In this sermon, the preacher reflects on his experience as a pastor during the Great Depression in England. He recalls a time when his church experienced a revival and how even a small number of salvations would lead to doubts and criticisms from the congregation. The preacher then shares a personal anecdote about being invited into a woman's home for tea and how it reminded him of the biblical story of David and Goliath. As he takes a sip from the cup, he is reminded of Jesus' sacrifice and the weight of sin that he bore on the cross. The sermon concludes with a reflection on God's holiness and omnipresence as described in the Bible.

You may not believe this, but you know the Bible has 70 books. I suppose you've been here for four years and all you've heard is there are 66. It just shows you how little professors really know. But apart from that, the fact is, you see, that the the Book of Psalms is divided by all the Hebrew scholars into five books. So then you add four books to 66, which obviously is 70, and 70 is a scriptural number. There were 70 elders in the Old Testament. Jesus sent out the 70. 66 is not a scriptural number. 666 is. That's a, that's a very different thing. The Book of Psalms, again reminding you, has 150 wonderful psalms in it. Approximately half of them, 75, were written by David. Out of those 75, there are some prophetical psalms, there are some historical psalms. But out of those 75 psalms, 18 of them are autobiographical. They're all wrapped around David. Out of those 18 autobiographical psalms, eight of them are penitential psalms. He's repenting, he's getting something straightened out in his life. And out of those eight penitential psalms, one of them has to be the greatest, and surely the 51st psalm is that. D.L. Moody, amongst other things that he said, stated that if God would give a man the ability to invent a camera that would photograph our hearts, very few of us would sit for the photograph. And when we got it, we'd never show it round. The Word of God says again, the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. And you know, not once in the Word of God does God ever say, give me thy brain. He says, son give me thy heart. He doesn't say you even think with your brain, as a man thinketh in his heart. So he is. So this 51st psalm is a, is a, a fantastic psalm. David really has a marvelous construction in this psalm, because in the first two verses you have three different words for sin. And in the same two verses you have three different words for cleansing. There are three references to the Spirit in this psalm, two of the Holy Spirit and one of the human spirit. There are three prayers in this psalm. He prays the prayer of a sinner, have mercy upon me O God, and then later he prays a prayer of a backslider, restore unto me the joy of thy salvation. And then he prays the greatest prayer that any human being can pray, create in me a clean heart. You see there are no degrees of purity. Your heart and mine is either pure or impure. There are no degrees of purity. If you went down the store and, to the store and you saw a sale there, butter, ten, ten cents a pound. You say, well isn't it 69, 70 cents? Yeah this is. Is it good butter? Well it's a brand name. Anything wrong with it? Well it's 97% pure. It's only got three degrees of arsenic in it. Would you buy it? I mean apart from your mother-in-law coming to lunch, would you buy it? Just because it only has three degrees of poison. No, no, no, no, no. You say that is not pure. There are no degrees of purity. There are degrees of strength. There are certainly degrees of wisdom, as you find out next week. But there are no degrees of purity. A thing is or is not pure. Three great prayers. Three times sacrifice is mentioned in this psalm. Three times offerings are mentioned in this psalm. He makes three references to the face, to the mouth, to the lips, to the tongue. My tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness. That is when you've got all the cobwebs out of me. And then he says, Lord open thou my lips and my mouth shall show forth. Now why doesn't the world, does it say that is not done? That David knew something we've either known and forgotten and never known and that is it's no good testifying and trying to be like that if your life's as crooked as a corkscrew. Open my lips I can't testify. Why not? This psalm is again amazing in many ways. This psalm was never written of course on a typewriter. It wasn't dictated to a secretary. Understand again here that the psalm was not written with ink and written on a parchment. Well how in the world was it written? It was written with blood. It isn't punctuated with commas and periods. It's punctuated with sobs and groans. This man isn't going through an oratorical exercise. This man has come into the greatest most tragic situation of his amazing life. He's under condemnation. He's weighed down with guilt. He's conscious of pollution to use a very common modern word. It would be nice if he could have a plague of conviction like the thing that sees this man on this occasion. What's his problem? Well on one hand he has the stain of murder and on the other hand he has the stain of adultery. And you Shakespearean folk remember Lady Macbeth trying to find a place of cleansing for that spot on her hand and saying that all the perfumes of Arabia wouldn't move it. And here is David finding no way out. He says my sin is ever before me. Why? Well uh common language the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life tripped him up. And here he is stained and condemned and I say the best thing that could happen to America or to the world tonight would be that God would send us a a plague of conviction like this. My sin is ever before me. One of the wonderful things about this psalm is this. It's a monologue. Now he sinned with a woman. He did not sin against her. He sinned with her. She was part of it. And he doesn't make any reference either directly or obliquely to that gorgeous woman that fascinated him. In other words it's not my mother or my brother or my sister it's me O God. And so the psalm is a monologue. Have mercy on me O God according to the multitude of thy tender mercies. Blot out my transgression. Wash me throughly from mine iniquity. Cleanse me from my sin. I acknowledge my transgression. You see one of the things about us in modern life we all know what's wrong with everybody else but we know what's wrong with us. Now David isn't in that category at all. He says my sin is ever before me. When he looks out of the window of his castle there's a man standing to attention. Immediately he sees him. He remembers he put a young man to death. A fine young soldier because he'd already got involved with his wife and got into trouble with his wife. And when a baby cries, a girl somewhere in the kitchen there and a baby begins to cry and the sin comes in his ears. That's not the cry of that baby it's the cry of the bastard that he brought to birth. That's not a soldier standing there that's the very man I put to death. And if you start praying for revival you better watch out because this is exactly what God does. He opens doors and skeletons come out of their closets and people begin to make confession. In the famous Keswick meetings in England a few years back, they preach on the deeper life you know or the higher life. Not much on the lower life or the humbler life but anyhow they they preach in those categories. And one night a man stood up and he preached on restitution. And people went out saying goodness me we've traveled hundreds of miles some of them across the world and here is a man preaching as though with a bunch of unsaved people on restitution. Do you know next morning in the center of the town there it's a beautiful town located in the hills there was a lineup at the post office before ever the post office opened and in an hour they sold out every one of what we call a post load or a money order that they had and they had to send about 70 or 80 miles away and get a shipload and Christians were confessing how much deception there had been in their lives. They cheated with this in money they cheated with that on that with money. Now David here is very conscious of a an awful inward something something that burns worse than a cancer would ever burn in you. Because God never takes any light views of sin we do and that's a tragedy of modern life. I'm sick of going to churches where they say a lot of stuff and praying at the end and say now Lord forgive us all our sins. You say isn't that normal? Sure it's not normal. You may as well be a Mohammedan if you sin every day. Be a Catholic. Protestants don't sin and repent every day. At least they should not. I come to that in a minute but here David notice again uses this word take not by Holy Spirit from me. Why? Do you believe as a believer God can withdraw the Holy Spirit from you? If you don't you don't know much. It took me years to wonder and discover why did this man say take not by Holy Spirit from me. Why you remember he succeeded after Saul the king of Israel and I reminded you last night that the king was always put into his office with pomp and circumstance and priests and dignity and they took a ram's horn full of oil and they put that oil upon the head of the of the king because of course oil is a perpetual symbol of the Holy Spirit in the in the word of God. And they put that oil upon his head and it says not only that the king saw all the Spirit of the Lord is upon him but it says that he prophesied he had gifts of the Spirit and yet he ended up a suicide. God withdrew his Spirit from him and he goes around and and uh sit in there some of you girls slide up you fellas there let those folk come on the end would you do that? We're going to charge the latecomers double after tonight but that's all right. And uh maybe we'll put some chairs at the back or something I don't know we never get seating right somehow that's a problem but there you are. But David is stricken here with conviction the Spirit of God is upon him. He's in a state of misery. He knows that King Saul ended up the king who was dignified and tall and handsome and everybody said his excellency the king he is the anointed of God is the supreme man in all the world that has the authority of God and there he is groveling before a spiritist medium. And David says don't take your Holy Spirit from me that I end up in that tragic mess. You see Saul thought that when he finally went to that spiritist medium and saw and Samuel came up and remember he didn't say to Samuel uh speak to our God or speak to my God he said to Samuel speak to your God on my behalf the Lord has forsaken me. And he came back as quick as that with the answer he says the Lord hath forsaken thee. Did you ever see anybody like that? I can show you ministers that years ago were powerful and swayed of power and filled churches that tonight are spiritual derelicts. You say are they lost? I'm not arguing about them being lost I say they've lost their anointing they've lost their church and they're down in the gutter. And they can still quote Greek and Hebrew and all the rest of it. This is why again when people say well it's so nice now let's get this settled because I am not like you American folk that can put up with meetings fidgeting around with some of you move up there or would you come up and fill some front seats so folk can get to the back instead of walking across and in and out all the time while I'm trying to speak. Some of you folk move over and then they can get in those those end seats then maybe we'll get settled. You ever try to paint a picture with somebody moving the canvas like this all the time? Pretty difficult you know. Thank you that's that's good. The seats are softer down here anyhow. Thank you. He says therefore again take not thy Holy Spirit from me. I said again the Spirit is mentioned three times in this psalm twice of the Holy Spirit. And because he is the Holy Spirit he convicts of sin in every degree at all. He's the Spirit of life he convicts of death. He's the Spirit of power he convicts of weakness. He's a Spirit of fire he convicts of coldness. He is the Spirit of love and he convicts of hatred and bitterness. David wrote as we have already said half of the Psalms. I've often tried to think of on the hills of Bethlehem. Maybe as a boy in his teens plucking away at the strings of a harp or a guitar or something and and playing that marvelous 23rd Psalm. Maybe at night. Oh I think so often of that scripture that says how the mighty fallen. Do you remember this little fellow went along one day to take some cheese and bread for his brothers? And when he got there the brothers were cringing behind the tent and the king was peeping through the canvas and somebody else was looking another way and he said what's it all about? You wait till you see this giant come this great man Goliath. Why when he treads he shakes the earth and his voice is like thunder. You wait till this man comes along you'll be scared stiff too. The little fellow says uh why doesn't the go kill him? Oh he didn't. Why doesn't the crown prince go kill him? Oh he's nervous too. Well say brother Eliab you graduated at West Point with honors and you've got a breastplate and a helmet why don't you go slaughter the fellow? Oh I didn't go near him. And he goes to all his brothers and says why don't you fight him? Why don't you fight him? Why don't you fight him? They all say the same thing. He says well do you mind if I go and kill him? You go kill him. You wouldn't know which you use the wrong end of the sword anyhow you've never seen a sword have you? And you've no breastplate you have no helmet. And somebody overheard this and ran to the king and said you know we can be saved from this humiliation and this horrible thing on the nation. There's a little fellow going there and he uh well even if he if he should get killed it wouldn't matter too much his dad's got lots of other boys. The king says uh son uh you're gonna kill this man for us are you? He said yes he said all right you know try my breastplate on. And he tried it on but his knees wouldn't move when he got it on so no good having there. And they put the helmet on it but it came on his shoulders he couldn't see where he was going so he discarded that. In case you don't know the weapons of our warfare are not carnal. And so he said well I can't fight. Isn't isn't it great to realize you can't fight in another man's armor. Wouldn't some of you women like to be Katherine Kuhlman? Wouldn't some of you preachers like Billy Graham's uh you know if you could only be Billy listen you couldn't be Billy Graham if you stood on your head and walked backwards. And we don't need another Miss Kuhlman. I know her I've preached for her I've dined with her I've talked with her tried to get her into shape but anyhow uh right you'd like somebody else's armor God's gonna give you the armor. Well what makes you think you could kill him? He said I can do it and I know I can do it. One night I was looking after my sheep and there came up a bear and I didn't run away a call for my brothers. Any of you brothers witness to that? No? No I didn't know you done it. Yeah I killed a bear all right. Another night the lion came I got all of him and slew him. I slew a bear I slew a lion and now for Goliath. I remember one of my boys preaching once David and I hadn't thought of this before it's amazing but I hadn't and he said isn't it wonderful he said that you see this is this this is where we get tricked so often that little David when he went before Goliath Goliath had an armor bearer but David never tackled the armor bearer he tackled the source up there you see. We go to a meeting and say I'm going to cast a demon out. You can cast demons out all your life they laugh at you. It isn't demons that's the problem it's the devil that's the problem. You've got a headache you've got a demon. Well there's two ways of getting it let somebody talk over you or take bear aspirin. As though the devil's bothered about you having headache don't flatter yourself. You weren't much good when you hadn't one what's he gonna bother with you when you have one anyhow. But do you see what's here David says I killed a bear at midnight there was nobody there to applaud and say well done and there was nobody there when the lion came in other words he that is faithful in that which is least. He that is faithful when there's nobody there to applaud is the man that God's going to use. If God suddenly projects a man you can guess that somewhere if he's spirit anointed that man's been spending his years in the quietness. I remind you again that Jesus had 30 years of training before ever he preached. He never preached before he was anointed of the spirit. And don't you believe for a minute a diploma will make you a preacher it won't. The devil will still laugh at you. If you don't have any anointing you shouldn't preach. There's only one ordination and you can't get it even in the Baptist church. Did you know that a Pentecostal church it is the anointing of the spirit of God. And there's no price tag on it. There came a lion there came a bear I saw that isn't it amazing a lion couldn't slay this man a bear couldn't slay him but he is slain. He's slain by his own sin. And then in the 23rd Psalms on the hills I visualize him often as we've come through mountains in different countries and I thought my little David would sit on that rock looking at the stars playing his harp and saying well in the 8th Psalm when I consider thy heavens or the 23rd Psalm and he gets down right to the bottom there and he says even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I'll fear. Boy that's something when you don't fear death. But now he's afraid. He wrote 139th Psalm that's a great Psalm isn't it. As I tried to say last night we've lost our concept of the majesty of God most of us have a gut about this thing. He's no longer the high and lofty one who inhabits eternity. I was thinking today of those creatures in Revelation 4 they're full of eyes and they gaze on the majesty of God and they cry holy holy holy is the Lord. As though with all the eyes in them one eye is looking at his majesty another looks at his holiness another looks at his long-suffering another looks at his spotless character. And David says in Psalm 139 Whither shall I go from my presence? He has a marvelous concept of God's omnipresence. Whither shall I go from my presence? Whither shall I flee from my spirit? If I make my bed in hell thou art there. And then he goes on to say search me O God and know my heart. He doesn't say that here. He's living on this occasion in Psalm 139 as near to God as he ever lived or maybe any other man ever lived. And he says search me I challenge you. Even if your eyes as the word of God says is of holier eyes than to behold iniquity. But search out my heart search all the the search all my thoughts. And the secret springs and the motives that control. And the chambers where polluted things could hold empire or the soul. Search till thy fiery glance hath cast its holy light through all. And but he doesn't say that here. In Psalm 139 yes search me and know my heart and try me and know my thoughts and see if they're beneath. But here he says hide thy face from my sins. If most of us had a revelation of our sinfulness as it came to some of the saints in the old and new testament or in revival we'd collapse. That's why in revival people don't go in a room and kiss the floor with their knees and say well Lord I'm sorry and go on and do so. No no no no no. There's nothing that we need more in our paltry and putrid modern evangelism than a phase of holy ghost conviction that tears people right down to the very heart. God turns you inside out and shows you the filth and impurity and you feel as though hell is inside of you. I'm convinced that we have a very light concept of sin because of course we have a very light concept of salvation. You see that's why it's easy for you to say well Lord forgive me my sins before I go to bed because I might drop in hell overnight if you don't. But sin and salvation mutually exclude each other. They do not tolerate each other in any way at all. When we see the exceeding sinfulness of sin. Him we used to sing often in England tell me the old old story that I may take it in. That wonderful redemption. God's remedy for sin. But nobody ever plummeted this depth. No theologian ever understood it. They're all amateurs. What's this book about? From one cupboard to the other it's about sin. Individual sin, national sin. I remember in the 1930s in England in the days of depression I passed through the church. I was in my 20s and we had a merciful visitation of God. We always had a crowded church and if there were only two or three people saved on a Sunday night I was almost afraid to go to the prayer meeting. Next week they'd be saying Lord maybe we need another pastor. Things aren't going well. If we had 10 or 15 or 20 that was all right. That was normal. If we had 30 my it was better this week wasn't it. Going down the street in this area it was a period of depression and just about ready for supper. I was a bachelor then and as I passed the door a lady opened it and she said oh hello and I said hello. She said um you drink tea don't you? Well I said sometimes. Well she said come in and have a cup. Well I don't want to take a cup of tea. She had the filthiest house in the whole community. She made Dirty Sally look like the Sheba. Apparently you know who Dirty Sally is. Some of you think she's a student here but anyhow. Dirty Sally. My this woman was a mess and I went in that house something like this you know holding my nose. It was really a stench that was coming up. When I got inside the table was covered with old crockery and I remember there was a plate there with some bacon grease on and a piece of bacon that had been there so long it had some green fuzz on it and everything was just as wretched and rotten as it could be and I was just about ready to vomit. And she said sit down. You take tea? I said yes. Oh I made this a while ago. Well I'd rather have no tea than cold tea but she had some nice cold tea. I don't like it black and it was as black as my boot. And she just reached over to the sink and took out a cup that she maybe used a month before and it was all stained and dirty and it had some dirty tea leaves inside and she just took that teapot and she poured that dirty black stuff that looked like axle grease really into that cup. She said you take cream? And I said yes. She said well I don't have any. Thank you. You take sugar? I said yes and she put some in. And she was talking all the while and she stirred this muddy thing up and she handed me the cup with all the dirty slime on the outside and the grease and all around it and she said here talk with me a little while and let's drink tea. And you know I reached out for that cup and as I took it I brought it up like this and suddenly I saw something. I saw a man in a garden about two thousand years before that handing it handed a cup. Oh this cup I had with its dirty grease on and the mess. It was a cup of pure water compared to the cup he was given. And as I looked at that cup I could see that man and I could see the agony because after all everybody quit on him you know at that moment. And I could see him there with the sin of the whole world all human depravity. Every type of sin was there in that cup and he takes it and he and he balks at it for a minute and he says father if there's a way out let me get out of this. If it's possible at all. I don't want to drink this cup. It wasn't possible. And he drank that cup. You wonder the hymn writer says that lady that wrote that hymn that none of the ransomed ever knew how deep were the waters crossed. Or how dark was the night that the Lord passed through where he found the sheep that was lost. You see we have some pretty pictures of the crucifixion but actually nobody saw Jesus crucified not even God. Why? Because God put a blind on the son. I do not understand no other preacher does no theologian does I don't understand how how how the ancient of days became the infant of time. The high and lofty one who inhabiteth eternity the heaven of heavens cannot contain him how in the world did he get into the womb of the virgin then. And when you solve that mystery of how deity became humanity and how the ancient of days became the infant of time and how the one that put everything that lives in the world had to hang on his mother's breast for sustenance. I do not understand how nor does anyone else how the ancient of days became the infant of time but less do I understand how he was made sin for us. And because we have a cheap concept of that we have a cheap concept. We have a cheap concept of redemption a shallow concept we have a shallow concept of sin. David here prays then and nobody likes his sin. It's common today you don't have to blush for committing adultery anymore or breaking marriage laws or doing any devilish thing. But you see this man had lived in such a high state of spirituality and he'd had such communion with God and everything is shattered now. Isn't it something that this man is so concerned to get a restoration of relationship with God and restore unto me the joy of thy salvation. After all he's not saying Lord deliver me from the Philistines they're not chasing him. He isn't saying get hold of my son he's trying to pull the throne from underneath me and somebody snatched the crown off my head. It's a moral and spiritual thing that he's agonizing about and he comes on the only way that it's possible for a human being to come. You see we've modified we well we say well sin it's it's a blunder. But the word of God calls it blindness. We say that sin is maybe just an error. God says it's enmity against God. We say sin is just weakness. God says here that it's wickedness. Well sin is human infirmity. God says it's iniquity. Now we could have a real theological fight here. David says I was born in sin and this is about the one scripture we hang on to say there's depravity in every little baby. How is it how does it get there? Well daddy and mummy are sinful and therefore they transmit it don't they? Is it in the bloodstream? What if daddy and mummy get sanctified and purified and filled with the Holy Ghost and sin has been cleansed out of them how do you pass it on? Now of course you've got two schools. Mr. Finney referred to tonight said every child is born in purity and he believed in acquired depravity. Backed up by the statement of Jesus except ye become as little children ye cannot enter. But you say children have sin in Well well when do they become eligible to enter heaven and how? How old do they have to be to die in innocence? Boy that that's raised some theological problems hasn't it? But the fact is here that David is dealing with this fact that he realizes that sin here he has committed sin transgressions. You see the the we preach to people sometimes nice cultured people and they duck their heads and say well yeah Ravenhill was talking about wicked people like the folk he used to work with in the subculture of New York. Prostitutes and jailbirds and homosexuals and bisexuals and all the rest of it. And we're such nice people. Let me assure you that the first argument God has against you if you're unsaved is not that you're bad. That's not the first argument he has. God's first argument with you is not that you're bad it's that you're dead. In trespasses and in sin. And the mercy of God is that he comes in movements. This is why we talk about revival. Revival is not wicked people outside being saved. You can only revive what has had vitality to revitalize. You revitalize the members of the body of Jesus Christ. Outside we have an awakening. They're dead in trespasses and in sin. I remember going down Orange Grove years back there in the center of London. Before our present queen got married and they were just fine young society people there. As I went past this lush club there was a man dressed you know traditional fancy uniform and as I went back I stepped back and looked down the corridors through the great swing doors. And I said excuse me could I come in this club tonight? No sir you couldn't come in this club. Not if I paid for my dinner? He said no sir no. You couldn't come in this club at all. You can only come in this club if you're brought by some person of high standing. It's for dukes and lords and ladies. Why he said you know the other night Princess Margaret and her sister Elizabeth were here. Damn still one o'clock. No you couldn't come in. Why would why would you like to come in this club? Well I said I'd like to see them all sitting at their tables with dripping with their jewels and all these distinguished people. And when I'd had my soup I'd like to stand on a chair and say hey you brilliant marvelous people you're all dead. He said what? Man they'd chase you. I said I know that. But that's God's classification. That's why people don't like the word of God. It's quick and it's powerful. And it says however high your standing is now brilliant your mind may be and you may be a genius inventing that and you may be somebody in the uh who's who's who's who and all the rest of it. But it still says you're dead you're dead you're dead in trespasses and in sin. I don't know if you've thought of this. Have you have you have you thought today of how many people around the world have gone to shrines and temples and and they've taken broken hearts to God that haven't hearts and they've hollered there into the ears of as I heard somebody away in another country some years ago hollering there at an image as though that image will could if it would listen and get up and do something. Tied up in our little two by four world haven't we? Have you been out of America today? Have you been up the Andes? Have you been up the Amazon? I try to go around the world every day. Maybe I don't always make it but I try to in my praying. If I wake up in the night I want to know why I wakened up. And I think of some country going up when I went up through Thailand into inner Thailand and and the way down there into Papua New Guinea amongst naked people. And you go to other places where people drive up in lovely cars and they bow to the very earth and they'll kiss the earth and they'll kiss images and they'll bring sacrifices. I remember going down the street in Thailand about four o'clock in the morning and people were already putting rice in their bowls for the priest to pick up and they were coming down the street and gathering the offerings. And in India go to a temple of a million gods or you go to the Ganges and see a man with an ulcer on his back that's all running person. He throws the water over his head and somebody else picks the water up and swallows it because it's part of a some initiation or some other thing or a way to find an answer to their problem. But to us Christianity is cheap. You come and kiss the feet of the preacher almost and say I'm sorry I committed sins and I want to go to heaven and have a mansion and and boy that's all there is to it. Boy you couldn't get much easier or lazier than that could you? You see this is why it helps to throw your life away for Christ if you realize that he threw his away for you. And with all that you gain in this world you've got to dump it at the end and go out as naked as you came in and and be just as destitute and helpless. And miss the very best thing that life offers and that is of course a living relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. David says have mercy upon me. I like that word mercy. Do you remember Paul? Of course he wasn't a drunk he wasn't a bum he was the greatest brain that ever lived I think after Jesus. And he witnesses one day and he says but I did this and I did some things that weren't very good but God who is rich in mercy. I think again of John Wesley a brilliant scholar a man of impeccable morality. A man who fasted two days a week before he was saved and prayed four o'clock every morning and wasn't even born again. And gave his money to the poor and became a missionary before he was saved out of compassion for those people in Georgia there. The Indian and he has to come to the same cross. When the Duke of Wellington came back from his victory over Napoleon and that happened to be fought on the 18th of June in 1815. And when he came back to England to his great estate he had a private chapel as most of our big estates have in England. And at the end of the morning service the pastor was celebrating the communion, the Lord's Supper. The Duke had a very fine old gardener he was pretty deaf and he was rather poor and he didn't polish his shoes to come to church even and his clothes weren't very good. And he noticed the people bowing and he looked around the old gardener looked and all he heard was come forward. But the pastor said quietly will the Duke will the Duke come forward serve the Duke first. And to the amazement of the pastor the Duke came and the broken down old gardener came with his heavy boots and he knelt at the side of the Duke. And the pastor reached down and he said move move off a bit I serve the Duke first. And the Duke as he saw the man moving grabbed him by the hand and said friend the ground is level at the cross. The ground is level at the cross. As far as I'm concerned I don't care whether multi-millionaire doesn't make any difference. Once a man crosses that door he's either a sinner or a saint and I'm not worried about his social standing or any position that he has. If a man has cancer he doesn't say to the doctor of course you will have some very very special treatment for me. I happen to own the the center of Dallas and I have a couple of other hundred million stashed away. He just says please give me the treatment you give that poor beggar there or that woman there if it will if it will be effective and cure me. All right David comes and he says have mercy upon me. All God according to the multitude of thy tender mercies blood out my transgression. It's a big word mercy isn't it. You can stretch it to cover so much. Again in the years I've preached I've seen so many people come so many different standards. I've often thought of Noah trying to get those animals in the ark. You ever figure how he did it. God gave him all the dimensions of the ark. He said you only put one window only one light because there's only one light of the world. Only one door. There's only one door by which any man can enter and be saved. And he wouldn't have problems getting rabbits and things in like that. I wonder how he got the giraffe in. I've often wondered about that. I found the answer. I think he backed it in. I mean with a neck like that how in the world could you get the thing in. And I wonder sometimes how God will get some of us in. Just one door by which if any man enters in he can be saved. Didn't the lady, young lady sing. I thought she sang beautifully last night. Something to this effect. Anyhow let not conscience make you linger nor a fitness fondly dream. All the fitness he requireth is to feel your need of him. And if that is coupled with true repentance and a hatred for all the sin that's been done then the miracle takes place. I like what Paul says in what is it 2 Corinthians 5 17. If any man. You see the Jews thought they had a monopoly of God. And he says if any man anywhere at any time. Doesn't matter what kind of a moral leper he is. It doesn't matter what a deliverer he is. If any man be in Christ he is a new creation. And there isn't a fetter that God cannot break. If you want to read a very stirring history of revival my fellow that I used to be assistant pastor to Dr. Fawcett has just written the history of the Cambuslang revival in Scotland about 400 years ago. It's a very very very thrilling story. Tells the story of not David Livingstone but John Livingstone. The man that was going to preach one Sunday morning and got so discouraged he turned around and and was going home up the hill and God said you better go back I'm going to meet with people there. And he went and preached that Sunday morning to a few hundred people and 400 people that Sunday morning were genuinely born again. I think 10 years after 95 percent of them were still walking with God. I know anybody got a record like that. I'm glad for the years year and a half I spent with Dr. Fawcett. One day he said to me I'm going away this weekend and you'll have to preach Sunday morning Sunday night. Well that was too much for me to preach Sunday morning nearly and but I preached Sunday night too. At least I tried to. And after I preached a woman stood at the door everybody knew her she was the biggest woman. I've often said she was about five foot anyway you know from here to here and here to here and there to there. It didn't matter which way you measured a five foot one. She was a sight. And as a matter of fact she was a great fighter. Boy she could really do it you know. And she had come to the church a few times and I'd waited on the Lord. It got a word I felt from him. And I looked across to see if she was there and she was there occupying the two seats she usually sat on. And I preached my message. When I finished she waited at the door with her arms up and she I said good night and she wouldn't shake hands. I said good night and she wouldn't shake hands. And when everybody had gone she said I want to talk to you. I said go ahead. Oh not here she said in the church office at the back. Well I remembered that she'd had a fight three weeks before and knocked three men out. One of them was a policeman. And one was a man in the tavern that said some nasty thing to her and she knocked him out. And the other was the man that ran the tavern she knocked him out. And I was going to see her in the back room all by myself. And when I got into the room I sat down I said take a chair. No she said. And she shut the door and she put her arms up like this and stood against the door you know. And you couldn't see the door. She just stood there and I said well do you mind telling me what you want to tell me? Because I was at the prayer meeting at seven this morning. I preached this morning and I took a men's study class this afternoon and I preached tonight and I want to go home. Well she said sure I'll tell you. What did you do tonight? I said I preached. Preached? You held me up like that for ridicule. Everybody knew who you were talking about. The gambler, the drunkard, the fighter, the sinner, this. Everybody knew. You made a public exhibition of me. I said I didn't have you in. Now don't you say you didn't have me in mind. Don't you lie about that. You knew that you were just telling everybody about my life. I said I never thought about your life. I preached that night on if he will not forgive men their trespasses neither will your heavenly father forgive men, forgive you your trespasses. She said I want to tell you something. I haven't talked to one neighbor for three years. I haven't talked to the other neighbor for five years. And I'll go to hell before I'll talk to either of them. I looked her straight in the eyes. I thought it was risky. I said you go to hell I'm going to bed. But you see she wouldn't move. She stood by the door and I waited and waited. Well I'm not going to my neighbors. I said all right you can't be forgiven. You're just going to carry the load of your sin and you know you admit you're the worst sinner in the neighborhood. And that load of sin will sink you in the lake of fire forever and ever. Now let me go home. She didn't move. I turned around and I knelt to the chair and in a few minutes I heard a tremendous thud and she opened the bag. She took out some lipstick, some gambling tickets, some movie house tickets, matches, cigarettes. You know I thought I, I, I judged a bit too hasty. I thought well what's she starting cleaning a handbag here in the church for. I have no time for this anyhow. Calling her by name I said missus what are you doing. Well she said I'll tell you. If I'm coming to Christ I'm coming clean. I won't need these. I said great wonderful. And then she put her hands together and prayed. Very simple, sobbed. That whole big body of hers just shook as she cried. God I've sinned enough for a hundred people. Have mercy, have mercy, have mercy. And it knocked this word into my mind. Have mercy upon me O God. And you know what happened? God did exactly what she asked. He saved her. She went home and told her husband. She'd beaten him up many times. And he was really glad to hear that of course. That she, she now was you know blessed of the peacemakers. And he thought this will be great. So months after this I had to preach Sunday night. And I preached on hell. And she went home. About one o'clock in the morning her husband turned over in bed and he said Annie are you crying? Yes. Are you sick? No. What's wrong? Well I'm going to heaven. And Ravenel said tonight you're going to hell. Well I never said anything like that at all. I said the wicked were. But anyhow I meant him as to it, because he was wicked. So he said go to sleep. About an hour after he wakened again she was still sobbing. And more than an hour later she was still crying. And she said we, we've lived together and now I'm going to go to heaven. And you're going to perish and go to hell. Oh go to sleep. Next morning she was at our house. Nine o'clock in the morning Dr. Fawcett was still upstairs. Knocked on the door Oh come in. Come in. You look fine. She was smiling. She said oh my we had a. You didn't hear did you? I said no no. Hear what? Oh she said about four o'clock this morning my husband got the bedclothes and pitched them out. And he jumped clean over the edge of the bed. And he he crumbled down in a corner. He said God be merciful to me a sinner. I didn't even think he knew the words. And she said we got all of each other and we hugged each other. We had a great time. Three weeks after that Monday morning she was at my door again. Tears running down her face. Oh I said come in. Let me get you a cup of tea. You didn't hear the news? No. My husband went to work last night in the coal mine. He was to leave at six this morning. At ten minutes to six the roof fell in. And just like that they scraped him off the floor. They put him in a sack. They've tied him in a box. They won't let me see him. And she smiled and she went. And she said Mr. Raymond isn't it wonderful? Isn't it wonderful? George my husband has been such a drunkard and a gambler and a wicked man for so long. Three weeks ago he got saved and home's been like heaven. And he's in heaven. And then she said I don't know how I'll raise the children. It was a period of depression. The cotton gins were closed down. There was no work anywhere. She lived in a tiny home. And he got a poor wage in a coal mine. She said you know that night when you dealt with me and I got mad and said I'll go to hell before I'll go to my neighbors and say I'm sorry. I'm glad, I'm glad, I'm glad that God was patient and had mercy. And you see because I obeyed him my husband got saved. And if he hadn't have got saved there'd never be a sunshiny day anymore. I'd never laugh from here to eternity and afterwards I'm sure I would. My husband would be in perdition. I'd be lost. But because I obeyed him you see what happened he had mercy on me. Is there anything more exciting than being able to tell to men and women if they really repent? Because they got to repent of sin. It's not a case of confessing it. People confess sin and go do it again. That's humbug. That's not Christianity. Oh the book's very stern isn't it? It says he that is born of God doth not commit sin. You say what? You mean to say after you're born again you're unable to commit sin? No it's not inability to commit sin it's ability not to commit sin. I've crossed the Atlantic about 20 times on the biggest ocean liners that are all out of commission nearly now. And every time I've crossed I have to do boat drill. I had to put my thing over my head and tie it around my waist and find which lifeboat had my number nine with a green flash on it and that's number nine with a green flash. And and when you stand on the deck somebody usually says what's this for? Well you know what it's for. When the boat goes down? No if the boat goes down. The lady said a while ago you know my favorite scripture is when we sin we have an advocate with the Father. Oh I didn't know that was in the Bible. A preacher and you didn't know that was in the Bible? I said no. Would you show it to me? Yeah I find it it's in John 1 John 1 and she looked and I said read it. And so she read it. If we sin. What did you say? I read the scripture when we sin. I said read it read it in English. If we. Hmm I always thought that said when we sin. No no no no. It says if we sin the normal Christian life is not sinning or repenting it's victorious Christian life. And if we sin. As I said last night here's a little girl with a pretty dress on. She falls down and comes in and apologizes to mother. Her mother says well all right darling don't cry and gives her a kiss and says no everything's all right. Her mother has forgiven her. She's justified before her mother. Everything's straight. There's no rebellion between either of them. Does that take the stain out of the dress? My boy kicked the football through the window one day and came in in tears. Said he was sorry. All right. He went outside and I heard the other boys saying well what did daddy say? He said well that's all right now don't don't cry. You said you're sorry and I uh I forgive you. I forgiven him. He rubbed his little eyes and he looked up and he kissed me and I kissed him. And the relationship was restored. Did that put a new window in the house? Who paid for the window? I paid for the window. When you make a quick drop at your bedside and say Lord I'm sorry. Who pays for the broken window? We crucify him afresh. We hurt Jesus Christ afresh. He that is born of God doth not habitually sin. He has victory over sin. This is the difference again between Christianity and other religions. Not no other religion has a message like this. You see we're so used to such a sinning, repenting cycle that it sounds almost as some of you you're you're feeling real bad right here and say well our pastor never preaches this. Well will you ask him to read the bible and preach the bible? Not when we sin but if we sin. By the same token it does say if we fast. It says when you fast don't appear to men to do this. You see we switch them over if you fast and when we sin but a scripture is when we fast and if we sin. David comes and he says I need I need this whole record of my isn't that wonderful? You never need to look on any man however desperate he is and I've been in some of the worst places in the world nearly. I went to what was it used to be and is the Alcatraz of South America and I preached there in a devil's colony to the most fierce horrible men I've ever looked at. I cringed when I went in. I felt happy I got two guards to guard me and I preached them for about an hour and there are no fences around that prison and there are no no big railings or anything and the water is beautiful and they even let some of the men fish there and nobody's ever made it off that rock off the coast of South America. Why? Because it's so infested with sharks that every guy that ever made it it landed up like Jonah. He didn't intend to but he did. Isn't it good to go to men with a criminal record like that? Isn't it good to people who are stuffy and arrogant and say well of course I never did anything wrong and remind them again that dear friend the sin of Adam was not adultery or drunkenness or thieving. The sin of Adam was I run my life and let not let God run it. And people are not prodigals or rebels. Our brother said tonight now truly that Mr. Finney says that until you deal with a man's selfishness you haven't dealt with him at all. We want our rotten sins forgiven. We want the record to be done away with and in the mercy of God he'll do that. When somebody says to you you say to somebody are you saved? They say well I don't know I've done the church all my life I don't know if I look if I were carrying a hundred pounds on my back walking down the street and somebody lifted it off my back do you think I'd know when it went? And isn't sin a burden? If I had a chain around my wrist and that chain was riveted into the wall and there's some big old rascal there with a club and even if I snatched my arm free as soon as I got free he clobbered me like that and broke my neck and broke my legs and it was a dark room and I was terrified and somebody came in and punched that man knocked him out and pulled the thing out of the wall and snapped the fetch off my wrist and took me into daylight. Do you think I'd come and know if I'd come out of a prison that was as black as night and taken into sunshine and I had no fetches on me would I know? Well isn't that exactly what it means when the condemnation is gone? When we've been set free from the awfulness the record even of our sins? If you don't know whether you're saved or not well I'll tell you one thing you're surely not because the spirit bears witness when we're saved. Wesley preached on the witness of the spirit more than any other sermon that he ever preached and I'm glad it's not a no-so you know I guess this but we know in whom we have believed and the spirit bears witness and so he prays here that God will in mercy that's the only reason we're in America tonight if we weren't we'd be roasting like Sodom and Gomorrah because England and America are the modern Sodom and Gomorrah and the only reason we're not burning tonight is that God is merciful with all our sin and our iniquity. Then he prays the prayer here on the backslider. Restore unto me the joy of thyself that the bones which that did you ever break a bone? 1951 I was asleep I'd written an article for Moody Monthly and worked on it till two o'clock in the morning half past two exactly and I got into bed in that hotel in Chicago and at three o'clock I heard some rude person yelling fire fire and I thought well good night I've only been in bed half an hour looked at my watch can't we sleep and I heard it was fire fire well of course it won't be the hotel I'm in I mean it's very obvious if I die the whole Christian system would have to close down I mean I I mean I'm so important I mean the Lord would never let the hotel catch fire that I may never feel that you know it will never happen to me. I heard somebody saying fire danger got out of bed and looked opened the door and there the corridor was two-thirds full of smoke and I could smell the thing and I went to my prayer partner I never took a song leader around me I take a prayer partner usually and and I wakened him well anyhow I jumped out of that high three and a half story window onto a sidewalk and landed on my feet and I brought both my feet my left leg was hanging in three parts and my back was broke me in three sections and I was in quite a mess I broke seven bones that's the perfect number I didn't go beyond that but and there I was lying in the street in the morning at three o'clock my man came around the corner he said what are you doing I was tempted to say playing tennis what do you think I'm doing and he said very compassionately but you can't stay here you'll get hurt something could come around the corner you'll get hurt I said listen I'm hurt my back's broke your back my legs how do you know I tried to get up I can't move oh he said I wouldn't like to see a firetruck might come around the corner or something and man you just go out like that and you know without saying another word he put his hands under my legs under my back and he picked me up and for some unreasonable reason he put me in about 18 inches of snow I guess he thought it was soft and he laid me in that snow and I began to shake all over I thought well the devil killed couldn't kill me by fire so they're going to freeze me to death that's the only thing that is with it you know but you know immediately that man put his hand under my legs and under my back those bones all screamed you know just just like you put two wires together and they spark and I felt everything and I'd always been told to be British you know like a good old bulldog so I bit my teeth you know I put my and I bit a lump out of the inside of my mouth not very sensible but I did it anyhow but you know the bones the bones David didn't have a broken bone in his body the most painful thing you'll ever have is not cancer or mental derangement the most painful thing is to have had a living relationship with God and it breaks and you can go to a thousand fountains and find no place to solace that thing in there you can try to find the answering good works or selling your home and giving it to missions or doing some other thing but if that relationship is broken and David says come and restore the bones which thou hast broken that they may rejoice he lost his song restore unto me the joy there's no substitute in the world like the joy of the father joy of the lord the fruit of the spirit is first love and joy with joy shall he draw waters that they may have my joy Jesus said he never told a joke in his life he prays that they may have his joy and the very time he prayed he was on the cross to be nailed and spiked through there and through his feet any joy in there what was his joy all people say his joy was he's going to redeem us i don't believe that his joy was he was going to defeat the devil i don't believe that i believe the supreme joy of the lord Jesus Christ was this that he did the will of his father every inch of the way right from the womb to the tomb why don't you find joy in commanding your armies why don't you find joy in saying well there's only one true religion in the world the children of israel are the greatest people and i'm the head of the israelites and i am the greatest person but it all crumbles it withers the songbird has died inside restore unto me the joy i met my darling wife in a crusade we conducted in 1937 outside of chicago pardon me outside of manchester england one night when i preached a woman came down the aisle she was the ugliest thing this side of eternity i've seen some ugly women she was so wrinkled she made a prune look like a peach she'd hook nose and she was dressed in black and she knelt at that altar and sobbed we prayed with other people and i came to this woman and i said hello she said my name's mrs shepherd i said all right mrs shepherd i'm 73 years of age and she turned those horrible eyes and that and without being facetious she certainly looked like a witch you see she'd had no joy for 40 years she'd been shrinking for 40 years and she looked me straight in the eye and she said mr ravenhill god walked out on me 40 years ago he's never spoken to me for 40 years i've sat under the ministry of william boo the founder of the salvation army and heard him thunder hellfire i've seen people going tears and i thought they're like a sphinx never shed a tear never moved me i heard dl mood it never moved me i heard alexandre never moved me but tonight while you're preaching strangely enough something moved oh i felt so excited i could even respond she said you see i used to be an officer in the salvation army with another lady officer they used to put two men in one corps as they call it and our churches you'd say and two in another men in another and she said we got on well together and then we got jealous this girl got more popular than i and and before long we got arguing and one night i chose the hymns she said not those hymns these hymns and she sang her hymns and i went home that night before i left the office i said to her listen i'm through with you i'm through with the army and i'm through with god she said i went home and i took off my straw hat and i tore it up and put it on the fire we have open fires in the houses in england i took off my tunic as she said and with the scissors i ripped it up and i put it on the fire and then i slipped off my skirt and i tore it up and i burned it kept stirring the fire but and then i took my bible and i tore it handful of pages at a time goodbye god goodbye church is that your christianity and she said for 40 years i've lived in misery i've rebelled against god i've had no friends god didn't talk i didn't talk he didn't want me i didn't want him and yet tonight somehow something came seeping into my heart and it was just just just like a little crevice in a black dungeon we've had the tiniest little voice coming and saying i restore the joy will he do it mr rave now i began to quote scriptures you know he restored unto you the joy of his salvation he restored the years the canker worm and the palmer worm and the caterpillar of eating he restored it you know when that woman got up from that altar honestly she looked as though she'd shed 20 years it was as though an angel had been working doing a bit of work on a lot of the creases had gone and the smile came back and she became a benefactor to that church not that that worried me too much it's easy to insult the holy ghost you don't have to be 30 years of age i preached in the big alliance church in toledo a few years ago gorgeous girl came to the altar with many others she'd big golden braids down the front and we prayed with people till 11 o'clock that night somebody came and said would you help this girl and i went i said hello she said hello i said what's your problem she said i'm a backslider i've lost the joy of his salvation god's word isn't sweet anymore it's like a mouthful of sand prayer isn't very real oh i i put on a show i sing in the choir i have a class in sunday school i collect as much permissions as anybody else but it's all a facade you know inwardly i lost that joy 18 months ago lost my peace lost my relationship lost just everything's been dark well how come i went into a store down the street there was a swimsuit on a a dummy there and i thought i oh i'd look great in that and i went in another day and looked at it and the third day i went in it was nicely parceled up on the edge of the counter and there was nobody looking you know she looked that way and she looked that way and she took a good look that way and she took a good look that way but she forgot to look that way and she said i got it and i slipped it in my coat i went home and told my mother mother look what i found she said oh isn't that lovely if it fits you oh it fit all right the old devil had got that measured up a long while before and she said do you know what happened tonight in the middle of the meeting your voice died away and all i could hear i heard it a thousand times swimsuit swimsuit swimsuit swimsuit swimsuit i kept wishing you'd shut up because that's a common habit when i preach but apart from that i i i i just wish you'd shut up swimsuits oh that swimsuit well i said that's the thing obstructing your relationship with god the bible will never be sweet again prayer will never be real you'll have no joy what are you going to do about it well i'll go back and tell them i said fine and you'll tell your mother i won't tell my mother i said good night i gotta don't leave me i said why not you're not going to straighten out she said my mother is the proudest woman in this church there's my mother goes back she's got that big cartwheel hat on so i said to one of the men would you slip up to the lady with a cartwheel hat and ask her to come here and she came down she'd been talking you know happily to some people who came out oh susan's here i wonder why she's here she's the sweetest girl in the church she holds records for collecting money and she has things in the choir she's in the youth and she's this and that and the other you know she's a lovely girl she must have misunderstood what you said susan's a lovely girl i said susan's a thief oh what i said susan's a thief she just told me that she stole that stole what she stole that swimsuit that you said that she said she found i said now look you've been a sinner god forgave you your daughter says she's sorry forgive her give her a kiss put your arm around and let's get it straightened out and i'll give you a couple of dollars towards paying for the swimsuit and i'm sure the pastor will if you need uh some help and the girl jumped up and you should have seen her she ran down that church excited and she said to the pastor pastor my joy has come back i've been cheating sitting in the choir and i've been doing other things but i've got my joy back again i put my arm in my my coat to go out in the snow and somebody said there's a lady at the altar and i looked there's a lady with a big cartwheel hat and i said was something wrong and i went back i said excuse me your daughter's at the back of the church and she's rejoicing she said i'm not i said why now she wasn't at the altar when her daughter talked to me did not she said in the middle of the service a voice said to me sewing machine sewing machine sewing machine sewing machine sewing machine sewing machine sewing why that when the spirit of god comes he convicts of sin you know like he's told you tonight that money you cheated on or that that uh degree you didn't get honestly or that's something else that you won't do and he's called you out on it huh oh the book is never wrong it says what you saw you read she said you know what my daughter said 15 months ago she stole that swimsuit and lied about 15 years ago i cheated my mother about a sewing machine what did david do committed sin he'd adultery on this hand and he'd murder on the other he came home to his castle one night there was a body lying there and he said turn that body of oh that's my son who killed my son and his other son said i killed him why because he took my sister in that room and violated my sister that's why what did he do he read what he sold it's inevitable either in this life or the one to come but whatsoever we saw we shall reap and david says when you when you come and help me to to really repent of this and and come with sorrow for my sin and then you restore unto me the joy of that thou desirest not sacrifice why does it say that the only way to god was the way of but he says if i fill the whole valley with bleeding offerings and smoke comes up god will not hear me why because my heart isn't right that's why thou desirest not sacrifice we suggest today you can go to mass or go to some other thing or if you do this well the lord will no siree god says we've got to make a complete confession of sin and whoso confesseth and forsaketh his sin shall be forgiven and then he prays finally here that god will what create in him a clean heart my there's an awful lot of emphasis on something we call charisma these days but not much emphasis on character and i'm not interested in how much charisma you have and how many gifts you have if you've no character and peter did not remember the balls of fire in the upper room or he got some gifts of the spirit because when he testifies in acts 15 eight and nine to the house of cornelius he says justifying them before of course the big shot he says god who north the heart the very thing david's talking about here that god that north the heart bared them witness giving them the holy ghost even as he did to us and of course that's a proof that they spoke in tongues like we did but that isn't what he says that god that north the heart there then witness giving them the holy ghost even as he did unto us purifying our hearts by faith the miracle is not tongues you can be backslidden and speak in tongues there are three kinds of tongues natural tongues you can invent the tongue i used to go and eat in south of england pardon me in in sheffield england and in that home they had two fine daughters and others in that home and there were two girls there and they spoke in a totally unknown tongue that was not given by god and the mother said we don't understand this and one girl said something to the other and she walked to a place and picked something up and brought it to her the other girl said and they understood each other perfectly they'd never learned that language but they cultivated the language it was a product of their own minds there's a gift of tongues which is psychic there's a gift of tongues which is demonic you can go anywhere in the world and there are men who dance around fires naked and and bleeding and doing and committing adultery and they'll stand up and say something in the purest english you ever heard in your life never had a lesson in it there is a genuine gift of tongues and let's be very careful and not be rubbing everybody in the dust but remember again everything that's supernatural is not spiritual there must be another supernatural world of the devil and one of the greatest needs in any church whether you're pentecostals or what we are i'm sure these days is is that wonderful gift the word of god talks about when it talks about discerning people say i have the gift of discernment you don't need to be saved you could be a drunkard and have the gift of discernment but discerning of spirits is something entirely different but here is the greatest thing in the world peter says when we came out of that upper room what happened you don't find peter backsliding anymore you don't find him being terrified a girl puts a finger and says you were with him and he says i'm not and he lied about it and the next minute that same finger now his turn and he said you crucified the lord of glory people say i go to a church where they have miracles were real pentecost tell me a miracle they did after pentecost that they didn't do before pentecost will you tell me one didn't they come back excited to jesus and say oh we had a great time devils were subject to us we did miracles and jesus says the greatest miracle is that your name is written in the book of life they had already received power acts 1 8 says what you shall receive tongues no you shall receive power did jesus say by this shall all men know you my disciples if you speak it no no no not if you speak in tongues by this shall all men know you my disciples if he have loved one toward another and before the day of pentecost they had fantastic healing meetings people were startled by the things that they did but i used to notice when we were in new york i come down the street and there would be a cop with a wide hand up like that and for argument you know there were 16 mac trucks and two or three lincoln continentals and a ford and a rolls royce and 10 something else all lined up and you know when that little fellow put his hand up like that with a white glove they didn't budge why a vulture dragon could have knocked him over and he'd have gone down in the river but that wide hand and the badge what did he have he had power and that was the power the disciples had before pentecost power that was external power over demons but they lack that inward power the other power you shall receive power actually isn't already dealt together different word it's dunamis it means an inward dynamo of energy and power we don't have much reason to have to exercise it anymore do we maybe if you were lashed to a whipping post and beaten up 195 times like paul and some of these others if we had that we might have to discover if we really have that power oh yes oh boy i'm filled with a spirit i've got power you don't have power to get out of bed in the morning and pray so shut up about that maybe and maybe when you've exercised it a bit and demonstrated it power students usually get blamed for doing the silliest things don't they 20 odd years ago they sat on top of a flagpole i don't know why then how many can get in a Volkswagen how many can get in a telephone box how many can do this did you ever hear of one trying to swim up niagara falls students are stupid as you very well know but they'd never try a thing like that niagara falls particularly on the canadian side oh the water looks about four feet deep doesn't it it goes sweeping over that thing and i've often thought of somebody trying to get you couldn't get up in a power boat never mind swim up it you know sometimes i think the church of the living god today is trying to swim up niagara falls we don't have the power because when there's purity there's power he says give me thy holy spirit i reminded you the other day my sweet wife checked on this today in a drawing we saw that a dove a dove is a beautiful bird a dove has a wing on each side you know that i'm sure and it's got nine main feathers on each wing did you know that you'd ever see a dove here a dove saying well it's an energy crisis i'll have to get off the ground with one wing and he starts like this you know where do you think he'd get or you have a personal energy crisis so you get in a rowing boat and you roll with one or what do you do just go round and round but if you use both of the oars you can get somewhere if that dove uses both of its wings it can get somewhere well since there are nine main feathers on this wing and nine on that and there are nine gifts of the spirit and there are nine fruits of the spirit we might as well get them balanced and get somewhere you remember there was a seven branch candlestick you know seven branches and on each branch there were on this side except the middle one on each branch there were three what do you remember three almonds on three branches at this side and three branches at that side which again seems to me to say there are nine there must be three nine if there are three on each of the three branches there are nine almonds on that side and nine almonds on this side nine gifts nine fruits oh yes it's nice to come to meetings like this except every meeting is a tragedy i do not believe there's one meeting where the spirit of god brood that isn't marked as a tragedy in heaven as well as a triumph why because there are three things you can do with the holy spirit three or four one is you can obey him one is you can resist him and you can grieve him and you can quench him that's what the book says and i could tell you one of the greatest baptist preachers some of you preachers if you have those great volumes they're very beautiful the series of sermons from genesis to revelation by alexander mccarran of manchester england he went to the induction of a young baptist minister one night and he said this young man is the greatest preacher we've had in this city and in a few in a year's time he'll pack this empty church to the rafters and he did he's got a long story short that young man started drinking went down to the barn and one night tore off his clerical collar and he went out in the dark a couple of years after he went into a town called stockport to hear william boo the founder of the salvation army preaching and it was a custom then it is now in england that when the altar call is the officers get up and they'll come and touch you say are you right with god are you sure you're right with god are you really born again are you filled with the spirit and here was a man crouching over this heater getting warm he was whiskery and dirty and smelly and uncouth and an officer came down and touched him and said sir and he looked up and the officer the officer said sir i know who you are you're the reverend so and so i used to hear you preach on a sunday night you're the greatest preacher i ever heard yes i heard you got drunk you went into the gutter i want to tell you something god loves you the army loves you come on and he put his arm in his and yanked him out of his seat took him to the mourners bench as they called it then and the man repented of his sin so the story says he got up again they introduced him to william boo william boo said buy him a ticket to london tomorrow put him on the train give him some money for food send a note to the office and tell them this man's going back into training he's going to be a trophy for christ the next time that man came he wasn't preaching in baptist churches he had a salvation army uniform on and again he began to attack the devil and pull his strongholds down and after a couple of years again he backslid and went into drink and into the gutter he went again to hear william boo the same thing happened and somebody went along and tried to yank him out of his seat and instead of that he hoisted some dirty phlegm and he spat in the face of that man and said go to hell there's an institution between manchester and burry b-u-r-y in lancashire england an insane institution and if you turn up the record for about 1912 you could find the name of the reverend so-and-so who died a madman they had to put chains on him they had to tie him up well i'm not going to try and explain it theologically or fill it into your theology i'm telling you what happened that this man who once had the anointing there's nothing more terrible in the world than a man who's anointed with the spirit of god the devil will get at him every conceivable way now david says if you're a sinner you can be forgiven whatever your load of sin is that is if you're willing to confess it and run away and quit it and say i won't do it anymore you can come if you're a backslider and he'll put the cords of the phone says cords that were broken will vibrate once more and finally if you're in that state where you say well my heart is not clean my heart is not pure well he'll purify it blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see god they had no electric lights in the old tabernacle in the old testament they had oil lamps and they were filled with oil no they weren't they were filled with pure oil they had a desk but it was overlaid with gold no it wasn't it was overlaid with pure gold the priest had a garment from his chin down to his feet and it was linen no it wasn't it was pure linen nothing the defiler heaven