Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals

Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals: Welcome. The following message is a ministry of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. The Alliance is known for ministries such as the Philadelphia Conference on Reformed Theology, as well as nationally syndicated radio programs like The Bible Study Hour, Every Last Word, and Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible. Our purpose is to promote a biblical understanding and worldview. Thank you for listening.

Guest (Male): Well, this is great. I just want to declare my gratitude for these last couple of days. I was just telling Chris that I literally feel like I have a head cold from all the theological training that I've had in these last couple of days. My head is so stuffed with training that I can hardly think. It is a great thing. I was telling these guys by the time you start to thaw out, you start remembering all these great things that we've learned at an event like this.

I have just been so blessed over these last couple of days to sit under some very powerful teaching and training and just really have learned some powerful things. I am very grateful for that and very honored to be able to have sat under some of these teachings.

We're going to pick up where we left off in dealing with the valley and the sword, as we were looking over the life of David and really seeing how the Lord really used David mightily and how we can glean from his life and we can apply it to our lives. I just find I get so much encouragement when I look over this story, especially the famous battle that took place in the Valley of Elah.

So what I would like to do is I'd like to begin in prayer and then I'd like to go over the narrative quickly, kind of summarize what we've been through and then get on to the second half. And hopefully by God's grace, I can finish it. Let us pray.

Father, we are just so grateful and privileged and honored, Lord, to be able to gather together and glorify the mighty name of Your Son and our King, Jesus Christ. Oh Lord, we are so thankful for His precious blood. We're so thankful, Lord God, that He died and that He was buried and that He rose triumphantly and valiantly from the grave, defeating the king of terrors, death itself, for death could not hold Him down.

And Lord, all of those who believe upon the name of the Lord, all Your people whom have been resurrected with Your Son, who have died with Christ and who have rose with Christ, and who are now living in this day and in this age and in this time, Lord, to be Your witnesses for such a time as this.

God, my heart breaks when I reflect on the condition of our nation. Yes, Lord, we know that You have the victory. We know that You are victorious and we know that we are a victorious church that preaches a victorious gospel. But Lord, our heart breaks when we see the condition of our nation. How dare we celebrate evil when Your body is here, which is the living and moving body of Christ.

Father, I just pray that Your people would be moved to pray. That we would be a praying people once again. Not such a playful people, but a prayerful people that would get on our knees, Lord God, and that our hearts would be rent and broken and shattered over so many in our nation dying and going to hell. Lord, that we would literally bring the name of soul winner back into the church. It wouldn't be a reproach or a cuss word anymore within the church. He who wins souls is wise.

Father, I just pray now that You would move mightily upon Your church, upon Your people, that Your warrior bride would rise up in this day as more than conquerors and go out into this world, Lord, and proclaim the only remedy to sin and evil, and that is the almighty and glorious gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. And this I pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

During this time in history, it was the closing time of the judges. We see Samuel getting old and the last of the judges of Israel. His two sons were wicked and rejected by the people and the people no longer wanting a judge, but wanting a king like all the other nations around them. So all the elders gathered together and chose for themselves a king. They chose Saul. Saul, who was a man of the people, who ended up disobeying God, ends up in madness, resorts to witches and then to suicide.

The crown rolls from the head of Saul to the shepherd boy by the name of David, the son of Jesse. David, who is anointed king in the midst of his brothers, soon comes to the rescue of his people while running a food errand for his father, bringing supplies to his brothers who were found cowering under the oppressive onslaught of the Philistine giant, who not only taunts and harasses the army of Israel, but speaks against the living God.

And David, by the guiding hand of God, learned the ways of a warrior during his years as a shepherd boy defending his sheep from the mouth of lions and bears. For David cries out in Psalm 144:1, "Blessed be the Lord my rock, who trains my hands for war and my fingers for battle."

And the narrative goes on. David admonishes his brothers by exclaiming, "Is there not a cause?" And then he goes on to say that thy servants will go and fight. And then he was looked upon and judged by his appearance and said, "But you are just a youth." And then we see him declaring what he's going to do to God's enemy. And then he triumphantly, by God's grace and by God's power, annihilates and removes the reproach of Israel.

And David said unto Ahimelech, "And is there not here under thine hand a spear or sword? For I have neither brought my sword nor weapons with me because the king's business required haste." And the priest said, "The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom thou slewest in the valley of Elah, behold, it is here wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod. If thou wilt take that, take it, for there is no other save that here." And David said, "There is none like that. Give it to me."

You know, when we look at the narrative and we see David's great accomplishment, and we see what happens a few chapters later, right after that mighty victory, we see him scattering. We see him running, looking for a place of rest. We see that and we recognize that in our own lives, and we can understand that and we can see that as how that even plays out. We see that this is the providence of God in the life of His people.

Looking at the sword of Goliath, looking upon that sword and seeing David's reaction to that sword, and taking time to really study out the meaning of that sword, when David said, "There is none like it. There is none like it anywhere." As I began to look at this sword, I began to realize that there were principles that were attached to this sword.

And the first principle that we see in the sword of Goliath is the principle of providence. The definition of providence, the doctrine of divine providence, therefore had reference to that preservation, care, and government which God exercises over all things that He has created, in order that they may accomplish the ends for which they were created. The foreseeing and guardianship of God over His creatures, a manifestation of His divine care or direction.

The Lord was training His man in the school of adversity and despair, shutting him out from all other hope, showing David that his only hope and trust is in God alone. Providence had set its seal forever upon the heart of David, realizing that God was sovereign and was watching over his every step.

In 1 Samuel 20:3, it says, "But truly, as the Lord lives and as your soul lives, there is but a step between me and death." Knowing therefore the futility of life and the frailty of life, knowing that God was guiding him and directing him even in the midst of all the darkness, of all the despair during exile when his own family members, the ones that he trusted in so much now were betraying him and chasing him, understanding that the providence of God and the sovereignty of God...

We talk about the sovereignty of God in evangelism. But what about the sovereignty of God in the life of the preacher? How God through His sovereignty and through His power doesn't only just save those, but also He enables those who are proclaiming His truth. God's not only in control of those whom He saves, but He's working in the lives of those who are heralding His message.

"There is but one step," he says, "between me and death." We must trust in the providing power of God in all circumstances. And it reminds me of a story of a gentleman in whom I studied out and his name was John Harper. How many of you that haven't heard me preach this story, how many of you have heard of the open-air preacher John Harper? Raise your hands. The famous, powerful open-air preacher John Harper. How many people have ever heard of him? Raise your hands. Dave, okay. Ms. Henrietta, okay. Howie, okay.

John Harper was born in the town in Scotland in 1872. I want to deal with the area of providence. Harper was born in the town in Scotland in 1872. He was born to Christian parents. He knew and loved God and went to church all of his life. Sometime after he turned 18, he began preaching on the streets of his town.

One man who knew John Harper said, "He was a great open-air preacher; he could always command large and appreciative audiences." People speak with pride of the effect of his magnificent voice in the open air and tell how firmly he could deal with all kinds of interrupters and hecklers. No one could floor him. His great and intelligent grasp of Bible truths enabling him to successfully combat all of his assailants.

As was said of his preaching, "The words came hissing from his heart." It was a very common sight to see souls being dealt with in the open air, some even kneeling down in the ring and making confession of sin. He was a man of great prayer. It was said that Harper knew what few men seem to know, that the true power with men must be preceded with the communion of God. He would spend hours in persistent wrestling with God in prayer and for the salvation of perishing souls.

How often do we see that anymore? This was really the outstanding feature of his consecrated life. He seemed to be unable to live without souls being won to Christ. "Souls, souls, souls," it was said, colored his whole life. After a few years of doing that, he was noticed by some Baptist ministers. He was asked to be the minister of a small church that had only 25 members.

His church gradually grew larger when people began to realize that he was an able and good pastor. He had become such a well-known pastor and preacher that he was asked to preach at the Moody Church in Chicago for a few weeks. His original plan was to sail on the Lusitania, but he later decided he wanted to wait a week and sail on this new ship called the Titanic. God's providence.

He was saved from drowning three times, at the age of two, 26, and 32. At two, he had fallen into a well and was later revived by his mother. At 26, Harper was swept out to sea by a reverse current and almost died. At 32, he faced death on a leaking ship in the Mediterranean. Perhaps it was God's way of testing and preparing His servant for his last open-air mission on the Titanic.

Harper said, "The fear of death did not for one moment disturb me. I believed that sudden death would be sudden glory." John Harper was married, but later widowed, and left him only with his six-year-old daughter, Nana. It was the night of April 14th, 1912. The RMS Titanic sailed swiftly on the bitterly cold ocean waters, heading unknowingly into the pages of history.

Onboard this luxury ocean liner were many rich and famous people. At the time of the ship's launch, it was the world's largest man-made movable object. "Not even God Himself could sink this ship," declared the shipbuilders with the pride of Victorian England. At 11:40 p.m. on that faithful night, an iceberg scraped the ship's starboard side, showering the decks with ice and ripping open six watertight compartments. The sea poured in.

Onboard that ship that night was John Harper and his much-beloved six-year-old daughter, Nana. According to documented reports, as soon as it was apparent that the ship was going to sink, John Harper immediately took his daughter to a lifeboat. He bent down and, for all of you who have children, he bent down and kissed his precious little girl. Looking into her eyes, he told her that she would see him again someday.

The flares going off in the dark sky above reflected the tears on his face as he turned and headed towards the crowd of desperate humanity on the sinking ocean liner. As the rear of the huge ship began to lurch upwards, it was reported that Harper was seen making his way up the deck yelling, "Women, children, and unsaved into the lifeboats!"

The boat then split in half, as if someone had taken it and broken it over their knee, and it made a giant explosion. At this point, many people jumped off the decks and into the icy dark waters below, and John Harper was one of these. Striking the water was like a thousand knives being driven into one's body at once, Charles Lightoller, the second officer aboard the Titanic, testifies.

And that night, 1,528 people went into the frigid waters. John Harper was seen swimming frantically to the people in the water, leading them to Jesus before the hypothermia became fatal. "The sounds of people drowning are something that I cannot describe to you, and neither can anyone else. It is the most dreadful sound, and there is a terrible silence after it," describes one testimony of a Titanic survivor.

Mr. Harper swam to one young man who had climbed up on a piece of debris. When Harper asked between breaths, "Are you saved?" the young man replied that he was not. Harper then tried to lead him to Christ, only to have the young man, who was near shock, reply, "No." John Harper then quickly took off his life jacket and threw it to the man and said, "Here then, you need this more than I do," and swam away to the other people.

A few minutes later, Harper swam back to the young man and succeeded in leading him to salvation. Of the 1,528 people that went into the water that night, six were rescued by lifeboats. One of them was this young man on the debris. Four years after the Titanic went down, a young Scotsman rose in a meeting in Hamilton, Canada, and said, "I am a survivor of the Titanic. When I was drifting alone on a spar that awful night, the tide brought Mr. John Harper of Glasgow also on a piece of wreck near me.

'Man,' he said, 'are you saved?' 'No,' I said, 'I am not.' He replied, 'Believe upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.' And then the waves bore him away. But strange to say, brought him back a little later and he said, 'Are you saved now?' 'No,' I said, 'I cannot honestly say that I am not.' He said again, 'Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.'

And shortly after, he went down. And there in that terrible silence, alone in the middle of the night with two miles of water underneath me, I believed. I am John Harper's last convert." You see, John Harper understood what it meant to truly live as Christ and to die is gain. He understood what God was doing through his life providentially and sovereignly, preparing him throughout his life through many twists and through many turns.

Sometimes it just doesn't seem to make sense when God takes us here and takes us there, and sometimes we just feel like giving up. But then in that very moment, everything seems to make sense. Everything seems to come together. You see, there's people drowning all around us. And we need to be willing to set our lives at a course by the grace of God to be used by the power of God in the salvation of His people.

You see, being the founder of Jeremiah Cry Ministries, I tell people sometimes I quit every Monday morning. I've been in full-time ministry for almost 10 years, seeking the Lord's counsel, seeking the people of God's counsel and wisdom. Listen, I am nothing. I'm a nobody. But I have a great desire and a great burden to see the church of Jesus Christ to turn to the pure gospel and to once again rise up out of her slumber and proclaim the truth to a dying and lost world.

I've been married 15 years, I have six children, I have five daughters and one son. And they depend on their pa that he will live a life that is godly and holy and that they trust that God is leading their dad. But you have no idea—I am sure many of you guys all have your issues—but what it is like to be in this process in which God is using us in a time that we live in. It's a great challenge.

It's a great challenge financially. It's a great challenge in so many ways, if you want to do it right. It's kind of like if you want to raise your kids right, it's going to take an investment. You can throw them in front of the television set and forget about them, or you could take the time and the investment to do it right. This ministry takes time and it takes a great investment. Most of the time, we don't see a lot of support.

I live a life at times, and certainly nowhere comparing myself to George Müller by any means, but our life has been a life of faith from the very beginning. I live life by faith. I am not lazy, I'm not idle, I have a strong work ethic. But I trust the Lord Jesus Christ that He has providentially has raised me up as such a time as this to do a work He's called me to do. And He is placing people around me and local churches and different ministries to join along and connect in this vision to see men return to the biblical gospel and biblical missions.

Whatever happened to true biblical preaching? Whatever happened to biblical missions? Whatever happened to people being sent to the heathen to proclaim the true gospel of Jesus Christ? Whatever happened to the Livingstones and the William Careys that went into these heathen nations and proclaimed the gospel? Everything is turned into humanism. Our whole motive is to better humanity because we've taken upon the belief that men are good.

They're victims. The heathen just need a little help. They just need to be educated. They just need a few teeth to be filled because they're not bad people, they're being victimized. But in reality, they're criminals against God and without the gospel they will perish. We need to return to biblical evangelism, biblical proclamation. The health of the nation is determined by the health of the pulpit.

Judgment first comes to the house of God. I believe when we see this get healthy again, we'll see the pews get healthy again. And we'll see evangelism get healthy again. We'll see missions get healthy again. And people's motives will be in the right spot and their understanding of humanity will be in the right and correct view. They'll understand that man isn't good. Man isn't neutral. Man is depraved and an enemy of God and a rebel against God.

And without the truth of the public proclamation of the word of God, he's destined for hell. And we must bear that burden in this day. And we must all work together as the people of God. We must lock arms and not compromise and not turn our backs when things get hard. You see, we learn all this phenomenal theology until we almost pop. But what happens when all hell breaks loose?

What does your theology look like then? You preach on the sovereignty of God, we preach on the providence of God, we preach on these things. But when all hell breaks loose, what do you do then? What does your theology look like then? When's the last time you fasted? And please, don't take this as condemnation. I'm not throwing condemnation at you, I'm talking about the scriptures.

When's the last time we pushed the plate away and died to self? When's the last time we got on our face and cried out to God? When's the last time we had a true prayer meeting where it wasn't just a bunch of people getting together and complaining, where people really hungered and thirsted after the things of God and the heart of God, where people were again broken and contrite and disturbed by what is going on all around us?

So much so we get on our knees and we cry out to God. That's what men and women did down through history. Read history. They would seek the Lord. Our day is, yes, our day, it's a great tragedy to see the things that are happening. But all down through history, they were no strangers to the lukewarm church. They were no strangers to people falling away. They were no strangers to heresy.

We look at Spurgeon and the Downgrade and what that did to him, the depression that took ahold of him when he saw that the purity of the gospel was weighing in the balance. When will we as the people of God once again rent our hearts before our Lord and King and cry out to Him to move once again, Lord? I believe in biblical revival. Not all the crazy stuff that goes on, I am talking about true God-sent revival.

And I believe it starts with the church. Not at the movie theaters, not Christian entertainers, but the church of Jesus Christ when they return to biblical preaching. This is a great heaviness on my life and I know many of your lives as well. It's a great burden of ours as we take these beautiful doctrines out into a world that literally hates God.

And when the world confronts us with that agitated spirit, against the Antichrist spirit that looms out there as we've been throughout the United Kingdom, we've been through Ireland, we've been through Wales, we've been through England, we've been through Scotland, throughout all America, different portions of America, throughout the Western hemisphere, and the reaction's always the same regardless of their accent.

It is always the same, it's always that retaliation against the word of God when it's preached in its purity and Jesus Christ is high and lifted up. And this is where I believe we are called. We congregate like this and we come together and it ignites a passion in my spirit and in my soul when I see men and women talking about these great biblical doctrines that many have died for.

If you study Scottish history, you'll see men like Patrick Hamilton and George Wishart, they died for preaching against free will. It wasn't the only reason, but it was one of the points. And we see their mighty bodyguard John Knox take up the mantle of these two men and take the pure gospel and blaze through Scotland with an uncompromising fortitude and an indomitable spirit as he plowed forth through Scotland, uncompromising.

It is said that the Queen of England feared the prayers of John Knox more than she did all the armies of England. Powerful. And this is what really grabs ahold of me when I hear the true gospel being preached and biblical doctrine flowing out of the rivers of the pulpit upon the people. It moves me. It is what we like to be fattened up on because it gives us spiritual muscle.

It gives us a muscular faith, a bold faith, a bravery to go out there and not be afraid and cower and run and hide and be indifferent to all those things that are going on around us. But it causes us to confront the issues because we know that our God is with us and no weapon formed against us shall prosper. Christ bears us up on eagle's wings in those times when it seems every fiber of our existence is screaming out to God for assurance and help.

I can almost see the smile upon David's face as he is given the sword of Goliath. Goliath's sword was pulled out from behind the ephod, guided by the providential hand of almighty God. Knowing God was directing his path in the midst of so many tragedies would have been a welcome thought as well. And I pray today that you too would be reminded of the great victories that the Lord has established in your lives, realizing that God's providence has brought you to that place of remembrance.

"There is none like it anywhere," David said. Matthew Henry says here: "He could not use Saul's armor for he had not proved it. But this sword of Goliath he had made a trial of and done execution with. By this it appears that he was now well grown in strength and stature that he could wear and wield such a sword as that. God had taught his hands to war so that he could do wonders. Two things we may observe concerning the sword," says Matthew Henry: "that God had graciously given it to him as a pledge of His singular favor, so that whenever he drew it, nay, whenever he looked upon it, it would be a great support to his faith by bringing to mind that great instance of the particular care and countenance of the divine providence respecting him. And number two, that he had gratefully given it back to God, dedicating it to Him and to His honor as a token of his thankfulness. And now in his distress it stood him greatly in stead. Note: what we devote to God's praise and serve Him with, it is most likely to rebound one way or other to our comfort and benefit."

And it brings us to the point of remembrance, the next point that we see in the sword of Goliath. The first words this priest says to him as he hands him this weapon, that this is the sword of Goliath, the one that you slew in the valley of Elah. The one that *you* slew in the valley of Elah. You see, the Lord knew what was needed to heal an afflicted soul. Proverbs 25:11 says, "A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in a setting of silver."

Just recently, these last couple days has been just a little bit of a challenge and I'm obviously not going to drag you through my problems, but there was some challenges in my own life and just spending some time in Doubting Castle. And it was just the other day, just a couple days ago, a brother Kirk Hubic came over, made a surprise visit, comes rolling up and I see him out my window and I go running out there.

Me and Kirk are just having a conversation and then he reminds me of something. And this was the very thing that I needed to hear. He began to tell me about a friend of his in Canada who he would go out preaching with on a regular basis. And this friend was very timid and was very shy, very quiet. And he would get up on the ladder and he would, they could see him up there moving around but they couldn't really hear what he was saying.

They were like, "Speak up, man! We can't hear you!" But he would just sit up there and he would do his thing and everything, get down and get up and they just said they could hardly even hear him with the crowd roaming around and everything. And this was prior to him investing in coming to one of our conferences on public proclamation. So I met this gentleman in Brooklyn as I seen him sitting there in the front seat.

He looked like he was about 15 years old. I walked up to him and began to talk with him and he said that he had come in contact with our ministry and felt greatly convicted and encouraged to make his way to one of our events. So he came to one of our events and he sat under the preaching and just sat there and just soaked it in and soaked it in. And brother Kirk said, "When he came back, when he came back..." he said, "He walked up to the ladder, got on the ladder..." and he said, "This little lamb of a man had become a lion. And when he opened his mouth, he didn't bleat like a little sheep, but he roared like a lion."

And they said they both stepped back and goes, "Who is this guy?" And they said he was 100% different. Changed. And he was ferocious. And now there is a great movement from this man all across Canada and he is leading this ministry called Jeremiah Cry across Canada tour. It is Chris Sifley. If any of you guys heard Chris Sifley preach in the open air, he is no little sheep. He roars like a lion.

And it was just what I needed to hear because I was getting to the point when the enemy whispers in our ears and says, "This ain't going anywhere. You might want to consider something else. No one's buying into it. No one cares." Refuge had failed me. I looked to my right hand and no man would know me, for refuge failed me, for no man careth for my soul. Now that isn't true, but that is what I felt like.

And then those words came from brother Kirk, uninvited. But it was like an arrow that went clean through me and literally changed me and I thought, "You know what? Uh-uh. Not buying into these, I am not listening to these voices. We are going to continue to move forward because there are men in the local church whom God is raising up and pastors are beginning to see this, that there is a ministry out there that biblically proclaims the true gospel of Jesus Christ, trusting in the sovereignty of God for the salvations of souls, trusting in the sovereignty of God in the enablement of the preacher."

There are men out there that truly love the Lord Jesus Christ and want to see Him high and lifted up, exalted above the nations. The truth! And there is a ministry out there that is going into the world, biblically proclaiming the truth. We are not out there pulling rabbits out of a hat. We are not out there on stilts with a clown nose playing games. Nothing against games, but when it comes to using those instead of the gospel, I have a problem with that. Preaching the true biblical faith.

Just to see that sword again must have infused David with an enthusiastic fire to reflect upon this mighty victory that was given to him by the hand of God. Most certainly made this visit monumental. Remembering the sword that tried to defy Israel was now in the hands of the one who would liberate Israel. Why is remembrance important to our lives as believers? We know why. When we remember... sometimes you have to admit, in the practical sense, in our humanity and in life, sometimes we forget.

You find yourself bellyaching and murmuring over things, complaining, pouting, envying, jealousy, gossiping about people, sizing other people up. We forget. We don't remember where we've come from and the mighty victory that Jesus Christ has won for us in Himself. And we need to visit that. We need to go back on a regular basis and remember where you came from. Remembering what God has done in the past gives us confidence in the present and strength to press on in the future.

And it brings us to our third point and last is confidence. We see providence, remembrance, and now we see the principle of confidence come forward. In 1 Samuel 17:38: "Then Saul clothed David with his armor. He put a helmet of bronze on his head and clothed him with a coat of mail. And David strapped his sword over his armor and he tried in vain to go, for he had not tested them." Then David said to Saul, "I cannot go with these for I have not tested them." So David had put them off.

For the Bible says: "For we are of the circumcision which worship God in the spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh." "Woe to them that go down to Egypt for help," He says in Isaiah, "and stay on horses and trust in chariots because they are very strong, but they will not look upon the Holy One of Israel nor will they seek the Lord." In 1 Corinthians 9:16 it says: "For though I preach the gospel, I have nothing to glory of, for necessity is laid upon me. Yea, woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel. For I determined not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified."

John Miller, in his book *Powerful Evangelism for the Powerless*, writes: "I am convinced that what gave evangelists in the 18th century remarkable power was the Whitefield-Wesley confidence in the supreme authority of Christ. By contrast today, we typically serve a smaller Christ. We like His role of comforter and sustainer, but we pretty much ignore His royal position as the conquering King. The sad fact is that we are often more aware of human opinion than we are of Christ's claim to have absolute authority over the whole cosmos."

"All authority in heaven and earth has been given Me." (Matthew 28:18). The leaders in the Great Awakening had extraordinary power in evangelism and renewal. They followed an omnipotent Christ, the divine warrior, and He anointed them with His missionary presence. It was said of George Whitefield, the mighty preacher of the Great Awakening, that you could hear his preaching from a mile away.

George Whitefield himself said, "I love those that thunder out the word. The Christian world is in a dead sleep and nothing but a loud voice can awaken them out of it." Those that observed Whitefield's preaching said his voice was like a trumpet which could be muted or played to its full power. It was excellent in melody and range and his messages were emphasized with graceful gestures. The voice of George Whitefield also had phenomenal carrying power. One author simply concluded: "He preaches like a lion."

Never perhaps did any preacher so thoroughly succeed in showing people that he at least believed all he was saying and that his whole heart and soul and strength were bent on making them believe it too. They were all life, they were all fire. There was no getting away from under them. Sleep was next to impossible. You must listen whether you liked it or not. There was a holy violence about him. Your attention was taken by storm. You were fairly carried off your legs by his energy before you had time to consider what you would do.

But this power was poured out on those who knew that they were inherently powerless without a constant dependence upon the working of God's grace in their lives. They knew themselves as poor sinners. "But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world." They preached the supremacy of Christ against the backdrop of man's radical and total depravity.

They preached the precious among the vile. Christ was the supreme motive in their preaching. Christ was the only supreme object and hope to a fallen and apostate world. Christ was the supreme power over sin and the sinner and the life and strength of the believer. They trusted in the complete sovereign hand of almighty God in salvation of His people and the enablement and power of the Holy Spirit as they heralded the word of God in the open air.

Spurgeon said, "A holy minister is an awful weapon in the hand of God." Boy, that moves me. That just gets right ahold of me. You see, the armor and the sword of King Saul did not appeal to David because he had never tested them. And they didn't seem fit. But this mammoth of a sword was tested alright by lopping off the head of a giant and it seemed to be the perfect fit, a match made in heaven.

David did not need the clothes of an earthly king when he had on the clothes of the Most High. The priest did not hand him Saul's sword or bring him some ancient relic of his ancestors, but the sword of Goliath because there was none like it anywhere. I am very thankful to everything that I have learned at this conference.

I am bursting with excitement to get back out on the street with a new fiery zeal that I didn't have before I came. The men that have spoken at this conference, the things that I have heard, have shaken me to the very core of my being. And I am going to tell you this: the gospel of Jesus Christ and the doctrines of grace, Jesus Christ Himself, for there is none, there is none, none like it anywhere. There is none like Him anywhere.

Go into the world and be brave, even if it costs you your life. Even if you have to dive in a cold, dark black sea to disappear under its waves for the salvation of one soul. Do not murmur and gripe when God chastens us or transforms us through different obstacles and challenges and adversities in our life. Go into the world and proclaim the gospel because there is nothing, none like it. God bless.

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