(Compilation) A Voice Clarified

Abnormal days demand abnormal men with abnormal methods. One of the requirements in studying for the ministry is that we study church history. But I think we have too many preachers studying church history and too few preachers making history. Studying church history is an indoctrination which very often becomes, I think, brainwashing. And the idea is to get you kind of mesmerized by your particular denomination and what it did in the last hundred or two hundred years. And quite frankly, I'm not a bit interested in what your church has done in the last hundred years. But I want to tell you something. I am interested in what it does in the next five years. And each time we come in and come by West Palm Beach, I see that million and a quarter dollar church. Of course, it's a Baptist church. Nobody else could afford a church like that. And there's that great big Baptist church on the front. And I think of Jess Moody. And I think of a young man that goes there often. He is the vice president of the Scripps Hard Corporation. And he said not very long ago, as he wrote the introduction to Jess Moody's book, I am not sure, he said, he says, I'm not really a born again Christian, but I am not sure that the church of today is the church for which Jesus died. Well, if he isn't sure, I am. He didn't die for this freak of a thing, this powerless thing, this pale, pathetic, powerless, putrid Protestantism that dares to label itself with his name. When she was anointed with the Spirit of God in the Acts of the Apostles, could invade the Roman Empire with its millions of money and men. She could invade the Grecian Empire with all its staggering intellectualism. And she could go there into the monolith of the Hebrew religion that had dominated the world for 2,000 years. And all God did was send some men and not change the style of their hair or change their faces. He just worked a miracle of grace in their personalities. And they were emptied and they were filled with the Holy Ghost. And record says that they turned the world upside down. Brethren, read some men to make history, not study it. He didn't raise up Methodism, he raised up Wesley. Out of Wesley came Methodism, if you like. But he didn't raise up Methodism, he raised up Wesley. He didn't raise up the Salvation Army, he raised up William Booth. He didn't send a brigade of men, he sent a simple but very God-anointed Baptist minister to India, and he rewrote history. And I had the privilege of preaching in his great church, though of course he's been dead a century, but there in the heart of Calcutta. We said at the beginning of the meeting, it's good to be in a meeting like that. It sure is, and it's bad too. You know why? Because the Holy Ghost may not come back to you for the next six months or six years or the rest of your life. He doesn't have to. He faces up with you with your bankruptcy tonight. Some of you preachers are preaching a theology, and you're shouting behind the denomination, and you're scared stiff to preach the revelation God has given, because again it immediately hits the high road. But you know what I find? I find some of the holiest, saintliest, anointed men in America today are men that have been kicked out of their denomination. It's the kind of day we're living in, and we'd better face it. God's going to do a new thing in this generation. He sure is. Let me go back just a minute. I want to tell you this. I believe if you're born again, it's a very difficult thing to sin. Number one, because the Word of God is hidden in your heart, and then the Spirit quickens it, and it becomes sharp as a twedged sword. So number one, you have to fight your knowledge of the Word of God. Then the Holy Spirit is there. And number one, He's going to try and fight to keep you from sin. He wants to keep you from falling, and you resist Him. You strive against Him. And He puts up with it for a while, and then you grieve Him. And then He won't stay. When you finish that, He leaves you. You can't get back to God when you want. But he got slack. He backslid, you know why? Where everybody starts. Yes, a deacon's run away with a woman, he's backslidden. No, that's the fruit of his backsliding. He backslid months ago in his prayer life, in his devotional life. Every backslider starts there. So if you're chilling off in your experience of prayer, if Jesus isn't as real and as wonderful, if the Word isn't sweeter than the honey in the honeycomb, get on your belly and go on. Keep yourself in the love of God. There are so many commandments. Read Hebrews. Let us, let us, let us. You know, we sing Jesus paid it all. That's not true. In blood redemption, yes, but there are things I have to do. I have to put off the old man. I have to put on the new man. I have to renounce this world, all of its pleasures, its pomp and its pride. Give me but Jesus, my Lord, crucified. We're living in bankruptcy as the Church of Jesus Christ compared with where we ought to live, I'm convinced of that. I'm embarrassed to be part of a church that's an embarrassment to Jesus. He wrote that we might have principalities and powers in subjection to us. The rulers of the darkness of this world. Mr. President, Queen of England, they have no idea that they're tools of the darkness of this world. And there's nobody has eyes to see except the true believer whose eyes have been anointed. You notice this, that Paul says you're to put on the whole armor of God. It's not something automatic. You've got to put it on. It's not getting better. And the only way to stem the tide is the Church of Jesus Christ, a militant church, isn't this what it's saying? It doesn't say put on the armor of God. It says put on the whole armor of God. And it repeats it, put on the whole armor of God. That ye may stand and withstand when you don't understand. Withstand the fiery darts of the devil. With a shield of faith, with a helmet of salvation. Our feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Come on, isn't it wonderful? That God can take that twisted life of yours. God can take that hideous record of sin, which he's going to read at the judgment before millions of people if he don't get rid of it. Tonight in one act of mercy, he can take your record and cast it behind his back forever. You've been a backslider. You could have been teaching in Sunday school. You got too busy. Some of you preachers could have been somewhere else. You've wasted your time. And yet he comes in mercy and says listen, tonight I'm prepared to restore you. I'm prepared to restore the joy in your heart, the peace in your heart, the wonder of prayer, the awesomeness of worshipping God. It can be done. What's his final prayer? Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean. Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow. You know science says in every snowflake that comes down, there's one tiny spot of dust. But when he washes me, I'm whiter than snow. The hymn writer says, long my sinful heart was striving to obtain this promised rest, but when all my struggles ended, simply trusting I was blessed. Again, go back to Toplady, an intellectual, brilliant man. He says, foul I to that fountain fly. Wash me, say you will I die. You think it's a nice job to preach. It's the most difficult job in the world. Every meeting I'm in, the Holy Ghost is there, somebody's born and somebody dies. You may live ten years after tonight, God Almighty never speak to you again. Why does he have to? You've long withstood his grace, long provoked him to his face, would not hearken to his call and grieved him by a thousand folds. You made Jesus Christ weep in heaven, you backsliders. He was being weeping today and he'll be weeping till you come back. You said no to his blood, you said no to his word, you said no to fellowship. No wonder you're dry and miserable. No wonder buying a new dress doesn't make you happy. No wonder buying a new car doesn't make you happy. Christ alone can make you happy. Christ alone can give you peace. You know that your heart isn't pure, your thinking isn't pure. You don't have to commit adultery. What did Jesus say? Look on the woman to lust. And you've done the same secretly. You don't have to steal, you just covet. And you're guilty. There's nothing more beautiful this side of eternity in the eyes of God than somebody who's pure, washed in the blood of the Lamb and has Jesus Christ ruling in their lives. Sin no longer has dominion over them. They're not in bondage to some wretched, rotten, secret habit. They're pure. Every fetter's been broken. Is there anything greater? To be free. Here to eternity. Let there be people you can dwell in, people you can operate, people you can direct, people you can invest your strength and wisdom in. Lord, here's some spoil for your kingdom. Jesus, you died on the cross for this little child. Lord, I'm glad that fountain is still open tonight. There is a fountain filled with blood drawn for Emmanuel's veins. And it's flowing tonight. It's not based on years. It's based on obedience. There's no substitute for obedience. To obey is better than sacrifice. Remember Saul said, I did, I did what you told me to do. I gave the best of the cattle. I did this, but I just kept a few lame ones. No, no, I gave you a whole lot, he said. Then some little sheep at the back didn't know any better and he bleated. So the prophet says, what meaneth the bleating of the sheep and the lowing of the oxen in my near? It doesn't matter what facade we put up. Somewhere if there's a sheep still alive, it's going to bleed. They're going to be found out. It's total obedience. Again, I do not believe that confession is a down payment for eternal life. There's much more than that. There's confession there's forgiveness there's repentance there's restitution and there's forgiveness. You know, eternal life, I take as ecology of life, which is God given. Well, if I have eternal life, if I die a minute from now, which will shock you, I'm sure. But if I'm living now with eternal life, why should I need a change before I get into heaven? Eternal life, to use Scrooge's word, is life of God in the soul of man. Is the life of God in me now? That's what John says. He that hath the Son hath life. I'm not a Christian because I confess my sin because I've quit a lot of drinking and swearing and filthiness. I'm a Christian only when Christ comes to indwell in me and takes sovereign supreme control of my life. Serious. If ever God's done anything in the last three or four years, every day I live I go to the judgment seat of Christ. I see my little self standing there and he unwraps everything off me, my ideas of myself, the public opinion about myself. He takes everything else away till he gets down to what? To see if I won the most souls? No. That's the very last thing he rewards us for maybe. He's looking for holy character. He's looking for himself in me, Christ in you. Have I been living in you, moulding your character? You're no more covetous than Christ himself. Tomorrow morning I want to give a simple Bible talk on helps to holiness. But listen, there's a lot of peril in this meeting tonight. You may go home to sleep, I guarantee I won't. Next stop I meet you may be the judgment seat of Christ. I'm telling you honestly it's a terrible thing to be in the presence of God. Take your hands off, he may make you another George Fox, I don't know. I know this, he'll transform your life, he'll transform your vision, he'll transform your aspirations and your hopes till sometimes you won't know whether in the body or out of the body. Sure I spend hours weeping, but I'll tell you what, there are nights when I feel everything in my body will burst, I'm so full of joy and I'm in such a communion with God. I don't mind having the grief, what does it say? It gives beauty for what? Well ashes means something else and it burns up, burns up your self-will, burns up your career, burns up your pride. It gives beauty for ashes. You're looking for joy, it gives the oil of joy for what? Mourning. If you're not mourning for your sin, have you been mourning for a lost world? Have you been mourning for a church that's lost its power? That people go past the thing and say oh that's a kind of a religious cloud. Listen, I'm grieving that God the Holy Ghost doesn't get his way in our lives. I'm grieving that the devil and drugs have dominion over the youth of our nation and not only of America but over England and every nation in the world. It says in Samuel 28, pardon me, 1 Samuel 28, verse 5, When Saul saw the host of the Philistines he was afraid and his heart greatly trembled. When Saul inquired of the Lord, the Lord answered him not, neither by dreams nor by urine nor by prophets. Then Saul said unto his servant, Seek me a woman with a familiar spirit that I may consider and inquire her. His servant said, There is a woman in Endor. Saul disguised himself. Notice that? He didn't go in and see her. Do you ever disguise yourself to go somewhere? Are you ever embarrassed to enter a certain place which is questionable? Saul disguised himself and put on a beretment and he went with the two men and they came to the woman at night. A lot is done at night. Men love darkness rather than light. Why? Because their deeds are evil. Why did he disguise himself? Obviously he didn't want to be identified. Why did he go in the night time? He didn't want to be identified. He came at night and said, I pray thee, divine unto me by a familiar spirit and bring him up whom I shall name unto thee. Oh, so she brought up who? Samuel. When the woman saw Samuel she cried with a loud voice. I believe this is the only case in history where a genuine spirit was brought up from the other world. Every other one is a fake. But notice, she put the spotlight on him. Why hast thou deceived me for thou art Saul? That must have been quite a shock. The king said unto her, Be not afraid for what thou sawest thou. And the woman said unto Saul, I saw God descending out of the earth. And he said unto her, What form is he of? And she said, An old man cometh up and he is covered with a mantle, the prophet's mantle. And Saul perceived that it was Samuel and he stood with his face to the ground and bowed himself. And Samuel said to Saul, Thou hast disquieted me to bring me up. And Saul answered, I am so distressed. The Philistines make war against me and God is departed from me. Samuel said, Whereof thou dost ask of me for the Lord is departed from me. Isn't that something? Departed from whom? From a man who had the anointing of the Holy Ghost and was filled with the Holy Ghost and prophesied, but he died a suicide. I heard a man say this week again in that same show, Don't you worry, God will never forsake you. Doesn't matter, you may leave him, he won't leave you. That is entirely against the Scripture. If the Spirit troubles you this morning, thank God he's troubling you before you go to hell. The Spirit will leave you? Well, this is what you can do with the Holy Spirit. Accept him, resist him, grieve him, quench him. Now, that's biblical, that's in my theology, isn't that right, Brother Parrish? The most miserable man in the world is not the man who's lost a million dollars or lost his memory or lost some other thing. The most miserable man in the world is the man that God has forsaken. Again, I remind you that this King prophesied. He, therefore, that ministereth to you in the Spirit and worketh miracles among you. So, there you are, they've been embraced in truth, they've been surrounded with the miraculous and yet they backslidden. Because in the 7th verse of chapter 5, he's speaking obviously in the past tense, he did run well. He ran well. Who did hinder you? In the 4th chapter there, verse 19 again, My little children of whom I travel in birth again, the word again fascinated me. I pondered that today. The Greek word there is palin or palin, P-A-L-I-N. It means to restore to its original quality. He says that they may be born again. Martin Luther, Martin Luther rediscovered justification by faith. Wesley rediscovered sanctification by faith. Now there's something else has to be rediscovered. One of the tragic things of the last few days is this, that one of the great preachers there said, you know, the trouble in the world is we've lost sight of the rapture. That's not true. Well, we may have, but these very guys that have been preaching the rapture most have crashed and shot the world in the last year. It's not that we've lost sight of the rapture, we've lost sight of the judgment seat. Do you think they'd go into that sin if they had an eye on the judgment seat? You and I have to live with eternity's values in view, not live like other Christians and other people. I've told you so often, I'm sick, I'm sick, I'm tired of mediocrity. We don't live, how many of you have lived as though you've been into the judgment seat before long? We've lost sight of the judgment seat. If we really lived in the light of the judgment seat, it would alter our speaking, it would alter our living, it would alter our criticism, it would alter our fear of men. Or I'm living every day, now every morning, I say, Lord, I want to live in the blazing light of the judgment. So he's coming for a holy bride. Supposing he comes five minutes from now, are you in purity? If not, you'll be left behind. The Scripture distinctly says that he that has this hope, if every morning you get in your car, you say, Lord, I hope this will last to the day, I'm ready to go up in a moment, are you? Have you a grudge against anybody? Have you any bitterness against anybody? Are you really looking up close regarding prayer? Is this blessed word electrifying to you? Are you faking the whole thing? They experimented at Cornell University some years ago by putting a frog in a dishpan of boiling water and he jumped out and then they put a frog in a dishpan of cold water and they turned the jet at the bottom and then they turned it up one degree, two degrees and you know what that frog did? He stayed in there until they cooked him to death. When they put him in the boiling water he got out because he said, I can't live here. But when they, by degrees, they changed the thing and they still killed him anyhow. And you know, we've got some things in our churches if not in our lives that a few years ago we never would have had and old Satan didn't pour the boiling water on, he put this little thing and then that little thing and that little thing and before very long the churches become so carnal. The glory of the Lord doesn't fill the temple. When did you last tiptoe out of your particular tabernacle saying surely God is in this place? I say again with all the power of my being I do not believe that modern Christians go to church to meet God. They go to church to hear a sermon about God. They don't expect deity to invade the place. They don't expect to tiptoe out of the holy place saying God is here and about to bless us. The spirit moved over my heart. A boy said to me a sweet thing this morning. He's only a young fellow 17 rating I guess and he said Brother Ravenhill it's been so good to be here this week. You know during the preaching a number of priests besides me but he said during the preaching the Lord has been pushing back my horizons. Well God bless him I'm glad for fellows that have got bigger horizons. You know David prayed enlarge my heart. Some of us are praying enlarge my head. Now brother if you only get as much in it in the next five years and you got in the last you better keep a small head. But David didn't pray enlarge my head he says enlarge my heart. And if he enlarges my heart he'll enlarge my vision he'll enlarge my compassion he'll enlarge my concern. I walked the length of England I walked the breadth of England I took five colleagues with me. We slept in the fields at night so we slept in old disused churches with broken windows and birds flying through and rats on the floor for five years not one of us having a penny wage. I never heard those men grumble. We slept in a tent we went to a town and stayed eight weeks those churches are still standing sixty years after because we lived as poor as the people because we slept in the tents because we had no amenities of life and if I were younger I'd tell you but I'd still do it again there's no thrill like going to bed knowing you've just seen two drunkards or harlots or somebody saying that nearly midnight whenever he's preaching time is asleep the church is asleep today didn't Paul say in his day awake thou that sleepest and arise from the dead and God shall give thee life. You just think I'm wonderful because you haven't ever seen a prophet in your life. I believe one of the signs of God's judgment on us as a nation right now is we have no prophets if you know one tell me preachers yes clever preachers yes theologians yes organizers yes prophets no and when God is angry with a nation he gives a nation no prophets you see some people think that God's judgments are not around unless buildings start falling down and we have a massive earthquake or something or we have a plague such as this mysterious illness which could have developed in the country that's become pitiful enough and sorrowful enough there in Philadelphia you see God's judgments are not always as obvious as that if you tell some people that God almighty may send communism to America to purge it of its uncleanness and its sin and its lethargy and its unbelief and the selfishness amongst believers they're the ones you ordered shipped out of the country but I want to tell you God loved Israel but he let her go into bondage for 400 years and then when she came out he let her go into bondage another 400 years and now they're in bondage not to the Philistines and after all dear friend when you read the Old Testament almighty God's problem in the Old Testament was not the Amalekites or the Hittites or the Perizzites or the Jebusites God only had one problem in the Old Testament and that was Israel and I believe almighty God only has one problem in the world tonight and it's not communism or Romanism it's the church of the living God and he is concerned about her with his own bloody border and for her life he died and if Jesus weeps he weeps tonight because of the paralysis of the church the glory has departed we go through the mechanics you see some of you are hearing God's call tonight for the very last time he doesn't owe you anything he called you you refused do you remember what the people did they said I'm going to get rid of Jesus and he said you're too late I'm getting rid of you your house is left desolate and from that day to this they've been a football for all the nations in the world you say America needs God no she doesn't she needs the church needs God if the church gets God America will soon feel it she'll be staggering corruption in the churches leave the second churches and all the deficiencies they had and yet some of them were as sound in doctrine as possible but they were going through a ritual and the complaint that Jesus has not that they were wrong in their theology he said but you've left not you've lost we usually say we've lost our first it doesn't say that it says you left deliberately you came to a fork in the road where you had to make a supreme sacrifice for Jesus or go the other way and so you sacrificed Jesus not we left our first love not we lost our first love we left it we deliberately made a choice which was a second class choice that's where the church is today she's rich she's increased in good she's in need of nothing which church was it Jesus spewed out of his mouth I would thou art neither hot or cold so then because thou art neither hot or cold I will spew he didn't spew the cold one out of his mouth it had never been in it was his church that he spewed out of his mouth it wasn't a heathen religion it was his church they were neither hot or cold they were kind of mid-stream and because they were neither one thing or the other he vomited them out he didn't vomit the cold church out he didn't bother with it God will not stand for mediocrity you know there's one promise God hasn't kept I think he's about to do it he said he'll spew it out of his mouth if by any means I may attain what do you mean he's already said there's a resurrection of the dead there's a resurrection of the just by any means at any cost I want to be in the out-resurrection it's the only time it's mentioned in scripture it isn't the same Greek word it's the out the scriptural what's the scriptural word for resurrection Anastasis and this is ex-Anastasis the out of the out of there's a remnant who's the bride of Christ the out-resurrection people alright where's Jesus gonna sit he's gonna sit on the throne who's gonna sit on the throne at the side of him the queen who's the queen him that overcometh it's not baptist it's him that overcometh those of us who are living in victory by the power of the blood walking in the light walking in the spirit it's easy for you dear friend to say I believe Jesus may come at any moment well then you sign your death warrant do you know what that means it means that at this moment you have bitterness in your heart against a single person in the world that you don't have defeat in your life you're living in union with the will of God it's cost you something people hate you and despise you but you have a peace that passes all understanding a joy unspeakable a faith unshakeable overcometh you don't want Jesus to come as you are now you have bitterness in your heart you have pride in your heart you have no tears in your eyes you have no love for the lost let it go to hell what do you care God's going to get a people and he's going to get them now he's not waiting for revival to come you can be made as pure as God can make a human being by acknowledging I've got sin in my life I've bitterness in my life I've pride in my life I've anger in my life I've jealousy purge it all out and fill me with the spirit of the living God make me like Jesus he wept over Jerusalem preacher God gave you a ministry to do one thing to prepare people to be part of the bride now come on preacher could you five minutes from now take your church as it were and say Lord Jesus here is my church it's part of your body my church is pure we don't love the world we don't do worldly things we don't talk worldly ways we don't watch worldly TV we've no worldly habits I've a hundred people or two hundred or five hundred people in my church and I've been preparing them for ten years to be part of the bride of Christ not just speaking tongues and do miracles but to be part he's coming for a bride but listen friend he's not coming for a widow he's not coming for a broken down woman Jesus says the bride he comes for no Jesus says in the book of revelation the church of today the Laodicean church is poor wretched naked man your church has no vision because you've no vision the church has no passion because you have no passion the veil is typical of modesty nakedness is typical of what the very opposite impurity and it's Jesus it isn't the devil saying this it isn't some high geared evangelist Jesus says the church in the last days I don't care whether the guy is believing the pre-trib the post-trib what's the other trib mid-trib or no-trib what most of them agree on we're living in the Laodicean period this is the day of the Laodicean church what is she? she's wretched and naked and blind a blind man can't sense danger he can't see a house on fire he can't see a child in need blind the church is blind tonight dear God if we believed in hell this gracefully packed out tonight we're blind to eternity we're blind to the fact that we have an obligation to 5 billion people in the world that we'll never reach the way we're going the church is wretched and black what do you think Jesus feels looking at his bride tonight? he's not coming for a limping lame ragged woman he's coming for a pure church a holy bride we sang it tonight with his own blood he bought her and for her life he died the church is a playground oh yes we have a lot of young people coming to our church why? because you're telling them you want them all at the mission field? no because you excite them at the sports field that's right it's not that we've got a passion for Jesus that's a life on hell and the hindrance to his coming tonight is the church is impure he's not coming for an impure church he's not coming for a blind old woman that's creeping around asking for help that has no sense of danger no sense of obligation and if she has what can a blind person do? unrighted in the sight of God listen I don't care what people say about I believe in Jesus may come today they're liars they don't they need a half days announcement from God to get unlatched from uncleanness unlatched from bitterness unlatched from bad spirits unlatched from a thousand things they're not ready it's a fallacy and the thing that's keeping Jesus from coming tonight is not communism and other religions it's the church is not ready the bride had to be a pure bride do you think Jesus died for this dirty rotten system we call Christianity? not on your life not on your life what is the church that Jesus saw? I told you before I don't take any notice of how much people criticize the church Jesus criticized the church I don't take any of how much people criticize the church I don't take any notice of how much people criticize the church I don't take any notice of how much people criticize the church I don't take notice of how I don't any notice of how much people criticize the church I don't take any notice of how much people criticize the church I don't take any of how much criticize the church don't take any of how much people criticize the church don't any the church you criticize the church you any of life. We need a spiritual revolution, we need to get in communication with God the Father. Our God is a consuming fire, you've never seen that on the back of a car, you say God is not, but our God is a consuming fire, and he makes his ministers a flame of fire. I believe every person in the land should be burning today with Holy Ghost hatred for sin, with Holy Ghost compassion for broken people, with Holy Ghost compassion of a jerk that Jesus is being dishonored, even in his own church, there's a scripture that says he was wounded in the house of his friend, I believe almost, not all, but almost every person in the land is an insult to the Lord Jesus today. There's no holy power, there's no holy vision, we don't go out broken over a broken nation. In God's name what do we have to do, our homes are broken with divorce, our minds are broken with drugs, our bodies are broken with disease, everything is broken but the church isn't broken hearted about it, and before the fire comes there's going to have to be a brokenness. And I suddenly realized, wait a minute, we don't need anything except this to tell us the secret to revival. I'm not saying because the dear pastor is here, if I pastor a church I'd shut it down for a week and say listen, you can't handle the light you've got now at the judgment seat, maybe every sermon I preach I'm putting condemnation on you. This church is going to close down, it's going to be open 24 hours a day for prayer. What's the scripture say? God says if you wonder if I've really sinned, sanctify a fast, call a psalm assembly, and get such a burden that between the door and the altar the priests are weeping, and you're a kingdom of priests as much as I am in the new economy. And I'm so determined that I don't care what happens as long as there comes a moving of the spirit of God. I'll be embarrassed to death to go to heaven tonight because young people might point the finger at me, young people from town around here and say we never saw revival, you talked about it, you talked about the time when people started drinking liquor and their arm went stiff, they couldn't get their arm back, you talked about these miracles that happened in Wesley and Finney and other times, it didn't happen in our day. Well let me tell you something, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. But what's he waiting for? Vessels, totally cleansed, totally anointed, hands off, here I am God, do as you like with me. When he, the spirit of truth, he'll guide us into truth. I want God to take the veil off this world more and more during these Friday nights of this year. The world is not waiting for a new definition of Christianity, it's waiting for a new demonstration of Christianity. And I say again, if you're an honest interpreter of the word of God, you've got to come to Hebrews 2 and get down to verse 4 as well as verse 3 on how shall we escape. If we neglect, how shall we escape? The reason that we're in the mess that we're in, we're trying to escape the responsibility of preaching a full old gospel. Because in verse 4 there it says, God bearing the witness with signs and wonders and divers miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost. Now who are you to describe God or his gifts? You give me one scripture where you can outlaw gifts of the spirit, a fruit of it, can you give me one? I say again, I get chills when I go to some conferences, somebody goes, oh brother glory to God, I thank God I believe on this old book from cover to cover. And in the next 10 minutes he spends explaining why the gifts are not for today and why revival isn't for today. And the congregation sung just to give him a bit of a pep before he stood up. They sung, God any rivers you think are impossible, God any mountains you can't tunnel through, God specializes in things thought impossible. And then he spends time telling you why it can't happen. Now what does the word of God say? The word of God says, and this is a terrible thing, that if you and I take anything out of the word of God, he'll take our place, our names out of the book of life. You say, brother Raymond, I would never take a pair of scissors and cut anything out of the word of God. Well preach, I want to tell you something, for the last three years you've been taking it out because you never preached it and it's the same thing. If you shut up on it, if you try and find some fancy interpretation, if you enter some book because this brother taught it, it doesn't make it right because anybody preaches it. You've got to test it by the word of God. And I'm absolutely convinced that many reasons for the bankruptcy in our churches these days is that we do not follow through on the things of the spirit of God. They're not just gifts of the spirit, they're gifts of the Lord Jesus. Because when he rose again, he led captivity captive and gave gifts unto them. Now I'm not going lopsided on those things, but I want him to see again a full gospel. That everything Jesus died for should be manifested in his church today. And when such things happen, you don't have any dead meetings. You don't have any problems with money. You don't have any problems at all if we follow what God says in his holy word. You believe that God is, he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. You believe that these promises are all underlined by an infallible, holy, eternal God. I think we're putting our hands on the earth. We're rather afraid that we might go a bit overboard, you know. Doctrinally, somebody comes and says, hey, well steady a minute. And he hardly knows he's putting his hand on the earth anyhow. We're just afraid, it seems, of some new revelation, some new demand that God will make upon us. Not just individually. Well, it is individually, of course, and collectively. Now I guess I didn't get this over to you as it came to me, but I'll tell you when I read it the other day. I was shocked to realize that, again, this man did not smash up the earth. He didn't tell all the people to rebel. He didn't tell the priest to do it. All he did was steady the earth, thinking he was doing God a favor. All he did was disobey. Anybody at home?