In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of recognizing that every good and perfect gift comes from God. He highlights that it is God's will that has given us spiritual birth through the word of truth. The preacher urges believers to be swift to hear and slow to speak, emphasizing the need to live righteously and not be deceived by empty religion. He also encourages patience and perseverance, comparing believers to a husbandman waiting for the precious fruit of the earth. Throughout the sermon, the preacher references various biblical passages, including James 1:16-18 and James 5:1-7, to support his teachings.

I am very grateful to God to be able to come back to your lovely country and especially to this very lovely gathering of people, many of whom I've come to love and respect, and I thank you sincerely for the privilege of coming back to this pulpit. Can we bow for prayer, please? Can we quieten our hearts before God, please? O God, we do thank thee for each other. We thank thee that we are washed in the blood of Jesus Christ by God. We thank thee we are the temples of the Holy Spirit. We thank thee that Christ is in us, and this is the only hope we have of glory. Christ in you, the hope of glory. We thank thee we have this treasure with an earthen vessel that the excellency of the power may be of God, not of us, that I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. We thank thee that it was in God's heart before the foundations of the world to buy a people and redeem them and wash them and purchase them with his blood, and to conform them into the image of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and that when we shall see him, we shall be like him, we shall see him as he is, that whosoever abideth in him ought himself also should have walked, even as he walked. O God, we do bless thee for the great salvation in the heart of God for us through Christ. We bless thee for the blood of Jesus, and ask thee to keep us under that blood now from evil powers, from Satan, demons, and evil people with evil intent. Protect us. Take the hardest of hearts in this building and soften and take away all hardness, all unbelief, all hatred of God and God's people, and break through tonight, staggering them. Take every heart tonight. Cleanse the atmosphere of this building with the blood of Christ. Protect us around this building with the blood of Christ. Rebuke the devil away in the name of Christ. Rebuke thou Satan, Lord, in the name of Christ. Wash me in the blood of Jesus. Fill me with the Holy Spirit. Stand beside me in the pulpit of God. Dear Lord Jesus, speak thou, speak thou, Lord, as only God can speak and no man can speak. Speak where only God's voice can penetrate and no man's voice can ever penetrate, that we know with whom we have to do tonight is God and not men, that we lose sight of men, each other, and each of us to see God and become conscious of God tonight. Come, in mercy make thy word alive. The letter killeth the spirit, giveth life. Without the Holy Ghost, this book has a deadening effect on anyone. But oh, bring by the Holy Ghost life through this book tonight, in mercy on all of us, especially on me, Father. We all ask these things in the name that we love, in the name we live for, in the name we would gladly die for, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. There is in the Holy Bible a letter written by a man known to all the church in all generations simply as James. A profound letter that enriches the Bible to such a degree it is almost mind-boggling. It's beyond comprehension. James. Of course, this man called James was known in the Bible and referred in the Bible as the brother of the Lord. He was a child of Joseph and Mary. After the amazing, amazing miracle, the miraculous birth of Christ through Mary, the fulfillment of the Old Testament, where God said in Isaiah 7, verse 14, hundreds of years before it took place, behold a virgin, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Emmanuel. This word Emmanuel is a Hebrew word that means literally God with us. God with us. Behold a virgin shall conceive, God says, and bear a son and shall call his name God. God with us. Great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifested in the flesh, Queen Timothy. God was manifested in the flesh, John 1, verse 1, in the beginning was the Word. Speaking of Jesus, in the beginning was the Word. The Word is this God. The Word was God. And then down to verse 14, in the Word, the Word was made flesh. And dwelt among us. God dwelt among us. God was us. All this amazing, amazing, miraculous birth of God, born of the flesh, born into this world of a man through Mary. She was a precious, precious soul. Don't doubt that. She was a precious, precious soul. But after this amazing birth of Christ, of God manifested in the flesh, God coming in the flesh, after this amazing miracle, Mary and Joseph had a normal relationship as any husband and wife. And they had other children. And the Bible refers to these children as the brethren of Christ and the sisters of Christ, the brothers and sisters of Jesus. Children of Mary and Joseph. James was one. Josie, another. James knew what it was to grow up in the home with God manifested in the flesh. He never knew it was his God. He thought it was his brother. But it was the only sin in this life that ever lived. Can you imagine the awe, the reverence, the staggering conception of looking at this life that never, ever revealed anything but perfect sin? Never revealed any sin in carnality or pride. Never failed once on any issue of concerning God's laws. He was a perfectly sinless, spotless man of God who never committed a sin, and it was lived out in that home. Can you imagine the reverence, the love that that home had to such a life? Can you imagine in your home, sir, what love you would have for such a life? That you knew you didn't live. You couldn't live. For no man but Christ was sinless. Sinless from birth to death. All James was privileged, and they knew it. Don't doubt it. Don't even believe to conceive that there's such a thing as they didn't realize there was something amazing in this life. And the reverence shown by those children must have been amazing toward Jesus, who they thought was their brother. But then they reached the moment suddenly that James must have been staggered. I can only try and identify to what must have gone on in his mind and the brethren of Christ when suddenly this brother called Jesus, this brother suddenly started doing things that no man had ever in history done on earth. Suddenly, miracles were seen that have never, ever been seen on humanity. Great miracles by Elijah. Elijah, yes, but no man had ever performed such miracles that stirred the crowd that within a short while the whole world was turned upside down in their staggered unbelief at what was going on in front of their eyes. Thousands, the whole world almost came to a standstill as he walked. They knew something was here that had never been seen on earth. Never revealed by God to a man. James was there. Don't think he was out somewhere oblivious to what was going on. James was staggered with all the brethren of Christ that what was being seen and witnessed and the thousands and the thousands and thousands of the thronged, pushing, pressing to try and see, trying to reach and trying to find help and knowing that everyone that came, he healed. Totally. All the emotion, the stirring, the weeping, the wailing, as this man suddenly was moving from town to town. But then he began to speak doctrines men had never, ever understood from the Old Testament. He began to speak with such authority that God says, never faith man like this, no man in history ever spoke with such grace, with such anointing, with such power from God and authority and enlightening the world through the scriptures, bringing the full revelation of God back to man. The full revelation given in glimpses through the Old Testament. Blasting reveal and light, blazing light, there are light, sun and darkness, God says. And James must have been stunned and wonder as the crowd just listened, but soon had become conscious that the leaders, the spiritual leaders of the land, well they became envious, the Bible says, and jealous for their ministry, their authority, the respect and the reverence they had never had from the people. They were not named and singled out with reverence like this. This man shook the crowd, teaching them the things of such authority of God that they never knew such anointing, such understanding, and jealousy stirred up amongst the religious leaders. Hatred started coming, bitterness, hatred towards this man doing such things and gripping the crowd in their towels and everywhere he went. The consciousness of that must have put fear into James' heart, because the religious leaders were feared. They were feared if you stepped out of line doctrinally. It was a terrible offense in that land, a terrible offense, and they were watching, eagerly waiting, hanging on his words to try and catch him out doctrinally, to try and accuse him of something that would be blasphemy. And old James began to hear, clearly as everybody else, in no uncertain way Christ began to teach that he was the Messiah. The Savior, and saying things about the work of the Messiah that had never been grasped or understood were to save men of sin. He began to make statements that implied that he was not only a Savior, a Messiah, but he was God. In no uncertain way it was coming through, it was God, the Son of God. He made statements to a close circle, but soon those statements were going broader and broader, and especially as he was addressing the hypocrisy of the Pharisees who challenged and undermined him, and wanted to know where he gets his authority from. He made statements that became more and more clear that he had either seen me or seen the Father. I am the Father in one. I can do nothing without my Father, and I am He with one. These statements began to spread and have effect, and eventually when he began to make them in the presence of the thousands and the Pharisees hanging on, looking in heritage, looking in envy, knowing the laws, he knew something terrible is coming. The crowd knew something terrible is coming, yet suddenly it wasn't a miracle they were gripped at. It was the boldness of this man making statements that no man would get away with, and they began to look uneasily at the Pharisees, at the religious leaders, as they heard Christ making these statements of him being the Messiah, and we read, His brethren believed not on him. James didn't believe it now. No, no, this is not true. This is my brother. What is compelling him to make such statements, the fear that must have gripped it, but his brethren believed not on him from that point. His brethren believed not on him when these statements came out. They were true in fear. What was he doing? What now was he saying? Well, it was morbid. Suddenly these Pharisees were stirring up things, and Christ was taken as he stood there in Jerusalem. It was obvious he was to be taken. He was taken by these men thrown before Herod, accused, taken by Herod, fearful of what was happening, and thrown to Pilate, Pilate standing fearful of what was happening, looking at what was going on as the religious leaders crying out, He must die, He must die! Let us bloody battle our children, or he dies! And this man, fearful of what was going on, because he had never seen anything in his life, but he sensed something was happening here that was beyond his control, he washed his hands and his blood off my hands. You, it will be on you and your children. You are the ones that make it, not me. Old James must have feared he was there, he wasn't hidden in the hills, when suddenly to the crowds appeared his brother, blast, whipped, scourging, a rod with lashes interwoven, little metal hooks that ripped the body apart. You know most people died of scourging, they never made the cross, did you know that? Scourging you never recovered from, your body was ripped to the bones. Most died. He was unable to lift a cross, he was in such a state, ripped apart, the blood pouring down him as these bones crushed into his head, unable to carry a cross that another man had to take, and carry for him as he was just unable to even stand properly, staggering, dragging himself behind, suddenly these amazing big pegs smashed through his hands, crushed through his feet, hanging in agony, crying out in pain. James was there, don't believe he was hidden now, he was there, Mary was there, the brethren of Christ were there, there was tears, oh he must have been weeping, he must have been agonizing, tormented at what was happening. How could this be happening? The darkness suddenly covering the sky as the grief of God who couldn't behold, who turned his face and let him die. Darkness covered the world in God's grief, it so cost God that payment for men's sins, and suddenly the death, the body taken down, the crowds gone, the numbness in his mind, the confusion as he walked. He must have been weeping, and weeping, and weeping, and weeping, and weeping, but suddenly the news comes, Mary, these two women have seen the Lord. I don't know what could have gone on in his heart, what are they saying, what are they saying? Suddenly others seeing him, suddenly we read that hundreds saw him. He appears to them, and the next thing we find, there was nothing written of the moment that James was saved. Mightily believed and accepted that this was not his brother, this was what who everybody says he is now, who always says he was, the God of mankind, the Savior of all mankind, who has placed death for every man. He suddenly points into the script of Isaiah 53, he listens, in one that arisen Christ who he thought was dead, now he realizes as he looks, as he beholds him, as he weeps now, not with fear and torment, but with joy, overwhelmed. Oh, the brethren of Christ came to Jesus now. They suddenly realized this was not their brother, this was God, the memories of his life, the haunting memories of the perfection that never sinned, never in a word that was unjust, unkind, never anything that wasn't utterly godly or perfect through this life. Oh, suddenly James never ever was to refer to him again as his brother. The only reference he ever made concerning Jesus again to the day he died was, he was my Lord and my God, and he died for him a martyr's death, a terrible death, refusing to deny that Jesus was the Christ, enthroned to his death in the temple, stoned, but now saved. Jesus sends to heaven, and we find something staggering in the early church. We find that James becomes the authority, not Peter. The final word, again and again, as it comes to controversies, to doctrinal issues that had to be sorted out, to decisions again and again on every controversy of any importance, it was to James that they looked, the disciples, the apostles, even Paul, the final word, James stands and addresses, it's the final word, somehow written across him was this amazing reverence about Peter, about the apostles who walked with him, the other brother of Christ saved. There was something so godly about him, so holy, that everyone just lived in reverence of him, in his brokenness, in his faith, in his zeal. Nothing would cost too much for this God now that he knew he was a God. But then, persecution came. Unbelievable persecution through men like Saul of Tarsus, who was made to be born of God, and he was kicking against the pricks, fighting these people, people who believed with the authority of the Pharisees, of the religious leaders, of the priests, even of the high priests, that they should stomp this sect that had risen amongst their beloved Judaistic beliefs, to stomp it out before it spread any further, they're turning the world upside down, they've got to be stopped. And religious zealots, men who were zealots for God, in their hearts, believed they were doing God's service, they tried to stomp it, destroying, stoning them, standing by, wanting them to be stoned, encouraging the people with authority to give right to stone them, who embraced this doctrine that Jesus was the Messiah. And so with this, all these first fruits that stood when Peter stood and preached, and thousands were added to the church, thousands seeking God, all the Jews, Jews the first fruits of the church, not the Gentiles, the Gentiles were being reached here and there with toil, only when all these men were just escalating in numbers from all over, they were turning the whole world upside down by that time, staggering. There was no way, but they were trying to stomp them out. But because of this terrible persecution, this terrible hatred and determination to get rid of them, to kill them, to destroy them, to wipe them out, they began to flee. And they fled, taking with them the gospel to all parts of the Roman Empire. And there they were in groups all over the then known world, trying to start a new life, having left home and possessions, just fled, taking their children, run, escape in the night before we're killed, before we're stoned. But now they lost the protection of the apostles in Jerusalem, these Jews and their thousands upon thousands upon thousands upon thousands upon thousands, who were saved by the blood of Jesus. Now they're all over, but they have no protection doctrinally, this isn't. They have no protection of the lives and the prayers and the guidance and the nurturing and the teachings of the men who walked with Jesus, who were taught by Christ, who listened, who wrote as the Holy Ghost, remembering them, reminded them of the words of Christ. They have no teachings now to embrace by the very apostles themselves. They have lost the protection. And there the apostles still remain in Jerusalem. But God takes hold of James. God takes hold of James by the Holy Ghost. This man of God was moved by the Holy Ghost to take up a pen, to write what is known, what is considered amongst most theologians of the world as the very first of all the epistles written to the church that's to be contained in the scriptures by God as the Holy Writ of God. Suddenly James is moved by God with such brokenness that you seldom will see on the pages of anywhere else in the scriptures, a brokenness, a compassion. You almost see the tears flowing as he writes, for the depth of what he's saying, the compassion, the care, the nurturing, the compassion to keep them pure, the ruthlessness with his statements, ruthlessness to keep them from being perverted doctrinally, from compromise in any way, from diverting from the purity of the gospel, the purity of what God would have them doctrinally in every issue of the faith, and from ever giving up. Oh, James now takes the pen, and in agony almost you could say, with such compassion and care, having been the one they all look to, the father figures it were the Holy Ghost moves him and he writes this letter, which he knew would be circulated throughout the Roman Empire to where all the churches were gathering, all these people of God, the Jews, the Jewish converts, the first fruits of the church, were all settled. He knew this letter would be read, and he had the longing and the guidance of the Holy Ghost that this would be used to keep them, to keep them, to keep them, to keep them from the devil hurting them. For any compromise coming, and he addresses his letter from James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting, my brethren, my brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into diverse temptations. That word means trials, sufferings. Count it all joy when ye fall into diverse temptations, knowing this as the trying of your faith. The trying of your faith worketh patience, but let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect, and in toil wanting nothing, if any of you lack wisdom. Let him ask of God that giveth to all men liberally, and abradeth not, and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering, for he that wavers is like a wave of the sea, driven with the wind and tossed. But let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord. A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways. Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exhausted, but the rich in that he is made low, because as the flower of the grass he shall pass away. For the sun is no sooner risen than a burning heat, but it withereth the grass, and the flower thereof falls, and the grace of the passion of it perishes. So also shall the rich man fade away in his ways. Blessed is the man that endureth temptation, for when he is tried he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him. Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God. For God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man. But every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin, and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. Do not err, my beloved brethren, do not err, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of life, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth. Of his own will gave he us birth, with the word, being born again by the word of God, Peter said. Of his own will begat he us, gave he us life, spiritual birth. Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of this creature. Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to rot, for the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. Wherefore, lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your soul. But be ye doers of the word, not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass. For he beholdeth himself, and goes his way, and straightway forgeteth what manner of man he was, but whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth saying, He be not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the word. This man shall be blessed in his deed, if any man among you seem to be religious, and brideless, not his tongue. He can't control his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart. This man's religion is vain, pure religion, and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world. To keep himself unspotted from the world. My brethren, have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of persons. For if there come unto your assembly a man with a gold ring, in goodly apparel, and there come also a poor man in vile raiment, and ye have respect to him that wears a gay clothing, and say unto him, Sit thou here in a good place, and say to the poor, Stand thou there, and sit here under my footstool. Are ye not then pastor in yourselves, and have become judges of evil thoughts? Hearken, my beloved brethren, hath not God chosen the poor of this world? Rich, in fact, and heirs of the kingdom which he has promised to them that love him. But ye have despised the poor. Ye have despised the poor. Do not rich men oppress you, and draw you before the judgment seat? Do not they blaspheme that worthy name by which ye are called? If ye fulfill the royal law according to the scriptures, also love thy neighbor as thyself, ye do well. But if ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin, and are convinced of the law's transgression. For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. For he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou become a transgressor of the law. So speak ye, and so do they that shall be judged by the law of liberty. For he shall have no mercy, he shall have judgment without mercy that is so no mercy, and mercy rejoices against judgment. What does it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and hath not works? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, and one of you say unto them, Depart from peace, be warm and filled, notwithstanding ye give them not those things that are evil to the body, what does it profit? Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works. Show me thy faith without thy works, and I will show thee my faith by my works. Thou believest that there is one God, thou doest well the devils also believe, and tremble, but wilt thou no obey man that faith without works is dead? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar? Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect, and the scripture was fulfilled, which sayeth Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness, and he was called the friend of God. Ye see then how that by faith a man is justified, not by works only. By works a man is justified, not by faith only. Likewise also was Rahab the harlot justified by works when she had received the messengers and had sent them out another way. For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also. As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also. My brethren, be not many masters. St. Martin says, teachers of the oracles of God, teachers of the word of God. John Calvin says, self-appointed preacher, self-constituted priesthood, never ordained by God, never separated by God, never anointed by God. Be not many masters, knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation, for in many things we offend all. If any man offend not in word, the same is the perfect man. If any man offend not in word, the same is the perfect man, and they will also debridal to control the whole body. Behold, we put bits in the horses' mouths, that they may obey us, and we turn about their whole body. Behold, those of the ships, which lo, they be so great, and have driven the fierce winds, yet are they turned about with a very small helm, with a suit of the governor lifted, even so the tongue is a liberal member and boasteth great things. Behold, our great and natural little fire kindleth, and the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. So is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and seteth on fire the course of nature, and is set on fire of hell. For every kind of beast, and of birds, and of serpents, and of things in the sea, is tamed, and has been tamed of mankind. But the tongue can no man tame. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. There was blessed we God, even the Father, and there was cursed we men, which were made up of the similitude of God, out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be. Are the fountains sent forth of the same place sweet water and bitter? Can the fig tree, my brethren, bear olive berries, as the divine figs? So can no fountain. Both yield salt water and fresh. Who is a wise man and endued of knowledge among you? Who is a wise man and endued of knowledge among you? Let him sow out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom. But if ye have bitter envy and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth. This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish, devilish. So where envy and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace. The fruit of righteousness, the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace. From whence come wars and fighting among you? Come they not hence even of your lusts at war and your members? Ye lust and have not, ye kill and desire to have and cannot obtain. Ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not. Ye ask and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts. Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. Do you think of the Scriptures sayeth in vain, the spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy? But, but he giveth more grace, he giveth more grace, wherefore he sayeth, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. Submit yourself therefore to God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Send your hands, ye sinners, and purify your hearts, ye double-minded. Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep, let your laughter return to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. Humble yourself, humble yourself in the sight of the Lord, and he, he shall lift you up. Eat not evil one of another, brethren. He that speaketh evil of his brother, and judgeth his brother, speaketh evil of the law, and judgeth the law. But if thou judgest the law, thou art not a doer of the law, but a judge. There is one lawgiver who is able to save and to destroy. Who art thou that judgeth another? Go to now, he that sayeth, today or to-morrow, we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy, and sell, and get gain. Where is he? Know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour that appears for a little time, and then vanishes away. For that ye also sayeth, the Lord will. We shall live, and do this through death. But now ye rejoice in your boasting. All such rejoicing is evil. Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin. To him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin. Go to now, ye rich men. Weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten, your gold and silver is cankered, and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasures together for the last days. Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, as if you kept back my fraud. Cry of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of Saboroth. Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and in wanton. Ye have nourished your hearts as in a day of slaughter. Ye have condemned and killed the just, and he does not resist you. Be patient therefore brethren, under the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waits for the precious fruit of the earth, and has long patience for it, until he receives the early and the latter rain. Be also patient. Stablish your hearts for the coming of the Lord, draweth nigh. Doth not one against another, brethren, lest he be condemned. Behold, the judge standeth before the door. Take, my brethren, the prophets who have spoken in the name of the Lord for an example of suffering, affliction, and of patience. Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord. But the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy. But above all things, my brethren, swear not, neither by heaven, neither by the earth, neither by any other oath, but let your yea be yea, and your nay nay, lest ye fall into condemnation. Is any among you afflicted? Is any among you afflicted? Let him pray. Let him pray. Is any merry? Let him sing songs. Is any sick among you? Is any sick among you? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up. And if you have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. Confess your faults one to another. Pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth not. Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain, and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit. Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him, let him know that he which converted the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins. Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him, let him know that he which converted the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins. This book of James, the epistle of James, caused such controversy through the church's history as seldom a book is ever done. It started to be such a controversy where blood flowed through this book, where Luther stood having believed we're saved by works, not by faith. In the church of that time, the theology and the doctrine was worth to make money, and Rome grew in wealth, and wealth of people paid to get souls out of purgatory who died insane, paying wealth with the papacy's signature that that soul would be taken out of purgatory. Luther looked at all these doctrines, and men paying for their sins by works, by money, by lashing themselves, by crawling upstairs until blood flowed down their legs, women, children, in hope that some works the church inflicted on them that said God will receive this, the works will justify you. Men were in agony trying to pay for justification through works, for forgiveness, for mercy from God, for dead even, through works, by payment. And Luther lashed himself in his ignorance and his zeal for God. He stood hours lashing his back, lashing and lashing and weeping, believing that this doctrine would be true, but he found no peace for his heart. Then Luther began to do something that staggered the powers of hell, and Satan trembled. Luther took this book and began to search, why is there no peace through the way the church teaches me? I get in more torment as I try all their methods. There's no peace with God, just more shame and hopelessness. He began to search in his learning and the right to take hold of the scriptures. Being a priest, he suddenly began to come across scriptures that he marked and wrote and compared scriptures, and eventually he came to realize it's by grace we are saved through faith, not of works. It's the gift of God. Luther went on, and at some amazing point, suddenly, as he compared scripture with scripture, to him that worshipeth not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted to him for righteousness. Not only mine own righteousness is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ. The righteousness is of God by faith, being justified freely by faith in his blood. Suddenly this man put his faith and found what Christ said to be true, what God said to his servants concerning Christ, he that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself. He that believeth not, God hath made him a liar, because he believeth of the record that God gave of his Son, and this is the record that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life, and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. These things have I written unto you that believe in the name of the Son of God, that ye may know that ye have eternal life, that ye may believe in the name of the Son of God. All the Spirit bore witness with his Spirit that he was saved. We know we've passed from death unto life, John said. He knew. Suddenly it wasn't work, it was faith in the death of Christ, not of work, but the gift of God. He received the gift of God by grace through faith in God, bore witness with his Spirit. Oh, Satan trembled, the demons fled, screaming and howling, as history suddenly was about to turn, and God wouldn't let them hurt him. Oh, the papacy said, Destroy this wild boar! But they hid him in a castle just at that moment, believe it or not, God knew. The printing press was devoured. And hidden, he couldn't be quietened. He translated the Bible and wrote sermons on how to be justified, linking up how to be saved through the verses in his book into the common language of the people. Oh, the spreading, suddenly Rome trembled as nation upon nation turned against Rome in vengeance and fury at what they had done, pouring all their wealth to find forgiveness of sins when it wasn't that that could give them. They suddenly found salvation by grace through faith through the writings of Luther. The Holy Ghost swept from nation to nation. Rome trembled. The powers of hell trembled. They trembled at truth that must prevail when it's found. But Rome didn't sit back, you know. They took hold of the book of James, the letter of James, the champions of theology. Their Jesuits would stand there and they challenged Luther where he was hidden. James says, What does it profit my brethren though a man say he hath faith and have not works? Can faith save him? You're not saved by faith, by works, by faith only, but by works. And they quoted James 3, and they brought this to Luther. Do you know what Luther did in shock? He made a terrible mistake. He said it's an epistle of straw. That was his answer. It's not divinely inspired, he implied. It shouldn't be canonized. It shouldn't have been part of the scriptures. And so we have to forgive Luther. Why? Because he didn't have great people to look to or commentaries to go to or books on justification by faith. He had nothing. He came out of such darkness, and God doesn't just blaze light that you've got all the light in one moment. None of us. When we're saved, we don't understand words like predestination. We look confused and horrified. Almost ten years later, you see the Bible many times, you love the word. We predestine not to heaven or hell, we predestine to be conformed to the image of his son. That's what God wants us to preach. Nothing else, dear brethren. In case you think you're defending the faith, what about the souls God died for? For he takes the death for every man. You're not preaching with a soul and compassion, then you're doing damage. You're not yet to defend doctrine only, it's souls that are to be saved. Oh, Luther made this terrible mistake because he wasn't given full revelation, as you and I are not given full revelation, and we're still not, and we're going to search and find answers we don't have at first that seem contradictions, and find nothing's a contradiction in the Bible. It's our limited mind, our darkness that we've come out of. Luther came with no help, but the Holy Ghost took hold of me. Those nations were turning to God, the Reformation had stopped it, and nothing could stop it until a generation that didn't want to fear God or hold a book, faithful in its purpose again, down about where we're at. But Luther, this godly Luther, decided to go further, and eventually he stood up, and he was great enough to say, I made a terrible mistake. This book is divinely inspired, it's not an epistle of straw, it was in the heart of God, there was no mistake here. You see, God gave him more light. He saw that James wasn't contradicting Paul, who said it's by grace, through faith, not of works. James wasn't, James was teaching exactly what Paul said. He saw that in Romans 6, what Paul said has to happen. James wasn't contradicting Peter, right through the book. John, 1 John 3, exactly in life, Jesus' teachings, Matthew 5, 6, 7, especially 5, 6, sorry, 7. It's exactly what Christ said, by your fruits. You know them by their fruits, and Christ taught exactly the evidence of saving faith. That James was teaching. The devils believe that didn't save them, there has to be an evidence. James didn't say, and Luther was the first to acknowledge it, and to cry out this amazing revelation. James never said, and he wasn't preaching that you're saved by works. No, you're saved by faith. But you're not saved unless your faith works. 1 John 2, 3, 4. Hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments. For if he that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar. The truth is not in him. God said, saving faith works. You're not saved by works. You're saved by faith, but you're not saved unless your faith works. Now, this book has other controversies. You could go on and on and on with amazing statements that seem to contradict so much, and even bring confusion into so much of the doctrines of the Bible, but there is no such. I'm going to leave, just showing you the major contradiction that men saw there, even Luther, when Rome took up. I'm going to leave all the contradictions, all the controversies that men have written volumes about of this book. I doubt there's been a more controversial book in the Bible in the history of the church, apart from Revelation, perhaps. That's only more recent. But when the blood flowed, it was the book of James. I'm going to leave all that, and I'm going to bypass all the controversies that rage through the ages, and I want to get to the heart of the whole book. For there's always a heart in every single letter, in every book, of what exactly was the meaning behind every statement, what was driving the man, what was in his heart. I do not know a more awful cry to those who've become unfaithful to God as this cry from this epistle. I do not know a more awful cry to those who have become unfaithful to God as this cry from this epistle. In his last statement, in his closing thought in chapter 5, verse 19, he says, Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, if any of you do err from the truth, the most accurate interpretation of this verse would come down to this, according to the greatest theologians in the history of the church. If any of you do err from the truth, they say would come to this. If any of you stray from God is what it's saying. If any of you has drawn back and wandered from God, I wonder how many of us sitting here tonight have erred from the truth. I wonder how many of us sitting here tonight have erred from the truth. In chapter 4, verse 5, James asks, Do you think that the scriptures say it in vain, the spirit that dwelleth in us lusts us to envy? Do you think that the scripture tells us for no reason that the Holy Spirit that God has put in you is jealous? Is jealous of you? Do you think God said that in vain if it's not true? He says in chapter 1, verse 27, pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, that this is the fatherless and widowed and no affliction to keep himself unspotted from the world. Oh, God is jealous of us and to those of us who've not kept ourselves unspotted from the world, James cries out in chapter 4, verse 4, you adulterers, adulteresses, you've become unfaithful to God. Tell me, beloved, have you kept yourself unspotted from the world? Will you answer God, every one of you in your hearts right now? Have you kept yourself unspotted from the world? Have you kept yourself pure? Or do you sit here tonight and your testimony has become spotted, ruined, marred, destroyed by the world? Your peace with God is destroyed, marred, blotted, spotted by the world. You have done what James says in chapter 1. He speaks in chapter 1, in verse 14, of those who've drawn away from vital reality with God. You've drawn away from the vital walk you once knew that made you thrill heaven. Oh, it wasn't God's fault, James says. It wasn't God's fault. He says in verse 13, and it's amazing how men blame God, you know, when they backslide, when they draw away, when they go back and ruin their testimony and take everything away, and it's all just in ruins in the end. It wasn't God's fault, James says. Let no man say when he's tempted, I'm tempted of God, for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempted be any man, but every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed. Then when lust is conceited, bring us forth sin. Sin when it's finished, bring us forth death. You wonder whether you're even saved sometimes. Oh, you were drawn away of your own lust as the devil enticed you. You let him draw you away from vital reality with God. Satan saw you when you were real, you know, and if you ever knew reality when your heart stirred, not for face front, not to keep some face in front of religious people, but only for God, you stepped, step upon step, word upon word, were out of a spontaneous love for Christ, and it was contagious. Satan trembled at you far more than a man with degrees behind his name from Oxford University, who has all that up here, but nothing here. The little bit you had here, you were real, did more damage than a man of adoptive theology, and Satan didn't tremble when that man preached, influencing and affecting people because of his oratory demands and abilities. Satan trembled more. He didn't even look at the man, he trembled at you sitting down there, knowing that every step you take is just doing damage to his kingdom and his name and bringing glory to God. Every step you, with the little you had, you were doing more damage than these men. You were the one Satan trembled at you were vitally real. Do you remember when you were real? I'm asking every single one of you sitting here, do you remember when you throat heaven, when you were on your knees and you knew it? You didn't need a broadcasting system or God to even write writing in the walls. You knew, you knew as you were on your knees, that heaven was thrilled and you were conscious. Heaven was filled with joy that what you were doing on your knees was so real. Do you remember when your quiet times were so real, heaven was stirred and you knew it? Your prayers stirred, God, your heart flooded with warmth at the consciousness of God's pleasing upon you, his joy in you and what you are. Do you remember when you were real? Do you remember this book when you had a pen? You never opened it unless you had a pen because God spoke every time you opened and you didn't want to read. Do you remember when you marked the pages? Do you remember when you marked the verses that God was speaking in the tears and the joy you were gripped? Nothing would draw you away. No one would draw you. You were marking those verses and suddenly you look in every single verse and the whole page is marked. The whole Bible is marked. Do you remember when Christianity was vital reality, not just the soul? When you didn't testify, sir, just because Christians are looking and now's the day we go out and tell the world, no one is looking but you couldn't keep quiet. Do you remember when you had to speak? You had to and your limited people didn't hear the great doctrines but the little bit they heard they couldn't recover from. You were real. You called havoc to the kingdom of the devil. When you're real, you do every step you take, every time you kneel. Do you remember God hasn't forgotten? He's jealous. You've never known jealousy like God's known over you, between him and Satan, the dead of a war, who goes around like a warring lion seeking who just gives him a chance that he can devour them and they walk with God. Do you remember what God remembers? He's never forgotten for one moment as he agonizes over you. If he wept on earth, he weeps up there. Believe me, we can grieve him. The Bible says you're a grief to him. You cause grief like you've never known concerning another person betraying you. Do you remember when you were real? God hasn't forgotten. Have you drawn away? Have you done what verse 14 says? What James suddenly threw out in his longing, in his brokenness, conscious of what the devil could be doing? Do you remember when you were so real and Satan enticed you? What did he do? He enticed you. It wasn't God's fault. It wasn't that it wasn't enough grace. He used... What did he use? What food did he use? What did he do? Think back to what God stood in grief watching you, looking at what the devil was using, and you drew away when you allowed lust to conceive what the devil was trying to tempt you. Temptation is not sin. Yielding is. And God tells you to endure temptation. You're going to bless you if you do, but now to let... to stop enduring and resisting the devil. You let it conceive and bring forth all that's happened in your life. Now look, spotted, marred, and we didn't keep yourself unspotted from the world. Some of your testimony and Satan's eyes and God's eyes in your own eyes. The wind was taken out of you, the liberty, the joy. And now you've got to put it a front on. Do you remember what the devil used? You drew away. Do you know that James speaks in the same book to those who've drawn away? I want to call on all of you who sit here tonight, conscious that you've drawn away from vital reality. And let me tell you, only vital reality in Christianity is worthwhile. Anything less than vital reality in Christianity is agony. You're in agony if you haven't vital reality and you once knew it. Even if it was a moment and you tasted and saw the Lord of God. To those who've drawn away, James in the same book, and I have a glorious message to every one of you who are guilty of this. He doesn't leave it at that. To those of you who've drawn away, James cries out in chapter 4, draw nigh to God and he will draw nigh to you. He's speaking in its context to those who once walked with God, who've become defiled, who've become unreal, who've lost vital reality, who are grief to God, who are unfaithful to God, when no one's watching in their thoughts, in their reactions, in the places and the things that draw them. To those who've drawn away, I have a glorious message to you. In chapter 4 is the greatest appeal ever made to the backslider in the whole Bible. There's no word so from the heart of God, so staggering as to how much he loves you and how jealous he is of what you're doing. How infuriated and his brokenness of what your life is doing to him, every step you've taken unfaithfulness. Listen to this amazing appeal in chapter 4 and you'll never find in the pages of the Holy Writs another word in the whole Bible so compassionate to those who've drawn away from God and broken his heart. Listen to this appeal to those of you who don't believe in appeals. James did. He didn't just leave you there. He stops in verse 4 and says the truth. You adulterers and adulteresses. Isn't that something for a man to say from the pulpit? He would be a liar calling you anything less. You adulterers and adulteresses. He's not speaking about a man unfaithful to his wife. He's not speaking about a woman unfaithful to her husband. You unfaithful to God. You've become an adulterer, the bride of Christ. You're unfaithful to God. Know ye not that the principle of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. You're standing with the enemies of God when you look at these things that only Satan people want, that Satan disses up and you want to feed off it. Books, magazines, televisions, anything you might have seen. When you don't think the Christians are watching, do you know what they're doing in the grandstands of heaven, beloved? As they watch you singing the praises of God with each other, hallelujahs and all that. But they watch you walk out of that door and the moment you're out of sight, they watch you and they stand in the grandstands of heaven weeping, saying, adulterer, adulteress. You're unfaithful to God. Know ye not that the principle of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. Do you think that the scriptures say it in vain? The spirit that dwelleth in us lusts us to envy. Do you think the scripture says so? Nothing if the Holy Spirit that God has put in you is jealous. Jealous. Doesn't that mean anything to you? What? Oh, I love this. Any man of God longs for this moment. Saints long for this moment. He was ruthless. He was true. He didn't spare them. He called them exactly what they are in God's sight in the spiritual realm. He tells them the grief they are, the jealousy in God's heart, the hurt in God's heart, the grief you're causing him, the pain you're causing him, and his love for you. And now he cries back. It's not the end of you. He gives us more grace. There's more grace for you. Don't give up on yourself if you're guilty. He hasn't given up on you. He gives us more grace. Wherefore he sayeth, God resisteth the proud. Oh, this is very, very, very, it's so stunning. It's fearful to preach what God says now. Wherefore he sayeth, God resisteth the proud in this meeting that won't admit this is their state. Believe me. Won't admit they are unfaithful, their adultery is in God's eyes. They become marred by the world, stood with the enemies of God doing the things and looking and being drawn. Their testimony has not been kept unspotted by the world. It's been marred as they drew away, incited by the devil to defile the purity of their testimony. They didn't keep themselves unspotted from the world. He giveth more grace. Wherefore he sayeth, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. That word is stunning, you know. To this man will I look, God promises. To him that is a broken spirit, a contrite, a broken heart, a contrite spirit. God's waiting for that. He giveth grace to the humble. Oh, he giveth more grace. Wherefore he sayeth, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. Submit yourselves, therefore, to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. God promises, I don't care what a hold the devil's got on you. I don't care if the devil says you'll never be able to find that reality again and hold on to it all your life. Call the devil a liar, please. Call men a liar, but don't call God a liar. He says, resist the devil and he will flee from you. How do you submit yourself to God and humanity? That the devil flees from you. Sir, do you honestly believe that if you and your limited, with all your brokenness and defilement, don't come and humble yourself in the sight of God, that the devil won't flee from you? God will make him flee. He'll take his hands off you if God sees you. Oh, submit yourselves, therefore, to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God and he will draw nigh to you. Don't doubt him. Don't listen to the devil. God's honor is at stake. His holiness is at stake. If you draw nigh to him tonight as far as you've gone away, he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners. He's not speaking to unsaved people. He's speaking to children who name the name of Jesus. He's speaking to Christians. That's in his conscience. He hasn't got the unsaved in mind here. Oh, cleanse your hands, ye sinners. How do you do that? If we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins, to cleanse us from all unrighteousness, you've got to confess it to God. You've got to ask God for forgiveness of the things you've done. Oh, God, when I look at the things I've done where I've named the name of Jesus, why people thought I was walking with thee. In truth, God, when I think of what I've done, God, I need cleansing. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners. You know how to purify your heart, ye double-minded. Let the blood go deeper. Let the blood go through and through and deal with the hearts. Create in me a clean heart, oh God. Bring you a right spirit within me, a consistent, steadfast spirit. I don't want to go in this terrible double-minded. Purify your heart, ye double-minded. You sit on the wall, and when it's the right time, you're there with God's people singing onward, Christian soldiers. But when you're not with them, what are you singing in your heart? What are you drawn to? What are you taken up with? What are you doing? What God wants you to think of and look at and do and be with? You're double-minded. Cleanse your hands, but get to the root of it. Purify your heart tonight. Let the blood go through and through that God can create in you a clean heart and renew a right spirit within you. Be afflicted and mourn and weep. God says these words, not me. Can you imagine anyone standing in the pulpit of the church in these days where it's walking and leaping and praising God? And don't say a word to offend the sinners. Let them sit there in their sin so long as we have the attendances, you know. But don't let anybody get offended so they're all in their sin going to hell, walking and leaping and praising God. And beloved, God says to you in this book through this godly man called James, if you're guilty of the grief you're causing God in the light of these words that you've heard tonight, you have no right to have joy. Be afflicted and mourn and weep now that you know what a grief you are to him, James says. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to heaviness. You have no right to have joy when he has got sorrow over you. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and he shall lift you up. He'll take you back to his heart, to the pulse beat of God's heart. Humble yourselves, but that's going to cost you, for God resists the proud sitting here tonight who say, I can't let people see that all my singing was a shame. He giveth grace to the humble. Submit yourselves therefore to God tonight. Resist the devil tonight. Come, humble yourselves. Ask for cleansing. Ask for forgiveness. Draw nigh to God. He'll draw nigh to you. All that God, what more can God say to you? The only reason you won't come, that will keep you for the rest of your life an adulterer. But those of you, those of you that know what God wants, what he's longing for, and what he brought you here for, and you know it's no man's voice reaching, no man could, I want all of you, all of you who know you drew away from vital reality and you need it and God's asking you to come and he won't turn your way because it is honor's at stake, not you. He will lift you up. He will lift you up. Come, stand, and come out and kneel. Humble yourself in the sight of the Lord tonight. Everyone stand please. Come forward, make your way out and come and humble yourself in the sight of the Lord and he shall lift you up. He'll give us more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble. He's gonna resist you in his grief of what you're doing, that you can't show and find reality because of pride, so he's resisting you. He'll have to chasten you and do all sorts of things for the rest of your life, weeping over you as you carry on being unfaithful, because you can't do it, can you? No matter what it costs you for the rest of your life, but those of you that can, submit yourselves to God, for God's sake, submit yourselves. Resist the devil tonight by coming and kneeling and seeking God and he'll flee from you. God will make sure. Draw nigh to God, he'll draw nigh to you, he'll draw nigh to you. Come cleanse your hands, ye sinners. Get your hearts purified by the blood of Christ. Humble yourself in your mourning of your situation. He promises he'll lift you up. It's cost, doesn't it? I'm not gonna stand here begging you all. There's no room in the whole church. I'm gonna ask you once and I'm gonna ask you to do this for God's sake and he's watching, Satan's trembling. I'm gonna ask you all, you pray for revival. Are you the only one really that stands in the way because you can't do this? Don't ever pray for it again, sir. You can't be the one that seeks God when you know you're the one the revival needs desperately to come. Every one of you that need to be kneeling in front of you, kneel in your chair, beside your chair right now. Get on your knees. There's no place. Get on your knees. I'm asking you all who need to. Yes, you need to go. Don't worry about those who won't do it. Worry about those in God's eyes that God is wanting to, that will allow him to. Yes, there are people kneeling. Thank God for you, kneeling. It's cost, doesn't it, to kneel beside your wife and tell her that that's me tonight. Cost to kneel in front of your friends. Imagine what it's gonna cost you to carry on the front for the rest of your life in front of them. Everyone's standing. Will you bow your heads, please? While our heads are bowed, I'm gonna ask you something. We preach so to the Christians tonight that there are people here who don't even know Jesus. And I want to give you one moment just to say, I'm not saved, and I want this God. I want him to save me. With all our heads bowed, will you just raise both your hands so I can see you and say, I want God to save my soul tonight. Please help me. I'm not saved here. Could you just put your hands up, please, anyone? I'm looking carefully. In case there's some soul here, put both hands up, and I'll know to pray for you, and God will look upon you. Anyone? I'm waiting for a moment because somebody tells me in my heart there's unsaved people here. Put your hands up. God's waiting. Don't be ashamed. No one but God's watching, and I'm looking to see to pray for you. I ask you once more, that's all. Then I'm gonna live in you and God. Put those hands high up so I know there's sinners that need salvation. Yes, a boy, you can just where you are. No one's looking at you. Anyone else? All right, if it's just that soul that God needed, that's all that matters to me. Now that dear boy that put his hands up, I want you to come out and go through that door. Someone that can lead his soul to Christ, go with him, please. Can you, sir, go about that door there, just in the front? No one's looking, please. This has nothing to do with others. He who put his hands up, you just go walk past all of you. I don't know if you can get past, I'm sorry. Well, somehow you're gonna get to somebody who can pray with you. The rest of us, we're bowing our heads. You're kneeling where you are, kneeling in the aisle, even if you want to start kneeling now. Everyone on their knees, will you please pray as God needs you, and just ask Him, ask Him for the blood of Christ to cleanse you. Ask Him for the blood to forgive every single thing. Call on Him now. Have dealings with God now. Confess to Him the things only you and He know about, but go, confess, say, cleanse my hands, God, but let the blood go deeper, God. Purify my heart. Create in me a clean heart, God, by the blood. Renew a right spirit in me, God. Call on God now. I submit myself to thee, Lord. I resist the devil tonight by coming to thee, and I believe that he will flee from me. Thou art going to make him flee, and take his hands up with strongholds he's got that have made me unfaithful. And God, I draw nigh to thee tonight, and thou hast promised thou would draw nigh to me. Draw nearer to me than you've ever been before in my life, God. I humble myself in the sight of the Lord. I moor in my condition. I break what I've done to thee, but I do draw nigh to thee, Lord. Draw nigh to me. I humble myself in the sight of the Lord. Lift me up, Father. Lift me up into thy arms again, that the world may know I have vital reality again, to such a degree that my times will thrill heaven, that my testimony will thrill heaven, and man will not recover from the few words I say that are spontaneous, that my walk will stagger the powers of hell, not only for a day or for a month, but for the rest of my life. Keep me under the blood of Christ now, that I never ever let him entice me away again, that I keep this vital walk with God guarded as I keep my quiet times, especially I know how the faithfulness is happening again. Oh, God, through me through the Bible again, let it live again, that it becomes my source of breath and survival, that it molds me daily and soothes me with faith and joy and peace that passes all understanding. Oh, come take hold of my life, Lord, and honor me for coming before thee tonight. Glorify thy name. Glorify thy name, Lord, through my life as I yield it to thee tonight. Take me, keep me under the blood, and hold me close to the heart of God. Lead me in the paths of righteousness for thy name's sake from this day forth. Deliver me from temptation, God. Deliver me from the devil's temptations. For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory. Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. Thou art greater than that Satan, my only enemy. Keep me, Lord, in the paths of righteousness now. Keep me unspotted from the world. By thy grace thou art able to keep me from falling, and I ask it, Lord, I ask it from my heart. Don't let me fall back into this again in my whole life. When I stand, Lord, I put my hand into the hand of God, and I want to walk with God from this night to the day I die like Enoch walked with God. Every one of us, keeping still, we ask these things in Jesus Christ's name. In Jesus Christ's name, hear our prayers. But with all of our hearts bowed, and no one looking, that boy, that young fellow, that someone who put his both hands up there for unsaved, and anyone else in this building, his hands I didn't see. I want you, in case something happens that I'm not knowing now, that you wouldn't get to people, but I want you to be with someone to help you, but just somehow I want you to pray now this prayer, God, forgive me. I come to thee as a sinner. I'm going to hell, and I don't want to, God, and I know my only hope has become nothing in my hands. I bring tonight simply to the cross. I cling, and as I heard how Luther found peace with God, give me that peace. The witness of the spirit bearing witness of my spirit, as I look to the blood, the death of Christ alone, not works, but freely to be justified by grace, through faith, and faith alone. Make me righteous, God, in thy sight, through faith in Christ in one moment, through his death on the cross. And I receive thee, Lord Jesus, into my heart. Come into my heart, Lord Jesus. I want thee to save me. I receive thee, for as many as received him, to them gave thee the power to become the children of God, even to them that believe in his name, which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. Oh, I want to be born of God. I want to be born into the family through his promises, by faith in what God promises, being born again by the word of God, these mighty promises of salvation through Jesus. Oh, God, keep me under the blood of Christ all the days of my life. Give me the witness of the spirit that I am thy child. Help me from this night to the day I die to devour the scriptures as my source of survival, to pray through to God morning and night, to testify, to read godly, good books that are recommended to me by those who I know walk with God, and to seek out the company only of the choicest saints who are looking for the highest standards, that I might be influenced by examples of the believers and not by compromisers. Whether I'm young or old, oh, every one of you that are praying this, pray it with all your heart now. Just say, God, the words of this man are from my heart, Lord. Let us not look at the words as they proceed out the mouth, but look at the heart from whence they come. Lord, look at my heart. Say that to God. This prayer is mine. I identify, embrace it. God, save my soul tonight, and give me the grace to testify from this night onwards to the day I die to every soul I can that God gives me the right to, that Jesus saved my soul from itself. Do it, Lord. Keep this people under thy blood. Oh, Father, keep them under the blood of Christ. This convention, this week of meetings is coming to a swift end, and we want thee to come and visit us, Lord, in the most profound way, to break our hearts, leave this place, not proud, not self-sufficient, but knowing that every step we take must be by grace. We need to find such a walk with God. Oh, take everyone tonight. I don't doubt the walk of those standing, Lord, who didn't see the need to humble themselves, but I ask that thou take hold of us all, every one of us, Lord, and help us to walk with God now, to follow God with every breath in our body, that our conversation will just be looking for somehow to talk of Jesus, not of other things, even to young people, that it will just be Christ using me, being glorified through me, that I may be an example of the believers in word, in faith, in purity. Oh, God, let me, as young as I am, be an example to the believers like Timothy was so young. Don't let men despise me because of my youth. I want to be the example of the believers, God. Take hold of everyone, every youth in this Bible school for young people, God. Make them the examples of the believers wherever they go back from this place. Keep them under the blood of Christ now. Hold it all close to the heart of God, walking with God into the night now, wanting to be along with Jesus as soon as we can tonight. God, tomorrow is a day where there's so much preparation, and after Sunday there is singing, and outreach, and fellowship. But help tomorrow to be even more meaningful in the meetings, as we all share with each other, and pray with each other, and challenge each other, not with words, but with our lives. May tomorrow bring amazing fruit, as everyone looks at the true, real ones who have light in reality tonight, and the message carries on more boldly as they see it written, not with ink, but by the Holy Spirit, as an epistle of Christ to them. Come God, continue that tomorrow will be a mighty day of leaping to all those who have found thee in faith, and truth, and walk tonight, and truth tonight. Come on Sunday. May Sunday be a day we sense God rending the heavens, and coming down to our hearts in such a way we will never recover. We long for this Lord, not for our glory, but only for the glory of the God who we live for, who we long to please, who we long to let him have his way. Come prepare the preachers, the sermons, those everything, even the singing, and bring the peace.