In this sermon, the preacher discusses the supernatural power of a man who is able to perform incredible feats. He mentions how this man uses the jawbone of an ass to defeat his enemies and carries away the gates of a city. The preacher also highlights the man's ability to catch and tie together 600 foxes, setting the enemy's crops on fire. The sermon emphasizes that the secret to this man's power lies in the spirit of God, as stated in the Bible. The preacher further discusses the current crisis in America and the world, suggesting that the church is facing a greater challenge than ever before.

One of the serious handicaps in traveling from one country to another is the is the problem of languages. And I have been in some countries where I had to have one interpreter, or I prefer to call them interrupters, and sometimes two interpreters. But it's always comfortable to be in America because while you don't speak English at least you understand it. The pastor said this morning that there are some people who have itching ears. I'm sure this is true because there are so many cults that are prosperous right now. But if it is true and it is true that there are many people with itching ears, I have no commission from God to scratch them. The text you'll find tonight in the book of Judges, the 16th chapter, and verse 6. Judges, the 16th chapter, verse 6. And Delilah said to Samson, tell me I pray thee wherein thy great strength lieth, and wherewith thou mightest be bound to afflict thee. Tell me wherein the secret of thy great strength lieth. That added word is in one of the European versions of the scriptures. The word added is the word secret. It's not there by inspiration, it's there at least by inference. This is a story we like to tell to children. It lends itself to a great deal of color and excitement. And I think very often we pass this story on to children, like the story of David and Goliath, because it's too big for us to handle. I've seen this colorful picture of Samson, a type of Israel in its glory. I see a type of the church. I also see a type of the true spirit anointed believer. The story begins by a series of dramatic events in the life of Samson. Well isn't that how the history of Israel began? Didn't she move in supernatural power out of Egypt? Wasn't she surrounded with supernatural power? Didn't the church of Jesus Christ begin like that? Before he retired as the brilliant founder editor of Christianity Today, Dr. Carl F. Henry sent a questionnaire out to 20 intellectual preachers in the country. I did not know there were so many, but he sent out this great question to 20 great preachers and he asked them this. What do you see for the church of Jesus Christ by the year 2000? The answers were very interesting. I remember two of them outstandingly, and I'll quote one. One was from the very famous Quaker philosopher, a man whose theology sometimes puzzles me, but else in true blood says some very stabbing thing. His answer to the question was this. By the year 2000 the church of Jesus Christ will be a conscious minority surrounded by an arrogant militant paganism. Well I read that and I went to sleep. I woke up about one o'clock in the morning and I turned it over in my mind and turned it over and over. The church by the year 2000 will be a conscious minority surrounded by an arrogant militant paganism. I began to back up and ask myself isn't that where the church of Jesus Christ is tonight? Are we not surrounded tonight by an arrogant militant paganism? And let's back it right up to its inception. The church of Jesus was not given to the world on a silver platter. The church of Jesus Christ was born in a sophisticated totalitarian world. It was born under a slave system. It was born when it was handicapped in every possible way. I've crossed the Atlantic about 20 times. Usually I like to go by boat. I don't like flying. Personally I think that's for the birds. But I do like to go by boat and many times when we've crossed it I've discussed with others, thought with others about the situation that the church of Jesus Christ is in today. And I believe that on the threshold of 1979 the crisis in America is greater than it was in 1776. You can tell me about the deteriorating dollar. We tried to pump life into it and somehow it refuses to go back into life. You can tell me about the collapse of Cambodia, Laos, those other countries where 50 million people went down the drain overnight. It didn't cost most of us a tear anyhow. You can tell me about the dismantling of those great countries in Africa. Now I'll try to provoke your thinking. You know good preaching does one of three things. It makes people glad, sad or mad. Mine is usually in the last category. But if you're not grown up don't come you'll waste my time and yours. I'm going to talk to you in the next two weeks by the grace of God as though you're as serious about living your Christian life as anything that you could have this side of eternity. You see up to this present moment the white man has had the ball. He's fumbled it. If there's a vote in the United Nations tomorrow out of about 52 nations, how many white nations are there? There are no new white nations being born. Every new nation is a colored nation. I used to go through the United Nations. I was editing a paper in New York at that time and I would go down the corridors of the United Nations and everybody I met was a very distinguished looking colored man, very often with a beautiful robe and a gold chain around his neck and some fancy thing on his head. And he would salute and speak in good English because of course most of them are educated in America or Oxford or Cambridge. They've got the ball at their feet. The third world is growing. Our world is shrinking. And you can tell me about all the tragedies and there are very many of them right now. Isn't it strange, isn't it almost indefinable that the nations that won the war are losing the war right now? The two nations that suffered most during World War II, Germany and Japan, have a stronger economy than we have who won the war. Milton Friedman is the greatest living economist I think, he's in Chicago University and he says, I cannot understand why every nation in the world is rushing to super inflation in 1979. And as a wizard in economics he says, I don't understand it. Somebody's sitting on the money bag. I could give you some names but I won't. Oh well somebody rubs his eyes and says, well I'm an old man and you know I've seen America get out of situations like this and other nations. Well there's one different thing the word of God says about this hour that we're entering to, entering into. Sure there's been distress of nations. You see I think we've forgotten if we ever we thought about it that World War I ended at 11 o'clock in the morning on the 11th day of the 11th month, 11 months from the signing of the armistice with Turkey and 11 months from the time that Allenby entered into Jerusalem. Now there's a series of 5-11s. Do you think God was knocking on the door of humanity and saying we're entering the midnight hour even in 1930, 1919? I say tell me about the nations. But you see there's one little clause that rather stirs me when I think of our present dilemma financially, economically, morally. We're lower in the nation morally or immorally now than any period in history. I believe spiritually we're lower. And when you tell me about the disaster in the economic world, when you tell me about the secret moving of political powers. After all we brought 50 prime young communists into this country this week. 50 brilliant Chinese scholars, a hundred percent dedicated to communism or they would not be allowed to leave the country. Do you think they're here only to learn? Don't you think it's a sad chapter that we're really opening new relationships with the most godless society in the world today, China and also with Russia? Do you know the Word of God says, it says about the day in which we live it will be depressive nations. But it adds another little phrase, it says with perplexity. And nobody knows the way out. I want to tell you the answer to our problem in America is not in the White House, it's in God's house. If we put that house right. And I'm here for nothing less than to share my thinking and prayers with you in the next two weeks that God will do something that will not only change our individual lives or even the life of this church or community but somehow that that much needed overdue revival which is the only way of saving America or our generation may be born in the next two or three weeks. After all with all the disasters that are around. The greatest disaster in the world at this moment to me is a sick church in a dying world. Is recovery possible? Sure it is. Sure it is. And the way for the church to recover is to get that supernatural touch of the Spirit of God. I guess if we read it properly the Word of God is the most exciting book that's ever been written. It's God's last word to man. And here again we have a picture of a man with supernatural power. Wherever he goes he does something no one else can do. Now again he's not a philosopher. There's no like well you have the prophecy of Jeremiah, the prophecy of Isaiah, and so forth. There are no great prophecies by this wonderful man Samson. He's a type of the people that do know their God. Now that's what the Word of God says. Not the people that know their Bible. There's all the difference in the world between knowing the Word of God and knowing the God of the Word. And the scripture says the people that do know their God shall be strung into exploit. Now here's a man who is dazzling and starting everybody by his great achievement. And so his enemies design on him and they want to find his secret. What's a better way than getting a woman on the job? And so they say to this woman, now you'll find out the secret. And she comes up to this man and she says, hey I want to ask you a question. What's the secret of your great strength? What vulnerable spot do you have? How can we bind you and bring you to impotence? Samson said unto her in verse 7, if they bind me with seven green wisps that were never dried, then shall I be weak? Oh I wish he'd left that out. I wish he'd just said if you bind me with seven green wisps I'd be like other men. But he says if you bind me with seven, you see this was his secret. He knew he was supernatural. She knew he was supernatural. His enemies knew he was supernatural. But where's the supernatural in the church of God today? What is the act of the apostles? The act of the apostles is the church of Jesus Christ doing everything Jesus did when he was on earth. Apart from walking on the water. Isn't that exactly what the disciples did? Well Samson said if you bind me with seven green wisps that were never used, then shall I be weak like other men. And they tried it and it didn't work. And then he says in verse 9, if you pardon me, verse 11, if they bind me fast with new ropes that were never used, then shall I be weak like other men. He emphasizes it again. And then in verse 17 he says the same thing. If I be shaven and my strength go from me, I shall become weak. The great curse in the church of God today is mediocrity. The trouble with our Bible students and seminars is we turn men out like they turn automobiles off an assembly line. They're all the same quality. They all think the same things. They all read the same notes. They all listen to the same old dried-up teachers. Now don't mention that in Dallas because I have to go in a few weeks, but it's there. You know the church today is so subnormal that if ever we become normal we'll think we're abnormal. What's the secret of thy great strength? Oh I suppose it's a blessing for most of us that we settle for mediocrity, huh? After all how many men really want to sit on the circle of the earth? How many men have tried to conquer the world? Centuries ago a young man did it. We're told at 27 years of age Alexander the Great sat down and wept bitter tears because he conquered the world and there were no other worlds to conquer. He didn't know anything about getting on the moon of course. So a young man at 27 has dominated the world militarily. In the day of many of us there was a man by the name of Hitler. He had a little Charlie Chaplin mustache and one stripe on his arm and every move he made was successful except the last one. Because you see he didn't sleep at night like we do. He stayed up till three, four, five in the morning. He studied astrology. He had a spiritist medium interpreting every move for him and he made every move right except the last one. He came within an ace of conquering the world. And between Alexander the Great and Hitler you had a man, a little copulant Corsican by the name of Napoleon. Men still study his military strategy. Maybe he was the greatest military strategist in history. And when he was riding the crest of the wave and it seemed as though he was just within reaching for world domination, he gathered together his warlords. On the wall of his office he had a great map of the world. He snapped these men to attention and said, look at this. And he took his index finger and he ran it round the ragged edge of a great country. And as they were a bit shifty he commanded them again. He said, look at this. And he plunged his finger in the centre of the country he'd outlined. And he said, there lies a sleeping giant. Let it sleep. He said, if that country ever wakes up with its millions of people and all its hidden mineral power and strength, if they ever combine those forces, if that giant wakes and begins to flex its muscles, let the world look out. Because he said, that nation will dominate the world. He said that in 1835, before he went to the Battle of Waterloo. There lies a sleeping giant. Let it sleep. If it should wake up and harness its manpower to its other secret powers, it will shake the world. Do you know which country it was that he outlined in 1835? China. China tonight has a million men guarding its border into Russia. China says she can lose ten million men and not miss. Ten million fighting men. We have just graciously given it the formula for making atomic weapons and what have we got. There lies a sleeping giant. Let it sleep. If it wakes up and harnesses its manpower to its mineral powers and other powers, it will shake the world. Dear Francis Schaefer, one of the great thinking men in the Church of God today, says this in his book Death in the City. I would remind you that eight centuries ago, 800 years, every decent-sized town and city in China had a thriving New Testament church. Now think of it for a second. What was going on in America 800 years ago? 800 years ago in China, they were not only making the most poor, wonderful porcelain and treasuring things from the Ming dynasty and all the rest of it. They are thriving New Testament churches. Where are they today? All right, change the characters. You say, I didn't come here to hear politics. All right, change the characters. Instead of seeing Napoleon running his finger around the rugged edge of a great country, you see the devil standing there. Not with a map of the world, but a map of the ages. And he stands his demons there and says, look, see this, watch this. And he runs his finger around something and says this. There is the Church of Jesus Christ asleep. Let it sleep. Because if the Church of Jesus Christ ever rediscovers the resurrection power of Jesus, and every believer gets filled with the Holy Ghost, they'll shake the world. So the church is sleeping. In the little school I went to in England, I had a teacher. She wasn't very bright. I don't think most teachers are, but my teacher wasn't very bright and she was always suspicious I wasn't bright. And I found out I was right. You see, she told us a story about the most famous character in all the writing, and you can put Hemingway or anybody else you want in the modern writers. The best known story out of all American literature is the story of Rip Van Winkle. You can go to any country in the world, Russia, China, anywhere, they know the story of Rip Van Winkle. Do you remember he went to sleep up by the Bible school? He didn't go to the Bible school, but he would have gone to sleep anyhow. But anyhow, he went up by the Hudson River and he fell asleep in a sleepy hollow. Do you remember he came down the hill, he got into controversy with somebody, and all I remember about the story was that, well, he slept 50 years or 100 years, according to who tells the story. But that isn't the point of the story. My teacher missed it entirely. The fact is that when he went up the hill to go to sleep, there was a sign hanging outside of the tavern. There it waved in the breeze, and there was a picture on the sign. It was a picture of George III, the King of England at that time. And while old Rip Van Winkle was sleeping, they painted out the face of George III, and they painted in the face of another George by the name of Washington. And surely the speaker of the story is not that he went to sleep for 50 years. The moral of the story is he slept through a revolution. And I'm not suggesting that, I'm telling you that's what the Church of Jesus Christ is doing today. What's the greatest threat to America tonight? Communism, no. Financial bankruptcy, we're nearly there, no. The greatest threat to America or England or modern life is God himself. You see, there comes a period when God quits dealing with men, and there comes a period when God quits dealing with nations. Do you ever think of the fact that God was once married and he got divorced because his wife played the harlot? Don't we get excited about the week before Easter, and we talk about Palm Sunday, and Jesus made a triumphant entry into Jerusalem? Did he make a triumphant entry, or did he make a tearful exit? They said, we're getting rid of you. He said, you fools, I'm getting rid of you. Your house is desolate. For 2,000 years God has not bothered with the bride that he had. For 2,000 years the Jews have been a football for anybody to kick around. Isn't it amazing that a little country that you could gather in your arms and drop in one of the Great Lakes is the most expensive commodity in America today? We give them billions of dollars. We don't give a dime to Northern Ireland, which is the most Protestant country in the world. We don't talk about peace there. But we fight like mad, not to save Israel, to save our oil reserves, I think. But anyhow, it's a good cover-up. But the point is, God was once married to Israel. He divorced Israel. For 2,000 years he hasn't bothered. She's been brutalized. God sits in heaven and watches Hitler liquidate 6 million Jews, we're told. The point is, he walked out on a nation that was rebellious. Do you think he didn't walk out on America? Or England? Or do you think maybe he's done it and we don't know? We're still keeping up our emotions. You know what? We've got this story pretty messed up, haven't we? I said that this Samson is a type of a church. She moved in supernatural power in the first century or two. In the first three centuries of Christianity, a Christian could not own a piece of property. A church could not own its own building. But it thrived, it prospered. Do you know what? Do you know what the breakdown of the failure of the church is? As soon as the church becomes rich and she can be accepted by society, she loses her anointing and she goes down the drain. The church is most healthy in the world tonight where there's persecution. The proof of that will be how many of you will make it back as many nights as you can during the next two weeks. Because you may be away the night the fire falls and that will be bad. Now do you really love God enough to put everything on one side and say, God if you're going to work I want to be there that night? Do you love God enough to do that? Do you love your spiritual life enough? Do you love the church enough to do that? Do you love America enough to do that? Here is a man doing what nobody else could do. His enemies say, what's the secret of his strength? They lock him up in a city and he takes part of the city away. They send men to arrest him and he picks up the jawbone of an ass. And he slew 2,000 men with the jawbone of an ass. Isn't that something? I heard of a preacher saying, God doesn't use the jawbone of an ass anymore. An old lady said he does and I'll prove it every week. But apart from that, the jawbone of an ass, sir. Do you think we're really serious about having in God we trust in our coins? I read a book recently that said we're the only country within God we trust in our coins. Forget it, England had that on their coins before America was born. It's written in Latin, defender of the faith, a partisan faith too. I mean if in God we trust, do we need armies? Why are we taxed up to our ears? Well we're taxed up to our ears to pay for crime and war machines. Now do a bit of homework. Look back in the first book of Kings, I guess. Do you know one night an angel was going home and he was in a hurry and he forgot the 55 mile an hour limit and he rushed to a city and he dragged one of his wings to a city and the wing of an angel destroyed 185,000 people. The wing of an angel destroyed 185,000 people and Jesus said on the cross, I can call 12 legions of angels. That's 12 times 5,000 or 10,000, however you fix the legion. Make it 120,000 angels each able to destroy 185,000 people and I think Jesus is saying in a nice way, look I can not only get off this cross, I can wipe the population of the world out as quick as that. That's all you want. Here is a man who's proving the power of God. He takes the jawbone of an ass and he slays a lot of chosen men. They put him inside a city, he carries away the gates of the city. He was quite a runner, he'd have made the Olympics because he could change foxes and he caught foxes, 600 of them and tied their tails together and put a faggot between their tails and he set the corner of the enemy on fire and destroyed all their crops. Well do you wonder the enemies were after him? How does he do it? Nobody else can move like this. What's the secret of his supernatural power? You see we've got this man all mixed up. I like art, I don't understand modern art. I was in a house a while ago, a lady had a gorgeous, she told me it was a gorgeous picture. In the next room I went to see it, it was a big blob of yellow on a frame and she said, do you know what that is? I said, yes. She said, what? I said, a poached egg. She said, it's a sunrise done by storms. So I said, I wouldn't have known. I thought he'd just got the paint and went like that and wherever it stopped that's it. In many art galleries in the world I've said you have pictures of Samson and every time I see Samson he's a superman according to our thinking. You know the average man in Israel was this height. Saul the king of Israel was head and shoulders above the average man. Goliath was head and shoulders above the Saul and Samson somewhere up there. Now do you think a woman's going to be dumb enough to say to a man 19 feet high, hey buddy what's the secret of your strength? Do you take wheaties? I don't believe Samson was an inch taller than any other man. The word of God cancels all our ideas of those stupid artists. We throw in with big muscles like watermelons and legs like redwood trees and a range of muscles you know like Mr. America. He's nothing like that at all because the word of God says it's not by what? By what? Nor by, but by my spirit says the Lord of hosts. And Hebrews 11 says time would fail me to tell of Gideon and of David and of Barak and of Samson who through his muscles saw no true faith kingdom and wrought righteousness and obtained promises. It's not by might, it's not by power, it's by my spirit. The word of God says the lame take the prey and to those who have no might he increases strength. And I've heard people when they've been despairing in prayer pray like something like this, Lord thou art able to do far more exceeding abundantly above all that we can and everybody says amen. Boy that was a great prayer. Well that happens to be what the Bible does not say except in part. The Bible says that God you know the high and lofty one who inhabits eternity the nations are like a dust in a bucket. He sits on the circle of the earth. There's a show in Minnesota right now you go into a theater you get in a chair and you sit back and they carry you into space at least you think so and they begin to tell you about the secrets of the universe. We live in a shrinking world and an expanding universe. They suddenly discovered there are 150 billion stars in the Milky Way. And a little boy in England I used to look up at them and say to my mummy why is there that great track of light in the sky? Mother said that's the Milky Way. It's the one super galaxy in the heavens. It has 150 million no billion stars and now science says there are 150 billion galaxies and in the 40th chapter of Isaiah it tells me that God knows the names of every one of those 150 billion stars in every one of those 150 billion galaxies. The man that wrote the hymn when I surveyed the wondrous cross Isaac Watts gave us another hymn in which he said he made the stars those heavenly flames he counts their numbers calls their names his wisdom's vast and knows no bounds the deeper all the thoughts are drowned what is the creature still of force the sprightly man the warlike horse the piercing wit the active limb all are too mean delights for him that saints are lovely in his sight he views his children with delight he sees their hopes he knows their fears he looks and loves his image there God doesn't glory in stars he can blow them up end of his tongue Jesus didn't die to redeem stars he died to redeem us he died to make us the habitation of the most high God somebody said a while ago to one of the most brilliant Chinese scholars you've read the quran you've read the venus you've read most of the sacred books have you read the new testament ah he said i read little new testament time number three three times what's the most wonderful thing in it and the preacher thought he had the answer the virgin birth a physical resurrection of Jesus he looked at the christian said are you a christian oh you're the most wonderful thing in the world well christian came up you know well we christians aren't perfect we're just sinners that God's patched up and you know we're a bit lousy like the rest of folk we lie now and again and we're not always so honest and sometimes we'd rather watch the crimson tide than the crimson cross the uh china man said sir you are the most wonderful thing on this earth you know the christian didn't know why till the china man even told him because he said it says at the chapter two that you are the habitation of god he said sir does god live in you i don't ask people if they're saved everybody's saved now from mr carter to johnny jenkins possible to be born again you can see girls with bare bosoms and a cross on it and it's acceptable can live like hell in hollywood and be born again i don't ask people if they're born again i don't ask them if they're saved i ask them does christ live in you they hum and they are and say well now no no no no come on either christ lives in you or he doesn't and if christ doesn't live you're still dead in trespasses and in sin and the china man says you're the most amazing person that your god lives inside of you there is no other religion like that christianity there may be a study comparative religion christianity is not a comparative religion it's a superlative religion it is the only world religion in the world where a man's god lives inside of him we say jesus christ came you're a bad man he came to make you good jesus did not come into the world to make bad men good he came into the world to make dead men live samson was very much alive all the evidence was supernatural power why he subdued his enemies that's why as long as he was obedient he was more than conqueror there was no weapon formed against him that could prosper didn't matter what he met he subdued all his enemies he threw down every stronghold because in our language of the indwelling christ the indwelling power of the spirit of god oh yes he he pulled down the gates of the city he destroyed their crops he destroyed their enemies but you know what he was a very natural man he fell in love if that is natural i suppose it is the girl lived at timnath and he could go down the road that way he could go down the road this way and they said you can't go that way why because haven't you heard the news there's a lion in the way you know how many people that lion has destroyed or named or killed or eaten you can't go this way he went that way and when the lion saw him the lion said well here comes my lunch man he looks real tasty samson's walking down the road with his dad and mum and he says dad and mum you're getting old would you sit down here for a minute have a little business to do around the corner and he went around the corner and the lion sprang at him and what did he do he took it by its jaws and ripped it as though it were a kid of the goat well that's a miracle the second half of the text is more miraculous did not it say that after he destroyed the lion he said nothing about it well at least we'd have photographed the thing wouldn't we i mean i mean after all you can't destroy the biggest longest fiercest strongest mightiest lion in the world and let it go by like that i mean you've got to show the relatives and everybody else and put it on the front of the church magazine there was a lion in the way well then is samson is a type of a spiritual man the devil the life is a type of the devil that goes about seeking whom he may devour now listen the tragedy of america tonight is not due to the fact of all the immorality and sin and shame it's due to the paralysis of the this is a warfare there's a battle in the heavenlies right now against the principalities and powers and the rulers of the darkness of this world one day my son david will talk to about binding the strong man i used to have a little old man that came to a church i passed it in england in nineteen hundred and thirty three four five a church where we had constant revival for three years where people lined up outside on a sunday night to get in this little man did not have good health he was very poor his shirt was always clean but ragged i said to him one day mr fernable please don't bother to come on the sabbath morning or sabbath evening i can't teach you anything you walk with god about 50 years i'm in my 20s what can i teach you but i said make me a promise you'll never never never miss the prayer meeting we got about 200 maybe 250 people to our prayer meeting and it was a prayer meeting it began at 7 30 on a wednesday night we never knew the end i never told them when he would close because i didn't know it would go on two hours and three hours praying with fervency and sweat and tears that little man was a spark plug every time in that prayer meeting i'd see him come down the aisle and sit in the front and say well hallelujah we we're on our way tonight fernable's here and somewhere in his praying he would pray this lord teach us what is flesh and what is spirit and teach us how to bind and how to lose i don't care whether it's this church i've been for a whole month in dr charles stanley's lovely church there in first baptist great big place packed with 3500 people every sunday morning 2500 every sunday night a great thriving church i said the same there as i'll say here or in the country church that no church is stronger than its prayer meeting that's the powerhouse i like singing i wish we'd spend as much time training people to pray as we taught them to try to teach them to sing there was a line in the way didn't bother samson he just walked up to that line the line sprang at him and with that supernatural you see there's something in his life which is the most precious thing this side of eternity i know some men intellectual wizards i couldn't count on my fingers and toes all the millionaires and multi-millionaires that i know i don't esteem them for their social standing or intellectual strength necessarily but i happen to know some of the greatest men in the world today i was invited to join a prayer meeting tomorrow morning in england that's going to go on for 72 hours to join a little praying friend of mine who prays between six and eight hours every day in a sophisticated society like ours and everybody counts by their senses even if they're christians what we can see and smell and handle and write our names on the perishing things of clay i met a man about four years ago i walked into his presence and bowed as i went out i walked backwards and as i walked backwards i got to the door and i said thank you thank you sir because my mother said if you ever get into the presence of royalty you never turn your back on the king you always go out and say thank you thank you and then you say graciously thank you your honor and as i left the room i said thank you your honor oh he wanted to thank me for the books i'd written and now they'd bless him i said not a word not a word not a word the books on the other foot tonight side two they carried that man out of his room uh on the 9th of february come next month or the month after the 9th of february one two three years ago in america not in 1760 three years ago they carried that man out in his 90th year and would you believe it when they carried him through the little door of his frame house it was the first time he'd been out of that door in 12 and a half years that he hadn't been to bed one night for 30 years and somebody says did he sleep well what do you think he was he's not supernatural and that says he'd learned to push the day around but every night at 10 o'clock he went to pray by himself he prayed till five or six in the morning when the burden lifted he read half of psalm 119 half of the long version of the of the sermon on the he learned hebrew and greek he'd been over there in palestine as it was then or israel to be a missionary and when he got there god said you go back to america but but i've just left america go back to america what will people think it doesn't matter what they think you go and travel and pray for america and he said not long before he died to a friend of mine god has given me a witness in the last great moving of the spirit just before the total tribulation breaks on the garden there will be a revival i call it a pentecost that will out pentecost pentecost and he said one billion people will be saved in that revival how will it come it will come when this mysterious thing this man has read about this man what is he going to do he's going to take a line and tear it apart he's going to pull down the strongholds he's going to meet his enemies and destroy them what does it say he says the most amazing thing you can say about every man on earth that ever lived he said the spirit of god rested upon him and brother you may be as rich as the creepers or the duponts or the rocky fellows but god almighty says when it comes to the holy ghost your money perish with you you can't buy the holy ghost if you give god 10 million dollars he comes to broken and conflict spirit there's a battle going on and you might well heed what the pastor said this morning i've got a lovely son over there he has a very beautiful wife my other son is teaching in a university in west africa he has a lovely wife my other son is at home right now he has to go for surgery this week i'm sorry he's got a terrible attack of kidney stones and the guy's just back from the mission field he's been living on peanuts down there in the hottest country politically in the world he's never asked me for a penny as long as he lives just before he left argentina they have a little baby do you know he pays for milk for the baby eight dollars a gallon the highest inflation rate in the world the pastor said this morning don't wait till your son gets fascinated with some slut or your daughter gets fascinated with some guy because he shoots too well and he smokes and drinks another fancy automobile i started praying for david's wife when he was five years of age and i prayed for all my boys to get their wives when they were five not to get the wives when they were five it's going to move up to that before long the way we're going but and they get divorced at six but uh by the time they were five i was praying for it i was praying for every one of those boys to get the right wife and they got lovely wives all right let's come to this samson what does he do he sees the lion tell me this a lady in australia said to me one day she said mr radin i want to tell you something go ahead she said i've had a terrible day today i said you look like it if the devil had a wife she looked like the wife i'll tell you that she looked that miserable and tormented i've had a terrible day today what happened this morning when i got out of bed the devil was standing on the rug at the side of my bed i looked at her lovely blue eyes i said woman how conceited can you get what are you going to do today make christmas cakes oh well i said he happens to be allergic to christmas cakes i know that that's one thing satan doesn't like i looked at her i said lady i doubt if he even knows you're alive and if the devil was in your room you should be glad about it why because he couldn't be anywhere else in the world he doesn't he isn't omnipresent like god he can't be in two places at the same time god can satan can't people say do you know what the devil said to me today i've never noticed the apostle paul never said that once in 14 epistles if you give it in hebrews he never said the devil suggested this is it why we think we're prizes don't we see what the devil said to me i doubt he knows you're living does he push you around you push him around no i'm old i'm not old i'm antique i've been preaching 56 years so i won't tell you how old i am but i've been preaching 56 years i've been around a few corners i still have an ambition to write better books no i'd like to do that get your name up with the top evangelist that would be an insult what do you want i'd like my name in letters about 15 feet high big red letters 20 feet high 25 feet high where in hell in hell in hell 18 double l why why because i figure if leonard ravenhill or fred wolf or may know somebody else is not known in hell they're not worth a hill of beans do you remember one day some men decided to knock the devil out of somebody else and they went and jumped on the man and the demons jumped out and kicked the preacher around and the poor old preacher looked up and did not the demons said oh this is a honey if you like see not the demon said jesus i know and paul i know i think that i think that's the greatest thing that's ever been said about a man satan's got a danger list he's got the 10 most wanted men in the world this last day of 1978 he's got a danger list one two i would rather be the last man on that list of the most wanted men in hell than the first man on any list on earth jesus i know this is a testament of a demon and paul we know and then he said but who are you in other words i never heard about you you know when this church is go i may get fired tonight that's all right when this church really goes up you'll have a room somewhere and i believe you do have a 24-hour prayer with me that's that's fine but you know just as we elect deacons and others we'll find men who have ministries on intercession and there is some place in the church where those men don't bother whether they're seen or heard or known or not they they spend their lives in intercession pulling down strongholds putting barriers up in the heavenlies that the devil and demons can't cross let me give you one illustration and hurry over it on my book in the motel there i upon me on my bed i have a book i'm going to read it i've read it once it's bloomheart's battle about a hundred years ago in germany there was a a man a lutheran preacher was asked to pray for a girl who was possessed of evil spirits and he did this and the demons came out and he became quite famous for casting out demons and monday somebody said to him you know there's a girl up in the hills there and she's demon possessed i was preaching in the first presbyterian church in marshall last year there's a very beautiful girl came up at the end of the meeting and she said mr raven i want to tell you something she said at least four times tonight while you were preaching you disappeared and and all the picture of the exorcist came up i could see all those demonic things i couldn't see the church and then they would disappear and you would come back and then you disappear and they come back and i said why did you go see the filthy thing now if you give place to demons if you start fooling around with ouija boards and all that up well okay but before long you'll get trapped in it so you better watch one of the signs of the day in which we live is the growth of the occult do you know there are two thousand gurus in america today and mostly they have the most successful ministries with young intellectual jews and highbrow people and if you go to india it's the filthiest country in the world it's full of superstition and degradation and they come to teach us in the christian country bloomheart went to pray for this girl she tore her dress she spit some green phlegm at him she used every obscenity you could dream of he stayed at the foot of that dead for eight hours and at the end of the eight hours he was wringing wet with sweat and all the way home the demons were saying well jesus could cast us out but you can't after all the bible is only a printed book it doesn't get any further than the page and folk in church don't expect anything like that you just send sick people to the psychiatrist you send other sick people to hospital jesus didn't the early church didn't our church does he went the second day to tell you the story condense it you know what he went every day for 10 months to the foot of that bed and prayed eight hours a day every day for 10 months and every night he went home he was so weak he could hardly get into his bed he would wake up with the same burn he would wake up with weakness he would wake up with perspiration he'd go back to that bed and the demons would mark and the girl would cast and her face would change color and she'd vomit this green pew out of her mouth and she'd spring obscenities and most degrading things until the atmosphere was polluted and every day he went would you have done my pastor would i have done mine we'd have said put chains on her and kick her into some psychiatric ward and let the state take care of her but bloomhart says this is a challenge of demon power to the power of the risen son of god the last day that he was there he felt a surge of power the girl seemed to have it and she came out so violent they had to hold her and she went through the same routine of green frost came to her mouth her obscenities came out she carried on and so forth he said i felt a surge of life and suddenly he said this is the end now look you demon in the name of jesus christ the son of god come out people down in the village said as we would say it was like a dozen train a freight train going through it was like a hundred jets going over they heard this rumble the demons came out of her in hundreds all confessing their names and she sat up in bed with a radiant beautiful face like an angel and said i'm free i'm clean that ministry grew until the kaiser sent us some of money until the government gave i forget the name now blay i think it was a town in germany where they gave them a disused auditorium and they filled it with sick beds and demented people and do you know what just about a hundred years ago people were going in ships from america fast bound in jackets to steal and they were going all the way there to europe the little ukraine minister with a team of many had now would stand over those demon possessed people and cast them out and send them home i do not believe that any place on god's earth more exciting than the sanctuary when the holy ghost is moving i don't think it necessarily means that every crippled arm is stretched out and every blind eye is open every death here is unstopped it does mean that supernatural working begins and this is my goal these days along with you i'm praying for you you know i'm praying i'm praying some of you will have sleepless nights isn't that nice i'm praying some of you that have hidden sin for years we'll have to confess it the last two meetings were in dr charlie's church one night the holy ghost was there i sat down we must have sat 10 minutes or 15 minutes the woman got up made a confession and two hours after the meeting was still going on with confession the same thing happened in uh uh what was the valley church that we were in in louisville just a few months ago the promise of god is we should be more than conquerors through him that loved us the spirit of the living god upon us and no weapon that's formed against us shall prosper samson subdues his enemies samson destroys the lion which is a type of the devil oh i could have summarized it all much quicker than that you see the secret of this man is this it's not his long hair if long hair was the secret of power most of our churches would explode it wasn't it wasn't a case of long hair you read the story what do you discover it was disobedience that brought disaster finally the woman gets to speak and he says i'll tell you what it is it's not a case of green with the new ropes you see my hair in a choir i'm a nazirite three things a nazirite could not do he could not drink wine a sign of worldly pleasure he could not touch anything dead a sign of people who are dead in trespasses and in sin and thirdly he had to wear long hair as a reproach that he was different from other men and as long as he kept his vows he kept his power she came up with the old weapon you know when she couldn't get away she said well you don't love me oh that's an old one isn't it and a new one that's what you said this week but that's the weapon you don't love me oh shut up of course i love you he said listen i'll tell you what it is there's nothing much to it you see i've never drunk wine in my life i've never touched anything that was dead that was a that was a whole tragedy he went back to that animal that he had killed and he touched the flesh the dead thing and then from there he began to deteriorate he said you can't go destroying enemies you can't go around doing the things you're doing you'll lose your health now just slip your head on my lap and have a sleep you know if it stayed on his knees he'd never have got on hers i don't care what a man does backsliding you say about a certain man who used to be on tv he had a great show now he's living with another woman he's living in adultery he drinks he does this he's a backslider no no no he backslid months ago that's the evidence of his backsliding every man backslides in his hair life first of all he backslides in his devotional life first of all he slips his head on the lap of the woman she slips the locks off his hair and she says the things he said over and over the philistines be upon me and then it says one of the most tragic words in the scripture he says i'll go out as at other times and he says he wished not he didn't know the spirit of god had departed from him you know we've got so many churches where the holy ghost hasn't moved for years we go through the mechanics we sing a nice hymn we say wasn't it blessed wasn't the choir wonderful wasn't a good message and we know in our heart of hearts the breathing of the spirit of god was not there he wished not the spirit of god had departed i'll go out and do as another man at other times and she said the philistines be upon me they came and they took him like that all right you can summarize this story like this what was the first thing they did bind him what was the second thing they did blind him what was the third thing they did grind him they put him in the basement they put out his eyes they fastened him there to a a treadmill he goes round and round day by day grinding the corn that he took out of their mounds are you going to suggest i'm wrong when i say if you've gone down into that basement that man who could one day make a nation tremble and destroy an army and pull down a city and tear up a lion he's now in bondage are you going to suggest those soft sightless eyes never had any tears are you going to try and persuade me the groaning this spirit wasn't louder than the groaning of the machine he was working on are you going to try and persuade me he didn't remember the day when the glory of god he was the most powerful man immortal all his enemies trembled look if your children were reading the bible tomorrow and they asked you why the church doesn't do today what she used to do what's your answer have you dispensationalized the holy ghost out of his job when the church is not supernatural she's superficial the only thing that marks her out as a different institution the world of men is there's something mysterious indefinable that cannot be got with money or education or science or any other way and it's the brooding of the spirit of god here's a poor man he's lost his sight he's lost his freedom he's lost his family he's lost all his honor here he is in his misery and he hears a tap tap tap tap and he turns his sightless eyes and says who are thou and a boy says i'm a boy what kind of a boy a philistine what do you want this must have cut him like taking a dagger and stabbing it through into his heart he said i have come to take you there was a day when 2 000 men couldn't take him and now a boy takes him you're taking me where i'm taking you into the temple of dagan the fish god they have a conference they've been asking to see samson the man that once terrified their armies they've been asking about the man that somehow had something so mysterious and supernatural again that's a mark of the church of the living god two minutes go back into the 10 chapters previous to this what's the story it's the story of another man with supernatural power by the name of gideon a story we like to tell the children it was fresh in corn in the middle of the night not the middle of the day and an angel came and said to him gideon god is with thee thou mighty man of valor if the angel had said that to me in those circumstances i'd have turned around and said so angels tell jokes too eh god is with me look angel you see that cave that's where i live the next cave is where my uncle lives the next cave is where my other folk lives we're the anointed of god and we're in subjection to the million nights what are you talking about gideon didn't say that gideon said listen angel you tell me that god is with me this is the answer he shot back if god be with us where be his miracles our fathers told us of my wife and i have been alone for the last 12 years the boys paul david's been in new zealand and new guinea paul has been in the center of south america philip is on the west coast of africa we've been alone for 12 years david came home with his three daughters my other son's home with his two daughters and a boy and uh it suddenly made a change in things but you know when i get those little fellows on my knees i think it's not far back since i sat on my grandmother's knee and gideon says you say that god is with us where's the supernatural manifestation i think he's saying i sat on my grandpa's knee who told me when he sat on his grandpa's knee he told him how one day they walked through a big tank and waved to the fishes going through because he happened to walk through the red sea and they got up every morning and they had wheaties straight from heaven they call it manna it's almost the same thing but the lord opened the windows of heaven and sent wheaties down every morning they wore their suits for 40 years they never smelt sweaty and they wore their shoes for 40 years and they didn't wear out and at night if they got nervous they lifted up the side of the tent and said don't worry there's a pillar of fire in the middle of the tank and the middle of the tabernacle in other words they walked on miracle the eighth miracle they saw miracle and yet they never entered the promised land and we've got people today that want to see miracles but they don't want god to invade their lives if god is with us where be his miracles i'm sick to death of the church standing on the side of the road watching the parade go by i want to see god come on the church till they ever stand on the side of the road and watch the church go by come on samson he takes samson by the hand it says there are three thousand people in the gallery well there's a good crowd in the gallery tonight but uh only a third maybe of what's down here so if they had uh what three thousand in the gallery maybe there's six thousand in the other part maybe there's ten thousand in the auditorium and when samson comes in they say no you're not serious you're not don't really mean this is the teller i mean you know i thought samson was up there with bulging muscles you mean to say that this little guy here is the one that terrified our nation and and destroyed the lion and and did all those things and samson says son i've been in the temple of dagon sightseeing don't you have two large pillars on the platform and he said yes he said would you would you put me between those pillars and he said yes no man is greater than his prayer life samson had lived a life that was spectacular with a miraculous but the greatest miracle came at the end when he's standing there on the platform he prayed listen to his prayer samson called on the lord and said oh lord remember i pray thee and strengthen me listen just one just one look in a few hours we're gonna step into a new year we step into a new year every day anyhow but but but it's a bit different it's number one on the calendar do you think you day prayer do you think you dare pray this prayer to a holy god tonight lord this past year is full of failure weakness i haven't kept the vows i made i haven't kept the promises i haven't fasted as i said it would i haven't prayed as i said it would i haven't tied as i said it would i haven't read the word of god now lord i'm going on record here in mobile tonight in this lovely church put it down on the eternal computer that tonight i ask you for one more chance strengthen me once and i know he meant it why he said strengthen me once oh god that i may be avenged of the philistines of my two eyes and he took all of the two middle pillars upon which the house stood on which it was born up the one with his right hand on the other and samson said let me die with the philistines now i know he means business he says almighty god i would rather live the next six months with the anointing of god on me than live another 60 years like the last year i've lived now tell me this if you live next year next 365 days if the lord spares you will the devil know you're around because every member of this church is either an asset or a liability you're either part of the problem or part of the answer lord he says strengthen me just once even if i die now don't pray that if you don't mean it because god almighty may take it you weren't on the other hand he may slay you because you've fooled your days up anyhow just give me one more chance that's all i'm asking not to one give me one more chance in the anointing of the spirit and you know what god did exactly that house well i'll tell you why because samson said let me die with the philistines and he bowed himself with all his might he pushed out the pillars and the house fell on the lords and all the people that were there how do i know that he's pious because he said so then the dead which he slew at his death were more than all that he slayed in his life that last one anointing of god did not take years it took only moments as it were and in that moment that supernatural power he pulled pushed the pillars out and the house came down and he killed more in his dying than in his living all right one thing i went to a wedding a while ago i've been to very many as the bride came down the aisle this thought came to me you've been to dozens of weddings this bride happened to be the only daughter of a friend of mine who is a multimillionaire she inherits all his land and he's many he has two big stately homes he has a yacht and as she came down the aisle i thought wow you look beautiful today and suddenly this hit me look you've seen many brides tall one short one rich one full one fat one thin one have you ever seen a dirty bride i saw girls get married in the depression in the 1930s in england when they took a pair of curtains that mother had and made a kind of mantilla and they they did something with the thing you know put something on it and they came down the aisle as well they were dressed in pearls i've never seen a dirty bride you imagine a girl going to get into the into the beautiful carriage that's going to take limousine and just as she's getting in mother says darling you've been up since five o'clock this morning you've tried your wedding veil on 20 times and you dress 30 times and your shoes this and now you're ready to go now sweetheart you know you may faint now darling look just as you get in the carriage here here and she gives her a nice big hot dog with mustard and uh all the other junk on it and uh then in the other hand she gives a nice little uh cup glass uh styrofoam cup and uh she she says now sweetheart be careful and the bride's going down you know so excited and suddenly a dog runs in the way and the driver puts the brake on whoops down a dresser tomato hot dog mustard coffee the bride stand bridegroom standing there you know thinking about this angel coming down and and he looks at her oh and he says hey what happened you're a mess you're disgusting oh you you look wretched what what she said what i'll tell you afterwards you know some people try to tell me jesus will come before i go to bed tonight but they happen to tell me that 70 years ago too don't worry jesus isn't coming tonight for two reasons number one the world isn't evangelized number two the bride is too filthy for him to come for eliezer was a type of the holy spirit who searches for the bride i don't think so because it says in the book of the revelation what the bride hath made herself ready the bride he's coming for a bride what's he dressed in she's dressed in white impurity the greatest need in the church tonight is a revival of holy living love that is pure is passionate do you think your day prayer samson's prayer tonight is really praying 339 let's sing it 339 let's stand this is an american hymn it was a written by a man who lost four daughters in a tragedy he's a millionaire and he lost everything he had but notice what he wrote let's stand and sing it when peace like a river 339 339 not too fast when peace like a river when it's not true and if there's anything worse than telling lies it's singing them is it really well with your soul tonight is your prayer life really healthy at the end of 78 is your love for souls really healthy is your devotional life healthy do you do you read this book like you read a love letter for after all that's what it is this third song that i think is thrilling my sin all the bliss that's the word we don't use too much all the thrill the joy of this glorious thought my sin not in part but the whole is nailed to the cross you know we sang this a few weeks ago in dr charles stanley's great church on the friday night on the sunday night he stood up and he said to that great congregation he said listen i i want to tell you something and i don't know what how i can tell you he said friday night when brother adriel said that first time that my sin all the blip not my sins the sin that's been dominating my life you see when you went through that tank as i call it sometimes that little river up there when you went down in that water you know you stood up and when the pastor put you under what would you do you were cut off from the world above you couldn't breathe it's air you couldn't see it you couldn't smell it you couldn't touch it you were telling the world outside that when you went under that you died to this world all its pleasure its pomp its pride its greed its lasciviousness you were saying i go on my course that it says in the sixth chapter there of romans that when he was crucified i was crucified and i'm buried with him in baptism and this is where i died now did you or did you just try and get rid of a lot of lousy sins when you came up out of that water could you really say i became a new creation my temper had gone my secret lusts had gone my covetousness had gone my griping spirit had gone if it didn't you didn't get the right thing you see jesus didn't die to do something for us merely but something in us and he wants us to be free from all bondage my sin i can remember the night when i got saved when i was less than 15 years of age i remember going to an altar when i was about 18 because i knew an inward bondage jealousy pride ate me up now remember going there and when a man came and said what do you want god to do i said i want him to make romans 6 7 well in my life he said you mean romans 6 6 knowing i said romans 6 7 he said it's 6 6 or 6 6 7 what's 6 7 he that is dead is freed from sin i want to die die die die i can't die people say die to yourself you can't die to yourself unless somebody chops your head off you can die to self-seeking self-pity self-glory self-satisfaction all the hyphenated sins you are an entity god made you like that and it means that self is dethroned and he is enthroned and once i get there he can ask anything of my life we're going to sing the rest of the hymn but listen don't sing a lie if you're not where god wants you tonight if your spiritual life is not healthy you better get it straightened out before the midnight hour and you can come to this altar and don't stay for five minutes kiss the ground and say lord i'm sorry stay here until god does some surgery till he gets down there and cuts away that bad temper that bitter temper that ill feeling that can speak all that other stuff that still remains there don't sing it for the past he's gonna sing it for himself we're all gonna sing it for us my sin oh the what you'll be setting sin tonight pride secret love anger temper covetousness come on what is it will you let him nail it to the cross would you say i want to end this year that's been a year of failure well i'll end the year in victory anyhow and walk with him and say lord strengthen me just once even if you bury me within six months i don't care but give me six months of living with holy ghost anointing he may give you six years i don't know