Leonard Ravenhill passionately addresses the pivotal question, 'What shall I do with Jesus?' by exploring the dilemma faced by Pontius Pilate during Christ's trial. He emphasizes the eternal significance of this question, urging the audience to consider their own response to Jesus, who is both Lord and Savior. Ravenhill draws parallels between Pilate's indecision and the modern-day struggles individuals face in accepting Christ, highlighting the consequences of rejecting Him. He calls for a deep introspection of one's relationship with Jesus, reminding listeners that neutrality is not an option. Ultimately, he challenges everyone to confront their choices and the impact they have on their eternal destiny.

It's indeed a privilege to have Reverend Leonard Ravenhill with us tonight, the author of several books, one a bestseller, Why Revival Tarries, and if after hearing him you want to buy some of his books, well our bookstore manager is with us tonight and he'd be glad to introduce you to a few of them in the bookstore above the cafeteria. And so I want to bring Reverend Leonard Ravenhill to the pulpit now and we know God is going to speak to our hearts. I like to come to young people's meetings because I I feel young. I'm moving up to 70 and so are you. I discovered a very remarkable thing today that this little Scotsman that leads the meeting is very modest, I didn't know that he knew German but he does, he knows Walter. I want to read just a few verses now from the second chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, just while a few more people are coming in. Let's read from verse 29, the Acts of the Apostles chapter 2 verse 29. Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried and his sepulcher is with us unto this day. Therefore being a prophet and knowing that God hath sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne. He seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption. This Jesus hath God raised up whereof we are all witnesses. Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this which ye now see and hear. For David is not ascended into the heavens but he set himself. The Lord said unto my Lord sit thou on my right hand until I make thy foes thy footstool. Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same Jesus whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ. Shall we pray. We thank thee our Father tonight for this inestimable privilege that we have of meeting together in the name that is above every name, the name of Jesus. And our prayer is that thou will bring from thy treasury things new and old to our hearts tonight. In the language of the hymn we would say let sense be dumb, let flesh retire, speak through the earthquake wind or fire or still small voice of calm. Drop thy still dues of quietness, let all our striving cease. Take from our hearts the strain and stress and let our ordered lives confess the beauty of thy peace. We're thrilled to think Lord as we look back at the history of thy church, such a thrilling history. The records of men who have moved mountains, who have broken the fetters from the feet of the slaves, who literally hath fulfilled thy word, they have done lifted heavy burdens and let their press go free. And we think of the challenge that lays before our generation, particularly before these young men and women who are here tonight. Lord we believe that even angels could not estimate the possibilities of this meeting, known unto thee only are our hearts and our ways. And we pray Lord that we may not attempt to hide ourselves from thee tonight. May we not be afraid of thine exposure of our hearts and lives, of our secret desires, for really they're known unto thee, there's nothing hidden. But we bless thee that thy kind but searching glands can scan the very wounds that shame would hide. And we thank thee tonight that there is still a fountain open for sin and uncleanness. We thank thee thou art still in the business of making men and women and fashioning them after thine own design and creating them as vessels unto honor sanctified and meat for the master's use. And so we pray with all our hearts, with all the zeal that we have, that in these next minutes we may be shut in with thee, far far above the restless world at walls below. As thou didst take Moses on the Mount of Revelation, lift us up tonight, put the clouds round us so we can't see into the valley. Lord wash our minds from every care and fret and anxiety and everything that's come up during the day and the things that are in the unborn tomorrow that would like to come into our thinking. May our minds be clear and may our hearts be open and maybe we be able to say yes to the will of God tonight. Let this meeting account Lord we pray for eternity. In the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Millions of people in thousands of churches have said hundreds of times what I think might be called the most spoken fact of history. We shall take tomorrow, millions of people in America will say it. They've already said it tens of thousands of times nearly. And only God could tell us how many times this thing has been said. It's one of the most important factors in history. In fact it was said by a man who in one sense was the only person that could have done this thing in the whole history of the world. Let's see him right in this original setting. He is a man who in the language of the hymn writer is talked about with many a conflict and many a doubt. Fightings within and fears without. He's a stranger, he's living in a strange country, he's dealing with a strange situation. In this a most crucially embarrassing situation he gave birth to a phrase that time and time again has battered its way into the minds of men and women in meetings like this particularly. Because there he is he's in a dilemma, the eyes of the nation are upon him. He really doesn't have a friend in court and the people who are standing outside of the court there are really howling for his blood as much as anybody else's. And over here he has a whole crowd of covetous intellectuals and over here he has a rabble that would be glad to see him really caught in a trap. And all he has to do is the thing that he's done so many times before and he's done it with about as much conscience as a schoolboy kills a fly. But on this occasion there's something that retards his judgment. And while everybody's looking on and he's anxious, the beads of sweat are there on his brow I think and he looks around and says to himself well here I am. I can't appeal to anybody, I don't have a friend anywhere. And he's received a certain verdict and then I think with a sense of bitter frustration he says well then what shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ. The person being of course no one else but Pontius Pilate. And we shall say and thousands of other people will say tomorrow suffered under Pontius Pilate. Nobody could have put Jesus to death but Pontius Pilate. At least nobody could have crucified him, they could have hacked him to death in the garden of Gethsemane with their swords. The Jews might have taken him and stoned him to death, they couldn't have crucified him. And so again I say this man is embarrassed, he's in a tight spot, everybody's looking on and here he is. In this embarrassing situation. I say again that in meetings like Billy Graham's, in meetings like Ruben Torres, in meetings like Alexander's and others, multitudes of people that only God knows the number of, have tossed this thing over in their minds. You remember that Joan of Arc said the reason that she did things was because she heard noises in her head or voices. And I think that we might legitimately say that this is exactly the reason that this man is embarrassed. There are so many voices, it's like turning on a radio station and getting six stations at once and he can't separate them. The voice of expediency would say well throw him to the lions, which means of course put him to death. The voice of conscience says don't touch him he's an innocent man. The voice of the crowd says away with him crucify him. The voice of expediency says now remember that you're only a vassal and the man who really runs the show is that tremendous man Caesar there. And he's not a pleasant fellow to deal with and you could lose your job. Of course it's easy for us to sit in a cool or a nice warm atmosphere tonight two thousand years after Jesus Christ has made his decision and turn it over kind of phlegmatically or without any disturbance of conscience at all. But this man's conscience is disturbing him. His mind is all confused and he's trying to get some idea of what really is involved. Why do I have trouble in getting rid of a pale Galilean like this. Supposing we throw overboard the, well I don't know if there are any preachers crept in here tonight. But supposing we throw over the accepted idea of preaching. Throw the mold away. You know there's a saying we're all made in a mold. That's a Chinese saying we're made in a mold. An American said but some are moldier than others. But let's throw the the mold of preaching out of the window right now shall we and let's do something which is very interesting. If ever you go to England you must, you won't see it very easily, but you must go to the Supreme Court as you would say or what we call the High Court. The judge still wears a great big wig down onto his shoulders. He wears a scarlet robe. He's preceded by a beagle who comes in with a voice like the judgment morning and he hollers silence. Don't know why because he makes the biggest row this night. And if you blow your nose twice somebody touches you on the shoulder and they put you out. You dare not whisper. Supposing we turn this meeting tonight into a court. Let's take this very same Jesus and put him there in the dark. He's 33 years of age. You know something of his head's great. And over at the other side I won't let you see them. Behind that panel there we'll have a witness stand or as we would say in Europe a witness box. And we put the witnesses in. And we leave Pontius Pilate sitting up here on a throne. And we'll ask you to very carefully take the evidence and at the end of our investigation you give your judgment for or against Jesus Christ. In other words you're a member of the jury tonight. Do you think that Pontius Pilate when he said that day, well what shall I do with Jesus? Do you think that he thought that millions of people in America every Sunday would bow their heads and say suffered under Pontius Pilate? He washed his hands. Not his conscience, not his memory. He's walking around hell right now still washing his hands. If you go there yourself you don't need to. But if you do go there by your stupidity and your unwillingness to bow to Jesus Christ. You'll see a man walking around and he's trying to get rid of the blood which is running from his hands. Like the little woman that you said you remember she said after the murder of their Lady Macbeth said this little spot. All the perfumes of Arabia can't cleanse this little spot. Pontius Pilate I say is walking around trying to get rid of it. He's haunted in his memory he can still see that Roman pavement. He can still see the dancing eyes of Amos the high priest and Caiaphas and Alexander and the rest of the crowd. He didn't think when he said what shall I do with him. But it would go down in this book which is utterly indestructible that away there in eternity the record would be made and listen don't think you'll get by with it because before you leave this room tonight the angel will put a sign against your name too. Because there's no neutrality in this deal. Jesus had been arrested. Where? In a prayer meeting. Sweating behind the rock, crying in his heart oh my billows have gone over me. Saying if it's possible if there is a way out other than this well let me take it but if not. If I have to bear the sin of all men it's because of Adam's transgression I is the last Adam he's not the second Adam. Because if you have a first and a second you can have a third and a fourth he's not the second Adam he's the last Adam. There was the first Adam in the garden here is the last Adam in a garden. The garden of Gethsemane. And while he's praying there he is betrayed by a kid. Some of us have betrayed him for far less than that. And they arrest him and they take him to Annas the high priest and Annas pushes him off to his son-in-law Caiaphas. And Caiaphas gets rid of him and sends him to Pilate and Pilate gets rid of him and sends him to Herod. And Herod has a bit of fun and puts an old garment on him and sends him back to Pilate. And here Pilate is embarrassed. Herod doesn't want him, Caiaphas doesn't want him, Annas doesn't want him. The crowd don't want him. His disciples don't want him, they're all yellow they've run away. I say again he's tossed about with many a conflict and many a doubt. And so I suggest to you right now we say all right you just sit there now and let's rehearse this thing again Pontius Pilate. We're going to bring in the witnesses here's a very charming lady, very beautiful of course I know she's your second wife Pilate. And I know that she's the daughter of Augustus Caesar. And I'm going to ask her to give some evidence. You better take careful notice of this you see because it could be with a woman's intuition she has more idea of this thing than you have. And I say to her now Mrs. Pilate I want you to give this crowd of young people some evidence and give some advice to your husband because he's got Jesus Christ on his hand. The situation right now is what will Pilate do with Jesus? But the next time I see Pilate the question will be what will Jesus do with Pilate? The question tonight with you is what will you do with Jesus? When you see him on the resurrection morning you won't have any chance at all. Tonight he's not on a throne of wood he's on a throne of mercy. But when you see him he won't be on a throne of mercy, he'll be on a throne of judgment. He won't be the meek and lowly Jesus of the stained glass window. He won't be that effeminate Jesus painted by Mr. Solomon there in Chicago. Eight million copies have been sold of it with his lovely long locks and his beautiful bright eyes and lovely teeth as though he were a film star. Oh no. I've told the people here so often and I thought of it as the brethren sang that song so very wonderfully tonight. I could see Jesus and I think maybe mrs. Pilate saw him like this. Say give us your evidence mrs. Pilate and she slips a note up to her husband she says give this to my husband and I say say read out loud yourself. And she says darling don't have anything to do with this man. Do you know I've had the most frightful dream about him. Oh I could imagine that maybe there's a lot of background to this. Now maybe she could have said well you know you know many times when I've been shopping I told you that I stopped to see a man. Don't you remember that day I was going into a village and they were carrying a dead body out and I saw this man stop and touch the body and the man came to life and you said oh forget it you were dreaming. Didn't I tell you the other night when I couldn't sleep I took a walk round by the Garden of Gethsemane you know it's always so cool there and I took a couple of guards with me and I heard somebody moaning and groaning and saying if it be possible let this come back. Those things in themselves have always unnerved me a bit says mrs. Pilate. But you know this is the thing I dreamed. I dreamed. I'm trying to get hold of a book right now on George Fox. It's a good book it's printed in America and it's a very remarkable history of George Fox. George Fox was a very wonderful man he was a Quaker he had many gifts of the spirit he never talked about them he just operated them. And when they put him in jail in the city of Derby in England, Derby if you like, those are a very well-known notorious character of a jailkeeper. He was brutal, careless, drunken, immoral, cursing, blaspheming man. But one day he came in to his wife and he was very pale and he said but what's wrong with you? Oh he said I've had a most awful dream I just took a nap then I had an awful dream. Well what about it? Did you see demons? Did you think that you were being put on a jibbit yourself? Did somebody put the rope around your neck instead of you putting the rope around their neck? He said oh no no nothing of the kind nothing like that at all. What? Oh he said I dreamed about the great judgment morning and I could see George Fox and I remembered all the times that I'd said cruel things about him and I'd sworn at him and I'd ridiculed him and I'd made him my sport when I'd been in the taverns. And I trembled exceedingly. Say Mrs. Pilot did you have anything like that? And she says exactly. I saw the heavens roll away like a scroll and it seemed I saw Jesus Christ coming in his glory. I remember one of the men saying one day you're not Jesus Christ because he's coming with 10,000 of his saints. That is in the old book of Enoch. You can buy that book these days of course if you want. However true it is I don't know but you can get a facsimile of it. You know I think everything that this man has said about himself is true. I believe he is the Son of God. And he's going to come stepping down the clouds he's going to come in all his majesty and one day even Tiberius Caesar and every other Caesar, Julius Caesar and every Caesar that there's been and Caligula and everybody else, everybody's going to bow the knee to him and say Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Oh my dear husband she says, my husband as she weeps had nothing to do with him. Is there any reason why you should reject him on that evidence? And I say all right you'd better leave the witness stand please very quickly and I want to come down here to one or two of these other Bible characters and I'm going to ask them a few things. Bring in another witness. This woman comes in and the first thing she does is look straight across at the prisoner and she smiles a kind of beatific smile at him and she raises her hand and the eyes of Jesus light up and I say now look here what's this business? Are you prepared to witness against this man? And she says not against him I'll witness for him. All right give us your testimony. And she says well it's rather remarkable and it will take a long while. I won't give you the whole history I'll tell you what I'll do I'll sum it all up. I was a kind of well I was a kind of film star before film stars were born. Well at least I'd had five husbands. And I went out to the well one day I felt pretty browned off and I thought maybe I should pitch this fellow over too. After all there's no reason why I shouldn't make a record. I've had this man nearly a year he's getting stale. Maybe I need a new husband. And I went there of course as I always go because if ever I go at the right time everybody gossips and points the finger and says well she's this and that and the other and so I thought I'd escape it. And I went in the heat of the day. And that man over there that you have in the dark he came up. He began to talk with me. And I thought I'd brush him off very cleverly. I began a theological discussion. I said Jerusalem isn't the only place you can worship him here or Mount Gerizim or somewhere else. And I began a theological discussion and then he began to talk to me. What do you come to the well for? To get water to drink. And then he said such a foolish thing. He said you know I could put a well inside of you that would spring up with life eternal. And you know suddenly it dawned on me that this man is really the Prophet of God. And I ran home to the city. And I said you want to come quickly and meet a man that told me all things that ever I did. Is not this the Christ? As I mentioned the other Sunday night in the eighth or is it ninth chapter there of Acts you have the story of a revival in Samaria which I believe was brought to birth by this woman who from that time prayed and prayed and prayed for an outpouring of the Spirit of God in her city. And she says I was there I was there as the old song says where I first saw the light. It was at the side of a well and I met the light of the world and it shone into my life and my poor dry heart received the water of life. The blackness of my mind received the light of the world. And all I know about Jesus Christ is that he did me a world of good. He completely transformed my life that's all there is to it. All right you can go. Bring in another witness quickly please time goes quickly. Here's a man and he looks very furtive and he puts his head down and he's dark, whiskery, oh I would say maybe 35 years of age. He looks up at Judas to his eye corner. I keep thinking why doesn't he look at the why doesn't he look at the prisoner? The prisoner looks straight across at him in his same placid way that he always said I'm the Prince of Peace and and there he is he isn't worried that he's going to be put to death and he's looking at that man and every time he looks the man seems to get smaller and smaller and smaller and he seems to be shrinking he seems to be terrified and I say to him come on now testify. Do you know this man? And he grunts out yes. Do you know him very well? Yes. Did you see him on more than six occasions in the three years he's been? Yes I did. How often did you see him? Every day. What about night? Mm-hmm I often slept with him. Would you like to lift your head up? No he won't lift his head up. What are you fumbling there inside of your garments for? And suddenly he takes something and he bashes it to the ground. And I notice out there there's oh I don't know 25 30 pieces of silver rolling about the floor. What did you do that for? Because he says I have betrayed innocent blood. Over here the Jews are sniggering over there the high priest turns his head away after all that's his business not mine. Would you give us your name? And he says yes. He screams with a kind of a hellish laughter and he says my name is Judas I'm gonna commit suicide. After living with Jesus for three years. Bring someone else in. Here comes a man dressed in priestly attire he has a wonderful dignified look and he has long flowing white whiskers. And as he comes up he's very embarrassed but he's pushed on by a pair of Roman soldiers that I told to see he got here. Did you ever see this man over here? And he says yes I did. Could we have the name of this man who's to witness? No he won't give it. All right you give his name. And he says his name is Annas. He was the high priest from the year six, the sixth year of the life of Christ until the year 15. He's a wicked old Jew he's an astute man he not only managed to be a high priest but he got five of his sons in order because of his political religious influence he got his sons in order to take over this very lucrative position. As you know this man is the Annas who runs a whole chain store. But this chain store happens to be a store of animals that you find always wherever you meet Jews because he monopolizes the market selling beasts for sacrifice. And I say to him now you've seen this man before? And he says yes I have. And well what about him? Do you believe he is the son of God? No he's not he says. Why not? Well to get a long story short because there are lots of prophecies that I didn't see fulfilled by him. What do you think we should do with him? Put him to death? I want to ask you a question. Annas lift your head up. Isn't it true that the first time that you saw this man you'd heard lots of rumors about him. You heard somebody say that Herod says that he's John the Baptist risen from the dead. But isn't it true the first time this man really made you mad was when he came through the temple and he upset the money tables. And after all you run those banks don't you? As well as running the stock market. And this is historically true that he did. Aren't you really mad because he cleansed the temple and he broke your monopoly of selling beasts and changing money and you're angry and you've always wanted to put him to death. Isn't it true that now you're not the high priest anymore Caiaphas is the high priest and he is your son-in-law and together you've been trying to get Jesus Christ hounded to death. You don't want his blood upon your hands. But you're very happy that the Romans are going to put him to death. But you can't bring one true witness of blasphemy against him at all. You've tried to trump up a charge of blasphemy but you don't have a real one. And there's no reason and so he says well I pray do you have me excused and off he hurries. I say bring in another man. Now this man comes in you can't see him he's tall. He takes off his great plumed helmet and he stands there behind a great breastplate and he's a very handsome attractive man. And I say to him, do you know this person over here? And he says yes, yes. All this of course is after this is we're bringing him up now say out of the shades of darkness or bringing him out of heaven shall we say. To witness against Jesus Christ. I say to him well excuse me but aren't you a Roman centurion? And he says yes I am. Am I right in saying that you're the man that supervised the crucifixion? And he says yes you are. And didn't you say well I've never seen a man die like this. Usually when you're putting a man to death used to have two men to hold each arm and two men to hold each leg. But as soon as we laid the cross down this Jesus man he just laid down on the cross and he put his arms out like this and he crossed his legs just like a lamb that before a shearer. He was dumb and he opened not his mouth. And then what? Well I've seen him to try to do miracles. I saw somebody tried to bribe him to do one and he wouldn't take the money. What are you going to do? What do you think about him? Well he said I'll tell you what I think. When I saw him there hanging on the cross I whipped off my helmet and I said well I don't understand that fellow Caiaphas, Nananias. I don't understand this crowd here but I'll tell you what I think about him. I think he is the Son of God. Any reason that you should reject him for being the Son of God? Well hurry proud Roman thanks for coming. Bring someone else in and here comes a man his teeth are mostly missing and his face has been badly battered and one eye drops very viciously and he's only half an ear on. And he looks across and he waves his hand at Jesus and I say you know this man over here and he says yeah Pontius Pilate here is getting rather anxious now he keeps looking. And I say give me a bit of your history. Oh well he said I, I belong to a crowd of insurrectionists. We used to go looting, we stopped caravans, we murdered people, we did anything we wanted. And one night I was sitting in my cell hoping I could make a way of escape and they came and put an extra chain around me and they said you die in a few hours. And then he said I'll never forget it. When they came in for me he said I just fought like a demon. I kicked everybody that came near I spit until I'd no spit left. I cursed until my throat was dry. But that man there he didn't put up any resistance. He just walked. When they put him on the cross I just turned my head and looked at him and thought is that man insane? Well when they tried to fasten me to a cross I kicked and I lashed out and they they almost despaired and said maybe the best thing is cut his head off. We'll never fasten him to a cross but finally they got those nails into my hands too. And it so happened that my cross was sideways and I kept looking at that man there. He was on a cross then and at the other side there was another member of our gang blaspheming. He was saying look if you, if you, if you're this magic fellow that they talk about why don't you slip off the cross and save yourself and save earth. I heard the people throwing everything in his teeth and saying the son of God. This man that says pull, I'll pull down the temple he can't even pull his hands off the cross. I saw him look. I saw the tears coming down his face and I heard him say very graciously oh father this poor blind mob forgive them they don't know what they do. And just as he said that somehow something, something I don't know a voice from somewhere said listen this is the Son of God. And I said to him Lord remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom? And he said to me this day thou should be with me in paradise. You know there wasn't a commandment I hadn't broken. Every one of the Ten Commandments I'd broken many, many times. And you know when he said that somehow I wouldn't have got down from that cross if I could. I wanted to stay there and share his suffering and his shame. I wouldn't have escaped that cross because he promised me a way into his kingdom. And so I said right I, I want to go into the kingdom. Thank you off you go. Oh we could call endless witnesses couldn't we out of this wonderful record. We could call the boy that was going out to the cemetery. We could, let's just call at least one more. This man comes in and he comes in full of vigor and he looks across and he smiles at Jesus there. Now there's some relationship here again and I say to him well what's your name? Well he said my name's Lazarus. Oh what are you smiling about? Well I'm rather an unusual fellow he said I've already been dead and got up. Oh you've been dead and got up what do you mean? He said well I was sick and they put me to death and they rolled a stone over my grave and I just got nicely settled down to sleep. And I heard a voice say Lazarus get up. And he said I rolled out. I thought I smelled nice and they embalmed me. And when I got outside I heard a voice say loose him let him go. And the grave closed him off and he said that man that's standing over there, well that's the man that did it. Well what would you like to say about that? I'll tell you what I'll say about it. That that man not only had the key to my grave that ladies and gentlemen, from you sitting on your throne there Mr. Pilot, and you over there great high priest and you others that know the law and the prophets that know that Daniel 9 is true there's going to be a great day of resurrection. As a matter of fact I was up in the bosom of Abraham and I heard them talking about it then I got called back to earth to do another shift. Don't you make any mistake about it. You say nobody ever came back from the dead well here's your answer I came back from the dead. No one ever came back from the dead he came back from the dead. This is the Son of God. Oh I must bring this other fellow up sure here he is. Get this man out bring this other man in and he comes just a little fellow he can hardly see over the desk. He's about as big as Alec Brooks. And I say to him you know much about this man. Well yes. What would you say about him? Well I'll tell you. I got everything all signed up I got papers in my pocket and I got a beautiful horse and I got bags of money and I was going down the road and I'd made up my mind to liquidate the church that he's the head of. And I got everybody paid off and everything was going to come into my hands and I was going to write my name in history and I got halfway to Damascus and suddenly a light blinded me. The light of the world. Say that voice of Jesus is very wonderful isn't it. It was one voice that said Lazarus. It was another voice that with a different intonation that said to those men by the Galilean Sea. Come on follow me. There's another voice that spoke to this man on the Damascus road. Shattered all his ambitions. Destroyed all his hopes of being a greater teacher than either Gamaliel or Hillel or anybody else. Pulled the very ground from under his feet and all his ambitions perish like a balloon when you stick a pin in it. And he says I want to tell you something. Okay by the way were you ever a thief or a robber? You know you've got more scars and marks and you've been bashed around I think more than that dirty old thief that was here a few minutes ago that got saved. And he says well sure I have. Would you like to see my back? He slips his toga down. Is that your back? Thought it was a ploughed field. It's all scars. Blue marks, black marks. Mm-hmm. How'd he get it? Well he said they tied my hands to a whipping post and tore my shirt off and they gave me 40 strike. Well except one. And they did that five times. Which is 540 is 200 minus 5, 195. And I've been in weariness and fasting. Group of men said one day well all right we're gonna fast. And we'll fast till we die until we kill this little man. Well what are you? But I'm a prison, I'm a preacher. Preacher? You look as though you spent half your life in jail. He said well I have. We wouldn't have a preacher in our church like that would we? We wouldn't have a preacher with a jail record. Maybe he has one and didn't tell us. But anyhow they, we wouldn't have a man with a jail record. What have you been in prison for? For his sake. What do you mean? Well I'll tell you I heard him say one day that the cup of sorrow hasn't been drunk yet. I heard him say there's a baptism to be baptized with. And I said to him look Jesus Christ I'm, I'm willing to be saved as you call it but I don't want to be escaped, saved just to escape hellfire. I don't want to be on the receiving end. That's the whole fault with modern Christianity. We present Jesus Christ because you need him, rubbish. I don't present Jesus Christ because you need him. I present Jesus Christ because first of all if you are not saved, you're violating the laws of God and he is the supreme being and you are obligated to him. And it's not for your sake I want you to get saved. It's for his sake. It's not to just drag you from the verge of hell it's because if he doesn't save you he died in vain and I'm not sorry for you I'm sorry for him. You hear people say oh the Lord's been so good to me he did this. You'd think Almighty God was their errand boy. We're always on the receiving end. Apparently even if you need a new watch you pray and ask deity to give you a new watch. I don't understand it. What a miserable deal. That's why we're such a weak, need, powerless Christianity. Pale pathetic stuff that we have. All right give us your testimony and he says well on that Tabascus road the Lord struck me down and after that I was blind a little while after that I received my sight. After that he gave me an education he put me for three years in the wilderness. And I can't tell you about it. I'll just tell you this that I'm one of the few men that's been out in space. Is that right? Yes. I was caught up into the third heaven mm-hmm. Did you go by rocket? No I didn't go by rocket. The Lord just lifted me up into the third heaven. Tell us about it come on tell us. Have you got a film on it? It showed that one Saturday night. Have you got a film on how they let you down in a basket? Huh? After all boost yourself. Why didn't you come around and say don't you know I'm the man that wrote 14 epistles. Don't you know I'm the man that suffered more than anybody. Big me you know. I mean some of you kids will have to do that otherwise you'll never be discovered perhaps. Boost yourself but be sure of this every time you boost yourself you'll injure him. No man can exalt Christ and himself at the same time. All right I'm sorry but you must leave this quickly. All right let's bring somebody else in quickly. Who is this man? Tall, good-looking man, wears traditional English dress, clerical collar, portly. And I say do you know anything about this man here? And he says yes. Where did you get in to know him? He said well I was at Cambridge University. I was about the outstanding athlete for the years I was there. If you come into my room I had a stack of guns in one corner, a stack of sticks and alpine sticks and ropes and other things in the other corner. I had my trophies all stuffed and all around the place and I was number one. Everybody wanted me, everybody wanted me. And everybody envied me. And one day I went into my room and there was a little, little testament and somebody put a mark underneath that text and it said on that text, thou art not fit for the kingdom of God. And so I picked it up and I read it and said what? I'm not fit for the kingdom of God. Everybody in the university, they're always coming and say will you join this and will you join this and will you be on this and will you, and me, me, big popular me, not fit for it. Well I'm fit to represent the university at football, I'm fit to represent the university in another country, I'm fit to join this, I'm fit to be invited to the palace of the King of England and I'm not fit. Well why aren't I fit? Who put this on my desk? He says I went round and I found a young fellow and said say they tell me you're a Christian. Did you go in my room and put a testament there and underline the verse thou art not fit for the kingdom of God? And he said yes I did. What does it mean? Exactly what it said. But explain it. It means exactly what it said. You're not fit. Listen, do you know I'm a communicant in the Church of England? Do you know I have an uncle who's a bishop? Do you know that my family bought two stained-glass windows in a certain abbey? And we've just given money for a great big organ in another place. Do you know all the good works I've done? Thou art not fit. Why not? Because you've never been to the cross of Christ. And he said I sulked over that for a few days. And I tried to find relief in this and relief in that and I'd wake up in the night and it seemed as though a voice was saying thou art not fit for the kingdom. And I argued with it until finally that voice mastered me. And he said I knelt down and said Lord whatever makes me unfit for the kingdom take it out of me. Now you look as though you've been through a lot of trouble. And he says well pretty hot where I live. Where do you come from? Heart of Africa. What are you doing? I'm a bishop in the Church of England. We pioneered some vast areas where Livingstone was and we've seen wonderful revival there. And it all began because of that experience you had there. And he says that's exactly right. As I say this this old book here is replete with endless evidence. You see if you face up to this, some people would say well of course I do not believe that Christ is the Son of God. I believe he's a teacher. All right here's this teaching he must be born again accept that. You're not faced with what Pilate was faced with. You're faced with 2,000 years of history. You're faced with this irrefutable Word of God that Pilate never handled. You're faced with a Christian testimony. You're faced with hundreds of radio messages. You're faced with a whole library of books. You're faced with a rich tradition because whatever Christianity has done it's broken slavery. You're faced with every testimony you've heard of remarkable men who have been unshackled as we have it on that program. Oh you can't get away. You can't settle this question once for all. It's not that I come to a meeting like this and I say well I've not settled it. Jesus Christ is not my Savior. I like to sing in the choir. I think it's equally as wrong to sing a lie as to tell one. I think every time you sing as you did sing tonight not by my choice but you sang it were the whole realm of nature mine. That would have present far too small and you won't give him infinitely less than the whole realm of nature that you're chalking up a lot of condemnation against yourself. Supposing I could really really by some magic right now lift you out of time right through the clouds into eternity. Instead of seeing Paul Pontius Pilate talked about, instead of seeing a few few Romans, a few Greeks, a few of his enemies and his poor nervous wife there, instead of that I can see you. And now Jesus Christ is exalted upon the throne, his hair is as white as snow, his feet are like burnished brass, his face is like sun in its strength. And all of life is over. And here's Tiberius Caesar and here's Pontius Pilate and here's Herod and here's Caiaphas and here's all that multitude of men that no man can number right through the ages and now they're to face the judgment. It is not what will Pontius Pilate do with Jesus, it is what will Jesus do with Pilate. And then when Pilate has had his judgment, I stand on the judgment seat if I, bar if I am not saved. Let me say this and pass and finish. I said a minute ago it's not a case of accepting Jesus Christ and then just feeling that you've got through. No sir, no sir, no sir. You're going to face this question every day you live. You may accept him once as your Lord and Savior but that doesn't get rid of him. Mr. Brockie last year gave us a very wonderful talk one day you may remember on, thou shall not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. We often put that you say I never do that are you sure. Oh you never take his name over your lips you don't blaspheme his name. But every time you do a substandard thing you take his name in vain. Every time somebody has a raw deal at your hand you take his name in vain. He's a silly man who hits his head with his own crutches isn't he. You saw a man suddenly stop on crutches and take them both and start bashing his head. You say something wrong with him. Tell me this, what's wrong with you that you injure your own testimony? Every time you you skip your work. I don't take too much notice of people who testify. Not if they testify in big high-faluting language and then they dodge their work. Here is a fellow, he's got a girlfriend, goes along with his girlfriend. And for some reason he decides to drop her. Well I think as the Marashal said it's better to have a broken heart than have a broken life. And I can understand the fellow finding out this isn't the right thing. But I don't understand him picking a girl up two days after. Seems to me that some fellows collect stamps, some fellows collect girls. Now if I had anything to do with it what I'd do if a fellow parts with a girl he wouldn't date another girl for another semester. After all if a fellow picks you up and drops you, supposing you do marry him. I mean he dropped some other girl and picked you up and then marries you. How do you know he won't drop you? Isn't that one of the reasons for divorce? And that marriages don't hold together. Now be careful don't you become a flirt and become a fool and then wonder why nobody has any confidence in you because you undermine. I can't injure your testimony, you will injure your testimony. All the gossip in the world I wouldn't take a bit of notice of. But if you stand up and testify one thing and then you do another thing I've not many confidence. Now if you sell your confidence that's your fault. But you see you get choices every day you, there comes a thing and this is the thing would Jesus Christ do this thing? If I act in a way that Jesus Christ would not act then I sell Jesus Christ. There are a dozen other ways I can't mention. Let me tell you this there's a wonderful Cathedral in England called St. Paul's. I've been around it many times. As you're going at the door if you take to the right and go down the aisle there's a magnificent picture one of the most famous in the world. It's the picture of Holman Hunt. Holman Hunt's picture of Jesus Christ the light of the world. It's a magnificent picture. I've seen it many times. On one occasion, more than one occasion, I saw groups of men particularly soldiers standing around it. On this occasion there were maybe 30 of them. There's a man there showing the picture, showing the details of it. Showing how that the thorns had grown up round the door. Showing an apple falling on the floor and quoting the scripture the harvest is past the summer is ended. Showing that there was no latch on the outside of the door it's on the inside. Christ doesn't lift it up and come in it's on the inside. You've got to lift it if he's coming in by your will. When he'd explained the picture he looked at the people there and he said you know the original of this picture was sold for thirty thousand pounds. That's roughly a hundred thousand dollars. But we speak in pounds. And he said the original of this picture was sold for thirty thousand pounds. There was a little laboring man there and he pushed through the crowd he said to the guy, excuse me sir the original of that picture was not sold for, yes it was, he said I'll tell you where it's hanging this is a duplicate. A little laboring man smiled he said no sir the original of this picture wasn't sold for thirty thousand pounds. He was sold for thirty pieces of silver. I quoted that one night in a meeting in 1900 let me say now 1934 in a large tent in England. And I said this after I said look some of you have sold Jesus Christ for less than that. You sold him when he went in Bridgman's the other night and you got some sandwiches and something and oh no I won't say grace I mean after all somebody might sneer. So you sold him for a sneer. You sold him the other day in the in the office when somebody was telling a dirty joke and and the Lord says why don't you testify and you kept quiet so you sold him because you were afraid they might point the finger and say you were a prude.