In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of recognizing the eternal consequences of our actions and the need to love and worship God wholeheartedly. He shares a personal story about being called by God to leave a comfortable life in Ireland and move to America. The preacher also highlights the significance of showing reverence and respect in our worship, comparing it to how we would behave in the presence of important figures like the Queen of England or the President of the United States. Overall, the sermon encourages listeners to prioritize their love for God and approach worship with sincerity and reverence.

Okay, let's look at the book. The, uh, as I like to remind people, I always use the, uh, which version do I use? Living Bible, King James Version. An old lady said to me in a meeting one day, she brought me this Bible, she was hugging it, it was beautifully bound, she said, I've got a living Bible. I said, lady, I never knew there was a dead one. It's been living ever since it was translated. In England, of course. Wycliffe made a promise, and I think of it so often, you know, you talk about the Wycliffe translators, or the Wycliffe, as we say in England. I remember that one man, a bishop, decided he would put the Bible into the hands of the plowboys. Used to be tied up in the Latin tongue, that's what it's been in South America for centuries. And he said we'd make it to, uh, be in everybody's hand. And I went into an old church in England, in the north of England, where they still have a chained Bible, one of these huge things, and it's on a, uh, little shelf in the wall, and it has an iron chain on it, and people used to come, as often as they could, and read from the Word of God. Uh, there's a record in history where a man said that a man came and offered him a whole wagon load of hay for one page of the Bible. Well, we don't treasure it, you see, it's commonplace, buy it for a dollar, find some old copies in Goodwill if you want. And it doesn't mean too much to us, very often. When we sing Beyond the Sacred Page, I think that, I seek thee Lord, I think of how often men prefer the sports page in the magazine, in the paper, particularly Monday morning. If you stay around here long enough, you'll, there'll be a fever, uh, let's see, about three months away. It's called Cowboy Fever. And if you go into Dallas, they talk more about the cowboys than any other subject. That was tested by a secular newspaper. What is the main theme in Dallas? Oh, the cowboys. And that's a city full of seminaries and big churches. It's a city where two years ago when the Dallas Cowboys played the, uh, what, Pittsburgh Steelers, they put a giant screen up in the first so-and-so church in town so that they could find the results. And somebody kept running in saying, Cowboys, you know, sign language. Never thought of saying how many people were lost or gone to hell while they were preaching. The Word of God is the Word of God and it's never going to change. It's guaranteed that the heavens and earth will pass away but His Word will not pass away. Okay, let's read now from the first chapter in the book of the Revelation. Revelation chapter 5. And I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne a book, written within and sealed on the back. It was sealed with seven seals. And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, Who is worthy to open the book and to loose the seals thereof? And no man in heaven or earth, neither under the earth, was able to open the book, neither to look thereon. And I wept much, because no man was found worthy to open and to read the book, neither to look thereon. And one of the elders said unto me, Weep not. Behold a lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, hath prevailed to open the book and to loose the seven seals thereof. And I beheld, and lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, in the midst of the elders, stood a lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God, sent forth into all the earth. And he came and took the book out of the right hand of him that sat upon the throne. Well, for the last, the previous two sessions, we talked about worship. To me, this is the most efficient section in the church of Jesus Christ. Again, we've taught people to witness, knock on doors, do this, do that. Well, that's not wrong. We've taught people to witness and we've taught them to work. We have not taught them to worship. I wonder how many sermons you've heard totally on the subject of worship in your life. I have never heard one. And Dr. Tozer told me one day as we sat together talking, he said, Len, I have never heard a sermon yet on worship. You see, we've got the idea that as soon as you say, the most important thing is get a bundle of tracts, go on the street, get witnessing. That is not the most important thing. I found some of the most good-looking girls in the world on the streets in New York when I worked with Dave Wilkerson there nearly 20 years ago, gorgeous-looking girls, prostitutes, who could quote the scriptures, sing blessed assurance from beginning to end. Dad knew so much about the church. And they'd been born of the Spirit, had gifts of the Spirit, and yet they were prostituting. Boys that had been in the front line of the church who'd just got away. And I'm convinced of this, that the greatest thing in the world is not to be a soul winner. Just as you hear people say sometimes, you know the great commission of Jesus, the last words of Jesus were going into all the world and printing. No, they weren't. The old preacher says that, telling me he doesn't know what he's talking about. The last word of Jesus is in the book of the Revelation where he says to about six out of the seven churches, repent. That's with his final word. I have found missions. I think the one particularly who came to me after a meeting in England in a stately old mansion and he put his arm around my shoulder and he wept. There's a book written about his achievements. He lived on the roof of the world, which was Tibet for years. Wore sackcloth around his legs and led his Beard Grove party to keep warm and couldn't go out without things around his eyes and face. Lived as a missionary. Oh, it's all about suffering. Talk about these guys that have been fighting that foolish war there in the Falklands. Freezing to death some of them. Frostbite in their fingers, frostbite in their feet. Well, this is exactly what happened with the missionaries in those days. And yet that missionary admitted the fact that he had lost his devotional life on the mission field. Again, I quoted the fact that Dr. Tozer told me that as I looked at a piece of rug there in front of his desk that he laid, as he said, on his belly for five and six hours at a time without offering one word of prayer and without saying one word of praise, he just worshipped. We go to meetings now, they say everybody raise your hand and worship. That's not worship, that's praise. Prayer is preoccupation with our needs. Praise is preoccupation with our blessings. Worship is preoccupation with God himself. As the old hymn says, my goal is God himself. I start in every congregation somewhere now, I stop in the middle of a service, sometimes when the glory of God seems to be on the verge. I want to ask you a question tonight. Did you come to this meeting tonight to meet God or to hear a sermon about him? 99% of people that will flood our churches on Sunday, I'm convinced, do not go there to meet God. They do not expect a confrontation with eternity. They go to hear a sermon about God. They become kind of theological technicians. Hey, he wasn't right there. He believes in the pre-tribulation rapture. Brother, that fellow, you know, you should put him on an island in the middle of the ocean. They do not meet God. Again, in the three months from now when the cowboys are playing, hardly any church you can get out of Sunday morning before saying, hey, do you think Tony's going to score the first goal this afternoon? What are the odds? How many, what do you call them, touchdowns? Are we going to get over them? It's the total conversation. Therefore, football is their God. What preoccupies your thinking and your time the most is your God. So prayer is preoccupation with our needs. Praise is preoccupation with our blessings, and worship is preoccupation with God himself. Now, we don't follow this in America, but in Europe in almost every denomination, or if you like, as the old lady said, every abomination. But anyhow, in almost every denomination, people stand to sing. We don't. We sit there. I was in a meeting the other day, a few days ago. A fellow comes in and looks at his girl and, you know, rolls his eyes at her, and then we sang a hymn, he slips his arm around her. Boy, I felt like punching him. I saw a fellow do that in a church not long ago. He slubbers down, big slob of a guy, with his arm around the girl. I said, listen, if you want to do your courting, go outside. There was somebody playing the piano at one of the Sunday morning services. He wouldn't chew gum in the presence of the Queen of England, or the presence of the President of the United States. What would your attitude be if Jesus was standing physically in the midst of this place tonight? Or when you go to worship, do you think you might dress a little more orthodoxly, or you'd not want to whisper or do anything? Well, listen, if it takes his physical presence, there's something wrong with your thinking, because where two or three are gathered in his name, he's here. And he's in every service, and either he leaves it with joy, or I dare to say, he leaves it with sorrow. OK, then speaking generally in European and other churches, they stand to sing, we kneel to pray, but we prostrate ourselves to worship. Just go through the book of the Revelation, I tick some of them off here, in chapter 1, verse 17, or take the first instance, where, do you remember what John says, that when he saw Jesus, I fell at his feet as dead. Now come on, I know we like exciting meetings, did you ever come to that? Who's saying this? John. And he's specifically marked out as the disciple whom Jesus loved. John is the one who used to lay his head on the shoulder on the bosom of Jesus and hear that divine heartbeat. And he was with him those three and a half years, and he was with him in his Gethsemane, he was one of the chosen three, you know, he was there when Jesus raised Jairus his daughter, he was there on the Mount of Transfiguration, he was there in the Garden of Gethsemane. And yet as familiar as he was with Jesus, he says, when I saw him in his resurrection splendor, I fell at his feet as dead. Now come on, before too long you're going to stand before a thousand billion people, you won't have your husband, your wife, your sweetheart, your deacon, you're going to stand by yourself in the presence of the Christ of God. Do you think we'll be talking about the man upstairs like these vulgar so-called converted film stars do? If John fell at his feet as dead, John sees him now, not the man of Galilee, not the man whose beard is plucked and somebody spits some phlegm in his, somebody cracks him on the face and somebody puts a blinder on his eyes and says, come on prophesy, you supposedly know everything. He says, I saw him, his eyes were like flames of fire, his feet were like burnished brass, his face is like the sun in its strength, his tongue is a sharp-dredged sword, his voice is like, what, the sound of many waters. You know, I love this book, it mystifies me. To me the book of Revelation is a book of mystery and it's a book of majesty and it's a book of misery. It's the end book in the Bible, yeah, it's the end book because it goes beyond the end of time, it goes into eternity. Of all the so-called theologies, if you like, or mystical interpretations of eternity, this is the only authentic one in the whole world. And you'll be very wise at your age, since you're so young, to read this book very often. John here is, well actually the 4th chapter begins a division in this book, if you look at, let me give you the verses about falling at his feet. Chapter 1 verse 17, chapter 5 verse 8, and then 14, chapter 7 and then verse 11, then 11 verse 16, 19 verse 4, and then verse 10, and 22 and verse 8. All right, let's come back. Let me just say this too, in Matthew 28 you remember that the two Marys had been to the tomb, and as they were told to go away and declare the news, suddenly they were confronted with Jesus. Do you remember what they did? They fell at his feet and they worshipped him. They fell at his feet and they worshipped him. In case I forget later, can you remember a time when you went into his presence not to pray, not to ask for money, not to ask him to get you out of a difficulty, not even just to praise, but just to worship him. What is worship? Worship is a concentration of adoration and love, meditation and contemplation, adoration I think we mentioned, and love. And then concentration, because if you don't concentrate you'll end up maybe with transcendental meditation. You've got to keep your mind on this fact that you're there to worship God. Now you're not going to get there in a weekend. There's a young man I was thinking of, he's 30 miles away from here, he's 32 years of age, he prays 10 hours a day. There's no good you saying, well I'm going to start praying too. You won't. There's a man in this building two weeks ago who prays 8 hours most day and often 16 hours a day. These men never get the picture out in front of Christianity today, or Billy Graham's decision, or last day's ministry paper. They do not want to be exhibits. They're not seeking the praise of man, they shut it, they flee from it. You see what adoration really is, oh we can say so many things about it, is a love relationship with Jesus Christ where you contemplate at one time one of his aspects is holiness, his mercy another time, his long suffering, his patience, the power of his redemption. You know we get sometimes a bit woozy and we say thank you Lord for saving my soul. Well how often do you thank him? There's an old hymn that says fill thou my life O Lord my God in every part with praise that my whole being may proclaim thy being and thy ways. Not for the lip of praise alone, not even a praising heart I ask, but for a life made up of praise in every part. Praise in the common things of life, its goings out and in. Praise in each duty and each deed however small and mean. So shall no part of day or night from sacredness be free but my whole life in every step be fellowship with thee. I'm just thinking of going to a worldwide evangelization crusade meeting about 40 years back and a very charming girl, oh boo, when she came in, whoa, such a personality, such a style. And everybody kind of looked. Oh she had a gorgeous fancy blouse on, the hair do you know, high heels and all the stuff ladies have. And they said we're going to ask Miss So and So from America to give her testimony. So she went up with a big smile and she said well my name is So and So you know and I graduated first in Bible school then I went to a certain university, got my degree in So and So. I kind of got a vision for the world and so forth and I came down here to the worldwide evangelization crusade and felt I knew all the answers you know, my personality was all in order, I got it all, everything was under control. And the first night I was here they said well the rising bell goes at 6 in the morning and you're allowed about an hour for prayer and meditation and then 7 o'clock breakfast then 7.30 you get your assignment. Here I was she said, I don't know how many languages she spoke and I got my degree in this and in something else and finished Bible school and got all these kind of diplomas and I got my assignment. A big old steel bucket about that depth with scrubbing brush and soda and soap and they told me to wash all the toilets out in that one level I was on. Oh what in the world are they doing? Don't they realize my ability? I mean across the Atlantic you can go to school all these years and spend money to get an education to wash toilets out, stinking things that they are, old fashioned English toilets are terrible but anyhow let's pass over that. And me, me, and she said it was down on my knees scrubbing the floor that I realized, yeah, you'd like the glitter you'd like to be projected in front, you'd like to display some abilities you have. You know it will help you a lot if you get this in your mind that nobody that ever lived ever did God a favor. If ever you think that that little grain of sand on the edge of eternity that happens to be your personality is going to upset the world if it gets moved, forget it. Somebody said if you want to know how valuable your life is you fill a bucket with water and roll your sleeve up and push your hand right to the bottom of the bucket and pull it out and the hole you leave is the impression you've made in your lifetime. Pretty demanding isn't it? Kind of difficult to think the world will function when I die, I have trouble about this sometimes, you know, if I die I mean all these societies are going to collapse. Oh no, no, no, no. OK, well what's the secret of keeping going on, going on, going on? The secret is worship. The secret is a love relationship. I think there's an old book Dr. Tills used to talk to me about called The Eternal Marriage, he used to read all the mystics. We don't have mystics now, we're just misfits, but he loved to read in that area. People that seem right out of touch with life and they're not really out of touch with life at all. Now this book is the book of the Revelation and often preachers will say we're going to read now from the fourth chapter of the book of the Revelation of St. John. There isn't such a book in the Bible. The book of the Revelation is the revelation of Jesus Christ to St. John. And the Revelation, the apocalypse as it's sometimes called, means the unveiling. You read again and again in the Word of God about mysteries in the Scripture, mysteries in the Scripture. Well a mystery is not something that cannot be solved, a mystery is something that has not yet been unveiled. For Paul says you remember on one occasion, behold I show you a mystery. This has been unveiled until now, I take the veil away. Now here's one of the most amazing things I think in this whole book. In the fourth chapter it says in verse 1, And I looked and behold a door was opened in heaven. And I've said this before but I'll say it again for some who are not here that I think I'd love to do this. I would like to do every time I go to a meeting, I'd like to so be anointed of God and have some revelation from God that somehow, well let me put it this way, if I could right now, I'd push the door open in heaven. Did you ever sneak a peek through a door when you were told not to? I did as a little boy. Mother said no you don't. Go into the living room, the drawing room as they call it, the guest room, something in there you're not to see. First thing I did was tell my sister it was there and go look at the thing. I usually open the door like this just about an inch away, Annie come and look, look what they said. If you could see into eternity for five minutes you'd never be the same again, you'd never grumble, you'd never backslide, you'd never vary in your Christian life, you'd never vary in your passion for the lost. Remember the song that says one day the things of earth will grow, or today it's supposed to be the things of earth grow strangely what? Dim. When we get up there and look back the things of earth will look strangely grim. We wish we hadn't spent so much time on valueless useless things. Remember there's no U-turn at the throne of God. When you get back and see your life where God tried to block you doing a thing and you pushed your way through or gave you some warning and you ignored it. When he gave you the chance to sacrifice or do some other thing that the average person doesn't do. A door open in heaven, well we can push the door open a little more here in this fifth chapter he says I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne a book written within and on the back sealed with seven seals and I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice. That's a common reference in the book of the revelation a loud voice. No weakling, somebody with a trumpet sound as it says in the first verse of the fourth chapter. And there was a voice I heard it was a sound of a trumpet. Well if you've been in a camp where you're awakened in the morning with a trumpet blast you know something about what it means. And here this angel is making a proclamation. There's one sitting on the throne. Proclaiming with a loud voice who is worthy to open the book and to loose the seals thereof. Now listen to this dreadful thing. No man. You know the Greek actually there says not even one as though you're saying come on what do you mean no man? No man in heaven or earth or under the earth was able to open the book and to look thereon. Now what is this book that's sealed with seven seals? Well it wasn't a book like this they didn't make books like this. They made books in a scroll and they don't write from the we write from the right to the left. The Jews write from the right to the left. No wait a minute we write from the left to the right. The Jews write from the right to the left. The Japanese write the other way. If you figure it out you'll find everybody writes towards a cross. And this book is sealed it is a scroll. Here it is it's rolled up like this. And when a man has made the first part he puts a seal down and that part of the book cannot be opened. And then he writes another series and he seals it again. There are seven seals. But the first part of the book may be open while the back part is rolled up like a scroll and it's sealed. Now why is it sealed? Well in the customs and manners of the Jews of old if a man lost his territory for some reason he couldn't afford to keep it or he got into debt or something they would take all his manuscripts all his whatever you want to call them and bind them all together and seal them. Well in this case it says they were sealed with seven seals. And in the Jewish economy a thing that was sealed with seven seals became a standing sign of an alienated inheritance. In other words the title deeds of all the property was sealed up. And John says there's no man found worthy. Now come on stretch your mind a bit right now. John is on the Isle of Patmos. Unless I'm seriously mistaken you will find some of the greatest truths you ever discovered are not in meetings. However intelligent and zealous the preacher may be you'll find some of your greatest revelations. The times you hear God's voice most clearly will be when you're by yourself. Could be on a tractor. Could be in the office. Could be in some other place. You see we're all looking for tapes you know that will give you as Dr. Tozer said to me one day well Len if you ever see a book on six easy steps to Christian maturity would you be good enough to send it to me? I said yes I will. Send it to air mail. Well he said thank you. I'll make you a promise when I get it I won't read it. There's no such thing as six easy steps. You can read a hundred biographies. God isn't going to make you the way he made someone else. Aren't you glad the Lord makes us all so variable? I mean supposing everybody had a nose like yours and ears like mine and you know just as though we'd come off a cookie cutter. Oh the variableness in human personality is amazing. There are people that don't like spaghetti that might sound difficult to you but they've got different appetites. Some people like modern art. I was in a house not long ago a lady had this great beautiful picture just a great big yellow blob and she said what do you think to my picture? I said she said do you know what it is? I said yes. She said what? I said somebody threw an egg on the wall. Oh don't you realize it's this? No I said I couldn't realize. I could never have thought of that in a house. She thought it was wonderful. I'd have hung it in the dog kennel. What different values, what different ways. The man that wrote this wonderful book of Revelation was St. John. Peter could never have written this. There's such variableness. But then again look at this. This is stunning. The title deeds of the universe have not yet been liberated. And John says there was this multitude in heaven and a voice yelled out that echoed down the ages as it were echoed in eternity in the vastness of eternity. Who is worthy to open the book and to lose the seals? And no man, no not one. Another translation says no not even one out of all the multitudes that ever lived. Say to that seraphim hey would you come and open this book? He says I can't do that, I can't do that. You say to that cherubim would you come your excellency? No. Oh Jeremiah I see you. Would you come down here Jeremiah and open the book? Can't do it. Isaiah would you come and do it? No no. Well Daniel, oh they're only two faultless characters I think in the Old Testament, Daniel and Joseph. Hey Daniel come on. Nobody can do it. Isn't that incredible? Of all the men in this book, David and Samuel and Ezekiel and everybody else and not one of them can do it. They do not come forward. No man was found worthy. And I wept much. The other Greek says there I broke loose in my utterance of grief. This word is only used twice in the New Testament. One is when Jesus is going to Jerusalem and you remember he went down to whip them out of the temple but wait a minute Luke says before he whipped them he wept over them. If you're going to tell somebody a piece of your mind you better weep over them before you whip them. And when he wept over Jerusalem they were saying we're getting rid of this man. He says oh God Jesus says no. You're not kicking me out I'm deserting you. What is Israel being bummed for tonight and blasted? Or at least is doing it on others. For the simple reason that for two thousand years. You better watch it. You can't trifle with God. You can't obey him when you want. You can't postpone going to the mission field until you get married or something else. He demands priority. No man was found worthy to open the book. Oh I see there's an uproar today about justice. You know what keeps me sane? A lot of people think I'm not there yet but I'm trying to get sane. And my balance is this. Shall not the judge of all the earth do right? That fellow Hinckley got off. Three out of four people all over the nation said he should have been sentenced to something. One of the most precious men in this community. Nobody sees him hardly. Lives down the valley there. He's a Cinderella. He doesn't get much money but he does a super job. Little Joe Foss. He goes into the prisons. Maybe you'd like to go Sunday night at six o'clock. They're having their commissioning service. Fellows that have been in every rotten, stinking, filthy thing you can imagine and God has redeemed them, sanctified them and they're going back to work in prisons. I was telling the other day about a young man. He says he is really blazing for God in one of the prisons that I visit. Oh. You get six months? No, he just got forty years. For what? Because somebody said he molested a girl. If I remember what Joe said, he didn't do it. He had about four minutes of embracing and so forth with her but he said for four minutes he got forty years. Yet a man who never murders the president gets off and lives in luxury. There's no justice in the earth but one day the judge of all the earth will do right. There's no opportunity for it. Yes, there's opportunity but there's nobody there move out of the vast congregation. You know, if you lived in Revelation war and realized the vast eternity into which we're going. I was preaching to a crowd mostly of university students a while ago. I'm right in the middle of preaching as I said something I mentioned about going to hell and I remember just feeling as everything in me would burst and I said all those people, your neighbors, the man that sits at the end of your table, your son, your daughter, your brother, they go into hell and not for the weekend. It's the eternal prison house, a million roads go in but no roads come out. In heaven they cease not to praise God night and day. It says in this fourth chapter, they cease not to praise him by night and day singing holy, holy, holy in the Lord. What do they sing in hell? The harvest is past or summer is ended and we're not saved. I don't think there's anything that will keep you more on balance than reading again in this amazing book of Revelation. No man was found worthy so I wept. It's the same heartbreaking sob that you get from the Son of God when he looks over Jerusalem. When he says Jerusalem you mad folk, you stupid bunch of people. You've had the greatest men that ever came out of time. They were God made men, Elijah, Jeremiah, Daniel, all the biggest men that ever walked the earth morally or spiritually. You dumb folk, you got more lost in sheep and selling things and buying things and got lost in materialism like our generation has done. Then last of all says, well you won't listen to the prophets. God sent his own son and now you're kicking him out. And for two thousand years remember they've had no prophets, they've had no peace. And I think they're going to get a baptism before very long. I kind of think maybe they'll get kicked out of Israel again, swamped out for a little season. And when they go back they'll go back because they're seeking Messiah not to recover Israel and its glory. I wept much. I was heartbroken. I wasn't sniveling behind my hand. I opened my heart and I groaned and I traveled and my God what's going to happen here. The title deeds of the universe, nobody dare go and take the book out of the hand of him that sat on the throne. One of the elders said unto me, I like that. You notice in the previous chapter it was an angel with a loud voice. This is not an angel now, this is one of the elders. One of the men who felt the cleansing of the blood of Jesus Christ, who had felt his life revolutionized, who had his whole thinking redeemed and all his personality put back into harmony where every bit of him was in rebelling against God. And now God has smoothed him out and made him a saint and made him an elder. And one of the elders said unto me, weep not. Behold the lion of the tribe of Judah. This is in the 49th of Genesis where Jacob talks to his son and the fourth son was called what? It's called Judah and it means a lion. And this is the end of the lion of the tribe of Judah. This is the true lion of the tribe of Judah. And then in the next verse he's not a lion, he's a lamb. The lion of the tribe of Judah hath prevailed to open the book and to lose the seven seers. And lo in the midst of the thorn and of the four beasts and in the midst of the others stood a lamb as it had been slain. Not too long before the 1914-18 war, you won't remember that but I remember it. I remember the war was declared on the 4th of August in 1914. Before that a little Welshman by the name of Stephen Jeffreys. He was preaching in a little place in a town in Welsh. Double L is fl, fl. You know you can say it better if you have a cold. Flunethly. And he was preaching away for all he was worth in just a mission with about a hundred people in and then, oh people, oh. And he looked and there on the wall to just a common building, white plaster on it. And when he looked there was a traditional head of Jesus Christ about six feet with the thorns and the blood. And he said to the congregation, this is a sign of coming judgment. He went on preaching and again about 20 or 30 minutes after, oh. And he looked again and the head had disappeared and there was a lamb with its head and its feet together like that. You see when we pray for revival we're asking for trouble. Because almost every revival has been followed, pardon me, has been followed by judgment. Look at the great boxer rebellion in China. Well that followed a spate of revival. Look at Korea. 1904 and 5 were swept with a tremendous Holy Ghost revival and then swept with judgment. 25 years ago I preached for Oswald Smith in that great church in Toronto. And he told me about the time that he was in Canada, pardon me, that he's in Canada, the time he was in Russia. And he went to those countries, you never hear a word about them, Latvia and some of you don't know the names of them. Lithuania and Latvia. Swallowed up in the belly of the great rotten Russian bear. They saw a Holy Ghost revival where the lights didn't go out. That's revival. These silly little things we have. Brother Joe, Bill Smith is going to have a revival from Sunday to Sunday. That's hogwash. Not revival at all. That's just to repair all the broken down Christians that have broken down since the last revival. That's all our revivals are. Please turn your tape over for the remainder of this message. Sticking band-aids on weak Christians, giving them crutches to limp on. Revival changes the moral climate of a community. If it doesn't, it isn't revival. We spend a million dollars on the Citywide Crusade, we don't even expect the city to be shaken. Latvia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania. James Stewart who was in there at the same time told me, I preached with him more than once in Ireland and England. He told me about those meetings where you could go in the middle of the night and the meeting was just as blazing for God as it was in midday and it went on for 2, 3, 4, 5 weeks. The Spirit of God had come down on that community. And it was followed by the Russian Revolution in 1917. And the Christian Missionary Alliance have had tremendous blessing. They had, when I first met Dr. Terzi which was 1950, they got tremendous moves of God. Where? Well, a country that then was being just about run by France, Vietnam and Cambodia. Nobody talks about Vietnam and Cambodia now. Oh, you think about 6 o'clock news tonight, which happened to be about, where was it tonight? Oh, Lebanon. And before that it was Poland. And before that it was Afghanistan. And before that it was the rape of Cambodia. And before that it was, well, these other countries, Vietnam and what not. See, most Christians only think by the newscast. How many times do you get down to prayer and it seems as though God bores a hole in your heart and says, all you do today is intercede for Russia or China. A lamb that had been slain. As they say, depicted on that wall. I have a book on that somewhere. But you see again, the lamb that was slain. Do you remember, is it where Deuteronomy, it talks about the lamb or the Passover, the Passover lamb? Oh, not any kind of lamb. You can say, we'll take that lamb, it trapped its foot, it's limping. Or, I see it's got one eye out. You had to find the most perfect lamb in the whole of your flock. And then you had to take it in the house. We lived in part of an old castle in Ireland years back. And we had a flock of maybe a couple of hundred sheep, beautiful, beautiful things. And the boy said, can we have a lamb each? And stupid me said, yes. It costs a fortune in milk, you know, they had to feed them with a milk bottle. And oh, while summer was on, it was great. The boys enjoyed the lambs, but time to go to school. Well, you know, Mary had a little lamb. They followed her to school. Our boys would go and the lambs would go after them. And I'd go get my fingers in the wool and hold them back and say, boys, Mary, shut the gate. And then we said we were going to sell the flock. Oh, but you won't sell our lambs. Oh, yes. Do you know this word actually is? Well, just as that lamb had four days in the home and they got to love it and then to spill its blood was beyond their understanding and thinking that, you remember when Jesus said on the resurrection to Peter, do you really love me? Lord, you know I love you. Well, feed my sheep. There are different words used for love. There are different words in Greek used for sheep. And finally he says, if you love me, feed my pet lambs. Well, this lamb here was God's pet lamb. The only one he ever had. And he says he saw a lamb as it had been slain, standing. Well, a slain lamb can't stand except, of course, the Lamb of God who stands in his resurrection power. Okay, let's skip to verse 7. He came and took the book out of the hand of him that sat on the throne. And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four and twenty elders did what? Fell down. Maybe you can cross over back to chapter 4 to verse 10. The four and twenty elders fell down before him that sat on the throne to worship him and cast their crowns. I like that hymn of Matthew Bridges. We sang it the other night at that conference with a thousand people. I don't think I ever heard it better. You know, Matthew Bridges, great hymn, crown him with many crowns, the Lamb upon his throne. Hark how the heavenly anthem drowns all music but its own. Awake my soul and sing of him who died for thee, crowning the Lord of love. Behold his hands and side. Those wounds yet visible above him, beauty glorified. All hail, Redeemer, hail. You see, this is a preface. It's an introduction to what's going to happen in eternity. Be as zealous as you like, and I hope you'll be zealous, but you'll be no soul winning in heaven. There'll be no healing meetings in heaven because no one will ever be saved. What's the sole occupation of having to worship him? Because again in this fourth chapter, it says in verse 8 that they rest not day or night saying, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty which was and is and is to come. And then verse 10, the four and twenty elders fell down before him that sat on the throne. And they worship him that liveth forever and ever. Can you honestly in your heart, can you ever think of anything? Now some of you like, I know you like ice cream or something like that, and you get very gluttonous at times and you take four scoops instead of two or three, or you take something else. Can you think of anything that wouldn't get stale after a year? And yet forever and ever and ever and ever in eternity, what does old Noah Webster say about eternity? It's ages, cycles of ages, it's duration without ending. How, oh mercy, how can you think of it? How do you calculate eternity? Oh, let me think what came to me. Okay, let's take all the oceans of the world, eh? The Pacific Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean, the Indian Ocean, all the lakes in the world, all the thousand lakes, ten thousand lakes in Minneapolis, a hundred thousand in the next state in Canada. And then you take all the rivers of the world, the Ganges, the Niger in Africa, the River Nile, the River, what's the big one in South America, Amazon. And the vast Atlantic Oceans, and put them all up there in a great big cylinder. That would be pretty big. And then you have a little spark coming out like that, and you turn it and let one drop of water out, and you sit down for ten thousand years before you turn it again. And one spark comes out. You say, hey, come on, come on. I mean, even a bucket of water would take a long while. You mean all the waters of the world? Yeah, yeah, oh, change it. Let's take every grain of sun and every ocean beach. Oh, I remember walking down some of those beaches in New Zealand, aren't they wonderful? They catch fish down there, not little tiddlers like some guys around here catch, you know, about this size. The rare you don't become fishes of fish instead of fishes of men. OK. But, you know, if you took every grain of sand from every ocean, and you just lifted them off one at a time, or supposing that field tomorrow, why don't you start, you know, just over the hedge there, counting all the blades of grass? Quite stupid. Well, we're talking about stupid things. We're talking about these poor little crippled minds of ours trying to think about eternity, because that's what you say you have. You say you've got eternal life. It's ages and ages and duration without ending. What happens? He came and took the book out of the hand of him that sat upon the throne. And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four twenty elders fell down before the Lord, the Lamb, pardon me, having every one of them harps and golden valves full of orders which are the prayers of the saints. Can you imagine all the prayers of all the saints? What are these under the altar? Supposing that I say to Gabriel, what are these all on the altar? He says they're all the sermon notes from Wesley to Winky. That would be terribly disappointing. These are all the prayers of all the ages. I say, I wonder if they're going to be replayed in eternity. Huh? I mean, supposing your little life, you know, the record God has of your prayer life is read. I mean, would it take half of eternity to read it? Huh? Supposing your prayer record is read after that little guy that lives thirty miles from here that prays ten hours a day with joy and grief and sweat. Or the little man that was in my home the other day, I told him that prays eight to sixteen hours a day. You can't do it. Sure you can't. Unless you've had a vision through the door that's opened. As long as you live, every breath you have makes you a debtor to God. Every opportunity of service, whether it's giving out a tractor, washing somebody's feet, as it were, or cleaning somebody's shoes. Everything is going to be given a reward for in that day. We're saved by grace. We're not rewarded by grace. We're rewarded by works. They had golden vials full of orders. That must be very fragrant and beautiful. Oh, they had harps in their hands. Do you remember how often in the Old Testament when Samuel, wasn't it Samuel said to Saul, you go down a certain road and you'll meet the sons of the prophets, and they will all have harps in their hands. Or Elisha says, boy, I'm feeling a bit depressed now, bring me a minstrel. You know, if we considered our blessings like we considered our little things that offend us and hurt us, we'd never be the silly folk that we are. Have you noticed how often you concentrate on something that's hurt you, or somebody hasn't done the right thing to you, until the thing fills your whole horizon? Well, why don't we do that about the blessings of God, until we cloud all the other things out? OK. Verse 9, they sung a new song. Won't that be wonderful when nobody sings out of tune? They sung a new song saying, Thou art worthy to take the book and to open the seals thereof, for Thou hast slain, and hast redeemed us to God out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation. So what are you sweating about communism for? Is it going to take over the world? No, the kingdom of Jesus Christ is going to take it. Communism controls three quads of the world now, it will never control it all. Thou hast redeemed us to God by Thy blood out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation, and hast made us unto our God kings and priests, and we shall reign. Where? Sitting on cloud 13 playing a harp? No, we shall reign on the earth. Are we going to heaven? I saw the new Jerusalem come down out of heaven. We're going to reign on the earth. God is going to redeem it from all its curses. I tried to grab some in the garden today, I'd never seen this leaf, and I put, oh wow, it was thorns all the way to the ground. There'll be no thorns. Your children will be able to have a couple of lions in the backyard and a couple of snakes in the bedroom. Bees won't have any sting and they'll be nothing poisonous. We're going to reign on the earth. And we're going to reign with Him forever and ever. Verse 11, I beheld and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne, and the beasts and the elders, and the number of them was ten thousand times, ten thousand and thousands of thousands. Everything in Revelation is numbered, except the number of the redeemed. No man can number them. Number of seraphims, number of angels, so forth, all numbered. The redeemed are not numbered. And thousands upon thousands, ten thousand times ten thousand, I think it's a hundred million, isn't it? Plus thousands of thousands. Do you notice how often we sing in our hymns? Okay, Charles Wesley got us in trouble here. There's a great Christmas hymn, Hark the Herald Angels Sing. I challenge you to find me a scripture in the Bible where angels sing. Well, you say, when they came, they all came in the sky when Jesus was born, and they sang glory to God. No, they didn't. It says they said. There's no reference to the angels sing. There's an old hymn that says, when I sing redemption story, they will fold their wings, for angels never felt the joy that our salvation brings. They've not been redeemed. So they proclaim, they say with a loud voice, good is a land that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and blessing and honor and glory. If you go to the second chapter, there's a doxology that only has two statements in it. If you go to the end of the fourth chapter, listen to them. Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power. That's a threefold doxology. If you go to the seventh chapter, verse twelve, the end of verse eleven, the elders and the four beasts again, they bow before the throne on their faces, and they worship God saying, Amen, blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might. It's a sevenfold doxology. You see, eternity will be too vast for us to take in. The redemption will be too vast for us to take in. And so there's going to be a progressive revelation. Now what did they do? They said, worthy is a land that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing and every creature. Now look at this. He searched and he could find no man to open the book, remember. And now it says in verse thirteen, and every creature, look at them, on earth, no, every creature in heaven or in the earth or under the earth and such as are in the sea and all that are in them heard I saying, blessing and honor and glory and power unto him that sitteth on the throne and unto the Lamb forever and ever. And the four beasts said, Amen, and the four and twenty elders fell down and worshiped him. So that's repeated over and over and over in this book. It's overwhelmed. Again, if you want to know how precious worship is, remember this, that Satan said to Jesus, you kneel down just five minutes in front of me and worship me. You see, he'd once been Lucifer, the anointed one in heaven, and he knew what worship meant to God. He'd heard those excited beings in eternity singing like we've never heard singing and never heard it till we get there. And he wanted it. But all those creatures fell on their faces before God through crowns at his feet. Oh, it's worth forfeiting everything I have if only Jesus Christ will do that. Remember the wise men came and they brought gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh. And as I said last week, it took me years to discover that the woman that brought the beautiful, the box of alabaster ointment, she came. And there's no report in the, it's repeated four times, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, there's no evidence that Jesus ever took a bite of food out of that banquet. They went because it was a prestigious thing. Here's the greatest man on earth just now. He's stirring everybody. He's the conversation of the cafes. He's the conversation of the temple. Everybody's talking about Jesus. Jesus, he's greater than John Baptist. John did no miracle. Look what this man does. Excited. And the little woman who wasn't on the guest list made it. I don't know who else was on the guest list except the woman who wasn't on the guest list. And she went to worship Jesus. How do you know? Because of two things I know. One is, she took the most precious thing that she had and gave it to him. And the second thing, she never spoke to him. And worship is speechless adoration. Worship is gonna cost you the greatest thing you've got in your life. Might be a love relationship with somebody else, maybe a career. Maybe you've trained at school and university for this and suddenly God steps in and says, here, you know, he may cut you out when you just finish singing, take my life and let it be consecrated, Lord, to thee. Take my hands and let them move at the impulse of thy love. Take my feet. Do you remember what Abraham said to his servants? You stay here, I and the lad will go yonder and what? Worship. No, no, he went to sacrifice. The scripture says he went to worship. Was what? Oh, if God had said to him, now, you go to the peak of that mountain where nobody can see, build an altar and kill your precious son Ishmael. Whew. What a relief. Don't know what she had, we'd have no Arabs. But anyhow, he wouldn't take him. You can't give God the flesh. You can't even give him your skills. His kingdom isn't ready for you to come with your precious gifts. You have to give him the best you have and the best you have is love. That you worship him, that you love the Lord your God with all your heart. He doesn't say even die on the mission field. He doesn't say burn yourself out doing this. He says the greatest thing in the world, Jesus says, is that thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, soul, mind and soul. And if you do, anything's easy. When we went to Ireland, bought a part of an old castle and lived there with a hundred and fifty lovely acres and the best places to fish in the district. Oh, I thought, stay here, the rest of our lives would be super. I don't know how many there were in the house, seventeen I think, the twisted staircase, all the things I like, stained glass windows, what have you got? And the Lord said, go to America. Oh, mercy. All the gold in Fort Knox wouldn't have got me here unless God said so. That's a trivial thing to illustrate. Do you know what kept this man John on beam? His love for his Lord. Love, which includes again, worship. Let me just emphasize these two things. Remember I started late, don't keep looking at the clock, they put me up very late tonight. Can you comprehend this? Come on, come on, I really get into this right here now. Dig it, as you youngsters say. Every creature, every creature in heaven, on the earth, under the earth, and whatever is in the sea, all of them heard, I heard them all, listen, every bug that's flying around tonight, every insect. God heard of elephants you saw on TV recently. Everything that has breath. Well, that goes back to the last psalm, doesn't it? The 150th psalm says that everything that hath breath, praise the Lord. And now it's fulfilled there that whether they live in the sea, or up in the sky, everything on earth and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, heard I saying, blessing and honour, won't that be wonderful? You won't be swiping at that mat and say, get out of my ear. Because as it goes past it's saying, blessing and honour and glory. Then you hear a noise over here going, blessing and honour and glory, and look and you see a herd of elephants. Then you look over here and you see some sparrows, and you look over here, somebody out of tune from last days. But, to him that sitteth on the throne. Isn't that incredible? A little way back in the book it says that when the stars fall and the earth rocks, and the big, big mountains get moving, it says all the rich men, you know all the big guys in IBM and all the guys that are fooling around with oil to, there is no lack of it, that have manipulated the market again, and it was to go up 6 cents and it's already gone up 20 around here. Those guys are going to stand before God one day too, and I'm glad about that. You know when I think of all the possibilities of grace that Lowry talks about, that God can take the vilest of us and cleanse us and indwell us, and do as the psalmist says, he lifted me up. Then he says he put me on a rock, so I set him up. And he put a new song in his mouth, so I tuned him up. When God can do all that, redeem us, cleanse us, and indwell us, and make our lives to be a praise unto him, for that's what it says at the end of chapter 4, that we're made to give pleasure to God, and what you need to do every night before you go to bed is ask God how much pleasure he's got out of your life today. And he gets it because you've been obedient to what he's told you to do. He gets it because you've given priority over your earthly affections and other things to get alone and worship and adore him. In the book of the Revelation it says when those hills fall, men are going to scream, oh, hide us from the face of him that sits on the throne. Hide us! At the end of Revelation it says that one of the rewards of the righteous is that they shall see his face. If you go over to the east coast there, what's the city called? I was going to say it's in Massachusetts, it's not, it's in Connecticut. Finishes with bridge, tell me what it is. No, it's not Cambridge. Bridgeport, thank you, Bridgeport, Connecticut. And go to the old cemetery, well, it used to be a stone about that size. And this time of the year you couldn't see it because the grass grew over it and you had to go tramping with your feet trying to find the place. I've thought about this for ten years and I don't know whether it's a result of this, but they put a nice polished stone up there. But the little stone is there and the weather's worn it a lot. And it says on, here lie the mortal remains of Aunty Fanny. And underneath it says she hath done what she could. Aunty Fanny was the first woman in American history to address both houses of Congress. Six weeks of age she became blind. She died at 84. Somebody said to her one day, you know, it doesn't seem right. You bless this with your hymns, you know, like Blessed Assurance, Jesus is mine, she wrote that. And she wrote, to God be the glory, great things he hath done. And I'd like to describe the sunset to you, it's gorgeous but you don't know what red is and yellow. You've never seen the colors. And oh, the flowers are so beautiful. I know you can smell them but oh, they look more beautiful. I don't think God was really fair to let you go blind. You've been such a blessing and you'll still be a blessing. I think she wrote 3,000 hymns or poems. But you've missed all this. Tremendous disadvantage. Dear sweet old lady smiled and she said, no, I've got a great advantage in being blind. And the lady said, advantage? What could the advantage be? Well, she said, my dear, don't you realize the first face I ever see will be his face? Isn't that a nice way to look at it? When by the gift of his infinite grace I am accorded in heaven a place just to be there and to look on his face. I don't know what kind of a crown he'll have to throw at his feet. With that heavenly host just can't wait till he comes in and they all cast their crowns before him. Oh, I do hope, I do hope that this coronation takes place when the, you know, after the final resurrection in one sense, when Mussolini has to see this and Genghis Khan and Philip of Macedon and all those great marvelous conquerors, bloody men in history like Hitler and Stalin and some American captains and some English admirals that destroy life. And these people that can sit and laugh at nights when the property goes down and you see bleeding little babies carried out minus a leg. And then they're going to sit down and counsel when they've done all the hellish things they're doing. Can you imagine that multitude at the judgment seat of Christ if those curtains were pulled back and there was something standing out there and they'd look in and they may say, hey, I see Francis sitting there, that's Leonard Ravner, that's so and so. But if I look out there I can't see a person. You may disagree with me here, but I think that one of the punishments of hell will be that we'll be able to see in heaven and see everything that's going on. And we'll look out and we won't know a thing about that misery. Somebody will say, hey, it's true, see, they're sitting down at this great supper with Abraham and Isaac and all the saints and all the great missionaries. There's John Knox, there's John Wesley, there's William Carroll that first went to India. There's Judson of Burma. Oh, I like history. I sometimes look at my encyclopedia Britannica and say to myself, everybody in that book is going to march in front of me one day. They sure are, and before you. All that are dead in the sea are going to hear the voice of the Son of God. The Himalayan range, Mount Everest is 27,300 feet and 500 feet from the top is an Englishman. In the 1932 exposition his name I remember was Mallory. And when they made camp and they said we can't make it, you see they didn't have oxygen stuff, all the stuff we have today. Made to rough it. They got within 500 feet of the top and while the other guys were sleeping he slipped out and he went to the top and he didn't make it. And somewhere he's wrapped, he's refrigerated till the judgment. And everybody that's in the ocean and all the battlefields of the world and those famous people in Westminster Abbey, they're going to rise, rise, rise. Some to everlasting shame and torment and some of us to live and reign within a thousand years. I'm not too fond of modern songs, I'm a bit too old to get the speed. I like one or two of them. When I like it will be worth it all when we see Jesus. Oh Lord, what does it say in the book of Revelation when we get into eternity in heaven? There'll be no tears. Oh we like to say this at funerals. There'll be no sorrow, there'll be no tears or anything else. Yet it clearly says in the book of Revelation, God will wipe away all tears from their eyes. Well how can he wipe tears away if there are no tears? Well my guess is he's going to wipe them away at the judgment seat. Because honest to goodness I've tried, I got saved when I was 14 and in my 76th year now it's a good way up. So for 60 years I've been following the Lord and serving him and going round the world and going here and there. But I'll tell you what, I certainly hope the Lord doesn't give the Apostle Paul his reward and Gabriel says, get ready, next run, you know, 95,433,000 years when will Romeo come and stand up there after the Apostle Paul? I'll say no, please give priority to Keith Green. Do you ever try and figure that out yourself at the judgment seat of Christ? Huh? Your little life span, everything you've ever saved since you were saved, every penny you ever earned was his. You don't say, Lord save me from my lousy sins but I'll take care of myself. You're supposed to give him your spirit, your soul, your body, your mind. And isn't it wonderful to do that? Love doesn't, there's one word that drops out of your vocabulary if you fall in love and that's sacrifice. Imagine a guy going to again, I finish with this and he says, well, you know Marianne, I told you we get engaged and just look at this and oh, you know every girl never faints when she, she knows what's in it but she acts, you know. Oh, isn't it, oh, isn't it beautiful? She nearly has a nervous breakdown looking at the thing. He says, I want you to understand this when you put this ring on, do you know what this cost me? Well, I'll tell you. It cost me 976 bottles of coke, 3,000 hamburgers and he goes rattling through, if she'd only sent you giving it back. We don't talk about sacrifice. The way you talk to him is, Lord, would you kindly give me a bigger load than you give the other fellow? Not because I want a bigger reward in eternity, but because I love you, because tonight apart from your grace I could be a prostitute or I could be in a jail, I could have died already and been in hell. No wonder Isaac Watts and he lived before Wesley said love. What am I thinking of? You are the whole realm of nature, mine. You are the present far too small. Love, so amazing. God doesn't owe you anything. You owe him everything. And if you build up a life, a part of your life in true worship, loving him not for what he does, but for who he is, loving him because one day as Barak Love said, an American hymn writer, he came out of the ivory palaces into a world of war. Or as Wesley said, he laid his glory by and wrapped him in our clay. Love, reckless love like men like Thetis did another's have. He'll weather every storm and he'll come out more than conqueror.