In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the urgency of accepting God's call and the consequences of rejecting it. He shares stories of revival meetings where people were deeply moved by the Holy Spirit and were willing to fight, talk, and give for God. The preacher also highlights the importance of being led by the Spirit and not relying on rituals or human efforts. He emphasizes the need for a genuine experience of God's presence and the recognition of the seriousness of sin. The sermon concludes with a reminder that true worship requires the presence of God and a sincere heart.

Language of the Old, Him in loving kindness, Jesus came my soul in mercy to reclaim. And from the depths of sin and shame in love, he lifted me. Lord God, we thank you tonight that we have this access to your throne. We think about your words, says the blood of Abel, that brought condemnation. But Lord, we thank you for the blood of Christ that is able to erase our condemnation, our guilt. We can say as the Wesleyans used to sing so joyfully, before the throne my shorty stands, my name is written on his hands. We thank you for such a wonderful saviour. Lord, we think how you sat, as it were, or watched the world tonight here in America. Maybe we've committed a billion sins today. Done violence, taken your name in vain, broken your laws, ignored your commandments. We've set course to hell and we want nobody to stop us. We think of how many millions will profess your name tonight, eating and drinking. And as a good book says, married and given in marriage, and yet have no concern at this moment for the destiny to which we're all hastening. Lord, there is no way that the church can be moved except by a divine invasion of your holy power. We recognize, Lord, all our efforts are in the flesh. The greatest of them are in the flesh, or most of them are. We're going to do it by our method, in our time, in our way, by our system. And the world goes to an endless eternity without God. Not only without hope in eternity, but Lord, many have no hope in this world. They've abandoned hope. They see no glowing light in the sanctuary. They feel no vibrations of the Spirit of God in the meetings. And they can come and go almost indifferently. And Lord, this will continue again unless you come in mercy to us. We bless you for men like John Baptist, the voice crying in the wilderness. We know there are men in the nation today who are still crying. Some are crying in secret. Some are crying in the nighttime. Some are crying with tears. Some are crying with anguish. Some are crying with anger to see that it's a religious system that we have that has a form of godliness but no power. Lord, God of hosts, we ask you to come in mercy to us. We ask you in wrath, remember mercy. Lord, quicken us. The psalmist said, quicken me according to thy word. And I pray tonight you'll quicken us according to your holy word. We think of these apostles and prophets, majestic characters. They knew so much about this holiness of God, as we have sung, immortal, invisible, God only wise. And yet somehow they walked in a different vein of revelation to that we know. They walked with a different consciousness of eternity. Lord, we're not eternally conscious. As a people we're not eternity conscious. We profess your name. And yet, Lord, we're so tied up with materialism. The world outside is wrecked on humanism and it seems the church is wrecked on materialism. And Lord, we thank you that you don't have a despair in your vocabulary. You do come in the darkest hour. You've always done that. Therefore, Lord, there's some joy in one sense to take even though as a nation we're on the edge of the abyss. And surely your anger will break unless your mercy comes. But we ask you tonight, Father, to quicken our hearts again. We thank you you're not dependent on numbers. Otherwise you'd have told the 5,000 that you fed. You'd have told them you'll get this as a down payment and you'll get the blessing if you come to the upper room. But Lord, you didn't. You found, you fed the multitude, which is common. But you met 120 in the upper room and they went out to turn the world upside down. We thank you you're still in that business. It's still a day of grace. It's still a day of mercy. And there are expectant hearts over the nation. There are lights that are flashing in the darkness of this hour. There are voices interrupting the stillness. There are people, Lord, who have a faith that will not shrink with all the pressure that's put on it. They're not going to bow the knee to the material bale of our day or to the false gods or to the hope some political magic will turn us round. Lord, our need is redemption. Not just restoration but redemption and true Holy Ghost revival. And so on again we ask you bless this word to our hearts. In Jesus name. Thank you. I want to read from one of the best used chapters in the Bible. I'm sure there's a second chapter of Acts. I'm going to skip through this into the third chapter. But I've been tremendously moved with this in the last few days. Well everybody knows how it begins. When the day of Pentecost was fully come. They were always one accord in one place. Now remember that this was in Jerusalem. It would have been infinitely easier if Jesus had said go up to Bethlehem or go to some other place. Tyre or Sidon and tarry there. He told them to wait in the city where they were defeated and despised and discredited and disappointed and disillusioned. Their world had fallen apart. The man that they followed who said he was going to start the kingdom ended up on a cross. Is that any way to start a kingdom? It's God's way. In our way it's God's way. And there they were those disciples again. I say disillusioned. They had their nose pressed to the gate. They wanted to get down the Emmaus road as quickly as they could. And it was there that the Lord as rebellious and disappointed as they were he met them. And then it says they later remember they saw Jesus ascend into the heaven. And they had rejoiced. I don't believe he went to the upper room discouraged. I believe he went to the upper room with joy because they'd seen the Lord ascend. But it didn't alter the fact that the outside community thought they were a bankrupt people. Their leader's gone. Their hopes have gone. They've no property. They've no money. They've no backing. They're not accepted. They were about the most despised bunch on the face of God's earth. You see the thing that God blesses in community life or group life or individual is obedience. And they did as they were told tarried in the upper room. Well they knew that their Pentecost was fully come. You know I believe every day they got nearer to Pentecost. They were in ecstasy and joy. After all they'd seen Jesus go up and it says they they went on their way rejoicing. But what was to discourage them? That same Jesus was going to come in the power of the Spirit. Of course he'd said to them I'll go away and somebody greater than I will come. But as Samuel Chadwick used to say love, love that's disappointed is petulant. And Jesus said I'll send somebody better. They said you can't do that. That's an old story. You can't send anybody better than yourself. He said I can because I am with you but he will be in you. And that made all the difference in the world. It wasn't external power. It was power resident in them. And they waited and tarried there in the upper room. Well you know the rest of the story. There appeared proven tongues like as a fire. And again that magic word almost in verse 2 says suddenly there came. I love that word suddenly. Doesn't it say in Malachi the Lord whom ye seek. You know not many are seeking the Lord. We're seeking miracles. We're seeking blessing. We're seeking prosperity. How many are seeking the Lord? They said in the in the Welsh revival that people went to the sanctuary not to hear Evan Roberts. I'm going to read some extracts from that. They went to meet God. As I've told you when I was on the road the last year or two I would ask in meetings whether there were 50 there or 2,000 did you come here tonight to meet God or did you come here to hear a sermon about him? And usually people go to the sanctuary to hear about God. They don't expect a confrontation. We don't expect to hit the dust. We don't expect brokenness to come to us. It can come to others. What about us? But there they were waiting and suddenly you remember that those men went out watching their sheep as usual and suddenly there was a sound of a heavenly host. It changed history. They didn't expect it that night. But there was an invasion. God came and revealed himself through the angel. And here they were in the upper room and suddenly there was a sound of heavenly host. And suddenly the place was filled with wind and power. There appeared unto them cloven tongues like as a fire. Now let's skip over here a bit further. Go to verse 14. Now verse 12. The people that saw them were amazed in doubt saying one to another what meaneth this? Others mocking said these men are full of new wine. Do you know what? The church never does anything when she's sober. She doesn't do anything until she gets drunk. That's why the apostle Paul said don't be filled with wine but be filled with a spirit. What's the likeness? Because a man intoxicated has another spirit in him. I've told you about the first day in the second world war. I don't know the first day in first world war but second world war. The first day I was in Scotland preaching at the head church of the Nazarene. And it was an awesome day. We were told before we went to church all lights must be out. All the windows must be blackened. No lights on the streetcars. The Germans are coming tonight. So we stood in the street waiting for a waiting for a friend getting a gas mask. I stood against a lamp post and the streetcar came up thundering up in the dark. It was horrible. And suddenly it stopped. The man walked across and he stumbled and he must have known there was a lamp there. He was drunk. He put his arms around the lamp and me as well. And he said who are you? I said Leonard Ramel. Who are you? Ah he says I'm Sandy MacTavish or something. I said fine. He says can you faint? Oh I said no I can't. Fine. Can you sing? I said no I can't sing. Well he said I can sing. And he started singing Maxwell Tombray's O'Bonnie. And then he said my father was so and so. My grandfather was. He gave me his pedigree. He wanted to talk. He wanted to fight. He wanted to sing. I knew he was drunk because he put his hand in his pocket and took out a handful of silver. Now when a Scotsman offers you a handful of silver you know he's drunk. And he offered me the silver. He said will you take it? No. Ah he says you're no good. If I'd seen that man at nine o'clock the next morning he'd have passed on the street. Wouldn't have spoken to me. He's ready to fight. He's ready to talk. He's ready to give. And those symptoms are the same in people who are really drunk on God. They're ready to fight for God. Ready to talk for God. Ready to give for God. I've heard people say you know you give and God will bless you. No let people get blessed and then they'll give. We turn it round. Okay. They said these men are full of new wine. And Peter's standing up with eleven. Now remember this. Again that they'd uh they were in the upper room which most scholars think was it was an upper room in the temple itself. But the rushing mighty wind didn't didn't attract the people who were downstairs. The balls were fired didn't attract people who were downstairs. But the Holy Ghost came upon Peter and John and the rest of them. Now remember behind them they had a frozen system. You know I don't wonder everybody was startled. Here are some men again despised. They'd followed Jesus who'd ended up in bankruptcy as far as they were concerned. And here's the high priest strutting in his garments. They're going through the ritual and the formality. You talk about a form of godliness with no power. It was that system of that day. And yet these men came out unlettered. And ignorant men that's where they said. Isn't that wonderful? When they perceived they were unlearned and ignorant. I'll tell you how unlearned they were. The greatest thing ever written in English prose is the gospel recorded by John. It's the most perfect English you could find. And it was an ignorant man that wrote it. A fisherman by the name of John. To show he was ignorant he wrote one epistle, two epistles, three epistles, a gospel. And then just to make you sure he's ignorant he wrote the book of the revelation. Well if that's an ignorance I'm a candidate for it tonight. Straight away. Both hands up. Lynn you didn't even raise one forget you. Yes is that ignorance? Where has the world got with its intelligence? It's given us acid rain. It's given us bombs. We're scared to death of our own inventions now. We can't run away from them. You talk about the tail wagging the drug. We're in a terrible mess. And only revival, Holy Ghost revival is going to change. Boy you know what here? Peter was a failure when he ran away. A girl put up her finger. Now he's not a failure it's a success. He puts his finger in the eye of the high priest. He said you crucified the Lord of glory. What happened to him? His personality is the same. His hair hasn't changed. He's the same Peter plus and minus. Fear had gone and fearlessness had come. Weakness had gone and power had come. He wasn't afraid of men or of consequences. You know the basic message of the New Testament isn't the cross of Jesus Christ. It's a resurrection. It includes it. We talk about the Acts of the Apostles. The correct title would be some of the Acts of some of the Apostles. There's a competition here. The supreme work of the Holy Spirit is to glorify Jesus. And when you, if you trace through this marvelous book of Acts of the Apostles, you'll find the Holy Spirit is mentioned at least 53 times. But if you go on the other count, the name of Jesus is mentioned at least 43 times. Not that there's any battle there at all. Let's skip to verse 22 in chapter 2. It says, He meant of Israel, hear these words, Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God. You don't need anybody else to approve you if God approves of you. He was approved of God. He had the mark of God upon him. He had the anointing of God upon him. He had the titles of God upon him. And he did wonders, signs and wonders and miracles which he did in the midst of you, as you yourselves know. He was delivered and crucified in the last verse, where it says in chapter 23. He's crucified and slain, whom God hath raised up. And that's the whole emphasis here. Then he goes to verse 29 and says, men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David. He's both dead and buried, his sepulcher with us to this day, therefore being a prophet. And knowing that God hath sworn with an oath to him that by the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to some of his throne. He's seen this before, spake of the resurrection of Christ. And then verse 22, it says, Jesus Christ, Jesus hath God raised up, wherefore we are all witnesses. Now verse 36 says, therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made him, that's Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ. Verse 46 says, they continued daily with one accord in the temple and breaking of bread from house to house. Now these men are running into more trouble than ever. They've already caused a stir. If you read the chapter here, let's go to chapter four and start with verse one. Peter's still giving a, oh I'm sorry, no, I'll have to go to chapter three. The thing is, I want to think here for a little while about Peter and John went up into the temple at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour. Well doesn't the scripture say, if two of you shall agree, it shall be done? Peter and John went to the ninth hour. Why did they go there? They didn't believe the thing that was going on in the temple. The temple people certainly didn't believe them. But they knew they'd received endowment. They didn't care how frozen the system was behind them. They didn't care what the priest did. They didn't care about all the liturgy. They didn't care about the formality. They didn't care about the sacraments. They'd received a new message, a new vision, a new anointing. And moneyless men as they were, unpopular men, they stood up in the name of the Lord. And God came and manifested his power. Peter and John went to the hour of prayer. A certain man lame from his mother's womb was carried whom they laid daily at the beautiful gate of the temple, which is called in alms. Now notice that little word means a lot. They laid him there daily. A little later as you read the story, the man was over 30 years of age. So they carried him, look, they carried him from his home to the temple. From his temple to his home twice a day for 365 days in a year. How many is that? 730. Supposing they carried him for 10 years. And often a beggar will get a place in the city and he'll be there year after year after year if that's so they carried him 7,300 times. He was carried but never cured. He was helped but he was never healed. And when he sees Peter and John coming, he's heard this hullabaloo. They'd already been disturbing the community. They disturbed the religious system. And there he is crippled at the gate. You talk about timing. When Peter and John saw him what did they do? They, he asked in alms of them. As a little girl said, he asked for alms when he needed legs. But seeing Peter and John going to the temple, Peter said, now listen to this, Peter said, look on us. How many can say that today? Look on us. Oh yes, look on us. Give us some glory, give us some glamour. He gave heed unto them expecting to receive something. Peter said, silver and gold I have none. Isn't it amazing? You see, one thing that shaken Jerusalem, which we'll find out further if you went into the fourth chapter. And verse 34 says, there was no lack amongst any of them. Many that were possessors of the houses and lands sold them and brought the peace prices and they laid them down at the apostles' feet. They didn't take the tribute money into the temple. They took it to the feet of these new disciples. They bypassed the high priest. They forgot all about the high priest. And these men can see that their profession is in danger. They're meeting in house to house instead of the sanctuary. They're laying their money out and they shed it out so that everybody got the same amount. You know, if Christian, if Christian history was repeated in that way, communism would never have lifted its head. But they see us as selfish and as greedy and as personality conscious and possession conscious and power conscious. These men didn't have any of it. You know, they said, silver and gold we have none. That shows he wasn't the first pope. Silver and gold I have none. But such as I have, I give. That's a second proof he wasn't a pope. He'd have sold it. But he gives it. You know, there's a great joy in having nothing. Do you know what the joy is in having nothing? You can't lose anything. If you've no opinion of yourself, nobody will ever humble you. If you sit on the floor you can't fall. If you've got a low, not this silly business of image. I don't like that silly modern language. It's psychological language coming into the church. But if you know in your own heart that self has gone, and it must have been for these men to be so brave. They've lost already everything they had. They're linked to Jesus, the great failure. And yet he's promised and he sends them the Holy Ghost. But I was saying there's a great joy in having nothing. You can't lose anything. There's a great danger in having nothing. Do you remember a man knocks on the door and he says, hurry, hurry, hurry, hurry. What are you coming at this time for? He said, a friend have come. It's past midnight. My wife's here and the children, they're sleeping, you know, they sleep on the floor, whatnot. A friend has come in his journey to see me and I've nothing to set before him. That's where the church is today. She's nothing to set before this bankrupt world in which we live. And it's embarrassment to have nothing. He says, give me anything, you promised me you would, but I didn't think you'd come at midnight. But the blessing of having nothing is you can't lose anything. The danger of having nothing in an emergency moment, we don't have what it takes for our day. And we're living in a day of moral desolation in the nation. I don't know if I quoted this last week, I've forgotten, but Jimmy Shaggart said in a tape that we've listened to two or three times. He said the reason for the massive immorality in the nation is that preachers have lost sight of the, of the rapture. That's not true. Do you know there was no rapture theory in the world until a hundred years ago? Wesley never preached the rapture. I've got volumes and volumes, I think about 500 sermons of Jonathan Edwards. He preached one, you know, sinners in the hands of an angry God. He never preached about the rapture. The trouble with us today is not that we've lost sight of the rapture. The trouble is we've lost sight of the judgment seat of Christ. You millions of people tonight in America that believe in the rapture and they went through the divorce court. They wouldn't have done that if they thought of the judgment seat. They're not afraid. They're at home in a movie house Saturday night and the church house Sunday morning. They want the fashion of the world, the customs of the world. Many of them, as Wilkerson says, are sitting saints. They're worldly. They've not divorced from the world. They want to be married to Christ, but they don't want to leave this rotten old world. And we've not lost sight of, it's not that we've lost sight of the rapture. The two things send the nation banks up to this. We've lost sight of the word of God. We've not only put it out of our schools, we've put it out of most of our homes. We've stayed in ministers homes over the nation. And what I'm thinking of there, the deacon's homes. Never once they bring the Bible out and read it to the children. They scream, get the Bible back in the schools. Get the Bible back in the house. Get prayer back in school. Get prayer back in the homes. And another thing is this, that if we read the word, we sing when we walk with the Lord in the light of his word. If people read the word every day and pray, they'd never do the things they do. There are more people excited about the World Series. As I said to my neighbor the other day, he's off again, as he's always all around the world. And I said, you know, Jacob, usually the preachers are pretty healthy people. They go out and play golf or some fresh air or something, and they do push-ups and everything. The trouble with them is they get fever twice a year. They get fever for the penance, and they get fever for the, what do you call it? I was going to say sugar bowl, roaster bowl, or whatever you call it. Fun? Super Bowl. Twice a year they get fever. They'll travel a thousand miles. They'll pay all the expenses, be away two or three days. Ask them to spend two or three. Oh no, I have such a busy business, such a busy business, until it comes to deer hunting, and they go off for three or four days. Duck shooting, as my neighbor does. And boys, how they can find time to do the things they want to do, while the world is going to hell fire. Why should they take any notice of us? You can't get serious once a week about revival. You can't have a burden once a week for revival. It stays with you. It's something you live with night and day. It interrupts your lifestyle. It interrupts your sleep. It interrupts your eating. And nothing's going to move this generation, except we have again the Holy Ghost revival. So he said, well look on us. But wait a minute, when the thing has happened, he said in Peter and John, he wouldn't let go of them. Oh, let me see before that. Well Peter, look on him. He said, look on us. But he did more than that. He took him by the right hand, verse 7, and lifted him up. Immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength. And he leaping, went into the temple, leaping, walking, leaping, and praising God. So what's happened? He not only stands up, he's leaping up. He's not only leaping, he's speaking. And yet he goes into this sepulcher of a place. What in the world do you think happened? He disturbed the whole place. He's leaping and shouting and magnifying the Lord. Why not? I mean the priests, he's embarrassing the priests. They passed him. How many times do you think Jesus passed him? Jesus went into the temple time and time again, and there's the man crying for help. Jesus never touched him. Peter and John went into the temple every day of their lives, but they never touched the man. You see there's a timing in the affairs of men. This is going to glorify God. The people haven't taken any notice. Peter says, you crucified the Lord of glory. He's done signs and wonders and miracles, and God has approved of him, and you despised him. You crucified him, and God honored him. And looking at the chapter 4, just a minute here, I'll run over this. They'll speak unto the people. Number one, the people, the priests. Number two, captain of the temple. Number three, the Sadducees. And then you go down to verse 5. There were rulers and elders and scribes and annas for high priests and caripers and John and Alexander. What a crowd. You've got the intellectuals there. You've got the people that have power and authority. And look what Peter says in verse 26. The kings of the earth stood up and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord, against his Christ. He's just addressed those people, that very bunch of people, rulers with authority, politicians, religious people. And yet Peter stands up before the whole world as he were, a representative of the whole world, and he defies them. He's not trying to get a political seat so he can change the country. He's defying the systems. We're going to have to have a system of true Christianity, apostolic Christianity, that's willing to sacrifice and stand up against the systems of the day in which we live. Verse 27 says of a truth against thy holy child Jesus whom thou hast anointed both herod and Pontius Pilate and the Gentiles and the people of Israel were gathered together. Let me step back a bit here again. I should have gone down in chapter 4. Boy you have the annas, the high priest and caripers. There were two high priests and that was illegal. And John and Alexander, as many would have the kindred of the high priest, they rounded up all the socialites, the political people, the military people, the religious people. They gathered together at Jerusalem and when they had set them in the midst they asked by what power or by what name have ye done this? In other words, look that fellow there has no power, that man Peter, where's he got this? When you go down into verse 10 it says be it known unto you all people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth whom ye raised up, whom God hath raised from the dead even by him, doth this man stand here in the midst. Well when they go on to ask he says that famous verse that in Acts 4.12 when they saw the, no that's not, yes 4.12. Neither is there salvation in any other. You know today we're bigoted if we say that Christ only has the answer in salvation. What about these other systems? Well you've got to take the buffeting. There is no other salvation. There's no salvation in being baptized and confessing your sin merely. There has to be a work of redemption and we're going to have to go back again to that old rugged cross which again is still despised by the world. But Peter and John say his name through faith in his name has made this man strong. There's no other name under heaven whereby we can be saved. Verse 16, 6 says, pardon, 16. What do we do to these men for indeed a notable miracle? It wasn't just a miracle. You say they run into trouble every time. Jesus came, John the Baptist came. Before them the Romans came and upset them socially and economically. They enslaved the whole nation. Then after them up comes a man John the Baptist. He has no pedigree. He has no credentials. He isn't the son of a priest. He's an oddball of a man and there he is in the wilderness. He has no seating. He has no choir. He has no advertising. But the Holy Ghost is with him and he draws people from Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria and everywhere. And that troubled the Jews. It troubled the system, the hierarchy of the church. Right after that Jesus comes. Now remember John did no miracle. But he has the most unique description in the whole of the Word of God. More descriptive than Jesus. It says of John the Baptist his father was filled with the Holy Ghost, his mother was filled with the Holy Ghost, his priest was filled with the Ghost and that he was filled with the Holy Ghost from his mother's womb. Doesn't say that about any other person, not Elijah or Jeremiah or anybody. He's the most unique character. And yet Jesus says the man that's really born of God in the kingdom is greater than John the Baptist who Jesus said was the greatest person ever lived. Which means the possibilities of grace for us are open to us that weren't open to him because of the cross, the Holy Ghost. Now remember John did no miracle. But he has the most unique description in the whole of the Word of God. More descriptive than Jesus. It says of John the Baptist his father was filled with the Holy Ghost, his mother was filled with the Holy Ghost, his priest was filled with the Ghost and that he was filled with the Holy Ghost from his mother's womb. Doesn't say that about any other person, not Elijah or Jeremiah or anybody. He's the most unique character. And yet Jesus says the man that's really born of God in the kingdom is greater than John the Baptist who Jesus said was the greatest person ever lived. Which means the possibilities of grace for us are open to us that weren't open to him because of the cross. The Holy Ghost was upon him but the Holy Ghost can be in us too. And go to this chapter verse 24 of chapter 5. When the high priest and the captain of the temple and chief priest said these things they doubted whether this would grow. Remember they said not a miracle but a notable miracle had been done. They go to the most chronic case that there is in the whole of Jerusalem which had many many beggars and he sat at the door of the temple. Aren't people sitting at the door of our churches today and they're crippled, they're morally crippled, they're spiritually crippled. There's no hope. They've no power to walk through this crazy world in which we live. And yet on the other hand we've no power to say silver and gold have I none. We try everything to get them except the power of the Spirit of God. I got a paper yesterday announcing a church in town. We're going to get ready for our Christmas bazaar. A church that does that is bankrupt. I'm sick to death of all the tricks we're trying to put. We'll do anything except humble ourselves. And that's what these men did. Verse 29 then I'm going to read something else to you. Then Peter and the other disciples answered and said we ought to obey God rather than men. The God of our fathers, the God of our fathers raised up Jesus whom he slew and hanged on a tree. Him hath God exalted to the right hand to be a prince and a savior. And verse 32 we are witnesses of these things and so also is the Holy Ghost whom God hath given to them that obey him. I want to read something to you a little more modern than that. Not that that's wrong. One of the great moves of the Spirit of God of course was in Wales in 1904 and five. And I got to reading some of this today and it really stirred me and moved me deeply. He says the key to revival is this. Number one you must put away any unconfessed sin. Number two you must put to any doubtful habit. Number three you must obey the Spirit promptly. Number four you must confess Christ publicly. Now he's talking here about this young man who's still in his early 20s. He said he opens his discourse saying that he does not know what he's going to say. But he's in communion with the Holy Spirit and he will always say what the Holy Spirit says through him. It would simply be a medium of his wisdom. The preacher soon afterwards launches into a fervent and impassioned oration. Pointing men and women to the evil of the horribleness of sin and the violation that they've had against God. But now it says here. Many who disbelieve Christianity for years are returning to the fold of their younger days. So great was the enthusiasm involved by the young revivalist that after his sermon, which lasted for two hours, the vast congregation remained praying and singing until 2 30 in the morning. It wasn't come to the altar say the sinner's prayer and go back and go to hell. Go back as you came. These altar calls are an abomination to God. I'm sure that I won't give them anymore. Just come up and say the sinner's prayer and go away. The Lord loves you. Get baptized tonight and promise to tithe and you'll make it. When revival comes you forget about the clock. And they were there till 2 30 in the morning. The congregation remained praying and singing until 2 30 in the morning. Shopkeepers are closing early in order to get to the place of the chapel. The steelworkers are thonging the place in their working clothes. On the 11th of November at the Mariah Church, it was again overflowing with 800 or more people filling the old chapel. Many were there on their knees for a long, long time on account of their distress and agony of soul. Then he goes on to say that the meeting went on until 4 25 in the morning and then the gathering dispersed. And this man says, when I walked back to Flynnethly, I left dozens of them in the road still discussing how and what the meeting was about and what how the spirit of God had worked. Now here's a revival going on. The meeting houses were overcrowded for hours before the time when the service had been announced. Sidney Evans preached in one chapel and Evan Roberts in the other. Day broke before the people were dispersed. They stayed all night until daylight. A local minister reported the community had been converted into a praying multitude. The lives of hundreds of coal miners and tinplate workers were transformed. On Tuesday the early morning prayer meeting was crowded, people remaining at home rather than going to work. The meeting lasted for hours. The young prophet announced that a great spirit of revival was coming into the city. People went to the sanctuary whether whether Evan Roberts came or not. On this occasion Evan Roberts arrived at the church door and made his way through the crowd and he sat on the front seat saying nothing for three hours. Can you imagine that? Hard people get up and go out. This man never had a timetable. He wouldn't announce where he was going. Let people go and meet in a sanctuary and if God takes me okay. If he doesn't okay. He didn't work to any human program at all. And he goes and sits in a crowded church more than 800 people and waits for three hours. Good night. We have an orchestra. We pay for an orchestra. Come to a big meeting in Dallas. Strike the meeting up. Get off singing. Do everything. We're as ritualistic as anybody on God's earth. And yet this thing is led totally by the spirit of God. They waited there for three hours. Then he stood up and after an exhaustion exhortation of prayer he spoke only for 15 minutes and then sat down. On another occasion F.B. Meyer was there. He said he will not go in front of the spirit. He's willing to stand aside in the background until the spirit of God moves. And it's a profound lesson. In another church Evan Roberts arrived at seven at night. He made his way to the front of the big church, climbed over the knees of the people sitting near the pulpit and uttered just one word in prayer. Let us pray. Immediately the prayer burst forth audibly and simultaneously from the vast crowd. Evan Roberts took no further part in the extraordinary meetings. He made his way home at 10 o'clock to pray all night in the quiet of his room. And it says there was not one penny spent on advertising. As I've said to you when you never have to advertise a fire. I don't care what it is. You can fill churches by having a big sports program. But how many was want to wait. Here is a man that's moving cities. The traffic was stopped. People wouldn't go to business. People closed down their business. People just went home to eat and came back at 10 o'clock at night often and stayed all through the night. And here's this precious young man. He went home at 10 o'clock to pray all night in the quiet of his room. The meeting was continued in full power until 2 a.m. when the family, one family made its way out. The children were put to bed. The coal miner dozed in the big fire until daybreak. He went to work and returned home. Put on his best clothes and he went to the chapel at four o'clock in the afternoon. The meeting was still on. Now that's revival. You don't turn the lights on. You don't say we'll start here and finish there. The spirit has his way and it breaks up your sleep. Let it break up your sleep. If it breaks up your eating, let it break up your eating. If it breaks up your natural... You see we're so geared. God pitches in America more than anywhere else on earth. Everybody is to a timetable. Everything starts here and finishes there. Not with the Holy Ghost. A Welshman called, an Englishman called and said to a friend, I've come a long way and I want to hear Evan Roberts. Where is he preaching? He was taken aback when his friend professed ignorance of the revivalists procedure. He does not tell people where to expect him. He tells them what they need is the Lord Jesus and they'll find him in the nearest church. And he proceeded to amaze his visitor by saying that every church in town is filled until midnight. Not one church, every church. It's not getting some big shot with a big name and saying let's have a program and you'll be home by three or four o'clock. It's every church in town receives a divine visitation. There's no competition. You forget labels. You forget denominations. There's such a common hunger. You know in a forest animals will fight. I remember a man saying he was going to a forest and he looked up there was a big cobra and it was coming down. And then he heard the roar of a lion and he heard the cry of a hyena. And he said you can see carcasses where wild beasts have come and destroyed the beast. They fight. You know what happened when there's a fire? They all run side by side. They forget all about their hatred. They forget all about their lust for blood. They run side by side. Animals that for centuries have been as it were enemies. But now there's some big disaster behind and they flee for safety. And you know when we realize that this generation is going to hell quicker than any other generation. We forget about our labels. We forget about having two services. How do you tell the Holy Ghost I'll be glad to have one service in a church Sunday morning. How do you have two? Do you tell the Holy Ghost to go home because it's 10 o'clock? We've got timetables. We're so ignorant we'll offend the Holy God. We don't even know we're doing it. Somebody else is doing it we'll do it. In other words I'm waiting to see God do something here like this in Thailand. The meeting houses were overcrowded hours before the time. People sought God. They prayed with supplication with trying and before the meeting ever started. There's such a craving for God. Not for preaching for God. Not for miracles for God. And yet these precious young men are discernment. Or rather about the people staying instead of going to work. In Wrexham North Wales the revival had been going on for quite a while. In the mid-year there were further stirrings. On November 8th the Reverend R.B. Jones began a 10-day mission in which simultaneous prayer overwhelmed the preacher and the audience. They could not continue. They drowned the preacher with their intercessions. That would be wonderful. More than 100 converts were converted out of that movement. But four months later were 2,267 people who had been genuinely born again of the Spirit of God. Well I read to you about him waiting for three hours anyhow. One day in the police court in Holyhead which is in the extreme west coast of Wales. The police court was in proceedings and a young man struck up a hymn and they turned the police court into a revival meeting. Now you don't get that by somebody striking up and playing a concertina or playing a rattling on a what these things the ladies like to do. They shake. Tambourine, okay. Revival visited the university colleges. For example a student in the lounge of the University of College of Bangor, an undergraduate started to sing a hymn in Welsh and a student prayed and there was an unbroken succession of prayers and testimony follows. Lectures were cut. The college closed its lectures and 300 students or more gathered in the afternoon for prayer. Now there's revival. Again you don't have a star personality there. The Spirit of God is moving. The Spirit of God is breathing. Everything loses its value. Time intellectualism. We suddenly see the awfulness of sin and a great absence of God's presence. I wrote a letter to a fellow just the other week and I said the trouble with our churches today is that we're trying to worship an absentee God. And I noticed on Sunday morning he quoted that. So at least I was able to preach through him. One young man in a meeting modestly told that he called on every house in a certain street. Evan Roberts said to him you're lying and he pierced him with his gaze and contradicted him. The young man stammered in confusion admitted he had performed or not done the things he claimed. He trembled like a leaf and burst into tears when Evan Roberts told him that his ways were deceitful and he had already forged his signature on a previous occasion. The young man was amazed that he began telling his story. Let me read one other thing. People began to attack this man and say it was psychology and it was hypnotism and it was a dozen other things. He said that Evan Roberts ignored the attacks but they had their effects on him for he became passionately concerned about the immediate revelation of the Holy Spirit. This came to a head with an extraordinary incident at Carmarthen on February 21st during the meeting. Roberts cried out in agony there's a man present to his dam and the congregation began to pray and they prayed with tremendous fervor and anxiety and Evan Roberts stood up and stopped them saying it's no point praying this man's passed the point of no return he's damned he's lost. Nobody ever preaches on the word of James where he says there is a sin unto death and you can't pray for it. There are some people as damned as if they're in hell itself. This is God's last call he doesn't owe you anything you've heard the gospel a hundred times he's claimed you for the mission of healing. He said no forget it that you're over now forget it and I'm learning not to pray for some people. Anyhow this book goes on and it's an exciting and I mean by this I don't mean just emotionally exciting to read how the traffic is stopped to read how the football munchies gave up the theaters were closed down that the sports fields were empty and the churches were packed hours before they could get in for the opening meeting and they stayed through the night nobody got weary and if they did they went home at three or four or five in the morning he was so caught up in the spirit it's going to take that dear friends it's going to have to become a it's not preaching is not a profession it's an obsession and it's a passion and God's going to have to get men aflame that don't care a hoot as I've told you before and I'm again reminding you these men were penniless men that came from the upper room they know press feeds they weren't accepted anywhere but God was with them again those people back in the 1600s that we call the Puritans their buildings had no lighting they had no heating they had no seats with backs on they had no choir they had no organization and yet God the Holy Ghost came and John Owen isn't 30 years of age and 2,000 people the no transit system 2,000 people come to hear a man preach and he preached off in the two hours of the stretch followed by an hour of prayer and yet they went for days they went for hours walking to the sanctuary through the wet weather through the snow and sitting there in those like the chapel they restored of Wesley's in the Haymarket in Bristol they just put the seats they have no backs they have no padding and the light I say was little candles clipped on the wall and yet without all the accessories we have dear God what are we in we've got an electronic church the New Testament was electric church electrifying not electronic not mechanical it didn't certain round spin round certain big personalities and preachers the Holy Ghost was the attraction Christ was exalted and they were prepared to lay it out every time this is who you crucified the Lord of Glory we're going to have to get back to the old rugged cross we're preaching issues we're preaching about pregnancies we're preaching about drugs we're preaching about alcoholism we're preaching about abortion but Jesus says if I be lifted up we've got he's got a bit of sense and a circumference the first and the last the beginning and the ending we've got to be consumed more and more and more with Jesus Christ to be able to sing and say and mean thou O Christ art all I want that I've no satisfaction a material thing a material possession a material favor we have to do something that money can't do an organization can't do I say this in fact there was a meeting not long ago in Amsterdam some local people went there and what there were 20,000 men they had a meeting that cost 14 million dollars how did the preachers come out they come back on fire oh it was nice to meet fellows from other countries sure it was what's a big social gathering they had one before that I asked one of the leading men there did the Holy Ghost fall if they know the raven not like you want him to come what in God's name is it for give me 300 men that want to go for three or four days and wait on God without any superstar there without saying I met personally its own so let's get together and wait on God for three days of fasting and prayer and seeking God and asking for brokenness which must precede revival asking for pains which must precede revival we don't want it that way we're so mechanical we've got all the gadgets give us more money take our newsletter do this and it's it's nothing it's going to take the living God to come and raise up a living people to produce life and that will only come as we make intercession as we admit our own bankruptcy you see the God that did this is the same today the same yesterday and forever now I haven't gone very far tonight and yet I have in my own mind what God wants us to think about something we've never seen our generation has never seen we have youth rallies dear God what do we have there's all kinds of things there's seminars and everything but we're not meeting with God the Holy Ghost there's no brokenness there's no travel we're going to go to prayer I want you to pray God be working in Spencer's family again and they're very grateful and we're asking him to move on these uh American Indians the government's going to give x number of million dollars to fight drugs and and drink but I'll tell you what I'll tell you'll get the least out of that that'll be the Indians they'll be almost ignored there has to come an awakening I'm sick of playing church I'm thinking of just singing hymns and feeling good I don't care what the cost is I mean not before God but we must have a divine intervention you must see things that will exceed even the things in the world's revival and they were the greatest things that happen I think it seems plenty cost so pray somebody you know thinks I pray too long maybe I do so they say well you know you're better to pray two short prayers and pray one long one I'll tell you when to stop praying when you start repeating yourself it's time to quit we're not here to feel them shout the loudest and pray to the longest if we do it's not much chance for the ladies noise isn't power we think you have a rowdy meeting it's power noise isn't power as a matter of fact when the old train remember the old train used to put into the station and the fellow was afraid the boiler would burst so he pulled the switch it hissed it made always a lot of hissing when there's no power and no movement and that's why you get in the church a lot of noise a lot of thought so I'm going to quit now ask you to pray Lord anoint me tonight pray for yourself in this meeting give us a sense of brokenness give us a consciousness of what revival really is and tell God whether you're willing to pay the price for it or not don't don't make any false statements that's got a prelip