In this sermon, the preacher focuses on the message from Haggai chapter 1, verse 5, where God tells his people to consider their ways. The preacher emphasizes the tendency of people to point fingers at others while forgetting to examine themselves. He highlights the importance of judgment starting within the house of God before extending to those outside. The preacher also references the story of Hezekiah in 2 Chronicles chapter 29, emphasizing the refining process that God takes his people through to purify them. Overall, the message encourages individuals to introspect and seek revival in their own lives.

We were down in Michigan, and a revival broke out in a little community of only 250 people. How do you like it? A community of 250 people, in a church where they only had 250 or 300 people attending. And God started to work. People came in from the country, you know, a rural setting. And God started to work, and people started to come from everywhere, and they jammed 900 people in that little building. What a time. Everywhere. And Mel Johnson, the man who speaks on the radio, Christian radio stations, his program, Tips for Teens, he has that 15-minute program around the world. I don't know how many radio stations he's on. He was holding meetings 30 miles away, a friend of ours. And he heard what God was doing, and when he'd get finished his meeting, 30 miles away, he'd get in his car, and he'd drive across the countryside to come to see what was happening. Because he had heard God had moved in in such a way that we couldn't even get to preach until about 10 o'clock at night. I'd start preaching quarter to ten at night. And here comes Mel Johnson into that revival, two nights in a row. And on the second night, he'd arrive about 9.15, after his meeting was over, and drive 30 miles. He was still there in plenty of time. And he came in the second night and said, Mel, come on to the front and express to the people what you sense is happening in this community. And he said, I know it's revival. Here's what he said. He said, why, I had to park so far away from the church that I had to ask the people how to get to the church. Well, directions how to get to the church. But he said, even the cars looked revived. You know how Mel Johnson could say with his sense of humor. Even the cars looked revived, he put it that way. But he said, I knew it was revival as soon as I stepped in and heard the singing. I could tell. And the joy of God amongst God's people. He said, there's a holy hilarity about revival when God releases His people. Isn't that what Psalm 126 says? Then was our mouth filled with laughter and our, let's see, our heart filled with laughter and our tongue filled with singing. And then we speak to the heathen the rejoicing that comes when God sets His people free. That's Psalm 126. He said, I knew that. He went on to describe why he knew God was working. He could sense it as a man of many years experience. Then he made one more statement. He said something like this. He said, but of course you people know what revival is, don't you? Well, if the people down there did, I didn't in relation to what he was going to say. And he said, of course you know what revival is. He said, many women, revival is simply God's finger pointed at me. That was his definition of revival. And there I was, the evangelist in that crusade that was going on in such a way. And I never, to this day I haven't told Mel Johnson that when he made that statement, if the other people knew that, that was fine. But God seemed to say to me, there's the cue, Lou. Revival is God's finger pointed at me. And that truth started a gel in my heart. And if you've ever heard anything that has come out of Saskatoon, and in the revival in 1971, that statement, God's finger pointed at me, came from that occasion that I've just told you about. That's where it was born. I haven't told Mel Johnson, I was just today saying I ought to feel guilty that I haven't let him know how God has used that one little expression to go around the world and bless so many hearts and zero the truth right into the individual. Revival, God's finger pointed at me, and Brother came tonight to express it even before this message. That's what it's all about, revival, God's finger pointed at me. Revival is the opening of your heart and your life to Almighty God. A pastor in western Michigan said these words. He said, revival is like lifting the lid off of a person's heart and letting God look in and you see what God sees. A preacher in western Canada out on the west coast, he said, can it be that God meant even me? Revival is God's finger pointed at me and God broke the heart of that pastor and in his testimony he said, I couldn't believe it. He said, can it be that God meant even me? Oh, how proud we can get even as clergymen. He said, God was speaking even to me. Haggai chapter 1 verse 5, don't turn, I'll have you turn to another scripture, but simply these words. Now therefore, thus saith the Lord of hosts. God speaking from heaven, what does he say? Consider your ways. Three words, consider your ways. Oh, isn't it interesting to point a finger at everybody else? Ralph said it the other night, oh how we love to point a finger at somebody else because when we do, he says we forget about something, that when we do, there are one, two, three pointing right back to ourselves. We always get one out there, but there are three coming back, right? So remember when you point your finger out, three are coming right back to you. The message of God is consider your ways. I believe we've just about come to a place in this crusade where God would have you and me as individuals shut ourselves in with God and forget about what everybody else is doing and how everybody else is acting and ask God, Lord Jesus, would you dare speak to me and let revival be your finger pointed right at me and show me what you find. 2 Chronicles, in the Old Testament, chapter 29. 2 Chronicles, chapter 29. I love this community because you'll love the word of God. I love to give God's word because I believe there's power in the word of God. 2 Chronicles, chapter 29. Hezekiah, verse 1. Hezekiah began to reign when he was five and twenty years old. Twenty-five years old, Hezekiah began to reign. And he reigned nine and twenty years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Abijah, the daughter of Zechariah. And Hezekiah did that which was right in the sight of God. Good way for a king to start. According to all that David, his father, has done. He, in the first year of his reign, in the very first month, the very first year, the very first month, Hezekiah the king, it says, he opened the doors of the house of the Lord and he repaired them. And he brought in the priests and the Levites and gathered them together in these streets and said unto them, hear me, ye Levites, sanctify now yourselves. Sanctify the house of the Lord God of your fathers and carry forth the filthiness out of the holy place. Now I want to ask you and ask myself anew and afresh. My Bible tells me in the book of 2 Corinthians that my body is the temple of the Holy Ghost. My body is the temple of God. And I believe in these days God is saying that we need to act even like Hezekiah, that we should go in and repair the doors of the temple of our lives before God and we should carry out of our lives all filthiness out of that place, the holy place. Your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, if you're a Christian. Know ye not, says Paul, don't go without knowing, don't live without the concept overriding your life, that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you and you have that of God. You are not your own. You are bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body, this temple of the Holy Ghost, and glorify God wherein your spirit, which are God, the body and the spirit, belonging to God. Christian out in western Canada and Surrey, B.C. said, we've been praying, Lord, send a revival to our church. She said, we have found out that it is not our church that needs revival, it is we. It is we. The message of revival, men and women, people say, what is revival? I tell you, the message of revival is not an easy one. It's a message that cuts, it burns, lacerates, it probes, and it wounds. But if it wounds, remember the Bible says, blessed are the wounds of a friend, faithful are the wounds of a friend. The message of revival is like the surgical operation. You need surgery. And without that surgery, you would die. And the message of revival is that surgical operation. It's the laceration of the heart, without which the spiritual power of our life ebbs away. Revival, men and women, begins in judgment. It has always been so. People think of revival as joy and ecstasy, and it's wonderful. Think of that. That may be the ultimate result, but that's not where revival begins. Oh, no. Revival implies heart-searching condemnation on all inbred sins. Revival begins with a transformation in my heart, the choir sang in my heart, and that's where it begins. Let's lay the level. Let's drop the plumb line. Let's test the balances of our life tonight. Let's see something. Let's see that when God Almighty brings revival, He'll find me right where I live. He'll find you right where you live. He'll correct the falseness of our lives, and then He will sit in judgment on all of our compromise and all of our backslidden heart and our backsliding our heart. He will sit in judgment on it and point it to us. He said that represents a backslidden heart. Oh, that we should have it in our day. Follow me with your Bible to Psalm 37, and let us follow some tremendous scripture along this theme. In Psalm 37, verse 28, Psalm 37, verse 28, For the Lord loveth judgment, and forsaketh not his saints. They are preserved forever, but the seed of the wicked shall be cut off. I draw your attention to that statement, For the Lord loveth judgment. We never think of a God who loves judgment. I said to the students at the Bible College this morning, God is primarily not a God of judgment. He's God of love. He's a God of blessing. He's concerned about blessing us. And now I read tonight in the scripture, For the Lord loveth judgment. Tremendous truth. What is it? He forsakes not his saints. What kind of a judgment is it that God loves? He loves to judge His people. And He's saying to you and me tonight that if I can judge my people, that's the way for me not to forsake my saints. When I judge them, this is the way to bring them to the operating table, as it were, to the surgery table, to cut away those areas that are not right, because I love them and I don't want to forsake them, and therefore I bring them to judgment. He loves to bring His people to judgment for the cleansing and the purifying and the cutting away of the draught that keeps them from knowing Him in His fullness. God who loves judgment and forsakes not His saints. They are preserved forever. Turn to Isaiah 61. We see the context in Isaiah 61, verse 8. Again the statement, Isaiah 61, verse 8. Isaiah 61, verse 8. For I, the Lord, love judgment. There it is again. I, the Lord, love judgment. I hate robbery for burnt offerings, and I will direct their work in truth. You see the kind of judgment God likes? He likes the kind of judgment that brings us to truth, to direct our works into truth, the judgment that purifies us. And I will make an everlasting covenant with them when I can lead my people into truth, when I can judge them. I'd love to do it, because then I can make an everlasting covenant with them. And their seed shall be known among the Gentiles, and their offspring among the people. All that see them shall acknowledge them. You see what judgment will do for God's people? That they are the seed which the Lord has blessed. This has the connotation of God dealing with Israel, but it's a tremendous physical principle. A God who loves to judge His people because He wants to reveal Himself to them. He wants them to walk in uprightness of heart, that He can keep His covenant with them, and He can let the world know that they are His people. Zechariah chapter 14. Zechariah chapter 14, the next last book of the Old Testament. Zechariah chapter 14, and verse 20. Zechariah chapter 14, verse 20. In that day, Zechariah 14, verse 20, in that day shall there be upon the bells of the horses holiness unto the Lord, and the pots of the Lord's house shall be like the bowls before the altar. Yea, every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah shall be holiness unto the Lord of hosts, and all they that sacrifice shall come and take of them and see therein. And in that day there shall be no more the Canaanite in the house of the Lord of hosts. The Canaanite is the enemy of Israel. The Canaanite represents the evil one, and God says there shall no more be the Canaanite in the house of the Lord of hosts. God again purifying His people, and on the bells of the horses holiness unto the Lord, and on the pots holiness unto the Lord. Our God. Turn to Malachi, the next book. Chapter 3, verse 2. Malachi chapter 3, verse 2. But who may abide the day of His coming, and who shall stand when He appeareth? For He, God, is like a refiner's fire. God is like a refiner's fire, and like fuller soap. We think about God like that? And He shall sit as a refiner, and a purifier of silver, and He shall purify whom? The sons of Levi, the priests as it were, those in charge. Oh, that God should find me as a man of the word of God, one that should be pure, that I shall let God be the refiner's fire in my life, and He shall purge them as gold and silver. Put them through the fire for the purging and the cleansing. Why? In order that they may offer unto the Lord an offering of a lot of busy works. No. That I may offer unto the Lord a lot of activity for God. That I may offer unto the Lord what? An offering in righteousness. When God looks at my life, He wants coming from my life an offering in righteousness. I am ready and willing to allow God, the refiner, to put my life through the fire, through the purging, through the cleansing, that the dross should be burned away. And I, as a man of the word of God, giving the word to God's people, that He should start in my heart before I ask Him to start in your heart. A God of judgment and a God of purity in the lives of His people. 1 Peter chapter 4. Let's take it into the New Testament. 1 Peter chapter 4. That's the book of Hebrews, James, and 1 Peter chapter 4. The words of the Apostle Peter. 1 Peter chapter 4, verse 17. 1 Peter 4, 17. For the time has come. What time is it? What time is it in Winkler, Manitoba? For the time has come that judgment must begin at the house of God. Judgment must begin at the house of God. And if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear? Judgment must begin at the house of God. It's a God who loves judgment to purify His people and cleanse His people to reveal Himself to His people that they can reveal God to the world. But it first starts in the house of God and then to the sinner on the outside. 1 John. We turn from 2 Peter to 1 John. Chapter 1, verse 5. 1 John, chapter 1, verse 5. This then is the message which we have heard of Him and declare unto you that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. God is light. It doesn't say He's love. It says He's light. In Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with God, if you and I in this meeting tonight say, I have fellowship with God, you have fellowship with God, the Word of God says, we walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth. But if we walk in the light as God is in the light, we have fellowship one with another and the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanseth us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. But if we confess our sins, there is an answer for our sin problem. He is faithful. He is just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His Word is not in us. My little children, says the beloved John, these things write I unto you that you sin not. Don't say you have to sin. But He says, if a man sins, he has an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ. Don't live in a mentality saying, I have to sin. I don't need to sin. But if I sin, thank God, there is cleansing and there is forgiveness. My heart attitude ought to be, O Lord, that I do not presuppose sin. That I don't plan on sinning. That's the heart that's pure before God. It's the heart that does not pre-plan sinning. But because of the flesh and the weakness of this old flesh that hangs on us, there come those times that in a moment of weakness, in a moment of temptation, we might yield. Thank God that the Word of God says, my little children, I write that you sin not, but if any man sins, he has an advocate. My heart's desire is that I should not sin. And that's the heart that's pure with God. A heart that does not pre-plan sinning. What am I saying to you? If we walk in the light, God is light. What's the issue of revival? The issue of revival is whether I'm willing and ready to push my life into the light and out of the darkness. The issue is, God says to me, it's a painful thing, but God's asking us in Winkler, Manitoba, when we say we need a revival in Winkler, we need a revival. What are we saying? God is saying to you and to me as individuals, am I as an individual? Are you as an individual ready and willing to take your life and push it out of any dark areas and push it into the light of the holiness of God? Duncan Campbell, the man of the Hebrides revival, said he used to go out and hold meetings and take a group of young people to sing a song in the meetings. And one night coming back from one of those meetings, the car broke down. The car broke down. There was no street light and he didn't know what to do. He had no flashlight, couldn't get in the motor. There he was over there in the Hebrides and no way to get that car fixed. There as he looked, he was driving right along the bay and in the days of the world war and there was a minesweeper coming through the bay to clear the bay of any mines that the enemy might plant there. And the minesweeper had a big light on it and the light was beaming onto the shore. And Duncan Campbell, there he was with his automobile stuck and three or four young people in the car and I guess maybe he took them along because he knew the kind of car he had. He might need them. Well, there they were. He couldn't fix the motor because he had no light to see inside. But when he saw that minesweeper and the minesweeper saw, the man running the minesweeper saw Duncan Campbell not knowing who he was but saw this car stuck. He held that light steady instead of moving it on. He held it fixed right there at that one spot. He was saying to Duncan Campbell, in other words, if you could only get that car up into the light. I can't move my light anymore but there it is. I want to stop and keep it right there. If you could only get your car up into the light. And Duncan Campbell seeing that big spotlight coming ashore, he unloaded those young people and he said, go on out and push. And they pushed and they pushed and they pushed till they got the car in the light. And when the light shone into that motor they were able to find the shorted wire and on they went. Don't you think Duncan Campbell had an illustration in his sermon that next Sunday morning? Oh, what was the illustration? We had no help until we were willing to push the car into the light. We could do nothing until we were willing to push the car into the light and ready to do it. And God is saying that to you and to me. And you and I can be spectators here, bystanders at the working of God in Winkler, Manitoba in these days. We can watch and say, isn't it wonderful what God is doing there and what God is doing there. And now God is speaking to that one and God is touching that one and all the time because we are unwilling individually to recognize that revival is God's finger point at me and willing to push my light into the light. What's light? God is light. Walk in the light as He is in the light and what will happen, we'll know our need for the cleansing of the blood to be applied to our heart, the blood to be applied to our heart, the cleansing from sin and then we have fellowship one with another. That's what's happening in the ladies' meetings today. That's what was happening in the men's meeting yesterday. That's what's happening when we all see ourselves in the light of God and we quit comparing ourselves by everybody else round about us and we say, I'm as good as the average Christian. Where did you get that standard? Walk in the light as God's in the light. We get our eyes off of each other and we close ourselves in to a holy God and as the light reveals the dark areas of our life, we're willing to do something about them. Tremendous truth. But what is this all about? The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 5.10, for we must all appear at the judgment seat of Christ that everyone may receive the things done in His body according to that He hath done whether good or bad. What am I saying? You know it, men and women, in Winkler, Manitoba. You folks know the Word of God so thoroughly and you know the fact that there are two judgments waiting us. There's a judgment called the great white throne judgment. That's the judgment when any man and any woman is not a Christian, he's going to have to face the great white throne judgment and he's going to hear the condemnation of Jesus when He says, Depart from me, ye cursed into everlasting flame. I never knew you. That's the judgment for the unconverted man. But the Bible says there's another judgment. There are other judgments as well, but I point you to your attention to the judgment seat of Jesus Christ and that's what is recorded in 2 Corinthians 5.10. We must all, we as God's people, must all appear at that judgment seat of Christ that everyone of us shall give an account of the deeds done in our body not our intentions, not what we are planning on doing, but what we have accomplished, done in our body according to that we have done, whether good or bad, the judgment seat of Christ. I have a question to ask you tonight. Would you like to stand there tonight? Would you like to stand at the judgment seat of Christ tonight? Would I like to stand at the judgment seat of Christ tonight? Would I like to put my head on the pillow this night in Winkler, Manitoba and never wake up to face the light of another day? Would I be pleased? Would I be happy to do so? Would I lie on my bed and say, even so, Lord, I am ready, even so, come, Lord Jesus, or if you want to take me, Lord, I am ready. Where am I going? There is a judgment seat. In that time, everything done in my body, whether good or bad, is going to be revealed. I tell you, my friend, it is a frightening thing to think about. God the righteous judge judging his people. What is this revival emphasis all about? I will tell you, men and women, I believe that the blessing of these days is this is God's opportunity, the knocking at the door of our hearts. He is saying, can't I bring you to judgment now? Can't I bring you into the light right now? Can't I bring you to where you deal with the issues of your heart right now? Can't we get some things under the blood of Jesus Christ right now? Can't we get them settled right now so you don't have to face these things at the judgment seat? Is God saying to us tonight, revival is judgment coming early, getting my sins under the blood lest I have to face those sins in the face of Jesus the righteous judge at the judgment seat? Men and women, that is going to be a tragedy painful day. And if that's a painful day, let us be willing to go through the pain today. Whatever the pain to be right with God, is nothing compared to the pain that we'll have to go through in that day because we weren't willing to go through the pain right now. Can you get it? Oh, some people say, I don't like revival meetings. I'll tell you, my flesh doesn't like it. Your flesh doesn't like it. You don't like it when God's fingers pointed at you. I don't like it when God's fingers point at me because my flesh doesn't want to be dealt with. It doesn't want to give up. It doesn't want sin to be called sin. It wants room to operate. The Bible says, make no provision for your flesh to fulfill the lust and the desires thereof. It wants to operate. The housewife in revival in a hundred mile house in a hundred miles Would you pray, Lord, just go right through me? The word thoroughly could be the same word as go through me. Go right through me, O God. Would you pray that? Would you say with a psalmist, order my steps, God, in Thy Word. Get me right into Your Word. Put my steps into Your Word. And let not any iniquity have dominion over me. Don't let any iniquity have dominion over me. I'm giving no place for sin to have room in my life. O God, order my steps in Your Word and I'll walk in it. Would you pray with a psalmist when he said, I said, Lord, be merciful to me. You see, that's judgment. Lord, I need mercy. Be merciful to me. Heal my soul, he prayed, for I have sinned against Thee. Heal my soul. In my heart, they sang. Would you say, Lord, heal my soul tonight? The outward looks all right, but I need healing in the soul. Jewel White said it so beautifully in a prayer. She didn't know I heard her pray. And when she got done praying, I jotted it down. She prayed, thank you, God, for exposing our hearts to ourselves. Thank you, God, for exposing our hearts to ourselves. Ye people, says the psalmist, pour out your hearts before him. In my heart, let me be a Christian. In my heart, let me love. In my heart, let me be like Jesus. And the psalmist said, pour out your hearts to God. That's what we need in Winkler, Manitoba. Pour out our hearts to God. That's the prayer of the psalmist in Psalm 139, 23, and 24. When he dared pray, search me, O God, and know my heart. Would you pray that tonight? That's when Revival's God's finger pointed at me. That's when I don't care about anybody else around. O God, search me and know my heart. Know my heart tonight, O God, know it. Would you pray it? And see, O God, if there's any wicked way in me. Anyone, lay your finger on it, show it to me. Bring it up that I can deal with it. I want to be clean. And lead me in the path of... Oh, you need to pray that. You need to ask God to search your heart. Don't you try to do it yourself? Because the Bible says the heart is deceitful. And above all things, desperately wicked. And who can know it? But I, the Lord, search the heart. And I try the reins of man. I try the heart to know what is in the man. To give every man according as his works. God says, I know it and I can try it. He didn't say, you search your own heart. Oh, men and women, don't you go around trying to dig in your own heart and say, now what is it, what is it? You say, Lord, You show me. You search me. You search me, O God. You do it. God is the only one that can go on the inside, you know? Nobody else can get through the five senses, but God can. That's why He's the only one that can search our heart. He doesn't have to worry about five senses. He can go right into the interior. And that's where He abides with you in your relationship, in the heart. Revival is God's finger pointing at the motives of my heart. The motives. O God, Thou knowest my foolishness and my sins are not hid from Thee. Examine me, O Lord. Prove me. Try the reins of my heart. The reins of my heart. Try them. Put them in the furnace. The motives of my heart. Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man. Who's the blessed man? Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputes not iniquity and in whose spirit, in his heart, in the inner man, in his spirit there is no guile. Blessed is the man who in his spirit there is no guile. Oh, what did Jesus say about Nathanael? Jesus made a profound statement. I don't know why He had to take the time to say it. Jesus, in the book of John, chapter 1, verse 47, He said about Nathanael, an Israelite indeed in whom there is no guile, no two-facedness, no guile, pure in the heart and in the life. Malachi 2.15 says, Therefore take heed unto your spirit. Take heed unto your spirit. Not only your actions, but the inner man, your spirit. And that is in Malachi 2.15. You know what Malachi 2.16 says? The very next verse, it says, Therefore take heed unto your spirit. God Almighty in two verses says, Take heed unto your spirit. One verse right after another. God would show us. Psalmist David says, Behold, God desires truth in the inward parts and in the hidden part. Thou shalt make me to know your wisdom. Create in me a clean heart. In my heart, they sang. O God, renew a right spirit within me. There's where God wants to meet you. The sacrifice of God or a broken spirit. And a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. All the ways of man are clean in his own eyes, but God tries and weighs the spirits. He puts the spirit on a scale and He weighs the spirits. For what you are in your heart, He weighs them. He puts them on a scale. Too much this way, not enough that way. He weighs them. He takes time. The Bible says, God ponders your heart. He doesn't think wisely about it. He takes time to think about your heart and studies it. The refiner's fire sat by a fire of sevenfold heat as he watched the precious ore. And closer he bent with a searching gaze as he heated it more and more. He knew he had ore that could stand the test. And he wanted the finest gold to mold as a crown for the king to wear, set with gems with a price untold. So he laid our gold in the burning fire, though we fain would have him say, Nay, nay, we don't want to go in the fire. And he watched the dross that we had not seen. He saw it as it melted and passed away. And the gold grew brighter and yet more bright. But our eyes were so dim with tears because it was so painful. We saw but the fire, not the master's hand. And we questioned with anxious tears. Yet our gold shone out with a richer glow as it mirrored a form above that bent all the fire though unseen by us with a look of ineffable love. So he waited there with a watchful eye, with a love that is strong and sure, and his gold did not suffer a bit more heat than was needed to make him pure. He wouldn't let you have a bit more heat than you need to make you pure. I thank God, many women, when you say out of the honesty of your heart, Oh God, point your finger at me. Let me get my eyes off of anybody else and point your finger at me. Search me, oh God. I thank God that he's so good to us that he doesn't show us everything all at once. Aren't you? We can't take it. We couldn't take it. But little by little, he doesn't let you have any more fire than the gold can stand to be purified. Little by little, he opens and he reveals that we should be clean. As long as your heart attitude is, Oh God, keep searching me, keep trying me, and knowing my heart. He that speaketh the truth in his heart is a great statement in Psalm 15. What is that statement about? The man who is going to go into the Holy of Holies with God in Psalm 15. Who is he? The man who speaks the truth in his heart. That's what the choir is singing, In my heart. The truth in my heart. Truth is the word for mental honesty and total sincerity. Truth in my heart that my outward life is an exemplification of the inward reality of my heart. That God would bring our heart and our outward experience together. Man looks on the outward appearance. That's true, he does. Don't forget it. He sees the outward. God looks on the heart. Oh, that God would bring the two together tonight. 1 Chronicles 16, way back in the Old Testament. Look at it. 1 Chronicles 16. It says something interesting about Asa. 1 Chronicles 16. What does it say about Asa? 1 Chronicles 16, verse 9. For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth. The eyes of the Lord go to show himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart, whose heart is perfect toward him. The eyes of the Lord go to and fro. He wants to show himself strong to the man whose heart is perfect toward him. What does it say? Herein thou hast done foolishly. Therefore from henceforth thou shalt have wars. God is saying to you and me that if we'll not walk before God in a perfect heart, it doesn't mean that we don't sin. It doesn't mean there don't come those temptations that we've given and yield. That's not what it means. It means a hard attitude that doesn't premeditate sin, that wants to be holy. That's the perfect heart. And here, the prophet of God says, Herein hast thou done foolishly. God is waiting and his eyes go to and fro throughout the land to show himself strong to the man who wants to walk with a perfect heart. The next statement is, Herein hast thou done foolishly. I wonder if the prophet of God isn't saying if you're not willing to be that kind of a man you're acting foolishly. And then it says, Therefore from henceforth thou shalt have wars. You're bringing trouble upon yourself because you won't walk with a perfect heart. You're acting foolishly and you're bringing wars from henceforth. You're bringing it on yourself. Now look it. Then Asa was wrought with the seer. Then he got mad. The prophet of God was talking to him as well as talking to us tonight. Then he got mad with the seer and he put him in a prison house. Isn't that interesting? Asa took the man who spoke the message of God and because it was so truthful and so plain and straightforward he put him in the prison. Oh how we fight truth. Oh how we rebel from truth. Oh how we try to even criticize so we don't have to face truth. Oh how we want to dodge truth. And here's the man using his authority as King Asa could take this man who pointed his finger right in his face and told him what God wanted him to hear. He said if that's the way you're going to talk to me I'll put you in prison. Okay. So he did. It says Asa was wrought with the seer and put him in prison in the prison house in verse 10. For he was in a rage with him because of this thing. Mad at the prophet of God because he told him the truth. And Asa oppressed some of the people at the same time. He took his vengeance out even on some of the people. And behold the acts of Asa first and last lo they are written in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel. What are they? Asa in the thirty and ninth year of his reign was diseased in his feet. Uh oh. He's got problems with his feet. Diseased in his feet. Until his disease was exceeding great. Yet in his disease he sought not the Lord but to the physicians and to the doctors. In his disease he still wouldn't say God are you trying to speak to me? Even in his disease he wouldn't say God what that prophet was saying and I wouldn't listen and I put him in prison. Why are you still saying the same thing? God I'm ready to listen. He wouldn't listen. How much God has to put us through before he gets our attention. Couldn't get Asa's attention. And Asa slept in verse 13 with his father. He died in the one and fortieth year of his reign and they buried him in his own sepulchers which he had made for himself in the city. He prepared for death but didn't know much about life did he? He got all the sepulchers. They were ready. They were all prepared but he wouldn't face God's truth and they made that in the city of David and they laid him in the bed which was filled with what? Sweet odors and diverse kinds of spices prepared by the apothecary's art. Good they had odors there because he had bad feet. He had disease in the feet so they probably had an odor about him and even had it that they had this place all fixed up there was going to be perfume in his casket right? But he still didn't deal with God. Oh how people want to die how they want to be buried and they want a preacher to say some nice things about them huh? Oh we want that preacher to say the right things that our family will think that people will think we were somebody in the community and we were really good people and yet down in our heart we know things are not right with God we don't want to hear the message of God we don't want to own up to truth we don't want to face the truth we want to turn the message of God off we want to turn the truth off just like King Asa. But let's have a nice funeral even though we go to the grave with the sickness of our soul that we carry with us and they made a very great burning for him Isaiah chapter 1 verse 5 tells us that there we are from the head to the sole of the feet we're sick with putrefying sores and they haven't been bound up and mollified with ointment what a condition of Israel and Sodom and all of that area they were just like a body with sores from top to bottom right to the feet from the head to the feet and there was no ointment on the sores Isaiah chapter 1 God tells his people he says don't bring your offerings anymore don't bring your sacrifice anymore don't say your prayers anymore he said when you fold your hands to pray I will not hear I will not hear because you are worshipping me in one breath but you're just sick all over I wonder if God says that to us tonight we go through the form of religion and ritualism but inside our heart in the heart there's a sickness that God says will you be honest enough to deal with oh that we should know it tonight God wants his people pure and I close with psalm 101 psalm 101 verse 1 psalm 101 verse 1 look at it psalm 101 verse 1 I will sing of mercy and I will sing of judgment isn't that interesting I will sing of David what are you singing of I will sing of what's that word men and women mercy and I will sing of what judgment judgment David was thrilled for judgment I will sing of judgment he say oh God put me through the sieve who is this man David the man called the man after God's own heart the man who committed adultery and virtual murder to cover it and yet the Bible refers to this man even in that element of sinfulness the Bible calls him the man after God's own heart my Christian friends your experience with God has nothing to do with the depths of sin in which you have been involved because in the sight of God there is no such thing as mortal and venial sin God Almighty makes no difference between one sin and another sin is sin and God is looking for uprightness of heart and God doesn't categorize sin because David was involved in the depths of the sin of adultery and murder many women we can be involved tonight in the sin of envy and jealousy and strife and backbiting and a tongue that is hurting our brothers and sisters in the church of Jesus Christ and a failure to bear one another's burdens and all of the lovelessness even as the choir sang let me love in my heart and we're not doing it it's sin before God would you say with me David oh God I love I will sing of mercy and I will sing of judgment I love the fact that the blood was shed and I can go to be cleansed and it can be a daily way of life and I can walk in the light as God is in the light and let the blood of Jesus Christ keep on cleansing me from all sin and I can sing of judgment I thank you God for the ministry of these days that is bringing your judgment on my sin that I should see myself and deal with sin tonight I sing of judgment thank God for revival that is judgment on my sin unto thee oh Lord will I sing will you say thank God Lord that you are putting your finger on my heart tonight thank you God for the judgment that you are putting on my soul thank you Lord I become so careless and callous and I wasn't even aware of what's been going on in my heart it's been so long ago and I've been so callous my ears have become dull of hearing and I haven't heard your voice God thank you I'll sing of the judgment you're bringing to my heart tonight and I'll sing of your mercy for the forgiveness for that soul and then he says unto thee will I sing now look at it I will behave myself wisely in a perfect way oh when will thou come unto me I will walk within my house with a perfect heart David says I want my children to see it he said I want my relatives to see it I'll walk right there in my house with a perfect heart in my heart the choir sang tonight you're seen in your house and they'll be the first ones to notice it my friend your wife will know that you're walking with God your husband will know ma'am that you're walking with God your children will sense the glory of God in the house when you're willing to say God bring judgment to my soul God bring your mercy to my soul God I need forgiveness oh God let me never get away from a sensitivity about the sin of my life that day by day I'll say search me and day by day say Lord I want to walk in the light that the blood of Christ can keep cleansing your family will then know the glory of God as they see you walking in a perfect way that doesn't mean that your actions are perfect it means they pick up the heart that is perfect toward God in intention David goes on to say and I will set no wicked thing before my eyes and some of the things some of us watch on television would have to be changed to obey that scripture verse five him that hath a high look and a proud heart will not I suffer you're going to walk with a perfect way in your house before God my friend God is saying in this very same psalm you've got to humble yourself because God says I will not suffer the man with a high look and a proud heart I will not suffer him and verse six mine eyes shall be upon the faithful of the land that they may dwell with me he that walketh in a perfect way