In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of dying to oneself in order to experience true life and growth in God. He shares testimonies of miraculous healings and the baptism in the Holy Spirit. The preacher encourages the congregation to come forward and accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior, promising that he will speak the word of life to them and bring about a marvelous change in their lives. He also shares a personal experience of seeking God's word and finding it to be like honey, providing strength and carrying him through difficult times.

It's just wonderful to be here. Hello, everybody. I've been wanting to say that to you ever since I came in. I'm just so happy to be back in this atmosphere. I don't find this kind of atmosphere everywhere in the world or in all the churches. I know exactly what Brother Trulene is talking about, the condition that he found down in Jacksonville. Oh, what a need today, everywhere in this world. Do you know how fortunate you are here? Well, it's wonderful to look into the faces again of all of you that I recognize all over the Church, and how wonderful all these new brothers and sisters. Oh, this is just great. Hello, choir. This is just marvelous. It's wonderful to meet sisters and brothers in the Lord. This is an eternal relationship. Amen. Well, will you open your Bibles to the 16th chapter of Ezekiel? Listen to the leaves. Father, as we open the book, will you please open up its truths to our hearts? For it's the opening up of the Word that gives light. And let that light shine upon us today. Dig our ears that we'll hear what the Spirit is saying to us. And we pray that you will get the response from every heart that you want. And let this be the beginning of marvelous things for us this week. In the name of your wonderful Son, we ask it. And everybody said, Amen. All right. I have many things to say unto thee, but I can't say them all this morning. I'm so glad we're going to have a week to share together. So we'll begin. Again the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, cause Jerusalem to know her abominations. And say, Thus saith the Lord God unto Jerusalem, Thy birth and thy nativity is of the land of Canaan. Thy father was an Amorite, and thy mother a Hittite. And as for thy nativity and the day thou was born, thy navel was not cut, neither was thou washed in water to souple thee. Thou was not salted at all, nor swaddled at all. Nor I pitied thee to do any of these unto thee, to have compassion upon thee. But thou was cast out in an open field to the loathing of thy person in the day that thou was born. And when I passed by thee and saw thee polluted in thine own blood, I said unto thee, When thou wast in thy blood, live. Yea, I said unto thee, When thou wast in thy blood, live. I have caused thee to multiply as the bud of the field. Thou hast increased and waxen great. Thou art come to excellent ornaments. Thy breasts are fashioned, thine hair is grown, whereas thou wast naked and bare. When I passed by thee and looked upon thee, thy time was the time of love. And I spread my skirt over thee and covered thine nakedness. I swear unto thee and entered into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord God, and thou becamest mine. Then washed I thee with water. Yea, I throughly washed away thy blood from thee and anointed thee with oil. I clothed thee also with broidered work, shod thee with badger skin, girded thee about with fine linen. I covered thee with silk. I decked thee also with ornaments. I put bracelets upon thy hands and a chain on thy neck. And I put a jewel on thy forehead and earrings in thine ears and a beautiful crown upon thine head. Thus wast thou decked with gold and silver. Thy raiment was of fine linen and silk and broidered work. Thou didst eat fine flour and honey and oil. And thou wast exceeding beautiful and thou didst prosper into a kingdom. And thy renown went forth among the heathen for thy beauty for it was perfect through my comeliness which I had put upon thee, saith the Lord God. Now if you have ears to hear, you've heard something. This word is a prophecy. It's a three-fold prophecy and it has a three-fold fulfillment. It was first a prophecy concerning Israel. How God loved Israel and how he still loves Israel and he's still not through with all that he's going to do in Israel. When God enters into a covenant with us, God keeps his covenant. We may break it but God never does. And when God gives us a promise, God never recalls that promise. God's will for us is the same as long as there's breath in our body. We can leave God and go away from him. But the will of God for us is just the same. And when we come back and want to do God's will and want to know God's will, it's just the same as what he said for us at the beginning. He's never changed his mind. If any moves away, we're the one who moves, not God, not God. If we go our own way, we pay the consequences. But God has a covenant with his people and God's going to keep that covenant. He's going to keep that covenant. And here he has a covenant with Israel and he'll keep it. He has a covenant with the individual and he'll keep it. And he has a covenant with his holy church and he will keep it. He'll keep his covenant. He'll keep his covenant. Oh, what that church can have from God if we keep our side of the covenant. All right? I'm not going to refer to Israel anymore. This is given. It's given to Israel. God uses the material at hand. What he said to Israel in type we can have in reality. There were three temples, you know. Well, first the old tabernacle in the wilderness. And part of this has to do, part of this language belongs to the old tabernacle in the wilderness. And then there was Solomon's temple. And then there's Ezekiel's temple. And all of these temples are only a type of his real temple made of living stones, of which you and I are a part. We are that building that's being built right now for his glory. A day the word of the Lord came to Ezekiel. This is so beautiful. God took the initiative in the lives of these Old Testament prophets. They didn't have the holy scriptures. They didn't know the plan of God. God has a long-range plan and program. And it's given to us in the sacred scriptures. But they didn't have the sacred scriptures. So they didn't know how to come before God and pray through for certain things. They didn't know about that. But they made themselves available to God. Moses would go, or God would say, Moses, come up in the mountain. Moses didn't know what to pray for or ask for when he got up there. He just, but he went up. That's all God told him to do, just come up. And made himself available to God. God kept him waiting for 40 days, but it took that time, all that time to get the hurry up out of Moses. And deal with all the busyness of human nature. You know what I'm talking about, all this hurry up and busyness that's on the inside of us and in our minds. But to get all that quieted, if it took 40 days to get Moses quiet, in the slowness of that primitive age, and if God doesn't talk to us after we've been at the altar for five minutes, God, why don't you hurry up? And this is why, this is why the awful death in the land today for a word from the Lord. Oh, how Christendom, how Christendom is yearning and longing for a word from the Lord. Does anyone have a word from the Lord? Is there anyone that can say, thus saith the Lord, and really and truly have a word from God? Well, that's what it means when it says, the word of the Lord came to Ezekiel. Doesn't say Ezekiel pulled it out of the promise box. There's no promise box to pull it out of. And he couldn't close the Bible and put his finger on it. There was no Bible to put his finger on. But the word of the Lord came to this man. And when God, when we give God a chance to speak to us, oh, God can give us just one little word that'll carry us, carry us for days and days and days and weeks and years. I have just been through an experience. I had to hear from God. I had to. And I got down, found my place. I've got a place at home by my davenport. That's my battlefield. And I got my pillow that I beaded out on and got down there in my battlefield and waited and prayed and waited and prayed until God came and spoke to my heart. But the word, I don't think the word of the Lord ever was so sweet and so precious. It was, ooh, just like honey. Ooh. And I did this. I actually did this then. I said, ooh, that word is like honey in my mouth. Ooh, the strength of this word, the beauty of it, the honey of it. And it is still carrying me to this day, that precious word of the Lord. Eat it, eat it, eat it. Wait for it. It'll come. Wait for it. And it'll carry you and show you the way. The word exposes us. But in the expose there's healing. God only wounds to heal. And sometimes we think the Lord is a little hard on us when He comes to us at first. But sometimes the Lord has to shock us to wake us. To wake us. He shocks us. Sometimes you can't help people sometimes in dealing with them with the scriptures until the word makes them angry. And when they're angered, in their anger, they're suddenly aroused and awakened to the fact, as Ezekiel was. God came to him, he just banged right away. Says, your father was a Hittite and your mother was an Amorite. You're from the land of Canaan. Well, does God need to come to us like that? Who among us does not know our background and know who we really are? These Canaanites, Amorites, and Hittites were the decided enemies of the Lord. But immediately when he said this to Ezekiel, he didn't stop there. He said, the first time I saw you, you were polluted in your own blood. Thrown out in an open field and nobody cared for you. Thrown there in pollution and rottenness. But when then comes the healing. Then comes the healing. When I passed by and saw you, thy time was a time of love. And I set my eyes upon you and I loved you. I loved you. The most precious thing that can happen in the life of any one of us is for God to come to us and lay his dear hand upon us and begin to deal with us. Don't be afraid if God opens your heart and exposes your sin to you. Don't be afraid if he calls you a Hittite or an Amorite. Don't be afraid if he says you are black as sin. Don't be afraid when God makes us feel that we're ready to drop into hell. This is his love, his blanket of love thrown over us. Like that one who said, cried out, Oh God, what an awful shadow you have thrown over my life. And God came and spoke so tenderly. He said, you've misinterpreted dear. It's only the shadow of my hand outstretched to caress you. He shows us the blackness, the darkness, the awful night. Nicodemus came to Jesus by night. The awful night that's there. We can only see how dark it is in the presence of light. So he's come to help. And the prophecy tells us what he will do in the life of an individual who will dare to fall into his hands and let him have us, and let him change us, let him deal with us. The prophecy is also the prophecy of what will happen to a church that will fall into his hands and let him have us and let him deal with us. When I passed by thee and saw thee polluted in thy blood, I said to thee, Live! Yea, I said to thee, Live! You know, today when I hear, and you'll know immediately who I'm talking about and some of that I'm talking about, but I ache and I hurt. Look dear, when we come to Jesus, He does not say, Now you come and make a decision. He says, When I saw you, I said to you, Not make a decision. I said to you, Live! Amen! Praise God! I said to you, Live! He sees us in death, and in such awful death and barrenness, He says, and nakedness, and no eye pitied you, and none could help you. There's no other name under heaven given among men whereby you can be saved. There is no help in any other gospel or doctrine, but Jesus says, I say unto thee, Live! Live! And all who hear the word of the Lord come out of their graves. As our brother read concerning Lazarus this morning, he just speaks the word. A word from the Lord will bring a church out of death. Amen! The word of the Lord will bring a church out of emptiness. The word of the Lord will make young people want to come back to church. But because there is no word of life from the Lord, the young people don't want to come back. And the ministers are leaving the ministry, and going out where they can make more money. And the churches are empty, and the pews are empty. But that word that the whole world longs to hear today is a word of life. And Jesus said, When I pass your way, the word that I will say unto thee is, Live! Live! Live! Live! And immediately things begin to happen. The whole character is changed. The whole picture is changed. And immediately he says, I cause you to multiply immediately into a bud. Into a bud. Well, most of you by this time, if you tend trinity very long, you'll know there's such a thing as a seed. And you know when a seed is planted, it begins to grow, doesn't it? Yes. And when it begins to grow, it'll bring forth a bud. And there's a beginning of something new, and the beginning of something beautiful in God. And he calls the bud to come forth. And thou wast increased and waxed great. Now, this 7th verse belongs with the 11th, so I'll leave that. I passed by thee and entered into a covenant with thee. Then washed I thee with water. I washed thee with water. The word of God. When we live, we've got to have the word of God. We've got to have it. Do you know I was in a church, and as far as the building was concerned, I wish you had the building. You wouldn't have to go through this building program if you had the building. But right down here in the front, just a few people gathered in that great, big, beautiful structure. And the pastor said to me, Now, Sister Hammond, you've traveled a lot, and you will have a lot of experiences to tell us. Now, tell us some of your experiences. He says, I find the people here get bogged down if I give them too much Bible. That came from the lips of the pastor. That's what's wrong today, isn't it? I thoroughly, I thoroughly, I thoroughly washed you with water. This is the washing of that wonderful word. Oh, what cleansing. And when I go into a congregation, if I can't preach the gospel, I want to know when the next plane leaves town. The washing of this wonderful word. The washing of that, this wonderful word. And I washed away all of that filthiness of the old life. Took it out. Washed it away. Churches need to be washed too, you know. Whole deacon boards need to be washed. And these elders, I wish you could have seen all these elders hugging each other this morning and kissing each other when they met. And when you get a bunch of men, when they meet, kiss each other, you know God's around someplace. I want to thoroughly wash. He washes the choir, doesn't he? Some choirs, I had one choir walk out on me. The whole choir walked out on me because I took for my text. I took for my text. I am crucified to this world and this world is crucified to me. The choir got up and walked out. There was about a ten-piece orchestra. They got up and walked out. The pianist left the piano, got up and walked out. Well, my text is still, I am crucified with Christ. I stood there, Jesus, what will I do? He said, stand still, I'm with you. And if ever I hug the cross, I tell you, I hugged it right then. All right, I'll stand, Lord, if you'll stand with me. And I stood there hugging the cross. Do you want me to tell you what happened? I stood there, I said, Jesus, is this what this message of the cross is going to do to churches? They're going to walk out on me? But stand, stand still, I'm with you. I'm with you. And I kept on preaching, kept on preaching, and the next thing I heard, a terrible thud. And I turned around and the Lord had hit that pastor and knocked him flat on the platform. And I began to pray, oh God, don't kill him. But in the next breath I was saying, but God, that's what he needs. And the power of God came on that few people that was left there and they began to fall out of the seats like they were shot one after another under the power of God until there was nobody else to preach to. And I didn't, the power, you talk about the power of God being present. I know what it was like in the day of Ananias and Sapphira. I know what that was like. I didn't know what was happening. Here I looked around, am I the only person standing? And I got down behind that desk and just hugged the Lord. Oh, and prayed, and I mean, I'm not lying, I prayed God wouldn't kill him. But he'd deal with them and talk to them and give them a chance to live. And after a while that pastor got up off of that platform, oh, Sister Hammond, he said, don't leave us, please, don't leave us, don't. Because he thought I'd go, I wouldn't stick around there with no choir and no orchestra. And he expected me to leave. Don't leave, Sister Hammond, please don't leave. He says, please don't leave. I can't take these people on, I've nothing to say. I go, thank you, Lord. I've nothing to say, I've nothing for them, I can't take them on. I said, well, you never was in a better position than right now to hear something from God to take them on. I won't leave you, I won't leave you. But my message is, I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. That's my message, that's my message. It pays to die, doesn't it? If you want to live, die. Die. If you want to grow, die. If you want the blessing of God, yield yourself to death. Let go of everything if you want anything from God. Let go, give up. Hallelujah. Yes. Yeah. Well, God began performing all kinds of healings and miracles and even creating new parts in body. Not only healing, but creating. And it was marvelous, it really was marvelous. And God sent the people so that we had, I had to call another minister to come and help me. And we had two services every night, every night, to take care of the hungry hearts. And one whole Baptist church received the baptism in the Holy Ghost, that whole congregation. You can clap. God, He needs a clap over there. I praise Him. Oh, yes, the Word of the Lord is the Word of life, life. I say unto thee, live. Live. Jesus Christ says, I am the resurrection and the life. And wherever He is, there will be a resurrection of everything that went down in death because of sin. Whether it's in the individual life or whether it's in the church life, or Israel's going to know this too in this threefold prophecy. I washed thee with water and I anointed thee with oil. This oil is the oil of gladness. I anointed thee with the oil. You know when you get that oil, that anointing of the oil of gladness, you know when you get that? Because thou hast hated iniquity and loved righteousness, therefore hath the Lord thy God anointed thee with the oil of gladness above all thy fellows. You keep your life clean and sweet and pure, washed in the blood of the Lamb. You'll know the oil of joy in your life too. Yes, and He says, I clothed thee with broidered work. Hallelujah. Now, we don't get very far in the Christian life until the Lord brings out His needle. He's taken away that old garment which was filthy rags. How many of you was glad to get rid of your filthy rags? Well now, if He took away those old filthy rags, then He wants to clothe us in the garments of His righteousness. And His garments, there's a pattern in His garments. Right away, right away when the Lord saves us, He throws a pattern over our life and a desire for us because, you see, we are united to Him and we bear His name, Christian. And if we bear His name, He wants us to look like Him. So the pattern that is thrown over our life is the rose of Sharon and the lily of the valley. And this is the pattern that He wants to embroider in this new garment that He's going to clothe us with. And so you know how embroidering is done? It's done with a needle. Isn't it, dear? Do all you brethren understand that? That embroidering is done with a needle. Well, if you don't understand what's going on, you know when He's got a needle after you. At least you know that. And what's He doing in my life now? He wants to clothe us in garments, He says, of beauty and glory. And the garments of beauty and glory are garments that have to be embroidered. And He's the only one that can do this. So He immediately starts to work on our life, to put that pattern on us that the world can see Jesus in us. That I shod thee with badger skin. Badger skin isn't very beautiful, but He's not putting shoes, badger skin shoes on us because they're so beautiful, but because of the durability and the steadfastness. And this is the kind of Christian that He wants. One that will endure. One that'll take the test and pass the test. One that will be true and stable. Wishy-washy people don't bless anybody. They're no blessing to themselves. They're no blessing in the home. How do you women like a wishy-washy husband? Willy-dilly-nilly. You don't know which way he's going or never know whether or not you can depend on him or what he's going to do. And the Lord doesn't want people like that either in His house and in His church. But He immediately talks to us about being stable and durable and steadfast. And He wants to put badger skin shoes on us that we'll walk in the ways of the Lord, not turning to the right or the left every half day, but set our faith steadfastly to go through with the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen? And I girded thee with fine linen, which is the righteousness of the saints. Oh, my. I know when I was here the other time, I gave a message on how linen is made. How many of you remember? Anybody here remember that message, how linen is made? Well, out of this whole crowd, not many. Maybe that calls for a repeat. A repeat. All right. How linen is made. Oh, and I gave that message in our last charismatic conference up in Everett, Washington. And a brother came up to me, he says, Sister, did you ever smell flax before it was turned into linen? And I said, No, I never did. He says, It's the worst odor you could ever smell. And that's the stench of the sinner that comes up to God before we're turned into pure white linen, which is beautiful in His sight. And then he says, I covered thee with silk, with silk. Now, this does something in our disposition. Pure silk, you can't crush pure when it's absolutely pure silk. You can't crush it. You can put it in your hands and crush it and open your hands, and there it is without a wrinkle. Now, he says, I want your disposition and your nature to be just like that. Just like that. You know, none of that have your feelings hurt stuff. Huh? And we call it touchiness. You know what that is? And these people who always got a scab on their shoulder, they always got a scab, and every time they come to church, somebody is sure to hit that scab and knock it off. And then this whole sore opens up again. Well, now, they haven't got their silk garments on yet, so be patient with them and just say, shh, shh. They haven't got their silk dress on yet, so let's be patient with them. While the Lord is dealing, you know, He takes us in His dressing room. He takes us in His dressing room. Did you mothers ever take your daughter in a dressing room and try to fit the dress on her? How many times did you have to say, will you please stand still? Will you please stand still? But the fidgeting, she wants to do everything else but have that dress fit on her. Well, we're like that when the Lord tries to His best to clothe us in His raiments of beauty and righteousness and holiness and get this silk dress on us, especially that we're so dead that we don't get our feelings hurt anymore. Oh, my, they dyed all my hands. Don't do me like that. No, I clothed you with silk. And then He says, I decked you with ornaments. Now, keep in mind, this is the individual Christian, but it's also the church. This is what the Lord is doing for the church. Do you know any church that the Lord's trying right now to fit them in beautiful silk garments? Oh, do some homework with this chapter, will you? And read it when you go home and study it and pray over it and ask the Lord, please, to put these garments on you, that the whole church, this is His church, this is His pride that He's clothing and getting ready. I'm not just talking just some kind of sweet fairy tales, but this is actually the working of the Lord in our life. I decked you with garments. I put bracelets upon thy hand. What are they for? What are they for? What are the bracelets for? These are types, of course. I put a bracelet on you that you will know to be led by the Spirit, led in the ways of the Lord. Do you ever have a hold of a hand of a child and you wanted to go one way and that child was just possessed to go over here? We want to go our own way. We want to do our own thing. We want to have our own plans and desires fulfilled. No, He says, you've got to let all that go if you want to live. And let me slip a bracelet on your arm and when I put my bracelet on you, then you're saying to me that I'm going to, from this moment, I'm going to be led of the Spirit. I've got a bracelet on my hand and it says just exactly that. When the Lord gave me that bracelet, He and I entered into a special, an agreement beyond an agreement, a dedication beyond a dedication, a surrender beyond a surrender. And when I said to my bridegroom, yes, all right, somebody gave me that bracelet and I knew he had it dropped right down out of heaven. And so, all right, I'm going to put it on and wear it. Now, some people would think I'm terribly worldly, but it has meaning to me. I want to put a bracelet on your hand and I want to lead you. And listen to this, will you let me put a chain around your neck? I can't pull that one out. You remember when we were in sin, we had a different kind of chain around our neck. We got our substance, he says, in the day before you was born. That old string wasn't cut and you drew your substance from the Ammonites and the Hittites and the enemies of God. But I want to put a chain around your neck. Paul had this chain around his neck and his signature was Paul, the bond slave of Jesus Christ. And that's what that chain around the neck means. I'm chained to the will of God. Are you dear? Are you dear? Say it if you are. Chained! I'm chained to the will of God. The will of God is my husband. I'm married to the will of God. I'm chained to it. And God is helping me. I never want to live one second of a minute out of the will of God. A bracelet, a chain, I put a jewel on your forehead. This really is talking about a nose jewel. Scent and discernment. That our discernment will be so keen between good and evil. Yes. Between... You know today a lot of Christians don't know the difference between God and devil? Do you know that? They don't. Christians I'm talking about. They don't know what's God and what's devil today. Everything is so gray out there. But he says, I want to put a nose jewel in your nose that you will have some discernment and you will know the difference between God and devil and the difference between right and wrong. And I want to put earrings in your ears that you will hear my voice and it's the earrings in our ears when we let him pierce our ears. This is that marvelous gift of faith that comes by hearing. And I want to put a crown on your head. This is a marvelous crown. Colossians we read about. I want you to reign. How? In life. Right now. With one Christ Jesus. Reign. I'll give you my life and then we reign in this life with one Christ Jesus. This life supersedes every bit of death in us. This is what it means to reign in life. So he says, I deck you with gold which is the divine nature of Jesus Christ and with silver which is his marvelous redemption. I clothe you in garments and raiments of linen and silk and put my jewels on you and my crown on your head. And he says, your renown will go to the ends of the earth because of my beauty which I have put upon you. This is an individual life but I say again, this is a church. This is the body of Christ clothed in his beauty. Decked and, oh dear, I only skimmed the surface. In here are all of the fruits of the Spirit and the gifts of the Spirit. Decked and clothed and crowned and reigning and known to the ends of the earth. Does this sound interesting to you? All right. It begins with hearing Jesus say to us, Live. My precious friend, if you want a life like this, you can begin. This takes time. You don't get all this one trip at the altar but you can get Jesus with one trip at the altar. You can hear him say to you, Live. You don't have to stay in death and barrenness and fruitfulness. You don't have to stay in filthy rags and corruption. You don't have to remain in bondage and death. But Jesus can release you from all that, deliver you from all that, with one word. That's when he says to you, Live. Do you want to hear Jesus say that to you? Get up from where you are and come on down here and accept this wonderful Lord Jesus as your Lord and Master this morning. And he'll speak the Word of Life to you and this marvelous change will begin in your life, make you a new creation in Christ Jesus and your renown, I promise you, the Word of God says that not only will your renown be known to the ends of the earth but throughout the countless ages of eternity Jesus is going to show forth his glory through this company of people. Shall we stand? Shall we stand?