Leonard Ravenhill emphasizes the significance of the Judgment Seat of Christ, where every believer's life and service will be evaluated. He contrasts the eternal rewards for faithful service with the loss of those whose lives are built on superficiality, represented by wood, hay, and stubble. Ravenhill passionately calls for a life of devotion and intercession, urging believers to live with eternity in mind and to prepare for the moment when their works will be tested by fire. He highlights the importance of genuine worship and the need for a deep, personal relationship with God, warning against complacency in the Christian life. Ultimately, he challenges the church to rise above worldly distractions and to focus on the eternal impact of their lives.

And all our lives, from the moment you began to witness for Christ, all your service, all your labors for him, they're going to be shown, oh, now listen, listen, none of the filthy world, none of the outcasts of hell are going to be there. Won't it be wonderful that you get there, or will it? When you see all the redeemed of all the ages, when you look there and say, you know, there's Abraham, I didn't think he'd look quite like that, but he's going to be there, all right. And all the saints of all the ages are going to be there. A hymn I'd assess, from earth's wide bounds, an ocean's farthest coast, through gates of pearls, streaming a countless host, singing to Father, Son and Holy Ghost, hallelujah. You know, there used to be an old hymn, and maybe not ten people here could recite it, that's only the first verse, but everybody knows the chorus, when the saints go marching in. You know, they dance to that down in Bourbon Street, that hellhole, with all its prostitutes, they dance to it every night. When the saints go marching in, they shuffle their feet, listen, that's for the redeemed, it's not for that bunch of scum of the earth. It's for the redeemed, when the saints go marching in, can you imagine them going in? From earth's wide bounds, from ocean's farthest coast, through gates of pearls, streaming a countless host, singing to Father, Son and Holy Ghost, hallelujah. A multitude which no man can number, I'm going to open the gallery and see all the saints of all the ages, mine I'll be thrilled to look on Isaiah, and Jeremiah, and those major prophets, and those minor prophets, and Matthew, and Mark, and Luke, and John, and Acts, well everybody in Acts anyhow, and the Apostle Paul, and Tychicus, and all those strange characters. Won't it be wonderful and say, see those are the men who walk with Jesus, see there's Paul, he gave his colossal intellect to God, he wrote about 14 epistles, he went over Asia Minor, he didn't sit in a jet and say, you know, how good the Lord is to me. He was lashed to the post 195 times, he was in weariness, and fastings, and painfulness, and tribulation, and distress, and famine, and peril, and nakedness, and sword, in tribulation amongst false brethren, in perils of the deep. Do you think that man's going to get two ounces of reward for a life like that? You'll only get rewarded, grace is free, but rewards are not free. People say you're talking about works, sure I am, because God did, Jesus did. You know that some saints again are going to judge the earth, well that'd be an awesome task, I won't want to be one, maybe I never will, maybe I will, maybe God will ordain that I should do it. Can you see the holy dead all lined up there? All the saints in the Old Testament, all the saints in the New Testament, I hope the Lord, I can't give him any advice, I think I try to in prayer sometimes, but I can't give God any advice, I'd like to see a pocket full of those gorgeous people who prayed. Oh my, won't that be wonderful? You know when you see a political convention, they have a sign up from Cincinnati or somewhere, maybe there'll be signs in heaven, these are the prayer warriors, these are the great sufferers, these are the travellers, these are the missionaries, these are the failures, well anyhow, there's going to be all kinds of people listed in that great day, it's going to be an awesome thing. And here is a man, his life is just made of wood, very beautiful, ten thousand dollars wouldn't do much from a stack of mahogany these days, would it? But when the fire goes through it, what do you have? All you have is that wood going down until you've got ashes, maybe up to your ankles, and that's all that is left. I heard a woman say not long ago, well praise the Lord, I'm glad I don't have to account for anything when I go to heaven, there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Wait a minute, you can never isolate a scripture by itself, there's no condemnation for past sins. I'm mighty glad this morning, I think sometimes, I don't wonder that God had to keep saying to Israel, remember thou was the bondsman in Egypt, remember your sin, remember your iniquity. Did you get up this morning and thank God you were pure? Did you thank him that that devilish fever you used to have for sniffing cocaine or drugs or something, that he broke the fetter of it? Are you really glad you're not a prostitute now, you're going to be a part of the bride of the Lamb? Are you glad he's removed from your heart covetousness and bad temper and all those creepy horrible things that used to master you? A man's life, all his ministry, it showed, do you see the difference between the wood and the hay and the stubble and the silver and the gold and the precious stones? Wood, hay and stubble are above the ground, they catch the eye. Silver and gold and precious stones are below the ground, nobody sees them. There's a lot of public ministry in that day that's going to go down in ashes my brother. You say well it doesn't say that the Christians are going to be judged out of the book, yes I think it does. Where? In Malachi. It says that God has a book of remembrance and I think it would do you good before you go to bed every night this week to ask God what did you put in your book this today from my life? It doesn't necessarily have to be some outward act, you could worship God on a tractor, you could worship God, it's not the best way but you can do it still. The fire is going to take the big showy life of that man and burn it and it's only going to be a bunch of ashes. Wood, hay, well if you put ten thousand dollars in hay you get a lot, yeah and you get a lot more ashes too when the fire got to it. And stubble, you could buy half a stubble in Texas maybe for ten thousand dollars but boy you'd have a mess when the fire got to it. Instead of ashes to your ankles or ashes to your knees it would be up to your nose maybe and you couldn't get your way out but that's what lives are going to be like, wood, hay, stubble. I used to have trouble with these boys always begging you know and it makes you wonder if some Christians do have hearts of flesh that they won't send them money to keep their jets going. You know I believe every dime that ever came into Agapio, every dime that ever came to Oral Roberts, anybody else is going to answer for it at the judgment seat of Christ one day. Jesus talks about these men who go and take widows houses, well that's what they're doing now. They're not satisfied that you give while you're living, they'll ask you to hand your house over to them and leave this in your will and if you do you'll get a better place in heaven, don't believe it for a moment, it's a lie from hell. They're going to give an account to God in that day but I believe we're going to give an account too. My brother was telling me this week when he got baptized it was a kind of a sudden thing and he went down into the water there and suddenly realized he had his wallet in his pocket. Well not many pockets get, you know, not many wallets get baptized. We kind of say Lord you look after my sins I look after the rest. Every penny you earn since you became the property of Jesus Christ you'll give an account of before God. It doesn't just take your sins, it takes yourself, it takes the government of your life. There's an awful lot of money being wrongly invested. You know what I think? I may not be right, I usually am but I may not be quite right in this but you know what I think? I think that now the crunch is on the nation, I think it's going to get worse and worse, this is going to be the roughest year we've ever lived. I told some of you three years ago that an important man called me late at night and said brother Rayden in the next three weeks in American history, over the next three weeks we're going to live over the most important in American history. One of the most famous preachers in the country called me at nearly midnight and said you know what I've come to this conclusion God Almighty is already taking his hands off America. For the simple reason we've had so much light and rejected it. Carter can't make a move to the right. If he makes it to the right it's still to the left. Every move he makes is a counter move that makes him think further and further in the mire. It's not only true that we live in a world of bankrupt politics, we live in a world and this is the most tragic of all of a bankrupt church. Isn't it awesome to think that all this stuff we sing all that will be glory for me. Friend you've got one big stumbling block, let me rush through this time's going. Your life is wood the fire's going to come, hay the fire's going to come to it, stubble the fire's going to come to it. But what if your life is silver and gold and precious stones. What is gold a sign of? Gold I believe there is a sign of our devotion to God. You wouldn't get much gold for ten thousand dollars today and I could have a small uh induction crucible here and put your ten thousand dollars of the gold and press buttons and it moves and moves. What happens when you burn gold? Nothing all you do is change it from solid to liquid but you don't reduce it. Can you see all the saints of all the ages and Leonard Raimond is standing there before a Christ whose eyes are full of holiness where the place is breeding holiness where there's all the majesty of an awesome God and he reads the record of my poor life before all the saints of all the ages and he puts the fire to my devotional life. Am I just a good showman? I sure like to preach because God called me to preach and I don't care how I preach I don't care whether you believe me either I'm not responsible for that. I preach out of my heart all I believe and I die for it. But say am I just a showman? What's my what's my secret life like? We were talking just earlier yesterday I guess about the woman that came in an alabaster box appointment you know I read that story for years and heard it preached on before ever I realized she came for one reason only she came to worship Jesus. How do you know? Because she brought the most sacrificial gift that she had. How do you know? Because she never said a word while she was there. How do you know? Because she said I won't wash his feet with water I wash them with tears. I won't dry his head his feet with a gorgeous towel I wipe his feet with the hair of my head and she poured out that costly fragrance and then she wiped his feet again so what happened? The fragrance she poured out on him came back on her. Why isn't my life more fragrant? Because you don't take time to be holy because you think if you stuff all the stuff you get at a gappy which I'm sure is good or some other bible school that this is no no no no God isn't going to measure your intellect the size of your hat. He's going to try with his fire my devotional life. I think again of a statement Dr. Toter made to me once he said Len you know what? He said we'll hardly get our feet out of time into eternity and gaze on eternity of what we bow our heads in shame and humiliation and say my God look at all the riches there were in Jesus Christ and I've come to the judgment seat almost a pauper. For God has not merely given us Jesus Christ he's given us all things and because there isn't enough joy in the house of God we need entertainment because entertainment is the devil's substitute for joy because there isn't enough power in the house of God people are always looking for the last scientific development and their hair stands up when they see some fancy show on tv. I think before we point the finger at the world we better turn to the church and say look we better all get sackcloth and ashes and humble ourselves and say almighty God when I see the church in the new testament they didn't have stately buildings, they didn't have paid evangelists, they didn't have a lot of money, they didn't have organization, they couldn't get on tv and beg but I'll tell you what they did they turned the world upside down and I'm embarrassed to be part of the church of Jesus today because I believe it's an embarrassment to a holy God. Most of our joy is clapping our hands and and then afterwards we're talking all the drivel of the world. Oh to be lost in him, to be consumed in him. We mentioned this week a little frail woman my dear boy that's in South America many of you heard him preach Paul I think he has every book that Amy Wilson Carmichael wrote about 30 of them. He drenched himself in in her teaching she was a fine little Irish woman she had a curvature of the spine. The last three years of her life they had to lift her in and out of bed, change her she was helpless but she she loved 350 little children. She wrote this from subtle love of softening things from easy choices and weakenings not thus are spirits glorified not this way went the crucified from all that dims by calvary oh lamb of God deliver me you know we're overboard on laughter and happiness there's an old saying in the world laugh and the world laughs with you I change it I say laugh and the church laughs with you but weep and you weep alone. You get so near to the heart of God we sang it on Friday we did a marvelous Friday night prayer meeting I wouldn't have taken that Friday night meeting for ten thousand dollars God came and we were broken and humiliated before him. You get so near to the heart of God that you share his grief over a world and over a backslidden church that we have today. Can he share his sorrow with you? Oh yes you'll get filled with the Holy Ghost and get the bank balance that's all right if you do God will hold you to account for it but are you big enough to say Lord in this crucial hour in human history let me fill up the sufferings of Christ. Are you prepared to take Karen's demon power and say listen I've moved into the place where the apostle Paul was when he said I glory in tribulation in necessities in reproaches because if you're going to get mature in God all the dwarfs around you will criticize and sneer at you and say you're trying to be holier than the rest of us huh? You say you don't have time for basketball or go and see a baseball game no maybe you don't that's nobody's business but yours and God's. You'll discover this the men who have been most heroic for God have been the men with the greatest devotion of life. I remind you again that one day I was in the Bible school of Wales and dear Mrs. Reese Howes her husband was dead now we stood on the terrace there and she turned back she said you see the room there I said yes I see that room that door yes daddy meaning her husband went through that door at six o'clock in the morning and he stayed there till six o'clock at night every day for 11 months except the one day that his mother died. There's a great test this isn't the greatest job on earth it's a good job preaching it's not the greatest. I used to wonder why does the Bible say that the last should be first and the first should be last? I'll tell you what I know down at Nacogdoches there we had six women came to our house uh two to two a week last Thursday and four of them have a ministry of intercession and they don't strut about it and they don't get the places on in magazines. We've mutilated all the hymns most of Charles Wesley's hymns have 30 stanzas now they've about six. We've done that with other things you see a little board up in homes in offices sometimes only one life to assume be past only what's done for God will last that's not what the poet wrote the poet wrote this only one life to assume be past only what's done for God will last and when I am dying how glad I shall be if the lamp of my life has been burned out for thee you think all Christians die happy not on your life they die as miserable sinners some of them why because I've misused my time and I've misused Lord if you'll only spare me to do this some of you prayed that on a hospital bed some of you women when you thought you were dying giving birth to a child said Lord if you spare my life I'll do this that have you done it the only thing that will tie me in victory continually through the blood of Christ is my personal devotion to him the son of God my adoration that I give him my tribute every day it's more than my service it's more than giving my money that I love him and I adore him and I magnify him I take him as he were by the for all the people who worship Jesus the woman came and brought an alabaster box of ointment and she was at his feet she was at his feet on every occasion that woman if you follow the story through when he appeared in the upper room they seized him by the feet you get a little bit further in the book of revelation or if you go to the sixth chapter again you find there it says at the end that the four and twenty elders now they fell down at his feet you wonder Matthew Bridges wrote that lovely hymn crown him with many crowns the lamb upon his throne crown him the lord of spheres the potentate of time crown him the lord of love crown him the lord of spheres power a scepter sways from pole to pole that war may cease and all be prayer and praise the one thing that's wrong with that world outside is it thinks it's done with Jesus Christ it hasn't even started with him yet but he stands at the end of the trail for every man rich or poor bottom of free black or white intellectual or ignoramus what's your devotional life this morning would you would you like Gabriel to hand me the book of your devotional life for the last month and read it to this fine audience the gold is going to be tried to our devotional life the silver what is the silver I guess you can interpret it different ways I like to interpret it this way the book of Proverbs says the tongue of the just is as choice silver yeah every idle word you've spoken even since you were saved God has a kind of you know he doesn't need a tape recorder but he has an eternal record of it you know the gossip the slander the criticism the prejudice you know when somebody upset you and and instead of being quiet you spilled out just what was on your heart at that moment can you think of all those awesome works can you think of all the we've preached to thousands of people over the years and we're going to answer it and the fire is going to be put to them well will they be hay and stubble or or will they abide the fire the fire shall try every believer's work silver gold precious stone well what are the precious stones well when I read that I think of the I think of the breastplate that was on the priests the priest in the old testament it was divided into 12 each stone was a different stone each stone had the name of the tribe on it and he went into the holy place to pray with a breastplate on him oh well how do you handle this how do you handle this do you know why the world is poor and sick outside because we really don't know how to pray that's why because we're satisfied we've our lousy living and we don't drink and lust and damn ourselves every day and and now we're christians and we're so content and so happy and so satisfied I've said it many times I say it again this morning but no man is greater than his prayer life I don't care about his organization and his these boys all have a uh what is it um a mailing list doesn't worry me let me live with a man a while and share his prayer life and I'll tell you how tall I think he is or how majestic I think he is in God supposing I could say to Gabriel this morning Gabriel uh hand this book down well let's let's preview eternity here we are millions of people all the prayer warriors America has produced some of the greatest praying patient of Portland had a had a floor harder than that and at the side of his bed when he he knelt he used to pray and pray and pray and when they washed his body for burial he had great big hooves on his knees like camels like history says that James in the Bible had camel's knees at least tradition says that well it's a living fact that Payson had them and when they were washing him somebody said but what abnormal knees they're calloused they're heavy with calluses yeah because he used to pray at the side of his bed with energy and in that hard floor he wore two grooves like that about six or seven inches long where he used to pray and make intercession praying patient of Portland many of you can buy the book if you haven't read it I think it's in the book still there praying Hyde John Hyde I met somebody used to hear him pray and told me what an amazing thing it was to hear him pray in India you know we think we've got a message you've got to drop it here and run there and catch a plane here and go there and say no no that's not the greatest ministry it's good God has ordained it but the greatest ministry I'm sure is the ministry of intercession let's ask Gabriel to hand the book down let's look at all the apostles and all the saints of all the ages there's Finney look there's Finney with his amazing revival there's William Bull the founder of the Salvation Army there's John Wesley here are all the great heroic figures we've all read about them and here they are all watching while the book is handed down and somebody's going to read the record would you would you volunteer and say well I'll be happy if you read my record to this multitude supposing I say Gabriel handed the record for 1724 and I open the book there I read 1724 I go down the bees David Braynard just a young American died at the age of 28 all he possessed was a cowhide that he had tanned and he wrapped himself in it and put a rope around him and he rode over the Susquehanna River there and and he followed the Indians and he had tuberculosis and he says I got up this morning and the Indians were still committing adultery there and still drinking there and still beating their tom-toms until shouting like hell itself he came out of the teepee he was sharing and he said there was nowhere to pray so I went out in the forest and he said I knelt and the snow was up to my chin and it was a half hour after sunrise he weighed about 95 pounds no he didn't have a heater with him or anything else he he was just there in the frigid snow half an hour after sunrise and he said I did so wrestle in prayer he says in his archaic English I wrestled in prayer for for about 12 hours the sun was setting and then I could only touch the snow with the tips of my fingers the snow was up to his chin when he started praying and he and he makes intercession of little body that weighed 90 pounds until the sweat of his body melted in the snow well God pity us we can't get folk to our churches and and we've got velvet cushions on the seats and we've got nice stuff on the floor so our darling little knees won't get hurt and boy we can't get we can't muster a corporal's guard to pray in the average church praying patron of Portland John Hyde the great intercessor David Brainerd when God opens that book of intercession when he puts the fire to their prayer life their devotional life I'll tell you what there'll be nothing lost it won't be wooed it won't be hay it won't be stubble I discovered this poem just yesterday it's called his plan for me I didn't have time to memorize it when I stand at the judgment seat of Christ and he shows his plan for me the plan of my life as it might have been had he had his way and I see how I blocked him here and I checked him there and I would not yield my will will there be grief in my savior's eyes grief though he loves me still would he have me rich and I stand there poor stripped of all but his grace while memory runs like a hunted thing down the paths I cannot retrace Lord of the years that are left to me I give them to thy hand take me and break me and mold me to the pattern that thou hast planned it's going to be an awesome day when I was at school I said about two-thirds back there was a kind of a level here then there were some seats up here and I sat in the first little gallery as it were and you know I didn't mind school too much but I was very envious in those days of the school captain he lived just he he worked just across the aisle from me he was the best soccer player and I wanted to be that he was the best at cricket and I like cricket he was the best runner we had and I like running and he was a very good artist but he was quite a brain and you know if I could ever save up my stomach aches I saved them till the day before the final examination but my mother was smart she knew I was saving them up I don't know how and I get up that morning and say mother oh I I don't feel good at all I I think I should stay at home she said okay you can stay at home tomorrow but not today but today was the day of judgment and you know that the things will be put down on the board there and as soon as they were down Renton would get it his name was Renton and he'd get his paper and he'd dash through it man he was through the first two or three subjects before I'd even got got the things read oh he and another guy that were there they used to say boy it's exams and they knew they'd be number one and number two and every year I was at school they were number one and number two on the chart when it came out these boys were always at the top they had no fear of the judgment they were prepared for it I still believe in the majesty of that eternal court with the king of kings and the lord of lords and the judge of judges I still think there'll be an awesomeness about it so majestic you see there's no possible there's no possibility of any rehearsal and what there's no possibility of any repetition because again this is the final judgment and to some God will say come ye blessed and others he will have said depart from me I don't believe there'll be any envy I won't do it but I could I could remind you there are at least five five crowns to be given in reward Paul says that that the lord will give him a crown of of righteousness which he says the lord will not only give to me but all them that love is appearing there's a crown for the martyrs those who will die today and have died other days there's a crown to be given to them crowns crowns crowns we will all be the same in heaven there'll be great distinctions in heaven you can't think that the dying thief he'll be in heaven all right because he said remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom and sure enough God will do that Jesus said he would but he'd wasted his life take just one character John Wesley he was saved soundly when he was 35 years of age turned 35 round it makes 53 put 53 and 35 together makes 88 the time he died in 1891 the dying thief rejoiced to see that fountain in his day and there have I though violence but he cast all my sins away fine but I suggesting that the man who got in on the last tick of the clock is going to have the same reward as John Wesley yeah Wesley made an awful lot of money do you know what he did with it he built orphanages he built churches he printed bibles he printed hymn books there was no time wasted in his life it was methodical systematic he went to dinner with the greatest man in English literature and the man said now you finished dinner let's fold our legs under the table he said up you know cross your legs under the table and let's just have a nice time of conversation and Wesley said I'm sorry I have to go oh but it is not yet nine o'clock no it's not well why are you going he said I have an appointment in the morning at four o'clock at four o'clock tomorrow morning every morning of my life with who with God he disciplined his life he disciplined his body in eating he disciplined his hand in his pocket we shall stand at the judgment seat of Christ an awesome prospect for any of us for the hymn writer says the eternal glory is gleam afar saint endeavor so now to watch to work to war and then to rest forever we had a lady in a church that I pastored actually I was assistant pastor and the lady was the wife of the pastor Dr. Fawcett and she didn't have a great voice but they often asked her to sing and she used to sing the same old hymn every time and the last verse of that hymn said this he was not willing that any should perish am I his follower and can I live longer at ease with these souls going downward lost for the last lack of the help I might give he was not willing that any should perish master forgive and inspire us anew banish our worldliness help us to ever live with eternity's values in view said that great man who birthed that revival God stamp eternity on my eyeballs you know if we can't live as a different breed of people on this earth we have no right to live here we shouldn't be affected by changing customs or changing styles or changing opinions or whether the stock market goes up or down or whether the clouds are gathering for that that doesn't make any art we ought to live every day as though we come out of another world into this world with the power of that world upon us to live and speak and move and have our being in Jesus Christ it's going to be an awesome day have you kind of figured how you'll get on when you stand there before all the saints of all the ages and you and I are to stand there alone on the dais and be judged for the deeds done in the body for every aspect of our lives for our praying for our giving for our living for our talking no it's not so simple to be a Christian after all it's a majestic thing I remember crossing a square in the city of Bath in the 1940s I saw two very fine young ladies one was a young lady the other was only a girl and they were erect and beautifully dressed and they marched across that square and I thought there's something different about those girls and then when I went around the other side I discovered it was they were princesses at that time our present Queen of England Queen Elizabeth and her sister Margaret it was the princesses of the royal family and you know there was a dignity about them very different from anybody else who walked and the word of God says as he was so we in this world we ought to live eternity conscious in time ready to be cut off at any moment supposing you were cut off this moment in this moment would you would you like your life story read before all the millions in eternity do you think it might shrink when you hear what how God used a David Brainerd or John Wesley or some little wash woman down there that had a life of intercession or a little woman in Ireland and she had two shops and this shop it paid all the family expenses and this shop she saved all the money for missions and she sent one two three four of her children to the mission field and she financed them all man she's gonna have a reward one day isn't she because she was doing it as unto him and I don't care there's no burden too heavy there's no situation too hard for the one that you love and if we're love controlled love motivated devoted motivated love energized it'd be all right when we stand up there because if there's anything about love one thing about it it's obedient and if we get back to a people who are really baptized with obedience submissive to the total will of God not concerned about human opinion not asking for more to spend prodigally on ourselves but say oh God I want these this life of mine adjusting so I when I stand in your awesome presence as James says we shall not be ashamed that is appearing