Transcription
[Applause] Man, that I love, man that you love, needs no introduction to us. He is the General Superintendent of the United Pentecostal Church. And our General Superintendent, would you welcome him in Jesus' name, Brother [Music] Sh. God bless you. You may be seated.
I want to express, uh, thanks to Brother Anthony Mangan, pastor of this church, the Pentecostals, for the wonderful message he preached tonight. In fact, uh, after he finished preaching, I felt like marching to the altar and bowing my head and pouring my heart out. Then Brother Mooney of Calvary Tabernacle. I want to express publicly and personally how very kind Brother and Sister Mooney have been to Sister Ur and I since they have been the pastors of the Calvary Tabernacle Church. I deeply appreciate it.
And then, I want to thank God for these meetings through the years. It's a very strange thing, Brother, uh, Anthony Mangan was trying to cut down the matter of attendance from the standpoint of, uh, people so that it could be maintained or confined within this building, and he's having a hard time doing that. That's interesting, isn't it? That, uh, we have to try to cut it down. Usually, you have to try to build it up. But that hasn't been the case. And how many people have gone from, uh, these meetings, touched, thrilled, anointed by the hand of God. And I stand here tonight. I know it's late, and I recognize that you have been sitting a long time, but I do want to speak to you for a few minutes. And in the name of the Lord, will you pray that God will help me? Yes, he will, to bring to you the message that he placed in my heart. I'm very delighted to be in this pulpit, especially with the dear friendship we've had with Elder Mangan for the years. One thing that's so vital to, uh, Brother Anthony Mangan's ministry is that on both sides of the family, he had for grandparents, preachers of the gospel. And then, at the same time, he had this wonderful man and this wonderful lady, Brother and Sister Mangan, to lead him in the ways of God. And they did do that. There has been no waning of the desire in the heart of this young man, even though it could have been said that as the years went by, the younger generation didn't know the God of their fathers. But that's not the case. There's an earnest desire in this young man's heart, and he's become a very, very important voice in the United Pentecostal Church, and I think we ought to thank God for that.
I, my respect to Brother, uh, Tenny and his work here in the district. To Brother Kilgore, we're praying for him that God will strengthen him every day. The Kilgore family has been going through a time of sickness, and you know about it, both from the standpoint of their son-in-law and also from the standpoint of Brother Kilgore. But God is the Healer. Yes, he is. He is the Healer. Yes, he is, of every disease, and he is able. And we're praying that the hand of God will touch both Daniel Caul and Brother Kilgore in a very special way. In fact, I think Brother Kil looks very, very good tonight. Very happy. [Music] For Brother Chambers with us, former General Superintendent of the United Pentecostal Church, and all of our ministering Brethren. Yes, what a pleasure to sit in an atmosphere like this. The world would pay thousands of dollars just to have the privilege. You hear, you and I sit here, and it doesn't cost us a cent, but just a little bit of an offering. The world does not know what's going on in this Pentecostal atmosphere. Right, the discotheque doesn't have it. The bar doesn't have it. The dope den doesn't have it. They just don't have it. In His presence is fullness of joy. Amen. At His right hand, that's right, pleasures forevermore. Where do you find that in this world? No place, but in the presence of God.
Now, would you stand for the reading of the word of the Lord? First chapter of Hebrews, first few verses. "God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high." Let's thank God for this wonderful Savior. Praise God. Thank you for Brother. Praise God. Praise God. Praise [Applause] God. Thank you, Lord, for Your Word. Thank you for the truth of Your Word. In Jesus [Music] [Music] name. God bless you. You may be seated.
My message tonight is Oneness. Just Oneness. And when I say that to you, uh, I'm sure you will immediately think of the matter of the great doctrine that has been the, uh, very foundation of this movement. It has to do with the Oneness of God in Christ. That's what you're immediately thinking, I'm certain. But there's another area, or other areas of Oneness that we are needing desperately. Well, Brother Mangan was preaching, I couldn't believe some of the things that he used in his message. I have them right here before me. In my message, I could not, not believe that. Now, I didn't talk over with him anything, but our concept of God is very important to us, sir. Right. What we believe about Him is important.
First of all, let me point out something to you that I think stands out in relationship to Almighty God, and that is that He is ageless. That He has never grown old. Now, I've grown old, and so have you. Join the fellowship. Take a look in the mirror every once in a while, and then let somebody bring you pictures of your younger days. And, uh, when they bring them to you, I say, "Take them away, please." You see what time does. But the God I serve is ageless. And when I tell you tonight, He's as old as He was when He created the Earth, that tells you that He has never aged. And if He has never aged, then He is the same yesterday, and today, and [Music] forever. In the book of John 8:58, it tells us, "Jesus saith unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was I am." And of course, if you read the context of that, that angered those people, and they picked up stones and wanted to stone Him. But John, the first chapter, says, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made." He's ageless. "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty." "For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace." Isaiah 59:1, "Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither is his ear heavy, that it cannot hear." He doesn't grow old.
It is our concept of God that makes this church a fundamentally strong and indestructible force. The church you and I are in is not a church that's going to die. It's going to live because it is founded on a sure foundation and on a God that never ages. In the book of Jeremiah 10:10, "But the Lord is the true God, he is the living God, and an everlasting king: at his wrath the earth shall tremble, and the nation shall not be able to abide his indignation." And I love this, Psalm 91 and 2: "Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God." God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.
And then, one day, when He was challenged by the thief to come down from the cross, "Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels? But how then shall the scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it must be?" Ageless, but concerned. Ageless, but full of compassion. And even though all authority belonged to Him, and there is no authority greater than this God we serve, no greater authority, He could have called for the angels, legions of angels, to come and deliver Him from the crucifixion. But this great Lord of ours had put Himself in the position of the Divine plan, and He was not going to lose the great reason for His coming into this world. And the church must recognize that with its authority, it does not use its authority to destroy, but to save.
Now, there is authority in the church. Tremendous authority in the church. I sometimes get a little concerned about preaching about the authority in the church, simply because of the fact that when you do preach like that, there are folks that take advantage of that authority. When you preach about the fact that He had given unto Peter the keys to the kingdom and said, "Whatsoever he loosed on earth would be loosed in heaven; whatsoever he bound on earth would be bound in heaven." That's a lot of authority. And I do believe that that authority is still in the church, and I do believe that it does belong to the ministry. But I certainly hope that as we assemble in this, because of the times, meeting, we understand that if He would submit Himself to a Divine pattern and thrust away His authority, and in its place bring compassion, that you and I must do the same. I can understand today, and it bothers me like it bothers some others, there are those who actually use their office of authority for destruction and not for building up. God didn't give you the call of the ministry to polish your badge and stand before people and make them think you're somebody [Music] great. When it comes to this ministry that God has given us, He becomes the sole example of what we should be. And He was a servant to His own people. He made Himself of no reputation. We can't say that we didn't have any in the first place, but He made Himself of no reputation and then came to Earth to save mankind from their sin. "Trust ye in the Lord forever: for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength."
And when you look at this concept of God, you have to understand that if we're related to Him in sonship, we have something powerful on our side. And we never should take a defensive position when it comes to preaching the gospel. We should always be standing out in the front, declaring that He is God, that He never changes, that He is ageless, and He has given us a gospel that saves to the uttermost.
I want to remind you about something that I think is very important to all of us in regard to the matter of doctrine. We must be oneness in doctrine. Now, let's lay aside the matter of the fact that when we talk about doctrine or oneness in doctrine, in relationship to God in Christ, we need to be together in doctrine. We need to believe together the same way throughout the times. The strength of doctrine and the preservation of doctrine establishes strong convictions in the church. And when a church is based on doctrine, it's a strong church. When it has no basic convictions of doctrine, it's a society. And I like to say this to you: it is possible. It is possible that you can build a large number of followers through inspiring worship and good music and attractive personalities. However, as we view the failures of the past, we decisively understand that the flashy brilliance of human abilities does not preserve the continuity of the church. The Lord Jesus placed a high premium on doctrine. And when you get tempted to look at some of these people that have some of these growing churches, and they do not preach the doctrine of the scripture, of the scriptures, let me make it very clear to you: they will not continue on. They will finally die and completely be gone in a short time. We have watched this over a period of time. If you don't believe in something solid when it comes to your God and to the truth of the scriptures, you don't have a church; you have a social gathering. It's important for us to believe together on the truth. And Jesus had some great feelings about it. Listen to some other words of the Lord Jesus Christ: "And they were all amazed, insomuch that they questioned among themselves, saying, What thing is this? what new doctrine is this? for with authority commandeth he even the unclean spirits, and they do obey him." And immediately his fame spread abroad throughout all the region about Galilee. This great doctrine that the Lord espoused, not only had with it a stability of the church for the present, but the future. But it had also miracles involved in it. Now, miracles are tremendous, and we have seen miracles throughout the years.
Let me hasten on. And not only do we look at these things in connection with the matter of doctrine, but when we look at the greatness of God in, when it comes to the matter of His doctrine, He stated, "Jesus answered them, and said, My doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me. If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself." And when we note this, "if anyone, any man will do his will." Now, that's not mystical. That is not something that we can just throw aside and say, "Well, what does it mean to do His will?" Simply, succinctly, it means obey the word of God. And you can do the will of God. How many people have ever asked you, "What is the will of God for my life?" And I've had people ask that of me for years and years. Every pastor's had somebody ask him that question, "What's the will of God for my life?" The will of God is obedience to the word of God. And the will of God doesn't always put you on a high mountain. It doesn't always put you in the success strata. It doesn't always put you in a place where you are some kind of great and outstanding leader. The will of God will send you through a Gethsemane. It will send you through dark hours of struggle. It will send you through times that are difficult to handle. But Almighty God is able to take you through all those times. When those of us who have had any, uh, time of experience through the years, look back on where He brought us from, what we once were. I look back at times in my own personal life when I came to a dead-end street of despair and thought, "I will never make it." And I was ready to quit because it looked like everything was bleak and everything was forlorn, and there was no answer to what we were going through, either as a people or as a body of people. But if you hold on to God, if you wait on the Lord, there is no way that you're going to be defeated because He put His lifeblood in this church, and He's not going to let the church fail. You're in a victorious environment. You're in a victorious church. And you and I must continue to sound out the great truths that have to do with this great doctrine.
There are false doctrines. The post-apostolic fathers introduced the Trinity. And it's a strange thing, but our so-called intellectuals today will tell you that the post-apostolic fathers interpreted correctly what the apostles taught when they brought the Trinity. They will tell you that, in fact, uh, Dr. Martin's gone, he held on to that theory that the post-apostolic fathers, they interpreted what the apostles taught, and they gave us the Trinity. That is not what the apostles taught. Let me tell you what this book said that was written just recently about, uh, charismatics and Pentecostals. One man said, "The intellectuals of the church chose the wisdom of the post-apostolic fathers and scholarship in interpreting Jesus Christ to the world." But the apostolic church, and they put it in that light, they put it in the, uh, there's this little, uh, these two little letters, O.P., which means Oneness people. I like that. But the Oneness people believed and preached the Christ of the scriptures. Now, what do you want to preach? I want to preach the Christ of the scriptures. And I'm asking in the name of the Lord, as I stand before you tonight, that we somehow understand that we must be oneness in doctrine, and we must speak the same [Music] thing.
We have younger men amongst us now. There's a little fear come over some of our people. There are younger men amongst us who have come in and saying, "We don't have to observe these things." In fact, I know one young man who was so strong on this message of baptism in Jesus' name, who now, because he said, "When you lower the standard of the scriptures, you're going to get more people." So he says, "I'll baptize you any way you want. If you want to be baptized according to Matthew 28:19, I'll baptize you that way. If you want to be baptized according to Acts 2:38, I'll baptize you that way." Please, please, friend, let me tell you something: he will not last long, nor will what he teaches his people be an assurance to the fact of their future continuity and truth. "He that believeth on me, he that believeth on me," Jesus said, "will be saved from his sins." And then he not only said that, he let us know that if we live and believe in that apostolic doctrine, and we are oneness in it all the way, that we will build a strong spiritual structure that will stand the test of time. If the Catholic Church, by their teachings, can assure a strong church simply by what they taught, and it was error, simply by what they taught, they had a strong church for years. And when they gave up eating fish on Friday, it shook up a lot of people, and it put the fish houses out of business. But people still eat fish on Friday because they were taught that early in their life. And if they can hold, uh, people close to things they taught through the years, which actually has no relationship to the scriptures, the matter of true doctrine saves and sanctifies and makes the church a powerful structure.
We must be oneness in doctrine. Do you believe in Acts 2:38? Do you believe in Acts 2:39? Do you believe in Isaiah 9:6? Do you believe that He is One and the only true God? Do you believe that there's only one way to be baptized? Do you believe that He's coming again? Do you believe there's only one God and there's none else beside Him? That's apostolic doctrine. And when you put that in the hearts of people, they will never, never leave that truth. But you've got to sink it deep in their hearts. Let me go a little further here, if you will. "Whosoever transgresseth and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ hath both the Father and the Son. If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed: for he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds." That's how important doctrine is to us. Listen again: "I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself: but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will show you things to come. He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you." This is the great doctrine of Jesus Christ. The big handicap with many people who receive the Holy Ghost is they cannot overcome tradition. And when it comes to the matter of baptism in the name of the Lord, the tradition stops them. But they won't let the Holy Ghost lead them into the furtherance of the truth. They are on the right side of Calvary, on the right side of the resurrection, on the wrong side of the book of Acts. And here we are tonight with a doctrine that's as sure as life itself. You don't have to worry about a church when it is really immersed in truth. It will stand the test. That's what Jesus said when He talked about the storms and the winds came, and the floods came, and the rain descended, and it fell upon those two houses, and the one that stood was the house that was built on the rock. Oneness in doctrine. How many believe we should be oneness in doctrine?
We need to be oneness in vision. "Where there is no vision, it is written, where there is no vision, the people perish." But he, the law, happy is he. Hear me. When there is a people without vision, it's just a little while until they fade out of the picture. Vision will help you in times of distress. Vision will help you in times of oppression. Vision will keep you if you will hold fast and keep your vision clear. I'm amazed by two men in the Bible. I'm amazed by, uh, Joseph in the Old Testament. What he suffered for dreaming dreams. He suffered the loss of the love of his brethren. He was cast into a heathen nation. He was put in jail by a lying woman. But before it was all over with, he came right to the top and was the savior of the world because he never lost his vision. Oh, I pray we'll never lose vision. We need to get hold of a vision of what God wants to do for the church in this day. Listen to this portion of scripture: "But they also have erred through wine and through strong drink are out of the way; the priest and the prophet have erred through strong drink, they are swallowed up of wine, they are out of the way through strong drink, they err in vision, they stumble in judgment." They got drunk on their own conceits, drunk on our own personal accomplishments. We can only see what we're doing. Our vision is imprisoned within the walls of our local church. We have locked the door on our little kingdom and dare anybody to rattle the ease and comfort of our own church body. We're like treasurers who care for money they have, take care of it so long, they think the money belongs to them. And sometimes when people tithe, they tithe, and it's not your money. That tenth is not your money; it's the Lord's money. The church is not your church; it's the Lord's church because you give the tithe, and it changes hands. It doesn't change the fact that it belongs to God. We have become human possessors of materialistic thinking instead of being visionary and using what we have and sharing it with [Applause] others.
Listen, "Continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart, praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved." This is something we did not know. But Brother Roden Bush received this letter recently over in Saudi Arabia. They have found 2,500 Jesus name Holy Ghost people that they never knew existed. They meet in 300 different places. It's against the law in Saudi Arabia to have any other religion but the Muslim religion. The Saudis are in bad shape right now. They've got America fighting for them, and they've got boys being baptized by the hundreds right there in Saudi Arabia. And out in the desert, the young men that are facing the dreadnoughts of modern warfare are frightened. They're scared. They admit that they're frightened. You'd be frightened too. Some of that stuff can blow you to just pieces, and that's all that's left of you. And they are out there, and they recognize they're facing eternity. And our men are preaching to them and baptizing them by the hundreds. And the thing that's so amazing, out in the desert, they didn't have water. In the days of Philip, the Lord showed them water. In the days of Mangan and Urans and the Kilgore, the general got a helicopter, got a tank full of water, and delivered it to them in the desert so they could baptize the boys. What a position the Saudi Arabians are in. Here they are, believing that they, uh, should not allow Christianity on their shores, and God sends a war. And during the war, this war is a holy war, and Mr. Bush does not really understand what he's got himself into, but it's going to get bigger at this point, and God only knows when it ends. When it ends, it may end with a fatal crash of some of the worst weapons that have ever been used by men. But notice this, if you will. These people are standing back and letting them baptize Saudi Arabians because they don't want to offend their American Army friends who are saving their bacon. Now, that's an amazing thing. God has all kinds of ways of getting the truth out. He can take the wrath of man to praise Him. And if you will think of this, the future role of the church, and this gives me great concern. But before I bring you that, years ago, I used to hear my father pray. He had New York City on his heart. And, uh, Brother Chapani, sitting here, I don't know if you recall how he would pray. Brother Chambers, he always used to say, "God needs to send us some rich man that can give us a lot of money that will help us buy some property in New York." Well, at that time, property was high. Now it's higher than ever, and it's like pure gold. An excited Scotty Teach called me the other day. Is Scotty in the audience? Are you anywhere in this audience? Scotty. Scotty Teach called me the other day. He said, "We made a breakthrough in New York. We made a breakthrough in New York." A rich man, man has come to us. A rich man has come to us and said, "I'm going to give you a theater and write it off on my tax. I'm going to give you some more lands that I own and take it as a tax write-off." I go back to those prayers again. Oh, God, send us a rich man. Send us somebody that can help us in this great city. Prayers never die, nor do visions die when you hold them strong in your mind. And you and I need to be oneness in vision. How many believe we can touch the world with this gospel? Do you really believe that? Oh, I, I wish to God I had all of our, uh, district superintendents here. Praise God. I wish I had all the people that lead this movement here tonight. Not all of them believe that. [Applause] Now, I'm sorry to say that, but I'm going to tell you that not all of them believe that. Not all of them believe that because maybe they have some other thinking. I don't think it's some other thinking. I think it's just plain old stinking laziness, and they don't want to be disturbed. Just let us have our little kingdom. A district, a national body, a local church, an international body that doesn't have a vision isn't worth living. It isn't worth existing. We need a oneness in vision, and together believe that our God, our God can do things beyond our understanding and our imagination. Oneness in vision. Oneness in vision. Say it with me: Oneness in Vision. Oneness in Vision. This church is the only church in this hour that's going to make an impact on this [Music] world. Brother T. Tenny, you were standing by me when Mr. Carlson of the Assemblies of God walked up and began talking to us. And I asked him, "Would you get together with us, and we, our General Board, and your General Board, talk about the Godhead?" It sort of, I don't know if you noticed it, sort of shook him a little. He, he didn't immediately answer. Well, he said, "Of course, that would depend on whether our Brethren would want to or not." And I made the statement to him that I thought that there wasn't as much difference in what they thought about it and what we preached about it. And I said, "I think a whole lot of your folks believe just like we do, but they're afraid to preach it because you'll put them out of the movement." This vision has to be with us. I think the greatest revival we're ever going to have in the United Pentecostal Church is coming from denominational Christianity who has lost their burden and vision. The Methodist Church is losing 1,500,000 people in the last three years. Where are they going to go? [Music] To where are they going to go? To the Presbyterian Church. They say, "We'll be out of business by the year 2021." Where are they going to go? And why are we as a people given this great privilege of the revelation of God? Why do we lock ourselves into little corners and are not willing to tell the whole wide world that God has sent us to this hour for this time? Oneness in Vision. Oneness in Vision. Oneness in Doctrine.
And not only that, the future world of the church. "Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unjust, and not before the saints? Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world?" What kind of a church is this? It's going to judge the world. And if the world shall be judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters? Know ye not that we shall judge angels? How much more things that pertain to this life? If then you have judgments of things pertaining to this life, set them to judge who are least esteemed in the church. I speak to your shame. Is it so that there is not a wise man among you? No, not one that shall be able to judge between his brethren? But brother goeth to law with brother, and that before the unbelievers. Now, therefore, there is utterly a fault among you, because you go to law one with another. Why do ye not rather take wrong? Why do ye not rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded? Nay, you do wrong, and defraud, and that's your brother. There's something in these scriptures, and it's sobering and causes me a great deal of apprehension. Are we of the disposition and attitude that we can qualify for this majestic task when we are so petty and nitpicking of each other? I, I want to say something at this point, and I hope and pray that you'll not misinterpret me. There's nothing in the scriptures that has anything to say about facial hair. Nothing. And you cannot find it in any portion of the scripture. However, I want to point out something to you, and please don't go out and say Brother Ur is now condoning facial hair. Let me tell you something: if you, uh, fix your beard a certain way, the homosexuals know you're one of them. And if you try to get into the narcotics group without a beard and long hair, they'll, they'll keep you out of that because they know you are not one of them. Right. There's a difference between holiness and standards. There's a difference between holiness and standards. When I talk to you tonight about the fact that we take the position that we don't want to be identified with this world or some of the world's ways of doing things, we say, "Come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord." So we come out and look clean-shaven simply because we don't want to be identified with anything homosexual or anything narcotic. But then the sad thing is that some of our preachers will make a very big deal about this. Let me tell you something. One day, one of our General Board members years ago said he would never baptize a man with long hair till the man got a haircut. And Brother Kilgore gave a classic answer: "What will you do with a woman with short hair?" You want to think that over a little bit. We get some strange ideas about what we do and how we're going to do it, and God never did give us this idea. It's some of the things we put in our head, and we're going to knock people down regardless of it. You don't catch, you don't clean fish before you catch them, and you don't shear sheep before you catch them. You've got to bring them and teach them the ways of God and an understanding of obedience before God. We need an openness in vision and an understanding of oneness in vision. And if we are of this great church that will judge angels and judge, uh, the world in the latter times, we must begin to grow into the fullness of the stature of the man Christ Jesus.
Let me get off the negative into the positive. Where is brotherly [Applause] kindness? Where is brotherly kindness? When somebody needs your help, where are you? Do you know what this movement could do right now? This United Pentecostal Church. We could take care of every suffering church body that has indebtedness that may seek, that may be foreclosed in the next week or two or months. I'm going to go to jail one of these days. I put my name on three or four notes. My name, not the United Pentecostal Church. Don't get excited. I put my name on that. And someone said, "That's a foolish thing to do." Well, why? It's the work of the Lord. One that I put my name to would absolutely take every little bit I've got in this world if it's foreclosed, and I'm ready to let it go. But the other day, God saved a woman in that church with all kinds of money that was from another country. And she came in. Her husband died and left her with something like $30 million. And the other night in the service, when they were asking for assistance to pay the bill, they were asking people for asking the preacher was asking the people for $100. She said, "I don't want to give a hundred. I want to give $5,000." Oh, friend, I thank God He saved that woman. My name's on that note. No, I'm looking at you folks here tonight. There are some of you that are so afraid to adventure out into the depth of God's goodness and show brotherly kindness. Praise God. Praise God. And, uh, let me say something else. Brother Kilgore, there is a good deal of leadership amongst us that don't even want to think about it. Now, I'm not condemning the United Pentecostal Church. I'm condemning individuals. They don't want to think about it. What is, what is, what is this money that God has given us? Who does it belong to? Who does it belong to? It belongs to God. It belongs to His work. And we need oneness in vision to make us understand that we should share everything we've got with everybody that needs. Praise God. I got a letter from a pastor, uh, that we helped, and it was a very nice letter. And then he said, "I knew you took a risk, but the money is now paid back." I breathe safe again. Oh, help us, Lord. We have closed the door on each other. And who's going to stand by? Oneness people. Not Trinitarians. Only people. We have to stand with us, the people that love this truth and believe this truth. And we need this oneness in vision. And it doesn't make any difference what it costs us, Brother Chambers. It doesn't make any difference what it costs us. Brother Pew said the other day, he said, "I hope you don't get yourself in trouble." I said, "I'm not going to get in trouble. It's the Lord's money." We need to work out our salvation with fear and trembling. And the lack of impartiality among us is sad. All right. We are some of the most partial people in this world, and we have some of the greatest truth that was ever given to mankind. It has been years now. Let me go back a little bit. Let me go back a little bit. It was years ago that a terrible declension took place in the Oneness movement because there were a lot of people that didn't think that blacks and whites should be in the same church. Well, we've grown up a little bit and understood that God pours out His Spirit upon all flesh. He doesn't just pour it out upon an exclusive few. That's why the Apostle Peter used the scripture in Joel 2. It was to the whole world. He didn't use Isaiah 28:12, that was to the Jew. He didn't use Jeremiah 31:33, that was to the Jew. When he said, "This is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel," he was saying, "It shall come to pass in the last days, I'll pour out my spirit upon all flesh." All flesh. We are not impartial enough. [Applause] And we always treat the folks with money a little better than the folks that don't have it. Oh, friend, one day I told, uh, Brother Ted Black, Brother Mooney, who you work with, I told him, "Look, sir, there's a lady that has a drunken alcoholic husband that needs help, and we're going to see that she has bread in her home and food on her table." I didn't know she was suffering like she was until I went to pray for her one day. There was nothing in that home. And I looked at the bare cupboards and I turned to her and I said, "Where's the food?" She said, "There is none. My husband drinks it up with the money that he makes." And I looked at her and almost wept because that lady never missed a service. So I said, "Every Monday morning, you go and see to it that her house is filled with food. Don't bring money, he'll get it. Get the food to the house." So every Monday morning, there was food for the week in that, that house. That went on for two and a half years. Finally, he said to me, "How long do we do this?" I said, "Until it gets better. Until she has some other source of income." He said, "You realize," and he had figured it out, "how much money we've spent for two and a half years on this one little family." And when he figured it out, it came to something like $30,000. That's poultry over a matter of two and a half years. One day she walked in, and she looked at him. She said, "I'm giving this to the Calvary Tabernacle Church." And it was a $200,000 stock in the Mayflower Company. He said, "Where did you get this?" She said, "My uncle owned the Mayflower Trucking Company. He died and he left me money, and I want you to have $200,000 for the rest of the families that need help and can come to your school free of charge." You never, ever give something to people that God doesn't bring it back to you. And we need to have that spirit in this movement. My God, we need to have that spirit in this movement. We need to have that in this movement, and we're at a point where we are self-aggrandizing. We bring it to ourselves, and we don't share it with anybody. You were at that last National Conference. Someone told me the other day, Brother Luman, "I was a better offering taker than you were because those people gave that, uh, $100,000 there." And I said, "I didn't take that offering. Those seven young preachers took that offering. They got up there and told you what they were struggling with, and what was happening to their churches, what was happening to them, what they needed, and how they needed it. And if they could have a bus, or if they could have something to assist them in the work of the Lord." They took that offering, friend, because I could see in the eyes of the people, and the most of the folks that came down there were saints. You were there. You were there. I'm talking about there were more people that were not in the ministry that came with their $1,000. Well, you say, "Maybe they've got it." Oh, come on, come on. There's some folks here that could buy warts out. Maybe that's exaggerated, but you got money, and you know you've got it. Are you going to take it with you when you go? No, you're not. Your kids are going to fight over it, and you're going to leave it with a situation of a mess and bitterness and hatred in the hearts of people. We need a vision of caring and sharing.
"Go ye therefore and teach all nations." The oneness of purpose. And I'm closing. Oneness of purpose. What is the purpose of the church? "Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." Acts 1:8, "But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth." Mark 3:13-15, "And he goeth up into a mountain: and calleth unto him whom he would: and they came unto him. And he ordained twelve, that they should be with him, and that he might send them forth to preach, and to have power to heal sicknesses, and to cast out devils." Mark 6:7, "And he called unto him the twelve, and began to send them forth by two and two; and gave them power over unclean spirits." It's of utmost importance that we understand why we exist. We have to understand that selfishness is the Satan that prevents oneness of purpose. The self-factor. Not interested in somebody else. Not concerned about a floundering, dying world that is sin-infected with human souls, and they know nothing about the real truth. "My priorities are first before I think about anybody else." That's our attitude. "I take care of number one before I care for anybody else." Right. "I'll guard my turf, and you tend to your own." This is tragic, and it's a dying horse. We are at this point, at a state of strength. We could back any kind of evangelical, evangelical thrust if we will enter into the practice of having all things common. The one who hid his talent went to hell. He hid his talent, and it said he was cast into outer darkness. If you don't have a forgiving spirit, you're lost. If you don't have a desire to help the work of the Lord, you will end up in some tragic kind of a consequence that will bring you to a dead-end street of devastation. God keeps straight books. He knows what, and who, and how. It's been said here tonight, He knows what's in your heart. Brother Moon, he said that numbers of times. This young man reminded us of the matter of getting out there, and I tell you what, I could not believe that parade of people that walked across here tonight. That was one of the most magnificent things I have ever seen in my lifetime. But that's because somebody got that burden and wanted to reach out for those people. They're waiting in every town, just like that, for you to come along and bring them to the house of [Applause] God.
"Hall, how did you get saved? Tell me, did somebody talk to you about it?" Leon, how did you get saved? Brother, the neighbor came into our home. Party was going on. Neighbor came into the home. A party was going on. My brother had bone marrow cancer, and he said, "I believe the Lord died to save you." We prayed for my brother. He was instantly healed. I said, "Would you pray with me?" We knelt down by an old feather bed in a little two-bedroom house at the bottom of Billy Gold Hill in central Arkansas. And I said, "Dwight, I don't know how to pray." He said, "Just talk to Him like a friend." And I repented. God gave me the Holy Ghost. My family moved miraculously hundreds of miles, Indianapolis, one block from Calvary Tabernacle, and the Lord gave me the apostolic truth under Brother Shan's ministry. Somebody reached out for this boy. He pastors a church now. And we could go through this whole congregation, and you'd tell us to say, "How did you get saved, Brother Arnold?" It's amazing you got saved. How did you get saved? Your wife took you to that church in, to right in Hollywood. She was raised as a little girl out of an orphanage, and Brother Fred Kinsey's church, and then left there as a little girl, and she had seen people get the Holy Ghost and get baptized. And then when I came out of the Air Force, and we're married in Hollywood and going to get a divorce, and we had gone to a church, and they told us, "Accept Jesus." And she turned to me and said, "Do you really want to know how to find God?" And I said, "Yes." She said, "I know how to find God." As a little girl, they taught me about Jesus.
name, baptism of the Holy Ghost, and we went to a little church in Hollywood and got saved. If Jeff Arnold can be saved, anybody can be saved. How'd you get somebody told me about this? They went out of their way to find me. In fact, they fasted and prayed, Brother Butcher did, until he vomited because most people didn't think I would make it. But he held on to me, and I'm here today because of the love of a Pentecostal. That's why I'm here, and I can do do no [Music] less.
How did you get saved? I had a praying mother who prayed me out of the jaws of hell. When I was ready to go under, both physically and spiritually, I heard her voice wafted across the the breezes like somebody turned the radio on. She cried out, "Oh God, don't let Billy go to hell!" And I left that gun battle, and I went straight toward Calvary. Took me a few months, but I made [Music] it.
Very few of you know that he was under the he was under the fire of a gun from a man that was just absolutely insane, and he went up to disarm him. And he was right there by the window where the gun was, and he was f to be killed. But somehow God saved him from death. Mother's prayers, and his father is a Nazarene minister still, but his mother was a Pentecostal Jesus name Holy Ghost woman who lived a beautiful life. There was no better saint on this Earth than your mother. [Music]
Oneness of purpose. We can't leave this meeting the way these two Brethren preached here tonight. We can't leave this meeting and go out the same kind of people. We've got to go out there and let it go to work for the name of the Lord. Oneness of purpose. If you went through this audience tonight and checked how everybody was saved, amaze you. You may be sitting next to a a bank robber and don't even know it. That's right. There's a bank robber that takes the offering at Calvary Tabernacle every now and then, David Grath. He robbed banks. We think he's saved, so we even let him take the offering.
Through the years, you, that's an amazing thing. But when you look at the Pentecostal movement, let me tell you this, and I'll close. The purpose of this movement. When he walked by by a side of the sea, he saw fishermen and said, "Follow me." And they left their nets and followed him. Heard a preacher preaching one night, and he he was against worldly sports. He named everything, anything. He named croquet, everything. He he had it all, just everything. And I was sitting there listening to it, and he insisted I come up on the platform because because I was his general superintendent. And uh, then when he got to the point of fishing, he was in a state there where they fish. He said, "But fishing, God gave permission to fish, and hunting is all right." And then they asked me to say, they asked me to preach. I said, "Didn't come to preach, I just came to listen, but I do have a few words I'd like to say." I would like to say to our dear brother that he better read his book real carefully because they left their nets and followed him. And when Peter backslid, he went fishing. And when it comes to hunting, who hunted Esau and Nimrod? Oh friend, when you go to talking about worldly sports, you better know where you're going with it. You better understand what you're saying because you can justify something that you want to do that somebody else might be doing.
I'll never forget one of these men walking into our Indiana Board one day, and he had charged one of our Brethren with uh playing a game that he was not in favor of. And so he was a fisherman, and he went fishing on these worldly boats. Have you ever gone fishing on a boat, uh, Brother Paul? Uh, well, sitting out there, those boats that go off Pensacola have bars and everything on them. So this man was fussing with this young man, saying he does such and such a thing, and uh, he should be taken out of the ministry. So I asked him the question, "Do you like fishing?" And his reason for saying he shouldn't play the game that he was playing was because there were bars there, and there were no bars there. So I said, "Do you like fishing?" He said, "Yes." "Do you go out in commercial boats?" "Yes." He said, uh, "I said, do you do they drink on those boats?" He said, "Yes." I said, "Well, this man is wrong because he's with so-called other people of the world around him, but they're not near him, but they're around him. But you can go on that boat and fish with bars. I'd be scared to death to go on a boat, a commercial boat where they're drinking. In that someone might throw you in the drink, you can never tell. They get a little wild on those bats." He said, "I withdraw my [Applause] complaint."
What are you trying to tell us tonight? Oh friend, souls is the object of this church. Souls. And the devil wants to get us messed up in contentious arguments that don't act add nothing to the cause of God. They don't add anything to the cause of God. It's the spirit with which you do it. Now, I promise you, I'm going to close. Boy came in the church, one of our pastor's churches. His hair was so long, but he had that Bible in his hand, and he was just reading it, reading it, just devouring it. And uh, I looked at him. When he got through with the service, he bounced up on the platform and began asking me all kinds of questions. And his friend came with him. And when we got through, he was very interested in the scriptures, deeply interested. And I said to him, "You know, your hair is very long, and it doesn't look good on you. You look more like a girl than a boy." He said, "I do?" I said, "Yes. I would think you were a girl if I were looking at you from your hinder parts, you know what I'm talking about. If I saw the backside of him and not the front side of him, I would have thought he was a girl." "Would you like for me to wear a dress in this pull?" But tonight, he said, "Oh no." The next night, he was back. Hair was gone. On. He said, "I feel so much lighter." Indeed, he would feel so much lighter. But we get into great big agitated sessions when we should be preaching for the souls of men, and they are ready to come.
When he reached down on his hand for me, I was lost and undone, and he made me his son. Can you give us that key? When the Savior reached down for me, let he reach down his hand for me. I was lost, and yet he [Music] made down his hand for oh, and the Savior, oh [Music] oh, he reached down for oh, was lost and [Music] [Applause] [Music] he took the nothing of this world to make his church. Not many noble, not many mighty, just the nothings, and put his precious Spirit upon them. Please understand me tonight. I believe in a good, solid walk of holiness, but holiness comes from God. God is the Holy One, and when he puts his holy spirit in you, he gives you a very strong sense of obedience. Once the Holy Spirit gets in your life, the Saul and the Simon Peter, Brother Moody, they have to move out of the way because the spirit of God makes you an obedient child, and you begin to obey them that have the rule over it. It's so easy to obey, and it's so difficult to get into disobedience. You may never get back. How many are grateful for your salvation? When he reached down his hand [Music]