John 7:37 — Leonard Ravenhill

Gospel is recorded by John chapter 7. The key verse for us, anyhow, is verse 37.

In the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirsts, let him come unto me and drink. I think this is one of the most awesome events in the life of Jesus. Usually if I'm in another country, I go to art galleries because they're free.

And I ask how many biblical subjects they have in their art. I don't think I've ever seen this magnificent event in the life of Jesus portrayed in art. I think it's stupendous. Awesome. Breathtaking. It was the last day.

The great day of the greatest feast. There were seven feasts. Three of them predominantly that we have brought down at least into Christian calendar. We remember Passover by the death of the Lord Jesus, the Day of Atonement, and we remember also the Feast of Pentecost.

But as yet we have not celebrated this feast. It's still got to come. It was the last day of the great day. The greatest of the feasts because it was a time of ingathering. We're told in the Old Testament in Deuteronomy 16 there, without looking at it, that they were to bring in their servants, their friends, their neighbors, for this great ingathering, this great celebration.

This is the final feast. Incidentally, it was the final feast in the life of Jesus. It was the fantastic feast, the greatest feast for this reason. It was a feast of ingathering. Prior to this there had been a celebration of remembering the scattered tribes that were in 70 nations and so they shed the blood of 70 beasts to commemorate and remember those who were absent.

The last day, the great day of the feast. It's estimated more than a million people were in the area of Jerusalem. You may remember that they were ordered to build booths, that is, they were ordered to take stakes and weave leaves into the stakes, put bushes across the top, protect them from the weather, heat, cold, whatever you got.

Now, can you imagine all those hills filled with thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of those little booths? But they did it in answer to the word of God, the law of God. The last day, the great day of the feast, began one day after the Day of Atonement, the greatest day in the Jewish calendar.

On that day you may remember the priest, he went and found a sacrifice for himself. Then after he made an oblation for himself, he took two goats. He shed the blood of the goats. The blood of one he put in a basin, he took it into the Holy of Holies there, on behalf of the people.

Then he put some blood on the head of the other goat, which was called a scapegoat because it was taken to the edge of the wilderness and it was sent out to be lost. What he did, he pronounced the sins of Israel on the head of that goat and the goat carried them away.

Typical, I think, of the fact that God says, our sins you will remember no more forever. Now, after this, the next day was the great day, beginning this fantastic feast. And when I told that Jesus went up into the temple, the whole thing puzzles me.

I don't know why. It says in the first verse of chapter 7, after these things, Jesus walked in Galilee, for he would not walk in Jewry, because the Jews sought to kill him. And the feast of Tabernacles was at hand.

Verse 8 says, he said to his disciples, go ye up to the feast. I go not up yet unto this feast, for my time is not yet fully come. If you read carefully, you will find that that time factor dominates the life all through the story of our Lord Jesus Christ.

He lays emphasis on the time factor in the life of Jesus. It's not my time to go. Now, it tells us in the Old Testament, this feast lasted for seven days. Now, verse 14 says now about the midst of the feast.

Jesus went up to the people and taught. Why did he go at the beginning of the feast? It only lasted seven days. If he went in the midst of the feast, he must have gone the third day or the fourth day.

It suggests to me that Jesus knew more than anyone how to redeem the time. He didn't want to talk to people. He didn't want to listen to the crowds, watch any performance that they had. But he goes up in the midst of the feast.

Jesus went up into the temple. Again, incredible. I read an account somewhere where this great temple held at least 6 ,000 people. On one occasion, a priest that was bringing in the holy water, as they called it, stumbled.

And they were superstitious. They thought it would be an act of judgment. And panic broke out. There was a riot and 2 ,000 people were either killed or severely injured within those sacred walls. Now, here you have thousands of people.

And you have a man who at the same time is the most unpopular man in the nation and the most popular. How in the world did he get into the midst of the feast? But here's more incredible thing about the midst of the feast.

Again, verse 40. He went up into the temple and taught. Who is this arrogant upstart? A bit later they say, whence hath this man letters, having never learned? In the 8th chapter he says he had learned.

He was taught of his father. Now, he had built up an incredible record of hatred, bitterness, animosity. Call it what you like. He revealed in the short period of his ministry the bankruptcy of the nation.

The spiritual bankruptcy. The incredible stagnation of priesthood. He captured not only the attention of religious people, he captured the attention of all people by his first miracle. When he turned the water into wine.

Don't you think that was number one gossip problem next day all through the city? Where people went for tea or coffee or whatever they drank. Did you hear what happened? And then from there it's a case of from victory unto victory.

He's causing sensation. He's causing waves, as we would say. Here he walks into the midst of the temple with 6 ,000 people. And he'd already been there and cleansed it and said, this is a den of thieves.

Do you think the thieves all ran up and patted him on the back and said, boy, you're a brave guy. We never thought anybody would dare tell this, but I'm straight and here you are. And there he stands to me in moral majesty.

It says the Jews sought to kill him. If you read the chapter through a bit further, you'll find out they say, the people say, they've already sworn they'll kill him. Why don't they kill him? There he stands.

Nobody lays a hand upon him. His defense was his moral and spiritual strength. He stood there and cried. Do you know what? No man there, the high priest, anyone else knew that time was running out on that nation.

Would to God somebody had raised their voice over TV or somewhere and said they're begging for money and all the stupidity. And tell our nation that time is running out. It doesn't matter who gets in on Tuesday.

The arm of flesh will fail us. We dare not trust our own. I think one man is better than the other. I won't say which, but I think you know. But by the same token, that's not going to redeem our nation.

I would to God we would be afraid of God's majesty and judgment as we are afraid of Russia. I wish we tried to come to peace terms with the almighty before he pulls out his wrath upon us. I was thinking this morning of this present agitation, this tremendous upset.

Raping almost of the nation of India. Afghanistan is bled day after day. Tens of thousands of people. Pregnant women have climbed over the rocks to get into our Pakistan, I think. Is it Pakistan over the hills?

I think it is. They said they have no skin on their knees. Their bodies are bruised as they bounce those babies over the rocks. They are living on a starvation diet. There is the vast country of China shut up over.

All there are rumours about revival and so forth. A while ago I talked with Brother Andrew. He said not so. That little pockets of believers, that eyes for making a bint on that nation of 800 million people, not so.

Now here is Jesus. And he knows the events that will happen. But on the last day, the great day of the feast, he stood there and he cried with a loud voice. Isn't it Isaiah who says my servant shall not cry in the streets?

He is not crying in the streets. He is crying to the people that really matter, the vital people, the priests. And the folk that have the opportunity to lead the nation out of darkness to light if they will obey God.

Why did he cry with a loud voice? It wasn't a scream. It wasn't a shriek. It was a cry of anguish. You will find him later saying about the same people, oh Jerusalem. A word you can't learn by eloquence.

The word that Jeremiah used, oh but my head were waters because he saw impending judgment. The word that was used by David when they brought news that his son, his rebel son who tried to pull the crown off his head and steal the throne from underneath him, his son had died.

What did he say? He deserved it. That's a relief anyhow. Instead of that he says, oh Absalom my son. Would to God I have died for thee. Here he cries with a strong voice. Again it's not a shriek, it's not a scream.

It's a voice of command. I can imagine that voice echoing through that vast temple and everybody turns their head and says, see what it is? You see, they were disgusted with him. They were astounded with him.

They were confounded with him. They were dumbfounded with him. Everything that said, the word of God said could be done, he had done. You remember the story in the Bible where a man was at a farm and he sent his servants out, or his servants, and then finally he sent his son.

And they said, this is the heir, come let us kill him. Now they have repeatedly rejected the greatest men that ever walked this whole planet. And they're not scientists or inventors, they're prophets.

They'd had Jeremiah, the broken hearted man who could weave hours over his nation. They'd had Zechariah and Ezekiel and Isaiah, the men that we call the major prophets and then the awesome minor prophets.

I believe this is all wrapped up. I believe that this cry is a cry of anguish. It's a cry of a broken hearted man over a blind dumb nation that still goes through its performance of religion. Even as on this occasion, and yet they have no knowledge of God.

Very much like our day. Jesus went up into the temple and taught. I wish I could find his sermon notes. Nobody can give me a suggestion as to what he taught. Have you any idea? Come on preachers, you got some ideas?

No? These learned men have none what they expect me to have. But I'll tell you what it was. It says the Jews marveled at him. I wonder if he began to explain Daniel's image. I wonder if he began to tell them how near judgment was.

But there they were, wide eyed, open mouthed, listening to this man. And they said, when sath this man letters? Or as it says in, well that's what it says. When sath this man letters, having never learned.

Chapter 8, verse 48 says. No, that's not, I'm sorry, that's not the quote. But anyhow, it's in that, oh, 28, sorry. Then said Jesus unto them, when ye have lifted up the Son of Man, ye shall know that I am he.

That I do nothing of myself, but as my Father hath taught me, so I speak these things. He has a direct line to the Father. He has a direct revelation from the Father. He knows this is his timing. His mother had tried to get him to do something in a wedding.

And he says, no, my hour is not yet come. Read the 17th chapter and he says, my hour is come. Read the 16th, he says, my hour is not come. He's very conscious, there's nothing haphazard in his life. He's working to a divine timetable, which every one of us needs to know.

Both in the affairs of the world and in our individual lives. To use a common phrase in the world, we need to be at the right place at the right time with the right word. Can you imagine all these people agitated?

Who in the world invited him? I hear that this man will do anything he wants to do. There he has been, he's standing where the high priest has stood. And do you know, he's never been ordained. Isn't that awesome?

The only ordination you need, friend, is in John 15. I have ordained you. If God hasn't, you can have an ordination certificate that brings this wall. Won't do you any good. Men can lay their hands on you, the measure will lay their feet on you, it won't make any difference.

I would love to know what Jesus preached about. I'm sure he did what he'd done previously. He opened their understanding as he did for the men on the Damascus, on the Emmaus road. Remember they went with their eyes just cast down, and he opened their eyes, and then he opened their scriptures, and then he opened their understanding, then he opened their mouths.

I wish he'd go around our seminaries and do that today. We've got dead men preaching dead sermons to dead people. And unless there's a divine intervention, we're sunk. The last day, the great day of the feast.

You see, this was a tremendous ceremony to them. Historically, it was to remind them of the statement in the 17th chapter of Exodus, where Moses smoked the rock. And then the 20th chapter of Numbers, where again he does the same thing, and the water goes down.

And this is reminding them of the water of life that was given to them when they were on a dry and thirsty land, and they were murmuring and complaining, and they had no water. And God brought water out of the most unexpected place, a rock.

I've noticed how often in the Old Testament men were digging for water, and they never found oil. Isn't that great? Well, maybe because they didn't need oil then. Or maybe because they'd become multimillionaires and forgotten all about God, like people do so often when they get rich.

But water sprang out of that rock and it followed them with us wherever they went, and that rock was Christ. Typical of the Lord Jesus Christ. Early in the morning on the porch, called Herod's porch, built onto the temple, called Herod's porch because he financed it.

And if you finance anything, you want your name on it surely. Built something for the Lord, you put your own name on it. Let's forget that, but anyhow. There's the great wonderful porch. And early in the morning the priests go.

And with their silver trumpets give a blast and awaken the community. The doors are open. The priests must go in the first. Then the people follow in their thousands. But then there's a break. The trumpets sound again.

You know, the ceremony was something. Four hundred and forty-six priests took part that day. I hope they all didn't preach. It would have been tiring. But four hundred and forty-six Levites as well were there.

That's a vast number. The ceremony was that high priest went down to the pool of Siloam with a golden vessel someone else carried. And he dipped it in the pool of Siloam and put it on his shoulder. And he came to the center there of the temple.

And he poured out that water. There was a great outburst. They sang the great hallow. That is Psalms 113 to Psalms 118. Can you imagine six thousand excited people doing that with all the instruments they had around?

Must have been like hearing the Messiah in our day, in the hallelujah chorus. This was a festival of joy, a festival of thanksgiving, a celebration that the mighty hand of God who made the universe had been their deliverer.

And they poured that water out for six days. On the last day, the great day of the feast, no water was poured out. Then here comes this insolent young man. This itinerant preacher. This unordained man.

And he stands where the priest has stood. He pours out no water, but he says, if any man thirsts, there's an insult for you. Why do you invite anybody? Jehovah is regarded as a Jew. But he says, if any man come.

Remember in the second letter of Paul to the Corinthians where he says, if any man be in Christ, any man anywhere at any time. Now this brother David on TV this morning, on Otto Roberts' program there.

And he quoted again, he said, you know what, the power of God when I see a Nicky Cruz and all these other people and see the mighty acts of God. That's a great poem. I think the greatest poem outside of the Bible is written by F. W. H. Myers.

It has about 74 stanzas. And if I were a young man, I'd memorize them all. And then he says, God will forgive thee all but thy despair. Despair is illegal in the gospel of Jesus Christ. He can say, for the uttermost, all will come unto God by him, seeing ever liveth to make intercession for us.

They revered the high priest. He put on his garments of glory and beauty, the word of God says. And he strutted there as a king over an empire of religious people. But I like that lovely verse. I read it again this morning in Hebrews 7, 26.

For such an high priest becometh us, he is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher in the heavens. Who needeth not daily as those high priests to offer a sacrifice, first for his own sins, and then for the people's.

For this he did once when he offered himself. Isn't that sublime? Their priest died. He had to be renewed. There had to be a fresh sanctification. New garments had to be made. A new helmet had to be made with holiness unto the Lord.

And just as they got to love and adore their priest, he passed away. The writer to the Hebrews says, remember we have a permanent priest. He doesn't have to shed blood. He is the priest, he is the sacrifice, he is the offering, he is the blood.

And he liveth forever to make intercession for us. I was thinking this morning, oh I'd just like to meet a few people before I go preach. I'd like to pray. And suddenly I remembered that even at this moment Jesus is making intercession for me there at the Father's throne.

So here the last day of the feast, the eyes are not on the high priest. He's pushed on one side as it were, not physically. And this young man comes, this troublemaker, this disturber. Not only does he go there and teach, but he lifts up a loud voice.

It's a voice loaded with anguish. A voice loaded with authority. A voice that demands attention. If any man thirsts, let him come unto me and drink. You remember he had a talk with a woman in the fourth chapter of this gospel.

That woman by the well in which he said, well if you come to this well you'll thirst again. But I can be a well of water in you. Now she must have scratched her head and wondered about that, don't you think?

The only well she knew was Jacob's well at Sychar. And Jesus says, I will come and I'll be in you. A well of water. Springing up into everlasting life. But here he generously opens the kingdom, if you like, to all believers.

This is not a prerogative just for the Jew. There are people from all nations here, he's saying. It's the last day, the great day of the feast. People have been breaking their necks or hurrying for weeks, months and months to get to this final festival, final festivity in the Jewish calendar.

They're reminded again of the rock that was smitten and the water that came. Now Jesus says, if any man thirsts, let him come unto me and drink. Historically he's talking about the rock that was smitten.

Prophetically he's speaking of the outpouring of the Spirit in joy too. When the Spirit shall be poured on the Jews, no, no, on all flesh. And it ain't yet to happen. He stood and cried with a loud voice.

I say it's a voice of anguish. I'd never thought of this till about two o 'clock this morning, but I'm... I'll tell you what it really broke me up as I thought of it. This is the last feast, this is the last day, this is the last time he's going to be there.

They're offended because he has turned the attention to himself, but he says, I don't seek it. I seek it only for my Father's glory. Again they're disturbed because he's a miracle worker. I think under his breath Jesus is saying, you dumb crowd, here I am crying for you to come.

You don't hear me any more than you heard Jeremiah or Isaiah. His brothers urged him to go up there and do some miracle. No, no, not yet. What miracle can he do? Zechariah said, thy king cometh unto thee meek and lowly and sitting upon an ass.

He'd fulfill that. Isaiah says, a virgin shall be with child. He'd fulfill that. Isaiah 35 says that there's going to be a highway open. There's one coming and when he comes, the eyes of the blind shall be opened, the ears of the deaf unstopped.

Then shall the lame man leap as a harp, and the tongue of the dumb shall sing. And he'd gone through the whole gamut of healing from A to Z. They hated him. He stood in the previous chapter and said, I am the bread of life.

Now he's asserting that he is the water of life. He's going to say, I'm the door of life. Most of all he's going to say, I'm the resurrection and the life. There he stands in his modern spiritual supremacy.

And they were too blind to see. They just say in the chapter that the people said, you say when Messiah cometh, that he'll do miracles. What more miracles can he do, the people say, than he has done? What more convincing?

What does God have to do? Does God have to strain to try and get our attention? The staggering thing to me is the dumbness of this people. Notice this is not bringing fire from heaven. He was the water of life.

Water has to come down before you can have it in a well. He came down from the Father. Water is the most essential thing almost next to breath. We need it for cleansing. We need it to restore our parched throats.

Again, we need it for purification. We need it for everything. He is the water. Water is essential. He says, I am the bread. Bread is essential. He says, he is the door. He says, he is the good shepherd.

I am the good shepherd. I am the resurrection and the life. Go back a minute here again. They had gone through some traumatic experiences for sure. You see, when people heard, did you hear what that man did?

That strange man? You see, from his birth, he had been haunted with unbelief and hatred. They said he was born illegitimately. Well, before he could walk or talk, they tried to assassinate him. He went to the temple, they kicked him out.

He went to his house, they threw him out of his own house. It was antagonism, opposition, bitterness, the whole course, right from the moment that he breathed. Now, these people had seen manifestations of God that no other nations ever had seen or ever will see, as far as I am concerned.

He had rescued them. Some say there were five million. They got out of Egypt with a miracle deliverance. They had water out of the rock. There was a pillar of fire by night and a pillar of cloud by day.

He sent angels to deliver them. He sent prophets to teach them. And then, suddenly, there was a cut-off. You see, between Malachi and Matthew, you have 400 years of prophetic darkness without any prophetic voice.

400 years of darkness without any prophetic light. 400 years of stillness without any prophetic voice. And then, suddenly, dramatically, unexpectedly, there's a little man appears there in the wilderness.

And he's an Orban too, by the way. And he doesn't wear the clerical collar. He wears pigskin and old camel skin over his shoulder. And I said in one meeting, boy, how easily he can get into trouble. I said, he wore leather shorts.

And it so happened it was in a holiness meeting. They nearly crucified me after the meeting. One man got on my shoulders and jumped on me and said, you put the clock back ten years. Why? Saying, John the Baptist had shorts.

We're telling our young people not to wear shorts. I said, well, the thing is this, whether you like it. Did he? I didn't. It were 11 good, the most unusual, unexpected man you could ever. And he is the mouthpiece of the eternal God.

Oh, well, they flocked from Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria. Read the third chapter of Luke. While he was preaching, the soldiers, the heathen, what most people call the leather breeds, outside of the law.

They were standing there in their lovely uniforms, their pruned helmets, their breastplates. And yet his words went through those breastplates as though they were arrows of fire. They began to cry, what shall we do?

And the Pharisees, boy, they're a bunch. And the Sadducees. You see, there was division in the temple because of him. Because he said he was the resurrection. Oh, but the Pharisees loved him because one day he went and performed a super miracle.

He raised the man from the dead. Oh, that's one for us. You see, the Pharisees believed in the resurrection. The Sadducees did not. That's why they were Sadducees. But anyhow, they did not believe in the resurrection.

But Jesus is asserting his authority, his power. And he's looking back and thinking there's a terminal coming soon. His spirit doesn't always strive with men. You get again that blank situation, that gap of despair between Malachi and Matthew.

And Jesus is thinking of this, I'm sure. When he lifts up his voice and commands and says, hey, come, everyone listen. If any man thirsts, well, who doesn't? Hey, come unto me and drink. This spake he of the Spirit.

But it says that the Spirit was not yet given because Jesus was not yet glorified. Verse 39, but this spake he of the Spirit which they that believe on him should receive the Holy Ghost was not yet given because that Jesus was not yet glorified.

Come on, you've been asking for the Holy Ghost. Well, how can he come if you're not glorifying him before he comes? They've already received the Holy Ghost. They received the Holy Ghost before Pentecost.

Didn't he go into the upper room and breathe on them and say, receive ye the Holy Ghost? People say, we need another Pentecost. So miraculous. Well, tell me a miracle they did after Pentecost they didn't do before.

Then they come running back to Jesus and say, oh, we had a marvelous time. Even devils were subject to us. In thy name we cast out them. We did many mighty works. And Jesus says, don't glory in that. Glory in the fact that your name is written in heaven.

But even they've done all those miracles in their ministry. He says, go into all the world. But before he says go, before they go, he says, carry it to receive power from on high. This spake he of the Spirit.

Verse 38. He that believeth on me, as the Scripture said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. But this spake he of the Spirit. Anybody who's filled with the Holy Ghost knows this. There are periods of awesome endowment.

You have a time of tremendous victory and anointing in preaching. And sometimes, for some reason, God removes that power just to show us it's him and not us. It's his indwelling. It's Christ in you, the hope of glory.

Friday night I read to the class there. You're welcome to that class. It's over in last day. It starts half past seven on Friday night. It's a very, very powerful prayer meeting. We read from Romans 8.

Where the apostle says, the Spirit of God is in you, the Spirit of Christ is in you, and the Spirit of the living God, the Holy Ghost. Come on, the triune God lives in me? Is sin going to have dominion over me?

A popular evangelist says that he preached for 20 years and then somebody cast 17 demons out of him. I won't doubt either. I don't discount the fact he preached for 20 years. But don't tell me he was saved with demons in him.

Does the Holy Ghost live in a man as God to have partnership? Does he sit halfway on the throne not on your life? That's a false doctrine. It's popular, but it's false. They didn't need the power of the Spirit to do miracles.

They had already done miracles. Before Pentecost, God did miracles through them. At Pentecost, he did miracles in them. Jesus said to all the disciples, didn't like when he said in, what was it? The 14th of John.

I think it's verse 26 there. Verse 25 says, John 14, These things have I spoken to you, being present with you, but the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance.

You know, I think so often we think of the Trinity like this. We'll put here F for Father, Son, and H .S. Holy Spirit. We think of them, Father, Son, Holy Spirit, as though the Holy Spirit is a junior partner in the Godhead, which is wrong.

It's F, S, and Holy Spirit, all on one level. Equal in glory, equal in majesty. There was a dispensation, if you like, of the Father in the Old Testament. There was a dispensation of the Son when he was on earth.

And now we live in the great dispensation of the Holy Spirit, plus the Father, plus the Son. Again, what manner of persons ought we to be? Christ in you, the hope of glory. Paul doesn't stammer and stutter about it.

He says, I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live yet, not I, but Christ liveth in me. He's not merely there in the glory. He's indwelling me. Remember Ephesians 2 begins that in time past you ought to go into the power of this world, according to the power of this world, the prince of the power of the earth.

If you're a demon, you're not saved. Go to the end of chapter 2. What does it say? The habitation of God. I've quoted before about a distinctive scholar, a Chinese scholar who read the Koran and the Vedas and all the sacred books.

Someone gave him the New Testament and he read it. And they said, now, what do you think of this book? Wonderful. Are you a Christian? Yes. Oh, you are the most wonderful thing in the world today. Oh, no, I'm just a poor Christian.

Don't give me any medals. I mean, I'm a nobody. He said, but I read Ephesians chapter 2. At the end it says, ye are the habitation of God. Christianity is the only religion in the world I know of where a man's God comes and lives inside of him.

Jesus says, I've been with you, but he shall be in you, the comforter which is the Holy Ghost. My dear old teacher, Mr. Chadwick, used to say, yes, he's the comforter, but he's not a nursing mother for spiritually sick children.

The word comforter there is from a Latin word, comfortis, K-U-M if you want or C-U-M. Dash F-O-R-T-I-S with strength. Isn't that what it says there in Acts 1 -8? Ye shall receive power or strength after the Holy Ghost has come upon you.

I say again, the miracle is in them, not just through them. Again, they went out and they turned the world upside down. Just ordinary men went in the upper room and tarried till they were endued with power from on high.

They had received the witness of the Spirit or as Paul calls it, the Spirit of Adoption. If they had known it, they could have sung Blessed Assurance with real joy. He testified that they were his. He had breathed on them.

Do you know how God did that with Abram? A-B-R-A-H-M Abraham. He breathed on him. He became a different personality. Years ago, I think it was 1950, I was in Newcastle. My first trip to America I was in Newcastle, Pennsylvania.

The old train came through one night. We went down there, it came the old steam train. Boy, there was something. Came chugging in, you know, and people getting off with all their baggage and what not.

I thought of a young man who about 1880 got onto one of those trains. One of his college friends said to him, I wish I was as sure of becoming the President of the United States as you are of becoming the Archbishop of Canterbury.

That young man was considered the greatest orator in the university. His name was Brango. Colonel Brango. He became the right-hand man of William Wood in the Salvation Army. He went to England and reported it for duty.

And the General said, Oh, tomorrow morning you can clean the shoes of all the students. What? Do you know I've got two degrees? All the better qualified to clean the shoes. And he said, while he was spit polishing those shoes, that was it.

You fool. You should have stayed in America. I forget who it was, one of the, I think it was one of the multi-millionaires Come on now. He made automobiles. The last one he made, I think, had a spiral nose.

Remember who was it? Pardon? Who? No, it wasn't Ford then. It was, thank you, Studebaker. Studebaker said, You stay in this country. I'll build you the largest church. I'll be the most beautiful home.

I'll get you the most beautiful carriage. And I'll give you the biggest salary of any preach in America. You just stay here. We need you. He went and joined the most despised gang of preachers in the world at that time, the Salvation Army.

And he rose to the top of the spiritual special. He wrote a lovely book, When the Holy Ghost is Come. He remembered after he was born again an encounter with God because his heart was full of pride and jealousy and envy and bitterness.

You see, we have laid the emphasis of Acts 1 -8 or Acts 2 -4, we've laid the emphasis on power. We've referred it always to Acts 1 -8. Ye shall receive power of the Holy Ghost. When the Holy Ghost came upon the people, the Gentiles, Peter reports in Acts 15 -8 and 9, he's reporting to Jerusalem, to the big shots, and he says, God that knoweth the heart, bear them, that is, the Gentiles, witness, giving them the Holy Ghost even as he did to us.

And immediately the people say, well, they had balls of fire and the rushing magic wind and spoke in tongues. Maybe they did, but he doesn't say so. What Peter remembered, the crisis in his life was not hearing a rushing mighty wind or a ball of fire on his heart, it was the fire of the Holy Ghost that came in his heart and he said, purified their hearts by faith.