In this sermon, the speaker begins by inviting the congregation to share any testimonies or words that God has spoken to them. They emphasize the power of the Word of God, describing it as quick, powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword. The speaker then reflects on the Apostle John's encounter with Christ in the Book of Revelation, where John fell as dead at His feet. They highlight the importance of finishing the race well and keeping our focus on Jesus. The sermon concludes with a prayer for thankfulness and a desire to have a vision of the risen Christ in our lives.

For the Word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. This message has been brought to you by Manna Christian Fellowship, Ellensburg, Washington, area code 509-925-1168. Let's pray. Father, we want to thank you for the blessing of your presence with us this day. We want to thank you for the way that you have been speaking to us. We want to thank you for your Word. We want to thank you for the fact that you shed your blood for us, that we can experience cleansing. We want to thank you today for the Holy Spirit. And God, we pray because you have said to us in your Word, be careful of nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God. Father, we pray today that you will forgive us because we have been such an unthankful people. Lord, you've done so much for us, and so often we have never shown an appreciation and a sense of gratitude for what God has done. We ask that you will forgive us for being such an unthankful people. We pray that you will give us a spirit of thankfulness. When we wake up in the morning, you give us another day, and we realize that this is a day that God has added unto our lives, and one more day that we can live for Him. We ask that you will fill our hearts with praise, so that we can worship you in the beauty of holiness, and in the wonder of purity, and in the longing of transparency, and in the spirit of honesty, with a heart being broken before God. Lord, we pray today in Jesus' name, that day after day that you will give us a vision of the risen Christ, and that we would live in the light of the resurrection, and that if we have been risen with Him, that you will help us as Christians to sit with you in heavenly places. We thank you today for that. Lord, I was so struck this week in the daily light when I read how the apostle John said in the book of Revelation, when he saw Christ, and he turned around and he saw Him, and he said, I fell as dead at His feet. Lord, I was so affected by the fact that this man, John, this great apostle of love, sat at Christ's feet, followed Him, saw Him being crucified, saw Him being risen from the dead, saw Him ascended up into heaven. And then years later in the island of Patmos, he saw Him again, and he said, I fell as one dead at His feet. Lord, we want to finish well, we want to run the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, sitting down at the right hand of the throne of God. And He said, consider Him who endured such contradiction of sinners. And we want to pray that You will help us to keep our eyes upon You, help us to be focused. And Father, we know today that if we will be saturated in Your Word, and intoxicated with a hunger for God, that we will never be able to lose the vision and the passion of the exalted Christ in our midst. And I pray today that the families here in Ellensburg, these many women and children that have become so dear and near to my heart, Lord, that every one of our families will know the depth of the presence of God. That You will cleanse us, wash us, that You will refine us, You said in Your Word that I will sit, He will sit as a refiner of fire, and He will purify the sons of Levi. And so we pray that You will not spare us, but that we will become more like You as we live for You. And Father, in the final moments of this day, some of us are tired and we felt the pace of the day, we pray in these final moments that You just bless us in Your Word as we ponder upon it again. In Jesus' name, Amen. I would like to share with you a little bit more on what we were looking at this morning. But we also said that maybe there are some of you and you have got a word of testimony or something that you would like to share, something that God has been speaking to you in your heart, and we don't want you to miss that opportunity. And so, if there is anyone that wants to share something, why don't you just do it right now, a fresh word of testimony or something. This morning we began to look at Acts chapter 2, and I want to say to you this afternoon that when you study that wonderful chapter in the book of Acts, the indications are for us in the New Testament that just as absolutely sure that we in our hearts can know that our sins has been forgiven and that we have been born of the Spirit of God, and the way that we know that we have been born of the Spirit of God is because of the witness of the Spirit of God. The Bible says the Spirit of God, the witness of my spirit that I am a child of God. And then 1 John 5 is saying to us, he that hath a son hath life, he that does not have a son of God hath not life. And he that believeth in him hath witness in himself. So we are the witness of the Spirit of God that we are saved. Ephesians chapter 1 is saying to us, after you believed you were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise which is the earnest of our inheritance. So there is no question about the fact that we can know that we are saved. But now the wonderful issue is this, as absolutely sure as you and I can know that we are saved, that we have been washed in the blood, to that same degree can we know that we have been filled with the Spirit of God. You say why do you say that? Well because the Bible is saying that. The Bible says that when the day of Pentecost was fully come they were all of one accord and one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as a rushing mighty wind filled all the place where they were sitting. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. So to be filled with the Spirit is a command from God. And if it is a command from God, Paul says in Ephesians chapter 5, be filled with the Spirit, be not drunk with wine wherein there is an excess, but be filled with the Spirit, then it is a command. So if I do not obey a command, then what does that mean? It means I live in disobedience. I don't live a spirit filled life, I live in disobedience. And so people come and they ask all the time to me and they say, how can I know that I am full to the Spirit of God? How can I know that I am full to the Spirit of God? And so then we spend time on the scriptures and find out how I can know that I am full to the Spirit of God. My brother and sister, I want to say to you today, the same witness that you and I can have that we are born again, to that same degree can God witness to your heart that you are full to the Holy Spirit. You say, why do you say that? Well, the Bible is saying that. Listen to what Peter said in Acts chapter 15, you don't need to look it up because I will quote it to you. Peter was referring back to Pentecost, what we read this morning in chapter 2. And what happened in Acts chapter 15, Peter had to give an account because of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the Gentiles. Do you remember what Jesus said to Peter? He said to him, to you I will give the keys of the kingdom of heaven. And theologians say to us that the possible interpretation of that is that when Peter was speaking on the day of Pentecost, that the Spirit of God was poured out upon the Jews when he preached his first sermon. Then in Acts chapter 10, when he was praying at the roof of the house and God came to him and gave him a vision and sent him to the household of Cornelius. And it was while he was speaking that the key to the outpouring of the Holy Spirit took place upon the Gentiles. That's what they say to us. Anyway, Peter gave an account at the first council meeting of the church, the early church in Acts chapter 15. And he had to explain why it was that the Spirit of God was poured out upon the household of Cornelius. And then Peter made this statement, and he was referring back to Pentecost. He said, God which knew the hearts, bear them witness, here's the witness, bear them witness, giving unto them the Holy Spirit. And he's talking about Cornelius, giving unto them the Holy Spirit, the same as he did unto us. So when did he give them the Holy Spirit? On Pentecost. And then he made this statement, and he said he made no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith. Now this is the problem. We hear so much about the spirit-filled life, the surrendered life, the abundant life, the crucified life. People use the term the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and they talk about all these other things that I don't find in the scriptures. But people use different terms. But I want to say to you something today. From a biblical perspective, brethren and sisters, there is no power without purity. We can't believe in a spirit-filled life if my heart is not being cleansed. You see, Duncan Campbell used to say, if you are filled with the Holy Ghost, you can't be filled with anything else. So what is this saying to us? This is saying to us, if the spirit of God, if we are going to be living spirit-filled Christian lives, something needs to happen in us, before God can fill us with his spirit. I said, Brother Gerard, when I received the Holy Spirit, then what happened? Didn't I receive the Holy Spirit as a person? Yes, you did. And you can't divide a personality. When he came into my life, he came to live in my life as a person. The problem is this. When I was saved, in so many of our lives, the spirit of God, although he was there as a person, he was resident and he was not present. Now why do I say that? When you study in the New Testament and in the Old Testament for that matter, the concept of consecration, surrender, you will discover that before God can do anything for me, I need to surrender. If you are living in defeat today, you know what's the problem? It's because you have not been surrendered to God. If you are guilty of the spirit of criticism, if you are backbiting people behind their backs, if you have a secret agenda, you are not surrendered to God. You see, if you surrender to God, that which God is saying in his word will happen in your life. If you are not surrendered to God, the things that is happening in your life that is not biblical, it's because you are not surrendered to God. And when you look at this thing, surrender in the Old Testament, it's like the priest in the Old Testament, he brought a sacrifice. When he brought the sacrifice, if it was a sheep or a goat, if it was a dove or a pigeon or an ox, whatever he brought, he couldn't go with a sacrifice and say to the priest, I'm giving this sacrifice but you know there's some others that I really want to hold back. It just didn't work like that. So surrender always must be absolute and total in my relationship with God. During the Prussian War, the soldiers of my daughter, when I used this illustration, she found it very difficult to handle it because this young gunner was standing next to his general during the Prussian War many years, centuries ago. And as he was standing next to his commander with his cannon, there was a little cottage on the hill and the commander believed that some of the enemy has went and occupied that cottage with the people that was in it. And this young soldier that's standing next to the commander said to this young soldier, you see that little house on the hill, there's some of the enemy has gone into that house with that family. And he said, we need to destroy it. And the young gunner began to tremble when the commander said that to him. And he said to the young gunner, I want you to load the cannon. And so they loaded the cannon and said, I want you to set the sights. And he was trembling and doing that and the commander didn't know what was going on with him because it was in war and they were used to those things and he did that. And he set the sights 100% on the little house on the hill. And there was a moment when the commander gave the command to fire. And the young gunner fired and the shell went and dropped in the little house on the hill and just blew it apart and killed everyone of the enemy and the people that was in the house. And the young gunner began to salt uncontrollably the presence of his commander. And his commander looked at him and he said, what's going on with you? And he said, sir, you gave me a command. He said, in that little house on the hill, there lives my mother and my father and my brothers and sisters. And there are some of the enemy in there. And he said, you gave me a command. And he said, I followed your command. That's surrender to a command. Rightly or wrongly so. I want to tell you something today. Don't ever speak of the spirit-filled life if you are not willing to be totally sold out to God. Because if we speak of the spirit-filled life and we are not willing to be sold out to God, we are bringing disgrace upon his name. Listen to what the apostle Paul said in Romans. He said, I beseech you by the mercies of God that you present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God. He said here, he said, Rabbi Gerard, if I want to live a spirit-filled life, what is it that needs to happen in my life? I need to understand consecration, surrender to God. Secondly, I need to understand what the Bible is saying to me about sin in the life of the believer. Thirdly, I need to understand cleansing. I need to understand what God is able to cleanse me from. If the Bible is speaking about the cleansing of the heart, the apostle Peter said in Acts chapter 15, he purified their hearts by faith. We need to find out what is it that God needs to cleanse? What is it that prevents the Holy Spirit from being like a bird in a cage? What hinders the Spirit of God to be in full control of my life? And the last thing that I need to know, I need to know that once I surrender myself to God, once I understand what God is able to cleanse me from, once I understand cleansing, then lastly, I need to know when God has filled me with His Spirit. Now I'm afraid to tell you we need four nights to do justice to what I've just said to you. But I want to tell you this, God is able to cleanse us from all conscious sin. But brother and sister, God can only cleanse us from the sin that He has convicted me and that I'm conscious of in my life. And I wish we would have our time this afternoon. There are nine words in the Greek New Testament that is speaking to us about sin. And to separate those words, when it speaks about sin and the life of the unbeliever, and when it speaks about sin and the life of the believer. And then look at all those passages, and that's why I said you need four nights to look at all those passages in the New Testament where God is speaking about sin and the life of the Christian. And then look at those passages and see what God is able to do about sin and the life of the Christian. See how God is able to cleanse us. That's why Hebrews chapter 9 is one of those wonderful passages that speaks of cleansing. When he said, how much more shall the blood of Christ through the eternal spirit, the spirit of God always witness to the blood, the blood always witness to the spirit. How much more shall the blood of Christ through the eternal spirit purify or cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God. God is able to cleanse the conscience from sin. Now let me say something. You know when God begins to deal with you and me about the spirit-filled life. I remember Brother Denny, I don't know if you've ever heard his testimony, but the first time when I was at charity for that Deeper Life conference and Brother Denny's testimony is in there in Crucified of Christ. We talked about this thing and he came to me a number of times and he said, Brother Gerard, I want to understand this thing of holiness. I want to understand this thing of purity. And we had long conversations about this. And I told him how God met with me three years after I went into the ministry and how God brought me to the end of myself. Because you know, you can't crucify yourself. I mean you can nail yourself down to one point, but someone else needs to crucify you. And we talked about this and we prayed in the barn. If you ever stayed with Brother Denny, he had the barn and we prayed in the barn. And I spent many hours walking up and down that barn. It was in the winter, praying and seeking God for those meetings. And during that conference, God came and met with Brother Denny and broke open this thing of heart purity. Listen to 1 John, he said, He that hath this hope in him, purify himself even as he is pure. Listen to 1 John again, he said, If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. That's it, that's salvation. Now John goes further, he said, And to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So this principle of sin in my life as a Christian, God is able to cleanse me from that principle of sin. Does that mean that when he cleanses me from that principle of sin, I will never sin again? No, it doesn't. But what happens is like, and I sometimes explain this to students in seminaries. When Adam and Eve sinned, do you remember how the Bible says, For as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin. And so death passed upon all men, for all are sin. And when God created Adam and Eve, brother and sister, Adam and Eve had a perfect human nature. They were created after the image of God. They had a perfect human nature. And then sin came into the world. And then Ephesians chapter 2 is speaking about this corrupt nature, this crooked generation. And if you look at that in the Greek New Testament, you will discover that every one of us, because of sin, every one of us sits with a crooked human nature. And in this crooked human nature, we are saturated with what the Bible speaks of as indwelling sin. Now we come to God, and God save us. And you know what Dr. Andrew Murray said, God save us from the guilt of sin. But as Christians, we still struggle with the pollution of sin. And so when God comes to us in the spiritual life, which is a subsequent work to salvation, it can happen at salvation, but 99% of people that I have counselled for the last 28 years, and in my own life, 99% of those people, it happened after they were saved. I remember a charity, what is it, 7 or 9 years ago, they asked me one afternoon to do a session, on what does it mean to be full to the spirit. And they gave me about an hour, hour and a half, that afternoon at the men's leadership. There were some pastors there. And I spoke about this thing that God needs to cleanse you from all conscious sin. All conscious sin. And when that session was over, I was just bombarded with men. And there was a pastor there, that came and he attacked me, and he said to me, he said, there is no such a thing as a subsequent work of grace. There is no such a thing as God doing a deeper work in your life. And I would never forget that man. I took him, and I put my finger in his face, and I said, what is there in your life that you are not willing to surrender to God? And he just walked out. But I tell you what, he came back the next day. Do you know what it was? He was a pastor, and on his off day he would go and rent a motel room, and he rent pornographic videos, and he sit and watch them in the motel room. And he said to me, it's gone so far that I've called some of these prostitutes, to come to my room. And he said, I want to meet with God, and then go back into the ministry. And I said, no. You are going to meet with God, but you are not going to go back into the ministry. And I want to say to you today, if you resist the deeper work of God in your life, you need to ask yourself, what is there that I am not willing to surrender? Frank McShann of Scotland used to say, I want to live, I want to live as close to God, as it is possible for any sinner saved by grace. You know, brother and sister, I tell you, my heart is just passionate about this thing. You say, why do you say that, brother Gerard? Do you know why? Because I am in scores of churches every year. If I need to tell you of all the filth that's going on out there, you will just fall on your back. You say, well, maybe they've never been born again. The Corinthians were born again, but they were in a mess. People say to me, I want to belong to the church, the new testament church, and I laugh. I say, which one do you want to belong to? And they say, well, you don't want to be part of the church of Corinth, do you? I mean, they were living on most brutal sins. So, is that the testimony of the church? No. When you study the doctrine of sanctification and holiness, and let me tell you something, the closer you and I are going to walk with God, the more we want God to cleanse us, and purify us, and sanctify us, and set us apart, and make us a group that believes in holiness of heart and life, the more you are going to do that, the more Satan is going to be. And do you know what? Sometimes he will try to bring coming right in amongst us, because he hates the holiness of God. God is able to cleanse. So, what happens? There is this crooked human nature. Every one of us said, as you know, maybe your background is a background where you have given into sin, and so now temptation comes, and there is all these roads that has been used as vehicles of sin, now temptation comes. Maybe it was rejection, and you felt rejected right through your life, and now when rejection comes, the temptation comes, and it slides down, and it slides down, and it slides down, and it comes into the mind, into the emotions, and it turns, and it turns, and you give in to it, and say, oh well, you know. Maybe it was lust. I mean, you don't need to look at television to be caught up in lust. You don't need to do that. You don't need to look onto the internet to be caught up in lust. You don't need to do those things. It's the mind. It's just the mind. And so it comes to the mind. I mean, men. I often say to people, whatever you read, you're forcing the Spirit of God to read it with you. Whatever you think, you're forcing the Spirit of God to think it with you. It's the mind. So there are all these pathways that has been used by sin, and these highways, and these byways, and these rabbit holes, and they're all full of sin. Now God, Dr. Andrew Murray said, God comes and he saves us from the guilt of sin, and we become Christians, and now we sit with the pollution of sin. And so what needs to happen? God needs to come and cleanse us from the pollution of sin. My, I wish we had time, because we're just touching aspects here, and there is so much to it. Cleansing. And let me tell you this afternoon, if you don't believe, brother and sister, that God is able to cleanse us from all conscious sin, you are undermining the work of God. God is able to cleanse us from all conscious sin. Brother Gerard, what about the things that I'm not conscious of? I spoke with Charity about two years ago, one night, about the depravity of sin. If God would come to your life and my life, and in one glimpse of the moment, show us the depth of the depravity of what sin has done. Brother and sister, none of us would be able to get out here for days. The awfulness of sin. But He's able to cleanse me from that which I'm conscious of. And so you say, what happens when He cleanses me from that which I'm conscious of? Well, you know what I've discovered? If He cleanses me, and that's after I've surrendered myself. If I don't surrender myself, then it can't happen. I shared with Brother Jamie and Jason, last year I was in a conference, and there was a man that met with God in these meetings, and this man is high up in dentistry, and in fact I stayed in his house this Sunday night, and he's in the top 5% of Canada, as far as dentists. He lectured all over the country, and all this kind of... And so he looked at me that night when we had supper together after the service, and he said to me, let me explain to you what I do, and he told me what he was doing. And so he said, would you open your mouth? And I just opened my mouth. He said, I want to spend the day in your mouth. And I said, you don't know what you're talking about. And he said, why? I said, when I was in South Africa, I had to help a dentist in the defense forces. And I said, for 8 weeks, because I had a fractured leg, we get 1,800 soldiers get their teeth in 8 weeks. And I said, this dentist is so brutal that I vow in my life that I will never ever go to a dentist again. So for all these years, I've never been to a dentist. So you can imagine the mess. Anyway, he said to me, I want to spend the day in your mouth. And so I committed a day. And this man, I didn't realize what this is all about. And when I came to him, he said, I only work 3 days in a week. He said, it costs between 8 and 10 thousand dollars a day. He said, that's what I do. He said, the art of what I'm doing is that you won't feel any pain today. Believe it or not, I didn't believe it. I mean, that's why I'm so afraid of a dentist. And he said, this is the art of what I'm doing. And so 10 o'clock that morning, he started. And he gave me 8 new teeth. I said, how did he do that? Well, he took the mercury fillings out. He said, that's poison. And he had this camera that cost 150 thousand dollars that he puts in there and he takes a picture of your mouth. And then the camera on the computer draw a new tooth. And then he put something in there and the little saw began to cut this brand new tooth. And he gave me 8 brand new teeth. And, but I mean, can you imagine for 8 hours sitting with an open mouth? You know, I've never in my life talked so much although I didn't say anything that day. And for 8 hours, that's what he did. And I came back home and my wife said, how do you feel? I said, I feel like I can smile for a week. He gave me brand new front teeth. Now listen, I said to him afterwards, how much do I owe you? He said, I met with God. He said, this cost about 8 thousand dollars what I did for you to die. I said, man, to die is an expensive thing. I said, my wife, you know, when I die, just take my teeth out and sit there. 8 thousand dollars worth, you know. But listen to this. He said, that's what I do for you. And he said, I'm not finished with you. He said, I want to see you again in the fall. Now this man did this as a gift because he met with God in meetings that I did. He really met with God. That morning, 10 o'clock on my appointment, if I would have phoned him at 9 o'clock in the morning and said, you know Lloyd, I'm not coming. And he said, why not? He said, I blocked this day off for you. I could have had another patient. He said, I said, I'm not coming. And he said, why not? I said, I'm not willing to surrender my mouth to you. Ah. It would really hurt him, wouldn't it? When I arrived at his office, and I prayed, he's a Christian man, and I prayed for him and he stopped. When I arrived at his office and here was this thing, this chair, and I would, he said, go and lie in the chair. And I said, no, I'm not going to do it. And you see why I said I'm not trusting you. It's going to hurt him. Can you imagine how it hurts God when we are keeping things back from him? Can you imagine? So what did I do? I went and lied in the dentist for eight hours. It was in my mouth. I only felt one little sting at one point. That's all I felt during the day. And I came out, and humanly speaking, he did a perfect job. Why do I say that? I had to surrender myself to him. Do you need to go for an operation? The surgeon is there, and it's cancer that needs to be removed, or it's Roger at bypass. If you got there to the hospital, and the doctor said to the doctor, you know, you're going to do this bypass surgery on me, but I want to know what's going on. I want to be conscious. I mean, this doctor would say to you, you must come out of a Havarai colony somewhere, don't you? You know? What are you talking about? He said, you need to trust me. I'm going to put you under anesthetic, and for hours, we're going to operate on Roger. We're going to do this operation. And he trusted. If he didn't trust it, he wouldn't have been here today. What about the great physician? What about the great physician? And sometimes we learn it from other ways, you know. I shared some time ago about, we have a parrot, and, you know, we found another parrot that people don't want to have. And these things, I learned some lessons of, these birds trusting you. And this other one that's in our house now, his name is Chico. And for 45 minutes the other day, these two parrots were talking to each other. I mean, you wouldn't believe. I'm trying to get this guy to say, God bless you, my son. My wife says, no, that sounds too Catholic. Teach him something else, you know. But this one, Chico, this bird, just learning to trust me, just learning to trust me. And the other night, we were playing with him, Monica and myself, and he's always very friendly, and he does a lot of talking, you know. He kept on saying, high five, high five, high five. And when you come to him, he'll lift up his claw like that. And he'll give you a high five, in his simple bed. The other night, he was busy all day, carrying on. And 9 o'clock, we just laughed so much. 9 o'clock came, and he was really tired. And we put him back in his cage, and he went and he sat, and he kind of dozed away, and he just looked up and he said, night, night. And we look at this bird, and we just laughed. He said, night, night. But, you know, when you learn to see how animals are willing to trust you, animals are willing to trust you. I feel, you know, we are Christians, we're such rascals. We don't even trust one another. We don't even trust God. And then Jesus came, and what did he say? He said, look at the sparrows, look at the birds of the field. Where do they get their food from? From heavenly fire. So the question is this, you know what it is? You can trust the one that died for you. It's one that's thicker, closer, closer than a brother. I had to counsel a man some time ago, and he did something that really hurt us. And I spent time with him, and I said to him, Howard, I said, you know what hurts me the most? I said, he said, what is it, Gerard? He was really repentant. And, I said, I said, we thought we could trust you. We thought we could trust you. And for days he couldn't look at me. Not because he was upset with me, but because of the fact we couldn't trust him. Father insisted, you can trust God. Wouldn't he say, be holy as I am holy, and then not make a way possible for us to be holy. Why would he say, follow peace of all men and holiness, wherewith no man shall see the Lord, and wouldn't make it possible for us to live. Why would he say, be full to the spirit, and doesn't make it possible for us to live a spiritful life.