Our Father, tonight we thank you for the
privilege of fellowship together.
We bless you that somebody has put to
music what our hearts so often feel and
cannot express.
Our wonderful Saviour is Jesus, my Lord.
He came to die for the sins of
the world, but he came for my sins,
even mine, as John Wesley said.
And we bless you that he is exalted
tonight in the highest heaven, no longer spit
upon by men, but worshipped by angels.
We think of how he came from the
worship of angels, or cherubim, seraphim, bowed at
his feet, and he came to earth to
wash the feet of some very unworthy men.
We thank you that he came to reconcile
us to God.
When we were afar off, when we were
rebels, without God, without hope, there wasn't an
angel who could redeem us, there wasn't a
seraphim or cherubim.
But we bless you that Jesus came.
As Wesley put it so magnificently, God was
contracted to a span, incomprehensibly made man, because
your word says the heaven of heaven cannot
contain him.
And yet somehow he was crowded into the
womb of that precious woman, and came into
the world to save sinners.
And Lord, we recognize somewhere on the journey
we feel the chief of sinners.
We felt we had offended thee, we had
not always walked in the light, we had
not walked in obedience.
We had sought selfishness, and self-interest, and
self-glory, and self-righteousness.
But we thank you that he came to
put away sin, not just sins, but sin
by the sacrifice of himself.
He came to break every fetter.
Again, as Wesley put it in that lovely
hymn again, He left his Father's throne above,
so infinite is grace, emptied himself of all
that love, and bled for Adam's helpless race.
Again, we have to say, Lord, in our
hearts, long my imprisoned spirits lay.
I think of how often I went to
church, hundreds of times, there was no light
on the page, there was no inspiration in
the message, there was no joy in the
fellowship.
But Lord, there came a moment in all
of our lives, I trust, and we could
see it with Charles Wesley, long my imprisoned
spirit lay fast bound in sin and nature's
night.
Thine eye diffused a quickening ray, I awoke,
the dungeon flamed with light, my chains fell
off.
My heart was free, I rose, went forth,
and followed thee.
And therefore no condemnation, now I dread Jesus,
and all in him is mine.
Alive in him my living head, and clothed
with righteousness divine, bold, I approach the eternal
throne.
Lord, how magnificent these things are, and yet
they slip off our lips so easily.
We so soon step out of light, it
seems, often into darkness, from being totally absorbed
with the living things of God, to step
into side issues in the world.
But we bless you, Father, for your infinite
patience with us.
We had long withstood thy grace, I had,
year after year in the sanctuaries, sung these
majestic hymns, long for years, reaching another hymn
years I spent in vanity and pride, caring
not my Lord was crucified, knowing not, except
theoretically, just because it was Easter, just because
it was Christmas, because the calendar threw it
at us, not because our spirits worshipped you.
But Lord, we bless you, we don't sing,
O come, let us adore him, once a
year.
We sing it constantly in our hearts.
Thou art worthy to receive honour and power
divine, and blessings more than we can give
thee, Lord, forever thine.
Lord, we thank you that we are going
to be clothed in your brightness.
We thank you that you became man, that
we might become, you became the son of
man, that we might become the sons of
God.
And that emphasis has hit me so much
this week, Lord, even now we're the sons
of God, not about five minutes after we
die, not when this mortality puts on immortality,
not when this corruption puts on incorruption, not
when we step out of the terrible world
in which we live, it's sin shattered that
prefers sin to righteousness, and prefers war to
peace, because it rejects the Prince of Peace.
Lord, it seems today I've been thinking constantly
of hypocrisy, the hypocrisy amongst the believers, hypocrisy
in politics.
Everywhere there's a facade.
Lord, we thank you for the day when
you faced us with the reality that Jesus
did come into the world to save sinners,
and mild he laid his glory by.
We've no idea what that glory was.
I believe, Lord, the thirty years you were
on earth, or the thirty-three, you longed,
as you expressed in John 17, for the
glory that you had with the Father before
the world was.
The glory of heaven, the glory of eternity,
the wonder of it, the majesty of the
heavenly choirs, with the harp and viols, there
stands a great throng, Revelation says.
I don't believe that's to come up merely,
but Lord, you share that in eternity, and
you came down here with, not to harmony,
but to discord, not to peace, but to
war, not to light, but to darkness, and
yet you walked unblemished through this terrible morass
of sin and iniquity.
I'm glad, Lord, nobody ever intimidated you.
And I believe, Lord, if we're intimate with
God, we'll never be intimidated by men, or
circumstances, or devil.
We thank you for your word as it's
gone forth today.
Somewhere up some little creek off the Amazon
there, amongst the Indians, almost naked Indians, some
strange islands in the South Seas.
Away in Afghanistan, war, torn as it is,
with weeping and suffering and blood, and yet
you've seen every heart there, you've heard every
grief, you know every desire, every one that
worships you.
We think again of close countries like Russia,
where today, maybe they've given you more worship
and adoration than we've given.
We've been so busy.
They've no time to go for presents.
They can't go and be free.
But, Lord, they're not shut up.
They're walled in, but they're not roofed in.
How stupid that men think they can wall
your saints in when they have a way
all the time, from here to eternity, by
the blood of Christ and by the Holy
Spirit.
Lord, I think again of India, and I
think of these precious folk here tonight that
love it so much, and we love it.
And we pray, Lord, you'll raise up the
prophets there, and the evangelists and the teachers.
Lord, get us out of America into Bible
-living, Bible-thinking, Bible-acting, Bible-loving, Bible
-sacrifice.
Lord, save us from this wretched thing that
we call Christianity.
Give us a new birth in the Church.
Give us a new revelation in the Church.
Give us a new authority in the Church.
Give us a...
As I think that little frail woman, Amy
Wilson Carmichael, said, Oh, for a passion, a
passion for souls.
Oh, for a pity that yearns.
Oh, for a love that loves unto death.
Oh, for a fire that burns.
Oh, for a prayer power that prevails, that
pours itself out to the lost.
Victorious prayer in the conqueror's name.
Oh, for a Pentecost.
Lord, we want something money can't buy, something
that seminaries can't give, something that superstar evangelists
can't bring to us.
We want that from heaven, born of God,
on our benighted nation and benighted generation.
Bless your work to our hearts tonight.
Lord, I thank you for those who have
been receiving healing.
Glad to see dear Robbie here tonight.
Bless her, Lord.
Continue to heal her.
Thank you for what you did for Jennifer,
Lord, for delivering in her life.
I think another lady that called today that
we prayed for, from Atlanta, and she was
spared the surgeon's knife apparently and is rejoicing.
We bless you that Jesus died to undo
all that Adam had done.
And as Isaac Watts says in Jesus, in
him the tribes of Adam boast more blessings
than their fathers lost.
I don't care what was lost in the
garden.
Jesus Christ came to put back everything that
was lost by the first Adam, was bought
and presented to us by the last Adam.
Oh, loving wisdom of our God, when all
was sin and shame, another Adam to the
fight and to the rescue came.
Oh, wisest love, that flesh and blood, which
did in Adam fail, should strive afresh against
the foe, should strive and should prevail.
We celebrate your triumph tonight, Lord Jesus.
Thank you for giving us new hearts, new
vocabularies, new interests, new desires.
Bless your word.
Open it to our hearts tonight.
In Jesus' name.
Thank you.
In case I forget, Sunday a bit later,
wave and remind me that your boys have
gone to Oklahoma.
How many?
Three.
Spencer, his brother?
Oh, is Spencer there?
Good.
Well, they've gone to Oklahoma.
They've taken, what are they taking?
Clothing and food?
Burning heart.
You know, that precious fellow, I'd come just
to hear Spencer and one or two of
these fellows pray if I lived a hundred
miles away.
They're such a blessing.
Of course, we're going to read now then
from the word, from the First Epistle of
John.
I remember being in a meeting in England.
I had a bunch of college fellows with
me and one of them was taking part
for the first time and so he said,
I want to read from the First Epistle
of General John.
Well, it's a good soldier, but he wasn't
General John.
First Epistle General of John, okay.
And chapter two.
Here's a very, very simple text for you.
If you have any more light on it
than I have, give me the notes afterwards.
Okay.
First Epistle of John and chapter two, verse
four.
Here's the text.
There'll be a caption on the cassette.
So the caption is, He that saith.
He that saith.
What does it say?
He that saith I know him and keepeth
not his commandments is a liar.
Now that's pretty strong.
And the truth is not in him.
Verse six.
He that saith he abided in him ought
also to walk as he walked.
In other words, if you declare it, if
you declare you're a child of God, demonstrate
it.
That's the only way you can prove it.
He that saith.
I don't believe there's a greater honor in
the world tonight than to be a child
of God.
To know that we've passed already from death
to life.
To know that we have a home eternal
in the heavens not made with hands.
To know that there's no power on earth
or hell nor dynamite can dynamite the church
of the living God.
It's as sure as Jesus Christ himself forever
and ever.
I've got to read the first verse to
you here.
My little children, these things write I unto
you that ye sin not.
Now that's pretty strong, isn't it?
Huh?
That ye sin not.
Not that you sin irregularly or erratically, but
you sin not.
You quit it altogether.
Somebody told me just recently that his father
said you have to sin.
Keep on sinning.
And then some of the holiness people say,
you know, you need a little bit of
sin to keep you humble.
Well, why not have a lot and be
real humble?
And which do you drop and which do
you take?
Come on now.
It's a very clear scripture this.
My little children, these things I write unto
you that ye sin not.
And then it says if, not when we
sin, we have an advocate, but if we
sin, the normal Christian life is a victorious
life.
You know, most Christians could just as well
be Mohammedans.
They sin and repent and sin and repent
and sin and repent.
That's not what Christ died for.
If any man, that covers a lot, sin,
we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus
Christ the righteous.
Now we use that word about the Holy
Spirit.
Jesus Christ upon me, the Holy Spirit is
an advocate.
I'm trying to think of a verse that
Wesley wrote somewhere.
It must be Wesley.
It's so good.
Christ is our advocate above.
The scripture says our advocate is with the
Father.
But it also says we have an advocate,
the Holy Spirit is our advocate.
God speaks to me through His Spirit.
I speak to God through His Son.
I have an advocate.
I have one to plead my court.
Day by day I say, God, my grammar
is poor.
My understanding is poor.
My vision is poor.
Perfect my imperfect praying.
Jesus, You take it.
I'm praying as better I know in the
Spirit.
Praying with what I know should be prayed
for.
But I have an advocate with the Father.
You used to say a lot of times
in England, you know, that fella got away
because of a friend in court.
Do you know what that means?
You have a friend in court.
Somebody has got some inside information, inside power.
But we have an advocate with somebody at
the throne.
We have a friend in court.
His name is Jesus.
If any man sin, I've told you about
the...
I was preaching in a certain university a
few years ago.
I spoke after a...
well, in a panel.
But not all at once, different times.
And the final night, a big shot came
up.
He's internationally known and he's the national speaker,
radio speaker for his denomination.
He gave a pretty good message.
And as soon as he finished, all these
university students swarmed up on the platform and
they were talking and getting Bibles signed.
I don't like signing Bibles.
They're not autographed books.
It's God's Word.
Bring me a check and let me sign
it for you.
In your name, of course.
But they wanted pictures of him.
They wanted his autograph.
And I said to him, Sir, I'm not
a hero worshipper.
Well, I said, I thank you for the
message tonight.
The only thing is that you, you made
a loophole for sin.
What do you mean?
So I said, well, while you were preaching,
at one point, I was thinking about the
time when a very wicked woman came to
Jesus and Jesus said to her, go and
sin less.
What do you mean, God?
I said, that's who you imply.
He says to a woman at the other
side of the cross, without the blood, without
the Holy Spirit, go and sin no more.
People don't sin because they have to.
They sin because they want to.
There are some men that live pure.
They're drunkards.
They wouldn't bother with women.
There are some men that mess around with
women all the time, but they're not drunkards.
We choose our sin.
A man develops a habit for a certain
thing and it grows on him until before
long, he's a prisoner to that thing.
I used to tell the story often in
England about a man who was famous right
through the country for making chains when they
made them on the anvil.
I don't know if you ever seen that
done by Dale, no?
I used to love to watch the village
blacksmith.
And this man made chains and he had
a reputation that his chains were just about
indestructible.
Well, he got crossed up with the law
and one day he was put in prison.
So he kind of smiled when he went
in.
They chained him to the wall the old
-fashioned way and he smiled when the jailer
went out.
Oh, he said, I'll be out of here
in no time.
And he went on the chain and he
looked at all the links and he put
a special mark and discovered that he was
chained to the wall with a chain that
he'd made and he couldn't break it.
You know, that's what sin does.
They used to say as children, put one
piece of cotton round your fingers.
If you struggle, you may get it free.
Put two round, put three round, put four
and it may as well be iron by
the time you've done.
What's the old saying we used to use
in street meetings often?
Saw a thought, you reap an act.
Saw an act, you reap a habit.
Saw a habit, you reap a character.
Saw a character, you reap a destiny.
Very simple and very profound and very true.
There's no man on God's earth can handle
sin except he's born of God and he
has the power over the power of sin.
That's the only way otherwise he can't do
it.
Now, this is tough, isn't it?
This is one of the toughest texts in
the Bible, I think.
Verse 6, He that saith he abideth in
him he's declared it, let him demonstrate it.
He ought himself also to walk as best
he can.
He ought to walk like his pastor.
He ought to walk like a missionary.
No, walk as he walked.
Come on now.
Forget all your excuses.
Even while we're in this world, we ought
to walk even as he walked.
It makes an interesting study.
I don't want to take too much time
tonight.
I want us to pray particularly for the
team of the government of Oklahoma.
But you know, you have in the Genesis,
I don't know the chapter exactly, but we
talk about Adam walked where?
In the Garden of Eden.
Who with?
God.
What do you think they talked about?
I don't know what.
I'm thinking of something else.
I'm getting my wires crossed.
Anyhow, he walked in the Garden of Eden.
They come to the 6th chapter of Genesis,
it says that Enoch walked with God.
That's a classical statement, isn't it?
Reminds you of what the Amos says?
How can two walk together except that they
agree?
What do you think Enoch and God talked
about?
I'll make a guess.
It's only a guess, but I'll make a
guess.
Maybe God talked to this man Enoch now
who's walking in holiness about the tragedy of
the Garden of Eden.
Because it seems as though Enoch was still
in the Garden there.
The others have been put out.
But he's in that area anyhow.
And God talks about his the tragedy of
Adam.
Perfect man.
Oh, people say it's natural to sin.
Well, if it wasn't, God Almighty didn't make
Adam natural.
He had no sin when he was first
made.
He walked with God.
He talked with God.
Then we talk about his heart.
I think the heart of God was revealed
to Enoch.
And he talked to him about the distress
and the anguish that he went through when
he saw his gorgeous creation let the serpent
in.
And God sees a long distance view.
I know something else.
Turn to the epistle of Jude and see
what it says there about verse, what is
it, 14?
Jude, verse 14.
I don't know if you'll get book lists,
but I often get book lists.
Some are used books, some are old ones.
And very often I see here's one of
the last books of the Bible, the book
of Enoch.
Buy it.
It's been reprinted.
Do you remember the famous writer in England
called Coleridge?
Coleridge said, sell your shirt.
Sell the last thing you have in order
to get the book of Enoch.
It's fabulous.
It's got about 800 pages that's in the
Word of Truth in it.
There are two verses in the Old Testament.
Enoch walked with God and he was not,
for God took him.
And there are two verses here in Jude,
chapter, well there's only one chapter in Jude,
anyhow, chapter, verse 14.
Enoch, also the seventh from Adam, prophesied.
Come on.
How many people were there in the world?
How could he prophesy?
He walked with God.
If you walk with somebody, you have to
set the pace.
Somebody has, you have to set the direction.
You have to say how long you're going
to walk.
And so Enoch is walking with God.
What did God do?
He lifted the veil of time into eternity.
How do you know?
Because it's recorded here.
It says, Enoch, also the seventh from Adam,
prophesied.
You know, it's fantastic when you think of
the revelations those wonderful men had in the
Old Testament.
Moses, somewhere, not at the burning bush before
that, left all the treasure of Egypt.
And he did a little adding up.
And as we say, the bottom line was
this, esteeming the reproach of Christ, not the
kingdom of Christ, not the glory of Christ,
not the resurrection of Christ, not the redemption
of Christ.
Esteeming the reproach.
What do you mean the reproach?
Jesus got kicked around all his life.
By good night, there was a contract on
him before he hardly got out of his
mother's womb.
And there at the cross, at the end,
you'll find him there.
It's turbulence the whole way through.
There is no easy street for him.
And yet somewhere in his magnificence, God revealed
to Moses the glory of the Lord Jesus
Christ.
He esteemed the reproaches of Christ, greater treasure,
all the treasure of Egypt, which was the
greatest system in the world at that time.
Did any of you go to Dallas, that
terrible city, and see the, did you see
the exhibition of King Tut's stuff last year?
King Tutankhamen, do you know who he was?
Well, he was the next in line after
Pharaoh.
Maybe somebody reminds him by his classical name,
Amenhotep II.
You don't remember him either.
But everything was gold.
You know, one of the things that they
found there, it was wonderful.
There's a book in the Penguin series called
Ur of the Chaldees.
Only cost you two or three dollars.
It's interesting.
And it tells you how they went to
Ur of the Chaldees and they found all
these treasures.
And I remember, who was the Englishman?
1920 it was, Lord, I forgot his name.
They got into this old Valley of the
Kings, rolled a stone away, and everything was
in solid gold.
There was a casket there, and you know
what they used to mold?
The face of the person in it, put
it on top, I don't know why.
And it was a sarcophagus, as they call
it.
It was in solid gold.
They found more treasures of gold than any
other thing they'd ever explored in the Valley
of the Kings.
But one thing they found was a little
tree, about six inches high, and a goat
had its head in the tree, its horns.
Well, they deciphered the other things.
They had what they called these hieroglyphics.
If you've never seen them, see my handwriting.
They're very like them.
Hieroglyphics.
And it explains so many things.
Then somebody said, but what about this thing?
We've never found one of these in the
Valley of the Kings.
What's this?
A little tree, this height, in solid gold,
a ram caught in the thicket.
Then one of the guys, oh, Lord Carter
was the fellow that explored it.
And one of the guys said rather blushingly,
well, sir, your highness, I used to go
to church, and they told a story there
about a man called Abraham.
And he was going to sacrifice his son.
And at the very last moment when he
had the knife up, that boy must have
been some boy.
Do you think your 18-year-old boy
would lay down there with a punch on
the nose?
He lies there bound up and he sees
the knife coming down.
A perfect picture of Jesus led as a
lamb to the slaughter.
And at that last moment, as an old
shepherd in Australia reminded me once, I spoke
on that, and he said, you missed something.
I said, I often miss things.
He said, but you know, he climbed the
mountain, he built the altar, he tied up
his son, and his hand was coming down.
And the boy said, stay thy hand.
You know what we would have done?
We'd have murdered him.
We'd have said, you see where the river
bends there?
That's where God told me go offer thy
son.
But God spoke a second time.
He obeyed God both times.
But just as the knife was coming down,
there was a rustling, and he looked behind,
there was a ram caught in the thicket.
And the old, like my venerable friend here,
had a beard, an old gentleman there in
Australia.
And he said, you know what?
That ram wasn't in the thicket when he
went up the hill.
No.
Wasn't in the thicket when he built the
altar.
No.
Wasn't in the thicket when he bound the
boy.
I said, what do you mean?
He said, it was the very last moment
as his hand was coming down to kill
his son.
God said, stay thy hand.
And at that moment he brought deliverance.
Now he said, remember this, so often God
takes us to the very last moment to
the extreme moment before ever there's a deliverance.
And when he saw the ram caught in
the thicket, of course, it was different.
Well, that ram caught in the thicket was
there in the tomb of King Amenhotep II.
It's easier than Tutankhamun.
But there, when they took the sarcophagus off
and the other things, there was this little
model of Abraham where Abraham took the, caught
the ram in the thicket.
And God preserved it to that time.
That was an amazing thing, I think.
It became a confirmation.
As a matter of fact, Leonard Woolley, the
man who was there at the discovery, was
converted because of it.
He said, this is true.
You see, what they did, they made an
excavation in one place and then they went
thirty miles away and they had to dig
through thirty feet of sand.
And then they found some treasures.
They found some things never been found in
history before.
And suddenly, Leonard Woolley says, you know where
this sand is from?
It's from the mountaintops.
There was a flood in the world and
it came and submerged the whole of this
area in thirty feet of silt.
And so, through those things, these men came
to know the Lord.
Anyhow, let's go back here.
Well, I'm getting this.
Recalling it, that might be better.
I think the 17th chapter.
Don't look.
The 17th chapter of Genesis.
God says to Abraham, walk before me.
Well, that's OK.
Simple enough.
Wait a minute.
He says, walk before me and be thou
perfect.
You know, we're terrified of that word perfection.
Go back to Noah.
God says, Noah was perfect in his generation.
Perfect in obedience.
Perfect when everybody scorned him.
Good night.
We can't, we can't take ridiculous, we can't
take ridicule and opposition for a few days.
We feel there should be a national declaration
for us.
Yet, for a hundred and twenty years, Moses,
Noah withstood all the criticism and ridicule.
Of that multitude that he had around him.
And yet, God says, he walked perfectly.
You know, I've skipped over so many stories
in the Bible.
You know, one thing, one thing about Noah,
amongst others, once he went in the ark,
he never came out again.
And there was no rain for an awful
long while.
He didn't go out.
He didn't let anybody in.
God shut the thing up.
He made a covenant with God and there
he stayed.
But listen, the storm is going to break
over our generation before long and we'll be
very, very glad we're in the ark.
There's no other place of safety.
Financial safety has taken wings, gone away.
Notice the depressed people coming from the Dallas
area.
They lost all their money.
But anyhow, it's true.
What seemed so secure a year or two
ago is absolutely liquidated.
It's gone.
Our national name has gone.
Our name's in the gutter.
You know, it's not so long since Nixon,
when we put a man on the moon,
he began to exalt us and said, we've
set our...
I think he used the phrase, we've set
our nest upon the stars.
Isn't it?
Isn't it Habakkuk that says, though you set
your nest upon the stars, I'll throw you
down.
The nation has gone down ever since he
said that, not just because of Watergate.
But God has a controversy with us and
it's time we woke up to realize what
it is.
And yet in the midst of a crooked
and perverse generation, God has called us to
shine as lights in the world.
He that saith he abideth in him ought
to walk, also walk, even as he walked.
Let me go back to 1 Peter.
Well, Brother Raymond, what are you going to
do?
Are you going to give us a list
of things here and this is how you
walk, this way, this way, this way, this
way?
No, no, no, no, I won't do that.
Let me tell you something that's been handed
down to me and to you for centuries.
Here it is in the first epistle of
Peter, chapter 2, verse 19 says, it is
thankworthy, this is thankworthy.
If a man for conscience toward God endure
grief, suffering wrongfully, for what glory is it
when ye aboffit it for your faults?
Ye shall take it patiently.
But if when ye do well and suffer
for it and take it patiently, this is
accepted with God.
For even hereunto were ye called, because Christ
also, listen, suffered for us, leaving us an
example that we should follow in his steps.
Now what do we do?
Is there a blank there?
Do I ask for suggestions?
What do you think he did?
What are his steps?
We get 50 different answers.
But before you can open your mouth, the
answer is already given.
That ye should follow in his steps, number
one, he did no sin, number two, no
guile was found in his mouth, number three,
when he was reviled, he reviled not again.
If you go into Ephesians, I'm going to
just read this quickly and you can get
the tape after.
There's a wonderful book, anybody got the book
by, what was the name, Paxon?
This is, Miss Paxon.
It's called, The Wealth, Walk and Warfare of
the Christian.
You got that Robbie?
Good for you, because I'm going to borrow
it.
It's a wonderful book, The Wealth, Walk and
Warfare.
Isn't that what Ephesians is?
The wealth of the spiritual life, the walk
of the spiritual life, and the warfare, in
the sixth chapter.
How many of you read the whole, what
is it, the whole, The Christian Incomplete Armour?
Have you read it?
You don't have it?
You haven't got it?
You have the book?
You have it?
Have you read it?
Me too.
How many of you have got the book?
Let me see.
Good for you.
Have you read it?
We're all partners tonight.
Part of this and part of that.
Maybe we can talk, if you've read it
through between us.
It's the greatest book ever written on Ephesians.
Do you have it, Dale?
Good.
Have you read it all?
Well, there's one thing, we're all in one
accord tonight, aren't we?
We all missed out on it.
Pardon?
Oh, Robbie, you read it through?
Good.
You're reading it, reading it again right now.
It's a fabulous book, but that's what Ephesians
is, it's the wealth, it shows us how
rich is in Jesus Christ.
It, it says you are the children of
the devil, but now it says you're the
habitation of Christ, isn't it in, isn't it
in the first chapter, the habitation of God
through the Spirit?
Is there anything, come on, is there anything
on God's earth greater than that where the
habitation of God, that he lives in us,
he lives in us, he doesn't just live
in the sky, he lives in us.
The habitation of God through the Spirit.
He did no sin, neither was guile found
in his mouth.
You know, it's, it's awesome.
I've, I've thought more this year about Mary
and the, and the child than I think
ever in my life.
When she washed his little dimpled hands, do
you think she ever thought about the nail
going through?
She knew it was.
It had been prophesied the virgin shall bear
a son, and she was the virgin.
It had been prophesied they put nails through
him.
When she washed his little back, did you
think they'd skin it with lashes?
The Romans would get a, cut her nine
tails, as we call it, about nine lashes,
and at the end of them there was
a copper spike, and it tore the flesh.
And yet they're going to do that to
her baby?
How often do you think she turned over
in her mind as she dressed him and
took care of him?
She'd heard the priest, maybe the Sunday before,
reciting Isaiah 53, his soul shall be made
an offering for sin.
Not just his battered body.
There was something on TV recently, I watched
some, I don't recall them, impulses going through
a wire no thicker than a hair of
your head.
Fabulous invention.
And I thought of this.
Billions of, what shall I call it, voltage
was going to go through the soul of
Jesus.
His soul was made an offering for sin.
The Catholics make a lot of his body,
his soul was made an offering.
I told you before maybe about the old
man that was in St. Andrews University in
Scotland.
I have a book of his saying.
They called him Rabbi, nicknamed him because when
he gave lectures on Hebrews he never took
a grammar book.
He took the Hebrew scriptures.
And one day he was describing Isaiah 53
and he said his soul was made an
offering for sin.
And he stopped and the audience, about 50
I think of those university students, divinity students,
wondered what he would say.
He was always coming out with wonderful nuggets
of truth.
And he said gentlemen, his soul was made
an offering for sin.
He said gentlemen it was damnation and he
took it joyfully.
Brought the classes.
He was so profound he would shake them
every time he spoke.
He lived in a little room in a
dry old university, dark and dusty and no
rugs.
And they knew because they sent him to
the laundry he wore a night shirt that
he kind of tied it up around his
neck and he'd wear it like a bridal
gown.
Thick flammable night shirt.
It's the only way to keep warm anyhow.
So one night they decided oh this man
when he prays oh he's so marvelous.
You feel as though as a hand on
the thorn of God and the other on
the audience.
He leaves a spell bound.
It's worth going to the lecturers to hear
him pray never mind his exposition and Hebrew.
So they went follow him upstairs.
In those old houses in England the keyholes
were about this size.
You can nearly get through them never mind
look through them.
Give you a big key like this going
to the room.
They saw the old man go in his
room.
Beautiful.
No rug.
A candle.
He put the candle at the side of
his bed and he read his Hebrew some
Hebrew from the scriptures.
Then suddenly he knelt down put his hands
together.
Let me look let me look.
Come on just a minute.
So they're all standing there look for the
one just till I nudge them.
And they all wanted to line up and
hear the old man pray.
And there he knelt with his hands together
in his big old final night prayer.
You know what he prayed?
Gentle Jesus meet and mild.
Look upon a little child.
Pity my simplicity.
Suffer me to come to thee.
Fain I would to thee be brought gracious
God forbid it not.
In the kingdom of thy grace give this
little child a place.
So they checked another night and found he
said that every night before he went to
sleep.
Gentle Jesus meet and mild.
How did Jesus come into the world?
He's gonna come one day read the second
Thessalonians and he says boy he's gonna come
streaming through the skies with thousands and thousands
of angels in terrifying majesty.
Why did he come the first time?
He could have captured the world.
Why did he set up his kingdom?
He could have done it.
He didn't because the plan of God was
otherwise.
It's just like your life and mine.
You find as you go on there's a
gradual unfolding of the revelation and majesty and
power of God and you wonder where you've
been the last few years not to find
it.
You know the world's just about fed up
with religion.
It's no good talking if we're not walking.
What did he used to say?
It was an Americanism I heard first.
In fact I was in a holiness meeting
one day and a guy would come to
the front every meeting and just when the
meeting was over he leapt in the air
about three feet and yelled at the top
of his voice.
We shut him up after a while because
he was flesh anyhow.
And somebody said brother I don't care how
high you jump as long as you walk
straight when you come down.
I told you before about this lyrical man,
this Baptist man.
What was his name?
Bumer in Africa.
I gave a very famous preacher, all of
you know his name.
I gave him a book to read.
He read it.
He said no, can't accept it.
He raised the dead, gave eyes to the
blind.
I can't believe it.
Why not?
Oh it's not documented.
I need signatures on it.
Last year a man called Roger Volk, one
of the best known men in South Africa
came to see me.
Looked at him at the door.
Hey brother Len how are you?
I said fine Roger how are you?
I said by the way you've lived in
Africa a long while.
Did you know a man called Bumer?
He said William Bumer?
I said yes.
I said well I've read his book called
Get Thy Glory Lord, Take Thy Glory Lord.
I said he raised a girl from the
dead, did the miraculous?
Yes he did.
I said well I've got a friend alone
in my book and he said no, no,
no.
Well he said let me tell you something.
I'll give you the name of the doctor,
he was an atheist.
I'll give you the name of the hospital.
I'll give you the town.
I'll give you the date.
When this little black man went into that
hospital and raised a girl from the dead,
caused the atheist to realize there's some marvelous
power because this fellow is unpretentious, he has
no doctrines, he's just a plain simple man.
As I've said in my first book I
think, I need to read that again.
And people often quote it.
One day somebody's going to believe the Bible
and when they do we'll all be embarrassed.
That's all we have to do.
God is looking for people who believe him.
Somebody said to our dear Paul's dear wife,
Irene, down in Asuncion, Paraguay, yes.
Are you there to get converts?
She said no.
What are you there to get?
She said worshippers.
There are millions of converts.
How many worshippers are there?
By the same token this little fellow here,
he said yes he raised the dead, I'll
give you the hospital, I'll give you all
the particulars.
But he said brother, raise me more than
that.
Wasn't it last year Martha, dear Irene?
I think he said last year my daughter
was so sick, she had to have a
surgery, they took about a third of her
brain away.
And the doctor said she'll be a vegetable,
all that.
He said she was lying there, she couldn't
even get spittle, her throat was swelling, her
lips were swelling, she couldn't articulate.
One morning he said, there was a knock
at the door and there he was.
William Doomer had taken the train for about
a couple of days through Africa.
And he said, brother, the Lord told me
to come, your child, your daughter is sick.
He said, yes she is.
And he showed her in the room.
And he thought, of course, immediately went in,
he prayed and she get up and go.
Nothing happened.
He prayed once, I think two hours after,
he prayed two hours quietly, came again, nothing
happened.
He said, well I'll be back.
And he went away for three days.
Three days after he came back and the
pastor said, where have you been?
Oh brother, he said, I've been in my
usual school, I went for three days into
the bush, saw the face of God.
Now let me talk to your daughter.
And there she's lying as stiff as a
board, no expression, no words, hardly able to
swallow her own spittle.
And he goes in and says, Lord Jesus,
this is your property.
I think he took about a hand in
his mouth and lifted it up, that's right,
and embraced her and said, Lord Jesus, this
is your property.
The doctor said, that brain will never function
again.
She's going to be a vegetable the rest
of her life.
And he said, he held my dear daughter
in his arms like that tightly and prayed
over her lovingly and said, this is your
property, Lord Jesus.
Restore all that needs to be restored.
And immediately she was healed.
She spoke.
And he said, you know what?
The vegetable they talked about last month gave
me a beautiful grandchild.
When doctor said, there's nothing enough functioning normally.
But it was done.
Because this precious man, Dumas, people say he
walked with God like nobody had ever known
before.
He was illiterate.
He had much in the way of a
vocabulary or a library.
But he had a communication with God.
He had a shrine in his heart.
He walked in the spirit, talked in the
spirit, thought in the spirit, prayed in the
spirit.
And that's what it's going to take to
restore glory of God to our generation.
We're so bankrupt with so many terms and
phrases.
Two people this week have told me about
they're in the fastest growing church in Dallas.
I said, there's a hundred of them apparently
by what I hear.
Everybody's talking about church expansion.
Nobody talks about depth.
I'm not concerned about expansion.
I'm concerned about depth.
I'm not concerned about knowing a bit more
knowledge.
I want to see the manifest power of
God.
Jesus is worthy to receive honor and power
divine and blessings more than we can give
the Lord forever.
Everybody outside of the kingdom of Jesus Christ
is a rebel.
They may be well dressed, beautifully dressed.
They may have been in Neiman Markets buying
a hundred thousand dollar coat for his wife
or jewels or something.
They may be well educated.
It doesn't make any difference.
If they're outside of Christ, they're rebels.
They're not just sinners wandering from God.
They're rebels with a fist up against God.
Well, let's read this before we go any
further.
Ephesians 5.8 says, walk as children of
the light.
Chapter 5 verse 15 says, walk circumspectly.
What I was telling you earlier about Roger
Vogt, a precious man.
His daddy and mummy were living in England
and they decided to emigrate to Africa.
So they went.
And Roger was born in Africa.
And a younger brother was born in Africa.
Another brother.
But the brother who was born before the
family left England stayed in England.
So there came a time when, through corresponding,
the older brother said, I'd like to see
my younger brother.
I've never seen him.
So they arranged for it and he went
on the good old P&O, Pacific and
Orient, Orient liners that aren't used anymore.
But the one thing about it, while he
knew the address of his brother in London,
and instead of the ship going to Southampton,
it went right to the River Thames and
up to Tilbury Docks, right in London.
When he got there, there were hundreds of
people yelling and screaming.
They had their banners and they were shouting
names and the fellows on the deck were
shouting back.
But this brother, this
young man, screaming and rejoicing, running down the
gang planks and embracing and shouting.
And he looked and he thought, well I
don't see anybody like my dad here.
I can't see a brother of mine.
And he said hundreds and hundreds of people
went away.
There were about three people at the dock
side there.
And suddenly one man turned around and he
put his hands behind his back and he
walked with a measure of step.
He said, that's my dad.
He walked exactly like his father.
He didn't have to hear his voice or
get a picture.
He said, he walked exactly as my father
walked.
You know, that's what the world is waiting
to see.
It wants us to see us walk as
he walked.
Not just talk it, live it, live it
out, believe it, behave it, Mrs. Wesley said
to her children.
And there's nothing more impressive than a beautiful
life.
How did Jesus live?
He walked in the light for sure, didn't
he?
He walked in righteousness in an unrighteous world.
He walked in truth in a world full
of error.
And he expects us to do that, to
walk in holiness, to walk in lowliness, to
walk in truth.
He walked in peace in a world full
of war.
He walked in a relationship with his father
when there was a sterile religion everywhere round
about.
He walked and there was no intimidation.
He wasn't afraid of the Roman power.
He wasn't afraid of the devils.
He wasn't afraid of death.
And he's handed these things over to us.
He says they're yours.
We're heirs of God and joint heirs with
Jesus Christ.
You know, that baffles me, it startles me.
How much have I really inherited?
Is God going to show me one day
when I get to heaven, kind of open
the door and say, you see, those resources,
they were all there, you never asked for
them, you never believed for them, they were
all hidden in the Word, but you were
too busy to get down to them.
This generation of Christians, of Christians, is responsible
for this generation of believers.
This generation of believers is responsible for this
generation of sinners.
I asked a couple of preachers in my
office yesterday, I said, well, tell me this,
forget about your fashionable church, this guy goes
to a big, big church, he's an assistant
pastor.
I said, brother, what have you in your
church for the world won?
Does it cover anything you have?
Do your people walk with a serenity?
Have they a joy, unspeakable, or do they
need entertainment all the time?
Is the love of God shed abroad in
their heart, or are they critical and sour?
Are your people reproduction of Jesus Christ?
Mild he laid his glory by.
Think of that.
Worshipped by angels, then whipped by men.
Would anybody else do it?
Wouldn't it have been enough to have come
down to earth for just a year or
two, and show us how to live till
he was twenty, and he lives till he's
thirty years of age?
Because, again, a high priest in the Old
Testament could not go into the holy of
holies till he was thirty years of age.
He could go as a priest at twenty
-five.
He could be a soldier at twenty, because
then and now he don't need brains to
kill anybody.
Jesus had to go through that trial period.
And the word of God says he became
perfect as a man by through suffering and
testing and trial.
He wasn't going to school and learning some
repertoire.
He didn't sit down and read the prophecies
and then just go out and give some
lectures.
Is there anything more?
I'm going to think about this more later.
Not tonight.
But, you know, we say again, Abraham, walk,
God says, walk before me and be thou
perfect.
In the midst of idolatry?
What's it saying in seventh chapter of Acts?
When Stephen is being stoned, he says, God
appeared to our father Abraham in Mesopotamia.
What a hell hole.
Mesopotamia is one super edition of Las Vegas
and all the other rotten things we have
in our nation.
There was lawlessness, godlessness, idols, vanity, corruption, and
yet in the midst of that junk, God
appeared to him.
You know, if the Russians ever get free,
I think we'll make some marvellous stories of
revelations, visiting angels.
And revelations God had brought to people as
they meditated on his word that they read
maybe years ago.
But again, I'm insisting here is this walk.
The boy knew as soon as he said,
as soon as I saw my brother walk,
the way he put his head, he put
his hands there, and he kind of waddled
a bit.
There's my father walking.
Isn't it beautiful when somebody says that's how
we walk.
The walks are wonderful.
I'm scared I'll go over on this thing
one of these days.
Glad my salvation is better than that.
Oh, thank you.
I think of a moment of that Emmaus
walk, one of the most amazing walks in
the scriptures.
Jesus met them.
I wonder if he's as disgusted with us
as he was with them.
He had told them for years what he
would do.
Not one of them believed him.
They didn't believe him.
Thomas didn't believe him in the upper room.
He said, yes, put his hand out and
I'll put my finger in.
Lift his garment and put my hand in
his side.
Boy, was he ever sorry he said that.
Few minutes after Jesus came, Thomas said, all
right Lord, leave it.
He said, no, you asked for it, you
get it.
I think when we get to heaven, many
of us will rejoice that God did not
answer some of the prayers we prayed.
We prayed with lack of wisdom.
We prayed with immaturity.
We prayed with selfishness.
But he walked with them.
What did he do?
He unfolded the scripture.
Boy, that was a seven mile journey from
Jerusalem to where they were going, on the
Emmaus road.
Boy, that must have been the most glorious
Bible school ever.
Why didn't he say, I want to reveal
to you some of Daniel's image.
The middle torn, the left foot.
I want to tell you something about eternity.
He doesn't do that.
He goes back and he unfolded.
He talked about the past.
He went to Moses and the prophets and
said, this is what I've come to declare
to you.
They spake concerning me.
Every one of those men knew me.
But what did he do?
He opened their understanding.
Jesus said, he that walketh with me, followeth
me, shall not walk in darkness, but walk
in light.
He gave them some scripture they didn't understand.
So what did he do?
He opened the eyes of their understanding.
And then he opened the scriptures.
And then he opened their mouths.
And so that's exactly the way God wants
to take us.
One Friday night.
Oh, there's no meeting next Friday night, by
the way, because you'll all be so tired
opening your presents.
No, but some people won't be able to
come, so we'll skip it.
Oh, first Friday in the New Year, let
me put myself on the spot.
I think I'm going to preach on, or
speak on forgetting those things which are behind.
Everybody likes to do that in the New
Year, don't they?
But for what angle do you do it?
There's half a dozen, I won't tell you.
But I'll speak about that, God willing.
But let's make up our minds next year
by the grace of God.
We're going to have a, what Calpha called,
oh, for a closer walk with God, a
calmer heavenly frame, a light that shines upon
the Lord, that leads me to the Lamb.
That's what God wants, a closer walk with
God.
Abraham walked with God in that vile system.
Enoch walked with God.
What do you think they thought about him
when he went down Main Street and said,
you know, Lord's coming with 10,000 of
his saints.
They know nothing about God.
They know priesthood, what have they, they know
nothing.
But he says, the Lord is coming from
the skies with 10,000 of his saints,
and he's going to bring judgment.
That's a terrible verse, let me read it,
it's that close.
Enoch also, the seventh from Adam prophesied, so
that's what he did.
God gave him a revelation when he was
walking with him.
Behold, the Lord cometh, so he prophesied the
second coming with 10,000 of his saints,
and the next thing, to execute judgment and
all, to convince all that are ungodly among
them of their ungodly deeds, which they have
ungodly committed of all the hard speeches which
ungodly sinners have spoken against them.
Do you think they understood that?
Sometimes you just say what God says and
leave it.
Dear Lord, most of our pew dwellers don't
understand it, never mind in those days.
Remember there wasn't a Bible?
Far as I know, there was another person
witnessing.
But here is a solitary figure, and he
dares to reveal what God revealed to him.
The Lord is coming.
He's looking through time into the ultimate.
Well, Jesus walked in perfect obedience, we know
that.
He walked in perfect submission to the Father's
will.
He walked in compassion.
When he saw the multitude, he was moved
with compassion.
It doesn't say what the crowd, what the
disciples were.
When he saw the multitude, he was moved
with compassion.
He walked in the Spirit, continually.
He walked in revelation.
You know, all these things, if you come
to Sorbonne, they're all available to us tonight.
You know, when it comes down to poverty,
there are very few people who are poor
by choice.
We always use the classical phrase, of course,
of St. Francis of Assisi.
You know, all over America today, there are
hundreds of nuns and nurses in monasteries and
convents.
They've run away from the world.
Jesus says, no, I don't take you out
of the world or live in the world.
Walk in it.
It's crooked.
Walk straight.
It's untruthful.
Walk with truth.
It's dark.
Walk in the light.
Sometime, your personality and mine should be like
the ring you see on ladies' fingers.
I remember the first time I crossed the
Atlantic.
I never saw many women with coals.
When I came to dinner in the fabulous
ship, the Queen Mary, you see ladies have
their handkerchiefs and their shoulders up.
I said to one of the fellows, you
know, all these women have got a coal.
They said, what do you mean got a
coal?
Look at the size of rings they've got.
They didn't have a ring at all.
They were showing these big diamonds that they
had.
And you know, sometimes if you twist your
ring that way, somebody says it's brilliant red.
Somebody says it's a deep blue.
Somebody says it's violet.
Somebody else says it's green.
The same diamond, it depends which way.
And truth is many sided like that.
God lets it flash one day as a
warning, another day as a comfort, another day
as a challenge, another day as a deep
inspiration.
So that's what God's Word, when the light
comes on it, the light that shineth on
a dark place, that shines in our heart.
And one day something illumines and boy, you
grasp it with both hands and make a
note and say, Lord, I should have seen
that 20 years ago.
But we're to walk in the light.
All these attributes I've spoken about, Jesus, are
available to us.
It's a dark world.
Let's walk in the light.
It's a lying, deceitful world.
Let's walk in truth.
It's a corrupt world.
Let's walk in holiness.
The possibilities of grace are so vast.
I think we'll all discover when we enter
heaven.
I will, I'm sure.
But most of my life I've been walking
with water to the ankles.
And even not to the knees yet, after
serving the Lord.
Now what, I've been 65 years since I
got saved.
Sixty-six.
I know so little.
And I tried to stuff into these preachers
the other day.
Nobody cares who you know.
Don't care about your degree.
Oh, this fellow is in one of the
biggest churches in Dallas.
He was this guy.
I said, do you know God Almighty?
He's a bit interested in your ministry.
He said, what?
I said, he's interested in your character.
If you don't have integrity, if you don't
have honesty, don't have holiness, you don't count.
And brother, you couldn't get that in the
seminary where you studied.
You can only get it by a close
walk with God, by an intimacy, by accepting
his rebukes, as well as accepting his strength.
Jesus walked in strength.
There was no weakness.
Why?
Because he abode in the word of the
living God, and the word is meat and
drink to us.
I keep buying books.
I don't know why.
I don't know why some of them.
Mother keeps saying, lend me up enough.
I say, well, just two or three more.
Of course, I said that twenty years ago,
too.
I'll get some for Christmas, hopefully.
But anyhow.
You know, sometimes, honestly, I mean it.
I'm not facetious when I say it.
I guess I have two thousand books altogether
in one room, some in another.
And you know, I think, I wonder sometimes
if God will hold me responsible for having
all those books.
Are they there for ornaments?
Young guys go, oh, what a wonderful lot
of books, yeah.
You want to buy them?
How much?
Ten thousand dollars for the lot.
Cost you more than that to buy them.
I've collected them all over the world.
I don't want to sell them.
But truth, truth, truth, truth.
It's such a false world.
It's such a corrupt world.
It's such a lying world.
It's such a hypocritical world.
It's time for us to put on the
whole armour of God.
It's time for us to walk in all
the light he'll give us, never mind how
much it hurts.
Do you think it'll be worth it when
we get to those five minutes inside of
eternity?
He says we're to walk even as he
walked.
He walked in humility.
There was no arrogance.
There was no impudence in Jesus.
He was beautiful.
And I'm to walk even as he walked.
He walked sacrificially.
I want to walk sacrificially.
He was despised more than accepted.
So am I, as far as that goes
with the big shots.
But it's beautiful.
I don't want the Lord, as I've told
you so often.
I wrote in a letter yesterday to a
friend.
I don't want to stand up before the
cyanosia of what?
A hundred billion eyes.
And the Lord says, son when you were
on earth I had many things to tell
you but you couldn't bear them.
Wouldn't that be shocking?
Exposed, Moses listening, Abraham listening.
All the saints of all days and saints,
apostles, prophets, martyrs.
All looking at poor Leonard Raven.
He was standing there who can't lean on
his dear wife or any friend.
Or say Dale come out this side and
Ray come out this side.
No, no by myself.
With all my privileges.
With all my opportunities.
With all the open channels that there are.
And then I'm going to die on the
verge of bankruptcy.
I don't want God to say, look all
angels are looking.
Gabriel's looking.
Michael the archangel is looking.
Zechariah, Jeremiah is looking.
All the saints.
Finn is there.
Wesley is there.
John Hus is there.
John Fletcher.
All those saints looking on me.
Don't feel sorry for me.
You're going to stand there as well by
yourself.
Won't have anybody to lean on.
And God's going to say, I gave you
all the treasures you ever needed.
Everything you need for your faith, your courage,
your vision is locked up in this book.
It isn't a book, it's a library.
Is there any other that's sixty-six books
in one volume?
Sixty-six you can slip in your pocket?
I don't know, except the word of God.
Well, I'm determined, you'll be determined to do
what you like, but I'm determined this coming
year.
Dear Martha and I have a program now
of reading and enjoying some of the deeper
things that we've had around for years or
two.
But as I've told you before, I'm tired
of living amongst mediocrity.
Dear Lord, everybody writes to me, do you
know what we're doing in our ministry?
Tell me what God's doing in your ministry.
Forget your ministry.
We've opened another bookshop.
You may as well open a sausage shop
as far as I'm concerned.
Does it affect the kingdom?
As I said to God the other day,
is there eternity in it?
What eternal value is that that you're doing?
If it has no eternal value, it's like
on one side.
Determined to live in the light of eternity
every day.
Well, we're going to pray.
I want you particularly to remember Spencer and
the team, whoever's with him, as they go
and minister, as well as giving out clothing
and food, they're going to minister to those
precious folk in Oklahoma.
Jacob is gone, as usual.
He's gone preaching today.
And the, remember India, we do so often
pray for India.
You know, every day it seems it's like
a horse, a sore horse in a, it's
a point of quicksand.
Boy, it fought like mad.
The more it fought, the more it sank.
And it seems when we try and struggle
out the difficulties in Washington, we get into
them.
We get more tied up.
Lying begets lying.
Deception begets deception.
In the spiritual, we go from one degree
of glory to another.
One revelation to another revelation.
One strength to another strength.
In the world, they go further down into
sin and corruption and deception.
And there's going to be a big clash
before very long.
We're all going to be tested, I believe,
to the hilt.
But if you get your life in straight
now, established a walk, you may have to
walk like David.
I've been through the valley of the shadow
of death two or three times here.
It's not too pleasant, but I got through
anyhow.
But I want to walk as he walked,
not walk as Billy Graham walked or Jimmy
Swigert or somebody.
I want to walk as he walked.
Not walk according to the theology I was
raised in.
Not walk according to this.
Walk according to this blessed word, which is
a word of truth and power and glory.
Well, let's go to prayer for a little
season, can we do that?