Either Pentecost or Holocaust — Leonard Ravenhill

Pentecost or Holocaust: The Sermon’s Central Warning

All right, Acts 2, verse 1. When the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. Last night, for the first time in an awful long while, my wife and I watched TV for maybe half an hour.

And it had to do with the coming, if you want to call it, baptism of fire on the world, the Holocaust, and it was dreadful, it was frightening. And it seemed to me, by the pain as I saw it, it just leapt up to my mind, here's the alternative, Pentecost or Holocaust.

If there isn't a Pentecost, there'll be a Holocaust. If there is a Pentecost, there doesn't need to be a Holocaust. A few years ago, a paper that most of you don't take called Christianity Today, Karl Barth said it was Christianity Yesterday, but anyhow.

Christianity Today sent out a questionnaire to 20 of the most brilliant preachers in America. They didn't all get one, I didn't, anyhow. But the questionnaire was this, what do you see for the Church of Jesus Christ by the year 2000?

There were some very, very interesting answers to the question, I wish I'd kept them. There was one by Elton Trueblood, the great Quaker philosopher. There isn't Elton Trueblood in the Holiness work, he's called a walking Bible because he can recite scriptures anywhere.

Like the man we had here recently, who can recite scriptures backwards way, has memorized every word in the Old Testament, can recite any given passage. He was down at Baylor University and somebody said, I understand, sir, that you're starting on the New Testament now.

He said, yes. He said, well, what's Romans 12? He said, which way do you want it? What do you mean? Do you want me to start at the first verse, to the last, or the last? I can do it either way. So the shrimp of a student there shrank.

I don't think they've found him since. Elton Trueblood said this, by the year 2000, the Church of Jesus Christ will be a conscious minority, surrounded by an arrogant, militant paganism. Well, I swallowed that hook line and sink and went to bed and did what I do so often, didn't sleep.

I thought over it again and again. By the year 2000, the Church of Jesus Christ will be a conscious minority, surrounded by an arrogant, militant paganism. Well, why don't we back up to 15 years and come to 1985?

Isn't that where we are now? Why don't we go back to the days of the apostles? They were surrounded by a very, very arrogant, militant paganism. I've said before, my dear wife and I were with a friend on the southern lip of the Grand Canyon.

And if you've been there, you know there's a rock it has the legend on, that the river you see across there is X number of miles away, 7 miles I think, 450 feet wide and 18 feet deep. And it flows at a certain speed.

If you look down, you can see some of those Navajo Indians down there. If you're down there looking up, the wall on your left is a mile high. If you look at the wall on the right, the wall on the right is a mile high.

As I looked at that, I thought, what would you do if you saw a two-year-old infant down there, by him or herself? Which way would you tell him to go? They sure couldn't swim across that rapid river.

It's too deep, it's too broad, it's too fast. They couldn't climb the rocks a mile high. They couldn't climb the rock on this side a mile high. And that to me is a perfect picture of the church of Jesus Christ when it was born.

The river in front of it was Israel's message. They thought they had at that time a monopoly on God. The wall of this side is a mile high. It's the intellectual power of the Greeks, which was still in tremendous power.

The wall on the left is a military wall, because you have the power of Rome, which had already spread to England 55 years before Jesus Christ was born. We used to live in a city called Bath in England.

It was founded 55 years before Jesus Christ was born. And here is the infant church. A wall a mile high, the greatest military machine in the world to confront it that way. The intellectual power of the world to stop it this way.

The religious power of the world to stop it that way. And then it got through all of them. Without financial appeals, without much training. Shut up to God. That's where we're going to be before too long.

The Church’s Dependence on God in a Pagan Age

I hope you're reading Dave's book and he's beginning to get some negative replies to it now. He got a lot of encouragement, but now preachers are getting a bit mad about it. I believe the overall picture is correct.

I can't cross every T and dot every I, but I believe his main message in the book is awesome. Indeed, it might be God's last call to America. If you know any, tell me what does Almighty God owe America?

Do you know what thing he owes it? With 250 ,000 professional preachers? With 3 ,000 radio stations sending the message of the gospel out in some shape or form every day? With these stupid so-called Christian TV programs?

With a beautiful Christian Disneyland there operated by PTO? What more do you want? They're going to build a larger one. They've just bought 22 prime acres right down, would you believe it? Right down in the middle of the, what is it, Palm, not Palm Beach, Palm Springs.

Where Bob Hope and all the smart boys play. How long is God going to watch us squander our money, squander our strength, waste our time? Almighty God doesn't owe America that much. I live in America. I love America.

I have an advantage over you. I came because I wanted to. You came because you were dumped here, most of you. Your parents just happened to drop you and go off somewhere. That's not totally true. Betty, don't look disgusted.

Fight me afterwards. But we're back in the same situation. We're heading for the greatest baptism of fire. Almost more dreadful than hell itself. When the day of Pentecost was fully come. There are three great Pentecosts in the Bible.

The first is at the beginning of the Jewish age. The second is at the beginning of the church age. And the third at the beginning of the millennial age. Or what we call the kingdom. Often preachers refer to the church as a kingdom of God.

That's nonsense. What did Jesus say? After this manna pray, our Father which art in heaven, send us a church. It's not an alternate use of the word. Thy kingdom come. Jesus says the kingdom of God is within you.

But there's going to be an ultimate kingdom too. So there's a Pentecost at the beginning of the Jewish age. A Pentecost at the beginning of the church age. And a Pentecost at the beginning of the kingdom age.

Judgment, Darkness, and the Three Pentecosts

There are three periods of supernatural darkness in the history of the world. They were terrible. And they're all dark days of judgment leading to Pentecost. You remember that the children of Israel were in Egypt.

They got out of Egypt. Fifty days after they got out of Egypt, and Pentecost means fifty. Fifty days after they got out of Egypt, what happened? The law was given on the mount. That was the outpouring of the Spirit in the shape of truth.

Any nation in the world can live if it obeys the Ten Commandments. No nation in the world can live if it denies them or breaks them. It's a case if you fall on the stone, you'll get hurt. If it falls on you, you'll be crushed to pieces.

I don't know what all the books are mentioned in the judgment seat. I'm going to preach at a church a week next Thursday night in Dallas. And by God's grace, I'm going to preach on the judgment seat. Judgment of sinners.

A judgment nobody mentions, and that's to preachers. Not only judge for what we've preached, but judge for why we preached it. Not only judge for what we've preached, but judge for what we held back. We were afraid to preach.

By the same token, every deed you and I have done, God is going to test it. Not for what we did only, but why we did it. God is a God who checks motives. All double standards will be exposed. It's going to be an awful day.

Some preachers will have worked twenty-five, thirty years, and when it gets to the judgment, all their works will be woo days double. They'll be consumed. They'll be weeping and gnashing their teeth, as far as I understand the scripture.

Three dark days of supernatural darkness. The first day of darkness was in Egypt. And at the close of that judgment on Egypt, the children of Israel, of course, went over, got delivered, and what did they do?

They had a celebration. It was the first Pentecost which is still perpetuated amongst the Jews. Isn't that true? Still perpetuated. Three dark days in the history of the world. The first was on Egypt, the close of the judgment on Egypt.

And that night, the firstborn of Egypt died. The second dark day was the day Jesus died on the cross. In the first dark day, the sons of men died. In the second dark day, the Son of God died. In the third dark day, which is going to be at the end of the age, it's mentioned, I guess, there in Matthew 24.

And it says in Matthew 24, 29,. Immediately after the tribulation of those days, you see, all these days of judgment, of darkness, are days of judgment. And immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, the moon shall not give her light, the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of heaven shall be shaken.

So what? In the first dark period, the sons of Egypt died. In the second dark period, the Son of God died. In the third dark period, the son of the devil dies, the Antichrist. On that second judgment again, God passed the judgment of the world's sin upon the Lord Jesus.

Not only sin, but it's human depravity. I've seen pictures all over the world. I like to go to art galleries, not modern art. And I've gone to art galleries in different parts of the world and asked, what kind of religious pictures do you have?

And I've seen some very crude and almost rude pictures of Jesus on the cross. The fact is, nobody saw Jesus die, not even the Father. There was an old Egyptian philosopher, and on the day Jesus died, in Egypt even, was covered with darkness, as well as Israel.

And the old philosopher said, either God is grieving over somebody, or he's angry with somebody. Well, it was both. It was the anger of God against sin, and he was grieving over his son. It was too awesome.

In that moment when mercy and truth met together, and righteousness and peace kissed him, God turned his face away. And Jesus cries in agony. You remember, Lama, lama, sepakthani, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?

I can understand Peter, he was never very strong. John wasn't too strong. But why has almighty God forsaken me? There's an old hymn, there were ninety and nine that safely lay. A verse in that hymn says,.

None of the ransomed ever knew how deep were the waters crossed, nor how dark was the night that the Lord passed through, ere he found his sheep that was lost. Lord, whence are those blood drops, all the way, that mark out the mountain track?

They were shed for one who had gone astray, and a shepherd would bring him back. I guess I've said this before, I'll say it again. Two things missing in the modern church. Number one is a sense of the awesome majesty of the holiness of God.

And because we've lost sight of his holiness, we've lost sight of sin. Sin is flimsy. Preachers get anybody to the altar for anything. God held them at the judgment. There are more abortions at the altar than there are in hospitals.

And these are spiritual abortions, eternal abortions. The outpouring of the Spirit of God in the first Pentecost was the outpouring of truth. God gave us there the Ten Commandments. The second outpouring was on Mount Zion, the temple, was where God wrote the law again.

Not on tables of stone, but on the table of their hearts. And he gave them the power by the Spirit to live out in perfect love every commandment that God had made. And finally, there's that awesome darkness and the Antichrist thrown into the pit.

But there's an unveiling of the splendor and the majesty of God. One chronic deficiency about Christians, we're so miserably earthbound. We're so swanky with our fancy cars, our fancy living. There's no distinction amongst most Christians between Christians and sinners.

We're just as greedy for money. We're just as greedy to be exposed. I want to be popular. I want to be famous. Forget it. Once you get in the limelight, you'll wish to God you weren't there. What I'm really concerned about is this second Pentecost.

Waiting for the Spirit’s Power

I'd better get to it here. When the day of Pentecost was fully come. Now, I've read, I'll make a guess. I've read, I think, 50 different interpretations about this first part. When the day of Pentecost was fully come.

I didn't find out until this week really what it was all about. I've read that those men were in the upper room, they were cringing, they were fearful. In the upper room they were. Before Jesus came to them, they were afraid of the Jews and there they were herded all together.

And Jesus came on, breathed on them and said, receive ye the Holy Ghost. You see, they had the Holy Ghost before Pentecost. John Wesley called that the witness of the Spirit. Jesus breathed on them. Remember, he breathed on Abraham.

A-B-R-A-M. Abraham. Changed him. The skeletons all began to fly. I'd like to have seen that. I'm going to see it one day in some church, I'm sure. Whenever I see a stack of old cars, I'm reminded of that marvelous stack of bones.

I don't know, a mile high, a mile broad, if you like. You think you've got a tough job, preacher. How do you like to go preaching in a bone yard? Would you like to go there, brother? You'll be there when it comes to life again, maybe.

And the prophet spoke and the bones began to fly through the air. You know, the knee bone met the other bone and the back bone met the other bone. The colored people used to sing that. You remember that?

Marvelous old song. Do you sing it? Do you ever sing it? I'm going to ask you to sing it. So you got away with it tonight. It's a marvelous song, though. I think it's wonderful. So instead of a stack of bones, you've got skeletons.

Boy, they look lovely. The bones were together and then the sinews came on the bones. That looks a big improvement. Then the flesh came on the sinews and then the skin came on the flesh. God could have done it like that.

He could have made the world in one minute, never mind seven days. But He didn't. He could have purified you, sanctified you, edified you and made you a complete Christian ten years ago. It's not God's fault you're dumb.

And some of you look real dumb tonight, but anyhow, it's not God's fault. I remind you again that whether you take Finney or Wesley or anybody, not one man that ever lived ever had a bigger Bible than I have.

The only thing he knew how to use it. I had a man in my home this week on Monday that has spent nine years in seclusion and he's written 80 exercise books full of notes that God has given to him. Had marvellous revelations and inspiration.

A man in my office today, a world famous preacher, and he said, I'm going to shut myself away for prayer for some days or some weeks. When the day of Pentecost will fully come, let me take you to where the beginning of this is.

You know, I guess in a world like this when folk come along and talk to all these young people, they say, remember the last words of Jesus. We'll go into all the world and preach to God. They weren't.

That was his last word to the disciples. The last word of Jesus was repent. Six or seven times over in Revelation. What's it saying in Luke? Let me find this. I'm trying to work from some notes and as you know, I never use notes, so I'm falling over my notes.

The last chapter in Luke says, chapter 24, verse 49, Behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you that tarry in the city of Jerusalem. You see, he said go, but he said stay. We could get rid of 50 of the missionaries around the world and the temperature wouldn't drop one degree.

I remember preaching in that great Calvary Baptist Church in New York. About 45 people stayed back for prayer and I preached a message I love, Isaiah 6. And I said, go home, get a sheet of paper, put your name at the top on the date and write down what you know is wrong with your life.

When you've exhausted it, draw a line underneath and say, Spirit of God, you reveal to me what's wrong. A few months after, I was preaching in that great historic church of A .B. Simpson on 8th Avenue.

Wonderful church. I grasped that desk and put my feet where A .B. Simpson used to stand and thought, what a marvelous thing to stand here. Didn't make me preach like him. I did preach one night and an old lady came and she said, Do you know who you reminded me of tonight?

No, A .B. Simpson. He used to preach just like you. Well, of course, I told her he didn't copy me, but anyhow. People say the call is the need. Oh, the need is the call. That's wrong. I can prove that very easily to you because that's exactly what Moses thought.

Didn't he think the need was the call that got him into trouble? Oh, everybody wants to be on the go. You know, when you begin to find how mature you are, you'll find it by sitting still. There's lots of people who've gone that should never have gone.

There are lots of people sitting still who should go. And the thing is to know the mind of God. Tarry till ye be endued with power from on high. And he led them out as far as Bethany and he lifted up his hands and blessed them.

And it came to pass while he blessed them, he was parted from them and carried up into heaven. And they worshipped him. What do you wonder what they'd do? They worshipped him and ran to Jerusalem with what?

Now people say they were there in the upper room, they were weeping, they were mourning, they were repenting, they were fast forwarding. Do you know what they were doing? They were rejoicing. He came from the mountain where he was lifted up and got to the temple and suddenly everybody froze up.

They'd seen him go. He said, I go to prepare a prayer. I can imagine him saying, he's gone, he's gone. We can die tomorrow. Our place will be ready when we get up there anyhow. They had seen him fulfill his word.

I go to prepare a place. And he had been caught up into the heavenlies. They were continually in the temple. Well, where were they next to? They were in the temple. In one of the upper rooms of the temple, waiting there.

Waiting for what? Why were they happy? For number one, they were obedient. They'd done as he told them. And obedience always brings happiness. If you've no joy, check on yourself. Maybe you're disobedient somewhere.

But obedience may not bring you money, may not make you popular, but it brings an inward peace. It brings an inward joy. It brings an inward sense of satisfaction. Obedience brings happiness. So they were all there in the upper room.

And they were continually in the temple. They didn't just run in and come out. They were going to tarry. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. And you know what they were doing? They knew that every time God had promised to Pentecost that as in the case of when Paschal Lamb was slain, it was 50 days after that that the revelation was given on Mount Sinai.

These were Jewish men. They were learned, wise. They knew that it would be 50 days after. I believe, brother Payne, with all my heart, they were rejoicing and saying, one day less, only 45 to go, only 43, only 42.

Oh boy, it's coming quickly.

He'd tell them to go to tarry. Let me read this again here.

When the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly, I love that word suddenly. Didn't Malachi say, the Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come? Wasn't it while shepherds were watching their flocks by night that suddenly history was changed and the angels came proclaiming that Christ had come?

And suddenly, there was a sound of a heavenly host and they weren't singing. Get it straight. They were shouting. I can't find a place in the Scriptures where angels sing. They're going to sing, but they're waiting for us to help them, you see.

So, they're going to have to wait a while. But this thrills me. They were at the countdown. People were passing and saying, you know, there's a bunch of folk up there, they've been in there, they say about 35 days, 40.

Nuts, they're crazy. What were they waiting for? A celebration. Of what? Of the second greatest birth in history. The greatest birth was the birth of Jesus and the Holy Ghost came and filled the empty womb of the Virgin and the Holy Ghost has come and filled the empty womb of those men, the empty mind, the empty hearts.

Filled with God? If you think you need a status symbol after you're filled with the Holy Ghost, you've got mental trouble. The greatest status this side of eternity is to be filled and have the Holy Ghost bear witness in His own way that you're filled with God.

Oh, we've got churches where they pray, Oh Spirit of God, you're welcome today. I ask you in God's name, if the Holy Ghost came to them as He came to them, there'd be panic. The Lord didn't say, all get together and be quiet and if you hear a noise like a rushing mighty wind, don't get nervous.

If somebody speaks in tongues, don't panic and run to the door. He didn't mention a word about tongues. He didn't mention a word about the noise. But they were in subjection. They were obedient to Him and the Spirit bears witness.

This brought a new revelation to me in reading this chapter. I've read so many interpretations of it. The day of Pentecost was fully come. They were all with one accord. I'll tell you what they weren't doing in those ten days.

They weren't picking fault with each other. Thomas wasn't saying, you know Peter, you're still vacillating in your heart. Peter wasn't saying, you know Thomas, you're doubting. You don't believe anything will happen.

There was a common need. They were in poverty. Remember, these were the most disgusted, dissatisfied, dissatisfied, disappointed men in the world. They'd followed a man. They'd given up their businesses.

They'd invested time and money and everything they had to follow this little carpenter fellow and he ends up on a cross. Is that any way to start a kingdom? It's the only way to start a kingdom. Do you know why God won't bless you?

Because you won't die. That's why. You want to keep your stuffy little package of notes and sermons and go off and set the world on fire and you've a heart like a refrigerator. The Holy Ghost was going to come in his own way and he's going to come in his own way in America.

Nobody's going to lay the track down and say, Holy Ghost you're welcome as long as you keep with our theology. Again, I am really honestly amazed they didn't panic. What's this terrifying, oh there must be a tornado or something.

Nobody panicked. They had a peace because they were in the will of God because they were obeying God. And if the place had fallen apart they'd still have had that same tranquility. Oh, what of a God we have.

I say they were waiting for a second birth. The angels that stood there, shall I say flabbergasted or awed that the heaven of heavens cannot contain God and yet he's crammed into the womb of a virgin.

How do you explain it? You can't explain it. How amazing he took these men that were so defiled. These men that had failed him so much. And he gave them another chance. Suddenly. There's a big conference coming up next week.

It's going to be a battle there at the Southern Baptist Church in Dallas. You know we've prayed here and I've prayed during the week that somehow some man will stand up. He isn't scheduled to preach and suddenly the Holy Ghost will come upon him and he'll scare them all to death.

He'll be indecent. He'll jump on the pew and prophesy. Oh they'll pull him down but maybe he'll pull the house down too. You know God has a way of taking the nobodies and making them somebodies till they're known by everybody.

He did that with Moses. He was a nobody. He became a somebody. He's known to everybody. What happened? Well it says that there came a rushing mighty wind. There appeared unto them cloven tongues as of fire.

Have you noticed the bishops? Well even the Pope has a hat that goes up like that but it's split in the middle. It's supposed to represent the two tongues, the split tongue. It's a cloven tongue. For what reason?

I believe to bear testimony to the Old Testament being true and to bear testament to the New Testament being true. A cloven tongue to me represents regeneration and sanctification, purity and power. Isn't it amazing?

The Lord didn't come as a big hand on them. Be serious about it. If you saw now suddenly a tongue came, a curly flame on the head of this precious sister here, this and this and go around there, would you beat it to the door?

I mean that's the Holy Ghost that comes so many times. Would you stay out of curiosity? Would you be frozen? Or would your heart be open and say, God, come my way. Do as you like. I don't care so long as something comes that's revolutionizing my life.

He came with cloven tongues as of fire. I'm sick to death of plastic preaching, fireless preaching, powerless preaching. I'll make a stab at this and answer it at the judgment seat. You know, I believe that Almighty God, I believe the Holy Ghost has forsaken 99 of the churches in America and England as far as I go.

And we don't know His God. We get preachers who are eloquent and they have zeal and they may stake everything and zeal for anointing and you know there's nothing. It can produce an immediate result but not a lasting result.

People are stirred emotionally. They're stirred soulishly. What happened? Tell you what it says in the second chapter. Am I right in saying that fire is the chosen emblem of God's glory and majesty, divine authority?

What led the children of Israel through the trackless wilderness, a pillar of fire by night, a pillar of cloud during the day? Our God is a consuming fire. You see 10 ,000 times or 10 million times on the back of an automobile, God is a God of love for everyone to see how God is a consuming fire.

Peter’s Powerful, Pointed, and Painful Preaching

Peter began to preach. He's a spokesman here. You know that. How did he preach? Did he say, gentlemen, in my opinion? Or somebody just found a spare leaf of the Gospel according to Mark down at that wonderful place called Oxyrhynchus, you know, on the side of the Nile where you sometimes go for swimming?

This man has been shut up with God for 10 days. Brother, if you shut yourself up with God and talk to nobody but God, your preaching will change too. It was powerful preaching. Why? Ye shall receive power, the Holy Ghost coming upon you.

It was pointed preaching. Ye crucify the Lord of glory. It was painful preaching. Why? They were pricked in their hearts. In other words, they were needled. I go for a blood check-up about, what, every month at the hospital.

I went the other week and the guy that stuck the needle in was used to digging trenches. The attendant usually comes and puts the needle in just the tip of the needle and, boy, she gets that big thing of blood.

I said, are you going to bring it back? Oh, I need another one. Well, bring that one back. This guy didn't do that. He got the needle in and he pushed it way up my arm. I thought, mercy, he'll come out at the other side.

And then he couldn't get the syringe to work, so he pulled it out. And he put another one in and that wouldn't work. So he went to the other arm and worked that. He weighed 300 pounds or I might have punished him, I don't know, but anyhow.

We don't get much preaching like this, God pity us, anymore. These men whose hearts were encrusted with unbelief and tradition and religious orthodoxy that followed God every detail of their lives according to the calendar of the Hebrews, and yet when Paul, Peter, begins to preach, they suddenly are quickened.

You know, there's a unique thing said about John the Baptist. He's one of my favorite characters. There's something said about him that isn't said about Jesus. It says he was filled with the Holy Ghost from his mother's womb.

It doesn't say that of Jesus. Not only was he filled with the Holy Ghost, his mother was filled with the Holy Ghost, his father was filled with the Holy Ghost, his preacher was filled with the Holy Ghost.

Well, God help us, what kind of a man do you expect him to be? If he's got a father filled with the Holy Ghost, a mother filled with the Holy Ghost, a preacher filled with the Holy Ghost, I don't wonder he could go in the desert for thirty years and live amongst wild beasts.

Most preaching, you couldn't live on it thirty hours. Thirty minutes is killing. I can't tell you how I pined in my spirit as I read this. Ninety-nine percent of the people that go to church on Sunday, whether the Pentecost or the Presbytery, they do not go to meet God.

They go to hear a sermon about God. If God showed up, supposing they'd had the gifts of the Spirit in the upper room as they were waiting and John starts picking fault with somebody and says, you've got this in your life and you've got that, but they didn't.

There was such a common need. They were all humiliated, not only humble. You see, if you're a Christian, you've got one of two choices as a Christian, to be humble or to be humiliated. If you're not humble, God will tear you apart and you'll be ministered upon, make you look a fool, make you look an idiot.

He's not concerned how well you preach, about your eloquence, how many come to the altar. He's concerned about your character. If you've no character, don't count a hill of beans. God was going to make these men holy.

Conviction, Repentance, and the New Birth

When they heard that, they were pricked in their hearts and said to Peter and the rest of the brethren, what shall we do? You see, in revival, people make the altar call. You don't have to make an altar call.

There are no altar calls in the New Testament anyhow. They're artificial. We try to help God out. We sing some whining little chorus, there's room at the cross for you and everybody gets sloppy and crying and come to the altar where they've been 50 times before anyhow.

I preached at Jimmy's Fraggers the other week. I didn't think I had too good a time the first day. In fact, I thought I fell flat. You've had experiences like that, Jacob. Don't tell me you haven't. Don't look so sanctified right now.

The second day, God the glory came down. In fact, they said the course of the school changed that day. They've said it repeatedly since. Not because I was there, but God came. I didn't have to make an altar call.

They flooded the altar. They laid in the pews. You couldn't even get to the altar. They were so shaking that all in the pews they were laid out, young men and women, seeking God. We don't get much conviction.

The least preached aspect or ministry of the Holy Spirit today is when He comes, He shall bring conviction. We skip that. On my desk somewhere, I have a little portrait written by a girl nine years of age.

She was the daughter of Jonathan Edwards who preached that awesome, unrepeatable sermon of sinners in the hands of an angry God. Remember how he preached? And as he preached, people fell off their seats and clung to the pillars holding the rest of the building up.

And instead of saying, pardon me, I didn't expect this confusion, he lashed them and lacerated them. He whipped into them with the Word of God until they thought they were mincemeat almost. Dear God, we get people to be saved who don't know they're lost.

We're asking them to come into the Kingdom. They haven't the first idea. Oh, well, I've always been a good church member. Friend, God's first argument with you is not that you're bad. It's that you're dead.

And that's not very flattering. You to a group of intellectuals, go to scholars, go to universities and begin to tell them that they're dead with all their brilliance, with all their genius, they're dead in their relationship to God.

They said, Peter, watch what we do. I say his preaching is very plain. Very powerful, very practical, very painful because the Holy Ghost is upon him. Doesn't the psalmist say in one place, my heart was hot within me and then I spoke?