In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes that the way the world lives is not aligned with God's plan. He highlights that the answer to all our problems cannot be achieved by human efforts alone, but rather through God's intervention. The preacher emphasizes that the kingdom of God is not found in physical structures like castles and mansions, but rather within each individual. He encourages Christians to have a godlike disposition and to focus on spiritual growth rather than worldly pursuits. The sermon also touches on the importance of living a life dedicated to God and doing His will, rather than seeking personal gain or recognition.

The Lord Jesus, I'm sure, was a fascinating creature. Buddha, when he died, said that he was speaking truth, but Jesus, when he began to preach, said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. Nobody could add to the knowledge of the Lord Jesus. Intuitively, and because of the fact that he, his relationship with God, put him beyond all other teachers, and yet we're told that many were offended at his doctrine. Again, there's something in man that bucks up against whatever's been taught which is contrary to their personal disposition. There are many things in this fifth chapter which are very offensive. I know we taught peace. Mr. Carter said at the beginning of his administration that he was going to push for peace, but he's selling more armaments than I don't know who. It's a strange thing that we're supplying arms to the world so they can kill each other as long as they keep off us. I don't understand politics. In case you don't know, politicians don't either, but there it is. One of the, one of the most offensive things about the Sermon on the Mount, it's very beautiful. And I say, there are different ways of interpreting it. Some say, well here, this is, this is beautiful, but this is really a social gospel. Others say it's just an elaboration, it's just an increase of wisdom on the tenth amendment. Others relegate it and say, well you know it's for the millennium, when the lion lays down with the lamb. But what in the world is as good as preaching it then? Everybody's going to be righteous. There's going to be no war. God isn't going to restore the earth. But if you've ever, if you've ever thought of that hymn when you sing, He walks with me and talks with me. I always think of Adam and Eve in the garden. It must have been very wonderful to walk and talk with God in the garden. And when you think that you could take a lion and have it for a pet, it would have no offensive odors, even the skunk was decent in those days. And everything was beautiful. And God is going to restore the world again to that state for a thousand years. I believe in the millennium, a lot of people don't, but I believe it. I think it's there clearly in the word of God. So the millennial age is going to be compulsory righteousness. And it'd be wonderful if you're around, you won't have to lock the door. There won't be any policemen, there won't be any war machines, everything is going to be restored as it was away there in the days of Adam. And so people say this is describing that period. I think you'll find Scopey is terribly weak here like he is in so many other things. He postpones this thing. Now what's the good of telling me that this Sermon on the Mount is for a future day, the millennium. There happens to be a phrase in it that says this, ye are the light of the world. What do we need the light of the world in the millennium for? Everything's light. With a salt in the midst of... The only reason why fire isn't falling from heaven now as it did on Sodom and Gomorrah is not because of legislation. It's because of the Jesus Christ. You know it's easy to go back to history or anywhere else and say you make a circle like this and you put inside that circle everything that's vile and rotten and corrupt in governments, in personalities, the jailbirds, everything else, put it all there. You don't judge the world by the worst that's in it. You judge the world by the best that's in it. Which is see the church is always, she may have spots and wrinkles, she may be bad, but she's still to some degree the conscience of the world. She's the only light God has in the world. And so you don't judge the world by all the rottenness that's in it. If the church is sick, if she's down here and weak, then the world's going to be worse because of the weakness of the church. If she's strong and healthy and powerful as the anointing of God. After all we get over the miracle of the men in the upper room a bit too easily I think. That bunch of men in the upper room, well who were they? Well they were a bunch of weaklings and failures. They were there for 10 days. Again they had had 40 days of probation. They'd been in the presence of the risen Son of God. We're on probation now in the presence of the Holy Spirit. We say this is the age of the dispensation of the Holy Ghost. You and I are under test in this dispensation because of the availability. I'm going to finish my message Sunday morning to believers tonight. The judgment of believers is going to be something. To me it shades the judgment of sinners. It's more awesome, it's more terrifying, it's more penetrating, it's more searching. If you obey it, if you believe it, it's more adjusting, it's more rectifying, it's more healing. You know sometimes when I've been out west I followed a truck down the road and I hardly knew where I was driving. I'm driving in a cloud of dust for miles. You know that's how most Christians live even. We live in the dust of time. We do not see the things of eternity. It's a beautiful sort of story that turn your eyes upon you. The things of earth become strangely dense. You know we're very good at amputating tooth. You'll see a sign in a shop, in a Christian bookstore maybe. Here it is and it's got, this is a sign to go on you all, we'll be a bit better. That's one, two, three, four lines. But by some strange happening we have obliterated the two lines. So what do we say in the first two lines? Only one life shall soon be passed, only what's done for God will last, amen. But that's not what it said. The other two lines are just a tangent. Only one life shall soon be passed, only what's done for God will last, and when I am dying how glad I shall be if the lamp of my life has been burned out for them. Now that makes all the difference. So you see that's the whole thing. Now why do we amputate it? Why do we cut it off? Because we don't think about dying and the lamp of our life going out and having to, you know, we much rather have the first two verses, two lines. Only one life shall soon be passed, only what's done for God will last. Boy we saw that about it, it sounds real smart. Now don't you get the idea that all the Christians die victorious? Christians die screaming and unhappy. You know why? Because when they get to the edge of eternity and there's no u-turn. Now keep that in mind. There is no u-turn. Life is a one-way road. You can't make a u-turn, that is in years anyhow. And when you get to the edge of eternity you begin to see the things of earth have gone strangely, then you have no option about it now, because you're going into eternity. But what do I have to take? I'm sure I don't take my Bible school notes. It's got to be a Bible or something. All I take in is character. And character is God's willingness to work in my life and shape me and fashion me and prove me and correct me and discipline me. Well that's all through the book isn't it? Whom the Lord loveth he what? And then what? All right, don't you think the first part was enough? Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth and then scourgeth every son. And if you're not scourged he uses a word, we've turned all the words around, it's a big old ugly Bible where we're bastards and not sons. You see, if God is allowing something to come into your life, don't blame the devil or your mother-in-law or anybody. If some situation has come in your life that perplexes you now, you know what you should do? The first thing you should do is thank God for it. Now that, you've got to have some grace to do that, haven't you? Maybe you've been courting and engaged and the night before the wedding the fellow comes and says, you know, I think we're through. You say, well praise the Lord, I've wanted to get rid of you a long while, but you've made it so easy for me, I want to thank you. Oh you shed tears. Now listen, if he's going to break it off there, he's better to break it off the night before the wedding than the night after the wedding, so forget it. If he's going to sit in the seat, of course it works for the ladies too brethren, if she says I don't think so, well go back to your mother. But you see, the thing is this, there are tests, there are perplexities in life. Now listen, I remember Dr. Sanford Westminster saying to me once, he said, Brother Ravenhill, I have no shallow interpretations for the will of God. Some people have. When I was lying a fancy, dying in hospital, everybody that came in quoted Romans 8, 28. I didn't know it was in the Bible so many times. But everybody that came in quoted Romans 8, 28. That's a cop-out, that's easy enough. Why does God bring me into this situation? Well you see, if I have a burden now ten times bigger than I had a few weeks ago, is this God's favour? Yeah, I think it is. Why? Well one thing he says, that he won't allow you to be tempted above what you're able. And as a little boy I remember going in the garden before going to school and my dad would be digging those nice English potatoes and I'd go pick up a bucket and he'd say, no, no, no, you can't lift that bucket, strain your back. I was about five years of age. When I was 15 I tried to skip the bucket and he said, lad, pick it up. Won't it hurt my back? Hurt your back? You could carry three of those things, come on. He used to tell me, but you've grown up. You see, I got the alibis but he's got something more and so I obeyed him. My dad was a good Methodist, he believed in the laying on of hands and he could lay them on at times, I'll tell you that. And you know, the Lord is like that, whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth and he scourgeth, and that's a very, very rough word. It implies taking some place away. But that's not because he's angry, it's because he loves us. You see, we're not saved by works, but keep this very clear in your little minds. You're not going to be graded in eternity by what you know. You'll be judged for it, sure enough. We're going to be graded by what we do. We're not saved by works, we're rewarded for works. I had a friend on a motorcycle, he always had trouble with it. Somebody said, well, what makes it? He said, it's faith. Faith? What do you call it faith for? He said, it's without works. Well, faith without works is dead, the scripture says. Now you read about one of the greatest characters ever in the word of God, Abraham, what do you read about him? He was justified by faith, for he was, before God. He was justified by works, before men. If your faith doesn't work, you can have all the theological cliches that you like, and shibboleth. Why should you take any notice if your faith doesn't work for what you're telling me about? So James says that faith without works is dead. It is a dead faith, it's a defunct faith, it's a fruitless faith. I'm very interested in these, I don't listen to radio preachers anymore, I never learn anything anyhow hardly. And you know, they always tell me what they can do. They can raise the sick and raise the dead, but they can't raise money. Isn't that wonderful? I'd much rather they raised money and forgot about the dead, because I'm not dead, and I'm not sick as far as I know really. I've got a lot of pain sure enough, I've had that ever since I had my accident, but by the same token. I don't have to believe those men talking about faith. You see, part of the Sermon on the Mount again is what? A friend of mine, he's a doctor, a very brilliant doctor, and he specializes in, what does he specialize in? Open heart surgery. And he has three children, and he bought them all Bibles a few years ago at Christmas, and he had stamped on the cover their names, and then he had Matthew 6.33. Seek ye first, I try to drill it into the minds of my boys. Seek ye first the Kingdom of God, and all these things, all the things in the Sermon on the Mount, will be added unto you. Your children don't go to bed restless at night, wondering if they'll have breakfast. I remember coming to the States once, and the boys lined up and said, Daddy would you bring me this please, would you bring me this, will you bring me this, and I promised them I would. And I got two of the presents, I did not get the third. You know that boy, the boy that didn't get the gift, he said, Daddy you mean you didn't get it? He thought I should have gone to the White House and asked for presents. I mean I promised him a gift, I didn't get it. I looked all over New York before I left on the boat, but I couldn't get the gift. He was astounded, he couldn't believe it. You've been in England, you've been in America six months, and you left it for the last two days. He thought I was going to get it, and carried it everywhere on the plane, everywhere I went. Then somebody says, what's this? He knocked my eye out, said well that's all right for my son. I don't care about you being inconvenienced and sitting on this seat here, my son wants it, he's going to get it. Wouldn't it be lovely? You see, maybe part of the reasoning of Jesus is, accept ye be converted and become as little children. They've got your pure faith, haven't they? How many of you have read the book of Demer Shikarians, I'm the happiest people in the world, you read that? It's a bit expensive I think for the fact, well get a copy and read it. And you know, so much of that stuff worked through a boy what, 11 years of age I think he was. The prophecies, the revelations, hundreds of lives were saved through one boy 11 years of age that heard the voice of God, and people believed in you God. You see there's a simplicity. We think of, I say sometimes, God gave us the Bible and man invented theology to confuse it. As I said this past week as we talk with those misfits, they said well when they teach people up in the wilds of Papua New Guinea, I've been up there, it's rough chemistry. But when they teach them that this is the book of God, this is the book of truth, it has no lies in it. The mighty God up there has no failure, He has no limitations. His wisdom is as vast as the ocean, which some of them have seen and most of them haven't. It's difficult to describe to people up there things about God. You tell them about a vine, they've never seen a vine. You say it can make you whiter than snow. What snow? They've never seen snow, you've got problems. I try to pray, I hope I do anyhow, every day for the Wycliffe translators, it's an enormous job. My daughter-in-law is translating, has finished just now, making a vocabulary and a grammar for the, in the Bue language in the Ivory Coast, been years at it. Her mother has taken 25 years to reduce one of the tribal languages and write the New Testament, which I think Wycliffe has published. It's an enormous job. It is, I remember one thing I said to the fellows last night was this, that, that, you know, you read these stories and, and when you read stories of how God made, well, feet in studs, and how God made Hudson, Hudson Taylor at the time of Indemnisation, it's wonderful. Or how God worked in the life of, who, Martin Luther. And we tip our hats to these men, say, man, I'm glad, that man was a martyr, this man was a martyr, I'm glad they laid down the last drop of their blood for the Lord, but we're careful we don't lay down the first drop of ours. Now that doesn't mean you have to die with somebody chopping your arm or your leg off. Again, it could be you shed your blood this way that you're on a, a brilliant career. I don't know if I told you about this young man last week, they told us in business he made $58,000 the first day, $58,000 the second, $40,000 the third, lost $30,000 the fourth, and got up to about a quarter or half a million dollars, I don't know, a million, there was some million in it, I didn't catch it. Then the next day when he prayed, the Lord said, give every penny away, and he did. I think that's beautiful. To me, that's shedding his blood, as much as dying a martyr, because again, he's cut off all his income, he has a wife and he has children. Here's a man goes to the mission field, pardon me, here's a man and he's set on a course to be a doctor, and he's graduated with honours, and he's not only a doctor, he's a surgeon, he can do operations and so forth, and he's got his eye on a piece of property, and he's got his eye on a girl and maybe just married her, and everything's going to go well, as, let me, let me turn the argument here to Henry Martin. He was the most brilliant man in the university, he, at 20, 20 years of age, he carried off the Smith Prize, at, where was he, at Cambridge, I think, where nobody had ever carried off at that age, at that age. He was a senior wrangler in the university, he was a brilliant orator, and he fell in love with a girl called Lydia. You know, the most beautiful girl in the world. So now he's all ready to have a great career. Maybe he'll become a don in the university, who knows, he might become the chancery, or he might become the president of the university. And he's praying one day, and the Lord said, not Lydia, first, India. And he said, get confused if you weren't careful, Lydia and India sound very much you know. And he said when he prayed, in one ear he could hear a voice saying India, the other, Lydia, Lydia, India, India, Lydia, which way am I going here? So he went to her one day and he said, well my dear, we're going to India. Who's going to India? You and I, we're going to be married. No, no, no, no, I married an intellectual, I married a man with a career all carved out for him, the most brilliant scholar. In fact, he was called the most perfect gentleman in the Victorian era, the end of the Victorian era. He just oozed grace, and brilliance, and charm, and personality, and courtesy, and genius. He was at home. I've got a son like that, who takes after his mother. But I've got a son like that, he's at home anyway. He hasn't earned PhD's through enough. He's been going to school, I think he went to school when he was three and a half, and he has a PhD and he's still going to school. He wants to learn, learn, learn. You know, you do that all your life. It has to have its place. But anyhow, here he is loaded with everything, scholarship, everything everybody wants, and Lydia thought, boy, I've got the price catch of the university. And so she talks to him and says, well look my dear, we've got to make a choice, Lydia or India, not India and Lydia. Now that's tough. If you haven't been that way, you don't know anything about it. It tears roots up inside. You can be as sanctified and spirit-filled as you like, and raise the dead if you want. But one of these days something's going to tear you, if I could use a word that's common these days on the gut level, it's going to tear you right in the middle of your emotional life. It's distinct from your spiritual life, it's distinct from your physical life. The very God of Peace sanctify you wholly. The inner man of your being, your willpower, your emotions, your reactions, so forth, they're all there. You're still human. There's no experience this side of eternity will make you inhuman. As a matter of fact, the nearer you get to God, the more refined every appetite becomes, the more sensitive you become. It isn't that you take offense more easily, but it is that that sensitiveness in you immediately shies. You know, if you go to England, you should go to the assize courts. The judge comes in in a flowing robe right to his feet, and he has about two and a half inches of ermine, beautiful ermine with little black tails in. He has a wig down to his shoulders, it's a very impressive thing, it's a good rehearsal for the judgment day. But, you know, that little ermine, there's only one way they can catch it, and that is the hunter stays behind a tree and he watches the little thing run out to get some food. And when he goes out, he takes filth and puts it around the hole, puts dirty oil around the hole. And when that little thing runs back, it's going to go in the hole, and it's that it will not pollute itself with the uncleanness that they put around the hole. It will be kilt first. Now, you know, we become sensitive, at least we ought to. I think if you wake up, I don't sleep, I slept maybe two hours last night, I don't sleep when I get under burden for the things of God, it doesn't worry me too much, I get tired sure enough. But at your age, usually you don't. But if you do wake up two or three o'clock in the morning, I think you should ask God why you woke up. Maybe he wants to talk to you. I get most things from God between two and four o'clock in the morning, you see, he's not too busy at that time. At least not in America, he's busy with the other half of the world. But right here, everybody's, you know, snorting away. So there's going to be a challenge. There's nothing in you that God will not allow to be challenged. He allows everything to be challenged. And I say again, you don't have to bleed physically with flesh and blood. You can bleed like he did. He said, well this breaks my heart. But Lydia, Jesus first. You know, they're a little acrostic, you learn this at school, J-O-Y, Jesus first, others second, yourself last, makes J-O-Y, which is the only joy there is. Jesus first, others second, yourself last. He went to India. He translated the New Testament out of, out of the original Greek into, pardon me, into Arabic, a more difficult language than Greek. You know, it's not what you have and bring to God that matters. Do you know that? Now it's easy to stand and sing, love so amazing, so divine, demand my soul, my life, my all and hold back. But you see, it's not what you have, it's what God has to give you if you're obedient. For if you'll forget for a moment, the brilliant young man that went to India by the name of Henry Martin. And who was the other man that went? Carey. Do you know Carey learned a dozen languages while he was there? And I don't think he had more than a, well I guess Tozer, I've got something in common with Tozer, I finished school in the eighth grade and I think this other fella did. Doesn't mean you become a genius if you finish in the eighth grade or anything else, but it does mean this you see, that there are, there are two areas, and don't forget them, there are two areas of wisdom. Oh my blackboard's always in the mess. Okay, there is this wisdom here which is scholastic we'll say, scholastic, and there is this hemisphere of wisdom which is, I'll put A, from above. There is a wisdom of the earth and there is a wisdom which belongs to God. Therefore again, saturate yourself in the, in the book of wisdom, saturate yourself in the book of Proverbs. Come unashamedly to God. I tell God I don't have to blush in his presence because of my ignorance. I don't have to blush. I might blush before some people if they caught me out on a, in a situation, but I don't have to blush before God. You see the logic of scripture is, is, is reverse logic. You say I want to go up, well I'll tell you how to go up, go down. I'll tell you how to go down, go up, in your own energy, in your own flesh, in your own conceit. He that exalteth himself shall be abased. He that humbleth himself shall be exalted. You say well I've only one life and I want to save it. Good, that's a good, I'm glad you do. You're not to save it, give it away. If you keep it you'll lose it. Who lose, whosoever loses his life for my sake, he shall find it. Again, my hero in the New Testament after Jesus is the apostle Paul. I think he's the greatest intellect the world ever saw. And yet you remember he writes to a church and he says having nothing and yet possessing all things. Do you know what, do you know the great advantage of having nothing? You can't lose anything. If you've no opinion of yourself nobody will ever hurt you. If you, if you get hurt it's because there's some conceit in your life. You think you're better than they say they are. A fellow came to me a while ago, he says I don't like your preaching. I said shake hands, I don't like it either. Could be a lot better than it is, you won't get me that way. Paul says we have nothing. Hey but wait a minute, he's talking about this area of the world. He says we have nothing and yet he says we possess all things. Now what do you want to do? Possess all things and have nothing or have nothing? And I'm not thinking the material, I'm thinking inside yourself. You have no conceit about your personality, your ability or anything else. You let the Lord take care of the whole lot. Now old Lucifer's pretty clever, you know he's had about six thousand years studying human nature. But I'll tell you one thing Lucifer can't do, he can't hit nothing. Do you remember what Jesus said? The prince of this world cometh and findeth what? Nothing in me. The thing that made Lucifer blaze was there was no ground he could work on in Jesus. Aren't you having a bad time? I came into the world to have a bad time. Aren't you going to be betrayed? I came into the world. Jesus is the only person who came into the world with the intention of dying. That was his mission. How he got there didn't matter. I came to do thy will O my God. Somebody asked me just now what's the secret of spiritual power? I believe two things. Number one, obedience. The second one, prayer. I think every day you live you should sing the old hymn of my granny's, my granny's favorite hymn. I still love it. Trust and obey, there's no other way. Isn't that wonderful? You could go to a theological seminary and not learn that. Trust and obey, there's no other way. You can go around it this way or go around it that way and you're still running to the same roadblocks. Trust and obey, there's no other way. Now the big offense about this marvelous message of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount is that he finishes in the seventh chapter verse 48 and he says, be ye therefore perfect even as your father which is in heaven is perfect. Oh boy that gets under our skin. You know what, this is what the Lord seems to say to me this morning. It's not merely true that people in the world do not believe the Word of God. The people in the church do not believe the Word of God. Many of the believers do not believe the Word of God. If somebody says to you, what are you striving for in your spiritual life? You say to be perfect. Oh come on now, come on now, that's ridiculous. Nobody's perfect. Did God made Adam perfect? Did he make the world perfect? Was his son perfect? Well forget all your theology right here and just figure here that Jesus, Jesus here lives on a peak of, here this is where Jesus lives. This is a peak for Jesus of obedience and so forth and this is where I live and I'm supposed to live on exactly the same level as Jesus. Why? Well I'll tell you because the scripture says this, as he was, so are we in the world to come. No in this world. As he was, so are we in this world. What was it? He was in total subjection to his father's will. Supposing you're going to buy a watch. Somebody gave me this nice watch. I'd be happy to give me the money. I think it cost five hundred dollars, it's gold. That's to take it so I've got a good watch. But supposing I went into a shop and I said to the man, he says do you want to watch? I say yeah, I like that one there and he says well I'll tell you about this watch. It certainly is beautiful and you see instead of having numbers it has diamonds and it's got diamonds round and it's, it's a beautiful watch but you know it's about the worst watch I have. It doesn't keep time. Oh I don't bother about keeping time. I mean I'm an evangelist. I want to lift my arm up like this and everybody see my diamonds and have another bangle here, a dog thing you know. So and I want everybody to see what I've got. I mean that's what you do as an evangelist, you've got to impress. And I say I'm not bothered about the time, just that it looks good. Give me anything. You don't do that do you? You go see a lovely car and you say that's a lovely model, that's a beautiful car isn't it? Yeah it is. How much do you want for it? He said well it's a 77 Cadillac, I'll take 300 for it. For a 77 Cadillac? Yeah, why? Well the man's already spent 4,500 in repair and it still won't go but you can have it for 300 dollars. I say no thank you, why not? Looks so good, looks so great, it just doesn't function properly. Well God made us to function properly. And the expense if you want to know what it is, was Gethsemane and Calvary in the resurrection, that was it. I talked with a man the other day, he was talking all the time about his investments. Okay, do you know the greatest investment God ever made was when he invested his redemptive work in you, that's his investment. And he isn't looking for somebody faulty and spasmodic and prayerless and powerless, he's looking for somebody who aspires to be conformed to the image of his son. Be ye therefore perfect. Look up Peter, do you know what Peter says? Well it says of us that we should follow in his steps. Whose steps? Jesus. What are the steps? Well if we were left to put them in, we'd mess it up. But he says these are the steps who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth. Now those are two toughies, you can think over them and read the rest of the chapter. This is what God designed in my life, yes he said that we, that Jesus came that we should follow in his steps, like you follow somebody's footprints through the snow. And the steps of Jesus was this, he did no sin and no guile was found in his mouth. Now again you've got to differentiate between sin and faults and all the rest of it, I'm not doing that right here. But he says be ye therefore perfect. Well I'll tell you like I said that diamond you know and it flashes off here, it says sanctification and over there it says full with the spirit and over here it says dying to sin. All different aspects of the same thing. Now you could make a diamond there and ask people now about being perfect in Christ and they've got more answers than sparks off an anvil, you see. One of them they usually shoot out, listen you know Paul says in Romans 7, they that are in the flesh cannot please God. Now that's there. It isn't there. It's in Romans, I'll find it. There you are, there's the verse. Somewhere around about 5 or 6. They that are in the flesh cannot please God. But the chapter doesn't end there, go down two further verses and what does it say? Ye are not in the flesh, now what do you do? The flesh has been dealt with or should have been dealt with at the cross. Justification deals with my past, however filthy my record is, God takes that record and he passes it in the sea of his forgetfulness. Sanctification deals with my heart, deals with my nature. After Romans 5, oh goodness where, Romans 5, 10 or 12, notice a change. The apostle does not talk about s-i-n-s. He talks about s-i-n-sin. The sin that made me do the sin, that made me do the sins. Because he's dealing with what, anyhow, the theologians call it or some people call it the old nature. Now look, if you have a root here, there's the ground level, if you have a root in here and a tree going up here and branches and fruits on and all the rest, you can cut that tree off like that but if you don't get rid of the root it's going to come up again. So if God deals with the root then the other part's not going to be bearing all the corruption it's born before. Now sure enough sin is not a root that you can extract like a rotten tooth, sin is a disposition. And I believe that one, I believe that 1 John 1 7, the blood of Jesus Christ God's Son cleanseth. But if you take the Greek you'll discover that they, look, it's like this, here is a, we used to do this when we were boys at home. We go to the river, here's the level of the river and we pick up a rock, here's a rock and it has mud on it, oh it looks ugly. We'd throw it in that river and as it went in that river the floor of the river would wash off the mud and the rock would be down there clean. We go back a day or two after, somebody say, hey Raven you threw that rock in the river, there it is, look how clean it is. Why? Because there's a continual flow of water over it. If I take it out and put it over here it's going to get polluted again. Now if I stay in subjection, if I believe God to cleanse me, to purify my heart by faith which is Acts 15 8 and 9, if I believe the blood to cleanse me, I'll stay clean as long as I stay in the place of obedience. If I get defiled I go back, for it says if we sin not when we sin, if we sin we have an advocate with the Father. Now an argument that you saw very very often, when you talk about perfection, somebody comes up and says well I'll tell you what, as I said Paul says that they that are in the flesh cannot please God, they seize hold of that. You know sometimes I think almost that many preachers are devil's advocates, they're always trying to defend sin and corruption. Now if there is no purity of heart, and after all that's the great thing again, it's called here perfection, it's called earlier in the chapter the pure in heart, well keep thy heart for out of it come all the corruptions of things, isn't it? Out of the heart proceedeth what, murder, envy, strife, the heart of the problem is the heart of man. Again our problem is we cannot live together, the great problem here is the number one problem. And this deals with it, our number one problem is human relationships. In the world, in the nation, in the home, in the church, human relationships, you get that brittle offensive thing that wants to fight and argue and have its own way. Now why did Adam get kicked out of the Garden of Eden? Did he get drunk? No? Did he beat his wife up? Did he cut the trees down to make a log cabin? What did he get kicked out for? He's going to have his own way, right? Not like God. God's not going to rule up, that's the very thing Lucifer got kicked out of heaven for. That's why he wanted to work, he works on Adam, because he's angry that he got kicked out of heaven, got kicked out of eternity, so he says he fell I'll make him for. And Adam got kicked out of him, pardon me, Satan got kicked out of him, he wanted his own way, he wanted to sit on the circle of the earth like, he wanted to be like God. And he couldn't get it, so he says, hey you can be like God though, I'll tell you how to be like God. God doesn't want you to have power and authority, and he was corrupted, but he was made perfect in the beginning. All right, so if you talk about being perfect, somebody's going to shoot this at you, where is it, in Philippians, what does Paul say? Philippians, Philippians, here it is, Philippians 3.12, not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect, there's your answer. The greatest man, you say, that lived after Jesus says, I'm not perfect. Right, so I lost that round. But could I suggest to you, there are some other verses in the chapter, namely the 15th, let us therefore as many as be perfect. Now what do you do? Well then it's a contradiction. No, no, no, no, no. He's talking about two different things there. Verse 12, not as though I had already attained or were already perfect, but I follow after that which I may be apprehended for that which also I am apprehended of Jesus Christ. He's talking about the resurrection. You haven't got all that's coming to you, I don't care if you have every gift of the Spirit and you're the best known man in the world. So what? You still lag behind something like I do, what? The last gift I get from God is a body like unto his glorious body, a resurrection body. Some of you, how many read C.S. Lewis? I heard C.S. Lewis preach once, I was amazed at the man. I was amazed at his simplicity. I was amazed at the fact that he said, I feel so confined in this little mind of mine, I long to get a glorified body and a glorified intellect. And I thought, boy you'll be somebody when you get that. You're somebody now in my book. What a marvelous man. But he says, I'm longing, I'm striving, I want God to give me a glorified body which I can't have right now. Now Paul says here, I want perfection. One day we're going to have a perfect body, a perfect mind, everything in us is going to be perfect. Why? Because we're going to have a body like what? Gabriel? No, I don't want a body like Gabriel. Like who? Right, like unto his glorious body. Wouldn't that be something? Yeah? Like that body he had on the Mount of Transfiguration which blinded those fellows and they fell. A body like unto his glorious body, a mind like his mind, a will like his will. This is, this is all the final package deal, if you like, of redemption or being filled with the Holy Ghost and gifts of the Spirit. We're going to have a body like unto his glorious body. But he says in verse 14, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore as many as be perfect be thus minded. For if otherwise, in anything you be otherwise minded, even God should reveal this unto you. If your aspiration is to know God in his fullness, he's going to keep revealing and revealing and revealing and revealing. Well as I said yesterday, you can't have atomic perfection, that's all gone. You can't have angelic perfection. As I look around I see you don't, but anyhow, you can't have angelic perfection. You can't have physical perfection. You can't have mental perfection. What can you have? You can have spiritual perfection. What is perfection? Perfection is a thing functioning completely in the capacity for which it was made. I've got a car out that, that banana colored car out there is mine. I'm embarrassed to tell you it's an old model, it's last year. No evangelist has last years at this time of the year, but anyhow, it's an old thing. It's a Buick. It runs pretty nice. In fact, I think it's just about a perfect car. I got it very, very cheap to tell you the truth about it. It has a built-in BC, you know, a cop Dodger and it has a beautiful stereo system in it and it's a comfortable, fairly comfortable riding car. As an automobile, it is perfect. If my good friend Dale calls me this afternoon and says, Brother Raven, you know, I've got a tree here, I want you to knock it over with your bulldozer. I say, I don't have a bulldozer. He says, you've got a nice car there and I say, all right Dale, if that's all you want, let's go get it into 50 and I'm going to the tree. You know, somehow that tree ignores me. My car's all shattered and broken and smashed up. It's a perfect car when it functions in the area that it was made for. When I put it in another area, it's no good. It's not supposed to be a bulldozer. It's not supposed to be an armored car. It's supposed to convey my sweet wife and I wherever the Lord tells us to go. Let me close with this. I don't know the reference right here. I thought of it earlier and I didn't make it out. I'm getting old. I can't remember things so well. Do you remember the scripture if you've got a concordance book for it? It talks about perfecting holiness in the fear of God. Now how can you perfect what's perfect? Well, I think the simplest illustration is a baby. They don't always come on time. They don't keep the right order as they should but I'm glad babies, I guess the dear brother Ed is and his wife, I'm glad babies don't come like tadpoles. Wouldn't it be funny if you got a little slimy little thing with a head and somebody says, well don't be discouraged my dear, it takes three months for the arms to grow. Then after that it's going to have two little sprouts at the end which will become legs eventually. You know, this is evolution. The body has to progress like that. No, it's all gone on. When that baby comes out, you know, every birth is a miracle. People say sometimes, you know, yeah I saw her baby, it's not very pretty. Oh boy, every baby to me is pretty. You know when they come out, it's like a little boy went to see his sister in hospital. Mother said, now come and see your sister. Oh she's beautiful. Little guy went there and he saw this little red thing all wrinkled with its fists up like this. I don't wonder you kept it under your coat so long. It's so ugly. Well that's the only way you can come in a world like this with your fists up because you're going to be fighting from here till you get to the end of the line anyhow. But you know a baby's beautiful. The fact that a baby isn't crippled or cross-eyed or retarded. One of the things that hurt me most was when we were living in Minneapolis. There were a couple of old ladies there and they kept a home just for mongoloid children and most of them were children of very extremely wealthy people. And we were in one day and the lady said, well the mother of this child came yesterday. She's a fabulously rich Jewish couple from Chicago. She comes up every four months to see the child and all she does, she never touches it. She come in, open the door and just look. And the same thing burst into tears and he almost has to carry his wife into the automobile. Birth is a miraculous thing and it doesn't go through evolution. Evolution in the womb may be but when the baby is born, here it is. Beautiful little squalling thing. The good ones always cry two o'clock in the morning. So cheer up then. But here it is, it's perfect. As I say, wouldn't it be something if you had to wait three months for hands to grow and six months for legs to grow? And it was born without a nose and you wonder what in the world is going to develop there. And it gets one ear after it's two years old and another ear after it's four. That would be a horrible painful process. The baby is perfect as a baby. For instance, it's got a brain but it has no knowledge. It has no education. It has no wisdom but it has all the potential in that mind that you can develop. And don't wait till it gets six years of age. Start teaching it when it's two years of age at least. One of our boys could read before ever he went to school. I think two of them could. Martha worked with them. The kids could read before they went. They would have jumped ahead all the time when they went to school. Why? Because mother took care of them. But you see the brain is there but knowledge is not there. If you're musical, you'll teach your child to play something. You get families where everybody plays an instrument. Why? Because daddy and mommy are musical. I go to a family and the father is an artist and the children are artists. Why? They've copied daddy. Daddy's instructed them. That child has a whole, let me put it in this simple way and simple because I don't know any better. It has a whole gold mine resident in it. You've got to dig that mine. You've got to get all working that's in that child. So you've got a brain. You've got a perfect child. It's a perfect baby. Nobody can fault it. It may not win a beauty competition but it's got everything a child should have. It's got a head, feet, legs, nose, eyes, mouth, everything. Physically beautiful. It's got a brain. You discover it begins to respond. But you add to that child. You take it and you give it some intuition. You give it some teaching, some tuition and from that it develops intuition. You find it's got a mind. It wants to study science or it wants to study something else. You've got all the potential in the mind of that child. Now you have to develop it. You can pray your head off and praying in itself won't do it. You've got to do some work on it. But you may have a genius on your hand. You may have another Spurgeon on your hand. You may have a scientist, an inventor, you don't know. But it's all resident there. Now again as I said yesterday, there's no finality to the Christian life this side of eternity. I'm still learning. Bernard Shaw the old red bearded rebel from Ireland said when he was got to 80 years of age, I'll be dying soon and this is not right that I should die. He said a man should live to be 300. Your brain doesn't start waking up till you're 80. Well I didn't know he's wakened up when he was 80 but by the same token. I understand what he means. It's difficult to get through to young people like you that the most precious thing you have after your experience of God in Christ, I say it's the most precious anyhow, it's time. You say well I'm 20, I have another 50 years. Oh no, no, no, no. Oh no. You may die as early as Brainerd at 29 or Robert Mary McShane at 28 and 29. Oswald Smith did a fantastic amount of work. He never wrote a book. His wife took all his studies but he died at what was it 43. Spurgeon was in his 50s I think when he died. Tozer was only 65. You see the great thing if you and I should die consciously surely this that like the Lord Jesus and how long did he live? Well in the truest sense of the word he only lived three years. The other 30 years he was a laborer. Would you like to go shut yourself up in a log cabin and say to your wife if you've got one or if you're going to have one, well look sweetheart we're going in a log cabin. We don't need a car. I know people who have done this. I'm fed up of society. It's corrupt. I don't want to raise children here. They've gone up in the hills and got a cabin and there's a stream flowing past and they live off the stream and they live off the products. One of the great men in Wall Street did this. He's gone into Canada and he's taken a stream come down the side of the hill. He has a big old log cabin there and he says I'm the happiest man I've ever been in my life. I got rid of Wall Street and all the headaches and he said my refrigerator is a hole dug in the side of the hill. My bathroom I bring it every morning with two buckets of water. I have a radio to keep in contact with the rest of the world and I'm happy. I'm free from all the accoutrements of modern life. Well you may not want to live that way. I'm not saying it's the only way to be spiritual or that if you do that you'll be spiritual. It's like people say well do you think if I keep the Ten Commandments you'll be spiritual? No, but if you're spiritual you'll keep the Ten Commandments. And now I'm sorry I didn't mean just the Ten Commandments. I mean these commandments, let's say eight commandments of the Beatitudes. Keeping the Beatitudes sublime, beautiful, majestic, glorious as they are, like jewels to me all of them, like pearls around a lady's neck if you want. They're the essence of the teaching of Jesus. They actually are the constitution of his government. I think this is why they begin here in Matthew. Why did it begin in Matthew? Because when Jesus gave them, maybe in the crowd there, there were these great big dignified Roman soldiers. Can you imagine how the folk in the crowd of the disciples must have worked when he said you see the big guy there with the plume in his head, feather there and the breastplate. If he stops you tomorrow and says pick up my bag, drop your groceries and take my bag and you have to go a mile and try to carry it on and you start dropping your own groceries you can't stop and pick them up. You carry his load. And when you get to the legal boundary you say to him sir do you mind if I carry it further? That's pretty rough isn't it? That's what Jesus said. If it compels you to go a mile say well praise the Lord I'll go two miles brother. He says what in the world have I got here? That's not the way the world lives. That's not the way that the world wants to live. The thing that makes the world mad is this is the answer to all our problems. That man can't do it. God does it. We'll go to hell before we let God do it in us. Isn't it amazing that Jesus is trying to get through to them. Listen fellas, listen, listen. I've come to set up the kingdom not in castles and mansions. The kingdom of God is within you. You're going to have a godlike disposition. The kingdom of God is within you. Do you know how much they learned of that? I'll tell you how much they learned of it. Now honest I never thought of this till last night or early in the morning. I don't know which it was. I'll tell you just how much they they got hold of the truth he was saying. That's why I tell you they were a disgusting bunch. Acts of the apostles chapter 1 verse 6, pardon me. When they therefore were come together they asked of him saying Lord will thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel. They were still wanting the kingdom. They like to hear him say you're the children of David. Oh you're going to set up the kingdom again and we'll be rulers. And through all his teaching and his death and resurrection they were still saying before he ascended you're going to return the kingdom to us. You're going to tread the Romans out and push others. He must have been awfully disgusted with them. The kingdom of God is not meat and drink but righteousness and joy and peace in the Holy Ghost and they're all in this wonderful chapter. So we'll explore it tomorrow. Thank you.