Are You Willing - Part 7

I say this and quit here. The Welsh men are not very tall, not of the nation, but there's a young man in 1904 in a town called Newcastle Emlyn and he had about 35 people in the meeting and he just put his big hands up, went over like that, said bend us Lord and then break us, bend us, bend the church, break the church. One night in a crowded meeting with more than 1200 people suddenly the God came upon him and the writer puts it very dutifully I think, though terribly. He said that great preacher who had been captivating crowds and turning cities on fire had the public get seminary. He suddenly crumbled to the ground as though somebody squashed him downwards and there he was, that big, I nearly said hulk but you know what I mean, a man maybe six feet and more tall and there he was in front of all those, it wasn't a spectacle, it wasn't a demonstration, it was a personal visitation of the Holy Ghost and he writhed and he groaned and he traveled and some men at the front said let's go help him, somebody said don't put a finger on him. They said when he got up his face was transformed as though he needed a veil over it and from then he moved into a new sphere of power, a new sphere of authority. We're not going to gather people together and tell them to repent, only God can do that. I read again Joel chapter 2 today, we quote it so often, he's going to pour out his spirit and all flesh but wait a minute the price is tremendous, lay all night between the altar and the doorpost. Can you get, I'd love to see, I'd love to see a couple of dozen preachers who get together and lay between the altar and the doorpost, two nights a week for the next three weeks with the Holy Ghost coming upon them, not speaking in tongues in the sense that so many people think, but speaking with a tongue we've never heard, speaking of traveling which according to Romans 8 is beyond language, it cannot be uttered, can't be uttered in tongues, it can't be uttered anyway. It's God the Holy Ghost groaning to us. He groaned, Jesus saw the travel, are you going to suggest he didn't groan? Of course he'd groaned at Gethsemane, disagree with me if you like. I believe Jesus right now is groaning in heaven. If he's the same yesterday and forever don't you think he groans over the church as it is today, poor misbegotten thing that it is? Powerless, lifeless, without authority. Well bless you most of our people can't keep fixing themselves, never mind cast out devils. We can't pull down strongholds, but I'm convinced it's going to come. There's going to be a great turnaround and it won't be inside the denominations as far as I'm concerned. Oh it's nice to read, what is it, Hebrews 13, 13, Jesus, that he might sanctify, that is purify, that is edify, that is release, that is transform, that he might do that, he suffered without the gate. But the second half of the text says let us go with him outside the camp, let's be cut off from everything that's organized and man-made and supervised. People say Reagan is a radical, you know, you shouldn't take any notes, you know he has no covering. Well I didn't know that you know, for me I've been around the world now for the last 50 years without a covering, I didn't know. But the Lord knew I had it so he kept me. Who was John the Baptist covering? People knew when John Baptist came, he did no signs, no wonders, no miracles, but when he spoke boy the words were like fire, they burned in the hearts of the people. If a thing doesn't burn in me, why in God's name should it burn in you? I wouldn't listen to a preacher that didn't kindle something in my heart. I know I kindle anger in some people and I thank God for it, nobody else has done it. Sometimes I'm able to kindle joy by the power of God. You see it's this cup we back away from, I backed away from that rotten cup that woman had and then forcibly she said, drink it. I tell you that moment I was seeing a man in a garden and he's saying, Father this is the most degrading thing in the history of the world, if it's possible please, the Lord let him do it. It pleased the Lord to bruise him. But when it pleases the Lord to bruise you, what do you do? Ring for help, phone to somebody, call the church, or do you get along with him who alone is able to heal? He who alone has a balm in Gilead. See God isn't training boy scouts, he's training soldiers. I think I'm going to talk about that next week. No man that warreth and tangleth himself with affairs of this life, that they may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier. You know the smart advert they have on TV and other places, you see these smart boys at the West Points, what do you call them now? The cadets. We're looking for a few choice men, you know, oh I'm one of about, there's a hundred thousand others in America, I'm only one out of a half a million. And boy doesn't that feed their ego. Come and be one of the specials, that's exactly what God does. I have chosen you and ordained you so you don't need any other ordination. Then out of the twelve he chooses three, Peter, James and John. People say you shouldn't be selective, God's selective. He always was, he always will be. Then out of the three he chose one, and God has a process of elimination. He doesn't ask you to drink a cup a week or a month after you're saved, but you gradually move into that area where you realize this is what he's after. He's after me going to the cross, not just to go to it, but get on it. Oh I'm glad he died for me, have you died for him? Isn't that a fair exchange? I remember when I was a little boy they announced in the church that an American was coming, I assure you they are savages, you know, and a war paint on him. His name was Barak Love. He had just written a hymn that I think is one of the sweetest hymns ever written, and he played it to us that night. He goes something like this, Out of the ivory palaces into a world of woe, only his great eternal love made my Saviour go. Out of the ivory angels bowed down, and seraphim bowed, and adraperins stood, and men spit on him. He had all the glory of heaven, but he's nowhere to sleep at night. It would take eternity to unveil to us what it meant for Jesus to come. He drank a cup, a cup of separation from his Father, a cup of separation from the glory in eternity, a cup of separation from of the worship, because Hebrews 1 says the angels were commissioned to worship him. Men didn't worship him and they spit on him, and he laid it all on one side joyfully, and took up a cross to be battered and bloodied. I've told you I love that hymn, that American hymn, My Faith Looks Up to Thee. It was written in the Old North Church in Boston Common. I preached there once, and I had them sing that hymn. The second hymn that he sang was a hymn