having dominion over us, but he says we
will only make mention of thy name.
And that gave me a clue to what
I think we should think about today.
Maybe you can pinpoint one of the gods
that had dominion over you.
Could be a god of lust, a god
of fashion, a god of covetousness.
Something that you, well, to use another phrase,
you idolize.
Something that you thought was worth everything that
you had as an offering.
And this made me wonder about the day
in which we live, what are the gods
of the the present hour in our society
or in our way of life.
I think there are two outstanding gods that
we have.
One is sport and the other is pleasure.
It's a strange day when a man can
fight for an hour and get six million
dollars.
And yet people would grumble to give six
hundred dollars maybe for a piece of massive
surgery that saved their lives.
There's no question about it that this is
a great god because the right now while
the sanctuaries are not filled, the sports palaces
are filled.
Even on this day we would find thousands,
tens of thousands of people in ballparks and
elsewhere watching their particular game, the thing that
fascinates them.
They don't care how far they travel, they
don't care if they sit in the roasting
sun.
As I've said, someday if you want to,
if you want to make money, surely some
of you men could do this, you could
invent a pew as soft as a bleachers.
Because it never hurts anybody to sit in
the roasting sun hour after hour after hour.
But if they sit in a church that
happens to have antique pews like ours that
are not too soft in parts, springs have
gone on most of them, they find it
unbearable.
Of course they blame the preacher for being
boring, which may be true.
But the fact is, you see, the thing
that you love you can give yourself for.
Again I raise my hat to some degree
to some of these men and women who
were athletes in the recent contest.
I think it's putrid when politics ruined them
as they did, but then politics is another
god.
I'm getting all kinds of literature telling me
if we only get the right men in
Washington we'll change the nation.
That's bunkum.
I can prove to you historically that doesn't
work, the opposite works.
In nine cases out of ten men who
got there virtuous get corrupted rather than the
other way about.
So the gods again I think of this
day are pleasure.
Oh my.
How much we'll give for it?
Sport.
And so Isaiah is talking not about those
gods at all, he's talking about the periods
when they were in bondage historically.
And he says other gods had dominion over
us.
Now I say today the gods are gods
of pleasure.
And this made me think how often when
we've been traveling, just as you've seen the
same thing, you see a big sign and
you see these things all whirling around you
know and you pay a dollar to be
sick.
And you get on a machine and you
get up and you don't know whether the
world's going round or what's wrong or if
your legs have suddenly lost all their power
and you stagger around.
Because you've been in what they call an
amusement park.
Sometimes it might be called by another name
a pleasure park.
But did you ever see one that was
called a joy park?
You see the world in which we live
does not know the difference between amusement and
what it calls happiness, and ecstasy, and euphoria,
and mental lifts, and joy.
Now you use the word as we sang
it today, I asked brother Herb to have
this song.
Rejoice in the Lord always.
And rejoicing is really an expansion, it's a
kind of super edition of joy.
It really means joy, crowded on joy.
And the apostle says rejoice in the Lord
always.
And again I say rejoice.
I think that maybe in the eyes of
the world there's one cliche, it's a scripture
true enough that has been attached to the
name of Jesus.
And very often people quote it and they
say well Jesus was a man of sorrows.
Nobody ever says Jesus was a man of
joy.
Now I don't believe for a minute that
Jesus was frivolous, I don't think he told
jokes.
His mission was far too serious for that.
He certainly wasn't a comedian.
He certainly didn't try to establish a rapport
as people do with the audience to which
he was speaking.
And yet it's impossible to think of Jesus
attracting little boys and girls as he did,
unless there was some radiance about him, there
was something wonderfully different about him.
And while I can't pinpoint and say well
you know here, this is where Jesus expresses
his joy or laughter, or what we would
really call delight, yet I do know that
he prayed for his disciples that they may
have his joy fulfilled in themselves.
And he prayed not only that they should
have joy but that that joy should remain,
it is permanent.
You see you can't buy it.
It isn't even a gift of the Spirit.
It is a fruit of the Spirit.
The first time I think of it in
the in the prophecy of Isaiah chapter 12
verse 12 says, with joy shall ye draw
water from the wells of salvation.
That was reminding the children of Israel of
the time when they had no water, water
was so vital to them.
They didn't have a supply as we have
it, they had to bore, drill their wells,
and very often again they had dry wells.
You remember how they cried by the reason
of the fact they had no water.
And when they discovered joy they had a,
when they discovered water they had a celebration,
they danced, they laughed.
It was life to them, it was life
to their produce, it was life to their
cattle, it was life to everything.
And you remember on the last day, the
great day of the feast, they did what
they had done for thousands of years.
You see we still keep the feast of
Passover, we keep it as Easter.
And we think of the, though it's not
celebrated much in this country, in Europe, the
feast that we call Witzentide, or the coming
of the Holy Spirit of God.
The feast of Pentecost is celebrated.
But somehow we've all lost trace of the
feast of tabernacles.
They made booths and, and they had celebration
and they had great joy.
I read somewhere where a critic recently was
pulled up outside of a church in England.
It was about 11 o'clock and people
were going to church and he noticed that
about 10 old ladies went in, one man,
no young people.
And he said cynically as they went in,
well, I don't wonder they're going like that.
He said, it seems to me by the
expression on their faces that they're going to
the dentists.
And he said, I waited when they came
out and I was sure they'd been.
Well that's good, it's facetious, but by the
same token the house of God is not
a circus and the preacher isn't a comedian.
In this critical hour in which we're living,
the onus is not on the White House
but God's house.
Too easy to go rummaging amongst that stuff
and saying this is the fault.
You can't put the blames there.
The blame is on God's house.
Just a few days ago there was a
big conference there in Minneapolis and one of
the men, Simpson, who used to be with
the Christian Missionary Alliance, now with a charismatic
group and he made a point that we've
so often that right now the day is
fast closing upon us and before long the
church will have no protection.
Personally I wouldn't care a hill of beans
if they did tax churches.
Not a bit.
Drive a lot of the wolves away.
You'll soon find out who are the men
who are really serving Christ because they love
him and love people and not after a
job.
Before long I think that when you pay
your pay packet there'll be extra things kept
out of your pay packet.
Before long they'll be taking a certain supply
of money out of the offerings in the
church.
The end of the age is crowding in
upon us and there is no way of
saving it either in America or anywhere else
except revival.
And I mean revival.
I mean historic revival.
I mean that somebody somewhere has been traveling
for months and months.
You don't have revival to order.
God isn't on the side of money and
organization.
If he was I'd quit.
Revival has come in the poorest circumstances, in
the hardest situations, but it has never come
without birth pangs.
It has never come without blood and sweat.
The son of God couldn't get it any
other way.
Do you think you and I will get
it cheaper?
There's going to be a purging in the
church of Jesus before long.
I'm absolutely sure of this.
He's going to send his fire.
He's going to come as a rushing mighty
wind.
He's going to come as John said, and
when he comes who shall abide the day
of his coming?
He's going to come like the man who
has the wheat there and he winnows it
there with the tribulum from which we get
the word tribulation.
And he says when he has come, he
says John says now you just think I'm
wonderful because you haven't ever seen a prophet
in your life.
I believe one of the signs of God's
judgment on us as a nation right now
is we have no prophets.
If you know one tell me.
Preachers yes, clever preachers yes, theologians yes, organizers
yes, prophets no.
And when God is angry with a nation,
he gives a nation no prophets.
You see some people think that God's judgments
are not around unless buildings start falling down
and we have a massive earthquake or something.
Or we have a plague such as this
mysterious illness in uh which could have developed
in the country that's that's come pitiful enough
and sorrowful enough there in Philadelphia.
You see God's judgments are not always as
obvious as that.
Right now the great need is as the
prophet Isaiah says we're in a dry and
a thirsty land where no water is.
And therefore water I say was a a
benediction.
It brought ecstasy.
It brought great joy.
And on the last day they poured out
that water.
No the next to the last day they
did.
For seven days they did it.
The last day Jesus stood in the place
where day after day after day they'd poured
from a golden vase, they'd poured water brought
from the pool of Siloam.
On the last day Jesus stood in that
very place.
I think one of the most heroic things
he did.
That temple held more than 6,000 people.
All the hierarchy were there.
The men wearing their plumes.
All the distinguished people were there.
And Jesus stands in the place where every
day the man who had a prerogative with
God according to their concept, the only man
who had the right to do it, stood
there and they pulled out the water and
he reminded them of when the rock was
split and God sent them life.
And Jesus stood there on the last day,
the great day of the feast and said
if any man thirsts, that was a smack
in between the eyes because they believed only
the Jews had a right to thirst.
The Jews haven't a monopoly of God.
If any man thirsts, let him come unto
me and drink.
Out of his inmost being he said there
shall flow rivers of living water.
And this spake he of the Spirit who
was not yet given because Jesus was not
yet glorified.
And you may have your theories as to
why there's a holdup of revival and I'll
tell you why.
In my judgment because Jesus is not yet
glorified.
There's too much trivia blocking the way.
And it wasn't until the fire descended and
those men came out of the upper room
in the anointing of the Spirit of God
that they went forth to turn the world
upside down.
All right?
This is the secret then.
The secret is joy.
With joy shall ye draw water from the
wells of salvation.
Again I say joy is not a gift
of the Spirit.
It is a fruit of the Spirit.
But notice will you it's always second on
the list.
The fruit of the Spirit is what?
Love and joy.
What is the kingdom of God?
The kingdom of God is not meat and
drink but righteousness and joy.
And joy comes by living righteously.
And joy comes when the love of God
is shed abroad in the heart by the
Holy Ghost.
You see it's not a mental thing.
It's not merely an emotional thing.
You could go to church and sing an
hour and clap your hands and have all
the joy in the world and fall flat
on your face five minutes after if that's
the only joy you have.
Because it's something you work up.
It's an emotion.
It's an ecstasy.
It's a euphoria.
People say you know I didn't get much
out of the preaching but boy I enjoyed
the singing.
Well I've never been to a camp meeting
and enjoyed the singing and felt the same
kind of relief I have.
I sat around the campfire when they've sung
songs and boy when they finished I could
have gone and conquered the world.
You know why?
I'd forgotten all about my problems and my
other things and I felt real good because
I'd had a good sing and my soulish
part of my being has had a lift.
But that isn't joy in the way that
the word of God speaks of it.
What is the secret of joy?
Well I put it this way and I
don't know any way better to put it
than you could because you have a different
mind.
But this is how I put it in
my mind.
The essence of joy, the essence is a
presence.
And I found the key to it in
the 16th psalm in the last verse where
it says, Thou will show me the path
of life, listen, in my presence is fullness
of joy.
You see you can take everything from me
except his presence.
You can take the fellowship of the saints,
you can take the church, you can take
my bible, you can take my freedom, but
you can't take his presence.
Now often we, I've heard this quoted at
funerals, you know, that somewhere beyond the bright
blue sky there's a wonderful place, there's a
land that is fairer than day and by
faith we shall see it afar.
And I wouldn't diminish that glory for anything,
but I'm quite sure of this, that there's
something I need between here and there.
I've a long journey to make, you've a
long journey to make.
You see and the New Testament makes it
very, very clear that as long as you
and I are in this body, in this
flesh, we're going to be tested and we're
going to be tried and the one thing
that Satan wants to destroy in us is
the peace and the joy that God has
given us.
In my presence is fullness of joy, not
just joy, but fullness of joy.
This psalm is a great psalm.
I'm not going to stay in it too
long, but let me read it to you
as I read it in the 16th psalm
again, verse 5.
The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance.
This is all in Ps, call them sweet
Ps if you like.
Verse 5, the Lord is the portion.
In verse 6, the lines have fallen unto
me in pleasant places.
In verse 8, I have set the Lord
always before me.
That's the position.
In verse 11, thou wilt show me the
path of life.
In my presence is fullness of joy, and
at thy right hand are pleasures forevermore.
The last thing to say there is that
there's permanence.
Do you remember what God said to his
servants there in Malachi chapter 3?
He says, I am the Lord, I change
not.
Now, we take it up in the New
Testament and we say, Jesus Christ the same
yesterday, and today, and forever.
But that is not only true of God
future, it is true of God in the
past.
I am the Lord, I change not.
Therefore, ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.
So, you see, this joy that he gives
us is a permanent joy.
It's a person.
It's a position.
It's a possession.
It's permanent.
In the 33rd chapter of Exodus, you have
a man whose life had been shattered.
He had had one of the most unique
experiences that any man ever had from Adam
to this day.
He'd been on a mountain with God.
I had a phone call the other day
from a young man in Pennsylvania.
Seemed a very charming man.
He had a cultured voice.
And I discovered he had the advantage of
the best universities in this country.
35 years of age, an income of 120
,000 a year, being asked to move into
a vice presidency, and then move into the
presidency.
The whole world dropping into his lap.
But he said, somebody smuggled a book to
me called, Why Revival Tarrys?
And I read two verse chapters and it
killed me.
I'm going to tell you, he said, I
sat down in a chair and I wept.
And I mean I wept.
I wept with brokenness.
I wept with contrition.
I wept with sorrow.
Because he said, you see, God had just
called me from a job of $2,500
a week at 33 years of age, 31
years of age then.
And the only thing I could do was
obey him.
And we went and lived in a basement,
my wife and I, and we slept together
on a couch that was all messed up.
And he began to tell me how God
had led him step by step by step.
And then he said, God said to me,
shut yourself away.
I got to the end of the second
chapter, he said, of Why Revival Tarrys.
And in my broken condition, I said, Lord,
I'm going to hide away.
I promise you I'll go.
And a little while after, he said, I
started reading the third chapter, and in the
third chapter of your book, you said this,
why don't you go and hide away?
And that was confirmation.
And I got a cabin in the mountains,
and I met God.
Did you ever meet him?
Some people only meet their lousy sins.
Some people meet the logic of the preacher.
Some people meet the terrors of hell.
Some people are just afraid if we don't
do something, God won't rescue America.
I read a book the other day when
a man says, the supreme love of God
in the world today is America.
That's pure idolatry.
We've had 25 years of living like kings,
where a lot of people have been going
up the road in oxcarts.
I've been in countries where in 1970 something
it was, when I went, say 65, people
didn't still have a g-string.
They hadn't a house, they hadn't a shop,
they hadn't a place of worship, they hadn't
a testimony, they hadn't a missionary.
What in God's name is he to bless
us for?
The best thing that could happen would be
concentration camps.
You don't say amen, but you say it
would be, because maybe that's the only way
we'll get revival.
He's blessed us, he's kissed us, he's nursed
us, he's showered his blessings on us, and
we break his sabbaths, and we fill our
coats with divorce, and we're the most immoral
setup we've ever had in history.
It's not going to come by legislation.
It's going to come when the church of
Jesus Christ has a vision of his holiness,
a vision of his majesty, and we're broken
and humiliated before him, where we say as
John not said give me Scotland or I
die, but we say give me America or
I die.
Moses had been on the mount with God.
Do you think he ever forgot it?
He comes down nursing his tables of stone.
He comes down in ecstasy.
He comes down with all the joy of
the Lord upon his spirit, and then he
comes down, he hears music, and he says
this is not the voice of the people
who are crying for deliverance.
This is not the voice of the people
who are feared upon them, and he sees
that while he was up there with God,
that just a few yards down the road
as it were, they made a golden image,
they made a molten image, and he was
angry.
And he threw down the rocks, and in
a nice way God says listen Moses if
I got as angry as quickly as you
do, boy I'd have burned this world up
many times over.
And the Lord takes him on one side
and talks to him a little while, and
he cools down a little bit, and the
Lord says now come on I'll tell you.
I'm going to let Israel do this and
do that.
Do you remember his answer?
Moses says will your presence go with me?
I think that's very wonderful.
He didn't bargain with God.
Why didn't he say Lord I'll admit you're
the greatest person in heaven, but you know
I'm the greatest person on earth.
Do you know I gave a job, I
gave up an income of multi-million dollars.
Do you know I used to live in
a palace where the rugs were worth a
million dollars each, where I had slaves.
I've given up a multi-million dollar income
to serve you with this lousy bunch of
people.
I deserve something better than this.
He didn't say that, he says give me
thy presence.
Do you remember the hymn writer Francis Henry
Light?
He went to the school our boys went
to in Ireland, years before they went of
course, and he wrote the hymn Abide With
Me.
And in it he says I need thy
presence every passing hour, not but thy grace
can foil the tempter's power.
You see if you have the presence of
God, because God will not dwell where there's
uncleanness.
You may have different ideas, that's all right.
You're responsible to God for what you have.
I believe one reason we don't have revival
is the churches are not pure enough to
handle it anyhow.
Where are you going to put them if
you get them saved?
Mr. Chadwick was a great authority on revival
and he used to say to us over
and over again, gentlemen remember this, you don't
put a newborn baby in a refrigerator, Zion
has to get into that place where she
can mother the offspring that God is going
to give.
We need what the Word of God calls
mothers in Israel, that we're going to have
to nourish and care for this new thing
that God is going to do.
The psalmist I say says that thou wilt
show me the path of life.
I like that.
Every other path is death, I don't care
what you have on it.
You can have ecclesiastical dignity, you can have
your multi-million dollar crusades, you can have
great people to pronounce their blessing on it,
they're death in them unless he leads.
But when he leads, it's the path of
the just that is a shining light.
It's the path he says, thou wilt show
me the path of life, and in thy
presence there is fullness of joy.
You see that's the answer to all our
problems.
I read just the other day of a
man, he'd had a good profession in a
church, and he had one boy that he
loved very dearly, and that's quite legal, and
everything the boy wanted he got.
Finally he said, Daddy, you know there's a
very smart racing car down the road, at
least, it's not a racing car, it's a
sports car, it's an important, uh, well there
is another one, well there's one in the
university, but I would like this one.
My favorite color is a kind of canary
yellow, and, uh, I have a girlfriend and
she likes yellow, she wears yellow dresses, and
she likes yellow flowers, and you know, I
think I could pull it off if I
had this car, and Daddy bought it.
Two or three days after the police rang
the doorbell, and announced the boy, and somehow
missed it going round the bend, and they
found the wreckage of the car up against
the pillar in the road.
Well, obviously they had to bury him, and
the father, after the service, was talking to
the pastor, and he said, you know pastor,
I think I've done pretty good for the
church.
Remember when you needed an organ?
Well, I gave you almost all the money.
Remember when you needed other things, and he
went on, and he said, uh, tell me
pastor, where was God when my boy died?
The pastor looked him straight in the eye,
he said, brother, he was exactly in the
same place that he was when his own
son died.
Hmm?
Are we Christians because it's safety first?
Are we Christians because there's some kind of
enchantment around us, in a dirty, sordid, wicked,
perverted world like this?
What's my reason for wanting his presence?
I want his presence because I want to
know the path of life.
I want his presence because I want fullness
of joy in my spirit, not in the
external things.
You know, in that wonderful psalm, I had
been meditating for a while on this, and
then I thought of this psalm 139.
I don't think any of the psalms are
shallow, of course, but this is one of
the most profound of all the psalms.
Psalm 139 begins, thou hast searched me and
known me, thou knowest my down-sitting and
mine uprising, thou understandest my thoughts afar off.
Verse 40 says, there's not a word in
my tongue, but thou knowest it all together.
Verse 5, you've set me behind them before.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, I
cannot attain unto it.
Now look at this, verse 7.
Whither shall I go from thy presence, or
whither shall I flee from thy, whither shall
I go from thy spirit, or whither shall
I flee from thy presence?
If I ascend into heaven, thou art there.
If I make my bed in hell, thou
art there.
If I take the wings of the morning
and dwell in the uttermost parts of the
earth, even there shall thy hand lead me
and thy right hand hold me.
If I say, surely the darkness shall cover
me, even the night shall be as light
about me.
Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee, but
the night shineth as the day, and the
darkness and light are both alike to thee.
Does that strike a chord?
Huh?
Oh, in his presence there is fullness of
joy.
In eternity, this afternoon, there's an eternal anthem
going, it has no discord.
They never get tired, they never get weary.
The holy beings are there and they're singing,
holy, holy, holy, ceaselessly.
Oh, I can think of his presence, his
undimming presence, his undiminished presence, before a number
that nobody can number, worshipping and adoring the
Lamb.
But hey, what about his presence in the
other place?
Do you know the torment of hell will
be the presence of God's holiness?
If I take the wings of the morning
and fly to the uttermost part, you see
what he's saying?
He says God is omnipresent.
Some of you proved that in a foxhole,
maybe.
You proved it on a sinking ship, I
proved it in a storm in the air,
I proved it when a ship almost turned
over in mid-Atlantic.
I proved it in a gold mine, I've
been down a coal mine, and everywhere I've
gone, I've been conscious of his presence.
But the psalmist here gets out into another
realm.
We're thinking in eternal dimensions a minute ago.
The joy in his presence, in his presence
there is fullness of joy.
At his right hand there are pleasures forevermore.
It's unbroken felicity.
There's no sorrow, there's no sighing, there's no
weariness, there's nobody poor, there's nobody crippled, there's
nobody retarded.
Everybody is coming to the fullness of God's
manifest power.
But now he says, if I make my
bed in hell, thou art there.
I believe every time somebody moves in hell,
they're confronted in their sinfulness with God's holiness.
They're confronted in their corruption with God's righteousness.
I believe in hell forever and ever they'll
hear every sermon they ever heard preached in
their lives.
I believe a man will scratch his hand
because he can feel the track somebody put
in his hand when he was walking on
a certain street and he screwed it up
and threw it away.
In hell, men will lust for women.
The lust will be there forever.
It will never cease to burn, but they'll
never satisfy that lust.
God's presence.
I will mimic it.
Your calamity will laugh when your fear cometh.
Why, you get the two extremes there again
in the book of the Revelation, where it
says the righteous shall see his face.
What an ecstatic moment.
I shall see him face to face and
tell the story saved by grace.
But others in that very same book, it
says, when they see his face, when they
see that face, they call for the rocks
and kneels to fall on them and say,
hide us from the face of him that
sits upon the throne.
And from the wrath of the Lamb.
The majesty of God will mock at their
misery.
Isn't this enough to make us, as the
good book says, gird up our loins?
It's enough to make us awake to the
realization that whether men die rich or poor,
whether they die in the White House or
God's house or anywhere else, except they've been
born again of the Spirit of God, they
have endless misery.
And there is no fleeing from his presence.
There are a million roads into hell, but
not one road out.
In heaven there is all joy and no
sorrow.
In hell there is all sorrow and no
joy.
In heaven there is majesty.
In hell there is misery.
Yes, one day the books are going to
be open and we're going to be shown
every step that we've taken in our pilgrim
journey.
And by the same token, I believe the
books will be open and the sinners will
see every time they transgress the law of
God.
A fire will burn in them as fierce
as the very fires of hell itself.
You remember when the man landed in hell?
There's only one case I know of of
anybody praying when they got to the other
side.
And that's the man who prayed from the
wrong place.
He prayed from hell.
He prayed to the wrong person.
He prayed from Abraham.
If you could pray to saints, surely he
was one, but you can't pray to saints.
And so he prayed from Abraham's bosom.
And the man over in the other side,
in the area that we call Davi's area
of hell and perdition and destruction, he said,
well, hell is too terrible.
I've got five brothers.
Don't let them come to this place.
He didn't say heal their sicknesses.
He didn't say give them some employment.
He didn't say to make life a bit
easier.
He says, don't let them come up, strut
their way to destruction.
Couldn't you send somebody from the place of
perdition?
And listen, you know what the answer was?
If we sent somebody that rose from the
dead, they wouldn't believe.
And then came that terrible word, son, remember,
remember, remember.
Memory is eternal.
I've reminded you before that Themistocles, when he
was the mayor of Athens, could recite the
names of every person that lived in the
city, and there were more than 40,000
of them.
One of the greatest warriors that the world
ever knew was a man who'd memorized the
name of every soldier in his army.
There have been some fantastic memories, but no
memory like the memory when the finger of
God is put there on the memory of
a man, and there's unleashed all the sins
and habits and wickedness, just like throwing a
film, and there before a thousand million people,
his sins are going to be recalled, and
God, who is just, won't put one more
against him than he committed.
You see, there's no way, humanly speaking, of
describing hell, its misery, its torment.
It's God's cesspool, where all the filth of
the world is poured in.
You can think of the filth of Babylon,
you can think of Las Vegas last night,
you can think of that area where we've
legalized prostitution in a Christian country, within God
we trust in our coins.
You can think of the lousy areas of
London, you can think of other areas in
Europe.
They disregard every law of God and man,
and all those people are going to be
huddled together forever and ever, I've heard people
say, you know, I, if I went into
a church and there was a negro there,
I'd walk out.
Well, some folk are going to have to
live with them in hell forever and ever.
I wonder how they'll get on there with
the class distinctions.
There's no race distinction there, no class distinction,
no social distinction.
Just the redeemed walk in heaven, and the
unredeemed walk here.
And somebody would say, if I had wings,
man, I'd get out of this place.
Where will you go?
If you go to the uttermost parts of
the earth, God is there.
If you make your bed in hell, surely
God is there.
There is no escaping.
We're prisoners of God.
The man on the street says, I'm a
free man.
Don't believe it.
No man is free.
No woman is free.
One of the things that's alarming a lot
of people now is they, in fact, I,
I talk with a man I won't tell
you how far from here he lives, but
he doesn't live too far away and he
discovered his house had been bugged and his,
his office had been bugged and, and he
was amazed to discover.
He lives within 50 miles of this very
spot I'm talking from now.
And he said, I wonder, I wonder, I
wonder what's all been recorded there.
There'll be no escaping it.
There'll be men listening and they'll, they'll listen
and they'll hear for a thousand years.
They'll see somebody standing there beckoning with a
finger, singing just as I am without one
plea.
And they remember they sat night after night
after night after night listening to Billy Graham
or somebody.
They remember their mother's prayers.
There's no escaping from it.
So that presence of God, the presence of
God brings ecstasy or it brings misery.
If you draw near to God, you draw
with a full assurance of faith and you
say, this is the crowning event of my
life, that day by day I draw near
to him and he draws near to me.
And it really becomes true, I hope, that
he walks with me and he talks with
me.
And he tells me I am his own.
So there is joy in drawing water from
the wells of salvation.
There is joy in which is a product,
a by-product of obedience and that's what
it is.
In thy presence there is fullness of joy.
I don't care whether it's a sanctuary where
God is or whether you're out on the
side of the road with a flat tire
and it's pouring rain and in your heart
you've got a sense of his presence, you've
still got fullness of joy.
It is not dependent on circumstances.
A lot of people want revival, they want
God to bless our nation so we can
live in easy street again.
But I remind you today there are more
lost people in the world at this moment
than ever in history.
I don't know any church however spiritual it
is that called a night of prayer when
50 million people went down the drain in
Vietnam and Cambodia and Laos, do you?
Oh we're spiritual, we've got another birth.
We're spiritual because we'd six new people in.
Well those things are nice, but listen my
friend, while we got one or two that
are teeming, millions of the lost and unreached.
And there's not a society on earth that
has the method to reach them.
There's only one way that it can be
done.
We're trying to melt an iceberg with a
match.
We're trying to gather the wind in our
arms.
The only way is to get to that
place where we're in his presence too, where
God intoxicated men and women.
And God is not only first in our
lives, he's everything in our lives.
He is the first and the last.
You see that's the kind of, that's the
kind of holy zeal that men had that
went and wrote the chapters in church history.
Old Dr. F.B. Meyer, I think it
was, was talking one day about Peter and
about those days of hardship that they had.
You know in every epistle there's a background
of sorrow and anguish and buffeting and opposition
of the world.
When people say we ought to change circumstances,
I still ask you, and nobody's ever answered
the question, why didn't Jesus speak about slavery?
There were 60 million slaves, I can give
you the account of it.
In the world at that time they didn't
fight against it, neither did the apostle Paul.
Why?
There's a greater goal than that.
The word of the apostle I quoted earlier,
rejoice in the Lord always and again I
say rejoice.
That's in Philippians.
Remember that?
And he has said elsewhere very much the
same thing anyhow.
In chapter 3 of Philippians verse 1 he
says, finally my brethren rejoice in the Lord.
A little later he says, ye are my
joy and my crown.
It's a by-product of obedience.
By the pathway of duty flows the river
of God's grace.
Madam Guillaume said, I want one thing only
and that is his presence.
Could I be cast where thou art not?
That were indeed a dreadful spot, but with
thee my God to guide the way, it's
equal joy to go or stay.
I was saying that, speaking of Peter, F
.B. Meyer said this, that he had recently
made a discovery about three marvelous men who
were to be martyred in England.
They brought one of them and said to
him, you are going to be decapitated.
See that block of wood?
They're going to bring you out tomorrow, they're
going to read a scripture to you, which
was a nice way to die of course.
And we shall sing a hymn and you
lay your head down there and a man
will take a huge axe and off goes
your head.
They said to another old man, you see
that stake there?
You're going to be tied to it and
you're going to be burned at the stake.
Many people, of course you do have a
way that you can get out of that
and that is that you you repent and
acknowledge you've been wrong.
Well they brought the old man out the
next day and he was very calm, he
was very confident.
And he went to the chopping block, they
told him to kneel and he knelt and
he just looked up and as he looked
up he said very sweetly, what I think
must have been one of the most beautiful
things that was ever said in such a
situation.
With a man standing with a huge axe
going to lop his head off, he looked
up and he said, I was glad when
they said unto me, let us go into
the house of the Lord.
Now how do you lick a man like
that?
And they chopped his head off.
And they took the other old saint and
there they began to light the fire and
as they lit the fire and the sparks
came up, they had some special combustible stuff
that came up quickly enough to really get
the fire going and he said, me thinks
I see roses flowering round my feet.
That must be pretty embarrassing when you're trying
to roast a guy to death and he
enjoys it.
John Bunyan, oh yes you've got to read
John Bunyan's immortal classic, Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress and
read it right after that, read the Holy
War for your children, forget all about them
loving Lucy and everything else, get them to
something sensible.
And read Mr. Bunyan.
You remember how he follows from the wicket
gate, he follows the path of the pilgrim
right up there to to the city of
God.
They put him in prison for 15 years.
That's a long while to deteriorate.
And in case you don't know, they didn't
have TV in the prison he went in
and they didn't get their eggs cooked the
way they wanted them.
And they didn't play table tennis after five
o'clock at night.
And they didn't go on strike if they
couldn't have what they wanted.
It was a lousy dirty prison.
I've been to it there in Bedford in
England.
I sat in his chair one day.
I stood by his pulpit one day.
The little Baptist preacher John Bunyan, this is
what he said, this prison very sweet to
me hath been since I came here and
so also would hanging be if thou dear
Lord wilt appear.
You know they've some humor those boys haven't
they?
This lousy prison is sweet to me.
And he says you know if they hang
me it will be gorgeous.
You know when they get the rope around
my neck and knock me off there and
I start swinging there.
But if your presence is there he says
well what else is there?
This is the victory that overcometh the world.
This is the mystery of godliness.
Now you say does a man rejoice in
circumstances?
No he doesn't.
Well you said he did.
I didn't.
What did you say?
Well you missed it all together.
You must have been sleeping.
He doesn't rejoice in hanging on the end
of a rope.
He doesn't rejoice because his feet are beginning
to crackle.
He doesn't rejoice because he sees a man
shaping the edge of a big horrid sword
that's already rusting with blood.
He rejoices in what it says here.
It says rejoice in the Lord.
What's he doing?
I don't know.
I don't have to do.
But I'm rejoicing in the Lord.
What's he doing?
I don't know.
I don't have to do.
But I'm rejoicing in the Lord you know
what?
Because great is his faithfulness.
What are you rejoicing in the Lord for?
You're going to hang on the end of
a rope.
He says well I'll tell you.
I went down the road one day.
I couldn't keep on my feet.
I was drunk.
And I just heard a woman saying to
another woman something as well my bread is
getting ready to bake and uh but oh
in the church yesterday we had a sermon.
And uh the preacher said you can be
born again.
You can be made a new man.
And he said I just sat down there
at the side of them.
I just and somehow I began to sober
up.
And I just heard a gossiping woman.
That's the way to gossip ladies.
I heard a gossiping woman talking about Jesus
making people new.
And you know what he did with a
cursing, swearing, blaspheming thinker?
He changed my life.
He took my sins.
He's faithful and just.
And I believe he took my sins even
mine and cast them behind his back never
to be remembered against me anymore forever.
I was born again of the Spirit of
God.
And his proof was that for 15 years
he was in a lousy cell and never
complained.
Hmm?
Ask my darling wife.
I don't know but I do hope I
don't have a griping spirit, a complaining spirit.
Hmm?
Yeah.
Do you know we got to the shop
the other day?
Would you believe they had no Kool-Aid?
And we had a flat tire.
And would you believe they didn't have a
matching tire?
We had to put a black one.
I mean it's horrid driving down the road.
Three white wall tires and a black wall
tire.
I mean you feel so inferior don't you?
Huh?
And do you know what else happened?
No but I'll tell you the other day
I happened to hear a bit of news
about a blast that came to a country
of heathenism where they've no God they can
thank and they've no God they can blame.
And it liquidated the city.
And an estimate I got was that more
than a million people died that were seriously
injured and the city disappeared.
There isn't a shop, there isn't a place
to drink water, there isn't a place for
toilets, there isn't anything, there isn't anything but
misery and sorrow and darkness and anguish.
And yet some God, some of God's people
grumbled every day since.
Come on in God's name what do you
think God's gonna do?
Send us pennies from heaven?
We live in the most sloppy, comfortable, easy
society that history has ever known.
Do you think we're the most thankful people?
I don't.
You see God is a just God and
God's a holy God and he's not going
to put up with our sin much longer.
Rejoice in the Lord always.
Well that's good.
What's he say here?
Well let me tell you what he says.
Number one, rejoice.
That's nice isn't it?
Number two, rejoice in the Lord.
You get that?
Number three, rejoice in the Lord always.
Number four, rejoice in the Lord always.
And again I say rejoice.
Well why do I have to rejoice in
God to that extent?
Well let me tell you what he says
in the chapter in case you think I
make it up.
He says rejoice in the Lord, number one
didn't I, it's good for your nerves.
Is that in the Amplified?
No it's in the Ravenilified.
It's in verse six because it says be
careful for nothing.
Oh oh oh.
What gets us down?
The cares of this life.
You know as a Christian you're carrying illegal
baggage if you carry cares.
You don't have one care that can put
a crown on your head.
Well why in the world do you carry
them?
They put wrinkles on your brow, that's the
only thing they put on you, won't put
a crown on your brow.
He says rejoice in the Lord always, verse
six, because you don't need to be careful
for anything.
Now God gave gifts to men didn't they,
by the Holy Spirit.
I like to remind the people the Holy
Ghost can't give you anything Jesus didn't get.
And the gifts of the Spirit are the
gifts of Jesus.
He led captivity captive and he gave gifts
unto men and the Holy Spirit distributes the
gifts that God has given.
Okay.
But it also says you stir up the
gift of God that's in you.
You see your gifts can go rusty, you
can just settle down on your gifts.
You can hide them like the man hid
his talent.
Do you think they're working overtime in heaven,
they got the measure of your head and
found what size you take and they're trying
to make a crown worthy of you getting
there?
We live like that.
Oh when we get to heaven.
Somebody said to John Wesley as he stood
the grave side of the man he loved
most, the man he said was the nearest
addition to the apostle Paul, John Fletcher of
Mabley.
The man who when he went to walk
down the street, that dignified cultured Church of
England gentlemen, the drunks took their hats off
they said and propped themselves up and said
there goes the man that loves our souls.
They buried him there in that little church
in Mabley.
I passed it many times on the train
going to the north and always waved my
hand as I went past or the old
churchyard.
There lies the body of one of the
greatest saints ever lived.
And John Wesley said you know heaven's going
to be a wonderful place got people like
that.
And somebody said Mr. Wesley brush the tears
away.
You'll see him before too long.
Wesley in my mind one of the greatest
saints that ever lived.
A man that did exactly what we read
of here in the Word of God.
He had a consuming love.
He was devoured by the love of the
Lord Jesus Christ.
He had a joy unspeakable but when people
took a took a hatchet and were going
to split his head open he said I
had an inward calm.
Do you know what I believe joy is?
It's a dignity of the soul.
It's character.
And he said when a man was going
to split my head with a with a
cleaver I just felt an inward joy, a
peace, a stability.
But you were saying just now about me
renewing fellowship with Mr. Fletcher in heaven.
Oh friend he said.
You know what the only time I see
Fletcher will be when the radiance of Christ
flashes on his face because he'll be right
up there at the head of the whole
marriage supper and John Wesley will be so
far behind that I'll only see the reflected
glory of Jesus in his face.
I feel so unworthy to be in the
same heaven.
Do you ever feel as unworthy as that
or do you feel you know you know
Lord you got something when you got me.
I mean my ability and all I have
I could have been almost anything but I
was at you were nothing when he found
you then.
Few men in history had all Wesley had.
Genius, poetry, gift of languages, money, social standing,
intellect, name it he had it.
As I've said my problem with Wesley is
he was more spiritual when he wasn't spiritual
than I am when I am spiritual.
He got up at four o'clock in
the morning to pray when he wasn't saved.
He refused to spend a surplus penny because
there were so many people who were poor.
But one day he picked up a piece
of paper that a French lady had written
a hundred years before before he was saved.
He was saved when 24th of May 1738.
She wrote it in 1630 something.
He loved reading the French poets and he
read what this little French lady wrote.
And she'd written this.
Come Savior Jesus from above.
Assist me with thy heavenly grace.
Empty my heart of earthly love and for
thyself prepare a place.
Now that's pretty.
And then she added this.
Nothing on earth do I desire but thy
pure love within my breast.
This only this will I require and freely
give up all the rest.
Wealth, honor, pleasure and what else this short
enduring world can give.
Tempt as ye will my soul rebels for
Christ alone resolved to live.
Thee will I love and thee alone with
pure delight and inward bliss.
To know thou takes me for thine own.
Oh what a happiness is this.
Nice isn't it?
Poetic, rhetoric, oratory, poetry.
The only thing was he got it in
his flesh and blood and he did it.
He could have died the Prime Minister of
England.
He gave his genius to men and women
in the gutter.
He could have had Edison medicine because he
loved to invent things.
But he shut himself away and mastered the
word of God.
He could have died a multimillionaire.
He had the genius.
He died practically penniless except for a pound
for each man who would carry him to
his burial place.
He says I let none of these things
move me.
Rejoice in the Lord why?
Because I can have an experience in God
where I'm careful for nothing.
And in the same verse where I'm thankful
for anything, where I'm prayerful in everything.
And in the same verse where I'm thankful
for anything.
That's a mighty lot of stuff in one
verse isn't it?
And rejoice in the Lord you know why?
Because in verse 13 he says I can
do quite a few things with the help
of the Lord.
That must be the New English Bible.
Verse 13 says I can do all things
through Christ which strengthens me.
Well that's enough to make you rejoice isn't
it?
I can have a hundred percent victory through
Christ.
Man the Lord will make me leap for
joy.
And then he says in verse 19 of
the same chapter that my God shall supply
all your need according to his riches in
glory by Christ Jesus.
There's an interesting verse let me finish with
it in the epistle of James.
The first epistle.
There's only one.
And the first chapter in verse two.
Listen what he says.
My brethren count it all joy when you
inherit money, when you get promotion, when your
husband buys you the best birthday gift you
ever had in your life, when circumstances all
line up and the angels waken you every
morning.
My that sounds nice.
Isn't it funny what the Bible says?
Count it all joy when you fall into
divers temptations.
Oh man that spoils it.
Brother Raymond you got me up in the
air I'm down on earth again.
Well you happen to be going to live
on earth the next few days so maybe
you're in the best place eh?
Count it all joy when you when you
fall into divers temptations.
Oh my.
Do you remember last week or was it
the week before we were talking about sanctification?
What did it talk there about the trial
of your faith?
And Peter goes on in this very epistle,
in his epistle the first chapter talk about
the trial of your faith which is more
precious than gold.
You see we've got a crazy ridiculous idea
even in the church.
Success is greatness, success is numbers, success is
business.
I can show you hundreds of preachers in
this country and any other country who I
believe in the sight of God are number
one failures but outside they're number one successes.
They know how to organize, they know how
to be sweet, they've got personalities and they
can really put it over.
The sign of favor is not success the
sign of favor is first his presence and
you can count it all joy when you
fall into divers temptations.
We had a very, very wealthy lady in
England and she inherited amongst other things in
her art treasures and so forth, she inherited
a rope of pearls.
They didn't come out very often she wore
them on state festivals you know and going
to Buckingham Palace or going to some great
celebration but they were very beautiful.
And someone would come and say you know
I've never seen pearls like those.
I notice the clasp at the back is
different.
Yes it was a rope of pearls but
it wasn't a it was all handmade.
A certain craftsman made it he used to
make it for the court of Russia or
something you know.
And really I shouldn't wear these jewels because
they're worth so much.
Oh why they're beautiful.
But you know one day when she was
talking to a very old friend the lady
had got to be old herself she said
you know I can remember you wearing those
jewels when you were not much more than
a teenager.
Do you think they're as precious now as
when you got them?
She said oh yeah more, more, more.
The value of the markets changed.
Oh well I just want to tell you
something.
They're not as beautiful as they used to
be.
They've gone very dull.
At one time I would look at them
while other people were talking I'd be, I'd
be absorbed by their beauty but they've no
radiance.
As a matter of fact I'm not sure
I'd even want to wear them.
The lady was spoiled for the evening.
She went home and eventually she went to
see a jeweler that she knew and and
he said well yes no question about it.
I just took them in the dark.
I checked them and they've lost their luster.
Can you restore it?
Mm-hmm.
Would it be very expensive?
No not very expensive.
That's not the factor.
It's not the money that's involved.
What's the factor?
Well um it's the time it's going to
take.
Oh well I do have a banquet to
go to in about a month could it?
No.
Well um I have a granddaughter getting married
next year to a very wealthy person would
that?
No.
Oh so really the problem is the is
the time.
Well no that's not really the problem.
What is it?
I mean expense.
No no it's not expense.
It's uh number one problem one problem is
time sure enough but the other is the
danger involved in it.
Involved in it?
In just putting the luster back in some
pearls?
Mm-hmm.
What is it involved?
Oh I can't tell you that.
That if you loan them to me I'll
get them insured and I'll return them between
two and three years.
Could be four but I think three would
do it.
Well I'll have to consider this with my
husband and my lawyer and oh go go
ahead I'm not bothered to handle them.
Finally she came back and she said well
I'm leaving them in your hands and I've
got them insured and would you let me
know and she kept hoping and hoping and
it got one year passed and two years
passed and almost the end of the third
year and one day a man came riding
up the avenue galloping up on his horse
and uh he wanted to see the duchess.
She was to go down to the jewelers
and he took her into a room and
there he showed her the jewels the the
uh pearls.
Oh the luster on them.
He only had the light on dull but
but they were radiant they were throwing out
all those exquisite colors they were magnificent.
They looked as though they'd been reborn and
just born and she said but I I
don't understand that is it going to cost
me very much and he said no it's
it's really not expensive.
But aren't they beautiful?
Yes they are.
Do you really think they're as beautiful as
when you first inherited?
I I think they're better because I'd heard
so many stories about them now I can
believe it.
So it's not the expense no the time
factor it's over three years yes.
Will you tell me the secret?
Well all right he said yes because you
may want to tell it to your grandchildren.
You see there's only one way to restore
the luster in those pearls and that was
to put them back where they came from.
So I had a special contraption made.
It was something like a calendar.
It was something like a a ball and
holes were pierced in it and I had
these pearls so none of them could escape
and then I I rented a diver and
he went down off the coast where I
happened to know a certain thing about the
waters there and he went way down in
the deep and and he anchored that that
ball with with all those jewels those pearls
in he anchored it there in the in
the bruising of the water where the water
goes past at a certain rate and there's
certain qualities and and I knew they would
have to stay there.
But you see what they needed in order
to get their luster they needed to go
back in the darkness.
You know there's one way amongst others the
Lord told me today about making us appreciate
what we've got.
One of two you can do it with
children in various things.
That is increase the amount of what they've
got and they might value it more or
else take the whole thing away and let
them realize they've nothing and then they want
the thing that they didn't value when they
had it.
Do you think that's the way freedom goes?
You think sometimes I'm a bit hostile against
America?
No England's in the same mess.
Face it the whole world's in the same
mess.
The only difference now between now and World
War I and World War II is this
that it says in the last days that
we'll be what?
Well there's going to be wars and rumors
of war sure enough but there's another thing
added on for our day and it's perplexity
of nations.
Nobody knows the way out.
There isn't a man in the White House
knows that there isn't a man in government
knows the way out.
They're all mystified right now about the dollar.
There are two things that scare me.
What is America going to do with the
Jews?
Because if we quit the Jews you can
start digging our grave I'll tell you that.
And I had a man in my home
just a few days ago from Israel he
said the most hated man in the world
in Israel is Kissinger.
The number two spot that gone quiet since
they quietened down about the Panama Canal the
number two problem is what are we going
to do with little free China called Taiwan?
Well according to the third century report which
is Christian I get it a friend of
mine subscribes for it for me it says
that Kissinger and Ford have agreed to let
it slide under the table till after the
election and then goodbye.
We want to trade with big mighty China
what do we want to bother with a
little Christian country that lets us have a
few cheap TVs and radios and things.
No I don't understand the complicated situation neither
financially morally I see a bit of it
spiritually I think I understand some of it.
You got to remember this this is God's
world.
God's son died to redeem it.
God's heartache right now is the church not
America as a nation the church in America
the church in England the church in Australia
the rest.
And I get as much heartache over it
as anybody.
I'm making no false moves.
I could join a dozen things this week
if I wanted.
There's all kinds of glamour jobs hanging around.
All kinds of ways go here in the
world go there we'll set you up with
this we'll do that for what?
Happen to have seen too many in my
day.
They become abortive.
There is only one way and that is
that when we get to the centre of
the whole situation to say Lord your presence
is my joy.
Your presence of peace.
Your presence of power.
I don't care if you wreck the economy.
I don't care if you let America be
invaded with the communists there's a world of
good and England and elsewhere or would it?
No those things in themselves won't bring revival.
One thing brings revival when the Holy Spirit
of God comes in one of his supreme
offices is to bring conviction.
You know these days we talk I've got
friends number of friends we talk about Finney.
Let a little saying today about Finney maybe
the greatest soul in America ever had.
But he didn't preach 20 minutes and beg
20 minutes for folk to come forward.
A month from now I'll be preaching to
maybe a thousand preachers.
And I've told them repeatedly the most ridiculous
people in the world today I think are
evangelists.
They expect to go to a meeting and
in 20 minutes break up the fallow ground,
sow the seed, water the seed and reap
a harvest.
Nobody else expects to do that.
I wish I could do that in my
garden.
Put some fruit trees in two weeks ago
and there's nothing on them.
And we've watered them and looked after them
and they still have no fruit.
You see fruit is not just from a
tree.
Fruit is the overflow of life in a
tree.
And the fruit of the Spirit is the
overflow of life in us.
Love, joy, peace.
Joy is being satisfied in the place where
he has put me without a gripe, without
a grumble, without a secret complaint.
In his presence is fullness of joy.
And I say you can cut me off,
you can wall me in, you can't roof
me in.
You can cut me off from everybody else,
you can't cut me off from his presence.
And he says in his presence is fullness
of joy.
He says rejoice in the Lord.
And maybe right now you can't rejoice in
your circumstances but you can rejoice in the
Lord.
You can't perhaps rejoice in your health, you
can rejoice in the Lord.
You can't rejoice in a dozen things that
seem to hem you in, you can rejoice
in the Lord.
Why?
Number one, he saved you.
Number two, he'll keep you.
Number three, he can keep you from falling.
Number four, he can keep you from grumbling.
Number five, he can present you faultless before
his Father's throne with exceeding great joy.
Brother, if that isn't something to shout aloud
for, I don't know what is.
John Bunyan says this and I'm through.
Do you remember what he said amongst other
things?
When the man got saved, the man's staggering
up the hill with a burden and he
says, I came to a place where two
ways met.
It was walled on either side and before
me there was a cross, a place somewhat
ascending.
And he says this, if I remember it
correctly in words, it's as near as this
and he said, I saw a cross, the
burden loose from off my back and it
began to roll down the hill and it
fell into an empty sepulcher where I beheld
it no more forever and I gave three
leaps for joy.
One for the Father, one for the Son
and one for the Holy Ghost.
But after all, they were the agencies of
his redemption.
I gave three leaps for joy.
Huh?
Isn't it great to have his joy?
The world doesn't know a thing about it.
You can't buy it, you can't bargain for
it, you can't sell it, you can't get
it injected, nobody can hand it on to
you, nobody can take it from you.
Because Jesus prays and read it in John
15, that they may have my joy fulfilled
in themselves and your joy.
No man taking it from you.
If you lose your joy, you lose it.
Now don't, don't, don't try and edge that.
You say, I've lost my joy.
Exactly, you lost it.
Nobody took it from you.
God doesn't want to.
People can't, the devil would try to, but
if you let it go, you let it
go.
Under temptation, under trial, under some hostility, it's
your joy, it's your peace, you've a right
to keep it.
Rejoice.
In the Lord always and again I say
rejoice.
My joy shall remain in you.
And no man shall take it from you.
You know when we've been there about, what's
the song say?
When we've been there ten, I don't know
whether he said that.
That won't be one tick of the clock,
he should have said when we've been there
ten million years.
And that wouldn't be a tick of the
clock.
But oh, when we get into his eternal
presence, where there will be fullness of joy,
the world, the word of God says that,
I hath not seen, heareth not heard, neither
hath it yet entered into the heart of
man, the things that God has prepared for
them that love him, but God hath revealed
some of them to us by his Spirit.
And I like the hymn that says, Oh
what a foretaste of glory divine.
You know the very best moment you've had
on earth will be the worst moment you'll
have in heaven.
You know that with all you've had, you
may have had miracles and healings and tongues
and signs and wonders, you know you haven't
even tasted one millionth part of redemption.
That's what the book says.
That our redemption doth night.
That as yet we haven't tasted.
Oh he's done a lot more for some
of us than for others, but you know
what?
We've never entered into it yet.
And thank God when we cross that borderline
there'll be no chance of anybody stealing anything
we've got, joy or peace or rest or
anything.
So let's rejoice.
Doesn't mean you always have a grin.
You may be in heaviness through manifold temptation,
but you can still have joy and peace
deep, deep, deep, deep down there in your
spirit that no, nothing can reach and no
man can take it and no one else
can take it.
It's peace and joy in the Holy Ghost.
And we pray.
Again our Father we thank you this afternoon
for your word.
We thank you for this undiminishing truth.
It changes not because you change not.
And we pray Lord as we go to
a world that wears its cares and its
sorrows on the headlines of the newspapers, on
the faces of people, that Lord we'll have
that deep joy, that deep inward peace that
you give, that which money cannot buy, that
which wars and rumors of wars cannot take
away, the abiding joy of the Holy Ghost
in our lives, that others will take knowledge
of us that we've been with Jesus.
We do remember the sorrowing, suffering church in
its anguish.
We remember those atheists, those godless people trained
in unbelief, trained to oppose your truth.
In China we can't imagine their misery.
We can't imagine mothers running around with not
even a drop of water to give them.
We can't imagine anything but plague and destruction
sweeping over it and they'll not in any
way tell us what's happening.
We pray that somehow in their misery, that
something may happen to turn this curse into
blessing, to turn this death into life, to
turn this sorrow into rejoicing.
I hope us to go forth as those
men in your word.
It says that when they went forth they
took knowledge of them that they had been
with Jesus.
So let thy presence be upon each of
us we ask in Jesus name.