God’s prior action in loving and choosing us forms the foundation of our salvation and relationship with Him. While Scripture clearly teaches God’s sovereign election, it also calls for human response. This seeming paradox is resolved in the work of the Holy Spirit, Who awakens sinners to their need for Christ and enables them to respond in faith. God’s love is not merely an emotion but a choice that precedes and enables our choice of Him. This understanding applies not only to salvation but also to areas such as relationships and church leadership. The power of God’s Word and the Holy Spirit’s work are crucial in bringing about true spiritual awakening and transformation.

Automatically Generated Transcript

[00:00:01] What I want tonight to really achieve is to get to the conclusion I was driving at this morning, in the morning message, which had to do with the ideas in the Scriptures that present things that we find very difficult to put together. And that has to do with the fact of God’s election and the fact of the matter that Jesus seemed to call people to make a response, or that the Gospel calls on us to choose. And so in the morning message, we

[00:00:38] had a Bible verse that talked about the fact where Christ is saying that he had chosen us. And he says, you didn’t choose me, but I chose you. Some people take that to mean that because he had a choice, we don’t have any, which is a mistake, for although it’s very difficult to put it together, it’s the fact that both is true. That he chose us. And you can’t deny the fact of election

[00:01:18] that’s taught in the scriptures pretty clearly, and the fact that we are called on to make a choice. And there’s a mystery involved in how those two are both so. Now we’ll start a little going through different scriptures in the Old Testament, which is your right to put that one up. Malachi chapter 1, verses 2 to 3. And hear what God is saying. I have loved you, says the Lord. But you say, how have you loved us? And then he’s going to come out with an answer.

[00:01:56] The scripture comes out with an answer that has to do with this choice. Remember, the other passage was Jesus saying, you didn’t choose me, I chose you. There’s something we need to know about the choice of God. And how is it understood? He says, I have loved you, but you say, how have you loved us? Is not Esau Jacob’s brother declares the Lord Yet, I have loved Jacob, which is cause replied, but East or have I hated,

[00:02:28] I’ve told our congregation previously of the occasion that I had a problem down in Sydney at the church, when I used to invite my father to come and speak often or whatever I could to the different places where I was ministering, I bring in my dad after he retired from being at the college. And he spoke on this verse, Jacob, have I loved but Esau, have I hate it? And the whole group of older people were very, very upset by the idea

[00:03:02] that I brought in my father to teach them that there were people God hated. Now, the explanation he gave, which I heard, and I followed and believed, but didn’t fully feel how it really explained things until recently, is that he went into the Hebrew language of which the Old Testament was written and some of the statements about the love of God and the choice of God and how the language often puts the two together. And so when God says, I chose you, he’s saying, I loved you.

[00:03:44] And when he says, I loved you, he’s saying I choose you. In fact, it would not be if a given individual has the power that if he says he loves you but doesn’t choose you, he’s been lying. Depends on the resources of a person, but the two, love and choice, or choosing, are really inextricably tied together. and what this verse was talking about was that Esau was not the choice. One of them was to be the one through whom the promises of God came and it was to be Jacob. You know, I’ve loved Jacob, but Esau have I hated,

[00:04:28] is the wording in the original languages has much to say that he wasn’t the chosen one. Now, when you realize that God’s eternal choice and his love are tied together Then when you find Bible passages speak about the love of God you don’t just give the idea why he was sort of feeling emotional and says yes I love you but you’re going to hell. The idea is really quite ridiculous or some of you are going to be lost. And what the Bible teaches is that the death of Christ and And his dying for our sins is an outcome of his love for us. For God so loved the world

[00:05:13] that he gave his only son. And the idea that Christ died for our sins is because of his love and the object is the world’s. Now some people get around that by saying well it’s just all the world of the elect. But when you look up how the scriptures teach about for whom Jesus died, includes people who end up lost. His love is something that is more than just an emotion. It is His will for their choice. And yet God has designed the Gospel, and I’ve been over

[00:05:52] this in other days, I’ll get a bit further from it, don’t worry, tonight. But God has designed the gospel so that it is a declaration of his love which carries with it that he’s had a choice. And actually, what our verse that we had the other Sunday morning, which was another of my verses for tonight from the Gospels where Jesus says, you did not choose me but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit. And what the verse in this morning, I was going over this again, what that verse means is that Jesus has a prior choice. And that’s the truth that you need to hang on to that Jesus choice is prior to your choice. Now the implication of that is that we before all Jesus’ choices put into action are not of a nature, we’re sinful and we’re rebellious, to want to

[00:07:04] choose Him. And the fact in the long run that we do eventually get to choose Him is because of his prior choice, and what the Scriptures are trying to reveal here is the priority of God’s action. You can apply it to the matter of election or his choosing. It’s only because God chooses us does his spirit come and move in us and give us a capacity to want to choose him. That lack of there being capacity in our part is a bit of a proof in the pudding, that it’s not a very delectable pudding, because in the essence of our human nature, there’s nothing in us in our sin that we want to choose him. You did not choose me but I chose you’.

[00:07:58] Now you’ll find that you can generalize this business of choice and response. If you understand that there’s a principle that lies underneath the next level down, about the prior action of God to everything, the prior action of God. When it comes to people coming to Christ, it’s not as though suddenly there was a group of people who said, we really wish we could belong to God. He looked down and saw our appropriate love of Him or choice of Him, and so he got into action and moved to make it possible.” So the other way around, the priority of the action of God, is what the scripture is teaching. But what that prior action of God does not mean is that we never get to have a choice. It’s just automatic that God’s aptitude knew you don’t have a choice about it,

[00:08:56] it just happened. the opposite. His choice of us is one that applies through to us developing a love for God. And in the morning’s message I was talking about the fact that God has made a way that we can be secure that having come to Him we’re not going to necessarily drop out because it’s too hard. I was using the illustration of the climbing, the boulder climbing in the Olympics, and what really caught my attention watching it there’s not only how high they could climb around this great big shape like a boulder that you’re often climbing from underneath and around, and there’s just little parts you could hang on to just a bit with your fingertips, but they also had with them in the Olympics

[00:09:49] this cord that they could keep on clipping, too, the next part up, that they got to. So if they did fall off, they had something that kept them. And that idea of being kept as a security was what is the case of boulder climbing. And what God is promising for us is that He chose us. And he’s done it in a way as to provide with his choice. That there is, if you do respond, and you do come to him, that he will have that way to keep you in his hands. He will have that way that you won’t

[00:10:35] fall to your death from the climb into being a Christian. And that is a fantastic thing. And we went to a verse this morning am getting you through to where we got too. Where God says through his Word, he says about the facts that he is the person who promises that He will keep us and the verse that we had this morning was the love of Christ constrains us or the love of Christ has the action of making you secure in his love. The love of Christ that constrains you isn’t just your ability to love him. That does come along but the thing that constrains you, or the word constraint is an old English word – the one that makes you safe in his hands is his love for you and he’s provided

[00:11:34] that if you fall, he’ll catch you. That is one of the most wonderful things of the Christian religion – that though we we get busy trying to follow, and we know it’s a difficult thing in a sinful world to dodge every temptation completely, to think that we’re going to find it easy to be a Christian. Many times people in church life don’t, and they have areas of lack of behaviour that make them afraid they’re going to drop out by just being fizzes of Christians. that verse we had this morning was that we finished on was that the love of Christ is the thing that will keep you and will clasp you as the same idea as having that thing that they clip on the mountain climbers so that if they do fall they’re safe. and that was what we’re talking about. now what I wanted

[00:12:30] us to do tonight was to take that truth that’s illustrated in the The choice of God, the understanding of God’s choice, is that he has a prior choice but that doesn’t mean that we don’t eventually have a choice. And what I was at pains to bring out is that when the Holy Spirit moves, he moves us to be able to choose. And you call that special movement of the Spirit either to get amongst a group of people and cause them to turn to God, we call that an awakening. are caused by awakenings, where for some mysterious reason God awakens people to choose to come to Him because we’ll never do it of our own. We’re too sinful. And what is more, we’re not to be depended upon even when we do make a good choice. But yet the Gospel comes not

[00:13:27] only telling us about God’s choice of us, for God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish. And His prior choice, this is what chapter 3.16 is about. It always moves me how many people can quote that verse without ever understanding it, for God so loved the world with His choice, to send His Son, to have Him die on the cross for our sins. He so loved the world that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, and that should not perish includes—you’re not necessarily falling off the rock. Or if you do fall, you won’t be caught, he will catch you. And to rest yourself in the catching hands of Jesus is one of the securities that helps people go on. You know one of the devil’s tricks actually with people who do come to Christ is to try and get them to compromise themselves somewhere in their life and then make them feel,

[00:14:43] If ever that had a play out, you’d be cactus’ but that’s not the love of God. The love of God provides the holdfastness of His plans for you. And the word that’s used that we’re in this morning is this idea of hold fast. So when you come to a really bad time and something’s happened and you feel you haven’t succeeded or you’re in danger of not succeeding, or you’ve climbed too far in the Christian enterprise and you don’t know you can maintain your height, then there is a holdfast that he has in his promises, and it has to do with the fact of his prior choice as guaranteed. The result, not only in terms of your coming because your coming, doesn’t mean you come backslide you can but it does guarantee that he won’t throw you out because you backslid or he won’t stop working on you. He’ll start again even if you

[00:15:50] don’t succeed at some aspect. That’s the nature of God that he holds you and the prior action of God is actually the heart of gospel understanding just to know that God has acted. He does call on us to have actions, but they’re always based on His prior action. Now, I wanted to apply that particularly to some areas, and this may go into an area that you might think I’m being a bit speculative. But, a lot of people talk of relationships. And when it comes to relationships, especially man and woman relationships, there’s a pressure from our generation, and the way that the world is, that there is nothing absolute in male and female, do you know that? And And they want to somehow erase the absoluteness of the agendas. Now let’s get rid of that falsity for a start, and I might not be doing this exactly in the right order,

[00:17:05] but we better go to a verse that tells us about how the world was made in the beginning. And let’s try Mark 10, 6 to 9, which, yeah, here we are. This is Jesus’ words. From the beginning of creation… Now we’re talking about prior actions of God, and one of the things to do when you’re wondering about how to understand something, if you can set down God’s prior action It colors everything, then you’re on the right track. From the beginning of creation, God made them male and female. Therefore, a man. Now, what’s interesting about here is, why did it pick on a man? Several reasons. One being that the man is representative of the marriage

[00:18:02] in terms of its origin? A man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast. Oh, do you recognise those words? Hold fast to his wife. A man has a responsibility to hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. Now that hold fast is like decision making because as a consequence the two become one flesh. There is an action of a man, a husband to be, in a couple where the man’s action comes based on what God has done and is in the role of a prior just like God’s creation is a prior action and determines that genders are completely certain and they don’t change their God’s

[00:19:05] actions. Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife. Now, two shall become one flesh. Now what’s of interest to me, and I told you that this is to some degree speculative because I’ve only just started chewing on the power or how strong is the evidence, but I think when it comes to relationships that it’s important, say for example you’re a woman and you’re looking for a man, the one of the things that you should look for is a certain amount of interest not necessarily first in time, but first in importance. How I put it this way, what started me thinking is because I’ve got friends who told me the the story of how the man and the woman came together.

[00:20:10] He’s a fellow evangelist friend of mine in another state. I won’t tell you his name. But he told me how he used to be an athlete and the person involved in sport and he became a Christian. But he was a real, how will I put it, untrained Christian. He got into the Christian circle and was going to church making lots of mistakes, because he didn’t know much how to behave. But at the particular church, he went. A whole lot of young people.

[00:20:41] And there was a Sunday where he walked down the aisle and he looked across a row and he saw a girl. And he just liked a as he saw her. He was not aware of what he was doing because he stood there and stared. She was really a stoop girl who saw his look, and she told me later later when I married, she told me later, she said, when I saw him looking, I said, oh, oh, that’s it. I know what that is.

[00:21:22] And she knew somehow or other that something had happened in him that was prior to the response that it was now beginning to call from her. I don’t think what I’m saying rules out that a girl mightn’t spot the man first. I’m not ruling out that was because he saw her and somehow his dad changed her. It was rather that there’s something important. And she came from a godly family who’d taught her about things, finding a spouse, et cetera,

[00:22:02] taught her that a very important thing in the relationship is that the man is really moved to be interested. What doesn’t work is if a woman has got webs out to catch and the man is only half interested. Drop that, if that’s the case. Let God work so that the man is moved by a prior action of God. When there is a prior action of God and the man has it, he gives the lead. And the wife knows it’s appropriate. And actually the nature of the wife is different from a man. Now, usually at this point, in my thinking, if I were to be saying this too loudly, especially at university or somewhere like that,

[00:22:59] I’d be hearing reactions. You’re not making them the same. It’s true. I’m not. I think that there’s something different about how God set up man and how God set up woman. And it’s in the story line. Let’s just remind ourselves. You probably all know this. Let’s return to Genesis about chapter 2.

[00:23:25] In Genesis, chapter 2 verses 21 to 25. So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took out of his ribs one and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man He made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said, this is boat of my boat, fleshy by flesh. Now, this friend of mine who told the story about seeing this girl, he just thought she was wonderful.

[00:24:09] And her recognizing that he was having some reaction that was flagging that what she knew would one day happen somewhere was happening right there, she actually wasn’t certain that she liked him. It was pretty un-coothed when he first came into the church. So she had funny feelings, actually. I think that’s what she told me. But there is a sense in which there is a prior action in how God created men, from how God created that there be women. Now maybe these days, babies are born the same in a hospital but in masculinity and in femininity the scriptures seem to be pretty clear to me that at the beginning God made them that’s males and females and he did the decision it’s a prior action of God to

[00:25:03] make there to be males and females and he didn’t make the female in a parallel a way to how he’d made Adam. He took her. It’s really interesting listening to Negro people. I’m told, I shouldn’t call them Negroes, I’m African Americans overseas as they use the storyline in their sermons of how they talk about the issue of a man and a woman and the differences that there are. But it’s fascinating to listen in

[00:25:36] to how what I’m saying here tonight you hear coming out of their culture that there’s something about the man having a recognition of the appropriateness of the relationship, and not just being a man giving into a woman who’s laid a trap for him. And he just, okay. Now it doesn’t mean that the man has to be the first one, Like I’ve said in my story to have eyesight to see— sometimes people are working together and after a period of time they just recognize—

[00:26:15] and I have another pair of friends who are married and who God led to each other and they were a fascinating story because the man concerned was someone who always, in his younger days, went for the most flamboyant ones, girls and they usually didn’t suit him. And but then after having a lot of rejections he suddenly realized that there was a girl that he was associating with at his local church who somehow he just loved being with and but she had spotted it along before him but what was important, was that he came to the spot of knowing this is the one for me. It might not have happened prior in time, but it’s prior of importance that the

[00:27:14] man says, I choose you, and the importance comes from the connection I’m here tonight night talking about between love and choice. I fear for girls who don’t understand that they’ll do anything to catch a man, sometimes they do it by way of him not realizing what they’re really like, no, you want the man to see you for who you are if you’re a girl, and for him to have a prior, lying pride and if you get my difference prior in background happening, not necessarily that he woke up to it first. But there needs to be a sense in which the man shall be the one talked about leaving his father and mother and holding fast to his wife.

[00:28:12] That’s what makes marriages stick together when there’s a sense in which a man can hold fast to his wife. Now that’s something that I am not certain of how to say this to guarantee that I’m being, everybody see and follow my logic. But I think that there’s something to be learned from any moment that you can see from the scriptures what are God’s prior actions? and let them be the bottom layer of what God has done. Now when it comes to church life, how would this prior action of God tell us about things in terms of leadership,

[00:29:01] not between man and woman necessarily, but it does apply here. I think from, if you go with me to Ephesians in chapter 2, go to Ephesians, did I give you chapter 2? Good. And in Ephesians chapter 2 verses 4 and 6 we have some extra input. For God being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. He’s talking about all the Christians, each individually and also corporately the human race, were dead in trespasses and sins and made us alive together with Christ. My grace, you have been saved and raised up with him and sealed us with him in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. And there is, in our becoming Christians, a backdrop of the choice that has to do with the God who is rich in mercy and has a great love with which he loved us.

[00:30:18] And that love was when we were dead in our trespasses and sins. Certainly God is in the business of electing people when, the Bible tells us in Ephesians, elsewhere before the foundation of the world. He does choose people. But the choice comes down to apply to us when we are dead in our trespasses and sins. What that actually means is that there’s no reason why we would ever choose God if it was left just to us. not the case that Christians are those who’ve listened well and decided, yes, I will choose God, and they make the choice and then that means that they get to be together with Christ because his actions was prior. Now what was his action? Well, an eternity passed, one election.

[00:31:11] The other is that Christ died for sinners. sinners like you and me and Because he has died for us and demonstrated his love That prior action is what is going to call us When we understand it and the spirit moves on us to have the capacity to choose him That’s exactly what happens to people who come to Christ there’s some awakening moment when they were people who never really got the point. I don’t know whether you…I know when I went to school most of my peers in school never really got the point. And I…one of the teachers, my French teacher, he also was the chaplain, he also was the chairman of the

[00:32:00] college. My dad was the Principal of Adelaide Bible Institute and he also also was my cricket team coach of which I was a captain, so I knew a lot with him. And his son was my best friend at that time. This man, this man who was a chaplain, used to try and speak to the assembly. The school led him. He was an ordained minister who was a return missionary. He was a man who loved the gospel and he would try and speak to the squad of all the students of the school and they hardly even listened. They were all dead in their trespasses and sins. I’ve never had a greater proof of the truth for that verse than my school.

[00:32:50] Some of them went to youth groups on the Sunday because they needed the social life. Their parents wanted them to get some religious training. But they made nothing and all that what the chaplain said, made very little. Except, when something happened to some of those individuals where the spirit came on them and made them start listening, and it’s called an awakening. It is what leads there to some people who suddenly hear and understand the gospel. Previously, they didn’t. And that began to happen in our school, not to a great hall of them, just a few here and there.

[00:33:37] But God began to work in people, and I saw them come awake. It’s an awakening! And that’s what brings you to be a Christian, is because of God’s prior love for you, He’s sending His Son to die on the cross for you. And then when His Spirit comes, the Spirit comes to awaken you to all that I’m talking about, and suddenly it’s making clarity that Jesus is real. Oh, it’s a fascinating thing when you deal with people outside of Christ, and they don’t even care whether it exists or not, or whether it was true,

[00:34:12] or … They got all sort of funny explanations to explain history. And when they start becoming aware of the reality of the person of Jesus, and they begin to ask questions and you see them, Searching out and they usually choose times when none of their friends are listening, but they come on their own and want to ask a question and to get you talking. And God is working in them. That is the mercy of God where He is awakening a person. And that awakening to give them an awareness of their being sinners.

[00:34:47] Awareness that they don’t deserve Christ. Awareness that they’re lost. Sometimes it’s called convection of sin and Jesus said to his disciples just before he left and to go back to heaven and he says he’s going to send the Holy Spirit and when the Holy Spirit comes, he will convict the world of sin. And that role of the Holy Spirit to give people understanding of the reality, their spiritual position before God and that they need Jesus in his death for them to make the possibility If they’re forgiveness, that’s the work of the Holy Spirit.’ And the Holy Spirit convicts people of sin, and they get their hearts pricked and they start listening, and then they actually find you as a Christian and ask questions, and

[00:35:37] you could tell what’s going on. I remember the joy of taking one feller in my senior highschool year along a lot of Christian rallies and things, and he was getting convicted. that he was fighting it and he was showing all sorts of signs that God was working on him. He used to come and sit around our house and I said to him, I said, why do you like sitting around our house? And he says, well if you sat around our house, you’d know. Apparently, there’s always shouting and arguments and things.

[00:36:06] And there was a sense of the presence of Christ in a Christian home. Now, that doesn’t happen to every non-Christian. They probably just laugh at us. But when that awakening occurs, it’s leading a person to the moment of opportunity of saying yes to Christ, and I began taking him to different rallies, and he knew what I was doing. And at these evangelistic meetings, there’d be a call, and he was resisting coming. And then there was another rally that was going to be on, and I rang him up in the range for us to go together. I’d sometimes drive my dad’s car or he’d drive his dad’s car. That was a very prized thing to do, to drive your father’s car.

[00:36:49] But, and I rang him up and he was ready to come because sometimes he’d back out. He said yes, but he said Jim, you don’t need to do it. What do you mean? He says, well, I was under the shower. And I said yes to Christ. That Conviction of sin and that sense of call that Jesus gives is what allows a person to come to Christ. Not that we chose Him and we made ourselves Christians, but that God’s prior action of love in Jesus dying for the world, but in Jesus coming by His Spirit to begin to convict a person of their need. It’s fascinating when you see that happened, particularly in churches where there were people who thought they were Christians but had never actually gotten in the door.

[00:37:48] I was one and I’d know always when I was a child when I was nine. I thought I really was spiritual wise the ants pants because I’d had polio and been healed because of the college students prayed for me and I thought I must be special. because there were Sunday schools where we had prizes, and they had top of the state prizes handed out. And I won it two years in a row, thanks to my mother. She bribed me with two shilling pieces. It was the twenty-coe pieces to learn all the Bible verses she wanted her husband’s child to do well. I have my reasons. I was a son of people who knew an awful lot about Christian missions. the dad was always doing something and telling us I was proud of my father. So I had my reasons why I was a Christian,

[00:38:40] and when he got involved in being involved with the counselling, and the Graham team would arrive and be in our house, I would listen in and join the conversations, it must have been funny, this nine year old having his comments but when I went to the meetings, God spoke to me. And I realized that conviction came that I had never done business with Jesus as a Saviour, and come to him as a sinner that needed a Saviour. I had assumed I was such a good little lad that I was in the door. And that call came.

[00:39:23] I needed to come to him as a Saviour I did that day. God is in that business. It is an awakening in the first instance, and what we were talking about this morning is that when God moves in a church and when God moves in a nation, there are things called revivals. This is not just people getting personally right where they should be, as a Christian. That’s good to happen. That’s a revival of one sort, but there’s a revival where it happens out of the blue, where the Holy Spirit comes on the district. And there are people who begin to be struck that if there’s something that they’ve not got right. My dad had a church, because he was a teacher, not an evangelist,

[00:40:12] so he said, Lord, just bring about a work of the spirit that people come. And he had a time where there was such a rising tide of the spirit of one of his churches is that people started turning up and knocking at his door to want to be led to Christ. And he had some of the people at his church who were some of the chief operators and workers who got converted properly. They didn’t know they weren’t. It’s called an awakening. An awakening can happen, not only to people

[00:40:44] who need to come to Christ, but also for groups of people where there’s suddenly a time when the Holy Spirit is at work. That’s what we need. We have some people who are very faithful in our church in prayer, you know, and who come at different times. I try and go. I’ve been rather sick this week, so I haven’t, but nonetheless, I want to say there are people in our church who are pretty steady and going on praying for God to work in this church. And they often have particular aspects of the Lord’s work that they’re interested in, but they also pray for the nation. And we pray when we do meet for those politicians. Some of them probably don’t

[00:41:30] understand a bin about Christianity, but we’re praying for them. There might come an awakening on people in public places. People who will turn to God. Or that we could have a movement of God’s spirit to use the children’s school training in religious instruction. And there’s a group of people who want to put on a meeting, and we’re going to do it in our church, where bi-politicians come come and hear out the different points of view about religious instruction. But the reason for the meeting is not to beat the politicians over the head with how they’re doing it wrong. We want to dodge that effect. But to call on them to understand the sensitivity and importance of training up the next generation, to know their Christian roots. And if that could be attended by an awakening it would be a fantastic thing.

[00:42:39] And so there will come about a meeting where Stuart Pieper from the Baptist Union is also involved in this and other people who have to do with the organizing instrument of religious instruction of arranging such to happen, but if we could pray for God to come on that meeting Instead of people having their hackles up and not listening or instead of politicians making the wrong sort of Politically if we could have a sensitivity to the need of our nation Only the Holy Spirit doing

[00:43:16] Working can do that And we should go. I’m praying make it a prayer point There’s some missions I always pray for when I came, one of them is we had things to do, told us this morning, and it is the people who give Bibles out, what do you call them? Idiots, that’s right. Well I did notice they said in the propaganda, I hope you’re listening David, it said in the propaganda that it’s for men, but I do know that there’s a place for women as well isn’t there, they want the men, or the people who have the money to give, but there’s a place for women as well. But I just want to say here, that such organisations that take the Word of God into places, and leave it you, it’s

[00:44:13] staggering when you meet people, and you knew about a Bible at a certain night, at certain hotel where they left bibles, and then I know of a man who went, actually it was the owner of the pub where his rooms had had Bibles left and he got converted. It’s interesting that it’s not always because someone had the most up to date culture to put it in, or the wording that Vocal recognises their way of talking. There’s something more primitive about the power of the word of God. It’s one of those things—I won’t go on about it now—but it’s actually due to the prior actions of God in giving His word. His word has such power, and he’s put it in this Bible. It’s not that one translation is better than the others—some of them are clearer than others—but

[00:45:15] It’s the word of God, it’s ideas, and their spirit anointed. Something happens when you learn them, and you put them into your heart, and you store up in your mind all these verses. I remember doing that and then discovering that when I talk to people they come out again. I don’t necessarily think, oh, I’ll quote this verse, sometimes I do if it’s very obviously relevant it, but sometimes a Bible verse just comes out and it’s like a sharp two-edged sword that it says about itself and it pierces people and you see them hit by the Word of God! But that’s such an old-fashioned idea! There are people who think that it’s when you’ve you know said it in the right access or whether

[00:46:06] you’ve the right culture or whether you’ve had the right way to do it in in some other human way, all of which may have our little part to play, but the central power of the word of God is in itself. And it’s the Holy Spirit who is the one who wields the sword of the word of God. And if you give yourself the time to learn the scriptures, the old navigator’s idea coming out of World War II to get people trained to learn Bible verses,

[00:46:37] they did it for the soldiers. excuse me, who would come to Christ, and that navigator system of learning Bible verses, you’re putting it in. And you’re inviting the Holy Spirit to have them come out at moments you may never know. That’s the work of God’s Word, and that’s another arena. I won’t go into it, but the arena of His Word, the prior inspiration of the Scriptures. So it’s not about your interpretation alone, it’s not about your natty way of getting it over somehow and making it palatable. Resist the temptation to think. It’s what you do that get people saved.

[00:47:24] It’s what the word of God does in the hands of the Holy Spirit. And this is an application of the prior work of God and you can apply that to things to do with gender as I’ve talked tonight. you can apply it to things to do with understanding that yes God does have his prior choices but yet it isn’t one that means that we don’t get called on to have our choice and there’s a tension there that you just have to leave as something that God understands that he chose but He doesn’t operate to get us to come in the door by somehow just zapping you so that you have no choice. here’s what you might call zapping, is what I’m calling this awakening. And the awakening is to give you a choice. And with that choice you can say no. And

[00:48:14] Jesus demonstrated that looking at Jerusalem and saying, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often would I have gathered your chickens under my wings? But you would not. Underline those words but you would not. Jesus wanted to. How often he longed to. Then he went on to tell what happened to them and he described what became their destruction of Jerusalem as a consequence of there turning down their Messiah. He came to them. The Holy Spirit witnessed to them And they, particularly the leaders, said no. I never want to tell anybody, talk anybody out of the fact that they can say no. Because it’s the truth. And the ability to say no is a part of God giving you the opportunity to say yes

[00:49:10] and His spirit will help you. His spirit will make it clear to you. But He won’t take away from you that moment when you say yes. Now, if you’re here tonight and you know in some way that God is wanting you to be awakened it may be because you really need to be in business with Jesus and He’s alerted you to that need. It may be that there’s some issue That you need to rest in his hold-fast his security and Leave it with him

[00:49:48] All because of some other reason that I couldn’t think to illustrate or walls and You need to come to God tonight and yield to him into his love Then let’s have to happen. What we sometimes do is that while we have our file on music. I’ll get out of the way and If you want to do business with Jesus then leave where you will be standing, and come down and kneel here and tell Him what He wants to hear from you and then go back to your seat. If you want to let someone else in on what you’re doing you can talk to them afterwards. If there is a meal, is that still the case? We’ve got a meal? Then you can do that around there as well. But speak to someone if you want to, but this is in some senses very personal because the prior movement of God sets up a call on us, God being rich in mercy because of the great

[00:50:51] love with which he loved us, and he loved us when we were dead in our trespasses and sins. that love calls on us to respond and his choice. He loved you first. Eventually you’ll get to love him a lot. But his love is why you can come, and you can do that and put it into some expression by coming and bowing your knee down here and praying whatever’s appropriate in your case and go back to your seat. Right. I’m not worried by the way, because we’re a small number and if you give appeals like this, you’ll have lots of times when there’s no-one that comes. But, I’ve had enough successes evangelistically not to need to have it proven to me. So if no-one comes, that’s all. I only come if God is working on you to awaken you to some sort of response. First, a moment of prayer,

[00:51:49] and we’ll hand back to the Musicians. Heavenly Father, we thank You for the fact that you are a great God and that, Lord, you’re never beaten to the punch. You’re never one, Father, where you’re catching up with what we’re doing. Father, you have acted ahead. It’s not that we chose you, but you first chose us. Father we thank you for that, and we thank you for what you did and sending your son. We thank you for giving him how you must love us. If this beloved one of of yours you gave to bear our sins. Thank you for how you looked after him and raising him from the dead and for how he’s now available to be our Savior. And we pray, Father, that you will work in people’s hearts tonight. If there be someone who particularly needs to make a response, would you give them that capacity? We ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.