The story’s so beautiful; I just can’t leave it for a moment. You know, the law of redemption, that when Boaz… You know the story of how Ruth gleaned in the field and found favor with Boaz. And before he could marry her, he had to redeem all that Naomi had lost. And the only one that could redeem Naomi’s fallen estate, in the law of redemption, was a near kinsman; had to be kinfolks before he could redeem. And that was her closest kinfolks. And he had to make a public ensign outside of the gate, or a public confession that he had redeemed all that Naomi had lost. And Boaz did it by kicking off his shoe before the elders and said, “If there’s anybody here that’s got anything that belongs to Naomi, I this day have redeemed it.”
And that’s the way God did: followed His own laws. God cannot follow–give you one law to follow and Him follow another. He follows His own laws. Then God, in order to redeem the lost church, the lost world, the lost creation… God, Who is infinite in Spirit, to redeem the lost human race, God Himself become kinfolks, a Man, a Son that He created in the womb of Mary. And then He made an ensign or a testimony. Outside the gates of Jerusalem He was lifted up between the heavens and earth, and died, and redeemed everything. And in bleeding He sanctified a church that He Himself might live in, and fellowship, and commune with, that lost spot of fellowship from the garden of Eden where God came down every evening, church time. Did you notice, God came down in the cool of the day, the setting of the sun. There’s something about when it starts to get night, people think of church and of God–Christians. You see the sun setting; you realize that your sun is setting.
And in the cool of the evening He’d come down and commune with them. And there He lost that fellowship, because sin would not let Him do it. And then He was made flesh and dwelt among us in order that He could come back again to man, and live in man, and restore man to a state of communion with Him again, and give him back his God-given right. That’s what He did.
That’s the purpose of the Holy Ghost: It’s the Father again, God the Father dwelling in you, working out His plans to finish His plan of redemption, working through you, making you a co-worker with Him, giving you a place, giving you a part for your fallen lost brother and sister, giving you His Spirit and His love to go hunt the lost as He did in the garden of Eden. “Adam, Adam, where art thou?” That’s what the Holy Spirit does to a man or a woman. When It strikes into their heart and takes Its abode, there’s a thirst and a hungering for lost souls. That’s what’s the matter with the meetings today; there’s not enough Spirit touch in it to go for the souls of the lost and the dying. It’s more to make a name, or a church, or a building, or a denomination, instead of a soul winning program.
What Was the Holy Ghost Given For
Jeffersonville, IN
59-1217