There is a verse in the Bible, that I believe has staggered many a man, many a woman, and even many a child, and transformed their lives forever. Before we look at this verse, I would like to begin by asking you a question, and I would like you to give an answer, everyone of you in your hearts right now before we go on. With all the light that you have been given from this book called the Bible, “WHERE DOES FAITH COME FROM?” — “WHERE DOES FAITH COME FROM?” What would you say? D.L.Moody asked that question. If you want to name on your one hand the five greatest soulwinners the world has ever known in its history, Moody was one of those men. He moved more people to God than any other of God’s servants in the history of the church. Moody had no eloquence, he had never attended any theological seminary, and he had no theological training as the great Torrey did who took up Moody’s ministry after he died. Moody didn’t have a standard six (6th grade education). So without any theological training from any university or seminary, here was a man, that God was about to take up and move the world to Himself, as seldom the world had ever seen or will ever see again. Why, why would God do that? With a man who boasted no eloquence, and no dynamic personality, as the charismatic figures of our world today. What was it about this man, Moody? He became desperate, he became desperate with God and with himself. Do you know why Moody became a desperate man as a young Christian? He became conscious that God was not answering his prayers. Are you desperate about that, sir? God does not answer my prayers. Are you desperate about that if it’s true in your life? Moody became desperate. He prayed, he longed for God to do something so mighty through him. His vision was great, but he became conscious his faith was small. So he began to pray a prayer. “God, my faith is so weak, I have so little faith. God, give me faith, give me more faith.” And he cried this out in despair as he realized no matter how much he longed and believed, nothing was happening in answer to his prayers. What he was longing for God to do through him in this world. He began to despair. He said, “I thought God would answer prayer like lightning from heaven, as an answer to my groan, my cry, for faith that I knew I lacked. I thought I would stand up full of all the faith that I knew I lacked, suddenly I thought that I would have hold of faith.” He believed that’s how God would give him faith in answer to his cry for faith. But that is not what God did. That isn’t how God worked in the great Moody’s life. It was a very different way that God would come. You see, one day Moody got on his knees and he did something he had never done before. He came to groan before God the same prayer he had groaned many times before. He was about ready to groan in despair again as he finished another day not seeing any of his prayers answered. He was on his knees about to say the same prayer, about to call upon God, which he had done again and again, in despair. But, he did something he had never done before. He opened the Bible, as he got on his knees, he opened the Holy Book, he opened it, he did what Andrew Murray said, the godliest man South Africa ever knew in its history. Andrew Murray said, “Never, never go on your knees to commune with God unless you open the Book.” Never allow your communion with God to be a one-sided affair, one way conversation, which is you calling on God. Open the Book! Whenever you open your mouth to cry to God, expect God to speak to you through the Book. “This Book is a miracle”, said Andrew Murray. Whether you are a preacher or layman, never open the Book for theology or to gain doctrinal knowledge. Never open the Book without expecting God to speak to you immediately. Though these words were written thousands of years ago, you will find suddenly that God is speaking to you; those verses are to you. You know that in every crisis you face, or guidance that you may need, every time in any moment of life’s trials, if you open the Book expecting God to speak to you, you will find the miracle of this Book. You will find the words come alive for you. You will know this is God speaking to me, this is not coincidence, this is God, and you will mark the verses in your Bible. Moody did what Andrew Murray said, for the first time. He said, “I didn’t open the Book expecting anything, I just opened it as I got on my knees. I began to cry out to God as I had before with the tears streaming down my face. I cried, ‘Oh God, when wilt Thou give me faith? Give me faith, God, my prayers are not being answered, I want to move the world to Christ. Oh God, give me faith.’ Then I opened my eyes, and suddenly my eyes fell on this verse, ‘Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God’ (Romans 10:17). I thought to myself, ‘Faith comes by the word of God—faith comes by the word of God.’” Moody said, “I never asked God for faith again, for now God had told me where I was to receive it.” He said, “I shut my doors on the business of life, all my programs, and all my efforts, and I started to do what I had never done. I started to soak myself in the Bible. I used to read five or six verses a day, pondering them, but from that moment that I read that verse, I stopped life. I began to read chapters—and chapters—and chapters—and chapters. I began to make it the greatest priority of my life, sometimes spending the whole day in the Book, where God had said the source of faith was.” Moody said, “From that time, God has answered my every prayer.” “God has answered my every prayer.” Oh, what God was about to do through Moody, as suddenly he was doing the one thing God could give faith through. The one thing God longs for more than anything. It’s not seven years in a university of books about the Book, and theologies. Here was a man without a standard six, and I don’t despise learning; I would be a fool to do that. Here was a man who took up the source of faith. He laid down all his other activities and submitted himself to the discipline of soaking his heart in the Word of God. From that time, God began to move in a most amazing way. Suddenly everyone began to take notice; there is a man in America that God is using in a most unusual way. He was led by God to Scotland. He stood in a pulpit unannounced to the people and looked out at the people and began to cry; he began to cry and he prayed. He didn’t close his eyes when he prayed. He lifted up his eyes and prayed, “Oh God, win this nation back to Thyself through me.” Does a man dare pray such a prayer, “Here I am, win this whole land back to Thyself through me”? Do you know, God took such note of that man standing there humble, no eloquence, no learning. Here He saw a man looking up to God, broken, humble, and God rent the heavens at that moment. God couldn’t say no, I say it so reverently about this perfect God. He couldn’t deny this man, his cry. While Moody preached, the people came under intense conviction, and brokeness, and weeping. God swept through that building, and the people were wailing before God. It wasn’t limited to the church building, either. They left the meeting and went out into the streets and found the whole town was under conviction. Do you have any idea what God could do in revival when a man prays in such a way that God can trust him? When God knows there is nothing of self in him, and he won’t even look at the glory, let alone touch it, not even a sideward glance. God knew as He looked at this man, and the faith that was in this man’s heart that He couldn’t deny him. There were people running out of their homes who hadn’t been in the church for years, who were converted. Do you know that in three weeks there was not one soul in that whole town who was not born again? There was not one person in the whole town that was not saved, when one man prayed with faith. This happened over and over in Scotland. Businesses shut down, not for days, but for weeks. Life stood still, as town after town sought God. The whole world was suddenly looking; a nation is seeking God. Oh, that the world would look on like that now.
It takes 15 minutes a day to read through the Bible once in a year. You have to read slowly to do that. In 30 minutes a day you can read it twice a year. I wonder—how many of you read through your Bible once or twice a year. We have time for many other things in this land of America. But, seriously, how many people actually give God 30 minutes each day and read the most powerful, life changing book there is. My father was saved when he was 50 years old. My father lived only 9 years after he was saved. He did more in those nine years for God and my country than most do in a lifetime. Do you know why my father was so loved in South Africa, in nine years of a Christian life? Because he read through this book, the Bible, 68 times in those nine years. When my father prayed, we knew that God was going to answer his prayer. With the exception of one prayer that man heard him pray, every prayer that my father prayed, God answered immediately. Can that be said of you? Do you know, I heard my father praying for me once as he was in his room? I opened my eyes and I stood as he prayed for me, pouring his soul out for me and my life, and I began to weep, I began to shake and tremble as my father prayed for me. Do you know why? Because I knew that this prayer, that he was praying, God was going to answer. Because God answered every prayer I heard my father pray, I wept and trembled as I heard what he was praying for my life. Will your children ever weep as you pray for them? Never, unless you do what Moody did, unless you do what Daddy did, and take this up as the greatest priority of life. You pray for revival sir; revival will never come unless you become a man of this book, and soak yourself in the book every day. Thousands may pray, but give God a handful of men, yea one who makes this the greatest priority of his life, and God can do something. Don’t doubt it. I knew a man who read this book over four hundred times. William McFarlen, the holiest man of God I ever knew. When I stood with him the first time I met him, I began to shake, as I realized how holy he was. His face shone with God’s holy character. Do you know what this Book can do to you? I want to ask every one of you right now, answer me in your heart. How many times have you read this book through? Think about it, in your lifetime, how many times? Have you even read it through once? You would be surprised, how many Christians haven’t even read through the Bible once in their whole life, shame on you. You couldn’t give God 15 minutes of your precious time to read three chapters a day, and get through the Bible once in a year. Shame on you. Can a man get away with saying such things in the pulpit in 1999? Shame on you. You name the name of Christ, your nation is going to hell, you go to the prayer meetings, and pray. No wonder your prayers are not answered. Nothing should take more of our free time than the Book. Oh God, turn us back to the Book, turn us back to the Book.
WHAT YOU DO WITH THE BIBLE, WILL DETERMINE WHAT GOD DOES WITH YOU.
