Walking With God — Duncan Campbell

Amos 3 and the Call to Walk With God

Me to the book of Amos, and to chapter 3. Amos, chapter 3. Hear this word that the Lord hath spoken against you, O children of Israel, against the whole family which I brought up from the land of Egypt, saying, You only have I known of all the families of the earth, and therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities.

Can two walk together except they be agreed? Will a lion roar in the forest when he hath no prey? Will a young lion cry out of his den if he hath taken nothing? Can a bird fall in a snare upon the earth where no djinn is foreign?

Shall one take up a snare from the earth and have taken nothing at all? And shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid? Shall there be evil in a city, and the Lord hath not done it?

Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants, the prophets. The lion hath roared, who will not fear? The Lord God hath spoken, who can but prophesy. Amen. God will add his blessing to that reading from his word.

Shall we unite our hearts just for a moment in the fellowship of prayer? Our gracious God and loving Father, as we now wait before thy presence, we do desire to cast ourselves afresh upon thy mercy. And Lord, if we know anything at all about our own hearts, there isn't a moment but we need both mercy and grace.

So draw near to us now. And Lord, we find it in our hearts just to say, draw near, O draw near, and help thyself just to us. Help thyself just to us. For Jesus' sake. Amen. As the Lord may help me, I am anxious this morning to speak to you on walking with God.

Walking With God as a Christian Experience

Walking with God. In some parts of the country from which I have come, when announcing the courtship of a couple, they speak of them as walking out together. Have you heard that they're walking out together?

That is the very phrase used here as descriptive of a wonderful experience and possibility for man. You remember in Old Testament story, reference is made to a man who walked with God. Who walked with God.

It is to me a sublime conception of the Christian life. And there comes to my mind just now an incident in my own life that was greatly blessed to me. It was at a time when, as a Presbyterian minister, I was out of touch with God.

Oh, I regret having to say that. But for 17 years, I moved in a wilderness experience. But I'm thankful that God kept his hand on me. I am sitting at my desk in my study. It's between four and five o 'clock in the morning.

When I heard someone singing in the drawing room of the manse, I recognized the voice. It was the voice of my young daughter. And she's singing, coming, coming, yes they are, coming, coming from afar.

From the Indies and the Gandes, steady flows that living stream, to love's ocean, to its fullness, Calvary, their wandering theme. And something touched my heart. And I left my desk and went down to the drawing room and sat on a chair listening to the singing.

When my daughter had come to the last verse and finished it, she rose and came over to me and threw herself on my knees, put her arms round my neck, and said this, Oh, Daddy, isn't Jesus wonderful? Oh, Daddy, isn't Jesus wonderful?

I looked at her and asked the question, Tell me, what is it that makes Jesus so wonderful to you this morning? And her answer was what arrested me and through it brought me back to God. This is what she said, Daddy, I've just spent an hour with him.

Oh, Daddy, his presence is wonderful. Now that was about a quarter to five in the morning. And she had spent an hour with him and could say his presence is wonderful. I could not say that that morning.

Oh, I was busy preparing for the Keswick Convention. I was to speak at it. How deceitful the human heart can be. Oh, how it came home with conviction and power. Are you fit to address this convention on the deepening of the spiritual life?

You can't say that Jesus is wonderful. His presence is not supreme in your life, in your heart. And I had to bow before the searching beam of God and say, God, oh, God, have mercy upon me. That is why I keep saying there isn't a moment, but I need both mercy and grace.

He's God. Mercy and grace is at my disposal and at yours. This, to me, is a conception that needs to be emphasized, especially in these days, when the reality of the divine presence is not the dominating feature of much that goes under the name of Christian experience.

Knowing God Rather Than Merely Knowing About Him

You know as well as I do that the trend of the time in which we live is towards an experience without any real sense of God. Everything so real, but God. Publicity, endeavor, yes, and even decisions. So real, but God so unreal.

A young undergraduate student said to me, at Cambridge, I believe in God, but I do not know him. I remember Christ, but I do not realize him. He is dim, shadowy, and unreal, but he was a professing Christian.

He had made a decision at a crusade conducted by a prominent evangelist, but God was unreal to him. God was dim and shadowy, unreal. Of course, one leads one to say this, that knowing about God is nearly intellectual.

But I say you cannot know God and not realize it. I make bold to say that. This morning there is a realization when God sweeps in. I've heard evangelists, I've heard ministers say, take it by faith, never mind feeling.

Indeed, I heard again a great evangelist saying, I'm not greatly concerned about what people refer to as the presence of God in a meeting. What matters is faith. I leave the evangelist there, except to say this, that I didn't agree with him.

And I felt led to tell him that. Was it not Calvin who said, we are saved through faith alone, but the faith that saves is never alone? These are great words. Never alone. I would say, take it by faith and never mind feelings.

To my mind is bad advice. Say it again, bad advice. Because I believe that faith brings the fruits of the Spirit, and of course you know that the first three listed have to do with feelings. Love, is love a feeling?

Is love a realization? Of course it is. Joy, joy a feeling? Of course it is. Peace, is peace a feeling? I would say yes. Let the peace of God rule in your heart. I do believe that when we come into saving relationship with Jesus, and that happens, as we heard already, it happens in the twinkling of an eye.

When God sweeps in, when the Holy Ghost brings the personality of God, as I already said, into my personality, am I made conscious of it? I think I could say this morning that not for one single moment had I ever any reason to doubt the work that God did in my heart the night that God saved me.

Note what I say, never had any reason to doubt the work that God saved. But oh my brother, my sister, again and again I doubt it myself. I doubt it myself. Mark the realization of miracle, the glorious realization that God had mercy upon me, and brought me into saving and covenant relationship with himself.

Past remained with me, even when there were periods when I found myself doubting myself, bringing a measure of darkness into my soul. But could I ever doubt God? My God is a covenant-keeping God. Oh, I love that phrase.

So often quoted among God's people in the Hebrides, covenant-keeping God, that must be true to his covenant engagement. My sheep hear my voice, my sheep hear my voice, and I know them. I remember, oh I'm drifting from my address, but we've got to listen to the voice of God and do what he tells us.

Faith, Feeling, and the Assurance of Eternal Security

Oh, the address may go to the wind. I love to believe in the liberty of the Spirit. I was asked to address a meeting in Newcastle in England, and it was suggested to me that I should give a series of addresses on justification by faith.

Justification by faith, a new birth. I had to leave on the last night of the series, get my train for Edinburgh, and I was followed by a young man in a gorge, up to me, and faced me with this question, Mr. Campbell, do you believe in eternal security?

My dear brother, I said, of course I do. Of course I do. And then he said, praise the Lord, I knew that you were a Calvinist. I said, brother, just remain a second or two with me. Yes, I believe in eternal security on the basis of John 10 and 27.

My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me, and I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish. That is the ground of my confidence in eternal security. I said, young brother, listen, you've no ground whatsoever for believing in eternal security unless you're in a place where you hear the voice of God and follow him.

And I've said that, I've said it repeatedly. But the man who has entered into saving and covenant relationship, hear his voice, recognize his voice. Now coming back to our text, walking with God, might I say this, that if we are going to walk with God, we must be agreed, and perhaps I could say agreed on at least four things.

Four Agreements Required for Walking With God

I must be agreed on the place of meeting God as a tristing place, a tristing place, a place where I meet him. And then surely we must be agreed on the purpose of our walk. Why is it that we desire to walk together?

Surely in order that we get to know more about each other, more about Jesus, let me learn more of his holy will, his spirit of God, my teacher be showing the things of Christ to me. And bless God that continues.

As mentioned already, he has put eternity in our hearts. And I believe that through the countless ages of eternity, we'll be discovering more about God. We must be agreed there. And then I think we must also be agreed on the pace that we keep, that we keep stead, if we are going to walk together.

And lastly, if my time will permit, I'm sure we must be agreed on the cost of the outing. The cost of the outing. We must be agreed to obey God. For me, the cost lies just in absolute surrender, as we heard already this morning, absolute surrender to the will of God.

And brother, that costs. Thus then, let us consider our first thought, the place of meeting. I love that verse that we quote so often, bidding us come with boldness to the throne of grace. There to obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Meeting God at the Throne of Grace

An invitation and a promise. We thank God for those. The place of meeting is a throne, would I say a throne beneath the shadow of the cross. Oh, what a place. I'm sure that must have been the thought in the mind of the poet when he penned the words, Mercy streams, here I lie forever viewing.

Mercy streams in streams of blood. Precious drops my soul be doing. Claims and seals my peace with God. Mercy streams in streams of blood. The cross of Jesus becoming real. The throne, a glorious factor in my life.

Thou God, thou God, see us there. That is why I constantly stray the need of waiting upon God in the morning. My dear mother, now in the glory, I believe, had a principle that dominated her own Christian experience and she desired that it would dominate the lives of the children.

Begin the day with God. See his face first. Get near to him before you get near another. That was, I would say, a governing principle. Was it not the great Murray MacTrain who said, if we are to walk worthy of our high and holy calling, we must live in daily consideration of the greatness and glory of Jesus.

I'm not surprised that that dear man of God could say in a letter written to Andrew Bonner. MacTrain was then an assistant in Larbert outside of Stirling. Bonner was a minister in Glasgow. MacTrain is writing him.

And in his letter he said this. Matthew, I saw the letter. It was in the hands of an old elder where he got it. I just couldn't say that he had it. In the handwriting of Murray MacTrain himself, in that letter he said this.

Andrew, I seem to know Jesus Christ better than any of my earthly relatives. My dear people, when I read that, I could not but ask myself, oh my God, where am I? If that is normal Christian experience, my God, where am I?

I seem to know him better. Oh, we must ever remember that no amount of Christian service, no amount of labor in the vineyard, will make up for the neglect of the King himself. That was a thought that came very forcibly to me when I read that letter.

I seem to know him better. Now might I pause here and ask, what is your knowledge of him? Is your God real? Can you speak of him as a glorious realization? God in me, the hope of glory, the anchor to the soul, both sure and steadfast.

I came across a sentence in a book written by Major Ian Thomas of Kepenbay Hall, England, a man who has been frequently here in America and has spoken at different conventions. In one of his books he asks this question, what difference would it make in your life if word came from heaven now that God had died?

A startling question. Brother, may I ask what difference would it make in your life if God is real to you? If you have entered into saving and covenant relationship with God, oh, such an intimation would shake you to your very foundations.

Brother, if God isn't real to you, how real is he to you this morning? Tell me, have you met him this morning? Has he spoken to you this morning? Oh, sister, is he real and a presence possessing you with a deep hunger in your heart after him?

If that is not true, my brother, it would make no difference whatsoever though word came that God was dead, because your God is dead. I was addressing a series of meetings in Toronto in Canada four years ago, as far as I remember, four years ago, and I quoted what I've just quoted from the book by Major Ian Thomas.

And I asked, what difference? At the close of the service, a vicar from the Episcopal Church came up to me and said it would make no difference at all, as far as I'm concerned, because I do not seem to know the God that you seem to know.

Now, I believe that that man was honest, and I've recently believed that a short time after that, according to his own letter, God became real to him. And I want to ask again, oh, let's face it, let's face it, what difference would it make in your life?

You would be here tomorrow, yes? You would go back talking about the wonderful time of fellowship we had. Oh, you would. No difference. Just remain the same. Oh, give me a man to whom God is real. And I will point to a man that is different.

That is different. Life also of Jesus made manifest through my mortal flesh. A man who walks with God. Father, we must be agreed on the purpose of our walk. Why is it, oh, why is it that I desire to walk out with God?

The Purpose of Walking With God

It's surely because I need him. I dare not take one step without finding him. Is that not what the poet said? It is of course in order that I get to know him. I'm sure this is why Paul walked out with God.

Remember his prayer that I might know him. And the power of his resurrection. Oh, I know him, but I want to know him still. I want to know him, but oh, God, let me know the power that is vested in him.

The power of his resurrection. I believe, dear people, as I think I mentioned already, that I believe that God has a plan and a program for every child born again of God's Spirit. Boston said this, every man born again of the Spirit of God has his work borne with him.

No, I believe that. I believe that. I can't believe anything else. God doesn't throw me into the world on chance to muddle my way through life. I can't believe in a God that would do that. I believe that he has a plan, a program, and a purpose.

To me, what I see as the determining factor in life's destiny is to recognize that. Now, it's a very arresting passage in the book of Psalms. David tells me that he went into the temple to behold the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple.

That, to me, is a great laugh. Of course, we all love to behold the beauty of the Lord, a wonderful church, oh, what a choir, wonderful. I'm thrilled by it all, the beauty of the Lord. David said that he loved to behold the beauty of the Lord.

But he went further than that and to inquire in his temple. Now, I wonder how many of us bring the spirit of inquiry into our devotions. Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? That what you prayed this morning?

Oh, brother, sister, did you bring the spirit of inquiry? God, have you a word for me today? God, are you going to bring me low at your feet? God, if that would help me do it, who was it said, we must get down before we can get up?

I believe that, to be humble in the presence of God. Now, let me quote again what one of our workers, addressing a conference of ministers some time ago, this is what she said. But God is bound by covenant promise to send revival when we humble ourselves and pray.

There's a difference. Oh, there's a difference. We can be praying and our prayers be just the laughingstock of devils. I'm going to be on the roof. When we humble ourselves, when we are brought low at his feet and there feel the touch of his lifting hand into that realization of his presence.

And I walk out with him and he walks with God. And I'm in agreement. Oh, God, reveal your plan and your purpose for my life today. As I walk, he talks. Oh, brother, sister, I believe that that is just the place where God wills to bring us to today.

Walking in God’s Pace and Following His Pattern

This, to me, is the beginning of revival. This, to me, is heart preparation for a movement of God. I seem to know him better. That was, according to the date on the letter, was before McChain went to Palestine and left another minister to take his service.

During that season away from his congregation and his people ministered to by this dear man of God, revival broke out in his congregation. When Murray McChain heard of it, he praised God. He was so thankful that God had used this instrument and not just him himself.

That's a mark of a Christian. A mark frowned on the man who walks with God. God send revival. I'm not concerned as to who you will use. I'm not troubled about the instrument or the church or the denomination.

You do it and I will praise you for it. That is a mark on the man who walks with God. God, if you want to send revival during these days at this camp meeting, God send it. But I'll be happy if you break out somewhere else.

My dear people, that's a spirit that dominates the soul, the heart of a man who knows God and walks with him. Oh, my dear people, tell me, are we there? Oh, are we there? Oh, in the place where we are happy for God to help, to help himself to us.

Just to help himself to us. Oh, I'm so thankful that there came a moment in my life when I was able to say, kneeling beside my young daughter, oh, that lassie to whom I owe so much, kneeling beside her, and I heard her say, oh, Jesus, can you help yourself to me today?

Can you help yourself to me today? And I found myself saying, oh, God, get me there. Oh, God, get me there in the place where you can help yourself to me. God, tell me, are you there? Are you there? My God, am I there?

I face it again and again on my knees in my room this morning. I ask God, am I there? Am I fit to go to this meeting? Am I there? And I believe, oh, I believe that he put his hand upon my soul and said to me, brother, I believe you're there.

I believe you're there. And I'm going to help myself to you. Unworthy, how unworthy. There are times, my dear people, when I feel crushed to the ground. Crushed to the ground. Oh, God, why is it? How is it that you can take up a worm of the dust?

Then a word on the pace we set. Now here we are tempted to do one of two things. I believe that we are tempted to lag behind or go before. For instance, when the will of God appears as a cross to carry or a difficulty to face the strange thoughts that come to our mind.

God, I would rather be out of it all. I'd rather be out of it all. God, how is it you're dealing thus with me? And too often there's a slowing down. Sometimes to question and often to complain. Why is thou dealt thus with me?

Oh, God, why do we lag behind? Oh, brother, I've had that experience. I've had that experience. Why is it, Lord? So far as I know my own heart, I'm trying to serve you. I'm trying to live for you. But how is it, Lord, that I'm in the dark?

Oh, God, I can't understand it. Is it, Lord, that you've got me in the school of discipline where you're anxious for me to get deeper with yourself? And I remain there until in his love and in his mercy he comes again.

Instead of waiting for the unfolding of God's purpose. And I suddenly begin to realize that God has a plan and God has a purpose. Somehow I take a step. In a short time I see to be unwise. I forget that God is still saying, see and do it according to the pattern that I should be.

Speaking to Moses, I'm glad that Moses listened and did not say, God, I think I can improve on your program. That's what men are doing today. Oh, that's why you've got this and that thing introduced into Christian service.

And we have this group and that group. Oh, may God help us. See that thou do it according to the pattern that I should be. That's why I have kept saying at the risk of being fearfully misunderstood that God has a plan and a program.

Preach the word. Preach the word. Sing the word and live the word. And I've said again and again beyond that, God is not in it. He will bless the word. He will bless the singing of the word. Oh, how my soul was thrilled listening to those dear lasses that were singing today.

I said as I sat there, thank you, Lord. That is just in line with the truth that you've given me for this morning. Live the word. Oh, let it. Jesus went to every city preaching and showing the gospel of the kingdom.

It's one thing to preach. Oh, give me a man that shows the gospel of the king. And to me, that is just the way that God works and God honors. I cannot believe that he will honor anything else outside of that.

I'm simple enough to believe that. But here you have a man to whom God made a covenant. He became impatient. God, I think I can improve. I think I can help you to fulfill your covenant engagement. And you remember what happened.

He forced Ishmael into his life. He forced Ishmael. And Ishmael hath remained a thorn in the flesh of the church of Jesus Christ to this very day of Abraham's folly. But did not wait for God to do it and fulfill his purpose.

Now, I believe that here we have a very important lesson to learn. Is it not true that at times we become very impatient? Oh, why is God so slow? My God, why is it that you're not coming in revival? We're praying.

Oh, we're praying. My God, why are you so slow? Is that your language? Oh, brother, be careful. Be careful. Philip Brooks is impatiently pacing the floor of his study. And while there, he is visited by a brother minister, a friend of his.

Brooks is very restless, agitated, walking on the floor of his study. And at last, the friend addressed him and said, Brooks, what is the matter with you? What is the matter with you? What's the matter with me?

I'll tell you. I'm in a hurry and God ain't. Or God isn't. I'm in a hurry and God ain't. Oh, my dear people, we may have to learn that the waiting may be the field of our discipline. The field of our discipline.

Waiting for Revival and the Discipline of Patience

I knew an elder in the Church of Scotland, the Presbyterian Church, that was burdened for revival. Oh, he was a wonderful man of God. And way back in 1921, he found the Savior kneeling beside his plow.

And God did a great work in the heart of Jimmy McMillan. And there came a day when this dear man found himself under a burden for his own parish. Oh, things were low. And God laid it upon his heart to humble himself and take a low place in the session.

He was an elder. And he went as far as to say to his minister, don't ask me to pray. I'm unworthy. And of course, all knew that he was a man that walked with God. He said, I feel led to give myself to waiting upon God.

And the Lord has laid it upon my heart to go to a certain village in the parish and ask permission to wait on Sunday afternoon in quiet waiting upon God. And that is why you won't see me at the prayer meeting in the church prior to the evening service.

For seven years, that elder went to that village and waited upon God in prayer, asking God to fulfill his covenant engagement to pour water on the thirsty and floods upon the dry ground. Seven years. And during that period, oh, the stream of vital Christianity went down, went down, went down in the parish.

Until, in his own words, the tide went out as far as it could go. But there came a moment when it turned. After seven years of waiting, God sent revival to the parish. Sent revival to the parish. And I was in that village where he prayed.

Some years after the movement, I wasn't in the midst of it, knew nothing at all about it at its beginning. But there wasn't a single house in this particular village that had an unsafe soul in it. Oh, God swept in.

A man waited for God to do it. And God did it. Brother, though it take wait for it. My dear people, that's why I'm in America just now. I'm telling it straight from my heart. I'm waiting for God to do something.

And I believe that God is going to do it. How real that became to me some years ago at Prairie Bible Institute. I'm going to doubt God. Oh, God, help me to wait. Help me to keep in step with your purpose.

And if you want to keep me in the school of discipline, God, keep me there. Keep me there. Just one word in closing on the cost of the outing. Of course, it's going to cost. And it just means this. I know that there are some dear people and they sing, take my life and let it be.

Absolute Surrender and the Cost of Revival

Just let it be. God, don't trouble me. The verse goes on to say, take my life and let it be consecrated, Lord, to thee. But they stop before the consecration. Take my life. Oh, yes, take my life. But God, let it be.

I don't want to be involved in prayer as others seem to be involved. Just let me be. Oh, I want to be a Christian. I want to go to the camp meeting. Of course, I do. It's the right thing. But God, don't disturb me.

Now, you may not see that with your lips, but you know that's the language of your heart. Oh, my dear people, we want honesty. We want sincerity. Take my life, but my God, let it be consecrated, Lord.

Is that not what we listen to this morning? Oh, take everything. Brother, God is not prepared for half measures. Hudson Taylor addressing a meeting in Perth in Scotland said, He will have all or nothing at all.

Absolute surrender to the will of God. I believe that the bedrock of Christianity is personal devotion to Jesus and that devotion expressed in the sacrificial giving of myself. I believe that at this time there has been and there will be a demonstration of generous giving.

I believe this camp came into being because of generous giving. I believe that. But, brother, blessing comes through sacrificial giving. Through sacrificial giving. That is the price of blessing and the cost of revival.

The giving of myself with no reservation. Sacrificial giving, brother, is the cost. And if you're not prepared to give it, oh, for God's sake, stop talking about revival. Stop talking about your burden.

Stop talking about the need to wait upon God in prayer. Oh, stop it. Stop it. It stinks in the nostrils of God. Sacrificial giving. The giving that costs. I'm sure that must have been the thought in the mind of the poet.

Not thou may'st be satisfied. Brother, that is the place of blessing. And that surely is the price of revival. The giving.