John 16 and verse 8.
And when He is come, He will reprove
the world of sin, and of righteousness, and
of judgment.
And of righteousness, because I go to my
Father, and ye see me no more.
Of judgment, because the Prince of this world
is judged.
Now look at verse 13.
How be it, and I'm putting an emphasis
here.
How be it when He, the Spirit of
truth is come, He will guide you into
all truth, for He shall speak not of
Himself, but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall
He speak, and He will show you things
to come.
He shall glorify me, for He shall receive
of mine, and shall show it unto you.
There are various contributing forces to this meditation
this afternoon.
One was the fact that there's a slang
phrase, that I just about detest.
And that is that you meet people who
say something like this, Have you had the
baptism?
They say it with as much unction as,
Have you had a flu shot?
And most of them don't mean, Are you
holy?
What they mean is, Do you speak in
tongues very often?
Somebody sent me a little paper this week,
and there was a phrase in it that
really, really gripped me, because it was written
by a Pentecostal brother.
And this is what he says, We're living
in a, a charismatic generation that has despised,
or neglected as he put it, the Holy
Spirit.
Now you need to sit and think an
hour maybe over that, but it's very true.
We're living in a day when there's much
talk about charisma.
You know, we used to talk about a
man having unction.
The other day I talked with a very
famous man, and he said to me, you
know, so and so, Oh, he has charisma.
Now somebody said the reason that Jack Nicklaus
isn't as popular as a golfer as Arnold
Palmer is, Arnold Palmer has charisma.
So apparently you don't need to be sanctified
to have charisma.
It's another word for a, a kind of
glowing, outgoing, radiant personality.
You know, somebody comes in a room and
whoo, the atmosphere changes.
They have that kind of personality.
And so, to many people again, you know,
the Holy Spirit is not a person.
The Holy Spirit is an experience, or the
Holy Spirit is an influence.
But by biblical definition, by the words of
Jesus here, the Holy Spirit is a person.
As a person, he can speak.
As a person, he can rebuke.
As a person, he can inspire us.
As a person, he can be offended.
The other thing that disturbed me, and it
did disturb me very much, was talking with
a man who was a very distinguished minister,
and he said he'd been talking to a
lady whose husband had been one of these
wild cards, a drunkard, a fighter, a drinker,
a gambler, everything.
But she wasn't too impressed with his life.
He'd made it in the material world, he
drives an enormous Cadillac, he has everything.
And somebody said, but listen, you know, he
doesn't come in drunk, he doesn't gamble your
money, he doesn't give you black eyes, he
doesn't...
She says, look, I want to tell you,
I'll sum it up for you in a
sentence.
When he got saved so many years ago,
his habits changed, his personality didn't.
Well, if it didn't, he didn't get saved,
that's all I've got to say about it.
If you've still got anger and pride and
jealousy and maliciousness and something like that, you
need to get to the cross real quick.
Because Jesus didn't die to deliver you from
a lot of lousy sins and the penalty
that you get forever.
He died to transform your personality.
You see, the Holy Spirit does not come.
The work of God is not to bless
us, it's to integrate his life in your
life and my life.
Simpson expresses it beautifully in the other hymn
book we sing from sometimes.
Once it was the blessing, but now it
is the Lord.
Once it was the feeling and now it
is his word, and so he goes on.
Wasn't his gifts I wanted, now to give
it all.
You see, you can retain your gifts, even
if you're backslidden, you won't retain your fruits.
The fruits will wither, the gifts remain.
Because God says the gifts and callings of
God are without repentance.
Now here Jesus says, now the disciples didn't
like this.
He says he's going to leave his disciples
and another person is going to come, and
he says when he is come, he doesn't
say do the miraculous and raise the dead,
this is what he says, when he is
come, he will reprove or he will convict
the world of sin, of righteousness and of
judgment.
I read a prophecy this week, it was
written in 1619.
I didn't happen to know the writer personally,
but it was written in 1619.
It's a very marvelous prophecy, it's about these
last days in which we live.
And this man, though he does not substantiate
his argument from scripture, and he raises a
host of theological and eschatological questions.
But there's an awful lot of truth in
what he says.
But he sees at the end time what
he calls an army of Melchizedek men coming
forward.
You could translate that maybe into another way
and talk about a bunch of super saints
coming along if you like.
Now once I start thinking about the Holy
Spirit, I had automatically to turn to what
is perhaps the greatest chapter on the Spirit
in the Bible, that's Romans 8.
Here's another thing that provoked me.
The radio, the TV said that one of
the great problems right now in the nation
is absenteeism.
People backing off from duty, responsibility, going to
work.
You know, the phone rings.
It's Mary, she can't come in today.
She has a terrible headache.
Oh, she'll be in tomorrow all right.
This is Jack, he calls the office of
the factory and says, I can't come today.
Oh, I got real stomach upset.
Of course he doesn't say he was drinking
beer and a lot of junk till midnight
last night, but he says he has a
stomach upset and he can't make it.
Somebody else says, well I would have been
there, but you know what, my uncle came
in from Australia and he's only here for
48 hours, so I'm not coming in today,
I'm not coming in tomorrow.
Well, you say they're all reasonable.
Well, this is the point the Lord got
through to me.
He may not get it through to you
the same way.
Have you noticed that immediately your physical constitution
is a little bit out of kilter, that
it telegraphs up to your mind, and your
mind says something to your will, and your
will says, can't go to work today.
Can't do that today.
Can't do something today.
Not with a headache like this.
Not with a stomach like this.
Not when uncle Johnny's coming, he could cut
you out of his will.
Ten dollars less.
You could be in real trouble.
Now let me ask you a very simple
question.
Does the spirit get through to you as
easily in your spirit as your tummy gets
through to you?
Hmm?
I mean, tomorrow you're going on a day
shopping, and you get up with a burden
tomorrow, and you call sister Jane and say,
listen Jane, I'm sorry I can't come.
You know, God's put such a burden of
Africa on my spirit, I'm going to have
to spend 12 hours on my stomach.
Huh?
You're going on a business trip, and the
Lord intervenes and says, look, I want you
today to do that.
Does he do it?
Look, if the Holy Spirit is power, let's
turn the switch on.
God knows we need it, here and everywhere
in the church of God.
If he's power, turn the switch on.
If he's a person, listen to him.
I'm convinced, I'll get to it maybe a
little bit later, that what it mentions in
the 19th verse of Romans 8, about the
manifest sons of God.
Do you know what?
God will hear your prayer.
I don't believe that's a secret anymore, of
God hearing your prayer.
The secret is you hearing God.
Now when did you last hear him?
Come on.
Not reading streams in the desert, or squirts
in the wilderness or something.
But when you're really down along with God,
you read the word of God, and suddenly
you heard a voice say, no or yay.
He's a person.
Is it Watts or Wesley that says, he
speaks and listening to his voice, new life
the dead receive, the wounded broken hearts rejoice,
the humble poor believe?
Somebody asked me the other day, if I
get discouraged with it.
Not on your life I don't get discouraged.
Why should I?
I know what God has called me to
do, when I say it.
And I found an answer to my problem
years ago.
I'm going to talk to preachers this week.
Fine, they'll get mad for sure.
At least I hope so.
And it's very thrilling to get them upset.
But do you know I got a secret
from God?
It isn't a secret in one sense.
It's that word again about the apostle Paul,
going down Damascus road, and he testifies three
times about it, in the Acts of the
Apostles.
And he says, we went down the road,
and I, a company of people with me.
And you know what he says?
There shone round about me, and them that
journeyed with me, a light from heaven.
I heard a voice.
Nobody else heard the voice.
I don't read anybody else hit the dust.
He was a violent man.
God threw him off his horse.
He couldn't have been walking all the way
he was going.
God threw him off his horse into the
dust.
He was violent.
God deals violently with violent people.
The heart of Lydia opened like a flower.
Did you ever hear a flower make a
noise?
My, if some of us had made a
sunset, it would wake up with a thousand
earthquakes every morning, just to show we did
it.
But the old sun gets out of bed
in all its majesty, never makes a noise.
God works silently in some people's lives.
The heart of Lydia opened.
But going down that Damascus road, Saul says,
I heard a voice.
Have you ever realized again, it's the very
word that Daniel said?
Others round about me saw a light.
I heard a voice.
Now, the only way I get discouraged this
afternoon is that it's out of a bunch
of us that are here, less than 500.
But if one doesn't hear the voice, I'd
be pretty discouraged.
If one does, I'm satisfied.
The rest of you can get some light,
I hope.
If you don't hear a voice, I'm sorry.
Romans 8 again is the, is the, well,
of course, it depends who you follow.
Somebody says it's the most profound chapter ever
written, and somebody else will come up and
tell you, Revelation Sunday is the greatest chapter,
and somebody else will tell you another.
But certainly this, this beautiful chapter, Romans 8,
is the, is the chapter of the Holy
Spirit.
Or you might say the Epistle is, because
26 times in the Epistle, the Apostle mentions
the Holy Spirit.
Eighteen of those times are in this chapter.
He has eight different names for the Holy
Spirit.
But again, what an amazing chapter this is.
You see, when all is said and done,
the Holy Spirit, when He has come, Jesus
says, He will glorify me.
He has nothing to give of Himself.
I tease people because I know it provokes
them.
And I like to provoke them.
That the Holy Spirit has no gifts.
The Word of God says, Jesus died and
rose from the dead, and what?
He led captivity captive, and He gave gifts
unto men.
He purchased them with His own blood, and
they were not there.
The Holy Spirit is the, is the executor
of the Godhead.
I don't know how many people I've had
in my lifetime who've told me, listen, when
I die, I'm going to leave you something
in my will.
There must be people in England nearly 200
years old because they told me 50, 60,
70 years ago they'd leave me something.
I'm going to die.
Maybe by now all they'll leave me is
bills anyhow, so I hope nobody can find
my address.
But you see, the Holy Spirit, He's the
executor of the Godhead.
He takes the treasures Jesus purchased for us,
and He distributes them according to His will.
Look at verse 34 of chapter 8 here
in Romans, worry for a minute.
I'd rather look at verse 33 for a
moment.
Who shall lay anything to the charge of
God's elect?
It is God that justifies.
Now look, if you believe that, you don't
even, never need to have a worry in
your whole life from here to eternity what
people think.
As brother Herb said earlier, he didn't care.
What about my reputation?
Take it to the cross, then you'll have
no trouble with it.
Get it crucified.
What's reputation?
Well, I'll tell you what God told me
in my twenties when I was a young
man.
You know what God told me one day?
You don't need to worry about reputation.
Reputation is what people think you are.
Character is what God knows you are.
You can do what you like with my
reputation, stamp on it, spit on it, distort
it.
I'll enjoy it, I'll laugh with you.
You can't touch my character, He has that.
And that's inaccessible to you, and I've got
better news than that.
I'm not afraid of you so much.
It's inaccessible to the devil too.
Sure.
You see, this man's come out of Romans
chapter 7.
Oh, what a chapter Romans 7 is, eh?
It's assaulting captivity.
Do you know what Romans 8 is?
In the language of the modern day, it's
the son of a soul set free.
Romans 8, 7 is a funeral march.
Romans 8 is a wedding march.
Romans 7, the man is in the tomb.
Romans 8, the man is in triumph.
Romans 7, I don't believe he's even about
to save man.
I believe it's an unsaved man.
Good night if you have all the rotten
stuff in Romans 7.
After you're saved, you better not get saved.
Just go join the Mormons or be a
Mohammedan or something.
Romans 7 is defeat.
Romans 8 is deliverance.
Romans 7, the man is a victim.
He's conquered.
Romans 8, he's a victor.
He says in verse 37, there's recited things
that might come and may not come.
And then he says, what?
We are more than conquerors through him that
loved us.
That's nice, isn't it?
That's superlative, if you like.
Somebody asked an old country preacher what it
meant to be more than conqueror.
He says, well, it means you shoot at
13 ducks, 12 ducks and kill 13.
Well, that's a pretty bad bit of logic,
but I'll tell you what it is.
He's being more than conqueror.
He's getting victory and not being exhausted at
the end of it.
Jesus didn't rise after he came out of
the temptation of 40 days.
I like to read that story.
You talk about, what?
Mocking the devil.
He was led of the spirit into the
wilderness and he was beaten and battered for
40 days and nobody knows what happened.
You say, I can tell you three trials.
You can't.
You can only tell me three that happened
after he came out of the severe temptation.
And then when he came out, you know
what it says?
He came out in the power of the
spirit.
I like that.
I guess the devil was tearing his hair
and spitting and roaring and saying, you know,
I just thought I got that fellow down
where I want him.
And Jesus says, would you like to go
through it again?
Because I'll take you on another 40 days
and lick you anyhow.
Superfluous energy.
Victory with a margin left.
Where were we?
Verse 33.
Verse 34, listen to this.
Who is he that condemneth?
It is Christ that died.
All right.
Remember, he was a man in triumph.
He's liberated.
He says it is Christ that died.
All right.
If it's Christ that died, can the death
of Jesus Christ be contested?
It is Christ that died, therefore this is
our substitution.
He says he's at the right hand of
God.
So he's not only our substitute, he's a
sovereign.
He's there in majesty on high.
And he maketh intercession.
So there's supplication.
What more do you need?
You've got substitution for our sins.
We've got sovereignty.
He's triumphed over death and sin.
And we've got supplication.
He libeth to make intercession for us.
There's almost a holy swagger here, isn't there?
In verse 8 he says, There is therefore
now no condemnation to those of us who
are in Christ Jesus, as long as we
walk after the flesh and not after the
spirit.
One of the most rousing hymns I think
ever sung.
We sang it up at Asbury the other
week.
I got them to sing it two or
three times, because the pipe organ made up
for what they couldn't sing anyhow.
But it was majestic.
Wesley's hymn, No Condemnation Now I Dread.
Jesus and all in him is mine.
Alive in him my living head and clothed
in righteousness divine.
Bold I approach the eternal throne that I
have access.
My breath is in my nostrils.
The only thing I own in the world
is not a house or a car.
One beat of my heart and I have
the right to go to that eternal throne.
I say reverently, my God, we're going to
be terribly embarrassed when we get to heaven
and look how we played around with Christianity.
I have a sovereign, a lord, a majestic
saviour with everything under his feet.
I have one living there to make intercession
for my feeble prayer.
If I said A, B, C, D, E,
F, G, with a bird in my spirit,
he'd interpret it to the Father.
Sure, he'd live us to make intercession.
Oh, I like to hear men pray, I
like to hear men sweat in prayer, grieve
in prayer, weep in prayer, roar in prayer.
Because one of the ministries of the Holy
Spirit is a ministry of intercession.
But again, this race is not to the
swift, this battle is not to the strong.
Prayer is not to the man with the
most elastic vocabulary.
If it was, I'd swat the dictionary every
day.
Prayer is not according to a man who
can present his needs most eloquently to the
Eternal Father.
What about the deaf and dumb?
What about those who are retarded?
Let me tell you something else, time's running
on.
Look at verse 9, will you please?
Romans 8 and verse 9.
You're not in the flesh, but in the
Spirit.
If so be that the Spirit of God
dwell in you.
Now that's enough to keep us going all
afternoon.
The Spirit of God dwelling in you.
Look at the next verse.
And if Christ be in you.
My Lord, my Lord, my Lord.
You mean to say you've been living on
the miserable level you've lived this week, and
God dwells in you, and the Spirit dwells...
Well just a minute, I've got something else
for you.
Would you mind reading verse 11?
If the Spirit of Him that raised up
Jesus from the dead dwell in you?
Come on!
If that miracle of regeneration happened in your
life, if you were born again of the
Spirit of God, then God came to indwell
you, the Spirit came to indwell you, and
the Son came to indwell you.
Before ever you got the baptism of the
Holy Ghost.
Dear God, why do we live at this
poverty level when we've all these riches?
Why is the church so weak when there's
an unlink to omnipotence?
Oh, there's a sense in which you're justified
if you pray the language again of James,
when he says that God won't rebuke us
for our ignorance, but we can pray for
wisdom.
But there's also the other side of the
coin, in which it says if Christ dwells
in you, He is made unto us wisdom,
and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.
Disagree with me if you like, and if
you do, you'll know you're wrong, but you
disagree with me if you like.
Do you know what I've discovered?
There's an awful lot of people want to
be good.
There are not many people who want to
be spiritual.
A lot of people want to be good.
They don't want to be spiritual.
Yeah, I'll sing mansion over the hilltop, but
don't ask me to take up my cross.
My Jesus, I love, we're the whole realm
of nature, mine.
He says, why don't you give me what
you've got?
You don't, you never own the whole realm
of nature.
Stump up what you've got.
You know, we never fool God.
All we do is fool each other and
fool ourselves.
Oh yes, I can get emotional singing.
Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul,
my life.
Well, pity it didn't stop there.
That's not too bad.
My soul, my life, my all.
Ooh, ooh, that really hurts, doesn't it?
It jags you a bit.
Huh?
I mean, you could have left that out,
couldn't you?
I mean, your soul and your life's enough
without asking for all.
But you see, God, God, God gave you
everything in Jesus Christ and he asked everything
in return.
There's no part-time discipleship.
There's no part-time spirituality.
No, I say, I'm convinced again there are
many that want to be good, but there
are very few that want to be spiritual.
I talked just before I came to the
meeting with an old veteran missionary.
He's out in California just preparing to leave
and go back to South America.
I think when I first met him he
was working in Borneo and had an awful
time down there.
He's beaten up, he's wrinkled, he's been through
hell.
His wife's health has been shattered, she gets
restored.
One day it's like heaven, the other day
her body's in awful pain.
Some wages there for serving God when they've
been 30 years on the mission field.
You say you ought to be as bright
as an angel.
Well, I'll tell you what, I happen to
read my Bible and it says the outward
man perishes but the inward man is renewed
day by day.
And as you get older you find your
body doesn't respond the same, does it?
Mama, can you play tennis?
No, she says no.
OK, your body won't keep up, your energies
don't keep up, your mind isn't.
The outward man perishes, say what you will.
But you know what he said?
He said, Brother Ravenhill, you know, I'm so
disturbed about two things.
One is the complacency in the church.
The other is, and he's a veteran, he
served God.
Man, he could have quit years ago.
He'd done a lifetime's work and he went
to another mission field.
And he said, the thing is, God has
been shaking me up so much in the
last few months.
I said, glory to God, Brother.
He'd been doing the same with me the
last few weeks.
Oh, yes.
Oh, he keeps tearing me up, keeps disturbing
me, keeps rebuking me, keeps showing me areas
that I know so little about.
Well, he said, you know, Brother Ravenhill, down
in South America, the Spanish preachers in the
Pentecostal churches particularly, they get people saved, they
get them going on with God.
And then when they get to a certain
place, he said, you'll hear a man say,
Ah, yes, you wanted God, you wanted his
blessing, you wanted the baptism, you wanted the
gifts.
But as soon as he took the pacifier
out of your mouth, you started grumbling.
Huh?
Why are you so happy?
Still got a pacifier?
Hasn't he laid any challenge there?
Hasn't he made any demands there?
Tell us all we have to do is
crap and have a whale of a time
and give a little tithe and be blessed.
Wait a minute.
When he starts crucifying the flesh, when he
says, don't go to the cross, get on
the thing.
Oh, then, of course, it becomes a different
story entirely, doesn't it?
This is a tremendous chapter I've said and
I say again.
It's all through the finished work of Jesus
Christ.
He has ascended and nobody can challenge the
substitution he made for me on the cross.
He's not only my substitute, he's my sovereign.
You know, sometimes I think, you may not
do this, I think I live sometimes as
though God, Jesus, didn't quite get through with
it and finish the job.
But I'll tell you what he said on
the cross.
Just two words.
Maybe we ought to write them here, maybe
you ought to write them on a piece
of paper, stick them on the mirror where
you keep looking at your beautiful self and
see a sign there every time you look
and it just say this, it is finished,
three words.
He can't come back and do anything else.
If he did, he didn't do a perfect
job, he did a perfect job.
Not all the blood of beasts on Jewish
altars slain, you could stack their bodies until
you couldn't see the moon.
You could have a river of animal blood
bigger than the river Amazon.
But not all the blood of beasts on
Jewish altars slain could give one guilty conscience
peace or wash away one stain, but Christ
the heavenly Lamb takes all our sins away.
The one tragic moment in hell was when
Jesus said it is finished and he pulled
the empire down.
And you see Jesus strutting, the only time
he strutted in the book of the Revelation
and he says with a triumph, you know
what?
I finished the job and listen, these are
the keys of death and of hell.
You know if we really knew it, this
Lucifer's got nothing left.
He's got nothing left.
Let me come to three simple things in
this chapter, 22, 23, 26.
Verse 22, We know that the whole creation
groaneth and traveleth in pain together until now.
And not only they but ourselves also which
have the first fruits, it's really first fruit
in the original, first fruit of the Spirit,
even we ourselves groan within ourselves waiting for
the adoption to with the redemption of the
body.
Verse 30, 26.
Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities for
we know not what we should pray for
as we ought but the Spirit itself.
That's the worst translation in this version.
It's really the Spirit himself maketh intercession.
You see, the true Spirit of prayer, the
Spirit of God in me creates it.
And he at the right hand of the
Father communicates it.
And the Father on the throne considers it.
The Father, Son and Holy Spirit always work
in harmony.
Remember it's not Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
it's this way, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is not, N.O.T.
as Tozi used to say, the junior partner
in the Godhead.
They're equal in majesty, they're equal in glory.
Every work of, I say this many times
to myself in prayer, I guess I've said
it here more than once.
And what's more, I'll tell you more than
once again.
Every work of the Holy Spirit is majestic.
The world was a ball of mud hanging
up there in the universe and the Holy
Spirit brought it and he brooded over it.
And go down the road just now and
see all those blue bonnets and lovely flowers.
He put them prodigal there with his colourer.
He made the stars those heavenly flames.
He counts their numbers, calls their names.
His wisdom's vast and those no bound are
deeper all our thoughts are drowned.
Oh!
He made this universe, he put the stars
in their sockets.
He was there before the trees of the
fields clapped their hands and the morning stars
sang together.
He was there in the bosom of the
Father and he brooded over a dirty pile
of mud and it became this marvellous world
that we haven't discovered yet.
And one day he brooded over the empty
womb of a young beautiful maiden and he
conceived Jesus Christ there just like he conceived
creation.
And one day that man was lying on
a slab cold and dead as dead as
the slab he was on.
And the devil thought man I just got
him I knew he wouldn't get up he
hasn't he's not going to make it and
as I've told you before he said what
can we do and they put a stone
there and then they put wax over the
stone and seals over the wax and then
the sin of the world against the stone
and then Satan says every demon put your
shoulder to that stone we've only ten seconds
to go and we can wreck the whole
human race.
And if you think the first countdown was
in Florida you're two thousand years too late
it was resurrection morning.
And all heaven was looking on and all
hell was looking on and the earth had
gone to sleep.
Don't you get disgusted friends forget you.
Remember that lovely pathetic hymn Do thy friends
despise, forsake thee take it to the Lord
in prayer.
I always feel like saying would you hand
them all a Kleenex while we sing that
self-pitying hymn.
Do you realize that for three years he
told them he was the resurrection and the
life and demonstrated it and not one of
them turned up that morning at Easter?
Why do you expect better treatment?
All hell was looking on all the angels
were looking on there's the stone there's the
wax there's the seal there's the soldiers there's
all the sin of the world there's every
demon on his shoulder and in the last
minute when Satan got to ten nine what
was it ten nine eight seven six five
four three two and he was just going
to say one and the Holy Ghost went
in and cheated him.
Jesus jumped up from the tomb because the
word of God says in this very chapter
of Romans 8 the spirit of him that
raised up Jesus from the dead.
Listen do you realize if your body raised
you from the dead trespasses and sins why
get so excited about Lazarus you were as
dead as Lazarus maybe you stunk more but
you were as dead as he was anyhow.
You say he opened the eyes of blind
Bartimaeus didn't he open your blind eyes?
He unplugged the ears of the deaf weren't
you deaf didn't we sing it this afternoon?
Hear him ye deaf his praise ye dumb
your ransom tongues employ.
Hmm?
I wonder how often our ransom tongues are
employed I wonder how often we do leap
for joy.
The Holy Ghost created the world the Holy
Ghost created the Christ in the matrix of
the virgin the Holy Ghost raised up Jesus
from the dead and not only that but
remember it says what in Romans pardon me
Hebrews 10 excuse me the blood of bulls
and goats and the ashes of an heifer
sprinkling the unclean sanctified for the pure and
fine of the flesh how much more how
much more shall the blood of Christ flow
through the eternal spirit he needed the Holy
Ghost even when he ascended to say I
like Jesus is putting it mild but you
see our language is so poor I like
him because he contradicts all the laws of
nature people say well how could a man
maybe be born without a mother without a
father well the first man came into the
world without a mother he's the only person
in creation that didn't have a navel but
Adam didn't have a mother Jesus didn't have
a father he came into the world contradicting
nature he walked on the water that scared
him that scared them just to show he
could contradict he didn't do it often he
didn't do it for fun most often he
took a boat some people want miracles every
meeting you must come to a house for
a long while maybe before you see any
we don't need them in that sense I'm
sure man if we could have done what
Jesus did you'd never left the pool of
Bethesda all your life he went and healed
one man and walked away and left maybe
500 cripples that would have killed me I
shared meetings often with Miss Kuhlman and she'd
say after the meeting when somebody said wasn't
it marvellous oh she'd say but brother how
many went away unhealed that's what gets me
not that three people were healed there were
3000 there not healed oh well the cameras
don't put the pictures on that do you
ever find a healer write a book on
all his failures huh do you ever testify
about all your failures come on now oh
I once prayed for so and so I
saw so and so do me right fine
I'm not saying that I'm just saying this
on the law of averages we've got about
100 failures for every healing or miracle Jesus
didn't take walk on the water for fun
he walked on the water when he was
in it but I'll tell you what he
did it that's what matters the only man
that ever did not Peter did it you
say he sank I say he didn't the
scripture says he did he doesn't it says
he sank when he was going out how
do you think he got back do you
think Jesus gave him a picker bag he
walked back to the boat sure he did
you see he only had his eyes on
Jesus going out but when he came back
he had Jesus with him I think he
hung on Jesus' arm I would anyhow walking
or no walking they say we both go
down together or not at all no no
no no no chance of that but isn't
it lovely that Jesus contradicts the laws of
men the laws of science and one day
they were talking to him and he says
you know one day and they oh oh
he's gone hey that must have been nice
to see Jesus going up stupid people say
Wilbur Wright was the first fella to go
through the air forget it Elijah went with
a chariot with four motors on two well
I don't have any horses he had but
Elijah went up didn't he with a chariot
of fire that must have been great to
see see God's never behind anybody I mean
never behind in the sense of of too
late he's always ahead of everybody and you
know that same Jesus that went walking up
the clouds wouldn't it be wonderful to see
I've dreamed I've been doing that many times
woke up all perspiring for sure but I've
dreamed I was walking up clouds you know
one day he's going to come stepping down
the clouds won't that be wonderful particularly if
you've just got your gas bill and all
the other bills and you're just wondering what
to do and suddenly whoopee there he is
huh you thought it was an earthquake 10
,000 of his saints wouldn't it have been
impressive if he'd done that the resurrection morning
instead of leaving it to the end I
remind you again he didn't try to impress
anybody Jesus never went to anybody after he
was raised from the dead no sinners no
sirree you come by faith this prophecy of
1613 said what we'll need in the end
time is a great miracle a revival miracle
we've had them for the last 50 years
in this country no nation on earth has
had more no man had more than Charles
Price read his books I think we have
them one of the great saints of Pentecostalism
they dragged him to court because he was
healing people he said I never healed anybody
I never gave a prescription but I happened
to work for a master who was pretty
good at it the Bosworth brothers came up
Oral Roberts Jack Cole mentioned them I met
most many of them we've gone through that
phase it didn't turn the nation to God
somebody told me I was going to send
his name I won't that Miss Coolman's ministry
had diminished tremendously before she died she wasn't
getting the same power she knew it David
Wilkerson told me that she didn't tell him
she told his friend I'm the last of
the line God isn't going to work for
anybody that nature that style anymore he's going
to do it in a better way but
again don't look so sad please it's all
the power of the spirit oh one other
thing I should have told you about the
Holy Spirit do you know he's a good
writer oh some guys that wrote for him
weren't much good one was a guy he
never went to school herdsman of Tikoa not
sure he got all his calligraphy nice but
I'll tell you what boy they left me
a marvellous book holy men of God take
as they were moved do you ever feel
something churning in you I do at times
I hear women say we were in a
house not too long ago where a young
lady was expecting a baby within a few
days she said you know this thing moves
in the night my how it stirs in
the meeting it was kicking he's enjoying my
preaching actually but she said man one part
when you were speaking he was kicking me
like mad great great that's good maybe he's
going to be a preacher the Holy Spirit's
energies did you notice that in that hymn
we sang this afternoon eternal light I love
that phrase the Holy Spirit energy you know
if you link the force of the sun
and all nature and every atom bomb and
hydrogen bomb and everything else it wouldn't be
a fire cracker compared to the power of
the Holy Ghost he raised Jesus from the
dead what do you think kind of power
did that hmm he blasted the whole in
hell itself through the power of the Spirit
and Jesus raised from the dead he led
captivity captive alright let me skip to this
quickly what does it say in verse 22
the whole creation groaneth huh wasn't another earthquake
last week they didn't report how strong it
was on the Richter scale but another one
in Turkey somewhere you count back the last
five years the strength of earthquakes the hundred
even millions of people being destroyed huh the
other night I was laying in bed the
lightning was flashing till the whole countryside was
lit up you could have read a book
with it man if you could have harnessed
just one of those flashes that would last
you in electricity all the rest of your
life for the whole city but the whole
creation is groaning today I believe physically it's
groaning I believe the skies are groaning I
believe the earth is groaning I believe the
upset in the in the weather is part
of the groaning of creation and there's no
legislation can put it right we ourselves groan
within ourselves do you?
come on do you?
do you?
don't answer me answer God do you?
do you?
do you ever groan within yourself?
not for longings merely for yourself that somehow
you might come to maturity and strength do
you groan?
I like that hymn that we sang this
afternoon I like it I don't like it
I choke up when it says give us
thy sons to bear the message glorious we've
got three of them in different countries I
thank God for give us thy wealth to
speed them on their way yeah I I
do that by the grace of God I
like to go out and preach because we
give the money to missions it's great the
pastor says how much do you want?
I say as many thousands as you can
give me give me every dime I want
such a penny of it won't even take
expenses for coming give me the money that's
needed in South America let's get moving where
there's darkness this man told me he'd been
to the area where Paul and Irene are
he says I'll tell you what that's a
different kind of Christianity than you'll find anywhere
he said you didn't drop one hint of
light that bunch down there obey it they
obey it they're all just young couples in
their twenties to thirties with a breathing of
God on that community already had warnings and
prophecies of what God's going to do they've
got teenagers that Paul says they can pray
and pray till two or three o'clock
in the morning they pray like veterans like
men in America or England at fifty or
sixty years of age who walked with God
for forty years and these kids were three
and four and five years of age but
they pray with groanings and then verse twenty
six that says the spirit himself as it
should be maketh intercession now people say of
course that means tongues and I don't believe
it does I believe you can pray in
tongues sure but I don't believe that's what
it's talking about here if it was God
would say so he happens to be smarter
than we are if he said it was
praying with tongues of the utterance but it's
beyond tongues it's beyond tongues it's groanings which
cannot be uttered it's Hannah again in the
place where she's determined by the grace of
God to bring forth that child and it's
not for her sake it's for God's sake
it's not to take her barrenness but God
needs a prophet twenty years up the road
and she's determined to see that God gets
that man and the priest can think she's
drunk and everybody else thinks she's spiritually insane
why does she care?
let God come on you with a burden
for somebody or something somewhere you won't care
a hill of beans whether you think your
dress is fifty years old or your hair's
the wrong style or your nose isn't the
right shape you won't even see nor feel
live in a different world as this precious
brother says God doesn't really want to bless
us he wants to integrate his life into
mine alright let me step back the creation
groaneth we groan the spirit groan why?
now you may disagree with it do you
know I believe maybe at the judgment seat
you'll discover that Watergate wasn't a moral collapse
it wasn't a political collapse it was a
spiritual collapse there were eighteen different selected preachers
went to Nixon and not one of them
got through to him I read a very
biting thing I get the New York Times
book review as a gift somebody bought it
for me and I enjoy it it reviews
fifty sixty, a hundred books a week there
was a book reviewed by the name of
Lancelot it's in the twentieth it's in the
February edition the twentieth of this year twentieth
of February 1977 the writer in it he
says this if I can remember it exactly
this is a paraphrase and you're very close
don't talk to me about Christian love where
is Christian love it's been preached over radio
over TV and over the pulpit and that
was the end of it now listen to
what he says the Jews knew better he
mentions a name I won't put the name
in let's say the men who preached to
Nixon he says they laid down with Nixon
and they got up with a different set
of fleas the Hebrew prophets did not hobnob
with corrupt men they were bred in the
wildernesses they were bred in the deserts they
knew better than to compromise with men like
that they had a commission from an eternal
God maybe
Watergate and all that's come out of it
will be laid at the charge of those
preachers never mind your politicians do you know
how many times so and so preached before
Nixon no but I'll tell you what if
Elijah got there the first time he'd never
have got there the second any time and
you know what Nixon and all the bunch
with him would never forget that Elijah stood
there in the power of the spirit of
God let me come to the last comment
here it's in the 19th verse we'll step
back for the earnest expectation of the creature
waiter for the manifestation of the sons of
God now that's the thing that really bit
me that's the thing I've chewed over in
the night I got out of bed when
I couldn't sleep and gone to my office
manifestation of the sons of God is that
why the whole creation has gone out come
on now is that why the men who
proceeded Stalin could liquidate 60 million people in
one day
in one day day
in
one
in one
day in
one day in one day
in one
in one day in one day in one
day in one day in one day in
one day in
one day in one day in one day
in one day in one day in
one day in one day in
one day in one day in day in
one day in us
but that we hear God.
What is it saying?
You know you've got to a pretty sad
pitch when Satan tries to cast out Satan.
I listened to a comment the other night.
Do you know there's a national agitation against
TV right now?
Do you know the PTA is doing in
California?
It's put every every one of the major
stations CBS and ABC and all the other
junks.
Every station is being monitored from now till
January next year.
Do you know they said that your child,
if your child is an average American child,
your child by the age of 15 will
have seen 11,000 murders on TV.
Your child by the age of 18 will
have sucked in 20,000 hours of TV.
Now I'm all for Christian schools, go ahead.
But I'll tell you what, first, number one,
a Christian school is no substitute for a
Christian home.
Number two, sending children to a Christian school
won't make them Christians any more than people
going to church will become Christians.
Number three, if your children are truly spiritual
they'll get more persecution in a Christian school
than outside.
Do you know why?
A friend of mine, a distinguished American, told
me this just a few days ago, maybe
a week and a half ago, that his
children got more persecution in a Christian school
than outside.
Do you know why?
Because people started flooding their children to school.
They want them to be good.
They want them to be exempt from drugs
and filth and rotten literature and everything.
But once the Christian child tries to get
the other person saved, the other boy saved,
and talk about God, he gets more as
much persecution as he did in the other
school.
The kids want to be good, their parents
want them good, but not spiritual.
Now there's no sense, there's no sense in
saying we're going to outlaw filth in Christian
schools if you tap it in the house
on your TV.
I'm not going to talk to you again
about this, I'm going to talk to you
today.
If you say I don't want my child
to go to a school where there's a
pollution, see he doesn't live in a house
where poison comes down the tube.
Your children not need more than one hour
a night on TV.
Under 14 years of age you won't like
this, it's true, they should be in bed
by eight o'clock.
They shouldn't date until they're 19, not one
of my precious sons did.
Because you see kids don't wake up, they
wake up physically, sexually, they wake up, they
can do all kinds of things after they're
14 or 15.
And if you, if you precipitate them into
that, well don't start screaming to almighty God
for it.
You see your children need a Christian school,
okay, they need a Christian home balanced by
love, balanced by a thing that's old-fashioned
discipline.
Now of course we wouldn't get this, because
equal rights lawyers would storm us.
You know the greatest schools in England and
in this country until five years ago were
not co-ed.
That knocks the bottom out of it, they
should be girl schools or boy schools, but
that's gone forever I'm afraid.
But once they start mixing up at teenage
and they get a life physically and sexually
any other way, you start problems so you
better protect them.
Isn't it terrible now that the devil can
come down that tube?
Now you're going to have to compensate somehow
sure enough, sure enough.
My boys went to good schools.
As we would say they were not, well
the first one was a pretty good school.
The good schools in England, the schools where
they still parade in the central hall in
the morning, sing a hymn, have a bible
read.
That doesn't make them Christians in themselves.
They're still good and they don't jostle with
girls and boys because there's only boys.
That's another deal.
I'm saying that to say this, I believe
we've come right back to the day of
Elijah.
There's nothing new under the sun, that's what
the book says.
I went to school where there was filth.
They told rotten stories, they had some dirty
books, they told lies, they cheated, they stole.
Admittedly it wasn't as popular.
Do you know more women, more married women
left home last year, deserted home than men?
In God's name where are we getting?
Three weeks ago there was a great big
seminar, everybody has seminars.
I think I'm going to have a seminar
on seminars.
Because everybody's having seminars.
There was a big seminar and it was
jammed up in Minneapolis on the Christian family.
You know whenever any seminars where we were
kids, I'm going to tell you something for
nothing, shoot me if you like.
But I'm going to tell you that if
you take time with your children in the
morning, at night, in prayer and instruction and
cut the dummy thing out and somehow get
their engagement, you'll never need it.
You're never going to need to go to
a seminar or a cemetery to raise your
family.
Not so.
You know somehow Mrs. Wesley managed the 19
with us.
Oh I've heard people mercilessly criticize Maxwell, L
.E. Maxwell, one of the finest schools in
the world today, away in Canada.
They've over a thousand, I think 1200 students,
they've school age, I don't think they're preschool,
they're school age and high school and a
marvellous system.
And people are criticizing but the proof of
the pudding's in the eating.
He has seven children, every one of them
has done or is doing work on the
mission field or is married to a missionary.
A fellow called me the other day and
he said I'm the son of so-and
-so and I'm so-and-so.
I said I remember when your father lift
your shirt up and spanked your bear behind.
He's about six foot two now, he's a
big fine, one of the greatest preachers in
the country.
They have ten children and every one of
them is either a missionary, engaged to a
preacher, on the mission field, or working somehow
or somewhere.
A disciplined home, balanced with love, the reading
of the word of God.
All right we've come back to the days
of Elijah.
Now here's a simple thing.
In the days of Elijah there was only
one Ahab, only one Jezebel.
With thousands of Jezebels and thousands of Ahabs
now.
Where are the Elijahs?
Who are the manifest sons of God?
I'm working on it and as the Lord
helps me I'll bring you something on it
if I get more illumination.
But you know what I think really?
I'm not so sure it's super saints kind
of Melchizedek type.
I think the last part of verse 18
is that we, verse 18, the glory which
shall be revealed in us.
Do you know what I think?
Contradict me if I'm right and I'll be
glad of the information.
I don't believe one man ever candidated to
be a prophet.
Did he?
Where did Elijah come from?
I'd like to know his dad and mum.
I get more interested in fathers and mothers
as I get older.
He must have had a dad and mum
somewhere don't you think?
Huh?
What was Moses' dad and mum?
Amram and Jacobed was that him?
Boy that's funny names to write down on
your birth certificate.
Who's your father?
Jacobed, Amram.
Hey they must have been a couple.
They didn't care what the government said.
The government said you give us that kid
and we'll drown him.
They said not on your life, we don't
obey government, we obey God.
Think God doesn't joke?
The princess goes down to have a bathe
and she sees a basket with a babe
and she says oh oh what a beautiful
and you know what?
He's one of the Hebrew children, drown him.
That's what you should have said if you'd
obeyed Hey not only was Moses' father and
mother didn't obey the king, she didn't obey
him.
She says take him home, I'm going to
have him.
He's my boy, he's going to be a
prince.
I'll look after him.
He that dwelleth in the heavens shall laugh.
I guess God laughed at that.
The little baby that should be drowned, the
government paid his expenses, read the seven scouts
of the Acts of the Apostles, sealed a
mighty scullery, became a statesman.
Oh yes.
Do you think he ever candidated to be
a deliverer?
Do you think he'd been praying on the
backside of the desert?
Lord take me back as quickly as you
can because I want to go see Pharaoh.
Pharaoh was the last man in the world
he wanted to see.
Pharaoh said let Moses come back, I'll cut
his head off.
Did he candidate for it?
No, the Lord fought him.
Take off thy shoes from our sacks.
Oh it's all right, I've been keeping a
register on you Moses, got the whole thing.
Jesus, 30 years, learned obedience.
Oh you and I wouldn't do that.
We take every difficulty out of the way
of our kids so they get flabby and
there's no challenges.
Jesus learned obedience by the things he suffered.
Romans 8, oh it's a marvellous chapter, it's
full of excitement and right in the middle
it says what?
I reckon the sufferings of this present time
are not...
oh oh oh oh boy.
I mean why did he put that in?
If, if he'd left it out it would
have been a glorious chapter.
Why put a cloud in the sky?
It's like saying why do you put black
keys on white?
You know it's a way to abolish that.
The black and white get on all right
there, but right in the middle of Romans
8 with all its excitement, the sufferings of
this present time.
If you haven't read it for a while,
would you get a book a bit later
of Dr. Tozer where he says God talks
to the man that listens.
Do you know what he says?
He's never spoken to a man yet that
didn't have a broken heart.
A man that didn't weep, a man that
didn't sorrow.
He comes and he takes Moses.
Then, then sometime this read, read the 24th
chapter of Exodus.
See God doesn't deal with us all the
same.
Everybody's not going to be manifest sons, you
don't want to be.
All we want to do is go to
heaven.
Praise the Lord, got one or two gifts,
hallelujah, I'll make it.
But God's going to have some manifest sons
in these last days, in these last hours.
You know how they'll prove themselves?
By hiding away like Moses did for 40
years.
By being still before God, like John Baptist
was for maybe 20 years.
By being forgotten like Jesus was for 30
years.
And then that 24th chapter, I wind up
with it there.
Do you remember what God said to those
men there?
He says, Moses, leave the multitude.
You can bring Aaron, and her, and Joshua,
and uh, who was that, who was the
other, Nahab, I can never say that name
at all, Nahab and Abihu.
You see, Israel are going to be down
there.
They're still my people.
The 70 are going to be here.
They're my people.
But the others are going to be there.
And you know what it says?
That God did not, N-O-T, he
did not lay his hands on the nobles.
There's one group, here's another, there's another.
And he says, Moses come up here.
Why?
Why didn't they all go there?
Because they all didn't want to hear the
thunder, and the roar, and the lightning, and
the flashing of God in his holiness.
Moses had served his probation well.
Joshua isn't there yet.
Aaron and her are not there yet.
You know I encourage, I don't know how
you encourage your spirit.
I encourage my spirit that all over the
world, here in America and elsewhere, there are
men who are secretly waiting on God.
I got a letter the other day, it
stirred me.
Fellow said, I heard you preach a few
weeks ago in a certain place, you preached
on Elijah.
I'm right in the middle of it.
And you know I've got everything I wanted.
I've been to college, I've been to seminary,
I have a nice church, and I'm booked
every night this year, I'm booked into the
middle of September.
And just as you were speaking and you
said, go hide thyself, the Lord said, cancel
every preaching engagement you have this year.
And he's had to write dozens of letters.
He said, I've cancelled every one.
I've got a job on a farm where
I can finish at five.
And you know what?
One of my buddies, from the college, has
done the same thing.
He's gone to another farm, and they're going
to let him work there and me work
here.
And we're going to meet after we've washed
at night.
And we're going to get along with our
Bibles and the Word of God.
We're going to have every night from a
few weeks now, right until September, waiting on
God.
A business person said to me just recently,
I don't know whether I should stay in
this office all this time.
In this great poem that I've mentioned to
you before, find it if you can, W.
H.
Meyer's great majestic poem on St. Paul.
He says, God will forgive thee all but
thy despair.
He'll forgive everything except your despair.
You know what?
There's no amount of mercy and pleading on
a deathbed that will restore all the wasted
years, all the wasted money.
Sure folk joke I'm stingy.
Sure I am.
I believe from the day I got saved,
every penny I have belongs to Jesus.
It doesn't belong me.
It says in the Old Testament.
Oh, the Old Testament.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
These prosperity boys on radio, always talking about
the Old Testament, aren't they?
Do you know what God did for Abraham?
Listen, I'll tell you something God did.
Number one, when he divided Canaan, he didn't
give an inch of ground to the Levites.
They were to serve God entirely.
But the compensation was this, nobody could carry
the ark of God but the Levites.
Do you think God doesn't compensate men?
I say when we get the pacifier out
of our, we kick.
Yeah, yeah, you're giving us your own ideas.
You're all right when you preach the word.
Sometimes you inject your own thoughts.
Well I've got good company.
Paul says the same thing.
He says I'm preaching here not by commandment.
I'm telling you what's in my own mind
and I'll do that till I die.
But let me say the last thing.
One of the most thrilling stories I ever
heard when I was a kid.
I'd like my mother to tell it.
She's a great storyteller too.
And she showed us those men coming with
a big rod like this, struggling and the
knees were buckling and they only just made
it over the border.
Carrying a bunch of grapes.
Man alive, this week grapes were a dollar
eighty a pound.
That would be worth about a million dollars
I would imagine the way priced.
Now I don't know whether they were all
little grapes or they were so big you
know that the whole family ate one.
I don't know.
But they were so big that man they
carried them out.
Huh?
They carried them out of the promised land
into Egypt.
Well what do you think they did?
Give them to the birds?
They didn't have any hogs because they didn't
believe in pigs.
Might be hard on our friend Jake here
but anyhow they, they, they didn't believe in
hogs.
Have you ever visualized those people sitting down
and saying you know what?
Man these grapes.
You know I think they stuffed them with
honey before they, oh are they luscious.
Well listen, listen, listen.
There's not enough for everybody.
Every, not a million people could have a
grape.
There weren't enough but I'll tell you what
they were the greatest grapes.
But you know what?
They were happy to have the fruits of
the promised land but they didn't want to
go in.
There happened to be 31 kings in the
promised land.
They didn't want to get their little fingers
hurt or the fingernails crushed or have to
fight the 31 kings.
And the walls were to high heaven and
everything is terrible in there but oh I
like the fruit.
Say are you going back again?
Just it's John's birthday.
Bring, bring me a bunch will you?
You know I mean you know if you
could make it real you know.
Do you think we could open an agency?
Could I open a branch office or something
over there?
Or could we get an underground railway to
bring them through?
They ate of the fruit of the land
but they never went in.
Oh we've been awful people.
A lot of people want to be blessed
and happy.
They don't want to take up their cross
and follow him.
You see Jesus has a cross for you
that he doesn't have for me and one
for me he doesn't have for you.
Oh I'm getting old.
I'm just young enough to start and I
can do it.
I've nearly enough invitations to go.
But you know George Muller didn't go around
the world till he was 70.
And then without radio or TV or anything
he preached to 7 million people after he
was 70 years of age.
And at 90 years of age he was
as fresh as a daisy.
He must have touched some of that marvellous
stuff in Romans 8.
The resurrection quickening your mortal body.
The spirit that worketh in us.
Oh come on forget about the glory that
shall be.
It's time we had a bit right down
here.
It's time that we were so candidated that
God whispers into your heart and says listen
I'm going to make you one of my
manifest sons.
But the only way to do it I'm
going to drop you in a jungle in
South America.
I'm going to drop you in a hell
hole in New Jersey and ask you to
live your life out there and you better
tell your bride before you go that.
Sorry I'm tearing the flowers.
You better tell your bride before you go
that this is where we're going to live.
See she loves you enough to live in
a lousy rat infested place.
Yeah it's easy to sing give of thy
sons to bear the message glorious.
It's easy to feel moved isn't it?
It's another thing to get let the spirit
of God so possess us again that I'm
not just after blessing but to be made
a blessing.
Not to know little of his life but
integrated with him that my life and your
life may be hid as Paul says with
Christ in God.