This sermon emphasizes the need for a revival and a divine intervention from God. It recounts powerful stories of past revivals, highlighting the passion, prayer, and dedication of individuals who experienced the Holy Spirit's move. The speaker challenges the audience to seek God wholeheartedly, forsake materialism, and prioritize a genuine encounter with Jesus Christ, calling for a return to the old rugged cross and a deep hunger for God's presence.

Language of the Old, Him in loving kindness, Jesus came my soul in mercy to reclaim. And from the depths of sin and shame in love, he lifted me. Lord God, we thank you tonight that we have this access to your throne. We think of what your word says, the blood of Abel, that brought condemnation. But Lord, we thank you for the blood of Christ that is able to erase our condemnation, our guilt. He can say as the Wesleyan, he used to sing so joyfully, before the throne my shorty stands, my name is written on his hands. We thank you for such a wonderful saviour. Lord, we think how you sat, as it were, or watched the world tonight here in America. Maybe we've committed a billion sins today. Done violence, taken your name in vain, broken your laws, ignored your commandments. We've set course to hell and we want nobody to stop us. We think of how many millions you profess your name tonight, eating and drinking. And as the good book says, married and given in marriage, and yet have no concern at this moment for the destiny to which we're all hastening. Lord, there is no way that the church can be moved except by a divine invasion of your holy power. We recognize, Lord, all our efforts are in the flesh. The greatest of them are in the flesh, or most of them are. We're going to do it by our method, in our time, in our way, by our system. And the world goes to an endless eternity without God. Not only without hope in eternity, but Lord, many have no hope in this world. They've abandoned hope. They see no glowing light in the sanctuary. They feel no vibrations of the spirit of God in the meetings. And they can come and go almost indifferently. And Lord, this will continue again unless you come in mercy to us. We bless you for men like John Baptist, the voice crying in the wilderness. We know that there are men in the nation today who are still crying. Some are crying in secret. Some are crying in the night time. Some are crying with tears. Some are crying with anguish. Some are crying with anger to see this religious system that we have that has a form of godliness but no power. Lord, God of hosts, we ask you to come in mercy to us. We ask you in wrath, remember mercy. Lord, quicken us. The psalmist said, quicken me according to thy word. And I pray tonight you'll quicken us according to your holy word. Many of these apostles and prophets, majestic characters, they knew so much about this holiness of God as we sung, immortal, invisible, God only wise. And yet somehow they walked in a different vein of revelation to that we know. They walked with a different consciousness of eternity. Lord, we're not eternally conscious. As a people we're not eternally conscious. We profess your name. And yet, Lord, we're so tied up with materialism. The world outside is wrecked on humanism and it seems the church is wrecked on materialism. And Lord, we thank you that you don't have a despair in your vocabulary. You do come in the darkest hour. You've always done that. Therefore, Lord, there's some joy in one's hands to take even though as a nation we're on the edge of the abyss. And surely your anger will break unless your mercy comes. But we ask you tonight, Father, to quicken our hearts again. We thank you you're not dependent on numbers otherwise you'd have told the 5,000 that you fed, you'd have told them you'll get this as a down payment and you'll get the blessing if you come to the upper room. But Lord, you didn't. You found, you fed the multitude which is common. But you met 120 in the upper room and they went out to turn the world upside down. We thank you you're still in that business. It's still a day of grace. It's still a day of mercy. And there are expectant hearts over the nation. There are lights that are flashing in the darkness of this hour. There are voices interrupting the stillness. There are people, Lord, who have a faith that will not shrink with all the pressure that's put on it. They're not going to bow the knee to the material bell of our day or to the false gods or to the hope some political magic will turn us round. Lord, our need is redemption, not just restoration but redemption and true Holy Ghost revival. And so on again we ask you to bless this word to our hearts. In Jesus' name. Thank you. I want to read from one of the best used chapters in the Bible. I'm sure there's a second chapter of Acts. I'm going to skip through this into the third chapter but I've been tremendously moved with this in the last few days. Well, everybody knows how it begins when the day of Pentecost was fully come. They were always one accord in one place. Now remember that this was in Jerusalem. It would have been infinitely easier if Jesus had said go up to Bethlehem or go to some other place Tyre or Sidon and tarry there. He told them to wait in the city where they were defeated and despised and discredited and disappointed and disillusioned. Their world had fallen apart. The man that they followed who said he was going to start the kingdom ended up on a cross. Is that any way to start a kingdom? It's God's way. In our way, it's God's way. And there they were, those disciples again. I say disillusioned. They had their nose pressed to the gate. They wanted to get down the nearest road as quickly as they could. And it was there that the Lord, as rebellious and disappointed as they were, he met them. And then it says they later, you remember, they saw Jesus ascend into the heavens. And they had rejoiced. I don't believe they went to the upper room discouraged. I believe they went to the upper room with joy because they'd seen the Lord ascend. But it didn't alter the fact that the outside community thought they were a bankrupt people. Their leaders gone. Their hopes have gone. They've no property. They've no money. They've no backing. They're not accepted. They were about the most despised bunch on the face of God's earth. You see, the thing that God blesses in community life or group life or individuals is obedience. And they did as they were told, tarried in the upper room. Well, they knew that their Pentecost would fully come. You know, I believe every day they got nearer to Pentecost. They were in ecstasy and joy. After all, they'd seen Jesus go up. And it says they went on their way rejoicing. But what was to discourage them? That same Jesus was going to come in the power of the Spirit. Of course, he'd said to them, I'll go away and somebody greater than I will come. But as Samuel Chadwick used to say, love, love that's disappointed is petulant. And Jesus said, I'll send somebody better. They said, you can't do that. That's an old story. You can't send anybody better than yourself. He said, I can because I am with you, but he will be in you. And that made all the difference in the world. It wasn't external power. It was power resident in them. And they waited and tarried there in the upper room. Well, you know the rest of the story. There appeared proven tongues like as a fire. And again, that magic word almost in verse 2 says, suddenly there came, I love that word suddenly. Doesn't it say in Malachi, the Lord whom ye seek. You know, not many are seeking the Lord. They're seeking miracles. They're seeking blessing. They're seeking prosperity. How many are seeking the Lord? They said in the, in the Welsh revival, that people went to the sanctuary, not to hear Evan Roberts. I'm going to read some extracts from that. They went to meet God. As I've told you, when I was on the road, the last year or two, I would ask in meetings, whether there were 50 there or 2000. Did you come here tonight to meet God? Or did you come here to hear a sermon about him? And usually people go to the sanctuary to hear about God. They don't expect the confrontation. We don't expect to hit the desk. We don't expect brokenness to come to us. It can come to others. What about us? But there they were waiting. And suddenly, remember that those men went out watching their sheep as usual. And suddenly there was a sound of a heavenly host. It changed history. They didn't expect it that night. But there was an invasion. God came and revealed himself through the angels. And here they were in the upper room. And suddenly there was a sound of the heavenly host. And suddenly the place was filled with wind and power. There appeared unto them 12 and 10's like as a fire. Now let's skip over here a bit further. Go to verse 14. Now verse 12. The people that saw them were amazed, in doubt, saying one to another, What meaneth this? Others mocking said, These men are full of new wine. Do you know what? The church never does anything when she's sober. She doesn't do anything until she gets drunk. That's why the apostle Paul said, Don't be filled with wine, but be filled with a spirit. What's the likeness? Because a man intoxicated has another spirit in him. I told you about the first day in the Second World War. I don't know the first day in the First World War, but Second World War, the first day I was in Scotland, preaching at the head church of the Nazarene. And it was an awesome day. We were told before we went to church, All lights must be out. All the windows must be blackened. No lights on the streetcars. The Germans are coming tonight. So we stood in the street waiting for a friend, getting a gas mask. I stood against a lamppost, and the streetcar came up, thundering up in the dark. It was horrible. And suddenly it stopped. The man walked across, and he stumbled, and he must have known there was a lamp there. He was drunk. He put his arms around the lamp and me as well. And he said, Who are you? I said, Leonard Rayneal. Who are you? Ah, he says, I'm Sandy MacTavish or something. I said, Fine. He says, Can you faith? Oh, I said, No, I can't. Fine. Can you sing? I said, No, I can't sing. Well, he said, I can sing. And he started to sing Maxwell, Tom Braise or Bonnie. And then he said, My father was so and so. My grandfather gave me his pedigree. He wanted to talk. He wanted to fight. He wanted to sing. I knew he was drunk because he put his hand in his pocket and took out a handful of silver. Now, when a Scotsman offers you a handful of silver, you know he's drunk. And he offered me the silver. He said, Will you take it? No. He says, You know good. If I'd seen that man at nine o'clock the next morning, you never know, he'd have passed on the street, wouldn't have spoken to me. He's ready to fight. He's ready to talk. He's ready to give. And those symptoms are the same in people who are really drunk on God. They're ready to fight for God, ready to talk for God, ready to give for God. I've heard people say, You know, you give and God will bless you. No, let people get blessed and then they'll give. We turn it around. Okay. They said, These men are full of new wine. And Peter's standing up with the eleven. Now, remember this again, that they were in the upper room, which most scholars think it was an upper room in the temple itself. But the rushing mighty wind didn't attract the people who were downstairs. The balls of fire didn't attract people who were downstairs. But the Holy Ghost came upon Peter and John and the rest of them. Now, remember behind them, they had a frozen system. You know, I don't wonder everybody was startled. Here are some men, again, despised. They'd followed Jesus, who'd ended up in bankruptcy as far as they were concerned. And here's the high priest, strutting in his garments. They're going through the ritual in a formality. You talk about a form of godliness with no power. It was that system of that day. And yet these men came out unlettered. And ignorant men, that's where they said, Isn't that wonderful? When they perceived they were unlearned and ignorant, I'll tell you how unlearned they were. The greatest thing ever written in English prose is the gospel recorded by John. It's the most perfect English you could find. And it was an ignorant man that wrote it. A fisherman by the name of John. To show he was ignorant, he wrote one epistle, two epistles, three epistles, a gospel. And then just to make sure he's ignorant, he wrote the book of the Revelation. Well, if that's an ignorance, I'm a candidate for it tonight. Straight away, both hands up. Lynn, you didn't even raise one, forget you. Yes, is that ignorance? Where has the world got with its intelligence? It's given us acid rain. It's given us bombs. We're scared to death of our own inventions now. We can't run away from them. You talk about the tail wagging the drug, we're in a terrible mess. And only revival, the Holy Ghost revival is going to change. Boy, you know what here? Peter was a failure. When he ran away, a girl put up a finger. Now he's not a failure, he's a success. He put his finger in the eye of the high priest. He said, you crucified the Lord of glory. What happened to him? His personality is the same, his hair hasn't changed. He's the same Peter plus and minus. Fear had gone and fearlessness had come. Weakness had gone and power had come. He wasn't afraid of men or of consequences. You know, the basic message of the New Testament isn't the cross of Jesus Christ, it's a resurrection. It includes it. We talk about the Acts of the Apostles. The correct title would be some of the Acts of some of the Apostles. There's a competition here. The supreme work of the Holy Spirit is to glorify Jesus. And if you trace through this marvelous book of Acts of the Apostles, you'll find the Holy Spirit is mentioned at least 53 times. But if you go on the other count, the name of Jesus is mentioned at least 43 times. Not that there's any battle there at all. Let's skip to verse 22 in chapter 2. It says, He said, Ye men of Israel, hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God. You don't need anybody else to approve if God approves of you. He was approved of God. He had the mark of God upon him. He had the anointing of God upon him. He had the titles of God upon him. And he did wonders, signs and wonders and miracles which he did in the midst of you as you yourselves know. He was delivered and crucified in the last verse, the word says in chapter 23. He was crucified and slain, whom God hath raised up. And that's the whole emphasis here. Then he goes to verse 29 and says, And let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David. He's both dead and buried, his sepulchre with us to this day. Therefore being a prophet and knowing that God hath sworn with an oath to him that by the fruit of his loins according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ just on his throne. He's seen this before, spake of the resurrection of Christ. And then verse 22, it says, Jesus Christ, Jesus hath God raised up. Wherefore, we are all witnesses. Now, verse 36 says, Therefore, let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made him, that's Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ. Verse 46 says, They continued daily with one accord in the temple and breaking of bread from house to house. Now, these men are running into more trouble than ever. They've already caused a stir. If you read the chapter here, let's go to chapter four and start with verse one. Peter's still giving a... Oh, I'm sorry. No, I forgot the chapter three. The thing is, I want to think here for a little while about Peter and John went up into the temple at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour. Well, doesn't the scripture say, if two of you shall agree, it shall be done? Peter and John went to the ninth hour. Why did they go there? They didn't believe the thing that was going on in the temple. The temple people certainly did believe then. But they knew they'd received endearment. They didn't care how frozen the system was behind them. They didn't care what the priest did. They didn't care about all the liturgy. They didn't care about the formality. They didn't care about the sacraments. They'd received a new message, a new vision, a new anointing. And moneyless men as they were, unpopular men, they stood up in the name of the Lord and God came and manifested his power. Peter and John went to the hour of prayer. A certain man lame from his mother's womb was carried whom they laid dearly at the beautiful gate of the temple, which is called an alms. Now notice that little word means a lot. They laid him there daily. A little later as you read the story, the man was over 30 years of age. So they carried him, look, they carried him from his home to the temple, from his temple to his home twice a day for 365 days in a year. How many is that? 730. Supposing they carried him for 10 years and often a beggar will get a place in the city and he'll be there year after year after year after year. If that's so, they carried him 7300 times. He was carried but never cured. He was helped but he was never healed. And when he sees Peter and John coming, he's heard this hullabaloo. They'd already been disturbing the community. They disturbed the religious system and there he is crippled at the gate. You talk about timing. When Peter and John saw him, what did they do? He asked an alms of them. As a little girl said, he asked for alms when he needed legs. But seeing Peter and John going to the temple, Peter said, now listen to this, Peter said, look on earth. How many can say that today? Look on earth. Oh yes, look on earth. Give us some glory, give us some glamour. He gave heed unto them, expecting to receive something. Peter said, silver and gold I have none. Isn't it amazing? You see, one thing that has shaken Jerusalem, which we'll find out further if you went into the fourth chapter, and verse 34 says, there was no lack amongst any of them. Many that were possessors of the houses and lands sold them and bought the prices and they laid them down at the apostles' feet. They didn't take the tribute money into the temple. They took it to the feet of these new disciples. They bypassed the high priest. They forgot all about the high priest. And these men can see that their profession is in danger. They're meeting in house to house instead of a sanctuary. They're laying their money out and they shared it out so that everybody got the same amount. You know, if Christian history was repeated in that way, communism would never have lifted its head. But they see us as selfish and as greedy and as personality conscious and possession conscious and power conscious. These men didn't have any of it. You know, they said, silver and gold, we have none. That shows he wasn't the first pope. Silver and gold, I have none. But such as I have, I give. That's a second proof he wasn't a pope. He'd have sold it. But he gives it. You know, there's a great joy in having nothing. Do you know what the joy is in having nothing? You can't lose anything. If you have no opinion of yourself, nobody will ever humble you. If you sit on the floor, you can't fall. If you've got a low, not this silly business of image. I don't like that silly modern language. It's psychological language coming into the church. But if you know in your own heart that self has gone and it must have been for these men to be so brave. They've lost already everything they had. They're linked to Jesus, the great failure. And yet he's promised and he sends them the Holy Ghost. But I was saying there's a great joy in having nothing. You can't lose anything. There's a great danger in having nothing. You remember a man knocks on the door and he says, hurry, hurry, hurry, hurry. What are you coming at this time for? He said, a friend has come. It's past midnight. My wife's here and the children, they're sleeping, all in, you know, they sleep on the floor, whatnot. A friend has come in his journey to see me and I've nothing to say before him. That's where the church is today. She's nothing to say before this bankrupt world in which we live. And it's an embarrassment to have nothing. He says, give me anything you promised me you would, but I didn't think you'd come at midnight. But the blessing of having nothing is you can't lose anything. The danger of having nothing in an emergency moment, we don't have what it takes for our day. And we're living in a day of moral desolation in the nation. I don't know how cold it is last week, I've forgotten. But Jimmy Swaggart said in a tape that we've listened to two or three times. He said the reason for the massive immorality in the nation is that preachers have lost sight of the rapture. That's not true. Do you know there was no rapture theory in the world until a hundred years ago? Wesley never preached the rapture. I've got volumes and volumes, I think about 500 sermons of Jonathan Edwards. He preached one, you know, sinners in the hand of an angry God. He never preached about the rapture. The trouble with us today is not that we've lost sight of the rapture, the trouble is we've lost sight of the judgment seat of Christ. Millions of people tonight in America that believe in the rapture and they went to the divorce court, they wouldn't have done that if they thought of the judgment seat. They're not afraid that they're at home in a movie house Saturday night and the church house Sunday morning. They want the fashion of the world, the customs of the world. Many of them, as Wilkinson says, are sitting saints. They're worldly. They've not divorced from the world. They want to be married to Christ, but they don't want to leave this rotten old world. And we've not lost sight of it. It's not that we've lost sight of the rapture. The two things send a nation bankrupt to this. We've lost sight of the word of God. We've not only put it out of our schools, we've put it out of most of our homes. We've stated ministers' homes over the nation and one other thing you know there, the deacons' homes. Never once they bring the Bible out, read it to the children. They scream, get the Bible back in the schools, get the Bible back in the house, get prayer back in school, get prayer back in the homes. And another thing is this, that if we read the word, we sing when we walk with the Lord in the light of his word. If people read the word every day and pray, they'd never do the things they do. There are more people excited about the World Series. As I said to my neighbor the other day, he's off again, as he's always all around the world. And I said, you know Jacob, usually the preachers are pretty healthy people. They go out and play golf or some fresh air or something and they do push-ups and other things. The trouble with them is they get fever twice a year. They get fever for the penance and they get fever for the, what do you call this? I was going to say sugar bowl, roaster bowl or whatever you call it. Fun? Super Bowl. Twice a year they get fever. They'll travel a thousand miles, they'll pay all the expenses, be away two or three days, ask them to spend two or three, oh no I have such a busy business, such a busy business, until it comes to deer hunting and they go off for three or four days. Duck shooting as my neighbor does. And boys, how they can find time to do the things they want to do while the world is going to hail fire. Why should they take any notice of us? You can't get serious once a week about revival. You can't have a burden once a week for revival. It's dangerous. It's something you live with night and day. It interrupts your lifestyle. It interrupts your sleep. It interrupts your eating. And nothing's going to move this generation except we have again the Holy Ghost revival. So he said, well look on us, but wait a minute, when the thing has happened, he said in verse 11, as a lame man which was healed helped Peter and John, he wouldn't let go of them. Let me see before that. Well Peter, look on him. He said look on us, but he did more than that. He took him by the right hand, verse 7, and lifted him up. Immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength. And he leaping, went into the temple, leaping, walking, leaping and praising God. So what's happened? He not only stands up, he's leaping up. He's not only leaping, he's speaking. And yet he goes into this sepulcher of a place. What in the world do you think happened? He disturbed the whole place. He's leaping and shouting and magnifying the Lord. Why not? I mean the priest, he's embarrassing the priest. They passed him. How many times do you think Jesus passed him? Jesus went into the temple time and time again. And there's a man crying out, Jesus never touched him. Peter and John went into the temple every day of their life, but they never touched the man. You see, there's a timing in the affairs of men. This is going to glorify God. The people haven't taken any notice. Peter says, you crucified the Lord of glory. He's done signs and wonders and miracles. And God has approved of him. And you despised him. You crucified him and God honored him. And, uh, I'm looking at the chapter four just a minute here. I'm over this. I'll speak unto the people. Number one, the people, the priest. Number two, captain of the temple. Number three, the Sadducees. And then you go down to verse five. There were rulers and elders and scribes and Annas, the high priest and Caiaphas and John and Alexander. What a crowd! You've got the intellectuals there. You've got the people that have power and authority. I know what Peter says in verse 26. The kings of the earth stood up and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord, against his Christ. He's just addressed those people, that very bunch of people, rulers, with authority, politicians, religious people. And yet Peter stands up before the whole world as he ought to, representative of the whole world and he defies them. He's not trying to get a political seat so he can change the country. He's defying the systems. We're going to have to have a system of true Christianity, apostolic Christianity that's willing to sacrifice and stand up against the systems of the day in which we live. Verse 27 says of the truth against thy holy child Jesus whom thou hast anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate and the Gentiles and the people of Israel were gathered together. Let me step back a bit here again. I should have gone down in chapter 4. Boy, you have the Annas, the high priest, and Caraphus, who were two high priests and that was illegal. And John and Alexander, as many would have been kindred of the high priest, they rounded up all the socialites, the political people, the military people, the religious people. They gathered together at Jerusalem and when they had set them in the midst, they asked by what power or by what name have ye done this? In other words, look, that fellow there has no power, that man Peter, where has he got this? When you go down into verse 10, it says Be it known unto you all people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth whom ye raised up, whom God hath raised from the dead, even by him, doth this man stand here in the midst. Well, when they go on to ask, he says that famous verse then in Acts 4, 12. When they saw that, yes, 4, 12. Neither is there salvation in any other. You know, today we're bigoted if we say that Christ only has the answer in salvation. What about these other systems? Well, you've got to say the buffeting. There is no other salvation. There's no salvation in being baptized and confessing your sin merely. There has to be a work of redemption and we're going to have to go back again to that old rugged cross which again is still despised by the world. But Peter and John say his name through faith in his name has made this man strong. There's no other name under heaven whereby we can be saved. Verse 16, 6 says, I'm 16. What do we do to these men for indeed a notable miracle? It wasn't just a miracle. You say they run into trouble every time. Jesus came, John the Baptist came. Before then the Romans came and upset them socially and economically. They enslaved the whole nation. Then after them up comes a man, John the Baptist. He has no pedigree. He has no credentials. He isn't the son of a priest. He's an oddball of a man and there he is in the wilderness. He has no seating. He has no choir. He has no advertising. But the Holy Ghost is with him and he draws people from Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria and everywhere. And that troubled the Jews. It troubled the system, the hierarchy of the church. Right after that, Jesus comes. Now remember, John did no miracle. But he has the most unique description in the whole of the Word of God. More descriptive than Jesus. It says of John the Baptist, his father was filled with the Holy Ghost, his mother was filled with the Holy Ghost, his priest was filled with the Ghost and that he was filled with the Holy Ghost from his mother's womb. It doesn't say that about any other person, not Elijah or Jeremiah or anybody. He's the most unique character. And yet Jesus says, the man that's really born of God in the kingdom is greater than John the Baptist who Jesus said was the greatest person ever lived. Which means the possibilities of grace for us are open to us that weren't open to him because of the cross, the Holy Ghost. Now remember, John did no miracle. But he has the most unique description in the whole of the Word of God. More descriptive than Jesus. It says of John the Baptist, his father was filled with the Holy Ghost, his mother was filled with the Holy Ghost, his priest was filled with the Ghost and that he was filled with the Holy Ghost from his mother's womb. It doesn't say that about any other person, not Elijah or Jeremiah or anybody. He's the most unique character. And yet Jesus says, the man that's really born of God in the kingdom is greater than John the Baptist who Jesus said was the greatest person ever lived. Which means the possibilities of grace for us are open to us that weren't open to him because of the cross. The Holy Ghost was upon him but the Holy Ghost can be in us too. And go to verse 10. Verse 24 of chapter 5. When the high priest and the captain of the temple and chief priest said these things, they doubted whether this would grow. Remember they said not a miracle but a notable miracle had been done. They go to the most chronic case that there is in the whole of Jerusalem which had many, many beggars and he sat at the door of the temple. Aren't people sitting at the door of our churches today? And they're crippled. They're morally crippled. They're spiritually crippled. There's no hope. They've no power to walk through this crazy world in which we live. And yet on the other hand we've no power to say silver and gold have I none. We try everything to get them except the power of the Spirit of God. I got a paper yesterday announcing a church in town. We're going to get ready for our Christmas bazaar. A church that does that is bankrupt. I'm sick to death of all the tricks we're trying to put. We'll do anything except humble ourselves. And that's what these men did. Verse 29. Then I'm going to read something else to you. Then Peter and the other disciples answered and said we ought to obey God rather than men. The God of our fathers the God of our fathers raised up Jesus whom he slew and hanged on a tree. Him hath God exalted to the right hand to be a prince and a savior. And verse 32 we are witnesses of these things and so also is the Holy Ghost whom God hath given to them that obey him. I want to read something to you. A little more modern than that. Not that that's wrong. One of the great moves of the spirit of God of course was in Wales in 1904 and 5. And I got to reading some of this today and it really stirred me and moved me deeply. He says the key to revival is this. Number one you must put away any unconfessed sin. Number two you must put away any doubtful habit. Number three you must obey the spirit promptly. Number four you must confess Christ publicly. Now he's talking here about this young man who's still in his early 20s. And so he opens his discourse saying that he does not know what he's going to say. But he's in communion with the Holy Spirit and he will always say what the Holy Spirit says through him. He would simply be a medium of his wisdom. The preacher soon afterwards launches into a fervent and impassioned oration pointing men and women to the evil of the horribleness of sin and the violation that they've had against God. But now it says here. Many who disbelieved Christianity for years are returning to the fold of their younger days. So great was the enthusiasm involved by the young revivalists of that first sermon which lasted for two hours. The vast congregation remained praying and singing until 2.30 in the morning. It wasn't come to the altar say the sinner's prayer and go back and go to hell. Go back as you came. These altar calls an abomination to God. I'm sure of that. I won't give them anymore. Just come up say the sinner's prayer and go away. The Lord loves you. Get baptized tonight and promise to tithe and you'll make it. When revival comes you forget about the clock. And they were there till 2.30 in the morning. The congregation remained praying and singing until 2.30 in the morning. Shopkeepers are closing early in order to get to the place of the chapel. The steel workers are finding their place in their working clothes. On the 11th of November at the Mariah Church it was again overflowing with 800 or more people filling the old chapel. Many were there on their knees for a long, long time on account of their distress and agony of soul. Then he goes on to say that the meeting went on until 4.25 in the morning and then the gathering dispersed. And this man says when I walked back to Flemethly I left dozens of them in the road still discussing how and what the meeting was about and how the Spirit of God had worked. Now here's the revival going on. The meeting houses were overcrowded for hours before the time when the service had been announced. Sidney Evans preached in one chapel and Evan Roberts in the other. Day broke before the people were dispersed. They stayed all night until daylight. A local minister reported the community had been converted into a praying multitude. The lives of hundreds of coal miners and tinplate workers were transformed. On Tuesday the early morning prayer meeting was crowded people remaining at home rather than going to work. The meeting lasted for hours. The young prophet announced that a great spirit of revival was coming into the city. People went to the sanctuary whether Evan Roberts came or not. On this occasion Evan Roberts arrived at the church door and made his way through the crowd and he sat on the front seat saying nothing for three hours. Can you imagine that? Hard people get up and go out. This man never had a timetable. He wouldn't announce where he was going. Let people go meet in a sanctuary and if God takes me okay if he doesn't okay. He didn't work for any human program at all. And he goes and sits in a crowded church more than 800 people and waits for three hours. Good night. We have an orchestra. We pay for an orchestra. Come to a big meeting in Dallas. Strike the meeting up. Get off singing. Do everything. We're as ritualistic as anybody on God's earth. And yet this thing is led totally by the spirit of God. They waited there for three hours then he stood up and after an exhortation of prayer he spoke only for 15 minutes and then sat down. On another occasion F.B. Meyer was there and he said he will not go in front of the spirit. He's willing to stand aside in the background until the spirit of God moves and it's a profound lesson. In another church Evan Roberts arrived at seven at night. He made his way to the front of the big church climbed over the knees of the people sitting near the pulpit and uttered just one word in prayer. Let us pray. Immediately the prayer burst forth audibly and simultaneously from the vast crowd. Evan Roberts took no further part in the extraordinary meetings. He made his way home at 10 o'clock to pray all night in the quiet of his room. And it says there was not one penny spent on advertising. As I've said to you when you never have to advertise a fire I don't care what it is you can fill churches by having a big sports program. But how many of us want to wait? Here is a man that's moving cities the traffic was stopped people wouldn't go to business people closed down their business people just went home to eat and came back at 10 o'clock at night often and stayed all through the night. And here's this precious young man he went home at 10 o'clock to pray all night in the quiet of his room the meeting was continued in full power until 2 a.m when the family one family made its way out the children were put to bed the coal miner dozed in the big fire until daybreak he went to work and returned home put on his best clothes and he went to the chapel at four o'clock in the afternoon the meeting was still on. Now that's revival you don't turn the lights on you don't say we'll start here and finish there the spirit has his way and if it breaks up your sleep let it break up your sleep if it breaks up your eating let it break up your eating if it breaks up your nature you see we're so geared God pitches in America more than anywhere else on earth everybody is to a timetable everything starts here and finishes there not with the Holy Ghost. A Welshman called an Englishman called and said to a friend I've come a long way and I want to hear Edmund Roberts where is he preaching? He was taken aback when his friend professed ignorance of the revivalists procedure he does not tell people where to expect him he tells them what they need is the Lord Jesus and they'll find him in the nearest church and he proceeded to amaze his visitor by saying that every church in town is filled until midnight not one church every church it's not getting some big shot with a big name and saying let's have a program and you'll be home by three or four o'clock it's every church in town receives a divine visitation there's no competition you forget labels you forget denominations there's such a common hunger you know in a forest animals will fight I remember a man saying he was going through a forest and he looked up and there was a big cobra and it was coming down and then he heard the roar of a lion and he heard the cry of a hyena and he said you can see carcasses where wild beasts have come and destroyed the beast they fight and you know what happened when there's a fire they all run side by side they forget all about their hatred they forget all about their lust for blood they run side by side animals that for centuries have been as it were enemies but now there's some big disaster behind and they flee for safety and you know when we realize that this generation is going to hell quicker than any other generation we forget about our labels we forget about having two services how do you tell the Holy Ghost I'll be glad to have one service in a church Sunday morning how do you have two do you tell the Holy Ghost because it's 10 o'clock we've got time to say but we're so ignorant we'll offend the Holy God we don't even know we're doing it somebody else is doing it we'll do it in other words I'm waiting to see God do something here like this in Thailand the meeting houses were overcrowded hours before the time people sought God they prayed with supplication with trying until before the meeting ever started there's such a craving for God not for preaching for God not for miracles for God and yet this precious young man had discernment I read about the people staying instead of going to work in Waxham North Wales the revival had been going on for quite a while in the mid-year there were further stirrings on November 8th the Reverend R.B. Jones began a 10-day mission in which simultaneous prayer overwhelmed the preacher and the audience they could not continue they drowned the preacher with their intercessions that was wonderful more than 100 converts were converted out of that movement but four months later were 2,267 people who had been genuinely born again of the Spirit of God well I read to you about him waiting for three hours anyhow one day in the police court in Holyhead which is in the extreme west coast of Wales the police court was in proceedings and a young man stuck up a hem and they turned the police court into a revival meeting now you don't get that by somebody striking up and playing a concertina or playing a... rattling on a... what these things the ladies like to do let it shake tambourine okay revival visited the university colleges for example a student in the lounge of the University of College of Bangor an undergraduate started to sing a hymn in Welsh and the student prayed and there was an unbroken succession of prayers and testimony follows lectures were cut the college closed its lectures and 300 students or more gathered in the afternoon for prayer now there's revival again you don't have a star personality there the Spirit of God is moving the Spirit of God is breathing everything loses its value time intellectualism we suddenly see the awfulness of sin and a great absence of God's presence I wrote a letter to a fellow just the other week and I said the trouble with our churches today is that we're trying to worship an absentee God and I noticed on Sunday morning he quoted that so at least I was able to preach through him one young man in a meeting modestly told that he called on every house in a certain street Evan Roberts said to him you're lying and he pierced him with his gaze and contradicted him the young man stammered in confusion admitted he had performed or not done the things he claimed he trembled like a leaf and burst into tears when Evan Roberts told him that his words were deceitful and he had already forged his signature on a previous occasion the young man was amazed that he began telling his story let me read one other thing people began to attack this man and say it was psychology and it was hypnotism and it was a dozen other things he says that Evan Roberts ignored the attacks but they had their effects on him so he became passionately concerned about the immediate revelation of the Holy Spirit this came to a head with an extraordinary incident at Carmarthen on February 21st during the meeting Roberts cried out in agony there's a man present who is damned and the congregation began to pray and they prayed with tremendous fervor and anxiety and Evan Roberts stood up and stopped them saying it's no point praying this man's passed the point of no return he's damned he's lost none of the other preachers on the word of James where he says there is a sin unto death and you can't pray for it there are some people as damned as if they're in hell itself and the reason is that this is God's last call he doesn't owe you anything you've heard the gospel a hundred times he's prayed you for the mission period he said no forget it that you're over now forget it and I'm looming not to pray for some people anyhow this book goes on and it's an exciting and I mean by this I don't mean just emotionally exciting to read how the traffic is stopped to read how the football matches gave up the theaters were closed down uh the sports fields were empty and the churches were packed hours before they could get in for the opening meeting and they stayed through the night and nobody got weary and if they did they went home at three or four or five in the morning it was so caught up in the spirit it's going to take that dear friends it's going to have to become preaching is not a profession it's an obsession and it's a passion and God's going to have to get men aflame that don't care a hoot as I've told you before and I'm again reminding you these men were penniless men that came from the upper room they don't press seeds they won't accept it anywhere but God was with them again those people back in the 1600s that we call the puritans their buildings had no lighting they had no heating they had no seats with backs on they had no choir they had no organization and yet God the Holy Ghost came and John Owen isn't 30 years of age in 2000 people there's no transit system 2000 people come to hear a man preach and he preached off in two hours at this rate followed by an hour of prayer and yet they went for days they went for hours walking to the sanctuary through the wet weather through the snow and sitting there in those like the chapel they restored of Westley's in the Haymarket in Bristol they just put the seats they have no backs they have no padding and the light I say was little candles clipped on the wall and yet without all the accessories we have dear God what are we in we've got an electronic church the new testament was electric church electrifying not electronic not mechanical they didn't spin around certain big personalities and preachers the Holy Ghost was the attraction Christ was exalted and they were prepared to lay it out every time this is who you crucified the Lord of Glory we're going to have to get back to the old rugged cross we're preaching issues we're preaching about pregnancies we're preaching about drugs we're preaching about alcoholism we're preaching about abortion but Jesus says if I be lifted up he's got a bit of sense and a circumference the first and the last the beginning and the ending we've got to be consumed more and more and more with Jesus Christ to be able to sing and say and mean thou O Christ art all I want but I've no satisfaction a material thing a material possession a material favor we have to do something that money can't do an organization can't do I say this in class there was a meeting not long ago in Amsterdam some local people went there and what they were 20,000 men they had a meeting that cost 14 million dollars how did the preachers come out? did they come back on fire? oh it was nice to meet fellows from other countries sure it was what's a big social gathering? they had one before that I asked one of the leading men there did the Holy Ghost fall? he said no brother Raymond not like you want him to come out what in God's name is it for? give me 300 men that want to go for 3 or 4 days and wait on God we don't need any superstar there without saying I met personally so and so let's get together and wait on God for 3 days of fasting and prayer and seeking God and asking for brokenness which must receive revival asking for birth pains which must receive revival we don't want it that way we're so mechanical we've got all the gadgets give us more money take our newsletter do this and it's nothing it's going to take the living God and raise up a living people to produce life and that will only come as we make intercession as we admit our own bankruptcy you see the God that did this is the same today the same yesterday and forever now I haven't gone very far tonight and yet I have in my own mind what God wants us to think about something we've never seen our generation has never seen we have youth rallies dear God what do we have? there's all kinds of things there's seminars and everything but we're not meeting with God the Holy Ghost there's no brokenness there's no travail we're going to go to prayer I want you to pray God's been working in Spencer's family again and they're very grateful and we're asking him to move on these American Indians the government's going to give X number of million dollars to fight drugs and drink but I'll tell you what I'll tell you who'll get the least out of that that'll be the Indians they'll be almost ignored there has to come an awakening I'm sick of playing church I'm sick of just singing hymns and feeling good I don't care what the cost is I mean that before God but we must have a divine intervention we must see things that will exceed even the things in the world's revival and they were the greatest things without nothing it seems plenty cost so pray somebody you know thinks I pray too long maybe I do so they say well you know you're better to pray two short prayers and pray one long one I'll tell you when to stop praying when you start repeating yourself it's time to quit we're not here to feel and shout the loudest and pray to the longest if we do it's not much chance for the ladies noise isn't power we can have a rowdy meeting it's power noise isn't power as a matter of fact when the old train remember the old train used to pull into the station and the fellow was afraid the boiler would burst so he pulled the switch it hissed it made always a lot of hissing when there's no power and no movement and that's why you get in the church a lot of noise a lot of talk so I'm going to quit now and ask you to pray Lord anoint me tonight pray to yourself in this meeting give us a sense of boldness give us a consciousness of what revival really is and tell God whether you're willing to pay the price for it or not don't make any false statements that's got to pray