I want to speak to you this morning upon a message which I have entitled, The Secret of Blessing. The fourth chapter of Zechariah, if you have your Bible, and verse 6, not by my nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts." The great end of all God's works are His own glory. Why did God make the world? He made the world to manifest the glory of his creative power. Why did God redeem sinners? He redeemed sinners in order to manifest abroad the glory of his redemptive power. Why does God preserve and govern this world by a miracle? In order to manifest abroad his providential glory. The first question in the shorter catechism asks, what is man's chief end? And the answer is, man's chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. So the glory of God is the great final objective of God Himself and should be the great final objective of His people. Let me say something. The glory of God is not only seen in the great works of God, in creation, providence, and redemption, but it's seen in those minute works of God. In the little things, God manifests his glory. God is interested in the little things of life. You might say, oh preacher, I know God is interested in the great creation, the rolling spheres, the planets and the stars of the great blue Milky Way. But is God interested in me? In the problems of my home? In the difficulties of my family, in the battles that I have got to fight, I'm just one tiny speck in all the world. I want to tell you, friend, God is interested in the very spiral. There's not one of them falls to the ground, but God registers the fall of that sparrow in his omniscient mind, and the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Are you not better than many, sparrow? God is interested. in his people for his glory's sake. Now let me say something. God is not interested in the glory of a denomination or a party name. God is not interested in the glory of a sect. God is not interested in the glory of a people who dogmatize upon a particular dogma. God is only interested in his own glory. And as this church puts the glory of God first, God will bless it. When this church puts its own glory, and the glory of its services, and the glory of its congregation, and the glory of its building, and the glory of its properties. Before God's glory, God will depart from it. And Ichabod will be right written above its pulpit, above its preacher, and above its people, and above its buildings. The glory of God. Let's keep this before us. God is interested in His glory. God is not interested in the glory of His servants. That was seen in the days of Moses. Do you remember the second time Israel was athirst and Moses took the rod and he struck the rock? Oh yes, and the miracle happened. The water flowed forth. But God said to Moses, because you have disobeyed me, you will never enter into the promised land. Why? Because that rock was Christ, and Christ was only smitten once. Never again will Christ be smitten. And Moses broke the type and insulted the empty type, which was the fulfillment of the type. And God said, Moses, even although the miracle happened, even although the water flowed, you shall never enter into. You shall never enter into the promised land. Why? Because you touched my glory. There is a divine principle that always reveals, no flesh shall glory in God's presence. No flesh shall glory in God's presence. And when a people take the glory to themselves, God departs from them. Brethren, we must walk the pathway of humility. No room for pride if God is going to bless us as a people. God tolerates no rivals in His service. God gives no glory to man. God gives the glory only to the Son of Islam. The Lamb is all the glory in Emmanuel's land. So we turn to this verse, and this verse is emphasizing this very point. There are three things. It's a very simple verse to preach on. It's not by might, it's not by power, but it's by my And I have three simple habits. Not by might. The might of the many impotent. That's the first point. The might of the many impotent. Secondly, the power of the personality decadent. It's death. Power is dead if it's only human power. And the last one is the stirring of the Spirit, the stirring of the Spirit omnipotent. For when God stirs us by the Holy Ghost, then there will be power. Now let's look at this first one. I was examining this word of might in the Hebrew Bible. It means an army. It is collective might. Look at it. It is not by collective might, the might of the many impotent. The church of Jesus Christ will not give the victory by human armies. The Church of Rome has sought to progress by the arm of the flesh. And in the days of the Reformation, you can see written on the page of European history, the effect of the armies of Rome and the effect of the power of the Holy Ghost. The Reformers were poor. They were despised. They were rejected, but hallelujah, they had the Holy Ghost. And let me tell you, friend, that all the human combinations are not going to win the battle. You know, the World Council of Churches is in trouble, hallelujah. I'm always happy when they're in trouble, that crowd. And did you see an article written in which the people are complaining. They're ringing up their ministers and they're saying, is our money going to the World Council of Churches? Hallelujah. All our campaign has not been in vain. And one minister said, it's very embarrassing because my congregation are saying, where is our money going to? Is it going to these rebels and anarchists and communists? in Africa, in these terrorist organizations. Is that where it's going? I'm always glad when the World Council's in trouble. The World Council is a great international human army. It has resources. It has manpower. It has churches. It's a tremendous, colossal, ecclesiastical giant. But praise God, little fundamental as David with a stone can bring the giant down. Hallelujah. Yes, it's not by human armies. It is not by human corporations. I was thinking of the history of the church as I was thinking about this text. Methodism, what a power it was in the days of Wesley. I have a series of little books in my library. They're called The History of Wesley's Veterans, The First Lay Preachers of the Methodist Church. And when they went out with their soul on fire, my, they spammed all England and then went to America, and they spammed as much of the eastern seaboard of America that was then explored with a preaching of the old evangel of Christ. These were men, men of power. They were despised. Many of them were beaten. I was reading about Lorenzo Dow, the great Methodist veteran, and when he returned home after a trip, He was like a scarecrow. His hat was torn, his clothes were torn, his shoes were worn away, and this poor horse, you could have counted the ribs up its side. My, these men made sacrifices. Of course, they preached in a peculiar manner. Lorenzo Dai was a great preacher. In his biography, it tells the story of his fame. In a particular area, a man went around the country and he said, Lorenzo Dow can, Lorenzo Dow can raise the devil. He says, I have seen him raise the devil. And the story was that Lorenzo Dow was going from one meeting to another and a great storm arose and he went to this house. And he knew the woman of this house. And when he got to the door, he asked for shelter and she said, no. And he said, why? And she said, well, she said, I have another man in the house. My husband's away. And he said, well, I don't care who's in the house. I'm coming in anyway. So he went in and sat by the fire. And then, in an hour's time, they heard another horse coming, and she discovered that her husband was coming home earlier than she thought. And the man that was with her, he was terribly alarmed, and he said, what will we do? And Lorenzo Dow said to him, you just hide under the pile of wood that was in one corner of the house. So this man went into the pile of wood and hid under it. And old Lorenzo Dow smiled. And the husband came in, and he was the worst of liquor, and he recognized Dow, and he said, Dow, you're in my home. And he said, if you don't raise the devil out of the ground, I'll kill you. So Lorenzo Dow said, I can do that very simply. But he said, you've got to do something. You have to put out all the lights. And he said, you have to open the front door to let the devil out when I raise him. So they opened the front door and they put out all the lights. And then Lorenzo Dow, he approached the great pile of firewood in the corner. And he cried at the pitch of his voice, out, devil, out! And the man jumped out of the pile of wood and out through the door and away helter-skelter for his life. And that man went round the country saying, Lorenzo Dye raised the devil. I saw him raise him from the pile of firewood in my car. Little did he know the true story. Lorenzo Dye was a tremendous preacher. He went preaching once to a certain place and he called a meeting for the year. He said, I'll come back in one year from today. And in that time, there was a little colored boy whose name was Gabriel. And he went to this little colored boy and he said, I'll give you a silver shilling. If he said, when I come back here in a year's time, you hide yourself in the top of the tree under which I always preach and take your trumpet with you. And when I say Gabriel shall blow a mighty blast, he says, you have to blow that trumpet as loud as you can. So in a year's time, The little boy kept his word and the night before he stole up with his trumpet among the leafy branches of the great oak tree that thou was going to preach under. And the crowds gathered, crowds always gathered when thou preached. And when these many thousands had gathered, the preacher arrived and started to preach upon the great judgment day. And then when he got warmed up to his sermon, he said, and one day Gabriel shall blow a mighty blast. And from out from that tree there came a trumpet that shook everybody in the congregation. People fainted. Some took heart attacks. People cried out. And then thou called the little boy to come down. And he said, if a little colored boy with a trumpet can cause such confusion among you, what confusion will there be when Gabriel, the angel of God, blows the trumpet of judgment? And there was a great revival resulted from that meeting. These were men, Methodism financially, is stronger than ever it was. But today Methodism, as far as God Almighty is concerned, is impotent. And what can be said of Methodism can be said of Presbyterianism and Episcopalianism, of the great Baptist church, of the Salvation Army, and many more of these leading churches. They have lost this fire and zeal of the Holy Ghost. I was reading a sermon of Spurgeon's this week, and he said the state of the Baptist community in London when he was preaching a way back in 1860, he said, is despicable. He said, our churches are dead, oh, for a breath of life. Yes. There is a deadness in the church. They depend on human cooperation. The larger the church is, the stronger its ministries, its colleges, its assets, the less likelihood for the church to depend upon the Holy Ghost. It is not by might. The might of the many is impotent. This other word, power, is individual power. It's the power of the personality, and that is decadent. You know, anything that has ever been done for God in the world has been done by an individual. Wesley founded the Methodist Church. Whitefield spread the evangelism through two continents. The Reformers were individualists. But you know, friend, the individual left to himself is decadent and dead. He cannot do it. You know, some people are depending on individual learning. We have a very learned preacher in our church, but all his learning can't bring conviction of sin to a dead soul. or stir life in the tomb of those that are slain by the evil of man's depravity. Some people depend on eloquence. If our preacher is eloquent, if he has a pulpit orator, if he can stir the people with the flow and torrent of human speech, then all will be well. Don't you believe it? It is not by the might of the many. It is not by the power of the human personality. You can have the greatest preacher, and without the Holy Ghost, he will be like Samson shorn of his life, powerless to stand up for God and for his crew. What then is it? The secret of blessing is the stirring of the Spirit, and the stirring of the Spirit of God is omnipotent. I was thinking as I was meditating for this service, what a great thing it would be if the Spirit of God came upon the people of God in this land. What a change! Instead of the prayer meetings being half-filled, they would be packed. Instead of long waits for prayer, many would be praying. In the 59 Revival, as many as a dozen people prayed in the prayer meetings at the same time, and there was no confusion. Twelve people in one great prayer meeting, all praying and no confusion, the Spirit of God mightily descended. And my, we would come to God's house and we would need to come early to get a seat because sinners would be coming. I always think of the 59 Revival and the old Presbyterian apostate preacher who denounced it and said that it was only a figment of people's imaginations, and he announced that the following Sunday he would bring a sermon repudiating the revival and denouncing it. That old apostate got up late as usual on a Sunday morning, made his way to the church, and when he looked up the road He saw a great crowd, and he swelled out with pride. He says, they're all coming to hear my sermon. We'll have a full church today. But when he got up the road a little, he saw through the windows of the church that the church was packed. He saw the graveyard was packed. And he saw the road outside the church was packed, and an old layman, an old revivalist from the district, he was preaching away, and people were getting saved. And that minister, hallelujah, never got into his pulpit that day. And the revival went on all day. That was a good sermon on revival, wasn't it? That was a practical sermon. Oh, let me tell you, we need the Spirit. of God. I did not tremble for this church when we were down the road and when we were despised and hated and criticized, but I tremble for it more today. Brethren, let us not get into a Laodicean spirit. Let us not feel that we have Let us not think because of our prosperity that all is well. This church needs a mighty baptism of the Holy Ghost. Every believer needs to be filled with the power of heaven. Every office bearer needs to be stirred to the depths of their soul. The preacher needs fresh anointings of the Holy Ghost upon his ministry. Only that, my friend, will keep this church going in the power of the Holy Ghost the way it ought to go. You know, this is a great chapter. Look at it for a moment or two with me, this fourth chapter of Zechariah. Zerubbabel was up against it. We're up against it. The old devil's against us. And the Pope's against us. And the apostates are against us. And we're seeking to build a temple. That was like Zerubbabel. Just by the way, I must tell you this. It wasn't recorded in our papers. The Pope had a very rough time in Australia. Our brethren had a very good protest. There's a very unique man in Australia called W.J. Campbell. He's the editor of the Rock newspaper, a Protestant newspaper, something like the Protestant Telegraph, a real hard-hitting Protestant paper. But Campbell is a man that believes, like the reformers, the best way to fight popery is to make a fool of it. So when the Pope arrived in his great car, golden chair, sitting up on his great throne, Campbell rode behind him on a donkey. With a great big notice, the Pope should sell his motor car. And of course, they Crowds along the roadway, they caught the joke. And instead of cheering the Pope, they were laughing their heads off at the fool that Campbell was making of the old Pope. Do you know, there was only one English paper, the Times recorded it, but it made a tremendous impression. It was hitting the Pope where he needed to be hit. It was actually, my friend, exposing the anti-Christianity of the Pope of Rome. But we're up against it. And so was rubbable. But look at this word. Who art thou, O great mountain? There's a great mountain here. It's a mountain of potpourri. Who art thou, thou great mountain? Potpourri is going to go down. There's another great mountain, the World Council of Churches. Who art thou, thou great mountain? Oh, I wish we would get this into our hearts this morning, that the great mountains, and there's another great mountain here, it's the building fund that we need to get in, all this money. Who art thou, thou great mountain? Our God owns the cattle in a thousand hills, hallelujah. Have you got any great mountains in your lives? I have many of them, friend. Oh, may God give us the grace to say, who art thou, thou great mountain? Before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain. All the obstacles to building God's house that Zerubbabel had, We're going to be brought down to the ground. Hallelujah. And listen, look at the end of that verse. And he shall bring forth the headstone. What does that mean? He'll complete the work that God gave him to do. You know, God gave me a promise when we first started here to build this house. You know what it was? I will not leave thee till I have accomplished the thing that I have spoken to thee of. I will not leave thee till I have accomplished the thing that I have spoken to thee of. And my friend, God has a great task for this church to do if we depend only on the Holy Ghost. But we're going to trust in the might of the many and the power of the personality we're going to feel. But my, we trust in the Holy Ghost. And look what's going to happen. They're going to bring forth a headstone. They're off with shouting. Hallelujah. Going to be a shout among the people of God. Mr. Nicholson used to say, some church members sit in their pews like lumps of putty. May the Lord deliver us from such a posture in the pew. Some people, you would think they were baptized with starch when they come into church. They're very starchy. They can't even move. Oh, let me tell you, friend, they're going to shout when they finish the work. When we build this great school that God has put in our minds to build, there'll be shoutings that day when we get the headstone on. Grace, grace unto it. You know what grace is? The free undeserved merit of God. That's the way I'm getting to heaven and that's the way this church is built and it's going to be built. The free undeserved merit of God. Brethren, let us see to it that we depend only on the Holy Ghost. Let us not be taken up with what God has done for us, for that would be a tragedy. I pray every day before I go into Parliament, either Westminster or Stormont, that God will fill me with the Holy Ghost and make me a Spirit-filled man. It's only the power of the Holy Ghost that is going to win this battle. And as I come into this pulpit and as I go tonight to America to address a great influential gathering and talk to those students at that university, brethren, there's only one thing I need. It's not learning. It's not eloquence. It's not human power. It's just God, the Holy Ghost. And if I'm filled with the Holy Ghost, God will do through me what he wants to do. Let us give ourselves afresh as a church to the Lord. Let us rededicate ourselves to the times. And let's look at these great mountains. Oh, thou great mountain. When you're up against it, mother, in the home this week, just think of that verse. Oh, thou great mountain. Lord will put you down to a plain. And brother, when you're up against it in your work, you just say, oh, thou great mountain. God will bring you down. And when I'm battling this week in the United States, O thou great mountain, and there will be shoutings, grace, grace unto it. May the Lord give us the shout for His name's sake. Amen and amen.