I came to some conferences where I happen
to be, and he said to me, after
about two or three days, he said, I
just found the secret.
I said, what is it?
He's a doctor of philosophy, a very, very
well-educated man, socially well-placed and everything
that you could ever wish for, and he
said, I see, he said, we've been going
off to church.
He said, somebody chooses a sad hymn, we
all sing it, he said, and somebody prays
a sad, solemn prayer, he said, and they
announce another sad, solemn hymn, he said.
He said, I just realised, I just realised
how deceived we all are.
This is a glad thing, a joyous thing.
We join with the angels.
You see, if I said, let's all pray,
what would you do?
You would all go.
Who said that was the right way to
pray?
Did you know what the Bible says?
Now, let me quote to you directly from
your scripture.
If I quote the scripture to you exactly,
will you believe it?
Now, be careful, because believing is committal.
It isn't the acceptance of an idea.
You understand?
Are you ready?
Don't let me catch you and trap you,
for that's not what my ministry is.
But if I, I'll even tell you the
very verse to look at, but I can
quote it, and it's the whole theme of
scripture and true church worship.
Will you believe it anyway if I quote
it to you?
Will you?
I will, that men pray everywhere, all right,
lifting up holy hands without prayer, without fear
and doubting.
Did you see that praying with uplifted hands
is not a Pentecostal gimmick, it's the command
of scripture.
You see?
That's why I said, now, be careful about
believing, because you can't believe without committing.
I will, that men pray everywhere, who, tell
me who said it?
It was Paul to Timothy, our apostle, the
apostle, our apostle, so the scripture says.
Are you ready to receive the commands of
the Lord?
You say, but I was taught to pray
like this.
I will, that men pray everywhere, lifting up
holy hands.
I trust your elders give you the lead
here.
I trust they do.
If they can't get away from their background,
well, you ought to have a little talk
with them.
The scripture's the background, not traditional.
Lifting up holy hands without fear, without wrath,
without doubting.
And the earliest pictures of the church of
prayer are to be found in the catacombs
of Rome.
They were inscribed in those grey caverns there
where Christians had to go when they were
under persecution, before the religion became popular in
Rome, and the emperor said that everybody was
to become a Christian, and pagan rites were
adopted into the Christian tradition, because you can't
order people to become Christians, you can't change
lifetime of habit by an edict from some
temporal throne.
But nevertheless, the true children of God, they
used to gather in the catacombs, and they
prayed, and the pictures of them at prayer,
how would you, anybody been in the catacombs
of Rome?
Alright, did you see them at prayer?
You didn't, you didn't look in the right
direction.
That's right, that's how they prayed, now that's
how the early church prayed, they obeyed the
scripture, that's how they prayed, see?
That's the earliest known pictures of people at
prayer, that is.
You see, heaven's opened, God their father, their
faces are shining up to him, they aren't
looking down into the tragedy, they're looking up
to the glory, Lord, hallelujah, see?
Now if I passed on the apostolic command
to you this morning and said, you've all
got to lift your hands up in prayer,
would you start measuring the distance between you
and the door?
What would you do?
Lord, hallelujah, what would you do?
Say, well I wasn't brought up to pray
that way, I'm sorry you were so terribly
trained, the bible should be our handbook, I
was brought up to pray the other way,
doesn't mean to say I've always got to
walk about with my hands up like this,
and be some scarecrow, but there are these
great moments when the soul knows it's in
touch with God, when it's free from tradition
and it's free from everything, and when the
soul is free from tradition, you know where
it will go?
Straight to what the book says, because the
book has put the principle of worship and
prayer there, it's imprinted there, you will always
do what the scriptures say, when you become
true, always.
You don't set out to do it just
because it's written in the book, but be
sure that what's written in the book is
basic life, true principles of worship, that's what's
written in the book, hallelujah.
Isn't that right?
Long before God established a code of worship
through Moses, the earliest people were found doing
the thing that he was later going to
command, what?
Building an altar, making a sacrifice, it was
there, it was a basic principle, later God
codified it, said that's what you're to do,
you see, but the work of the law
is written in everybody's heart, so Romans says,
but when they're born, it's all here, and
so we come back to basic things, God's
written them in the book, but the principle
is always there and you'll always come in
the end to the Bible position, hallelujah.
Do you believe that?
I believe it with all my heart, alright,
sorry I didn't mean to preach to you,
it's with gladness we worship, praise God, we
rejoice as we sing, free hearts and voices,
oh, that's what we do, and that's what
we will do, shall we?
Would you like to play us the opening
chords again?
With gladness we worship, rejoice as we sing,
free hearts and free voices, our pleasure to
bring, beyond life or story, just here by
your Lord, the King of all glory, the
Fountain of Life.
Our hearts here this morning we want to
talk to the Lord, God's been doing something
really Now let the hearts be poured out,
prayer is not a monopoly, just let's move
in, just outpouring our hearts, understandably.
Father this morning, you can all pray in
your mother tongue, God understand.
Mind of the spirit that is given unto
thee, and if thou wilt obey the workings
of the spiritual mind, thou shalt never stumble,
neither shalt thou fall, neither shalt thou ever
turn thy back and retreat, but thou shalt
go forward in an unhindered way, and thy
path shall be light, yea it shall be
bright, with the glory of God, and all
that the Lord hath spoken unto thee shall
be established, not in promises, but in thy
life, for it is when the promise is
established in the life that it is really
established, and the heart doth know it to
be true, and not an idle or boastful
word from God, but the truth.
Sin could have no more place in your
heart or dominion over your life if you
yield your will to God, you yield your
will, come out of your fancy beliefs and
yield your will, God hasn't got you because
you recite your beliefs to him, if you
will, all the bases of God's covenant with
his ancient people Israel, or with the spiritual
Israel of God today, are on this great
basis, I will give you a new heart,
I will put my spirit within you, I
will take away out of your flesh a
stony heart, and I will give you a
heart of flesh, and I will put my
spirit within you, and call you to walk
in my statues, and because I will, ye
shall keep my commandments, and do them, and
ye shall dwell in the land that I
have given unto you, see, and you shall
be my people, and I shall be your
God, God is only the God of the
people who have yielded to his will, I
will, all God's people have new hearts in
them, all God's people have had the stony
heart taken away out of their flesh, he
was prophesying this in Ezekiel, because the stony
heart went with the stony covenant that was
given them on two tables of stone, God
had to write, showed them even in doing
that, that their hearts were like flint, a
hard, cold, stony, unresponsive heart, see, God said,
I'll take it away, I'll take the stony
heart out of your flesh, give you a
heart of flesh, hallelujah, all God's people have
new hearts, all of them have a new
spirit, that determines your attitude, your spirit determines
your attitude to anything and everything and anybody,
your spirit, that determines it, and I'll put
my spirit within you, he says, I will
do it, I'll take responsibility for doing it,
amen, I love this God, I praise him,
he doesn't let us off our responsibility, but
he takes the major responsibility, your responsibility is
to yield your will utterly, come off it,
you don't even believe your own arguments deep
down, and nobody else does, nobody, you
yield your will, when a man yields his
will, that's when God takes over, and it
is a takeover by God, that's what it
is, it isn't a little forgiving that he
gives you, it's the complete takeover, the emancipation
of the personality, the redemption of the soul,
the regeneration of the spirit, the utter conversion
of the total life, that's what it is,
amen, are you ready for that, isn't it
great when you come here, my stubborn will
at last is yielded, it's all done there
when you yield your will, not until you
hand yourself over with your will, you did
in the marriage service, you said, I will,
that's right, and God knows that, amen, it's
amazing when you hand over your will, how
your beliefs change, once you hand over your
will, that's right, glory, you cling to your
old beliefs with your will, you see, don't
let those go, where will you be, if
you let your real deep down beliefs go,
what's happening, you're like a paper bag in
the wind, when you yield that will, hallelujah,
now you'll all be taught of God, this
is another condition of the great new covenant,
you shall all be taught of God, isn't
that an amazing thing, hey, they teach you
how to live, teach you how to behave
yourself, teach you how to run your home
properly, you don't know until he teaches you,
teach you how to treat your wife, teach
you how to behave towards your husband, teach
you how to treat your children, he'll teach
you how to behave towards your parents, he'll
teach you how to behave towards the nation,
or any situation in politics, economics, education, military
spheres, anything, teach you how to behave yourself,
nobody knows till God teaches them, they've all
assumed a lot, everything, teach you to behave
yourself in every way, isn't that marvelous, it's
so wonderful to let him teach you, mind
you it takes a lot for a man
to do that, it's harder for a man
than a woman, because a man is so
proud of his intellect, whereas women have seen
the nonsense of all that, they see that
life lies deeper than that, on proper basis,
real life, but a man is very proud
of his intellect, oh my, isn't he, come
on all you men, you be honest, that's
right, hallelujah, you see, we yield everything, other
than the Lord, he takes right over, it's
the complete takeover, and know what it's all
about, it isn't a system, religion provides systems
of coming to get some forgiveness, it isn't
a system of religion, it's the revelation and
manifestation of the Son of God, Christ Jesus,
in a man or a woman, that's what
it is, amen, and in he comes by
the blessed spirit of the Lord, and he
takes up the citadel of a man's soul,
that's why he was born on the earth,
he despised a palace to be born in,
and was born in a stable, he despised
all those other things by which men set
such great store, and chose to reverse, and
as we were thinking about last night, violate
everything, and that's how he came, and even
the wisest men on earth, the magi, went
wrong, they went to the palace, wisdom can't
find him, true wisdom will know he must
be somewhere, true wisdom, true wisdom doesn't think
he sprung up out of a lump of
jelly floating about somewhere, not true wisdom, true
wisdom knows that the watch it wears on
its wrist isn't a fortuitous coming together, there
was a complete accident, and lo, a watch
appeared, saying oh no, that was made by
a mind, a thinking person, well, apply the
lesson, a true wise person knows this, but
wisdom won't take you through, the wise men
went wrong, but simple men out there looking
after sheep, received the word from heaven, and
said to him, lo, unto you is born
this day in the city of David a
saviour, which is Christ the Lord, and I
expect they thought born unto us, we don't
talk like that, if somebody has a baby,
it's born unto that man, and born unto
that woman, but the angel said born unto
you, born unto you, good tidings of great
joy which will be to all people, a
great universal saviour, isn't it marvellous, and they
just went and found him, amen, we hand
over everything to David, are you ready to
do that, no secret reserves, nothing, you can't
hide anything, there's no need to beloved, if
he looks at it, he looks at it
with eyes of perfect love, purest desire for
your ultimate good, and that's what love is,
it desires the highest and ultimate good for
the object it loves, even to the point
of self perishing, that's true love, and that's
what Jesus did, and when he looks beloved,
he doesn't look with somebody who's prying into
your private affairs, he looks and he sees
and he understands, and he knows even more
than you do about it, the way you
ticked inside, the malfunction inside you that made
you do it, he calls it sin, but
as I said the other day, he never
once called anybody a sinner, not Jesus, never
once, isn't he lovely, do you know why
we love him, really love him, you see
he is the embodiment of all my ideals,
if I think of what truest goodness is,
he embodies that, if I think of what
truest justice is, he embodies that, if I
think of the kind of mercy I should
like to find in the highest power, he
embodies it, Jesus, you see, this is what
we're told in John George, we know what
we worship, we know what we worship, and
all that we worship is embodied in one
glorious person, Jesus, that's right, we don't worship
love for the sake of worshipping love, nor
do we worship tenderness and grace or power,
that's what men in the world do, they
worship power and you get a megalomaniac, he
might come from Germany or Russia or England,
that's what we get, you see, you get
people that just worship love and you might
get a Dante or you might get some
of these other Florentine or English or American
people that just worship love, you get a
Maurice Chevalier for instance, who said that he
who hath not loved has not lived, but
he worshipped his kind of love and it
ran out to lust, you see, we don't
just worship things, it's him, he has embodied,
we know what we worship, this morning, utter
purity in the person of Jesus, as demonstrated
in life, because if we worship its and
things, we're worshipping idealistic things and we're just
dreamy-eyed, get nowhere, float above reality, but
when we worship Jesus, we worship a man
of life, we worship a man of death
and sweat and blood and tears, we don't
worship heroics, we admire them wherever we see
them, but we worship Jesus, Hallelujah, do you?
Now the only way to worship, beloved, is
to give everything, worship is uttermost, it's
the peak, worship.
Recognition of this superior one, yet had he
remained aloof in his superiority, we should have
been going to hell, but worship him who
came down, made it all understandable to me,
praise God, I'm so glad he did, has
he made it understandable to you?
Do you now understand what love is and
how to love?
Do you now understand what purity is and
live pure?
Do you now understand what righteousness is and
live righteous?
Do you now understand what holiness is and
live holy?
Do you now understand?
If not, you haven't met him yet, for
he has come by the Spirit to make
all things understandable, clear, real, so that now
I can live.
He generates me by his own power, miraculously
rising from death, with that power he generates
me, Hallelujah, and now I can live as
he wants me to live.
I still want to live better, in me,
to take up an expression used in prayer,
I may be a baby sucking my thumb,
but I've got an eternity of development in
front of me, Glory, Amen, wonderful isn't it?
I want to live better, I want to
live fuller, I want to really live, in
him, perfection, in me, a perfect beginning, going
on to utter perfection, Hallelujah, isn't that right?
Praise God, isn't that right?
You don't know anything about salvation if not,
this is what it's all about, I feel
it, I know it, I can sing it,
I can shout it, I pray it, I
live it.
The rest is starry eyed nonsense, the best
aspirations of men, but this is the gift
of God, it's the eternal life through Jesus
Christ our Lord, have you got it?
Have you got it?
See what a mess you had yourself in
before this, it might have been a wicked,
debauched, lecherous mess, it might have been a
very highly cultivated, civilized and religious mess, might
have been that, but it was a mess,
that's why Jesus came, that's why he came,
we were in such a mess, weren't we?
Come on, be honest, you might as well
be honest now, you'll have to be when
you meet him, we were in such a
mess, but he's come, hasn't he?
Yeah, he's come, if I said put your
hand up, every one of you that could
say he's come, he's here, I'd put both
mine up, you see, he's here, he's come,
glory, I know thee Jesus who thou art,
I know thee, do you?
Yeah, I know thee, that's eternal life, knowledge
of God, religion is groping for him, eternal
life is knowing him, I'm not out here
now, he's here, and all wrapped up in
love I am, is that right?
Praise God, absolutely right, I tell you what
I've discovered, I tell you I want to
discover a lot more, but we're going on,
and there's a chorus that we sing, it
says from glory to glory he's changing me,
changing me, changing me, that's right?
His likeness and image to perfect in me,
the love of God shown to the world,
do you know this chorus?
Ah, that one row said yes, will Yorkshire
please keep quiet, do you know this chorus?
Is there anybody else here who doesn't come
from Yorkshire, it might be interesting to find
out how many nations, are there any Scots
people here?
You're in the minority, you're in the minority,
any English people here?
How many other nations have we got with
us, put your hands up, Irish?
Who's hungry?
Oh, hungry!
Amen, are there any Americans here?
Hallelujah, anyone else?
Look at that, Sudan, Danish, French, that's
right, Marie, Ahad, Pascal, Ireland, yeah, is there
an Irish person here this morning?
Oh, brave, any half-breeds?
Scots and English I am.
Oh, hallelujah, I want to tell you that
in Christ I'm a new creation, amen, new
creation.
We're originals, that's right, everybody has been original,
God doesn't have any grandchildren, he begets everyone
himself, I can't beget again, we're each one
an original when we're born again.
God does not have grandchildren, he begets every
child himself, isn't that marvellous, we're all originals,
that's so we can't pass on our own
defects, that's right.
The longer a race goes on, usually speaking,
the weaker it gets without the artificial aid,
say, of medicine or science and so on.
Is that right, doctor?
That's absolutely right.
So, you see, we're not here to pass
on our defects, everyone has to be born
directly of Him, isn't that lovely?
Glory, I wonder you don't shout.
Hallelujah, that's right, directly from God.
You know, when I was a boy, I
was brought up a rabid Protestant, and they
used to teach that one of the men
that had very much of my sort of
shaping in the beginning, he used to, well,
he used to belong to the Kenseth people,
he got thrown out of Brompton Oratory for
sketching confessional boxes, and I don't know what
he, because I was a strong Protestant, so
was Winston Churchill, by the way, mind you,
there's no reflection on me or him.
And he used to teach, they used to
teach us a chorus, I have no priest
but Jesus, I want no priest beside, for
He is ever near me to succor, save
and guide.
There's only one other person in the room
who knows that, that's my wife, you see.
But what they were trying to get over
was that the system of priest craft, wherever
it is, is wrong.
Needn't have been so rabidly concerned with it,
but how wonderful, no mediator but Him, marvellous,
glorious, just directness of access, why don't you
take advantage of it, eh, or do you?
Hallelujah.
Praise the Name of the Lord.
God is directly responsible for me.
He undertook to save me, He undertook to
redeem me with the blood of His Son,
He undertook to call me, He didn't allow
another man to call me, He undertook to
cleanse me, give me new birth, He undertook,
oh, He's undertaking all the time, He's the
greatest undertaker I know.
And when He undertakes, human beings overcome.
Amen.
That's marvellous, when He does this.
He's the undertaker without black crepe and certain
size boxes.
This is right.
He's the undertaker that hasn't got a tomb.
It's all over.
Isn't it glorious?
Praise God.
Well, I mustn't preach, I think we'll read
a scripture or two, shall we?
Yeah, we'll sing it, Simpson's great hymn.
I take, He undertakes, 491.
Don't find it yet, we're not going to
read from the hymn book, but from the
Bible.
Amen.
Hallelujah.
I'm going to read a psalm that we
read last evening, yesterday afternoon, was it?
87.
Just a lovely psalm, just a short one.
After this, we'll break bread.
Oh, excuse me, I'm going to read two.
I'm going from 87 to 133.
Psalm 87.
I love this psalm.
His foundation is in the holy mountains.
The Lord loveth the gates of Zion more
than all the dwellings of Jacob.
Glorious things are spoken of thee, O city
of God, Selah.
I will make mention of Rahab and Babylon
to them that know me.
Is that right?
Will you do that?
Rahab.
Rahab was the harlot, figurative name for Egypt.
When I'm talking to all the harlotry and
all that comes under that name.
When you're talking to the world, talking to
people, I'll make mention.
I lived a harlot life.
Oh, not outwardly, but I did.
Did you?
You flirted with the world, did you?
There's a greater scandal in all our lives
than the scandals that have been revealed in
the paper lately.
Rahab, Egypt and Babylon, that's religion.
I'll talk to religion.
I'll talk to the world.
I'll talk to it all.
Behold Philistia and Tyre.
That's the seat of Satan.
With Ethiopia, this man was born there.
Hallelujah.
I was born in the city of God.
Praise God.
And Isaiah and it shall be said, this
and that man was born in her.
And the highest himself shall establish her.
The Lord shall count when he writeth up
the people that this man was born there.
As well the singers, as the players on
instruments shall be there.
All my springs are in thee.
Praise God.
That's right, is it?
All your springs are there in Zion, city
of our God.
All your new life comes from there.
There's nothing in the world.
There's nothing in Rahab.
There's nothing in Babylon.
There's nothing of this new life or for
this new life in Philistia.
Nothing in Tyre.
Nothing.
Everything from Tyre.
All my springs are in thee.
Hallelujah.
Psalm 133.
Behold how good and how pleasant it is
for brethren to dwell together in unity.
It's like the precious ointment upon the head.
It ran down upon the beard, even Aaron's
beard.
It went down to the skirts of his
garments as the dew of Hermon and as
the dew that ascended upon the mountains of
Zion.
For there the Lord commanded the blessing, even
life forevermore.
That's why so many of our hearts can
testify to blessing during these past days.
This is the reason.
That's why life has come, springing, abounding, gurgling.
Whether it's thumb-sucking life or shouting, glorying
life.
Whatever it is.
Hallelujah.
There he commands the blessing.
Life forevermore.
Isn't that tremendous?
Where brethren dwell together in unity.
Amen.
Oh, this is the real anointing.
This is the true anointing.
When they dwell together in unity, it's just
like the anointing of precious oil.
It was the beginning of Aaron's ministry.
You know that, don't you?
When the high priest of old was anointed,
this was his ministry.
It was the everlasting covenant.
Moses had to bathe him first, wash him.
And then he stripped him off and scrubbed
him.
Moses had to do it.
The mediator of the covenant has to do
it.
You understand that?
And then he clothed him in these wondrous
garments.
And then he put the jewels on him.
Everything.
Put the mitre on his head and had
the golden plate tied to it.
Holiness unto the Lord.
You say, now isn't that perfect?
Then he had to pour the oil on
him.
And upon man's flesh we are told that
this oil must never be poured.
So it went on his mitre, down his
beard.
It never penetrated through to his skin.
Down his garments.
Never touched his flesh.
Went right down there over the golden bells
and the pomegranates.
Came from the music of God and the
fruit of God.
The golden bale and the pomegranate at last.
And musically dripped off down around.
Unity.
Hallelujah.
The unifying oil.
They were all separate things so that his
hat was separate from his beard and his
beard was separate from his cloak and his
cloak was separate from his ephod and everything
was separate till the oil joined them all
together.
He was saturated in it.
Hallelujah.
Oh glory.
It's the anointing that makes us dwell together
in unity.
It's the anointing that is our sacred priesthood.
And there God commands the blessing.
That's why there's so little blessing in so
many churches.
Because they're not dwelling together in unity.
There are a lot of disjointed people that
see each other for an hour on Sunday
morning.
They're not dwelling together in unity.
They're odd bods that come from different districts
and places.
That's what they are really.
But when the church was formed it was
formed in the same way.
If you like the oil was poured on
our glorious head on the day of Pentecost.
Ran down onto the 120 all scattered different
disjointed odd bods and the church was born.
They came together in the unity.
Hallelujah.
Then they got born again right left and
center everywhere after when they were together in
one body dwelling together in unity.
Isn't that marvelous.
That's where God commands the blessing.
We've had life in these days.
We've had a bit of a demonstration of
it this morning.
It's going to get better.
Do you believe that?
All right.
Praise God.
All my springs are in thee Lord.
And all the precious oil is from thee
too.
Just running down.
Hallelujah.
Thank you Lord for your love.
Thank you.
Precious God.
Hallelujah.