After my mother and I moved to Pittsburgh....I was 13 at the time....beginning eighth grade....God provided an apartment on a quiet street about eight miles from downtown. I spent my summers a couple of miles away at my cousin's home....in a town called...Turtle Creek....home of the Vogues. They were wonderful memories. Little did I know that a man who would have a big impact on my life....had at one time....a few years previous....lived on the same street as did my cousin....and....his future wife was raised only a few streets from where my mother an I lived....and....I would in those summers....pass many times.....a church where this man's father-in-law pastored a congregation....a big yellow church is all that I remember of it. This minister's name is David Wilkerson....author of....The Cross And The Switchblade....and founder of Times Square Church....in the heart of Manhattan. I still have 100 cassettes of his preaching....(and just as many of John MacArthur's....and R.C. Sprouls).... We needed cassettes before the Internet.
Let me segue a little bit. I was listening to a John MacArthur sermon few days ago....something I do fairly regularly....and this sermon was probably....from the sound of John MacArthur's voice....at least forty years old. It was a wonderful sermon....but in it he said something that bothered me just a little bit. As he was preaching....in his strong expository style....he gave an anecdote. He had met a famous Pentecostal preacher....and it may very well have been David Wilkerson....who was about the most famous Pentecostal preacher at the time....and he asked this preacher if he used....Vine's Expository Dictionary....in his study. The Pentecostal pastor responded....."What's that?" Here is where I have a little problem....MacArthur related this in his sermon....actually ridiculing it....that this well-known preacher did not even know about Vine's Expository Dictionary! The people in the church laughed?
This is a pitfall that is common among the seminary trained Reformed pastors of today. They at times....think so highly of their formal training in the languages....that they forget that God used the untrained John Bunyan....and the untrained Spurgeon....and the untrained Moody....and in this case also....the untrained David Wilkerson....in ways that many of those who had been....seminary trained....could only hope to be used.
The fact is....I feel confident is saying....that God uses any man that He desires to use....whether they be brilliant and eloquent....as in the case of MacArthur....or passionate and pleading....as in the case of David Wilkerson. We are all in this together....and praise God in that an uneducated fisherman....Peter....and an elite educated Pharisee....Paul....could be used to change the world at that time!
So....Lord willing....I might listen to MacArthur today....or I might listen to Spurgeon....or I might listen to Martyn Lloyd-Jones...or David Wilkerson. I am adding here a sermon of David Wilkerson's that I already listened to this morning....titled....Stand Still And See The Salvation Of The LORD. We need all of these men. We need the rigorous study of a Jonathan Edwards....and we need the direct power of the Holy Spirit as through a Charles Spurgeon. We need the brilliant mind of an R. C. Sproul....in the classroom....and we need the brilliance of a George Whitefield....in the public square.
