'Healing of the mind; breaking every barrier down'

Here's the sermon outtake from this morning's Sunday service that I referenced in earlier post this afternoon:

I was reading something the other day that reminded me of back in the early '80s, with Dennis Kiszonas up at Trinity University in Deerfield where we used to have Bible conferences.

There was a pastors' meeting with about 500 guys there. They were having a discussion about the Rapture and there were three different professors from the school there. One was pre-Trib, one was Mid-Trib and one was Post-Trib.

The Pre-Trib guy gets up and he starts by saying, “We’re not going to draw dispensational distinctions sharply.” I thought, “Well, we just lost.”

The difference between prophecy and mystery--“That which was preached by the prophets since the world began,” as Peter says, and “That which was kept secret since the world began but now is made manifest,” as Paul says . . . If you can’t see the difference between those as a bright line, then forget it.

Do you have any idea why God is forming the Body of Christ today? Keeping you out of hell is not even a small footnote on page 37 of the reason. Now, for you it’s a big deal.

I got saved December 31, 1962 at 15 years old. I never knew that I was lost until the summer before that. I went to a youth camp and I came home and all I learned was that I was lost and on my way to hell and I couldn’t figure out what to do about it.

I went to the church I was raised in and they didn’t know what to tell me. I went to another church and they didn’t tell me. I walked the aisle of the church where my uncle was the pastor, and he was an evangelist teaching things, and I walked down to the front and a guy said, “Why are you coming?” and I answered, “Because Uncle Jim said so.” He said, “Oh, you’re coming as a profession of faith—sit down and fill out this card.”

I mean, I just kept on my way to hell until one night I was sitting at the organ bench practicing the music I was going to play for Sunday. I was playing “Just As I Am,” and I thought, “That’s that song the Baptists sing,” and I started reading it:

“Just as I am without one plea, but that Thy blood was shed for me."

I said, “Wait a minute; that’s just a bunch of Baptists contradicting themselves. You have the lyrics “Just as I am” and then there’s a “but.” Now (the writer’s) going to make a plea. I thought, “Wait, either you have a plea or you don’t have a plea.”

Then the song says “and Thou bidst me come to Thee.” I thought, “He starts out, ‘I don’t have a plea,’ and now he’s made two!”

I’m arguing with the song in my head and I realized, “He’s saying ‘I have no other plea.’ Just as I am without any other plea except 'Thy blood was shed for me.' ” Then it dawned on me: "There’s how you get saved." And I trusted Christ on that organ bench. First time I ever really understood that.

*****

I found this information about the hymn "Just As I Am" in an online article posted by the Salt Lake Tribune:

"The hymn was written in 1835 by a British woman, Charlotte Elliott (1789-1871), who had convinced herself that her physical disabilities left her nothing to offer God at midlife.

"As one version of the story goes, Elliott was struck by the words of a minister who asked whether she had truly given her heart to Christ. The question at first bothered Elliott, and after some days she told the minister that she wanted to serve God but didn’t know how. He replied, 'Just come to him as you are.'

"The hymn was written as a poem to raise money for a hospital. It was first published in 1841 and then wedded with its familiar tune in 1849 by American William Bradbury. It soon soared in popularity in 19th-century evangelical revivals in the U.S. and Great Britain.

"The refrain in each stanza — ‘O Lamb of God, I come, I come’ — is essentially a vehicle for moving people down the aisle to the point where the preacher is waiting to receive them, said Carl Daw Jr., former executive director of the Hymn Society of the United States and Canada.

"By 1925, it appeared in at least 20 separate hymnals. In Daw’s survey of hymnals published between 1976 and 1996, it was found in 30 of 40 hymnbooks. Only Christmas carols were more popular."

Here are the lyrics:

1. Just as I am, without one plea,
   But that Thy blood was shed for me,
   And that Thou bidst me come to Thee,
   O Lamb of God, I come, I come.
2. Just as I am, and waiting not
   To rid my soul of one dark blot,
   To Thee whose blood can cleanse each spot,
   O Lamb of God, I come, I come.
3. Just as I am, though tossed about
   With many a conflict, many a doubt,
   Fightings and fears within, without,
   O Lamb of God, I come, I come.
4. Just as I am, poor, wretched, blind;
   Sight, riches, healing of the mind,
   Yea, all I need in Thee to find,
   O Lamb of God, I come, I come.
5. Just as I am, Thou wilt receive,
   Wilt welcome, pardon, cleanse, relieve;
   Because Thy promise I believe,
   O Lamb of God, I come, I come.
6. Just as I am, Thy love unknown
   Hath broken every barrier down;
   Now, to be Thine, yea, Thine alone,
   O Lamb of God, I come, I come.