In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of walking in the light of God's truth and holiness in a dark and corrupt world. He highlights that all the attributes of Jesus are available to believers and that the possibilities of grace are vast. The speaker reflects on his own journey of gradually unfolding revelation and urges listeners to not just talk about their faith, but to live it out in their actions. He also addresses the decline of religion and the need for believers to shine as lights in the world, following the example of Jesus in obedience, submission, compassion, and walking in the Spirit.

Our Father, tonight we thank you for the privilege of fellowship together. We bless you that somebody has put to music what our hearts so often feel and cannot express. Our wonderful Saviour is Jesus, my Lord. He came to die for the sins of the world, but he came for my sins, even mine, as John Wesley said. And we bless you that he is exalted tonight in the highest heaven, no longer spit upon by men, but worshipped by angels. We think of how he came from the worship of angels, or cherubim, seraphim, bowed at his feet, and he came to earth to wash the feet of some very unworthy men. We thank you that he came to reconcile us to God. When we were afar off, when we were rebels, without God, without hope, there wasn't an angel who could redeem us, there wasn't a seraphim or cherubim. But we bless you that Jesus came. As Wesley put it so magnificently, God was contracted to a span, incomprehensibly made man, because your word says the heaven of heaven cannot contain him. And yet somehow he was crowded into the womb of that precious woman, and came into the world to save sinners. And Lord, we recognize somewhere on the journey we feel the chief of sinners. We felt we had offended thee, we had not always walked in the light, we had not walked in obedience. We had sought selfishness, and self-interest, and self-glory, and self-righteousness. But we thank you that he came to put away sin, not just sins, but sin by the sacrifice of himself. He came to break every fetter. Again, as Wesley put it in that lovely hymn again, He left his Father's throne above, so infinite is grace, emptied himself of all that love, and bled for Adam's helpless race. Again, we have to say, Lord, in our hearts, long my imprisoned spirits lay. I think of how often I went to church, hundreds of times, there was no light on the page, there was no inspiration in the message, there was no joy in the fellowship. But Lord, there came a moment in all of our lives, I trust, and we could see it with Charles Wesley, long my imprisoned spirit lay fast bound in sin and nature's night. Thine eye diffused a quickening ray, I awoke, the dungeon flamed with light, my chains fell off. My heart was free, I rose, went forth, and followed thee. And therefore no condemnation, now I dread Jesus, and all in him is mine. Alive in him my living head, and clothed with righteousness divine, bold, I approach the eternal throne. Lord, how magnificent these things are, and yet they slip off our lips so easily. We so soon step out of light, it seems, often into darkness, from being totally absorbed with the living things of God, to step into side issues in the world. But we bless you, Father, for your infinite patience with us. We had long withstood thy grace, I had, year after year in the sanctuaries, sung these majestic hymns, long for years, reaching another hymn years I spent in vanity and pride, caring not my Lord was crucified, knowing not, except theoretically, just because it was Easter, just because it was Christmas, because the calendar threw it at us, not because our spirits worshipped you. But Lord, we bless you, we don't sing, O come, let us adore him, once a year. We sing it constantly in our hearts. Thou art worthy to receive honour and power divine, and blessings more than we can give thee, Lord, forever thine. Lord, we thank you that we are going to be clothed in your brightness. We thank you that you became man, that we might become, you became the son of man, that we might become the sons of God. And that emphasis has hit me so much this week, Lord, even now we're the sons of God, not about five minutes after we die, not when this mortality puts on immortality, not when this corruption puts on incorruption, not when we step out of the terrible world in which we live, it's sin shattered that prefers sin to righteousness, and prefers war to peace, because it rejects the Prince of Peace. Lord, it seems today I've been thinking constantly of hypocrisy, the hypocrisy amongst the believers, hypocrisy in politics. Everywhere there's a facade. Lord, we thank you for the day when you faced us with the reality that Jesus did come into the world to save sinners, and mild he laid his glory by. We've no idea what that glory was. I believe, Lord, the thirty years you were on earth, or the thirty-three, you longed, as you expressed in John 17, for the glory that you had with the Father before the world was. The glory of heaven, the glory of eternity, the wonder of it, the majesty of the heavenly choirs, with the harp and viols, there stands a great throng, Revelation says. I don't believe that's to come up merely, but Lord, you share that in eternity, and you came down here with, not to harmony, but to discord, not to peace, but to war, not to light, but to darkness, and yet you walked unblemished through this terrible morass of sin and iniquity. I'm glad, Lord, nobody ever intimidated you. And I believe, Lord, if we're intimate with God, we'll never be intimidated by men, or circumstances, or devil. We thank you for your word as it's gone forth today. Somewhere up some little creek off the Amazon there, amongst the Indians, almost naked Indians, some strange islands in the South Seas. Away in Afghanistan, war, torn as it is, with weeping and suffering and blood, and yet you've seen every heart there, you've heard every grief, you know every desire, every one that worships you. We think again of close countries like Russia, where today, maybe they've given you more worship and adoration than we've given. We've been so busy. They've no time to go for presents. They can't go and be free. But, Lord, they're not shut up. They're walled in, but they're not roofed in. How stupid that men think they can wall your saints in when they have a way all the time, from here to eternity, by the blood of Christ and by the Holy Spirit. Lord, I think again of India, and I think of these precious folk here tonight that love it so much, and we love it. And we pray, Lord, you'll raise up the prophets there, and the evangelists and the teachers. Lord, get us out of America into Bible-living, Bible-thinking, Bible-acting, Bible-loving, Bible-sacrifice. Lord, save us from this wretched thing that we call Christianity. Give us a new birth in the Church. Give us a new revelation in the Church. Give us a new authority in the Church. Give us a... As I think that little frail woman, Amy Wilson Carmichael, said, Oh, for a passion, a passion for souls. Oh, for a pity that yearns. Oh, for a love that loves unto death. Oh, for a fire that burns. Oh, for a prayer power that prevails, that pours itself out to the lost. Victorious prayer in the conqueror's name. Oh, for a Pentecost. Lord, we want something money can't buy, something that seminaries can't give, something that superstar evangelists can't bring to us. We want that from heaven, born of God, on our benighted nation and benighted generation. Bless your work to our hearts tonight. Lord, I thank you for those who have been receiving healing. Glad to see dear Robbie here tonight. Bless her, Lord. Continue to heal her. Thank you for what you did for Jennifer, Lord, for delivering in her life. I think another lady that called today that we prayed for, from Atlanta, and she was spared the surgeon's knife apparently and is rejoicing. We bless you that Jesus died to undo all that Adam had done. And as Isaac Watts says in Jesus, in him the tribes of Adam boast more blessings than their fathers lost. I don't care what was lost in the garden. Jesus Christ came to put back everything that was lost by the first Adam, was bought and presented to us by the last Adam. Oh, loving wisdom of our God, when all was sin and shame, another Adam to the fight and to the rescue came. Oh, wisest love, that flesh and blood, which did in Adam fail, should strive afresh against the foe, should strive and should prevail. We celebrate your triumph tonight, Lord Jesus. Thank you for giving us new hearts, new vocabularies, new interests, new desires. Bless your word. Open it to our hearts tonight. In Jesus' name. Thank you. In case I forget, Sunday a bit later, wave and remind me that your boys have gone to Oklahoma. How many? Three. Spencer, his brother? Oh, is Spencer there? Good. Well, they've gone to Oklahoma. They've taken, what are they taking? Clothing and food? Burning heart. You know, that precious fellow, I'd come just to hear Spencer and one or two of these fellows pray if I lived a hundred miles away. They're such a blessing. Of course, we're going to read now then from the word, from the First Epistle of John. I remember being in a meeting in England. I had a bunch of college fellows with me and one of them was taking part for the first time and so he said, I want to read from the First Epistle of General John. Well, it's a good soldier, but he wasn't General John. First Epistle General of John, okay. And chapter two. Here's a very, very simple text for you. If you have any more light on it than I have, give me the notes afterwards. Okay. First Epistle of John and chapter two, verse four. Here's the text. There'll be a caption on the cassette. So the caption is, He that saith. He that saith. What does it say? He that saith I know him and keepeth not his commandments is a liar. Now that's pretty strong. And the truth is not in him. Verse six. He that saith he abided in him ought also to walk as he walked. In other words, if you declare it, if you declare you're a child of God, demonstrate it. That's the only way you can prove it. He that saith. I don't believe there's a greater honor in the world tonight than to be a child of God. To know that we've passed already from death to life. To know that we have a home eternal in the heavens not made with hands. To know that there's no power on earth or hell nor dynamite can dynamite the church of the living God. It's as sure as Jesus Christ himself forever and ever. I've got to read the first verse to you here. My little children, these things write I unto you that ye sin not. Now that's pretty strong, isn't it? Huh? That ye sin not. Not that you sin irregularly or erratically, but you sin not. You quit it altogether. Somebody told me just recently that his father said you have to sin. Keep on sinning. And then some of the holiness people say, you know, you need a little bit of sin to keep you humble. Well, why not have a lot and be real humble? And which do you drop and which do you take? Come on now. It's a very clear scripture this. My little children, these things I write unto you that ye sin not. And then it says if, not when we sin, we have an advocate, but if we sin, the normal Christian life is a victorious life. You know, most Christians could just as well be Mohammedans. They sin and repent and sin and repent and sin and repent. That's not what Christ died for. If any man, that covers a lot, sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. Now we use that word about the Holy Spirit. Jesus Christ upon me, the Holy Spirit is an advocate. I'm trying to think of a verse that Wesley wrote somewhere. It must be Wesley. It's so good. Christ is our advocate above. The scripture says our advocate is with the Father. But it also says we have an advocate, the Holy Spirit is our advocate. God speaks to me through His Spirit. I speak to God through His Son. I have an advocate. I have one to plead my court. Day by day I say, God, my grammar is poor. My understanding is poor. My vision is poor. Perfect my imperfect praying. Jesus, You take it. I'm praying as better I know in the Spirit. Praying with what I know should be prayed for. But I have an advocate with the Father. You used to say a lot of times in England, you know, that fella got away because of a friend in court. Do you know what that means? You have a friend in court. Somebody has got some inside information, inside power. But we have an advocate with somebody at the throne. We have a friend in court. His name is Jesus. If any man sin, I've told you about the... I was preaching in a certain university a few years ago. I spoke after a... well, in a panel. But not all at once, different times. And the final night, a big shot came up. He's internationally known and he's the national speaker, radio speaker for his denomination. He gave a pretty good message. And as soon as he finished, all these university students swarmed up on the platform and they were talking and getting Bibles signed. I don't like signing Bibles. They're not autographed books. It's God's Word. Bring me a check and let me sign it for you. In your name, of course. But they wanted pictures of him. They wanted his autograph. And I said to him, Sir, I'm not a hero worshipper. Well, I said, I thank you for the message tonight. The only thing is that you, you made a loophole for sin. What do you mean? So I said, well, while you were preaching, at one point, I was thinking about the time when a very wicked woman came to Jesus and Jesus said to her, go and sin less. What do you mean, God? I said, that's who you imply. He says to a woman at the other side of the cross, without the blood, without the Holy Spirit, go and sin no more. People don't sin because they have to. They sin because they want to. There are some men that live pure. They're drunkards. They wouldn't bother with women. There are some men that mess around with women all the time, but they're not drunkards. We choose our sin. A man develops a habit for a certain thing and it grows on him until before long, he's a prisoner to that thing. I used to tell the story often in England about a man who was famous right through the country for making chains when they made them on the anvil. I don't know if you ever seen that done by Dale, no? I used to love to watch the village blacksmith. And this man made chains and he had a reputation that his chains were just about indestructible. Well, he got crossed up with the law and one day he was put in prison. So he kind of smiled when he went in. They chained him to the wall the old-fashioned way and he smiled when the jailer went out. Oh, he said, I'll be out of here in no time. And he went on the chain and he looked at all the links and he put a special mark and discovered that he was chained to the wall with a chain that he'd made and he couldn't break it. You know, that's what sin does. They used to say as children, put one piece of cotton round your fingers. If you struggle, you may get it free. Put two round, put three round, put four and it may as well be iron by the time you've done. What's the old saying we used to use in street meetings often? Saw a thought, you reap an act. Saw an act, you reap a habit. Saw a habit, you reap a character. Saw a character, you reap a destiny. Very simple and very profound and very true. There's no man on God's earth can handle sin except he's born of God and he has the power over the power of sin. That's the only way otherwise he can't do it. Now, this is tough, isn't it? This is one of the toughest texts in the Bible, I think. Verse 6, He that saith he abideth in him he's declared it, let him demonstrate it. He ought himself also to walk as best he can. He ought to walk like his pastor. He ought to walk like a missionary. No, walk as he walked. Come on now. Forget all your excuses. Even while we're in this world, we ought to walk even as he walked. It makes an interesting study. I don't want to take too much time tonight. I want us to pray particularly for the team of the government of Oklahoma. But you know, you have in the Genesis, I don't know the chapter exactly, but we talk about Adam walked where? In the Garden of Eden. Who with? God. What do you think they talked about? I don't know what. I'm thinking of something else. I'm getting my wires crossed. Anyhow, he walked in the Garden of Eden. They come to the 6th chapter of Genesis, it says that Enoch walked with God. That's a classical statement, isn't it? Reminds you of what the Amos says? How can two walk together except that they agree? What do you think Enoch and God talked about? I'll make a guess. It's only a guess, but I'll make a guess. Maybe God talked to this man Enoch now who's walking in holiness about the tragedy of the Garden of Eden. Because it seems as though Enoch was still in the Garden there. The others have been put out. But he's in that area anyhow. And God talks about his the tragedy of Adam. Perfect man. Oh, people say it's natural to sin. Well, if it wasn't, God Almighty didn't make Adam natural. He had no sin when he was first made. He walked with God. He talked with God. Then we talk about his heart. I think the heart of God was revealed to Enoch. And he talked to him about the distress and the anguish that he went through when he saw his gorgeous creation let the serpent in. And God sees a long distance view. I know something else. Turn to the epistle of Jude and see what it says there about verse, what is it, 14? Jude, verse 14. I don't know if you'll get book lists, but I often get book lists. Some are used books, some are old ones. And very often I see here's one of the last books of the Bible, the book of Enoch. Buy it. It's been reprinted. Do you remember the famous writer in England called Coleridge? Coleridge said, sell your shirt. Sell the last thing you have in order to get the book of Enoch. It's fabulous. It's got about 800 pages that's in the Word of Truth in it. There are two verses in the Old Testament. Enoch walked with God and he was not, for God took him. And there are two verses here in Jude, chapter, well there's only one chapter in Jude, anyhow, chapter, verse 14. Enoch, also the seventh from Adam, prophesied. Come on. How many people were there in the world? How could he prophesy? He walked with God. If you walk with somebody, you have to set the pace. Somebody has, you have to set the direction. You have to say how long you're going to walk. And so Enoch is walking with God. What did God do? He lifted the veil of time into eternity. How do you know? Because it's recorded here. It says, Enoch, also the seventh from Adam, prophesied. You know, it's fantastic when you think of the revelations those wonderful men had in the Old Testament. Moses, somewhere, not at the burning bush before that, left all the treasure of Egypt. And he did a little adding up. And as we say, the bottom line was this, esteeming the reproach of Christ, not the kingdom of Christ, not the glory of Christ, not the resurrection of Christ, not the redemption of Christ. Esteeming the reproach. What do you mean the reproach? Jesus got kicked around all his life. By good night, there was a contract on him before he hardly got out of his mother's womb. And there at the cross, at the end, you'll find him there. It's turbulence the whole way through. There is no easy street for him. And yet somewhere in his magnificence, God revealed to Moses the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. He esteemed the reproaches of Christ, greater treasure, all the treasure of Egypt, which was the greatest system in the world at that time. Did any of you go to Dallas, that terrible city, and see the, did you see the exhibition of King Tut's stuff last year? King Tutankhamen, do you know who he was? Well, he was the next in line after Pharaoh. Maybe somebody reminds him by his classical name, Amenhotep II. You don't remember him either. But everything was gold. You know, one of the things that they found there, it was wonderful. There's a book in the Penguin series called Ur of the Chaldees. Only cost you two or three dollars. It's interesting. And it tells you how they went to Ur of the Chaldees and they found all these treasures. And I remember, who was the Englishman? 1920 it was, Lord, I forgot his name. They got into this old Valley of the Kings, rolled a stone away, and everything was in solid gold. There was a casket there, and you know what they used to mold? The face of the person in it, put it on top, I don't know why. And it was a sarcophagus, as they call it. It was in solid gold. They found more treasures of gold than any other thing they'd ever explored in the Valley of the Kings. But one thing they found was a little tree, about six inches high, and a goat had its head in the tree, its horns. Well, they deciphered the other things. They had what they called these hieroglyphics. If you've never seen them, see my handwriting. They're very like them. Hieroglyphics. And it explains so many things. Then somebody said, but what about this thing? We've never found one of these in the Valley of the Kings. What's this? A little tree, this height, in solid gold, a ram caught in the thicket. Then one of the guys, oh, Lord Carter was the fellow that explored it. And one of the guys said rather blushingly, well, sir, your highness, I used to go to church, and they told a story there about a man called Abraham. And he was going to sacrifice his son. And at the very last moment when he had the knife up, that boy must have been some boy. Do you think your 18-year-old boy would lay down there with a punch on the nose? He lies there bound up and he sees the knife coming down. A perfect picture of Jesus led as a lamb to the slaughter. And at that last moment, as an old shepherd in Australia reminded me once, I spoke on that, and he said, you missed something. I said, I often miss things. He said, but you know, he climbed the mountain, he built the altar, he tied up his son, and his hand was coming down. And the boy said, stay thy hand. You know what we would have done? We'd have murdered him. We'd have said, you see where the river bends there? That's where God told me go offer thy son. But God spoke a second time. He obeyed God both times. But just as the knife was coming down, there was a rustling, and he looked behind, there was a ram caught in the thicket. And the old, like my venerable friend here, had a beard, an old gentleman there in Australia. And he said, you know what? That ram wasn't in the thicket when he went up the hill. No. Wasn't in the thicket when he built the altar. No. Wasn't in the thicket when he bound the boy. I said, what do you mean? He said, it was the very last moment as his hand was coming down to kill his son. God said, stay thy hand. And at that moment he brought deliverance. Now he said, remember this, so often God takes us to the very last moment to the extreme moment before ever there's a deliverance. And when he saw the ram caught in the thicket, of course, it was different. Well, that ram caught in the thicket was there in the tomb of King Amenhotep II. It's easier than Tutankhamun. But there, when they took the sarcophagus off and the other things, there was this little model of Abraham where Abraham took the, caught the ram in the thicket. And God preserved it to that time. That was an amazing thing, I think. It became a confirmation. As a matter of fact, Leonard Woolley, the man who was there at the discovery, was converted because of it. He said, this is true. You see, what they did, they made an excavation in one place and then they went thirty miles away and they had to dig through thirty feet of sand. And then they found some treasures. They found some things never been found in history before. And suddenly, Leonard Woolley says, you know where this sand is from? It's from the mountaintops. There was a flood in the world and it came and submerged the whole of this area in thirty feet of silt. And so, through those things, these men came to know the Lord. Anyhow, let's go back here. Well, I'm getting this. Recalling it, that might be better. I think the 17th chapter. Don't look. The 17th chapter of Genesis. God says to Abraham, walk before me. Well, that's OK. Simple enough. Wait a minute. He says, walk before me and be thou perfect. You know, we're terrified of that word perfection. Go back to Noah. God says, Noah was perfect in his generation. Perfect in obedience. Perfect when everybody scorned him. Good night. We can't, we can't take ridiculous, we can't take ridicule and opposition for a few days. We feel there should be a national declaration for us. Yet, for a hundred and twenty years, Moses, Noah withstood all the criticism and ridicule. Of that multitude that he had around him. And yet, God says, he walked perfectly. You know, I've skipped over so many stories in the Bible. You know, one thing, one thing about Noah, amongst others, once he went in the ark, he never came out again. And there was no rain for an awful long while. He didn't go out. He didn't let anybody in. God shut the thing up. He made a covenant with God and there he stayed. But listen, the storm is going to break over our generation before long and we'll be very, very glad we're in the ark. There's no other place of safety. Financial safety has taken wings, gone away. Notice the depressed people coming from the Dallas area. They lost all their money. But anyhow, it's true. What seemed so secure a year or two ago is absolutely liquidated. It's gone. Our national name has gone. Our name's in the gutter. You know, it's not so long since Nixon, when we put a man on the moon, he began to exalt us and said, we've set our... I think he used the phrase, we've set our nest upon the stars. Isn't it? Isn't it Habakkuk that says, though you set your nest upon the stars, I'll throw you down. The nation has gone down ever since he said that, not just because of Watergate. But God has a controversy with us and it's time we woke up to realize what it is. And yet in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, God has called us to shine as lights in the world. He that saith he abideth in him ought to walk, also walk, even as he walked. Let me go back to 1 Peter. Well, Brother Raymond, what are you going to do? Are you going to give us a list of things here and this is how you walk, this way, this way, this way, this way? No, no, no, no, I won't do that. Let me tell you something that's been handed down to me and to you for centuries. Here it is in the first epistle of Peter, chapter 2, verse 19 says, it is thankworthy, this is thankworthy. If a man for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully, for what glory is it when ye aboffit it for your faults? Ye shall take it patiently. But if when ye do well and suffer for it and take it patiently, this is accepted with God. For even hereunto were ye called, because Christ also, listen, suffered for us, leaving us an example that we should follow in his steps. Now what do we do? Is there a blank there? Do I ask for suggestions? What do you think he did? What are his steps? We get 50 different answers. But before you can open your mouth, the answer is already given. That ye should follow in his steps, number one, he did no sin, number two, no guile was found in his mouth, number three, when he was reviled, he reviled not again. If you go into Ephesians, I'm going to just read this quickly and you can get the tape after. There's a wonderful book, anybody got the book by, what was the name, Paxon? This is, Miss Paxon. It's called, The Wealth, Walk and Warfare of the Christian. You got that Robbie? Good for you, because I'm going to borrow it. It's a wonderful book, The Wealth, Walk and Warfare. Isn't that what Ephesians is? The wealth of the spiritual life, the walk of the spiritual life, and the warfare, in the sixth chapter. How many of you read the whole, what is it, the whole, The Christian Incomplete Armour? Have you read it? You don't have it? You haven't got it? You have the book? You have it? Have you read it? Me too. How many of you have got the book? Let me see. Good for you. Have you read it? We're all partners tonight. Part of this and part of that. Maybe we can talk, if you've read it through between us. It's the greatest book ever written on Ephesians. Do you have it, Dale? Good. Have you read it all? Well, there's one thing, we're all in one accord tonight, aren't we? We all missed out on it. Pardon? Oh, Robbie, you read it through? Good. You're reading it, reading it again right now. It's a fabulous book, but that's what Ephesians is, it's the wealth, it shows us how rich is in Jesus Christ. It, it says you are the children of the devil, but now it says you're the habitation of Christ, isn't it in, isn't it in the first chapter, the habitation of God through the Spirit? Is there anything, come on, is there anything on God's earth greater than that where the habitation of God, that he lives in us, he lives in us, he doesn't just live in the sky, he lives in us. The habitation of God through the Spirit. He did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth. You know, it's, it's awesome. I've, I've thought more this year about Mary and the, and the child than I think ever in my life. When she washed his little dimpled hands, do you think she ever thought about the nail going through? She knew it was. It had been prophesied the virgin shall bear a son, and she was the virgin. It had been prophesied they put nails through him. When she washed his little back, did you think they'd skin it with lashes? The Romans would get a, cut her nine tails, as we call it, about nine lashes, and at the end of them there was a copper spike, and it tore the flesh. And yet they're going to do that to her baby? How often do you think she turned over in her mind as she dressed him and took care of him? She'd heard the priest, maybe the Sunday before, reciting Isaiah 53, his soul shall be made an offering for sin. Not just his battered body. There was something on TV recently, I watched some, I don't recall them, impulses going through a wire no thicker than a hair of your head. Fabulous invention. And I thought of this. Billions of, what shall I call it, voltage was going to go through the soul of Jesus. His soul was made an offering for sin. The Catholics make a lot of his body, his soul was made an offering. I told you before maybe about the old man that was in St. Andrews University in Scotland. I have a book of his saying. They called him Rabbi, nicknamed him because when he gave lectures on Hebrews he never took a grammar book. He took the Hebrew scriptures. And one day he was describing Isaiah 53 and he said his soul was made an offering for sin. And he stopped and the audience, about 50 I think of those university students, divinity students, wondered what he would say. He was always coming out with wonderful nuggets of truth. And he said gentlemen, his soul was made an offering for sin. He said gentlemen it was damnation and he took it joyfully. Brought the classes. He was so profound he would shake them every time he spoke. He lived in a little room in a dry old university, dark and dusty and no rugs. And they knew because they sent him to the laundry he wore a night shirt that he kind of tied it up around his neck and he'd wear it like a bridal gown. Thick flammable night shirt. It's the only way to keep warm anyhow. So one night they decided oh this man when he prays oh he's so marvelous. You feel as though as a hand on the thorn of God and the other on the audience. He leaves a spell bound. It's worth going to the lecturers to hear him pray never mind his exposition and Hebrew. So they went follow him upstairs. In those old houses in England the keyholes were about this size. You can nearly get through them never mind look through them. Give you a big key like this going to the room. They saw the old man go in his room. Beautiful. No rug. A candle. He put the candle at the side of his bed and he read his Hebrew some Hebrew from the scriptures. Then suddenly he knelt down put his hands together. Let me look let me look. Come on just a minute. So they're all standing there look for the one just till I nudge them. And they all wanted to line up and hear the old man pray. And there he knelt with his hands together in his big old final night prayer. You know what he prayed? Gentle Jesus meet and mild. Look upon a little child. Pity my simplicity. Suffer me to come to thee. Fain I would to thee be brought gracious God forbid it not. In the kingdom of thy grace give this little child a place. So they checked another night and found he said that every night before he went to sleep. Gentle Jesus meet and mild. How did Jesus come into the world? He's gonna come one day read the second Thessalonians and he says boy he's gonna come streaming through the skies with thousands and thousands of angels in terrifying majesty. Why did he come the first time? He could have captured the world. Why did he set up his kingdom? He could have done it. He didn't because the plan of God was otherwise. It's just like your life and mine. You find as you go on there's a gradual unfolding of the revelation and majesty and power of God and you wonder where you've been the last few years not to find it. You know the world's just about fed up with religion. It's no good talking if we're not walking. What did he used to say? It was an Americanism I heard first. In fact I was in a holiness meeting one day and a guy would come to the front every meeting and just when the meeting was over he leapt in the air about three feet and yelled at the top of his voice. We shut him up after a while because he was flesh anyhow. And somebody said brother I don't care how high you jump as long as you walk straight when you come down. I told you before about this lyrical man, this Baptist man. What was his name? Bumer in Africa. I gave a very famous preacher, all of you know his name. I gave him a book to read. He read it. He said no, can't accept it. He raised the dead, gave eyes to the blind. I can't believe it. Why not? Oh it's not documented. I need signatures on it. Last year a man called Roger Volk, one of the best known men in South Africa came to see me. Looked at him at the door. Hey brother Len how are you? I said fine Roger how are you? I said by the way you've lived in Africa a long while. Did you know a man called Bumer? He said William Bumer? I said yes. I said well I've read his book called Get Thy Glory Lord, Take Thy Glory Lord. I said he raised a girl from the dead, did the miraculous? Yes he did. I said well I've got a friend alone in my book and he said no, no, no. Well he said let me tell you something. I'll give you the name of the doctor, he was an atheist. I'll give you the name of the hospital. I'll give you the town. I'll give you the date. When this little black man went into that hospital and raised a girl from the dead, caused the atheist to realize there's some marvelous power because this fellow is unpretentious, he has no doctrines, he's just a plain simple man. As I've said in my first book I think, I need to read that again. And people often quote it. One day somebody's going to believe the Bible and when they do we'll all be embarrassed. That's all we have to do. God is looking for people who believe him. Somebody said to our dear Paul's dear wife, Irene, down in Asuncion, Paraguay, yes. Are you there to get converts? She said no. What are you there to get? She said worshippers. There are millions of converts. How many worshippers are there? By the same token this little fellow here, he said yes he raised the dead, I'll give you the hospital, I'll give you all the particulars. But he said brother, raise me more than that. Wasn't it last year Martha, dear Irene? I think he said last year my daughter was so sick, she had to have a surgery, they took about a third of her brain away. And the doctor said she'll be a vegetable, all that. He said she was lying there, she couldn't even get spittle, her throat was swelling, her lips were swelling, she couldn't articulate. One morning he said, there was a knock at the door and there he was. William Doomer had taken the train for about a couple of days through Africa. And he said, brother, the Lord told me to come, your child, your daughter is sick. He said, yes she is. And he showed her in the room. And he thought, of course, immediately went in, he prayed and she get up and go. Nothing happened. He prayed once, I think two hours after, he prayed two hours quietly, came again, nothing happened. He said, well I'll be back. And he went away for three days. Three days after he came back and the pastor said, where have you been? Oh brother, he said, I've been in my usual school, I went for three days into the bush, saw the face of God. Now let me talk to your daughter. And there she's lying as stiff as a board, no expression, no words, hardly able to swallow her own spittle. And he goes in and says, Lord Jesus, this is your property. I think he took about a hand in his mouth and lifted it up, that's right, and embraced her and said, Lord Jesus, this is your property. The doctor said, that brain will never function again. She's going to be a vegetable the rest of her life. And he said, he held my dear daughter in his arms like that tightly and prayed over her lovingly and said, this is your property, Lord Jesus. Restore all that needs to be restored. And immediately she was healed. She spoke. And he said, you know what? The vegetable they talked about last month gave me a beautiful grandchild. When doctor said, there's nothing enough functioning normally. But it was done. Because this precious man, Dumas, people say he walked with God like nobody had ever known before. He was illiterate. He had much in the way of a vocabulary or a library. But he had a communication with God. He had a shrine in his heart. He walked in the spirit, talked in the spirit, thought in the spirit, prayed in the spirit. And that's what it's going to take to restore glory of God to our generation. We're so bankrupt with so many terms and phrases. Two people this week have told me about they're in the fastest growing church in Dallas. I said, there's a hundred of them apparently by what I hear. Everybody's talking about church expansion. Nobody talks about depth. I'm not concerned about expansion. I'm concerned about depth. I'm not concerned about knowing a bit more knowledge. I want to see the manifest power of God. Jesus is worthy to receive honor and power divine and blessings more than we can give the Lord forever. Everybody outside of the kingdom of Jesus Christ is a rebel. They may be well dressed, beautifully dressed. They may have been in Neiman Markets buying a hundred thousand dollar coat for his wife or jewels or something. They may be well educated. It doesn't make any difference. If they're outside of Christ, they're rebels. They're not just sinners wandering from God. They're rebels with a fist up against God. Well, let's read this before we go any further. Ephesians 5.8 says, walk as children of the light. Chapter 5 verse 15 says, walk circumspectly. What I was telling you earlier about Roger Vogt, a precious man. His daddy and mummy were living in England and they decided to emigrate to Africa. So they went. And Roger was born in Africa. And a younger brother was born in Africa. Another brother. But the brother who was born before the family left England stayed in England. So there came a time when, through corresponding, the older brother said, I'd like to see my younger brother. I've never seen him. So they arranged for it and he went on the good old P&O, Pacific and Orient, Orient liners that aren't used anymore. But the one thing about it, while he knew the address of his brother in London, and instead of the ship going to Southampton, it went right to the River Thames and up to Tilbury Docks, right in London. When he got there, there were hundreds of people yelling and screaming. They had their banners and they were shouting names and the fellows on the deck were shouting back. But this brother, this young man, screaming and rejoicing, running down the gang planks and embracing and shouting. And he looked and he thought, well I don't see anybody like my dad here. I can't see a brother of mine. And he said hundreds and hundreds of people went away. There were about three people at the dock side there. And suddenly one man turned around and he put his hands behind his back and he walked with a measure of step. He said, that's my dad. He walked exactly like his father. He didn't have to hear his voice or get a picture. He said, he walked exactly as my father walked. You know, that's what the world is waiting to see. It wants us to see us walk as he walked. Not just talk it, live it, live it out, believe it, behave it, Mrs. Wesley said to her children. And there's nothing more impressive than a beautiful life. How did Jesus live? He walked in the light for sure, didn't he? He walked in righteousness in an unrighteous world. He walked in truth in a world full of error. And he expects us to do that, to walk in holiness, to walk in lowliness, to walk in truth. He walked in peace in a world full of war. He walked in a relationship with his father when there was a sterile religion everywhere round about. He walked and there was no intimidation. He wasn't afraid of the Roman power. He wasn't afraid of the devils. He wasn't afraid of death. And he's handed these things over to us. He says they're yours. We're heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ. You know, that baffles me, it startles me. How much have I really inherited? Is God going to show me one day when I get to heaven, kind of open the door and say, you see, those resources, they were all there, you never asked for them, you never believed for them, they were all hidden in the Word, but you were too busy to get down to them. This generation of Christians, of Christians, is responsible for this generation of believers. This generation of believers is responsible for this generation of sinners. I asked a couple of preachers in my office yesterday, I said, well, tell me this, forget about your fashionable church, this guy goes to a big, big church, he's an assistant pastor. I said, brother, what have you in your church for the world won? Does it cover anything you have? Do your people walk with a serenity? Have they a joy, unspeakable, or do they need entertainment all the time? Is the love of God shed abroad in their heart, or are they critical and sour? Are your people reproduction of Jesus Christ? Mild he laid his glory by. Think of that. Worshipped by angels, then whipped by men. Would anybody else do it? Wouldn't it have been enough to have come down to earth for just a year or two, and show us how to live till he was twenty, and he lives till he's thirty years of age? Because, again, a high priest in the Old Testament could not go into the holy of holies till he was thirty years of age. He could go as a priest at twenty-five. He could be a soldier at twenty, because then and now he don't need brains to kill anybody. Jesus had to go through that trial period. And the word of God says he became perfect as a man by through suffering and testing and trial. He wasn't going to school and learning some repertoire. He didn't sit down and read the prophecies and then just go out and give some lectures. Is there anything more? I'm going to think about this more later. Not tonight. But, you know, we say again, Abraham, walk, God says, walk before me and be thou perfect. In the midst of idolatry? What's it saying in seventh chapter of Acts? When Stephen is being stoned, he says, God appeared to our father Abraham in Mesopotamia. What a hell hole. Mesopotamia is one super edition of Las Vegas and all the other rotten things we have in our nation. There was lawlessness, godlessness, idols, vanity, corruption, and yet in the midst of that junk, God appeared to him. You know, if the Russians ever get free, I think we'll make some marvellous stories of revelations, visiting angels. And revelations God had brought to people as they meditated on his word that they read maybe years ago. But again, I'm insisting here is this walk. The boy knew as soon as he said, as soon as I saw my brother walk, the way he put his head, he put his hands there, and he kind of waddled a bit. There's my father walking. Isn't it beautiful when somebody says that's how we walk. The walks are wonderful. I'm scared I'll go over on this thing one of these days. Glad my salvation is better than that. Oh, thank you. I think of a moment of that Emmaus walk, one of the most amazing walks in the scriptures. Jesus met them. I wonder if he's as disgusted with us as he was with them. He had told them for years what he would do. Not one of them believed him. They didn't believe him. Thomas didn't believe him in the upper room. He said, yes, put his hand out and I'll put my finger in. Lift his garment and put my hand in his side. Boy, was he ever sorry he said that. Few minutes after Jesus came, Thomas said, all right Lord, leave it. He said, no, you asked for it, you get it. I think when we get to heaven, many of us will rejoice that God did not answer some of the prayers we prayed. We prayed with lack of wisdom. We prayed with immaturity. We prayed with selfishness. But he walked with them. What did he do? He unfolded the scripture. Boy, that was a seven mile journey from Jerusalem to where they were going, on the Emmaus road. Boy, that must have been the most glorious Bible school ever. Why didn't he say, I want to reveal to you some of Daniel's image. The middle torn, the left foot. I want to tell you something about eternity. He doesn't do that. He goes back and he unfolded. He talked about the past. He went to Moses and the prophets and said, this is what I've come to declare to you. They spake concerning me. Every one of those men knew me. But what did he do? He opened their understanding. Jesus said, he that walketh with me, followeth me, shall not walk in darkness, but walk in light. He gave them some scripture they didn't understand. So what did he do? He opened the eyes of their understanding. And then he opened the scriptures. And then he opened their mouths. And so that's exactly the way God wants to take us. One Friday night. Oh, there's no meeting next Friday night, by the way, because you'll all be so tired opening your presents. No, but some people won't be able to come, so we'll skip it. Oh, first Friday in the New Year, let me put myself on the spot. I think I'm going to preach on, or speak on forgetting those things which are behind. Everybody likes to do that in the New Year, don't they? But for what angle do you do it? There's half a dozen, I won't tell you. But I'll speak about that, God willing. But let's make up our minds next year by the grace of God. We're going to have a, what Calpha called, oh, for a closer walk with God, a calmer heavenly frame, a light that shines upon the Lord, that leads me to the Lamb. That's what God wants, a closer walk with God. Abraham walked with God in that vile system. Enoch walked with God. What do you think they thought about him when he went down Main Street and said, you know, Lord's coming with 10,000 of his saints. They know nothing about God. They know priesthood, what have they, they know nothing. But he says, the Lord is coming from the skies with 10,000 of his saints, and he's going to bring judgment. That's a terrible verse, let me read it, it's that close. Enoch also, the seventh from Adam prophesied, so that's what he did. God gave him a revelation when he was walking with him. Behold, the Lord cometh, so he prophesied the second coming with 10,000 of his saints, and the next thing, to execute judgment and all, to convince all that are ungodly among them of their ungodly deeds, which they have ungodly committed of all the hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against them. Do you think they understood that? Sometimes you just say what God says and leave it. Dear Lord, most of our pew dwellers don't understand it, never mind in those days. Remember there wasn't a Bible? Far as I know, there was another person witnessing. But here is a solitary figure, and he dares to reveal what God revealed to him. The Lord is coming. He's looking through time into the ultimate. Well, Jesus walked in perfect obedience, we know that. He walked in perfect submission to the Father's will. He walked in compassion. When he saw the multitude, he was moved with compassion. It doesn't say what the crowd, what the disciples were. When he saw the multitude, he was moved with compassion. He walked in the Spirit, continually. He walked in revelation. You know, all these things, if you come to Sorbonne, they're all available to us tonight. You know, when it comes down to poverty, there are very few people who are poor by choice. We always use the classical phrase, of course, of St. Francis of Assisi. You know, all over America today, there are hundreds of nuns and nurses in monasteries and convents. They've run away from the world. Jesus says, no, I don't take you out of the world or live in the world. Walk in it. It's crooked. Walk straight. It's untruthful. Walk with truth. It's dark. Walk in the light. Sometime, your personality and mine should be like the ring you see on ladies' fingers. I remember the first time I crossed the Atlantic. I never saw many women with coals. When I came to dinner in the fabulous ship, the Queen Mary, you see ladies have their handkerchiefs and their shoulders up. I said to one of the fellows, you know, all these women have got a coal. They said, what do you mean got a coal? Look at the size of rings they've got. They didn't have a ring at all. They were showing these big diamonds that they had. And you know, sometimes if you twist your ring that way, somebody says it's brilliant red. Somebody says it's a deep blue. Somebody says it's violet. Somebody else says it's green. The same diamond, it depends which way. And truth is many sided like that. God lets it flash one day as a warning, another day as a comfort, another day as a challenge, another day as a deep inspiration. So that's what God's Word, when the light comes on it, the light that shineth on a dark place, that shines in our heart. And one day something illumines and boy, you grasp it with both hands and make a note and say, Lord, I should have seen that 20 years ago. But we're to walk in the light. All these attributes I've spoken about, Jesus, are available to us. It's a dark world. Let's walk in the light. It's a lying, deceitful world. Let's walk in truth. It's a corrupt world. Let's walk in holiness. The possibilities of grace are so vast. I think we'll all discover when we enter heaven. I will, I'm sure. But most of my life I've been walking with water to the ankles. And even not to the knees yet, after serving the Lord. Now what, I've been 65 years since I got saved. Sixty-six. I know so little. And I tried to stuff into these preachers the other day. Nobody cares who you know. Don't care about your degree. Oh, this fellow is in one of the biggest churches in Dallas. He was this guy. I said, do you know God Almighty? He's a bit interested in your ministry. He said, what? I said, he's interested in your character. If you don't have integrity, if you don't have honesty, don't have holiness, you don't count. And brother, you couldn't get that in the seminary where you studied. You can only get it by a close walk with God, by an intimacy, by accepting his rebukes, as well as accepting his strength. Jesus walked in strength. There was no weakness. Why? Because he abode in the word of the living God, and the word is meat and drink to us. I keep buying books. I don't know why. I don't know why some of them. Mother keeps saying, lend me up enough. I say, well, just two or three more. Of course, I said that twenty years ago, too. I'll get some for Christmas, hopefully. But anyhow. You know, sometimes, honestly, I mean it. I'm not facetious when I say it. I guess I have two thousand books altogether in one room, some in another. And you know, I think, I wonder sometimes if God will hold me responsible for having all those books. Are they there for ornaments? Young guys go, oh, what a wonderful lot of books, yeah. You want to buy them? How much? Ten thousand dollars for the lot. Cost you more than that to buy them. I've collected them all over the world. I don't want to sell them. But truth, truth, truth, truth. It's such a false world. It's such a corrupt world. It's such a lying world. It's such a hypocritical world. It's time for us to put on the whole armour of God. It's time for us to walk in all the light he'll give us, never mind how much it hurts. Do you think it'll be worth it when we get to those five minutes inside of eternity? He says we're to walk even as he walked. He walked in humility. There was no arrogance. There was no impudence in Jesus. He was beautiful. And I'm to walk even as he walked. He walked sacrificially. I want to walk sacrificially. He was despised more than accepted. So am I, as far as that goes with the big shots. But it's beautiful. I don't want the Lord, as I've told you so often. I wrote in a letter yesterday to a friend. I don't want to stand up before the cyanosia of what? A hundred billion eyes. And the Lord says, son when you were on earth I had many things to tell you but you couldn't bear them. Wouldn't that be shocking? Exposed, Moses listening, Abraham listening. All the saints of all days and saints, apostles, prophets, martyrs. All looking at poor Leonard Raven. He was standing there who can't lean on his dear wife or any friend. Or say Dale come out this side and Ray come out this side. No, no by myself. With all my privileges. With all my opportunities. With all the open channels that there are. And then I'm going to die on the verge of bankruptcy. I don't want God to say, look all angels are looking. Gabriel's looking. Michael the archangel is looking. Zechariah, Jeremiah is looking. All the saints. Finn is there. Wesley is there. John Hus is there. John Fletcher. All those saints looking on me. Don't feel sorry for me. You're going to stand there as well by yourself. Won't have anybody to lean on. And God's going to say, I gave you all the treasures you ever needed. Everything you need for your faith, your courage, your vision is locked up in this book. It isn't a book, it's a library. Is there any other that's sixty-six books in one volume? Sixty-six you can slip in your pocket? I don't know, except the word of God. Well, I'm determined, you'll be determined to do what you like, but I'm determined this coming year. Dear Martha and I have a program now of reading and enjoying some of the deeper things that we've had around for years or two. But as I've told you before, I'm tired of living amongst mediocrity. Dear Lord, everybody writes to me, do you know what we're doing in our ministry? Tell me what God's doing in your ministry. Forget your ministry. We've opened another bookshop. You may as well open a sausage shop as far as I'm concerned. Does it affect the kingdom? As I said to God the other day, is there eternity in it? What eternal value is that that you're doing? If it has no eternal value, it's like on one side. Determined to live in the light of eternity every day. Well, we're going to pray. I want you particularly to remember Spencer and the team, whoever's with him, as they go and minister, as well as giving out clothing and food, they're going to minister to those precious folk in Oklahoma. Jacob is gone, as usual. He's gone preaching today. And the, remember India, we do so often pray for India. You know, every day it seems it's like a horse, a sore horse in a, it's a point of quicksand. Boy, it fought like mad. The more it fought, the more it sank. And it seems when we try and struggle out the difficulties in Washington, we get into them. We get more tied up. Lying begets lying. Deception begets deception. In the spiritual, we go from one degree of glory to another. One revelation to another revelation. One strength to another strength. In the world, they go further down into sin and corruption and deception. And there's going to be a big clash before very long. We're all going to be tested, I believe, to the hilt. But if you get your life in straight now, established a walk, you may have to walk like David. I've been through the valley of the shadow of death two or three times here. It's not too pleasant, but I got through anyhow. But I want to walk as he walked, not walk as Billy Graham walked or Jimmy Swigert or somebody. I want to walk as he walked. Not walk according to the theology I was raised in. Not walk according to this. Walk according to this blessed word, which is a word of truth and power and glory. Well, let's go to prayer for a little season, can we do that?