[b]John G. Lake, quotes from his Sermon: “A Trumpet Call”
Jesus Christ put the “Spirit of Martyrdom” in His Christian Ministry. Jesus instituted His ministry with a pledge unto death. When He was with the disciples on the last night, He took the CUP, “… when He drank, saying.” Beloved, the saying was the significant thing. It was Jesus Christ’s pledge to the twelve who stood with Him, “This CUP is the New Testament in my BLOOD.” Then He said, “Drink ye all of it.”
Friends, those who were there and drank to that pledge of Jesus is what all pledges mean. Men have pledged themselves in the wine cup from time immemorial. Generals have pledged their armies unto death. It has been a custom in the race. Jesus Christ sanctified it to the Church forever, bless God.
“My blood is the New Testament. Drink ye all of it.” Let us become one. Let us become one in our purpose to die for the world. Your blood and mine together. “My blood in the New Testament. It is My demand from you. It is your high privilege.”
Dear friends, there is not an authentic history that can tell us whether any one of (12 disciples) DIED a natural death. We know that at least nine of them were martyrs, possibly ALL. Peter died on a cross, James was beheaded, for Thomas they did not even wait to make a cross – they nailed him to an olive tree. John was sentenced to be executed at Ephesus by putting him in a caldron of boiling oil. God delivered him and
his executioners refused to repeat the operation and he was banished to the Isle of Patmos. John thought so little about it that he never even tells of the incident. He says, “I was in the Isle called Patmos, for the Word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ.” That was explanation enough. He had committed himself to Jesus Christ for Life or Death.
Friends, the group of missionaries that followed me went without food and went without clothes, and once when one of my preachers was sun struck and had wandered away, I tracked him by the blood marks of his feet. Another time I was hunting for one of my missionaries, a young Englishman, twenty-two years of age. He had come from a line of
Church of England preachers for five hundred years. When I arrived at the native village, the old native Chief said, “He is not here. He went over the mountains and you know mister, he is a white man and he has not learned to walk barefooted.”
That is the kind of CONSECRATION that established Pentecost in South Africa. That is the reason we have a (100,000) hundred thousand native Christians in South Africa. That is the Reason we have 1,250 native preachers. That is the reason we have 350 white churches in South Africa. That is the reason that today we are the most rapid growing church in South Africa.
I am not persuading you, dear friends, by holding out a hope that the way is going to be easy. I am calling you in the name of Jesus Christ, you dear ones who expect to be ordained to the Gospel of Jesus Christ tonight, take the route that Jesus took, the route the apostles took,
the route that the early Church took, the VICTORY route, whether by Life or Death. Historians declare, “The blood of the martyrs was the SEED of the Church.” Beloved, that is what the difficulty is in our day – we have so little SEED. The Church needs more Martyr Blood.”
If I were pledging men and women to the Gospel of the Son of God, as I am endeavoring to do tonight, it would NOT be to have a nice church and harmonious surroundings and a sweet do-nothing time. I would invite them to be ready to DIE. That was the Spirit of early Methodism. John Wesley established a heroic call. He demanded every preacher to
be “ready to pray, ready to preach, ready to DIE.” That is always the Spirit of Christianity. When any other spirit comes into the Church,
it is NOT the spirit of Christianity. It is a foreign spirit. It is a SISSIFIED substitute.
I (John G. Lake) lived on cornmeal mush many a period with my family and we did not growl, and I preached to thousands of people, not colored people, but white people. When my Missionaries were on the field existing on cornmeal mush, I could NOT eat PIE. My heart was joined to them. That is the reason we never had Church SPLITS in our work in South Africa. One Country where Pentecost never split. The split business began to develop years afterward when PUMPKIN Pie eating Pentecostal missionaries began infesting the country. Men who are Ready to DIE for the Son of God do not split. (There is UNITY!!) They do not holler the first time they get a stomachache!!
Friends, we talk about consecration and we preach about consecration but that is the consecration that my heart is asking for tonight. That is the kind of consecration that will get answers from heaven. That is the kind God will honor. That is the consecration to which I would pledge Pentecost. I would strip Pentecost of its frills and fall de ralls.
Jesus Christ, through the Holy Ghost, calls us tonight not to an earthly mansion and a ten thousand dollar motor car, but to put our lives – body and soul and spirit – on the altar of service. All Hail!! Ye who are ready to DIE for Christ and this glorious Pentecostal Gospel.