Sand and Dirt In the Gas Line

Sand and Dirt In the Gas Line

by Roland Brown

Transcribed from the original recording; may contain errors.

I would like to take advantage of this opportunity to say to the members of the Austin Methodist Church and your pastor how much we campers have appreciated through the years having fellowship with you and having an annual retreat here in your sanctuary and the use of all of your property here. It has been wonderful. And I know that that is the general feeling among all of the campers. I’ve been here several occasions with the campers in the past and it is such a privilege to be here again. And I feel greatly honored in being invited to bring you the message this morning. Yes, our minds go to the United Nations today, of course. And I’m glad that the pastor said what he did about Westminster Central Hall. I didn’t know that this dream was born there in Westminster Central Hall. For I’ve spoken there in Westminster Central Hall several times in the past years, knowing Dr. Sangster, who was there as pastor for so many years. And on one occasion, I had an all-day session with all the ministers of all denominations of Greater London. And I’ll tell you, that was a great experience. Over 700 ministers present for that day. It was held during the first week of January. And so, it’s a joy to think of the United Nations as being born, as you might say, at least dreamed up and prayed about there at Westminster Central Hall.

Vivian Osburn said something yesterday that pleased me. She indicated that there is a list of names available. You’ll have to see her because I don’t know where you’ll get this list of names. But I would suggest that every CFOer, that every Christian who is really earnest about world conditions, to get a copy of this list of names, the representatives of the United Nations. And pray for them. Pray for them. Pray for them at times, one by one. Now we remember when the United Nations was born. When it came about. And I think it was the Laymen’s Missionary Movement in New York who published a list of the names of the representatives at that time. I remember at the time that I had that list, there were 58 names on the list. My, how that list has increased. And we were encouraged to use this list in our prayer period every day. And pray for these members representing all these different nations. And one of the things that we encouraged people to do was to take that list of names with them when they go to bed at night. Now this may seem very strange to some of you. But before you close your eyes, glance over the list. And lift these individuals up into the heart of God.

And then tuck the list under your pillow. And then, you know, it reminds me of something that I saw Frank Laubach do one time. We were in London. And this meeting wasn’t at Central Hall. It was in an Anglican church across from Westminster Abbey. And Frank Laubach was one of the speakers in what we were calling a prayer congress. And Marcia and I were in his room one afternoon. And he held up a small globe. You remember what Vivian said yesterday about the big globe that Frank Laubach carries with him? Yes. And he inflates it, of course, before a service. And has it with him on the pulpit sometimes. But here was a little globe that had been inflated. And then, sort of sheepishly, he said to Marcia and me, “You know, when I go to bed at night, I just tuck it under my arm.” Yes, this may sound very, very strange to some of you dear people. Do something unusual, if you need to, to keep you reminded of world conditions, so that you may pray, and pray more earnestly, more dynamically. For the only hope for the world lies in Jesus Christ living, regnantly, in you. And if He doesn’t live regnantly in you, it’s a pity. If He is only a theological concept, how can you say that your religion is any better than any of the other religions in the world?

For that’s what the other religions are. And as I preach to Hindus and to Buddhists and Muslims, and they want to know the difference between our religion and theirs, I make it very clear that our religion is not a philosophy, as so many people seem to think it is.

And when your religion has become just a philosophy, how can you say it’s any better than Buddhism or Hinduism or any of the other pagan religions of the world? We worship one who has risen from the dead and who is alive today.

Even Jesus Christ, who lives within us to the degree that we permit Him to live within us, to the degree that we hunger and thirst to have Him live within us. You may say to Him, “Yes, Lord, You may live within me if You want to,” and it doesn’t work any more than you would expect a girl to marry a fellow who says, “Well, you can marry me if you want to.”

It’s silly and foolish. And God isn’t going to force Himself upon anyone. And that’s why He’s given us a free will. We can accept Him if we want to, but we don’t have to. We can pray if we want to, but we don’t have to.

We can live in union, in fellowship with Him if we want to, but we don’t have to. We’ve been given a free will and we can do just what we please. All the time. He doesn’t intrude into the sacredness of our soul. Not even God.

But He has created us in such a way that our hearts can open to Him and welcome Him and yearn to have Him in our hearts. This leads right into the theme that the Camps Farthest Out are using in this retreat.

Creative living. God is the Creator. Not man. God creates. Man only makes. Now there’s the difference. You cannot create. You can only put together and use the things that God has created. And when you put these things together that God has created, when you use them rightly to His glory, then you enter into the creativity of God Himself. You become a partner with God in the work that He is engaged in at the moment. In creation. In the bringing of a perfect society out of an imperfect society.

In bringing your hope into a little bit of heaven on earth. God wants to do that. God can do that. God can do that. All the machinery has been provided. All the forces and powers have been created by God. That every home become a little bit of heaven. That every church become a community of individuals who are striving to go all the way with Jesus Christ.

God wants that. He is the Creator. And we’ve been hearing a great deal these days that God is dead. Well, maybe He is dead to some people. Maybe He’d better be dead to them, if that’s all they think of what God is like.

And all this is said about the death of God. Maybe one of the finest things that has happened, because I know it is bringing Christian people to the point where they are facing the issue. Facing the problem. We’ve been brought up on the fact that God is omnipotent and omniscient.

That He is always present. All-powerful. That means that right here in this sanctuary this morning, He is here. Now that’s the doctrine of the Christian church. We believe it. Possibly there is not a soul present who would question that doctrine. God is present. But here is the thing that the average person may think. Well, if God is present, then why doesn’t He do something?

Why don’t we see miracles happening? Why doesn’t He change circumstances? We pray, but He doesn’t answer. And then the doubts begin to crowd into our hearts. Oh, all of us have doubts. And don’t you think that I haven’t had doubts? Again and again they come flooding into my soul. And I say to myself, well, how do you know God is real?

How do you know God answers prayer? How do you know you can pray for somebody and that person may be healed? How do you know it? And I find for a few moments that I’m plunged into doubts. And then I begin to smile at myself because all I have to do is to remember something. Some of my past experiences with Him. Some of the prayers that have been answered. Some of the people that have been healed. Oh, the glory and the wonder of it. You can expect a wave of doubt expressing itself into this hypothesis that God is dead.

Naturally, it’ll bring some of the rest of us to our senses. God is alive. And He’s wonderful. And probably almost everyone here in the sanctuary knows that He is wonderful. Now there are these things that God has created. He has created each one of us. Every organ of our body, every gland, every muscle, every nerve. He has created all the forces, the laws that we’re using every day. And when we use any of these things that God has created, every one of which is good and perfect. Every time we misuse anything that God has created, we begin to enter into the area of evil. We begin to sin if we keep it up knowingly against God.

But when we take these forces and use them as God has created them to be used, then I tell you, miracles happen. Glenn Clark used to say that every Sunday when he would go over to his class, his adult Bible class in Minneapolis, that sometimes he wouldn’t have had the time to prepare a lesson. And so on his way over, he would think of two great truths. Oftentimes, words of Jesus. He would bring these great truths into his mind and heart and begin to mix them together. And then when he would reach his Bible class, he would have something new and fresh to talk about.

There is an example of what we talked about yesterday: the creativity of faith. The creativity of faith. As the Holy Spirit within activates our faith. The Holy Spirit is like a catalyst within us. We take these two truths. And those of you who know anything about chemistry and the work of a catalyst, something entirely new comes forth. Entirely different from either of those two things, but not inconsistent with those two things, something that didn’t exist before.

And truth works that way also. Yes, why doesn’t God do something? I must share a personal experience. That was the cry that was on my heart one time. After I had been in my Chicago church for two years, down there south of the University of Chicago.

I was just as sincere as I knew how to be. I was preaching the gospel just as clearly and as enthusiastically as I knew how to do it. And yet I hadn’t seen our people advance spiritually. And I couldn’t see that any of them were any better at the end of two years than they were before I went there.

Still criticizing one another. Can you imagine a Christian criticizing anyone? My! Well, they stopped criticizing one another out loud. But I knew it was going on underneath. And at the end of two years, I was just about at the end of my rope.

I knew God had brought me there. I didn’t want to leave. I pled with Him that He wouldn’t take me away from there. I wanted to stay because I knew that these people here in Chicago needed Jesus. And so I went into my room and I prayed.

With the Bible open before me. I just prayed and pled with God to show me the reason why. I said, “I’m not going to blame You, Lord. And I’m not going to blame the church because the church needs Jesus.”

I asked Him to tell me what the trouble was. It must be Ian Magie. And the Bible was open there in front of me to the very place where you read from it this morning. The first chapter of 1 John.

And as I read that whole book, my mind kept going back to one verse. And that church, that verse became the turning point in my spiritual life. I’m going to read it to you right now. I kept my finger in the hymn book so that I could use it at this moment. Here it is.

And you will wonder what word it is. I’m going to tell you what it is when we get to it. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all.”

A double L. “Unrighteousness.” And it didn’t seem to me that He had done it. For to be cleansed of all unrighteousness would be to have the righteousness of God. And that sounded sacrilegious. Yet that’s what the book says. That Christ who knew no sin became sin in order that we might become the righteousness of God.

God wants us to be perfect. He has created a perfect world. He has created perfect laws. He has created perfect souls. He has given us a free will. Now, we don’t have to be perfect if we don’t want to be. But He wants us to be perfect. And He says, “Be ye holy, even as I am holy.”

And Jesus repeated it by saying, “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.” Now we toss it out the window because we say, “I don’t know anybody that’s perfect. Therefore I’m not going to try to be perfect.” And that’s where you’ll miss the boat. It’s a matter of trying. It’s a simple matter of desiring. It isn’t a matter of being perfect. The command is to be perfect. Therefore we must strive in that direction. Strive with all our heart and mind and soul.

So that everything that we are and everything that we hope to be, everything that we possess fits into this perfect plan that God has for every single life. And there as I pled with God to show me the reason for this awful condition that existed in my church there on the south side, He reminded me of certain things in my life which were unrighteous.

And I argued with… Yes, I had the boldness to argue with God and tell Him, “Well, that thing isn’t sin. And that isn’t sin.” And He didn’t seem to mind a bit. It was almost as though He was grinning at me. Oh no! Just as though He was saying something like that. But I kept on arguing. And He won. He won. He won the argument. Because He knew that I was in earnest and sincere. But I’ll tell you, it took 20 or 30 minutes before I could come to the place where a sharp word that I had spoken to my wife, I could see was sin. An unkind word.

And the impatience with our baby boy. Sin. And I asked God to forgive. And I repented. Taking them up one at a time. One after another. And a miracle happened. On our first visit to Japan we were in a car, going down to Shima. Something went wrong with the car. We got out. Looked at the gas tank. It was filled with gasoline. But no power in the motor. We managed to get to a garage. And there in the garage the mechanics worked on that car for three hours before they discovered what the trouble was. And when they found the trouble, they fixed it in 10 minutes.

And this is what happened in my life. I had prayed for two years. Wanting to know what the trouble was. And then I discovered it. And it became fixed in 10 minutes. And maybe it would be a good thing if before some of us go to sleep tonight we pay attention to this. And I was there when they found what the trouble was. And I saw those mechanics take a little pipe out from underneath the car and tap it on the floor. And I saw a little pile, about a spoonful of sand and dirt fall out of that pipe.

And then they flushed it out, put it back, and the gasoline flowed through to the motor. And there was power. And there can be power in your life when it isn’t clogged up with a lot of rubbish, of impatience, unkindness, sharp speaking, worry, and fear.

Oh, if there is just one grain of sand, it probably wouldn’t make any difference. But when our whole life becomes filled with a lot of stuff of that nature, you can’t expect the power of God to do very much in you or through you. It is a time when Christian people the world around begin to give God an opportunity to clean them up.

And one person said to me after I told of this experience in some country, I forget where, as they went out the door, they said, “You know, Roland Brown, there’s going to be a big pile of sand and dirt on my bedroom floor tonight.”

Oh, dear hearts, God is good. Jesus is wonderful.