In this sermon, the speaker discusses the concept of the sinful human nature and how it can be overcome through the power of God. He shares a story of a young man who was burdened by his sins and transferred them to the Lord, seeking guidance on how to live a righteous life. The speaker emphasizes that although God's plan is for our sinful nature to be put to death in Christ, it is up to us to accept this position of death and allow the Holy Spirit to empower us to live righteously. He also highlights the importance of maintaining fellowship with God and standing true to Him regardless of future circumstances.

I want to thank the committee this morning for inviting me here. I thank the church for putting in my room a lovely basket of fruit which I've enjoyed very much. I thank the church for this wonderful corsage which adorns me this morning. And I praise the Lord for all the messages that I've heard these days and for the privilege of sitting at the feet of the Lord's service. Dear Lord, we lift our hearts to Thee and praise and gratitude this morning for the good hand of our God upon us. Lord, we praise Thee for Your marvelous patience through these years. We're just amazed. We don't know how You've ever put up with us, all the sins that have been forgiven. Lord, we thank You for this good day. We pray just now that You glorify Yourself in this hour while we pray in Jesus' name. Those of you who were here the last time I spoke, I remember that I had a Chinese illustration which the Lord put into my mind showing how black people, these condemned people who are in the hands of the devil, who have the nature of sin just because they're human beings, come to the cross of Christ. And when they come and take refuge in Christ's death, God charges all the sin of that person and everything that that person is that's unlike holy God to Jesus Christ. And he charges the death of his son to that person. And he sees that person as if they had been put to death, as if they had suffered hell for their sin. And the punishment of his son is all the punishment that's necessary. For that person's sin and everything they are that's unlike holy God. And because of that, the Holy Spirit comes into their hearts. They stand before God in the presence, in the clothed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. And they stand before God just as righteous as Jesus Christ is righteous. They are accepted in the beloved. And the Holy Spirit comes into their hearts and they are regenerated. Not only have a position of righteousness in the sight of God, but the life of God. And if you could, if you could describe in figures, they have a million times more than Adam and Eve ever lost. Adam and Eve were never even born the first time. Well, I praise the Lord I was born the first time, 84 years ago today. And I thank him that I was born the second time, 68 years ago in September. If I hadn't have been born the second time, I never would have known you. But I am born into the, I was born into the family of God with the life of God in me. And my body became the dwelling place of the creator of the universe. To live down here in this world and just move around. For the Holy Spirit to express his blessed son through my personality. The Bible calls me the temple of the Holy Spirit. I like to think of myself this kind, as being a little, little trailer temple. I move around so much. But I'm just moving around here in this world. For the Lord Jesus Christ to express himself through. I was over in Little Rock at the first church week before last for a Christian life conference where the Lord worked glories in the hearts of so many people. And one man looked at me at the close of the service, we were, when we were just talking and he said, Miss Bessie, you live so close to the Lord, you must just long to go on to the Lord and be with him. I said, not up there. I said, heaven can wait. I'm not a bit homesick for heaven. I'm having heaven down here. When the Lord doesn't break my heart over something, I wish he broke it a lot more. Because when he breaks my heart, something happens. But that can wait. And I want to live down here just as long as it pleases the Lord to let me stay down here. To share with people a little bit of what the Lord has done to me. What he's taught me in this book. The Lord has been so specially good to me. He's let me sit at the feet of some of the world's greatest Bible teachers. Some of the world's greatest soul winners. Dr. R.A. Powery. Dr. E.Y. Mullin. Dr. A.T. Robeson in our Southern Seminary. The old men of God back yonder when men who'd walked with God trained other preachers how to preach. Other young men how to preach. Who'd had experience in life. Dr. Campbell. Some of the glorious professors that used to be at the Biblical Seminary in New York. Dr. Reese. Paul Reese. Ms. Marie Munson. Dr. Trumbull. And I just couldn't name the others. Ms. Marie Munson. Dr. Culpepper out in China. And many other saints. And then he's let me get into situations where I was forced to put into practice what those people had taught me. And friends, I found it worked. I just found it worked. And I want to live just as long as I can to tell other people about it. He gave me a verse some time ago. Take me not hence until I have declared thy faithfulness to coming generations. And when it just broke my heart to leave China and nearly 42 years had been so short. And the work that God had called me to was over. And I was still carrying 15 hours of work a day. I didn't know I was an old woman. Now, I didn't open my mouth because I know the board has nothing else to do but to have to have a retiring age or limit. But I just never dreamed that anything in this life could ever touch me. I like giving up my work that the Lord had known wasn't my work. Giving up the place that the Lord had put me in over there from expressing himself through me. And the Lord just comforted my heart. By just putting it into my heart. And just called me just as definitely as he ever called me to China. The only thing that ever kept me over there. The only thing that took me there in the first place was I knew I was called to God. And that certainly was the only thing kept me over there after I got there. It's easy to go to the States. But he called me just as definitely to come back home and do what I could. Just add my bit. What he could do through me to help bring a reviving to Baptist Church. And friends, you know I'm not tying to go to heaven. If I died, it would be the best part of my life. I'm just hoping to stay down here and become. Well, we were talking. Go back now to what I was saying. We brought those dead people to that cross. And you remember those black dead people to that cross and they entered into Christ. And you remember I put that Chinese black man into two red men. And I put them up there on the board. And I meant to continue with that board because I thought I was speaking tonight. To talk about those people up there that those red people, those black, those red people. They passed with the cross and they were in Christ. And they were God's children. And they were saints. And they were born from above. And they were, they were the Lord's disciples. And they, and they positioned before God. They were washed whiter than snow. And God had even forgotten they ever sinned. And they had eternal life. And they were empowered by God to be what he, to live for him down here in this world. And the Holy Spirit had come into their heart. And God's standard for those people was, that we put up there, that they were to be holy. They were to be holy. God's people are not to act like the world. The devil crowd are in that broad road going to heaven. God's people are walking with him in that narrow road. But he leaves us down here among these people that are in that broad road in order to be different. And show them we're going in a different direction. We do not belong to this world. We are not a part of it. And we're, we're, we're citizens of heaven, temporarily living down here in this world. And all that we have to do with these people down here in this world, this world that are going to the devil's crowd, is just to be a witness to them. And just to show them there's a better way. And do it in every way we can. By speaking, by telephoning, by showing them our lives, by our testimony of what the Lord means to us. And do you remember what that young Indian official said to Dr. Billy Graham out in India when Dr. Graham asked him why he was not a Christian? He said, show me one. And we're to show these people the difference. That's what we're down here for. And God's purpose is that we are to be holy. Why? Why? Why? His standard for every person who's been retrieved into his family and whom he lives is that they are to be holy. Because holy God will never fellowship with anything that comes from the devil. Holy God will never fellowship with sin. The Holy Spirit is always grieved by sin. And friends, the older I live, the more I realize how sensitive the Holy Spirit is. The essence of all holiness. How could he be comfortable in the presence of anything that comes from the devil? And he's not comfortable. He's grieved back in a corner. There are hearts of mine. I think a personal illustration will show you how something of how the Holy Spirit is grieved. I've always loved to keep house. And I just love to do anything about housekeeping. Now, my mother taught her four daughters to do everything in the world that needed to be done around the home. But as a sacrifice, I always had to make, because I never did have time to keep house in China. I couldn't have gotten a drop of water out of the well if the house had been on fire. Pulled up with a windlass and a big tub about that big. And whoever had running water, the cook, he would get out in the wash tub outside and dipped it out and ran to the tub with it before it got cold. Ran into the house with it. Well, I came home, and I was able to keep house before I wrote a book. If you ever want to have any peace, don't ever write a book, because there's too many people who'll get your name. And then you'll have so much mail and so many telephones and come here and go there. And while you appreciate it, you don't have much rest left. I don't want any. I'm resting when I get to heaven. But I did enjoy it when I first got home. Then I had time to cook. But I hadn't been cooking very much, hadn't been accustomed to an electric stove, until a young neighbor and his wife, a pastor about two miles from the country church, he graduated Southwestern, had a Texas preacher and his wife and 12-year-old son come out to spend a week with him. And my sister was away from home that week. And so I thought, well, I must have Brother Carlos's friend come down and have a little come down for lunch with us one day. Well, I was just sure that it's not going to get frustrating, because long ago I've learned that word didn't belong in any Christian's vocabulary. And I just start in time, and so I can do what I do commonly and not give the devil a chance to make me get frustrated. I did a little praying that morning, but I knew that afternoon that I'd have time from a regular quiet hour after they were gone. And in the summertime, we had lots of flowers. I made bouquets and fresh flowers and put them everywhere where they ought to be. And my mother always taught her daughters, now when the preacher comes, he's the Lord's servant, and we're going to serve the very best for him. He's the Lord's servant. And I got out a pretty Chinese embroidered linen tablecloth and put on the table. And I got out the best china and the silver and the pretty crystal and had everything looking pretty. And I was just getting along fine with my dinner, just praising the Lord for a while. And then, lo and behold, after a while, just five minutes before 12 30, when they were to come, the doorbell rang. And I was just putting green beans into the pot to cook. Well, of course, I was embarrassed. But I didn't have to give any excuse, whatever. I didn't have to tell them why dinner was going to be late. I don't know why on earth I said what I did to them. Well, the Macaulay's had been to my home before, not for a meal, but just resting. And I said that the dinner's just going to be a little bit late. One of the units on the electric stove had burned out, which was quite true. But there were three units left in an oven. And that was all that was all I needed to prepare that meal. And I had the courage to take the guests into the parlor and show them my Chinese things. Well, after a while, I got the dinner ready. Now, what I didn't tell those people was that I had already burned up two pots of green beans. I was not accustomed to an electric stove. I hadn't been cooking on it very long. And I had plenty of units to cook that dinner. Three was plenty, was enough. Well, fortunately, I had burned up all the fresh beans, but I had a can of canned ones I was able to put in, and it didn't take them long to get done. And we had dinner, sat down at the table, just had a good time. And after dinner, we chatted a little bit, and then we had prayer together. I couldn't, I'm sure, we got on our knees and all prayed around. I'm sure I prayed. I couldn't imagine myself not praying on an occasion like that. And after they'd gone, I cleaned up what had to be done as soon as possible and went upstairs to my room and got my Bible and read. I don't suppose I got anything from it. And got on my knees to pray. And friends, when I got on my knees to pray, my friends, praying wasn't going as high as a ceiling, I don't think, certainly no high. God was not there. There was nobody to pray to. I was just saying words. And I said, Lord, what is the matter? What's happened? What's happened? What's the matter? Well, you know, when you want to know, it doesn't take you long. People that don't know the Lord's will are not willing to do it. That's the reason we don't know it. We don't know what the Lord wants. It's because we don't know what, we're not willing to do it. As soon as we're willing to know, he'll let us know. And he let me know in a hurry. Why did you tell those people, for what reason did you give your guests that dinner was going to be late? I told them dinner was going to be late because one of the units on the stove was burned out. And that wasn't true at all. Dinner was going to be late because I'd already burned up two pots of green beans. And you know, I couldn't pray. And there wasn't any use to say, Lord, forgive me. I had that, I had enough spiritual sense to know that wouldn't work. Say, Lord, forgive me. I had to go downstairs and get in the car and drive out two miles to those people's home. I got out there to their home and they have one of these new modern pastor rooms where the kitchen is the front and the two women are there. And I said, where are the two men? They said, back in the study. I said, will you please call them now? And I looked at those four people and I said, I didn't tell you all the truth about why dinner was late today. Dinner wasn't late because I, because one unit had burned out in the stove, because I'd already burned up two pots of green beans. And they looked at me as if, just looking at me as if, what a low down missionary. No, nobody said a word. I just turned right around, walked out, went out and got in my car and went back home, went upstairs. I went upstairs and got on my knees and friends, I could pray. I could pray. Well, now I could have argued and said, there's no principle involved in that. It didn't hurt anybody. It really didn't make any difference with anybody. But the Holy Spirit, who is the essence of holiness, was not going to let me get by with that thing. And I praise the Lord he didn't let me get by with it. I don't know when I would have been able to have gotten in tune with the Lord again if I hadn't made that thing right. The Holy Spirit is sensitive. And his people have got to live a holy life. He will have no fellowship with anything that comes from the dead. Now he is so merciful. He goes on and does a lot of things that we ask him to do without our being consciously in fellowship with him. He just has to. He just has to. And you know, sometimes some other people's prayer is the same thing we are, and you may be hearing that other person's prayer instead of ours. But we just can't fool God and get by with anything lower than his standard for us. And he couldn't have a standard any lower. We are to be a holy people because he's holy. Now if I'd had my chart here, I was going to uncover those red men and take a look at that black man inside of that red man. And I was going to ask these two preachers who represented those red men that came to the cross the other night how long they'd been Christians and how long they'd been preachers. And then we were going to take a look at that black man inside and see how much that black man had changed since they had been saved. And then we were going to take a look at that last person, the first person that I put up here, remember, was myself. And after 68 years of walking with the Lord, and it took me so long to ever get into the kingdom of God and get saved, after the Lord did his part by showing me how lost I was, that I'll tell you, my desire has been unto the Lord ever since then. And I think I can say I've been walking with the Lord 68 years. And I gave up my family and went to China. And I'll tell you, when a single woman goes to China, it's altogether different from a family going. The family goes, they take along the person they love best, and they have their home out there. And the people they love best are there with them. When a single woman goes, she gives up everything. And not only that, but I went through all those wars and bombings and went hungry in those communist sieges. Well, surely my black human nature would have changed, wouldn't it? You think it would have? Wife would have taken off that red man, that black man wouldn't have even been a little pale. Just as black as I was the day before I was saved by nature, my nature, my nature hadn't changed a bit. And I gave this somewhere, and a woman came up to me and said, Bill, I'm just all confused. I said, what have you been confused about? She said, well, you tell me that I must be holy, and then you tell me I'm just as black as I can be. Well, how do we be? Whose holiness are we to have? This old sinful human nature's not got to change into something holy. It never is going to change. The Lord didn't come to improve this old sinful human nature and make it get a little bit better and a little bit better and a little bit better and get that black color to pale a little and pale a little and pale a little. It's not set to live. The nature of the devil, the only limit is that the nature of the devil is to put it to death. And the Lord Jesus Christ came to take us to the cross. If the Lord could have improved this, Jesus Christ would have never died our death. We had to die, as we've been presented here all the week. We had to die, and we couldn't die for our own sins. The wages of sin is death, the soul that's finished shall die. Always has been God's holy law, and it always will be. Holy God never excuses sin in anybody. I heard a woman some time ago, a young woman who had sinned, and she was just heartbroken over it. I don't know whether she was heartbroken because she'd sinned or whether it got out. And she said, of course God has forgiven me, but I can't forgive myself. Now what about that? Now what about that? God has not forgiven her in the sense that she was talking about. God hadn't forgiven her, but couldn't forgive her because he loved her. God couldn't say, oh, well, that's all right, you're sorry, and I forgive you. That'll end it. Literally, God doesn't forgive sin. He has to transfer that sin to his Son, and that sin had to coerce the life out of his Son. And that's God's forgiveness, and that's the only kind of forgiveness he has. He transfers our sins to his Son. He doesn't excuse us because we're sorry. That sin must be punished. It comes from the devil. And that woman didn't realize that what her sin cost God, that Jesus Christ had to shed every drop of his blood before God could forgive her for that sin. God is whole, and he must punish sin. I read an incident one time that really happened in the Civil War. One man's name was George Wyatt. I've forgotten the other man's name. George Wyatt was a young man in middle age with a house full of children, and he was called into service in the Civil War. He had a young friend in the community. His name's, I've forgotten. We'll call him John. And John went to George and said, you know, I don't have a family. I'm not married. And I just can't bear the thought of you leaving your wife and children to go off to the war. You let me go in your stead, and I'll just go and I'll just take your card, and I'll just go and sign my name as George Wyatt, and I'll take your place. And he did. I didn't know he was killed. John was killed. But, you know, it was announced that George Wyatt had lost his life in battle. George Wyatt had died. And then after a while, when they were just combing the country, when boys even 16 years old were being called to fight, they were just going through the country, hunting anybody they could get. And a little bit found this man there with his family, named George Wyatt, who then gone and hadn't been enlisted. So there he was. His name was handed in, and here he was called to come and enlist. And he said, I've already died in the battle. I've already died in this war. And there they had the record of where he was from, his address. And there he died. He'd been killed in battle. Well, what'd the government do about it? They had to admit that he died. And he didn't have to go. Had he died? Yes and no. He died, but he still lived. He died in George Wyatt. George Wyatt, and that man named John. George Wyatt had died, and John had taken his place, and he did. I was up in security Colorado a few years ago. I was in Colorado Springs. And that's security church for a week. That's not far from Camp Cross. Since that time, there's 25,000 young men there getting ready to go to Vietnam. And some of them came to my meeting. And one young man came who had been a ministerial student in college. I bet he just decided to get his military training off first and went up there. He was an assistant to the chaplain. But he came and he said, I'm a Christian, but I'm not worth a thing. I'm not worth a thing. I can't help these men any. I'm just overcome with the same sins they are. Well, then when he learned about this death to himself, he took it. He got his sins forgiven up to date, and he took this little leaflet that was handed out to you today on this big guy, and he did what I told him to do. And I'd like for you to do the same. He underscored every statement in that leaflet that applied to him, and that was most of it. I used to get these little leaflets from Scotland. They're printed over here now. And the church ordered these for you to have. And I want you to take this and do the same as they did. You underscore every statement in this, and that'll help you to see a little bit more clearly what this sinful human nature is like. After people have listed their sins and written all they can think of, I'd like to hand this out to them and then let them see what they can add. Well, this young man had done that, and he was just so sick of himself. He transferred all these sins to the Lord, and he transferred this black sinful self over there, and he came just wanting to know how he could be empowered to live right. Well, we got on our knees before the Lord, and as we talked about, God's plan for this old sinful nature is that it was put to death in his son. Now, he doesn't force you and me to accept that position of death. And the Holy Spirit comes into our hearts when we're saved, and the average saved person is filled with themselves and this big eye, this big eye. Because we didn't know that we were to take that position in death of Christ for ourselves. And we were to sign this old self, this old ego that was contaminated by the devil and made sin by the devil through Eve and Adam. We didn't know that we were to sign that to death and refuse in the name of the Lord to let it rule over us. And he thanked the Lord that he had died in Christ. And in the name of the Lord, he refused to let this old self rule over him anymore. And he praised the Lord that God had been seeing him in that position of death ever since he was saved. And if you've seen him in that position of death, I'll take that for myself. And by a definite act of his will, as well as of an act of faith, he'll sign this old self to death. To a position of death. To a position of death. And then enter in Christ in his heart. And set it himself, and so this big eye. Now, the Holy Spirit has come into his heart. He's been ready to take over until he's saved. But the Holy Spirit is holy. And he just takes the place in our hearts that we give him after we're saved. He never overrides our will to do anything for us even after we're saved. He doesn't force us on our will. He pleads, he does all kinds of ways to get us to let him have all there is to us and fill us. But he doesn't force us. And because that young man was so sick of himself that he was ready to break forever with this old, with this big eye, and take the place by faith that God, that he knew God had been seen in him and had learned it from this Lord ever since he was saved. And all he wanted was that Christ would be magnified through his personality. Through his cleansed personality. He couldn't have a cleansed personality as long as this contaminated devil nature was in charge. But when he assigned that to the place of death and cleansed in the blood of Jesus, the cleansing, he could hand over his cleansed personality for the Holy Spirit to fill him and magnify Christ. And he wanted Christ magnified. And that's what the Holy Spirit does. His heart was prepared for the Holy Spirit that was already in his heart just to take over until he's saved. And he prayed after he said, Lord, I thank you for giving me strength to die. But you think of people dying because they don't have any strength to live. But he knew the Lord would give him strength to die. And then he prayed and he said, another prayer, Lord, I thank you, you've taught me how to live good. And friends, that's just what we have to do. We have to learn to live good. Now, death doesn't mean separation of breath and body always. But sometimes death is used to represent the breaking of fellowship. You remember when that prodigal son was away in the foreign country and came home, what the father said about him? This my son was dead and alive. Well, that young man was physically still alive. Of course, he was dead to his father. No fellowship with the father, dead to his father. And that's what that young man meant up there in Colorado Springs when he said, I thank you for teaching me to live good. And friends, that's the secret of glorious victory. And that's the only way we can live whole. And that's the secret. We don't need, but one way we don't need. And that way is that we assign this old self to the place of death. And as I said a moment ago, we've sung in the blood of Jesus to be cleansed from all the contamination that has been within us. He's contaminated us with the nature of the death. And we hand over our cleansed personality to the Lord, to the Holy Spirit to fill us and magnify Christ. The Holy Spirit doesn't magnify himself, he magnifies Christ. I have been, one of the churches at Memphis since March of last year, leading a Christmas night conference. And I never have any handshaking in my conferences. I have a prayer room. I don't even, I won't even pray with people until about a week's half over in most churches. Most churches, people are not ready. And you just waste time and comfort them before they get ready to face up to the sins of that prayer matter. Or pray for them, but send them home to face up to their sins. And then there's some places, some churches by Wednesday I invite people to go to the prayer room. Some places by Thursday, I remember when I was here, Thursday morning was the first time I invited anybody to go back there to the prayer room, and 20 people went back there. The pastor and the psalm reader and the assistant pastor and 17 women. And those three men and 16 women, and every more poor they entered out their hearts to the Lord, they were ready. And some of them had already died as the pastor had. The pastor had been living dead himself for four or five years, and he had wonderful peace. And all he had to do was to by faith incorporate the Holy Spirit and take over and fill his soul. And that's what he did. Same thing happened this year. Well, I think it was about Thursday night up there. And people, when they had an opportunity, maybe they did Thursday daytime to go to the prayer room. And the first person to come was one of the most handsome women I've ever seen. Tall, stately, beautifully dressed with a beautiful purse. And she came walking down the aisle. Well, the pastor was shaking hands with him, and I just joined and went on back to the prayer room, got on my knees beside her. And I said, what do you want the Lord to do for you? She said, I can't stand the life I'm living any longer. And I said, just tell the Lord that. And she opened her heart, she said, Lord, for 38 years I've been working for you. I've done everything in the church a woman could do. I've taught Sunday School. I've worked in training unions. I've worked in the WNU. I've been an association of WNU persons. I've done everything that a woman could do in the church, and I have worked so hard. And I'm so sick and tired of it. It's been worth nothing. It hasn't changed anybody's life. I'm so sick and tired of it, I can't stand it. And I talked that night, I think, on dying to the church. And she told the Lord she was ready to take the rest of her church, and she poured out all of her, everything in her heart that she knew was unholy, and she really assigned this old church to this. And she told the Lord that all she wanted to live for was that Christ might be magnified through her personality, and she knew that was the rest of her holy church. She could will it, but only the Holy Spirit could do it. And perhaps the Holy Spirit could come out of that crowded corner where she had engrooved and take over and fill her space. And that's what he let her. He just did it. The prayer room was a long, narrow Sunday School room, and the other women had come in and filled up all the other chairs around the wall. And when she started thanking the Lord, and she was in that position of death, and the Holy Spirit, to magnify Christ through her personality, I got up and left the parish. She didn't need me anymore. And I went on over here to help another woman, and that woman just started saying, And the minute she got up, she started walking back and forth the length of that room. And she started praising the Lord, Hallelujah! And the Baptist said, Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord! Well, the rest of us did, but the Lord just got up and sat down and looked at us. And I looked at her face and heard her praising the Lord. And the joy of the Lord just started filling my soul, and I just started laughing. And I just sat there, and I just laughed. And the more I laughed, the more she shouted, the more she shouted, the more I laughed. And after a while, she came out with this, Who would have thought I would shout at my own funeral? And she had a funeral, friends. She had a funeral. And by the way, that woman proved to be the cousin of Miss Pearl Caldwell, that wonderful missionary encounter who served you during that revival over there in the 36 churches of San Diego County. Well, she died. And there isn't any need for anybody to pray and beg and agonize for the Lord to fill them with the Holy Spirit till they're ready to die, to be set. You might get an emotional experience. The devil might fill you up. Did you know that the devil can counterfeit joy? I didn't know that until recently. I found out the devil can counterfeit joy. And he can just fill you with ecstasy. And it's a counterfeit. It's not joy at all. I think I'll give you an illustration here. I don't have to stick to myself again. We had a marvelous young man, Mr. Steve Marship, a Bible teacher at our Baptist College over in North Carolina, Gardner Webb College. My sister is a college history teacher. In her last nine years of teaching, she taught there. And the young man came while she was there. She was very fond of him. We often invited him down to our home and he hung quite well. He was a great man of God. He had his own home just off the college campus, and about two acres of land. He built a little chapel over at the back where he could just have Bible classes. And kids would just come to study the Word. And kids would go for miles and miles around and had their days when they went to the Bible class there. He was a man of marvelous influence. And I saw him. We were on the same program somewhere. And he said, Miss Martha, I heard a man speak and talk. And he said that two young men and he were praying together. And one of them said, The Lord has given me a message for you. And he told him something. And he said something in some kind of strange, produced some kind of strange thing. And then he said, The Lord has given me interpretation. And he told him what it was. It was just, he told me what the man said. I've forgotten, I just remember the sense of it. It's something we could have found in many places in the Bible. That whatever happened to them in the future, they were always to stand true to the Lord. And Brother Myers said to me that he was so amazed because he'd heard that man speak sometimes and he couldn't believe he was that nice. He said he went to bed and he was just lifted up to the third heaven. And I thought, now this is strange. Now God never misuses his power at any time. There's always a purpose for what God does and he never does things again that we can do for ourselves. When I stood at the grave of Lazarus over in Bethany, I saw that entrance into that grave carved out of that stone hillside. And they had stone about this big, that thick. The stone itself was gone from Lazarus' grave, but I saw another grave. The grave was there where they rose. And that stone was bigger than that, the diameter of it was more than the height of that entrance into that grave. Because that stone sealed that entrance, closed it up. And it was about that thick, hardly solid stone. Now Jesus could have walked up there and just spoken a word and that stone would have just rolled away. But he said to these men, take ye away the stone. And those men had to swing and push and pull and use every ounce of energy they had to get that stone rolling in front of that grave. And then Jesus said, Lazarus, come forth. And of course, as you know, they didn't use plastic. They wrapped yards and yards and yards of white linen around that body. After rubbing it with that wonderful ointment, fragrant ointment. Well, he certainly could have had Lazarus come out with that linen, loose, all that wrapping, but he didn't. Lazarus got up and came out of that grave alive, and Jesus said to those people, I'm wrapping loose. He gave those people everything they could for Lazarus, and he did what he couldn't do. And that's the way it always goes. He doesn't do things for us, we can do things for ourselves. And I thought, well, now that was strange. Now, the Lord knows me, and all three of those men He knows. And why would God go through a miracle, giving one of those, two of those men, a message from the other? Why wouldn't that man say, the Lord's given me a message from you? Chapter and verse. Please open the book and read it. It's God's word. I'm passing it on to you. He's given it to me for you. You read the chapter and verse. Well, I just looked at Brother Morrisette, and I said, do you suppose that could have been from the devil? Well, he just looked at me and said, no more. And of course, I said, no more. And I didn't see Brother Morrisette for a year. He's in the glory now, so it's all right for me to tell it, even without getting permission from him. He didn't mind any of it. He just laughed. I saw him a year later. And he said, Miss Bertha, Premier suggested that that glorious experience that I had, from hearing that man speak in tongues, might have been from the devil. You've just broken the rules. He said, it never occurred to me that that hadn't, wasn't from the Lord. And he said, now I'm convinced the whole thing was from the devil. Isn't all that's what I thought was yours. It's nothing but ecstasy and my emotions that the devil had put there. They're left. He said, I found out that man was so full of sin and so full of pride, why the Lord couldn't have possibly given him a message for us. If the devil can't get to one ear, get to another. And if he can't get to the sin, he'll, he can't stop you from following the Lord. He'll thrust you out in front of the Lord. A woman asked me the other day what I thought about it and speaking in tongues. And I said, I sure would have been much obliged if the Lord had given you the time you planned. But he didn't. He didn't. And more than that, the people who, who, some denominations we know, who profess to believe that the, if we, if we are filled with the Holy Spirit, we'll speak in tongues. We're not a line of Bible for that because we'll speak languages and acts and they don't do that. And they're just all confused. And maybe they'll have to learn Chinese language. They're like the rest of us. The Lord doesn't give them Chinese language. And then someone said to me the other day, well, well, well, you know why, Paul, Paul spoke in languages. Paul, I said, Paul cut up to the third heaven. You ready to get cut up to the third heaven? And then, and then, and then we saw his example. He might have been speaking a language of heaven. Someone said the other day to me, why, Mrs. Bertha, you know you have a prayer language. The Lord hasn't given you a prayer language. Well, I said, no, I didn't say it. He had that thought. He has whole psalms as a prayer language. Whole psalms. Prayer language. And he was really backsliding. And he came back to give. That's just the first, you know, you're not full anymore. You're wanting something else. You're not full anymore. You've already backslidden. You've breathed the Holy Spirit back into your heart, back into the corner of your heart somewhere. This old stuff is good enough. And we begin to beg. And when people ask me, how do you know you're filled? I say, I know I'm filled. And I can't think of a thing in the world that the Lord could do for me. He's filling my soul and he's everything I need. And I can't ask him to do a thing in the world I know I'm filled. The devil will come at us most anyway through this old stuff because we're living dead. This old stuff hasn't changed one particle. It never will. But it's a position of death. It's a position. It's a position of death. It's in a position of death. And all we want is Christ in the throne. We can face the Holy Spirit to fill our souls. And we can keep ourselves in that position of death. Praise the Lord, we don't have to. We will it. And we just choose it and will it. And the Holy Spirit will fill our souls. And he'll keep that old stuff in the position of death. And he'll keep Christ magnified through our personality. And we live gloriously. When I got out, I'd been in town a few years before I found out the secret of living and living victorious. And when I learned that I'd been dead ever since, in the position of death and God's side ever since I was saved I accepted it for myself. And I am from Christ in my heart and friends, I was so, I was through with Bessie Smith and I'll tell you that was wonderful good weather. And I was so thrilled I walked on the air and I lived on the earth for nearly a year. I just didn't see him for about a year. And I was telling this somewhere and a woman came up to me and said well you didn't have any sinful thoughts? I said certainly not sinful thoughts. And the Holy Spirit was filling my soul. He's holy. He's holy. Sinful thoughts. He couldn't get in there because this old stuff that he comes through is in the place of death. You like yourself pretty well? Are you through with yourself? You have to get through with yourself and you'll only see how black this stuff is by facing up to all that it produces. But if you're really through with yourself and realize that it never can be improved that it's the nature of the devil and Jesus Christ came to take it to the cross and you'll agree with him and you'll find yourself there. And I repeat all you want is for Christ to be glorified in you and that's what the Holy Spirit does. Your heart's ready for it. Let the Holy Spirit take over and fill you. And you don't have to wait 10 days and pray him down from heaven. He's already in your heart just asking to take over and fill you. A pastor up in Fort Worth told me that for 12 years he prayed to be filled with the Holy Spirit. He bought every book on the Holy Spirit and he'd do the life he saw advertised anywhere and he read them. And he said they all told me to take it by faith. And I read the book and I got on my knees and I told the Lord I was taking it by faith but I never did receive the fulness of the Holy Spirit. And he said he came along with a simple little formula let the sins be given up to days and be thrown into his eye take the place of death for this little guy and then from Christ in your heart bring me the card for the Holy Spirit. Bring me the fulness for the Holy Spirit. Come get the card for the Holy Spirit. And he said I was saved. And one pastor in that church came to me and said Lord if you sin sin, sin, sin after 12 years of hunger and thirst and they said Dear Lord, we thank you that God's provision for your children is not something that we can't grasp. And you haven't set any standards for your children that the weakest child that's ever been born into your kingdom can't live out. Because our you are our you are our victor over the world the flesh and the dead. You and we have the victor. We do not have to pray for victory or any of these gifts because we have the victor and we have the giver. And we pray you for the glorious privilege that you give us that in the name of our God the Lord and Savior who conquered the dead we can we can in the name of the Lord resist with ourselves and assign them to that place of death where you put them and grieve with you and when you are willing to live with them your blessed Holy Spirit can fill our souls and keep them in that place of death in the name of our Christ. Lord it's just too wonderful to worry all eternity will not be long enough to praise us that you not only saved us from hell to heaven but you saved us here in this life and we've lived gloriously for you here where their hungry hearts feel still we pray that you reveal this glorious truth to their heart make them willing to ask the Father and there's some these days who've been fearless who've taken that place of death and Lord we pray that you enable them never to get their eyes on any experiences and never backslide and start begging for you but just praise you that they have you and keep you enthroned and if they have you they can't want anything less and just keep them so sensitive to sin that they'll confess any that they ever accidentally think they thought they had and put that old self back on the cross and cleanse in the blood of Jesus cleanse them and again enthrone your blessed Son and again let your grieved Holy Spirit come out and take over and fill their souls Lord don't let people come here and sin these days and go away still hungry hearts don't let anybody come here and take away any sins not not badly don't let anybody come here and go away with this old self still enthroned Lord just make this truth that they've been hearing this way and that way from different speeches so clearly make it so clear to them that they just cannot let go and act on it and put them into their hearts such a hunger for all of your holiness and all that you are and to have the living Lord reign in their hearts and lives and be an issue to every situation that they may find themselves in they just can't stand it until they literally break with this old self and Lord we know it's the work of the Holy Spirit people can't see themselves it's the work of the Holy Spirit to convict of sin so we pray that a mighty Lord will conviction these old days of sin and when you feel sick of sin you just can't continue letting this old self dominate but we'll come back if you may lift us up we pray we pray Amen