In this sermon, the speaker shares his experience of preaching the word of God during a series of gospel meetings. He talks about feeling inadequate and helpless in his role as a servant. During one of the meetings, a man challenges him with a question about believing in hell, but the speaker is able to address his doubts and lead him to salvation. The speaker also emphasizes the importance of relying on God's power and guidance in ministry, and shares a story about missed opportunities to do good and fulfill God's purpose.

This is tape number K-001. Art Ketz with the message entitled, Be Ye Perfect. Isn't that strange that as the world becomes more slapdash and haphazard and approximate, God does just the opposite. In the get-by world, where any kind of combination works, the more bizarre and grotesque, the more likely it is to be successful, there's a God who insists more singularly upon purity and perfection. Have you noticed that? He's the God of the perfect. Be thou perfect, and walk thou before me. As Ingers says, what do you think of them apples? You think he's a wolfen, or does he really mean it? Is it a vague standard toward which we should aspire, or does God actually intend that we obtain perfection? The doctor said about my kneecap, the only way that damage could have been done is if you perfectly came down, smack dab, a three-point landing, right on the heart of your kneecap. He said every accident, you squirm, you fall, you twist your body some angle, but you came down in perfect precision. Only way to go. Can you believe that I'm almost getting so bold in these days that I can begin a service like this, or a message like this, and have the effrontery, or is it Jewish chutzpah, to suggest that you're going to hear something perfect? And then people come up to you at the end of the message and say, but Art, you choked and spluttered a few times, and you mispronounced one word, and you were ungrammatical in one particular place. How was it perfect? The perfection of God, children, doesn't have to do with impeccable grammar. It has only to do with this, that it has its perfect origin in heaven, and it's perfectly the fulfillment of him who spoke it. And the great wonder is that he can do things like that through a Brooklyn accent or a high squeaky voice of the kind that our brother Ernie has. What a marvel. Praise the Lord. So I'll tell you what, children. I just feel like going for broke tonight, don't you? In this lapdash age in which anything goes, doesn't your heart covet the thing that is perfect? Let's just ask that God will speak perfectly. Whatever it is in his heart, it'll be the perfect expression of what he intends to go forth to his children this night by his Spirit. Okay? So precious holy God, Lord, if there's anything in which we delight, it's to boast upon you. You do all things well, mighty God. And it's just a wonder to stand still and to see your salvation. And so I ask, precious God, that of what you have spoken in the sixth chapter of Romans is true. What you have described in the second and third chapters of Colossians is true. That we are complete in you, who is the head of all principality and power, in whom is hid all fullness and knowledge. I ask that you make your wonder manifest out of this earthen vessel this night. Right through this Brooklyn accent and every peculiar thing that has to do with my personality, I ask that you be so the possessor of it that these people might know that they've heard perfectly from the living God. Give us hearts to receive it, Lord, and to do it. And we'll thank you and praise you for it in Yeshua's holy name. Amen. Well, I'll tell you the way in which God begins to write a theme like this upon the heart of a servant. Not too far from here, at a Midwestern city, I was invited for breakfast with some of the saints in the neighborhood whom I've known through the years. I think there must have been six, seven, or eight of us. We had a lovely time of fellowship. And when the meal was over and it was time for someone to pick up the check, precious lady sitting to my left did so. And I turned to her casually, not even thinking what I was asking. And I said, did God tell you to do that? And she said, why, yes, of course. You can always tell when someone has that nervous giggle that they're kind of spoofing. So I repeated my question again. Did God ask you to do that? And she giggled a little nervously again and didn't say yes or no. And I pressed her one last time and then she admitted that God had not told her to do that. And so I said, well, why then did you do it? Well, she thought it would be a nice thing to pick up the check. And I'll bet there are nine out of ten people sitting in this room who don't have the foggiest notion of what I'm speaking about right now and would perfectly agree with that woman that it's a nice thing to pick up the check. I don't know of a single person in the history of Christendom who has ever been rebuked or reproached or criticized for picking up a check. It's a good thing. And nobody ever thinks to question good things except a God who is increasingly insisting upon the thing which is perfect. You just keep doing good things like that. And I'll tell you there shall come a moment in your life individually and in our life corporately a crucial moment in a life or death situation when great issues are hanging in the balance. And if you have been habituated to doing good things born out of your human will and volition and mind you are going to miss the perfect life-giving thing of God. Now I want you to turn with me to the book of Genesis. Isn't that always a beautiful place to begin? Third chapter beginning with the 22nd verse the familiar story of Adam and Eve because the rudiments of what's being discussed tonight goes back to the whole inception of the human race and we're still pulling the same boo-boo. How many of you know that there's a scripture where is it? I think in Luke the 14th chapter that says those things which are honorable or estimable in the sight of men are an abomination to God. What do you think of them apples? I'll tell you children there are a lot of good things that the world applauds roundly and that even Christians applaud which are a stench in the nostrils of God. God keep us from good things which intrude and defer us from the thing which is perfect. So we know that Adam and Eve blew it and in the 22nd verse the Lord God said behold the man has become as one of us to know good and evil and now lest he put forth his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat and live forever therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden to till the ground from whence he was taken so he drove out the man and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden cherubims and a flaming sword which turned every way to keep the way of the tree of life. Now you say Art what has this to do with what you've already spoken and my answer is everything then as now children there are only two trees from which we can eat in fact as I go on with the Lord it seems to me that there are only ever two things in any issue. Have you noticed that? It's always a polarity it's always a choice between light or darkness the kingdom of God or the kingdom of this present world God's prince or Satan's the tree of the knowledge of good or evil or the tree of life always a choice of polarities you can know that you're really converted when you're no longer bewildered by what's seen to you in times past as overwhelming degrees of choice that was my predicament as an atheist but somehow as a believer everything has become grossly simplified in or out in Christ or not in the light or in the darkness in the spirit, in the flesh in his kingdom, in the world eating of the tree of life or eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil then as now God's people ate from the wrong tree and I'll tell you that it's an intoxicating fruit it's a giddy thing to have your mind in operation tempting and a wonderful kind of an intoxication to have powers of choice and to know about things and what to do that's right or wrong but there's an interesting little statement in a booklet by Watchman Nee that really bears investigating here's what he says one of the most serious misconceptions among the children of God is that actions are determined by right and wrong they do what their eyes tell them is right, they do what their background tells them is right, they do what their years of experience tell them is right and a lot of you are looking at me and saying, isn't that right? No, that's wrong. That children is Judaism that's ethical humanism that has to do with the operation of mind and God has called you to be a people of the spirit and I'll tell you especially in the last days there are going to come such perplexities and things that confound minds so unconventional and independent of previous experience that if you're going to go by what you've done in times past and what you think is right or wrong you're going to miss it and if I could take hours I could tell you of episode after episode after episode at the leading of God's spirit that has led me again and again and again to unconventional responses wholly in contradiction to what I thought was good. There are two sources of life, two trees from which we can eat, the knowledge of good and evil, judgments based on the operation of our mind or the tree of life and to live from that tree is life indeed. God said that he established cherubim with flaming swords to keep the way of the tree of life and I can tell you children that in the second Adam God has put aside the cherubim and our return to the garden has been provided. We can eat from the tree of life it's the same life which is eternal and the same life which is abundant. It's the life which God has invested in his son and that's why the scripture says he who hath the son hath life and he who hath not the son hath not life and that's why my Jewish people are condemned and have no alternative but to operate continually from their own source of life, from their own energy from their own mind and the end thereof is exasperation futility, frustration broken minds, broken bodies death. Now I'll give you a little for instance of how God began also to add to my understanding I got a letter from a precious boy in California who had read the book Ben Israel and he really was a kindred soul, an intense seeker after truth. He had been into cults and eastern religions and philosophy, had gone to Paris and studied, all his life long a seeker after truth and somehow he got a copy of my book and he sensed the kindred soul and he writes me a letter he's ready to come to the east coast and he's going to sit at my feet, we're going to discuss the great issues of life when I read his background I wasn't so quick to invite him under my roof and I was just about to think of a nice letter to put him off when I got a long distance phone call of the same boy expressing the desire to come flying at his expense that's the kind that God loves that constrains God and will not let him go at that time I said look, I'm going to be in California in a couple of weeks why don't you save your money and I'll meet you at a certain place, why don't you go and visit the Fultz family with whom I've received my baptism in the Holy Spirit and they'll be able to answer your questions and I'll meet you there and so he did, and when I came two weeks later they had answered his questions he was saved and filled with the Holy Spirit and you never saw a guy more ready to go, go, go than this kid in whom the light has broken. We spent about a week or ten days together in a kind of a father-son or discipleship situation where I was taking him under my wing he had a van and we would drive from city to city and meeting to meeting and he was sitting in meetings, learning listening and having conversations I'm not the kind of man who lays down the great principles of the faith or the precepts that's not my bag I like to draw from the existential material of the day, the things which God gives us, which are alive in our experience and then seek for the scriptural thing that is applicable to it. So we were driving from meeting to meeting one day and I was sitting in my seat in the van with my arms over my chest looking out the window, whistling, having a ball not feeling under any constraint or compulsion to be clever. Did you ever enjoy that? Hallelujah to be free in Christ is to be free in deed I was not on and I didn't have to be bright and impressive and show forth my erudition and learning in the ways of God in fact I've learned that if it's not God who opens my mouth, the things that I speak are vain even though they may be scripturally correct and well meaning and motivated by goodly intentions you know what I've come to believe children after about 10 or 11 years that the same God who created all the earth, the universe and all that in it is, is able to open this mouth and to speak out of it. He doesn't need kid cats' help at all well there I was silent just enjoying the peace that passes understanding and sure enough there was a hitchhiker standing by the side of the road and this kid when he saw this hitchhiker bang his foot was on a brake and he stopped and I saw his face full of expectation boy he was going to witness he was licking his chops and he opened the door and in came this hitchhiker, it was an American Indian and we learned he had been discharged from the service and he was I don't know kind of just drifting about and I took a seat on the floor of the van and off we drove and something in my spirit went snap and I knew that God had provided us with a situation and sure enough we had hardly taken off and this young believer was coming on like gangbusters, man was he sweating at it, was he really cracking out those scriptures I was amazed at his ability in so short a time and every word was like lead. About 40 minutes later it was time for this hitchhiker to be discharged and he went out and this kid was so perplexed looking, you never saw such a face and I took my seat again, I didn't say a word to him and off we drove and he was like pouting and behind the wheel he would sneak a look at me from time to time, when was I going to tell him what was wrong and finally he couldn't contain himself longer he blurted out, Artie said what went wrong I turned and I said dear brother you did a good thing to pick up the hitchhiker but have you ever considered that the good is the enemy of the perfect what would you think if a quarter of a mile further up the road there was yet another man standing waiting, here is whom God intended for divine encounter through you this day and you drove him by without so much as a look because the seat which God intended that he should fill, you have already filled by your own good intention let that sink deep into your hearing children there is not a people on the face of the earth more compulsive more sweaty and grimy in their Christian activity than the people of God do do do do campaigns, programs my goodness what a wearisome nonsense getting in the way of God and I tell you he may have winked in times past at our well meaning intentions and patted us but we have come to the end of the ages and the purposes of God are so intricate so profound such a complex tapestry of purposes that span continents all intricately interlinked that no man dare presume to go off in his own skull as a self appointed minister to do what he thinks is good and if you want to see a morass and a jungle I invite you to visit Jerusalem and there you'll find every kind of Christian clod and amateur and self appointed evangelist and missionary walking into each other and into walls making a mess of the holiest city on the face of the earth getting in God's way again and again and again you say I really don't figure you I've read your book and I've heard your testimony and if my memory serves me correctly you yourself were picked up as a hitchhiker about 11 years ago off the side of the road you should have the most respect for picking up hitchhikers I should and I do but I'll tell you children I myself do not compulsively pick up hitchhikers I do not myself compulsively do anything and in my conscience does not bother me one wit to have a completely empty car and to drive past a person waiting for a lift and not pick him up for fear lests acting out of my own impulse and my own mind and my own good intention I have obstructed the perfect intention of God well you say oh give me a for instance when God does stop you okay have you ever heard of the auto strata in Italy it's a super highway no speed limits and I'll tell you I was going as fast as my VW van could take me maybe 75 pushing 80 just having a ball whistling my way through the auto strata hitchhikers a dime a dozen every 5 feet you can pick them up by the car load and my car was empty and as I was whizzing by out of the corner of my eye I caught a blur of a blonde head and blue eyes I don't know if I could see the blue but I sure saw the blonde at the side of the road just a blur and instantly my foot was on the brake pedal and that car was coming to a convulsive shrieking when that thing came to a stop and it finished trembling my eyes were blinking my mouth was open cats is that an economical way to drive and before I could think further this blonde head had come running down the side of the road and opened the car door and had come in and when he closed the door a rush of the Holy Spirit that the hair was standing up on my arms and my scalp was tingling with the presence of God we hadn't driven 2 minutes that I learned that this blonde head and blue eyes belonged to a Jewish boy from New York City desperately lost and seeking for the deepest answers to life oh Art well you're called to the Jewish people that's how come you identified that blonde head nonsense there's a God who is able children if we'll get out of his way to do the thing which is perfect give me an instance Art in scriptures where well meaning good intentions act if it had been followed would have had dastardly results okay turn to Matthew the 16th chapter this is one of the most well intending access described in all scripture Matthew 16 and the 13th verse when Jesus asked the great question who do men say that I the son of man and they said some say that what John the Baptist and Elias and Jeremiah one of the prophets and then the beautiful way that the Lord had to take a general question and make it pointed and particular and put his finger right on our chest I love that but who say ye that I am now tell you what children there's not a one of us who has come to the end of that question in all its fullness we're only at the beginning of understanding of who he is if we really understood we would be acting far less compulsively than we do and there was impulsive Peter waving his hand the air went wanting an A for the day now are the Christ the son of the living God and he was right but he was only at the beginning of understanding and Jesus said blessed art thou Simon by Jonah for flesh and blood has not revealed it unto thee but my father which is in heaven it was only the beginning of understanding but it's the beginning also of blessing the correct identification of who Jesus is and then we read in the 21st verse that from that time forth began Jesus to show unto his disciples how that he must go into Jerusalem and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed and be raised again the third day step one is the first understanding of who Jesus is and the understanding that follows that has got to do with shame suffering pain death and the same Peter who was so quick to impulsively identify Jesus took him and began to rebuke him saying be it far from thee Lord this shall not be unto thee and I'll tell you what children if there had been a organization in that generation surely Peter would have won a plaque for the man of the year award on the basis of that one statement I can see him now receiving honorary PhD degrees and his picture in papers with a big black hat and the tassel and all kinds of recognition poets or Nobel prizes who knows what the world would have celebrated so wonderful and seemingly a statement as what Peter made full of right sounding intention it was good Lord let this be far from you and as much as the world would have celebrated that statement as good it's interesting to see what the response of the Lord was to the same thing he turned and said unto Peter get thee behind me Satan thou art an offense unto me for thou savest not the things that be of God but those that be of men I don't think that any of us have pondered that statement of Jesus as well as we ought I'll tell you that it was always very evident to me that drug traffic pornography orgies witchcraft the occult had the origin in hell but it wasn't quite so evident that good things have their origin there also and I'll tell you I'm seeing a Satan so crafty and full of guile that if he can't seduce and corrupt the children of God by invitations to blatant sin he'll snare them on things that are good that he might keep them from the things which are perfect and as effectively keep them from the will of God as if they had fallen into deepest sin thou savest of the things which be of men and not of God thou art an offense unto me it stinks how can you then operate always from the tree of life rather from the knowledge the tree of the knowledge of good and evil well God has performed a mystery and has invested all things in his son Christ Jesus let's turn to Colossians and be reminded of that again Paul speaks in the second chapter in the second verse of the mystery of God and of the Father and of Christ in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge in the sixth verse we're enjoined not only to receive the Lord but walk in him rooted and built up in him in the ninth verse we're reminded for in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily and you are complete in him which is the head of all principality and power do you really believe that how many of us tremble to witness the Jewish people intimidated less somehow they be more clever than we and they'll notice our inadequate grammar and they have a greater knowledge of the Old Testament Scriptures and will be made to look foolish as if God is asking us out of our inadequacies to do anything God said to a man by the name of Abram in his 99th year, Abram be thou perfect and walk thou before me, do you remember that be thou perfect and walk thou before me do you remember that and I will make thee a father of many nations and a father of many nations I have made thee and I will and I will and I will and I will why did he wait for Abraham to be 99 years old before he sprung that one on him, because that's the age of utter futility and helplessness it takes 99 years of walking into walls of well-meaning intentions of trying by our own fleshly exertions to produce from a Hagar the fulfillment of God's word to show us that we have come to the utter end of ourselves and let go and let God there's no accident that in the same breath that God said walk thou before me and be thou perfect, he said also I am Lord God Almighty you know he had never before introduced himself to Abram with that particular phrase no accident, because the same God who calls us to perfection is the same God who does not expect that we are to obtain it by our own striving and by our own weakness but by every provision which is in him I am the Lord God Almighty and you are complete in him who is the head of all principality and power do you believe that you nod your head now but this is not when you expected to believe it will you believe it when you're faced with a mob of 300 students who are ready to flay the flesh from your bones will you believe it before a cantankerous mob where the atmosphere is so angry and bitter that with men shooting daggers at you with your eyes and your heart is beating like a trip hammer and you've had a time of prayer with the Christian students who have invited you and then you come out of that circle and stand all alone by a microphone before that howling mob to begin the first of eight days of meetings in which they have put up stickers all over the campus cats is coming, one word and you were embarrassed to death hey what are you guys doing, cats is coming what do you think I am, Jewish Billy Graham well aren't we prayed and we felt that if we just advertised abstract gospel meetings no one would come, so we used your name to attract people, cats is coming well cats finally came standing at one o'clock at the student union building before the microphone at which every day another radical comes and gives an incendiary invitation to violence and to death and dare you to begin the first of eight days of gospel meetings four to six meetings a day cats is coming I'll tell you if ever a man felt himself to be 99 years old in terms of his inability and helplessness it's a servant in that situation then well I gave about a 20 minute message and then I opened up for questions and answers and there was a guy who was standing right smack dab in front of me at the back of the room when I walked into that room and saw that guy's face I knew he was going to be trouble his was the first hand that went up and you should have seen the expression on his face what a wise-alecky smirk and he elbowed his friends and I could read his expression and said watch this guys, I'll take care of this cat and we'll end this thing and right where it begins it'll go no further than this hey Mr.Catchy shouted in a hearing of 300 students will you answer me one question I went don't do you believe in hell you know what children I had never really ever considered the question I mean I believed in the scriptures but I had never really thought it out and if you could sit me down you would find enormous gaps in my understanding somebody came up to me after a meeting recently and said oh Art it was so good tonight how I would love to hear you preach on prophecy I said you're not likely ever to have that opportunity what's the matter she said I said I don't have a single message on prophecy what do you think of that for a Jewish man in ministry to the Jews I don't have a single message on prophecy children you know how come because I only have the messages that God himself gives me they may not be many but every single one of them have their inception in heaven in the heart of the living God I could no more sit down with a concordance in the theme and try to cleverly construct a sermon that you would ask me to walk over a bed of hot coals and I was telling some people in a meeting the other night how I came to a meeting like this in a place where I had never been before a brand new New Testament fellowship and the word had gone out in that rural community they had come from 60 miles away 100 miles away hey you gotta hear this guy I heard him in Jerusalem and they came with their tape recorders poised and I came with the peace of God and they were expecting an encounter with God that was going to singularly lead them at the crossroad where they were and I came without a message not knowing what to speak and I thought well when I pray in my motel room that night the Lord is going to give it to me nothing as I'm driving to the meeting place the Lord is going to breathe it to me nothing and I came to the place of the meeting and I went to the back of the room and I prayed again a little bit more desperately, nothing I came and sat on the front row waiting to be called on I was holding my Bible in my hands like osmosis waiting for something to come through the palms of my hands nothing finally the time was ticking away it was only a matter of moments I opened up the table of contents and I read through the books of the Bible nothing I came up to the pulpit and I thought surely when I pray listen Lord, these people are expectant I prayed and I finished praying and they all looked up and they were the tape recorders poised nothing I had a choice in that moment children I could have done something that was good or I could have done nothing let me ask you a question have you ever done nothing before hundreds of people with your face sticking out and hot flashes under your collar and your knees turning to jelly looking at the increasing faces of disappointment of the people of God who thought that you were some kind of an oracle or a mouthpiece talk about dying have you thought that the death of which the cross alludes comes at the end of the whole thing like when we're going to be wonderful martyrs and it's going to be over in a moment and a switch is going to be flipped and there will be a cessation of consciousness oh come on that's groovy that's the easy part the dying to which we're called is continual it's a death which worketh in us and life in them I hope you're listening most intently because God is speaking something which is perfect in that moment when you're feeling all of the pains and rigors of death there is such an overwhelming itch to do something and I could have thought of a lot of good things to do I could have spoken any number of messages which God himself has given in times past but I'll tell you if it's not a message for now it's not a life giving thing so you know what I did I did nothing and I'll tell you there was a silence so heavy you could have cut it with a knife and there were a few precious souls that I knew and their faces were masks of disappointment and I just had to tell this brother and say finally I have nothing to say to you and they're thinking to themselves for this we came at a great distance this is the hot shot of which we've heard he has nothing to say to us what's that isn't he prayed up you see children and you're not even able to explain and finally I said something maybe we're at a new crossroad maybe this is a new dispensation and we're being phased out of the old game of sitting in rows looking at the backs of each other's heads looking up at a platform watching the professional do it maybe God is wanting to start something new tonight in which we are all to be employed then the Adam's apples were bobbing out there gulp gulp gulp gulp gulp and so we waited it was painful and finally a new believer who had never before ever publicly spoken in a church got up with a trembling voice and said I have an impulse leading to a certain scripture and he said could this be it and he read me a scripture from Philippians and I said no I got no witness from the spirit of life that man sat down with such disappointment and embarrassed blushing he had taken his heart in his hands to suggest something and it was not what God wanted now I wonder if you can understand this I believe that God prompted him to say that and yet it was not the scripture that God was going to employ have you ever entered the school of obedience it has not a cotton picking thing to do with our understanding and then finally another person suggested a scripture and everybody leaned forward oh maybe this is it, this has got to be it nothing what an itch to have taken that scripture and fabricate something good and I think I could have done a reasonable job nothing obedience unto silence and finally after another lengthy deadly pause there was an utterance in tongues and something began to well up by the spirit of life and far away in the other side of the room came an interpretation and then something began to quicken and God began to work and before we had gotten out of that room that night God had done something perfect you know that we are complete in him who is the head of all principality and power in whom is hid all the fullness of knowledge and wisdom all you have to do is to be circumcised with him it says in the 11th verse with the circumcision made without hands in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ buried with him in baptism wherein also you are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God who hath raised him from the dead that's all you have to do is be buried with him again and again and again and the third chapter says if then if you then be risen with Christ seek those things which are above where Christ stands on the right hand of God set your affection on the things above on the perfect thing not on the things which are below because there are only two origins of anything above and below and every good and perfect gift cometh from above for you are dead and your life is hid with Christ and God when Christ who is our life shall appear then shall you also appear with him in glory supposing it didn't please God to appear in glory when that wise student asked that question I would have been utterly humiliated and eight days of meetings would have gone down the drain but you know what I did I breathed a little prayer and I said okay Lord, you've got me here you're on I opened my mouth and you know what came off I had never studied the question of whether I believed in hell I said dear brother all my life long even as an atheist I have had a profound respect for words I knew that words were not to be spoken idly nor glibly even as an atheist and I'll tell you there's a figure in scripture who vehemently takes that view it was Jesus who said that we shall be held accountable for every idle word we speak and he himself never spoke one and there's not another figure in all scripture who has spoken more prolifically about hell than Jesus Christ himself here it is who coined the phrase out of darkness, wailing and gnashing of teeth lake of fire fire that shall not be quenched and I said I'll tell you that the hour shall come far sooner than you think when you shall find yourself standing before him whom you now despise and whose servant you have sought to embarrass hearing your foolish question played back and the answer which God has spoken to you this day which had you received it would have saved you from the pain and the eternal anguish which you shall now experience as your knees shall turn to jelly before him something like that and I watched this guy in the back of the room go he was deflated by the wisdom and the knowledge of God from a fullness that came from the tree of life and that was the beginning of eight powerful penetrating days of meeting that were life for many but what should happen dear children if you shall utterly cast yourself on God and be buried dead, hid with God in Christ and it shall not please him to reveal his glory are you willing as much to bear that as the glory also God led us to an outreach in City College of New York, 85% Jewish there was no question that this was the arranging of God I was invited by the InterVarsity Group and the Spirit of God fell in that room and these guys were weeping and God showed us that we would have an outreach the first of its kind in New York City to penetrate the mainstream of American Jewry and weeks and months went into that meeting we stared nothing, money, posters literature, prayer, fasting and the night before that enormous encounter, I was at Boston University with another meeting blessed of God and stayed up till 4 or 5 in the morning speaking with my Jewish brother who invited me there about the baptism of the Holy Spirit in which he had not yet entered thinking maybe I ought to get some rest no, I've seen God perform glories out of my witness it works when you're 99 years old and so I came that next day I flew to New York I sticked at the airport and driven to the meeting and boy when I walked in talk about an atmosphere bristling with anger and bitterness, Jews all over that place with yarmulkes on their heads, van Dyck beards shooting daggers at me my heart was pounding but I'd seen God's glory revealed before in just such circumstances as this and so I came up to the speaking stand I breathed a little prayer, okay Lord you're on this is it, this is the moment we've been waiting for this is what we've invested everything this is going to be the penetration of the Jewish mainstream remember? I shall not look in their faces, remember? and I opened my mouth and guess what came out dribble just a weak most limp and the moment that the first word came out of my mouth I knew that I was dead a goner I couldn't understand it I was in a condition of fast, I'd seen God brilliantly anoint in situations like that nothing, dry as dust and I finished my pitiful little presentation and the first one to stand up on his feet was the Hillel Rabbi what a specimen boy he let me have it he showed that audience what a fool I was how absurd for me to think that I could come to these sophisticated intellectual Jews and bring my medieval notions and the name of that one for whom Jews have suffered two thousand years of persecution and oppression, who did I think I was bringing a Gentile Bible and trying to persuade Jews out of the King James Version you ignoramus and you don't even speak Hebrew and he worked me up one side down the other, it was pitiful and he stormed out of the room, his heels digging into the floor and slammed the door behind him behind him the whole room shook and then another guy got up and continued where the Rabbi had left off and when he finished another got up and another and another and another and another I'll tell you children I would much rather suffer a busted kneecap than what I suffered that day at the mouths of men but you want to know what the ultimate death was it wasn't the accusations and the fierce words from my own kinsmen, it was the terrible disappointment written in the faces of my own Christian brethren they didn't say a word to me but you know what their faces said, cats we thought it would have been you who would have restored the glory of Israel, man we thought you were an anointed vessel, we thought you had experience of universities encompassed like this what's the matter man weren't you prayed up and I could not answer them a word because I had no answer and there was not a God who was instantly at my side to say that's okay and made nice the heavens were as brass, silent and I languished for three weeks like a sick cur with my tail between my legs whimpering I never wanted again to stand behind a pulpit where did I ever presume to be a missionary to my own people what made me think that somehow God is going to speak out of my foolish mouth such words as will persuade my kinsmen to believe in the name of Jesus after two thousand years of the most polluted history I should have remained a teacher what a mistake and there wasn't a God to make nice or to explain to me why three weeks later I got a phone call one night from a woman whose voice was so thin and full of trembling I could barely make it out can I come over I think you can help me I read your book I have some questions you could answer I said I can't help anybody but if you want to come, come and so she came a nervous wreck compulsive chain smoking Jewish woman so thin you could see through her she said my son was at a meeting at City College three weeks ago and he came home so impressed and brought a copy of your book he told me that a Jewish man came to the school and simply stood up and gave his convictions and when he was finished he was mercilessly attacked and he did not so much as raise his voice to answer any of his accusers and my son was overwhelmingly impressed he had never seen such a demonstration and insisted that I read your book she said now I have and I have these questions two hours later she snubbed out her last cigarette and had asked her last question and bowed that head that was so full of anguish and consternation and defeat and followed me in a prayer calling upon the name of the Lord and passed from death unto life say what do you think children was it worth it all that dying on my part for one little skinny Jewish woman there's only one thing that will save you from living from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil living from what you think is right or wrong living from your judgments acting out of your mind doing good things and keeping God from the fulfillment of the thing that's perfect and that is if he is the life of your life the thinking of your thoughts the speaking of your speech the ministering of your ministry that you might say for me to live in Christ he who hath the son hath life did you know that and we are complete in him and it says in 1st John 4 9 this is the love of God toward us that he has given us his only begotten son that we might live through him you say how does that work you mean you die to your own self you die to your own impulse your own will to speak to do to do the thing which you think is right and if you let him he'll speak and he'll come forth exactly and when his glory shall be revealed your glory shall be revealed with him also but are you willing to bear it when it shall please him not to reveal his glory you are dead in your life as hid with Christ in God when Christ who is our life shall appear then shall you also appear with him in glory what happens when that takes place does it sound like thus saith the Lord Jesus in the sound chamber now you know what it sounds like it sounds like a guy who hobbles up on a set of crutches with a Brooklyn accent you can cut with a knife who has choked and spluttered in the course of the evening where there's been moments of awkwardness and that is Christ speaking transmuting his life through a Jewish personality conditioned and shaped at his hand for the expression of his Christ in us the hope of glory oh dear children dear children there's a way and that way is no longer being protected by cherubims with flaming swords keeping us from the way of the tree of life we are free to come and eat from the tree of life and live forever I've come to bring you life Jesus said and that more abundantly neither you dead yet shall you live because it's the same life it's both eternal and abundant I'm not waiting to die to enjoy it I'm in it right now it's the life of my life it's living through me it's speaking through me it shakes and molds and brings forth through me his perfect way he who hath the son hath life and this is the love of God toward us that we should live through him Lord what's the perfect way to end this if you've gotten my newsletter you'll see described such a flow of activity such a tumultuous ordering of events so substantial so chock full with consequence touching nations jam packed in 30 days of activity Germany Yugoslavia Switzerland day after day doesn't matter in what condition where what place army chapels GIs coming out for kind of a lock sober Germans stiff saints confronting millionaires touching a Pentecostal denomination in the height of its deepest crisis all the same and you know what children at the end of those jam packed days you are just as fresh untied as you were at the first because it's the father who doeth the worst he's the life of your life the speaking of your speaking and the doing of your doing that you might say for me to live is symbolically speaking will you refrain yourself from picking up a hitchhiker and doing a good thing that God might have opportunity to perform the thing which is perfect will you trust the witness of the life which is in you to prompt you to the things which God himself shall perform by his own wisdom his own knowledge his own life this is the way of the tree of life and we are invited to it let's not show the world more religionists with haggard faces dark circles under their eyes nervous anxiety apprehension but a joy and a freedom and a life which is the life of the son of God made manifest in us in the way that it shall please him to express it when his glory shall be revealed and not one moment sooner let's bow our heads and enjoy the fruit of the tree of life thank you precious God for every saint who has eaten from that tree thank you Lord that Elijah did not leap forth out of his own human skull because he saw all the prophets being slain he saw an apostate Jewish people and he thought it would be a good thing now to confront Ahab but in the moment the perfect moment of your choosing you brought forth out of obscurity and hiddenness a man in whom you had such possession that you could command the elements to be stilled by his speaking and invoke fire by his prayer precious God may we live from that fruit from that tree may it ever and always be your act your doing your perfect time for your glory bless you mighty God for such a provision in that tree thank you Lord God that the tree that's described in Genesis is concluded also in Revelation by the river hallelujah from whose leaves mighty God the nation shall be healed may we learn to eat and to live from that tree it is my prayer for these precious saints and all your children in the wonderful name of him who is the source of our life even Yeshua HaMashiach Jesus the Christ