According to the Bible, there are twelve gates
to the city of God.
But there's only one way to the throne
of God.
I love that word in Hebrews 1, I
don't know what verse, about 8, where it
says concerning Jesus, when he had by himself
purged our sins, he didn't need the help
of the Virgin Mary.
He didn't need the help of Dallas, okay.
He had by himself purged our sins.
Father, we thank you tonight, it is with
confidence that we now draw nigh, and Father,
Abba, Father, cry.
We recognize thee, Lord, as the high and
lofty one, who inhabiteth eternity, whose name is
Holy.
And as that great American poet said too,
we recognize before thine ever-blazing throne, we
have no luster of our own.
Lord, I think of David, ruling the greatest
nation in the world.
And then he cried, bow down thine ear
and hear me, for I am poor and
needy.
And again he said, this poor man cried.
Lord, I pray, help us to realize more
than ever tonight, that prayer is the language
of the poor.
And we're all poor.
Even if mistakenly we think we're rich and
increased in goods and of need of nothing,
yet in your holy sight we're poor.
We thank you for your word tonight.
We can truly say as we handle it,
brothers, we're treading where the saints have trod.
We recognize this book is about blood from
beginning to end.
We recognize, Lord, its covers are stained with
blood, the blood of martyrs who died at
the stake in order to get it to
where it's come to us today.
We thank you, it is a lamp to
our feet.
Lord, we pray for the idiocy of the
politicians who have put out the ten commandments,
the ten lights out of our schools and
left the children to struggle in darkness.
Lord, we think of those areas of the
world, we understand there are still a thousand
languages that have no part of the word
of God, two thousand years after Jesus died.
Lord, we pray this word may shine into
our hearts tonight.
It's thee we seek.
We welcome you, Holy Spirit of God.
We thank you for those holy men of
God who wrote this holy book inspired by
the Holy Spirit to produce holy people.
Lord, we recognize the greatest miracle that can
be done on earth today is that you
take an unholy man out of an unholy
world, make that unholy man holy, put him
back in an unholy world and keep him
holy.
We thank you for the power of the
blood to do that, the exceeding great and
precious promises of God.
And for the personal possibility that we may
be vessels unto other.
You've told us you do not dwell in
temples made with hands, whether they're as costly
as Solomon's temple or some glass cathedral or
something, but you take your habitation in the
hearts of men and women.
Lord, we long for this holiness.
As Wesley cried, to perfect health restore my
soul, to perfect holiness and love.
Lord, I believe that holiness is perfect health
of spirit.
We bless you for the power of the
blood to cleanse us from all sin.
Again, I ask you for illumination as we
handle this holy word that we may not
be the same as we leave this sanctuary.
Lord, I pray with all my being tonight,
make this meeting here, not in some capital
city, in a little country town as it
were, make this meeting a tragedy to the
devil.
Lord, let fetters be broken in hearts tonight
that shall never become bondage again.
Let the dark past become light.
Lord, give us a holy resolution to go
out and fight the good fight of faith.
We give you thanks in Jesus' name.
Pastor, I need some water, please.
Thank you.
Warm water.
Warm, yes.
I heard about one preach in a big
hall, and he had a glass he kept
drinking and drinking, and filled it twice while
he was preaching.
And the janitor afterwards thought, well, it's strange,
he drank so much, and he sniffed it,
and it was vodka.
If you've got room, would you let those
people in somewhere up there?
Would you like to raise your hand if
there's a spare seat?
Good.
I believe that our place in history right
now is explained in the 12th chapter of
the epistle to the Hebrews, where everything that
can be shaken is being shaken, that the
kingdom that cannot be shaken may remain.
Arnold Toynbee, how many of you have read
Arnold Toynbee?
Anybody?
Two intellectuals here, thank you.
Arnold Toynbee is at least, I think, one
of the greatest modern historians.
He has to be, he's English.
But he has reminded us that 19 times
men have built what they called a permanent
civilization, and that civilization has collapsed.
And this is going to collapse with a
bigger collapse than any other in history.
God is going to glorify his Son if
he pulls the pillars of the universe down.
The sole business of you and I being
here, and the sole business why Jesus came,
was not that we'd escape hell.
As vast as that is, it's a fringe
benefit.
Jesus came that we might give pleasure to
his Father.
Isaac Watts wrote 3,000 hymns.
I like many of them.
The best known, of course, is When I
Surveyed the Wonderous Cross.
But I like his, what's the other one
I was thinking of there?
I told you sometimes I, I'm not losing
my mind, I'm losing my memory.
Anyhow, he sings about the world, and then
he says, In Jesus the tribes of Adam
boast more blessings than their fathers lost.
You know, in the Scriptures the wheat and
the tares grow together.
I believe we're in the midst of a
false revival right now.
There never have been more decisions in Christianity,
and nevertheless disciples.
So there are three classes of people in
the world tonight.
Number one, those who are afraid.
Number two, those who don't know enough to
be afraid.
And number three, those who know their God.
I'm not right in everything I say, I
guess.
Most of it, yes, but sometimes not.
I had a young man in my office
this week.
He was so excited.
He came from California, which is, of course,
another country.
He said, I go to a wonderful church.
We have five services Sunday morning.
I said, what do you do?
Oh, well, we have a service from eight
to nine.
I said, what do you do?
Ten minutes tonight?
Say, Holy Ghost, get out of here, come
back in an hour?
Do you dismiss the Holy Ghost every hour
on the hour?
How many services do you have Sunday?
Oh, we don't have a Sunday night service.
Listen, the Sunday morning congregation will tell you
how popular the church is.
The Sunday night service will tell you how
popular the preacher is.
The prayer meeting will tell you how popular
God is.
The prayer meeting is the Cinderella of the
church today.
Coming down the road, some fellow came past
us, one of those 18-wheelers.
I don't know anything about automobiles, except they're
too expensive to run.
This guy came flashing past us.
I don't know a thing about it.
I do know this, that 18-wheeler did
not, N-O-T, did not have a
Volkswagen motor in it.
Isn't that profound?
That some of you guys are trying to
run an 18-wheeler church on a Volkswagen
prayer meeting?
Without power.
Old Bishop Montgomery wrote over a hundred years
ago, Prayer is the simplest form of speech
that infant lips can try.
Prayer, the sublimest strains that reach the majesty
on high.
O thou by whom we come to God,
the light, the truth, the way, the path
of prayer thyself hath taught, Lord, teach us
how to pray.
One of the world's most famous singers came
to see me.
He brought one of those abominations, you know,
called a guitar.
Guitars are back-slidden harps.
Do you want one of my records?
No, thank you, I have a stack.
Jesus sang a hymn, but the disciples never
said, Lord, teach us to sing.
He preached the greatest sermon ever preached by
the greatest man that ever lived, the Sermon
on the Mount, but they never said, they
never said, Lord, teach us to preach.
They saw his authority over death, demons, every
abomination, and he was Lord over them all.
But they never said, Lord, teach us to
do the miraculous.
Supposing you had a chance of experiencing one
event in the life of Jesus, what would
it be?
When I ask students that, usually the most
popular thing is, oh, I'd like to have
seen him raise Lazarus from the dead.
If I had one thing that I could
share in the life of Jesus, I would
have loved to hear him pray.
Particularly that masterpiece in John 17.
In the first five verses, he prays for
his disciples, or for himself, if you like,
and then 6, well, to 19, he prays
for the disciples, then 20 to 25, he
prays for the world.
I had one of the greatest advantages that
any human being could have.
I had a dad who prayed.
He was a Methodist.
I was raised Methodist, that's the proper way.
Not what they have now.
My daddy never took me to a sports
event in his life.
Never took him newspapers, but he prayed.
One night when I was 14, he said
to my mother, who was called Lucy, that's
why I love Lucy, and he said, I'd
like to take Len to the prayer meeting.
Oh, no, you won't be back till 3
o'clock in the morning.
Well, we went.
Two other men, my daddy, Walter Ravenhill, another
man called Walter Dacre, and a man called
Albert Barnes, not the commentator.
You know, at 2 o'clock in the
morning, I saw my big husky daddy take
off his coat, and his shirt was sticking
to his back, interceding, travailing.
I never forgot that.
I've thought of it a thousand times.
Will any of your children remember you because
of that?
Or is your pastor the best softball player
in the Christian league?
Lord, teach us to pray.
I want to talk about a very profound
aspect of prayer tonight, that's intercession.
And we're going to find some points, if
you want to put them that way, in
the first book of Samuel.
Let me say this.
I want to come at least three more
Tuesday nights.
One night, I want to preach on a
threefold vision.
Another night, I hope to preach on a
subject I've never heard preached on in my
life.
I've gone to meetings for 75 years.
And Dr. Tolles, as we sat and talked
one day, he said, Brother Len, I've been
to all the conferences in America, I've never
heard one sermon on worship.
So one night, I want to preach on
worship.
One night on a threefold vision.
One night, possibly on a threefold prayer.
So let's look now in the first book
of Samuel.
I'm reading from the Living Bible, King James
Version.
Verse 2 says, This man had two wives.
Of course, you know, that was abolished in
the New Testament.
You can't have two wives in the New
Testament, because no man can serve two masters.
The name of one was Hannah, the name
of the other, Penina.
And Penina had children, but Hannah had no
children.
And he went up to the house of
God to worship yearly.
Verse 4 says, When the time was come,
he gave to Penina his wife and all
her sons and all her daughters potions.
But unto Hannah he gave a worthy portion,
or a greater portion.
But notice, the Lord had shut up her
womb.
I believe the true church, if I can
put it out, even the evangelical church today
is more barren than she's been for a
couple of centuries.
You know, America has had some of the
greatest praying men in history.
I just wrote the foreword for a book.
It's volume 1 of 3 volumes on the
life of a praying patient of Portland.
The floor in his bedroom was like this.
He had no rug.
But he prayed this way, so much so
that he scooped the wood out of the
floor of the side of his bed.
There were grooves there.
When he prepared his body for burial, his
knees had great big caps on like a
camel.
Praying patient of Portland.
Number 1 volume is out.
It's 600 pages for volume 1, 600 volume
2, 600 volume 3.
They cost you $24 each.
Instead of investing for your children, buy them
something substantial.
I doubt if these books will be printed
again.
There isn't an appetite for this kind of
stuff.
Everybody wants 5 easy steps to do this,
and 3 easy steps to do something else.
You see, prayer is the most simple thing
in the world, and yet it's the most
profound thing in the world.
Prayer is the simplest form of speech that
infant lips can try.
Prayer, the divinest strains that reach, the majesty
on high.
In fact, prayer is so great, it strains
every vocabulary.
We'll learn a lot from this woman, at
least I hope we will.
Notice what it says.
In verse 16, her adversary provoked her sore
and made her fret because the Lord had
shut up her womb.
And as he did so year by year,
when she went up to the house of
the Lord, and she provoked her, notice twice
this provocation, that she wept and did not
eat.
So she's weeping, fasting, that's provoking.
Come down from verse 7.
Right, come into verse 9.
Eli the priest sat upon a seat at
the post of the temple of the Lord,
and she, Hannah, was in bitterness of soul
and prayed unto the Lord.
You see, in true travail, there's only one
thing wrong with this woman.
She gets more affection from her husband, she
gets the best clothes, she gets the best
attention, but her sister provokes her because her
sister has a bunch of children.
And this woman has no children.
And it isn't something that passes like that.
She goes year after year and everybody says,
well there she is, there's Hannah again, she
isn't pregnant.
God's crown is on her.
And this happens year after year after year.
Verse 10, she was in bitterness of soul
and prayed and wept.
No, it says in verse 7 she wept.
It says in this verse she wept sore.
She wept until she was sore.
Verse 11 says, she vowed a vow unto
the Lord.
So you see, there's weeping, there's bitterness, there's
provocation, and then she vows a vow and
says, O Lord of hosts, this thou wilt
look on the affliction of thine handmaid.
So she recognizes her barrenness as an affliction.
I'm not that much worried about Russia.
I'm troubled about God.
God loved Israel.
He sent the priests, he sent the most
amazing men in history, these towering characters in
a classification all their own, beyond scientists, beyond
anybody else.
The priests, pardon me, rather the prophets of
the most high God.
There's a Jewish scholar in America years ago,
he converted to Christ, a brilliant Hebrew scholar,
and he said the prophet is by the
very nature of his calling a tragic figure.
He has a fierce loyalty to God and
he has a compassion for a broken nation.
We have no prophets.
There isn't a prophet in America today, I
don't believe, or in England.
There are men preached with prophetic urgency, but
that's very different from standing in a robe
that Almighty God has put on a person.
She weeps.
She's in bitterness.
And so, back a minute, you get all
this parade of holy power.
Sometimes God uses a king on the throne.
Sometimes he uses a herdsman of Tikoa.
They say tremendous things by revelation.
And then you come to Malachi.
Then from Malachi to Matthew you have 400
years of darkness without any prophetic light, 400
years of stillness without any prophetic voice.
And then suddenly, dramatically you find a man
come on the stage, a God-made man.
As I said last week, every preacher today,
you don't need a vacation, you need a
cave.
You need to get away from everything and
everybody.
We're all looking for shortcuts.
I skipped last week, let me put it
in.
I mentioned Moses.
He has three periods of 40 years.
40 years on the backside of a desert.
40 years after eating at the king's table,
learning all the wisdom of the Egyptians according
to the 7th chapter of the Acts of
the Apostles.
He was a superman.
He's a superintellectual.
And God is going to set a little
common bush ablaze to get his attention on
the backside of the desert.
He's there for 40 days.
You see, he could never have made it
from the throne of Pharaoh where everybody bowed
to him, washed his feet, gave him adoration
as the son of Pharaoh's daughter.
He could never have made it from there
to go straight through the wilderness and meet
Israel.
And so God puts him on the backside
of the desert.
Oh, I can't afford the time.
Well, Jesus, anyhow, was 30 years.
Doing what?
Well, sweeping the shadings up at night, brushing
the shadings off his legs before he went
to the house.
He'd received the adoration of angels.
And yet he's patiently there.
And the Word of God says heal and
obedience by the things he suffered.
There's no shortcut to maturity.
Now, this precious woman, she's crying because she's
barren.
She has a reproach.
They re-heal her.
They scorn her.
Where?
In the sanctuary.
So, where does she go?
Isn't it rather amazing?
A super character in the Old Testament is
Hannah.
And in the New Testament, Anna.
Anna was how old?
100 years?
Poor little shriveled up woman goes every morning
to the temple.
And she cries there at the side of
a whiskery old man.
A man who's vowed to the people I
will not die until I see the salvation
of God.
Our nation may have gone through repeated experiences
of travail and bondage to foreign people.
But I'm going to live and I'm going
to handle the Christ of God.
The man's nuts.
He and the old woman.
She prays and prays.
Wouldn't it be wonderful when the rewards are
given out?
Just these people that we know so little
about.
But the point is that after all the
revelation that God had given to Israel.
And remember, as I say so often, this
is not a book, it's a library.
You can't get 66 volumes of Shakespeare in
your pocket or your handbag.
You can get 66 volumes of God's revelation.
And all that's needed to revolutionize this world
is here in this book.
There's one reason why we're in a mess
we're in now.
We prefer anything to the Prince of Peace.
He's already given us the conditions that can
be met.
Anyhow, this woman gets worn down.
She's worn.
She's weeping.
And she says she continued weeping.
And in verse 15 it says, Hannah answered
and said, No, my Lord.
You see, one of the great dangers today
is that some of you might become more
spiritual than your pastor.
Boy, that's a trouble.
You get more spiritual than your pastor.
She comes day by day to pray.
And here's a big man in his flowing
robe and his authority.
And he sees this little shriveled woman there
praying and weeping and weeping and groaning.
She disturbs the place.
And he sums up, Do you know why
she comes?
She's intoxicated.
She's drunk.
Let me tell you something.
The church never does anything when it's sober
anyhow.
Didn't they say about the men who came
from the upper room they're drunk?
Nobody will ever say about our generation of
preachers from Presbyterians to Pentecostal.
These men are not drunk.
They have no suspicion.
They think we've all had Tylenol.
I poured out my soul unto the Lord.
What did she do?
In the middle of verse 11 it says,
If thou wilt look on the affliction of
thine handmaid, and remember me and not forget
thine handmaid, but will give thine handmaid a
man child, I will give unto the Lord
as long as he shall live.
No raisin shall come upon his head.
And as she continued before the Lord, only
her lips moved.
Prayer is so profound it exhausts vocabulary.
Well, people say, I have a prayer language.
Well, give me the verse for it in
the Bible.
Oh, Jude talks about praying in the Holy
Ghost.
I don't believe it's praying in tongues, though
I do believe that you can pray in
tongues.
I believe there's a profounder experience where you
exhaust your vocabulary.
I remember a man in England, George Jeffries,
one of the great leaders in England in
my day, and he said, I pray in
English, and then when I exhaust in my
English, I pray in Welsh, which is a
very, very dramatic language, and then when I
exhaust in that, I pray in tongues.
And then there's another area I move into.
Praying in the Holy Ghost, I believe it's
praying in the wisdom of the Holy Ghost,
the strength of the Holy Ghost, the love
of the Holy Ghost, and the revelation of
the Holy Ghost.
The thing that baffled the preacher was, this
woman never said a word, but I can
see there's something in her all the time.
She's groaning.
Let me take you back here, into Exodus,
chapter 32.
Remember this is, Moses had gone up the
mountain, and he left everything secure in the
hand of the preacher.
The preacher had garments, he wore a plate
on his forehead, holiness unto the Lord, and
Moses thought everything was all right.
And there's Moses up in the crowd, wrapped
in the glory of God, and the fire
of God descended.
And he comes down and what happens?
The Lord says, in verse 8, verse 7,
The Lord said unto Moses, Go down, for
thy people, which you brought out of the
land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves.
Would that be true of us today?
They have turned aside quickly after the way
which I commanded them.
They have made a molten calf and have
worshipped it.
And they said, These be thy God to
Israel.
Leap over for a moment, into the next
chapter, and verse 24.
No, no, I'll go back, I'm sorry.
The Lord said unto Moses, I have seen
this people Now, verse 10.
Listen.
Some of the most awesome words in scripture,
I think.
God is not speaking to an archangel.
He's speaking to Moses, a commander, like he
might speak to you as a pastor of
a church.
Listen to what God says to Moses.
Let me alone.
People have often asked Billy Graham, Why did
God choose you?
He said, I don't know.
When I see him, I'll ask him.
It's a wonderful thing when God reaches down
and takes a sovereign selection and gets hold
of a man.
There's only one thing on earth greater than
God reaching down to a man.
That's when a man reaches up and gets
hold of God.
Let Moses in the spirit grow, the paraphrase
is.
And God cries out, Let me alone.
You think God ever cries out when you
pray or your church?
Or just blow you some kisses to God
in praying?
Do you ever get so intoxicated?
Do you ever get so drunk as it
were in your spirit with embarrassment?
Do people get saved in your church or
are they drifting from other churches they're sick
of?
There are not many people being born again.
Everybody's making decisions.
They're not being miraculously born.
If a man is born, it takes the
blood of Christ, it takes the love of
God to adopt him, it takes the Holy
Ghost to regenerate him.
The greatest miracle this side of eternity is
a man who's really born of the Holy
Spirit of God.
He becomes a new creation, he has a
new heart, a new mind, new interests.
All things have passed away.
But that doesn't happen anymore.
For one reason, there's no birth chamber in
the church.
Part of the reason I came to share
these nights with dear brother Gracie Greer is
we miss him from our prayer meeting Friday
night.
He's always had a good input there along
with some other precious fellows that are here.
He knows a bunch of American Indians here
tonight don't run for the door.
Looking at one up there who was not
too long ago lying in a ditch, drunk,
drunk, snow falling on him and the Lord
came and redeemed him.
I love to pray with these guys on
a Friday night.
Do you know why?
Because they pray with tears.
If your preacher doesn't weep over the pew,
let the pew weep over the preacher.
Let Moses in the spirit groan.
He isn't swinging wonderful vocabulary, he's groaning with
groanings.
Let Moses in the spirit groan and God
cries out, let me alone.
Go to the next chapter, verse thirty-one.
Moses says, and said, Oh, these people have
sinned a great sin and they've made gods
of gold.
Now I will forgive their sin and then
you'll be dashed there.
If not, block me out, I pray.
Do you pray that?
Didn't we say last week that Samson finished
up better than he began and his final
prayer was what?
Oh God, hear me just once.
Even if I die, do you go on
record to a holy God tonight?
I would rather die the next year if
there's no move of God in my church
or are you looking after a job?
I had a chance to preach to professors
and a lot of seminary students last Sunday
night and I said, you know, if the
devil has a danger list, I hope I'm
on it.
I don't want any honors with anybody but
I let the devil be afraid if I
start moving in the power of the spirit
of God.
After all, that's the greatest honor.
When the men tried to cast demons out,
even demons have self-respect and they said
to the guy that was trying to get
the demons out, Jesus we know and Paul
we know.
Fancy being rated with Jesus Christ.
All these young preachers want to be somebody.
Half the young Baptist preachers are waiting for
Criswell to die so they can get his
pulpit.
Forget it.
The greatest honor in the world is not
following a good man as he is.
Are you on the devil's danger list?
Remember the hymn that says, Satan trembles when
he sees the weakest saints upon his knees?
A little boy said, well why does he
let him get on his knees?
He's got it wrong.
But I'm glad I've known some of the
great praying men in the last generation.
If thou wilt forgive, let me look at
something a bit tougher than that for you.
In Numbers chapter 11 and verse 11, Moses
said unto the Lord, Wherefore hast thou afflicted
thy servant and wherefore have I not found
favour in thy sight that thou layest the
burden of this people upon me?
Come on, are your people a burden to
you?
Hmm?
Do you know anything about the burden of
the Lord?
Or are you just after a good church?
I believe the most awesome thing on earth
right now is to be a minister of
the gospel.
I'm not going to pray for Pat Robinson,
he's backslidden.
Any man that wants to leave a ministry
to be President of the United States is
backslidden.
Or whether he needs to be King of
England.
The greatest honor in the world is to
stand on behalf of a holy God, a
living God before a dying population.
Richard Baxter went to a town where in
the 1500s and he said there were not
three family altars.
And by the time he finished his ministry,
there were not three houses that did not
have a family altar.
Come on now, you guys, you pastors, you
deacons, you Sunday school teachers.
Do you have a family altar or do
you have a Russian home?
A Russian home has no altar either.
We've taken the lamp out, as I said
in my prayer, we've taken ten lights out
of every school and so the kids are
stumbling around in darkness.
Is the light shining in your home?
Do you get the children around your knee
every day?
Do you teach them?
Do you instruct them?
Get them to memorize scripture.
I think you do that, Bill.
And the children enjoy it.
One of my sons, I got three amazing
sons.
One of them is very, very fond and
has memorized many scriptures in Proverbs.
That's a great book of wisdom anyhow.
Verse 11 says, Moses said unto the Lord,
Wherefore art Thou afflicted Thy servant?
Afflicted Thy servant?
Dear Lord, we're all after good health.
Burden?
Why take a burden when somebody else can
take it?
If I've not found favor in Thy sight,
Thou lay'st the burden of this people upon
me.
Have I conceived all this people?
Have I begotten them that Thou shouldst send
to me, carry them in Thy bosom?
As a nursing father beareth a sucking child?
Is that how you carry your family?
Your spiritual family?
Verse 13, Wherefore should I have flesh to
give all this people?
For they weep unto me and say, Give
me us flesh that we may eat.
I am not able to bear all this
people.
Come on, tell me, ever, did you ever
hear anybody preach on this text?
The next verse?
I'm not able to bear all this people
alone.
It is too heavy for me.
If Thou deal'st with me, kill me, I
pray Thee.
Does anybody else have to die for this
congregation?
I can't carry this burden.
If need be, I'll be killed and get
out of the way if Thou will release
blessing.
Kill me, I pray Thee, if I have
not found favor in Thy sight.
And let me not see their wretchedness.
So, let me emphasize this here.
Prayer is the simplest and yet it's the
most profound thing.
I have the privilege of preaching with and
sometime living with and particularly praying with Duncan
Campbell, the man that God used in the
revival in Scotland.
And it was a profound experience.
That revival in 1949 was actually birthed by
an old woman, 84 years of age.
You see, the ministry of the pulpit isn't
open to everybody.
You should be glad about that.
I'm going to receive a greater judgment than
anybody else and so you preacher, you better
watch your step.
James says we should receive a greater condemnation.
So, here is this Highland preacher.
These two old ladies were 84 and she
was totally blind.
She had a younger sister, she was 82
but she was crippled, doubled up with arthritis.
They called for one of the deacons of
the church and they held hands and they
covenanted they would not die until God sent
a move.
And that's exactly what God did.
The old lady said write to Duncan Campbell,
he's God's agent.
He wrote back and said I can't come
because I'm booked.
So, the lady that could read read to
the blind lady, he can't come, he's booked.
He said he can't possibly come in two
weeks.
Ah, the old Scots lady said that's, she
said that's what he says.
I'll tell you what God says.
God says he's coming and he's coming.
And in two weeks he was there.
And he didn't know why he cancelled the
other meetings.
But they covenanted together.
They would not die.
They said our young people are dancing and
smoking and sinning.
They've never seen the glory of God.
You know, there aren't, I guarantee there aren't
six people here tonight ever seen a Holy
Ghost revival.
You see, Holy Ghost revival changes the model
climate.
We have million dollar crusades and they do
nothing.
Revival doesn't cost a penny but broken hearts
and people that refuse to live.
They say Lord, change my lifestyle.
Change my habits.
Change my sleeping.
Change my lifestyle.
I don't care.
I don't want America to go to hell.
But when revival comes as it came there,
it came with awesome power.
Duncan Campbell got a man to row him
across part of the sea to an island.
When he got there as a boy he
says laddie, is that the kirk as they
called it?
Yes, that's the kirk.
We don't use it.
It hasn't been used for years.
He said well, who is the chief elder?
He said well, he's a Mr. Brown.
He lives in that farm.
Would you go up and tell him that
Duncan Campbell has arrived?
Campbell of the Argyle Revival?
So this great big fella comes lumbering down
the hill.
Ah, he says good to see you brother.
Yes.
He says I got on my bicycle and
I went right round the island at five
o'clock this morning.
I told all the people to meet in
the kirk tonight.
It hasn't been used for years.
But he said I told them you were
coming.
You'll be preaching.
Duncan Campbell says well, how did you know
I was coming?
He said how did you know to come?
You know there's a telegraph system between eternity
if God can get our ears he can't
get them.
You know a lot of the PTL and
all that junk.
PTL, you know what that means?
Pity the listeners.
Do you know PTL and 700 Club have
killed thousands of devotional families?
They used to sit and they laughed at
the women.
They have coffee and they sit round and
they read the word of God.
They don't watch clowning.
They've devastated more than they've done.
You see when the glory of the Lord
fills a temple you'll never have to advertise
a fire.
Either physical or spiritual.
You'll get the glory of God on this
church or any other.
You won't have a seat.
But you've got to go through a period
of testing.
Let me go back a minute here.
So they have a wave of blessing.
Duncan goes and the church is filled.
He moves from there to another place.
And he said Brother Amiel the heavens were
like grass.
And the place was crowded.
The preachers were there.
They wear their colours backwards away.
Scotland still has some of the greatest preachers
in the world.
Well you see the scripture lays a condition
down.
You know your trouble isn't the devil.
It isn't the economy.
It isn't politics.
The trouble is you sabotage your own prayers.
Who shall ascend into the hill of the
Lord even with our clean hands?
That's our relationship with men.
And a pure heart that's our relationship with
God.
So the preacher can't get going.
So instead of you know saying let's all
get happy and sing in all this junk
that we do to get our emotions stirred.
He called on a laddie there.
16 years of age a high school boy.
And he says laddie would you pray?
And the boy stood up and he says
Ah he says what's the good of praying
when we're not great with God?
And then he quoted Psalm 24 Who shall
ascend the hill of the Lord even with
our clean hands and a pure heart?
He prayed for 45 minutes.
And at the end of the 45 minutes
he turned as though and Duncan Campbell said
I watched him his finger was up he
said Satan get out of this territory get
out.
I forbid you to stay here in the
power of the Father the Son and the
Holy Ghost and the promises of God be
gone.
And the Holy Spirit came and people at
the other end of town got under conviction
of sin.
They stopped dancing in the dance halls.
America has 500 evangelists tonight she has not
got one revivalist.
The last revivalist in America was Mordecai Ham
maybe I mentioned him before.
Billy Graham was saved under him.
An old man I had one night really
good preaching this old guy next day said
you reminded me of Mordecai Ham last night.
I said why?
Did you ever hear him?
He said yes.
He said you know when he came to
town he brought a tent holding about four
or five hundred.
The third night preaching he had to have
a police escort to get in the pulpit
and a police escort to get him home.
Why?
He blasted sin in high places.
He terrorized people.
People's conscience became alive.
One old poet says quicken my conscience till
it feel the loathsomeness of sin.
You don't have to have an altar call
when there's conviction people hit the altar.
They're afraid they're going to die and drop
into hell before you can get to the
altar call.
That's why I say most have never been
in a revival.
So anyhow this woman prayed.
What did she pray for?
You say she prayed for a child.
She didn't.
What did she pray for?
She prayed for a man child.
Because in Israel then and even today the
first if the child is a male it's
a special sanctification from God.
So she doesn't pray for a child.
She prays for a man child.
So God gave her a man child.
No He didn't.
Well He didn't give her a girl.
No He didn't.
What did she get?
He did more than she could ask or
think.
She say Lord take away my embarrassment and
you know what she did?
She took away God's embarrassment.
She didn't give birth to a man child.
She gave birth to a prophet by the
name of Samuel.
You see you'll find here in the word
of God over and over again when these
people get into a tight spot what happens?
You finally cry to the Lord.
So many of these super people were born
of barren women.
You think of that first case.
Boy if some old lady came up to
you tomorrow and said you know I'm pregnant
you'd say what?
You're not pregnant you're crazy.
So this old lady says to her husband
oh he says we're going to have a
baby.
What?
You're a hundred years old?
And I'm I'm getting up that way.
Can you imagine her saying to her servant
Hagar I'm going to write to my mother
tomorrow and tell her I'm pregnant.
She'd say you never should marry the preacher
anyhow they're all crazy.
Did she give birth to a child?
The barren woman gave birth to a child.
What was his name?
Come on tell me.
I won't, I won't.
Isaac, sure.
But the classical you see you'll go along
satisfied that you teach a class and you're
this that and the other until you once
taste the birth pangs and what praying really
is.
Until you're ashamed to stand before God and
say Lord I never birthed anybody.
I'm not talking about teaching them nor helping
them at the altar.
I'm saying that you get such a burden
for a relative or somebody that you take
birth pangs.
In the 30th chapter of Genesis you get
a woman there she is competition with another
woman in the house.
She's the queen of the whole of Israel.
She's the most beautiful creature alive.
Her husband dotes on her he loves her
he gives her all the best of everything.
One day she comes into the house she
hasn't got her hair immaculately done her hair
looks wild she hasn't the best dress her
eyes are bloodshot she throws herself at the
feet of Jacob and she said Jacob give
me children or I die.
I can't live like this anymore.
I'm sick of the reproach.
Apparently you're not.
Do you remember when Paul the greatest intellectual
the world ever had outside of Christ went
up the main street was it in the
16th chapter of Acts and he went up
the hill and they said what would this
babbler say?
He admitted he was no orator Apollos was
the orator of the early church here is
a man with a colossal heart a man
that's going to out-preach everybody out-sacrifice
everybody out-suffer everybody out-pray everybody and
he goes up the hill and he sees
these intellectual stoics poets philosophers all on the
hill there Mars Hill and he went and
reasoned with them.
What disturbed him?
He said I walked up main street and
I saw temples to strange gods you've got
every blessed religion in the world here but
you don't know God it says his heart
was stirred within him one translation says he
was exceedingly angry he was overcome with emotion
come on you go down the street what
do you say?
Oh that's a nice bunch of people that
lovely little hall it's a kingdom hall it's
a kingdom of hell not the devil you
say you go to Washington see what?
30 million dollar cathedral the Catholics have put
there a cathedral of hell we've more cults
in America today as I told the class
the other night we gave America gave the
world Jehovah's Witnesses America gave the world the
Mormons America gave the world Spiritism revived in
1845 we gave the world all these damnable
cults we sought to the wind and now
we've made the world win we've 2,000
gurus in America and the Mormon church makes
3 million dollars a day that's over a
billion a year I got a letter today
a man said I'm getting a lot of
my stuff printed good but I saw a
copy the other day of Plain Truth which
is Armstrong's thing do you know the circulation
every month is 10 million do you know
that Jehovah's Witnesses circulate 5 million pieces of
literature I think in America alone I'm sick
to death of all this devilish propaganda all
the Roberts can see Christ 900 feet high
forget it I want to cross the Christ
that walks in the midst of the 7
golden candlesticks that when I go out of
service Sunday morning I'm speechless I can't talk
about anything I've been overcome by his love
overcome by his majesty overcome by his joy
and peace we don't get that but that's
what happened when revival comes in the Welsh
revival the young man that was used there
well let me go back a minute and
follow this analogy through well look there are
three things about a woman about birth first
thing is conception the next thing is gestation
and the third thing is birth you get
the same thing in the spiritual level where
people are gathered together the editor of Decision
Magazine came to see me a few years
ago so I talked about revival as I
know it and understood it and read it
and met others who have been through it
in the Welsh revival he said Mr. Braithwaite
you talk a language I don't know well
learn that's the best thing I've been in
those churches in Wales do you know the
Welsh revival that came in 1904 the human
agent was a young man by the name
of Evan Roberts 26 years of age 26
years of age do you know how long
he'd been spiritually pregnant?
13 years he prayed on the hills of
Wales when there was nobody else to pray
he'd seen the vision of his nation lost
without God and without hope they're a very
religious people you can go into church today
and the man isn't even saved if you
read the 23rd Psalm you'll break into tears
he's a wonderful voice he read it like
this the Lord my shepherd I shall not
want it maketh me to lie down and
grieve past this he restoreth my soul he'll
heal it boy you'd shame any Shakespearean actor
they're very religious but without God this young
man would go into a hall he wouldn't
let them photograph him I'll tell you how
powerful the ministry was supposing you've been living
in London and I say to you brother
where are you going Sunday oh I'm going
down I'm going down to hear F.B.
Meyer where are you going oh I'm going
to the Salvation Army to hear a hellfire
preacher by the name of William Booth oh
no I'm going to St. Paul's Cathedral on
Sunday afternoon there's a man called Dr. Clifford
he gets three thousand people every Sunday afternoon
no dramatics no histrionics straightforward preaching of the
word of God or you could go down
the road and hear Spurgeon or you could
go hear the greatest preacher in the world
at that time Joseph Parker there were all
these selections to go to and yet when
the fire of God fell in Wales the
precious leader of the Salvation Army William Booth
went to see the fire falling he went
to sit at the feet of a 26
year old young man Campbell Morgan the greatest
expositor in the world went to hear him
again William Booth went to hear him Joseph
Parker went to hear him here's this 26
year old young man almost no Bible teaching
he'd been to God's University Bush University where
he takes men like Moses and he comes
back in the power of the Holy Ghost
he wouldn't let them photograph him he wouldn't
let people interview him when Dr. F.B.
Meyer wanted to talk he said I'm so
wrapped up in God I cannot talk to
people he wouldn't even talk to dignitaries and
they thought he was snobbish dear God some
of you preachers you'd sit down like the
Catholic if the woman told you to forget
it stand up before God honour God and
he'll honour you anyhow here's this young man
26 years of age the church is crowded
800 people you know there are two kinds
of stillness one it creates it creates the
other kills in this day we're afraid of
stillness I'd like to go back to some
of the old Quaker meetings I've been in
one where the whole congregation sits for an
hour if need be until the spirit moves
on somebody and then when he moves he's
the key and the thing goes through alright
so this young man walks in the church
800 people have been there for more than
an hour with their heads bowed not expecting
Evan Roberts to come expecting God to come
and he came to the front seat and
this young 26 year old preacher he'd never
been taught the skills of homiletics or exegesis
he just had anointing he sat on that
front pew for 3 solid hours and never
said a word could you imagine one of
the TV preachers doing that oh we can't
wait on God we're paying $50 a minute
for this TV program to hell with the
program give God a chance he sat there
for 3 solid hours and then he stood
up and preached for 15 minutes the glory
of God came what happened?
he was so overwhelmed he had to preach
the next day he walked out of the
sanctuary and he laid on his belly all
night interceding for the next day's meeting the
congregation stayed until 3 in the morning you
see when the Holy Ghost is on a
meeting you don't send the Holy Ghost home
you stay there let others go if they
want stay and have dealings with God ok
so this woman is pregnant in the newspaper
in England it would say the Queen has
cancelled all her engagements for the next 10
months oh boy that's an announcement she's pregnant
she likes to ride horses she can't ride
horses you remember when Mrs Kennedy was pregnant
she was skilled I understand at water skiing
and she said no, no change my calendar
she didn't want to water ski in case
she had an accident that ski might come
and hit that unborn child immediately the woman
is pregnant her whole attitude is changed her
world is changed her thinking is changed her
lifestyle is changed her eating is changed her
social calendar is changed we're not going to
have revival by the way we want it
neither in this church or any other you
bond together to meet in this church or
your church at 6 or 7 every morning
it will cost something well an experience of
God that costs nothing does nothing and is
worth nothing it cost Jesus a lot to
come from heaven too have you thought of
that little pregnant girl growing up with a
big belly and some old parasite he says
look that little tramp he knows she's not
married I talked to Joseph the other day
and he says he doesn't know a thing
about it I guess he's one of those
German soldiers up the road or somebody got
her pregnant ever thought of the reproach ever
thought of Jesus when he started with the
intellectuals what did they say they said we
were not born of fornication in other words
you're a bastard it's following all his life
why do you expect better treatment from this
world than it gave Jesus