The Holy Spirit is the central focus in the passage, emphasizing His personhood and His role in the current "day of the Spirit." The message explores the significance of the number forty in Scripture, linking it to various biblical events from the flood to Christ's temptation and post-resurrection appearances, to illustrate themes of judgment, mourning, law, fasting, probation, and divine provision. It highlights the Holy Spirit's unique coming at Pentecost, described with wind and fire, and contrasts His indwelling presence in believers today with His temporary operations in the Old Testament. The sermon concludes by likening the Holy Spirit to water and a channel, urging believers to be conduits of God's living water to a thirsty world, reflecting Christ's own joy and peace.
Restored with Diffio
Audio restored with Diffio. Diffio processed the original archive recording to reduce noise and produce a cleaner listening version; the original stays available.
Speech quality score (model-estimated, SCOREQ): before 1.78 → restored 3.99
to Acts chapter one, please, for one verse, then over to chapter two. Acts chapter one and verse three, to whom also he showed himself alive after his passion by many impalible fruits, being seen of them forty days, I want you to notice that, forty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God. Now chapter two and verse one.
When the day of Pentecost was fully come, and Pentecost means fifty, we just notice how we had forty days referred to, and then ten makes fifty. when the day of pentecost was fully come they were all with one accord in one place and suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind and it filled all the house where they were sitting and there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as a fire and it sat upon each of them they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak with tongues, other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.
That's all we'll read today. Lord willing, we're going to speak on the subject of tongues. I don't think we'll get at it today, but possibly next Lord's day. This is quite a subject, and drawing national attention, also in other countries. they're having this phenomenon, phenomenal, the people speaking in tongues. Well, our tongues for today will go into that subject possibly next Sunday night and try and look at it from every aspect. And I trust we'll be able to convince you on the subject of tongues that they are not for the present day.
We won't forget these... subjects in Acts. They're very interesting. We'll be speaking this morning mostly on the Holy Spirit from time to time we have mentioned this subject or spoken on, but it cannot be overemphasized because this is the day of the Holy Spirit. The day of the Spirit of God has already ran two thousand years from the time of the Spirit came down on the day of Pentecost until Christ comes for the church. and the Spirit will go with the Church and present the Church to the Lord, that will conclude the Day of the Spirit. He will operate in a limited way during the tribulation.
And then we have the Day of the Lord, which begins with the tribulation and goes right on through the end of the millennium, a thousand years of Christ reigning upon the earth. That period of the day of the Lord will begin when Christ comes with his church. There will be first of all the outpouring of those judgments in Revelation, softening up the earth, softening up the human race for those coming days of judgment and for that great and terrible day of the Lord. And so the day of the Lord really begins with a time, a period of possibly seven years of judgment, when Christ will rid out of his kingdom all things that offend and set up his kingdom in righteousness from sea to sea, from shore to shore, that will be the day of the law, or the Lord's day.
At the end of that time, Christ, having accomplished the will of the Father, will turn the kingdom back to the Father, and God shall be all and in all. That will be the eternal day of Almighty God, the coming eternity. And so there's the Spirit's day and the Lord's day and the day of God referred to in First Corinthians, it's nice to get these days in order. And so we'll be speaking on the Spirit's day. The reason I mention that word, forty, in verse three of chapter one, I was interested in the other night and I took my concordance and went throughout the Bible and discovered that forty days are mentioned ten times and ten is the number of responsibility.
And there are precious truths relative to the forty days of Scripture. First of all, you have in connection with the flood, how that when God brought the flood upon the earth, that terrible judgment upon the antediluvian age, the rain poured down, and the floods came up for forty days and forty nights. Here was God's judgment upon that people at that time. And so great was the deluge of water. coming down and coming up from the fountain to the great deep is covered every month upon the face of the earth.
Forty days of the flood waters in judgment upon the earth. Then you have also in connection with Jacob at the end of Exodus, end of Genesis, because the flood was at the beginning. In chapter seven, Here you have, at the very end of Genesis, another forty days. And Jacob died, and Joseph had him informed by the Egyptians, and they mourned for him for forty days and forty nights. Here we have mourning during that period. It must have been a sad occasion.
for the Egyptians couldn't quite understand why there should be such a mourning as this. And yet it was Joseph and his family and all relatives of Jacob mourning, and some of the Egyptians did because they had respect for Jacob, who had given them their prime minister, Joseph. Forty days and forty nights of mourning. Then you come to Moses in the mount. You remember he went up into Mount Sinai. He was there forty days and forty nights, and God gave him the laws. When written by the finger of God on two tables of stone, we have to pay commands.
Forty days, relative to the giving of the law. Then you remember when Moses came down from that mount, He saw the children of Israel dancing around a golden calf. They dropped the very first commandments. On those tables of stone, thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and in all thee shalt thou say, thou shalt have no other grasp before him, or the sight. And here they have a God, a God made of gold, And when Moses saw them worshiping that God, he threw the tables of stone down and smashed them on the mountain, for him to have gone into their camp with the commandment of God as it was.
Death and judgment would have been the portion of all those idolaters. Moses threw down the tables of stone, and he fasted for forty days. Forty days he fasted because of the sin of Israel. God rewrote those laws on two more tables of stone, and they were put in the tabernacle, eventually in the temple. Then you have the spies, you recall. Twelve of them were sent into the land of Canaan. From the wilderness side of the land, they were sent over Jordan to spy off the land.
Two came back, Joshua and Caleb, with a good report. They said this is a good land, just as God said it was, flowing with milk and honey. But Ten said no. That's not going. It's a good land, all right. All that Joshua and Caleb saw were the good things in the land. The grapes, the pomegranates, and all the fruits and the land pouring with milk and honey. Joshua and Caleb didn't tell you people all of them they saw. Because these saw on the land chariots, great big chariots, sitting for the heavens.
The inhabitants were like giants, great old masters. After that forty days investigation of the land of Caelan, the twelve came back, two brought a good report, ten brought an evil report. The result was that their whole generation, except the children, died on the wilderness side of the promised land. And only Joshua and Caelan and Joshua and Caelan and the children were in to the land. There you have a sad case of unbelief on the part of the ten, and judgment fell, but faithfulness on the part of the two.
Forty days, despegating the land. Then you come to another forty days, and you remember how Goliath, he came out, and he defied. the God of the armies of Israel forty days. Forty days that great big giant came out with his armor bearer and his great tundra's voice echoed over the valley to the Israel army on the other side and the valley in between. And he thundered out his threat. He thundered out his challenge. He defied the armies of the living God.
Forty days, and forty nights. And like all braggers and boasters, God used a little thing, just a little round stone, thrown by David, small by comparison, and it hit the giant, and nothing like that had ever entered his head before. And down he went, just till it is stone. There we have the forty days of defiance, of Almighty God. Some tell us that forty speaks of probation. It could be. This world is defying God, but there will be an end.
And God will take care of these defiant characters and the defiance of mankind when his son, our divine David, will come to power and great glory. Then you remember Elijah. He was a wonderful prophet, but he got to the point one day where he was quite depressed, cast out, and he wanted to die. He even asked the Lord to take him away. Not that I should live. I am fed up. God sent an angel with a meal, a cruise and some cakes, and he fed his weary, overwrought servant.
And he came again and gave him another meal. And he went in the strength of that meal forty days and forty nights. You know, when God gives you food, it's substantial, it lasts. When you feed on the word of God, there's something solid about. But there are a lot of jokes or politics. or something else. It's just a temporary entertainment. But if you get the Word of God down in your heart, this divine man is substantial. And you can go in the strength of it sometimes far more, far longer than just forty days.
But that one meal physically satisfied Elijah for forty days, showing how wonderful God's menu is. Then you have the case of Nineveh. I'm sure you're quite familiar with that. And Jonah's message, forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown. Forty days, probation. God will give Nineveh just forty days. How did they accept that warning? They repented. in sackcloth and ashes from the king upon the throne until the beggar down in the fountain and God spoke them because they repented.
There you have the forty days of repentance. When you come to the New Testament for the ninth case of the forty days, the Lord Jesus in Matthew chapter four went into the wilderness and was tempted by the devil forty days and forty-ninths. The Son of God came out of that temptation victorious. The first Adam, the first man Adam, he was tempted by Satan in a beautiful God and he fell.
And you know what has happened since the human race found that But the second man, the Lord from heaven, was tempted by Satan in a wilderness for forty days. He did not fail. He triumphed over Satan. Then he went to the cross. And after he was crucified, raised again, he lived on earth for forty days. We read that in verse three. He was among his own for forty days. Why what a wonderful forty days that was. In trying to line up these various things related to the forty days, such as the judgment and the mourning and the law and the fasting and the exploring of the land and the defiance of Goliath and God's care for his weary servant and the repentance of Nineveh, the temptation of Christ, I thought what can we do?
call these forty days, when Christ mingled with his own, and he talked about the things of God, all that pertained to himself and his people, forty days of rejoicing. I couldn't take the very thing down. Forty days of rejoicing. So there you have the forty days of scripture. You know there are some great events in Acts of the Apostles. There are ten or maybe more, but there are ten at least which can be called great events. The first one is the Ascension of Jesus Christ.
Then you have a ten-day prayer meeting in the upper room. After the forty days you have ten days prayer meeting. I'm sure they had plenty to pray about. After listening to the Lord Jesus for forty days and hearing him talk and expound the Scriptures, they would ask him questions that he would answer. Oh yes, at the end of that forty days, they had a ten-day prayer meeting in that upper room, and they had plenty to thank God for, and they had plenty to pray about. Our lost world was around them.
and they had to carry the message to this lost world. They had lots to pray about, but they needed some power in order to take that message. And they prayed in that upper room until the promise was fulfilled and the Holy Spirit came on the day of Pentecost. Pentecost means fifty. And after seven weeks, seven Sabbaths, seven Sabbaths of forty-nine. And then the very next day, the first day of a new week, Christ rose from the dead, and the first day of a new week, the Holy Spirit came down from heaven.
So you have that great event that we'll be speaking on for the next few messages, the Pentecostal power, or the experience of Pentecost. Then you have, as I already mentioned, you have the Ascension, the ten days prayer meeting, the third great event, the coming of the Holy Spirit, and then you have the establishment of the church in chapter two. That's another great event. You have Paul's conversion in chapter nine. You have the gospel going to the Gentiles in chapter ten in Canelus' house, and you have Paul's great missionary journeys. Here are ten great events.
in the book of the Acts. Now we're going to speak on the Spirit, the coming of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of God is a person. He is also a power, and he was promised. The Spirit of God didn't come because they prayed for ten days. No, God had promised that he was going to come. You read that, they waited for the promise of the Father who was to send the Holy Spirit. And even Jesus Christ has spoken of us as giving them the gift of the Holy Spirit.
You can imagine that prayer meeting. Day after day they hurried to the upper room. There they prayed. There they waited. Not there in just exactly when. the Spirit would be given to them nor how. But at the end of the ten days, there is a glorious fulfillment of the coming of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit came with a mighty rushing wind, a great noise. And with twelve and tenets of the fire, there's a form given to the Spirit. Just like when Christ was baptized, the John spirit in the form of a dove, a light of the fallen.
Let me say this, that has never happened since. The great noise accompanying the spirit on the day of Pentecost, like a mighty rushing wind, and the form of the spirit like woven tongues resting on their heads, that has never been repeated. There is only one Pentecost. While these people talk about these great meetings they have, for the filling of the Spirit, there is no great noise of a mighty rushing wind. And you do not see the form neither of a dove or of a tongue of fire sitting on the heads of all those present.
That happened once, and that was on the day of Pentecost. There was a lot more to say about that. in the future. And so here is the promise of the Spirit as you have in Joel chapter two and verse twenty eight or thirty eight. But now the person of the Spirit. The Spirit of God is not an influence. You can't grieve an influence. You can't hurt an influence. The Spirit of God is a person, a real person, a living person. A person who is near is a divine person. He is holy.
And he is omniscient. He is omnipresent. And he is omnipotent. All these things pertain to the Holy Spirit. Omnipotent. He has all power. Omnipresent. He's everywhere. Oh, listen, he knows all this. And he comes to dwell in the hearts of God's beloved people. You'll notice on this occasion he came and he sat on each of them. He's not with them as a temporary visitor.
In the Old Testament the Spirit came upon thee. but only on the day Hezekiah. Did the Spirit of God come upon them and took up his abode within them, and then work through them in the days that were to come. Here you have the Holy Spirit and his person, a literal person. Fifteen times you read about the Spirit of God in the New Testament in the masculine gender. He He, he, he is a person. The Spirit himself bear a witness, you read in Romans chapter eight.
And so I trust that's clear in your mind that the Spirit of God is a person. In the Old Testament, they knew something of the aspect of the wind of the Spirit. In other words, the Spirit of God came upon people. He came upon some people that weren't even children of God, and used them temporarily for God's glory in the case of Balaam. Why, he even caused Balaam's ash to talk. I heard a man one time, I may have mentioned this before, up in Winston-Salem. And he was saved in our meeting, so was his wife.
But I won't tell you that fella could talk. And when he would get to the meeting of the night, he told everything he did all that day. He gave a fact out here, he spoke to someone there, and how he won this argument, and he won that argument. So I had to walk to him one night, and he was talking away to four or five of them, and I stood right behind him listening. And then he turned on and saw it. He didn't know I was standing there. And he had just said how the Lord had used them. I said, I don't see why he couldn't. He used Bainim's ass. I just tried to whittle him down a little bit. But God can't. In that case, he used an animal.
And he used Bainim himself. He used the witch of engor. Yes. And he used even Saul, the king of the Old Testament. For Saul was found among the prophets, speaking the power of the Spirit. But they were not the children of God. God is sovereign. If he can use a man, like he used Pharaoh, God can use a man. If it pleases him, he saw that when it comes to the New Testament, The Spirit of God does not just come as a visitor. He comes as a resident.
He takes up his abode with us and will be there until the day of Jesus Christ. You know there's a big difference between the wind and fire. Here you have the Spirit. like a nun to fire, golden tongues as a fire. All the difference between a sailboat and a big powerful steamer. A sailboat is driven with the wind. If the wind dies down, the sailboat stops. But not the big steamer. The waves may roll and the seas may be rough, but that big steamer churns through all that opposition.
because inside that steamer there is a molten huge turbine the power is inside that steamer it doesn't come from a that and the question has the power within him the power of the Holy Spirit and that Spirit enables him to plow through the many obstacles that are in a Christian's life not like the uncertain way that comes and goes and can stop. That was a temporary situation in the Old Testament.
But in the New Testament he comes to say he sat upon each of them. And not only so he entered into them. Not only so he worked through them. Thus is the work of the Holy Spirit. the day. His mighty power, there are five great acts of the Holy Spirit with which he is connected. One is creation. In creation in Genesis one or two, the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the dead. Then you have the great work of inspiration. Holy men of God speak, that is in the Old Testament, as they were moved.
by the Holy Spirit of God. Then you have the Spirit of God relative to the incarnation of Jesus Christ. That holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. And she was told, Mary was told, that the Holy Ghost will come upon her. Then you have the glorious work of resurrection also related to the Spirit of God. He was declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness by the resurrection from among the dead. And finally, the great work from the Spirit in this hour day is regeneration.
A connection with creation, inspiration, incarnation, and resurrection and regeneration. The Spirit of God comes into the human heart, the one who opens its heart to receive the Savior. When they receive Christ, the Spirit of God comes in and takes up his permanent abode there. Now let's think God, the Holy Spirit, as it was seen in the life of Christ. You know, he was prophesied. Christ was prophesied by the Spirit that he was going to come.
The Spirit of God in the Old Testament used these men as instruments to predict and prophesy the coming of the Messiah, the coming of Christ, of what he was coming for, of what he was going to do. So Christ was prophesied. prophesied by the Spirit of God, predicted, then again you find Christ not only prophesied or foretold by the Spirit of God in the Old Testament, as I've already mentioned, he was born of the Spirit. And he was justified or vindicated by the Spirit as we read over in Timothy.
Justified by the Spirit. Vindicated by the Spirit. The Spirit of God was accomplishing things in the life of Christ, or Christ, by the Spirit, performed these miracles, vindicating His word that He was the Christ, the Son of the Living God. Then He was anointed by the Spirit because the Spirit came down and settled upon at the banks of the River Jordan when He was baptized. He was also... led by the Spirit into the wilderness. And one of the others, Luke speaks of him being led into the wilderness, and one of the others in Matthew speaks of him being driven into the wilderness by the Spirit of God.
That seems strange. Sometimes the Spirit of God leads us gently. We don't know the next step, only as he opens it up and leads us. There are other times when we're driven by the Spirit, by an urge, of course, to recantricize. Yes, we're driven by the Spirit. That unseen, that invisible personality, if we yield them, will drive us to do something that we never could do in our own strength. And when we reflect upon it, we wonder how we get it.
by the Spirit. Then again Christ was empowered by the Holy Spirit, and he died by the Spirit, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, and he was raised by the Spirit, a Christ chapter already given, Romans one four, he was raised from the dead by the Spirit. of holy moments. And do you know His commands were all in the Spirit. He commanded them through this. He commanded them through that. He says, The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are light.
Yes, His words were in the power and unction of the Holy Spirit. And only words spoken today in the power of an ungrieved Spirit are going to be effectual and fruitful. Here you have the power of the Holy Spirit. Also you find in your Bible the various symbols of the Holy Spirit. It's too big a subject to go into all the symbols. But water is a wonderful symbol of the Holy Spirit. Even Christ uses it. It's John Free rounded to the new birth. set the man before the water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
There you have the Spirit of God in regeneration. The water there undoubtedly is the Word of God because Peter tells us in First Peter one twenty three, we're born again by the Word of God which liveth and abideth forever. But the Spirit of God accompanies that word and brings about regeneration. in the human heart. And so we have the Spirit likened unto water in John three. In chapter seven, or four also, chapter four, the Spirit of God is likened unto a well of living water springing up. The life that I will give thee, or the water that I will give thee, Christ said to the woman of Samaria, shall be in the well of water springing up, his everlasting life.
And then in John chapter seven, here you find the Spirit likened unto rivers of water, out of its inward parts of flow rivers of living water, the Spirit coming in, the Spirit bubbling up, and the Spirit flowing out. That is the normal, expected life of a Christian. Only when the Spirit of God comes in, Can there be any peace and joy bubbling up? The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, meekness, goodness, temperance, faith. And when the Spirit comes in to a redeemed heart, there's peace, there's joy, there's the assurance of salvation, and His Spirit bear witness with our Spirit that we are the children of God.
Then because of our own personal enjoyment of God's salvation, God says, now don't keep that to yourself. The Spirit has come into you and sealed you. The Spirit has come into your heart whereby you cry, have a father, and you know divine relationship. You rejoice in that. But remember, don't keep it to yourself because there's a thirsty world all around you. As Isaiah said, we are rivers of water and a dry place. How dry this poor world is. Parts for the want of living water.
Oh yes, the big desert, the veritable Sahara, our tradition and formal fraternity. And the world is thirsty for reality. V thirsty for living water. Something that has life and energy and vitality to you. That's the spirit of God, and if any man have not the spirit of Christ, he's none of his. The world needs the living one. If you receive Christ and you're bubbling up with joy over the fact you're saved and saved forever, don't keep the news to yourself.
Give it up. Let it flow through you. Living waters flowing out to a thirsty world, a veritable day. That's what God intends us to be. You know, David referred to this water. He says, My cup runneth over. One thing in connection with sheep, they'll never drink stagnant water. sheep never do that it's an easy thing to get a sheep to drink flowing water green pastures and still waters and if you read that in the light of what you read about in the Near East I read a whole book written by an Arab on sheep and shepherd life in the east and he said that you could never get a sheep or even a lamb the great stagnant one.
But when you go to water that's moving, it's fresh, they'll drink. David says, my cup runs over. This cup was full, but don't keep it in your cup, David. And I think I mentioned this once or twice before since I've been in Albany. The old happy Scots woman who had found Christ she was reading the twenty-third sound. And when she came to that verse, my cup run and go over, I, she said, but my saucer too. In other words, the water flowed over the cup into the saucer and over the saucer for others.
What's in the cup's yours. What's in the saucer for others. In other words, are you giving something to others? If you're fumbling up, A merry soul is a continual feast. It's always something for others when you're a happy Christian. But when you are a morbid, depressed, unbelieving, backsliding Christian, there's nothing much for you, let alone for anybody else. I've heard people say, well, if that person's a Christian, they go around with a fish like a mule, long, The vast Christianity, I don't want them.
One of the things that snapped and mocked the early Christians, as we'll see in the next chapters or two chapters, was their job in the midst of persecution. Why, when they were persecuted, they praised God. They rejoiced that they were worthy to suffer shame brisly. They couldn't get over. One time... one the Roman emperors was given to try to exterminate these Christians or heretics, as they were called. Well, he had put quite a number of them to death. He had submitted quite a few of them to punishment, certain tortures.
And he called him one of his wise men. What are we going to do with these? Why, he said, are types submitted them for punishment? Hard ordeals? Trivation? And still they sing. And he said, if I put them to death, they rejoice too. They say, well, did I die? He was great. What if they're going to be any happier there than they are here? I'm not going to kill them. that's real Christianity the world can't understand a person that can rejoice in this world and face death without fear it's better on before to depart and to be with Christ is very far better only one who has the spirit and that spirit is causing this joy joy in the Lord Christ says, my joy, give unto my undeafed.
The very joy of Jesus Christ. My peace, give I undeafed. The very peace of Jesus Christ. And the Spirit is likened unto a dove, and the gentle dove, the Holy Spirit dwells in the heart of a Christian. And there he is. You're content. You're happy. you're able to live that light of the dove or the light of the Holy Spirit. And you read about Christians being channels. Drug Christians, yes, that can be speak of stagnant waters, like the Dead Sea.
It has no inlet, no outlet. And there it is, nothing can live in the Dead Sea. The salt is too strong. Some people claim to be Christians and they're just as dead as the Dead Sea. No life, no activity in the Dead Sea. Fish can't live. God wants us to have an inlet and an outlet. The inlet is the Spirit of God coming in and the Spirit of God flowing out. You know, The Christian can be likened unto a piece of pipe.
It doesn't necessarily need to be a gold pipe or a silver pipe pipe or a brass pipe. Just a piece of common lead pipe. But it has to be clean. And it has to be open at both ends. And you can supply a whole city with living water, with water and drink, and cook. through one piece of pipe, it was enough pressure behind it. It may be three or four inches thick, just a small piece of pipe. And that small piece of pipe would say, well, if I get out of my place, if I am taken out of this big pipe, that would be pride in all this water.
Those people would go thirsty, Christian each generation of Christians. And each Christian and each generation is a path to that pipe that's carrying the living water in the earthly world. And if I am of the fellowship with God, I'm disrupting the flow, not only of the living water in, but the living water out. People are being deprived of spiritual blessings of benefit because of me. If that pipe is dirty, it will defile the water. If that pipe is strong, it's blocking it.
If it's in its place, it's doing its job. Living channels. Living channels, empty channels. Channels only, blessed master, filled with all thy wondrous power, flowing through them. thou confuse us every day and every hour. The pipe itself doesn't meet the need of the town. It's what flows through it. The man himself doesn't meet the need of the town. There's nothing in need.
Whether there's whatever there's of God in me or about me, Only as that blows through me are others going to be blessed. I cannot, I dare not project my personality or anything else into that living water. I would stain it. I would be smiling. That water is just to be as purely me as it entered me. My life's got to be clean. I'm just a piece of pipe. in the nineteenth century that God in sovereign grace has been pleased to use, and I don't know why, just so living water can go through on others' feet.
Bless! I get blessed, too. Every system is just a piece of pipe. Even if it's clay, even if it's plastic, if it's clean and open at both ends, it's usable. one thing if I'm going to be able to give out this living water I've got to be taking it in day after day studying the word taking it in then and only then can I give it up keeping myself out of it just letting the word and spirit flow through and so we find Christians as channels and over In Isaiah we've already heard to the floods upon the dry ground, and the rain coming down from heaven, the Spirit of God, like another the rain coming down from heaven, and like the springs of water springing up, and like the dew.
And with this we'll close. Over in Hosea fourteen and five, we read about the dew. And the Spirit of God is like the dew. Do you remember how Gideon used the dew? And how he asked God for the sign. And if he says, I put that piece of fleece out, and it's drenched with dew, then I know that you're going to be with me in doing what you want me to do, and he put it out. And sure enough, it was drenched with dew. But Gideon said, Lord, I don't know that I can do it now and on, but I'm a little stoutful.
Let's do this thing again. This time let the dew be dry, and let the ground all around be wet. And sure enough, God listened to his lovely servant, and the fleece was dry, but all around the fleece was wet. First of all, all the dew was in the fleece, the ground was dry. In the next place, the fleece was dry, and the ground was wet. That exactly happens when you're preaching the gospel, when you're working for Christ. You get the blessing first. You have your heart refreshed and filled, and you go before an audience of a poor people, and they're dry and thirsty.
And as they do, the blessing of God leaves you and goes to them. They are equipped. And sometimes you're left as limp, as limp, as a dry rank. Something's gone through. Many a time after preaching, several times on Sunday I've gone old. I felt depleted. I felt almost like a rank. But I had a lot of rejoices over. Because during that day, precious souls found Christ. others were blessed. The do came down, and the do met the need, first of all, of the instrument, and then of those with whom he speaks.
You know, the do is something that is a very secret and unnoticed and quiet in its operation. You don't see the do thought. You don't hear it, not like a downpour ring. It's silent made. It's settled. It's still. It's quiet. It's unmoved. And that's the spirit of many of his operations. That still small boy comes in.