A bit like being electrocuted, I think.
I think a new class will be here
next Friday night, is that right?
Anybody know?
Good, that's great, so come early to get
a seat.
There was a lady here last week, maybe
she won't be too flattered if I said
this, she's a chubby little lady, round cheeks,
she was round everywhere to tell the truth.
And I said, we're glad to see you.
Where are you from?
She said, Nebraska.
Nebraska?
Who have you been staying with?
What are you doing down here?
I came for the prayer meeting.
From Nebraska?
Yeah?
Well, you were here last week.
I've had two Friday nights in this prayer
meeting.
I didn't know a thing about it and
God gave me a vision of a cafeteria
with a prayer meeting in it.
You think the Holy Ghost isn't on the
mark, eh?
She said, but Lord, they don't have prayer
meetings in cafeterias.
I said, well, there's one down at Lyndale
in Texas.
And she took the bus, or she flew,
just to come to the prayer meeting.
And stayed the second week.
Then like everybody else, she said, where do
I go to another prayer meeting like this?
I said, there isn't one.
There are going to be many.
Three nights ago, a young man called me
from just outside of Chicago.
Can we come to your prayer meeting?
I said, where are you?
He said, out of state.
I said, where, Illinois?
I said, yes, that's out of state, all
right.
My wife and I want to come to
the prayer meeting.
They're going to fly down to come to
a prayer meeting, which is beautiful, but horrible.
If they drive, they'll pass 500 churches.
All the taverns will be open, all the
hell holes will be open, the churches will
be locked up.
Last Sunday night I had the privilege of
preaching in town at the Church of God.
I thought there was a breath of heaven
in that meeting.
Until there were people at the altar at
11 o'clock and they didn't even speak
above a whisper, God came.
The pastor called me Tuesday midday and he
said, my phone rang all day yesterday and
it's been ringing all day today until a
few minutes ago with people who responded or
met God in some way in that meeting.
Next Saturday night, not Friday night, can't give
up Friday nights.
That's a holy day.
But next Saturday night we're going to have
a prayer meeting in the Church of God.
You don't go where?
Down Loop 323, cross over Broadway, go right
up, what is it, Troop Highway?
Anybody know what it's called?
Nobody knows.
Disgusting.
Is it Troop Highway better?
Go right round up round the bend.
Where you go shopping, you know, that big
shopping centre, go right round the bend, you'll
see Assembly of God.
Don't go in there.
Come to our prayer meeting next door.
I don't know the time, maybe it will
be, I guess between seven and eight we're
going to pray two or three hours.
Then Sunday night there and Monday night and
Tuesday I'm going to preach, I'm going to
try anyhow.
I feel there's a touch of God on
that church.
And we have to have faith and works.
So I expect you, you book for a
week Saturday, you can't go to dinner anywhere.
Dale and Betty.
And Dick you're booked for that night, you
two behind.
And Ed and Bill.
We need to go support them.
They have desires for God.
I go to meetings nearly every night if
they'll pray.
I'm not used to listening to preachers, they
bore me.
But we go to prayer meetings.
Some dear folk here from Fort Worth tonight,
glad to see you.
People keep phoning, if they all come the
same night you'll have to push that thing
back to the far wall.
Somewhere tonight in our praying let's pray for
the new students that are coming that it
will mean something to them.
I'm convinced the fire is going to fall
somewhere in the Tyler area.
I believe there are thousands of prayers under
the altar from Tyler.
I know by some prayer meetings, I said
to somebody today, the psalmist said store my
tears in thy bottle, he'll have to have
a big bottle before long.
I believe God is going to give us
a real spirit of intercession and supplication.
Which is the greatest need right now.
Okay.
The Acts of the Apostles chapter 20.
Acts chapter 20 verse 24.
But none of these things move me, neither
count I my life as dear unto myself,
so that I may finish my course with
joy and the ministry which I received of
the Lord Jesus to testify the gospel of
the grace of God.
I guess you can cast your mind very
quickly over the enormous ministry, the awesome ministry
I could say of the Apostle Paul.
Not long after this he's going to be
put to death.
Because I thought about it today, I thought
about Adam.
How long did he live?
930 years.
What did he do?
I don't know.
Did he ever pray?
I don't know there's a record of it.
Did he ever worship God?
There's no record of it.
What did he do?
930 years and he left no record.
Here is the Apostle, breathlessly going on to
eternity.
He's testifying.
Again a man with an experience is never
at the mercy of a man with an
argument.
I like Paul because he's 100% what
he preached.
You can't say that of many preachers.
We had a preacher in our home last
week.
A very handsome man, very brilliant.
He joined us in Teen Talent when Teen
Talent was just starting.
When Dave Wilson had a desk I had
to go get one for him at a
junk shop.
When we used to think that a $20
bill we used to have a dance around
the office when we got $20.
That young man came straight from Harvard.
He was president of his class that year.
He was voted the most likely young man
to succeed and go to the top first.
In anything he laid his hand to.
Maybe I mentioned it last week, he came
to Teen Talent.
From there he went to Zion, Illinois.
Now if you're thinking about a Bible school
where you'll get, it's not a 10 week
course of course, about 4 years.
If I had children I'd want them to
go to that school.
It's there where I met that old man,
30 years of age, pardon me, 65 years
of age who hadn't been to bed one
night for 30 years.
Come on you tough men that play racquetball
and get bruised up and knocked around.
Have you got enough stamina to stay up
all night?
For a week?
For a month?
For a year?
For 30 years?
I looked at him with amazement, stared at
his beautiful blue eyes, pink cheeks.
The picture of health, a brilliant Hebrew scholar,
prepared in Hebrew.
Went to Israel as it then, pardon me,
went to Palestine as it was then.
When he got there God sent him back.
But Lord I've learned Hebrew.
People paid my fare to come out.
You told me that you don't care for
opinions, go back.
And intercede for America.
He's one of the men whose thousands of
prayers are under the altar.
Tear stained.
Praying, weeping while other people are sleeping.
He got such a vision of eternity, he
got such a vision of the majesty of
God.
Of the horrors of hell.
Of the corruption of human nature.
Paul is in that very same category.
Look in verse 22.
And now behold I go bound in the
Spirit to Jerusalem.
Now the scholars can't define whether it's bound
by the Holy Spirit or bound in his
human spirit.
I don't care what it means.
Not knowing the things that shall befall me
there.
He had words of knowledge, but this he
says I don't know what befalls me when
I go to Jerusalem.
That's what he said in verse 22.
Look at verse 25.
And now behold I know that ye, and
I know ye all among whom I have
gone preaching the kingdom of God.
And ye shall see my face no more.
But he just said he didn't know what
was happening.
Where is he going?
He's going bound to Jerusalem.
I believe that from my interpretation of that,
he's got convictions that won't be shaken.
You change your opinions, you don't often change
your convictions.
I don't know what awaits me, I don't
know what torture there is.
But notice what he says, he puts a
little bit more in there.
Now I go bound in the Spirit to
Jerusalem.
Not knowing the things that shall befall me
there.
Say that the Holy Ghost witnesses.
That in every city there are bonds and
afflictions.
Dear Lord, why doesn't he turn back?
He's already done enough to get rewards in
eternity.
He's labored, he's suffered in wilderness, in bondage,
in liberty.
And yet the forecast for, would you, come
on be honest.
Would you like the Holy Ghost to lift
the curtain on your life for the next
five years and show you everything that's coming?
Our boys went to a very lovely school
in Ireland.
Royal Patora School.
They have a big sign as you go
in that Captain Oates, you may remember, he
walked out into the snow.
There wasn't enough food left in the South
Pole exploration.
And the other side has a big disc
and it says here, one of our outstanding
scholars was Francis Henry Light.
Who wrote the hymn, Abide With Me, Fast
Falls the Eventide.
And you may remember he says, keep thou
my feet, I do not ask to see
the distant sea in one step enough for
me.
Supposing God did lift the veil.
He says I'm going bound to Jerusalem, that's
where his master died.
The hymn writer says it is the way
the master went.
Should not the servant tread it still?
Sometimes men were crucified in dozens on the
Appian Way that leads into Rome.
One time they, what did they do?
They hung I think three thousand people on
the side of the road.
Three thousand crosses.
Looking at each other in their misery but
each of them bearing his own pain.
Nobody can bear your pain for your cross.
I think I mentioned the other week of
a man who was in prison.
A man came along he said, what are
you doing here?
I've taken the penalty for my brother.
He was sentenced to five years solitary and
I'm taking it in his place.
You're taking your brother's place?
He said I can only take his penalty,
I can't take his guilt.
I can take the punishment that's put out
on him, I can't bear the agony of
his guilt.
Yet every person who's crucified with Christ bears
his own pain.
It can't be shared.
We don't all pay the same price.
I wasn't rescued from the lip of hell,
I was raised in a very wonderful Methodist
home.
I remember my daddy had a, I was
going to say a staircase, he had a
rack of pipes.
Some very precious pipes.
And a big pot of tobacco and I
remember one morning coming down and said all
the pipes have gone.
Daddy burned them last night.
Why?
Because the Lord dealt with him.
I didn't know who the Lord was.
You know a man picked up the scripture
and he read all the things that the
Apostle Paul was allowed to bear.
What it says, in weariness, in painfulness, in
fastings, in perils of the deep.
Once I was stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck,
a night and a day in the deep.
In weariness, in fastings, lash two hundred and,
five times forty, two hundred minus five, 195
lashes.
And this critic says I've been reading the
life of the Apostle Paul.
If that's what God does to his friends,
what in the world does he do to
his enemies?
That's a nice way of looking at it,
isn't it?
He does that because afterwards he's going to
receive an eternal inheritance.
Every lash was recorded in eternity.
I think in this very scripture Paul says
that he wept over the sinners, he wept
over the church.
The Holy Ghost bears witness.
Come on now, does he?
Do you want the Holy Ghost just to
give you kicks?
Just to make you happy, just to make
you prophesy, just to let you speak in
tongues?
To let you feel more freedom?
Does the Holy Ghost bear witness?
The Quakers used to talk about an authentic
stop in the spirit, that you're going to
do a thing, and suddenly the Holy Ghost
says no, and you cancel all your plans.
The Holy Ghost says yes, and you go
in a different direction.
He bears witness.
John Wesley preached on the witness of the
spirit from Romans chapter 8, more than any
other text ever preached on.
The spirit beareth witness.
I can't live by feelings.
Good night, I'm up.
I'm higher than the moon.
I could walk on the other side of
the moon some mornings.
Other times if I lived on my emotions
I'm as low as hell nearly.
Amongst the many things that the psalmist said,
there's one that sticks in my mind so
often, he said my heart is fixed.
Well get it straight, nothing else is.
Your emotions aren't, your feelings aren't.
Your circumstances are not.
Everything else is subject to change and decay.
To the variables.
But he says my heart is fixed.
I don't know whether you sang this at
Asbury, in Methodist church I went to, they
used to sing, my heart is fixed, eternal
God, fixed on thee, fixed on thee, and
my immortal choice is made, Christ for me.
And boy they sang.
I haven't heard any good singing since I
left England until I came here.
Just saved myself there.
Oh I love to hear you sing.
My heart is fixed.
My emotions are not.
My circumstances are not.
My finances maybe are not.
There's a hundred things that are not, but
my heart is fixed.
It's given to him.
I have no other Lord, I have no
other person to worship.
Quote Wesley again, in his great hymn, Jesus,
you lover of my soul, he says, thou,
O Christ, art all I want.
You know when you can say that you
learn to worship.
Thou, O Christ, art all I want.
More than all in thee I find.
Stay your hand, stay your hand, you're blessing
me too much.
Do you ever have times of exaltation when
you're alone with God and you feel as
though you're going to burst with joy?
Well you should do.
At times I burst in weeping.
When I groan.
Why shouldn't I go to the other end
of the scale?
You know I look at these dear ladies
sometimes.
I don't look too close.
I think I've told you I stayed in
a home in Chicago.
The lady was about 60 years of age
and the first week I was there she
said on the Friday morning, I'll take my
Bible and my Sunday school notes.
I'm going to the beauty shop.
I nearly said, well you need it, but
anyhow.
Then she said, I've gone to the same
beauty shop for 15 years.
I wonder what she was like before they
started doing repairs every Friday.
Oh, ladies tend toward vanity, I suppose, much
more than men.
Men are getting terribly vain these days.
They have their big rings and their fancy
hairstyles.
Thousand dollar suits.
I'm giving the name of an evangelist who
has 80 $1,000 suits.
God help her at the judgment.
I wish she'd worn rags.
But the king's daughter is all glorious within.
They must be discouraging to make your face
up for an hour and a half and
wash it down the sink at night.
Jacob?
I ever saw.
Was in a place in Bradford.
I'll tell you how I remember that because
I met Smith Wigglesworth there.
This dear old lady had a voice.
Good night, I'm singing like an angel compared
to her.
What was it?
Come to my house for a cup of
tea.
Yeah, we went.
We went in.
All she had was little cups that were
cracked and plates that were cracked.
As a matter of fact, she had one
small room in which she lived with her
bed in it and she had the little
stove there and the toilet and everything in
that one room.
Before we left, she said, Let us pray.
Well, I'd heard about that woman, so I
wasn't going to pray.
I tell you, brother, did she pray?
We were all down on the floor before
she finished.
I knew it wasn't a show.
I knew she wasn't putting on something.
I went to pray with a woman in
Scotland in what they call a tenement where
you've got the winding staircase like an old
castle.
She was a hundred years of age.
Her daughter said, You'll have to hammer on
the door and she won't hear you anyhow.
But when you go in, you'll be glad
you went.
Well, there she was.
She had no eyes, totally blind.
Went up to the side of the bed.
Her arms were about as wide as my
two fingers.
I put my hand on her hand, her
arm, and I yelled in her ear.
Couldn't make any sense.
And my friend shouted, and she realized what
we've come to do.
We've come to pray with you.
That little hundred year old lady just said
this, Croon him.
Croon him.
Croon him, Lord of all.
In other words, crown him Lord of all.
You wouldn't have given her five dollars for
everything in the room, including the bed.
And yet her daughter said she has lived
a consistent life of prayer for more than
50 years.
If you heard her when she's released, boy,
she mounts her with wings as eagles.
She's in eternity in five minutes.
Ministers beg to come and hear her pray,
but she won't pray just to let them
hear.
That little woman had gone through tribulation and
distress and famine and peril and nakedness and
sword almost.
And there she was, as sweet as an
angel.
Rugged outside, wrinkled face.
I'm not being facetious.
She had a kind of depression almost on
her face until she started to pray.
Then what a difference.
She didn't ask for prayer.
She didn't ask if anyone would be with
her the rest of the day.
Her daughter went out in the morning, came
home at night from the factory where she
worked.
All she did was exalt Jesus and thank
Him for His blessedness, thank Him for His
faithfulness, thank Him for His mercy.
Thank Him that somewhere out of a few
million people in England one day He selected
her to be a child of God.
And that for more than 70 years she'd
proved His faithfulness, she'd proved in the loneliest
hours, she'd proved when she buried her husband,
she'd proved Him when she buried her children,
she'd proved Him when there was poverty, she'd
proved Him in the long strikes and there
was no money.
So Paul has got what we call the
tip-off.
That's not the right word.
He's got a revelation by the Holy Ghost
that He will suffer.
You remember on the Damascus road when Ananias
went to Him and said He would suffer?
No, He didn't say He would suffer.
What did He say?
He will suffer great things for Thy name's
sake.
Do you wish for that in the year
of a convert when He's just been saved?
Now you're in for trouble.
You've got against you the world, the flesh,
the devil and carnality if God hasn't dealt
with it.
You're going to be a football for circumstances
to kick around and the devil to kick
around.
And God is doing it for one purpose
only and set you on as an example
to the rest of the world of the
grace of God.
Great things are ahead of me.
None of these things move me.
None of these things.
But then He says, neither account of my
life has been my own.
None of these things move me.
You skip over to chapter 27.
Here is the same man now.
As ever the enemy is trying to destroy
him.
He's going on a missionary journey.
And you remember how he tells how the
ship was loaded.
Verse 9 he says, Now when much time
was spent and when sailing was dangerous, look
at that, there's number one thing, dangerous.
Because the fast was now passed Paul admonished
them and he said, Sirs, I perceive that
this voyage will be with hurt and much
damage.
There you are as a prophet.
He gets on as a prophet, he becomes
a passenger, he becomes a prisoner, he becomes
a pilot.
Who's going to get this world out of
the mess it's in?
Not Russia.
Before long this whole nation and all the
other nations are going to be handed over
to the preachers.
There's going to be nowhere else to go.
Sirs, verse 10, I perceive this voyage will
be with much hurt and much damage.
Not only the loading of the ship but
also our lives.
Nevertheless the centurion believed the master and the
owner of the ship.
Naturally he would.
Verse 13, When the south wind blew softly,
supposing they obtained their purpose, what would happen
to them?
Which is a combination of tornadoes and what
do you call the thing you have at
sea?
Hurricanes.
The fiercest thing that was ever known on
the sea was going to beat down on
this man.
He told them it would come.
They ignored him.
David Wilson has sent out a book that's
very much the same.
Somebody told me that before the book or
the same time the book was going out,
a fellow called Van Impey, I think he
is, on TV said almost identical things in
his message.
Verse 14, Not long after there arose in
a tempestuous wind called Eurocledon.
When the ship was caught and could not
bear up into the wind they let her
drive.
They had to let it run its course
where it wanted to go.
And running under a certain island which is
called Clauda we'd much work to come by
the boat which when they had taken up
they used helps undergirding, put ropes under the
ship and
we were exceedingly tossed with a tempest.
Next day they lightened the ship.
The next day they cast out with their
own hands the tackling of the ship when
neither sun nor moon appeared after many days
and no small tempest, in other words a
fierce tempest lay on us.
All hope that we should be saved was
then taken away.
But after long abstinence Paul stood forth in
the midst of them and said, and to
again this harm and loss and now I
exhort you to good cheer for there shall
be no loss of any man's life.
Read it from my scripture here.
Verse 23.
There stood by me this night an angel
of God whose I am and whom I
serve saying, fear not Paul thou must be
brought before Caesar and lo, God hath given
thee all them that sailed with thee in
the ship.
Why?
One man believed God they lost the ship,
they lost their tackle, they lost all the
contents of the ship.
They carried grain in vast quantities.
Here is a man the seas are boiling
the winds are howling the women are weeping
the children are crying the spars are breaking
the sails are ripping and yet I guess
he had gone to them stood at the
side of them and said none of these
things move me.
They are terrifying but none of these things
move me neither count on my life nor
my understanding because he has the prince of
peace in him.
As an old hymn says the storms may
roar without me my heart may below be
laid but God is round about me and
shall I be afraid.
In 2 Corinthians 6 Paul tells us what
preaching is all about what Christian workers are
all for.
We then as workers together with him beseech
you also that you receive not the grace
of God in vain for he saith I
have heard thee in a time accepted.
Verse 4 Some of these things are proving
ourselves as ministers of God this is a
minister are you going into the ministry get
soaked with this impatience, affliction, necessities no no
no no no first thing a preacher says
what is my salary when can I retire
have you ministers pension have you some property
where I can go on weekends or in
the week and just rest and be quiet
some of those things necessary of course in
necessities, in distresses, in strives in imprisonments, in
tumults, in labors in watchings, in fastings by
pureness, by knowledge by long suffering, by kindness
by the Holy Ghost that same Holy Ghost
who said to Paul he whispered to his
heart listen you better get stocked up on
patience and stocked up on peace and stock
your mind with the assurance of God you
are going to go through hell you are
going to live in a world that collapses
I believe that the 27th chapter of the
Acts of the Apostles is a picture of
the day when God appeases the wisest man
why doesn't the ship's master get all of
it why don't they throw the guy overboard
everybody laugh when little Paul went up on
the deck of that ship according to history
or tradition actually he was only 5 feet
2 that's the height of John Wesley I
can see with his chains going up the
gangplank somebody says what's this little Jew coming
up here for haven't you heard of Abbie
he's the most intellectual man in the world
this little man is the man that stood
up against the intellectuals the men of the
day Epicurus, Stoics, Poets they were all there
he knew their history poetry with poetry philosophy
with philosophy they couldn't catch him out they
marveled at him and yet now he's standing
there he looks like he's going to get
drowned I don't think for a moment he
had a whisper of fear in him at
all the ship's rocking the seas are boiling
again the wind's howling and here's a man
with peace perfect peace they sneered when he
got on board before long they were almost
at his feet begging him well how do
you know about it he said there stood
by me this night an angel of God
oh we've heard of those in Greek mythology
they have big wings don't they and golden
crowns he says there stood by isn't that
wonderful the almighty God sent an angel in
the middle of a boiling sea God sent
an agent right from his own throne to
one man it had been 300 saints there
and one sinner it would be different there's
one saint amongst all that corruption you know
so often we pray to get out of
difficulties when almighty God put us there let
me read a bit more for you this
is beautiful stuff isn't it you look very
happy 2 Corinthians 6 now verse 5 love
in stripes and imprisonments in tumults in labours
in watchings in fastings by long suffering suffering
long love suffereth long and is kind that's
why he can write about it he's endured
it his long suffering endures through every moment
of that trial by kindness by the holy
ghost by love and fame by the word
of truth by the power of God by
the armour of righteousness on
the right hand and on the left by
honour and dishonour by evil report and good
report as deceivers and yet true as unknown
and yet well known as dying and behold
we live as chastened and not killed as
sorrowful yet all we're rejoicing as poor yet
making many rich as having nothing and yet
possessing all things God have mercy on us
now the church the church has everything and
possesses nothing this man had nothing and he
possessed everything he needed for that situation or
his ministry don't put him in prison he'll
get out don't stand him before kings your
kings will get a nervous wreck you'll have
to give him a bunch of aspirins or
something his knees are knocking he's terrified he
can stand before Felix he can stand before
Agrippa he can have men there threatening with
axes to chop his head off there's peace,
perfect peace he doesn't move none of these
things move me you know there's one thing
about having nothing you can't lose anything when
you've no reputation you won't worry a hill
of beans what people say about you it's
embarrassing to have nothing a friend came at
midnight knocked on the door and I had
nothing to say before hold it a minute
he runs down tries to wake up the
baker he says come on, come on open
up, open up a friend came at midnight
he once did me a good turn I
said come and see me anytime I hope
you come midday he says come at midnight
we've nothing in the house it's embarrassing to
have nothing come on, how many churches are
you in Tyler?
come on put me on record if you
like tell your preacher could you take a
starving miserable sinner into most churches expecting he'd
get awakened in one meeting there'd be so
much conviction by the Holy Ghost that man
feels he's dropping into hell this man lived
under the fear of God he says knowing
the terror of God we persuade men we're
not asking you to send us a subscription
I get sick of these stinking begging letters
I believe everybody who begs money publicly should
have to give a public answer for every
penny they receive they don't have to do
it at the judgment bar why should they
have to do it now?
you see I'm happy because I don't have
a letter having nothing yet possessing all things
I've heard something on a tape a couple
of weeks ago I think I've thought of
it every day since I've woken up in
the middle of the night two or three
o'clock gone to my office pondered over
it why does this man have such joy?
he says I'm going to Jerusalem I don't
know what awaits me there most likely they'll
do with me what they did with my
master they'll crucify me and then he writes
Galatians 2 20 you remember I am crucified
with Christ nevertheless I live yet not I
why did he survive all this?
for the simple reason it was Christ in
him it wasn't his colossal intellect it wasn't
his virtuous past it wasn't that he was
soaked in Old Testament theology the Christ of
God came and lived in him the moment
he died he has nothing here's the statement
somebody made I wish I'd written it I'd
have had it framed in gold I think
some little fairly unknown preacher said this and
I'm happy about the fact that I got
to hear it you can't say that Christ
is all I need until he's all you
have isn't that sobering?
yes you can't say Christ is all I
need when you've a hundred things around you
when you've twenty different dresses or ten suits
or your refrigerator stock be grateful but wait
a minute let's be careful we don't become
too generous with our words thou O Christ
art all I want I have nothing he
has no reputation he's given up his pedigree
of the tribe of Benjamin of the seed
of Abraham a Pharisee son of a Pharisee
everything that everybody else was reaching for he
put it on the dust and became almost
offensive he trotted it and said it's like
dung you don't usually take your dung and
put it in your pocket you don't put
it in a beautiful vase on the table
it's the offensive thing do you know the
scripture says that those things that you esteem
as high in the those things highly esteemed
of men are what?
an abomination I didn't tell you what the
Greek says I will tell you but I'll
tell you in more polite language it says
the things that you esteem so high reek
with the stench of corrupting corruption that's a
literal translation from the Greek the things we
esteem as high God says they lack stinking
corruption in my nostrils yet how many churches
are pursuing that?
trying to get something attractive there is nothing
on God's earth I'll tell you this I
hope to prove it in preaching a few
days next weekend by the grace of God
there is nothing more attractive on God's earth
than the Holy Ghost anointed meeting a sermon
when you feel it's pulsating with the life
of God with the power of eternity our
churches can't say oh don't you know our
church is on TV every weekend so so
is PTO what good does it do?
you know what PTO means?
Pity the listeners you can
tell how spiritual you are by listening to
Tammy it must take her a week to
make up unless they call of course maybe
they call the painting decorating society in to
get her fixed up every morning what an
abomination that jazz stuff is come on be
sober a minute do you think if John
Baptist preached for 10 minutes on TV he'd
finish his message?
do you think if he blistered them with
the power of the Holy Ghost they'd let
him have a program every week?
I keep saying this and I mean it
somewhere in the Tyler district the fire of
God is going to fall and I'm going
to go when it does I may be
embarrassed in some of the meetings they may
loop the loop and do some other things
I don't care if God is there in
his glory in his majesty if people cry
out shriek out as they do in true
revival as they did when John Baptist preached
read the third chapter of Luke not now
it says that even the Roman soldiers the
lesser breeds outside of the law if you
want there's a way that Kipling put it
they'd come from a heathen country they saw
a rugged ragged man there he had no
pews he had no hymn books he had
no choir and he had no miracle people
think the only thing that will attract people
is miracles blind eyes up forget it if
you say that you've never been in a
meeting where the Holy Ghost is right meetings
where people go home and then they can't
sleep their sin I remember preaching in that
great church in Dublin I didn't think of
that till now in Dublin, Ireland right opposite
the Abbey Theatre where, if you're interested the
Messiah was first played and Handel did it
preached in that great church one night three
or four years after I preached in a
worldwide evangelization crusade conference up in Northern Ireland
in Belfast a man came to me and
said do you remember me?
no you don't?
I remember you I said well of course
you look at me for an hour you'll
remember me I can't remember every congregation he
said do you remember the night you preached
on Psalm 51 in the Methodist church in
Dublin I said sure I did I go
to that big fancy rich Methodist church my
father did but that night God got hold
of me when I got home he went
had a cup of tea my wife went
in in her dressing room and I went
in mine when I came out she was
sitting on the side of the bed I
said get into bed she said get into
bed yourself you know like wives do not
all of them of course I can't get
into bed well I can't get into bed
do you know it's past midnight well darling
get in oh my she's softening up a
bit darling get into bed I can't get
into bed you get into bed I can't
get into bed do you know it's one
o'clock don't get nervous I don't mean
this now it may get to that before
we're through do you know it's half past
one I can't sleep I can't sleep he
said the room isn't that big but he
said I got over the bed and I
yanked it away from the wall and she
went round that way and I went round
this way just passing each other for another
hour and suddenly she got on her knees
and screamed out my dear beautiful wife with
an impeccable morality a scholar a distinguished lady
and she suddenly cried out I thought she
were a harlot I'm filthy I'm undone I'm
in Psalm 51 have mercy upon me oh
God I just watched she wriggled she groaned
she wept maybe an hour get into bed
well I'm not he said I stayed another
hour but he said at the end of
that hour God had gone through me with
a fine tooth comb he said oh he
took me by my fingers and took me
down every avenue of my mind he knew
the old method is saying search me oh
God my actions try and let my life
appear as seen by thine all searching eye
to mine to my eyes my way make
clear search all my thoughts the secret springs
the motives that control the chambers where polluted
things all the empire of the soul search
till thy fiery glance hath cast its holy
light through all and I by grace am
brought at last before thy face to fall
search me oh God I think that's one
of the most staggering things that the Psalmist
ever said in Psalm 139 in Psalm 51
you remember what he says he says hide
thy face from my sins in Psalm 139
he says to that same God that he
says hide your face he says search me
oh God I'm in such agony I'm in
such misery there's no door of escape except
by the cross he said Mr.Ramiel I
really passed from death to life in that
night our home was transformed we've sold our
business we're going to the mission field you
know that's the reward you get for preaching
not somebody's stuffing a hundred dollars in your
hand they'd gone to ordinary sedate lovely meetings
with lovely choirs but the Holy Ghost came
out and I didn't expect it and he
said it was as though he took me
by the fingers and took me down every
corridor of my mind and my heart and
showed me my pollution my unclean, my sinfulness
I thought I was good I was a
good Methodist I took communion I subscribed to
missions but I felt the foulest person outside
of hell that night that's conviction there's a
great revival in China a friend of mine
went through it as a matter of fact
some of you have seen a little old
lady that went through it by the name
of what's her name Bertha Smith she went
through that Shang-Tung revival with Marie Monson
Marie Monson was from Norway and she led
this dear Baptist lady into the fullness of
the blessing according to a little lady herself
a man who went through that revival he
just died recently I think in his 98th
year in California though he was an Englishman
actually he said, Brother Len you prayed for
years for revival sure, I've prayed for 60
years I don't get where in all why?
because I'm 60 years nearer to it than
I was when I started for one thing
my little prayers are under the table under
the altar along with others but he said
Brother Len I want to tell you something
when revival comes it's the most shocking disgusting
awesome thing it's just like you open up
sewers and all the stink comes in the
room you find the best preachers there confessing
hidden sin confessing corruption confessing fornication confessing every
damnable thing that there is and you've passed
them off as nice preachers and nice deacons
and nice Sunday school teachers but when God
starts to work you see before ever there
can be a revival outside there has to
be reviving inside as hot as I am
I want to feel hotter you say as
pure as I am I want to feel
purer with all the vision I have I
want an extended vision I'll cut this and
shut up for years I thought that Paul's
secret was in 1 Corinthians 5 or 2
Corinthians 5 and verse 14 he says the
love of Christ constrains me I thought that
was the answer I don't believe that I
believe when he got a full on revelation
of the amazing grace of God as the
hymn writer says bearing shame and scoffing rude
in my place condemned he stood and when
Paul said that he says in Philippians what
is it?
Philippians 1.20 that Christ may be magnified
by my body whether by life or by
death the only way he could redeem me
was to die for me the only way
I can redeem my worth in his sight
is to die for him I like that
American hymn my faith looks up to thee
a verse you remember as Stanza says as
thou hast died for me so may my
love to thee pure warm and changeless be
God doesn't intend us to be hot and
cold believing and doubtful zealous and then lethargic
coming in us I don't believe you could
ever catch the apostle Paul when there is
any degree of coldness in him I believe
he was totally faithful I believe he was
totally committed the reason he keeps his balance
in the midst of all that turmoil when
everything else is smashing up listen, you better
get girded for it I have some information
on my desk which I believe is true
because this man has given inside information I
guess I've taken his special notice for twenty
years on and off you think that these
terrorists have done something they fill a truck
up milk cans and put them in a
truck and drive them into a building there's
an explosion I want to tell you something
before long they're going to do that but
they're going to use atomic energy they're going
to use atomic bombs they'll go into cities
and they'll be able to trigger them off
with some electric device maybe a hundred miles
away and blow the middle the whole guts
if you like out of a city cut
off its electric power cut off its water
power the Ayatollah Khomeini is filled with a
spirit the spirit of the devil he has
no fear they showed a picture the other
day in a magazine I think it was
one that Martha got for the children the
geographic for children why it was there I
don't know but it showed a 14 year
old boy his daddy holding the Quran over
his head while he swore his allegiance to
Allah and to his country he's 14 he
had a machine gun in his hand his
mother's there with her arms around his shoulders
weeping willing to die at 14 at 18
at 20 go through rigid discipline for what
they think is a shortcut into eternity it
is it's into hell and they don't know
it it's very obvious I'm not smart to
say this but if we're going to turn
the world upside down what the church has
had for 25 years hasn't been able to
do it something new has to be born
and I don't care how odd it may
sound I don't care if there is a
minority I think there has to be a
minority revival the great Irish revival in 1859
started after Spurgeon had been over here and
he heard that Lampheter was getting 3,000
business people every day in New York to
pray and 2,000 people business people praying
in Philadelphia and over 1,000 people in
I was going to tell you the name
I forgot it it's just below your school
what was the big city below no the
other one there further down Louisville thank you
over 1,000 every day in Louisville 3
,000 in New York 2,000 in Philadelphia
Spurgeon came home as fast as he could
and it was a slow boat of course
and he sent notice round he said let
everybody prepare themselves the spirit is already moving
in America and as the wind blows 9
months of the year from America to England
the spirit is going to come that way
in 58 there was an outbreak 59 there
was an outbreak in Scotland 59 there was
an outbreak in Ireland as I said to
you before there's one reason amongst others why
we don't have revival and it's this that
we're content to live without it when it
takes away our sleep when you stop putting
entertainment in the place of joy and that's
all it is entertainment is a devil's substitute
for God's joy when you say I'd rather
be miserable in God travelling for birth and
have the greatest entertainment in the world America
is going to hell full speed so is
England so is our generation the last thing
when the fire fell in Wales in 1905
people went from all over the world to
see what was happening one man went there
and like taking a life cold from off
the altar he went to the Cyclades hills
in India and they had revival after that
phase he went to China they had revival
after that he went to Korea the people
said well the Koreans are so phlegmatic they
never smiled you'll never move them he never
would not till now the Holy Ghost moved
them they had a bigger revival in Korea
than they had in China and then he
went backwards the way he'd gone I'm sick
to death of the devil's monopoly of our
young people one young fellow prayed here the
other night two weeks ago and he said
God help us our young people are drawn
into the world the glitter of the world
the glamour of the world the fascination of
the world because they've never seen the chicane
of glory in the sanctuary once that glory
is seen we'll be miserable outside of it
and when our misery can only be cured
by God we'll go to him and we'll
groan and we'll weep I'm sure disgusted with
the churches but again God's going to pour
out his spirit he's going to need an
apostle Paul in every ship that's breaking every
church that's going to break there'll have to
be a man standing in the midst of
it with the anointing and say an angel
of God spoke to me now the Holy
Ghost spoke to me the Holy Ghost touched
me the Holy Ghost anointed me one night
I want to speak I hope I will
maybe next Friday I don't know on God
being a fire you see we say have
you received the baptism that's a slang phrase
if that's all you have to say shut
up he says he shall baptize you with
the Holy Ghost and with fire the Greek
doesn't say that the Greek says he shall
baptize you with Holy Ghost fire because the
Holy Ghost is fire our God is consuming
fire he intends his church to be on
fire and be attracted they tell me that
when a man lights a fire in a
forest he'll often make a big ring of
fire and he'll get in the middle of
it to go to sleep when he wakes
up he sees big eyeballs all the animals
that normally would be in the darkness are
attracted by the fire and he sees the
fire reacting in their eyes like mirrors I
want to see God come like that until
people say where are you going I'm going
to that big church in town, I don't
know I walked down the street in Wales
in Aberammon with an old silver haired Pentecostal
preacher we got to the Baptist church it
was black because the coal dust blows from
the coal mines and it gets into the
stonework Brother Raven you'll see this building yes
it's all locked up the gates are locked
the padlock yeah he said in 1904 for
no known reason I think it was Monday
night the janitor came and took the big
lock off the door within an hour you
see the hills yes I see the road
down the hill I see the road it's
a kind of a saucer you see all
those every road was black moving with people
who put on the Sunday clothes and came
to church Monday night without an announcement and
they did the next night and they did
the next night one night a girl 12
years of age stood in a gallery and
sang gentle Jesus meek and mild look upon
the little child the holly ghost fell on
the place and from then it just I
was going to say snowballed that's not a
good picture fireballed and people came no advertising
no star preachers I'm sick to death of
star preachers why do we give God the
glory what
are we going to do about it I'm
going to say God come the world's going
to pieces like the ship that Paul was
on we're heading for destruction only his arm
can save us I'm expecting to hear about
people who can't sleep at night deacons that
can't sleep preachers that can't sleep embarrassed just
realising that just professionals you might as well
have a cassette but God uses men not
archangels not Gabriel I asked him the other
day why didn't you send Gabriel down why
didn't you send Michael the archangel why didn't
you send somebody glittering and glorious he said
no I use men I came to redeem
men I put myself in a man the
son of God is a son of man
he was man as well as God but
he contained the fullness of God maybe I
could John Wesley's friend John Fletcher Wesley said
the saintliest man that ever lived since the
apostle Paul and he said John Fletcher said
it's comparatively a small thing that I can
be cleansed from all sin but all the
awesomeness of being filled with all the fullness
of God yes he said we're satisfied to
have a little bit of blessing I've given
up my dirty habits I'm not a harlot
anymore I'm not a drug addict anymore I'm
not a drunkard anymore don't be my wife
anymore come on wonderful what about all this
unexplored territory in God Whitfield said every
time he preached he had a backdrop the
backdrop of the church you could see flames
and fire and the congregation walked straight into
hell every time he preached on heaven you'd
think he'd been there for a week he
brought the glory of God preached on hell
he brought the fear of God what do
we bring I'm sick of mediocrity I'm sure
you are I'm going to pray we did
turn our meeting around we sang our closing
hymn in the middle of the service only
after the message we sing usually some of
you know days dying in the west the
chorus is beautiful holy holy holy Lord God
of hosts I think tonight instead at least
my heart's terribly moved feel free to go
and you know where you have to go
that's your business not mine we're going to
pray for another hour anyhow but if you
have to go feel free to go we
love you and if you can come back
from Fort Worth we'd be glad to see
you bring your preacher with you