WEBVTT 00:00:00.010 --> 00:00:03.250 Again today, you and I are going to continue 00:00:03.250 --> 00:00:08.390 our heart -to -heart talk from the last heart 00:00:08.390 --> 00:00:13.230 -to -heart talk that we had. I didn't finish. 00:00:13.609 --> 00:00:19.829 It seems I just got started. And yonder behold, 00:00:19.929 --> 00:00:23.269 I looked up and it was time for me to leave you. 00:00:23.570 --> 00:00:27.570 And so we begin today talking about something 00:00:27.570 --> 00:00:33.350 that I... feel is vitally important and it's 00:00:33.350 --> 00:00:39.609 something that we need to face. We need to give 00:00:39.609 --> 00:00:46.289 a conscientious answer to. Why are we following 00:00:46.289 --> 00:00:53.070 Jesus? I've looked myself directly in the face. 00:00:54.189 --> 00:00:57.850 I cannot give you more than I have experienced 00:00:57.850 --> 00:01:04.959 myself. I never ask you to do more than I am 00:01:04.959 --> 00:01:09.340 not willing to do myself. I have looked myself 00:01:09.340 --> 00:01:12.739 directly in the face and have asked myself the 00:01:12.739 --> 00:01:20.340 question, why am I following Jesus? What is the 00:01:20.340 --> 00:01:25.400 motive in my heart? What is the motive in your 00:01:25.400 --> 00:01:32.040 heart? Behind every action. There is a motive. 00:01:35.200 --> 00:01:40.500 Now consider something. Do you know that the 00:01:40.500 --> 00:01:43.219 greatest miracles of God have not necessarily 00:01:43.219 --> 00:01:49.019 to do with the physical life? Such miracles as 00:01:49.019 --> 00:01:52.120 the healing of the physical body and you and 00:01:52.120 --> 00:01:54.400 I have stood in the great miracle services and 00:01:54.400 --> 00:01:59.760 we have witnessed limbs that have loosened. We 00:01:59.760 --> 00:02:03.680 have been in services where literally the blind 00:02:03.680 --> 00:02:10.219 have received their sight. Those of you who are 00:02:10.219 --> 00:02:13.840 now reading my book, God Can Do It Again, have 00:02:13.840 --> 00:02:17.840 written and have said that book means so much 00:02:17.840 --> 00:02:23.199 to me, a thousand times more, because I was in 00:02:23.199 --> 00:02:28.020 some of those services. And I saw these miracles 00:02:28.020 --> 00:02:32.750 take place. placed before my very eyes. I know. 00:02:34.610 --> 00:02:41.930 They're marvelous. But I want you to see something. 00:02:43.289 --> 00:02:48.050 The natural man desires to hear, to see, to feel, 00:02:48.129 --> 00:02:53.370 and consequently, the spectacular has a wonderful 00:02:53.370 --> 00:02:57.770 fascination for him. Because... it excites a 00:02:57.770 --> 00:03:04.169 sense of wonder. Now, this condition is not only 00:03:04.169 --> 00:03:07.710 common today, where we see the Lord pouring out 00:03:07.710 --> 00:03:11.650 of His Spirit in the working of miracles, but 00:03:11.650 --> 00:03:15.469 it was also true in the days of Jesus. The same 00:03:15.469 --> 00:03:20.150 effect was produced. Why? Because the people 00:03:20.150 --> 00:03:26.110 got their eyes upon the things seen. They sought 00:03:26.110 --> 00:03:29.590 to please and gratify their sense life by the 00:03:29.590 --> 00:03:33.169 use of miracles. And then they rejoiced in the 00:03:33.169 --> 00:03:38.930 power and the use of the same. And that was the 00:03:38.930 --> 00:03:42.830 reason the Lord was led to rebuke them and give 00:03:42.830 --> 00:03:49.030 them words of correction. I reminded you in our 00:03:49.030 --> 00:03:51.969 last heart -to -heart talk when it comes to the 00:03:51.969 --> 00:03:55.800 baptism of the Holy Spirit. There are those who 00:03:55.800 --> 00:03:59.800 associate just one thing with the baptism of 00:03:59.800 --> 00:04:03.400 the Holy Spirit, and that is the speaking in 00:04:03.400 --> 00:04:07.340 an unknown tongue. Because that is the one thing 00:04:07.340 --> 00:04:11.300 that appeals to their senses. That's the one 00:04:11.300 --> 00:04:15.680 thing that appeals to the natural mind. That 00:04:15.680 --> 00:04:20.740 is the one thing of that experience that excites 00:04:20.740 --> 00:04:27.430 their sense of wonder. and amazement. When we're 00:04:27.430 --> 00:04:32.370 speaking in an unknown tongue, beloved, means 00:04:32.370 --> 00:04:37.629 very little when you come to analyze that glorious 00:04:37.629 --> 00:04:42.649 experience of the feeling of the Holy Ghost. 00:04:46.850 --> 00:04:53.639 Ye shall receive power. After that, the Holy 00:04:53.639 --> 00:04:58.360 Ghost has come upon you and ye shall be witnesses. 00:05:01.620 --> 00:05:06.740 We have lost entirely that glorious vision of 00:05:06.740 --> 00:05:13.100 using that experience to witness. We have lost 00:05:13.100 --> 00:05:17.360 that glorious vision if we ever had it. that 00:05:17.360 --> 00:05:20.540 the Holy Spirit gives this glorious experience 00:05:20.540 --> 00:05:24.100 for one purpose and one purpose only, for service. 00:05:26.540 --> 00:05:30.959 But because the speaking in an unknown tongue 00:05:30.959 --> 00:05:36.660 appeals to our senses, we make it such an important 00:05:36.660 --> 00:05:44.759 thing. Then may I refresh your memory regarding 00:05:44.759 --> 00:05:49.040 something else that I said. Jesus himself knowing 00:05:49.040 --> 00:05:54.740 how weak, how fickle the frailty of human nature. 00:05:55.579 --> 00:05:58.180 After having fed the 5 ,000, then they continued 00:05:58.180 --> 00:06:03.279 to follow him the next day. He knew that they 00:06:03.279 --> 00:06:08.579 were not following him for spiritual bread. He 00:06:08.579 --> 00:06:13.220 knew very well that they were not following him 00:06:13.220 --> 00:06:17.910 because they were hungry for the spirit. spiritual 00:06:17.910 --> 00:06:32.649 food. No. Christ rebuked them because he knew 00:06:32.649 --> 00:06:37.509 that they were following him for the loaves and 00:06:37.509 --> 00:06:44.990 the fishes. Ye seek me not because ye saw the 00:06:44.990 --> 00:06:51.879 miracles. but because ye did eat of the loaves. 00:06:52.379 --> 00:06:57.439 There it is. In the beginning in the Garden of 00:06:57.439 --> 00:07:01.139 Eden, it was through the sense life that Satan 00:07:01.139 --> 00:07:05.160 made his appeal to Eve. Of course, it was not 00:07:05.160 --> 00:07:11.300 primarily the physical act of Eve's eating the 00:07:11.300 --> 00:07:13.720 forbidden fruit which caused the fall. We all 00:07:13.720 --> 00:07:19.879 know that. Eve consented in her will, and the 00:07:19.879 --> 00:07:27.079 moment she thus consented, Satan triumphed in 00:07:27.079 --> 00:07:30.639 the surrender of her soul. The literal act of 00:07:30.639 --> 00:07:35.879 eating the forbidden fruit was merely the outward 00:07:35.879 --> 00:07:41.579 expression and enactment of the moral and the 00:07:41.579 --> 00:07:49.399 spiritual failure that was The sense life was 00:07:49.399 --> 00:07:59.120 the approach. She saw, she heard, and she tasted. 00:08:01.800 --> 00:08:07.100 Now I want you to see something. In the deliverance 00:08:07.100 --> 00:08:12.240 of the cross, the victory consists in triumph. 00:08:13.129 --> 00:08:18.009 over the sense life, so that we're no longer 00:08:18.009 --> 00:08:22.350 moved by its reports, no matter what its messages 00:08:22.350 --> 00:08:26.389 may convey, be they pleasing or threatening. 00:08:27.449 --> 00:08:31.990 If we're to walk in the new creation and maintain 00:08:31.990 --> 00:08:35.090 a spiritual life with its proper development, 00:08:35.250 --> 00:08:42.559 we are to be blind to the things seen. deaf to 00:08:42.559 --> 00:08:46.600 the voices of earth, and dumb as far as speaking 00:08:46.600 --> 00:08:49.840 our words of judgment are concerned. And this 00:08:49.840 --> 00:08:55.159 is why God seeks to make us, as it were, deaf, 00:08:55.480 --> 00:09:03.000 dumb, and blind. What leaps and bounds God's 00:09:03.000 --> 00:09:07.379 people would make in this glorious new life were 00:09:07.379 --> 00:09:13.379 they to yield to God's will. wonderful will and 00:09:13.379 --> 00:09:19.220 suffer the crucifixion of the old life. This 00:09:19.220 --> 00:09:22.000 is one of the hardest things in the world to 00:09:22.000 --> 00:09:27.200 get Christians to see. This life of full surrender. 00:09:28.279 --> 00:09:33.820 This life of complete consecration. Where literally 00:09:33.820 --> 00:09:39.559 one becomes dead to the things that appeal to 00:09:39.559 --> 00:09:44.440 the that appeal to the flesh, that appeal to 00:09:44.440 --> 00:09:49.419 the hearing, that appeal to the senses. We're 00:09:49.419 --> 00:09:53.340 all so human. Sometimes I think the most spiritual 00:09:53.340 --> 00:10:02.519 are so human. Sure, God knows our frailty. But 00:10:02.519 --> 00:10:07.580 if there is to be spiritual growth, and if we... 00:10:08.039 --> 00:10:12.899 are to enjoy the deep things of the spirit. If 00:10:12.899 --> 00:10:17.299 we are to receive God's best and nothing less 00:10:17.299 --> 00:10:23.019 than his best, then there must be the surrender 00:10:23.019 --> 00:10:27.980 of the natural and the seeking of the spiritual. 00:10:29.820 --> 00:10:32.379 Oh, I wouldn't tell you for a moment that this 00:10:32.379 --> 00:10:36.480 was easy. Because, you see, we're still in an 00:10:36.480 --> 00:10:40.720 old body of flesh. This is still corruption. 00:10:41.860 --> 00:10:47.919 This is still mortal. One of these days, this 00:10:47.919 --> 00:10:50.899 which is now mortal will have put on immortality. 00:10:51.100 --> 00:10:54.360 This which is now corruption will have put on 00:10:54.360 --> 00:11:00.000 incorruption. But that day has not yet come. 00:11:02.570 --> 00:11:05.289 As long as we're still in the old flesh life, 00:11:05.470 --> 00:11:12.570 as long as we're still a part of humanity, there'll 00:11:12.570 --> 00:11:17.750 be temptations, the lust of the flesh, the lust 00:11:17.750 --> 00:11:24.169 of the eye, the pride of life. You know exactly 00:11:24.169 --> 00:11:28.649 what I'm talking about. But I want you to see 00:11:28.649 --> 00:11:32.820 something that is one of the most precious portions 00:11:32.820 --> 00:11:37.299 of God's Word. And perhaps this is a different 00:11:37.299 --> 00:11:41.539 picture of Christ than you've ever seen before. 00:11:41.879 --> 00:11:48.220 It's in Isaiah. Oh, of course, we all know the 00:11:48.220 --> 00:11:52.539 53rd chapter of Isaiah, the picture that was 00:11:52.539 --> 00:11:57.639 given of Christ, wounded for our transgressions, 00:11:57.720 --> 00:12:02.399 bruised for our iniquities. You know it well. 00:12:03.799 --> 00:12:08.279 But there is another picture of him as given 00:12:08.279 --> 00:12:15.059 in the 42nd chapter, the 19th, the 20th verse. 00:12:17.279 --> 00:12:23.759 This type of the Lord is so suggestive in connection 00:12:23.759 --> 00:12:28.340 with this which I am giving you in the heart 00:12:28.340 --> 00:12:33.909 -to -heart talk. I shall read it to you. Who 00:12:33.909 --> 00:12:42.590 is blind but to my servant? Or deaf as my messenger 00:12:42.590 --> 00:12:49.529 that I send? Who is blind as he that is perfect? 00:12:49.850 --> 00:12:57.450 And blind as the Lord's servant? Seeing many 00:12:57.450 --> 00:13:05.879 things. but thou observest not. Opening the ears, 00:13:06.080 --> 00:13:11.799 but he heareth not. I hear the Lord is presented 00:13:11.799 --> 00:13:16.740 to us in a most unusual character. The perfection 00:13:16.740 --> 00:13:20.820 of the servant lies in the fact that he has suffered 00:13:20.820 --> 00:13:27.440 the stroke of God and no longer sees or hears 00:13:27.440 --> 00:13:30.759 from the human side of life, never would the 00:13:30.759 --> 00:13:32.879 Lord Jesus Christ have lived the life of victory 00:13:32.879 --> 00:13:39.620 and of faith. Filled with its pressures, its 00:13:39.620 --> 00:13:43.320 pain, its disappointments, its burdens, and its 00:13:43.320 --> 00:13:47.320 tragedies, had he not been blind to the many 00:13:47.320 --> 00:13:54.259 things seen by the natural eye. Remember, When 00:13:54.259 --> 00:13:59.620 Jesus walked this old earth in the flesh, he 00:13:59.620 --> 00:14:04.620 was as much man as though he were not God. Please 00:14:04.620 --> 00:14:09.179 never weary me reminding you that if Jesus could 00:14:09.179 --> 00:14:13.580 not have yielded to temptation, then those temptations 00:14:13.580 --> 00:14:24.950 were a farce. God in the flesh. as much man as 00:14:24.950 --> 00:14:31.850 though he were not God, know that he could have 00:14:31.850 --> 00:14:36.970 yielded to temptation. That is the reason one 00:14:36.970 --> 00:14:42.610 day he's going to be our great judge. It is not 00:14:42.610 --> 00:14:47.809 God the Father who's going to judge man. Jesus 00:14:47.809 --> 00:14:52.149 is going to be our judge because... You cannot 00:14:52.149 --> 00:14:54.730 judge another unless you've had the same feelings, 00:14:55.009 --> 00:15:01.169 unless you have gone through the same thing as 00:15:01.169 --> 00:15:06.169 the one whom you're judging. You cannot be touched 00:15:06.169 --> 00:15:08.710 by the sorrow of another unless you have gone 00:15:08.710 --> 00:15:13.870 through great sorrow. Jesus had every temptation 00:15:13.870 --> 00:15:20.419 that any human being has ever known. That is 00:15:20.419 --> 00:15:25.279 the reason he can be a righteous judge, the perfect 00:15:25.279 --> 00:15:31.419 judge. And time is too short to rehearse the 00:15:31.419 --> 00:15:34.179 different incidents in his life when he saw many 00:15:34.179 --> 00:15:38.600 things but observed them not. Think of him in 00:15:38.600 --> 00:15:41.179 the wilderness, in those hours of stress and 00:15:41.179 --> 00:15:44.779 temptation, when the enemy showed him all the 00:15:44.779 --> 00:15:47.860 kingdoms of the world and the glory of them. 00:15:50.159 --> 00:15:56.519 He could have yielded. But there was victory. 00:15:58.200 --> 00:16:03.120 He was blind to the appeal of the flesh. And 00:16:03.120 --> 00:16:07.360 with the eyes of devotion, consecration and faith, 00:16:07.559 --> 00:16:16.299 he looked beyond. Way beyond. Where his vision 00:16:16.299 --> 00:16:18.740 was filled with the glories of the kingdom to... 00:16:20.719 --> 00:16:25.899 He was not living for just that hour or just 00:16:25.899 --> 00:16:31.840 that day. He saw the ultimate purpose of his 00:16:31.840 --> 00:16:39.080 earthly life. He looked beyond that moment of 00:16:39.080 --> 00:16:45.500 temptation. Struck blind that he might see beyond 00:16:45.500 --> 00:16:51.070 time into the heavenlies. gazing continually 00:16:51.070 --> 00:16:55.970 at eternal values. Oh, if somehow the Holy Spirit 00:16:55.970 --> 00:16:58.009 could only make that real to your heart. You 00:16:58.009 --> 00:17:02.549 and I are not living for just this hour. Sometimes 00:17:02.549 --> 00:17:06.309 I think this generation knows nothing about what 00:17:06.309 --> 00:17:09.150 I'm talking about. Every man lives just for today. 00:17:09.589 --> 00:17:14.769 We live today for tomorrow we die. That's the 00:17:14.769 --> 00:17:18.750 common thinking of this generation. We live for 00:17:18.750 --> 00:17:22.529 this hour, so what? Let tomorrow take care of 00:17:22.529 --> 00:17:30.009 itself. We live just for the moment. It seems 00:17:30.009 --> 00:17:34.029 a very atmosphere is filled with this kind of 00:17:34.029 --> 00:17:43.150 thinking. Beloved, the things of today are so 00:17:43.150 --> 00:17:51.170 temporal, so fleeting. Out there. Out there beyond 00:17:51.170 --> 00:17:59.109 today or the tomorrow after that day. Out there, 00:17:59.190 --> 00:18:04.730 there's eternity. We live not just for the temporal, 00:18:04.890 --> 00:18:13.710 we live for the eternal. I will mention another 00:18:13.710 --> 00:18:18.789 time when I am sure that Jesus was blind to the 00:18:18.789 --> 00:18:22.930 things seen. It was at the hour of his departure 00:18:22.930 --> 00:18:24.970 from the little group of disciples and followers. 00:18:25.230 --> 00:18:29.829 He had finished his work, poured out his life, 00:18:29.849 --> 00:18:33.970 and now the only means left to carry on the tremendous 00:18:33.970 --> 00:18:37.549 work of evangelizing the world was just a little 00:18:37.549 --> 00:18:42.750 group of helpless, uneducated, and fainting disciples. 00:18:46.880 --> 00:18:53.779 from the political world. No one with money or 00:18:53.779 --> 00:18:59.359 material schemes. But there they were, a little 00:18:59.359 --> 00:19:04.799 group of outcasts, despised, rejected, scorned. 00:19:06.500 --> 00:19:16.700 Already they had shown signs of failure and That's 00:19:16.700 --> 00:19:22.799 all that he had. That's all that he had, and 00:19:22.799 --> 00:19:28.480 he knew he was going to leave. But again, there's 00:19:28.480 --> 00:19:35.079 victory. Blind to any material hopes, Christ 00:19:35.079 --> 00:19:41.359 lifts up his eyes. Blind indeed, but most powerful 00:19:41.359 --> 00:19:46.160 in penetration and vision, he was. able to leave 00:19:46.160 --> 00:19:53.359 them in faith because he saw God in the power 00:19:53.359 --> 00:19:55.400 of the Holy Spirit coming with heavenly life. 00:19:55.920 --> 00:20:00.920 That supernatural power. He saw the coming of 00:20:00.920 --> 00:20:06.940 the Holy Spirit, the one who had been his strengthener, 00:20:07.079 --> 00:20:12.099 the one who had been the power in his life. And 00:20:12.099 --> 00:20:15.890 he knew that through the Holy Spirit. there would 00:20:15.890 --> 00:20:22.309 be power and victory he saw not the weaknesses 00:20:22.309 --> 00:20:25.049 of that little group that he was about to leave 00:20:25.049 --> 00:20:38.849 he looked beyond the natural his vision was what 00:20:38.849 --> 00:20:43.940 they would be through the power and the person 00:20:43.940 --> 00:20:49.420 of the Holy Ghost. The one through whom he offered 00:20:49.420 --> 00:20:56.259 himself to God the Father to be given before 00:20:56.259 --> 00:21:05.099 he ever came to this earth. He saw that supernatural 00:21:05.099 --> 00:21:09.220 power of the Holy Spirit possessing his followers. 00:21:09.799 --> 00:21:12.359 He saw them no longer as weak creatures of flesh, 00:21:12.500 --> 00:21:14.839 but now transformed by the grace and the power 00:21:14.839 --> 00:21:18.900 of God. They were the torchbearers of the light 00:21:18.900 --> 00:21:22.240 of heaven. He saw them scattered, persecuted, 00:21:22.400 --> 00:21:26.180 but as flames burning their way down through 00:21:26.180 --> 00:21:30.400 the centuries. He saw the material nations rising, 00:21:30.700 --> 00:21:34.980 falling, perishing, but the light and the life 00:21:34.980 --> 00:21:37.890 which he had wrought continued. continued to 00:21:37.890 --> 00:21:43.250 burn and blaze and triumph in unspeakable glory. 00:21:45.250 --> 00:21:53.950 Blind indeed, but piercing the darkness of centuries. 00:21:56.369 --> 00:22:01.450 Christ, the true and faithful servant, was deaf 00:22:01.450 --> 00:22:15.980 indeed. Day, beloved. Be deaf. Be blind. To the 00:22:15.980 --> 00:22:22.059 natural. But keep an ear attuned to the spirit 00:22:22.059 --> 00:22:30.059 and eyes open to the supernatural. God bless 00:22:30.059 --> 00:22:30.200 you.