In this sermon, the preacher begins by discussing the book of Revelation and its message that these events would come to pass shortly. He then shares a story about a preacher who carried precious stones and would hold them up to the light to see different shades and illuminations. The preacher highlights the awesomeness of the judgment day, describing the great white throne and the one who sits upon it. He mentions various names given to this event, such as the greater size, Payday Sunday, and the last roundup. The preacher emphasizes the importance of understanding the concept of judgment and encourages the audience to seek new illumination on this topic. The sermon concludes with a reference to the redeemed longing to see the face of God again.

And very often you notice preachers call this the book of the revelation of St. John. That is not the title. It's the book of the revelation of Jesus Christ. It's called, to the scholars, the Apocalypse, or again, the revelation means the unfolding, the taking away of the veil, as it were. I find the book of the revelation a book of mystery, a book of majesty, and a book of misery. Because it shows me the final stage of lost men, that forever and ever they're going to be cut off from God. That if there are a million roads into hell, there's not one road out. That if they continually sing in heaven, worthy of the lamb, in hell, the only thing they sing is the harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we're not saved. And I suggest to you in these awesome days of such universal chaos in morals, in politics, in economics, that maybe every day this coming week you should read the 17th and 18th and 19th chapters of the book of the revelation. You know, this book has an imprint on it that no other book has in the whole of the word of God. Because in chapter 1 verse 3 it says, Blessed is he that readeth and they that hear. There's a lot of people that read, but they don't hear. Blessed is he that readeth and heareth the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein, for the time is at hand. Let's go to the 20th chapter in this book, Revelation 20, and read from verse 11. And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat upon it, from whose face the heavens and the earth fled away, and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God, and the books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the book of life, and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and hell were delivered up the dead which were in them, and they were judged, every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire, this is the second death, and whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. Step over a minute into the third chapter of Paul's first letter to the Thessalonians, chapter 3, and we read there from verse 9. 1 Corinthians 3, verse 9. For we are laborers together with God, ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building. According to the grace of God which is given unto me as a wise master builder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereon, for at a foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble, every man's work shall be made manifest, for the day shall declare it. Because it shall be revealed by fire, and the fire shall try every man's work of what thought it is. If any man's work abide which he buildeth thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss, but he himself shall be saved, yet so as by fire. Now back to Revelation chapter 20 again. The judgment of the sinners. I saw a great white throne, typical obviously of purity, and him that sat upon it. Now we read these things and they kind of slide over our minds, but listen to the awesomeness of this. From whose face the heavens and the earth fled away, and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God, and the books were opened. Various titles have been given to this awesome event. John Wesley called it the greater size. Billy Sunday, in his wonderful way, called it payday Sunday. A cowboy preacher preaching on it called it the last round up. You could call it, if you like, a date with destiny. Or better still, or more awesome still, you could call it a day with destiny. Or if you like, you could call it your day in court. Now this book begins, the book of the Revelation, by telling us these things will shortly come to pass, and that was 2,000 years ago. In a very brief, but very brilliant biography of one of the greatest preachers that ever preached in America or England, the biographer says that this man, well he had strange habits, and one of them was to carry in the right hand pocket of his coat a handful of precious stones, a diamond, an amethyst, a sapphire, a ruby, an emerald, and so forth. To add to his strange ways, he would walk into a park where people were going up and down, and he would put his hand in his pocket, and take one of those precious stones, and then he would hold it up to the light of the sun, and he would lure it, and hire it, and seek this, different shades from it, or different illuminations from it. And people would go past, particularly children, and you know, they'd do this, you know, they'd do that, you know. I don't mind people doing that. If they want to point to their own head, that's okay, if they point to mine, it's something else, but the children were doing this, you know, there's something strange about that. And there's an old saying that papa envies papa. Preachers don't usually criticize singers, they criticize preachers. Singers criticize singers. Papa envies papa. And these preachers were sitting round the table one day, eating in England, and they began to discuss this famous preacher. And one of them said, I heard him the other night, he was awesome, he lifted us into eternity, he has a vast vocabulary. I hardly knew whether I was in the body or out of the body. And then my little boy said he'd seen him in the park, playing again, like a child plays with marbles, playing with precious stones. A hymn writer wrote about the Bible, and he called it a golden casket where gems of truth are stored. It is the heaven-drawn picture of Christ, the living word. There are roughly three-quadrillion words in the Bible. I suggest that like that man selected his stone and lifted it up to the light of the sun, that we select one word out of this golden casket, and that word is judgment. And we hold it up to the light of eternity. And you can tell God you're not concerned about what this preacher says, but say, Lord, give me some new illumination on this awesome fact of judgment. I thought repeatedly this week of that awesome sermon, one of the greatest ever preached in America. Back in the 1700s it was preached by Jonathan Edwards. We're told he brought his manuscript and he had a candle there. And he wasn't very good-looking. And he had a big nose. And he sung and he read with monotonous, you know, routine. He read that sermon, sinners in the hands of an angry God. And people fell off their seats and they clung to the pillars that were holding the gallery up. And he didn't say, oh friend, please excuse me, I never meant to embarrass you like that, there's some psychological phenomena going on here. That while they were laid out, he'd just lash them with the word of God. And people cried out in their despair. There was a reason for it, because before he had prayed over and over and over again, oh God, stamp eternity on my eyeballs. I don't know anybody else that ever prayed it, maybe we've said it. But you know, if God should stamp eternity or even judgment on our eyeballs, or if you like, on the fleshy table of our hearts, I'm quite convinced we'd be a very, very different tribe of people, God's people in the world today. We live too much in time, we're too earthbound. We see as other men see, we think as other men think. We invest our time as the world invests it, we invest our money. We're supposed to be a different breed of people. It must have been very awesome in the days of His flesh, to get up one morning and say, well I'm not going to work, I don't know who this man is, but I'll tell you what, I'm so stale and dried up, and I've been to the synagogue and the temple, and those old boys mutter, and they quote about somebody coming, and they don't believe he's coming. You know, Enoch said, Jude records, that Jesus will come with ten thousand of his saints. Why didn't he come that way the first time? Why didn't he come sweeping through the sky when it was as black as night over Jerusalem? Why didn't he come with ten thousand saints? Why didn't he come with a sound of trumpets? Why didn't he capture the world like that? He didn't come that way. And when he did come, they couldn't believe that somebody clothed in flesh and blood, walking around, about to eat and sleep and do everything else like we do, was the Son of God. But he began to stir Jerusalem, and you might have gone into town and say, well, I've been on business in Jericho, you know, I've got to look after affairs. What are you excited about? Oh, we went to see this man Jesus, this fellow that the synagogues are disturbed about, and the priests are criticizing. And you know, he does amazing miracles. Why? He unplugs deaf ears, and he casts the demons out of people, and he cures leprosy. And you know what he did yesterday? He actually raised a man from the dead. My, that must have excited them. Jesus going to the tomb and saying, roll away the stone. He didn't roll it away. He gave wine at the feast, but he said, you fill the water pot. There's some labor we have to do. You put the water in the water pot, I'll turn it into wine. You roll the stone away. And then he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus. My, that would have excited me. I don't know about you. I don't hit the ceiling, I think. He cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, as Campbell Morgan said. He said, Lazarus, come forth. If he just said, come forth, all the cemetery would have come, and it wasn't time for them to come yet. So he just said, Lazarus, come forth. And he came forth. He was alive, but boy, he was bound, gagged on his face. He had grave clothes. He could only shuffle. His hands were tied. And that's true about 95% of believers today. They're alive, but they're gagged. They're bound. They've still got grave clothes. And Jesus says, loosen and let him go. We're bound by superstition. We're bound by the theology of our grandfathers or something. But the church is gagged and bound. She needs release in this awful hour in which we're living. And the only one that can bring that relief is Jesus Christ himself. Why, even the disciples. Well, what do you think of our master now? He's even raising the dead. And Jesus says in John 5, 28, listen, don't marvel at this. Oh, if this stirs you, wait, I've got a word for you. He says, the day is coming in the which all who are in the grave shall hear the voice of the Son of God and they shall rise. Did you get that? From Adam, wherever he is right now, in the sands, in the dust. All who are in the grave shall hear the voice of the Son of God. You see, Jesus says, I am the resurrection and the life. And I believe he did rise from the dead. Not because of that long list in 1 Corinthians 50. But away at the end of the book of Revelation, he says, I am he that liveth and was dead. And behold, I am alive forevermore. And I have the keys of death and hell. Don't you believe that old bachelor in Rome? You don't know who he is? Well, it's the Pope. He says he has the keys, not on your life. Jesus has the keys of death and of hell. And that the voice of the Son of God, won't that be amazing when he says, rise! All that are in the sea and all that are in the grave. I crossed the Atlantic, I guess, about 18 times on the Queen Mary, Queen Elizabeth, United States. And after dinner at night, when people went to smoke and drink and dance and everything else, I walked up and down the deck and almost every time I crossed it, I looked overboard and I said, Hey, you down there, you're going to get up one day. You buccaneers who died in the Spanish Main, stealing treasures, and the folk that sank in the Lusitania and the people that sank in the Titanic and the people that sank in all the great ships during the war, are the voice of the Son of God, they're going to rise. Millions of them, billions of them, trillions of them. And they're all going to stand at the judgment feet of Christ. That's going to be a spectacle. Oh, where is it going to take place? I don't know. You see, this book of the Revelation is not only at the end of the Bible, but it deals with the end of time and then it deals with things that happen at the end of the time. And it's the only book in the world which is authentic. And everyone that is dead is going to hear the voice of the Son of God. Look for a minute at that sixth chapter in the Revelation. Look at verse 12. And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, oh, there was a great earthquake. The sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood, and the stars of heaven fell to the earth, even as a fig casteth her untimely figs when she is shaken of a mighty wind. And the heaven departed as a scroll, and it is rolled together. And every mountain and island were moved out of their places. And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every freeman, they hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains, and said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day is come. In the end of the book of the Revelation it says of the redeemed, which is in the other judgment, that they are going to come, and they longed to see his face. Again, Fanny Crosby, blind for 84 years. And when somebody said to her, It's a shame a great Christian like you is blind. You can't see the sunset, you can't see the lovely flowers. You're at such a disadvantage. Oh no, she said, I'm at a great advantage. You know, she was the first woman in history, in American history, blind though she was to address the joint, what do you call them, different sections of Congress. She addressed the senators, and she addressed the congressmen, and she addressed the whole government. The first woman in history, a little blind woman. And they said, and you never see the sunset. God has denied you so much. She said, my dear, I have a great advantage over you. What's your advantage? She said, don't you realize the first face I ever see will be his face? Do you want us to write so many hymns about his face, seeing his face? That will leave a spell down when we see his face. But here, the great men, the rich men, the mighty men, the rulers. I saw the dead, small and great. Every king, every king that ruled over England. The Caliphs of Baghdad, the Maharajas of India, the multimillionaires, the billionaires. They're all going to stand one day, can you imagine it? At the judgment seat of Christ, to give an account for the deeds done in the body. Well, of course, if you have a judgment, you must have a judge. I do not have any pictures of Christ in my home, because I don't think you should make any likeness of any grave image, and nobody knows what Christ was like. You see pictures of Jesus as a baby, you see him as a young man, you see him sometimes on the back of an animal riding into Jerusalem. But there's a picture I've only ever seen once, and it was so grotesque I didn't look a second time. And the voice of the Son of God, they're all going to rise and face the eternal judge. What will he be like? In Australia they showed me the picture that they had, Beechcroft or somebody, Beecher, painted a picture of Christ in Australia. He's got lovely blonde hair and bright blue eyes and a lovely flaxen beard. Well, I don't think that was a picture of Jesus. And the Chinese have an interpretation of Christ through their artists. And there are some dreadful pictures, I think, that have been given by the great masters, so-called. And they've given us pictures of Jesus, but I'll tell you what, it's a very different picture in the Word of God. I believe that the Church of Jesus Christ needs a new revelation of the Majesty of God. This is what? This is the King of Kings, and he's the Judge of Judges, and it's the Tribunal of Tribunals, and there's no Court of Appeal after it. The verdict is final. There'll be no biased judgments. Two people at least have said to me this week, there is no justice in the earth today. Maybe there isn't. But I hang on to a word that says, shall not the judge of all the earth do right? The Apostle Paul's got a picture of Jesus, not with a lamb in his arms, not like the stained glass windows in our so-called cathedrals, where Jesus looks pathetically feminine. He sees Jesus and he says, here he is, he's the King Immortal, Invisible, the only wise God to whom be praise and glory forever. So we're going to see the King of Kings, he's the Judge of Judges in the Court of Courts. In the final Tribunal, there is no Tribunal after this. This is finished. And when I hear people singing, you know, put your hand in the hand of him that walked on the water, forget it. Or the new song that's now, shake hands with Jesus. Listen, when you see Jesus, you're not going up and say, hey buddy, I'm glad you died for me. When you see Jesus, you'll be almost paralyzed with fear, unless you have a glorified body and a glorified mind. Who is writing the book? This is a revelation to a man on an island, on a devil's island. The worst place, the gathering of the scum of the earth. And here he is. And if you'd gone to him that morning and seen him sitting on a rock, contemplating, you might have said to him, well John, I didn't expect to find you in this hellhole with all these demon-possessed men. And here you are in the Isle of Patmos. He said, no I'm not, where are you? He said, I'm in the Spirit. He was in the Spirit when this enormous revelation was given to him. The picture of Jesus here is not the picture of a pathetic individual pushed around by anybody who wants to push him around. I think sometimes we think we're going to march up and say, well you know Jesus, do you know how many years I served you and how many souls I won for you and how many sermons I preached for you? Oh no, no, no, no, no. Well what will he be like in heaven? Well I'll tell you what the book says he'll be like. It says his hair is as white as snow. His feet are like burnished brass. His face is like the sun in its strength. His eyes are living coals of fire. His tongue is as sharp as a wedging sword. And here is John, who used to lean his head on the bosom of Jesus and hear that divine heartbeat. The man that I believe knew more about Jesus than anyone else. And when he saw Jesus there on his throne in his majesty with his face brighter than the sun, with his feet like burnished brass, with his eyes like flames of fire, with his tongue majestic and his voice like the sound of many waters, John, the man who had walked with him and talked with him for three years, says that when I saw him, I fell at his feet of dead. What do you think you and I are going to do? We see that a judge in all his awesome majesty, in all his glory. And we have a picture here of the unholy dead, small and great, standing before God. And when they see him in his awesome majesty, no they don't worship him, they're terrified. This is a great exposure. Someone called me last night and said, be sure you listen to 60 Minutes tomorrow night. Because you see, the Shah was interviewed I believe by 60 Minutes and he said, I'll tell you everything that Henry Kissinger told me. And Henry Kissinger says to the ABC or whoever organizes the 60 Minutes, if you put that on, I'll sue you for I don't know how many million dollars. But he said, instead of that, let me come on the 20 Minutes and you can interview me. And so they said, all right, but this week he's running. He said he won't count. And I understand tonight they're going to tell us what the Shah said and the agreements he made. Oh yes, Mr. Kennedy got away with it, whatever happened at Chappaquiddick. The little girl that was drowned or was she murdered or was she pregnant and snuffed away. But Mr. Kennedy forgot one thing. It's going to be exposed at the judgment seat of Christ. They couldn't find the 18 Minutes on the tapes of Mr. Nixon. Well, I'll tell you he's got a perfect record of them. And they're going to be read out one day before millions. You say, Mr. Raymond, I couldn't stand up there or anywhere else. I'm so nervous. If a few people look at me, I want to tell you something. There'll be a thousand million or trillion people when you stand there at the judgment seat without your wife to lean on or your husband or your preacher or a friend. And Paul is writing in the 14th chapter of Romans and he says we. So he writes home even to believers at the judgment seat. We must all, there's no exception. We must stand at the judgment seat of Christ. You can't send your lawyer. You can't send a representative. You can't send a preacher who says, well, I understand this person who's always falling up and down and in and out and he didn't know where they were. I'll explain it to you. And the Lord says you won't do anything of the kind. Can you see those millions of unholy dead? All the criminals that ever lived, every prostitute that ever went on the tour? Can you think of all the men who make millions out of pornography? Can you think of the pimps who promote those little girls that go to West 44th, West 42nd Street in New York and they go to all the hell holes? Can you imagine when God takes hold of history and empties it? When every man that ever walked the streets of ancient Babylon with all its lust? Or Torrance which was just one colossal cesspool of impurity? All that happened at Las Vegas last night is going to be thrown on the screen in eternity? Every judge that sits in the high court is going to be judged one day by an infallible judge? How long will it take? I don't know. And I don't care because we're not going anywhere. I think one of the joys of eternity is that the redeemed will see all the unholy dead judged but the unholy won't see the holy people judged. They won't be there. It says the books were open. What books? You say, well, Mr. Raymond, I won't be in serious trouble because, you know, I don't have a good memory. Well, I'll tell you what, you'll have one that day. I didn't find the statistic because, in one sense, I didn't have time. But in Montreal, a few years ago, they put a kind of little electric gadget on the mind of a man and they began to turn his mind back, back, back. And he could recite everything from about the day he was seven years of age. It was all stored up there in the repressed complex of his subconscious, if you like. And they unfolded everything. There's nothing left. It was all brought to the surface. Well, if a doctor can put his finger on a man's mind and restore his memory, what do you think the son of God is going to do? Oh, there's going to be some awful revelations. Oh, there's going to be some weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. Oh, yes, Mr. Kissinger, you're going to be totally exposed. What you and Mr. Nixon did, lying so long that we were not bombing Cambodia when we were ripping children to death. When we were baptizing them with fire and napalm and taking the skins off their bodies. I'd like to preach a series of sermons on this because, you know, the Word of God says there's going to be a judgment of living nations too. There are at least seven judgments coming up, just as there are at least five crowns for the believers. You say, well, I'm not quite sure about this, you know. No, your memory isn't faulty. Everything you've done, every idle word you've spoken, every action. Let me say it here in case I forget later. I remember one day when I was talking with Dr. Tozer, as we used to talk together so often. He said to me one day, you know, Len, I'm not really too worried about what I've done. I'm not too worried about the judgment even on my Christian life, which I'll have, I know. But he said, it's the things I could have done that worry me. The things that I miss. We're not going to be judged just because of what we've done. We're going to be judged for why we did it. Not for the action, for the motive. What motivated your giving? So you'd have a plaque with your name on? Or you'd be at the top of the list for giving money? Why? What's the motive behind it? Going back to the unholy dead, they're going to stand small and great before God. Sometimes I look at my Encyclopedia Britannica and I think, all that history is going to pass before me in flesh and blood at the judgment seat of Christ. I'd be interested to see Julius Caesar and Tiberius Caesar. I'd be fascinated when Pontius Pilate stands before Jesus. I think he'll feel less comfortable than Jesus felt standing before Pontius Pilate. They're all going to stand there. The secret archives of our hearts and lives are going to pass before. Well, you say again, I still hang on to the fact my memory isn't good. You know, it says the books are open. I don't know what the books are. I think the books of the Ten Commandments for one thing. I think the book of memory for another thing. You see, this memory is an amazing thing. But you know, memory will last into eternity. Oh, I don't think the redeemed will remember their sorrows and heartaches but I'll tell you what, the unholy dead will remember every time somebody put a tract in their hand. They'll feel it through eternity and wish their God it wasn't there. They'll remember that they heard their mother's prayers. They'll remember every sermon. They're going to remember everything. Because one day a man in hell prayed. It was the wrong place to pray. He prayed to the wrong person. He prayed to Abraham. He got the wrong answer. Some remember in their lifetime that you had good things. But I don't want my brothers to come here. But Jesus says, remember, memory is eternal. It will never die. If you're an unsaved man a thousand million years, you say, well I came this morning, my wife wanted me to come. But I don't think I'll come again. I don't like this kind of stuff. Well friend, let me tell you lovingly, go to hell and live with all the scum of the earth. You like to drink, go with the drinkers. You like to lust, go with the prostitutes. In hell, if you're given to lust after women, you'll have that lust, but there's nothing to satisfy your lust. If you drink, you'll thirst, but there's nothing to satisfy your thirst. You'll give a king's ransom for one drop of water. There isn't even a drop of water, never mind that precious wine you drink. When in God's name is the church going to open her heart again, and open her mind again, and see again that every man, I cannot, whether he flies his own private Learjet, or how many millions he has, or rules over a city, the great of the earth and the scum of the earth, the unbelievers, they're going to spend their time in eternity. They're going to live there forever and ever. The good book says where they're wormed, I earth not. It will be awesome when we see the founders of these cults stand before God. The founder of Jehovah's Witnesses, as they call themselves, Russell, a man who wasn't very moral, and he's going to stand there and people up there will scream, put him into the lowest hell and turn the temperature up. Now listen, don't you worry about it. The judge of all the earth will do right. Hell won't be the same for everybody. Some will be beaten with a few stripes, some with many stripes. But I'll tell you what, I'd rather be the least in the kingdom of God than be the greatest in the kingdom of the devil anyhow, both in time and in eternity. I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God, and the books were opened. You know, some people today have great memories. When Thomas Tenestocles was the mayor of Athens, he could recite the name of every person who lived in town, and there were 20,000 of them. I think of Osiris, the king of Persia, knew the name of every man that was in his army, and he never had to be reminded it. He could recite the name of tens of thousands of people. The famous Walter Scott, the great writer, the night before he was five years of age, so obviously he was just in four, and the night before he was saying prayers at his grandma's knee. And his granny said to him, now Walter, you tonight, do something else for me. Instead of just praying your prayer, recite the psalm. And he wasn't five years of age, and maybe granny wish she hadn't asked him. He recited the 119th psalm. That's one way of keeping from going to bed early. The 119th psalm from the mind of a little boy, not five years of age. Oh, we wish we could scrub some things out there in eternity, at least lost men and women will. We read in the sixth chapter there of the book of the Revelation. They said, For the mountains and rocks fall on us and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb. For the great day of his wrath is come, and who is able to stand? It says in the ninth chapter, verse six, In those days shall men speak death and shall not find it. They shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them. I believe there'll be a day when a man will put a gun to his head and blow his brains out, and to his amazement he'll still be living. They'll throw himself from the top of the Empire State Building or the top of a rock into the valley, he'll still be living. They shall speak death, but they shall not find it. There's an awesome aspect for you. Men speaking death and they shall not find it. Do you remember that second psalm where it says, Concerning men that God, he that dwelleth in the heavens, shall last, God shall have them in derision. Can you think a man plagued with every sin he's ever committed, sins of the flesh and sins of the spirit, sins against God, sins against men, and they're pursuing like the hounds of hell that are baying after him. And he says, if only I could die and get out of this. And yet if he tries to die, he will not die. And the scripture says, He that dwelleth, the holy God, now he's ceased to be a God of mercy. In the fourth chapter of Revelation you have Christ on the throne, you have a rainbow over the throne, which is a covenant sign of mercy. You have fallen French elders, but there's nobody here sharing justice with Jesus. He sits supremely on the throne. There's no fallen French elders, there's no sea of glass, there's no rainbow of mercy. Mercy is gone forever. I care not how twisted and corrupt your life is this morning. You could be the most sensuous man. A soldier said to me one day, Do you really believe that God, can God forgive every sin I've ever committed? I said, He sure can. That is, if you repent of your sin, and you plead for the blood of Christ, and you ask for mercy. But he says, you know what I'm haunted with? I was in the army so many years in other countries, and he said, I'm horrified to tell you this, but he said, maybe I've got about 30 children around the world. I've had sex with so many women, he said, that maybe I'm the father of 30 children around the world. Can God forgive all the rottenness, the corruption of my life? He can. Why? Because this morning Jesus is on the throne of mercy. He shall find grace to help. But when we see him here, he's not on the throne of mercy, he's on the throne of justice. That tender Christ who went about doing good, and he kissed little babies and blessed people. Now, ah, there's nothing more beautiful than a little lamb. There's nothing more terrible than the wrath of the lamb. And one day God's mercy is going to be cut off. And then it will be the wrath of the lamb. Can you think of all the tribes and nations? Can you think of Pharaoh standing before Jesus Christ and having to account for the massacre? Can you think of Herod the Great having to account for the massacre? Can you think of Hitler having to account for the massacre of we're told of six million Jews? Did you this morning, I mean, I know you had your tribulation, the bacon was burned and some other tragedy happened. But did you think this morning that somebody for Christ's sake is going to lose his head in Cambodia or Vietnam? Or Russia? Do you think that Stalin ever dreamed that all the bloody purges he made, he'd have to answer for every precious drop of blood he ever spilled? The Father said, let's store my tears in my bottle. I believe that nobody ever spilled a tear, whether it was spilled in compassion for souls, or it was spilled because of a broken heart. It never fell to the ground, it was stored by God. And God's going to count them out one day. And people may cry, the Jews perhaps may cry, of Hitler, God scourged him, scourged him, turned the furnace up in hell. But listen, God doesn't need any reminders. Shall not the judge of all the earth do right? If a man has to be cast away from God with his own sin and misery forever and ever, if his inner being, as it were, is torn with lust, if his mind is tortured by his wickedness, well, what do you think it would be like if you killed six million people like that? God shall bring every work into judgment with every secret thing. I think one of the great tragedies of our day is that when Mr. Nixon was in office, 18, Dave Wilkerson told me one day when we were talking, he said, Len, do you know that 18, 5, 10, 15, 18 different preachers went to Nixon and not one of them ever got through to him? Watergate was not just a political tragedy or an economic tragedy, it was a spiritual tragedy. There was no Elijah to go there, there was no Nathan that went to David. And I think we'd better watch this business of, you know, God loves you, God loves you, and all the bumper stickers, sloppy evangelism. Will you remind people of the goodness and the severity of God? Will you remind them that there's a day when mercy is cut off forever? Will you remind them that people pray in hell but nobody ever answers? The dead, small and great, are going to stand before God in that awesome day. And the book of memory is going to be open, and the Ten Commandments and other books that God has, they're going to be open in that awesome day. And there's no mercy. Mercy has gone forever. People will be saying the harvest is past and the summer is ended and I'm not saved. That great scholar Daniel Webster was one fast. What is the greatest thought? You have a colossal mind. What is the greatest thought that has ever traveled down the corridors of your mind? He said, I've thought many great things, but the greatest thing that I've ever thought of, the most awesome, the most terrifying, the most shattering thought I've ever had is my personal accountability to God one day. We all, without exception, must stand there. And I'm dealing that and leaving that section. I could stay longer. Remember, there's going to be a judgment of the living nations and so forth. There's going to be a judgment of angels. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 6, I guess, he says, don't you know that some of us are going to judge angels? But you see, the thing I'm really saying, I got through my introduction now, let me get to the business here. 1 Corinthians 3. This is the judgment of the believers now. We are laborers together with God, ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building. According to the grace of God, which is given unto me as a wise master builder, I have laid the foundation, and another builder thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereon, for of the foundation can no man lay, and that is laid which is Jesus Christ. If any man build upon this foundation, gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble, every man's work shall be made manifest, for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire, and the fire shall try every man's work. Notice what it says very carefully here, what thought it is, not what size it is, not the quantity, but the quality. If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss, but he himself shall be saved, yet as by fire. So Jesus says, as it were, or the Spirit puts these into little pockets, he says, your life can be wood or hay or stubble, or your life can be silver, gold or precious stone, and the fire shall try every man's work. Do you know this will be very, very significant to the people at Corinth? Do you know why? Because not too long before this was written, the whole city of Corinth was devastated by fire. And there were people whose houses were built with beautiful pillars of granite. And there were people whose houses were made totally of marble. And the poorer people, their houses were made just out of straw. And some people had houses made out of hay. And some people had houses made out of clay and straw and stubble. And when the fire swept through the city, everybody's house, if you had a house made of wood or hay or stubble, every house was devastated and it was in ashes. But the houses that were made of precious stones, they were still standing though they were scorched too. And Paul is writing here and he says, when you go to the judgment seat of Christ, even as a believer with all your works, they're either wood or hay or stubble or silver or gold or precious stones. Now let's visualize, we give a man over here $10,000 and he invests it in wood. The next man is given $10,000, he invests it in hay. The next man has $10,000, it's in stubble. The man over here has $10,000, he invests it in gold. Wouldn't get much at $500 an ounce, would he? And the next man at Silbury wouldn't get too much at $12 an ounce. And the other man in precious stones. Now, this is your life's work. Your life's work is wood, hay, stubble and the fire. Remember our God is a consuming fire. Sure God is love. But God also is a consuming fire. And all our lifestyle, from the moment you began to witness for Christ, all your service, all your labors for Him, they're going to be shown, oh, now listen, listen, none of the filthy world, none of the outcasts of hell are going to be there. Won't it be wonderful that you get there? Or will it? When you see all the redeemed of all the ages, when you look there and say, you know, there's Abraham, I didn't think he'd look quite like that, but he's going to be there all right. And all the saints of all the ages are going to be there. A hymn writer says, from earth's wide bounds and oceans farthest coast, through gates of pearls streaming a countless host, singing to Father, Son and Holy Ghost, Hallelujah. You know, there used to be an old hymn, and maybe not ten people here could recite it or tell me the first verse, but everybody knows the chorus when the saints go marching in. You know, they danced to that down in Bourbon Street, that hellhole, with all its prostitutes. They danced to it every night. When the saints go marching in, they shuffle their feet. Listen, that's for the redeemed, it's not for that bunch of scum of the earth. It's for the redeemed. When the saints go marching in, can you imagine them going in? From earth's wide bounds, from oceans farthest coast, through gates of pearls streaming a countless host, singing to Father, Son and Holy Ghost, Hallelujah. A multitude which no man can number. I'm going to look in the gallery and see all the saints of all the ages. Mine, I'll be thrilled to look on Isaiah, and Jeremiah, and those major prophets, and those minor prophets, and Matthew and Mark and Luke and John and Acts, well, everybody in Acts anyhow, and the Apostle Paul, and Titicus, and all those strange characters. Won't it be wonderful and say, Steve, those are the men who walked with Jesus. Steve, there's Paul, he gave his colossal intellect to God. He wrote about fourteen epistles. He went over Asia Minor. He didn't sit in a jet and say, you know, how good the Lord is to me, and I'd, no sirree. He was lashed to the post a hundred and ninety-five times. He was in weariness and fastings and painfulness and tribulation and distress and famine and peril and nakedness and so on. In tribulation amongst false brethren, in perils of the deep. Do you think that man's going to get two ounces of reward for a life like that? You only get rewarded. Grace is free, but rewards are not free. People say, you're talking about works. Sure I am, because God did. Jesus did. You know that some saints again are going to judge the earth. Well, that'll be an awesome task. I won't want to be one. Maybe I never will. Maybe I will. Maybe God will ordain that I should do it. Can you see the holy dead all lined up there? All the saints in the Old Testament, all the saints in the New Testament. I hope the Lord, I can't give Him any advice. I think I try to in prayer sometimes, but I can't give God any advice. I'd like to see a pocket full of those gorgeous people who prayed. Oh my, won't that be wonderful. You know, when you see a political convention, they have a sign up from Cincinnati or somewhere. Maybe there'll be signs in heaven. These are the prayer warriors. These are the great sufferers. These are the travellers. These are the missionaries. These are the failures. Well, anyhow, there's going to be all kinds of people listed in that great day. It's going to be an awesome thing. And here is a man, his life is just made of wood. Very beautiful. Ten thousand dollars wouldn't do much for a stack of mahogany these days, would it? But when the fire goes through it, what do you have? All you have is that wood going down until you've got ashes, maybe up to your ankles. And that's all that is left. I heard a woman say not long ago, well, praise the Lord, I'm glad I don't have to account for anything when I go to heaven. There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Wait a minute. You can never isolate the Scripture by itself. There's no condemnation for past sin. I'm you mighty glad this morning, I think sometimes, I don't wonder that God keeps, I have to keep saying to Israel, remember thou was the bondman in Egypt, remember your sin, remember your iniquity. Did you get up this morning and thank God you're pure? Did you thank Him that that devilish fever you used to have for sniffing cocaine or drugs or something, that He brought the fetter of it? Are you really glad you're not a prostitute now? You're going to be a father or bride of the Lamb? Are you glad He's removed from your heart chavitousness and bad temper and all those creepy horrible things that used to master you? A man's life, all his ministry, it shows. Do you see the difference between the wood and the hay and the stubble and the silver and the gold and the precious stones? Wood, hay and stubble are above the ground. They catch the eye. Silver and gold and precious stones are below the ground. Nobody sees them. There's a lot of public ministry in that day that's going to go down in ashes, my brother. You say, well, it doesn't say that the Christians are going to be judged after the book. Yes, I think it does. Where? In Malachi. It says that God has a book of remembrance. And I think it would do you good before you go to bed every night this week to ask God, what did you put in your book today from my life? It doesn't necessarily have to be some outward act. You could worship God on a tractor. You could worship God. It's not the best way, but you can do it still. The fire is going to take the big showy life of that man and burn it and it's only going to be a bunch of ashes. Wood. Hay. Well, if you put $10,000 in hay, you get a lot. Yeah, and you get a lot more ashes too when the fire got to it. And stubble? You could buy half the stubble in Texas maybe for $10,000, but boy, you'd have a mess when the fire got to it. Instead of ashes to your ankles or ashes to your knees, it would be up to your nose maybe and you couldn't get your way out. But that's what lives are going to be like. Wood, hay, stubble. You used to have trouble with these boys always begging, you know. And it makes you wonder if some Christians do have hearts of flesh that they won't send them money to keep their jets going. You know, I believe every dime that ever came into Agathia, every dime that ever came to Oral Roberts, anybody else is going to answer for it at the judgment seat of Christ one day. Jesus talks about these men who go and take widows' houses. Well, that's what they're doing now. They're not satisfied that you give while you're living. They'll ask you to hand your house over to them and leave this in your will. And if you do, you'll get a better place in heaven. Don't believe it for a moment. It's a lie from hell. They're going to give an account to God in that day, but I believe we're going to give an account too. A brother was telling me this week when he got baptized, it was a kind of a sudden thing, and he went down into the water there and suddenly realized he had his wallet in his pocket. Well, not many pockets get, you know, not many wallets get baptized. We kind of say, Lord, you look after my sins, I look after the rest. Every penny you earn since you became the property of Jesus Christ you'll give an account of before God. He doesn't just take your sins, he takes yourself, he takes the government of your life. There's an awful lot of money being wrongly invested. You know what I think? I may not be right, I usually am, but I may not be quite right in this, but you know what I think? I think that now the crunch is on the nation. I think it's going to get worse and worse. This is going to be the roughest year we've ever lived. I told some of you three years ago that an important man called me late at night and said, Brother Ray, in the next three weeks in American history we're going to live over the most important in American history. One of the most famous preachers in the country called me at nearly midnight and said, you know what, I've come to this conclusion, God Almighty's already taken His hands off America. For the simple reason we've had so much life and rejected it. Carter can't make a move to the right. If he makes it to the right it's still to the left. Every move he makes there's a counter move that makes him think further and further in the mire. And it's not only true that we live in a world of bankrupt politics, we live in a world and this is the most tragic of all of a bankrupt church. Isn't it awesome to think that all this stuff, we sing all that will be glory for me. Friend you've got one big stumbling block. Let me rush through this, time's going. Your life is wood, the fire's going to come, hay, the fire's going to come to it. Stubble, the fire's going to come to it. But what if your life is silver and gold and precious stones? What is gold a sign of? Gold I believe there is a sign of our devotion to God. You wouldn't get much gold for ten thousand dollars today. And I could have a small induction crucible here and put your ten thousand dollars worth of gold and press buttons and it moves and moves. What happens when you burn gold? Nothing. All you do is change it from solid to liquid but you don't reduce it. Can you see all the things of all the ages? And when the grave is standing there before Christ, whose eyes are full of holiness, where the place is breathing holiness, where there's all the majesty of an awesome God, and he reads the record of my poor life before all the saints of all the ages, well he puts the fire to my devotional life. Am I just a good showman? I sure like to preach because God told me to preach. And I don't care how I preach, I don't care whether you believe me either, I'm not responsible for that. I preach out of my heart all I believe and I'd die for it. Let's say, am I just a showman? What's my secret life like? We were talking just earlier, yesterday I guess, about the woman that came with an alabaster box of ointment. You know, I read that story for years and heard it preached on before ever I realized she came for one reason only, she came to worship Jesus. How do you know? Because she brought the most sacrificial gift that she had. How do you know? Because she never said a word while she was there. How do you know? Because she said, I won't wash his feet with water, I wash them with tears. I won't dry his head, his feet with a gorgeous towel. I'll wipe his feet with the hair of my head. And she poured out that costly fragrance. And then she wiped his feet again. So what happened? The fragrance she poured out on him came back on her. Why isn't my life more fragrant? Because you don't take time to behold it. Because you think if you stuff all the stuff you get to the gaffer which I'm sure is good or some other Bible school that this isn't. No, no, no, no, no. God isn't going to measure your intellect the size of your hat. He's going to try with his fire my devotional life. I think again of a statement Dr. Totem made to me once. He said, Len, you know what? He said, we'll hardly get our feet out of time into eternity. I'm gazed on eternity with what we bow our heads in shame and humiliation and say, my God, look at all the riches there were in Jesus Christ. And I've come to the judgment seat almost of pauper. For God has not really given us Jesus Christ. He's given us all things. And because there isn't enough joy in the house of God we need entertainment. Because entertainment is the devil's substitute for joy. Because there isn't enough power in the house of God people are always looking for the last scientific development and their hair stands up when they see some fancy show on TV. I think before we point the finger at the world we better turn to the church and say, look, we better all get sacked off in ashes and humble ourselves and say, almighty God, when I see the church in the New Testament they didn't have stately buildings, they didn't have paid evangelists, they didn't have a lot of money, they didn't have organization, they couldn't get on TV and beg, but I'll tell you what they did, they turned the world upside down. And I'm embarrassed to be part of the church of Jesus today because I believe it's an embarrassment to a holy God. Most of our joy is clapping our hands and having a good time and then afterward we're talking all the drivel of the world. Oh, to be lost in him, to be consumed in him. We mentioned this week a little frail woman, my dear boy that's in South America, many of you have heard him preach Paul, I think he has every book that Amy Wilson Carmichael wrote, about 30 of them. He drenched himself in her teaching, she was a fine little Irish woman, she had a curvature of the spine. The last three years of her life they had to lift her in and out of bed, change her diapers, she was helpless, but she loved 350 little girls and little children. She wrote this, from subtle love of softening things, from easy choices and weakenings, not thus a spirit glorified, not this way went the crucified, from all that dimmed thy calvary, O Lamb of God deliver me. You know, we're overboard on laughter and happiness, let alone saying in the world, laugh and the world laughs with you. I change it, I say laugh and the church laughs with you, but weep and you weep alone. Do you get so near to the heart of God, we sang it on Friday, we had a marvelous Friday night prayer meeting, I wouldn't have taken that Friday night meeting for $10,000. God came and we were broken and humiliated before Him. Do you get so near to the heart of God that you share His grief over a world and over a backslidden church that we have today? Can He share His sorrow with you? Oh yes, you'll get filled with the Holy Ghost and get a bank balance, that's all right, if you do, God will hold you to account for it. But are you big enough to say, Lord, in this crucial hour in human history, let me fill up the sufferings of Christ? Are you prepared to challenge demon power and say, listen, I've moved into the place where the Apostle Paul was when he said, I glory in tribulation, in necessities, in reproaches. Because if you're going to get mature in God, all the dwarfs around you will criticize and sneer at you and say you're trying to be holier than the rest of us, eh? You say you don't have time for basketball or go and see a baseball game. No, maybe you don't, that's nobody's business but yours and God's. You'll discover this, the men who have been most heroic for God have been the men with the greatest devotion of life. I remind you again that one day I was in the Bible school of Wales and dear Mrs. Rees-Howes, her husband was dead now, we stood on the terrace there and she turned back and she said, you see the room there? I said yes, I see that room. That door, yes, Daddy, meaning her husband, went through that door at six o'clock in the morning and he stayed there till six o'clock at night. Every day for eleven months except the one day that his mother died. We've mutilated all the hymns, most of Charles Wresley's hymns are up thirty stanzas, now they're about six. We've done that with other things. You'll see a little board up in homes, in offices sometimes, only one life shall soon be passed, only what's done for God will last. That's not what the poet wrote. The poet wrote this, only one life shall soon be passed, only what's done for God will last and when I am dying, how glad I shall be if the lamp of my life has been burned out for thee. You think all Christians die happy, not on your life. They die as miserable sinners, some of them. Why? Because I've misused my time and I've misused Lord if you'll only spare me to do this. Some of you prayed that on a hospital bed. Some of you women when you thought you were dying giving birth to a child said, Lord if you spare my life I'll do this and that. Have you done this? The only thing that will tie me in victory continually through the blood of Christ is my personal devotion to Him, the Son of God. My adoration that I give Him my tribute every day. It's more than my service, it's more than giving my money. That I love Him and I adore Him and I magnify Him. And I take Him as it were by the feet. For all the people who worshipped Jesus the woman came and brought an alabaster box of ointment and she was at His feet. She was at His feet on every occasion. That woman, if you follow the story through, when He appeared in the upper room they seized Him by the feet. You get a little bit further in the book of Revelation or if you go to the sixth chapter again you find there it says at the end that the four and twenty elders now they fell down at His feet. Do you wonder Matthew Bridges wrote that lovely hymn crown Him with many crowns the Lamb upon His throne. Crown Him the Lord of Spheres. The potent aid of a child. Crown Him the Lord of Love. Crown Him the Lord of Spirit and power a scepter sways from pole to pole that war may cease and all be prayer and praise. The one thing that's wrong with that world outside is it thinks it's done with Jesus Christ it hasn't even started with Him yet. For He stands at the end of the trail for every man rich or poor bondman or free black or white intellectual or ignoramus. What's your devotional life this morning? Would you like Gabriel to hand me the book of your devotional life for the last month and read it to this fine audience? The gold is going to be tried for our devotional life. The silver what is the silver? I guess you can interpret it different ways I like to interpret it this way the book of Proverbs says the tongue of the just is as choice silver. Every idle word you've spoken even since you were saved God has a kind of you know He doesn't need a tape recorder but He has an eternal record of it you know the gossip the slander the criticism the prejudice you know when somebody upset you and instead of being quiet you spilled out just what was on your heart at that moment Can you think of all those awesome works? Can you think of all the words we preached to thousands of people over the years and we're going to answer and the fire is going to be put to them? Well will they behave and stumble or will they abide the fire? The fire shall try every believer's work. Silver, gold, precious stone what are the precious stones? Well when I read that I think of the breastplate that was on the priest the priest in the Old Testament it was divided into twelve each stone was a different stone each stone had the name of the tribe on it and he went into the holy place to pray with a breastplate on him oh well how do you handle this? How do you handle this? Do you know why the world is poor and thick outside? Because we really don't know how to pray that's why because we're so satisfied we've left our lousy living and we don't drink and lust and damn ourselves every day and now we're Christians and we're so content and so happy and so satisfied I've said it many times I say it again this morning that no man is greater than his prayer life I don't care about his organization and his these boys all have a what is it a mailing list doesn't worry me let me live with a man a while and share his prayer life and I'll tell you how tall I think he is or how majestic I think he is in God supposing I could say to Gabriel this morning Gabriel hand this book down let's preview eternity here we are millions of people all the prayer bodies America has produced some of the greatest praying patient of Portland had a floor harder than that and at the side of his bed when he knows he used to pray and pray and pray and when they washed his body for burial he had great big holes on his knees like camels like history says that James in the Bible had camel's knees at least tradition says that but it's a living fact that patient had them and when they were washing him somebody said what abnormal knees they're calloused they're heavy with calluses yeah because he used to pray at the side of his bed with energy and in that hard floor he wore two grooves like that about 6 or 7 inches long where he used to pray and make intercession praying patient of Portland many of you can buy the book if you haven't read it I think it's in the book he's still there praying Hyde John Hyde I met somebody who used to hear him pray and told me what an amazing thing it was to hear him pray in India you know we think we've got a message you've got to drop it here and run there and catch a plane here and go there no no that's not the greatest ministry it's good God has ordained it but the greatest ministry I'm sure is the ministry of intercession let's ask Gabriel to hand the book down let's look at all the apostles and all the saints of all the ages there's Finney look there's Finney with his amazing revival there's William Bull the founder of the salvation army there's John Wesley here are all the great heroic figures we've all read about them and here they are all watching while the book is handed down and somebody's going to read the record would you would you volunteer and say well I'd be happy if you read my record to this multitude supposing I say Gabriel handed the record for 1724 and I open the book there I read 1724 I go down the bees David Braynard just a young American died at the age of 28 all he possessed was a cow hide that he said cross your legs under the table and let's just have a nice time of conversation and Wesley said I'm sorry I have to go oh but it is not yet nine o'clock no it's not well why are you going he said I have an appointment in the morning at four o'clock at four o'clock tomorrow morning every morning of my life he said with who with God he disciplined his life he disciplined his body in eating he disciplined his hand in his pocket we shall stand at the judgment seat of Christ an awesome prospect for any of us for the Henry says the eternal glories gleam afar to nerve my faint endeavour so now to watch to work to war and then to rest forever we had a lady in a church that I pastored actually I was assistant pastor and the lady was the wife of the pastor Dr. Fawcett and she didn't have a great voice but they often asked her to sing and she used to sing the same old hymn every time and the last verse of that hymn said this he was not willing that any should perish am I his follower and can I live longer at ease with these souls going downward lost for the last lack of the help I might give he was not willing that any should perish master forgive and inspire us anew banish our worldliness help us to ever live with eternity's values in view said that great man who birthed that revival God stamp eternity on my eyeballs you know if we can't live as a different breed of people on this earth we have no right to live here we shouldn't be affected by changing customs or changing styles or changing opinions or whether the stock market goes up or down or whether the clouds are gathering for that doesn't make any odds we ought to live every day as though we come out of another world into this world with the power of that world upon us to live and speak and move and have our being in Jesus Christ it's going to be an awesome day have you kind of figured how you'll get on when you stand there before all the saints of all the ages and you and I to stand there alone on the dais and be judged for the deeds done in the body for every aspect of our lives for our praying for our giving for our living for our talking no it's not so simple to be a Christian after all it's a majestic thing I remember crossing a square in the city of Bath in the 1940s I saw two very fine young ladies one was a young lady the other was only a girl and they were erect and beautifully dressed and they marched across that square and I thought there's something different about those girls and then when I went round the other side I discovered it was they were princesses at that time our present Queen of England Queen Elizabeth and her sister Margaret it was the princesses of the royal family and you know there was a dignity about them very different from anybody else who walked and the word of God said as he was so are we in this world we are to live eternity conscious in time ready to be cut off at any moment supposing you were cut off at this moment would you like your life story read before all the millions in eternity do you think you might shrink when you hear how God used David Brainerd or John Wesley or some little washer woman down there that has a life of intercession or a little woman in Ireland and she had two shops and this shop it paid all the family expenses and this shop she saved all the money for all the and she spent one two three four of her children to the mission field and she can answer them all man she's going to have a reward one day isn't she because she was doing it as unto him and I don't care there's no burden too heavy there's no situation too hard for the one that you love and if we're love controlled love motivated love energized be alright when we stand up there because if there's anything about love one thing about it is it's obedient and if we get back to a people who are really baptized with obedience submissive to the total will of God not concerned about human opinion not asking for more to spend prodigally on ourselves but say oh God I want this life of mine adjusting so I when I stand in your awesome presence as James says we shall not be ashamed as it's appearing let's pray