The Pilgrims Laid The Foundation

The theme of my message tonight is slightly different. I have been preaching messages directly from the Scripture and this also in a sense will be from the Scripture, but I’m going to take a little time to refer to the historical records of the Pilgrims. And I want to take them as an example of certain principles in the Christian faith which I believe all apply in a very real and practical way to our situation in the Christian church at this time.

I’d like to begin with a few passages of Scripture because Scripture is the basis for all that I do and teach. I want to establish a principle which I believe runs through the whole world. You’ll find it in Galatians chapter 6 verses 7 and 8.

“Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.”

So the Bible says ‘Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.’ This applies in every area where we can in any sense talk of seed. And one of the initial principles brought out in the Bible is that everything reproduces after its kind, according to the seed and the seed is in the fruit. You could preach a spiritual sermon on that. If you want to reproduce you’ve got to have seed. If you want seed you’ve got to produce fruit. Fruitless Christians have no seed and cannot reproduce. But it goes into many areas. Wherever you can speak of seed and reproduction, like reproduces like.

Personally, I never could believe that a monkey could begat a man. I don’t care what people say, when I was a philosopher and a logician it seemed to me the most fantastically improbable theory that had ever been foisted upon education. And I still think the same today. I don’t believe monkeys beget men, that’s all. And I have never seen any evidence of it. Like begets like. You plant an apple pip and you never get an orange tree. You plant an orange pip and you get an orange tree. But this goes far beyond agriculture and horticulture and so on. As I say, it goes into the animal kingdom.

Paul applies it in 2 Corinthians chapter 8 and 9, to finance. We’re not going to turn there, but it’s very clear if you want to look. He says about giving to God’s work, ‘He that soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly, and he that soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully.’ But on the other hand, the principle applies in finance. Now if a farmer is going to sow and he has good seed he doesn’t walk down the main street of the town casting it in the gutter because it will not reproduce. But if he finds the proper soil, creates the proper conditions, puts in the proper seed, the seed will reproduce many times over. Isn’t that right, Kelly? That’s agricultural theory. All right.

Well Paul says it’s the same with giving to God’s work. You find something that’s good, the conditions are right, you pray, you invest and you reap according to what you sow. So if you sow sparingly, you’ll reap sparingly. If you sow bountifully, you’ll reap bountifully. It will always be multiplied, but what you sow is what gets multiplied. If you sow nickels, you’ll reap multiplied nickels. If you sow dollars, you’ll reap multiplied dollars. And if you sow hundred dollars, you’ll reap multiplied hundred dollars. That’s an absolute fact. It’s just as certain a fact as the laws of agriculture or animal reproduction. People haven’t seen it. That’s why some people are stingy in giving to God simply because they’ve never realized that this is the way you sow. And if you want to reap you have to start by sowing.

Now I believe this goes beyond the life of the individual. I believe that there’s a process of sowing and reaping in history and I believe also that the Bible endorses this. I believe this principle comes out in the histories of nations. I want to give you just a couple of Scriptures. Isaiah 61 verse 11.

“For as the earth bringeth forth her bud, and as the garden causeth the things that are sown in it to spring forth; so the Lord GOD will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations.”

Now that Scripture speaks about the earth and about the nations. It’s not restricted to individuals. What God has caused to be sown in history will be reaped in history. Where the seeds have been sown in history that bring forth righteousness and praise, the harvest will be manifested in history. And God will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all nations. It’s national. There’s also a Scripture in Psalm 33 verses 10, 11 and 12.

“The LORD bringeth the counsel of the heathen [but do you remember what we said we always would read when we read heathen? Nations.] The LORD bringeth the counsel of the nations to naught: he maketh the devices of the people of none effect. The counsel of the LORD standeth for ever, the thoughts of his heart to all generations.”

No matter what nations and their governments may plan, their counsels will never come to fulfillment if they’re in opposition to the counsel of the Lord. In the last resort, it’s God’s plan and God’s purpose that will go through. This applies not merely to individuals, but to nations. And the next verse makes that application clear.

“Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD; and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance.”

So there is a relationship of these truths, not merely to individuals, but to nations. God has a purpose and a plan for nations. Do you find it possible to believe that, that nations have a destiny? The Bible clearly teaches, and I’m sure you’d agree that as individuals we have a destiny. We’re not all alike. And we have a part in shaping our own destiny. I’m convinced the same is true of nations. Nations have destinies. They’re not all alike. And nations play a part in shaping their own destinies. And essentially it’s in the process of sowing and reaping. What nations sow they will reap. But if they seek to go along lines and follow counsels which are in opposition to those of God, they’ll be broken. They will not prosper. This is to me abundantly clear about the Middle East. No matter what anybody plans or decides, anybody that opposes God’s purposes for Israel ultimately will be broken. I haven’t the faintest doubt in my mind about that.

As a Britisher I saw that clearly demonstrated. I was born in India when India was the brightest jewel in the Imperial British Crown. And when you couldn’t, as my wife used to say, spit anywhere in the world for English people. And you could look at any map of the globe and almost anywhere you’d find somewhere colored pink, which meant Britain claimed dominion over it. And that whole empire disintegrated after a victorious war. After Britain won the war, their empire fell apart in something like ten years, you could say really. And you know the moment when it began to disintegrate? When they withstood God’s purposes for Israel in Palestine. And that is cause and affect, and the American people better bear it in mind. Whatever you do, don’t let’s get on the wrong side of Israel. Because Israel will survive. We might not.

Let me give you one other Scripture and that’s in John 4:37 to 38. Jesus is talking to His disciples and He’s in actual fact commenting on the fact that when they arrived at a Samaritan village, strangely enough there was a tremendous response to His presence and His message. The whole village came out and many of the villagers said after being with Him that they believed in Him. And Jesus then pointed a lesson to His disciples. Verse 37:

“And herein is that saying true, One soweth, and another reapeth. I sent you to reap that whereon ye bestowed no labour: other men laboured, and ye are entered into their labours.”

The disciples had seen a dramatic response to the message of the Messiah. And Jesus said, ‘Don’t imagine that this is due solely to your presence or your ministry.’ He said, ‘There’s been a long process of preparation going on for this moment. Other men labored. Other men sowed the seed over the centuries, now you’re reaping what they sowed.’ And of course there’s no actual comment in the Gospel of John, but my personal opinion is that the other men were the Old Testament sages, prophets and teachers. Over long centuries in the purposes of God seed was sown in Israel by the Word of God and the harvest time was when the Messiah came. But the early church reaped the result of seed that had been sown by men who had gone long before them. In other words, again we see the principle unfolding that in the life and destiny of nations there is the process of sowing and the process of reaping.

Well, having said that, let’s look for a little while at some of the early records of the Pilgrims with this in mind that we are looking at something that happened three hundred and fifty years ago or more, but the seeds sown then are producing a harvest today. This is my conviction. I want you to understand that this is why we’re looking into these truths because they have a very important application to our nation today.

The book from which I obtained all this is this book Of Plymouth Plantation, but I’m going to read from my own book because I’ve got the passages that I particularly want extracted in this book. We’ll begin to look at the origins of the Pilgrims. And we’ll trace the life of the man who wrote this book who was really the governor of Plymouth Colony and I suppose in many ways the practical leader of the expedition. And immediately you will see the seed of the Word of God. This is where the whole thing began. The name of this man was William Bradford. Bradford is a real good English name. In fact, it’s the name of a city in Yorkshire; and Bradford began his spiritual experience and matured very early. Remarkably so. By the age of twelve he was a constant reader of the Bible. By the age of sixteen he was an active member of a congregation. The whole course of Bradford’s life was determined by spiritual experiences of his boyhood and early manhood.

“William Bradford was born at Austerfield, Yorkshire, in the early spring of 1590… At the age of twelve he became a constant reader of the Bible—the Geneva version that he generally quotes— and when still a lad he was so moved by the Word of God as to join a group of Puritans who met for prayer and discussion at the house of William Brewster in the nearby village of Scrooby.”

Now notice two things that are directly related to the Charismatic Movement—the word of God and a prayer group meeting in a home. This is exactly in line with the real origins of the Charismatic Movement. Without a doubt this is how the roots of the Charismatic Movement came up.

“When this group, inspired by the Rev. Richard Clyfton, organized itself as a separate Congregational Church in 1606, [when Bradford was sixteen years old] Bradford joined it despite ‘the wrath of his uncles’ and the ‘scoff of his neighbors.’”

That’s a quotation from his own words. So even then there was opposition to people who went to prayer groups and joined strange groups.

“From that date until his death half a century later, Bradford’s life revolved around that of his church or congregation, first in Scrooby, next in the Low Countries and finally in New England.”

Now I’m going to make a comment here. There are three preachers or ministers who really shaped the theology and the purposes of the Puritans. And as you’ve probably heard in some of the introductions, my own educational background is at Cambridge University where I was a Fellow of King’s College for about nine years, having first of all been a Scholar and Research Student. And I’m rather proud of Cambridge. I really didn’t know that anything spiritual had ever happened at Cambridge, because there was no evidence of it when I was there. But I’ve discovered that the three men who really shaped the Pilgrims all were educated at Cambridge. That really excited me. It may not excite you, but it excited me. And I’m going to give you there names. The first was Richard Clyfton. They’re all very fine English names. C-l-y-f-t-o-n—and he was in England. He formed the first congregation out of home prayer groups. And they did it because they wanted liberty to study the Word and apply it.

The next one was John Robinson, and he was the pastor or the elder of the congregation in the low countries, in Leyden—the city of Leyden. And the third one was William Brewster. And he was the elder in Plymouth. He was the one who went over on the Mayflower and was the elder in Plymouth, Massachusetts.

It’s interesting because it’s also relevant to the Charismatic Movement, and this is one of the issues that the Charismatic Movement faces today, and I don’t want to take sides on the issue but I want to point it out. The Pilgrims were different from the Puritans. In this sense: The Puritans determined to stay inside the institutional church and reform it, by force if necessary. The Pilgrims, though they had many of the same ideas as the Puritans, declined to enforce their beliefs on others and wanted to be separated from any form of government or legal compulsion in matters of religion, which, of course, has had a tremendous influence on the course of American history ever since. Let me read a little bit that explains the difference.

“Although the Pilgrims were initially associated with the Puritans, there were important differences between them. Both saw the need of religious reform, but they differed concerning the means by which reform was to be achieved. The Puritans determined to remain within the established church and to impose reform from within—by compulsion, if necessary. The Pilgrims sought liberty for themselves, but declined to use the machinery of secular government to enforce their views upon others. These differing points of view are expressed in the following passage from Leonard Bacon’s Genesis of the New England Churches:
It’s rather a beautiful passage. I’ll read it.
In the Old World on the other side of the ocean, the Puritan was a Nationalist, believing that a Christian nation is a Christian church, and demanding that the Church of England should be thoroughly reformed; while the Pilgrim was a Separatist, not only from the Anglican Prayer Book and Queen Elizabeth’s episcopacy, but from all national churches… The Pilgrim wanted liberty for himself and his wife an little ones, and for his brethren, to walk with God in a Christian life as the rules and motives of such a life were revealed to him form God’s Word. For that he went into exile; for that he crossed the ocean; for that he made his home in a wilderness.
Then I give you my little comment.
The difference between Puritans and Pilgrims could be expressed in the two words Reformation and Restoration. [Now you can see again how very relevant this is.] The Pilgrims believed that the ultimate purpose of God was to restore the church to its original condition, as portrayed in the New Testament. This shines forth very clearly in the first paragraph of the first chapter of Bradford’s book where he expresses the Pilgrims’ vision of restoration in the following words:
…the churches of God revert to their ancient purity and recover their primitive [but we would say in modern English, i.e. original] order, liberty and beauty.”

So you’ve got the four things the Pilgrims were after: purity, order, liberty and beauty. They had a vision of the church such as I tried to share with you when I said Jesus is not coming back for an old crone walking around with a cane. Purity, order, liberty and beauty. For me those are words that are appealing. That’s exactly what I want.

“Later on in the opening chapter Bradford explains their purpose more fully. He says:
[They labored] to have the right worship of God and discipline of Christ established in the church, according to the simplicity of the gospel, without the mixture of men’s inventions; and to have and be ruled by the laws of God’s Word, dispensed in those offices, and by those officers of Pastors, Teachers and Elders, etc., according to the Scriptures.”

Again, that’s almost exactly where we are today in the Charismatic Movement. The words you hear about today are pastors, teachers and elders. Now the next vital truth concerning the way God led the Pilgrims was that they formed a covenant amongst themselves. And on the basis of this covenant they entered into what we would call a community. Again these are the two key words that face the Charismatic Movement today. If you’ve been to Ann Arbor or you’re familiar with the brethren there, that’s the whole basis of their thinking. It’s a community based on a covenant. So it’s interesting to see, isn’t it? And let me point out that if you’re going to have a community, and we’ll talk a little bit more about that word later, you must have a covenant. In other words, everybody must know what their responsibility is. Otherwise the thing is a shapeless, inchoate mass, it will never function. One of the things that God is bringing back to us today is the importance of covenant. Every time God has done anything serious and permanent in human history, He has always done it with a covenant. God operates on the basis of a covenant. Psalm 50 God says, ‘Gather My saints together unto me those that have made a covenant with Me by sacrifice.’ That’s the definition of God’s saints. Those that have made a covenant on the basis of a sacrifice.

And so we find the Pilgrims in the year 1619, I guess, joining themselves into a community on the basis of a covenant, and this is the words that Bradford used.

“…joined themselves (by a covenant of the Lord) into a church estate, [that’s what we would call a community] in the fellowship of the gospel, to walk in all His ways made known, or to be made known unto them, according to their best endeavours, whatsoever it should cost them, the Lord assisting them.”

They committed themselves completely to do whatever God would reveal to them from His Word, no matter what it might cost. And they did not claim, and this is very significant again, they knew they didn’t know it all. To me, one of the most refreshing things about the Pilgrims is they never claimed to have arrived. This distinguishes them from, I would say, eighty percent of all religious groups, and we’ll see that a little later. Then a little further on in the same chapter Bradford returns to this theme. I want to emphasize this so you see it. Speaking about their life in Leyden, in Holland, it says:

“…they came as near the primitive [original] pattern of the first churches as any other church[es] of these later times have done.”

You see the words? …The original pattern of the first churches. That was their supreme objective. A little later on he comments on their purpose in coming to America, bearing in mind that these words were written about three hundred and fifty three years ago, I think they’re rather interesting. This he says was their main motive in coming to America.

“Lastly (and which was not least), a great hope and inward zeal they had of laying some good foundation…for the propagating and advancing of the gospel of the kingdom of Christ in those remote parts of the world; [like Michigan] yea, though they should be but even as stepping-stones unto others for the performing of so great a work.”

So their real objective was to open up this continent for the gospel of the kingdom of Christ. I like the fact that they didn’t just say the gospel. They said the gospel of the kingdom of Christ. And remember what Jesus said, ‘This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations.’ There’s a certain difference between the people who speak about preaching the gospel, and the people who speak about preaching the gospel of the kingdom. It’s the gospel of the kingdom is a gospel of power and authority and supernatural attestations.

Now we come to the next thing which is certainly in line with what I’ve been teaching here. They are probably their most spiritual tool that they used was collective prayer and fasting. And they did this quite frequently. When I say collective I mean they didn’t do it as individuals. The whole community proclaimed the day on which they would all fast and seek God. And this included, apparently, even the children. And when they spoke about fasting they used this particular word humiliation which is exactly what I was talking about this afternoon, ‘If my people shall humble themselves.’ And they understood that to humble yourself, in biblical language, is to fast, like on the Day of Atonement and other cases. And when they finally decided to leave Holland and begin on the journey to America, the last thing they did before leaving was to proclaim a universal fast. And this is the record of it. And their pastor, remember in Holland, was John Robinson.

“So being ready to depart they had a day of solemn humiliation, their pastor [John Robinson] taking his text from Ezra 8.21: ‘And there at the river, by Ahava, I proclaimed a fast, that we might humble ourselves before our God, and seek of him a right way for us, and for our children, and for all our substance. [That’s the passage that I read I think this afternoon.] Upon which he [Robinson] spent a good part of the day very profitably and suitable to their present occasion; [in other words he taught them from the word] the rest of the time was spent in pouring out prayers to the Lord with great fervency, mixed with abundance of tears.”

Now that’s rather Old English. I don’t know how you react to Elizabethan English. I happen to like Elizabethan English. To me, it’s vivid and I don’t have a problem understanding it. But I would say that that’s pretty good description of a Charismatic prayer meeting—great fervency, mixed with an abundance of tears. It certainly wasn’t the ordinary style of churchy affair where, you know, three brethren utter prayers and the rest say ‘Amen’ and then it’s time to go home.

Bradford’s use of the word humiliation indicates that the Pilgrims understood the scriptural connection between fasting and self-humbling. Robinson’s choice of the text from Ezra is singularly appropriate, both in motivation and in experience. There’s a close parallel between the Pilgrims embarking on their journey to the New World and Ezra’s company of exiles returning from Babylon to Jerusalem to help in the restoration of the temple. The essence of the parallel is in the word restoration.

Now the address that John Robinson gave to the Pilgrims before they started this journey has been recorded by Edward Winslow, by one of the Pilgrims who went over on the Mayflower, and here is a paraphrased version of it which has been preserved. Again I’ll read it in the original and just interpolate a few things to make the English a little clearer or up to date. This is the summary of the discourse of John Robinson of this parting or this day of prayer and fasting in Leyden.

“We are now ere long to part asunder, and the Lord knoweth whether he [that is Robinson] should live to see our face again. [Actually he never did, he never made it over to America.] But whether the Lord had appointed it or not, he [that is Robinson] charged us before God and His blessed angels, to follow him no further than he followed Christ; [and I think if all Charismatic preachers would take the same stand today, we’d be well off] and if God should reveal anything to us by any other instrument of His, to be as ready to receive it, as ever we were to receive any truth by this ministry; [in other words, he said I don’t have it all. If anybody comes with the truth of God’s word receive it from them.] for he was very confident the Lord had more truth and light yet to break forth out of His holy Word. He took occasion also miserably to bewail the state and condition of the Reformed churches [that’s the churches that were brought into being by the reformation] who were come to a period [standstill] in religion, and would go no further than the instruments of their reformation [i.e., those who had been leaders in the Reformation].
As for example, the Lutherans, they could not be drawn to go beyond what Luther saw; for whatever part of God’s will He had further imparted and revealed to Calvin, they [the Lutherans] will rather die than embrace it. And so also, saith he, you see the Calvinists [we’d say Presbyterians], they stick where he [Calvin] left them, a misery much to be lamented; for though they were precious shining lights in their times, yet God had not revealed His whole will to them; and were they now living, saith he, they would be as ready and willing to embrace further light, as that they had received.”

Isn’t that the truth? You see, we hide behind a previous generation who were reformers, innovators, pioneers, and say, ‘We’ll not go any further than they did.’ But the very feature about them was that they were willing to go further than the people before them. You know, you do Luther or Calvin or Wesley the greatest possible disservice when you hide behind them and make them an excuse for not obeying truth revealed from the word of God, for had they been in your place they would have obeyed it.

“The last paragraph still continuing in the words of Robinson:
Here also he put us in mind of our church covenant, at least that part of it whereby we promise and covenant with God and one another [now that’s significant, not only do we covenant with God, we covenant with one another] to receive whatsoever light or truth shall be made known to us from His written Word; but withal [he] exhorted us to take heed what we received for truth, and well to examine and compare it and weigh it with other Scriptures of truth before we received it.”

You see how balanced that is? He says, ‘We don’t know it all. There’s more truth to come.’ Be willing to receive truth, but before you receive it, always compare it with Scripture and make sure it’s scriptural. If the Charismatic movement will work on that principle how blest we’d be.

“For saith he, [and this is his last statement] it is not possible [that] the Christian world should come so lately [recently] out of such thick antichristian darkness, and that full perfection of knowledge should break forth at once.”

In other words, there’s more to know. Now I’ll read my own little comment on this because I couldn’t say it more clearly and I might be much more long winded.

“John Robinson’s message on this occasion sums up the essence of the Pilgrims’ theological position. This is indicated by their very choice of the name pilgrims. They did not claim to have arrived at a final understanding of all truth. They were on a pilgrimage, looking for the further revelation of truth that lay ahead as they walked in obedience to truth already received.”

Now that distinguishes them from most religious groups because most religious groups, having discovered truth, go on to say, ‘And that’s all there is.’ And that’s their big mistake. You see, to me the church of Jesus Christ is like a great building which is being raised up, story by story, to completion. And every time God wants another story built He finds a man or men or a group of people who are committed, fearless, faithful and He commits to them the task of building another story. But there are two things that are resigned for Jesus Christ; laying the foundation and putting on the roof. In speaking in terms of Zerubbabel in Zechariah 4:6 it says, ‘His hands laid the foundation, his hands also shall finish it.’

Now the big mistake made, I would say, by eighty percent of religious movements in the church is this, that having put on the story that God called them to put, what’s the next thing they do? They put on the roof. God never authorized them to do that. They say, ‘That’s all there is. Here’s our statement of fundamentals, this is what you’re allowed to believe and no more.’ Now that is where they go beyond divine authorization. And I’ll tell you briefly what happened. Next time the wind of the Holy Spirit moves in the church, what’s the first thing He does? Blow off the roof. That’s right. Then God raises another group and says, ‘You lay the next story.’ And who fights the new group? The group that built the last story. That’s right. Why? Because they’re so anxious about their roof. All they’re doing is holding on saying, ‘Don’t take off our roof. We laid the roof.’ Well, this is still happening today. Do you agree to that? It certainly is.

All right. We’ve seen their belief in prayer and fasting, we’ve seen their theology. Now I’ll deal with two other things and that will be enough. There’s a lot more. The record of how they arrived, how God answered prayer, how they were cast upon Him in desperation time and time again, and had no recourse but to prayer. It’s fascinating but I won’t take time. But there’s two other, well at least one other issue that they faced. When they arrived in this country they were not merely a community, but they planned what we call today communal living. There was no private ownership of land. All the land was allotted to the community and they had to work on it regardless of who reaped the benefits of it. Again, very, very timely. I’ll try and read this passage. I hope the English will come over to you. Almost every winter they almost starved for the first three years or so.

“And facing starvation in the year 1623 they began to think how they might raise as much corn as they could and obtain a better crop than they had done, that they might not still thus languish in misery. At length, after much debate of things, [which is what Bob Mumford would call a church fight] the Governor (with the advice of the chiefest amongst them) gave way that they should set
[that’s plant] corn every man for his own particular, [Every man plants his own crop.] and in that regard trust to themselves; in all other things to go on in the general way as before.”

Here’s the conflict between individualism and communal living. And again the Charismatic Movement has got to resolve this.

“And so the Governor assigned to every family a parcel of land, according to the proportion of their number, and ranged all boys and youth under some families.”

You understand there were many orphans because almost fifty percent of those that came over died in the first year, either on the ship or on the way over. So there were a lot of children without parents, everyone was grouped under a family.

“This had very good success, for it made all hands very industrious, so as much more corn was planted as than otherwise would have been by any means. The women now went willingly into the field, and took their little ones with them to plant corn.”

The problem was that they thought everybody ought to work for everybody. And the conflict they came up against was the conflict with the family. You see, this is exactly what they’re going to have to settle in the Charismatic Movement. So it’s so entirely up to date.

“For this community [this communal living] was found to breed much confusion and discontent and retard much employment… For the young men, that were most able and fit for labour and service, did repine [they complained] that they should spend their time and strength to work for other men’s wives and children without any recompense. The strong had no more in division of victuals and clothes than he that was weak and not able to do a quarter the other could do; this was thought injustice. The aged and graver men were equalized in labours and victuals, clothes, with the meaner and younger sort, which was an indignity and disrespect. And for men’s wives to be commanded to do service for other men, as dressing their meat, washing their clothes, etc., they deemed it a kind of slavery, neither could many husbands tolerate it. [In other words, one husband wouldn’t see his wife washing another husband’s clothes.] Upon the point of all being to have alike, and all to do alike, they thought themselves in like condition, and one as good as another; and so, if it did not cut off those relations that God hath set amongst men, yet it did at least much diminish and take off the mutual respects that should be preserved among them.”

So they changed this and let every family till its own field and manage its own affairs. Bradford’s comment is rather interesting.

“Let none object this is men’s corruption, and nothing to the course itself. I answer, seeing all men have this corruption in them, God in His wisdom saw another course fitter for them.”

In other words, Bradford said that’s how human nature is and there’s a point beyond which you can’t change it, so you’d better deal with it realistically. And again there are quite a number of you here who’ve lived in communes. Is that right? And I think you’ll agree exactly the same problems came up. So isn’t it remarkable that every one of the major motivations and decisions that confronted these people confront us today?

Now, we’re getting near to Thanksgiving and I’d like to read you the story of how the harvest was saved in 1623. There is actually no one official harvest which is the origin of Thanksgiving. There is no single record. There is no single harvest. It’s just a general attitude, but in 1623 the harvest was saved by prayer and fasting. And this is the actual eyewitness account by Bradford. And I suppose if they had not practiced prayer and fasting there would never have been any more Thanksgiving. So when you come to Thanksgiving this year just bear this in mind. This I’m going to read from my book as it’s here which is mainly quoting from Bradford.

“It is not possible to quote the many instances of answered prayer that Bradford records, but there is one further instance of a public fast that must be mentioned. In the summer of 1623 the Pilgrims’ carefully planted crop of corn was threatened:
…by a great drought which continued from the third week in May, till about the middle of July, without any rain and with great heat for the most part, insomuch as the corn began to wither away…it began to languish sore, and some of the drier grounds were parched like withered hay…Upon which they [the Pilgrims] set apart a solemn day of humiliation to seek the Lord by humble and fervent prayer…And He was pleased to give them a gracious and speedy answer, both to their own and the Indians’ amazement…For all the morning, and greatest part of the day, it was clear weather and very hot, and not a cloud or any sign of rain to be seen; yet toward evening it began to overcast and shortly after to rain with such sweet and gentle showers as gave them cause of rejoicing and blessing God…
Normally, if rain had fallen at all in such conditions, it would have been in the form of a thunderstorm, which would have beaten down the corn and destroyed the last hope of a harvest. But on this occasion, Bradford goes on to relate:
It came without either wind or thunder or any violence, and by degrees [that’s gradually] as that the earth was thoroughly…soaked therewith. Which did so apparently revive and quicken the decayed corn and other fruits, as was wonderful to see, and made the Indians astonished
to behold [because they knew well this was contrary to nature]. And afterwards the Lord sent them such seasonable showers, with interchange of fair warm weather as, through His blessing, caused a fruitful and liberal harvest…For which mercy, in time convenient, they also set apart a day of thanksgiving.
And I think that was the first official day of Thanksgiving that they set apart. So just bear in mind, no prayer and fasting, no thanksgiving. I’ll read on a little further.
This practice of setting aside special days of prayer and fasting became an accepted part of the life of Plymouth Colony. On November 15, 1636, a law was passed allowing the governor and his assistants ‘to command solemn days of humiliation by fasting, etc. and also for thanksgiving as occasion shall be offered.’
In other words, the practice of public collective prayer and fasting was built into the community and became a regular part of their life and was, in fact, part of their laws. In Isaiah 58, this afternoon, we examined the promises given in Isaiah to those who practice the kind of fasting approved by God. And we saw that these promises come to their climax in the 12th verse.
And they that be of thee shall build the old waste places: thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in.
[This is my comment.] History has demonstrated that the results of fasting promised in this verse were achieved by the Pilgrims. Both spiritually and politically, they ‘raised up the foundations of many generations.’ Three-and-a-half centuries later the people of the United States are still building on the foundations which the Pilgrims laid.
And it’s good to remember they laid them by prayer and fasting.”

Now let me just offer you a few recapitulations on this, and let’s try and look at some of the principles. All right. And I’m just doing these off the cuff.

Seed equals God’s word. That’s the initial. It started when people began to read God’s Word for themselves, and take it earnestly and act on it.

“The second thing is home prayer groups.”

The third thing is community by covenant. And let me say about this. Community and covenant go together with another word which is commitment. It’s easy to remember. They all begin CO, community, covenant, commitment. And you can play around with religion as long as you like, but you’ll never get results from God until you make a commitment. That’s all you can say about it. And the commitment of a covenant is not merely to God, it’s to one another. And that’s the very situation that confronts us now. Are we willing to be committed to one another in a specific way? It’s interesting to go into church history,

but you’ll find that really, many of the groups and movements that made a real impact were based on a covenant. The Methodists is an outstanding example.

And then we have collective prayer and fasting. Now that’s been the theme of my teaching today. And my personal conviction is that the Charismatic Movement will not advance further now until they do that. You know, people come up to me and they say, ‘You know, Brother Prince, I believe...’ And they spend ten minutes arguing with me about what they believe, trying to convince me. But I’ve learned by experience it’s not me they’re trying to convince, it’s themselves. An unconvinced person will argue. A convinced person won’t. And I’m so convinced I don’t argue. This is the next step. These things we’re talking about now—collective prayer and fasting, commitment, covenant, community—they’re the very issues that confront the Charismatic Movement today. And they’ll weed out the men from the boys.

And then there’s this final thing; communal or family. Again the same issue is confronting us today. And personally I’m convinced family must win. I believe the family is the sacrosanct unit of society and God’s purposes which must not be trespassed upon. That’s my personal conviction.

Okay, let’s turn in closing now to Psalm 107:31 to 43. Now this is one of the psalms that unfold God’s dealing in history. A lot of, what I would call, the Bible’s teaching on God’s purposes in history is found in the book of Job. You’d do well to look at that. Let me show you, just keep your finger in Psalm 107, turn to Job 12 starting at verse 13 and going on a bit.

“With him [that’s with God] is wisdom and strength,”

Do you remember what Daniel 2:20 says? ‘Wisdom and might are his.’ The same. He’s got the power and He’s got the wisdom. They’re united in God.

“. . . he hath counsel and understanding. Behold, he breaketh down, and it cannot be built again: he shutteth up a man, and there can be no opening. [Have you ever gotten in that situation where God shuts you up and there is no opening?] Behold, he withholdeth the waters, and they dry up: also he sendeth them out, and they overturn the earth. With him is strength and wisdom: the deceived and the deceiver are his. He leadeth counsellors away spoiled, and maketh the judges fools.”

Isn’t that a comment on the last twenty years of the United States’ history? I mean, how this nation has been cursed by foolish judgment. The most ridiculous and illogical judgment. That’s part of God’s judgment on us for disobedience and waywardness. Do you remember what I said? God judges us through the rulers. How far shall we go? We might read to the end of the chapter. One thing I suggest to you is you might find it interesting to read this in The Living Bible because it makes it so up-to-date in many of its phrases, though it’s not an entirely accurate translation. All right.

“He leadeth counsellors away spoiled, and make the judges fools. He looseth the bond of kings, and girdeth their loins with a girdle. He leadeth princes away [rulers away] spoiled, and overthroweth the mighty. He removeth away the speech of the trusty, and taketh away the understanding of the aged.”

You see, if we displease God in our ways, there’ll be no wisdom in any of our rulers. God can take wisdom from them.

“He poureth contempt upon princes, and weakeneth the strength of the mighty. He discovereth deep things out of darkness, and bringeth out to the light the shadow of death. He increaseth the nations, and destroyeth them: he enlargeth the nations, and straighteneth them again [or cuts them down again]. He taketh away the heart of the chief of the people of the earth, and causeth them to wander in a wilderness where there is no way. They grope in the dark without light and he maketh them to stagger like a drunken man.”

Does that describe anything you’ve seen or heard of in Washington, D.C.? To me it’s rather appropriate. Now, turn to Psalm 107. We’ll look there and close. Verse 31,

“Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men! Let them exalt him also in the congregation of the people, and praise him in the assembly of the elders. He turneth rivers into a wilderness, and the watersprings into dry ground; a fruitful land into barrenness, for the wickedness of them that dwell therein.”

Isn’t that remarkable? You can have a most beautiful, fruitful, fertile country, but if the people in it are wicked, God will make it barren. I believe the whole of the North African desert, which I spent three weary years in, is an evidence of that in history. Once upon a time it was fertile forest, but man persistently disobeyed and grieved God and His laws, God changed it. Verse 35:

“He turneth the wilderness into a standing water, and dry ground into watersprings. And there he maketh the hungry to dwell, that they may prepare a city for habitation [Bradford quotes that about the Pilgrims]; and sow the fields, and plant vineyards, which may yield fruits of increase. He blesseth them also, so that they are multiplied greatly; and suffereth not their cattle to decrease. Again, they are minished and brought low through oppression, affliction, and sorrow. [i.e., God can enlarge a nation, make it mighty, prosperous; or He can bring it down, humble it, oppress it and afflict it.] He poureth contempt upon princes, and causeth them to wander in the wilderness, where there is no way. Yet setteth he the poor on high from affliction, and maketh him families like a flock. The righteous shall see it, and rejoice: and all iniquity shall stop her mouth. Whoso is wise, and will observe these things, even they shall understand the lovingkindness of the LORD.”

Now the word lovingkindness in Hebrew is chesed and it’s always related to a covenant. My personal translation of it is ‘God’s covenant-keeping faithfulness.’ I think The Living Bible translates it ‘tender affectionate love’ or something like that. But the important thing about this word, chesed, is it’s always based on a covenant. In fact, listen, bear with me a moment longer. Psalm 50 verse 5:

“Gather my saints together unto me; those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice.”

You notice, to be a saint you have to be in a covenant relationship with God based on a sacrifice. What is the sacrifice upon which our covenant is based? Jesus and His death on the cross. That’s right. Now the word saint there is chasiyd, directly related to the word chesed. A hassid is one who trusts in God hessid. You see? So a saint is one who accepts God’s covenant-keeping faithfulness. That’s what makes you a saint.

Now turning back to Psalm 107 verse 43, you understand that if we look at the events of history and the experiences of nations with eyes illuminated by the Holy Spirit and instructed by the Scriptures, in all that we see, we see the covenant-keeping faithfulness of God. The whole of history unfolds the fact that God never breaks His covenant. ‘My covenant I will not break,’ He says, ‘nor alter the thing that has gone out of my mouth.’

There’s many ways to view history. You can view it as a series of mechanical processes like Marxism and so on. Or you can view it in the light of the revelation of God in Scripture. But if you view it in the light of Scripture all history points out the eternal faithfulness of our covenant-keeping God. And I believe that this is why the United States is having a sovereign visitation of divine favor. It’s God’s covenant-keeping faithfulness. What the Pilgrims sowed, we are reaping, absolutely. It’s gone down into the earth and now it’s coming up in an abundant harvest.

Let’s look back at Isaiah 61 where we were before. Isaiah 61. You know this is such a rich subject that every time I talk on it I get so many new ideas that I just can’t get them out through my mouth. Isaiah 61:11:

“For as the earth bringeth forth her bud, and as the garden causeth the things that are sown in it to spring forth; so the Lord GOD will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations.”

What was sown by the Pilgrims in American history is now springing forth and it will bring righteousness and praise to God before all nations. I believe that. And when you can get a Britisher to believe it, that’s a miracle. You don’t know how true that is. It isn’t easy for the British to appreciate Americans, you know that? There’s various reasons. One is plain, simple jealously. After all, the British were number one nation of the free world for a good many years. And it’s never altogether easy to yield that position to somebody else. I just offer that by way of comment.

I think Americans are sometimes shocked when they go overseas and find that people don’t love them as much as they love people. Did you ever have that experience? There are a lot of different reasons. Sometimes, Americans are very tactless and they brandish too many dollar bills about. But basically I would like to suggest to you the pretty neutral sort of person, the root problem is plain, simple envy—we have too much. And that’s an almost unforgivable sin. You know that?

All right. Now let me write two words up here. What does that say? Motivation. I can spell and you can read. And this says Mobilization. Now I have endeavored to provide you with motivation, and I think I’ve not been altogether unsuccessful. In other words, I believe that a good many of you who’ve been in these meetings are convinced that what I’ve said to you is basically in line with Scripture and applies to our situation. Is that right? All right. That’s motivation.

But motivation won’t accomplish much without mobilization. And so I want to endorse what Kelly said and Brother Bush said, you need a follow-up. Now one follow-up could be another teacher and that can be excellent. But I’m more immediately concerned with people getting together, thrashing out these issues for themselves, sharing with one another, and then starting to do something about it.

At the back on the table you will find a free mimeographed sheet which you can take one copy of which has suggested themes for united prayer and fasting. There are three themes there that apply to America, the church and our present situation which would be acceptable to any reasonable Christian whether he be Catholic or Protestant or in between. And I want to suggest that leadership is needed to get God’s people together to apply what we’ve been teaching. Do something about it. You know, the longer you sit and listen without doing anything, the harder it becomes to do anything. So I commend to you your local leaders, those that have vision, those that can rally you, those to whom you look, and I suggest that leadership will be marked out doing what God has indicated needs to be done.

Let’s stand to our feet and offer God praise and thanks and pray for the ministers and the churches and the leaders in this area. Let’s pray for the meetings with Brother ?Ripple? and after that when we’ve finished, well I’ll tell you what to do when we’ve finished.

“Let’s pray first.”

Father, we’ve gathered together again in the name of Jesus. We love You, we worship You, we thank You. We acknowledge Your goodness and faithfulness. Lord, we do believe that you are the eternal covenant-keeping God. We believe that You’ve drawn aside a little of the veil over human history and revealed to us in Your Word some of the great principles on which You keep Your covenant. That You do show mercy unto thousands of those that love You and keep Your commandments. That what is sown in the earth of human history must come forth in a harvest.

And, Lord, we do believe by many different evidences that we are living in the harvest hour. We thank You for the harvest that shall come forth in the United States, sown by faithful servants over the centuries, watered with tears and prayer and sacrifice. Lord, man may forget. Man has a short memory, but You remember Your servants. You remember those that have sacrificed and stood for You against opposition, and You’ve promised to bless them and their descendants and we thank You, Lord, for the blessing that You’re granting to the United States and the blessing that’s yet to come. We praise You for it. Not for our sakes, Oh Lord, but for Thy eternal faithfulness and for Thy glory and praise. We offer Thee thanks and we dedicate ourselves, Lord, to doing whatever You would have us to do to forward Your purposes. In Jesus’ wonderful name. Amen.