I have to digress a little bit here. I would suspect that some of my brethren in the Reformed Faith might shake their heads at my recommending a sermon by a Pentecostal preacher....but let me tell you something. They would be hard pressed to find a better sermon by any of our pastors.....and that includes John Piper....as powerful maybe....and as powerful yes....but not better....for there is an immanence here that we lack....and literal tears....tears that will come....but of which we are too proud to shed today...or that as much as we talk about God's judgment....we do not know the severity or the universality of the wrath of God....as we await the return of the King of Kings.
Let me give you a little anecdote here. It was in the 80s somewhere....probably the late 80s....I can't remember the year. I walked into a Christian bookstore....not real familiar with Christian literature at the time....and the cover of a book caught my eye....because it was of a neon orange. It just stuck out among all the other books. I picked it up and went to the blurbs on the back. The author I was totally unfamiliar with....William Gurnall....the book title....Volume one of The Christian In Complete Armour....published by some publisher called....Banner Of Truth. The first blurb called it...."peerless and priceless" This by someone named C. H. Spurgeon. Never heard of him. (I have the book with me as I type this) The second blurb was by David Wilkerson....who I knew very well. I bought the book....and it was part of something that changed my life.
Oh....I remember this also....let me open the book to quote it for you. By the way....J. C. Ryle and John Newton also have blurbs in the preface....so that makes Spurgeon and Ryle and Newton and....Wilkerson. I still ponder at times how the Banner must have flinched at adding the Pentecostal pastor. Anyway....in that preface Wilkerson writes...."Leonard Ravenhill....(another Pentecostal)....gave me a copy. At first I put the book aside. It was too long, too wordy....out of curiosity I scanned the first twenty-five pages. That is all it took to bring me to my knees."
Someone once asked R. C. Sproul if he thought that Billy Graham would be in heaven. Yeah that's how we kind of think once in a while. I can't remember Sproul's exact words but they were very close to this....'yes....and he will be up front....and I'll be back in the pack somewhere.'
John records at the beginning of the second chapter in Revelation...."To the angel of the church in Ephesus write...." And at the end of the letter we read this...."nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love." I would not be in the Reformed Faith if I did not believe it to be the truest of all to God's Word....but we at times think that because we sing more biblically....or our worship practices are more sound....(which they are)....and our theology more correct....(which it definitely is)....that we therefore cannot learn from our brethren who are not as wise. Folks in these coming days we...whatever the size of the remnant....and with those who God calls during this time....we are going to be one.....like it or not...you and I will be one!
I have known now for three decades....since coming into the Reformation....that David Wilkerson was a closet Puritan. Another thing....at times I'll listen to John Piper preach a sermon....and I'll hear voice intonations....and emotions....and see David Wilkerson in them.
This post has gone on long enough. It's getting late and My wife will ask me if I'm going to bed....and I'll say as I often do....and she will roll her eyes....."I'll be up later"....for...."I have promises to keep....and....(she'll join in)....miles to go before I sleep."
Please Google....David Wilkerson....A Call To Anguish....and then maybe....Google and listen to John Piper, God Governs My Good, And Is My Good"....and if you are a follower of Jesus Christ...you will surely be blessed!
Addendum: The C. H. Spurgeon that I didn't know anything about at the time....well it wasn't too many years later when I got a good deal....and ordered 1000 copies of his....All Of Grace....and handed them out at supermarkets and laundromats and wherever I could find someone willing to take one. I think I still have five or six left....but the pages are yellow now.
