In this sermon, the speaker discusses the importance of having a pure heart and a right spirit. He references Psalm 51, where David asks God to create in him a clean heart. The speaker also mentions a recent incident involving a mansion that caught fire, emphasizing the temporary nature of material possessions. He then goes on to discuss the Beatitudes, specifically focusing on the blessing of being poor in spirit. The speaker concludes by expressing his desire for a modern hymn that uplifts and inspires.

The fifth chapter of Matthew, again the, what I call the long version of the Sermon on the Mount, because the short version is in the Gospel recorded by Luke. I'm thinking of the loftiest experience that can come to men, which is outlined for us there in the eighth verse, blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. I don't believe there's anything greater than reaching, as David did in Psalm 51, when he said, create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. The other night they showed a, what should have been a very elegant, beautiful mansion. It's one of those poor little boys in Dallas by the name of Hunt, you know. You know, every time you pour the sauce out, you help to keep their millions going. Every one of them has built a magnificent mansion. And he had it all lined with, oh, the most exquisite furniture, I don't know where it had come from, and rugs that had come from India and whatnot. Just about a million dollars' worth, and somehow, I don't know how, and I don't know if somebody took revenge on it, but the day before he was to go in, the night before he was to go in, it caught fire. And the whole thing was burned, and they just showed the entrance of the house, it was an exquisite piece of what looked like a, kind of a Louis XIV desk there. And it was all burned up at one side, and the walls were scarred, and half the pictures were burned, and then it showed the section that was still new. You know, it looked so pathetic to see a thing like that, that had cost so much money, and there's so much design in it, there's so much expense in it. And just when you think you've got the world at your feet, somebody puts a match to it, and all you have is a stack of ashes. You know, it made me wonder how God looks at the world in which we live. A world that he made so beautiful, a world that had no disease, it had no death, it had no deficiencies, it had nothing that would hurt or injure Omar. And then when he made it, he put a man in charge, his most brilliant production, obviously, was when he made man. He made man first, you know. Because the reason he didn't make woman first, he didn't want any advice after that. So man was made first, and then out of the rib. Remember again, that old American preacher said that God didn't take a bone out of his foot, lest he thought, well, I've got her under my feet, you know. He didn't take a bone out of his hand, lest he thought he could punch her with it. He took a rib near a heart, near his heart, as a sign that he should love her and take care of her and so forth. But again, God made a beautiful universe. Now we see it shattered, marred by sin. We see humanism, we see everything that God designed is wrecked and defiled, and how does God look at this existence that we have now? Well, again, okay, so now let's leap back to the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus is there on the mountainside, and he's conversing just with his disciples. And again, if he had started this sermon by saying, blessed are the pure in heart, we'd feel pretty bad about it. But he begins by saying, blessed are the poor. And you know, that's an attitude we have to maintain. Arrogance and pride quickly come back into the human heart. I'm still impressed with a statement that I read months ago, and it disturbs you when you wake up at night sometimes, that we're in trouble, all of us are in trouble, when our spiritual attainments become the ground of our confidence. You see, I can do it. I mean, I've been preaching now 60 years, so what's preaching? Get up and say my piece. I recall something out of the repressed complex of my subconscious, as Martin would say. And somewhere, a little chamber in here that sermons I've preached for years. So why get up? Why worry? And we get confident of our ability. All of us, we can do. I say before God, it's a thing that I guard against, because God says, to this man will I look to him that trembleth at my word. I don't tremble at men, I've no nerves about men or women, or demons, but I tremble lest somehow I mishandle the word of God. Lest instead of the message becoming a stepping stone, it becomes a stumbling block that somebody falls over. Now Jesus has started again with this amazing thing, blessed are the poor in spirit. And I'm always impressed by reading the Psalms of David, because so often, you know, he was number one on the charts. You know what that means. With his guitar and everything. Can you imagine all Israel singing the 23rd Psalm? Or the 24th Psalm? That always excites me. I think I was saying once, talking to Buck and Andy and some of those guys there, I wish somebody would really write a real modern, wonderful melody to lift up your heads o'er ye gates and be lifted up ye everlasting Lord. And they said, well of course, that kind of blotted out, because Handel did such a good job, you see. Well, somebody else should get a handle on it. I'm sure there's more tunes than one that could be made, but that 24th Psalm is so rapturous. You see, the 22nd Psalm is the Psalm of the Cross. As I said on Sunday, it's an amazing thing that that Psalm was written a thousand and fifty years before the crucifixion, before the Roman Empire, before crucifixion was known. And yet we've got 33 references to crucifixion in that 22nd Psalm. That's the Psalm of the Cross. The 23rd is the Psalm of the Crook. You know, the shepherd's stick has a crook at the end. It reaches down, he can put it round the neck of a sheep without pulling its neck out. I'm sure I'd pull its neck out, but he doesn't. He can slip it under its leg and lift it out of a hole. So Psalm 22 is the Psalm of the Cross, and Psalm 23 is the Psalm of the Crook. And Psalm 24 is the Psalm of the Coronation. Lift up your heads, all ye gates, it's showing. But again, David has written these Psalms so that they turn their national song, they change their national anthem. Their anthem was what? Saul the Twain is thousands. Then they changed it to Saul the Twain is thousands, but David is tens of thousands. And yet though he's sitting on the pinnacle of fame there, he still says, bow down thine ear and hear me, I am poor and needy. You know, when we get to heaven someday, I just know what it's going to be like, I can't even guess. But I think sometimes when we see ourselves in our natural state here, and adding to that our spiritual state, I mean our total personality, when we see our little shrunken selves against the awesome majesty of God, I think we'll blush that we were a bit so self-confident and had so much ability. You know, if the high and lofty one who inhabited eternity, I still think as I said Sunday morning, that I'm not against using the name of Jesus or the name of Christ, but in the world that means a man that everybody pushed around. But Paul says to Timothy, the young man that's starting out, keep this in your mind that when you're ministering, or when you're talking, or when you're praying, we're talking to Jesus. No, he doesn't say that. He says we're talking to the blessed and only potentate, the King of kings, the Lord of lords, who dwelleth in light and approachable. Now we don't often see Jesus like that. We still see Jesus walking around the streets, healing sick, beating his jaw, somebody spitting in his face, and doing the other things which they certainly did. But that's past. We see him now triumphant. We see him resurrected. We see him in his majesty. He's the blessed and only potentate, no matter how many kings there are in the earth, or how many there have been. Earth's proud empires have passed away, and he comes in all his solemn majesty and glory. And again, I like one modern song at least, that says it will be worth it all when we see Jesus. I think five minutes inside eternity, we'll be weeping tears and wishing, oh God, I wish I'd carried a heavier burden. I wish I'd dared to say, Lord, lay on me what you can't lay on someone else. I often pray that. I pray it for you. So if you get a bad time sometimes, if you see Keith going around nearly bow-legged under a load, you know I pray for him. But that's what I want to do. I want God to give me something he can't give to someone else. I don't want to be mediocre. Not for my sake, for his sake. The Church of God is loaded with mediocrity. The assembly lines, they're going to crank them up this week. All the math schools are going to start again. The professor's going to bring his outline of Romans, chapters 1-7, 8-11, 12-16, da-da-da. You know, if he fell asleep, he could put his tape recorder on, he wouldn't tell the difference, or he could have a parrot do it. It's so mechanical, you see. Over and over again. God knows them said a thing a while ago, Keith, a few years ago. I remember him saying this, I do not understand why in a Bible school you start teaching Bible at 8 o'clock in the morning and you have a break at 10 to go worship the Lord for 20 minutes in a chapel. What have you been doing the rest of the time? Picking cotton? Aren't you supposed to be inspired by that same Holy Word? Does it become especially sacred because you have an organ and a bit of music? Why do we need to change? Except, of course, if we really worship God it will be different. But there should be that awesomeness about the Word of God wherever we handle it. I mean, it's the rarest, it's the most amazing thing in the world. Okay, so we go back to the start here, Jesus says, blessed are the poor in spirit. But now we come to, blessed are the pure, and there's a long way from the poor to the pure. A lot of amazing things. Those who hunger and thirst after righteousness have been filled, the meek. They shall inherit the earth and all these other amazing promises. They that mourn shall be comforted. Those who mourn over their sins, mourn over the times they offended God, mourn over the times that they defiled themselves, mourn over the times that they helped God and trampled his laws underfoot and violated conscience, they mourn. And yet they come right round this circle and now they come to the place, blessed are the pure in heart. Well, do you know a religion in the world that talks about the pure in heart except Christianity? Again, Christianity, there's a study of comparative religion and it's pretty interesting. The only thing is, the poor guys in school is next, a few weeks until, what's the next feast? Passover, no. Homecoming, what in the world is it? What is it you have in Turkey then? Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving, yeah, that made you rejoice. What's going on then? Most people would be going around a treadmill anyhow. They do not realize, again, the majesty, the privilege of being a child of God. Okay, is there any other religion in the world that offers out purity, not one? What are the alternatives? Reincarnation, endless reincarnation. Boy, wouldn't you be wearied after you've been reincarnated 3,000 times? What's the Roman answer? The Roman answer is purgatory. Well, I don't believe in either of them. Just the other day, somebody talked to me about the immaculate conception of Mary. What's the statement in Luke? Luke chapter 2. Let me go back here. Let's go back into the Old Testament a little while here. Let's go back to, let me see where. Exodus, Leviticus. Give me just 15 minutes. Okay, Leviticus, the 12th chapter. Leviticus 12, verse 1. The Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak to the children of Israel, saying, If a woman hath conceived seed and borne a man child, then she shall be unclean seven days. According to the days of the separation of her infirmity shall she be unclean. Come down to verse 8. If she be not able to bring a lamb, then she shall bring two turtle doves one for the offering and the other for the sin offering. And the priest shall make an atonement for her and she shall be clean. Now, go over then to the scripture we were going to read in Luke chapter 2. And verse 22 says, And when the days of her, that is Mary, the days of her purification, according to the law of Moses were accomplished, they brought him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord. As it is written in the law of the Lord, every male that opened up the womb shall be called holy to the Lord. Now, to offer, that's a parenthesis, to offer a sacrifice according to that which is said in the law of the Lord which we've just read, a pair of turtle doves and two young pigeons. And behold, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon, and the same man was just a devout waiting for the consolation of Israel and the Holy Ghost was upon him. Now, OK, so Mary is immaculate. Mary does not have any original sin but not it is very emphatic in the 22nd verse of Luke 2. And when the days of her purification according to the law of Moses were accomplished, they brought him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord. But who was the purification for? For Jesus? No. Because he had no sin. The purification, obviously, and it's stated here, the purification was for Mary herself. Now again, we go back over to Numbers chapter 19. Numbers 19 and verse 1. The Lord spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying, This is the ordinance of the law which the Lord hath commanded, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel that they bring thee a red heifer without spot wherein is no blemish and upon which a yoke never came. Verse 6. The priest shall take the cedar wood, the hyssop, the scarlet, and cast it into the midst of the fire in the midst of the burning of the heifer. Then the priest shall wash his clothes and put them into the camp. For what reason? Verse 9. A man that is clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer and lay them up without the camp in a clean place, and it shall be kept for the congregation of the children of Israel for a water of separation. It is a purification for sin. Now notice what the sins are. Verse 11. He that toucheth the dead body of any man shall be unclean seven days. On the third day and the seventh day he shall be clean. Verse 13. Whosoever toucheth the dead body of any man that is dead and purifies not himself he defiles the tabernacle. So he not only defiles himself by touching the dead he spreads contamination. In verse 14. This is the law when a man dieth in a tent that all that come into the tent and all that are in the tent shall be unclean. He that toucheth the dead body of any man that is dead shall be unclean seven days. Now, skip back to a scripture that I intended to speak about last Sunday and I didn't. Go back to Hebrews. This is one of my favorite scriptures. Hebrews for me chapter 9. It will be good if sometime in a few minutes you go through this chapter and notice again how many times how many times the blood is mentioned now here in this verse in verse 10 pardon me in verse 12 neither by the blood of goats and of calves but by his own blood he entered in once and unto the holy place having obtained eternal redemption for us for if the blood of bulls and goats and the acids of an heifer sprinkling the unclean sanctifies to the what purifying of the flesh how much more shall the blood of christ who through the eternal spirit offered himself without spot unto god purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living god now i read that previous chapter there so you could see the defilement that came to man if he was digging in his garden and he touched the bone of a dead animal he was ceremoniously unclean now his conscience wasn't unclean because he hadn't violated any law but ceremoniously he was unclean death came because of sin and they were perpetually reminding themselves that whenever you touch death that's the penalty for sin and that they abhorred it if you touch the dead man if you're plowing in a field and you turned up a bone you were ceremoniously unclean if you walked into a tent and the body was laid down you didn't know somebody died you walked in you were unclean if you took that if you walked into the sanctuary you defile the sanctuary now they knew you see here's a very interesting thing and i'll be honest with you i've read that chapter the fifth chapter of matthew for 60 years i'm sure maybe nearly 70 and you know i never realized on today until today that the eighth verse blessed are the pure in heart is not in the shorter version in luke you see matthew was a jew and he was writing to jews there are lots of people that hardly touch matthew at all because they say he was a jew writing to a jew which is right so they knew more about purification than anybody else on earth they knew how many different laws they were about purification purification for this person purification for the priest purification for this defilement purification for something else there were different degrees there were different offerings now paul again he's writing paul i think i think paul wrote hebrews but anyhow whoever it was the holy ghost he says this it's the blood of bulls and goats he's writing to a hebrews again he's writing to people who know the law what is the epistle to the hebrews people say well uh you know it's not like romans romans to the saints in rome and the thessalonians to the saints of thessalonica and uh there's well there's no title to the yes there is in the third chapter he writes to holy brethren he writes to those who've been made partakers of the divine nature but by and large the epistle to the hebrews is a commentary a commentary on what on the tabernacle on the ruinous journeys of the of the children of israel and on the book of psalms that's what it is you know i i think all of us and then i can't lay a down here but i think you would be very very wise for maybe two years to specialize on one book in the bible not read matthew today and revelation tomorrow and ecclesiastes another day and get up in chronicles reading the bigots the bigots the bigots that don't mean too much anyhow you get lost in them get down into hebrews or something like that and read that book until you're soaked in it see one of the uh one of the phrases here if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes and the heifer sprinkling the the unclean sanctify for the purifying of the flesh how much more you you check how many times that's written in hebrews how much more you see the the the in hebrews christ is the center and he's the circumference of the teaching is the beginning and the end is the light and the life he's showing jesus that whatever the priesthood of melchizedek may have been or aaron that the soup the minister of jesus is far superior because they ministered somebody else's blood or something christ ministered his own blood they talked about another sacrifice he was a sacrifice they talked about another altar he is the altar he's the combination of everything he is a super excellent if you like to say that okay so the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes and heifer you see that red heifer had to be burned without the camp and they really burned it they really saw it just go down all the flesh until it was a pile of ash and then they pushed it on one side into a clean place and then if you got defiled if you contacted death by again digging in your yard or you'd gone to see a neighbor and found him dead you were unclean you went along and asked someone else to take some of the ashes and put them in running water and then they were thrown over your body and you're pronounced clean ceremoniously you were defiled so he said if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean sanctified throughout the purifying of the flesh then how much more the much more which is mentioned so often in this epistle how much more shall the blood of christ who through the eternal spirit offered himself without spot to you see you could not bring a lamb you could not bring anything blemished you couldn't take it to the tabernacle and say well i need to make a sacrifice but go slow this this lamb is limping you could not take anything that was limping you couldn't take a beast that was blind in one eye as far as possible it must be a perfect a type a perfect example of whatever type of beast it was well christ is the perfect lamb how much more shall the blood of christ well who knew more about blood than the children of israel remember when they had to slay a lamb and and it wasn't enough to say well well listen we will day do we kill the lamb we've got the blood here no sorry unless the blood is on the lintels and the doorposts you could have the precious blood of the lamb there you'll still die anyhow you know we've got lots of people who know a lot about the blood and they sing hymns but the blood has never been applied it's theological it's mental yeah i know a man and and and this guy is um well anyhow uh he's a bit wild in the way he lives but he will not miss sacrament man he believes immediately he takes that uh drinks communion wine and takes part of the body as he thinks of christ is absolved not so i like the hymn i quoted last Sunday not all the blood of beasts some jewish author ever tried to figure how many thousands of of beasts were slain in altars but if you stack them up they might be higher than that mountain rivers of blood not all the blood of beasts on jewish altars slain could give one guilty conscience peace or wash away one state but christ the heavenly lamb takes all our sins away a sacrifice of nobler name and richer blood than they if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes and heifer fulfills the law and it gets you cleansed so that now you can go and have fellowship with people you can go into the tabernacle and you can get back to your old status quo because you've been purified in the flesh how much more shall the blood of christ who through the eternal spirit you see there's a father and there's a son and there's the holy ghost you know i think the catholics think the trinity is father son and holy nary that's what most of them think no no no who through the eternal spirit well i guess there's different ways of looking at that do you mean that in eternity they design the death of christ is it through that eternal spirit is it the holy spirit is it his eternal spirit he offered himself without spot to god how much more shall the blood of christ through the eternal spirit offered himself he didn't just offer a prayer for us when he went to the high priest he sure didn't offer himself all he did was offer the blood of a beast that jesus doesn't pray here he's not praying the prayer that he prayed in the 17th of john he offers himself as i tried to say something as i tried to visualize barabbas seeing the crucifixion saying that's my cross actually i should be on that cross how do you think he really felt do you think to use a rough term on the gut level if i something like that i should be hanging there with my body sanging on sanging on those big nails i i should be cursed i should be spit upon as do you think he saw himself there like that do i see myself there that that in my place condemned he stood and sealed my pardon with his blood he offered himself without spot to god that's why i think you know the scripture talks about jesus who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross i i can't do it nobody can i cannot understand the emotions of jesus because he was dying as a man you know he wasn't dying just as a god he was dying as a man can you can you think of all his history from his infancy flashing through his mind what was the one thing that kept kept him really going if you like in that because god's going to hurt him anyhow who for the joy that what was the joy that was set before him i believe i only know one thing and that was he was doing the will of his father i mean that was the joy of the father he looks down and said my my son has never questioned my dealings my son has been in the in the sanctuary more than once when they read the 53rd of isaiah it pleased the lord to bruise him see the other guys thought they were bruising him no it was the lord that was bruising him they thought his body was a sacrifice no no but when alice read it saw an offering for sin but if the blood of bulls and goats is sufficient to cleanse us ceremoniously how much more shall the blood of christ who through the eternal spirit offered himself without spot to god now it comes down to something inward purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living god see it doesn't matter how good a man is what people have tried to do to be holy they've run away to monasteries they've run away to convents maybe you've never read the story of simon skylight he built a he had he had a he had a tower built 40 feet high and he had an iron fence put around it railings put around it i don't know how they got him up there they didn't have any cherry pickers in those days but anyhow he got on top of that 40 foot tower and lived there more than 20 years he never came down he had an iron collar made so he had to look up with all the time you might know his skin must have been burned and i don't know he lived and ran to the bathroom or what but there he was on top of that pillar for over 20 years because he wanted to be holy he said even if you look on a woman going past you'd have unholy thought if you saw a prosperous man he'd have the thoughts of covetousness this is the only way to be holy and he died in stupid misery another way they used to find a cave and then they used to put a block at each end and then put a tree trunk on it and then with about eight inches or 10 inches of space there they built the wall up and they just put the food under there years and years and and then if they didn't answer they knew they were dead and then they'd break the wall down and find the man whose skin was as parched and yellow as that lampshade and he'd be a freak and an idiot and he'd been in there with with all that filth all his own mess that he'd made stinking of urine and filth he'd been there believing that somehow he was making atonement for sin and he denied the world and this was a way of righteousness this was a way of holiness it's amazing how weird people can get isn't it and yet isn't it isn't it isn't it really a proof of our pride that people not bow at the cross and get what they really want you see every religion in the world deals with sin only one religion deals with it adequately oh mercy what pilgrimages they have what indulgences they get mind you go around india you still see men with one arm up like that you know it was it was a sign of devoutness and they are matrified and it's gone stiff and you couldn't get it down you couldn't you don't know where you can put it down that's a sign of his holiness you still see men by the river ganges remember going down by the ganges there there's a man with an ulcer on his back i'm sure it was that size it was open it was dripping blood it was ripping pus and he was standing in the ganges throwing water and the next guy's drinking it and then all kinds of things there's a temple i didn't go in it because it has more than a million gods in if you lift them up and look underneath they're made in birmingham england but anyhow that's what a friend told me he went in one temple of these little gods were made in birmingham england some guy was cursing while he was making them and spitting on them but they've been declared holy what what what rigors what what um discipline people will go through thinking they can put down the flesh thinking that they can merit something and i mean it's still the same old way you know when it comes down to the nitty gritty nothing in my hands i bring but simply to thy cross i click now again having gone around there you do not find anybody pure in heart unless they've been to the cross and unless they've been to the upper room there is no other way of frenzy if you look over to the uh next chapter pardon me the 10th chapter there in hebrew verse 22 says let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith having our heart sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water you know that word pure there that's the pure in heart in in uh matthew what is it matthew 5 8 it's translated clean in the new testament 10 times because there's always a variation in greek word 10 times that word pure is is is translated as as as clean once it's translated as clear and 17 times it's it's listed as as as pure hebrews 9 13 14 that we've dealt with here the blood of bulls and gods the acids of anathas sprinkling the unclean sanctify for the purifying of the flesh but then there was almost instant defilement because there are so many laws laid down now now i'm convinced in my own mind that the weakness of modern christianity and modern preaching is this that we do not preach salvation we preach forgiveness a man needs more than forgiveness he needs more than the guilt being removed he needs cleansing in that area where there's been defilement he needs more than cleansing he needs indwelling jesus said if there's a room in which there are evil spirits and you'll kick them all out unless another occupier comes worse spirits will come and occupy that area see that's the danger again of transcendental meditation that's again uh the danger again of just uh sitting down you know passively and letting your mind go man you can go to all kinds of junk there's got to be concentration in meditation there's got to be there's got to be the motive of love i'm here not to benefit myself too much as to as to give him the adoration which is due to his name but you can't offer anything to god in the old testament that's defiled or stained he must be pure now again there's no religion i know of in the whole wide world that offers purity of heart except the christian religion uh look at first peter uh the first chapter in what verse 22 another script i like so much one peter one let's take verse 21 who by him do believe in god that raised him up from the dead and gave him glory that your faith and hope might be in god seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the spirit and to unfeigned love of the brethren see that you love one another with a pure heart fervently now there can be no fervent love if there's an impediment there you can't love fervently if there's a secret bitterness or a secret jealousy or a secret covetousness now now peter says hey you have purified your heart he's not saying this is a self-effort you know i i get a lot of encouragement out of reading peter because i think i'm a bit like him i have been in many ways and when i find peter beginning this epistle peter an apostle what do you mean the dropout yeah peter peter was a dropout again as i tried to say sunday morning you see there when jesus meets him on the resurrection morning he says and the other disciples are there and you know people have said all kinds of things about jesus asking him three times love us thou me you know and some say well because he denied jesus three times he got three opportunities to repent or love us thou me more than these these your business around here i don't think that i think that jesus then is saying here are all the other disciples you love me more than these you're the man that swore look everybody else will let you down i won't let you down now peter love us thou me more than these you see again we put such stress on our works now i believe we love god god can ask anything of us but on the other hand you can work yourself to death and not earn salvation maybe not even earn any reward if the blood of bulls and goats and the acids of an heifer sprinkling them clean sanctified to the purifying of the flesh and then it can it speaks about our dead works well outside of christ all our works are dead that's why it's a shame that people give their lives the way they do sacrificially and and deny themselves and you get people who might have been the leading scientists or doctors or something else in the world that one day they decided jump into a monastery what's this lousy life outside go to go there and deny yourself but in itself that's not sufficient it must be done out of love it must be done out of the motivation of love for god himself and and jesus doesn't say again to peter oh what are you doing while i'm away huh are you evangelized are you having street meetings have you been on the beach testifying have you been tithing have you been healing with it he poses a question three times love us thou me come on come on tell me do you really love me do you really love me do you really love me and peter's grave why do you put in so much pressure on me for all these other guys are looking why are you asking me because you're the man that said so devoutly well i know what other guys are made of but you can trust me i won't let you down you see the first and greatest thing is what is the first and greatest commandment the first and greatest commandment is thou shall love the lord thy god with all thy heart and soul and mind and strength and then thy neighbor as thyself we've got it turned around it's like john says what what our fellowship is what with the father and with his son jesus christ and with one another but we turn it around how many fellowship meetings do you have how many people how many a lot of people get together two or three nights a week now one group showed me up in minneapolis there i took a house meeting oh we we meet together three times a week i'm not saying it's wrong they met together every day in the new testament church but it's wrong if it's become a substitute for meeting god spending time with god there's an awful lot in that him take time to be holy speak oft with your neighbor does it say that well speak often to the pastor well who lives by feelings anyhow what feeling's got to do with spirituality jesus went in the garden of gethsemane feeling very heavy you see the devil's a cheat he's a liar he's a cheat and he says well now you're not really filling the spirit i mean you wouldn't feel like this what feeling got to do with faith you hear people say sometimes well i'm not emotional and i say well of course one of the most distinctive men in the world always said he wasn't emotional oh who's that hitler hitler always said i'm not emotional but he moves me i'm a story no you don't have feelings but sometimes you feel on double role sometimes you don't does that change the color of the sun if you feel down does a bird forget to sing does a dog forget to bark does a mailman forget to jump just because you're feeling down so happens the world outside still going around isn't that amazing that however you feel the world is still functioning normally i'm saying once there's the live by feelings now if you live by feelings you don't need faith and if you live by faith you don't need feelings when it comes down to the nitty-gritty is this well however you feel whatever has come just say well hold it take a minute you're a liar i want to check on this uh i've got turned his face from me no have i agreed the spirit no and i've been earth in my heart again so no no that's my emotional life it may be very different from my spiritual life there are times when he may have ecstasies excessive ecstasies the psalmist had that kind of thing sure he wrote lift up your head man i sometimes like i think i'd like to slip up behind him at night you know looking after the sheep strumming his his harp and singing the 23rd psalm or some of those amazing psalms that he wrote i'd love to have heard him but i remember also he said on one occasion why art thou cast down all my souls what i hit the bottom zero even my harp isn't in tune even the sheep won't look at me this morning oh boy am i having a rough time huh and saw he's after me he's gonna kill me i heard a report about it oh everything's against me mr chadwick i went to school mr chadwick was the president his favorite hymn was god is the refuge of his faith when storms of sharp distress invade ere we can offer our complaint behold him present with his head at his aid let mountains from their seats be hurled down to the deeps and buried there convulsions shake the solid earth our faith shall never yield to fear what isn't that it i mean am i am i going to be tossed around like the man down the street there hmm sure he's got emotions he's got feelings but he doesn't know god calamity comes in his life he goes to pieces adversity comes and immediately says why me but as we can go into the presence of the king say thank you lord for sending this i don't know what's in it but all things work together for good huh but we don't always say that do we we think that good things work together for good or on the other hand you know uh well something goes wrong something says well cheer up you know all things work together for good in other words i don't know any answers but i do know the scripture all things work together for good now but what about when somebody gives you a thousand dollars do you rejoice because that's one of the things that works together for good but we don't look at the good things it's the same with people causing scripture oh what i want to do this i mean you better be careful because you know you'll reap what you sow we will well then all the good things you've sown you're going to reap then but we always make it sound as all that it's only the bad things that you reap everybody says that don't they so you reap what you sow oh praise god that's great i'm going to reap what i've sown i've been pouring my adoration out to the lord i've lots of reasons why i shouldn't but i've been adoring him magnifying him oh i needed uh really some money for something but i heard of somebody in need and i gave it out and no i haven't got the money back but i did hear indirectly that they said they've been praying for two weeks for that fifteen dollars and it suddenly came in boy don't i get a kick out of that i'm going to lift out of that sure you sow what you reap my old granny used to sit in the chimney corn in england and sing an old old methodist hymn so flowers and flowers will blossom around you wherever you go so weeds and weeds reap the harvest you reap whatsoever you sow it's a marvel universe hmm what was it the old saint said uh one of the saint and some old rascal maybe they said years ago that the mills of god grind slowly that they grind exceedingly fine well i changed that to the mills of god grind slowly but they always grind on time god's never late but he's never in a hurry i guess if you're really honest tonight i'm not saying you're dishonest but if you're i'm just implying it but if you're really honest there's been times in your life when you're afraid and you felt oh i wish i could you've got a push i'll never forget our saturday night testimony meeting we used to always say well remember saturday night it's a say so meeting yeah let the redeemer of the lord say so so we had a say so meeting every saturday night we got maybe a couple of hundred people and my we had some lively just testimony you know we used to say like john wesley don't tell us your grandfather 45 years ago don't testify beyond last saturday if you testify don't go over what you went over what has happened in your life have you been up have you been down have you been in victory have you been defeated be up to date with your testimony i remember this girl standing up mary bland the name was she was the organist she had a little i don't know six or seven piece orchestra she's a sweet girl she's married lives in a little island off the coast of england right now and i remember mary stood up and she said but well i know the lord is going to say my my daddy you know he's a drunkard and he beats my mother and he does this and that and i know he's going to do it she said and she stopped and everybody thought what are you going to do start crying she said but sometimes i feel i'd like to give the lord a push you know i i saw a lot of people raise their eyebrows saying you know saying driver yes sister i know what you mean i'd like to give you a push you know you know but the good book says let patience have a perfect work you know the old story lord i want patience i want it now you know deliver it immediately instant patience instant maturity instant protection isn't it nice that scripture says that we walk by faith not leap a lot of us want to leap no it's a lot oh mounting up with windsor's eagle is great boy getting over there you know able to pitch on that highest peak up there look around and see the whole world and feed it on top of everything yeah mount up with windsor's eagle that's great and then it comes down a bit running or not be wary then walking and not saying oh isn't that tiring oh just walking walking your feet aching oh that's it other guy's going fast and he's winking and here i am walking it's a test it's a test come to walk together accept they be agreed that walking is a great test you see we're all the time we wanted to take shortcuts miss the first place get to the second one or miss the second get to the third or something and yet god takes us around every base you see once he's purified our hearts and purified our motives and purified our desires and you can honestly say lord i know my heart is pure because there's nothing you can ask of me that i won't do i have no rebellion in my heart on any level at all you've purified my heart and i believe that just as i was boys there was a stream in england and we used to go there you know we'd find a rock maybe as big as this and lift it out of the dirt and we'd throw it in the stream and you know as soon as it got in the stream the current of the street would start washing all the yellow filth off it we'd go the next day and pray at the same place and somebody say hey reginald remember that white rock there it is you see you know what that rock was exactly the same as when i threw it in except it was purified and as long as it stayed under the floor on that water it stayed pure there was nothing to do to the old testament what was it what was it sacrificed the sacrifice was a dead sacrifice you come back to that stupendous statement in romans 12 1 and 2 i beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of god that you present your body a living sacrifice whereas life is action you have a living heart you have a living mind you have living emotions you have a living will and yet day by day you stay there on that altar the only way you can put yourself on the altar tomorrow is that you took yourself off the altar today and yet we're to be a living sacrifice and as long as we stay under the floor of the blood i believe we stay continually clean now that doesn't mean we come to maturity that's purity purity is the gateway to maturity maturity will never i don't care how old we live to be nobody nobody's going to graduate in the school of god this side of eternity i'm reading this scripture here i'm reading it today in ezekiel 36 as the last scripture ezekiel 36 verse 23 i will sanctify my great name which was profaned among the heathen which you have profaned in the midst of them and the heathen shall know that i am the lord saith the lord god when i shall be sanctified in you before their eyes you see there's a dual sanctification the old testament sanctification was to separate the thing for a holy purpose remember in john 17 jesus says for their sake i sanctify myself but the sanctification there is not purification because he did not need purification he's separating himself now for a special task he's finished his ministry to the world he's finished the healing he's finished the miraculous he's finished his preaching and now he's separating himself to this holy task of redemption of going forth to suffer and to die okay i shall be sanctified in you before the eyes of the heathen god's going to put us on display for i will take you from among the heathen and gather you out of all countries and i will bring you into your own land now here's the promise then will i sprinkle clean water upon you and ye shall be clean from all your filthiness from all your items will i cleanse you i will give you a new heart i will a new heart also will i give you a new spirit i'll put within you i'll take away the stony heart out of your flesh and i will give you a heart of flesh and i will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and ye shall keep my judgment now if that is isn't one of what paul talks about the exceeding great and precious promises i don't i don't know what it is but it can only be done as we come in total submission to god as we hunger and thirst after righteousness as we come up this ladder from poverty and hungry and thirsting for righteousness and he's worked meekness in us and all arrogance has gone and all self-seeking has gone and he purges us through and through that word is very strong the hebrew word in psalm 51 where it's a psalm i haven't preached on for years i may do it next week the week after because i love that 51st stop and and remember what david says purge me with hyssop and i shall be clean now if i were to if i were to wash this desk here obviously i'd just wash the surface of it if you have i get a cloth and soap and wash it off there if i if i take this and wash it i put it in a solution and the solution goes in and it comes out at the other side it goes through it goes through every pore and it's very different i can't send the water to purge through the wood but i can put this in a solution and purge it through and through and that's what for that pardon me that's what david says purge me through and through purge me with hyssop and i should be clean wash me and i should be whiter than snow i used to puddle over that but the only white thing i'd ever seen in england was snow my goodness some winters it was great we couldn't go to school snow was so deep i used to look at it and when the storm was over i'd go out and get a piece of wood or something and i'd push the snow on one side and i'd look at it you know the the sun would come and it would sparkle like diamonds and it would look blue in some areas and i think isn't it beautiful and i thought well we were reading in church the other day wash me and i know scientifically the scientists say that every flake of snow and as you know there's never been two snowflakes alike in history there's some man in this country has a collection of about 350 say where does he keep them well not in the oven for sure he catches them when they come down and he's frozen them and he's kept them on little uh i don't know they are bits of cellophane or something in a refrigerator and every one of them i think one every isn't every snowflake has five points never six never seven and the variation is it's fantastic sometimes you get a book with them in and yet science says that every flake of snow has at least one almost infinitesimal spot of dirt in it because when it comes down to the atmosphere it collects something in the atmosphere that's why when you have a heavy snow you always have a good good hay crop now we don't get snow down here but in other countries they say oh that's great you're not snow does it makes a blanket for the earth the air can't get through and it warms the earth it warms the roots then when it melts it goes down into the ground and it's got a chemical it's got a fertilizer with it but david said if you wash me throughly throughly that's a great song it's got i'm going to preach on it one sunday sometime i don't know when i've no more engagements up there than when they usually give me a list to preach on me something you know five five five months once a month uh preach one sunday month i don't have any more that's okay but it works out enough but wash me and i shall be whiter than the snow purge me with hyssop and i shall be clean wash me and i shall be whiter than the snow remember when you've been working down here you do work sometimes don't you i'll tell you that i mean you're coming all messed up and you feel smelly you've been around cows or something and then you go and have your bay and they cry oh boy then i feel great now huh got rid of all that dirt and dust and dry and your hair's nice and at least as nice as it could be and uh you just feel clean and lovely you know and how much more wonderful is it when god has cleansed us when he when he's hardened all our sins when he's taken a record of our iniquity and cast it behind his back when he's come inside and cleaned us up and then come to dwell us by his spirit and he knows that he has the rule over us because after all what we're talking about pure in heart is only something that's part of this kingdom that jesus is preaching about and you know you can't go through this marvelous marvelous sermon on the mount without realizing that the sermon on the mount is related to another mount called calvary after all everything that's in the sermon on the mount was in the life of jesus what did he get he got a cross we don't live in a world where there's meekness we don't live in a world that wants purity we don't live in a world where they want righteousness and if you're not going to walk as god wants us to walk talk like god wants us to talk live like god wants us to live not like my buddy here at last day's ministry but as god wants me to live i can't always eat when they eat i can't always talk when they talk i can be again outside of the camp while i'm in the camp but god is setting a standard in my life to show me how to keep everything in subjection my body my mind my emotions every part of my being and it can only be done as the spirit of god has come applied the blood of jesus and he's come to take up residence in us that we can go out and and the good old book says he can keep us unspotted from the world not only make us pure but keep us pure there's nothing in the world can comparable to the finished work of jesus christ there's no purgative like the purging blood of jesus christ and as long as we stay in submission you know we sing it it's easy to sing it but it's perfect submission always at rest but there's nothing that's good singing it if we're rebellious on the inside perfect submission i'm perfectly in submission to the will of god tonight and i want to stay like that and tomorrow morning there'll be all the grace i need for tomorrow not tomorrow's grace today it's like the manner in the wilderness you know they couldn't say well i need to sleep tomorrow morning i'm getting up too early i'm going to get too lots of manners stuff my pocket go up in the morning found a pocket full of worms it went bad overnight and lovers want to store up for tomorrow well as i send you what you can you can build yourself up in your most holy faith but tomorrow you can't breathe for tomorrow can you you're going to take tomorrow as it comes and and god's abundant grace is there the only thing is i should be higher up the mountain tomorrow than i am today when we sing hymns again i think often we sing lies i'm pressing on the upward way new heights i'm gaining every day is that true have you gained some height today or do you slip down the mountains then still praying as i onward bound lord plant my feet on higher ground there's always much land to be possessed isn't enough to cover the windows and the doorpost israel did that and not one of them made it to the promised land well a couple of they perished in the wilderness and that wasn't god's will god's will was they got into a land of victory they licked every one of the 31 kings that were there and they went on to possess their possessions but we still got too many christians that are in the what i call in the playpen just want to be safe from passing just want to be safe from hell and well that's it god wants us to go on to maturity god wants us to develop in grace grow in grace and in the knowledge of the lord jesus christ and why we've inward strife and inward warfare and civil war with our own hearts with pride with prejudice with bitterness with covetousness with jealousy whatever there's that inward strife we cannot fight god's battle because we're fighting our own battles and therefore god has to put those things to death make us pure fill us with his spirit keep us pure and paul says faithful is he that calleth you who also will do it father we thank you tonight for our meditation oh how wonderful that you should not cast us away we've all been a disappointment to you at some time or other we've all failed to grasp all of the promises again nor do we say that we do not want to run with the rest of the crowd we if you raised up this fellowship you raised it for some reason particular peculiar reason as your word says and i pray that lord your purpose will be fulfilled that in every dimension our lives will develop that lord you won't have to say to us in that great day i had many things to tell you but you couldn't bear them we got so busy with lesser things keep us in our priorities right we pray grant lord we shall seek your face continually we shall seek to love you and honor you and to obey you and to satisfy your heart and we give you praise indeed you may