Howard Mooney – The Sheep and the Swine – circa 1950 to 2004

The religious world in the Bible, strange to say, was referred to as the swine. The reason why was because swine walk like sheep but they don’t have the sheep’s nature, do they? If a creature would walk along during the night and leave its tracks in the sand, when you saw those tracks the next morning, unless you were a real good farmer, you wouldn’t know whether it was a pig or a sheep that walked by. Swine will leave very much the same kind of tracks.

 

One of the things that has become a curse in the religious world is they train their people to walk like sheep. Oh, they can train them to walk to church instead of to the bar; they can train them to walk to the hospital and visit the sick; they can train them to walk some of the highest standards instead of the lowest in the world, so, one of the curses of false religion is they train their people to walk like sheep yet they cannot give them the sheep’s nature, and that is why they can’t produce a fellowship. You can put two or three of them together and the first thing you know, there is a squeal going on. There is no possibility of having true fellowship under those conditions.

 

You know, sometimes it is easier for God to take people out of a false church than it is to get the false leaven out of them. Doesn’t it thrill you to see some evidence of the same handiwork of God, doing the same thing today? We have Paul’s in our fellowship today. I have had older companions that I could see in them everything I read about in the life of Paul. We also have Timothy’s and Titus’s in our fellowship today. Yes, and we thank God for them. Yes, and we thank God for the Mary’s and the Phoebe’s too, etc. The farther on I go, the more I thank God for the Ministry of the Sister Workers. When you see the evidence of the types of women on every hand in the world today, to me it is nothing less than a compound miracle that God can take women and make out of them those wonderful characters that represent our Sister Workers. It is a wonderful assurance that the Workman hasn’t changed, and neither has His Workmanship.

 

One of the things that we have been enthused about in different parts of the country, is the fact that today, God is raising up one of the most wonderful crops of young people we have ever known in our generation. That again is a miracle, when you think of the juvenile delinquency in the world, and you realise that the youth problem is the No. 1 problem of the Nation, and that the average young person today is literally going to the dogs. Isn’t it a marvelous thing to think that right in the midst of this sin and decay, God is able to raise up and establish one of the best crops of young people we have ever known in our day and generation. That is not only true here in New Mexico and Texas but in every place where we have had the privilege of going to Convention this year, we see that same wonderful evidence. Now I wouldn’t want to give you the impression that all our young people are all that they should be. Sometimes our hearts ache when we see some of our young folks having such a glorious privilege and not making use of it. We would like to think that, for some of you young people who have come to this convention and haven’t been too Christ-like or too separated in your life, that the effect of this Convention would send you forth and that you sisters would be looking more like Sister Workers, and you brothers would have more of the spirit of a Brother Worker. That is one of the purposes for which we come to Convention – so God can help us see the worthwhileness of this taking place. I have often mentioned to people that I wish everyone would do what Moses did. When Moses left Egypt and was saved, he went to the very backside of the desert and got just as far away from the world with its fashions and passions and customs as he could possibly get. It was from that remote position that God called that young man into the Work. If we could encourage our Brethren, old and young alike, but especially our young folks, to go to the backside of the desert and get as far away from Egypt and its fashions and passions, as fast as you can, that it might even be as a result of your being back there, God might even call you into the Work. I am not going to say that God is going to give that privilege to you; that is a sacred privilege that only a few people know. If God, in the coming months or years would lay His hand on your young life and make it known to you that He wants you in the Work, don’t feel sorry for yourself; don’t rebel against it. Remember that God is giving you a sacred privilege that He does not give to everyone.

 

This world that is around us is nothing but a jungle and it is filled with the most vicious forms of death that a person could possibly imagine. We would like to plead with you this morning, to beware of the jungle. You beware of the jungle; it looks inviting on the outside but you haven’t any idea of the heartache and the death on the inside. I would not want to give you the impression that everybody out in the world is a brute beast, not for a single minute, but I do want to impress on your mind that they are at every turn of the road and they come to you in sheep’s clothing so that you haven’t the least idea what their motives are when they begin to approach you and take interest in you. Those people don’t care whether you end up in a mental institution or not. They don’t care whether you go down and hang your head in disgrace or not. They don’t care whether you wreck your health or not. They are natural brute beasts, and the world is full of them. There has never been a time when the jungle has been more teeming with beasts, and we would certainly appeal to our young people to stay as far away from that jungle as you can. They are not concerned about your soul. They don’t care whether you go to hell or not, or whether you spend the rest of your life in shame or not. They are not concerned about anything other than any other brute beast, and that is just satisfying their own natural self.

 

But, while we have some young folks that live too near to the border, we thank God for the multitude of those today that are dwelling in the backside of the desert. I can take you into the homes all over this Country that I have had the privilege of being in in this last while, just young homes, and young married couples. You know, those folks are just as Godly as any home that you read about in the Bible – the same sanctity, the same zeal, the same Godly sincerity, the same wonderful ‘something’ that has always characterised the homes of God’s people.

 

Everywhere you go, you find these homes: worthy homes that have been pillars in the Family of God, homes that have been so sacred to God and to His people …. and see that God is not only raising up another generation but He is reproducing in our midst the same genuine sterling workmanship that you read about in the Bible.

 

The Lord has kept it in His own care, and that is why He has been able to protect the Fellowship inside as He does. Jesus said, “I thank Thee that Thou hast kept these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them unto babes.” In other words, ‘I thank Thee because Thou art controlling the situation.’

 

The Scripture tells us that it is the attitude towards the Truth that a person has that will determine whether or not God lets them into the gates or not. It is your attitude. If you are sitting in this meeting as an unsaved person, that is so very important. If you are willing to believe the Truth and honour it, God will throw the gates of His city open to you. But if you aren’t willing to obey the Truth, and if you have no desire for it and no love for it, God will send you a strong delusion that will take you a million miles away from it. Somebody said once that a little fellowship meeting is just like a potluck dinner. Everybody brings something and they put it on the table and they sit down and eat and they rejoice together. You know one of the things that I marvel at? It is another great evidence of God’s control over His people. When we do come together for a little meeting, everybody doesn’t bring the same thing. Wouldn’t it be a great picnic if everybody had brought pickles, or everybody had brought sandwiches and nothing else? When you come together and you sit down to feed with the Lord’s people in the Courts of His Holiness, have you ever noticed the variety that is put on the table? To me that is just such a wonderful evidence that God is controlling the thoughts and the desires of His people.