Get through marveling at the hardness of our
hearts.
Beloved, we have no idea what happens to
our hearts when we don't hearken diligently unto
Him.
I was recently reminded of a word Jesus
spoke to his disciples when he said, Have
I not chosen you twelve?
It appears that he spoke those words just
before he was going to be crucified.
And he had these twelve around him.
And the great multitude had forsaken him.
They didn't like his preaching.
It was too strong.
Oh that, you don't have to take such
strong teaching.
My goodness, Dr. Levinsky Finkelstein, he preaches eloquent
sermons.
Go listen to him.
He'll tell you all about the millennium.
He'll tell you all about the tale of
the barren Daniel's prophecy.
And here he tells you to come down.
He tells you to come as a little
child.
And they all melted away and they left
him alone.
And then he looked upon the twelve and
he said, Have I not chosen you twelve?
And one of you is a devil.
I wonder if it's the devil in this
meeting.
Beloved, we meet hearts that are as hard
as a rock.
Christian hearts.
Judas, don't tell me that Judas didn't do
miracles.
Sure.
Sure, he went out with the other disciples,
laid hands on the sick, anointed them.
Sure enough.
And yet he was a devil.
Beloved, it means something to come down and
to be filled with the Holy Ghost.
It means something to be converted and to
become as a little child.
And only God can do it.
And that's why I say I marvel constantly
at the persistence of the Lord Jesus Christ.
In many different ways, he brings the truth
to us.
And when I first heard it, it certainly
did something to my heart.
How many times I'd go out of the
meeting, I'd go home.
Sometimes I'd fast next day to be sure
that I wouldn't miss getting that word into
my soul.
It changed me.
I have nothing to boast of at all,
but the mercy and the goodness of God.
But I found out others came to the
same meetings and they remained hard.
You don't remain hard, but you become hardened.
Oh, how different when God Almighty can talk
to you and make you know his call
and his gospel.
I was so glad yesterday, coming out of
the children's meeting out there, one of our
brethren met me and he said, Now, wouldn't
you rather have a Buick?
Do you know why I was glad?
Because I saw it sank in.
And I don't mind to keep harping with
my harp.
I don't mind to keep repeating and repeating
and repeating.
Why, that's what that program of Lowell Thomas
does.
Five times a week he says, Now, wouldn't
you rather have a Buick?
And finally, I imagine they make a lot
of sales, because that finally sinks in.
The secret of successful advertising is repetition.
You've got to repeat the thing.
And the reason they repeat it, and very
interestingly, they've got something to advertise.
You know, if the people don't come and
buy your product, build a better mousetrap and
they'll come.
But you've got to show them how that
mousetrap works.
Then they'll buy it.
I knew of a salesman, came to the
house, knocked at the door, the woman came
out.
I don't want nothing.
He knew women.
He said, Well, sister, you don't mind if
I sit down.
I'm very tired.
I've been walking miles.
And he let something hang out of his
pocket.
And immediately that got her curiosity working.
And he sat down and she wanted to
know what that was.
Well, that was part of the article that
he was going to sell.
And so he began to advertise that article.
And before he was through, she had bought
a basketball.
No, that's the secret of success in advertising.
It's repetition.
And that's why they say five times a
week.
Now, listen, wouldn't you rather have a Buick?
And when they tell you that, they describe
it.
They tell you how much better this car
is than any other car.
They'll tell you about the transmission and they'll
tell you about the gas line and about
the ignition.
And they'll tell you about the automatic windows
and the power steering.
And not only that, but body by Fisher
makes it a better buy, you know.
And so by the time they get through,
you feel, well, yes, maybe I would like
to have a Buick, but that's not the
end of it.
He finishes by saying, now, listen, you've heard
all about that, but you'll never be really
convinced until you get behind that wheel.
Come on, walk down now to your Buick
dealer and ask for a ride and get
in behind that wheel and take a spin
and you'll be surprised.
And then you'll realize that, my goodness, really,
Buick is a car for a king after
you've tested it, after you have tasted it.
And now, listen, God has something to advertise.
He's got a wonderful and that's what Jesus
Christ came to advertise.
He said, I came down and I was
born to testify to the truth.
He says the whole world is full of
lies.
The father of lies has deceived the whole
world and they're all on the way to
hell.
They're all walking on that broad way.
And I've come to show them the truth
and show them the way of life and
accept to eat the flesh and drink the
blood of the son of man.
You have no life in you, but you
will perish with all your religion, with all
your civilization, with all your knowledge, with all
your self-inflicted wisdom.
And Jesus Christ came to advertise the real
thing, but you will not know it.
Oh, this wonderful book will that's what the
preaching of the gospel is for, is to
awaken in your soul a crying, Oh, wretched
man that I am, who shall deliver me
from the body of this death, from this
bondage of sin?
And when God has been able to create
in you a real desire for holiness, then
he says, now get behind the wheel.
Come on, this thing is real.
This thing is real.
I'm come that they might have life and
have it more abundantly.
And you'll never have it until you get
behind the wheel, until you get the feel
of power.
Talk about Buick having 235 horses in his
schnozzle.
Oh, would you like to step on the
gas?
And they talk about power.
We sang about power in the blood, beloved,
the exceeding greatness of his power is waiting
for you, is waiting to be manifested in
your life.
That wonderful life that he speaks of abundance
of life and of the gift of righteousness
is waiting for men and women like we
are to be received as many as received
him to them, gave him power.
Oh, that's the difference.
And that's why I don't mind to repeat
and repeat and harp with my heart and
say the same thing over and over again,
because hallelujah, I've been behind the wheel.
I've been behind the wheel for a long,
long time.
I've enjoyed this power of his indwelling and
you have, but some, some folks have, they've
never been honest about it.
They've never really seen the glory of it.
They've never heard the advertisement of heaven.
What does he say?
We had it this morning in one lesson,
a wonderful lesson from the beginning of Corinthians.
God is faithful by whom you were called.
Oh my God, Buick calls you to come
and try it, but they won't give you
that car until you pay for it.
But here's something that's paid for.
God is faithful by whom you were called
into fellowship, into joint ownership.
Oh, he that was rich became poor that
by his poverty, we might be rich.
Just think what will happen to us when
we all receive him like that.
When we give God almighty a chance to
manifest the exceeding greatness of his power to
us for to believe.
And he tells us how it's done.
He says to the world, it's foolishness.
Don't expect your universities and your high school
teachers to teach you those things.
They don't know anything about it.
Not only are they stupid, God says they're
fools.
The fool has said in his heart, there
is no God, but they blubber it right
out.
Don't listen to them.
Here is one that came out of eternity
to testify to the truth, to speak to
you and to me.
And more than that, it's by the command
of almighty God, who is not willing that
any should perish.
And if Jesus Christ says one of you
is a devil, there was one, the son
of perdition, and he could have had the
kingdom of heaven, but he harmed his heart.
That's what he did.
He was a dumper to begin with.
It doesn't take much to poison your blood.
Just a little germ and your whole bloodstream
is poisoned.
That's how these German Nazis killed themselves.
They had a little pill hidden in their,
behind their teeth, so that if they got
in trouble, all they had to do was
bite it and one, two, three, they were
dead.
And you don't have to commit great sins.
But oh my Lord and my God is
not willing that any should perish, but he
gave his only begotten son and God called
us.
That's the wonderful thing.
Faithful is he that calleth you who also
will do it.
He calls me to himself first of all.
And he says, and this Christ is made
unto us of God, true science.
Oh, this marvelous science.
Do you study science?
Oh, you have to study sciences, but all
these sciences are misleading unless they're based on
the fear of God.
That's the very fountain of true science.
My Lord and my God knew that the
thing that I need and the thing you
need is not biology and not psychology and
not phrenology and not theology, but you need
something far better than that.
You need himself, his own living spirit by
whom he made the worlds.
Oh, that's the Raja Kabai, the mystery that
was hid from ages and from generations.
But now God would make known to his
saints what is the riches of the glory
of this mystery among the Gentiles.
Here is science.
And he says the wise and prudent will
never know it.
It's hidden from them.
You can't find it in their libraries, but
God will make it known to you and
to me.
How?
Why?
He says by his spirit that searcheth the
deep things of God.
That's another thing I marvel over wherever I
travel.
I expect soon to take my third trip
around the world and wherever I go among
all the nationalities in the world, there are
men and women that have received this life.
They're changed.
I found marvelous saints among the Chinese.
Marvelous young men that are now in the
army and they let the light shine and
oh how they gave their lives to God.
And what is that mystery?
Why is the thing you need, the thing
everybody needs, the thing without which nobody can
be saved is to have God in my
body and soul and spirit.
Oh, it's to have Jesus Christ reigning within.
We know something about the reign of sin.
We know how it enslaved us.
We know how it discombobulated our mind, our
mental power.
How oh my Lord and my God and
people call themselves Christians and they entertain vile
thoughts, unclean thoughts and they read unclean stories
and they feed on the husks that the
swine eat.
I found out that wherever God really enters
in, people stop reading that stuff.
They stop reading novels and pornography and even
good things.
They stop it.
Oh, you guard your heart with all diligence
because you have a friend there.
You've got a king and he dwells there
and he is a jealous lover.
Oh, how jealous he is.
How with his own blood he purchased you
for himself.
Remember that you were redeemed, purchased, not with
silver and gold from the vain conversation received
by tradition from the fathers, but with the
precious blood of Christ as of a lamb
without blemish and without spot.
God, do I mean that much to you?
Oh, if you want to know how much
God thinks of you, look at the price
he paid to have you.
And unless he has you, the devil has
you.
I mean, we don't like to say devil.
Let me see if I can find a
Latin word for devil.
Well, Lucifer is not so bad.
Beelzebub is bad enough.
But let's say the lust of the flesh,
the lust of the eyes, the pride of
life, the works of the flesh are manifest.
You can't escape knowing they're there.
All these terrible things, fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection,
evil concupiscence, covetousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, wrath,
jealousy, pride.
All these things have gripped you.
They have enslaved you unless Jesus Christ enslaves
you.
Beloved, he says, if you knew the gift
of God.
Oh, if you knew the gift of God,
it isn't a buoy that you have to
pay for.
It's something infinitely more marvelous.
And thank God there are millions of people
that are opening their hearts and opening their
lives and paying the price.
We were surprised when we came to Germany
to find out how many true martyrs Jesus
Christ had.
And strange to say, some of the Pentecostal
preachers became kisses of the beast right away.
They became preachers for Hitler immediately.
And then when Hitler lost his power, then
they came back and became Pentecostal preachers again.
Listen, one of you is the devil.
Jesus knows them that are his.
And let them that name his name depart
from iniquity.
But Catholics, Lutherans, Baptists.
I know a preacher.
I think it was a Baptist preacher.
They strung him up because he wouldn't recant.
He wouldn't give up his faith in the
Lord Jesus Christ.
And then they doused him with water in
20 below zero until he was a block
of ice.
And that's how he died.
And far worse than that, right in the
city of Stuttgart, where we had our tent
meetings, right under that tower where that main
station is, they had a torture chamber.
They took some preachers, some Lutheran ministers who
refused to bow to Hitler.
One man particularly, they whipped him to death.
And there were 1,500 prisoners that had
to stand there with their hands behind their
heads and watch it.
And his mother, his wife and his child
had to stand there and watch their father
being beaten to death like that because he
was true to Jesus Christ.
I tell you, the Lord Jesus Christ has
men and women that appreciate him.
How about you and I?
Beloved, the fire of hell will be awfully
hot in that day.
But today the fire of the Holy Ghost
is still warmer, still hotter.
And we would know it if we gave
God half a chance.
He says he has made him to be
unto us true wisdom, true wisdom.
Oh, to know Jesus and the power of
his resurrection.
And you know what he says, what is
made unto us.
First of all, righteousness.
Do you want to be righteous before God?
Oh, to have Jesus Christ imputes to me
his righteousness.
I live no more, Christ live within me.
And how does that happen?
First of all, that I've repented of my
sin.
Do you know that sin shall not have
dominion over you only as you allow it?
You're making that choice.
Somebody said, oh yes, it was this morning
in a testimony.
No one can get past the cross of
Christ.
Either you accept the crucifixion for yourself, you
crucify your flesh with the affections and lusts,
either one or the other.
You accept his death to be the death
of yourself and you reckon yourself dead indeed
unto sin.
That's what the blood of Jesus Christ does
for me.
Or you crucify him afresh.
You say, we don't want this man to
reign over us.
Oh, the glory of the call of God
by whom you were called into the fellowship
of his son, Jesus Christ, our Lord.
And oh, how gracious that everyone can come
to Jesus and meet him personally.
Let him kiss me with the kisses of
his mouth, speaks of intimacy, like the father
kissed the prodigal when he came home.
So Jesus Christ will meet me.
I sometimes look into the books of the
saints.
Bumi and Chrysostom and whatever their names are,
St. Augustine.
And it makes me woozy.
But when I read the words of Jesus
Christ, I get light.
Says, come unto me.
It's as if we confess our sins, he
takes over.
He is faithful and just to forgive us
our sins.
Why do you carry your sins around with
you?
They'll curse you in the end.
Jesus Christ has borne that sin away in
his own body.
And if you honestly face the issue, he'll
forgive you every transgression.
How wonderful.
You don't have to weep over it anymore.
But as you confess it to him.
Oh, this personal interview with Jesus every day,
every day I need him.
Every day he waits for me every day.
And not only does he forgive, but he
cleanses me from all unrighteousness.
Beloved, I need that experience, don't you?
I need to experience Jesus like that.
And it costs something.
But look what men pay to go to
hell.
Look what they pay.
I thought tonight when we dedicated or brought
this child to the Lord.
I wondered how many of you I had
in my arms.
And I kissed you for the whole assembly.
And I wonder how many I've married.
Only once, there must have been 100 couples
I married.
And only once did I get a letter
from the bridegroom or the husband.
Years later, and he told me I'd done
a good job.
Gave him a good wife.
You know, that blessed me.
Oh, praise the Lord.
Hallelujah.
And here, how many of us have faced
Jesus in honest to goodness repentance?
My beloved Jesus is here tonight.
He is ready to forgive, ready to cleanse
from all unrighteousness, ready to possess every heart.
And I suppose everyone here has received him.
But how is he in the heart?
Do you allow him freedom?
Does he speak to you from his word?
When you read out of this wonderful word,
does Jesus Christ make his life to flow
within you?
Does he unsheathe his sword and make this
word a discerner of the thoughts and of
the intents of the heart?
Oh, beloved, he says, as many as I
love, I rebuke and chase.
And he won't let you get away with
others get away with.
He won't.
You don't have to.
Here's my righteousness.
Oh, thank God.
Not something that I imagined, but it's himself.
Jesus is made unto me from God.
If you knew the gift of God.
And the reason we don't know how it
is to drive a Buick because we've never
been behind the wheel.
And the reason we don't know Jesus is
because we have not allowed him to do
for us what he wants so much to
do.
Oh, just one surrender to him.
Glory to God.
Now I'm almost through.
But listen, he is made unto us sanctification.
That's the second step.
Holiness unto the Lord.
Oh, without which no man shall see the
Lord.
And what is that?
Why?
It's that wonderful life.
We sing, live out thy life within me.
Oh, Jesus, King of Kings.
Has he promised to do that yet?
Is that the world sees me no more,
but ye see me because I live, ye
shall live also.
And I said, Jesus, I don't know how
to live, but you know how to live
now.
Come on.
Take over.
Take over, Jesus.
You live out your own life.
And here he gives us a description.
He says, now get behind the wheel.
Come on.
Let me manifest my power.
As many as received him.
That's where the power is.
Oh, by faith, I have contact with him.
By faith, I take him.
Glory, glory to Jesus.
What a wonderful offer.
What a wonderful advertisement.
Read that New Testament.
Make it your own.
Get interested in it.
I'll never forget how God opened my understanding
for the Bible.
I was a kid then and I had
a new Bible given to me.
A brand new Bible.
It was brand new for a long time.
Until that period.
And then in three months time, it came
apart.
I read this week, I think, in the
Sunday school times of a church in Europe.
And the people who don't belong to the
church call that the Church of the Worn
Bible.
Because the people are poor.
They treasure their Bibles.
They can't afford to buy new Bibles.
And so the Bibles come apart.
But they treasure them.
They tie them together and they bring them
along to church, you know.
And the people are known by their Worn
Bibles.
Wouldn't it be nice if everybody came to
this church like that?
With the Worn Bible under his arm.
I see the Catholics go there with their
mess books.
I think that's wonderful.
Or mess books, excuse me.
I don't know what you call them.
But anyway, they're not ashamed to show them
to the public.
And we ought not to be ashamed to
show our Bibles to the public.
And this is the Church of the Worn
Bible.
And so was mine.
Oh, it was worn by.
But it came to dwell within my heart.
Oh, beloved, Jesus is a very wonderful, wonderful
gift of God.
And that's how he gives himself when you
really want him.
And the Bible is given to us to
make us want him.
To create desire within us.
To make us know the things that are
freely given to us of God.
These exceeding great and precious promises.
For instance, God says, I'll be your God.
And you shall be my sons and my
daughters.
Hallelujah.
And everything that Jesus says in the Sermon
on the Mount is based on that fundamental
promise.
Our Father which art in heaven.
How much more shall your heavenly Father give
the Holy Ghost to them that ask him.
And that has not reference only to the
baptism.
But it has reference to that breathing of
that indwelling life of Christ.
Now he dwells within.
Now this new man is alive within you.
He breathes.
Oh, how restful is that kind of a
life of holiness.
There's no strain there.
There's no effort on your part.
There's an abandonment by faith Christ in me.
The hope of glory.
And even though he leads me to war,
fair forth.
He buckles my armor on.
And he says, this battle is mine.
I'll fight for you.
You shall hold your peace.
Oh my Lord Jesus Christ, you're too wonderful.
And I think it'll take all eternity to
find him out.
I believe that all the ages of eternity
will reveal more beauties and more glories.
Else I think life in heaven would become
monotonous.
But you know, that's what makes it interesting
here on earth.
Jesus, all in all.
And he's also made unto us redemption and
beloved.
Don't think of redemption as something future, but
he works it now.
That's where divine healing comes from.
Oh, he breathes upon us.
If Christ is in you, the body is
dead because of sin.
It means don't be surprised if this body
squeaks.
It's a broken down house.
It's the body of our humiliation and it's
dead because of sin.
As long as we're in this body, the
body will always be attacked and tested by
the forces of hell.
But the spirit is life.
Christ is here.
The spirit that raised Jesus from the dead
will keep that body of yours in repair
until the trumpets.
Oh, how we need the Holy Ghost.
Oh, how we need to open our heart.
Beloved, we have no time for anything else.
Let the world whistle or sing or blow
their trumpets or play their hearts or do
what they please.
It doesn't touch us.
You remember those Christians in Vanity Fair?
How they tested them and tempted them.
They said, we don't want any of your
stuff.
We buy the truth and we don't sell
it.
Glory to God.