In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of recognizing the sin of Adam and the power of Jesus' blood. He explains that through the incorruptible blood of Jesus, believers are born again and receive a new heart. The preacher encourages listeners to submit to God's discipline and allow His Word to water the seed of faith in their hearts. By being rooted and grounded in love, believers can experience the fullness of God and comprehend the depth of His love. The sermon also touches on the concept of finding rest in Jesus and the need for preparation in order to fulfill God's intentions.

Let's give George a good welcome. Thanks. Thank you Brother Ken. It's good to be here, able to share with God's people. I find it difficult to minister if people aren't hungry and thirsty. But I believe, I recognize among many of God's people today, a new hunger, a new thirst, a new sort of a restlessness. And I find that encouraging. You see, encouraging to be restless when God wants us to have rest. But the thing is, if we do not come into God's rest and we find rest somewhere else, that should be discouraging. God has a rest for His people. But we try to find that rest in so many other things, happenings, church activities, religious works, ministries, all these things which God uses, but it's not to be our place of rest. I think it was Augustine that said that man was made to find his home in God and man can never have rest until he finds that home in God, something like that. And that is true. But I always like to point out, as I meditated on that statement one time, man was made to find his home in God, but God made man that God might find His home in man. And God cannot find rest until He finds His rest in you and I. Now that's a tremendous thing, but God cannot rest until He finds His home in the man whom He created in His image. And let's not, you know, I know we sometimes call the place we gather the house of God, but it's not. We're the house of God. We're God's house. And it's so easy to get caught up with the paraphernalia of religion and forget what it's all about. Now God ordained that Israel would build God a home, a house, but even as He did, when Solomon dedicated that house, Solomon knew in his heart it wasn't God's house, even when he dedicated it. God, He says, the heaven is thy throne and the earth is thy footstool. Where is the place that you will build unto me? Hath not my hand made all these things? And He said, but to this man will I look, even to him who is poor and of a contrite spirit and that trembleth at my word. God says, you know, you think if heaven is my throne and earth is my footstool, are you going to build me a habitation? But He said, I'm looking for this man. I'm going to look for this man, him who is poor and of a contrite spirit that trembleth at my word. He said, if I were hungry, I wouldn't ask you. You bring me sacrifices, you bring your lambs and your goats, and God ordained that. Not because He was hungry, not because He needed those things, but He's providing it as a means of grace for His people. God is saying in that sacrifice, well, that repentant, penitent sinner comes with a sacrifice. He's saying, God, you should slay me, I deserve this judgment, but you provided this goat, this lamb, this turtle dove to take my place as a means of grace. But the means of grace we pervert so often to be some work of our hands that we're giving God as if God needed it. God said, if I was hungry, I wouldn't ask you. The cattle in a thousand hills are mine. God doesn't need anything we can give Him, yet He needs us. Not for what we can give Him, but to provide for Him a habitation. David said, I will not go up to my bed, I will not have rest, I will not find rest, until I prepare a habitation for the Most High God. Then he learned through experience that the only habitation God desired was David himself. He wanted to build God a house, Nathan said, go ahead, build a house, you know, like we always do when somebody suggests something good, well, yeah, that's a good idea, go ahead. But Nathan was a true man of God, a true prophet, and God spoke to him, and He says, go and tell David, no, don't build me a house. Tell David, I'm going to build him a house. Jesus said, I will build my church. Don't you and I go about trying to build God's church. Jesus says, I'll build my church. What's our part? Work together with Him. Don't work for God. Don't get all involved working for God. Paul says, we are laborers together with God. What's the difference? Well, you get in the yoke of Christ, that makes the difference. He knows what He's doing. He knows what the Father wants Him to do. We don't have to know. You get in His yoke, and then you just, when He starts to move along, well, you better move along with Him. When He puts in His heels and comes to a stop, you better stop. And we don't irk under it. We don't, we shouldn't. Thank you, Lord. Thank you for showing us when to stop, when to go, when to move, when to stay quiet. And Jesus says, that's the way of rest. That's how to find rest. I know there's a lot of sinners out there in a state of unrest, but there's a lot of Christians in a state of unrest. Jesus says, come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me. I understand that learns means learn from me. Being in His yoke, you'll learn from Him. And ye shall find rest unto your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. So there is a rest for the people of God. Lord willing, we'll get a little more into that later. Briefly this morning, we talked about the wilderness way, a way in which God leads His people. Not as an ultimate, not to leave us there, but it's needful that we go through the wilderness, because it's in this time that God would discipline us, train us, educate us, cause us to learn obedience, cause us to know His voice, cause us to discover ourselves for what we are. And in discovering ourselves as God sees us, then we find God and discover what He would make out of us. And so we mentioned how one of the first places they came to on their wilderness way, after their deliverance from the land of Egypt, when they'd gone three days journey in the wilderness and found no water, and finally found a pool of water, and they stooped down to drink it, it was bitter and they couldn't drink it. And the children of Israel never did come to really know God's heart. They always thought it was a big meanie. You say you're going to bring us to Canaan, you bring us to bitter waters. And God was bringing them to Canaan, but God must have a prepared people for a prepared place. And Canaan is a prepared place, prepared by God. We talk about coming into the fullness of the Spirit, and coming into all that God has for us. We've got to be prepared for that. Because it's dwelling in God. It's dwelling in the heart of God. It's abiding in union with the vine. So God is preparing a people for that prepared place. We also mentioned this morning that the baptism of the Holy Spirit was not the ultimate. It's right at the beginning of our Christian experience. Just a beginner. Firstfruits of the Spirit. We illustrated it by the way the cloud baptized the children of Israel. Paul calls it a baptism. When that cloud moved from the back of the host of Israel, moved to the front and became a pillar, separating them from the host of Egypt, they were baptized in the cloud. And that was the beginning of their journey. And so Paul said, for over brethren I would not that you should be ignorant, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and were all baptized unto Moses, in the cloud and in the sea. And did all eat the same spiritual food. Did all drink the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ. Howbeit, with the most of them God was not well pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness. And that's such an awesome thing. Here was a people redeemed out of Egypt by the blood of the Passover lamb. They ate of the Passover lamb. They fled Egypt. God opened up the Red Sea and brought them across. And God was leading them to Canaan, but not knowing God, not understanding His ways, never learning obedience by the things that God would cause them to suffer. They ended up with their bones lying in the wilderness. They went nowhere. A redeemed people, but they didn't go anywhere. God didn't really save you to take you to heaven, because it's very simple for God to take you to heaven right now if He wanted to. But He saved us to come to know God in this life, and in the next, and throughout eternity, yes. But He redeemed us to bring us out of our old nature and to bring us into a new nature, to take us out of the old Adam and bring us into a new, take us out of the old creation and bring us into a new creation life, to transform us, to change us from one degree of glory to another, until we come to that perfect man that Paul speaks about right into the Ephesians. And that's why he set ministry in the church. What's the ministry in the church for? Why did God set in the church apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers? It's for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying, the building up of the body of Christ, till we all come unto the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. That's what ministry's in the church for. And if ministry doesn't believe that, won't accept it, won't pursue it, won't seek God until they can minister Christ to people, till the people can come to that, they're failing in their ministry. I don't care what large temples they can build, what great TV programs they can go over, and what mighty works they might pursue in the earth. God doesn't need any of it. All he needs is people in whom he can dwell, in whom he can live, in whom he can move and have his being. For that's why he created man, that he might have a habitation for himself. Can you conceive of that? You and I being a habitation of the Most High God? That's what he wants. Couldn't find it in the heavens. And we get literally, we just become completely baffled as we consider man's exploration of the heavens and how vast it is, beyond our thinking, beyond comprehension. And God couldn't find any place there to dwell. And the only place he could find to dwell was in the man he made in his image. I know Adam lost it. He forfeited, but God knew all about it. For God planned that in the fullness of redemption he would bring forth that man. You say, he's done it. I know he did it in the Lord Jesus Christ. But as we have borne the image of the earthly, as is the earthly, such are they also that are earthly. As is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. And if we have borne the image of the earthly, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. How do you bear the image of the earthly? How do you do it? Well, you're just born a human being. Because you're born into Adam, you bear his image, and you grow up and grow up and grow up into the Adamic nature. Until that Adamic nature becomes dominant in your life, and you're a man, you're a woman. You're born in Adam and you grow in Adam until you come to that maturity in Adam. How are you born into Christ? By regeneration, not by natural generation. By spiritual generation. How do you grow up into maturity in Christ? By growing in Christ. Until we come, as Paul said, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. Not by dying and going to heaven, but by allowing the Word of God to be planted in your heart and coming forth, bringing forth fruit for His glory. Isn't that the most tremendous thing in the New Covenant? That our Lord Jesus Christ planted the seed, the incorruptible seed of His own life in our hearts. His intention being that that seed would bring forth after its kind. You say, that's too much for us, that's perfection, and we can't have perfection until we die. Are you going to tell me that Adam's sin that brings us into death is going to bring us into perfection? Adam's sin that brought us into death, that's going to bring us to perfection? Nonsense! The death of Christ does that. And the life that He puts in our heart and the Holy Spirit who nurtures that life is that which God has determined to bring us unto the measure of the stature of Christ. Are you going to give more glory to Adam's sin than to the blood of Jesus? Why do you die? Because of Adam's sin. And that brings you to perfection? You're giving more credit to the sin of Adam than you are to the blood of Jesus! That incorruptible blood by which we're born again, not of flesh nor the will of man, but of God, He's put that seed in your heart and mine. He sends forth the Word, He sends forth ministry to water that seed that as we submit to the discipline of God and the way in which He would lead us, He sends forth ministry into the Word with a quickening Word to water that seed that it might spring up and grow and grow and grow, being rooted and grounded in love, says Paul, that we may be able to apprehend with all saints what is the length and the breadth and the height and the depth, and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge that we might be filled unto all the fullness of God. I didn't say it. I repeated what God said by the same spirit in which He wrote it. You might know the length, the breadth, the height, the depth of God's love that we might be filled unto all the fullness of God. Oh, how little we see of divine truth. We don't see anything of divine truth except God by His Holy Spirit reveal it to us. Let's understand that. You who study the Word in particular, young people studying the Word, read it, meditate upon it, analyze it, memorize it, but know this, you will not see living truth until God the Holy Spirit who wrote it here writes it on your heart and on your mind. For that's why He came, to take the things of Christ and make them known to us. Jesus said just before He went away, read John 14, John 15, John 16, 17, passages which have become more and more meaningful to me in the last year or two. And how can you read those passages without recognizing that when Jesus went away, He was sending the Holy Ghost to abide in His temple, to take His place in His absence and to carry on the work which Jesus started. You say, didn't Jesus finish the work? He finished the work that the Father gave Him to do on earth, but He ascended into the heavens to continue in a better ministry. Paul tells us that He has entered into a better ministry in the heavens, a ministry that God's people have not somehow been able to recognize. He's just sort of filling in time. He'll come back someday. He's filling in time now. Sort of that concept. Instead of realizing that the Lord Jesus, when He rose from the dead, God had a plan whereby that life that He was, that life that He lived, would be reproduced in the earth, manifold. And instead of leaving Jesus here, it wasn't necessary. He took Him to the heavens that from the heavens He might mediate this covenant, that He might be the one mediator between God and man, who would take from the heart of the Father that which the Father desired to dispense unto His church. And Jesus would take that and send it into the earth. But who would receive it in the earth? The Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit was to abide in the earth and Jesus did. He proceedeth from the Father and from the Son. And He's here in the earth to be here in Jesus' stead. That what Jesus was when He was here, so the Holy Spirit would be in the midst of His people. Oh, I wish the church of Jesus Christ would come to recognize that. You know very well, if the Lord Jesus walked in that door and you knew it was Him, and you were sure that was Him, you know very well what an awesomeness would come over us. Jesus is here. Let's hear what He has to say. But you know that the Holy Spirit desires to take up His residence in His church in such a way that He will be recognized as the Lord in our midst. And that when we assemble together, we will assemble with the same awareness, the same consciousness, the same awesomeness as ever to the Lord Jesus. But because we don't see Him and are not sensitive to His presence, it's so easy just to carry on our own way, do our own thing, arrange our own programs, thinking that the Holy Spirit just came down to bless His people. The time is at hand when the people of God, when the ministry of God are no longer going to be able to use the Holy Spirit. The time is at hand when the Heavenly Father is requiring that the Holy Spirit have His Lordship in the midst of His people. For He came to take the place of Jesus, to continue the work that Jesus started, to hear what the Son would say in the heavens and to tell His people, He shall not speak of Himself. I used to think it meant the Holy Spirit wouldn't talk about the Holy Spirit. The Greek word implies He shall not speak out from Himself, but out from the heart of God. Whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak. And He will lead you into all truth. The Holy Spirit coming into the earth, taking up His habitation in vessels, human vessels, redeemed by the blood of Christ. That's where He lives. That's where He's taken up His habitation. And God said, He's going to lead His people into all the truth. He hasn't been given His Lordship, and that's why He hasn't led us into all truth. That's why ten thousand voices go forth over the airwaves and TV waves and from the pulpits of our land, all differing. And millions of them all saying, we've got the Holy Spirit. Millions of them. We've got the Holy Spirit. All speaking divergent things. So man's way is, well, you know, we don't care what you believe. And you believe you've got the Holy Ghost. Forget all that other doctrine, that far-out stuff. Just love one another. And love is the ultimate. Don't we know that? That love isn't something, that God's love isn't something you just grab when you want it. It comes out of union with Christ. And Jesus in His great high priestly prayer, just before He went away, He gave us a little sampling, a little introduction into His heavenly ministry. It's beautiful. John 17. Beautiful introduction into His heavenly ministry. He speaks as one having finished the work, though He would not die till the next day. He speaks as one having finished the work. It's all done. I finished the work, He said, Father, that You gave Me to do. Now, O Father, glorify Thine own Son with Thine own self with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was. And He goes on to pray many wonderful things concerning His people to keep them from the evil one, to guard them, not let the evil one take hold of them. The ones that You have given Me, Father, they're Mine. You gave them to Me, for they were Yours and they're Mine, and I've kept them. He goes on praying for them. And then He says, The glory which Thou gavest Me, I've given them. The glory You gave Me, I give them now. I'm going away. The glory You gave Me, I gave them. People get scared when they hear things like this. You're making yourself another Christ, another God. No. For the Son of God Himself came down into a place where He deprived Himself of all the prerogatives of Godhead. And I want to speak guardedly, and I want to say the right words. He was God, but He deprived Himself, He stripped Himself of the prerogatives. Let's use that word of Godhead, that He might live as a man in the earth. Because He was to be your representative, not your representative, He's to be your example and mine. I didn't always understand that, so I'd read the Scriptures. Well, He was certainly God there. He walked on the water. He called Lazarus from the grave. But over here He was man. He slept in the bottom of the boat. And He wept here, so He's man. And I didn't understand for a long time that all that Jesus did in the earth, He did it as a man in union with the Heavenly Father, that He might be a true example for you and I. Not as God walking in our midst, but as the Son of God, the Son of Man, walking in total union and harmony with the Heavenly Father. And then when He died, He opened up the way that He might have others in the earth who could look to Him as their example. You say, how could He be my example when He was totally without sin, without fault, without blemish? Because as the Lamb, without fault, without blemish, without anything that anybody could find any fault with, He became my sacrifice to deal with my sin, that henceforth I might begin to walk in His way and in His life. But you see, God didn't want just one Son in the earth, He wanted many. And we're called the brethren of the Lord. We're called His brethren. And we're told that God's purpose was that Christ should be the firstborn amongst many other brethren. And so Jesus, the only begotten Son of God, came down from heaven, took upon Himself the form of man, lives as a man, but in total union and harmony with the Heavenly Father as the firstborn Son of a new creation that God was bringing forth. He came down from earth to be the firstborn Son and to be perfected, to come to maturity, to learn obedience through suffering. And you think, well, it's simpler than that. You just die and go to heaven and you get all that perfection. Jesus, the Son of God, had to come down to earth, walk as a servant, walk as a man, learn obedience, learn subjection to the Heavenly Father, to become the captain of our salvation, to be perfected, come to maturity. He didn't just slip away in death through Adam's sin and enter into it all. It's not right. And so He came to die. Preeminently He came to die. To minister a bit, yes. To minister. To reveal the Father. Manifest the love, the mercy, the grace, the glory, the redemption of the Heavenly Father. And then to die and His work was finished on earth. He didn't need to stay around. He'd stayed around 40 days. He could have stayed 2,000 years. He could have been here on the earth today if it was the Father's will. But it wasn't necessary. And yet you and I know very well that if He'd only stayed, we'd know what truth was. Because if there's any dissension, just go to Jesus. Send a delegation. It might be hard to, you know, have Him come to our hometown or our own home, but He's there on the earth. He's over there in Jerusalem. Ask Jesus. He'll tell us. You know that's right. But God did not see fit to do that because He said He had a better plan. A better plan than that. It is expedient for you that I go away, for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you. But if I depart, I will send Him unto you. When He has come, He will reprove the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment of sin because they believe not in Me. They have righteousness because they go to the Father and they see Me no more. Of judgment because the Prince of this world is judged. It goes on to say, He shall not speak out from Himself, but whatsoever He shall hear that shall He speak. How is He doing all this? When Jesus is gone, when Jesus was here, we could see it. Yeah, the Holy Spirit was there. He came upon Him and bowed upon Him. Because God is raising up members of the body of Christ who will be the younger brethren of Christ and they are to receive that same Spirit. I never realized the awesomeness of our responsibility as Christians, especially as ministers, when I realized that the Holy Spirit came into the earth to speak only the words of the Father, nothing more, nothing less. He shall receive of mine and show it unto you. What an awesome responsibility is upon God's people and especially upon the ministry to seek God until the Holy Spirit dominates and controls us and is Lord of our lives. And when that happens, He will speak the pure words of the Lord Jesus in the congregation of the saints. And we'll rejoice in the fact that He comes to lead us into all truth instead of saying, Oh no, don't have those things floating around. You'll divide the people of God. Truth will divide asunder soul and spirit, joints and marrow, separate wheat from chaff, separate wheat from tares. But truth, living truth from the heart of God will be health to your bones. It will be life. It will bring unity, the unity of the Spirit and the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God. I know we say, Well, I know it sounds good. It sounds scriptural. But you know very well it doesn't work. I know it doesn't work because we've been trying to make it work. It'll work when we come to the end of ourselves and say, Lord, we've made a mess of it all. We haven't given the Holy Spirit His lordship in our midst. Please come and be Lord in our midst. And then it'll work. God's bringing us to that. God's bringing us to that. He's bringing us to that. It's time to move on. The glory cloud is lifting. The glory cloud is moving on. You say, Where is it leading us to? Canaan eventually, but what's the next stop? I don't know. I don't know. But He's leading His people on and His requirement of the cloud-following people is to keep your eyes on the cloud and wherever He leads, you follow. Will the next stopping place be better or worse than this? I don't know. All I know is if God, by His Holy Spirit, by the cloud of God begins to move on, He wants the people to follow because He's declared His intention and He cannot lie. I'm leading you into a good land. The Lord thy God bringeth thee into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and hills, a land of wheat and barley and vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of oil, olive, and honey, a land wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarceness, thou shalt not lack anything in it, a land whose stones are iron and out of whose hills thou mayest dig at brass. He tells us another place that you won't have to build the houses because they're already built. You won't have to plant the vineyards because they're already planted. You won't have to dig wells because the streams are flowing. God had the land all prepared, all prepared ahead of time, but the people weren't prepared for it, and God must prepare the people for it. You say, what's God doing today? Making preparation. It's a day of preparation. It has been, I know, for many years, but preeminently in this hour. It's a day of preparation because God has not forgotten His intention. God never has forgotten His intention. Whenever God declares His intention and man spoils it, God doesn't give up. He'll work out situations, circumstances to bring about that which He had originally intended. He doesn't give up on us. He didn't even give up on Adam or His plan to make a man in His image. He went on and on working until in the fullness of time, Christ came forth to redeem the man who had lost the image of God. And this man was of a far higher order than the old Adam. This man was the last man, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord from heaven, the first man of the earth, earthly. You say, someday I think we'll be back to where Adam was before he fell. No. Far above the first. Isn't the second man far above the first man? As we've borne the image of the earthly, we shall bear the image of the heavenly. For when man or devil spoils anything that God has intended to do, when God does do it, He gets greater glory out of it. Because when God moves the second time, it's always of a higher order. And He goes beyond what He would have done the first time. And He's more greatly glorified. The devil says, I'm going to mess up God's plans. God often lets him do it. And then God comes on the scene and brings forth the intention of His heart, and it's far greater than if you or I or the devil had not meddled with it. It's far greater. I don't look for a restoration in that sense of anything God has ever done. Because I see in God's restorations, God doing it the second time, it's always of a better kind, a higher order. I'm not looking for a church like the Acts of the Apostles. I'm looking for a far more glorious church than that. Because God says the glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former. You say, how? Where? When? How is this going to work out? First of all, God must find a people so disciplined of Him that they're saying, Lord Jesus, we're going to go Your way. We're going to be followers of the cloud. We're going to move according to the direction of Your Spirit. What will it take to so discipline us that we will come to that commitment? And with that commitment, that kind of understanding of God's will? The wilderness way. As we walk in this present wilderness way, God would teach us in every place He leads us something concerning His will, something concerning obedience, something concerning hearing His voice. That we come to know His voice so well that the time comes when God says, this is the way, walk in it, and we're sure it's the voice of God. We're confident. I'm not saying we're there. I'm not saying any of us are there. But God wants us to come to that kind of a confidence that Jesus walked in where He just knew it was the will of God. When pressures come from individuals, organizations, whatever, to move outside of the will of God and do things on our own, we often remember the temptation of Jesus. Basically, that was the temptation that came to Him. Just move out of this, you know. Claim to be the Son of God. Just do this then if you are. Turn this stone to bread. Fall off the temple. Let the angels hold you up. Take the kingdoms of the world like they're talking about today. Take over the kingdoms. Take over the resources. Take over the oil. Take over the banking institutions. I fear they've been hearing the voice of Satan because before God ever establishes a people with kingly power and authority, He establishes a people with priestly hearts of compassion and humility and meekness. God wants a priesthood as our brother Cain has been ministering. He wants a priesthood. We want power, I know. Kingly power. God wants priestly sacrifice, priestly service, priestly hearts of compassion and meekness and lowliness. That's what God wants. God always established a priesthood on the earth before He established a kingdom. And before they could go into Canaan, which would require much authority and much power, God caused them to stop at Sinai until God established a priesthood on the earth. Almost a year they stopped at Sinai to establish a priesthood because God wants a people who can relate His own heart, His own thoughts to the people. But all that's for the priesthood. Don't worry about the kingdom. God wants priests who will rule and reign in righteousness, in joy and peace in the Holy Ghost and in that order. That's the kingdom. And that's the priestly aspect of the kingdom of God. And so before they could go into Canaan with power and authority as kings to subdue the land for God, God says, I want you to learn about Me. You've got to partake of My holiness. You've got to be a pure people. You've got to be a holy people. They stopped at Sinai to learn and to partake of the awesomeness of God's holiness and His holy character and nature. People say, oh yeah, these truths are alright, but you know, we've got a war to fight and we've got to get after the devil. Let me tell you, there's no getting after the devil and there's no subduing the devil because there is not on the earth that kind of a priestly people that God wants who walk in the holiness and righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. We've got to learn that you're not going to subdue the evil in the earth except as you manifest the righteousness of Christ. You're going to learn that in spiritual warfare we overcome evil with good. Not by taking the devil's instruments and refining them and trying to clean them up a little and use them to fight the Lord's battles against the enemy. Don't fight the devil that way. He sits in the congregation and laughs at it. You're only going to subdue the enemy under your feet. God promises it would happen. God of peace is going to bruise Satan under your feet and we're only going to do it as we're clothed upon with the armor of God, the helmet of salvation, the breastplate of righteousness, the shield of faith, the girdle of truth, the sword of the Spirit, which is not just quoting Scripture. Much as I love Scripture, I've been aware so many times that unless this Word that was written by the Holy Spirit is rewritten in your heart and mine, it does not become that living Word that God wants it to become. Because that's the new covenant. The new covenant is not really Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Romans, 1st, 2nd Corinthians, Galatians, and so forth. The new covenant, God said, is this. I will write my laws in their heart and on their minds will I write them and they shall be my people and I will be their God. God says that's the new covenant when He writes His own will, His own covenant, His own desire upon the hearts and minds of His people. That's the covenant that our Lord Jesus Christ is mediating in the heavens. It's going to be fulfilled. I know that because the Spirit is in the earth to do in the earth what Jesus is doing in heaven. I got a phone call a couple of weeks ago. The minister was quite excited. He said the Lord showed him God is going to start taking the Holy Spirit away from the earth this fall. It's not right! He came to abide in the earth that He might be God's representative in the earth in the absence of Jesus. That He might take the words that He hears from the heart of God at the throne and write them upon the hearts of His people in the earth. He's been given a mandate to do that. To minister all truth to the people of God. For He hears what the Son is saying. And because He hears what the Son is saying, He declares what the Son is saying. But where does He dwell? In you! In me! You see how totally necessary it is that you and I come into such subjection to the Holy Spirit that He will be unable to fulfill the purpose for which He came to earth? Do you realize that when we say it can't happen, we'll never have fullness of truth? We'll never have total agreement amongst God's people? You're saying the Holy Spirit cannot fulfill the purpose for which God sent Him to the earth? Because we're not talking about man's work. We're talking about the mighty working of God. We're talking about what God's doing in the new creation. Do you really believe back in eons past when there was nothing but darkness upon the face of the deep? When the Spirit of God was nevertheless brooding upon the face of the waters? Do you really believe that God spoke and said, Let there be light, and there was light? Do you really believe it? Well then, was there any argument in the realms of darkness? I don't think I can shine. I don't think light can come out of me. You can talk about light coming forth, but as for me, you know, excuse me, I'll never come to that. People think they're being humble when they talk that way. God spoke! The Spirit of God brooded upon the face of the deep. The time came when that preparatory work was done and God spoke and it happened. He said in the old creation, yeah, but in the new also. For God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, the same God who shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, the same God who said, Let there be light, looks down upon the darkness of your heart and mine and says, I believe I said that by the anointing, so I believe God is going to begin to give some of you people that light. God speaks. What He says happens. Oh, then how necessary that we abide in Christ that it might be the living Christ that speaks. I know they say there's power in the spoken word. Well, there's not power in it unless it's the Holy Spirit declaring it. And so that gave me great courage years back when I... People used to say, Oh, he'd be a teacher. He won't be a preacher really, but he'd be a teacher because all I knew of teachers was somebody, oh, they'd look through the concordance and get a doctrine and get all the Scriptures pro and con. But then I realized that any ministry, any ministry that abides in the heart of God, and I'm not talking about ministers per se. I'm talking about all of us because God's plan is that every member of the body of Christ has something vital to impart to the rest of the body. I know that truth hasn't dawned upon most of God's people, nor has it been nurtured too much in many of the churches. And if you can receive it, that's why we've got all the division because Paul says right into the Corinthians that God has tempered the body together, giving more abundant honor to those parts which lack. And I'm reminded of the meal offering in the Old Testament when they got this meal. It was wheat or barley all crushed up into fine flour. And so there was a sort of a unity there because they were all mingled one with the other, but a wind could blow it away. Nothing real solid about it until it was mingled with the holy oil. Then it became one dough as it was tempered together. Paul says, God has tempered the body together, giving more abundant honor to that part which lacks, that there be no schism in the body. I wonder how many ways, how many different methods we could come up with today if we started to list them to do away with the schism in the body of Christ. And Paul says, the reason there's schism is because there are those members in the body that lack the honor of Christ. So that the ministry that God raises up in this hour is to so nurture and feed the people of God that every man and woman in the body of Christ has something vital and living to impart to the rest of the body. I'm not saying that you all become preachers. Preaching has become sort of a, oh, I don't know, get captivated by it. Preacher. You know, you want to be a preacher. And God has so many beautiful ministries He's going to bring forth in the body of Christ in this hour that I think the preacher is going to lose his aura. Not to say that God is going to reject preachers, but they too have to become mingled together in the body of Christ, that there be no schism in the body, but that all the members might have the same care one for another. So this is that hour, I believe, when God is rising up in great earnestness. He's serious about it. He's going to do it. You say, what if we don't? What if we don't? Oh, I don't care what you don't do. God said in the day of His power He's going to have a willing people. He's going to have a willing people in the day of His power. We're coming very close to that day of God's power when He's finding that people that are willing. Many ministers are willing. Many of God's people that are willing. He just wants a willing people that He might reveal His power in this day and hour to bring the body of Christ into that unity of the faith, first of the Spirit, then of the faith, then unto the knowledge of the Son of God, then unto a perfect man, then unto the measure... You say, what perfection? Perfection, of course, doesn't mean... Well, we'll just read what Paul says it means, unto the measure of the stature, the fullness of Christ. If you realize it's God's work, you don't stumble at it. If you think it's something you've got to try to attain to, you'll just remain in the doldrums the rest of your life trying to be like the Christ, not for me. We're talking about what God does by His Holy Spirit. I'll use an illustration. A gardener, he plants his radish seeds in a row and then he puts a little stick at the end and the package that the seeds come in, he puts there in the stick. I do that. Just so you'll know what's there before it comes up. Generally, you know when it comes up what it's going to be. But he sort of started to imagine things a little and he said, now here's that little seed back there. When he gets above the ground, he looks down at the end of the row and sees that red radish on the package and says to his neighbor, you mean you and I have got to be like that? I don't think I can make it. And you know very well you and I can't make it. Aren't you glad that you're born again not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible, by the Word of God that liveth and abideth forever? That the seed of Christ is in you to produce the Christ from your life? Not to magnify you, to make you another Christ or a God, but that the living Christ might be revealed and shine forth from your life. You're born again? Fine. But Paul travailed over the Galatian church till Christ was formed in them. At one of the feast days, certain Greeks came down from we don't know where exactly, some part of the Roman Empire. And they came to Philip, some of the disciples, and they said, we would see Jesus. And so the disciples said, well, we'll go talk to Him. And they went and talked to Jesus and they said, there's some Greeks here, they've come a long ways. They'd like to see you. I don't know if the Lord so much as talked to them. He may have. We're not told that He did. But He did say something in reply. When they said we would see Jesus, they told the Lord, He said, except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone. But if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. And that was His answer. He was declaring in so many words, why tell me about that? I didn't come to go and minister in Greece and Philippi and Ephesus and Spain and Britain and the uttermost parts of the sea. I came to be a kernel of wheat that would fall into the ground and die. But Jesus said, in nature when a corn of wheat falls into the ground to die, it brings forth fruit after its kind. For that's what God ordained in the original creation. And He made all these different plants and herbs and shrubs and fruit trees. God ordained that the seed from the fruit would bring forth after its kind. We have no problem with that. We accept it. No problem at all. You just know it will bring forth after its kind. We have an awful problem in the church to believe it. Do you know why? Because we don't see it. It hasn't happened. Thank God for the day when I was able somehow to believe what God quickens by His Spirit whether I see it or not. And the fact that Jesus was faithful as the corn of wheat to go down into the ground and die is God's guarantee to the world, to creation, to the church, to you and I, that there will come forth a harvest in His image and likeness because of the seed that was faithful unto death. God's guarantee. It's not your work and mine. You're just the dirt. You're just the garden in which God plants that wonderful seed that out of this old atomic creation has become a burden to us. Out of it should shine forth in the fullness of redemption's purpose in the earth the glory of the Christ that men might see the Lord shining forth from His habitation in the earth. May God bless this word, dear hearts. We can only really receive truth as God quickens it by His Holy Spirit. Let's always remember that. We can't just receive it because it's scriptural, sounds right, only as the Holy Spirit takes it, brings it to us. So Paul prayed for the Ephesian church to whom he was going to unfold great mysteries concerning the body of Christ that the eyes of their understanding might be enlightened, that they might receive the spirit of wisdom and revelation and the knowledge of Christ that the eyes of their understanding might be enlightened, that they might know what is the hope of His calling. Don't talk about your calling. Find the hope of His calling. What is the richness of the glory of His inheritance in the saints? We talk about our inheritance. Our inheritance is in God, but God has an inheritance in His people. And what is the exceeding greatness of His power to us who are to believe according to the working of His mighty power which He wrought in Christ? What kind of power does God want His people to have? Heal the sick, raise the dead. Oh, I know, but that's just a part of what God has in mind. According to the working of His mighty power which He wrought in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and made Him to sit at His own right hand in heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion in every name that is named, and given Him to be the head over all things to the church which is His body, the fullness of Him that filleth all and in all. The body of Christ to be the fullness of Him? What does it mean? The completeness. Nothing lacking. Everything that was in Jesus to be in His people. Not because they attained to it or manufactured it, but because of a seed that was planted that must bring forth after its kind. Dear Heavenly Father, we just pray for that same Spirit, Lord. I know they have a portion of Your Spirit. The Spirit of wisdom and revelation and the knowledge of Christ that take the truth of God and to burn it into their hearts that as truly as You spoke in the beginning and said, let there be light once again, they'll testify. I've seen a great light. The Lord of glory has illuminated my heart and mine. Let this word linger with them. Let it abide in them. Let them not let it go until it has performed the desire of Your heart within them, we ask in Jesus' name. Amen. Our little blossom in the grasp of some sex-crazed monster. Oh God, just because it hasn't happened to us, help us not to be blind. Help us not to be so stupid that we cannot see that this is taking place in millions of American families. And just because it hasn't happened in our family, it doesn't mean that it hasn't happened. Oh Lord, help us to be people who see past our nose and who can see, as Jesus said, the signs of the times and to realize that every day that God suspends His judgment, this is perpetuated. More children are missing. More people have their teenagers decapitated by a drunken driver. More tragedy, more sorrow. Oh God, we don't ask You to perpetuate this. We ask You, Lord, that we might be faithful in doing the good that we can while we're here, Lord. And may our lives not be wasted, nor our money, nor our money spent on toys, nor our energy spent on things that are not eternal. Oh God, help us, Lord, to be wheat and not tares. While every head is bowed, there may be someone this morning and you know you've never really got it right with the Lord. You're still wobbling. Won't you come this morning and say to God, Lord, I'm sick of it. I want to be a wheat. I don't want to risk my eternal soul. I don't want to be ashamed of myself. At such an hour as this, would You come? Just wait a second. Is there anyone here? And you need to come to the altar. And I know some have come many times. Come until you're positive that you're not wobbling. And listen, if you're here and you feel the pull of the flesh and you're not really resisting it as you should, you come. I tell you, we tinkle around with these things in our mind, these little lusts, until they bear fruit. Until they bear fruit. And then our family is disgraced. We're in disgrace. We can't lift up our head anymore in the sight of our husband or wife. Ashamed. Tricked. Can't get a hold of God and the devil laughs at us. You're here this morning. And you're not positive that you're a wheat and shining in the kingdom of your Father. Living a sensual life. Would you come this morning? We can't wait any longer. Our time is too much time this morning. Oh, hallelujah. Lord, I pray a special blessing, Lord. Lord, I pray that each one at the altar will continue to cry out unto you, Lord, until his or her particular need is met, Lord. Oh, God, You're a God of strength and a God of hope and a God of joy. And yet, Lord, we allow Satan to erode that strength, that anointing, until finally we wake up and we're just flesh. And we say hallelujah, but it rings hollow. The heavens are brass. God, help us not to find out the grief of a backslider the hard way. But let us cherish the honey, the anointing, the sweetness of Jesus' presence. Lord, it's been a hard word this morning. I pray that it will ring true as steel in the hearts of Your saints. And it will cause a harvest of righteousness. And the wheat, Lord, will keep themselves clean and free from the things that Peter tells us about. Oh, hallelujah. Hallelujah. Isn't he wonderful? Hallelujah. His name is wonderful. His name is wonderful. His name is wonderful, Jesus my Lord. He is the mighty King, Master of everything. His name is wonderful, Jesus my Lord. He's the great Shepherd, the Rock of all greatness. Come on, I fit you. Come on and pray. The mighty God is He. Bow down before Him. Love and adore Him. His name is wonderful, Jesus my Lord. Hallelujah, hallelujah. Oh, Lord, worthy Lord. Hallelujah, hallelujah. Hallelujah, hallelujah. Thou art worthy, O Lord. Hallelujah, Thou art Jesus the Messiah. Oh, hallelujah. Hallelujah. Nobody call Him that. Someone has a prophecy this morning. Just give your prophecy. Let's give it whatever it is. God is dealing here strongly with someone. I'm not sure it's a prophecy. Maybe it's the whole group. God is dealing with us this morning. Oh, Jesus, what is it, Lord? What is it, Lord? Hallelujah. Amen. Hallelujah. Oh, glory. I think the Lord is speaking to us in confirmation of the message. Hear a little and dare a little, says the Lord. Hear a little and dare a little. And the word of the Lord was unto them, line upon line, precept upon precept. Hear a little and dare a little, that they might stumble and go and fall backward and be broken and taken. The Lord says, I am here. Oh. I get just what He's saying. Just what the Lord is saying. Want to hold you? Jesus, what is it, Lord? Tell you what I'm going to do. I'm going to dismiss the service. And those that you want, you can come up and stand near the front and pray as these are making or touching fire with the Lord. And pray. Maybe the Lord will bring it forth later. So we'll just consider ourselves dismissed and let's pray around the altar. Those who want to have a desire to. God bless each one. Hallelujah, Lord. Oh, yes, Lord. We wait in Thy presence. Hallelujah. Oh, hallelujah. That Thy will be made known to Thy people, Lord. Freely we have received. Freely we give, Lord. Freely we have received. Freely we give. Hallelujah, hallelujah. Oh, that Thy people, Lord. In Thy mercy, Lord, Thou mightest bring everyone forth unto Thy glorious presence, Lord. Oh, Lord God, bring forth Your wheat bright and shine in the presence of the Father. Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah. Oh, God, bring a clarity in Thy saints as they call upon Thee, Lord. We know that Thy wrath is smoking, Lord, ready to fall. Jesus, help us to get our houses in order. Help us, Lord, to get our souls in them. Lord, as Thy wrath is held above us, Lord, we wait, Lord, with a sword before You. We pray, Lord. Thou wilt call forth Thy true Greek, Lord. Yes, Lord. Amen. Amen. Amen. Let Thy priest, Lord, weaken the parts of the altar. The day of the Lord is coming. Hallelujah. Full of wrath and cruel anger. Destroy the sinners out of the land. The day of the Lord is great and very terrible. Who can abide it? Hallelujah. Awake unto righteousness and sin. Awake unto righteousness and sin not. Hallelujah. The name of the Lord comes burning with indignation. Oh, God. Oh, let Thy saints, Lord, those that have made a covenant with Thee by sacrifice, Lord, it's time for You, Lord, to divide between the wheat and the tares, Lord. Lord, that Thy true wheat might shine forth as the sun. Oh, yes, Lord. Oh, help me. Oh, help me. Oh, yes, Lord. Oh, help me. Oh, praise You, Lord. Yes, Lord, You know who we are. You know who they are. What I know is Your kingdom. Your kingdom, Lord. Your kingdom. Yes, Lord. Let Your people, Lord, Your true people, Lord, shine forth as the sun the kingdom of their Father. Oh, help me. Yes, Lord. Oh, help me. Oh, help me.