But you can help the neighborhood.
You can help the neighborhood where you live,
and you can help this neighborhood.
And the neighborhood will be better because we're
here, and we don't need to apologize.
They owe us money.
They owe us a great debt.
They can rob us, but we keep the
crime rate down nevertheless.
And for you to have more God-filled,
Spirit-filled churches, you can have less cops
on the street.
And be sure of that, that there's more,
there's, wherever there's more godliness, there's less crime.
And a Spirit-filled church is useful in
the neighborhood, useful to the sons of men,
even the ones that are not converted.
And it'll be influential among the churches.
You know what I have an ambition?
I don't know how long I'll be around,
but I know what I have an ambition.
I'd like to see this church become so
godly, so Spirit-filled, that it would have
a spiritual influence on all the churches in
the whole city of Toronto.
That everybody in this city, every church in
this city, would have to take off its
hat and stand at attention and say, and
I am not unspiritual in this because Paul
told some of his people, he said, your
godliness and faith is talked about through all
of Cain and Asia Minor.
And it's entirely right that I could hope
this of you, that I could hope that
we might become so Spirit-filled, walk with
God, learn to worship, and live so clean
and so separated, that everybody would know it,
and the other churches in the city would
be blessed on account of it.
Did you know that when Luther had his
Reformation, the Catholic church was forced to clean
up, just because the moral pressure from Luther
and Lutheranism forced the Roman church to clean
up?
And when Wesley came and preached, the Anglican
church was forced to clean up some of
the things that were wrong with them.
That's not to speak unkindly of my Anglican
friends, for I have many of them, but
it's only to say that in those times
they needed some help.
And they didn't come into Methodism, but Methodism
was a spiritual force that compelled them to
do something about their own condition.
And so there's no reason why we could
not be a people here so filled with
the Spirit, so joyfully singing his praises, and
living so clean in our business and home
and school, that the people would know it,
and other churches would be forced to straighten
up and begin to pray for something, too,
because we'd set the standard for them.
I know, my friend, whenever you have a
Spirit-filled people, you have a people that
can live well and die well.
"'All these Christians die well,' they said of
the Methodists.
They'd die well.
"'Behold how these Christians die,' said a man
as he looked at the martyrs in their
Roman days.
"'If you live well, you'll die well.
Old Balaam wanted to die the death of
the righteous, but he wouldn't live the life
of the righteous.
If you're going to die the death of
the righteous, you must live the life of
the righteous.
And a Christian ought to be able to
die well.
He should be able to do that for
nothing else.'" Well, now, there are some who
won't feel at home in a church like
that.
And if your hope is to have everybody
and his brother on his mother's side to
just come and sit around and glow, just
put that out of your head, brother, it
won't happen that way.
Not all men have faith, and there are
just some people who don't want that kind
of church.
And I'll name them now.
Let me go over and tell you who
they are.
They're people who put on religion as a
Sunday garment, as a well-dressed Sunday garment.
I suppose there aren't many here, but I'm
afraid there might be, so I'm going to
point out that if we have a revival
and the blessing of God comes to us
here as we both know, and I want,
and the board and many, many others of
you are praying and writing me and talking
to me over the phone.
So we're together on this, and if this
comes and we do get the help we
need from God, those who make religion merely
a Sunday garment, they won't like it very
well, because we'll insist that they live right
Monday morning, and they don't want to do
that.
And they that keep their religion disengaged from
practical living, they won't be pleased, they won't
like it either, you know.
They disengage their religion.
Some people have a wonderful way of disengaging.
Their religion is here, and their living is
here.
And on Sundays they go in and polish
off their religion, and in the evening at
about 11 o'clock they put it on
the shelf, and then Monday they go out
and live the way they want to live.
Now, nobody like that ever likes to hear
me preach, nobody.
If you're like that, they won't like to
hear me preach, because I won't surrender to
that kind of thing, and I won't surrender
to that kind of people, and I wouldn't
care that if it was a whole Senate
of the United States and the Parliament of
Canada and all the big doctors and scientists
and all the great may-bubs on the
whole continent said they'd come and join my
church, I'd still preach the same thing, because
we are to be a church of the
living God, not a gathering of big shots
necessarily.
Though the big shots can come, they'll get
on their knees, and when the big shot
on its knees isn't any taller than anybody
else, you know.
You ever think of that?
All right, now, there are those also who
let religion, or who refuse to let religion,
endanger them in any way.
They refuse to let it interfere with their
pleasures or their plans.
They'll serve Jesus and go to heaven, get
saved and can't lose their eternal life, and
so they'll make it through, you know.
But then they're going to have fun on
the way there, and they lay their lives
out just as a gardener lays out the
garden, or a woman, my wife, sometimes cuts
out a pattern and lays it on a
table, and it looks like a mess to
me, but it turns out to be a
dress for a granddaughter.
And we lay out our lives, you know,
and we say, now, it's nice to serve
thee, and we love thee, Lord, and let's
sing a chorus, but we won't change that
pattern any.
We're going to keep that pattern.
My friends, the cross of Jesus Christ always
changes man's pattern, always gets in there and
makes a man change his life.
The cross of Christ is revolutionary.
And if we're not ready to let it
be revolutionary in us, we're not going to
like a church that takes the things of
God seriously, and let it cost us anything
or control us in any way.
People want the benefit of the cross, but
they don't want the control of the cross.
They want all the cross can offer, but
they don't want to be under the lordship
of Jesus.
Then, of course, there are those who expect
religion to be fun.
I hope we're through, I'm not sure we
are yet, but we're just going through a
long period when Christianity was the funniest thing
on the continent.
We could have more fun serving Jesus than
you could do in anything else in the
whole world, and it was clean, too.
You didn't have a hangover, they said.
You go down to the corner pub, you
have a good time, but you'll have a
hangover.
And they said, you serve Jesus and you
can have all the fun you want to,
and you won't have a hangover.
And that kind of Christianity for sake of
fun, Christianity as an entertaining medium, the whole
thing is offensive and foul before God Almighty.
My brother, the cross of Christ isn't fun,
and it never was fun.
There is such a thing as the joy
of the Lord, which is the strength of
his people.
There is such a thing as having joy
unspeakable and full of glory, but there is
also such a thing as joying while we
grieve.
The idea that Christianity is another form of
entertainment is perfectly ridiculous.
I wrote one time something, and I said
that Christianity was being made a form of
entertainment.
A fellow felt himself called to write and
answer me, and he had an editor of
magazines, so he wrote me up in his
magazine.
I said that we ought not to see
things, but we ought to see the things
that were invisible.
And he said, Tozer believes in going to
church and keeping your eyes shut.
Well, of course he didn't understand what I
was talking about, or perhaps he did understand,
but lying about it.
But then I said that Christianity isn't a
form of entertainment, and he said, Tozer is
all wet, he ought to know better.
He said, Every time you sing a hymn,
you are being entertained.
I said, That's entertainment.
Maybe he was, but, brother, I'm not.
When I sing Amazing Grace, how sweet the
sound, I'm worshiping God Almighty.
If you want to call that which they
do before the throne, when they cry day
and night without ceasing, Holy, Holy, Holy Lord
God Almighty, and hide their face behind their
wings, if that's entertainment, then I'm an entertainer.
But if it isn't, then I'm a worshiper.
The church must worship, beloved.
There is more healing joy in five minutes
of worship than there is in five nights
of a revel.
The world ought to find that out.
Nobody ever worshiped God and went out and
committed suicide as a hangover, but many a
man has killed himself because he had just
burned himself out trying to have fun.
Many a pretty young lady goes out, throws
herself into having fun, and before she's twenty
-five years old, she's an old hag and
has to have a retread job done on
her countenance before anybody can look at her
without gagging.
And she has simply burnt herself out.
She's effete and burnt out, and everywhere you
go you find it.
All these pretty actresses that you see and
see their pictures and some of you have
gone to see them, you ought to see
them when they get up in the morning,
brother.
They have to have a patch job done
on their face before they dare even come
down to breakfast.
It's all burnt out.
I love to see the grace of God
in a face, don't you?
I remember, I mentioned this once before for
another reason, I was among the brethren, the
brethren in Christ, those plain people who all
have these things.
Women have little black hats sitting up on
top of their head and their hair is
done up in a bun here and their
ears stick out.
I preached for them, and I was blessed.
I was just absolutely refreshed and wonderfully blessed.
They didn't have a thing on but face,
not a thing on their head but hair
and a little black thing for the angels.
According to 1 Corinthians they cover their head
for the sake of the angels.
And they're just sweet.
You look at them and you're reminded of
your dear old aunt back in Pennsylvania and
your grandmother out in New Brunswick, and you
think of all the nice people you ever
knew and the sweet good people you ever
knew when you look at them.
You don't have to apologize for them, just
nice people, the brethren in Christ.
Now I couldn't go among them, but I
do admire them tremendously.
That is, I couldn't join them, but I
do admire them tremendously.
I had a tie-on, you know, and
I told them, I said, I told the
president of the college where I was, I
said, you know, I'm a Gentile and I
don't know whether they'll take me in or
not at all.
He said, preach to their hearts and they'll
forget that you don't belong to them.
And I did just that and they did
just that.
Now, of course, there are those who embrace
religion for its cultural value.
You ever meet those people?
They don't know anything about the spirit-filled
life or the spirit-filled church, but the
cultural value of the church is good for
them.
They want their children brought up in the
culture of the church.
Anybody that does that, of course, they're not
going to be at home among God's dear
people.
They want book reviews and all that sort
of thing.
And they won't be at home, but there
will be some that are at home and
I'm going to name them and quit for
tonight.
I know we want to sing and I
am not going to press my length in
my sermon on Jubilee, but there will be
some people, if we have a spirit-filled
church that practices the beliefs of the New
Testament and goes constantly to the grassroots and
roots out everything that isn't of God and
keeps the grain growing lush and beautiful, gears
into things heavenly and walks with God and
obeys the truth and loves each other.
We'll rule out a few, but these will
be in their glory.
Now, who are they?
Those who have a leading ambition to be
rid of their sins.
If you haven't got an overburdening ambition to
be rid of your sins, you won't like
to hear me preach very often or long.
You won't do it, because I believe we
ought to want to be rid of our
sins.
If I had a cancer growing on my
neck, I'd want to be rid of that
thing.
And nobody could come to me and say,
now here, I've got a cowbell here, let
me shake it.
Don't you like it?
And I'd say, no, I don't like it.
I'm interested in this cancer on my neck.
Have you got a cure for it?
And he'd say, oh, I'd forget the cancer.
Let me jingle the bell.
He'd jingle the bell.
I'd say, I've heard real cowbells on real
cows when I was on the farm and
I don't want to hear them in church,
so get them out of here.
And let's talk about getting rid of your
sins.
My brother, there are some people that are
overwhelmed with the desire to be free from
their sins.
Refining fire go through my heart and sanctify
the whole.
Those people will be happy among us and
to know and walk with God.
Their ambition is to walk with God and
to follow the Lamb with us for every
God.
We'll know each other.
The Lord's people kind of know each other.
They do.
They know each other.
You may get occasional bad apple.
Jesus had Judas's carrot in his little flock.
But mostly we know each other.
And when you shake hands and somebody says
something to you about God, you sort of
know you're talking to a brother in Christ,
regardless whether he's an Irishman, a Scotman, an
Englishman, American, or what he may be.
We all talk the same language and we're
brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ our Lord.
And those who have learned to recognize the
voice of the shepherd, they will be at
home in a spirit-filled church.
Some people have never heard the voice of
the shepherd, but oh, that voice of the
shepherd is tender as a lullaby and as
strong as the wind and as mighty as
the sound of many waters.
The voice of Jesus, that healing, musical, solemn,
beautiful voice of Jesus in his church.
And the people who have learned to hear
that voice and recognize it are always at
home where everything centers around him.
Jesus is all in all.
In the early days of the Alliance, we
were a conglomeration of everything under the sun,
and we still are.
We really still are.
We have Calvinists and Arminians and Methodists and
Baptists and all sorts of people, and we're
all together on one thing.
Jesus Christ is wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.
He's all in all.
And you know the people of the shepherd?
They sort of gravitate toward that sort of
place.
Then there are those who are sensitive to
the invisible presence.
They're not so sure who else is present,
but they know the Lord is present, and
they're sensitive to that.
Is your heart sensitive to that, the Lord's
presence, or are you a sampler and a
nibbler?
Well, God help you and bless you if
you are, but the child of the King
isn't a sampler and a nibbler.
He's a sheep who loves his shepherd and
stays awfully close to his shepherd.
I told the preachers last week in our
conference that the only safe place for a
sheep is by the side of his shepherd,
because the devil doesn't fear sheep, he just
fears the shepherd, that's all.
All the sheep in Ontario wouldn't be a
match for one wolf.
And if you give one wolf time, he
could eat all the sheep in Canada, give
him time, and granted he'd live long enough,
he could do it, because they can't fight
back, you see.
They just run and put their heads together
and make funny, pleading, bleating sounds, and the
wolf doesn't mind that.
And that's all God's people can do.
So our safety lies in being near to
the shepherd.
Stay close to Jesus and all the wolves
in the world can't get a tooth in
you, thank God.
Well, there are some who've tasted of the
good word of God and felt the mysterious
power of the world to come, have you?
Have you?
If you haven't, maybe it's because you aren't
doing anything about it, maybe it's because you
don't want this or don't want it enough.
But if there are those in the church,
in present here tonight, who would rather hear
the voice of Jesus than to hear the
voice of the greatest speaker or the best
singer in the world, would rather be conscious
of the divine presence than to be conscious
of the presence of the greatest man in
the world who's sick of his own sin
and longs to be holy, then I'm preaching
to you.
And I pray that your numbers may increase,
and I pray that you'll tell others this
is what we stand for at Avenue Road,
this is what we believe in, Jesus Christ,
clean living, joyful, radiant, happy worship, good, sweet
fellowship and kindliness and patience and endurance and
honesty and the missionary outlook and good decency
and separation from all things that are wrong,
above all things, to worship the Lord in
the beauty of holiness and to learn to
know the wondrous sound of the shepherd's voice.
That's what we stand for, that's what we
believe in, that's what we're preaching.
Well, that's all now, I think.
That's no way to close a sermon.
See, I never learned to close sermons.
When I get through, I just quit.
Preachers who've studied the thing, they tell you
there's a way to close it, but I've
never bothered to find out how.
I just quit when I'm done.
I'm finished now, so there's no use to
go on.
But let's have a little moment of prayer,
just a little moment of prayer.
On behalf of Christian Publications, God bless you,
and thank you for listening.