In this sermon, the speaker begins by sharing a personal anecdote about a surprising incident involving his essay and his teacher. He then transitions to discussing the power of the Holy Ghost and how it enables believers to overcome sin. The speaker emphasizes the seriousness of sin and its implications, urging listeners to take it seriously and not trifle with it. He also addresses the current state of the world, highlighting the fear and tension surrounding the presence of destructive weapons. The sermon concludes with a reminder of the gospel message and the importance of living for Christ.

And what will I if it be already kindled, but I have a baptism to be baptized with? And how am I straight until it be accomplished? I like that text because it tells us where we live. I was asked by a Baptist minister in another state to visit his son. His son was in a sanitarium in Chicago. And when I saw this son, I was frightened. A long time ago, this young man of about 18, and I could see that his days were numbered. He was suffering from consumption in the very last degree. He had become emaciated, nothing but skin and bones, and he could hardly talk. He had hardly a voice left. And when I sat down to talk to him, he said, well, I'm glad the work is over. He says, I'm not really sick anymore. There's just a little spot in my left lung. Oh, how people fool themselves. If tonight we had a machine here to examine everybody, wonder what our condition is, physical condition. It might be a good thing to be examined like that. The city makes it a point to tell you whether you have diabetes or not. Lots of people walk around, they're sick with diabetes and don't know it until it's too late, until it gets the best of them. This young man fooled himself. I don't know whether the doctors were to blame or not, but I rather suspect it because he actually seemed to believe that he was all right, and yet death had already gripped him irresistibly. He couldn't escape it. It was only a few days before his body sank into the grave. And tonight when we sang, it is well with my soul, I thought how good it is that God has made provision for us to know whether it is well with our souls or not. We can tell, and not only has God made provision for us to know, to give us a very thorough going, going over. When some time ago our little ones were sick, Edwin went into the room and said, well, what's the diagnosis? Now they've spread the news, Edith has a diagnosis. That's a very terrible disease, you know. It might be a good thing if we all had a diagnosis, wouldn't it? Oh, we do, thank God. We've got the x-ray of heaven. Not only a powerful x-ray that doesn't leave a shred unexamined, it's a discerner of the thought and of the intent of the heart. And that wonderful x-ray machine of heaven is operated by the power of the resurrected Son of God. The Bible tells us that we're going to be measured by Jesus in the day of judgment. We sing, oh, to be like the blessed Redeemer. And we forget that that's God's call, that he should be holy and without blame, before him in love. And that's the x-ray machine of heaven that shines through me. But you know, we have a wonderful way of shielding ourselves. There is a way of shielding yourself against x-rays, a heavy shield of lead. And that thing won't penetrate. You know why? Because lead is dead material. Lead is stuff that has lost all its atomic energy. It has gone dead. Oh, about 7,000 billion years now, a few zeros more or less, won't make any difference. The scientists won't blame me, but it's dead. And you take a shield of lead and put it in front of that light, and it won't shine through that lead. It won't bother you. And we have such shields that shield us very carefully. But listen, not if you want to be presented spotless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy. Wouldn't it be a good thing if tonight's Almighty God came into this meeting and said, thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee. I wonder how many it is, men, wife beaters, drunkards, smokers, adulterers that have been saved only because God allowed them to be devoured by cancer. And then when they knew they were going to die, then they cried like one is crying now. He said, oh, if I could only have another 10 years of life, wouldn't I serve my God with all my heart? Well, he had 50 years and he didn't serve the Lord. And I'll bet you if he were healed, he'd go right back. Why, you can't help it unless you allow this wonderful Jesus not only to examine you thoroughly. Oh, how thankful I am for the word of God, which is quick, alive, powerful, sharper than a two-edged sword. I said, God, that's what I need. I'm not going to fool myself and say I'm well and the worst is over when I'm wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked. Somebody quoted a verse of scripture up in camp that interested me. I'd seen it and read it many times, but it was like this. We know that we have passed from death unto life. Why? Because we've had vision, because we give out tract, because we've been healed, because we speak in tongues according to Acts 2-4, or because of all, no, just one reason, because we love the brethren. Oh, that's it. Oh, is that the measure that God measures me by? If you don't forgive from the heart, God won't forgive you. Is that what's the matter with us? Oh, beloved, this is a wonderful x-ray machine. Do you like it or don't you like it? If you don't like it, the day will come when this word that tonight wants to show you your corruption will damn you, will curse you. The word that I've spoken unto you will judge you in that day. How glad I am that I can come to my judge now, and that my judge who has put all under sin, who says they all have sinned, there's not one righteous, no, not one, that this judge invites me now into his office. And he says, let's reason together. I've got a way to make you whiter than the snow. I've got a way to justify you truly, hallelujah, to deliver you from your sin, not only to forgive all your iniquities, but to cleanse you from all unrighteousness. You know that's what's the matter with us. If you don't allow this wonderful x-ray machine of heaven to really do its work, strap you on that table so you can't move, and then, oh, let that sink, pierce you. We don't allow him to do that. I tell you, most of us are a bunch of fools. If the doctor told us that we had diabetes, why, what do people do when they find out they're sick? They'll spend their money. They spent thousands to be delivered of these physical ailments. And this body, which is bound to sink into the grave anyway, receives a thousand times more care than this immortal soul that's destined to live forever with God or with the devil. Thank God, thank God for Jesus Christ who came down from heaven to testify to the world that the works that are of our evil, and not only to testify, but to justify the ungodly. Oh, tell me, have you been to Jesus, who said, I came to cast fire upon this earth? Is that fire burning in your soul? You don't need to fool yourself at all. You may know this night where you stand, and you can make your choice between damnation and righteousness, between sin and God, between the devil and Christ. It's up to you, and it's up to me, and thank God for justice that come on, come. I had to dig a fellow out of jail one time. He was no good at all, but he had done me a good turn, and so I said, well, I'm going to do him a good turn if I can. So I went to see the judge. You ever see a judge? Oh, don't they make you shiver with their black petticoat and their fierce countenance? This man, he was so dignified, he didn't even look at me. He walked. He said, Parson, you're wasting your time. He ain't no good. Well, he told me the truth. The judge of heaven, he doesn't say you're no good. He says you're lost forever. There's none righteous. No, not one. Their throat is an open sepulcher. Oh, how it smells bad when you open these sepulchers. Outside they're beautiful, and they need to be. We need these undertakers to fix up the corpses. But God says their throat is an open sepulcher. Why? Why he that hateth his brother is a murderer. How many have you swallowed? Cannibals. When I was a little boy, I wanted so badly to go to Africa as a missionary, because I'd heard about the cannibals. I was deeply interested in adventure. And you know, I was a little top in Switzerland, and I thought they'd take people by the hind legs and swallow them whole. I wanted to see that, John. But when I found out that they first cook them and then cut them up, I said, well, we can do that too. I don't have to go to Africa. And we do, don't we? Oh yeah, how many did you roast today? Tell me. Well, you get them in among the saints, and that's what they do. They roast the saints. How do you like them? Well done or medium? Glory. Well, you laugh, but it's a fact. God says their throat. What comes out of that throat? Why the thing that's in the heart? But my Lord Jesus Christ, thank you. He says, henceforth there shall be houses divided, two against three and three against two. How come? Come out from among them and be ye separate and touch not the unclean thing. People don't repent of their sin because they don't realize how sinful sin is. You'll never know it until the Holy Spirit turns on that x-ray machine of heaven and shows you your true condition. And thank God he does. And when he does, you will not trifle with sin anymore like you're doing tonight. Sin will not have dominion over you. It will not fool you anymore. Oh how sin deceives. And he has an easy time because our hearts are deceitful above all things and desperately wicked until Jesus Christ gets them into his nail-piercing hand. Until he takes that carnal heart out of you. He says he's going to do that. And he's going to put a new heart into you. Hallelujah. And you're going to die and he's going to put his own spirit within you. Do you realize beloved that we're upon this earth for this very purpose to prepare for heaven? I mean for the kingdom of heaven. Heaven may be in Brooklyn when Jesus comes. I want to be where Jesus is. Not up there above the Big Dipper someplace. I want to be where Jesus Christ is. And if it's in Canarsie, it doesn't make any difference to me. Where Jesus is, there's heaven there. And all the provision he made. He said I've got to be baptized. Oh I must be Jesus. Peter said don't let them do that to you. Why don't you? I like that must of the Son of God. I like that he said offering and sacrifice for sin thou did not desire. It doesn't do any good. It's not acceptable in the sight of God. Then said I, lo I come and the volume of the book it is written of me. I come to do thy will O God. That's what he says when he comes into your heart. Oh when Jesus comes in, Jesus comes in. When Jesus Christ is allowed to come in, Jesus Christ comes in. Oh tell me does he dwell in a divided heart? A heart that is not surrendered to him. But if you have really received him, then he has come. And he says father I've come into this heart to do thy will oh my God. Oh how wonderful through the fire of the Holy Ghost. And how can he do it? Because he first was made sin for me and he took my sin, not part of it, but the whole and nailed it to the cross. And beloved if I trifle with sin now, I crucify the Son of God afresh. I tread underfoot the blood of the covenant where I was sanctified and call it an unholy thing. Oh it would be good if God could tell you tonight thy soul shall be required of thee. If it would make us a little bit more earnest than we are. Because it's as serious a matter as if you were living the last day of your life. This day I have become so jealous of my moments and of my days because I know it's later than we think. People have already said, spread the news in Germany the brother also was dead. I always say that was greatly exaggerated. I ain't said yet. Praise the Lord. But oh Jesus I know that whether I live, I live unto the Lord. And when I die, I die unto the Lord. And I know that he died for all for one purpose. God says they're all dead. That's God's wonderful provision for all of God's people. And that's the only salvation. And if you don't accept that doctrine of Christ from the heart, the devil will run away with you again. Oh thank God for this wholesale salvation in my Lord Jesus Christ. I'm so glad that when he came to me, he shone upon this heart of mine and he didn't let me get away with things. I know saints have laughed at me because they said, oh you're narrow-minded. You're narrow-minded. One mother told a little girl, this happened in the eggs. You know the, there are bugs. Bugs. You know bugs. Sure bugs. They lay eggs under the cabbage leaves. That wouldn't bother me if they ate all the cabbage in the world. But this mother wanted the cabbage and she sent the little girl out to pick the egg off the cabbage leaves. They're underneath the leaves. And the girl went out into the garden, looked down and she says, oh nobody can see those. It's okay. And after a while all the cabbage was gone and of course the little girl got a beating and deserved it. Where are the bugs? Oh Jesus Christ, hallelujah. The apostle Paul says he went everywhere protesting, preaching, faith, repentance toward God. That's number one. Repentance. What the law could not do. And oh how dreadful was the judgment of God upon his Old Testament people. We heard of it this morning. He swore by himself that they should not enter into red. And oh how they scrambled and how they came with their bass drum and with their trumpets and their whistles and they said, now we'll go up, they said to Moses. We're going to go up. After God has sworn that they shouldn't get in. It's a dreadful thing when God swears. And he says, you've crucified the Son of God afresh. And there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversary. No folks, we don't have to fool ourselves. We can examine ourselves by this wonderful book. And when Peter says, don't let them do that to you. He said, get thee behind me, Satan. That was a nice way to talk to the first folk. Sometimes when I just mention his name, they get mad at me. I never called him Satan, but Jesus did. Get thee behind. Oh, he said to his face, like a flint, I come to do what the law could not do. I come to do thy will, oh God. And where is that will of God to be done but in the place where there was rebellion in my heart, in your heart. That's the provision God made when he gave us Jesus Christ. And tonight, I can know where I stand. Is Jesus King and Master and Lord in my soul? Have I bowed to him? Has he been able to baptize me with fire? And that's why I say I like this. I'm so glad that of Jesus we read that he was subject to his parents until he was 30 years of age. And God would not have allowed him to save me if he had rebelled against his father and mother. Can you imagine Jesus Christ as a seven-year-old boy sitting at the breakfast table and refusing to eat his, his porridge. And Mary sitting on one side and Joseph on the other. Honey is so cold. Oh, you know, you got to go to school now, darling. Darling, I'll slap you on the wrist three times if you don't. That's the way we train devils. That's the way we raise a generation of rebels against God. And our Pentecostal churches are full of them. In other words, we can't expect Jesus Christ to come to this earth until he has a Pentecostal church that's subdued, crucified with Christ. That's the provision God has made. And he says, first of all, I must be baptized with a baptism. And he didn't back down, but he went forward and made it possible for every one of us to follow the Lamb, wherever he goes, except he eats the flesh and drinks the blood of the Son of Man. He has no life in him. I read somewhere today in one of these divine healing magazines or Latter-day Saint magazines, I get so many of them, I need another wastebasket. And there was a wonderful article. Why, folks, you don't know who you are? Goodness me. Why? You're like Elijah. The Bible says you are. Sure. Elijah called fire down from heaven, but he also took, took the knife and stuck it into the belly of these prophets of Baal. Can you see those puddles of blood? He took them by the neck and he slaughtered them. Oh, that fearful wrath of Almighty God. And before the fire fell, he called the children of Israel together and he repaired the altar that was broken down. The Bible talks about God Almighty raising up against the tabernacle of David. And what is he talking about? Oh, he's speaking of that wonderful experience that David had in the 91st Psalm. I will say of the Lord, he is my refuge, my fortress, my God. In him will I trust. I shall not be afraid of the terror by night, of the arrow that flies by day, of the pestilence that walketh in darkness, of the destruction that wastes at noonday. A thousand shall fall at my sight, ten thousand at my right hand. Aren't you afraid? You have reason to be afraid. You'll be defeated unless you find that tabernacle of Jehovah, that abiding continually in him. Father, I will, the day whom thou hast given me, be with me. I in them. Dear Lord Jesus, I know you're here tonight, but where do you dwell? Where do you live? Oh, I'd have to ask your wife, your husband. They know. The Lord knows them that are his. How does he know them? Oh, they sit at the television set and look at Barney Google and Spark Plug and fill their souls with poison of hell. And the Lord knows them. Why don't you take an axe and chop that dirty thinking? What did Elijah do? He took the prophets of jail, 400 of them. Can you hear them gurgle? Their rosaries did them no good anymore. And their vestments and all their vaselines and their vitalis and their stinking odors. He said, Oh, beloved God, just by the spirit, you mortify. In other words, you kill the deeds of the body. Mortify, therefore, your members which are upon this earth fornication. Oh, how many are yielding their bodies. The temple of the living God to fornication doctors is going to judge. No, brother. No, brother. Jesus Christ is purchased for you a salvation, which includes your whole spirit and soul and body. And he had to be baptized with such a baptism. And you and I will also have to be baptized. There's a holy month except the man be born again. He cannot see the kingdom of God. And God commanded all men everywhere to reap. Why? Because the ark is ready. The door is open. The monkeys have gone in and the elephants have checked their trunks. Now you come. Come on, the door's open. The flood will come and take them all away, the Bible says, as it was in the days of Noah. Oh, I'm so thankful for this wonderful will, by the which will we are sanctified once for all. What is that will? Oh, it is that will that made almighty God step down and take upon himself the form of a servant. Whose servant are you, Jesus? Oh, tell me, are you still a servant? He says, blessed are those servants whom the Lord, when he comes, shall find watching. Verily, I tell you, he shall come forth, he shall gird himself and serve him. He does that in every meeting when we come to him. He does that when we come to the altar. What is it that makes you feel the power and presence and unction of the Holy Ghost? How did you get the baptism in the Holy Spirit? Who is it that wakes you in the morning and tells you that his grace is sufficient for this day? Why, it's Jesus, who never leaves you nor forsakes you. You've got a servant by your side, the servant of Jehovah, who comes forth to prepare you. Oh, how he prepares his own for that wonderful day when Jesus shall be united to his own, when he comes to be glorified in his saints and to be admired in all them that believe. Now they're hid with Christ in God. But Elijah had to repair that altar, it was broken down. Oh, I wonder how many homes have such a broken down altar of the Lord. How wonderful, I came into a home some time ago and the breath of Jehovah met me. Oh God, how sweet to come into a home that is sanctified by God the Father. Beloved, that's where the church has its foundation. It's in the home of God's saints. I declare unto you, Paul says, that the head of every man is Christ. Men, in this place, you've got a boss who wants to direct your activity and who wants to equip you to be an honest to goodness man of God. A real man. I always say to the girls, if they propose to you, make sure they're, he's a man. I came to church there, a little child on mother's hand said, hi daddy. She said, that isn't daddy, that's a man. As if daddy wasn't a man. Oh man of God, man, you know that you have a job. You know that with fear and trembling you've got a job and someday you will give an account to the great head of what you've done with the equipment he's given you. How wonderful, here in camp this week I was delighted with the testimonies of some of our young, even teenagers. They have God in their lives. Oh how come about, it didn't come about by itself, it came about by the faithfulness of some father or mother who spent time with these boys and girls when they were little. Who prayed with them, who guarded them very carefully from the influence of the world and the flesh and the devil. Who was very, very careful to keep out of their hearts the lust of the flesh and the desire for finery and the conceit of this world. Like one mother when somebody said, you ought to train your girls to be modern. They look like old maids. She says, I'm not raising my girls for this corruptible adulterous generation. I'm raising them for Jesus. That's common sense. I'm come to cast fire upon this earth. And listen, before we get through with this earth, we're going to see a wonderful fire. Glory to God, there's going to be a twofold fire. He's going to come in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God. You know why Khrushchev is wobbly in his boots? You know why he hollers like he does? You ought to shoot him up to the moon. I tell you, he's scared stiff. Our, our statesmen are scared stiff. They have reason to be. They have, they have built murderous weapons on both sides. And they're afraid that they'll go off under their hands some of these days. We're sitting on a mountain of explosives. So Peter spoke of it. He said the world that now is, is kept in store unto fire against the day of wrath and judgment of ungodly men. And who are the ungodly? All who obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, what is that gospel? Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ. And that he died for all that they which live should henceforth not live unto themselves, but unto him who died for them and rose again. And in order to live for him, I must accept from the heart that form of doctrine, which was delivered unto me. And what is it? That Jesus Christ has taken me to the cross. And that he lives in my heart. And that this great shepherd of the sheep rose from the dead to justify me wholly and to sanctify me wholly. Oh, I need him. And he says, if he died for all, then we're all dead. You're dead. You're dead. You know that? If you don't accept it, the maggots will walk away with you. And they do, don't they? They'll lead you a merry dance already. Oh, Jesus. He was delivered for our offenses, thank God, and raised again for our justification. Maybe you need to repair that altar of the Lord. How is it? There was a time when I had to do that, and I'm so glad God made that so powerful. And it wasn't because my preacher told me to, he didn't. He said, look out, you'll become fanatical. But oh, that altar of the Lord. I told you the other day how I went through my book, then I cut out everything that was not in keeping with God. I cut it out. You know, my teacher got angry at me one time because the first essay that we were to write was entitled to school teachers. So we all started writing our essays. And the Lord has given me a sanctified imagination, which is worth more than an education, Einstein says. Imagination is a great blessing. Sure, that's where all our inventions come from. And so I started writing my essay, and the teacher picked it up, and he read a few sentences to the class and said, now that's the way I want it written. But you know, I finished it, and one day my father called me into his office. I wonder what was up. He looked very sober, and here I came into my father's office, and here my essay was in front of him. How did it get there? I'd given it to the teacher. Well, sir, in this essay, I had written out the whole history of my teacher without knowing it. Years before I ever came into his class, he had a fight with the school teacher. He had beaten up his boy who was in his class, and the, not the teacher, but the postman came to the teacher to bawl him out, and the teacher took him bodily and carried him out of the schoolroom. And here in my essay, all that was written down, you know, pretty closely. Now, where did I get that from? I didn't see that. It was years before I ever came to his school. And so I tell you, I had a hard time getting over it and making him, having peace with my teacher. But a lot of those things, I took a pair of scissors and cut them out of my books, my newspapers. Everything had to go away. My camera, everything, fine, because I needed time with God. Oh, beloved, the Father seeketh such who worship Him in the Holy Ghost, and He didn't have them neither in Samaria nor in Jerusalem. He's got to make them. He wants you to be a worshiper. God cannot come down from heaven and dwell upon this earth until He has hearts that tremble at His Word, until He has hearts that are so sanctified by the presence and indwelling of the Son of God that they pray without ceasing. Oh, beloved, we expect Jesus to come one of these days and to catch us away. And we're looking for Jesus in glory to come and to transform this vile body that it may be fashioned like unto His glorified body according to His working, whereby He is able to subdue all things unto Himself. Oh, that's why I need to repair that altar of the Lord and make sure that the best time of the day, the best opportunity, my best strength is reserved for being alone with God, for waiting upon my God, for giving my God a chance to prepare me for that wonderful day when Jesus shall come. Beloved, we lack that hope. It doesn't control our minds and our hearts and our actions, our homes. It doesn't direct our steps. And yet the Bible says, if ye have continue in the faith, grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel. It, you know, that hope is so unspeakably great. And God says He has hidden these things from the prudence. But He has revealed them unto me. It is so unspeakably great that you cannot possibly understand it until you submit to Jesus, until you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and open your heart. And the wonderful thing is that He has revealed these things to me. Otherwise, I wonder why God bothers with us. Goodness, when we look at our own stupidity, it's a black pit of bottomless stupidity, isn't it? Ach, Mensch, du liebe Zeit. I remember Brother Ulrich sitting on the platform alongside of me, and a brother was testifying. And he was so disgusted. He said, Ach, hallelujah, give us wisdom. Well, the Bible says, if any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, and it shall be given him. Oh, let's repair that altar of the Lord. Let's get back to God until that fire burns. Jesus, fire upon this earth, and thank God it's been burning a long, long time. And you and I can let it burn, and you can become fuel. You can make this very body a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God. And He says, this is your reasonable service. And when you do that, the fire will come. You won't have to wait for it a long time.