In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes that the experience of being born again is just the beginning of a lifelong process of renewal. Many people make the mistake of relying solely on their initial conversion experience and fail to seek daily renewal from God. The speaker highlights the power of Satan and reminds listeners that God has not forgotten what the devil did in Eden. The sermon concludes by emphasizing the importance of ministering to God and waiting on Him in order to hear His voice and fulfill His calling.

And I want to sort of fade out, I mean that in the right way, so that our young brethren can really come in. These men that God is blessing in a very real way, with powers of discernment and knowledge of conditions and ability to move in the name of Jesus, that's a glorious and wonderful thing. And that's fairly rare still, spread out amongst the millions of people there are on the earth, so that there's a great cry going up everywhere, please send someone, please send someone, and well, we can't do it. And so the cry comes, oh Lord, you must raise up someone. And I was thinking earlier, when Norman was speaking, just in those few brief words of exhortation, saying that if we give, God will give to us. There's no sort of bargain encounter with God. You can't come to God and say, no I'm going to give you something God, please you, now you've got to give me something. Some people's ideas seem to be built upon that basis, as though it's scheming Jacob instead of wonderful Jesus in us. The glorious fact of it is, beloved, as I was thinking as Norman was speaking, that it was when they waited on God, when they ministered to God. Do you remember in Acts chapter 13, they ministered to God. That's when God spoke, that's when God moved, that's when God did his wonderful work. As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Lord said, separate unto me Barnabas and Saul, for the work whereto I have called them. That was a glorious position. Now let's get this understood, and understood clearly, that you and I are not to read the Bible to find the sort of condition under which we can operate. Now if we wait on God, God will raise up so and so, and you'll do so and so, and you'll do so and so, and you'll do so and so. Please, please don't come to the Bible like that. Come because your hearts are just overflowing. Come in the best way, the most excellent way. I was talking with someone not so long ago, on a big problem that they had, and it's an increasing problem all over the world in these days. And they were asking me advice about a certain thing. Now what does the Bible say about it? And I had to, I said to this person, I said to you, on whatsoever problem or difficulty, you may meet, or into which you may be precipitated. Remember this, when you read your Bible, you have set forth the highest and the best, the most excellent way. Therefore you cannot expect to find in the Bible another way set forth. God only sets forth the highest and the best, and you may not inquire of a man of God, or a woman of God, because you're seeking advice to operate and function on a way that's lower than the highest and the best. Because it's not to be found in the Bible. I think I've said enough to give you a night's meditation. Would you agree with me, darling? You will only find the highest and the best in the book. So if you search the book, try to find out something which will allow you to function on a lower level than the highest, and in a way worse than the best, or less than the best, you will not find it. How isn't that wonderful? Praise God. Are you glad about that? I'm ever so glad. That doesn't allow anybody to come in on a level that they can pitch on and set forth a wrong example under men and say, God has given me these advice to do this. God has called me to do this. God has sent me to do that. He hasn't. He may have allowed you to do it. That's different. He allows the devil to operate, for a season. But the devil can't say, now God told me to do this. There's a vast difference between the two. God help us to see it, so that we know what God is about. Amen. Then with the highest and the best in mind, let us turn to Scripture, shall we? And if you like, set the note for the whole of this conference. Familiar Scriptures in the second book of the Corinthians. In 2nd Corinthians then, three things I nearly said at the least, perhaps it ought to be the most for tonight. The first one, the familiar one in the fifth chapter, 2 Corinthians 5, verse 17. If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new, and all things are of God. Amen. Now, you say, well that's the highest. No, it's only the highest beginning. That's all. We've not reached the peak yet. That's a beginning. Hallelujah. The tragedy with so many people is, that they're making that a goal. And it's only the start. If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Anyone, old things have passed away. All things have become new. That's a man's own consciousness. When he is in Christ, by the glorious power of God, bringing him into newness, utter newness. What a blessed beginning then, for men and women. Eh? Why? I should think so too, because this is what we read. Let's read it higher up, shall we? The love of Christ, verse 14, constraineth us, because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then all died. You have, we're all dead, but it's better, the power of it, then all died. And he died for all, that they which live, should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again. Wherefore henceforth, know we no man after the flesh. Yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now, henceforth, know we him no more. Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he's a new creature. Paul says, we don't know Christ, even Christ, after the flesh, any more. Christ now is after the Spirit. Bless him. He's, what? He is in the Spirit, the same glorious Jesus, the same wondrous life, translated out of its manifestation in the flesh as Jesus of Nazareth, manifesting glory after the Spirit. Amen. We don't even know Christ after the flesh. He said, what a marvellous thing for a man to say. A man that has become conscious of the Holy Ghost, and has passed into the Spirit, where Christ is. And there, everything is new. There comes a moment in a man's life, when the power of God works on him, and instantaneously, everything is new. He's not now left to fight his old self. He's not now left to fight his old habit. He's not now left to fight and struggle out of his own mess. If he's in Christ, he's a new creature, and he knows his. He knows his. Amen. Because everything is so fundamentally changed in him. Oh, glory be to God. Newness, newness, newness. So that everything is so vividly real. Everything has changed. Nobody knows it more than that particular person, whoever he is. Things just drop off. Things just cease. This is a power thing that we're talking about. It's not a self-improvement society, isn't the church. Glory be to God. It's Jesus Christ's glorious new creation. Amen. He's, if I may use the word of him, proud of it. The thing that he has done. Amen. It's this vital, glorious, new life that Jesus Christ imparts to us that is the wonder of our salvation. Not just a new set of beliefs, although we do believe things utterly differently. It is power that gets hold of a man and makes him new from within. Old things pass away. It doesn't matter what they are. Everything that has oldness written on it. Amen. So that everything has newness written on it. That's what you'll read in Romans chapter 6. Newness, newness, newness, newness. Why, says the apostle there, walking in newness of life. Walking, life itself is new. What a marvellous thing that is when that takes place. But when did that happen to you? That's the thing you've got to see. We judge, this says Paul, that if one died for all, and that's Jesus, died for all, then all die. Amen. Basically, before a man ever reaches this place, his judgements have to be changed. His assessments of things. God is not interested in giving you a little help to help you over the hump. God is concerned, and he took desperate measures to achieve it, to give you a dynamic, glorious experience of coming clear out of the old into the utterly into the new. Amen. Has that happened to you? Amen. And Paul associates this with self in the reading. Did you notice it? That a man should not henceforth live under himself, but under him. Amen. If you're interested in living for yourself, then you'll not get very far with God. The last thing that God wants is people living for themselves. He wants us to live under him. Him. Praise God. Your life has changed direction. You're facing in a new way. You've not only been born from above, your whole direction of your life has changed. It's all so tremendous and just too great for us to take in with our minds. And God has designed it this way, that a man at last comes to desperation. He comes to the place where his mind can't take it in. He comes to the place where he's in confusion. Amen. When a man comes there, then he's ready to step into this uttermost newness that God has provided for him. And what a step it is. Christ died for us, and we died with him. Hallelujah. Amen. Everything's of God. A man's got to be able to say that. He's got to be able to say that everything in my life is of God. All things have become new. Amen. It means he gets a new look at the world. It means he gets a new look at his circumstances. It means that he's so changed that in a, in a word he can scarce recognize himself. He's so different. God specializes in this. And this is what God is going to impress on us, I am sure, in these days. Not that in saying that, I want to guide my brother Norman in what he should preach on, or anything like that. I know what he's thinking if he gets a chance. But the whole, the whole glorious truth about it, beloved, is that, oh, so tremendous. When did you become new through and through? When did it happen to you? God delivers from the curse of the preaching that gives you a sort of a, a start, and then for the next twenty years of your life, God's trying to extricate you from your old habits, your old self, your old way, the old, old world. And God's finding exceedingly different, difficult, when God, our God, concentrating himself into a moment of weakness, utter weakness, utterly destroyed all the powers of darkness and Satan and the world, and overcame death and did everything. Our God that did this, he'll not countenance this trying to extricate ourselves from our own mess by believing this little bit, coming back next week, getting a little bit more deliverance, coming back next week, getting a little bit more deliverance, believing a little bit more, and a little bit more, a little bit more. Oh, praise God. There comes a moment of translation, a moment of realization. Amen. This is all that's involved in the tremendousness of this word that Paul uses down at the end of this chapter. He says, all things are of God, I'm sorry, at the end of this verse 18, who's reconciled us, reconciled us, given us the ministry of reconciliation. Amen. Amen. Committed unto us the word of reconciliation. That's the word. That's the word. Reconciliation. Reconciliation. Reconciled unto God. Immediately. Not gradually. Instantaneously. Reconciled. Glory be to God. It's a miracle. That's right. That's what we all need. It's a miracle. Praise God. When did it happen? Hallelujah. Oh, it's so marvellous. Isn't it? Why even men can take somebody and put them in a lump of old iron, and in about three hours put them in a new country. Of course, it's called an aeroplane, that lump of old iron. It's a miracle, you see. You can get to New York in the Concord before you leave England. That's a miracle. I mean time-wise. That's right. You've even beaten the sun. You've even beaten the day. Men can get in front of the day. Well, how about our God then? How about our God? Shall men come to a technological miracle and our God can't do the spiritual miracle? Amen. If any man, doesn't matter who you are, man, woman, wherever you've come from, whatever you've been, this is what the book says. If any man, put your own name in there, say, that's me, Lord. I'll put mine in. If I'm in Christ, I am a new creature. This isn't imputation. It's what I am. Glory be to the name of the Lord. Isn't that a thrill? You're a new creature, are you? Amen. Amen. If I said stand up all the new creatures, would you stand up? Glory, glory, glory. And if any of you are here tonight and you think, well, to be quite honest, I couldn't stand up, I'll tell you this. If you'll listen, if you'll open your heart to God and submit to Him, you'll be able to say it. You'll be able to say it before you leave this place. Because God's here to do it. Isn't that lovely of Him? Now, that's a marvellous time. That takes place at a certain time in your life. It takes place so that it leaves you in no doubt whatsoever. But as I have said, it's only a beginning. It is not an end. Turn back with me to the fourth chapter. In chapter four, we read in verse sixteen, we faint not. For though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. So I have a great experience when I'm renewed. Amen. Now from that moment, a process of renewal has to go on in your life daily. Now this is where so many people fail. There's no doubt about it that they have a tremendous new birth. There's no doubt about it that God comes and as we sing, God forgave my sins in Jesus' name. I've been born again in Jesus' name. That's what we sing. They have a tremendous experience. But what they fail to see is that that was a day of new beginnings and that every single day of my life since I've been born again in the provisions of God, I have to be renewed. It's the inward man that is born again. It's the inward man that becomes the new creature. The inward man is still in an old environment. He is still in a body that is yet geared to the old. Oh praise God. One of the great principles upon which God works is this, is to bring your outward man into the place of perishing. Amen. You take that right deep into your heart. So that the inward man, per contra, may be seen clearly to be renewed. Amen. This is the glory of it. Did you realize that you have to be made new every day? Renewed. Renewed. Renewed. Renewed. Did you understand that? There are too many people, they rest back on the glorious experience. They say yes, fifteen years ago, ten years ago, six months ago, might only have been a fortnight ago. God did a marvelous thing in me. I've been born again. God's met me and made me a new creature. Yeah, that's fine. But what's been happening to you today brother, sister? Have you been renewed today? Glory be to God. Now you must understand that God has a great purpose in your life. Behind your life, behind circumstances, behind this whole old world in which we live, there is a power at work. It is the power of Satan. Remember that God has never forgotten what the devil did in Eden. Never. The scoffers may mock. The pseudo-scientists may say it isn't true. But God remembers it. And you must know it's true. You must know that God has never forgiven Satan for what he did in the garden. I don't know whether Satan's going to hell because he rebelled against God in the beginning. I don't know whether he's going there because before the world began he inculcated rebellion into the hearts of men and instituted revolt in heaven. I don't know whether it's for that or for this that there came a day when he came and attacked man. When he came to destroy in man the likeness of God. And whether it was for that God said to the devil, the lake of fire for you, Satan. You see originally you and I and all mankind were made in the likeness of God. And when you read this word renewal in the Bible, I don't mean that God is renewing the charismatic gifts or something like that in the church. Don't get mixed up with that. Let sectarian people keep those ideas if they want. When you read renewal in the Bible it has to do with renewal back into the likeness and image of God. That's what it's all about. God may be renewing this and that and the other to do with things. But that's not it. He's dealing with human beings. God is determined and this is his grace and how great it is that you are going to be exactly what he intended you to be when he made man in the beginning. Amen. And at Calvary God dealt with everything that was against it. He dealt with the devil who was against it. He dealt with sin that was against it. He dealt with the old nature that had been born and was against it. Dealt with it. Dealt with circumstances. Dealt with everything. There is no power. There is no name. There is nothing that Jesus did not deal with at the cross of Calvary. Praise God for that. He has every intention by the power of the Holy Ghost to take a man up. And this is why he gives him new birth. This is why he gives him a new start. This is why he blocks up the past. This is why he destroys the power of Satan. He has every intention to bring you back there into what he wanted in the beginning. That's the renewal. That must take place every day of your life. That inward man has to be renewed day by day. Oh glory be to God. What a gospel this is. What power there is to accomplish it. Hmm? The inward man. I hope you know how to distinguish between the inward man and the outward man. There are very few who do. None that have not been born again can't. Nobody that hasn't been born again can distinguish between the outward and the inward man. Only they who've known new life from above can understand. Understand sufficiently to cooperate with the Lord. Hallelujah. Amen. If you can say what Paul said in the 15th chapter of the first letter that he wrote to the Corinthians. He said these words. I am what I am by the grace of God. Just to know that you are. I'm going to say well I am. Now praise God. I am. From the moment you know that you are. That you are existing in the life of God. Even as he thought of you and willed you way back before the foundation of the world. And at last by the blessed coming of the Spirit upon the return of Jesus Christ to heaven in his triumphs. I'll bring you into it. Right in. Hallelujah. Renewed day by day. Now God has planned it this way. There is only one way that this can happen to you. And that is that from the moment of your new birth you get into and walk in instantaneous communion with God. There isn't any other way. You mustn't think you can go along to your local meeting and get a touch up once a week or something like that. Day by day. Day by day. 365 days in the year. 66 if it's a leap year. God won't miss a day. Praise God. Every day renewed. Every day renewed. Hallelujah. The power of this present instantaneous redemption. The glory of this change going on in your life. Not now change from old sin. Not now change from the old world. Not now change from this, that and the other. But change beloved into that glorious likeness of Jesus Christ. It's an amazing thing. That's the renewal. Is it happening in your life? I don't mean whether you can sort of throw up your hands and clap and sing. I don't mean that. Or whether you can walk around saying Amen. Praise the Lord. It's good to do that. But whether or not today the renewal has gone on. Oh, I must be in this contact with God. I must be vitally aware of Him. I must be in this place with Him. Glory, glory. Renewal. Renewal. Renewal. Renewal. Nothing ever gets old again. Old things are gone. Amen. Isn't that lovely? Hmm? Everything about you now becomes eternal. Everything. Think of it. Going to last forever. Oh, glory. I think this is a wonderful plan that God had. You see, you got it in the beginning. Why do you think He used to come down and walk in the cool of the day with Adam and Eve in the garden? Hmm? Why? You know, that Hebrew word there is a lovely one. He used to come and walk with Adam in the wind of the day. Or the breath of the day. And God breathed into the original dust. The breath of His nostrils. And Adam became alive. He became a living soul by that breath. And He used to come in the breath of every day. In the wind of every day. And walk with Him. You got cool. You, in our translation, cool of the day. Oh, Adam used to walk in the breath of God. He was kept vividly, vitally alive all the time. Not just by partaking of the tree of life that was in the garden, eating the fruit of that, but that he was in this breath of God. Amen. That's what it was all about. You can imagine all kinds of things. The things they used to say to one another. I don't know whether God used to say to Adam, Adam I love you. And Adam used to say back to God, I love you God. I don't know whether He said that. It isn't the thing that's said in this thing that's called communion. It's what is imparted. What's imparted to you? This marvel of this in-breathing of God. Walking in the breath of the life that in your first great Pentecost brought you into the glorious fullness of God and the realization of Him. Oh, to maintain that day by day. Walking in the intimacy of it. Walking in the purity of it. Walking in the pristine glory of it. Walking in the creative power of it. Walking in it all. All the glory of being here with God. Hmm? Does your mind ever go back to that day when first the power of God came on you and you were changed? Hasn't it been kept for you in the spirit? Isn't it the basis and source of your very thinking now? Isn't it? Have you ever had anything better than that? No, you haven't. No, you haven't and neither will you. So when a trumpet blows and we're translated it won't be better than that. That's only changing the outward man. That's all that does. Hallelujah. I don't know how God's going to do it but He's going to do it. Praise Him. It's this, this wonder of life from God, this in-breathing of God, this knowing God, this mingling breath with breath, this walking with Him, this knowing Him, this intimacy, this life, this renewal, this bringing back to me moment by moment everything. In the Old Testament when the priests went to and fro about their business in the tabernacles, you know they had to wash every time at the labor. Now that's the place where officially they were baptized. They had their great birth baptism at the labor. And then they had to go and renew it and walk in it. They had to wash their feet. That was what the labor was for and then they had to walk in it. This blessed renewal, walking in newness of life. Unless they didn't handle the blood. They didn't touch anything that belonged to God. Unless they did that. Nothing. Amen. Hallelujah. Let's have a look at another verse shall we. Oh praise God. Talk about I get so thrilled with Jesus every moment of the day. Let's have a look at it. It's in the book of Titus. Here it is. Chapter 3. Oh glory. Not. Oh let's start at verse 4. Chapter 3. After that the kindness and love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us by the labor of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost which he shed on us abundantly. This is a faithful saying. Actually in the Greek. Eyes down now on your book. This is what he says. We should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. Faithful Logos. That's what he says. Faithful Logos. You know that Logos is that word which is translated in the beginning was the word. Faithful Logos. This is the word to me. This is the word to me. An heir of eternal life having been justified. Now God has shed abroad abundantly upon me the blessed Holy Ghost. Oh that this regeneration should be in its turn moved into renewal. Every day. Renewal. Glory be to the name of the Lord. If I live in the power of that which first emancipated me. If I live in the glory of that which first cut sin out of my heart. If I live in the wonder of that which first washed me clean in the power and the life and the blood of Jesus Christ. How can I help but be made new every day? How can I help that? Tell me. This is the inevitability of God. Faithful Logos. You know that Logos is that word which is translated in the beginning was the word. Faithful Logos. This is the word to me. This is the word to me. An heir of eternal life having been justified. Now God has shed abroad abundantly upon me the blessed Holy Ghost. Oh that this regeneration should be in its turn moved into renewal. Every day. Renewal. Glory be to the name of the Lord. If I live in the power of that which first emancipated me. If I live in the glory of that which first cut sin out of my heart. If I live in the wonder of that which first washed me clean in the power and the life and the blood of Jesus Christ. How can I help but be made new every day? How can I help that? Tell me. This is the inevitability of God. Brings us out of man's whinings, moanings, shortcomings, excuses, pleadings for this, pleadings for that. As though God were a hard task master and must gradually lessen the drugs I've been taking until he can normalize me in about ten years time. I mean the drugs of the things by which I've been trying to feed my mind and tutor it up into something suitable to God. God comes in. That's why. Amen. I love it. I love it. I love it. I love it. That Jesus lingered not one moment more than was necessary on the cross. But Jesus deliberately died. That's it. Quite deliberately. That's how he intends to deliver you. By his own deliberate death. Isn't that lovely? I think it's a marvellous plan. All I need is to believe. Somehow he brought my heart to that place. Somehow I didn't know how he did it. In the end it's the mystery. It is God's secret. But it's an open secret amongst the members of his body. Amen. And I'm renewed. Renewed. Oh Glory. Faithful August. Blessed Word. Holy Jesus. Wondrous Son. He brings me to it. Amen. Amen. Let your heart believe it. It's free. The third thing then. This time I'm going back into 2nd Corinthians again. And it's in chapter 3. This time we read this. Verse 18. We all with unveiled faith beholding as in a glasp the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image from glory to glory by the Spirit of the Lord. By the Spirit of the Lord. So you're new then. You're renewed. And you're changed. Changed from glory to glory. Originally he changed me from shame to glory. Originally he changed me from filth to glory. From darkness to glory. Amen. Originally he changed me from sin to glory. Perhaps only a beginning. Oh. Now it's not just into his likeness but into his image. Into his very image. Oh. I think this is wonderful. Oh. Beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image from glory to glory. Now that's got to take place now. It's got to take place tomorrow. It's got to take place the day after. And when you leave Cliff this year you've got to be so much more glorious than when you left it last year. Or when you came. That doesn't mean to say you've got to sort of stretch higher or shout louder or leap up and catch hold of the beans. Or anything like that. You may do. It's a long jump but still. But what it does mean beloved is that you aren't just content to say well now I'm a new creature. You mustn't rest there. Neither must you say well I'm becoming more like Jesus every day. In a sort of a likeness. Hmm. You've got to say the image Lord. The absolute image. Hmm. Amen. Yeah. Well. Is that happening in your life? It is. Now you know what to do. You know what images are don't you. I'm not talking about things that people make and stick up and worship. You can look in a looking glass. You may not like what you see but it's the image of you. That's right. It's no good. Some people try to improve it but often to my taste they make it worse. But there it is. If people like to deceive themselves well that's their business. That's the image. Glory be to God. Amen. You know I was out in Sweden quite recently at a conference. And you know Brother Norman and I we were talking a little about this upstairs that what you've got to do when you're working for an interpreter is know that these interpreters will that you've got their heart and they've got your heart and that you can perfectly trust them to say what you said. You see. And translate what he has to say. What you have to say. Well Brother I was talking all sorts of things and I was something on this line about the image of God. God's wanting us to come into the image of Jesus Christ. You see. And I made a remark. I said you see when you've got to be like me. I said so look at me. And they looked at me you know. And I said of course you may not want a nose like I've got. And I went on and on and on. And she didn't say anything. So I said you're not translating this. She said no I don't trace that in any jokes you make against yourself. I said thank you ever so much. She said they wouldn't be funny in our language anyway. You're safe with a translator like that. Beloved. You've got to be like him. Now this will explain much that goes on in your life. If you'll only sit and reflect for a moment. This will explain the difficulties you go through. And the hardships that come. And why life isn't a bed of roses. Because you see. Jesus Christ only himself achieved his full glory by the difficulty he went through. By the hardships that came. By the trials. The persecutions. That's it. You understand this. You've got to get this right deep down into your thinking. Hallelujah. Look into this chapter 4 with me will you. It says this. Verse 5. We preach not ourselves but Christ Jesus the Lord and ourselves your slaves. For Jesus sake. For God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness has shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. That we have this treasure in earthen vessels. That the excellency of the power may be of God. Not of us. We are troubled on every side. Yet not distressed. Glory be to God. We are perplexed but not in despair. Persecuted but not forsaken. Cast down but not destroyed. Hallelujah. Don't you see. Now. It says. We have this treasure in earthen vessels. Now you know what happens to an earthen vessel when you cast it down. Don't you. Supposing I've got hundreds, hundreds of pieces made of earth and I cast. What do you think would happen to that? You say well it would be smashed. Yes but Paul says we're earthen vessels we're cast down but we're not smashed. That's right. Amen. We're earthen vessels we're cast down. We're not broken. Maybe a little crack here and there. Maybe a few chips. Hallelujah. If you're cracked it will allow the light to shine through a bit better. You and I have got to be brought into this marvelous image of Jesus Christ. The exact image. I do praise God for this don't you. I'm so glad that he's got his heart set on this. Exact. Exact. Same image. Oh. I understand now why old Paul said I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus. You look at this. You just bear in mind this earthen vessel position. Let's read in chapter 1. Verse 8. We would not brethren have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia. That we were pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life. How about that. But he said we're not in despair. What does it mean. Oh. Oh glory. You may despair of your own life. You haven't interpreted it to mean saving your own skin have you. God's not concerned about saving your skin. You and I have got to regard ourselves as expendable. Amen. God's not concerned to save your skin. Some people think that we've been given faith to shout ourselves out of every difficult situation. Now my beloved brothers and sisters. Paul says we are. We. We don't despair. Then he says we despair. But he says of even of life. This outward life that has to do with this outward man. Glory be to God. That's expendable. It's this beloved. Amen. He was never in despair of losing that great eternal life. Never. Never. Why in his heart the glory of God was shining in the face of Jesus Christ. The clear unclouded vision of the Lord was there. What does it matter whether you're in the deep at day or night. He gives a list of some of these great sufferings and trials in this second letter to the Corinthians. What does it matter if this and that. In famine. In peril. In this. In that and the other. He gives lists of them. In there nothing. And when he talks about them he says I'm being a fool in talking about what's happening to me. You must read this letter if you're not acquainted with it. It's not fair he says. He never despaired of these great things of God. Because he was a new creature. And he was being renewed day by day. And he didn't care Lord. Bring me right up into that image. Bring me up into that image. Bring me right up into that image Lord. It's these things that tell. It's this that counts. How far will a man go. How far are you prepared to go woman. How far. How far. I remember a young woman. God met her in a glorious way. I remember she first used to come to a place. I was a Baptist pastor then. But God had really baptized me. And moving on in these great things of God. Which in the end I had to leave my particular church where I was. I remember this young lady at this time. She used to come in every Sunday night to the meetings. And just at a certain point in the meeting. That is when I was just about starting to really preach. She used to get up and go outside. And after a while I inquired why she went out. It wasn't polite to ask the first time or two. And I asked her why she went out. She said I go out and I'm sick. There was a big drain outside the church. And she used to go out and be sick. I said well what are you doing about it. She said I'm taking pills. I said pills. In the end they became the joke of those of us that were born again of God. We called them conviction pills. She used to come under conviction of the Spirit of God. Till she was literally sick. That's right somebody was there. She knows. She's the only one that can check up on me. Alright. And she used to go out and be sick. Yeah. And then one day. One day Stella Marchidi got born again. Boy. Oh when Stella Marchidi got born again. She had a lovely voice. And she used to come and sing sometimes on a Sunday night. I don't know whether you know it now. She used to sing I'll go all the way with Jesus. I'll go all the way with Jesus till Calvary Jesus went for me. I'll go all the way with Jesus. And she used to stand up sometimes when we went and preached out amongst the workers that used to come and pick hops in the gardens of Kent. And she used to stand up and say oh it's so good I'd give it to you if I could. Yes. Yes. How far are you prepared of God? Huh? The image of Jesus Christ? The image? Blessed be the image. You know a sculptor sometimes will get hold of a lump of stone. And he'll start banging, banging, locking great lumps of it. You know carving this lump off and chipping that lump. So if you walked into his studio and he said to you what do you think I'm making? You say well that's easy to see. You're making a man of some sorts. Quite obvious. Head, shoulders, legs, arms. See? See? Then I go back next time in about a month. He said who is it now? Oh I see you. It was Winston Churchill. I can see it. You've got it haven't you? The difference between the likeness and the image. The image. The image. Till God has carved out in your soul the very identical likeness, the image of the Lord Jesus Christ. The painstaking God changing you from glory to glory. And aren't you glad you're not a lump of old stone? Aren't you thrilled that the Lord is in you by his Spirit? He's going to do this work. Yield to him. Give right up to him. Walk with him. Lie with him tonight in your bed. Rise with him tomorrow. Walk with him tomorrow. Talk with him tomorrow. Let the blessed Spirit of the Lord have you. Glory, glory, glory, glory, glory. I want that. Don't you? Mmm. New, renewed, changed. Let me give you one more. Would you like one more? Lots of them here. I hadn't better ask you again after this one. In this same first chapter of the second book of Corinthians, verse 18. As God is true, our word toward you was not yea and nay. For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us, even by me and Silvanus and Timotheus, was not yea and nay, but in him was yea. For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him amen. Unto the glory of God by us. Now he which establisheth us with you in Christ, and hath anointed us, is God, who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts. I think I'm going to put my book down. I haven't been known to pick it up again. But here is the great thing. This man is positive. Positive. Amen. We're not a negative reflection of Jesus Christ. We're positive. Positively a man of God in the image of Jesus Christ. Amen. Nothing indefinite. Nothing negative. Nothing yesterday, no tomorrow. Are you alright today brother? Yes. Tomorrow. How are you brother? No. Are you going on to die? Yes. Next week. Are you going on to die? Oh no. No. No. I must be honest. You're not being honest. You've been dishonest. Somewhere you've never let God get really hold of you. You've been dishonest with God. Amen. Now God's word to you is faithful. We said it. Faithful of us. Faithful word. He'll do this great thing, whosoever it is, if any man, if any man be in Christ, is a new creature. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Some people get their thinking all wrong. They think they've got to think that and think it into themselves. Love it. The great truth about it is you don't have to think anything in yourself for God to do anything. He comes by the power of the Holy Ghost and regenerates you and revolutionizes you. Takes you out of all this indefiniteness and all these panaceas we have been given the day from the right hand and the left hand about how to get this and how to get that. Oh glory be to God. This dynamic visitation from God that gets hold of a man and changes him and shakes everything else out of him. Is it power from on high that comes or is it power that we work up from beneath? What is it? Makes you really a positive man of God to declare the truth of God? Positively. Amen. Established in Christ. Sealed us. Hallelujah. Anointed us. Established. Oh this is great isn't it? So positive. Amen. Are you a positive person? The positive person is not a person that's learned the power of positive thinking or whatever it is. The positive man is a man in whom the spirit of God dwells in his fullness. Nobody's positive but that. No one. Glory. Power of God that moves through your whole being. It's life from above. Oh and God establishes all in this. Amen. Wouldn't it be wonderful if hundreds of people went away from this time together positively in these great things of God. What a revolution has come everywhere. And wherever you go people are in two minds. They don't know whether to think this or to do that or something else. But when someone who's positive comes along and he's going along with God he imparts this glorious air of confidence everywhere he goes. That's what he does. As somebody gets onto real ground. That's what God wants and this is what he spoke about in his first chapter. He says I'm comforting you with the comfort wherewith God comforts me. He said and the salvation which I'm preaching will be made effective in your life. You must read this first chapter of 2nd Corinthians by enduring the same things that we go through. I've colloquialized it but that's what he says. I'm comforting you. Amen. Enduring the truth. Enduring everything. Now may God do this. Hallelujah. I think it's time I stopped. Let's just have a time in the presence of the Lord. You've got to be positively Jesus. Amen. Amen.