Corinthians, book of correction

You can find this sermon at ChurchAges.net

1 Good morning, friends. I told Brother Neville I was just a little hoarse this morning; and this coming on a revival I wouldn't try to preach to you this morning, because I'm too hoarse. But just a little group of us here, I might have a little Sunday school lesson and let him preach just in a little bit. So, I'll just have a little lesson out of the Bible here or something, and we can talk maybe for fifteen, twenty minutes. And maybe the Lord will give us something out of that. Now, He's been awfully good to us, awfully good.

2 And so, we're tired. I was up a little late last night. After I was... A lot of calls coming in since I come in, and I happened to notice my little boy had a handful of glass beads, just chewing them up, and eating them, of glass, and swallowing these... It was glass. And so, we got him and washed his little mouth out. Then we was up with him the biggest part of the night, so I'm kind of tired this morning.
And I got right immediately at twelve o'clock to leave for Kentucky, and go down to Kentucky to some appointment there. Then this coming week comes our meeting, and I want to try a few nights of just talking, if I can. I've not got no cold; I've just preached so much till my voice is gone, see. This is four months straight, you see. And so, then after that then I go to Canada and then back to our regular meetings and overseas.

3 Now, while I was sitting there talking to Leo and Gene just a few moments ago, I was thinking of a scripture here that we might use this morning, if the... At first I was just going to sit there a minute, I was so tired. Then I thought that didn't look right: me sitting back in the room there, and the congregation out here. Why, the Lord might not come back there. I want to come out here where He was. So...

4 I believe I see one of the reasons that brought me here this morning. Brother Littlefield is here; he wanted to see me just a moment after the service. Brother Littlefield is from up in Tennessee there where we had the big meeting up there recently in a high school gym. I just can't call the name of the city. Where you ... Brother Littlefield? Cleveland. Cleveland, Tennessee.
And so we had a wonderful time up there. And he was coming through to say hello to me, and so I told him, be down this morning. We were going somewhere this morning else, and then some friends that I wanted to visit---not to preach, just to visit---because I promised them. And then Brother Littlefield was here and Dr. Beelan and them, so I wanted to just come by and see them this morning, the reason I dropped in.

5 So now, over in the book of Corinthians just about the 10th chapter and the first 4 or 5 verses, let's just meditate on that for a few moments so our brother can have time to preach.
Now, let's bow our heads first, just in His presence.

6 Blessed Heavenly Father, it is indeed with grateful hearts that we bow humbly before Thee this day, to thank Thee for the good things of life, and realizing that life itself is just one great struggle. If we're not having it in one way, we are in another. But some glorious day the battle will be over, and we'll see Jesus who we have looked forward to seeing since we have loved Him and become acquainted with Him and a relative to Him. And we're so happy to know that someday we shall see Him.
Now, today as we pulled up under the old oak as it was, for comfort, like Abraham sitting there waiting, and God and two angels come up and spoke to him. And we're just expecting You to come to us this morning and speak to our hearts through Thy Word, Lord, as we fellowship around it.
Bless our dear beloved pastor, Lord. We pray that You'll give him strength and courage. We pray that You'll bless the little church and the deacons and all that's concerned here, Lord, and all that comes here, and not only here but other places, Your church universal. Bless our visiting brethren who are with us this morning in the service. We pray that You'll be with them and sustain them. Forgive us of our sins and speak to us through Thy Word. We ask in Christ's name. Amen.

7 If I'm not mistaken, Brother Coats is sitting here this morning. He was... Over to pray for him the other night at the Veterans Hospital---cancer. And we're glad to see you in here this morning, Brother and Sister Coats.

8 Now, in the book of Corinthians, the 10th chapter. This book of Corinthians is a book of correction. We should take the book of Corinthians. It's the only church in all of the New Testament that seemingly that the leaders had such trouble with. But Corinthians was always in trouble. Paul, when he come among them, one had a tongue and one had a psalm and one had the feeling and a sensation. And he's always having trouble with these Corinthians, keeping them straight.
If we notice, he couldn't teach the Corinthians deep things. They were just a baby-fashioned. He couldn't go to them in great deep messages that he did to the Ephesians and he did to the Romans, and teach to them the deep things, because they wasn't able to take it. They depended too much upon little sensations and little things like that. Just, "Well, Praise the Lord, I got it; I had a revelation come to me. I had a psalm. I have a prophecy." Paul said, "All these things will fail [see], every one of them. They're just not to be trusted too much."
But what he's trying to get to the church was that anchor, where we have an anchor in Christ. Where that we don't trust upon sensations. We don't trust upon revelations. We don't trust these things. Only we trust Christ. It's by faith that we move out there.

9 We notice Paul could teach the Ephesians there, how that before the foundation of the world, they were predestinated unto the adoption of the sons of God. Now, the Corinthians didn't know anything about that. They just... They had to have a little feeling or something, little sensation---one this, that and the other---and they depended on that. He couldn't teach them the deep things.
So I think it's a great ... when you got a people that you can teach deep things. And the Holy Spirit can wind these great truths and anchor it into the people's hearts so they know where they're standing, sensation or no sensation, prophecy or no prophecy and whatever it might be. Whatever, we don't...

10 Now, remember, I'm not trying to say that God does not deal through prophecy and things like that. But we don't rely upon that. We got a deeper hope than that, you see. For He said, "Wherever there is prophecies, it will fail; where there is tongues, it'll cease. And where there's..."
And all these sensations that those Corinthians had, not one of them was the evidence that they were saved. Not one of them was an evidence that they were saved. Not if you could shout, if you could prophecy, if you could heal the sick, if you could speak with tongues, if you could interpret tongues, if you had wisdom, and you had knowledge. None of those mean you're saved. Not a one of them. You could have every one of them, Paul said in I Corinthians 13, and be lost. "I am nothing," see. But when you got love, an anchor...

11 This morning, for about an hour before the wife woke up, I was awake, and the Lord was revealing to me a great something about how God ties His church together by the bonds of love. And how it must be... There's not another way for a man to ever to be saved without being born again. God willing, I want to preach on that this coming week, and it's just getting materialized in my heart. Maybe the Lord will give me a message on it.

12 Now, this message this morning, as it come to my heart in there, is a message of warning. And I thought maybe if we would get this warning to the people, as Paul was warning these Corinthians, if we can get this warning to the people, knowing that we're facing a revival now, and an examinating time, when we must be examined. Now, Paul said:
Moreover brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea;
And were ... baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea;
Now, he's giving them an understanding that when God brought out Israel from the wilderness ... into the wilderness to serve Him and to take them to the promised land, He's setting forth an example there that as we are brought out in all the material things---all the rituals and the orders---they were the same.

13 And we find on down a little farther in our lesson that many of those were overthrown, because they could do all the rituals, and all the orders, and everything that God required, and still their hearts wasn't right with God.
Now, we can do many things---we can take communion; we can be baptized; we can come to church, have our names on the book, or be just as respectful and reverent as we can be---and still be lost. That's a solemn warning. We can be just as ... just rejoice when the Spirit would fall. And in a meeting where the Word was being preached and our souls would just rejoice with the Word, and still be lost. The rain falls on the just and the unjust. The same rain that makes the wheat grow, makes the weed grow. It's the nature of the product, see; it's the nature of it that tells what we are. Therefore, it's the nature that's in us that tells what we are, see.
We might be so religious till we wouldn't turn our hands on Sunday to do a thing. We might not even take a stitch in our clothes on Sunday. We might not even feel justified to buy food on Sunday. And we might be so religious and so pious. But yet, if we are not literally born again of the Spirit of God, we're just worshipping in vain. So now, it's pretty stiff and we want to really find it and know the truth, because, remember, we're not going to get a second chance at this. It's just this one time. So you'd better be real sure.

14 Now, notice, "I would not have you ignorant, brethren." Now, these Corinthians, what did I say in the first place? They were basing their eternal hopes upon some sensation. Paul said there, said, "When I come among you, one has this and one has that and one..." Said now, "All that's all right. We have nothing against it. But still that isn't what we're talking about, see. That isn't it."

15 I remember when I was first converted and I began to see the working of the Spirit and how that some could just impersonate the real, genuine Holy Spirit into such a way that it would... Why, it was just impossible to tell which was right and wrong hardly.
And I seen a man that I knew and ... by discernment I knew that man was living with another man's wife. And here he was standing there, speaking with tongues, and interpreting and everything, and giving messages, and it... And I got the other fellow to a place to where I could speak to him a few moments, and a real genuine Christian. And I thought, how can that Spirit, the same Spirit, where I... That's when I first seen Pentecost and it was at Mishawaka, Indiana; and I tell you, it certainly... I thought for the first few hours I was there, I was among angels. And the next few hours I thought I was among demons. When I seen that ... seen these two men: one give a message, one interpret. I never heard speaking in tongues and things like that before.
I watched those spirits, how they moved. I thought, "Oh my! Why the great millennium has begun." And then when I got a chance, on the outside, to talk to one of them and could tell what he was made from, there was one as evil as he could be.
And that night, I watched him again, and I thought, "Oh, get me away from here. I can't understand how this is." And I seen those things were in the Bible. But here was one doing it that didn't have the Spirit of God, and the other one doing it that did have the Spirit of God. Then I was all confused and I just left the whole thing go.

16 And years later, after the flood was over, I was going walking up the road, going to Green's Mill. Mr. Isler (the state senator, comes here to church), he met me on the road and he put his arms around me, he said, "Billy, what does Christ mean to you now?"
My father was gone, my brother was gone, and my wife was gone, my baby was gone, and I said, "What does He mean?" I said, "Mr. Isler, He means more than life to me." I said, "Something has happened within me. A few years ago, Christ came to my heart and it's just become more than I am myself. It's just something that's happened. It wasn't because I was religious, it wasn't... It's just something that God through the grace did for me." And I said, "Though He would slay me, I'd trust Him just the same. And if I was in hell and there was such a thing as love in hell, I'd still love Him." That's all. It's something in here. He's right, I deserve every punishment that I ever got. You do the same. But if that anchor, that something, that anchor of love of God that holds in the human heart, other things become secondary.

17 Sitting on a log up there, I was praying about something else. And my Bible come open, and I was reading over in the Book of Hebrews, the 6th chapter. And I was reading there how that, "It is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and made partakers of the Holy Spirit, seeing that they fall away, to renew themselves again unto repentance. For the rain cometh oft upon the earth, to water it, to dress it, by which it's prepared. But that which is nigh unto rejection, thorns and thistles which is nigh unto rejection is to be burned."
And the Holy Spirit kept speaking to me about that. What is that? I'd read it over again and then a vision come. And I saw the world standing before me, turning. It was all disked up, and like plowed, and ready to plant. And there went a man by in white, sowing seeds. And after he went around the curvature of the earth, another man come, in black, sowing seeds behind him. And when the seeds that the good man sowed come up, was wheat. And the bad, the black man sowed the seeds come up and---dressed in black ---it come up and it was weeds. And oh, one was contrary to the other.
And a great drought come, in the vision. And the little wheat bowed its head; it was just so thirsty for a drink. And the weed bowed its head; it was thirsty for a drink. Then a great cloud come over, and the rains come down, and the little wheat raised up and begin to scream, "Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord!" It was so happy to get that water. And the little weed raised up and begin to holler, "Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord!" For the same water.
Then I understood, see. There it is. The Holy Spirit will fall, but, "By their fruits they are known," said the Lord Jesus, see, see. Not by the reaction of the Spirit, whether they healed the sick, or whether they speak with tongues, or whether they sang in the Spirit, or whether they rejoice this way or that. They can do all that and still be lost. It's your life within you, a born-again experience.

18 Now, Paul was trying to get this to those Corinthians. "Moreover, brethren, I wouldn't have you ignorant, how that our fathers were all under the cloud, and passed through the sea; and were baptized unto Moses." Every one of them went into the wilderness. Jesus said, "Not all that saith, Lord, Lord, will enter in; but the one that doeth the will of my Father, which is in heaven."
It isn't what you say. You could preach the Gospel and still be lost. Certainly. This is not just little kid stuff. This is absolutely... It's deep. And Christianity is not to be just a little, like fabulous thing, like, "Well, I'll go over to church, and I know it's my duty to go." That's not Christianity. Brother, Christianity isn't... It's something that God has done. God has chosen you in Christ and presented you as a love gift to Christ. And it's God's calling election. And if we have the opportunity to become that type of person, and turn it down for little old things of the world...

19 Now, listen as we go on. "And all did eat that same spiritual manna." Did you hear that? The 3rd verse, "And all did eat the same spiritual manna." What's he speaking of? The rituals of the church. People come to church and say they have repented and are baptized unto Christ, taking on the name of the Lord Jesus. And they did that in the wilderness also, Paul said. That's what the Corinthians had done. They come in and was baptized unto Christ, took on Christ outwardly, professionally. Had taken Him on intellectually, had accepted Him.
But, brother, it's a lot more than intellectuals; it goes beyond that. It goes to a genuine birth. Not just a mental conception or an emotional work, but a birth, an experience: something that goes plumb down deep into the heart and changes the innermost being, that makes you do things that you would not have done otherwards. It makes you love those who are unlovable. It makes you act different than you ever thought that you would act. And when situations arise, it's your anchor. You don't have to wonder, "Will I make it?" Oh, no, it isn't whether I'll make it; it's already made for me. Christ in me has made it Himself. And I just trust in His anchor alone. What a wonderful thing.

20 Notice, they all took communion. That life that was in... We know that it was a natural process, because it was little frost-like that rained from heaven, little wafers with honey on them. The wafer was just a little like a cracker, a little cookie, and had honey over the top of it. And they all were partakers of that. Everyone passed through the Red Sea and was baptized through the cloud and through the sea unto Moses. Following his instructions as God's servant, they were all baptized unto Him. They were all followers (as we are today), led by the Holy Spirit, the great Instructor of the Christian church. We are led through to water baptism. And he said, "They all taken of the same manna." What did it do? That manna fell for Korah and for his group, just the same as it did for Moses, Caleb, and Joshua. They were all mixed together---all partakers of baptism, all partakers of membership, all partakers of confession, and now all partakers of the communion.
Do you get it? Look at that solemn warning. And, tabernacle folks, get that way down deep. Remember, it's your eternal destination, hangs right there. Don't just pass it by like the little flood or something. This is something we must come respective to. It's something that means whether we live hereafter or not.

21 They were all baptized unto Moses, through the Red Sea, they all followed that same Spirit Being: the cloud and the pillar of fire. They all were led by the same Angel. They all come out by the same pastor. They all was baptized into the sea. They all eat of that spiritual Manna, and that Manna was Christ. Christ coming down... The manna come down every night from heaven and perished here, to sustain the people in their journey. And Christ come from heaven and gave His life, "that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have everlasting life." Christ come down and became our Manna. They eat of the same spiritual blessings. Therefore the Holy Spirit can fall right in amongst the people, and both Christian and lukewarm and half-believers and borderline believers will all eat the same. But that doesn't mean it yet.
Oh, I wished I had words, that I could drive this down and cinch it in the heart of every person here. And see what a deep thing this is? It isn't something to be played with. It isn't just going to church.

22 Now, listen, "They all did eat the same spiritual manna." Think of it. Spiritual Manna. "Oh," you say, "I know I'm saved. Hallelujah! I shouted in the spirit. I feel this." That doesn't have one thing to do with it. You see how we base our eternal destination upon a sensation? Can you see in this day that we're now living, how the people are basing their destination upon just a little sensation? Oh, say, "I know I got it, because I felt the power go through me. I did this." That might be all exactly the truth, and you're still lost.

23 Oh, if we just had a moment. Let's just turn to First Corinthians 13 here just a moment and listen what Paul's got to say about it right here. "Though I speak with tongues of men and angels, and have not charity (which is love), I am become as a sounding brass, and a tinkling cymbal. Though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all the mysteries and know all the knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could move mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing."
Listen to that stern old apostle drive it into this sensational church who's basing their hopes upon sensation. Now, this is Sunday school. This is a place of correction. This is a place of teaching. And woe unto the man that'll stand in the pulpit and mislead. Brother, it's time that we've made scripture compare with scripture. That's right.

24 "And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it prevaileth me nothing." See, all your good works, all your good deeds, all the spiritual things you have, all the gifts you have, all the sensations you have, all the joy you have, all the peace you have, has nothing at all to do with it to begin with. Think of that just a moment. And think of the churches today. Our great churches: Presbyterian, Methodist, Baptist, and denominational. They think because they say "I believe," come in, put their name on the book, that settles it. How far they're off.
Our Pentecostal people think, well, because they got a little sensation, they felt good, they spoke with tongues, they got a little blood in their hands, a little oil on their face or something, "We got it." Oh, ten million miles off. Do you get it? See how the devil, the god of this world, has blinded the eyes of those? And they just go right on living like that.
Listen. "For though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body burned, and have not charity, I am nothing." Look at all those gifts, all those good things. I feed the poor, I've got a good heart about me. I do this, I do that. I go to church. I speak with tongues. I prophesy. I heal the sick. I preach the Gospel. I do these things." Paul said, "Still I am nothing." All those things can be carnally impersonated. Now, what does it say? "Charity suffereth long, is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, not puffed up, does not misbehave itself unseemly, (just think) not easily provoked, thinketh no evil." Charity---love. What is love? It's God. How does God come to you? By birth, see.

25 Now, they all was baptized unto Moses. They all did eat of the communion. They all had the same spiritual Manna that come from God. Every one of them eat the same thing. And today we stand right around and hear the Word and rejoice over it, and take the Manna and eat it and say, "Oh, hallelujah, that's good! Oh, I appreciate that. Yes, I was baptized in the church. I take and make my profession. I put my name on the book. I'm a charter member." All that is perfectly in vain, if there isn't something that God has done. If it is... Them's the things that you did, that's the things that your faith produced. But unless God has done something to you to new birth...

26 Just a moment now. Now, the 4th verse, "And did all drink the same spiritual Rock: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ. They all drank from the fountain. They rejoiced. But what does that mean? The wheat and the weed both rejoiced to get that spiritual water. We go to the church. We clap our hands with the rest of them. We shout with the rest of them. We jump up and down on the floor with the rest of them. We praise God with the rest of them. We prophesy with the rest of them. We speak in tongues like the rest of them. We pray for the sick like the rest of them. But he said... Now, listen as we go just a little farther.

27 Now, I want to stop a minute, oh, on "that Rock was Christ." The Rock was Christ. It was there in literal form as it is in spiritual form today. The Manna, the food, which is the Word that come from God out of heaven. Christ is the Word of God and we eat the Word, see. We sit like them---a message this morning, we listen. Our souls reaching, grab that Word. We live by the Word. He said, "They all eat that same spiritual manna; and they all did drink ... all drink from that same spiritual Rock: and that Rock was Christ."
Think of it. Now, what's he going to put it to an end here? He's warning those Corinthians, "Be careful what you're doing. For I come among you; one has a psalm, one has a tongue, one has a this, and one has a that. One has a prophecy, one has a revelation, one's doing this, and one's doing that. Be careful, don't base your faith upon that." Those things are all right. They got their place and in the church, but don't never base your salvation on that. If your life doesn't tally up to God's Word, then it's time to get right with God.

28 Notice. Now, and this Rock ... this Rock was the Rock that was in the wilderness.
And I want you to notice: When God called Moses and sent him down into Egypt to deliver the children of Israel from under the yoke of Pharaoh, He said, "What is that in thy hand?"
And he said, "It's a stick." And he took the stick and threw it on the ground, and it became a serpent. And Moses fled. Then he picked it up and it become a stick in his hand. And that rod, when he got into Egypt, he stretched it over Egypt and flies come up. He stretched it and plagues fell. It was God's judgment. God's judgment was in the stretching forth of the rod.
And notice, before that rod could really be handled, Moses put his hand in his bosom; it become leprosy, like every man is to begin with: a sinner by nature. There's no way around it. You're born in sin, shaped in iniquity, come to the world speaking lies. You might have been dedicated on the altar of your mother's church. You might have been sprinkled, you might have been this, that, but you are a sinner to begin with.
Then there is another... God said, "Put your hand back into your bosom." Over his heart, he put his hand again at the commission of God where we brought forth first, his hand: leper. You were brought forth by God, first a sinner; not by choice but by nature. Then you go back again and when he come out, the hand was clean and perfect---showing that this hand, before it could wave the judgment rod, had to be a cleaned hand before it could wave. And any minister, any teacher...

29 I heard something this morning that actually curdled my blood. When I turned on my radio, just before coming... No disregards if there's anybody here relation to the person. I don't mean to hurt you. But it's time, and God help me to always be Christian enough to make what's black, black and white, white---to be honest. I heard someone singing, and said, "I have my testament" and turned on and read a Scripture and preached from the first Psalm, "Blessed is the man who sitteth not in the seat of the scornful, walketh in the way of sinners." You know who it was? That rock-and-roll guy, Jimmy Osborn, from on the radio preaching the Gospel. Oh, brother, if there ever was a disgrace... A person like that has got no business moving into the Word of the Living God.
And you take this fellow on the Renfro Valley barn dance, up all night in an old shindig, clapping their hands, and going on an old shindig. And the next morning, change his voice around, and talk like a Christian. Why, it's vulgar and filthiness in the sight of God. The hand that waves this judgment rod must be cleansed by the power and the resurrection of Christ. He's got no business handling the Word of God.

30 Even a lot of preachers trying to justify this Elvis Presley, which is nothing in the world but a modern Judas Iscariot. Judas Iscariot got thirty pieces of silver. Elvis Presley got a million dollars and a fleet of Cadillacs, but he sold out. He was a Pentecostal believer and sold out his birthright to become a rock-and-roll, and is inspired of the devil. And I don't pull any punches on it. No, sir. And a modern Judas Iscariot.
And then even the ministers trying to up-build that kind of a thing. And Elvis Presley saying, "Yeah, I trust God for all my success." How would a living, holy God ever give success to vulgarity? And a devil demonized thing that's absolutely been one of the greatest hindrances that this nation has ever seen, is a guy like Elvis Presley who's sent millions of souls to hell by his old dirty, filthy rock-and-roll stuff. Certainly, I don't have any apology at all. If you can believe me to be God's prophet, remember there is a incarnated devil, absolutely.

31 And Jimmy Osborn and those has got no business with the Word of God. And neither has any man that takes the name of God in vain and shindigs and dances with old rock-and-roll and vulgar stuff like that to come to any pulpit and to try to take the Word of God. That's what's the matter with many of these churches today. You get some of these little old boogie-woogies out of these places out here. A little old girl that's out shindigging and doing all these here rock-and-rolls one night, and she comes to the altar, and the next night you got her up singing a special. Some of you guys take them old guitar players out of the places out yonder on the night club, and put him in the pulpit preaching in two weeks. Brother, I tell you, you'd never do it here---no indeed. He's got to study to prove himself a man of God, and find out.
We don't believe in this here overnight jumping around like this. That's what's got the church in the condition it's in today. We need truth. This Word is truth. That's right. The hand that sways this judgment rod must be a clean hand. Absolutely. That judgment hand of Moses was cleansed. And then the rod was put in it, and the rod went down and brought judgments upon Israel.

32 And then in the wilderness, that beautiful type! (And I must close.) This beautiful type, when there was a Rock, and that Rock was Christ. And the perishing people were dying for water, and they deserved it. They deserved to die, because they had murmured. They had complained. They were not believers at the beginning. They were nothing but intellectual believers. The supernatural had been done and a mixed multitude had went out. They wasn't converted from their heart.
There was only three in the bunch that we know of: Moses, Aaron and Caleb. Miriam: and Miriam showed her treachery too when she laughed because Moses married this Negro girl. And said, "Wasn't there any other girls to be married," and so forth. She had done it. And God wasn't pleased with that and smote her with leprosy. And her own brother screamed out, "Would you let your sister die in that shape?" And God told Moses to come before Him, and he went and interceded for Miriam. She didn't live long after that.

33 No, brother, what God does is perfect. We ain't got no business with our minds putting anything to it; just leave it the way it is. God did it, God said it, that settles it. Just take it, or don't... If I could explain it; then I'd be equal with God. I can't explain it, I just believe it. That's all. That's all I'm asked to do. There's nobody asked to explain it, because it's beyond our intellectual. It's beyond our intelligence. It's God who does it, so it cannot be explained. I just accept it by faith and say it's my private property, and I believe it. I cannot explain it.

34 How this rock laying there, God had a rock that had it stored full of water. Just a little rock, perhaps not no bigger than that desk, but when Moses smote this rock, there was enough water came from it to water two million people---and not only that, but as many cattle and sheep and things as they had with them.
Oh, when I see some of these artists who paint pictures of a little drop falling out of a rock and a kid standing there with a little bucket in his hand! Oh, it never come like that. It come by bountiful gushers gushing out. It watered over two million people besides their camels and all their animals. That Rock was Christ Jesus, a beautiful parallel to John 3:16---"God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life."

35 And notice what happened. The only way that they could get that water out of that rock, the judgment rod had to strike the rock. And Moses smote the rock, and God's judgment struck upon the rock. And when it did, it gave forth its waters. The people were absolutely... God was just in letting them die, because they had disbelieved Him. They were dishonorable, they were reprobates. They did not deserve to live. Even Moses called them rebels, rebellious against God. And they deserved to die.
And all of us deserve death because we are rebellious against God. Correct. Notice, we all deserve dying, but God is so merciful (He shouldn't never of thought of us.), but He's so merciful till He took the sins of every one of us and struck upon His own beloved Son, Christ, that we might not perish, but would have eternal life.

36 How could we drink from that Rock and then not be right in our hearts? But, brother, there's millions of them this morning doing it. That's exactly right. They're trusting because they're Baptists or Methodists or Pentecostal. They're trusting because they had a little funny feeling, because they spoke with tongues, because they shouted, because they danced, because they had a healing service and God healed the sick, or something they're trusting upon, because they had a revelation it was true, because they did this. Them things are all right, nothing to say against them, but that has nothing to do with your salvation. Not one thing. You could pour oil out of your hand till it went by the gallons, or blood out of your faces, and still mean nothing. That's right. Paul said, "I could speak with tongues like men and angels, and still be lost. Though I could have wisdom and knowledge, and could stand and explain that Bible, just to make it look ... just tie it together, that still hasn't got nothing to do with it."

37 Brother, they all drank from the same Rock, that Rock was Christ. The judgments was upon Christ, that you might be privileged to come and drink. It's God's goodness to you that you do come drink. It's God's goodness to you that you do eat from the Word. God's goodness to you that He permitted you to be baptized. God's goodness to you to make you a citizen, to give you health, to set you in the church this morning. It's God's goodness. That's all God's goodness. But what about your goodness back to God? Are you willing to submit everything, every thought, every action, everything unto Him? That's what God has done for you. What will you do for Him?

38 Notice, let's just read a couple more verses, then I'll close so the pastor can get to his word. Now, look, "And this same rock was Christ." Now the 5th verse. "But with many of them God was not pleased." See, He permitted them to be baptized. He permitted them to eat the Word and believe it. He permitted them to get spiritual blessings. He permitted them to drink from the spiritual Rock. All that God did by His grace, but yet God was not pleased with them. Look. "For they were overthrown in the wilderness."
After all these experiences, after all of our great healing services we've seen, after all the great miracles we've seen performed, after all the great feelings that we've had (the shouting and praising God, drinking from that Rock), all the good sermons that we have enjoyed, and yet be overthrown. All over. "Depart from me, you workers of iniquity. I didn't even know you." Check up. We got a revival coming. I know this is hard. But, brother, any father that won't correct his children is not a good dad. That's right. Overthrown.

39 "Now, these things were our examples," Paul speaking. Do you believe it? It was an example. All right. "To the intent that we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted."
Could you imagine a man standing that's a jockey, record spinner and playing old, dirty rock-and-rolls; and something happened, and got all shook up; and all those kinds of dirty old songs that Elvis Presley and these guys play and then come back and impersonate preaching the gospel? Think of it. Could you imagine a man and woman sitting out, and the woman laying out in the back yard, and little old dirty looking, half clothes on, throwing herself before men, and then come right back around and drink from the spiritual Rock and shout and carry on?
There's a great doctrine among the Pentecostal people, of liberation of women. They are wearing great long earrings, and doing all kinds of dressings. And a young fellow sat in front of my house a few days ago in a little truck, crying that his wife, Pentecostal, speaks with tongues, gives prophecy. Sure. And say that all the whole church wears shorts. And she goes right on the street at eight and nine o'clock at night picking up little cigarette stumps that others has throwed away and smoking. And still shouting, praising the Lord, and giving prophecy.

40 I stood the other day in a church, where a great man of God that I have great respects for, and he was exposing this. After one of the men who is one of the head of it goes out and he has all this blood running out of their hands and things. And I've become hoarse from east from west trying to condemn that thing on the grounds of the Bible, when it's not of God. Any blood that would come from Christ would be corporeal blood. Then His corporeal body is here. Then the second coming is over. Jesus said, "Believe it not, when they say, 'Lo, he's in the desert.' Believe it not when, 'He's here.' Believe it not. For there will be false Christs arise and false prophets and they'll show signs and wonders. Insomuch it'd deceive the very elect."

41 And I've screamed it from the east to the west. And finally on the West Coast, when old Dr. Canada, who's a bosom friend of mine, stood up, and another man that was a manager of a certain man that started this ... one of these moves, come up there and give a great big [unclear word] of oil and holy blood, or blood will be shown today. And they packed the place out, and he showed that how under his belt he had two needles sticking down. Anyone knows you can pluck this finger and it won't bleed unless you milk it, or squeeze it. You stick a hole in it, it won't do it because the veins are so far away from there. And when he did it (He showed how he done it.), he had oil back here. Laid his hands on.
Then he come up and said, "See my hands? Perfectly normal." Then he said, "Glory to God! Hallelujah!" And he milked his hands down like that, showed there was blood squeezed from his fingers. While everybody was shouting, he wiped his head, and there was a cross. When the very man that was with the man that did it. There it was exposed right out there before the audience and with... Went in his pockets to show all the stuff. One put a heart on the wall and said, "This wall is breathing the blood of Jesus. That's the heart of Jesus."
A big old Texan walked in, wasn't scared. Said if anybody touch that they would die. They had ropes all... Got the pictures of it and everything there where this wall would bleed ... breathing blood out of a heart. And this fellow walks in and slips into the church, him and his wife, and washed the paint off of the wall, and sat back out there and waited till they come in. The pastor said "Well, you know, Jesus has been in here and took that off."
He said, "Jesus had nothing to do with it. I done it myself." That's right.

42 What's happening? It's because people are unstable on the Word of the living God. Don't the Bible say they'd go from the east, from the west, from the north and the south; there'd be a famine, not for bread and water alone, but for the hearing of the Word of God.
What a day that we're living in. And we see now all these great denominational churches are all leaguing themselves together. And it's got to a place that you have to belong to this league of churches before you can even have a radio. You're gone from the radio, boy, don't you never worry about that, and the rest of them are too, and all the television programs. You'll have to belong to the league of churches before you can do it. And when you do that, you are forming nothing in the world but the mark of the beast of the Bible. There you are. See how it's all leagued together?

43 Oh, thanks be to God, there is truly a living God. There is truly a true Lord. There is truly a true Word. There is truly a true healing. There is truly of all these things. But, brother, don't you never base your faith upon some little sensation, upon a church order, upon taking communion, upon eating from the spiritual Rock. You say, "I know this, brother, I tasted God." That may be just exactly true. But what kind of a place has it fallen in? That's the next thing: What kind of a bucket did it come into? Just and unjust.

44 Now, listen. Now, these were examples, to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted. What was their lesson? Now, listen, I want to get just a little bit farther, if you excuse me.
"Neither be ye idolaters." Oh, you say, "I thank God I'm not an idolater." Wait just a minute. Let's examine it by the Word. You say, "I wouldn't worship an idol." That doesn't altogether mean you worship an idol. You just have to be idle, doing nothing. Go to church. That's all right. Go back home. Do nothing about it. Brother, a real born-again man or woman can't stand still. There's something in them. They've got to testify. They've got to do something. They are bound to do something. They can't hold their peace.

45 Listen. "Neither be ye idolaters, as they were ... some of them; as it is written, The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play."
What's Paul talking about? Examples. They were baptized into the church. They absolutely had a correct baptism. One's three times forward, backward, in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, Jesus only, whatever it was. They had a correct baptism. They were baptized right. We fuss and stew and argue about little things like that. What good does it do? You're leaving off the main principle. Our churches have separated over baptism. Certainly.
Then you say, "Oh, hallelujah, they haven't got the spiritual blessing we have. They're just old, cold formal. Glory to God, I eat the real Manna of God; I know it's truth." That's exactly the truth. But, what difference does that make? You say, "Brother, the Holy Ghost really falls in our church." That's good, but what difference does it make to you if you're not the right kind of a vessel it's fallen in? Remember. Oh, you say, "I'm sincere." So were they. They left their homes and went out, even put their neck out for death, to follow. They did a lot more than what we have to do. That didn't have one thing to do with it. Just think, the Bible said, "In vain do they worship me. In vain do they worship me," absolutely true worship in vain. Where did it begin at? Come from the garden of Eden. Cain, he worshipped God just the same as Abel did, but in vain he worshipped Him. Yes, sir.

46 "There's a way that seemeth right unto a man." You say, "Well, why is it? I've repented. Why is it I'm not all right? I've repented. I think I'm just as good as anybody else. I go to church. I've been baptized. I get the blessings of God. I love a good sermon. I love the Word of God. I like to read it and I get spiritual blessings too. And hallelujah, I can prophesy. I can speak with tongues. I've done all these things. You mean to say it's in vain?" I'm not saying it's in vain. But it's possible that it could be in vain. That's right. It depends on what you are in there. That's right, it's what you are that's receiving this. If you're not born again, if there's not actually something in you, then it's in vain. All the blessings I have not to do.

47 Now, just one more. "Neither let us commit fornications, as some of them committed, and fell in one day three and twenty thousand." Commit fornications, that's spiritual fornications. If we had time... The Sunday school is over. Spiritual fornication. "Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed of serpents. Neither murmur ye, as some of them murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer." Murmuring, lusting, mixing the world with your religion, going out... God loves purity, real purity.

48 This morning I was talking. I thought what... Now, in closing. I thought this, "What is any sweeter in a man's life, what is any sweeter than to come home when he's tired and weary with his little bucket in his hand from working all day, or plowing or whatever he might be, to walk in and have a lovely wife to meet him at the door, sit down on his lap a minute and brush his brow a little, and kiss him on the cheek, and put her arms around him and say, 'Dear, I know you're tired. You've worked so hard.'" Give him consolation. How that he knows that that arm is around him is absolutely his. It's his. Never is it around any other man or any other desire. The kiss that's on his cheek is from real pure holy heart that just loves him and him alone. How it makes you... I know. Makes you stick your chest out and say, "Well I'm not so tired after all," see. That's it; it does something to you.
I want to tell you something. But what if that kiss is placed on his cheek and he hasn't confidence. It might have been on some other man's cheek. What if them arms around him has embraced everybody and still desiring to do the same. It won't mean very much. There's not much else there. Why?

49 Now, in the beginning they were one. God, when He made man, He made him a dual person, both male and female. He separated him in flesh and put him here on earth in flesh, and the female part was still in spirit. Look, friends. God was so careful. Oh, how this... Don't let it leave you. God never got a handful of dust and made a Eve. She'd been a different creation; and she's not a creation, she's a byproduct. And God goes over in the heart of Adam (this rib right out from under his heart) and takes a rib and makes a wife; and the very part of Adam's spirit was in the woman, and they two are one. Soul, body, spirit---they are one. They are perfect oneness, a real woman and a real husband, a real wife. They are one, together. What is it a type of? Christ. From out of his bosom... Not a byproduct, not a Methodist or a Baptist or a Pentecostal hatch up. No, sir. But out of His own heart, He took a sweetheart that's as pure and loyal as she can be. She's as loyal as a lily.
Look back there at Solomon speaking, "Come, my love, let us walk in the pomegranates. Let us take our fill of love." And when the real believer opens his arms with a pure heart and holds up to Christ, that affection of that lover of Christ, goes into his bosom is His wife, just like the husband does to a real wife.

50 What type of person should we be? Are we playing the harlot with Christ? Are we depending on some little something and running after the world, and the things of the world and worldly-minded and not that real love and devotion that we should have?
Could you imagine (my) ... could you imagine your wife, brother, coming and sitting on your lap, with her little frickilly frills, and her little underskirts and things of lace and her little hair all done up and frickled up and everything like that, put her arms around and say, "Oh, John, I just love you. I love you." And you know right then that there's something wrong. You haven't the confidence in her. No matter how pretty she looks and how well she's fixed, you... If you don't have that perfect confidence in her, there's something wrong, it doesn't satisfy that longing that a man would have for his wife.
And now, just think of yourself fooling with the world and tangling with the world, and get down on your knees, and say, "O Lord Jesus, I love you." It's a burning Judas hypocrite kiss. That's right.

51 Think of these things, there's a revival coming up now, see. Oh, you might have the wedding ring on. That's right. But you're not a wife. Oh, you might be a woman, you might be the lady of the house, but you're not a wife if you act like that. And you're not a real Christian. You're not a real genuine product for Christ if you don't love Him and everything that you've got within you. I don't care whether you look pretty or whether you don't, you love Him and you express yourself. That's when you two become one. That's when Christ in His church; not by denomination, not by baptism, not by sensations, not by nothing but by a real love. You were bought from the bosom of God when He was wounded there, and He bought you; and your love and your trueness and your loyalty proves what you are.

52 See what I mean? Whether you're all frickled up or whether you... I don't care if my wife would never comb her hair, if she didn't wear a pretty dress or never... She'd be my sweetheart. I admire her because her loyalty, her virtue. What she is, that's what she is.
And by a Christian, men and women, that's what we are in the sight of God. It's not because that we can go to the best church or we can dress best or we can get in this neighborhood or we can do this or we can ride in this, or we can do this or that. That doesn't have one thing to do with it. It's the virtue of our loyalty and our love to Christ, and that's the birth. That's the thing that comes. "And though I speak with tongues of men and angels, I am nothing. Though I feed the poor, though I give my goods, though I do this and do that, and do that, I am nothing." What does Christ care about what all you can do and what all you can do like that, if that real genuine love and loyalty isn't there? Think of it, won't you.

53 This is Sunday school and remember that's a lesson to you:. Be in your heart; let Christ have first place like the real woman would to her husband. No other arms could touch her nowhere. No other kiss, no matter how charming it looks, she'd turn her head. She's got one set love, and that's for her husband. That's right. No matter how handsome the man might be, and how polished and slick his hair might look, and how he might hold himself correct, no, sir, not one thing. She loves that husband, and that's him alone does she love. She forfeits all of her virtues, and all of her kisses. All of her lovings and everything is to her husband and him alone. See what I mean?
And you forfeit everything of the world, no matter how good it looks, how pretty it looks, and how fascinating it looks.

54 Your virtue is what you're counted by. You say "Oh, hallelujah! I know I got it because I did this. Hallelujah!" And enough temper to fight a buzz saw. Let me tell you, brother, it takes virtue that Christ respects. "Though I speak with tongues as men and angels, though I pour forth blood out of both hands, though I shout and dance in the spirit, though I eat the Word of God and love it, though I drink from the same spiritual rock that the rest of them does, though I clap my hands just as loud as the rest, though I can cry crocodile tears, though I can do all this; but if that real genuine, real Christian virtue isn't there to Christ, you become as a sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal.
Paul was warning his church of this, the Corinthian church, which it was all mixed up in all kinds of fantastics. I'm warning you, friends, remember: I'll have to answer for you there at the day of judgment and your blood won't be upon me. No matter how loyal you are to anything else, be loyal to Christ. Remember that as we pray.

55 Blessed Heavenly Father, in this present estate we come now and confessing all of our wrongs. Oh, be Thou merciful, merciful God. And we pray that You'll look down into our hearts, and in this hour, while we're waiting with our heads bowed to the dust, look into the heart of the old man, into the heart of the elderly women, into the heart of the middle aged and the young, even the little children and may we examine ourself.
We're coming into that holy week that we celebrate as Good Friday and Easter---the resurrection. Though this year we might have been loyal to church, though we might have taken communion, though we might have shouted, we might have done many things, but, O God, look down into my heart. I talk for myself. Look into my heart, into the heart of this people here this morning and examine us, Lord. If there be something that takes the place of Christ, O God, take it away. If it's laziness, it's insufficiency, if it's... Whatever it might be, I don't know, but, God, take it from us. Oh, we don't want to be overthrown right here at the time of the battle, overthrowed by God and be an enemy to Him.
O God, look into our hearts, examine us by Thy Holy Spirit and let us see this morning if there's any evil thing in us. If there is, take it away, Father. We now lay it on the altar to walk away and leave it there. If it's idleness, if it's temper, if it's indifference, if it's neglecting, if it's... Whatever it may be, if it's hatred, if it's malice, if it's strife, if it's... Whatever it may be, oh, God, take it from us today.

56 And at this coming revival, may we be just so full of Your charm, Lord, until many will come in and be saved. The little community here, where we've tried so hard, the first revival now in ten years that I've held. Now, I pray that You'll give us that real, real Spirit in our hearts and may it anchor there for eternity. Grant it, Lord.
Make us to examine ourselves, we married people, by the way we treat our wives, how true we are or how true our wives is to us. And may we just get in our hearts this morning, how we'd think if something like that happened in our homes. And then, may we turn our affections toward You and say, "O God, be merciful to me."
Oh, if the wife would, just about every once a month, just come by and put her hand on yours and say, "Dear, I love you." and walk on, oh, how it would seem she was neglecting me---how it would seem that something was wrong. And, God, when maybe once a month or once when we go to church we offer a little prayer, oh, You want our love, our communion all the time, that our thoughts and our intents of our heart will be stayed on Thee. Grant it, Lord. Oh, keep our hearts so set on Thee that the things of the world will become blind and so indifferent. Grant it, Lord. Hear us now and bless us in the further part of these services. We ask in Christ's name. Amen.

57 Now, the Lord bless you real good. And I'm sorry I've taken up a few extra minutes there after the Sunday school was dismissed. And I pray that God will bless you. I didn't say these things; this is out of God's Word. They were examples to us. They're examples.
And now, look, friend, how would you feel if you knowed the wife that was kissing you was a betrayer? Think of it. Study it a little while. What would you think? Now, when you come to God in a betrayer. Don't do that. Let's be real. You don't have to take a sensation. You don't have to take something different when the whole skies are full of the real genuine love of God. Why take a substitute when we can get the real. It's for you.
Now, may the Lord bless you, as I turn the service to our pastor. And don't forget this week. Now, the little revival for the community and the little round about towns here. You get on your phone, call someone and tell them to come out. We will have altar calls and expect a good time this week in the Lord. The Lord bless you, till I see you this next coming Wednesday night.