In his classic book on prayer called Preacher
in Prayer, E.M. Bounds opens his book
with the comment, The Church is looking for
better methods.
God is looking for better men.
And that's the title of my message today,
friends, and the subject of my message today
as well.
For in 2 Chronicles we read, For the
eyes of the Lord run to and fro
throughout the whole earth to show themselves strong
in the behalf of them whose heart is
perfect toward Him.
I believe God is still on the lookout
for better men, better men than the mere
mediocre, better than the self-satisfied, better than
the casual or complacent, better than those who
are concerned with their self-preservation, willing only
to go so far with God but refusing
to go out on a limb for God
by faith.
God is looking for better men.
The greatest need in our land today is
a prophet, a man sent from God, God's
man, who will stand between the gap of
heaven and earth, between mortal man and almighty
God, a holy man who is so wholly
sold out to God, so intoxicated with Christ
and so consumed with eternity that his very
footprints leave a smoky trail of the lingering
fire of God, a man whose desperate life
of prayer has left fingerprints on the horns
of the altar in glory, a man whose
emboldened faith and Enoch-like walk with God
moves mountains of resistance and proves that the
God of the Bible is still alive today.
God will always raise up an Elijah whose
prayers impact a sleeping nation.
The church in each generation has had individuals
who live upon their knees, whose prayers reach
heaven with a holy violence.
India had her praying Hyde, China her John
Song, England her John Wesley, Scotland her John
Knox, America her fiery E.M. Bounds.
Voices which gained the attention of the throne
room startled angels and shook the gates of
hell, making even kings and queens quake and
tremble with their desperate prayers, but with power
comes a sacrifice.
With anointing there is a cost.
God does not bestow his deeper gifts upon
the casual or complacent.
Talk is cheap, but a yielded and consecrated
life is everything, but to go all out
for God means a willingness to be reduced
to nothing for him, so Christ can be
everything.
God is indeed looking for better men.
I'll never forget the conversation I had with
Adrian Rogers at the funeral of Stephen Alford.
We were standing in the hallway and Adrian
Rogers was facing me with his arms folded
across his chest and he looked like a
big Indian chief standing there.
Then he asked me a question.
He said, Do you know what concerns me?
I said, No, Dr. Rogers, what concerns you?
He said, I see God calling up men
like J.
Sidlow Baxter and Stephen Alford and I look
around and I don't see any comeuppers.
And he was right.
There's a dearth in the land today of
better men.
Men like these, the Apostle Paul, Luther, Wesley,
Whitfield, Edwards, Finney, Moody, each shared a common
denominator, a fire in their belly.
They each were so eaten up with the
gospel and so thirsty for Christ and so
filled with the Holy Ghost, they could not
stand idly by while others perished.
They saw nothing but eternity, worshipped the Holy
God and served a risen Christ, living not
for earth nor its gains, but living only
for heaven and its rewards.
When they preached, they linked the devil with
sin and the cross with salvation.
They preached hell and its fire and Christ
and Him crucified.
Not one of them feared king, queen, or
pope, and not one of them sought the
compliments of men.