Audio： Becoming An Inward Christian

I would just like to read these verses that have already been quoted, because it seems that the Lord brought them into the meeting. He cometh to a city of Samari, which is called Sychar, near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Now Jacob saw it there. Jesus therefore being wearied with his journey, so don't be ashamed of being wearied, after having been swimming all afternoon, and boat-riding, and peeling potatoes, and what not. Jesus was wearied with his journey, said thus on the well, and it was about the sixth hour, there cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus said unto her, Give me to drink. Then said the woman of Samaria unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? For the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to me, Give me to drink, thou wouldst have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water. The woman said unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. From whence then hast thou that living water? Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle? Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again. But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst. But the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. The woman said unto him, Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw. Jesus said unto her, Go, call thy husband, and come hither. The woman answered and said, I have no husband. Jesus said unto her, Thou hast well said, I have no husband, for thou hast had five husbands, and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband, and that thou saidst truly. The woman said unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet. Our fathers worshipped in this mountain, and ye say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. Jesus said unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh when ye shall neither in this mountain nor yet at Jerusalem worship the father. Ye worship ye know not what. We know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the father in spirit and in truth. For the father seeketh such to worship him. God is a spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. I think this word of Jesus, ye shall neither in this mountain nor yet at Jerusalem worship God, might have knocked the bottom out of the enthusiasm of the Pentecostal convention that went to Jerusalem. My people thought it was such a wonderful thing, and they have for two thousand years traveled to Jerusalem, and when you come there, I've been there twice myself, you find nothing like you find here right in this room. I tell you the truth here, don't. You can find in Brooklyn something that's better than I found in Jerusalem. People talk about Jesus Christ said neither in Jerusalem nor in this mountain. And yet people travel all over the world to get some entertainment, and God's looking for men and women who will have sense enough to come to him and do as he said. He is seeking men and women who worship him in spirit and in truth. And in order to create such men and women, the Lord Jesus Christ has offered us a great and wonderful gift here. And I would like to impress our hearts tonight with the fact that Jesus Christ has a great blessing. It's our newest gift of God. Oh, to know that gift of God. When I was a young man, one time I read in the Old Testament how people came to Elijah and to Jeremiah, and I thought, oh, if I could get to such a prophet as that. I would crawl on all fours. I'd crawl on many, for many miles just to get there and hear the word of the Lord. I didn't know at that time how close Jesus was to me. We, we think so much of outward things, of outward worship. All our religions vie with one another to entertain people, to satisfy the flesh. We have gone into building churches now, according to this latest fad of architecture. They're nice, I must say. But much of it is, has absolutely no value. I was saying, Blumenschein came from Germany the other day. He had gone to Kirtan and he said, you know, we were surprised. We had heard you say that you had a church there valued at two hundred thousand dollars. We didn't believe it until we saw it ourselves. But I said, what good is a church without the Holy Ghost? What good is a building without the Spirit of the living God? And that's the thing that the Lord Jesus Christ is talking about. He left Jerusalem. He left Nicodemus. And he came to Samaria as well. And his whole audience was a woman that has many times been derided and despised. Men tell all kinds of things about this woman because in the first place she came alone. They think that, well, she must have been an outcast. Otherwise she would have had some companion. But the wonderful thing to me is that she was attracted to Jesus Christ and to the Father. And that wonder never leaves me, the fact that the Father is seeking me and seeking you, seeking us out from among the hundreds of thousands and millions of men and women in this world. The Father seeketh such to worship Him in spirit and in truth. The Father is looking for a temple in which He can dwell, in which He can manifest His glory and how beautifully He expresses it here. Rivers of living water, a well of living water springing up into everlasting life, that constitutes worshiping God in truth. Everything else is outwardness. And I think that we Pentecostal people better be a little bit careful. I know that if tonight we had had a great time of everybody dancing and clapping our hands and rolling around on the floor, the news of this meeting would go all over the world. My, we never had a meeting like this. Tomorrow you're the same fleshly, carnal person that you were before you came to the meeting, unless God Almighty can dig down into your soul and take out the vermin and the worms that dwell there in that rain there. How many Pentecostal people speak in tongues, and it's a sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal, because they have not dug deep. They have not dug down to rock bottom of repentance. They are not bringing forth fruits worthy of repentance. And Jesus Christ says in that day, I will say, depart from me, ye that work iniquity, for he that heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them. And here the Lord Jesus Christ says, if you knew the gift of God, you would receive this gift of God. When the Jews came to Him and said, what must we do? What work must we work to please God? He said, this is the work of God. And beloved, there's no other work that makes us pleasing in the sight of God, but this one work, to receive Him whom God has sent. It isn't to receive something about Him or some blessing that He can bestow upon us. Today the blessing of God is raining everywhere in the world. People are getting blessed everywhere. I read in a spiritualistic magazine yesterday, a testimony of someone that speaks in tongues and others that get healed. How do they get healed? How do they speak in tongues? I don't know. But I know that God Almighty blesses wherever there's a little crack for the sunlight of His love to shine through. But that's not salvation. That's an offer of salvation. He is able to save them to the uttermost. Oh, when you want that uttermost salvation, I tell you, God will do something about it, because He is seeking men and women whom He can change and transform into the image of His Son. What the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God did. And how did God do it? What did it cost God? He sent His only begotten Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, not that He might sing about rock of ages cleft for me, but that He might condemn sin in the flesh, that He might destroy him that hath the power of death, that is the devil, that He might give me a clean heart, a pure heart, thank God, that He might deliver me from all unrighteousness. And why does God pick out this woman now to present to the world through her His greatest offer? Why is it Elder Brooks said, well, it was through a woman that the devil came into the world, and I suppose it's through the woman that he's got to get out of the world again. It may be so. I don't know, and I don't know as I said what kind of a woman this is, but it's kind of strange that the Lord leaves this doctor of theology. But I was in Jerusalem, Stanley Jones was there, and he preached a sermon which I didn't hear, but they, it was reported to me, preached a very good gospel sermon. And you know, he has a Ph.D. and a D.D. and L.L.D., and he explained what all these D's meant. He said, D.D. means a dumb dog or something of that nature, and Ph.D. meant phenomenally dumb. Now, he is the man that bore these titles, and he has come to the fountain of life, and he knows that all the learning of this world will not save a person, and all the outward religion will not save a person from hell, and from damnation, and from sin. But the Son of God, thank God, received in His wholeness. Oh, if you knew the gift of God. Beloved, I wonder how many in this meeting have recognized the gift of God, and that that gift of God is a gift of holiness, of righteousness, of life, a well of water springing up into everlasting life. It's got to break forth within. And when a wild mention was made of how we need a revival, how we need an outpouring of the Holy Ghost, I say, Amen, and yet I always feel a little bit sad. While the well is flowing so nearby, why don't you drink? It's flowing within you. Beloved, the great trouble is we don't become inward Christians. We don't give God a chance to bring us in touch with Himself. We don't get still enough over the Bible. We don't get still enough in faith. Why, Jesus Christ, you're within me. Now, Lord, you take over. Guard your heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life. Jesus Christ, first of all, must conquer the heart, and then you'll conquer everything. We waste our time when we talk about fads, about outward things, such as bobbing hair and painting your lips and your fingernails. Those are outward things that have very little value in the sight of God, as long as the heart is impure. And, oh, my Lord Jesus Christ, I'm so glad that you came to dwell within my heart and to reign within my heart. The fruit of the Spirit is love. Oh, there's that well of water. The water that I give Him is His divine nature that's offered to me. And how is it offered? Why, through this divine seed that comes down from heaven. I brought some chestnuts from Germany and planted them in my garden. And unfortunately, I'm not going to have a chestnut tree, because some, one of our saints got indignant over that, those wheat that grew up in the garden and plucked them up. And just one chestnut grew. Now, that chestnut was just a chestnut until I put it in the ground. Came from Germany. I wanted a German chestnut tree. And that's the only one that grew. But now Jesus Christ has brought divine seed out of heaven. That Word that created the world was made flesh and dwelt among us and now offers His very life to everyone that will receive it. Let him that hath ears to hear, hear. Blessed are your ears, for they hear. Oh, Jesus, if you knew the gift of God. Beloved, you wouldn't have to pray for a revival. It's within you. It's there. It's waiting to spring up within every one of us. Give it a chance. And we've spoken much about waiting upon the Lord, about tearing in His presence, about giving God a chance. That's where God gets a chance to make these fountains break forth. And the Lord has complained one time that we are not thirsty enough. As the heart panteth after the waterfalls. Oh, if thou knewest the gift of God. Beloved, the New Testament is given to us that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. That we might enter into the treasury of Jehovah and see the unsearchable riches of Christ that are waiting for me to claim. The promises of God are yea and amen. When God made a promise and signed it in His own precious blood, He told me what He was about to do for me. And now He is waiting for my heart to answer in truth and in the Holy Spirit. He is waiting for me to open my heart to receive this wonderful gift of God. Oh, this marvelous gift. I will be within Him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. I was told about a certain assembly recently that was awakened to the wonder of the baptism of the Holy Spirit and to the wonder of these unsearchable riches to Jesus Christ Himself. And I was told that for a year they had tarry meetings that were perfectly out of this world. The whole congregation would get together with one heart and one soul just to meet Jesus. And Jesus Christ met them differently from the way people expected it. Sometimes they would sit in perfect silence. You know that silence is different. Minister came to us from another country recently, and we had a time of silent worship. And he said, this is the first place where I have discovered this vibrant silence. I thought that was a good expression. A vibrant silence that vibrates with the life of God. Oh, Jesus says, if you knew the gift of God, you would recognize Him. You would, first of all, bow your soul in His presence. But you know, when you worship God in spirit and in truth, God worships in you. God grips you. Your whole body becomes a living sacrifice. This is your reasonable service when you're filled with the Holy Ghost. Beloved, we don't know what we do when we become outward and careless. And when outward things grip us instead of the Holy Ghost, our loss is tremendous. You go to the clinic, you get a checkup, and the doctor constitutes high blood pressure. A woman said to me the other day, her blood pressure was a hundred and fifty seven. Well, I didn't know how she could live. Or he says, your hardening of the artery. Or you've got some other devilish thing in your body that has been gathering for many years. Now get rid of it. Impossible. That thing has gripped you, has made you a slave of sickness and of death. The same thing happens to our spirits. When we don't worship God, when we don't live in His presence and walk before the Almighty God, consciously practicing the presence of God, every outward word and thought and movement and feeling attracts these pests of hell. Thoughts. You thought you could get away with it. I heard the Lord say to a certain prophet, he found out that he can be outward during the day and still prophesy in meeting. I thought, what a terrible thing. Beloved, He has translated us into the kingdom of the Son of His love. That's where we belong. He has delivered us from the power of darkness. And if we play with outward things and carelessness, careless thoughts, we're going to be defeated. I was so glad to hear a dear woman who was here for two weeks. She came back to Brooklyn and she said, a strange thing happened. She said, I had subscribed to a newspaper and every day I looked at that newspaper, read some things in it. When I came home from the camp, that paper was lying on the table. I wanted to pick it up and I couldn't. She said, I couldn't. There was something in me that refused to touch that thing. What had happened? Why, God had moved me. That's what had happened. God had cleansed her mind. Oh, these minds of ours, let this mind be in you. Don't be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Beloved, when Jesus Christ, says He that drinketh the water that I give it, He is talking about the living Spirit of God that wants to possess me and birth forth in rivers of living water. I said to this woman, now listen, you be careful. I've had the same experience. You pick up that paper two or three times and it'll have you again and you won't get rid of it anymore. You don't know how the devil is waiting to defile this temple of God and to bind you again with centers of darkness and you don't have to go to moving picture shows and to dances and do like the world and use makeup and all those things to be a backslider. But oh, when that candlestick is removed, that presence of Jesus that permeates your whole being, all your actions, all your words, all your thoughts are under the control of the Holy Ghost. Have you discovered that you cannot live like others? Others may, you can. I know I was censored the other night when I talked about love affairs and I certainly appreciate young people that fall in love with one another, if it's done in the law. But you know how many people lose the crown because of love affairs that are not of God and that are defiled by the world and the flesh and the devil? I wasn't saved properly and I had a puppy love affair like young men do. It was perfectly clean. I never had a bad heart. But you know, I was beginning to feel that my heart was being wrapped up and I said, now I wasn't saved, I wasn't in Pentecost, I was in the Baptist church. I said, my God, I can't have that thing. I can't have it. And as I said, it was perfectly clean. But I went to the girl and I apologized to her. I said, listen, I'm through. Absolutely through. God had that much control of my life. Beloved, is there anything more beautiful in this world than a pure young person? Is there anything more enjoyable than a heart that is under the control of the Holy Ghost? And what good is all my outward form of religion, all my profession? It'll only give me the lie in the end if my heart is not pure in the sight of God. That's the gift of God. Not in this mountain, not in Jerusalem. You can run around the world and seek religion and practice religion and get no place until you recognize that God sent His Son into this world and sent Him to you to possess you. Oh, the wonder of this glorious kingdom, Lord. I could never be saved if God hadn't given me a Savior that knows how to subdue everything unto Himself, all my thoughts, all my feelings. I couldn't do it. I couldn't begin to do it. There was a time when I tried it. But oh, Jesus Christ is able to subdue all things unto Himself. If you want Him like that, oh, if you love righteousness, if your heart hungers and thirsts after righteousness, hear the fullness. If you want a revival, hear the revival like there's never been one. In all of God's creation, Jesus Christ, the resurrection and the life will give Himself to you in all His majesty, in all His holiness. He has made unto us righteousness, holiness, and redemption. And our great damnation consists of the fact that we don't want Him. We want His blessing. Oh, yes. And when He doesn't heal us, then we murmur, and then we say, well, why not? Why not? But, oh, beloved, here's the gift of God. The Father seeketh such, and seeketh such in this meeting, in this camp, seeking among these young people. Gonna find somebody, or among the old people, perhaps, but God will have them. The Bible tells us, talks about 144,000 on Mount Sinai, who were not defied, and their mouths were found, was found. No, guile, they are without fault before the throne of God. I tremble when I talk about that, because I know there is no possibility anywhere, and men will not help me. Nobody will help me but Jesus Christ. I've got to run after Him. I have to do like we heard a while ago from Philippians 3, consider everything but refuse. God will help me to do that. And oh, once you get your eyes on Jesus Christ, and once you give Him a chance, all you need to do is give Him a chance to reveal Himself to you. You'll say, had I a thousand hearts to give, Lord, they should all be thine. And yet, without the camp, was there my Savior died. It was the world that cast Him forth, and saw Him crucified. Can I take part with those that nailed Him to the tree, and where His name is never praised? Is that the place for me? Nay, world, I turn away, though thou seem fair and good. That friendly outstretched hand of thine is stained with Jesus' blood. If in thy least device I stoop to take apart all unawares, thine influence steals God's presence from my heart. Oh, when you've lost this jewel, the presence of God, when that candlestick has been removed, it's high time to repent and do the first works. Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves. He is the promise of God. He is the gift of God. I will be within Him, within you. Beloved, that well never runs dry. There will be a continuous revival, growing in intensity and in power, and making you fruitful, and making you a blessing. And the wonderful thing is that this fountain is an eternal fountain, springing forth into everlasting life. We don't know yet the glory of serving the Lord until we put off this old man, I mean this body of our humiliation. And we're closed upon with our house, which is from heaven, which Jesus Christ has gone to prepare. Beloved, it's ready. God give us in a body as it has pleased Him. But beloved, we're going to reap what we sowed. But what a service that will be, which has begun on this earth. I know there are hearts that are burning. I know there are hearts that are getting sore. But I know there are hearts that are burning with the fire of the Holy Ghost. I remember how, as a boy, my heart began burning within me. I sat in the movie church one time, right in the middle of a thousand people, and something came forth from the platform, and it struck me like an arrow of the Almighty. I went out of that place and buried my face in my pillow and said, Oh my God, do this for me. It is God Almighty that seeks sons and daughters. The verse came to me today as I walked. I went out taking a walk. He shall be my son. My God. He shall be my son, and I will be His father. He that overcometh shall inherit all things. Is it such a job to overcome, beloved? It simply means that I let Jesus subdue everything. That's overcoming. Nothing else is. It just means that I drink the water that He gives me. And is there ever a day in your life when that water is not offered to you? When this Bible doesn't bring to you unsearchable riches of Christ and the mysteries of the Kingdom of God? And in such simple language, I like that picture. Water. You don't have to teach people to drink water when they're thirsty. Why, it drinks itself. And that's how it is with Jesus. When God has made your heart really thirsty for living streams divine. Oh God, make us recognize the gift of God. Make us recognize that you have singled us out from among hundreds of thousands, millions of men and women to speak to us these words. Now listen, I say this very respectfully and reservedly because I know what I'm talking about. I know that this is a select, I was going to say a select group. I shouldn't say that. A select place. I've traveled around the world. I've been in the greatest Pentecostal convention. I've heard the mightiest preachers. But I haven't heard anything more wonderful than I've heard in this place of life-giving instruction and life-giving offer. Oh Jesus, the gift of God. What, what am I doing with this gift of God today? Today? Today, what am I doing? What, where are the streams? Where are the fountains? I often tell about my first trip to Switzerland. After 25 years, I wanted to see the cradle of Swiss independence. It is on a peninsula like this. And there our fathers got together and they took an oath to break the power of the tyrants. And they did it. And in a song we are told that there three wells spring forth. And according to my knowledge of geography, these three wells form the three mightiest rivers of Europe, Rome, Reuss, and Rhine. Now don't look at your map because it has experienced some changes in these last hundred years. As the boy said, when the teacher asked what changed, he'd come over the map of Europe. He said it's been varnished. But anyway, I came there and the brother took me to this cradle of Switzerland. I've never been there. I said to him, where are the wells? He said, what wells? I said, you're a fine Swiss. You've been here all your life and you don't know where these rivers are born. He didn't know. So I said, come on, let's look for them. And we found them. They're encased in marble today. And here are these three wells. And they come forth out of the ground. And after a while they grow and grow and then gray ocean liners are carried on the shoulders of these rivers. And so I'd like to say to you, where are the rivers? Now, you've been a Christian a long, long time. You've professed to be walking with Jesus Christ and you've professed to have him dwelling within your heart. Now he said, I will be within you. I will be within you, a well. It isn't something I pump up or I produce. Oh no, the Lord is my light and my salvation. The Lord is the strength of my life. Glory to God. With joy shall you draw water out of the wells of salvation. Beloved, let us not fool ourselves and let us not disgrace our God, but let us recognize the gift of God and who it is that talks to us personally. Glory to God. This word is as personal and as life-giving as it was that day when he spoke to that woman in Samaria as well. And whatever kind of a woman she was, certainly it was wonderful that Jesus Christ picked her out to give every one of us the hope and the confidence. Praise God. Come ye to the waters. Ho, everyone that thirsteth, come and drink without money, without price. Oh, here it is, dear Lord. And I still want to drink.