In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of experiencing God rather than just knowing about Him. He highlights the transformative power of being redeemed and born into the realm of spiritual reality. The preacher also discusses the role of conditioning and preparation in receiving revelation and truth from God. He mentions the concept of being a sensitized plate, allowing the Spirit to speak through him without his own authorship. The sermon concludes with a prayer for God to provide the appropriate spiritual nourishment to each individual listener.

Well, I want to greet you this morning in the lovely name of our Lord. Whatever I have to bring you, whatever God puts upon my heart, I want it to come from Him and in His name. It's wonderful to be back here in this pulpit and to greet so many of my old friends. We haven't grown older, have we? I remember seeing you here before, and I remember meeting some of you when we had the old Bethel. So I'm not a stranger to Bethel. I remember ministering under the Eldredges years ago, and then with Louis and Josephine Turnbull, and now I'm back again to break bread this morning. So it's lovely to greet you and to share with you. It's difficult to do very much when my heart is full. I have many things I'd like to share with you. I call it sharing, because what I have is something God has been very gracious to reveal to me as truth. I'm a teacher. It's a vocation God has laid upon my heart. I'm not an evangelist. I'm not a pastor now. I've ministered a little in those fields, but that's not where the gift lies. And so in teaching, the field is vast. It has very far horizons. You get into that realm, you hardly know where to stop. But I hope I'll be able to stop this morning and just break a little of the bread that he's been so gracious to share to my heart, hungry. How many of you are hungry for truth? That is very refreshing. I like to greet the people who are hungry for truth. I meet a lot of people who are hungry for a blessing. That is an emotional stir, which is very fine and good. It belongs in the category of it all. But those who have a heart that's hungry for the word to be opened and explained and spread out before us, then I feel happy with you. I suppose the best thing to do, I'm just looking around for the clock. I don't see one. Don't you have a clock here? Well, I'll put my watch out here for safety's sake. Now, I'll tell you, I'm looking at it now, but I'm not sure if I'll look at it again. But I'm looking at it now, see? That may seem a little strange to you, but if you had ministered as long as I have, you'd appreciate it. I remember a long time ago, the Lord just got after me about this time element. When you get into the word of God, there's no resting place. I can talk two, three, four, five hours and not think about it. Actually, I can, when the Spirit is on me. If I have any kind of a spirit of anointing on me, I'm never conscious of myself at all, my hands or my feet or my face or anything. All I'm conscious of, there's a torrent of truth pouring through me, and I'm not responsible for it at all. It just rolls. Well, I could do that for three or four hours and not be tired, sit down perfectly refreshed. I'm never tired from ministering the word. People tire me. I don't know, perhaps that's very plain, but that's the way it is. I'm a sensitized plane, and spirits tire me. I feel spirits sometimes without knowing the man at all. And sometimes the reaction in me is very tiresome. They say, are you tired preaching? No, when the Spirit's on me, I can preach three to four hours right on, never think about it because it's not high. It's the truth that pours out of me, and I'm not the author of it. I'm not responsible for it. It's the word of God. And people say, is that in the Bible? Well, I suggest you read the same kind of Bible I do. Well, I never saw that before. Well, I said, I didn't either, the Lord showed it to me. Now, we all have the same Bibles. And in these many years, God has been gracious to speak to me from the word. I'm an old Pentecostal, you see. I came into Pentecost 53 years ago, before most of you were born. And so in these 53 years of constant working with God, moving with God, looking into the word, seeking his face, I can't help but have received something. It would be a tragedy if after 53 years of walking with God in the Spirit, I hadn't found something. So I make no apologies for the truth. That's his. If you like it, amen. If you don't like it, amen too. Because it's not mine. Not mine at all. But he's been very gracious to open the word of God to me to help his people. My ministry is to the body of Christ, to Christians. I sometimes have people saved in my meetings, which is a rather incidental thing, and they're healed in the meetings. But that's not my objective, because that's not my call. But that doesn't mean he can't minister in that way. He does. I've been preaching very often with pouring out the word of God in a teaching message. I remember one time when I heard a commotion in the back seat, and two people received the baptism in the Spirit under a teaching ministry. Well, isn't that good? I think that's perfectly all right and normal. Things like that happen all the time. So if you are blessed this morning by receiving salvation, amen, or the baptism, or a healing, that doesn't matter. This is God's house. We are his people. And so we'll sit together and listen. Now, I'll try to get through as fast as I can and not to run over, because some people are awfully annoyed if you run over five minutes. They really are. You'd be amazed, but there are lots of people who couldn't possibly run over. So the Lord dealt with me one time about it. And I was under bondage to a person rather than to God in the Spirit. God let me know it. And I was speaking one evening, and the Spirit was on me, and I was just pouring out. And I thought, well, look what time it is. And the clock had stopped. And I sneaked down and got my watch out and held that up. And that had stopped. Then I was lost. I said, well, Lord, I don't know whether it's 8 o'clock or 10 o'clock. He just did it purposely. And after the janitor said, that clock has never been stopped before, and I've been here so many years. Well, I said, the Lord knows all about clocks. He was after me. And he stopped that clock, and he stopped my watch as much as to say, you will speak as long as I keep the anointing upon you. Somebody will be helped. So I said, all right. So you see how wonderful he is to talk to us that way in such simple form? He gets you right in a, there. He says, now, well, I said, Lord, I'll have to talk till I stop. So this morning we'll share together some of the word that he's laid on my heart. Our loving Lord, thou art the author of this word, and the Holy Spirit knows how to interpret it. And we are thy people, and we need thee, and we need the food which thou hast provided and prepared for us. And grant that as we sit together this morning, you will be able to reach each one of us, on whatever spiritual level we are now moving, you will be able to give us the food which is adequate for each in his own place. Give to everyone, each one, some portion of thy word which shall be food, and which shall be something to bless them in the sense of glorifying thee, for Jesus' sake. Amen. So this morning, each of you take your portion. I'm glad I don't know all the people, because that would put me under bondage. So if I say things, you can't say, well, he said that to me. No, no, we don't play a house like that. That's like children in the third grade. And I'm through teaching. I was a teacher years ago. But I'm through with that. Let's be frank and sensible about it. Don't keep saying, I hope she hears it. No, we won't do that. Lord, keep that one awake. He needs that right now, Lord. I want to say, what do you need, honey? Well, it doesn't matter, you see. So we'll take the portion which is adequate. Now, every one of us, we are all moving toward God, of course. It's what I call the spiritual approach to God and the ascent of spirit. We are spirits, basically. We're not these bodies that are sitting here. This is a house in which we happen to be living. But we are invisible spiritual realities, a personality redeemed and in the hands of God for a transformation to equip us and qualify us and make us suitable for another age when we slip away from this present nightmare in which we are now involved. He will take us away from this. So we are now in a process, a process of education and training and culture. Since that is true, we need the word of God or the truth as our food and as our supply. Each one moving on a separate level of his own receives a certain portion of that word which is adequate for him at that period. Now, let him have that. Don't quarrel about it. Don't think about it. When your portion comes along, say, thank you, Lord, and you receive your portion and you move along. It's a marvelous and wonderful adventure, this idea of being redeemed and born into the realm of spiritual reality for the purpose of transforming, changing, correcting, building, making us into the image of the Son of God. It is a tremendous and wonderful experience, that's all we can say. You say, do you know God? I say, I know about God, but I experience him. I can't define him. Who wants to define God? Well, sit down. He's infinite. But we can experience him. And so from our hearts we experience many things which we like to share with people. And that's what we want to do. I want to share with you some of these things which God has laid upon my heart. I want to take an old word, very old, a scripture verse that you've heard many, many times, and it is usually taken by an evangelist, which of course is his privilege, but not his only. Many of the bits of truth which one person may use, another one will use it the next evening, can preach an entirely different message from it. Because the word of God is versatile. You can't pin it down to one thing. You have a basic interpretation with 10,000 applications. So when I get into the realm of application, then I'm at liberty. I don't want to say, thus saith the Lord, and he doesn't say anything more. No, no, no, no. Let's get in there and find what he's saying to you and to me. Whether we've heard that text a hundred times. Over in the book of Revelation, I won't get in there. I leave that for scholars who know about such business. It's all right, but that's not my field. I let somebody else who makes that his study, and perhaps the Lord has given special direction in that field. But that doesn't mean we can't read it and be marvelously and wonderfully blessed. I remember one little scripture verse in the third chapter of Revelation. Don't look for it now, please. Don't look for anything in the Bible that I'm talking about. I'm a fussy old bachelor. I'm a fussy old schoolteacher. And if there's anything you want to do to torment me, is while I'm preaching, get out your Bible and begin this. Which, of course, is very rude on your part, and very impotent. So don't do that. Do your Bible reading at home. If you want to take notes, take notes. But when I'm speaking, please don't start referring this verse with that. Then you look up, and I'm ten miles down the road, and you won't catch my coattail in two years. Just listen. Don't fumble. I have the same Bible you have. I was tempted to give some of these verses, but I'm not going to do it because some can't resist the temptation to see if I'm not lying. So they get the Bible out and read it all over again. They say, I declare the goodness. That's the same verse in my Bible. Well, where's Follett now? Well, he's six miles down the road, dear. How many get it, or don't you? After you've taught for 50-some years, you appreciate what I mean. In that third chapter, hidden away, is a wonderful little verse. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in unto him and sup with him and he with me. Now, that is as old as the Bible. And we've heard, I suppose, a thousand evangelistic messages on it referring to the door of the heart of a sinner and Jesus standing there wanting to come in. Now, that's all right, but that's very initial. He stands there continually. It isn't one visitation. So don't restrict it to just that. Well, when did he give that little verse? Did you notice? He gave it after he had been dealing with these churches. Remember, beginning at Ephesus? And we won't go into that, but they're wonderful. So there was Ephesus and Smyrna and, oh, dear, dear, Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, Laodicea. How many? Seven. That's a good number. That's a number of completion or perfection. Well, after he has dealt with these churches, and if you notice the way he handles them, after he has dealt with them, he turns around and he says, Now, if any man will open the door, behold, I stand at the door of any man, not only this little church group, but if any man will open to me, I will come in unto him. Now, that's the general attitude of the Lord, finding that he always has to work with remnants. In the Old Testament, God's idea was to deal with Israel, but in the end, how many of you know, Israel fails and he deals with a remnant. Remember? Just a remnant. That's as far as he ever can seem to get with people, with nations, with a church, with groups. It is to sift them down and down and down until everyone finds his own level, and finally we find he is dealing with a minority. How many know he's the God who deals with the minority? Don't be afraid of the minority. I'm always afraid of the popularity of things, the magnitude of it, the tremendousness of it. And probably God is within a thousand miles of it, but never mind. They don't know the difference. And don't spoil them. Tell them there's no Santa Claus. They'll all cry. No, he deals with a minority, sifting, sifting, sifting, sifting, sifting. And he gets to these churches. And when he deals with the churches, what was the first thing that he says to them? Well, he had to correct them, every one of them. Why? Because when he comes to deal with them, they are all work conscious. They are thinking of all the things which they could have done for the Lord and have done for the Lord. They have developed a work complex instead of a worshipful complex. Vast difference. They are conscious of their doings for the Lord. What was the very first thing he said to every one of these churches to begin with when he comes to them? I know thy works. Please sit down a minute. I want to talk to you. Why? Because I have somewhat to say unto you. I remember that, or don't you? Where's that? That's in the Bible, dear. And here they stood. He says, sit down. I know thy works, but I have somewhat to say unto you. Why? Why, my dear child, you are of more consequence to me than all the things on God's earth you will ever do for me. I have millions of angels to serve me. I have very few lovers. Very few lovers. Very few lovers. He comes to the churches and the very first salute he gives is, I know thy works. Now, we won't talk about that because I have somewhat to say to you. Then he begins a correction. Every one of them. Every one of them. He uses good psychology, too, of course, because he knows all that. He gives them their compliment, which is due. He paves the way graciously. But how many know he corrects them, too? He corrects them. And when he's all through that church business, he's talked to them. He says, Behold, I stand at the door and knock. Whose door? Any man that will listen to me. Any man who will listen to me. I stand at his door. Well, he isn't a member of our church. Don't talk church. Any man. Any man. Any man who will open to me. I will come in. I will come in. Behold, I stand at that door and knock. Now, for a little exposition, just for a minute. I'm tempted in here, but I can't do it. But I'm tempted. Let's look at that word, behold. Have you ever noticed in the word of God how it's used? And the occasions in which that word appears? Behold. Well, it is used in two different ways. One is an injunction. Behold. An injunction. Meaning, there's something to see. Another time, it is used not only to see, but to discern in the seeing. And that's what I want to talk about now. Not only beholding, but what do you behold when you behold? Why, people say, I'm looking. My dear, it isn't I'm looking. We all look at Jesus. We all look. What do you see when you look? Oh, yeah. That's what I'm after. How many of you know that? It isn't looking, looking. I'm looking, I'm looking. I know it. I know it. You've looked for 20, 30, 40, 50 years. What do you see when you look? I've heard. What do you hear when you listen? I read. But what do you read when you're reading? So sometimes it behooves us to look at just that little word, behold. Sometimes it's just an injunction in there to arrest our attention, meaning what follows is of dynamic importance. We won't go into that, but it's a good field. Behold, I send the promise of the Father. You remember that one? That is to pause, behold, pause. I send unto you the promise of the Father, meaning what I have to say relative to that is of great importance. Study it. Look at it. Listen. Behold the Lamb of God. Well, we behold him. He's down at the Jordan getting baptized. That's not the meaning. It doesn't mean do you see him. He's not talking about your eyes, dear. Behold the Lamb of God in the sense of a spiritual penetration that goes past the sense of seeing a man. That's what he's after. And what has happened? Well, these people have left their temple, they've left their religious background and set up to listen to John the Baptist. John the Baptist. And here he is down at the Jordan, teaching, preaching, proclaiming the Messiah and the advent of the kingdom. Well, what's the background of all these people who have gathered there? These people who have come to listen to John are Jews who have hoped and are still hoping for a Messiah, a material king who will come and rescue Israel from the awful bondages that she's been bound up in with the nations. Her prestige is gone. She has no recognition among them. She has nothing left but a little religious life with a temple poked up in the corner in Jerusalem. And she to whom the great promises of world redemption and all that have been given from God. So when a prophet comes and begins to proclaim kingdom, of course there's a response in their heart. They have all developed a kingdom complex that just as soon as a prophet says kingdom, their ears all go up. Why not? They've been fed on that for a long, long time. The coming of this king who will put Israel back on the map and show the other nations her place and tell them where to get off. And they just love that idea. So what do they do? They leave their present bondages and dare to come down and stand identified with John the Baptist. Now they are identified with him. They listen to him and believe him. What are they believing? They are believing that the message that he says will come true. What is his message? Behold, the kingdom of God is at hand. Behold, all about his kingdom. Yes. And they believe it. They're very conscious of the fact. Here is a prophet at last who speaks our language. And I tell you, he's talking about the kingdom. And you just wait until we get the kingdom and the messiah messying as he should. They had a difficult time to get him to messiah correctly. But then, that's what they wanted. Oh, how they longed for it. So they were giving up every last thing. And I suppose standing as they usually do if there's a revival of any kind on with their choruses. The kingdom, kingdom, kingdom, the kingdom now is here. And I don't know, probably they did it because human nature is the same everywhere in heaven. I don't doubt that they had that in their hearts. A jubilant idea of the kingdom at hand. And the messiah would now be revealed. He's going to be the king. We'll get in on the ground floor. What ailed all those disciples seeking it? Don't you know? Read the Bible, it's a very interesting book. I read it every once in a while and I get a lot of things out of it. Had any of you ever analyzed the motives lodged in those disciples? Or did you just see the disciples standing by the Jordan? Well, you're hopeless. You'll never get anywhere on God's earth that way. Study the motives that caused them to gather. What made them leave their temple and leave all of that and come down and dare to do that? What made them dare to? Because secretly in their hearts there was a very materialistic, very materialistic motive working in them to see this kingdom restored and the messiah on the throne. So when they come down, they are already primed to receive. I suppose they got anxious after John has preached for weeks and weeks and weeks about that kingdom and the king will, while they're there, will begin to say, where is he? Naturally. Human nature is the same. So one day when he's preaching and saying the kingdom of heaven is at hand and all this lovely message of truth, truth, real good truth, wonderful truth, wonderful truth, real truth, and while they're listening to it, Jesus comes down. Now they don't know him as a messiah. Even John had to have a revelation as to his identity. The one upon whom you see the dove descend will be the one. Do you remember that? Do you imagine Jesus came down with a long flowing garment on and a big yellow light behind his head like these horrible pictures they make? I wish they'd stop it. None of them know. Who knows what he looked like? Well then why do you conjure up some kind of a thing like that and fall down in front of it and get out? Jesus comes casually down. The psychological moment has arrived. He's to be introduced and what does John the Baptist say? Behold your king. How many know they wished he would? Well why? Do you know why they want that? Because when they behold, they are looking for a king. What do you see when you behold? Why we beheld him? I'm not talking about beholding him. What do you see when you behold? What did they hope to see? Their faith was built up to a high mark. They came to see the king introduced. Hadn't he talked about a kingdom? Well then if he's talking about a kingdom he'll certainly talk about a king. So there they stand, very receptive, standing waiting for him to proclaim it. But when he comes what does he do? Well he deflates them perfectly. He never mentions king. That's what they want. What are you carrying in your heart when you approach the Lord? What is the burden of the prayer that you're presenting to him? I prayed. I know you prayed. What is the burden of your prayer and the motive back of it? Don't get by saying I prayed. He's in prayer. He's in prayer. Well I believe. Demons believe. Get one ahead of the devil please. Demons believe. It isn't I believe. What do you believe? You look. What do you see? What you see is governed by what you take. That's right. What you see in the vision is governed by what you carry to the vision. And you will interpret that vision according to what you have in your heart in its expectancy and in its motivation. And I can say that to the world because it's a basic law and truth. What did they see? They came to see a king. They sing their faith on the Bible. What did they hear? What did they see? When John dares to speak he says Behold a king? No. Behold the Lamb of God that helps Israel out of her mess? That helps Israel out of the jam that she's in? No. A universal Christ for the world. Behold the Lamb of God that does what? Makes the kingdom? That's the kingdom alone. You spoil the whole thing bringing a kingdom complex to it. That's why you can't understand it. Behold for a kingdom. I know you did. He is the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of Israel the sins of the world. How you can see how far in advance was the thought and the purpose of God past a little selfish desire to have a messiah? Doesn't that little messiah picture make you weary? What do you want a messiah for? To help us out of the doldrums? We've been under bondage and all this and we just want our king to be a king and we'll get him as a messiah and we'll help him messiah correctly. Well every time they had a suggestion to help him, he rebuked them. Some of you know he did. Have no vision. No. What you see is already determined by what you bring to your vision. That's right. That's the law. It reveals the law of gravitation. Behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world. Of course. That comes like a bombshell. He doesn't even mention a king. He doesn't even mention a messiah. All our hopes build up on the basis of what he's been preaching. What did you hear when he preached? The kingdom! I know you did. Why? Because you have developed a materialistic kingdom complex and that's all you will ever hear. He didn't come for that. He came as a messiah. Yes. But as a lamb. They know the lamb language. Don't worry. They have slain thousands of pastoral lambs. They know the meaning of lamb and they don't like that. So they go back again to the Pacific. Disappointed. How many of you know God dares to disappoint people sometimes? Or haven't you ever had one? Two people here have had disappointments. Isn't it amazing? How many know God dares when he's got a grip and he holds you? He can disappoint you terribly. Yes, he can. Disappoint you terribly. When? When you're in his arms. When does he rebuke Peter? Walking on the water. Do you know when? After God held him and held him in his arms. Then he rebuked him. He didn't stand there and say, Oh, you fool of unbelief. Why do you fail now? Come on walking. Oh, horrible. I don't know what kind of a Jesus some folks have whenever this happens. Not the Jesus that's in the Bible. No. When he saw this catastrophe he reached out his arms and caught him. Then he said, Oh, no doubt. Foolish one with so poor faith. Why did you doubt? How many know it's a safe place to get a disappointment and a rebuke? It's always in the arms of the Lord. And that's where it was here. He dared to deflate them. And they go back. Did you ever notice in this picture there are three days mentioned? That day. And then it says the next day he stood and was introduced. They went back to the temple. I suppose, filled with consternation and wondering what under the heavens is the matter. He's been preaching of the kingdom and when the supposed king comes he doesn't say anything about it. He calls him the Lamb of God and the Lamb's always got flame. It's good to have a disappointment once in a while. Tell you something, it'll throw you into God like nothing in this wide world. It will bring you into God faster and more securely than all the blessings put together. That'll soon fade. But if God has gripped your heart and life, hold you, he will dare to disappoint you, dear. Take it. It's correction. It's helpful and hopeful. Both. They go back. Now the third day is mentioned. And the next day they came back, you see. Hoping against hope that now they will get the right clamp on the thing. They have been talking it over. Did he say lamb? Yes, I was right by him. Well, what did you think he said? Didn't he say king? No, he didn't. Well, where is this kingdom? How many know how people bug? So they say, we'll go back and see if we can get more light on this subject. Did you ever have some truth thrown at you and you couldn't take it so you went back to look at it again? Well, after we were made, dear, don't be amazed. They went back and do you know what it says? This is the third day. And as Jesus moved, John says, Behold the lamb of God. Period. Kingdom is wrecked. No, it's going to begin, dear, if you'd let us alone. Please let God alone in all this business that you've got your brains all tied up in. Let alone. I was amazed at that. And you know what? The Lord spoke to me about it. I said, but Lord, when they came back so disheartened and they wanted to get something, why is it that John keeps saying, Behold the lamb of God? Well, the Lord said, You can't have a king unless you had a lamb first. Do you get it? Isn't that the whole history of Jesus? You can't have an Easter glory unless you have a Friday tragedy. I love the Easter. It's full of life. Positive thinking. Well, Dr. Peel, I know a thing or two. But listen. What was back of your Easter morning when your heart is really filled with the joy and rejoicing? What was back of it? The horror and death of our Lord. That was back of it. All that gave birth to an Easter morning. But everybody wants the Easter morning with the joy bells ringing in my heart. Sometimes the Lord pulls the clapper out of one of them and then you don't know what to do. Scared to death. Rung back to the altar, Lord, put the clapper back in. It doesn't clap like it used to. He says, Well, I've been six months getting that clapper out of the bell. You make such a noise, I can't talk to you. I can't talk to you. All you hear is the bells ringing. I want to speak to you. Don't be scared. He pulls the clapper out of your joy bell for ten minutes. He'll give you a bag of popcorn when he gives it back to you. So be good. That's the way he does. How many of you know he treats us just like a lot of children in the primary department? He says, Behold the lamp again, secondly. So I began to look out and the Lord spoke. He says, It isn't just beholding, seeing, but what do you see when you look? What do you see when you look? It isn't a question of looking. What you see is determined by what you take. Get that straightened out so that you come into the presence of the Lord. How many know he will visit you? He will reveal himself. You will hear things. You will know things. Why? Because the heart has been conditioned for its reception. All truth is purely progressive in its revelation. It is not an instant thing. You can receive the best gift of the Spirit in the moment. You can receive salvation in the moment. All those things which come on the gift level may be obtained in the moment. A present acquisition and holding. But what comes on a seeking level or a knocking level in prayer, you don't get them that way. Not at all. So when you come, the heart has to be all the time conditioned, coming back to exactly the same vision. Jesus never changes. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. What changes? Your heart and your attitude. My heart, my attitude. They continually change. They must be continually changed. Why? To make a receptive condition that when I approach him, how many do you see? I receive from him. Can you see that? I want you to see that. If you can't see that, you won't get very far in spiritual revelation. Not at all. Because that's a basic principle that we must keep in mind, what you bring to it. Look at this wonderful Christ that we've looked at, some of us, for years. Haven't you ever come back to him and found something you never dreamed of before in that same personage? Haven't you? Well, what happened? Did he change? He is always and forever will be the same. But he's seeking to change us, changing us in our thinking, in our expectation, in our little powers of interpreting, so that our hearts will be conditioned that we come back in the presence of that same Christ. And what happens? We have entirely different visions, entirely different reactions in my heart and life. Well, what made that? Did he change? No, no, no. God has brought a miracle in your heart or mine, so that as I approach him and approach the Word, there is a groundwork, there is a possibility for that reflection to come, to come. We are all the time being conditioned for the revelation of light and truth, but you cannot get it without your condition. That's the way the law is, and he's busy doing that. What did they hear? I see my time is up and I'm supposed to stop. I'll take one more minute with this. We haven't gotten into the verses at all. I'm on behold yet. I could spend four or five messages just on that one little verse. I'm still on that behold business. What do you behold? What do you see? I'm not in about the knocking at the door. Oh, that's sweet. And the coming in and the sharing. That's about six more messages. I've only got time for half of them this morning. But I want to get something while I'm dealing with this. What do you hear when you listen? Don't forget this. Ask it a hundred times secretly in your own heart. Lord, I'm looking to thee. Don't let my expectation, which may not be within a hundred miles of what you want, blur the vision. But condition me so that I may receive what you want me to see. What do you want me to see, Lord? What do you want me to see? Not what I want to see, oh Lord. No, no, no, no, no, no. Condition me so that I may be able to see. That's all a progressive matter. It's not obtained or acquired in a moment. Salvation, baptism, healings, all those can be acquired in a moment because they're on another level, spiritually speaking. Absolutely another level. Absolutely so. But upon this other level of spiritual revelation, you have to learn your laws and your principles and methods. You have to, if you get into the faith. Another little picture where they look and what did they see and what did they hear. Remember on the Mount of Transfiguration, Peter, James and John and God opened heaven and spoke to them. Well, he opened heaven up to Jordan and spoke to them. What did he say? This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. Well, in Revelation it says all things were made to please him for his pleasure. You and I basically are made for his pleasure. Can't you give him the pleasure of sitting still when you want to get up? No, I've got to get up and gad. Well, you won't please him. Why should he sit still a minute? Oh! Well, you're hopeless. A pliable spirit. You know, it takes some people years to know what that means. A flexible, pliable spirit. Years of discipline to know what that means. So he says, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. Now, what did that mean? Because it says primarily man was made for his pleasure. For the glory of God. Those two things. That's why you were made and I was being made. Now why? To please God and for his glory. That's the basic objective toward which we focus our living. Jesus has come and at this scene identifies himself with humanity as the one who will carry this humanity on out to God. He had received the concept of a man, human being at his birth. Now he knows that when he identifies himself as the Lamb of God he does that for the pleasure of God. And God gives that witness. He doesn't say, this is my beloved son who is going to die on Calvary. Oh, don't. He's going to die on Calvary we haven't got there yet. Don't think you're going to lose Calvary if you look back at it a little bit somewhere along the line. Can't you carry two truths at once in your head and heart? How many can carry maybe three? Well, some can't. This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. That's the initial. The heart of God is pleased to see what? This man in the human concept coming up to identify himself with humanity and in the end present himself to God as the perfect one. That's his initial presentation and God's heart had great pleasure in it. Now let's let him move along. Move along. Finally we find him climbing this hill. Transfiguration Mountain. Peter James and John written. Heaven opens. A voice saying, this is my beloved son who's going to die on Calvary. Now you Calvary complex folks, sit still a minute. How many know there was some tremendous living before he ever got to Calvary? How many know that? There had to be. There had to be some terrific living before he got up there to die. He had to be a lamb without spot or blemish before he could be offered. Well, let's watch him building that. This is my beloved son here he is. Hmm. Yeah. How many of you know he didn't say that in the beginning? He couldn't. He can only say, in whom I am well pleased. Now he has lived. Now he has lived. And as he presents the perfect human concept of living on that mountain, God comes down and glorifies it. Glorifies his son as a man, not an angel. He glorifies his son as a perfect man. There is one mediator between God and man. Jesus the good shepherd. Don't talk like that. One mediator, the man Christ Jesus. What do you get? The two aspects join. The man Christ, the anointed son of God, Jesus, the perfect humanity. The perfect humanity. And he says, one mediator. Let him be that. So on the mountain he says, this is my beloved son, not only in whom I am well pleased, but now, hear ye him. Why? Because he had become articulate. Do you remember when John was in the desert, how he identified himself and message? He says, I am but a voice. I am but a voice. The voice of God? Certainly. I am but a voice crying in the wilderness. A voice. And he was very, very careful not to identify himself with what the voice had to say. I make a sound, how many know that's my voice? Isn't it? Come on. Come on now, let's just own up. How many know that's my voice? What did it say? Come on, be honest this morning. I'm not going to preach here, only just today, and I'm going to get two cents worth in anyway. Isn't that my voice? How many heard what it said? You ever stop to think about that? Very nice. I get thinking about things like this. I take two and three weeks over a verse, sometimes weeks and months. I am but a voice. But this voice is the voice of God. Saying, you will hear, later, he's coming after me. And who is he? He is the word of God. How many get it now? Do you get it? How many hear the voice crying in the wilderness? How many hear the word that is crying? Do you get it or don't you get it? I am but a voice. But that voice will become articulate. The voice becomes articulate, speakable, understanding. How? He is the word. Isn't he the word? How many know he's the word? How many know? The everlasting, eternal word. He is that word. But the word became fresh and dwelt among us. Do you get it? He is the eternal word. But that word became flesh and dwelt among us. It became articulate so that it could be understood. Isn't God wonderful to do that? I am only the voice. You will hear it speak later. And when Jesus comes, he is that word of God. Becomes flesh dwelling among us. How they would like to have heard. When you hear, what do you hear? Do you hear the voice of God? I hope so. Has it in some measure become articulate so you can translate it? You can know what? That's my voice. Yeah. But you don't know what it says. But it's your voice. I know it's my voice. John was a voice. But John says, I am not the word. I am the living word. Hear ye him. Oh yes, Lord. Why do we hear? Because that word has become articulate with meaning and with power. Hear ye him. You hear his voice. The disciples and everybody heard the voice of Jesus. I was only reading it this morning in Mark where it says, dealing with the multitude, he reached him through every avenue possible. He reached him on a sense level of healing and miracles and signs and wonders. That's all the sense level which is good, right, proper, blessed. He blessed him. But when he went to speak to those very people, he could only tell them stories. And without a parable spake he not unto them. You never find Jesus expounding the word to a multitude of people. Never. But why? Having ears, they hear not. Follow that next verse. But when in private or alone with his disciples, he expounded all things to them. How many get a difference? Do you get a difference? Well, what's the matter? The multitude have ears to hear, but no hearts to hear. So he gave them what they could take. But he had them stomach capacity and he gave them fish and bread. Glad to. But I'm so glad I'm made of more than a stomach. You'll bless that. That's all you got. He will. He did it. You know, he gave them fish and bread when he couldn't do another thing with them. And when he gave it to them, they began to bring it down on a level of making him a king. And when he perceived what they would do to make him a king by force, he fled and left them. Glory to God. Thank God he left them. Oh, I'd like to have been up on a mountain to be by him when he got up there. I want to say to him, Lord, those folks will kill you yet. How many know they did kill him? There's never any sinners killing him. Religionists killed him. Religionists killed him. The sinners love to hear him. He speaks again in his revelation, I think it's seven times I've been looking up some of these times. He says, To him that hath an ear, let him hear. How many know the inferences that there are a lot of people without ears? That's right. But he says, To him that hath an ear, let him hear. Now some people get all upset. They say, Well, I don't know. I'm not a scholar. I'm not a physicist. Don't play house, please. He's not talking about that. Have you exposed to him to the fullest degree what capacity you do have? He has one palm, one St. Francis, one of each. He has just one of you and one of me. You are the only specific edition of who you are. And to everyone has been given a certain measure of responsibility, a certain measure of faith, a certain measure of capacity, and he gave to each one severally according to what he wanted to know. He gave according to his ability. He'll never ask you to give an account of something you haven't. What is your ability? Offer it to God. You will only be judged for that. Don't hide behind some other character and say, Well, I haven't got as much as Paul. God didn't want you to have that. He gave you what you had. Has that little power of receptivity been opened and cleansed and adjusted to God that you can take all that that calls for, that all he will ever ask of you, that all he will ever ask. To him that has ears, let him hear. What do you hear when he speaks? What do you see when you look? You all hear. We all see. What do you hear? What do you see? That's governed by what you take to the Lord. Our loving Lord, we thank you for this little time. We haven't gotten into the message at all, but then we've broken off a little piece of the bread and we pray that thou, blessed to every heart, grant that we shall not be the same people anymore, having heard truth, that we shall be able, Lord, to open our hearts and lives to thee, that you may be satisfied in us, glorified to us, that we shall give thee pleasure and give thee glory for Jesus' sake. Amen.