Call to Commitment

 I want to encourage my brothers and sisters in Christ to read from the writings of a man of God, whose name we don’t often hear these days. Yet he was a vessel, who made a significant impression, not only on the church, but on the entire world, through great missionary endeavors.

 Albert B. Simpson was raised in a strict Calvinistic Scottish Presbyterian tradition, to the extent that, when he came under deep conviction of sin, his parents, either did not know how to help him or, more probably, thought that it was improper to interfere with God’s work of salvation. However, young Simpson struggled under the weight of sin for too long and found no relief, until he discovered a line in Walter Marshall’s Gospel Mystery of Salvation, “The first good work you will ever perform is to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.” This little ray of light, given by a human writer, brought Simpson to commit his life to “Jesus Only”, his burden was lifted and he was gloriously converted.

 A. B. Simpson was founder of the Christian and Missionary Alliance, a movement which was dedicated to taking the gospel to the far ends of the world. This is the movement, to which A. W. Tozer belonged and, in fact, Tozer wrote Simpson’s biography, Wingspread. My father also belonged to the C&MA and loved to read Simpson’s Christ-exalting books. 

 

 His message wonderfully echoed the cry of the Apostle Paul, “Not I, but Christ in me”. One of Simpson’s many hymns was entitled simply, Himself: “Once it was a blessing,” the hymn stated, “now it is the Lord… Once for gifts I wanted, now the giver own, once I sought for healing, now Himself alone.” A. B. Simpson’s love for Jesus drowned out all else and left him with a single passion… Christ alone! Oh God, give us again preachers and hymn writers like this man!

What kind of man could inspire hundreds of missionaries to go to most of the countries on this planet with the message of salvation? Well, a guest in Simpson’s home got up at 4:30 a.m. and walked out of his room into the hallway. He noticed that the door to Simpson’s office was ajar and light came from the small opening. He heard weeping and looking through the crack, he could see Simpson standing above a large globe of the world, embracing it, his tears falling upon the countries below his face. I take this article from past archives of Call to Commitment so you can read the following from this godly man…

 

What is Spiritual Power?

What is spiritual power? First, it is the power which convicts of sin. It is the power that makes the hearers to see themselves as God sees them, and humbles them in the dust. It sends people home from the house of God not feeling better but worse; not always admiring the preacher, but often so tried that they perhaps resolve that they will never hear him again. But they know from their inmost soul that he is right and they are wrong. It is the power of conviction; the power that awakens the conscience and says to the soul, “You are the man.” It is the power of which the apostle speaks in connection with his own ministry: “by manifestation of the truth, commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.”

They that possess this power will not always be popular preachers, but they will always be effectual workers. Sometimes the hearer will almost think that they are personal, and that someone has disclosed to them his secret sins. Speaking of such a sermon, one of our most honored evangelists said that he felt so indignant with the preacher under whom he was converted that he waited for some time near the door for the purpose of giving him a trashing for daring to expose him in the way he had done, thinking that somebody had informed on him. Let us covet this power. It is the very stamp and seal of the Holy Ghost on a faithful minister.

 It is the power that lifts up Christ and makes Him real to the apprehension of the hearer. Some sermons leave upon the mind a vivid impression of the truth; others leave upon the mind the picture of the Savior. It is not so much an idea as a person. This is true preaching, and this is the Holy Spirit’s most blessed and congenial ministry. He loves to draw in heavenly lines the face of Jesus and make Him shine out over every page of the Bible, and every paragraph of the sermon as a face of beauty and a heart of love. Let us cultivate this power, for this is what the struggling, hungry world wants… to know its Savior. “We would see Jesus” is still its cry; and the answer still is, “I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.”

 Next, this power leads men to decision. It is not merely that they know something they did not know before, that they get new thoughts and conceptions of truth which they carry away to remember and reflect upon, nor even that they feel the deepest and most stirring emotions of religious feeling, but the power of the Spirit always presses them to action… prompt, decisive, positive action.

 The power of the Holy Ghost leads men to decide for God and to enlist against Satan, to give up habits of sin and to make great and everlasting decisions. The Lord grant us so to speak in His name, in demonstration of the Spirit and power, that the result shall be, as Paul himself expresses it on writing to the Thessalonians, “Our word came unto you not in word only, but in power, and ye turned from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for His Son from heaven, even Jesus, which saved us from the wrath to come.”