The blessed power of Pentecost to fill me to the uttermost I take. Thank God he undertakes for me. And the people of God said, amen. You may be seated. The Lord has already graciously spoken to us as his servants in speech and in song have brought to us the message of the old time religion and the message that stirs our hearts for it's a message that pulled us from the jaws of hell and we can say my Jesus has done all things well. He took us from hell to heaven by the power of his blood, and we're going to never die, and we're never going to perish, because if you have the unperishing blood on your heart, you can't perish. You have everlasting life. If you would turn with me, please, to 2 Corinthians. at the chapter three, the third chapter of 2 Corinthians. And I want to read with you from verse five and verse six. Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God, who also hath made us able ministers of the New Testament, not of the letter, but of the spirit. For the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life. The Word of God has been honored already this night. And the Lord's servant has been pointing out to us the importance of full obedience and absolute allegiance to the precious Word of God. You know, I have heard from my early days among God's people what a great book the Bible is and what a wonderful book it is and how we should read it and study it and obey it. But I have discovered that God's people today are not reading the Bible. They're not studying the Bible. They're not obeying the Word of God. And because of that, we hear wonderful eulogies of what the Bible is, but we don't see the miracles that the Bible should work in our own lives and in the lives of the community in which we live and work for the Lord for. You know why? The Bible is a shut book to people who have shut hearts. The Bible is a shut book to people who have shut hearts. And many times, We shut our hearts to the blessed word of God. God wants us to get through to him, and he wants us to obey. Absolute obedience is the secret of blessing. Absolute obedience. Not argument. Not debate. God says it. I believe it. And I'm going to do it with the help of the Lord. Yes, the Bible is a transforming book. And the Bible does transform those that obey it. But we're not seeing that transforming power today as we should. So no wonder we can ask the question with Paul, who are sufficient for these things? Only those are sufficient for these things who come to the Bible in humility of heart, who come to the Bible to be told what to do. who come to the Bible as a child and say, what you teach me today, I will obey. And when we come to that place where we are controlled, where we are governed, when we are mastered, when we're a slave to the word of God, then we shall see what this country needs to see, a mighty outpouring of the Spirit of God. It is essential that these children that we've been hearing about are reached. If they're not reached, they'll be in hell forever. We see the children of our own country. We see the machinery of the devil to damn them. And the devil has every plan and every amusement and every thrill and every deception. What to do? To blind their eyes and to take them captive to hell. Did you have a quiet weep today for the children of your own country? Did you? Did you say to God today, God help the boys and girls and save them from this awful sewer of a modern Sodom that is so prevalent in our land today? Or do we never think about it? And the tragedy is that the churches have given up on the old-fashioned Sunday school, the old-fashioned catechism, the old-fashioned times of prayer that they had. And in my young days, Sabbath school teachers were godly people. Sabbath school teachers looked upon the little children that sat five, six, and seven as their responsibility to get them to Christ and to the blood and to Calvary. Oh we need a burden for the men and women of tomorrow. And the time to get the man and woman of tomorrow converted is not tomorrow, it's today. For the children of today will be the man and woman of tomorrow. The word of God is the word of a God that cannot lie. and the word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword. The Lord save his people from the fashion of this world. The Lord give us today The miracle of seeing slaves of sin becoming sons of God and can see criminals transformed into Christians, not one or two, but hundreds of them. This is the anniversary time of the death of Mr. Sankey. Mr. Sankey and D.L. Moody came to our country and they stayed for two years. It was a long evangelistic time. And they preached the gospel. They started in York with 50 people. And Sankey said, every man and woman in the 50 people that was with us in that first evangelistic effort in the city of York, every one of them sought a seat as far from a pulpit as they could get it. And he said, when I looked down, all I saw was seats, seats, seats. And then in that big church, way at the back, 50 people or 40 people. D.L. Moody said to Harris, frankly, he said, you know what we need? We need to pray Almighty God to do a miracle. and they called up permitting and many people came to the first permitting five, five, but they caught fire and a great work started and a great time of revival. Oh, that was a lot of opposition. People didn't like this about the service or that about the service. But what happened? Change came. When they went over to Ulster, they were well-received, but they were told if they went to Dublin, they would kick them into the liffey. And Mr. Moody said, that's where I want to go. I want to see the devil beaten in his own ground. And you know the largest number of people in human history that ever gathered for an evangelistic service gathered in the Dublin campaign that they had, more than any other crowds. In fact, during those two years, two million and a half people went to the services and heard the gospel. Think of York and 40 people sitting as far away from the pulpit as they could, and think of what happened when God moved. Now, I had in my church a man who was saved in the Sankey meetings that were in Belfast. And he said, I had a problem. I didn't know how to believe. And I went out, and I went to the inquiry room, and none of them could help me. And then he said, Mr. Moody came down into the room, and he said, young man, what's wrong with you? He said, I can't believe. Oh, you have learned that you can't believe? He said, that's the first step. on the way to heaven to know that you can't believe because believe is a gift of God and you'll never believe for your heart's sinful and you're hopelessly lost but God can give you the gift. And then he said he got up and he ordered everybody out of the room but the man and himself. And he took a key, and he locked every door in the room. And he says, young man, you're going to sit here until you believe. And I'm going to sit with you. And that man told me he became a member of my church and a worker in my church. And he said, I sat there trembling. And I trembled for hours. And he said, Mr. Moody got up and walked around the room and prayed and said, Lord, this man is beyond the reach of anybody but you. But your arm is long enough. Your muscle is strong enough. Your love is great enough. Your salvation and your blood is powerful enough to save. And the man said to me, he said, Ian, like a flash, the burden was lifted. I looked to the cross, to the blood, and I was redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. My friend, I want to say our God is not dead. He's a living God. When the prophets went to the hardest places, they emphasized that God was the living God. and salvation of souls is a miracle of God's power. Every man, woman, and child in this meeting that see it as a God-given miracle. Only God conceives it, not man. It's not methods. It is God Almighty let loose in His power upon the people. And when that happens, Christians that talked about the Bible but never read it started to read the Bible, started to obey the Bible, started to proclaim the Bible, started to make the gospel their general speech day by day. They talked about it. They spoke about it. They called on people to come to the Savior. They sang about it. And when the shipyard workers in our city in Belfast and at the height of our shipbuilding industry being at peak, it was 40,000 employed by them. They went singing to their morning work every morning. And they had a meeting in a church on our Raven Hill Road in later days. And there was so many people came to the church, they moved the front pillar of the church, crushing in. And on the, on the, the gallery, the worst sinner in the neighborhood, a man who was known as the vilest man in Belfast. He had been dragged in with a crowd, and he was sitting in the front seat of the front gallery. And the preacher said, is there a man here decent enough to admit he's a poor, wretched worm of sin? but willing to call on the name of the Lord. And that man, a vilest man in the neighborhood, jumped to his feet and he said, I'll take Jesus if he'll take me. And the preacher there and then led him to the Lord. and immediately led him to the Lord. The man put his hand into his pockets, and they were filled with boogies, dockets, and his gambling, and he strewed them all over the church. It was like confetti falling from it, and that man became one of the greatest workers for Christ. His people afterwards and his families joined our church on the Raven Hill Road, and the blessed fire of God still burnt. Oh, for the floods on a thirsty land. Oh, for a mighty revival. Oh, for a sanctified, fearless band ready to heal Israel. The sufficiency is of God. John Newton wrote the words, breathe from the gentle south, oh Lord, and cheer me from the north. Blow on the treasures of thy word and call the spices forth. I wish thy knowest to be resigned and wait with patient hope. But hope delayed fatigues the mind and drinks the spirits up. Help me to reach the distant goal. Confirm my feeble knee. Pity the sickness of my soul that faints for love of thee. I seem forsaken and alone. I hear the lion roar, and every door is shut but one, and that is mercy's door. There till the dear deliverer comes, I'll wait with humble prayer, and when he calls his exile home, the Lord shall find him there. Who is sufficient for these things? Our sufficiency is of God. We're helpless. We can do nothing. but cast ourselves in dust and ashes before God and say, oh God, deal with my heart, refine my soul, purify my mind, and draw me into a close love relations with yourself. And what you say I will do. on where you stand, I will go. Never fear, only trust and obey. Mr. Aspergian preached a wonderful sermon on this text, and he said this. He said, we live in a day when everyone is taken up with great thinkers. and they boast that we live in an advanced thinking age, that modern thought is a thing. And then Mr. Spurgeon said this, when I read the Bible, I don't see anything about these great thinkers in the Bible. He says there's only one great thinker in the Bible and he's a devil. And he's the only person that thinketh of himself, for that's what the Bible says. But he said, God, the Father, and God, the Son, and God, the Holy Spirit, thought along one line only. of love for lost men and women, that they may be brought into a saving experience of myself. Let's get this burning fire in our souls that God loved a world of sinners lost and ruined by the fall. Redemption bought at highest cost. He offers free for all. Oh, t'was love "'Twas wondrous love, the love of God to me, "'that brought my Savior from above to die on Calvary.'" It was a God named Mr. McSheeham who said, when I prepare my messages, I say, oh God, give me the very words that you want me to speak. Give me the very thoughts that you want me to dwell on. And oh God, as you see me in my pulpit, see a man whose heart is tied to yours, whose heart is conformed to your will, who is obedient to your commandments, and then something will happen. God. will move amongst us as he has never moved amongst us before. Oh that God would give us a sense of the reality that is needed today by the people of God. We need to recover reality in our religion, that it's real, that we're not talking Theology, we're talking divinely inspired revealed truth. That God is not asking us, are we sound in our theology? He's asking us, are we soundly obedient to his will? God's calling for the action of obedience to his will. And when we obey his commandment, there will be, listen, a great reward. A great reward. Every one of us in these days know the difficulties, know the darkness, and they know the hardness. But praise God when the enemy comes in like a flood. The spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against the devil and all his works. The time has come when as a people we need to bow before God and cry and keep crying out for God to move as he has moved in the past. God is not finished with the drawing of thousands and tens of thousands into his kingdom. God is not going to lose this battle. The devil has already lost it. We are on the winning side. There's power in the blood. The Holy Ghost is still with us. His Word can be kindled in our heart so that nothing will stop us in the spreading of the dynamic of the Word of God. God, any mountains you think are uncrossable. God, any rivers you cannot afford. God specializes in things thought impossible. He can do just what no one else can do. He can do it all. I trust that we will be stirred in this conference. It would be my prayer that we would say times of God's right hand. You know, we're not watching the signs of the times. Great things are happening. We have in our church a week of meetings every year for the boys and girls, and we bring them in on buses. There's usually 500, maybe 600 young people there for one week. This past early spring meeting, we had the wonderful thing of seeing a band of Roman Catholics, not only Roman Catholics, but hard Republicans. leaving a district, the short strand, and marching up the Ravenhill Road to come into that meeting. And when I saw them in that meeting, my heart jumped with joy. These people need the gospel. And when God starts saving men and women to do a work, he takes the prime man of the devil, and he makes them children of God, and he uses them to smite the kingdom that nearly smites them and put them in hell forever. God works in a miraculous way. And at the end of that meeting, the woman that came and brought them up the road, she said, I'd like to stay and talk with some of you. and we had a joy of counseling. One of the workers was a joy of counseling that woman. She said, this is so different from what I thought it was. Oh, may God indeed get the lines of demarcation drawn again. We are not in religion and we're not in religious stunts. We are in the real thing, the old time Bible religion that changes man, transforms them, takes them out of the gutter and sets them on their way to heaven, changes their families and their lives and their districts in which they live and gives them a desire to pray. and when we pass a home and we hear the people praying, how our heart dances with joy, for God answers prayer. Let's bow our heads. Let's sing that little verse, Spirit of the living God, fall afresh on me. Spirit of my living God, fall afresh on me. Spirit of my living God, fall afresh on me. Break me, melt me, mold me, fill me. Spirit of the living God, fall afresh on me. Spirit of the living God, fall afresh on me. Spirit of the living God, fall afresh on me. break me, melt me, mold me, fill me. Spirit of the living God, fall afresh on me. Thank thee that thou hast loved a world of sinners lost. You didn't leave us to go to hell. You sent your Son after us, your blessed Son, and he came and he sought those that were lost. I thank you for the day that you found me, Lord Jesus. I didn't find thee, thou didst find me. I wasn't searching for you, Lord, but you were searching for me, and you drew me in, and you cleansed my sin. And I have been many times unfaithful and sinful and disobedient, but your love remains strong. And today, Lord, we believe you're calling us to fresh surrender of ourselves, that you might take our lives and let them be consecrated, Lord, to thee. Lord, we thank thee for the start of these meetings. We thank thee for our brothers' searching word, the challenge of God to our hearts about our offspring and the offspring of others. Oh, help us to love the lads and the lassies of this generation and see them one for Christ. Lord, pour out your spirit upon us as we meet tomorrow morning for prayer. May the clouds break. May there be the sound of abundant rain. Guide all the services. Keep us all in your perfect will. and grant that this may be the beginning of a great move in our life, a move of spiritual power and spiritual revival. Hear this, our prayer for Jesus' sake. And everybody said, amen. Amen.