This past week I received a book in the mail that was printed in 1918 -- just a month and a week past being exactly one hundred years ago! The book contains the addresses presented by various people at the Philadelphia Prophetic Conference in May of 1918. As a lover of history I had to read through it to see if what was said then was relevant to today. Much of it was, of course, since it centers around the Bible. Yet because it took place the year WWI ended, eleven years before the stock market crash of 1929 and the Great Depression, and about 20 years before the outbreak of WWII, some of the applications of the Bible were obviously dated.
I particularly enjoyed the presentation of
one Pastor Herbert Mackenzie, a former missionary to Africa
who "retired" to take a church pastorate in
Cleveland, Ohio. This message, entitled, "Does This Truth
Paralyze or Energize?" focuses on Matthew 24:14, "This
Gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world, as a testimony to
all nations, and then the end shall come," and the command
in II Timothy 4:1 to, "preach the word in
season and out" in view of Christ's appearing and His
kingdom. I hope you might find encouragement through it as well.
Enjoy.
"Jesus has said unto us, 'Go ye therefore into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature.' In light of this war, we all recognize our duty as citizens to to do our best for our country, and for the world in a crisis as grave as the one which we are now passing through. We also recognize we have a Leader (Jesus Christ) who is leading us on in a spiritual conflict; that we have a commission which must be obeyed and completed in order that He may come again and receive us unto Himself.
Doctrine always decides duty. It does matter what a man
believes... Doctrine is the plan of teaching that precedes the plan of
duty... The doctrine is intended to be the inspiration that gives us the
impulse and impetus to obey all the commands of our Lord... A man asked me
not so long ago what was the greatest thing he could do for God. I said, 'The
greatest thing that you can do for Him is to do what He is doing.' That
is what God wants for you and me to do. To long for that for which Christ
is longing. And Christ is longing to see a completed body; a body that must be
drawn out from all the people of the earth. Those who know the Lord's purpose
do not need to be given any personal appeals. I have never asked any individual
for a dollar for missions in 20 years. Men whose hearts are touched by the
promise of the Lord's return need only to be informed of the need and are
satisfied to give their best to the Lord, for they live in the light of the
gleams of the coming glory...
The Word of God instructs us concerning the plan
of God for our service. Somebody has said that Judaism and heathen religions
have respect for boundaries and are content to leave everyone else alone. But
the man who knows the plan of God is not willing to leave anyone alone.
It does not matter how near or far away the man may be who needs the Gospel. I
have come to the conclusion (by examining my own heart) that we can never be
like Christ until we love the world. Christ loved the world, and no man
can begin to be like Him until in some measure he too can say, 'I love the
world'...
In the first chapter of Acts Jesus says to His
disciples, "But you shall receive power after the Holy Ghost is come upon
you, and you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and to
the uttermost parts of the earth." And those disciples knew what he
meant by 'witnesses.' For that word witness (marturos) means 'martyr-testifiers.'
Those men knew when He uttered that word that this testimony which they were
called to give, this witness which was to be their work, was to be of more
value to them than their own lives. There are boys, perhaps your boys, your
brother, your friend, who will lay down their life, or are
willing to lay down their life, for their country in this war. Yet
there is something wrong with you, and with me, if our lives are worth more in
our sight than the witness for Christ which He has left to our trust...
Years ago (in the early 1890's) I was traveling
through Central Sudan. I found that from the west coast clear up to Lake
Chad about 40 tribes were waiting for the Gospel. Only one tribe of the
40 had the complete record of the Scriptures. Forty tribes in ignorance
(of the Word), in idolatry, in superstition, steeped in paganism -- with a
thousand Moslem teachers and traders sent out to convert them from paganism to
Mohammedanism. All that in comparison to one Christian missionary sent out by
the entire church of God. I walked 17 miles a day for 7 days without
finding a trace of any person who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Scores of villages waiting, waiting, WAITING -- while you and I are enjoying
the fullness of His blessing, sitting at His feet and looking into His blessed
face. My time (because of my age) has gone. I want, however, to say this.
Somebody has spoken here about rewards. Somebody has said in this conference
something about taking a crown and laying it at His feet. I know of no other
way of securing a crown to lay at His feet than by gaining it in the work of
soul winning; of making known to the world the glories of His cross.
There was a moment in the life of the Lord Jesus
when He stood before that earthly judge, took the curse from beneath our feet,
and permitted His enemies to take those thorns and entwine them into a crown
and place it on His brow. He loved us enough to take earth's curse from beneath
our feet and to lift it to His blessed brow. Oh, what a delight that some
day we may be able to take the crown which He has placed upon our heads and
consider that the highest that He can give to us for our service, is only
worthy to be placed at the feet of Him whose shoe latchet John tells us we are
unworthy to loosen."
Sudan is still a place which needs to be reached
with the Gospel, as are many other places in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia
-- not to mention (due to the changes in the spiritual climate since this book
was published in 1918) the former strongholds of the Christian faith --
Britain, Continental Europe, Canada and the U.S. What he pointed
out then is still true today -- "there is something wrong with you, and with me, if our lives
are worth more in our sight than the witness for Christ which He has left to
our trust..." If we would be willing to die in the service of our country, but
not in the service of our Lord, something is terribly wrong deep in the
recesses of our soul.
The truth of Matthew 24:14 still stands before
us: "This Gospel of the kingdom shall be
preached in the whole world, as a testimony to all nations, and then the end
shall come." Will the hope of seeing His appearing, and His kingdom, motivate you to
do all you can to join with Him in doing what He is doing? Will it move you to
share the Gospel and carry out the task laid upon the whole church -- the task
of taking the Gospel to the world we are called to love as Jesus loves it?
Living in the Grace of Jesus, Pastor Jeff
