In this sermon, the speaker reminisces about his childhood experiences of accompanying his parents to preach the gospel in lodging houses in London. He emphasizes that natural abilities and worldly possessions are useless to God and that one must be born again to truly serve Him. The speaker then discusses the power and substance of creation, attributing it all to God. He highlights Jesus as the true vine, surpassing the symbolism of the vine in Israel's religious and spiritual life. The sermon concludes with a reminder of Jesus' love for the Father and his obedience to His commandments.

Any volunteer? You see, this is it. Oh, we must have our bedrooms and is there a bathroom with text, please? And all this is it. And they even want to go to conferences in marvellous hotels where you can pay £20 a week and have the marvellous cuisine and everything at hand. God save us. You see, £20, I'd rather say come to Clifton and pay £8.50, they could have sent the rest to the missionary society. Don't they see? Well, I mustn't comment, I beg your pardon. Somehow it doesn't fit in. Not with me. I don't know what it is, but I think of blood-baptised Calvary. I think of the Son of God who was laid on cold stone, slept under hedges. I think of Debussy. Sorry, I've got off the track now, haven't I? But I can't help it. I think of Debussy. I remember when I said to him the first time when I left Nepal, I said, you know, that's a big mistake. I'm not laying it on because you're here, sister. They'll bear me witness. I talk about Debussy all over the country. And that's right, you all don't think, some of you. When I think, he said, I want to go interior. I said, I want to go interior and preach the gospel. I said, well, what are you going to do? He said, I should just take her sleeping bag. I said, but what do you do when you get to these places? I mean, he said, well, I should go and sleep under the people's tree. I'll wrap myself up in my sleeping bag, sleep under the people's tree. You know what a people's tree is? It's a tree that they worship. And if you want to gain marks in heaven, if you have a little bit of money and a Hindu system, our sister will put a pretty good memory, I think, on these things. You plant a people's tree and you sort of build a platform all around it. And now you're a benefactor. You've given everybody a home that likes to come to the village, you see. And they sleep under the people's tree and they worship them. They worship your memory. And you've gained, I don't know what, marks for your good conduct. Debussy said he'd sleep under the people's tree. Would you? Would I? Could I? Well, well, glory be to the name of the Lord. God is wanting to do something wonderful in our lives, beloved. He's working on this great line of heredity still. He can't alter that. Some things God can't do. You do know that, don't you? You see, we sing with God, all things are possible. The Bible says that there are some things God can't do. You know that, don't you? For instance, it says he can't deny himself. He cannot cease to be God. You see, there are some things God can't do. And in this great line of heredity, because God is Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, Father, the expression of his character in the Son, and an outflowing of his life through the Son in the Spirit, that's it. That's God. It's gotta be like that. Everything's gotta be like that. Because God can't bring forth anything from himself that isn't basically patterned upon himself. Some things, sometimes we can, but faintly trace the connection. But it's there. And the Lord wants us to understand. Nevertheless, through the fall of Adam and Eve, that which God had made so malleable, so impressionable, so open, so capable of communion, so needing communion in order to exist, because God needs communion in order to be God. The Father and the Son of the Holy Ghost are named by John in his epistle in a marvellous way. They are called the Fellowship. The Trinity is a Fellowship of Father and Son and Holy Ghost. It must be. So now you see this thing that God has made like himself, you. And this became vitiated, twisted, by the incoming upon this impressionable, malleable human being, through the transgression and sin in the first place, in came the devil. He took this and he twisted it all up. He made the lie seem the truth, he made God seem the devil, and the devil seem God. What do you think this means when you read a verse like this in John's epistle? You know, John's epistle is one of the most wonderful books in the Bible. When you read in the third chapter of his first epistle, beloved, that's one of the best words in the Bible, beloved, now are we the sons of God. Now are we. Therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. The world doesn't know us. Let me give you an illustration of this. Now I don't mean that nobody knows that there is a name somewhere in England, G.W. North. I don't mean that. That would only be knowing of me. Of course they don't and we don't want to be known. It means this, if I can illustrate it. Only the other week I was at a conference and a young, oh it was this young man I told you, I gathered this tremendous murderous, this murder weapon off him in the end. He got this on his hand at the moment. He'd been outside and he'd put on his knuckle dusters and his chains and he'd got this murder weapon hooked to his belt and he was waiting for me outside the door. As he went out the door, because God was working, I want to encourage you young men, ministers, ministers of the truth. As he went out the door, I was somewhere near the door. God had worked in a wonderful way and people were screaming out all over the meeting because of the devil's presence and God was moving. I got over by the door and this young man had been sitting right over there and I ministered to him, giving him all my attention. I heard a flurry and this fellow went round the back of the meeting and the door flew open as he went out and said, you're a fake, you're a fake, you're a fake. I carried on. We don't take any notice of those things do we? But when the meeting was over, he was outside the door. He'd gone and got himself loaded up, knuckle dusters, chains, wires, knives. He was lounging by the door like this. They all got together praying. I didn't know this was it. Apparently they had a prayer meeting. I thought I'd better go and see me. He said, yeah, I do. I said, well, what do you want to talk about then? Apparently he was disarmed straight away. He couldn't do anything else because I loved him. He'd got all these things on and I know that these are only a show and all their whole life is built up on fear. Anyway, I talked with him and as we were talking, somebody else came up and said, you're not going to do that. Come on, hand over those knuckle dusters and chains to me. Come on. No. Come on. No. That went on for about ten minutes till in the end I left. I said, well, you'll know where I am if you want me to talk to me. My room's up there. I saw him next morning. I said, come in. And he walked. He opened the door and said, I'll come say sorry about last night. I said, have you? Yeah, he said. I was so embarrassed, pulled out this big knife. He said, here, here. Couldn't give it to me. At last he handed it over. Oh, he says, you know, that's been my security. Hand you that. I can't go into the details of his story, but this is what he said. This is the point that I'm trying to make. He said, and that person that spoke to me last night, I knew that person. He said, well, I don't know you. I know that person. He said, I know Satan. I don't know Jesus. I knew that person. He said, I don't know you. Right out of the devil's mouth. The world doesn't know us. Amen. It's good to have life proofs of the word of truth, isn't it? Right out of his mouth. I don't know you, he said. I knew that, though, he said. I knew that. They didn't get it off him. Came to me this morning. He handed it over to the unknowable. Praise God. Meaning he was in the night like a lamb seeking the Lord. I never cast any devils out of there. I want you to think these things over, beloved. God wants you to think these things over. And it isn't to say demons don't need casting out of some people. That's not what I said. I said, I didn't cast any devils out of him. All right. God is moving upon the basis of heredity. And this is why he could make this great new covenant with people. Turn with me, will you, to the last chapter of the last book in the Old Testament. Bless God for this Bible. Bless God for this Bible. Oh, hallelujah. You know the last book of the Old Testament, don't you? It's called Malachi. God hadn't spoken for 400 years when Malachi was written. Between Malachi and the New Testament, I mean. In the third chapter, Behold, I will send my messenger. He shall prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant. That's the Lord who suddenly came to the temple. Whom you delight in, the Holy shall come, saith the Lord of hosts. Amen. And so Jesus came as the messenger of the covenant. The new message he spoke to us through his Son. Amen. Someone in whom the law on principle of heredity was going to be set forth as it should be set forth, as man had never seen it. Not even Adam's sons had seen it as it should have been in Adam in the first place. They found it twisted and perverted, and from it came a murderer and a victim. Death. Jesus comes, hallelujah. He's the messenger of the covenant, the Lord in whom we delight. A great covenant in him. Oh, it's so lovely. In the Brethren session, which we are hoping to hold in September, beloved, I want to expound the new covenant to all the elders and ministering brethren, so that we really know what it is. Sorry about you, sisters. This is one of your losses or gains. I'm not quite sure. But in Luke chapter 22, you know that it's the upper room, and they're gathering for the last supper, the last Passover supper, and the institution of God's great new, new feasts. 19, Luke 22. He took bread, he gave thanks, and break it, and gave unto them, saying, This is my body, which is given for you. This do in remembrance of me. Likewise also the cup after supper. This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is shed for you. Which, of course, shows that none of them were in the new covenant, even though they were followers of the Lord, and had moved in the gifts that we would call of the Spirit, and had cast out devils, and had raised the dead, and had cleansed the leper, and had preached that you should repent, and anointed with oil the sick, and they'd recovered. You've discovered all these things in your Gospels. Yet none of them were in the new covenant, because the new covenant was in his blood, and had not yet been shed, which will place the truth of the baptism in the Spirit in its proper perspective. All right. They were doing all these things unbaptized in the Spirit. The whole glorious thing, beloved, is that he says, This is what's in my blood. And you will remember that this is what the Lord had said of old. He said, The life is in the blood. Amen. The life came from the blood. The blood seed determines the life. I'm coming back to the natural. And from that blood comes flesh. All flesh comes from blood. Flesh is only blood. I was going to say solidified. You know quite well what I mean by that. That's what it is. That's why he said, You've got to eat my flesh as well as drink my blood. I can't stop on that now. It's only blood in another form. It's flesh. It's a marvelous thing. And he said that this cup, now you notice what he said, don't you? It was the cup that was the new covenant. It wasn't the blood shed on the cross. Now notice what he's saying. He had to shed that blood. But it was only caught up as new covenant truth in the cup to be drunk. That was preserved. You've got that? And you see the through? For his own. All right? They drank it. It had to be poured out on the cross. Hallelujah. But he brought them into the spiritual truth of it before he shed it. He showed them really what he was going to do. What it was all about. Why he did it. And his life, beloved, he crammed in, if you like, all the virtue of his glorious life into that blood. His blessed, wonderful life was as natural as it was spiritual as it was soulful. I didn't spiritual as it was soulful. Actually the Hebrew word life in Leviticus that says the life is in the blood is really the Hebrew word soul, nefesh. The soul life is in the blood. Amen. The life of the soul is in the blood. Tremendous. Now you know that soul life is only a result of spirit life. I hope you know that. What the spirit is works out through the soul. Into soul it works out. That's right. All right? Not going too fast or expecting your mind to boggle or stretch too much. So many of you have been students in degrees and ways. I never was a student. I left school when I was 14 and went to work. So you ought to be able to do that. And that's why you have brains. You haven't got brains to make your way and a lot of money in the world. You've got sufficient brains to hear the call of God and do what he says. That's fine. That's marvelous. And the whole wonderful thing about it, beloved, is that that blood was shed for us. Amen. And I want to tell you that Jesus didn't eat sour grapes and neither did his father. Listen. Luke 15. Today, beloved, we're going to see such marvelous truth behind these things that we've never seen in our lives before perhaps. Luke, John 15. I am the true vine. My father is the husbandman. The grapes are for the father. That's what the vine produces the grapes for, for the father. Amen. Oh, hallelujah. The fathers in this business are begetting children. Now, spiritual children. All right? And you see the kind of vine that he is. Because, you see, before we've had several different kinds of vines revealed to us in the scripture. Thy mother is like a vine in thy blood on the natural side. All right? We got that the other day. And then you've got Israel was the vine. You remember that? In fact, the vine was a symbol of Israel, like the fig tree. The fig tree standing for the civil side of Israel. The vine standing for the religious and spiritual side of Israel's national life. He said, I planted thee wholly a right vine. I'm quoting from Isaiah 6 now. I planted thee a right vine, wholly a right vine. He said, how is it that thou hast become the degenerate vine, a strange vine to me? So Jesus cut. And coming down to the end of chapter 14, which I want you to notice, please notice, I'm having to go very fast. If I am being almost cryptic, certainly almost speaking in note form to you. I said the other day, the tapes are available if you want them. He started off chapter 14 by talking about father's house. Eh? All right. The father's house. Now he's on, I'm the true vine. He goes down this 14th chapter. I love this. He says, oh, glory be to God. Well, I'd love to be able to, if I stop in chapter 14, that's where we'll be till about dinner time tomorrow. But as we come down chapter 14, this is what we read. He says, verse 30, Hereafter, he says, I will not talk much with you, for the prince of this world cometh and hath nothing in me. Amen. You ought to be shouting your head off for this. You see, he exceeds the vine. Now listen, the devil's got nothing in this great character and substance. That's the thing for you to see. Nothing. Oh, bless the Lord for 33 years of marvellous living. How shall we thank him? How shall we thank him? He says, that the world may know that I love the father. Here's the vine of love. Here's the vine of purity. He says, as the father gave me commandment, even so I do. Here's the vine of obedience. Hallelujah. Arise. Let us go hence. I'm the true vine. Now, if you're going to be a true branch, you've got to be like this. The devil has nothing in you, because he's the branches. You're the branches, he said. I'm the whole vine. You're the branches. You're that part of me. All right. Devil's got nothing in me. Is that right, Lord? You check on me. I mustn't say anything's wrong. You check up. See? You know what it is? You want to be a true vine to bear the fruit? Take note of this, my beloved brothers and sisters. And the fruit is the father. And I'm going to bear my sweet fruit. And father doesn't eat sour grapes. Off you! Now, here's a heredity pattern. Hallelujah. Now we're beginning to see this whole glorious thing. I hope you are anyway. That's why, pray you understand this, that's why the first miracle he performed was to provide wine, sweet wine. It's all consistent, this Bible. It's all consistent. Nothing wrong with it at all. It's psychologically sound, spiritually sound, grammatically sound, scientifically sound. I tell you, it's absolutely sound. There it is. Marvelous. And we're on this glorious thing that the Lord has shown us. I'm the true vine. You see, in Jesus Christ, there was a change of paternity. In Jesus Christ, there was a change of maternity. Amen. All right? That clears you? Good. And this is how the Lord changes the curse of heredity, the curse of our heredity, and brings us into the blessedness of heredity. Glory. It's all done this way. And we know, as Norman told us last night, he said that at the cross, blessed be the name of the Lord. Oh, praise God for the cross. Praise God for what the Lord did there. Amen. That was God's instrument of utter power. The devil tried to circumvent the cross. Anything to stop Jesus getting to the cross. Just fall down and worship me. He said, I'll give you the kingdom of the world. Don't you bother to go to Calvary. Because he didn't say that, but Jesus knew what was behind it. You just do this. That's all. You want the kingdom of the world? See? Don't go to the cross. Whatever you do, don't go to the cross. There's an easier way. There's another way. The Lord doesn't have anything from the devil. Nothing. He wouldn't take you as a gift from the devil. Nothing. That had all got to be broken. And he did it. How wonderful this is then, beloved, that God should bring us to an understanding of the way our Lord Jesus worked. And he said, I'm making a new covenant. This covenant is called the everlasting covenant. And in the end becomes the only one that there is. And the Lord moves on to bring us into this glory of life. Oh dear. In Christ. All right then. In this new covenant, there is for us a new paternity and a new maternity. We must, as you know, be born of God. Must be. And we must be born of God utterly. It's all got to be of God. God the Father, and God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost. It's got to be all of God. You see, we do need to know the Father. And we like to think that we are born of the Father. And it's so right. But you've also been born of the Holy Ghost. And you've also been born of the Son. In that the Son is the seed from which you're born. The Holy Ghost is the one that comes upon you so that you may be born. And the Father is the one that plants the seed of the Son in your heart. And you're born of God. You're not born of man. You're not born of the will of the flesh. You're born of God utterly. Amen. Now this is so wonderful, beloved. There are many experiences that come to a person before this. And there are more wonderful experiences that come to you afterwards. And the Lord is moving us on in this tremendous life. He's moving to undo the devil's work in our lives. And that's what he did at Calvary. He cut off all these things. I had already had a little word with Norman, my dear long-suffering brother, whose burnings have preached to you. And I said, Norman, I think I'm going to preach tonight, if you don't mind. I told him what I was going to preach about. He said, oh yes, that's what we need preaching. All right. Here, old Norman. So I'll tell you what. I'll let him have the privilege of baptizing you tomorrow afternoon. Amen. I want to say something to you. Listen, beloved. I couldn't carry on without men like this, like Bob Love, Dad Moffat, Norman Neaton, Jim Williams, who looks after all the publishing side. I couldn't carry on without these people. You must understand that it's the workers that are the real thing. See, God gave—who was the real one in our salvation? It was Jesus. Now you listen. We're the Father's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus. The worker, always. It's the people, those that are not seen. These are the things. Anyway, let's go on. You've got to be to this place, beloved, where you know this great miracle and glory of God in your heart. You and I have got to know a clear position in our lives. You will have known this. It doesn't matter whether you understand it or not. What I'm just sort of talking to you about today may be completely new to you. It may not be. It may be you know a lot more than I do, and you're just allowing me to be the spokesman. Well, that's fine. But you've got to know that you're born of that blood seed. You've got to know that. It's common sense in spiritual things. And you can only be born by the Holy Ghost coming upon you. Praise God. And Father begets you. That's why the first great cry of a regenerate heart is, Abba, Father. That's the birth cry. Hallelujah. Everybody has to have a birth cry. Amen. Abba, Father. It's in the heart. Hallelujah. The Holy Ghost takes the place of the Mother. Let me go with you into Galatians. In Galatians chapter three, four, verse twenty-six, Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all. Hallelujah. Praise God. Isn't that a precious thing? Now, this means to say that if you've been born of God, you've been born free. Jerusalem which is above is the mother of us all, which is free. Amen. Glory. And that's why he says in the opening of the next chapter, stand fast in the liberty. Now, this is what so many people don't do. You and I have been born again from above. The word translated again in John's three, where it says you must be born again, is the exact word which is used here. Jerusalem which is above. You've got to be born from above. The Holy Ghost has to come. You can be born from above. You must be born again from above. You must be born of the Holy Ghost. This is a marvellous thing. You know, sometimes I think tremendous mistakes have been made. I can remember reading a book about God's dealings with a man named Bevington in America. For your information, that's a sort of a companion book that you ought to read to the letters of a man of God. Bevington. If you can find this book by Bevington, scour your second-hand bookstores and read about what this man Bevington did. He was a great man in America. He told some tremendous stories at this point. The mighty movings of the power of God. And some of you heard me tell the story about how all the maggots in the ground were dead. You remember that one, don't you? Well, this was this man Bevington. And for those of you who say, now what does that mean? I'm picturing it straight up. Well, I'll tell you. He was a tremendous man of God. And before they got this sort of word, deliverance, as a gimmick on everybody's mouth, he was using it. He was moving in the great in America. Upon this occasion, anyway, he went along to a farmer and this farmer had been bitter against the gospel that was being preached. So he went to see him. He said, well, look, he said, this is the day before pesticides and how they destroyed these things by chemicals of years and years ago, century ago, I would think. He said, look, there's all my corn dying in the field, he said, eaten away with weevils and worms, he said. You say about God being loved, you prove to me from that. You know, he went off in all his bitter ways, you see. So Bevington said, all right, all right, you go walk down your field in the morning, he said, and there won't be one living weevil in your field. So at the crack of dawn, the farmer was up, took a spade, lifted it up, full of weevils. They were all dead. They went all over his field, digging a bit out here, digging a bit out there, all dead. In all the other fields around him, the other farms, they were working. This man moved in the power of God. We talk about miracles, but, you know, hallelujah, these, these, these tremendous things. Well, Bevington once was preaching in a campaign, and a real old drunkard drinking, Bax Woodman, Bax Woodsman came in, and he used to drink himself paralyzed nearly every Saturday, and beat his wife up, and I don't know what he did. He was the terror of this place. So anyway, he wouldn't be there, he was in the saloon. But Bevington prayed, and this man came into the meeting lurching drunk. Tried to interfere with the meeting, Bevington left him to the end. When he was there, he was still there, absolutely drunk, drinking spirits, I don't know what. So Bevington went with him in the side room, and he locked himself in with this fellow, and prayed before God, and came against this devil, and somewhere around midnight, the whole lot went. The devils went, the alcoholism went, everything went, and he was sobered up, and he said, Glory to God, he said, Glory to God, he said, Marvellous, he was saying this, I feel wonderful, and Bevington said, No you're not, the devil's only got to go, you've got to get born again now. That's the mistake, that's the mistake. Of course people feel clean and marvellous when something like that happens. Let me say they're born again. This is where so much has passed for the genuine, which is still the false. God save us, and give us clear eyes. We won't be talking about that slider so much, as pitying them because they were never really born. So many of them. I've discovered this, I went to a city called Bradford. I've already mentioned it, haven't I? Long time ago now. I went up to another place, a local town, and when I went up there to preach, they said, This place is full of backsliders, brother, full of backsliders, full of them. I went into the church and there were about a handful of people, full of backsliders. I found afterwards, after I'd been in somewhere, they'd never been born. They'd made decisions. People had turned cartwheels and somersaults, and there'd been changes. This is the tragedy. Jerusalem, which is above, is the mother. Amen. David got a glimpse into this in the Old Covenant, when he was talking about Jerusalem. Go about Jerusalem, tell her, boys. When it comes to be written, he said, This man was born there, David. See? Why not in there? He got a revelation, didn't he? All my springs are in thee. That's right, isn't it? But he'd been born in Bethlehem, he wasn't born in Jerusalem. He was born in Bethlehem. See? Thou Bethlehem Ephrathah, though thou be least among the princes of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me, whose goings forth have been from of old. Hallelujah. David was born in Bethlehem. We got to know this mother, this blessed coming of the Holy Ghost on us, beloved, this great envelopment, not evolution, this great envelopment of power and life and spirit from above. When he was talking about Jerusalem, go about Jerusalem, tell her, boys. When it comes to be written, he said, Thou write, This man was born there, David. See? Why not in there? He got a revelation, didn't he? All my springs are in thee. That's right, isn't it? But he'd been born in Bethlehem, he wasn't born in Jerusalem. He was born in Bethlehem. See? Thou Bethlehem Ephrathah, though thou be least among the princes of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me, whose goings forth have been from of old. Hallelujah. David was born in Bethlehem. We got to know this mother, this blessed coming of the Holy Ghost on us, beloved, this great envelopment, not evolution, this great envelopment of power and life and spirit from above that takes hold of us, beloved, and deals with everything. You see, there's a revelation in the scripture right in the opening chapters. What do you think it means when it says, In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth, and the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. See? And the earth at that time was, had no form, it was a shapeless, void mess under the waters, and it had to come up from the deep. In the beginning, when God moved in great creation power, Paul was talking, Norman was talking about it last night, if any man be in Christ, he says, he said, and this is one way the Greek can be, it's one of those phrases that can be not so precisely rendered. You've got in the Authorized Version, there is, he is a new creature. Norman went on to give us an alternative rendering, he is a new creation. But perhaps a more correct rendering still is, if any man be in Christ Jesus, there is a new creation. Amen. Now, hallelujah, he came from the deeps of eternity. He came from the deeps whence the deeps of the first creation came. Hallelujah. He is the exact expression of the Father's substance, his character. This word substance is a marvelous word, it means that which stands under, that which is below the surface. Amen. Oh, joy. Come on, let's go into the New Testament. I, I, I, this, this is, this is the great thing that God wants us to see, beloved. We'll go into the, into the Colossians. Look at this. It says this, that in the first chapter of the Colossians, it speaks of Jesus in verse 15. He is the image of the invisible. He is the image of the invisible, that which could not be seen. I know it's the invisible God, I'm laying the emphasis on invisible. Obviously it's the invisible God, because God is invisible. And he was the exact image of the invisible. He was the image of God's substance. And the substance, strangely enough, of God, is that which we would call insubstantial. It's spirit. God is spirit. If you like, that's his substance. You say, really? That's a contradiction in terms. No, it's not. Not once you know the things of the spirit. You know that the only thing that is substantial is spirit. That's right, you know that straight away. The rest is, you know. For instance, that you're not, you're not really sitting on anything solid, you know that. You're sitting on a lot of, a mass of whirling atoms. You're sitting on power. Most of it, most unsubstantial. I don't know how in the world it hangs together. Well, see, there you are. But this is what, it's by him all things hang together, or consist, as we're told, in the Colossians, by him. He gave apparent, visible substance to the invisible. Glory be to God. Jesus is marvellous. But he's most marvellous in this, not in creation. And we walk, oh, we see these trees, we hear these birds, we rejoice in the sunshine. I'm enjoying it anyway, I hope you are. And, oh, he says it's lovely, but that's nothing, nothing at all. God would only have to go like that, and there'd be another one. That's right. He made them by the breath of his mouth. He only said, let there be life. It all came out of a word. In other words, he expressed his spirit, power, thought, imagination, intention, everything in the word. Everything. But when that word became flesh, oh, the word became flesh. Oh, hallelujah. It came right out of the flesh. That's why you're told in the first Corinthian letter, in the tenth chapter, that they all drank water of the spiritual rock that followed them. Now you can't have a spiritual rock, can you? I mean, rock is the opposite of spirit, isn't it? You don't throw rocks at spirits. But you see, that's it. Because that's the nearest thing that God can get it to impinge on your mind. That spirit is solid, eternal rock. Substance. The greatest substance there is. More substantial than trees and flowers and bees' knees that Norman talked about, and the oceans, and anything. More solid than the granite. More real. Now Jesus was the exact expression, image, of that substance. He was the image of the invisible God. Isn't that lovely? He came forth from the Father and the Holy Ghost. He said, you must be born again. Amen. There has to be a change of paternity. You must now belong to the Father's house. The tragedy is this, and this will explain a lot of things to you, if you will let the Lord teach your heart. You go back to John chapter 8. It is the chapter, you remember, in which he said, you are of your father the devil. You remember, we were reading this yesterday. You are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father you will do. Alright? Up in that same chapter, hang on, we didn't read it, it says this, verse 31, he's speaking to the Jews that believed on him. He says, if you continue in my word, then are you my disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth. They didn't know the truth then, you see. He says, you shall know it if you continue in my word. You'll know it then, and the truth shall make you free. They answered him, we be Abraham's seed, and were never in bondage to any man. How blind can people be, you see, declaring their liberty found hand and foot, with worse than grave clothes. How sayest thou you shall be made free? Jesus answered them, Amen, Amen. I say unto you, whosoever committed sin is the slave of sin, and the slave abideth not in the house forever. The son abideth ever. Now this is it. We've got many people who are slaves, servants, in the house. They can, they go, they work in the things of father's house, they have great privilege, and they have great powers. They can do marvellous things, but they're not sons, and they won't abide in the house forever. They'll be able to go in, and out of New Jerusalem, father's house, in the new creation, but they won't abide there. And God is wanting us to understand this tremendously. And if you understand this, it will explain ever so much to them, that people who aren't truly the sons of God, are nevertheless servants of God. There's a vast difference between servants and sons. Though every son must be a servant, every servant is not a son. Isn't that right? Yes, that's obvious, you've only got to do some thinking. You see, you know that God raised up Pharaoh to serve him. And as we were pointed out, he called a man his servant, a heathen king. God makes everybody servants. The devil has to serve God, as a matter of fact, did you know that? The whole tremendous thing, beloved, is that some men have wonderful powers, they have wonderful abilities, they serve, but they're not sons. That will explain the verse in Matthew 7, where you remember Jesus is speaking, he said, people will come and say, Lord, Lord, in thy name we've cast out devils, in thy name we've done many wonderful works. And he said, I shall say to them, depart from me, ye workers of iniquity, I didn't know you. Really? So we see that possessions of powers, even miracle-working powers, are not proof of sonship. Though, all of us who are the real children of God have got to move into this realm. And God wants us to see and understand this, that we shall be clear in that day. The great thing about sons, beloved, is that they've had this glorious nature change. They've had this great change because of a new father and a new mother. They've come to the place where they've been. Whatever term you want to use, it doesn't matter where they've been. Where they've died with Christ, been crucified with Christ, or whatever it is, they've come to the place where they have been at the old wretched man that I am. Absolute selfless, can't go another inch, cannot go any further, Lord. That's right. Oh, my wife's here, I often talk about this. She'll remember the night when I said to her, I was caught in her then, she said, what's the matter? I said, I'm a contradiction of all that I believe. I was a preacher man. I was fairly gifted, you know, a wife from a young age. You mustn't confuse natural ability with spiritual gift. You must never do it. I had plenty of natural ability. I was brought up in the right circles. I was dedicated under the flag of the Salvation Army. I think I told you this the other night. The father was Church of England. My mother was linked with the Salvation Army. I went to a Methodist church. I tell you, used to go to the mild main mission to the Jews, I tell you. My father used to lead a lodging house party. I used to go and push the harmonium round on four wheels, have a marvellous time, carry his Bible bag in my hand. My mother and my father would preach the gospel in the lodging houses in London. I tell you, they were marvellous, salubrious places. They spanked off chips and kippers and cockroaches and tobacco and snuff and beer. It was great. I used to go there. I tell you, natural ability, I did my first public work when I was three. I sang a solo when I was three years of age. That's why I'm so sort of... You see, it was natural. I want to tell you, beloved, that the natural is as useless to God. If natural means would have done it, beloved, Jesus wouldn't have come. Nothing. Not that what we are and have can't be yielded to the Lord. Of course it can. But, oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. These things are not for God, beloved. You've got to be born again. You've got to do things. You've got to come to that place where the death of Christ is brought in to deal with everything inside you. You come up out of the deeps. You come back from the depths of what? All the sin in the human race. That's where you've come from when you were born first and the Lord does love to meet us. Just looking at my watch and how much more liberty I might take. Now this is your trouble. We discover things deep, deep, deep, deep down in us. Have you ever discovered the deep things? Things that you don't probably know at first are there. I mean, you couldn't help it if your father was a drunkard. You couldn't help it if your mother was a spiritualist medium. Nothing to do with you. You didn't ask to be born. You came into the world. You couldn't help it either that you were born in the 20th century and not in the first century. And you had nothing to do with it. That's all. You're here. And beloved, we discover things in ourselves, don't we? The deep, deep hidden things. You know, you go, you go to the scientists and they talk about the subconscious and they talk about the unconscious and they talk about all these things. And I'll almost have you, if you're not careful, in a place where you say, well, I can't help it. You see, you accept no responsibility. And then we wonder why we build, we breed a generation or two of hippies. They're not just the result of two world wars. They're a result of science, falsely so-called, fiddling about in the realms of the human mind and personality, gropingly coming to some kinds of understandings about them, knowing nothing about causes really, nothing at all. They don't. Denying that there is a, there is spirit, they deny that, most of them, deny that there is spirit, so they can't know. That's immediately excluded. For everything comes from spirit. Oh, and that spirit, beloved, that spirit that's in human being, I know you have a particular spirit when you're born, but the spirit of man, beloved, which is in man, has been dead for so long, dead, in the garden it died, it's absolutely dead. That's why they don't know there's a spirit there. It's dead. That's why the first man was of the earth, but the second man was a quickening spirit, a life-giving spirit. That's what we're told in 1 Corinthians. It came to bring to life something that nobody knows anything about, doesn't even know it's there. Groping about, trying to find, is there spirit? Let's promote psychic research. Let's try and find out here, shall we? Let's go into all these realms. Can't find spirit. Don't know that it's there because it's dead, but it's there. And that spirit, beloved, is indwelt by another spirit who's part of these spirits. You can find this in Ephesians, chapter 2. You, Hattie Quicken, who were dead in trespasses and sins, wherein in time past you walked according to the course of this age, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience. In every child of disobedience the devil is working. The prince of the power of the air is working in every child of disobedience. And it isn't so much a demon as him himself. And this is why in so much ministry that is directed along the line of to rid people of demons is missing the mark because it doesn't recognize that. And it's been plainly written in our Bibles all the time. Half our mistakes arise from the fact of totally ignoring some scriptures in order to promote others. We have to come to a great understanding. The spirit that now works in the children of disobedience, among whom we all had our manner of life in times past, fulfilling the lusts and desires of the flesh and of the mind, were by nature children of wrong, even as others. But God, for his rich in mercy, for his great love, wherewith he loved us even when we were dead in trespasses and sins, quickened us together with Christ. Amen. Now you see how he did it. He created us all in Christ. Now I was here on our first meeting on Friday night. This is how God has overcome it. This is how he's dealt with us all. In Christ, in chapter 2, we read that we are his workmanship. Verse 10, we were created in Christ. Amen. Hallelujah. I'm glad even if I was a woman like you, I wasn't created in the Garden of Eden. Because you were. You understand that. I'm glad I was created in Christ. How about that? Hallelujah. I was created in Christ. Think of that. My word. You were created in Christ. And because you were created in Christ, now you're going to be formed, and Christ is going to be formed in you. Because you've already been created. Substantial. You've been created in Christ. And it's a precious thing. And because this is so, God, this is the thing that happens. When we're born of the Holy Ghost, we are born into that creation. And we're made alive in, though at first not aware of, that inward life of Christ. Amen. No wonder, of course, naturally then the first cry should be, Father. Amen. Glory. Father, our Father. Hallelujah. Isn't it precious? You see, that's the cry of a son, every time. And we're there, being created there. Oh, what a thing the Lord did, beloved. That precious Lord Jesus, who lived and lived and simply lived in total obedience, and He created out of the substance of life, in circumstances similar to yours, He created a new man. Absolutely. And I've been born in that. Been born into it. Born into it. Born into it. And that's what our new birth is really all about. To stay alive on the inside of Christ. Now, substantially, you're a living spirit. No, we're no longer outside Christ. And Christ is no longer. We are in Him. And that means that we are to know growth in and development of all the inward states as a man. All right? This is our development. This is our growth. Think of all the inward states of you, unborn. That's it, unborn again, I mean. Think. Think of your tempers. Think of your language. Think of your disposition. Think how horrible you were. Think what a rebel you were. Think how proud you were. Think how wasteful. Think how envious and jealous you were. Think how quarrelsome and nasty and catty and cruel. Think of it all. Well, now, the exact opposite of that, that's what you are God of age. And that's what Jesus Christ was. All right? Now, you've been born into that. And immediately, there is the change of your nature. Immediately, there's a change of this. Immediately, there's a change of all the basic things. There are absolutely vital to the development of the only true life that can please God the Father. For the only life that will please God the Father is the life of Jesus. You understand that, don't you? Yes. Yes. I think you can liken that in the scripture to, say, the apostles, the disciples. At the call of the Lord, there was a conversion. He was changed from his former manner of life. He started to follow the Lord. He became conscious of his sin, saying, depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord. He began to understand some of the terrible things of his own nature, personality and life. And he had to be taught of God. In many things, he had still the wrong attitude. For instance, in the matter of forgiveness, you know, when he said, how often should I forgive my brother, Lord? Seven times. And he thought he was nearly being a martyr to do that. And Jesus says, 70 times. He had a revelation so far. And most of us do this. But there comes a place in our life when all these things which are partial in our experience, if you like to put it that way, we have a taste of them, and the things that begin to happen in us, become suddenly real and full and glorious. And developing on into this wonderful place where God is going to fulfil everything in our lives. After you are converted, now wasn't that the real conversion? Yes. This is the thing I think we've got to see. And often I will say this to people. I say, well, I'm converted. But most people don't understand by conversion that Jesus meant when he was really inwardly totally changed. And that happened to him on the day of Pentecost. See, the Lord Jesus told him, he said, when you're strengthened, when you're converted, you strengthen your brethren, Peter. And he'd been following the Lord for three years and wasn't converted in this sense. Yet we use Peter as an illustration of conversion often. Especially that text, you know, follow me and I'll make you fishers of men. And we read how he rose up, left his boats, left his fishing, and started to follow the Lord. And to such an extent, he said, well, we've left all and followed you all. What shall we have there for us? And yet Jesus said, told him, in that upper room, he said, you're not converted. And even before that, you will remember in Matthew's gospel, it all happened out of jealousy. It gives you an inside view of their hearts that they've never had a real nature change. You remember that they'd come to the receipt of customs, where they got to pay their taxes, and they hadn't got the money to pay the taxes, the full taxes anyway. One presumes that they had some. And so the Lord said to Peter, he said, now you go down to the sea, he said, take up the first fish that comes, take the coin out of its mouth, pay that for thee and for me, you see. And that ends the chapter, because I'm always talking about this, you should never stop at the end of chapters, it splits up the truth. In the next chapter, you have that they all come to him, you see, and they say, oh, who's the greatest of the kings? You see, favouring Peter, why didn't he pay my taxes? Look at the jealousy, the littleness, the envy in these men's hearts. They'd already cast out devils, they'd already healed the sick, they'd already cleansed lepers, they'd done a lot, but were jealous. And one says, who, who? He didn't. Well, you know the sort of things that they would say. Paying Peter, well, it was amazing. So they started to argue, you see. And Jesus didn't do anything else but call a child, and he said to him, he said, except you're converted, it's open, put these things, it's a revelation to say that. Except you're converted, and the coming of this little child, you won't get into the kingdom. They thought they were in, they were only arguing for who was going to be greatest. That's the tragedy. Most of our misunderstandings come because we do not read our Bibles properly. It's all written. They had some kind of a conversion. Nasser had been converted from being a public tax gatherer. John and James and Peter and Andrew had been converted from being fishermen, and they'd been converted from doing all sorts of this, that and the other. But the real inward thing that reduced them to little children, you've got to be converted and become a little child. Amen. It's the conversion under this, which is the big thing. And he said, unless you are, you won't get in. And what a glorious thing this is. And you see, so you find Peter, if we take him as an illustration of this, on behalf of all the disciples, and I suppose he's got to bear this, it's always this way, he was the one of the chief, if not the very chief of the apostles, he was called first by Jesus, Simon, he was the first one named, so this is the penalty you pay for being at the top. Everybody throws bricks at you from then on, that's right, because the others' names aren't so prominent. So we'll illustrate from Peter, you know who he is, here he's in the judgment, and a little girl comes up to him and said, now you're one of his disciples. No I'm not. Peter, Norman brought this up so beautifully last night, and he said the truth about him. I don't know him, and he told the truth. He'd been following him for three years, he didn't know him. This is the thing they said in the upper room. He said, show us the father. Have I been so long time with you, and yet you don't know me Philip. Didn't know him. He'd been following him for three years. Didn't know him. There's a tragedy. This really takes place in our lives. Oh, we're left out of the place of knowledge, and we come right in when God deals with us, and here's old Peter, he's saying, I don't know him, and they all forsook him and fled. I never knew a true born again spiritual child of God, that loved Jesus, that ever forsook him. I admit it. Would you forsake him because he was going to be crucified? If you're a born again child of God, without any big boasts or heroics, you wouldn't forsake him and deny him and curse him. Of course you wouldn't, but hallelujah, her glory. When he was born, that changed him. Well, not really, only that this of course, these people are instance as following the Lord Jesus, and these are the ones in whom the illustrations, from whom the illustrations come, but there's no real difference, and run away from him for fear of your own skin. Yes, we have to go through a process as Dominic. We bless the name of the Lord. If we didn't, where would all any of us be? But to see these things as they are written in the scripture, sets us so wonderfully free. The cross, you see, this is it. He said to them, I suppose really I ought to stop all night. It's ten past five, is it? Pardon? Well, here it is. He said, he said to them, follow me, follow me. He made additions like, I'll make the fish men, and this sort of thing. Follow me. And then, follow me, follow me. Where's he going? Follow me. Where's he going? Follow me. Well, where's he going if he's asked you to follow him? He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, he said, following that wonderful word to the woman taking her down, sin no more. He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness. You see, then he starts to talk about the difference between servants and sons. Notice the logic of the scripture. In John chapter eight, goes through it, deals with a man that's been born blind. One thing I know, we use these things and talk about them as though they are their own illustrations. And on we go, you see. And on we go. Well, where are you going, Lord? He said, I'm the resurrection and the life. Where is he now? Keep following me. He goes to the upper room. Do you see that? I go my way. I'm the way. You can't come to the Father but by me. Come on, follow. Then no death, no birth. No death, no life. They ran away. Of course, they were lovely men. You would have run away under the same circumstances. I would have run away.