It's an honor and a privilege to have been invited to speak to you, and it's always a humbling honor and duty to undertake to speak on behalf of the best of masters, our Lord Jesus. I want to get right into the Word.

Having sat on these benches, I know that it creates some posterior pressures. And I want to relieve those as soon as I can. If you squirm a bit, I'll understand. How are we fixed for Bibles tonight? Let me see how we're fixed for Bibles. Oh, that's excellent.

I'm going to read three passages of Scripture. Whatever else you hear tonight, you may have reason to question, but this you can't. I want to turn first to Isaiah chapter 55, verses 8 to 11. Let us give reverential ear to the word of the Lord.

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, And do not return there without watering the earth, and making it bare and sprout, and furnishing seed to the sower, and bread to the eater.

So shall my word be, which goes forth from my mouth. It shall not return to me empty, without accomplishing what I desire, and without succeeding in the matter for which I send it. This is God's declaration of the absolute ultimate success of what he has declared in the inscripturated word.

Second reading is in Luke chapter 1, verse 26. Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city in Galilee called Nazareth. To a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the descendants of David. The virgin's name was Mary.

And coming in, he said to her, Hail, favored one, the Lord is with you. But she was greatly troubled at this statement, and kept pondering what kind of salutation this might be. And the angel said to her, Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.

And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus. He will be great, and he will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and his kingdom will have no end.

And Mary said to the angel, How can this be, since I am a virgin? And the angel answered and said to her, The Holy Spirit. And the angel answered and said to her, The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.

For that reason the holy offspring shall be called the Son of God. And behold, even your relative Elizabeth has also conceived a son in her old age, and she who was called barren is now in her sixth month, for nothing will be impossible with God. And Mary said, Behold the bondslave of the Lord, be it done to me according to your word.

And the angel departed from her. Ephesians chapter 1, verses 7 to 11. As you know, this is the longest sentence, certainly in sacred literature and probably in all literature, without a pause. Paul couldn't find a place to put a period. So he put commas and semicolons and colons, but he just couldn't get stopped.

So unless you read the whole lengthy sentence, you have to break it in, and I'm breaking it in at verse 7. And that is in our Lord Jesus, we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of his grace which he lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight.

He made known to us the mystery of his will according to his kind intention which he purposed in him. With a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is the summing up of all things in Christ, things in heaven, and things upon the earth in him. Also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to his purpose, who works all things after the counsel of his will.

But that's as far as we want to go. Now, I'm going to ask you to keep your Bible open at Ephesians. And we'll come back to it from time to time. I'm going to ask you to help me tonight. I'm going to ask you to help me for several reasons.

First, that I need help. But mainly because I am aware that the things that I have on my heart, I want to say wisely. And I want to say to edification. And I want to say to the glory of God. And I'd appreciate if you just quietly pray.

That God will give me liberty to express the things that I feel on my heart. In the Isaiah passage we read, God made it very clear that there are two kinds of knowledge available to man. A very dear friend of mine of many years ago, who did a lot for me when he was an old man and I was a young man, Dr. E.W. Kenyon wrote a book entitled The Two Kinds of Knowledge.

It's one of the finest things written in which he speaks on this subject. But God spoke on it first. That's where Dr. Kenyon got it. Isaiah, reporting God's speech, says that my thoughts are not your thoughts. I don't think like you think. So we've got two whole sets of knowledge that are different.

There's the human set and there's the divine set. Humans have available to them other human knowledge. You can talk to me on a human level and I hopefully will understand you. If we define our terms of reference and our vocabularies are adequate, we can take the thought in our mind and we can transmit it to another person's mind in the marvel of conversation that comes from being a rational soul, which is the great gift of our humanness.

These are human thoughts, but God has divine thoughts. Here's the dilemma. Has no way of independently, from the human side, breaking into the divine. Man, by all his wisdom, cannot know God. Man doesn't have the intellectual equipment to comprehend God. He doesn't have the moral apparatus to converse with God. He doesn't know God's thoughts.

So man, by nature, is confined to the compass of his own thoughts. God's thoughts are God's thoughts, man's thoughts are man's thoughts, and unless a miracle takes place, that shall ever be the condition that a miracle has taken place. The miracle is the miracle of God independently and sovereignly, out of his own good pleasure, for no reason other than his own good pleasure.

He has chosen to reveal himself. And he said, I'll break the barrier, and I'll come out of the unapproachable realm of my thought, and I'll make some of my thoughts available to you so you can understand them. I'll give you enough of my thoughts so that you can come into relationship with me.

You can be saved. You can be born again. I'll give you enough of my thoughts to tell you what I want you to do with it. And I'll give you enough of my thoughts to tell you where we're going together with it. And you've got to act on that information.

And don't mix the two. Don't bring my thoughts down and try to rationalize them so they fit your thought forms. Because if you do that, you'll ruin everything. And you've done a pretty good job at it already. So don't compound the fault.

Here is the ultimate fact that God has revealed. If you want to take down these points, you may do so. I'll just give them to you. The first thing I want to talk about is the ultimate fact. The ultimate fact is not you, and not me, and not this conference, and not the United States, and not the world.

Before the world, the ultimate fact existed. The ultimate fact is God. God is the ultimate fact. The will of God, the decree of God, the intention of God, the purpose of God, the desire of God, all that God is, all that God wants, is the ultimate fact in the universe.

Don't ever forget that. We humans get too big for our britches. And we try to play God, and we try to tell God what to do, and we try to run God, and we've got it in reverse. The ultimate fact is God.

In verse 11 of chapter 1, it says that he works all things, notice now, after the counsel of his will. When God decided to make the cosmos in the beginning, whatever that is, before there was any such thing as time or space.

When God decided to make the cosmos, the decision was determined within the counsel of his sacred, mysterious, triune being. God didn't counsel with men. There were no men to counsel with. God didn't counsel with angels. They were his creaturely servants.

God counseled in the lofty counsels of his triune being. And out of that lofty counsel, far beyond our comprehension, he willed a cosmos. Some people have problems with election. They don't like the word. It keeps popping up. Election. Everything is elect.

In the beginning there was only God. God elected a universe, God elected stars, God elected a world, God elected flowers, God elected the giraffe, God elected everything. Once you understand that God is the ultimate fact and that his intention and purpose is what you and I have to know about, we're well on our way to understanding ultimate truth.

The Bible says that God is the Alpha and the Omega. That's the A and the Z of the Greek alphabet. He is the beginning and the ending. Human philosophy has a circular philosophy of history. It's circular. It's cyclical. It's going round and round.

The Greeks talked about the eternality of matter. Everything has been, always has been. No, it hasn't always been. In the beginning, God. In the beginning. There was a beginning, and God determined that beginning.

He is the Alpha. But he said, I not only determine the beginning, I will determine the ending. And I'll determine the whole alphabet in between. God is not only A and Z. He's B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y.

He's all the others in between. All things are of God. The Christian philosophy of history is that it's going someplace. Lost men go in circles. That's an axiom of fact.

But God tells us that he is moving in a line from A to B. History is going somewhere. And once you get in step with God, you're going somewhere. Lost men are going nowhere. They retrace their steps again and again and again.

And the history of lost men is a circular history. But the history of God is linear. It's on its way. I had a chum. I'm a city boy. I was raised in the city, and my chum and I used to go in the summertime to our uncle's farms for vacation, he in one part of the country and I in another.

I was sitting at my uncle's crackly old staticky radio one day, listening to the news, and I heard the news that Reggie Sipes, The young man was lost. That was my chump. I audited every news broadcast from that moment on.

And the hours went by and the days went by and they hadn't found Reggie. And then at last came the sad news that Reggie had been found. He was a city boy. He didn't understand the country. He didn't know how to read the woods.

And Reggie was found leaning against a tree, dead of exhaustion and exposure. And they could trace the steps that he had traversed during his lostness. And Reggie had gone in circles. They said the tragedy of Reggie's circular trick... was that at one point he came within a hundred yards of an old abandoned railroad track, which had he found it would have taken him into a town.

But Reggie did what all lost men do, and Reggie went in circles because Reggie was lost, and Reggie died because lost men die. The world in which you and I live are going in circles.

You and I as Christians have plugged in to ultimate reality, and we've plugged in to linear history, and we know where we've come from, and we know where we're going. And it's important that we know where we came from.

We know that we were made in the image of God. It's important that you understand your origins, because if you think your origins are bestial, you're going to eventually behave bestially.

But if you believe that your origins are divine, it's at least going to temper your behavior because you know that your source is higher than a primate. You know that you are more than some kind of a unicellular piece of protoplasm floating on primeval waters.

You realize that you are a magnificent product of divine creative genius. It's important that you know where you come from. It's important to know tonight that this group of people is a part of divine history that is moving in the alphabet of the Alpha and the Omega.

We're on our way. We're going somewhere. God has told us where we're going, and he's told it to us in his word. Let me settle something else tonight. Ultimate reality is God, not Satan.

Satan is not God's peer. God is not chewing his fingernails, walking up and down his study, wondering what Satan's up to. Satan is God's creature. God's got Satan on the end of a chain.

And he allows Satan just to go so far and then he yanks the chain. Now Satan wants to sell us on the big lie that he's buying with God for ultimate authority.

It's the big lie. There's no question about ultimate authority. There's no question about present authority. There's no question about authority at all. Jesus Christ is Lord. Let's say it all together. Jesus Christ is Lord.

I have set my king upon my holy... Heal of Zion, says God. Now God says, why do the heathen rage and the people imagine a vain thing?

The kings of the earth have taken counsel together against the Lord and against His anointed, saying, let's throw off His band, let's throw off His laws, let's do our own thing. God laughs.

He holds them in derision. And then He spends terror among them. And He judges them. And then He says, while I'm doing all of this, let me tell you, ask for me what I'm doing.

This is where the real program lies. As for me, I have set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. I have established a cosmic center of social life, a cosmic center of cosmic life. My king sits on my holy hill of Zion. I've established him there.

That's the ultimate reality. Jesus Christ is king tonight. He'll be king tomorrow. He'll be king forever. He is king. He'll be king forever.

That's the ultimate fact, God's will. God's will and purpose is the ultimate fact. The second thing is that the only way you know what that ultimate fact is, is by revelation.

Now you may not pursue this with any degree of exact consistency, but there are two Greek words for knowledge in the New Testament. One is gnosis and the other is epinosis. You notice they have the same sound, but the prefix is different.

Gnosis is knowledge. That's that human body of information. Epinosis is divine knowledge which has to come to us by revelation. How many things you know tonight that you think you know just because you know them and it's rather common to you, but if you research where you got that knowledge, you'll find you didn't get it from your textbooks in school.

It didn't come out of scientific laboratories. It was something that came out of the Word of God. But it's now become such a part of your knowledge that you almost take it for granted as being part of your human stock.

And it really isn't. It's divine revelation. God has said things in His Word. Now, I'm a strong believer in the Word. Let me say something else to you.

I heard last night a kind of a blanket coverage for us to say something different to anybody else, and somehow it's covered here. So if I say odd things, I got a kind of an indirect permission last night.

When you received, are you listening? How many are listening? When you received the Holy Spirit as life and power, you did not receive him as intelligence.

That's why Pentecostal, charismatic, spirit-filled people do crazy things. How many know that we charismatics have done some dumb things? Come on, confess on yourself.

The reason we do silly things, we've got about everything baptized but our brains. We've got our hand clapper baptized, our jumper up and downer baptized, our tambourine thumper baptized, our guitar plucker baptized.

We've got about everything baptized by our brains. Now, we need to get our brains baptized with the mind of the Spirit.

If being full of the Holy Ghost meant that you become immediate omniscience, what are you doing with that book in your lap? Why do you study this? What are you trying to find out?

You're full of the Holy Ghost, aren't you? Third person of the Trinity, God of very God, infinite information. Why not just call on it?

Somehow you know that isn't where it's at.

The Holy Spirit came and gave you a new life and gave you a whole new direction and a whole new incentive. But suddenly part of that incentive was you had a tremendous hunger to know what was here, what was happening.

The Holy Spirit says, I've given you life and I've given you power. Now find out what to do with it. Therefore, revelation... of God's mind to us is essential if we're going to know what to do with our resources.

Let me digress for a second and anticipate the close of my message by saying this. I carry constant sorrow in my heart along with the joy of the Lord as I travel around the world and I catch beautiful conferences and congregations like this and realize that we are disunited.

That causes me constant sorrow. Sometimes almost abysmal despair. That God's people should be so divided. They should be so separated.

We can come together here and have a tremendous time. And they can do it in many other places. But the minute you try to bring one tremendous time together with another tremendous time, somehow you run into a snag.

And God's ultimate intention for this age will not be fulfilled until all the tremendous times and groups find an interflow that gives them the ability to rise up in the earth.

Like a giant making a thunderous declaration that we are the body of Christ. In that hour, the world will shake.

And the church will be like an army, mighty with banners. It'll cut a swath across the nations and plant the flag of Christ's lordship on the shore of every nation.

Walk up and down the parliamentary aisles of legislative

Here is the cleaned-up sermon transcription with proper punctuation, capitalization, and natural paragraphs:

I called it a digression. It was a transition from point one to point two or from point two to point three. For if the ultimate fact is God's will, and the only way to know that ultimate fact is God's revelation, once we know what it is, we're under a commission.

You read about that in verse 9 of Ephesians chapter 3, if you want to just take a peek at it, where we are told that we're to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery. Let me give you another translation. To enlighten all men upon the new order of the divine secret.

You and I are not called to peddle our own ideas. You and I are called to declare the ultimate intention and revelation of Almighty God. What is that? That is, that Jesus Christ's Lordship shall become a reality among the sons of men in a time-space world.

Now, that may shock you. But it's not only that you and I, as those who have entered into divine revelation knowledge in the power of the Holy Spirit, should make all men understand what God intends to do with this. Whose world is this? Whose world is this?

The earth, let's say it all together, Psalm 24:1. The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. The world and how many? Whose world belongs to? Is God an impotent pygmy? On a farcical throne? Pretending? Or is he the God of first causes on the throne of the universe affecting his will?

Of course, he's the latter. It's God's world, and God has a plan for it. And you and I are commissioned to let all men know what that plan is. You and I are commissioned not only to let all men know but also to make principalities and powers know.

Now, as many of you Bible students here know, when you deal with that word principalities and powers, it's not always easy to know whether it's good ones or bad ones. The context where these words are used is not always clear. But I think in this case, it might be both.

But it doesn't matter. I'd rather think about the bad ones. I'd like to think about Satan and his kingdom, his principalities and powers, and rulers of the darkness of this world. And all His hosts of spiritual wickednesses. There's some kind of a mandate resting on us here tonight, whereby we, along with all our brothers and sisters worldwide, have been mandated to let all men know, all men who belong to God, for this is His world, and the people are His people.

To let all men know what is the secret that He has revealed concerning his intention for this age. Notice what He calls it. To enlighten all men upon the new order of the divine secret.

The word mystery is translated by others as sacred secret. I touched on it in the beginning. All of God's knowledge was a secret to God. Nobody else knew about it. And He decided to share the secret.

When He shared the secret, we are the only ones being born again who have seen the kingdom of God, have tasted His fruits, have some idea of what it's about. We're the only ones that can share it with all men. But we not only must share it verbally; we must share it communally.

Corporately, we must manifest it as a powerful, functioning corporate community.

Did you ever put Ephesians 4:11 in context? As you approach the 11th verse of chapter 4, the apostle is quoting from Psalm 68. And he's talking about the one who ascended on high and gave good gifts unto man.

And how it's His intention to fill all things with His glory. How's He going to fill all things with His glory? There's not a word there about the second coming.

Unless you think that that's a negative statement, I believe in the second coming. But I believe if you don't put the second coming in its place, you will miss the significance of the first coming.

And I've never been called to preach the second coming. I've been called to preach the first coming. Men are not saved by believing Jesus is coming again. Men are saved by believing that Jesus came and died and was buried and rose.

There has to be some kind of a corporate coming together of God's people in a full understanding of the revelation of the sacred secret of God's intention for this age. It is not only going to make all men know but also principalities and powers are going to know.

Satanic powers are going to tremble. Satanic powers are going to be put down. And God is going to bruise Satan under our corporate feet.

I've got to hurry on because I realize that I'm running into your credulity. And I want to say something to you. You believe in faith. I'm not going to test your faith for healing tonight. I'm not going to test your faith for miracles. I'm not going to test your faith for levitating or getting money.

I'm going to test your faith for believing the word of God on a place that's maybe harder to believe it than anywhere else. What is the goal of His purpose?

Now, here is where I'm coming to the part of the secret I want to talk to you about in my remaining time. And please give me ear.

He says, now I'm not preaching; I'm sharing a vision. Verse 10 of chapter 1.

I want you to remember this is the revelation of the mind of God and it was held secretly in His mind until He chose to tell it to us.

Chapter 1, verse 10, where it says that He is going to gather together all things in one in this age of the fullness of time.

When Jesus came, it's recorded in Mark 1:15, he said, "The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand." The time is fulfilled.

Galatians 4:4, when the fullness of time was come, God sent forth His Son, made under the law, made of a woman. Hebrews 1:2, God who had sundry times and in diverse manners in time past, spake unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days at the end of time spoken unto us by his Son.

The fullness of time.

1 Peter 1:20, Christ has appeared at the end of the times. Now, hear me.

God who had sundry times and in diverse manners at various periods of time and in various ways over hundreds of years revealed through His prophets fragments of truth which were gathered up and inscripturated for us in what we call the Old Testament.

Many of the things that were given in fragments and at different times over hundreds of years through the prophets spoke about the things that were to come. And the man who spoke them didn't know what they meant. And when they'd speak them, they'd say, "What's that mean?" And if they heard a voice back, it would have said, "It's not for you to know. It's just for you to write, for you to speak."

So they spoke about a coming one. They spoke about a coming day. They spoke about a coming order. They didn't understand it themselves. They had to wait for the fullness of time.

And they were prophets. They were sheepherders. And they were learned young men. And they were uncouth workers. And they were all kinds and sorts, dotted in various parts of history, giving various fragments of truth.

When it all came together, it compiled and composed an entire story of someone who was coming and who was going to bring in a whole new order. And when that came, it was going to be called the fullness of time. Time would have been fulfilled.

Now, when Jesus came, he came in the fullness of time.

The age in which you and I live are as superior to the age prior to this as the Lord Jesus is superior to the prophets.

Did you hear that? How many know that Jesus is superior to the prophets?

By the same token then, this age is called the fullness of time. It's the filling up of everything that God spoke about.

This age is gathering into itself all God's ultimate intention for history.

I see your credulity showing again. You were hoping the second coming would do it.

Let me say something to you. Nowhere in the Bible does it say the second coming is the power of God unto salvation.

To everyone that believes it. What does it say? The gospel is the power of God.

What is the gospel? It's simply lined out for us in 1 Corinthians 15.

How that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures. Was buried. Rose again the third day according to the scriptures.

Our Christianity is rooted in a historical act and in a historical fact.

That God Almighty became incarnate through the Logos.

In Jesus of Nazareth, and at Calvary he negated all the negatives against us.

And in the resurrection he introduced all the positives for us.

And he rose to be a prince and a savior.

And he's king over all who are kinging.

And he's lord over all who are lording.

And he's sitting in heaven waiting till his enemies are his footstool.

And he's going to stay there until that happens. And that's going to happen through something called His body.

You say, Baxter, you're not very pragmatic. You're not very realistic.

Did you read the newspaper today? No, I didn't, although I'm a newspaper man. I'm a newsman. I love to see what the ghosts are doing in the graveyard.

So I like to watch news. It's a liturgy of wolves these days, isn't it?

It's a kind of a recitation of perennial tragedy.

That's as it should be because man, like the Bible says, is wearing out.

The sooner he wears out, the sooner what we're looking for will happen.

But you know, God has a way where He almost has to wait for man to get tired.

Remember, He sent Abraham into Canaan's land long before they got the land.

And He gave a reason. He said, "The cup of the Amorites isn't full."

I've got to wait until their wickedness is at the point where I can have you go in and kick them out.

Because when Israel went into Canaan, somebody said they had no right to go in and kick those Canaanites out. They did.

They were the instruments of the judgment of God because the cup of the Amorites was full.

God's waiting for the world to reach it.

So there's a kind of a paradox going on.

The wicked are getting wickeder, and the righteous are getting righteouser.

I got news for you. It's not the last chapter isn't like you thought at all.

The last chapter isn't that the wicked are going to get wickeder and root out the righteous.

It's that the righteous are going to get righteouser and root out the wicked.

Let me give that to you principally.

So that it's just not an opinion.

Listen to what we read in John's Gospel. For the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness cannot arrest it.

What's that mean? Well, it means that darkness will try, but it can't, as the English says.

It just can't.

Well, why can't it?

Because the light insists on pervading darkness.

And so as sure as God lives, all the darkness around us is going to be overcome by the light.

Hallelujah!

Now look, either your faith is going to rise to this or your apathy is going to be drowned by it. One or the other.

You say, now just a minute, Baxter, how can this happen?

I deliberately read you a story already to give you the answer.

A little girl.

Scholars say maybe not older than 16.

Little peasant girl, little Jewish girl of the remnant seed of Abraham, little girl by the name of Mary, was visited by one of these great, terrifying, supernatural, celestial beings.

And as he stood there towering over her,

Every time you read the scripture and an angel appears, people get scared.

I have not ever seen an angel, but I was kneeling in prayer with William Branham in a room in South Africa one night when we were under severe persecution, and we were getting ready to go into a massive meeting with thousands of people, and he and I were kneeling there before God, and suddenly in the room there was a terrifying presence.

And Brother Barnum said quietly, "Don't be afraid, Brother Earn."

The angel of God has come in the room.

I was glad he told me.

And quite frankly, I didn't look to see.

Now, I'm not being light about this. I want you to know that angels are real.

And that angels are of a different species than we are.

And when they come in touch with our species, they're inclined to frighten them.

And here's this little girl standing in the presence,

Not of an ordinary angel, but Gabriel, who along with all the other El's, El being an abbreviation of Elohim, this great prime arch servant of God, Gabriel, has come from the presence of God to this little peasant girl.

Unknown, unsung, unheralded, just an obedient, fine, decent little Jewish girl.

He said, "Hail Mary, you're highly favored of God."

Mary thought, what's this all about?

And then the angel told her.

She answered as any pure little virgin Hebrew girl would.

She'd been trained in the tradition of her fathers.

She'd sat at her mother's knees.

She'd heard her father's instruction.

She knew how that a young girl was honor-bound to her God, to her parents, and to her own honor to bring her virginity to her marriage bed.

She treasured her virginity.

She stood in front of that great creature.

She said, "How can what you tell me be? Since, as the King James Version says, I have not known a man.

I am a virgin."

Oh, great angel. I am a very, your humble servant, but I'm not altogether unschooled in the literature of my fathers.

And I'm not unschooled in the literature of life.

My mother has taught me about children.

My mother's taught me about my body.

My father's instructed me in the ways of the Torah.

I understand these things.

Oh, great angel. How could I be with child?

I've not known a man.

Oh, great angel, I understand from the holy scriptures that from the time that our maker created Adam and Eve in the beginning,

He transferred that marvelous power to Adam and Eve.

And from that time on, the cohabitation of a man and a woman has rocked the miracle of reproduction.

And here you're speaking to me now after all the centuries of our history

And telling me that without the normal order of being with a man, I'm going to have it.

Child, how can this be?

Baxter, you're standing up there tonight telling us.

We're a little handful of people here in an auditorium comparatively.

And you're telling us sitting here. As far as the world's concerned, we're a bunch of nondescripts.

Bald-headed, bow-legged, beetle-browed, hooked-nosed, jut-jawed, lop-eared, knocked-kneed, hammered down, squeegeed, sawed off.

Talking to us? Yeah. Talking to you.

You may be all of those things with your physical oddities handed down genetically through the centuries,

But beloved, now are you the sons of God?

Did you ever notice how a wife can believe another man can do something her husband can't do?

She'd stop believing that if she talked to the other man's wife.

She sees him in the morning unshaven.

She sees him with his hair all rumpled and his wrinkly pajamas.

She hardly envisions him as a Sir Galahad clothed in white riding his steed.

But that's how God sees him.

And that's how God sees you, sister,

With your hair all in rollers and grease in your face.

See, I want you to know that God doesn't have to alter our humanness to bring in His intention for this age.

God's not going to glorify you to get this done.

Let's not misunderstand what I'm saying.

Now listen to the formula very simply.

How can this be, seeing I've not known a man?

And Gabriel said, "The Holy Spirit."

And Gabriel said...

Hallelujah!

What did Gabriel say? All things are possible. Let's say it. All things are possible.

And the angel said...

Daxter, things you're talking about, how can they be?

You're talking about us affecting legislation.

You're talking about us changing education.

You're talking about us changing the world.

You're talking about us affecting politics.

You're talking about us affecting sociology.

You're talking about us affecting the world.

How can these things be?

I've only got one answer. I've only got one answer.

What is it? What is it?

Not by might, nor by power. By my spirit saith the Lord.

Hallelujah!

Did you see that corn of wheat lined up here tonight?

That's falling into the military ground?

Might as well take over the army.

How many for taking over the army?

Any FBI here tonight, they'll get me for treason.

Because I'm talking about taking over the world.

Well, she said, now, just a minute, angel.

I know a little bit about history,

And I've read biology books,

And I've read psychology,

And I think you're putting me on.

Is that what she said?

When I was in theological seminary,

That isn't the way they taught me.

Is that what she said?

No. She answered very simply.

She said, "Be it unto me according to thy word."

Listen, if God wants you to do something you never dreamed you could do before tonight,

How many of you are willing to do it?

How many of you are willing to let God make you do it?

How many of you have done things you never thought you'd do since you received the Holy Ghost?

Well, why not do a few more things?

Your credulity is showing again.

Who, me? Yes, you.

You say, well, that's going to be done by some other group.

No, no, I anticipated that argument.

And that brings me to my next point.

If the goal of His purpose is to bring together in one all things,

You see, I tonight, I am living at the tail end of a life that I wish I could lengthen.

I have watched on tiptoe one move of God after another.

I followed my parents out of Presbyterianism and the Holiness Church into the classical Pentecostal movement.

I walked into the Lateran movement to which reference was made last night.

I was at the second great conference where there was more God concentrated than I'd ever seen in my life.

I traveled for seven years with William Branham and spoke to as many as 200,000 people packed into the racetrack in Durban, Natal.

I saw the charismatic thing start when I was going through a period of disillusionment because I

Here is the cleaned-up version of the sermon transcription:

Miah: I wanted to quit the ministry. And I'm just getting nicely settled down and things are calming out. And I pick up the newspaper and it says an Episcopalian priest is talking in tongues in Van Nuys, California. And I felt a little strange, but I didn't make much of it until they moved the Episcopalian priest up to Seattle, Washington. They kicked him up to a little mission church to get rid of him, and he started a revival. And I got to know him, and I was very close with Dennis Bennett in the early days of his journey. And I watched the charismatic thing grow, and I said, well, here I go again.

Do you know back in those healing days when William Branham in the very early days, there'd be four or five hundred ministers sitting up here? I knew a lot of those ministers. especially up in the Northwest, some of those men hadn't talked to one another in years. They had doctrinal differences. They had governmental differences. But when a miracle would take place and the Holy Ghost would move and things would happen, I'd watch those men with big tears of repentance run down their cheeks, climbing over the benches to reach a man they hadn't talked to in 10 years and embracing him.

And I said, my God, that's the beginning of it. That's the beginning of it. How shall these things be the Holy Ghost? And then we came into the charismatic dimension and we went to our great conferences and Lutherans and Catholics and all the denominations were rubbing shoulders with one another. And I said, my God, that's it. But none of it is gelled.

I hear talks about what's the next move and what's going to happen next. I hope all kinds of things happen next. But I know the one thing that's got to happen, if not next, it's got to be the next next or the next next, but it's got to happen. And that is where God so visits us by the Holy Ghost that we're not just blessed and get goosebumps and talk in tongues and prophesy and play tambourines and sing choruses, but we find one another in the indissoluble love of covenant and we bind our hearts together to walk across this earth as a mighty army and take possession of the inheritance in the name of God.

The fifth point is that you and I are the vehicle of this purpose. Verse 10 and 11 of chapter 3. I'm going to read it from the New American Standard in order that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church. Through the what? Through the church. Say it. What are you? How is God going to make this great event take place?

Let's go back to verse 11 of chapter 1 now. I want you to see it with your eyes. I'm coming to a close. You've been wonderful people.

Also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to his purpose. Who works? Let's say all together, who works? Who's going to do it? God's going to do it. Are you willing tonight to lay down a lot of your schemes and plans and let God do it? Are you willing to just find your place and be satisfied with it, or do you want to run the show?

The Bible says the zeal of the Lord of hosts is going to do this. Did you ever know God was an enthusiast? Dr. Dinsdale Young said, an apathetic God would depress the universe. God's an enthusiast. Have you ever looked at creation to see how enthusiastic God is? God's enthusiastic. God gets excited.

When he wants to go for a ride, he straddles a cloud, takes a couple of thunderbolts in each hand, and away he goes. The Bible says, God's got up with a shelf. God's an enthusiast.

I did a lot of my traveling in the early days in the old prop plains, across oceans, Africa, Europe, Scandinavia. Those things, you know, flopping, you could go down. I looked down, I saw all the water, hour after hour, and I'm in the water. I said, my God, that's a lot of water.

Well, he said, the day I did that, I was pretty excited. Then I flew, I flew over the Alps, and I flew over the Rockies, and I've flown over the mountains of the world.

If you've ever done that in an old prop play, and they don't get too high, you just skim the tops. Mountain peak after mountain peak. I said, my God, so many mountains. Another big day.

And then on a nice clear night in California, Ruth and I used to sit and look up and watch the satellites as they made their way among the stars. We became aware of the numberless stars. I said, my God. Did you have to make that many stars? Well, he said, you know me.

Did you ever notice that when he gave the Holy Spirit, he doesn't say, and on the day of Pentecost, he dribbled it out? What did he do? He poured it out. a big God. He's a prodigal God. He's a philanthropic God. He does exceeding abundantly above all.

If you can ask or think, when you've got a way out there to the furthest range of your imagination, you're just getting started with God. He's a big God. When it comes to mowing the lawn, he did a good job on the grass too.

Finally, Like our brothers watched last night, my finalies don't mean a thing. But in this case, I know it must. My seventh point is that you and I are to be established in this purpose. You say, Baxter, I like what I hear, but I don't want to get involved. Sorry you're too late. You may not want to be involved, but do you want to be left behind? Well, then you've got to get involved.

So what does he say? He says in Romans 16, 25, Now to him who hath power to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching about Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the sacred secret, which was kept secret since the world began. You and I have to be established in this fact.

That it is God's intention to gather together in one all things in Christ. We've got to talk about it. We've got to pray about it. We've got to act about it. We've got to behave about it. We've got to relate about it. We've got to tear down walls in terms of it. We've got to affect the coming together of God's people.

Because until other things come together, until we come together, other things won't. Now you're just a drop in the bucket tonight. But you're an important drop. I don't know who you are. One of the handicaps I have here tonight, I don't know many of you. I don't know how to relate to you.

But I know you're God's people. But you're important. How and where you come from. But wherever you come from, you are under a holy mandate to find every other Christian in your area and have at least a rapport with him and establish a relationship with him because God's people are one.

Jesus' prayer is going to be answered. Father, I pray that they may be one as you and I are one, that they may be one in us, that the world may know that thou hast sent me.

Now let's run that back negatively. If they are not one in us, The world will not know. The ultimate form of evangelism is the unity of God's people as they become a vast platform for declaration.

Now I'm really going to close with a vision that I had in Australia last year in the city of Brisbane in a large conference where I was speaking. And I saw this vision and I must tell it to you carefully because I don't want it to be offensive to you. But what I saw was a vast, seething mass of some kind.

It was a good mass. And it's something to get a vision while you're preaching. That's a bit awkward. And I was describing it as I saw it. And I said, this is a great, seething mass of people. And I see who they are. They're God's people. They're God's lively people.

Evangelical, charismatic, alive, faithful to God. But they're somehow so taken up with themselves that it's kind of like a vast picnic. Well, they're getting some soul saved. And it was good because I'm in that bunch. See, I'm part of this. This great thing.

And after I saw that, I looked up and I saw a most frightening thing. I saw a claw. The claw was coming down, and while this was intoxicated with its own internal intoxication, having its own fun, this claw was slowly picking off all of the liberties and rights of people.

It was a satanic claw. Now, brother, you can interpret that any way you like. You can interpret it as direct satanic activity, or you can interpret it as satanic activity through government, or through philosophy, or through education. Interpret it any way you like.

But while we're having this good time down here, congratulating ourselves on being Christians, and we're going to heaven, and aren't we a great bunch, and hallelujah, isn't God good? We're having a tremendous time, and I'm with you. I'm one of you.

This claw is coming down. And I'm watching all this and I'm describing it. And suddenly up from this mass starts to come a group of people to challenge the claw. It is the vanguard. It is the challenging prophetic community emerging out of the great body.

Now the only thing special about them is that they've seen the claw. And they realize that they don't have a right to enjoy all of this without fighting for it.

And I didn't understand that night, but in the audience, I couldn't see a lot of the people in the audience, were some important men in Australia. To whom that had a great significance.

They were not charismatic even. They were men who were concerned about where Australia was going and is going. And I must speak carefully because I love Australia and I go there often. But Australia today is drawing up a new constitution that is so full of left-wing situations that the church and education and everything is being endangered.

And as I spoke about this group coming out, there were men sitting in that room who already had resources available to do something about challenging that particular claw.

And I am not free to go into the details other than to say to you tonight that there is a large growing body of leadership in Australia of all kinds and types, including parliamentarians who are bound together in an organization to challenge the government in what it's doing to the kinds of freedoms that have been bought in Christ's name.

Listen, forgive me for a moment, but I go to conferences in places like Oberlin. I think about Yale and Harvard and all of these great institutions. Do you know that those institutions were bought with redemption money? Do you know that godly money went into those institutions?

Some of these universities are cesspools of liberalism. I walked into the Princeton Rotunda a couple of years ago, and every book on display for sale had something to do with liberation theology and left-wing activity.

In Princeton, there was once the bastion of Reformed theology. And tonight, I say, one of my ambitions is to see God's redeemed property brought back to Christian people.

I want to finish on a very practical note. I don't want you to stop being intoxicated. I don't want you to stop having fun. Fun's part of it. But I want you to take a good hard look at the cloth. And I want you to hear what is the mind of God.

Listen to what God says. I am going to bring together in one all things in this the age of the fullness of time. Because I want you to enlighten all men as to the lordship of my son Jesus Christ.

That he has a right to reign in history. I believe God can change governments. I believe God can alter education. I believe God can teach us from his law. I'm not talking about the whole world being saved, but I'm talking about the world coming under the lordship of Jesus Christ.

And that, for me, is a part of the revelation. That's part of the sacred secret. How many of you have heard the secret tonight of what God wants?

How many are prepared to pay whatever it costs to challenge the claw? These young chaplains are challenging the claw. We applauded them. It's always easy to applaud the fellow that's going out to face the enemy.

Now, don't go out of here and grab an axe and start chopping. Jesus said, lift up your eyes and look unto the fields that are white unto harvest. Everybody grab a sickle and go out and start to hack. That isn't what he said. What did he say? Pray ye the Lord of the harvest.

There's more to what we're doing than what we're seeing. And there are forces already now in the kingdom of God that are saying, children of God, expand your horizons to embrace the sacred secret of the Almighty, that it is His intention in this age of the fullness of time to gather together and one all things in Christ.

I applaud the leadership group. I applaud the network of ministries. I applaud every attempt to bring God's people. I'm 72. I don't have the energy. I don't have the go. I don't have what's left to make a youthful contribution.

But this crackly old voice is going to applaud and shout and egg you on and challenge and say, go get him. Because God is back of you. And the God who's a zealous God and the ultimate enthusiast will put something in your heart.

And the giants will be afraid of you. And when you go in to take over the land, all you'll do is go... and they'll fall down.

Thank you for hearing me. I don't know what you've heard. I mean, I don't know what you've heard. I know what I've tried to say. But I'd like very simply, without any bowing the heads and soft organ music, to challenge you rationally and quite coldly, without even stirring up your emotional machine.

In the light of what I've said to you tonight, if this is God's will, and you know it's God's will, and you want to do God's will, God's going to start to bring opportunity to you to do something about challenging the claw. You better stay blessed down here. You better keep drinking.

You know, the only way to stay drunk is to keep drinking. I won't get into that analogy any further, but I want to ask very simply now, how many of you in the light of what I've said tonight are going to start?

Looking to the Lord of the harvest to see where he wants you to do something about challenging the cloth. Just a quiet standing to your feet, please.

God, in the words of your great servant of another generation, look down and see this waiting host. Give us the promised Holy Ghost. Set something burning in our spirits tonight.

You have a niche for each of us, different for most of us. For some, it's taking the kingdom into education. It's taking the kingdom into government. It's taking the kingdom into the army, into the forces. Indeed, it's even taking the kingdom into churches.

But you have declared that it is your will to bring together in one all things in Christ. By the Holy Ghost, you're going to do it.

Thank you. You may be seated.