She said, “I cried out to God all night and I fell asleep in just total despair, but when I woke up this morning, He shed abroad His love in my heart, and I’m saved!”
Where’s the supernatural God you talk about? You’ve got to give Him a helping hand because He can’t seem to properly save people anymore? If we could fill this place up with old preachers from 150 years ago, they’d be yawning, because they all heard this. It’s all they ever talked about. Remember, we’ve got a formula. We’ve got a methodology. Who was it that said, “A million more in ’54”? Or ’64, whatever it was. We get a million more like what we’ve got and we’re doomed. It’s about conversion. It’s about preachers.
I’m so tired….it’s not about little boys who can speak the words of parrots. It’s about men who dwell in the presence of God. His Word has been burned into the reality of their heart, and they speak forth truth, come Hell or high water.
That’s what brings reformation, and I’ll tell you something, old guys like myself. God’s raising up a bunch of them. He is. Be careful not to become their enemy when they come in and split your church wide open because you wouldn’t do it.
He says in verse…. and I will finish with this, He says, I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes…. Now there’s an amazing word, isn’t it. I will put my Spirit within you and cause you––make you––to walk in my statutes….
Well, God can’t make you do anything. Well, as a matter of fact, He can. He can kill you if He wants to. It’s like a guy one time, an unbeliever, stood up, and a friend of mine, an old guy by the name of Homer Crain, was sitting beside him. The preacher was up there going, “God wants to take you to Heaven but He can’t do it.”
And this old sinner stood up and said, “Well, if He can’t take me to Heaven, He can’t send me to Hell, and he walked out. He had better theology than most preachers. The fact is, He can take you to Heaven and He can send you to Hell and He’ll get glory out of both of those things. I will put my Spirit within you.
One of the things that frighten me most about some of the young men coming out of our seminaries is there’s a lot of knowledge and not a lot of reality. You see, you take the truths of the Puritans and the early Baptists, but if you don’t go out in the woods on a log and pray until dew has set well on your head, you’re going to be worthless. This is not about learning all you can. I’ve already gotten enough truth I’ll never be able to live out. I’ve seen many Arminians live beyond their theology, but I’ve never met a Calvinist who’s lived up to his.
Listen. This is about the Holy Spirit. This is about the power of the Holy Spirit, and I am not going to allow a bunch of people who twist that doctrine. I am not going to allow them to steal my heritage from me. A Jehovah Witness knocks on my door and says, “We’re Jehovah Witnesses.”
I say, “Well, come on in. So am I.” And after they get through with their spiel, I say, “You lied to me. You’re not a Jehovah’s Witness. Now, sit down. I’m going to tell you the way I real Jehovah Witness talks.”
Someone said, “I’m charismatic.”
I said, “Well, so am I,” because I’m not going to allow the inheritance purchased for me with the blood of Jesus Christ to be taken from me because I’m just afraid someone will misinterpret me. The best thing some of you young boys could do is go out in the woods and don’t come back until you’ve met with God. That’ll be the difference. You can know Him, young man. His presence can be more real to you than any human being sitting in the room with you. That is true.
He says He’ll put His Spirit within us. Look at this. We’ve got all these people that supposedly have the Holy Spirit who live like demons. That’s the fault of bad preaching, bad theology. I always use this illustration for college kids. I always tell them, “What if I showed up here and I’m in my suit and my hair is kind of combed and everything, but I show up an hour late and everyone’s mad at me.”
“Well, didn’t you appreciate the opportunity to get to speak here? Why have you shown up late?”
