They Saw His Miracles

Our Father tonight, for the privilege of bowing before your eternal throne, we thank you that our Lord Jesus called you Holy Father. We thank you that you are our Holy Father. We thank you for your Holy Son.

We thank you for the Holy Spirit. We thank you for the Holy Word. We thank you for holy men of God who speak as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.

Lord, as we sing of this love, we think of vastness of your love. Everything you do is so majestic, so breathtaking. Man cannot yet take the temperature of the sun.

He can't tell where the wind is blowing. There are a thousand things about us that have been here for thousands of years that are still a mystery. But greatest of all is the mystery of thy love.

I think of him that says, Quench on me this waste of love. Ask my advocate above. God is love.

I know I see you. Jesus lives and loves me still. We thank you, Lord, that when we were yet afar off, you saw us and had compassion on us.

Remember in the story of the prodigal, when he started part of the way home, the father ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. We thank you, Lord, that when we were worse than that prodigal, many of us may be. We thank you we didn't smell our rags.

You didn't look upon our bruised countenances. You didn't see our warped minds and our unclean desires and our impotent wills. But we thank you you took the whole wreckage of our personality.

Lord, we see automobiles wrecked some days. I've seen them. And no, there's not a man on earth could put that automobile back again.

It's almost pulp. Pieces are scattered everywhere and everything's so fractured or broken. But, Lord, we thank you that you came to bind up the brokenhearted, to undo heavy burdens, to let the oppressed go free and break every yoke.

Lord, we thank you that impossibility is not in your vocabulary. Lord, the more we gaze on your omnipotence, the more we recognize our impotence. Lord, when we think of your love so vast, Lord, we're told the parts of the ocean that men cannot fathom.

We know not how far. Science tells us of something they shot into the sky last year that's already gone 250 million miles. Lord, your works are past finding out even in creation.

But, Lord, who can understand the atoning work of Jesus Christ? Who can understand why he came, the Lord of life, the taste of death, that we who are dead might know life? How can we express our gratitude that he wore a crown of thorns, that we might crown, that wore a crown of life? How can we understand that he was despised and respected as men, that we might be accepted into the fold of the living God? I think of the word of John when he says, even now we're the sons of God. We hear the millions in this world tonight, Lord, that we call the unprivileged or the underprivileged. But, Lord, if we're underprivileged spiritually tonight, it's our own fault.

You've given us this holy word. It is as we used to sing as children. It is a golden casket where gems of truth are stored.

It is the heaven-drawn picture of Christ, the living word. We think of you, Lord Jesus, when you said at the end, I am he that liveth and was dead, and behold, I am alive and I'm alive forevermore. And I have the keys of death and of hell.

And John speaks of the Christ who is and who was and who is to come. We would put it the other way, the Christ who was and who is and is to come, but he said the Christ who is. We thank you, Lord Jesus, that you're alive tonight and alive forevermore.

We thank you, Lord, we can say he lives. You ask me how I know he lives? He lives within my heart. Again, how do you come to us? The heaven of heavens cannot contain you, and yet you can come and dwell in these little hearts of ours.

You can work on these tiny little minds of ours. You can take these bodies of ours, these emotions of ours. We think of our sister with her skill as she played on this piano.

Some of us couldn't get anything out of it, but so beautifully her hands moved over the keys. And the harmonies and all else that makes music so charming. But Lord, we thank you, you can play on the human personality, whereas the devil's fingers once played on us and pushed us around.

We thank you, you can take and cleanse. And the vessel you can take, Lord, it may be very poor, but we're sanctified and meet for the master's use. And Lord, our yearnings are for thee tonight.

We pray, breathe on us tonight, breath of God. Fill us this night with life anew, that we may love what thou wilt love and do what thou wilt do. Lord, pray for us tonight as though you were in the very congregation praying.

Lord, we recognize our praying is just stammering, but we thank you at the right hand of the Father tonight. After 2,000 years, you're not a bit tired any more than you were when you first ascended. We thank you for your majesty's hour.

We thank you for your authority's hour. We thank you, you do the greatest translation that anybody could dream of. Maybe listening to a hundred or a million prayers at the same moment and translating them to the Father.

Taking our poor stumbling prayers out in our prayers and making them acceptable. Because we come through you, Lord Jesus. We thank you that you did die that we might be forgiven.

You died to make us good. But not just when we slip away from this life, but we thank you that you've told us, you've set us up here in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation to whom we'd shine as lights in the world. Lord, we never needed more light than now.

We're in a state, I think, that Isaiah talks of when he says, darkness covers the earth, and God's darkness the people. There's darkness over politics. There's darkness over the model state of the nation.

There's darkness over the financial state of our nation right now. Lord, there's darkness everywhere. And the devil loves the darkness.

He loves darkness more than light, like his children do. But Lord, we bless you for the light in Jesus Christ. We thank you for your holy word.

It is a lamp to our feet, a light unto our path. Lord, we may not be smart according to the world's idea of the academy, but Lord bless you. We thank you that we can't be wise in the things of God.

We thank you for this book of wisdom. No man is ignorant that knows this book, and no man is wise that doesn't know it. We bless you that it has, as the martyr said when he was burned at the stake in England centuries ago, we'll put the Bible not just in the hands of the scholars, we'll put it into the hands of the proud boys.

And we thank you Lord for the way that men have labored and used their minds, and people have given money and gotten this word distributed. We pray for those Wycliffe, our Wycliffe translators tonight, in so many countries, with all that's unconvenient, all that's unappetizing, all that's repulsive. Maybe to their former culture, the crudeness of the people, and the rudeness of the people, and almost hopelessness of the food they eat.

And yet we thank you Lord by feeding them a higher food. We thank you that they have this burning desire to get this holy word of God into the languages that so far have not been reduced to vocabularies and then to be written. Lord we thank you for all your servants.

You see them all Lord. There are all kinds of servants in a man's house, in the great man's houses we've been in, and seen the many forms of servants. And we thank you for your servants tonight.

Thank you for those who preach, if they preach the truth in cathedrals. We thank you for those that go down to the junkies. Thank you for those who go down to places like that place in the center of the Chicago there, that's been blessed to the ends of the earth, because that man has stayed there, and lifted the beggars from the dunghill, and made them princes unto God.

I thank you for the ministry you've given to brother Sonny James here tonight. Thank you for the presence again of the dear Spencer and his mother. Lord I pray you bless that work.

Bless it financially. Lord raise out of that bunch of men prophets. Raise men full of faith of the Holy Ghost.

Show men Lord what you can do, when you can transform a personality and take every bit of baseness and vulgarity out of it. Every appetite of the flesh and fill them with appetites for the spirit. Make them more eager to read the word of God and drink the word of God than ever they were to drink liquors and fool around with sin and sore business.

Lord we thank you this is your business. We bless you the blood shall never lose its power. Till all the ransomed church of God be saved to sin no more.

We do not wonder that one of your servants said in a hymn that eternity will be too short to offer all thy praise. And Lord we bless you for all that's passed. And we will say I think it was Newton who said glory to God for all the grace I have not tasted yet.

So Lord we thank you there's strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow. We thank you don't know a thing about faith, fableness or failure or powerlessness. We bless you Lord you don't have to ask advice of anybody because you're the source of all wisdom.

You won't have to borrow any strength because you're the source of every bit of energy in the whole world. We gaze on your majesty tonight. We say Lord my Jesus I love thee I know thou art mine.

Maybe you could sing that with our heads down. My Jesus I love thee. This was recorded by John chapter 6. It was interesting the news today reminded us that just a year ago today there was that devastating earthquake in Mexico City.

What was it 8.4 on the Richter scale. And they showed a baby today that just a year ago was buried for eight days without without anything to eat without anything to drink. Eight days.

And it's about the healthiest baby in Mexico. That doesn't mean you have to be in an earthquake to be healthy but it's wonderful. A child could live eight days without nourishment without anything to drink.

Well we're coming to the greatest source of nourishment tonight. The sixth chapter in the gospel is recorded by John. You know Jesus was the most radical person that ever lived.

Somebody's written a book on radical Christianity. I wish I'd written that. Because of course it it violates everything that men think is precious and that idea is go as high as you can.

The Bible says go as low as you can. We say save your life. Jesus says lose your life.

Be a nobody that you might be a somebody. You know this book is so remarkable. In the first chapter of John as you remember he said he came unto his own and his own received him not.

To me that's one of the greatest of all miracles. They'd had years centuries millenniums of teaching 750 years before Jesus came. Remember that Isaiah wrote the whole story shall be with child.

The 38th chapter the 35th chapter there should be a highway and a way and there's a place where it says about him it was the 58th. He comes to undo heavy burdens let the oppressed go free break every yoke. And he did it.

And all that happened every time he violated as I say churchianity or religion every time he violated it they got more and more angry. But he came to show us what the son of God was. John shows him actually of course as a son of God.

Luke shows him as a son of man. Matthew shows him as the king. Mark shows him as a servant.

But think a minute that in this first chapter he came unto his own and his own received him not. We're going to come into the fifth chapter very quickly. In the second chapter he did a miracle.

Remember what it was? He turned water into wine. Let's say that's a miracle socially. In the third chapter he did a miracle theologically.

He told them one of the most brilliant men in Jerusalem. A man of impeccable morality. A scholar.

A gentleman. Maybe the best known man in in the world at that time at least in Israel. And he has the affront to tell that man.

This unlearned man. This nobody. This Christ who doesn't wear a cloth to the rabbi.

He doesn't have a plate on his forehead that says holiness unto the Lord. He has a life that lives holy in the sense of the Lord. And his life was reproved to them all the way.

So in chapter one you have the miracle of Jesus coming. The word was made flesh and dwelt among us. Take all eternity to explain that to us.

Second chapter you have this miracle. The third chapter you have the miracle. Second chapter you have the miracle socially.

He turned water into wine. Chapter three you have a miracle theologically. He comes to this brilliant pharisee.

He had to be a very brilliant man to be a pharisee and a ruler of the Jews. And he confronts him with the fact that if he's going to heaven that all the blood of beasts he'd been seeing shed. All the prayers they've offered.

All the rituals. All the sabbath days they've kept. All the new moons and sabbaths.

All the different what do you call them feasts they have. But with all of no avail. Unless he's born again he cannot.

It's not difficult it's impossible to enter the kingdom of God. Then he comes to the fourth chapter. There's another miracle where he talks about the woman at the well.

And he infers that he is the water of life. He doesn't spell it out in words but that's what he says. He begins the fifth chapter by going to a pool where people sat around.

They become what we call them tourist attractions. In their various stages of physical degeneracy. And there's a man lying at the pool and he says well what are you here for? He said I've been coming here for years.

Why don't you get in the pool? No man lifts me in. So Jesus says well take your bed and walk. Do you think I didn't go around town? You see the first thing that happened again I remind you between Malachi and Matthew you have four centuries.

400 years of light without any light. Spiritual light without any prophetic darkness. 400 years of stillness without any prophetic noise.

In between those two events the end of Malachi and beginning of Matthew you have an invasion of a foreign power that came and subjugated the children of God. So-called children of God. And they make slaves of them.

Jesus said if a man compels you to go a mile go with him two miles. They have dominance over them. Then after that that happened that was a shake-up socially.

Then it's a shake-up religiously. There's a man comes over in the wilderness of all places. Again he has no choir, he has no benches, he has no pulpit, he has no money.

As the man said he had no nothing. I'll tell you what he did have he had God. I may be told before I don't know but I'm still startled as I've been reading about the Puritans.

John Owen may be the greatest brain in his day. Now some dispute that the greatest brain that America ever had I'm sure was Jonathan Edwards. He was a super brilliant man.

But John Owen was not 30 years of age. There was no transit system. He drew 2,000 people every morning and 2,000 people every night.

Sunday night that is. They had no lighting, they had no heating, they had no choir, they had no music, they had no money. They weren't in God's name did they have? They had God.

How do you get 2,000 people going to Scotland, trudge on those hills? It took them hours to get to the sanctuary. And yet they filled those vast cabins if you want to call them, or cathedrals. 2,000 people crowding in and then walking all the way home and coming back for the night service.

Boy you couldn't get out today. You'd have to give them all lazy boy chairs. I was in a church one day and I said you know lazy boy chairs are for pastors and they just bought the pastor one for birthday.

Tell them when I get a word of prophecy it's dangerous. And yet you see they would not accept John without it. And I love that phrase where it says John did no miracle.

He wasn't staging the miraculous. He wasn't saying Isaac come over here, Benjamin come here. Weren't you cured of cancer? Weren't you cured of blindness? He's not doing that.

And I still said to you this incandescent man as though he'd come from another world on fire for God. You never have to advertise a fire. Once the fire of God, the glory of God comes it's the most attractive magnetic thing on the in the world.

Because our God is consuming fire. And he makes his angels ministering spirits and his ministers a flame of fire. And that's what I'm praying for Brother Sonny there in his group.

God will do something he can't get into most places. You know before the bible closed Jesus was outside the church knocking on the door of the Laodicean church. And we believe it's a Laodicean period now.

He can't get in but he'll come when he's welcome. He came to his own, they didn't receive him. Anyhow he starts the fifth chapter with a miracle.

He says to them rise take up your bed and walk. He starts the sixth chapter here with a miracle. You know Jesus, if he speaks like this today you say he's rude, he's rude, he's unkind.

Look in the middle of in the 42nd verse of chapter 5. I know that you have not the love of God in you. Hey come here you can't judge people like that. Jesus says you can you judge them by their fruit.

People always say oh you can't judge people. Well Jesus says don't cast your pearls before swine. Well you've got to judge the swine haven't you? Before you can cast your pearls.

Judge not that you be not judged. But the second half of the verse says judge righteous judgment. You see there's a wisdom which is from above which is greater than the wisdom which is from beneath.

There's a righteousness of men which is a self-righteousness. There's a righteousness of God. You know people say sometimes oh I'm only a poor sinner saved by grace.

Is that all? I suppose we testify sometimes I'm only a lauded bachelor. What? Well it's about as sensible as saying a sinner saved by grace isn't it? No we're not sinners we're saints of the most high God. All my righteousness is as filthy as the cross.

What does John say? He says Jesus said except your righteousness exceed the righteousness. There's nothing wrong with being right. The trouble with the Pharisees was they boasted about their righteousness as though it was all theirs.

As though they did everything right. But what does John say in his epistle? He that doeth righteousness is righteous even as he is righteous. The standard isn't that with a Baptist or the Pentecostals or the Chalismatics or any of the Matics.

It's with Jesus. I get more and more moved as I read the word of God. Holy men of God will move.

You know we've lost, we've talked about it, we've lost the art of meditation I think. We've lost the art of musing on the word, of waiting till the thing explodes. Sometimes when I read my scripture in my desk I feel as though somebody's in the bushes and they suddenly get hold of me and try to choke me.

I feel as though I'm being ambushed. I don't believe God wants it that way. So let's start here then in John 6. Pardon me.

Verse 42. I know you that ye have not the love of God. Verse 45.

Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father that is one that accuses you to even Moses in whom ye trust. If ye believed in Moses ye would have believed me for he wrote of me. But if ye believe not his writing how shall ye believe these words? 6, chapter 6, verse 2. A great multitude followed him because they saw his miracles which he had done on men that were diseased.

Isn't that wonderful? His eye of compassion. He's always looking somewhere to exercise his mercy, exercise his power, exercise his power. You see whatever had been damaged, as the clocks were obeyed him and I obeyed the one who was close, didn't he? And he wrote also Jesus shall reign wherever thunder fits successive journeys run.

His kingdom stretch from shore to shore till moon shall wax and ring no more. Blessings abound where'er he reigns. The prisoner leaps to loathe his chains.

The weary find eternal rest and all the sons will want our blessed. Where he displays his healing power, death and the curse are known no more. In him the tribes of Adam boast more blessings than their fathers lost.

You and I can have more blessings than Adam had. We can't have innocence, but we can have purity. We can know a presence that even Adam didn't know.

And that's what he came to do, to restore us back into the even now on this earth. Not if you're a Shakespearean as Shakespeare said to shuffle off this mortal coil, but even now we're the sons of God. We're supposed to live like the sons of God, walk like the sons of God, talk like the sons of God, act like the sons of God.

The only way we're going to convince this world, we're not going to convince it with Christian TV shows and all the junk they have. It's going to be done by people living their holy life. The life that's just as straight up as six o'clock.

Just three, okay. Jesus went up into an altar and there he sat with his disciples. When Jesus lifted up his eyes a great multitude came unto him.

He said to Philip, when shall we buy bread that these may eat? And this he said to prove him, for he knew what he would do. Philip answered 200 pennies of bread is not sufficient, but every one of them may take a little. You know this one? How many thousands are there? All 5,000.

And he says 200 pennies worth. In our money that's about $500. And if we could go and get all that bread at once and bring it, it isn't enough to feed this multitude, that they might take a little.

That's the idea of man. Look what he says in verse 12. When they were all filled, they didn't have a little, they didn't have a mouthful, they were filled, filled, filled.

Why? 200 pennies worth of bread is not enough that they may take a little. They'll say, one of the disciples, Andrew said unto him, there is a lad here. Wouldn't it be wonderful to see that lad in heaven? I hope his name was Leonard, but I don't know.

Maybe it was Jack. Some little unnamed fellow, never thought when he set off that morning he was going to share his lunch. If he'd told he was going to share his lunch, he'd have stayed away anyhow and eaten it himself.

He didn't think he was going to share it with 5,000 other people. What happens here? There is a lad here. The lad gave the loans.

The disciples shared the loans. The Savior blessed the loans. What did he do? He took 5 little buns, which were about the size of a hamburger bun.

You know what you call a bun anyhow, or a cake. Of course it depends where you get your hamburger, but anyhow. Just something not much bigger than the palm of my hand.

And how many were there? 5 loans? 12 disciples? He breaks it in two. Now what do you think he did? Did he say, hey Peter, come over a minute, put your hands out, both your hands out together. Come on John.

Come on Matthew. Gave them all, and suddenly the thing went to a stack of loans right there. The miracle is not only that Jesus blessed it, the miracle is that every time they broke the thing up, it never got any less.

And they fed the 5,000 once, and they fed the 4,000 another time. But listen, we're going up and down the front row all the time. Up and down the front row.

I was reading that, I want to talk on the light. Jesus being the light next week. Jesus being the light of the world.

Well in God's name, how many people are in light tonight? We don't want the light. We wonder why the nation's in darkness? Because we kick the light out of the schools, that's right. Wonder why young people are going to hell as fast as they are? Because we're giving it back to them, that's right.

And the only voice that's going to save our generation is the voice of the church when she gets awake and anoints it. And sees the desperate plight. You see, because we've lost sight of the holiness of God, we've lost sight of the depravity of man.

We don't see the vast gap between the holy God there in eternity and this corrupt civilization that we're living in even now. When they were all filled, isn't that great? I guess that little boy must have felt great when somebody said, youngster, hey, thanks for sharing your lunch, kid. I forgot, man, I was so excited to see this big creature.

I came to see miracles. Boy, this bread's the nicest I've ever tasted. Did your mother make it? He said, well that's none of your business, eat it.

And so they ate it and enjoyed it. Oh, let's give them, we haven't enough money to buy bread to give them a little. And they were all filled and got twelve baskets full.

Can you imagine each of the twelve disciples going home with a basket loaded and the wife said, where's you been shopping? Oh darling, I haven't been anywhere. Jesus did it. Did what? He took the boy's little cakes and broke them and broke them and we broke them and we went round with five thousand people and the bread never got any less.

It was wonderful, it was growing in our hands, we just fed it. Well, isn't that like the word of God? I mean, how many times men have taken this Bible? They've burned it, they've damned it, they've blamed it, they've buried it. You know, the Bible has a wonderful habit of standing at the grave side of its persecutors.

Voltaire, that marvellous man in France in the days of Wheatley said, a hundred years from now Bibles will only be found in museums. Well, he didn't miss it by much, did he? As a matter of fact, the house where he wrote that became the headquarters of Geneva Bible Society for many years. It was whom he bombed out in World War II.

Well, who's thought of Voltaire today? Put both hands up if you have. Men put both feet up. No, you haven't.

Nobody's thought of Voltaire today. How many millions of people have read the word of God? We've broken it as it were, we've disposed of it. Every day I thank God for men.

I remember seeing a man in a jungle up there in New Guinea among those semi-naked people. They're almost totally naked on American beaches, but these are savages, you know. And there was a man with an earned PhD from one of the best universities in this country.

He had a ragged shirt on, they stood him down at the tree, and he's trying to get a man to say, ach, ach, ach, you know, all kinds of words. And he's trying to make words out. I thought that guy should be home maybe earning twenty, forty, fifty thousand a year.

And here he is contented in the jungle because he's taking the living word of the living God to bring to people who are dead in trespasses and in sin. And he knows it's going to have eternal value. He's got all his priorities in the right place.

Let me get through this. Let's go down further into the chapter now. Verse thirteen, they gathered them together, and twelve baskets full they filled with fragments of the barley loaves, which had remained over above that which was eaten.

And those men, when they had seen the miracle that Jesus said, did, said, this is of a truth, that prophet. But despite that fact, he proved an irregulous again that they didn't believe in him. He raised the dead, they didn't believe in him.

When Jesus therefore, verse fifteen, perceived that they would come and take him by force, they said, this is the man we want. They weren't concerned about miracles. He filled their bellies.

He met their need on the physical level. Well, anybody who's going to, is going to get voted for, if he can do that, give them satisfaction on that level, he's going to get the vote. So they said, we'll take this fellow before somebody else does, and we'll make him king.

But Jesus, it says, therefore perceived he would come and take him by force, to make him king, he departed again into a mountain himself alone. In Matthew 14 and Mark 6, it says there that he went into a mountain to pray. And when evening was now come, his disciples went to the sea and entered into a ship and went over the sea toward Capernaum.

And it was now dark. So notice there, without Jesus, he entered in, they entered into a ship and went over the sea toward Capernaum. It was now dark and Jesus has not come with them, so they're alone.

They're alone in the dark. Verse 18, and the sea arose, and the sea arose by reason of the great wind. So now they're in trouble.

But in the darkness, the seas are boiling, they can't see anybody, Jesus isn't there. And in the midst of that situation, they rode about five and thirty furlongs, or about three miles. Why wasn't Jesus with them? Don't you need Jesus in the dark place? Don't you need Jesus when the storm is breaking on you? He wasn't with them, but I guess I will tell you what he was watching for, for them.

Even though he wasn't with them. So here's the waves are coming up, it says a great wind came and the seas were boiling. It's terribly dark, they're being tossed around.

So why doesn't the Lord come? Because he's going to do a great miracle. He missed the boat, surely he did. They went off without him.

Again they're in the dark, the winds are howling, the seas are boiling. What does it say? Verse 18, the sea arose by reason of a great wind and blew. When they rode about five and twenty or thirty furlongs, they see Jesus walking on the sea and drawing near unto the ship and they were afraid.

It says verse 21, then they willingly received him into the ship and immediately the ship was at the land where they went. Now that's a miracle. The day following, when the people stood on the other side of the sea and saw that there was none of the boat there, except the one in which these disciples came.

Hey what's going on? Jesus didn't get in the boat? There's only one boat on the shore, that's the one that those fellows came in. What happened? Well I'll tell you what happened. In verse 25 it says when they found him on the other side of the sea, they said, Rabbi how did you get here? Well how did he get there? I'm sure the spirit had caught away Philip, caught away Jesus.

They'd left him behind, he came to them in their distress, in their darkness, in their confusion, and then he went ahead of them and he's waiting. The other boats were coming, if you read a context from Tiberius, to see the mighty workings of God. But he's gone to Capernaum.

Verse 25, Jesus answered them and said, verily, verily, I say unto you, you seek me not because you saw the miracles, but because you did it of the loaves and were filled. Verse 28, then they said unto him, what shall we do? We might do the work, that we might work the works of God. Isn't everybody saying that now? I want to do works, I want to do greater miracles.

Well he says, I'll tell you what greatest work you can do in the world, is to get for me to believe on me. They didn't believe by the miracles, they didn't believe by the bread. And this is his answer to them.

They said unto him, verse 28, what shall we do? We might work the works of God. And Jesus answered and said, this is the work of God, but ye believe on him who sent me. Now that's our one job here on earth, as the ministers of the gospel anyhow.

You know, I'm sure in my own heart there are very, very, very few people really getting born again these days. They'll go to the front, shed a few tears, but they're not miraculously. A man needs a revolution through the blood of Jesus.

He needs a revolution by the regeneration power of the Holy Ghost. The new birth is more miraculous than the physical birth. Physical births are wonderful, at least mine was.

My mother thought she got the greatest baby in the world. I still think that, but anyhow. What do they say? The doctors said recently there are 2,000 possible injuries that can come to a child before it's even born.

It can be born with all those handicaps and impediments and some of the things inside gone wrong. And it's terrible. We have a wealthy friend and he and his wife had a child about four years ago.

And he was born the most, he's a healthy, fine-looking man and she a fine-looking woman. Oh well he's wealthy. Oh what a home that child's got.

When it came it had what you call it down, down syndrome. Just distorted, terribly distorted. They live in a small town of about 1,500 people, so everybody knew.

And particularly since they're Christian, is this what God does? Two years ago they went all over the nation and asked the doctors advice. Everybody said this can't happen again. It won't happen one single million times out of no chance.

As bad it's not worse than the first one. And there they are handicapped and embarrassed. But you know nobody's ever born deficient with God.

Nobody's born blind with God. Every miracle emerged with a new birth. We're born totally healthy.

We're born with spiritual intelligence. We're brought with spiritual knowledge that we're the sons of God through the Word of God. And you know everybody needs this miracle, doesn't matter who they are.

And by God it's possible. You see we're not preaching this mighty, mighty working of the Spirit of God. You know what we've done? We've turned the altar in the Protestant church, we've turned the altar into a confessional.

All you do is confess your sin. And some people do that lousy thing every Sunday. And it makes the preacher happy.

Where are the miracles? There's Spencer. God worked in his heart. You sent us your letter this week.

Can you bring us a couple of dozen next week? You've got to read the story about Spencer and his dear mother and the miracle. That boy was a rebel. He's still a rebel, but he's a rebel for Jesus now.

But you've got to read the story. We'll put them outside and let you read them next week. How God has worked so wonderfully among him, with him, and for him.

This is the work of God, that ye believe on him and with him. They said unto him, What sign shows thou then that we may see and believe thee? What dost thou work? Our fathers did eat mammoth. Boys are always referring to their fathers, aren't they? Remember the woman at the well, she said, well our fathers don't, ask some people what you believe.

Oh my father, forget your father. Worms have eaten him up years ago. Your grandfather went in the cemetery and he's only a stack of bones.

Doesn't matter what your grandfather believed. You won't be judged for your grandfather. Adam will not be judged for your sin and you won't be judged for Adam's sin.

We've turned everyone to his own way. Ever since we were at the age of accountability, we've been adding up iniquity, we've been adding up guilt before God. That's what makes me angry.

Somebody goes to the altar, he's been a pervert, a liar, a cheat, a woman chaser, a drinker, he's done a million sins, and he goes for five minutes, says I'm sorry Lord, and gets up and says, the Lord forgive you, I'll give you a book called the Five Laws. You've had to read the Ten Commandments, they're better than the five. But you see, people aren't getting miraculously born again.

I went to a little holiness church when I was a child. I went to a Methodist church when I was fourteen, then I woke up. And I went to a tiny mission hall that people despised.

I remember walking down the aisle. I guess if it was a kid that was clean in England, I was. You know, I never went into a movie house when I came to America in 1950, and got some free tickets and went with Dave Wilson, one and two, to see him.

In our little holiness church, when you came to the altar, boy it was a process. They took you into a side room, they read the word of God, they started with Isaiah 53, all we like sheep have gone astray. Then we went over to John, if we confess our sins.

Then we went over to Luke, he gives the Holy Spirit, but then there's a day hit. It wasn't a missed chance. Boy, you went to that altar, you know, in an hour, you'd come out of that room, and you'd go face the congregation, and the pastor would say, what happened in your life tonight? Are you saved? How do you know? Boy, you'd better give a right answer.

You'd be at the great tribunal the next week. You'd just have to give an account for why you were saved, how you got saved, how you know you're saved. I say again, I think I said it last, I'm going to say it again anyhow.

And I think almost every row in the church now, every pew, is death row. Our people are smart, they give commissions, they sing the hymns, they know what to do, and yet they're dead according to the condition of the word of God. I remember going, preaching at the Keswick meeting in London some years ago, on a row called Orange Grove.

Never saw oranges in its life, a couple of hundred years old. There's a gorgeous church there, I go, a miniature Westminster Abbey, and I was privileged to preach there at Keswick Convention. I got over the desk, put my feet together, and held onto that desk.

Why? Because the pastor of that church used to be Augustus Toplady, who wrote Rock of Ages, fresh for me. Let me hide myself in these. After the afternoon service, we went up the road to get a cup of tea naturally, and we passed a place with some gorgeously rolled men.

We walked past, and I stepped back, and I looked inside, and I was going in, and I said, you've got to come through here. It was a CIRO, C-I-R-O, nightclub. I said, sure, this is a gorgeous, oh, this is the finest club in London.

About time our Queen wasn't married. Princess Margaret was here three nights ago, Princess Elizabeth was here. I said, what time do you close? Oh, now we used to close at four in the morning.

Now we close at two. I said, could I come for dinner tonight? Oh, no, no, no, no, sir. If you had a sponsor like the Duke of somebody or Lord somebody, you could come in.

Of course, you would need a tuxedo and, you know, good manners and all the rest. Well, I didn't have a tuxedo, I had the good manners, but anyhow. I said, can I, could I come in? He said, no, you can't come in.

This is the most elite club in London. I said, yes, I'd like to come in. I've told you, you can't come in for dinner.

I said, I want to come in for dinner. What do you want to do? I said, I want all the people to start having their dinner and then I want you to pull a chair out for me and I'm going to jump on the chair and shout, she that liveth in pleasure is dead while she lives. They'd kill you.

Well, let them kill me. I said, those ladies dripping with jewels and diamonds, they'd never heard the way of Christ. They'd gone and got an injection every Sunday morning.

But because they were baptized as infants, because they'd done this, because they'd done that, the word of God said, it's not by works less any man can boast. But listen, after you're really born again, you want to work. Not to work to get something, but to work because you have got something.

To realize you've got to have blood and sweat and tears. Winston Churchill was quoted, because he said that in World War II, but he didn't write that. Gary Baldy wrote that.

The man that led Italy out of its bondage in darkness, he was the first to coin that phrase. I'll give you blood and sweat and tears. But that's what the Christian life is if we live it.

It's not being carried to the skies on flowery beds of ease, while others fought to win the prize and sailed through bloody seas. Somebody called me today and said, do you know a statement by C.T. Sturdevant living within the sound of church or chapel bell? Yeah, I'll give it right now. I want to take it now.

I saw C.T. Sturdevant preach once. Heard him and saw him. He wrote this wonderful little ditty.

He said, some want to live within the sound of church or chapel bell. I want to run a rescue shop within a yard of hell. Isn't that funny? And that's what he did.

During World War II, I taught at one of the greatest air force camps in Great Britain for about two or three years. It was around a mountain. As I went to the shoulder of the hill, there was no lights, you know, because of the enemy.

But the moonlight would shine over this great big house with a private racecourse on. That's where C.T. Sturdevant used to live. A precious, precious man of God.

He went with the Cambridge Seven. If you ever see the book by it, the Cambridge Seven. Seven super young men from the richest homes in England.

And they went to China. And they learned the language. And they taught there.

Then he came home. When he went to the mission field for the second time, in between from China, I think he went to India. He came home.

He was 53 years of age. And he'd suffered from malaria and various things. At 53 years of age, he founded the, uh, what did he find? Heart of Africa mission.

H.A.M. Han. That's interesting because it was the sons of Han that went to Africa. And he started the Heart of Africa mission.

And he loved that most highly. Carried to the skies on cloudy beds of ease. He gave it a satire on a hymn too.

Get up, get up for Jesus, you, uh, ye soldiers of the cross. A lazy Sunday morning surely means harm and loss. The church of God is calling, and due to be not slack, you cannot fight the good fight while lying on your back.

That's better than anything Shakespeare ever wrote, isn't it? Do you wonder that men and women have renounced honors and privileges in England? He said, don't send me anybody to the house. We should get that going. That's good, don't you think? You're not very impressed, don't be.

Don't be hypocritical and say it's good just to give me comfort. But you see, everything we need is in Christ. Let me jump on here a bit.

Jesus said unto them, that way I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread. Moses didn't give them bread. The father gave them bread.

But my father giveth you the true bread. The true bread, or the satisfying bread. The Lord didn't satisfy them.

The feast that they had didn't satisfy them. But here is the Christ who can meet every need that they have. Then he says the bread of God is the bread of God now.

He's claiming their deity, divinity. It's the bread of God. It's not just the bread of heaven which is celestial, but it's the bread of God.

And he giveth life unto the world. Moses gave you not that bread from heaven. Now what they're saying to him, look, you just, you, in the other chapter, you just fed a few thousand people.

So what's in there? You took some bread, you fed four thousand people. That's only once you did it. Moses is far greater than you.

He led us through the wilderness for 40 years and gave us bread every day for 40 years. So what's your miracle outside of his? And Jesus says, listen, Moses didn't give you a thing. My father gave it to you.

And he says, if you believe Moses, if you believe in Moses, you'll believe on me. Because remember in Deuteronomy 18, 15, Moses says, a prophet like unto me will God send unto you. And you'll do greater works.

And here he was in front of them. And these guys know prophecy when they want to know it, and believe what they want to believe. But anything that's offensive or humiliating.

I see some guy in town this week, some big shot preacher said, he's not prepared to say that the Bible is infallible. He's not prepared to say the Bible is inerrant. But that old preacher guy, or young preacher guy, he expects you to believe every word he says, but I can't believe the King James version.

What do you mean I can't? Can I build my eternity on a two by four little preacher who happens to have a doctrine? Not in your life. You see, this word has stood and God says forever, his word is settled in heaven. I remember our dear Paul, when he was preaching a few weeks ago, remember, and it needs to be taught, we're going to be judged from anything.

Revelation 20, the sinners are going to be judged, all the books are open. But he doesn't say anything about books for the believers, doesn't he? Read Malachi, there's a book of remembrance for the believer. But listen, this book, you know, we would have been better born off the Amazon and never seen or heard of Jesus Christ or seen the Bible the way most people are living.

Can you believe that sonny? I mean people don't bother the word. They read it when they're convenient. They read it sometimes like, you know, those promise boxes.

I was in the house years ago and the lady said, as soon as I wake up in the morning, I wet my finger like that and I stick it in one of those promise boxes. Do you like them? She said, I get a promise from God every morning. I said, you're lying.

What do you mean Mr. Ray? No, I think they get a promise from God every morning. Why do I get it? I said, from Moody Bible Institute. They made a promise box, God didn't make it.

I said, do you know why you like promises? No, I don't. Why do I like them? Because there's no rebukes in them, that's why. It's all for people who want their diapers changing.

There's nothing tough about it. It's all smooth and palatable. It doesn't stir the conscience.

It doesn't make you go back in your memory and say, how many times have I failed God? How many times have I missed a turning in the road? How many times have I been disobedient? God has kept a record of every one of them. You know these guys handling the Bible. Do you remember the woman at the well when Jesus came to her? This is how he was.

She said, you can't sir, you've nothing to draw with and the well is deep. I think there is conclusion to that, sir. If a man doesn't have the anointing of the holy, if Jesus didn't preach without the anointing, well how in God's name do these fellows, they go to get a diploma, go to a seminary.

Jesus said, the spirit of the Lord is upon me because he hath anointed me to preach. If a man doesn't preach with anointing, he's nothing to draw with and the well is deep. He may have a brain as big as a factory, I don't care.

God doesn't judge us by intellect, he judges by the size of our heart and the depth of our compassion. You know this is the most astounding thing that Jesus could do. I've come to the text now, so cheer up.

Verse 48, he says, I am the bread of life. This is the first of seven I am's and every one of them is written in the gospel recorded by Saint John. I am, what verse is this? Here's, let's call this the first one, 648 he says, I am the bread of life.

814, I am the light of the world. 10, chapter 10 verse 9, I am the door. Chapter 10 and verse 11, I am the good shepherd.

Chapter 11 verse 35, I am the resurrection and the life. Chapter 14 and verse 6, I am the way, the truth and the, I love that. Isn't that everything we need? I'm the way, without him there's no going.

I am the truth, without him there's no knowing. I am the life, without him there's no growing. I am the way external.

I am the truth internal. I am the life eternal. He's everything.

We used to sing a chorus, he is all I need. He is all I need. Jesus is all I need.

He's there. God hasn't missed a beat if I want to use common language. There's nothing in your personality that you can reach for.

And remember here, Jesus is talking, he talks about things which are stable. We need them in our lives. He said, I am the, I am the bread.

You know, when I came to America, I didn't want to see the statue of liberty. I saw it, I waved to her. She didn't wave back, but I waved.

I didn't want to see any empire state building or the Chrysler building. I wanted to get in one of these fabulous food stores. When I got in, good night, I was astounded.

I thought we'd just come through the war, where we had one egg a month, and about a quarter of a pound of meat a week, as much as a hamburger, to feed the four of us, the five of us. And I come into a shop in America, a food store. Good night, 40 kinds of sausage, 50 kinds of cheese.

I looked at the bread, white bread, white bread with raisin, brown bread, rye bread, Jewish rye bread. What's the difference between Jewish rye bread and rye bread? Anybody know? White bread with raisin, and then French bread, you buy it by the yard, you know, that long stuff. And German bread, almost 30.

I'm going to, Martha Daly, next time we go in town, let's go in the store, I'm going to count how many types of bread there are. Bread, bread, bread, bread, but bread is essential, we call it the stuff of life. Remember, they had a table of show bread in the tabernacle, didn't they? Then they had the Ark of Testimony, and in the Ark, there was Aaron, Robert, and some manna.

Jesus said, your fathers ate manna, and they are dead, but he that eateth of me shall have life, and have life everlasting. Verse 41, the Jews murmured at him, because he said, I am the bread of which came down from heaven. Seven times in vital situations, he says, I am.

That made them blazing mad. Why wasn't he more discreet? Why should it make him mad? Because one day, a man called Moses, who'd been on the back side of the desert to the best Bible school in the world, the burning bush, uh, Spencer's trying to get there. He's got halfway there with Sonny.

The burning bush, that's a great place. University of silence, where God takes all his great men. Oh, boys, now, oh, I'm going to Bible school.

I'm going to seminary. Good night, and I'll drive behind the ears. Come out with a diploma, which makes them diplomatic, but apart from that, they've no brain.

In spiritual matters, they don't. Moses on the back side of the desert for 40 years? Dear God, he studied. Read the 7th chapter of Acts.

He studied in the University of Egypt. He was filled with wisdom. He made laws before he got the Ten Commandments.

I mean, natural laws. He went down Main Street in chariots, and somewhere God revealed himself to him. Maybe at a banquet, when somebody said, that young fellow Moses is daydreaming.

No, he wasn't. He's looking into eternity. Otherwise, how do you explain in Hebrews where it says Moses? He sat down and counted the cost of resigning.

He wouldn't, didn't want to be the next, what do you call him, Pharaoh, or Rameses III. And it says he chose rather to suffer affliction with the children of God, rather than enjoy the pleasures for a season. Esteeming the reproach of Christ, not the reward of Christ, not the kingdom of Christ.

Do you think this man didn't get a reward? Well, he missed it. Why? Because he never got into the Promised Land. Yes, he did.

The Bible says he missed it. He doesn't. It says he missed it for forty years or more.

As a matter of fact, he missed it for about two thousand. Then when Jesus went on the mountain one day, who was with him on the Mount of Transfiguration? Moses. Well, wasn't that a reward? Wasn't that worth giving up all the treasure of Egypt? What do they sing in heaven? You say, I don't know.

Well, I do. They sing a song of Moses and the Lamb. They don't sing Handel's Messiah.

They sing some parts of it. I don't think there's anything more glorious than Handel's Messiah. I like the Hallelujah Chorus.

But I love that thing that says, worthy is the Lamb that was slain. Let me talk about that a little next week. But you see, in this very chapter, in this very chapter, sixth chapter of John, bread is mentioned no less than nineteen times.

Over and over and over and over again. And Jesus says, I am the bread of life. That's probably one of the Jewish moments, saying, because he said, I am the bread.

OK, let me go back a minute. Here's Moses on the backside of the desert. Forty years, that royal robe that he fled around.

Do you think he stopped when he ran away from the king and put his porcelain clothes on? He wore his royal robe until it was spread. He'd gone through the bushes rescuing sheep. And there he was tattered.

And the Lord says to him, I want you to do a little errand for me again. Go. Go back to the king.

He put a price on my head. I've never heard anybody preach on that. Somebody do a job on that.

Imagine a man on the backside of the desert, and not a decent bath maybe, or a decent food for forty years. And he walked into the presence of the king. How in the world did he get past the bodyguard? How did he get into the Holy of Holies, the world of the king? Because God made a way.

I love that wonderful hymn of Wesley, when he says, open a door which earth and hell may strive to shut, but stride in they. Listen, you don't have to kick any doors open. If God wants to open, he'll move heaven and earth to open that door.

And if he opens, no man can shut it. And if he shuts, no man can open it. All I've got kicking doors is stubbing my toes.

I tried that till I got fed up of it anyhow. I got more sense. But you see here, Moses says, well, if I go to this king, he's the king of the greatest empire in the world.

What shall I say? Who shall I say a sentence? Say, I am. I am. I am.

And he comes in, Jesus comes in, to these Jews that knew the law better than anybody on God's earth. And he says, I am the resurrection. I am the door.

I am the bread. I am the water of life. I am the light of the world.

I am that door by which if any man enter he shall be saved. And then he stands in revelation. He says, I am he that liveth and was dead.

I guess all hell shook when he said that. You know, that bald headed bachelor, that old bachelor that lives in Rome. I won't tell you his name.

You know, he says he has the keys of kingdom, keys of the kingdom on his girdle. Forget it. Jesus says, I have the keys of death and of hell.

Nobody else. No government. No dictator.

Jesus, when he rose from the dead, he has a key, a universal key that fits every grave. And if there are people in the pyramids, they're going to get up at the voice of the son of God. It must have been staggering to go a day with Jesus and then come late.

Imagine the thought that was going away from the crowd and say, well, was Jesus in good form today? Did he raise anybody from the dead? No, he did that yesterday. You know, he sent a cripple home from the gate. What did he do today? He took a boy to lunch and he fed 5,000.

He did. He'd go another day and say, I didn't get to see him yesterday. Was he in good shape? Yes.

What did he do? He raised a man from the dead. What? I'd love to have heard that, wouldn't you? Wouldn't you have loved to have gone to the grave and he says, Lazarus come forth. Why do you say Lazarus come forth? You know the answer to that.

Because if it said come forth, the cemetery would have come and it wasn't time for them to come yet. Lazarus, and he came from the dead. And he says, don't marvel at this.

There's coming a day when at the voice of the son of God, this very voice you just heard, he says, I'm going to say one day, I'm the resurrection, the life, and I'm going to speak a word, come forth. And everybody that ever lived from Adam right into the last person to that moment, he's going to come out of the grave. I crossed the Atlantic about 20 times, mostly by boat, Queen Mary, Queen Elizabeth, United States.

And in the middle of the night, when I couldn't sleep, I'd walk the deck and look over and see that good old ship going about 30 miles an hour and leave all the weight behind. It looks like snow behind me. And I'd say, actually looking over a rail, I'd say, hey, you buccaneers down there, you old pirates, you old thieves, you're going to get out of that grave before long.

The voice of the son of God, the sea will give up its dead. Every bloodstained murderous battlefield. You know, we don't write history on paper with ink.

We write history with the blood of people, and we write it on the skins of people. Every marching legion of Rome, every king, every one of the arrogant czars of Russia, Louis XIV, Louis XIII, the Stuart kings of England, the czars of Russia, the Caliphs of Baghdad, the Maharajas of India. I saw the dead, small and you talk about processions.

Well, as they say around here, you know, in good English, you ain't seen anything yet. Can you imagine when all the kings of the earth have to come and pay homage to the Lord Jesus? He's going to judge all the judges? By the voice of the son of God. And these people understand to face up to it.

You tell me people without Christ are intelligent? Forget it. Why do they take life insurance? They know they're going to die. Why do they buy a pot in the chemistry? Why do they go to a performance and say, I know the preacher, I want this preacher to bury me.

I want this man to do this, that and the other. They prepare for death, but not for eternity. The only wise men on earth are those who follow the Lord Jesus Christ.

Because we've seen that everything outside of Christ is death. I don't care what it is, it has death on it. And just doesn't say, I am the life.

He says, I am the bread of life. I am the light of life. I am the water of life.

I am the resurrection and the life. There's nobody complete who doesn't have Jesus Christ living in his personality. Verse 48, I am the bread of life.

Your father's a deep man in the wilderness and they're dead. And this is the bread which came down from heaven. Again, they trusted in Moses.

And this man has been far greater than Moses. They've had manna. You see, the thing again that Jesus hits at, your father's ain't manna.

Where'd it come from? It came from the heaven. And he says, I am the bread which has come down from heaven. Forget your manna.

That manna your father's ate and they're dead. But I give you eternal life. He that eateth of me, he says in verse 54, whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood have eternal life.

And I will raise him up at the last day. You know, I, I don't know what you fellows do, but so often, you know, when I got pushed around, the devil would beat me up a bit. I'd go back to old Romans 8, 28, all things were together.

I got tired of it. When I get a bit, you know, the enemy comes at me, I go into the book of Revelation. Boy, that's fantastic.

I want to live in the world to come. I want to see it. I want to see the city that has foundation, who's builder and maker is God.

And I'm just going to say one thing only about next week, what I want to say. Jesus said I am the light of the world. But he's not only the light of the world, he's the light of the next world.

Revelation what, 21, verse 23 says, the city hath not, well there are two astounding things at the end of that chapter. One, he saw the city of God, it had no temple. They used to say, you know, every, when you, when you come to a foreign country, as you approach the country from the sea, the most predominant thing on the skyline is the, is the, is the cathedral, except in New York and all you see there are office buildings.

But you see, John says, I looked in heaven, there was no need that there's no temple because the son and the father, they are the temple. There is no temple therein. And he says there is no light.

Jesus is not only the light of this world, he's the light of the next world. He was there at the beginning. He said, let there be light.

And there was light. He met a man on the Damascus road whose hands were bloody. A man that was going to strangle and liquidate the church of Jesus.

And Jesus came down and his light, it was brighter than the noonday sun. And that's pretty well going, isn't it? He was on a mount of transfiguration. What happened? They saw him his glorious majesty in the light.

But now they see him and there he is, John says, the city has no need of sun. John says, God is light. Jesus says, I am light.

You know, that light there in eternity would be like 10 million suns all rising at the same moment. He's not just light to an individual, he's light to the whole city. The whole city is kind of a prism reflecting his majesty, reflecting his purity, reflecting his authority.

Well, come on, what is in this world to forfeit an eternity like that? Everything as A. B. Simpson, I think it was, said that the perishing things of clay, they're born but for one brief day. And here we are, we have light. We're not in darkness.

Isn't it John that says, he that believeth on me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. You can't walk in darkness and in light at the same time. It's like saying, what part of he that believeth was an infidel.

People love darkness. I believe we're in that phase now that's mentioned in Isaiah. When Isaiah says, darkness shall cover the earth and gross darkness for the people.

And as I was meditating over this, about this bread which you can explore for yourself, it's fantastic. I was thinking of Isaiah 55, where the prophet says there, wherefore do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which satisfies not. We say bread is the stuff of life.

I need that stuff. Christ is my stuff. Bread gives nourishment.

Bread gives strength. Bread gives satisfaction. Well, he's the greatest source of satisfaction that this world can know.

He's the greatest strength, the greatest power. And he is resident in the heart of those who believe in him. The, going back to that thought for a moment there, that light.

We need a resurrection body and resurrection sight, otherwise it would blind us to see the Christ in his glory. To see God in all his majesty. Again, when John saw him, the man who'd lived closest to him, he said, I tell it is Peter's dead.

What in the world do you think we're going to do? Grow up and say I got a BA degree down at Baylor for studying the Bible? No, forget it. Just one thing I'll, you know, pass on, I'll finish. The Jews remembered it then, because he said, I am the bread which came down from heaven.

They knew the reflection, the I am. They didn't like it's authority. He said he was the bread that came down from heaven like the manna came.

What does it say? They said he's not this, Jesus, the son of Joseph, and his father. We know his father was about to slap against his birth. They were saying, in other words, you're a bastard.

We know your father. You say, God defiled. We know your father.

We can give you his name. We know your mother. You see, that sticks in the throats of people today.

They cannot believe in the miraculous birth of Jesus Christ, that he was conceived by the Holy Ghost. And as the creed says, suffered on the Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried. But he rose again on the third day.

You see, this is unique. Two things unique. The God of the universe.

God contracted to a span in comprehensively made man. But the Christian religion is the only religion in the world where a man's God comes and lives inside of him. He takes up his abodiness.

And he says, if we eat of him, and drink of him, we shall never die. What does bread do? You assimilate it in your body. You eat it.

What does it do? I was looking the other day, one of my fingernails is a bit too long. And I can't take them off like the ladies. So I have to clip them.

You know, I don't know how bread acts, but for our heathen theologians, philosophers, to tell you. How is it I eat some bread, it goes in my tummy, and something turns it up, and it goes hair. What if it grew hair on the fingers, and fingernails on my head, what would I do? It makes fingernails, it makes hair, it vitalizes my body, it vitalizes my blood.

It does all those things. In other words, all that my body needs can be found in bread, and things that I eat. It's a significant thing, I think, that when you get to heaven, there's a water of life, typical of Jesus.

There's fruit, there's a river of life, there's a light of life, but there's no bread. There's no mention of bread in heaven, I know. Why? Because he was broken, bruised, he did everything this side of eternity.

And when he says, I am the bread of life, remember again, it's like taking a seed, and you put it in the ground, and it's there all the winter, then it germinates. The frost is there, the snow is there, it germinates, it comes up, and it can bear 30 fold, 60 fold, 100 fold. And Jesus was the bread of life.

He was the corn of wheat that fell into the ground and died. There has never been a crop. How many millions of people are really born again of this praise of God, even tonight, through the world? Because he is the bread.

He says, man cannot live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. Okay, go back to Isaiah 55 for a minute. What's it say? You spend your money for that which is not bread.

When you go to bed tonight, I try to do this every night before I go to sleep, I think of people grabbing in casinos, dance halls, all over the world, all over the nation, trying to find satisfaction. Blessed is he that hungers. Hunger and thirst are two predominant things, and prerequisites to really knowing God.

The more you hunger, you take this word, we can't live by bread alone, by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. And therefore we need to know this word. We need to know the water holes, as it were, like the animals do.

We need to know where to find stimulants. We need to know where to go to find currencies. We need to know in the word of God where to go to look into eternity.

This word is adequate for every need I have or ever will have while I'm walking on this miserable old earth. And Christ will become more. As I stimulate the bread into my body, and it makes hair here, and it makes fingernails there, and revives my skin, and helps my sadness.

Jesus Christ, as I feed on him, will be adequate to meet everything in my personality. He'll give me joy. As the song says, he'll give me joy in place of sorrow.

He'll give me love that casts out fear. He'll give me sunshine for my shadows and beauty for ashes here. There is not one thing my personality craves for.

And remember we have to crave. The psalmist with his tremendous scope of God, his tremendous concept of God's majesty and holiness, he says in a figure of speech so beautiful, we have a young deer, I don't know what kind it is, comes in our front lawn some day, early morning. I think of the word of the psalmist, he says, as the heart panteth after the water book.

Why is it panting? Because it's being pursued, and it's looking for a place to drink, and it gets some dashes and off it goes. And you and I are living in a world that the longer we live, the more hostile it gets to the Christian message. Christ is devastated on the media.

There's going to have to be a revival of churches. We haven't many, they're mostly sick. The church is supposed to be an armory, I think it's a boys, I think most of them are creature-ettes making salmonettes to give to Christianettes who smoke cigarettes.

And that's just about the limit. You can hardly find it in any city, people call, I'm going to so and so, do you know a city, a church in this town that's really on fire for God, where people get saved? No I don't know that. I know where they go to the altar and get refreshed every week, but they're not getting radically born again of the Spirit of God.

And this is the thing that hurts me. I'm going to pray in a few minutes. Let me read this to you.

This is a little book called The Struggle for Men's Hearts and Minds. It's by Charles Colson. You know he used to work in the cabinet or something with Mr. Nixon.

He's working in prison reform now, doing a super job. Let me tell you what it is. Now if I said this, you'd maybe saw your hymn books, because I'm English, if you don't know.

This is what he says at the beginning. We live in a time that would seem to be marked by unprecedented spiritual resurgence. 96% of all Americans say they believe in God, 80% profess to be Christians, yet families are splitting apart in record numbers.

Countless of unborn children have been murdered since 73. There are 100 times more burglaries in so-called Christian, in quotes, a hundred times more burglaries in Christian America than in pagan Japan. How do you explain it? We send missives.

They're heathens. They're sin to us. And yet our rate of burglaries are a hundred times greater than Japan, a heathen country.

Several years ago I had the privilege to preach in the full gospel church of Seoul, Korea. There were 10,000 people in the sanctuary, 15,000 in the overflow hall, six services on Sunday. It was not that, it was not, pardon me, it was not the numbers which moved me.

Rather I was overwhelmed by the presence of the Spirit. Afterward I told the pastor how excited I was to be in his church. He said, oh this isn't the church.

That's not a church. And there's only 10,000 there and 15,000 outside. Boy, if our boys had that they'd have TV pictures every day, wouldn't they? 10,000 in the church, 15,000 in the overflow hall, six services on Sunday.

I was overwhelmed. Afterwards I told the pastor I was excited about the church. He said, oh this isn't the church.

This is just where we gather Sunday morning. The church you see is in the home of 10,000 people all over Seoul, where members meet every morning for two hours of Bible study. 10,000 people, it's two hours every Sunday morning.

That's 20,000 hours of teaching and preaching the Word of God in Seoul. Well, let me tell you what it is. I'm trying to give you statistics again.

He said, I understand why in a country with 35 million Buddhists and only 2 million evangelical Christians, Christian values dominate the culture. So there's a minority of Christians and yet their influence, their light, being salt. You see, one salt, if you stack salt up like that, it loses its flavor.

It only loses its flavor, it poisons the ground it's on, it rots the ground. And if the church isn't doing the job, she's rotting. And almighty God is going to change that.

I'm getting old and worn, but I'm telling God almost every day, Lord I don't want to, I'd like to go to heaven right now, it'd be wonderful. Not so many aches and pains and other things. But I want to see God move.

I'm sick of the devil's dominion in our area. I'm sick of big talk and little action. I'm sick of showmanship.

Come to this country, come here, I get calls all over the world, I won't go. How can I go tell somebody else how to catch fire for God when in our area we're as dead as King Tut. 35 million Buddhists and 2 million evangelicals and yet 10,000 in the church, 15,000 outside, 10,000 homes where at least two hours every morning, not Sunday morning, every morning.

It says they won't go out to business. They would never think of leaving. The Christians in Korea would not think of beginning their day without earnest prayer and study of the word of God.

We read a little bit of scripture and say Lord bless us today and don't let anybody scratch my car and do this and do that. Now it's about the length and breadth of our compassion. I'm glad this is written.

You need to get this. It's called The Struggle for Men's Hearts and Minds. And the other companion volume is Dare to be Different, Dare to be a Christian.

You know the trouble is that there are no Christians around. There are church members, there are smart people, singing groups, by the thousand maybe now. Much easier to sing than to threaten and pray.

But again God Almighty is going to raise up his men. Feed on his word, take time to be holy, speak oft with thy Lord, spend much time in secret. And what does it say? And think on his word.

By looking to Jesus like him thou shalt be. Take time to be holy and read his word and feed on his word. That makes us strong.

Fellowship is good. Fellowship is no substitute for worship. We've got to worship him in spirit and in truth.

Well think about that. I'm actually, I'm going to talk about light. I really will by the grace of God.

It's an amazing subject. We're going to have a time of prayer. We'll go to prayer if you need to leave.

You can leave as we sing. We go to prayer.