In this sermon, Wiley Glass shares a powerful testimony of a man who had been carrying a deep-rooted bitterness for 30 years. This man had harbored anger towards someone who had insulted his wife, to the point where he desired to kill him. However, through a powerful encounter with God, this man surrendered his will and let go of his bitterness. As a result, a revival broke out, with many people surrendering their lives to the Lord and confessing their sins. The sermon emphasizes the importance of repentance, surrender, and the work of the Holy Spirit in convicting and transforming hearts.

Let us once again pray. We worship Thee, our Heavenly Father, and as the choir has sung, that to Thee, all honor and glory, Thou art the beginning and the end. Everything is in Thy hand, and Thou art perfectly in control of everything. And how wonderful to know and to rest, knowing that Thou art in full control. And that everything goes according to Thy plan and purpose, for which we'd like to thank Thee and praise Thee. Amen. I'd like to read one verse out of Matthew chapter 5. Verse 5. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are the poor of spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. These two verses exercised us much in Europe, but especially the one that blessed are those that are meek. Those that are meek, they shall inherit the earth. You know, if you look into this, you'll find many, many a truth. Firstly, the Lord says, those that are meek, that are humble, that consider his neighbor higher than himself, he shall inherit, listen, he shall inherit the earth. It's an inheritance which the Lord Jesus will give to those that are meek, that are humble, those that don't, that aren't lifted up, those that aren't proud, those that aren't haughty, but the humble one, the least. And it's good that we Christians ask ourselves, have we inherited the earth already? If people look at us, if the heathens look at us, do they see the truth? Do they see, do they experience that we have inherited the earth? The earth belongs to us, belongs to you and to me. And what an influence has that world got in our lives instead of us influencing the earth, that we control the earth, that the earth belongs to us. The Lord says, those that are humble, that consider his neighbor higher than himself, those that are humble, those that aren't, those that aren't proud, those that aren't haughty, those that aren't proud, those that aren't proud, We usually think we've got to fight for our rights. We teach our children from the first day they are in school, you've got to, you must, and exactly the opposite to what the Bible says. You must achieve something. You've got to bring the highest points in an exam. And this pride is injected into us every day, every day of our school days. You must perform, you must perform. And our whole life is assisted by that one thing, we've got to form, perform, we've got to give the best, we've got to be on the top pedestal. And the Bible teaches us that we should be the least. We should be humble. We should be poor in spirit. We should be meek. We should be the lowest. And it spoke to our hearts and we said, have I inherited the earth already? Have I, is my husband, my wife in my hands? Are they an inheritance to me? Do they belong to me? Have I got control over them? There where I put my foot, it is God who puts his foot there. And I enjoy the inheritance of my Lord Jesus Christ. And we realized more and more that pride is a terrible sin against God. And we so easily condone pride in our lives. And to be those that are poor in spirit. And to be those that are poor in spirit. That are entirely dependent upon the word of God. That are entirely dependent upon the word of God. Your traditions. The way you behave. The way you worship God. That is pride. If we are poor in spirit, we will accept the word of God as it is without questioning it. And we so easily take the word of God and we try to make our own religion out of it. If we read God's word, if we read a verse here, we immediately in our mind think of another verse which we say could contradict that verse. And we aren't poor in spirit anymore. But the man who is poor in spirit, he will accept what the word of God says. He won't argue. He won't think about it. But he will accept the word if he reads it. If he says, if we read, blessed are the meek. Then a person who is poor in spirit will say, I've got to be meek. I've got to be the lowest. I've got to be at the feet of my Lord Jesus Christ. What do I know? And if we read the Bible, we read and we don't obey the word of God. Instead of obeying the word of God and doing what the Bible tells us to do, we'd be a different people. And this is what we talked about and we saw God doing a wonderful work. We've never had so many people attending the services as these past weeks. We've never experienced so many people surrendering their lives to the Lord, giving their lives over to the Lord Jesus. And we saw the children of the Lord sanctifying and purifying their lives. Right from the first evening, we saw God working in a most marvelous way. Oh, it humbled us right into the ground to see how God was speaking to the people, how the Holy Spirit convicted people of their sin. One young boy, young man came after the preaching, he came and he cried and he said, I'm burning, can God forgive me my sins? And I said, yes, let's go into a room where it's only the two of us that we can pray together. But this man shouted out his sins and there were, I think, at least a thousand people gathered that evening. And as we walked along, he just poured out his heart. When we went into a lift, I think we were ten people, it was a big lift. I said, be quiet, you can talk to me when we get into the room downstairs. But he didn't listen, he just shouted and shouted out. And he wasn't the only one. We've never had so many people coming to surrender their lives to the Lord as this time. People brought TV. People brought their musical instruments. People brought CDs, music, music, oh music is a terrible instrument in the devil's hand. Eventually we had half a bag full of CDs. Nobody talked about TV or musical instruments or CDs. We talked about the Word of God and God was convicting them and they were bringing these things. Oh, it was wonderful to see God at work. And I pray, oh God, that work which you started there, please, for thy name's sake, may it continue, may it carry on and may it flood all Europe and the world. It's wonderful to see God at work, between young and old. And it is my desire that the Lord would continue working, not only over there, but here. Not that we get used to things. But that the Word of God will be new to us every day. And then we talked about forgiving. Forgiving. To forgive one another. And if you bring your offering to the Lord and you remember that somebody has something against you, then leave your offering, go and get reconciled with that man before you bring your offering. And it was good to see people going, people leaving everything, leaving their lives, leaving their honour, leaving everything at the altar and go and put right and make peace with the brother that's got something against you. You know, somebody said, I think it was C.S. Lewis that said, you know, it is easy if somebody comes to you and asks for forgiveness, you can easily forgive. But to go and ask for forgiveness is another thing. That's most difficult. That you humble yourself, that you admit your fault, can be very, very difficult. I'd like to tell you two stories. Rosalind Goforth said and talked about her anger towards men. And especially against somebody. Because somebody insulted her and her husband terribly and accused them of something which they hadn't done. And she was so deeply touched and angered by this and she couldn't forgive that man for insulting and talking such lies about them. And she says, but my husband, he could forgive freely. But I said, I can't forgive. If it was the truth, yes, I could forgive him. But insulting us in such a way and talking lies about us, it just angered her. And for over a year, she couldn't face this man. She couldn't even speak to him. Although he lived very close to them. Eventually, four years passed away without having sorted out this thing. And eventually, it was as if grass grew over it. But one day, this Mr. and Mrs. Goforth travelled by train to attend a meeting. But this wife, she noticed her spiritual life was ebbing away. And she knew there's something wrong in my life. And then while they were in the train, she went down on her knees. And she prayed that God, the Holy Spirit, should speak to her. And then all of a sudden, she heard a voice. And this voice said, write a letter to this man. To this man who insulted you and talked lies about you. And ask him for forgiveness that her attitude towards him wasn't godly. And I shouted out, never, never, I can't do that. Der, der mich so verleumt, oh now I'm talking German. He, who spoke evil about me and who told lies about me and accused me of things that I should go and ask for forgiveness. He's got to come and ask for forgiveness. And this voice said, but your attitude towards that man wasn't right. And that man noticed something in your behavior that you weren't godly to him. And then after a time, I prayed again. And that same voice came to me. And said, have you written that letter already and asked for forgiveness? And she says, her whole heart, her whole soul, her whole being shouted out and said, never Lord, never Lord, I can't. He's got to come and ask for forgiveness. It is he who wronged us. Why must I go and ask for forgiveness? And the Lord said, my child, you call yourself a Christian? You call yourself my child? And you, and your attitude towards that man is such that you go out of his way not to meet him, not to greet him. He must have noticed something in your life. And that is what we people are like. We always like to see the fault of the next person and rightly so. That man insulted me. That man spoke lies about me. And I can't forgive him. He's got to come and ask for forgiveness. And then after a time when I prayed again, that same voice came to me and says, Have you written that letter already? And she got up from her prayer and said, I'll forsake everything, I'll leave this Christianity. I don't want to have anything to do with it. Never, never, never will I forgive that man. And she was giving, how do you call it, kindestunde. She had held children's meetings and she spoke to these small children. And on that day she read a passage out of Pilgrim's Progress. And she read that there was a man who was in a cage and he was groaning, groaning. And this touched her heart. There is somebody in that cage that is groaning, that is bound in the cage. And all of a sudden she realized she has caged in the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit was in the cage groaning and it was she that had done it. And it is I who did that because I didn't want to submit to God. And now His wrath has come upon me. And God has forsaken me. And she said, all of a sudden the Holy Spirit convicted her of her sin and not of the sin of the other men. And she went for counseling to a missionary. And she told him the whole story. And then this missionary said, Mrs. Goforth, are you prepared to write that letter now? After a time she said, yes Lord, I am prepared. And she got up from her knees and left that house and she wrote that letter. And asked for forgiveness. The peace, the joy, the Christian life, the real life came back to me and came back into my heart. And from that day onwards I have never ventured not to forgive. No matter how wrong was done to me, but if my attitude doesn't stay right, I have got to confess my sin and not the sin of the other. Another night, a certain missionary by the name of Carl Pepper went down on his knees to pray. But he noticed that his prayer didn't reach further than the ceiling of that room. And he asked the Lord and said, Lord, what is wrong? What is hindering my prayer to reach Thee? And as he prayed and was before the Lord, he opened his Bible and this is what he read. But if you call yourself a Jew and rely upon the law and boast of your relationship to God and know His will and approve what is excellent, what is excellent because you are instructed in the law and if you are sure that you are a guide to the blind, a light to those that are blind, that are foolish, you teach and those that walk in darkness, a corrector of the foolish, a teacher of children, having in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth, you then who teach others, will you not teach yourself? While you preach against stealing, do not steal, and you steal, you commit adultery, you who abhor idols, do you rob temples, you who boast in the law, do you dishonor God by breaking the law? For it is written, the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you. And God said to him, you are a hypocrite, you keep the law, you lead the blind, you do everything according to the law, but I tell you, you are a hypocrite. You think you are a Christian? What have you actually done for me? Because the Lord says, and his word says, those that believe in me, from them streams of living water shall flow. Have you got these streams? Have you got this power? That streams of living water gush out of your innermost being. And this word exercised him. He read this word in the evening. And he went to his wife and he said, let's pray. And they prayed virtually the whole night through. And then the next morning, when he went to his coworkers for prayer, he confessed to them and said, oh my pride. And my lukewarmness. And he said, you know, when God showed me my lukewarmness and my pride, it broke my heart. And when the others heard this confession, the Holy Spirit started working amongst the coworkers. And they started confessing their sins one to another. He says, I saw the faces of my coworkers and they started crying. They fell on their knees and some fell on their faces. Missionaries went one to the other and they confessed their sins and their wrong attitudes and feelings towards one another. Others confessed their jealousy, their hatred towards their fellow workers. And God started working and this went through the school. It went through the hospitals and the churches. But especially it touched Kilpatrick's best friend. And this friend of his was Wiley Glass. And in the meeting, this Wiley Glass all of a sudden saw a face in front of him. And he saw this person before his eyes. And God asked him, what is your relationship like towards this man? This man Glass, for years he hated this man. And all of a sudden God showed him the face of this man and he said, what is your relationship like with this man? And eventually this man Glass, he went to Kilpatrick and he fell around his neck and he cried and he said, Charlie, pray for me. Both of them fell down on their knees. And Wiley Glass told him what was in his heart and what the problem was. And he was groaning under this fearful burden concerning this man he had seen in front of his eyes. And every time he prayed, he saw this man again. And he wrestled and he wrestled with God and he said, I can't. And a few days later, Glass came to Charlie and said, Charlie, I can't anymore. And he said, Charlie, I have surrendered my will to the Lord. And he threw his arms around Culpeper and said, it is all gone. And I asked him, what is gone? And he said, that old root of bitterness. And then this Mr. Glass told him the story. And he said, 30 years ago, before I came to China, a certain man insulted my wife. And this, what that man did, the way he insulted my wife, anger rose in my heart and I could have killed him. And if I would have seen him again, I would have killed him. How could he insult my wife like that? And he said, I as a servant of the Lord, this worried me for the last 30 years. And then eventually I said, this is what Glass says, I said, I committed him to the Lord. I said, Lord, over to you, I leave him with you. This hatred and this grudge against that man, I just cast it upon you, I don't want to have anything to do with it anymore. And then the Holy Spirit spoke to him once again. Are you willing that this man who insulted your wife that much, are you willing that God should save him? And he answered, yes Lord, I am willing that you save him. But see to it that you keep him on the other side of heaven and I stay on this side of heaven, I don't want to see him. You can save him, but just keep him out of my presence. And then Calpatrick eventually said, my friend, you've got to put that on the altar as well. And then he said, yes Lord, I am willing to forgive him, I am willing that you save him, and I am willing to be next to him, to be the neighbor of that man in heaven. And when I go on furlough again to England, that's the first thing I'm going to do, I'm going to go to that man's house and I'm going to ask him for forgiveness. And when he took this decision, he says, all of a sudden, peace, the peace of heaven entered into his soul. And he was filled with the love and the peace of God. And he became a well-known preacher in China and he led many, many heathens to Christ. And he led hundreds to Christ. And this went through the congregations like a bomb. And we saw people making peace one with another. Tell me, friend, have you maybe got something like that, that you were insulted, people talk badly about you, and then you withdrew from those people and you kept out of the way, you didn't want to have anything to do with them. Yes, Lord, you can save them. But you keep him on that side of heaven and I'll stay on this side of heaven. What is your attitude towards your neighbor? What is your attitude towards the one who has wrongfully hurt you? What is your attitude to the ones who told lies about you? What is your attitude to the one who accused you of things you never did? Yes, Lord, you can save him, yes, blessed be thy name, save him, but keep him there and I'll stay on this side. And by God's grace, the Holy Spirit worked and people got reconciled one with another. And that is what we experienced those three or four weeks we were in Europe. And virtually day and night we were busy, people getting reconciled to God and getting reconciled to their fellow men. And may that be in your life as well. And Glass, when he made peace with his enemy, with the one he disliked, the one he couldn't stand, God used him and he led hundreds to Christ. How many have you led to Christ already? God is eager to use you, to use me. But are the streams of living water flowing? Do you still bear grudges? Is there still something in your heart that says, hey, but you know, he treated me in a bad way? Hey, he hurt me. And hey, you know, I'd rather stay out of his presence. And when he put that right, Wiley Glass, a missionary, up to then he couldn't lead any people to Christ. But when he was prepared to make peace with that man who hurt him 30 years ago, God couldn't use him. But when he put that right, God could use him and he could lead many people to Christ. And that's why I ask that question. How many have you led to Christ already? Has he been able to use you? Is there something in your life, in my life, that is hindering the Lord to glorify himself? Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Have I inherited the earth already? Have I inherited the people on earth already for Christ? Blessed are the meek. Blessed are those that are poor in spirit. Blessed are those that can forgive. Let us pray. Thy word is sweeter than honey. It speaks so plainly to us. The smallest child understands that we've got to be meek, that we've got to be humble and not seek our way. That we are prepared to honor our next of kin. And that we can humble ourselves. And that we are the least of them all. That thou mightest be able to glorify thyself. And this missionary, when he was prepared to rectify that what happened 30 years ago, and he didn't even do it, but he held a grudge, there was bitterness in his heart. And when he bowed, when he humbled himself, when he became meek, He inherited hundreds of people. And led them to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. May that be our portion as well. Amen.