This is That
By Seth Rees
(Acts ii. 16-18)
"But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel; and it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams: and on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy" (Acts iii 16-18.)
These are the words of the Apostle of Pentecost, repeating the prophecy of Joel, which foretold the wonderful event of Pentecost. Especially do we call attention this afternoon to the fact that the descent of the Holy Spirit, the advent of the third Person of the Trinity into this world, results immediately in the preaching of the gospel of the Son of God. As a result of the outpouring of the Spirit, the sons and daughters and servants and handmaidens prophesied. That word "prophesy" is very frequently misunderstood. The original word means "to bubble " or "to shout" or "to run over like an artesian well." Prophecy is referred to in the text we have read, as something to which all of God's people are called, for a careful study of the Word of God reveals the fact that it covers all phases of practical gospel preaching. Preaching is not preaching that does not "bubble"; that does not "spring up." Preaching is not preaching that is worked up; it must bubble up or spring up like an artesian well, to meet the New Testament standard.
We have searched the Word of God in vain to find a single trace of what is known as modern sermonizing. We can find where men, women and sons and daughters preached, but we find no trace of an attempt at sermonizing, a systematic presentation of what some people call "truth." The greatest sermons the apostles ever preached were very largely from their own experience. From the day of Pentecost to this hour, when men have preached "with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven," it has been with a holy recklessness and freedom from any sort of manmade or human system that would put a man in bondage.
The fact is, God has called all of His children in these days to prophesy in some way, and Pentecostal preaching is that reckless, free expression of what God has done in the heart, that cannot be put under bands and will not work in harness. There were one hundred and twenty men and women, but they all began to speak, they all began to prophesy; the sons and the daughters and the handmaidens and the servants began to prophesy; they told out or let out what God had put in. That is all Paul did when he was arraigned before the council; he just turned the faucet and let the thing flow. There are a great many people who have a very false idea of what it is to preach, and there are many people sitting back and excusing themselves, saying they are not called to preach, or they are not called to talk, who ought to be up and at it.
I have a concern in my soul for the sisters in the church. Thousands are making a most lamentable mistake in waiting for some human recognition. Beloved, when we swing back to Pentecost we can not wait for the ordination of any man. We can not wait for human recognition. We can not wait for the backslidden church to get ready to ordain us. We have got to preach because God puts it in us and we must give expression to it.
What are we to preach? Beloved, if we are going to preach, we must preach that which God bids us. We are not called upon to preach science or philosophy, nor are we called to advance social schemes or theories about higher education. We are not called to do a thousand and one things that the Church has turned aside to do, but we are called to preach the gospel of the Son of God, regeneration for sinners, the baptism with the Holy Ghost and fire for believers, that men may know holiness of heart and holiness of life: that men may be redeemed from sin and be brought to a place where they can know God and enjoy Him forever. God save us from modern preaching and swing us back to Pentecost!
The average preacher is preaching his way to hell, and thousands of church members hold church membership, and it will do them no more good than simply to give them a passport to the regions of the damned. All over this country people are calling for and receiving something that is human; something that is concocted in the study, something that comes upon the plane of human intellection, when God has commanded us to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ "with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven." It is an appalling fact that some awful stuff is poured forth from the pulpits of many of our churches. No one who knows me can properly understand me to tirade or abuse any one; but, sir, if to know the facts is to be oppressed with a great burden, I dare to tell the facts that our people may get under a living concern and that the Church may be redeemed from the fallacy of this latter-day preaching. Lord, give us something out of the skies that will save men from an endless hell.
What do we want to preach? We do not want to preach ourselves; we want to stop that sort of thing, every one of us. It would be a good thing if we would stop testifying with a perpendicular pronoun "I" six and a half feet high at the head of our testimony. It would be a good thing if we would change things and put the Son of God to the front, and instead of saying "I am sanctified," and "I am this and I am that," if we would say "He sanctifies me wholly." If we would keep Him to the front, people would understand things better. The tendency everywhere in these days is to relegate God to the rear and promote man and bring him to the front, and the devil is helping us to do it. He wants preachers and laymen and everyone else to keep themselves to the front and leave God out. We can't afford to do that. We must preach Jesus.
We must preach the cross. I know there is some reproach connected with it, but I know that for a man who shares the reproach without complaint there is a tremendous reward. There is some persecution, but it is little compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us. We are called to preach "Jesus Christ and Him crucified"; salvation for the sinner from his record and salvation for the saint from what he is that he may be filled with the Holy Ghost.
The fulfillment of the words of our text gives us victory; gives us success; insures success. How is it that all over this country men are complaining of defeat? How is it that men are mortified and say they are deeply pained that they can not have a revival? Do you know it is just as easy to have a revival this afternoon as it was eighteen centuries ago? Do you know a revival is sure to follow certain conditions, as surely as God is God, and truth is truth?
The reason we do not have a revival is because we do not preach with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven. We need a regular Mississippi to sweep over us and carry away a whole lot of trash and give us an eternal victory. Many a man "preaches well." He is "logical," he is a "systematic thinker," he has a "delightful delivery," the people are "held in admiration," and they are free to express it, but no one gets saved! Another man comes along with no new truth, very little system and a great many objectionable features in the way he presents the unvarnished truth, and the fastidious are offended, but they get converted, and the backslidden church members are enraged, but they are shown that they are out of harmony with God, and the result is that a great and lasting revival breaks out! What is the difference? One man preached and he depended on brains and human education, and the other man preached the truth and depended on the Holy Ghost. A very popular evangelist said some time ago at the close of a fruitless series of meetings: "I can not understand it. I preached this same series of sermons in a certain city in the very same order, and there were two hundred converted." He ought to know that the Holy Ghost does not go according to order. He does not go by rule! One time the man preached and depended on the Spirit, and the Spirit honored the truth. The other time he depended on a systematic presentation of the truth he had preached somewhere else, and the Holy Ghost retired and did not honor it. Many a time He retires and does not honor our efforts because we try to repeat something we have preached somewhere else.
Many a preacher preaches well. He is entirely orthodox, but he does no good. Why? Well, because he is so immersed in his own ideas that my text fulfilled would fill him with dismay. Do you know that we have fallen upon times when things that can not be understood are not only denounced and decried, but people are afraid of anything like the supernatural. They are afraid of being fanatical. God in heaven help us!
The valley of the Nile has been famous for its fertility for thousands of years. This fertility is owing to the annual overflow. If it stayed within its banks it would serve for all the purposes of navigation, but the soil would not bring forth food, and a famine would follow. A man can not go through a round of duties simply, and yet accomplish much for God. But if he could have a freshet in his soul men could get bread from him; there would be food in God's house for the people. Lord, run us over!
The freedom from excitement that is so complimented by the world, and is so generally characteristic of the church, will never bring us a harvest of souls. We must get more reckless and more ready to preach and pray and sing and shout, regardless of what people say about us. When we get there, it will make but little difference whether people have been "ordained" or not. It will make but little difference whether you have ever had a bishop's hands on your head or not, if you get the Holy Ghost on you. If you receive the unction of the Holy One you will preach and have converts and victory, and God's name will be glorified, and Pentecost will return.
When people receive the Holy Ghost a little child can have a revival. A little child has a revival many a time when the preacher can not. Many a revival comes to a church when it is not the preacher who is to blame for it. It is some child or some "cranky old woman" who shouts her bonnet clear over to the wrong side of her head, but who knows how to pray and wait on God until the skies part and victory comes. There is going to be a great change after a while, and many a tall fellow is coming down and many an insignificant person is going up. When the judgment is set there will be such a changing of things as will astonish many a tall-hatted preacher and many an elder, and many obscure souls who are God's valiants but who will not even remember when they did anything extraordinary. It was all recorded, and they remember it up there.
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