Ye Ought to Be Teachers

For the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again, which be the first principles of the oracles of God, and ye have need of milk and not of meat. And that made me think, oh, if God could only speak to us this morning. Tell me, wouldn't that be wonderful if God could call every one of us by name and say, I've got something to say to you.

I'm going to talk to you. Well, listen, he does. God hath spoken unto us.

That ought to be very clear. God hath long ago, he has called us through the gospel. God hath spoken unto us by his son.

God hath spoken unto us. What is the result? Well, the result is that today we're teachers, teachers of babes. We're instructed in the law of God.

We are shining lights in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation among whom we shine, holding forth the word of life. The result is that we show forth the praises of him who has called us out of darkness into his marvelous light. Another result is that we are changed into the same image, into the image of Christ from glory to glory.

Another result is that we are being made partakers of his holiness. And another result is that we are cleansing ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. Another result is that we walk not as other Gentiles walk in the vanity of our minds, whose minds are darkened by the ignorance that is in them.

Another result is that we, we live no longer in the flesh, but we mortify the deeds of the body. And of course, the works of the flesh are manifest. And they that do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

But the fruit of the spirit which we are bearing is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. That's the result of the word of God being spoken to our hearts. For God said, The word that proceedeth out of my mouth shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that whereunto I sent it.

In other words, it's the seed of the kingdom, and it brings forth the reign of Christ. Whereas for the time ye ought to be teachers. Well, we are teachers.

My goodness, we can sit down and, and chew everybody's ear off and talk by the hour about how people ought to live. I've heard that again and again. We can tell everybody else where to get off at.

But to let our light so shine before men, to let our light shine. Light is light. God is light.

And in him is no darkness at all. And if we walk in the light as he is in the light, there will be no darkness in us. And if mine eye is single and I keep looking at Jesus and keep my mind stayed upon Jehovah, my whole body will be full of light.

Oh, listen. It is a tremendously wonderful blessing to have God speak to us by his son. Not like he spoke to the prophets or to the old saints by Moses and gave them the law.

But all saying, God, he spoke to us by the Lord and confirmed his word unto us by them that heard him with signs and wonders and gifts of the Holy Ghost. What is man that thou art mindful of him? Has he ever stopped at your door? Has he ever knocked at the door of your heart? Has he ever spoken to your heart? Have you heard his voice? Have you heard him plaintively asked to let him come into your heart? Have you heard him say to you that you're wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked and that you don't need to remain like that? But if you'll hear his voice and open the door, he will come in. He'll give you gold tried in the fire.

He'll give you reality, beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for the spirit of heaviness. He will substitute himself for yourself. He has loved you so deeply that he did the work that Moses couldn't do and what the law could not do, he accomplished by fulfilling the law, by creating a righteousness that exceeds the righteousness of scribes and Pharisees by becoming himself your righteousness.

We heard the truth expressed a while ago when we heard that no man cometh unto the Father but by Jesus Christ and it is by heeding his voice we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard. When they tried to make a soldier out of me in 1918, I thought we were working hard to be put on the drill and being made to drill in the cold temperature. It was so cold that sometimes my limbs were stiff, I could hardly move them and eight and a half hours of it was so much that when the flu struck the camp, people, men died like flies.

Every morning when we stood reveille, three or four would drop like dead. Next day they were dead and you know our officers were so hard of heart, they didn't allow us to carry them into the barracks. They had to lie there until reveille was over and then in addition to that the government needed officers so badly that instead of training them for three years, they tried to finish them in four months time.

They needed so many officers, they lacked officers and really our officers were so unschooled, the ones we had. That contributed to our heavy death toll because they'd let us stand in the cold sometimes. They didn't know how to drill us tall and so in four months time they tried to create officers and I pitied those fellas because when we had rest at night and our drilling time was over, these fellas had to go to work more than ever and and continue working until midnight.

That's how they tried to train officers and God is training officers when for the time ye ought to be teachers. You have need again that someone teach you. You have need of milk and not of meat and then he goes on to tell us what the matter is but nevertheless he says, even though we thus speak we have better confidence in you and things that accompany salvation though we thus speak.

What is he talking about? God has spoken to us and he has a very definite message, a very definite holy call. His call is for us to enter into that rest which Joshua was not able to lead his people into. It took the heavenly Joshua to come down from heaven to lay down his life that we might have his life.

Oh that's the thing God wants us to hear that he's provided a savior for us who saves to the uttermost but he tells us in the fifth chapter he's become the author of eternal salvation to them that obey him. Where did a forerunner is for us entered. Where did you go Jesus? He says I go to prepare a place for you.

I want you to be where I am and I'll come again. I will not leave you orphans. I'll come again.

Has he come to you? Has he come to you? Have you accepted him? If you accept him he will take over and he will reign for that wonderful savior that marvelous Joshua who has conquered the promised land and who is leading his people into rest must have people that follow him explicitly. Men and women that forsake all to follow him who hate their own lives also that's his call and that's the reason he calls upon my hearing his voice that wonderful voice that calls me today and how strange that in the these psalms which are relegated to all just to poetry by our modernistic theologians they are the mighty word of Jehovah as mighty as the word of a sponge Sinai that made Moses fear and exceedingly quake. We better take heed to this great salvation.

How shall we escape? And today he speaks again if ye will hear his voice. Oh there are so many voices today calling the people of God. So many siren voices that pretend to be the voices of God that pretend and purport to be the voice of Jehovah and here is the word eternal which is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword.

Our brother Hulbert spoke to us about that two-edged sword that was school a prominent bible school.

I was called to preach in that church and all the students were there and one night God made me talk about obedience and disobedience about the word he that hath my commandments and keepeth them and my message was certainly very simple but very straightforward and a strange thing happened the people heard from heaven the students heard from heaven now they've studied the bible they've studied theology and exegesis and homiletics and all those things but that night that simple message spoken in the power of the holy ghost presented to them a living word the sword of the spirit it shone right through them it exposed the depths of their being and a strange thing happened at 10 o'clock when the meeting should have been dismissed the dean arose he was sitting with me on the platform and he

made a confession to the whole student body he confessed that he had not lived according to the bible he had not lived the commands of Jesus he had transgressed it wasn't a great sin such as we would call a great sin but you know when the holy spirit gets a chance he'll show us how wretched and miserable and poor and blinded our very righteousnesses are all for the grace of God what is man that thou art mindful of him my God you stepped down into the depths of my despair and you were made sin for me and in any other way you could never have delivered me from my sin he was manifested in his last days to take away our sin and how is it that we trifle with our sin and we call it a trifling incident we call it something we don't need to repent of oh no we don't need to confess that sin

beloved will never be rid of it until we confess it and the dean confessed and when he got through one after the other of the students arose and confessed it took two hours and for two hours from 10 till 12 o'clock there was nothing heard but confession and sobs sobs from theologians from bible students and almost everyone confessed that coming to bible school made him backslide because now he was pressed down with so many studies that he didn't have time to get alone with Jesus and let that two-edged sword do its work he didn't have time to listen to God to get still that's the thing we need beloved oh this is the thing we need we need this presence of almighty God to dig and to dig praise God and we need that two-edged sword we need both these blessings that's why he tells us we who

have believed believed what why we believe into presence of Jesus and we are going to rest by seizing from our own words and waiting upon him to do his work he unsheathes his sword he takes these wonderful words of the new testament and he quickens them to our soul and presently this word which was formerly just about becomes the great God before whose eyes nothing is hidden whose eyes are like flames of fire and he searches the depths of our hearts and a strange thing happened in that bible school after those two hours of confession a wonderful atmosphere came upon that place in a subsequent meeting nobody could preach the dean and everybody danced and so many people were baptized in the holy ghost there were so many slain of the lord mind you it was a fashionable church building with

painted windows so fashionable that the manifestations of the spirit had been ruled out and everybody was just drenched with pentecostal power oh it was wonderful it was marvelous by God has spoken unto us and what did he say he says for the time you ought to be teachers and why are we not teachers because we don't submit ourselves to that two-edged sword we don't hearken diligently we neglect so great salvation and we forget that God's salvation provides for a cleansing from all our sins not only the apparent sins but the hidden sins which we have never discovered and would never discover but for this two-edged sword which is quick and powerful which pierces to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and joints and marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart but

behold the tragedy behold this great tragedy where is pentecost today oh we have many things to boast of we are rich and increased with goods and we have need of nothing whereas in the beginning of pentecost we were driven out of the churches today we command the best churches in town just recently a four million dollar office building was dedicated that is air conditioned we are glad for that we're thankful to God for that but when i attended a great pentecostal convention there was hardly a semblance of worship in the place oh it was better than other churches true there were many signs of God's presence but it never satisfied the deepest longing of my soul out in the hall this interest in me there was a a vendor of newspapers and you would see the men and the women the preachers and

the preachers come into the hall and into the meeting with a newspaper and the newspaper boy put up a sign he said business is good god bless you i don't know what the angel the recording angel would have said business is good i longed so for pentecostal power and the only place where my heart could be satisfied was in the prayer room in the morning between nine and ten before the program started the prayer room was open but how few people you found in the prayer room listen mostly colored folks despised colored people but precious in the sight of the Lord oh to get down among these colored folks and hear them pray with groanings that cannot be uttered sounded like Azusa Street in Los Angeles that first love was burning there i said God why is it not burning in the convention people

coming from the ends of the world to get acquainted with Pentecost go away disappointed instead of finding a candlestick burning instead of the presence of God manifested so greatly that men and women are slain under the power of God all you find is big shots making big speeches eloquent speeches God bless them i respect them i respect the labors of men but that is not what God has talked to me about that is not what God is offering me he says i offer you gold tried in the fire that thou mayest be rich and i said that thou mayest see and white garments that the shame of thy nakedness be not discovered and if you don't i'll spew it out of my mouth oh if you were cold i could deal with you and if you were hot i could deal with you but you look warm my God i know that you've been speaking to

us but what good does it do what good does it do we're rich we're increased with goods we have need of nothing no we don't we really don't we really at least oh yes we have lots of needs but God we don't have need of your stuff