In this sermon, the preacher discusses the power of the law of the spirit of life in freeing believers from the law of sin and death. He uses a metaphor of throwing an envelope and commanding it to stay up in the air to illustrate the authority believers have in Christ. The preacher then talks about the sacrifices made by soldiers in war and compares it to the sacrifices believers should be willing to make for God. He emphasizes the importance of putting God first and giving generously to the church and missions. The sermon concludes with a story about a man who started with very little but became wealthy through his commitment to giving.

I heard some good news this week and there's a church in Thailand called, what's it called, Metro? What's it called? Just Metro. And for I don't know how long they've been having a prayer meeting every morning of the week from 6 o'clock till 8. So if you live down that way, or if you don't live down that way, go that way. Yes. At Outreach. From 6 to 7. Wonderful. What do you do 6 to 7 at night? Well, change it as well and have it 6 to 7 at night. You know there's all kinds of folk praying about Thailand, isn't that great? There's a great undercurrent there, you know what? And before long the top's going to blow off the volcano. And the devil's going to suffer for a while. He's going to suffer for a long while before a long while. But I'm glad to know people are praying collectively 8 to 6 and another 7, was it, to 8? 6 to 7. Oh, 1 6 to 7 and 1 6 to 8. Great. So I hope none of you can sleep this week between those hours. Wouldn't that be great? One voice. So we're not all with one accord in one place. Okay, Colossians tonight. The Epistle of Paul to the Colossians. Chapter 1, sorry, chapter 1 verse 9. For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will. You know, a lot of people think, oh, I got filled with the Spirit, that's the end of the journey. Sure it is, beginning end. Paul prayed that they might be filled with the Spirit, but he prayed that they might be filled with all the fullness of God. He prayed that they might be filled with the knowledge of his will. Sometimes I take a glass full of water. Well, I've got one here, not quite full. And if it was a good English glass, it was pure glass, you could see through it, but this is an American. And as you would expect, it's plastic or something. But you know, I can fill up with water until it's concave like that, and I say, that's full. I'm going to fill it without emptying it. Well, how can you fill a glass that's full without emptying it? Well, if it were, as I say, if you see through it, and I have a fountain pen at home, if I drop one spot of ink into it, it would change its color. It would fill it with color as well as with water. To change the figure now, you have a room, you come into a room and it's totally dark. You walk in it and you say, I walked in that room and it was empty. If it was, it would have fallen down. It was full of air. You reach for the switch and you change the darkness to light. You turn the thermostat up and fill it with heat. Then you fill it with people, then you fill it with song. And then some lady comes in, the Avon lady comes in and she smells, I mean, she doesn't smell really, but there's perfume. And the room that was black was changed, it was filled with light, then it was filled with heat, then it was filled with people, then it's filled with singing, then it's filled with perfume. You keep adding, adding, adding, adding. You know, most of us are satisfied we've got out of Egypt. We've not got into Canaan yet. Or to use the other figure of scripture, we're satisfied that we've water to the ankles instead of water to swim in. And if you go to some churches, you never get drowned. There isn't enough power and depth of water to drown you anyhow. Is that your church you mean? Okay. Okay. Look at this prayer that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will and at the same time filled with all wisdom and filled with all spiritual understanding and that you might walk worthy of the Lord and to all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. Now come on, are you wiser in God than you were last year at this time? Are you still as dumb? That's rough, but I'm asking a question. Are we increasingly... Peter says we're to grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Some people grow in grace, they don't grow in knowledge. Some people grow in knowledge, they don't grow in grace. There has to be a balance there. You might walk worthy of the Lord and to all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. Now, this is still his prayer, strengthened with all might according to his glorious power. Well, if that's possible, why in God's name is the church so weak? Filled with his glorious power, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering and joyfulness, giving thanks unto the Father which hath made us to meet, to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light who hath, he's talking about the past, hath delivered us from the power of darkness and translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son. You ask some people, are you saved? I don't know. Well, they're not saved. If you don't know you're saved, you're not saved. If you're in a dark room and somebody put you in a light room, would somebody have to say, you know what, this room's full of light? He has translated us from darkness into light, from the power of Satan unto God. Paul said that to a pagan king in a heathen court in the 26th chapter of Acts. And if you're going to be a preacher, you should read that every day of your life. He says, God has made me a minister. And the ministry is this, whether you're a missionary here in a country or a mission field like America. You know, every street is a mission field today. He says, God has called me to turn people from darkness to light, from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among them that are sanctified by faith that is in me. He's translated, pardon me, verse 13. He's delivered us from the power of darkness and has translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son, in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins, who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature. Now look at this. Verse 16. I'm going to stress it as though it were written in capital letters. For by him were all things created that are in heaven and are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities and powers. All things were created by him and for him. And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. And he is the head of the body, the church, which is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead. That in all things he might have the preeminence. For it pleased the Father that in him should all the fullness dwell. What fullness? The fullness of God. Remember when those people came to Jesus and said, you keep talking about your Father, show us the Father. He says, he that has seen me has seen the Father. The Father has the same mercy that I have. The Father has the same compassion I have. The Father has the same love I have. It pleased the Father that in him should all fullness dwell. Go back to verse 15, please. Who is the image of the invisible God? The firstborn of every creature. Notice that, he is the firstborn of every creature. Look at the middle of verse 18. Who is the beginning? The firstborn from the dead. But Luke 2.7 says that Mary, the blessed virgin Mary, she took there her firstborn son. You see, all history ended, all the Old Testament history ended at the cradle of Jesus Christ, which happened to be a stable, you remember. But then everything proceeds from him. If you have a good map of America with the sea around, you'll see that all the roads lead from California, they come down to the middle of the country, and then they all go up and join together going into New York. Then if you see what they call the sea lanes, black dots going from New York, you'll see they go up north, they go south around the South American coast, they go over the Atlantic. So just as everything ends in New York, at the birth of Jesus, all the Old Testament prophecies terminated, or most of them. You know, we read this so easily, don't we? I nearly had you sing tonight, Hark the Herald Angels Sing. It's a wonderful hymn. Written in England, but anyhow. It was a wonderful hymn because it was written by Charles Wesley. It's full of theology. Mild he laid his glory by, born that man no more may die, born to raise the sons of earth, born to give them second birth. What could you have better than that? Wesley puts it in another hymn, He laid his glory by. Have you ever wondered what the angels felt like going back to heaven without Jesus? They escorted him to earth, and we say they sang. It doesn't say they sang. I know a scripture that says angels sing. I know a scripture that says any women angels either. Ha ha, sorry. But all the angels said, Now, Sister Farrar, don't look at me like that. I won't talk to you for a week. No, come on now. I'm looking for the glass, and here it is. Well, the angels are masculine names. Michael, the archangel. Gabriel. Somebody says, It's easy to prove there's no women in heaven. Because it says there was silence for the space of half an hour. Oh, I think Mrs. Wesley will make it and win her two folk round here. Oh, I thought you were going. Patty got over, I thought she was going to walk out. Well, there you are. That's a little wisdom and nonsense, isn't it? Mary took her firstborn son. The supreme act in human history. Again, Wesley says, Mild, he laid his glory by. The heaven of heavens cannot contain him, and yet you press him into the womb of a woman. How do you do it? Only God could do that. Mild he laid his glory by, born that man no more may die. Born to raise the sons of earth, born to give them second. He's the firstborn. And because he's the firstborn by the Holy Ghost, we can be in the line of those who are born by the Holy Spirit of God. I believe the supreme need of America, the world tonight, is for somebody to start preaching about salvation. We're trying to get people filled with the Holy Ghost and they're still living a dirty life. They've never tarried at the cross and we're trying to get them to bow at the upper room. Raise your hands, we'll pray for you. Forget it. We're going to be born again of the Spirit of God. And that's the beginning and end, obviously. Mild he laid his glory by. Isn't it awesome when you think that angels bowed down before him continually because Hebrews 1 says the occupation of angels is to worship him. And he came to earth and men spit on him. Do you think the angels got angry about that? He laid aside all his prerogatives. He laid his glory by in another hymn, Wesley says, God was contracted to a span incomprehensibly made man. Deity took on the form of humanity. He laid everything on one side. Okay, so Paul says what? Writing to the Hebrews, it says, you, come on, lay aside every weight. Oh, isn't it so hard to lay aside your social life, lay aside your friends, lay aside other things? He never knew anything about tiredness. He never knew anything about hunger. And one day sits by the side of a well and a prostitute comes and he talks with her. And here the Lord of Lord, the King of Kings is there, sitting there asking for a drink of water. And he put all the water that's in the world there and he begs for a drink of water. And yet he says, I gave all I have for you and you can't be a disciple with anything less than that. You think you become a disciple because you lay your dirty sins on one side? What do you think God does with them? Ask most people, are you saved? If they say yes, you say, what are you saved from? Oh, from hell. Oh, well, that's wonderful. But it's still a fringe benefit. Are you saved from bitterness? Are you saved from anger? Are you saved from carnality? Are you saved from jealousy? Are you saved from pride? Are you saved from unholy anger? What are you saved from? Well, it pleased, pardon me, verse 19, it pleased the Father that in Him should all fullness dwell. What's all the fullness? Well, look at chapter 2 and verse 3. It says, In Him are hid all the treasures and the wisdom and knowledge. In Him. Jesus Christ, everything is packed into Him. He is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. In Him dwells all the treasures but they don't leap off the page. I had a preacher in my office the other day and he said, well, you talk about the Puritans and you talk about Thomas Shepherd who eventually founded Harvard University. You talk about the man that preached that awesome message, sinners in the hands of an angry God, Jonathan Edwards, who later became the principal of Yale. He went there when he was 13. He graduated as a valedictorian when he was 17. About a couple of years afterwards he went there and eventually became the, what do you call it now, the president. These men, what I say, they've got colossal intellects and yet they come humbly to the feet of Jesus Christ because he had the essence of all wisdom. But again, these things don't come to the surface. Why were the Puritans so majestic? Six huge volumes on Hebrews alone. Hawke was one of the greatest men of his day. Jonathan Edwards is a super intellect. There's a whole string of those men. I call them mighty in the scriptures. They were mighty men of God. Not because they had an extra IQ. You see, the trouble with the church today, the theologians are choked up with human wisdom but there's a wisdom from above which supersedes all earthly wisdom. But you see, the word of God says you ought to study. All people say, I read my Bible every day. Tell me when the last time did you study it? Verse 16 again. For by him were all things created that are in the heavens and in the earth. You see, what he's arguing about, there was a heresy about in those days that Jesus Christ was only equal with the angels. But he summarizes the whole of creation here. By him were all things created in heaven and in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones. They were saying there are other thrones, there are other systems. But this man is shattering all that by saying, under inspiration, these things in the earth, visible or invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created by him. That little baby feeding on his mother's breast, he created it. Do you think that Jesus didn't get hungry to go home to see his father? We were talking this week No, I never, never, ever saw Rhys Howells. I saw his son, talked with him, prayed with him. But when Rhys Howells went to break new ground in Africa, he left his son at home and he didn't see him for 15 years. Come on now. I'd like to go to a prayer meeting. My wife doesn't like to stay at home two or three hours. Young couples, oh, well, we've only just got married. And you leave business, you leave your career, you leave your family, you leave your love, the one you love, and off you go to dirty, stinking trenches. In the First World War, men walked for weeks and weeks up to their knees in water. It was trench warfare. They left their businesses, they left their careers, they left their homes. But I ask you, who is the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead? Isn't that amazing? No, sure it isn't, because we've known it since we were the height of a duck. He's the firstborn from the dead? He comes in and he breaks. This was not something just a bit different than God did when he created his son, Jesus Christ, the Holy Ghost did something he hadn't done in creative power for a man. The Ancient of Days becomes a Child of Time. The Heir of Eternity gets shut up in the womb of that woman, and he's separated from the Father for all those years, the 30 years he's on Earth. Well, what's it all about? Verse 19 again, It pleased the Father that in Him should all fullness dwell. And having made peace by the blood of His cross, on Earth or in Heaven, you see, he keeps arguing about that. These other people say there are systems up there, there are dominions, there are principalities, there are thrones, and they're equal with Jesus, but the Scripture here says they're not, that He has all authority and He has all power. Isn't it amazing that God gives breath to a man who's going to blaspheme him all day? Vitiate their bodies, waste their bodies, waste their time, waste their money, and God relaxes in Eternity and He doesn't interfere with their program, because He's appointed a day in which that babe is going to come back in glory and in power. He's going to show the whole world. This man's got it all summed up here. By Him I say whether they be things in Earth or things in Heaven, and to you who are sometime alienated and animated in your mind by wicked works, He hath now reconciled in the body of His flesh through death to present you holy and unblameable. Come on now, do you think Jesus just died so you could give up your stinking habits of smoking and spitting and get a new heart, a new mind? He died to make us holy. Not five minutes after we die, but now. People say, well I've determined, I'm going to get a sanctified heart before I die. Why, do you think Gabriel's going to come and say try this halo on because you're going to die five minutes after this? Nothing of the kind. The purpose of Jesus Christ in dying was not just to redeem us from all our sins or reconcile us to God, but to save us, he says, from all iniquity. In verse 25 he says, I made a minister according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you to fulfill the Word of God. That's our obligation. Verse 26, even the mystery which has been hid from the ages to whom God would make known what are the riches of the glory of the mystery among the Gentiles which is Christ in you the hope of glory whom we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom. And not just every man, it's not every apostle just. It's not every person who stands high in theology. Warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom that we might present every man perfect in Jesus Christ. Now that's God's goal in your life. Here on earth you may be made perfect. Isn't he saying the sermon on the mount? He says, blessed are the meek. Then he goes on to say blessed are what? The merciful, they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God. Be ye perfect even as your Father in heaven is perfect. We stumble over that. He's not talking about physical perfection. He's not talking about mental perfection. He's not talking about intellectual perfection. He's talking about moral perfection. He's talking about spiritual perfection. He's talking about perfect obedience. He's talking about perfect love. Paul says, the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost. But John says, perfect love casteth out all fear. We don't teach that anymore. Somebody who'd been here said, well, Rainer discourages me when he speaks on Friday nights. Why? Well, he talks so high up there I can't attain it. It reminded me of a very, very famous Scotsman who preached one Sunday morning to his church which was always crowded. And, as he went out to what we call, you call, the office. That sounds too business-like in England. They call it the vestry. There were some of his deacons there. One of them said, Ach, he says, Dr. Mackintosh, you were great this morning. But you were way over the heads, the heads of the people. So he came in at night and had the preliminaries and said, now I'm going to preach. Lift up your heads. So he caught them out. It amazes me that youngsters can study algebra and study this, that and the other. But if you happen to talk about sanctification or something, they're lost. It's laziness. Again, I remind you, no man that ever lived, you can talk about Finney, talk about Wesley, talk about Spurgeon, talk about anybody. Not one of them ever had a bigger Bible than I have. He used it better, that's all. There's a field near us and until a couple of years ago, cows grazed in it. And anything that was running around. They just had their time of their life. Then one day, a guy came along and he began to test and he dug a hole and they tell me, I don't know what it is, it's a place near Agape there on the other side. And they struck oil and it's a real gusher. Now that oil had been there for past generations, nobody touched it. You see, it's the same with this word of God. Paul says to Timothy, study to show thyself approved unto God. We don't study. The art of meditation is lost. Oh, you know, you can be filled with the Holy Ghost. Yes, I heard that when I was three years old. The Bible says be filled with the Spirit. It also says be still and know that I am God. We don't have time to be still. We'd rather live in the shallows than be still and meditate and contemplate God's holiness, God's mandacy, God's purity, God's love, God's awesomeness, God's wrath. We don't talk about wrath anymore. This is a sloppy age. You go to church, nobody's ever seen you before, they hug you and kiss you and say, I love you. That's bunkum, that's slop. Be careful, they may have germs. One of the strongest elements in love is sacrifice. God so loved the world he gave. What did he give it? He partied with his son for 33 years. He watched men brutalize him, spit on him, slap his face, pull the whiskers. You fellows with beards wouldn't like somebody to snatch your beard and try and pull and take the flesh. And Jesus never retaliated. And if you think that's not wonderful, I'll tell you what it is. It says, as he was, so we in this world. Do you know what I believe? If you're filled with the Holy Ghost, nobody will ever offend you. I've said it, but when people ask me where I live, I say Psalm 119 verse 156 to 65. Great peace have they which love thy Lord and nothing shall offend them. I'm not persuaded because you speak in tongues. I'm not persuaded because you do miracles. I'm not persuaded because you're a fireball preacher. That doesn't impress me at all. When you get under pressure do you retaliate like the carnal people outside? Jesus said, the prince of this world cometh and he findeth nothing in me. Well, if God, the Holy Ghost can put to death self in your life, the old devil can come and find nothing in you. If I give these fellows, one a glass of milk, one a glass of oil, one a glass of water and I say, let me see you run down there. They run, this fellow stumbles, he's got milk. What will come out of the glass of milk? Well, not oil, not wine. What's in will come out. What's in you will come out. You can time protect it, you can put a nice disposition, you can be kind and gentle in some situation, but that's not it. It's when suddenly you get jammed into something that's disagreeable, that's unjust, that's unkind. Come on, let me ask you a simple question. Why do I expect to be treated better in this rotten world than Jesus was treated? Was he less holy than you are? There's a very famous book written centuries ago. Who wrote it? Brother Lawrence on the imitation of Christ. It's good, but it's bunkum. It's not an imitation of Christ that I need, it's the impartation of Christ. It's Christ in you as he says, Christ in you the hope of glory, that all things he might have the preeminence. Look at Philippians, it's one, couple of pages back there, remember? Philippians and chapter 2, verse 5. Let this mind be in you. That's not intellectualism, that's disposition. Let this disposition be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. Who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but he made himself of no reputation and took upon himself the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of men and then being found fast as a man. Come on, you haven't got a computer, you haven't got a scientific thing that can tell you the distance between Christ in eternity and him being found in fast as a man. That's the greatest distance ever. It's not as far as the east is from the west. If you push the east so far and the west so far, they're going to meet somewhere anyhow. In spite of what Kipling said, east is east and west is west and never the twin shall meet. They do meet somewhere, they have to. But tell me the distance between the holiness of God and the sinfulness of man. You can't do it. Gabriel can't do it. Being found fast as a man. He's laid his glory by, he's laid his deity on one side as that were and he's intentionally shrunk his own life to be like a man and it's said being found in fast as a man he humbled himself. Do you know any other prince that's gone around the world and slept on the floor? Do you know any other team of men that have gone around the world without a purse? Here's the prince of glory. He goes all through life. What does he give? He has nothing. Do you ever know a king that died bankrupt? Do you know a king that died without a horse or without a house? What did he give to his disciples? The greatest king that ever lived says I'll give you something. It's invisible. It's intangible. But my peace not peace my peace the same peace that characterized my life when they tried to push me over the precipice I'll give you that same peace which passeth all understanding. And somebody smartly said it not only passes all understanding it passes all misunderstanding too. Well are you living there? Or are you touchy and edgy? Oh they said this about me poor you. You know most pastors have a diaper service. All they do is run around to little baby Christians all messing things up. Jesus gave them what? Peace I give you. My peace I give unto you. What's the world after tonight? It's Friday night they don't have to go to work tomorrow. So they get drunk, stinking drunk tonight doing foolish devilish things and all they get for it is a hangover and empty pockets. What are they after? A thing that can't be found in this world. I'll tell you how to spell it. J-O-Y As I've said to you so often the devil's substitute for joy is entertainment and it passes like that. But Jesus didn't say I give you joy he says my joy I give you my joy I give you and he says your joy no man taketh it from you. Oh I lost my joy. No you didn't you gave it up. The devil can't steal your joy. Circumstances can't steal your joy. Misrepresentation can't steal your it's yours you let it go. Just as a good book says hold fast to that which thou hast that no man take thy crown. Not no devil no man. Do you know what's going to happen? Remember the time when you had a conflict with God he was putting some pressure on saying do this do that. You sang with bliss and joy and tears running down your face as you took the communion cup. Well the whole realm of nature man he didn't ask you for that. He asked you for what you've got not what you don't have. We can all give God what we don't have. If I had a million dollars I'd do this. I think of an old Quaker story. I think it's a Quaker story. It's good enough anyhow. And the Quaker preacher said to this man John if thou hadst a million what wouldst thou do? All past he said I would give half of that million to the church and missions. Well if thou hadst 250,000 what would thou do? I would give half of it to missions and the church. And he came down and he says finally John if thou hadst a thousand dollars what wouldst thou do? He said you knew I had a thousand. You know we're all like that aren't we? Very brave. We're like the man that returned to his village and he'd bought them a new school and new other things and they had a celebration. And they at night they said this is our son that went away from our village poor and he's made it rags to riches. He's worth millions now. I wonder how it started. He said well when I was 21 years of age I was sitting here in a missionary meeting and I had ten cents in one pocket and I had ten dollars in the other. And I was going to give the ten cents when the basket came I thought no that won't do the Lord's watching. I'll give the ten dollars. Yes he said it was that night I decided to give the Lord a ten. It's right I'm worth now over 50 million dollars. But it all began on that seat where that young man's sitting. I gave him all I have. An old lady on the front row said I'd challenge you to do it again. Oh you didn't get that you were sleeping okay. He gave what he had when he'd only ten cents in a ten dollar bill but now he's worth 50 million. She said I'd challenge you to do it again. Give him the whole lot. God isn't going to ask you for what you don't have. We have those conflicts. You see I say again you should not make decisions. I don't like to ask people to sing to make decisions. They're stirred emotionally. The best time is to go out and get cold feet and some cold water and get in a place where it's not comfortable. And make your vows in loneliness there not on the surge of emotion. People get meetings worked up. How much will he give before next year? I don't believe for a moment in promises for next year. Jesus gave everything that he had. Step back in Philippines here a minute. Chapter 2. Onto verse 8 again. Being found fast as a man he humbled himself and became obedient unto death even the death of the cross. Wherefore God hath also exalted him and given him a name which is above every name. That at that name every knee shall bow of things in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth. Notice verse 10 says every knee. Verse 11 says every tongue. The end of the psalmist. Psalm 150 was it 150? Where the psalmist says let everything that hath breath praise the Lord. And then in Revelation chapter 5 it says everything in the air above under the earth in the sea everything at one time at God's command is going to praise Jesus Christ. Every knee shall bow every tongue shall exalt him. God has highly exalted him. Can we do less? Let me go back a minute here to the thing I was at. In Colossians 1 and verse 18. He's the firstborn from the dead. Romans 8 29 says he's the firstborn. I think it's 29. Romans 8 verse 29. For whom he did foreknow he did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son. That's what God's after. Not you giving up a few dirty sins. He's after getting full control of your personality and conforming it to the image of his son. Romans 12 says be not conformed to this world. Phillips does it very well when he says don't let this world push you into its mold. And that's what it's doing with thousands of Christians. There's no difference in their lifestyle. There's no difference in their language. Be not conformed you remember he says but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. The renewing again of your disposition. It's the very same word. Be not conformed be transformed is exactly the word in Greek I'm sure of Jesus being transfigured on the mount there. In all his splendor in all his majesty. Verse 18 he is the head of the church of the body the church who is the beginning of the firstborn from the dead. The firstborn from the dead. That in all things he might have the preeminence. There's no other place in your life for Jesus Christ except to have him preeminence. It's costly. Then we go to Romans 9 a minute there again. Romans 8. In this chapter it says it is Christ that died. Can his substitution be contested? It says in verse 34 he makes intercession. Can his supplication be contested? He says you're at the right hand of God. Can his sovereignty be contested? You know we're so wretchedly familiar with the word of God it isn't startless. These immense things. The no more insistent and grim fairy tales to most people. They go to church where there's never any explosion of joy and the explosion of exultation and magnifying the majesty of Jesus Christ. Because he rose from the dead. What do I get because of it? Let's run through Romans 8 quickly here. In chapter 1. There is therefore now no condemnation. What? Nobody got a hallelujah for that either? Do you remember when you were condemned? When you were guilty? When you were haunted? When you were taunted? With fear of exposure of your sins? You couldn't look up to God because there was condemnation there. There was a blackness there. Wesley as a hymn, we're going to learn it for Friday nights. And can it be that I should gain an interest in the Savior's blood? Died he for me who caused his pain? For me who him to death pursued? Amazing love, how can it be that thou my God shouldst die for me? Dear God, if he sent Michael to die for me, it would be wonderful. If he sent Gabriel to die for me, it would be astounding. But he didn't. He sent his son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin. No condemnation now I dread. I was raised among Methodists. Boy, could they sing. There's nobody can sing like the Welsh people, but we weren't Welsh. But I remember that big old organ we had up in the choir loft. A man called Mr. Cottle played it. The first time I went, I wonder what was wrong with the poor fellow. His legs were going like this all the time. He was trying to reach the keys, you know, and I thought he was in trouble. I thought, well, leave the room if you're feeling bad. But he went on and boy, he pulled the stops and that old organ rolled out and we sang long. My imprisoned spirit lay. Now, this is a drug addict. This is a man with crime. This is a man with six wives. Here is a man who is a scholar, a gentleman. He's another Nicodemus. His name is Charles Wesley. Somebody said he and Charles, he and John were the two most famous Christian brothers that ever lived. But he wrote the hymn, Can it be that I should gain an interest in the blood of the Savior's blood? Then he says, again this man who religiously, you know my trouble with Wesley, he was more spiritual and he wasn't spiritual than I am and I am spiritual. Do you know before he was spiritual he got up at 4 o'clock in the morning for his devotions? Do you know before he was ever saved he came to Georgia? I remember his diary, I have some of them somewhere. Not the original ones. And he says, I lay down in the forest that night. He came, where's Spencer? He came to the Indians. This scholar, this gentleman, his family was next to the royal family in England, they had servants, they had carriages, they had everything. And he lay down at night in the forest and woke up to find he was frozen to the ground. He said, I struggled with one arm and then when I got that free I pulled out the other. And then I was able to loose my locks, he had pretty long hair. Then he said, I released one leg and then the other. And then I got up under the stars, here it is between two and three in the morning and he's covered with frost and he's pushing it all off. This aristocrat, this man who had servants to wait on him, why did he do it? Why did Charles do it? He says, no condemnation now I dread. Then he goes on to say, my chains fell off. What chains? Was he a chain smoker? No. Was he a drug addict? No. People at that day were drug addicts by the thousands, by the outer day. Was he an evil living man? Was he lusting for flesh? No he wasn't. He was tied up in dead orthodoxy. He could have recited more scriptures before he was saved than you and I can afterwards. He had an intimate knowledge with God but he's not yet born again. Precious little woman, when I get to heaven I want to see that woman. I want to see a few of them anyhow. That's to make up for telling you they're quiet you see. They can't be quiet in heaven the women. You mean to say that William Booth's wife that shouted a thousand hallelujahs is going to be quiet in heaven? You think John Wesley's mother, godly mother, Susanna is going to be quiet in heaven? She's the cream of the crop. She was an intellectual too. I told you the other day about what was a fellow on the New England, Edward's, Edward's wife. It became known before she was married to him. They said there's a woman in New England, they gave the town, I've forgotten it, and they said and one reporter says the great being, being the eternal god, the heaven of heavens cannot contain him. And he comes and talks with this woman. You couldn't get a president of the United States to go stand at the side of some sticky fishy person. But here's a woman in a humble home, not at the White House, and god himself communes with her and the neighborhood knows it because she comes out transformed every time, not stuffed with knowledge but vibrant because she's been in eternity. That's it. Well, why in god's name don't we get there? We've got the same Bible, we've got the same one interceding for us, you know why? We've no appetite for it, that's why. We're spiritual one minute, then we're after money another, we're after some other wretched thing that we'll perish with the using. If you were sitting in a prison cell with a sentence of death, they said you're going to die at eight o'clock in the morning, and a man came at one o'clock and turned the lock and slipped a note and said, hey, there you are, you're free, there's your pardon. Do you think you'd know about it? Do you think you'd say to the fellow next door, Jack, I know you're sleeping but I want to wish for something in your head. I'm free. I'm free. Tell all the boys in the morning, won't you, that I'm free. Don't you think you'd have blasted the whole place down? I'm free! I've got something here that tells me that I'm free. The law of America is behind it. Our people don't get up from the altar when they repent, they're free, they're as bound as when they sat there. Here's a supreme miracle, that God can take the most twisted man, the most perverted man and clean him up and make him a new creature. He can take a gentleman and a scholar like Wesley. Well, I got to the first verse, that's not bad, is it? I'm not going to be too long here, I want to skip through this. Romans 8, there is to us who are born again, there is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who were to walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit. You see, there's a damnable teaching amongst preachers. I nearly mentioned the denominations. Oh, well, while you're in the flesh, you cannot please God. But they say, chapter 6, you're not in the flesh, now what do you do? You make your wretched, crumbled, smelly theology to cover your failure? The reason is you don't want to give up that bad habit. It's a vicious hold on you. You enjoy it. You repent and sin and repent and sin and repent and sin. Well, that makes you a good Mohammedan or a good Catholic, but it makes you a lousy Christian, if there's such a thing. We're going to get that hymn. We're going to, at least we're going to ask to get it. You've got all the deep, deep love of Jesus at the back of the book. We're going to put this other one in the front page. Let's get going this week. There is therefore now no condemnation to those of us who are in Christ Jesus. Verse 2, the law of the spirit of life has made me free from the law of sin and death. Again, I say, I thought this, I thought this envelope up in there, and I say, now listen, I'm Leonard Raven. I'm a preacher. I'm known on lots of places. Now watch. Now listen, you wouldn't do it for that guy, but listen, I'm going to throw you in there. You stay up there. Listen, I told you to stay up there. Stay up there. You know the thing won't obey me? You say, of course it won't. Why not? Because there's a law of gravity. But I go to the airport, and I see a thing that's got 500 people in it, and each of them have two pieces of baggage, and that makes a thousand pieces of baggage. If it's crossing the Atlantic, it's loaded to the gills with gas, so it can go for ten hours. Ten hours flying from Dallas to London. That huge monster that's got a, it's got a village inside of it. It's got 500 people. A thousand pieces of baggage. Thousands of gallons of gas. And it soaks through the sky. Why should I lie down? What power has gravity on it? None. Well, the law of sin and death would pull me down like that, but I have a power inside of me. The law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus. The same Holy Ghost that conceived Jesus Christ in the matrix of the Virgin Mary conceived Jesus Christ in me. If Christ isn't living in you, you may be moral, you may be good, you may be exemplary, you may be clean, but if Christ isn't living in you, you're still lost, you're doomed, you're damned. It's as plain as that. You see, people don't see us liberated. We go down the street, frowning, oh, I have to have my taxes ready by the end of the week. Well, thank God you have them. Go live in Russia where you won't have to pay them. Go live up the Amazon, you'll have no trouble. The law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me free from the law of likeness, from the law of sin and death. Verse 3, what the law could not do in it, because it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh. You've no right to have it. If you have sin, you've got contraband in you, you've got something which is illegal in the sight of God. You've no right to have it. You're giving the devil a hold in your life. He came not only to deliver us from sin, he came to deliver us from fear. We don't have the spirit of fear, we have the spirit of love and the power of a sound mind and perfect love. If I love him with all my heart, soul, mind and strength, if this amazing Christ I read about who is the creator of all things and to whom all things are moving now, the world's don't realize that, governments don't realize that. Poor Mr. Reagan, he's got a million headaches on him, he's going to fight the Russians and talk with them. And you know they've been doing that since I was a kid? We've got the United Nations, you won't remember, before that there was the League of Nations, before that there was the Versailles Treatment, before that there was a League of Nations in The Hague in Holland. You know, if we had failed in the church, maybe we have. But if we had failed in you know, you think all the failures in the church, the politicians that can lead us a million miles ahead, they fail, they lie, they lie, they lie to get into power, they lie when they are in power. But nobody calls them hypocrites, all the hypocrites are in the church, according to the world. That the righteousness of the Lord, verse 4, might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit. This is what you get, listen, if Jesus Christ does preeminence in your life, this is all that you inherit in this amazing chapter. Verse 8, so that they that are in the flesh cannot please God, but then, before you breathe easily, verse 9, but ye are not in the flesh but in the spirit. If so be the spirit of God dwelleth in you. Go down to verse 10, and if Christ be in you, what does verse 9 say? If the spirit of God is in you. Verse 10, if Christ be in you. Verse 11, if the spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead. Come on, if the spirit of the living God, it's easy to sing it, spirit of the living God. If you're a true believer, you have the spirit of God, you have the spirit of Christ, and you have the Holy Spirit. With those superpowers dwelling in my mortal flesh, can't I overcome the world, the flesh, and the devil? He that raised up Christ from the dead, he's the firstborn amongst many brethren. He's the firstborn from the virgin, he's the firstborn from the grave. And because of that, he will quicken our mortal bodies. What does verse 10 say? Verse 13, if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die. But if through the spirit you mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. For as many as are led by the spirit of God, they're the sons of God. Isn't that something? I don't have to blunder, I don't have to try things and do that. I live by the witness of the spirit. He says, no, I stop. He says, go, I go. I'm not under self-control, I'm not under devil's control, I'm under spirit control. And let me say again, you've heard me say often before, God does not owe me any explanation. He says, go do it. We talked with a man this week, I don't know where it was Martha, but talking with her brother about his children. I don't know if we've been around so many corners, but this man said he had three children. Oh, I know where it was. He said, we've raised three children, they've never once answered us back. I say that about our three boys. They've raised them in love, they've raised them knowing when Daddy says yes, he means yes, and when Daddy says no, he says no. When Daddy says I'll do this, he does it. Why do you expect your children to obey you when you don't obey God? As soon as you get into line and do God's will, everywhere he tells you, your children will fall into line. Verse 15, we have not received the spirit of bondage, bless God forever. No condemnation, now I dread in verse 1, we've not received the spirit of bondage again and to fail you, ye spirit of adoption, whereby we cry Abba, Father. In one of the great schools in England, there was a boy who always came Christmas term, he went home Easter term, and he went home after, but he came in a spot, a sparkling gorgeous Rolls Royce with a chauffeur driving, and they take what we call tuck boxes, I guess you don't know what that is. When a boy comes to school, he has a hamper full of oranges and apples and candies and all kinds of stuff and money. Well, you know what boys are, most of them have eaten everything up by about the end of the first two weeks. This little guy could go to town when they had a break and he refueled, you know, he got his new oranges, new apples, new candies, new everything. And if a boy was broke, he would say, why don't you get some chocolate? I don't have any money. Oh, I'll give you a quarter, here you are, here you are. You don't have one? Here. Handed them all out. One little envious kid got so mad about it. He said, I want to tell you something. You're a swank, you think because you drive up in a Rolls Royce and you live in a castle and you've got all these other things, you think you're superior. I want to tell you something. You'll cry. No, I won't. But I want to tell you. You know that man, that big man that rides in a Rolls Royce and all the rest of it, yeah? He's not your father. You said, I was going to give you a bloody nose. He won't alter it. He's not your father. When you go home at Christmas, ask him. So when he got home, the little guy ran down, ran me a house. I used to say, you could drive a bus down it and a wide staircase. And he went up to his daddy's room, knocked on the library door. Daddy says, come in John, come in. What's wrong with you? Daddy, a boy at school says, you're not my father. Are you my father? No. You're not? No. Come here a minute. Took him to the window and he said, look, you see the lake down there? You see that village over there? I own that. I own this castle. I own three Rolls Royces. I own the big house you were staying at for your vacation. I've got more money than you could ever count. But you're not my daddy. No. Your daddy and mummy were bad people, I have to tell you that. But they were killed in an air raid in Liverpool when the Germans came. And they wiped out your daddy and your mummy. And we went to see a matron that we know. She runs a boy's school with 500 boys. And we got permission to go through them. And they absolutely took the lot We sifted out of the 500, 15 boys. And daddy said, well, let's take the lot. Take 15, adopt 15 boys. As Tozer would say about his six boys, he was like raising a herd of buffaloes. Fancy trying to raise 15 of them. They got it down to five. Finally, out of the five, they chose one. And he said, you know what, son? You are mine now. I've adopted you. This castle is yours. The horses you ride are yours. The Rolls Royces are yours. That town over there is yours. The money in the bank is yours. I changed your name, but now you are mine legally. And now you inherit all I have. Go back and tell that little kid that laughed at you. He went back to school. He said, did you ask your dad? Yes, I did. What are you laughing about? You cried when I told you. He said, yeah, yeah, yeah. Didn't he tell me? Let me tell you. He told me about everything I'm going to inherit. Millions of money, Rolls Royces, castle. But this was a great thing. He said, when they lost their little boy in death and the doctor said they wouldn't have any more, they went to a school with five hundred. Out of the five hundred, they chose fifteen. Out of the fifteen, they got five. Out of the five, they got me. They did. He said, yeah. He said, my dad set out to tell you this. When you came along at your house, they had to have you. They had no choice. But he said, my dad, he had five hundred to choose from. He chose me. And he changed my name. But dear God, don't you ever get excited? Don't you say, he found me when I was worthless and hopeless? He changed my nature. He changed my name. He changed my destiny. I'm going to live and reign with him a million, billion years? And you think I'm going to go through this rotten, stinking world, droopy, shouldered, not daring to lift my head to say to some drug addict or some harlot, you know, there's something God can deliver you from. You're slashed with guilt. You're murdered by the fact that you've had babies and murdered them. I reminded you the other week of Jeremiah, why God says to Jeremiah, I knew you when you were in the womb. I believe God knows every baby in the body of every woman in America tonight. Not only that, he ordained him. He chose a baby, he ordained it, he sanctified it. He said, I'm going to give you a place there that forever and ever amongst men you'll be respected as Jeremiah the weeping prophet. You know, when Paul, when John says, even now we're the sons of God, it doesn't appear what we're going to be like. Let me say another thing and then I'll close. I went to hear C.S. Lewis one day. He was a farmer. I thought he'd be like my friend Dr. Martin Lloyd Jones in London. A small, petite, sharp little guy. Instead of big boisterous looking farmer, pardon me farmer. He had a big round face, red cheeks, looked a bit overweight. I thought, it's the same old thing. Every time I go to hear a celebrity, he can't get here, his plane broke down and I'm looking at this fat old big farmer. And then the president said, it's my joy to introduce to you one of the greatest men living today. One of the greatest Christians, marvelously redeemed. His name is Dr. C.S. Lewis. And the big guy got up and he waddled like this. He got over the pulpit and he said, I believe in the resurrection. The implication was, if you don't, you're a fool. He spoke for about an hour. At the end, he talked about a friend of his who had a little boy and he always wanted to ride. And his daddy said, not yet, you ride a pony. And he got him a pony. His mummy and daddy went riding and he couldn't ride by himself. The groomsman had to hold the reins and he took the reins. But eventually, he got big enough to ride. And daddy said, you can go through the gates of the estate, but once you get to that big oak tree, you've got to turn round and come back. Now, don't get whistling, don't get forgetting, because right round the bend that's hidden, there's a road. And if you ride round on your pony, you'll be cut down like that and I'll lose my child. He watched the child a number of times. One day, he saw the little fellow coming back with the reins like this and his head was down. And daddy ran round and said, did the horse buck you again? No, no, no. Did you fall off? No. Well, why are you so sad? He said, daddy, I rode to the tree and at the other side, there's a beautiful red horse. And he said, I stopped there and the horse came up and nuzzled me. And he said, daddy, And he winned it. And he said, ha, ha, ha, ha. Call that a horse? That's not a horse. You can't ride. That's not a horse. That's an apology. That's a pony. And he said, the horse dashed off and went round the field cantering and, boy, did it show off. And it kept winning and saying, come on, come on, come on. Ride my, ride me, ride me. No, you can't ride. He said, daddy, I don't want to ever have that pony again. I want you to buy me that beautiful horse. He said, that man has over a hundred horses. I can buy the lot if you want, but you can't ride. I noticed when you were riding, coming up the driveway, that your posture isn't good. You don't sit properly. You don't mount easily. You don't dismount easily. You don't hold your riding properly. You have at least five major faults in your riding. Now, you put them all right. And you say that horse kept saying, get over the fence, and I'll show you what a horse ride is like. Now, he said, you know what I do? He said, I'm like the little boy, but instead of looking over the edge there, the hedge, I look into eternity. I see my glorified body. Here's C.S. Lewis, with what I call a colossal intellect, saying, my mind won't stretch enough. I can't lay hold of the truths of God. They're so vast, they're so incomprehensible. I get so near to him, and then the next day there's something like that. I'm hot, I'm cold, I'm erratic. And I see my glorified body, my glorified intellect, where for all eternity we're going to go to school and never get tired, never get bored. God's going to be unveiling the mystery of the ages. I say, Lord, I'd like to come there, get my glorified body, my glorified intellect, my glorified emotions. I want the total new creation that he died to redeem. I want a body like unto his glorious body. I want a mind like his glorious mind. And he said, the Lord says to me, see, sit down a minute. I've been watching your life for the last few weeks. You've got major problems. Number one, you are erratic. Number two, your fever for me goes down. Number three, you're not always long suffering. You're not always gentle. You're not always meek. Sometimes you retaliate. You don't have the total spirit of Christ. Now, I'll tell you what I'll do, C.S. He says, you go back now for another five years and learn these five lessons. And when you've learned the five lessons, you can come over the hedge and you can ride to all eternity with a glorified intellect, a glorified mind, a glorified spirit. No limitations. That's the greatest lesson I ever learned from my friend's little boy who wanted to ride a pony. And his daddy said, you don't know how to ride. You've heard me say this often. You'll hear it more if you come. I do not stand at the judgment seat of Christ and God say to me, look, I left you a bank book full of checks signed in the blood of Jesus. He didn't use a half of them. I don't want to stand up before the Apostle Paul and all the saints of all the ages, all the apostles, all the martyrs, all the people that were burned at the stake. I don't want to stand there with Zacharias there or Jeremiah and David and all the others. I don't want to see millions of eyes looking on me. And as I approach the Christ, who has the preeminence now over everything, I don't I can't wait to see Hitler bow the knee to Jesus Christ. Genghis Khan bow the knee to Jesus Christ. Mussolini bow the knee to Jesus Christ. Tsar of Russia bow the knee to Jesus Christ. The Caliphs of Baghdad, the Maharajas of India, the kings of England, all the people of all the ages bow the knee to Jesus. And then I'm going to stand there by myself and Jesus says, look, I died to give you a total redemption. I tried to get you into the deeps and you stayed there watered the ankles. I tried to teach you something about praying in the air of the spirit in eternity and you didn't do it. I had many things to tell you, but you can't bear them. Well, thank God you're at, I've seen talent at last days. I guess you're graded according to this, that and the other. But the grading is going to be difficult when you get there. No, I don't enjoy thinking that Finney, Wesley, all the rest only have the same Bible I have. Yes, sure I'll preach over your heads. Don't you think you ought to reach up for something? Don't you want vision into eternity? Do you want to live like the rest of miserable Christians around? Unless you see Christ in all his glory with such shrunken concepts of God's glory, we're happy. Somebody sends a letter with five dollars in it, very nice. Somebody says something nice, very nice. It shouldn't matter you're a hill of beans if people damn you every day. If people curse you every day. If people attach your name to unclean things. Why should you worry? A man called me for about forty-five minutes tonight. He called me two nights ago for forty-five minutes. Called me a few nights before that for I don't know how long. He's troubled because he's under pressure. He's getting criticism. I said get into Romans 8. It is God that justifies. Who is he that condemns? It shouldn't worry you that much as long as you know your relationship with God is right. What they say, whether they call you a devil or a demon or what. More and more and more as we press on to the last hours of this generation. We need to live with eternity's values in view. We shouldn't go up and down with what we possess or what we don't possess. The old Methodist used to say my joy is to read my title clear to mansions in the skies. Christ has a preeminence. He had a preeminence in Paul's life. He says I keep my body under. He had his control of Paul's life because he said I can abound and I can be abased. He says I can be I know how to suffer need. I know how to live bountifully. You see, if you don't care for your religion just like the folk around about you and we judge each other by each other that's damnable. If you judge yourself by lots of cripples around about you, you'll be a cripple ten years from now. God wants you to move into fullness. Wants you to move into the place where you're steadfast and unmovable and always abounding in the love of God. Only a risen exotic Christ can make that possible. He's got to have a preeminence in my living. He's got to have preeminence in my thinking. He's got to have preeminence in my time that I give so much time every day of my life. It's to have preeminence in my language. In all things, not some things. Not putting on a Sunday garb and being particularly holy on Sundays. Every day should be a holy day for a man who has the Holy Ghost. What's the difference? I'm not holy because I put on a Sunday suit. I'm not holy because I carry my Bible and get up to the front of the church or something. I'm holy by the indwelling of the Spirit of the Living God. I was going to say this earlier. Let me say it while it's on my mind, you know. We've been here eight years in this area. Dale and Betty are responsible for that almost. Dale offers a nice piece of land which we've enjoyed. But I've been here eight years. In that time I must have interviewed or counseled hundreds if not thousands of people. They can't get in to see Dave Wilkinson. He's barred. You can't get in. You couldn't get in to see, I couldn't get in to see Tony. Nowadays you can't get in to see Melody and I'm not against that. You see I get guys coming in. I had a letter this week from a doctor in Australia. He said, Mr. Ramey, I'll come to America if you'll talk to me for half an hour. Now that man's hungry isn't he? Of course if you can give me an hour it would be better. Come all the way from Australia? A young man wrote, I'm in a certain church in Memphis. I'll drive down there. If you'll give me half an hour I'll drive. You see I've been giving people half hours, half hours, half hours, hours for eight years. But I've finished with it. One day a week my office is open for people who want to come. The hours are nine to twelve. Not for you to say that time. The limit is half an hour. The average is fifteen minutes. From nine to twelve from one to five. Except Fridays I don't see anybody. Because I'm certain of this. At my time running out I'm not twenty five. And if I was I'd still do it. I say no to celebrities. I say I don't care. I say listen now Monday is the only day I have people interview them or counsel them. If you can't do it forget it. I'm sorry. I'm determined now to get down to some deeper writing, some deeper praying. I don't care who I offend. If you want to live sloppy and slip in and think your time is your own, it isn't. Any more than your breath is your own. Your money isn't your own. He has to have preeminence in every aspect of my life. He won't take second place in anything. I want you to live in let him have the preeminence. The three Hebrew children, the three preeminence. What happened? They walked into a furnace. Do you think they would have chosen that? Well they deliberately did. But I don't know any other time that the form of the fourth walked with them until they got into a furnace heated seven times hotter than they've been ever heated before. When it gets hotter we get on the phone pray for me. Call the pastor. And that's the very thing. A woman called me a while ago. Will you pray the Lord will take this off me? No I won't. Why not? Because he put it on you. You've been asking him to show you this and to lead you into that and he's doing it. Now you want me to pray? Not on your life. Pray through on that issue. The days are going to be tough ahead of us I'll tell you that. We better have on the whole armor of God. We better write the apostle Paul and say this one thing I do. He submitted his body. He says his body was under control. His appetite was under control. He gives away his family. He gives away his pedigree that Christ may have the preeminence in all things. And you've got hundreds of people since then. This generation of Christians is, IS, is responsible for this generation of lost people. And there are more people lost tonight than in any period in history. I'm going to pray for them. Spencer told us last week or the week before about the Indians. I was going to bring the record. I didn't bring it. I'll bring it next week. Two million Indians. Oh, it's so glamorous. One of our young men is leaving home this week. He's going to fly to Miami. And then from Miami he's taking a boat. He's going around the west, east coast of South America. And he's going up the Amazon to Indians. Good Lord, why? Sure they need an answer. There are two million Indians in this country almost neglected. I'm told the wildest Indians in west, western Canada. A friend of mine, a doctor friend went over there. He was terrified. How did he get there? Wildness, drunkenness, immorality. It's a sport. Ask Spencer about the witchcraft. What is, was it eleven young men died recently? In what period? Eleven young men under twenty years of age committed suicide. And they were building glass churches. God pities. We're trying to do something on TV and those people under, extra pair of moccasins to wear, never mind the TV. They're all on our doorstep. They're our fellow beings. It's easy to pursue anything. You see, Christ asked to have a preeminence. I'm seeing that. I wonder sometimes it hasn't been too much preeminence even to talk about revival. That's secondary to Jesus Christ. Doesn't matter what it is. I'll say this and I don't mean any wrong way. Abortion can get in the way. Humanism. We're chasing the humanists. The moral majority can do it, not in God's name. You know again the Marines just want a few select men. Doesn't that sound nice? And all the guys fall for it. I'm one of the chosen few. I'm one of the special young men in America. Well God's looking after special men, not intellectually, but men who have no will but God's will. Men who have no desires but God desires. Men who have no purpose to do this one thing that God called us to do. To become mature. And then go out with a blazing heart and say that you don't need to carry one more thing in your life which is bondage. I'll say this last thing. Reading this, I'm going to start reading again. Madame Guillaume Life. That precious, brilliant, intellectual woman says, I enjoy my chains in prison. Chains. She had fellowship because Paul was chained once. My freedom is thy grant control. I used to like to ride the trains in this country. I rode them from New York right through to California. Wonderful, wonderful trains. We don't have them now. Same way. But I said to conductor one day, we're flying, aren't we? He said, so we're doing 80 miles an hour at least. I hope the thing keeps on the track. He said, I hope it does too. That train was only free as long as it was bound to that railroad track. Once it got off that it's dangerous. It's a matter of death. If you don't have the Holy Ghost to guide you in this book, you can come up with all kinds of fancy theology. But the simple thing is Jesus died for our sins. He died to purify us. He died to liberate us from the captivity and bondage of guilt, condemnation, and the other things. A weight on our conscience. He wants to empty the whole thing and then go out liberated. I preached in Calvary Baptist Church in New York. A few months, a year after, I saw a young lady. She said, when you preached in Calvary Baptist such and such a day, you preached on Isaiah 6, and most likely I would. That night, I went home, and I really met God. And I've been to Bible school. And I'm going to the mission field. I said, to what? You're just going to teach them all the notes you gathered in Bible school, shake the dust off, and say I got these in America? If you haven't an experience... A man with an experience is never at the mercy of a man with an argument. Can you say no condemnation? I'm free. I have no inward bondage. I have no inward guilt. I have no vicious habit that holds me down. I have no secret lusting. He's cleaned me up. I'm not the man I was. I'm a new creation. If any man is a new creation, he has a new heart, he has a new mind, he has a new vocabulary, he has new interests. If he hasn't, he isn't born again. That's all there is to it. You know, these blessed old Methodists and Salvationists, they knew they'd been born again. And boy, they went down and they faced hell and darkness. And they turned England upside down. The Salvationists and the Salvation Army went into 70 countries in 90 years. And some of the greatest, richest people in England followed the banner of the Salvation Army that had blood and fire on it. Now, we'd rather go somewhere and have a little weekend meeting. We'd get a team up and all have guitars and sing some nice little popular songs. I don't find many people in those groups that are going out to burn out for God. Somebody's going to have to answer for the darkness and heathenism of the upper areas of the Amazon. Or the English Indians. They should be on our conscience. We should not feel a sense of guilt about it. But you see, if you haven't been emancipated, we're still in bondage. I came back finally to say this girl. I said, what are you going to tell them? Are you going to just explain Romans as your teacher told you? Chapters 1 to 7, then 8 to 11, then 12 to 16? Is that all you're going to do? Give them some dusty theology? Can you go say, transform me? I have an assurance. I have the witness of the Spirit. I'm born again. I know I've passed from death unto life. I know I'm a new creature. I have new interests. I have new desires. I have new longings. Are you going to hand them something of theology? Are you taking them a bunch of tracts? Or are you going to say, I've come to live amongst you, and I'm going to live amongst you as though Jesus Christ were inside my skin. I'm going to let you see that I have love, that beareth all things and believeth all things. I'm going to let you see the prince of this world comes and he finds nothing in me and he goes back to hell bleeding. He says, I can't get a finger in the life of that man I once dominated. Is this high-polluting Christianity? It's Bible Christianity. If it isn't, don't believe it. But he didn't die to leave us in bondage. He didn't die to make us holy on Sundays. Give him preeminence one day. Love him, love him, love him. If you love him, you'll keep his commandments. If you love him, you'll keep the Sabbath day holy. You won't make excuses to go shopping because tomorrow or the day after is Canton Fair. I'm not so sure you'd like to die in Canton Fair. And the Lord says, what are you doing here? I was in Canton Fair. He said you should have been in church or worshipping. You better not go anywhere where you won't like to be found if Jesus comes. Spencer, we're going to pray for the Indians again tonight. They're on my heart much this week. I hope, if you've got unsaved loved ones, you'll cry to God, call to God tonight. You want them to be emancipated. Why? Because they're under condemnation. Because they're burdened with guilt. Because they're haunted with sinful memories. And they haven't seen much of a joy in your life that you've been emancipated and there's no condemnation. And they're looking for it. Looking for a role model, not just tracts you stick in their hands. They're looking to see you in flesh and blood living like Jesus Christ. Giving him preeminence. Give me a chaplain. We're going to pray, as I usually thank you. As I usually say at this time, if you wish to go, you're free to go. We'll pray another hour at least, I'm sure. We've got to see a breakthrough amongst these precious Indians. There was a great Indian years ago called Lorenzo Dow. Do you know about him, Spencer? I've got a book that think about him going across America. A full-blooded Indian from a tribe down in southern part of Florida. He was a brain amongst the Indians. This is a day, you muscle men, you spend so many blessed hours pumping iron. Oh, I want to play with you. Best boy around here playing racquetball. Forget it. If you're going to wear yourself out, wear your britches out on your knees. Going to wear your voice out. Where is our crying in supplication? Time's short. Maybe if an angel could speak to us, he might say from heaven to earth, oh America, America, thou that killest the prophets. How often would I have gathered thee, but ye would not. Your day is finished. It's not going to last much longer. And I'm determined I'm not going to live as I've lived before anyhow. I look to see God render heavens and come down even on Tyler. Tell me this, do you wish everybody in Tyler area had as much of God as you have? Would we do anything if they had? If they had only as much love, only as much zeal, only as much passion for the lost, how far would we get? It's going to take a holy band of holy men and women to move this generation, to move this area. But Dr. Toglio said to me, sometimes, Len, we need a bit of anger when we preach I think I get angry sometimes too. But I don't get angry with people, thank God. I get angry that there's a hundred and nine churches in Tyler and there's not one church where one person gets saved every week. If we had one person saved every week, we would have over a hundred saved every week. What would that be in a year? And yet we've gone year after year after year. People come out to get warmed up again. They come to, the altar doesn't mean a thing to anybody anymore. The altar is for one thing. Sacrifice or death. If you don't mean it, keep away from it. I had to take my children to the doctors when they were sick. I didn't take them every week. People say, I do have a marvelous altar service every Sunday. If you do, you've got a sick church. The only place at the altar is to travel and weep. Go home and pray at home. If we had one person that, come on, think of it, a hundred and nine people saved every week in Tyler alone. What we would have in a year? What would you have in New York where it's about two thousand churches? But we go on, go on. Oh, we're giving to missions. Good Lord, that costs nothing. A bit of surplus cash. We're going to have to get into line and do some fasting as well as praying. It's time we got to realize this, as I asked you before. When are we going to get serious about being serious about lost men and women? Sure, I'm disgusted with the church. Sure, I'm dissatisfied with the church. Sure, I'm disappointed with the church. But it's not going to stay that way. I thank God for those people underneath. I thank God for those churches where they're praying from eight, what was it, six to eight? Another six to seven. God will do something. I'm meeting people I'll always say, I've got a burden for Tyler. Glory to God, so have I. Well, now, we're going to pray. Again, if you're happy to go, I'll understand if you have to pull out. You just feel free to go. We're going to pray.