The Enemy of Revival - Part 1 (Cd Quality) — Leonard Ravenhill

Sometime in his life, prepares a message, and then when he thinks he's got it all in shape, the Lord says no. When I have that experience, I intend to go straight into the issue of prayer, or the prayer life.

The Need for Revival in a Critical Hour

I want to speak about a prayer tonight that maybe you've never heard anyone preach on. But next week I hope to go out into the story of a man who prayed just twice, and then the week after, and then the week after.

That's unless you all get frightened tonight. I believe this is the most critical hour in not just American history, but world history. On the theological level, when that pestiferous man called Martin Luther was waging war, he waged war just against the Roman Church.

He thought it was number one in heresy, which I still think. But now we've not only got Mormonism, we've not only got Catholicism, we've got Mormonism, we've got Russialism, we've got Moonism, and we've got Humanism.

I do not believe that the moral desolation in America, or even England, the moral desolation in America and the spiritual stagnation is not N .O .T., is not due to the strength of Humanism, but to the weakness of Evangelism.

I believe the number one enemy to revival in America today is Evangelism. One of the most famous preachers in the world, I have a few, like Brother Bracey, he comes to see me sometimes. This famous man came and I said to him, in America today we have at least 500 evangelists.

We do not have one revivalist. The last revivalist as far as I know in America was a Baptist, and unless you're very old you won't remember him, by the name of, what was his name? I tell my class sometimes, I'm not losing my memory, my mind, I'm just losing my memory now and again.

Pardon? Mordecai Ham. Good. You ever hear of him? Oh, you heard of him. A lady won't say she heard him make, it dates them you see. But I, a few, I haven't been on the road preaching for about three years.

I've been in trouble physically in the last four years, I've had three strokes, two heart attacks, and still more to come. You can be sure of this, if you enter the enemy's territory you'll fight back, on many different levels.

But after preaching one night, a brother came to me the next morning and he said, you know, last night you reminded me so much of Mordecai Ham. I said, well that's a compliment. I said, did you hear him?

He said, yes. If he came to a town, say like Kilgore, he bought a tent, holding maybe six hundred, which was considered large at that time. And he said, the third night of preaching he had to have a police escort to get him into the pulpit, and a police escort to get him out.

He troubled earth and hell. But when he left, taverns closed and never opened again. Dance halls closed, never opened again. We don't have a preacher in the country that can preach like that today. In fact, I said to this famous man, and everybody knows his name around the world really.

I said, there is no biblical foundation for going for a one night stand in any city. Supposing the Apostle Paul had done that. Supposing Phineas had done that. There's no such thing known in the scripture.

It may be an American phenomenon. The number one need in America today, as you know, or in the world, is a real Holy Ghost revival. There are three kinds of people in the world. Number one, those who are afraid.

Number two, those who don't know enough to be afraid. And number three, those who know their Bibles. I could withdraw that and say there are only two kinds of people in the world. Number one, those who are dead in trespasses and in sin.

And number two, those who are dead to sin. There's no middle course. Dead in trespasses and in sin, or dead to sin. My text tonight is provided by a woman. You'll find it in the book of Judges. Judges chapter 16 and verse 6.

I'm reading from the Living Bible, the King James Version. If I didn't say that to you, Spencer might have shouted it out. Verse 6, Delilah said to Samson, Tell me, I pray thee, wherein thy great strength lieth, and wherewith thou mightest be bound to afflict thee.

Again, that's a question of a woman to a man of God. What's the secret of his great strength? I would to God the world was asking the church that tonight. She figures we have no strength. Before he retired, I don't know when that was, when did Carl F. Henry retire?

Well he founded, he was the founder editor of Christianity Today. And before he retired, he said he sent out a questionnaire to, I forget how many, 300 preachers, and asked them a simple question. Say this is 20 years ago.

What do you see for the Church of Christ by the year 2000? I've forgotten most of the answers. I remember there's a very good answer by Layton Ford, Billy Graham's mother-in-law. There's another by Elton Trueblood, the Quaker philosopher.

And he said by the year 2000, the Church of Jesus Christ will be a conscious minority surrounded by an arrogant, militant paganism. That's the way she used to know it. A shrinking minority surrounded by an arrogant, militant paganism.

The Judgment Seat and the Loss of Holy Fear

The world, the flesh, and the devil, and the press are against the Church of Jesus Christ today. This is the most critical hour. And the trouble is, so many Christians, they're more troubled with who's in the White House than who's in God's house.

We go to the house of God. We read the Word of God. We sing praises to God, but where is God? When did you last tiptoe out of the sanctuary? Oh, by the majesty of God's holiness. A very popular periodical a few years ago, a few months ago, here in America, a poll across the nation asked, what's your greatest fear?

I don't know the rotation exactly, but it was something like this. Number one, I fear an invasion from Russia. Number two, I fear an atomic war. Number three, I fear an economy collapse. Number five, I fear cancer.

Number six, I travel much, I fear an accident. Leaving me with a man called Bobby the rest of my life. Do you know that one person feared God? Jimmy Shaggart says the reason for this, what I call moral desolation and spiritual stagnation, is due to the fact that preachers have lost sight of the rapture.

I don't believe that for one split second. You've got people Sunday, were standing and singing in church. What if it were today and they were planning divorce tomorrow? Are you going to try and persuade me that they believe in a momentary rapture?

There's millions of people believe in Jesus coming instantly, but they skip prayer meeting every Wednesday night. Well, people alert for God don't do that. The problem is not that we've lost sight of the rapture, the problem is we've lost sight of the judgment seat.

I'm trying to write a book on that. If you pardon the phrase, I've been pregnant with a thing for ten years. And I should have finished it last year. But if I had, I'd have lost so much of the book. That's why the Lord didn't let me have it.

It's the most awesome thing that's coming. That you individually, whether you're a saint or a sinner, you have to stand personally there before the judgment seat. No longer gentle Jesus meek and mild.

We like to sing that famous hymn of restlessness. Gentle Jesus meek and mild. But he also wrote the hymn, Lo, he comes with clouds descending, Once for favoured sin of flame, Thousands, thousands saints attending, Swell the triumph.

Every eye shall now behold him, Clothed in dreadful majesty. Those who set at naught and pierced him, Deeply wailing on the tree. They're going to stand before him too. Pontius Pilate. Herod's going to stand there.

He doesn't know a word about it. His priest or his pope won't tell him. Kennedy. Teddy Kennedy is going to stand there. And I have to explain the death of that woman in that car with him. Everybody is going to stand there.

Not a single person is going to get by. It's the most awesome event that's yet to come. When all the people, all the nations of the earth, are coming to the great rite of judgment. All believers are coming to the judgment seat, which we call again the Beamer's seat.

Let me go back a minute there. Okay. I'll pick up here then. Time cuts them out. You all want to stay till midnight I suppose. The first story I heard about America was in England if you don't know. And it was a story about a very famous person that lived here, Rip Van Winkle.

Come on you smart people. Who wrote that story? Who wrote the story, Rip Van Winkle? Nobody knows. Good for you. You went to school. Washington Irving wrote it. He also wrote Little Orphan Annie, didn't he?

Oh, you didn't know. You're not so educated. I anticipated too much. Anyhow, the story as I heard it from my teacher. You know my teacher had a real, what was I going to say, complex. And she was very dull.

She thought I was dumb, and I thought the same thing about her. But she told me the story about Rip Van Winkle. He went up the Hudson. I remember going up there years ago. And he went to a place, you remember, called Sleepy Hollow.

And he fell asleep. And he slept well. When you get the authorized version or revised, it makes all the difference in the world. Some say he slept a year. Some say he slept 20 years. Some say he slept 100.

And that's all I ever learned about the story. And that isn't the story at all. When he went up the hill, there was a sign outside of the tavern. And there it was, well like my Bible. It was swinging in the wind.

And on it he had the face of George III painted. Well he went to sleep. And when he went down the hill, he found a bunch of people arguing. And he got involved in the argument. And he forgot to look at the sign because they'd rubbed out the face of George III.

And they painted the face of another George there who was partly English, by the name of George Washington. And the point is not that he slept 10 years or 20 years. The point is he slept through a revolution.

And that's what the church is doing tonight. People say, Oh, I get phone calls all over the country. I'm going to live in this city. I'm going to live there. Can you tell me a church that's really burning for God?

No, I can't. Oh, the church is dead. Jesus never said the church is dead. He said something worse than that. He describes it in Revelation 3, doesn't he? He says of his own church, She's poor and wretched and naked and blind and miserable.

That's what he says, not what the press say. He says of the Laodicean church, and you know, guys argue about pre-trib, mid-trib, post-trib, but they all seem to agree this is the Laodicean period. And it sure is.

And the church is blind. She's blind to the judgment seat. She's blind to 5 billion people lost without God and without hope. She's blind to her own individual responsibility. The church is sleeping. She's sleeping through the greatest revolution.

Cultural Apostasy and the Church's Compromise

Did you ever dream in your lifetime that gay people, that's a rotten name, gay, for a leprous disease that they have? Did you ever dream that they'd march down Main Street claiming their rights? Did you ever dream that some churches are actually giving ordination to homosexuals?

You couldn't have dreamt that in a thousand years. But we have it now. Wilkinson sent a bunch of his people a few years ago to the Metropolitan Church in Dallas. And he was staggered. When they went in, they gave them a brochure of naked men inside.

And it gave them contacts they could make gay bars to go to. This was a church. And the preacher said, well, go home now and enjoy. Well, I know you speak in tongues, speak in tongues. Go home, enjoy yourself, and enjoy your partner tonight.

God has made us free. And this is a presentation of the so-called gospel? Do you know there are more slaves in America or England tonight than ever have been in history? Voluntary slaves to sexual perversion.

Slaves to nicotine. Slaves to drink. Slaves to TV, some of you preacher boys. You don't pray through the night like the old Pentecostals did. You're watching TV till you're stupid. If you'd like to know my birthday, I'll tell you.

The 18th of June. But on the 18th of June, in 1845, that's not when I was born, that's yesterday. 18th of June, 1845, Napoleon fought a very decisive battle. He had squashed a lot of other nations round about him.

And he was going into battle. And on the wall, he had a great map of Europe. The officers were not being attentive, so he snapped them to attention. And of course when he did that, they thought he'd be angry, and he had a volcanic temper.

And he looked at the map, and he mentioned various countries. Then he put his finger on a little red spot, which happened to be England. And he made this statement. He said, there lies a sleeping giant.

You've heard that phrase often enough. There lies a sleeping giant. He said, let it sleep. Because he said, if that country ever wakes... No, pardon me. He had talked to them about England. And then he went to China, which right now has, what, a thousand million people, a fifth of the world's human family.

He ran his finger around the ragged edge of the country, and he said, there lies... and plunged his finger in the centre. He said, that's China. A sleeping giant. Let it sleep. If it ever marshals its mineral power to its manpower, and gets on the move, it will shake the world.

Well, instead of seeing Napoleon, see the devil. And he comes to the church of Jesus Christ, and he runs his finger around it. And he says, the church of Jesus Christ is asleep. Let it sleep. Because if it ever discovers the power of the Holy Ghost, it will ransack this world.

We've got shibboleths. We talk about the Holy Ghost, we hardly know that much about him. I believe the true Pentecostal message, and you know, I'll say this, he may not let me back. You know, Pentecostals hang on very tenaciously to Acts 1 -8, ye shall receive power.

And they hang with the same tenacity on to Acts 2 -4. The Holy Ghost and speaking in tongues, that's all right, but be consistent. Consistency is a rare jewel. Why not hold on to Acts 6 for your deacons?

Could you round the deacons of any of your churches up and say these men are full of faith, they're the Holy Ghost, and they do signs and wonders and miracles? Could you go into the 8th chapter of the Acts of the Apostles?

People say sometimes, there's no revivalist mentioned, no revivalist mentioned in the New Testament. No, but it's implied. Because Paul says in the 21st chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, he took a party of people and he said, we stayed in the house of Philip, the evangelist.

It's the same Philip mentioned in Acts 6. And Philip didn't go in an invading party, God help us. He didn't put up a million dollar crusade. Gentlemen, if you can forget anything, remember this, Mr. Chadwick, our blessed president, put this in my mind, 50 years ago, I went to school in 30 -31, for 7 months.

And he used to say to us, gentlemen, you never have to advertise a fire. When you advertise, it's a sign that God isn't there. When God was there, there was a shaft of fire over the temple, over the tabernacle.

It wasn't a million dollar building, it was made of Baptist skins and all kinds of junk. But the presence of God was there. And when the fire wasn't there, there was a pillar of cloud there. But where's the fire now?

The Holy Spirit, Purity, and Prayer

People say, I've had the baptism. Oh, that's a terrible thing to say. I asked him, are you baptized with the Holy Ghost and fire? Did he come and burn up your selfishness? Burn up your pride? Burn up your uncleanness?

Did he purify you? You see, the weakness of modern Pentecostalism, the stress is all on power and not on purity. But everything in the Old Testament had to be pure. The lamps, they had oil. No, they had pure olive oil.

The desk was made of gold. No, it was made of pure gold. The garments of the priest must not have any wool in them. Only linen. Do you know why? Because wool makes you sweat. And that's the only thing the priest would have brought from that day to this.

They refused to sweat. And I'll tell you when the fire of the Holy Ghost... I told somebody today, you know, the last few months, I feel as though I've got a volcano inside of me. I'll tell you how to get into shape.

Maybe you'll need to kick the TV out. I go to bed between nine and half past at night. I get up at midnight and stay in my office two or three hours or longer, whatever God wants. You see, with all the money in the world, you can't buy more time.

Preachers don't usually have enough money to waste, but they waste a lot of time. And if you love this man of God, and I love him, and he is a man of God, deacons do your job. Visit the sick, visit the hospitals, take care of the poor, leave him time to pray.

Any Baptist preachers here? Let me see your hands. Good for you. Wonderful. How dare you stay in this place? Do you know, when Alexander McLaren went to Manchester, I had the privilege of having a meeting in his church.

It holds over 2 ,000 people. And he met the deacons, bearded old guys, and they told him this and that and the other. And they said, would you accept our offer? This is the wage, we'll buy you a new carriage and horse, or horses.

We'll get you a new house. And they went down the list of things. I'll accept it. Oh, thank you. Just a minute. He said, if you accept my conditions. What? You see, the deacons thought they were hiring a donkey.

You've got conditions, yes. He said, look, gentlemen, and he stood at the side, away from the table, he said, you can have my feet or my head, but not both. If you'll do the visiting, go to hospitals, care for the sick and do everything else, I'll guarantee I'll spend all my time with my head and my heart in the Word of God.

He did. And so you can buy his expositions now. Alexander McLaren's about as good as anybody. And he preached right through the Word of God there. Because he had one thing to do. You see, the secret of the Apostle Paul is this.

This one thing I do. Dear Lord, he went to heaven for a vacation. It'd have been on TV every day for a year, wouldn't it? It'd have written six books on it. How I went up and how I came down. And yet he says nothing about it.

You see, why I'm happy I'm here tonight, if I did as others say, I've been to six different countries, I'm here tonight because I believe I'm in God's will, that's why. If the offering's only $10 ,000, it will help, but every penny of it will go to the mission field.

I don't take a dime. I'll tell you a miracle. I've got two sons, both Pentecostal preachers. One has just retired. Resigned from the church, 1500 Sunday mornings, with 500 simultaneously in Sunday school, and he set off preaching around the world without any financial backing.

My other son has been down in Paraguay. He'd been in Argentina and Paraguay about 25 years, never once asked for a penny. I never asked for a dime. Got my boys through school, college, university, and God has met every bill.

And all I owe is something to General Motors, but they can wait. Pay the rest on my car. Did somebody say you'll do it? Okay. No. You see, the devil is terribly afraid of the church of Jesus Christ and nothing else.

He's afraid of anointed men. He's afraid of men who walk with God. So the world is asking this man, you see, you can say three things about Samson. You can think of his own life. It began miraculously.

It fell down in the middle, and it finished in great triumph, and it began. It's a picture of Israel. She began with a supernatural. I'll ask Brother Bracey after. In Aaron's, no, what was it? In the ark.

What did they put in the ark, Brother Bracey? I've forgotten now. The ark of the covenant. The tablets, the Ten Commandments. Yeah. Well, that's the point. I wonder why they didn't make a relic of Moses.

What did he do? He took out his rod and divided the sea. But they weren't after worshipping a thing like that. The Ten Commandments were there. Remember, again, a smart American. There are some smart Americans, you know.

And a smart American preacher said years ago, they're not ten suggestions, they're ten commandments. You can run any country in the world on the Ten Commandments and no country in the world without them.

And they've got to come back. Boy, we've sung amazing grace till we're stupid. It's time to bring the law back as well as grace. And have a balance. Well, here's a man moving in the realm of the supernatural all the time.

And I don't care whether it's a denomination or an individual church. If it hasn't a supernatural, it has a superficial. And you see, the great tragedy, you're going to learn a lot tonight. Do you know why the world's in the mess it's in?

Because we exported American Christianity and British Christianity, not Bible Christianity. We went to China with a set of laws that we'd learned in school. And all we did was give lectures about the Bible while they were giving lectures about Confucius.

And you can't fight that. You've got to have life. Not just lectures, not just intellectualism. Well, this man's moving anyhow in the power of the Spirit. And so what did they do? He was a terror to evildoers.

They were afraid of him. So it says in verse 5, The lords of the Philistines came to this woman Delilah, entice him. Then verse 6, Delilah said to Samson, Tell me, I pray thee, where on thy great strength lieth, and where wilt thou, my church, be bound to a fate?

Listen to his answer. It's awesome. Where wilt thou, my church, be bound to a fate? Verse 7, Samson said unto her, If they bind me with seven green wisps that were never dried, then shall I be weak. Dear God, that's bad enough, but listen.

I shall be weak like other men. He knew it was abnormal. She knew it was abnormal. And his enemies knew it was abnormal. But the last thing America's afraid of is the church of Jesus Christ. They're far more concerned getting a man in the White House than getting the right man in God's house.

And politics has sunk. They're bad that day. This is the greatest opportunity that has been for a century in America. Let men of God arise in the power of the Spirit and forget the devil and the deacons and anybody else.

And say, listen, I'm going to preach God's word, come hell or high water. And the world again will begin to say, What's the secret of that church down there? Why do people flock to it? There's a book out right now called Seven Pentecostal Bioneers.

Read it. The middle story is about Stephen Jeffries, a little Welshman. He came 50 miles from my home. He rented a building holding 2 ,000. By the end of the week, they turned 1 ,000 a night away. Do you know what it says?

Read the story. Two weeks he was there, 924 people went through the inquiry room and were dealt with personally. I told the popular evangelist in my office, I said, blast away as much as you like against abortion.

But I said, you evangelists are abortionists. You bring a crowd of young people to the front and all they do is just about say, God be merciful to me, a sinner go back. I said, listen, the woman that aborted that baby is going to see that baby's face at the judgment seat and the baby's going to...

The woman that aborted that baby is going to see that baby's face at the judgment seat and the baby's going to see its mother's face for the first time. And you're going to see everybody that you came to the altar and let them go away.

They were damned when they came, they were damned when they left. The new birth is a miracle. The great revivalists had a back room where people went. Sure, it took till 2 or 3 o 'clock in the morning to see them through.

But this is a supreme miracle. It's greater than a baby being born. It takes all the redemptive power of Jesus Christ, the power of the Holy Ghost, and the power of the Father to forgive. And yet we get them to nod their head and off they go.

Then shall I be weak as are the men. Do you know what I'm sick of, dear brother Bracey? In the church of Jesus Christ, even amongst the priests, I'm sick of mediocrity. I'm tired of living amongst dwarfs.

Where are the towering men that the Baptist used to have, like A .B. Earle? After he was born again, he received an experience of being filled with the Holy Ghost. So the Baptists don't quote him. But he went to cities and they shook under the power of God.

There were no signs and wonders and miracles. In the Welsh Revival, there was no physical manifestation. What happened? The Holy Ghost came, and they were crazy about soccer. The soccer stadiums were empty.

The taverns were empty. The dance halls were empty. But listen, there's a price. The little fellow that God used in the Welsh Revival was Stephen Jefferies. He was 26 years of age when God opened the heavens on him.

But the record says he had prayed for 13 years. What's your 13-year-old doing? You're leading him to hell. He sees anything he wants on TV, and things he doesn't want to see. And then he watches his stupid father.

Daddy's so full of sport, and the kid's full of sport. The greatest thing my daddy ever did for me, he took me to a half-night of prayer when I was 14 years of age. When I saw my big, strong daddy take his coat off, about 2 in the morning, his shirt stuck to his back with wrestling and prayer.

And to other men, boy, once I'd been there, I was ruined forever for entertainment. And you see, entertainment is the devil's substitute for joy. The church that has the less joy has the best entertainment program.

Oh, it's the only way to draw young people. It sure is not. When the Holy Ghost is resident, you've no trouble keeping young people. They're silenced in the presence of the eternal God. We're afraid of silence today.

Everything as soon as you get in, it's clap your hands and all the rest of it. And God is... I'll speak about that next week, partly. Tell me where in thy great strength... Well, what'd she say? Bind me with seven green withts that were never dried.

Then I shall be weak as another man. Look at verse 11. In verse 11, he said, If they bind me fast with new robes, whenever occupied, I shall be weak and be as another man. That's two warnings. Look at verse 17.

He told her all his heart and said unto her, There is not a razor come upon my head. If I be shaven, then will my strength go from me, and I shall become weak like any other man. Can you think of a man being worn three times and walking into the trap?

This enticing, fascinating woman. The enemies were afraid of him. The Philistines were afraid. She wasn't brazen as she was. She comes up to this spirit-anointed man. And yet, foolish man, he couldn't discern this.

False Images of God and the Need for Discernment

I was horrified. I think it was Christmas Eve, listening to the news at six o 'clock. And I like the fellow that gives the news there. What's his name? Peter. Peter Jennings. And he talked about the things, the folly of the past year.

And he talked about Gary Hart and a few others. And then he showed a painted doll. He said, This is Tammy May of PTL. She taught the nation how to make up. I thought that was rotten. And then, you know what he said?

He showed a picture of Oral Roberts like this. He said, Oral Roberts presented God as a terrorist. Could you think a spirit-filled man being accused of that? Presenting God as a terrorist? I borrowed Shakespeare's terms and say, He made God into a super Shylock.

Give me your money or I'll take your flesh. But these are holy men. Do you know, he did a terrible thing taking that million dollars. Do you know what he'd done before that? They were trying to get into Oklahoma.

They were trying to get horse racing in Oklahoma. Horse racing. You're off your horse just now. He saw Christ 900 feet high. That's a lie. He visualized it. Two men have seen Christ since the early days of the resurrection.

One was Saul on the Damascus Road. Another was John on the Isle of Fat Mouse. One fell at his feet as dead. And the other saw the blazing majesty. I don't believe he ever recovered his eyesight. Physically, yes.

Spiritually, he was blind to the world. That's why he became the most reckless man that's ever lived in the gospel. He out-preached everybody. He out-prayed everybody. He out-fasted everybody. And he made less money than anybody.

He gives his back to the smiter. 195 lashes. Christ three times suffered shipwreck once he was stoned. And he does it all joyfully. He says, I glory in tribulation. Boy, if you had three deacons like that in your church, you'd have a revival.

Glorying in tribulation, in necessities, in reproaches. We pray, oh God, I think I may lose a bit of money. People don't like me. Oh, we howl in God's prayer. He delighted in it. I believe that hell had a day's holiday when Paul died.

He'd given them headaches so long. And they said nobody will come up like him anymore. There have been so many in history like that. But Oral Roberts turned his back on the 900-foot Christ and this book says, talks about filthy lucre.

And the filthiest filthy lucre is that he got a million dollars worth of tear-stained, beer-stained, sin-stained, death-stained dollars and called it an answer to prayer. That's blasphemy. I'll tell you why Roberts failed.

I'll tell you why PTL failed. Because both of those men were apostates. Now, wait a minute. If you have G. Campbell Morgan's wonderful expositions of scripture, you should have them. They're $100. They're on sale for $39 .95 right now.

They're the best set of books, I think, almost that are, expositions. And in it he says an apostate is not a man who continues to spread heresy. He's a man that came up to the true light and backed off from it.

I heard Roberts preach in 1951. In Klamath Falls in South Oregon. He preached that night on the fourth man. He tries to preach it now. It's an empty bag of wind. But that night when people came forward, he said go straight past the platform into a room at the back, a tent at the back.

And then he had over 2 ,000 people knelt down and prayed, Holy Ghost, come on these people. He said the next 50 minutes is the most vital time in the life of these people. They're going to be born again of the Spirit of God.

Let's pray them through. They'll never do that anymore. Become rich and increased in goods. You know the church of God has need of nothing today except the Holy Ghost, that's all. We've all the trimmings, we've all the show, we've all the fancy bits.

But where is the power of the Spirit? Fasten me with green widths, I shall be as another man. Fasten me with new ropes, I shall be as another man. And what happened? He got nowhere. She got nowhere with him.

You see, here's a man, he's a menace. He's quite a joker, isn't he? They put him up at the Holiday Inn, which was built over there, as it is in some countries. You go up the pillars that hold the gates up, and he stayed up there somewhere, and in the night he couldn't sleep very well, so he got up and he carried the gates away, and the whole shebang.

Put them at the top of the hill, I guess he said, well, it was easy for me to get them here, I guess you won't get them back as easy. So the city was upset, he upset them, he took the gates with him. So they got mad, so they sent 3 ,000 men after him.

What did he do? He picked up the jawbone of an ass. That's a pretty humiliating weapon. Do you know what it was in his hand? Atomic weapon. One man against, was it 2 or 3 ,000, and he slew them. I heard of somebody in England where a lady said, well, our pastor doesn't believe in that old-fashioned stuff, you know, where John has swallowed the whale, and he doesn't believe about that man Samson picking up the jawbone of an ass.

He says, God doesn't use jawbones anymore. She said, he does at our church. The jawbone of an ass? Do you think hell trembled when he picked up that jawbone? Do you think the critics said, hey, that man's mad, we thought he was a lunatic.

What's he going to do with it? Is it a souvenir? And he picks it up and he goes, boy, he might as well have had a twedged sword. Finally, a twedged sword. The jawbone of an ass in the hands of God is better than an atomic bomb in anybody else's hands.