Here in the 15th chapter of the
book of Romans, I'd like to begin my reading with verse 13 and
read down through the 19th verse. Verse 13 through 19 of Romans
chapter 15. Now the God of hope fill you
with all joy and peace in believing that you may abound in hope through
the power of the Holy Ghost. And I myself also am persuaded
of you, my brethren, that you also are full of goodness, filled
with all knowledge, able also to admonish one another. Nevertheless,
brethren, I have written the more boldly unto you in some
sort as putting you in mind because of the grace that is given to
me of God. that I should be the minister
of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, ministering the gospel of God,
that the offering up of the Gentiles might be acceptable, being sanctified
by the Holy Ghost. I have therefore whereof I may
glory through Jesus Christ in those things which pertain to
God. For I will not dare to speak
of any of those things which Christ hath not wrought by me,
to make the Gentiles obedient by word and deed, through mighty
signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God, so that
from Jerusalem and round about, unto a lyricum, I have fully
preached the gospel Christ I still don't think I got the pronunciation
exactly correct there, but I have pronounced it before and maybe
it'll come to me again, but Here we see the Apostle Paul as a
minister of the Lord Jesus Christ to the Gentiles he speaks in
verse 15 of that grace that has been given to him of God and
of that he should be the minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles,
ministering the gospel of God, that the offering up of the Gentiles
might be acceptable, being sanctified by the Holy Ghost. I want this
morning to speak on the subject of the urgent need of the Holy
Spirit. We want a sound and we want a
healthy church. We want that the environment,
the atmosphere in this body, that it be one that is in harmony
with God. That it be one that God would
be pleased to own and bless. We want the Lord to be here. And I think that the church in
every age has been brought to see its urgent need of the Holy
Spirit. And this has been done somewhat,
I think, through the failures that we have experienced. Many
of the Lord's people have come to see by bitter experience that
it is the spirit that quickeneth the flesh profiteth nothing. And that carnal zeal and fleshly
enthusiasm at its very best falls far short of creating the kind
of spiritual atmosphere that the Lord's Church is to have. Now the Spirit is necessary to
the Church of God for its own internal growth in grace. A church is never going to be
what it ought to be apart from the work of the Spirit. Notice
in verse 13, he says, Now the God of hope fill you with all
joy and peace in believing that you may abound in hope through
the power of the Holy Ghost. The church is filled with hopeful
people. Those that make up the living
body of Christ are hopeful souls. They hope in the Lord. They believe
that God is a God of His word and they have been caused to
hope because of what God has spoken to them and because of
the work of God in their own lives. And the people of God
are made healthy through the power of the Holy Ghost. They
have joy, they have peace, and they have the ability to believe
God through the power of the Holy Ghost. But above all, we
abound in hope. We abound in hope. Oh, if we
ever lose hope. Thank God we are still where
hope can come and it does come daily as we read and study and
meditate upon the Word of God because the living Spirit of
God is still creating hope afresh and anew every day in our lives. Now the power of the church,
that with which the church is to work in and upon the world
for the purpose of the gathering out of God's elect from among
the fallen sons of Adam is also the energy of the Holy Spirit. Look at verse 19. Paul says that
through mighty signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of
God, that he had preached the gospel from Jerusalem around
about Icarium, he said, I fully preach the gospel of Christ.
He said, I've done all of this, and it's through the power of
the Spirit of God. So the power with which we're
to minister, the power with which, when we go into the world, the
power which we are enabled to labor in, and through is the
energy and power of God's Spirit. Now the force outward will always
depend, I think, on the force inward. Meaning that if you don't
have the Spirit and power of God inwardly in the church, there
will be very little effect outwardly Through the lives and testimony
of the people of God that the more well There's an illustration
that I've read one time and I never have forgotten it because it
was such a good illustration Used to be they put very little
insulation in homes, and I remember what I was a kid You know you'd
go out and you'd you kind of get up on the hill and you'd
look over a community of houses and there was a lot of houses
that that there was snow in the wintertime the snow be on the
roofs and And you always could tell the houses that didn't have
any heat in them because there'd be snow on the roofs. And all
of the houses that had a fire going or had some kind of a heater,
why, all the snow was gone off the roofs because there was no
insulation and the heat would rise, of course, and melt it
all off. And so this is true about the churches of our Lord
Jesus Christ. If there's heat inside, it will
be told outwardly. You'll be able to tell if the
Spirit of God is working mightily in the church, then there'll
be a testimony outwardly. Now, a bankrupt nation, it is
said, cannot support a war abroad. And this is true. If a nation
is bankrupt, they better not go and try to fight a war across
the sea because they won't be able to do it. I want to say
that you cannot get out of the church what is not in it. If
it's not there, you're not going to get it out. If the Lord's
not in and if he does not own the body and own the ministry
and make it effectual, you're not going to see anything come
of our work. We never personally get one step
One step towards heaven and we never leave anyone else one inch
on the way apart from the work of God's Holy Spirit. It's through
the work of the Spirit. If I can somehow rather this
morning impress your heart with the need, the urgent need of
an anointing and the filling of the Holy Spirit, I think that
we have accomplished that which God would mean for us to accomplish. I believe in the baptism of the
Holy Ghost. I believe that all of the Lord's
churches have that baptism. I believe it took place on the
day of Pentecost as far as the Church of Jerusalem is concerned,
and I think that when God Almighty creates and forms a body in which
He will live, that He gives that baptism of the Holy Spirit, and
that the Holy Spirit dwells, and this is the place of habitation
for God through the Spirit. The Spirit lives in that body
that He forms on earth to do His work. Now as we drink of
that living water, until we're full, then out of the midst of
this church shall flow rivers of living water, but not till
then. In John 7, verse 38 and 39. Verse 38 says, He that believeth
on me, as the scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers
of living water. But this spake he of the Spirit,
which they that believe on him should receive, for the Holy
Ghost was not yet given, because that Jesus was not yet glorified."
Now the Lord Jesus here tells us that out of the belly of those
that are the living members of Christ's body, there will be
a river of living water flow. And so as the Church of our Lord
Jesus Christ, as we understand the baptism of the Spirit, and
understand that the Lord lives in His Church, and as we submit
ourselves and bow before Him, then there will be this filling,
and the Lord will be pleased to work outwardly through the
members of this body. Out of the fullness of the heart,
the Scripture says, the mouth speaketh. And we want to have
a full heart. We want to have a heart filled
by God with good things to say and with those things that would
be useful, words that will bring salvation unto the Lord's family,
those that he has elected and chosen. I remember when Cornelius
When Peter came to the household of Cornelius, the Lord had told
him that there was one coming who would speak words whereby
him and his household would be saved. Would speak words that
the Lord had given him that would bring salvation. And oh, to be
able, many, many times I've prayed that God would give me a word
to speak that would bring salvation to one of his lost sheep. Out
of an empty basket, brother, sister, you cannot distribute
loaves and fishes. Doesn't make any difference how
hungry the crowd may be. If the basket's empty, you haven't
got anything. You've got anything to give.
And so the Spirit of God must be in us working to fulfill His
purpose or else nothing is going to come to pass. So the first
thing then that we do here is to seek the filling and the anointing
of the Holy Spirit and pray the blessing of God upon His own
work, that the Holy Spirit would be mightily at work in our midst,
that His way may be known upon earth. and his saving health
among all nations. Now the Holy Spirit is absolutely
needful to make everything that we do live. To make everything
that we do, make it to be alive. Sure we can operate like a machine,
and in many, many churches that's exactly what's going on. They're
just operating like a well-lubricated machine. But the Spirit of God
is necessary that everything we do live, give life to all. Because if you don't have the
Spirit of God to give life to the preacher, the preacher will
be dead. And if you don't have the Spirit to give life to the
people, the people will be dead. So you got a dead preacher preaching
to dead sinners, a dead sermon. And what do you have? Well, just
death everywhere. That's what you have. Now when
you get into the service of God, you find out quickly how great
your weakness really is. Now if a man says, well I'm going
to preach. Well, if he attempts to preach
in his own strength and energy, and if he attempts to preach
just as he has the intellectual ability to do so, and if he applies
fleshly wisdom to this business of preaching, he'll find out
in a hurry. His bubble will be bursted, and
he'll find out in a hurry there will be no spiritual results
from what he is doing. We must have the Holy Ghost,
or we'll fail. He alone works all of our works
in us, and in our going into the service of God, we take no
strength with us. We take no strength with us into
the service of God. In other words, our pockets are
empty, and we have nothing, our hearts are empty, and we're depending
alone upon God to work all of our works in us, We're depending
upon Him by the Holy Spirit to make us alive and to give us
something to say. Give us a basket and the loaves
and the fishes, if you please, to be able to distribute to those
that are hungry. So we must not conclude that
because so many What the world would term and religion would
term good people are doing the work of God today That the work
of God is necessarily being done Now a lot of people think well,
you know, it's being done. We're doing it. We're doing the
work of God preacher Don't don't criticize us But my friend, there
are many, many people who claim to be working in the name of
God that are not alive in the Spirit, and the Spirit of God
is not owning their message. There is nothing done unless
the Holy Spirit of God does it. We rely upon no power except
the Spirit of the Most High God. The true Church of Christ relies
upon the Holy Spirit. Now the Holy Spirit is the very
breath, the very breath of the Church. And unless God's Spirit
is here, all is vain. The old song says, all is vain
unless the Spirit come down, unless God's Spirit come upon
us. The Spirit only can give us a
desire, first of all, for the work. Only through the Spirit. The Bible says, if any man desire
the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work. means that if he
stretches himself out toward that office. Well, where did
the desire come from in a man whom God has called to preach?
Where does it come from that he feels that desire to stretch
himself out toward that office? Where does it come from? Well,
you remember what Paul said here. He said he was an apostle to
the Gentiles because, he says, of the grace that is given to
me of God. God called Paul into the ministry
and through that grace he had a desire. Through the Holy Spirit
it was created in his heart. And then also the Spirit prepares
and equips us for the work which God has called us to do. We cannot
change a stone into flesh. Is there any body among us that
can take a stone and turn it into a flesh? No, nobody here can do that.
We don't have the ability and what I'm trying to say is that
regeneration is a work of the Divine Spirit. It's not something
the preacher does. It's not something he can do.
And so if he's going to go out and do a work that he cannot
do, he must be surely prepared for that work and equipped for
that work by the Spirit of God, which is going to do the work. Is that right? Now I think that
I'm telling you the truth. If our religion is not a supernatural
religion, it is a delusion from the very beginning. It must be
supernatural. It cannot be something we can
do. If it's something we can do, then we should get the glory
for it. It's not something we can do,
therefore God Almighty is to receive all the glory and the
praise. It is not by might, nor by power,
but by my Spirit, saith the Lord. Now that word might, in that
verse, means the combined might of an army. It's not by an army
taking over a country and making everybody Christian. That's not
the way God does it. No, and he says not by power.
And that means by the power of one single individual who has
The charisma who has the, we might say, all of the intellectual
persuasive powers that can possibly be invested in an individual.
No, it's not that. That's not that. But he said,
it's by my spirit, saith the Lord. It is supernatural. because
it is not by the strength of an army, not by the combined
strength of many, or by the power of one individual, but it's by
the power of the Spirit of God that the work of God is accomplished. The preparations of the heart
in man and the answer of the tongue, the Bible says, is from
the Lord. It is from the Lord. Now this
business and the results of this business is God's business. Now, that may be a contrite or
may be a trite statement, but nevertheless, it's the truth. This business and the results
of this business is God's business. Now, that's what I'm talking
about this morning. I'm trying to show you that there's nothing
that can come out of the church that God had put in it. I want
you to turn back to Acts Chapter 19 turn to Acts chapter 19 or
something here That's very interesting to me and I want to begin with
verse 11 I want to show you something here that is so important that
God owns his own business and That we don't set up business
for God and attempt to do God's business For him because we're
going to get in trouble when we do in Acts chapter 19. I want
to begin with verse 11. I And it says that God wrought
special miracles by the hands of Paul. It says God wrought
special miracles by the hands of Paul so that from his body
were brought unto the sick handkerchiefs or aprons and the diseases departed
from them and the evil spirits went out of them. Then certain
of the vagabond Jews, exorcists, took upon them, took upon them,
went in business for themselves, put their shingle out, said,
we're in spiritual business now. We're doing these special works
from God. We're doing great things and
here we are, we're in business. We've set up shop. Well, they
took upon them to call over them which had evil spirits. the name
of the Lord Jesus, saying, We adjure you by Jesus, whom Paul
preacheth. And there were seven sons of
one Sceva, a Jew, and chief of the priests, which did so. And the evil spirit answered
and said, Jesus I know, and Paul I know, but who are you? Who
are you? Well, I know Jesus and I know
Paul. We're acquainted with them because
they are from God, but you, we don't know you. And the man in
whom the evil spirit was leaped upon them and overcame them and
prevailed against them so that they fled out of that house naked
and wounded. That's what happened. And the
reason it happened was because these fellas were in business,
but it wasn't God's business, and God didn't set them up. The
Lord hadn't put them in business, and so the results was terrible. The results was absolutely terrible. In verse 17, and this was known,
to all the Jews and Greeks, also dwelling at Ephesus. And fear
fell on them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified. And many that believed came and
confessed and showed their deeds. Many of them also, which used
curious arts, brought their books together and burned them before
all men, and they counted the price of them and found it fifty
thousand pieces of silver. So mightily grew the word of
God and prevailed. So you see, God is able to do
a work. God is able to do something.
The Lord is able and sometimes He even allows people to go in
business and fail terribly in order to show everybody around
that this business is God's business and when He sets up to do it,
He can do it. and that it'll mightily prevail
under His power and under His wisdom. Now, I don't want to
be involved in the work of God if God's not owning us. I don't
want to be involved in it. I don't want to get in trouble
like these seven sons of Sceva. I don't want to tackle something
that God won't enable me to do. So I believe that God is able
to do that in verse in Matthew chapter 28 in verse 18 He said
all powers given to me in heaven and on earth and he said you
go Therefore to all the world and preach the gospel all powers
given to me I have all power you go and preach the gospel
and make disciples of men now over in Acts chapter 1 turn over
there if you will Acts chapter 1 I believe, as I stated earlier,
that the Holy Spirit descended from heaven and nowhere in the
Bible does it say, as I pointed out last week, Our that the Holy
Spirit the third person of the Holy Trinity ever ascended back
to heaven The Holy Spirit is still in the world today and
is still working in the world and in verses 4 through 8 in
chapter 1 of Acts we read these words and being assembled together
with them the Lord Jesus being with them before his ascension
to glory and He commanded them that they should not depart from
Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which saith he,
ye have heard of me. For John truly baptized with
water, but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many
days hence. Now look in chapter two, and
let's read the first four verses. And when the day of Pentecost
was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.
And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing
mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.
And there appeared unto them cloven tongues, like as of fire,
and it set upon each of them. And they were all filled with
the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as
the Spirit gave them utterance. Now these verses, I read them,
to show you that there was a day, that there was an hour when the
Spirit of God came down and indwelt and filled His church. And the
Holy Spirit has not ascended back to heaven. The Holy Spirit
descended. The Holy Spirit is upon His church.
It still is. And this power that Jesus said
He had is upon us today in the Spirit, through the Holy Spirit.
I want you to turn back to an Old Testament book, the book
of Micah, and look in chapter 2, and I want to read here verse
6 and 7. Verse 7 of Micah, chapter 2. Now in this passage, in chapter
2, there is a question asked, and we want to deal with that
question for the rest of our time this morning. But in verse
6 and 7, prophesy ye not say they to them that prophesy, they
shall not prophesy to them that they shall not take shame. O
thou that art named the house of Jacob is the Spirit of the
Lord straightened. There is the question. Is the
spirit of the Lord straightened? Are these his doings? Do not my words do good to him
that walketh uprightly? I want to deal with that first
question. Is the spirit of the Lord straightened? Now the question here that is
asked, this question, it means this. It means to be put out
of business. It means to be shut up. It means
to be put down. It means to be silenced. And
the question is, is the Spirit of the Lord straightened? This
Spirit of God that came down on the day of Pentecost, the
Spirit of God that filled the apostles and gave them power
to go into all the world and preach the gospel, this Spirit
and power of our Lord, is it straightened? Has it been at
some point shut up? Has it been at some point cut
off or has it been compressed? Has it been put out of business? Has it been silenced that the
Holy Spirit is no longer able to work? That the Holy Spirit
is not in the world working now? Well, I want us to try to answer
that. Let me say the Spirit of the
Lord is not straightened. It is not straightened. It has
not been silenced. It has not been cut off. It has
not been shut off. The Spirit of God has not been
put out of business. Number one, by the commands of
men. Now notice, if you will, in verse
six of Micah 2, the word goes out, prophesy ye not. Say they
to them that prophesy, they shall not prophesy to them, but they
shall not take shame. In other words, the thought is
this, that there were these that commanded the prophets and said,
don't prophesy to us. We don't want you to shame us
by prophesying to us. Things you've got to say, they're
hurtful to us. They cut us to the quick. They cut us to the heart. Don't
say anything more to us. Don't prophesy unto us. And the word or the question
is, can you straighten the Spirit of the Lord? Can you shut up
a prophet? Well, the true people of God
treasures the right of the Spirit of God to speak by whomsoever
He pleases. Now, I want you to understand
what I'm saying. We treasure the right for the
Spirit of God to speak by whomsoever He pleases, not the right for
every man to speak in the name of the Spirit. There's a difference
in that. Now, we hear a great deal in
our day. There's some that are extremely critical. Then I wouldn't
be here very long. Because all of you are involved
in this ministry. Every one of you are. And there
are certain ones of you that if I'm not here, you're going
to get up here and carry on this work. You're going to get up
here and you're going to have something to say, a chapter to
read. You're going to have something
to give to the flock as it comes together. And various ones will
take part and assist you in the doing of this. But beloved, listen. We do not believe in the right
of anybody just getting up and saying, I've got something to
say. And it's being published today, and I can give you a little
booklet, and I am going to pass it around, where there's some
articles that's been written by some that didn't choose to
use their own name, elected not to use their own name in the
publishing of the article. But they advocate that when you
come together, that everybody should just speak. Everybody
wants to say something, just say something. Just take the
time up and say what you want to say. Oh well, of course they
would want you to be speaking. These people, because they've
been taught better, they would want you to be speaking what's
right. But they would want you to be, everybody take part and
just speak out. Well, beloved, we do not treasure
the right for every man to speak in the name of the Spirit, but
we treasure the right for the Spirit of God to speak through
whomsoever He would speak. And whoever God would raise up
to speak, that man ought to speak. If God's given him something
to say, let him say it. Now, they thought they could
say to these prophets, be quiet. They thought they could question
the or they could they could what we might say they could
command these prophets and say We'll put you in prison. They
thought they could threaten them. We'll cut your head off But you're
going to quit speaking we'll we'll do this the Spirit of God
Is not straightened and the Spirit of God will not accept these
threats Because for any man in whom he dwells That man must
speak as God moves upon him. Now Jeremiah the prophet said,
his word was in my heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones and
I was weary of foreboding. I had to speak. The word of God
was in my bones. The fire was in me and I had
to speak. Now if the servants of God were
to be all put to death, the Lord could of course raise up others
tomorrow that would speak in His name. The Lord is never at
a loss. And if you were to kill off all
the Lord's servants, the Bible, as long as it's open, God can
speak through His Word, accomplish His purpose by His Spirit. God
is able to come and slay men by His Spirit and work and reach
the minds of His elect. God is able to do that. And so
there's no need to despair. Somebody said we've been commanded
not to speak. Well, the Spirit of the Lord
is not straight You don't put the Spirit of God out of business.
God's Spirit is going to keep on moving upon men. Threaten
the Lord's church any way you want to threaten it. The church
and the people of God and those that God has raised up to speak
will continue. The Lord liveth and His eternal
Spirit will continue to work on His divine purposes will not
fail. God will accomplish them. In
Isaiah 42 and 13, the Lord shall go forth as a mighty man. He
shall stir up jealousy like a man of war. He shall cry, yea, roar. He shall prevail against his
enemies. In Isaiah 42 verses 1 through
4, Behold my servant, whom I uphold, mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth,
I have put my spirit upon him, he shall not fail, nor be discouraged. He shall not fail nor be discouraged. That's verse 4 of Isaiah chapter
42. The Lord Jesus Christ is going
to succeed. He shall see of the travail of
his soul. Now, the first remark then that
we made in connection with the Spirit of the Lord is the Spirit
of the Lord straightened was that the commands of men cannot
straighten the Spirit of God. Shut it off. The second remark
that we make is equally emphatic and it's this. The Spirit of
the Lord is not straightened by any conceivable cause. First of all, let me say that
it's not straightened by any change in God Himself. You see, the Bible says, I'm
the Lord, I change not. That's what God said. I'm the
Lord, I change not. We quoted the verse last week,
Jesus Christ is saying yesterday, today, and forever. And we know
that God has never changed. He has not changed in His purpose. He's not changed in His intentions
from the very beginning. Known unto God are all of His
works from the beginning of the world. God has not changed. And
therefore His Spirit has never been straightened, put out of
business, stopped, cancelled, by him saying, well I've changed
my attitude and I'm not any longer interested in saving anybody.
I'm not any longer interested in sanctifying anybody, setting
anybody apart for holy causes. I'm not interested anymore. God
has not changed. And therefore the Spirit has
not been changed by that. The Lord is divine, he's omnipresent,
omniscient, omnipotent, all-wise, he's infinite, And so he does
as he purposed to do from old time. And he has not changed. And the spirit of the age. You
know I thought about the spirit of the age. What is the spirit
of this age? Well the spirit of the age is
the devil. That's what it is. Now he's called the prince of
the power of the air. He's called the spirit that works
in the children's disobedience. And so he appears in different
forms in the world. He's the spirit of ignorance.
Certainly he is. The spirit of intolerance, superstition,
spirit of envy, infidelity, and speculation. Well, I think also
that the discoveries of science shall not in any way, shape,
or form straighten the spirit of our God. You know, some people
think that, well, these scientists, they're going to discover something
one of these days that's going to just blot out all together.
the truth of the Bible. Going to cancel out everything
the Bible's taught. Well, just let them go ahead and find out
whatever they can. I think the works of the Father
should be extolled. Let them discover whatever they
want. I have no fear of anything that any scientist finds out
is true, because true science agrees with biblical truth. And
I do not in any way, shape, or form, I'm not afraid, and no
preacher of the gospel should be unsettled. by anything that
a true scientist discovers. I think it would just be in harmony
with what the Word of God teaches. And then also, you know, sometimes
you think of all the worldliness of the great masses of mankind
and you say, surely the Spirit of God must be straightened.
by all of the meanness and all of the wickedness and all of
the evil and all of the corruption that is in the world. But you
know nothing about the people today, their love of pleasure,
their love of drink, and the amorals of this generation, the
indifference, anything. has ever in any way affected
the power of the Holy Spirit over the minds of men. God's
still calling out His people. God's still laying hold of souls
and drawing them out of darkness into light. You cannot straighten
the Spirit of God by the wickedness of any age. No, you cannot. Nor by the skill of His enemies.
You know, you think of the enemies of God being outside the camp.
But you know there are those that are pretending to preach
the gospel that are, I think, the greatest enemies of God Almighty
and the greatest enemies of truth. And they appear to be kissing,
as it were, the gospel, but they're smiting it under the fifth rib
every time they open their mouth. And these enemies of our God,
these enemies, they will not straighten the Spirit of God.
God's Spirit and God's true prophets are going to keep on speaking
because of the free Spirit of God in men. You see, the true
servants of God are not like Samson, whose eyes have been
put out and he's been tied, as it were, to the machine that
he just kept walking around, you know, all the time when his
strength was gone. But the true servant of God is
like the Spirit of God. He's free to speak and God will
enable him. When he makes bare his arm, the
poet said, what shall his work withstand? Well, I wanted to
say in the next place that the Spirit of the Lord must not be
treated by us as being straightened. Now, I think this will make sense
to you. You know there are times when
our attitudes are very poor, and there's times when we get
despondent, discouraged, cast down, and we begin to act as
if the Spirit of God were straight, that God's out of business, that
God isn't doing anything anymore. that nothing's ever going to
happen anymore. That we'll never see the hand of God. We'll never
see the power and glory of God in the sanctuary as David saw
it and as others of God's people have seen it. We're just not
going to see it. It's not going to happen. Well, how can we do
this? How can we act or treat the Spirit
of God as if it had been straightened? Well, number one, by acting as
if His Word could not convert and sanctify and comfort and
conquer as it used to do. What I'm talking about is just
practical unbelief. Practical unbelief. We just don't
believe anymore that the Word of God, that it will accomplish
that wherein to it's sent. Isaiah 55 verse 10 and 11 says
that the Word will accomplish that wherein to it's sent. It's
like the snow and the rain that comes down from heaven. And it
will accomplish, it will cause the seed to grow and grain to
come forth, bread to be made, supply bread for the eater, and
so on. And so the Word will accomplish
what God sent it to accomplish. Now, if we conceive in the second
place the present state of things to be hopeless, then this is
to treat the Spirit of God as if the Spirit had been straight. Do you think considering the
state, your state, and the state of the church, that it's hopeless
today. Can anything ever happen again?
Well, with God, the scripture says, all things are possible.
You know, we may have went through the motions so long that it's
gotten monotonous with us. Just monotonous. Just come to
church, put the chairs out, put the chairs up, go home, come
back again. It's monotonous with it. is not
going to do anything anymore. It's hopeless. A little church
like that, what can ever become of us? What can God ever do with
a little group like us? Well, the scripture says, is
there anything too hard for God? Anything too hard for Him? Absolutely
not. Well, also I think when we only
look for little blessings. A fellow said, well I only, I
just got a little blessing now and then. That's all I get anymore
is a little blessing. Well, is that what you're looking
for? Maybe that's all the bigger cup you brought. Just brought
a little bitty cup. You say, well, I'm just looking
for a little blessing and I'll probably, that's all I'll get
is probably a little blessing. Well, maybe we ought to bring
a bigger cup because what we're doing is we're straightening
the Spirit of God. We're saying that God can't do
it anymore, that the Spirit is not going to work anymore, that
there's not going to be an outpouring, there's not going to be any flood
come on this dry ground. We just don't believe it. Well,
when we imagine that our weakness will hinder God doing anything
by us. You know, it's amazing how you get rebuked
in your heart. You know, often times we say,
well, I don't hardly figure God will ever do anything by us.
We've been shut up over here in the back side of the desert
for 25 years or 24 years. And we just don't have any opportunities.
You can't get away from here. It costs $1,000 to go any place
from Montana. By the time you get out of the
state, you've spent $200 or $300. In time, you can't go no place.
And you can't go any place to preach. It's just terrible. And somebody says, well, Al, who are you lowering when you
talk that way? Well, really and truthfully, we're lowering God.
We're not lowering ourselves. We're making ourselves sound
like that we'd do something if only God could. Or that we'd
be a whole lot more useful if the Lord just had something to
do something with. Well, my friend, all of that
is wrong. It's wrong for us to think that
way. We're lowering God. Listen, God, even though we may
be inferior in ability and in knowledge and in opportunity,
God is still able to do anything He wills to do and purposes to
do and we ought to believe that He'll do it until the very end,
that God will do it. And quit looking at our inferiority
and quit looking at us and what we can do and judging God and
saying He can't do anything with people like us. God's done something
with empty vessels from the very beginning. Everything God ever
did, He did it with an empty vessel to begin with. And if
it wasn't empty when He started with it, He always emptied it
before He went on with it. And so you're going to have to
get to that place sooner or later when you're empty. Somebody said,
I'm just plum empty. Surely God can't do anything
with me. No, that's the kind of people God's going to do something
with. People that are empty, emptied out. And then also by
the smallness of the place that we labor. Say, well, we, you
know, this place is so small and we just got a little group
and ain't much ever going to happen with us. We're just too
small. God don't work with a little group. Well, God does work with
a little groups. He said, we're two or three are
gathered together. I'll be there. We're two or three.
I'll be there in the midst. So God can work in small places. You say, I'm way off on the back
side. Well, you may be. But God can come. God's God everywhere. I found that out. That the Lord
is God everywhere. He's not God just in the big
cities. He's God everywhere. And if we
cannot believe that He can bless us today like He blessed men
in the past, we ought to believe in God's nows. In God's nows. Why should I not come again and
ask God to give me more life, more faith, more hope, more joy,
more likeness to Himself? Why shouldn't I do it now, again,
and believe that God can do it now? What is it that would keep
Him from doing for me now what He did for me a few years ago?
What would keep God from blessing a church today? What would keep
God from saving a sinner today, just like He could have saved
them ten years ago or five years ago? We just ought to believe
that God can do something now, N-O-W, and not say, well, I think
if a few people around here get straightened out, then maybe
the Lord would do something. No, I think what we ought to
do is just believe that God can do something now, and start asking
Him to do it, and not be thinking that God's going to be hindered
by somebody, you know, that's not quite as straight as a gun
barrel, or that there's somebody that's a little bit bent one
way or the other. Just start believing that God can do something
now. He can do it now. It's a backslider
and He's My tongue is not working very good today. But anyway,
if a backslider needs to be changed, God can change him right now.
It doesn't have to be, we don't have to wait, you know, and put
it off and say, well, we better not have the Lord suffer and
we better not do this, we better not do that, because somebody
ain't just quite right. If we wait until everybody gets
just exactly right, my friend, you're going to be sitting until
the day of the judgment. So believe in God's now. Don't straighten the spirit of
God by saying, well, later on maybe, but not now. Well, I just
believe now. Now God can do it. Start asking
the Lord now to do something for you. Revive your heart. Well,
the spirit of the Lord will prove that he's not straightened by
and by. There's going to come a day when the Lord's going to
show everybody all the world that he is not out of business.
He will fulfill all of the decrees of God. All of the elect will
be brought in, and not one of them left to ruin. All of them
will be brought in. And He'll fulfill this decree. He'll glorify the Lord Jesus,
and He'll prepare a people to welcome the coming of Christ. When Jesus Christ comes back,
there's going to be some people ready. They're going to be ready
to welcome Him. The gospel is going to be preached
among all nations. Out of every tribe and people,
witnesses will be gathered to await the glorious appearing
of the victorious Lord. Then it shall be seen how that
the Spirit has perfected both the number and the character
of the church, which like a chaste virgin shall be presented to
the Lamb of God as the reward of His agony and His intercession."
I believe that's coming. I believe that that day is coming. There's a word from the poet
this morning He said, Blessings abound where he reigns. The prisoner leaps to loose his
chains, the weary find eternal rest, and all the sons of wont
are blessed. Father, in the name of our Lord
Jesus Christ, bless the study of thy word this morning and
use this message to encourage this people and to build us all
up in the holy faith. May our souls, our Father, be
filled with hunger and desire and appetite for a fresh anointing
and blessing of the Holy Spirit. May you be pleased, our Father,
to own this message and the thoughts expressed here today in all of
our hearts. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.