Category: Messages

” Take Heed How Ye Hear “

June 16, 1957

Now, in the book of Luke, the book of Luke, verses 16-18 of the eighth chapter. Luke 8:16-18. No man, when he hath lighted a candle, covered it with a vessel or putteth it under a bed, but setted it upon a candlestick that they which enter in may see the light. For nothing is secret that shall not be made manifest. Neither anything hid that shall not be known and come abroad. Take heed therefore how you hear. For whosoever hath to him shall be given, and whosoever hath not from him shall be taken even that which he seems to have. Now, verse 18, the first sentence, Take heed, Take heed how you hear. I want to talk a little word about that. Now, the text says, take heed how ye hear.

Now, when the great God would bring salvation to us, He let it ride on a voice. He let it ride on a sound. And salvation was to begin now, where we are, and continue through successive stages of progression until we are glorified. For always remember, that you don’t have full salvation till you’re glorified.

I’m a little shy. I just learned the other day that a president of a well-known Bible Institute or seminary said I was a legalistic, that is Tozer was a legalistic sanctificationist.  I thought that was nice. And I appreciate that. If I were keeping a diary, I’d write that in for my grandchildren. But, I may in some people’s eyes be a legalistic sanctificationist, but I shy away from a lot of the terms that are used even in our own society. I shy away from the term “fourfold gospel.” The God I know isn’t satisfied with four-foldness or five-foldness nor ten-foldness nor twelve-foldness or one hundred-foldness, but He multiplies Himself and magnifies His glory, and surprises us with new and wondrous revelations of Himself that far exceed our little fourfold.

And then I don’t like the word Full Gospel. I suppose I should, but I don’t. I like it when you mean it in it’s great, emotional flow, full salvation, full salvation. Yes, I like that. But to put a word before the gospel, a word of man’s choosing, I don’t quite like it–Full Gospel. You see my brethren, you don’t have full salvation really, until you’re glorified.

Now, it is the will of God that we should be saved by hearing it. And that we should begin to hear now and that we should obey and follow and go on, until we pass through, stage after stage and finally, be glorified at last. And God, in doing all this, proceeds after a known law of life. It is, that man can change. Change and decay in all around I see. And that’s one of the saddest things in the world, that we change so. We change, change and decay, but it’s also one of the most comforting things that I know.

I want to ask a question, now just ask a question and trust to your humility and realism to answer it. Would you like to have a visitation from an angel? Or would you like to have a messenger from heaven, or the messenger of the Annunciation, an angel of the Annunciation, to come to you and say, Mr. McAfee and others, and I could name all of you. I have a message from the Most High God. It is that you remain, and it is so decreed by the Everlasting Father, that as you are at this moment, you shall be eternally, period. You have been, this is the judgment of God, and the decision of the Most High. There’ll be no change from here on. It seems to me, that that alone would be cause enough for one hundred days mourning and thirty days fasting to be told you’ll never change. You’ll remain as you are.

I say, this would be an annunciation so terrible, a declaration so frightening, that I think that instead of it’s bringing happiness to us, it would drive us into despair. For it is the hope of every man who has named the holy name of Jesus, that he’s going to be better tomorrow than he was today. That if he lives through fifty-seven, it will add up to something better than fifty-six. And if he lives through fifty-eight, it will be better than fifty-seven. Not more money, not more prosperity, not better weather, not more health, not that, but that it’ll be a better man in God.

That I say is our hope brethren, that we can change; that we are not fixed, that God Almighty hasn’t cast us in and fixed us by an eternal changeless fire. It’s predicated, this message that we hear from God, this message through the Word, it’s predicated upon our ability to change. If you’ve got a temper tonight like the very devil, it’s possible for you to be so delivered, that the change will be noticed by everybody that knows you near and afar. And no matter what habits you have, or what mental habits or what vices you may have, there is power in the gospel of Jesus Christ to change you so completely, that it’s like changing a beast into an angel.

There is power, there is potential in man to change. You don’t have to continue to be what you are. And it seems to me that’s the first message the world ought to know. You can be different. That’s the first message the world ought to know. And the Gospel should follow that message, for preaching any gospel without that basic knowledge, that I can change, that God can change me. That I am not fixed like concrete, but pliable like clay. And this is a known law of life, and God takes advantage of it. I don’t know, but what the angels that sinned and kept not their first estate may have been fixed eternally, unable to change. At least there’s no hope for them, but for you and me there’s hope. Man can change.

And not only change, but learn. And so there’s the sounding of a voice through the Word, the Living Voice when you open this book. When you open this book, don’t read it as you would read a newspaper or a classic. Expect to hear something in it. Expect it to speak to you, and expect the Voice to vibrate. Expect it to be alive. For the words that I speak unto you, they are Spirit, and they are life. And this book is a live book. It’s only dead to the dead and to the hopelessly, dead. To all others, it’s a live book.

You see my brethren there’s a difference between redemption and salvation. Jesus Christ died on the cross and provided redemption there. And there isn’t anything that can be added to redemption. Redemption is the finished work of Christ on the tree. The finished work that is, He finished that part, of the dying on the cross. That part was done. When Christ said it is finished, He didn’t mean redemption was finished. He meant that part of redemption was finished. The rest of redemption was, that He had to rise again and go to the right hand of the Father. For He saved us by his death, but justifies us by His resurrection. Let’s not bear down too hard on that single phrase, “it is finished.” For when He said, it is finished, He meant the giving out of His life, the pouring out of His life, the atonement, the the sacrifice was made, the Lamb was dying. But if God had not received the Lamb, salvation would never have been, redemption would never have been accomplished.

But God accepted the Lamb, raised Him from the dead, sealed Him and put it on high, and made him Lord and Christ, and thus affected redemption; so, the redemption is all Jesus Christ did for us. From the time He picked up His cross until the time He sat down at the Father’s right hand, that’s redemption. And that’s done and there’s nothing we can add to it. Not the keeping of the Sabbath, not the eating of certain meats, not the long periods of fasting, not even prayer can add anything to that. Long before you existed, when you were only a forethought in the mind of God, it was all done, it was all done and there’s nothing to be added; nothing, nothing to be added.

There are cults, adventism, and others. They are cults that say that there’s something we must add, that it was not finished, not done. There’s something we must add. I believe that to be blasphemy, that there’s anything we must add. Nothing more is to be added. This Man, when he had made one sacrifice for sin, forever sat down on the right hand of God. From henceforth expecting until His enemies be made His footstool. Nothing can be added and any attempt to add is to insult the Savior, who gave His all. That’s redemption. Salvation is something else.

Salvation is redemption applied to the individual life. Redemption is objective. It’s that which is done. It is that which was done before you were born, before America was a nation, before the Crusades, before the fall of Rome. It was that which was done, in that relatively short period of time, redemption, the Lamb was led out to die. He died, rose and sat down, in what the old theologians call, His session, His seating for God. Now that’s redemption.

But, the application of that objective truth to me subjectively, that’s salvation. And so, salvation is both a human and the divine thing. Salvation is divine, in that God did that which man could not do, and redemption is 100% divine. And there’s nothing that any man can do, or angel can do. That’s divine. But salvation has a human element and a human side to it. It means that I’ve got to make a response to that redemptive message. That I have to make a response to it, otherwise it does not become saving to me.

Christ died for Englewood, and redemption was provided for Englewood. But Englewood is not saved. Why? Because Englewood made no response. And the sinners that we know that die every day, are sinners and die in sin, not because they were not redeemed by the blood of Christ, but because they do not respond, they do not hear. Now, it is our part to understand and to hear, to hear and to understand and to respond. Remember that we can sit and hear truth and be none the better for it. Remember that it is the response to truth.

Suppose that you’re ill with a certain kind of disease for which there has been a specific cure discovered. And say, the yaws, is that the name of that disease in the Valley, the yaws. It’s a disease that eats the fingers off and eats the nose off and eats the ears. It’s a terrible thing. And what I can learn, one or two injections of penicillin will cure it. And they are having difficulty over there making the heathen understand they’re not gods. And that this is not a Jesus needle, and it’s not a miraculous thing.

But suppose we had a terrible disease here and suppose you had it. And there was a specific that was discovered that would cure it in twenty-four hours. And suppose that a man got up before you and for forty-five minutes, lectured on that medicine, and told what it would do, the cure it would affect, and then suppose that he threw the meeting open and twenty-five people got up and said, I want to testify that what that man said is true. I had that disease, I took that medicine, and look at me now. I can do a day’s work and feel good and sleep, as my father used to say, like a top. Well, has anything been done for you yet? No, you’re sitting down there. You’re hearing a man tell of the merits of a certain medicine. You’re hearing people testify that that medicine cured them, but nothing’s happened to you. You still have your disease.

What are you supposed to do? You’re supposed to hear it, believe in it, and do something about it. That’s exactly what it is in salvation. The blood of Jesus Christ is the medicine of immortality. And the dying and rising and living and pleading of the Savior is redemption without anything man can add. It is God Almighty’s universal panacea. But you’ve heard that talked about until it’s old stuff to you. And until you have heard with faith, and then risen to do something about it, and apply it to your own self by obedient faith, it doesn’t mean anything. It’s all objective, all outside of you. It must become subjective and get inside of you. No confirmatory work has to be done. We need to look for nobody, to nobody for confirmation. It’s all been done.

In the beginning was the Word, and there’s a speaking word. And because in the beginning was the Word and you were created in the image of the Word, you can understand the Word. And even though fallen like the man, the young man far from home in that fire country among the swine, it’s still because you were made in the image of God, and in the beginning was the Word and all things were made by the Word and without Him was not anything made that was made. You have in you the ability to hear the Word. Take heed, how ye hear, for redemption is yonder. Salvation is when redemption that is yonder becomes present and within us by obedience and faith. So, there is a Voice, and it sounds living and vibrant all through the Word. But you know, there are different kinds of hearers. I’ve looked through the Scriptures to notice the different kinds of hearers. Don’t get braced for long sermon, I’m going to be brief.

There are a number of a number of hearers, perhaps there are six or seven of them here and enough for each one for a sermon. But I’m going to condense them and point out what what kind of hearers we may be. For instance, here’s a faithless hearer, a hearer without faith. Israel had the gospel preached unto them, said Paul, but it did not help them because it was not mixed with faith. There was no faith in the hearts of the people that heard it. So, it’s possible to be a hearer without any faith at all.

And then, here’s a dull hearer. A dull hearer is a bored hearer. Do you know that if you could take all the dullness that there is in Protestant religion and bottle it, and if you could burn it, you could heat the whole United States all the winter of 1957, and if it was like gasoline, you could run all the trucks on the highways for the next five years with it. Because boredom is one thing that is pretty present in the church of Christ.

And somebody will say immediately, well, you preachers make it so and there’s a lot of truth in that, a lot of truth in that. We do. We do. We talk about things the most important in a tone of voice that has no interest whatever, no vibrancy. We give the impression of, so what. I know that boredom is partly the result of the pulpit. But also, boredom is partly the result of people trying to feed people who aren’t hungry, and trying to get people to seek God, who don’t want God. And trying to get people to get their life insured, who don’t think they’re going to die. And trying to get people to get ready for our second world when they don’t believe there’s any more than one, or they live as if they believed in only one world. A lot of that boredom, that dullness, is a result of hearing and hearing and not doing anything about it.

Then, there’s the critical hearer. I find him in the Bible, too. He’s the fellow that wants to know about the grammar and if it isn’t quite what it should be. He won’t listen, and he wants to know about the delivery, and is it, is it forceful? When I go anywhere and I’m advertised as a forceful preacher. I always remember what they said about the egg that’s fairly fresh. Is there anybody that wants to eat a fairly fresh egg? It’s what you call damning with faint praise. But there’s the critical hearer. Is the preacher forceful? And how are his illustrations? Do you know what? If you knew that at 12 o’clock tonight, the sound of the trumpet should echo through the land. And all the old forgotten graveyards of our Puritan fathers should be visited by the Holy Ghost, and the dead should rise and the living changed, the poorest preacher in Chicago would be an orator in your ears, and you’d be glad to hear any little thing, critical hearers.

Then, there’s the forgetful hearer; and Satan steals the seed. And there’s the neglectful hearer, who has good intentions and his good intentions are always put for his deeds. He never, he’s always intending to do it. Did you ever stop to think how much you’d have done if you had done what you had intended to do? Did you ever think how far you’d be out along on the highway toward heaven if you had done all that you intended to do? If you had sought God as you intended to seek Him? No. Hell is paved with good intentions, our Fathers said.

Then, I read in my Bible of the trembling hearers, when that jailer trembled and fell down and said, what shall we do? Oh, what shall we do? He said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. And there’s a submissive hearer as we read about matters in Cornelius’s household. There’s a congregation that anybody could have preached to.  It wouldn’t have cost you one dollar; do you know it? It would have cost you a dollar,

Now, the price of souls is going up these days. Peter preached and 3,000 were converted, and the overhead was exactly nothing. It didn’t cost anybody a dime, not a dime. But it’s been going up now in recent times. And so, it takes thousands and thousands of dollars to rescue one sinner, because we’re not submissive. Cornelius’s household didn’t cost anything to get them converted, because they said, here we are Lord, ready to hear whatever Thou has to say to us. So, Peter preached the gospel and while he was speaking to them, the Holy Ghost fell on them. That’s because they were ready for it. They were a people submissive and prepared and ready to hear what God the Lord will speak.

Ah, how precious is the little time that we’ve got left, how precious is the little time.  And how vital is this little time, to the long, long future that lies before us. Take heed how you hear. Some of you have had the good fortune, and the misfortune, to be brought up in Christian homes where you heard the Word from the time you were born. They say that preacher’s children are sometimes the very hardest to reach and the ones that go the farthest astray.

That isn’t always true and history will show that it isn’t true. I once saw a chart of how many of the presidents of the United States and vice presidents and the leaders everywhere who were preacher’s children; and great leaders, college presidents, great missionary statesman, preacher’s children. So, they’re not as bad as they’re said to be, but I think I know why they sometimes hear in a bored way because they’ve just have it from the time they can remember, just from the time they can remember and sometimes not much life in them, they’re dull, routine, routine religion is like a routine kiss–who wants that? I ask you now, who wants that? And who wants routine religion? If it isn’t involuntary and impulsive, it isn’t religion at all.

And we grind it out sometimes, and make the poor little fellows sit. Mrs. Dietz used to say, God says to the little children squirm and we say to the little children, now sit still. That’s in Sunday school class, God says squirm, and we say, now sit still. And we make them sit still and listen to that which they don’t understand and wonder why they’re bored. And yet my friend, if we only knew it, we only knew it, that boy, that Word, that dual message, for it is a dual message. It’s a message of reproof and a declaration of intention. The reproof is, repent ye, and the intention is to save you through the gospel of Jesus Christ.

So, if you will hear that message, now dig at your heart and dig up your fallow ground, and get free from the dull boredom of it all. And shake yourself and say, am I a faithful is hearer, or do I believe what I’m hearing? Am I hearing interestedly, or am I a dull, bored hearer? Am I a critical hearer? Am I a humble, submissive hearer, ready to hear what God the Lord will speak. It’s going to mean a tremendous lot to you in that great Day, which can’t be very far away.

It’s going to mean everything in that great Day. You can change. You’re not frozen, fixed by fiat of God, to be what you are now, but you can be changed. The power of the gospel is a transforming, recreating in power. And it can change characters. It can change dispositions. Somebody says, Mr. Tozer, my disposition is so bad that I would poison heaven if I went there; and wouldn’t we all. But there’s deliverance, there’s change, there’s possibility lying here. The Book tells us, hear the voice, come unto me. Hear the voice. It says lo, I stand at the door and knock. Any man who hears and opens, I will come in. And all such passages, both in Old and New Testaments, they ring with invitation and warn and console and plead, hear the Voice. Take heed to how you hear!

Some of you young people have been reared on the Sunday school. You’ve been brought-up, you were brought here when you’re still in your first year and dedicated. You can likely to become dull; I want to warn you. You had better ask God Almighty to put life and the nerve inside your soul and don’t let it die, by the grace of God. What about it tonight? What about you young fellow? What about it?

Somebody wrote me about a young child, Tommy their son, I guess maybe five years old, a son of one of the teachers at Nyack. And they said, let’s go down to the Alliance church in Nyack and hear Mr. Tozer. And Tommy said, oh, I heard that man once. And I wonder how many little Tommy’s there are who feel the same way about it? I heard him.

Well, I admit that sometimes it’s pretty the same and some time it’s pretty dull. But, it’s a thrilling, thrilling wondrous life-giving fact that however poor the preacher, God is calling men to Himself. And if we will but listen. What about you?

” The Kingdom Lies Not in Words “

June 16, 1957

I want to read a section from the book of 1 Corinthians, fourth chapter. Let a man says Paul, let a man, so count of us, as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover, it is required in stewards that a man be found faithful. But with me it is very small thing that I should be judged of you. Yea, I judge not mine own self. For I know nothing by myself; yet am I not hereby justified: but he that judgeth me is the Lord. He said, these charges you bring against me, I don’t know any of them that are true, but he said, I’m not hiding behind that. He that judges me is the Lord. Therefore, judge nothing before the time until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness and we’ll make manifest the counsels of the heart. And then shall every man have praise of God. In verse 15, he says, for though he has 10,000 instructors in Christ, yet have you not many fathers, for in Christ Jesus, I have begotten you. Since you believe, said Paul, through my preaching, 10,000 people have instructed you, but don’t forget, I preached the gospel that won you, Wherever I beseech you be ye followers of me. For this cause have I sent unto you Timotheus, who is my beloved son, and faithful in the Lord, who shall bring you into remembrance of my ways which be in Christ, as I teach everywhere in every church. Now some are puffed up, as though I would have not come to you. But I will come to you shortly, if the Lord will. And then I will know not the speech of them, which are puffed up with the power. For the kingdom of God is not in Word, but in power. What will ye? Shall I come unto you with a rod, or in love, and in the spirit of meekness? Or are you going to accept the truth and begin to obey it so that I can come in love and in the spirit of meekness? Now, that’s what Paul said in partly in that fourth chapter of First Corinthians epistle.

Now Paul, had authority, there’s no getting around that. He had the authority of the chief apostle. He was appointed by the Lord for several things, one of them being to receive and shape church truth. The man Paul received the revelation from God which was behind. Jesus said, I have many things to say to you, but you can’t receive them yet. But when the Spirit of God comes, He will reveal these things, and He will take of Mine and will show them unto you. And that Spirit that came entered to Paul when Ananias prayed for him. He was filled with that same Holy Spirit. And he received that which was behind. And he was the mold in which God poured it. And then he was also appointed by the Lord to set up a system and polity for the church, for there was system and there was polity. And he was appointed by the Lord to embody all authority that there was in the meantime. And then, perhaps most important of all, to show by example, the Christian way. He said, I sent to you Timothy, my beloved son and faithful in the Lord, and He will bring to your remembrance my ways, which be in Christ.

See the man of God here was having his authority under cut by schismatic men who came in and taught that Paul was not a real apostle. They said the reason Paul isn’t a real apostle, he never saw the Lord. The other apostles walked with Jesus while he walked among men, but this man Paul was not, is not an apostle. And we can prove it by the fact that he never walked, he came after Jesus died and had risen. That was their argument. They overlooked the vision Paul had of Jesus of one born out of due time.

And these schismatic and dividers of the church had to repudiate Paul’s authority in order to establish their own. And they attacked Paul and as far as Paul was personally concerned, he said, it didn’t matter. He said, it’s a very small thing with me that I should be judged by you. As far as he was concerned, he didn’t care. He said, I don’t even judge my own self, I’m in the hand of God. But he knew that if he was going to have any authority, he was going to have to establish that authority. And so, we sent Timothy, to tell them about Paul and straighten them out. And then finally, he warns them this, he said, now I’m coming in the will of God one of these times to you. And it’s alright for you while I’m not there, to listen to these schismatics and these puffed-up fellows. Isn’t it strange that there isn’t anything new under the sun?

I remember years ago, there used to be a writer for The Daily News. What was his name? He died finally, but a very wonderful writer up on the literary level. And he once went to see the old Greek play Lysistrata. And he came back after seeing it and he reported it in his column. He said, I went to see the old Greek play by Aristophanes. And he said, I came away deeply discouraged. And he said, here’s what discouraged me. Not that it wasn’t well written, not that it wasn’t well done. But he said, I came away convinced that nobody had been able to think of a new joke in 2400 years, that everything old Aristophanes wrote into his funny play, he said, is floating all around here.

Now, that was a worldly man talking about a worldly thing. But the same thing is true in the spiritual life. So many of us imagine that we’re original. There’s nobody original except Adam. And if you find puffer-uppers and men who are puffed up now, Paul wrote in the eighteenth verse, now some are puffed up, and some are puffed up thinking that I won’t come. But when I come, he said, and I’ll do it shortly, I’ll make a test. And I’ll not test the words of these men, but I’ll test their power. For the kingdom of God is not in word, but in power.

Now, here’s what I want particularly to emphasize. The kingdom of God doesn’t lie in words. I am among a few who are trying to tell the church that in this day. I was encouraged Thursday, as you know, I spoke and Brother McAfee sang and we kind of took Wheaton over Thursday. And after the last talk, Dr. Redmond came over and said, well, God bless A.W., keep telling them. There are a few that see it, but not very many yet. But re-see, or see over again, see again what they saw back there, that the kingdom of God is not in words but in power.

You see, the words are the form of truth. They’re the outward image of truth only. And they can never be the inward essence. And words are incidental. They’re incidental. If I were to say, now everybody here that can speak Swedish, bring your New Testament next Sunday. And everybody that speaks German bring yours, Norwegian yours. And so, we have a half a dozen different languages. And I would say now read that fourth of Revelation. It would be quite a revelation or First Corinthians. It would be quite a revelation to us to hear that the words were only incidental. It was the meaning that matters.

Somewhere in the middle of this all there is a meaning, a spiritual meaning. And the six different people embody that meaning in six different set of words. And those words were not alike, or only occasionally alike. We ought to remember that. We ought to know it. The kingdom of God is not in words. They’re only incidental and they never can be fundamental. When fundamentalism ceased to emphasize fundamental meanings and began to emphasize fundamental words, and we shifted from meanings to words and from power to words, we began to go downhill.

Now, there’s an essence of truth. And it may follow the form of words, as the kernel in an English walnut follows the configuration of the shell. But the shell is not the kernel and the kernel is not the shell. And so, while the truth follows the form of words, it sometimes deserts it. A great error is in holding the form to be essence, and putting the kingdom of God in words, so that if you’ve got the words right, you’ve got the whole thing. And if you can get a better set of words, you have more truth. Not necessarily at all.

Now, words deceive even good, honest Christian people. They deceive because we feel that if we mumble words, there’s certain safety in mumbling words, and that there’s a power to frighten off Satan if you mumble certain words. Now, my brethren, if a man is as just as plainly ordinary as I am, and not afraid of words, would you ask me please why the devil should be afraid of words? The devil, who is the very essence, was of ancient created wisdom back there, and had the perfection of beauty and the fullness of wisdom, and whose power lies in his shrewdness and in his intellectual brilliance, can you tell me how that devil should suddenly become so foolish as to be afraid of a word, or afraid of a motion, or afraid of a symbol? To keep the devil away, I put a chain around my neck, or to keep the devil away, I make a motion with my fingers in front of my face. I wonder what a man without any arms would do, an amputee, if the devil came after him, and he couldn’t make the sign of the cross. I hadn’t thought of that till now, but it’s worth considering anyhow.

But the devil isn’t afraid of words and he isn’t afraid of symbols. You can surround yourself with symbols, religious symbols, Protestant or Catholic or Jewish, and you haven’t helped yourself in the slightest, because the devil isn’t afraid of a symbol. He knows better. Do you ever see the little child it’s afraid of a false face? Put a false face on and the little runs and yells. But if the child did that when he’s sixteen, you’d be ashamed of him. We assume as we grow up, we know that false faces don’t mean anything. And words don’t mean anything as words. But if we imagine if we say certain words, we will have power, they have power to bring good. If we say certain other words, they have power to fend off the devil.

And there is safety in mumbling words. And if we fail to mumble the words, we’re in for it. And if we remembered to mumble the words, we’re all right. That’s just paganism under another form. And Paul told them plainly, for these were pagans, recently but only lately converted. And he said, you’ve got a lot of you Greeks, you’re Greek and the Greeks love oratory, and they love fine language and they produce a lot of fine literature. And he said, you Greeks, you love fine words, but he said, I don’t come to you with fine words. I come to you, in this second chapter, I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but instead a demonstration of Spirit and of power, that your faith should stand in the wisdom, not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. So, we ought to throw this off. You may feel a little bit mentally naked when you throw all this off. You know, it’s one thing that we do when you strip superstition away from a man, he feels terribly naked for a moment. But until we strip off our superstition, the Lord can’t put on us a cloak of truth.

Now, the Kingdom lies in power. Its essence is in power. The gospel is not the statement that Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures. The gospel is the statement that Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures plus the Holy Ghost in that statement to give it meaning and power. And just the statement itself, never will do it. Have you wondered at times as I have, why those churches, some of them, who drill their young people from their childhood in the Catechism, and teach them the doctrines so that they’re positively instructed in the word of the Truth, yet somehow strangely failed to get them through to the new birth. Have you noticed that? And we’re not referring by name to any denomination. And I have nothing against the Catechism. I think it’s a fine thing for young people.

But have you noticed that there are whole generations of so called Christians who are drilled in the Catechism, and who know the doctrine, and can recite the gospel as well as the law, and still never manage to break through to the new birth. They never come through to that shining wonder of inward renewal. The reason is, they are taught that the power lies in the words. And if you get the words, you’re all right. Whereas Paul says, the kingdom of God doesn’t lie in words at all. The kingdom of God lies in the power that indwells those words. And you can’t have the power without the words, but you can have the words without the power, and a lot of people do. So that the power of the Spirit operating through the Word, that’s the gospel. It’s the statement of the fact that Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures. That He rose again, and that He was seen of many and that He’s at the right hand of God and will forgive those who believe on Him. That’s the gospel in its shell, that’s the shell of the gospel, but the power must lie in there, or there’ll be no life in it.

So Paul appealed away from man given authority. And he appealed away from talk, however eloquent. And he appealed away from even his own position, and appealed direct to the power of the risen Lord who manifest true the Spirit. And he said, I want you to know, and I sent Timothy to try and straighten you out and remind you, that it’s the power of God that talks, not a man’s mouth.

Now, the appeal, I say was to the power of the risen Christ. And my brethren, if this church and the people who compose it, are not living in a constant miracle, they’re not Christians at all, because the Christian life is a miracle. It is what the ark of Noah was in the day of the flood. It is completely separated from that flood and yet floating upon it, completely separated from it. It was what Jesus was when he walked among men, right in the middle of them and yet separate from sinners and higher than the highest heavens. There operates within the true Body of Christ a continual energizing by the Spirit that makes a continual miracle. A Christian is not somebody who’s believed only. A Christian is somebody who has believed in power. And the working of the power is a moral power. It has power to expose sin to the sinner’s heart.

Nobody will ever be truly saved until he knows he’s a sinner. And nobody will ever know he’s a sinner, truly know he’s a sinner by simply threatening him or warning him or telling him. You can go to a man and say you’re a sinner. You swear and lie and you’re wrong. You’re evil. He’ll grin and shake his head and say, I know, I know I shouldn’t do those things. But I guess we’re all human. You haven’t convinced him. You can read Plutarch and Aristotle, and Herbert Spencer and all the rest of the books of ethics, and showing him he’s dead wrong, and he still will never know what it is to be a lost sinner. You can threaten him that if he doesn’t look out and doesn’t straighten out his ways, the atom bomb will get him or Khrushchev will be over. And you’re still haven’t convinced them. You haven’t told him anything he didn’t know.

But when the Holy Ghost is come said Jesus, He will convict the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment. When Peter preached at Pentecost, the Scripture says, being pricked in their hearts, they cried out and said, what shall we do to be saved? And that word pricked they say, Wayman says, is a word stronger and deeper than the word pierced, where they pierced the heart of Jesus with a spear. The words of Peter in the Holy Ghost, the new, baptized prophet and apostle, the words of Peter penetrated like, like a Donee spear, so deep, deeper than the spear had gone into the heart of Jesus on the cross, when forthwith came water and blood.

So my brethren, the Holy Spirit isn’t something that we can argue about. Or somebody that we can say, well, you believe your way and I believe my way. The Holy Spirit is an absolute necessity in the church, an ungrieved Holy Spirit. Because there’s a power in the Spirit to expose sin and revolutionize and convert and create holy men and women, and nothing else can do it. Words won’t do it. Instructions won’t do it. Line upon line, precept upon precept won’t do it. It takes the power to do it.

And then it’s a persuasive power, convince and persuade and break down resistance. And it’s a worship power, to create reverence and excite ecstasy. If we were to put statues all around this place, and have candles burning here, and have beautiful Italian made glass, colored windows, pictures of shepherds and altars and all that, and I were to come in here in a long black robe, you’d have a sense of, well, I think you, probably you being you, you’d probably have difficulty restraining your mirth. But if you’ve been brought up to it, you wouldn’t. You’d think that reverence.

No Brethren, reverence is not created by beautiful windows, although I like to see them, nor by symbols. Reverence is the astonished awe that comes to the human heart when God is seen. And that, the Holy Ghost can do through the Word, and that nobody else can do. I can imitate holy tones, all I will, and we can try to be just as religious and ecclesiastical as we can and still want when it’s all over, the feeling we get is psychological or aesthetic at best. But when the Holy Ghost came upon the early church, they darest not join themselves to them. And in 1 Corinthians, the sinners fell on their faces and said, God’s in this place of a truth.

So, there’s a power to bring reverence to excite ecstasy, to bring worship. It lies in the Word when it’s given in power. And the power of the Holy Spirit brings a magnetic, is a magnetic power to draw us to Christ. And will exalt Him above all else and above all others. And in this church, we must demand more than correct doctrine, though we dare not have less than correct doctrine. More than right living though, we do not have less than right living. More than a friendly atmosphere, though we dare not have less than a friendly atmosphere. We must demand that the Word of God be preached in power, and that we hear it in power. For in First Thessalonians, you remember, Paul wrote and said to them there that the gospel came not unto you, I know a little better, he said, that you’re the elect of God, and here’s how I know it. Our gospel came not under you in Word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost and in much assurance. That is, not only Paul had the power, but the gospel could run in power, because it was heard by them in power.

And so, when the Spirit of God, the Spirit of God through the Word, preaches in power and it’s heard in power, then the objectives of God are wrought out, and men are made holy, and sins forgiven, and the work of redemption is done.

And briefly now, the way to attain it, is through prayer and faith and surrender, the old-fashioned ways, and I know of none other. Prayer and faith and surrender, pray and as you pray, surrender, and as you surrender, believe, and that’s for all of us. It’s for all of us. You as God’s people have every right in the Scriptures, every scriptural right to demand to hear the Word in power, and if you do not hear the Word and power, you have a right to rise up and ask why. If you’re hearing nothing but teaching, nothing but instruction, if there is no evidence of God in it, then the preacher can’t say I appeal to God, to say whether this is true or not. If this can’t be, then you have a right to demand somebody come that can.

On the other hand, any man who stands here to preach has a right to expect that you believe in power. And that we’re so close to God and so surrendered and so full of faith, and so prayerful that the word of God can work in power. Shall we not believe God for that kind of church here? For the kingdom of God is not in words. The kingdom of God is in power. And you can take the little Alliance manual and read it and sign your name under the bottom of every page. It won’t mean one lonely thing to you. But, if the word of God is in power, it means everything to you.

So, let us trust God for correct doctrine. We dare not have less, but we must have more. Right living, we dare not have less, but we must have more. Let’s be a friendly church, but beware lest it be simply a friendly church. It’s amazing how socio-religious or religio-social atmospheres can permeate a church so that it’s hard to tell which is of the Holy Ghost and which is simply nice social contacts. I believe that both ought to be there, and I believe they can both be there. And I believe that when the early church met and broke bread, they fulfilled both their spiritual communion and their social fellowship. So, there’s no reason why they can’t be fused. There isn’t any reason why the warm, cordiality of social fellowship can’t be made and can exist with the indwelling Holy Ghost, so that when we meet and shake hands and sing and pray and talk together, we’re doing both these things. We’re having social fellowship, plus, the mighty union and communion of the Holy Ghost. Let’s be very careful that it’s both. Not one only, to try to destroy or prevent social contact and social fellowship is to grieve the Spirit for the Spirit made us for each other. And He meant that there should be social fellowship and friendliness together. He meant that we should break bread, not only formally in a church, but be times when we meet. And He meant that we should know each other by our first names and have our social fellowships. He meant it, and the churches that try to destroy that, succeed only in getting a lopsided and fanatical type of church. But be very careful my friends, lest that we don’t mistake the one for the other.

So, let’s have a friendly church, and let’s have a morally right church, and let’s have a church where correct doctrine is taught. But let’s also have a church of which any man can come here, and say when he goes away, I know the entrance I had unto you, that I could preach unto you not in Word only, but also in power and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance, because you are the kind of people that could take it. I say this is most important. For the kingdom of God lies not in words, but in power.

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