History of Revival — Bill McLeod

Pentecost and the Outpouring of the Holy Spirit

If you have a Bible, would you turn over to Acts chapter 2, the unknown portion of Scripture. I want to read verse 14 in chapter 1, first of all, and then into chapter 2, verse 1. It says, These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication with the women and Mary, the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren.

And it goes on to say that there were 120 of them meeting, praying before Pentecost. Then chapter 2, verse 1, When the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.

It's interesting in the history of revivals that this kind of phenomena have occurred more than once. In South Africa, in one of the meetings, it was a time of revival. Black people had to sit in the balcony, and the whites sat down below.

And a black girl, about 14, got up in the balcony, and she asked if she might lead in prayer. So the brethren had to have a meeting about this, you know. So a bunch of the leaders got together in the corner, and they discussed this for a while, and finally came to the conclusion that it would be okay.

And she started to pray. And while she was praying, this kind of phenomena, they heard this noise coming. It said that they heard a noise coming from the four points of the compass, a big wind of some kind, and it engulfed the whole place while this black girl was praying.

I don't know if they caught on. I mean, the whites, if they caught on at that time as to what God was doing. But that happened twice in South Africa. And I've read, I think, probably three or four other places where this kind of phenomena occurred.

But one of the problems is this. In outpourings of the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, when you look at all these revivals, the phenomena, the attendant phenomena, is never quite the same. And what has happened is that sometimes people seize on the attendant phenomena, like a rushing mighty wind, or speaking in tongues, or tongues of fire or something else, and they make that the important thing.

Whereas the important thing is that the Holy Spirit came. How He came is not important. The fact that He came is the important thing. And so going back to Acts chapter 2, suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind.

Pentecost in Embryo Form

Before we go any further, turn back to the Gospel of John chapter 20, and we'll read from verse 19 down to 22. Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut, where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst and said unto them, Peace be unto you.

And when he had so said, he showed unto them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you, as my Father has sent me, even so send I you.

And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and said unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost. I don't think personally that they received the Holy Ghost at this time, because in what he said here, one of the things he said was, as my Father has sent me, even so send I you.

He never sent them till after Pentecost. They didn't go till after Pentecost. Now I don't think they really at this moment received the Holy Spirit, but I think what we have here is Pentecost in embryo form.

On the day of Pentecost, the risen Christ breathed on the church, and they were filled with the Holy Spirit. Because in Acts chapter 2, if you go a little further down, when Peter was preaching, verse 32, this Jesus has God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses.

Therefore, being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he, that's Jesus, he has shed forth this, which you now see and hear. So Pentecost was a Jesus Christ happening.

I say the risen Christ breathed on the church, and what happened in John was Pentecost in embryo form. I'm going back then to Acts chapter 2, and there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.

Just that far. I want to point out again this matter of the attendant phenomena. I've said already that the 1858 revival was probably, I think really was, the most powerful revival in the history of the church after Pentecost.

And most Bible scholars agree with that. There were no attendant phenomena at all in that revival. No tongue speaking, no miracles, no tongues of fire, no rushing mighty wind, no attendant phenomena at all.

And that's very important to observe because, as I say, in our day, people are so caught up in signs and wonders and attendant phenomena, and they forget that what we really need is the Spirit of God in all His power, and how He comes is not really an important thing.

Five Pentecosts in the Book of Acts

Now, in the book of Acts, there are five, five great Pentecosts, not just one. You sometimes hear the saying, there's one baptism of the Spirit, one baptism in many fillings. That's not really true because in the house of Cornelius, when the Spirit was poured out on those Gentile people, in chapter 11, it's called a baptism of the Spirit.

So there's a baptism in the day of Pentecost, there was another baptism in the house of Cornelius, and so I feel quite at liberty to say there were really five baptisms of the Spirit in the book of Acts, and I want us to look at them today.

We've seen the first here at Acts chapter 2. They're all filled with the Holy Spirit. My brother Keith, who is as far removed from the charismatic movement as any person I suppose could be, was once speaking to some Cree people up in the Hudson Bay line, and he spoke in English, and a woman who did not know any English brought an interpreter with her, and she heard the whole message in perfect Cree.

My brother was not even aware of this, what was going on. The miracle in this case was in the hearing, in the hearing, and nobody else heard it in Cree. And I have a friend who was a missionary backup personnel in Japan for two or three years.

He didn't have to learn the language because he had really nothing to do with the people, the Japanese people, he was just there to support and help the missionaries. And so when it came time for him to go home, the Japanese people said, we'd like to give him a little party, but we'd like to hear him say something in Japanese.

So they made up a little speech, and he memorized a three-minute speech in Japanese. And he told me he'd get up to speak, and he spoke in flowing, oratorical Japanese, there's three Japanese languages, in oratorical Japanese.

He spoke for 25 minutes. He said he didn't know a word he used, but he knew everything he was saying. He said it was as clear as can be to his mind. Now the people saw what was happening, and they realized it was a manifestation of the Spirit of God.

It never happened again in his experience. He did not find after this experience that he was greatly endued with the Holy Spirit or anything like this. It turned out that in the crowd, among the Japanese, there was a lady who lost all her family in the Hiroshima atomic explosion, and she hated Westerners.

But when she saw what God did to this Westerner that day, all the hatred left her. And the miracle was obviously particularly for her benefit. So they're all filled with the Holy Spirit, began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.

I was talking with a Pentecostal pastor one time. I knew him well. And I said, I'm going to prove from the Bible that you're not a Pentecostal. And he said, oh, you can't prove that. I said, yes, I can.

I can do it from the Bible. Go ahead and try, I said. I said, OK, brother, when you speak in tongues, do you speak in tongues according to Acts chapter 2 or according to 1 Corinthians chapter 14? And I knew what the answer would be.

He said, well, I speak in tongues according to 1 Corinthians 14. I said, then you're a Corinthian, not a Pentecostal. And he looked at me, he said, brother, I've never heard that before. But isn't that true?

On the day of Pentecost, they spoke on languages people could understand. This is not how Pentecostals speak in tongues. They speak in an unknown tongue, you see. And so he was a Corinthian, not a Pentecostal.

He accepted it in a good way. He didn't get angry. Now we'll turn over to Acts chapter 4. So this first Pentecost was a Jewish thing, was a Jewish Pentecost. All the people that were converted were Jews.

In Acts chapter 4, and we don't know exactly how much later this was, there was no doubt by this time some Gentiles in the congregation, because in all the Jewish synagogues in those days there were small groups of Gentiles who attended the services.

Some of them became Jews. And to do that, you have to accept the Jewish right of circumcision and so on. You could become a Jew. You could join any tribe of Israel you wanted to. This was made, spelled out clearly in the Old Testament.

And back in the days of Solomon, there were around 120 ,000 Gentiles who were part of the nation of Israel. In Acts chapter 4, then, now we have what we might call a church Pentecost. People had, these converts on the day of Pentecost had been baptized, a church had been formed.

And what had happened was, as you know perhaps, the apostles, Peter and John, were threatened by the Sanhedrin council. They were told they were not, they were not to preach in the name of Christ anymore.

So they went back to the church. And verse 21, so when they had further threatened them, they let them go, finding nothing how they might punish them because of the people. For all men glorified God for that which was done.

For the man was about 40 years old on whom this miracle of healing was shown. So being let go, how do they handle it? You know, nowadays if some Christians get thrown in jail somewhere, they get some organization to start canvassing people all around the world, Amnesty International or something, and they get 50 ,000 signatures and they send these signatures to the head of the country and ask him, you know, all these people are concerned about these people you've thrown in jail.

And this is how they handle it. This is not how they handled it then. When then, in those days when they got in trouble, they had prayer meetings. And God took care of the problem. Being let go, verse 23, they went to their own company and reported all that their chief priests and elders had said unto them.

And when they, that is the church, when they heard that, they lifted up their voice to God with one accord and said, Lord, thou art God, who has made heaven and earth and the sea and all that in them is.

You notice in their praying they use a lot of scripture. And that's quite right too, to use scripture when you're praying. You know what prayer is? Prayer is pleading the promises back to God. Ever think of it that way?

Nathan, the prophet, went to King David and told him, God wants to do certain things for you. I think there were a total of ten things that Nathan shared with David that God wanted to do for him. Now these are promises from God.

Do you know how David handled it? He went into the temple and it says he sat before the Lord. You know what he said? He said, Do as you have said. Do as you have said. You said you were going to do all these things, now do them.

And prayer really is pleading the promises back to God. Lord, you made this promise, please fulfill it in my life. And how many promises are there? I told you yesterday, seven thousand four hundred and eighty-seven.

Okay, I might ask, well I might ask later today. Anyway. So this is the second Pentecost and they prayed, verse twenty-nine, And now, Lord, behold their threatenings, and grant unto thy servants that with all boldness they may speak thy word, by stretching forth your hand to heal, and that signs and wonders may be done by the name of thy holy child Jesus.

Now the prayer in verse twenty-nine was answered. We don't have any record that there was a lot of miracle working going on at this particular time. Matter of fact, it doesn't say anything about miracles.

What they really needed, what they really wanted, and what they got was boldness. So what happened? Verse thirty-one, When they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness.

Revival Prayer and the Church Pentecost

Duncan Campbell tells of a time being in a home with a bunch of people praying late at night, and the prayer meeting was heavy, if you know what I mean by that. It was heavy. It wasn't really moving, and Campbell was praying, and God showed him he was to ask a certain young man to lead him in prayer.

So he called on this young man, and he just asked him to please lead in prayer, and the young man got to his feet and began to pray, and he prayed. He really prayed up a storm, and he was just crying to God, crying to God to be faithful to his word.

And while he was praying, the whole house was shaken, and Duncan Campbell says, we walked outside and the whole area was alive with God. And people began tumbling out of their houses and coming to the church, and a revival broke at that time.

All right, when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness, and the multitude of them that believed were one heart and one soul.

Neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own, but they had all things common, and with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all.

It was the second Pentecost, a second revival, a second outpouring of the Holy Spirit. And this was probably not longer than a few weeks after the original outpouring of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost, and it serves to show us that revival is constantly needed.

Revive us again. Fill each heart with thy love. May each soul be rekindled with fire from above. All right, now next we have in chapter 8 a Samaritan Pentecost. Philip had gone down to Samaria and preached Christ.

The Samaritan Pentecost and Testing the Spirits

Verse 5, chapter 8. And the people with one accord gave heed unto those things which Philip spoke, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did. For unclean spirits crying with a loud voice came out of many that were possessed with them, and many taken with palsies, and that were lame were healed.

I had a meeting with a pastor down in Midland, Michigan. He had been an alliance pastor in Canada at one time, and he got into the charismatic experience and he split the church and started a charismatic assembly.

And he said they were seeing miracles right and left, day and night it seems. And some Pentecostal leaders came to him, and by the way, there's a difference between Pentecostals and charismatics. Are you aware of that?

You know, there are many Pentecostal churches, they will not have a charismatic preacher in the pulpit. For example, Calvary Temple in Winnipeg, one of the biggest Pentecostal churches in Canada, and their pastor will have nothing to do with the charismatic movement because it splits churches.

And that can be, and often happens, and it's a very sad thing to see. In any case, this pastor from Midland, somebody got up in one of the meetings and said, thus saith the Holy Ghost, and gave a prophecy, and the prophecy did not come to pass.

So he said to his wife later on, now that prophecy was not of God, there's an alien spirit in here somehow, we've got to watch this. Another prophecy was given that did not come to pass. Another one was given.

And he and his wife got very disturbed, he told them, they didn't know how to handle this. What are we going to do, there's an alien spirit in this movement. And it came to a head, somebody got up, there was a lady in the assembly who was very ill, and somebody got up in a Sunday meeting and said, thus saith the Holy Ghost, by Saturday of this week, Sister Ruth will be well.

And on Saturday she died, and he said to his wife, that is the pastor did, honey, we can't go on, we've got to find out what's going on here. So she said, why don't you test my tongue gift? So he did.

And Lucifer was there when this happened. He commanded, like he had her speak in tongues, and I've tested the tongue gift too, and while people are speaking in tongues, then you quietly address the spirit, in words like this, spirit controlling the tongue of this child of God's, I ask you on the authority of the word of God to confess in the English language that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, which a demon will not do.

And Lou was telling me, Melissa told me, he kept asking, and he did it in the Greek language, his wife didn't know any Greek, as a consequence she could not involuntarily respond, you know, she didn't even know what her husband was saying, you see.

And he was addressing the spirit in the Greek language, and suddenly her head flew back, and he said it was a totally different voice, just roared, no, well he knew what that was. So he commanded the demon to come out of his wife in the name of Jesus Christ, her head flew back, she went stiff, and began to scream in a high-pitched voice, and suddenly she went limp and opened her eyes and said, what happened?

He said, honey, you had a demon. He called in, he told me, thirty of his members quietly, one after another, and tested them, and every one had a demon. And he came out of that movement so fast. Now that's not, I don't think we should say that everybody who speaks in tongues has a demon, I don't believe that.

I believe there is a genuine gift of tongues, and I believe I've met people, I've tested some people who I think had a genuine gift. That's not a problem. But there is, certainly, an alien spirit, and this needs to be tested, and many times people who have the tongues gift, they will not have it tested because they say that's an insult to the Holy Ghost.

No, it's not. The Bible says try the spirits, whether they are of God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. So we have a right to try them. God says to do that. Well anyway, here, going back to Acts 8, unclean spirits crying with a loud voice came out of many that were possessed with them, and many taken with palsies, and that were lame were healed.

And there was great joy in that city. Then there was this guy called Simon, and he was a sorcerer, and he had bewitched the people of Samaria, giving out to himself of some great one, verse 9, and everybody gave heed to this guy Simon from the least to the greatest, saying, This man is the great power of God.

And to him they had regard, because that of a long time he had bewitched them, or deceived them with sorceries. Verse 13, Simon himself believed also, and continued with Philip, and wondered, beholding the miracles and signs which were done.

Now Simon, verse 14 first of all, Now when the apostles who were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent unto them Peter and John, who when they were come down, prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Ghost.

Why do you think that they had to get a couple of guys from Jerusalem to come down to Samaria to pray for these Samaritans to get the Holy Spirit? Why couldn't Philip do this? You think of any reason?

Does Philip have any note with him? Be which? Be which reason? No, I don't think that would be the reason. Philip wasn't an apostle, but Philip had the Holy Spirit. You see, Ananias, here's something really interesting.

When Paul was filled with the Holy Spirit, a layperson named Ananias laid hands on Paul and Paul was filled with the Holy Spirit. Doesn't have to be an apostle, you see. And okay, I'll tell you what I think.

There was bad feeling between the Samaritans and the Jews. And I mean, if a Jew sat on a bench, a Samaritan wouldn't sit there. If a Samaritan sat on a bench, a Jew wouldn't sit on the same bench. The Samaritans, if you read the history of Samaria, how they came into being, when Israel was taken out of the northern kingdom into Babylon and so on, they brought people from Babylon down and put them in the cities where the Israelites had lived.

And then they brought a priest down from the captivity to Samaria to teach the Samaritans how to worship God. And so they had the first five books of Moses. And it got to the place where the Samaritans felt they were just as much the people of God as the Jews were.

And so there was this bad feeling there, you see. And so in order, like, you remember when Jesus talked to the woman at Samaria, she said the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. And she could have said the Samaritans have no dealings with the Jews, but she's putting the blame on the Jews, you see.

And Jesus Christ said, salvation is of the Jew. He said that to the Samaritan woman. So God had Jewish men come down and pray for the Samaritans that they might receive the Holy Spirit in order to humble the Samaritans.

I think that's what God had in mind. Then it says, "...they laid their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit. And when Simon saw that through laying on the apostles' hands the Holy Spirit was given, he offered them money, saying, Give me also this power, that in whosoever I lay hands he may receive the Holy Ghost.".

Oh, wait a minute. But Peter said in the hymn, "...your money perish with you.". One translation says, and it's a little closer to the Greek, "...to destruction you and your money. You have neither part nor lot in this matter, for your heart is not right in the sight of God.

Repent therefore of this your wickedness, and pray God, if perhaps the thought of your heart may be forgiven you. For I perceive that you were in the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity.".

Wasn't he saved? He was saved and baptized, but his heart wasn't right. He really needed a revival, is what he needed. Do you know what the problem was? I think he really was filled with jealousy because everybody was listening to Philip and nobody was listening to him.

He wasn't a big shot anymore. And he couldn't hack this. He was in the gall of bitterness, I say because of what had happened. He was in the bond of iniquity. I don't think he completely broke with the occult.

That was another problem, see, because well, over the years we've often had to deal with people who got into witchcraft, professing Christian people, and I have never seen a professing Christian completely possessed by a demon spirit.

But I've seen many Christians who were crippled spiritually because they had been fooling around with witchcraft, had never dealt with it, and they were never able to get off the ground spiritually speaking.

And most of these people could operate normally most of the time, but there was periods of time when they could not operate normally. I had meetings in Yorkton, and a lady sang mass. She had one of the most gorgeous voices I ever heard.

We're talking after one of these meetings, and she said, you know, maybe you can help me in this. She says, whenever they sing songs about the blood, I have to get up and go out. I said, why? Well, she said, if I didn't get out, I'd start screaming at the top of my lungs.

She said, I can't control it. I said, lady, you've got a witchcraft problem. She said, I have not. I said, you have so. I said, what have you done in the area of witchcraft? Nothing, she said. I said, now wait a minute.

Just think. Isn't there something? Well, yeah, she said, you know, my mom has been involved in witchcraft for many years, and she moved from a house to a small suite and had no room to put her witchcraft paraphernalia in a big trunk, and so she asked me if I'd keep it at my place, and I've got her stuff at my place.

Oh, I said, that explains the problem. You should not have this witchcraft garbage there. It's amazing, you know, how sometimes Christians will do a thing like this. And so she finally agreed to get rid of the trunk, no matter what her mother thought.

And once she did that, she was free from this problem, see. And let me give you a definition of witchcraft, just for a moment. Any attempt, any attempt to get information or help or entertainment by an appeal to hidden powers other than God, other than the God of the Bible, is witchcraft.

So any attempt to get information or help or entertainment by an appeal to hidden spiritual powers other than God is witchcraft. It's a simple definition, and it covers a lot of ground. So here's Simon.

He was born again, I don't doubt. He was baptized. He'd gone this far. His heart wasn't right with God. And I say the reason was jealousy. Everybody's listening to Philip. Nobody's listening to him. Everybody's going to Philip.

Nobody's going to him. He's nothing now, and he couldn't handle it, you see. And then he saw a way of handling it by getting power to give the Holy Ghost to people. Then they started looking to him, you see.

I perceive, Peter said, that you're in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity. I remember one time praying with three people. One was a pastor, about thirty-five. One was a lady, probably thirty, and she was rather overweight.

And one was a young girl, about fourteen. They responded. They'd been into witchcraft. They were Christians, all three of them, and they were having problems. So I dealt with these three people. The pastor wrote me several months later and told me that from that afternoon, when he dealt with the demon problem, he said he'd had a liberty and a power in his life he did not know existed.

The lady, who was somewhat overweight, we finished all the praying. We all got to her feet, but not her. She was still just kneeling there. And we waited a while, and she was just kneeling there, sort of looking at her hands.

And finally I said, Sisters, is there something wrong here? No, she said. She said, I may be overweight, but let me tell you something. Right now, I'm flying in the clouds. I'm so free. And the fourteen-year-old, nothing much was said, and I don't really know what happened in her life.

She had been staying with a girlfriend whose father was a Satanist. Her parents didn't know this and allowed her to go and stay with this other girl, and she got into problems. Well, let's go back to Acts 8 again.

There's a good sign here that Simon really made some progress. Verse 24, Simon answered and said, Pray to the Lord for me, that none of these things which you have spoken come upon me. We never hear this man again.

We don't know what happened. But I think it's a good sign here, the way that he responded to what Peter said to him. But this was a Samaritan Pentecost. Now we'll turn next to chapter 10, where we have a Gentile Pentecost in the house of Cornelius.

The Gentile Pentecost in Cornelius's House

Verse 1, chapter 10, There was a certain man in Caesarea called Cornelius, a centurion of the band called the Italian band, a devout man, and one that feared God with all his house, who gave much alms to the people, and prayed to God always.

Would you say he was saved? He was not saved, because later on in chapter 11, it tells how that he saw an angel who told him to call for Peter, who had given words whereby he and his house would be saved.

So he wasn't saved, but he was seeking God. And so, he was devout, he feared God with all his house, he gave much alms to the people, he prayed to God always, he fasted, we find it out later in this chapter, and he was doing more than most Christians are, you know, yet he wasn't a Christian.

And so, notice in verse 4, he saw an angel, verse 3, and the angel, when he looked on him, he was afraid and said, What is it, Lord? And he said unto him, Your prayers and your alms are come up for a memorial before God.

This man was really earnestly, honestly seeking God. He wanted to know. You know, in Dauphin, Manitoba, years ago, there was a Czech woman, and she prayed and asked God to help her understand what she had to do to be saved.

And one night, she had a dream, and in this dream, she was told to get on the train and go down to Minnetonas, which wasn't far from Swan River. She obeyed. Next day, got on the train, went down to Minnetonas, and she didn't know there was a Czech Baptist church in Minnetonas, you see.

So she's walking down the street in Minnetonas, wondering, What do I do now, you know? And she heard some people talking in Czech. So she went over to them and introduced herself and told them why she'd come and about the dream she had, and they led her to Christ.

So there's a sense in which she was like this man Cornelius. She was seeking God, and he made sure she heard, as God made sure that Cornelius heard also. Look at verse 31. Cornelius was talking with Peter, and Cornelius said, Four days ago I was fasting until this hour, and at the ninth hour I prayed in my house, and, behold, a man stood before me in bright clothing, and said, Cornelius, your prayer is heard, and your arms are had in remembrance in the sight of God.

Send ever to Joppa, and call here Simon, whose sermon is Peter. And he tells them how he'll speak to him. But turn to chapter 11 for just a moment. After this happened, after the Spirit was poured out on these Gentiles, when Peter got into trouble, because some of the brethren thought he should not, some of the Jewish believers thought he should not have gone to these Gentiles at all, because that was a feeling that Jews had towards Gentiles back in those days.

So in verse 2 of chapter 11, when Peter has come to Jerusalem, they that were the circumcision contended with him, saying, You went into uncircumcised men, and you ate with them. So Peter rehearsed the whole thing and told them exactly what happened.

And verse 12, the Spirit bade me go with him, doubting nothing. Moreover, these six brethren accompanied me, and we entered into the man's house. And he showed us how he had seen an angel in his house, who stood and said unto him, Send men to Joppa, and call for Simon, whose sermon name is Peter, who shall tell you words, whereby you and all your house shall be saved.

So they weren't saved. And you know, it wasn't a long sermon. Here's something you need to think about. When Paul was preaching to Christians at Troas, his sermon was hours long. He preached all night till break of day.

You know, his sermon might have been eight or ten hours long, talking to Christians. When Peter was talking to sinners in the house of Cornelius, his sermon wasn't even three minutes long, you know. Now you can form your own conclusions, right?

Yeah, because he said, As I began to speak, the Spirit fell on them as on us at the beginning. As I began to speak. So it wasn't Peter's sermon that did it. It was God that did it. That's true in any case.

So in verse 34, Peter opened his mouth and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons, but in every nation. He that fears him and works righteousness is accepted with him. The word which God sent unto the children of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ, he is Lord of all.

That word, I say you know, which was published throughout all Judea and began from Galilee after the baptism which John preached. How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the devil.

For God was with him, and we are witnesses of all things which he did, both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem, whom they slew and hung on a tree. Him God raised up the third day and showed him openly, not to all the people, but unto the witnesses chosen before of God, even to us, who did even drink with him after he rose from the dead.

And he commanded us to preach unto the people and to testify that it is he who was ordained of God to be the judge of living and dead. Now notice what happened. To him give all the prophets witness that through his name, whosoever believes in him shall receive remission of sins.

And the whole congregation was converted, born again at that moment. Can that happen? Well, it happened here, but it can still happen today. Life Action were having a crusade in Fort Worth, Texas, in a large Southern Baptist church.

They had 3 ,000 members. And a revival broke. They had to go for five weeks. They finally phoned me long distance. They said, Bill, can you give us a week of time down here? We've run out. They were holding meetings all around the place, not only in the church, and they just ran out.

And they said, we appreciate it very much. And it just happened I had a week or so. And so I gave them a week of time, and I went down there. It was just such a delight to be there. You know what was happening?

People were being saved right where they sat, without coming forward or anything. The gospel, you just see it, and they would get saved. People were being revived without coming forward, just sitting in the congregation.

I remember talking with some of these people. And this one lady, she said, you know, I was just sitting there, and all of a sudden the glory of God burst in my soul. I've been a Christian for years, but I've never committed myself completely to God.