R797A God’s Commissioned Officer Part 1

Remember, my friend, that God loves you by name.

Remember, my friend, that God calls you by name. He did so to Samuel. He did so to Abraham. He did so to Saul. He did so to Moses. He did so to me.

And he did so to hundreds upon thousands upon thousands of people just like you and me. Remember that one day God will welcome you by name. I've heard my child sing it. I'm in the Lord's army.

But am I? Let's discover more with Dr. Don Wilton today. This is The Encouraging Word with Dr. Don Wilton, well-known author and evangelist. And today Dr. Wilton's message is on God's commissioned officer. The next couple of days we'll be talking about God's commissioning of you and me. And he has a commission for every one of us, a plan, a purpose, a unique plan and purpose. And as we study God's Word together, we see that revealed in each other's lives. And we enjoy the opportunity to pray each other into that revelation, that understanding as well. If you'd like to have someone pray with you, let's connect right now online at theencouragingword.org or pick up the phone and call 866-899-WORD.

That's 866-899-9673. Now today's message with Dr. Wilton. Stop doing what you're doing and pay attention.

I've got an announcement to make to you. God has a very special plan for you. God has a purpose for you. God wants to use you despite what you have to say about it, despite how you feel about it, despite where you've been, despite how helpless you feel.

God wants to use you and bless you. Some of you are looking at me right now and saying, Pastor, that's impossible. If you just had the faintest inkling of my life, you would say right now, there is no way that God would ever want to use me. Some would say to me today, Pastor, I have sinned grievously against God. Some of you would say that you are guilty of every known sin known to mankind.

Some of you would say to me today, it is impossible. Considering the circumstances of my life, I'm just going to settle for the fact that I'm going to live, I'm going to carry these burdens around on my shoulder, in my heart. I'm just going to suffer the consequences.

I'm a big boy, I'm a big girl. I deserve what's come to me and it's over. One day I'll die. Some of you would even look at me and say to me, Pastor, I know Jesus Christ.

I know that he's forgiven me, but he could never use me. I want to speak to you today about God's commissioned officer. And I'm going to invite you to turn with me in your Bibles to Romans chapter one and verse one. Get ready.

Stop doing what you're doing. Pay attention. I'm going to promise you something today. I'm going to promise you that if you listen to what God has to say, that your life will never be the same again.

God will take even you, just the same as he has taken even me, and just the same as he took somebody by the name of Paul, a most unlikely candidate, and did extraordinary things to you. With his life. God's commissioned officer. Before I read you this passage, I want to tell you about someone that I met in my life.

He's someone well known to both my parents and to my parents in law, served alongside of them as colleagues in the ministry for many, many, many years. His name, Clem Gaich. I don't know all the details of his story and I probably need to be reminded of some of the smaller details, but I do know this much that Clem Gaich was a total rubbish. Now what that means in the English language is that he was next to worthless. He was an angry, hostile, uncouth individual. Grew up in England, and when the Second World War broke out, Clem Gaich, as did many of our own people here in the United States, he signed up and he became part of an incredible military machine.

Unfortunately for this foul-mouthed uncouth individual by the name of Clem, he was called Clem. He was captured by the Germans. His story is a remarkable one. This was a man who placed very little value on life. This was a man who was exceedingly angry about life. He drank like a sailor.

He cussed like a trooper. He hated himself, hated God, and hated everything in between. The Germans took him into captivity and he became one of the POWs, the prisoners of war. He was placed into a German concentration camp, very cold during the winter time, and some of us have watched some of the great epic movies like The Great Escape, starring the late Steve McQueen, and you will remember how that story tells the real-life account of how our brave POWs did everything they could to try and escape from the German prisoner of war camps. One of their methods they used was that they would dig tunnels. Now the ground was rock hard, and evidently if you read the history books, this was a remarkable feat with extreme bravery, and they would literally have elaborate schemes and cover-ups, and certain of the men would dig while others watched in case the German gods came in, and they would systematically dig tunnels. The tunnels would go down and they would try to gauge how far it would go and come out, God willing, in a forest outside of the prison camp, and then at the appointed hour in the middle of the night a whole number of these prisoners of war would go down into these tunnels. They had fake passports and documents and clothing. It was an elaborate scheme to escape, and they would get out these tunnels. We know sadly that many of those who escaped were recaptured and they were executed. Many of them on site was the penalty of trying to escape.

Some of them did escape and get back to freedom. In this particular prisoner of war camp there was a big old Scotsman there by the name of Jock, and what Clem tells about the Scotsman is that Jock was a Christian man. Right there in the heart of Germany in 1943, Jock, a Scotsman, had a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and he loved to tell people about it, and of course one can just imagine how that irritated Clem. In fact, Clem totally hated the Scotsman. Every time he saw him he would tell him about Jesus, and he would sing Amazing Grace and all the hymns of the faith, and Clem hated him the more he sang. Well, the Germans cottoned on to what was going on, so they decided that they would try to instill fear into the prisoners of war, and they would take them out into the middle of the parade ground and get them to dig a huge hole in the ground, and they would just keep digging going down, down, down, down, down, till eventually they would have one of the POWs in that hole who would be digging, and the walls would cave in, and it would bury, smother, and ultimately kill one of the prisoners of war, and that very activity would put fear into the hearts of all the POWs and cause them to be less inclined to want to escape through tunnels that they had been digging. So that was the method behind their madness. Clem tells the story how that on one particular occasion they were standing in the middle of the parade ground and already the hole was a bottomless pit, they couldn't see the bottom, and they knew that the next person that was selected to take hold of the rope and put his feet around the rope and rappel down into this hole to dig a little more would most likely be the man who would never come out of that hole.

The walls were already losing big chunks of clay, they knew it, and the inevitable happened. The German gods came up and they selected Clem Gage, said you're the next one, you get into that hole. Clem tells how a fear came over his heart but he wasn't about to show anybody, and so he took hold of that rope and he was just about to rappel down into that bottomless pit when he felt two big hands on his shoulder. Turned around and looked into the face of Jock the Scotsman. He said to him probably in different language, he said to him what are you doing Jock?

And Jock grabbed him and said Clem you're not getting in that hole. He said of course I am. He said no you're not, I'm getting in that hole in your place. He said don't you be stupid Scotsman. He said back home you've got three little daughters waiting for you in Scotland and a pretty wife. He said I've got nobody. He said I don't care about life, I don't care about anything. I don't have a wife, I don't have children, I've got nothing to live for, I hate everything about life, I'm getting in that hole.

It doesn't make any difference. Well Jock the Scotsman took hold of Clem, forced him over to the side and looked into Clem's face and said him Clem Gage, I'm getting in that hole and the reason I'm getting in that hole Clem is because you are not ready to die. The story is a sad one because Jock the Scotsman went down into that black hole and before he even touched the bottom all four walls came crashing in. The POWs surrounding that tragedy began to dig and scrape losing their fingernails trying to get hold of the Scotsman before he smothered to death. They finally got to him and apparently he was looking up, his eyes were open with a smile on his face but sadly Jock had smothered to death and he was stone dead. Just a few months later the American allied forces liberated that prisoner of war camp and Clem Gage was set free, worked his way across Europe, caught a boat across the English Channel, began to drink like he had never drunk before, he began to behave like he had never behaved before, began to hate himself, began to hate life, began to hate everything double what he'd ever hated it before. Got on a train he went up into Scotland somewhere to find the home where Jock the Scotsman lived. Jock had been gone for four or five years, his little girls didn't even really know what their daddy looked like and Clem tells the story as he came up to this little cobblestone way leading up to this little croft cottage in Scotland.

Three little girls were peering out the window and they saw man in a uniform and began to shout together, mommy it's daddy, daddy's coming home, daddy's coming home, mommy, mommy it's daddy, daddy's coming, daddy's coming, daddy's coming, mommy, daddy's coming, daddy's coming and Clem walked up and knocked on the door and when he opened the door their little faces fell and one turned to their mommy and said, he's not my daddy mommy. Forgive the interruption but are you ready to give up? If so, wait, hold on, maybe a story like Clem's or others you've heard remind you the truth that God is ready to restore each and every one of us whether it's a simple course correction that's a greatly needed course correction or a radical transformation, God is ready to do it right where you are. Our phone number is 866-899-WORD. We would love to connect with you and connect you with great resources. Before the day's out you're going to hear about the courage to overcome resource, a wonderful DVD, an interview with a pastor, we'll talk about that in just a minute but just know we're here for you right here, right now, keyboard to keyboard at theencouragingword.org and on the phone at the other end of 866-899-WORD.

I pray you would jot it down, store it in your cell, know that we stand ready 24 hours a day to connect at 866-899-WORD, that's 866-899-9673. Now back to today's message with Dr. Don Wilson. Clem didn't even greet the widow, he just turned on his heels, walked down, caught a train back to London, drank like he had never drunk before, saw a big sign out in the street one day that said come to sunny South Africa, I believe him. So he boarded a ship, he went to sunny South Africa and settled in a little town called Stutterheim that I've been to many times, filled with many German immigrants. He drank like he'd never drunk before, hated himself like he'd never hated before, had nothing to look forward to, nowhere to go and one night in the middle of the night he collapsed in a drunken stupor in a pool of his own vomit. There just happened to be a young nurse on her way to the local hospital to begin her night duty.

She looked out the window of her motor car and saw this pitiful heap of humanity lying in a pool of vomit. She took pity on him, put him in her motor car and took him to the hospital where he lay in a drunken stupor for I forget how long until eventually he opened his eyes, looked into the face of this young nurse and this nurse looked at him and said to him, young man, I don't know who you are, I don't know what your name is, I don't know where you've been and I certainly don't know where you think you're going but were you ready to die? And right there in that hospital bed, that nurse led that young drunken pitiful form of humanity to trust Jesus Christ as his Saviour and Lord. It's really like a fairy tale because Clem married that young nurse young nurse and for decades they served churches and ministered and told people about Jesus not only in South Africa but here in the United States and all around the world. God took somebody like that together with a precious wife and turned them into his commissioned officers.

Are you ready to give up? I want you to note something with me in Romans chapter 1 and verse 1. This is what the Bible says, Paul a servant of Christ Jesus called to be an apostle and set apart for the Gospel of God. I submit to you today that God has always called individuals by name, expect it, listen for it, act upon it. Go back in the Bible to the very beginning.

You're going to discover what I've discovered and what countless millions of people just like you and me have discovered. That despite our sinfulness that when we come to Jesus Christ and we're willing to confess our sin, that he calls us by name, the apostle Paul was a most unlikely candidate. Here we find a man who persecuted the church.

The Bible tells us that he breathed threatenings and slaughter against the house of God and against the people of God. This was a man imminently qualified in the law. This was a man who was so qualified according to the law that he actually thought that he was serving God by persecuting the church of God. This was a man who was so bound by legalism that he knew not which way to turn. He was so desperately unhappy.

He was so deeply immersed in Pharisaical law. He didn't even understand that God's grace is the free gift of God in and through the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul was somebody who as Saul had no understanding that he was one of the y'alls club.

He was part and parcel of the whosoever's. This man was so bitter and twisted that he would have done anything to desecrate the name of the very God that he thought that he would serve. God's commissioned officer remembered my friend that God made you by name. Go back to Adam and Eve and read the story. Remember my friend that God loves you by name. Remember my friend that God calls you by name. He did so to Samuel. He did so to Abraham. He did so to Saul. He did so to Moses.

He did so to me and he did so to hundreds upon thousands upon thousands of people just like you and me. Remember that one day God will welcome you by name. I love the story of the rich man and Lazarus in Luke's gospel. When the one man found himself in the pitiful torment of eternal hell, he looked up and he saw Abraham and he called him by name. Abraham! Abraham! Remember my friend Abraham!

Remember the transfiguration and the presence of Elijah and Moses by name and the Bible says that my name is going to be written down in the Lamb's book of life. God's commissioned officers. Who are you? Where have you been? Where do you think you're going? God's not through with my friend. I understand more and more each day how this same man could have said I am what I am by the grace of God.

There but by the grace of God I am. We're going to hear this recurring theme right throughout these encouraging words from Paul's letter to the church at Rome. Well what about this commissioned officer? I want you to note four things that I believe will bless our hearts today. Number one, he was an individual person.

He was an individual person. That's a powerful statement. I want you to think for just a moment about the millions of people. Come with me to London. Come with me to New York City. Come with me to Atlanta, Georgia. Come with me to Asheville, North Carolina. Come with me to the Westgate Mall and see the seething masses. Come and watch how you and I try to hide behind everybody else.

How we try to become amalgamated and effused into all the others so that nobody will notice us and yet God knows us. I remember 34 years ago as a 17 year old youth being taken to the troop train station by my father, put on this huge train packed out with young recruits. We were hanging out of the windows. We were leaving for two years and we knew what was lying ahead of us. I remember the hundreds upon hundreds of people. I remember arriving at their base camp that we dreaded so much. Hundreds of us.

I remember being assigned to First Special Forces and the officer's training unit of the armored division. I remember they selected 325 of us by number. We all had a number. I still know my number.

I still got my dog tags that if anything happened to me they could identify me not by name but by my number. I have them hanging in my study that I will never forget that I once was a number but now I'm a name. I am who I am by the grace of God.

Our time is gone for today. You are perhaps the individual person that God is speaking to today through the Bible-based preaching, Dr. Don Wilton. He's calling you to himself. We'd love to talk with you, pray with you, whatever God's got going on in your life. We don't believe it's an accident that we happen to be sharing this broadcast and connecting over the phone number 866-899-WORD or the website theencouragingword.org right now. We would love to connect with you, pray with you and for you. And before we get away, you've heard the preaching of our pastor, but he's got one special thought that he wants to share with you right now. You know, I want to say something to you personally.

Are you ready for this? Thank you. It's a powerful word, isn't it?

Small one, powerful. I want to thank you. You see, the sun hardly rises or sets in a day that we don't see people come to know Christ through this broadcast ministry every day. And you make that possible through your prayers, most of all, and through your financial giving. God is doing something great. And in our world today, this medium of television, very important folks.

This is very, very important. God is allowing us to go into more and more homes across the United States of America. Thank you for helping us make this possible. And let's never stop praying that people would come to know Jesus. God bless you. If the Lord has spoken to you through the pastor's preaching or the pastor sharing in his last few moments, won't you respond? Just respond to the Lord right where you are. Surrender yourself to him.

Maybe it's for the very first time, or maybe it's something that you needed to come back to. You need to realign yourself with following Jesus with nothing held back. We would love to pray with you. We'd love to put resources in your hands. We would love to connect you to a local Bible believing church. If you don't have a church fellowship, we have a wonderful network of churches literally around the globe that we would be happy to try to connect you with right now. If you give us a call at 866-899-WORD, that's 866-899-9673, or meet us online at TheEncouragingWord.org. Now, before we go, I want to say thank you to so many who have stepped up and prayerfully and financially supported the ministry of The Encouraging Word this year.

We've been able to do things we've never done before. We have doubled the amount of people listening on radio and television and online, of people that lives are being changed, and every single day people are giving their hearts to Jesus for the very first time. This fruit of the ministry is why I can so earnestly say, would you consider prayerfully and financially supporting the ministry of The Encouraging Word? You can give us a call right now at 866-899-WORD and say, the Lord's led me to give. Maybe it's a one-time gift. Maybe like many, you want to say, I want to give every month. Maybe it's 5, 10, 5,000.

Whatever the Lord leads you to that, that figure is up to you. Many people, the average gift is $30 a month, a dollar a day. We call those encouragers, and there's some special resources that we send out to every encourager. We'd love to include you in that as well. You can discover more on our website at TheEncouragingWord.org, or give us a call.

We'll give you all the details at 866-899-WORD. Again, our goal would never be to try to talk you into giving to the ministry of The Encouraging Word. But I tell you, if the Lord is leading you, won't you respond, won't you give us a call, 866-899-9673, or meet us online at TheEncouragingWord.org.

What an encourager. You can tell Dr. Don Wilton is, it's part of who God has gifted him as a powerful biblical teacher and scholar, but also just as a simple man of God, ready to encourage us and call us to a ministry of encouragement. No matter what time of day or night, the phone number that Dr. Wilton set up now 20 plus years ago, 866-899-WORD, will always connect you with someone ready to talk and pray with you, or maybe connect you with some resources that will help you grow in your faith.

The number again is 866-899-9673. We stand ready to talk and pray with you. We're also loving connecting with so many of you online these days at TEWOnline.org. That's our website, TEWOnline.org. I hope while you're there, you'll sign up for the daily Encouraging Word email from Dr. Don. It's a powerful bit of insight and application of God's Word.

Again, you'll find it at TEWOnline.org, where you'll also discover great resources like this. We are not in a good place in America. What would God say to us today? Without God, we can do nothing to stand strong in a country turning away from the path God has laid out for us.

As our nation endures tragedy after tragedy, it is so important that we follow the second greatest commandment and love our neighbors unconditionally. With your gift of support to the Encouraging Word this month, you will receive Dr. Wilton's powerful sermon, God's Message to America, along with the bonus book, When a Nation Forgets God, by his longtime friend, Erwin Lutzer. These resources will engage, enlighten, and encourage you in your walk with Christ. After the Encouraging Word broadcast is over, there's still a wonderful place to connect 24 hours a day.

It's TheEncouragingWord.org. You can visit our message archives, download Dr. Wilton's sermons, or sign up for our weekly podcast. A favorite button on our website is the prayer request button, where you can share a prayer request or personal need. Maybe you have a praise report or a testimony. Let us know so we can rejoice with you as well. You can also sign up for our daily Bible guide and have devotion sent to your email every single day. Now, if you have a question about your salvation, perhaps questions about how to share your faith with a friend, let us walk you through the steps to a personal relationship with Jesus and the ability to share that with others. If you're looking for a book from Dr. Wilton or maybe a CD or DVD, we have resources ready to send to you at the click of a button. No matter what the reason, we hope you'll connect with us today online at TheEncouragingWord.org.