This is tape number K-001.
Art Ketz with the message entitled, Be Ye
Perfect.
Isn't that strange that as the world becomes
more slapdash and haphazard and approximate, God does
just the opposite.
In the get-by world, where any kind
of combination works, the more bizarre and grotesque,
the more likely it is to be successful,
there's a God who insists more singularly upon
purity and perfection.
Have you noticed that?
He's the God of the perfect.
Be thou perfect, and walk thou before me.
As Ingers says, what do you think of
them apples?
You think he's a wolfen, or does he
really mean it?
Is it a vague standard toward which we
should aspire, or does God actually intend that
we obtain perfection?
The doctor said about my kneecap, the only
way that damage could have been done is
if you perfectly came down, smack dab, a
three-point landing, right on the heart of
your kneecap.
He said every accident, you squirm, you fall,
you twist your body some angle, but you
came down in perfect precision.
Only way to go.
Can you believe that I'm almost getting so
bold in these days that I can begin
a service like this, or a message like
this, and have the effrontery, or is it
Jewish chutzpah, to suggest that you're going to
hear something perfect?
And then people come up to you at
the end of the message and say, but
Art, you choked and spluttered a few times,
and you mispronounced one word, and you were
ungrammatical in one particular place.
How was it perfect?
The perfection of God, children, doesn't have to
do with impeccable grammar.
It has only to do with this, that
it has its perfect origin in heaven, and
it's perfectly the fulfillment of him who spoke
it.
And the great wonder is that he can
do things like that through a Brooklyn accent
or a high squeaky voice of the kind
that our brother Ernie has.
What a marvel.
Praise the Lord.
So I'll tell you what, children.
I just feel like going for broke tonight,
don't you?
In this lapdash age in which anything goes,
doesn't your heart covet the thing that is
perfect?
Let's just ask that God will speak perfectly.
Whatever it is in his heart, it'll be
the perfect expression of what he intends to
go forth to his children this night by
his Spirit.
Okay?
So precious holy God, Lord, if there's anything
in which we delight, it's to boast upon
you.
You do all things well, mighty God.
And it's just a wonder to stand still
and to see your salvation.
And so I ask, precious God, that of
what you have spoken in the sixth chapter
of Romans is true.
What you have described in the second and
third chapters of Colossians is true.
That we are complete in you, who is
the head of all principality and power, in
whom is hid all fullness and knowledge.
I ask that you make your wonder manifest
out of this earthen vessel this night.
Right through this Brooklyn accent and every peculiar
thing that has to do with my personality,
I ask that you be so the possessor
of it that these people might know that
they've heard perfectly from the living God.
Give us hearts to receive it, Lord, and
to do it.
And we'll thank you and praise you for
it in Yeshua's holy name.
Amen.
Well, I'll tell you the way in which
God begins to write a theme like this
upon the heart of a servant.
Not too far from here, at a Midwestern
city, I was invited for breakfast with some
of the saints in the neighborhood whom I've
known through the years.
I think there must have been six, seven,
or eight of us.
We had a lovely time of fellowship.
And when the meal was over and it
was time for someone to pick up the
check, precious lady sitting to my left did
so.
And I turned to her casually, not even
thinking what I was asking.
And I said, did God tell you to
do that?
And she said, why, yes, of course.
You can always tell when someone has that
nervous giggle that they're kind of spoofing.
So I repeated my question again.
Did God ask you to do that?
And she giggled a little nervously again and
didn't say yes or no.
And I pressed her one last time and
then she admitted that God had not told
her to do that.
And so I said, well, why then did
you do it?
Well, she thought it would be a nice
thing to pick up the check.
And I'll bet there are nine out of
ten people sitting in this room who don't
have the foggiest notion of what I'm speaking
about right now and would perfectly agree with
that woman that it's a nice thing to
pick up the check.
I don't know of a single person in
the history of Christendom who has ever been
rebuked or reproached or criticized for picking up
a check.
It's a good thing.
And nobody ever thinks to question good things
except a God who is increasingly insisting upon
the thing which is perfect.
You just keep doing good things like that.
And I'll tell you there shall come a
moment in your life individually and in our
life corporately a crucial moment in a life
or death situation when great issues are hanging
in the balance.
And if you have been habituated to doing
good things born out of your human will
and volition and mind you are going to
miss the perfect life-giving thing of God.
Now I want you to turn with me
to the book of Genesis.
Isn't that always a beautiful place to begin?
Third chapter beginning with the 22nd verse the
familiar story of Adam and Eve because the
rudiments of what's being discussed tonight goes back
to the whole inception of the human race
and we're still pulling the same boo-boo.
How many of you know that there's a
scripture where is it?
I think in Luke the 14th chapter that
says those things which are honorable or estimable
in the sight of men are an abomination
to God.
What do you think of them apples?
I'll tell you children there are a lot
of good things that the world applauds roundly
and that even Christians applaud which are a
stench in the nostrils of God.
God keep us from good things which intrude
and defer us from the thing which is
perfect.
So we know that Adam and Eve blew
it and in the 22nd verse the Lord
God said behold the man has become as
one of us to know good and evil
and now lest he put forth his hand
and take also of the tree of life
and eat and live forever therefore the Lord
God sent him forth from the garden of
Eden to till the ground from whence he
was taken so he drove out the man
and he placed at the east of the
garden of Eden cherubims and a flaming sword
which turned every way to keep the way
of the tree of life.
Now you say Art what has this to
do with what you've already spoken and my
answer is everything then as now children there
are only two trees from which we can
eat in fact as I go on with
the Lord it seems to me that there
are only ever two things in any issue.
Have you noticed that?
It's always a polarity it's always a choice
between light or darkness the kingdom of God
or the kingdom of this present world God's
prince or Satan's the tree of the knowledge
of good or evil or the tree of
life always a choice of polarities you can
know that you're really converted when you're no
longer bewildered by what's seen to you in
times past as overwhelming degrees of choice that
was my predicament as an atheist but somehow
as a believer everything has become grossly simplified
in or out in Christ or not in
the light or in the darkness in the
spirit, in the flesh in his kingdom, in
the world eating of the tree of life
or eating of the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil then as now God's
people ate from the wrong tree and I'll
tell you that it's an intoxicating fruit it's
a giddy thing to have your mind in
operation tempting and a wonderful kind of an
intoxication to have powers of choice and to
know about things and what to do that's
right or wrong but there's an interesting little
statement in a booklet by Watchman Nee that
really bears investigating here's what he says one
of the most serious misconceptions among the children
of God is that actions are determined by
right and wrong they do what their eyes
tell them is right, they do what their
background tells them is right, they do what
their years of experience tell them is right
and a lot of you are looking at
me and saying, isn't that right?
No, that's wrong.
That children is Judaism that's ethical humanism that
has to do with the operation of mind
and God has called you to be a
people of the spirit and I'll tell you
especially in the last days there are going
to come such perplexities and things that confound
minds so unconventional and independent of previous experience
that if you're going to go by what
you've done in times past and what you
think is right or wrong you're going to
miss it and if I could take hours
I could tell you of episode after episode
after episode at the leading of God's spirit
that has led me again and again and
again to unconventional responses wholly in contradiction to
what I thought was good.
There are two sources of life, two trees
from which we can eat, the knowledge of
good and evil, judgments based on the operation
of our mind or the tree of life
and to live from that tree is life
indeed.
God said that he established cherubim with flaming
swords to keep the way of the tree
of life and I can tell you children
that in the second Adam God has put
aside the cherubim and our return to the
garden has been provided.
We can eat from the tree of life
it's the same life which is eternal and
the same life which is abundant.
It's the life which God has invested in
his son and that's why the scripture says
he who hath the son hath life and
he who hath not the son hath not
life and that's why my Jewish people are
condemned and have no alternative but to operate
continually from their own source of life, from
their own energy from their own mind and
the end thereof is exasperation futility, frustration broken
minds, broken bodies death.
Now I'll give you a little for instance
of how God began also to add to
my understanding I got a letter from a
precious boy in California who had read the
book Ben Israel and he really was a
kindred soul, an intense seeker after truth.
He had been into cults and eastern religions
and philosophy, had gone to Paris and studied,
all his life long a seeker after truth
and somehow he got a copy of my
book and he sensed the kindred soul and
he writes me a letter he's ready to
come to the east coast and he's going
to sit at my feet, we're going to
discuss the great issues of life when I
read his background I wasn't so quick to
invite him under my roof and I was
just about to think of a nice letter
to put him off when I got a
long distance phone call of the same boy
expressing the desire to come flying at his
expense that's the kind that God loves that
constrains God and will not let him go
at that time I said look, I'm going
to be in California in a couple of
weeks why don't you save your money and
I'll meet you at a certain place, why
don't you go and visit the Fultz family
with whom I've received my baptism in the
Holy Spirit and they'll be able to answer
your questions and I'll meet you there and
so he did, and when I came two
weeks later they had answered his questions he
was saved and filled with the Holy Spirit
and you never saw a guy more ready
to go, go, go than this kid in
whom the light has broken.
We spent about a week or ten days
together in a kind of a father-son
or discipleship situation where I was taking him
under my wing he had a van and
we would drive from city to city and
meeting to meeting and he was sitting in
meetings, learning listening and having conversations I'm not
the kind of man who lays down the
great principles of the faith or the precepts
that's not my bag I like to draw
from the existential material of the day, the
things which God gives us, which are alive
in our experience and then seek for the
scriptural thing that is applicable to it.
So we were driving from meeting to meeting
one day and I was sitting in my
seat in the van with my arms over
my chest looking out the window, whistling, having
a ball not feeling under any constraint or
compulsion to be clever.
Did you ever enjoy that?
Hallelujah to be free in Christ is to
be free in deed I was not on
and I didn't have to be bright and
impressive and show forth my erudition and learning
in the ways of God in fact I've
learned that if it's not God who opens
my mouth, the things that I speak are
vain even though they may be scripturally correct
and well meaning and motivated by goodly intentions
you know what I've come to believe children
after about 10 or 11 years that the
same God who created all the earth, the
universe and all that in it is, is
able to open this mouth and to speak
out of it.
He doesn't need kid cats' help at all
well there I was silent just enjoying the
peace that passes understanding and sure enough there
was a hitchhiker standing by the side of
the road and this kid when he saw
this hitchhiker bang his foot was on a
brake and he stopped and I saw his
face full of expectation boy he was going
to witness he was licking his chops and
he opened the door and in came this
hitchhiker, it was an American Indian and we
learned he had been discharged from the service
and he was I don't know kind of
just drifting about and I took a seat
on the floor of the van and off
we drove and something in my spirit went
snap and I knew that God had provided
us with a situation and sure enough we
had hardly taken off and this young believer
was coming on like gangbusters, man was he
sweating at it, was he really cracking out
those scriptures I was amazed at his ability
in so short a time and every word
was like lead.
About 40 minutes later it was time for
this hitchhiker to be discharged and he went
out and this kid was so perplexed looking,
you never saw such a face and I
took my seat again, I didn't say a
word to him and off we drove and
he was like pouting and behind the wheel
he would sneak a look at me from
time to time, when was I going to
tell him what was wrong and finally he
couldn't contain himself longer he blurted out, Artie
said what went wrong I turned and I
said dear brother you did a good thing
to pick up the hitchhiker but have you
ever considered that the good is the enemy
of the perfect what would you think if
a quarter of a mile further up the
road there was yet another man standing waiting,
here is whom God intended for divine encounter
through you this day and you drove him
by without so much as a look because
the seat which God intended that he should
fill, you have already filled by your own
good intention let that sink deep into your
hearing children there is not a people on
the face of the earth more compulsive more
sweaty and grimy in their Christian activity than
the people of God do do do do
campaigns, programs my goodness what a wearisome nonsense
getting in the way of God and I
tell you he may have winked in times
past at our well meaning intentions and patted
us but we have come to the end
of the ages and the purposes of God
are so intricate so profound such a complex
tapestry of purposes that span continents all intricately
interlinked that no man dare presume to go
off in his own skull as a self
appointed minister to do what he thinks is
good and if you want to see a
morass and a jungle I invite you to
visit Jerusalem and there you'll find every kind
of Christian clod and amateur and self appointed
evangelist and missionary walking into each other and
into walls making a mess of the holiest
city on the face of the earth getting
in God's way again and again and again
you say I really don't figure you I've
read your book and I've heard your testimony
and if my memory serves me correctly you
yourself were picked up as a hitchhiker about
11 years ago off the side of the
road you should have the most respect for
picking up hitchhikers I should and I do
but I'll tell you children I myself do
not compulsively pick up hitchhikers I do not
myself compulsively do anything and in my conscience
does not bother me one wit to have
a completely empty car and to drive past
a person waiting for a lift and not
pick him up for fear lests acting out
of my own impulse and my own mind
and my own good intention I have obstructed
the perfect intention of God well you say
oh give me a for instance when God
does stop you okay have you ever heard
of the auto strata in Italy it's a
super highway no speed limits and I'll tell
you I was going as fast as my
VW van could take me maybe 75 pushing
80 just having a ball whistling my way
through the auto strata hitchhikers a dime a
dozen every 5 feet you can pick them
up by the car load and my car
was empty and as I was whizzing by
out of the corner of my eye I
caught a blur of a blonde head and
blue eyes I don't know if I could
see the blue but I sure saw the
blonde at the side of the road just
a blur and instantly my foot was on
the brake pedal and that car was coming
to a convulsive shrieking when that thing came
to a stop and it finished trembling my
eyes were blinking my mouth was open cats
is that an economical way to drive and
before I could think further this blonde head
had come running down the side of the
road and opened the car door and had
come in and when he closed the door
a rush of the Holy Spirit that the
hair was standing up on my arms and
my scalp was tingling with the presence of
God we hadn't driven 2 minutes that I
learned that this blonde head and blue eyes
belonged to a Jewish boy from New York
City desperately lost and seeking for the deepest
answers to life oh Art well you're called
to the Jewish people that's how come you
identified that blonde head nonsense there's a God
who is able children if we'll get out
of his way to do the thing which
is perfect give me an instance Art in
scriptures where well meaning good intentions act if
it had been followed would have had dastardly
results okay turn to Matthew the 16th chapter
this is one of the most well intending
access described in all scripture Matthew 16 and
the 13th verse when Jesus asked the great
question who do men say that I the
son of man and they said some say
that what John the Baptist and Elias and
Jeremiah one of the prophets and then the
beautiful way that the Lord had to take
a general question and make it pointed and
particular and put his finger right on our
chest I love that but who say ye
that I am now tell you what children
there's not a one of us who has
come to the end of that question in
all its fullness we're only at the beginning
of understanding of who he is if we
really understood we would be acting far less
compulsively than we do and there was impulsive
Peter waving his hand the air went wanting
an A for the day now are the
Christ the son of the living God and
he was right but he was only at
the beginning of understanding and Jesus said blessed
art thou Simon by Jonah for flesh and
blood has not revealed it unto thee but
my father which is in heaven it was
only the beginning of understanding but it's the
beginning also of blessing the correct identification of
who Jesus is and then we read in
the 21st verse that from that time forth
began Jesus to show unto his disciples how
that he must go into Jerusalem and suffer
many things of the elders and chief priests
and scribes and be killed and be raised
again the third day step one is the
first understanding of who Jesus is and the
understanding that follows that has got to do
with shame suffering pain death and the same
Peter who was so quick to impulsively identify
Jesus took him and began to rebuke him
saying be it far from thee Lord this
shall not be unto thee and I'll tell
you what children if there had been a
organization in that generation surely Peter would have
won a plaque for the man of the
year award on the basis of that one
statement I can see him now receiving honorary
PhD degrees and his picture in papers with
a big black hat and the tassel and
all kinds of recognition poets or Nobel prizes
who knows what the world would have celebrated
so wonderful and seemingly a statement as what
Peter made full of right sounding intention it
was good Lord let this be far from
you and as much as the world would
have celebrated that statement as good it's interesting
to see what the response of the Lord
was to the same thing he turned and
said unto Peter get thee behind me Satan
thou art an offense unto me for thou
savest not the things that be of God
but those that be of men I don't
think that any of us have pondered that
statement of Jesus as well as we ought
I'll tell you that it was always very
evident to me that drug traffic pornography orgies
witchcraft the occult had the origin in hell
but it wasn't quite so evident that good
things have their origin there also and I'll
tell you I'm seeing a Satan so crafty
and full of guile that if he can't
seduce and corrupt the children of God by
invitations to blatant sin he'll snare them on
things that are good that he might keep
them from the things which are perfect and
as effectively keep them from the will of
God as if they had fallen into deepest
sin thou savest of the things which be
of men and not of God thou art
an offense unto me it stinks how can
you then operate always from the tree of
life rather from the knowledge the tree of
the knowledge of good and evil well God
has performed a mystery and has invested all
things in his son Christ Jesus let's turn
to Colossians and be reminded of that again
Paul speaks in the second chapter in the
second verse of the mystery of God and
of the Father and of Christ in whom
are hid all the treasures of wisdom and
knowledge in the sixth verse we're enjoined not
only to receive the Lord but walk in
him rooted and built up in him in
the ninth verse we're reminded for in him
dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily
and you are complete in him which is
the head of all principality and power do
you really believe that how many of us
tremble to witness the Jewish people intimidated less
somehow they be more clever than we and
they'll notice our inadequate grammar and they have
a greater knowledge of the Old Testament Scriptures
and will be made to look foolish as
if God is asking us out of our
inadequacies to do anything God said to a
man by the name of Abram in his
99th year, Abram be thou perfect and walk
thou before me, do you remember that be
thou perfect and walk thou before me do
you remember that and I will make thee
a father of many nations and a father
of many nations I have made thee and
I will and I will and I will
and I will why did he wait for
Abraham to be 99 years old before he
sprung that one on him, because that's the
age of utter futility and helplessness it takes
99 years of walking into walls of well
-meaning intentions of trying by our own fleshly
exertions to produce from a Hagar the fulfillment
of God's word to show us that we
have come to the utter end of ourselves
and let go and let God there's no
accident that in the same breath that God
said walk thou before me and be thou
perfect, he said also I am Lord God
Almighty you know he had never before introduced
himself to Abram with that particular phrase no
accident, because the same God who calls us
to perfection is the same God who does
not expect that we are to obtain it
by our own striving and by our own
weakness but by every provision which is in
him I am the Lord God Almighty and
you are complete in him who is the
head of all principality and power do you
believe that you nod your head now but
this is not when you expected to believe
it will you believe it when you're faced
with a mob of 300 students who are
ready to flay the flesh from your bones
will you believe it before a cantankerous mob
where the atmosphere is so angry and bitter
that with men shooting daggers at you with
your eyes and your heart is beating like
a trip hammer and you've had a time
of prayer with the Christian students who have
invited you and then you come out of
that circle and stand all alone by a
microphone before that howling mob to begin the
first of eight days of meetings in which
they have put up stickers all over the
campus cats is coming, one word and you
were embarrassed to death hey what are you
guys doing, cats is coming what do you
think I am, Jewish Billy Graham well aren't
we prayed and we felt that if we
just advertised abstract gospel meetings no one would
come, so we used your name to attract
people, cats is coming well cats finally came
standing at one o'clock at the student
union building before the microphone at which every
day another radical comes and gives an incendiary
invitation to violence and to death and dare
you to begin the first of eight days
of gospel meetings four to six meetings a
day cats is coming I'll tell you if
ever a man felt himself to be 99
years old in terms of his inability and
helplessness it's a servant in that situation then
well I gave about a 20 minute message
and then I opened up for questions and
answers and there was a guy who was
standing right smack dab in front of me
at the back of the room when I
walked into that room and saw that guy's
face I knew he was going to be
trouble his was the first hand that went
up and you should have seen the expression
on his face what a wise-alecky smirk
and he elbowed his friends and I could
read his expression and said watch this guys,
I'll take care of this cat and we'll
end this thing and right where it begins
it'll go no further than this hey Mr
.Catchy shouted in a hearing of 300 students
will you answer me one question I went
don't do you believe in hell you know
what children I had never really ever considered
the question I mean I believed in the
scriptures but I had never really thought it
out and if you could sit me down
you would find enormous gaps in my understanding
somebody came up to me after a meeting
recently and said oh Art it was so
good tonight how I would love to hear
you preach on prophecy I said you're not
likely ever to have that opportunity what's the
matter she said I said I don't have
a single message on prophecy what do you
think of that for a Jewish man in
ministry to the Jews I don't have a
single message on prophecy children you know how
come because I only have the messages that
God himself gives me they may not be
many but every single one of them have
their inception in heaven in the heart of
the living God I could no more sit
down with a concordance in the theme and
try to cleverly construct a sermon that you
would ask me to walk over a bed
of hot coals and I was telling some
people in a meeting the other night how
I came to a meeting like this in
a place where I had never been before
a brand new New Testament fellowship and the
word had gone out in that rural community
they had come from 60 miles away 100
miles away hey you gotta hear this guy
I heard him in Jerusalem and they came
with their tape recorders poised and I came
with the peace of God and they were
expecting an encounter with God that was going
to singularly lead them at the crossroad where
they were and I came without a message
not knowing what to speak and I thought
well when I pray in my motel room
that night the Lord is going to give
it to me nothing as I'm driving to
the meeting place the Lord is going to
breathe it to me nothing and I came
to the place of the meeting and I
went to the back of the room and
I prayed again a little bit more desperately,
nothing I came and sat on the front
row waiting to be called on I was
holding my Bible in my hands like osmosis
waiting for something to come through the palms
of my hands nothing finally the time was
ticking away it was only a matter of
moments I opened up the table of contents
and I read through the books of the
Bible nothing I came up to the pulpit
and I thought surely when I pray listen
Lord, these people are expectant I prayed and
I finished praying and they all looked up
and they were the tape recorders poised nothing
I had a choice in that moment children
I could have done something that was good
or I could have done nothing let me
ask you a question have you ever done
nothing before hundreds of people with your face
sticking out and hot flashes under your collar
and your knees turning to jelly looking at
the increasing faces of disappointment of the people
of God who thought that you were some
kind of an oracle or a mouthpiece talk
about dying have you thought that the death
of which the cross alludes comes at the
end of the whole thing like when we're
going to be wonderful martyrs and it's going
to be over in a moment and a
switch is going to be flipped and there
will be a cessation of consciousness oh come
on that's groovy that's the easy part the
dying to which we're called is continual it's
a death which worketh in us and life
in them I hope you're listening most intently
because God is speaking something which is perfect
in that moment when you're feeling all of
the pains and rigors of death there is
such an overwhelming itch to do something and
I could have thought of a lot of
good things to do I could have spoken
any number of messages which God himself has
given in times past but I'll tell you
if it's not a message for now it's
not a life giving thing so you know
what I did I did nothing and I'll
tell you there was a silence so heavy
you could have cut it with a knife
and there were a few precious souls that
I knew and their faces were masks of
disappointment and I just had to tell this
brother and say finally I have nothing to
say to you and they're thinking to themselves
for this we came at a great distance
this is the hot shot of which we've
heard he has nothing to say to us
what's that isn't he prayed up you see
children and you're not even able to explain
and finally I said something maybe we're at
a new crossroad maybe this is a new
dispensation and we're being phased out of the
old game of sitting in rows looking at
the backs of each other's heads looking up
at a platform watching the professional do it
maybe God is wanting to start something new
tonight in which we are all to be
employed then the Adam's apples were bobbing out
there gulp gulp gulp gulp gulp and so
we waited it was painful and finally a
new believer who had never before ever publicly
spoken in a church got up with a
trembling voice and said I have an impulse
leading to a certain scripture and he said
could this be it and he read me
a scripture from Philippians and I said no
I got no witness from the spirit of
life that man sat down with such disappointment
and embarrassed blushing he had taken his heart
in his hands to suggest something and it
was not what God wanted now I wonder
if you can understand this I believe that
God prompted him to say that and yet
it was not the scripture that God was
going to employ have you ever entered the
school of obedience it has not a cotton
picking thing to do with our understanding and
then finally another person suggested a scripture and
everybody leaned forward oh maybe this is it,
this has got to be it nothing what
an itch to have taken that scripture and
fabricate something good and I think I could
have done a reasonable job nothing obedience unto
silence and finally after another lengthy deadly pause
there was an utterance in tongues and something
began to well up by the spirit of
life and far away in the other side
of the room came an interpretation and then
something began to quicken and God began to
work and before we had gotten out of
that room that night God had done something
perfect you know that we are complete in
him who is the head of all principality
and power in whom is hid all the
fullness of knowledge and wisdom all you have
to do is to be circumcised with him
it says in the 11th verse with the
circumcision made without hands in putting off the
body of the sins of the flesh by
the circumcision of Christ buried with him in
baptism wherein also you are risen with him
through the faith of the operation of God
who hath raised him from the dead that's
all you have to do is be buried
with him again and again and again and
the third chapter says if then if you
then be risen with Christ seek those things
which are above where Christ stands on the
right hand of God set your affection on
the things above on the perfect thing not
on the things which are below because there
are only two origins of anything above and
below and every good and perfect gift cometh
from above for you are dead and your
life is hid with Christ and God when
Christ who is our life shall appear then
shall you also appear with him in glory
supposing it didn't please God to appear in
glory when that wise student asked that question
I would have been utterly humiliated and eight
days of meetings would have gone down the
drain but you know what I did I
breathed a little prayer and I said okay
Lord, you've got me here you're on I
opened my mouth and you know what came
off I had never studied the question of
whether I believed in hell I said dear
brother all my life long even as an
atheist I have had a profound respect for
words I knew that words were not to
be spoken idly nor glibly even as an
atheist and I'll tell you there's a figure
in scripture who vehemently takes that view it
was Jesus who said that we shall be
held accountable for every idle word we speak
and he himself never spoke one and there's
not another figure in all scripture who has
spoken more prolifically about hell than Jesus Christ
himself here it is who coined the phrase
out of darkness, wailing and gnashing of teeth
lake of fire fire that shall not be
quenched and I said I'll tell you that
the hour shall come far sooner than you
think when you shall find yourself standing before
him whom you now despise and whose servant
you have sought to embarrass hearing your foolish
question played back and the answer which God
has spoken to you this day which had
you received it would have saved you from
the pain and the eternal anguish which you
shall now experience as your knees shall turn
to jelly before him something like that and
I watched this guy in the back of
the room go he was deflated by the
wisdom and the knowledge of God from a
fullness that came from the tree of life
and that was the beginning of eight powerful
penetrating days of meeting that were life for
many but what should happen dear children if
you shall utterly cast yourself on God and
be buried dead, hid with God in Christ
and it shall not please him to reveal
his glory are you willing as much to
bear that as the glory also God led
us to an outreach in City College of
New York, 85% Jewish there was no
question that this was the arranging of God
I was invited by the InterVarsity Group and
the Spirit of God fell in that room
and these guys were weeping and God showed
us that we would have an outreach the
first of its kind in New York City
to penetrate the mainstream of American Jewry and
weeks and months went into that meeting we
stared nothing, money, posters literature, prayer, fasting and
the night before that enormous encounter, I was
at Boston University with another meeting blessed of
God and stayed up till 4 or 5
in the morning speaking with my Jewish brother
who invited me there about the baptism of
the Holy Spirit in which he had not
yet entered thinking maybe I ought to get
some rest no, I've seen God perform glories
out of my witness it works when you're
99 years old and so I came that
next day I flew to New York I
sticked at the airport and driven to the
meeting and boy when I walked in talk
about an atmosphere bristling with anger and bitterness,
Jews all over that place with yarmulkes on
their heads, van Dyck beards shooting daggers at
me my heart was pounding but I'd seen
God's glory revealed before in just such circumstances
as this and so I came up to
the speaking stand I breathed a little prayer,
okay Lord you're on this is it, this
is the moment we've been waiting for this
is what we've invested everything this is going
to be the penetration of the Jewish mainstream
remember?
I shall not look in their faces, remember?
and I opened my mouth and guess what
came out dribble just a weak most limp
and the moment that the first word came
out of my mouth I knew that I
was dead a goner I couldn't understand it
I was in a condition of fast, I'd
seen God brilliantly anoint in situations like that
nothing, dry as dust and I finished my
pitiful little presentation and the first one to
stand up on his feet was the Hillel
Rabbi what a specimen boy he let me
have it he showed that audience what a
fool I was how absurd for me to
think that I could come to these sophisticated
intellectual Jews and bring my medieval notions and
the name of that one for whom Jews
have suffered two thousand years of persecution and
oppression, who did I think I was bringing
a Gentile Bible and trying to persuade Jews
out of the King James Version you ignoramus
and you don't even speak Hebrew and he
worked me up one side down the other,
it was pitiful and he stormed out of
the room, his heels digging into the floor
and slammed the door behind him behind him
the whole room shook and then another guy
got up and continued where the Rabbi had
left off and when he finished another got
up and another and another and another and
another I'll tell you children I would much
rather suffer a busted kneecap than what I
suffered that day at the mouths of men
but you want to know what the ultimate
death was it wasn't the accusations and the
fierce words from my own kinsmen, it was
the terrible disappointment written in the faces of
my own Christian brethren they didn't say a
word to me but you know what their
faces said, cats we thought it would have
been you who would have restored the glory
of Israel, man we thought you were an
anointed vessel, we thought you had experience of
universities encompassed like this what's the matter man
weren't you prayed up and I could not
answer them a word because I had no
answer and there was not a God who
was instantly at my side to say that's
okay and made nice the heavens were as
brass, silent and I languished for three weeks
like a sick cur with my tail between
my legs whimpering I never wanted again to
stand behind a pulpit where did I ever
presume to be a missionary to my own
people what made me think that somehow God
is going to speak out of my foolish
mouth such words as will persuade my kinsmen
to believe in the name of Jesus after
two thousand years of the most polluted history
I should have remained a teacher what a
mistake and there wasn't a God to make
nice or to explain to me why three
weeks later I got a phone call one
night from a woman whose voice was so
thin and full of trembling I could barely
make it out can I come over I
think you can help me I read your
book I have some questions you could answer
I said I can't help anybody but if
you want to come, come and so she
came a nervous wreck compulsive chain smoking Jewish
woman so thin you could see through her
she said my son was at a meeting
at City College three weeks ago and he
came home so impressed and brought a copy
of your book he told me that a
Jewish man came to the school and simply
stood up and gave his convictions and when
he was finished he was mercilessly attacked and
he did not so much as raise his
voice to answer any of his accusers and
my son was overwhelmingly impressed he had never
seen such a demonstration and insisted that I
read your book she said now I have
and I have these questions two hours later
she snubbed out her last cigarette and had
asked her last question and bowed that head
that was so full of anguish and consternation
and defeat and followed me in a prayer
calling upon the name of the Lord and
passed from death unto life say what do
you think children was it worth it all
that dying on my part for one little
skinny Jewish woman there's only one thing that
will save you from living from the tree
of the knowledge of good and evil living
from what you think is right or wrong
living from your judgments acting out of your
mind doing good things and keeping God from
the fulfillment of the thing that's perfect and
that is if he is the life of
your life the thinking of your thoughts the
speaking of your speech the ministering of your
ministry that you might say for me to
live in Christ he who hath the son
hath life did you know that and we
are complete in him and it says in
1st John 4 9 this is the love
of God toward us that he has given
us his only begotten son that we might
live through him you say how does that
work you mean you die to your own
self you die to your own impulse your
own will to speak to do to do
the thing which you think is right and
if you let him he'll speak and he'll
come forth exactly and when his glory shall
be revealed your glory shall be revealed with
him also but are you willing to bear
it when it shall please him not to
reveal his glory you are dead in your
life as hid with Christ in God when
Christ who is our life shall appear then
shall you also appear with him in glory
what happens when that takes place does it
sound like thus saith the Lord Jesus in
the sound chamber now you know what it
sounds like it sounds like a guy who
hobbles up on a set of crutches with
a Brooklyn accent you can cut with a
knife who has choked and spluttered in the
course of the evening where there's been moments
of awkwardness and that is Christ speaking transmuting
his life through a Jewish personality conditioned and
shaped at his hand for the expression of
his Christ in us the hope of glory
oh dear children dear children there's a way
and that way is no longer being protected
by cherubims with flaming swords keeping us from
the way of the tree of life we
are free to come and eat from the
tree of life and live forever I've come
to bring you life Jesus said and that
more abundantly neither you dead yet shall you
live because it's the same life it's both
eternal and abundant I'm not waiting to die
to enjoy it I'm in it right now
it's the life of my life it's living
through me it's speaking through me it shakes
and molds and brings forth through me his
perfect way he who hath the son hath
life and this is the love of God
toward us that we should live through him
Lord what's the perfect way to end this
if you've gotten my newsletter you'll see described
such a flow of activity such a tumultuous
ordering of events so substantial so chock full
with consequence touching nations jam packed in 30
days of activity Germany Yugoslavia Switzerland day after
day doesn't matter in what condition where what
place army chapels GIs coming out for kind
of a lock sober Germans stiff saints confronting
millionaires touching a Pentecostal denomination in the height
of its deepest crisis all the same and
you know what children at the end of
those jam packed days you are just as
fresh untied as you were at the first
because it's the father who doeth the worst
he's the life of your life the speaking
of your speaking and the doing of your
doing that you might say for me to
live is symbolically speaking will you refrain yourself
from picking up a hitchhiker and doing a
good thing that God might have opportunity to
perform the thing which is perfect will you
trust the witness of the life which is
in you to prompt you to the things
which God himself shall perform by his own
wisdom his own knowledge his own life this
is the way of the tree of life
and we are invited to it let's not
show the world more religionists with haggard faces
dark circles under their eyes nervous anxiety apprehension
but a joy and a freedom and a
life which is the life of the son
of God made manifest in us in the
way that it shall please him to express
it when his glory shall be revealed and
not one moment sooner let's bow our heads
and enjoy the fruit of the tree of
life thank you precious God for every saint
who has eaten from that tree thank you
Lord that Elijah did not leap forth out
of his own human skull because he saw
all the prophets being slain he saw an
apostate Jewish people and he thought it would
be a good thing now to confront Ahab
but in the moment the perfect moment of
your choosing you brought forth out of obscurity
and hiddenness a man in whom you had
such possession that you could command the elements
to be stilled by his speaking and invoke
fire by his prayer precious God may we
live from that fruit from that tree may
it ever and always be your act your
doing your perfect time for your glory bless
you mighty God for such a provision in
that tree thank you Lord God that the
tree that's described in Genesis is concluded also
in Revelation by the river hallelujah from whose
leaves mighty God the nation shall be healed
may we learn to eat and to live
from that tree it is my prayer for
these precious saints and all your children in
the wonderful name of him who is the
source of our life even Yeshua HaMashiach Jesus
the Christ