In this sermon, the preacher discusses the book of Revelation and highlights three aspects of it: Majesty, mystery, and misery. He encourages the audience to seek inspiration from the book of Revelation instead of relying solely on Romans 8:28. The preacher shares a story about a blacksmith to illustrate the process of being refined by God's fire. He also references the story of the rich man and Lazarus from Luke 16 to emphasize the importance of seeking mercy from God in both this life and the afterlife.

I guess every preacher has his own method of preparation. And usually when I finish here Friday night, I go home, I don't sleep much, but I try and get something from the Lord for the next Friday night. And if I haven't much to do on Saturday, I spend Saturday preparing for the next Friday night. But Sunday night I'm going to preach, I'm going to preach Assembly of God Church. I think the favorite text of Pentecostals is None of these things move me. Thank you. But not many people want to be moved anymore. So I'm going to do what? Assembly of God Church at Shady Grove. That's a bad name, isn't it? Shady Grove in Dallas, I think. Six o'clock Sunday night. I want you all to come to sing. You did such a good job tonight. The book of Revelation. We're not going to stay here long in this part. The book of Revelation, chapter 20. When I think of this book, I think of three things. To me, the book of Revelation is a book of majesty, it's a book of mystery, and it's a book of misery. Because it tells me about the end of time and it tells me about beyond the end of time. If your faith needs a lift now and again, don't keep forever running to Romans 8, 28. You'll warm it up. Why not get something inspiring? Why not get out of time into eternity? A preacher came to see me a few days ago. He said, you talk about the Puritans, you talk about Hawker and Owen, and some of those majestic characters. What's the difference between those men in the 1600s and the men today? Oh, that's easy to answer. They lived in eternity, we live in time. Yes, yes. We're so earthbound. We're always talking about numbers, the unsaved, the lost, that's right. But first of all, if you're going to get inspiration, we've got to look unto Jesus, the author, and the finish of our faith. This is an awesome chapter, chapter 20. Let me read from verse 11. And I saw a great white throne. Again, my quip is I'm reading from the King James Version, you know, the living Bible. And I saw a great white throne and him that sat upon it, from whose face the heavens and the earth fled away. Can you think of anything more awesome than that? It doesn't say who sits on the throne. I believe God himself sits there. The believers, Paul says we are going to be, we all of us are going to the judgment seat of Christ. This is not the judgment seat of Christ. This is the judgment seat of God, in this 20th chapter. From his face the heavens and the earth fled away and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God. And the books were opened and another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged out of those things which are written in the books according to their works. The sea gave up the dead which were in it, death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them. They were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. Last Monday night I said to my wife, I said sweetheart I'm going in my office for a while. I wrote my Bible in this chapter, I began to read it, I read it often. Maybe thousands of times over the years. But as I read this suddenly it seemed as though this, I felt like a man going down the road and he gets ambushed. There's somebody behind the bush and they grab hold of him and just make him look and listen. I read this last verse in the 20th chapter. Whosoever is not found written in the book of life, no pardon me, the 14th verse, death and hell are cast into the lake of fire and this is the second death. It's mentioned again in the next chapter. The second death. You can listen to your TV and radio evangelist for 10 years, you won't hear a sermon on the second death. They hardly dare preach on the first death, let alone the second one. When did you last hear a sermon on TV about hell? About everlasting destruction? It's not fashionable, it doesn't bring the money in. It doesn't tickle the ears. It tickles the conscience. Whosoever is not found written in the book of life is cast into the lake of fire. I sat at my desk and the tears began to pour down my face. The Lord shot the leg of a man into my mind, I've never seen the man in my life. I knew he used to be considerably wealthy, I don't know much about his name even. I know his son, I love his son very well. I began to think about that man with all his privileges in social life and everything, but his name is not in the book of life. And he's going to be participating in this second death. There's only one way to understand this, I think, and that is to go into the gospel recorded by Luke. And the 16th chapter. There are a lot of wonderful expositions of the, what we call the Sermon on the Mount. They're called in the scripture the Beatitudes. Do you know why they're called the Beatitudes? Without being facetious? Because they should be the attitudes of every believer. That's the normal Christian life, not the abnormal Christian life. The normal Christian life is holiness. Outside of that is sickness. Luke chapter 16. Again, I was going to say that, you know, when you come to, you read the, what, Matthew 7? And you read through the Beatitudes, and then suddenly you bump into Jesus saying something that you hadn't noticed about, because three times in the Beatitudes it mentions hell. But we stress all the beautiful things about the Beatitudes. Verse 19 of chapter 16. There was a certain man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and he fed sumptuously or extravagantly every day. And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which laid at his gate full of sores. Now notice there are two beggars in this story. One begs in time and the other begs in eternity. The other is begging at the gates, hoping he can get a few crumbs. But you find a little later, in verse 24, that this man cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me. He's begging. Have mercy, have mercy. This shatters forever, the idea you can pray to saints. This man prayed at the wrong time, to the wrong person, for the wrong thing, and he got the wrong answer. There was a certain man named Lazarus, laid at his gate full of sores, designed to be fed with the crumbs, which fell from the rich man's table. And there over the dogs came and licked his sores. Well, they were kinder than the old rascal that had the money. He never helped him. It came to pass that the beggar died, and what? What is shown in your version? He was carried? He was carried. The rich man died and was buried. There's no record that the poor man was ever buried. He was most likely taken to Gehenna, the place where they dump all the offal and the dirt and the filth in that valley where the worms didn't ever die and the fire never went out. But the rich man had an ostentatious funeral. I was going to say maybe he was a mason, but there weren't masons then, but it was a show. Richest man in town. I remember when I came to America for the first time in 1950. The funeral of a gangster, I happened to see there in Chicago. Good night. They thought it was Julius Caesar they were burying. They had crosses longer than the casket. They had open, what do you call them, carriages behind, stacked with flowers. Thousands of dollars worth of flowers. A wicked, violent man who'd been involved in murders and rape and bootlegging and every devilish thing. And they gave him the funeral of a king. Now which is best, to be carried or to be buried? I thought I was going to be carried away tonight when you were singing. But I knew it wouldn't be because you wouldn't have got this great truth. But anyhow. It came to pass the beggar died and was carried by the angel into Abraham's bosom, which was a Jewish conception of heaven. The rich man also died and was buried. And heavy lifted up his eyes, being in torment. And he seeth Abraham aside. You know that thing got hold of me? And it still has hold of me. This man is in torment. You've heard me say more than once, I'm going to heaven and I'm not going for the weekend. And some of you are going to hell and you're not going for the weekend. I didn't have time. I'd like to have had a piece of paper put across here. With this printed in big letters on it tonight so you would see it. Hell has no exits. We read of heaven, there are twelve gates into heaven. It doesn't say there are gates into hell. Jesus says, quoting what? I think it's the fifth chapter in Isaiah, which he quoted most often. From that chapter, Hell hath enlarged no mouth to swallow the generations, to swallow the people that think they're secure and happy. It doesn't say much about this rich man except that he was rich. The poor man sat at his gate. Everybody despised, rejected, forgot about him. The rich man was cast down and the poor man went into Abraham's bosom. Notice what it says carefully here. In hell he lifted up his eyes, being in torment, and he seeth. He seeth. You know, people in hell can see. If you were to pull that blind away, don't do it well. But if you did, and there were some people standing out there, they could see and hear and say, well that's brother Abel, that's sister somebody. Those people in darkness can see everything that's going on in this room. I can't see a thing. Somebody might be choking a man out there. Somebody might have a revolver to his head. I can't see. But he that's out in the darkness, the total darkness, can see everybody in here. I believe one of the perpetual torments, remember it's not going to pass in the weekend. I believe everybody goes to hell. We'll see everything that's going on in heaven. Verse 23. He seeth. He lifted up his eyes being in torment. So he's very conscious. Now some people try to say, well there isn't such a thing as hell. A few minutes after the man gets angry, he says, go to hell. What's he saying? Go to nowhere? Jesus spoke about hell ten times. He spoke about heaven only once. We need to recover our balance. I've said to you over and over again, we are not eternally conscious enough. Twelve gates into the city of God. Only one way into hell. No exits. He says they go in and out of the city, but nobody went in and out of hell. He says there's a new heaven and a new earth. He never says a new hell and a new devil. I told you about a man that lived in a city that I lived in before I was born. By the name of Charlie Pease, he was the Al Capone of our nation. He raped, he robbed, he did every devilish thing. And the cops couldn't get him, but once they got him, he was sentenced to death in the city where I lived. And the judge said to him, you'll hang by the neck until you die, and God have mercy on your soul. Charlie Pease was put in a cell with a guard watching him every moment because in English law at that time, a man was given twenty to one days, three weeks for what was called amendment of life or repentance. And he was guarded day and night so he didn't commit suicide and beat the law. The night before he used to go to the gallows, an officer came in and said, Mr. Pease, and he stood up and said, yes, I'm Mr. Pease, I'm Charlie. Isn't that a name for a criminal? I'm Mr. Pease. Well, he said in the morning, he said yes at eight o'clock, I go to the gallows. Took a rope around his neck, put him on a trap door, pulled the switch, he drops down there and he's killed quicker than being executed. He never failed. Quarter of eight in the morning, the judge came, the prison governor came in, the prison doctor came in, the hangman who was peer point came in and a preacher came to say a little prayer. He said a moldy, miserable little prayer. Then he began to walk towards the scaffold, a little room, he had to go through a door and Charlie Pease was following and the man was reading. And suddenly he mentioned hell. Oh yes, he mentioned heaven, about streets of gold and angels and everything. Then he mentioned hell. Charlie Pease reached for the preacher and spun him around and said, what are you reading? Well, he said, I'm reading from a book called The Consolations of Religion. Consolations? I'm not concerned about heaven, I'm not going. You just said a minute ago that hell is a bottomless pit. You said that hell is fire that never goes out. You said hell is a death that never dies. Do you mean that when I string on that rope something goes out of me, away into what you call eternity and my body goes down into that quick line? That something gets out of me before I get down to the bottom? Are you telling me that I, Charlie Pease, will be eternally burning and never consumed, eternally dying and never die? Eternally in the grip of death and never feel relief? I'm going to be in eternal agony forever and ever? Well, the preacher said, that's what I was taught at school. I don't care what you were taught, he said. I'm asking you, do you believe in a hell like that where people never, never, ever die? Well, I think I do. When Charlie Pease said that was, the city of Leeds is in the middle of England, northern England. Over here you have Liverpool, over there you have Hull. Charlie Pease said, if you covered the ground between Hull, Hull and Liverpool, thank you. If you covered it with broken glass and made me crawl on my hands and knees, leaving a trail of my own blood behind me, and I could snatch just one man from that eternal hell, I would say, Charlie Pease, you've done well. I hear people say, you know, one of the signs of the last days is all this heresy. The Jehovah's Witnesses don't believe in hell, the Mormons don't believe in hell, the Mooniites don't believe in hell, I've got news for you, you don't believe in hell either. We've got a crowded house for once in six months. Normally you can get a chair anywhere you like. Are you suggesting to me that out of this school or any other school around here would live its normal course, if we all believe that men outside of Jesus Christ are going to perish forever and ever and ever? Come on now, here's a man, and all his life he went to church. When they made appeals, he pulled out a checkbook, he's very generous, a soft touch, as you say. He'd give commissions, he'd give to other things. But he died unsaved, he had a fine service, the preacher told lies over him, as they often do when they bury people. And he wakes up in hell, and he looks there into eternity, and there's his precious wife, he's strong and ridiculed, and laughed at, and she's at the marriage supper of the Lamb, and he's going to burn forever and ever? That's what the word of God says. He sees in the bosom of Abraham, he sees Lazarus there. I went to a lovely wedding last week, and the bride came down, the eye-lookings were gorgeous, and I was, I tried to pronounce the benediction, at least I tried to pray, but you know, I suddenly got caught away in that thing. I recognized this sweet young lady in beautiful white, and then I visualized the marriage supper of the Lamb, with millions and millions and millions of people there, and singing such you've never heard before, there's 144,000 in the orchestra. Again, not with guitars, thank God. With harps. I've told you what guitars are, they're backslidden harps. Can you imagine a choir, a multitude which no one can number, and 144,000 in the orchestra, singing with rapturous delight, and watching the bride come? Who is she? She's the bride of brides, who's going to be married to the king of kings. And there's a man moldy in hell, and he's looking back and thinking, how many times I laughed when my wife talked about that. How many times I heard her preach, I thought it was too far out, I thought it was some kind of a fairy story. Everybody who goes to hell will be able to recite every word of every sermon they ever heard since they were a child. The agony of hell is, there's no way out. The agony of hell is, that we'll have the sharpest memories we ever had if we get there. He seeth Abraham in the bosom, he seeth the man in the bosom of Abraham, other words, in heaven. And he prays. What does he pray? In verse 23 you notice that he can see. In hell he lifts up his eyes, being in torment. Oh, that conscience he's smothered now, it seems like a spark of hell itself inside of him. Verse 23 he can see. Verse 24 he can hear. Because Abraham spoke to him. Verse 24 he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me and send Lazarus. He may dip the tip of his finger in water and chew my tongue. Look, that man's going to be chewing his own tongue for a million years and he'll see people sitting at the marriage supper of the Lamb drinking the wine of the ages. He has an appetite, but there's nothing to satisfy. All his life he lusted for women, and now he can't celebrate his lust. If you think men aren't idiots, why in God's name do you think they get AIDS? They say it's the most cruel thing that men have ever experienced. It's even more painful than a woman having an agonizing time in childbirth. But that pill of AIDS he has for three years, he won't live more than three years with it. It's just a foretaste, not of glory divine, it's a foretaste of eternal misery. He's got hell on the way to hell. The devil's a bad taskmaster. Saint Lazarus said, he may recognize Lazarus. I tell you, if you go to hell, you'll recognize people, you'll see your preacher, you'll wish to God he'd come and preach to you once more. You'll hear your mother praying and wish to God you'd been sensible when she was praying. You remember every time your conscience began to tremble and you smothered it. You remember when the fear of God came on you, but the fear of man clouded out the fear of God. Come on now, hell is eternal, there's no escape, there's no way out. I went to a devil's island just off the coast of South America near Venezuela. Went across with the officers from the prison on a beautiful yacht and I said, well this is some place. I noticed this great big prison of yours has no bars around it. No, no, no, no, no. The men are walking around the edge. Don't they jump in the water? Only one man in history ever got out of this prison. This sea is the most shark infested sea there is anywhere in the Americas. One man did it, only one. Usually the sharks are there, usually there's a patrol boat. When the man up there sees a man dive in the water he sounds a buzzer and he also sends a message to the coast of America and they send a patrol boat out. The man who escaped had been a champion swimmer and the reason he escaped was every time he kicked and kicked and the sharks didn't come. Every time he saw a boat or somebody coming in he swam underwater. It said he swam underwater for miles coming up and down, up and down, up and down. But he made it. But no man has ever escaped the eternal judgment of God. Again, they join him out of the city of God. Nobody ever went in and out of hell just then. Say what you like. Every true revival. I know we don't preach it today. We're smooth, we're careful. I see people half naked in some places. Well, you see, we go into these camps with these young people and we dress like them to win them. I suppose some of you boys are praying you get called to a nudist colony. Well, if you're going to dress like them to win them you'll have to do it without anything on. It's the very opposite. We don't dress like them to win them. That's the very opposite that we do. We do the opposite of that. You cannot find me a generation of preachers you can have who you like that hasn't had a revival at some time and one of the main supports in that, theological supports in that revival has been preaching on hell. Moody preached on it very much. Again, I read to you the other week where that greatest revival in the history of America was 17 what, 27? Through Jonathan Edwards. Maybe the greatest genius America ever had. Went to school at University of Yale at nine. At 13 years of age he became the he valedictorian and he went on and on. But it was in the course of an ordinary series of meetings when revival broke out he knew that George Whitfield who was coming later but didn't say we're going to have a big meeting and we're going to stage Whitfield and get some good singers. It was in the ordinary course of a preaching service. But remember this man according to his daughter at nine years of age says people think my daddy has a face of granite and a voice of gravel and he preached remember that message of sinners in the hands of an angry God. And all they know is my daddy's thundering. I wish to God we had somebody who could thunder these days. Everybody's teaching. Do you know why teaching? Because it didn't get to your conscience. It doesn't disturb you. We want somebody to sit nice and be comfortable and just talk to us. America's going to hell on under about 13 feet of teaching tapes from the coast of from Canada down to the Gulf. You read today or hear today about this horrible thing that happened right after this super accident that they had down in Mexico City and now about 60 miles east of Bogotá, the capital of Colombia a volcano that hasn't stewed out for 400 years except one little freak about 100 years ago. And it blew the top and melted all the snow in the mountains and sent a tidal wave of 13 feet deep that's riped out towns. 20,000 people have perished. But people say isn't it awful? Isn't it awful they've lost their furniture? Come on! Suppose you look at it from God's angle. Most of the Catholics they didn't know God. 13,000... 20,000 people have gone to hell. But we listen to the news we thought we were you know, just going to shrunk and relax. 15,000 people perished there in Mexico City. Many of them thousands not even been discovered. They went straight to perdition most of them. Tonight they showed children just plastered with dirt and plastered with blisters because the villages near the volcano felt the fiery blast as though the door of hell had opened and the skin came off the people. And there they are in their misery. And if you translate that again into this thing that's mentioned here in the word of God. This man has spent all this time forgetting nothing. Again, quoting that old chorus turn your eyes upon Jesus look full in his wonderful face. And the things of earth will grow strangely dim. I turn it round and say when you get to eternity and look back you'll discover you spent most of you spent your life gathering sawdust. The things of earth for eternity won't look strangely dim they'll look strangely grim. You see this man prays he doesn't pray about his sins he doesn't even pray to be delivered he just says send Lazarus and he may dip his finger in water. And through my parched tongue I am tormented in this flame. What it is something for a man to sit there in hell where there's no rest there's no peace and suddenly he looks up and he sees his wife at the marriage supper of the Lamb or his wife in that marvellous thing that's mentioned where is it in Matthew 7 where they sit down with Abraham and Isaac and all the saints of all the ages and he sees his wife with a glorified body he sees her with resurrection life that we never see her in. And here he is in his perpetual misery. And there's going to be no change for him. I'm tormented. Tormented with my memory. Tormented with the times I rejected God. Tormented with the times he offered me some service and I didn't do it. Tormented with my guilt it's come alive now more than ever. I'm tormented in this flame. Right. I say again I believe you remember every sermon you ever heard preached. You remember every time the spirit of God was tugging at his conscience and he said no. Isn't it amazing that an omnipotent God will let you smack him in the face? He's struggled with you so often. And he hasn't destroyed you because you disobeyed him. And for him that says death for mercy can there be mercy still reserved for me? Can my God his wrath forbear me the chief of sinners spare? I have long withstood his grace long provoked him to his face would not hearken to a call grieved him by a thousand songs. Isn't that your history be honest about it. Did you really get saved the very first time you heard the gospel? I heard the gospel a hundred times. And yet I was only 14 when I got saved. I was only 18 when I got filled with the spirit. I'm glad I went to a church where holiness was stressed. I'm glad one day somebody pushed a little book into my hands the life of a great American one of the greatest Americans ever lived. You know him David Brainerd he died at 28. Do you know what's killing Americans killing Christians creature comforts. Our beds are too comfortable our homes are too comfortable. Some people think they're fasting they're really crucifying the flesh they don't have a coke for two days. And Dr. Pepper is one of his weaknesses. You know we're the most undisciplined generation the world's ever known. I saw a boy in a church and I said well how old are you? He said oh I'm 16. See that fellow there I'm discipling him. You're what? A kid 16 discipling a boy 14? Disciple comes from the word discipline. How many of you are disciplined? How many go to bed at the same time every night get up every morning at the same time? How do you discipline your appetite? How do you discipline your tongue? We're the most weak effeminate Christianity the world's ever had. No wonder nobody wants it. It has no strength. It has no character. It has no I'm going to use an old word but I won't use it. Let me go back to this a minute. Abraham said son remember you say well Mr. Raymond that doesn't worry me too much. What doesn't? What do you say? I never had a very good memory. Now sometimes I don't see TV often but I used to like to watch these tests that they give kids one school competing against another you know ask who Alexander III married or something. And they said this is an intelligence test it's nothing of the kind it's a memory test. If you have a good memory you can get through. It's a memory test. Son remember you say I don't have a very good memory but let me tell you something. I think the psychology see the little thing down here called the repress and the repress complexity of the subconscious. In one of the great hospitals in Canada a few years ago they put some I forgot what they called the things on a guy's temples electrodes and they turned his mind back and asked him what he did when he was 11 years old and he just went through everything he did from 11 to 12. What did he do when he was 16? He went back his mind all came back it was replayed. Well you say I don't have a mind like that but let's wait till the resurrection finger of Jesus Christ says he will have. In Themistocles he was the mayor of Athens in Greece there there were 200,000 people in the city and he knew the name of every one of them. One of the greatest generals in the world had over 115,000 soldiers in his army they said he could recall the name of every one. But he says son remember remember remember in your lifetime you had your good things you were privileged to live in a Christian country you went to a good church you had godly parents remember all the good things you had and you treated them as though they were dust or dung? You can't have them back now son remember remember the missed opportunities remember the times you denied the Holy Ghost the right to come into your life remember every time conscience worked with the touch of God on it son remember in your lifetime all the warnings all the pleadings pleadings by men pleadings by God pleadings by your relatives pleadings by the preachers and you turn them all all all away remember them now come on let them torment you then look at your wife look at her there she is with that holy group of people forever and ever he says send him that he may touch my tongue his wife is going to drink of the waters of life from the middle of the city of God and this man is going to be riding in pain and agony and he could have been rid of her but business stole him sport stole him so you'll end up ten miles further up the road if you haven't watched so much TV football on TV time you've wasted you can't get it back I remember once when I was working with Dr. Fawcett in England one day he held his watch up he said when you see this thing God will forgive you this thing won't we passed it up remember son in your lifetime so his lifetime is over one of the great hymns written in America was written in the great north church there in Boston I preached there once and I asked them to sing it my faith looks up to thee it was written by an elder in the church and the tune was put into the hymn by the organist of the church my faith looks up to thee do you remember the last stanza maybe you don't I'll tell you what it says in the last stanza it says this when ends life's transient dream when death's cold sullen stream shall o'er me roll bless, save it and in love, fear and busy be safe around some salt when ends life's transient dream we have a little creed in England like a rat but it has a beautiful coat it's called a mould and men trap them and then they have them skinned and they make ladies coats they're very beautiful you can see a mould going on the street or in a field pick it up why didn't it run away because it's blind but if you hit it and kill it it keeps it's eyes open it's blind all it's life it's eyes are open immediately it dies you know that's a tragedy with millions of people they go through life blind blind to God blind to God's righteousness blind to his justice blind to his holiness blind to his commandments and in a moment of time they wake up in hell what's the condition of America like spiritually tonight zero, why because we've got blind men coming out of seminaries and men there don't teach them they don't hear a word about hell they're blind themselves and as blind men they leave the blind and they go to hell send him he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue for I am tormented in this flame I'm looking at my Bible here Testament a minute in verse 15 it says beware of false prophets they come to in sheep's clothing but inwardly they are ravening wolves and verse 21 says not everyone that saith unto me Lord, Lord shall enter into the kingdom of heaven but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven many will say to me in that day Lord, Lord have we not prophesied in thy name and in thy name of cast out devils and in thy name of many mighty things verse 23 says then I profess unto them I never knew me ye workers of iniquity depart from me remember the first word of Jesus was what come unto me his last word is depart from me and he's saying he's saying it to preachers he's saying it to medical workers he's saying it to men that have bled money by the millions of dollars out of people and they're gonna say we prophesied in thy name isn't that something they said we did it in thy name he said ye workers of iniquity we did it in my name to exalt your name I never knew you you say that God knows all things yes he does he's of holy rise unto me holy iniquity well then didn't he know what they were doing sure he watched every miracle they did but he said I never knew you in a love relationship you were professional preachers you never had a love relationship with me you never worshipped me you were so busy with an external ministry you were so busy running here and there no time for God come on how much time have you spent with Jesus today when are you gonna ask those women and say I'm not gonna ask you for a thing I've come to worship you in spirit and in truth you can go to conferences all over the country you may go to them as old as I am and I'm almost 80 so some of you have a few years to go I remember the first time God had told me he said you know brother Len I have never heard a sermon on worship in my life or I happen to be 79 years of age and I've been going to church to meetings for 75 years I've never heard a message on worship but also active in the outer court serving the people in the outer court we never get into the holy of holies in the outer court there is daylight in the holy place there is candlelight in the holy of holies there is no light pitch black no windows as black as blackness can be gross darkness and it stays like that unless the glory of God comes but when the shekinah comes it's blinding do you know why we don't miss the glory of God because we've never seen it that's right we're so used to meeting we're so used to being happy we're used to some dumb guy getting up there saying let's all stand and raise your hands and worship you don't worship God standing up you worship God on your belly every time they worship from Abraham down to the revelation every time they worship they worship God face downwards and then again Dr.Tolson said one day let other people do what they like you and I will worship God face downwards if you're down on your face you can't get distracted with anything round about but it's only when we're in the holy of holies in the holy place do you know what worship is? speechless adoration we're going to be startled when we get to heaven and see some people get far bigger rewards than the big TV boys and these boys that run round the world I've all due respect for world challenge what about van challenge? what about Tyler challenge? Jesus said begin at Jerusalem that's the hardest place isn't it? in your own church in your own home in your own life I've told you Dr.Tolson said when I come in my office at eight in the morning and I lay on my belly till nine, ten eleven, twelve and even one o'clock five hours I've not said one word of prayer and I'm not saying one word of praise what do you do? adoring him concentrating on his majesty concentrating on his holiness concentrating not just when I sing great is thy faithfulness very lovely when did you last tell God that on your belly by yourself? you look at his faithfulness he didn't cut you off when you committed that horrible sin he extended his mercy he extended his peace he extended his joy do you wonder the apostle Paul? the man I think lived nearer to God than anybody else except the son of God he said with all I have from him and he drew more from God than anybody but he says I'm a debtor to all men does it take a mystery meeting to stir you up with compassion for the lost? it won't if you go to hell it won't if you realize that there's a million roads into hell there's no way out it's going to be the permanent residence for billions of years for billions of people oh but we stay home and we get excited we give a few tracts out it'd do a lot of us a lot more good if we stayed home on our bellies and worshipped and listened to God I'm not saying you can't learn at school you can you usually don't learn too much a man called me tonight and he said brother Ramiel I want to tell you about my situation he said I've just started preaching in a church and he said after I preached the first night an old deacon stood up and said listen we're not doing it that way we've done it this way for twenty years he said I've been in this pastor for two years I came overflowing with joy from the seminary he said I've learned more about people in two months in this church than three years in seminary because it comes right up to people who don't want to be moved in God they want eternal security to become infernal security you say well I believe in once saved always saved well tell me this in God's name do you believe in once lost always lost once you get through the gates there into hell it's forever and ever once lost always lost there's no mercy there there's no grace there there's no pity there it's all agony it's everything that's antagonistic to God I'll tell you what kind of company you're going to have you know what people say well don't take it too literally hell isn't really literal because if hell's literal of course you couldn't be burning forever and ever couldn't you? no flesh burns are you sure? well logically forget the logic I happen to know three boys that went into a furnace and they burned a long time but they didn't roast you say well I'm going through the fire do your world of good don't come to me and ask for prayer I won't pray for you you're going through the fire you know what it's going to do what did it for the three Hebrew children their hands were bound and they didn't have a pen knife and their feet were bound and they couldn't cut it so God sent the fire of the devil and he liberated them isn't it nice when oh you say he's crazy anyhow of course you made your mind up about that ten minutes ago but that's alright do you really believe that God would employ the devil to make you into a saint? oh but God protects us he promises he'll do this yeah Jesus says hi Peter how are you uh fine uh well I've got some news for you Peter when you get down the road there Satan's going to jump on you Satan hath desired thee to sift thee as wheat that's what he was going to do but I said Satan you go back to hell and leave my precious child Peter alone no he said you need Satan to work in your life our dear principal told us he'd been preaching in a village church and when he came home you won't know anything about this I guess as he came down from the church to go catch the little choo choo that would take him back home he passed the gate he passed the door actually of a uh a blacksmith typical old blacksmith there pumping away to get the furnace going and he had a man called a striker he had a big hairy chest barrel chested fellow and he had a huge hammer with a big head on it and a blacksmith pointed to something and he took it by the he took that piece of metal with a pair of tongues and put it in the fire you know it's a good illustration there you know first of all when you get saved God puts you in the fire if you stay long enough the fire gets into you I remember watching a blacksmith he put a piece of metal into the furnace a black bar would go in and then he'd pull it out and it was getting whiter and whiter and then he'd pull it out in fact when it stayed right in the heart of the fire you couldn't tell the difference between the fire and the metal but there's an anvil you know with a point at the end the man gets hold of that piece of metal he puts it in he has a tiny hammer just about this length but when a boy could not and he hit like that and this big blacksmith comes and he blasts right down on that piece of metal like that he puts it in the fire and he takes it out puts it in the fire and he puts it in water to temper it as they say and the more it goes in the fire the more it goes in the water it becomes a better quality of material but little by little something was being worked into this piece of iron and Mr. Chadwick said I watched I watched that big man swinging that great big hammer till his chest was beads of perspiration then it was running with perspiration and he said I said to the blacksmith sir why don't you change jobs why don't you do some of the heavy work why don't you let him touch the metal with that little hammer and he said he smiled he said you're not a blacksmith are you he said no what are you a preacher oh well that explains the dullness of yours a preacher but he said sir that man's getting tired he's been beating with that hammer knocking yeah yeah he said but you know what he doesn't really know what he's doing I have a contract to make a pair of gates for a mansion that's being built miles away from here notice how this metal's beginning to turn and get beautiful look at those gates there's one gate finished it's all curled and it even got flowers on it that I made out of metal all I do I I just point there and if I point one the man hits the metal this way if I point twice he hits it that way if I make another side he hits it so it bends over the end and he says I'm the designer I pay him just to knock this metal into shape and it doesn't worry him he works all day smashing away at this metal and Mr. Chadwick said to the blacksmith thank you sir that was a wonderful sermon what do you mean a wonderful sermon he said the devil's been hitting me for the last two weeks now I say God says hit Chadwick there he needs a bit of stuff knocking off in there and then hit Chadwick this way you won't knock him out of shape you knock him into shape huh don't you ever sing a hymn hidden in the hollow of his blessed hand never folk can follow never traitor stand do you really believe or is it just a little theological thing stuffed in your head do you believe your life is hid with Christ in God no matter how tough the road is one of the best modern hymns in America was written by a woman that had a terrible terrible life of sickness she wrote a hymn give us more grace as the burdens go greater do you know that how many know it would you like to sing it for us yes oh ok give us more grace as the burdens go greater give us more strength as the labours increase to our deflection he addeth his mercy to multiplied trials is multiplied pain Lord give me more strength why give you more strength you're not carrying any load when you get to the situation where you need the strength he'll give you all the strength you need he'll give you the wisdom you need he'll give you the vision you need you see it takes God an awful long while to mature us I know because I've been on the road a long while I got saved when I was 14 I'm 79 and you know what I haven't arrived yet oh when I was your age I had when I was your age I knew everything I pity my father he wasn't very well educated but after I got educated I envied my father so simple so pure so passionate so prayerful I never saw a preacher weep my daddy would get down and groan and weep and travel for lost men and women there was a big husky man about 5 feet 11 and proportionately built and I began to realise that you don't get smart just when you can get smart see we confuse knowledge with wisdom but knowledge isn't wisdom wisdom is knowing how to apply knowledge for one thing I've got a son got an earned PhD his wife has an earned PhD they're very very smart I smiled the other day I said to Martha I see people are paying $10,000 to have dinner with Princess Di and Prince Charles our son in West Africa got an invitation for nodding and he wouldn't go you see I mean you look down on royalty when you're a child of a king no but there's a wisdom which is from above which supersedes all the wisdom of men the three Hebrew children were burned and but no they were not burned at all all the fire did was burn off the shackles of the world put on them don't the beast and the prophet go down into the pit and they burn and burn and burn for a thousand years and they're still as correct the same as when they went in you know again let me say this cliche I like it because I didn't write it but I like it you know Christianity is not N-O-T not being weighed in the balances and found wanting it's being tried found difficult and rejected again Jesus isn't looking for you to bring all your lousy sins to him what do you think he doesn't he wants you he wants your heart he wants your mind he wants your will he wants your emotions every part of you to be filled with God let me tell you the company if you go to hell they're all listed here I'll read it for you Revelation 21 and verse 7 says he that overcometh shall inherit all things you know with such sloppy theology everybody that's saved is going to be in the bride of Christ don't believe it for a minute I don't believe that how did God make a bride for Adam did he take all of Adam he took a part of Adam and when Jesus comes for the bride he's not going for every believer I'm assured of that what makes us get so arrogant and feel so secure that we're so holy and wonderful listen if you can't stand an extra long sermon if you hear me often enough you'll hear them if you get uncomfortable after an hour's preaching what in God's name are you going to do in a millennium or in eternity I preach in a fashionable church out west east some years ago first Sunday morning five minutes to twelve a lady goes like this you know so nice and she got up and walked out she did it the next Sunday morning I said the pastor that old girl went down again this morning oh she's done that for the last five years I said well she won't do it once again what will you do I said I'll speak with her five minutes to twelve the third Sunday she got up to walk I said hey lady where are you going she said I said lady if you can't stand an hour in the presence of God what are you going to do in eternity I know you walk out every Sunday what are you going to do to heaven you get bored with angels you get bored with angels you get bored with worship you get bored with adoration you get bored with the blazing holiness of God where are you going to walk out to hell it's the only alternative you have I preached all next week she never came once to hear me some people are easily offended do you know what they did the other day the snobs were being snobbish to the snobs down there because to have dinner with the prince and his girlfriend or his wife $10,000 to have your photograph taken was it $5,000 or $50,000 $50,000 now listen you can have your photograph taken with me this week for $50,000 never mind $50,000 but in 1915 $50,000 to have your picture taken I remember when we were working in Teen Challenge twenty years ago we went at midnight to the opera house it's not the same one today we got there men were coming out they had their toppers you know my Rolls is over there and they were bringing Rolls Royces and all the cars you can imagine and the ladies were there sparkling with diamonds do you know why they rented them the day before trailing mink and rabbit and all kinds of furs they had on you know snobbish isn't there a social register in America with 400 outstanding people families can you imagine those people waking up in hell with harlots and thieves and the underworld you know there are no tears in heaven and there are no smiles in hell there's no sorrow in heaven there's no joy in hell I'll tell you who lives in hell the fearful the unbelievers the abominable the murderers the whoremongers the sorcerers the liars they all have their part in the lake which burns with fire and in verse chapter 22 15 of revelation it says without a dogs and sorcerers and whoremongers and murderers and idolaters and whoso loveth and maketh a lie I've said too often I'll say it again tonight one of the tragedies of modern Christianity we've lost sight of the holiness of God I don't care what meeting you go to how often do you go trick-toying out of the sanctuary because you're going to be overwhelmed with God's holiness God's majesty God's purity and because we've lost sight of the holiness of God we've lost sight of the sinfulness of men these men are going to be in eternal rebellion forever and ever in heaven they're going to sing with singing you've never had no idea what it's like and 144,000 house in heaven they sing the song of Moses and of the Lamb what do they sing in hell I'll tell you they sing the end of chapter 8 of Jeremiah the harvest is past the summer is ended and we're not saved we talk about Jonathan Edwards no one hardly hardly ever mentions his brother-in-law Aaron Burr one of the great scholars of the day Aaron Burr you almost missed the presidency of the United States by one vote years afterwards somebody said to him well Mr. Burr you almost became the president of the United States you missed it by one vote didn't you but I want to tell you something there's something far greater than being a president of the United States what is that well you can be a Christian no I can't yes you can I can't yes you can whosoever will may come no no no he said that's not for me it's for everybody no it isn't well why isn't it Mr. Burr I missed the presidency of the United States by one vote sure I was in a gospel meeting X number of years ago and the evangelist said there's one more people who should come to this altar today and I was the man I didn't go you should come today if you will you know we sit down if you get an invitation to have dinner at the White House next Monday at one o'clock will you say I'm sorry I can't come but I'll come Thursday at one we treat God as though he's an errand boy God doesn't owe a thing to anybody in this room tonight he's pled with you he's urged you he's called you to holiness he's called you to purity he's called you to kiss this world goodbye with all of its pleasure its pomp and its pride and embrace the cross and follow the Lamb with us wherever he goeth and you'd rather stay in your own miserable situation Aaron Burr said Burr said he'd call me but I said to him that night now God I hear my famous brother-in-law Jonathan Edwards I hear other preachers I want to make a deal he said if you promise to leave Aaron Burr alone I promise I won't bother you and he said from that day to this almighty God has never bothered me never troubled me and he's not speaking he's not calling me I dare not pretend to come you know it's no fun preaching people think it is I go to bed tonight whatever I'll go what 12 o'clock 1 o'clock maybe I see this congregation or any other congregation I preach to do you know the curse of this day is trying to get quick results so we can send letters out and say we've had a good crusade we've been here we've been there and so many are being saved that's balderdash the greatest revival that came to America we were in a bunch of men again Jonathan Edwards and the other men with him joined hands and said by the grace of God we will never pluck unripe fruit we will never press people to decision because these were his own words we lead them to damnation and not to salvation oh we had a good meeting and people said we asked them would you want to serve Jesus why do you ask if you want to go to heaven ask if you want to go to hell there's far more to repentance than saying I'm sorry a famous preacher around here said to me long ago you know what we need to do as believers is live in repentance every day I said forget it do you want me to repent for adultery I haven't committed it today or any other day do you want me to repent of lying do you want me to repent of stealing it's not a case of living in repentance it's a case of living in brokenness the perpetual challenge to the believer is come down from the cross and save yourself why should you fast when other people are feasting why should you be down there breaking your heart weeping for revival when other people are over there having a good time and living it up like they do in Canterbury many of these places I said to you last week I'll say it again when are we going to get serious about being serious about revival if you hear of a revival let me know I'll be happy to go we call a crusade a revival make so many decisions go to that town three months after and see if you can find them you see men who have got eternity on their eyeballs as Jonathan Edwards had men who have seen into the abyss of hell where their womb dieth not but if if God permits well in his will he will or in his way if he permits hell to exist for another million years the people who are there they never die it's a second death death is separation from God forever the first death may be cruel but the second death when a man dies in agony of soul it's something entirely different you know we're all after quick results some of you are Phineites I suppose that's ok you know Mr. Phinney never made an altar call for the first three weeks of any crusade you don't have a preach in America dare go to a city we all go for a one night stand there's no scripture that supports that he preached preached preached preached until people couldn't sleep until they stopped him in the street and said have you no mercy don't ask me then ask God he preached until their sins came alive he preached until conscience lashed them lashed them it was as though they had some scorpion inside he preached until their memory haunted them I'll say this and I'm through I preached a great church in Dublin a few years ago it's right opposite the Abbey Theatre that's where Handel played the Messiah first by the way we had this great Methodist church a conference I preached one night and I think it was Psalm 51 three years after that I was at a conference a worldwide evangelization crusade in the north of Ireland after the meeting a man came up and said do you remember me I said no remember my wife don't you no remember preaching in the Methodist church opposite the Abbey Theatre oh yes down in Dublin oh he said I got so angry with you you know that makes me so happy when people get angry I'm sure I've you know I hit the bullseye I went home as a good Methodist in good standing that means he was sitting around anyhow and he said I listened to you that night you preached on Psalm 51 I remember that I went home absolutely mad blazing mad with him great we had our cup of tea and went to bed my wife sat on the other side of the bed and I sat on the other you know like these wives do get into bed he said I didn't I said you get into bed you get into bed he said we sat there till after midnight and my wife said I need to stretch my legs so he said I'll pull the bed away from the wall and she went round that way and I went round this way for nearly two hours suddenly she fell at the side of the bed he said my dear sweet Methodist wife sang in the choir Sunday school teacher promoted missions I didn't know there was anything wrong with her you know we preachers or everybody that listens to us is having adultery secretly stealing God's first argument with you if you're a sinner is not that you're it's not that you're bad it's that you're dead Jesus didn't come into the world to make bad men good he came to the world to make dead men live but he said my wife began to cry God have mercy I'm a sinner I didn't know what she meant she's the sweetest little woman in Ireland but she prayed and prayed and prayed and wept and wept and I kept going round the bed then he said an hour after I knelt at the side of the bed and I called out the same and as you say Mr. Remy we pass from death to life ask people if they say they don't know be very sure that they aren't if I carried a hundred pounds on my back and I dropped it off and somebody said did you lose your sack oh I don't know yes I think no no I didn't no no no it's there are you going to suggest when a man gets born again he doesn't know that the guilt has been removed the burden has been removed but now he can look into the face of God and he's not an angry God are you going to suggest he doesn't have peace that passes all understanding and all misunderstanding but he said Mr. Remy after that we met some holiness folk down there yes I know a group of them about ten of them in Dublin it's been so wonderful learning about sanctification learning about holiness the way that Mr. Wesley taught it it's been marvellous and not only that but you know what's happened though he said we're so happy in the Lord that all our plans have gone you know when a man was going to be crucified he knew a few things about him he knew when he had a cross on his shoulder he wasn't coming back immediately he got a cross on his shoulder he knew this he had no rights of his own he belonged to government if you take up your cross the moment you take up your cross you have no rights of your own you have no choice of your own you have no will of your own it's all his unless you're playing games with God my wife and I sat down they said we saw the vanity of this world the emptiness of this world you see all the so called success of this world is only froth cast up by the sea have you ever seen the sea washing up and it makes froth and that's about the durability of all that this world has if you want to know testament language it's vanity of vanities let me tell you as an old geezer that I am there's not one thing worth in life worth having outside of Jesus Christ and if you really sing thou O Christ thou art all I want you got it made if you really sing that hymn beneath the cross of Jesus I ask no other sunshine than the sunshine of thy face you won't care if the world the flesh the devil the in-laws the outlaws anybody else frowns on you if you have the smile of God what in the world do you care about the frown of men and if you have the frown of God what good is a smile of men you know what God's looking for God's looking for people who live recklessly for him not concerned about public opinion not even about preachers opinions becoming a love slave of Jesus Christ again I say immediately you got that cross you know that man was going out he wasn't coming back immediately you got a cross you know he had no rights of his own all his own plans have gone there's nothing like it this side of eternity I remember the time I got saved I'm sorry I got saved at fourteen I was about eighteen I guess when I got we call the baptism of the spirit in our group we call it sanctification which Wesley calls it it's spelled out in Acts 15 8 and 9 where Peter talks about the house of Cornelius the Holy Ghost came and purified their hearts by faith see everybody's seeking power today not many people seeking purity you know what your trouble is you're such a poor image of yourself that's a devil's lie your trouble is you're such a good image of yourself as soon as you get away with those inflated ideas how good you are how useful you are to God forget it do you think he's been holding the world up till you were born do you think you're the one that's holding up revival you could be in your own life and in others there are millions of people going to hell and what unless the church of Jesus Christ wakes up they'll still be going a year from now I'm sick of sloppy evangelism I'm sick of reading reports where the good crusades so many were saved you could gamble your very boots but at the judgment seat of Christ I don't believe 5% of people fighting Christ in crusades get saved you think that's hard well get to the judgment seat and see do you think the nation could be in this mess unless the salt had lost its savour the hold up is not moonism mormonism communism socialism romanism any other rottenism the hold up of revival in America is the church of Jesus Christ we want to resurrection life but we don't want to die we want to be filled but we don't want to be emptied we want to be clothed but we don't want to be stripped Jesus was severe he said you can't unless you leave all not leave something leave all and follow me this generation of Christians and that's you I've had my day this generation of Christians is responsible for this generation of lost people do you know the nearest mission field to you your front street there's a precious brother here now ah there is Spencer precious brother full blooded Indian I'd rather hear that man pray than half the preach in America preach 2 million Indians in America did you ever hear anybody having a crusade no we all go to Timbuktu oh they're going to have the world soccer matches in Brazil so we're going to get kids to bleed the church to buy a ticket for them to go there and all they do is give some things out to people they can't speak to and there's 2 million Indians on the conscience of the church of Jesus Christ in America 2 million I don't believe there's been a revival amongst the Indians since Lorenzo Dow had it do you wonder God says begin in Jerusalem it's much more exciting your church will get excited I'm going up the Amazon I'm going right up the Amazon to the Orinoco River and I'm going 500 miles up the Orinoco River I'm going up to another river and there's some Indians left that haven't heard the gospel you've got some in Oklahoma that haven't heard it you've got some in the Navajos between here and the west coast haven't heard it some of the wildest Indians on the face of the earth are on the west coast of Canada and the leading sinner of one of the great groups there is the priest he's the most drunk and immoral man of the bunch come on you guys forget about scalping get down to some soul winning seek God's mind and say well I want to know why God isn't taking me to the Indians taking me to the underprivileged in America we're going to hell if we don't and it will be our responsibility go home and think about this you're saved your daddy's lost have you broken your heart your daddy's going to sit in hell and see you at the marriage supper of the lamb and all you do is turn over scriptures and mark scriptures and memorize verses and he's perishing why God's name is his humanity never mind your spirituality what about your unsaved brother your unsaved sister maybe your unsaved pastor this is the most serious game in the world all business in the world if there was something higher than preaching I'd go for it there isn't it's costly cost you tears cost you sleepless nights I'm going to say this now say it I don't believe if you live near to God you'll get overweight he'll curb your eating he'll curb your social life he'll cut everything down he'll strip you strip you prune you so that he can get you where he wants you and use you as he likes to do that you won't become a saint by studying your bible you'll become a saint by living it two things to do with the bible believe it behave it we think how they stream out of opera houses tonight loaded with diamonds loaded with money and yet they haven't the slightest idea of eternity many of them have already chosen a plot of land where they'll be buried they've chosen the type of casket to be buried in and that's the full stop as far as they know they don't know a thing about eternity God forbid that any relatives of any of us should go to everlasting burnings and have to look out and see us in the bosom of Abraham or in the presence of Christ at the marriage supper Lord take their blood off our hands by making us diligent and compassionate give us a love that we've never had for the last give us a brokenness we've never had Lord why should they obey you when we don't obey you why should they tremble before you when we don't tremble at your majesty and your holiness show us again Lord in your own way our personal accountability to our holy God the privilege of living in a free country like this the privilege of having a bible in our hand since we were children and we don't know too much about it forgive us that God is remotely distant in eternity that Christ is a character of a thousand or so years ago and all the time you're asking to come and live in us by your divine spirit take away our love of the flesh take away our love for material things take away our love for the visible and give us a majestic concept of the invisible Lord get our feet out of the mud of time and give us to live where these precious Puritans and others live day by day bowing before the throne of a majestic eternal God as we sang tonight immortal invisible and God only wise in light inaccessible Lord how terrible it is to think that we'd be living in the glory of your holiness that we'd be sitting down with the greatest saints the world has ever known with Abraham and Isaac and all these others and some people who sat in the pew behind us would have been in burning hell with all this corruption with all the vile with all the unclean with the mafia with the liars with the prostitutes with the men who die in agony with AIDS and women who die in prostitution and people who die calling on false gods God give us a sense a new sense of our responsibility give us a new sense of the possibility of sainthood of spirituality while we're in the flesh give us the joy of knowing how to be crucified with Christ that we may know his resurrection power and his resurrection life I pray for the ministries around here that every one of them will receive a new quickening Lord I wish you'd trust somebody around here with the revival I wish I could hear that people are not going to bed at night they can't they're so in trouble for the lost that down the corridors they can hear people weeping and hear people groaning and hear people traveling and hear people throwing their lives away abandoned to Christ give us a reckless holiness give us a passionate passion for souls give us a pity that yearns give us a love that loves unto death give us a fire that burns Lord God I pray Lord you'll get us away from having a cheap vocabulary a shallow concept of your holiness a shallow concept even of hell itself it's not talked about much I doubt if students get elect on that if they stay around the Bible school here for two or three years no wonder the world doesn't believe it we can't believe it we won't live in this comfort and ease disturb us rebuke us we pray apply the rod to whom the Lord loveth he chasten us chasten us chasten me we thank you for your word we thank you for the holy name of God who spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost we pray that same Holy Spirit of God may move us we're going to stay to pray if you're to pray we're going to stay