In this sermon, the speaker shares his experience at a conference where he taught the word of God for two hours each morning. In the afternoon and evening, the attendees went out to witness and share the gospel. The speaker mentions receiving a flick knife as a souvenir, which he jokingly says could get him in trouble with the police. He emphasizes the importance of sticking to what is written in the Bible and invites the audience to read and come to conclusions together. The speaker also mentions the transformative power of God's work in people's lives and the need to deal with sin before receiving additional blessings.

I said this afternoon that I wanted to talk with you tonight on God's great plan for deliverance from sin. I think that this is probably about the most vital subject of all, really, that we should know the truth of God about this. I couldn't help thinking when we were singing that lovely hymn, We taste thee, O thou living bread, And long to feast upon thee still. We drink of thee, thou fountainhead, And thirst our souls from thee to fill. And I thought, Lord, I've tasted thee, I've never tasted any sin in thee, not once. There's no sin in this bread, there's nothing awful or wretched in this drink, nothing but uttermost perfection. Glory to the name of the Lord. Now I am well aware, because I'm told, I should say perhaps once a month, if not more than once a month, I may not be quite there in that I don't keep check of these things, but as I travel around, probably averaging out about once a month over a year, I hear a report, something like this, that you want to avoid that man north. Whatever you do, don't go near him. Doesn't matter if I was talking about south, it doesn't make any difference, it's the principle I want to come to. You see, he's dangerous, don't go near him. This is the thing, don't have him on your platform and don't have him in your house. I hope sometimes they may say, well he's not, you know, he's alright, but... and it's always this thing that comes out, that he preaches sinless perfection. Well sometimes, I was remarking on this actually yesterday whilst I was travelling with some dear friends, who very obligingly brought me up, and I was saying to them, sometimes when I feel a little bit like it, and I really want to be cheeky and people say to me, now do you believe in sinless perfection, I say, yes, I do. When I get to heaven, so that's that. So now you know, you've heard the words come out of my mouth, but it's rather like that thing I drew your attention to this morning, God be thanked that you were the slaves of sin, but, that's right, amen, yes. Although it's rather in an opposite truth, of course I believe in sinless perfection, and as I wouldn't believe in Jesus, he's sinlessly perfect. But I suppose these things have been made to stand, rather like word symbols, for some kind of heresy that you chase and kill if you possibly can. And I hope if mistakenly some people want to chase and kill the truth of deliverance from sin, as it is in scripture, they trip over and break their neck before they reach it and kill it. I hope they do. I'm not wishing them any harm. I mean that, it better they died than try to come against scriptural freedom from sin. Better they died than that they preached anything else but this pure and glorious gospel of Jesus Christ. Now I suppose I ought to start off with an apology, in that in these hallowed walls this kind of message has been preached before, if not by me, and I think it must have been, and that you will know that this is really the home, not this particular hall, because this has been an addition, but you will know that Cliff College became the last great stronghold in England of scriptural holiness as presented by the Methodists. And that from this place men went out on fire with the glory and power of God. I remember once seeing that unlike Norman, oh I don't know, yeah I am unlike Norman, I mean in lots of ways, but in this I am, I'm like him in that I didn't go to a university until I went there to preach, and teach others, but I didn't go to a theological college, so that's where I'm unlike him. But I remember once speaking to the principal of a Bible college, and I'd been lecturing in the college. I had to learn all their terminology before I could lecture to them. It was a real hoot. The terminology doesn't matter much, but I had that kind of memory that could sort of tuck it away in those days. But I remember saying to him, your business my brother is not to teach these young men that you have here the ins and outs of modernism, and how to combat it, and evolution, and how to answer it, and university cleverness, and how to come up on it and combat it. That your business is to get men and young men in here, and get them baptized in the Holy Ghost, and send them out on fire to preach the gospel. That's your job. He had to agree with me. I don't know that he liked the way I said it. But that's true, and let me say something to you all here, in that I suppose that some of you regard me as a little bit of a dad. Not a bore I hope. But I want to destroy this idea that you've got to be taught the wrong in order to be able to give an answer to the people that come up with wrong things. You've got to be able to answer these university people. You've got to be able to give them an answer in the terms that they have. But that's a lot of nonsense, because I mean I'm an ignoramus, and I don't want to go on with the rest of it. I'll leave you all mine to work it out. Except to say that I have to meet all these people too, and I never learned the clever answers to them. All you need to be is full of the Holy Ghost, and teachable. That's all you need. Amen. Isn't that a marvellous thing? And you see, the Lord... I'm going to preach about this other subject in a minute or two. At least I think I am. Whilst I was sitting there, the Lord said to me, I don't know whether he sort of talks to you like this. I don't hear voices. Beware of these people who are always hearing voices. They need to be taken somewhere where they can get delivered, usually. But the Lord was sort of talking to me in my spirit, very clearly. And he said to me, Of course you know why I kept out of the way for 30 years, don't you? And I listened to him very carefully, and explained himself as neatly as anything, and as beautifully as anything. You see, this is why you don't need to be taught by other people. He'll teach you himself, really. If you'll only listen to him. And if you'll be so adjusted that he can. And if you'll stick at it when the way seems hard. And when it's not like falling over the edge of a cliff. I mean, as easy as that. Or falling off a horse, or falling out of an aeroplane. If you do those sorts of things. And thinking about aeroplanes, my wife said to me the other day, you know, it is dreadful. She said, really, you know, it's not safe to go up in aeroplanes. I suppose she's thinking about her husband flying to India and back. And probably flying to Africa and back. And flying all these places and back, you see. I bet she had got some wifely concern behind it. She said, you know, it really is awful. Not safe to travel in. Oh, I said, I'm quite sure nobody ought to travel in aeroplanes, unless they're the Lord's, because he looks after the planes then. I'm quite sure about that. But you may not agree with me. But there it is. You may think I've got some funny ideas. But no, aeroplanes aren't safe, unless you're the Lord's. And the, the, the... Are you annoyed? No, he agrees with me. What was I saying? Oh, no. What was I saying? I forgot. I know what I'm going to preach about. Pardon? Oh, yes. The Lord told me why he was kept hidden for 30 years. You see, he said to me, you see, I had so many natural abilities and I had so many sort of gifts. Nobody would have thought they had a chance with me about it, he said. Because I, I had everything. So he said, that's why I was kept out of sight for 30 years, so that when I did come on, it wasn't just my own natural abilities, it wasn't just my innate gifts or talents. What I could do, it was just that under the anointing of the Spirit, I could do what Father wanted me to do. Now wasn't that lovely? See, he tells me what I'm to preach to you. It's ever so easy when you're in touch. Preaching's easy. There's nothing in preaching at all. The Lord tells you what to say. Nobody's clever if they're a real preacher. They're so, such duffers that God has to tell them everything. That's right. I'm telling you the truth. If you stuff your head up with a knot of knowledge, God won't be able to tell you anything. And he said to me a little earlier this evening, just before I came into the meeting, he said, preach the word. So then I had a little talk in my mind with the Lord about what he meant by the word. Now, did you mean the written word, Lord, or did you mean the spoken word? See, and my knowledge of the Greek isn't so good that I can sort of say it right off like that. Instead I would have to look that up, which word he used in the Greek. So he said, preach the word. So I said, all right, Lord. Amen. And what I want to do with you tonight is something which so many of us in this room have done together before. I only want to take you over familiar ground. I don't see why you want to be recording anything really. Some of you must have recorded this kind of message before. All right, if you want to continue. I want just to take the Bible in my hand with you. And by the way, I was so grateful for what Norman said about that word this afternoon. He said, this is the reason our brother was usually authorized. That's absolutely true. That's absolutely true. Because the authorized in all these spiritual insights is far more sound than the revision. The revision, of course, is much more correct so far as grammar is concerned. But grammar didn't save me. Amen. That's right. Hallelujah. And the whole tremendous truth is, beloved, that I want to know what spiritual men had to say rather than what scholars have to say. If he can be a scholar and spiritual, he should know different than interpret that little word in Galatians as to instead of in. Norman drew your attention to it. It isn't in the Greek, God revealed his son to me. It is emphatically, truly, as any Greek scholar will tell you. It's in me. Now why did they change it? Because their spiritual experience didn't permit them to do it. I once heard a man, a Methodist man, commenting about singing. Mind you, this was a long time ago. I won't tell you how long, unless you'll be guessing how old I am. And I heard this comment. Why congregations couldn't sing some of the grand old hymns of the past. He said it was because their spiritual experience wouldn't allow them to do it. And this is why the wonder and wealth of these marvelous things of the past must have got cleared out of our hymn books, beloved. Hallelujah. God wants us to be in what he has said in the book. So then, over familiar ground, I want to go with you and see what the scriptures do say. I think that's all we need to do about this great subject of deliverance and freedom from sin. Firstly, and I think I've come to believe even preachers make progress in their preaching. I've come to believe that probably the best way to get down to see what God thinks about it is to take just exactly what Jesus said, what the apostles said, and not worry about doctrine about it. I'm not concerned with doctrinal things. In that I do really believe the Bible was written before modern doctrines arose. And there it is. Doctrines are men's interpretations. The Bible is God's word. And I don't see, beloved, that we can do any better in this great subject than starting off by seeing what Jesus said about the man. Now, perhaps I ought to give you a little warning first. In that a few days ago, I was in a conference. And it was a conference of witnesses and workers and all sorts of people like that. And I was there to sort of take morning sessions of teaching. It was wonderful. I used to go for two hours, bang off like that. That's great to have two-hour sessions with the Bible. And in the afternoon and evening, they used to go out witnessing in the local pubs, clubs. Oh, I don't know where they went. And there was a whole group of about 10 or 12 people there. They won't mind me saying this because of what the Lord did. If the Lord hadn't done it and if they hadn't responded, they might have been a little bit cheery about having themselves referred to on a tape that almost certifies it to be at least semi-permanent. But I preached on this very subject. And that night when they went out to witness, they couldn't witness. They were sitting up on the walls and all round about. And another one, one of the leaders of this particular conference, he came up and they got off and said, What's the matter with us? We can't witness. What's going on? Something's changed. You see? And so back they came. The next morning they came in and because of certain remarks, we went back to the subject again and we finished up with four hours on this great subject. And at the end, the leader of the party stood up and said, I bless God for bringing me here this week. He's given me a new heart. He's absolutely changed and radiated and shone. And I don't know what they didn't do. It was a tremendous thing. At the end of the conference, I finished up with a great big murderous flick knife that somebody gave me that had been running around as a murder weapon. One young man, and I've got it amongst my souvenirs. I've got quite a collection of those things. If the police raided my home, they may lock me up for having dangerous weapons. What the Lord really does. And so then, we'll look together into the scriptures and shall we all together indulge in the glory of the revelation. And if what I say isn't in this book, I invite you now to disbelieve me. I don't want you to believe anything that isn't written in this book. And I promise you, I will just read it with you. And if you like, we'll come to conclusions together. I invite you to. We'll come to conclusions together. And we'll see what God says. Eh? Is that alright? Well, yes or no. If it's no, I'll stop. It's no good going on unless we're all agreed. And I want first of all then to see what Jesus said on this great subject. But again, I want to give you a warning first. You must always understand that Jesus was rather like this. Contrary to so many people's thoughts, He didn't go around trying to make disciples out of any old person that comes along. Now, don't get carried away with this sort of popular concept of what Jesus Christ did. He did not go around saying, OK, all of you can come, come on, fall in here, follow me. And so on and so on like that. He didn't do that at all. In fact, when I really seriously got down to seeing the Lord Jesus at work, I started to revise a lot of my thinking about disciple making. In the sixth chapter of John, you will remember, He started talking about Himself being the bread of life. And if they didn't eat His flesh and drink His blood, they couldn't have any part with Him. And they said, oh, what's He talking about? How can this man give us His flesh to eat? And so on and so on and so on and so on. And He said, if you don't eat My flesh and drink My blood, that's that. You can't be My disciples. So they just left Him. They packed up and went home. They said, that's finished. See? And instead of turning around and saying, seeing that He's got twelve good strong men of truth, I'm ever so glad you're sticking with Me. What do you think He said? He said, do you want to go away too? Yeah. He would have finished up one. He would have lost all His twelve disciples. Do you want to go away too? He said. Gave them an opportunity to leave Him. It's fine, it's fine as you know. He'll give you an invitation to come, but He'll give you an opportunity to leave if you want. Amen. If you come, know the grounds upon which you come. And take this warning from the lips of Jesus. If it be a warning, I'm reading first in John 15. 22. If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin. But now they have no cloak. Or if you have a marginal amendation, you may see excuse for their sin. Now, when Jesus speaks to you, you'll have no more excuse for sinning. That's plain from that verse. So, you better be warned. If you want to go on in sin, I should walk out of the door. Because Jesus is going to talk to you tonight by the Blessed Spirit. And after He's spoken, you won't have any cloak or excuse for sin again. I hope there's no one here who's wanting a cloak or a cover-up for sin. I trust that every one of us has been drawn by Jesus at least to the point where we hate sin and want to get rid of it. And if we do sin, that's a major tragedy in our life. So, turn with me then first of all to John 5. You will know it as the chapter that contains the story of the man who was impotent by the pool of Bethesda. And all that transpired there with Jesus going to him. And He says in verse 6 to this man, Wilt thou be made whole? Now, let me say this to you, beloved. You may be in this conference with some physical need, and by God's grace, we'll see the Lord deliver you from it whilst you're here. But if Jesus comes to you and says, Now, do you want to be made whole? If your mind flies immediately to your sickness, you don't know what's behind that question by Jesus. If it's only your sickness you're thinking about, as we shall see. Wilt thou be made whole? That's what Jesus said, you see. And He started all the preamble that you might expect Him to say. I've got nobody to help me. I've got this or that or the other. It's one of the major tragedies of the human mind that when Jesus comes and asks them a direct question, and the answer to your need is adjacent to you, standing by you as Jesus stood over this man impotent from his... laid there. You're always looking for the moving of something. He was waiting, waiting, waiting for something else to happen when Jesus had come there. Mind you, he thought it was a marvellous thing that was going to happen. Angelic movement and all that sort of thing. And God had come there. God had moved into the scene. Will you be made whole? Oh, praise God, when Jesus is here, beloved, you needn't wait for anything else to happen when He's here. Will you be made whole? And after he waited, how patient Jesus is, whilst this man got through his little pieces that he might be expected to say, the Lord said, by verse 8, Rise, take up thy bed and walk. Amen. And immediately the man was made whole, took up his bed and walked. And on the same day was the Sabbath. Of course, that was the major crime to the Jews. And the Jews said to him that was cured, It's the Sabbath day. It's not lawful for thee to carry thy bed. He answered them, He that made me whole. The same said unto me, Take up thy bed and walk. And he that was healed wist not who it was, for Jesus had conveyed himself away. A multitude being in that place. Afterward, Jesus findeth him in the temple and said unto him, Behold, thou art made whole. Sin no more. Hallelujah. Now, that's what Jesus said. Do you believe He meant it? Do you believe He meant it? If He didn't mean it, well, we'll disband the conference. We've got no more business in this room now, from this moment. If we don't believe that Jesus didn't mean it, and meant it because it must be true, and meant it because it must be possible, then, beloved, we are just a lot of self-deceived people. If He was expecting that man to sin no more when He knew positively well it wasn't possible for the man to sin no more, then Jesus is by inference a liar. But the Scripture says, Yea, let God be true, but every man a liar. That's right. Let God be true. He spoke from His heart. He spoke from the ground of truth. He said, Go and sin no more. Bless Him. Glory. And I want to tell you that it's only religion and religious notionists that want to stop it because, you see, this man was in trouble straight away. He picked up his bed and walked and everybody else thought he was in sin. It's a troubled day. You carry on your bed. But glory be to God. He picked up his bed and he walked. Glory to the name of the Lord. And what had been the scene of his defeat and what had been the bounds of his movement, his bed, why, he just picked it up and carried it away on his head or on his shoulder or something. And that was wonderful. Go and sin no more, said Jesus. Hallelujah. I hope that that's light to your soul. I hope it is for Jesus, as we know, in this Gospel of John, He's entering into the darkness. And He's entering into the darkness as the light. And what light must have dawned upon this man? Why? He says, go and don't sin anymore. And you know, as soon as the man heard that, he went away and told everybody that it was Jesus. He knew that, somehow he must have known that that's the way Jesus talks. He didn't know Him before that. But when Jesus said, go and sin no more, he said it was Jesus. Jesus made me whole. Praise the name of the Lord. I wonder if you can recognize Jesus by the words He speaks to you. And has He ever spoken this word to you, beloved? Go and sin no more. I think that's precious. He's opened His heart. He's shone light into the darkness. He's held up a great possibility for every one of us. And just to reinforce it, you will know that in the 8th chapter, the Lord Jesus says practically the same thing. He says to the woman that was brought to Him there. In that 8th chapter of John, the record is, when the woman was brought to Him and she was a woman taken in adultery in the very act. And there was no getting around it. They brought her to Jesus. And you know how He just stooped down and wrote on the ground as though He hadn't heard them when they were saying what they thought, thinking their thoughts about the Lord and how He was going to deal with this woman. And at last, He got rid of all the accusers. Bless the name of the Lord. He's not going to have any accusation around. He's not going to have any condemnation around. Bless Him. He's going to have us heart to heart and face to face with Him. And this is what He says. Hath no man condemned thee? Where am I to accuse this woman? No condemnation. Nobody to accuse. Hallelujah. This sounds like Romans 8 I'm reading. Who is He that condemneth? Who is He? Where is the person that's going to accuse or condemn us? There isn't anybody about when Jesus is here and He says to this woman, when she says, There's no man, Lord. He said, Neither do I condemn thee. Go and sin no more. Hallelujah. Isn't this a marvelous thing? And I want to say this to you tonight, beloved, before we proceed any further, that in the lips and heart of our Lord, it doesn't matter who's here, it doesn't matter whether you've got deep in sin, it doesn't matter whether you've drifted far away. If you've come here tonight and you're face to face with Jesus, the first thing He wants you to know is that He doesn't condemn you. Amen. Not He. He's not going to be the offering for sin. He's not going to be the scapegoat and the judge and the jury and the accuser at the same time. He is not counsel for the prosecution. Blessed be the name of the Lord. He just comes there, beloved, and He says, Now, I don't condemn you, but what I won't allow is sin. Amen. God has not made allowance in His salvation, later we'll come to it that He's made provision for sin, but He doesn't in His approach and in the whole of the philosophy of God as He approaches sin, He's made no allowance for sin whatsoever. Isn't that a precious thing? I think this is tremendous. It's absolute on God's part. And here we come and we listen to the Lord saying to us, Well, I'm not condemning you, but go and don't you sin again. Hallelujah. Good. Sin no more. I love that thought. This is Jesus then. He's quite clear. He doesn't say, Well, now go away and try not to be so bad as you used to be. He doesn't say, Well, now look, what I'll agree to do is forgive you for all the sins you've committed, but I quite understand you must go on sinning in the future, but don't worry, I've got a provision for this. Does that sound like God to you? I mean, is it common sense? Does it sound like God, that kind of talk? The whole glorious truth is, He says, Now you go and sin no more. And I believe, beloved, that in His heart He's expecting a response from our hearts tonight. The cubs ride up to Him on this level, Oh God, I don't want to sin against you anymore. I don't want to sin against you. Isn't that a marvelous thing? When God does this tremendous thing. I've got a friend, and he was invited a week or two ago. You know, August is the month for camps, and I don't know what they don't have. Conferences, holiday conferences, camps, and one thing and another. I tell you what, I don't know whether anybody's ever heard of a conference of God's people, a holiday conference camp, ever being burned to the ground, and doing a million pounds worth of damage. Have you ever heard of one? I never have. So I shouldn't go to these worldly camps. It's obviously the wrong place to go. It's obviously, I mean, people have only got common sense. They need never go wrong. You see. But, I mean, what you've got eyes for is to see things. And the Lord, He's dealing with this, and He wants us to come into an understanding. And this friend of mine, he went to a holiday conference. He was asked at the last moment, I don't know whether chiefly it was because he's associated with me, or anything like that, and they couldn't get anybody else, but anyway he went. And there was a whole group of people there, you know, usual things. They're out all day, and they come home and have a meeting at night. I'm ever so glad that we like it a bit stronger than that. That we like at least two meetings a day when we're together. But nevertheless, they were going out all day and coming home at night to the meetings, and sat there, and looked like pillars of salt, or buckets of sand, or lumps of jelly, all tired out, you know, and listening to the message. And about the second night, God began to take a hold in the place. And the Spirit of God started to move. And the leaders of the camp came up to him and said, What's happening? We've never seen anything like this before. We could never get them to sit still for 20 minutes. They've been listening to you for an hour. You see. And hallelujah, so the blessing came down from God. And on the last night of the camp, God moved down, and oh, he did tremendous things. Everybody in that camp was reached by the power of God. And one young man got up to run out because of the power of God. He was moving. He rushed out in the field, and he got about 50 yards across the field, and rushed back again. He said, Oh, I'm all clean. I'm all clean. What's happened to me? Amen. God caught him on the run. Whither can I flee from thy Spirit? Hallelujah. It was marvelous. And people were saying, Oh, I'm clean. I'm free. My sin's gone. That's better than you. Well, I won't say. This is the vital thing so far as God is concerned, beloved. You and I know what God is about in our lives. He must deal with sin in every one of us. And would God that this was the thing that was being dealt with. For this I find to be the tragedy in so many people's lives that say they are baptized in the Holy Ghost, and I meet them, and they've got such dreadful sin in their lives, and they've never known what it is to have a pure heart within them. That truly they can speak in another tongue. And all sorts of things like that. But to sit and talk with them, and listen to them sometimes, beloved, as though they were pulling the lid off a sewer. And it had never been dealt with. Never, never, never. Leaves me gasping and asking what kind of a baptism in the Spirit they had. Because the problems of sins have never been dealt with. And as something comes over the top of something that's left down there. A horrible pit. A terrible mess. A twist and a perversion. Habits that have never gone. Being there since childhood, so many of them. Things, oh beloved, this is why we are getting a multiplicity of the doctrine of deliverance. Because people are never dealt with before ever the Holy Ghost comes to them. This is why we are needing so many deliverance people in these days. I testify to you truly. From decades of experience. Oh, hallelujah. There's something wonderful. You know, I'd like to get Dad Moffat up on his feet, testifying what God did to him when he baptized him in the Spirit. I heard him declare it at New Year. I thought it was one of the most wonderful testimonies I've ever listened to. As clear as a bell. As sound as the music of heaven. Like the sweet running water down the golden street came the message of what God did to him when he baptized him in the Holy Ghost. Praise the name of the Lord. All this great work of God the Son and God the Holy Ghost is primarily to deal with sin. The rest He will give as addition. Bless Him. But who wants the additions on top of a basic foundation that's rotten? Bless the name of the Lord, He says, Go and sin no more. Amen. Praise Him. Are you ready to receive the Word of God? This is the attitude of Jesus. This is what Jesus has to say, beloved. It is true. He died on the cross that the Holy Ghost might come. But He died on the cross to get rid of sin before the Holy Ghost came. And the business of the Holy Ghost is primarily to deal with sin. Amen. And what a blessed thing it is. I think we'll go from there to see what Paul has to say about it. It's great to find out what these men that knew said. Of course, we'll go to Romans 6 where we've already been together. Where else can you go? But to the chapters where it is written. And Paul said in the Roman letter these wonderful words. Oh, hallelujah. Let's start, shall we, in verse 17. God be thanked, he said, that you were the slaves of sin. But you have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. Being then made free from sin. Did you ever come to a place in your life where you obeyed from the roots of you. And brought no excuses for yourself or your conduct or your language. Who or what you are or where you've come from or what you're doing. Have you ever come from the roots of you in a complete obedience to a point where you know you've been made free from sin. I'm adding nothing to the scripture and taking nothing away. That's what the Bible says. And woe be unto those who add to the scripture or take away from the scripture on these vital doctrines. These vital things. It's plainly written. When you obeyed from the heart. If you've never come to a place in your life where you've been made free from sin. It's because you've never obeyed from the heart. This was the great thing that Jesus said when he was on the earth. This was one of his great complaints. Only he never complained in the voice of a curmudgeon. He never growled and groaned and muttered from a twisted spirit. But he did have some words of complaint. And one of the words of complaint he said was this. Concerning certain people in his day and generation. When he was on the earth he said. These people honor me with their lips. But their heart is far from me. That's right. It isn't lip service. He doesn't want us to pay honor to a notion of a great sacrifice. Or even a great truth. He wants us to obey from the heart. Oh God. It's precisely because men and women don't accept it with all their hearts. It's because they have reservations. It's because they've made excuses for themselves. It's because they've got chips on their shoulders. Some psychiatrist or psychologist has told them it's their mothers or their fathers fault. Or their environment. Or something like this. Here comes that dread thing that's damning our generations. When a man or a woman is sick to death with his sin. When a man has come to an end of himself. When he wants to finish, finish. Like the cry on the lips of Jesus. And he comes from his heart and he says. Oh God. Oh hallelujah. And when you obey from the heart. Don't sit afar off speculating upon it. Whether it's according to this doctrine or that doctrine. Man you've got a heart. God never gave you doctrines. He gave you a heart. I see now why God gave us that word of prophecy. It was through flesh. Through blood. Not by doctrines. Not by words dropped from a distant heaven. When a man comes that way. As Jesus came. With a beating throbbing heart. With precious blood pulsing through his veins. All the manner of him. All his flesh. All his blood. All his brains. All his words. All his works. All his energy. All the hairs of his head and of his face that they plucked out. Everything about him. Head, body, hands, feet, sinew, muscles, thought, sweat, cry, agony. It was to deliver you from sin. And you've got to come like that. The gospel isn't a philosophy. It isn't an idea. It's God's agony. Once we see it. It isn't brought about by arguments. When a man obeys from the heart. He gets free from sin. As it ever happened to you. Gets free from this clinging, clawing, damning thing. That's built up by practice into such habit. And character and formation in you. To make you a travesty of a man. And the denial of all that God intended. When he set his heart to make a beautiful creature. And set him in an Eden. God. Beloved. Brought us to this. Look higher up in that same chapter. We'll come lower in a minute. In that higher up there. What are you going to say in verse 1 of chapter 6? Shall we continue in sin? That grace may abound. Let's have your answer. Well, shall we or shan't we? Some of you didn't open your mouth. Shall we or shan't we? Are you sure you don't mean... Well, of course, I know I shall. I don't want to, but I know I shall. Such is the lying deception. And so deep lies this thing. Insidiously planted within us by Satan. That we can't even believe God. Shall we continue in sin? That grace may abound. Because we love the grace of God. We love hymns about grace. Amazing grace. Why all the sinners in the world were singing it. They love the thought of it. Even if they don't quite understand all that it means. Of course, we love people to be gracious to us. What criminal standing in a dock had perhaps murdered his wife or robbed his dying grandmother wouldn't want a judge to be gracious to him. You tell me. It's natural in people. The whole tremendous thing, beloved, is that we shall not continue in sin. Not just because we don't want to or God doesn't want us to, but because He's made provision so that we shan't. Hallelujah. That's right. Otherwise, such language would be futile. Would be tempting us to despair. For who despairs most? But the man who's tried and tried and tried again and failed and comes out and says, it's not for me, it's impossible. When this book is a testimony of God in the great provisions of God, shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? I love the sound of the word. Nay! Nay! That's the plain answer of Scripture. No. All the great religious systems of the world that deal with sin, and the greatest religious systems in the world don't deal with sin, such as Buddhism, Hinduism, and all those great religions that don't deal with sin. But the religions that deal with sin, such as the Roman Catholic hierarchy or the Protestant churches, whatever they may be called, or whatever brand, they're all built up on this fallacy that of course we're going to continue in sin. They're all built up on it. As though God said, yes, we shall continue in sin. The whole of the confessional system is built upon it. We shan't. Hallelujah. I'd love to hear that coming up from a hundred throats, two hundred throats in this room tonight. I'm sure God would. No, we shan't. Amen. Some good red-blooded believing, like the red-blooded believing of Jesus, would soon have some of us delivered and set free. The whole glorious truth here in verse 6 is like this. We know this. That our old man is crucified with Him. That the body of sin might be destroyed. That henceforth we should not serve sin. Amen. How about that? Not going to be a slave to sin. God be thanked. You were the slaves of sin. I'm in verse 17. But you've obeyed. Oh, you know, it must have delighted the heart of the Apostle and the glorious Holy Spirit that was inspiring him that he could write to a people and say, you've obeyed. Oh, hallelujah. You've obeyed from the heart. And God knows when a man or a woman obeys from the heart. Instantly it happens. Instantly. When a man obeys from the heart. Jesus, He's wonderful. I was up in a conference. Way up. Not in this country. I won't tell you where. Well, I suppose I did. Norman. Norman, he's come back. He's been right engaged in this over the other week. He was up there in Scotland. I thought it was over me trying to hide it because some of you were there I think. And I remember there was a young man there. I can't tell you his story. But he'd been brought up upon a deception. I'll tell you something of it. The deception was this. He'd been a great drug addict. He'd been an alcoholic. He'd been in every sin that it was capable, that it was possible for a man to do except murder. He'd done a lot. And he'd been reached by a company of people. That sort of, you know, come to Jesus. And so apparently he'd come to Jesus one Saturday night. And he was supposed to be finished with his drugs. And they were quite in disobedience to the Scripture on the Sunday night because they were this way inclined. You know, now I say give your testimony. Got him up on his feet because the Scripture says you're not to put novices into these positions. This is altogether a fallacy in the modern church. This young man put up to give his testimony on the Sunday night testifies what God's done for me. He's done this for me. He's done that for me. He hadn't had the gift of the gab like some of us are born with. It's a great, great handicap. And it really is. It really is. Jesus could talk when he was 12. God hid him until he was 30. You take it in. God told me a lot at the beginning of this meeting about that. I suppose it was directed to me. I've passed it on to you. The whole marvelous thing is this, that we go against what the Scripture says, you see. He's up giving his testimony. Never was real. He was talking about being saved. And Monday he was plunged into his sin. Tuesday. And by the end of the week he was all high and wrong. And so they got hold of him. They found him somewhere. They thought they'd saved this great, whopping great sinner like the gigantic fish out of the sea. They found him in some dive. They got hold of him. And he was in a terrible state. Oh, I see something here. I've just seen his face twinkling. Amen. And they said, you. And he said, ah. But he said, don't. They said, you believe Jesus forgives you, don't you? I said, oh, yeah. Well, you just tell him you're sorry. He'll forgive you. Get up and give your testimony again. And this is what he was brought up on. I hope you don't bend the about in these sacred things in this manner, beloved. I hope you don't. Well, when I found him, he was twice dead, plucked up by the roots. I tell you, I don't know. Well, anyway, he stuck it through about a fortnight's conference. And I think it was the last night. He came and he sat just inside the door. And the meeting had been going about a quarter of an hour. And, of course, this man, all his life had been used to being the center of attention. You see, everybody was getting him up to testify. Everybody was dragging him out of the pubs. Everybody was doing this. Everybody was praying for him. Everybody was thinking about him. The world revolved around him. And I don't know what he calls out in the meeting. He says, Mr. North, Mr. North, he said, can't go another minute longer. He said, I've got to get saved now. I've got to get saved now. Stop the meeting. Everybody look round. So what do you think I did? I said, all right, then, get born again now. We're going to continue. So we did. I must get born again. I said, all right, get born again now. Hallelujah. Too many times the devil had taken over the meetings. Too many times everybody, oh, this poor boy, we're going to pray for him. Don't you be deceived. And true enough, when he was left alone, he got born again. His wife took him back. They're living together. He's a changed man. Hallelujah. The rest of the story belongs to God. These are the wonderful things, beloved, that God does. When a man comes to the end of himself, when a man wants to be what God wants him, he doesn't want to take the center of the floor every meeting, in this, that, and the other. He wants to get right. And he'll go away in some corner and get right with God. Hallelujah. This is the great and tremendous truth of it, beloved. God wants us to know that we can be made free from sin. And that we should not be the slaves of sin. And you say, all right, then, free. I can get free tonight, but can I keep free? Yeah, you can keep free. Come on. We'll go down this chapter. It's as plain as anything. And it says this. When you were, in verse 20, the slaves of sin, you were free from righteousness. Now, let's get this right. There's a teaching about, which says you can have sin and righteousness at the same time, but the apostle says you can't. That's what, that's the verse. When you were a slave of sin, you didn't have any righteousness. You were free from it. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Now, I didn't write the Bible. I get in trouble for preaching it. That's right. Hallelujah. When, that's what your Bible says. I mean, you might have a nice revised version. I don't know what it says in the revised version, but what does it say? You read it yourself. When you were the slaves of sin, you were free from righteousness. Amen. Amen. I love it. When you're a slave of righteousness, you'll be free from sin. When you've become a slave of righteousness, a willing one, mind you. Can't stop and talk about that now. We should need a conference of a month in length to get down to all these wonderful topics. But now let's read on. When you were the slaves of sin and were free from righteousness, verse 21, what fruit had ye then in those things? Whereof ye are now ashamed, for the end of those things is death. Not fruit. But now, being made free from sin, you see, it says in verse 18, then made free from sin, when you obey. And in this verse it says, now being made free from sin. So what God starts, He continues. Always making me free from sin. Always keeping me free from sin. There was a then and there's a now. Bless Him. Is that what your Bible says to you? Now, if your experience is telling you something different, don't listen to your experience. That's the thing that's got to be crucified. Amen. And that's why Jesus went to the cross, to take your experience to the cross. That is your experience of your life. You. Hallelujah. That's what it's all about. Being now made free from sin. Hallelujah. Isn't this wonderful? And you've become slaves to God. You have your fruit unto holiness. And the end. Everlasting life. Holiness and the end. Glory. The holiness and the end. We must sing holy, holy, holy before we go home tonight. We really must. Now this is what the Apostle Paul says about it. Are you ready to believe the Bible as against your own experience? Or even your former beliefs? Because I promise you this. If you don't believe the Bible, you won't have what the Bible says. If you don't believe God, He can't do what He wants to do for you. And believing God costs you a cross. Believing God in this issue, in these things, costs you self-crucifixion. Blessed be God for the permanency of the cross. Amen. And the permanency of the open grave. Hallelujah. On, in, and out. On the cross, into the tomb, and out of it. So the Lord is wanting us to understand what He has to say to us. So we'll leave what Paul says. At least we'll leave their particular thing. We'll go on. Let's go to Peter, shall we? And in Peter, you know, and I do thank God, I hope you do too, that we have the original writings of these Apostles. Preserved, don't you? I don't mean the actual factual manuscripts or anything like that. I mean what they really said. And in the first epistle of Peter, I read this. Let's start in the last of chapter 3, shall we? Jesus Christ, the last verse of, the last words of verse 21 of chapter 3. Jesus Christ, who is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God. Angels and authorities and powers, being made subject unto Him. For as much then, as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh. Arm yourselves with the same mind. For he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin, that he should no longer live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God. Hallelujah. So it must be possible to cease from sin. Unless Peter, like Paul and Jesus, is not telling us the truth. Amen. This great ability to cease from sin. Isn't this a precious thing? And apparently for the rest of the time you are in the flesh. Unless I have misread the Bible. For the rest of the time in your flesh, beloved, we are not going to serve the will of man. We are not going to do the particular things, or beyond those particular things, the rest, the generality of sins that you can think of. As Peter goes down through the rest of his epistle, and opens up these depths and lengths and breadths and heights to us. Amen. That we can cease from sin. Glory be to God. I haven't got to keep on sinning. That would be a predestiny to hell, surely, wouldn't it? If I had to keep on sinning. But in my predestiny to heaven, it's a life of holiness, and a life of righteousness, and a life of being free from sin. Glory be to the name of the Lord. And while I live, God granting me grace to stay as He wants me to stay. And progress unto what He wants me to progress. No man shall stop me saying these things. I hope my own life doesn't become my own forbidding. For God has opened His heart wide. He's opened His veins wide. He's opened His mouth wide. He can afford to say truth and talk big. And you and I, beloved, we're here to receive these marvelous things. That you and I can come to the place where we can cease from sin. Amen. You know, when I was a boy, they used to teach me to sing that lovely verse in Romans 6. I'm quite sure I sang it here last year. It dates you when you sing it, because they don't learn these kinds of choruses today. But they taught me to sing, Sin shall not have dominion over you. Oh, what a glorious message. And it's true. God has said it. It must stand. Pass it on. It's simply grand. Sin shall not have dominion over you. Amen. Amen. Do you know that chorus? Who knows it? We'll sing it. Come on. Norman, you were here last year. You're supposed to know it. Ready? Sin shall not have dominion over you. Oh, what a glorious message. And it's true. God has said it. It must stand. Pass it on. It's simply grand. Sin shall not have dominion over you. How about that? Is that gospel to your ears? Praise God. For who would want to go to heaven if we've got to keep on sinning? Sin shall not have dominion over you. Amen. Suffer me to say again something which is not original with me in that I read it in a book. I think it was called Scriptural Freedom from Sin. Years and years ago when I read it. And what a great blessing it was to me when I read it. And this dear man pointed out in that book that he wrote that there are those who believe that they can't stop sinning until they die. Thus making death the Savior and not Jesus. It's Jesus who's the Savior. Not death. The Bible says that death is an enemy. Amen. Amen. It's the worst enemy to you if you've got sin in here. What a tremendous thing it is, beloved, then, for us to be free from it all. God has willed that we should be free from sin. Amen. Isn't it marvelous? Wouldn't you like to be? I mean, honestly, above everything else, I'd like to take a census here. I don't know whether I ought to talk like that, but if I gave you a piece of paper and I put down on it what would be the greatest thing in your life? One single thing. I wonder what you'd say. Or I'd like the gift of healing. Would you like that? Or I'd like this. Or I'd like that. I think since my Jesus died and agonized in His love, all red with blood, as we sang it this morning, died to have me free from sin, then I want to be free from sin. Yeah. I reckon everything else will take its place after that. In fact, I want to confess to you that it did in my life. When I sought God to deal with me, my sin, my inward uncleanness, my heart that wasn't pure, and God dealt with that in His faithfulness when I had come to the end of the tether that I was held on. And from that moment, when God dealt with that, everything else has been built up in my life from that moment. Spiritually. Amen. Everything. All other was an addition to it. Not a superimposition over it. Glory be to the name of the Lord. Well, that's not the end of it. Hallelujah. I have to go to the first epistle of John. Now, I warn you. You'd better not read John if you believe in putting blinkers on your eyes. You'd better not read John. You'll have a terrible shock. Yet, he's the great apostle of love. This is what love does. Well, let's read it, Charlie. Behold, verse 1 of chapter 3. What manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God. Therefore, the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. Beloved, now are we the sons of God. And it doth not yet appear what we shall be. But we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him. For we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure. Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law. So, the reason for not committing sin primarily is not just because by doing so I shall transgress the law. But the reason for not committing sin, beloved, is because God has called me his son. His beloved son. And there was a day when he opened heaven and looked upon a man in Jordan and said, Thou art my beloved son. And I am classified with Jesus. And the reason I don't want to sin anymore, beloved, is because it would break his heart if I may use that word. Because of who I am. Also, of course, I transgress the law if I break the sin. But that's not the primary reason. I'm not on the law about it. I'm in love about it. I'm under the grace of God. This is the wonder of it. Let's go on. Sin is the transgression of the law. And you know that he was manifested to take away our sins. And in him is no sin. Whosoever abideth in him. Listen to it, beloved. Listen to it. Sinneth not. Then if you are sinning, in whom are you abiding? Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not. Whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither known him. Devastating, isn't it? Little children. I'd better point out that this wasn't written or calculated to stumble the babes. That's who he's writing to. The little children. You little children there. You say, well, I've only been a Christian 12 months. You are right. You're just the one. But won't this stumble people? You're setting the standards too high. What? What? I said this yesterday to my brothers and sisters to whom I was speaking. And I said there's a verse in Isaiah. I didn't say which verse it was. But I'll tell you. It's 62 and 10. Which has been a great verse to me. And it's like this. Don't turn it up. You need not. I'll quote it to you. Here comes the great prophet of the Lord. He says, go through. Go through. Lift up a standard for the people. There was a trouble in Isaiah's day. Everybody was pulling down the standard. Let's get at these depraved backsliders. Let's put the standard down. Put the standard down. God's saying lift the standard up. Lift up a standard for the people. Let them see what it is. That's what got me. When somebody lifted up the standard for me. Glory to God. When somebody lifted up the standard for me. I saw it. You can't see a standard if it's not up there. Praise God. My little children, he says. Let's go back. Don't let anybody deceive you. Doesn't matter if he's your preacher or your elder. Or your lecturer. Or who it is. Don't let anybody deceive you. He that doeth righteousness is righteous. Even as he is righteous. He that committeth sin is of the devil. For the devil sinneth from the beginning. I hope you are not there sitting in your seat tonight. And like the devil, you have gone on sinning unbrokenly from the beginning. The devil is always sinning. He can't stop it. Yeah, think of it. He can't stop sinning. Can you? Have you stopped? Have you stopped it? Sin, sin, sin, sin. Down through Israel year after year. Kingdom after kingdom. On, on, on, on. Long to Calvary. Full stop. Hallelujah. That's right. God dealt with it. Amen. God dealt with it at the cross. Broke it. Glory. Oh, don't you feel relieved? God broke it. Amen. Amen. Bless Him. Stopped it. Marvelous, isn't it? Here we go. For this purpose, the Son of God was manifested that He might destroy the works of the devil. Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin. Amen. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Are you prepared to believe that? Are you prepared to believe that? Glory. He that is born of God. You know, I know lots of people. They like to tear pages out of the Bible. Yeah. Lots of people I know. Very lovely people. They like to tear 1 Corinthians 12 and 1 Corinthians 14 out of the Bible. They preserve 1 Corinthians 13. You see. Then there are lots of people who say, Oh no, we want 1 Corinthians 12 and 14 in the Bible, but we'll tear out this bit of 1 John's epistle. We don't want that. And Romans 6. We'll tear out that one. Our old man's dead and buried and gone. Oh, it is not. You ought to live in our house. You'd soon see. Tear that out. We'll tear that out. You see. Let's have it all, beloved, shall we? Let's have it all. How many of you know the glorious Pentecostal powers, just to give them a name? And you move in the gifts of the Spirit. I do. Hallelujah. Let's have it all, shall we? How about this? Will you have deliverance from sin too? And how about you that say you believe in holiness? Glory be to God. For this came through in a message that God gave us a few days ago. They're crying holy, holy, holy in heaven. That's what they're crying now. This is the great thing that they see and understand. The great holiness of God. You say you believe in holiness. Will you have the gifts of the Spirit too? Let's have it all, shall we? Let's have it all. I want it all. Amen. Oh, a lot of it. And I believe I can have it. He that's born of God doesn't commit sin, for his seed remains in him, and he cannot sin because he's born of God. Hallelujah. Glory to God. This is a marvelous thing, isn't it? You say, well, that's the last thing on earth I can do. Amen. Not I. Bless Him. Bless the Lord. Isn't this the preciousness of our God? This is what they're all saying about this sin problem, beloved. I've got these apostles on testimony here in the book. You've got it too. Let's listen to them. Let's get the message as it comes to us through the ages, shall we? Let's get it. Lord, Lord, it doesn't matter, beloved. If you have tried, it may be in your own strength or in your own way, and you've wrestled with sin, and you've done all this with your own dreadful personality, and you've failed and failed and failed and failed. Oh, beloved, you obey from your heart. Obey from your heart. Obey from your heart. Obey. That's what he says. Obey. Amen. This is lovely. Everything else can go, beloved. Everything else can be swept away. We can be in that marvelous place with the Lord, made free from sin, kept free from sin. 1 John 1. With this, we shall have to finish. 5. This then is the message which we've heard of him. Now listen. The apostle is telling you what he heard Jesus say. We heard this of him. 6. And declare unto you that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. 7. If we say we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth. 8. If we walk in the light as he is, in the light we have fellowship one with another. 9. In the blood of Jesus Christ his Son, that first cleansed me from sin when I believed him, goes on cleansing me from sin as I continue to believe him. 10. And you don't walk in the light if you don't believe him. Amen. If you don't believe this, then you can't walk in the light. Hallelujah. For God's word is light. Isn't this true? He says, Let there be light. And the Holy Ghost produced it. For the Holy Ghost produced light. In the beginning you read Genesis 1. Amen. God speaks. You believe him and the Holy Ghost will produce it in your life. He'll do it. Keep walking in the light. And the blood will go on cleansing you. And if you've got this great hope of being like Jesus when you see him, then you'll purify yourself from everything. You'll purify yourself from all things, beloved. It won't matter. Nothing will be too great a price for you to pay. Nothing will be too great for you to give up. Nothing will have such a fascination for you that you can't let it drop. Nothing. You'll purify yourself even as he is pure. Glory be to the name of the Lord. We can live in this realm. Oh, beloved. Obey from the heart. You'll be there. God will set us all free tonight if we'll believe him. Come right from your heart. It's a movement of your being. Yourself. It's a movement. It's obedience. All I am, Lord. All I have. Here I am. And you won't go back to the same old situation. You won't go back home to the same old practices. You won't go back home to live the same kind of life. You'll go back home and you'll be able to live in the light and in this real life of God. Now then, I've taken an hour or so to point you to Scripture. We may come back to it at some other time during the course of this week. I don't know. All we've done is looked at the Scripture. If you say you have no sin, the Scripture goes on to say you deceive yourself and the truth is not in you. But if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Hallelujah. Tonight it can happen. Amen. Tonight it can happen. If it's by faith, why not now? And tomorrow it can continue. And this freedom from sin is always a happening from God. It's something that's always happening. The blood is always cleansing you. Isn't it a marvelous thing? So that you can say, being now made free from sin, I have my fruit under holiness and the end everlasting life. Isn't it precious? All right. I think we ought to pray.