This sermon emphasizes the importance of enduring through trials and attacks from the enemy, focusing on the need to keep one's eyes on God and find strength in His Word. It highlights the devastating effects of jealousy, defamation, and unjust attacks on preachers and faithful Christians, urging them to rely on God's grace and promises for survival and healing. The sermon draws parallels to historical figures like George Whitefield, Watchman Nee, and Madame Jean Guion, who faced intense persecution but found strength and victory through their faith and devotion to God.

Father in mercy on all of us, come, wash me afresh in the holy blood of Jesus and cleanse me and fill me afresh with the Holy Spirit and protect us all from the enemy, thy enemy and ours. And now come by thy mercy and grace and make thy word living, alive, throbbing and meaningful to all our hearts as only God can. Quieten our thoughts, take away all hardness, cynicism, anger, unbelief, hatred. Come break the hardest heart. Shock them Lord. In Jesus Christ's name, for his glory alone, amen. I'm going to read to you just a few verses. I'm missing a verse here or there for time. From Ezekiel chapter two from verse one. And he said unto me, son of man, stand upon thy feet and I will speak unto thee. And the spirit entered into me when he spake unto me and set me upon my feet that I heard him that spake unto me and he said unto me, son of man, I send thee to the children of Israel to a rebellious nation. Verse four, they are impudent and stiff hearted, but I send thee to them, thou shalt say to them, thus saith the Lord God. And they, whether they will hear or whether they will forbear, that means reject what I say to you, whether they will hear or whether they will forbear, they are rebellious yet shall know that there hath been a prophet among them. Thou, son of man, be not afraid of them, neither be afraid of their words. Though briars and thorns be with thee, and thou dost dwell among scorpions, be not afraid of their words nor dismayed at their looks. They say, son of man, hear what I say unto thee, be not thou rebellious like that rebellious house. Open thy mouth and eat that I give thee. And when I looked, behold, a hand was sent unto me, and lo, a roll, a scroll of a book was therein, and he spread it before me, and it was written within and without, and there was written within lamentations, mourning, woe. Moreover, he said to me, son of man, eat that thou findest, eat this roll. Digest it, and go speak unto the house of Israel. So I opened my mouth, and he caused me to eat that roll, to digest as I meditate as I digest, and revelation came in my heart, and brokenness, and burden. Oh, son of man, cause thy belly to eat, fill thy bowels with this roll that I give thee. I did eat, it was in my mouth as honey for sweetness. Verse 10, moreover, he said to me, son of man, all my words that I shall speak unto thee, receive in thine heart, and hear with thine ears, and go get thee to them of the captivity. Speak unto them, tell them, thus saith the Lord God, whether they hear, whether they forbear, reject. Verse 17, son of man, I have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel, therefore hear the word at my mouth, and give them warning from me. When I say unto the wicked, thou shalt surely die. If thou givest them not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from the wicked way, to save his life, the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood will I require at thine hand. Yet if thou warn the wicked, and he turn not from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity, but thou hast delivered thy soul to warnings to the people, and to the preacher that God tells to preach faithfully. Preacher, you are not responsible. You are not responsible only for what you say in God's pulpit, but you are going to be accountable and held responsible by God for what you do not say. In God's pulpit, you are not only held responsible for what you say in God's pulpit, preacher, you will be held accountable by God for what you do not say, preacher. The words of Martin Luther, 1483, from out the millions of the earth, God often calls a man to preach the word, and for the truth, to take a loyal stand. It is sad to see him shun his cross, nor stand in its defense between the fields of right and wrong, a preacher on the fence. Before him are the souls of men, destined for heaven or hell, an open Bible in his hand, and yet he dare not tell all of the truth that's written there. He feareth an offense, the shame of heaven, the joy of hell, a preacher on the fence, most surely God has called that man to battle for the right, it is his to ferret out the wrong and turn on us the light, and yet he dare not tell the facts. He fears the consequence, the most disgusting thing on earth, a preacher on the fence, that he should stand up for the wrong, the right he'd not defend. If he should stand up for the right, the wrong he would offend. His mouth is closed, he cannot speak for freedom or against. Great God deliver us from him, that preacher on the fence. His better judgment, common sense, they pull him to the right. Behold, him grip the topmost rail and hang with all his might, his love of praise. It holds him back, keeps him from going hence. He's in a most unpleasant plight, that preacher on the fence. But soon both sides will find him out and brand him as a fraud, a coward, he who dare not please the devil or his God, his sanctimonial pose. It's all a miserable pretense. And men of zeal will always grieve that preacher on the fence. That hymn was written over 100 years ago by a preacher called C.C. Mora, courageous. The grave, fearful warning to all preachers. The grave, fearful warning to all preachers. Woe unto you, woe unto you when all men shall speak well of you. Woe unto you when all men shall speak well of you. For so did their fathers to the false prophets. Luke 6, 26. Do I seek to please men? For if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ. Galatians 1, verse 10. Even so we speak not as pleasing men, but God. 1 Thessalonians 2, verse four. Verse six, nor of men sought we glory. James 3, verse one. My brethren, brothers, be not many masters, literally teachers of the oracles of God. Be not many teachers of the spook, knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation. For in many things we offend all. James 3, verse one. Knowing we shall receive the greater condemnation, for in many things we offend all. When I was a young preacher with a burning heart, I was staggered by God one day as I walked into a large hall. And unexpectedly of being confronted by God, I looked up at a very large plaque on the wall. Art thou ready, O preacher, to face the consequences of letting the Lord speak through thee as he will? Art thou ready, O preacher, to face the consequences of letting the Lord speak through thee as he will? I literally trembled, and then I said from my soul, yes, I am God. I am God. Proverbs 24, verse 10. If thou faint, if thou faint in the day of adversity, thy strength is small. If thou faint in the day of adversity, thy strength is small. John Huss of Bohemia, today Czech, the Czech Republic, Czechoslovakia. John Huss of Bohemia, 1370 to 1450, 1415. As they tied him to the stake, thousands gathered waiting and watching now. They gave him one last chance to recant of his beliefs that were heretical to Rome and dangerous for Rome. These beliefs, one last chance to recant and to vow to cease to preach such things, such erroneous, heretical teachings ever again. And his life would be spared. The crowds in silence waited as the archbishop stood with a flame. John Huss cried with a loud voice, to witness to God's truth is more important than life. To witness to God's truth is more important than life. And in anger, the bishop threw the flame as his flesh was melted and they saw his flesh. They heard him singing praise to God. To witness to God's truth is more important than life. Oh God, that that were written across and boldly across every pulpit of the fundamental evangelical church worldwide today. Oh, that that was written boldly across every preacher that stood with a Bible in the pulpit of God to men as if he's giving the full revelation, having been student of it, and stands before God to be accountable one day as to what he preaches from it and what he does not preach from it. Oh, fear of the consequences. Oh God, that it would be written across every preacher's life boldly, boldly, unmistakably. To witness to God's truth is more important than life. Oh God, oh God, help us today. Daniel's three friends were to be cast in the furnace way back then. They also cried, even if God does not deliver us, oh King, we will not compromise over such men today. Even if we die, as a result, we will not compromise concerning our God. Wicked, false prophets defamed and undermined the fearless prophet Jeremiah until he was despised and rejected by all. They cast him into a deep pit. But why? Because he warned of God's judgment, because of their wickedness and their sin. They hate him that rebuketh in the gate. Amos 5, verse 10, they hate him. To this day, that rebuketh in the gate, that's where they taught and discussed the things of God. And abhor him that speaketh uprightly and lay a snare for him that reproveth to this day, sir. Don't doubt it. Isaiah 29, verse 21, all throughout the centuries from that time to this day, they hate him that rebuketh in the gate. They abhor him that speaketh uprightly concerning God's word, Amos 5, 10. Brace yourself, preacher, they will lay a snare for him that reproveth. Isaiah 29, verse 21, there's no such a thing as your avoiding it, sir, if you're faithful to this book. They bend their tongues like the bow for lies. Jeremiah 9, verse 3, their tongue is as an arrow, shot out, it speaketh deceit. Verse 8, oh, Jeremiah knew what those false prophets were about in their wickedness to destroy him and stop God's word in truth being proclaimed. Proverbs 16, verse 27, the ungodly, the ungodly diggeth up evil. They dig up evil and in their lips, there is a burning fire. Proverbs 16, 27, 28, a perverse man showeth strife. The whisperer separateth chief friends. Oh, what the devil can accomplish through a whisperer. A lying tongue hateth those that are afflicted by it. Proverbs 26, verse 28, a lying tongue hateth those that are afflicted by it. But behind their hatred, behind their hatred is always the broader picture. You always have to look at the broader picture, whatever comes upon you, preacher, or faithful Christian, or you're in trouble. Behind their hatred is always the broader picture. It is satanic retaliation. Do you honestly believe Satan will let you preach truth fearlessly and faithfully and do nothing to stop you? He's a terrible enemy and he never sleeps. It is satanic retaliation against those who dare to preach God's truth uncompromisingly in this apostate age. When Satan's servants in God's pulpits, I preached that sermon a few years ago in Scotland and I only quoted scriptures. Satan's servants in God's. When Satan's servants in God's pulpits are crying out brazenly against this book, undermining it, undermining and attacking the unadulterated word of God throughout the world from pulpits under the banner of Christianity, and we still tolerate them, our consciences are so defiled, we actually tolerate them. The satanic orchestration for the defamation, devastation, and destruction of the faithful uncompromising preacher, the satanic orchestration for the defamation, devastation, and destruction of the faithful uncompromising teacher. But how does the devil orchestrate such wickedness? How does the devil orchestrate such wickedness? By seeking out carnal threatened preachers who are everywhere. The moment you come with this book in its unadulterated stand, men will be threatened by you who dare not preach in their situation, this book in its unadulterated stand. By seeking out carnal threatened preachers to launch a smear campaign, he knows they will, against that preacher. He seeks for a whisperer, the biblical terminology for a defamer, not someone who just whispers about the weather, but against God's faithful. A whisperer, that's all he needs, a defamer. Whispers loud enough for it to be taken by Satan across the country faster than the national news broadcast. So long as he can find a whisperer who'll say just loud enough for one, it seems most Christians adore they so gullible they'll believe anything that's whispered, and it'll be across the world. You see, he knows the power of suggestion. He doesn't need truth, he just needs someone in the cloth, in the pulpit, in the Lord's ministry who's threatened carnal enough and so out of touch with God that he's threatened by this book and anyone who dares to preach it uncompromisingly. He just needs someone who'll stoop to be a whisperer because he knows that the power of suggestion is all he needs, even if it's a fabricated lie. That man will be branded till the day he dies if he can find a whisperer that will just say one sentence. We're all so gullible, you see. He'll be branded till he dies even if there's no truth in it. Even if it's a total lie, he's branded, discredited, wounded, crippled, and destroyed in his ministry and his integrity in the eyes of most people who when they look at him or listen to him from that day, all the devil needed was a whisperer. You stoop to that, he only needs you to whisper one sentence, sir, and you can destroy me because it'll go like fire in this gullible, undiscerning age. In Psalm 35, verse 26, David cries out fearfully of those that rejoice at mine hurt. Those that rejoice at mine hurt. Can Satan find such people? Oh, yes. Soon the faithful preacher will groan before God, oh, how are they increased that seek my hurt? How are they increased that seek my hurt? But listen carefully, preacher. Listen carefully, preacher. If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. John 15, 18, the servant is not greater than his Lord if they have persecuted me, Christ said, they will also persecute you. John 15, verse 20, but Christ was tragically speaking about the threatened, carnal, jealous religious leaders of the ordained religion of God upon earth. That's the tragedy. If they hate you, they hate me, they hate you. He was speaking about the threatened, carnal, jealous religious leaders of the ordained religion of God upon earth, who honestly, Christ said, they will believe they're doing a godless service by destroying you, by putting you to death. They're so out of touch with God. Jesus said in John 15, 25, they hated me without a cause, without a just cause. It was carnality, it was because they were jealous and threatened, they had to find something, but you know they could find nothing. And when they became really how deeply their wickedness was, these religious leaders and teachers and examples of what God's original religion was, oh, when they could find nothing, what did they do? They tried to catch him at his words. They wouldn't rest until they found something. There was nothing that could condemn this man, but they had to condemn him. And that's the wickedness of a man in the ministry who will have to find something, so he tries everything. Even fabricated lies and the power of suggestion, because he knows like the devil knows, that's all he needs to brand a man for life, though it's a total lie, just the power of suggestion. Oh, without cause they have hid for me their net in a pit. Without cause they have digged for my soul. You know, if you allow the devil to do this to you preachers and he does it to multitudes, to be threatened by others who God uses, because you haven't been used like that. You don't hold the attention of the crowd. You don't draw the crowds. You haven't got the affection of the crowds like this. Oh, you allow the devil to do this to you. They looked at God manifest in the flesh. They didn't know it was God. The God they thought they were serving and believed they were serving. And they accused him as being of the devil. That's what jealousy can do to these eyes. They said that God was of the devil. And builds above the power of Satan. He performs his miracles. You will stoop to look at God himself and say he's of the devil. And you believe you're serving that God and you'll put him to death and hate him. You can be so used by the devil. You can stoop to that in your deception. If you listen to Satan's lies. Oh, preachers, you will face the jealousies. Don't doubt this. You will face their anger, their smear campaigns. It will come at you that you won't believe that people could stoop to such lies or even more worse, that people could listen. They will stoop to anything to sabotage your life and ministry and your honor. If they stoop to let Satan make them a whisperer, a defamer because of their carnality, because of their threatenedness, their jealousies. The Pharisees are alive and well on planet Earth today. Everywhere, everywhere. So brace yourself, brace yourself. Even in your own church. George Whitefield, one of the most greatly used men in the history of the church, fearless in the pulpit. Men would fall in their thousands as he preached onto the ground, weeping and sobbing under conviction. There's no preacher on Earth that that's happened since then. The great George Whitefield was fearless, but hated. Who by? Oh, wait a minute, this will shock you. Who did the most damage against him? Even Jonathan Edwards had to rise up to try and defend him and stop them throwing him out of America. There was so much, oh, the religious leaders. George Whitefield, so mightily used by God, returned back to England on one of the seven occasions that he toured this country, not by airplanes. He spoke more than I've ever spoken. How God did it through him, I don't know. No wonder he died so young, pouring himself out for America and returning sick against all the pleas that even John Wesley don't go back. He goes back to die preaching. Coming back to London on one occasion, Whitefield heard that another well-known and esteemed preacher in London at that time had launched a scathing attack upon his character. He was greatly grieved and shaken. The great George Whitefield. He was greatly grieved and shaken that his good name should suffer thus. But he made no effort to defend it. Listen carefully, preacher. He made no effort to defend it. Instead, he uttered these sentiments. I am content to wait till the judgment day for the clearing up of my name and honor and character. Outside of that, he did nothing publicly, though he wept greatly on his knees as these stories spread and were embraced by many Christians. His enemies suggested strongly that he had taken monies for his personal emulament. But the man who was revered and known across the world as Dr. Franklin, defended him, he knew every cent that came to him. After Whitefield's death, he said, there was not one penny that was misused by this man of God, every one of you. Pity it had to be said after his death, though. The great Watchman E, in the book Against the Tide by Angus Kinney of Watchman E's life, he spoke about how the church in Shanghai faced astonishing criticism from other religious and respected leaders of the church throughout China. One man attacked his doctrines and then felt led to publish a scathing attack in a book of all the heretical preachings and then devoted a great part of the book claiming that he had inside knowledge of how Watchman E had misused foreign funds which were meant for God's work. And he attacked Watchman E's integrity in the use of these funds. Stature as a leader seemed to but invoke the proverb, he who raises his head above others, he who raises his head above the heads of others will sooner or later be decapitated. That's true. But Watchman E kept quiet and never once, never once defended himself to try and justify himself. Never once. That is a man of God. Oh, he aged before they cut his tongue out through the injustices and cruelty of fellow preachers. Sir, we're not immune to hurt at injustices and lies and the shock of whom it will come through, who the devil bowed, full of jealousy. They would stoop to such things. The Anguish of Charles Spurgeon, a book written by Darrell W. Emonson. He routes of the slander that came against this prince of preachers. During his years in London, Spurgeon received such intense slander and scorn from other religious leaders. All the evil that they began to produce as evidence against his integrity. At that time, Spurgeon wavered between rejoicing at this persecution, but also being utterly crushed. On his knees, he said, I have often knelt with sweat, hot sweat rising from my brow at the slander as I have wept in grief, agony and grief, and was well nigh broken under such injustices and slanders. Even if you regarded as the greatest preacher on earth, you'll find yourself weeping and aging. And Satan finds a whisperer everywhere. But again, no matter what Satan, no matter what Satan orchestrates through death-threatened carnal preachers against you to destroy you, we dare not lose sight of the broader picture as to why God allowed such injustices and evils to come upon us. We need to look at the broader picture always, never just at the circumstance, always think as to why God is allowing this injustice, these lies, these things that are defaming me and making me age and groan and come nigh well death. As it did with Spurgeon, the broader picture. You see, God is still in control, beloved. And if Satan's orchestrating something, if God's allowing Satan to orchestrate such circumstances, God has something bigger in allowing it, the orchestration that God allows, for he's still God. You see, in orchestrating and allowing these circumstances sent by the devil to destroy us, it's allowed by God to make us. It's allowed by God to make us, to bring out of you and your life and your ministry what God would have you to preach, that you would never ever preach had you not been in such circumstances or known such injustices and not wept with hot sweat pouring from your brow and thinking you're gonna die under the grief of such wrong and evil slander. Oh, he knows how. They meant it for evil, but God meant it for good. Joseph saw the broader picture. God allowed that evil, he hated what they were doing. He hated their evil. It was angry, don't think God asked them to, but God, God meant it for good. The broader picture, the injustices, the cruelties you have faced, the hardships and the storms you endured, God always was looking at the broader picture as God, who never loses control. For in your every crisis, in your every crisis that God allows you to face in life, his word suddenly becomes his voice. Outside of crisis, there's very little of this that isn't just the Bible, doctrine, or preacher. God's word ceases to be your source of doctrine and theology. It becomes your source of survival and your preaching becomes a source of survival to those you preach once you have experienced the God of all comfort and his healing word. He was able to comfort to the comfort wherewith we were comforted. Only when God has to comfort us that we survive can we preach, can we weep with them that weep. Only then can we identify as not just heavy doctrine, defending a doctrine of our church, a doctrine that we're biased to. We don't care about that. We care about the survival of the souls and go against the tide. When this becomes our source of survival, God knows it becomes a source of survival, not doctrine, not survival of doctrine. Yes, everything is doctrine, but hallelujah, if you, oh, don't only get stuck on one, but look at everything in the Bible, God can use you. Outside of which I doubt God will ever use you apart from encourage those who want a biased doctrine but don't care about souls. Spurgeon cried, if it wasn't for the fires, if it wasn't for the injustices, if it wasn't for the cruelties, if it wasn't for the storms, the trials that God permitted in my life, I would have been poor as a preacher. I would have been poverty stricken as a preacher with the Bible in my hand if it wasn't for these things. You see, God knew what would make him not only the greatest known preacher in history as far as homiletical or oratory ability under the anointing of God, but to reach the hearts of children that grip the hearts of the godly that to this day influence us. God knew what to do if it wasn't for these things. Oh, the Lord has given me the tongue of the learned. It doesn't just boom, I give it to you, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary as I, 50 verse four. Oh, 2 Corinthians 1, 3 refers to the God of all comfort who comfort us in all our tribulation that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble by the comfort we ourselves are comforted of God, 2 Corinthians 1, 3. The preacher sought to find out acceptable words, Ecclesiastes 11, verse 10. Suddenly, you know God's using you as you take this book not to give a four-point message that's correct doctrinally. That doesn't matter to you anymore. All homiletics becomes part of your nature. But you get something from the heart of God that you know you have to go against the tide no matter what the consequences for the survival of the church, let alone the individual. 2 Corinthians 12, 7, lest I should be exalted above measure. There was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me. You know what that word means? To literally punch. God said, Paul said, to literally punch me that I stagger and lose balance. I literally stagger. Why would God do that? Lest I should be exalted above measure. For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, not three little prayers, three times he stopped life and he sought God with his soul in grief at these things the devil was doing that he felt were hindering him in every way from being what God wanted him to do. But he said unto me, my grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly, therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Brother, sister, we come to accept, though we age, that the broader picture, the persecutions, the necessities, the distresses for Christ's sake that we suffer make in us and make of us people who know we're nothing, especially the preacher. Apart from God's grace, there have been many times that I felt I couldn't stand again, let alone preach. I couldn't get up on my knees physically and face another day in life. And then God lifts you up. It's very different when you get up, you know, when God has to lift you up with all that strength that you used to fight, rush back in the battle no matter what the devil. Now you've got nothing of self left to do that. All you have is grace, knowing how weak, becoming so conscious that apart from God's grace that you now look to just to stand again. Oh, you preach so differently, you preach so differently. And you know, you wouldn't be in the pulpit apart from the grace of God, let alone survive. Yes, these things were sent by the devil to destroy us and they can destroy us. Don't think the devil is just some fool, some manipulated thing that God allowed. No, it was sent by the devil to destroy us, but allowed by God to make us. So your darkest moment. God is doing his greatest work, or otherwise it wouldn't be allowed. The darkest moment you ever face in life. God is accomplishing his greatest work in you, or it wouldn't be happening. He's God. The devil's not God. But don't take your eyes off of God, preacher. You see, Peter did the miraculous. He survived in a storm Satan created. The Bible is careful to say this. Nothing's in the Bible just to tickle your ears, just to make you interested in lovely story. No, it's all for you to survive. There's nothing in this book that isn't here for your survival to know the full revelation in the heart of God for your survival. Otherwise it wouldn't be in this book. From Genesis one to Revelation. Sir. Peter. The Bible says the storm was created by Satan. Clearly. He creates storms. And his eyes on Christ, he survived. It was like something that was beyond credibility, beyond all comprehension that a human could survive this and walk. In an impossible way through faith. But God was careful to note this when he took his eyes off Jesus and he began to look at the storm at what Satan was as he took his eyes off God. He began to sink. He began to sink. Wherefore, it's why didn't you just keep your eyes on me and not doubt that I've lost control because of the storm of Satan? Oh, we may be consumed with grief, anger, bitterness, fear, sorrow, self-pity, negativeness. This can happen to a preacher. This can happen if he's not careful to keep his eyes on God. We may be devoured by fear, devoured by hurt, devoured by wounds, injustices. The fear of man, God says, created the snare that can destroy you, preacher. God warns us. God warns us. Oh, through insane jealousy, Cain murdered Abel. Many Christians, through insane jealousy of other Christians, of preachers, maybe not physically. But it led them to destroy. You may as well have murdered him. You so destroyed him through your insane jealousy. People are not necessarily martyred physically or burned at the stake. In this time, but by cruel defamation, lies, smear campaigns and hatred, they can destroy the ministry, the honor, the integrity, the credibility of every preacher that they desire to destroy. If that preacher takes his eyes off God, they are cruelly put to death. For one reason, they preach without compromise. I mean, every day, every day, in its context or against the tide. No matter what movement, no matter what the consequences, and there's always consequences, that's all. You talk about physical death. I read this in the newspaper, 9th of August this year, one of the great newspapers of the world. An 82-year-old man and his 41-year-old son have been found living in a forest in central Vietnam after they went missing during the war with the United States 40 years later. The last time Ho Van Thanh was seen, he was running into the woods with his infant son, Ho Van Lanh. After a bomb had exploded in his home, killing his wife and his other children in 1973. He was never seen again for 40 years. They had no contact with the outside world. The son was illiterate. He lived like animals. You see, you killed him. As a human, it can happen in preacher's lives, that the mind crumbles. The ability to function is destroyed. They're so filled with fear at the devastation of what you've done, the hurt you've caused, that they've run. Of God's service. Where are they? How many people have run from you, sir? They're still in hiding. No one knows where they are. Why? You broke them down. You destroyed them. You may as well have burned them at the stake. Missing soldier found after 33 years. A former Soviet soldier went missing more than three decades ago during Moscow's invasion of Afghanistan. It was also this year he had served in a unit and was seriously wounded in September 1980. Former soldiers of the Soviet Union returned to Afghanistan annually to try and find missing soldiers. Whose minds have been totally destroyed by the war. Can't see where it was written how many they found in one year. Twenty nine soldiers. Have been able to be returned, rehabilitated to a degree in Russia, though most of them mentally will never recover. They were destroyed by the attacks. It left them devastated and full of fear that they just withdrew into oblivion and lived as if the war still on. Fearful to come back to any meaningful life. A Japanese soldier was found in his dugout trench. Believe this or not. After the Second World War. Fifty years after the war had ended, he was still there in that trench. Living like an animal, trying to stay alive. He was still believing his mind had so collapsed at the devastation of war. But the missiles hurled and the fears that gripped him or the fear of man created the snare, sir. It destroys people and people are fearful. He was still in hiding, still in the trench, believing the war had still was still going on and he could not leave his position. His mind, of course, was gone. He was totally mental. The battle can do that to you. Many a soldier has been wounded in the battlefield. Gravely wounded. Many have died on the battlefield of wars. And this war between God and Satan is the most intense with the most casualties of any war in history, multiplied by a billion of any war. The casualties of war against the saints, the casualties of a war from deviled Satan's orchestration through other Christians to destroy. They literally burn you at the stake because. You refuse to compromise on what you were doing in their denomination, in their movement. But how not to be destroyed by the cruel attacks of the messengers sent by the devil to destroy me? Well, as an angel opened the gates of prison for the imprisoned Peter. So we must look to God to open the gates that imprison you if you have withdrawn or your mind is collapsed and you have no faith left. You've been destroyed. You're busy being destroyed through the fear of man. The snare has been created upon your life. There's one way to survive. Unless I know had been my delight, I should have perished in my affliction. Psalm 119, verse 92. Unless this was my delight, my greatest discipline in life, I would have perished. Great peace have they which love by law. Nothing shall offend them. Nothing shall cause them to stumble. That means to stagger. In their faith, nothing, nothing. Oh, the Lord is on my side. I will not fear what man will do to me. Psalm 118, verse six. And along. Do you know the Psalms? The schoolmaster of prayer. What did you say most of them are about? Praise? No. If you go through the Psalms, begin tonight to see if I'm wrong. Most of these crying, this is the school of how to pray. Luther said he couldn't pray. But then God told him why the book of Psalms was there. And when you can't pray because of the attacks of the devil, you're so numb. You just pray the Psalms and you learn to pray as God wants you to pray. He learned how to pray because it's always as evil cruelties come upon you, injustices, wrongs. And then how to come out in victory, ending in praise. But the bulk is the defamation. The defamation of man to try and destroy you. The plans of men to try and destroy you. About 80% of the Psalms. It's prayers of that. Do you know what percentage of life, if that is case, in the sovereign God's holy book, the book of the school of God? Oh, those who are on the front line of the battle in this war between God and Satan for the souls of men and the war intensifies when you get saved against you, sir. As no unsaved person knows. To keep you from reaching or in any way. Undermining the ground and territories of the devil and his people. Oh, in the front line of this battle, preacher, you will find it is a literal battlefield, the devastation. And unless you keep your eyes on God and there's only one way you can't see Christ as Peter did, but your eyes are on Christ to the degree this book is open and so daily in your life through every crisis. His word becomes his voice. Suddenly, it's God. Ramus speaking for your survival, appealing the wounds that are there. There's no healing preacher. There's no healing Christian of the wounds that are inflicted upon you that are unjust. The cruelties of others to destroy you is no healing. You come out bitter, angry, festering, angry against God, angry against men. Unless you keep this book, this is your source of survival. This is the healing balm of God. Every promise in the book. Our plasters, Yelena Garrett said to put over the wounds, there's no other healing, there's no other healing, she said. Don't be like a child who takes a plaster off prematurely and fresh bleeding. You need to sometimes hold on to those promises until healing comes. And it takes a long time. You're so wounded. It takes time, but it will be. You will be healed. You will always come out more like Jesus. But unless this is your unless you keep your eyes on Christ and the only way you look literally at Christ is this book. It's not the physical form of Christ anymore. You will sink if you don't have this book open and always meditate for your survival and the survival of others who you must influence, who are and going to be destroyed or hurt greatly. Oh, sir, the devastation of war can be so devastating. It can be so overwhelming. It's like walking through a battlefield. The devastation is beyond comprehension. As you just look at the wounded, the destroyed, you look at the hurt. You look at all that the devil doing against you. He attacks you in such a way. Your integrity, your children, your wife, your family, your ministry, he attacks you. And it's like walking through a battlefield. And there's one way to survive. Preachers keep this book open. Seeking one thing, God's voice, and it will always come. It will always come. Oh, do you know what's been the greatest buffer as the devil's heard everything against me? He should discipline. God gave me for the ministry of memorizing the book. So I spend days, hours, weeks when everyone else is sleeping. I up to the night memorizing. And it's a form of meditation that God needed me to do. So firstly, it was for my survival. And then God had in mind perhaps to reach others by quoting this book. Yes, but I survived. It was a buffer to keep me from being destroyed as I was memorizing. As the devil was trying to destroy my family. Yes, it was like a buffer that I just walked on. Not knowing how God's going to get me through this or what's going to happen, but walking on in the faith that came, the peace that came in spite of all this devastation as I was just memorizing was a meditating everything, passages upon passages. And my faith kept it was a buffer, a protection, a protection. The word of God. The word of God, whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with all thy might. If God's given you this, take it, Ecclesiastes 9, 10. Madame Jean Guion, the French woman who created such a stir through her teachings. She was denounced as dangerous. She was arrested and imprisoned, her writings examined, condemned by the Catholic Archbishop Buzet. But she continued her teachings while in prison in the Bastille, the worst prison known in the history of France and the most feared. She wrote in that prison, like John Bunyan, his greatest work. The devil was sorry he ever put him in prison. It didn't stop him. It became the second most read and printed book in history. Next to the Bible, oh, she wrote poems and hymns, hymns and books. She believed that prayer should be the greatest discipline of your life as a result of the meditation of the scriptures alone. Because from the scriptures is faith and discernment of what to pray for. She believed that through this discipline, one could be in such communion with God, in such consistent communion with God, that we would live to that degree in victory. She believed in salvation by faith, not by works. It is a gift of God. She met secretly in the court of the sales, being a very wealthy woman and very, very feared because of her wealth. Oh, she met in the court of sales to pray for the conversion of King Louis and the reformation, the spiritual reformation of France as it happened across. She met there with Fenelon, another man greatly persecuted for his beliefs. But she was betrayed with false accusations again, that she was in adultery with this man. How wicked Satan is, how wicked preachers are. She was incarcerated and put into a solitary cell in the Bastille, the notorious French prison. Released seven years later for a time, she had to be carried out. She was so physically destroyed, carried out on a litter. Her message was the importance of dying to self, that Christ can live through us. And that joy can be found in any circumstance if we remain in constant fellowship with God through his word and prayer. She influenced many great preachers such as John Wesley, Watchman Lee, Andrew Murray, Jesse Penn Lewis, to name a few. Ah, yes, when Paul and Cyrus were cast into prison, their backs in pain, having lashed and whipped, their feet in stocks. They stunned the world to this day. Not only those prisoners, by singing praises to God, and so did Jean Guillaume, Madame Guillaume, she wrote this poem. Strong are the walls around me that hold me all the day. But they who thus abound me cannot keep God away. My very dungeon walls are dear because the God I love is here. They know who thus oppress me. It is hard to be alone, but know not one can bless me who comes through bars and stone. He makes my dungeon's darkness bright and fills my bosom with delight. Thy love, O God, restores me from sighs and tears to praise and deep my soul adores thee, nor thinks of time or place. I ask no more in good or ill but union with thy holy will. It is that which makes my treasure. It is that which brings my gain, converting woe to pleasure and reaping joy from pain. O, it is enough, whate'er befall, to know that God is all in all. In those prisons she wrote hundreds of psalms, songs, hymns that the church dare not bury, for they are among the greatest ever written. And, Lukes, I suffered much for thee, more than thy bitterest agony, to rescue thee from hell. I suffered much for thee. What wilt thou bear for me? Can we stand, please?