In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of believing in God and keeping our focus on Him to avoid discouragement. He highlights the power of God's grace to overcome our mistakes and sins. The speaker encourages Christians to walk with Jesus and not to neglect reaching out to others with the message of Christ. He challenges believers to have a revolutionary mindset that changes their priorities, actions, and relationships. The sermon emphasizes the need for Christians to actively witness and not make excuses, reminding them that they have the ability to speak and share the gospel.

Acts chapter 1, verse 8, the book of Acts 1, verse 8. Familiar to many, but still important. But ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem and unto Judea and in Samaria and unto the uttermost part of the earth. Then when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up, and the cloud received him out of their sight. The Lord Jesus gave the same command in the Gospels. Now he repeats it in the book of Acts. I wonder how many of us really take the Lord Jesus seriously. I wonder how many of us really believe that it should be to the uttermost part of the earth. And I wonder how many of us are really involved through prayer, through telling others, through distributing literature, through giving, through going, through every possible method. Some time ago, actually, it was when I was in India, I picked up this book, Why Revival Terrence, written by an Englishman, Leonard Ravenhill, written mainly to Americans. When I picked this up and began to read it, I could only repent. Around that same time, I began to read some of the books of A. W. Tozer. We've taken quotations from about 15 of his books, and we've put it in this little book, Gems from Tozer. Some of these quotations are very unpleasant. They do not paint the picture very bright, though Tozer, if you read him carefully, is still an optimist of the great belief in the sovereignty of God and the overruling power of God. But through these books, I had a deep confirmation of what I began to see when I was one year old in Christ at university, when the Lord first began to work in terms of sending us out to a foreign country. And I came to this conviction, and I share it with you tonight. You may not accept it, you may not understand it, but I've spoken this message now for almost 16 years. Many of my friends, because of my temperament and the sin I've been in before, the way I lived, didn't think that I would go on for Christ very long. They certainly didn't believe this crazy movement would last more than two years. Now the Lord has given grace for 16 years, almost. The movement has been going almost that time. No one knows how to date the movement, it's impossible. And this conviction lays heavier upon my heart than ever before. And I believe that more than anything else, God has brought you here tonight to hear what I'm going to say in the next few minutes. Not to see these pictures, not to sign up as a prayer partner for OM, not to even go on an OM crusade, because you can go on an OM crusade and still miss what I'm about to say. What I'm about to say is simply this. I believe that a vast majority of all evangelicals, Bible-believing people, are deceived by the powers of darkness, and that the Church has been deceived into a false evangelicalism instead of a revolutionary, dynamic, biblical Christianity. I believe that, and I've had it confirmed hundreds, perhaps a thousand times in 16 years, in country after country, as I've seen men who have been deceived by this spiritual, diabolical thought, ripped apart spiritually. Very few of us are willing to face our own state. Very few of us are willing to face the state of the Church. There are men who will face it. One of them who confronted me with it 13 years ago was a man from this country named Alan Redpath. They didn't like his preaching at Moody Church. They didn't like the way he thundered. They didn't like the way he got upset. They didn't like the way he almost wept from the pulpit and called Christians to repent, and Christians to come out of the fog, and Christians to get right with one another, and Christians to get back on their knees. We always want to think of the sinner, the drunkard, the dope addict, the man down the road who's never coming to Church. But I believe God tonight is wanting to speak to the Church. He's wanting to speak to Christians, and I believe that he's trying to say to Christians, open your eyes. We see verses that give a strong indication along this line in the Word of God. Some of them are found in the book of Revelation. Revelation chapter 3, we read in verse 1, I know thy works, that thou hast the name that thou livest, and art dead. Be watchful and strengthen the things which remain that are ready, ready to die, for I have not found thy works perfect before God. Thou hast the name that thou livest, and art dead. Could this be true of many of us tonight? In Martin Luther's day, most of us, as we study it now, will agree they were deceived. So easy for us to say that, isn't it? So easy for us living in the 20th century to look back at the people in Martin Luther's day and say, poor souls, deceived. The whole Church, deceived. Thank God we're not like them. Isn't this what we say when we study the Reformation? Isn't this what we say when we study how the Roman Church went into more and more darkness? But we are only human beings. Is it not possible that we as well could be deceived? Is it not possible that with all our orthodoxy, with all of our good truth, we still could be deceived? Things have happened in Britain recently, among one exclusive sect that has have proven this a hundred times. It should go like a great shout across this country. And I believe that these words should ring in many of our hearts tonight. And I speak as a man who is convinced that I am still, in some areas, a deceived man. And I pray that God would open my eyes. I don't believe it's a once-and-for-all experience. The devil is in a constant attack, and the man who thinks he's in the light the most may be the most blind. For example, I've had dear Pentecostal Christians in my meetings who thought when I referred to evangelicals I didn't mean them. We have Pentecostal Christians on OM, but I want to tell you when I say evangelical, I mean Pentecostal, I mean Brethren, Anglican, Presbyterian, Baptist, I mean all of us. There's no group in the evangelical world today that is not affected by this tremendous strategy of Satan to deceive us, to rock us asleep, to get us on tangents, and to keep us from obedience to his word. And the man who gets himself in the little group, even if he calls it OM, and then thinks he's not deceived, is usually the one who's deceived the worst. And in no way do we believe that OM is a fellowship of the undeceived. We're a fellowship of people who are deceived, but perhaps who are beginning to know it and who are desperate, desperate to get free from the chains that bind us and hinder us from being the kind of men that God would want us to be. And unless God renews us, unless God revives us, most of our evangelism will go to naught. Most of our millions of facts will be relatively meaningless. And in twenty years, we will be a movement of dust and bones, and I'll be on the top of it. Thou hast a name that thou art alive. O ever evangelical, Pentecostal, brethren, dedicated, keen, a name that thou art alive, but thou art dead. Does that ring in any heart tonight? Tozer said we were specialists at playing the game, the evangelical game. It's a game of words, and we have all the words, and we've even put them into lovely tunes, and we sing them. We sing them to all different beats, and we sing them joyfully. But could it be that we are deceived? I believe we are. I believe that our eyes have been blinded, and that our situation is similar to Revelation 3.17. Because, thou sayest, I am rich and increased with goods, and have need of nothing, and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked. Such stunning words. Some people think, oh, is George Furry so hard when he preaches? My words are nothing compared to those words of Scripture. Look at them again. But thou sayest, I am rich and increased with goods, and have need of nothing, and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked. Is this the situation of the church? Is this your situation? I believe it is. In some cases, of course, not completely, praise God. And in every church I've been in, where there's any sound teaching, I have found wonderful rays of light, and I stand as someone who will die fighting, believing, praying, and working with the local testimony of believers, wherever they are, whatever their problem may be, and whatever their commitment may be. And I do not speak from without the church, looking down or looking in. I speak as one from within the church, who believes in the church, who works with the church, yearning and praying for spiritual awakening, for eyes to be opened, for our hearts to be filled, for this counsel to be obeyed. What is this counsel? I counsel thee, to thy meek old pride in fire, that thou mayest be rich, and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear. And anoint thy eyes with eyesalves, that thou mayest see. I don't have a sermon tonight. I only have a compulsion within from the Lord, though it will be stained by my personality. Forgive me. It will be stained by an American accent. It may be stained by a voice that's too loud. It may be stained by this vessel, this clay pot, but it's still, I believe, from him, because this is his word, that thou mayest see. And I believe that God wants to anoint eyes tonight. I believe that God wants to open some of our eyes tonight, that we begin to see, we begin to discern what real Christianity is, and what we are stuck into. What real biblical truth is, what real biblical reality is, and what we are caught up in. And that when we go out from this building, we will have committed our hearts and our lives to see spiritual revolution in our own lives at any cost. Be it nights of prayer, be it going to a dozen brothers and telling them, you're sorry for your stubbornness, for your lack of love. Oh, so hard that is, isn't it? So proud we are, so unwilling to go to another brother and get things right, so that everywhere the church is divided, everywhere people are carrying resentments and in bitterness, not only in the church, but in homes as well. So divorce among Christians is becoming as common in some places as divorce among the unsaved. And we've got men, hundreds of men, who stand in our churches, minister in the name of the Lord, who are nothing short of devils in their homes. I've had more women and men come to me and my wife for counseling, and I've read of many others in this area. I can't believe it. Easy to talk religion, easy to gather once a week, easy to go through motions, but to put that into practice in the home, under the pressure of rearing children in this insane age, under the pressure of making a living, under the pressure of all that involves in this mad, rushing society that we live in, not so easy. So the Christian homes are cracking up. Children, even the sons and daughters of many an evangelical, even many an evangelical leader, are departing from the faith. They want nothing to do with it. Dr. Schaefer told me some time ago, in the Brie Fellowship, that he has a dream of Christ rejecting sons and daughters of evangelical leaders. But if you say anything, you'll be called a fanatic, or an extremist, or a pessimist. What would you do to keep your daughter from deserting the faith? What would you do to keep your son from deserting the faith? Would you cry out? Would you pray? Would you fast? I would. I am. Because I have three children. I believe. God wants to open eyes tonight. He wants to show us ourselves, you know. We can never take another step forward in our Christian experience. We can never take a new vision, in the sense of the Lord, without seeing a little more of ourselves. We don't dwell on ourselves. It's like the chain said, one look at self, and ten looks at Jesus. Otherwise, you'll go down into the pit of introspection, and you may never get out. Lots of people do that. Despite what I may be saying tonight, I'm an optimist. I have a great faith that God is working in the twentieth century. I have a great faith that there's a revolution going on, and that people are beginning to see more and more their situation, and the situation of their church, and they also are beginning to do something about it. It may be in the ones and twos, but it soon will spread, and you can be involved. I believe we should unite. I believe we should pray. Lord, open our eyes. I believe we should lay down our denominational pop guns that divide us, and begin to work together, at least in evangelism. We may not be able to tolerate everybody's doctrine in terms of teaching and in terms of our own local fellowship, but in evangelism, at least we should be able to work together and win souls together. Oh, may our eyes be opened. May we see the hopelessness of trying to evangelize Britain as a divided church, as a splintered group, when the Lord Jesus said and actually prayed that when we were one, people would see this oneness and know that we were from God. That's what Jesus prayed, and that's why today I believe many times we're so ineffective. It's not literature. It's not films. It's not a ship. Not even our preaching that's going to be our first weapon in this age in which people are being bombarded by every form of propaganda. It will be lives that are on fire for God, lives that burn with the love of Jesus Christ, lives that are broken and humble, lives that are filled with the radiance and the sweetness of the Savior. Only this can we possibly believe will make an impact in the desperate day in which we live. And believe me, brethren, it will not be a cause for clapping, and I don't want clapping. It will be a cause for weeping, for repenting. For sometimes those of us who look down at others and wonder, why isn't he more committed? Why isn't he more zealous? Why doesn't he give out tracts? Why doesn't he do this? Why doesn't she do that? We are more guilty because if we are so spiritual, why are we not having a greater effect on them? Never thought about that? Rather revolutionary. And I believe that we need a baptism of humility. I don't know where you can get a copy, but I recommend you get a copy of Andrew Murray's book on the subject of humility and devouring, because without this humility, we won't repent. Without repentance, our eyes will not open. Some of the men who talk the biggest lies walk the widest road and make no impact. Perhaps this is a lot of words to say a small thing, but I don't believe it's small. God says there's a way, a way that seems right to a man. The end thereof is the way of death. And I believe the same is true. Oftentimes of us as Christians, there's a way that seems right. We have our own ways, the way we use our time. We feel it's right. We have liberty. We can waste our time if we want. We can sit endless hours at watching stupid programs on the television. We can go to ridiculous films. We can read ridiculous magazines. We're free. Just try to tell us otherwise, and you'll get a case of the argues as fast as you can ever imagine. And I would only say, well, you might as well do those things. Unless this spiritual bomb ignites in your heart, unless the love of Jesus Christ grips you, you might as well sit down and read the funny sheets six hours a day and spend your evenings on the telly. But if God is God, if the Bible is true, if there is such a thing as a Great Commission, if there is such a place as hell, if there is such a thing as a resurrection, then I believe not only will we have to lay aside questionable things, we will have to lay aside good things to get into the battle. Oh, we all can justify the way we spend our money. I don't know any book that sells worse than a copy of William MacDonald's Where Is Your Treasure. One look at the title is enough to turn anyone off. The publisher is going to drop it from circulation. We have put our treasure where we want, and we're not about to be told what to do. And if we are, we'll soon pull out a scripture verse somewhere from the middle of the Old Testament to defend our ridiculous accumulation of wealth that could be used for bringing hundreds of thousands into the kingdom of God. You see, we remain deceived. And so why a world starves to death? Why two million Pakistanis are suffering in East Pakistan and still have never been evangelized? The big boy in the West can blow another thousand pounds on some favorite thing and pray over it and declare it to be a blessing of God and gather around his friends and have a celebration. I want to tell you, if that's Christianity, excuse me, I'll become a Marxist. And there are thousands of young people like myself today who are on the Marxist trail instead of the trail with me and you for Jesus Christ because of that. Because the Church has been blind and disobedient about the commands of Scripture in regard to the material world, which is spoken about more by Jesus than we dare to admit. You may not like what I'm saying tonight. You may think that this is hard, but I'd ask you this question. Would you prefer me and the thousands of young people who have united in this movement, would you prefer us to be Red Guards? Would you prefer us to be Marxists? You may not agree with all that O.M. says. Of course you won't. Neither do I. But would you rather us to be Communists? Would you rather me to line up with the Jehovah Witnesses or Herbert W. Armstrong or the Mormons? They already have enough zealots. They already have enough men winning hundreds to their false way every year. And so would you me to know Emmer, and he's a little too zealous and maybe not as finesse as you'd like and not as sophisticated as he should be. And if his hair's too long, forgive him. At least he's not a Communist. At least he's not a Mormon. And I believe I don't in Britain today have been too critical of young people. Out of me. If I didn't learn how to take criticism by this time, I'd be dead. But when a young person comes back after one summer crusade only to meet with 16 buckets of cold water on the first day of church, it's not always so easy to go back again. And I believe with all my heart that we as young people need the older generation. And I believe the older generation needs the younger generation. We'll never do it alone. We all need our eyes open. We're all desperate. And we all should come in repentance and brokenness and ask God for a revolution, for a revival, for an anointing of the eyes, like it says here, that we together may see. And when we see, we will go. We will go. And I believe some of you know that God is beginning to show you things in these days, from his word, from books, from others. And I believe that many here tonight who deepen your soul, you're not content with your present spiritual position. You're not content with just going through emotions. You're not content with just playing the evangelical game. And I just say that if you're not content, you're on the road. You won't arrive, but you're on the road. And if you just keep going, keep going to the cross, keep your eyes on Jesus, keep feasting on the word, keep obeying, steady, daily, you will see great things in your life. Oh, someone can pop up and say, oh, wait a minute, I believe that this happens to you tonight. That's it. You've got a lot of super salesmen in Britain. Don't tell me this isn't a nation of salesmen. I've seen fantastic salesmen out in the pulpits of Britain. Step right up, folks, tonight. I've got the experience. You get this experience tonight, you'll be a New Testament Christian. You'll be dynamic. You'll be a witness. You'll turn the world upside down. Thousands and thousands of people have had all kinds of experiences. I'm not thinking of any one. The world still doesn't turn upside down. And the fact of the matter is, most people don't remain zealous for more than a few years. I meet many people and they say to me, oh, Mr. Brewer, oh, George, I remember when I was like that. What happened? I remember when I was a teenager, I used to give out tracts. Oh, beloved, God can give us a crisis, but any crisis that's not followed by that daily process of the cross, communion, the word, brokenness, repentance, any crisis that's not followed by that process will soon be an abscess. Is that the condition of some of us tonight? That's the name that thou livest, that thou art damned. You say, what do I do? I believe you may say I am deceived, but what do I do? A few simple steps and then we'll close in prayer. One, admit it. Admit it. Tell God. Tell others. Admit it. Faith it. Declare it. Secondly, repent of it. Not just once, but every time you see any form of deception, any love of the world, anything that's selfish, anything that's not like Jesus, repent. If it has to be 20 times a day, we'll then do it 20 times. But don't tolerate sin. Don't tolerate selfishness. Thirdly, accept God's forgiveness. As a Christian, that's right, many a Christian is living under the pains of a guilt complex. Many a Christian who's set up a fantastic standard for Christian living lives down in the doldrums because he knows he can't make it. Christianity I'm talking about tonight, the reality I'm speaking about tonight, includes blindness, includes coldness, but it doesn't stay there. So when you repent, believe that God has forgiven you. I meet young Christians who are overwhelmed by some sin that has really, really cut into their life. Many young Christians today have got involved in immorality, impurity has swept the nation. Pornography is not only in the hands of unconverted people, it's in many Christian homes. It's only better hidden, that's all. And I believe we have to turn from all this, and then we have to believe that God has forgiven us, whatever it may be. Whatever vice, whatever sin, whatever defilement it may be, God has forgiven it, as far as the west is from the east, under the blood of Jesus Christ. Without his forgiveness, we can never go forward. It's not a matter of getting all excited, running out the door. It's realizing we're forgiven. It's realizing his love is greater than all this mess that we find ourselves in. And I want to tell you that's like taking a cool shower in a hot summer day in New Delhi. And once I did it six times because it was very hot. Oh, his forgiveness, his love, his grace, his sovereign power to overrule. The next thing you must do is believe that he will overrule the mistake. He will overrule the mistakes made in the darkness. He will overrule the blindness. He will overrule the problem that may be at hand right now. You don't come out of your problems all at once. You may repent tonight and come to the Lord in a fresh commitment, but all your problems won't be solved tonight. We're scarred. Every Christian, in one way or the other, is scarred. We've been in combat. We've been scarred. Though we can get the forgiveness immediately, the scars sometimes don't erase so quickly. So be ready to deny yourself daily. Take up the cross and follow him. So you see it, you repent of it, and you believe that God has forgiven you and that it is God. And then you believe that in his sovereign grace—oh, I'd love to speak to you all night about his sovereign grace—to overrule all of our folly. It's the only reason he's evangelizing the world with such a weak church. His sovereign grace to overrule. His sovereign grace to beat the devil in his own game. It's tremendous. It's exciting. You've got to believe it, or otherwise you'll become discouraged. Christians can discourage you. Situations can depress you. But keeping your eyes on the Lord and on Jehovah God and believing that he is on the throne, he will overrule, that can give you strength to face anything. Even two and a half thousand tons of twenty-year-old ship. Sovereign grace to overrule your blunders, my blunders, and even our sins. You know, when we think of it, it causes us to fall in love with the Lord Jesus on a deeper level. And that brings me to the next point, to learn to simply walk with Jesus. Don't run ahead of him. Don't lag behind. Walk with Jesus. How? By obeying him. If you love me, Jesus said, keep my commandments. This means devouring the word of God. Many are failing in their Christian life. They're not becoming spiritual revolutionists because the Bible is neglected, because they're failing to meditate and memorize the word of God, which is evil to give us the strength. So they're slipping all over the place. So after we take these steps, we get into the word of God. We begin to walk with Jesus, obeying him. Only his Holy Spirit can do this. I believe it's God's provision for every believer to be filled with the spirit, but I don't believe it's something to be talked about. It's something to be walked about. God wants to fill you tonight and he wants to fill you tomorrow. The book of Ephesians speaks quite clearly about it. I can have no pretension that tonight I'm going to preach all your favorite doctrines and make all of you happy, because there's only one message and our time is almost up. And I'm not particularly interested in your vocabulary. I would perhaps prefer to quote Billy Graham, who said, I don't care how you get it, but get it. This life, this reality, this power, this love that everyone has to respect, no matter what your denomination is, when they see it in the flesh. Walking with Jesus, it's great, it's revolutionary. The Bible says those who believe in him ought to walk even as he walked. Too many of us talk about him, sing about him, and when we walk out of church on Sunday morning, also forget about him. It must not be that way. Walking with Jesus, that will mean witnessing. We've got to start witnessing. The man who becomes a spiritual revolutionist, the man who begins to see as the eye salve of the love of God covers his eyes, begins to witness with literature, with word, spontaneously and militantly. I'm not here to dictate how you should witness. I've written a book on this subject. It's on the table, but if you don't like those methods, throw it away and use yours and write me and tell me how to do it. But don't just sit there. Don't make excuses. So many tell me they haven't got the gift to speak. You think that most tongues of most Christians were tied to their feet. They won't speak. You come to some girl and she says, oh Mr. Brewer, I haven't got the gift to speak. You have such a wonderful gift to speak. I saw you at the meeting and your tongue was going a mile a minute, but I haven't got the gift to speak. You get the same girl with some of her girlfriends on her favorite subject, sewing or cooking her boys. You see how well she can speak. And when we really, when we really fall in love with Jesus, when we really are bursting with his love, we're going to speak even if we're the shyest, quietest little sweetness that ever was born in the British Isles. And I've seen that happen. I've seen the quietest, most reserved young men tiptoeing out of Britain over to France, ignited, and they spoke and souls were brought to Christ in the process. We've got to witness. And the fact that we're not witnessing, we're not advancing, we're not moving, our churches aren't growing is one of the big signs that we don't really see the way we think we do. Oh, beloved, God is alive tonight. God is working. And he wants to work in you and in me in a new and a revolutionary way. And he wants to use us to take the gospel to the uttermost parts of the earth and to the uttermost, uttermost street of Manchester as well. You have to begin in Jerusalem. The man who sends his one pound note across to the missionary in Congo and forgets the Pakistani living down the road. This man is blind. I hate to say it, but he is. The man who drops his two bob in the missionary box at the back of the church and goes down the street every day and passes Pakistanis and Englishmen and doesn't do anything about reaching them for Christ. This man has a disease. I call it spiritual blindness. Oh, may God open our eyes and may we decide that we're going to learn to see and learn to do at any cost. It'll be a revolution. It'll change the way you spend your money, the way you spend your time. It'll change what you do in your leisure. It'll change your friendships. It'll change perhaps even your home. You'll become those men the likes of which are described in Act 17 when it says these men who have turned the world upside down have come to our town. Has that ever been said about you? May God open our eyes. May God give us the faith. He will, if you want it, to step and believe for new things in Manchester, in Britain, in the church, in O.M. Christ is able. Christ is wanted. Christ is calling. Christ is commanding. And Christ has died to make it a reality. The rest is up to you. Let us pray. I'm not going to give an invitation tonight. Sometimes I do. Last year here I did. My invitation is this. Tomorrow and tonight, demonstrate by your life that Jesus is opening your eyes. Demonstrate by your life that Jesus is alive. That's my invitation. Lord, I'm a sinner. Totally unworthy to speak these words. In need of the eyesalve to open my own eyes. I may see my inconsistencies. And I may see Jesus in a clear way and know what he really wants and what he's really like. And I pray that you do it tonight. And I pray, Lord, in the authority of your Son, that many eyes may be opened tonight. That we may see that we have been playing, many of us, an evangelical game instead of being involved in a revolution for Christ. That we may see that Christianity is really just a part of our life instead of Christ being all of our life. That we may be willing to admit our situation. We may be willing to repent of it. We may be willing to accept your forgiveness and to walk with you in denying self, taking up the cross and following you daily. Lord, we believe you can do it. With the likes of us, it may take a long time, but we believe it's worth starting. And we look to you. We pray in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.