In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of living with the awareness of God's presence at all times. He explains that being conscious of God's watchful eye can guide and restrain our actions, making it easier to face judgment in the future. The preacher also mentions a story about a charismatic church that started dancing in the spirit but eventually began engaging in worldly activities. He highlights the need for believers to be stirred and not complacent in their faith. The sermon concludes with a call to prayer and a request for prayer for the printing of a book.

When we were diseased, in sin, without God, without hope, when there was no reason at all you should love us except for our total helplessness, when there was no need for you to shed your blood, except that we were without God and without hope, and there was only hope if you came in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin. Lord, it's terrible to think that we were so ugly, so rebellious, so malformed morally and spiritually, and yet you loved us as crooked and corrupt and carnal as we were. The horrible thing is, Lord, that we didn't love you when you never had any blemish, and yet we were so caught up with this world, all of its pleasures, its pomp and its pride, all the perishing things of clay that are born but for one brief day, stole our heart, stole our affection, stole our interest, stole our will. We became slaves to materialism without knowing it. We thank you for that happy day that fixed our choice on thee, our Savior and our God. We realize our God, we were privileged to enter into a relationship, into a marriage relationship with a son of God that will, and will never be divorced. We think of that day not too far distant when you're coming for your bride, how wonderful it will be. We believe taking, as Adam fell asleep and you took the bride out of his side, not out of his feet so she could trample on him, not out of his head so she should think beyond him, but you took the bone out of his side. We remember, Lord Jesus, your side was open for us. Not only were you wounded, but they put the spear into your side. We believe that out of that side, because of that stream that was flowing, it's possible for us to become part of the bride. You remember that Adam fell asleep and in his sleep the woman was taken out from him. If that's a true analogy, Lord, you must be very near for the church is fast asleep right now. And if you took the church out, to some degree, some people wouldn't miss her anyhow. But we know that you're coming for a bride without spot or wrinkle or any such thing. So, Lord, we banish every excuse that would in any way pander to our carnality, or our sin, or our weakness, or our rebellion. It does not belong to the new man, it belongs to the old man. And the old man should have been crucified. He was crucified with Christ, if we reckon on that. We bless you for a total emancipation. Lifted up was he to die. It is finished was his cry. Now in heaven, exalted high. Hallelujah, what a Savior. When he comes, our glorious King, all his ransomed host to bring, then anew in heaven we'll sing hallelujah. We thank you, Lord. We thank you for everybody today in distant countries, or even in this country, who've been born into the kingdom of God. Perhaps some savage up the Amazon with some old bones around his neck. And yet today he's been redeemed. Maybe in Afghanistan with all the bloodshed and horror there, somebody has been born again of the Spirit of God. Maybe in Lebanon, which is a hell on earth right now, somebody passed from darkness into light, and from the power of Satan unto God. We thank you for your mercy, Lord Jesus. When there was no other eye to pity us, your eye pitied us. When there was no other arm long enough or strong enough to lift us, your arm reached right down to us and lifted us. We thank you that we're in a new place. If we are where you want us to be, even tonight we're seated with you in heavenly places. The world beneath our feet, the flesh and the devil beneath our feet. We thank you for the unlimited power you can give us through your glorious resurrection. And again, the power of the Holy Spirit of God who raised up Jesus from the dead. We come to your word again tonight. Maybe the world can live by bread alone, but we can't. All we can do is feed on the one who is the bread of life, and the life of life, and the light of life. He is everything that we need. Lord, there's no lack in thee, there should be no lack in us. We don't have to wait until we cross the river, as we say. Even now we're the sons of God. Even now we're a royal priesthood of the holy nation. Help us to live like princes. Not in the wealth of this world, but in the beauty of God indwelling us. As Paul speaks of the gentleness and meekness of Jesus Christ, there's not much gentleness in this world. It's an arrogant world. It's a rebellious world. It's a world where everybody's fighting to get to the front. But Lord, we bless you. You've given us a new concept of what life really is. It's not in what we possess. It's not just in what we do. It's what we be, what we are. Jesus says, follow me and I will make you. Lord, I don't think you'll stop making us until the last time we breathe. You'll keep that process going in your wonderful wisdom. You'll make corrections here and adjustments there. You'll put roadblocks so we'll have to get strength to climb over them. We may pray and ask you to move them, but that's not the best way. We want to triumph gloriously in Jesus Christ. We want to be more than conquerors through him that loved us. And we want this all to the praise of your wonderful name. Thank you again for fellowship tonight. Thank you for the joy of singing our hearts about this deep, deep love of Jesus, vast and measured, boundless, free, flowing as a mighty ocean. Underneath us, all around us is the current of thy love. Why should we fear? Why should we be distressed? You said to Abraham, I am thy shield. Not I'll make a shield, I am your shield. So Lord, if you're between us and the world, how should we fear? If you're between us and the adversary, why should we be nervous about it? They'll have to get through you and no man's ever done that. We want to rest in you, abide in you, love you as fervently as human beings can, to the glory of your name. All right, let's sit. You sit, I won't sit. Okay, the book of Exodus, chapter 32. Exodus 32. I know at least two occasions when I've at least trying to teach, I've asked you a question. If you could relive one day in the life of Jesus, which day would it be? The most common answer is the day he raised Lazarus from the dead, because of all that excitement. Or the day he made a carpet of velvet and walked on the water of Galilee. Or someone else says, I would like to have heard him preach the Sermon on the Mount. My choice would be to have heard him pray that gorgeous prayer in John 17, which I'm not going to refer to anymore. Supposing I asked you, if you could relive one day in the life of Moses, which day would it be? After all, his life is drama from beginning to end. It's excitement, it's miraculous. If that's your, if that's your thing, you've got plenty of choice. I know one thing I would have liked to have seen him do. I'd like to have seen him walk back into that wonderful palace that he once walked out of, with a garment that was 40 years old, torn all over the place, I'm sure, looking after sheep and getting it caught in the bushes, his legs all scratched, feet bare, stinking. Why would he stink? Because sheep are the most hideous things for smells. The scripture clearly says to an Egyptian, a shepherd is an abomination. That's typical of the Lord Jesus, who was a shepherd. It's typical of Moses, who was a shepherd. It's typical of David, who was a shepherd. If you go out west, I remember years ago going out west, and there are some people there from Bilbao, I think it is, in Spain. They've been there 200 years, not that group, but they're forebears. And all they do is drive their sheep up the mountains during the summer and bring them down in the winter. The cowboys, if they see them come in the tavern, boy, right away, you know, get out of here you stinkers. They hate the smell of sheep. I'd like to have seen Moses going into that gorgeous palace, smelling of sheep, and he knew that there was a contract out for him, as we would say. If you find Moses, you put him to death. He walks into the thing. One thing as believers, we ought to rejoice in, I trust we have it, is we're not, we have no fear. No fear of man, no fear of the future, no fear of death, no fear of judgment. Do you know how to get by easily at the judgment seat? I'll tell you. Live before the judgment seat every day of your life, you'll have no fear about it when you get there. Mr. Tozer used to say to me often, you know Len, I'm not very much afraid of going to the judgment for the things I've done, it's the things I haven't done that trouble me. We're not only to be judged only for what we've done, but why we did it. Scripture says our God is a God of knowledge and by him actions await. So I've, not only to explain what I've done to the Lord, though he knows it anyhow, but I have to explain my motive for doing it. Not only to explain that somehow I didn't do things, but why didn't I do them? Was it the fear of man, fear of consequences, save my necks? Why? There's a good book out by J.I. Packer, I don't know if you've read it, very, very good. He has a clause in there in which he says, I think from being about five years of age, he's lived conscious that the eye of God is upon him every moment that he was alive. And he said it's an awesome thing to live like that, but it's a beautiful thing to live like that. Because if we live conscious of the presence of God, again he constrains us when we're slow, and he restrains us when we're too quick. And if we obey and disobey on that level, it will be much easier when we get to the judgment. Won't be too easy, I'm sure, but, or, uh, I don't know, but, you know, the Apostle Paul's going to the same judgment I'm going to, but mercy on me, I hope, I hope I don't have to follow him to the judgment. I'd like to see him afar off, but I would like the Lord to say, Paul, come hither. And he goes up for his reward, and me, poor me, I could get in his pocket if he has one, all his amazing life, out preached everybody, out prayed everybody, out wrote everybody, wrote more epistles, 14 if you give him Hebrews. A tireless man with a faith unshakable, a joy unspeakable, and a love unbreakable, which is God's level for every one of us. He wasn't special in any way. As I've told you often, it doesn't matter how many books you have, people come in my room, I don't have so many now, used to have more. Oh, I have a few, maybe about 1500 or more. And they look at them, I say, you know, every one of those famous men, not one of them ever had a bigger Bible than I have. The only thing is he used it better. He didn't have a back door to the throne of God. He availed himself of all those things that God has prepared for us. All right, Exodus 32, let's read from verse 7. And the Lord said unto Moses, go and get thee down for thy people, notice that, not my people, thy people, which thou brought, that you brought them out of Egypt. He's not claiming he did, he says your people, and you brought them out of Egypt. They have corrupted themselves. I don't really know what... Yes, I think I do. Of all the fascinating and fabulous experiences of this man, I would have liked to have seen him not just before Pharaoh, not at one thing that was never repeated in history. Let me tell you, let me send you back to it, in the 24th chapter. Now read it carefully, it will take your breath. 24th chapter of Exodus. Now look here, verse 9. Then went up Moses, and Aaron, and Nadab, and Abihu, and the seventy elders of Israel, and they saw the God of Israel. There was under his feet, as it were, a paved work of a sapphire stone, and as it were, the body of heaven in its clearness. And upon the nobles of the children of Israel he laid not his hand, but also they saw God, and did eat and drink. Now what do you make of that? Nadab, and Abihu, and Aaron, and Moses sat down and had a meal with God. You know, Israel continued as a nation for 1,500 years after this event, and never once did God appear again to the elders of Israel. Never once. I think this corresponds with the New Testament experience of Jesus in the Mount of Transfiguration. It's a little different, yet it's very much like it. If you saw God in all his glory like this, this fabulous, fabulous pavement underneath, and the blinding glory, you think you would ever forget it? Well, what does it say here? It says then went up Moses, and Aaron, and Nadab, and Abihu, and the seventy of elders of Israel. Remember they come out in the previous chapter from about approximately three and a half million people. Then they go down to 74. Then 70 drop off, and there are four. Then three drop off, and there's one. That was Moses. In the second verse of chapter 24 it says, and Moses alone shall come near the Lord, but they shall not come nigh, neither shall the people go up with him. Let me stress this again here, verse 9. Then went Moses, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and the seventy elders, and they saw the God of Israel. Now go over to Leviticus chapter 10. Now here you've got the same theme to some degree. Chapter 10 and verse 1, and Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took either of them of his censer, and put fire therein, and put incense thereon, and offered strange fire before the Lord, which he commanded them not. And they went out fire from the Lord. Had they forgotten that our God is a consuming fire? Would you think after they sat down with God, and had a meal, and had the glory of eternity revealed to them, that they'd dare to defy God? But they did. Verse 2, they went out of fire from the Lord, and devoured them, and they died before the Lord. Then Moses said to Aaron, this is it that the Lord spake, saying, I will be sanctified in them that come nigh me, and before all the people I will be glorified. And Aaron held his peace. Why in God's name did he hold his peace? Surely he got a hold of what he said in that verse. Verse 2, they went out fire from the Lord, and devoured them, and they died before the Lord. Look at Exodus 39 and verse 40. Hope that's the right quote. No it's not. Sorry, I got the wrong thing there. Anyhow, remember God said that they were to anoint Aaron and his sons as priests, and Aaron had to have a crown of gold, and on the front of it was written holiness. You know, people don't like holiness. They like happiness, but not holiness. What is in the Constitution of the United States that we're, what, free to what? What's it again? Life, liberty, that's right. Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Wouldn't it be nice if the Church adopted a universal slogan to have life, liberty, and the pursuit of holiness? The trouble is, we're more afraid of holiness than we are of sinfulness. Well, you better cheer up. Do you know there's going to be a day when you go down to Sears, and they offer you some pots and pans, and you say, no, I want those with holiness written on them. That's what it says. It doesn't say Sears. I just put that in to wake you up a bit. But it says the holiness shall be on the pots and pans. I notice a horse there. I'm glad it's getting dark. I'm watching that baby run around its mother, and she's, I don't know, trying to kick it about, but anyhow, it's annoying. But there's going to be a day when holiness will be on the bridles of the horses. On the pots and pans in the house, you'll see. You look out of the window, you'll see it. You go to church, and the pastor will have a crown on his head, and it will have holiness on it. Charles West has a hymn in which he says, to perfect health, restore my soul. To perfect holiness and love. The word holy comes from an Anglo-Saxon word, as you would imagine, anyhow. And the Anglo-Saxon word is halig, which means perfect health. Holiness is perfect moral and spiritual health. If you don't have true holiness, you'll still have corruption. You may have a vile temper, you may have bitterness, you may have strife, you may have envy, you should not have them. They should have been done away at the cross when you got saved, if your pastor had had any sense. We're so eager to get people to the front, and weep on the pastor's shoulder, and say the sinner's prayer, which won't do you any good anyhow, unless there's repentance as well. Not only repentance, but restitution where possible. The Lord didn't save us to make us moral crippled, to be sure of that. Let's go back here into the 32nd chapter of Exodus. In the 31st chapter, Moses has gone up into the mountain. Chapter 32, when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mountain, they gathered themselves together to Aaron, and said unto him, up, make us gods which shall go before us. Verse 3, all the people break off their golden earrings, which were in their ears, and brought them to Aaron. And he received them at their hand, and fashioned it with a graven tool. You see what a liar he is when he's done wrong? He fashioned it with a graven tool. But he says in verse 34, 24, and I said unto them, whosoever hath gold, let them break it off. So they gave me their gold, and I cast it into the fire, and this calf came out. Isn't that wonderful? You thought magicians were modern men. Here's a magician, he throws lots of scraps into a fire, and a calf runs out. I wish Moses had spoken to it, and made it live. That would have startled him, wouldn't it? You know the golden calf has been the fascination of people ever since. You watch the preachers on TV Sunday, begging for money. I think they should all be jailed. When you get a letter from me, asking for money, although I'm backslidden, and I'll tell you what, the next week you'll get one that I've got divorced. Because it's no more wrong to get divorced, than it is to beg for money. Every time we beg, we insult God. He's promised to take care. If God gives me a job, he'll pay the bills. All these guys are building kingdoms for themselves, and then they squeal about money. Because God isn't in it. Aren't we daringly ridiculous, using the name of God to our own ends? You don't seem so cheerful right here. Is your father on TV? When Aaron saw it, verse 5, he built an altar before it. Aaron, the man of God, who'd been at the altar, the first altar that was ever established by God, the first thing that God said about the furniture in the tabernacle, he gave dimension to an altar, and he said, there will I meet with thee. Well, you don't meet with him if there's a golden calf. You don't meet with him if your heart is full of ambition and greed, or anything that defiles. The amazing thing is the repeated emphasis God had made to these children. In verse 20, pardon me, in chapter 20 of Exodus, verse 19, you remember, they said, Moses, you speak to us. Don't let God speak to us or we'll die. And yet they build a damnable thing that would have caused the anger of God, and they expect to get away with it. I said a minute ago that they sat down to meet with God, and in all the years of history to this day, that has never been repeated. Never again did God appear to the elders of Israel, and yet they went from that, and fooled around, and incurred the wrath of God. They'd eaten with God, and then they become violently disobedient to him. You say, well, I'm glad people don't do that. They sure do it. Some churches do it every Sunday morning. They gather at the Lord's table, and the rest of the day they live like the world, dress like the world. I guess I told you once about a lovely girl in a certain university came to me, and she said, I so enjoy your preaching, and I would like to set a question for me, and she's very pretty. Mr. Raymond, do you think it's wrong for a girl like me, I'm a Christian, can I wear a bikini? I said, sure. Oh, oh, thank you, she said. I said, as long as you like to be wrapped in it. What? Well, you might be in the pool with those boys with just a slim bikini on, you go up to heaven in a bikini. Would you feel comfortable? Oh, Mr. Raymond, I could never, I could never wear a bikini if I thought Jesus was coming. I said, well, Gabriel isn't coming to tap you on the shoulder in the pool and say, sister, hop out, because Jesus is coming in five minutes. He's coming in a moment, and I ought to live that if he comes the next moment. You say, well, I've heard about the coming of the Lord for 20 years. I've heard about it for about 75. Oh, I don't think the Lord will come today. We know people all over America at your age have died today, they dropped dead. They didn't think when they left house that this was their last day on earth. As I say again, what does God owe you? When you get to the judgment, if you went to the judgment, say at 12 o'clock tonight, could you point the finger at God and say he didn't give me a chance? I've thought again, I thought about the three o'clock this morning, about an old English hymn that says, I had long withstood thy grace, long provoked thee to thy face, would not hearken to thy call, and grieve thee by a thousand falls. Depth of mercy, can there be mercy still reserved for me? How patient God is. They said, let not God speak unto us. In the 15th chapter of Exodus, and verses one and two, you have a tremendous statement here. Notice what they sang. They sang with Moses, the whole bunch of them. Then sang Moses and the children of Israel this song unto the Lord, and spake saying, I will sing unto the Lord for he hath triumphed gloriously. The horse and his rider, thinking of course of the people that were chasing them from Egypt, he cast into the sea. Now look at this affirmation. The Lord is my strength, he has become my salvation, he is my God, I will prepare him an habitation, and I will exalt him. And yet, five months after they made that amazing affirmation, they're bowing before a golden calf. Just a five month gap. They'd seen their enemies coming behind, and God in mercy dropped a curtain of cloud there. And he tossed all those Egyptians over off their horses. The horse and his rider had to be thrown into the sea, and they rejoiced. I guess they danced around, had a great time. Notice what they sang. That's why I tried to get you to sing cautiously, because we sing such awful things at times, or awesome things. This rebellious gang has been delivered. And they sang, I will sing unto the Lord for he hath triumphed gloriously. The horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea. The Lord is my strength, he has become my salvation, he is my God. How much more could you write? A seraphim couldn't write more than that. He's my strength, he's my salvation, he's my God, I will prepare him an habitation, and I will exalt him. And instead of exalting, they're dying before a dumb calf. Talk about the mercy of God. I should have written these a bit clearer. What I'm thinking of this is where Moses, uh, Moses went up into the mount. I've read one part of that in the 24th chapter, of course. But I'm thinking where Moses goes up in the mountain, and he, uh, he was there, what, six days? I've got that marked in my other Bible, I haven't marked it here. Anybody know where that is? 2415. Thank you dear, thank you so much. Yes, there it is, thank you. Moses rose up and his minister Joshua, and Moses went up into the mount of God. He said to the elders, ye tarry here until we come again, and behold Aaron and Her are with you. If any man hath any matter, let him to come unto them. Well, the people came unto them. What did they do? They betrayed the congregation. Moses went up into the cloud, into the mount. A cloud covered him in the mount, and the glory of the Lord abode upon Mount Sinai, and the cloud covers it six days. In the seventh day, he called to Moses. Again, God's never in a hurry. He climbs up that rugged hill, maybe stubbed his toes many times, gets to the top where it's very lonely, and there he waits for six days. Most of us would turn and go home. I came, the Lord didn't turn up. Why should he? He said he'd be there. He waited and waited, and on the seventh day, he called unto Moses out of the midst of the cloud, and the sight of the glory of the Lord was like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain, in the eyes of the children of Israel. They were not allowed to go into the center, but there they were at the base of the mountain, terrified because the glory of God was there. And they saw it, and yet they rebelled against that holy God. They said, don't let him speak to us or we'll die. He let them see his glory from the distance, and yet they go after strange gods. It seems that human nature is the same yesterday, today, and forever. How merciful God is. Verse 8 of chapter 32. I'll finally go to verse 7 again. The Lord said unto Moses, Go, get thee down, for the people which thou didst bring out of Egypt have corrupted themselves, and they've turned aside quickly out of the way which I have commanded them. They have made a golden calf, and have worshipped it, worshipped it, prostrated themselves before that God who they'd seen in the distance. They'd seen his glory as bright as a thousand marvelous sunsets. There was the glory of God because he is light, and his light was diffused through that awesome spectacle on the mountaintop. There was that God. They've turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them. They have made them a golden calf, and worshipped it, and have sacrificed unto, and said, these be thy gods who Israel which brought. Could you think there'd be such a bunch of liars, or bunch of idiots? They knew that Moses was out there in the cloud with God. They'd no respect for Moses or God. And Aaron, wretched backslider here, says, bring me a gold, and then he says, out of that melting pot there a calf jumped out. When the scripture says he, plainly, that he made it. They said, these be thy gods who Israel which have brought thee apart of the land of Egypt. And the Lord said, I have seen to Moses, I've seen this people at their stiff neck. This isn't said again in the whole of the word of God, except a repetition of the same story in Leviticus. Can you hear that thundering voice of God saying, let me alone? Again and again when Billy Graham has been interviewed, people have said to him, well, why did God select you for the job you're doing? He said, I don't know, that's the first thing I'm going to ask him when I see him. It's a very wonderful thing when Almighty God reaches down and takes hold of the man or a woman. The more amazing thing is when a man reaches up and takes hold of God. The paraphrase of this, I wish I could find the hymn, it's in an old Methodist hymn book, I must search for it. The paraphrase is this, let Moses in the spirit groan, and God cries out, let me alone. This is not God with a grip on Moses, it's Moses with a grip on God. Where was Aaron at this time, fooling away with the people? Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot. Moffat translates that, leave me alone, I'm in blazing anger. I tried to get a reference of a translation I like, but my office girl in town was away and I couldn't get it. I'd like to know what he rather than says about it. Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them, that I may consume them. Or the Hebrew says, I'll burn them up, I'll obliterate them. Who is this man Moses? He's one of the rarest men in the world. Why? Because he's a prophet? No, he was a prophet. Because as he said, a prophet like unto me will that will be Jesus Christ. He's one of the most unique men in history, for the simple reason he's an intercessor. I read there in the 59th chapter of Isaiah today, where God wondered. God was astonished, why? That there were no preachers? No, he didn't say that. No prophets? He didn't say that. No miracle workers? He didn't say that. What did he say? That there are no intercessors. God didn't work through Gabriel or Michael the archangel, he works through men. God wonders? Has God looked over America and seen all the church members from Presbyterians to Pentecostals and Mennonites to Methodists, and he hasn't found one intercessor today? Intercession is the purest form of prayer. Isn't it in the 18th chapter of 1st Kings, where Elijah says, I'm jealous. For what? He says, let it be known this day that there is a God in Israel. He doesn't say, let it be known that I'm a prophet, that I'm right and they're all wrong. He doesn't say that. He says, let it be known this day that there is a God in Israel. The intercessor isn't too much keen even about the folk he's praying for, he's concerned about the glory of God. So in essence, what God has been looking for today was glory and didn't get it. Oh, there will be millions of prayers, send us money, send us this, send us something, send us buildings, send us books, send us... But who has prayed just for God's glory and say, I don't care a hang about anything else. If I can get the glory of God on my soul, I'd never do ask for a penny, I never would. I'll be 78 in a few, couple of weeks. God has never failed to pay all our bills. Left a wonderful church in England, hit the road, put the three boys through school, college, some university. But the three finest young men in the world, to tell you the truth. But anyhow, I'm sure you knew that before I told you. That's my wife, she agrees with me. I'm glad on the mission field they never asked us for a penny. Hopefully Paul will be home in July, been on the mission field about 22 years. I say that to encourage you. God says, let me alone that my wrath, or as Moffat says, I'm blazing mad. I'm blazingly angry against them. I delivered them, they cried unto me, and I drowned all their enemies. They cried for food, I gave them angels food, manna. They cried for meat, I gave them quails. Everything they've asked for, I've given them. This is what they do. They go whoring after strange gods. There was a statement recently about G. Campbell Morgan, I must find it. He said, if you think that God isn't broken-hearted today, you don't know a thing about the gospel. If Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever, he spent most of today weeping over the church. Not over the adulterers, not over liars. Though he did make trade, it says in Isaiah 53, for the transgressors, that the heartbreak of God in America or any country today is the church. We've only sung, I guess, once or twice that great hymn. The church's one foundation is Jesus Christ her Lord. She is his new creation by water and by blood. From heaven he came and sought to be his holy bride. I don't believe God is looking for worldwide revival, except at the end that he'll get his bride out of it. You talk about let's make a deal, you've never heard about anything like this in your life. Let me alone that my wrath, my anger, I'm blazing in anger against them. He mentioned the same thing in verse 12. Turn from my fierce wrath. Wrath of God is bad enough, but my God, the fierce wrath of God. Do you know what the option of the world has, and you and I have tonight? And every living soul in the world, but they don't know about it unfortunately. You have an option, either today to be cleansed by the blood of the Lamb, or finally end up with the wrath of the Lamb. Here there's mercy, there's hope, there's a place of repentance, but the wrath of the Lamb, it will be to hell forever and ever. My, turn from my fierce wrath, or turn from your blazing anger, and repent of this evil against thy people. Go back to verse 9. The Lord said unto Moses, I've seen this people, it is a stiff-necked people. They were unworthy, they were unthankful, and they were unholy, and yet he's pursuing them. Sign 2. Fear with my policy. When they come up before me, I've every reason to damn them forever and ever. They've had more deliverance, more mercy, more miracles, and any people that ever lived, and at the first drop of a hat, they go after a strange God. A God they can see, they can't trust the invisible God, they want a goat made of gold. How silly can you get? But here's a clincher in this verse, as far as I'm concerned. That my wrath may, my blazing anger maybe, is against them, that I may consume them, burn them up. Now look at this. And I will make of thee a great nation. The very word he gave to Abraham. And he's canceled his covenant with Abraham. No, they canceled it. They canceled it by wickedness, by rebellion. He told them they could not have strange gods. I'm looking for another verse, but it doesn't matter. In the contract that God made with the children of Israel, it says six times over in three verses, keep my Sabbath. There are ten commandments, there's only one we'd remember, and it's remember the Sabbath day to keep in hold, and we don't do that. This bunch of idiots sit down with God, and see the glory of God, and then go straight out and serve other gods. Millions of people will go to the communion table this Sunday, and an hour after you wouldn't know they'd been there. It's a shibboleth. It's like just going a baptismal tank, and thinking you're saved. I believe every believer should be baptized. I guess I baptized hundreds in my life. Oh, I don't think we have to keep the Sabbath holy. Well, your neighbor doesn't think he has to keep his body holy. If he commits adultery with your wife while you're away, rapes her, don't argue with him. He might spit back in your face and say, well you don't keep the Sabbath, why should I keep that law? The man who steals your property, you can't say anything to him if you don't keep the Sabbath. He'll turn around if he's any sense and say, well you don't keep God's day. I think in one sense the Sabbath day is God's tide on your body. You know how you contest your friends? Pretty severe, but I'll say it anyhow. You tell me what you do with your spare time, and I'll tell you what kind of a person you are. Do you take every available opportunity to worship God in spirit and in truth? Every available opportunity to pray? Chance of a lifetime? Offer you can't refuse? If you'll stop pestering me about these people, let them alone and forget them. Let them go to hell, let them perish, and I'll tell you what, I'll raise a whole world, a new world. Just like he started a new world in one sense when Noah came out of the ark. That takes me back, law of association. These people haven't been long away from that holy table, that fabulous revelation never been repeated. They went into sin. Noah hardly got out of the ark before he was drunk. As soon as people get deliverance, this is why God repeatedly has to say to Israel, remember, remember, remember thou'st a bondsman in Egypt. Don't start glorying in where you are, think of what you were. These people were corrupted, that's what God says. They've corrupted themselves. They've gone after strange gods, after God had given them audience. Again, never to be repeated in history. I can't prove this, but you can't disprove it either. I believe with all my heart that Ananias and Sapphira were in the upper room. They were filled with the Holy Ghost in the third chapter, and in the fifth chapter, they're filled with the devil. Why have Satan filled thy heart? You know, I think when I think of stories like this with the children of Israel, when Paul said, lest having preached to others, I should become a castaway. Saul, the king of Israel, was filled with the Holy Ghost. How do you know? Because the scripture says the Spirit of God was upon him, and he prophesied that he died a suicide. He propped his sword up, an old-fashioned way, and fall on the sword, and it pierced him, but he didn't die. What did God tell him to do before? Kill all the Amalekites. Who killed him? An Amalekite. If you don't kill your Amalekite, he'll kill you. Ananias and Sapphira in the blazing glory of the upper room, and right after that, the apostle says, why did Satan fill your heart? To lie to the Holy Ghost? To that very blessed, wonderful third person of the Trinity who'd been indwelling them? And they corrupted themselves? And got tangled up somewhere, somehow, I don't know. I put a nice note at the side of my Bible this afternoon here. God says, I will make of thee a great nation. But do you know what? Do you know what intercession is? It's totally void of self. It hasn't one scrub of self about it. It's a mediator between one people in danger and a holy God. It has no self-interest, no self-desire. It isn't concerned so much with it as it is that God's glory isn't coming forth. My, Moses besought God, it says in verse 11, or entreated God. Skip over now a little further down the chapter, verse 31. Moses returned unto the Lord and said, O this people have sinned a great sin, and they've made gods of gold. Yet now if thou will forgive their sin, and if not, blot me out. Do you think a man who's arguing with a holy God, a thrice holy God, is standing there saying in a whisper, I wish we'd have mercy on them? This man is in agony, like all true intercessors are. He's in trouble. Intercession is very simple, and it's very profound. Very simple, but it's very wonderful. Now Moses is here alone. He returned unto the Lord. You can find that. Read the life of Moses, and read how many times he returned to the Lord. I don't read of Aaron coming back here. His sons come back, they'd perish. Let me go back there to Leviticus a minute. Or was it Leviticus? Leviticus chapter 10. They offered strange fire. Remember what Hebrew says? Our God is a consuming fire. Verse 2, they went out fire from the Lord and devoured them, and they died before the Lord. Moses said unto Aaron, this is it that the Lord spake, saying, I will be sanctified in them that come nigh me, and before all the people I will be glorified. And Aaron held his peace. But what in God's name do you expect him to do? His two sons had just been barbecued. His sons were anointed to the priesthood. That's what it says a bit further back there in Exodus. Aaron and his sons were appointed to the priesthood, and they were anointed. And they should have followed Aaron. But the anger of God came upon them, because they offered strange fire. He told them not to do it. They defied him, and God said, that's your last chance. And it says that this man Aaron was dumbfounded. He held, and Aaron held his peace. Would you like to watch your sons perish? Or your relatives, or anyone else? Somebody who you've been praying for, and yet they're still entangled in sin. Maybe they knew God. Maybe their back's ridden. Which it makes it more disastrous, and more terrible to contemplate. They were in the priesthood, but that didn't save them. Rebellion on any level is rebellion. It's time to come anyhow. I'm going to emphasize this again. Verse 10, Now therefore let me alone. They're unworthy, they're unthankful, they're unholy. Leave me alone. Moses said, I will. You lay conditions down, I'll make a deal with you. He says, I'll leave you alone, on one condition. Well, what's the condition? That you block me out, when you block them out. You ever hear your pastor at home pray like that? I remember looking in St. Giles Cathedral there in Edinburgh. Beautiful, beautiful cathedral. John Knox preached there. He'd been in Holland as a slave at one time. Came back in one of those big ships where they have galleys, you know, where they rode double rows of oars. And they chained the men to the oars, so they couldn't get away. It was a Catholic deal. When he got just off the coast of Scotland, they brought a wooden image of the Virgin Mary, and said kiss it. And they all kissed it, and they handed it to him. He'd only one free hand. He threw it overboard. He said, let her swim. I don't know where she went, but that's what he said. But he is the man who saw the bondage of Rome, and the darkness of the country, and the people could sin, and go to church, and do all the hellish things they did. Brilliant scholar he was. I think we wrote, put a book on him today, Miles, I'm not sure. I've never read a very classy edition of Our Lord, but there's some very good ones. I want to read it. But this is the man who got out of bondage, sorrow, and night, and got everything he wanted. But he got such a burden of intercession. His constant cry was, give me Scotland, or I die. Millions of people have prayed today, and it didn't mean that much to God. I don't believe God hears prayer. He hears desperate prayer. When I recognize I'm really shut up to God, these boys suggest, give them the money, they'll finish the job. That's Christian humanism. Give us the money, we'll build this, we'll print books. That's Christian humanism. We can do it. No, we can't. Some of you will get Dave Wilkinson's book. I'll be reading it this week, I suppose. He has a chapter in there about the collapse of the economy. He told me in my office, what, two weeks ago. He said, Len, I expect within three years our income will drop like that. Everybody's will. Two more banks collapsed in what, Dallas this week. We're heading up for the great, great total collapse. I used to say in my dumbness, of course you know I'm dumb, I don't have to tell you that. But I used to say in my dumbness that the church will have to suffer for the sin of America. I don't believe that. I believe America will suffer for the sin of the church. We are its only guiding light. We are its conscience. We are its salt. We're the salt of the earth. You take salt and bite it, boy it'll bite you. You make a mountain of salt, say enough to fill this room. If it were in a field, you stack your salt up maybe 10 feet high, 10 feet broad, 10 feet deep. Okay. It will lose in the time, it lose its favor. Didn't you know what you do? You get rid of it as quick as you can. Because whereas it would preserve when it was potent, it will corrupt when it's lost its, when it's lost its pungency. When the church is alive in God, she purifies a nation. When she is not, she corrupts a nation. She's the death of death. She's the worst form of death. I got a letter yesterday inviting me to go to a conference on Mount Carmel next year, February. A bunch of prophets whose names are given, I've never heard of any of them. One man I know, he's a very good guy, he's saintly, he's none I may be ever met. He's going with them, I don't know why. We'd like you to come along. I'm not going there. Well the scriptures say, neither in Jerusalem nor in this place. The Holy Ghost can fall in than as much as he can on Mount Carmel. It's not a case of building an altar. The fire never did fall on the altar. The fire falls on the sacrifice. You can build an elaborate altar of gold or an elaborate altar of alabaster, anything you like. It won't induce God the Holy Ghost. You can build a glass cathedral like Schubert, what was his name, Schubert? Schubert. Not Schubert. Well he was as dead as Schubert. Anyhow, but anyhow. Schuller, yes, Bob Schuller. Or go to English cathedrals, have been there, some of them a thousand years. God doesn't dwell in buildings, make them ornate, make them beautiful. He dwells in people. He dwelleth not in temples made with hands. We are supposed to be the Holy Ghost's dwelling place. Read Ephesians 2, where they begin by being rebels to God. In the last verse, ye are the habitation of God. You ought to wake up every morning almost breathless and say, is God living in me? I'm going to act like God, talk like God, walk like God, think like God today? Not when I get a glorified body up there, but down here. There's an old saying that love that is pure is passionate. It's not thinking in a sexy way, but love that is pure is desperate. Love that is pure knows no limit. I think it was Amara Schull wrote that lovely hymn about love. How does it begin? Thou the rose of Sharon, let thy praises roll, lily of the valley, flower of my soul, chiefest of ten thousand, round my heart entwine, I am thy beloved, and my beloved is mine. And then it goes on to say about that love, waters cannot quench it, floods can never drown, substance cannot bite, love is a priceless crown, all the wondrous glory, mystery divine, I am my beloved, and my beloved is mine. Love is the most unreasonable, illogical thing in the world. And yet the word of God says that love is stronger than death. Isn't it Romans 5 where Paul says the love of God is shed abroad in our heart by the Holy Ghost? But then John goes on and he talks about perfect love that casteth out fear. I don't know, I could have stood it anyhow. I sure would like to have crept up behind this amazing man Moses when he's praying this prayer. I don't see how he couldn't say it without tears and brokenness. Turn them from thy fierce wrath, turn from your fiery blazing anger, and repent thee of the evil. Telling God he has evil, repent of the evil that you're going to do to this people. Verse 14 says the Lord repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his own people. And Moses turned and went down from the mount. Joshua was waiting halfway down the hill, and what does it say? In verse 17, when Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said to Moses, there's a noise of war in the camp. Moses with a discernment said, it is not the voice of them that shout for mastery, neither is it the voice of them that cry for being mastered. It's the noise of them that sing do I hear. And it came to pass as soon as he came nigh to the camp he saw the calf and the dancing. It tells you in the 25th verse Moses saw the people and naked. Last Sunday morning if you're in our fellowship David Wilkerson said about a big charismatic church on the east coast. One of the first to start this dancing in the spirit. Now Saturday night they have ballroom dancing. You dance like the world Saturday night, you dance before God Sunday morning. Wilkerson said years back there we live to say the day when people will strip themselves and dance naked in the churches. Verse 21, Moses said unto Aaron, what did this people unto thee that thou hast brought so great sin upon them? And Aaron said, let not the anger of my Lord wax hot. A bit further up in the chapter it says, and Moses was angry. Why not? I ask you in God's name, what does it take to stir us? Why are we so placid? Why are we so comfortable? We're on the edge of doomsday. If you don't believe the Bible, you believe science. Science says we're going to be barbecued, there's no option, we can't get out of it. It doesn't matter whether you control the MX to 50 instead of 100 or what, it's going to come. David Wilkerson starts his new book by saying bombs are going to fly from Russia over the North Pole and America is going to be completely wiped out. Not a stitch available. I told him, I said, I wish you put Christendom not just America. He says only America fits into Revelation 18, I don't believe that. The corrupt church of Jesus Christ all over the world fits it. It's a Babylonian system, it's a money system, it floats on money. Let everybody stop giving subscriptions to the boys on TV, they close down in a month. Most of them, millions in debt anyhow. Again, maybe God's going to strangle the economy to get the church alive. What did he like to say? Lord, don't send rain on the gardens of the unbelievers, but send it on the garden of your friends. No, he says I'll shut up heaven, there'll be no rain. I'll shut it, not God. There'll be no rain according to my word. God says go down to thy people. Let me say something, get into trouble if I do. Around here we're so concerned about the small nations of the world, we can't even get Van stirred up for God. People are going to hellfire in Lindale as though we'd never been here for seven or eight years. Doesn't the scripture say beginning at Jerusalem? How many folk do you think you get in the different ministries around here to offer to be a missionary to Van? Offer to fast and pray until the heavens break. Moses knows there is no hope except he becomes one of the men that stand in the gap. Verse 32, now if I will forgive their sin, and that's the only dash there is in the bible, there's a vacant sob there, if not blot me out I pray thee. There isn't another prayer like that in the scripture till you come to Gethsemane. There isn't one after Gethsemane except you get to Romans 9 where the apostle Paul says I could wish myself a curse. The Greek actually says I'll be damned if need be. I'll be self-destroying. I will fast, I will weep, I walk out of step with the world, church that's out of step with the world anyhow. That's why I say these prophets are the most unique men in the world. I've never read of a prophet begging for money in the scriptures, if you know one tell me. It's totally a supply from God, the direct line from the throne of God to me. Isn't that what we sang in that hymn, oh the deep deep love of Jesus, watch his orders from the throne. When I get up in the morning, whether I'm driving my car or going in a plane or anywhere, he is watching from the throne. It's not Gabriel watching me, not Michael, though I could trust them, but the almighty God. I'm the object of his love as well as of his mercy. He can supply every need I have. It doesn't say much about the prayer of Moses does it? I get these musicians coming in, could I leave you one of my tapes? Sure. I never said I'll play it. Leave it, it's fine, I have a collection of them. Dozens of them, hundreds of them. You should see all the tapes I have from John the Baptist all over the country. God's called me to be a John the Baptist. I say, increase your insurance. Why? You're only going to live six months, that's all he lived. I never yet, as much as these boys can brag on TV, I've never heard one of them say, have you heard my latest tape on prayer? I don't mean writing about it. Somebody took me when I was in anguish. I was traveling in another room and somebody slipped a mic, I didn't know that. You can hear my pleadings to God, you can hear my anguish, you can hear my trouble. I can't be happy, I can only be miserable in God until they're happy in Christ. There's no way you can organize revival. I don't know if there are two people in America who have ever been in a revival. I know one, an old lady, 95, who can outrun most of you boys, at least out walk you, she tries. 95 years of age, dear old Bertha Smith, marvelous woman. Spent a night in prayer with her and two other folks a few years ago, Jack Taylor, a whole bunch of us. Boy, that was a night. She and Dr. Culpepper, is Culpepper still alive? I'm not sure. She and Culpepper went through the Shang Tung revival, I think. She was a Baptist missionary, never knew a thing about the Holy Ghost, until she met Marie Monson from Sweden, Sweden, I think it was. And she opened the book and showed her that the Holy Ghost is not an atmosphere, is not a wind, but he's a person. That he speaks, that he talks, that he directs, and she opened her heart to the Holy Ghost. Let me get through with it here. The two least things said about the Holy Spirit, number one is that he convicts of sin. The sloppiness in modern evangelism, people come forward under emotion. David says in his book there, and he said it to one of the leading men in the country, you have your rock music and you make an invitation. But I noticed when you make an invitation, you don't keep up with the rock music. And the man said, no, they never come to the altar. What do they do? They sing a, oh, I nearly said something, a mushy kind of hymn if you like. There's room at the cross for you. That pulls at your heartstrings. If they're born in emotion, they want to live in emotion. Time was when the Holy Spirit of God came and you didn't make all the calls. I've seen people start up the aisle and walk on the knees in the middle of a meeting, come and get straight. They were afraid they'd drop into hell. In revival people can't get out of the church when folk are going, they climb over the pews and tumble down at the front. The least thing we seem to know about the Holy Ghost is three offices. One is to convict of sin. The second one is to glorify Jesus. The third one is to teach us how to pray. We can't pray without the Holy Ghost. Moses said no words as far as I know. God said, I'll start a whole human race through you if you'll make a deal. And he says, no, I'd rather perish. I know a TV star on Sunday morning that will perish if the Lord said, I'll make you the greatest preacher in the world. And you'll see it's right on the spot. If you could put all the ministries together, and as God is my witness, I think I told my sweet wife this week about this. If you could take Billy Graham's ministry, Oral Roberts' ministry, Jimmy Swaggart's ministry, anybody else on TV, and put them all together. It's a ministry. If God said you can have that super ministry for yourself and be the most amazing preacher in history, or I'll give you a baptism of the Spirit that will let you pray like Moses, I'd settle for Moses. In preaching we stand before, for God, before men. In praying we stand before God for men. You can get through a sermon maybe in an hour. I struggle to anyhow, I don't usually do it. I can get through a sermon in an hour. I can't get out of the burden to pray. I hardly ever spend a night in prayer. Got up at quarters or three this morning. Went in my office to do some work and pray. Sure I took a catnap during the day. If I knew that I could find a secret where I wouldn't have to eat or sleep for the rest of my life, boy, I'd give my card away for it, exchange it. There's no reward for sleeping or eating. Again, you can be testing your friends by knowing what they do in their spare time. You are, let me say two things, I'll quit. I've been quitting two or three times, you know this. I've got some good intentions. Well, Paul said that and he said, he was signing off and he says, again I say unto you, and again, so blame him when you see him. He taught me to do that. Okay, you're fortunate to be born in this generation and unfortunate. I mean to be the young people of this generation. Number one, because the greatest challenges that ever come to the church are just starting to grow now. They'll get worse and worse and worse. And the second is, you're going to be in the greatest outpouring of the Spirit of God the world has taken. Every revival in history. Finney, what happened under John Huss? What happened under John Wesley? What happened unto Luther? What happened when Mr. George Whitefield came to this country? And a man called Gilbert Tennant went to hear him and took his two sons. And within a year, his son Gilbert could preach better than George Whitefield. Almost with no training, had a vision of eternity. George Whitefield said, every time I look at the back of the building, I don't see the wall. I see flames ready to consume this congregation if they don't repent and seek God. We need to pray. Teach me to pray. We've got a little time to pray. I think one thing we could pray for, David has ordered 150,000 copies, usually a company print about 10,000 of a book. He's ordered 150,000 already. They're being mailed all over the country and over the world. And I pray, we should pray that God will awaken hearts of ministers and deacons and teachers. And every person who reads it, some will read it in jail, some in the university, some in offices, some housewives. But he's going to pour out his Spirit on all flesh. That stubborn, rebellious neighbor of yours that laughs at you one day will come in, maybe speaking in tongues or not, with a joy of God honor and say, you know what happened? I woke at one o'clock this morning and I, every one of my sins was forgiven. And I've got something inside that won't keep quiet. Then you'll be able to join and say, I'm sorry I've been dumb so long. But anyhow. Isn't it great to have a God like this? That when we pray tonight, that same God isn't one day older than when Moses prayed. He isn't one ounce weaker than he was when he answered the prayer of Elijah. The man that prays from the bottom of the ocean, in the belly of a whale he prayed. Maybe some of us will have to get swallowed up with the whale before we'll pray anyhow. That that same God is our God. Bring me that chair.