In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of having unwavering faith in God, even in the midst of challenging circumstances. He uses the example of a man who remained calm and unshaken during a violent storm at sea, demonstrating that having nothing can actually be an advantage because there is nothing to lose. The speaker also highlights the peace that comes from having a relationship with God, as well as the role of Christian workers in preaching the word of God. He references 2 Corinthians 6 to explain the hardships and trials that ministers may face, but emphasizes that enduring these challenges is a testament to their faith and love for God.

A bit like being electrocuted, I think. I think a new class will be here next Friday night, is that right? Anybody know? Good, that's great, so come early to get a seat. There was a lady here last week, maybe she won't be too flattered if I said this, she's a chubby little lady, round cheeks, she was round everywhere to tell the truth. And I said, we're glad to see you. Where are you from? She said, Nebraska. Nebraska? Who have you been staying with? What are you doing down here? I came for the prayer meeting. From Nebraska? Yeah? Well, you were here last week. I've had two Friday nights in this prayer meeting. I didn't know a thing about it and God gave me a vision of a cafeteria with a prayer meeting in it. You think the Holy Ghost isn't on the mark, eh? She said, but Lord, they don't have prayer meetings in cafeterias. I said, well, there's one down at Lyndale in Texas. And she took the bus, or she flew, just to come to the prayer meeting. And stayed the second week. Then like everybody else, she said, where do I go to another prayer meeting like this? I said, there isn't one. There are going to be many. Three nights ago, a young man called me from just outside of Chicago. Can we come to your prayer meeting? I said, where are you? He said, out of state. I said, where, Illinois? I said, yes, that's out of state, all right. My wife and I want to come to the prayer meeting. They're going to fly down to come to a prayer meeting, which is beautiful, but horrible. If they drive, they'll pass 500 churches. All the taverns will be open, all the hell holes will be open, the churches will be locked up. Last Sunday night I had the privilege of preaching in town at the Church of God. I thought there was a breath of heaven in that meeting. Until there were people at the altar at 11 o'clock and they didn't even speak above a whisper, God came. The pastor called me Tuesday midday and he said, my phone rang all day yesterday and it's been ringing all day today until a few minutes ago with people who responded or met God in some way in that meeting. Next Saturday night, not Friday night, can't give up Friday nights. That's a holy day. But next Saturday night we're going to have a prayer meeting in the Church of God. You don't go where? Down Loop 323, cross over Broadway, go right up, what is it, Troop Highway? Anybody know what it's called? Nobody knows. Disgusting. Is it Troop Highway better? Go right round up round the bend. Where you go shopping, you know, that big shopping centre, go right round the bend, you'll see Assembly of God. Don't go in there. Come to our prayer meeting next door. I don't know the time, maybe it will be, I guess between seven and eight we're going to pray two or three hours. Then Sunday night there and Monday night and Tuesday I'm going to preach, I'm going to try anyhow. I feel there's a touch of God on that church. And we have to have faith and works. So I expect you, you book for a week Saturday, you can't go to dinner anywhere. Dale and Betty. And Dick you're booked for that night, you two behind. And Ed and Bill. We need to go support them. They have desires for God. I go to meetings nearly every night if they'll pray. I'm not used to listening to preachers, they bore me. But we go to prayer meetings. Some dear folk here from Fort Worth tonight, glad to see you. People keep phoning, if they all come the same night you'll have to push that thing back to the far wall. Somewhere tonight in our praying let's pray for the new students that are coming that it will mean something to them. I'm convinced the fire is going to fall somewhere in the Tyler area. I believe there are thousands of prayers under the altar from Tyler. I know by some prayer meetings, I said to somebody today, the psalmist said store my tears in thy bottle, he'll have to have a big bottle before long. I believe God is going to give us a real spirit of intercession and supplication. Which is the greatest need right now. Okay. The Acts of the Apostles chapter 20. Acts chapter 20 verse 24. But none of these things move me, neither count I my life as dear unto myself, so that I may finish my course with joy and the ministry which I received of the Lord Jesus to testify the gospel of the grace of God. I guess you can cast your mind very quickly over the enormous ministry, the awesome ministry I could say of the Apostle Paul. Not long after this he's going to be put to death. Because I thought about it today, I thought about Adam. How long did he live? 930 years. What did he do? I don't know. Did he ever pray? I don't know there's a record of it. Did he ever worship God? There's no record of it. What did he do? 930 years and he left no record. Here is the Apostle, breathlessly going on to eternity. He's testifying. Again a man with an experience is never at the mercy of a man with an argument. I like Paul because he's 100% what he preached. You can't say that of many preachers. We had a preacher in our home last week. A very handsome man, very brilliant. He joined us in Teen Talent when Teen Talent was just starting. When Dave Wilson had a desk I had to go get one for him at a junk shop. When we used to think that a $20 bill we used to have a dance around the office when we got $20. That young man came straight from Harvard. He was president of his class that year. He was voted the most likely young man to succeed and go to the top first. In anything he laid his hand to. Maybe I mentioned it last week, he came to Teen Talent. From there he went to Zion, Illinois. Now if you're thinking about a Bible school where you'll get, it's not a 10 week course of course, about 4 years. If I had children I'd want them to go to that school. It's there where I met that old man, 30 years of age, pardon me, 65 years of age who hadn't been to bed one night for 30 years. Come on you tough men that play racquetball and get bruised up and knocked around. Have you got enough stamina to stay up all night? For a week? For a month? For a year? For 30 years? I looked at him with amazement, stared at his beautiful blue eyes, pink cheeks. The picture of health, a brilliant Hebrew scholar, prepared in Hebrew. Went to Israel as it then, pardon me, went to Palestine as it was then. When he got there God sent him back. But Lord I've learned Hebrew. People paid my fare to come out. You told me that you don't care for opinions, go back. And intercede for America. He's one of the men whose thousands of prayers are under the altar. Tear stained. Praying, weeping while other people are sleeping. He got such a vision of eternity, he got such a vision of the majesty of God. Of the horrors of hell. Of the corruption of human nature. Paul is in that very same category. Look in verse 22. And now behold I go bound in the Spirit to Jerusalem. Now the scholars can't define whether it's bound by the Holy Spirit or bound in his human spirit. I don't care what it means. Not knowing the things that shall befall me there. He had words of knowledge, but this he says I don't know what befalls me when I go to Jerusalem. That's what he said in verse 22. Look at verse 25. And now behold I know that ye, and I know ye all among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom of God. And ye shall see my face no more. But he just said he didn't know what was happening. Where is he going? He's going bound to Jerusalem. I believe that from my interpretation of that, he's got convictions that won't be shaken. You change your opinions, you don't often change your convictions. I don't know what awaits me, I don't know what torture there is. But notice what he says, he puts a little bit more in there. Now I go bound in the Spirit to Jerusalem. Not knowing the things that shall befall me there. Say that the Holy Ghost witnesses. That in every city there are bonds and afflictions. Dear Lord, why doesn't he turn back? He's already done enough to get rewards in eternity. He's labored, he's suffered in wilderness, in bondage, in liberty. And yet the forecast for, would you, come on be honest. Would you like the Holy Ghost to lift the curtain on your life for the next five years and show you everything that's coming? Our boys went to a very lovely school in Ireland. Royal Patora School. They have a big sign as you go in that Captain Oates, you may remember, he walked out into the snow. There wasn't enough food left in the South Pole exploration. And the other side has a big disc and it says here, one of our outstanding scholars was Francis Henry Light. Who wrote the hymn, Abide With Me, Fast Falls the Eventide. And you may remember he says, keep thou my feet, I do not ask to see the distant sea in one step enough for me. Supposing God did lift the veil. He says I'm going bound to Jerusalem, that's where his master died. The hymn writer says it is the way the master went. Should not the servant tread it still? Sometimes men were crucified in dozens on the Appian Way that leads into Rome. One time they, what did they do? They hung I think three thousand people on the side of the road. Three thousand crosses. Looking at each other in their misery but each of them bearing his own pain. Nobody can bear your pain for your cross. I think I mentioned the other week of a man who was in prison. A man came along he said, what are you doing here? I've taken the penalty for my brother. He was sentenced to five years solitary and I'm taking it in his place. You're taking your brother's place? He said I can only take his penalty, I can't take his guilt. I can take the punishment that's put out on him, I can't bear the agony of his guilt. Yet every person who's crucified with Christ bears his own pain. It can't be shared. We don't all pay the same price. I wasn't rescued from the lip of hell, I was raised in a very wonderful Methodist home. I remember my daddy had a, I was going to say a staircase, he had a rack of pipes. Some very precious pipes. And a big pot of tobacco and I remember one morning coming down and said all the pipes have gone. Daddy burned them last night. Why? Because the Lord dealt with him. I didn't know who the Lord was. You know a man picked up the scripture and he read all the things that the Apostle Paul was allowed to bear. What it says, in weariness, in painfulness, in fastings, in perils of the deep. Once I was stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day in the deep. In weariness, in fastings, lash two hundred and, five times forty, two hundred minus five, 195 lashes. And this critic says I've been reading the life of the Apostle Paul. If that's what God does to his friends, what in the world does he do to his enemies? That's a nice way of looking at it, isn't it? He does that because afterwards he's going to receive an eternal inheritance. Every lash was recorded in eternity. I think in this very scripture Paul says that he wept over the sinners, he wept over the church. The Holy Ghost bears witness. Come on now, does he? Do you want the Holy Ghost just to give you kicks? Just to make you happy, just to make you prophesy, just to let you speak in tongues? To let you feel more freedom? Does the Holy Ghost bear witness? The Quakers used to talk about an authentic stop in the spirit, that you're going to do a thing, and suddenly the Holy Ghost says no, and you cancel all your plans. The Holy Ghost says yes, and you go in a different direction. He bears witness. John Wesley preached on the witness of the spirit from Romans chapter 8, more than any other text ever preached on. The spirit beareth witness. I can't live by feelings. Good night, I'm up. I'm higher than the moon. I could walk on the other side of the moon some mornings. Other times if I lived on my emotions I'm as low as hell nearly. Amongst the many things that the psalmist said, there's one that sticks in my mind so often, he said my heart is fixed. Well get it straight, nothing else is. Your emotions aren't, your feelings aren't. Your circumstances are not. Everything else is subject to change and decay. To the variables. But he says my heart is fixed. I don't know whether you sang this at Asbury, in Methodist church I went to, they used to sing, my heart is fixed, eternal God, fixed on thee, fixed on thee, and my immortal choice is made, Christ for me. And boy they sang. I haven't heard any good singing since I left England until I came here. Just saved myself there. Oh I love to hear you sing. My heart is fixed. My emotions are not. My circumstances are not. My finances maybe are not. There's a hundred things that are not, but my heart is fixed. It's given to him. I have no other Lord, I have no other person to worship. Quote Wesley again, in his great hymn, Jesus, you lover of my soul, he says, thou, O Christ, art all I want. You know when you can say that you learn to worship. Thou, O Christ, art all I want. More than all in thee I find. Stay your hand, stay your hand, you're blessing me too much. Do you ever have times of exaltation when you're alone with God and you feel as though you're going to burst with joy? Well you should do. At times I burst in weeping. When I groan. Why shouldn't I go to the other end of the scale? You know I look at these dear ladies sometimes. I don't look too close. I think I've told you I stayed in a home in Chicago. The lady was about 60 years of age and the first week I was there she said on the Friday morning, I'll take my Bible and my Sunday school notes. I'm going to the beauty shop. I nearly said, well you need it, but anyhow. Then she said, I've gone to the same beauty shop for 15 years. I wonder what she was like before they started doing repairs every Friday. Oh, ladies tend toward vanity, I suppose, much more than men. Men are getting terribly vain these days. They have their big rings and their fancy hairstyles. Thousand dollar suits. I'm giving the name of an evangelist who has 80 $1,000 suits. God help her at the judgment. I wish she'd worn rags. But the king's daughter is all glorious within. They must be discouraging to make your face up for an hour and a half and wash it down the sink at night. Jacob? I ever saw. Was in a place in Bradford. I'll tell you how I remember that because I met Smith Wigglesworth there. This dear old lady had a voice. Good night, I'm singing like an angel compared to her. What was it? Come to my house for a cup of tea. Yeah, we went. We went in. All she had was little cups that were cracked and plates that were cracked. As a matter of fact, she had one small room in which she lived with her bed in it and she had the little stove there and the toilet and everything in that one room. Before we left, she said, Let us pray. Well, I'd heard about that woman, so I wasn't going to pray. I tell you, brother, did she pray? We were all down on the floor before she finished. I knew it wasn't a show. I knew she wasn't putting on something. I went to pray with a woman in Scotland in what they call a tenement where you've got the winding staircase like an old castle. She was a hundred years of age. Her daughter said, You'll have to hammer on the door and she won't hear you anyhow. But when you go in, you'll be glad you went. Well, there she was. She had no eyes, totally blind. Went up to the side of the bed. Her arms were about as wide as my two fingers. I put my hand on her hand, her arm, and I yelled in her ear. Couldn't make any sense. And my friend shouted, and she realized what we've come to do. We've come to pray with you. That little hundred year old lady just said this, Croon him. Croon him. Croon him, Lord of all. In other words, crown him Lord of all. You wouldn't have given her five dollars for everything in the room, including the bed. And yet her daughter said she has lived a consistent life of prayer for more than 50 years. If you heard her when she's released, boy, she mounts her with wings as eagles. She's in eternity in five minutes. Ministers beg to come and hear her pray, but she won't pray just to let them hear. That little woman had gone through tribulation and distress and famine and peril and nakedness and sword almost. And there she was, as sweet as an angel. Rugged outside, wrinkled face. I'm not being facetious. She had a kind of depression almost on her face until she started to pray. Then what a difference. She didn't ask for prayer. She didn't ask if anyone would be with her the rest of the day. Her daughter went out in the morning, came home at night from the factory where she worked. All she did was exalt Jesus and thank Him for His blessedness, thank Him for His faithfulness, thank Him for His mercy. Thank Him that somewhere out of a few million people in England one day He selected her to be a child of God. And that for more than 70 years she'd proved His faithfulness, she'd proved in the loneliest hours, she'd proved when she buried her husband, she'd proved Him when she buried her children, she'd proved Him when there was poverty, she'd proved Him in the long strikes and there was no money. So Paul has got what we call the tip-off. That's not the right word. He's got a revelation by the Holy Ghost that He will suffer. You remember on the Damascus road when Ananias went to Him and said He would suffer? No, He didn't say He would suffer. What did He say? He will suffer great things for Thy name's sake. Do you wish for that in the year of a convert when He's just been saved? Now you're in for trouble. You've got against you the world, the flesh, the devil and carnality if God hasn't dealt with it. You're going to be a football for circumstances to kick around and the devil to kick around. And God is doing it for one purpose only and set you on as an example to the rest of the world of the grace of God. Great things are ahead of me. None of these things move me. None of these things. But then He says, neither account of my life has been my own. None of these things move me. You skip over to chapter 27. Here is the same man now. As ever the enemy is trying to destroy him. He's going on a missionary journey. And you remember how he tells how the ship was loaded. Verse 9 he says, Now when much time was spent and when sailing was dangerous, look at that, there's number one thing, dangerous. Because the fast was now passed Paul admonished them and he said, Sirs, I perceive that this voyage will be with hurt and much damage. There you are as a prophet. He gets on as a prophet, he becomes a passenger, he becomes a prisoner, he becomes a pilot. Who's going to get this world out of the mess it's in? Not Russia. Before long this whole nation and all the other nations are going to be handed over to the preachers. There's going to be nowhere else to go. Sirs, verse 10, I perceive this voyage will be with much hurt and much damage. Not only the loading of the ship but also our lives. Nevertheless the centurion believed the master and the owner of the ship. Naturally he would. Verse 13, When the south wind blew softly, supposing they obtained their purpose, what would happen to them? Which is a combination of tornadoes and what do you call the thing you have at sea? Hurricanes. The fiercest thing that was ever known on the sea was going to beat down on this man. He told them it would come. They ignored him. David Wilson has sent out a book that's very much the same. Somebody told me that before the book or the same time the book was going out, a fellow called Van Impey, I think he is, on TV said almost identical things in his message. Verse 14, Not long after there arose in a tempestuous wind called Eurocledon. When the ship was caught and could not bear up into the wind they let her drive. They had to let it run its course where it wanted to go. And running under a certain island which is called Clauda we'd much work to come by the boat which when they had taken up they used helps undergirding, put ropes under the ship and we were exceedingly tossed with a tempest. Next day they lightened the ship. The next day they cast out with their own hands the tackling of the ship when neither sun nor moon appeared after many days and no small tempest, in other words a fierce tempest lay on us. All hope that we should be saved was then taken away. But after long abstinence Paul stood forth in the midst of them and said, and to again this harm and loss and now I exhort you to good cheer for there shall be no loss of any man's life. Read it from my scripture here. Verse 23. There stood by me this night an angel of God whose I am and whom I serve saying, fear not Paul thou must be brought before Caesar and lo, God hath given thee all them that sailed with thee in the ship. Why? One man believed God they lost the ship, they lost their tackle, they lost all the contents of the ship. They carried grain in vast quantities. Here is a man the seas are boiling the winds are howling the women are weeping the children are crying the spars are breaking the sails are ripping and yet I guess he had gone to them stood at the side of them and said none of these things move me. They are terrifying but none of these things move me neither count on my life nor my understanding because he has the prince of peace in him. As an old hymn says the storms may roar without me my heart may below be laid but God is round about me and shall I be afraid. In 2 Corinthians 6 Paul tells us what preaching is all about what Christian workers are all for. We then as workers together with him beseech you also that you receive not the grace of God in vain for he saith I have heard thee in a time accepted. Verse 4 Some of these things are proving ourselves as ministers of God this is a minister are you going into the ministry get soaked with this impatience, affliction, necessities no no no no no first thing a preacher says what is my salary when can I retire have you ministers pension have you some property where I can go on weekends or in the week and just rest and be quiet some of those things necessary of course in necessities, in distresses, in strives in imprisonments, in tumults, in labors in watchings, in fastings by pureness, by knowledge by long suffering, by kindness by the Holy Ghost that same Holy Ghost who said to Paul he whispered to his heart listen you better get stocked up on patience and stocked up on peace and stock your mind with the assurance of God you are going to go through hell you are going to live in a world that collapses I believe that the 27th chapter of the Acts of the Apostles is a picture of the day when God appeases the wisest man why doesn't the ship's master get all of it why don't they throw the guy overboard everybody laugh when little Paul went up on the deck of that ship according to history or tradition actually he was only 5 feet 2 that's the height of John Wesley I can see with his chains going up the gangplank somebody says what's this little Jew coming up here for haven't you heard of Abbie he's the most intellectual man in the world this little man is the man that stood up against the intellectuals the men of the day Epicurus, Stoics, Poets they were all there he knew their history poetry with poetry philosophy with philosophy they couldn't catch him out they marveled at him and yet now he's standing there he looks like he's going to get drowned I don't think for a moment he had a whisper of fear in him at all the ship's rocking the seas are boiling again the wind's howling and here's a man with peace perfect peace they sneered when he got on board before long they were almost at his feet begging him well how do you know about it he said there stood by me this night an angel of God oh we've heard of those in Greek mythology they have big wings don't they and golden crowns he says there stood by isn't that wonderful the almighty God sent an angel in the middle of a boiling sea God sent an agent right from his own throne to one man it had been 300 saints there and one sinner it would be different there's one saint amongst all that corruption you know so often we pray to get out of difficulties when almighty God put us there let me read a bit more for you this is beautiful stuff isn't it you look very happy 2 Corinthians 6 now verse 5 love in stripes and imprisonments in tumults in labours in watchings in fastings by long suffering suffering long love suffereth long and is kind that's why he can write about it he's endured it his long suffering endures through every moment of that trial by kindness by the holy ghost by love and fame by the word of truth by the power of God by the armour of righteousness on the right hand and on the left by honour and dishonour by evil report and good report as deceivers and yet true as unknown and yet well known as dying and behold we live as chastened and not killed as sorrowful yet all we're rejoicing as poor yet making many rich as having nothing and yet possessing all things God have mercy on us now the church the church has everything and possesses nothing this man had nothing and he possessed everything he needed for that situation or his ministry don't put him in prison he'll get out don't stand him before kings your kings will get a nervous wreck you'll have to give him a bunch of aspirins or something his knees are knocking he's terrified he can stand before Felix he can stand before Agrippa he can have men there threatening with axes to chop his head off there's peace, perfect peace he doesn't move none of these things move me you know there's one thing about having nothing you can't lose anything when you've no reputation you won't worry a hill of beans what people say about you it's embarrassing to have nothing a friend came at midnight knocked on the door and I had nothing to say before hold it a minute he runs down tries to wake up the baker he says come on, come on open up, open up a friend came at midnight he once did me a good turn I said come and see me anytime I hope you come midday he says come at midnight we've nothing in the house it's embarrassing to have nothing come on, how many churches are you in Tyler? come on put me on record if you like tell your preacher could you take a starving miserable sinner into most churches expecting he'd get awakened in one meeting there'd be so much conviction by the Holy Ghost that man feels he's dropping into hell this man lived under the fear of God he says knowing the terror of God we persuade men we're not asking you to send us a subscription I get sick of these stinking begging letters I believe everybody who begs money publicly should have to give a public answer for every penny they receive they don't have to do it at the judgment bar why should they have to do it now? you see I'm happy because I don't have a letter having nothing yet possessing all things I've heard something on a tape a couple of weeks ago I think I've thought of it every day since I've woken up in the middle of the night two or three o'clock gone to my office pondered over it why does this man have such joy? he says I'm going to Jerusalem I don't know what awaits me there most likely they'll do with me what they did with my master they'll crucify me and then he writes Galatians 2 20 you remember I am crucified with Christ nevertheless I live yet not I why did he survive all this? for the simple reason it was Christ in him it wasn't his colossal intellect it wasn't his virtuous past it wasn't that he was soaked in Old Testament theology the Christ of God came and lived in him the moment he died he has nothing here's the statement somebody made I wish I'd written it I'd have had it framed in gold I think some little fairly unknown preacher said this and I'm happy about the fact that I got to hear it you can't say that Christ is all I need until he's all you have isn't that sobering? yes you can't say Christ is all I need when you've a hundred things around you when you've twenty different dresses or ten suits or your refrigerator stock be grateful but wait a minute let's be careful we don't become too generous with our words thou O Christ art all I want I have nothing he has no reputation he's given up his pedigree of the tribe of Benjamin of the seed of Abraham a Pharisee son of a Pharisee everything that everybody else was reaching for he put it on the dust and became almost offensive he trotted it and said it's like dung you don't usually take your dung and put it in your pocket you don't put it in a beautiful vase on the table it's the offensive thing do you know the scripture says that those things that you esteem as high in the those things highly esteemed of men are what? an abomination I didn't tell you what the Greek says I will tell you but I'll tell you in more polite language it says the things that you esteem so high reek with the stench of corrupting corruption that's a literal translation from the Greek the things we esteem as high God says they lack stinking corruption in my nostrils yet how many churches are pursuing that? trying to get something attractive there is nothing on God's earth I'll tell you this I hope to prove it in preaching a few days next weekend by the grace of God there is nothing more attractive on God's earth than the Holy Ghost anointed meeting a sermon when you feel it's pulsating with the life of God with the power of eternity our churches can't say oh don't you know our church is on TV every weekend so so is PTO what good does it do? you know what PTO means? Pity the listeners you can tell how spiritual you are by listening to Tammy it must take her a week to make up unless they call of course maybe they call the painting decorating society in to get her fixed up every morning what an abomination that jazz stuff is come on be sober a minute do you think if John Baptist preached for 10 minutes on TV he'd finish his message? do you think if he blistered them with the power of the Holy Ghost they'd let him have a program every week? I keep saying this and I mean it somewhere in the Tyler district the fire of God is going to fall and I'm going to go when it does I may be embarrassed in some of the meetings they may loop the loop and do some other things I don't care if God is there in his glory in his majesty if people cry out shriek out as they do in true revival as they did when John Baptist preached read the third chapter of Luke not now it says that even the Roman soldiers the lesser breeds outside of the law if you want there's a way that Kipling put it they'd come from a heathen country they saw a rugged ragged man there he had no pews he had no hymn books he had no choir and he had no miracle people think the only thing that will attract people is miracles blind eyes up forget it if you say that you've never been in a meeting where the Holy Ghost is right meetings where people go home and then they can't sleep their sin I remember preaching in that great church in Dublin I didn't think of that till now in Dublin, Ireland right opposite the Abbey Theatre where, if you're interested the Messiah was first played and Handel did it preached in that great church one night three or four years after I preached in a worldwide evangelization crusade conference up in Northern Ireland in Belfast a man came to me and said do you remember me? no you don't? I remember you I said well of course you look at me for an hour you'll remember me I can't remember every congregation he said do you remember the night you preached on Psalm 51 in the Methodist church in Dublin I said sure I did I go to that big fancy rich Methodist church my father did but that night God got hold of me when I got home he went had a cup of tea my wife went in in her dressing room and I went in mine when I came out she was sitting on the side of the bed I said get into bed she said get into bed yourself you know like wives do not all of them of course I can't get into bed well I can't get into bed do you know it's past midnight well darling get in oh my she's softening up a bit darling get into bed I can't get into bed you get into bed I can't get into bed do you know it's one o'clock don't get nervous I don't mean this now it may get to that before we're through do you know it's half past one I can't sleep I can't sleep he said the room isn't that big but he said I got over the bed and I yanked it away from the wall and she went round that way and I went round this way just passing each other for another hour and suddenly she got on her knees and screamed out my dear beautiful wife with an impeccable morality a scholar a distinguished lady and she suddenly cried out I thought she were a harlot I'm filthy I'm undone I'm in Psalm 51 have mercy upon me oh God I just watched she wriggled she groaned she wept maybe an hour get into bed well I'm not he said I stayed another hour but he said at the end of that hour God had gone through me with a fine tooth comb he said oh he took me by my fingers and took me down every avenue of my mind he knew the old method is saying search me oh God my actions try and let my life appear as seen by thine all searching eye to mine to my eyes my way make clear search all my thoughts the secret springs the motives that control the chambers where polluted things all the empire of the soul search till thy fiery glance hath cast its holy light through all and I by grace am brought at last before thy face to fall search me oh God I think that's one of the most staggering things that the Psalmist ever said in Psalm 139 in Psalm 51 you remember what he says he says hide thy face from my sins in Psalm 139 he says to that same God that he says hide your face he says search me oh God I'm in such agony I'm in such misery there's no door of escape except by the cross he said Mr.Ramiel I really passed from death to life in that night our home was transformed we've sold our business we're going to the mission field you know that's the reward you get for preaching not somebody's stuffing a hundred dollars in your hand they'd gone to ordinary sedate lovely meetings with lovely choirs but the Holy Ghost came out and I didn't expect it and he said it was as though he took me by the fingers and took me down every corridor of my mind and my heart and showed me my pollution my unclean, my sinfulness I thought I was good I was a good Methodist I took communion I subscribed to missions but I felt the foulest person outside of hell that night that's conviction there's a great revival in China a friend of mine went through it as a matter of fact some of you have seen a little old lady that went through it by the name of what's her name Bertha Smith she went through that Shang-Tung revival with Marie Monson Marie Monson was from Norway and she led this dear Baptist lady into the fullness of the blessing according to a little lady herself a man who went through that revival he just died recently I think in his 98th year in California though he was an Englishman actually he said, Brother Len you prayed for years for revival sure, I've prayed for 60 years I don't get where in all why? because I'm 60 years nearer to it than I was when I started for one thing my little prayers are under the table under the altar along with others but he said Brother Len I want to tell you something when revival comes it's the most shocking disgusting awesome thing it's just like you open up sewers and all the stink comes in the room you find the best preachers there confessing hidden sin confessing corruption confessing fornication confessing every damnable thing that there is and you've passed them off as nice preachers and nice deacons and nice Sunday school teachers but when God starts to work you see before ever there can be a revival outside there has to be reviving inside as hot as I am I want to feel hotter you say as pure as I am I want to feel purer with all the vision I have I want an extended vision I'll cut this and shut up for years I thought that Paul's secret was in 1 Corinthians 5 or 2 Corinthians 5 and verse 14 he says the love of Christ constrains me I thought that was the answer I don't believe that I believe when he got a full on revelation of the amazing grace of God as the hymn writer says bearing shame and scoffing rude in my place condemned he stood and when Paul said that he says in Philippians what is it? Philippians 1.20 that Christ may be magnified by my body whether by life or by death the only way he could redeem me was to die for me the only way I can redeem my worth in his sight is to die for him I like that American hymn my faith looks up to thee a verse you remember as Stanza says as thou hast died for me so may my love to thee pure warm and changeless be God doesn't intend us to be hot and cold believing and doubtful zealous and then lethargic coming in us I don't believe you could ever catch the apostle Paul when there is any degree of coldness in him I believe he was totally faithful I believe he was totally committed the reason he keeps his balance in the midst of all that turmoil when everything else is smashing up listen, you better get girded for it I have some information on my desk which I believe is true because this man has given inside information I guess I've taken his special notice for twenty years on and off you think that these terrorists have done something they fill a truck up milk cans and put them in a truck and drive them into a building there's an explosion I want to tell you something before long they're going to do that but they're going to use atomic energy they're going to use atomic bombs they'll go into cities and they'll be able to trigger them off with some electric device maybe a hundred miles away and blow the middle the whole guts if you like out of a city cut off its electric power cut off its water power the Ayatollah Khomeini is filled with a spirit the spirit of the devil he has no fear they showed a picture the other day in a magazine I think it was one that Martha got for the children the geographic for children why it was there I don't know but it showed a 14 year old boy his daddy holding the Quran over his head while he swore his allegiance to Allah and to his country he's 14 he had a machine gun in his hand his mother's there with her arms around his shoulders weeping willing to die at 14 at 18 at 20 go through rigid discipline for what they think is a shortcut into eternity it is it's into hell and they don't know it it's very obvious I'm not smart to say this but if we're going to turn the world upside down what the church has had for 25 years hasn't been able to do it something new has to be born and I don't care how odd it may sound I don't care if there is a minority I think there has to be a minority revival the great Irish revival in 1859 started after Spurgeon had been over here and he heard that Lampheter was getting 3,000 business people every day in New York to pray and 2,000 people business people praying in Philadelphia and over 1,000 people in I was going to tell you the name I forgot it it's just below your school what was the big city below no the other one there further down Louisville thank you over 1,000 every day in Louisville 3,000 in New York 2,000 in Philadelphia Spurgeon came home as fast as he could and it was a slow boat of course and he sent notice round he said let everybody prepare themselves the spirit is already moving in America and as the wind blows 9 months of the year from America to England the spirit is going to come that way in 58 there was an outbreak 59 there was an outbreak in Scotland 59 there was an outbreak in Ireland as I said to you before there's one reason amongst others why we don't have revival and it's this that we're content to live without it when it takes away our sleep when you stop putting entertainment in the place of joy and that's all it is entertainment is a devil's substitute for God's joy when you say I'd rather be miserable in God travelling for birth and have the greatest entertainment in the world America is going to hell full speed so is England so is our generation the last thing when the fire fell in Wales in 1905 people went from all over the world to see what was happening one man went there and like taking a life cold from off the altar he went to the Cyclades hills in India and they had revival after that phase he went to China they had revival after that he went to Korea the people said well the Koreans are so phlegmatic they never smiled you'll never move them he never would not till now the Holy Ghost moved them they had a bigger revival in Korea than they had in China and then he went backwards the way he'd gone I'm sick to death of the devil's monopoly of our young people one young fellow prayed here the other night two weeks ago and he said God help us our young people are drawn into the world the glitter of the world the glamour of the world the fascination of the world because they've never seen the chicane of glory in the sanctuary once that glory is seen we'll be miserable outside of it and when our misery can only be cured by God we'll go to him and we'll groan and we'll weep I'm sure disgusted with the churches but again God's going to pour out his spirit he's going to need an apostle Paul in every ship that's breaking every church that's going to break there'll have to be a man standing in the midst of it with the anointing and say an angel of God spoke to me now the Holy Ghost spoke to me the Holy Ghost touched me the Holy Ghost anointed me one night I want to speak I hope I will maybe next Friday I don't know on God being a fire you see we say have you received the baptism that's a slang phrase if that's all you have to say shut up he says he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire the Greek doesn't say that the Greek says he shall baptize you with Holy Ghost fire because the Holy Ghost is fire our God is consuming fire he intends his church to be on fire and be attracted they tell me that when a man lights a fire in a forest he'll often make a big ring of fire and he'll get in the middle of it to go to sleep when he wakes up he sees big eyeballs all the animals that normally would be in the darkness are attracted by the fire and he sees the fire reacting in their eyes like mirrors I want to see God come like that until people say where are you going I'm going to that big church in town, I don't know I walked down the street in Wales in Aberammon with an old silver haired Pentecostal preacher we got to the Baptist church it was black because the coal dust blows from the coal mines and it gets into the stonework Brother Raven you'll see this building yes it's all locked up the gates are locked the padlock yeah he said in 1904 for no known reason I think it was Monday night the janitor came and took the big lock off the door within an hour you see the hills yes I see the road down the hill I see the road it's a kind of a saucer you see all those every road was black moving with people who put on the Sunday clothes and came to church Monday night without an announcement and they did the next night and they did the next night one night a girl 12 years of age stood in a gallery and sang gentle Jesus meek and mild look upon the little child the holly ghost fell on the place and from then it just I was going to say snowballed that's not a good picture fireballed and people came no advertising no star preachers I'm sick to death of star preachers why do we give God the glory what are we going to do about it I'm going to say God come the world's going to pieces like the ship that Paul was on we're heading for destruction only his arm can save us I'm expecting to hear about people who can't sleep at night deacons that can't sleep preachers that can't sleep embarrassed just realising that just professionals you might as well have a cassette but God uses men not archangels not Gabriel I asked him the other day why didn't you send Gabriel down why didn't you send Michael the archangel why didn't you send somebody glittering and glorious he said no I use men I came to redeem men I put myself in a man the son of God is a son of man he was man as well as God but he contained the fullness of God maybe I could John Wesley's friend John Fletcher Wesley said the saintliest man that ever lived since the apostle Paul and he said John Fletcher said it's comparatively a small thing that I can be cleansed from all sin but all the awesomeness of being filled with all the fullness of God yes he said we're satisfied to have a little bit of blessing I've given up my dirty habits I'm not a harlot anymore I'm not a drug addict anymore I'm not a drunkard anymore don't be my wife anymore come on wonderful what about all this unexplored territory in God Whitfield said every time he preached he had a backdrop the backdrop of the church you could see flames and fire and the congregation walked straight into hell every time he preached on heaven you'd think he'd been there for a week he brought the glory of God preached on hell he brought the fear of God what do we bring I'm sick of mediocrity I'm sure you are I'm going to pray we did turn our meeting around we sang our closing hymn in the middle of the service only after the message we sing usually some of you know days dying in the west the chorus is beautiful holy holy holy Lord God of hosts I think tonight instead at least my heart's terribly moved feel free to go and you know where you have to go that's your business not mine we're going to pray for another hour anyhow but if you have to go feel free to go we love you and if you can come back from Fort Worth we'd be glad to see you bring your preacher with you