In this sermon, the preacher reflects on his experience of reading the Bible and how it humbled him. He emphasizes the need for patience in the Christian journey, using the analogy of running a race. The preacher also highlights the sacrifice and love of Jesus, reminding the audience that they should not expect better treatment from a world opposed to Christ. He concludes by discussing the loneliness of God and the joy that Jesus had in fulfilling his mission. The sermon encourages believers to prioritize their relationship with Jesus over worldly pleasures and to find freedom in Christ.

Hebrews 12, wherefore, seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us. Looking unto Jesus, the Greek there actually says looking off, or looking away. From who? Well, the verse says, we're compassed around with so great a cloud of witnesses. Who are the witnesses? I think to be true to the context, the witnesses are the people in the previous chapter. A remarkable group of people, and as I told you before, I can't read that chapter without kissing the floor. What did they do? Subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, stopped the mouths of lions, women received their dead race to life again like the widow did. Others had trials of cruel mockings and scourgings, and so they did that. That's all they did. One of the key words in this marvelous epistle, and remember there's not a word in the whole epistle to the unsaved. It's we. People say it has no address like the epistle of Paul to the Romans. But it has, because in the third chapter it talks of the holy brethren, or the people who have been reconciled to God and are walking in the light with God. A great cloud of witnesses. I believe every day we walk we're in a cloud of witnesses. The people immediately around us, the witness of demons watching us, the witness of angels watching us. But do you ever read a scripture and wonder where you've been all your life, that it suddenly bursts open and John doesn't do that, he knows too much. Dale, come on, you're on my level, don't you do that? Come on, be honest, confess. Come on, come on. Don't you sometimes read a scripture that suddenly opens like that? And you wonder why. I've read it a thousand times, or 999, you won't exaggerate. And you say, well there it is, suddenly I see light in this thing. Well I did that, or that's how it acted on me when I read this. But you know what I did? I got up the other night, it's about midnight, I worked till about 4 o'clock. On the next day I got a nice outline, which I don't usually have, and if I have I don't keep it anyhow. And then I lost all the notes. Isn't that something? The Lord has such a lovely way of humbling me. I scratched a few out anyhow. Let us run with patience. Now you don't need patience to run, do you? The first time I went to a small college with about 35 men. And the only recreation we had was Wednesday afternoons. We put on some shorts, not briefs like they're running now, shorts. Honorable things, you know, down to your knees. And little rubber shoes, and we ran and ran around the countryside. Two kinds, the fast runners and the slow ones. Boy, do you think I was going to jump? Boy, I was only 20. Run with these old boys behind, 24 and 25, not on your life. I was going to run with the 18 year olds. Boy, they set off down the avenue of the school, phew, like lightning. By the time I got to the gates I was exhausted. We ran and ran and ran. I dropped back with a slow pack. We got about three miles away from the school and all the fast running men were sitting on the wall looking down at the river. Why? Because they didn't run with patience. They exhausted themselves. Let's talk about getting a second wind. And we need that. That supports the second blessing, of course. So there you are. You've learned something already. It says, looking unto Jesus the author and the finisher. The author and the omega. He is the beginning of my faith. He is the end of my faith. He's everything in between in my faith. The author and finisher of my faith. But here's the tough part of this verse. Who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross. You know, wouldn't that read better if it said, who for the joy that was behind him? What joy is in hanging naked on a cross? What joy is there a crowd of people mocking theologians, priests, and people who are supposed to be holy, scumming you, ridiculing you. Saying he's not the son of God. He was born out of wedlock anyhow. We know his mother. We know who his earthly father was. He bears the humiliation. And there for the joy that was set before him. Now wait a minute. Let's go back a minute. What about the joy behind him? He came into the world miraculously. Isn't that wonderful? People call Jesus the second Adam. He wasn't the second Adam. A Catholic taught that to him, so it couldn't be right. Cardinal Newman wrote, O loving wisdom of our God, when all was sin and shame, a second Adam to the fact. He wasn't a, if you have a second Adam, you can have a third, or a fourth, or a fifth. He wasn't a second Adam. He was the last Adam. There's nothing else to be done. But miraculously the first Adam, was born without a mother. The last Adam was born without a father. So why do you have any problem with the incarnation? I don't. I don't know which is the greatest miracle in the Bible. That's what I thought after the meeting. In the New Testament, which is the most wonderful? The birth of miraculous birth of Jesus, or the resurrection? The theologians, they call the birth of Jesus the incarnation. At the end of the line is the resurrection. Without the incarnation, the resurrection is impossible. Without the incarnation, the resurrection impossible. Without the resurrection, the incarnation is incomplete. But let's look, he comes back. He comes through the sky. Wesley didn't say everything right. No Englishman ever does, anyhow. Apart from myself, but anyhow. Remember he wrote that lovely hymn, Hark the herald angels sing. Well tell me a place in the scripture where angels sing. You say, well they sang. Glory to God, they did not. They said it. They chanted it. In England, in the Church of England, they sing what they call Gregorian chants. You need a cold to sing it properly. It's a bit gustful, but it's beautiful. They chanted. We're getting back to that now. We think we're smart. Oh we've got a girl in our church, and she writes her own song. How wonderful. Why didn't you put her in place of the lady you just put back. What's wonderful about writing your own songs. I write my own sermons, so what. I don't get as much money as she does, but I get more joy. And I get a bigger reward, I'm sure of that. Well there you are. Oh for the joy that was behind him. A miracle birth, a miracle man, with a miracle message. John Baptist had come. Remember again between Malachi and Matthew, there's a period of 400 years of darkness without any prophetic light. 400 years of stillness without any prophetic noise. Then suddenly, dramatically, there's a strange looking man. He had to be strange, he was a Baptist. He was away there in the Jordan, with a ragged old coat on, with fleece on it I suppose, an old jacket of some dead camel, and leathery loins, a girth about his loins. And he had breakfast, dinner, tea, the same thing. Dinner, tea and supper. Breakfast, dinner and supper as you say it here. We say breakfast, dinner, tea in England. I don't say he had tea, but I'm saying he had the same every day. For breakfast, lunch, and... Do you know what he had? What did he eat? Huh? He ate honey. And what else did he have? I can't hear you. Locusts. I couldn't get the word. He had locust burgers, you know, three times a day. And he was strange in his dress, he was strange in his diet, he was strange in his doctrine. And he was given one of the supreme tasks in history. God raised him up after he'd been at the University of Siloam for 30 years. I'm sure you can hardly stand 10 weeks away from home to come to last day and go somewhere. For 30 years he was there. For 30 years Jesus didn't preach. Joseph didn't start ministering, working until he was 30 years of age. He died by that time, he died 13 years in jail. Moses was 40. 40 years in the universities of Egypt. Read the 7th chapter of the Acts of the Apostles. He was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians. He knew foreign languages. He knew statesmanship. It says he was mighty in word. He wasn't an orator, he stammered. But he was mighty in word. His word was law before ever he got law from God. And yet God has to put him on the back side of the desert. Why? Because he knows too much. If I had the chance. Do you know what happened? They said yesterday, well I think, that one make of car, I don't know which it was, I'm sure it wouldn't be a Cadillac, but they withdrew, they recalled from cars. You know they never recall Japanese cars, do they? They're always American. Now that's a fact, think about it. You know, if the Lord recalled all the preachers that were malfunctioning, half the pulpits would be empty this Sunday. If they're not functioning according to the word of God, boy, they'd be able to buy pulpits that came out. You know the price is very costly. Jesus has to stay there alone, in the back side of the desert. It says distinctly, John did no miracle. He never healed the sick. He never cleansed the leper. Nobody came with a lunatic son and said, have mercy on my son, John. He never did it. But such was his anointing in the Holy Ghost. If you read the third chapter of Luke, which isn't my text at all tonight, but read it. They came from Judea. It was a success socially, because they came from every quarter. There was a social standard. They came from different countries. The Roman soldiers were there. They were heathens. What Kipling would call the lesser breeds, outside of the law. And yet they fought, because again, here is an incandescent man. After a period of 400 years of darkness, suddenly there's a man bursting in flames. Somebody sent me a book this week. It's a good one. It's called The Unholy Spirit. You can buy it. It'll scare you to death, maybe. You know, people in different parts of the world suddenly burst into flames. A woman in England, in a rowing boat, burst into flames with her husband and children there. And she just went to cinders. And the heat was terrific, but the boat wasn't singed. Nobody else was burned. Their hair wasn't burned. She just disintegrated into a stack of ashes, right before their eyes. There are two or three cases like that coming. You know, the devil can forfeit just, what am I trying to say? Not forfeit. Counterfeit. Thank you John. Very wonderfully. Counterfeit everything. You know, there's a man down in South America and he has had 2,000 miracles of healing cancer. And all he does, he has a rusty knife and he goes to people whose bodies are withered and he sticks it through their bellies and they don't bleed and they don't have any pain in their heels. There's 2,000 recorded cases of that. What do you make of it? Well, I think it's God's mercy, but again, it's done to an evil man. All kinds of things. I believe we're going to have a bigger invasion of evil powers in the next few years than we've ever had in our history. We need the whole armor of God. We need the full protection of the blood. But let's go back to here, to Jesus. He had a miracle birth. He had a miracle ministry. Also the joy that was behind him. What joy? People came lame and went away leaping. People came to him blind. They went away seeing. He went to the dead and he left them living. He went to the storm and still did. He went to the waves and still did. He had dominion over death. He had dominion over demons. He had everything that was destructive. He had dominion over it. What does it say? He's looking back. Oh, he had some marvelous times. He had 40 days in the wilderness. Not 40 tests. Not 40 minutes. 40 days. Everything that could be tempted. He was tempted sexually. He was tempted in every way. The devil said, he showed him the kingdoms of this world. The real estate. No, forget it. He was too smart to do that. He knew that Jesus owned the world. He knew that Jesus made it. He counseled with his father about making it. So what did he say? He said he offered him the real estate. That shows you how valuable worship is. You don't know how to worship. I'm studying with a book right now. It's, as they say, killing me. I sleep little and groan a lot. I started it six times and changed them all and started again the seventh time today in the hope I've got the beginning right anyhow. The end will work out after. But again, it's a formidable day in which we're living. I believe we're going to see tremendous satanic powers come down in these last days. Beyond anything we've ever seen before. And our own refuge is in the blood of the Lamb. But Jesus had dominion over everything. He was offered the kingdoms of this world. Again, not real estate. I believe he was offered the kingdom of wisdom. The devil says, I'll get the Greeks to believe on you with their intellectual power. I'll get the Romans to believe on you with their military power. I'll get the Jews to believe on you with their religious power. I'll give you all the kingdoms. The kingdom of knowledge, the kingdom of religion, the kingdom of authority. And Jesus said no. And Satan just said, just bend your knee and say once I worship you. And he wouldn't do that. But there you are. Jesus triumphed for 40 successive days. Hebrews talks about him praying with strong crying and tears. I wonder if that isn't part of this temptation he had as well as in the garden of Gethsemane. When he could look back to the miracles he did over death, over demons, over the weather, over the sea. He had a marvelous pageant of victory. But he doesn't look back. He not only has the 40 days of marvelous victory over the devil. Remember he had the mount of transfiguration. He could have looked back there. It's a wonder, I wonder why John didn't fall at his feet dead then. Because he hadn't yet died and triumphed in the ultimate. But there he was on the mount of transfiguration with Moses and the other prophets. He could have looked back to that surely and enjoyed it. And then you can fill in the rest. There's a host of things he could have done. But it says, looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith. Who for the joy that was set before him. I can never look at this verse either privately or in a meeting without thinking of a hymn that was written. Again by an Englishman I think. No, it was a Scotsman. Andrew Bonner. He wrote a hymn. Go labour on, spend and be spanked. Thy joy to do the Father's will. It is the way the Master went, should not the servant tread it still. Toil on, and in thy toil rejoice. For toil comes rest, for exile home. Soon shall thou hear the bridegroom's voice. The midnight cry, behold I come. But you see, you don't get true joy by sitting in a chair reading a book. You get it through blood and sweat and tears like Jesus did. True love has blood in it. It doesn't care whether it's physical or what it is. It's got two things on it. It's got blood. It's got sacrifice. There is no love without sacrifice. It's easy to sing love so amazing, so divine, but remember what it cost him. You know, I've never heard anybody preach on the loneliness of God. Have you ever done that Brother Farrar? Well, you're a bad boy. So am I. I haven't. God lonely for thirty years. His son was on earth. Kicked around like a football and the father's up there. He could in a moment have destroyed them. Jesus could have destroyed them for that matter, but he didn't. And yet now it says, who for the joy that was set before him. Why? Because he said, I come to do thy will, O my God. He knew it was the will of his father. Would you like somebody to really, if you thought persecution was coming on America in the next five years, that we'll go to concentration camps. That will be a daily horrible experience. Women will be raped every day. That you'll be shut off there and see your wife in agony somewhere. Or your children. If somebody could actually sketch your whole life for the next ten years, and it's full of horror and terror and persecution and deprivation. Would you do it? Would you like it? And yet Jesus never knew. He knew it was a sketch written 750 years before he was born. In that 53rd chapter in Isaiah, who hath believed our report. To whom is the arm of the Lord revealed. He shall go out before him as a tender plant. As a root out of a dry ground. When we shall see him we shall not desire him. There's no beauty that we should desire him. And then it goes on and gets more awful. May please the Lord to bruise him. I don't understand that. But he knew that was coming and he didn't flinch. He set his face deliberately towards Jerusalem, knowing what awaited him there. Who for the joy that was set before him. What joy is this hanging on a cross? Of course he's now modest. Who's modest these days? Who cares about modesty? But I believe out of mere modesty they put Jesus on the cross. They put a loincloth over him. That was part of the humiliation was to hang there naked. To be scorned, to be ridiculed. Again as dear Dr. Tozer said. When you saw a man go down the street with a cross on his back. You knew one thing. He wasn't coming back. Immediately was made for the cross. He lost all his rights. And if every precious Baptist in America really believed that. We'd turn the nation upside down. But it's a ritual. Just this week I had a letter from Dr. Fred Wolfe. I once preached in his big church there in Mobile. He said 75% of Southern Baptist students who go to college. Quit going to church in their sophomore year. Well how old were they? Would they be 18? Somewhere in that area wouldn't they? Going to college. And yet 75% of them. I would guarantee my life. I'd risk my life in a gamble if every one of them somewhere was baptized. And made a profession. And yet as soon as they can they quit church. So they should if it's a dead dumb church. But if they're born again of the spirit of God. They live on Christ. You can live without a church as far as I go. Some of us do a lot of it. This is my church. People ask me where I preach. I say it last days every Friday night. But it's not a real church because there's no offering. One preacher thought I was crazy. He said how long have you been there? I said 10 years. We went to Brown's wonderful house. Never took an offering once. Didn't even give me a birthday gift. Stingy crowd that you are. But anyhow. But I'm not concerned about money. Never have been. Never will be. But for the joy set before him he did the will of his father. The triumphs behind him sure there were triumphs. What about Gethsemane? What about when he needed everybody and you all fell away. Ever been in a situation like that? When the folk you were going to trust boy they all went down like chaff. They all deserted him in the darkness. And he said if it is possible let this cup pass from me. And then he goes through the humiliation of the judgment hall. A mock trial. A farce. As he would say he was framed. And yet the joy before him up to here he's done the will of his father. He's given angels excitement every day. Conquering demons. Conquering death. Conquering affliction. He was determined that whatever came into the human race through the first Adam should be healed by the last Adam. And I love the hymn of Wesley. As I thought of this today. I've been meditating on this so often in the night watches and thinking about it. Let me see I've got a note here on this. Now you see I've got some notes. Yeah one of Charles Wesley's earlier hymns says would Jesus have the sinner die. Why hangs he then on me on the tree. What means that strange expiring cry. Sinner he prays for you for me. Forgive them father oh forgive. They know not that by me they live. Thou loving all atoning lambs. Be by thy painful agony. By bloody sweat. By grief and shame. By cross and passion on the tree. By precious death and life I pray. Take all. Take all my sins away. Then he uses this. I wonder if Charles Wesley got this after meditating on the woman that went to Jesus. What did she go with a pot of oil. What did she go for a banquet. No. She's the only one recorded that went to that show that took a gift. And I know what she went to do. She went to worship him. Why. Because number one. She took the most precious thing that she had a number two. She never said a word. She wouldn't wash his holy feet with water. She washed them with tears. She wouldn't dry those holy feet with a costly towel. She wiped them with the hair of her head. A woman's glory is her hair the scripture says. And those feet. She saw them nailed to a cross a week after that. But she began not. As Jesus said. I entered into her house. Simon thou gavest me no kiss. Thou gavest me no water. Thou gavest me no oil. But this woman won't cease. Cease kissing me. And she didn't kiss his face. She kissed his feet. And then she poured the oil on his feet. The most pungent. Fragrant perfume ever made in the history of the world. Cost of King's ransom. She had a box of a pound. And she laid it on him. A few days later the man had two men go up the hill with a hundred pounds of that ointment. Worth, we told, a million dollars. But what's the good of it in bed? What are we going to do for the Lord after we die? We'll leave our money. We'll do this. Forget it. I'm not forfeited to say. But an American poet said this. Do your giving while you're living. Then you're knowing where it's going. So she put that fragrance on his feet. And then dried his feet with the hair of her head. What happened? The fragrance she poured out on him came back on her. You know all we do. We go and make. We've got a great utility job. We go to him. We tell him our troubles. We tell him our problems. We tell him. How long do we stay to get the eternal fragrance on us and bring it back? I was reading about Jonathan Edwards wonderful wife. She was a wonderful wife. She brought him twelve children. That's not a miracle in itself. She brings to birth twelve apostles. Then yes, she brought twelve wonderful children. But they said of her, you know, before she was married to him. He said it up, up in New England there. Do you know there's a woman and they mentioned the town. There's a woman where the great being, being God visits her. She has ecstasy. Her daughter says if you saw my dear mother come out of her prayer closet in the morning. She needs a veil over her face. Like Moses. What do your kids see? Children see when they come home. You're listening to some junk. One of these Christian shows. Talkie to death. Full of wind. Or do you, do they see you come out of the closet with a holy radiance on you. This woman spent all that she had and put all she had on the feet of Jesus. He had that marvelous experience to look back to. But now where do we get him? You get him to the place where he asked to march to the cross. I'm going to have a bit of a talk with those twelve disciples. It is a row up in heaven. I'll be in the middle of it I'm sure. I'll be saying you're a bunch of cowards. You all forsook him. You should have been standing six of you on this side and six on the other. When they marched him to the cross. You should have been saying well hail Jesus. Hail Jesus. The King of Glory will soon be coming in triumph. Instead of that what did they do? They stayed dumb. They stayed away. And we see him go there to the cross. They nailed him as we say. They nailed him to that cruel tree. I remember in England there was a little guy about five years of age. Singing a hymn. There is a green hill far away. It was written by the wife of Alexander. A great evangelist and she was an American. There is a green hill far away. Outside the city wall. Where our dear Lord was crucified. Who died to save us all. He died that we might be forgiven. He died to make us good. That we might go at last to heaven. Saved by his precious blood. I forget the next part. But then it goes on the second line of the next verse. Those kind hands that did such good. They nailed him to a cross of wood. I ask you again. Why in God's name do you expect better treatment from a world that's just as diabolical now. Just as opposed to Christ now as it was when he walked the earth. Why do you expect better treatment. Better respect. Come on. You shouldn't care about the junk outside. You should be so fascinated with Jesus that you can really pray. I lay in death, life, glory, death. That may mean your dearest friend. It might mean a relative. It might mean your reputation. It might mean postponing a marriage for a year or two. Some other thing. I lay in death, life, glory. The thing I treasure most. Here it is. If God had sent Gabriel to earth it would be wonderful. Or if he sent Michael the archangel. But he didn't send an angel or an archangel. He sent his only begotten son. For the wholesome that believe upon him. But there he is. And he's looking forward. Oh for the joy the respect before it endured. He doesn't say enjoyed. But he did enjoy it. In the sense it was the will of his father. I come to do thy will oh my God. I don't care about desertion. I don't care about a mock trial. I don't care about the hatred of the Jews. I don't care about the spite of the scribes. Who write the scriptures out and are as dirty as devils. I don't care about them. I'm doing your holy will and that's all that matters to me. The cost doesn't matter. The expense I never thought of. He denies himself from any right. But there he hangs on the tree. What is the joy set before him? Well I think I know one or two of them. The joy is this that very soon. When he comes down from that tree. He's going to leave captivity captive and give gifts unto men. When he comes down from that tree. He's going to give the gift of the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost is a coronation gift of Jesus. He can't come unless I go. I go up he comes down. The disciple is impetuous. You know love gets so impetuous sometimes and petulant. And when Jesus says yes I'm going. Oh no no no no no. You can't go. You can't go. We're just getting used to your speech. We're beginning to understand your argument. We don't want you to go. He said but I'm going to send somebody in my place far better. Oh no. Oh no. No. That's an old story. The night that the preacher was leaving his church. And the old lady wasn't there when they announced the preacher will be going this week. And he went to see her. She said I hear you're leaving this week. He said you know dear. The preacher that succeeds me will be far better than me. She said well the last one said that. Nice way of humbling you isn't it. He didn't come up to pass. Jesus says I'm with you but he shall be in you. Jesus couldn't be in two places at once. Only one. If he was in Galilee he wasn't in Bethsaida. If he was in Jerusalem he wasn't somewhere else. But he said when the Holy Spirit of God has come he will indwell you. And he'll lead you into knowledge and he'll lead you into wisdom. So one of the things set before him was the joy of seeing these men. Peter the denying cowardly man becomes instead of a persecutor. Paul I mean. Peter too. But Paul a persecutor turned into a preacher. Paul the murderer turned into a messenger. Paul who had learned everything about the law learned more about grace than any other man on earth. He sees in Paul the possibilities. That man's going to write 14 epistles. That is if you give him Hebrews and I think he wrote that. And so for the joy that was set before him. What is this temporal agony compared to eternity. I believe somewhere today in this great world of ours. A wicked diabolical world that's going to get worse. I believe people have been martyred for Jesus sake. In Russia, in China, in Afghanistan, in some other countries. There's no news coming through. We live in a day of managed news. They magnify things that they want to magnify. They shrink other important things. They wipe some things out. But thank God he keeps the record. And I've said this too often. One of my favorite modern quotes is. It will be worth it all when we see Jesus. Life's trousers seem so small when we see Christ. One glimpse of his dear face all sorrow will erase. So let us run the race till we see Christ. One of the joys set before him was to triumph over death. Yes they're going to drive nails through his feet on the cross. But wasn't there a prophecy. That that serpent will bruise your heel. And he said yes but do it. And with the heel you bruise I'll crush your head. He's going to crush the serpent. He's going to destroy the power of the devil. He's going to liberate his children and give gifts unto men. The gifts are not the gifts of the Holy Ghost. I don't care how you argue it. They're not the gifts of the Spirit. They're the gifts of Jesus. Jesus purchased them. The Holy Spirit is the executive of the Godhead. He distributes the wealth of God. Or the wealth of Jesus Christ. We used to sing a hymn in England. I can't remember how it begins. But I know a part of it said. The purchase of thy death divide. Give me with all the sanctified the heritage of love. The purchase of thy death. What is it? Jesus is bound that you might be free. Jesus put to death that we might live. I say he sees before him. The wonderful, wonderful glory. That he's going to bring to the Father. Again would Jesus have this sinner die? Why hangs he then on yonder tree? Or if you like it. The best hymn that I like. The second time Billy Graham came to England. The Methodist and a few other stragglers. Met him in Victoria Station. They took a little organ. And they struck up that great hymn of Wesley's. And can it be that I should gain. Do you know that? How many know that? One or two, three, four, five. I'm going to get it past in the back of this book. It's a marvelous book. Marvelous hymn. 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 should die for me. He left his Father's throne above. So free, so infinite is grace. Emptied himself of all but love. And bled for Adam's helpless race. Anything to do with that? Oh the other one that Charles Wesley liked most. No condemnation now I dread. Jesus and all in him is mine. Alive in him my living head. And clothed in righteousness divine. Bold I approach the eternal throne. And claim the crown through Christ my own. He is an intellectual. I had a wonderful surprise tonight. My neighbor came and gave me a book. He didn't give me too many. But he'd been to the book fair up in Washington. And a man came to him and he mentioned my name. He said, Leonard Grady wrote Why Did I Will Challenge. Yes. Oh he said a few years ago I was a liberal preacher. I was totally without God. I was just, just stuck. And somebody gave me a book and I read it. It didn't do me much good. And it wasn't mine. And they said somebody gave me Why Did I Will Challenge. And I got totally liberated. Born again of the spirit of God. And now I'm preaching the unsearchable riches of Christ. That makes it worthwhile. But Charles Wesley was a scholar. A gentleman. His family was next to the royal family in England. I say he was a scholar. In England they call him a Don. Oxford Don. A teacher. In the mother of universities. As it's called. Oxford. And this is a man. He has no prison record. He hasn't fooled around in immorality. Sexual or any other way. Nobody ever heard him lie. He was brought up in a righteous family. One of the most holy families on earth. And yet there came a day when his mother, Mrs. Obviously Mrs. Wesley's mother. Gave him a book written by a Scotsman. Henry Scoogle. Written about a hundred years before Wesley was around. It's called The Life of God in the Soul of Man. And that's what salvation is. It's not coming to an altar and confessing and getting baptized. There's millions going to hell like that. Ninety-five percent of the students in the schools, he said. They quit church. They're not born again. That's as stupid as a man getting married today and divorced tomorrow. What in God's name has the world got to offer me as a substitute for the presence of Jesus Christ? What has he got to give me compared with the joys of eternity? And so this religious man who baptized babies and did all the ritual of the church. He says, long my imprisoned spirit lay fast bound in sin and nature's night. Thine eye diffused the quickening way I walked. The dungeon flamed with light. My chains fell off. My heart was spot changed. He's no change of tobacco. He wasn't a slave. We're more slaves in America than ever in history. We've slaves to drink. We've slaves to drugs. We've slaves to smoking. We've slaves to immorality. They then invented their own lousy disease called AIDS that let them live three years after they start. It's slow suicide. Every time I see a woman nursing a baby. Well we say nursing in England. Not the way you think of it. We think rocking a baby. I see these girls in a shopping mall. Boy what a sight they look. Say she's waddling down the thing from his way out here and she's smoking. I feel like giving her a slap. I say do you know what you're doing? That baby is going to go start life with a desire for nicotine. Or it's going to start life with a desire for drugs. But Wesley has the fetters of rigid orthodoxy. He has rigid chains of doctrine around him. But there came a moment when like the prisoner. You remember the prisoner in chains. And the chains fell off. And he says my chains fell off. My heart was free. I rose went forth and followed thee. No condemnation now I dread. All the haunting fears. All the sin. All the guilt. All the times I defiled myself. Or defiled the name of God. No condemnation now I dread. It's all wiped out. Dear Lord I don't know why we don't get more excited about the things. You know I don't care if people doubt. But when we get in church. They start jumping. Jump about. Or shouting. Do you remember John Bunyan tells him. Goes up to the cross with a bird on his back. It's crushing him. And he says as I approached the cross. I came to a place somewhat ascending. It was walled in on either side. And then I looked at the cross. When I beheld the cross. The burden loose from off my back. Fell off my shoulders. Rolled down the hill into an empty sepulcher. And I beheld it no more forever. And he said I gave three leaps for joy. And he was a Baptist. What would he have done if he'd been a Pentecostal. He says I gave three leaps for joy. One for the father I guess. One for the son. One for the. We don't get people liberated like that. They come to an altar. Say a prayer. They go out as damned as they came in. I would charge. I believe God would charge 95% of the preachers in America or England. With criminal guilt. As a judgment fee. Because they never dare to tell them the price. Of being born again of the spirit of God. Never tell them they have to renounce the world. The flesh and the devil. Never tell them. They say Jesus gave you nothing to do. The scripture says you put off the old man. Put on the new man. And it says you take up your cross and follow him. Jesus didn't do it all. There's some things you have to do. Redemption he completed. But I have to do with him to get into that place. I have to repent of sin. I have to make restitution where possible. And I have to take up my cross daily. And follow him. And that's good preaching. In case you don't know. You know I just love to talk about the Lord. About redemption. One thing here we mention. It says where is it now. It says don't look right now. But I'll tell you where it is exactly. It's in John the 19th chapter verse 34. Just before that it says the men came around checking the thieves. And Jesus there on the cross. They broke the legs of the thieves. Now that word break in Greek doesn't mean just like the mafia do. They say the mafias frame the man and say. If you don't do this they will break your legs. But they took a hammer and they crushed the leg. They crushed the bones. And they crushed the bones of the two thieves. They didn't touch Jesus. But verse 34 says they took a sword and they put it in his side. And out of the side of the son of God came blood and water. Blood to me a sign of redemption. Water a sign of life. Because in the midst of the city of God there's a river of water of life. And I believe that's telling us what Jesus came to do. But there's something more than that. I think the most wonderful thing he could look for. Was not just triumphing over sin. Over the power of the devil. Over disease. And every bondage. I believe there was one supreme joy he had before him. What was it? He was going to have a wife. When Adam was born. Eve came out of the side of Adam. I know the modern star they tell me is that. Men go now and watch the baby delivered from the wife. Well I wouldn't do that. I wouldn't like to see that. I don't know too much about it. But I know there's something called an afterbirth. It's a bloody mess. And often a woman screams in her agony. Her husband doesn't know a thing about it. And she's going through this awful, awful, awful anguish. With the joy, as the scripture says, knowing that a child will be born. So Adam lay down to sleep. And while he was asleep. The Lord took a rib out of his side. It wasn't any bloody mess at all. It was beautiful. It was glorious. But Jesus there is hanging. And because the side is open, out of that side a bride is going to come. It's bloody like natural birth. It's pain. It's agony. He says, God, God, I can understand everybody else deserting me. But in this crucial moment, why God, why have you forsaken me? And it seemed as black as darkness could be. And yet there he is in joy. And I remind you again, joy is not entertainment. And entertainment isn't necessarily joy. But entertainment is a substitute for real joy. It's not happiness. Happiness depends on happening. If things go, happen to go well, we're happy. If they happen to go bad, we go down, up and down like a yo-yo. But joy is totally independent. I bless, I believe tonight there are people in prison in Russia and elsewhere. Who are being excited today about Jesus. There's nothing to distract them like we have. We can hardly go out. Oh, look at that. Would you believe it? Oh, I saw that dress in so-and-so. A hundred dollars. Here it is in Kmart. Twenty-five. Oh, I'll go back and try. I'll go back and try it on. We think if we gain a dollar or two, boy, are we rich. We scorn the Rockefellers, but we don't like to be like them. Don't be honest with me. I wonder if we wouldn't. But here he is. He's going to have a bride. There he is going through the anguish. And for the joy that is set before him, he's going to have a bride one day. I believe something else. I'd use the word reverently, thrill the heart of Jesus on the cross. He knew that his blood could atone for the whole human race. Well, it's not him. It goes like this. There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel. And sinners plunged beneath that blood lose all their guilt. Lose all their guilt today. Lose all their guilt today.