(Preached at Fellowship of
Evangelical Baptist Churches in Canada)
“Be not drunk with wine,
wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit.” (Ephesians 5:18)
If next Sunday morning the
pastor of this church were to come to the platform and it was obvious to
each member of this church that the pastor had been drinking alcohol and
was inebriated, someone would stand to his feet and make a motion
immediately that the pastor not fill the pulpit that day. The Bible is
very plain about this matter. Ephesians 5:18 says very distinctly, “Be
not drunk with wine, wherein is excess.”
If tonight when the songleader
approached the platform to announce the opening hymn you had noticed a
bleary, glassy look in his eyes, an unsure step, and a heavy leaning on
the platform, and if those in the front row could smell alcohol on his
breath, the moderator would have said, “I make a motion tonight that
this songleader not be allowed to lead the singing in this meeting.” The
Bible is so plain about that. It says in Ephesians 5:18, “Be not drunk
with wine, wherein is excess.”
If next Sunday morning in your
church someone came to your pastor about 10:00 o'clock and relayed the
news to him that a certain superintendent was drunk in the department,
he would be horrified. The Bible is very plain about that. It says in
Ephesians 5:18, “Be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess.”
If a deacon in your church
drinks liquor and you find it out, you would (at least you ought to)
dismiss that deacon from the deacon board. The Bible is very plain. “Be
not drunk with wine, wherein is excess,” says Ephesians 5:18.
If a Sunday School teacher
came to church drunk Sunday morning, you would say, “You´ll not teach
the class this morning.” The Bible is very plain in Ephesians 5:18, “Be
not drunk with wine, wherein is excess.”
My precious friends, there is
something else in Ephesians 5:18. Who am I to say that it is less
important than the other: “Be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess, “
and the dual command is, “But be filled with the Spirit.” Now if I
understand the Bible, it would be an equal sin for the pastor of this
church to come to the pulpit next Sunday not filled with the Spirit of
if he came to the pulpit, drunk with wine wherein is excess. It would
have been as much a sin for the songleader to come tonight not filled
with the Spirit as it would have been for him to have come drunk with
wine, wherein is excess. For a departmental superintended or a teacher
or a pastor or any deacon or officer of the church not to do his work in
the anointing and energy of the Holy Spirit would be a sin equal to that
of doing his working the energy of alcohol, drunk with wine wherein is
excess.
The same verse in the same
chapter in the same book in the same Bible gives the same emphasis to
these two commands:
1. Be not drunk with wine
wherein is excess,
2. But be filled with the
Spirit.
Now I want to speak tonight on
the subject, “The Fullness of the Spirit.” I beg your leniency. I was
preaching on baptism recently in the State of Arkansas, and one fellow
said, “I wonder what his position on baptism is?” I heard him say it,
and I stopped to say, “When somebody asks, ‘What is your position on
baptism,´ I always say, ‘My position on baptism is this: I stand up
straight and lower them back like this. That's my position.´”
Now please do not crucify me
on this first night. I beg your leniency. By the way, I am Baptist. I
heard about a good Baptist lady who was in a Catholic hospital. The nun
gave her a little doll and said, “When you pain gets excruciating, rub
the doll and that will help.”
“Oh, no,” said she, “I am not
a Catholic. I am a Baptist.”
“Well,” the nun said, “if you
do get in pain and get a little worried about yourself, rub the doll
anyway.”
“I won't rub this doll--I
don't care how much pain I get in.”
The nun said, “I´ll leave it
here just in case you change your mind.”
So the little lady about 2:00
o'clock in the morning had the pain hit her, and again she looked at the
doll. “Oh, I couldn't do it. I am a Baptist,” she said. Finally about
3:00 o'clock in the morning an unbearable pain hit her. She reached for
the doll, and with trembling hands she looked up to Heaven as she rubbed
the doll and said, “Dear Lord, don't let this crazy little doll fool
You. I'm still a Baptist at heart!”
Now I am a Baptist. BUT I am a
Baptist who believes in doing the work of God in the energy of the Holy
Spirit. We are in desperate need of reflecting this blessed person of
the Trinity in our churches. I'm afraid too often we have made Sunday
morning God the Father's service and Sunday night God the Son's service.
We dare not sing about Jesus on Sunday morning. We dare not witness of
Jesus on Sunday morning. He is not dignified enough for the Sunday
morning service, and so we relegate Him as a second-rate Sunday night
attraction. And I am more afraid we have not put the Holy Spirit
anywhere. Because some have perverted this blessed truth, we have left
off the teaching of the Holy Spirit altogether.
Now tonight if you are a
Pentecostal, I speak to you on the subject of BAPTISM OF THE HOLY GHOST.
If you are a Nazarene, I speak to you on SANCTIFICATION. If you are a
Wesleyan, I speak to you on PERFECT LOVE. If you are a Quaker, I speak
to you on OVERCOMING POWER. If you are a Presbyterian, I speak to you on
DEATH TO SELF. If you are a Baptist, I wan to speak on WHAT WE AIN'T GOT
THAT WE DESPERATELY NEED IN OUR CHURCHES.
Now I am not talking about
talking in tongues. I am not talking about getting sanctified. Whatever
you believe it is--I'm talking about getting that power in your life and
upon your ministry. As a kid preacher I used to walk in the pine
thickets of East Texas over those old sandhills and say, “Dear Lord, I
read a book about this and I want to talk in tongues.” I'd read another
book, and I'd say, “Lord, I want sanctification.” I'd read another, and
say, “Lord, I want perfect love.” I didn't get a thing. Then one time I
said, “Lord, I don't know what it is, I don't know all about it, I don't
know all the theology--all I know is I'm not going to have a powerless
ministry. I'm not going to go to my pulpit Sunday after Sunday in the
energy of the flesh. I'm not going to settle for anything less than a
supernatural enduement from Heaven.” And when I quit worrying so much
about the theological explanation and the practical acceptance of it,
God gave me a little bit of that which I wanted.
Tonight we are utterly
powerless, and helpless unless we are living our ministry in the energy
of the Holy Spirit. This doctrine is a Bible truth. I like what Dr. Bob
Jones, Sr., said:
“I had rather a fellow say, ‘I
seen,´ who has seen something, than say, ‘I have seen,´ when he ain't
seen nothing.”
And I would rather you be a
little wrong and have power than to have all the i's dotted and the t's
crossed and not have the power of God.
I. It is Bible Truth
In Acts 1:4 we read the words,
“wait for the promise of the Father.” In Acts 1:5 we find “baptized with
the Holy Ghost.” In Acts 2:4 we find “they were all filled with the Holy
Ghost”--fullness of the Spirit. Luke 24:49 says,”...endued with power
from on high”--enduement of power. In Acts 1:8 we find the words, “The
Holy Ghost is come upon you.” In Acts 2:17 we find the pouring out of
the Holy Spirit. In Luke 11:13, and in Acts 2:38, 39 we rind the gift of
the Holy Spirit. In Ephesians 5:18 we find the expression, “be filled
with the Spirit.” Whatever you care to call it, whatever you care to
term it, whatever you believe about its teaching, whether you believe in
a gradual process of being filled or whether you believe in one filling
and that's all, or whether you believe, as I do, in many filling over
and over and over again--whatever you believe, I'm concerned tonight
about your going home and getting on your face before God and saying, “O
God, I will not be a powerless preacher. I will not be a powerless
teacher. I will not be a powerless singer. I will not be a powerless
Sunday School worker. I will not be a powerless deacon.” I'm concerned
about Baptist people getting the breath of God and divine unction upon
our ministry.
I like what the old colored
fellow said down in the South: “Lord, give me the unction. Give me the
unction.”
A fellow asked, “What is the
unction?”
He replied, “I don´t know what
it is, but I know what it ain't, and it sure is terrible without it.”
Lord, give me the unction--that´s
what we need. We need something akin to Wesley when he walked with God.
We need something akin to George Whitefield when he would come home with
blood dripping down his face after he walked with God and preached the
Gospel. We need something akin to George Fox who stayed in a trance for
14 days. We need something akin to Savonarola who sat in his pulpit in a
trance for five hours. We need something akin to David Brainerd who
walked with God and left his kneeprints on the soil of the northwestern
country praying for God to send revival. We need desperately a new
anointing upon our lives and ministries in our Baptist churches.
Brother, if program would save
the world, we would be in the millennium tonight. If plans and pulpits
and copied sermons and homiletics and hermeneutics and apologetics and
exegesis would bring in the kingdom, the wolf and the lamb would be
lying down together tonight in the Holy Land. If our plans and programs,
our education, our formality, our pomp, our depth would bring in the
kingdom, we would be right in the midst of the kingdom tonight.
I´m saying that the program is
no good unless it is anointed by the Holy Ghost. I´m saying the
personality and pomp and all the rest of it is as sounding brass and a
tinkling cymbal unless it has the holy breath of God Almighty and unless
our labor of love is done in the energy of the Holy Spirit of God.
Oh, to preach in His power!
Oh, to preach when there is that sweet, fresh settling of heavenly dew
upon the congregation! How awful it is to preach in the energy of the
flesh. Stories fall flat, words fall flat, poems fall flat,
illustrations fall flat--all because we preach in the energy of the
flesh. O God, breathe upon us in these days and cause us to seek His
power.
Billy Bray was one of my
favorite characters. He was a little old Cornish coal miner who got
converted and shouted everywhere he went. Every time you met Billy Bray,
he would shout, “Hello! Amen! Hallelujah!” And if you didn't say,
“Amen!” he would think you were not saved.
Somebody said, “Billy, don´t
talk like that. And you're singing all the time and you can't carry a
tune.”
Billy said, “Hush. God would
just as soon hear a crow as a nightingale. I'll sing all I want to
sing.”
“Billy,” he said, “shut your
mouth.”
“If I shut my mouth, my feet
would still shout. Every time my left foot hits the ground, it says
‘Amen!´ And every time my right foot hits the ground it says, ‘Well,
glory,´ and I can't help myself.”
Billy had the breath of the
heavenly dew upon him. He had this unction upon him. He had this
anointing upon him. And from that moment forward, Billy Bray was aflame
for God, walking up and down the streets witnessing, preaching whenever
he had opportunity, testifying to all he cam in contact with--because he
was anointed with the Holy Spirit.
Somebody said to him, “Billy
Bray, you´re going to die.”
He said, “You mean I'm dying
now?”
“Yes.”
“Glory to God! I'll be Home by
the morning!”
“Billy, what if you go to
Hell? What if you had been mistaken all these year?”
“I´ll just shout all the way
to Hell. I'll say, ‘Glory! It was wonderful to think I was going to
Heaven all those years!´ I'll just praise the Lord because I thought I
was going to Heaven, and I had a wonderful life. If I go to Hell I'll
say, ‘Amen! Glory to God! what a wonderful life it was!´ And if the
Devil walks up and says, ‘Billy, you can't shout like that here,´ I will
say, ‘I´ve got to shout! It's in my bones!´ And if the Devil will say,
‘You´ve got to get out of here,´ I'll say, ‘That´s what I'd like to do
anyway, old Devil, if you don't mind.´ And I'll just should all the way
to Glory! Praise the Lord! Glory to God! I'm saved!”
I'm not saying that everybody
who shouts, “Praise the Lord!” has Holy Spirit power. I'm not saying
that everybody who says, “Hallelujah” has the anointing. But I am saying
that there needs to settle upon the Baptist churches and others a new
breath of God that will give us joy and conviction and tears and
something supernatural transpiring in our public services. It is Bible
truth.
II. It Is an Old Testament
Truth
But I hasten to say that it is
also an Old Testament truth.
Jacob in Genesis 32:26
wrestled with the angel and said, “I will not let thee go, except thou
bless me.” Isaiah saw the seraphim take the coal from off the altar and
place it upon his tongue, and he said, “Woe is me! for I am undone.”
Ezekiel wept in the bitterness of the Spirit. Elisha got Elijah's mantle
and received a double portion of blessing. Judges 6:34 says, “The Spirit
of the Lord came upon Gideon.” First Samuel 16:13 says, “The Spirit of
the Lord came upon David.”
How did Gideon win the battle
over the Midianites with a few little folks who lapped water like dogs?
how did Gideon win the battle when he put the fleece out and God
miraculously delivered the Israelites from the Midianites´ power? How
did David slay a lion? How did David kill a bear? How did David with a
stone kill Goliath? How did Saul win his battle? How did Samson have his
power? In the energy of the Holy Spirit.
This truth has been from the
time that the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the water in Genesis
1 and God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. From that day
until this, everything that has been done by God Almighty through God´s
men has been done in the energy and power of the Holy Spirit.
If revival comes in your
church, it will come when we cease to work and let Him work. As A.B.
Simpson used to say:
“Once it was the blessing, not
it is the Lord;
Once it was a feeling, now it is His Word;
Once His gifts I wanted, now the giver own;
Once I sought for healing, now Himself alone.”
“All in all is Jesus, of Jesus
I will sing,
Everything is Jesus and Jesus everything.”
III. It Is a New Testament
Truth
John the Baptist said, “He
shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire” (Luke 3:16). Luke
4:1 says, “Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost....” Acts 4:31 says, “They
were all filled with the Holy Ghost.” What I like about this is that the
work Jesus did, He did in the energy of the Holy Spirit, as a man filled
with the Spirit and not as God Himself. He wanted to be our example. He
wanted to set a pattern for us. So the work that He did, He did in the
same power that God used to do the work in the First Baptist Church of
Hammond yesterday morning. The same power--the power of the Holy Spirit.
When Jesus preached to
Zacchaeus up a tree, to the thief on the cross beside Him, to the woman
beside the well, they were saved because He worked in the energy of the
Holy Spirit. He did not perform a miracle, He never opened one blind eye
or deaf ear as far as the Bible records, He never caused one lame person
to leap with joy, one dumb person to speak, one dead person to live
until He went into the baptismal water and was anointed with the power
of the Holy Spirit of God.
Yesterday morning when those
32 people came to Christ in our church in Hammond, five of them deaf but
hearing the message through the deaf interpreter, it was done, bless
God, in the same power that was used to save the little lady beside the
well in Sychar. Think of it! We have at our disposal the same blessed
power that Jesus had--the energy of the Holy Spirit.
In Luke 11 a fellow comes at
midnight and says, “Friend, wake up!”
The fellow gets up and shakes
himself. He opens the window and says, “Yes? Yes?”
“Say, listen, a friend has
come to me in his journey and I have nothing to set before him. I need
three loaves. Would you let me borrow them, please?”
“Come back in the morning.
We're all sleeping now. Come back in the morning.” He puts the window
down and goes back to bed.
This fellow starts home but he
decides he can't go home.
“I´ve got a friend and he
wants bread. I can't holler back up there, but I can´t go home either.
That friend's hungry. I've got to have the bread and I don't have any.”
Again he calls, “Friend!
Friend!”
The friend wakes up, his wife
wakes up, Johnny wakes up, Sue wakes up. He raises the window, “YES?”
“Friend, I know it's going to
make you mad, and I hate to bother you, but a friend of mine in his
journey has come to me and I have nothing to set before him.”
“I told you to come back in
the morning. I'm trying to sleep. My family's in bed.” Again he slams
the window shut.
The fellow starts home. “I
can't go home. My friend is waiting. He's expecting me with some food.
I'm going to go back--I can't go back. That fellow would kill me. But
I'm going to do it. No, I can't do it. I'm going to go home. I can't go
home.”
(Oh, that reminds me of a
preacher on Sunday morning with people sitting before him, and he with
nothing to set before them. The people say, “Give us three loaves. We're
hungry.” And we go many times to our sermon outline books and our
homiletics books. We go down deep and stay down long and come up dry,
and the folks stay hungry. Oh, we need to go to God all week long, day
after day and say, “O God, lend me three loaves for the people in my
class, or my church, or my department have come to me and I have nothing
to set before them.”)
The fellow cried again,
“Friend?”
He wakes up. His wife wakes
up. Johnny wakes up. Sue wakes up. He raises the window, “YES?”
“Friend, I can't go home. I
can't go home. I know you are mad at me. But I've got to have some
bread.”
“If you will not bother me any
more while I sleep, I'll give you a bakery. Just go home and leave me
alone.” And so he gives him the three loaves.
The teaching is this: He would
not give it to him because he asked him, but he gave it to him because
of his importunity. The word “importunity” means much asking, begging.
God give us a ministry where we'll know what it is to ask God for Sunday
morning. May God give us churches in Canada, in Indiana, in Texas, in
California, around the world, that have preachers come before them on
Sunday with warm bread they just got from Heaven's bakery!
I often read the life of Bud
Robinson, a Nazarene preacher, He believed in sinless perfection. He was
wrong in his doctrine, but he came more near being sinlessly perfect
than I do. In one of his sermons he tells this story:
“Ladies and gentlemen, I was
in the hospital in Atlanta, Georgia, and the ‘holy father´ came up to my
room. The priest said to a fellow on the side of me, ‘Is there anything
you want to confess to me?´ Oh, I have never heard such language as that
man done confessed.”
“Then he went to the fellow on
the other side and said, ‘Are there any sins you want to confess to me?´
Oh, I had to shut my ears, that man was confessing so many wicked sins.”
“Then the ‘holy father´ came
to me, a born-again Christian, and said, ‘Uncle Bud, any sins you want
to confess to me?´”
“And I said to the ‘holy
father,´ ‘Put your ear down. I'd like to confess just one thing to
you.´”
“He said, ‘All right.
Confess´”
“I said, ‘Put your ear right
down close to my mouth, please.´”
“And the ‘holy father´ put his
ear right down close to my mouth.”
“And I said, ‘”Holy father, “
put your ear right down to my mouth, please.´”
“And the ‘holy father´ put his
ear right on my mouth. When the ‘holy father´ put his ear right on my
mouth, I opened my mouth good and wide and said, ‘GLORY TO GOD! I´M
SAVED AND SANCTIFIED AND FULL OF THE HOLY GHOST AND ON MY WAY TO GLORY.´
Last time I saw the ‘holy father´ he was running down the hall.”
Brother, let us all make up
our minds that we´re not going to fight the battles of Catholicism,
Modernism, New Evangelicalism, Neo-orthodoxy, Liberalism, etc., without
the anointing of the Holy Ghost upon our ministry. I trust some preacher
will go home from this meeting, get out by himself and say, “By God´s
grace I am going to spend less time doing the little things and do the
big things for God. I´m going to pray, I´m going to PRAY, I´m going to
PRAY.”
I was in Phoenix, Arizona,
preaching a sermon on the power of God. I said, “Why don´t you pray
constantly for God´s power?” I was pricked with conviction. I said to
myself, “You don´t pray constantly for God´s power.” That was a year
ago. I promised God before I left that service that night that I would
spend every conscious waking moment when I was alone asking God for
power. I´ll say I have not kept that promise totally. But I will say I
started praying driving down the highway. “O God, give me power.” On the
airplane I say, “O Lord, give me power, Lord, give me power.” Before I
preach I say, “Lord, give me power. Oh, give me power of the Holy
Spirit.” I have seen a tremendous change in the blessing of God upon my
life.
God help us. We are so afraid
somebody is going to call us fanatical-- and it might be one of the
biggest compliments we ever had.
Peter was filled with the Holy
Spirit on Pentecost. In Acts 9:17, Paul was filled with the Holy Spirit.
From the time the Holy Spirit breathed upon the waters in Genesis 1 till
this good hour, it has always been through the energy of the Holy Spirit
that God does His work.
IV. It Is an Historic Truth
Not only is it an Old
Testament truth and a New Testament truth, but it is also a historic
truth.
We love to speak about the
great men. Oh, how I love to walked with them in their lives. WE talk a
lot about George Whitefield and Moody and Billy Sunday. I´m reminded
that every time Billy Sunday preached a sermon he opened to Isaiah 61:1,
“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me....”
For centuries this teaching of
the anointing of the Holy Spirit with supernatural power was as common
as Sunday School talk is today. Savonarola prayed in a trance for five
hours in his pulpit and God's power came upon him. George Fox, burdened
about his sins and powerlessness, went to a priest and said, “What
should I do?” The priest answered, “You ought to get married.” Another
advised, “You ought to join the Army.” Still another priest said, “You
ought to try tobacco and hymns.”
George Fox went alone. For
fourteen days he fasted and prayed. (Let me stop to say this. This
matter of fasting oftentimes is not a ritualistic thing. If we want to
have the breath of God upon us, sometimes we must forego the
conveniences and pleasures of the world.) He stayed in a trance for
fourteen days, and the power of God came upon his life.
On October 3, 1730, John
Wesley had a meal with George Whitefield and sixty other preachers. They
prayed all night. At 3:00 o´clock in the morning John Wesley said,
“There has come upon me the blessing of God and for the first time I
know what it is to be filled with the Holy Spirit.”
All day June 20, 1736, before
his ordination service, George Whitefield had a feeling he should not be
ordained without the power of the Holy Spirit upon his life. he said,
“I´ll not be a preacher unless God gives me the power of the Holy
Spirit.” Later he said, “On my knees that night when Bishop Benson laid
his hand upon my head there was such a yielding to God's blessed will
for my life that then and there I knew for the first time that by faith
I had been filled with the Holy Spirit.”
You know the story of Dwight
Moody. While in an eastern city, he was overcome with the power of God,
for which he had prayed so long. One day the power came upon him while
he was on the street, and he had to go to an upstairs room of a dear
friend and say, “Lord, withhold Your power till I can get alone with
You.”
George Mueller was in the
house of friends. He saw Christians on their knees for the first time.
George Mueller was so impressed about seeing Christians praying on their
knees, he said, “I am going to go alone and pray on my knees.” And on
his knees he went and the Holy Spirit's power came upon him.
Charles G. Finney said the
night he was converted the Holy Spirit's power came upon him for soul
winning. Peter Cartwright said when he preached his first sermon in
Atlanta, Georgia, the Holy Spirit's power came upon him. Christmas Evans
was riding his circuit on horseback. That old one-eyed preacher, whose
eye was put out from witnessing the first day he was converted by the
same crowd he had gone with in the world, got off his horse and on his
face said, “Lord, I can't be a powerless preacher any more.” Such power
came upon him that he was never the same again. As old Christmas Evans
died, preacher gathered around him and said, “Mr. Evans, what can you
say for us on your deathbed?” He said, “Young men, preach the blood in
the basin. Preach the blood in the basin.”
That's our need, dear friends.
New buildings? That's wonderful, but that's not the big need. You know
it. I know it. Good sermons? That's wonderful, but that's not the big
need. Organization? I believe in it. If you read any of my books you
will find I believe in organization. But that's not the big need.
Trained workers? Oh, yes, we ought to train our workers. We spend an
hour and a half every week on Wednesday night training our workers. I
believe in training, but that's not the big need. Good voices? Great
delivery? That's wonderful, except that Jonathan Edwards read everything
he ever preached and his eyes were so bad he had to put the print right
close to them. he read in a very weak voice--and the power of God came
upon him. The power of God is the greatest need.
The greatest need we have in
our Sunday School is for the anointing of the Holy Spirit. The greatest
need we have for our churches is for the anointing of the Holy Spirit.
The greatest need our ministry has is not polish nor dignity--it's for
God's supernatural power to settle upon His people.
V. It Is a Twentieth Century
Truth
Then I hasten to say not only
is it an Old Testament truth, a New Testament truth, an historic truth,
but praise God, it's a twentieth century truth.
I would never stand before you
as an example. God knows I would not. There are preacher here tonight
who were preaching before I was born and were doing a better job before
I was born than I am doing tonight. But let me say this: I would have to
say that that which God has done through this simple little preacher
must be in the power of the Holy Spirit.
I was a introvert boy,
barefooted, a poor country kid with hand-me-down clothes when I trusted
Jesus in the back yard of the Fernwood Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas.
I was timid and cowed, with no ability, and sucked my thumb until I was
almost 14 years old! My first sermon lasted five minutes. I preached on
Peter, and petered out in five minutes. Then all of a sudden one day
when I was in college a professor came back to me and said, “Are you a
preacher?”
I had been in school about one
week. I said, “That´s a hard question to answer.” (I had preached five
minutes.) But I said, “Yes, I am a preacher.”
He said, “Would you preach for
me next Sunday?”
Oh my! No outlines, no
sermons, no illustrations--if I had had an illustration, I would not
have had anything for it to illustrate. I didn't know a thing, but I
said, “I´ll do it.”
My wife and I went out that
Sunday morning to a little country church just south of Marshall, Texas.
She was scared to death. Five minutes was all I had ever preached. I got
up to preach. I preached five minutes. I preached ten minutes. Twenty
minutes, thirty minutes. My wife was sitting out there with her mouth
wide open and thinking, “Can any good thing come out of this?” and I
preached.
All of a sudden the blessing
of God came on my soul and I really felt that somebody was helping me
besides myself. I was preaching. I didn't know a verse, didn't know an
illustration, didn't know a thing--a little old country preacher. I
said, “This is the greatest thing in the world. Lord, to preach in the
power of the Holy Spirit is the greatest thing in the world.”
When I finished a fellow
walked up to me and said, “Here is your check.”
I said, “What for?”
He said, “Twelve dollars.”
I said, “Not what for--what
for? What for?”
He said, “For preaching!”
I said, “You get paid for
this?”
He said, “You sure do.”
I said something to him I am
so sorry I said. “I´ll never take a dime for preaching the Gospel as
long as I live.” I've changed there a little bit!!
I want to say this. For God to
take a little country preacher like that and let him see people saved
Sunday after Sunday--glory be to His name! In these seventeen blessed
years I could count on the fingers of my right hand the Sundays that we
have not seen folks saved. My little girl Becky is eleven years old.
Becky has never lived a Sunday without seeing somebody saved. Only two
Sunday nights--God gets the praise for this--in eleven years has my
little girl Becky not seen her daddy in the baptistry baptizing to close
the day. Oh, who could do that? Who could do that? Me? Not on your life.
Was it my ability? Oh no! No! A thousand times no. Only the power of the
Holy Spirit could do that. You may have it. You may have it.
I read last week about the
Scottish revival and how all Scotland said, “Knox is coming! Knox is
coming!” There was such power that there was preaching sometimes 6 and 7
services even in Presbyterian churches on Sunday. I say, “Lord, do it
again! Do it again!”
I read about the New Hebrides
revival and how seven men went on their faces before God and prayed all
night every Thursday night. Thursday night after Thursday night, all
night long they prayed. One time they got up at four o´clock in the
morning and walked out to go to their homes. The lights were already on
in the area. Vehicles had stopped beside the road. people had gotten out
of their vehicles and were kneeling and confessing their sins. They saw
lights all around the villages and heard people crying, confessing sin,
and asking God to save them. Revival broke out. There were 7 or 8
services every Sunday in every church on the island.
I say, “Lord, do it again!”
You know, my precious friend,
that unless something happens, our generation will never see revival.
Somebody told me that Canada has never seen revival--I don't know if
that is true. But please tell me, if Canada sees revival, who is going
to be responsible? You tonight must seek God's face.
Let's face it, brethren. Go
home and look in the mirror. The hope for Canada is not is Ottawa or in
London or in Washington. The hope for the nation and the world and the
continent does not lie in guarding Cuba tonight, though I think it is a
wise move. I say the hope lies in the burning bosom of gospel preachers
like you and like me, in a Bible-loving, Christ-honoring people.
May God help us not to be
drunk with wine wherein is excess, but to be filled with the Spirit.
