revival hymn

Transcript can be found here.

This touches me every time I see it. This part in particular was the clincher for me:

Christianity says... "The end of all being is the glory of God."
Humanism says, "The end of all being is the happiness of man."

This is the betrayal of the ages!!

And it's the betrayal in which we live and I don't see how God can revive it!
Until we come back to Christianity.

Isn't man happy?
And God intends to make you happy. But as a by-product and not a prime product.

Now I ask you, what is the philosophy of mission? What is the philosophy of evangelism? What is the philosophy of a Christian? If you’ll ask me why I went to Africa, I’ll tell you I went primarily, to improve on the justice of God. I didn’t think it was right for anybody to go to hell without a chance to be saved. And so I went to give poor sinners a chance to go to Heaven.

Now, I hadn’t put it in so many words. But if you’ll analyze what I just told you, do you know what it is? It’s humanism. But I was simply using the provisions of Jesus Christ as a means to improve upon human conditions of suffering and misery.

And when I got to Africa, I discovered that they weren’t poor, ignorant, little heathen running around in the woods, waiting for, looking for someone to tell them how to go to Heaven. That they were monsters of iniquity. They were living in utter and total defiance, of far more knowledge of God than I ever dreamed they had. They deserved hell because they utterly refused to walk in the light of their conscience and the light of the law written upon their heart and the testimony of nature and the truth they knew.

And when I found that out, I assure you, I was so angry with God that one occasion in prayer, I told him that it was a mighty, little thing He’d done, sending me out there to reach these people that were waiting to be told how to go to Heaven and when I got there I found out they knew about Heaven, didn’t wanna go there. And they loved their sin and wanted to stay in it.

I went out there motivated by humanism. I’d seen pictures of lepers. I’d seen pictures of ulcers. I’d seen pictures of native funerals. And I didn’t want my fellow human beings to suffer in hell eternally, after such a miserable existence on earth. But it was there in Africa that God began to tear through the overlay of this humanism.

And it was that day in my bedroom, with the door locked, that I wrestled with God. For here was... I was coming to grips with the fact that the people I thought were ignorant and wanted to know how to go to Heaven, and were saying "someone come and teach us" actually didn’t wanna take time to talk with me or anybody else. They had no interest in the bible and no interest in Christ. And they loved their sin and wanted to continue in it. And I was to the place at that time where I felt the whole thing was a sham and a mockery and I’d been sold a bill of goods. And I wanted to come home.

And there alone in my bedroom as I faced God honestly with what my heart felt, it seemed to me I heard Him say, "Yes, will not the Judge of all the earth do right? The heathen are lost and they’re going to go to hell not because they haven’t heard the gospel. They’re going to go to hell because they are sinners who loved... their ..sin.. and because they deserved hell. But, I didn’t send you out there for them, I didn't send you out there for their sakes."

And I heard as clearly as I’ve ever heard though it wasn’t with physical voice but it was the echo of truth of the ages finding its way into an open heart. I heard God say to my heart that day something like this:

"I didn’t send you to Africa for the sake of the heathen. I sent you to Africa for My sake. They deserved hell but I love them and I endured the agonies of hell for them. I didn’t send you out there for them. I sent you out there for Me. Do I not deserve the reward of My suffering? Don't I deserve those for whom I died?"

And it reversed it all. It changed it all and righted it all. And I wasn't any longer working for my cup and ten shekels and a shirt but I was serving the living God.