In this sermon, the speaker shares a personal experience of attending a meeting in a logging camp. Despite the difficult journey to get there, the speaker emphasizes the importance of not missing out on the blessings of God. The speaker also discusses the different ways people read the Bible, highlighting the need to read it without bias or colored glasses. The sermon concludes with a reminder of the consequences of not being in God's presence and the importance of enjoying the blessings God provides.

I was thinking, as we were waiting for the Lord to pray, that Paul said, I will therefore let men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands, without ralph and doubting. Did he mean just men? Yes, he meant just men, because he goes on to say, in my commandment, that women adorn themselves in modest clothing. That's the context, you see. So, they pray everywhere. You know, a few years ago in Rotterdam on October, I passed a church there, and an Anglican lady phoned up. She wanted me to come and talk to her about Christ. I mean, she accepted the Lord, but she was from Wales, and as a young girl, she'd been in Wales at the time of the Revival. And she said, I remember walking down the sidewalk and seeing six or eight or ten men wheeling and circling the sidewalk with their arms around each other, strumming at me and praying. And she said, I could never get away from that. I knew they had something I didn't have. I said, what is it? So, I showed her, and she received the Lord. Men pray everywhere. It makes you get to talk a little bit and pray a little, you know? I remember the team was full from Saskatoon to Winnipeg, during the Revival days. And all the way down, people were, you know, in the plain, they were farthest, you know, in our group. And we sat together. And all the way down, we were just sharing means for prayer. And we prayed the whole way from, you know, Saskatoon to Winnipeg. And when we got to Winnipeg, we said, well, there's no prayer meeting. So, we had to wait about two hours in the terminal. So, we had a prayer meeting in the terminal, you know. And people were walking by, staring down the floor out there, you know. They might hear something we didn't hear. But people pray, and they don't pray every day, okay? Men pray everywhere, everywhere. At least you're not holding hands with a rat. And, and doubting. I'd like to read a few verses from Galatians, chapter 1. And I'm going to have to put my glasses on, or I won't be able to negotiate. Verse 6, chapter 1. As we said before, so say I now again, if any man preach any other gospel of you that I have received, let him be cursed. For do I not persuade men of God, or do I seek to please men? For if my efforts please men, I should not be a disservant of Christ. But I certify you, brethren, the gospel which was preached of me is not after man. For I have neither received it of man, neither was I taught it. He didn't get it from the other apostles, you know. He wasn't taught the gospel. He was taught by the revelation of Jesus Christ. And then, in the book of Acts, Jesus said something to Paul about, he had appeared to him once at the Lord in Damascus. People are realizing Christ had appeared to Paul many times after that. And so he's taught there of the things in which I will appear to you. And then Paul spoke about the abundance of the revelations. These were appearances of Christ to him. He wasn't there for those 40 days after the resurrection when Christ talked to the other apostles. But he had personal encounters many times. This is why I was able to say in 1 Corinthians 14, the things that I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord. He could say that because it got directly from Christ. So he didn't get it from the other apostles. He got it directly from the Lord. Now, Paul was disturbed because he had been in the region of Galatia, seen many people converted, churches started, things going well. He comes back and finds they've slipped away somehow. Somebody had introduced another gospel. And this man said, it's not another, but they're perverting the gospel. They're adding something to the gospel. We have the problem discussed in Acts chapter 15, when they had to call a special council of the churches in Jerusalem. Not in Rome, by the way, but in Jerusalem to get this matter settled. He came to the conclusion that Jew or Gentile, you're so simply on faith in Christ. You don't need anything more. You can pervert the gospel by adding things to it. And some people have done that. Some people have said, they are very strong. Unless you're baptized, you can't be saved. You must be baptized. Paul said, Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel. So baptism is not part of the gospel. It's something we should do, of course. I mean, Peter from Adam and Huston from Enoch says, he commanded that you should be baptized in the name of the Lord. It's not something you pray for, by the way, it's something you do in obedience to God. The gospel. We used to talk about the ABC gospel, to make it simple for people to understand. A, all who sin and come short of the glory of God. B, behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. C, Christ said, come unto me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, I will give you rest. The ABC gospel. It's quite simple. But sometimes it's made complicated. I mean, there's Harry Ironside, a great Bible teacher, I heard him once in Winnipeg, and he could really do it. He passed through the famous Moody Church in Chicago. It's a large place. They would sink close to 5,000. They might have double service to them when he preached there. I mean, he really had a gift. He once said, there's only two religions in the world, just two. One sings, nothing in my hands I bring, something to thy cross I plead. Another sings, something in my hand I bring, to thy cross I will not plead. Two religions. That's very true. Now, the grace of God. Paul makes it so clear in Romans that grace and mercy cannot be missed. Grace will produce worse, but grace and mercy can never be missed for salvation. Don't ever try. It speaks about insulting the spirit of grace, looking at chapter 10. How do you insult the spirit of grace? You try to get to heaven by adding something to the grace of God and you're insulting the spirit of God. Because he's the spirit of grace. He understands, he knows. The only way a sinful person like you and me, the only way to get to heaven is by the grace of God. There is no other way to do that. All right. You know, we may, we may have a saying, well, you don't have to die once. Well, you may die twice, you know. The Bible makes it very clear, especially in the book of Revelation. And he talks about the second death, Revelation 2, 11 and 26, and then 2014. He said, Death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. The lake of fire is the second death. If you're only born once, you'll die twice. If you're born twice, you'll only die once. It's appointed of the men once to die, but after this the judgment, and all of us are appointed. I mean, there's no way you can escape it unless we're living when Christ comes back. Then we won't die. But other than that, we will. That's the second death. If I'm not born again, I'll experience the second death. And remember, it's the lake of fire. It's made very clear. In God's presence there is fullness of joy. In God's right hand there are pleasures for every man. As the Bible says, God will make his people to drink of the river of his pleasures. And you know, God wants to go out there. Paul was talking to rich men and said that God gives us richly all things to enjoy. And so it isn't wrong to enjoy things. You know, it's not wrong. But it's wrong to do it all the time. You know. There's only things to be done than enjoying pleasurable things. Okay. When a rich man was in hell, four times it speaks in the context of Luke 16 of the fact that he was in torments. There's much preaching nowadays that says, well, hell is an eternal, and it's not really a bad place. It's just a place where you're sanctified for a few years, and then you get back into heaven. But people are teaching that. There's a lot of flaky gospel nowadays. I listened to a certain guy from Texas. He's got 30,000 people in his congregation, and he's always patting the people on the back and stroking them kindly. There's never a word about repentance. There's never a word about sin. That's true with some of the big prophets as well. There's never a word about sin, no word about repentance. I think they're deceiving their thinking they're going to get to heaven just by faith in Christ. But Paul said he preached two things, and that's chapter 20. Repentance towards God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. You're going to have good. As a matter of fact, Jesus said in Acts 21, if you don't repent, you can't believe. Did you know he said that? He said John came unto the Lord righteously, and you did not believe him. But the publicans and the harlots believed him, and you, when you had seen it afterward, did not repent that you might believe him. So if you don't repent, you can't believe him. When Christ was on his public ministry, Mark chapter 1, he said, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe the gospel. Repent, and believe the gospel. When they sent the twelve out to preach, it says in the gospel of Mark, that things shall be serious. They repented. That's what they preached. Now they preach other things, I'm sure. But this was central to their teaching. They preached that men should repent. Well, Faith and Father, who used to be the head of the white fashion ministries in the county of Michigan, told me, their team's getting some very large troops at times, and he said he's had pastors come to him and say, Now, don't monkey around this repentance stuff. Just tell the people to come to Jesus. And if they insist on that, he just knocks them away. He doesn't preach at all. So it's repentance, and then faith. Actually, I say again, repentance towards God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. So what is repentance? You know, you talk about being a pensioner, with thoughts to believe, repent, to rethink. You know, that's part of it. We've been walking away from God. We turn around, and we walk towards God. And basically, that's what it is. The only sentence to say, there's not a few tears in the handkerchief, there's cash on the barrel head. Okay. Repentance and faith. Two destinations. You know, there are two kinds of Christians. There are self-willed Christians, and there are God-willed Christians. Titus chapter 1 says, Not self-willed. The hardest thing you can ever do is to die to yourself. And it's not something you can do all at once, forever, because other things may come up later on, and you have been struggling, and you have to die to yourself again. Cecil Carter was a friend of mine, a British priest, one of the greatest Christians I think I ever knew. Many of you have read his love stories, and have him now. But you couldn't be with him without being really close to the God. And a great soul member. He preached in logging camps and mining camps, and fearless. At one time, he was a real athlete, and he took top honors running a mile in British Columbia for two years in a row. And then God called him, at the age of 30, into Christian work, and he hit the trail. And I'll tell you, the girls in Austin, Toronto, the Shriners Mission, they said, from the time he hit the trail, he was just a steady stream of commerce everywhere he went. But he told me one time, he said, Bill, I have never known successful ministry that was not connected with sacrifice on my part. You don't get to come easy, but you're sacrifice, through. In Ephesians 6, he says, doing the will of God from the heart. And sometimes you struggle with the will of God a long time, and then you get around to it maybe, and push it off to one side, and then God keeps gently calling and speaking to us, and reading to us. I remember one time, I was struggling with God about a certain thing, and he, I mean, you know, God can speak very powerfully at times. He spoke so powerfully, I was scared. Anyway, I obeyed, and did what he asked me to do. And right after that, the very next meeting I had, there was an outpouring of his Spirit that was really phenomenal. And God showed me this wouldn't happen if you hadn't obeyed. So it's not always easy, but mark self-will. I say, doing the will of God from the heart. Now in 1st chapter 12, Paul said, I beseech you therefore brethren, by the mercy of God, when you present your bodies as a living sacrifice, wholly acceptable unto God, which is a reasonable service, and be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the will of your mind, that you may prove, brethren, that you might discover what is the good, acceptable, and perfect will of God. So the will of God is good, and as good as it's not bad, right? It's exactly what it means that something you can do, and nobody likes to do something you can't do. Okay? And it's perfect, so you can't improve on it, so why not go for it? Why not go for it? I had a friend, and he was called into ministry, and um, he and me had this in mind, we didn't want to go anywhere but Africa. So I told him, I'll be a servant of yours anywhere but Africa now. And um, he struggled out for a while, and he finally said, I don't want to go to Africa, but I do want to go to South America. And he kept on playing this game of God, I've done it for a while now, and he covered pretty well the whole world, you know, the places he didn't want to go. And finally he said, Lord, I will go anywhere. You know where God called him? He's pastor in Canada. God just wanted to make sure their minds were all clear of where they ought to be. Alright. We realize sometimes once they've seen they profess that they know God, but at worst, they deny him, being abominable, and disobedient, not to anything more from which else would. There are some like that who profess, and they don't profess, and yet they deny what they profess by the way they live. Christ said that your light so shines for men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father, which is in heaven. Good works does not mean salvation, but salvation should produce good works, right? And yes, they were explaining the New Testament everywhere. We're His workmanship, creating Christ Jesus unto good works. There's got to be full ordainment prepared, and we should walk in that. So while it has nothing to do with salvation, it produces, salvation produces a godly life where we try to help others, walk in God's ways and be loving. You know, for a lot of people, love is sort of an emergency thing to put on when you hear some relatives are coming to stay for the weekend and you don't really like it, you don't like where I'm going. I know a couple, they told me they were having some relatives come, they didn't want them to come but they couldn't come down and so they practiced for two weeks smiling in the mirror. Do you remember that? I mean, who says they didn't? I mean, they were quite frank about it, didn't they? You know, how are you going to get home for that weekend with those people behind you? Listen, it's not an emergency. It's not for emergencies. It's a way of life. Walk in love. Let all your things be done with love. It's not for emergencies. It's a way of life. So then you don't have to try to love anybody. You decide not to love them. You may never have a beautiful face, but so what? There was a man in England, an evangelist. They said he was the ugliest man in the British Isles. He didn't look like that stuff. He preached the gospel. People would say, but you know what happened? He had big cars because people wanted to see this preacher was the ugliest man in the British Isles. And he worked in his garage and passed the gospel, didn't he? Interesting. So we have to be what we are and love with the love of God. Here's the thought. He was standing on the sidewalk, walking the sidewalk. There were some lights here to try to get a stop, and there was a blind man crossing. Now he heard the buzzer. They have a special buzzer or whatever for blind people, and he's walking across the street, but he gets a little confused, and he bumps into a car. The guy hits the horn, and this blind guy gets a noose down the sidewalk and says, you know what? I should go up to the left that time but I don't have this leg for you, you know? So he gets on the watch. Pretty soon, he's not quite across the street. The light changes. The car is moving into me. His legs, and he runs into this black car, and he's killed. And he said, well, you know, if I'd have had that one feeling, I could have gone in the opposite, you know? That's the way people talk, and they think. One feeling, because nothing does it. With the alarm, I was here on this. The alarm, and I had all figured out Friday was going to be the last meeting in the logging camp. I didn't know many other camps in the area, and I'll get home on Saturday. As a last minute, I found that there was another camp in the area, but they only had 12 men. So I began to ask, and I said, there's only 12 guys there. I mean, that's nothing, you know. I can go home, but I mean, I couldn't go home. And it was hard to get in there, because a new bulldoze road, you know, if you know anything about that, a new bulldoze road just as roots and stems, you know. So even a minute, well, a minute, a minute of winter, you know, and it was really hard, I mean, sometimes four miles an hour, but I got there, you know. I wouldn't have missed that meeting for anything in the world. You know, the launch present was so powerful that meeting them, sometimes it hurt attacking them, you know. And so it cost something. It wasn't a big deal, but I might have done the wrong thing. You miss something, the blessing of God. There's two ways in our reading the Bible. Some people read the Bible, they're looking for something that will justify the low level at which they're living. And they're bound to find Ecclesiastes chapter 7 that says, if you're not righteous over a bunch of this, you destroy yourself. See, brother, you're not going to be too righteous, that's what the Bible says. If you get the book of Ecclesiastes, the book of Ecclesiastes I'm not talking into that. I heard David Jeremiah preach a series of sermons a while ago on the book of Ecclesiastes, an incredible teaching. I learned something from him, I'm sure. But anyway, the Bible, it's God speaking, and it's God speaking to me, and it's God speaking to me, and it's God speaking to me, and it's God speaking to me, and it's God speaking to me, God speaking to me, and it's God speaking to me, God speaking to me, and it's God speaking to me, and it's God speaking to me, and it's God speaking and it's God speaking to me, and it's God speaking to me, and it's God speaking to me, and it's God speaking to me, and it's God speaking and it's God speaking to me, and it's God speaking and it's God speaking to me, God speaking and it's and it's God speaking to me, and it's God speaking and it's God speaking to me, and it's God speaking to me, and it's God speaking to me, to me, and it's God speaking to me, and it's God speaking to me, People have to be ruthless when it comes to self, and Jesus Christ has told us to. If any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and finally. It's not easy. But I've said before about faith, repentance and faith, and you're not in preaching. Get into that. The New Order said in 1921, you can't exercise faith unless there's repentance first of all. You can't. And that's exactly what he said. You did not repent that you might be redeemed. Keep that in mind. So preach the full gospel. Repentance and faith. And God will bless that. He always has. He always, always will. I heard a thing a while ago. It was a big TV broadcast. I'm not critical of him, but I didn't like what I heard and saw. He said last week in Acts chapter 2, we have a Pentecost in this place. And we're going to show you a film. He told a film. And there's a real Pentecost here. So here was the film. And what was happening? The guy's sitting in a chair here, the preacher. And people are coming running. They kneel here. He puts his thing in the water. He puts a little bit of water on the floor. There's no prayer to go away. And all kinds of people came to help. There's none of them, you know. Because he was assuming I became Christians, you know. But the gospel of the preachers, they didn't know the gospel, you know. I couldn't believe it. This is Pentecost? How does he read the Bible? He can't be reading and writing, you know. If that was Pentecost, then I don't know what Pentecost is. Anyway, it went on. And I guess a lot of people were distraught. Not distraught, but thought it was nice. I was right. He spoke nicely and prayed every prayer there, you know. Opened unto the eyes of him with whom you have to do. God is the ultimate reality. He's the only one with whom you have to do. Right? Romans 14 says, So good. And he's quoting from Isaiah. Where God said, Every man will bow to me, every tongue will confess. And God says, So good. Every one wished to give account of himself to God. And he goes on to say, Because this is true. Let us not therefore judge one another any more. But judge this one. One man put a stumbling block on a chosen to fall in his brother's way. Don't spend your time criticizing others. You know what it says over there in Romans 2? You are inexcusable among every one of the judges. For when you judge another, you condemn yourself. For you, the judges, are doing the same thing. And so I'm trying to say when you find people who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness and will make manifest the counsels of God, and then how? Do you know the rest of the words? And then, shall every man have praise of God. God applies something to praise in the weakest Christian. Nothing before the head of the church and the judge who's out of discipline. I've done that as a pastor over the years. There's not many reasons that you have to do that. But judge nothing before the time. You're sitting in judgment of other people. You must never do that. You don't know what's going on. You don't know what kind of man he is. You don't know what kind of man he was before. You don't know these things. God knows everything. And that's why, then, shall every man have praise of God. And then repent of his sins and trust in the Bible. Next verse says, Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts. You dimmer minded, you afflicted with mania, let your laughter return to man, and your joy to heaviness. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up. What does he say? Judge not one another by the name of the Lord. Don't do that. Don't make that mistake. If somebody's struggling, go and help them. There's a man in Ontario somewhere. I forget where I know him. Down in the base of this big church. He came around the corner. Bumped into a person like no one years before. Hadn't seen him for years. He said, Hey! How are you doing spiritually? I said. You know what he said? He said, I've been crying. He said, I was hoping somebody would ask. That says that if you're swinging, that's saying you're walking through the sickness of sin. And if you're a Christian, I mean, besides your wife or your husband or your, you know. Does anybody ever come there? I sometimes ask people, Raise your hands. Raise your hands. Go up, you know. It doesn't happen. The reason the Methodist revival in the West End and the Midfields was so powerful and lasted so long, it lasted 100 years. The reason this happened is because, you know. And when they pray with each other, and come to each other, and encourage one another, then the thing just grew and grew and grew and grew. And that should be the outcome of a real revival. When we get concerned about other Christians, because they're brothers and sisters in God's eternal family, we're part of that family as well. And so, one another day, there's energy behind you through the sickness of sins. And then, you know, at the end, you really hear nothing. And I've talked with people. I remember once bringing a pastor down in Texas. And he had a building. And a town of 1,200. And a building seating 500. Sunday mornings, he was pretty full. Sunday evenings, about 80. Monday mornings, about 40. And so it went through the roof. Now, what was going on? He seemed to be a real Christian, you know. And then, the next thing you know, he was on his knees. He was just in the airport. And was sitting there, and a young Air Force kid came and sat beside him. Now, if you want to see him, I know you're a Methodist, so I wonder what he'll do to you. So, again, this time, this kid found this man, witnessed from what he said, this, now son, don't you think it would be a neat thing for you to pray this holy prayer. Now, he hasn't said anything about sin and salvation, heaven or hell. He says, son, don't you think it would be a neat thing for you to pray this holy prayer. Jesus came into my life. This kid says, yeah, I guess so. I guess so. Well, pray it, pray it, pray it. So he prays, Jesus came in my life, and He walked in my life, and He said, you're saved. Amen. Amen, fellas. You're saved. You know, you're saved, because I'm true, she has. You know. I'm not his judge, I know that, but, you know, it just, it was so disturbing to watch this. So what happened, on the plane, I got sitting next to this kid, and I got talking to him, and he said, well, you didn't know he did that? He didn't really know if repentance was, he didn't have a clue. He prayed this holy prayer, Jesus came into my heart. Because that's what the preacher said he should do. You know, in the name of Jesus, I'll remember that. So you're the same as everybody else, that's right, and so you're over the law. I don't want to worry about it, no, no. I haven't killed anybody, I haven't stolen any money, you know. You know, the reason is like, sometimes the loving attitude, that is important. A loving attitude in talking to people. So you're not trying to ram it down your throat, you're trying to, let me give you an example. There's a place, I think, in my car, and the guy that owns the place, and runs the place, I presume, you never see him, because I was stuck in his office, and the guy was taking care. And I wanted to talk to this guy about the law, you know, but if he was never there, how could I do it? And that was just once, and it should have been five weeks. So, I didn't believe him, I didn't believe him, it was 40 minutes of this guy. So I walked into the place, and he was sitting there all by himself. Would you believe me? And we had 40 minutes together. And we really had a wonderful time. He didn't even say, he said, well, I guess I'm an atheist, I don't know, I was raised Catholic, he said, you know, and he said, hey, can I get you a cup of coffee? And he got me a cup of coffee, and we talked for another 20 minutes, you know, and he said, would you have another cup of coffee? He said, he was so friendly, you know, I was praying by the door, and he came running back out, are you leaving now? Oh, he said, it was so nice to talk to you today, he shook my hand, I almost broke it, you know. So, what did I do? I was gone for 40 minutes with this guy. Can you do things like that? Yes, you can. I mean, the Lord is everything. Everything is under God's control. I used to live in a, it was a Balzini, I think it was, and I'd try to talk to him, I'd give him a gospel tract, he'd say, that's fine, my wife told me about it, and he'd walk away with me. And I'd get a symptom, he'd say, Lord, give me half an hour with that guy. And one day, I looked up, and he was sitting, in a van, you know, he was sitting in the front seat and his feet dangling down here, just looking far from the space. And God said, there's your 30 minutes, man. So, I told him something, and I'd give him 30 minutes so he'd go for it, you know. Just ask God to guide you. He said, on and on, Psalm 32, I'll guide you, but I will be on you. Don't be like a horse or a mule. Don't be a donkey. Don't be stubborn. Let God lead you and believe him for that, you know. Ask God to give you through speaking and trying to reach. Just ask God, as I've done many times, I'm sure you're not perfect in that area, but I mean, I've discovered that you can do that regardless. And sometimes people do find the Lord Jesus Christ as their personal savior. Of the eyes of him with whom we have to do. And after all, he, I say, is the ultimate reality. He's the one that knows us perfectly. His eye is on us day and night. The eyes of the Lord are in every place, the good, and the evil, and the good. He's watching. And so, if he's the ultimate reality, then he's the one I should be dealing with day by day. And he can bring me into my life in a full way. I don't have control in my life, not self-will, but doing the will of God from the heart. That's super important, you know. In the book of Isaiah, there are ten places where God said, I am the Lord, and there's none else. There is no other God. Ten times, not that there was an exact version of that, not an exact God. There is no other God. Moses said it twice. I know the prophets mentioned it occasionally. There is no other God. There's no other way. There's no other truth. There's no other way. There's no other real world. But God, you know, I want you to know Let's pray. Father, I want to remind you a little bit today something for the wonderful word of God. Thank you that you opened our eyes, Lord God, helping us to understand who you are and what you are. And then, Father, you move us day by day as we learn to love. The Spirit of the Savior, Philip, who was in the middle of a big revival, Father, we remember that. And then, he told me to go down to Gazelin. We went down to Gazelin, Father, and he's looking at this highway and people traveling and all kinds of contractions. What's he going to do now? And the Spirit said, Join yourself to this child. That was guidance. And, Father, we can have that kind of guidance as we walk with you. Thank you for it. And God, you were living, and powerful, and sharper than any torch sword. That which I pray now, we pray to teach you, my brother gave you in the earlier session on past revivals, wonderful things that you have done. Do it again. You don't deserve to be on account of the fire, but we pray that you might think about some more. Do it again. For the glory of Jesus, your Son, we pray. Amen.