Tokens of His Compassion - Part 5

Back in the 1600s, one of the giant stalwarts of that day, that was the period of Puritans, like John Owen and all that crowd. John Owen was maybe the greatest of them. He said the sin of men in the Old Testament was against the Father.

The sin of men in the New Testament was against the Son. Well, I think we can say nowadays the sin of the Church very much is against the Father, the sin of the Church against the Son, and the sin of the Church against most churches is the Holy Ghost. They want the Holy Ghost if they can lay a track and they run down their theology, but he says forget it.

Now this may be a pretty stiff yardstick. You can beat me up next time you come back. I'm going to say it anyhow.

I believe every church is either supernatural or superficial. I don't believe in any middle ground. I'm not interested merely in seeing healings.

I've seen many, and I thank God for them. I've seen blind people get their sight, seen people leap out of chairs. It's not that I have not any compassion for that, but the least emphasis that's put on the Holy Ghost today is that when he has come he convinces the world of sin.

The Church is comfortable with sin. I hear of churches now that have special classes for young couples or young divorced couples. Fifty years ago you never heard of a divorcee in the Christian Church.

You never heard of marriage counseling in the Christian Church. The meetings were so breathed upon by the Holy Ghost I dreaded to go in some meetings even when I was 14 or 15 years of age. In those days if you went to a healthy, spiritually healthy church, if it was a holiness church, preaching the baptism of the Spirit as purity, sanctification, or whether it was Pentecostal, preaching the baptism of the Holy Ghost with gifts.

Whenever you went to either of those churches, Sunday night if the service started at six o'clock at half past five, the altar was filled with people, praying the power down. We had one old boy took his coat off. Boy did he shout as though the Lord was dead.

Come down tonight. I used to tremble. I was scared.

I'm not facetious. I imagined the Lord would come down. I'd be terrified if he came.

You hear people say in church, Lord you're welcome. If the Holy Ghost came to some churches there'd be a stampede to the door. David Wilson was telling me not long ago, he said Len, you know, I know God has given me certain gifts but they work more in the open air, in the street meetings, and in churches.

Last year in New York he pointed to a big fellow, 350 pounds. Boy you'd better be watch what you're saying. He said you're running away from your wife and you ran away from David up the street.

Came back 15 minutes after with his, well I won't say anything about the wife, but anyhow. He was about 350 pounds and she was a little less. And all the piccaninnies were running after them.

There were about five or six children coming. He said I was running away from my wife. I'd been living an evil life.

When he went this year, that man met him and told him how Christ transformed his life. Pointing out people in the crowd like that, doesn't make church too comfortable does it? We'd rather go to the church. You know what it says as you enter the door? It says everybody keep silent and they sure do.

You said amen, they'd turn the fire hose on you. So John 13 is, well let's say it again, repetition's good. John 13 is where he introduces his disciples to the Lord's Supper, then he washes their feet.

14 he says let not your heart be troubled. Verse 26 he tells about the Holy Ghost coming, come forth with power. Chapter 15, the incomparable story of the vine.

Chapter 16, the marvelous introduction of the Holy Spirit. Chapter 17, this marvelous, marvelous prayer. Then you go into chapter 18.

I will say this is disastrous. I said Jesus has been in training up to this point for the most horrendous experiences that a human being could ever know. When Jesus spoke these words, let me go back a minute and think of this.

So many people say that Jesus spoke this 17th prayer, this prayer in the 17th chapter with a sense of gloom and doom. I don't believe that for the moment. I believe he said it joyously.

Why? Well look at the last verse of chapter 16. These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.

You think a man's going into gloom when he knows he's already conquered the world? Hasn't he prayed in the 15th chapter that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves? Isn't he saying this 17th chapter? Verse 13, now I come to thee that these things I speak in the world that they may have my joy, my joy to do the Father's will. Let that joy dominate your life. He's not talking about happiness.

Happiness and joy are as different as night and day. Happiness depends on happenings. Everything happens to go right, you go up with them.

Everything happens to go down, you go down with them. But joy is a stable thing. It does not depend on happenstance, happenings.

You know usually when a king dies, he disposes of a castle to this person, and horses to that person, and money to that. What did Jesus, the king of kings, what did he leave? Well it says, he says, my peace I leave with you. He gave them peace that passeth all understanding, and if you've got it right, all misunderstanding.

Not just peace, my peace, the peace that dominated him when they tried to push him over the cliff. The peace that dominates him now when he goes into Gethsemane. They may have my joy, and again in the 15th chapter he has prayed that their joy may be full.

But we want it on a platter, don't we? What does the Lord give? He gives beauty for what? What does ashes mean? Something's being burned to a cinder. Maybe that's why we're afraid to be consumed, because God will reduce us to ashes. All our plans, when God's fire upon the altar of my heart was set ablaze, my ambitions, plans, and wishes at my feet in ashes lay.

That's an old hymn. But you know, God can do more with the ashes than you can do with the whole thing. They may have my joy, a joy unspeakable and full of glory.

A joy that can let him look from the cross, all the ignominy of the cross. A peace that passes misunderstanding through when he's there on the cross. But this is the gateway.

The most horrible thing is here in this 18th chapter. We go from the sublime, majestic. You know, I'm wondering why, because of a certain book I read not too long ago, I'm wondering why no one ever emphasizes the moral majesty of Jesus.

In that second chapter of John, he walks into a crowded place. They're all murmuring because of him. That's him, he raises the dead.

That's him, he does miracles. That's the man, he torments people.