In this sermon, the preacher discusses the story of Elijah and the prophets of Baal. He highlights the contrast between the prophets of Baal and Elijah, who was a man of God. The prophets of Baal cried, beat their breasts, and shouted, but their efforts were in vain. Elijah, on the other hand, confidently built an altar and poured water on it, demonstrating his faith in God. The preacher emphasizes the importance of owning our responsibility and seeking God's forgiveness, just as the people did in Luke chapter 3 when they asked, "Men and brethren, what shall we do?" The sermon also touches on the role of John the Baptist in preparing the way for the Lord and the significance of waiting for the promise of the Holy Spirit.

If Jesus tarries, maybe they'll be at the uttermost parts of the earth. Maybe they'll be rewriting church history instead of reading it. I trust you'll make them men and women of faith, men and women of holiness, men and women of purity, men and women who can really say from the very depths of their heart, my richest gain I count but loss, and poor contempt and all my pride. Lord, I believe the church is facing the biggest challenges it's ever faced in its history. We need that double portion of your Spirit. Lord, enter in our hearts in a new way tonight. Enter into our thinking, we pray. Open up your word and open our hearts and open our mouths to declare the things God has done. We give you praise in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you. Be seated. I want to read a very, very well-known portion of scripture. You'll have a dozen answers to it as soon as I read it, I'm sure. It's in a book called the Acts of the Apostles. You read that? And it's in the second chapter, Acts chapter 2. And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly, I love that word suddenly. You remember the little hymn or part of the scripture? Let me quote the scripture, that will be better. Where the shepherds were keeping what? Watch by night and what? Suddenly there was what? A sound. People say that the angels sang. I can't find a place in scripture where angels sing. If you can, tell me next week. They sang? No, no. There was a sound of a, suddenly, there's a sound of an angel group shouting, praising and saying, glory to God in the highest. Remember how Malachi finishes his wonderful, wonderful little book? What does it say? The Lord whom ye seek shall walk? Suddenly. One minute, there's not much evidence, and suddenly he comes. They were all seated there in the upper room. Suddenly there was a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues of fire, as it sat upon each of them. Whenever I read this, privately or publicly, there rushes into my mind an outline that was given by an Englishman, excuse me, J. B. Phillips. He afterwards gave us a J. B. Phillips New Testament, which I think is quite good. But before that, he made this statement about the acts of the apostles. He said, here is the Church of Jesus Christ before it became fought, fought by prosperity. Here is the Church of Jesus Christ before it became muscle-bound by all but organization, where we're living right now. This is the Church of Jesus Christ where they did not sign articles of faith, but they acted in faith. This is the Church of Jesus Christ where they did not gather together a group of intellectuals to study psychosomatic medicine. Made it easier than that, just heal the sick. We send them to psychiatrists and doctors in any way we've got in our bankruptcy. You know, when I read this or say this, I feel cheated. Do you? That I live in this miserable day when the Church has no glory, no power, no authority, and so we beat drums and clap and dance and try and fill up the vacuum that's there. In this first chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, it says in verse 4, And being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which says, He have heard of me. For truly John baptized with water, that he should be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence. Have you ever wondered what the countdown was like in the other room? Not many days. How many days? You know, you know why the Lord, you know why the Spirit isn't coming? Thomas, it's you, you're still doubting. Thomas says, no, Peter, it's you, you've still got a rebellious spirit. Or maybe it was a 70 arguing with the 12, or the 12 with the 70. What were they doing in that period? They were sitting there in contemplation, believing that the Holy Ghost would be given not many days hence. You remember, this had been given months, three years before actually, by a little man called John the Baptist. I'm going to seek him out when I get to heaven. I think he's a wonderful character. So if you see me talking to him, you keep out of it for a while and let me, I just want him to myself for the first thousand years. You can have him the next thousand if you want. I often wonder what he felt like stepping out. You talk about stepping out on a limb, eh? Asking people to come, he'd no choir. You'd hardly believe this, around here, can I whisper it to you? He had no newsletter. Pardon me. He had no forward man, he had no pews, no choir, no music. Poor guy. Would you believe all he had was God? Isn't that tough when all you have is God? I mean, when he has to be your life, and your wealth, and your power, and your authority, and your revelation? What else do you need if you have God? What else can you have more than God? Oh, he was a wonderful character. They'd heard of this, but it hadn't matured yet, had it? The thing that really got hold of me in reading this scripture was that, uh, verse chapter 2, pardon me, suddenly there came a sound from heaven, it was a rushing magic wind, and it filled the house where they were sitting, and there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat on each of them. The thing that's been not really troubling me, but exercising me, is this. Why a tongue of fire? Wouldn't it have been better if while they were sitting there, the dove that came down on Jesus, at the, uh, his baptism, came on them? Oh, it's genuine, because you see, the dove that came on him there, when John Baptist baptized, he came on us. I saw him come on you, Peter. I saw him go on John. You see, God has authority to do as he likes. Why was it a tongue of fire? Because that was their supreme need. Go back in, oh, a bit further down into this chapter. Oh, let me read it forth again, all right. They were all filled with the Holy Ghost, began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave the mutterings. They were dwelling at Jerusalem, Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven. That's a big collection. When this was noised abroad, the multitude came together and were confounded, because every man heard him speak in his own language, and they were all amazed. You know, a better word there, is they were all dumbfounded. For what reason? Well, there's a fellow going to get up here, uh, his name happens to be Peter. What does it say about him? I'm trying to find the verse where it mentions his name. Where is it? Fun? 14, thank you. I got these glasses, I should give them back, I can't see through them anyhow. So if you want to buy them, they're for sale. Peter standing up, lifted up his voice. What in the world do you expect them to be but stunned, amazed, dumbfounded? You mean to say that man standing there is the man that failed his Lord? You mean this man that's speaking with such power and authority is the man that stammered in front of a girl who pointed a finger? He ran away when she pointed a finger. Now he's pointing a finger at the, finger at the whole hierarchy of the church of that day. They were all amazed. Are not all these which speak Galileans? How hear we every man in our own tongue wherein we were born? Come on, they're all swirling around there, Greeks and Coptics and Italians and what have you got? All hearing different voices but one spirit and one message. Like an orchestra where you have all the marvelous instruments in tune. And when the baton goes up, they all come in together, there's a wonderful wave of harmony and beauty. And so it was on the day of Pentecost. Here were these strangers from the uttermost parts of the earth, here is one man standing up. Again they say, I don't wonder that they were amazed. Peter standing up with eleven, lifted up his voice and he said that you men of Judea and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you and hearken to my words. These are not drunken as ye suppose. Isn't it amazing there's a similarity between a drunken person and a spirit-filled person? What if, isn't it in Ephesians where it says, be not drunk with wine wherein it exists but be filled with the spirit, they've got them together again. As I read this today, I remember the first day of World War II. As a matter of fact, I remember the first day of World War I, 1914, 4th of August. So this was 1939, I was speaking at the head church of the Nazarene in Scotland and that afternoon the news was declared that war had been, that war had been declared. So all the city went into darkness, the streetcars were not allowed to have lights, cars and automobiles couldn't have lights. So everybody's creeping around in a dead dark city. We went to the meeting and said we're going to carry on the meetings, war or no war. Coming home, the leader of the group said to me, there's a new law out today. I said what is it? He said we have to get a gas mask. They're provided by the government, they were in a little box and you sling it over your shoulder and at a given signal you had to put the thing on of course. He said are you going to get one? I said no, I don't think so. It's the first day of war, the Germans won't come today I'm sure. You know, not till I get notice but anyhow. I said are you going to get, oh yes, ach brother, he said they're free. Well how could a Scotchman resist a free gas mask? He said I'm going in this place, I said oh there's a street lamp here. He said well I know it is. When I come out of the door, I walk straight across there because I've often stood by that street lamp and waved for a streetcar to stop. Well I waited then, he was in a wretched long while. A streetcar came, no lights on and a man got off the streetcar, worse for wear. He was filled with the spirit but the wrong spirit and his rubber legs took him one way and another and then he was going to fall and he put his arms around the lamp post and me as well. Then he suddenly realized I was there. He says ach what's your name? So I gave him my name. Oh my name is Sandy MacTavish or something. I said oh well Sandy. Ach he said you're near a Scotsman. I said no I'm English. He said. He rolled his sleeves up, he said can you fight? I said no, I can't, I'm no good at fighting. Can you sing? Well I once sang in a choir. When we began to sing Maxwell's Ambrose a Bonnie, a famous Scottish jay, he stood there and sang it. There's a million people listening to him and it's hopelessly drunk. Well let's talk. Oh I don't have time to talk. Ach he said you can't fight, you can't sing, you can't talk. Put his hand in his pocket and got a handful of money out so you know when a Scotsman does that he's hopelessly drunk. He offered me a handful of money. I said I don't need it. Ach he said I'm going. I said well go. You know if I'd met that man at nine o'clock next morning instead of nine o'clock he wouldn't have given me the time of the day. He was imbalanced because he had, and I don't want to play on the word, he had a wrong spirit in him. But the man who's really filled with God is exactly like that. He wants to sing. He's somebody to sing about. He's somebody to shout about. He wants to be generous, help the work of God, the cause of God. He's proud of his nationality, his spiritual inheritance. These men coming out of the upper room were intoxicated with God. Spinoza has a word about a God-intoxicated man. Do you know this is simple? If you've never heard this in Bible school go report it to your superiors. The church never does anything when it's sober. The only time the church moves is when she's drunk with God. When it's his mind, not my mind. His will, not my will. His desires, not my desires. His life, not my life. When another agency comes to take up residence. You know we speak about the Holy Ghost. That word Ghost comes from an old old English word which really means guest. When does a guest come to your house? When you invite him. How long does he stay? As long as you want him. That's what the Holy Ghost is. He's a Holy Ghost. He doesn't tread in and smash the door down. He comes when he's invited. There's a lovely old English hymn that says, Our blessed Redeemer, ere he breathe this tender last farewell, a guided comforter bequeathed with us to dwell. He came sweet influence to impart, a gracious willing guest, where he can find one humble heart wherein to rest. They speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. That same hymn says, He came in tongues of living flame to teach, convince, subdue. As powerful as the windy came and viewless too. These men go into the upper room, they come out exactly the same physiologically. If you'd seen them, their eyes hadn't changed to another color, their hair hadn't changed. They weren't given the gift of magic to turn something into gold. They become the habitation of God through the Spirit. But the thing I want to lay emphasis on here is this. The fire. I say these men, the symbol of fire. Fire is a divinely chosen symbol for God's glory and majesty. Isn't the whole history of the church and before the church, the history of God being fire? As I say, you have a bumper sticker, God is love. Put a bumper sticker at the other end, our God is a consuming fire. Maybe they'll tow your car away. But that's true. As soon as those people sinned, God put fire at the gate so they couldn't get back into that beautiful kingdom that he'd made in the Garden of Eden. Then you have the revelation God gives to Moses where he sees a burning bush. The wonder of it was, it was never consumed. Then Israel was going to be phenomenally guided by God. Who? By an archangel? Gabriel? Michael? No, no, no. A pillar of fire. Come on, tell me you students, what do you think the passers-by thought about it when they went past that funny old building there? We call it ragged. What did it have? It was a tent. Badger skins dyed red on the top and goat skins. No attraction to it. It's a type of Jesus. No beauty that you desire him. But over that common building there was a pillar of fire by night and a pillar of cloud by day, signifying God in residence. The writers of the Hebrews said in the 12th chapter, doesn't he, that our God is a consuming fire. In the first chapter of verse, where is it, first chapter about verse 7, he says, he maketh his angels ministering spirits and his ministers a flame of fire. God doesn't know anything about a man who has a fiery tongue and a frozen heart. We're suffering from freeze-dried sermons these days. He makes his angels ministering spirits. So we seize hold of that and say, it means just those wonderful, wonderful angels with wings. Angels must be awesome creatures. What does it say about the resurrection day when there was an angel sitting on the, on the storm that was rolled away and he was covered with glory, majesty, with beauty. There then saw an angel and he fell down to worship. I wouldn't tear that interpretation up, but I think it literally means he makes his ministers, his preachers, his angels ministering spirit. After all, the angels of the seven churches in revelations are the seven pastors. We may not look much like angels, but we ought to have some heavenly authority about us anyhow. Peter stands there with a fire and anointed tongue. It must have been awesome. He doesn't stammer. He doesn't hesitate. He isn't nervous. He points to the hierarchy of the church of that day and listen to his words. Verse 34 of chapter 2 says, for David is not ascended into the heavens, but he saith to himself, the Lord said unto my Lord, sit thou on my right hand until I make thy foes thy footstool. Let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same Jesus. Come on now, here he is standing in a hostile crowd and oh, you'll crucify. He was terrified to be identified with Jesus. The girl said, oh, I know who you are. And he says, no, you don't. You're one of his number. No, I'm not. But now he's turned around and he points the finger and he says, you crucify the Lord of glory. He doesn't say, pardon me if I make this suggestion. I hope I'm not wrong in saying this. He has that awesome indescribable thing that nobody can really define called unction or if you want to call it the anointing of God, the crown of unction upon his head. And he points the finger and says, ye crucified the Lord of glory. I believe when he said that, he lacerated their hearts as though he'd taken a spear and driven it through them. I believe he stung their consciences until they were wilting on the inside. They were terrified. He scolded them with conviction. They'd committed the greatest crime that had ever been up to that time and ever since that time. They took the holy spotless son of God and mocked him, put a robe on him, spit on him, pulled the whiskers on his face and hounded him through the night, the judgment hall, to and fro, Pilate, Herod, Herod, Pilate. And that final dreadful journey right down there to Gethsemane. You crucify the Lord of glory. And I've got news for you. Him hath God raised up. There he is exalted, far above all, above all principalities and powers. Now these people winced when they heard this statement made by Peter. He exposed their guilt. I say again, I believe he lacerated their hearts. I believe just as though he'd shot something into their consciences and they were all staggered and amazed. You know there's a language which belongs to revival that doesn't belong anywhere else. How long did he preach? I don't know, I hope an hour. Maybe before he was through they were on their knees, maybe they were sobbing, but I'll tell you I know the reaction. They were pricked in their hearts. It was though he'd taken again the javelin and stuck it right through their fleshy hearts and they, they come back. Conscience is working. Guilt is weighing them down. They're trapped. They have to own their responsibility. So what did they do? It says that they said, men and brethren, what shall we do? Does that strike a note in your mind at all? Turn to chapter three of Luke. Why did this amazing man John Baptist go and stand in the wilderness? No backing, no friends, no money, no organization, no chairs, no creature comforts, no miracle. They weren't standing in line with blind babies or crippled children or saying, my father's at home dead, will he come in? No, they were not seeking him. He had no miraculous power like that. As I say, he didn't raise a dead man, he did infinitely more. He raised a dead nation. Read the story yourself. He's a success, whichever way you count him. Geographically, they came from Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria. Socially, what did these men say on the day of Pentecost? Men and brethren, what shall we do? Now look at this third chapter of Luke. Luke three verse four upon me. As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah, the prophet saying, the voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord. Come on now. Who's preparing the way of the Lord? Gabriel, Michael, all the archangels, invisible hosts, one man. No supporting, no counsel to get, no help. One man had one of the most difficult tasks ever assigned to a human being in the history of the world. But he knows he's in the will of God, that's all that matters. He's fulfilling a prophetic role. It is written in the book of words of Isaiah, behold the voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord. Make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be filled, every mountain and hill brought low. The crooked shall be made straight, the rough places shall be made plain, and all flesh shall see together. Then said he to the multitude that came forth to be baptized, you generation of vipers. Isn't that a lovely greeting? What would you have done if you were stepping in the water and your pastor said, well you little viper I'd be... Viper? My dad's a deacon. Well he's just a bigger viper, that's all there is to it. Don't we try to be polite and nice to people lest we offend their tender little hearts? They can disobey God, rebel against God, be vicious, vulgar and devil possessed, but you have to handle them as though you're handling Dresden, China. Part of the language of revival is pretty rough. Verse 8, bring forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance. You know I got to the place where I wouldn't baptize anybody till they'd walk with God for three months. I don't think people should be baptized on the profession of their faith, they should be baptized on the fruits. They brought forth fruit meat for repentance. They've repented and where possible not only repented but made restitution. Now the axe is laid to the roots of the tree. I guess they thought, yes brother you're the axe, you're really chopping us up right here. This is rough. The axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore which bringeth not forth good fruit is soon died down. And the people asked him what? What they asked on the day of Pentecost, what shall we do? He's got them all hooked. Keep that in mind there, it's alliterated for you preachers. Verse 10, the people asked what shall we do? Verse 12, then came the publicans to be baptized and said unto him, master what shall we do? And verse 14, the soldiers likewise demanded saying what shall we do? Come on. It's the same spirit, it's the same word of conviction, it's the same guilt. We'd say laying a guilt trip on him. No, all he's concerned to do is deliver the word of God. But you see the difference between a revival and evangelistic crusade. If it's real revival, I don't mean one of these things you know, Jim Jones is coming this Sunday night, we're going to have a good time, 15 minutes singing beforehand and we're finishing next Sunday. Who tells the Holy Ghost when to go home? The soldiers. I'm trying to think of a point there. Oh come on, he wrote the recessional, what was his name? He doesn't know what the recessional is. Kipling, thank you, who said that? Oh Betty, because I told you that before, but all right. Kipling, that's right, he talks of the others who are not in the kingdom of the Jews as the lesser breeds, without or outside the law. Here are Roman soldiers that have never heard about a living God, they've worshipped idols, they've worshipped Caesar, they've gone to ancient places that the Greeks built and Romans built, and now they come and they hear a ragged man with an old sheep skin around him, or goat skin, no, I got the skins wrong, camel skin around his neck, and a pair of leather shorts, that comforts some of you. And there he stands in the anointing of God. The Roman soldiers have breastplates on them, but his words go through as though he puts in kind of atomic stuff. You can't shield from God, you can wear a breastplate, you can defend yourself intellectually, morally, any other way, but once conviction of sin comes, we're defenseless. But we have all the cause, let's sing just as I am, let's sing it again, and oh there's some coming from the galley, let's sing it again, oh brother. You don't have to do that in revival, Dave Wilkerson coming to see me tomorrow, we get such a wonderful talk together, wish you were all there, no I don't because we won't get enough time, excuse me. But he was telling me in his recent crusades, one thing that's happened is before he's finished preaching, people start coming down the aisle, dozens of them weeping, broken, sobbing, sighing, that's revival. There's no re-altar calls in the New Testament, ask your Greek president when you go home, if you can find one, bring me the name and address of it, scripture. We try to do the work of the Holy Ghost, one of the great offices of the Spirit that's hardly ever mentioned is when he's come he will convince of sin, and when he convicts of sin, brother, you'll feel, I'll feel, you've got a hot burning cinder there in your bosom. You know, I say again, I say in all honesty, when I think about that interpretation that Mr. Phillips has given us about the early church, I feel cheated, I really feel cheated. We haven't seen that power, we haven't seen that authority, trying to think of a scripture here, and I have to know for the life of me, I can't think of it. One of the most popular verses that's been quoted in the last few years, remember, it comes back to me here, though it's not the verse I want, but I'll get to it, 2 Chronicles 7 14, what does it say? My people, does that mean all America? No it doesn't, it's my people who are called by my name, unless we're called by his name, unless your name's in the Lamb's book of life, you can't even pray that prayer. But here's the thing that got hold of me, 2 Chronicles 7 1 hasn't been quoted, and that's the preparation for verse 7. Now when Solomon had made an end of praying, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the Lord filled the house. It's the same fire that was over there, over the tabernacle, over the tabernacle. It's the same fire that a little fellow stands, he's 850 false prophets in front of him, and maybe half a million people there, and he's alone. Everybody else is against him. And he says, listen, I'll tell you how to prove that Jehovah is God. Build your altar, I'll build my altar. You can start at eight o'clock in the morning, I'll give you the start, and you can cry as long as you like, till sundown. They built their altar, he built his altar. They cried, they beat their breasts, they shouted, they screamed, and then he says, just wait a minute, so there's no trickery in this. Well he filled what, four barrels, three barrels of water, four times, or four barrels, three times, which was it? Twelve barrels of water, but there'd be no rain. How could he do that? Because if you look on the coast, on the, what do you call it, with the west coast there of Israel, or as we used to call it, Palestine, there's a piece of land juts out to sea, that's where he built his altar, and at the bottom there's water, the sea's there. And he sought the sacrifice to prove there's no trickery in this, that proved that difficulties are not too great for God. And he stands there, and he prays, and believes, and the fire descends. The God that answered by fire. Oh it must have been miserable for all the priests that were standing around when Peter's pouring his heart out. Yes, we were in the upper room, and the fire of God descended upon each of us, a symbol, a tongue of fire. Their preaching after that was blistering, convicting, wounding, before there was any healing. We try to get people saved, they don't even know they're lost. We're trying to heal them, and they haven't even been wounded. Solomon made an end of praying, in the most beautiful building maybe the world's ever seen. Fire came down from heaven. Why? Because his altars were filled with sacrifices. Don't get the idea the fire falls on the altar, it don't. You'll be waiting, and you'll be disappointed till you die. Fire does not fall on the altar, fire falls on the sacrifice. And when the sacrifices were laid out, when all the people were silent, he stands there, and he cries to God. The fire came down. Wouldn't that be stunning? Do you think you could stand it? Could I stand it tonight, if the glory of God came down here? We've never seen it, so how can we miss it? We've never seen the glory of God. Our fathers have told of us, told us in distant days. I'm looking at Ray and Robert. Ray, Robert, I was praying about this at two o'clock this morning, as God's my witness for India, that somehow the fire will fall afresh when you go back this time. That God will raise up men that will leave us standing with all our theology, and all our Greek, and Hebrew, and all the junk that we've got from these cemeteries, seminaries. God wants to do a new thing. Solomon made an end of praying. You know that's when the glory comes. What have they been doing in the upper room? They weren't eating sandwiches, having a meal or something. I got an invitation this week to go to a revival conference. The best skiing you've ever done in your life, you'll do. I must be backward. Did you know you have to go skiing to get revival? Oh, we're going up on the Alps in Switzerland, skiing. It's magnificent. Oh, when the sun comes up, the snow is pink. Yeah, very interesting. What do you do, eat it? And we can take a train and go through the Alps into Austria. The shopping is the greatest in the world. No good having revival if you don't go skiing. No good having revival if you don't go shopping. When do you think we're going to read God's word and obey? There's only one thing hinders revival. In America or any country in the world, that's unbelief and disobedience. That's all. It's not the devil, not communism, humanism, Mormonism, any other ism you like. It's just unbelief and lack of desire to see the glory of God manifested. Again, I said, you wonder they were all amazed when these men came out of their... Oh, that's that Peter fella. He ran away. Oh, that's Thomas. Oh, they're a bunch of cowards. What are they going to do? Going to have a meeting, watch. Peter stands up with the anointing and they're all amazed. What does it say here? Fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices. And the glory of the Lord filled the house. And the priest could not enter into the house of the Lord because of the glory that filled the Lord's house. Verse 3, And when all the children of Israel saw how the fire came down and the glory of the Lord was upon the house, they bowed themselves with their faces to the ground upon the pavement and worshipped and prayed. That's the only way to worship, with your face on the ground. More than once when I went in, Dr. Torser would say to me, well then, remember this, I'll be gone before too long. Remember, let other people do as they like. You and I will worship God face downward. Because if your face is downward, you've no divergence, you can't see anything, anybody. No distractions. The glory overwhelmed them. They couldn't stand in his presence. The majesty of God swept in on them. Oh, I sincerely covet that this will happen in our day. I'd like to go to heaven today. Very much so. I've had a good innings, lived a long while. I'd just like to hang around about another 10 years. Okay, Martha? Yes, yes. I want to see the glory of God invade this generation. The next revival will have no man's name on it. It won't raise an abomination or a denomination, whatever you want to call it. The next one will supersede it, will break every vessel that we have, burst it open with the majesty and glory of God. I'm cheated. I've never been in a meeting where the glory came and made us all dumb. And nobody wanted to go home, wanted to stay half the night, or half the day. But everybody's interest in sport, or any other thing, business, or anything else you have, withered. And preeminently, we were occupied to see God's glory, God's majesty, until we worship in speechless adoration. You know, if you get the glory of God on your assembly, you won't need bowling alleys and racket courts to keep the young people. I think they should tax churches. Most churches are amusement centers anyhow. And you've got to pay taxes on amusement, haven't you? Churches in town, in Tyler here, in Dallas, have two or three lane bowling alley in them, have racket courts in them. What in God's name has that got to do with spirituality? There has to be a cleansing of the temple before he'll come, before he's comfortable, whether that's individually in our lives, or whether it's again in an assembly of people. I mean, read at least one more scripture here. Exodus chapter 20. Exodus 20 and verse 19. They said unto Moses, speak thou with us, and we will hear. But let not God speak to us, lest we die. Do you think we would die if God came in his glory and spoke to us tonight? Our people don't go to church to meet God, they've got to hear sermons about him. Do we expect a personal encounter with his holiness? Moses had been on the mountain and he got those amazing statements from the Lord that we call the Ten Commandments. If somebody said, remember they are, they're not ten suggestions. The Ten Commandments. Verse 18 of this 20th chapter says, And all the people saw the thunderings and the lightnings and the noise of the trumpet and the mountain smoking. And when the people saw it, they removed and stood afar off. And they said, Moses speak thou with us, and we will hear. But let not God speak to us, lest we die. They'd stood away. Moses had been taken into the presence of God. I remind you again, God separated 70, 74 of them from two or three million. And then he drops off the 70, there's four of them, then he drops three of them off. Moses goes up the mountain by himself, climbing up that rugged mountain, scratching his legs I'm sure, stumbling over the, maybe barefooted, stumbling as he goes up. And he gets onto the top of the mountain after leaving all his association, his wife, children, whatever he's got. And leaving the 70 elders. And he gets on the mountain and God keeps him there for seven days before he speaks to him. God did the same with Noah. He built an ark for 120 years. Then God says, go sit inside of it. He went in and God didn't speak to him for seven days. You know, I think most of us would say, oh, I miss God's will. I mean, the Lord wouldn't keep me waiting here. I mean, I can see children of Israel over there having a wonderful time, smokes going up, they're having a barbecue or something, having a wonderful time. And here I'm up on the mountain all alone and God hasn't appeared yet. But God had called him and he went, he obeyed, left everything, left everybody in order to see the glory of God. Read that 24th chapter, I think it is in Exodus. Can't read it now, but you can read it when you go home. Where he saw the majesty of God. 24 verse 10, read it when you go home. Or verse 9, Then went up Moses, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and the 70 elders of Israel, and they saw God of Israel. There was under his feet, as it were, a paved work of a sapphire stone, and as it were, the body of heaven in its clearness. And upon the nobles of the children of Israel he laid not his hand. Also they saw God and did eat and drink. What do you mean they had a what? A snack with God? Looks very much like it. You know, we want blessing at our price, don't we? We'd like to go to a prayer meeting, but we're from friends coming. They may not come around for a while. So, well, you didn't do this, thank God. But it's so often we push God on the edge. He gets the leftovers. You know, we're operating in such a stupid way. Can you think of a man, he gradually builds up his factory and you go in one day and say, I noticed all the power lines are down. He said, yeah, well, we're economizing. We're working all our machinery different. How are you doing it? We're doing it with the old fashioned treadmill, you know, they used a hundred years ago. Wouldn't that be crazy? That's what the church is trying to do today. We're trying to operate the church with a treadmill. Our theology, our customs, our ways. Instead of seeking at any cost and all costs, the glory of God to come, if that glory blinds us and dumbfounds us, I'll tell you that when men come along anointed with the Holy Ghost, they're not going to be iffing and butting. It's a, thus saith the Lord, until we cringe. I've never met a man who could preach like that, an old Irishman. My wife didn't like him too much and she's an Irish lady. Oh, he was as rough as could be. Last time I preached in Ireland, he was sitting there. I thought, oh, brother, give us at least a smile. At the end of the meeting, he says, where are you going, Ravenhill? I told him. He said, well, God be with you. He slapped me on the back. This was his exact. He said, God bless you, my younger brother. He'd give you the tongue of a cow. Did you ever put your hand on the tongue of a cow? Oh, it's like a rasp. It's all like little blades. Oh, mercy. Somebody said, and the Lord did that. But anyhow, you know, that man was as thoroughbred as he said, pedigree Presbyterian minister, and he had blessing, and he had some moves of the Spirit. But after a while, he heard he could be filled with the Holy Ghost. Nobody agreed with him. So he sought God, and he got anointing in the Holy Ghost. And he went to cities by himself in Ireland in 1926. Ever go to Ireland? They've got a statute book twice the size of this. It's up in a place called Stormont, S-T-O-R-M-O-N-T. It's the state book, and they've a line written right across in 1926, we anticipated revolution, God sent revival. They were having the trouble then that they're having now in Northern Ireland. And it wasn't an army that stopped it, it was Nicholson. Weeping, praying, fasting Nicholson. They would get the Holy Ghost on a meeting, and then say, stand up everybody and sing the national anthem. And they sang it. Or he dismissed them. Off you go home. Come back tomorrow night. Why didn't you make an altar call? Because people gear themselves for an altar call. They know it's coming, so they, you know, get up their fists, their minds. So he dismissed them and sent them home. Not make an altar call, maybe for two or three nights. But once God came on that man, you talk about dynamic, you talk about preaching. No, he wasn't sarcastic, he wasn't a case of using, stretching his vocabulary, wasn't a case of marvelous language. It was authority, it was power. I was trying to find a note today, I didn't get it, but there was a man in the 1300s by the name of Richard Tauler. You ever heard of him? I guess he was a Lutheran. T-A-U-L-E-R, not, don't, not Tauser, Tauler. He lived in the 1300s, in the time of the bubonic plague in Germany. He was naturally eloquent, very powerful preacher. I think he preached in Strasbourg Cathedral, and every time he preached it was standing room only. Chairs down the aisle, crowded, crowded, crowded. After one morning he preached, a little man waited for him. He said, Who are you? Oh, sir, he said, I'm a woodcutter, I work in the black forest. Did you want to see me? Yes. I want to introduce you to a friend of mine. Where is he? Who is he? Well, he said, sir, you, you're a very brilliant preacher, great scholar. But he said, you don't know the Holy Ghost. Isn't that a nice thing to tell a bishop? He said, you know the Holy Spirit? Yes, sir. Do you still live in the black forest? Yes, sir. Could I come and would you teach me? There's a step towards the anointing, humility. Yes, sir, if you will listen. He went and lived in that little hut with that man in the black forest. They had to fish to get some meals, got an odd egg now and again, did more fasting than feasting. And each day the bishop sat there with a little woodcutter who had no knowledge of Greek, anything else. Again, he didn't know the Word of God, he happened to know the God of the Word, which is much better. And he talked till the bishop said, I need to receive the Holy Ghost. He said, yes, you do. Why don't you kneel there and let me pray with you? Guess that felt good. And he prayed. And the bishop was filled with the Spirit of God. Oh, he got leave from the archbishop to do this thing, at least not to get that, but at least for a vacation. And he went back to Strasbourg Cathedral and they announced around the city, oh, his excellency is back, the bishop is back. Oh, we shall have a sermon on Sunday. The place was jammed up. No place to put chairs, just standing. And he stood there and gave out a text and wept. That's all he did. And he continued weeping. And finally he struggled through a text. The meeting was dismissed. The news was announced all over Strasbourg. They say that the bishop's gone a bit off his head. He hasn't been eating. Sometimes only one meal in two or three days. They say he's been praying. You know that little funny woodcutter that comes? He's been praying with him. And the woodcutter has been praying for him. What? My bishop? A man that isn't ordained actually put his hands on him? Yeah. Well, it went on like that for a little while. Then he was sent to a convent where there were hundreds of nuns. And he stood there and the Holy Ghost came on him and they all fell off their seats and began to cry to God. And he went to another convent, the same thing happened. Then he went to a place where there were a lot of preachers together. Boy, you need something to move those guys. But he preached and the Holy Ghost came on them and they started turning around and kneeling by their chairs and weeping and groaning and fasting and praying over a period. And the whole of that area was transformed. What the people said, you know, he isn't as eloquent as he used to be. He doesn't paint those words, beautiful pictures with words, but there's something mysterious about him. There's something different about him. Oh, you know, I'm so glad, glad, glad the Holy Ghost can't be bought. All the rich businessmen, I nearly said some other businessmen, but I won't. Businessmen would have bought him by now if they could. If we'd only get him as our property, if it would only bring all the divine energies into our little group, our denomination, our society. He doesn't do that. They were all filled with the Holy Ghost. Whether it was Thomas, who doubted, or Peter, or whoever it was. I think maybe the 70 were there. I think, and I must quit, I don't like to, but I will. I think it's a fulfilled man from Malachi. Remember what it says in Malachi 3? When he has come, what will he do? He'll purify the sons of Levi. And these are the sons of Levi. In a literal sense, and in a second way, they were a new priesthood, these in the upper room. We put the emphasis of the Holy Ghost on power, but he says when the Holy Ghost is come, he will purify. When Peter had to go to Jerusalem to say what had happened to the Gentiles, he said, God who knoweth the heart, that is, he knows your heart and mine, whatever stage it's in, they're them, that is, those Gentiles witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did to us. So everybody says, well, they spoke in tongues. Doesn't say that. Maybe they did, maybe they didn't. What happened? Well, let Peter say it. I'm not going to fill in for, why should I fill in for Peter when he left me a note on it? He said what happened in the upper room was this. The Holy Ghost came and he purified their hearts by faith. The emphasis is overbought today on power, not on purity. But God insists on purity. When the vessel is purified, he comes to indwell it. When he indwells it, he uses it. I tell you, I cried today. I often weep anyhow, so what? I've got God, here I am, not too far off pushing 80. Give me another 10 years if need be, but don't let me go to heaven without seeing the thing I've preached and talked about for the last 50, 60 years. I want to see God come in blinding glory. I want to see revival come that shuts down taverns and porno without any legislation. That men don't want liquor, and so the liquor place is closed. They don't want the lousy stuff on film, so the film house is closed. You see, when God comes, all those things dry up, they shrink, they perish. Oh, I'd like my children. I see Janet there, stranger, I haven't seen her for months. Still looks sweet. Janet, I want your boys to see the glory of God like you've never seen him. Ray and Robbie, I want you to minister this time as you go to India in a way that you've never ministered before, until people will fall prostrate. Until you don't have to drive them into a corner. The world's never been the hell that it is till now. What they say now, this business with children has reached such massive proportions in a Christian country, America. So many children being molested in schools, even Christian schools. Dear God, are divorce rates so high? Crime so high? I think it's wonderful. I want you to pray. Pray tonight. We'll pray in a few minutes. My dear friend Dave, I'll be talking with him tomorrow. You know, he said the other Sunday morning, if you were at our church, I don't like the word, our room, it's an upper room, you're welcome to come. Not a supper room, that's the other way. And he said last Sunday, he said, Len, do you dream? I dream every night. I sometimes get up and go to my office and do some work and come back and dream. Get up a bit later, maybe Martha said, Dave, you want some hot milk to help you to sleep? Yes. And I dream. But the other day, two days ago, I was praying and I was looking at Poland, the country he's going to in May. A Roman Catholic country, a communist country, where he has been invited to something bigger than Billy Graham's ever touched. Graham goes from church to church. They're going to set up amplifiers in the main cities, Gdansk and Warsaw and Krakow. And the government's going to do it because of a plague of, a plague of drugs going through the country. And so at last they realized maybe there's a man, a Christian man who has a message that can dam this tide that's sweeping over the country. I called him today, I said, he said, I'm coming to see you tomorrow. I said, well, I want to tell you something now, I might forget. I prayed for you two afternoons ago. And as I prayed that, I saw you walking into dark Poland with that big Olympic torch that was carried across America. But it was a torch of the spirit. It was the word of God to be a lamp to their feet and a light to their path. And I'm asking God that just what Martin Luther did in the day when he would upset Europe, that Dave will do under the anointing of God in the month or so that he's, he's in those three or four communist countries. No, this is no day, if I can use such a silly phrase for small potatoes. We've worn out all our evangelistic stunts, all our begging, all our stupid stuff you see Sunday morning, if you're stupid enough to watch it. It's cobwebs on it. It's death on it. God is waiting for a people who will build their altars and be the sacrifice, a living sacrifice. No holds barred. Do as you want, Lord. Change my mind, change my life, change my program, change my social standing, do anything. But don't leave us in this dying condition that we're in in America or in the world today. Oh, let God come even if he slays us when he comes. Don't let God speak or we shall die, they said. But we've got to die to something. And the sooner we die, we live. The sooner we lose our soberness and get drunk in God, we begin to move in the areas God wants us to move in. When you pray for Ray and Robbie as they go to India, we shall pray while they're away. Start praying for Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, where David's going because the people aspiration of the heart is of the Lord, the scripture says. No good praying the day they get there. We need to be pulling down strongholds now. We need to be preparing the way of the Lord like John Baptist. Sometimes I don't care if I never preach again. Let me stay in my room and seek God and weep and groan and say, Lord, I want to prepare the way. I want to dynamite the walls of the devil before anybody gets there, before they get to India, before they get to Poland, before they get to Czechoslovakia. It's a desperate day. As I've said sometimes, you're into trouble, but I'll say it again. God doesn't answer prayer. He answers desperate prayer. The more agonizing there is in our prayer, the more God takes us seriously. You can't put praying on and off like you just come to a prayer meeting and suddenly get spiritual and start praying. It's got to be backed up by a life of prayer, secret prayer before there's open prayer. There's some kind of a do-over. Where's that place, Betty? That lodge? Kaleo Lodge, but I didn't know it's not open. I thought it was open to the public. It's not, but it's a retreat for women, Saturday and Sunday, I think. So they ask for prayer for that. Again, we need to pray for the other ministries, pray for this ministry. Big decisions have to be made for marching and melody and rain and things that are very vital in the kingdom. We need to pray for wisdom for them. We need to pray for our own nation, India, Ethiopia, an estimated half million people going to die in about another month. Where are they going? Hell, most of them. It doesn't move anybody. We're going to keep up our social program. We're going to run our bowling alleys in our churches and our little courts to play ball and fool around and have our parties. You know, when we get desperate, God will answer prayer. When we won't take anything less than God's best, and to get God's best, he wants our best. Maybe you need to pray for a tongue of fire, a tongue that brings conviction, a tongue of honesty in a dishonest world, a tongue of purity in a very corrupt world. They were the same men, except the Holy Ghost came. Taula was the same man when he went in the forest, but when he came out, he was filled with God. Surely he lost his natural eloquence, but he got an authority, and that's exactly what they had in the upper room. They had authority. Why didn't they massacre Peter and John and the rest of them? Why didn't they stone them? Stone them. There was something about them. It was the glory and manifest power of God, and they spoke with such authority. Nobody there touched them. We need God to come and reign in the heavens. Pray as you like. Let's have a session of prayer right now. Don't be afraid, and don't get your head too low down because we can't hear what you say. Stand up or speak up, and let's really pray. Pray for some need you have maybe, or your church has, or India, or some of these countries.