All right, come on with questions. Why is it
that a sinner gets his healing and a saint sometimes
doesn't? Well, sometimes I think we think some
folks are saints who aren't. You know something?
I've learned this a long time ago. There are
an awful lot of people who put on an awful good
front when they go out of the house. But when
the doors are closed and the blinds are drawn,
they're devils. Yes, ma 'am. It's just like that.
You ask the question why so many good people's
children turn out bad. You know, Ralph, you have
to really, if you're a man, you have to live
with a woman to know her. Amen. And you know,
Mrs. Wilkerson, You really have to live with
a man, don't know him, right? Uh -huh. And it's
like that. And it's just like that. All right,
there's number one. You see, you would be amazed
how much spiritual pride there is in the heart.
A many a professing Christian. I shall never
forget. I'll never. In a little town in Idaho.
And this is one of my very first experiences.
When I first began preaching the gospel. It was
a Methodist church in Idaho. And they asked me
to preach the morning sermon. And there was an
old codger in that town. who was really a reprobate.
Now, I'm telling you, because they told me when
I first came to town. And I wasn't any more than
16 years of age. And they had gotten him to come
to that morning service. I gave an altar call.
When I gave that altar call, here came the old
cotcher. He came down to the altar, because my
personal work in those days... If I thought there
was a sinner in the place, I'd lock the doors
and let him out until he got converted. And so
when we got him down the altar and God really
saved him, it was glorious. When I look back
on it now, I'm wondering whether he was saved
and filled with the Spirit at the same time because
he really got a double dose of something. I didn't
even know enough about the baptism of the Holy
Spirit to know. And his hands were up and he
was crying and he was rejoicing. And oh, it was
glorious experience that he got. And his wife
came to the front of the church and she looked
up and she said, it isn't fair. It isn't fair.
It isn't fair. I've been the president of Ladies
8 for 26 years and you've never done this for
me. And here comes my old husband and look what
you do for him and you left me out. You see,
we don't know the heart. It's still a matter
of what's on the inside here. It's still inside
here. Not here. That's the reason I say to you,
you know, it makes no difference whether you're
Catholic, whether you're Protestant, whether
you're Jew, whether you're Gentile, whoever you
are. It isn't your church membership. It isn't
what you profess. It's still a matter of what
you have on the inside of you, right in here.
Here comes somebody into a service who probably
hasn't been to church for 25 years. somebody
who doesn't have a lot of preconceived ideas
up here. I'd give anything, so help me, I'd give
anything in the world if I had the ability to
take the ministers in our nation today, take
them, turn them upside down, and just shake them
real good. And shake them so hard until I had
all of the algae shaken out of their heads. Just
shake out all. I'll tell you something about
your preachers up here. I can't work on them,
but I can sure work on you because you're here.
And if I could just take you. You see, you've
been through seminary, and don't you think for
one minute that I'm decrying education. Don't
you. I'm only sorry. God bless you. I'm only
sorry that I don't have a better education. For
years, I suffered with that complex. For years,
I've suffered with it. But sometimes, I think
it was a good idea he called an ignorant person.
Because, you see, I don't have to hurdle all
these things the two men have to hurdle. You
who've been to seminaries. You see, you've been
educated low these years. And you've got so much
up here in your mind. So much up here that now,
and you've been so brainwashed with a lot of
this stuff, that you've got to get it all out
of your mind so that you can come again as a
little child and come back. If I could only take
it. You see, that was the reason. Sit down, Ralph.
You see? That is the reason, beloved. Why? The
Lord said he had to put new wine in new bottles
because he couldn't take these old skin bags
and fill them with the new wine. Do you understand
that? Hear the scribes and the Pharisees. They
knew the law. They knew the letter. They knew
it well. Oh, they knew it well. They too were
educated. We're not the only folks educated beyond
our intelligence. They were educated. You'll
talk about... They were educated. They knew the
law. They knew every letter of the law. There
isn't a person living today who knew the law
better than they knew the law. And yet when it
came to this one... to fly praying the holy spirit
when jesus came and and left uh the church's
wonderful gift of the holy spirit you see they
were so steeped in the law mentally they were
so formed that this this hardening process had
so taken place that they were no longer a pliable
vessel. And if you put this new wine, you can't
do it, into a bag that is hardened almost to
the consistency of stone, it would burst the
faith. That is the reason He knew that they were
so formed in their ideas and their thinking.
That's why today, back there, who did he choose?
Did he choose the priests? No. He chose the most
unlikely. He took the fishermen. They set the
dirty hands. He's not looking on that. He was
looking for pliable, yielded material. Uh -huh.
Pliable, yielded material. Couldn't use the old
skin bags. But he wanted yieldedness. into which
he could pour the new wine. And I'm frank to
tell you, here's a secret. My mind is closed
to everything else but what's in this word. I'm
not a liberal thinker. I may look modern. You'd
be surprised. You'd be surprised, you know. Oh,
don't tell me you're Catherine Coombe. A preacher.
But watch. My mind is closed to everything except
this word. You couldn't pay me. If somebody came
and offered me $50 ,000 cash to study false religions,
$8 ,000 cash. To take a course in psychology,
I'd say you keep your money. I'm not going to
endanger that which I have. You couldn't do it,
you couldn't do it, you couldn't do it. I don't
read everything that comes my way. I don't read
everything that comes in my mailbox. You load
me with books. I might just as well tell you
I don't read them. I've got enough right here
to do me. I've got enough right here to do me.
Let me give you an example. Watch. When you take
your marriage vows, And you stand there and take
your marriage vow and you promise to be a faithful,
a loving husband to that wife of yours, that
one who's going to be your wife. Brother, you
close your mind to all other women. You're on
danger. dangerous ground as quickly as you open
your mind. Little lady, watch something. When
you take your marriage vows, marriage is a sacred
thing. And when you take your marriage vows and
promise to be a faithful wife to that husband.
That's the reason. It's like somebody, now, well,
I'll tell you, she's a nice girl. I'll marry
her now, but I'll still keep looking around and
playing the field. It'll never work. It'll never
work. And when it comes, we are members of the
bride of Christ. He is our coming bridegroom.
I stopped looking. I'm not going to get all tangled
up with something that's not the spirit. I don't
have to take all kinds of things in my mind.
I'm not going to look upon things that might
rob me. of a deeper experience with the Lord.
And you'll find out, beloved, when your mind
is so completely saturated with the things of
God, it's a... You think it. You live it. You
eat it. It's a life. This thing of being a Christian
isn't something that you take... off and hang
it in the closet until you want it again and
then put it on. It doesn't like that at all.
It's a day -by -day proposition. Don't you misconstrue
anything that I've said today. If you do, you
might go off and be a religious fanatic. I'm
not talking about that. I'm not talking about
that. But if there's something... That is contrary
to the holy word of God. Burn it. Don't go out
exploring. And you know it's contrary to his
word. We forget this. He is the very Word of
God. He speaks to us. Do you want God to speak
to you? He's speaking today through His Word.
This is what you need. If there's something that
comes into your hands, if there's something that
you know is contrary to His Word, burn it! The
mind is a delicate machinery. Be careful how
you treat it. Be careful how you use it. Be careful
what you do with it. A thought makes a deed.
A deed makes the life. And the life brings the
destiny. But it all goes back to the mind.