I mentioned that it is my hope to publish soon an incredible sermon of Ern Baxter's called; "What on Earth is God saying about Discipling the Nations?". Less of a sermon, it is more a defence of a powerful positive eschatology of the end times. I simply cannot wait to finish it because I confess to my shame that Ern is bringing forth a wealth of Scriptures that I simply have never read with what he calls; "faith applied to revelation". These Scriptures are dynamite! Recently Pete and I were spending some time in prayer and worship and waiting on God and we felt that He spoke incredibly powerfully to us prophetically about Ern Baxter's significance and the Scripture that the Spirit reminded us of was Deuteronomy 34 when the Lord took Moses up the mountain and showed him the land. Just as with Ern, we believed that God had showed him the land but told him he would not go into it. The practical application? That we were to open our eyes when listening to his teaching and preaching for hints and clues as to how the Kingdom of God is to advance until it does indeed cover the entire earth with the glory of the Lord and the Church fulfills this most beautiful of types and crosses the Jordan and goes into the Land. We were to do this because Ern had seen something that many today still have not.
I deeply believe this is backed up by a comment Wendy Virgo made about Ern that I have quoted before. She said of him; "Now with the passage of time we can see some of his prophetic predictions coming into being". Dr John Piper made a comment at his Bethlehem Conference for Pastors that is important; "So Revival comes - then what?". If the tidal wave of a powerful move of the Spirit of God is coming then surely we must give some thought to what we will do with that. So with that in mind I cannot resist highlighting some key quotes from this most vital of sermons by Ern Baxter that we must hear in these most exciting of days. The tide is turning! And the Church must be ready to go. Note especially the Scriptures in these quotes!:
"But if you do not have a faith faculty tonight then you cannot respond to revelation. The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness unto him neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned. If you don’t have a spiritual faith factor in your spiritual constitution then you cannot receive revelation. You can receive ideas and you can compare them with other ideas on a natural level but you cannot embrace them as ultimate reality. So tonight I warn you that I am speaking to faith out of revelation".
"Therefore the prophetic word to and about nations is the authoritative, governmental word of the God about whom the prophets speak. The nations then are ultimately subject (oh I want you to hear this) to the predictive, ethical, redemptive and judgemental word of God’s delegated vice regents the prophets, of whom Jesus is Chief".
"Psalm 86:9;
“All nations whom Thou hast made shall come and worship before Thee O Lord, and they shall glorify Your Name”.
"Deuteronomy 32:8;
“When the Most High parcelled out the nations, when He dispersed all mankind, He laid down the boundaries of every people according to the number of the sons of God. But the Lord’s share was His own people. Jacob was His allotted portion”.
"Now what He is saying is that when He made the nations, He made them in terms of some kind of angelic oversight which the rest of the Bible seems to bear out. There is an angelic authority involved with all of the nations. This was done by God’s deliberate creative and administrative policy. What He says here is that while He created the nations, some 58 of them in Genesis 10, while He created the nations and put them under angelic oversight, He reserved for His own immediate oversight the nation of Israel which nation He chose".
"Psalm 22:28;
“For the Kingdom is the Lord’s and He rules over the nations”.
"What I am doing tonight is trying to lay a foundation for you to believe that you are the prophetic community who share in the anointing of Jeremiah and the college of prophets – the bishopry, the overseers, the pastoral care of the nations! We here tonight are not a bunch of slaves and underlings wandering through life aimlessly – we have the dignity and poise of the sons of God. We are the delegates of high heaven! We stand and minister in His courts daily and go forth from His high Presence to walk the highways of earth and speak into history and those who have been inspired in the prophetic community by the prophetic voice! We are the elect! We are the People of God! We are co-rulers with King Jesus! We are the men and women who under God history is going to be made! We are the People of God! We are important!".
"Psalm 66:7;
He rules by His might forever! His eyes keep watch on the nations".
Haggai 2:7;
“And I will shake all the nations and they will come with the wealth of all nations and will fill this house with glory says the Lord of hosts”.
Psalm 67:1-2;
“God be gracious to us and bless us and cause His face to shine upon us that Thy way may be known upon the earth and Thy salvation among all nations”.
"I have a hard time people in handling some of the exclusivism coming from evangelicals. I have a hard time handling in light of the Gospel record. God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. Go into all the world and make disciples of all nations. For He is the propitiation for our sins and not ours only but for the whole world. Jesus Christ tasted death for every man. When Jesus Christ bled His life out on Calvary and went down into Sheol and pronounced good news to the prisoners of hope and ascended into the Presence of God and sat down at the right hand of God as a Prince and a Saviour, He reached down and wrote His signature large across the earth and said, “It is Mine, I have redeemed it, they belong to Me – I place My Name over every nation! I claim every nation!”. And we will find in a moment that was His perfect right for the Father had said to Him, “Ask of Me Son and I will give you the nations for Your inheritance”.
He ascended into the Presence of God and said, “Father I will take that one” and He put His Name on a nation and He said, “I’ll take that one” and put His Name on another nation. He put His Name over every nation because the Father gave Him the right to ask for the nations as His inheritance – the uttermost parts of the earth are within the redemptive reach of His purpose! Jesus Christ tonight is not Saviour of a small select group – Jesus Christ has written His signature in characters of redeeming blood over every nation and He will not be content until the earth sings in unison an anthem declaring that Jesus Christ is Lord!".
Revival - the tidal wave - is coming but it is coming for a purpose. Are we ready, do we truly believe that purpose is to awaken the entire world to the knowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord and Ruler over the nations?
3 comments:
And what happens when 2007 closes and nothing has happened and all as is before? Then what happens to your blog, to your sermons, to your vision?
Dan, I must say this is so awesome, envisioning, encouraging - and challenging. What an awesome word!! It is a challenge also to realise that some of these scriptures I have never read (or read properly)! All this glorious vision is there in the Word of God - and we need to believe it and prepare for it!
Now, anonymous - if I might answer your point:
What happens if 2007 closes without these things happening? Well, we keep on believing the Lord and trusting in His promises. "The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some account slackness..." (2 Peter 3v9).
If it doesn't happen in 2007, nothing has changed. God is still upon the throne, scripture is true and the vision remains!! The blog will continue, the sermons will continue to be transcribed.
God says: "For the vision is yet for an appointed time; but at the end it will speak, and it will not lie. Though it tarries, wait for it; because it will surely come, wait for it." (Habakkuk 2v3).
So - it will come, and we will wait for it. And in God's perfect timing, it will not tarry!
We must be very careful in challenging a God-given vision. Unbelief is a serious thing, with serious consequences according to Hebrews 3-4. God is merciful to us as we struggle with doubts and waiting for the vision, but we need to remember that proud unbelief is very dangerous - He resists the proud but gives grace to the humble.
Dan, I stand with you in the vision. It's true! It will happen! I don't know when it will happen, but it will happen! And I know I need to seek the Lord with all of my heart - and He will be found my me!
Please continue to post - it is truly glorious!
Yes Anonymous. You consistently write with what you think is authority and you clearly believe you are in a position to rebuke and correct and condemn, but you hide under a veil of secrecy. It isn't brave - it's rude and cowardly to do the devil's job when you aren't prepared to stake your name to what you believe.
I remember Dr Lloyd-Jones said that his first job when he opened any letter that arrived at Westminster Chapel was to look and see who it was from. If it was anonymous then he threw it in the bin and wouldn't even read it. Maybe Dan should do the same and delete any comments not signed.
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