In this sermon, the preacher shares a personal story about a man who visited him in a hotel and expressed his inability to sleep due to a phone call. The preacher suggests that this could be a message from God signaling the end and advises the man to find a new place. The man ignores the advice and ends up in jail, far from God. The preacher emphasizes the importance of listening to God's voice and not ignoring his warnings. He also references the story of Abraham and the sacrifice of Isaac, highlighting the faith and obedience required to follow God's instructions. The sermon also mentions the stages of water described in Ezekiel 47, symbolizing different levels of spiritual revival and prayer.

It's a great joy for me to be with you today and tomorrow and until Friday night, God willing. I wonder this morning if you would like to turn with me to two passages in the Old Testament, Ezekiel chapter 47 and the 22nd chapter of the book of Genesis. Ezekiel chapter 47 and then if you turn to Genesis chapter 22, please. Ezekiel chapter 47 and also Genesis chapter 22. Ezekiel 47 verse 1. Afterward he brought me again unto the door of the house, and behold, waters issued out from under the threshold of the house eastward, for the forefront of the house stood toward the east, and the waters came down from the right side of the house at the south side of the altar. Then brought he me out of the way of the gate northward, and he led me about the way without unto the other gate by the way that looketh eastward, and behold, there ran out waters on the right side. And when the man that had the line in his hand went forth eastward, he measured a thousand cubits, and he brought me through the waters. The waters were to the ankles. Again he measured a thousand and brought me through the waters. The waters were to the knees. Again he measured a thousand and brought me through the waters. The waters were to the loins. Afterward he measured a thousand, and it was a river that I could not pass over, for the waters were risen, waters to swim in, a river that could not be passed over. And he said unto me, Son of man, hast thou seen this? Then he brought me and caused me to return to the brink of the river. Now when I had returned, behold, at the bank of the river were very many trees in the one side and in the other. Then said he unto me, These waters issued out toward the east country, and go down into the desert, and go into the sea, which being brought forth into the sea, the waters shall be healed, and it shall come to pass that everything, that liveth, which moveth whithersoever the river shall come, shall live. And there shall be a very great multitude of fish, because these waters shall come thither, for they shall be healed, and everything shall live whither the river cometh. And then if you turn to the 22nd chapter of the book of Genesis, reading again from verse number 1, And it came to pass after these things that God had tempted Abram, and said unto him, Abram. And he said, Behold, here I am. And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Maria, and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains, which I will tell thee of. And Abram rose up early in the morning, and settled his house, and took two of his young men with him. And Isaac his son, and clayed the wood for the burnt offering, and rose up, and went unto the place of which God had told him. Then on the third day, Abram lifted up his eyes, and saw the place afar off. And Abram said unto his young men, Abide ye here with us, and I, the lad, will go yonder and worship, and come again to you. And Abram took the wood for the burnt offering, and laid it upon Isaac his son. And he took the fire in his hands, and a knife, and they went both of them together. And Isaac spoke unto Abram his father, and said, My father. And he said, Here am I, my son. And he said, Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering? And Abram said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering. So they went both of them together. And they came to the place which God had told them of. And Abram built an altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood. And Abram stretched forth his hands, and took the knife to slay his son. And the angel of the Lord called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abram, Abram. And he said, Here am I. And he said, Lay not thy hands upon the lad, neither do thou anything unto him. For now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, from me. And Abram lifted up his eyes and looked. And behold, behind him a ram caught, and a thicket by his horns. And Abram went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son. And Abram called the name of that place, Jehovah, to rye, as it is said to this day, in the mount of the Lord it shall be seen. Just bow for a moment of prayer, shall we? Our Father, we come to Thee this morning in our deep sense of dependence upon Thyself. Lord, our hearts have been melted when we sense the presence of God. And we acknowledge this morning that our hearts long for God to bless us in these days in a way in which we maybe have never experienced Thy blessings before. We ask Thee that Thou would cover us under Thy precious blood. We pray this morning as we ponder upon Thy Word that Thou would give unto us the gracious function of Thy Spirit. Speak to us, Lord, in the closing moments of our very first meeting in this crusade. And come to us these days through the workings of Thy Spirit. For we ask it in Jesus' precious name. Amen. It's very significant when we study the work of the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament that there are only three references to the Holy Spirit as such, but there are many references in the Hebrew because the Hebrew word for the word spirit is the word ruach. Now when we study the work and the ministry of the Spirit of God in the Old Testament, it's very significant to discover that there are a number of symbols of the Spirit of God. The Bible speaks of the Holy Spirit as wind. You remember that God breathed upon Adam and spiritual life came to Adam. And also in the New Testament when the Lord Jesus spoke about the Holy Spirit, you remember that He said to Nicodemus, the wind bloweth, and we do not know where the Spirit, where it's coming from. He said, so is everyone that is born of a spirit. Do you remember Philip the Evangelist in the 8th chapter of the Acts of the Apostles? The Bible said he was taken away. It speaks of the idea, the concept that the spirit caught Philip away. That's very significant that in the Old Testament we can look upon the Holy Spirit as wind. For it's a sign in the Old Testament that a sacrifice was acceptable to God was the fact that the fire of God came. And the fire of God fell upon the altar and it was acceptable in the sight of God. Now you remember in the New Testament at a number of places we see the work of the Spirit as fire. John the Baptist said about Jesus that He will come and He will baptize us with the Holy Spirit and with fire. And on the day of Pentecost you remember when the Spirit of God came, the Bible speaks of tongues of fire which came and distribute themselves upon those early disciples. The prophet Zechariah speaks of a spirit of burning. There is the Spirit of God as wind, the Spirit of God as fire, and there is the Spirit of God as oil. When you study the New Testament it is very significant that it constantly speaks of the unction of the Holy Spirit. And you remember it was said of Jesus that He was anointed to preach the Gospel. And in the Old Testament if you study the law of the leper in the 14th chapter of the book of Leviticus it speaks of the oil upon the thumb and the ear and the great toe of the leper. And we read in Psalm 133 of the oil upon the high priest. So there is this gracious working of the Spirit of God in the symbol of oil. One of the greatest symbols of the work of the Spirit of God is to look upon the Holy Spirit as water. Now you remember the prophet Isaiah said that God said, I will pour water upon him that is thirsty and floods upon the dry ground. Isaiah speaks of the wells of salvation. We read about the latter rain when it refers to the Holy Spirit as water. And twice in the New Testament Jesus referred to the Holy Spirit as water. When He said to the woman at the well that He will give unto her a well of water. And in the 7th chapter of John's Gospel He said, Him that believeth on Him as the Scripture said rivers of living water shall flow from the innermost of His being. And I would say to you this morning that this chapter in Ezekiel 47 is one of those great chapters which speaks to us about the promise of revival. It seems to me that when we study the subject of revivals of religion and revival in the work of God that the Bible speaks of stages in revival. Whenever God sends revival, and when I speak of revival I do not speak about the crusade as this, but I am speaking about the manifestation of God sweeping through the lives of His people through a place, through a country, something which lasts sometimes for weeks and for months and sometimes even for years. But it seems to me that the Bible speaks of stages of the visitation of God's Spirit. Now, Ezekiel chapter 47 gives unto us four stages. The Bible speaks of water to the ankles which we will focus our attention upon this morning. Then the Bible speaks of water to the knees. It seems to me that it speaks of a place of prayer in revival. When we come to that place where we sense the Spirit of God descending upon us and we start to pray the prayers of God's Word, when the psalmist prayed and said, O that thou might revive us again, he sensed the burden of God in the promise of revival. And then the Bible speaks of not only water to the knees, but the Bible speaks of water to the loins. Well, what does that mean? Well, it seems to me that in this concept of revival, it seems to me that it speaks of the stirrings of God. If you study the history of revivals, then you will realize that they came to the place where they prayed for revival. Sometimes for years and months they sought the face of God. And then there are the signs that God is going to work. And it seems to me that these waters to the loins refer to those stirrings of God's Spirit. There is an atmosphere in which people sense that God is going to do something in their midst which they maybe never in their lives experienced before. We speak of the stirrings of God's Spirit. A sense of conviction would come upon people. They sense that God is omnipresent. They sense something of the majesty of God. Something of the omnipotence of God. Something of the revelation of God. And there are these stirrings. Now twice in my ministry did I find myself in the midst of the movement of the Spirit of God. And the second place was in an island of Scotland where they were in the beginnings of these stirrings of the Spirit of God. Twenty-six people were converted. No meetings. They just came under the conviction of sin. And they were on the brink of God breaking through. And the Spirit of God was grieved and it stopped. And then the Bible speaks of rivers to swim in. That moment when the Spirit of God broke into our midst and we sense that this great river of God is set at loose in our midst. Now my brother and sister, may I say to you this morning that when God will be let loose in our midst in this great promise of revival that there is no stream of swimming. We find ourselves being caught up in this mighty movement of His Spirit. Sense the Spirit of God mightily at work. I want us this morning to focus our attention upon what I would call the water to the ankles. And that's the reason why I also read those verses in the 22nd chapter of the book of Genesis. You see, there are 16 names of God in the Old Testament. And when Abram came to that place in Genesis chapter 22 when he said, it really means that he came to the place of God's provision. In the Hebrew it speaks not only of God's material blessing upon him or God's physical protection upon his life, but in the Hebrew text it speaks of the possibility of personal revival. You see, there is no possibility whatsoever that you and I can sit in a service on a Sunday morning like this and say to ourselves, we are involved in this great promise of revival. We want to sense the water to the knees. We want to see something of the greater. Where we enter into this river is water to the ankles. If you study that chapter, there were three places. And the very first place which I want to bring under your attention is that God tried Abram. And the moment when God tried Abram, my brother and sister, Abram came to the place where he said, Here I am. And I would suggest to you this morning that it seems to me this is the great and wonderful river of God. Now, what was the first place? Well, the first place, the Bible says, after these things, God tempt Abram. Now, the Hebrew word in the sense that Abram or the faith of Abram was going to be tried. But you know the most wonderful thing for me is the fact that the very first thing which I want to mention was the voice of God which came to Abram. I wonder this morning, my brother and sister, if you would allow me to ask you this, which is precious to you. You know, the more I realize the tremendous danger that we as God, in so many coming to that place, where we sense something of the precious voice of God. And you know there was a place in the life of Abram where the Bible says, I wonder this morning if I may ask you, is your name known in the presence of God? Can you remember that the Bible speaks of Job and as Satan came to God about Job, God said, Here was a man to hear the voice of God. I just said, Abram. Abram said, Here am I, Lord. My brother and sister, I would say to you this morning, it seems to me that the secret of the movings of God's Spirit and the voice of God where we sense, it's not my part, do I listen to the voice of God? I just closed with the crusade a number of days ago. It was the night of those meetings. God broke into our midst. There was a lady, she... Do you know that voice spoke to... Gentle voice of Jesus. And I wonder this morning... Do you sit here in this very opening these days and... Can you remember the prophet Ezekiel? Ah, he speaks of... My brother and sister, is the voice of God still precious to you? Is that voice of God... Do you know what happens sometimes to us? God wants to... Do you know that very moment, it seems to me, that we stop growing spiritually. What in the Hebrew, that whenever... It seems it's like an arrow... I wonder this Sunday morning... And you say, Gerard, there are things in my life, which somehow no one else knows about. Something which I am doing behind the scenes. Some unequal yoke in business. Some situation, where I am doing something... Is it possible that... I want to sense the stirrings of God's Spirit. I want to sense something of this great, precious voice. When the Greeks came to Philip, and they said, we want to see Jesus. That Philip came to the Lord Jesus and said, the Greeks want to see Thee. And there was a moment that... The Bible says there were some of those... I will send the prophets... But there was to be... My brother and sister, can I ask you this morning... As I ask myself this very same question... Here I am... Maybe it's a situation in which you find yourself. And you say, I don't know how to face this situation. I don't know how I'm going to cross this mountain. I don't know how it is so... Can you open and say, God said to him, Abram. And he said, Here am I. He responded to the voice of God. And you know my brother and sister, what happened? The moment when God's voice came, somehow this man could not get away from it. Do you know what happened? God said to Abram, Abram, I want you to go and suck. It seems to me when God challenges us of revival, and when God brings us to... We never expect... Why do I say that? Well, can you remember Abram? Wasn't it Abram that in his heart said, How is this possible? There was a... He realized that unless God is... Somehow there will not be any future. They sense the sense of need. Where is Abram being chosen of God? When Hebrews 11 said that, A servant receives strength to conceive, see that Hebrew or Greek word do not... Abram, I want you to go and sacrifice Isaac. My brother and sister, you know, it seems to me that when we turn to the... Somehow this knife, this loving voice of... It touched areas of our lives. It touched our future. It touched... Can I ask you this Sunday morning? Do you find yourself in places where you feel uncomfortable? Places where you feel, My testimony has been... He said, Here am I. God said, Go and sacrifice Isaac. How is it possible that God could have done that? Wasn't it the voice of God? The same voice which... Can you see the stars at night? And he said, Yes, Lord, I see... Do you hear the voice saying, Sacrifice Isaac. Sacrifice Isaac. My brother and sister, I want to say to you something this morning. Do you know it seems to me that... Where he started to speak to us in realms beyond human thinking, areas in our lives where logically and reasonable and reason is saying to us, No, this is not... God said, Abram, go and sacrifice Isaac. I wonder this morning if I may ask you, my brother and sister, he said, And Isaac. Isaac, well, it's not sin. And yet it's an area where God is speaking to me. Maybe God is saying to you, Listen, there is a secret prayer life. Do you know I've preached churches through the years? And sometimes in those churches, there would be two old ladies sitting in that church and this brave voice of God would come to him. God said, Isaac, it's the fact that I want you to surrender yourself to Me in such a way that you are going to be the back of prayer. And I wonder this morning in this grassy gospel church, if there is one Christian who would say, Lord, I want to surrender myself to Thee in that way, no one else is going to know what's going on. But there behind the scenes, in the secret corner of my house, I'm going to pour out my heart in the presence of God. God said, Sacrifice. Sacrifice. You know, my brother and sister, sometimes a tremendous sense of fear came upon my heart when we preach about these things. I don't know what God is going to say to us these days. I don't know what God is going to say to you. I don't know what God is going to say to me. I don't know that the course of these meetings, some of us here in a year, or in two years, would find ourselves being thrown out into the mission field. Some of us find ourselves in areas of being involved in God's work in this very same place. And you said, I've never expected it to happen to me. And yet it was the voice of God. The voice of God. God said, Abram, go and offer Isaac. It seems to me when we come to the New Testament that the Isaac is sometimes myself. God is concerned about us, my friend. I sat here this morning, and my heart was just about smashed up when I think again and again of the greatness of the grace of God. Why was it that He visited me? Why was it that He visited you? We sense that we do not, there is no boasting in the presence of God. There's no sense of saying, you know, it's tremendous that I'm doing this and this. It doesn't work like that in a spirit-filled life. We sense our own unworthiness, our brokenness, our sense of dependence upon Him. Yet God says to people like that that I'm coming because I'm using the foolish things of this world. I always wanted to become a missionary in Africa. I think, for one reason, that I knew the African people so well, and they're so precious to me, and there are many days that I just wet my heart out when I think of them. Because millions of them are without the Lord Jesus. God, they never gave me permission. Why? I would have gone on great amongst them because I knew them so well. Do you know what He does? He takes you to places where you are absolutely cast upon Him. Can I ask you this morning, my dear brother and sister, are we at that place this Sunday morning? I don't accept for one moment that you sit in the Sunday morning service and you say to me, Gerhard, everything is fine. I don't accept that. I sense that there is a sense of need in many of our hearts. And God is saying, is it possible, is it possible that you will bring yourself to Me? Is it possible that you will allow Me to come to deal in areas of your life where I could speak to you? God said, Abram, go and sacrifice Isaac. Isaac. I think today one of the greatest problems in the evangelical world is that people have been lifted up above the realm in which God wants them to be. And God said, I give My glory to no man. No man. And I tell you, my dear friends, once we come to that place where there is more emphasis upon a person or a personality upon God, I tell you we are in trouble. Once we come to that place where we say, Lord, in my dependence I come to You. Lord, we are but dust. Is it possible that I can hear something of this precious voice? And He said, go and sacrifice Isaac. Maybe it's your relationship with God, the quiet place where you need to meet with Him every day. My brother and sister, it's not what we do, it's what we are. And we've reached that place where I said, Lord, I've given myself minister a few days ago. You know, I'm sometimes utterly amazed that 40 or 50% of my time in these crusades is sitting down with these men in full time ministry. And they aren't bothered in their hearts. I can't face this. I often say to them, listen, in a crusade, if you do not come to the place in the mornings where you separate yourself to God, I would lose this very same sense of unction. But there was a moment when a sacrifice came. I said, Lord, those hours belong to Thee. He said, I can't do that because I've got my place of work. And we appreciate that and understand it. But, oh my brother, that place of work, is it surrender to God. Can you remember Mary when Jesus came into her little house? So often Mary and Martha. There was the precious ointment. No one else maybe knew about it. She kept it for her wedding day. It was made of a precious type of grass which came from the Himalayas. It took her a whole year of savings to gather up so that she could have it. Jesus walked in. Oh my brother and sister, it spoke to her heart. There was something there. And you know sometimes it seems to me that our conscience is of such that somehow we have become to the place where we say, no, this is not so bad. Do you know what happens when the voice of God comes to us? My friends, sin became sin. We sense that there are things and in the sight of God it's sin. God said, Abraham, sacrifice Isaac. It's the voice. I said, here am I. I couldn't get away from it, you see. I sometimes say to people, you know, when we come to the place of consecration, do you know what you really do? You come to that place in your life where you commit your will to God. I sometimes preach in churches where there is a tremendous emphasis upon the realm of the emotions. And I'm greatly concerned because you need to get through to the realm of the will. And you know, we sit in meetings like this and emotionally that affects us. Our hearts break and we melt it in the presence of God. Intellectually you say in your mind, this is true, this is biblical, this is right. But my friends, it's in the realm of the will. Do you know what happens when God brings us to the place of what I would call the spirit-filled life? Do you know what happens? I commit my will to God. And I say, Lord, in the days to come, Your Spirit is going to be in control of my will. It's not going to be a goal. It will be but a gateway. But now You're going to work out Your will in my heart and in my life. And the moment when I will say, Lord, here am I. God says, Abram, I'm dealing in the realm of the will. Isaac is very precious to You. Isaac is very precious to You. He said, go and sacrifice Isaac. Go and sacrifice him. That was all God said. Oswald Chambers said in one of his books, he said, the voice of God comes to me. And that's it. Not a word more. Jesus stood in the presence of Pilate. And Pilate said, after I was king of the Jews, he said, do you say that out of yourself or did someone else say it to thee? Jesus never said a word again. Do you know this happens to us in the Christian life, my brother and sister, when we face the challenge of revival. The moment when it came, the voice came. God said, this is the area of your life. This is the place which I want you to surrender. This is the circumstances which I want you to give over to God. I was speaking to a friend of mine years ago in South Africa. He was involved in business. And he said to me, God spoke to him at a convention about this very same thing. He said, when the Lord spoke to me, he said, there was something which I had in my house, which I took from my place of work about, I think he said about 20 years ago. And he said, God spoke to me about it. God said, that's wrong. He said, I went back the next morning to this business. He said, I went into the manager's office and I said to him, sir, I took this and it didn't belong to me. He said, it's 20 years ago. He said, but I brought this thing. I think he said it was a hammer or something like that. And he gave it to the man. And the man said, I appreciate your honesty. And he said, I went back into my study, into my office and I sat down. And he said, about 30 minutes after I sat down, the voice came again. God said to me, Willie, there's something else there. Something else there. And he said, I sat there and I said, Lord, how can I go to this man? I've been there about half an hour ago. God said, you better go. You've promised to obey me. You've heard my voice. He said, here I am. He said, I got up and I walked to the office. And I walk into the office of this man. And I said to him, sir, I'm sorry. He said, I was here a little while ago. I brought something back which I took. He said, as I sat in my office, he said, the same voice came to me and said, what about something else which you took? Something else. And he said, God said to me, come. And you know the man, he said, the man looked at me in my office and he broke down. He said, why are you doing this? And he said, there God gave me an opportunity to witness to him. My brother and sister, I want to ask you a question this morning. I do not know you. We are strangers in one sense, one to another. Is it maybe that we are in circumstances where we don't want other people to see us? And you say, I'm trying to witness it. You're making a mess of it because you are outside of God's will. And you know, we move amongst people. They watch us all the time. I'm only for a number of weeks in this country. Twice it has happened the last few weeks that I find myself at a place just walking about and someone comes to me and says, I was in a meeting where you preached last year. And I said, what does these people think? They watch you all the time. I was preaching in a place in South Africa a number of years ago, this Sunday, and the Monday morning I had to leave and I was in a desperate hurry to get away to another place. And I think about 50 miles away there was a little town and I stopped there and I ran into the chemist. And I just jumped out of the car and ran into the chemist. And as I came running into this chemist I said to the woman, I said, I'm sorry, I'm in a desperate hurry. I said, I'm just looking for this and this and this, please, if you don't mind. She looked at me, she said, did you preach in that church yesterday morning? Boy, I tell you. I said, yes, I did. She said, I was there and I was blessed. And I said, I'm sorry that I came running in like this. People watch us, you see. Watch us. God said, Abram, go and sacrifice Isaac. My brother and sister, is there an area in your life where you've lost the freshness of the presence of God? It's not what you experience, it's what you are. When last were you broken at His feet? Broken. Smashed up. I said, I've heard this voice. I've heard Jesus saying, come. God spoke to me. And He responded. And for three days, they were walking, walking, walking. They only heard the voice, a few words. And now He was obeying the voice. Not a word more. Not a word of encouragement on His way to the mount. Just Him and Isaac and two servants. They reckon, some of the commentators reckon, that one of those servants was probably Eliezer, the man who went to fetch a wife for Isaac in the 24th chapter of the book of Genesis. But they came to the place where they left them. And Isaac and his father, they went up to worship. You know, we talk about worship in the New Testament sense of the word. And we think of the wonder of worship. You know what this worship meant? It meant sacrifice. It meant death. Do you know what's the most fascinating thing? And I need to close because my time has gone. You know what's the most fascinating thing? As they were walking, as they were walking, there was a moment when a little voice came. And the voice said, My father, my father. And Abram responded. And he said, Here am I, my son. That's the second place where he responded. He responded when the voice of God came, Here am I. Now he faced his son. And he said, My father, here am I, my son. My father, here is the wood. Here is the knife. Here is the fire. Here is everything. He said, But my father, where is the lamb for a sacrifice? I wonder if you are in a situation like that this morning. You've come to a dead end. Are you serving God? Wonderful to serve. It's a sense of joy. A lot of sense of organization about our lives. But you've come to a dead end. And you've heard this voice. My father, here am I, my son. My father, here is the fire, the wood, everything. The Hebrew is precious. That concept of the wood, it speaks of just enough wood for a burnt offering. Just enough. Carry that. As they went up, here is everything, my father. Where is the lamb? Ha! It was Isaac, you see. Oh, we would say this morning, Listen, wasn't it enough that the piercing voice of God came to Abram? Wasn't that enough? Wasn't it enough that he cut into the being of Abram and God said, Sacrifice Isaac. Wasn't it enough that those three days that he walked and he says, It's Isaac. He said, Here this place came. God said, Isaac said, My father. He said, Here am I, my son. Father, we've got everything. Father, where is the lamb? Isaac was the lamb. You know, my dear brother and sister, we are dealing with a promise of revival. I want to say to you this morning, when God starts to dig into our lives, into areas of our lives, there's a moment when we hear the voice, but you know, there's a moment when we face Isaac. That's reality. That's the practical reality. And when we face Isaac, I was telling to Don Heissert and his father this day, last week when we were on the truck one day, of a man who got saved in South Africa in some of the meetings. We went into a town and there was desperate persecution. In fact, the minister announced against us and we just had it from all directions. We got a place in the hotel to stay. We phoned the man in the hotel. Our only contact in the hotel was the man in the hotel who was as a child in children's meetings which we conducted in the mission in South Africa. And he gave us, when we arrived, we went through, got the place to preach, came back. When we arrived in the hotel, he said to us, Men, I don't think you need to be here. He said, The town is all up against you. He said, The ministry is spiritually against you. He said, You're wasting your time. And I said, Sir, I said, Just give us a room to pray for the afternoon if you don't mind. They gave us a room because we asked him if we could stay in the hotel when we went through the town on our way to the other place. And God said, Stay. And I said to the fellows, I said, Boy, I don't know what's going to happen but the Lord wants us to stay. I went to this fellow in the hotel. He said to me, He said, You can stay. I said, We want to stay, sir. He said, You can stay. He said, But you're not going to speak to me and my wife about religion. And there was this fierce opposition. Last morning, we didn't have money to pay. We had to trust God. The first night, no one came to the meetings. We were in a little library hall. And there were a few people in the library and there was a hole through a little wooden door. And we preached. We had a whole meeting, even myself. We sang. He preached. And I prayed so that we could preach the gospel through that little hole and the people heard the gospel. I picked up the outcast of the town, the alcoholics, every night so that we could have a few in the meeting. The last morning came. And this fellow was a very rough diamond to work with me. And I sent him to ask a woman what it would cost us. And we were not allowed to speak to this man and his wife. And he went to her and he sat down in the office with this very wealthy woman and he said to her, he said, Madam, before I ask what it would cost us to stay, when do you get time for God? I thought, My word! You know, here we are, I don't even have money to pay. And he's speaking to this woman. And he just put her on the spot. She said, In this work, you don't get time for God. He said, Madam, sometimes we must ask God to allow something to happen in our lives so that it could bring us to God. Do you know what happened? We left the place. It was the most awesome persecution. We left the place. Two weeks after that, there was a little boy of eight years old. He came out, walked out of the hotel in the front room in the street. And as he came, a car came. He was killed instantly. And the mother ran out to the body of the little boy. And when she ran out, a voice said to her, Sometimes God allows things to happen to bring you to God. Do you know what happened? God saved her and her husband. They asked me to have a meeting a few weeks after that in their house. All the Christians in the town came who were too afraid to come to our meetings because of the minister. And the whole house was full. Do you know what happened? One night, a few months after that, the telephone rang for this man in the hotel. A woman screamed at him. She said, Come and see my husband. He's in a drunken state. She said, Come and see my husband. And you know, I preached at a convention a number of miles away. The Sunday afternoon, this hotel, this fellow and his wife from the hotel came. They visited me. They came. He said, Gerard, I want to see you. And we walked. And he said, Gerard, he said, I'm in a hotel. He said, I'm selling these things to these people. He said, This phone call, he said, I can't sleep. He said, What must I do? I said, Brother, it could be the voice of God saying to you, This is the end. You must get some other place. Do you know what happened? Do you know what happened? He got stuck. Do you know where he is today? He's sitting in jail, miles from God. The voice of God came. All my friends, we know that. We sense that. God don't bless the round corners, I tell you. When we come to this place and we said, Lord, where is the lamb? Do you know what Abraham did? He spoke a word in faith. He said, My son, God shall provide a lamb. Come. Are you there this morning? He said, Lord, I've come to a dead end. I've stopped wrestling. I've come to the place where I said, I want to hear your voice. He said, God shall provide. Maybe someone in the family and he or she is miles away from God. He said, There's no way out. Ah, you're a mischurch. You are without a pastor. What will happen to us? When you come to that place where you said, God shall provide. My friend says, when we come to the end of ourselves, that's when God steps in. That's when God takes over. God shall provide. Put Isaac on the altar and he was willing to slay his own son because he believed God could raise him from the dead. And just before the knife came, the voice came, Abram, Abram, Abram. There are ten people in the scriptures whose names have been mentioned twice. Abram was the first one. Four in the Old Testament, six in the New Testament. Abram was the first one to whom God said, Abram, Abram. He said, Here am I. God said, Abram, that's enough. Abram, you've passed the test. Passed the test. Now I know. Now, my brother and sister, sometimes God needs to hurt so that He can use us. He needs to break us so that He can use us. And I wonder this Sunday morning if you would say, I give over. You know the area. I give over. I surrender. I want You to have Your way. Let's bow in prayer, shall we? Our Father, we thank You this morning for the preciousness of God's Word. Lord, we thank You that Thy presence is very precious to us. We thank You that Thou didst see this morning the brokenness of our hearts in this very first meeting. And we thank You for Thy voice which speaks to us about things in our lives. And God wants us to do something about it. Now, Lord, Thou art not the God of confusion, but Thou dost speak specifically to us. And we pray this Sunday morning that Thy Spirit will have its way in our hearts and in our lives. For Jesus' sake. Amen. Our closing hymn is theme number 189. O now I see the crimson way, the fountain deep and wide. Jesus, my Lord, mighty to save, points to His wounded side. We sing the first and the third and the last verse. The third verse says, I rise to walk in heaven so light about the world of sin, of hearts made pure and garments white, and Christ enthroned with Him. Now, there is an altar in this church and if you want to come and see, there is a beautiful spirit of worship. And people just came and they saw God. Maybe God has spoken to you about it.