In this sermon, the preacher discusses the impact of environment on character, using the example of the prophet Jeremiah. Jeremiah ministered for 40 years before the captivity of the people of Judah by Babylon, witnessing the rise and fall of five kings. Despite being sent into a difficult and seemingly impossible mission, God chose Jeremiah, a seemingly unimpressive man, to carry out His plans. The preacher also highlights the decline of religious conviction in the United States over the past 50 years and emphasizes the importance of evangelism in the church.

Speak, Lord, for thy servant's hearing. Speak just now, some message to me, my name, which thou only dost know. Speak now through thy holy word, and make me speak some wonderful truth. Thou hast to show to me, and, O Lord, thou who hast placed the burden of this message upon my heart for this day. May it come into the heart and conscience of this dear people, as thus saith the Lord. And may they forget the messenger, seeing only thee. For thy name's grace. Amen. I have a word on my heart to bring to you this afternoon, which the Lord hath laid there, I believe, because that would be the only authority for bringing it. A word which I recognize, before I give it, in some sections may not be popular. But I want you to know that whether you like it or not, it comes out of the fire of some years in the ministry, and out of the testings of Christian works. And I trust that it may just come as a word from the heart of God through me to your heart today. I want you to think with me for a moment about this man Jeremiah, and his ministry. You can never assess the value or the quality of a man's ministry, or a Christian's testimony for that matter, unless you see it against the background of circumstances in which he lives. One of the greatest effects on character is environment. And I want to remind you in the first place this afternoon of the conditions under which this man Jeremiah lived. He ministered for about 40 years, during the period prior to the captivity of the people of Judah by Babylon. In that time he saw the rise and fall of five kings. Apart from one very brief period you may remember, under the reign of Josiah. Some five years after Jeremiah commenced his ministry, when the Word of God was discovered in the temple, and when there was a brief period of revival blessing. Apart from that very brief interlude, Jeremiah ministered for 40 years, in a country and in situations in which the whole trend was away from God. The trend was downward. Everybody and everything seemed to be going downstream. There was political intrigue. There was religious hypocrisy. And the tragic thing about it, of course, was that the people who were going downhill were God's people. Jeremiah saw a complete shift in his time of world power. The great empire of Egypt gave way to the power of Babylon. The whole center of world power shifted from one great power to another. And in the course of world-shaking events, and a world-shattering experience in that sense, and in the downward trend of morals and intrigue and compromise, the greatest tragedy of all was that God's people just went with the times. They were his by election. They were his by sovereign choice. They were his because he brought them, and brought them out from Egypt and through a wilderness into a precious land in which there was to flow milk and honey. They were his because they'd received and they'd proved his promises. They were the instruments through which he was going to fulfill his plan for world salvation. And yet, yet, in the second chapter of this prophecy in the 13th verse there comes the sobs, if I may dare to use that term, and I don't think in any exaggerated sense the sobs from the heart of God. My people, my people have committed two evils. They have forsaken me the fountain of living water. And they have hewn them out systems, broken systems which can hold no water. My people, no obedience to God had given way to expediency. Trust in God had been replaced by compromise, and a confidence in the arm of the flesh and in material power. My people, and in a day above all days, in a generation perhaps beyond all others, when God was counting upon some in that situation to be as the very salt of the earth, truly the salt had lost its favor. And the people along through whom God could fulfill his plan, my people have committed two evils. Those were the conditions in which Jeremiah lived. I am well aware, as every other preacher must be here today, of the danger of pressing Old Testament analogy too far, and relating it to present-day conditions. But my dear friend, I am convinced, if I know anything about my Bible, and read anything at all into the immense significance of the generation in which you and I live, we live in a day just like that. We have lived, some of us, long enough to see a complete shift of world power. I have lived for four years on the other side of the ocean, but my American friends will forgive me for saying I'm as British as ever. And this is my home, and this is the country I love. Nevertheless, as a Britisher, you and I have to acknowledge that one day Britain, number one world power, has lost its place of preeminence. And the trend of world power has shifted across the Atlantic Ocean, and it's in the hands of the United States of America. And this nation, fifty years ago, in almost every home there was a family Bible. There was the worship of God. There was the belief in Scripture. There was at least some measure of religious conviction. But this nation, which metaphorically had the ball at his feet, threw it away. And the Word of God began to be discredited in our focus. And the people began to sit loosely upon morals. And this nation, with all its great, its greatness, found its national strength, sapped at the very root, the tragic thing about it all. And God saved me today in this message, which burns in my heart. Saved me from being cynical, or hard, or critical with any. But rather, may it be just to my own soul, a prayer. The tragedy of it all is that God looked down upon the church in this country, and has to say exactly what he said to Jeremiah. My people, mine by election, mine by choice, mine by redemption, mine by purchase, mine because I went to Calvary for them, have committed two evils. They have forsaken me, the fountain of living water, and they've hewn them out systems, broken systems that can hold no water. Oh, you say, Mr. Preacher, that's too hard. Wait a minute. Our beloved friend George Duncan, whose presence at this convention would have meant so much, and whose ministry I personally miss so greatly, as I'm sure you do, and how we pray that soon he may be restored to health and strength again. He told me that in the early years of World War II, he went to visit a friend of his who had a vicarage near Carlisle. And this vicarage was a very old-fashioned place, stone-built building, I imagine not far from where we're sitting today. And it was in 1941 and 42, and as Mr. Duncan went into that old house, he was quite amazed to find that it had been renovated, and everything was scintillating with chromium plates and electricity. There was an electric cooker, an electric stove, electric light, electric iron, electric everything, everything was electric. But as he went into the house, to his amazement he saw that the man in the house, or the lady of the house, was using a dirty paraffin oil stove to cook. And the lamps hanging from the ceiling were smelling of oil, and everything was smelling of paraffin. And the vicar looked at Mr. Duncan and said, George, now look, don't look so astonished. Don't you know that it's a war on here, and we have everything except the power? Again, I don't want to be hard, but oh, how God has hit my very soul with this thing today. Beloved Christian brethren and sisters, there's a war on today. And it's an eternal war from which there will never be an armistice till the King of Kings shall come, and we shall see his lovely face. And the Church of Christ today may know that our acceptance, let me check myself to say it, but by and large, the Church of Christ today has everything except the power. He shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost upon you, and that's the one thing we know. Oh, we've got our program. We've got a certain amount of money to carry on. We've got our organizations, uniformed and non-uniformed. We've got our streamlined ideas. We've got all sorts of plans and methods to reach people for Christ, but we have lost somehow the mighty, moving, melting, convicting power of God the Holy Ghost, and we're fighting a losing battle already. I'm not a pessimist, but God save me from sticking my head in the sand like an ostrich and refusing to face reality. Satan is capturing thousands upon thousands more souls than our lovely Lord is. And unless God visits Britain with Holy Ghost revival, we're doomed. I believe it with all my heart, and if revival doesn't break out at Keswick, where on earth can it break out? With a company of people hungry for God, thirsty for God's best, surely this week isn't going to pass, and the years go by, and this all be history, and heaven hasn't melted and broken the hearts of all, everything except the power. No power to bend men and women before God. No power in our ministry to bring deep-rooted conviction of truth. Just a nice sermon and a nice message, and everybody goes home, and as it was in the beginning, is now ever sound. That's all. Never a sob, never a groan, never a fear, never a pleading to God from everybody, except the power. And instead of Holy Spirit power, what do we do? We put over attractive programs. We announce scintillating personalities, and God forgive me if I exaggerate, but if a church attempts to do a heavenly task by using Hollywood technique, she might as well quit business altogether. We are not in the entertainment world, we're in the salvation. The church today, and many movements in the church today, I speak with utter love and respect, but I trust with authority of the Spirit, are doing the devil's work in bringing entertainment inside the house of God, and are seeking to win people to Christ by using flashy names, and flashy ideas, and wonderful scintillating methods. Oh yes, my friend, that's the easy way. A little while ago, it was my privilege to have a little fellowship with Billy Graham, a man whose ministry I rejoice in, and who, as a man of God, I just feel a worm beside him. And who I believe right now at this point is doing a renewal work for the Lord. Some first possibility of him coming to the city in which I'm a minister. He came to preach in my church a few months ago, and in his presence I said what I want to say to you now. But I understand it would cost $450,000 to bring Billy Graham and his team to Chicago for a citywide campaign. And if he comes, I'd be the first to put everything into it, and roll my sleeves up and get down to it, and work in prayer and service. And the whole church would be shut down apart from our prayer meetings to do the same thing. But I said, what Chicago or any other city needs can be had without costing a penny. One single penny. If the church is prepared to die, die to its program, and to its scintillating ideas, and its streamlined methods, and fed the old path to Calvin. And somehow as a clarion call in my soul, as an alarm bell sounded in my heart, as I put in a redemption, mine by Christ, mine because I love them, have forsaken me. And there's too many systems, broken systems that can hold no one. Is in some measure that true? What do you think God's purpose is for the age in which we live? What do you think God is seeking to do today? Let me ask you to look at something in this prophecy that I find very interesting. Because in the midst of a situation like that, in which there was this, there was this reversion as it were from obedience to expediency and from power to program, what was God doing? Have you ever noticed in reading the prophecy of Jeremiah that over and over again, 11 times to be exact, a phrase is used regarding God which is absolutely shallow. I've only time to ask you to refer to one or two of them quickly. Chapter 7 and verse 13. Jeremiah 7 and verse 13. And now, because ye have done all these works, saith the Lord, and I speak unto you rising up early and speaking, but ye heard not, and I called you, but ye answered not. Notice that I speak unto you rising up early and speaking. Verse 25 same chapter. Since the day that your fathers came forth out of the land of Egypt unto this day, I have even sent unto you all my servants for prophets daily, rising up early and sending them. Chapter 11 verse 7. I earnestly protested unto your fathers in the day that I brought them up out of the land of Egypt, even until this day, rising early and protesting, saying, obeying my voice. Chapter 32 verse 33. And they have turned unto me the back and not the face, though I taught them rising up early and teaching them, yet they have not hearkened to receive instruction. Eleven times in this prophecy it is said of God that he rose up early. This of course is metaphorical language, but it suggests a loving God with a burdened heart. It suggests our God with a broken heart and a bleeding heart as our Savior wept over Jerusalem. Here is God rising up early to plead, to protest, to cry, obey my voice, return to me. What a picture. My people have forsaken me. My people have hewn them out systems, but I cannot let them go. I have no other means of reaching to the world except they repent and turn to me. He is a nation going to wreck and ruin. He is a world going to pieces and young people about a million going to the devil. But God with a shoulder under a burden, an almighty God getting under the load and pleading with his people to come back and share this load, this heart-anxiety. Listen to me. God's purpose in Jeremiah's time was not that there should be a mass movement of people back to God because he knew it wouldn't happen, he told Jeremiah so. It was not that millions of people should repent and be saved. It was not to get masses of decisions for Christ. It was not to see multitudes converted. For of course God does not will the death of a sinner. But his concern that all men everywhere should repent. But God made it perfectly clear to Jeremiah that in that day in which he lived that kind of thing wasn't going to happen. And I'm no pessimist, but I can find nowhere in my New Testament to expect anything but a declension from God until Jesus comes again. A movement away from God I want to risk saying something perhaps that won't be popular, but I say it with deep conviction that God's purpose is 1957, is not primarily the conversion of a soul, it's a manufacture of a faith. Not primarily getting a decision for Christ, but it is the manufacture of a man of God who will so share the burden with the Lord of the day in which he lives, will get under the load in prayer, in pleading, in crying to God for revival and say like Jacob I won't let you go until you're blessed. A man who behind the scenes will be on his face pleading with God for blessing and revival in the church. Because service in harmony in the purpose of God is absolutely essential to the formation of Christian character in the likeness of God. The way we some of us serve the Lord you'd think honestly we were indispensable. God could get on far better without a lot of us. And the whole trouble is, and I say it to my own heart, we get too big for God to use and too important. We want our name in the press and if we don't able to report hundreds of conversions and a lot of blessings, oh well of course nobody will ever know about us, who cares anyway. I say to you my friend that you are more important to God than the work you do for him. You wouldn't think so by the way some of us go on. All the time he's put you into Christian work in order that in your reactions to the testings of it and the battles and the heartaches and the groan of it and the sob in your heart time and time again, in order that through your reactions you may get under the burden with God and share the load of a prodigal word. Weld and weep before him till the church is broken in revival rest. God's purpose I repeat today is to get men who with Jeremiah will be prepared to be counted failures on the off-showering of the world. If only they might share the load with the Lord Jesus and feel the throb of his heart and share something of his tears and his agony and his groan over a world that has gone back and worse than that over a church that has backflipped. Oh yes evangelism is the essential day by day obligation and beauty of the church all the time. Don't let me be misunderstood about that. Your personal witness to Christ, the evangelism through your pastorate and through your ministry is an essential obligation. But unless evangelism is the by-product of revival it's furious what happens after a mighty crusade like Haringey. And 38,000 professed decisions. What's happened to them? Where are they? Can you find them? If you can't you blame Billy Graham. Why should you? Isn't the fact that some of them have gone into churches like refrigerators and been frozen out? Isn't the fact that the condition of our churches is such that we don't deserve converts? Is that why God holds back blessings? Is that why he can't trust us with it? Is that why people don't come in? If they did they'd be absolutely staggered at the kind of thing goes on today in the average evangelical church. They thought Christians love each other and they find people won't speak to each other. They thought we were one in Christ and they find them hobbling over doctrines. Like a friend of mine said so so cleverly and yet so aptly, when the tide is out every little shrimp has its own puddle. When the tide of blessing runs low everyone has their own little group and their own little denomination. We fight this way and fight that way. Oh but if the tide only came, I repeat, with angelism the obligation but all for a heaven-sent revival that would mean the church was worthy of souls and can be trusted with the prodigal to shepherd and care and love them and bring them into maturity. Is the church in such a condition that God can't trust us? Oh but you say to me if that's God's purpose I don't see how I have any part in it. That rules me out altogether does it? Let's look for a moment before we close at the kind of man that God chose to do the job. Think about Jeremiah's call, verse 5. I formed thee, I knew thee, I sanctified thee, I ordained thee. Look, 75 percent of what God wanted to do with that man to use him was done before the man was born. The Lord wants to get out of this convention, heralds and girls, men and women who see the tragedy of the condition of the church in which we live today, and the state of things, and he's looking for people. Ah but look, he formed you, he knew you, sanctified you, and he wants to ordain you. Before you ever enter this world God has an eternal purpose for your life. That you might be his partner in this great plan. That you might not leave the Lord Jesus as it were alone in this place of intercession, in this place of virgin bearing, but that he could find somewhere a man, a man who would get under the Lord, Jeremiah's call. And look what God said to him when he sent him to do the job, verse 10. See, I have set thee over the nations, and over the kingdom, to root out, to pull down, to destroy, to throw down, to build, to pound. Jeremiah said God I called you, I ordained you, I want you for this thing, I want you to come to me, and get linked up with this eternal plan and Jeremiah, I have put you over the mission. Have you ever noticed the amazing language of the first verse of the third chapter of Luke's gospel? Would you like just a glance at it a second? Luke chapter 3 and verse 1. Here is God about to do a new thing. Here is the eve of our Savior's coming. Here is the beginning of a new movement of God and his dispensation, if you like to use the term. Here is God about to set upon a new plan, a new way. Now, how is he going to do it? Ah, look. Verse 1 of Luke 3. In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, Herod, Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip, tetrarch of Sicilia, and of the region of Seconitis, and Lithanius, the tetrarch of Apollos, and of Antiochus being the high priest. I say, what a lot of big knowledge. What a catalogue of people. Oh, these are important people. No wonder, no wonder if all those sort of fellows are around. God is going to be able to do something. But look, read on. The word of God came to John, the son of Zechariah, in the wilderness. Oh, what comfort that is to my heart today. God bypassed a lot of them and found a nobody through whom he could work. Bypassed authority. Bypassed recognized religious leadership. And went into the wilderness and found a man whose meat was locust and honey. A man dressed as it were in sackcloth and ashes. A man with a burden. A man with a concern. A man who was prepared to face all those people and say to them, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. A man who cared not for his popularity, and not for his reputation, and not for his name, and didn't want to get kudos out of his job, and wasn't wanting to have an axe to grind, and cared for nothing but the glory of God, and the blessing of the generation in which he lived, and cared only that even though it meant for him one day to have his head chopped off, he would be faithful in any situation, even to go into the home of a king and tell him he's got no business to be living with a woman who wasn't his wife. God found such a man, just a nobody. That's all, friends. I'm just about old enough now, I think, to care not too strong for public praise or public blame. But I'm old enough now to long with all my heart to hear one day my Lord say, well done. He doesn't say success, but he says good and faithful. Ah, friends, it won't be long before you and I won't attend any more service, won't attend any more meetings, and won't preach any more sermons, and won't take any more Christian work, and will be ushered into the presence of God. What's to go to say to us then? Have you made a name for yourself in Christian work? Have I, by using the name of Jesus? Have I tried to be popular? Have I prayed to the gallery? Have I just done the thing that everybody else does? Or in the name of heaven, have I dared to stand against the stream and be reckoned from the point of view of the world a complete failure, if only through my life. God might be glorified. God looked for a nobody, not a clever person, but just a nobody who would share the burden. And he found such a man in John Adams. And what was his task? It was to pluck up, to break down, to destroy, to overthrow, to build, and to plant. It was to pluck up and destroy things that God had never originated. It was to break down and overthrow buildings on false foundations. But the final word of God was not to be destruction. It was to build up and to plant. This was to be God's man. And see, it was this man that God said, I have set thee over the nations. The wonderful thrill of it is, if God can get out of this convention, all just a few nobodies. You know what he does? He puts them over nations in Christ. He puts them over the authority of all the powers of darkness in the Lord Jesus. He picks up a life that he can trust to give him the glory, and a life that doesn't want to be advertised, and doesn't want publicity, and doesn't want to make a name. A life that cares not about being successful, is prepared to be counted a failure, if you like, if only Jesus might be glorified. And that life God sets far above the powers of darkness. And he sends them into a long remission session. Sends them into a tough passage. Sends them into a situation that seems absolutely impossible. But I said to a group of people, mission is a few moments ago, what I would say to you now, because I have proved it in my own life, that when God wants to do a thing that seems humanly impossible, do you know what he does? He gets hold of, not a man with a lot of degrees, though it may be so, not a man of great education, but it may even be that, but he gets hold of a man, who seems to be an impossible sort of person himself, and then snatches him up at the cross and uses him. And God found that man in John the Baptist. God found that man in Jeremiah. And he went to do an unpopular thing. He went to pluck up plants that God hadn't planted. And do you know one of the big plants that every one of us has got to face having to pluck out today? It's easy cheap believism. It's telling people that you can be saved simply because you believe some proof set about your Bible. An easy decision for Christ, which is signing a card, and which leaves the self-right undisturbed. And God is looking for men today who are going to say, you cannot be saved, except as the outcome of your salvation you display it in total obedience to the word of God. He that is born of God says, my Bible does not continue in the practice of sin. Speaking at a Bible conference a little while ago down in a south coast town in the United States. A little group of young people came up to me very angrily after my message. Led by the young people's leader of that particular work. And they were literally livid and they said, look you're adding more to grace and we don't like your teaching. I said, that's very interesting. Tell me exactly what you mean by that. Well, you say you're demanding something from us and God gives us everything. I said, I'm not demanding anything that the New Testament doesn't demand from people who have been forgiven. I said to one girl who was there, who was the ringleader, are you a Christian? Oh yes, she said, I am. Well, I said, what are you arguing about? Well, she said, I tell lies every day. Oh, I said, really? How long have you been a Christian? Ten years. Yes? And you go on telling lies? Oh yes, almost every day. I told one this morning. And she said, it's so wonderful I'll just go straight to Jesus and ask him to forgive me. And he does. I don't find that kind of Christianity in my Bible. I don't find that kind of Christian life anywhere in the word of God. And somehow today, beloved, you and I, if we're to be true to our generation, have got to stand up fearlessly out of lies that can speak not simply with words, but out of lies that can speak as living evidence that God has done this for us and demand that the righteousness of the Lord might be fulfilled in us by the Holy Spirit. And there's no such thing as salvation without the evidence of works. Faith without works is dead. Believe and be saved. Oh yes, but what do you mean by belief? Total commitment to Jesus Christ. And out of that total commitment, in the power of His Spirit, and obedience to the word of God. Root out, pluck up, destroy this easy cheap salvationism that fundamentalists are putting over today in the name of Christ, and which is no gospel at all. That was Jeremiah's past. And from the standpoint, my dear listeners, from the standpoint of the world, the man was a complete failure. People saw him in a dungeon, scoffed at him, laughed at him, jeered at him, rebuked him and punished him. But God looked down upon that man and saw the triumph of his purposes. And I see in Jeremiah, a man living in fellowship with God in the midst of darkness. A man who lived in the close communion and fellowship with the Lord. A man familiar with the voice of God. A man who shrunk when he talked to God about his work and said, I'm but a child, I cannot speak. But a man who never shrunk when he talked to the people in the name of the Lord. This was Jeremiah. This was the man that God said, gird up thy lines, arise and speak. I found you just a nobody and because you're prepared for that, I put my authority into your life and I'm sending you out in my name. Oh my dear friend, God needs you today. And you're saying to him in answer to this message, Lord I'm only a child, I don't know how. I could never fulfill such a responsibility as I close this afternoon. I want to remind you that there are several cases in the Bible of men who share this burden with God and of whom it is said they rose up early. I find in Genesis chapter 22 that Abram rose up early to worship and that meant giving Isaac as a burnt offering. I find that Jacob rose up early to trust the Lord for all his future life. That Moses rose early in the morning and went into the mountain to receive orders from heaven. That Joshua got up early one morning and ruthlessly exterminated him from the camp. That David got up early one morning to fight Goliath. Ah, but above them all in a trust unique all alone by himself. A great while before day the Lord Jesus Christ rose and went apart into a solitary place and there prayed, sharing the burden, sharing the load. Now listen, don't go away from this tent today, this afternoon and say that I'm suggesting you should get up an hour earlier every day. That might be a good thing for some of you but I'm not suggesting that. But I'm only saying up from my heart to your heart today that we're on the wrong foot in Christian witness all together and that we're putting over big ideas and big programs and God is looking from Keswick for men who are prepared to die to their reputation and their popularity and their ambition just to be a nobody in the hand of the Lord and people whom he can trust in every situation to bring him honor and bring him glory and bring him pain. Just a man who's prepared to hand over his life to the Lord Jesus Christ for his use and for his service. A man who will know something in the secret place of sharing the burden with God. And listen, a man who not at a convention meeting in public but somewhere alone with God like Abraham will rise up and offer Isaac his nearest and his dearest and put that upon the altar for God. Has God been speaking to you about that this week? Has he, has he touched you right down to the roots of your soul? And have you, have you risen up early to worship? And have you put aside any affection which has come between God and you? God never took Isaac and never would have done. But God was determined that nothing should come between himself and Abraham. Have you risen up early to offer Isaac? Have you like Joshua got up early and shared, showed to God that you're under the responsibility under the load of the day in which you live? And you're not any longer going to play church or play religion or play Christianity. But God sees you as a man under a burden sharing alone and ruthlessly you have got up before God and exterminated sin and put it away. Do you be real with God these days? Not what you're going to get from a platform. Not what you're going to get at a meeting. Not what you're going to get in a crowd. But it's what you're going to do when the crowd is all dispersed. That matters. How you go out to the tent with the devil waiting for you. With some friend to chatter to you. And somebody to indulge in social, harmless conversation. But somehow the resolutions made in Keswick tent haven't been put into action. God is looking for men who are prepared to deal with sin. To put aside affections that are unworthy. And to come to him and offer their lives just as nobody. But through him, through them, God may move in his church and give to us at Keswick and in our churches a mighty heaven-sent revival of the spirit of God. But all I have to say comes from the Lord. I trust your heart with some measure of conviction. Just believe that all that I've said has been preached first to my own soul before it's come to you. But I want just to close by telling you that Dr. F.B. Meyer from the Keswick platform years ago told how at one time in his life ministering in Regent's Park Chapel in London having a very dead and difficult time with dwindling congregations and nobody listening. They came so discouraged but he said every time I stood up to speak something came between me and God. And I knew it was wrong and I knew it was sin but the Lord had everything else in my life and I just thought that I could keep this to my own self and enjoy it and indulge it. But one Sunday, said Dr. Meyer, after coming back from church I fought a battle. It had been a miserable day. I'd been so dead and useless and fruitless and so lacking in Holy Spirit anointing and I went into my study, said Dr. Meyer, and knelt at my desk and said, Lord, you've had every key to every part of my life except one. Lord Jesus, please take this last key. I can't fight this battle anymore. And when the Dr. Meyer told that story he said, dear Lord, never took that key. He took the door and in place of the door he put a window and ever since that day and I can think of the radiance on his face ever since that day the light of the knowledge of the glory of God has shone into my heart in the face of Jesus Christ. Oh, fellow Christians, God wants to speak to you and set you above in Christ and use you as an instrument for revival in your church and in your fellowship and to the world. What paltry, stupid little key do you hold on to that blocks his power so that you have everything except the anointing of the Holy Ghost? May the Lord find every key laid at his feet this day and forever. Let's pray. May we spend just one moment in quiet prayer and go to hand over to the chairman for a verse or two of a closing hymn. Before I do, just let's spend 30 seconds in silence and in that 30 seconds all that there might be a sob from your heart a cry to the throne of God for forgiveness, for cleansing a glad surrender of all you have and all you are to him that you might just be a nobody careless of blame or praise but henceforth to be his instrument for honor and glory. And Jesus says, be not afraid of their pages I have set thee above in Christ.