Stuart Briscoe
February 3, 1999
9:30 am
Message Summary
In the first of three messages, Stuart Briscoe elaborated on (as he put it) "the shortest passage one ever preached from," consisting of only one word which is found at the beginning of the last verse of Psalm 14,"Oh!" As Briscoe walked his audience through the psalm, the seemingly weightless exclamation burst with a passion for souls.
Using dry humor, poignant illustrations and a three-point outline, Briscoe first introduced "the human problem," then he suggested "the heavenly perspective," and caused his listeners to feel "the heartfelt passion."
Psalm 14 starts by telling the reader that the fool believes that "there is no God." It is this human problem, a condition of dreadful ignorance, the belief that one is but an accident suspended between accidents, drifting from nothingness into nothingness, that should generate a Christian’s utmost concern, said Briscoe. He quoted Dostoyevsky who once concluded that "if there is no God, anything is possible." "Is this generating a heartfelt ‘Oh…!’ in your heart?" asked Briscoe.
The solution to the human problem can be found only in the Lord looking on the sons of man, continues Psalm 14. Although God sees that "all have turned aside, they have together become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one." It is our God’s disconcertment with the human condition that brings out a passion for the human soul in God, as it should in Christians. "Oh! What a shame!" cried Briscoe. "Wouldn’t it be wonderful if salvation could come out of Zion! Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the Gospel could be brought in a relevant, powerful way!"
Wouldn’t it? "Oh!" One cannot but feel the passion of God for the fallen, self-deceived souls.
Student Response
Whenever I don’t see the secularists as fallen, living in angst, anesthetized with temporary pleasures, desperately deluded, headed to destruction—I too, lack passion. Without the passion of Christ for the human soul, I am merely exercising lifeless religious duty, much like the Pharisees.
—Agnieszka Zielinska, Senior, Communications major