In this sermon, the speaker reflects on the dedication and discipline of a young Chinese girl who practices diving for hours every day for five years. He uses this example to challenge the audience to examine their own commitment to spiritual growth and transformation. The speaker also highlights the need for a revival in the world, emphasizing that without a divine intervention, society is at risk of decline. He criticizes the reliance on entertainment as a substitute for true joy and emphasizes the importance of using one's resources wisely and being accountable for one's actions.

We're so glad we haven't to build an altar, shed the blood of bulls and goats, seek for a mediator amongst men. We thank you for the one who for two thousand years has been living to make intercession for his saints. And therefore because of him we come with boldness, with confidence, we now draw nigh and father our father cry. Lord we bless you for the gift of your holy word. We thank you that holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. We thank you spirit of the living God you're still the same tonight. Lord take the things of Jesus and reveal them to us. Lord give us a glimpse as it were of eternity tonight. Father we live in such a troubled world. There is no balm in Gilead according to the ideas of some men. But we thank you that that fountain is still open for sin and uncleanness. Millions there have been supplied but still it flows as fresh as ever from the Saviour's wounded side and none need perish. We bless you the light of the world shines in the midst of the terrible darkness that's over the earth. And he's going to shine forever and forever. Again Lord we bless you for our freedom tonight. We think of those areas of the world ravaged by war. Some are ravaged by poverty. Some of them with disease. Some of them with terrible floods that have overtaken even millions we're told in some parts of the world. Tonight Lord we live in such luxury. We live at ease. We pray jobless tonight. We thank you as some old saint has said that your word the word of God comforts the disturbed and disturbs the comfortable. Lord we recognize tonight we've just made one stop here tonight on our pilgrimage to eternity. Again Lord we just plead that the Spirit will take the things of Jesus and reveal them to us. And we give you thanks in his name. Thank you be seated. I spend most of my days it seems at this present stage in my life counseling people. On Thursday we had what 14 visitors to the house and mother gives them all the cookies that she makes and a cup of tea and you can tell the preachers they always take more cookies. But this week over and over they've asked this question what do you see in the future? Well I do know this that this is not just the most critical hour in America's history. It's the most critical hour in world history. We either have revival or we're sunk. America cannot last another decade without a divine invasion and revival is a threat to our system. It's a threat to our way of life. It's an invasion as D.N. Panton said over a year ago. Revival is a breath from God on a situation that threatens to become a corpse and I think that's pretty good. As we came up tonight I was thinking of a statement by Jesus when he said one sign of the end of the age is what? Not just wars and rumors of wars but distress of nations. But he added something else. You see if you talk about that people knowing history will say there have been times many times when the world has seemed as though it's going to collapse be destroyed. But Jesus said at the end of time the perplexity of nations with what? What did he say? Distress of nations with perplexities. Nobody knows the way out. So we're the biggest air force in the world. He doesn't got those men out of Lebanon. He doesn't got that little rascal out of Panama. What has he done? You see we're driven right back to one tremendous need in this hour and that is a tremendous outpouring of the spirit of God. The other morning I usually go to my office about midnight or half past eleven for two or three or four hours and I've done the opposite. I went to bed about ten, woke up about two and a verse at the end of what? The 18th or 19th chapter of Revelation began to turn over in my mind. It talked about men who deal with silver and gold, men who deal with flesh, men who deal with precious stones, men and women who deal with cloth and silks, and it says and those who deal with the souls of men. Well who deals with the souls of men? The Ayatollah Khomeini can get hundreds and hundreds of men lining up every day because he said if you die in battle you go immediately into eternal bliss. Dealing with the souls of men. There are some people who say well if you die don't worry we'll pray you out you'll get it you get deliverance and we're dealing in the souls of men. There's a revival which is causing a lot of anxiety. There are two manifestations of it. One is in Africa. Three weeks ago we were preaching my dear son David, Sylvia Hurden, he's a super preacher. She'll be preaching here tonight and we were preaching in a hotel in uh I wouldn't know. In Tulsa. A lot of students came from ORU. Not who are you but ORU. And they said Mr. Regan when are you preaching at ORU? I said the same day that the Pope gets married. Same chance that I have anyhow. But a lady waited for us after the last meeting. A very lovely lady. A great big black lady, beaming, radiant. She said Mr. Ravenhill, she said you mentioned twice in the last two days about a man called Reynard Bonkey. I said yes. Oh. She said well I'm a missionary in Algeria. And she said recently I was in Zimbabwe at a meeting of this famous black man. He's not a black man. Famous man that's preaching in Africa. Reynard Bonkey. I said quite a meeting. Meeting she said. You know what lovely voices these black folk have. I wish I was like that. Meeting she said. I said yes. Five hundred thousand people there. Wouldn't you like to go to a meeting like that? What happened? She said Mr. Ravenhill when you go to a meeting often it's a hundred thousand, a hundred and fifty thousand, two hundred thousand, two hundred and fifty thousand. And she said just like you see the sometimes the the wind comes with great force and bends all the cold up. The spirit will come in the meeting and thousands, not dozens, thousands just fall there, prostrate and strike. Cry for mercies. Try to forgive those. Now you tell some of your big shop preachers that are theologians. All that's emotion. I'll tell you how much emotion it is. I met a man since then who had just come from Africa. And he said brother Lenin in Nairobi where this man had been preaching. There was such a move of the spirit of God that a month after he finished preaching boys were lined up by the hundreds of every police station in the state. Confessing sin, confessing crime, bringing all their rotten things that they'd stolen and crying to God forgive us, God's forgiveness. Don't break the law on us. Now that's revival. Our revivals don't get over the threshold of the church. The same people come for repairs every time they have a revival. You can tell they'll go to the altar. Every time they come up. One woman told me she'd been at the altar fourteen times. Well think how many times she'd missed the blessing of God. But this great revival is moving there in Africa. There's maybe a greater move in South America. There's a Bible school up in North West United States. Is it called Montlomar? Is that the name? Montlomar. What pedigree are they? Presbyterians, Pentecostals, Methodists, and Lennonites. What are they? Fun? Into denomination? Very good. So am I. They belong to my group. Okay, there's a revival. Okay. This is from the Associated Press, October 2nd of this year. President Ezra Taft Benson addressing the World Congress of Mormons says this, My good saints, I don't know the word I mean, my good saints, we have a very great work to perform in a very short time. We must flood the earth with the Book of Mormon. And get out, listen, get out from under condemnation that we've treated the Book of Mormon so lightly. So what? Then it says we have the Book of Mormon. We have the members. We have the mysteries. We have the sources. And the world has the need. And so now is the time. Okay, now let me go to how this has affected the revival. This is an article written by Mr. Aldrich of the Montlomar Bible School. As a matter of fact, I'll tell you where he is at this very moment. In Iraq, as maybe you know, they're rebuilding the city of Babylon. And the government of Babylon has sent him an invitation and he's gone out there to see how much has been rebuilt. They've put 200 million dollars in the city already. They're going to rebuild it. It's going to be a cultural center of the world. They're going to have all the classical concerts there. They're going to have the greatest speakers there. They're going to have the greatest speakers of any religion there. And that's been rebuilt right now. But this is what he says. He says that the spiritual battle, the spiritual battle in Argentina is an enigma to most of us. We don't understand it and can't comprehend much of what we hear. I'm not talking about British Harriet Jets and Fulton Diamonds or their own forces as a greater battle raging. The implication may well shake Christianity to its roots. God is shaking Argentina. He has turned it upside down. Now, this is his opinion and he's a very classic kind of individual. There's been a God-shaking awakening in Argentina. The country has been upside down. So what happened? Jesus said, if you drive evil spirits out of the room and leave it empty, what happens? Seven times more come in. So there's been awakening of the Holy Ghost, signs and wonders and miracles in Argentina. So what happened? Did you send all the students, the seminary students from the southwest? Did Oral Roberts say, send all my spirit-filled 5,000 students? Did Christ of the Nations say, no, not one of them. And there's a tremendous need. So what happened? There's a vacuum. So the Mormons have sent down 25,000 young men and women rushing in behind. You've only got part of the truth. You're just awaiting. You don't have a Bible. Here's a book of Mormon. It's the only word of truth. We have a message. Listen to this, you ambitious young preachers. The Spirit of God has moved to this degree that young Christians are pastoring megachurches or meager churches. Isn't that something? Numerous young Christians are pastoring meager churches. Numerous ministers are shepherding congregations of tens of thousands. Some young men, only just learning to walk themselves, are pastoring churches of 5,000 and 10,000 people in Argentina. Listen, all night prayer meetings are assaulting the forces of hell. When did you, if you don't know, find out and drop me a notice, will you? The last time there was an all-night prayer meeting in Southwest Bible Seminary? Come on, you've got all the truth. You're more light than anybody else, and you've more responsibility than anybody else. Okay, all-night prayer meetings are assaulting the forces of hell, and God is breaking demonic strongholds which have held whole regions in satanic darkness and bondage. Outpourings of the Spirit of God is no denomination or boundary. The Baptists have been visited, the Presbyterians have been visited, the Brethren have been visited, and dozens of other Christian groups. So what does a church in America, in its Laodicean lifestyle, do? It says here, I'll read it exactly as it's printed, this is a model of our message that this is from. To most of us, this revival in Argentina is frightening. It doesn't fit into our neat little theological and sociological boxes. We find ourselves wishing God would stay within the category of our creeds and not, seemingly in brackets, violate our sacred traditions. Such outpouring may lead us to question whether or not we're really serving the Jesus Christ of the Bible. Let me tell you how it finishes. Is this outpouring in Argentina a precursor of what God wants to do in our increasingly pagan culture? Do we know that, what do we know? Come on now, you seminary men, second year, third year, you didn't know either. Ask your professors in God's name, what do they know about casting out demons? What do they know about pulling down strongholds? They're so busy building up fence. What's he saying? It is a precursor of what God wants to do in our increasingly pagan culture. What do we know of exorcisms, demonic confrontation, physical healing, and all-night prayer battles? The revivals in Korea and now in Argentina seem to be forcing the American Christians to learn the ABC of spiritual warfare. What do we know about demonic sealing, satanically controlled villages, towns and cities, and the demon part? My sons in South America have been there for 20-odd years. Every nation in South America except the nation that is in Paraguay has had revival. They're having revival in Argentina. They're having some revival in Brazil. They've had revivals in Peru. Even Bogota has had its revival. But the town he's in, the slums in, the capital city of Paraguay has never in its history had a revival. And when Paul got there he was praying and he saw a great big wall around the city, or actually around the nation, and the devil was on top saying, listen, I've been in this territory for 1,000 years and I'm going to keep it to the end of time. You won't break my power. Your normal Christianity won't do it. We have missionaries who have 50 years. They don't pollute. They don't pollute the nation. The nation pollutes them. They backslide. They get normal and formal and rigid and careless and accept the status quo. Well, dear God, what are we going to do? We've a Bible. We've 26 translations, a monster and a murderous translation, on each commence of Schofield. I would like to be that poor old guy at the judgment. But this is, is it serious or not? Has the center of gravity spiritually moved from America and England and down to the third nations? Come on. Oh, you listen to a preacher, oh, he was so nice, because he never crossed the little line of your theology. Oh, you've heard the last 10 years or 20 years, you've heard the gospel, that Paul said, my preaching was not with enticing words of man wisdom. It was in the power and demonstration. When do we have the demonstration of the Holy Ghost? When do people go home and can't sleep for nights, convicted of sin? It doesn't happen anymore. The only answer to this invasion that's gone down there into Argentina is really, and I'm not facetious or playing with words, it's the sense of you young men and women, you old guys, mister, turning the road somewhere. The last day says, in the last days, God will pour out his spirit on all flesh, not on America, not on England, on all flesh. Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy. What do you want? Do you want your son to be as spiritual as you are at your age, without vision, without power, without revelation, without peers? In God's name, what good is this? Tell me this. Do you have a bible? Do you have a chapel service in your seminary every morning? If you do, raise your hand, let me see. You do. But what's the difference between sitting behind a desk and reading the bible and going to chapel? Does it become another bible? If your tutor, if your teacher, if your professor can't ignite you, it's time he got fired, or else you'll leave and go to a school where you'll get the fire. Listen, without all these years of normal Christianity, these are not normal days, they're abnormal days, they demand abnormal, and I'm not out for all the shingling and shouting and so on. But anyhow, this pierced my heart very deeply. Now I'm going to spend a little time, a lot of time in the priest. That was just to warm you up, now I'm going to preach. Lock the door so they can't get out. Now honestly, I believe that the only answer to the day in which we are living is anointed preaching. In one case, since I don't care who gets in the White House, as long as it's not the Gagas. The answer for America is not in the White House, it's in God's house. It's his glorious kingdom. Amen. Do you remember when the distressing situation, and you rocked it and hit the ship and it tossed and they were screaming for hours and days? Everybody was screaming and shouting and whimpering and yelling and they threw all the goods overboard, cut the lifeboats off, and it wasn't until all hope was gone that Paul stood there and says, listen, I'll take charge. You see, when he got on the boat, he was a prisoner. When he got off, he was the pilot. You know, we're coming to that situation where the nations would be glad to hand over the anarchy and rebellion and sin of our nation, every nation, to the preachers. There's no way out. God's appointed Holy Ghost anointed men. I was thinking the day of Charles Wesley. You know, I was at a meeting once and I kept mentioning Dr. Tozer. So a lady came to me after about three days. She said, hey, you talk so much about Dr. Tozer. Did you know him personally? I said, sure I did. I talked with him and ate with him and prayed with him. Oh, how wonderful, she said. Well, after a few more days, I talked with Wesley quite a few times. She said, by the way, did you know him personally? I said, no, he died two years before I was born. He died in 1791. But Charles Wesley wrote 7,000 hymns. You sang one tonight, A Thousand Tongues to Sing. He also wrote Love Divine or Love Excelling and all the others. But Charles was the great hymn writer, but also he was a preacher. In one of his hymns, he says this, my heart is full of Christ. Not my head is full of theology. My heart is full of Christ and longs for this glorious message to declare. And then he says, oh, for a trumpet voice and all the world to call. You see, God finds men. God doesn't raise up denominations. Committees raise those up. What do committees do? Spend hours making minutes. No, God raises up men. He didn't raise up Methodism. He raised up Wesley. He didn't raise up the Salvation Army. He raised up William Booth. He sent men into far corners of the earth with the equipment of being filled with the Holy Spirit of God. Well, look for a minute. I want to read you a record of a very famous preacher friend of mine. His name is the Apostle Paul. In the second letter of Paul to the Corinthians in chapter 5, he runs through a whole list of his theological positions. But listen, gentlemen, this man didn't shape his theology in an air-conditioned room with a glass. He forged this theology on the glass. You know, people in the world have a contempt for the Jetset. Well, I have a contempt for the Jetset preachers. There isn't a preacher in America who needs a jet except for his vanity. Get to the back of your Bible one day and look at all those lines of the Apostle Paul from Israel on his four missionary journeys. What does he do? You see, we want revelations of God. A lady said to me, I don't get visions. I don't get revelations. I said, go to Patmos. She said, where's that? I said, where John got his revelation, in the book of the Revelation. You see, we want them in a meeting. We want to go to a seminary, a seminar of either of them, anyhow. But we don't get it that way. Sitting in a chair reading the most profound theology you have will not make you a saint. It's going to get in your bloodstream. And that's why, like the Apostle Paul, he is the best argument for his theology. Everything he says, he's backed up with his life. Well, look at it here, in this second epistle of Paul to the Corinthians chapter 5. These are the strong points. Again, I tell you, this theology was hammered out on the mission field, in persecution, in poverty, in prisons, in pain. He doesn't have angels accompanying him all the time. He can write his best epistles in a prison, in a lousy prison cell, saying to other people, rejoice in the Lord, rejoice in the Lord. And he hasn't had a decent meal, he hasn't had a new soup, or anything for years. And yet he's tasting of the majesty of God. All right, in verse 2 Corinthians 5, verse 1, we know, notice well, in the earthly house of this tabernacle is dissolved. We have a building of God, a house not made with hands, in turn, in the heavens. So in verse 1 he says we know, in verse 2 he says we groan, in verse 4 he says, and we that are in this tabernacle do groan. Now look at verse 6, we are always confident. In verse 7, we walk by faith. Verse 8, we are confident. Verse 9, we labor. What's the Scripture? I'm thinking of the Scripture now, where everybody lists his sufferings, his perils. Oh, I've found it, thank you. Thank you for your silence. Look at verse 23 of 2 Corinthians 11. Are they ministers of Christ? I speak of the fool, I am more. Listen, these are the ministry benefits. In labors, what? More abundant in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths of the Jews. Of the Jews, not the Romans, the Jews. His blood brothers, why did they hate him? Because, they said, he preaches the faith that once he destroyed. Once he was going down the road to Damascus inside his toga, he had conditions there, signed by the high priest, he could liquidate every Christian. And there was a moment that he said before Agrippa in Acts 26, I was going down the road and they shone round about me and then the judges, he saw the blinding light. And he said, what, thou Lord? And immediately he met the Lord, he was convicted of sin, convicted of all his blindness, convicted of all the terrible things that he'd done. But let me finish this a minute here and go back to that. He says in verse 26, in journeyings often, in perils of water, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own country, my good Lord, I'd have sent you home, wouldn't I? Boy, supposing you can't get any hot water in your beautiful apartment over there at the seminary, or the lights go off for a day or two, would you be writing home for help? This fellow takes it all in his stride. Immediately Adam stepped out of the garden, he stepped into enemy territory. And we're in enemy territory today and we'll be in it till we get to glory, or till the Lord delivers us. So he has perils in mine own countrymen, in perils of the hill, in perils of the city, in perils of the wilderness, in perils of the sea, in perils of all small spreadness. Listen, these are his ministerial benefits, in weariness, in painfulness, in fastings, in hunger, in thirst, in nakedness and cold. Who is weak and I'm not weak. And then in the midst of all these he says, in the next chapter 12 and verse 10, say, is this man saved? One man said all that happened to Paul on the Damascus road was he had an attack of epilepsy. Well, Lord sent us away for the epilepsy tonight. It'll make you as radical as he was, make you as independent of creature comforts, make you to disregard social standing, every other standing, and see that you're a debtor. As long as you're breathing your body, you're a debtor to a lost world. Well then, in chapter 12 and in verse 9, or pardon me, in verse 10 he says, I take pleasure in my love offerings. I take pleasure in my creation. I take pleasure in banquets. Oh, I'm a superman. Now that's how we interpret it. How many people here do you think if you're desperately on it before God? How often do you take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions? How many of us can answer here before God, if I'm going to die five minutes from now, I tell you, I glory in tribulation. I'm glad I bear a bigger burden for the lost than you do. I'm glad I weep when you're laughing. I'm glad I'm alone when you're in the crowd. That's what Paul says. You see, we want to go on our own little way, mix up with the crowd in seminary, be nice, be accepted. God does everything like that. He separates men. He separated the greatest man in the Old Testament, according to some Jews, Moses. 40 years, a third of his life on the backside of the desert. His own son was 30 years in the desert before he started ministering. John Baptist was 30 years. Paul had the most colossal intellect in the world. And then he had to go into Arabia to study in the quietness. You see, we can't be still. We can't be still. We're all activists. We're rushing here. We're doing this. We're doing the other. And God says, be still and know that I'm God. Do you know that dew never falls when there's a wind? And God says, I will be as dew unto Israel. And when the branches are still, the dew falls. And when we're still, we find and we know God. Because we're swallowing activity. A young Baptist preacher sent me his brochure for, what do you call it now? His schedule, or schedule, according to which shoe he went to. And in 1988, in the 52 weeks, he asked 30 revivals. That's as fast. Do you know in America tonight we have 500 evangelists and not one revivalist? What's the difference? Evangelists raise funds. Revivalists raise hell. Evangelists get off a plane tonight. They're going somewhere tomorrow. But no sir, in the great revivals, he's the one that Bonkey has had. He goes to a town for six, seven, and eight weeks. Until the town is seething with conviction. Until the gossip in the street, the gossip on the side of the road, the gossip in the coffeehouse is Jesus. The Jesus that used to live is living again. He works through Bonkey. He prophesies through Bonkey. You can explain it as you like. I'll tell you what, my heart is hungry to get away from this desolation in our Protestantism. I believe we ought to go to the sanctuary and come out either dumb with joy or dumb with gladness. Tears of joy running down our eyes that millions of our fellow men are lost without God and without hope. They've got church. A few weeks ago I happened to preach in a meeting with Dr. Adrian Rogers, spoke after I spoke. Well no, not for him. But anyhow, what did he say? He said, people are coming down the aisles of our churches. They're getting a little inoculation so they won't get the real thing. Well is that true? He said, I've read all these infirmities and reproaches and necessities and persecutions for Christ's sake. He does it for Christ's sake. He has nothing to ask. He's not trading in something. He isn't selling his books. Well dear me, wasn't he slow? Do you notice there when he says in Perils of the Deep, five times he mentions Perils. He could have written five books on Perils. Volume number one, Perils of the Deep. Volume number two, he could have made a fortune writing on Perils. Our preachers would today. So here's the matter, he's blinded. On the Damascus road he saw Jesus. What? He went blind. What? He never recovered his eyesight again. Physical eyesight, yes, but the world changed. How often do you sing that? There's a hymn that says, heaven above is softer blue, earth around is sweeter green. Something lives in every hue, Christless eyes have never seen. You know, one day you'll be watching the Macy's parade in TV, and you suddenly realize every person in that crowd is lost. You'll see a football match, and they're roaring and shouting and screaming. Deacons that can't say amen in a whisper, hog, yell and sell horse, watching the Baylor crowd. Baylor crowd play football. It's an awful day in which we live. All our vision is distorted. We're not seeing eternity. We're not seeing men and women who are forever and ever are going to live in eternal hell or eternal heaven. But he says a compensation to stay with this chapter here. Verse 10 he says, I'm sorrowful yet always rejoicing, as poor yet making many rich, as having nothing and yet possessing all things. Now the church has everything and possesses nothing. He had no backing, he had no sponsors, he had no private plane, he had no jet. If he had anything, it's an old donkey or something he'd travel on. He had no material comforts, no creature comforts, he has no fellowship. Surely he got a team of men together, they were full of faith and of the Holy Ghost. Would he have less? Would a man who is the most anointed man after Christ himself ever have a bunch of rookies with him? He has the best men around, full of faith and of the Holy Ghost. But he got so desperate in his fasting, in his praying, in his weeping, that everybody left him. And that's the test when godly people shun you. And he says, oh all men forsook me, nevertheless the Lord stood by me. And sometimes God has to take some of the best things out of our lives in order that we may find him. And there's a law in your life, as long as you live, the good will be the enemy of the best. There's nothing wrong in something they don't do, they're keeping you from the best. Tell me, what were you guys doing at two o'clock this morning? Were you smooching around town? Why in God's name is there a, what do you call it, a curfew at two o'clock in your seminary, Sunday morning? Why? Have you been to prayer meetings? Have you been after prostitutes to get them saved? What in God's name do you want to be out all that time for? You see, you can tell what a man is by what he does with his spare time. I'll tell you what to do. Don't change your lifestyle this week except for one thing. And every time you sit down to TV, put a chair up and say, Lord Jesus sit with me and watch through this program. Particularly the one when your wife's not to bed. And see, she's comfortable to do that. You see, young people are more prodigal with time than with anything else. You can't get it back, you can't get it back. Time, like an ever-rolling stream, bears all its sins away. They fly for God as a dream that flies up the opening day. We live on an island called time. We're surrounded by an ocean called eternity. When are you allowed to have some un-eternity? Huh? You notice how spiritual he passes. I'll tell you what he won't do. He won't preach on flee from the rock to come and all the things that the apostle mentioned in this chapter. In 2 Corinthians 5, look at these, go back a minute. Verse 7, he says, we walk by faith and not by sight. He's writing to Christians. In verse 8, we are confident. In verse 9, wherefore we labor that being absent, we may be accepted of him. Who is he writing to? The Corinth. Corinth? What is Corinth? If I could read Greek, or if I could read German, I'd read an old ambassador, a commentator by the name of Mayer, not F.B. Mayer, M-E-Y-E-R, but M-A-Y-E-R. He was in Germany a hundred years ago. And he says regarding Corinth, blessed and sublime miracle of God that Paul could plant a church in Corinth. If a man was a model leper, if he was a pervert, and every dirty thing you could mention, you didn't string a whole list of adjectives, just say he's a Corinthian, and you know everything is vile about him. Every passion, every about him is distorted, unclean, and vicious. And there the apostle Paul writes to these people in Corinth. Which Corinth? The second Corinth. The first one was burned down. This one was built by Julius Caesar. The first one was built when Mummius was the king. What happened? Well, let me step here and read this verse. Everyone may receive the things in his body, and the fire shall try everything. Elsewhere he says, the fire shall try everything that you have. You can't escape fire. And the only way that we can meet this world that's going to hellfire is Holy Ghost fire. All right, the fire shall try every man's word. What did it mean to the Corinthians? Well, they knew that the first Corinth had been destroyed by fire. At this side of the road, houses were made of precious stones. They were made of granite. They were made of marble. They were made of rare stone. At this side of the street, the houses were made of wood, and hay, and stubble. They mixed clay and straw together. And when the fire came, it consumed all the poor houses. And all the houses of the rich with precious stones were still standing after the fire. And he says, your life and mine, you're investing it in wood, hay, and stubble. That's ministry above the ground. Still there's all those precious stones, ministry below the ground. And one day, before the eyes of a million, little Leonard Raven is going to stand there, and God have mercy, I hope I don't go to the judgment seat, right after the Apostle Paul, or Phineas, or Bernard, or some of the great warriors and saints of the ages. But I'm going, and you're going, and your professors are going to remind him, and he's going to be charged with teaching you heresy. He'll be charged with telling you that miracles ended at the end of the scriptures, or he can't give you a proof text of it. And he can't show you. It's an excuse for his bankruptcies. It's an excuse for the powerlessness of the church. When the church moves away, and people in South America, they go to hear a preacher on Monday night, they go Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday night they go after supper, they listen to the preacher, they pray all night, they pray all day Saturday, they pray all Saturday night, and go to a church full of the power of the Holy Ghost. They don't need entertainment. They don't need Christian fellows and all this junk. You see, entertainment is the devil's substitute for joy. And the more joy you have in the Lord, the less entertainment you'll need. But this is going to be an awful day. Every penny these rich, marvelous young preachers we've had these last two years, what did Swaggart get? Over a million a week. Billy Graham gets a million, or Robert's got a million a week. That's more than Wesley spent in his lifetime. And these men are going to account for every penny they took in, what they did with it. And all their works, all their works, are going to be tried by fire. Wood, hay and stubble, visible ministry, hidden ministry. I had a young man in my office the other day, he came down from St. Louis, and he said, he had some overalls on. Of course, that's a sign of the world for some of you boys. A hole in the knee there, a raise to the top. And he told me about meeting every morning at five. And apologetically, he said, Mr. Raymond, he said, I'm only a labourer, I'm a janitor, I clean offices. And he said, after I go off a night shift, I meet two of my friends at five, and we pray till seven or eight. Every morning we're praying for revival. Somebody else called me and said, our church is praying now, every morning from six to eight, and then in the afternoon we have an hour, and then we have an hour's prayer after supper. And all over the nation there's an awakening of people who are praying. And these people are the salt of the earth. No, they're the salt of the church. He said, this, one of the secrets of this man, he knew how to, he knew how to pray in the power of the Spirit. He knows that people think he's crazy. Look what he said in verse 13 of this chapter 5. Whether we be beside ourselves, it is to God, or whether we be sober, it is for your cause. Now let me jump to the text here and get on with it quickly. In verse 17 he says, therefore if any man, do you hear that? Any man, anywhere, at any time, if he is in Christ, not that he came to the front and gave God a nod and said, I'm sorry, Lord, and went back to his lousy sins. If anyone be in Christ. You see, this man believes this, that Christ can be in you and you can be in Christ. Christ in you, the hope of glory. Don't believe the preacher that tells you that. And I heard G. Campbell Morgan many times, and he distressed me only twice. Once is when he said to about 400 preachers, he said, you know, gentlemen, if I was out to the pulpit for more than a week, I believe I'd backslide. Well, then I knew that the order of living on Christ is living on meetings. You know, you can enjoy your own eloquence, your own vocabulary. You can enjoy preaching, more than you enjoy the cross. And G. Campbell Morgan said that. He staggered me. He was a tall, handsome man and I, you know, almost not quite analysed it, but I'd heard him amongst many other great preachers 60 years ago. And then when he said that, if I was out to the pulpit for more than a week, I'm sure I would backslide. But then he gave a marvellous talk. I remember it was in a Methodist Central Hall in Manchester. And everybody listened. You know what, I noticed with those great preachers, G. Campbell Morgan, Samuel Chadwick, Black and Skelton, I knew him, I talked with him, prayed with him. Martin Lloyd-Jones, I talked with him too. You know, when they went to the pulpit, they put their feet there, put their hands there, and they never raised their hands and never raised their voices. Their power was not inherited. We've discovered by some of the great providers, some of the preachers, you can have flaming eloquence and tears, and yet there's nothing to it. It's emotional. It's more than attacking the will of man, we have to get down to the conscience. Quicken my conscience till it feels the loathsomeness of sin. It's more than I've just done a little thing that's not very nice. No, I've hurt the heart of God. I've crucified the Son of God afresh. And they were made to feel that. Do you know in all the years that Spurgeon, maybe the greatest preacher since John the Baptist, do you know that Spurgeon all the years that he was in that church in London, never once made an altar call? Do you know he hadn't been to seminary? And do you know he was only twenty years of age and he packed his in the morning with 5,000, at the night with 5,000? And, what's that? I thought it was an explosive. I thought maybe you're getting moved. And in all those years he was there, he never once made an altar call. After he'd left, Dr. Dixon followed him, and the first morning he was there, to the amazement of everyone, he made an altar call. The watch came forward. Afterwards, Monday morning, when the press came, as they usually did, they said, Dr. Dixon, all the years we've come, Mr. Spurgeon never once made an altar call. And yet you made one, and you surprised the people. Why did you do it? He said, I believe in striking while the iron is hot. And the reporter said, you know, I believe up in heaven Mrs. Spurgeon said, listen Dr. Dixon, a conviction by the Spirit is hotter. Eleven in the morning or seven on Sunday night, it'll be hot next morning. It doesn't pass like that. It's not an emotion. It's a conviction. It's an invasion of the Holy Spirit. The least emphasized ministry of the Holy Ghost today with plenty of gossip for anybody is conviction. We want the fruits of the Spirit, the fun of the Spirit, the healings of the Spirit. What about conviction? Well, it's when you're feeling you're the most miserable person outside of hell. Remember this man knows no pedigree of iniquity. He's one of the most self-righteous men in the world. And yes, he says what? If any man, anywhere, and he proved it. Wasn't he kipling the talks about a man putting on his seven-leaf boots and striding over the world? The apostle Paul did more than that. He says, if any man. Do you know where he was born? He was born in the ancient capital of the world. And it was called what? Guess. Well, tell me. I'm going to have to talk to your professors. Tarsus. He was born in Tarsus. He ended up in the military capital of the world, Rome. In between, he went to the religious capital of the world, Jerusalem. He went to the moral capital of the world, Corinth. He went to the intellectual capital of the world, Athens. And what did he do? Walked down Main Street. He saw the whole city was given up to a strange god. He doesn't bow. Somebody said, Paul, the apostle, is equal to Plato or Socrates. Forget it. He has a wisdom and authority they don't know a thing about. He has a colossal intellect. He answers history with history, poetry with poetry. And they're all surrounding him. And this little man, you know, this man had a lisp on his lip and a limp on his limb. Sounds a bit like Joel Segal, doesn't it? Joel Gregory. Listen to what he says. When the people saw him coming, they said, his letters are weighty and powerful, but his bodily presence is weak. Can a man be stoned? Can he be hanging on a piece of wood in the Mediterranean for 36 hours? Can his face be slit with stones? Can he be laughed at 195 times until there's no skin on his back? Can he be weariness and fastings and buffeted? And be as handsome as Apollo or Apollos? No, he's no eloquent speaker. Apollos is the Demosthenes of the New Testament. Paul is so content that they say he lifts, his speech is contemptible. But look at his mighty, amazing theology. When did it happen? Let me skip back a minute here to Acts 26. And here you have it. You see, this man has an undying passion for men. It doesn't matter whether he's talking to kings. It doesn't matter whether he talks to a wicked man like Felix in the 24th chapter of Acts. Felix what? He knows Felix is a rotten, corrupt man. What does he do? Pull his punches? No, he reasons with Felix about what? Temptance and righteousness and judgment to come. That must have torn that man out. In the 26th chapter, he talks to Agrippa. What does it say there in that chapter? Acts 26. He's talking to Agrippa, remember. Acts 26, verse 10. Which thing I did also in Jerusalem. Many of the saints that I shuttled in prison, having received authority from the chief priest, and when they were put to death, I gave my consent to it. He put people to death. Listen, I punished them in every synagogue. There was nothing sacred. He'd been there for festivals. Here is a man lorded with intellect. He has more intellect than Gabe Gamaliel. He's the greatest scholar in Gamaliel's famous school. He's the famous, most famous of the Pharisees. And he's not only a Pharisee, he's a Pharisee of a Pharisee. It's in the bloodline as it were. And yet there's nothing sacred when he goes to the synagogue. He arrests people there and brutalizes them. Listen, he's so depraved now, this man who could recite five books of the Bible in Hebrew, that could tell you about every feast. The man knew the Old Testament better than any man that's ever lived except Jesus. And yet he was so mad against the Christ of God, that he says he compelled him to blaspheme. Again, the Jews stoned him. Why? Because he'd been their champion, and now he's championing Christianity. Let me read this electrifying thing here to you anyhow. He said in verse 13 of this 26th chapter, when we had all fallen to the earth, oh pardon me, verse 13. No, back to verse 12. No, back into verse 11. He went to every synagogue and compelled them to blaspheme, and being exceedingly mad. Not mad, exceedingly mad. Just like he was when he went and he saw all the temples to strange gods in the 17th chapter. And he saw intellectual men going and lighting candles and putting homage to stone and wood. And he said what? He said in the sleepy Elizabethan English, as I called it, his spirit was stirred within him. One preacher in England began immortalizing him and saying, by saying, he was totally exasperated. How can intelligent people do silly things like that? How can they pray for the dead? They have no authority. But what do the devotees do? I'll tell you what they do. I didn't watch much of the Olympic Games, I'm not much of a sportsman, but I wanted to see a little girl, a Chinese girl, she was about this width and weighed, what, 75 pounds, on a board 30 feet from the ground. When they, what's the champion world diver, Morganis or somebody? They asked him how high that board was. He said from here up 30 feet, from there down 300. He said you can't see where you're going. And here's a little girl, this width, who for five to six hours every day for five years has practiced that dive. She's regimented. She gets up when they tell her to get up. She eats what they tell her to eat. She can't have music. She can't have dancing. She can't go to movies. And she goes to bed at nine o'clock every night. Come on, what if you change your, you guys, if they tell me to be about revolutionizing your own life. Become a Mormon. What happens? You go to a Mormon school. You're going to go to Japan as a Mormon missionary. You should study the language for two years. You don't have to do that as a Baptist missionary or anybody else's. And then you go to the Mormon school. No music, no movies, no videos, no dancing, no talking to girls on the campus. Rigid. What would happen if you did that in the Bible schools? Try the Christ for the nation. Try to be Southwest, what is it, Southwest Bible seminary. Put that business down. What would happen? Do you think we'd hear? Say, look, we're determined to redeem the time, the days of evil. What did somebody say on TV the other day? Next year there'll be the biggest crash that has been in the Dallas area in poverty. It's going to go right through the floor. One of the most respected men I know, a man of God in Canada. He's nearly at my age. And for years he's walked with God. I respect him very highly. And he says, I believe we're going to walk into a wall of darkness and parallels in the day in which we live. I'm doing my best to break this, I think. But what's it going to take? What's he going to talk about other nations? We don't need an invasion of Russia. We're rotting at the heart of all the industrial nations. We have the highest rate of abortions. We have the highest rate of teenage pregnancies. We have more drug addiction. Our churches are filled. Our jails are filled. Our courts are filled. The devil's doing his utmost. You know, there it is between two walls. And so is England. And so is my generation. Two moving walls. This wall is the occult. And this is the occult. And between them, they're crushing the life out of our nations. Young people go to church. I don't laugh when people say, oh no, I don't go to church. Go to church. The last time I went, it was about as exciting as a Tupperware party. Well, it shouldn't be. You see, what we've lost sight of, ladies and gentlemen, is the fear of God. Didn't Brother Gregory say some months ago, that in one of the polls taken in America recently, they asked people, what are you afraid of? I don't know the exact list as he gave it. But say, number one, I'm afraid of Russia invading America. Or number two, I'm afraid of getting cancer. Number three, I'm afraid my daughter may come home at 16 and say she's pregnant. I'm afraid my son will come home at 18, say he's on drugs. I'm afraid of an atomic war. I'm afraid of a collapse of the economy. Not one person said they were afraid of God. Not even afraid of death. Not afraid of the judgment. You wouldn't want anybody to stand with you, your darling wives, your precious husband. What was the time when you'd be alone? How long is it going to take? I don't care how long it's going to take. We're going nowhere. It can take a million years. But God's going to bring every word into judgment with every secret thing. Okay, let me tell you. Don't you want to go home? Being exceedingly malignant, and he persecuted them into strange cities. And he went to Damascus with authority. And then at midday I saw, notice that? At midday I saw, in verse 13. In verse 14 I heard, he saw a blinding light above the brightness of the noonday sun. And then he heard a voice. You know that grippy song the other day? He heard a voice. You know that voice was? It was a voice that had cried out in Gethsemane. My God, if it is possible, while all the demons in hell are looking on. While all the angels are looking on. While all the saints who had lived before Isaiah and others who were in Abraham's bosom were looking on. He's there alone in the garden. Deserted in the hour when the many fed. The people that did miracles. Bartimaeus wasn't there. The lepers were not there. He was alone in the garden crying, my God, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me. And it was that very voice that spoke to Paul or Saul on the Damascus road. It's the same voice that cried on the cross, my God. In essence, I can understand why Peter and others have run away, but why has Paul forsaken me? That very same voice stopped this man on the Damascus road. Come on, that voice has spoken to you all at once and you've ignored it. God called you to the mission field, you've covered it up. God called you to abstain from things you've done then. I'm not trying to put guilt on you, I'm telling you this, you answer for them with a judgment. You say, I heard the voice of Jesus say this, I heard God say that, but why did you disobey him? The voice, the most amazing voice. You remember when people said, you know, were you with Jesus? Yes, we know. The whole town is excited. He walked up to a tomb and he said, roll the stone away. And he said, comes home and license came. Oh, what will he do next? Jesus said, listen, don't be amazed at this. Don't be amazed I cast out devils. Don't be amazed that I know these miracles. The days coming in which all who are in the graves are the voice of the son of God. The same voice that spoke to you, the same voice that spoke to him on the Damascus road. That same voice, what does revelation say? It will be like the sound of many waters. That same voice spoke to this man and he never ever forgot it. And I'll tell you something, if Jesus Christ speaks to you, you see, he didn't mean to preach and hear a sermon and he might have forgotten it. He met the son of God. He heard the voice of God. And ever after that, he has an anchoring. I've heard his voice. I've seen the vision. So, let me skip over here now. I'm going to run into it obviously quickly. In Philippians chapter 2, and I'm speaking from the King James Version of course. In verse 27 of chapter 1, he says, only let your lifestyle or conversations be as if you come unto the gospel of Christ. And whether I come and see you or be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mind, striving together for the faith of the gospel. And in nothing be terrified by your adversaries, which is to them an evident token of perdition, but to you of salvation. 4 verse 29, for unto it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but to suffer for his namesake. And that's part of the deal. There's a suffering. If we had stayed in that chapter before, we'd skip it. We'd leave it. I'd always thought that the key to the life of the Christian is the love of Christ constraineth me. And you know, I thought that was his motivation. But maybe the epicenter is that. That's it. But the next thing is this. He says, when he's speaking here in the Philippians chapter 1 and verse 20. According to my earnest expectation, my hope, that in nothing I should be ashamed, that with all boldness as always, now also, now also, Christ shall be magnified. Notice? By what? My theology? My incomparable record as a preacher? My miracles? My ministry? My prayer line? No. He out-prayed everybody that ever lived. He out-traveled everybody. He out-suffered everybody. He out-fasted everybody. But he says that Christ may be magnified. Not because I've written 14 epistles, if you give him Hebrews. Not because I've traveled more miles than any other man. I've been in prison more than any other man. I've spoken before more kings than any other man. I've spoken to the most profound intellects there in Athens. I have a record that will never be superseded. But he doesn't say that. He says that Christ may be magnified by my body. But what's he say to you? He says to you, you do what I did. Present your body a living sacrifice. In the old watches, this is one of the modern things, you know, with a little tiny battery inside. In the others, they used to be a lot of works. My, they were a problem. Your stem winders used to wind them up. They were always going wrong. And if I give somebody my watch, I give them everything in the watch. How many times have you, son, take my life and let it be consecrated, Lord, to thee? Have you ever sung a hymn? They sing it at Kedwick, England, often. All for Jesus, all for Jesus. All my being's ransomed powers. All my thoughts and words and doings. All my days and all my hours. Let my hands perform this bidding. Let my feet run in this waste. Let my eyes see Jesus only. Let my lips speak for this praise. No, maybe you don't like it, but you sang the same thing. Time after time you sang it. I'm scared to ask people to sing hymns. They sing lies most of the time. I'd like to finish the meeting tonight singing, when I survey the wondrous cross. I don't do it, because I'm leading you in a lie. You'll sing while the whole realm of nature mind you would be giving today. You're supposed to be studying for eternity. You're supposed to be getting your armor ready. You're supposed to be getting everything ready to go to a world that's fighting. Listen, this is the Sunday school trip we're on. It's a warfare, and the devil's closing in on our generation. I don't believe there's a demon in hell tonight. They're all on earth, seducing spirits, doctrines of devils, and we need men filled with all the fullness of God. All my being's ransomed powers. All my thoughts and words and doings. All my days and all my hours. Will the whole realm of nature mind, or will it cause me sin? Take my life and let it be. How's it going now? Take my moments and my days. I don't let you sing that, because you don't do it. Take my sermon, my God. Take my lips and let them move at the impulse of thy love. And you were scolding somebody the other day. You were criticizing believers. You were gossiping and slandering. Your lips were drooling. What did Isaiah say when he saw the Lord? I'm a man of unclean lips. Most of us would have to say that. Most of us would have to say, I'm a man of unclean eyes. I wouldn't like to die five minutes after some show. A pastor, a Pentecostal pastor in my office said this week in tears, Mr. Raynor, I've passed some people in my church that I was astounded we'd had such a good meeting. We'd been happy. We'd clapped. We worshipped. And he said, I heard one of my friends say to another one, have you seen that movie? No. What's it like? Well, it has a couple of spots of nudity, but they're not very bad, but you should see it. He said, you'd never heard of that in the Pentecostal church. Fifty years ago, they wouldn't even go in a building, never mind where the smut is done. And the news tells me that five million pornographic videos are rented every week. I wonder how many are rented to pastors and deacons and to people preparing for the mission field. Paul says, the Christ may be magnified by my body. That colossal intellect was totally dedicated. Isn't this the very man that says we are going to judge angels? Me, judge angels? Dear Lord, how shall... Because, he says, it won't be a problem. We have the mind of Christ. And therefore, I'll be equipped to judge angels. I have a mind which is so controlled by the Spirit, I can see through this thing. I can see through that other thing. It's contaminated. We live in a world that's so invaded the church, and a church that's so invaded the world, we don't know where the line of demarcation is. This man knew. Again, I say, eat of love the hymns we sang tonight. The old rugged cross. I remember being in a meeting, and the lady at the piano began to weep as we finished the meeting. Tears poured down her face. The next morning, I was going for breakfast. She was coming across the little campus. And I said, the meeting was beautiful last night, particularly as we sang the old hymn, the old rugged cross. Oh, wasn't it wonderful? She said, well, I think so, of course. I said, well, I think so. I know it's an American hymn. She said, an American hymn? My husband wrote it. Oh, I'm Mrs. Bernard. I'm her husband, George Bernard. And do you know what he got for the copyright? Twenty-five dollars. Do you know the people who bought it charged seven thousand for it to be reproduced in another hymn book? But the old rugged cross, so despised by the world. Do you know what I believe with all my heart? I won't be around, but you'll be here. I believe within a decade or twenty years at the most, if you hang on to Acts 4.12, neither is there salvation any other than locked you up in a psychiatric ward. You've got a mixture of everybody today, Jews, Gentiles, Mormons, anybody. But if you're going to stay by the cross, you're going to suffer for it. And Paul says that Christ may be magnified in my body. Okay. Do you remember the disciples came to Jesus and said, what's going to happen in the future? Do you remember what he said? I have many things to tell you, but you cannot bear them. Supposing he'd said, well, Peter, I'll tell you how you're going to die. James, I'll tell you how you're going to suffer. John, I'll tell you. Supposing he'd said to everyone, this is the way you're going to end up. They'd have been terrified. Supposing he'd said to them, within a few years, the streets of this city blown to and up to the fetlocks and above the fetlocks and the horses. The city's going to be sacked in the year 70 by Titus. The temple's going to be torn down. The ministry's going to be abolished. The power that was invested in Israel to be holy, the sons of the Lord, is going to be handed to the Gentiles. They'd have been terrified. So people are asking, what's going to happen? I say we're corrupting with every tick of the clock. We're getting further and further from revival. We're more sordid. We're more iniquity. How many saw that show on Thursday night? What's his name? Araldo. No, come on, there's more than one lady. Good, you're getting honest at last. Wasn't it terrible? Did you think there were women in America bearing babies to be offered as a living sacrifice a month after? Do you think there were intelligent women, some of them with degrees, who drained the blood out of those babies and drank it? Demonism is prospering in America. Come on, preacher, can you go to South America instead of against them? Other people intoxicate you. What are you going to serve them like, your Greek study book? Your sermon notes? Oh, my professor way there, and the professor said, forget it. It's going to take spirit film. God ordained men. Forget human ordination. There's only one ordination. It's in the 15th of John. I have ordained you. Here is a man full of the devil going down that master's road. He met Jesus. Jesus wrenched something out of him, the proud Pharisee spirit. He didn't finish after some preacher sat at the edge of Romans 7 saying, oh, let this man that I am, it is not I but sin that dwelleth in me. That was before he was saved. He ended up in Galatians 2.20. It is not I but Christ dwelleth in me. You can't have indwelling sin and indwelling Christ. Make your choice. Is God going to live in a filthy house where there's temper and pride and lust? I don't believe. I'll put it another way. Well, I don't believe that more than five percent of professing Christians in the area of England are saved. What are you saved from? Hell? Are you saved from lust? Are you saved from pride? Are you saved from bitterness? Are you saved from selfishness, self-interest, self-glory, self-seeking? Is Christ the center and circumference of your life? Do you live for but have your being in him? You say at the end of the day before you get into bed, not how much money have I made, not what grades have I got, but Lord, have I pleased you today? God doesn't take delight in stars. We're made to please God. Not on Sundays only, but every day of our lives. Not on sacred days. If you're really feeling the spirit, every day is a Sabbath day. Every language is a holy language. You won't get a hell of beans about human judgments and opinions. You see, character, reputation is what people think we are. Character is what God knows we are. I don't get a hell of beans about reputation. I'm not going to fool around and go into some hellhole just to prove I don't care that. I want to walk in purity as best I know how. If you're going to the mission field, you'd better get this deeply into your heart. If any man is in Christ, go into China and see what's happening there. Go into some countries where Confucius reigns. The old people go into areas of South America. They do miracles and signs and wonders. Tongues isn't the proof. Every true Mormon speaks in tongues. Every true Mormon has been baptized for them fifty times. They baptize for the dead. Are they most sanctified? No! It's when I pray, farewell to the devil and the world and the flesh, and I serve notice. Listen, I'm no longer building bondage to you. Jesus Christ is my emancipator. Jesus Christ is my redeemer. I not only go to the cross, I get on the cross to be crucified with him, and I'm through with this. Why? Tell me why, in the middle of the greatest love song. All your professors will tell you that John is the apostle of love. But he didn't write 1 Corinthians 13 with his 13 verses. It was this warrior man, it's the apostle Paul. This is why he, the love of Christ constrains him in weirdness, in fastings, in prison, in penance of the deep, in penance of the country, when he doesn't care. But why does he quit in the middle of that amazing poem and say, when I became a man, I put away childish things. What have I got to do with the love story? I believe he consciously came into relationship. I don't believe you can enter into any experience of God unconsciously. In natural birth, the baby doesn't know when it's born. In spiritual birth, we know when we pass from death unto life. Immediately a man, when a man is crucified, as Theodore Tolstoy used to say, Len, if a man is going down the street with a cross on his back, you know one thing, he's not coming back. He's going to the most painful death that there is. And he knows, immediately he's crucified to that cross, he's lost all his social life, lost all his religious rights, he's lost everything. He's a condemned man. And Paul says, I'm crucified. I live and yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, in his body, I live by the faith of the Son of God. I'm not a self-controlled person. I'm certainly not a demon-controlled person. I'm not an appetite-controlled person. I'm a Christ-controlled. I see as Christ sees. I feel as Christ feels. I weep as Christ weeps. I see the world as Christ sees it. Not through theological lenses, but with the compassion of Jesus Christ. The greatest thing in the world is to be a Christian. It's the biggest hazard in this world. Yet Paul himself says at the end of Romans 8, we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. What's got you in bondage tonight? Have you got the world, the flesh and the devil beneath your feet? Could you go to the mission field today and say, listen, I want to tell you how I got emancipated. I got forgiven. And then afterwards, Jesus Christ brought my faith with him. One of the finest gentlemen in England was Charles Westwick. A scholar, a gentleman. He knew his Greek, he knew his Hebrew. And yet one day he wrote a hymn. I think maybe one of the best he ever wrote out of seven of them. And can it be that I should gain an interest in the Savior's blood? Died he for me who called to his pain? For me who him to death pursued? Then he goes on. Here he is, scholar, gentleman, never smoked, never drank, never did any outward sin. A model like Nicodemus. But then he writes a second stanza. Lord, my imprisoned spirit lay fast bound in sin and nature's night. Thine eye diffused a quickening ray. I woke the dungeon flame with light. My chains fell off. What change? Change of orthodoxy, change of fear, fear of man, fear of sin, fear of death, fear of the religious power above him. And he went out and emancipated man. What happened? He, John Westwick, Charles Westwick, Newton, that wrote that wonderful hymn, Amazing Grace, and Top Lady, and about four others, met every morning at four o'clock. Sometimes, he said, we prayed the whole night. And at four o'clock in the morning, we were washing our faces in cold water. And then sing the doctrinology. And then he went out to ride a horse more miles than any man had ever been preaching, except Bishop Asbury beat him by about 40,000 miles. And then he gave his life. What happened? The fire of God came on him. He said, refining fire go through my heart, illuminate my soul, scatter thy life to every part, and sanctify the whole. He knew where he passed from death unto life. John Westwick says it was about a quarter to nine on the 24th of May, 1738. As a man was reading just the introduction to the epistle to the Romans, the introduction of Luther's study, I suddenly felt that my sins even mine were forgiven. And I passed from death unto life. And afterwards, he sanctified me. He anointed me with his spirit. He might have been one of the wealthiest men ever lived. He might have been the Archbishop of Canterbury. He might have been the Prime Minister of England. But he got blinded to the world and so lost in Jesus Christ. It didn't matter whether he went to the court of the King of England or he went to the jails. These men are lost. If you have a million dollar ring on your finger tonight, you're no more precious to God than if you're nothing. His values are so different. My values need to be different. We're getting corrupted with the world standard. But I want to tell you tonight, I don't care what sin is trapping your life. Secret lust, secret pride, envy, jealousy, conquering inside. You're nice. Everybody likes you in the seminary or somewhere, but you know inside there's corruption there. And until God gets us out, you can't be victorious. We can be more than conquerors through him. Any man, anywhere, at any time, if he's being Christ, is a new creation. That ought to electrify you. Boy, when I read that in the morning about three o'clock, boy, I had a whale of a time in my office. What a message to go to a dying world, a stricken world, a world that's been cheated by religious hucksters. Some of them evangelists, some of them false apostles, some of them false workers. The people have never been as confused. Make up your mind you're going to be a Christian and live in purity, live in holiness, live in uprightness. Read the word. Let people think on the seminary if they like, oh he thinks he's holier than we are. You won't be embarrassed to hear that at the judgment seat. They've got a bit of gold medals, models. Some of you guys need to get together at night instead of being out till one or two o'clock. Start praying. You'll discover other men have been wanting to pray and they didn't ask. Get them going. And call me on the phone. Don't call me, collect, but call me. Say Mr. Ray Lewis started praying at the seminary and I'll be rewarded. How many of you are discontented with this present spiritual life? You're longing for freedom, longing for the fetters to be broken, longing not just to go back to the cross again, but get on the cross and lose all your rights. Jesus isn't looking for servants, he's looking for slaves. No time of my own, no money of my own, no desires of my own. All completely handed over to him. Father I thank you tonight for your word. Thank you for these dear patient people. You know every heart here, you know every defeated soul. God I have been asked to close this meeting. If I can help any, I want to do it. If it'll help you as an act of humility to confess when other people think you're so nice and good, to admit your own bankruptcy and you say I wanted to pray for an anointing, well come out now, right now, and kneel at the front and I'm going to pray over you. Don't come because others come, come because you're driven by need. I think of a verse of a hymn, I'm not going to ask you to sing it, but there's been millions have sung the first stanza of that hymn, just as I am without one plea. Let me tell you the last stanza and as you kneel here, think of it and turn it over in your mind. The last stanza of that hymn is this, just as I am poor, wretched, blind, sight, riches, healing of the mind, yea all I need in thee to find, O Lamb of God I come. Did you hear that? I'm coming poor, never mind your grade, never mind your social standing, never mind your bank balance, I'm poor, I'm poor, I have no vision, I want to be rich in vision, I'm poor in love, I want to be rich in love, I'm poor in strength, I want to be strong for God, I'm poor in power and I come poor as I am, not just bowing here at the front, but bowing at the cross of Jesus. Lord I ask you tonight now, my resurrected glorious Lord, come down on everyone who's bowed at this altar tonight, Lord I pray that they'll pass consciously, pass into a new relationship with God, that tonight they'll ask to be crucified with Christ and rise with resurrection power, give them strength to live a disciplined life, you command us to walk in the light, you command us to be obedient, Lord I pray that their prayer lives will be new and fresh, it will be self-sacrificial to the lost dying world, Lord make this time here at this altar tonight, make it the tragedies of the devil, Lord God let angels rejoice, I'm sure they rejoiced when Paul on the Damascus road was liberated, and Lord tonight get control, take men from this altar to the uttermost parts of the earth, may they burn out for God, and these young women, take them Lord, sanctify them, quicken their minds as they've never been quickened, illuminate your holy world, make it throb with eternity as it's never throbbed before, bless these young couples together Lord, may they walk in new strength and new life, I pray for this precious baby here, little thing I pray Lord, sanctify it, take it now Lord, are you the parents, you are, you give it to them Lord, Father God I ask you, we'll take this to the boy of you, Lord we need of new missionaries like Mary Schleser, we need of new missionaries like the great Irish lady there, I forget what's her name, Amy Wilson Carmichael, Lord I ask you, take these spiritual dwarfs at this altar tonight, and make them giants, take the weak and make them strong, take them timid and make them aggressive in God, Lord I pray somehow a new wave of life may come on southwestern bible seminary, that men won't be here just with their ears, but they're here with their inner being, Lord raise a fire in the midst of them, let the glory of God fill that place, let so these professors who've been so hard and careless, and they're just reciting monotonously almost like parrots, Lord I pray let your word become quick and powerful, waken them tonight if need be, dear God, hell is filling, America is going to destruction, there were a billion, at least two billion, maybe three billion lost people in the world, and here we are building churches and having little meetings, God give us some meetings with the power and demonstration of the Holy Ghost, I pray for Dr. Dr. John Gregory, I thank you for the measure of light and power, Lord give him a new anointing of the spirit, that in preaching there in that fashionable church, Chriswell down the road, bless his Lord, make his last years better than the present, come upon Christ for the nation with all his talk, it needs a new quickening of the Holy Ghost, Lord God of hosts, get glory to your name tonight, Lord bring release where there's been bondage, strength where there's been weakness, fruitfulness where there's been barrenness, because you're the Lord of life and the Lord of glory, Lord keep your hand on every family here, on the parents sitting in the back here, some of them have problem children, give them wisdom and understanding, Lord God send us a revival like they've had in South America, where young people want to pray all night, quit playing and start praying, seeking God's face, Lord we're not satisfied, I'm not satisfied, I've tried to serve you 66 years preaching, but I believe the best is yet to be, and Lord I believe you're going to render heavens and come down, we have no other hand, no other deliverer except yourself, banks can't help us, the military can't help us, education can't help us, politics can't help us, thou must favour thou alone, and so we come Lord, not desertedly, but we pray and act upon your mercy, and believe that you do a new thing in every one of these hearts, here tonight, bless this meeting each week I pray, draw the people with the cause of love, Lord I pray that people will be amazed tomorrow as they go to the office, and the home will seem to be filled with God, the office filled with God, the seminary filled with God, Lord we refuse to let the devil take captive anymore, we demand release in your holy name and thank you, because you're the risen exalted Lord, we give you thanks.