In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of allowing the Holy Spirit to work in our hearts to form the image of Jesus Christ within us. The goal of every believer should be to reflect Christ in their lives. The speaker also warns against falling back into bondage and weak elements, urging believers to embrace the freedom found in Christ. The contrast between the Old Testament and the New Testament is highlighted, showing how the Holy Spirit empowers believers with courage and power instead of fear.

Back in December and January of 1971, we were engaged in the city of Winnipeg in some revival meetings. Went for 17 days before Christmas and three weeks after Christmas, and God gave us a very wonderful time. In one of the meetings after Christmas, the weather turned very, very cold for a couple of weeks, down to 30, 35 below, and some nights a wind blowing, and it cut the crowds down considerably, and yet God was working. And I recall that one night the power failed, so we had no lights, we had no PA system, and we had no heat, and the church seating 1,400, and I suppose there were, I'm not sure how many that night, 300, 400 people was all that got there, and many cars wouldn't start. I'm afraid some didn't start after the meeting either. But the lights, the power failed just before I began to speak, and so since I normally speak without notes, it was no particular problem, and so I preached and gave an invitation, and people came forward, and afterwards we found out that there were two people who came forward that night who said if the lights had been on, they would never have come forward. And, you know, sometimes when something like this happens, like the lights go out, the power fails, you say, oh boy, the devil's at it, you know. It wasn't really the devil. Well, the devil might have done it, but God overruled, as he always does. Like Joseph's brothers who betrayed him, and he said you meant it for evil, but God meant it for good. So God's always in control. The earth is the Lord's, and the fullness are of the world, and they that dwell therein. God gave us a great time there, and one thing that really blessed my heart was that almost every night, just as I began to speak, a number of the men, anywhere from two to eight or ten men, would go down in the lower auditorium and pray the whole time I spoke upstairs. And I really appreciated that, and those men told me that they had some very unusual, well, I was going to say experiences, that's not how they described it, but they said that the presence of God was so real in those times of prayer in the lower auditorium. And a crusade that began with three days' notice, no churches cooperating. Well, by the time five weeks was up, we had decision cards from people from almost a hundred churches in the area, and God did a great thing. We keep hearing of blessings that began then that are still flowing today, including people that have gone into full-time service, and at least one that went into full-time service in the province of Quebec, a Frenchman that found Christ at Winnipeg meetings. I didn't know a thing about it until I heard about it, oh, it must have been a year and a half later on, how God had called this Frenchman to go to Quebec, a province for which I've had a great burden for many years. There's only one evangelical worker for every 60,000 people in the province of Quebec. Now, if we were to apply that here, this island, with 3,000 people, what would you have? You wouldn't have one Christian worker here. You might have a visit from a Christian worker once in ten years, but that's how it is in Quebec. A great mission field right at our doorstep, almost totally overlooked and forgotten, because we're not alive and alert to the truth that the field is the world, and sometimes it's right at our doorstep. May I ask this question? I wonder how many are taking or making special time each day, or maybe at night, for prayer for these meetings. I'm not asking this to embarrass anybody, but I'm interested to see. If you are making or taking special time, would you just raise your hand so we can see this? Well, yes, and God bless you. I hope you're not trapped like a certain preacher asked a question like this, and he thought, oh horrors, I'm not. But boy, if I don't raise my hand, what are the people going to think? So he shot his hand up. And then the Lord got after him about this until finally one night he had to go and confess it in front of the whole crowd. He might just as well have left his hand down. Trouble it got him into. All right, we said one night, didn't we, that you can't have a big fire until you have a small one. And God is waiting for you and I, his people, to call upon him. Call unto me, he said, remember, and I will answer thee. And I will show you great and mighty things which you know not. There's a responsibility that each of us have to make time and take time for prayer. Seek you first the kingdom of God. Before your job, before anything, we are to seek the kingdom of God. And when we do this, you know, when I look after God's business, then he looks after mine. See them that honor me, I will honor, he said, and those that despise me should be lightly esteemed. Lord Turner tells of the time he was struggling over this matter of a hitch for his heavy machinery. Machines were not selling because the hitch was poor. It was breaking. Word got around they wouldn't buy his machines. He had to have a hitch. And so he was working and almost had it one night. And then he remembered it was prayer meeting night. And oh, he felt like staying at the drawing board. Just he almost had it. And he thought, now if I go to prayer meeting, I might lose the inspiration of God. But the Lord won out. And he went to the prayer meeting and came back and he said, I picked up my pencil and in ten minutes, God gave me the hitch, the plan for the hitch. And it was because of this hitch that his heavy machinery then began to outsell almost all the competitors in the market. Them that honor me, I will honor, God said. All right, as far as the books are concerned, two titles on the table in the in the vestry here. And the prices are marked on them. And I think somebody will be in charge of them again tonight. And if nobody's around, then there's a little plate there with some money in it. You can make change and take it from there. You'll turn to the book of Galatians, please. I would begin at the 13th verse of Galatians. He says, Paul says, you have heard of my conversation. This is old English, which means my manner of life or my conduct, the way I live. You have heard of my conversation in time past in the Jews religion, how that beyond measure, I persecuted the church of God and wasted it and profited in the Jews religion above many, my equals in my own nation, being more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my fathers. But when it pleased God who separated me from my mother's womb and called me by his grace to reveal his son in me, that I might preach him among the heathen, immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood. Join me in prayer. Our Heavenly Father, thank you for this portion of your precious word. Thank you for the songs we've listened to or participated in tonight. And now, Lord, we look to thee to bless your precious word to our hearts. And in this moment, father of prayer, may your spirit come to each one of us and enable us, oh God, to open up our hearts to whatever you want to say this night. And we'll praise you in Christ's name. Amen. Well, the question is sometimes asked, why does God leave his people on earth after he saves them? Since we're going to spend eternity with God in heaven, why doesn't God just take us to heaven the moment that we are saved? Well, I think most of us know the reason for this. For example, in the book of Jude it says, and others save with fear, pulling them, the Greek there means snatching them out of the fire. And so God leaves us here on earth partly so that he through us can win other people to himself and so accomplish his purposes in the salvation of that number that the father promised to the son way back in eternity past. This is the father's will, Jesus Christ said, that of all that he has given me, I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day. But there's more to it really than this. You know, in Romans chapter eight, there's a thought there, a great truth. It says, of whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate. He also did, that is, choose before or destine before. He also did predestinate. But notice what he predestinated us for. You see, a lot of people stop right there and say, well, God predestined me to be carried to heaven in an armchair someday. But that's not what I read there. It says, whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son. And when people believe in that kind of biblical predestination, they don't run into any problems. Now again, you take the word elect in 1 Peter chapter one. He says, elect. Is that wonderful? Yes. But elect unto what? To obedience. Oh, that's a little different. Or people say, well, I'm chosen. Yes, thank God we're chosen. You have not chosen me, Jesus said, but I have chosen you. But chosen to what? Oh, he said, I've chosen you, that you should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain. That's why he chose us. Or in Ephesians chapter one, where it says we were chosen in Christ from the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love. In none of these texts I have just quoted does he say we are chosen or elected to be carried to heaven in an armchair. He says we were predestinated to be like Jesus Christ, for he decided to be conformed to the image of God's son. So it raises the question then, am I like Jesus? Am I concerned that I be like Jesus? If I am not, am I doing anything about it? Do I perhaps even understand that this is one of the reasons that God left me upon the earth? There's a prophecy, it's found in Isaiah chapter eight, and it's quoted in the book of Hebrews, the second chapter, and applied to Jesus Christ. Actually there in Isaiah chapter eight, it's the Lord Jesus Christ himself talking. And this is what he says, he says, behold, I and the children whom the Lord has given me are for signs and for wonders. You'd all agree, we'd all agree that Jesus Christ was a sign and a wonder. What about his people? We his children are to be signs and wonders too. Would anybody see anything of a miracle nature about my life? But they ought to. Aren't I was predestined then to be conformed to the image of God's son? And first John chapter three runs like this. It says, behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God. Therefore the world knows us not because it knew him not. Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he shall appear we shall be what? Like him, for we shall see him as he is. So a lot of people say, well, I know I'm kind of a crusty Christian, I know I'm not making much progress in the Christian life, and I realize I'm not much like Jesus Christ, but when the Lord comes back he's going to change me just like that and make me just like the Lord Jesus Christ. That's not exactly deathbed repentance which Billy Sunday described as being burning the candle of life in the service of the devil and blowing the smoke in the face of God, but it's closely related. You see, in 2 Corinthians 3.18 we read this, but we all, I like that word all, but we all, he says, with open face, the context has to do with Moses with a veil over his face when he came down from the mountain after 40 days talking with God, the glory of God shot out of his face and the people were afraid so he had to put a veil over his face, but he says, but we all with open unveiled face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image. That is, into the image of the Lord Jesus Christ. He says, from glory to glory, that is, from one experience to another by the Spirit of the Lord. So God pre-assigned me to be like Jesus and I'm not supposed to wait until he returns hoping that then I'll be like him, but now as I look at Jesus Christ in the pages of the word of God, the Holy Spirit, he transforms me into the image of God's Son. He leaves us here upon the earth so that as people look at me, like it says, I didn't quote the whole verse there in Romans 8, it says, whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son that he, Jesus, might be the firstborn among many brethren, many just like him. And he wants us to be like him. That's one of the reasons that he leaves us here upon earth and Paul is talking about that first of all you have the background for what he's saying, the background is this, the Jews' religion. He mentions that little phrase twice. The Jews' religion. Oh maybe it was the best religion as such upon the earth, but he doesn't call it God's religion, he calls it the Jews' religion because it added very, very much to what God had given Moses on Mount Sinai insomuch that the Savior when he came had to spend a lot of time studying the revelations that men had added to the pure revelation that God gave on Mount Sinai through Moses. And you will recall that Jesus Christ said that you're guilty of frustrating the commandments of God by your own tradition. And so you have the background in the Jews' religion out of which Paul came. But I might have the Baptist religion, I might have the Pentecostal religion, and still not be a child of God? I picked a fellow up in the highway one time, I was going to a Bible camp from Kenora, Ontario, 12 miles east. And so since I had a fellow with me that I took to be a non-Christian, and he was, I go slow and I talk fast. I turned to him and I said, now he was in the Canadian Navy and he was thumbing his way down east somewhere from Kenora, actually from Nanaimo, B.C. He had come. And so I said to him, are you a Christian? And he said, I am a Baptist. And I said, well, isn't that wonderful, I am a Baptist minister. Like I shot him between the eyes. He knew he was trapped, so then I said, if you are a Baptist there are some things you ought to know. And he said, like what? And I said, you know what it means to be born again? He said, what on earth is that? He said, you are a minister, married my brother, and that makes me a Baptist. And yet, I could be a member, a baptized member of a Baptist church or a Pentecostal church or an Alliance church or some other evangelical church and still be on the broad road that leads to destruction. It could be the Jews religion or the Baptist religion or some other religion that we are just going through the motions. They don't have the power they are off. One translation says they have the form but they don't have the force. They don't have the power. They don't have the spirit of God. They have never been born again, so they are members of the church. The Jews religion, that's the background. The contrast is what he calls the church of God. He said I was part of the Jews religion but I was guilty of persecuting the church of God. Now the church of God, I know there is a church of God denomination, that is spelled out in the word of God, is just simply those people that have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ and know they are born again by the grace of God. Whatever church they happen to belong to, they are part of the church, the ecclesia of God, God's church. They are part of that church. Am I part of that church? Well Paul at one time was not a very, very religious man praying at least three times a day, giving tithes of all he possessed fasting likely twice a week. But I'm converted. Remember what the Lord Jesus Christ said about the Pharisees and dear people, they are the most religious people on earth as far as religion goes. Do you know what he said about them? He says you pay tithe, you pay tithe, but you have omitted the weightier matters of the law. Do you know one of the great disservices that I'm afraid we preachers have done to our people? We have led our people to think if they pay tithe, they're a real good Christian. But Jesus Christ said you have omitted the weightier matters of the law and what are weightier matters in tithing than giving one-tenth of my income to the work of God? Oh Jesus Christ said judgment and mercy and faith and the love of God. These things are more important to God than paying the tithe. He called these people hypocrites. He said all their works they do for to be seen of men. All right, the background. This was the problem. The contrast, the church of God, people that are born again that love Jesus Christ from their heart and walk in the spirit and try to please the Lord and love other people and it's not for show, it's because they love Jesus Christ. Then God's purpose, he says, Paul says here, I can't please God who separated me from my mother's womb. With God nothing ever happens at the last moment. Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world. You and I don't even know what we're going to do tomorrow. We might have some plans made and might have blown to smithereens before tomorrow comes. But known unto God are all his works from the foundation of the world. Nothing happens at the last minute. Remember what the Lord said before I formed you in your mother. I knew you and before you came out of the womb he said I sanctified you, I set you apart and I ordained you a prophet to the nations. When it pleased God who separated me from my mother's womb and called me by his grace to reveal his son in me. That's why God called Paul that he might reveal his son Jesus in him. Religion, the world was filled with it. What was it doing for the people? Practically nothing. One of India's prime ministers once said and had to say it in guarded tones lest there be some repercussions from the statement. But he said when I consider religion when I consider organized religion I am filled with nausea because he saw what it had done to his own country to organize religion without Jesus Christ. No savior? That's chapter one. In chapter two the background is the fear of man. I don't know if you knew this or not I'm sure that many of you did. But did you know that Peter sinned long after Pentecost the fear of man took over in his heart again and the apostle Paul had to straighten him out in front of a whole church that large church down at Antioch. Here's what happened. Back in those days a Jew would never sit at the same table as a non-Jew like a Samaritan or a Gentile. A Samaritan was a sort of a half-breed Jew half Jew and half Gentile. You know if a Samaritan even sat on a park bench while a Jew would just walk by he wouldn't sit on that same bench because the bench had been polluted. And you remember how when they saw Paul in Jerusalem they thought he was a God and it provoked a riot that almost cost him his life. It was alright to have animals in the temple and to have birds flying around the temple but it was wrong to have Gentiles. You see because of their religion. Well when Peter became a Christian God knocked that out of him. And you remember he preached to a bunch of Gentiles in the house of Cornelius and the whole congregation was converted. And when Peter went back to Jerusalem he became a non-Jew so he took a bunch of brethren six men with him. He said these six brethren accompanied me. And they backed him up in what he told the church back in Jerusalem. Well when he was preaching down in Antioch that's far away from Jerusalem there was no problem this time. Most of the converts were Gentiles and they were having a great time. Many many people being converted and uniting with the fellowship. And then one day Peter happened to look down and what did he see? A crowd. And the Bible says he practiced hypocrisy. He dissembled. That's what it means. He practiced hypocrisy. And it says that all the Jews then the Jewish converts in the church they all backed off then with Peter to one side. They separated from the Gentiles. And Paul says here in Galatians chapter 2 it was so bad that even Barnabas was carried away with their hypocrisy. Barnabas the son of consolation who should have known better. The gospel of Jesus Christ the church of God was like to have run on the rocks at that time if Paul hadn't been around. Now then if Paul had learned his gospel from the Apostle Peter when he opened his mouth Peter could have said tut tut little man. You know all you know I taught you you've got nothing to tell me. But Paul never happened to get his gospel from Peter. He says in Galatians chapter 1 I neither received it of man neither was I taught it but by the revelation of Jesus Christ and so what did he do? Well if he operated like a lot of us would today he'd call a committee meeting get some of the leading brethren together off in a side room somewhere and they'd try and thrash it out. That's not what he did. It says here I stand unto Peter before them all in front of the whole church. You know in writing to Timothy a preacher you know what Paul said he said them that sin rebuke before all that others also may fear. Now that never happens in our church it never does. A friend of mine was a missionary and he said once a month we used to have this kind of meeting where us missionaries would conduct the business part of the meeting and when that was all we'd go and sit in the back seat and wait for the fireworks. Now in that particular area these people talked of pidgin English in the West Indies it was and he said we'd just sit there and wait pray and suddenly a fellow would get up and say you have an old gossip and then they'd have to get that straight and this would go on for maybe an hour or an hour and a half and they got the whole church purified and everything was beautiful again. Now the Bible says them that sin rebuke before all that others also may boy if a preacher did that they'd boot him down the street so fast he'd think he was always on the way out. But anyway this is what Paul did. In front of the whole church in Antioch he called Peter up on the carpet and he said if you're once destroyed you'll make yourself a transgressor. Now that's the background you see. You know what the contrast is? I'll tell you people there's a beautiful contrast here. Back in the Old Testament you know before the Holy Spirit was poured out in the church of God Genesis or pardon me in the book of Judges chapter 7 for one example remember Gideon he had a small army of 32,000 or so and he put the question to him you better go home. Is that what we tell them today? Hey if you Christians are afraid you better leave the church of God we can't do anything if you're afraid brother we've got nothing to tell you. Is that what we say? That's not what we say today. There's a big contrast since the Holy Spirit's come into the world we tell people look God has not given us a spirit of fear but of power and of love and of a sound mind and of fear but there's a remedy now God has sent forth the spirit of his blessed son into our hearts and the spirit that we have you have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear the Bible says in Romans 8 but you've received the spirit of adoption and so this blessed spirit of power lives in every Christian's heart and if I'm afraid then the spirit of God is the answer to my fear. Now what was Paul's like what is God after here in chapter 2? Chapter 1 that he might reveal his son to me Oh say the background to Galatians 2 and 20 is Peter sinning down in the church at Antioch the fear of man taking over and the remedy for the fear of man was simply this I am crucified with Christ Peter I am crucified with Christ Peter you are crucified with Christ nevertheless I live yet not I but Christ lives in me can you fancy Jesus Christ being afraid well how can he be when he's king of kings and lord of lords the blessed and only potentator power holder that word potentate means and he lives in our hearts so he said Peter listen Jesus Christ lives in your heart you are crucified with Christ and that old system is gone now it's a living reality that the son of God Jesus by the Holy Spirit lives in your heart Peter face up to it we're not told here what happened Paul doesn't go into any details as to what went on there but we do know that Peter must have got his life straightened out because later on in running he talks about our beloved brother Paul he didn't feel embarrassed or angry or mad at Paul because Paul did what he did it's a good thing Paul was around dear people like I said before the Christian enterprise would have run on the rocks way back then and we probably would not have a pure gospel to preach and believe and rejoice in today in chapter 3 of this book it begins by talking the background is that people have been deceived into disobedience you know the devil is always working you can go to the temple or the church or an area and come back five years later and you can hardly find any you know any evidence of it at all other places you can come back 20 years later and there's all kinds of evidence of the reviving work of God but you know the devil is always busy trying to halt the progress of the work of God you read of a certain one in the Bible that says he was coming to Christ for healing and it says as he was yet coming the devil threw him down and the devil is trying to prevent you and I if we're not a Christian from coming to Christ what he's telling the unconverted person is oh you've got lots of time you have got lots of time and he's telling Christian people the same thing we may be moved in our hearts by the Holy Spirit to respond some night to do something about the things we see are wrong in our life and the devil keeps telling well not tonight, tomorrow night, tomorrow night but you know it's always tomorrow night nobody gains by delay but the devil and he does gain by delay Jesus Christ describes how the devil comes and takes the word of God out of people's hearts God puts it there by the Holy Spirit and the devil comes and takes it out when we don't act upon it after a while it becomes very weak and very difficult to understand and lay hold of it it doesn't seem to be there the way it once was alright so the problem was oh foolish Galatians who has bewitched you who has deceived you that you should not obey the truth that means openly set forth crucified among you the contrast in that chapter is law and faith the word law occurs 16 times the word faith or it's equivalent occurs 17 times you know sometimes we can be right dead right and just as dead as right we are that way sometimes in the Christian life and walk oh boy we know what we believe you could ask us any question about any doctrine under the skies but I may be doctrinally right and morally wrong spiritually wrong Paul never ever said brethren I know what I believe but Paul did say brethren I know whom I have believed another translation says I know in whom I have put my trust I know in whom I have trusted we need to be able to say that too not so much I know what I believe as I know whom I have believed I know whom I have believed and I am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day alright the problem here is the devil has come in and deceived the people of God the contrast here then is between law and faith even though we are born again there often is a spirit of legalism in our heart and life and we feel if I just do this and don't do this and don't do this I'll be walking with God what more can God expect in this and as we know in Galatians 2 and 20 I am crucified with Christ nevertheless I live yet not I but Christ lives in me and Jesus Christ living in me is not an iceberg he is the living son of God and Jesus Christ has his way in your heart your life and mine and there is going to be evidence of that it just has to be others will know it they will know it at church they will know it where I work they will know it at school they will just have to know it that Jesus Christ is living me because there is a little verse in the Bible that says he could not be hid he could not be hid and the remedy did you notice in Galatians 3.1 he says before your eyes Jesus Christ has been openly set forth crucified among you did you ever think that through he was never down there the people down in that area had never seen Jesus Christ what could Paul possibly mean when he said that Jesus Christ has been openly set forth crucified among you there is only one thing he could mean and that is this that they had seen Jesus Christ in Paul remember writing to the church at Corinth in 1 Corinthians 2 he said I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified Jesus Christ crucified a friend of mine heard Billy Sunday preach at the Moody Bible College 1914 the time of the first world war he told me he said Bill he said it was the greatest sermon I ever heard in all my life he said when Billy Sunday was finished preaching he said you could just see Jesus Christ hanging on the cross it was a message on the resurrection this is how we as Christian believers ought to live that crucified life dead to self and sin and alive unto God there are two sides to the coin dead to self and sin but also alive unto God alive unto the voice of the Holy Spirit following the Lord walking in the Spirit as we thought about last night of being led by the Spirit from Galatians chapter 5 in Galatians chapter 4 we have a slightly different problem he accuses the people of having gone back to weak things and beggarly elements things that did not profit nor help them and now they've gone back to those things went on their own confession they were useless and hopeless they didn't do anything for them but they've gone back to those things again it happened in the days when apostles were on earth and it's happening today Bill said to me one time he said I think we ought to scrap all these church forms we've got today and go back to the church of the apostles the way you find it in the New Testament and I said which one of the seven churches in the book of Revelation that we ought to repent and I pointed out to this dear brother I said look the problems are no different today than they were then there were churches then when the apostles were back when the cold had gone back to the old way just as there are churches like that today the problem is as old as the church is old because of the devil's work and the natural inclination of the human heart to retire to supinous inactivity and do nothing and be cold and all the rest of it because of the Holy Spirit so they've gone back to these weak and beggarly elements and they wanted to be in bondage there and Paul he prays on the 19th verse of that same chapter he says my little children he's not nagging them he loves them but all his heart is broken and he says my little children of whom I prevail in birth again until Christ be formed in you this seems to be the perennial message if I can put it that way to you over there in Zechariah chapter 12 it says that God has laid the foundations of the earth and God has stretched out the heavens and God is forming the spirit of man within him God is working on your heart God is forming your spirit within you God is trying to conform you and I to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ and along with that he laid the foundations of the earth and he stretched out these vast starry heavens that's a great work but to think of that same hand God working in my heart trying to create there the image of the Lord Jesus Christ but that's what he's doing and that's chapter 4 and you notice God's way of doing it he says in that same chapter not now a servant he says but a son he says you're no longer servants now he says you're sons oh there's a great contrast I'm a child of God through the Lord Jesus Christ and he says this God has sent forth the spirit of his Son into your hearts and so as we noted already the Holy Spirit of God the Spirit of God's Son lives in my heart and the reason he lives in my dear friend is so that he may work on me he may take that old self and nail it to the cross and create within me the image of the Lord Jesus Christ well I think of a lady in one of our crusades they used to call her Mrs. Bible because she knew her Bible so well actually people used to phone her come to see her write letters to her and oh she loved this the people understood she knew the Bible so well Mrs. Bible she was called member of a good sound evangelical church strange thing although she knew her Bible so well she had six children and none of them were Christians not one of them ever received Christ as their Savior and this she could not understand but anyway she required the people to come on the platform and she came up on the platform and she started to share and when she got to sharing I knew she didn't understand but she kept on and on and I had a helper there whose responsibility was to look after the sharing time and he went over and said the sister he said you know now you're getting to preaching and the rules of the game are you're not supposed to preach you're only supposed to share and she smiled ever so sweetly even with anger she said that young whippersnapper what right did he to stop me in front of that crowd all those people knew me and I had something to share with those people I had a lot to share with those people at night and he stopped me and embarrassed me in front of that whole crowd and she went home and told her husband what had happened and she told her husband she said I'll never give my testimony in public again and I'll certainly never go back to those crusade meetings again oh but that was Tuesday night and she was back on Thursday night she came on the platform once again but you'd hardly recognize her as being the same person she was thoroughly humbled God had broken her and God had shown her the wicked pride and self-righteousness in her heart and life oh listen you know in her home her children and her husband they'd heard all kinds of Bibles they'd heard it over and over again but they had never seen the living Christ in mom and when she got her life all straightened out and came to know what it meant to be filled with the Spirit of God and Jesus Christ began to shine all six of her family found Christ in one week that's all it took just one week for years on end she'd been telling them what the Bible said and she'd been saying don't and do and throwing it all at them and they were not impressed you know people just get harder under that kind of an approach but she thought it was the best well it's the best I can do isn't this the way that all Christians are doing it but God used that humiliation and public meeting to work in her heart and her self-righteousness Mrs. Bible indeed but there was very little of Jesus Christ to be seen in her heart and life and when that happened as we've already noted it didn't take the Lord long to persuade her family that they needed salvation too and Paul is so concerned about this sort of problem God has sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your heart into my heart so that there he can create he can form within us the heart of Jesus Christ and this ought to be our goal our aim in life Christ is the way and Christ is the prize and Christ is God's purpose in saving us that Jesus Christ then might be seen in me then in chapter 5 he talks about people first verse he says stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ has made his stream be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage and it is a very very sad thing and then you find them and they're cold and they're critical they're dull and they're dead and it's so sad to see this but you do see it do you have as much joy tonight as you had the day you received Jesus Christ a lot of people say if you ask a question like that well I mean brother that's not to be expected you know the Lord knows that after being a Christian a while everybody gets kind of cold I'm not sure if Ralph Sotero said it but I heard him say it I mean I don't know if he actually coined this phrase or not but this is what he said you know when we get a person converted we have to let him get good and cold for about six months or a year so he can be you know good enough to be a good member of our church because you get someone that's really red hot for God in the average evangelical church he kind of fusses things up and some people don't like it they'd like things to settle down to normal and he had a young fellow who was a pastor it's his first congregation first church and the people in the church are mostly older people it's an evangelical Baptist church and so he went down to Jack Kyle's preacher school in Hammond, Indiana he got all fired up for God and boy he went back and started to apply what he learned and he began to sow in and in 12 months he led almost 40 people to the Lord Jesus Christ I mean all these years what are you doing here? so the poor fellow phoned me one night and he says what do I do? and he wants me to go down there and beat those older people over the head with a rubber hose or something to get some sense in their head well I'm going there for a week of meetings dear people you pray for me I go from here, we'll be here next week God willing, then over to Barth, Nova Scotia and then from there to Eglinville, Ontario on the way home I don't know what's going to happen but I'll be with them because all of us, whether we're young or old all say we need to know we need to know the fullness of God in our heart and life I baptized a lady 85 years old you know she was quite wealthy her investment income alone was $14,000 a year her husband when he died left a little over $2 million and you know that dear old soul she just got saved she got saved through radio broadcast I think it was something to do with her finding Christ but you know she called me up one day said would she come over she says to me on the telephone what's this tithing business I hear you talk about tithing what's tithing she said I want to do everything that Jesus wants me to do so I called unexplained what tithing was and walked out of there with a check for the church but anyway you know what she said to me she said I've wasted all of my life for myself we found out people that knew her she was a celebrity in the whole city of Saskatoon she was right on the top of the heap they said you don't know what you got when you got her but you know the Lord had really changed her heart and she said pastor if you know of anything in my life that's wrong you tell me be faithful to me I want to be exactly what the Lord wants me to be that's the way we ought to be a tender heart and a teachable heart but old Paul's heart was broken because the people of Galatia they got back into bondage just like Israel want to go back into Egypt again and Paul says my little children of whom I travail and birth again until Christ be formed in you chapter 5 walk in the spirit he says you're living in the spirit you're born again but you're walking in the flesh and he appeals to them and Galatians 5.24 says just the same thing that Galatians chapter 2 says he says they that are Christ have crucified the flesh with a passions and lust and if you belong to the Lord Jesus Christ tonight have you done this? the word of God says we should have they that are Christ have crucified the flesh with a passions and lust have I done this? ever ask God just to take me and put me on that cross with the Lord Jesus Christ you know that verse that says we quoted it before John 12.24 except the kernel of wheat fall to the ground and die and abides alone and you end up with a name tag on it that's me down here brother or maybe a finger up so they at least ask questions I wonder who's lying down there or maybe our head sticking out or one foot or something so people at least ask the question who's down there and God wants us totally buried so nobody will be seen but the Lord Jesus Christ when they had lifted up their eyes they saw no man save Jesus only and he's the need that the world has it's not any particular religion they need and they have to see him in you they have to see him in me oh so often when I was a pastor and even in this work now as you travel around the country you begin to witness sometimes unconverted people and they'll start along a certain line and I've just grown in my heart they've known some Christians that didn't really live for the glory of God and they throw this at you and walk away laughing and it's a sad thing somebody you should talk to me this way he said my best friend always talks this way he's a great fellow he said he says he's born again and boy he really lives it and he told me all about it and he was mightily impressed by his friend's testimony for God I wonder is anybody impressed by your testimony for God is it a living reality that Jesus Christ lives in your heart crucified, dead, buried and then resurrected and ascended you know we have an old say a few years ago God gave me a little sermon the title of which was keep looking down do you know why the bible says we are crucified with Christ dead with Christ, buried with Christ resurrected with Christ and ascended with Christ we're way up there in the mind of God you are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God we have been raised up together it says we've been made to sit together in heavenly places in Jesus Christ brother keep looking down it's all underneath it's not a theater of the world or life or death or things present or things to come all are yours and you are Christ and Christ is God we have been chosen in the hand of God the counsels of God to something great far more wonderful you know words just sort of break down they're very poor vehicles for conveying some of these great biblical truths we do the best we can I'm afraid sometimes when we get to heaven some of our people are going to say you know when we're in fellowship with God it just kind of opens up our heart and heaven becomes very very close and real and we see something sometimes I think I've even almost been able to hear the shouting on the other side you know in the great revival in the Hebrides off the coast of Scotland Duncan Campbell was telling us that two or three times they heard organ music not organ music but they heard the singing of angelic choirs he said once there was a bunch of preachers that had flown over from the states and so they weren't prepared for that but they sat in the maze and they caught the spirit of what God was doing and he said twice we were walking home across the moors the heavens opened up and we saw the glory of God and we heard these angelic choirs and we all fell on our faces we thought Jesus Christ was coming back you know in the churches in the Hebrides they don't have instruments they don't believe in it over there so I said to Duncan Campbell well when you heard these choirs you never heard anything like that well maybe we've never heard anything or seen anything like that yet there are those times when the Holy Spirit draws near and the things of God grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace you know when you've been along with the Lord Jesus Christ it shows they took knowledge of Peter, James and John that they'd been with Jesus Christ when they saw the boldness of Peter and John and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men all right then in the last chapter of the book of Galatians we have the same thought again Paul the background here is he talks about some people who want to make what he calls a fair show in the flesh all they're concerned about is the fact that other people are watching them much like the Pharisees back there Matthew chapter 23 and so he says they're determined to make a fair show in the flesh and as I was thinking about that today the Lord just brought to my attention well I don't really know I reckon we'll find out someday I don't really know but I do know that their sin was they were trying to make a fair show in the flesh and when the other people moved so mightily in that time of revival and blessing when the other people were selling their lands and selling their houses and bringing the money and pouring it out at the feet of the apostles to be used for the needy Ananias and Sapphira were on the spot because they had some lands and possessions and they wanted to get the same kind of glory but they didn't want to give their houses and their lands away so what did they do? they agreed together to lie and so they brought a certain portion of money and gave it to the apostle to Peter Ananias did and God gave Peter the insight to understand this man was lying you remember that Ananias dropped dead and then Sapphira came in some while Sapphira some while later she didn't know what had happened to her husband and Peter talked to her and said I want to make a fair show in the flesh so it's easy to walk out of the church with a bible in our hand and go through the motions sing the songs and all the rest of it and maybe all we are doing is making a fair show in the flesh what does Paul say in the context there? he says God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ whereby the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world do you find the world very attractive? many young people do and many older people do too the only thing is when we get older we learn how to hide our real feelings but the world 1 John chapter 2 the word of God says my little children love not the world not of the things that are in the world if any man love the world the love of the father is not in him for all that's in the world the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life and the lust thereof but he that does the will of God abides forever don't love the world if you love the world then he says very plainly that the love of the father is not in your heart it can't be there at the same time keep yourselves in the love of God looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life if you continue in my word then are you my disciples indeed the Lord Jesus Christ said my kingdom is not of this world no the world has been organized by the devil he's called the prince of this world Jesus Christ called him that in the gospel of John and Paul called him the God of this world and he is that and he's got the world organized politically and religiously and commercially and socially and the whole thing is organized to try and keep people away from God so he's got it organized politically like a true Christian says in his heart and he knows in Revelation chapter 11 the word of God says this the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ and he shall reign forever and ever and ever and ever and ever so he shall Canada and the United States and every kingdom I'm not sure how many countries is it 160 countries in the world something like that alright every last one of them will become the kingdoms of our Lord forever and ever so politics I'm afraid I can't get too excited about it because I know what's going to happen someday my savior will return king of kings lord of lords and at that particular time the devil is going to have the nations of the world so organized and so incensed against God that we read this in Revelation 11 and the nations were angry and Iraq has come and the times are dead that they should be judged and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets and to them that fear thy name small and great and shouldest destroy them that corrupt the earth they've corrupted the atmosphere they've corrupted the earth itself the physical earth and they've corrupted the water they've also corrupted the very atmosphere with their immorality and when the Lord Jesus Christ returns God's going to deal with all of this with the burden of his Christ and he shall reign forever and ever like Isaiah said of the increase of his government and of peace there shall be no end upon the throne of David and upon his kingdom to order it and to establish it with justice and with judgment from henceforth even forever the zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this the prophet adds and then religiously oh but listen there's a number of phrases one is found in Colossians 3 and it says when Christ who is our life the word who is not in the Greek language at all let's read it the way it was written when Christ our life shall appear then shall you also appear with him in glory one translation says when Christ our life shall be manifested unveiled revealed then shall we also be manifested we shall not all sleep we shall all be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye at the last trump for the trumpet shall sound and the dead shall be raised incorruptible and we shall be changed the old Charles Fuller I heard him one time commenting on that he said oh it's a good thing that the Lord said we should be changed or some Christians will be scrapping on the way up we're going to be changed by the grace of God yes and in all if you have Jesus Christ my dear friend you have got all you have got everything you'll need Christ is our wisdom our righteousness our sanctification and our redemption that according as it is written he that glories let him glory in the Lord Jesus Christ is all I need he's singing one of our songs he's all I'll ever need do I understand this what about 1 John chapter 4 it says this is the record of the Baptist church that's not what it says and this life is in his Son he that has the Son has life and he that has not the Son of God has not life do I have Jesus Christ living in my heart then if I do I have got eternal life alright what is God maybe saying to your heart tonight