A couple of months back, 44 years ago, I got up and was as nervous to preach my first time as I think I have been every time since. It's just something we can't do in the flesh. So I appreciate your prayers and trust that Christ our Lord will be magnified. Paul said, I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. Not because he was afraid of the Corinthians. Not because he was afraid of man, of what they might say or what they might do. But he was given a responsibility to speak to them concerning their eternal soul. And I'm somewhat, or want to be somewhat careful in ministering or trying to minister to people Because I will face God one day. And I wouldn't harm purposely any soul or mislead them. And one of the struggles, fights that I have within my own self And I'm sure that I will have that again this afternoon is some suggestions from the evil one. Why keep making or pressing the claims of Christ upon them? Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart. Walk before him uprightly. Pray in the Holy Ghost. Be led by the Spirit of God. And on and on we continue, and yet we see so little fruit from that, that the devil tells me that it would be a lot easier if I just go preach, and not press any demands upon them. That way I would never be disappointed. But how can we? How can we do anything less than try to be as faithful to God as possibly we can? Whether it be in our everyday walk or whether it be in the pulpit. May the Lord help you. May the Lord help me. And I hope call all of us to personal dealings with the Almighty God. Infinite. A lot bigger than I'll ever know. If we could ever get folk to begin to consider just how vast God is and that they can't comprehend God, then we might be able to come back into the assembly one day and find worship beginning again. We don't have that. We've got our programs. We go through them, but we don't have worship. It might be a little in an individual's heart here and there. But as a church, I don't know where worship is taking place as far as the entire congregation, where they meet. But I don't know many, so that may not. There may be some that I am unaware. Whether I'll ever see it or not, I'll long for the day and the hour and the time when we know that Christ was in the church and manifest Himself again to us. I don't know if I'll see that. That won't keep me from continuing to desire that. If you would turn with me this morning to Acts chapter 19. And I want to ask you a question, but I want you to wait as long as possible within your own heart before you try to answer this. Acts 19, and it came to pass that while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul, having passed through the upper coast, came to Ephesus and finding certain disciples. He said unto them, Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed? Now I'm asking you, just wait a few minutes before you give me a definite yes. And they said unto him, We have not so much as heard, whether there be any holy ghost. And he said unto them, Unto what then were ye baptized? And they said unto John's baptism. Then said Paul, John barely baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying unto the people that they should believe on him which should come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus. When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. As much as these knew, they were walking in the light that they had. And it is only to those that follow on, Hosea 6.3, then shall we know, that we know, that we know, if we follow on. If salvation can be reduced, and Christ did it, to the simplest of terms. And this is eternal life, that they may know thee, that they may know thee. Most of you don't know me. You formed some kind of idea for the little while that I've been around you. But you don't know me. If salvation is coming to know God and the Lord Jesus Christ whom he hath sent, how many Christians are there today everybody can tell you about God. We can correctly discuss the attributes of God, but do you know Him? Reducing the word down to that relationship between a husband and a wife, then you begin to learn somebody. You thought you knew your wife when you said, I do. Ten years later, you are now beginning to know her. And the more you live with her or she with you, the more you know them. That's salvation. Knowing Christ. And the innermost secret part, with all the doors shut, the closet doors shut, that's just you, and the Lord Jesus. And there is that exchange between heaven and your soul. There is that communication and you know in your soul that you have your Father's ear and that the Savior is nearby. You know that in your soul. Tell me you know that. That's salvation. In the fifties, leading up to that, which began a hundred years prior to that, a salvation was introduced into American culture and it just mushroomed. And the blight upon us today is that something happened four years ago, but nothing since. Now, how many of you said, I do, when the minister said that you take her to be your wedded wife? How many of you left her at the altar? Didn't you take her home with you? when the old man of two generations ago said, when a man begins telling me about something that happened to him many years ago, and that's as far as he can get, I know that I'm talking to a lost church member. And when they followed him, He said, everybody today's got this time when they got saved, and frankly, I don't believe anybody knows. Now, you may know when peace flooded your soul. You may know the time that there was forgiveness granted to you. I don't know myself. I went home from a meeting one night knowing that if I died that night, I'd go to hell, but I got no peace. And sometime later, I don't know if God quickened me before I got there, while I was sitting there, or later. And the old man said, I'm not so much interested in when you got converted, but said if you could get within a hundred miles of when you got lost, you might have something to hold on to. Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, and that's something that isn't being made today. You've got no one to offer Christ to because you don't know a sinner. And salvation is not a, regeneration might be a one time experience, but salvation is a life long process of growing and developing and learning God. And the more you see of God, the more you know of yourself. And the more you know of yourself, the more you know that you are absolutely nothing. And all this enhances the Redeemer to you. Have you received the Holy Ghost? Ezekiel gives us that of the glory of God over the threshold, over the house, the glory of God filling the house. And then the glory of God over the city, and last, the glory of God on the mountain. Gone. And when Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi, When they passed on, the Spirit of God began departing from Israel. For had they had the Spirit of God, they would have known Jesus. And they would not have become embedded in their religious rhetoric and rituals. The Spirit of God gone? Yes. The Spirit of God not working in anyone's heart? No. For there was an old man who came to the temple that God already had told him that he had not seen death until he had seen the Lord's Christ. And there, there was a dear old widow. that began speaking to all them that looked for redemption in Israel. So there was a Simeon and an Anna and a few others that we don't know about, but not in Israel. God was not dealing and would not deal with them ever again as a nation. Selecting some, electing some from that to bring to Christ, yes. But the glory had departed. The Spirit of God was gone. The men of old said a doctrine. Right now, the Spirit of God, Christ, the attributes of God, the Lordship of Christ. Whatever doctrine. It has practical value only as far as it is preeminent in your thoughts and makes a difference in your life. Now I ask you, have you received the Holy Ghost? Still, I'm not wanting you to answer this from the standpoint of all that we know in Scripture about the Spirit of God. But I want you to answer it from the aspect, does that doctrine have practical value? Is it exerting an influence, making a difference in your life? Is God directing you by the Spirit of the Lord within? If that's a true statement, and surely it must be from other passages from the Word of God, then the Spirit of God is not at work in our day. I know Satan's going to say, why do you want to stir the nest? But if you'll get just judgment day honest with God in your soul, you know that the Spirit of God is not at work today. You don't know many people that are directed, guided by the Spirit of God. You don't know many churches. And we figured out how to make sinners. And we figured out how to get them converted. But we've done it without the Spirit of God. Now, if I ask you, have you received the Holy Spirit? Then I know that you're going to begin handing out to me teachings of Scripture? And you're going to answer, yes, I have, based upon some of the other verses in the Scripture. You're going to take some other points, some other dots, some other truths, some other instruction about the Spirit. And you're going to tell me that you have the Spirit of God within you. Then I'm going to ask you of what practical value is he to you? Do you think he's just an influence that moves us every once in a while? Or do you think our lives are to be directed by the Spirit of God? Do you think that he's just a force that now and again enables us to pray? Or do you actually believe that the only prayer God's going to hear is that which comes from your heart moved by the Spirit of God? Well, we are Christians. And none can be a Christian that does not have the Spirit of God. Therefore, we have received Him. Are you going to tell me if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, Spirit of God, he is none of His? I know that. But I want you to answer it from a practical, daily standpoint. See, if you have the Spirit of God, He is not a dormant force. You will go through seasons just like the fruit trees. But if that tree is healthy, in a few months the sap will begin to go back from the root. And you'll see a little green leaf and then a blossom. And then the tree bloomed. Your tree ever bud? Does it ever blossom? Ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but the spirit of adoption. Now let's answer that from a practicality of. He and your soul causing you to cry out, My Father. I wonder who you're talking to when you pray. My Father. I don't use that term lightly anymore. My Father. And every time that I feel a little assurance within that I am calling Him correctly, then the heart and the mind goes from my Father to the awful, awful cause to the Holy Son of God that would permit me one day to say, My Father. I don't use it lightly anymore, except thinking of the cost to my Savior. If you live after the flash, You shall die. But if you through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the flesh, you shall live. If you through the Spirit. Not me reading a few more chapters. Not me adding ten minutes to my prayer time. Not me trying to do some of these little things to get God moved in my direction, but a mortification by the Spirit of God, just as I am. As many as are led By the Spirit they are the sons of God. As many as are led, these are the sons of God. Does that mean as many as are not led by the Spirit of God are not the sons of God? If we're led of the Spirit of God, we all have one message. But the gospel has a different emphasis in my time than it did in the day of the Puritans. Same gospel. We preach that that they preached, led by the Spirit Peter stood on the day of Pentecost and said, Ye men by wicked hands have crucified the Lord of glory. And the cry was, What must we do? And the answer, Peter led by the Spirit of God, was repent. And God directed Peter down to Cornelius' house. And the Spirit of God in the message that he gave was different than that in Acts. Believe, and you shall be saved. Sure, Romans 10, 13 is in the book, but you don't have the authority to offer the gospel except God the Spirit direct you. And that will be because God has fixed a heart to receive the gospel. I know you'll be glad when I sit down. Let's get on with this thing. Let's don't get on with it, folks. We don't have God manifesting Himself. I mean, just be honest. Most everybody that calls themselves a Christian can do any blasted thing they want and never be bothered. They don't have to ask God if it's right or it's wrong. They just do it. And because God kept silent, it was right. And we think when God doesn't take the rod out and beat us, when we've made a misstep, that God was condoning, saying it's okay. And we were in direct violation of some command of God. How many of you are bothered? You say something rude. You say something when you have not control of all your faculties. Somebody's made you mad that you didn't calm down. God ever tell you to stop? Did God ever make you go back? I remember after conversion some time later, the first time I really got in trouble with the Lord. It was over a half-truth. It wasn't an out-and-out lie. And I didn't get any rest until two days later I confronted my employer and said, I didn't tell you all the truth. But in all honesty, I've got to watch myself more carefully because we do not have the Spirit of God, even now as we had it in the early seventies, and He is already leaving way back then. Martin Luther said, if I profess with the loudest voice, and the clearest exposition, every portion of truth except that precise point which the world and the devil are at that moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, though I am loudly professing Him. Where the battle rages, there the loyalty of the soldier is proved. And to be steady on all battle fronts besides is merely flight and disgrace, if he flinches at that point. And I think we've all kind of moved away from the heat and intensity of the battle, and we've picked some battles that were easier to win. Folks, the battle, my soul, the battle is not only outside the church walls. It's not government It's not morality out there. It's not abortion. Now, as a citizen, I can vote. As an individual member of society, I can do some things. But that's not our fight. And you know what? We've all taken up a fight outside our own little domain. And the real battle is here in your heart and my heart and the relationship between God and us. That's the fight. I don't like abortion. I'm not going to carry banners. I'm going to try to find that day where my Savior might be. See if this day I can beg of God for my daily bread. God said of Solomon that he that he didn't make bondmen out of any of the children of Israel, but he made them all warriors. If we are to fight the good fight, if we are to press on If we are to continue, if we are to persevere, we've got one more time to have the Spirit of God directing us daily and hourly. And we can go without Him from Sunday to Sunday. I've got my book. I've got my church. I've got my closet. And I want to scream and say, have you got God in all those means? I'm not kicking the means out. I know God's ordained that. But the means are not an end in themselves. All truth is vital. All scripture given by inspiration of God, all scripture profitable. But the truth emphasized is that depending upon the condition and the time in which I live. I'm not fighting Catholicism. That's not the issue. I'm not fighting the harlot church that has spread her wings and engulfed America. That's not the issue. The issue is inside the walls of the house of God. Where is God going in my day? How is the Spirit of God moving? Oh my soul, He is not. Theology and all theologies, the study of God, the study of man. The problem is, We've set these forth as values in themselves. All the attributes of God are but a foundation. So get me to the rock. And if we have the Spirit of God, there will be one vein, primary vein, in our thinking, in our preaching, and in our praying. Every pastor here has got specific and different needs in his locality. But every last one of us have got to flow to this one central primary issue. Pride for the sick? Yes. The afflicted? Yes. The specifics vary with the individual, but we've got to find the general direction. in which the Spirit of God is moving and directing us today. And is it possible for the same Holy Ghost to lead a church in Alabama different than a church in Virginia, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Missouri? It's not possible, is it, folks? one church, one Lord, one Spirit. I don't want to let you go. Because this is such a weight within my own soul. But I can't do anything about it to make it that. So I'll close with a couple of verses. Job 42. Job 42, beginning with verse 5, I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear. We all have. But now, if we are a Christian, we all will see God through the revelation of His dear Son. Beholding in a glass darkly, yes, but beholding. Seeing all of God, no, I couldn't bear that, no more than I could bear to know my total depravity. But seeing God through the lattice, seeing Him every once in a while come skipping across the hills, all Christians, yes, now mine eye, see it. If you ever get in the light of God, this is going to be your testimony the rest of your days. Wherefore, I abhor myself, because knowledge of God brings knowledge of self. Light of God brings light of who you are. And I sure have a greater need within my soul than I did four years ago. And that's not really true. I just didn't know back then how great my need was. Verse 7, And it was so that after the Lord had spoken these words unto Job, the Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite, My wrath is kindled against thee and against thy two friends. For ye have not spoken of me, the thing that is right. I challenge anybody here in the letter to show me one thing that they spoke incorrectly about God. They just didn't know what they were talking about when they made some of the statements. That was a health wealth gospel back then, looking at God's afflicted saint and saying, boy, you really offended God. You've messed up. God said, you've not spoken to me that which is right. And Jeremiah said, no, this is God. Though they say, Jeremiah 5, the Lord liveth. Now listen to what God said. They swear falsely. They're speaking the truth, but they don't know what they're talking about. Therefore, they're lying. Do you have the Spirit of God? Are you led? Well, we've not so much heard whether there be any Holy Ghost. Oh, we did many, many years ago. Are you speaking that which is right of God, not from the letter, but from the reality of God having made that His truth in your soul? May the Lord help all of us get where we ought to be. Brother Dave.