DL Moody: What Do You Think Of Christ?

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[00:01:08] This is Troy and Joel and you're listening to Revived Thoughts. Talk about preachers of the present day. I would rather a thousand times be five minutes at the feet of Christ than listen a lifetime to all the wise men in the world.

[00:01:31] Every episode we bring you a different voice from history in a sermon that they delivered today. We're going to listen to a DL Moody sermon. It was preached in the late 19th century. I love moody sermons, Troy.

[00:01:46] Long listeners will know I'm a big fan of the moody sermons. No, I mean honestly doing a DL Moody sermon. I was putting this research for this episode, the script together. And I was like, man, it has been a long time since we've had a DL Moody sermon.

[00:01:59] And Joel, do you remember one of the earliest things we did together on Revive Thoughts? Do you remember this as we went in the middle of the night, which probably wasn't safe, into the middle of Kansas City on a snowy day with camera and like tech equipment.

[00:02:14] And we were recording ourselves walking around me like this is the spot where DL Moody preached his last sermon. And I was thinking about that. I was like, wow, we're really lucky we didn't get in trouble for doing that. Like nobody tried to rob us or something.

[00:02:24] The Lord will protect us. Okay, yeah. The spot that DL Moody preached his last sermon was it was a building here in Kansas City where I live currently. It is now a parking garage with a park on top. And it's a lovely park.

[00:02:40] But it was neat to be to stand in the last place, though you would never know it. No plaque, no way to commemorate it. It was neat. It was cool. No, it was cool.

[00:02:52] So doing this DL Moody was bringing back that memory of being cold with you in the middle of the night, walking around making probably not the wisest decision, but it was super fun to do.

[00:03:01] If you haven't listened to that episode, it's one of our early DL Moody episodes. If you want to listen to a much, I won't say much younger because I mean, it's not like we sound like we're teenagers or anything.

[00:03:08] But you know, a younger me and you doing this with that on location moment that we were able to bring to the world. Now, Joel, we have had some positive responses, some reviews and stuff since we last talked to each other. This one, I love this one.

[00:03:25] It's an Apple podcast review and it just says Eric with a C and it says Bolton 8. His username is Bolton8x. I don't think that says his God given name. I don't think that was the name his parents gave him, Bolton8x.

[00:03:39] But if it is, it's a lovely name, of course. Yeah, you remember two months ago when we said somebody just left the name Eric? I said, if you want to just leave us an Eric, you can do that. So this guy did that, which is hilarious.

[00:03:49] But we're also, I'm now excited and also nervous. His username is the Bolton8x. The Bolton8x. Yeah. But now I'm nervous. There are gonna be like new people coming on. They're gonna be like, why is it? What is this show about Eric?

[00:04:02] And I'm actually really annoyed at that because I had a friend of mine reach out to me and they just said Eric out of nowhere. And I know like a couple Erics in real life. And I was like, is there something going on with an Eric?

[00:04:13] And they were like, no, just Eric. And I was like, what are you talking about? And like in your own episode, you said I could just tell you Eric. And I was like, oh, I'm so mad. I forgot that.

[00:04:21] I was so frustrated with myself for not catching what they were doing. So if you do not know, we're talking about two or so months ago, somebody left a Spotify comment that just said Eric with a K. And we have no idea what that means.

[00:04:33] But if you see anywhere out there in the revived thoughts, you know, atmosphere that people are talking about Eric, we're just remembering and trying to understand what that Eric Spotify comment meant. And that's what that means. So made me laugh. Be better than me.

[00:04:45] I like to think of Eric comments as like a shorthand for a positive compliment. You know, I hear you. Yeah, Eric, do you? That was very Eric of you to say that, Joel. I agree. Yeah, I like that.

[00:05:01] And to be honest, I love the idea that we revive thoughts. People are slowly getting like a secret language. Like, you know, you got a real revived thoughts fan. If you if they if you can look at them in the eye and be like, you're super Eric today

[00:05:11] and they know what you're talking about. And you'd be doing better than me when my friend just sent Eric to me twice. I was like, are they OK? What's happening? So you would be ahead of the curve. It was really I was like, how are you doing?

[00:05:23] And they were like, you don't get your own joke. I was like, oh, my gosh, I can't believe I didn't get that. So if you're a real one, you understand what Eric means.

[00:05:30] And if you don't, you got to go back like two months and find that episode where we talked about Eric. OK, we had another comment as well. This was this actually was a personal message.

[00:05:40] So when the Woodrow Wilson episode dropped, I mentioned a guy who about a year ago had written me and told me how our story. This was from an earlier episode a year before Minister to Monsters, how that story had

[00:05:52] given them the courage to do something really, really hard, which was go and share the gospel in a prison where they their own where their own daughter's rapist, they said, was located and that they didn't want to do it. They were part of prison ministry.

[00:06:07] But when they heard that episode, it gave them the courage to do that. And I still am blown away by that. And I was just I couldn't believe our show was used to give somebody the courage to do something like that.

[00:06:18] Well, I'm assuming that he may have listened to that episode because he actually sent me an update kind of filling me in on what happened afterwards. And he did run into this gentleman that he had a problem with, and he did share the gospel

[00:06:30] with a group of people. And he told me that even though that person specifically that he had run into, there was no heart change. There was another person there that day that did give their life to Christ, that the passion

[00:06:42] and willingness of just hearing the gospel from him had had moved on his life and someone came to Christ. So it's pretty awesome that the Lord has used, you know, I mean, the Lord is using this guy. Obviously, he's the one doing the hard work.

[00:06:55] But I just feel really I don't touch really just can't. It's amazing that Revive Thoughts was used to encourage somebody. And through that encouragement, the gospel was shared. And through that sharing the gospel, somebody is in heaven. It's going to be a no, he's not dead yet.

[00:07:07] So he's gonna be in heaven with us someday. And that's just amazing. So I wanted to share that story that he kind of updated us. I wanted to share that with you. So praise the Lord, praise the Lord that he's moving.

[00:07:18] And yeah, that was just something that was really, really cool. All right, doing an episode on DL Moody back to where we are DL Moody. We have done episodes on him before, but we're going to kind of do a full walkthrough of

[00:07:28] his life because I think it's been about two and a half years since we've talked about him. So we have a lot of new listeners who have probably not heard much about him in a while. Yeah, yeah, you've probably heard the name DL Moody.

[00:07:38] Dwight is what the D stands for. Troy, without looking, what's the L stand for? Yeah, you know, I did look all right, Lyman. But if you had asked me earlier today, I would not have known the answer. I'd have been like, L stands for live, living.

[00:07:57] Dwight living Moody. Dwight Lyman Moody is his full name. I was wondering, you know, like why do people they're like your J.R. Tolkien's like what? Yeah, what's the last you decide? Yeah, you can rock the initials as your actual name.

[00:08:14] And sometimes it happens because there's someone else with a similar name and you don't want to like you don't want to be associated with that guy. So you like throw some initial action out there to kind of I'm different than him.

[00:08:24] But I don't know of any famous Dwight Moody. So I don't know why DL Moody would have maybe done that. Yeah, well, you know, maybe maybe not in our day. Maybe back in his day, there was like a famous candy store clerk that was

[00:08:37] Dwight Moody that he really just didn't want competition with. He was born in 1837 in Massachusetts, and he was the sixth of nine children and has quite a sad upbringing because when he was only four years old, his father died.

[00:08:53] And about a month after that, his mother gave birth to twins. And so imagine being four years old, one of nine children and your mom just having newborn twins in the middle of the 19th century.

[00:09:07] Very difficult situation, especially since the family didn't have a lot of money to begin with. And now that the father was gone, they were certainly broke and debtors came to collect and essentially overnight everything was taken from them.

[00:09:25] Their debt was such that debtors even ended up taking the firewood that they had stored up from the winter taken by creditors. And that night, the mother had them all gathered into bed and they prayed to God that the Lord would provide for them.

[00:09:41] And the next morning, the uncle came by to visit and brought them some firewood so that they could warm the house. So to deal with such a harsh situation, the mother often had to send the children other places to kind of room and board.

[00:09:57] They would work different farms of the neighborhood and those neighbor farmers would repay by giving them some food and a place to stay. And I do imagine they were working, but I also kind of imagine the neighbors understood

[00:10:09] like we're doing this to help this family because this woman's a widow and has nine kids. At one point, Moody was at a neighbor's house and he came home and told his mom, I can't stay here anymore.

[00:10:22] All he has fed me is for the same meal for 19 days in a row. The meal was cornmeal and milk for 19 days. I just imagine how awful that would be if you're a mom, if you're a parent, you are

[00:10:36] trying to take care of these kids and your son comes to you and says, I've had the same meal for 19 days, cornmeal and milk. Mom, don't make me go back. How heartbreaking that must be and even more heartbreaking was the mom said, hey, he's feeding you.

[00:10:52] You have to go back. That was the deal. If you're working as long, if he stops feeding you, let me know. But if he's feeding you, I need you to stay there. I'm sorry that you have to eat cornmeal and milk every single day.

[00:11:04] How desperate and rough is the situation when that's your answer from your mom? I mean, if any of you, if anybody has kids, you know that that I mean, or you've ever

[00:11:15] been a kid, I mean, you can just see this is a hard situation because of this life of working for farmers. Moody never got fully educated in school. He got about basically a fifth grade education level, but his mother was determined that

[00:11:28] she could give him as much education as she could. She enrolled the kids in Sunday school so that ones they would basically spend the weekends together, but their Sundays were busy and Sunday school and getting nightly devotions where they could together as a family.

[00:11:41] Sundays were absolutely church time. Her kids worked at farms during those weekdays, like we said, so on Saturday, maybe they could all hang out together. But Sunday was all about that church. They would go to the morning service. They would stay the entire day.

[00:11:52] The kids would all do Sunday school. They would stay for the evening service, and they spent just all of their Sundays completely around the church. And at the time, Moody was not saved, yet his mother would was just just impacting this

[00:12:05] building this life around the church for them, I think. And this is happening in the middle of Massachusetts, in the middle of nowhere. I always think about the pastor who's basically helping raise these kids. You know, he's there taking care of them on Sundays, running them all.

[00:12:17] I mean, you have to think about that guy. He's just kind of ministering to this sad family. They, you know, the husband dies. A rough situation. There's nine kids around all over the place. He's probably, there had to probably be times when he was tired.

[00:12:28] There had to definitely be times when the mom was tired. You're looking at the situation and going, this is rough. And you had no idea that you were encouraging and ministering to what would eventually be one of the most famous evangelists America ever produced.

[00:12:41] Yeah, enter the next phase of his life, the next era of his life. At the age of 17, he went to work for his uncle's shoe store in Boston. You know, get away, get, you know, get out of the house a little bit, go to Boston,

[00:12:55] work with his uncle. His uncle didn't mind having Moody work for him, but one of his requirements was that he went to church with them. And, you know, Moody was fine with that. I'll do what I got to do type of thing.

[00:13:07] He went to the church and he tried to go forward to be a member, but his basic lack of knowledge of the Bible was so extreme that he could not pass a basic biblical knowledge test that this church required for membership.

[00:13:24] So that's kind of a humbling moment when you said, you know, you don't know Sunday school level material. And he was sent back. But later, his Sunday school teacher would come and visit him at the shoe store.

[00:13:37] And this Sunday school teacher, unsung hero of Moody's life, he was set on making sure DL Moody knew that Christ loved him and that Christ would forgive him. So they would have these conversations at the shoe store. And shortly after, DL Moody would be converted.

[00:14:00] He gave his life to the Lord and the effects of this were seen throughout his church. And later, his Sunday school teacher would say of him, quote, I can truly say, and in saying it magnified the infinite grace of God bestowed upon him

[00:14:15] that I've seen few persons whose minds were spiritually darker than was his when he came into my Sunday school class. And I think that the committee of the Mount Vernon church seldom met an applicant for

[00:14:26] membership, more unlikely ever to become a Christian of clear and decided views of gospel truth, still less to fill any extended sphere of public usefulness. Not a big endorsement. This kid was a terrible idiot kid, but look how God changed his life.

[00:14:47] That is really, that is what that is like. We did not have high hopes for him. We were really worried about this one is reading between the lines. What that says, Moody was already a member of the YMCA.

[00:14:58] And that's because at the time the YMCA is not like it is today. It's not just like a gym where you go hit the treadmill or maybe play basketball. But it was a, it would have sports attached to it, but it was really focused on educating

[00:15:10] people and teaching them the gospel back then. It was originally about that kind of thing. And so by being a member of the YMCA and going to those events and me at their locations, you could get actually a schooling and grow, get some education.

[00:15:25] So he was already kind of about that when he heard them teaching about Jesus. He was excited about it too. Moody was so excited. They really threw himself into these two areas of his life, the church and the YMCA.

[00:15:34] Now Moody's life actually hit kind of a crossroads at this point. He's become a Christian. He's converted after that experience at the Sunday school teacher. But he is also kind of growing in his business skills. And he's become a really good and really experienced shoe salesman.

[00:15:50] His business was flourishing and he had just a savings $7,000 in shoe sales. Now $7,000 in 1860s. I did a quick conversion. And if Google is correct, that's the equivalent of $260,000 in today's money. So that's how much he's saving in terms of inflation,

[00:16:09] how much he's been able to set aside from his shoe sales. And basically that was enough to get going on his own shoe stores. He could have really become a big shoe businessman. And he was really well liked in the business community.

[00:16:21] They all saw a future for him. They saw him as, you know, I want to say a future Rockefeller. I don't know if it would have been that big, but he had a real future. This could have been a thing.

[00:16:28] And this was a kid who grew up so poor that after 19 days in a row of eating cornmeal and milk, his mom said, go back, right? Like that must have been such a huge temptation for him to go, I'm good at business.

[00:16:41] I can pay for churches and stuff. I should keep going down this road. But he felt like God was calling him into ministry instead. And so he kind of started a mission hall Sunday school on the side to help the poor.

[00:16:51] And in 1861, he hung up the shoes as it were. He put down the shoe ministry, the shoe business. And he said, no, I'm going to do the ministry full time. I think this is what God is calling me to do.

[00:17:01] And like I said, just for somebody who was growing up as poor as he was to have that kind of success he was going to have in business and to put it aside for ministry. He's only 24 years old.

[00:17:13] That would have been, I think that most people would say that would be a really tough thing to do. And yes, of course, you've got to do what God calls you to do. But let's not deny that Moody was really making a big sacrifice. Yeah.

[00:17:24] So he started to run this Sunday school there and he did so intently. He wanted everybody to come. So he, I mean, he was giving out free candy. He was giving out free pony rides.

[00:17:34] He was leaning the kids songs, even though historically he was understood to be a pretty bad singer. That's how you know his heart was in it. And when he wasn't leading a Sunday school and working with children, he was fundraising

[00:17:47] with rich people to raise money for the cause. He was known to be very brash, but also very passionate. And a Sunday school ended up gaining such reputation and being so impactful that in 1860,

[00:18:03] a newly elected Abraham Lincoln came by just to visit, just to check out, Hey, I hear you got a neat Sunday school. By the way, I'm the president of the United States. That's pretty neat. I hope he said it just like that. Hey, I'm the president.

[00:18:16] It's pretty neat. That's what I'd say if I was president. His work at the YMCA flourished as well. He had several plans that they would execute one to hand out tracks to everyone in Chicago. That was a big success. He started a noon time prayer meeting.

[00:18:36] He started a Friday tea devotion. He started English classes for recent immigrants. And eventually people finally convinced him to become a pastor himself. So, I mean, this was about a four year stretch that he was working in the Sunday school era

[00:18:54] before shifting gears into becoming a head pastor himself. That would have been 1864. And he's doing all of this again. This is Civil War is popping off at this time as well. So he's visiting battlefields. He visited the Union side nine times, including some pretty big battlefields.

[00:19:10] The Battle of Shiloh and the Battle of Stone River. He was present at as a chaplain serving as a chaplain.

[00:20:05] We've been enjoying a podcast called Compelled. It uses gripping, immersive storytelling to bring Christian testimonies to life. A great testimony they have is Ron Adkins, who at the age of 19 was sentenced almost 500 years in prison. He was violent, angry, and his fellow prisoners nicknamed him RINO.

[00:20:34] And he became a leader in a white supremacist prison gang. Ron's violence eventually led him to solitary confinement for over a decade, where he was told he would remain until he died. Condemned by society, separated from humanity, Ron knew that he was utterly alone. Or was he?

[00:20:49] Listen to Ron Adkins share his entire story of a redemption on episode number 49 of Compelled. And there are many other great stories ranging from missionaries, addicts, prisoners, or just regular people who've had their lives transformed by Jesus Christ.

[00:21:02] Search for Compelled on your favorite podcast app or by visiting compelledpodcast.com. Again, that's compelled with an E-D, podcast.com. After the war, he really put his focus into his, you know, church that he had started there in the middle of it.

[00:21:21] For seven years, things went pretty well. And he even formed a connection with the man Iris Enke, who would become his future gospel singer if you know much about his revivals.

[00:21:31] That was a big part of it, was that you'd hear him sing and you'd hear DL Moody preach. And he would accompany him on all these trips. In fact, I think in one of our earlier DL Moody episodes, I think we actually played

[00:21:41] a clip of Iris Enke singing. Like, it would have been what you would have heard. Man, I don't remember if that's true, but I definitely think we did. If not, you can find, I think, it on YouTube somewhere. So that was something to go look up.

[00:21:51] But I'm pretty sure it's actually one of our episodes. So there you go. Then disaster struck. This story is one that has always stuck with me. It's a story about a fire. And it connects, we've talked, there's an episode where he talked about Spurgeon has

[00:22:03] a big fire moment that changed his life. And DL Moody has that same thing. We talked about it before, but it's just this horrible moment where DL Moody was really, really worried that he was emotionally manipulating his audience to come to Christ. He didn't want to do that.

[00:22:15] He didn't want to give them an emotional, he wanted them to be certainly rationally sure that they were going to come to Christ. And so he basically told his audience, hey, square your affairs this week.

[00:22:25] Think about your thoughts and come to church next week ready to give your lives to Christ. I am ready to see you next week. I want you to not make an emotional decision, make this purely on a rational basis.

[00:22:35] Well, as he's doing that, as the songs are playing to end the church, you know, church, the bells of the city start ringing. And before he even gets home, Chicago has caught on fire. The great Chicago fire that burns down just a ton of the city.

[00:22:49] His church gets burned down. Several of his congregants lose their homes, lose even maybe their lives. I think some of them do. And he never ever preaches before that church again. He never gets another opportunity. That church is gone and lost to the great Chicago fire.

[00:23:04] And that just stuck with him for the rest of his life. I could have given the gospel to people who quite literally would never get a second chance, and I didn't because I was worried about the way I would do it.

[00:23:15] And he was like, man, it really hit him hard. It really broke him. And he was like, I'm never doing that again. If I'm in front of people, I'm sharing the gospel. I'm not telling them to wait.

[00:23:25] I'm telling them right now because you really don't know if you have another minute. That story has always stuck with me. I mean, just can you imagine going through that? And can you imagine what that would just do to you?

[00:23:36] And if you came out of that OK, as D.L. Moody does, how much that would just give you a passion to realize every audience could be your last opportunity to share the gospel. I had this event.

[00:23:49] After this, people try to convince him to stay in Chicago, but he kind of feels like he needs a change of pace, and I'm sure he does. It was really hard to go through that, I imagine.

[00:23:57] So he starts kind of traveling and ministering in different areas from such a terrible, like from such humble beginnings, our poor man, the widow, you know, the widow of a mother to a successful shoe businessman to then a successful pastor who's even met the president now to nothing.

[00:24:13] He's back to just square one almost, but he knows some people. So he decides I'm going to go visit England and I'm going to go visit Europe basically and do a little tour there.

[00:24:21] He goes to Scotland, and I didn't know this, but actually I always thought it was Spurgeon who gave him his first door, but it was actually Andrew Bennar in Scotland who opened the door to him first, heard about him, heard great things and gave him a chance.

[00:24:32] And when he did really well in Scotland, Spurgeon heard about him in the UK and then gave him an opportunity in the UK to kind of do the same thing. So after getting both Andrew Bennar and Charles Spurgeon to kind of open their doors and give

[00:24:44] him opportunities, DL Moody was well on his way. And he forms a friendship with these men. He forms especially a close kind of friendship with Charles Spurgeon. And when he comes back to America after doing this tour in the UK, he comes back as a rock

[00:24:57] star now instead of just, you know, a couple hundred people wanting to hear him or see him. He's got tens of thousands of people wanting to hear the man that impressed the United Kingdom and had done such a great work in the revivals over there.

[00:25:08] Now, I also learned something new. I don't know if you'll find this interesting, but having done children's ministry, I've heard of these things where people basically use colors where they'll be like, you know, this color,

[00:25:17] white, you know, black and red and the black means sin and the red means the blood of Jesus and white means righteousness. I didn't know this, but apparently this was developed from a sermon that Spurgeon did.

[00:25:28] Spurgeon had a bunch of, he was preaching to hundreds of orphans, probably Mueller's orphans, and he wanted to do it in a way that could reach them. He didn't know if they could read.

[00:25:36] So, he just pulled out like three colors and was like, white is this, red is this, black is this. Do you understand? Well, this was such a good idea that people were like, we need to make this into a book.

[00:25:45] And when they did, Moody was like, let's add one more color to this book. Let's make it gold and gold stands for heaven. And that way they know where they're going after they die. And then Spurgeon or Moody started to promote this book everywhere.

[00:25:56] And a lot of Sunday schools, especially overseas curriculums have added this book called the wordless book. It's just a book of colors for you to share the gospel with around the world. And Hudson Taylor specifically added it to their sermons and their curriculums that they

[00:26:10] used in the China Inland Mission because they found that that just, hey, these pictures are so easy to just understand for people that they use them when they were preaching in China. I just thought this was an interesting little connection between these men who knew each other

[00:26:24] working together for something that maybe you've seen in a Sunday school when you were younger. Maybe you've heard somebody do that same thing. This is where it came from. It came from a Spurgeon sermon, was promoted by Moody, and was eventually landed in a lot

[00:26:34] of missionaries hands and around the world. Just kind of different things like that. By the way, Moody did meet Hudson Taylor too, and they loved each other. And Moody became very intentional towards raising support for international missions after running into Hudson Taylor. All right.

[00:26:49] So to wrap up his life here, when most people think of Moody, when they hear the name Moody, what they're probably going to associate it with is his Bible Institute, the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago.

[00:27:02] Still, to this day, beacon of Christian education that you can go to get Bible degrees. Moody was passionate about education. And so the Bible Institute was obviously his kind of focus on that. But there were lots of different other revival and kind of pop-up movements that he would

[00:27:22] do to raise volunteers to go overseas or things like that. There was one moment where he started what he called the gospel wagons, which were like wagons that go around and sell theological books and literature to people around.

[00:27:35] Just again, that idea of bolstering theological education, which is so interesting when you look at his life as a whole. This man accomplished so much. He would eventually die, as Troy and I mentioned, 1899, nine days before the turn of the century.

[00:27:55] Preaching a tour throughout that he was sadly unable to finish because of his death. Some would quantify the impact of Moody's life by his gospel literature that he wrote. We can see evidence of that reaching over 100 million people, which is pretty mind-blowing to think about.

[00:28:17] Others would point to his revivals, his family legacy. It all came from this man who, again, dropped out of school, had roughly a fifth grade education at the time of coming to know the Lord. He says in his own words, quote,

[00:28:32] Why did God choose such a poorly educated, sometimes self-indulgent man? Let's listen to this sermon. It's titled, What Do You Think of Christ? I suppose there's no one who has not thought some about Christ. You've heard about him and read about him and heard men preach about him.

[00:29:03] For 1800 years, men have been talking about him and thinking about him. And some have their minds made up about who he is. And certainly some have not. And although all these years have rolled away, this question still comes up and addresses each of us today.

[00:29:26] What do you think of Christ? And I don't know why it should not be thought of as a proper question for one man to put to another. If I were to ask you what you think of any of your prominent figures in the world,

[00:29:43] if I were to ask you what you think of any of your prominent men, you would already have your mind made up about him. If I were to ask you what you think of our president, you would speak right out and tell me your opinion in a minute.

[00:30:00] If I were to ask you about your governor, you would tell me freely what you had for or against him. So why shouldn't people make up their minds about the Lord Jesus Christ and take their stand for or against him?

[00:30:20] And if you think well of him, why not speak well of him and put yourself on his side? And if you think ill of him and believe him to be an imposter, that he did not die to save the world,

[00:30:33] why not lift up your voice and say you are against him? It would be a happy day for Christianity if men would just take sides. If we could know positively who was really for him and who was really against him.

[00:30:54] I mean, it's of very little importance what the world thinks of anyone else. All the great ones, all the noble people of this world must soon be gone. Yes, it will matter very little what we think of them. Their life can only interest a few.

[00:31:16] But every living soul on the face of the earth is concerned with this man. The question for the world is, what do you think of Christ? I do not ask what you think of the Episcopal Church or of the Presbyterians or the Baptists or the Roman Catholics.

[00:31:40] I do not ask you what you think of this minister or that or this doctrine or that. I only want to ask you what you think of the living person of Christ. I would like to ask, was he really the son of God, the great God man?

[00:32:04] Did he leave heaven and come down to this world for a purpose? Was it really to seek and to save? I would like to begin with the manger and follow him up through the 33 years he was here upon earth.

[00:32:24] I should ask you what you think of his coming to this world, being born in a manger? It could have been a palace. Why he left the grandeur and the glory of heaven and the royal retinue of angels?

[00:32:41] Why did he pass by palaces and crowns and dominion to come down here alone? I would like to ask what you think of him as a teacher. He spoke as no man had ever spoken. I would like to hear what you think of him as a preacher.

[00:33:00] I wish I could bring you to that mountainside that we might listen to the words as they fall from his gentle lips. I mean, talk about preachers of the present day. I would rather a thousand times be five minutes at the feet of Christ

[00:33:21] than listen a lifetime to all the wise men in the world. He can use any image to explain truth. There's a sower, a fox, a bird, and he gathers truth around them so that you cannot

[00:33:38] see a fox or a sower or a bird without thinking of what Jesus said. There's a lily of the valley. You cannot see it without thinking of his words. They toil not, neither do they spin.

[00:33:53] He makes the little sparrow chirping in the air to remind us of his preaching and how fresh those wonderful sermons are and how they still live today. How we love to tell them to our children and how the children love to hear. Tell me a story about Jesus.

[00:34:16] How often we hear that from them, how the little ones love his sermons. There's no storybook in the world that will ever interest them like the stories that he told and yet how profound he was, how he puzzled the wise men of his day,

[00:34:33] how the scribes and the Pharisees could never understand him. Oh, don't you think he was a wonderful preacher? I would also like to ask you what you think of him as a doctor.

[00:34:53] A man would soon have a reputation as a doctor if he could cure as Christ did. No case was ever brought to him that was a match for him. He had but to speak the word and the disease fled before him. Here comes a man with leprosy.

[00:35:13] Lord, if you will, can you make me clean? He cries, I will, says the great physician. And in an instant, the leprosy is gone. The world has hospitals for incurable diseases, but there were no incurable diseases with him. Now see him in the little home at Bethany,

[00:35:41] binding up the wounded hearts of Mary and Martha. And tell me what you think of him as a comforter. He is a husband to the widow and a father to the fatherless. The weary may find a resting place upon his breast,

[00:35:58] and the friendless may reckon him their friend. He never changes. He never fails. He never dies. His sympathy is forever fresh and his love is forever free. Oh, widows and orphans, oh, sorrowing and mourning, won't you thank God for Christ the comforter.

[00:36:22] But these are not the points I wish to take up. Let us go to those who knew Christ and ask what they thought of him. If you want to find out nowadays what a man is,

[00:36:41] what a man is, you inquire about him from those that knew him best. And I don't wish to be partisan, so we will go to his enemies and to his friends. We'll ask them, what do you think of Christ? We will ask his friends and his enemies.

[00:37:05] If we only went to those who liked him, you would say, oh, he is so blind. He thinks so much of the man that he cannot see his faults. You can't get anything out of him unless it's in his favor. It is a one-sided affair all together.

[00:37:24] So we will go in the first place to his enemies, to those who hated him, persecuted him, cursed and slew him. And I'll put you in a jury box and I'll call upon them to tell us what they think of him.

[00:37:44] So first among the witnesses, let us call upon the Pharisees. We know they hated him. Let us put a few questions to them. Come Pharisees, tell us what you have against the Son of God. What do you think of Christ? You hear what they say.

[00:38:09] This man receives sinners. What an argument to bring up against him. It's the very thing that makes us love him. It's the glory of the gospel. He receives sinners. If he had not, what would have become of us? Have you nothing more to bring against him than this?

[00:38:38] What is one of the greatest compliments that was ever paid to him? Once more, when he was hanging on the tree, you said this of him. He saved sinners himself he cannot save. And so he did save others, but he could not save himself and save us too.

[00:39:07] So he laid down his life for yours and for mine. Yes, Pharisees, you have told us the truth for once in your life. He saved others. He died for others. He was a ransom for many. So it is quite true what you think of him.

[00:39:28] He saved others himself he cannot save. Now let's call upon Caiaphas, the head priest. What do you say of him? Let him stand up here in his flowing robes and let us ask him for his evidence. Caiaphas, you were the chief priest when Christ was tried.

[00:39:57] You were the leader of the Sanhedrin. You were in the council chamber when they found him guilty. You yourself condemned him. Tell us what did the witnesses say? On what grounds did you judge him? What testimony was brought against him? He has spoken blasphemy, says Caiaphas.

[00:40:29] He said, hereafter you will see the son of man sitting on the right hand of power and coming in the clouds of heaven. And when I heard that I found him guilty of blasphemy. I ripped my mantle and condemned him to death.

[00:40:52] Yes, all that they had against him was that he was the son of God. And they slew him for the promise of his coming for his bride. But now let's summon Pilate. Let him enter the witness box. Pilate, this man was brought before you and you examined him.

[00:41:25] You even talked with him face to face. What do you think of Christ? I find no fault in him, says Pilate. He said he is the king of the Jews, just as he wrote it over the cross. But I find no fault in him.

[00:41:52] Such is the testimony of the man who examined him. And as he stands there, the center of a Jewish mob, there comes along a man elbowing his way in a hurry. He rushes up to Pilate, thrusting out his hand, gives him a message.

[00:42:17] He tears it open and his face turns pale as he reads, I have nothing to do with this just man, for I have suffered many things this day in a dream because of him. It's from Pilate's wife. Hear her testimony to Christ.

[00:42:42] You want to know what his enemies thought of him? You want to know what a pagan thought? Well, here it is. No fault in him. And the wife of a heathen, a just man. And now look, here comes Judas. He ought to make a good witness.

[00:43:10] Let us address him. Come tell us, Judas, what do you think of Christ? You knew the master well. You knew the master well. And when you sold him for 30 pieces of silver, betrayed him with a kiss, you saw him perform those miracles.

[00:43:31] You were with him in Jerusalem and Bethany. When he summoned up Lazarus, you were there. What do you think of him? And I can imagine him as he comes into the presence of the chief priest. I can hear the money ring as it dashes upon the table.

[00:43:53] I have betrayed innocent blood. Here's the man who betrayed him. And this is what he says about him. Yes, my friends, God has made every man who had anything to do with the death of his son, put their testimony on record that he was an innocent man.

[00:44:24] Let us take the centurion who is present at the execution. He was in charge of the Roman soldiers. He had told them to make him carry his cross. He had given orders for the nails to be driven into his feet and hands

[00:44:44] and for the spear to be thrust in his side. Let the centurion come forward. Centurion, you had charge of the executioners. You saw that the order for his death was carried out. You saw him die. You heard him speak upon the cross.

[00:45:07] Tell us, what do you think of Christ? Listen, look at him. He is smiting his chest as he cries. Truly this was the son of God. I might go up to the thief upon the cross and ask what he thought of him.

[00:45:38] At first, he railed upon him and reviled him, but then he thought better of it. This man has done nothing wrong, he says. And I might go further. I might summon the very devils themselves and ask them for their testimony. Have you anything to say of him?

[00:46:04] Why the very devils called him the son of God. In Mark, we have the unclean spirit saying, Jesus, you son of the most high God. Men say, oh, I believe Christ to be the son of God. And because I believe intellectually, I will be saved.

[00:46:23] I tell you, the devils did that. And they did more than that. They trembled. But now let us bring in his friends. We want you to hear their evidence. Let us call the prince of preachers. Let us hear the forerunner, the wilderness preacher, John.

[00:46:51] Save the master himself, no one ever preached like this man. This man who drew all Jerusalem and all Judea into the wilderness to hear him. This man who burst upon the nations like a flash of a meteor.

[00:47:07] Let John the Baptist come with his leather girdle and his hairy coat and let him tell us what he thinks of Christ. His words, though they were echoed in the wilderness of Palestine are written in the book forever.

[00:47:26] Behold the lamb of God, which takes away the sin of the world. This is what John the Baptist thought of him. I bear the record that he is the son of God. No wonder he drew all Jerusalem and Judea to him because he preached Christ.

[00:47:52] And whenever men preach Christ, they are sure to have plenty of followers. So let us bring in Peter who was with him on the Mount of Transfiguration who was with him the night he was betrayed. Come Peter, tell us what you think of Christ.

[00:48:08] Stand in this witness box and testify of him. You denied him once, you said with a curse, you do not know him. What is true Peter? Do you know him? You know him? I can imagine Peter saying, it was a lie that I told him.

[00:48:34] I did know him. And afterwards I can hear him charging home their guilt. Upon these Jerusalem sinners, he calls him both Lord and Christ. Such was the testimony on the day of Pentecost. God has made that same Jesus both Lord and Christ.

[00:49:04] And tradition tells us that when it came to execute Peter, he felt he was not worthy to die in the way his master died and he requested to be crucified in the name of Jesus. He requested to be crucified upside down with his head downwards.

[00:49:20] So much did Peter think of him. But now let's hear from the beloved disciple John. He knew more about Christ than any other man. He had laid his head on the Savior's chest. He had heard the throbbing of that loving heart.

[00:49:41] Look into his gospel if you wish to know what he thought of him. Matthew writes him as a royal king coming from his throne. Mark writes of him as a servant and Luke as a son of man.

[00:49:55] And John takes up his pen and with one stroke forever settles the question of Unitarianism. He goes right back before the time of Adam. In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.

[00:50:11] And look into Revelation, he calls him the bright and the morning star. So John thought well of him because he knew him well. But now let's bring in Thomas, the doubting disciple. You doubted him Thomas?

[00:50:30] You would not had believed he had risen and you put your fingers into the wound in his side. What do you think of him? My Lord and my God, says Thomas. Then go over to the Decapolis and you will find Christ has been there casting out devils.

[00:50:57] Let us call the men of that country and ask what they think of him. He has done all things well, they say. But we have other witnesses to bring in. Let's take the persecuting Saul. Once one of the worst of his enemies, breathing out threats, he meets him.

[00:51:25] Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? says Christ. And he might have added what have I done to you? Have I injured you in any way? Did I not come to bless you? Why do you treat me so, Saul? And then Saul asks, who are you, Lord?

[00:51:46] I am Jesus of Nazareth, who you persecute. You see he was not ashamed of his name. He was not ashamed of his name. Although he had been in heaven, I am Jesus of Nazareth. What a change did that one interview make to Paul.

[00:52:11] A few years after we hear him say, I have suffered the loss of all things, and I do count them but dross that I may gain Christ. Such a wonderful testimony to the Savior. But I'll go further. I will go away from the earth into the other world.

[00:52:33] I will summon the angels and ask what they think of Christ. They saw him in the bosom of the Father before the world was, before the dawn of creation, before the morning stars sang together, he was there.

[00:52:46] They saw him leave the throne and come down to the manger. What a scene for them to witness. Ask these heavenly beings what they thought of him then. For once they are permitted to speak, for once the silence of heaven is broken.

[00:53:05] Listen to their songs on the plains of Bethlehem. Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which will be to all people. For to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.

[00:53:23] He leaves the throne to save the world. Is it a wonder that the angels thought well of him? Then there are the redeemed saints, they that see him face to face. Here on earth he was never known.

[00:53:46] No one seemed really to be acquainted with him, but he was known in that world where he had been from the foundation. What do they think of him there? If we could hear from heaven, we should hear a shout which would glorify and magnify his name.

[00:54:11] We are told that when John was in the spirit on the Lord's day and being caught up, he heard a shout around him, 10,000 times 10,000, and thousands and thousands of voices saying, Yes, he's worthy of all this. Heaven cannot speak too well of him.

[00:54:31] Oh, that earth would take up the echo and join with heaven and sing, worthy to receive power and riches and glory and blessing. Yes, he's worthy of all this. Heaven cannot speak too well of him.

[00:54:50] Oh, that earth would take up the echo and join with heaven and sing, worthy to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing. But there is yet other witness, a higher still.

[00:55:13] Some think that the God of the Old Testament is the Christ of the New. He was a voice from heaven and God the Father spoke. It was his testimony to Christ. This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.

[00:55:35] Yes, God the Father thinks well of the Son. And if God is well pleased with him, so should we. If the sinner and God are well pleased with Christ, then the sinner and God can meet.

[00:55:52] The moment you say, as the Father said, I am well pleased with him and accept him, you are wedded to God. Won't you believe the testimony? Won't you believe this witness? This last of all the Lord of hosts, the King of kings himself.

[00:56:11] Once more he repeats it so that you all may know it. With Peter and James and John on the Mount of Transfiguration, he cries again, this is my beloved son. Hear him. And that voice went echoing and re-echoing through Palestine,

[00:56:34] through all of the earth from sea to sea. Yes, that voice is echoing still. Hear him. Hear him, my friend. Will you hear him today? Listen, what is he saying to you?

[00:56:53] Come to me, all of you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and lowly in heart. And you will find rest for your souls.

[00:57:16] My yoke is easy and my burden is light. Won't you think well of such a savior? Won't you believe him? Won't you trust him with all your heart and mind? Will you not live for him?

[00:57:35] If he laid down his life for us, it is not the least that we can do to lay down our lives for him. If he bore the cross and died on it for me, shouldn't I be willing to take it up for him?

[00:57:50] Oh, that we have no reason to think well of him. Do you think it is right and noble to lift up your voice against such a savior? Do you think it's just to cry out, crucify him, crucify him? Oh, may that God help us.

[00:58:13] To glorify the father by thinking well of his only begotten son. Thank you for listening to today's episode of Revive Thoughts. Today's sermon was narrated by Dustin Garrett. Dustin is an old college buddy of Troy and I's, always excited to hear from him.

[00:58:44] He leads worship at Liberty Bible Church. Dustin is awesome. We went to Bible college with him way back in the day. Dustin was the very first person to ever return a sermon for us, I think. Or not the first one, one of the very first persons.

[00:58:59] When we were still making test episodes five years ago, we sent a script of Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Dustin's return of that sermon was basically like the confirmation that we needed that this show was going to be something.

[00:59:12] And that sermon, Overcoming Fear, is still one of the most popular famous sermons we've ever put out. It had a sermon jam made of it like two years ago. That sermon has had a real impact. I remember very early on, there's a woman who listened to the show

[00:59:26] and she said, man, that sermon changed my life. So Dustin is awesome. He does a great job. If you want to listen to him, go back to somewhere earlier, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, as you'll listen to his, he's got a great passion.

[00:59:37] He also is the first person in the show's history to ever read our sermon to a live audience. I think it's only happened once or twice, but he took one of these old sermons and read it in an actual church service. And it was awesome.

[00:59:48] It was really cool. So Dustin is great. And we're really thankful for him for reading this episode for us. If you are listening to this episode, and you're wondering how can you be supportive of the work that the guys at Revive Thoughts

[00:59:59] are doing, me and Jill here would really appreciate if you join us on Patreon. We get almost all the funding for the show to pay for things that we need comes from Patreon.

[01:00:08] So if you don't mind going over there, checking out and subscribing to us on there for a little bit. Also, and if you wanted to as well, you can check out our shop. We sell some pretty cool shirt designs that at least from Martyrs and Missionaries, my wife,

[01:00:19] she designed some really great stuff, some really cool mugs and some really cool shirts so you can go check that out as well. This is Troy and Jill and this is Revive Thoughts.