Is the Lord here this morning?
And how do you know?
Huh?
How do you know?
Ah, he said so.
He said so.
He's here because we're here.
He'll never leave us.
Never leave us.
We leave him.
If he doesn't leave us, well, that's enthroning.
And dear Lord, we thank you.
We do not have to beg or ask
you to meet with us.
You're here because we're here.
And we have your word that it doesn't
take but two or three for you to
meet in their midst and to meet to
worship you and to call upon you and
adore you.
And we're here this morning to worship you
and to hear your word.
And we're here for your Holy Spirit to
speak to us.
And now we enthrone you to take over.
And you have your way in this meeting.
And get glory to yourself here.
We pray in Jesus' name and for his
sake.
These days, in studying the holiness of God
and the sinfulness of human beings, we learned
that when holy God gave Israel a way
whereby he could dwell in their midst and
whereby he could be worshipped, he established the
priesthood.
And the priest and, of course, the people
had to be put to death, as I've
said a few times to the mourning group,
before the Lord could dwell in their midst.
And being God, he put them to death
in those sacrifices.
And the special animals that he'd chosen who
could typify the Lord, who would come later.
And then he appointed the priest to offer
the sacrifices, teach the word.
And they had the privilege of going into
the holy place and worshipping for themselves and
for the people, burning that fragrant incense which
went up to God as worship and praise.
And they had to be holy men, holy
men.
The priest was set aside.
They couldn't put in it their minds on
making a living.
They had to live off of the tithes
of the people.
And they spent their whole time for the
people.
Well, in the New Testament, you and I
are the priests.
We're the people standing between holy God and
the sinful world outside.
And we're to give them God's word, and
we're to enter into God's presence and pray
for those that go without, those that do
not know him.
And that's the only way the Lord has
to reach other people, as through the people
that are his.
And the only way he can reach your
unsaved friends, friends, is through you or someone
else that's saved.
And the only way, because we're the only,
we're person of this for him to live
in.
And it's only as he expresses himself through
us to other people that the Holy Spirit,
and live out the word that we give
them, that the Holy Spirit can use that
word to bring conviction to them and show
them their need.
Therefore, we're to be holy people.
And there are many reasons given in the
Bible why we should be holy, many positions
that he places us in.
And we're priests, at the moment we're saved,
we're made priests unto God.
We said yesterday we were temples of the
Holy Spirit.
When the Holy Spirit came down at Pentecost,
the people became separated people, the saved ones,
and they were placed into Christ.
We learned at Pentecost when they were placed,
when the room was filled with wind, the
Holy Spirit is wind, and they were all
submerged in that wind, or they were all
baptized in that wind, they were all placed
into Christ.
And then they were all anointed by the
fire coming on their heads, and anointed meant,
in the Old Testament, when they put their
oil on their head, which must have represented
the Holy Spirit, they were set aside for
a certain task for God.
In the Old Testament, we saw that they
were to be, the kings were anointed, the
priests were anointed, and the prophets were anointed,
if there's someone else to do it, another
prophet to anoint them.
And then we learned that another position that
we're in is that of being the bride
of Christ, that we're the bride of Christ.
Now, I never heard the sermon preached on
that, I don't know why, but one day
I just sat down with my Bible, and
I did a little thinking.
Well, now, why does the Lord call me
his bride?
Well, now, the first thing I thought of,
brides are chosen, they're chosen by the Lord.
And we're chosen by the Lord.
We read in Ephesians, we were chosen by
the Lord to be saved when?
Way back down, way back down before we
ever came into the world.
Now, if the Lord hadn't chosen some to
be saved, no one would have ever been
saved, because the natural heart does not want
God.
The natural heart only wants himself or herself.
And so the Lord had foreordained that some
would be saved, and I had the privilege
of studying theology at Southern Seminary under the
president, a great man of God, Dr. U
.I. Mullins, taught both classes, both advanced and
beginner's theology, but didn't let the women have
theology but one year.
Ours, of course, was the beginner's, and he
insisted on teaching.
He didn't have but 400 students at the
seminary in those days, and so the president
had time, or he took time and made
time, he was going to teach that theology.
And he was the most delightful teacher I
ever had the privilege of sitting under, and
he says it's God's foreknowledge.
It's not that he foreordained that some would
be lost and some would be saved, but
he foreknew who would turn to the Lord
if the Holy Spirit sufficiently moved them.
And knowing in advance who would turn to
the Lord, he sent the Holy Spirit down
to deal with them and gave them an
opportunity to hear the Word, and gave them
people who were Christians as examples, and so
they turned to him because he sufficiently moved
them.
None of us would ever come to the
Lord of our own accord.
Now we, when we're outside, we know it's
whosoever will.
Whosoever will may be saved, but where does
the will to be saved come from?
No human being is willing of his own
accord to give up himself and his own
way of life and everything to be saved,
and we're not saved unless we do.
The Lord must get complete control of us
before he can ever come into our hearts,
and so it's the Lord that moves us
and gives us such a desire for the
Lord that we just can't live without him,
so we hand over everything to him.
And so before we come, get into the
kingdom of God, we know it is whosoever
will, but even our willingness is put there
by the Holy Spirit.
And after we get in and look back,
we know that it was all the Lord,
all the Lord, we never would have given
up ourselves and come of our own accord,
that we were chosen of God.
And after we're saved, we can begin to
praise the Lord that he chose us, that
the choosing is just from his foreknowledge, because
he doesn't send the Holy Spirit to specially
strive, to specially strive with those who are
never going to repent.
He surely must strive with everybody who hears
the word, but if he knows they're not
going to repent, why go on striving?
But he especially strives with some of us
who he knows would repent if we have
an opportunity.
So we're chosen.
The bride choose the one that he wants
to, a groom, bridegroom, a young man chooses
the young woman that he wants to spend
his life with, and he chooses from love,
and of course it was God's love that
prompted him to choose you and me.
Well now, a bride just responds to love.
She just loves the man, a girl just
loves the man who loves her, and we
love the Lord because he first loved us.
And even our very love for the Lord
must be put into our hearts by the
Lord himself.
We wouldn't be capable of loving.
But the bride responds to love, and she
gives up, she gives up her way of
life, she gives up her home, she gives
up her family, she goes out to live
with that young man, and sometimes a wealthy
girl or a poor man, and she'll be
willing to go to the ends of the
earth with him if she knows one thing,
if she's convinced that he loves her.
If she's convinced, she just responds to his
love.
And you know, and I know, if a
bride ever starts out to catch a young
man himself, she usually misses him.
The bride chooses, the bridegroom chooses the bride,
the young man chooses his bride.
Well, she has to give up all of
her boyfriends to that man, and she better
give up most of her girlfriends.
A man doesn't want to come home and
find the girl's girlfriends always in the house
when he gets home.
And as I said, she gives up her
way of life, lives like he lives, lives
where he lives, and she marries that man
to be what she can to him.
To be everything she can to that man.
My friends, I find young people that counsel
with me sometimes about marriage, and all they're
thinking about is what that man's going to
mean to them.
They're not thinking about what they can mean
to that man.
Girls ought to be brought up to die
to themselves and live for that man.
There's a precious woman, remember in our church
when I was growing up, a neighbor of
ours whose husband was a merchant, had all
they needed, a nice home, and that man
built a room next to the bedroom out
the side of the house with an outside
door so he could come and go at
night when he wanted to.
And that woman knew that that man was
not true to her.
She just kept on loving him.
She kept on looking after him.
She never let one child know what her
father was an ideal father.
She never let any human being know what
he was an ideal husband.
She went right on.
She bore her burden, but she did have
the Lord.
She knew the Lord, the burden bearer.
So I just sometimes land in our church.
He was always there, taught a woman some
school class.
He was always there, sweet as she could
be.
And then in the end, after he'd lived
for years untrue to her, he became ill
and had a long illness.
That woman stood by him, nursed him day
and night, day and night, and when finally
the breath left him, that dear, precious woman
fell across the foot of the bed and
sobbed, I can't do anything more for him.
Now that was being a wife.
That was taking a wife's place and being
true to that man until death separated them.
And that's the vow she'd taken when she
married.
That's the first spiritual woman I ever knew.
And she had good books.
And she lent me the book, The Christian
Secret of a Happy Life, when I was
only 18.
I still recommend it to everybody from our
book table to our prayer center up across
the street from my home in South Carolina.
Well, a man not only chooses the person
that he wants to live with, which is
his first motive in marriage, but he has
another motive in marriage.
And here I just left out one point
I must remind y'all.
Brides and grooms love to be together.
They love to be alone together.
That bride loves to be alone with that
bridegroom.
Who ever heard of a bridegroom filling their
car full of friends when they go off
on their honeymoon?
All they want is each other.
That's all they want, just to be with
each other.
They're getting away from everybody and going off
where they're not even going.
My sister married, my second sister.
She married the fourth in a family of
five sons, no sisters.
And she married the fourth son.
And the others, only one was married, but
the others were off in the city at
good jobs.
And it became the task of the one
that my sister married to stay at home
and look after the plantation and his aged
mother.
And when my sister went into that home,
she knew the home wouldn't be hers as
long as his mother lived.
But she had sense enough to know when
she got there, the mother just turned everything
over to her, all the housekeeping, when my
sister got there.
But my sister had sense enough to keep
running that house just as much like that
old lady had had it as possible.
She didn't turn it upside down, move some
of the old furniture out.
She left that house just like it was.
And she tried to do everything just like
that old lady would have liked it.
And I visited my sister when she'd been
married a year and a half, spent a
week.
And while I was there, she said, Bertha,
John and I don't ever have any time
to be alone.
Well, they lived two miles from town.
Anytime he went to town, he called her.
When she first married, they used buggy horses.
They lived two miles from church.
The old lady was a Presbyterian, married a
Baptist deacon, joined the Baptist church.
Which she never had done because it didn't
mean a thing to her.
She couldn't believe it.
She hoped not to join.
And after he died and left her to
bring up five little boys.
And she never went to church, to that
Baptist church again.
And she thought she'd lost out with the
Presbyterian church, so she didn't go back there.
And she brought up five little boys out
of the church.
Well, of course, as a fourth son, my
sister's husband went to church with her.
Everywhere they went, they went together in that
buggy.
Just the two of them.
Well, they had a big home and a
big yard and big trees and big grounds.
And the house had three outside porches.
And they had a family room and they
had a parlor over there that they seldom
used.
There was nobody upstairs but my sister and
her husband.
Except on weekends when some of the boys
would come home.
Well, I couldn't see why there wasn't just
plenty of time for her and John Brown
to hold hands and look at the moon.
But you know what my sister meant?
I didn't let on like I knew what
she meant.
Do you know what my sister wanted?
She wanted to cook three meals with John
Brown.
And she was so for John Brown.
And she was so in love with him,
she wanted to sit down at the table
and eat with him.
And she didn't want that old lady there.
I knew exactly what she wanted.
And I was so ashamed of her, I
didn't know what to do.
After that old lady brought up that lovely
son to be my sister's husband.
She didn't want that old lady there.
How wicked!
No, what love!
What love!
How much do you just love to be
alone with the Lord?
Did you know he's your bridegroom?
And you were his bride?
Now over in the Old Testament, Israel was
called the wife of Jehovah.
The wife of Jehovah God.
And we hear the prophets wailing over backslidden
Israel.
Return unto me for I am married unto
you.
And now you and I know that the
marriage tie is the closest tie on earth.
The Lord calls married people one.
One!
That's the reason there's no divorce after marriage.
There's not a sin in the Bible listed
that people can separate from after their marriage.
Well, the adulterers were put to death under
God's laws.
I don't know what would be done today.
We don't have God's laws.
We're not living under God's laws.
But there isn't anything.
Now, fornication is not adultery, friends.
You go read the Bible and you'll see
the Lord listing people's sins.
Fornication and adultery.
Fornication and adultery listed in the same verse.
And people just naturally say, well, of course,
I'm getting a divorce.
My husband's guilty of adultery.
And how many wicked people want a divorce?
They've usually got their eyes on some other
man or some other woman.
And they accuse the other partner of adultery
when they have no evidence, really, that they
are guilty of adultery.
Fornication was sexual sins before marriage, friends.
And when a man married a girl and
found she was not a virgin, he could
divorce her right there.
Divorce her right there.
Well, that made her a public example.
And everybody in the whole country saw, knew
that the girl deserved death.
That she'd been sinning with some other man.
And they were engaged when they were children,
usually.
And very young.
And there she hadn't been true to her
husband to be.
And she'd sinned.
And he could give her a divorcement and
send her back home.
And that meant he could go find him
a proper wife.
But she was disgraced.
And everybody in the community knew about her
sin.
And he didn't have to keep her for
a wife.
And that was the only sin that anybody
could get a divorce for.
The only sin.
Well, as I said, if people were guilty
of sexual sins after marriage, the penalty was
death.
Death.
They didn't get a divorce.
When the guilty part of us is put
to death, the other one is free to
be married.
But the marriage vow is for life.
Until death do us part.
It's what you declare in the presence of
God and witnesses if you have a Christian
wedding.
If you're married by a preacher.
The sins of the saints.
Is it any wonder, friends, that we do
not see revivals?
Is it any wonder that we do not
see people going down the aisles of our
churches, weeping over their sins and saying, How
can I thank God?
Can you tell me how to be saved?
They're not coming to the churches.
They're just going to the psychiatrist when they
get torn up.
Don't know to come to the house of
God.
Well, in God's sight, when people are married,
they're married for life.
And that means that's the closest relationship on
earth.
Closest relationship on earth.
Call one.
One.
And nothing can part them but death.
In God's sight.
Well, most of you here have perhaps been
a bride.
You didn't all have a church wedding.
And you didn't all have a bridal costume
like this.
I bet you've seen a plenty of them.
And you know what a bride looks like.
Now, this one's a little disheveled.
Brides are not accustomed to being carried around
in a suitcase.
But now, isn't she just lovely?
Isn't she lovely?
And do you know what that bridal costume
represents?
Her purity.
And woe unto us that even Christians have
to have hurried-up wedding ceremonies.
And some of them will even disgrace the
church by having hurried-up weddings performed in
the church.
And some of them I've known ended in
divorce pretty soon.
Seems at least they can have a home
wedding and not disgrace the church and have
a girl go down the aisle.
In God's sight, she'd be guilty of death.
She'd be guilty of death if he were
the ruler, the earthly ruler, today.
And here she goes down the aisle with
this costume on.
Could you imagine such a thing in the
sight of God?
Well, why does a girl get in a
state like that before she's married?
Because she's not protected.
They had chaperones when I grew up.
In Atlanta, it has always been, pure girls
and pure boys went wrong and sinned sexually.
Than any city known.
They kept to, not many years ago, a
young man in Atlanta had a date with
a girl.
And his father took his son in the
car to the girl's house.
They went over to the social function or
whatever it was, and he waited for them.
If they were nearby, telephoned to come after
them, and the father went back after them.
The father chaperoned that couple.
And that was just the custom.
That was just the custom for the best
people in Atlanta.
And I had a cousin there, and she
had three sons.
She said she had no trouble.
This was up to ten years ago.
She said, I don't have any trouble with
my sons.
She didn't have any daughters.
Had three sons.
Because of the old custom in Atlanta of
the fathers chaperoning the young folks.
And we never, girls never went out anywhere
without an older brother going along with us.
Now we just turn these girls loose.
Priests and parents take no responsibility.
Chaperone the girls.
Why don't we have home parties like we
used to have?
Well, the youngsters wouldn't stand for it.
Well, they're good if you start off when
they're little enough and didn't let them go
any other time.
Have home parties in your homes.
Because they don't know a thing about having
home parties and all enjoying games together.
They've got to be old one by one,
one by one, one by one.
Well, church members.
Bend up high.
Boys and girls.
In God's sight, guilty of death.
And it comes right back to the parents.
Letting them do as they please from time
they're little.
Just doing what they want to do.
Well, that's not God's plan.
That's not God's plan.
Now, a man has a second reason for
choosing a bride.
He wants a family.
He wants children.
And he can't have a family of children
without a bride.
So he chooses a bride to be the
mother of his children.
And the proper kind of a bride lives
to bring up children.
Not to have a career and a husband
too.
She doesn't need both.
She's got a husband.
She doesn't need a career.
She ought to let him be the career
person in the family.
And live according to the way he can
support.
Unless they're widowed or somebody deserted and they
have to work.
And we'd all take our hats off to
them and pray for the Lord to bless
them.
But the business of a married woman is
to produce children as personalities for the Lord
to live in.
A few years ago, when I was over
in China, my last term, I was asked
to teach.
That last term over there, my first term,
I established churches.
And because I was the only person there
for two years.
And then after that, I'd go to the
city and stay long enough and preach the
gospel long enough.
And teach.
I didn't preach.
I just taught.
Teach the word.
Till they'd be enough to organize a church.
And then one of the men missionaries would
come.
Maybe two or three of them.
And a Chinese pastor.
We didn't have many Chinese pastors over there.
We trained up some in a seminary.
And they'd organize a church.
And one of them would be chosen as
pastor.
He couldn't stay there all the time.
Might be teaching in a seminary.
But he would come and preach and have
business meetings.
Well, my last term, I was asked to
teach Old Testament in a seminary.
And start a new church right in the
center of the city of Taipei.
The churches I'd started before were out in
the suburbs where the people lived.
And where people could go by bus.
And the buses, the city was laid off
like our Washington.
With all the capital buildings and the main
buildings.
And the railway.
And the banks.
And the post office.
And all that right in the city.
And the streets went out like spokes.
And the people could come from outside into
the city.
And the other churches had been outside.
Now perhaps that's where the people lived.
Out from the government buildings.
But the mission ordered a church right in
the center where people could come in from
every direction.
And there's no such thing as exchanging tickets.
You just get off of one bus and
you've got to buy another ticket to go
somewhere else.
And they didn't have much money for tickets
over there.
They'd lost everything they had when they fled
from the communists.
To get out.
Well, one day, after it wasn't a few
years, we had a wonderful church there.
And a couple came up from the southern
part of the island.
Where I had established a church when I
was given all the time for that.
And applied for church membership.
They joined down there after I left.
After I'd come up to Tai Bay for
the seminary.
And they came up and joined in by
letter.
They were both teachers.
They'd been teaching in the south.
They'd been transferred by the government.
They switched the teachers where they wanted and
the government does.
And they'd been transferred up to the capitol
to teach.
And came to join our church.
Well, I didn't see any children.
And after the...
I didn't get to speak to them that
morning.
But the night service, I had a chance
to talk to them after the service.
And ask them if they had any children.
And the man said, Mr. Yuan said, Oh
no, Miss Smith, we're so grieved that we
have no children.
Well, to make them feel better.
I said, well, you know that means that
you have far more time to win people
to the Lord.
And I said, Paul, Paul didn't have any
wife.
But he called the people that he won
to the Lord his sons.
His sons in the Lord.
Timothy and Titus were called his sons.
And I said, I don't have any children
in the flesh, but I have many children
in the Lord.
What do you suppose that man said to
me?
Alas, Miss Smith, Mrs. Yuan and I have
no children in the Lord.
No children in the flesh because of physical
weakness.
We have no children in the Lord because
of spiritual weakness.
Now what about them?
What were they living for?
No children in the Lord.
No children in the flesh.
Well, they came to our church regularly.
Made wonderful, wonderful members.
And after a while, they left with some
others.
And they thought the Communists was going to
take Taiwan and came to Brazil.
You know, Brazil is so pink.
Even people from red China could come over
there.
Well, when I was down in South America
a few years ago, I've been to that
continent several times.
Been to all the states except one.
Well, all the states except one.
Yes, it has that mission there.
That's been a really engaging.
Well, there once something happened and we had
to cancel it.
They had to cancel the Christian Life Conference,
or the prayer retreat for missionaries, I think
it was.
And I was down in the southern part
of South America, Chile and Argentina, Uruguay and
Paraguay.
And since we have 10,000 Chinese in
Sao Paulo, and a family that I knew
who had gone over from the mainland and
had been saved and didn't want their children
to have to be taken over by red
China, they'd come to Brazil.
And the man wrote me when they got
there and asked me if ever I got
down that way to be sure to come
to see them.
So I arranged to come back through and
they asked me to come and have a
meeting in their home.
So I came back through Sao Paulo and
the daughter of the family met me at
the airport and I'd just gotten over that.
And I was upstairs dressing and she came
up and said, Mrs. Yuan was downstairs.
I said, what Mrs. Yuan?
She said, Mrs. Yuan from Taiwan.
Hi there.
They went to the church that she sponsored.
I didn't even know they'd come to Brazil.
And I went down and there stood Mrs.
Yuan.
Of course she greeted me most graciously.
And she presented me, this is my daughter
so and so, and this is my daughter
so and so.
And there stood the most darling little girls,
one five and one two.
And I said, I wasn't sweet.
I said, did you adopt these?
No, I borned them.
And what do you suppose they were over
there doing?
The husband was pastoring a church, bringing people
to the Lord, bringing people to the Lord,
pastoring a Chinese church.
And when he got right with the Lord
and began to have children in the Lord,
he gave them children in the flesh.
Now wasn't that just like the Lord?
Just like the Lord.
Just like him.
Well, if it takes physical health to bear
children in the flesh, just so does it
take spiritual health to born children in spirit.
Spiritual health.
We've been talking these days about hindrances to
prayer.
And of course nobody's saved without somebody praying
them into the kingdom.
Now this woman represents a bride who's spiritually
sick.
Spiritually sick.
She's got sin in her heart.
How would a man feel going down to
the altar to meet his bride and seeing
her come down the aisle with all the
immoral thoughts and all the selfish thoughts in
her heart to show on that beautiful rose?
Whoever would marry a bride like that, she
surely would be a strange bride.
I showed this at Grove Avenue Church a
few years ago.
I was the pastor of Grove Avenue Church.
I've been to that one twice.
I've been to another one in Baltimore before
that with these other kids.
But the tears just started rolling down that
young man's seat as he sat there on
the front seat looking at this bride.
He just couldn't stand it.
The thought of a bride that full of
sin.
That full of sin.
What kind of bride are you?
How many children in the Lord do you
have?
How many people have you won to the
Lord since you've been saved?
How many have you won during the last
month?
Many of these girls that are growing up
having early weddings came through somebody's Sun Street
class.
Most of these that have church weddings.
Church members.
Been baptized.
Taught in GAs with somebody maybe.
Taught in Sun Street with somebody.
Did you get, were you holy enough to
teach the word to those people so the
Holy Spirit could use it and take it
to their hearts?
If they had those girls they'd have been
separated unto the Lord.
And they wouldn't have been going to places
their parents didn't know they were going.
They'd have been full of the Lord.
It's your business to have gotten them filled
up with the Lord when they were young.
Got them separated unto the Lord.
Not to grow up and be a person
like this.
Does this represent you?
Do you have any spots on you?
Or does the other spot in this bride
represent you?
Which one represents you?
The Lord makes it my business to show
people their sins.
Show people their sins.
And not only show them their sins but
show them their sins.
Show them what they are by nature.
And it's the sinful nature that produces spots.
Spots are sins.
Sins are what we commit.
And sin is what we are.
Even we may have sins of omission.
Know to do good.
He that knoweth to do good and doeth
it not the epistle of James telleth to
him it is sin.
Now the difference in sin and sin is
represented, I mean is described in the epistle
of John.
If you want to look at the first
epistle of John, the first chapter, I think
it would be good for you to turn
to that and look at it.
We'll begin with verse 7.
If we walk in the light, as he
is in the light, of course that's Jesus
Christ, we have fellowship one with another and
the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth
us from all sin.
That's iron sin.
That's sin.
He cleanses us from what we are and
counts us righteous.
If we say that we have no sin,
that's iron sin, we deceive ourselves and the
truth is not in us.
You know there are some branches of our
Pentecostal friends who are godly people and some
of them love the Lord with all their
hearts but they used to didn't have educated
pastors or pastors who loved the word enough
to go to somebody who did know what
they didn't know and learn from them.
And they taught their people that after you're
saved you must have a second blessing when
you're holy sanctified and the Holy Spirit fills
you up and when you're holy sanctified your
sinful nature is taken out of you.
Your sinful nature is eradicated and when your
sinful nature is eradicated you're holy sanctified.
Well now the only thing wrong with that
is that's just not Bible teaching and the
Lord couldn't take our sinful natures out and
leave us physically alive and my sinful nature
is taken out of me, I'm dead.
That means my life breath leaves me.
I am sin and because I am sin
I think sins, I talk sins, I act
sins except as the Lord delivers me from
them.
Now we are responsible for what this sinful
but we're not responsible for that sinful human
nature.
We inherit it.
We are responsible for what this sinful nature
produces and we might produce just a little
bit of pride or just a little bit
of jealousy.
Well that comes from the devil just like
the blackest sin as you can imagine comes
from the devil.
It's the devil coming at us through that
devil nature that we're always going to have.
It's never going to change.
It's never going to get any better.
Well, what can we do about it?
I think I'll just show you how it
looks here.
Another poster just to show you how what
this old devil nature looks like.
Now here's a young Christian man sitting here
reading the Bible and across the top there
it says Shum Ying Yu Gin The Bible
is as a mirror and over here it
says you should examine the Bible The Chinese
never speak of reading the Bible they speak
of examining the Bible and that means that
they want to find every passage in the
Bible on the subject they're studying and they
don't know where to find it and they
don't have concordances in their Bible and they're
always begging for an extra Bible because they
want to understand the Bible and they want
to get all those passages linked up and
they have to have guidance to find them
and so they'll say can you give us
an examining Bible class?
Oh, you give them a week or ten
days and you just get through and they'll
name another book in the Bible Oh, we're
going to understand that Won't you please give
us another Bible class an examining Bible class
That was after that great revival came and
everybody loved the Bible Well, over here it
says you should examine the Bible to see
what your sins are and down here at
the bottom it says the Lord does not
look at people as people look at people
as people look at people they look at
the outward appearance but as the Lord looks
at people he looks at the inward heart
and here's this Christian man dressed exactly right
in his new fall clothes with his fur
garment now over here women wear furs the
men don't wear it and the women turn
it and put it outside so the fur
acts for somebody to see now the Chinese
wear all they can afford it wear a
fur lying long garment but they turn the
fur in to keep them warm and they
put silk on the outside and there he
is with his fur garment little jacket that
the teachers wear and his felt shoes all
dressed for the winter and he's just exactly
right and he's sitting there at his desk
reading the word of God and as he
reads the word of God lo, he sees
himself the Holy Spirit like a light from
heaven enlightens his eyes and he sees in
the word of God that he's like that
poor beggar clothed in tatters and rags and
then down to the bottom there's the next
verse that says all of our righteousness is
filthy rags Isaiah 54 6 friends if our
righteousness is filthy rags in God's sight our
goodness is filthy rags what do our sins
look like in his sight what do our
sins look like what do we look like
what do we look like now he's not
seeing sins he's seeing sin he's seeing his
old devil nature as the Lord looks at
and I and we've been talking about sins
these days and of course those spots on
that dried stomach represented sins but friends we've
got to face up to sin what are
we like by nature sin I just wish
everybody here could see sin sin as the
Lord made me see it but I sure
would hate you to have to suffer like
I did after being head of a girls
boarding school in the eastern part of Shandong
for 15 years