This sermon emphasizes the importance of awakening, conviction, and repentance in the journey of faith. It delves into the nature of sin, the need for individuals to take sides with God against themselves, and the significance of repentance as a complete change of mind and intention towards pleasing God. The message highlights the role of the Holy Spirit in convicting individuals of their sins and leading them to repentance, ultimately preparing hearts for God's grace and forgiveness.

Pastor Reedhead reminded us this morning that it was back in 1954 that he first came to Bethany. He's been here a number of times since. We're delighted to have him back, delighted for his ministry, a ministry of which we identify so much in our spirits. He, for those of you who weren't here this morning, he has been for a number of years a pastor with Christian Missionary Alliance. He's native to Minnesota. He pastored the A. B. Simpson Memorial Church in New York, and now he is involved and engaged in a Bible and missionary conference ministry, and we're glad to have him, and he's going to speak to us now. Number one in the series we're bringing was awakening. Tomorrow you'll be given an outline, and I'd like very much to have you fill it in and keep it. I believe when it's completed you will have a perspective on this so great salvation. Will you turn now to John chapter 16, John the 16th chapter, and I'd like to read verses 7 to 11. This portion, this evening, has to do with the second phase of the divine operation, conviction, and hopefully we're going to be able to move on this evening to the third of these steps, as the pastor Murdoch in Omaha said, stepping up to life, these steps that of the divine operation when God would bring men out of death into life. It's important that we understand them because you will see as we go on that everything that follows builds on all that has preceded. So this evening the theme is conviction. John 16 verse 7. Nevertheless I tell you the truth it is expedient for you that I go away for if I go not away the comforter will not come unto you but if I depart I will send him unto you and when he has come he will reprove the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment. Of sin because they believe not on me, of righteousness because I go to my father and he see me no more, of judgment because the prince of this world is judged. Let us bow in prayer. Father we're asking that the Holy Spirit will be the teacher tonight, that our eyes of our understanding will be open, our minds receptive, and that our hearts will retain all that thou would teach us. We ask thee father in and through everything that's said, honor and glorify the Lord Jesus Christ in his name we ask it. Amen. What is sin? What is sin? You have to answer the question before you can ever expect to be effective in your ministry and helping people to come under conviction of sin. Now we are laborers together with God. We saw this morning that there are three things we can do for the unconverted. We can live before them as a sample of God's grace, we can intercede for them, and we can witness to them. We spent some time talking about the witness to the unawakened, scriptures that we would use to those that have no sensitivity at all to their need, no awareness of their lostness. You see before they can become convicted of their sin they've got to discover that things aren't right. Most people that you meet have already accepted their own plan of salvation. In fact I'm sure everyone you'll ever talk to has his own plan of salvation. It may be ridiculous, may be ludicrous. I've heard people say well God's got a great scales in the sky and he's putting all my good deeds on one side my bad deeds on the other and if my good deeds outweigh my bad deeds it'll be all right for me. Well whatever that is sinners have a plan of salvation and usually it's it always if they're sinners it's the wrong one and therefore we've got to recognize that our responsibility is as a witness to deal with the person we find at the point where we find them. Now I've had people come to me through the years saying would you pray for my son, my daughter, my husband, whoever that they'll be saved. You know it's an awfully big thing isn't it to pray they'll be saved. It's like a mother coming to someone saying well you pray for my daughter that she'll be married, that she'll get married. You might want to ask a question well does she have any friends? Does she have someone that she's going with? Is she engaged? Well instead of praying that the daughter would be married don't you think it might be wise to start praying that she'll become affable and pleasant enough that at least she could have a friend. And if that happens they might be able to move on to another step and so when you're talking about the unconverted why should we start in by praying that they'll be that they'll be saved. Why not ask God if they're unawakened to awaken them and if we sense they're awakened don't rush in with with four questions that are going to lead them to a premature assumption that they're Christians but pray that God will help you now to use the scripture in such a way as to see them brought to conviction. But if they're going to be brought under conviction we must understand a little bit about sin. Now what is it? First is sin a congenital disease or is it a crime? Are people in trouble because they inherited something from their parents and their grandparents or are they in trouble because when they reach the age of accountability they deliberately turn to their own way. They chose to follow in the path of those before them and that they have confirmed everything that's gone before them by the committal of their will to the principle and the practice of pleasing themselves as the end of their being. Now sin is a crime. I'm saying that. I don't want to use some elaborate deductive reasoning to get you there. I'm going to tell you. Sin is a crime. It is a crime against God. When a mere man determines that he's going to defy the only one in the universe that's wise enough and big enough and good enough to govern and rule his life, climb up into that throne chair in his heart that only God can fill like a little infant in a big chair, a little tiny baby in a chair and has to cling to the post so it doesn't fall out under the armrest. Here we are sinners climb up in the throne of our life and sit there and determine that we're going to do what we want to do and all the time we're dependent on God for life and breath and all things. Well sin is not only a crime, it's insanity. It's moral insanity. We saw this morning that sin is treason against righteous government. Sin is open rebellion and defiance of government. Sin leads to anarchy where the only rule is I'm going to do what pleases me and it of course issues into transgression when their law of God gets between the individual and his appetite, the means of satisfying and he forgets all about God's law. The astounding thing is after all of these crimes against God you would think God would be the enemy of the sinner but you know the scripture says the carnal mind is enmity against God. In other words sinners committed all these crimes against God then he turns out to be God's enemy. Well if that's it then you got to understand that we've got to have conviction of sin. Now in the years when I was here in training in Minneapolis I did quite a bit of work in jails, a little later on in prison and I gathered from the people I talked to on the other side of the bars that at least in Minnesota the miscarriage of justice is almost a hundred percent. Now all these folks were there, they were all in prison but I only think once that I ever met anybody that according to him was there justly. I remember asking one fellow why are you here and he said because I deserve to be here in fact I deserve to have been killed for my crimes but they were merciful, the court was merciful and I'm here on a life sentence but I'm here because I deserve to be. Now that's the only time and you'd think wouldn't you that there might be somebody else in jail that was there because he deserved to be but all the people I talked to had been sentenced but in their own minds they weren't convicted. Now what is conviction? It is that state of the mind and heart when the individual takes sides with God against himself. Now the word says all have sinned and come short of the glory of God but conviction is the work of the Spirit of God on the human heart that causes the individual to realize at least something of the enormity of the crime that's been committed. I'd like to give you some illustrations. I'm going to ask you to turn, I want you to use your Bible. Will you turn to Genesis chapter 42 and verse 21. I would like to have you see with your own eyes something wonderful that happened in the life of these the brethren of Joseph. Joseph is an agent and in verse 8 it says and Joseph knew his brethren but they knew him not and Joseph remembered the dreams which he dreamed of them and said unto them you are spies to see the nakedness of the land you are come and they said unto him nay my Lord but to buy food are thy servants come we are all one man's sons we are true men thy servants are no spies and he said unto them nay but to see the nakedness of the land you are come they said thy servants are twelve brethren the sons of one man in the land of Canaan and behold the youngest is this day with our father and one is not and Joseph said unto them you are spies and how be it you prove it now you you just bring your brother down here and in verse 21 and they said one to another we are verily guilty concerning our brother in that we saw the anguish of his soul when he besought us and we would not hear therefore is this distress come upon us these brethren that so arrogantly and haughtily sold Joseph into slavery now have come to the place that they're under conviction and they've taken sides with God against themselves we are verily guilty that's conviction when the sinner takes sides against himself you might want to turn over to Numbers chapter 21 in verse 7 and you'll see another instance when when this is happened therefore the people came to Moses and said we have sinned for we have spoken against the Lord and against thee pray unto the Lord that he take away the serpents from us and Moses prayed for them perhaps you'd like to turn to Ezra there's another instance Ezra in the ninth chapter in the sixth verse where the God in the old the God of the Old Testament you know the same as the God of the New Testament and he has given to us these testimonies here that we might understand them Ezra 9 verse 6 and said oh my God I am ashamed and blushed to lift up my face to thee my God for our iniquities have increased over our head and our trespasses is grown up into the heavens since the days of our father have we been in a great trespass unto this day and for our iniquities have we our kings and our priests been delivered into the hands of the kings of the land of the sword to captivity and to spoil and to confusion as it is this day conviction of sin well why why should it happen in this way why should we have to have such an awful work of the Spirit of God to produce conviction I heard a preacher just a week or two ago say never preach the law God is love just talk to sinners about the love of God everybody knows they've sinned but how interesting it is to read in Romans that the law is the school master to bring us to Christ and by the law is the knowledge of sin I don't know I can give up the Word of God to accept the metaphysics of certain preachers that think that because God is holy it's a blot on his discussion a blemish on his character and so when I heard this man say that I said no I'm gonna stick with the word and the word says by the law is the knowledge of sin how then are people brought to conviction of sin how does it occur what's the what happens if you haven't read it I urge you to get the book gospel themes sermons that were preached by Charles G Finney and when one of these messages Finney talked about the inner revelation and the outer revelation now when my wife and I went to Africa back in 1945 we had just the customary and training that you'd get in a very fine Bible school and so we didn't have very high expectations as to what the people that had never seen a missionary or heard the name of Jesus knew but when I went into the Danza tribe along the Sudan Ethiopian border who said I was the first one ever to come with the Bible first one ever to mention to them the name of Jesus I found out that these people knew an amazing amount far more than I'd ever been led to expect they knew for instance they knew God had made the world all you had to do is break off a stick or pick up a stone or anything and say who made it and they gave you the name in this case it was one of me and he was holy and he was angry with them because of their sin all they also knew about Satan that he was evil that he was bad now they didn't sacrifice to God to one of these why don't you bring your chickens to one of me and they said we don't even know that he wants chickens we can't waste them on him and we don't know that's what he wants we know that if we don't take our chickens to the evil spirits our goats will die and our crops won't mature and so we got to save all the chickens we got for the ones who for the evil spirit so they knew that God was but there was no fear of God before their eyes oh they knew he was going to punish them when they died but they were so worried about how to survive till the harvest that they couldn't be particularly concerned about what was going to happen when they died now I began to say they knew God was angry with them because of what they had done was the way they put it what have you done that he's angry with and they said well we've lied have you ever heard that it seems out somewhat familiar to Ten Commandments and and what else have you done well we've stolen he doesn't want you no we can't steal well have you stole oh yes and what else well you can't kill and I remember turned to one man have you ever killed he said are you with the government and I said no I'm here just to study your language and talk to you about Jesus yeah I've killed and so's he so's he so's he accusing one another you know you didn't want to be all alone there now they knew it was wrong to lie and to steal and to kill now who taught them they'd never seen a Bible they never heard the name of Jesus they never had introduction Ten Commandments say how in the world would they know that well you might be surprised in Romans the second chapter Paul writes saying when the Gentiles that's the pagans people I've talked to who have not the law do by nature the things contained in the law show that they have a law the law is written on their hearts you see every model of the human family that's been come off the line everybody's ever been born of human parents is standard equipment and the standard equipment for a human being is the law written on the heart now I referred to this marvelous sermon by Charles Finney he used an illustration appropriate to his day in his day flour mills consisted of having a big stone that had had lines cut in it the grooves cut into it and they had a means with a water wheel so that this one the lower stone would go one way and then there was an upper stone and it would go the other way now it's hard for you to get you to do your hands that you might want to try it it's hard to get one hand going one way in the other and keep going it won't work but you'd get it with millstones and so what Finney said was this that when you bring the outer revelation of the law in the word to bear upon the inner revelation written on the heart the human spirit is caught between and is ground that is the skull is taken off the sophistication is taken away and they're brought under conviction of sin now the upper millstone is the law written the lower millstone is the law in the heart this is why wherever we go any place in the world you can always bring the revelation of the holiness of God in the law of God down upon the person that's there knowing that the spirit of God is going to cause that preparation of the heart for grace you see without that upper millstone lowered the conduct just rests on the lower millstone and it just rides around and there's no abrasion and no pressure no friction and they're content but when you bring the word of God down and the human spirit is there and human conduct is there and it begins to be ground now you see why it says by the law is the knowledge of sin and the law gives the gives to sin the character of exceeding and transgression and it's therefore imperative that we learn how to use the law in such a way that it is going to cause the human spirit to undergo this work of being shredded and ripped and crushed and ground now just as we gave you verses having to do with awakening so I'm asking you to do your homework and to gather for yourself verses that you find congenial to your mind in your spirit that you're going to use with people that have been awakened but are not yet under conviction and one of the good places to start is with the Ten Commandments how many of you learned them when you were children in Sunday school well how many of you remember them all could pass a test on them if I were you I'd go back and do a little refreshing on that because you'd be astonished the way the Spirit of God is pleased to use the revelation of the holiness of Father Son and Holy Spirit as it's given there in the Ten Commandments that's the law but the law is not restricted to it of course everything that indicates the holiness of God is in effect that teaching that Torah that unveiling of the heart to the individual now some of the effects of the law applied to the conscience are unrest the distress concern just unhappiness something's a matter I'm not getting any pleasure out of this anymore unrest will give way to a bird this sort of is something we call it psychologists call it depression well it's a burden on the mind and on the spirit a lot of people that are depressed try to escape from it thinking that it's something they shouldn't have when it's the Spirit of God dealing with them about their sin and Psalm 51 3 David talked about misery his sin was ever before him and it caused misery in his heart and actually told that they had the sting of conscience their heart their minds were stung by what they heard from Peter in Acts 24 35 25 we are told that terror struck their hearts all of these things accompanied by conviction probably one of the best illustrations of a convicted person is that publican that went down to the temple and stood there in front of the veil of the temple and beat his breast with downcast eyes the Pharisees on one side and the other saying thank God we're not like this fellow yes and publican is crying out God be merciful to me a sinner inside the other side of that veil is the mercy seat where the blood is taken once a year by the high priest and he's in the right place and he's in the right attitude he's taken sides with God against himself he's under conviction of sin now what that's going to happen that has to happen with sinners and you should when you find an awakened sinner not lead him to a premature assumption that because he has an intellectual agreement with the plan of salvation that he can therefore just automatically assume that that he's a Christian conviction is real now there's a good reason for it God has a reason why he said that the Holy Spirit would convict of sin because his purpose you know wasn't to just give us a hell insurance policy his purpose was to save us from our sins and until we can discover what they are we're really not candidates to be saved from them I asked a group of people one time years ago about 94 present how many of you have been say our say every hand went up we were having evangelistic meeting 94 people weren't able to get one unsaved person into the meeting they'd want to have an evangelistic meeting but they weren't able to get one person in now I said how many of you have ever been lost and four hands went up and it amazed me it's the first time I don't think I'd ever asked that sequence of questions before but I went ahead and said how in the world is it that you can be saved when you've never been lost because the only kind of people that he saves are lost people he came to seeking to say that which was lost and only four of you ever remember being lost and all 94 of you claim that you're saved now either the word is wrong or your memories aren't correct or you're wrong something isn't coming out the way it ought to be because if you're truly born of God it shouldn't be too difficult for you to remember when you were lost certainly wasn't hard for me I went down to old Red Rock Holiness Camp feeding in South St. Paul Minnesota because my mother was teacher of a girls class in Heron Methodist Church and one of the girls was going to go down there and I wanted to be where she was and two weeks seemed pretty good but I had to go to services three times a day now I mean they didn't kid around you went morning and afternoon and evening and I had to change to go I had to wear a suit now I was about 12 years old 13 maybe and I had a suit a Chevyette suit you know what Chevyette is well they learned how to make Chevyette from the Iron Maiden it had spikes in it I think it's half horse hair and half barbed wire at any rate I had a Chevyette suit and I would go and sit there and I tell you I never went to sleep I never even sat down I was about a half inch off the seat and these preachers by the way there were giants in the land those days there was Paul S. Reese and Dr. John L. Brasher and Joseph Owens all great holiness preachers well I was a church member and I was all right except long about Friday or Saturday of the first week I reached the conclusion that there were two kinds of Christians the kind I was and the kind they were talking about and about Sunday night I realized that I wasn't saved but I could never tell anybody because my mother thought I was and she'd be so disappointed if she found I wasn't and about Wednesday night now I hadn't slept I'd gone home I knew I was lost I knew that if God didn't have a hell and I died he'd have to make one because if I went to heaven the way I was I'd ruin the place. A sermon preached by Paul S. Reese, Paul Reese preached and now what a glorious exaltation of Christ and then he stopped we're singing just as I am he said for the last three nights I haven't been able to sleep I've been waking up in the middle of the night because praying for somebody that came on the grounds thinking they were saved and they found out they're lost. I don't know who it is but as I prayed it seems to me I've seen in my mind a boy maybe 12 or 13 something like that thought he was here maybe somebody else but that's what I think now friends you're standing there you look down your aisle if you see somebody holding on to the bench in front of him probably that's who it is boy I dropped that branch like it was hot. As I looked I was the only one that I could see anywhere holding on to the bench in front of me well they sang the next verse and I headed for that altar in the straw and I remember when I knelt there the whole place was full and they had three quartets from three holiness colleges John Fletcher College, Asbury, and Taylor. Now John Fletcher was the least of the colleges and the bass was the least of the four singers and so I got the least man from the least college everybody else was with somebody and I'm over there this end of the altar all the way at the end and so I heard somebody say well won't somebody go over that boy over there and so you you go over there would you and this fella came over and he said what'd you come for I said to be saved he said from what I said I didn't know I had a choice from sin he says how do you know you need to be saved I said because I'm lost and he said ah that's good and I looked at him right square and I said maybe you think so but I'm not finding it so good why do you say it's good he said because the only kind of people God saves are lost people and if he can't get them lost he can't get them saved. He said now what I want you to do is I'm gonna keep people from bothering you and you just go down there and you go into your mind and memory and you ask God to recall to you every sin you've ever committed and you bring it out you pile it right here in front of you and when there aren't any more you tell God if he'll tell you what the others are that you haven't remembered yet you'll put them on the pile too and he said when you finish then I want you to start thanking God that he sent his son to die for sinners as bad as you you got some idea how bad you were by that time and I did just what he said and after a while thanking him that he died for sinners like me I found something happened you know what it was I was saying dear father thank you for saving me he bore witness with my spirit that I'd passed from death to life but I was lost and I don't believe people ever come to the assurance of forgiveness till they're lost now the next thing number three in our list is repentance I want you to see that I think perhaps we can get pretty well along with that this evening conviction is issues into something we call repentance we're commanded to repent in Ezekiel 1831 we're commanded to repent in Hosea in Joel John preached it in Luke 13 3 and 5 the spirit of God moves again upon us as the Lord Jesus words are recorded except you repent you'll perish but I found an nonsense about the subject of repentance I hear a lot of preachers talk about it or write about it and they make the way they handle it you think that repentance means being sorry for sin I've even heard him say sorry for sin sorry enough to quit well let's look at 2nd Corinthians chapter 7 I think it's worthwhile just take a look at it and see what this thing sorrow does in reference to sin 2nd Corinthians 7 beginning with verse 8 through verse 11 Paul said for though I made you sorry with a letter that's the first letter of the Corinthian I do not repent though I did repent for I perceive that the same epistle has made you sorry though it was but for a season now I rejoice not that you were made sorry but that you sorrowed to repentance for you were made sorry after a godly manner that you might receive damage by us in nothing for godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of but the sorrow of the world worketh death now we've had repentance used one way or another what's it mean well the Greek word I'm told means to change one's mind to change one's mind from something to something now I remember we were talking a few moments ago about that what is sin and I said sin is a crime sin is the committal of the will to the principle and the practice of governing one's life to please himself in other words when the scripture says all have sinned what it says is reaching the age accountability everyone everyone has chosen to govern and control their lives and please themselves now church got into a awful lot of trouble because some fellows way back when like Augustine tried to answer the question that the answer the Bible doesn't tell us why everybody sins it just tells us that everybody sins now the moment that you try to go beyond the scripture you're in metaphysics or you're in philosophy and it behooves us to stay in the scripture now the scripture does not tell us why everybody said there's a lot of theories floating around but I'm going to stick with the Word of God you asked me well why everybody said I don't know and I don't think anybody else does because God never told us why he tells us that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God and just between you and me I got enough problem with the things he has told us that I can't spend a lot of time worrying about the things he hasn't told us and he never told us why but he did tell us that reaching the age of accountability every one of us chose as the principle by which we would live I am going to do what I want to do now maybe some were far more refined and cultured than others and they didn't put their fists in the face of God say I'm going to do what I want to do they may have just said well I'm going to do what I really want to do I mean I don't care whether they're up and out or down and out the fact is the scripture says they're out all have sinned and come short of the glory of God and whether they did it with gritting teeth and set jaw and shaking fist or whether they just did it all nice and sweet and refined cultured they still did it and it's the equal treasonous crime well however whatever their attitude was when they did it so the mindset of the sinner is I am going to do what I want to do I'm gonna govern and control and rule my life now the Lord Jesus said in Luke 13 3 and 5 except you repent you're gonna perish when I was here in Bible school we were told that repentance had nothing to do with the age of grace I was taught dispensationalism now friends let me say this dispensationalism is like pregnancy there's no such thing as a little bit of it you just you get it you're just gonna grow it'll fill you and and it took hold on me and when my one of my colleagues said brother I think there is something to this thing about repentance to sinners I said now whatever you do don't try to get me mixed up in that repentance is Jewish and it has nothing to do with the age of now I told him that after I'd come back from Africa as a missionary because I've been really well I was when I finished with me I was like Lazarus when he came out of the tomb he was alive but man was he ever wrapped up was he bound and so was I and I when I found out someone dared to believe that repentance was for today you know who set me straight another dispensation was that's right by the name of Harry a Ironside then pastor of Moody Church in Chicago the American Tract Society had a contest in $1,000 a reward or a prize for the book that was chosen for that year and you know Harry Ironside wrote a book and submitted it and it was chosen and the title was except ye repent it's out of print and it ought to be reprinted and ought to be distributed and made cheap enough that you could get it everywhere because he said I take umbrage with my dispensational friends that try to tell me and tell others that repentance is not for today because the scripture makes it clear that Paul said he was in when he was in Ephesus night and day among the Jews and the Gentiles preaching repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ now I believe that when the dispensationalist took out the law of God away from preparing hearts for grace to bringing conviction and repentance they did committed a greater crime against the glorious Son of God than all of the modernist enemies put together have ever done against the Lord Jesus Christ because they disarmed the Holy Ghost with the only instruments with which he'd ever provided himself to prepare men for grace men have to be convicted of sin and they must repent because Christ said except you repent you'll perish now what does it mean to repent a change of mind what's the mindset of the sinner I'm gonna do what I want to do what's a change of mind a change from what it's been to what it should have been 180 degree change well I'm gonna do what I want to do to the Lord I'm gonna please you and serve you as long as I live that's repentance a change of mind a change of intention a change of purpose and a change of practice that has no merit with it doesn't earn anything you're not doing any works all you're doing is just bringing sinners to realize the enormity of their crime that they have lived to please themselves and gratify their appetites and now they're going to change they're not striking a deal with God they're not trying to make any kind of a bargain they're simply saying from today on the purpose of my life is to please God Charles Adams Spurgeon when he was pastor at the great Metropolitan Tabernacle preached a sermon on repentance the great sermon from the Psalms and he said repentance to be real has to be hearty and not reluctant it's done because one's discovered that God deserves to be obeyed and served it has to be voluntary and not induced or coerced it has to be something the person does because he wants to do it because God deserves it God deserves to have him obey him and serve him and then the third thing Spurgeon said of the total of six was this it has to be complete and not partial he said if a person had a thousand sins and he repented of nine hundred and ninety nine of them there was no real repentance all it was was trying to strike a bargain with God has to be complete and not partial what's it mean a committal of the will to the principle and the practice of pleasing God in everything from that time on and it's a prerequisite to forgiveness it's a prerequisite to pardon and it's what we've got to tell every sinner to whom we speak that's a candidate for grace it's discovered their lostness now this is what the scripture says you gotta repent and that means that from today on he's gonna be king and boss and sovereign you're gonna do what he tells you to do just because he deserves to be obeyed and to be served well I think that we need to understand that now we need to proclaim it I never thought I'd live long enough to see a famine for the hearing of the Word of God you know you can preach from the Bible all your life and never preach it and I believe that the lost one of the lost notes in modern preaching is at first the law was a conviction the law used to bring conviction and leading to repentance it's so important it's absolutely imperative that we should understand this we should realize this now tonight I come to conclusion and the close of the message and I want to ask you a question have you ever been lost ever discover your lostness the enormity of your crime against God have you repented have you changed your mind about who's to be boss have you purposed in your heart to please God and everything that's the nature of repentance a change of mind change of intention and a change of purpose now maybe you say well I did but there are some things that have come along you know if I were you I wouldn't go out that way I'd come this way I'd meet God bring everything up to date if anything spirit of God spoke to me about the course of wisdom is to deal at the time God shows you we always have an invitation whenever I've been here Bethany it's always been this if you're willing to confess every sin and believe that what you confess he forgives and if you're willing to surrender absolutely everything to his will and believe in what you surrender he receives and we invite you to come talk to him pray with now as I said this morning I don't give long invitations because I believe that anyone who's discovered they have a need that's got sense enough wisdom enough to deal with it at the time they find it out and so we're going to bow in prayer and if God is speaking your heart and we're going to ask you to and when the singing or music plays or whatever or right now as far as that goes we're going to ask you to just come mind God let's bow in prayer. Father in heaven we're so concerned about the world around us oh we're so concerned about people that are being misled on the most important subject in all the world they're never dying souls and we're asking that somehow thou by thy sweet marvelous grace will breathe upon us show us the importance of these phases of thine operation on sinner folk awakening them and convicting them bringing them to repentance not to be hard on them but that they might they might come to life they might come to life in Christ and should there be some here today father in this meeting surely in a company this large are those that do have need and others father who discovered that purpose to please thee and everything is been forgotten in some instances and so father of Jesus just now with our heads bowed and our eyes closed we're asking that thou will breathe upon us oh breathe upon us breath of God and let decisions be made tonight that'll be to the eternal glory of Jesus Christ we ask father in the peerless matchless name of thy lovely son our Lord Jesus