Leonard Ravenhill emphasizes the role of Abraham as an intercessor, illustrating how true strength in faith is intertwined with fervent prayer. He reflects on the importance of humility and urgency in approaching God, as demonstrated by Abraham's willingness to plead for the righteous in Sodom. Ravenhill contrasts the self-sufficient and self-righteous attitudes that hinder prayer with the deep, sacrificial intercession that brings about spiritual change. He highlights that genuine prayer is not about personal gain but about seeking God's glory and the well-being of others. Ultimately, Ravenhill calls for a return to earnest, heartfelt prayer as a means to invoke God's mercy and intervention in a world in need.

...reads anybody else's. You know why? He's so busy looking after yours, he gets tired of looking after his. Although, as they used to say in Ireland, the cobbler, we call the shoe repairer the cobbler. The cobbler's kids usually have no shoes on their feet. And so forth and so on, we use these analogies. And again, thinking of this great man Abraham, it says in the fourth chapter of the wonderful epistle to the Romans, you needn't look at it right now, let me remind you of it, that Abraham was not weak. And then it goes to the other side, it says he was strong in faith. Well, I don't believe a man can be strong in faith and weak in prayer. And he can't be strong in prayer really and weak in faith. The one blends with the other. We develop the one in the atmosphere of the other. The word of God gives us a tremendous range in the area of prayer. I was thinking earlier today, we could spend months in this area. Now, I had been thinking about Abraham, standing in intercession. And then I got a phone call from a man, I got a letter from him actually, and he kept saying, I want to come and see you. And he's the young man I told you about, that went wild with idol tarot about two and a half years ago. And as a result of that, dropped his job. And with no backing from any church, with no backing from any people, with no financial resources, with no Bible school training, he stepped out on God. And he has been halfway around the world, and right now in a few weeks he's leaving to go into 32 other countries. Seems almost like a modern, I don't know, George Wooler. Going into 32 countries without this financial backing and all the other kinds of things. But in his letter this week he said this, I want to bring with me so and so, and then in parenthesis he put another Father Nash. Father Nash was one of the two intercessors that always accompanied that very wonderful revivalist, I think America's greatest revivalist, Charles G. Finney. Nowadays men don't take prayer warriors with them, they take pretty panty-laced boys that can sing, play guitar, or a couple of girls or something, but nobody that I know of takes prayer partners with them. You can say, well here's the towering figure of Finney. He's one of the colossus in American history, spiritually. But on this hand he has Father Nash, and on this hand he has Father Clearing. Now they were not fathers in the sense of in the Roman church, but they were bearded men. Even the young men are wearing beards these days, they were young men. But each of them prayed 12 hours a day. When one quit the other prayed, when one quit the other prayed. I did a stint as an assistant pastor to the man who I think is the greatest preacher in Scotland today, Dr. Fawcett, in a town called Bolton in Lancashire, England, in 1931, 32. And there was an old, old lady there who remembered when Finney came to town. And she remembered when these two men came down the street and were asking, as we would say, for lodgings or apartments, and couldn't find them. Bathroom facilities were outside. But what's this little piece of glass across there? Oh, that's a cellar, not a basement, a cellar. You know, those two praying men rented that cellar for 25 cents a week. That wouldn't buy the average evangelist a coat to get into the cellar these days, but for 25 cents a week, they stained the floor of that. It was stone, they'd have no covering on it. They just had little palliuses to lie on. They lived on a minimum of food and a minimum of seeking other people, and they just prayed and prayed and prayed. Because they had the privilege of being intercessors. And the lady called me from the other side of town the other day and said, I want you to share something with you, because it all began through your ministry when you came to a certain college, and I got a burden to pray and, in essence, become an intercessor. I don't know who these women are, and I don't know where they're meeting, except they're meeting five mornings a week here in Baton Rouge and have pledged themselves, and I hope they keep by, to pray until revival breaks through in this city. Now, they won't get any blessing for that in the sense of this. You see, somebody has to do the travailing. They're not told much about this, the sweet hour of prayer, the beautiful hymn. The phrase I like in that, since he bids me seek his face, it always gives me a thrill. I never get tired. I've sung it for, oh, a few years, but anyhow. But I always get excited. He bids me seek his face. I don't pray to a blank wall. You see, all people pray. I've been in temples in foreign countries where people were on the floor, fighting and striving and looking up to a stone image, and I always felt so angry about it, that they bring hearts of flesh to images that are hearts of stone, that they're able to call on a deaf, dumb thing that can't help them, they'll bring a gift they can't afford to give, they'll do a pilgrimage that, by the way, they're not able to take. Well, this very afternoon, somewhere up a sacred mountain in Japan, an old lady climbs on a rickety stick, and she's so aged, you think the wind will blow her away, and she throws some grains of incense to the wind and hops herself all down in an abyss where the gods are, and she comes down weary and worn and can hardly make it to bed. She said her prayers. What has she got? Nothing. In other countries, you've seen them, some of you that have travelled, whether you've travelled in the army or anywhere, you've seen these shrines to which people go, the gifts that they bring, a bowl of rice to the grave of an ancestor. I remember being in Thailand, getting up early one morning, and at four o'clock in the morning, the priest was going round, and they have high boards, six or eight feet high, round the houses, teak that doesn't deteriorate, the bugs can't get in it, and they have a little cutting there and a shelf, and people are opening the little door and putting a brass bowl of rice down the street. We're telling the big, fat priests. This is a day of fat preachers and thin theology, but they were coming down the street, gathering the rice, and it's the placate of God. Now, we don't have to bring those gifts. We don't have to dance on graves. We don't have to cut ourselves or pull our hair. We have the good old book here. It reminds us again that we have one leg of the liver to make intercession for us. And you see that there's always, you can't find a revival in history that hasn't been pre-birthed by spiritual pregnancy. Do you know what I mean? Somebody's got to carry the baby. You don't produce revival by talking about it. You can sweat and storm and shout and do all the gesticulations and all the histrionics and weep and all the rest. So what? The devil doesn't carry the baby. As long as we don't travel in birth. Paul talked about traveling in birth until Christ was formed in men and women. I've heard people say that prayer changes things. Well, I guess that's right because we've experienced that, but mainly prayer changes people and they change things. A lot of us would like God to pull a switch and change the situation. He says it's in the situation that needs changing. You need changing and then the situation will be taken care of. But it's a costly business. I remember years ago reading a tract where it said Christians are being washed but not ironed because you don't need that in wrinkle-proof shirts and things these days. You don't need irons, but in the old days, my mother used to hang the stuff out and it used to get as dry as a board and she'd forgotten. Big wrinkles in it. No steam irons, you know, you had to put as much water in. I used to wonder why she took it out as something wet and then wet it through, but anyhow. And she tried to get the creases out. I think that's true in a lot of cases. All of us somewhere need some ironing. God has to do a lot of straightening out with us. Prayer to me is a language of the poor. The rich don't pray. I don't mean socially. I don't mean if you're a million in the back. I mean people who are in poverty pray. Notice, if you will, going through the Psalms, how many times the Psalmist says, Bow down thine ear and hear me, for I am poor and needy. Now, he was a king, but he was poor and needy. People have said to me sometimes, say, I don't want to scare you, but the fellow sitting over there, he's in the space program at Armstrong. The fellow over there is the manager of the First National Bank. The guy over there. So what? As far as I'm concerned, when you come through that door of the house of God, you're a saint or a sinner, and I don't care a hill of beans about your social standing, your intellectual standing, or anything else. You won't unnerve me by it. As I decided to scare Martin Luther, and he said, If there were many devils as there are tiles on the roof, I'd still go. And that's how I feel about it. Not in my own strength, in his strength. Poverty is a language of the poor. Bow down thine ear and hear me, I am poor and needy. We think the strong man does it. Reverse logic in the Bible. The lame take the prey. You'd never think of putting a lame man in the Olympics. Ridiculous. A fit man couldn't make it. But in the Bible, it's the lame that take the prey. And those who have no might, he increases strength. And another one, threefold cord is easily broken, he takes the things that are not, to bring to naught the things that are, that no flesh should glory in his presence. Now, we're living in strange days, sure enough. I don't care which way you look, where you try to start evaluating, everything's upside down. And therefore, I think this, we're going to need, more than ever, to know how to pray, if there is such a thing. I don't know how to pray, I'll admit that. I don't have been added. I spent nights with it sometimes, a week added at a time, and so forth, with some godly men. Some of the most outstanding experiences of my life have been in prayer chambers. I've been in meetings with six or seven thousand people, but, so what? Doesn't prove much, except you organize pretty well, and have somebody smart to run ahead of you. But, when it comes down to the confrontation, to the real issue, the issue is in the prayer chamber. The Apostle Paul said that we should pray without ceasing. He never said we should preach without ceasing, I'm sure you think I nearly get there sometimes, but, he said pray without ceasing. And the disciples had seen Jesus, the greatest preacher in the world. They heard him preach the greatest sermon in the world. That marvelous sermon that we call the Sermon on the Mount. And yet, the disciples never said, Lord, teach us to preach. They never said, Lord, teach us to do miracles. Don't you think that's interesting? I would imagine they said, Lord, that the other day, that sermon you preached, oh, that's Sermon on the Mount. People talk about Moses being on the Mount, but, nothing compared to the Sermon on the Mount. And yet, there was never a desire in their hearts to equal him or out-preach the Lord Jesus. They could have said, Lord, look at the miracles that have been done. Teach us to do the miraculous. They didn't say that. I can't find any record where Jesus ever prayed before the disciples. He prayed for them. I don't know when they ever prayed with them. Because, again, I don't think they would have understood his language. If, I have an analogy to make here, but let's say this. If they had gone into that chamber where he was praying in Gethsemane, and seeing him sweat as it were, great drops of blood, and heard something rung, just like you take something and, you know, you're twisting somebody's arm and they squeal and he's feeling all the weight of human sin on him. If they had had Jesus almost screaming there in his pain and his agony, if it be possible, let this cup pass over me. According to the words of the psalmist, all thy billows are done over me. Ah, wasn't it a little American girl that wrote the hymn? They were 99, and she says in it, none of the ransomed ever knew how deep were the waters crossed, nor how dark was the night that the Lord passed through. And then he found the sheep that was lost. But you see, this is the greatest battle in history. People say the greatest battle in history was 1914 at Vimy Ridge of Passchendaele. No, no, no. The greatest battle in history was Vietnam. No, no, no. The greatest battle in history was fought by one man, the Lord Jesus Christ, away there in the garden of Gethsemane. And the greatest victory that was ever wrought was wrought by one man, the Lord Jesus Christ. So the disciples did not say, Lord, teach us to pray, teach us to do miracles. They didn't say, Lord, teach us to preach. They said, Lord, teach us to pray. You see, the self-sufficient person never prays. If you're self-sufficient, you don't pray. If you're self-satisfied, you don't pray. You may say pray, but not pray. And the self-righteous can't pray. Do you know this is the most... When we talk, as we do, all of us, I guess somewhere along the line, we talk cheaply, easily about prayer. This is the most restricted area. Do you ever go to a place and say, sorry, I can't come in. It's a restricted area. I like that hymn on the Christian soldiers. It was written about 40 miles from my home in England, a place called Holbury. A little Church of England preacher wrote it. One week, they were going to have a Whitsuntide. Whitsuntide is Pentecost Sunday, White Sunday, Quitsunday it's called, because they were all white. They were purified in the upper room. And he said, I'd like them to march. They march with banners and the little girls wear white and they carry flowers and they carry texts. And the main street there is about... It's a big city. It's like going through Main Street in Zachery. It's about who he does that. And he wanted them to march down triumphantly. So he got down and said, give me something. And he wrote right off the reader, Onward Christian soldiers marching as to war. And now, many times when I go to prayer, I think of that word that's in that wonderful hymn, Brothers, we're treading where the saints have trod. This is holy ground. It's blood stained ground. It's tear stained ground. The conditions for prayer are put down by God himself in Psalm 15 and Psalm 24. Psalm 15, Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? He that hath clean hands and a pure heart. Our hands are symbolic of our relationship with the world outside. We do our trade. We do our business. And our hands must be clean if we're going to come into the entrance with God. Clean hands and a pure heart, where our affection is. Set your affection not on things which are beneath. Brother, if you get your roots too deep in heaven, there's a crisis that'll break your heart. We'll have the biggest rash of suicides when the drop really comes. And we'll never have it in any period in history. Because people have set their affections on things that are beneath and not things that are above. And this is true of many believers too. And Psalm 24 again. Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? He that hath clean hands and a pure heart. 15th Psalm, He that biteth not with his tongue. I hear people say we had a great prayer meeting last night. Well, how do you know that God said we had a prayer meeting? Well, your prayers are answered. You may have let off a lot of steam. You may have found a lot of relief. That could be psychological. Some people don't pray. They go to a psychiatrist and tell him all the woes and come out feeling better. But when it comes down to this issue, it says that you can't enter the hill of the... You can't gossip one minute and then go use those same lips. Do you remember what Isaiah said? He said, I'm a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. John Wesley said the prevailing sin of his day was gossip among Christians. Now, I've known people who use prayer meetings for gossip. People will say, would you pray for my son Jack and his wife? I would never pray for anybody publicly like that. You know why? Because somebody listening will gossip it. You just say there are two people who have tremendous need of prayer and God knows who they are. You can make a prayer meeting into a scandal shop unless you're careful. The old enemy would love to do it. Well, how did you get to know that? Somebody was praying for you and so and so. Oh, oh, you see. This is holy ground. If we're going to enter into the hill of the Lord we must have clean hands. All our business relationships and other relationships must be as pure as humanly possible. And a clean heart my desire is toward him and toward him only. We could of course ransack history. It wouldn't be very difficult to ransack history and talk about the people in prayer. But let me remind you again here. In the first epistle of Timothy and the second chapter verse one he covers all the ground here I think when Timothy says I exhort you therefore that first of all supplications, prayers, intercession and giving us thanks be made for all men. Now what's the difference? Does that cover the whole range of prayer? I think it does. Supplications, prayers, intercessions, thanksgiving. Now I'm not sure that's the right order but I'm not concerned about that. I think that they I don't remember where it was in the case of Jeremiah no it wasn't Jeremiah somewhere further on where it said that nobody was allowed to go into the king's presence with a sorrowful spirit. It didn't matter if your heart was breaking you had to say hey king live forever. Remember they said that to Belshazzar? He went in to the feast everybody said hey oh boy you're the greatest king in the world live forever. Do you know it says at the end of the chapter at that night the king died. So you better watch out if everybody else says live forever that may be meaning numbers then. But we're to make intercession for kings it says in this very next verse and all is in authority. Now what's the difference between prayers, supplications, intercessions? Well prayer covers the whole range of prayer. You offer prayers for all kinds of needs. You make supplication for special situations on behalf of somebody else. Intercession is the thing I want to get to today is altogether different from prayer and supplication. Look here are two people they're busy talking and I go butt in. What do I do? Well I interfere. I project my personality between two people. Two people are talking and I say just a minute I want to tell you this. What do I do? I interrupt. I project myself between the two. Now you may say we had a great and God answered our prayers. Great. I'm all for it. Hallelujah. Thank God for it. But you notice what you said he answered our prayers. But intercession he answered my prayers. You see the intercessor is the one who stands alone. He's never arrogant about it. He doesn't feel he's the top boy in the class. In fact the very opposite. He humbles himself and he seeks the face of God. The classic example of this again is Hannah. Hannah prayed. Prayed why? Because she was barren. What happened? Well she got what everybody gets. So much spiritual people look down at her and say you know what they tell me she's praying two or three hours a day. I bet she thinks she's everybody. Thinks nobody else. You know? You know what it says Eli the man of God thought that she was drunk. Boy that's rough when the preacher isn't going along with you isn't it? Well you won't have any trouble with this preacher you may have with some things but not if you're praying. If you're really praying I'll back you up. Tell me and I'll back you up for sure. Why did she pray? Because she was barren. And the barrenness has gone on year after year after year and adversary provoked her. People scorned her. Wouldn't you think in the church the mess the church is in right now it would get under our skin a bit and get us to the place where we're in trouble that the world outside didn't care a hell of beans about the church. Speaking generally. But you see it was her barrenness it was her ecstasy it was her prayer and it was her baby. She came back a little later in the chapter and she says to the priest so sweetly for this child I pray. Now then you know you've prayed when you introduced the baby. When you say this was the burden of our heart and God did this. But you know this the one thing that hurts you see somebody will give up on you. Now it's nice if you can find a prayer partner if two of you should agree. I think it's one of the blessings of married life. It can work outside but Martha and I agree about everything I guess. If two of you agree as touching anything in my name. Look at the prayers of the greatest intercessors in the world of God. They're so totally pure. They're so void of any personal interest. This man we're gonna talk about get to in a minute I hope. Abraham. What does he do? He prays but he never prays for a thing for himself. Elijah prayed on Mount Carmel. What did he pray? He was the only man with truth and around him there were a million abominations and he said let it be known this day that I'm your servant. No he didn't. He said let it be known this day there's a God in Israel. You see when you're praying and you're not concerned about yourself in this thing or your denomination of church if you have one but you're concerned for the glory of God that makes all the difference. Elijah prayed because God's glory was being insulted. What happened? Well he got an answer to his petition all right didn't he? But it was a prayer that had nothing of self in it. This pair of Abraham has nothing of self in it. It's deep prayer and I said before about friendship if you invite somebody into your heart and you really love them and you share things they're going to share a lot of burdens and problems with you. Your hurt is their hurt. Your joy is their joy. If the body of Jesus Christ is really healthy if Brother Joe suffers I suffer. I didn't follow him this week I think I pray for him every day. I hope you have. If somebody else is in need well I pray for that person why? Because they're members in the body. I don't look at my feet very often. You look at yours you ladies I see you stick your toes out there you have to look at them but anyhow my shoes I don't have to look at my toes they're there inside I can feel them I see my fingers often in the day and I don't say oh a little bit of dirt in that finger get out get out get out but you know my toes I don't look at them but boy they're awfully valuable you know if for some reason somebody cut both your big toes off they did that in the Bible remember they cut off their thumbs and cut off their toes you know what happens you can't stand up your big toe keeps your balance cut it off over you go they're very important little things they don't look at but they're important members of the body well can the eye say to the hand I have no need of thee can the hand say to the foot I have no need of thee we're members one of another we're particular members peculiar members that's true we're peculiar members and particular members and one can't say to the other I have no need of thee after all I've got some things working in here I've never seen them thank the Lord they're working these uncanny parts these parts that you don't talk about and don't look at they're there and the only reason you can see my eyes or my hands moving is that inside there are some parts working that never get to see daylight and nobody ever admires them you know that's exactly true in the body of Christ there's so much hidden ministry that's going on amongst God's people that my heart thrills over it I do not thrill over a lot of this publicity stuff I'll tell you I'm sick to death of most of it I said again we're living in strange days and we are we've so many self-appointed and self-anointed preachers what gets me is that they're always begging for money they'll tell you if you do this a miracle will happen the biggest miracle would be if they'd shut up and raise money without begging you know if they tell me they raise the dead I'll say why don't you raise money before you raise the dead if you can raise the dead surely I'll be able to raise money I would not give a dime to a person who asks for money not one I don't believe there's a scriptural basis for it if God can tell well the Lord told me to do a job you pay my bills oh Lord I want to tell you something God never fails to pay his bills he's never failed to pay a workman yet I've never opened my mouth for a dime I've been on the road since 1949 which is quite a while without asking for a dime I'm going to start now I'll tell you for sure you see there are certain principles you've got to build into your life and I've got to build into mine and they're all here again in the word of God I'd better go to the scripture I'll be keep talking around it for a while let's go to Genesis pardon me the 18th chapter and read from verse 1 and the Lord appeared unto him that is Abraham in the plains of Mamre and he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day and he lift up his eyes and looked and lo! three men stood by him and when he saw them he ran to meet them from the tent door and bowed himself toward the ground jump down to verse 5 I will fetch a morsel of bread and comfort ye your hearts verse 7 and Abraham ran to the herd you notice anything about that these three men appeared unto him what did he do well he set off in a hurry and he ran what did he do he fetched water and he fetched meat and he said brother I hear so what he gets a meal for them why should he have 300 sermons if you read further on why didn't he say hey you go fetch water you get some meat you get something else it seems to be a type of the Lord Jesus Jesus could humble himself and do the meanest task and didn't want somebody else to do all the running for him but you notice this it says there were three men stood by him go to the next chapter 19 there came two angels to Sodom at evening and Lot sat in the gate of Sodom three men appeared to Abraham two men appeared to Lot what happened well go back to verse 22 in chapter 18 and the men turned their faces from fence and went towards Sodom but Abraham stood yet before the Lord I should have gone back to verse 16 there the men rose up from fence and looked towards Sodom and Abraham went with them to bring them on their way and then it would come down to 22 and the men turned their faces from fence now there were three men alright and they come into the presence of this wonderful man and immediately he detects that one of them is the son of God why does he do that well verse 3 of chapter 18 the three men had come in verse 2 and he said my Lord if I now have found favour in thy sight hmm so it must have been the Lord and if that doesn't convince you jump down into verse 22 the men turned their faces from fence and went towards Sodom but Abraham stood yet before the Lord now the two men had gone on to Sodom to tell them the city was going to be destroyed but Abraham did not go on with the rest he stood there before the Lord and this is the secret of his life he stood before the Lord if you stand before God you'll never kneel before anybody else notice how often it says they stood Elijah stood before the Lord Ahab went and ran off with the crowd not Elijah you see the man who stands he's not sitting obviously he's not reclining he's standing he's ready tell me where to go tell me what to do he's all ears as we would say he's at detention now this is what is I guess the theologians call it a Christophany it's a temporary appearance of the Lord Jesus before he became semi-permanent in flesh in the incarnation you remember another illustration of it I see down there how many minutes have you put in the fire three there's a fourth walking in the midst you'd like Jesus to come and talk to you wouldn't you would you like to go in the fire to make him come you think he's going to come and you're cruising down the road or sitting in a boat somewhere having a good time oh no no if you're going to know the glory of his presence go in the fire but we back off from it you see we want to learn it all here mentally theologically no thank you God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God God elsewhere, he says come and show me how much you're really concerned about this and Abraham says my servants are thinking I'm crazy. I mean after all if you saw an old man at 99 years of age running down the road like a juvenile you'd say boy he's nuts, we ought to call a doctor for him. Here he goes sprinting down the road, I'll fetch the bread, I'll fetch the water, I don't care what it is he says. So, first of all he was obedient, he always did as God said, secondly he hurried, thirdly he humbled himself. I like, I think it's very beautiful because you see Abraham was a kind of a potentate, maybe the richest man in the world at that time and he bowed himself to the ground. He didn't just bow down, if he bowed down he'd say, he'd be so on, like people do to others. No sir, he went down flat on the ground. Later he says shall I dare to stand before God on dust and ashes. What's he say dust and ashes for? I don't know, I make a suggestion to you, a man came from dust and he goes to ashes. You may look pretty but you're only dust and ashes, sorry, you're worth about 50 cents I mean. You've got enough iron in you to make an inch nail or something, enough whitewash in you to whitewash a chicken coop and enough phosphorus to make about six matches, you're not worth much, 60 cents your physical body's worth I bet. Something like that, but you see what he means, he says Lord here I am, I was, you took dust and you made a man out of it. And here I am a personality and before long I'll go back in the dust from whence I came, dust to dust, ashes to ashes and I'm dust and ashes and I can stand on behalf of God. Do you know anything more exciting? I don't. Do you think it's exciting to be an opera singer and stand somewhere in the Met in New York and sing and read in the New York Times next day she has a greater voice than Gallagher, she has a greater voice than so and so and he sings better than the greatest bassist, oh they thrive on that so what. Next year somebody comes up and they say they're the greatest thing that's ever been. I kind of smile at these records and appreciations because folk get lost, they bring adjectives in by the wheelbarrow Lord and spoil them all over people, they don't mean they haven't been. But you see those are the things of the temporal, oh what men do for temporal, perishing crowns and yet what this man does and the true spiritual man does for the eternal things. So he was obedient on every count, he hurried and he humbled himself, God resisted the proud. You know as a child of God your choices are very simple, you have a choice to do one of two things, either be humble or be humiliated, which do you want? Isn't it better to humble yourself because if you don't brother you get up there and you pull the rug and you go flat on your face as we say, God resisted the proud. There's no pride in Jesus, there's nothing but pride in the devil. But this great man of God doesn't look round and say aren't you impressed, you see my herds, can you see that tree on the horizon, that's the extent of my territory there. And of course I can't show you how far north it is and I've just got this British flock of pedigree Angus, black Angus or some other things and he doesn't stop talking about that. He's suddenly overwhelmed with the fact that here he is in the presence of beings, one of whom was the son of God himself no doubt because he calls him my Lord. And it says that the two angels went on, but Abraham stood yet before the Lord, I'm not letting him go yet. You see again I say this, if you're a friend of God you've got to share God's griefs, do you think he has any? Do you think he sits on his throne being fanned by somebody or something like that? What does Jesus do right now? There's a verse of an old hymn that says who every grief hath known that rings the human breast, I like that. We don't have a high priest that sits on a chair somewhere in eternity. You have a high priest who knows every beat of your heart, every pulse, every sorrow, every grief, every joy, everything. He reads you, he knows everything about you. You know when we used to talk about God knowing the name of everybody and the power of his hands, Jesus said yes, he's crazy, he's a religious fanatic. You know the computers helping us to believe our Bibles a little more, isn't it amazing what computers can do? I read somewhere about how many things they recorded on a pinhead, it was fabulous. I have, some of you have seen a little thing an inch and a quarter by an inch and a quarter on my office wall. The whole Bible, three, 750,000, three quarters of a million words photographed by National Cache Register on an inch and a quarter by an inch and a quarter. It looks like a blur but you can spot it in a little thing and read in the beginning, read every word of it. But all this Bible, there's 66 books there and man can reduce them to an inch and a quarter by an inch and a quarter, that's about that square. How much does it even cram into your mind? I had a man call me this week, a very precious brother, very troubled. Oh he's one of the godliest, saintiest men, I think one of the great saints of this country, he's only a young man. Gave up the church because they just wanted to be a social crowd and have Bible studies and be happy and drink coffee and what not. Got out of that church, another church said we've got a lovely membership of 500, the Lord didn't call me. Another church said we've a thousand members, will you please come and turn it down. Somebody else said no, of course you turn them down, you're our man, we've got 1500 members, you can have a new house, have this, have that. The Lord said don't do one thing. He prayed, waited on God, God gave him 45 acres of land. He's developing into a kind of a Bible retreat, he calls it the Master's Inn, I think that's nice, the inn where the master stays, the Master's Inn. He called me this week, he said Len, I do want to come and see you, he said God's been dealing so deeply. He has done like so many of us, refused to tell anybody a need except God. He's had it tight. And he said a man came to see me the other day and he said Brother Jerry, his name is Jerry Wise, he said Brother Jerry, I brought you $5000, it's all I have in the world. I think he said he sold the house to get it. But the Lord has been pestering me for weeks to bring you $5000. Isn't that wonderful? He needed the money. You see, when you say to somebody, I want you to do this, excuse me, do you mind telling my secretary, well God isn't quite my secretary, he's more than that, he's my father. And if I've got a need which fits in with his will, he'll move earth and heaven and hell if he needs me to get me to the place, to get me that thing that he wants me to have. And I do not want a thing God doesn't want me to have. And I told him the other week, a guy offered me a quarter of a million clean dollars for myself and I turned him down. I'm too old to want to start building a kingdom on my own like so many do and I haven't enough sense to spend it. Martha could use it but I don't let her have it. But anyhow, I didn't feel the Lord wanted it. If he'd let me have it, sure it'd be okay, I'd use it. No, this man said, I'll tell God. And a man travels a long way and says, Brother Jerry, I've been plagued, I've been plagued for weeks to bring you $5,000. The other thing he said is this, he said Len, he said, I'm just feeling the enormity of this fact. He said, I can't, every day it seems to run in front of me and stop me here and block my road there. We must all appear at the judgment, that judgment seat, I'm seeing that judgment seat. Seeing Jerry White at the judgment seat. Giving an account for the deeds done in the body, giving an account for this and that. How he spent his money, how he spent his stuff, how he reacted in this situation and that. I say reverently, God help you if you think you're working for somebody in this town. You'll miss the bus if you think you are. Your first calling is to be God's child. And the other thing is, it's periphery, it's on the end. You're the child of a king. You're part of a kingdom that will never pass away. I need to find out what God wants to build into my life, so you can trust me with what, as I say, if you're going to be a friend of God, he's going to unload on you. Or I'll be the unload on this man. He said, well Abraham's a good friend. My, I enjoy his company. Every time he gets down to pray and worship, we have such close affinities again, Abraham and I. I enjoy it as much as any man on earth. And I was just smelling that. That open drain. Sodom. Gomorrah. Sting. Wreckage. I'm going to build it up. I've run out of time. But then, shall I hide from Abraham the thing that I do? Doesn't call anybody out in the whole world. Can I hide from Abraham? Can I violate the laws of friendship? Abraham's my friend. I tell my friend what I'm going to do. I'll have to tell Abraham. Abraham stood yet before the Lord. The two angels are going on their way, hurrying, hurrying, hurrying. The Lord has said, you go to Sodom and start working on that. I was reading Ezekiel twice this week. Let me read it to you. You can read it when we go home. Ezekiel 14 is a tremendous chapter. Verse 12. The word of the Lord came unto me again, saying, Verse 14. Though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they should deliver but their own souls by their righteousness, saith the Lord God. Verse 16. Though these three men were in it, as I live again, saith the Lord, they should deliver neither sons nor daughters. They only should be delivered, but the land should be desolate. Verse 18. Though these three men were in it, as I live, saith the Lord, they should deliver neither sons nor daughters, but only they should be delivered themselves. Verse 20. Though Noah, Daniel, and Job were in it, as I live, saith the Lord, they should deliver neither son nor daughter. Isn't that something? There comes a situation if you've got the three greatest men in history up to that point apparently. Very different men. Very much alike. I've reason to believe Daniel was living at this very time that this story was written, Ezekiel. But then he goes back. Lest the Jews should think they've been a monopoly on God. God says, wait a minute, before there was a Jewish nation, I want to tell you about two men. There was a man called Noah. There was a man called Job. And they were righteous men. Why are they all the same? Because they were all holy men, that's why. They were not only holy, they were lowly men. And they were lonely men. Yeah. Back up a bit. Abraham says, I stood before God. Those messengers are going, but I'm going to put the brakes on here, Lord. And he starts his stalling tactics. He starts with, per adventure they were 50. This came to me fresh. You may have thought of it before. But you know, as I thought about this, I thought about Noah building an ark. I'm sure he built an ark. How long did it take him? Over a hundred, we figure 120 years. 120 years of stalling action. He wasn't going to hurry over it. Perchance God might find some way of yet redeeming that corrupt people. But you see, God's judgment was going to run out as soon as Methuselah dies. The word Methuselah means when he's dead it should be sent. And it seems as though to me again, Noah embraces a stalling tactic. You see, God has revealed to him the corruption of the whole earth. God revealed the corruption of Sodom and Gomorrah. And you know what God says? The cry of Sodom and Gomorrah. They didn't cry. The man in Sodom cried. You say, what about Lot? Well, it's true, it says later, is it in Vexed his righteous soul every day. Vexed his righteous soul. Wait a minute. There's a difference between righteousness and holiness too. Vexed his righteous soul but he let both his daughters marry Sodomites. When those wicked men came to the door, he said, take my daughters and have all the lust you want off my daughters as long as you leave these men alone. So his standards weren't very high, were they? And thirdly, God smote the men that were seeking the door with blindness but they didn't repent. Do you think if you got drunk last night you'd be living like the devil and coming home you went blind? I guess most of them would say, oh, oh, God must be getting at me. I've been wicked and drunken and evil and I'm sorry. Please, Lord, hear me now. They didn't say a word of repentance or sorrow. They still sought to find the men who were inside the place. Daniel, sure he got in the lion's den and he had to pray his way out. Job was also in the lion's den. He wasn't a man of pride. He prayed even for his enemies. No pride. You remember that Jesus says to Jerusalem, Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets. I don't know how you find it. I find it pretty agonizing to watch Israel right now. She's surely in a mess and I wonder what America's going to do even. But, you know, it all happened one day when they stood up and said, Not that man Barabbas. The world still chooses Barabbas, doesn't it? I see a poll this week chose Barabbas. They said they prefer 50% of the people of America would rather have young Kennedy than half fallen. And Barabbas, if you like. The world still chooses Barabbas. Not this man. Not the Christ. Not the righteous one. And as he goes out of the city, they thought, Oh boy, only a few hours. We'll nail him to a tree and we're done with him. And Jesus turned with tears running down his face. Oh, Jerusalem. Jerusalem. Isaiah walked down your streets. Jeremiah walked down your streets. The greatest men in history walked down your streets and they shouted, they cried. Isaiah was an aristocrat. He took his shoes off his feet like a slave does. Remember the prodigal's father said, Put shoes on his feet. Don't let him be seen like that. That's disgraceful. Slaves didn't wear shoes. Jeremiah became as a slave. He laid in the street in what we might call a shopping mall these days for three years. I challenge you to find me a man in America today. I don't care who, what preachers you know. Who had the guts to walk three days. God would have to deal with me, I'll tell you that. And I'm not saying he has to do it. But I'll tell you what, we've found such easy ways of making money and speaking over the air and speaking in conferences and speaking to meetings. I'm just about fed up of the whole issue. I'm getting very choosy when I go to speak. Not saying you're honored to hear me, not by a long shot. If I'd merely wanted money and cars, I could hit the trail and go off for two years and not come back. And God knows that's true in England, Martha, with the invitations we have. But I'm not interested. We've come to a different situation in the history of America where we've hit an all time low. And God's got to find us some men who know how to make intercession. Beyond ordinary prayer meetings. And Jesus turns with tears running down his face. Oh Jerusalem, if you want me, you're not getting rid of me, I'm getting rid of you. Your house is desolate. If you think it isn't, what has God done for Israel for 2,000 years? We're being kicked around like a football. Five times in the history of the world have all of us been annihilated. Once they got the Jews, got less than a million people in the world. And yet they're indestructible. There was a time when there were more Incas. That vast empire of Incas, Indians, marvelous people. I like India. I've never met any. I've seen them when I've been to showgrounds, you know, and some of these reservations, but I don't know any personally. But there's a little boy who always liked the feathers they wore and the big pipes they snort and all the other things, you know, mahogany faces and big noses. They're always so attractive. But you know, once the Incas, one of the mightiest rulers in the Americas, five million of them at one time. Where are they today? Now they find a handful. And yet the Jew is preserved and preserved and preserved. Was it the chief rabbi who was asked to come in and see Hitler and was walking up and down stroking his long beard and Hitler said, come in. What are you thinking about? Oh, your excellency, he said, I'm thinking about the time when we had another Hitler in. Another Hitler? Yeah, his name was Pharaoh. Pharaoh, some people call him. Pharaoh. And he oppressed us and was going to destroy us. And the Lord delivered us. And we have a little flat cake. I think they call it matzo. Of course, flat cake and lemon. That's a memorial to Pharaoh. And then there was a certain queen called Esther and he told the story about Mordecai and Nehemen and the rest. And we have another cake, I think it's called a hamantet. We have a flat cake that reminds us of Pharaoh. We have a cake almost like an egg to remind us of Mordecai. Well, well. Well, he said, I was wondering what kind of a cake we would invent to tell history about you. And Hitler didn't kiss him. But anyhow, they're indestructible. As I told you right now, the Jews rule the world whether they like it or not. They rule it economically, they rule it. They rule it in science, don't they? Epstein's, Einstein's. Epstein, the greatest sculptor we ever had, I think. Einstein, one of the greatest scientists split the atom, along with one or two others. Sometimes we say split the heads instead, but they split the atom. And you've got some of the greatest men in the world today. I like violin music. Don't know many of what do you call him, Menuhin? Yehudi Menuhin. Yehudi Menuhin. Oh, he's a great player, isn't he? Fantastic. His sister's called Hepzibah or something. And do you know what they do at night? She says, no. Usually we don't look at TVs and we get out the organ and we get out the piano and she gets out a bass fiddle and I get out my violin and we play the classics. One night we play this, another night we play Beethoven, another night we play something. We live in this. Heavenly music. Geniuses. But apart, that's a sideline. But there you are. Starts off with Abraham. They're indestructible. And yet look how they suffer. One day they did the sin of sins. They rejected the Son of God. If he'd come with a crown of gold, it'd have fallen at his feet. He came with a crown of thorns. If he'd ridden into the city on a whirlwind of fire, they'd have accepted him. He went on the back of a donkey and they were humiliated. Thy king cometh unto thee meek and lowly sitting upon an ash. But anyhow, there comes a time when God says that's enough. You rejected Isaiah, you rejected Jeremiah, you rejected all the prophets. And last of all, I sent my Son and you rejected him. Forget it. I have rejected you. Get out and persecute and suffer for it. To a moral nation. Not too long ago, an outstanding politician came into Germany and they took him to see the Berlin Wall. This man was angry. He said, you ever see anything like that? Isn't that the most wicked wall in the world? Yeah, I suppose one of them. One of them? What do you mean? He said, do you remember when you built a wall higher than that around Warsaw to keep all the Jews in? And what you sow, you reap. God's mills grind slowly but they grind exceedingly fine. God has a way of, his own way of retribution. And your house is left unto you desolate. Would you notice please if you go back here to the 18th of Genesis again. Verse 19, I know him that he will command his children and his household after him and they shall keep the way of the Lord to do justice and judgment. That's something, isn't it? God knew he was a vegan. God knew he was humble. And now God knows that he's a man of integrity and he's raising his family the right way. He knows how to take care of his children, he says. He will command his children and his household after him. Look or listen or get the tape after. 1 Samuel chapter 3, 14 Therefore I have sworn to the house of Eli that the iniquity of Eli's house shall not be purged with sacrifice nor offering forever. And in chapter 2 verse 12 it says the sons of Eli were the sons of Belial. They knew not the Lord. His family had corrupted that God says whatever sacrifice you make no matter how outrageous it may seem to others you have so corrupted you've gone past the deadline there's no recovery for you. Your house is abolished forever. You see the difference this man knows how to keep his house. And God trusts him because of that. God delights in him because of that. As I said again there is no recompense for a family going to be you see after a while Lot Lot didn't do that with his family as I've already said he let his daughters marry sons marry men who were sodomized homosexual and later he's prepared to give his daughters away to wicked men. The difference in the standards in the two houses. The house of Abraham is to stand and the house of the house of Lot is going to be destroyed. Verse 20 The Lord said because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great. If there's an example of the man who was in the world and yet not of the world surely it was Abraham. He lived on the edge of Sodom and Gomorrah I don't mind if I put his foot in those lousy cities when he lived near to them but he never got contaminated. You see the trouble with Lot was that he not only went into Sodom first of all he went near to Sodom and the Lord had him dragged away like a prisoner of war then he came back and then he got more involved trying to recoup his losses and then he goes into Sodom and not only that Sodom went into him and he's prepared to live according to the standards of Sodom apparently but not so with Abraham. And the Lord said because the cry of Sodom has come unto me. What cry? Why all they cried in Sodom were they the flesh pots and night clubs and worldliness and so called success and materialism. The cry. Well how many kinds of cries has God hear? Well he hears just as many as the different kinds of cries. He hears the cries of the righteous he hears the cry of the sinner. But what does it mean? The Lord says I hear the cry of Sodom and I will go down. What it means is I'll come and take a more intimate search in this city and see what's really happening. I hear the cry coming up. But what was it? Scream of people who were at the roulette tables last night or dancing or wild or drunk. Is that the cry he heard? Sure he heard that but you know what else he heard? He heard the cry of the oppressed. He heard the cry of people who were violated. He heard the cry of people who were trodden down. He heard the cry of the misery of the girl who had a baby for somebody. He hears every cry. You remember when one man came along and said try to be innocent the Lord said listen I'm going to tell you something your brother's blood cries from the ground. Did you think that blood could cry? Well that's a serious thing when you start thinking about blood isn't it? In this same book it's the book of beginnings obviously the book of Genesis the ninth chapter and verse six let me read it to you if you like. Whoso sheddeth man's blood by man shall his blood be shed for in the image of God made he man. Blood is the most sacred thing that there is. If you talk about the blood of Jesus Christ God's Son the blood of Christ speaketh speaketh better things than the blood of Abel. Now here is a man standing before God and God hears the cry of Abraham it rose to heaven and at the same time he's crying there's blood crying. You see in our poor fallible finite minds we forget history. I say where were you Wednesday morning Martha Dear oh she's not where she was Wednesday morning but some of you that run those where were you Thursday morning at eleven o'clock? Was it a red light? No, no, no I can't remember. We forget. You know God takes in eternity and history at one glance God can still see Philip of Macedon going on his way to conquer he can still see the armies of the great conquerors Charlemagne if you like he can see Genghis Khan he can see Napoleon's armies rolling over the waste there to Russia he can see everybody that died in every war he sees all things he's perfect he's omniscient he's omnipresent thy brother's blood crieth from the ground Martha and I used to go through a time in England called Lichfield it's famous not for it's cathedral because every city in England part of the fact that it is a city it must have a cathedral but it has twin spires beautiful red twin spires going up in the sky whenever we've gone through that town I remember an old man not so old perhaps but he's a famous man the Quaker by the name of George Fox he founded the Quakers sometimes you call them the Shakers and in the town where we lived Bath later there's an abbey there with kind of semi twin spires and a ladder up each side with the angels ascending and descending but for heaven knows why the angels are going up you can tell that and you can tell they're coming down why? because they're coming head first down the ladder now only angels could do that I wouldn't like to try it but that was the idea but when Napoleon when Cromwell got there he told his men to take their swords and slash their heads off he thought it was hypocrisy to make those images he told them to raid the cathedrals and they went in and they took the gold chalices and candlesticks whatever they could find he sent some men in because they were short of money and he turned these things into cash for the nation he sent some men in one day to raid one of these churches and they came out nothing there nothing there? oh a couple of big statues of the saints made of what? silver bring them bring them down but they're saints with a twinkle in his eye he said well lets melt the saints down and get them into circulation that's what I keep trying to do melt the saints down and get them into circulation but anyhow you'll think of that tomorrow but anyhow the this man was going into Litchfield oh brother you talk about gifts read his life make your hair stand up remember the day when we lived when we lived outside Pendle Hill Pendle Hill goes up like that a little plateau then another hump on it goes up and he was going up one day meditating he used to walk with his hands behind his back potting on and the lord said in his language turn thee round so thee turned round and he said the whole valley was swarming people in hundreds coming in every direction if you stay here that's what's going to happen this whole valley is going to be shaped with the spiritual earthquake people are going to swarm down this valley and it actually happened everything you see you can always tell a prophet it's not a cheap prophecy somebody gets up and says oh the word of prophecy forget it do you know how you tell a prophet because it comes to pass and if it didn't it was his imagination it wasn't prophecy there's not a lot of genuine prophecy around but this man prophesied he was going down into Litchfield it was market day they put little stands up you know little cover up not to keep the sun off to keep the rain off we never put covers up to keep the sun off in our country it doesn't come often enough so we don't insult it but anyhow he came to the city and said oh my feet began to burn like fire and they got worse so I kicked off my shoes and I pushed them under the head and the lord said raise your hands walk through main street cry as loud as you can whoa unto Litchfield our bloody city whoa unto Litchfield our bloody city whoa unto Litchfield our bloody city hmm I'll bet he felt he had to have a sure word of prophecy to do that I would is this really the lord or is it me wanting to shake them up and he said my feet burn and he said I sat up and I walked down the main street and I cried right through like a bizarre whoa unto Litchfield our bloody city whoa unto Litchfield our bloody and the constable looked at me and the people there looked at me and the man selling cows and the horses looked at me crazy man he's an idiot he's mad he said I got to the end of the street and he felt oh praise the lord it's over and the one said turn back and do it again it's a bit hard when he gives you a second blessing like that and he said I went down the street with my hands in the air and I cried whoa unto Litchfield our bloody city and I got back to where my shoes were and my feet weren't burning and he said I put them on with comfort some days after he was in a house with a Quaker friend and he said to his friend I would like thee to see this book and he handed him a book hast thou read this nay friend all they said was nay nay in those days no well thou should read this book this has much sacred history well thou read it thou will prepare supper aye aye and he said I turned to a page and it said here in Litchfield in the year Litchfield the very city in the year so and so nearly 200 years before a bunch of Christians were martyred for the sake of Jesus Christ and immediately I read it the word of the lord said to me thy brother's blood crieth unto thine hmm blood that hath dried had been washed away in the rain for 200 years and that blood was recognised and it was screaming out of the ground to god for vengeance what do you think is going to happen to all the blood shed in Vietnam or World War 2 or we put more bombs into Vietnam than we put all the fighting that ever did in Europe either American or English bombs dropped on Germany or England or France Belgium or anywhere else we drop more bombs on Vietnam and all the other things incredible things that have gone on and your brother's blood cried from the ground alright here's blood crying from the ground here's Abraham crying and he says lord please you know people say this man never succeeded in his prayer because god destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah so what he never prayed for Sodom and Gomorrah all you read titles of sermons the man's praying that's all the bible says my mother doesn't say that god says the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah has come up you know Abraham said Abraham prayed for the righteous that they may be saved not for Sodom and Gomorrah and his prayer was answered more than answered because he said Lord please let me talk once you know when god walked away when Abraham stopped praying god didn't walk away first Abraham walked away first what would have happened if he got on to I don't know I don't know but Abraham stayed there and then Abraham left off I'd like to have heard Abraham praying I'd rather hear a man pray than preach anyhow I enjoy preaching some of it not all of it but I enjoy some of it but I'd much rather hear a man pray I can't judge a man by his preaching he may be smart he's read all the books puts it all together he goes over he's eloquent and all the rest of it so what boy he's a great man oh boy can he say so surely he can it doesn't prove anything to me do you let me pray with a man for half an hour now I can just about take his temperature within about two points tell me whether he knows God or not you can know the word of God oh these boys you don't need guys build up they'll say well I'm 450 radio stations 320 TV stations without putting something on them but if I told you the background of some of them you'd be disgusted and I'll leave it there you can get away with anything you can persuade anything but you know not one of us fools God not one of us we can fool each other we can put on our parents I've known husband and wife in evangelism and ministers and people say have a lovely couple we've got and you know what happens when they get home they can't bear each other we were in a conference of I guess four or five years back this man told me my wife isn't here yet she's coming tomorrow you know we have every gift of the spirit between them prophecy this ministry that ministry the other stuff his wife came and at breakfast the morning we were partying he said I have something to tell you by the way and I said well go on tell me well he said my wife and I think have separated oh you are yeah you see I'm such a big ministry and she's such a big ministry and we don't really get on together to tell her the truth you see so the ministry issue was a side issue it was an excuse she's so much ministry and I was so much ministry well I'll tell you when it comes down to the prayer chamber it's a very different thing you see we don't fool God on any camp any of us anywhere any time he knows me through and through I can pass off to one thing and you may not be in a million miles of what I am by your judgment anyhow but God knew Abraham he was a faithful man he was a humble man he was a man who hurried to meet God he was a man who was faithful in all that God asked of him he was a man that interceded when he didn't need to bother let them go to hell after all he left you down there he owns half the city doesn't he he's the wealthiest man in the community and you've been up on the mountain and it says he built houses to God and he prayed to his God you never read that about Lot he was too busy running to the bank and doing other things and when he came to the issue God didn't send a word of notice to Lot who sat in the gate which is the type of being the judge of the city all the business of the city was done in the gate and Lot sat in the gate he was the mayor of the town but he was the judge of the town and God sent the report to the man there about shall I hide from Abraham the thing that I do alright Abraham starts off with his 50 50 is typical of jubilee 50th year of jubilee and boy there would have been some rejoicing if he'd said Lord I found 50 he comes down finally to 10 maybe they'll have seen the angels maybe they'll ask what it's all about and we'll be able to tell them maybe God will spare them a little further you know as I get older I don't get startled with too much maybe I'm too wooden I don't know but there's one thing that startled me it's the mercy of God Noah built the ark for 120 years and then for seven days he wouldn't let anybody he wouldn't send the flood he left the door open for seven days God never shut the door pardon me Noah never shut the door God shut it you build the ark you put a window there's only one window because there's only one light of the world there's only one door because there's only one door by which any man can enter into the ark and be safe but I shut the door that's my problem I'm not going to shut it for seven days you know what I believe I believe America's living on those seven days right now and England our generation is living on those seven extra days and God infinite mercy per adventure there are like five of the 50 the Lord said if there's 45 well then for the lack of five what if there's 40 no Lord and he stopped at 30 no 20 no oh God listen I'm only dust and ashes what I do standing in your holy presence you can blow me away like that but I'm standing on behalf of these millions of you would say who do you think a man who's gonna see two cities burned up and all history consumed like God's gonna wipe the whole damn thing out do you think he says in a casual way well Lord what is it 40 what is it 30 as I said often do you all put all the emphasis on the preachers yes the judgment seat is awesome my dear friend said gonna be a judgment of the living nation gonna be a judgment of angels gonna be a judgment of lost men gonna be a judgment of believers and there's gonna be a spiritual judgment for preachers that's gonna be exciting when all the rats are off and they're exposed in an autumnal nakedness spiritual no this man didn't pray casually I could almost hear him as he rode tearing his hair and saying God look I know the city's rotten but supposing there are 10 writers that's 5 in Sodom and 5 in Gomorrah but that wasn't asking mercy I mean if Lot was saved and his wife was saved that's 2 and the 2 daughters were saved 4 and if the sons in law had been saved that would have been treated only asking for 4 and he couldn't find that number he did not pray for Sodom and Gomorrah he prayed for the righteous and even though he couldn't find the quarter he couldn't find well he demanded not God God in mercy said I'll snatch them out but you talk about willfulness when God has sent the angels when God has warned them Mrs. Lot wasn't too thrilled about it she loved the old city and the country club and everywhere where she had the good times and when he went to tell his sons in law that knocked at the door they laughed him to scorn it says oh I think that was a horrible word there verse 14 of chapter 19 says but get you up out of this place for the Lord has sent you out of this place for the Lord sent out of for the Lord has sent you out of this place for the Lord has sent you out of this place for the for the has sent you out of this place for the Lord has sent you out of this for the sent out of for the has sent you out of place for the Lord has sent you out of this place for the has sent out of this place for the has sent you out of this place for the Lord has sent out of this for the has sent you out of this place for the Lord has sent you out of this place for the Lord has sent you out of this place for the Lord has sent you out of for the has sent you out of this place for the Lord has sent you out of for the Lord has sent Eli says well what's wrong with a woman, she never says a word. Eli knocked her out, had lips moved, but there's a better thing than lips moving, it's when what the good old book calls the bowels of your compassion move, it's when there's something inside of you. You know somebody once said precisely that in a married couple if the wife had the first baby and the husband had the second there'd never be a third. That's right. For the simple reason that men don't know a thing about trave, you see that's the figure that God uses. There's never been revived without trave. And the greatest brain the world has ever had, the church has ever had anyhow, maybe the world was in a pastoral poem and he talks about little children whom I trave with birth until Christ was born in them. Yes. Moses prayed, Hannah prayed, her lips were moving but her voice was not heard. Moses prayed for a nation. You remember he prayed and he said but if not. You know it's a great thing when a man, when God writs you down and takes hold of a man, you say God's hand is on that man. Fine. There's one thing greater than that. You know what it is? When that man's hand is on God. What do you mean? Well Isaiah talks about concerning the work of my hands. Come on Jeannie. You don't command God by saying Lord I want you to do this, do that. Oh no, no, no, no. You say I pray so much. Well listen. The spirit prays for us. You know he prays Romans 8 according to the will of God. You can pray a lot of things outside the will of God, a lot of things you like. Prayer isn't giving God a shopping list. Prayer is finding God's mind and agreeing with God in that thing and saying Lord I'm not worried about my burden. You took the burden of my sin and I want to carry your burden. For his yoke is even his burden is light. And I pray. The man of God didn't understand that she bore a child. And the thing about revival praying, the thing about petitioning of this kind is this, that you don't care where the revival comes from because you're not after your name being vindicated but his name being vindicated. His name being glorified. But don't, don't, don't, don't please, and I say this with love and reverence, don't, don't go home and pray tonight. Lord teach me to know something about spiritual pregnancy, about the spirit coming on me because God may put China or God may put Russia on the island and nobody in the world understands. Why don't you pray for your son-in-law or Mary Jane or something and you say because God, but that's my burden. My burden is somebody I like, I love, I know. Or a situation which is desperate that it may not be God's burden. God may say look I want you to pray from here till I take the burden off you. For the next two years you're going to know some anguish over it. And your dearest, dearest friend won't know a thing you're talking about. And you say but God has put this burden on my heart. I'm going to pray it through. As I've said in natural birth, there's conception, gestation and birth. You can't alter, you can't change the order. You can't cut the period down. That woman carried that child for nine months. Maybe seven months she'd like to go off somewhere. Maybe three weeks before the baby's born and somebody says I'd like you to try this new horse of mine. Boy he can jump an eight foot fence. Are you watching? Don't be saying oh no I'm sorry I'm carrying this child, I might fall off. We used to read in the newspaper in England the Queen has cancelled all her engagements. You guessed the rest. Never said the Queen is expected. The Queen has cancelled all her engagements. You put the rest together. Everybody guessed and it was usually the right guess. Why? She wasn't going to risk herself in any sports or activities which might hinder the unborn child. Alright. What happens when you get nearer to the day of birth? The wife goes haywire. She doesn't like things she's wanted for months. She wants something her grandmother told her about. She's never tasted one in her life. Another one says I'll search town. This is wonderful. It breaks up the pattern of sleep. The old boy's snoring his head off and you're there for hours awake, awake. I see a cow shaking her head. And you say well the baby's going to be born in three or four days at least. I don't think I'll ever go through this again. Another good book says that you know when that child has come forth the woman forgets all about her sorrow and her anguish. And I tell you again there never has been a revival in history that hasn't been prayed for with sweat, with tears, with grief. I believe that God showed Noah all the corruption of the earth. And I think for a hundred years he had a broken heart. He was just a creature of light. All that time, well I'll tell you what Colin said. He said brethren I have sorrow of heart. No he doesn't say that. He says brethren I have continual sorrow of heart. There's a bandage you could let up on it wouldn't it? The woman says well I've carried this baby for seven months but I have an engagement there. If I could lay it on one side and go on this vacation across to Australia and come back and pick up the baby. No forget it, stay with it. And if you're going to go in for God's best you know it'll break your social pattern up, it'll break every other pattern you have. That's his way. So please don't make me too generous with your offering. If you're going to know what God wants you to know you'll have to know grief, the pains of hell got hold of me. Jesus said that. I have continual sorrow of heart the apostle Paul says. And it means painfulness and brokenness and trouble and tears and seeing things that nobody can see and feeling what nobody else feels. If you're not careful the devil will tell you an idiot and if you're not careful you'll believe him too. But you'll say this is what God told me in that certain place at that certain time. How many of you have read Rhys Howells Intercessor? You should all read it, it's one of the greatest books. And I remember saying to Norman Grubb, I've known Norman Grubb since 40 years, 40 other years. I said Norman that was a daring title you put on that man, Rhys Howells Intercessor. He should put Rhys Howells Man of Prayer but he said Len that's the whole thing, he was an intercessor. He said Lord do it through me. Hannah isn't saying bless this nation. You say well did God give her a baby? She didn't pray for a baby. But what did she pray for? She prayed for a man child. Because a man child is the sanctifying of the womb for the children of Israel. Not a child, she'd have done a reproach. No I'm not praying for my reproach, I'm praying for his reproach. So God gave her a man child? No he didn't. Well he didn't give her a girl? No he didn't. Well is there another kind? Yes there is. What kind? He gave her a prophet by the name of Samuel. And God wasn't answering her prayer there, he was answering his own prayer 20 years up the road when he was going to need Samuel. The other woman says give me children Jacob or I die. Did she get a baby? Yes she did. Did God give her a prophet? No he didn't. Why not? Because he didn't believe on 20 years up the road. He needed a prime minister and so he gave her a little guy, Paul Joseph. One of the most perfect examples of Jesus in the whole Bible. You see God wasn't... God, you say sometimes the Lord answers my prayer and I think he did it for me. Look, it's the wrong way to pray anyhow. Wait a minute, look I only want this answering that glory may come to you. My first objective is not that you'll clear my name or blame or shame or something else. Pray your own name. I'm willing to carry the burden. Well, it's a hard life. Let me say that. And you know what, you can take your own spiritual pulse. You know how to take your spiritual pulse? Well check up whether you prefer prayer to other people's company. Or whether you prefer it to sleep or whether you prefer it to your pet's foot. Which has the priority? And again, I don't know the period. God may this afternoon, this word was for somebody. It's for me I know that but it's for somebody else. And if the world should tarry, Jesus tarry. Or maybe God's going to raise up in our group here a mother in Israel or a father in Israel if you like. And if he did it in the weekend it would be alright. Nobody jumps from infancy to manhood in spirit in the weekend. See that man, he's got all...