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- Easter Monday Evening Convention 1988
Easter Monday Evening Convention 1988
Ian Paisley

Ian Richard Kyle Paisley (1926 - 2014). Northern Irish Presbyterian minister, politician, and founder of the Free Presbyterian Church, born in Armagh to a Baptist pastor. Converted at six, he trained at Belfast’s Reformed Presbyterian Theological College and was ordained in 1946, founding the Free Presbyterian Church in 1951, which grew to 100 congregations globally. Pastoring Martyrs Memorial Church in Belfast for over 60 years, he preached fiery sermons against Catholicism and compromise, drawing thousands. A leading voice in Ulster loyalism, he co-founded the Democratic Unionist Party in 1971, serving as MP and First Minister of Northern Ireland (2007-2008). Paisley authored books like The Soul of the Question (1967), and his sermons aired on radio across Europe. Married to Eileen Cassells in 1956, they had five children, including MP Ian Jr. His uncompromising Calvinism, inspired by Spurgeon, shaped evangelical fundamentalism, though his political rhetoric sparked controversy. Paisley’s call, “Stand for Christ where Christ stands,” defined his ministry. Despite later moderating, his legacy blends fervent faith with divisive politics, influencing Ulster’s religious and political landscape.
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Sermon Summary
This sermon emphasizes the need for the Spirit of God to fall afresh on believers, to break, melt, and fill them with His presence. It challenges listeners to examine their joy in reading the Scriptures, praying, and engaging with fellow believers, highlighting the importance of genuine joy and holiness in Christian living. The message underscores the significance of obeying God's commandments and seeking His grace for true holiness and living in truth.
Sermon Transcription
And as our heads are bowed and our eyes are closed, we're going to sing that little invitation to the Spirit of God. Spirit of the living God, fall afresh on me. Spirit of the living God, fall afresh on me. Break me, melt me, fill me. Spirit of the living God, fall afresh on me. We're glad to have our brother, the Rev. Mark Luthold, the minister of the Independent Methodist Church in Atlanta, Georgia, who's visiting with us and was with us last year and preached for us. And he'll be preaching in some of our churches and preaching here on Wednesday week at our own church. We're delighted he's here. He's going to lead us in prayer. I'm going to ask the Rev. Alec Chambers, a minister of Antrim, to come to the pulpit and join with us in the opening prayers tonight. Spirit of the living God, fall afresh on me. Amen. Spirit of the living God, fall afresh on me. May God help us all to pray. Brother Chambers. Our gracious God and our loving Father in heaven, we do rejoice this evening again in the opportunity given to us to gather together in this way and to come into thy presence. O God, we bless thee tonight that while we stand upon the earth, yet we rejoice that we can touch the throne of heavenly grace. O God, how we thank thee for the many times in thy word that, Lord, thou dost assure us that when we call upon thee, thou dost hear us. Lord, we draw nigh tonight knowing that thou dost bend down thine ear to hear our prayers. Lord, we thank thee that tonight we come before thee, not in our own merits or in our own name or in our own strength, but we thank thee, Lord, that we come in the blessed name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, we thank thee tonight that we have commenced this meeting by singing of the blood. And, O God, we come tonight to rejoice again in thy presence in the blood of Christ. Lord, we thank thee that there is power in the blood of the Lamb. O God, we rejoice tonight that we've been singing a wonderful testimony hymn that, Lord, we're not trusting in ourselves or in our good works or in anything that we have done. But, Lord, tonight our hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. Lord, we rejoice tonight that we're building on the solid rock even the Lord Jesus Christ. Our Father, we come to bless thee for thy love and mercy. O God, when we look back and realize that we were in nature's darkness, but, Lord, we thank thee that thou didst look upon us in mercy and in grace. And we thank thee, Lord, for that blessed day when the light of the glorious gospel shone into our hearts. Lord, we're glad tonight that we're numbered with the redeemed. We're glad tonight that we're counted in among the people of God. Lord, we rejoice in all thy grace. We come, Lord, before thee on behalf of this meeting. Lord, we thank thee that we have known thy presence in these convention services already. We give thee thanks, O God, for what has been done. We say to God be the glory, great things he hath done. We thank thee, Lord, for people who have been saved. We thank thee, Lord, for backsliders who have been restored. We bless thee, O God, for hearts and lives touched by thy hand. But, Lord, we come and we realize that we need a fresh touch again tonight. O Lord, we need thee to come. Lord, we cannot rest upon our past blessings. O, we pray for a moving tonight of thy Holy Spirit in this meeting. We pray for a mighty visitation from heaven. O God, we pray that tonight, as this convention comes to a conclusion, we pray, Lord, that it may be a time of special blessing. Lord, we thank thee that we believe tonight in revival. We thank thee, Lord, we believe that thou canst move in our midst. And, O God, we need it in our hearts, we need it in our churches, we need it in our province. O God, we thank thee that we can look back and we can remember what thou hast done in the past. We can recall times of spiritual refreshing. O God, we pray that thou wouldst do it in our day. Lord, we cry from our hearts tonight with the psalmist of old, wilt thou not revive us again that thy people may rejoice in thee? O Lord, come and bless in these dark and evil and sinful days. We pray that thou wouldst move again. Lord, we pray, come and speak to our hearts, come and visit us tonight. We pray for all who will take part in this meeting, those who will sing, bless their ministry to us. And Lord, especially, we pray that thou wouldst remember those who have the responsibility of opening to us the Word of God. Lord, fill them with thy power, lay liberally to their hand, and grant that tonight we may be greatly blessed and encouraged and built up by the preaching of thy Word. So hear and answer prayer, for we ask in Jesus' name. Amen. Let's continue in prayer. Spirit of the living God, fall fresh on this place tonight, on every heart. Lord, how we pray that we might meet thee in this hour. And may we not go forth from this place tonight without having done business with thee. We're so thankful that we can gather once again in the name of our precious Savior. We're thankful that we can come cleansed by the blood of Calvary. Lord, we pray that the Holy Spirit might so fill us that we will go forth from this place in this, from this last meeting of this convention, that our lives might be a blessing to those with whom we have contact. We're thankful tonight for your Word. Oh Father, we pray that thou wouldst bless those who come to preach to us. We pray that thou wouldst anoint them from on high, that thou wouldst give them insights and understanding that will minister to the hearts of this people. Lord, I pray that you'll help my brother Bill and give him strength tonight. Touch his body and quicken him. Lord, we pray for thy special anointing upon his ministry tonight. And for brother Giler. Oh Father, how we pray that we might hear from heaven, that this might be truly a time of anointing and refreshing in the midst of thy people. Our Father, we're thankful tonight that the Lord Jesus Christ is the one that we lift up. And may he be the preeminent one. And may men and women, boys and girls, see Jesus only. Father, how thankful tonight we are that you've given us this message. We say with the Apostle Paul that Christ and his cross might be preached. And Lord, we're thankful tonight that that's the message. Lord, and then open the other scriptures that flow from that salvation that we have in him, that our hearts might be strengthened in our Christian lives. Father, bless each one. There are those who've come here tonight that are sad and weary, carrying the burdens of the day. We pray that thou would meet them. Lord, we pray that if there are those here tonight who know not the Savior, that they will turn unto him and come to know him whom to know right is truly life everlasting. Father, have your way. Minister in this place. We wait upon thee. We come at the beginning of this service asking for thy help. And Lord, how I pray that you'll bless every portion of the service. Our Father, send forth the showers of blessings. May they fall. May there be an abundance of rain. May we truly know that we have met with thee this hour. Thank you, our Father. Thank you for thy goodness to us and for thy good working in our hearts. We'll praise thee now and forevermore for all that thou hast done, for all that thou art doing, and for all that thou wilt do for us as we yield and surrender our lives unto thee. We pray these prayers asking these blessings in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen. And everybody say it. Amen. God bless you, brethren. Thank you. Dr. Rod Bell now is going to minister the word of God to us. Dr. Bell, could I just say how great a thing it has been for us all to have our brother with us for this convention once again. When I first went to Bob Jones University, Dr. Bell was just finishing his career as a student in the university. He heard me preach a very famous series of lectures on the reformers. In fact, as we were singing that hymn tonight, his oath, his covenant, and his blood, I said to these brethren with a Methodist on the left and a Baptist on the right and a Bible-centered man in the middle, I said to them, I'm glad to see you're singing good covenant theology. Amen. Say amen to that. Amen. You know what he preached tonight. Amen. So it has been a delight. Then he said, Dr. Jones said, there's a young man who started a church in Virginia Beach, and he wants you to preach. I said, what is he like? He said, he's just like you. He's a shouter. Well, I said, I feel perfectly at home with him. And we came and we shouted in the airport, and they were glad to get us out of the airport. And when we were coming along the road, we cleaned up every apostate church on the road, every one of them. And then he said, you know, they threatened me. If I have your preaching, they'll blow the place up. But he says, I'll put a big Baptist deacon with a shotgun on every corner, and we'll repair, repel boulders. But they didn't do that. They waited until I went away. And then a man went out one night, and he took a gun, and he blew every window out of the church. The first time the Baptists had fresh air. And I want to tell you, I want to tell you, it did them good, because they were stronger than ever. And he said, you have to come back again. They never blew the windows out the second time. And we have had some tremendous meetings. And I went to India with them. And we had a powerful experience in India, because we couldn't get into a decent hotel. And they put us into this fleabag hotel. And we had a long, long journey from London. We had quite an experience in London, because when we went into the VIP lounge, these two police officers came in, and they went over to Dr. Bell, and they said, are you naked? And he looked at them, and he says, no, I have my clothes on. And I said, I know what it is. They think you're my minder. And they're asking you, do you carry a gun? Now, I said, brethren, I just want to tell you two policemen, I'm going to educate you. If I wanted a preacher to mind me, I wouldn't invite a Baptist to do it, because Baptists are very good at sticking knives in other people's backs. So I wouldn't have that. Of course, he agreed with that, for many a Baptist has tried to put a knife in his. But we got to India, and we went to this fleabag hotel. And I want to tell you, fleas are of the devil. Amen. Because those fleas had breakfast, dinner, tea, and supper of fundamentalist blood. I tell you, they really sucked us. And round the corner, our friend Dr. Jones, he was in a five-star hotel. And here were poor Baptist preacher, been bitten to death by fleas. There's only two things come from the dust of the earth, Mr. Nicholson used to say, and that is a big Irish flea and mankind. So you're a full cousin of a flea. So you don't need to have any pride in you, because the Bible says that fleas in Egypt were made of the dust of the ground. So you're a full cousin of a flea. So you needn't have any pride about it. Dr. Bell and me have prayed together, and we have preached together, and won souls together, and knelt at bounds beside sinners as they wept their way to Calvary. We've had some fights together, and our brother has got himself into a lot of trouble. There was one Baptist preacher, and he said, anybody that would preach with Paisley is a backslider. Anybody that would preach with Paisley is a reprobate. And I preached a sermon once on soul winning, and that sermon blessed the soul of Dr. Bell. And one time he was preaching at a great conference, and he was using the line that I used in that sermon. And this old Baptist fellow came up, and he said, that was a great sermon. And he said, I was really thrilled. I got my soul blessed. And Brother Bell looked at him, and he says, I'm glad you got blessed. You know whose sermon that was? That was Paisley's sermon. So he got his own back on him. Amen. That's the sort of man Brother Bell is. So thank God for him. He rings a true bell for Jesus. God bless you, Brother. You've been ringing way long. I'm going to be a humble Baptist preacher and not say one word in rebuttal. We'll be silent. I just wanted to let the folk at the Easter convention know the reason why I'm wearing a collar. I'm not a free Presbyterian. I preached at Bob Jones University last week at the Bible conference, and there was about 6,000 people there maybe, and students, and visitors, and faculty. And I had my collar on, and I tried to preach in the collar. And I thought, well, maybe I will tell them why I'm wearing this collar. And I said, I want you to know that a lady hit me in the rear. And everybody started laughing. I didn't know what I'd said wrong. I didn't know I said anything wrong. But I said she'd hit me in the rear. I said, the rear end of my car. And she did. Well, it was a woman. I don't say that she was a lady. She was a woman. And she was drunk, and she really whopped me. So, but I'm 100 percent better. I'll tell you, a good pulpit sweat does wonderful wonders for you. And I thank God. Now listen, I'm going to leave the convention this year again having a greater desire, number one, to pray, a greater desire, number two, to study God's Word, and number three, to love Him more dearly. That's the way I leave this convention every time I'm here. And I want to go on record that Ian Paisley is my friend. And we stand shoulder to shoulder. I don't stand behind him. You know, I got a lot of folks who say, I stand behind you, Brother Bell. Yeah, whenever the fire gets hot, there's a four behind me. I can't find them. But I want to stand shoulder to shoulder with our dear brother in the battle of the fundamentals of the faith. We see eyeball to eyeball on that, and we're standing together. Don't you ever worry. We'll be there. If I ever, if he ever needs me, I'll be here. And if I ever need him, he'll be there. The way things are going, I've been in court for 10 years trying to keep my school open and trying to keep our government from controlling our school. Now you pray, and if we lose, we've lost every case, every court, and we've kept appealing. We have to appeal one more. That'd be the U.S. Supreme Court. And if we lose, everybody in America loses that case if they hear it. If they don't, well, you'll have to visit this back to Bedford with bunion. That's just the way it is. Let's bow our head for a word of prayer. Our Heavenly Father, we thank Thee for Dr. Paisley. We thank Thee for the Free Presbyterian Movement. We thank Thee for their love for the Savior, the love for the book. And our Father, we thank Thee for the leadership that Thou has given God's man, not only in this Providence, in the United Kingdom, and in Europe, but around the world, the fundamentalists, yea, Presbyterian, Baptist, pre-fundamental Methodist, Bible-centered men, men who are fundamentalists, look to this man for leadership. Lord, we thank Thee. We pray daily for him, and, Lord, churches around the world pray for this man. And our Father, I pray that You'll help Ulster not to take him for granted. Lord, I ask You to help God's people to pray for Thy servant and pray for this great movement that magnifies the Savior. And, dear Lord, if the Free Presbyterian Movement ever stops magnifying the Savior, close it down. Lord, let it become just an old mothball, an empty shell. Lord, close it down. And if the fundamental Baptist, independent Baptist in our country ever get to the place that they don't magnify the Savior and stand for the entitled book, blow it up, Lord. Lord, help us that we might bring business. Oh, God, we ask You to fill us with the Holy Ghost tonight. Thou has promised, and we accept that filling by faith in Jesus' name. Amen. The wise men came from the east to Jerusalem, and they said, where is he that is born the King of the Jews? Where is he that is born the King of the Jews? The scholars, some of them said Bethlehem. And then I remember a time when the Greeks had hungry hearts. They came to the Passover, and they said, sir, we would see Jesus. All the festivity and all of the folly and frivolity, we would see Jesus. A few years ago, I made up my mind that that's the job of every child of God, that our lives might be so in tune with Him that we would see Jesus and know Him in such a personal, intimate relationship that people would see Christ in our life. And I said, dear Lord, every time I preach, I'm going to take a text. I'll make a beeline to Calvary. If you have your Bibles, I want you to turn with me to Exodus chapter 34. Exodus chapter 34, many times as people in our country go to our churches and say we would see Jesus, where is he that is born the King of the Jews? They see relics, they see rubbish, they see religion, and they don't see Jesus. Oh, help us whenever they come to church that our people who have hungry hearts might see Jesus. God help us to be like the Yeshudimite in chapter three of the Song of Solomon. God help us whenever she came to the watchman upon the wall, she was troubled, and her heart was hungry, and she got up off of her bed, and she went, and she looked for Him, and she said, I must find Him whom my soul loved. She came to those watchmen on the wall who were the preachers, and she said to the preachers, have you seen Him whom my soul loveth? Have you seen Him whom my soul loveth? Hey, listen to me. Should not every Sunday morning, every Sunday night, and every Wednesday night, our people have the right to come to us and say to us, have you, preacher, seen Him whom my soul loveth? Preachers, have you seen Him whom my soul loveth? My heart, preacher, is hungry today. I don't want relics. I don't want rubbish. I don't want religion. I want to see Him whom my soul loveth. Now let's look at this. In Exodus chapter 34, in verse 11, and God spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend, and he turneth again unto the camp, and said, but, and he turned again unto the camp, but his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, departed out of the tabernacle. And Moses said unto the Lord, See, thou sayest unto me, bring up this people. Thou hast not let me know whom thou wilt send with me, yet thou hast said, I know thee by name, and thou hast also found grace in my sight. And now therefore I pray thee, if I have found grace in thy sight, show me now by way that I may know thee, that I may find grace in thy sight, and consider this nation is thy people. He said, I cannot, it cannot be said, Lord, that we are peculiar people and highly favored, but unless you go with us in verse 14. Then he said, my presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest. Verse 15, and he said unto him, if thy presence go not with me, carry us not hence. He said, Lord, if you don't go with me, I don't want to go. I want, I want your presence more than I want anything in the earth. And Lord, if you don't go with me, and you're not in my life, and your presence is not in my life, I don't want to go. Now watch. For wherein shall it be known here that I and thy people have found grace in thy sight? Is it not in that thou goest with us? So shall we be separated, I and thy people from all the people that are upon the face of the earth. And the Lord said unto him, Moses, I will do this thing, also that thou has spoken, for thou has found grace in my sight, and I know thee by name. And he said, I beseech thee, show me thy glory, O the hunger of Moses, show me thy glory. And he said, and he said, I will make all thy goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee, and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy to whom I will show mercy. And he said, thou canst not see my face, for thou shalt no man see my face and live. And the Lord said, behold, there is a place by me, and thou shalt stand upon a rock under it, and it shall come to pass, while my glory pass by, that I will put in a cleft to the rock, and I will cover thee with my hand while I pass by. And I will take away my hand, and thou shalt see my hundred parts, but my face shall not be seen. I preached a series of messages in my church on the feet of Jesus, the hands of Jesus, the bones of Jesus, the eyes of Jesus, the crown of thorns of Jesus, the robe of Jesus, the lips of Jesus, and I preached a series of messages on the face of Jesus. I want you to notice, Moses did not ask to see his face, but he asked to see his glory. When I began to study for my message, I thought about Moses not asking to see the face of the Lord. He said, I beseech thee, show me thy glory. And then I turned to that familiar passage in 2 Corinthians chapter 4, verse 6. For God, whom commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. My friends, Moses wanted to see his glory. Moses did not get to see. The Lord said, you can't see my face. I want you to know that the glory of God is shown in the face of Jesus. That's what our dear pastor said tonight. Moses, show me thy glory. John said, the revelator, in John, Revelation 1, verse 16. He turned and he saw the resurrected, glorified Christ in all of his glory. And what did he say? His counselors shined as the strength of the sun. And then he fell as a dead man. Then you remember the story? How the apostle Paul on the road to Damascus, what did he do? The apostle Paul on the road to Damascus, he was looked at, he saw a bright light and he fell as a dead man and was stricken blind. Isaiah, the Bible says, in the year the king Uzziah died, I saw the Lord. And Isaiah said, woe is me for I'm a man of unclean lips. And he was stricken. I want to speak to you tonight on the face of Jesus. Don't turn to all the scriptures, just mark them. And I'm going to just give you some scriptures and you'll mark them if you would please. Now the face of Jesus, the face is one of the most expressive portions of the human body. The face is the index to our character and our personality. It's the mirror of the changing emotions of our soul. It reveals our identity. Hey, there's not two identical twins. There's not two Rod Dales. And some of the people in Virginia Beach said, amen. There's not two Ian Paisleys and thousands say amen. But it's that face that reveals our identity, reveals our person. It reveals love. It reveals anger. It reveals hate. It reveals tenderness. It reveals emotion. It reveals our countenance, reveal what we really are inside. And the modern pictures that we have in the average art museums of our Lord are no more than artist's conception. And personally, I find most of them repulsive. My Lord was not an effeminate looking type hippie. My Lord was a man. He was all man. And when Pilate who had seen mighty gladiators fight and had seen the gladiators in the arena, he saw the punishment that our Lord was taking and he said, behold the man. What a man, literally. What a man. My Lord was a man. Perfect man. All man. But the face reveals who we are and what we are. Let's look at the face of Jesus from the sacred pages of God's infallible book. And let's see what we can learn about it in the time that we have allotted. Number one, the face of Jesus was a sacred face. It was a sacred face, a holy face. Because second Corinthians says in the face of Jesus is the knowledge of the glory of God. The glory of God was in the face of Jesus. And my friends, I want you to know whenever you blaspheme Jesus and you talk about Jesus and whenever you run Jesus down, you're talking about the heavenly Father. You're talking about God. He's God in the flesh. I don't know about you, but my righteous indignation gets stirred up whenever the apostates in our country and the modernists and the liberals and the communists began to run down Jesus. They have the Jesus Christ superstar, a play or some kind of a hippie rock concert. Wicked and godly. I took my church in the soaking rain with placards and marched around the Coliseum and said, blaspheme me. Jesus Christ was God. And whenever you meet Jesus Christ and you become to him on repentant ground, my friends, I want you to know, you know, you've met God. God. First John 1.4 says in him was life and the life was in the light of men. Exodus 33.20 says, and thou canst not see my face, Moses, for thou shall no man see my face and live. The incarnate son of God, that privilege, God was going to manifest himself and reveal himself in the incarnation. And that privilege was the son of God. He was going to manifest his glory. First Corinthians chapter 10, verse 14, don't turn. And all drank that same spiritual drink for all they that drank that drink, that spiritual drink, uh, that was that for they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them. And that rock was Christ. Listen, in the Old Testament, Christ, every New Testament, every Old Testament type points to Christ. In the Old Testament, Christ is concealed. In the New Testament, he's revealed. And here we see the resurrected, glorified Christ in the rock. Notice the rock. And what did the Lord say? He said that rock was Christ. Mark it down. That rock was Christ. And where did he tell Moses to stand and he would reveal his glory to him? By the rock. Where did he tell Moses in Exodus chapter 17 to stand whenever he would smite the rock? On the rock. Stand on the rock. And he stood on the rock and Moses smote the rock. And my friends, the Bible says that water gushed out. I looked up these two words, then in numbers, in numbers, chapter 20, verses 7 through 12. Again, they began to murmur. They had no water to drink. And the Lord told Moses to what? Speak to the rock. Now, there's two different Hebrew words here for rock. In Exodus chapter 17, when he said, speak to the rock, this word for rock means a low submerged rock, not a small stone, but a mammoth rock, most of it covered with earth and it's embedded, because you could only see a small portion of it, and it's embedded in an uncomfortable environment around it. And he told Moses, you stand on that rock and smite it. And that rock was Christ. But the other rock in numbers, chapter 20, is a different rock. And it means a high, lofty, towering rock with majestic strength. And he said, speak to it. Don't strike it. Speak to it. And I want to say this, when Moses struck that high and lofty rock, that's the reason he didn't enter into the promised land. My friends, he was to be spoken to. He was not to be crucified again afresh. And every time that the blasphemous mass is offered, they're trying to smite the rock again. And my friends, the judgment for apostasy is that they'll not enter in judgment. Oh, listen, that rock was Christ. There's only three kinds of rocks, igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary. But there's over thousands of types of rock. But all rocks are made up of one of these three. An igneous rock is made by molten fire, and that's a picture of God the Father. The sedimentary rock is made by the water and the wind that breaks down into sediments, and that's a picture of the Holy Spirit. And then there is the metamorphic rock, a metaphor, moored, comes from the change of form. He took upon himself the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of man. It's a picture of the Trinity. All three rocks, and no one rock has just one of those. All of them have the different three, different types of rocks in them. And I want to say to you that that rock in the wilderness was my Lord. Said, speak to him. That's a picture of his high intercessory work. Speak to him. And that rock, the holy rock, the holy one that was in the holy face, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. And we beheld his glory, full of grace and truth. Not only was it a holy rock, but it was a humble rock. He fashioned himself and became a man. He's going to reveal the glory of God, the incarnation through the virgin birth. He humbled himself and fashioned as a man, and humbled himself to become obedient, even unto the death of the cross. Not only do we see the sacred face, but let's look. The face of Jesus was a stern face. First Peter 3, 12 says, For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers. But the face of the Lord is against them that do evil. The face of the Lord is against them that do evil. You may call it excuses, and you may call it a weakness, but God calls it sin. And we want you to know those that do a wickedness, God says the face of the Lord is against. He has a stern face. Genesis 19, 13, the angel said to Lot, Because the cry of them is waxed great before the face of the Lord, and the Lord has sent us to destroy this city. Leviticus 17, 10, I will set my face against them. Psalm 34, 16, The face of the Lord is against them that do evil, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth. I want you to know all the wickedness, and all the filth, and all the murder, and all the idolatry, and all the debauchery has taken place. I want you to know that the face of the Lord is against them. Jeremiah 16, 17 says, For mine eyes are upon all their ways. They are not hid from my face. They're not hid from my face. You may think when the blinds are pulled, and the curtain drops down, and night is there that no one sees, but God said it's not hid from my face. I see hid from mine eyes and my face. The face of Jesus, the sacred face, a stern face, but it's a sympathetic face. Luke 19, 41, And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it. Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophet, and stonest them that are sinning to thee, how often thou wouldst have gathered thy hens together, chicks, children together, even as a hen doth gather her chicks under her wings, and you would not. John 35 says, And Jesus wept. Thank God Jesus could weep. God delivers from dry eyes, stony wills, and stubborn hearts. God delivers from people who can't shed tears. God delivers from those who will not weep over souls. I wet my bed, my pillow of tears, and my bed sheets were wet. And I said, Oh God, I can't live if mom and dad doesn't get saved. Jesus wept. Even though he knew Lazarus' death was for the glory of God, he still wept. Even though he knew he was going to resurrect him in just a little while, he still wept. Even though he knew they was going to make fun of him, he still wept. He wept. And they said, He was Lazarus' friend. Wouldn't you like for the enemies of God to say that about you, that you were Jesus' friend? He wept. God help us. Jesus had a sympathetic face. Next, the face of Jesus was a steadfast face. Luke 9, 41 says, And it came to pass when the time was come that he should be received up, he steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem. Listen, he didn't come to live an exemplary life so we could follow in his steps necessarily. Before the foundation of the world, there was a lamb slain in the mind of God, and he was born to die. And he said, I delight to do thy will, O God. And he set his face like sweat towards Jerusalem. It was a committed face. Mark 16, 21, From the time forth began Jesus showing the disciples how that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things. For the elders of the chief priests and the scribes to kill him, he knew what he was walking into. Isaiah 50, verse 7 says, I set my face like what? Like flint. It was a steadfast faith. John 3, 11, says it was a courageous, he was courageous. 311, Verily, verily, I say unto you, we speak what we do, and you receive not our witnesses. And then, number five, the face of Jesus was a shining face. Daniel in Daniel 10, 6, Daniel's vision, he said, The body also was like the burl, and his face as the appearance of lightning, and his eyes the lamp of fire. Psalm 31, 16, Thy face to shine upon thy servants. Matthew, let me say if his face shines upon his servants, you can't walk in darkness. Listen, Matthew 17, 2, And was transfigured before them, and his face did shine as the sun. Oh, thanks be unto God. He has a shining face. His face was a shining, luminous face, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ unto them and the image of God should shine unto them. And I said, If you meet Jesus, you've met God, my friends. For the glory of God is revealed in the face of Jesus. Paul said, We are trouble on every side, yet not distressed. We are perplexed, yet not despaired. Why could he say that? He had met Jesus. He'd seen the glory of God. And then, my friends, the face of Jesus is a submissive face. Luke 22, 61, and Matthew 26, 39, it says, When he went a little farther, he fell on his face and prayed and said, Oh, my father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me nevertheless, not as I will, but as I will. Dear brother, you know what we need to do? Jesus says, What could you not watch with me one hour? When I read that, I said, Oh, blessed name of the Lord, I'll watch with you one hour. I'll watch with you one hour. Oh, God, help us fundamentalists to go just a little deeper in the garden. And I want to say to you, a good Gethsemane experience will make a good Calvary preacher, somebody said. The face of Jesus was a submissive face. He fell on his face and he said, I delight to do thy will. Nevertheless, thy will be done. And then, number seven, the face of Jesus was a smitten face. Luke 22, 64, and I covered that last night. I'll not go over it again, because I don't believe, I don't believe it could do it. When they smote him and struck him, they were literally spitting and striking the glory of God, the saccade of glory of God. That's what wicked, depraved, sinful men were saying. We don't want to, we're against you, we hate you, we despise you. They spit, they struck. Zechariah 13, 7 says, they have, they smite the shepherd and then the face of Jesus is a saving face, hallelujah. Isaiah 45, 2 says, look unto me all ye and be saved all the ends of the earth. Cry, I am God and there is none other. John the Baptist raised his baptizing and saw the Lamb of God and he said, behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. Ah, we who are blood bought, children of God, need to point men and women to the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. Forget our petty, griping incidentals that won't mean two cents in Hades, but God help us to point men to the Lamb of God. Said, behold, look, there he is. And then lastly, the face of Jesus is a satisfying face. Psalm 17, 15 says, as for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness. I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness. First Corinthians 13, 12 says, now we look through a glass darkly, but then face to face. I go from church to church every week in our country and I'll ask the pastor, where is Brother so-and-so? Where's Deacon so-and-so? Where's that good brother that stood by you to help your hands up? And he said, Brother Ben, I lost one of the best friends that I've ever had. He stood with me in battle, but he crossed on over. You know, I've been preaching for over 30 years and I've had a lot to cross on over. There's five men, five men that have meant so much to this creature. And I have a debt of gratitude to pay to them. And two of them have crossed on over and three are still here. And your blessed moderator is one of them. But you know, as much as I love them, as much as I esteem them, as much as I honor and I respect them, I don't want to see them first of all. I've got precious grandmothers, grandfathers, uncles, aunts. I've got a precious daughter on the other side. As much as I love them, that's not all I want to say. I've been walking 32 years by faith and I've seen him by faith. And every time I get in his blessed book, I look for him. I look for him and I search for him and I hunt for him. And out of a nugget and a treasure, he will say, Here I am, son. Oh, I've seen him that way, but thanks be unto God, some golden daybreak, I'm going to see my blessed Lord. Just a glimpse upon his face will be glory for me. I want to see him. First of all, Job said, For I know that my Redeemer liveth and that he shall stand in the latter days upon the earth. And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God. And what I shall see for myself and mine eyes shall be whole and not another. I looked up that word, not another, and it means literally a stranger. He's not a stranger to this preacher. No, no, he's a friend. I've been talking with him, walking with him, praying. And not another, not a stranger, though my ruins be consumed within me. The songwriter said, Face to face with Christ, my Savior, face to face, what will it be when with rapture I behold him, Jesus Christ who died for me. Face to face, I shall behold him far beyond the starry sky. Face to face in all his glory, I shall see him by and by. Face to face, oh blissful moment, face to face to see and know, face to face with my Redeemer, Jesus Christ who loved me so. Face to face, I shall behold him far beyond the starry sky. Face to face in all his glory, I shall see him by and by. And then the songwriter said, Oh, the soul thrilling rapture when I view his blessed face and the luster of his kindly beaming eyes. Now my full heart will praise him for the mercy, love and grace that prepared for me a mansion in the sky. I shall know him, I shall know him and redeemed by his side I shall stand. I shall know him, I shall know him by the prince of the nails in his hand. Oh listen, I prayed today and I prayed, oh dear Lord, I prayed for myself. I prayed the need in my heart and the need in my life. Don't let me leave this great convention without having the spirit of prayer. Second Chronicles 7 14 says, listen people, listen my dearly beloved brethren, if my people which are called by my name shall humble themselves and pray and seek my faith, seek my glory. So much self-centeredness, so much big shot, so much everybody wanting the praise and wanting their piece of the pie. I want you to know the pie all belongs to Jesus. God help us, there's no such things as big shots and little shots. Seek his glory and turn from our wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and forgive their sin and heal their land. Early will I seek thee. Psalm 105 says, thou seek my face forevermore. Diligently seek my face. He's talking about seeking his glory that our blessed moderator preached about today. God help us. Face to face with Christ my Savior, face to face what will it be, when in rapture I behold him, Jesus Christ who died for me. The words you'll find at 469. Let's keep our heads bowed and our eyes closed. We're in God's presence. We have been seeing the holy, the blessed, the beautiful, the buffeted, the spat on, the smitten, the stirred, but the satisfying face of Jesus. You can never be the same again when you see him. You either turn away to be harder, or you turn to him to get the hardened heart changed. It always changes when Jesus looks upon you. Poor old Peter, he had just filled his mouth with blasphemy, and the Lord turned and looked upon Peter, and he went out and wept bitterly. Maybe with bitter tears to shed, because we have denied our Lord, but he'll never deny us. Wonderful Savior. Face to face with Christ my Savior, face to face what will it be, when with rapture I behold him, Jesus Christ who died for me. Let's sing the first verse of the chorus with our heads bowed and solemnly. God is here. Spirit of God is here. The word of God is here. The power of God is here. God is speaking. Thank God he's spoken to me. I'm glad he hasn't passed me by. What a terrible thing it would be to sit in the pulpit of the martyr's memorial church and be passed by, and it could happen, and it could, but thank God he hasn't passed the pulpit by tonight, been speaking to our hearts. Oh, as we sing it, may he continue to speak. Face to face with Christ my Savior. Let's sing it, making it the adoration of our hearts, the worship of our inmost souls, the pouring out of our love, the anticipation of faith and hope that one day will be turned into sight. Yes, we walk by faith today. Soon we'll walk by sight. Let's sing it with that reverent spirit, face to face with Christ my Savior. We have a question to ask ourselves. As the Lord Jesus turned and looked at us tonight, what did he see? As he turned his face to you tonight, what did he see? Did he see rebellion? Did he see stubbornness? Did he see pride? Did he see lack of love for your fellow brethren in the Lord? Did he see lack of respect to the minister of God set over you? Did he see a bitter spirit, a root of bitterness? Did he see a gossiping and perhaps even lying tongue? What did he see tonight as he turned his face to see us? Come on now, be honest. Don't dodge the column. Be honest about it. What did he see? Did he see a soul out of fellowship with God's people? You know, my friend, as I said last night and on Saturday night, and I want to repeat it, the way to a fellowship with God is not to get out of fellowship with the whole people of God. The greatest delusion of the devil is to tell a Christian, get out from among God's people. You're in a separated church that's preaching the word of God and standing for God at your place to stay there, not to run away when things get rough and not to set yourself up and make a decision you're right and everybody else is wrong. You can rest assured you're wrong and everybody else is right if that's your attitude. I tell you, friend, we need to be honest with God tonight. The face of Jesus is a stern face where there's sin. Did he see sin in your heart? What did you say when he looked at you? Did you say, Lord, I'm sorry? Lord, forgive me. Did you go out like Peter and weep bitterly? Did you say, what a fool I've been? Oh, blessed Jesus, your eyes have burned themselves into my inmost soul this night, and I cannot compromise with sin. I hate this damnable thing that kneeled you to a cross, put a thorn on your head and beat you and buffeted you. This thing called sin, it slew you on that cross. Sin is a God killer. It commits deicide. It wants to kill Almighty God. We should hate it. We should tremble at it. We should repudiate it. We should have done with it. We should repent of it. We should bring it to the blood tonight, and we should ask God to cleanse us through and through. I trust that men and women, as we're singing this next verse, only faintly now I see him. And I tell you, friend, he's very faint. If there's sin in your life, and unconfessing in your life, it's no wonder it's faint. But one day you're going to see him full faith. Will you be ashamed when you see Jesus? We read of those that shall be ashamed at his coming. Will you be one of those? Oh, you'll be saved all right. You'll be saved by the skin of your teeth. You'll be saved so as by fire. But you'll be ashamed at the judgment day, ashamed that you are such a miserable Christian. That's what Lot will be like. He'll be ashamed. He's a just man. He lived in Sodom. He played the fool. He ended his life in incest with his family. He'll be in heaven, but he'll be saved so as by fire, for he was a justified man. Is that the way you're going to be? Are you going to be like old father Abraham, a separated believer, walking with God and rejoicing in the chosen seat of heaven? Only faintly now I see him as we sing it. May God help us to make confession of our sins and ask God to be gracious to us. Sought the cleansing blood. Thank God you're clean now. I tell you, if we confess our sin, he's faithful and just to forgive us, to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And the man that says, God save me, I perish. I'm glad the Lord saves him. The sinner that says, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. Thank God he's justified and clean. If we confess our sins, he's faithful, just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Believe it, friend. The promise of God, every sin gone, confessed and cleansed by the blood of the Lamb. And we're going to sing now as our heads are bowed, what rejoicing in his presence. You can look forward to the glory. You're not going to be ashamed. No, you're in fellowship. The song started again in your heart. And our banners grief and pain, when the crooked ways are straightened and the dark things shall be cleared. I'm going to make an appeal on this verse. If you did business with God tonight, real business with God, I want you to do something as we sing this verse. I want you to stand to your feet and remain standing. If you really did business with God, don't be ashamed of it. Doesn't matter what your Christian life has been like before. If you did business in this meeting and you got things settled and sins confessed and pride removed, you just stand to your feet and remain standing. And may God see bodies on the altar tonight in this house of God as we sing it. What rejoicing in his presence. I trust many more will get the account settled and will make a signal to heaven that they've done business with God tonight and God has done business with them. Let's sing it face to face, oh blissful moment. These men and women that have done business with God tonight, and they've got this question settled in their heart, and they're able to stand and say, Lord, the business done, the blood's in my soul, the fellowship has restored, cleansing has taken place, and oh God this night I want to be at my best for Jesus' sake. Oh help them we pray and grant that this will be a time of rich repression. Grant that they'll seek the Lord and seek his power and seek the infilling of the Holy Ghost and seek the joy bells of heaven. And may they be satisfied with the blessed face of the Lord Jesus, of the people of God's hand. Amen. You may be seated. God bless you. It's a real privilege to have Brother Geiler with us. I've preached in this church. We have gone preaching together. Brother Geiler learned how to picket in the Free Presbyterian Church. And then he went down to Washington when the Pope was there. And he wore one of those anti-Pope shirts and stood up on Capitol Hill and said, no Pope here. And then he went to the 17th of March, St. Patrick's Day, and held up posters shouting for Ulster and shouting Protestant slogans. They thought he was mad. Came along and said, who are you? Thought he was mad. I want to tell you, he had a lot of sense. He was the only sensible person there. Everybody else was drinking green beer, and he was drinking buttermilk. Wasn't he sensible? Wasn't he sensible? Well, we thank God for him. We love this man and the Lord. And we bless God for his faithful ministry. And we trust God will spare him long to preach the Word of God. Come, Brother, and minister to us tonight. Thank you, Dr. Paisley. When five men go to New York City and protest two million drunk Irish Catholics, you are crazy. Definitely mad. It's a joy to be here and a joy to be on the platform with Dr. Rod Bell, one of the great fundamental preachers in America. And I thank the Lord for him. It's good to be here. Mark Leuthold came in today. It's good to be with him. Mark and I are distant relatives, right? We're distant relatives. And it's a joy to be here and see people in Ulster once again and visit with friends. And I want to thank Dr. Paisley for his kindness to me, for his help to me, and the blessing he's been to my life. I want to thank him for that tonight publicly. And it's a joy to be here. Shall we stand for prayer? Father, we thank you for this convention. Lord, from the very beginning, we've sensed Thy working and Thy presence here, and we thank you for that. Lord, thank you for meeting with us. We pray tonight in this closing service that we'll sense Thy presence. Lord, may it not be just another service. May you do a work in our hearts. May we, when we go out the door tonight, we be different than when we came. May we love the Lord Jesus in a way that we've never loved Him before. May our dedication be more deep than before. May our consecration be more complete. Oh, Lord, do a work in our heart tonight. And for anyone who has come in who is unsaved, Lord, speak to their heart. Lord, don't let anyone leave this place where Thy presence is so real without knowing the Lord Jesus as their Savior. Blessed now we pray in Christ's name. Amen. John chapter 17. John chapter 17. The Lord Jesus left Galilee and went southward to Judea, was baptized of John the Baptist, and his ministry was introduced. He went back to Nazareth, read the scriptures, told the people that this scripture is fulfilled in your sight. They turned against Him. He left Nazareth and went to the Sea of Galilee and chose twelve men to follow Him. They went to the Mount of Olives, or Mount of Beatitudes. He taught them, and then they went out two by two. For almost three years, they ministered in Galilee through Samaria and in Judea. They saw Him cause the blind to see, the deaf to hear, the dumb to speak, the lame to walk, and the poor people had the gospel preached to them. They followed Him, not only ministering, but anticipating His arrival in Jerusalem, where they believed He would set up a kingdom, and they would rule in that kingdom with Him. But when they came to Jerusalem, He revealed to them that His hour had come. He revealed to them that He was going to die. He had said it before. They did not understand it, but in a real way, He told them He was going to the cross. It was Passover. He instructed them to get a room where they would celebrate it. They went to a room and sat down around a table, partook of the Jewish Passover, and then He instituted the Lord's table. And then Judas was revealed as the betrayer, and Judas went out. And there in the upper room, flickering torches and oil lamps, eleven disciples now around the table, the Lord Jesus there, He began to reveal to them truths concerning the coming of the Holy Spirit, telling them about the fact that He was going to die, be resurrected. Their hearts were broken. They were depressed and discouraged because they thought everything was going wrong. He said, Let not your heart be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in Me. And then before they left that place, the Lord Jesus Christ prayed. He prayed this prayer recorded in John 17. He prayed His prayer, the Lord's prayer. Many times we say, Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. That prayer, that was actually a model prayer which He gave to His disciples. This is the Lord's prayer. And as He opened His eyes and looked up to heaven, and as He opened His mouth, there in that room that night as He prayed, I believe the disciples saw the heart of the Lord Jesus as they had never seen it before. He opened His heart, and in that prayer He revealed what He wanted of them, what He wanted to see in their lives, those things that would characterize them. And He prayed for those things to be evident in their life. The reason this came to my attention, I went in the auditorium of our church the other day. No one was there. I stood in the pulpit and looked out over the empty pews, and I thought of the people that gather there every Lord's Day morning and night and three times a week. In my mind's eye, I saw the family that sits over here, the young people that's over there, and all of the people before me. And I said to the Lord, I've pastored this church for 27 years, but Lord, it's Your church. Help me to be a good pastor of this church, and help this church to be what You would have it to be. And it seemed as a few days after that, the Lord drew my attention to this prayer where He prayed for certain things to characterize His disciples and that prayer was not only for them, but for people that would believe in the future. And I believe we see things that He prayed for tonight in this chapter that He wants to be seen in the church in Rosh Harkin, the church in Londonderry, the church in Balamina, this church, the church in Atlanta, the church in Marietta, these things that He prayed for. And the title of this message is, The Marks of the Church That Pleases the Lord. And I want to draw your attention to those things tonight in this prayer. The first of these is found in verse 13, And now come I to thee, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. That they might have my joy. I believe that's a mark, that's an evidence. He wants seen in every church represented here tonight and in the life of every Christian, joy, His joy, that satisfying joy, that joy of composure, that joy that was in the heart of Christ as He made His way to the cross. He wants our churches to have joy. He wants you and I as Christians to have joy. In the 15th chapter of Luke, you'll remember He was preaching. He's preaching to the sinners. He's preaching to the publicans. And here came the Pharisees and the scribes, and they began to murmur and complain because He was preaching to the Pharisees and scribes. And then Jesus stopped and He told three stories. There was a man that had a hundred sheep. He lost one of them. He went out and looked for it until He found it, and then He brought it in, and He put it in the sheepfold, and there was rejoicing. A man had, a woman had coins. She lost one of them. She swept the floor, lighted a candle, and looked for the coin till she found it. And once again there was rejoicing. A man had two sons. One went away, lived in a far country in Marietas living, but one day came home. He killed the fatted calf, and there was great rejoicing. And the three stories seem to be teaching. Lost sheep, lost coin, lost son, and the purpose of the stories are to show us how Jesus is concerned for the lost. That definitely is a truth there, but there's a deeper truth. The fact that the Pharisees and the scribes had no joy about the lost sheep, and the lost coin, and the lost son being found. And He was saying to them, you have no joy. You don't rejoice when the gospels preach to sinners, when a lost man is hearing how to be saved. There's no joy. And they were incapable really of having joy because they were lost. But if He reprimanded them with three illustrations for not having joy, and not understanding what brings joy, how much more would He reprimand you and I tonight who have the capacity for joy, and it's not found in our lives. Moses made a speech to the children of Israel just as they came up to the end of their journey after 40 years. He had brought them through the wilderness. He had seen the quail come down. He had seen the water come out of the rock. He had seen the Lord deliver them and provide for them for 40 years. And he knows that he's going up to Pisgah mountain range and die. And he makes a speech to the children of Israel just before he leaves them and just before they cross over into the Jordan. And he tells them this in the speech, if you do this, you'll be blessed. If you do this, you'll be blessed. If you obey the Lord, your land will be blessed. If you obey the Lord and walk according to His statutes, you'll know the blessing. But if you don't do this, you'll be cursed, cursed, cursed, cursed. Why? Because thou servest not the Lord thy God with joyfulness and gladness of heart. The Lord wants His servants to be characterized with joy. Now that's of concern to me. That's of concern. There's an evangelist in America. I haven't seen him for a few years, but he's been an evangelist for 50 years and he's preached here in this city. His name's Fred Brown. Fred Brown's been an evangelist for 50 years and he told a friend of mine that last year was his most difficult year in evangelism. In 50 years, it was the most difficult year. And he explained why. There's a coldness in churches and there's a deadness in churches and there's an unconcernedness in churches all across the country that he's never seen before. It's almost impossible to have a service on Monday night because no one will come. Most churches are trimming down until no Sunday evening service, and some are canceling out their Wednesday night service attempting to make a convenient Christianity for a materialistic society. No joy. No joy. I was eating dinner with an evangelist the other day who travels and crisscrosses the country. I said, you get a much better perspective of the country than I do. Tell me, what do you see in churches all across America? And the man looked across to me and he said this as quick without thinking. He said, they are dead and without joy, and many Christians are losing their joy and churches do not have it. Yet the Lord Jesus prayed. That night before he went to the cross, he prayed for his disciples and all who would believe in the future that they would have his joy. And I ask you, my friend, is it a joy to you to read the scriptures? Can you go day in and day out and never pick up your Bible and not miss it? Does someone have to drive you to read the scriptures? Can your church have prayer meeting after prayer meeting and you have no desire to meet with God's people and pray? Is joy, is prayer no joy to you? Is the Bible no joy? Is there no joy in talking to a lost person about Christ? Is there really very little joy in coming to the church service? You sort of do it because it's the expected thing, but you sort of grind your way through it. My friend, if so, you need to do work with the Lord tonight. There's something wrong in your heart. There's sin that needs to be driven from it, and you need to be filled with the Spirit so that you'll be a Christian with joy, that you'll love to read the word of God. You'll love to pray. You'll love to be in the house of God. I don't know whether I'm getting more spiritual or just getting older. I hope I'm getting more spiritual, but I want to tell you the longer I live, the less there is in this world that interests me, and the more I just want to know Jesus and love Him and know the word of God better than ever before and to be in prayer meetings and pray. Listen, life is in Christ. It's in Christ. He wants joy. Oh, on the last night of this convention, I haven't come to as an American to rebuke you. I haven't, but are we going to let this convention pass and go back to Rosh Harkin and back to our ma and back to these cities with our heart in the same condition it was before, cold and apathetic, and this was just an occasion to attend on a beautiful weekend in Ulster? Or did you come to do business with God until you go back saying, oh God, I don't want to ever be the same again. Fill me with joy. Oh, listen, you know if all of the people in this building tonight went back through their respective churches and homes and neighborhoods with the joy of God in their heart overflowing with a love for the word of God in prayer, it had shaped this province. Oh, may that mark be upon our church. Oh God, may that mark be upon my life. May that mark be upon the church I pastor. Brother Mark, may it be upon your church. Brother Bill, the mark of joy. Second, it's verse 17. He prayed, sanctify them through thy truth. Thy word is truth. The second mark that Christ prayed for these disciples to have upon them was the mark of holiness. Sanctify them through thy truth. Sanctify has to do with being holy, and he wants the mark of holiness upon us, the mark of holiness upon our churches. We have to be careful here because here's a very tricky doctrine, and it's a very easy place for the devil to get in, and it's a very easy thing with which to be fooled. Holiness, because there is abroad in the country where I live a practical holiness that is not godly holiness. You say, what do you mean by that, Mr. Giler? Well, let me use an example. We've got a Christian school in Marietta. I wish you could all come and visit us. It's a mile from our church, and it's eight acres of beautiful land and a beautiful facility, and we have in a town of 17,175 kids in our Christian school. Now, my wife teaches 31 little kindergarten students, and then there's first graders and second graders and third graders, and then we get up to the high school. There's about 70. Now, those high school students that would be in their ninth, tenth, eleventh, and twelfth year of school, they're getting some age on them. They're getting to be teenagers, 14, 15, 16, 17 years old. They're maturing. They're getting to the place in life that responsibility for serving the Lord is thrust upon them. Now, they are wonderful young people. If I walk up to that building, every one of them refers to me as Pastor Giler. They dress clean. They keep the rules. We don't really have a troublemaker or a rebellious student in that school. But you know what it is? It's a structured holiness. It's a practical holiness. They got a structure around them. The rules say do this. The rules of the school say do that. The rules of the school say pray. The rules of the school say study your Bible, and they live in that. But you take that structure away from them, and Christ is not evident in their life. They never talk about Him. They never pray. You could be around them for a month, and you'd never hear them mention Christ's name. And I tell you, it frightens me, because these young people have a structured holiness, and it's not a godly holiness. It's not a Christ-motivated holiness. He wants people to live for Him and our behavior to be such because of Him. He's given us two items of equipment with which to live as He would have us live. Number one, He has given us some things Old Testament people didn't have, and that makes us responsible. Listen, when we were born again, God gave us His nature. He did not give us all of His attributes. When I got saved, God did not give to me the attribute of omnipotence. He did not give me the attributes of omniscience. He did not give me the attribute of being omnipresent. There are attributes that identify Him as deity that He didn't give to me. But when I got saved, He gave me His nature, and He gave me His disposition. And God's disposition is to love righteousness, and God's disposition is to hate sin. And if I don't love righteousness, and if I don't hate sin, I'm not allowing His nature and His disposition to control me. Not only that, He not only gave me His disposition, but God gave me the Holy Spirit to equip me and help me. And that makes me responsible that my life bear the mark of holiness. And it not always has. And I'm sorry, but I want to bear that mark in my life. Is that your desire tonight, my friend? Is that God's disposition working in you that causes you to want to seek after right things, and seek after spiritual things, and turn from evil and carnal things? My friend, tonight if there's no desire for spiritual things, and your heart lusts constantly after evil, you've never been saved. Because God gives you His disposition, and He gives you the Holy Spirit, and that makes us responsible to bear the mark of holiness. Oh, I look at my church. I want it to bear the mark of joy. I want it to bear the mark of holiness. I want my life to bear those marks. Ladies and gentlemen, as we leave this place in a few moments and go back and over this province, and back to Australia, and back to Germany, and back to Scotland and England, will we bear these marks that Christ prayed for? Joy, holiness. Third, He wants us to bear the mark of truth. He wants us to bear the mark of truth. Truth, the truth of salvation, the truth of Christ, the truth that the Word of God is inspired. He wants our church to bear that mark of truth, to preach that truth, to stand on that truth, to proclaim that truth, to defend that truth, that the mark of every one of these congregations represent here. One of the marks of it be truth. May when people think of a church in Balamina that really stands for the truth, may their minds go to the free church. May the churches in every little town across this province, oh, may we be known as churches that bear the truth. One of our boys at the college, he's kind of a mischievous boy, and he got him a pocketful of money, and he went to a phone booth, and he started calling up all the preachers in town, asking them how to get saved. He knew, but he wanted to see what they'd say. That's the kind of Bible students we got, Brother Bell. And he called up the Presbyterian preacher, and he called up the Lutheran preacher, and he was getting all these crazy answers, and he called the Unitarian preacher. And when the preacher wasn't home, his wife was there. And he said, Man, could you tell me how to get to heaven? But she said, My husband's not here, and I don't know. Well, he said, I'd just like to know. What if I were dying? Couldn't you tell me how to get to heaven? I'm not bragging. I'm not. She said, There's a man, Giler. Call him up. He can tell you how. I'm not bragging about that, but I thank God our church in Marietta is known as a place that can tell people how to be saved. And I want to tell you, I don't suppose there's anybody in Belfast that ever thinks of Martyr Memorial Church, but they know that there's a place where the gospel's preached, and there's a place where the truth is defended. There's a place where the truth is preached with no compromise. What about a church when you think of it, you have to scratch your head and say, Now, I don't know. Maybe. Maybe they've got a new preacher, and he believes something. Listen, don't hang around a church like that. Don't waste time on a church. There's any question about what it believes. Mark upon us needs to be the truth. But I'll tell you, the devil's always at work. We got a fellow right now in America on a nationwide broadcast that's taken stabs at the blood of Christ, and he's got the ear of many Christian people, and he's saying some detrimental things about the blood. And someone said, Have you ever studied out what he means? Have you ever studied it? No, I haven't studied what he means, and I'm not going to. I already know that any man that says anything that reflects on the blood of Christ, something's wrong with him. A man that's saved and knows the worth of the blood never questions it. He honors it. I don't need to investigate. I know there's something wrong with that man. Blood of Christ was shed blood. The blood of Christ was cleansing blood. The blood of Christ was sealing blood. And there's no salvation apart from the blood. Anyone that doesn't believe in the blood of Christ will die and go to hell. My friend, you're under the blood tonight. Have you ever come to Jesus and said, With your blood, make me clean? Oh, what a price that was paid. You know, the Lord made the planets, and it didn't cost him anything. He made the sun, and it didn't cost him a thing. He made the earth, and it didn't cost him a thing. He just spoke, spoke, and there they were. Didn't cost him a thing. All of the gold and the silver and the veins of the mountains and the rivers and the mountains and the forest never cost God a thing. But when it came to saving our soul, it cost God his son. Truth should be the mark of our church. Now, we're moving on. We will be here long. There's certain things that should mark our churches and our lives as Christians that the Lord prayed for. One, joy. Two, holiness. Three, truth. Four, the mark on every church. As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. The fourth mark that should be upon every church in this province is mission, mission. That's proclaiming the gospel from the pulpit. That's teaching little children how to be saved. That's passing out pamphlets in the neighborhood. That's knocking on doors and witnessing. That's sending missionaries to Cork, Ireland. That's sending them to Africa. Missions is sending them over to Germany. Missions, that's a mark that should be upon every church. But believe it or not, there's Bible-believing churches in our country, and Dr. Belwell knows it, and Mark Luthold could confirm it. They go in, they pull the walls around them, they study the scriptures, they study expositorily the scriptures, they drain everything out of every Greek word and every Hebrew word, and they revel in studying the Word of God, and they never go beyond their doors with the gospel. No mission. Let me say this, that in October I was in Romania, and the last Sunday I was there, a preacher came and I met him, and we went to his church, and I was going to preach for him. We went to a church in Oradea, Romania, and it didn't look like a church building. It was a big warehouse of a thing, and there was only one car there, and that's the car the preacher drove, and it had been bought for him by West Germans and British people and Americans. I went in a little room with that Romanian preacher under communism at nine o'clock, and he and I got on our knees, and we prayed till ten, and at ten o'clock a knock came on the door, and a man said, it's time, and I stood up, and that Romanian preacher on his knees turned around and reached up and got a hold of my hands and prayed for the power of God to be upon us, and we got up, and we walked out the door into a room, and it was packed with people, but one car outside. We worked our way through that room and down a hallway, and I came out into an auditorium. It wasn't a nice church. They'd just built it in a warehouse any way that they could to get people in, and it went that way, and it went that way, and there was another one up there. When we stepped into the auditorium, we couldn't get to the pulpit, and we pushed and shoved and worked our way till we got up to the pulpit, and I looked out, and every seat was taken, and you couldn't have got another person in that building with a shoehorn, and I said, preacher, what do we have here? He said, you've got 2,000 people seated. There's about 1,000 men and 1,000 women, and you've got 500 teenagers standing who gave the adults the seats. Every aisle was filled with teenagers standing all around that first auditorium, all around that auditorium, that auditorium up there. They stood right up against the pulpit and looked you right up in the face when you preached. They were up on the platform. They were in every corner. They couldn't close the doors. The doors were jammed with young people, and they were out there on the outside of the building, jumping up, trying to see in. He said, those teenagers, 500 of them, walked 10 miles to get here, most of them, and they'd been standing there for a half an hour before the service started, and the choir sang, and he made announcements, and he preached the full-length sermon, and now they've been standing an hour and a half in the service, but the half hour before makes two hours. Those teenagers were standing. Never a one of them, and I watched them, ever moved an elbow into another teenager, or slumped, or slouched. They stood for two hours, and he said, now you preach, and I said, Pastor, I don't think I can. I'm having a hard time handling this because I have never in my life stood to hear the gospel preached. Oh, he said, preach. He said, they are happy. They have a place to stay, and I preached for an hour. I gave an invitation. Twenty-one people under communism, with informants in the service, came to Christ. When that service ended, those young people had been standing for three hours, and they had walked ten miles to do it, and in the wintertime, the rain and the snow blows through those doors. They won't close them to shut people off. That's a suffering church under communism, where people get in trouble for being Christians. I went away in the country and preached that afternoon and came back, and at 5.30, I went back in that church again. Two thousand people seated, five hundred teenagers standing, and they stood for three more hours. Those teenagers stood six hours that day, stood to hear the gospel, and the preacher said, you'll not wear them out. They'll wear you out. As long as you'll preach, they'll stand there. But I said all of that to say this. I said all of that to say this. Listen. He said to me, see those teenagers? I said, yeah. He said, if suddenly the government would collapse and they'd be allowed to go, there's over a hundred of them that have answered the call, and they would go to Yugoslavia, to Hungary, to Russia, to Albania. They'd go if the bars were let down, but the law in this land doesn't even allow them to pass out a track or to open a Bible in a home. A hundred, he said, would go without coat or script, go fleeing with the gospel. And I thought of a church I preached in not long ago in Ohio, and the pastor said, we've had one person from this church go into full-time work, and it's a hundred years old, but this church, a hundred years older, produced one servant of the Lord in a hundred years. Ladies and gentlemen, Christ was sitting at that table, showing the disciples His heart as they never saw it. He was showing them what He wanted upon them. He wanted them to have joy. He wanted them to be holy. He wanted them to have truth. He wanted them to be involved in mission, mission. A man said the other day, I don't want my son to go into the work of the Lord. I want to keep him for the farm when I'm gone. I would remind that man, God had one son and he sent him to be a missionary. Fifth Mark, neither pray I for these alone, verse 20, but for also for them which shall believe on me through their word, that they may be one. And in the next three verses, you find that word one, one, one, one, one, five times one, unity, unity, unity. When I was over in Romania, a woman was teaching little children the word of God and the police told her to stop and she didn't stop. One day they came together and she had a little choir of children that I showed to the people here in picture Saturday night. And when the police came for that woman to take her for teaching children the Bible, 70 little children moved around and stood between the police and that woman and told the police they couldn't have her. And if they were going to take her, they'd have to take them. Little children in communist country standing in unity. And then Dr. Paisley stands against all of the evil in this country and some people walk off and leaving stranded. God have mercy. Ladies and gentlemen, we need to stand together. The state of Ohio came down and said, now you get that school of yours licensed or we're going to close it. And I said, what do you have to do to get licensed? So they gave me a stack of bureaucratic papers that high. So I went through them. They looked us over and said, you're pretty good school. We'll license you. December the 18th, you come up to Columbus. That's the capital of the state and the state board of education will give you your license. Then we'll control you. Well, I got to thinking about those covenanters over there in Scotland. When Dr. Paisley preached in the cemetery, the grass market, and all of those people that wouldn't submit to King, who was the government, wouldn't let him rule over the church. And that Bible call is a part of the church. And I couldn't let the state rule where Jesus is only supposed to rule. And think of it, the work of Jesus having to have a license from the state of Ohio. No, it's not right. So I whispered to our congregation, I'm going up to Columbus and meet with them. They think I'm going to bow down, but I'm going to refuse it. And I'm going to tell them why. I got me two or three lawyers. We went down to that great big office tower in the capital of Ohio. Pulled up in front. I got a lawyer on this side and a lawyer over here and a lawyer here. I just felt like the Lord when He was between two thieves. I said, where is this room where this meeting is? They said, it's right over there. I said, is that where the state board is? Yeah. They handing out license today? Yeah. A lot of schools getting them. I guess we're on the agenda. Walked in. Went over there. They said, you're late, aren't you? I said, a little. They said, you can't get in. I said, why? They said, it's crowded in there. We'll try to get you in. A lawyer went in. I went in. Another lawyer. And I went in there to face the mighty board of education. I looked around to see who all's in this room. Half as big as this lower section. Brother Bell, there were my deacons, my Sunday school teachers, the men and women from the church in Marietta. Had that room packed to stand with their pastor. Some of them had never been that far away from home before. One fellow brought a dinner bucket. But I want to tell you, there sat my wife. And I wept when I saw those people standing behind me. And they were going to be there when I stood up and said, we'll not have your license. They were there behind me. Ladies and gentlemen, have you ever been out front? If you're ever out front, people standing behind you mean everything. Oh, stand together. Stand together. Stand together in this province. You Protestants that hold the truth, stand together. He wants to see unity. You think that didn't impress that big bunch of board members up there? Black men, Jews, lawyers, millionaires. You think it didn't impress them to see all those people there backing up this preacher? Oh, it did. Lord Jesus wants us to show that mark of unity. Hey, listen, if you're one of these people that in the midst of the battle, you're always going around stirring up things and causing trouble and causing dissension, God have mercy on you. Get unified. Jesus wants you to bear the mark of unity. Last, verse 26, I've declared unto them thy name and will declare it, that the love wherein thou hast loved me may be in them. The last mark he wants us to bear is love, that the love with which thou hast loved me, wherewith thou hast loved me, may be in them. Do you see what Jesus is praying for? Oh, Father, you love me. You love your Son. You love me. May the love with which you've loved me be in them. Oh, that we bear the mark of love. And do you see what that love was based upon? It was based upon relationship. People in churches, they try to base love upon personality and upon culture and upon dislikes and dislikes and differences and all of that. And the first thing you know, you're so carnal. You can't get along with anybody and you don't like people because you're basing your love on personality and upon culture and dislikes and likes and all of that. You're too carnal to get up where the level of love that really counts is, up there where love between Christians is based upon relationship. We're brothers and sisters in Christ. See two women come in the church. One's an introvert, never speaks to anybody. If you speak to them, they don't say anything. They just roll their eyes. Introvert, quiet, sit down. Then here comes some woman yakking and talking. And I said, brother, here comes trouble. They're different. But you know we shouldn't love people on the basis of personality. We ought to love one another because we're blood brothers and sisters in Christ. That ought to be a mark of love that's upon us. Oh, marks, the marks. May they be upon our churches. May they be upon our lives. Dr. Paisley, you come. May these marks be upon us as this convention ends. The mark of joy, holiness, truth, unity, love. Let's bow our heads. We've been hearing the voice of God tonight through a servant. Challenge of God's Word. My friend, this is a solemn challenge. Last year I said we're in for a difficult year. We're in for a hard year. It's going to be difficult. We didn't know what was going to happen, but it has happened. And under the present law of this land, under the public order, because you have in your hand a Bible, you're in breach of that law. For any piece of literature that causes anyone to fear, that is an offense under the public order order. Now it hasn't happened yet, but it did happen at the city hall some time ago when a police officer said to a young man who was passing out tracts, he said, those tracts are offensive. They're offensive to sodomites. They're offensive to drunkards. They're offensive to Roman Catholics. And the tracts were taken off that young man. That's only the beginning. You say it could never happen here. It is happening, and it will happen. Under the public order order, no gospel preacher can stand in a place where he has stood twenty years preaching the gospel if a police officer, number one, doesn't like where he's standing. He has the power to move him on. He has also the power under the order to move you on for listening to him. He also has the power under the order to stop the open air altogether. One police officer can condemn the theology, the gospel, the preacher, and everybody attending. If too many people attend, he can limit the congregation to five or six people. That's under the public order. And slowly and surely, some people think it's only about marches, how foolish they are. That's only the thin end of the wedge, and it's coming. That's why some of us have been in jail and will be back in jail. And some Christians say, oh, they shouldn't go to jail. They're making a mountain out of a molehill. Well, I want to tell you when they come into your home and take your Bible out of your home, you'll be screaming to high heaven, but it'll be too late to stop it then. It'll be too late. The Covenanters stood when they saw the issue. They didn't wait until William was ready to land and victory was secure. They went out and bore approach. And I tell you, we need a few Christians need to wake it up. That's why I have a gospel open-air meeting at the City Hall every Saturday at 12, and the authorities are ready to pounce on it. And they want to stop it, but it'll not be stopped. Over my dead body will they stop it. And I don't care what people say or what they think or what the right or what attitude they adopt. They better learn that the devil's crowd has got it on the law of this land. It's only a matter of time. And if your minister went to jail because he took a stand, you should be proud of him. You should say, thank God we haven't a two-timing preacher. We have a man that's prepared to stand for God. When I hear a free Presbyterian saying, I don't like my minister going to jail, it lowers the reputation of the church. You are glad that Jesus went from prison unto judgment, weren't you? If he hadn't have gone from prison unto judgment, you wouldn't have been seeing it. And let me tell you, before this thing has settled, God's people will get a baptism of judgment because they need it. It's too easy to be a Christian in Northern Ireland. Oh, I could be saved and go to heaven quietly and not offend anybody. I want to tell you, if you're living for God, you'll offend every devil in hell, and you'll offend the liquor traffic, and you'll offend the apostate churches, and you'll offend everybody that doesn't like God or Christ or His blessed Son or the Word of God. So we have trouble before us, and we've got to stand. And we can only stand when we have God's mark. We need this mark of joy. Boys, there are some miserable Christians today. If you looked at their face, it would turn water into vinegar in five minutes. They're so sour and miserable. My, I want to tell you, there are some Christians and you think they were pickled in the most sour vinegar you could get out of the most sour crab apples that ever grew in Lough Gough. I want to tell you that's what they're like. Oh, yeah. Vinegar Christian. God called me to rejoice. I think it makes me miserable because God's my Father. Jesus Christ, my elder brother. Glory to God, I'm an heir of heaven. They tell me I've ranches in Canada. I can't find the deeds. I wish I could. I would sell them for God's work, but boy, I have a mansion in heaven. I'll take you around it someday if you turn up. I'll give you a free look over my mansion. It's built of pure gold. These old American songs. There's good things come from America. There's a lot of rotten things come from America. And this thing build me a cabin in the corner of glory land. God's not in a cabin building prefab housing program. God's building mansions in heaven. That's what he's building in heaven. Joy. You know anything about it? Poor Brian Green, he says I get in his nerves because I sing in the morning. Of course, my singing is not just accurate singing. You get the air outside if you don't know the tune inside. But thank God there's a song in my heart. Are you happy? We need joy. We need joyful Christians. And what's joy of you? Holiness. You know what holiness is? Holiness is obeying God's commandments, not man's commandments. There's a lot of fellow that add it to God's commandments. And they say a preacher or a minister or a Christian shouldn't do this. Who said it? Who said it? When God gives a commandment, I'll obey it. When man makes a commandment, I'll disobey it. I'm not interested in what man has added to God's commandments. You go home and read God's commandments. Every violation of them, every violation is a sin. You've got to keep the commandments. And you can't keep them in your own strength, but God can give you grace to keep them. That's holiness. True holiness is a keeping of the commandments of God out of a clean heart, out of a pure spirit with love unsealed. Truth. We need the truth. Boy, the truth's a hurtful thing. You get a preacher. Our brother was preaching last night, and one of my elders said to me, he was a truthful man. My elders are truthful men. And he said to me, you know, I felt just like leaving the meeting. I was getting such a whipping as the Word of God was preached. I want to tell you truth's hurtful. It cuts deep. It gets down to the bone. It searches out the evil. And we need preachers that can preach the truth, white-hot truth that burns itself like an acetyler welder into the hearts and souls of men. That's the sort of preaching we need. This church has to stand for the truth, and it's not pleasant. You know, some preachers say, oh, God didn't call me to fight. A fellow the other day said, God called Ian Paisley to fight. Thank God. I'm just going to teach my people the Bible. Well, if he teaches them the Bible right, they'll fight. You know that? You can't read the Bible and not be a fighter. You'll contend for the faith. That's what it was written for, contend for the faith. So we need to have that truth. I remind you sometimes to speak the truth is not a very pleasant thing. To tell a man he's for hail, we don't like that today. I remember when I was a young preacher in this room, I preached a sermon on hail and on a riot. Have you ever met the devil in a pair of trousers? He's pretty grim, but you meet him in a skirt. He's really grim. When I met that night, the devil in a skirt, and she says, I'll shift you from the raven head row. Say, you couldn't do it. Say, God has called me here, and I'll be here as long as I'm under marching orders. She has gone long since, but I'm still here. Preaching on hail, not liked. People don't like the truth, and then we need this mission. We're called to evangelize. Orthodoxy cannot function, old Bob Jones said, without evangelistic unction. Now, we need the evangelistic unction. We've got the orthodoxy, but we need the unction. We need the mission. Many people did you tell this week they needed to be saved? How many gospel tracts did you pass out? How many open air meetings did you stand at? How many people did you tell were lost? How many people did you pray for? Tell me, was there ever a tear past your eye for a lost soul this week? Come on now, don't be dodging the column. Don't look pious. Be honest with God, and then last of all, we need this mighty love. Old Wesley said, oh, that the world might taste and see. Oh, that the arms that compass me might compass the whole world. Oh, God give us that love. Now, let us say in the closing moments of this meeting that these are gifts of God without money and without price, and if we give our bodies to the Lord tonight, God will give us these marks, and we can go away joyful. We can go away in unity. We can go away when the squabbles confess, the dissension put away. We can go away with our hearts filled with peace and love and truth and with a mission to get on with the job. I wonder how many bodies God's going to get in this congregation tonight. I wonder how many men and women, boys and girls are going to say, take my life and let it be consecrated, Lord, to thee. As our heads are bowed and our eyes are closed and we're in prayer, has God spoken to you? Has God really spoken to you? Well, as he has, then you have a body to present to the Lord. Will you make that body a presentation now to the Lord as we're bowed in prayer, just as we're bowed in prayer. If you play that wee verse, dear brother, I want dear Lord, a love that feels for all, a heart that's pure and clean, a sunlit heart with not a cloud between, a heart divine, a heart like thine, a heart as white as snow. And be dear Lord, a heart like this. So it's 316 in your book. Keep your head bowed and your eyes and your head closed, your head bowed. And if you have to read the hymn, then read the hymn. If you don't need to read it, you can close your eyes. And we'll just have our brother play that first verse. First of all, dear brother, just play it to us as we bow our heads. We've got the hymn 316196. I want dear Lord, a heart that's true and clean. If you're saying that from your heart tonight, I want dear Lord, a heart that's pure and clean. Wherever you are in this congregation, I want you just to stand up and remain standing. I want dear Lord, a heart that's pure and clean. God has spoken to you. I'm standing tonight. I'm telling God I want a heart that's pure and clean. I want a love that feels for all. I want a soul on fire for God. Oh, we need it, brethren and sisters. We need this. Our church needs it. I was burdened for this conference. I sat there with my wife. I said to her, Eileen, our church needed these meetings. Boy, they need it. For no one knows the spiritual state of the church like this preacher. For I'm around these churches Sunday after Sunday. I know what's happening. I have my hand on the pulse and we need this convention. This can be a make or break convention for our churches if God's people yield. Oh, dear child of God, yield tonight. Don't let pride keep you. Oh, publicly tonight say, I want dear Lord, a heart that's true and clean. As we sing it, may God help us all to stand and say, yes, I'm going to break through tonight. I'm going to tell the Lord what I mean in the Savior's name. I want dear Lord, a heart that's true and clean. Let's sing. I want. All over the meeting, let's stand. That's right. That's right. That's right. That's right. Get to your feet. That's right. Stand up now. Yes. God bless you. Stand up now. That's right. I want dear Lord, a love that feels for all. Come on now. Let's have a break in this meeting and let's tell the Lord we're being business. Get to your feet. Forget about your pride. Forget about your Christian experience. My friend, I've been a long time in the road and I want to stand up and say publicly in this movement, Lord, this is what I need, a heart that's true and clean. I need a love that feels for all. I need a soul baptized with fire. If the preacher needs it, the puny and every one of us needs it. Let's get to our feet tonight and say, yes, Lord, we'll go through with you. Hallelujah. Let's sing. I want dear Lord. That's right. Stand up there. What keeps you? What keeps you? God bless you preacher. God bless you dear. That's right. Get to your feet. Come on now. What about your elders and your preachers? You need it. I know you need it. Your churches need it. Your Sunday school teachers. Come on and say yes, Lord. Third verse. I want dear Lord, a soul on fire for thee. Don't be holding out in God now. You say, well, why should I stand? I'll tell you. The night you were saved, you would have done anything. But they have told you to claim a mountain, you would have claimed a mountain. They've told you to swim the channel, you would have swum up. You wanted to get to Jesus. As old Bunyan says, 10 million hills wouldn't have kept me from coming to Jesus. When God called, don't you let some petty person, some old prejudice keep you from saying to God tonight in front of this congregation, praise God, I'm going through for the fire of the Holy Ghost. Come on now. I want dear Lord, a soul on fire for thee. Let's stand as wishing. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. That's right. Come on now. This last line, get to your feet, friend. My Jesus, I love thee. I know thou art mine. Let's sing it. Bless you. That's right. Stand to your feet. Night friend, bless you, because thou hast first loved me. Last verse, I will love thee in life, I will love thee in death. Final invitation friend, don't miss it. You'll regret it. You'll say as you go out, I should have stood. I should have put those prejudices away and said I'm going to stand with God's people. I'm going to show the Lord that my prejudices don't count. I just want to be out and out for the Lord. Amen. Just stand now. Final invitation. God bless you sister. That's right. God bless you. Get to your feet now. This is the final invitation. Let everybody stand. Everybody's standing now. Let's everybody stand to their feet. Thank you. Father, we thank thee for souls that have been doing business and some have been doing a battle. Lord, help them to yield. Help them to yield to God tonight and help them to say, Lord, not my will, but thine be done. Lord, make what we have heard a reality in our hearts. May we not go away and that may it not wear away, but my prayer and Bible study and mission and unity and truth and love, may we grow up into Christ. May this church not take a step forward, but may it take a leap forward. Lord, may we hear about revival in prayer meetings. May we hear about preachers going on fire. May we hear about sinners, the worst sinners in the neighborhood getting converted. May we see our God pub crawlers becoming prayer meeting addicts. Oh God, you can do it. We want to see miracles Lord. We're tired of old humdrum religion. Give us revival. Give us a miracle. Give us the power of the Holy Ghost. Fill our preachers. Make us red hot for God. Disturb the sleep of death. Take the smell of the shroud from us. Save us from respectability Lord. Save us from being pew warmers. May we be heart warmers in the future. Lord, may this thing become contagious and Lord, doses, doses with joy. May our face be joyful. May our eyes be joyful. May our expressions be joyful. May we not look as if our heavenly father was dead and he hadn't left us a scent in his will. May we look as if our heavenly father is living and he is and he has given us everything. He has made out a will in our favor. Hallelujah. He's left us heaven and mansions and glory galore. Oh God, we pray that we'll get into the glories of the book. Lord, make us Bible words. Help us to love the book. Help us to eat it. Help us to make it our breakfast, dinner and tea spiritually and take a good feed for our supper and oh God, may we be blessed with heavenly calories and heavenly vitamins and oh God, may there be no reckoning Christians amongst us and no fellows with spiritual rheumatism or spiritual cripples and those that have been cripples help them to throw away the crutches like old Abraham who staggered not at the promises of God through unbelief but was strong in faith giving glory to God. Lord, I thank you for what you've done over this convention. If nobody got blessed, glory to God I got blessed. If nobody felt the joy of the Lord, glory to God I felt the joy of the Lord. If nobody shed tears, glory to God I shed tears and thank you that they were precious to you Lord. You put them in the bottle for you bottle your people's tears. Someday when we get to heaven, we'll be seeing the bottle with the tears. The angels will say the Lord told us to gather those up and put them into the bottle. Lord, may we fill churns with our tears. May we, oh God, be broken-hearted Christians. Take away the old hard spirit. Give us a spirit of love. Give this church a spirit of unity. Lord, keep us strong in the truth. Save Ulster from potpourri. Save us from the menace of the Irish Republican army. Save us from paramilitary violence. Save us, our God, from everything that grieves thee. Oh, save our province. Don't let us deteriorate anymore. Get the murderers off our streets. Get, our God, the bombers off our highway. And oh God, may this little Ulster burst forth in a mighty flame of holy ghost revival. And may the press be flying in to see sinners. Get and see them. These old hard chorer press men, you'll see them, Lord. And we'll see a mighty turning, a turning unto the Lord of hosts. You've done it in the past, Lord. You did it in the early troubles under W.P. Nicholson. Do it again, Lord. Do it quickly, Lord. Do it suddenly. I believe you've started something in our hearts. You've started a fire. I feel a burden in my soul. I feel a wind blowing across my heart. I feel that God is about to answer the prayers of years. And God's going to do with this church what he called it into being to do. It'll be an instrument of revival. It will be called to the kingdom for such a time as this. Bless faithful preachers that preach the word to us. Bless men of God that are with us. Bless those that sung for us. Bless the people that made the meals and served them. And the young people that got out the dishes. Bless everybody. Bless the organists. Bless the church officers. Bless the men that counted the money. Bless this whole church. Make it a unified church. May every brother love every other brother. Some fellows, Lord, hard to love, but help us to love them. And some women hard to get on with, help us to get on with them. And, oh God, may we not love them for their looks, for that would be impossible in all our cases. But, oh God, may we love them because Jesus loved them. Because the blood's on them. There are brothers and sisters in the law. And if Jesus loved them, we should love them. And if Jesus saved them, we should rejoice, they're saying. And we should be happy to work with them, every one of them. Oh God, do a new thing. Lord, it's like old times. We remember old time convention meetings down the road when the wee church was packed, and one half had to breathe in, and another half had to breathe out. And we sweat it, but we shout it, and we sung, and we praised the Lord, and sinners were converted. And every time a new church opened, we nearly knocked the slates of the roof with us singing. Oh God, get us back to our first love, Lord. Get me back to my first love. Make me a holy terror to the devil. Lord, have I ever been against potpourri before? Make me red hot, white hot against potpourri and all its works. If ever I was against the ecumenical movement, give me a tongue like an old cow to rip it to pieces. Lord, have ever you blessed me in getting them to Christ? Lord, bless me as you never blessed me before. Lord, that's a cry of our heart today. We mean business with thee, Lord. We want to go through and pay the price and leave ourselves right out for God, for truth and righteousness. Oh, do it, Lord. Do it in all our hearts. But I ask for myself. I ask for my brethren. I ask for my preacher friends. I ask for the students. I ask for the congregations. Oh God Almighty, do a new thing and we'll give you the praise. And Father, I would like to thank you again that you give your son for me. You loved me and you spared not your own son. Father, thank you. Thank you for sending him out of the ivory palaces into the world. Oh, Lord Jesus, our beloved, what shall we say to thee? Oh, blessed son of God, kiss me with the kisses of thy lips, for thy love is better than wine. Oh, Lord Jesus, thank you. You died for a reprobate like me. You didn't let me go to hell. You saved me. And you called me by your name and you have kept me. And you'll keep me till the river rolls its waters at my feet. Then you'll bear me safely over where the loved ones I shall meet. Thank you for giving me a godly father and a godly mother. Thank you for bringing me up in a Christian home. Thank you that I ever knew from earliest days the Bible, that it was God's word. Thank God I had a father that walked with you and a mother that walked with you. Lord, I give you thanks. And I give you thanks, blessed Holy Ghost, that you came into this dirty old sinful heart of mine. And you regenerated me. And you dwell with me. And you blessed me and kept me and opened doors that nobody could open. And shut doors that no man can open. Lord, I'm glad you've led us to this day. Oh, take our thanks. We don't know what to say, but we just say thank you, Lord Jesus. And to God in Trinity, and Trinity in unity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, be honor, praise, world without end. Amen. Amen. 548. I hope you have a nice clean handkerchief with you. We're going to say goodbye to one another now. My wife said to me, you get a clean handkerchief. Don't be throwing germs around. Have you a handkerchief, Rob? Amen. Get it out. If it's white, if it's blue, if it's red, or it's yellow, you get it out. Brother, you have a nice green one there. You could weave that one. Amen. Praise God. Amen. The Lord has no respect for what the color is. Go to sing 548, and when we get to the chorus, we're going to lift our handkerchief, and we're going to send a signal to heaven that we're still in the battle, and we're still in the fight for God. Amen. God be with you till we meet again. We're as a wee lad, but six years of age at one of Nicholson's great meetings, and the mission came to a stop. Hundreds had been converted to God, and man, we got out our white handkerchief, and we swung them around our heads, and we sent a signal to heaven that we were in the battle line for God, and as a wee lad, I said in my heart, if ever I get a congregation, I'll have white handkerchiefs flying, and we'll weave a signal to heaven that we're not surrendering. We're standing for God. A lot of people tell me, we're mad. Well, we might as well live up to our reputation. They call us mad anyway. We might as well live up to our reputation. We're going to all repeat the benediction together. You know what? The grace of our Lord Jesus. Let's say it together. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all now and forevermore. And everybody said? Amen! And shouted? Hallelujah! Did you ever see a Methodist and a Baptist embracing before? You saw that in the book. We're going to have those from a distance, and that's everybody that says they're from a distance. We're not asking if you come from Ballyrat Street. You're still from a distance. There's a cup of tea and some supper for you if you want to stay with us. Hasn't this been a great day? Brother may come up there. This has been like old times. Old times. Hallelujah. Brother may come brought me to Lisbon years ago, and him and another brother, and they brought their mothers to the meeting, and both mammies were seen. Wow, what a night that was. Well, take your seats and get your supper.
Easter Monday Evening Convention 1988
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Ian Richard Kyle Paisley (1926 - 2014). Northern Irish Presbyterian minister, politician, and founder of the Free Presbyterian Church, born in Armagh to a Baptist pastor. Converted at six, he trained at Belfast’s Reformed Presbyterian Theological College and was ordained in 1946, founding the Free Presbyterian Church in 1951, which grew to 100 congregations globally. Pastoring Martyrs Memorial Church in Belfast for over 60 years, he preached fiery sermons against Catholicism and compromise, drawing thousands. A leading voice in Ulster loyalism, he co-founded the Democratic Unionist Party in 1971, serving as MP and First Minister of Northern Ireland (2007-2008). Paisley authored books like The Soul of the Question (1967), and his sermons aired on radio across Europe. Married to Eileen Cassells in 1956, they had five children, including MP Ian Jr. His uncompromising Calvinism, inspired by Spurgeon, shaped evangelical fundamentalism, though his political rhetoric sparked controversy. Paisley’s call, “Stand for Christ where Christ stands,” defined his ministry. Despite later moderating, his legacy blends fervent faith with divisive politics, influencing Ulster’s religious and political landscape.