Total Commitment — George Verwer

In the Old Testament there's a man called Elisha if you live in England, Elisha if you come from Scotland. And at the death of Elisha or Elisha there is 50 years, a 50 year period in the Old Testament.

And in that half century there is no recorded evidence of a prophet or a servant of God speaking. So it's rather remarkable that between the Old and the New Testament you have 400 years of silence where there is no recorded divine message.

And yet further back in the Old Testament you have 50 years where God has not spoken decisively to the nation. So after the death of Elisha 50 years passed and in those 50 years there arose in Israel and around Israel a new civilization, beyond them there was a new world, there was a new power and to the throne of Israel there came a whiz kid king called Jeroboam II and with great prestige, with political know-how, with military strategy he raised his little kingdom of Israel to an almost secure position.

Amos and Hosea Proclaim Judgment and Mercy

And at the end of the 50 years of silence God called two men. The first man he called was called Amos and when Amos came to preach he preached this way. He said to the people of Israel if you do not repent this is what's going to happen to you and you will lift the judgment of God.

So Amos preaches prepare to meet the Lord thy God. But ten years later and running alongside of Amos' ministry the Lord called a man by the name of Hosea. And Hosea preached like this, he preached and said if you do repent God will give you this blessing, that blessing, many blessings.

Now when you come to the prophecy of Hosea you see there a tear stained scroll of sympathetic and sacrificial love because this man Hosea comes from a broken home, his wife has forsaken him, she has left him in an emotional turmoil but in and through it all God works.

So this big hearted prophet with pity, with the vision of a poet, with the inspiration of a prophet brings us our text tonight and he says this, I will be as the dew, that's D-E-W, to Israel and that text has been burning in my heart and I believe that the Bible is the authoritative word of God.

My Bible is a God breathed canon. So when God takes up the analogy and he says I will be as the dew unto Israel he has good reasons for choosing that picture or that analogy and as we understand the meaningfulness of the dew tonight we're going to discover why our lives are dry and arid and unattractive.

Now how does the dew come? When the dew comes it comes quietly, it comes imperceptibly, nobody hears it coming, nobody is up in the dark hours to see it coming but when they awaken in the morning and go out into the morning hour they see the fields, the leaves of the tree, all of the landscape bathed with dew, there has been a divine baptism but it came silently.

The Dew as a Picture of Christ's Incarnation, Death, and Resurrection

Now I don't know if you have been to Niagara Falls, I'm sure that many of you have, especially the Canadians amongst us, but if you stand before Niagara Falls and you watch the millions upon millions of tons of water cascading over the precipice you know that to stand beneath that cascading water means instant death.

Now Jesus our Saviour is the divine Niagara and if he had come from heaven with all the fullness, with all the force of his divine glory in Niagara Power there is no man or woman could have withstood it but when the divine Niagara came he distilled as the dew, he came quietly, he came in all humility so when I think of God saying to us I will be as the dew unto you he's telling me about the incarnation, the birth of Jesus when God came in the flesh quietly without overwhelming power.

But here's something else about the dew, in Psalm 133 God uses two pictures of unity. Now it's very difficult to have unity in a school, in a church and many blessings are lost because of this unity. Now if you go to Psalm 133 you will find that the first unity or symbol of unity is the holy anointing oil, the priestly oil of consecration and the anointing oil of devoutness.

So here's the analogy if you just watch me for one moment. Now even the high priest goes into the holy place before he goes in representing the people this is what has to happen. You have the high priest receiving the oil of devoutness so the Bible says it's poured on his deep thinking lofty venerable head.

It flows down onto his beard, onto his priestly robes until it comes to the fringe that kisses the dust. Now says God when the high priest Aaron comes into my presence from head to toe he is a total complete unified person.

That's what I mean when I speak about unity. But God said something else. He said unity is like the dew that falls in Mount Hermon in the north that touches the hills of Galilee that goes to the hills of Judea in the south and as the dew comes like a baptism it takes all of the holy land and makes it one.

It speaks of unity. Now God says I will be as the dew unto you and if the dew reminds us of the humility and the coming quietly of Jesus at his birth then the dew also reminds us that when Jesus died on the cross he broke down the middle wall of partition between Jew and Gentile.

In other words when he died for us he brought about the way the redemptive way for you and me to be one. Now I have no time for racial discrimination. I think it's wrong. It's unbiblical and cannot be defended from the scriptures and when we claim to be Christ there must be that baptism upon us that we have unity.

There is nothing in us or around us that should spoil the unity accomplished in his death. Now occasionally in our country here you get a drought not often but sometimes. And when you get a drought people say you can't use water to hose your gardens you can't wash your car so there's a restriction.

When this happened when I was in Richmond and I had a very big garden there I always noticed this. I look at the garden in the evening. The grass looked sort of jaded. There was no light in the flowers.

The tender shrubs seemed almost on the point of wilting and even the leaves on the trees looked bedraggled. But in the morning because the dew had come during the night you would go you would walk on the grass and you would find the grass had revived.

The shrubs looked different. The flowers were lifting their heads because as the dew had come it came with vitality which it insinuated into the plant. It brought a new sense of life. So when God says I will be as the dew he speaks of the humility of the birth of Jesus.

He speaks of the unity in the death of Jesus. He speaks in the vitality of the resurrection of Jesus. Now if you want to read some good books if you come across a man called Dr. J .S. Stuart a Scottish preacher get his sermons.

Read them. He's an outstanding preacher and his language is absolutely captivating and his spirituality. But he asks what is the symbol of New Testament Christianity. It's not a dead Christ or a crucifix.

That's not the symbol of Christianity. But he said when you come to the New Testament the symbol of New Testament Christianity is a risen Christ trampling beneath his feet the cross on which he died. That's the Jesus we worship.

He is alive from the dead. And so when I come to Easter Sunday and stand before my church I say to them I've got great news for you. He is risen. And they sit there and I say what's your response. Hallelujah.

Pardon. Hallelujah. You see our Christ is alive. And when God said I will be as the Jew he's taking up this lovely analogy. We think of the humility of Jesus birth the unity involved in his death and the vitality and power in his resurrection.

Receiving From God and Giving Back in Consecration

Now here's the problem. How do you. How can I have the Jew in my life. That's the problem. Now how is the Jew for him. During the day the earth imbibes all the warmth and the heat the sun gives all day takes in all the warmth all the heat.

Then the sun sets. Now note what happens. What the earth has received in during the day. It gives back during the night. And in that reciprocal action that two way action. The Jew is formed. There can be no Jew.

If the earth receives and holds and doesn't give back. There must be giving back. So I hear Christians say God gave me and God gave me and God imparted to me and God bestowed on me. I ask what is the Jew what have you given back to God.

And unless you give back to him you will have no Jew on your life. In other words there will be no unction no beautiful refreshment no captivating attractiveness. Now I say to you and I see it as a message from God.

I don't care how many lectures you've listened to. I don't care so much about how many notes you've taken. I'm not so much concerned about how clever or how prestigious you may have been in the college.

What I'm asking you is this. Have you given your life back to him. If not there's no Jew in your life and you can go back to your church to your country and there's nothing change. You are still selfish.

Because you haven't given back. You may have come here to escape. From a family. From a setup. And coming here has meant nothing. I say to you if you want to have the unction of God upon you the Jew in your life and on your life you've got to give back.

They say in the scriptures we love him. Why. Because he first loved us we love him. He gives to us we give to him. In Israel there's the Sea of Galilee. It's a freshwater lake. The river Jordan flows in at the north comes out at the south.

The river brings in life and it also goes out as life. The Sea of Galilee is full of fish. You see them all around the edge of the lake. It is alive. But then the Jordan flows on and it goes into the Dead Sea and the Dead Sea has no outlet.

And the Dead Sea is a salt sea. And nothing lives in the Dead Sea. Nothing. It is dead because it has no outlet. And some Christians are like the Lake of Galilee. They receive and they give and they're fresh.

They're alive. There's something to offer. And others go through their lives like the dead. See they always want prayers for themselves. Gifts for themselves. All for self. But they never give anything.

And they're dead. They need revived. They need refreshed. So I'm asking you tonight. Do you have the Jew of God upon your life? That's the test. Do you have the Jew of God upon your life? It doesn't matter how old you are or how young you are.

This is the test. And many, many times the Lord has brought me to my knees and saying you're getting self-centered again. When you get self-centered you lose the unction. The Jew is not there. I'll tell you some reasons why the Jew is not formed.

Removing the Clouds That Block Spiritual Refreshment

You see if you've got a cloudy night the Jew is never formed on the ground. So if there's clouds, low lying clouds there's no Jew. Because that action cannot take place. I want you to look above your head.

And I mean this. If you have any cloud of bitterness or hate against anyone here in your school you don't know the Jew of God. If you look above your head and there's a lowering cloud above you that's called envy, self-interest, wrong thoughts.

These are the clouds that prevent the Jew of God from forming. So the sky has to be blue in communion. And when we come to the Lord in prayer we must look up into his face and there's no clouds obscuring his face and because of that the Jew can form.

In my garden, that large garden I've been telling you about, we had a very large wall around it. Nine feet high it was. Very private. And so when the Jew came, this is what I noticed as you watched the wall, you had to come out about nine to twelve inches before you could see the Jew.

In other words because the ground or the soil was so close to the wall the Jew could not form there. You can be in college with very little money, with very little material things and still be materialistic.

You live too near to the things that are materialistic. And if you live close to the things that are materialistic, you can be sure of this, you will never have the Jew of God in your life. In other words, you have to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.

That is your priority first. And if you reverse the priority there is no Jew in your life. Here's something else. You will never get the Jew on the ground when there's a stormy atmosphere of agitation.

Now I speak to a lot of you. I sit at tables with you at meals. I'm always watching you know. You're watching me so I'm watching you. When you meet people who are agitated, who are uptight, who don't know what it is to have heart harmony with God in serenity and spirituality, you can be sure the Jew of God isn't on them.

Because if you are a Christian, the peace of God which passes all understanding should guard your mind, your mental life, your heart, your emotional life. And as the Jew of God comes upon you, he can only come upon you when you are serene.

Should you be agitated, you're quick tempered, the Jew of God is not there. Now here's something else too. The Jew of God always comes in the darkness. My greatest blessings have come to me in the darkness.

I don't welcome crises. I hate trouble as much as you do. But I have found if I've gone to hospital for a bit of surgery or I've faced opposition or something's just been pressing on me and pressurizing me and I feel everything is dark, that is when the Jew of God comes upon you.

So sometimes you have to thank God for the dark times. I was sharing with two of the students tonight about a lady in my former church. She got married. Six months after she got married, she had major surgery.

Three months after that, her husband had major surgery. She nursed him for the best part of a year and he died, so she was only married under two years. After he died, she had another lot of major surgery.

Then her mother died and her father died. And she told this story and I said to her, and what happened to you? She said, you know, in that dark decade, as she called the seventies, she said, in that dark decade, God did something beautiful in my life.

And she said, I am what I am now because I've passed through the darkness. And I prophesy on the basis of the word of God that you will never be exempt from the darkness. You will all be called at some time in your life to pass through the darkness.

But I want you to remember my words that when you're in the darkness, it's then that God can come close. And if you're in the right attitude, despite the darkness, the Jew of God will come upon you. Now I often use this little story, but I think it's good.

Christ's Atonement in the Darkness

I find that preachers get fooled and mixed up about the word eternity. You know, someone says, God has loved you from one eternity to the other. There's not two eternities, is there? Only one. So someone says to me, God has loved you from the beginning of eternity.

I say, hold it. You cannot speak of eternity having a beginning. It doesn't have a beginning. So don't speak about the beginning of something that's no beginning. Or you get a young fellow who comes to college.

He falls in love with a young girl here. Somehow or other, he manages to speak to her alone and he kneels before her as he ought to do, proposing. And he says to her, you know, if you marry me, I will love you till the end of eternity.

He doesn't know his theology. Eternity doesn't have an end. It doesn't have a beginning. And there are not two of them. But I want to ask you and think about it. If someone asked you, what is the center of eternity?

Where is its central area? How would you answer that? To me, the center point of eternity is that three hours of darkness. When Jesus died on the cross and he cried out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

And in the darkness, he bought my soul. He died for my sins. He died for our atonement. And he understands the darkness. And that's why the Jew always comes in the darkness. Now, says the Lord, if the Jew comes upon, you will grow like lily.

Spiritual Growth as Lily, Cedar, Olive, and Fragrance

Now, the strange thing about the lily of Palestine is this is a kind of Palestinian or a red anemone. And they tell me that in the very hot weather, sometimes that bloom will only last for one day. Now, here's the Lord Jesus speaking.

He says, you see that lily, that lily that the only bloom for one day. I'm telling you that Solomon, who reigned for 40 years as a royal person, was never dressed like that lily. What a comparison. Now, the lily grows swiftly.

And if you're going to the Jew of God upon you, there will be evidence of growth in your life. But not only that, it says you will grow like the cedar of Lebanon, putting down your roots. You will grow strongly.

I'm back to that old garden of mine in Richmond. We had some lovely elm trees when I arrived, beautiful elm trees that gave seclusion to the garden. Then a man came to me and said, sorry, pastor, you've got the Dutch elm disease there.

They've all got to come down. And what an agony it was seeing them sawing down all of these lovely elm trees. Beautiful. Years and years of growth. So a man in the church who's a botanist at Kew Gardens, and he writes in the Bible dictionaries about the flora of Israel and the trees and so on.

He said, pastor, we're going to give you a Bible garden. Give me a Judas tree. I never heard of a Judas tree. Give us a cedar of Lebanon. They planted the cedar of Lebanon. So we had a garden party and 300 of the church people came to the garden party and an old lady came and said to me, pastor, where is the cedar of Lebanon?

Well, I said, that's it over there standing about eight or nine feet high. She said, is that the cedar? I said, yes. Are you sure? I said, I'm positive. She said, but I thought the cedars of Lebanon were big.

Well, I said, it will be someday. I said, you know, I was born as a baby. This is true. I was 14 pounds when I was born, quite a heavy baby. All right. I know there should have been two of us, but there was only one.

And I said, you see that tree will develop. It will grow, but it takes time to grow. But the cedar of Lebanon does this for all its growth above ground. The tap root will balance that growth. And it's no use coming to any college or going to a church and showing all surface growth without growing like the cedar of Lebanon and having the debt.

The Bible says something else. You shall grow like the branches of, of the cedar that shall grow spreadingly. And what happens is this, that in a warm climate, unlike the UK people, they go and they lie out in the sun and get burned to death.

People who live in that climate always go to the shade in East Africa. All the African people shake their heads at white people lying out there in the sun. They go to the shade. They're sensible. And you see, if you have the Jew of God upon, you will grow swiftly like the lily.

You will grow strong like the roots of the cedar and you will grow spreadingly. What do I mean? You will get people shaved. An old man came to me. It was called Charles. He was converted at 74. That ties at 75.

The Lord spared until he was 81. And he said to me, pastor, why is it that all the young people in this church come to me? I can't understand it. They're so friendly. I said, Charlie, they don't come to you because they're friendly.

They come to you because when they come to your home and they share with you, they find shade and shelter because you've got a pastoral heart. The people will never come to you never to ask for help unless you're growing with the Jew of God upon you that you can give shade and solace and comfort.

Then you will grow like the olive tree, it says. Now the olive tree grows stately. There's a beauty about it. When I became a Christian, I became a Christian, not because I had an eloquent sermon, but I saw an eloquent life.

And I went to this fellow and I said to him, Bob, what's the secret of your triumphant living? And he looked at me and said, Jesus. And I got angry with him. I said, don't talk to me like that. He said, I'm telling you the truth.

And he lived a life that was stately and pure in the midst of corruption. And he did it to the glory of God and had an impact in my life. Now you shall grow up the scent of the cedar, the fragrance. Now my daughters always give me aftershave.

I think they're telling me something. Try this one, dad. I think they're telling me something. They like dad to smell fragrant. But you see, if you've got a bad atmosphere about you, that's because of your inner life.

And you can't do anything about that because you would have to be an actor of the quality to gain an Oscar because you can only get people close to you. If there's something attractive about your life.

And this book says, if the Jew of God is upon you shall grow with the fragrance of Lebanon, the seed of a fragrance about them. And if you walk into the cedar of Lebanon forest and the winds whispering through the trees and coming into your face, your hair and your garments, you will find that every part of you is impregnated with that lovely fragrance.

When the spirit of God and the Jew of God and bring the beauty and the fragrance of the Lord Jesus Christ. There's that about us. That's so attractive in you tonight is the Jew of God upon you. You know, I came from an industrial belt and I made a desperate mistake in one of the loveliest passages of the Bible where it says, he lead me beside the still water, Sam 23.

The Still Waters and the Experience of Revival

Do you know what I thought? Forgive me for my foolishness, but I thought here is a river or a brook and it's fairly deep and it's running silently. And here's the sheep coming to the embankment and the shepherds with them.

And he's saying, now here are the waters, the still waters drink. That's what I thought. And it's wrong. And I said, Lord, I'm sorry for years. I thought that and I'm wrong. Do you know what it is? You see, they called the Jew, the still waters.

And you see what the shepherd would do is this in the evening when the sun was setting, he would take his sheep, his flock, not onto the pasture ground, but beside it for this reason that during the night that you would come.

And you see, they were beside the still water. And before the sun could rise fully, the shepherd would then lead his sheep from beside the still waters into the still waters and they would eat their grass and get their pasture and also get their liquid fluid for that day.

And the Lord is saying to you and to me, I want to lead you beside the still waters. When the Jew comes, you will be there to feast, to drink, and your life will be refreshed. Folks, this is spiritual revival.

When the Jew of God is upon you. Now, my challenge to you tonight is this. What are you going to do with your life? Has there ever been an occasion in your life when you visibly, determinately said, Lord, I'm open to you.

Total Consecration and a Call to Respond

Now, I want you to listen carefully to what I'm suggesting. In a few moments, we're going to do an unusual thing. It's quite simple, but unusual. We're going to sing a closing song. And I want you when I ask you to turn to it, to turn to it quietly.

And I want you to forget that this is a lecture hall. I want you to think of this as God's sanctuary, his holy of holies, where the Jew of God is ready to descend upon us. And we're going to sing a song, remaining seated.

But in every line of the song, there's going to be an emphasis. For example, the first verse will say, take my life and let it be. It may be that tonight you want to say, Lord, I'm giving you my life.

So you will stand there and say, Lord, take my life and let it be. You will stand indicating that this is you meeting business with God, or he will say to you, look at the next part, take my moments in my days.

We heard in the solo area, let them flow and ceaseless praise. So you will respond to that or take my hands and let them move. Because all of us can't be front people. Some of us need our hands to work at trades, to play instruments, like the piano, the guitar.

And you will say, Lord, take my hands. Let them move at the impulse of thy love. Take my feet, my voice, my life. Fill it with messages. You want to be a preacher. Take my silver and my gold. Take my intellect.

If you want to be a teacher, take my will. Take my love. And I'm suggesting this, that as we sing it seated, you will stand where you believe the Lord is challenging you to respond. As you stand quietly and prayerfully, I will give a prayer at the end of consecration and pray that the Jew of God may fall upon this congregation and upon our lives.

Prayer for the Holy Spirit, Renewal, and Revival

So let's turn quietly to 212. Take my life and let it be consecrated, Lord, to thee. Heavenly Father, we thank you that for us, the Lord Jesus Christ is incomparable. There is no one like him. And we thank you that he demands everything we have.

And we just praise you that tonight you've challenged my life and you've challenged the lives now responding here before you. And Father, I pray in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, that the nail pierced hands of Jesus may be upon the shoulders of each one here who is standing in dedication.

And I pray that even at this moment, you will fill them with all the fullness of your Holy Spirit, that the dynamism that comes from the Spirit alone may be the experience of these dear people. And Father, for those of us who in our hearts have already made this kind of response, we pray that our renewal of dedication tonight may have such an impact upon us that we may see and know revival in our hearts and in our school.

Lord, may the Spirit himself sweep through this whole area. And may Jesus Christ have all the praise, the honor, and the glory. We ask this, committing ourselves to him now. And we do it in his name. Amen.