And Judas Iscariot: Together with other evangelistic addressesChapman, J. Wilbur (John Wilbur)
Religion
And Judas Iscariot: Together with other evangelistic addresses
Chapman, J. Wilbur (John Wilbur)
Evangelistic sermons; Presbyterian Church -- Sermons; Sermons, American
But if you should say, "Oh, yes, but this is in Bible times and we are
living in a different age," then hear me when I say that he has come to
living men and women in our own day with a revelation of his will. He
spoke to Zinzendorf and we have a mighty work among the Moravians. He
revealed himself to the Wesleys and we have the mighty movement of
Methodism. He talked with Edwards and we have the great Revival of New
England. He revealed himself to Finney and we have the great
manifestation of power in the state of New York. He walked and talked
with Moody and we have the greatest evangelistic work of his day and
generation with Moody as his instrument. These were all men with
visions. He has come to great missionaries like Paton who saw the New
Hebrides Islands evangelized while yet they sat in darkness, because he
saw God. He has spoken to our own Fulton in China, who writes that the
people are flocking to Christ. To him it is no surprise, for he knew
that they would do it while others were still skeptical. He knew it
because he knew God.
Let us remember that, however true it may be that God speaks in
conscience, providence, through the church and by the preaching of his
Word, his supreme revelation is in his own Word. This Book contains
the revealed will of God and this Book is his Word.
II
Why are we not having revelations to-day as we know they have been
given at other times? Why is not some one in our own land especially
working out some of the great plans and purposes of God? The question
is easily answered. The difficulty is not with God. He is the same
forever. We alone must be at fault. Without any spirit of harsh
criticism and with a prayer to God that he will make my spirit as he
would have it, permit me to say that I fear the visions are not being
given to us for the following reasons:
First: Because of the disrespect shown to his Son. We have come to a
time when men seek to limit his knowledge, and occasionally they are
saying that he did not know concerning the things of which he spake.
Such blasphemy makes us shudder. There is a disposition to
misinterpret his teaching. They did it in Paul's day and he spoke by
inspiration when he said, "If any man present another gospel than that
which I have presented let him be accursed." There is a disposition to
rob him of his deity. "Is Jesus divine?" was the question asked not
long ago of one who called himself a minister, and he answered, "Yes,
in the sense that Buddha is divine or Confucius is divine." Our faces
grow white with fear as we listen to such blasphemous statements in
such an age as this. This helps to overcast the sky and God can hardly
trust us with a vision in such an atmosphere.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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