Revival's Golden Key (16 page)

About ten seconds later, the phone rang again. When I picked it up, I heard a deep-voiced and mystified man mumble, “What’s going on? How did I get you again? I tried to call this number, and instead I get one that makes my blood hot!”

Hot blood means that life is present. He was no longer a cold-blooded atheist.
I am beside myself with joy.
I told him to read Matthew 24 and Luke 21. Then I gave him my name and said he could call our 800 number anytime. When he kept mumbling, “Why did I call you again?” I could think of only two alternatives. Either he was a dummy and had called the wrong number again, or God’s hand was upon him. I told him that it was because God’s hand was upon him. He didn’t argue about that, and this time our parting was more congenial.

Right Number

It was a Friday afternoon. The phone rang, and when I answered it I heard, “Is this Direct Imports?” I said it wasn’t and asked what number the man wanted. He gave our number so I said, “Well, that is our number, but before you go,
make sure you read your Bible.”
He became quiet, then asked, “Why’s that?” I said so that he could find how to secure his eternal destiny and added, “And there’s nothing more important than that, is there?” He said, “Yi,
yi
,
yi
...
I’d better sit
doivn
for this!”

I asked, “Are you Jewish?” When he said he was, I told him that I was also Jewish and remarked, “Remember, you’ve got to face the Ten Commandments on Judgment-Day”

His reply was interesting: “I have done research, specifically on the adultery one, and I’ve come to the conclusion that you can fool around with a woman, as long as she’s not married.” I said, “If you as much as look with lust, the Bible says that you commit adultery in your heart. Have you ever told a lie?” He had. I asked if he had stolen; he had. So I gently told him that he was, by his own admission, a lying, thieving adulterer, and that’s why he needed the Savior Jesus Christ—to save him from God’s anger. I told him to read his Bible and seek God for the salvation of his soul. I also invited him to call my number anytime if he wanted to talk in the future. His voice sounded quite depressed as he said, “Thank you very much for talking to me.” I think I ruined his weekend.

In the following chapter we’re going to look closely at a very important question: What is it that sparks a burning flame of passion for the lost in the heart of a believer?

CHAPTER 14

TAKE TWO TABLETS AND CALL ME WHEN YOU’RE MOURNING

W
hy are there so few front-line soldiers within the Body of Christ? There are many who say that they love God, read the Word, pray, and praise God with a passion, but there are so few who have what Spurgeon referred to as a deep “tenderness.” These are the ones who carry an anguish of soul for the fate of the ungodly. They break out of their complacency and seek by any means to save that which is lost. The love of Christ “compels” them (2 Corinthians 5:14). The Greek word used denotes that His love arrests them, preoccupies and presses them to reach out to the lost. These are the ones of whom Jesus said there was a great and tragic lack (Matthew 9:37
,38
), commanding us to pray that God would give us more. They take off their jackets of condescension, put on the
armor
of light, and go to battle.

For years I couldn’t discover what it was that forged these rare and hardy souls. Were these merely diamonds that sparkled more than others because of a God-given temperament? Were these people born fearless by nature and their bold and zealous witness came naturally to them, out-sparkling others who lacked such a virtue? No, some of the most zealous and bold witnesses of Christ I have known have been of a quiet or even a shy disposition.

One night in late 1994, I found the answer. A friend, Pastor Mike Smalley, and I were at the home of
Winkie
and Faye
Pratney
deep in the heart of Texas.
Winkie
is a fellow New Zealander, so it was something special for us to get together for dinner—it called for steak.

Winkie
went outside to put the steaks on a barbecue, but a few minutes later reluctantly brought them back inside when the
barbie
ran out of propane gas. As he cooked them inside, he said something about them not being as tender as they would have been if he had cooked them on the intense heat of the barbecue.

After a few minutes, the entire house filled with smoke from his cooking; but it was well worth it—the steaks melted in the mouth. Besides, the fans in the house soon cleared the air.

When I remarked about the tenderness of my steak,
Winkie
shared his secret. He explained that the way to keep a steak tender is to sear it on both sides for forty seconds on a very hot hotplate. That seals the juices in the steak,
then
you cook it slowly until it is done.

About 3:00 a.m. the following morning, it dawned on me about what produces the much-desired tender-hearted Christian. When a sinner comes under the in-tense heat of the Law of God, it has the effect of sealing within him a tender heart. This is how it happens:

As
the spirituality of the Law bears down on him, it shows him the exceeding sinfulness of his heart. It reveals to him that the very core of his nature is vile, that his lust is adultery, that hatred is murder, that he is a liar, a thief, and a rebel—a selfish and ungrateful sinner.

He begins to see that he has loved what is abhorrent to his Creator. The Law shows him that even his so-called “good” works are tainted by a self-
centered
motive. This knowledge coupled with the fact that he has
greatly
angered God by transgressing His Law, and that hell is his just dessert, is the “heat” that seals in the tenderness of soul.

When grace is revealed, it is embraced as a man dying of thirst embraces a jug of water. The experience of the searing heat of the Law bringing him to the point of death, yet being freely given the waters of life, forever secures the virtue of unspeakable gratitude. And that makes him a
laborer
for life. The Law gives him understanding that in the gospel he is forgiven much, so he loves much—vertically and therefore horizontally.

Such tenderness is difficult to cultivate in someone who already possesses knowledge of God’s grace in Christ. His realization of God’s goodness deprives him of the fear of wrath. Only those who can sing “and grace my fears relieved” see grace as being truly amazing. This is why I believe it is a mistake to tell a guilty unregenerate sinner “God loves you.” Such knowledge doesn’t allow fear to enter his heart. That deprives him of a depth of gratitude he would otherwise have if fear had been allowed to do its work.

This is why the enlightened witness of Christ is not afraid to gently put on the heat when speaking with sinners. He knows that when the smoke of the wrath of the Law condemns the prisoner before him, it is actually preparing his heart for a pardon that will be welcomed
because of the fear gripping the prisoner’s heart.
The Christian knows that the tears that fear produces will be wiped away by the gentle hand of God’s grace. He knows that that hand will not be fully appreciated if the Law is not allowed to do its most necessary work. It is the Law of God that exposes sin, and when sin is viewed under the penetrating light of the Law, as we have seen, it makes grace “abound.” The Greek word used to explain this in Romans 5:20 is
hyperperisseuo
,
which means to “
superabound
.”

If I were a physician and I knew you had a terrible disease, I would be unwise to give you a cure without first carefully explaining to you that you had the disease. However, I wouldn’t merely tell you that you had the disease; I would actually let fear work for your good. I would use it to cause you to
want
to take the cure. As I showed you x-rays, I would watch beads of sweat drip from your brow and say to myself, “Good, he’s beginning to see the seriousness of his disease.” The fear will not only cause you to embrace the cure, it will (when the cure is received) give you tremendous appreciation for me as your doctor for providing the cure.

A great preacher once asked a well-known actor how it was that when performers present a story they often bring the audience to tears, yet rarely do ministers move a congregation to such a degree. The actor responded that they portray fiction as if it were a reality, while ministers of the gospel too often portray reality as if it were fiction.

If we really believed souls were going to hell, we would preach with overwhelming passion. Our hearts would groan in constant prayer. We would run to sinners with solemn words of warning, take hold of them and beseech them to turn from sin. Instead, we lack any real sense of urgency. We are afraid to speak frankly with sinners about their personal sins. We think that searing them under the heat of the Law will do harm rather than good. But consider how Jesus spoke with the woman at the well in John chapter 4. He applied the heat of the Law to her (v. 18) and spoke of her
personal
transgressions—and what was the result? She became an immediate
laborer
(vv. 28
,29
).
⁸

I received the following letter about one of my books, which shows the power of the Law to bring a thirst for righteousness:

This friend of mine has always told me for the last eight years whenever the opportunity popped up, that the Law was finished with and that the Ten Commandments were basically useless. Of course, I tried to gently suggest that the knowledge of sin could not come by any other way than the Law, but this was always smothered in a sugary reference to love and grace... so I kept quiet.

But I stuck my neck out last week and gave the book to this friend, and the next day he handed it back to me. He was crying and shaking with emotion. He could hardly speak. He said, “I’ve just been born again!” What really happened, I think, was the full impact of the power of God’s Law had struck him and wounded him, showing him clearly how bad his sin really was. He was in quite a state for several days after that, and kept breaking out into praise to God.

It was the two tablets of the Law that caused the mourning in his heart.

Seven Scared Sinners

Late in 1994, I arrived in Baton Rouge to do a series of meetings. A young man named Jeff picked me up and told me of the plan he had for me to speak open-air at a fake funeral.

After a short sleep in my hotel I was picked up, briefed the pallbearers, the corpse, and the crowd as to the do’s and don’ts of an open-air setting, then we drove to the site of the preaching.

When we pulled into the parking lot of a Wal-Mart I thought we were going to buy something, but it was actually the location Jeff had chosen for us. After about five minutes of preaching, one of the security guards approached me and said I could speak for another five minutes, then I had to stop. I was thankful for the extra time, and afterwards mentioned this to the local pastor who had come with us. He smiled and said, “When you started, I told the security guard, ‘See all those people around the preacher? They go to my church and we all shop at Wal-Mart.’”

After that, we drove to an area near the local university campus and set up the funeral once again. This time Jeff had decided he would give my voice a break by preaching himself. Just as we were organizing the pallbearers, a siren shrieked behind me. I turned to see a traffic officer on a motorcycle angrily waving over a van full of teenagers. As the van pulled to the side of the road the police officer jumped off his bike, ran to the van, opened the door, and cursed the driver. He then grabbed him, violently pulled him out of his seat, and thrust him against the vehicle. The officer then gave him a body search, once again using obscenities as he did so. The scared youth didn’t resist as he was frisked and yelled at.