In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of not running ahead of God's plans and desires. He encourages the congregation to prioritize their families and be a blessing to them. The preacher also highlights the unity of believers, emphasizing the concept of "one" in the body of Christ. He urges the church to wake up and not be complacent, as there are millions of people who are at risk of going to hell. The sermon concludes with a reminder of God's giving nature and the importance of love and sacrifice in the Christian life.

Three verses that actually are linked together from maybe the best known chapter in the Bible, Romans chapter 8. Everybody runs for refuge into Romans 8, 28, when they're in trouble. It's almost in isolation, except it's so popular. Romans chapter 7, in my judgment, and my judgment isn't perfect, though it's very near it, but anyhow. Romans chapter 7 is a funeral march. Romans chapter 8 is a wedding march. If the Apostle Paul had known it coming out of Romans 7, he might have sung that lovely song, Out of my bondage, sorrow, and night, Jesus I come. Out of my sickness, into thy health. Out of my poverty, into thy wealth. Out of my sin, and into thyself. Romans 7 is a self-centered chapter. I, I, I, 30 times. Romans 8 is a Spirit-centered chapter. The Spirit is mentioned 18 times in Romans chapter 8. Only twice is there I, in verses 18 and 38, when he couldn't do anything else but use that. You know, I told some preachers this week, I've had so many preachers, I've had wonderful privilege to insult them. They come to come insult me, and I insult them. I said, you leave everybody in Romans 7. G. Campbell Morgan, in his day, and I, I remember listening to him, what, 50 years ago. And he was considered the prince of expositors. And one day he gave a wonderful message on holiness. There were about 300 preachers there. You can tell them, they all had their colors backwards way. That's because they're going backwards way, but anyhow, they were all sitting there, and he gave a wonderful message on holiness, and boy, I was so excited. I thought, John Wesley would say amen to every word. Then at the end, he said, but I'm not preaching sinless perfection. Well, I never heard anybody preach that. And he said, remember the Apostle Paul finished in Romans 7 saying, O wretched man that I am. And under my breath, rather loud breath, I said, that's a lie. And all the preachers turned around. You can't live in Romans 7. Now Paul, pardon me, did not end up in Romans 7, O wretched man that I am, or saying, it is not I, but sin that dwelleth in me. Because in Galatians, he said, it's not I, it's Christ that liveth in me. You can't have the indwelling Christ, the indwelling sin. You remember when Abraham had two wives. Isn't that something? That's not scripture. No man can serve two masters. But he had two wives. And remember the wives that he got for himself, bore him a son by the name of what? Ishmael. And one day when Abraham came in, there'd been some strife and envy. Ishmael is a type of the child of the flesh. He wasn't God's gift, he was a child of the flesh. And Isaac's the child of the Spirit. And so the Spirit lusts against the flesh, one against the other. So when he comes in, and the son, I was hearing the prodigals in which he really was, Ishmael had been giving trouble in the house to Isaac. And Sarah comes and says to Abraham, cast out this bond woman and her son. She didn't say put him in the basement and starve him to death, kick him out. She said, get out, get him away. If the church of Jesus Christ doesn't have an answer to the sin question, there isn't one. He came to save his people from their sins, not in their sins. The trouble is now, in most churches they come up to the altar every week, sinning and repenting, just like Catholics. Except it's cheaper, we don't take an offering for it. Sinning and repenting was never the plan of God. It's to save his people from their sins. Well, there you are, that's the introduction. You like that? Okay. So the best-known verse in this chapter is what? Romans 8, 28. The verse I want to quote tonight is verse 32. He that spared not his own son. I didn't learn many hymns in America, I confess I've pretty well stocked up with hymns when I came. I'm not sure if it's right here. But the first, the second hymn that we sang tonight, about him himself. Once it was the blessing, now it is the law. I think it was A. B. Simpson who also wrote the hymn, O to thee, like thee, blessed Redeemer. But you know, that's very nice and sentimental when you hear. Do we really mean it? You know, fifty years, sixty years ago in England, a man, I'm not sure, I think it was an American by the name of Bruce Barton, wrote a book and it became a bestseller. The book had this title, The Book Nobody Knows. It was about the Bible. And then he wrote a book, The Man Nobody Knows, it was about Jesus. I'm mischievously tempted sometimes to write a book on the life nobody lives. You talk about a narrow way, when it comes down to the nitty-gritty, it's terribly, terribly narrow. O to thee, like thee. Come on, would you like the forty next days in the wilderness battered by the devil on every level? Intellectually, sexually, physically, emotionally. And yet he's alone there. And the hardest thing in the Christian life is to walk alone. And God doesn't make churches, he makes individuals. And then he sets us solitary in families. It's a paradox, but it's true. I had a young fellow in my office this week, I said, what in the world are you doing here? You live a hundred and forty miles away. I said, because there's something in you and something in me that harmonizes. And God is setting the solitary in families. He's bringing people together without a roof over their head. That's no point about it at all. It's a relationship in spirit. It's a oneness in the spirit that matters. But what does it say here? He spared not his own son. Now who's, how many poets do it? Was Wordsworth an American poet or English? Longfellow was American, he wrote Heaworther. What about Wordsworth? You don't know? English. Good, thank you, teacher. Shows education comes up. Money doesn't count. Okay. So Wordsworth wrote to him, how does it start now? O Lord of heaven and earth and sea, to thee all praise and glory be. How shall we show our love to thee who givest all? Thou didst not spare thine only son, but gavest him for a world undone. And freely with that blessed one thou givest all. And remember last week we thought of the child there, the Christ child. And there was all the fullness of the God that in him. He's going to lift a burden that Samson could never lift. He's going to solve a problem that Solomon in all his wisdom could never solve. And then he comes down to earth. N.Y. Fullerton. Do you know N.Y. Fullerton? You don't? He was an Irishman. He wrote, let me get a hold of it. The first stanza is, Down from his glory. Remember that, anybody? Down from his glory. And the tune is what? Oh, so may I? Good, thank you. You know it, all these musicians here. Well, anyway, it goes something like this. Correct me. Do you know it? Well, I won't check you. You check me. Down from his glory, ever-living story. From heaven to us he came, and Jesus was his name. Born in a manger to his own a stranger, a man of sorrows, tears, and agony. Without reluctance, flesh and blood his substance. He took the form of man, revealed God's hidden plan. God, gracious, tender, laid aside his splendor. Do you ever think of the moment when he became incarnate? What did the angels think? What did demons think? I tell you, we pass over the story of Mary so easily. That little tramp, as people say, that little girl, unmarried. She's almost due for a baby, and Joseph said, he isn't the father. Maybe she's pregnant with one of those Germans. There was a German camp there at the time, tradition says, or history says. And there she is. She has the Christ of God in her, and people passed within inches, as it were, of the Savior as she went up the road. And then the news spread that this little tramp had had a baby in a stable. And somebody says, well, oh, that's where she should have it anyhow. A woman like her deserves to have it. Can you imagine the splendor down from his glory, where angels had bowed down and worshiped him? Angels and archangels cherubim and seraphim. And yet he comes to a filthy stable. He is spared by his own son. He didn't spare him loneliness. He didn't spare him slander. Jesus is under a cloud from the moment. The first thing Jesus did before he could walk or talk was divide people. Herod was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. All the society people, the hierarchy of the Jews, they were all troubled. People are saying that woman's gonna have a baby next to the Messiah. Herod was troubled, and all the government with him, and all the bankers, and all the society people were troubled with him. And there's a little pocket of people here. This strange little woman, for the last ten years, she's nearly a hundred years of age, and she'd gone to the temple every day of her life. And Simeon was getting up towards a hundred. And one day he said, I will not die till I see the salvation of God. And this little pocket of people, a minority. I was saying to a brother the other day that I have a group of people called the remnant in this town. There's a remnant inside the remnant. There's a minority. More, and more, and more. I have no place. I'm glad for crowds, let them go. But God has always used a minority. Jesus didn't say to the 500 he saw at once, if you wait somewhere outside the temple. Remember the temple held 6,000 people. He didn't say if you 500 come, I'll make a deal with you, I'll send the Holy Ghost. He gave them an invitation, they didn't come. 380 stayed away, 120 came. God is still looking for minority. A holy people, a cleansed people, a people that are totally sold out from the top of the head to the sole of their feet. And he took his son, he did not spare, thou didst not spare thine only son. He didn't spare him loneliness. He didn't spare him misrepresentation. Wasn't it in the temple one day that somebody said, we're Abraham's seed. We were not born of fornication. In other words, you are, you're a bastard. Would you like that hanging over you all your life? We're going to bear his reproach if we're his. I had a man in my office this week, that a few weeks ago was in, in Australia. And he said, would you believe in Australia the fashionable thing is to turn the knob Sunday morning and get Kenneth Hagin. Everybody's crazy in Australia about Kenneth Hagin. Another man came in my office this week and he said, hey a friend of mine was in Poland last week. And he said the first thing when he got off the plane, a young man came to him and said, are you a preacher from America? Yes. Do you know Kenneth Hagin? Not do you know the Saviour? Not are you concerned about revival? Not are we on the edge of judgment? You know, whatever they signed in that wretched concord, what do you call it? Covenant with Gorbachev. Do you remember as he signed it, he did this, he said, we're going to wind down the war in Afghanistan, the dirty liar. He knew that they planned this last week to send a new force into it. And they drove tens of thousands of women. They're trying to get over the hill. Where does, there's a rain, what's the rain to divide them from? Afghanistan, what's over the hill? Pakistan. And it said, women on their hands and knees trying to get up the rocks. Pregnant women, their little bellies bouncing on the rocks, skinning their knees, trying to get away from Khrushchev. I'll tell you what, last week we became unequally yoked with the greatest atheistic diabolical system in the world. It's anti-Christ, it's anti-American, it's anti-God, anti-purity. Stalin himself said, there's one way to ruin the nation, two things, through its music and drugs. And boy, that's where we are today. Stalin said that. The man who liquidated more than six million people, we talk about the Holocaust, he put more people to death than that. But remember, Jesus, the first thing he did was to divide men and women. There was Herod who was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. The last thing he did on the cross was divide. A thief, this day in paradise, and the other went to perdition. All through his life he divided people. We say, if we had a revival, we'd all be together. Listen, after Azusa Street, before very long they were split up again. It's not a case of unity of flesh and blood, it's a unity of heart, it's a unity of purpose, it's a unity of love, and it's a unity of sacrifice. Twice in the last two weeks, I've heard of men who've come from other countries. One of them called me a thousand miles, you know, Mr. Rainey, I can't believe this is Christianity in America. It's not the Christianity we have in Africa. You're watching the clock every moment. Oh, the preacher gets up, oh good night, it's been so lovely to have you here. Nobody does God a favor. God does all the favors. You never pronounce the benediction in a revival service, it goes on and on till early morning. And this fellow who used to go to meetings in Africa, he said, we're not always staring at the clock. We go on till two, three, even four o'clock in the morning. And somebody came in from another country and said exactly the same thing, immediately I stepped in America and saw your system of Christianity. It's not biblical? Sure it isn't, but it's been handed down to us. We're wearing, many of us wouldn't wear used clothing, would you? How many of you go to Goodwill to buy your clothes? Don't raise your hands anyhow. But I'll tell you what we do wear, Brother Bob, we wear second-hand theology. I've never tried to indoctrinate people. I know I'm right, but still. I want to share, in this last moment, there's not much time left. America will not last another decade. She can't do that, economically or any other way. Just yesterday we talked with a lady, and she'd been talking to one of the wealthiest men in Texas, and he said to her the other day, you think it's rough now, wait till next year at this time. You're going to be in collision with some things you've never even dreamed of. And yet the church thrives in adversity. We want another Pentecost. If we had Pentecost, we'd be in jail within a month. If you start the service and kill all the hypocrites, some churches, everybody would die. But anyhow, Adonai and Sapphira were killed. It was as much Pentecost as speaking in tongues. What did they do? Immediately after the Holy Ghost came, they were cast into prison, and they rejoiced that they were counted worthy. What? To get a pension? To go on a trip to another country? They were counted worthy to suffer for his namesake. And when that name to us is more precious than anything on God's earth, the glory of God will come. You know some churches have spent more time dressing the big Christmas tree this week than prayer. And would you believe it, you know the deacon of that big church in town, the chief deacon had the privilege of putting the star on top of the tree. Isn't that wonderful? Think of the reward you get in heaven for doing that. All over the country they're doing the same thing. God allowed his son, you talk about going through the mill, but from his birth, again he divided them at his birth, he divided them on the cross, and he went into the synagogue, and there was a division because of him. Didn't they like the clothes he wore? No, they didn't like the thing he preached. When he starts preaching, blessed are the poor in spirit, here is the greatest man who ever lived, he preached the greatest sermon ever preached, and nobody listens to it. It's too big for us, God help us, never mind the world. The world can't live the sermon on the mount, it's totally impossible. But if Christ is going to raise his kingdom, and he is, the kingdom of God is within us. They're preaching a visible kingdom, but remember the Word of God says, the kingdom of God cometh not by observation. And then it says, the children of the kingdom were kicked into outer darkness. They don't present that either. But Jesus has 30 years of developing his manhood. Rejection here, rejection there, even his own family, his brother said he's mad. It's pretty rough. If it's outside the house, it's not so bad, but when he gets inside, and I'll tell you what, if you walk in holiness, you'll be rejected even in your own church. There's so much worldliness in the church, there's so much permissible. If you walk in holiness, people think, oh, he's a holy Jew, he's something else. Let me push on with this. He that spared not his own son, but delivered him up from us all, how shall he not with him freely give us all things? I'm emphasizing the giving tonight. With him, there's not one thing that God omitted for our redemption. Everything's included for your purging, for your prosperity spiritually, for your progress spiritually. God has given it through Jesus Christ. Verse 34 says, Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died. Can anybody challenge his substitution? It is Christ that died. Yea, rather than he's risen again, can anybody challenge his resurrection? He liveth to make intercession for us. You see, this is the chapter of victory again. Freely he's given us all things. What has he given us? Well, in verse 16, if you look at that for a moment, in verse 16, we receive the spirit of adoption. Isn't that wonderful? We were without God and without hope, and Jesus broke down the middle wall of partition, and we were afar off a midnight. We've received the spirit of adoption. And then in the next verse, the Spirit himself beareth witness with our spirit. The Spirit beareth witness. Do you know John Wesley preached on that text more than any other text that he ever preached on in his life? I think we're our precious brother now up there. We used to sing Blessed Assurance and he'd wave. And we'd sing it, and I've seen sometimes on TV, it being 10 or 20, 30, 50,000 singing Blessed Assurance. I'd like to stop it and say, well start right there. Explain your assurance. What's assurance? What's assurance? Blessed assurance. In other words, there's nothing can move me, neither hell or powers or principalities can move me. I've got assurance. And it's given because he's freely given us it. We don't have to go on a pilgrimage. You don't have to pay tribute. You don't have to join a church. You don't have to wear certain garments. By obedience and submission at the cross, he gives us assurance that we pass from death unto life. So we have assurance in verse 16. In verse 26, the same spirit helpeth our infirmities. So we have the spirit of prayer, all because of him. I remember, Mr. Chatterjee used to say, you know, love, if love is slightly offended, it gets really petulant. And when Jesus said to his disciples, I'm going away, they said, no, no, no, no. He said, somebody better than I, oh no, that's possible. You're the most awesome person that's ever trod the earth. But if I go away, somebody else will come. Better than, no, no, no. He said, I'm with you, he shall be in you. And if I don't go, he won't come. Mr. Chatterjee used to call the coming of the Holy Spirit, the coronation gift of Jesus. So he comes to bear witness with us. He comes to pray through us with groaning sometimes that have no language. Not even tongues can do it. It's deeper than that. It's beyond that. It's the very heart of God breathing through my heart. I don't need a vocabulary, dear God. Is praying better for the man who has an elastic vocabulary? Is it better in English than French? Is it better in Yiddish or Swedish? No, the prayer is something in the heart. I can say something with my lips tonight, but if my heart isn't there, I cancel it. And many people cancel, they sabotage their own praying because they're in the right relationship with somebody. You can't cover it up. How do we send into the hill of the Lord? We have clean hands, that's our relationship with the world. And a pure heart, that's our relationship with God. So he gives us a spirit, the witness of the Spirit. He gives us assurance that we're born again of the Spirit of God. He gives us the ability to pray, and in verse 37 he gives us victory. We are more than conquerors through him that loved us. Through him, not through our going to a cross, but through him, what he did and what he is doing even now, in us and through us. He has with him free to give us all things. Turn a minute, please, to 2 Peter chapter 1. You know, it's really something. I like this chapter. I was going to say I love it. There was a man about over a hundred years ago—let me check with another schoolteacher. When did—what's the man's name now? I was going to give you the wrong name anyhow. The man that wrote on 1 Peter, he wrote a classic anyhow. Let me pass on and say this. Simon Peter, when God, when Jesus found Peter, he wasn't Peter, he was Simon. The name means shifty, like sand. If you take a grain of sand under a microscope, you'll find it has peaks on it like that and cavities like that. But if you go to England, if you go to Bath or somewhere like that, you'll see a cathedral. The foundation was laid in 444, and that place is still standing. Those grains of sand were pressed together, locked in together, and you've got sandstone. Thou art Simon, shifty, irresponsible, volatile. He was the most volatile and the most volatile of the whole bunch. Jesus spoke more to Peter, not only to any other individual, to all the disciples, and Peter in turn spoke more to Jesus. He always had an answer. Thou art Simon, shifty, thou shalt be rocked, dependable. And here is the man giving advice. Listen to what he says in verse 2. Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God. You notice that's very important. Through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, according to his divine power, he's given unto us all things, again, that pertaineth to life. That means prosperity, success, easy street, no troubles, no anxieties, forget it. He's given unto us all things that pertain to life and godliness. We need to get through to people. Christianity is not a creed, it's not a dogma, it's a life. He that hath the Son hath life. He may know his Bible inside out, I had a fellow in my office recently, eloquent in Hebrew, eloquent in Greek, and I taught him a thing or two while he was there. But I was teasing him, I said, a lot of the greatest books ever written, he didn't know one of them. I said, remember this, it's a life. He that hath the Son hath life. And if he doesn't have the Son, he doesn't have life. He may know all the theology. I believe in the incarnation, so does the devil, he witnessed it. I believe in the resurrection, so does the devil, he witnessed it. I believe in redemption, so does the devil, it made him mad, it still makes him mad. But he has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him he's called us to glory and power. Whereby I have given unto us these exceeding great and precious promises. He's given us all things, he's given us great and precious promises. And do you know why the devil gets to us so often? Because we forget to put up the shield of faith at the beginning of the day. We're praying about problems at the end of the day we'd never have had if we did our business at the beginning of the day. We haven't taken full coverage. I love to hear somebody say on TV or read it somewhere, Mr. So-and-so was caught, he's been taken in protective custody. I laugh at that because I'm in protective custody every day I live. The custody of the Holy Spirit of God. The Spirit bears witness. When I'm slow, when I'm going ahead of God in something, then the Holy Spirit is a spirit that restrains me. When I'm slow he constrains me. I want to live there in perfect submission to him. He's given unto us exceeding great and precious promises. You know what? Most Christians, and this is a blanket statement, most of us I believe, I know that some of you will agree with me anyhow, most of us we're underprivileged by choice. There's a place in Glasgow called the Gaubles, and I remember walking through it with a very famous writer. Excuse me. If you haven't read his book, Fair Sunshine, Jacques Perbys wrote one of the greatest books. I can't read that book without tears, and I've read the thing for 40 or 50 years. I'm walking through them, and it's a slum area, it's poverty stricken, at least it was 50 years ago when I was going through it. As a matter of fact, I went through it about the second day of World War II, and that was 1939. And he said, Len, look at all this property. I said, look at these people, they're in rags. Look at those children, they're poverty stricken, they're dirty, obviously diseased, malnutritioned. And I remember he stopped and said, just a minute. He said, you know, outside up in Perth, and Perth is magnificent country. There are those great big stags there that are very much like what we call here, what do you call a big oversized thing? The big elk, yes, like elk. They're red and they're beautiful. And he said, Len, you can go there, if you can drive through the country there, you'll find mansions, you'll find gorgeous castles, with maybe three or four hundred acres, with every kind of wild animal that lives in Scotland. And you'll find pheasants there and all the other birds. And he says, these people living here don't know that if they bothered about it, they could go to a lawyer and prove that they should inherit the castle and everything that's there. There's one of them there with about ten million dollars worth of antiques. A duke lives in that, Duke of Argyll, actually. My father lived in it for a long while, with a duke. But he didn't get rich. But you see, there's so much that's not been inherited. I think when we get to heaven, first time, five minutes in heaven, and look back, we'll be embarrassed. All the territory we could have occupied by faith, through the precious promises of God, and they're left undone. And it's not hurting the church, maybe it's hurting the world, in laziness, in self-satisfaction. We want our playground, God help us. We're more interested in how our church should be known as, our girls win volleyball for the state, or in our denomination. Dear God, most churches are more interested in the sports field than the mission field. I don't judge a church anymore by how much it gives to missions. There are some churches in this country that give a million a year to missions. I believe it's a good sign, I'm glad they do it. But what do they reproduce? Are they producing missionaries? Are young men and women getting vision? Or are they going to die like other kids, just well-educated but useless to God? A man called me yesterday, he's sending me a Christmas gift. I'm hoping for a hundred calls. He said, I'm sending you a Christmas gift, it's very good. He said, it's this new volume on the life of Amy Wilson Carmichael, and it's written by Elizabeth Elliott. You remember the Elliott's? She's one of the best writers in the country. There are others, of course, but anyhow. She's written this marvelous book, and I can't wait to read it. This precious, frail little thing, I preached in the Tin Church, just a tin building in Belfast years ago. And behind me was a picture, must have been this height from the ground. Looked like my mother's, curly hair and a choker collar, little gold chain around her neck. Amy Wilson Carmichael went out of that church without a penny, took a one-way ticket, a one-way ticket to India, had a curvature of the spine. The last three years of her life, they lifted her in and out of bed. Why did she stay and take care of 350 children, who in turn became miseries? They saw a model in her. Where are the role models today? A young guy called me recently, I won't tell you the church, a big church in Alabama. He said, Mr. Raymond, in our church there are nine deacons. I don't want to be like one of them. Isn't that disgusting? There's not one of them I want to be like. They're greedy, grasping, materialistic. They talk about their big cars, their big homes, and everything, as though they were not part of the divine nature, he says here, that we might be made partakers of the divine nature. That doesn't startle us anymore, does it? It doesn't stagger us that God once cut history in two with a baby, not a super war, a baby came. Not an archangel walked up and down Main Street in Jerusalem and said, everybody here, here, tomorrow at this time the Son of God is going to be. He didn't do that. There were angels in the sky for sure. But he sends his little child, again to quote a bit of Dougal, they were looking for a king to bring salvation. Nigh, he came, a little infant thing that made a woman cry. How many times do you think she couldn't go to sleep, her hallelujahs and rejoicing that she was pregnant with the Son of God? How often do you think she read his record? This child has come to be a curse to summon a blessing to others. This child is going to bear the sin of the world. Do you think when she washed his little hands, she ever figured nails cast through them? You say that's rather dramatic. Friend, there's something far more dramatic than that. There are millions of people going to go to hell because the church tonight is sleeping. And we're not awake, we're not alert to it. You can't get people, you can get them to travel, you can't get them to travel. Partakers of the divine nature, there's nothing greater than that, this side of heaven. Then was this saying Hebrews, we can be partakers of the saints in light, we can be partakers, why are we still in the flesh? Dear Lord, why are we so contented? Have you moved up today in God? Are you higher than you were yesterday? It's easier singing, I'm pressing on the upward way, new heights I'm getting every day. We don't do it in leaps, we do it step by step. Trivial things. Pascal said, perfection is made up of trifles, but perfection itself is no trifle. We can be partakers of the saints in light. Having escaped the corruption that's in the world through lust. You know, I put a margin, Bob, at the side of my Bible today, I put the corruption that's in the church through lust. Swaggart said a few weeks ago, there's more immorality in the church today than ever. There's more corruption in the church today forever. We don't count how many people are transformed, we count how many people come up to the front, or how many people give us money. I know God's merciful, otherwise it's pure, the church. I'm reading almost every day, Revelation 3. What the critics say about the church, I don't care a hill of beans what they say. But what Jesus says about it wounds me. Jesus says of the darling church that he died to save, she's wretched and naked and blind and miserable. Do you ever see a bride walk down an aisle naked? We say the church is the bride, and he says it's naked, it's wretched, it's blind, and miserable. She's lost the joy of the Lord. She's entertained now. Oh, let's have a Christmas party. It's nice, you know, there's nothing wrong with it. There's nothing holy about it either. For every moment you're sitting around and fooling in church, people are perishing. And God Almighty is going to have to do some miracle and he'll do it. But that won't get hold of me. I've written it in letters, I guess to a dozen people in the last week there, where Jesus says of his church, she's blind. They had no windows, but they had a lattice like those, what do you call those? Blinds we have, that type of blind. The lattice was like that. And Jesus is standing at the door and the church is so preoccupied she can't even see him through the lattice. She's blind, she can't see lost millions in eternity. She's blind tonight, she can't see five billion people lost without God and without hope. She's blind, she can't see the judgment seat. If she did, evolutionize her program in a week. Absolutely. Partakers of the divine nature. Sometimes we sing a hymn written by Edwin Hatch, breathe on me breath of God. I like a phrase in it that says that I may love what thou dost love. One little lady lived a hundred years before Wesley. Petite French lady. She wrote a verse that he captured and kept it in his heart and lived by it. Come Savior Jesus from above, assist me with thy heavenly grace. Empty my heart of earthly love, that's it. Passion for fashion, passion for money, passion for fame, passion for priority. Empty my heart of earthly love and for thyself prepare a place. Now look what he says. Nothing on earth do I desire but thy pure love within my breast. This only, this will I require and freely give up all the rest. Wealth, honor, pleasure and what else this short enduring world can give. Supposing you die at midnight tonight, will you be happy? Have you lived in the joy of the Lord today? Are you with something going from you for a lost dying world? No, we're going to be holy tomorrow. We're going to be sanctified tomorrow. We're going to be totally lost in God tomorrow. We miss today. Nothing on earth do I desire. Wealth, honor, pleasure and what else this short enduring world can give. Tempt as ye will, my soul rebels for Christ alone resolved to live. Thee will I love and thee alone with pure delight and inward bliss to know thou takes me for thine own. Does it ever drive you to tears? While you're here, save tonight. Some woman has pitches you selling a body down the street. That poor man tonight, what's his name, Bosley or somebody, got sentenced today, could have got five years, they got only three. The curse of the thing is he handled three hundred million dollars. No, he keeps the three hundred million dollars he made and he goes to prison for three years. Well I'm sure I'd have been in that business if I'd have been unsaved. But somewhere he came and intervened. I didn't seek him, you didn't seek him, he sought you. No man cometh unto me but by the Father he says. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. Made partakers of the divine nature that I may love what thou dost love and do what thou wouldst do. Breathe on me breath of God till I am holy thine, till all this earthly part of me glows with thy fire divine. I used to go to bed at night and write a diary how many miles I'd travelled, how many were in the congregation, how many people were saved. Do you know what I do tonight when I go to bed at night? We have prayers, give Martha a kiss and say alright darling have a good night. Then quietly I say to myself have I ruled my own spirit today? Greater is he that ruleth his own spirit than he that taketh a city. You've got men, big shots, I give you names of men who are totally backslidden and they're drawing crowds, they're doing great things. But greater is he that ruleth his own spirit, and I can only rule my own spirit when I'm controlled by the Holy Spirit. Let me rush with this quickly. We're made partakers of the divine nature. We've escaped the corruption that's in the world through lust. Dear, dear, this week they've talked again about this rotten, unholy thing called AIDS, how it's devastating the nation. Our children in school are getting this and not about the immorality that's spreading. We've escaped the corruption. You and I by the mercy of God have escaped a thousand things the world has suffered today because we've been protected, because we're in the family of the living God. We've escaped the corruption in the world through lust and beside this giving all diligence. There's nothing haphazard about this, you've got to be a soldier of Jesus Christ. Discipline your life, discipline your reading, discipline your time, discipline your eating. The super athletes, they keep flashing them on the TV, this young man expects to win a gold medal next year, he'd been training for three years, gets up with a crack of dawn. Preachers don't do that, they just go to bed most of them, be watching all night shows. But there's a diligence, give diligence, add to your faith. You see faith isn't something stagnant, it grows. Paul says to the Thessalonians, I'm praying night and day to see your face, not that you prosper, but I may supply that which is lacking in your faith, he says in 1 Thessalonians 3. Then in the first chapter of 2 Thessalonians he says, I thank God your faith grows exceedingly. What happened? They've got a new revelation of God, they've got a new anointing of the Spirit of God. Add to your faith virtue or character. You see we're born with disposition, this is my simple philosophy, we're born with disposition, we make character. We make character every day by our decisions. One thing that cuts me to the heart is when I hear somebody say about a preacher or somebody, oh you can't trust his word. Dear Lord what good is he? A good name is better to be chosen than riches, this man's gone to prison now for three years, what good is three million dollars in the bank to him? A good name is better, and yet we're not doing it for our name, we're doing it for his name. We're branded with his name. When I do something substandard, somebody says is that Christianity? It hurts him, and I have to give diligent that day by day I add virtue to my knowledge and to knowledge temperance, to temperance patience, patience godliness, godliness bodily kindness. Let me give you another scripture here quickly. In 2 Corinthians chapter 9, 2 Corinthians chapter 9 and verse 15, here is a man with a vocabulary as big as any man on earth, and then he says thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift. You know that's the only time, I checked it today, that's the only time that word unspeakable is mentioned in the Bible. It isn't mentioned in relationship to the cross or the resurrection. He's been asking for gifts from the church, and the churches have been gracious and they sent money to help the other churches. Then he says, well keep your eyes open, thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift. Again, thou didst not spare thy nominees, wrapped up in that gift is all I need. Justification, adoption, sanctification, glorification, revelation, are all in him. No wonder Wesley wrote that hymn, thou O Christ art all I want, and more than all in thee I find. There are no vacant areas in the heart, every room is occupied when Christ has full control. Thou O Christ art all, more than all in thee I find. Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift. Well there's a text to work on, but we won't do that, let's skip to another scripture and then we'll close out here I guess. What scripture do I want here? Ephesians 4, look how it begins, I therefore the prisoner of Caesar. I got a wrong version apparently, shake your head. I Paul, the prisoner of circumstances. I Paul, the prisoner of environment. Do you know this precious man won't give the devil a bit of credit. He says, every demon in hell, you think you've got me? Do you know what he says? God does everything in my life according to the counsel of his own will. I'm in the perfect will of God here in prison. I imagine some people said you were here a year ago. Why didn't you get up and go out and minister? You're the healing ministry, you cast out demons, you've raised the dead. What are you wasting your time for? I'm writing a letter for somebody to read, two thousand years. Forget them, let somebody else write it. He sticks by the task, he knows the timing of God in his life. We run ahead of God. I want to do this, I want to do that. Now, while I remember, next Friday night we will not have a meeting for the simple reason it's time for everybody to be at home and be a blessing to your family. Two weeks tonight we will. I want to speak on how to fill your diary for the year that's coming. That's a good one for you. I therefore the prisoner of Jesus Christ beseech you that you are worthy of the vacation wherewith you call all loneliness and meekness and longsuffering forvearing one another in love. How many times do you use this one here? Seven times. There is one body, one spirit, one hope, one baptism, one God and verse seven, every one of us. What I want to do is come to verse eight actually. Therefore he saith, when he ascended upon high, he led captivity captive. What does he mean by that? I believe he means he led sin captive, he led death captive, he led the devil captive. If you move into the will of God you'll be an embarrassment to the devil every day you live. I want to embarrass the devil whether I'm preaching or not. Actually, you don't get one toe hold. A lady called Mrs. Mountain came to our church when we were in England. Dear old lady, she used to sit there in a corner by herself and she had a lovely way of talking broad English. She called the devil the devil and the least coin in the realm at that time was a farthing. There were four farthings to a penny and money was money in those days. And she said the devil doesn't matter if he can get one farthing out of a pound or as you say one cent out of the dollar is happy. It's no longer a dollar. If you go and say I want to put a thousand dollars in the bank except every dollar is one cent less, then he's devalued it and the devil wants to get a toe hold in us. He led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men. Verse 10, he that descended and the same also that ascended above all heaven I fill all things. Now what does it say? Verse 8 says when he ascended to heaven he led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men. God is always giving. He so loved the world we sang it tonight didn't we? That he gave his only begotten Son. Christ loved the church and gave himself for it. Paul says if we, John says if we love we'll give our lives for the brethren. God gives, there's a poem that says love ever stands with open hands and while it lives it gives, for this is love's prerogative to give and give and give. Here's a fellow and he says oh I love this girl and he says oh I've been walking around with her for a while so this Christmas he buys a wonderful gift and three months from now regrets it. Next Christmas he won't buy her a gift. While love ever stands with open hands and while it lives it gives and there's no price too much God can ask of me if I'm in love with him. That's the secret of the whole thing. Let me quote that again. He led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men. You see I like to tease people sometimes when they talk about the gifts of the Holy Ghost. They say it doesn't matter to me. He hasn't won. Wesley has a hymn in which he says the purchase of thy death divide. Give me with all the sanctified the heritage of love. What does it say here? He led captivity captive and he gave gifts unto men. If somebody leaves a stack of money for you, well they've passed on. A lawyer comes and he says I'm operating on behalf of so-and-so who died and I want to share the estate with you. Oswald Chambers calls the Holy Spirit the executive counsel of the Godhead. Jesus purchased them but the Holy Ghost distributes them as he wills. But they're the gifts of Jesus by his precious blood, by his death, by his resurrection. That's the cost. He opens the resources of God to me. I'll tell you what gifts there are that list it for us here. Verse 11. He gave some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints, for the edifying of the body of Christ. You see what we do. The scripture says let a man be content with his calling. If he's an evangelist he shouldn't be a pastor. If he's a pastor he shouldn't be an evangelist. I believe if a church is really healthy it would have all the gifts in the church. Dear God there's something wrong with a church. If that church had been going five years and there's nobody can get out. When the pastor's out of the pulpit a man can't get up who's as powerful or maybe more powerful than he has. He's wasting his time. Who wants to collect people? Not me for sure. I want to reproduce my kind as best I can. That's the source, the law of life is reproduction isn't it? If a thing is alive it's reproduced. There's a difference in gathering crowds that's not reproduction that's addition. But are we reproducing our kind? Are we reproducing people who love this word, who love the lust, who love the will of God, who love to pray, who love sacrifice? He led captive to captive and he gave us apostles and prophets and some evangelists. But you know what? I think I told you maybe last week a fellow called me and I'm through with this. Two days will be Sunday. Three weeks back this young man called me from Florida. I wanted some advice about a book so I gave him what advice I could. He said, when I'm writing a book, what's the title? In Search of an Evangelist. Boy that's a title, I'd like to use that. So I said Martha okay dear, we haven't supper, I'm going in my office for a while. I went back to the eighth chapter of Acts. What does it say? Philip, the Reverend Philip, no Dr. Philip, no the Right Honourable Mr. Philip, Archbishop Philip. What does it say? The Evangelist. Go to the twenty-first chapter. What does it say in the twenty-first chapter? Philip, Paul and his friends went to the house of Philip the Evangelist being one of the seven. It isn't another Philip, it's one that was ordained when Stephen was ordained. Why did people get blazing mad at Stephen? Because he was doing everything Jesus did and the Pharisees and Sadducees and Hellenists and others that were there and the high priest and the others, they were astounded. This young man we've known for years, I don't think he was twenty years of age, tradition says he wasn't, and yet he did all the mighty works of God. That was a deacon. Show me a Pentecostal church in America or the world where the deacons have to subscribe to that. They'll hang on to Acts 1.8, they'll hang on to Acts 2.4, speak in tongues. Do deacons qualify? Here's a young man and they chose him, he got a unanimous vote. The whole church elected Stephen, he's number one deacon. Why? Because he was so like Christ, he had a submissive spirit, he did signs and wonders and miracles. All right, you go to the eighth chapter and you read there about Philip the Evangelist, he gave some evangelists. What did Philip do? Did he go around with a team? No, Philip the Evangelist, he healed the sick, cleansed the leper, straightened out demon-possessed people, and he doesn't say there was much joy in the house whether he restored health to a child or the parents. It says there was joy in the city. The whole city was vibrant. The whole city. We haven't got an evangelist in the country today. I told some of the leading evangelists in America in my office, there isn't one evangelist in America today. But you can go and when you go, taverns are closed. But while you're there, nobody wants to play football. That happened in the Welsh Revival. There's a book that I guess Jack may have some tonight, Seven Pentecostal Pioneers. How much is it, Jack? I've forgotten. $4.50. Read it. Read the middle story of Stephen Jeffreys. It happened 50 miles from my home while I was preaching. This guy goes into a town with empty buildings, rents a building holding 2,000, packs it in a week, turns 2,000 people a night away. The whole city vibrated. You don't have to advertise a fire. People went to work. One woman goes home at 11 o'clock at night. Where have you been till this hour? I've been to a meeting. What kind of a meeting? Religious meeting. What do you mean a religious meeting? Monday night? Yes. You know Celia Brown, her name is? Dale Brown's here. Celia Brown. You know Celia Brown? Well, everyone knows Celia Brown. She's got two slits instead of eyes. No, she hasn't. She's got eyes. Ridiculous. She's never had eyes. She's born with two empty sockets. She's slit. She isn't. She's seen. What do you mean? Well, there's a little man called Stephen Jeffreys prayed over her tonight, and two eyeballs appeared, and before long they were perfect. Another night he prayed for a child, and an eye came in an empty socket. A brown eye because she had a blue eye at the other side. No, a blue eye to match it. When you go down the street and say, hey, Celia, she said, don't take my arm. I can see as clearly as you can. Do you think anybody sits down? They jammed the place out. Night after night. For two weeks he was there, and listen, here's the statistic. I don't know if the number's correct. 924 people, I think it is, went through the inquiry room. They come up and say a prayer and go to hell, and nobody cares. It's fashionable in church to go to the front now and say a prayer, and they're unredeemed. They're unregenerate. They haven't got a new heart and a new spirit. They haven't a new vision. They haven't put off the old man and put on the new man. They just said a prayer and think they're going to heaven because of that. The whole city stirred, not just because Celia Brown got eyes, but men went in unbelief and said, oh, there's some strange atmosphere. I had a man came to see me the other day, very much like my precious brother Larry there. In fact, when he came in, I thought almost it was him. He drove 27 hours for me to talk with him, two hours, then got in his car and drove back 27 hours. He lost half a million dollars. Then he lost his job at 60,000 a year. He's turned from the faith teaching. He's preaching the cross. He's preaching redemption. He's preaching sanctification, and he's lost his church. There's only 60 left. He said, but I'm happy. And he said, my 15-year-old boy came to me when I was coming out, put his arm around my shoulder and said, Daddy, Mommy's with you, and I'm with you, and my brothers are with you. There are five of us. We'll have a church in the house. I said, boy, you got a family when they're willing to stick with you like that. That's how God starts. He doesn't look for numbers. He's looking for purity. He's looking for integrity. He's looking for honesty. He's looking for sanctity. And Jesus didn't die to save us from hell. He died to make us holy. Let me read a scripture, and I'm through with it. What is it in Titus? Is it Titus 2? Where's Titus after Timothy? Well, he's come from the ivory palaces, as Barakloth wrote the hymn, an American wrote that hymn, out of the ivory palaces into a world of woe. Only his great eternal love made my Savior go. Well, here's the whole reason why Jesus came into it. Not to save us from hell. That's a fringe benefit. Not to make you a better daddy or a better husband or a better deacon. That's not it. It's summarized for us here in Titus 2 and verse 14. He gave himself for us that he might redeem us from our lousy sins. It doesn't say that. What does it say? That he might redeem us from all, A-L-L, all iniquity and purify unto himself a people, a peculiar people, zealous of good works. These things speak and exhort and rebuke with all authority. I'll tell you one way to lose your crowd. Start preaching holiness. You'll see them scatter. They give up their worldliness. They give up their concerts in church and eating and banqueting. Well, I bless you. Fritz Kreisler was the greatest violinist in the world when we were kids. Do you notice the other day, who was the man that died? Jaskier Heifetz, the greatest violinist in the world. Then after that you had Yehudi Menuhin and then you had Isaac Stern and now you have another Jew. They're all Jews, Perlman. One day looking out a restaurant window in New York, here's this famous violinist and a woman came past the window with some ragged children and they were pointing in. They saw the lights and he said, I made up my mind I would never as long as I live eat an expensive meal again when people are starving and he disciplined himself in what he bought, how he lived, his lifestyle. As a rebuke he said to the way the world lives and he was just a good Jew. You see this world gets more hideous every day it lives. It gets more cruel. The more this intelligence gets refined, the better kind of a bomb we find. So now we've made an agreement. We won't roast Russia at 500 degrees if they don't roast us at 500 degrees. We've decided what we're going to barbecue each other's nation with and you know if you're honest about it, it looks more desperate than ever to get peace on earth and goodwill toward men. There's rebellion in the world, there's rebellion in the church. I can tell you people who go to certain church in town, they're antagonistic, they sit there and smile and all the time they're in business against other people. It's difficult to get peace in churches. It's difficult to get peace in homes and yet Jesus came that he might redeem us from all iniquity. I love that. Some people preach there's a black stone in you as long as you live. Not so. Hebrews 7.25 says he's able to save to the uttermost all that count. There's not a twist in you that God can't untwist. There's not a pollution he can't drive out of you. There's not an evil temper or a lustful disposition he can't get out. If Christianity doesn't have the answer, well Babu in the world does. This is the answer for the world. And yet we're building glass churches and fancy places though almighty God's interested in that.