RT Selects: Christmas Evans - The Ascension

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[00:00:55] Hey everybody, Joel here with Revived Thoughts and Troy and I want to wish you a very Merry Christmas. Next week, Troy and I are going to be joined by Elise and we're going to talk about our favorite slash most interesting episodes of 2024.

[00:01:09] I'm sure that'll be an interesting conversation. This week, Troy and I are taking off to spend time with the family leading up to Christmas here but we wanted to leave you with a Christmas Evans episode from about two years ago.

[00:01:22] If you haven't heard it or you're wondering why this man's name is Christmas, this will be a great episode to check out. Revived Thoughts is a production of Revived Studios. This is Troy and Joel and you are listening to Revived Thoughts.

[00:01:44] Once he walked upon the water as if it were marble beneath his feet and now as he stands blessing his people, the glorious form so recently nailed to the cross begins to ascend like the living creature in Ezekiel's vision.

[00:01:57] Every episode we bring you a different voice from history and a sermon that they delivered. Today, we're going to be hearing a sermon preached by Christmas Evans. It was sometime in the late 1700s in Wales. And Troy, we've done a Christmas...

[00:02:11] I'm actually getting flashbacks towards like early season. Yeah. I don't know if it was technically season one, what we call season one. It wasn't season one but it was later. It was in that first year of Revived Thoughts where we covered Christmas Evans

[00:02:24] and it seems like it was a thousand years ago. But I'm happy to return to him because he's a fascinating guy. Yeah, that was exactly what I thought too. Christmas Evans, going through his story again, there are so many details I had forgotten

[00:02:36] and then there's so many details we never covered. He has a really extensive life story. I learned a lot more about his end of life stuff. I have stuff for the next time we go through him

[00:02:46] because there's just a lot of stuff going on that we have not covered before. But we did his sermon, The Triumph of Calvary. And it is a just wonderful, fantastic sermon. If you have not listened to that episode of Revived Thoughts, go listen to it.

[00:02:59] His backstory is cool. Some of the parts you'll hear again but there's a lot of stuff we don't cover in this episode that's in that one that is really, really good. And also his story, his style of preaching is unlike anybody else's style of preaching.

[00:03:14] I would say in the entire Revived Studios catalog. I didn't actually include this in my notes but there was a person who said, was speaking about Christmas Evans' way of preaching, just the way he tells stories, uses illustrations, creates images in your mind.

[00:03:27] He says there's only, he has the most unique style of preaching of any preacher that's ever lived. He says occasionally you'll see people try to copy it but they only make fools of themselves because there is only one Christmas Evans. And I feel like that is really true.

[00:03:39] I mean we have a lot of people, we go through a lot of people but there is really only one Christmas Evans. He preaches a certain way and it is his style. Now, one thing I also love about Christmas Evans though

[00:03:52] is that he is a living testimony to what the Lord can do to somebody when the Lord gets a hold of them. You know, George Mueller was a criminal in his early life yet he would go on to be the man that takes care of 10,000 orphans

[00:04:05] and D.E. Host, if you remember that recent episode we did, he was such a quiet, shy guy but then he gives his whole life to surrendering and connecting with others. He is the networking guy by the end of his life.

[00:04:16] There are some men where Jesus gets a hold of them and they just become different people and that is a testimony to what God can do in your life and Christmas Evans is probably one of the most stark examples of that that you can find.

[00:04:31] Nobody started further from making a difference in history and nobody then gets further along. You'll see what we mean in a minute. Yeah, but to fill you in, to paint the setting because again it's been about two years since we mentioned Christmas Evans in a previous episode.

[00:04:49] He was born in Wales. He came from a very poor family. His family couldn't afford to send him to school so he just didn't go to school. He was illiterate for the majority of his childhood growing up where he didn't know how to read or write.

[00:05:03] His dad passed away when he was nine years old and his mother didn't have enough money to feed him and his siblings and so he was sent to go live with his uncle who unfortunately was a drunk abuser

[00:05:17] and he had a rough time there for about six years where he helped out as a farmhand and once he was 15, he started branching out and kind of helping out with other farmers in the area

[00:05:29] and kind of creating a little bit of a living for himself in that way. He also has a crazy amount of near-death experiences that we see documented. We don't know a lot about a lot of them but there's in his childhood, you know, before 18,

[00:05:44] he was stabbed at least once during an altercation. There's an instance where he fell out of a tree while he was trying to cut off a branch up in the tree. He survived almost dying while his horse took off

[00:05:56] and ran through a shallow tunnel that almost killed him. He drowned at one point and was resuscitated and so there's all these things that lead up to a very interesting, tragic childhood where he's kind of this wandering farmhand who's uneducated, fatherless, nearly died

[00:06:16] and this man would go on to be one of the greatest Welsh preachers of all time. So there seemed to be little hope for Christmas Evans. He later went on to say that even when he was young though he always had a fear of eternity.

[00:06:29] He didn't have interest in religion. He had no interest in God but he did fear eternity. He did fear like the idea of being somewhere for all of eternity was a fear that haunted him a little bit in the back of his head.

[00:06:40] And I think this probably started around his father's funeral, right? He's a young boy around the age of nine, sees his dad dies. Probably the town preacher comes in, preaches about heaven or hell and you know, that's going to stick with you somewhat

[00:06:51] and that's my imagining where that started. At the age of 17 or 18, he began attending kind of a local nearby chapel. This wasn't necessarily because he was interested in religion or God yet but it was just because I think this is where kind of socially you met people.

[00:07:06] You got to know people so he just started attending that nearby church. But while he was there, there suddenly broke out a huge revival that occurred and everyone around them, everyone there started thirsting for God and for more knowledge. The people kind of themselves realized we're illiterate.

[00:07:24] We don't know how to read. We need to change who we are. This has got to become something new. And 17, this was the year 1784 and it was so bad because only one in 10 people in that area knew how to read.

[00:07:36] Imagine you yourself, if you have 10 houses near you or 10 apartments near you, only one in those 10 can read. That's how bad things are where they are. Yet everyone got together. They really wanted to grow closer to God and to read books.

[00:07:50] So these farmers and these farmhands would go and take their spare pennies and buy all they could, all the books they could about God, all the scraps of paper they could about God, all the Bibles they could, and all the candles.

[00:08:02] And after long days of working out on the farms, they would meet up in barns and light these candles and read the books together. And as they did this, they learned and got better at reading. And Evans himself, he became a very fast reader.

[00:08:17] Within one month, he was able to read in his own language, Welsh. He just threw these practicing long night sessions of reading the Bible and reading Pilgrim's Progress. Suddenly, for the first time in his life, he wants to read,

[00:08:30] and he learns to do it very quickly when he wanted to. But not only was he desirous to learn to read in his own language, he was so excited to read other books that he started teaching himself English

[00:08:40] so he could get his hands on books by men like John Owens and John Gill so he could continue growing more and more in the faith. And this sounds like a great story. Everything goes perfectly. But no, it doesn't.

[00:08:52] At some point, his friends kind of had noticed that Evans wasn't the old fun but cantankerous, get you in a knife fight kind of Evans that he used to be. And they didn't like it.

[00:09:02] So one day as he's heading home from a bar and late night reading with his friends, he gets jumped by six other men, six or eight, and they gang up on him and beat him mercilessly with sticks because he had changed so much,

[00:09:14] and they didn't like the man, this godly man he was becoming. He loses his eye forever in this attack and is never able to see out of one of his eyes again. He will be later known as the one-eyed preacher of Wales

[00:09:27] or the one-eyed bunion because he so resembled John Bunion in his illustrations. Now, the minister who had been kind of taking care of this region saw what he had gone through but also saw how much he wanted to learn.

[00:09:39] So he brought him to his own Latin grammar school and helped him get six months of education. This six months of study was supposed to kind of prepare him for more but when the time came, he didn't have any extra money

[00:09:50] and so those ended up being the only six months of formal education. But it was enough. He learned how to get Latin from that. And so by the end of it, he kind of had Latin, he knew some of English, and he knew Welsh.

[00:10:01] And by the end of his life, this guy who never spent more than that one six-month session in school and never spent more time learning than in those barns and stuff like that, he would eventually add Greek and Hebrew, all of English.

[00:10:14] He would even be preaching in English at the end of his life, Welsh, and he understood Latin by the end. So this uneducated guy would have five languages by the end of his life at least. Yeah, Evans had a really rough start.

[00:10:26] Starting off, right, one of the most awkward scenarios I can ever imagine happened to him when he first starts his ministry. If you've ever been in ministry or you've ever preached from the pulpit, you might be able to relate with how nervous it can be,

[00:10:42] especially when you're giving that first sermon in front of a good group of people. Evans was about 21 years old, and he had just joined the Baptists in the area, and he got a chance to speak, and he took it. Evans was already kind of an odd dude.

[00:10:58] He had one eye. He was incredibly tall and very thin. He was often described as being very bony, and he was very self-conscious about his appearance. And he's not nearly as educated as everyone else,

[00:11:10] and so he's constantly aware and constantly self-conscious about everyone else being way smarter than him and way more educated than him. Here, he doesn't have any college experience or seminary experience. And so this first sermon that he preached when he had the opportunity to wasn't his.

[00:11:25] He stole the sermon. He plagiarized it as his own, and he got up and preached it, and someone in the congregation recognized it, and they called him out for it during the sermon, called him out for that sermon not being his and stealing it,

[00:11:41] which I can only imagine being the most mortifying thing that someone could experience. You're already so nervous, and you're just trying to get by, and then someone calls you out for that. As bad as that was, though, there might have even been a worse moment in his ministry.

[00:11:58] Shortly after that, he was sent to a small town called Hamlet to preach there, and he got better at preaching. He got better at writing his own content, and after a few years of preaching, he was sent to tour a few churches in the area,

[00:12:15] kind of for a change of pace. He was the guy that would come and fill in the pulpit for your local pastor if he was out, and he's 24 years old at this point, and he came to this association meeting.

[00:12:26] And by the way, just as a caveat, some examples are that the stolen sermon, the guy found it the next day. We don't know for sure. There are different versions of some of these stories. The same thing with this.

[00:12:38] Some versions have this happening at 24, and some versions have this happening at 29. We don't know the exact date, time per se because people just over the years, different people are saying different things.

[00:12:50] But this moment, I thought it was embarrassing when someone calls you out on a sermon you stole. I can't even imagine. As someone who's been preaching regularly as a new thing, a part of my life, I can't imagine if I stole a sermon, and someone was like,

[00:13:04] Oh, that would be so awful. Especially because that first time you're preaching, and Joel, you've done preaching and filled in for people too. I'm sure that would just be so brutal. You're so nervous. You're so uncomfortable, and someone calls you out. That would just be awful.

[00:13:17] I can feel the cringe in my chest. Yes. So this one, this also I think ends up starting out as like one of the cringe, you know, embarrassing moments. But then it's almost like a Hallmark movie where the script completely flips. And this is the story.

[00:13:31] This is how it said it happens. Like this isn't just something made up. This is the real account of what occurred. So remember that as you're listening. We're not adding effect here. This is actually how it occurred.

[00:13:42] But he goes to this association, and they have different preachers speak as a part of the big meeting. All the Baptists in the area are coming together. But nobody wants to be the guy who goes first because that's considered like the rookie, the lowliest guy goes first.

[00:13:55] No one takes his sermon seriously. So when they asked them, the association asked all these big Baptist names in the area, who's going, who's going, who's going, and nobody was going. They're all like, I'm not going to go first.

[00:14:06] I'm like, no, I will wait until later to go. I'm not going to go right off the bat. And so someone said, well, let's try the one-eyed guy from the north. So they ask Christmas Evans.

[00:14:16] He's kind of going through the crowd, and he immediately goes, yeah, absolutely, I'll preach. And he starts going to the front, and the account goes that all the Baptist preachers, people are like, oh my gosh, this guy. He's tall. He's awkward looking. He's bony. He has one eye.

[00:14:30] He's been doing preaching tours. No one's seen him in years. Okay, good luck with this guy. He's like a town folk guy. He's uneducated. He probably sounds it. Everything about this moment just screams he's not going to do a good job. And so the Baptist leaders legitimately leave.

[00:14:45] Some of them go and take a nap under a tree, hoping he doesn't take too long so they can get to the real speakers. Others go into town to get refreshments. I mean, legitimately, imagine you're walking to the front of the stage to preach and teach,

[00:14:59] and the leaders that asked you to come up are all just scattering because they don't want to be here for your sermon. That's how they feel about you. For me, that would be so embarrassing and awkward that it would just kill me on the inside.

[00:15:10] I mean, that's just a blow to your pride if there ever was one. But Christmas Evans, he doesn't do that. And it's not like he came prepared with a sermon, but he just starts going,

[00:15:20] and he's basically just preaching on what's going to happen to wicked people when they die. He just starts going and kind of gets going. It takes a minute for people to kind of figure out where he's going, and then boom, he grabs it,

[00:15:29] and he just starts running with it, starts preaching, starts teaching, doesn't care that the crowd wasn't paying attention. He's going for it. And soon everyone in the crowd is kind of drawn in.

[00:15:37] People from the area are kind of running over like, hey, this guy has got some passion about him. And soon those Baptist ministers that were laying down to take a nap are kind of running over. They want to hear the crowd.

[00:15:47] Soon some of those guys that went to get refreshments, they had heard the noise that this guy was good. They're running over, and everyone has come back and is listening. And then by the end of his sermon, I don't know how long it went,

[00:15:58] but by the end of his sermon people in the crowd are crying. People in the crowd are screaming glory, glory, hallelujah. Like the whole thing is a masterpiece. And then he ends it and gets off the stage. He's thankful, and everyone is blown away.

[00:16:10] The greatest speaker was the first one at all. It was Christmas. And from that point on, he's a legend. People write about it. People tell people about it. They're like, this Christmas Evans guy is the man. It really is like a movie, right?

[00:16:23] It reminds me of like a teen movie when everyone thought, you know, this girl can't dance. And then she gets up there and blows him away. I mean, that's what it sounds like, but it's a real story. It actually happened. And he really did do it.

[00:16:33] And from that point on, he is one of the most famous preachers in Wales.

[00:17:19] So he soon gets his own church. And the Baptist Association paid him a small sum, a small sum for his time. And that's the pay that he would use his entire life. He never asked for more. He just lived on that little stipend that he got.

[00:17:57] When he arrived, he said he spent three hours wrestling with God in prayer and asking the Lord to bless his work at the church and the people of the country. He was famous for prayer and praying.

[00:18:09] And soon his area had 600 new converts and many more attending his church. So much so that they had to start construction on a new chapel and start training new leaders. He also had to go up and down to Wales asking for money to expand this ministry.

[00:18:27] And he traveled to Wales 40 times raising funds for various parts of the ministry during his lifetime.

[00:18:34] And over all the work that he did and all of the campaigns that he would have, his name would become more and more well-known, more and more spread, and his fame would grow and grow. Some of the hardest times come at the end of one's life.

[00:18:47] You know, I remember Charles Spurgeon. It was that downgrade controversy towards the end of his days that really got to him.

[00:18:52] At the age of 60 or so, at Christmas Evans, his churches which he had raised so much money for, 40 trips, he had been a part of their lives helping them, had done so much. And yet as they became bigger, they started to kind of grow.

[00:19:05] They wanted to be independent of him. They didn't want to still be under his thumb. That could be one way of looking at it. Or new ambitious pastors wanted to do what they wanted to do and they were leaving behind their old patriarch that had helped found them.

[00:19:17] Either way, without going into all the details, they kind of push him out. Evans is kind of literally pushed off and is left behind, no longer even working at his churches. And the same year that that is occurring, again, his wife dies. His wife of many, many years.

[00:19:34] He had married her at 26 and she dies at the same time. So he is just completely crushed. He's grieving.

[00:19:42] And then he even receives a legal letter threatening to get lawyers involved and prosecute him from these churches if he keeps trying to minister and be the leader, the bishop or whatever.

[00:19:53] Not really because he's Baptist but running the show with these churches saying, you need to get out of here. And so he does.

[00:19:59] There was this really sad account I read of people watching this almost in their mind old apostle who founded everything, just kind of getting on a boat and leaving and being like, all right, I guess I'll go somewhere else. I'm not wanted here.

[00:20:09] And so that's when he does. He does start a new ministry somewhere else. It ends up being very successful and things go very well. It also explodes, new chapels, new people.

[00:20:19] And so while he ends up running off to raise support another time for this new ministry and letting people know what he's about now, during that trip and that preaching tour,

[00:20:28] he will end up dying and passing on just once again, making a trip through Wales that he had done so many times before. Yeah. So here you have Christmas Evans. And if you really take into account where he started, this uneducated wandering farm hand who was beaten up,

[00:20:46] it's impossible not to be amazed at his ministry and his life's journey. And we had to skip over so much. There's so much in his life. And we really recommend you check out our past episode that we did on him.

[00:20:58] That might fill in some of the gaps here. But in the meantime, listen to this sermon here. And remember that it came from a man who without God would never be able to give a sermon like this.

[00:21:09] Who the heavens must receive until the times of restitution of all things. Acts chapter three, verse 21. These words are part of St. Peter's sermon to the people of Jerusalem at the cure of the lame man at the beautiful gate of the temple shortly after the day of Pentecost.

[00:21:39] This and the sermon recorded in the preceding chapter were perhaps the most effective ever delivered on earth. The fruit of Peter's ministry in these two sermons was about 5,000 souls converted to Christianity.

[00:21:53] It is recorded that on the day of Pentecost that the hearers were pricked in their hearts and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, men and brethren, what will we do? An inquiry which indicates complete solicitude and distress.

[00:22:08] A sense of sin overwhelmed them, especially of their guilt in rejecting the Son of God. And they pressed around the preacher and his colleagues with this earnest questioning. The answer was ready. True ministers of Christ are never at a loss in answering the inquiries of awakened sinners.

[00:22:28] When the Philippian jailer came trembling to Paul and Silas and fell down before them exclaiming, what must I do to be saved? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved was a prompt and appropriate answer.

[00:22:42] So Peter on the day of Pentecost when 3,000 conscience men and heartbroken hearers cried out under the sermon, what will we do? Immediately replied, repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins

[00:22:57] and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children and to all that are far off as many as the Lord our God will call. And so in the sermon where we have taken our text,

[00:23:09] when we saw that the truth had found its way to the understanding and the conscience and the heart, that many were awakened and convinced of sin, he encouraged them to repentance and faith in Christ as a condition of salvation.

[00:23:21] Repent you and be converted that your sins may be blotted out. When the times of refreshing will come from the presence of the Lord and he will send Jesus Christ who before was preached to you, whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things.

[00:23:36] The doctrine of this text is the necessity of Christ's return to heaven until the finish of his reconciliation work. It is generally admitted that the 22nd Psalm has particular reference to Christ. This is evident from his own use of the first verse upon the cross,

[00:23:55] my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? The striking metaphors which it contains are descriptive of Messiah's peculiar sufferings. He is the deer or hind of the morning, hunted by the black prince with his hellhounds, by Satan and all his allies.

[00:24:12] The dogs, the lions and the strong bulls of the Shaan with their devouring teeth and their terrible horns pursued him from Bethlehem to Calvary. They beset him in the manger, gnashed upon him in the garden and well near tore him to pieces upon the cross.

[00:24:26] And still they persecute him in his cause and in the persons and interests of his people. The faith of the church anticipated the coming of Christ like a doe or a young deer with a dawn of the day promised in Eden.

[00:24:39] And we hear her exclaiming in the Song of Solomon, the voice of my beloved, behold he comes leaping upon the mountains and skipping upon the hills. She heard him announce his advent in the promise, lo I come to do your will, oh God.

[00:24:53] And with prophetic eye saw him leaping from the mountains of eternity to the mountains of time and skipping from hill to hill throughout the land of Palestine, going about doing good. In the various types and shadows of the law she beheld him,

[00:25:07] standing by the wall, looking out at the windows, showing himself through the lattice. And then she sung until the day break and the shadows flee away, turn my beloved and be you like the hind or the young deer upon the mountains of Bethphare.

[00:25:22] Bloody sacrifices revealed him to her view, going down to the vineyards of red wine where she traced him to the meadows of gospel ordinances, where he feeds among the lilies, to the gardens of cucumbers and the bed of spices.

[00:25:35] And then she sung to him again, hurry or flee away my beloved, be like the deer or the young stallion upon the mountains of spices. And so she longed to see him first on the mountain of Bethphare and then on the mountain of spices.

[00:25:49] On both mountains she saw him 1800 years ago and on both she may still trace the footsteps of his majesty and his mercy. The former he has tracked with his own blood and his path upon the latter is redolent of frankincense and myrrh. Bethphare signifies division.

[00:26:08] This is the craggy mountain of Calvary where the hind of the morning fled followed by all the wild beasts of the forest and the hunting dogs of hell. He was summoned to the pursuit and urged on by the prince of perdition

[00:26:20] until the victim in his agony sweat great drops of blood where he was terribly crushed between the cliffs and dreadfully mangled by sharp and ragged rocks where he was seized by death, the great greyhound of the bottomless pit where he leaped the cliff without breaking a bone

[00:26:35] and sunk in the dead sea, sunk to its utmost depth and saw no corruption. Behold the hind of the morning on that dreadful mountain. It is the place of skulls where death holds his carnival in companionship with worms and hell laughs in the face of heaven.

[00:26:53] Dark storms are gathering there, brooding clouds charged with no small wrath. Terrors set themselves in battle array before the Son of God and storm winds burst upon him which might sweep all mankind in a moment to eternal ruin. Oh, don't you hear the underground thunders?

[00:27:09] Can't you feel the tremor of the mountain? It is the shock of Satan's cannons landing upon the captain of our salvation. It is the explosion of the shells of vengeance and oh, the earth is quaking, the rocks are ripping, the graves are opening, the dead are rising

[00:27:24] and all nature stands disturbed at the conflict of divine mercy with the powers of darkness. One dread convulsion more, one cry of desperate agony and Jesus dies. An arrow has entered into his heart. And the cow leaps the lines roaring upon their prey

[00:27:42] and the bulls of Bashan are bellowing and the dogs of perdition are barking and the devil dancing with exultant joy clanks his iron chains and thrusts up his fettered hands in defiance toward the face of Jehovah. But if you go a little further up the mountain

[00:27:58] and you come to a new tomb carved out of the rock, there lies a dead body. It is the body of Jesus. His disciples have laid it down in sorrow and return weeping to the city. Mary's heart is broken, Peter's zeal is drowned in tears

[00:28:15] and John would rather lie down and die in his master's grave. The grave is closed up and sealed and a Roman guard stands at its entrance. On the morning of the third day while it is still dark, two or three women come to anoint the body.

[00:28:31] They are debating about the great stone at the mouth of the cave. Who will roll it away, says one of them. Pity we did not bring Peter or John with us. But arriving they find the stone already rolled away

[00:28:45] and one sitting upon it whose countenance is like lightning and whose garments are white as the light. The steel-clad iron-hearted soldiers lie around him like men slain in battle having fallen in terror. He speaks, Why do you seek the living among the dead?

[00:29:02] He is not here, he is risen, he has gone from this cave victoriously. It is even so, for there is the veil and the napkin and the heavenly watchers. And when he awoke and cast off his grave clothes,

[00:29:15] the earthquake was felt in the city and jarred the gates of hell. The hind of the morning is up earlier than any of his pursuers leaping upon the mountains and skipping upon the hills. He is seen first with Mary at the tomb

[00:29:28] and then with the disciples in Jerusalem then with two of them on the way to Emmaus then going before his brethren into Galilee and finally leaping from the top of Olivet to the hills of Paradise, fleeing away to the mountain of spices

[00:29:39] where he will never again be hunted by the black prince and his hounds. Christ is the perfect master of gravitation and all the laws of nature are obedient to his will. Once he walked upon the water as if it were marble beneath his feet

[00:29:56] and now as he stands blessing his people, the glorious form so recently nailed to the cross and still more recently cold in the grave begins to ascend like the living creature in Ezekiel's vision, lifted up from the earth till nearly out of sight.

[00:30:11] When the chants of God, even thousands of angels receive him and hurry to the celestial city, waking the thrones of eternity with this jubilant chorus, lift up your heads, O you gates and you will be lifted up, you everlasting doors and the King of Glory will come in.

[00:30:26] Christ might have rode in a chariot of fire all the way from Bethlehem to Calvary, but he preferred riding in a chariot of mercy whose lining was crimson and his ornament was the criminal's cross. How rapidly rolled his wheels over the hills and the plains of Palestine

[00:30:44] gathering up everywhere the children of affliction and scattering blessings like the sunlight of the morning. Now we find him in Cana of Galilee, turning water into wine, then treading the waves of the sea and hushing the roar of the storm

[00:30:58] and now delivering the demoniac of Gadara from the fury of a legion of fiends. Then healing the nobleman's son at Capernaum and raising the daughter of Jairus and a young man of Nain, riding upon the grave at Bethany, I am the resurrection and the life,

[00:31:12] curing the invalid at the pool of Bethesda, feeding the 5,000 in the wilderness and preaching to the woman by Jacob's well. He was acquitting the adulteress and shaming her accusers and exercising everywhere in all his travels the three offices of physician, prophet, and savior

[00:31:29] as he drove on toward the place of Skulls. Now we see the chariot surrounded with enemies, Herod and Pilate and Caiaphas and the Roman soldiers and the populace of Jerusalem and thousands of Jews who have come up to keep the Passover led on by Judas and the devil.

[00:31:45] See how they rage and curse as if they would tear him from his chariot of mercy. But Jesus maintains his seat and holds fast the reins and drives right on through the angry crowd without shooting an arrow or lifting a spear upon his foes.

[00:32:00] For in that chariot the king must ride to Calvary. Calvary must be consecrated to mercy forever. He sees the cross planted upon the top of the hill and hastens forward to embrace it. No sacrifice will be offered to justice on this day

[00:32:15] but the one sacrifice which reconciles heaven and earth. None of those children of Baal will suffer today. The bribed witnesses and clamorous murderers will be spared. The smiters, the scourgers, the spitters, the thorn crowners, the nail drivers, the head shakers for Jesus pleads on their behalf.

[00:32:33] Father, forgive them. They don't know what they do. They are ignorant of your truth and grace. They are not aware whom they are crucifying. O spare them! Let death know that he will have enough to do with me today. Let him open all his cannons upon me.

[00:32:49] My chest is bare to the whips. I will gather all the lances of hell in my heart. Still the chariot rushes on and fiery darts are falling thick and fast like a shower of meteors on Messiah's head until he is covered with wounds

[00:33:01] and the blood flows down his garments and leaves a crimson track behind him. As he passes, he casts a look at the dying criminal with a glance of kindness and throws him a passport into paradise that was written with his own blood.

[00:33:15] He stretches out his scepter and touches the prison door of death and many of the prisoners come out and the tyrant will never regain his power over them. He rides triumphant over thrones and principalities and crushes beneath his wheels the last enemy himself

[00:33:30] and leaves the memorial of his march engraved on the rocks of Golgotha. Christ is everywhere in the scripture spoken of as a blessing and whether we contemplate his coming, his ministry, his miracles, his agony, his crucifixion, his imprisonment, his resurrection or his ascension

[00:33:48] we may truly say all his paths drip with goodness. All his travels were on the road of mercy and trees are growing up in his footsteps whose fruit is delicious food and whose leaves are for the healing of the nations.

[00:34:03] He walks upon the south winds causing gorgeous gales to blow upon the wilderness till songs of joy awaken in the solitary place and the desert blossoms as the rose. If we consider what the prophets wrote of Messiah in connection with the evangelical history

[00:34:19] we will be satisfied that none like him either before or since ever entered our world and departed from it. Both God and man, at once the father of eternity and the son of time he filled the universe while he was embodied upon earth

[00:34:35] and ruled the celestial principalities and powers while he wandered a persecuted stranger in Judea. No man, he says, has ascended up to heaven but he that came down from heaven even the son of man who is in heaven. Heaven was no strange place to Jesus.

[00:34:53] He talks of the mansions in his father's house as familiarly as one of the royal family would talk of Windsor Castle where he was born and says to his disciples, I go to prepare a place for you that where I am there you may be also.

[00:35:07] The glory into which he entered was his own glory the glory which he had with the father before the world was. He had an original and supreme right to the celestial mansions and he acquired a new and additional claim by his office as mediator.

[00:35:20] Having suffered for our sins he ought to enter into his glory. He ought because he is God blessed forever. He ought because he is a representative of his redeemed people. He has taken possession of the kingdom on our behalf

[00:35:35] and left on record for our encouragement this cheering promise to him that overcomes will I grant to sit with me in my throne even as I also have overcome and have sat down with my father in his throne.

[00:35:48] The departure of God from Eden and the departure of Christ from the earth were two of the sublimest events that ever occurred and filled with immense consequences to our race. When Jehovah left Eden he left a curse upon the place for man's sake

[00:36:02] and drove out man before him into a cursed earth. But when Jesus ascended from all of it he lifted the curse with him and left a blessing behind him, so the world with a seed of eternal blessings and instead of the thorn will come up the fir tree

[00:36:18] and instead of the briar will come up the myrtle tree and it will be to the Lord for a name and an everlasting sign that will not be cut off. He ascended to intercede for sinners and reopen paradise to his people

[00:36:30] and when he will come the second time according to the promise with all his holy angels then we will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air and so we will be forever with the Lord.

[00:36:42] The Lord has gone up with a shout and has taken our redeemed nature with him. He is the head of the church and a representative at the right hand of the father. He has ascended on high, he has led captivity captive,

[00:36:55] he has received gifts for men, yes for the rebellious also that God may dwell among them. Him has God exalted with his own right hand to be a prince and a savior to give repentance to Israel and remission of sins.

[00:37:10] This is the father's recognition of his beloved son and significant acceptance of his sacrifice where God also has highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name that at the name of Jesus

[00:37:23] every knee should bow of things in heaven and things in the earth and things under the earth and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the father. The evidence of our Lord's ascension is everywhere.

[00:37:40] He ascended in the presence of many witnesses who stood gazing after him till a cloud received him out of their sight and while he looked steadfastly toward heaven two angels appeared to them and talked with him of what they had seen.

[00:37:53] Soon afterward on the day of Pentecost he fulfilled in a remarkable manner the promise which he had made to his people if I go away I will send you another comforter who will abide with you forever. Stephen the first of his disciples that glorified the master by martyrdom

[00:38:07] testified to his murders look I see the heavens open and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God and John the beloved disciple while in exile in Patmos for the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ

[00:38:19] beheld him in the midst of the throne as a lamb that had been slain. These are the evidence that our Lord is in heaven. These are the proofs in the house of our pilgrimage. The apostle speaks of the necessity of this event whom the heaven must receive.

[00:38:35] Divine necessity is a golden chain reaching from eternity to eternity and circling all the events of time. It consists of many links all hanging upon each other and not one of them can be broken without destroying the support of the whole.

[00:38:53] The first link is in God before the world was and the last is in heaven when the world will be no more. Christ is its alpha and omega and Christ constitutes all its in-between links. Christ in the heart of the Father receiving the promise of eternal life

[00:39:12] before the foundation of the world is the beginning. Christ in his sacrificial blood atoning for our sins and parting and sanctifying all them that believe is the middle and Christ in heaven pleading the merit of his vicarious sufferings making intercession for the transgressors drawing all man to himself

[00:39:31] presenting the prayers of his people and preparing their mansions is the end. There is a necessity in all that Christ has done as our mediator in all that he is doing on our behalf and all that he has engaged to do. The necessity of divine love manifested,

[00:39:48] of divine mercy exercised, of divine purposes accomplished, of divine covenants fulfilled, of divine faithfulness maintained, of divine justice satisfied, of divine holiness vindicated and of divine power displayed. Christ felt this necessity while he fellowshiped among us and often declared it to his disciples

[00:40:07] and acknowledged it to the Father in the agony of the garden. Behold him wrestling in prayer with strong crying and tears, Father save me from this hour. If it is possible let this cup pass from me. Now the Father reads to him his covenant engagement

[00:40:26] which he signed and sealed with his own hand before the foundation of the world. The glorious sufferer replies, Your will be done. For this reason I have come to this hour. I will drink the cup which you have prepared

[00:40:39] and not a drag of any of its ingredients will be left for my people. I will pass through the approaching dreadful night bearing away the curse from my beloved. Now on his knees he reads the covenant engagements of the Father and adds,

[00:40:53] I have glorified you on the earth. I have finished the work which you gave me to do. Now glorify your way in me according to your promise with your own self, with the glory which I had with you before the world was.

[00:41:05] Father I will that they whom you have given me be with me where I am that they may behold my glory. Yours they were and you have given them to me on condition of pouring out my soul to death. You have promised them through my righteousness

[00:41:21] and meritorious sacrifice the kingdom of heaven which I now claim on their behalf. Father glorify my people with him whom you love before the foundation of the world. The intercession of Christ for his saints begun on earth is continued in heaven.

[00:41:38] This is our confidence and joy in our journeys throughout the wilderness. We know that our Joshua has gone over into the land of our inheritance where he is preparing a place of habitation for Israel

[00:41:50] for it is his will that all whom he has redeemed should be with him forever. The text speaks of the period when the great purposes of our Lord's ascension will be fully accomplished until the times of restitution of all things.

[00:42:03] The period here mentioned is the dispensation of a fullness of time when the fullness of the Gentiles will come in and the dispersed of Judah will be restored and Christ will gather together in himself all things in heaven and on earth, overthrow his enemies, establish his everlasting kingdom,

[00:42:19] deliver the groaning creation from its bondage, glorify his people with himself, imprison the devil and his angels in the bottomless pit and punish with destruction from his presence them that do not obey the gospel. To this glorious end the great journey of redemption

[00:42:36] and all the events of time are only preparation. It was promised in Eden and the promise was renewed and enlarged to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob. It was described in gorgeous oriental imagery by Isaiah and the sweet psalmist of Israel

[00:42:51] and spoken of by all the prophets since the world began. Christ came into the world to prepare the way for his future triumph, to lay on Calvary the chief cornerstone of a temple which will be completed at the end of time and endure throughout all eternity.

[00:43:06] He began the great restitution. He redeemed his people with a price and gave them a pledge of redemption by power. He made an end of sin, abolished the Levitical priesthood and swallowed up all the types and shadows in himself.

[00:43:20] He sent home the beasts, overthrew the altars and quenched the holy fire and upon the sanctifying altar of his own divinity offered his own sinless humanity which was consumed by fire from heaven. He removed the seat of government from Mount Zion in Jerusalem

[00:43:36] to Mount Zion above where he sits a priest upon his throne drawing heaven and earth together and establishing the covenant of peace between them both. Blessed be God! We can now go to Jesus, the mediator,

[00:43:50] passing by millions of angels and all the spirits of just men made perfect until we come to the blood of sprinkling which speaks better things than that of Abel. And we look for that blessed day when this gospel of the kingdom is universally known

[00:44:09] and all will know the Lord from the least even to the greatest. When there will be a new heaven and a new earth which dwells in righteousness, when both the political and the moral aspects of our world are changed

[00:44:22] and a happier state of things exists than has ever been known before when the pestilence, the famine and the sword cease to destroy and the saints of the Most High possess the kingdom in quietness and assurance forever.

[00:44:35] Then comes the end when Emmanuel will destroy in this mountain the veil of the covering cast over all people and swallow up death in victory. But what will it avail you to hear of this glorious restitution

[00:44:48] if you are not partakers of its benefits and happily interested in its completion? Has it begun in your own hearts? Are you restored to God in Christ? Do you have a place in His house and a name among His people?

[00:45:05] Are your feet running the way of His commandments and your hands diligent in doing His work? If not, it is high time to awake out of sleep, repent and believe the gospel, let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts

[00:45:20] and let him return to Lord who will have mercy upon him and to our God for He will abundantly pardon. Thank you for listening to today's episode of Revived Thoughts. Today's sermon was narrated by Chips Ross.

[00:45:44] Chips was saved when attending a Sunday evening service that featured the prayer life of D.L. Moody. He lives with his wife and four kids in Fresno, California where he serves as a pastor of Westwood Baptist Church. Yeah, we're grateful to Pastor Chips Ross.

[00:45:59] He has done sermons for us before and it is always a pleasure when people who have spoken sermons for us, done this before, have come back to help us out. So we're really grateful for him doing this one. And we also are grateful for all of you.

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[00:46:35] If you want to support us, help Revived Studios grow, help us do what we're doing and you want some access to some of this stuff, if you go find us on Patreon, you can. This is Troy and Joel and you've been listening to Revived Thoughts.