He That Saith — Leonard Ravenhill

Our Father, tonight we thank you for the privilege of fellowship together. We bless you that somebody has put to music what our hearts so often feel and cannot express. Our wonderful Saviour is Jesus, my Lord.

He came to die for the sins of the world, but he came for my sins, even mine, as John Wesley said. And we bless you that he is exalted tonight in the highest heaven, no longer spit upon by men, but worshipped by angels.

We think of how he came from the worship of angels, or cherubim, seraphim, bowed at his feet, and he came to earth to wash the feet of some very unworthy men. We thank you that he came to reconcile us to God.

When we were afar off, when we were rebels, without God, without hope, there wasn't an angel who could redeem us, there wasn't a seraphim or cherubim, but we bless you that Jesus came. As Wesley put it so magnificently, God was contracted to a span, incomprehensibly made man, because your word says the heaven of heaven cannot contain him.

And yet somehow he was crowded into the womb of that precious woman and came into the world to save sinners. And Lord, we recognize somewhere on the journey we feel the chief of sinners. We felt we had defended thee, we had not always walked in the light, we had not walked in obedience, we had sought selfishness, and self-interest, and self-glory, and self-righteousness.

Christ's Incarnation and Victory Over Sin

We thank you that he came to put away sin, not just sins, but sin by the sacrifice of himself. He came to break every fetter, again as Wesley put it in that lovely hymn again, he left his father's throne above, so free, so infinite is grace, emptied himself of all but love and bled for Adam's helpless race.

Again we have to say Lord, in our hearts, long my imprisoned spirits lay, I think of how often I went to church, hundreds of times, there was no light on the page, there was no inspiration in the message, there was no joy in the fellowship, but Lord there came a moment in all of our lives, I trust, and we could see with Charles Wesley, long my imprisoned spirit lay, fast bound in sin and nature's night, thine eye diffused a quickening ray, I woke, the dungeon flamed with light, my chains fell off, my heart was free, I rose, went forth and followed thee, and therefore no condemnation, now I dread Jesus, and all in him is mine, alive in him my living head, and clothed with righteousness divine, bold, I approach the eternal throne, Lord how magnificent these things are, and yet they slip off our lips so easily, we so soon step out of light it seems, often into darkness, from being totally absorbed with the living things of God, to step into sad issues in the world.

But we bless you Father, for your infinite patience with us, we had long withstood thy grace, I had, year after year in the sanctuary, sung these majestic hymns, long for years, reaching another hymn years I spent in vanity and pride, caring not my Lord was crucified, knowing not except theoretically, just because it was Easter, just because it was Christmas, because the calendar threw it at us, not because our spirits worshipped you, but Lord we bless you, we don't sing, oh come let us adore him, once a year, we sing it constantly in our hearts, thou art worthy to receive honour and power divine, and blessings more than we can give thee Lord, forever thine, Lord we thank you that we are going to be clothed in your brightness, we thank you that you became man, that we might become, you became the son of man, that we might become the sons of God, and that emphasis has hit me so much this week Lord, even now we're the sons of God, not five minutes after we die, not when this mortality puts on immortality, not when this corruption puts on incorruption, not when we step out of the terrible world in which we live, it's sin shattered that prefers sin to righteousness, and prefers war to peace, because it rejects the prince of peace, Lord it seems today I've been thinking constantly of hypocrisy, the hypocrisy amongst the believers, hypocrisy in politics, everywhere there's a facade, Lord we thank you for the day when you faced us with the reality, that Jesus did come into the world to save sinners, and mild he laid his glory by, we've no idea what that glory was, I believe Lord the thirty years you were on earth, or the thirty three, you longed, as you expressed in John 17, for the glory that you had with the Father before the world was, the glory of heaven, the glory of eternity, the wonder of it, the majesty of the heavenly choirs, with the harp and vials there stands a great throng, Revelation says, I don't believe that's to come up merely, but Lord you share that in eternity, and you came down here with, not to harmony but to discord, not to peace but to war, not to light but to darkness, and yet you walked unblemished through this terrible morass of sin and iniquity, I'm glad Lord nobody ever intimidated you, and I believe Lord if we're intimate with God we'll never be intimidated by men, or circumstances, or devil, we thank you for your word as it's gone forth today, somewhere up some little creek off the Amazon there amongst the Indians, almost naked Indians, some strange islands in the South Sea, away in Afghanistan, war torn as it is with weeping, and suffering, and blood, and yet you've seen every heart there, you've heard every grief, you know every desire, every one that worships you, we think again of close countries like Russia where today maybe they've given you more worship and adoration than we've given, we've been so busy, they've no time to go for presents, they can't go and be free, but Lord they're not shut up, they're walled in but they're not roofed in, how stupid that men think they can wall your saints in when they have a way all the time, from here to eternity, by the blood of Christ and by the Holy Spirit, Lord I think again of India, I think of these precious folk here tonight that love it so much and we love it, and we pray Lord you'll raise up the prophets there and the evangelists and the teachers, Lord get us out of America into Bible living, Bible thinking, Bible acting, Bible loving, Bible sacrifice, Lord save us from this wretched thing that we call Christianity, give us a new birth in the church, give us a new revelation in the church, give us a new authority in the church, give us a, as I think that little frail woman Amy Wilson Carmichael said, oh for a passion of passion for souls, oh for a pity that yearns, oh for a love that loves unto death, oh for a fire that burns, oh for a prayer power that prevails, that pours itself out to the lost, victorious prayer in the conqueror's name, oh for a Pentecost, Lord we want something money can't buy, something that seminaries can't give, something that superstar evangelists can't bring to us, we want that from heaven, born of God, on our benighted nation and benighted generation, bless your work to our hearts tonight, Lord I thank you for those who've been receiving healing, glad to see dear Robbie here tonight, bless her Lord, continue to heal her, thank you for what you did for Jennifer Lord, for delivering in her life, I think another lady that called today that we prayed for, from Atlanta and she was spared the surgeon's knife apparently and is rejoicing, we bless you that Jesus died to undo all that Adam had done, and as Isaac Watts says, in Jesus, in him the tribes of Adam boast more blessings than their fathers lost, I don't care what was lost in the garden, Jesus Christ came to put back everything that was lost by the first Adam, was bought and presented to us by the last Adam, oh loving wisdom of our God when all was sin and shame, another Adam to the fight and to the rescue came, oh wisest love that flesh and blood which did in Adam fail, should strive afresh against the foe, should strive and should prevail, we celebrate your triumph tonight Lord Jesus, thank you giving us new hearts, new vocabularies, new interests, new desires, bless your word, open it to our hearts tonight in Jesus name, thank you, in case I forget, Sonny a bit later, wave and remind me that your boys have gone to Oklahoma, how many, Spencer his brother, oh Spencer, good well they've gone to Oklahoma, they've taken uh, what are they taking, clothing and food, burning heart, you know that precious fellow, I'd come just to hear Spencer and one or two of these fellows pray if I lived a hundred miles away, they're such a blessing, because we're going to read now then from the word, from the first epistle of John, I remember being in a meeting in England, I had a bunch of college fellows with me and one of them was taking part for the first time and so he said, I want to read from the first epistle of general John, well it's a good soldier but he wasn't general John, first epistle general of John, okay and chapter two, here's a very very simple text for you, if you have any more light on it than I have, give me the notes afterwards, okay, first epistle of John and chapter two, verse four, here's the text, there'll be a a caption on the cassette, so the caption is, he that saith, he that saith, what does it say, he that saith I know him and keepeth not his commandments is a liar, now that's pretty strong and the truth is not in him, verse six, he that saith he abided in him ought also to walk as he walked, in other words, if you declare it, if you declare you're a child of God, demonstrate it, that's the only way you can prove it, he that saith, I don't believe there's a greater honor in the world tonight than to be a child of God, to know that we've passed already from death to life, to know that we have a home eternal in the heavens, not made with hands, to know that there's no power on earth or hell, nor dynamite can dynamite the church of the living God, it's as sure as Jesus Christ himself forever and ever, I've got to read the first verse for you here, my little children these things write I unto you that ye sin not, now that's pretty strong isn't it, huh, that ye sin not, not that you sin irregularly or erratically but you sin not, you quit it altogether, somebody told me just recently that his father said you have to sin, keep on sinning, and then some of the holiness people say you know you need a little bit of sin to keep you humble, well why not have a lot and be real humble, and which do you drop and which do you take, come on now, it's a very clear scripture this, my little children these things I unto you that ye sin not, and then it says if not when we sin we have an advocate, but if we sin the normal Christian life is a victorious life, you know most Christians could just as well be Mohammedans, they sin and repent and sin and repent and sin and repent, that's not what Christ died for, if any man, that covers a lot, sin we have an advocate with the father, Jesus Christ the righteous, now we we use that word about the Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ upon me, the Holy Spirit is an advocate, I'm trying to think of a verse that Wesley wrote somewhere, must be Wesley, it's so good, Christ is our advocate above, the scripture says our advocate is with the father, but it also says we have an advocate, the Holy Spirit is our advocate, God speaks to me through his Spirit, I speak to God through his Son, I have an advocate, I have one to plead my court, day by day I say God my grammar is poor, my understanding is poor, my vision is poor, perfect my imperfect praying, Jesus you take it, I'm praying as better I know in the Spirit, praying with what I know should be prayed for, but I have an advocate with the father, you used to say a lot a lot of times in England, you know that that fella got away because of a friend in court, you know what that means, you have a friend in court, somebody has got some inside information, inside power, but we have an advocate with somebody at the throne, we have a friend in court, his name is Jesus, if any man sin, I've told you about a, I was preaching in a certain university a few years ago, I spoke after a, well in a panel, but not all at once, different times, and the final night a big shot came up, he's internationally known, and he's the national speaker, radio speaker for his denomination, he gave a pretty good message, and as soon as he finished, oh all these university students swarmed up on the platform, and they were talking, getting Bibles signed, and I don't like signing Bibles, they're not autographed books, it's God's Word, bring me, bring me a check and let me sign it for you, in your name of course, but they wanted pictures of him, they wanted his autograph, and I said to him, sir I'm not a hero worshipper, well I said, well I thank you for the message tonight, the only thing is that you, you made a loophole for sin, what do you mean, so I said, well while you were preaching, at one point I was thinking about the times when a very wicked woman came to Jesus, and Jesus said to her, go and sin less, what do you mean go, I said that's who you implied, he says to a woman at the other side of the cross, without the blood, without the Holy Spirit, go and sin no more, people don't sin because they have to, they sin because they want to, there are some men that live pure, they're drunkards, they wouldn't bother with women, there are some men that mess around with women all the time, but they're not drunkards, we choose our sin.

Sin's Bondage and the Necessity of Holiness

A man develops a habit for a certain thing and it grows on him until before long he's a prisoner to that thing. I used to tell the story often in England about a, a man who was famous right through the country, for making chains when they made them on the anvil, I don't know if you ever seen that done by Dale, no?

I used to love to watch the village blacksmith, and this man made chains, and he had a reputation that his chains were just about indestructible. Well he got crossed up with the, with the law, and one day he was put in prison.

So he kind of smiled when he went in, they chained him to the wall the old-fashioned way, and he, he smiled when the jailer went out, oh he said I'll be out of here in no time. And he went on the chain and he looked at all the links, and he put a special mark and discovered that he was chained to the wall with a chain that he'd made, and he couldn't break it.

You know that's what sin does. They used to say as children, put one piece of cotton round your fingers, if you struggle you may get it free. Put two round, put three round, put four, and it may as well be ironed by the time you've done.

What's the old saying we used to use in street meetings often? Sow a thought, you reap an act. Sow an act, you reap a habit. Sow a habit, you reap a character. Sow a character, you reap a destiny. Very simple, and very profound, and very true.

There's no man on God's earth can handle sin, except he's born of God, and he has the power over the power of sin. That's the only way, otherwise he can't do it. Now this is tough isn't it? This is one of the toughest texts in the bible I think, verse 6.

He that saith he abideth in him, he's declared it, let him demonstrate it. He ought himself also to walk as best he can. He ought to walk like his pastor. He ought to walk like a missionary. No, walk as he walked.

Walking With God in a Corrupt Generation

Come on now, forget all your excuses. Even while we're in this world, we ought to walk even as he walked. It makes an interesting study. I don't want to take too much time tonight. I want us to pray, particularly for the teens of the government of Oklahoma.

But you know, you have in the Genesis, I don't know the chapter exactly, but we talk about Adam walked where? In the Garden of Eden. Who with? God. What do you think they talked about? I don't know what, I'm thinking of something else, to get my wires crossed.

Anyhow, he walked in the Garden of Eden. Then come to the sixth chapter of Genesis, it says that Enoch walked with God. That's a classical statement, isn't it? Reminds you of what the Amos says, how can two walk together except they be agreed?

What do you think, what do you think Enoch and God talked about? I'll make a guess. It's only a guess, but I'll make a guess. Maybe God talked to this man Enoch, now who's walking in holiness, about the tragedy of the Garden of Eden.

Because it seems as though Enoch was still in the garden there, the others have been put out, but he's in that area anyhow. And God talks about his, the tragedy of Adam, perfect man. Oh, people say it's natural to sin.

Well, if it wasn't God Almighty didn't make Adam natural. He had no sin when he was first made. He walked with God, he talked with God. Then we talk about his fall. I think the heart of God was revealed to Enoch.

And he talked to him about the distress and the anguish that he went through when he saw his gorgeous creation let the serpent in. And God sees a long-distance view. I know something else. Turn to the epistle of Jude and see what it says there about verse, what is it, 14?

Jude verse 14. I don't know if you'll get book lists, but I often get book lists. Some are used books, some are old ones. And very often I see, here's one of the last books of the Bible, the book of Enoch, buy it.

It's been reprinted. Do you remember the famous writer in England called Coleridge? Coleridge said, sell your shirt, sell the last thing you have in order to get the book of Enoch, it's fabulous. It's got about 800 pages and in a word of truth in it.

There are two verses in the Old Testament. Enoch walked with God and he was not, for God took him. And there are two verses here in Jude chapter, uh, well there's only one chapter in Jude, anyhow, chapter verse 14.

Enoch also the serpent from Adam prophesied. Come on, how many people were there in the world? How could he prophesy? He walked with God. If you walk with somebody, you have to set the pace. Somebody has, you have to get, set the direction.

You have to say how long you're going to walk. And so Enoch is walking with God. What did God do? He lifted the veil of time into eternity. How do you know? Because it's recorded here. It says Enoch also the serpent from Adam prophesied.

You know it's fantastic when you think of the revelations those wonderful men had in the Old Testament. Moses somewhere, not at, not at the burning bush before that, left all the treasure of Egypt. And he did a little, a little adding up.

And as we say, the bottom line was this, esteeming the reproach of Christ. Not the kingdom of Christ, not the glory of Christ, not the resurrection of Christ, not the redemption of Christ, esteeming the reproach.

What do you mean the reproach? Jesus got kicked around all his life. By good night, there was a contract on him before he hardly got out of his mother's womb. And there at the cross, at the end, you'll find him there.

It's, it's turbulence the whole way through. There is no easy street for him. And yet somewhere in his magnificence, God revealed to, to, to Moses the glory of the Lord Jesus. He esteemed the reproaches of Christ.

Faith Illustrated Through Abraham's Sacrifice

Greater treasure, all the treasure of Egypt, which was the greatest system in the world at that time. Did any of you go to Dallas, that terrible city, and see the, did you see the exhibition of King Tut's stuff last year?

King Tutankhamen, do you know who he was? Well, he was the next in line after Pharaoh. Maybe, suddenly reminds him by his classical name, Amenhotep II. You don't remember him either. But they, everything was gold.

You know, one of the things that they found there, it was wonderful. There's, there's a, there's a book in the Penguin series called Ur of the Chaldees. Only cost you two or three dollars. It's interesting.

And it tells you how they went to Ur of the Chaldees, and they found all these treasures. And, and I remember, who was the Englishman? 1920 it was, Lord, I've forgotten his name. They got into this old Valley of the Kings, rolled a stone away, and everything was in solid gold.

There was a casket there, and you know what they used to mold the, the face of the person in it, put it on top, I don't know why. And it was a sarcophagus, as they call it, it was in solid gold. They found more treasures of gold than any other thing they'd ever explored in the Valley of the Kings.

But one thing they found was a little tree about six inches high, and a goat had its head in the tree, its horns. Well, they deciphered the other things, they had what they call these hieroglyphics. If you've never seen them, see my handwriting, you'll really like them.

Hieroglyphics. And it explains so many things. Then somebody said, but what about this thing? We've never found one of these in the Valley of the Kings. What's this? A little tree this height in solid gold, a ram caught in the thicket.

Then one of the guys, oh Lord Carter was the fellow that explored it. And one of the guys said rather blushingly, well sir, your highness, I used to go to church, and they told a story there about a man called Abraham.

And he was going to sacrifice his son. And at the very last moment when he had the knife up, that boy must have been some boy. Do you think your 18-year-old boy would lay down, he'd punch you on the nose?

He lies there bound up, and he sees the knife coming down. A perfect picture of Jesus led as a lamb to the slaughter. And at that last moment, as an old shepherd in Australia reminded me once, I spoke on that, and he said, you missed something.

I said, I often miss things. He said, but you know, he climbed the mountain, he built the altar, he tied up his son, and his hand was coming down. And the boy said, stay thy hand. You know what we would have done?

We'd have murdered him. We'd have said, you see where the river bends there, that's where God told me to offer thy son. But God spoke a second time, he obeyed God both times. But just as the knife was coming down, there was a rustling, and he looked behind, there was a ram caught in the thicket.

And the old, like my venerable friend, he had a beard, an old gentleman there in Australia. And he said, you know what, that ram wasn't in the thicket when he went up the hill. No, wasn't in the thicket when he built the altar.

No, wasn't in the thicket when he bound the boy. I said, what do you mean? He said, it was the very last moment, as his hand was coming down to kill his son, God said, stay thy hand. And at that moment, he brought deliverance.

Now he said, remember this, so often God takes us to the very last moment, to the extreme moment, before ever there's a deliverance. And when he saw the ram caught in the thicket, of course, it was different.

Well, that ram caught in the thicket was there in the tomb of King Amenhotep II. It's easier to thank him. But there when they took the sarcophagus off and the other things, there was this little model of Abraham, where Abraham took the, caught the ram in the thicket.

And God preserved it to that time. That was an amazing thing, I think. It became a confirmation. As a matter of fact, Leonard Woolley, the man who was there at the discovery, was converted because of it.

He said, this is true. You see, what they did, they made an excavation one place, and then they went 30 miles away, and they had to dig through 30 feet of sand. And then they found some treasures. They found some things never been found in history before.

And suddenly, Leonard Woolley says, you know what this sand is from? It's from the mountaintops. There was a flood in the world, and it came and submerged the whole of this area in 30 feet of silt. And so through those things, these men came to know the Lord.

Anyhow, let's go back here. Well, I'm getting this, recalling it, that might be better. I think the 17th chapter, the 17th chapter of Genesis, God says to Abraham, walk before me. Well, that's okay, simply enough.

Wait a minute. He says, walk before me and be thou perfect. You know, we're terrified of that word perfection. Go back to Noah. God says, Noah was perfect in his generation, perfect in obedience, perfect when everybody scorned him.

Good night. We can't take ridicule and opposition for a few days. We feel there should be a national declaration for it. Yet for 120 years, Noah withstood all the criticism and ridicule of that multitude that he had around him.

And yet God says he walked perfectly. You know, I've skipped over so many stories in the Bible. You know one thing, one thing about Noah, amongst others, once he went in the ark, he never came out again.

And there was no rain for an awful long while. He didn't go out, he didn't let anybody in. God shut the thing up. He made a covenant with God, and there he stayed. But listen, the storm is going to break over our generation before long, and we'll be very, very glad we're in the ark.

There's no other place of safety. Financial safety has taken wings, gone away. Notice the depressed people coming from the Dallas area, they lost all their money. But anyhow, it's true. What seemed so secure a year or two ago is absolutely liquidated.

It's gone. Our national name has gone. Our name's in the gutter. You know, it's not so long since Nixon, when we put a man on the moon, he began to exalt us and said, we've set our, I think he used the phrase, we've set our nest upon the stars, isn't it?

Is it a Habakkuk that says, though you set your nest upon the stars, I'll throw you down? The nation has gone down ever since he said that, not just because of Watergate. But God has a controversy with us, and it's time we woke up to realize what it is.

And yet in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, God has called us to shine as lights in the world. He that saith he abideth in him ought to walk, also walk even as he walked. Let me go back to 1 Peter.

Following Christ's Example in Suffering and Obedience

Well, Brother Raymond, what are you going to do? Are you going to give us a list of things here, and this is how you walk? This way, this way, this way, this way? No, no, no, no, I won't do that. Let me tell you something that's been handed down to me and to you for centuries.

Here it is in the first epistle of Peter, chapter 2. Verse 19 says, It is thankworthy, this is thankworthy, if a man for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully. For what glory is it when ye buffet it for your faults?

Ye shall take it patiently. But if, when ye do well, and suffer for it, and take it patiently, this is accepted with God. For even higher unto where ye call, because Christ also, listen, suffered for us, leaving us an example that we should follow in his steps.

Now what do we do? Is there a blank there? Do I ask for suggestions? What do you think he did? What are his steps? We get 50 different answers. But before you can open your mouth, the answer is already given.

That ye should follow in his steps, number one, he did no sin. Number two, no guile was found in his mouth. Number three, when he was reviled, he reviled not again. If you go into Ephesians, I'm going to just read this quickly, and you can get the tape after.

There's a wonderful book, anybody got the book by, what was her name, Paxson? Mrs. Paxson. It's called The Wealth, Walk, and Warfare of the Christian. You got that Robbie? Good for you, because I'm going to borrow it.

It's a wonderful book, The Wealth, Walk, and Warfare. Isn't that what Ephesians is? The wealth of the spiritual life, the walk of the spiritual life, and the warfare in the sixth chapter. How many of you read The Christian in Complete Armour?

Have you read it? You don't have it? You haven't got it? You have the book. You have it. Have you read it? Me too. How many have got the book? Let me see. Good for you. Have you read it? We're all partners tonight.

Part of this and part of that. Maybe we're going to talk, we've read it through between us. It's the greatest book ever written on Ephesians. Do you have it Dale? Good. Have you read it all? Well there's one thing, we're all in one accord tonight, aren't we?

We all missed out on it. Pardon? Oh Robbie, you read it through? Good. You're reading it, reading it again right now. It's a fabulous book, but that's what Ephesians is. It's the wealth, it shows us our riches in Jesus Christ.

It says you are the children of the devil, but now it says you're the habitation of Christ, isn't it, in the first chapter, the habitation of God through the Spirit. Is there anything, come on, is there anything on God's earth greater than that, where the habitation of God, that he lives in us?

He lives in us. He doesn't just live in the sky, he lives in us. The habitation of God through the Spirit. He did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth. You know, it's awesome. I've thought more this year about Mary and the child than I think ever in my life.

When she washed his little dimpled hands, do you think she ever thought about the nail going through? She knew it was. It had been prophesied, a virgin shall bear a son, and she was the virgin. Being prophesied, they put nails through him.

When she washed his little back, did you think they'd skin it with lashes? The Romans would get a, cut a nine tails we call it, about nine lashes, and at the end of them there was a copper spike, and it tore the flesh, and yet they're going to do that to her baby?

How often do you think she turned over in her mind as she dressed him and took care of him? She'd heard the priest, maybe the Sunday before, reciting Isaiah 53, his soul shall be made an offering for sin.

Not just his battered body. There was something on TV recently, I watched some, I don't recall them, impulses going through a wire no thicker than a hair of your head. Fabulous invention. And I thought of this.

Billions of, what shall I call it, voltage was going to go through the soul of Jesus. His soul was made an offering for sin. The Catholics make a lot of his body, his soul was made an offering. I told you before maybe about the old man that was in St. Andrews University in Scotland.

I have a book of his saying, they called him Rabbi, nicknamed him, because when he gave lectures on Hebrews, he never took a grammar book, he took the Hebrew scriptures. And one day he was describing Isaiah 53, and he said his soul was made an offering for sin, and he stopped, and the audience, about 50, I think, of those university students, divinity students, wondered what he would say.

He was always coming out with wonderful nuggets of truth. And he said, gentlemen, his soul was made an offering for sin. He said, gentlemen, it was damnation, and he took it joyfully. Broke the class up.

He was so profound, he would shake them every time he spoke. He lived in a little room in a dry old university, dark and dusty, and no rugs. And they knew, because he sent it to the laundry, he wore a nightshirt that he kind of tied it up around his neck, and it trailed like a bridal gown.

Thick flannel nightshirt, the only way to keep warm anyhow. So one night they decided, oh, this man, when he prays, oh, he's so marvelous. You feel as though he has a hand on the throne of God, and the other on the audience.

He leaves a spellbound. It's worth going to the lake just to hear him pray, never mind his exposition and Hebrew. So they went, followed him upstairs. In those old houses in England, the keyholes were about this size.

You can nearly get through them, never mind look through them. Give you a big key like this going to the room. They saw the old man go in his room, beautiful, no rug, a candle. He put the candle at the side of his bed, and he read his Hebrew, some Hebrew from the scriptures.

Then suddenly he knelt down and put his hands together. Let me look, let me look. Come on, just a minute. So they're all standing there. Look for the one, just until I nudge them. And they all wanted to line up and hear the old man pray.

And there he knelt with his hands together, in his big old flannel nightwear. You know what he prayed? Gentle Jesus, meek and mild, look upon a little child, pity my simplicity, suffer me to come to thee.

Fain I would to thee be brought, gracious God, forbid it not, in the kingdom of thy grace, give this little child a place. So they checked another night and found he said that every night before he went to sleep.

Living Faith Rather Than Religious Talk

Gentle Jesus, meek and mild. How did Jesus come into the world? He's going to come one day, read 2 Thessalonians, boy he's going to come streaming through the skies with thousands and thousands of angels, in terrifying majesty.

Why did he come the first time? He could have captured the world. Why did he set up his kingdom? He could have done it. He didn't because the plan of God was otherwise. It's just like your life and my life.

You find as you go on, there's a gradual unfolding of the revelation and majesty and power of God and you wonder where you've been the last few years, not to find it. You know the world's just about fed up with religion.

It's no good talking if we're not walking. What did he used to say? It was an Americanism I heard first. In fact I was in a holiness meeting one day and a guy would come to the front every meeting and just when the meeting was going, he leapt in the air about three feet and yelled at the top of his voice.

We shut him up after a while because he was flesh anyhow. And somebody said, brother I don't care how high you jump as long as you walk straight when you come down. I told you before about this lyrical man, this Baptist man, what was his name?

Bumer in Africa. I gave a very famous preacher, all of you know his name, I gave him a book to read. He read it, he said no, can't accept it. He raised the dead, gave eyes to the blind, I can't believe it.

Why not? Oh it's not documented, I need signatures on it. Last year a man called Roger Volk, one of the best known men in South Africa, came to see me. Looked at him at the door, hey brother Len, how are you?