The Believer

There is only one thing I could preach on today, and that is:

“Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth -”

He that BELIEVETH. He that believeth, bless God. The believer is the big fellow. “He that believeth,” Jesus said.

“He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved.” Mark 16:16

Don’t you know Jesus Christ was the most drastic teacher this world ever saw, Jesus Christ demanded that every other religion in all the world be abandoned and thrown to the bats, in order that men might receive the gospel of the Son of God. Do you hear that?

Not only so. Jesus Christ demanded that every other dispensation and revelation of the true God be set aside in favour of the one pure existent demonstration and manifestation of Jesus Christ. That is the reason the Jew is seeking God for salvation through Jesus Christ, though he had the first and the greatest revelation, until Jesus came. Christianity is the most drastic thing in its demands on the human conscience that the world has ever known. No other teacher in all the world like the Son of God places such demands on the life.

Listen, dear hearts,

“Go ye into all the world.”

The Lord began His preparation of the group to whom He said these wonderful words with the closest possible intimacy. My, He called them one at a time out of the course of the world into attachment with Himself; lived with them, ate with them, slept with them, worked with them, taught them and prayed with them for three years. Bless God, He took them to the bedside of the dying, took them out in the streets among the sick, the lame, the halt and blind, and healed them, and said, “Go out likewise ‘He that believeth.’”

They came into the ranks of Jesus as believers, as believers in Him. Their abandonment of all that had gone before for the divine superiority of Jesus Christ and His revelation was complete. They came to the Lord with open hearts and open minds and open souls to understand and know the way of God and receive the light of heaven into their hearts, and become divinely equipped by His eternal power.

Oh, the believer has a marvellous place. “He that believeth!” Sound it out dear ones. “He that believeth.” Christianity is the most extraordinary democracy that the world ever knew. Jesus Christ laid its ground work and its strength and it soul and spirit of the life in the believer. “He that believeth.” A personal relationship and union with Jesus Christ in heaven, bless God. My, how it sweeps out class distinction, and it wipes away everything and lets the believer stand in the first place of relationship with God.

How struck I was with our Brother Wilson’s testimony the other night. He said he had studied Christian Science for five years. He said when he first got the light of Christian Science he thought it was the most beautiful and wonderful thing in the world. After a while he began to discover it was nice sounding phrases, beautiful words, but lacking in the divine secret, the secret of the eternal power of Jesus Christ through the blood of the Son of God, and he abandoned it.

Oh my, lots of that in the world. Before Jesus Christ came Christian Science in a hundred forms was old and grey whiskered and outcast, and in the dump heap. Buddhism, Confuscianism, Zorostrianism and all the rest of the long line of human philosophies had to go to the dump heap when Jesus Christ the Son of God revealed the Lord from heaven. No place, no contact, separation was the word of Jesus. Let them go, dump them for the divine superiority of Jesus Christ by the Holy Ghost in the human heart.

“He that believeth.”
“HE THAT BELIEVETH.”

Christianity is not based on the mere statement of these words, or mere belief in them. If it was it would be a philosophy equal to the others, possibly superior in its demands on the conscience, but it would be placed on the philosophic demonstration, the same as the other philosophies are. No sir! That is not Christianity. The secret of Christianity is that Jesus Christ based it on an acceptance of Himself. Jesus Christ said, “Receive Me, receive Me. He that receiveth Me.” Not he that receiveth my words alone, but he that receiveth Me.

“He that receiveth.”
“He that receiveth Me.”

Receive Him. That is what constitutes you a believer, when you receive the Lord into your heart. Not when you receive some particular teaching or a partial statement of His word, but when you receive Him, the Lord, the Christ, the Redeemer into your heart.

“He that believeth.”
“He that believeth Me.”

Christianity is the most extraordinary revelation. It so far surpassed everything else in the form of religion in the known earth that there is no comparison what-so-ever.

I have just written a letter to say that I am accepting an invitation to preach at the International New Thought Convention next July for five days. I am going to preach to them about the Son of God. In conference with them (one or two hundred of them) their national leaders a couple of years ago said, “Lake, we absolutely challenge you to show where the gospel of Jesus Christ, or the teachings of Jesus are superior to the teachings of the philosophers.” I said, “Dear brethren, it is not in the statements on the demands of the conscience that is in it. That is not the secret of Christianity. The secret of Christianity is that Jesus gave HIMSELF to the BELIEVER. That Jesus Christ comes into the believer’s heart: that He comes to dwell within his soul; that He comes to anoint his spirit from heaven; that He comes to take possession of his heart and life; live in him, move in him, act in him, speak in him, pray in him, and all the other activities of the Christian soul.”

Did you ever see Buddha come into anybody? Ten thousands have accepted his philosophy, but he never came from heaven to dwell in any man’s heart or life. Confucius never came to dwell in any man’s heart yet. Zoroaster, in all the marvel of his wondrous teachings, never came from heaven to dwell in the human soul. When he died, he died, and the grave covered him and there was not a thing left but the books that he wrote as a guide for others.

Ah, Christianity began where philosophies left off. I always feel sorry for the individual who only sees Christianity as a human code, or a moral law, even though it was given by Jesus Christ Himself. Oh, that is not Christianity. This moral code that Jesus gave must be made a possibility in your soul, in your life by the Christ who came to dwell in your heart.

“He that believeth.”

He has entered into an exalted place, into an amazing relationship. Christianity is absolutely distinguished among all the religions of the world in that it provides for the resurrection of the body, and that Jesus Christ Himself was made the “first fruits” of the resurrection. He came forth in a glorified body, in a glorified life, in glorified power, in glorified being to dwell by the Spirit in the heart of every other man in the world. Bless God.

Think of the royal, regnant, glorified Son of God of heaven, at the eternal throne, coming into my heart, into your heart, believer! To dwell in your life, Bless God. Oh, say, I wish the blessed Lord would uncover our eyes to the divine majesty of the believer’s relationship.

“He that believeth.”

Why, Jesus had such an exalted concept of the relationship of the believer to the Eternal Christ on the throne that he ordained him with Himself. Hear it! He ordained him with Himself. I am telling you that Jesus Christ said that the BELIEVER had authority from heaven to say to the lame man, “Arise and walk.”

Heaven conferred something on the souls of men when He made it possible for the risen Lord by the Spirit to come into your heart and mine. Oh, how the joy bells of heaven ought to be breaking loose in our soul, and the fires of heaven ought to shine forth from us because the Christ came into our hearts. Blessed be His Name.

Jesus of Nazareth did His work in the world, shed His tears over mankind, labored in the Spirit for their salvation, died on the cross and shed His blood. But Jesus my Lord, bless God came forth out of the tomb, a living, glorified, regnant sovereign of earth and heaven, with all power and authority within His hand. Hallelujah! Jesus of Nazareth was my Lord in the days of His humiliation, but Jesus the Christ at he the eternal Throne is the divine manifestation of the overcoming of God. The ultimate of all perfection, the final manifestation of all that is God-like. Hallelujah.

If I could not leave another thing in this service in your hearts I would like to leave this one text in your soul, branded in your soul, stamped on your conscience, burned into your heart that Jesus Christ as is presented in Revelation, the first chapter, which I love to call the Twentieth Century Christ, is not Jesus in tear in Galilee, or on the Mount of Olives weeping over Jerusalem, but the resurrected, glorified, masterful finality in God stands out and says,

“I am He.”

Let the world look, let the universe behold, let the devil see, let the kingdoms of darkness take notice,

“I am He that liveth and was dead;
and, behold, I am alive forevermore,
and have the keys of hell and of death.” Rev. 1:8.

Would it not sound range if you heard Buddha say that? You do not catch anything like that in his writings. He never gave a revelation like that. It took the Christ to get that.

A famous author of a new religion presented himself to Talleyrand and told him of an amazing religion he had evolved, and wanted to know the best means to quickly present it and fix it upon the minds of the people. Talleyrand told him to come back in three days and he would give him an answer. In three days he came back, and Talleyrand received him. The gentlemen said, “Have you got my answer?” He said, “yes, it is this. You be crucified, lay in the grave for three days, come forth in resurrection, ascend to heaven as the glorified Son of God, and the whole world will receive you.”

Beloved that is what makes Christianity the superior of every other religion. And listen, dear hearts, when Jesus Christ, that glorified Son at the eternal throne, who speaks words that none other in all the universe of God ever spake, when he said,

“I am He that liveth, and was dead;
and, behold, I am alive forevermore,
and have the keys of hell and of death.”

It is He who by the Spirit deigns to come into the heart of the believer.

Oh, glory to God, if you have not appreciated the Baptism of the Holy Ghost look up to heaven and see the glorified One who purposes to come into your life and possess it.

Suppose I could get inside of Mrs Lake. Can you imagine such a thing? She would be 190 pounds heavier than she is now. She would have a voice like a pirate, and all the other characteristics of me. She would be me. Do you see it?

Oh, listen, there is a divine secret in Christ’s salvation. It is Christ in fact in you by the Holy Ghost, dwelling in you, speaking in you, living in you, blazing in you, flashing from you, bless God.

I lay half the night writing a letter to a brother. I have done that three times, and each time I have torn them up. I said, “They are not worthy. They have not sufficient of heaven’s finality. I am going to wait until God gives the real light that that boy needs. He has never seen Christ at the throne and the glorified, regnant Jesus in heaven that comes into a man’s life.”

Our eyes become clouded and our soul dimmed with the earthy thing that we see around us, and it is only once in a while that our spirit rises above it into the light of heaven that we see the glorified Son of God.

To His feet I call you. To His heart I ask you to join your soul, and without that you will never know the abundance of His salvation.