Leonard Ravenhill emphasizes the transformative power of love and prayer in the life of a believer, contrasting the outward appearances of wealth and satisfaction with the inner spiritual poverty that many face. He reflects on the plight of those in prison and the marginalized, suggesting that their worship may be more genuine than that of the affluent. Ravenhill calls for a radical awakening within the church, urging believers to embrace a life of sacrificial love and to recognize the urgency of sharing the Gospel with a world in darkness. He challenges the church to move beyond mere religious activity and to embody the love of Christ in their lives, becoming true witnesses of His grace and power. Ultimately, he stresses the need for holiness and a deep, abiding relationship with God through prayer.

But when you found us we were worse, degraded, sinful, to other people looking all right on the outside but inward you saw the corruption in us. But we thank you it didn't pass by on the other side. We thank you didn't give us a course of discipline. Lord I think of those precious men and women in prison again, at one time they tithed joyfully but they can't now, there's nothing to give but you love them. They don't bring a dime to this church but Lord maybe they've worshipped you more preciously than we have today. Our wealth has become our poverty, our freedom has become our bondage. What we have we're so overfed, overstuffed, oversatisfied and we think of these people who are outwardly no doubt they're very lean, maybe some have lost 10, 20, 30 pounds but they've lost nothing on the inside. They weigh less but they're more valuable in your sight. No wonder your word says that your thoughts are not our thoughts and your ways are not our ways. We thank you for every precious brother and sister throughout the world tonight. Lord if we could count them all we're still a minority, out of the five billion people in the world there are possibly not more than a couple of millions who are generally born again of the Spirit of God. We thank you for rescuing us from the broad way, not just the broad way of sin and selfishness but the broad way of theological error, from the broad way of the culture of those so-called doctrines of men and the ways of the elders that trapped us so long but Lord we thank you that when again we were unlovely. We bless you because of this one that we're celebrating not just once a year but Lord we celebrate this every day in our lives. We thank you for the precious blood, we thank you that there is a way for man to rise to that sublime abode, an offering and a sacrifice of Holy Spirit's energies. We think of the weary task of building altars and shedding blood and the priest walking through bloody things and yet that priest died but we thank you for the one who ended it all, that he became the Paschal Lamb by God appointed and there for us he was slain. Lord we don't know, no one ever knew, ever will know till we get to eternity. How as Wesley put it, God was contracted to a span, the heaven of the heavens cannot contain him and yet he was cramped into the womb of a woman. We don't understand how God became man, we less do we understand how he became sin for us but we thank you you accepted that sacrifice and now he is our sacrifice, he is our altar, he is our priest, he is our Lord, what a Savior. No wonder Wesley again says all that the world might taste and see the riches of his grace, the arms of love that compass me would all mankind embrace. You must love us Lord, you would kick the church into hell almost by now. We're so slow two thousand years and millions of people haven't heard, we've built gorgeous churches, we've elaborated them with priceless windows almost and costly carpets and some organs now costing a hundred more thousands and yet there are people Lord, they have no melody in their heart, they have no song to sing, all they know is the death march, they're marching to a lost eternity, don't even know that. Their darkness increases, we boast of our light, our knowledge but God what good is it if it's all chained up in one room? We think of the vast areas of the world in total darkness tonight, your word reminds us of those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death and Lord we ask again that just once more, just once more like Samson when he said strengthen me just once even if I die and he died and Lord it means death, show us how to die. God what good is it us living if our theology is right, these people who die without God, without hope go to an endless eternity and yet somehow it doesn't awake us, it doesn't stir us. We ask you to awaken the world and we're asleep, we ask you Lord that they may value the cross and we don't value it. Oh God we're so sick of conferences and all these other things that go on, people running here and running there to seminars about this and that and Lord it's so easy to curse the darkness, we're tired of cursing the darkness, we want to strike a light, we thank you said Lord the lame take the prey and to those who have no might increase the strength and we're gladly disown any efficiency of our own or sufficiency of ourselves, we'll gladly be bankrupt on God for Lord when we're bankrupt on you we'll be richer than anybody in the whole world. We want to see you come and fulfill your word, you said once more, just once more I will shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land and Lord you've told us there in Hebrews again that everything that can be shaken will be shaken, that the kingdom that cannot be shaken may remain. Lord we see you shaking, even today talking about the banks and about the economy, it's shaking, it's getting weaker, it's deteriorating. God we've been so mesmerized by materialism, we think we're spiritual but Lord I wonder what degree of spirituality, if again you count spirituality on a as they say about these days number one to ten, I wonder if Lord if we're even number one, there's so much undiscovered truth in your word, there's so much we haven't appropriated. Lord I see the church tonight like the prodigal in the far country, we're feeding on husks, we're feeding on little petty banquets and little bits of stirrings, oh God come and rent the heavens, we've seen man's work it's no good, we've seen religious work it's no good, we've seen organization it's no good, God get some of us where we're willing to be a living sacrifice, that we don't care how we live, how long we live, or where we live, or how we live, what we eat, what we drink, what we wear or don't. God raise an army of love slaves, get some people who never ask why, when you do something in their lives you don't ask why, I think of Saul on the Damascus road when he was struck down he didn't ask why, he said what, what's it all about, where do I go from here, and nobody dreamed that man rolling in the dust would shake the world one day, and write the most amazing things this world has had, that one day be caught to heaven for a short vacation, that every time you move devils tremble, demons said Paul we know and Jesus we know, Lord get some of us to the place where we want to be on God's honor roll, or on the devil's honor roll, that he gets nervous every time we move, Lord I want to be a candidate in that area, I want to give some of these young men vision and passion, God God make us unafraid of tears, make us unafraid of brokenness, make us unafraid of public opinion, pastors opinion, deacons opinion, anybody's opinion, just come and whisper that we're right in the dead center of the will of God, that's all that matters, it's so easy to sing as we sang tonight that lovely song, I lay in dust, life's glory dead, how many of us dare cast our reputation down and stamp it out, tread it to dust, and see you raise out of the dust, life's glory dead, and you raise it, give it a resurrection and do some new things, what everybody it seems that writes to me or calls me, seems to be saying you know, that we're nearly at the last days, things are closing up very quickly, but Lord we still slumber, I don't see anybody very serious about being serious about the coming judgment, we're so easily satisfied, little pep talks and we lift it up, Lord help us to live not on meetings, not on these other things, but to live in Christ alone, it may be Christ in us the hope of glory, that we may love like Christ, that we may worship like Christ, that we may pray like Christ, that we may be daring as he was to stand up against the system of his day, and be an outcast from then, Lord it didn't look much like victory, when all the promises he made to his children, that he'd raise a kingdom, and there he hangs on a cross, it doesn't look like the way to victory, but it was the only way, and Lord I guess it's the only way for us, O cross that lift us up my head, I dare not ask to fly from thee, don't let us run away, Lord let us run toward you, not from you, Lord somehow speak to us through your holy word again tonight, it is a lamp to our feet, make it if need be a twedged sword, and let the spirit, it's the sword of the spirit, it's not my sword, it's his sword, and Lord if you want to cut us, wound us, that you may heal us, amputate something from us, that you might give us something more, do it for your name's sake, Lord again we ask, and we're ambitious only for your name's sake, that somehow even this little prayer meeting, a handful of us, that we may affect eternity, that somewhere in the world, I remember reading years ago of a river that disappears, it goes under the desert, and it comes out hundreds of miles away, just suddenly out it comes, and we pray that there'll be something born tonight, that will come out somewhere in some other country, maybe in a slave camp, maybe in a concentration camp, maybe in the midst of a religious festival of some kind, Lord you're the God of the unusual, you're the God almighty, we want to see your power, again Lord I'm tired of reading church history, I want to make history, I want to be part of a people who make history, a people who are purified, sanctified, edified, and soon to be glorified, oh how wealthy you are, and we're so poor, with all our riches we're still poor, with all our strength we're still weak, with all our light we have to say we see through a glass darkly, and I think sometimes we like to hide behind that, lest the blazing light should come on us, and we have to cover ourselves as Isaiah did when he saw the cherubim, with two wings they covered their faces, because they couldn't behold your glory, and with two wings they covered themselves because they couldn't bear your searching sight on them, Lord help us to grow up, God I'm complaining tonight, I'm tired of living amongst pygmies, I'm sick of living amongst people who just want a little shot in the arm on Sunday, and go to a nice meeting, and go in their best clothes, and look so sweet and lovely, God give every one of us an ambition that we won't die without scars, we'll not only wound, but we'll be wounded, it'll be an exchange in conflict, that the devil will know we're around, that strongholds will be pulled down, great is thy faith, I guess it's self-evident, but I'll say it anyhow, well my first hero obviously is Jesus, and I guess the second one is the Apostle Paul, a few years ago in fact while I was a boy in England there was a very brilliant preacher, he occupied John Wesley's old pulpit in the big Methodist church on City Road, London, his name was Moffat Gawtry, if you ever see a book by him, buy it, even if you have to sacrifice, go without Dr Peppers for a month or something, Moffat Gawtry, but he said this amongst other things, the man who only wants his sins forgiving is playing with religion, that's a pretty good thought isn't it, if all he wants is to get rid of guilt and condemnation, and the fear of hell he's playing games, I'd like to have heard the I think I went to the first meeting, real meeting, about let me say 75 or 6 years ago, my mother loved preachers, pardon me not preachers, preaching, she didn't love preachers that much, sounds a bit bad, and we used to go to conferences Saturday afternoons, you know I never rebelled against going, and at that time the old-fashioned Methodist prayer meeting was still going, and we used to go there Tuesday night, I'd like to have heard the Apostle Paul preach, that would have been one of the great events in history, I'd like to have seen him on Mars Hill as we call it in the 17th of Acts, when he's praying, preaching there before all the intellectuals, the scholars, the Epicureans, the philosophers, the poets, the whole bunch of the intellectuals of the day, and he stood there, and as Dr. James Stewart of Scotland said, he countered philosophy with philosophy, poetry with poetry, history with history, they were amazed at this little man, now tradition it can't be trusted, but tradition says he was only about five foot one, well he was one of the smallest giants that ever lived, John Wesley was five foot one, but I would have liked to have seen that man on Mars Hill, let us say he beat them every round, they looked at him and said what will this babbler say, he wasn't an auditor, the auditor of the early church was Apollos, Paul records himself, they said of me his bodily presence is weak, but his speech is contemptible, what's the good of being a colossal if you've only the brain of a peanut, what's the good of being soaked in theology if we have no real lifeline with God, I'd like to have heard him preach, I sure would, you know it's comparatively easy to preach, if it wasn't I couldn't do it, of course there are preachers and preachers, but you know to stand before men on behalf of God is wonderful, but to stand before God on behalf of men is greater, as I've said before no man, no woman is greater than their prayer life, I don't care how many degrees they have, I was asked to go right now, I should be in in Israel, there's a gathering of the prophets, and I think most of them are a dead loss, oh you want to come, there's out of all the thousands, maybe a million preachers and elders and deacons in the world, 120, they're going to stand where Elijah stood, as a matter of fact they're staying in the same luxury hotel, isn't it funny we're going to do what Elijah did, they're staying in a ritzy place, dear Lord what fools we are, but to hear any man pray to me is his greatest exercise, well I better get to it because I won't have time if I don't, first book of Thessalonians chapter 3, 1 Thessalonians 3 and verse 10, and he says night and day praying exceedingly, or praying with passion, or praying with power, what's he praying for? Night and day praying that I may see your face and supply that which is lacking in your, perfect that which is lacking in your faith, now notice what he's praying for, he's not praying for money, he's not praying for healing, he's not praying asking for prayer of others to go on a missionary trip, he says I'm praying night and day, not for the overthrow of the people that were at that time domineering their country, he's praying that he may see the face of some people that he brought to birth in Christ, night and day, I've said I still say if I could find two or three hundred men that would spend three days on their faces, and if I find I'll go and tell some of you men to come, three days where everybody wants to get into the second chapter of Joel, nobody wants to go into the first chapter, we all want to organize, we're blessing the world this way, blessing the world forget it, we've been doing that for the last 50 years, what does it say in the first chapter of Joel, it says spending all night between the altar and the doorpost, men weeping and howling, well every revival has been born that way, now here's a man who knows something about that, remember is it Romans 9, where he says I could wish myself a curse for my brethren, he's not asking for easy street, he never knew a thing about ease, he talks about weariness and fastings and painfulness in perils of the deep, in perils of his own countrymen, in perils by day, in perils by, it makes no difference, he flirts with danger, in fact he says I die daily, you know people quote so easily, we all quote scripture easily, Acts 1.8 you shall receive power, the Holy Ghost come upon you, you should be witnesses, but the Greek word there is you should be martyrs unto me, or keep it witnesses, you should be witnesses unto me Jesus says, they were not to witness to the world, they'd witness to the world, they'd done miracles before Pentecost, they raised the dead before Pentecost, they cast out demons before Pentecost, dear God these people say if only the Holy Ghost came, what would happen, come on now they did everything before Pentecost, they did after, except fail, you don't find Peter failing after Pentecost, a girl puts up her finger and says you were with him and he lies, but after Pentecost he stuck his finger in the eye of the high priest and a whole gang of them, he's the most fearless potent man around at that time, you should be witnesses unto me, come on have you witnessed to Christ today, not for him, to him, no, well how do you witness to him, when you die daily, Paul knew where he was crucified with Christ, you know we talk about John the apostle of love, who wrote the greatest hymn of love, John no, this firebrand, this man that went down the road, this man who says afterwards in the front of a heathen king in a pagan court, he says to Agrippa, I persecuted men and women, I drove them out of their homes, I drove them to strange cities, my hands are bloody, and yet God gets hold of that man and he never got over the fact, you see every time you hurt a child of God, you hurt Jesus Christ first, I don't get any slanderous gossip of what it is, you better hold your lip, you see while your head's in order, of course mine hasn't been in order for years by according to many people, in fact I had some pains in my head three weeks, three years ago, went to a hospital in town, they put me through a machine and the doctor came in the, my ward, the next one he looked, he says well reverend Ravenhill, we looked in your head, he says there's nothing there, I said well thanks, that's so encouraging, you know we've tried to stretch people's intellect, half the preachers coming after seminaries or cemeteries, if you want to call them that, in Dallas don't know God, they know what the church expects, they're going to follow the theology exactly, but as for a living revelation of God and power of God, they know nothing about it, Paul says I died daily, now the Romans were a cruel rotten crowd, but I'll tell you what they didn't do, they didn't crucify children, do you remember the time we were bombing, what was it we were bombing, in the war, Vietnam, the other country, Cambodia was it, and nobody would admit to it, we were dropping stuff on kids and burning the flesh off them, they brought little children to the hospital tents, they had no skin, all the skin had been, it was like raw liver, looking the poor little things all bloody and helpless, you know men apart from God can be intellectuals, but they're devilish too, but Paul says that he died daily, I say that the Romans were cruel, but they never crucified children, so when he gets into the middle of the 1 Corinthians 13, he talks about love, love suffereth long is kind, love envieth not, love vaulteth not itself, so forth so on, and then he breaks off suddenly, and instead of talking about love, I'll tell you how to read that chapter, instead of reading charity which you have in the King James Version, put love there, instead of reading love, put Jesus there, 1 Corinthians 13 is a full-length portrait of Jesus Christ, and then when you've read it, you put out charity, you put in love, you put out love, you put in Christ, put out Christ, put your own name in, I suffer long, I'm kind, they envy nobody, it's a searching, searching, scolding chapter to read, but in the middle of it, Paul quits, and he says, when I became a man, what does he mean, why does he suddenly stop talking about love, when I became a man, I believe that's when he had the experience of being crucified with Christ, I was thinking that, do you know anywhere in any other history of men, where a man asks that he may fill up the sufferings of Christ, this man's insane, it was Spinoza, if I remember rightly, who talked about a God-intoxicated man, do you ever know a man more intoxicated with God, than the Apostle Paul, you know God puts the two things together, be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess, what's a man that's drunk, he'll fight anybody, a kid, a young guy drunk, will go up to, oh he's not around anymore, what they called a Louisville Lip, what was his name, the superman, fighter, black man, Cassius Clay, is he a relative, I don't see, he had his name right on the dot, thank you, imagine a kid going up to him, or a drunken man, and he, in fact, I once almost ran into him in Miami, I was coming towards the elevator, and he came up, boy, I looked up at this monstrous man, and I backed off, I just said hi, I wasn't going to take him on, but a drunken man has no sense of danger, he's no fear, and this man is God, God, God-intoxicated man, he's no fear of men, he's no fear of consequences, he's no fear of kings, he's no fear of the hierarchy of the church, he's absolutely, totally fearless, and you know, if we're going to get through for God, it's going to take that in the last days in which we're living. But he says, I die daily. There are times when you can back off and be kind to yourself, but how often do we die daily? That really got to me today, that God, he loves those people in Afghanistan, they may be naked almost, they may be living in filthy holes, in the, in the caves, as they say they are, women giving birth to children as they try and climb over the mountains on their knees, their knees are almost worn out, and yet many of them today, I believe, have worshipped the Lord more than we've worshipped him, they've got close to the very heart of God. Well, what keeps this man going? I used to think when he said, you know, in first Corinthians 5, where he, he begins by saying, if the earthly house of this tabernacle is dissolved, we have a home eternal in the heavens, then he goes on to say, the love of Christ constraineth me. I don't believe it's that, I used to. This man has made up his mind, if there can be another Christ on this earth, I'm going to be that Christ. I had a preacher the other day on TV, I don't often watch it, but I heard it one Sunday morning. This fellow went round Romans 7 to tell us how we can live in, that's a hellish, devilish thing. Who wants to say in Romans 7? Oh, he says, Paul says, you know, that amazing apostle said, it's no longer I, sinneth dwelleth in me. Forget it. Go up the road, and a bit further up, he says, it's not I, that Christ liveth in me. Sure sin will indwell you, it will dominate you, it will make you nervous, make you fearful, make you afraid to testify that God has crucified sin in your life, and it's no longer you living, it's Christ living in you. If he isn't, we're not saved. Doesn't John say in his epistle there, what did he say, let me think a minute, you can't help me now Betty, I'm stuck. Come in a minute, I hope. Anyhow, it's the same thing that he's saying, that Christ is in you. If a man has not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. Then he goes on to say that Christ himself inhabits us. Read Romans 8, it says, if you're born again, Christ, the Spirit of God is in you, the Spirit of Christ is in you, the Holy Spirit, a threefold witness of the, look, if you do not believe a man can live in victory over sin, you better, you better cross omnipotence out of your calendar. You know, a lot of people around the country are troubled that in this era, there's been some teaching in the last two or three years about the limited foreknowledge of God. Well, I don't believe God's knowledge is for the limited. I do not believe in the limited foreknowledge of God, I do not believe in the limited atonement either. I believe Hebrews 7, 25 is the essence of the whole thing, he's able to save to the uttermost. What keeps this man going? You can lash him 129 times, they did that, 139 times. Once I suffered shipwreck, thrice I was stoned, in weariness, in fastings, in pain. Why is there something in this that nobody can frighten him about it, they can't lash it out of him, they can't wash it out of him, he was 36 hours in the Mediterranean, and then he goes on as though he's having a picnic, which he is. He's having a glorious hallelujah on the way to heaven, it's heaven now. As Spurgeon said, a little faith will get you to heaven, a bit more faith will bring heaven to you. Dear Paul, he's leaving tomorrow, pray for him as he goes back to South America, but he keeps saying, you know, thy kingdom come on in earth, in me, in me. I should be living now across the border into eternity. What's going to make a difference? Does it make a difference putting me in a casket? Sure not. Is there sanctification in the sepulcher? If you die backslidden, are you going to wake up a saint up there and forget it? No. You better be alert, you better be right on the dot, living in all the light we've got. There's no sanctification in the sepulcher. We bury some old rascal, he's been a headache to the last six pastors in the church, and we give him a royal funeral. Oh, he's such a nice man, he bought an organ, he once paid for a stained glass window with stained money, but anyhow, he's done so much. We give him a hero's funeral, and the old rascal's been a pest for years in the church. I went to a church one day, a lady said, our oldest deacon, he's a wonderful man, he's nearly 90, and he's done so much for the church, given us so much money, he's such a wonderful organizer, and he's one of the outstanding men in the community, and he's very sick. Of course, it's true he's the most cantankerous man in the church. He's broken the heart of about five pastors. We'd like you to pray with us. I said, sure. Will you pray tonight? I said, yes. Oh, will you pray? I said, I'll pray God will kill him. He said, what do you mean? I said, kill him, get him out of the way, he's been in God's way long enough. Get rid of the guy. We're so afraid. Paul isn't. Well, let's go back to this. Night and day praying exceedingly. I'm not pulling any punches. I'm pouring out my life. You know, I don't know many men who can intercede. We've got one or two. I'd love to hear some of these fellas. Spencer isn't here tonight, and Dick isn't here tonight, so you've got it all by yourself tonight, Dave. You are to do it all. I love to hear men pray. I'm glad God is raising up some men here who know how to pray, as far as we can know humanly. But I'm praying exceedingly, I may see your face and supply that which is lacking in your faith. Now, go to the second epistle. Cross over to the second epistle. What's he praying? That I may see your face and supply that which is lacking in your faith. Now, look at the second epistle, chapter one, and verse two, it says, we're bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is meet, because your faith growth exceedingly. Now, from the first chapter, first book into the second, there's been an expansion of faith. There's been a moving in God. They're appropriating their rights. You know what we're going to do? We're going to get to the pearly gates and look back, and God says, you see all that territory? You missed it. You missed it by about a yard. You were near to some eternal treasures, and somebody talked you out of it. Or somebody came along and ate up your time. A lady called me from the other side of the country tonight, said, well, can I come and talk? I said, yes. She said, well, how long do you talk? Two hours. I said, to you, 15 minutes. And a young man came last week, drove all the way by himself from Alabama, from outside Birmingham, Bessemer, outside of Birmingham. And he wrote, he said, I'll drive. If you'll just talk to me for half an hour. When man's got a hunger like that, sure, I'll talk with him half an hour. A man came in the week before, he flew all the way from Australia, if I'll talk with him half an hour. There's some young men coming here, driving seven hours next Friday night, because they want to get in a prayer meeting. Some of their friends were here the other week, and they got a quickening by the Spirit. Why do they have to come seven hours drive? They pass a thousand churches in between. You know, every tavern will be open most of the night. All the churches are locked up now. They should lock the pastors in them, and the deacons, and the Sunday school teachers. Isn't it terrible? We use church property about one hour a week, Sunday morning, in most places, thousands of dollars, millions of dollars over the nation. Come on, you know what revival does? It leaves the lights on 24 hours a day, day after day, week after week. Where is the revival like that? I challenged some men. I guess they've been to that conference over in Dallas this week, in my office the other day. I said, there's not, there's no man in America today that can go to a city and shake it. There's no ten men together can go. Give me the outstanding preachers you've got. They can't go. It's a performance. It's a big show. It's a lot of money collected. Do they damage the devil's kingdom? Do they liberate the captives? Do they let the oppressed go free? I have a saying, I guess you think it's funny sometimes. When are we going to get serious about being serious? I don't want to live if God isn't going to rent the heavens. I told that lady, boy, could she talk tonight? I was going to get rid of her. I said, lady, if God doesn't break through in the next five years, America's sunk. He says, his spirit will not always strive with man. It doesn't always strive with nations. It comes to a cut-off point. You know, oh well, he's a merciful, loving God. Sure he is. Well then, why didn't he, after his resurrection, go back to that same country that had rejected him? He never looked at one of them. Never talked to one of them. We'll talk about that next Friday night, I guess. And he wants to supply that which is lacking in your faith. He says, your faith grows exceedingly. Go back, please, into chapter 5 here, in the first epistle. 523. I think every, the church I went to as a boy, I think they quoted this every Sunday we went. One epistle is 523. The very God of peace sanctify you wholly. Now notice what it says, I pray your whole spirit, soul, and body. You know what I like to do? Now, I can't draw you, I can't write anyhow. Let's say this is, holy, holy, holy. Have I got that right? Oh, wait a minute, I didn't. Now, can you see that? Holy, holy, holy. Your spirit, your soul, and your body. You can't have a sanctified mind without the sanctified, the rest of your body being sanctified. Your spirit, your soul, and body, he says. I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of the Lord. Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it. You see, the great lack in the church, I don't know what you call them, Pentecostals, anything you like, the great lack today is holiness. There's no insistence on holiness. You remember when, you see what people do, they hide behind the fact I'm a human being. How wonderful. What preachers do so often, they accept the Corinthian church as the status quo. Well, look at the Corinthian church, not long after Pentecost, how corrupt they were. So what, what does he say? Well, look at 1 Corinthians 6, 11 for a moment, please. 1 Corinthians 6, okay. 1 Corinthians 6 and verse 9. Know ye not that the unrighteous, look at this list, the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God. They may be church members, they may be theologians, they may be rich, they may be poor, but the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Now, listen, be not deceived, neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminates, or homosexuals it means, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners shall inherit the kingdom. Now listen, is that the status quo? No, no, listen what he says, such were some of ye, but ye are washed, ye are sanctified. They were more than justified, they were sanctified. They not only had their past sins forgiven, they knew cleansing. And this is why this man goes on. I remind you before, he was born in the ancient capital of the world, Tarsus. He finished up in the military capital of the world, Rome. He went to the intellectual capital of the world, Athens. He went to the religious capital of the world, Jerusalem. And he went to the immoral capital of the world, which was Corinth. If you wanted to say something about a man, you didn't string about 50 adjectives about him, you said he's a Corinthian, and he knew it was everything that was vile. He was perverted, corrupted, he was a liar, deceitful, a cheat. He was a living evidence of a devil-filled, spirit-filled man, the spirit of the devil. And Paul went to that corrupt society. I used to have a book written by an old German, a commentator by Meyer, not F.B. Meyer, and he says, blessed and sublime miracle of God that there in Corinth, Paul could establish a church. It was the outpost of hell on earth. That precious man that has that big prayer meeting. If any of you are in Brooklyn, go. If you haven't been up, go and have your vacation up there. And get there Tuesday night, and my dear friend, Symbola, go in his prayer meeting. Nearly 2,000 people, he's got everything there, prostitutes, murderers, jailbirds, all the children of the devil redeemed. And they get 2,000. And Dave Wilkinson sends all his letters up there for somebody else to sweat over, that's okay. But now, I talked with Jim the other day, he said, we put a Friday morning prayer meeting on for revival in this city, maybe the most wicked city in the world, right there in the very heart of Flatbush, the very heart of Brooklyn, a sewer of sewers, a hellhole of hellholes, and he's seeing God redeem men. You see, this is why this man is, there's no despair in him. He's, as I say, he's written that the Lord Jesus is able to save to the uttermost all that come unto God by him, seeing that he ever liveth to make intercession for us. Somebody said Paul's mind was so steeped in dogma that it was a mere machine for grinding out metaphysics. It's nothing of the kind. You see, God wants to sanctify the heart. The heart is the secret place. What a lot the word has, we'll take it one night. If you take the dark side, the heart of, is man of desperately wicked. But what did Jesus say? Blessed are the pure in heart. When they get to heaven, no sir. You see, if you're not sanctified, you go to hell. I was raised in a strict holiness group, and the teaching all the time was holiness or hell. You say, well that's not nice. I'll tell you what, whether you think it is or not, don't worry me one bit. Why? Because it says in, what is it, the 12th chapter of, or 13th chapter of Hebrews, it says there that the greatest privilege on earth is that you and I might be made partakers of his holiness. And two verses after it says, without holiness no man shall seek the Lord. Where do you go? There'll be millions who have been born again, so-called and baptized and tithed. Of course, if you're not paid up your tithe, you get to heaven. If you die and you haven't paid your tithe, Peter will turn you back. At least he would if it was a Catholic. Without holiness no man shall see the Lord. I changed the word, without purity no man shall see the Lord. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they see God. They see God in events even now, that they couldn't see until God touched their eyes and gave them a cleansing. And they're not double-minded, they're single-minded. They don't have their own mind, they have his mind. Because they're soaked in the very word of God. Let me go through this slowly. We're back in 1 Thessalonians chapter 5.