We were down in Michigan, and a revival
broke out in a little community of only
250 people.
How do you like it?
A community of 250 people, in a church
where they only had 250 or 300 people
attending.
And God started to work.
People came in from the country, you know,
a rural setting.
And God started to work, and people started
to come from everywhere, and they jammed 900
people in that little building.
What a time.
Everywhere.
And Mel Johnson, the man who speaks on
the radio, Christian radio stations, his program, Tips
for Teens, he has that 15-minute program
around the world.
I don't know how many radio stations he's
on.
He was holding meetings 30 miles away, a
friend of ours.
And he heard what God was doing, and
when he'd get finished his meeting, 30 miles
away, he'd get in his car, and he'd
drive across the countryside to come to see
what was happening.
Because he had heard God had moved in
in such a way that we couldn't even
get to preach until about 10 o'clock
at night.
I'd start preaching quarter to ten at night.
And here comes Mel Johnson into that revival,
two nights in a row.
And on the second night, he'd arrive about
9.15, after his meeting was over, and
drive 30 miles.
He was still there in plenty of time.
And he came in the second night and
said, Mel, come on to the front and
express to the people what you sense is
happening in this community.
And he said, I know it's revival.
Here's what he said.
He said, why, I had to park so
far away from the church that I had
to ask the people how to get to
the church.
Well, directions how to get to the church.
But he said, even the cars looked revived.
You know how Mel Johnson could say with
his sense of humor.
Even the cars looked revived, he put it
that way.
But he said, I knew it was revival
as soon as I stepped in and heard
the singing.
I could tell.
And the joy of God amongst God's people.
He said, there's a holy hilarity about revival
when God releases His people.
Isn't that what Psalm 126 says?
Then was our mouth filled with laughter and
our, let's see, our heart filled with laughter
and our tongue filled with singing.
And then we speak to the heathen the
rejoicing that comes when God sets His people
free.
That's Psalm 126.
He said, I knew that.
He went on to describe why he knew
God was working.
He could sense it as a man of
many years experience.
Then he made one more statement.
He said something like this.
He said, but of course you people know
what revival is, don't you?
Well, if the people down there did, I
didn't in relation to what he was going
to say.
And he said, of course you know what
revival is.
He said, many women, revival is simply God's
finger pointed at me.
That was his definition of revival.
And there I was, the evangelist in that
crusade that was going on in such a
way.
And I never, to this day I haven't
told Mel Johnson that when he made that
statement, if the other people knew that, that
was fine.
But God seemed to say to me, there's
the cue, Lou.
Revival is God's finger pointed at me.
And that truth started a gel in my
heart.
And if you've ever heard anything that has
come out of Saskatoon, and in the revival
in 1971, that statement, God's finger pointed at
me, came from that occasion that I've just
told you about.
That's where it was born.
I haven't told Mel Johnson, I was just
today saying I ought to feel guilty that
I haven't let him know how God has
used that one little expression to go around
the world and bless so many hearts and
zero the truth right into the individual.
Revival, God's finger pointed at me, and Brother
came tonight to express it even before this
message.
That's what it's all about, revival, God's finger
pointed at me.
Revival is the opening of your heart and
your life to Almighty God.
A pastor in western Michigan said these words.
He said, revival is like lifting the lid
off of a person's heart and letting God
look in and you see what God sees.
A preacher in western Canada out on the
west coast, he said, can it be that
God meant even me?
Revival is God's finger pointed at me and
God broke the heart of that pastor and
in his testimony he said, I couldn't believe
it.
He said, can it be that God meant
even me?
Oh, how proud we can get even as
clergymen.
He said, God was speaking even to me.
Haggai chapter 1 verse 5, don't turn, I'll
have you turn to another scripture, but simply
these words.
Now therefore, thus saith the Lord of hosts.
God speaking from heaven, what does he say?
Consider your ways.
Three words, consider your ways.
Oh, isn't it interesting to point a finger
at everybody else?
Ralph said it the other night, oh how
we love to point a finger at somebody
else because when we do, he says we
forget about something, that when we do, there
are one, two, three pointing right back to
ourselves.
We always get one out there, but there
are three coming back, right?
So remember when you point your finger out,
three are coming right back to you.
The message of God is consider your ways.
I believe we've just about come to a
place in this crusade where God would have
you and me as individuals shut ourselves in
with God and forget about what everybody else
is doing and how everybody else is acting
and ask God, Lord Jesus, would you dare
speak to me and let revival be your
finger pointed right at me and show me
what you find.
2 Chronicles, in the Old Testament, chapter 29.
2 Chronicles, chapter 29.
I love this community because you'll love the
word of God.
I love to give God's word because I
believe there's power in the word of God.
2 Chronicles, chapter 29.
Hezekiah, verse 1.
Hezekiah began to reign when he was five
and twenty years old.
Twenty-five years old, Hezekiah began to reign.
And he reigned nine and twenty years in
Jerusalem.
And his mother's name was Abijah, the daughter
of Zechariah.
And Hezekiah did that which was right in
the sight of God.
Good way for a king to start.
According to all that David, his father, has
done.
He, in the first year of his reign,
in the very first month, the very first
year, the very first month, Hezekiah the king,
it says, he opened the doors of the
house of the Lord and he repaired them.
And he brought in the priests and the
Levites and gathered them together in these streets
and said unto them, hear me, ye Levites,
sanctify now yourselves.
Sanctify the house of the Lord God of
your fathers and carry forth the filthiness out
of the holy place.
Now I want to ask you and ask
myself anew and afresh.
My Bible tells me in the book of
2 Corinthians that my body is the temple
of the Holy Ghost.
My body is the temple of God.
And I believe in these days God is
saying that we need to act even like
Hezekiah, that we should go in and repair
the doors of the temple of our lives
before God and we should carry out of
our lives all filthiness out of that place,
the holy place.
Your body is the temple of the Holy
Ghost, if you're a Christian.
Know ye not, says Paul, don't go without
knowing, don't live without the concept overriding your
life, that your body is the temple of
the Holy Ghost which is in you and
you have that of God.
You are not your own.
You are bought with a price.
Therefore glorify God in your body, this temple
of the Holy Ghost, and glorify God wherein
your spirit, which are God, the body and
the spirit, belonging to God.
Christian out in western Canada and Surrey, B
.C. said, we've been praying, Lord, send a
revival to our church.
She said, we have found out that it
is not our church that needs revival, it
is we.
It is we.
The message of revival, men and women, people
say, what is revival?
I tell you, the message of revival is
not an easy one.
It's a message that cuts, it burns, lacerates,
it probes, and it wounds.
But if it wounds, remember the Bible says,
blessed are the wounds of a friend, faithful
are the wounds of a friend.
The message of revival is like the surgical
operation.
You need surgery.
And without that surgery, you would die.
And the message of revival is that surgical
operation.
It's the laceration of the heart, without which
the spiritual power of our life ebbs away.
Revival, men and women, begins in judgment.
It has always been so.
People think of revival as joy and ecstasy,
and it's wonderful.
Think of that.
That may be the ultimate result, but that's
not where revival begins.
Oh, no.
Revival implies heart-searching condemnation on all inbred
sins.
Revival begins with a transformation in my heart,
the choir sang in my heart, and that's
where it begins.
Let's lay the level.
Let's drop the plumb line.
Let's test the balances of our life tonight.
Let's see something.
Let's see that when God Almighty brings revival,
He'll find me right where I live.
He'll find you right where you live.
He'll correct the falseness of our lives, and
then He will sit in judgment on all
of our compromise and all of our backslidden
heart and our backsliding our heart.
He will sit in judgment on it and
point it to us.
He said that represents a backslidden heart.
Oh, that we should have it in our
day.
Follow me with your Bible to Psalm 37,
and let us follow some tremendous scripture along
this theme.
In Psalm 37, verse 28, Psalm 37, verse
28, For the Lord loveth judgment, and forsaketh
not his saints.
They are preserved forever, but the seed of
the wicked shall be cut off.
I draw your attention to that statement, For
the Lord loveth judgment.
We never think of a God who loves
judgment.
I said to the students at the Bible
College this morning, God is primarily not a
God of judgment.
He's God of love.
He's a God of blessing.
He's concerned about blessing us.
And now I read tonight in the scripture,
For the Lord loveth judgment.
Tremendous truth.
What is it?
He forsakes not his saints.
What kind of a judgment is it that
God loves?
He loves to judge His people.
And He's saying to you and me tonight
that if I can judge my people, that's
the way for me not to forsake my
saints.
When I judge them, this is the way
to bring them to the operating table, as
it were, to the surgery table, to cut
away those areas that are not right, because
I love them and I don't want to
forsake them, and therefore I bring them to
judgment.
He loves to bring His people to judgment
for the cleansing and the purifying and the
cutting away of the draught that keeps them
from knowing Him in His fullness.
God who loves judgment and forsakes not His
saints.
They are preserved forever.
Turn to Isaiah 61.
We see the context in Isaiah 61, verse
8.
Again the statement, Isaiah 61, verse 8.
Isaiah 61, verse 8.
For I, the Lord, love judgment.
There it is again.
I, the Lord, love judgment.
I hate robbery for burnt offerings, and I
will direct their work in truth.
You see the kind of judgment God likes?
He likes the kind of judgment that brings
us to truth, to direct our works into
truth, the judgment that purifies us.
And I will make an everlasting covenant with
them when I can lead my people into
truth, when I can judge them.
I'd love to do it, because then I
can make an everlasting covenant with them.
And their seed shall be known among the
Gentiles, and their offspring among the people.
All that see them shall acknowledge them.
You see what judgment will do for God's
people?
That they are the seed which the Lord
has blessed.
This has the connotation of God dealing with
Israel, but it's a tremendous physical principle.
A God who loves to judge His people
because He wants to reveal Himself to them.
He wants them to walk in uprightness of
heart, that He can keep His covenant with
them, and He can let the world know
that they are His people.
Zechariah chapter 14.
Zechariah chapter 14, the next last book of
the Old Testament.
Zechariah chapter 14, and verse 20.
Zechariah chapter 14, verse 20.
In that day, Zechariah 14, verse 20, in
that day shall there be upon the bells
of the horses holiness unto the Lord, and
the pots of the Lord's house shall be
like the bowls before the altar.
Yea, every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah
shall be holiness unto the Lord of hosts,
and all they that sacrifice shall come and
take of them and see therein.
And in that day there shall be no
more the Canaanite in the house of the
Lord of hosts.
The Canaanite is the enemy of Israel.
The Canaanite represents the evil one, and God
says there shall no more be the Canaanite
in the house of the Lord of hosts.
God again purifying His people, and on the
bells of the horses holiness unto the Lord,
and on the pots holiness unto the Lord.
Our God.
Turn to Malachi, the next book.
Chapter 3, verse 2.
Malachi chapter 3, verse 2.
But who may abide the day of His
coming, and who shall stand when He appeareth?
For He, God, is like a refiner's fire.
God is like a refiner's fire, and like
fuller soap.
We think about God like that?
And He shall sit as a refiner, and
a purifier of silver, and He shall purify
whom?
The sons of Levi, the priests as it
were, those in charge.
Oh, that God should find me as a
man of the word of God, one that
should be pure, that I shall let God
be the refiner's fire in my life, and
He shall purge them as gold and silver.
Put them through the fire for the purging
and the cleansing.
Why?
In order that they may offer unto the
Lord an offering of a lot of busy
works.
No.
That I may offer unto the Lord a
lot of activity for God.
That I may offer unto the Lord what?
An offering in righteousness.
When God looks at my life, He wants
coming from my life an offering in righteousness.
I am ready and willing to allow God,
the refiner, to put my life through the
fire, through the purging, through the cleansing, that
the dross should be burned away.
And I, as a man of the word
of God, giving the word to God's people,
that He should start in my heart before
I ask Him to start in your heart.
A God of judgment and a God of
purity in the lives of His people.
1 Peter chapter 4.
Let's take it into the New Testament.
1 Peter chapter 4.
That's the book of Hebrews, James, and 1
Peter chapter 4.
The words of the Apostle Peter.
1 Peter chapter 4, verse 17.
1 Peter 4, 17.
For the time has come.
What time is it?
What time is it in Winkler, Manitoba?
For the time has come that judgment must
begin at the house of God.
Judgment must begin at the house of God.
And if it first begin at us, what
shall the end be of them that obey
not the gospel of God?
And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where
shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?
Judgment must begin at the house of God.
It's a God who loves judgment to purify
His people and cleanse His people to reveal
Himself to His people that they can reveal
God to the world.
But it first starts in the house of
God and then to the sinner on the
outside.
1 John.
We turn from 2 Peter to 1 John.
Chapter 1, verse 5.
1 John, chapter 1, verse 5.
This then is the message which we have
heard of Him and declare unto you that
God is light and in Him is no
darkness at all.
God is light.
It doesn't say He's love.
It says He's light.
In Him is no darkness at all.
If we say that we have fellowship with
God, if you and I in this meeting
tonight say, I have fellowship with God, you
have fellowship with God, the Word of God
says, we walk in darkness, we lie and
do not the truth.
But if we walk in the light as
God is in the light, we have fellowship
one with another and the blood of Jesus
Christ, God's Son, cleanseth us from all sin.
If we say that we have no sin,
we deceive ourselves and the truth is not
in us.
But if we confess our sins, there is
an answer for our sin problem.
He is faithful.
He is just to forgive us our sins
and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
If we say that we have not sinned,
we make Him a liar and His Word
is not in us.
My little children, says the beloved John, these
things write I unto you that you sin
not.
Don't say you have to sin.
But He says, if a man sins, he
has an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ.
Don't live in a mentality saying, I have
to sin.
I don't need to sin.
But if I sin, thank God, there is
cleansing and there is forgiveness.
My heart attitude ought to be, O Lord,
that I do not presuppose sin.
That I don't plan on sinning.
That's the heart that's pure before God.
It's the heart that does not pre-plan
sinning.
But because of the flesh and the weakness
of this old flesh that hangs on us,
there come those times that in a moment
of weakness, in a moment of temptation, we
might yield.
Thank God that the Word of God says,
my little children, I write that you sin
not, but if any man sins, he has
an advocate.
My heart's desire is that I should not
sin.
And that's the heart that's pure with God.
A heart that does not pre-plan sinning.
What am I saying to you?
If we walk in the light, God is
light.
What's the issue of revival?
The issue of revival is whether I'm willing
and ready to push my life into the
light and out of the darkness.
The issue is, God says to me, it's
a painful thing, but God's asking us in
Winkler, Manitoba, when we say we need a
revival in Winkler, we need a revival.
What are we saying?
God is saying to you and to me
as individuals, am I as an individual?
Are you as an individual ready and willing
to take your life and push it out
of any dark areas and push it into
the light of the holiness of God?
Duncan Campbell, the man of the Hebrides revival,
said he used to go out and hold
meetings and take a group of young people
to sing a song in the meetings.
And one night coming back from one of
those meetings, the car broke down.
The car broke down.
There was no street light and he didn't
know what to do.
He had no flashlight, couldn't get in the
motor.
There he was over there in the Hebrides
and no way to get that car fixed.
There as he looked, he was driving right
along the bay and in the days of
the world war and there was a minesweeper
coming through the bay to clear the bay
of any mines that the enemy might plant
there.
And the minesweeper had a big light on
it and the light was beaming onto the
shore.
And Duncan Campbell, there he was with his
automobile stuck and three or four young people
in the car and I guess maybe he
took them along because he knew the kind
of car he had.
He might need them.
Well, there they were.
He couldn't fix the motor because he had
no light to see inside.
But when he saw that minesweeper and the
minesweeper saw, the man running the minesweeper saw
Duncan Campbell not knowing who he was but
saw this car stuck.
He held that light steady instead of moving
it on.
He held it fixed right there at that
one spot.
He was saying to Duncan Campbell, in other
words, if you could only get that car
up into the light.
I can't move my light anymore but there
it is.
I want to stop and keep it right
there.
If you could only get your car up
into the light.
And Duncan Campbell seeing that big spotlight coming
ashore, he unloaded those young people and he
said, go on out and push.
And they pushed and they pushed and they
pushed till they got the car in the
light.
And when the light shone into that motor
they were able to find the shorted wire
and on they went.
Don't you think Duncan Campbell had an illustration
in his sermon that next Sunday morning?
Oh, what was the illustration?
We had no help until we were willing
to push the car into the light.
We could do nothing until we were willing
to push the car into the light and
ready to do it.
And God is saying that to you and
to me.
And you and I can be spectators here,
bystanders at the working of God in Winkler,
Manitoba in these days.
We can watch and say, isn't it wonderful
what God is doing there and what God
is doing there.
And now God is speaking to that one
and God is touching that one and all
the time because we are unwilling individually to
recognize that revival is God's finger point at
me and willing to push my light into
the light.
What's light?
God is light.
Walk in the light as He is in
the light and what will happen, we'll know
our need for the cleansing of the blood
to be applied to our heart, the blood
to be applied to our heart, the cleansing
from sin and then we have fellowship one
with another.
That's what's happening in the ladies' meetings today.
That's what was happening in the men's meeting
yesterday.
That's what's happening when we all see ourselves
in the light of God and we quit
comparing ourselves by everybody else round about us
and we say, I'm as good as the
average Christian.
Where did you get that standard?
Walk in the light as God's in the
light.
We get our eyes off of each other
and we close ourselves in to a holy
God and as the light reveals the dark
areas of our life, we're willing to do
something about them.
Tremendous truth.
But what is this all about?
The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 5.10,
for we must all appear at the judgment
seat of Christ that everyone may receive the
things done in His body according to that
He hath done whether good or bad.
What am I saying?
You know it, men and women, in Winkler,
Manitoba.
You folks know the Word of God so
thoroughly and you know the fact that there
are two judgments waiting us.
There's a judgment called the great white throne
judgment.
That's the judgment when any man and any
woman is not a Christian, he's going to
have to face the great white throne judgment
and he's going to hear the condemnation of
Jesus when He says, Depart from me, ye
cursed into everlasting flame.
I never knew you.
That's the judgment for the unconverted man.
But the Bible says there's another judgment.
There are other judgments as well, but I
point you to your attention to the judgment
seat of Jesus Christ and that's what is
recorded in 2 Corinthians 5.10. We must
all, we as God's people, must all appear
at that judgment seat of Christ that everyone
of us shall give an account of the
deeds done in our body not our intentions,
not what we are planning on doing, but
what we have accomplished, done in our body
according to that we have done, whether good
or bad, the judgment seat of Christ.
I have a question to ask you tonight.
Would you like to stand there tonight?
Would you like to stand at the judgment
seat of Christ tonight?
Would I like to stand at the judgment
seat of Christ tonight?
Would I like to put my head on
the pillow this night in Winkler, Manitoba and
never wake up to face the light of
another day?
Would I be pleased?
Would I be happy to do so?
Would I lie on my bed and say,
even so, Lord, I am ready, even so,
come, Lord Jesus, or if you want to
take me, Lord, I am ready.
Where am I going?
There is a judgment seat.
In that time, everything done in my body,
whether good or bad, is going to be
revealed.
I tell you, my friend, it is a
frightening thing to think about.
God the righteous judge judging his people.
What is this revival emphasis all about?
I will tell you, men and women, I
believe that the blessing of these days is
this is God's opportunity, the knocking at the
door of our hearts.
He is saying, can't I bring you to
judgment now?
Can't I bring you into the light right
now?
Can't I bring you to where you deal
with the issues of your heart right now?
Can't we get some things under the blood
of Jesus Christ right now?
Can't we get them settled right now so
you don't have to face these things at
the judgment seat?
Is God saying to us tonight, revival is
judgment coming early, getting my sins under the
blood lest I have to face those sins
in the face of Jesus the righteous judge
at the judgment seat?
Men and women, that is going to be
a tragedy painful day.
And if that's a painful day, let us
be willing to go through the pain today.
Whatever the pain to be right with God,
is nothing compared to the pain that we'll
have to go through in that day because
we weren't willing to go through the pain
right now.
Can you get it?
Oh, some people say, I don't like revival
meetings.
I'll tell you, my flesh doesn't like it.
Your flesh doesn't like it.
You don't like it when God's fingers pointed
at you.
I don't like it when God's fingers point
at me because my flesh doesn't want to
be dealt with.
It doesn't want to give up.
It doesn't want sin to be called sin.
It wants room to operate.
The Bible says, make no provision for your
flesh to fulfill the lust and the desires
thereof.
It wants to operate.
The housewife in revival in a hundred mile
house in a
hundred
miles Would
you pray, Lord, just go right through me?
The word thoroughly could be the same word
as go through me.
Go right through me, O God.
Would you pray that?
Would you say with a psalmist, order my
steps, God, in Thy Word.
Get me right into Your Word.
Put my steps into Your Word.
And let not any iniquity have dominion over
me.
Don't let any iniquity have dominion over me.
I'm giving no place for sin to have
room in my life.
O God, order my steps in Your Word
and I'll walk in it.
Would you pray with a psalmist when he
said, I said, Lord, be merciful to me.
You see, that's judgment.
Lord, I need mercy.
Be merciful to me.
Heal my soul, he prayed, for I have
sinned against Thee.
Heal my soul.
In my heart, they sang.
Would you say, Lord, heal my soul tonight?
The outward looks all right, but I need
healing in the soul.
Jewel White said it so beautifully in a
prayer.
She didn't know I heard her pray.
And when she got done praying, I jotted
it down.
She prayed, thank you, God, for exposing our
hearts to ourselves.
Thank you, God, for exposing our hearts to
ourselves.
Ye people, says the psalmist, pour out your
hearts before him.
In my heart, let me be a Christian.
In my heart, let me love.
In my heart, let me be like Jesus.
And the psalmist said, pour out your hearts
to God.
That's what we need in Winkler, Manitoba.
Pour out our hearts to God.
That's the prayer of the psalmist in Psalm
139, 23, and 24.
When he dared pray, search me, O God,
and know my heart.
Would you pray that tonight?
That's when Revival's God's finger pointed at me.
That's when I don't care about anybody else
around.
O God, search me and know my heart.
Know my heart tonight, O God, know it.
Would you pray it?
And see, O God, if there's any wicked
way in me.
Anyone, lay your finger on it, show it
to me.
Bring it up that I can deal with
it.
I want to be clean.
And lead me in the path of...
Oh, you need to pray that.
You need to ask God to search your
heart.
Don't you try to do it yourself?
Because the Bible says the heart is deceitful.
And above all things, desperately wicked.
And who can know it?
But I, the Lord, search the heart.
And I try the reins of man.
I try the heart to know what is
in the man.
To give every man according as his works.
God says, I know it and I can
try it.
He didn't say, you search your own heart.
Oh, men and women, don't you go around
trying to dig in your own heart and
say, now what is it, what is it?
You say, Lord, You show me.
You search me.
You search me, O God.
You do it.
God is the only one that can go
on the inside, you know?
Nobody else can get through the five senses,
but God can.
That's why He's the only one that can
search our heart.
He doesn't have to worry about five senses.
He can go right into the interior.
And that's where He abides with you in
your relationship, in the heart.
Revival is God's finger pointing at the motives
of my heart.
The motives.
O God, Thou knowest my foolishness and my
sins are not hid from Thee.
Examine me, O Lord.
Prove me.
Try the reins of my heart.
The reins of my heart.
Try them.
Put them in the furnace.
The motives of my heart.
Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose
sin is covered.
Blessed is the man.
Who's the blessed man?
Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord
imputes not iniquity and in whose spirit, in
his heart, in the inner man, in his
spirit there is no guile.
Blessed is the man who in his spirit
there is no guile.
Oh, what did Jesus say about Nathanael?
Jesus made a profound statement.
I don't know why He had to take
the time to say it.
Jesus, in the book of John, chapter 1,
verse 47, He said about Nathanael, an Israelite
indeed in whom there is no guile, no
two-facedness, no guile, pure in the heart
and in the life.
Malachi 2.15 says, Therefore take heed unto
your spirit.
Take heed unto your spirit.
Not only your actions, but the inner man,
your spirit.
And that is in Malachi 2.15. You
know what Malachi 2.16 says?
The very next verse, it says, Therefore take
heed unto your spirit.
God Almighty in two verses says, Take heed
unto your spirit.
One verse right after another.
God would show us.
Psalmist David says, Behold, God desires truth in
the inward parts and in the hidden part.
Thou shalt make me to know your wisdom.
Create in me a clean heart.
In my heart, they sang.
O God, renew a right spirit within me.
There's where God wants to meet you.
The sacrifice of God or a broken spirit.
And a broken and a contrite heart, O
God, thou wilt not despise.
All the ways of man are clean in
his own eyes, but God tries and weighs
the spirits.
He puts the spirit on a scale and
He weighs the spirits.
For what you are in your heart, He
weighs them.
He puts them on a scale.
Too much this way, not enough that way.
He weighs them.
He takes time.
The Bible says, God ponders your heart.
He doesn't think wisely about it.
He takes time to think about your heart
and studies it.
The refiner's fire sat by a fire of
sevenfold heat as he watched the precious ore.
And closer he bent with a searching gaze
as he heated it more and more.
He knew he had ore that could stand
the test.
And he wanted the finest gold to mold
as a crown for the king to wear,
set with gems with a price untold.
So he laid our gold in the burning
fire, though we fain would have him say,
Nay, nay, we don't want to go in
the fire.
And he watched the dross that we had
not seen.
He saw it as it melted and passed
away.
And the gold grew brighter and yet more
bright.
But our eyes were so dim with tears
because it was so painful.
We saw but the fire, not the master's
hand.
And we questioned with anxious tears.
Yet our gold shone out with a richer
glow as it mirrored a form above that
bent all the fire though unseen by us
with a look of ineffable love.
So he waited there with a watchful eye,
with a love that is strong and sure,
and his gold did not suffer a bit
more heat than was needed to make him
pure.
He wouldn't let you have a bit more
heat than you need to make you pure.
I thank God, many women, when you say
out of the honesty of your heart, Oh
God, point your finger at me.
Let me get my eyes off of anybody
else and point your finger at me.
Search me, oh God.
I thank God that he's so good to
us that he doesn't show us everything all
at once.
Aren't you?
We can't take it.
We couldn't take it.
But little by little, he doesn't let you
have any more fire than the gold can
stand to be purified.
Little by little, he opens and he reveals
that we should be clean.
As long as your heart attitude is, Oh
God, keep searching me, keep trying me, and
knowing my heart.
He that speaketh the truth in his heart
is a great statement in Psalm 15.
What is that statement about?
The man who is going to go into
the Holy of Holies with God in Psalm
15.
Who is he?
The man who speaks the truth in his
heart.
That's what the choir is singing, In my
heart.
The truth in my heart.
Truth is the word for mental honesty and
total sincerity.
Truth in my heart that my outward life
is an exemplification of the inward reality of
my heart.
That God would bring our heart and our
outward experience together.
Man looks on the outward appearance.
That's true, he does.
Don't forget it.
He sees the outward.
God looks on the heart.
Oh, that God would bring the two together
tonight.
1 Chronicles 16, way back in the Old
Testament.
Look at it.
1 Chronicles 16.
It says something interesting about Asa.
1 Chronicles 16.
What does it say about Asa?
1 Chronicles 16, verse 9.
For the eyes of the Lord run to
and fro throughout the whole earth.
The eyes of the Lord go to show
himself strong in the behalf of them whose
heart, whose heart is perfect toward him.
The eyes of the Lord go to and
fro.
He wants to show himself strong to the
man whose heart is perfect toward him.
What does it say?
Herein thou hast done foolishly.
Therefore from henceforth thou shalt have wars.
God is saying to you and me that
if we'll not walk before God in a
perfect heart, it doesn't mean that we don't
sin.
It doesn't mean there don't come those temptations
that we've given and yield.
That's not what it means.
It means a hard attitude that doesn't premeditate
sin, that wants to be holy.
That's the perfect heart.
And here, the prophet of God says, Herein
hast thou done foolishly.
God is waiting and his eyes go to
and fro throughout the land to show himself
strong to the man who wants to walk
with a perfect heart.
The next statement is, Herein hast thou done
foolishly.
I wonder if the prophet of God isn't
saying if you're not willing to be that
kind of a man you're acting foolishly.
And then it says, Therefore from henceforth thou
shalt have wars.
You're bringing trouble upon yourself because you won't
walk with a perfect heart.
You're acting foolishly and you're bringing wars from
henceforth.
You're bringing it on yourself.
Now look it.
Then Asa was wrought with the seer.
Then he got mad.
The prophet of God was talking to him
as well as talking to us tonight.
Then he got mad with the seer and
he put him in a prison house.
Isn't that interesting?
Asa took the man who spoke the message
of God and because it was so truthful
and so plain and straightforward he put him
in the prison.
Oh how we fight truth.
Oh how we rebel from truth.
Oh how we try to even criticize so
we don't have to face truth.
Oh how we want to dodge truth.
And here's the man using his authority as
King Asa could take this man who pointed
his finger right in his face and told
him what God wanted him to hear.
He said if that's the way you're going
to talk to me I'll put you in
prison.
Okay.
So he did.
It says Asa was wrought with the seer
and put him in prison in the prison
house in verse 10.
For he was in a rage with him
because of this thing.
Mad at the prophet of God because he
told him the truth.
And Asa oppressed some of the people at
the same time.
He took his vengeance out even on some
of the people.
And behold the acts of Asa first and
last lo they are written in the book
of the kings of Judah and Israel.
What are they?
Asa in the thirty and ninth year of
his reign was diseased in his feet.
Uh oh.
He's got problems with his feet.
Diseased in his feet.
Until his disease was exceeding great.
Yet in his disease he sought not the
Lord but to the physicians and to the
doctors.
In his disease he still wouldn't say God
are you trying to speak to me?
Even in his disease he wouldn't say God
what that prophet was saying and I wouldn't
listen and I put him in prison.
Why are you still saying the same thing?
God I'm ready to listen.
He wouldn't listen.
How much God has to put us through
before he gets our attention.
Couldn't get Asa's attention.
And Asa slept in verse 13 with his
father.
He died in the one and fortieth year
of his reign and they buried him in
his own sepulchers which he had made for
himself in the city.
He prepared for death but didn't know much
about life did he?
He got all the sepulchers.
They were ready.
They were all prepared but he wouldn't face
God's truth and they made that in the
city of David and they laid him in
the bed which was filled with what?
Sweet odors and diverse kinds of spices prepared
by the apothecary's art.
Good they had odors there because he had
bad feet.
He had disease in the feet so they
probably had an odor about him and even
had it that they had this place all
fixed up there was going to be perfume
in his casket right?
But he still didn't deal with God.
Oh how people want to die how they
want to be buried and they want a
preacher to say some nice things about them
huh?
Oh we want that preacher to say the
right things that our family will think that
people will think we were somebody in the
community and we were really good people and
yet down in our heart we know things
are not right with God we don't want
to hear the message of God we don't
want to own up to truth we don't
want to face the truth we want to
turn the message of God off we want
to turn the truth off just like King
Asa.
But let's have a nice funeral even though
we go to the grave with the sickness
of our soul that we carry with us
and they made a very great burning for
him Isaiah chapter 1 verse 5 tells us
that there we are from the head to
the sole of the feet we're sick with
putrefying sores and they haven't been bound up
and mollified with ointment what a condition of
Israel and Sodom and all of that area
they were just like a body with sores
from top to bottom right to the feet
from the head to the feet and there
was no ointment on the sores Isaiah chapter
1 God tells his people he says don't
bring your offerings anymore don't bring your sacrifice
anymore don't say your prayers anymore he said
when you fold your hands to pray I
will not hear I will not hear because
you are worshipping me in one breath but
you're just sick all over I wonder if
God says that to us tonight we go
through the form of religion and ritualism but
inside our heart in the heart there's a
sickness that God says will you be honest
enough to deal with oh that we should
know it tonight God wants his people pure
and I close with psalm 101 psalm 101
verse 1 psalm 101 verse 1 look at
it psalm 101 verse 1 I will sing
of mercy and I will sing of judgment
isn't that interesting I will sing of David
what are you singing of I will sing
of what's that word men and women mercy
and I will sing of what judgment judgment
David was thrilled for judgment I will sing
of judgment he say oh God put me
through the sieve who is this man David
the man called the man after God's own
heart the man who committed adultery and virtual
murder to cover it and yet the Bible
refers to this man even in that element
of sinfulness the Bible calls him the man
after God's own heart my Christian friends your
experience with God has nothing to do with
the depths of sin in which you have
been involved because in the sight of God
there is no such thing as mortal and
venial sin God Almighty makes no difference between
one sin and another sin is sin and
God is looking for uprightness of heart and
God doesn't categorize sin because David was involved
in the depths of the sin of adultery
and murder many women we can be involved
tonight in the sin of envy and jealousy
and strife and backbiting and a tongue that
is hurting our brothers and sisters in the
church of Jesus Christ and a failure to
bear one another's burdens and all of the
lovelessness even as the choir sang let me
love in my heart and we're not doing
it it's sin before God would you say
with me David oh God I love I
will sing of mercy and I will sing
of judgment I love the fact that the
blood was shed and I can go to
be cleansed and it can be a daily
way of life and I can walk in
the light as God is in the light
and let the blood of Jesus Christ keep
on cleansing me from all sin and I
can sing of judgment I thank you God
for the ministry of these days that is
bringing your judgment on my sin that I
should see myself and deal with sin tonight
I sing of judgment thank God for revival
that is judgment on my sin unto thee
oh Lord will I sing will you say
thank God Lord that you are putting your
finger on my heart tonight thank you God
for the judgment that you are putting on
my soul thank you Lord I become so
careless and callous and I wasn't even aware
of what's been going on in my heart
it's been so long ago and I've been
so callous my ears have become dull of
hearing and I haven't heard your voice God
thank you I'll sing of the judgment you're
bringing to my heart tonight and I'll sing
of your mercy for the forgiveness for that
soul and then he says unto thee will
I sing now look at it I will
behave myself wisely in a perfect way oh
when will thou come unto me I will
walk within my house with a perfect heart
David says I want my children to see
it he said I want my relatives to
see it I'll walk right there in my
house with a perfect heart in my heart
the choir sang tonight you're seen in your
house and they'll be the first ones to
notice it my friend your wife will know
that you're walking with God your husband will
know ma'am that you're walking with God
your children will sense the glory of God
in the house when you're willing to say
God bring judgment to my soul God bring
your mercy to my soul God I need
forgiveness oh God let me never get away
from a sensitivity about the sin of my
life that day by day I'll say search
me and day by day say Lord I
want to walk in the light that the
blood of Christ can keep cleansing your family
will then know the glory of God as
they see you walking in a perfect way
that doesn't mean that your actions are perfect
it means they pick up the heart that
is perfect toward God in intention David goes
on to say and I will set no
wicked thing before my eyes and some of
the things some of us watch on television
would have to be changed to obey that
scripture verse five him that hath a high
look and a proud heart will not I
suffer you're going to walk with a perfect
way in your house before God my friend
God is saying in this very same psalm
you've got to humble yourself because God says
I will not suffer the man with a
high look and a proud heart I will
not suffer him and verse six mine eyes
shall be upon the faithful of the land
that they may dwell with me he that
walketh in a perfect way