In this sermon, the speaker shares a story about a man named Jack Brown who sells newspapers in the rain. One day, a wealthy man in a Rolls Royce approaches Jack and reveals that he has inherited a fortune from his uncle. The speaker uses this story to illustrate that God's salvation is not based on our own efforts or achievements, but on His grace and mercy. The speaker encourages the audience to surrender their lives to God and allow Him to crucify their old selves, so that they can experience true peace, joy, and freedom. The sermon emphasizes the need for humility, forgiveness, and obedience in the Christian life, and concludes with a message of hope that God will raise up powerful and anointed individuals to bring about a great manifestation of His power in the world.

...give themselves, that's good, keep you humble. And what's more, somebody else won't forgive you, and that's a little bit more humiliating. What do you care about men if God has forgiven you? If you can sing as we sang the other night, praise my soul, the King of heaven, to his feet thy tribute be ransomed, healed, restored, forgiven. I heard of an old boy that couldn't keep silent in church, you know you get them now and again. Robert's getting a bit that way, but anyhow, they keep shouting hallelujahs at the wrong time, and this old boy kept shouting, and one day the preacher said, would you come round to my house and see me? Oh yes, he said, hallelujah, he said, yeah, yeah, you come round on Tuesday. And he just got in the house, and the doorbell rang, and the young preacher discovered that a college friend of his had come. So he slipped the old man in a side room, and he said, hey, could you stay a few minutes, this man's in a hurry, would you stay? He said, yes, I will. He said, you, you, read this book. It was an encyclopedia. Right in the middle of it, while he's talking to his friends, he heard the loudest, hallelujah, like, hallelujah! Oh, boy, what in the world? And he waited a bit, and there was another uproarious hallelujah, so he said to his friend, wait a minute, I've got a crank over in this room here. He went in, he said, listen, this is not a book of theology, it's a book of, what are you praising God for? What are you shouting hallelujah like this for? Oh, he said, I just opened the book at random, and I'm reading about the ocean, and it's 25,000 feet deep here, and right off the coast of the Philippines, there's a, there's a place they can't fathom, fathom, he said. Hallelujah! He said, for what? Well, he says, the book says he's cast my sins beyond the depth of the sea. And you know what? If the devil goes looking for them, they'll get drowned. Well, his theology may have been a bit bad, but you see, he got the hang of it. He's forgiven me my sins. I may not do that, others may not. He has done it. He took the record of my sins, and he hurled it into the sea of his forgetfulness, never to be remembered. He'll never bring a sin up against you anymore when you stand there in eternity. Through the blood of Jesus Christ, God said. The burden goes, peace comes, anxiety has gone, condemnation has gone. There is therefore now no condemnation to those of us who are in Christ Jesus. Says Romans 8, 1. Last thing and not the least by any means. And then he says, when you've got cleaned up like that, when you've been really born again, when you really have a witness of the Spirit, when you've got the joy bells ringing in your heart and you think that's the end, it is. It's the beginning end. That's where it all starts. Because he says, I'm commissioned not only to preach forgiveness of sins, to open your eyes and to open your understanding and let you know that you may receive forgiveness of sins, but he says, you can too have an inheritance among them that are sanctified by faith that is in me. Justification leads to sanctification. When we lived in Manchester, England, it's a dirty town for sure. And when we lived there, I used to think so often about a man that sold newspapers at the street corner. And if you pulled up in your automobile, he'd say, uh, news or chronicle, meaning Manchester evening news or Manchester chronicle. When it was raining, he put an old sack, an old paper sack over his newspapers and he'd stand there shivering in the rain, you know, and he was standing there one night and he was, uh, just the worst English night. And that's terrible. Raining, cold, uncomfortable. A beautiful Rolls Royce pulled up and the man said, are you Jack Brown? He said, yeah, do you want the news or the chronicle? He said, I don't want any, get in this automobile. Didn't say it quite like that, he said, sir, to this ragged old guy. He said, do you want the chronicle or the news? He said, I want you, get in this automobile. Me? Well, you're Jack Brown, yes. Did you, did you have an uncle called Isaac Brown? Yes, I heard about him for years. No, he's left you a fortune, get in. He said, uh, could you go around the block till I've sold these newspapers? The man said, get in this automobile. He got in. And this is true, it's no joke. The old Rolls Royce was so big that you sat back and it had a speaking tube to the driver way up there, you know, for the chauffeur. He said to the chauffeur, go out to so-and-so, so-and-so, and as they went, they got outside of Manchester, turned down the road and turned between some great big gates and there was a beautiful house and they stopped. The lawyer turned the key, went in, put on the lights and here was this beautiful, beautiful hot. He said to the man in the car, hey, come in, this is your house. And he looked at the rugs and he looked at the oil paintings and he looked at the silverware and he looked at the bath. The lawyer told him what it was for and he went from there looking around the house and then he sat down in a chair and put his feet up. And the lawyer said, well, let's go. Let's go. Didn't you say this is my house? Listen, I'm, am I, am I dreaming? Am I? Oh, no, you're not dreaming. This is your house. Well, then he said, just get me some food and bring it here. I'm going to stay here. And the lawyer tried to press, no, you're not getting me out of this place. I'm staying. The lawyer got him comfortable. He said, well, good night, sir. I'll take you to the house in the morning. What house? Oh, he said, this is just where your gatekeeper who happens to be a chauffeur lives and the house is a mile and a half up the driveway there. It is. And you know, they put a banquet on for you tonight. But if you want to stay here, oh, no, no, no. He said, he got in a limousine, went up. When he got there, they threw the doors open. Here were the great chandeliers, here were the servants. And they saw this disreputable looking man go in and the man said, this is the man. Do you know what? This poor man has been living in a state, and he described some of it, when all the time he could have been living in luxury. He'd been sweating and toiling when other men would have worked for him. He has never claimed his inheritance. And I think when we get to the judgment, God's going to say that to a lot of us. You have an inheritance among them that are sanctified by faith that is in him. Because justification gives me peace with God. Sanctification gives me the peace of God. Justification takes care of my past. Sanctification means it's indwelling by the Holy Ghost. I'm sorry I didn't get to that baptismal service. I'd like to have seen it. I'll pray for you, Melody, and your friends. I'm glad you obeyed God there. And I finish with this. It's so wonderful, that sixth chapter of Romans. I'm not saying they did. I'm not thinking of them. I'm thinking of how many people just go through baptism, because it's a custom. It's almost a ritual. But you see, the scripture says this, that if this is a man standing in the water there, immediately you put him underneath that water. You bury him in baptism. He's nothing to do with the world above him, has he? He can't talk to it. He can't see it. He can't breathe it. He can't eat in it. He's buried in baptism. He's cut from the flesh. He's cut off from the world above him. You see, Jesus not only died for our sins, but he says, we died with him on the cross. Knowing this, that our old man, you can make that your own nature if you like, was crucified with him. When he died, I died. Therefore, I reckon on his death that he emancipates me. I mentioned this morning, the sinner is dead in trespasses and in sins. But Paul, writing to the Colossians, says, you're dead. If you're a true Christian, you're dead. And your life is hid with Christ in God. He says, if you're dead, seek those things which are above. If he'd be risen with Christ, well, that's what it's all about, isn't it? That we went down in the water. I remember doing that. I remember going to the factory the next day. I started working when I was 13, quit as soon as I could and started preaching. But when I was 14, I got saved. And I went back to the factory and told the fellows that I'd been baptized. And they sneered, they laughed, they said, what? And ever after that, if they wanted a pattern, say they wanted a 40 chest pattern to cut a suit, they'd say, John the Baptist just got it. That was all right. But you see, this is what it's all about. It's not a quick running to the altar saying, I'm sorry for my sins. Amen, I believe the blood covers them. Oh, no, no, no. It's a little more painful than that. If I'm going to be his, it means I lose my rights. It means I'm buried with him in baptism. I'm cut off from the world above. I live in it, but I'm not off it. You're dead and your life is hid with Christ in God. You don't get very far tempting a dead man, do you? You say, well, actually, we're not physically dead. No, we're not. It's not that I'm out of the reach of sin. It's not impossible for me to sin. It's possible for me not to sin. I've changed my attitude to the world and the flesh and the devil. That Jesus isn't here to help me get through life and bless my business and something else. I'm his love slave. He has every right to demand everything out of my life. And Paul says that's what he preaches, that you and I may have an inheritance among them that are sanctified by faith that is in me. And sanctified means to make holy. Jesus, God did three things on the Sabbath day. He rested on it in Genesis 2. He rested on it. He blessed it. And he sanctified it. In the Old Testament economy, a thing sanctified was taken from ordinary use. There was a certain service it had to go through, through purging and dedication. And then it went into holy use and never again did it go into unholy use. David was stressing the other day, the children of Israel came out of Egypt. But they got stuck at Kadesh Barnea. God intended they should go into the promised land. What was the promised land? Oh, we make a lot of the honey and all the other trimmings. Their business in going to a promised land was to slay the 31 kings that were ruling there. And you won't get it any better anywhere than finding, if you can, Lancelot Andrew's devotions. He too was a Presbyterian. And this is what he said. Oh, God, I can't give you the exact interpretation. It says, Neil, you don't know any better. You're so ignorant, so you won't know anyhow. But this is what it says. He prayed something like this, Lord, cleanse me from the Amorite of pride, the Gergesite of envy, the Jebusites of evil, and the Amalekites of some other thing. And he's got it all, every one of those strange people in there that were oppressing the children of Israel. And he says, I find them in my heart, the Amalekites of lust, the Jebusites and all the otherites. I think it's a lovely picture. After all, Dave was saying the other day, the original condition of man, well, he didn't have any sin anyhow, did he? And he was submissive and holy to God. His body was sanctified, his mind was sanctified, his spirit was sanctified. And Jesus didn't die for anything less than that. He prays in John 17, I'm through, he prays what? For their unification, that they may be one. For their jubilation, that they may have his joy. He prays for their preservation, not their isolation to be taken out of the world, their preservation in it. And he comes to the climax in the 17th verse of John 17, sanctify them through thy truth, thy word is truth. When the work of Jesus Christ was not merely to get rid of the past sins and make us nicer people to live with, it was that we might be purged from evil, from cleanse, from sin, indwelt by the Spirit of God and become vessel sanctified. That the Lord says of that man, that woman, you know, they never pollute themselves with the world. I can take that man and breathe in him. I can live in him. I can pray in him. That's what it's all about. To have a spirit-controlled life, you know, it's the most joyous thing in the whole world. To feel no tugs of envy or pride or secret lust or anything else. As I've said facetiously before, people say we need a little bit of sin to keep us humble. Well, why not have a lot and be real humble? I don't need sin to keep me humble. All I have to do is look at the record of the apostle Paul or look at the record of C.T. Stood or look at the record of some of those men. How in the world did they cram eternity into their lives? Why did they dare to step out in faith? Many of them without a dime and go to countries like China that were locked in superstition in those days. You say China isn't open and the world's shrinking. Listen, there are millions of acres of the Amazon that have never yet been open for the gospel of anybody else. There are areas of the world which are still as challenging as they were when heathendom with all its scholastic power and the wonder and wonder of the Roman Empire, when they challenged the gospel. And a bunch of men went, they didn't have financial backing, they weren't building their own little kingdom somewhere, they weren't groaning for money every day. They had a God who supplied their need and they said, so if we have to sweat working, what does it matter anyhow? Is now Lord and Master worth everything? So that they were His, not only their sins taken away but their sin was cleansed and He indwelt them and we stay clean as long as we abide in the presence of a holy God. A holy God under the blood and we're obedient to the voice of God. Well, this is the work of the ministry. I hope some of you young men aspire to it, for Jesus needs a lot of love slaves these days, and young women too. The world doesn't get any better, it'll be worse tonight when we go to bed than it was when we started. But thank God somewhere hidden in America today I'm convinced of this. God has His secret John the Baptist and Apostle Paul, not to write epistles but men that will come out in the power and the anointing of the Holy Ghost. We're going to see the greatest manifestation of power that this world has ever seen. No denomination's going to get the glory, hallelujah. Nobody's going to build a little kingdom of their own and say, look what God does through me and my faith. No, it's going to be a, He says it's going to be a short work, it's going to be a quick work, it's just going to save the nations before they finally plunge into the wrath of God. Do you know His salvation tonight? Do you know His peace? Do you know His joy? Are you struggling with a lazy spirit, a carnal spirit, a jealous spirit, a covetous spirit? There's one way to get rid of it, that is not to go to the cross, it's to get on the cross. Paul says, I'm crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live. A man can't crucify himself, he might nail that hand to a cross and nail his feet, but he's still free. Someone else must do it. And when I let God come and do that in my life, put my old self-seeking, self-glory, self-pity and everything else to death, when I got saved there wasn't much very dramatic about it. I'd always been a good, clean Methodist. I was only fourteen anyhow. I was never out of the house after nine at night. You know, people think it's strange when you talk about keeping your family disciplined. I asked Dave yesterday, Dave, how old were you when you first dated a girl? He said twenty. My other boy was twenty. But the other was a rebel, he was raised more in America, he dated at nineteen, now he's too young. They didn't date girls, why? Because who wants a girl? Everybody's mauled around for the last five years. She's used up by then, everybody kissed and cuddled her and so on. When I talk about discipline in the home, which was done in love, people are amazed. But you see, we've so fallen into worldly systems and practices, it's the way of life. I found a woman excited because her beautiful daughter had been chosen to be a cheerleader, which means she did cartwheels and was half-naked going down. No, no, no, that's an abomination, get out of here. God is looking for a sanctified people, a pure people. We live in the world, we're not snobbish, but we live above it. It's customs, it's pride, everything else. We take the way of the despised Jesus, we take up our cross and we follow him. We not only go to the cross, we take up the cross and rejoice if need be. And of course, we don't stress this about Pentecost, do we? That immediately after Pentecost, they were all persecuted. And then how they found joy? Well, they wrote some new hymns, they put some sounds to music, they all bought guitars, went back to the upper room. No, they didn't. Do you know what they did? They all got beaten up and persecuted and it says they rejoiced that they were counted worthy to suffer for his name's sake. Oh, what a joy when we can bear his suffering and his reproach with joy and with gladness. Because again, he's worthy. I don't know any church in America that I enjoy more than this church. That doesn't mean you have to ask me back, I know you'll do that, but apart from that, I want to thank you for the privilege of sharing some thoughts and your gracious kindness to David and myself. We're going to sing. We've got to sing before we leave. You've got an old hymn book here, at least some of you have got one. It's a hymn that we haven't sung for a long while, 228. How many have an old hymn book there? Do you have one? Good. Share it with somebody. It's a hymn we know well. 228, when peace like a river attendeth my way, when sorrows like sea billows roll. Let's stand and sing it.