burn, burn, O love within my heart, burn fiercely night and day till all the dross of earthly cares is burned and burned away.

O Jesus, Jesus, sweetest Lord, who art thou not to me? Each hour brings joy before unknown, each day new liberty. Is there in your heart this morning a love like that? A love which has answered love, a deep that is called unto deep, a life that was so barren and so cold and so dead, the Holy Spirit has come and kindled in your heart a sacred flame.

Not your old nature, loving God, but the new nature, by the Holy Spirit keeping the old out of the way and love goes up to the pros. That's what God wants. Not work, but love. You've given him that, have you got it?

Is that happening? Sheer love, sheer adoration, because he's loved like that, because he's done the miracle for you. You earn everything, and therefore you love him with all your heart. And you see, that fellowship is revealed earthward.

Henceforth know we no man after flesh, he is here with no man. Known Christ after flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more. Oh, if the church could only get hold of this. What does it mean? It means that the old things that marked our friendships and dislikes are put away.

Forbidden territory of certain area, distinction of class, distinction of color, distinction of race, distinction of nationality. Henceforth know we no man after the flesh. And to strengthen his argument, Paul says, we used to know Jesus like that, but I don't know him any more like that now.

There was a day when our wonderful Lord, referring to his crucifixion, looked into the faces of his disciples and said, Now, it is better for you that I should go away from you. It isn't put in the gospel.

I can almost hear them saying, Lord, that takes some believing. Oh, yes, it is. I've walked with you and talked with you. You've been to college with me for three years. But if I don't depart, the Comforter won't come.

And if I depart, I will send him to you. And in that day I shall know, you shall know that I am in my Father, you are in me and I in you. Now you will know Christ not after the flesh, but you know him in a oneness of intimacy of life and love and reality in your soul.

And because you have that fellowship with him, you love people now, not because one is black and the other is white. You don't care about the color of the skin. You don't care about the background and the race.

You don't care that because this flame burns through background, tradition, prejudice and everything until you love them. For the love of Jesus. See? See? Our gospel, our gospel is the answer for today.

Christian Warfare, Revival, and Faithfulness

Now, may I ask you, just in closing, what kind of people are you? Am I? I tell you, my friend, the future of this nation is in grave peril unless there is a revival of this. I want to be kind this morning, but I want to be realistic.

And I want to say what I believe is God's word for this hour. When I say to you that in the last 20 years, Satan has had an absolute millennium in North America because people have forgotten spiritual obligations in the enjoyment of material luxury.