Leonard Ravenhill emphasizes the significance of true worship in his sermon on Exodus 24-25, arguing that many churchgoers come to hear about God rather than to meet Him. He reflects on the need for a deeper understanding of worship, contrasting it with mere praise and highlighting the importance of personal encounters with God. Ravenhill shares anecdotes of preachers and congregations that have lost sight of genuine worship, urging believers to seek a transformative experience with the Holy Spirit. He illustrates that worship is not about rituals or performances but about a heartfelt connection with God, culminating in the realization that true worship leads to a profound encounter with His glory.

A preacher made a comment about another preacher, and he said this, this man is a big wheel in Bible teaching. Well I don't believe there are any big wheels in Bible teaching, I don't believe any big wheel preachers. The most that a man can hope to be is a spoke in that wheel, because no man has a monotony of knowledge, apart from you personally, but there's a lot of land there to be possessed for all of us, no question about this at all. Mr. Spurgeon was once asked which was the best commentary on the Bible, and he said the Bible. And a hymn writer says God is his own interpreter. Sometimes in England I used to sit and listen to Dr. G. Campbell Morgan, Wilbur Smith said he was the greatest Bible expositor ever heard. It seemed when he walked out of the office, just to the best, he changed the atmosphere by the way he walked in. He looked as though he'd come from another world. And I heard him say on one occasion, with no mock modesty at all, didn't have his tongue in his teeth, wasn't apologetic. And I remember he said, I know so little about the Bible. He'd written 51 books on it. I think I've read about 40 of them, but he said I don't know much about the Bible. The fellow who knows most about the Bible graduated last June, and he's looking for a church worthy of him, and who knows, he might even find it. But the man who knows the most knows the least. I knew a lot more about everything 30 years ago than I know now. So, as somebody said, the Bible is like a crystal stream where a lamb can splash its feet, and it's like an ocean where an elephant can swim. It's still true for all of us, however much we know, however much we've studied, that we still see through a glass darkly. There's limited knowledge, and there's progressive revelation. There is a book, you'll hardly find it now, I looked for it for 30 years and got it not too long ago. There's an abridged volume, but I managed to get an abridged volume on, it was written by Lance Green, he's a very good writer. And the title is The Possibilities of Grace, written by Lowry. I think the title is very wonderful, The Possibilities of Grace. I wonder how many of us want to explore them, really, to the full. I said last night I want to at least try to deal with a subject which is, I think, more difficult to deal with, and it's something we know less about even than the tremendous life of prayer. Last year I was privileged to talk to about a hundred pastors and a few deacons back in the swamps, away there in Florida. They just told me that you'll be preaching to preachers, and then they told me just where it was, gave me a kind of map and located it, and strangely enough, these preachers were living in a camp for the rehabilitation of alcoholics. I don't know what the connection was, but that's where we preachers met. And the Lord just slew those men one night. I didn't get through preaching, I quit preaching, started praying, and heard a chair scatter and looked and most of the preachers were lying prostrate on the floor. One of them said, will you come to my church Sunday morning on your way home and preach? And I said, well, okay, I'm not going anywhere, I'll be happy to do this. The night before we went to the church to preach, we went to dinner at the pastor's house. He's a big man, very, very attractive man, a man of scholarship, has a number of degrees, a wonderful personality, a great organizer, had a fabulous church. I'll never forget the way he looked over the dining, dinner table, and he said, wait a minute, look, and his eyes were filled with tears. He said, you mentioned something the other night I can't get away from, and though I was at Bible school, and though I was at seminary, and though I preach so much, I don't know the first thing about what you mentioned, and that was worship. I never heard a sermon on worship, I don't have a book on worship, nobody taught me to worship. Now I'm convinced, disagree if you like, but I'm convinced, again, that most of our people do not, N-O-T, do not come to church to meet God. They come to church to hear a sermon about God. And if God the Holy Ghost descended on us, some of them would run for the door as quickly as they could make it. I preached in a conference of Pentecostal priesthood, isn't that awful? And I said, we're all Pentecostal priesthood yet, and they raised their hands, and I said, well I hope you do have a Pentecostal church. They went to church every day, they prayed every day, they broke bread every day, and people ran into the Lord every day. Do you have a church like that? Raise your hand. It wasn't a hand raised. You can't prove, I don't think, from the New Testament, that people went to church to get saved. They went to church because they were all saved. Through the aggressive testimony of God, we went out everywhere. Church was so full, so pregnant with the Holy Ghost, that no man dared join the church. And I sure feel a bit bored Sunday morning, tired of saying, we'll sing hymn number one, sit down, and pray, hymn number two, stand up, hymn number three, sit down, stand up, sit down, take the offering, stand up, sit down. Everybody knows what's coming. You mimeographed it last Wednesday. But in a meeting where the Spirit operates, you don't, you get some awful surprises. And if you've never tried this, try it. When some of the old hypocrites come in and say, before we sing the second verse, Brother John, did you do so-and-so? He says, hi, Pastor Jack, I did it. You lied to the Holy Ghost. You deacons, carry him out. That's a good start. And I can prove to you that when they went to church, they didn't go for an hour and turn the Holy Ghost off at twelve o'clock, like we infidel people do. Because it says his wife went to church three hours later, and the meeting was still on. Our people couldn't sit in church three hours. They can sit on the bleachers. If you're short of money, I'll tell you what to do. You invent a church pew as soft as a bleacher, and you'll have it made. Because they'll set the pews awfully hard. But the bleachers never get hard. They can sit there till they're bleached. And you know what? They're still happy and they'll take more. Oh, Sister Sapphira comes in. Hey, Sister, did you do so-and-so? Yes. You lied to the Holy Ghost. Not me. Get out of here. And they carried her out. Now, if you've never started a service by killing two of your members, you've never had a threat in your life, really. But be most careful what you name them, because if you raise your hand and say you're liars, you perish. You could have no congregation left. But he just pointed them out, you see. And he said, you liar, and you lie. You lied to the Holy Ghost. Now, listen, that's his apostolic, him speaking in tongues or doing all the other miracles. Do you want anybody running to church where a brother had the gift of discerning like that? Not on your life. But that's apostolic Christianity. And if they didn't die, in some of the great meetings of Finney and Wesley, people were so prostrated under the Holy Ghost that they keeled over at ten o'clock at night and Mr. Wesley said they were still there at two and three o'clock in the morning. That's when the Holy Ghost said the convicting, instead of a preacher trying to do it. The good book says and the good book proves that God's ways are not our ways and his thoughts are not our thoughts. Do you know what God did when he wanted to describe how he made the world? He took one chapter here in Genesis, just one chapter with 31 verses. But when he wanted to explain how he made the camp of Israel, he took seven chapters and 243 verses. Now, wouldn't you think that God would take 243 verses to tell us how he made the world rather than I made a little patch in the middle of it? But God's ways are not our ways and his thoughts are not our thoughts. And do you know the first thing God did before every day specifications as to the size of that camp, before he did, let me read some exciting scripture to you in the 24th chapter of the book of Exodus. It says in verse 9, verse 9, 24 of Exodus, Then went up Moses, Aaron, Moab, and Abihu in the cities of Israel, listen, and they saw the God of Israel, and there was under his feet as it were a paved road and a sapphire stone, and as it were the body of heaven in his clearness, and upon the nobles of the children of Israel he laid not his hands, also they saw God and would eat and drink. Now, preacher, there's a great text here to struggle with next Sunday morning. It says they sat down and ate and drank with God. I'll leave it to work that out. Then go further in the chapter, verse 10, The glory of the Lord abode upon them on Mount Sinai, and the crowd covered it six days, and the seventh day he called Moses out in the midst of the cloud. And the sight of the glory of the Lord was like a devouring fire in the top of the mountain in the eyes of the children of Israel. Go down to verse 8 in the next chapter, Let them make me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them. Verse 17, And I shall make a mercy seat of pure gold, two cubits and a half should be the length of it, and a cubit and a half should be the breadth of it. Verse 20, The cherubim shall stretch forth their wings on high, covering the mercy seat with their wings, and their faces shall look one toward another. Toward the mercy seat shall the faces of the cherubim be. And I shall put the mercy seat above upon the earth, and the ark I shall put in the testimony that I shall give thee. And there will I meet with thee, and will commune with thee from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubims, which are upon the ark of the testimony of all things, which I will give thee in commandment unto the children of Israel. Now the first thing that God was concerned about was not here the dimensions of this wonderful camp, or even the tabernacle itself. The first thing he said is the place that I will meet with thee. I wonder how often we really do meet with God when we come to the house of God. Not just hear a sermon about him, however brilliant, juggling act we do, but when suddenly you realize that one who walks in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks is walking in your midst, and you go out breathless. You don't have a word to say to anybody. I was in a meeting not long ago, about a year ago or something like that, and it was a big church, it was crowded, it's wealthy, I looked at the millionaires and others there, and there was a bit of blessing around. But you know before we got over the front step, one fellow says, Hey Jack, you think the dolphins will do it this afternoon? Boy, aren't they going strong. The preacher was standing a few yards from him, and if I'd been the preacher I would have been disgusted, maybe resigned on the spot. But we'd been in the holy place of God so called, and we still hadn't got detached from a sports game and a program. God says, I want you to make a tabernacle. There will I meet with thee. And after he gives the dimensions of the camp of Israel, he gives the dimensions of the tabernacle itself. It was a hundred and fifty cubits, you remember, by what? Do you remember what it was? A hundred by fifty. Alright? That was the camp if you like. And then there was right in the midst of it the holy place. This holy place was only twenty cubits by ten cubits, which left still, since the other was thirty by ten, it left ten cubits for the holy of holies. That was ten cubits by ten cubits by ten cubits. Now God laid down the specifications and he said the people who camp nearest to the tabernacle itself are to be the sons of Aaron. Those who minister in the most holy place. And next to them are the Levites, and they minister to the public, do the general things for the public. And further off still, you have the warriors. Very interesting to me at least, that I read in Numbers chapter one and verse three. Pardon me. Numbers one verse three says, from twenty years old and upward, all they that are able to go forth to war in Israel. So then you have to be twenty years of age before you could go to war. It says in chapter eight and verse twenty four, that this is it that belongeth unto the Levites from twenty-five years old. It says in the fourth chapter, verse three, from thirty years old and upward, even until fifty years old, shall they enter into the holiest place of all. You see you've got, you've got the warriors. And then you've got the workers. And then you've got the worshippers. Isn't it interesting that a man could not go into the holy of holies until he was thirty years of age. Don't ask me why, I don't know. But I do know this, that John the Baptist didn't preach until he was thirty, and I know Jesus didn't preach until he was thirty, and Joshua didn't preach until he was thirty, and the wonderful life of Joseph didn't begin until he was thirty. And if you trace, you'll discover in the Old Testament, because the word of God said, a man cannot go into the holiest place of all. Now he can be a warrior when he's twenty, because you don't need brains to kill anybody. And so you can be a warrior outside. He cannot be a Levite until he is twenty-five years of age, ministering in the outer courts. He cannot enter into the holiest place of all until he's thirty years of age. That suggests to me that not until you get up in your spiritual life, do you really know how to worship. You see, in that outer camp, there was a gorgeous sunlight. When you went into the holy place, there was no sunlight. You know, there were no steps going into that tabernacle, so you didn't trip up. There were no locks on the door, so nobody could lock you out. There were no windows to let in the daylight. And the only illumination was a seven-branch candlestick. But when you went into the holiest place of all, there was no seven-branch candlestick. You were dependent upon one thing. Unless the Shekinah glory of God came, it was total darkness. You know why we get through so many of our services? Because we light the seven-branch candlestick of our own brilliance, and our own ability, and our own cleverness to handle the word of God. But seldom do we say the blinding light of God's holiness. We're satisfied with a seven-branch candlestick. Again, I remind you that it's easy to be a Levite, because they ministered to the people. Most of our preachers get weary ministering to the people. I don't believe you have any right running to hospitals. I don't believe you have any right burying the dead. You know what it says in the New Testament? Well, it didn't have a system like that. They had such a system that even though they were anointed with the Holy Ghost and a miraculous ministry, they said, you know, it's a full-time occupation waiting on God. The sixth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles says of a preacher, he not to run here and run there and be dispensing widows' tithes and looking after the poor and all the other things. The church may do that, but not the man of God. He's to stay in the holy place where the Shekinah comes and saturates his spirit and comes as a dying man to dying men with the glory of God in his eyes, with the anointing of God on his spirit, and he becomes a fearsome man. People don't fear the men of God anymore. And do you know what? The more we lose the Shekinah glory, the more trimmings and fillings you have to put in the church. You've got to roll the choir. You've got to have sustained glass windows. You've got to have Jimmy Jones and his quartet come and give you the latest selection of Mickey Mouse. You've got to find a guy who can play a trumpet with his ears or somebody who can stand on his head or some other guy that comes with some silly paraphernalia or will you come to church because there's a dollar bill under the bus seat. A fellow gave me a leaflet not long ago, and it said, if you come to church Sunday morning on our bus, you'll get an ice cream cone going out with a blob of ice cream. If you bring a visitor, there'll be two blobs of ice cream. If you bring three, you'll get three blobs of ice cream. And the man said to me, look at that. That's the way to get them to church. What do you think? I said, a church depending on ice cream isn't worth a lick. In all those in one. Do you know, sir, do you know that I believe that even when you advertise in the newspaper you're putting a shingle out that the glory of God is not in the mix? You never have to advertise a fire. And the symbol of the church of Jesus Christ is not even the old rugged cross. The symbol of the apostolic church, the New Testament church, was a can of fire. Our God is a consuming fire. And people say sometimes, you know, the fire falls on the altar. The fire doesn't fall on the altar. You can't prove that from Scripture. I'll tell you where the fire falls. It falls on the sacrifice. And God doesn't have to anoint your brilliance or Bible knowledge that you and I may have. God's fire falls on the sacrifice. Now again, you can minister in the out of the court and work yourself to death and be a popular nice kind of a guy. And not worship God. Worship, I'm convinced, is the least known exercise in the church of the living God. I've been in bookshop after bookshop after bookshop and said to them, do you have a book on worship? And they say, I don't know, I'll ask the manager. And I know before they come back that they don't have a book on worship. Verse 43 of the 19th chapter of Exodus says, There will I meet with thee, with the children of Israel, and the tabernacle shall be sanctified. Shall be holy. You know, I can take the course of the church five minutes after I enter it, two minutes after I enter it. You know why? That if you walk in most churches and close your eyes, you'll think you're in a supermarket. Yack, yack, blup, blup, blup, blup, blup. I was standing in the church not long ago and the woman behind said, Oh, you should see my husband with his dentures out. Oh, he's a sight. She laughed and laughed away. And then she talks some other junk. And I thought, listen, are you preparing the way for the preacher and for the Holy Ghost to descend? It's an awesome thing when the glory of God fills the temple. There's no room for anything else or anybody else. I think again and again, I don't have a message on this, I'd like to get one, but Moses said, Show me thy glory. Boy, if I'd divided the Red Sea and done all the things that he'd done, I think I'd seen it. If I did everything the Apostle Paul did, that out of his inmost being had flowed streams of living water, so he'd established churches in rotten, corrupt cities like Corinth and elsewhere, I think I'd seen everything. If I could raise the dead and do the miraculous, and do you know what he says? I forget the things that are behind. And usually we say, you know, all those bad things and all the failures. I don't believe he meant that. He means forget your successes, otherwise you'll get satisfied with them. Forget everything. And he says when he's a ripe and a wonderful preacher and a profound theologian and a miracle worker and everything else that God had invested in, he says that still thou may know him and the power of his resurrection. In other words, there's still more and more and more in the boundless power and revelation of God. Do you notice that in the progressive demands of God, again, a soldier, 20, a Levite, 25, and a priest in the holy place, 30 years of age, they're all in fives, aren't they? All the dimensions of the tabernacle, if you read it carefully, they were all in fives. The outer court was 100 feet by 50. The other place was, what, 30 cubits by 10. Multiples, again, of five. Do you know that when they consecrated the priest, they took five rare herbs, beautiful, costly herbs, and they pounded them to powder, that's four, and then they mixed them with oil, that makes five, and they anointed him. And do you know what it says? That the anointing oil could have no imitation. I like that. Listen, you can do all the fireworks you like and jestic you like, but no more to use your voice, what we call histrionics. Do you know many of our people don't know the difference between liberty and eloquence and anointing? But I'd rather you don't sit there long after God, the Holy Ghost has risen, and you know what's in the flesh, and the man that's cutting and making the platform a showcase for his brilliance, that there is no substitute for the anointing. God says there should be no imitation of this holy oil. And I don't know how you pray, but sometimes I say, thank you, Lord, for the incorruptible Holy Ghost. I'm glad you can't buy him with your money. I'm glad you can't say, well, you're going to notice all my certificates on the wall, you know, I've got all those diplomas. I've even been to New College, Edinburgh, and I got my Ph.D. there. I got mine recently, and I'm very happy about it. Got my Ph.D., preaching holiness doctrine. But you know our brilliance won't disturb the devil, and it won't give us any more favor with God. Or if you want to covet one thing from God, covet that mysterious, indefinable, that which belongs to Almighty God, and he'll give it, nobody else can give it. There is no imitation for the anointing oil that has five parts to it. And you know, there's not only no imitation, thank God there's no limitation either. There's no limitation. Five again is the number of grace, isn't it? That's why this is all in dimensions of five. This is why right in the center of the camp of Israel you have the tabernacle again outlined for us, or the holy place, you know why? Because it's typical of Christ. And Christ must be in the midst. He is the center and circumference. He is the light and the life. He is the Alpha and the Omega, but he must be there right down dead deep in the center himself. Number five, number four, is the number of creation. Four corners of the earth, four seasons of the year, think of all the fours that there are. Men have laughed, you know, and said, you know, the Bible's silly. Talks about the four corners of the earth, and we've had pictures from the astronauts showing us that the world is round, it's a sphere. But you know what they did? When they took a camera shot up in the sky there, they found the earth had four corners to it. They actually have a picture of the earth with four corners. That doesn't prove the Bible, the Bible just proves they're right. Some people think God is looking for sponsors, forget it. He isn't looking for scientific wisdom, he isn't looking for sponsors. It's hard to believe, isn't it, that if you die the kingdom will hold together tomorrow. That's, I mean, you know, I mean with your knowledge and your ability. But God will somehow still carry on if you and I get out of the picture. Maybe he'll carry on a bit quicker if some of us get out, but there you are. All the dimensions of the tabernacle, the holy place and the tabernacle are dimensions of five. Five is the number of grace. We need that. And you know, when that little guy, oh, I like the good old book. You know, there's a big man standing around and all the big shots were there. The king was there and the prince was there and some stately men, six brothers were there all in their shining armor and they had their helmets on and they were very wonderful men. They'd all graduated at West Point with honors. But every day a fellow came out, when he walked the very earth shook and when he talked he was like a cloud of thunder. And a little boy came up one day and said, hey brother, there's your lunch, your bread and your teas. And he said, by the way, daddy was saying you've been away a long while. When are you coming home? When is this battle? What are you here for? Oh, we're here to do battle. I would have said, why don't you do it and go home? But we're here to do battle. With whom? Oh, with whom? Boy, if you saw him you'd be terrified. He's nearly ten feet high and he's a terrible man to look at. Well, why don't you kill him? What do you mean, why don't you kill him? Even Saul is the tallest man in the world. Apart from him, he can't tackle him. And his brilliant son can't do it and the officers can't do it and the men can't do it. And the little fellow said, well, I've got to get back to my sheep. Do you mind if I kill him before I go home? He said, what do you mean if you kill him just before you go home? Think you can do what nobody else can do? He said, well, I'd like to try. I can kill him and somebody was taping a conversation. And so they said, let's replay this a minute. Nothing missing on this page. Well, what did that little guy say? He said, I could get rid of that giant. Tell the king that the men can take our embarrassment away. And the king says, come here, son. Do you think you could really do the job? He said, oh, I have no doubt. I can do it. What makes you think so? Well, one night I was looking after the sheep and there came a lion. So I called a committee meeting and I sent for a crowd of people and said, say, would you help me track this lion down and get rid of him? Do you have an atom bomb in your pocket, something that could shatter him? No, he says, there came a lion. I said, this is what I'm here for. I'm a good shepherd. The lion is a type of a bevel that goes about roaring, but he didn't worry about that. The little fellow went up and he took the lion and he slew him and tossed him away. And another night he said, I was there and a bear came along. And I got him and punched him on the nose, said, you come back, I'll kill you. Now, if I can slay those people when there's nobody there to applaud, you see, a lot of us want so much applause for what we do. He that is faithful in that which is least will be faithful in much. If God has been with you in secret, he will be with you openly. And he said, listen, time's running out. Do you mind if I get rid of this giant? I've got to get back to my sheep. And the king says, all right. Here, sir, let me tell you something. I want you to put my helmet on. He put the helmet on and it came down on his shoulders. He says, I can't see where I'm going. Will you take that off? Well, at least put my breastplate. He says, I can't move. It's crippling my knee. Do you know what he's saying? He says, king, I want to tell you something. The weapons of our warfare are not carnal. Do you know what it says concerning the big guy that was coming along? It says he had a shield bearer. Ah, you say, David didn't have a shield bearer. Oh, wait a minute. He wrote it in the psalm, didn't he? He says, the Lord is a son and he's my shield. Not that he makes a shield. He is the shield. And how do you think you're going to get by God He wasn't really sure, was he? The giant thought he was after David. He's after David. What's omnipotence? How can it blast omnipotence? And they're all looking round the edge of the tent. Did you hear what he said? Come on, sonny. I'll break your knee and feed the birds with you. And David says, well, I was just thinking I'd do that with you. Hold it a minute. And he goes to the brook and he picked up four stones. Wasn't it? Was it four? It was five. The number of grace. Boy, you need all the grace you can get when you're going to meet a giant that size, you know. And he picked up five stones. And this guy had armour plated here and there and everywhere. And the only place he'd left unprotected was his mind. That's like a lot of preachers. They've got all the armour everywhere except here and the old devil gets him. And little David just says, well, here we go. And up went the stone and went right in there. You know, such a thing had never entered his head before. It went straight in and down he goes. Well, why did he have four other stones? For the simple reason Goliath had four other brothers. And he was hoping when Goliath went down, the others would come up and he'd say, that's number two. Come on. Number three, number four, number five. Got rid of you all. Lord and conquerors, a super abundance of what we need. When David was going to blast Goliath, he took five stones. But there was somebody bigger than Goliath. There was a person called the devil and Jesus was alone in a battle. He didn't have a committee meeting. He had disciples. And when he met Satan, what did Jesus do? He threw the fifth stone at him. How do you know? Because Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. And every time he hit the devil, he hit him out of the fifth book in the Bible. It is written, it is written, it is written. The number of grace. Boundless, wonderful grace of Jesus we sing sometimes in a hymn, don't we? Let's say two things about this place. God has ordained a holy place. You see, prayer is preoccupation with our needs. Praise is preoccupation with our blessings. Worth it is preoccupation with God. Are you grown up enough? Some of you are anyhow, to understand what I mean when I say I'm not concerned whether God blesses me or not. Not a bit. When you pray, bless me, bless me, bless me, you're still a junior or an infant spiritually. But when you pray, make me a blessing, you've grown up. Because I'm not looking that he'll just help me and do something. I'm looking to be in that place where if he makes me broken bread and poured out wine, as long as he uses me somehow and makes me a blessing to himself, not just makes him a blessing to me, but I'm so usable and available to God that I don't pray, Lord, bless me, make me a blessing. Let's just divide this into sections. I know you like three, but I'll make it two this morning. Let's first, for a minute, talk about the prize of worship. The prize of worship. What was the thing that Satan coveted most when he met Jesus there? What did he say to Jesus? Look, your father is going to cast me into the bottomless pit. Now, will you plead with him to take me back in the kingdom and restore my glory? There was a time when I had every precious stone for my covering. There was a time when I walked in the midst of fire, and now I'm going to hellfire. Would you ask your father to restore me, even if he makes me a little less than Gabriel and a little less than Michael? Just restore me back to my place in eternity. Would you do that? Or will you give me some wisdom now to choose a little government? He didn't say that. He says, if thou wilt worship me, because worship means you're acknowledging you're inferior to somebody else, that they deserve your homage, that they deserve every precious thing that you have, and Satan says, I just want one thing from you, Jesus, and I'll give you the kingdoms of this world. And Jesus didn't say, you're a liar, they're not yours to give, because they are his to give temporarily. There are only two kingdoms in this world, the kingdom of God and the kingdom of the devil, and you can't ride them both. And Satan says, if thou wilt fall down and worship me. There's the prize. What about the prize? Well, there were some men came, and they carried some treasures with them, gold, frankincense, and myrrh. And as smart as they were, they went to the wrong place. They said, well, if he's a king, he'll be in the palace of the king, and in the city of the king. And they went to the king, and he said, I don't know what you're talking about. But if you should find the one you're talking about, will you bring me news that I may go and worship him also? Now, what did they bring? They brought gifts. No, they brought precious gifts. You say, they did bring some gifts. They brought gold, frankincense, and myrrh. They brought more than that. They'd been journeying nearly two years, I guess. They had to give up their homes. They had to give up their friends. They had to give up their business connections. They were loaded with invisible gifts, but they said, we want him and worship him. We do have one or two churches still have prayer meetings, but I don't know any church where they have worship meetings. We have books written on prayer. I can't, I did find one written on worship. I seriously doubt if we can worship God in crowds, really. You certainly can't worship God on the timetable we have, stand up, sit down, and put the preacher up at twenty to twelve, and we have to finish at twelve o'clock. That's pure insulting the Holy Ghost, in my judgment. Well, the Holy Ghost didn't get in most of our meetings in the first hour. Anyhow, my boy, I'm hoping he'll come. He's been away nine years on the mission field, and just before we left, he said, Daddy, I may be home in the next two or three weeks. We haven't seen him for nine years, neither have I, to stay at home and see the boy I love so much, been working in jungles in South America and so forth. I haven't seen him for nine years. But, you know, he said he's helping in meetings in Buenos Aires, and he wrote us a while ago and he said, you know, Daddy, in our youth meeting. Oh, they're problems, aren't they? Why don't they make more films like Petite Faith? You know, it would help us a lot. Oh, poor kids, they're such jaded, spiritual appetite. And I don't know if we'd keep them together if we didn't have a church league at baseball. Some of these kids think they're going to get a star in the crown for hitting home runs for the church. Oh, it's a problem, I don't know how. I don't know what we'll do this winter, you know. It's nice in summer, we can take them out and they have their fun and they can even have mixed dating or anything, but when it gets to winter, it's a problem keeping them interested. You know, he says down there, he said, Daddy, we had a meeting the other night, we started about eight, and God was so present that for a whole hour we sat still in the sanctuary. And he said, I couldn't even open my mouth till eleven o'clock. And we didn't get home till four o'clock in the morning. I guarantee most of our churches, if you went over sixty minutes and ninety minutes, the kids would walk out one after the other. They have to bring a stack of bubblegum to keep them happy anyhow, while they're listening to you, whatever you say. But you don't have that when the glory of God fills the temple. They brought gifts, costly gifts. Oh, it costs, that's why we don't worship, it costs too much. You see that mountain up there, yes, you see those rocks, take my son and offer him. Oh, if God had said that to Abraham, he'd have said praise in that grave. Boy, at last, I'm going to be able to dump old Ishmael, he's been a headache. I went in the house the other day and the wife said, Abraham, come here, cast out this bum woman and her son. She's not going to live here, he's not going to live here. You see, he was the child of the flesh, and he was always struggling and opposing the child of the spirit or the child of promise. And she didn't say put him in the basement and reduce his energy and chain him up. She says, get him out of here, cast out the bum woman and her son. And the Lord just told me I can go on the mountain and offer. Boy, won't I be glad the moment Ishmael dies and gets out of the way. Do you know what God did? He wouldn't even acknowledge the child of the flesh. He didn't say take thy son, he says take thine only son. No, he says take thine only begotten son. He wouldn't acknowledge the thing of the flesh. We do so much activity. Do you know how many tracks I gave out today? Do you know how many doors I'm up on this week? Do you know what I've done? Oh, I'm so tired. Oh, this church is getting me down. I'm working myself to death. Lord, I believe you could work from morning to... I'll tell you something more. I believe you could get a hundred people at the altar every night and still Jesus Christ say, thou gavest me no case. Thou gavest me no water. Thou gavest me no offering. Because we get excited about our own ministry. And we get excited about our results and our statistics. Take thine only son. I would imagine that Abraham would have said, I'm going up there on the mountain to sacrifice. Do you know what he said? I'm going up on the mountain to worship. To give him the very best that I have. It's going to shatter my life. I don't know how he's going to do it. I don't know why he demands it of me. You see, God will never take the second best from you or anybody else. In the Old Testament, you couldn't say, Mary, we've got to go make an offering. And I notice we've got a lamb there with a limp in it. And I notice some naughty boys must have been throwing rocks. We've got a lamb there with an eye knocked out. You couldn't take anything that was defective to God in the Old Testament. You could find a perfect lamb, a perfect offering. Yeah, you can talk about tithing and that's all right. But the Malachi doesn't say bring your tithe into the storehouse. It says bring all the tithe in. And it's the zzzz that's the problem, you see. Because if you give God a tenth of your money, you should give him a tenth of your time. And that would be two hours and twenty-four minutes a day. And that's what he demands, and give him an offering on top. You should spend at least three hours alone every day with God. Brother, if we stress worship like we stress tithing, our churches will be jammed with saints. We'd be in the middle of the millennium, I think, right now. But oh, and I say this everywhere I go. I never vary wherever I go, big churches, little ones. Makes no difference. We're heavy on the tithing, aren't we? Why, sure we are. The preacher might have to go to work if we didn't get all the tithe in. But apart from that, you could give God ten thousand dollars every day of your life and still leave him disappointed. You can give out ten thousand tracts a day and still leave Jesus disappointed. You can walk a ladder up about this and that and the corruption around us and the failure of the church and still leave him disappointed. Do you remember Jesus met a woman and she said, well, you know what's wrong with you? Your theology's all so upside down. Because you say Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship, and I say this mountain is the place where we should worship. And Jesus says there's coming a time when neither in this mountain nor anywhere else do you necessarily have to go to worship God. The Irish sing an old hymn, where'er we seek thee thou art found, and every place is hallowed ground. You know, I've had some of my richest times of communion up in a plain 30,000 feet up in the sky. There was no steeple over my head and no stained-glass window. But I proved another thing out of the word of God. The good old book says, whither shall I go from my presence? And do you know God can be as real? 30,000 feet, and I'm glad he is. 30,000 feet up there, as he is in the building. I was in a church a while ago, and I often wondered why there's so many bushes around churches. I couldn't figure it out. So going in one day with my wife, I said, wait a minute, sweetheart. And I looked in the bushes, and do you know, they look like Christmas trees. They were stacked with butts of cigarettes from this size to this, all in the trees, you know. So one night before I preached, I said, now gentlemen, I'm through the presence of the Lord here, and I may be a bit lengthy, so as I begin to preach, do you mind taking out your cigarettes and you can smoke while I preach? What did he say? I said, Mr. Deacon, I said, take out your cigarettes and smoke while I preach. That's why I say smoke in here. I don't think it would offend God. Because if you, if you dirty God's temple outside of that door, what's the difference? Letting it up inside the door. You're the temple of God. Now I don't advocate smoking in church, not at all. But I say this, it makes no difference as far as I'm concerned. While one man says you can't prove from the scripture that men can't smoke, he said, no, I can prove they can. That they can smoke? Sure. What's the scripture? I can't give you the exact verse, but it's there in Revelation. It says, he that is holy, let him be holy still, and he that is perfect, let him be perfect still. And what did Sam Jones say when a man said, well, I believe we'll smoke in heaven? He said, you'll have to go to hell to spit it. Oh, my dear friend, listen. There's a lot of things we wouldn't do in what we call a holy building, but we allow them to be done in this holy temple of God. Take thy son, thine only son, Isaac, and offer him. It's costly. You know why? I say those wise men gave up their jobs and gave up their homes and they bought precious gifts. And you know what God says to Abraham? You'll have to leave your family, and you'll have to go up here, and then you'll have to leave your servants and get up there. And you know what he says to Moses? I brought one nation out of the nations of the world, and out of that one nation I brought one tribe, and out of that tribe I brought one family, and out of that family I appointed one man. And now, Moses, you come up the mountain and you can bring others with you. And he said, stop. They can't come any further. Disagree to that, you will only go so far with the church and with the preacher even, because God's going to take you and shut you up with himself. Leave the best people somewhere if you're going to really worship him in spirit and in truth. You'll have to leave your closest friends behind, and take the most precious thing you have into his holy presence. You know, I discovered something recently that rather saddened me. I was thinking of the fact that people say sometimes, when I go to a church and somewhere in the church the preacher says, well, lift up your hands up and praise the Lord. Isn't that worship? No, it isn't. Well, what is it? It's what he said. It's praise. He didn't ask you to worship. Sometimes he says, let's praise and worship God. And it's all over in two minutes. Boy, you can't worship God like that. One of the most startling things I heard Dr. Tozer say, and the brother has his books there, get every one of them. If he hasn't got them all, put them on your list, buy them and read them. And one day as I went in his office he said, Len, latch the door and let your hair down, relax, you know. And he pointed to a piece of dog-eared rug. He said, you see that rug? I said, yes, sir. Now, I've seen men making rugs by hand. I've seen them in foreign countries. I remember stopping off in the middle of the gate. It was Persia. And I thought in the airport, my, I'd like to buy that rug for my wife. It was only about six feet long and about four feet wide. I thought she'd love it. The colors are beautiful. Just what Martha likes. I went to the counter and he said, are you interested in anything? I said, yeah, I like that rug. Isn't it beautiful? Do you like it? He said, yes. That's a nice rug. It's handmade, you know, and it's beautiful. It's really a picture. It's an artist's creation. And I said, yeah, that's fine. Do you like the quality? Look, I like everything. And I want to get back on the play. How much is it? He said, well, it's reasonable for these days. You can have it for $580. Do you like it? I said, sure. I don't like the price, though. $580? Man alive. I want to cover the house for that. Here's a rug of Dr. Turser's. He said, Len, you see that rug? I said, yes, sir. It was about four feet by 30 inches. Now, this was in 1951. And he said, Len, I bought it in Kresge's for 69 cents. That's just about the pastor's price for a rug, isn't it? I looked at it again, and this is what he said. His very words, if he's listening in eternity, he could say amen. He said, Len, some mornings I come in so overwhelmed with the majesty and the glory and the greatness of God, I lift my phone off the cradle and I say, Margaret, to my secretary, when I get home today, I won't be dictating any letters, put a notice on my office door, and I can't interview any people, and I won't be writing. Come back in the morning. And his exact words were these, Len, I get down on that rug with a good old English word on my belly at 8 o'clock in the morning. I'm still there at 10, sometimes still there at 11, sometimes still there at 12 and after 12 o'clock, and I haven't said one word of prayer, and I haven't offered one word of praise. Again, I tell you that prayer is preoccupation with our needs, and praise is preoccupation with our blessing, but worship is preoccupation with God himself. And one hymn writer says, my goal is God himself, not joy, not peace, not even blessing, but the deed I go. Tell me, preacher, when did you last spend one hour on your belly without praise, without praising, and just seeing him in his glory and his majesty? There's nothing the church needs more than a new revelation of the holiness and majesty of God. And like that man with the tears in his eyes, he said, I never dwelt on this, nobody ever instructed me in this, I never learned to worship God. I met a man the other day who said, you know, Raymond, I went home last night, and I just got down before God, and I just told him I'm sorry. I've asked you to do this for me, and I thank you for doing that for me, and I've been so busy looking about the middle toe on the left foot of Daniel's image, and a few other things, that I'm not sure I ever worshipped God in my life. But he said last night, I just got down, and I didn't praise him, and I didn't pray, I just gazed on his holiness. I just meditated on his faithfulness, on his majesty, on his beauty. This is why we do it so little, it costs an old golf bag or something else. The supreme illustration of it, I think, is in a woman that came to Jesus, and it's in each of the gospels, you remember, and she had no right to come. It wasn't according to protocol. But she came through the door, and she planned this. It wasn't unpremeditated, but it was unprecedented. And she said, if I can get there near that miracle worker, I'm going to get him. And when there was nobody looking, she ran in. And a man said to his master, Master, quick, you know that certain woman in town? Yeah. If she comes near, turn the dogs on her. Master, she's here inside with this prophet. Boy, I missed it again. He's no prophet. You know what kind of a woman she is. Why, kick her to hell and back. He doesn't know what he's doing. And Jesus turned around and said, Simon, I've some what to say to thee. There was a certain man who had two debtors. One owed him 500 pence, the other owed him 50. And when they were both broke, the man said, listen, I've come into such an inheritance, forget about your 500 pence or your 50. Who do you think would love you the most? Well, logically, the man that owes the biggest debt. Exactly, he said. Simon, seest thou this woman? I entered into thine house. Thou gavest me no water. Thou gavest me no oil. Thou gavest me no kiss but this woman. What did she do? She could have washed his feet with water. She washed his feet with the tears. Wash his feet with water? Never in your life. Dry his feet with towel? Never in your life. She pulled out the pins and laid her long hair down and got those feet and rubbed them in that silky hair of hers. A woman's glory is her hair and she humbled herself and she brought her richest gift. And then she didn't anoint him with oil, which he could have done quite legally. She brought spikenard, which was very precious, the book said. And it served his only way to town. And you know, a week after, that woman stood there at the cross and everybody was weeping. I'm going to suggest to you that she was smiling. Everybody was sad. She was glad. She was saying, Lord, I see the blood running out of your feet, but oh I'm so glad when I could I came and I took your feet in my hands. Wesley, Charles Wesley has a hymn that says, Oh let me kiss thy bleeding feet and bury them and wash them with my tears. The story of thy love repeats in every grouping sinner's ears that all mankind with me may prove thy sovereign everlasting love. Maybe God's inspiration here. You know, this woman is always found at the feet of Jesus. She's found at the feet of Jesus when she's in grief. Her brother had died, Lazarus. She's found at the feet of Jesus. Sister Mary says, did my sister get up and do something? You know, people say sometimes, well, I'm a martyr. I have martyr's disposition, not Mary's. You see, she had a nice disposition. She wasn't like me. Forget it. It's got nothing to do with disposition. Why? Because it says that Mary chose to sit at his feet. And if you don't worship, it's because you don't choose it. You'd rather do something else. If you haven't looked, what did this woman do? She never said a word to Jesus. Well, that's what Moses said, you don't say a word. That's what the holy beings say in eternity. All they do is praise and magnify and glorify. There are going to be no prayer meetings in heaven, no healing meetings in heaven. Rather, learn all you can and understand as much as you can. And when you get to heaven, you and I won't know the first thing about Jesus hardly. It's going to be progressive revelation for eternity. But I'll tell you what, there's going to be more healing meetings in heaven. And there are going to be an awful lot of things that we've been so preoccupied with. The woman never said a thing. She brought a costly gift and laid it at his feet. And that day she said, I'm glad I've been... Do you know what Jesus says? This woman has more insight than you theologians and even my disciples. Do you know what Jesus, against my burial heart she done this. And she brought a little box of ointment worth 300 pence. They only worked for a penny a day and women didn't get the same rates. No women lived then. And she didn't work every day in her life. This was a treasure. And if Lazarus was her brother, she didn't love him enough to break it on him when he died anyhow. She was saving up for a good funeral for herself. But she brought a box of ointment and anointed his feet. And there was only a pound in it. And after Jesus was dead, there were some men trundling up a hill with a big thing. It weighed a hundred pounds. Pounds of what? Of the same ointment that woman had. But the difference is she brought a gift while Jesus was living. And he brought it when he was dead and it was too late. Isn't it amazing what a lot of people are going to do for Jesus when they die. Oh I've made my will out, my relatives aren't going to get it and drink it and gamble it and all the rest. You know I'm going to leave a, don't mention this, I'm going to leave a hundred thousand to the church when I die. If you leave a hundred million, God won't give you a cent for every million you left. Why not? Sometimes we say that man has a wonderful gift and this woman has a gift to sing and they have a gift to play. No we don't say that, we say no they've got some talents. Do you know every time a talent is mentioned in the New Testament it has a price tag on it? That woman doesn't have a talent to sing, that man doesn't have a talent to play or organize. He has a gift but it's not a talent. A talent is always measured out in talents of gold and they have price tags on them. Now if you leave the Lord a hundred million dollars and He will, He won't give you ten cents for it in eternity. How do you know? Well look here's a man, look at this casket. He's a rich guy, he's just come from Texas but he died. And we've got him in a solid gold casket. And we've left a hundred million dollars to baptismation. Now just before I drop a leg will you kindly get up and come and five past and look at him. Did you take a good look at him? What does the scripture say? The Lord loveth the rich giver. What does it say? The Lord loveth the what? Well have a look at him, does he look very cheerful? He's the man that gave you a hundred million. Is he a cheerful giver? No, no, no, no, no. He didn't give it, he surrendered it because death put the pistol in his temple. If he was living today he'd still have his hundred million you see but the gun went and he's gone. No, this woman did not bring any language to Jesus. He'd heard enough of that. She brought a most treasured gift, a box of spikenard, a golden casket of hair, whatever it was, long, long hair. And well it worked a miracle in her life you know. How do you know? Well let's read all the false accounts of it. Do you know what it says? It says that after she anointed his feet with tears and wiped them with the hair of her head, that she anointed his feet and dried his feet with the hair of her head. Well then the fragrance that she poured out on him came back on her didn't it? Now you can preach without fragrance, you can organize without any fragrance. But I'll tell you what, you can't worship God in the holiest place of all without having what they said of the disciples, well we can't work these miracles and strange things out. And they took knowledge of them that they had been with Jesus. And Jesus says whatever the story is told around the world. Isn't it ironical that we don't know who went to the feast? I don't know who was there. All I know is the woman that shouldn't be on the guest list not only made it but she crashed the party and she got all the glory as we would say she crashed into the whole thing. And I don't know who was there, millionaires there and marvellous people. All I know is a woman that shouldn't be there was there and she brought the gift and I don't believe anybody else brought it. And do you know what, there's no evidence Jesus ate anything at that table. He wasn't hungry for that. Yes bring your gifts, bring your tithes, bring your talents, sing a solo, teach a Sunday school class. You could do that without worshipping him. This is something that I pay to him personally in the secret place. It's something that when you taste it, it grows on you more and more and more and more. You know I discovered counting by count and I was very surprised to find it that do you know in the Old Testament and the New Testament do you know how many times the word praise is mentioned? Well you may not have got it upside down. I was quite sure before I counted that in the New Testament it would mention praise a lot more than the Old Testament. But do you know in the Old Testament praise is mentioned within two or three 300 times praise is mentioned in the Old Testament. And in the New Testament praise is only mentioned 30 times plus about one or two. Isn't that a strange disparity? In the Old Testament people say these days you know oh man we're having wonderful meetings. You've never been in meetings like ours. Usually they call them charismatic or something and we hit the heights you know. It's amazing when you read the New Testament how they praise God. Can you honestly say that anybody in the New Testament ever got higher in their praise than the psalmist did? Boy he makes the bells ring doesn't he? He says one day you know he says let everything that's up breath praise the Lord! We live on a little bit of land a couple of acres and we've got a lot of big trees and those locusts get there. And with a lot of bull frogs in a swamp behind us and I don't know every creature under heaven. When we go to bed at night and I say to Martha sometimes listen let me open and I listen to her and I go like brrrr quack quack quack quack quack quack And the frogs are going, and my neighbor has some ducks and they're cracking, and these locusts are making around, I say, oh God. It's all right, everything has breath, praise the Lord, but I wish you'd change your timetable. Do it about seven o'clock in the morning, not now. But you know, everything in the earth and under the earth and everything without breath one day is going to join in the chorus. And you know, I was reading there, let me say this. Frieda Hendry Allen has a wonderful hymn, and this is it, she says, Within the veil, not the altar courts, not the holy place where there's still artificial illumination, but in that place where there are no windows and there's no candlestick, where it's dead black unless the glory of God comes. Within the veil, that this beloved thy portion, within the secret of thy Lord to dwell, beholding him until thy face is glory, thy life his love, thy lips his praise foretell. Within the veil, for only as thou gazest upon the matchless beauty of his face canst thou become a living revelation of his great heart of love, his untold grace. Within the veil, his fragrance poured upon thee. Without the veil, that fragrance shed abroad. Within the veil, his hand shall tune the music which sounds on earth the praises of thy God. Within the veil, thy spirit be merited, thou walkest calm above a world of strife. Within the veil, thy soul, with him united, shall live on earth the resurrection night. This is why I told you I lay on my belly, and I can lay there an hour, two hours, three hours, four hours, and never say a word of prayer, and never say a word of praise, I just worship him. Sometimes I'm captivated, he'd take hymns like phasers, in fact he wrote, he didn't write it, he compiled a book, the brother could get it for you, the Christian's mystical book of praise. You can get it for about three fifty. He's gathered the hymns of adoration. You know, hymns like, Jesus, the very thought of thee with sweetness fills my breast. But sweeter far thy face to see, and in my presence rest. Jesus, my only joy be thou, as thou our prize wilt be, in thee be all my glory now, and through eternity. You know, one of the great rewards of the righteous in the book of the Revelation, and I get very thrilled when I, I get goose pimples when I say it even, it says they shall see his face. If you go up into Massachusetts, I have a picture of this on my wall, a picture of a graveyard. What do you want a picture of a graveyard for? Because in that graveyard there's a great big stone image of a man who invented a very wonderful thing. Do you know what he invented? Barnum and Bailey's circus. It's a big oversized image of Mr. Barnum. And a little way behind there's an image about 27 inches high of Tom Thumb. He used to act in the, in the theater, pardon me, in the circus of Mr. Barnum. And if you go round and somebody's cut the grass, if they haven't you'll hardly find it. There isn't a 15 foot monument, there isn't a little man standing on a pedestal, there's a bit of rock. And I say if the grass hasn't been cut you may have to drag it away with your feet and look for it. And there it says something like this, here lies Aunty Fanny. That's all it says. Well the world loves it Tom, so you've got big statues for idiots and all kinds of people. But Aunty Fanny, what did she do? Oh well it happened to be a woman called Fanny Crosby. And she wrote great hymns that stirred our hearts, didn't she? To God be the glory, great things ye have done. Face to face shall I behold him. And somebody came along one day and said to her, you know Aunty Fanny you've done so much for the Church of God. And I don't understand this. I don't think God is, well kind of just that you should be blind all these years. And you know when she was eight years of age somebody came to her and said, Fanny you're a sweet little girl but you're only eight and you're blind and you'll be blind all your life. And she wrote a poem, I have a copy of it somewhere. And she says look don't commiserate with me, don't start sympathising with me because I'm blind, forget it. But somebody said one day when she was an older woman, I don't know why God let you be blind, you miss so much. You should see the flowers in the garden. You should see the sun when it's setting some night. You should see some of the wonderful things, it's a shame, it's horrible. Horrible? She said I think it's wonderful. It's wonderful being blind? Well how do you explain that? My dear she said don't you realise the first face that I ever see will be His face. Face to face oh blissful moment. Face to face to see and know. Face to face with my Redeemer Jesus Christ, who loved me so. Face to face shall I behold Him far beyond the starry sky. Face to face in all His glory. I shall see Him by and by. Do you know amazingly enough, you've got in the 5th book of the Revelation, pardon me the 5th chapter, you've got a choir there haven't you? Do you know everybody is numbered in the book of the Revelation, even the bad old teller coming up 666 which is Kissinger they tell me. But number 666 is numbered and it tells you there are 4 and 20 elders and there are 4 living creatures and the city measures so much and everything measures so much. But do you know what it doesn't measure? It doesn't measure the praise because it says the choir in heaven and I like choirs, I like them that can really sing. And do you know it says in heaven that there are 10,000 times 10,000 which is 100 million and thousands and thousands. We nearly got the number and then it didn't give it. And do you know it says a bit earlier what it is about chapter 8, there are harpers harping on their harps but it doesn't tell you how many. You see there's no limit to the praise. And when you start reading in the book it's very interesting reading in the book of the Revelation. Do you know why? Oh there are a lot of wonderful things in it. I'll tell you what it says in chapter 1, there's a two fold auxology, do you know what it says there? And glory and dominion, in chapter 4 it says glory, honor and power. In chapter 5 it speaks again of glory and power. And in chapter 7 there's a seven fold auxology, it says glory and wisdom and power and thanksgiving and night. You see as we get further on the praise gets deeper and broader and greater. A two fold auxology, a three fold auxology, a four fold auxology, a seven fold auxology. And won't it be wonderful one day? Eternally, my I can't wait to hear that choir. I don't know what you play when you want something but you know what it says in the good book? The prophets couldn't get going until they got the orchestra. Bring me an instrument. The psalmist says I'm an instrument of ten strings will I praise thee. Ten strings eh? Two eyes, two ears, two hands, two feet and two one else. One of those. One tongue and one heart. When I hear old Handel's Messiah song and boy that's a piece isn't it? And when I hear a choir singing worthy is the lamb that was slain to redeem us and he goes on there. And then when he goes on blessing and honor and glory and power. You know that praise is only mentioned once in the book of Revelation that's in the 19th chapter. Why? Because worship is beyond praise. It may exhaust your vocabulary. It may almost burst as it were the very strings of your heart to worship him in adoration. Because they say more than praise. They say blessing and honor and glory and power be unto him that sits upon the throne. And there's one startling word in that fifth chapter. John says I wept much. I wept much. You know that Greek word is only used once again in the whole of the New Testament. And that's where Jesus weeps over Jerusalem and he didn't just sob. He wept openly, brokenly. He sighed and he sobbed. John says I wept much. There was nobody in the universe. You can count all the angels and cherubim and seraphim and the prophets and all the women you like. And you can bring Spurgeon and Phineon and Calvin and anybody you like. But I looked at that redeemed horse and I said can't any of you prophets do it? Can't any of you great preachers do it? Can't any of you great expositors do it? Can't you seraphim do it? Can't you do it Michael? And he says I burst with grief. There was nobody able to take the title beads out of the lamb that sat on the throne. And suddenly a voice said hey weep not. You know the first time Jesus came to earth he came as a lamb. But brother when we see him he's going to be no lamb. He's going to be a lion. When he came to earth he came to die. The next time he comes he's going to raise the dead. The first time he came he came as the king of the Jews. The next time he's coming as the king of kings and the lord of lords. Hey brother wipe your tears. Why? Because there is no one. There is. When he says there's no one it says there's not even one amongst all that vast multitude. My God what will I do? He says wait a minute. There is one who is worthy. You know what Jesus came to do what? Nobody else could ever do. He was the only one that could take that out of the hand. He was the only one that could come and die for our sins. He was the only one that could rise again from the dead. He is the one. He is the alpha and he is the omega. He says I dried my tears. Glory to God if I had been him I would have done a cartwheel all around the kingdom I think. He says when I heard that I said well hallelujah. Do you wonder it says that they said hallelujah. Well it would be wonderful to hear a choir of 10,000 times 10,000. A hundred million plus plus plus. And all the orchestra there. Thank God no saxophones and tambourines. But there's going to be harpers harping on their hearts. And they're going to join in the everlasting song and crown him lord of all. And everything that has dress. Amen. Oh brothers. It would be worth dying seven times over as old Rutherford said. It would a well spent journey though seven deaths lay between. Brother it would be worth all the martyrdom if you die as a martyr. It would be worth all the suffering. Just to regret in that day when suddenly a boy says weep not. Glory to God. I like Matthew Bridges him when he says you know he gets a bit spent for words. And he says crown him with many crowns. The lamb upon his throne. Hark how the heavenly music drowns all music but it's on. Awake my soul. And sing of him who died for thee and praise him. As thy matchless king. Through all eternity. Because Jesus is not king. He's king of kings. It doesn't say in the book of Revelation like it does elsewhere that he is the lord. It says he is the king of kings and he is the lord of lords. And he is the first begotten from the dead. And he's the only one that can go there and break the seals. Do you know what they are? To me they're the title deeds of the last in the garden. And Jesus is not what a certain hymn writer says oh loving wisdom of our God. When all was sin and shame a second Adam. Jesus is not the second Adam. Because if you have a second Adam you might have a third. Jesus is the last Adam. He's going to wrap it all up one day. Won't it be wonderful? Next time you start slobbering and thinking boy I wish I could find a church worthy of my preaching. Why don't you forget all about it? I'm going to close it. And you'll start off with praise. I think that kind of conditions you you know. And you may end up like Paul's around your belly. Just worshipping him. And saying Lord I bring you my most treasured gift. I don't know what it would be. But you surely wouldn't give him anything inferior. I can't find one hymn in this old hymn book that I want. How many of you know a verse? And I shall see him face to face and tell the story said by. Do you know that? Raise your hand if you know it. Alright let's stand and sing it. And I shall see him face to face. And tell the story said by grace. And I shall see him face to face. And tell the story said by grace. One day my earthly house will fall. I cannot tell. I cannot tell. How soon to be. But this I know. But this I know. My all in all has now prepared. Has now prepared a place for me. Sing it. And I shall see him face to face. And tell the story said by grace. And I shall see him face to face. And tell the story said by grace. Lord we can truly say Jesus the very thought of thee with sweetness fills my breast. But even our petty conception of thy majesty exhausts our vocabulary. This is why we believe that worship is beyond praise. It's adoration and contemplation and meditation and aspiration. It's seeing the king in his beauty and in his glory. And realizing that one day by grace we shall see him face to face. This morning we say glory be to the father and glory be to the son. And glory be to the holy ghost. May our fellowship around the table honor thee. Go with us into the services tonight. May your rich anointing come. Greater more wonderful to each of our hearts. And we give thee praise in Jesus name. Amen.