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The first chapter of the book of the prophecy of Haggai verses seven and eight:
"Thus saith the LORD of hosts;
Consider your ways.
Go up to the mountain
and bring wood, and build the house;
and I will take pleasure in it,
and I will be glorified, saith the LORD."
The burden of my message is to the people of God,
to those that are saved by God's sovereign free grace.
I want to call you, Christian brother, Christian sister,
to a consideration of your ways.
Look with me at verse five
You will find that the old prophet says,
"Consider your ways."
Then in verse seven he repeats it,
"Consider your ways."
Fellow believers, we need to give an urgent consideration of our ways,
top priority in our Christian life at the present time.
We have a description here of the plight
of the people of God in the days of the old prophet.
Look at verse six.
"Ye have sown much, and bring in little."
Is that not true of the Christian witness of today?
What activity there is!
They remind me of what old Billy Sunday said,
"The churches are like a canary in a cage, much activity, but no progress."
And there are many churches like that.
God says, "Ye have sown much, and bring in little."
And we have churches today
that are geared up in top gear with activity.
The whole machinery of the church is
working at full speed and force.
But have they moved their town for God?
Have they raised 'Lazaruses' from the dead?
That is, have the foremost sinners in
their neighborhood been born again?
Have they made a vital impact against
the dens of iniquity and the hell-holes
of the devil in their community?
Today many of our fundamentalist churches
merely decorate a site for the denomination.
And as far as a vital impact for God
upon their district, it does not exist.
The Church of Jesus Christ was called into being
to pull down the strongholds of the Devil!
The church of Jesus Christ was called into perpetual warfare
against the powers of darkness.
The Church of Jesus Christ was called to the hottest part of the
conflict with the world, the flesh and the Devil.
But the militancy of the church is almost nil today.
There are not many fighting fundamentalists left.
We shun the battle.
We are afraid to declare war on the enemy.
We sow much, but we bring in little.
"Ye eat, but ye have not enough."
There is dissatisfaction in the church, is there not?
The people of God are not satisfied with what is going on.
To many Christians prayer is not a luxury,
more like a purgatory to some Christians.
If you call a prayer meeting they hasten away.
But if you are really living where God wants you
to live prayer will be a luxury!
You will love to pray.
You will love to be in the place where you can talk to your God
and commune with the Most High and feel your soul
uplifted and blessed and strengthened and
inspired by the power of the Holy Ghost.
Is that the way your prayer life is?
Or when you kneel down to pray are you speechless?
Is there no communing with God?
Deep does not call to deep at the voice of his water spout.
"Ye clothe you, but there is none warm;
and he that earneth wages earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes."
That is like some church finance, is it not?
Oh, the tragedy of it all!
And yet the amazing thing is that the
people of God will not consider their ways.
And they will go on!
There is an evangelical church not far from
my own church in Belfast and their congregation started
to grow very thin and the church was declining.
So they called a special meeting to try and find ways to stop the decline.
Instead of calling a prayer meeting and asking God
to baptize them with power and warm up their hearts
and set them on fire, they had a discussion
meeting (as if God needed their suggestions).
The Lord has already given us the Plan.
They said, "You know, it would be helpful if we removed
every second pew in the church because if we
did that the crowd we have would look bigger."
So they called in the joiners and they removed
every second pew and they were doing well.
It would make the church look better.
And then they decided that they would shut off
a certain section of the church and introduce this society
and that society, this recreational
facility and that recreational facility.
And they thought they had done a wonderful job.
They would now need to remove every third and fourth pew
because the church has declined and will decline.
When I went preaching in the Ravenhill Road 30 years ago and
commenced my ministry 60 people called me to be their preacher.
When I had preached for six months I had 30 left.
And I remember one day—I would not advise any
preacher to do this, but when I was
a young preacher I was foolish.
All young preachers are foolish.
And I got so mad I remember going into the pulpit
and I counted all the windows of the church and
I asked the stewards to open them.
And when they opened the windows I said, "Now, open all the doors."
Now I said, "I started here with 60 people.
We had a choir. The choir's gone. We had a superintendent of
Sunday school. He's gone. We had a treasurer and he's gone."
And I said, "If there's any other person here wants to go now;
the doors are open. The windows are open
and I'll sing the doxology while you go!"
Nobody went. Thirty stayed.
So I said, "Now, we have 350 seats and only 30 people.
How do you fill them? Consider your ways."
So every Friday night I went down to that church with five
or six men and we started at 11 o'clock at night and we prayed
upon every empty seat and said, "Lord,
bring in sinners to fill these seats!"
And we did not pray dry prayers.
We prayed with tears in our eyes.
We meant business! It was life or death!
Either the church would grow or it was finished!
And we prayed.
But you do not just fill seats by prayer.
You have got to put legs on your prayers.
And we put legs on our prayers and I went out every morning
and I knocked upon the doors and I preached and I said to my
men as we were praying, I said, "You know what we want?
We want the worst sinner on this road
converted. Who's the worst sinner?"
So they decided the worst sinner on the road was a man over 70
years of age who was the worst drunkard in the area.
You could see him every night going from the public house or
the liquor shop after it closed crawling his way up the road
holding on to the wall.
So we concentrated our prayers on that man.
We made him a target of old fashioned Holy Ghost praying.
And one night he came into the church and a lot of the
respectable people who were not praying; they thought it was a miracle.
One of my officers said to me, "That's a miracle."
Says I, "You know nothing about it. If you'd prayed as long as
I've prayed for him, you wouldn't think it was much of a miracle."
I thought God was mighty slow in answering the prayer.
He was not saved the first night he came in, nor the second night,
but one night God saved him and sobered him and made him a
trophy of grace.
It went round the district like wild fire!
"Do you know who Paisley has got converted?"
And his companions came to see what was happening.
It was noised abroad that Jesus was in the house.
And they got saved and the old publican got mad.
He said, "If Paisley goes on I'll be out of business."
Thank God he is out of business today!
He is closed.
And then we had an unholy den hole of iniquity opposite the
church where young men were led astray and their lives were
made unclean and their souls were destroyed.
And I said to my young fellows,
"We've gotta close that place down!"
So we concentrated prayer on it; made it a target for old
fashioned praying.
We meant business.
And what happened?
The man that ran it went bankrupt and he came to me and he
said, "You know I have to close."
Says I, "Hallelujah for that."
He said, "What do you mean?"
Says I, "God's answering my prayers."
He said, "You know, you could use that place."
He said, "I'll lease it to you for a certain rent."
Says I, "I never asked God for a lease on your place. I asked Him
to close it. I am not reopening it."
Says I, "I wouldn't give you a penny piece for it."
And it closed and closed forever.
Hallelujah!
We considered our ways.
We got down to the business.
Would to God preachers would get down to the business!
Remember the early Church, "We shall give ourselves to prayer
and the ministry of the Word."
Show me a man who is giving himself to prayer and the ministry
of the Word and I will show you a man going places for God.
I will show you a church that is going on fire.
We need to consider our ways.
When you read the history of the old gospel preachers of the past
we are only like a lot of pygmies today.
These men were giants.
These men meant to do things for God!
They meant to be at their best for God.
Do you believe that God saves men through His Word?
Then go and preach the Word as if you did believe it!
Expect God to do something!
Do not just carry on.
I wonder how many people in this great congregation
are only playing at it.
They do not really mean to go places for God; half hearted,
they have time for pleasure.
If you see some Christians going out in their recreation—and I
have nothing against recreation,
only I have no time to engage in it.
But they put their heart into it, do they not?
They play tennis.
They play tennis till they sweat.
I never saw them sweating in the prayer meeting.
And if there is some other thing they engage in they will
put their heart and soul and mind into it.
But when they come to church they sit like
lumps of putty in the pew.
They would not budge or squeak.
And if some fellow with the glory of God in his soul says, "Amen!"
, why they will look at him as if something had happened to him.
Mr. Nicholson, one of our great preachers said some churches
if you brought a bucket of milk through the door it would be ice
cream before you got it to the pulpit: they are so cold.
Is that the sort of Christian you are?
You are only playing at it!
I have found in, my Christian experience, that if I am going to
do anything for God or be anything for God, I have got to put
myself body, soul and Spirit in to it; every bit of me: from the big
toe to the top of my head!
Every bit on the altar for God; no reservations, totally, absolutely
unconditionally the lot for God!
Tell me, is that what you are doing?
Would you start considering your ways?
Would not America need a real revival?
Would not this land of yours need an old fashioned
heaven sent, sky blue revival?
Would not the fundamentalist churches need a baptism
of old time power?
I am not speaking of any charismatic emotionalism now.
I am talking about the real genuine thing that changes men
permanently and eternally, that changes the face of a district,
that changes a church from an old, drab, dead, dry church as
dead as the dust on Pharaoh's mummy—and you could not get
anything dead than that—to a church
that is alive with the power of God.
God, give us churches where sinners are scared.
They are dead scared of getting saved.
"Couldn't go to that church for if I went, I would get saved!"
Amen!
That is the sort of churches we need today: converting shops
where people are really and truly born again of the Holy Ghost.
Would we consider our ways.
How much have we sown and there is very, very little for God?
Consider your ways.
Friend, I would not go back to an old dead ministry.
I would not go back to old, dead, lifeless prayer meetings.
I would not want to preach in the church where
there is no spiritual warmth or life.
Some people have just enough religion to endure.
Thank God for the people that are enjoying it,
enjoying every minute of God.
Are you enjoying it or enduring it?
From the look on some of your faces,
it is a brave endurance test you are in at the moment.
Consider your ways.
Where do you go to get the fire?
You go up the mountain. That is where you go.
We sing an old hymn in our country:
"Jesus, keep me near the Cross."
And there is a verse in it that says: "Near the Cross a
trembling soul, love and mercy found me. There the bright and
morning star shed its beams around me.
Near the Cross I'll watch and wait."
Do you know what we need this afternoon?
We need to get back to the cross. Commence the climb!
There are a lot of people are living in the lowlands.
Where are you living, brother? Are you going up the mountain?
Thank God for the climbers,
the men that are looking for higher ground.
"My faith has no desire to stay where doubts arise and fears
dismay. Though some may dwell where these abound,
my constant aim is higher ground."
Let us go up the mountain today.
Could I for a moment bring you to the place called Calvary?
Could we stand this afternoon under the
shadow of the old Cross of shame?
Could we gaze today afresh upon the bleeding, battered,
broken body of God's dear Son?
Could we count the thorns in that crown of agony?
Could we count the purple drops that fall
from His hands, His feet and side?
Could I get my soul ignited with the warm
passion of that great offering for sin?
Oh, man and woman, today: "see from His head, His hands,
His feet, sorrow and love flow mingled down! Did e'er such love or
sorrow meet, or thorns compose so rich a crown?"
And when I stand at that cross, I hate sin
because sin put Him on that tree!
How can I flirt with sin?
How can I companion with sin?
How can I take part in sin, when I know
that sin put Him on the tree?
As I stand there under that Cross I hate the world.
I hate the flesh! I hate the devil!
For that broken, bleeding, battered body of
Christ is the handiwork of all three.
"For you my sins, my cruel sins, His chief tormentors were.
Each of my crimes became a nail and Unbelief the spear."
If we could get up that mountain today,
"the things of earth would grow strangely dim,
in the light of His Glory and Grace."
Come on, brother, leave the lowlands.
You have stayed there long enough.
Come on, sister, start the climb up Calvary's hill today.
Let us say in our hearts we will go up the mountain.
We will leave behind the world.
We will leave behind those things that soil and stain our souls.
And, oh God, I would more holy be!
I would be God's man or God's woman to this generation.
I want to be at my best for God.
Oh, bring me up the hill.
Melt my heart with Calvary love.
Teach me the fulness of that blessed truth,
"That I might know Him and the power of His Resurrection."
Do you want power?
Then here is a power that breaks the coffin lid.
Here is a power that rends the sepulchre's rock.
Here is a power that breathes life into the dead.
It is the power of His Resurrection.
Some churches are engaged in corpse washing.
They wash the corpses.
I am engaged in the resurrection business.
That is what I am in.
The church brings men to life.
It is a great thing when people start living;
to hear the cry of a newborn babe.
What a thrill that is.
May the Lord help us to know the power of His Resurrection.
Listen to it: "and the fellowship of His suffering."
The fellowship of His suffering!
Oh how "sweet to know as I onward go,
that the way of the Cross leads home."
Do not be afraid to suffer for Jesus.
The former Prime Minister of Ulster came on the television
and he said, "Paisley is a demon doctor."
At the next election he was almost annihilated
and my majority rose to 38,000.
I want to tell you God will vindicate you if you serve Him.
Do not worry about what they say.
I worry when they do not say anything.
That is when I get worried.
There is one thing that will curse your church.
It is the curse of indifference.
When people are mad God is working.
When people are indifferent, then you need to pray.
The fellowship of His sufferings.
Listen, "being made conformable unto His death."
Oh, that we might be made conformable to the death of Christ.
Oh, there is power in that Cross.
That Cross is the great generator.
It generates life and power and light and dynamic strength- in the Cross.
Paul says, "God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross."
"The preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness;
but unto us which are saved it is the power of God"
Omnipotence let loose!
We need omnipotence to be let loose in the pulpit today, do we not?
Yes. May the Lord disturb the sleep of death.
Get us up the mountain.
Come on, let us start climbing.
Let us leave the old ruts.
There is no difference between a rut and a grave,
only one is a little deeper than the other.
A lot of Christians in the grave and in the rut
today and they do this same thing.
Ever go to their church?
Say the same prayers.
I was at a prayer meeting one night and I stood at the door
and I said to the people, "Tonight, what did you pray for?"
They could not tell me.
Imagine going to a prayer meeting and not knowing what you prayed for.
So I said to them, "I'll tell you what I'll do. I'll put all your
prayers on a tape where you say the same thing every
week. And I'll play them over for you
and you can sit at home: no need for you to come."
Are not there many prayer meetings like that?
But I tell you: once people start going up the
mountain to God they will pray different prayers.
They will start meaning business.
They will not be worried- whether their sentences ever end.
They will not be worrying whether, grammatically, they prayed correctly.
they will be worried about the answers.
That is all I am worrying about.
Lord, give me the answer!
We need to learn to pray.
"God, teach me how to pray with prayer that binds the fold,
with prayer that loosens captive souls for whom thy Son's blood did flow.
Lord, teach me how to pray with prayer to scale the heights,
with prayer to burst the gates of heaven and claim my blood-bought rights."
That is the way we need to pray.
"The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force."
Go up the mountain.
It says, "Bring wood."
Have you been out in the forest of lost souls? Have you?
In that forest of lost souls there are
giant timbers that I have got to fell for Jesus.
I have gone round that forest.
I have seen these great timbers reaching almost to the sky.
They baffled me.
And I said, "Lord, will these timbers ever be laid low?
Will I ever succeed in gathering the commodity for the building of the church?"
And then I was reminded of the story of Elisha
going with the men to build an enlarged house.
And do you remember; the man started to cut down a tree
and the timber flew here and there and he was doing well.
He was cutting into that great king of the forest.
And then something happened.
The axe head flew off, and he was standing with
the handle of the axe, but no head.
He did not go on trying to chop down the tree.
There are a lot of churches trying that today.
They have just got the axe handle and, they are slugging away as
hard as they can go and the sweat is running down their face,
but they are not making any progress.
They have lost the power!
Christian, have you lost the power?
Have you?
Do you know what the old prophet said? "Where fell it?"
Do you know where you will get the power back?
Where you lost it.
You have to get back to the very place that you lost it!
No easy way, no quick cuts with God!
"And the iron did swim."
Old Elisha did not get down on his knees and fit on the axe head.
He made the man do it himself.
Preacher, there are some things preachers should not do.
I have learned that.
There are some things you have got to do for yourself.
And he got the axe head on again.
And when he started to cut down the tree he made progress.
Will we ever cut down these great timbers of the forest?
We need divine power.
You know what he said?
"Alas, master! for it was borrowed."
It is borrowed power that organizes the church.
It is not in ourselves.
Now if I set off to preach gospel sermons, I would fail.
If I set off with my puny little ability and talents to face the
world, the flesh and the devil; the great juggernaut of hell would
go over me and I would be obliterated overnight.
But thank God there is a power that is divine.
There is an anointing that comes from heaven.
The blessed Spirit of God is sent to fill us, to fill us and fill us with His power!
"Be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit."
The Christian's alternative for getting drunk, what is it?
To be filled with the Holy Ghost.
That is what the Bible says.
Yes.
Do not look so skeptical this afternoon.
That is what the Bible says. "Be filled with the Holy Ghost."
Can God fill you with the Holy Ghost?
Hallelujah, He can!
He wants to do it.
If He fills you this afternoon you will be a different Christian.
People will say, "What's happened to him? Something has happened.
The devil will know.
I want to disturb the devil.
I want to be the enemy of everything that God is the enemy of.
I want to hate the things God hates, and love the things God loves.
I want to go up the mountain afresh and get my soul refreshed at Calvary.
I wonder how many Christians are here, and there is a longing in
your soul today as I preach and you have said, "Brother, I
would like to go up the hill of God. I'd like to climb the
mountain. I'd like to cut down those great trees of the
forest for God. I don't want my life to be useless. I'm sick of
this old dead way of living without power and grace. Oh,
preacher, today I've considered my ways.
I'm letting go. I'm letting God."
"I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God,
that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice."