In this sermon, the speaker talks about the stark contrast between the opulence and comfort of attending an opera in a luxurious car versus the discomfort and impatience often felt during a four-hour church service. He emphasizes the importance of experiencing the presence of God in such a powerful way that people are eager to stay longer and engage more deeply. The speaker then shares a childhood memory of witnessing a man preparing to walk on the bottom of the sea, drawing a parallel between the dangers of sin and the need to stay connected to God through prayer and a clear lifeline. He concludes by highlighting the significance of maintaining a relationship with God despite the corrupt and sinful world we live in.

A party of tourists in England who were visiting one of the oldest and loveliest of the villages that we have. They're very beautiful, they have thatch roofs and everything about them is really photogenic in the true sense of the word. And so these people had photographed everything they could from the big old Norman church that was built 900 years ago and the stocks in the centre of town where they used to put the bad people, you know. And the village, well, everything is just as picturesque and it happens to be a lovely day. And when they'd just about exhausted everything, they saw an old man sitting by a fence and one of the rather patronising men went up to him and said, Well, Dad, how are you? He said, Fine. Well, he said, Were there any great men born in this village? And without looking up he said, No, only babies. Well, the greatest people, the greatest men were once babies. The greatest saints were once toddlers in the things of the spirit. And as I've said often, I don't know about this baby that's coming along, you can't blame it for not wanting to come into a world like this. Who would? But anyhow, you don't expect to put a baby to bed at night and then go into the bedroom in the morning and see your daughter, the baby that was 18 months old last night. Somebody would stand up and say, Well, Mummy, I'm 21 today. You'd be rather shocked. We know that that kind of maturity is not possible and the same thing is true. I think we have to, there are lots of things we need to realise there's great differences in. For instance, it's one thing to accumulate knowledge, but you can't accumulate wisdom. Wisdom is the ability to work out knowledge in the best way. And you can acquire knowledge in many ways. You can acquire it, of course, by reading, but you can acquire it best by experience. I want to talk this morning about a subject that it seems is not too often discussed. In Paul's first letter to the Thessalonians in the fifth chapter, verse 23, which I think you should memorise, The very God of peace sanctify you wholly, and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of the Lord. Faithful is he that calleth you who also will do it. The very God of peace sanctify you wholly. Notice the word there is W-H-O-L-L-Y. Any Germans here? Anybody read the German Bible? Well, I guess in the German the spelling is D-U-R-C-H. Durch, und durch. The very God of peace sanctify you wholly, is sanctify you through and through. Now if the very God of peace sanctifies you wholly, W-H-O-L-L-Y, he explains what that wholly is, your whole spirit and soul and body. Well, if he sanctifies us spirit, soul and body, there's nothing else left anyhow, because that's all we are. As the theologians say we're a tripartite being, a three-part being, spirit and soul and body. With our spirits we're God conscious, with our souls we're self-conscious, and with our bodies we're world conscious. The only thing the world can do to me is injure my body. It cannot injure my soul, it cannot injure my spirit. My contact with the world is through my flesh, physical flesh, my body. My actions from my soul and my mind work out through my body. I am, you are a tripartite being. Now an interesting thing about this is that Paul here, as elsewhere, Paul, like everybody else, no man, I've said so often, is greater than his prayer life. No man is greater than his praying. You know, if you were candidating for a church, they would ask you how many you had in Sunday school at the last place, and how many buses you were running, and all kinds of things, how many degrees you may have or something. But I don't think they ever ask a man about his spiritual life. They don't ask, for instance, do you have a healthy prayer life? How much time do you pray? Now there's no question about it, in my mind, that Paul had the greatest intellect of any man that ever lived, apart from Jesus himself. You get his writings in the epistle to the Romans, for instance, I think he wrote Hebrews as well. And yet, great as he is, great theologian that he is, he's never greater than when he prays. Now notice again, he's praying for a people. I stress this, I still stress it over and over again. After you've read Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, then you start at Acts. The whole balance of New Testament revelation from Acts to Revelation is to the church and not to the world. There is no epistle to the world. Every epistle is to the church. In the Old Testament, God's problem was not the Amalekites, Hittites, Terizites, Gedizites, Canaanites and all the otherites. God's problem in the Old Testament was Israel. God's problem in the world today is not communism, or Romanism or some other ism. God's problem in the world today is the church. I like that lovely hymn, The church's one foundation is Jesus Christ her Lord. Remember what the hymn goes on to say, She is his new creation. From heaven he came and sought her to be his holy bride, with his own blood he bought her, and for her life he died. God so loved the world that he gave himself. Christ loved the church and gave himself for the church. Remember that, we'll work on that later. God so loved the world, Christ loved the church and gave himself for the church. People say, well, there never will be a church without spot or rings or any such thing. Well, there should be. Remember an old friend of mine, somebody asked him, did you go to church? He said, no, why not? He was a very godly man. He said, how can I go to church when I am the church? They meant you go to every building. You could get rid of every steeple house, as George Fox used to call the churches, the steeple house. Some called them refrigerators. But anyhow, you could get rid of every one of them and still have the church. The church can survive as we're told underground. It does not need all the machinery or the machinations of organizations. As I said yesterday, some people think the only way to restore the sick church is by intravenous feeding of dollars. Everybody's begging for money. What would we do if we had no money? Well, I happen to remember 25 years ago when some of the famous broadcasters hadn't much money. And now they've got millions and they have banking accounts with reserves of millions but I don't see any more power on them. Thank God, God still says your money perishes with you in the area of trying to buy power or buy some favor with God. It just cannot be done. So here Paul is praying, the very God of peace sanctify you wholly. Now look back in chapter 3 and he says there in verse 10 that night and day he is praying exceedingly that we might see your face and might perfect that which is lacking in your face. Now notice again he's praying night and day not for a lost world. He's praying for the church. He's praying for the believers because if the believers get right the world will soon feel the effects of sanctified, spirit-anointed, fire-baptized individuals. And therefore his burden is, he says I'm praying, I'm not just praying, I'm praying night and day. I'm not praying you'll be blessed. I'm not praying necessarily you'll have prosperity or your burdens get lighter or your enemies fall down before you. He says I'm praying night and day that I may see your face and may supply that which is lacking in your face. Now he doesn't say they have no face but he says they have a face which is deficient. Now did God answer his prayer? He sure did because in the 2nd epistle in the 1st chapter and verse 3 he says we are bound to thank God always for you're better than as it is me because your face groweth exceedingly. Isn't that lovely? Now between the time he started making intercessions praying fervently, praying night and day for them that their face may be completed their face may come to maturity. And now he says I rejoice I'm happy because he says your face groweth exceedingly. Alright so here he is he's praying for these believers the very God of peace sanctify you wholly. I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of the Lord. Now this is a very lovely word this word sanctify. A number of times I was privileged to sit at the feet of someone who's been called the greatest Bible teacher ever Dr. G. Campbell Morgan. Interestingly enough he never went to Bible school or seminary. He was up in the hills of Wales and all he had was his Bible. He didn't have enough money which was about he needed about 4 cents a day to go down on the train to the main city but he didn't have 4 cents to get there and get back. So he decided to dig into the word of God. And I remember listening to him one day when he said you know gentlemen I don't know much about the word of God I wish I did. He'd written 50 books on it by that time. You know the man who knows most about the Bible is the guy that graduated last May last June out of seminary and is still trying to find a church worthy of him. The man who knows the most knows the least. He's very aware of that. You could stay in the book of the Revelation all your life the revelation of Jesus Christ not the revelation of St. John as people say. It may say that on the title above the book of Revelation but it is the revelation of Jesus Christ. You could stay in that book all your life and still not exhaust it. Or you could stay in the Epistles to the Hebrews all your life or Romans. You know it's very interesting almost wherever you go to a Bible conference Dr. Jones is going to give his wonderful teaching on Romans and Dr. Brown is going to teach on Ephesians. I've never gone to a Bible conference where anybody teaches on Ezekiel. That's a tricky one for you. The only thing they can do out of Ezekiel is get flying saucers. But I don't find anybody dealing with Ezekiel. I don't find anybody saying well this week we're going to take Jeremiah. We stick with the two things which we feel are the kind of main vertebrae in the New Testament and it's certainly a very profound book. But again the fact is that the books are so deep they're so profound. There are people who stay all their lives with the Apostle Paul or somebody else who spends all his life with John and it's profitable if you can do it that way. But here the word sanctify. I remember one day that this wonderful teacher D. Campbell Morgan said you know the word sanctify is an awful word. Now if I said to you that I was talking to Brother Tony there or I passed him and oh he said an awful word. Immediately you think something associated with something nasty or bad or something of that association. That's how I did about awful. But notice what he said. The word sanctify is an awful word. He did not say the word sanctify is a dreadful word. Now what's the difference between dreadful and awful? Well dreadful means something that terrifies you and shrinks back. What does awful mean? It means in one sense something of the same. Awful means feared but with reverence. What does awful mean? Well I'll tell you the best way to find out. Turn the word around. Full of awe. That's all it means. Dreadful, full of dread. If a thing is awful it causes you to stand back with admiration and a sense of fear at something majestic, something awesome. I've said before, say again that I think we're the most incident children God ever had to raise. Because we've shut God up. The Holy Spirit if you don't know he only comes between 11 and 12 Sunday morning and 7 to 8 Sunday night and Wednesday night 7 to 8. Otherwise you can go. If you overstep the mark often preaching people say you preach too long. Okay. You know a lady just recently said to me you preach too long. I don't like a service that lasts an hour and a half. Well I need an hour and a half to preach. But anyhow she said I don't like a service that lasts too long. My question is this. How long if you do go to movies if you're still a baby? Well if you still go to movies do you expect to get out in 20 minutes? People will sit for movies for 2 or 3 hours. Do you think people would buy an opera ticket if the opera only lasted 20 minutes? I remember in New York sometimes we'd go down in the city when we were Teen Challenge and the opera would be leaving at 1 o'clock in the morning and the gentlemen in the tall hats and silk scarves and the ladies dripping with diamonds and they'd just stand out there smoking and talking. They didn't rush home. The Rolls Royces and Benzes were there and Ferraris and all the classic cars. And the chauffeurs would stand to attention and relax as much as they say well I'm used to this it's going to take a while. They left home after supper or they'd had supper in town and they went to the opera about 7 o'clock or 8 o'clock. Operas don't often start until that time. And 4 hours in an opera isn't too much. 4 hours in church will kill you. 4 minutes kills me in some of them but the fact is that it ought to be that the presence of God is so real and wonderful that you're still saying more, more, more, let's stay. When did you last let's take it this way let's be practical forget all the backstreet folk outside and just think that when did you last tiptoe out of the sanctuary or not tiptoe out of the sanctuary saying like Jacob God is in this place. You know instead of moving the table around that's alright you have to do it but you say I can't eat I want to get under a tree and meditate on the things which I've heard. I get the best illustration for meditation out of an old cow. Got it many years ago. You know a cow will eat so long and then suddenly she flops down. What does she do? Well she's too stomach to know and she regurgitates what she has already got and then she starts this. Now if you took a cow as soon as it sits down if you run it to a barn and milk it the milk will be very poor. The longer that cow chews over that cub that she has the richer the milk becomes. Now that's true about spiritual things you see so often we hear precious things and the next minute is we're saying hey so and so yeah I'm done with the next thing and now you're going to talk to hey Penny's running a sale tomorrow and you notice that it's amazing all the junk we talk about ten minutes after we come out of the sanctuary very often. I remember Alan Redpath was preaching in Northern Ireland in a great meeting and he said I thought well somebody comes up and says that was a great message this and that and the other but he said I decided to test it one night so he had somebody else pronounce the benediction and he ran to the front of this auditorium it had about ten steps going down to the street and he mingled with the folk going down and they were talking and you know not one of them ever mentioned the meeting. It's a farming community they were talking about the price of cattle they were talking politics they haven't seen you for a while did you get that repair to your car did you do this did you do that and not one of them and he said oh well you spend hours and hours and hours preparing a message and nobody's taking any notice hardly. Now this word sanctify is an awful word it is a word full of awesomeness now who is Paul praying for he's praying for the church and you know just as in John 17 John 17 goes up like that and down like that if you like and this epistle does the same thing in John 17 let me show you how I've marked this in my own bible here okay let's say this John 17 is what well John 17 is the Lord's prayer and don't you let somebody fool you even Billy Graham gave out a book not long ago he said this is the greatest book on the Lord's prayer that there is and it isn't the Lord's prayer it's the disciples prayer our father which art in heaven is not the Lord's prayer he taught his disciples to pray Jesus couldn't pray the Lord's prayer the disciples couldn't pray John 17 but this Lord's prayer here in John 17 well let me give you without writing you can write it yourself in verse 11 of John 17 let me go back a minute go to the first verse verse 1 17 John 17 1 just put 17 1 glorification because he prays glorify thy son that thy son may glorify thee so in 17 1 you have glorification in verse 6 you have manifestation I have manifested thy name unto the world in verse 11 you have preservation I am no more in the world these are in the world and now I come to thee holy father keep through thine own name those that thou hast given me so he's praying for their preservation and the end of the 11th verse is that they may be one so he's praying for their unification at the end of verse 13 he says I that they may that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves so he's praying for their jubilation in verse 16 he's praying for their separation they are not of the world even as I am not of the world therefore it's separation and in verse 17 the climax of the revelation I think you should put that there the climax of revelation is 17 John 17 verse 17 sanctification because he says sanctify them through thy truth thy word is truth so ok let's put it this way you have all these things here coming up a ladder like this you have what their glorification and their unification and their jubilation and their separation and so forth but the climax is verse 17 sanctify them this is the peak of the prayer of the Lord Jesus Christ now you have the same thing here in this wonderful prayer that Paul is praying for the Thessalonians you want an outline on them look at them turn back to the first chapter first Thessalonians first chapter now you get here all the call them what you like if you like the attributes of these people or if you like the characteristics of their spiritual life and they're all very beautiful and I'm going to emphasize and for this reason that with all the beauty of their spiritual lives he is still praying that they may be sanctified now look at all the qualities that they have in verse 3 this is first Thessalonians first chapter verse 3 remembering without ceasing your work of faith why don't you just put a 1 at the side of the of the verse 3 in number the second thing knowing brethren beloved your election of God now they were doing a work of faith they had they were elect of God and yet he's praying for their sanctification in the middle of verse 5 he says now let's read verse 5 I'll read it for our gospel came not unto you in word only but also in power and in the Holy Ghost and in much assurance they're very steadfast they have assurance they have a work of faith they're the elect of God and yet he's praying for their sanctification verse 6 he says they're followers of us and of the Lord that's another thing that they have a benefit in they're followers of the Lord but he's praying for their sanctification in the same verse he says they received the word of God with much affliction so they were persecuted for their faith but he prays for their sanctification in the same verse he says that they had joy in the Holy Ghost so they're a pretty jubilant bunch anyhow but he still prays for their sanctification now look at the precious thing he says in verse 7 they're ensamples to all that believe in Macedonia and Achaia so when he went preaching he says well listen I'll tell you what the grace of God can do take a trip to the Thessalonians and have a look at them and see what God they're samples you know the salesman comes around he shows you a sample he says well this is our product you're going to buy something like this may not work out like that always but in this case it does he says I hold you up as samples of the grace of God you have assurance you have faith you have an outworking of your faith you're followers of the Lord in the verse but he still prays for their sanctification verse 8 they were like the Agape force they went out preaching because it says from you sounded out the word of the Lord now in verse 9 they've had a radical transformation because it says in the middle of verse 9 he turned from idols to serve the living and the true God they've been idolaters and yet they've had a complete turnaround and they're worshipping and they're serving the living and true God and in verse 10 that they were waiting for his son from heaven whom he raised from the dead so day by day they were anticipating the return of the Lord Jesus Christ now wouldn't it be wonderful if every bunch of believers in the country were even as far up as that all those qualifications missionary hearted suffering for the gospel sake full of joy real ensembles of the redeeming work of Jesus Christ sounding out the word of God having much assurance quite aware that they were the elect of God and yet in fact with all these things he's still praying for their sanctification now notice what he says in chapter 4 in verse 3 this is the will of God even your sanctification that ye should abstain from fornication alright this is the will of God even your sanctification now you'll discover if you haven't already discovered that one of the main problems in the Christian life is to find the will of God there's only one thing more difficult than finding the will of God and that's doing it it's an awful thing very often to find the will of God and then sometimes you almost wish you hadn't found it I hear people say you know if I knew God's will I'd do it I say well hold it a minute hold it a minute here's two things he will one he will if not the death of one sin or the second thing he will just sanctification now start there before you start looking for some place in world history or something the will of God is that we should be redeemed the will of God is that we should be sanctified because he says in verse 7 of that same fourth chapter for God hath not called us unto uncleanness but unto holiness now that's what sanctification really is it's a synonym you can bring the changes there the very God of peace make you holy and that holy is H-O-L-Y which you tie on to W-H-O-L-L-Y he makes you holy holy huh that's good he makes you H-O-L-Y W-H-O-L-L-Y in other words your spirit, your soul and body are all sanctified areas the spirit of God controls your appetite none of them are wrong they've been perverted even down to sex it's a holy thing actually it's been perverted and fooled with but it's a God given thing and it has to be under God's control like every other thing you see God isn't people say sometimes oh God my great problem I'm a Christian my great problem is my temper take my temper away no no you don't need your temper taken away you need it purifying Jesus got angry one of our problems is we don't get angry we get angry over silly things somebody hurts your feelings or some other stupid thing and we get so upset and angry that's pure nonsense those things should never disturb us the things that don't disturb us should disturb us the things that do disturb us shouldn't disturb us Acts 16 Paul went down the main street of Athens which was the intellectual capital of the world at that time on either side of the road he saw temples to strange gods and in the sleepy Elizabethan English it says that his spirit was stirred I'm not fond of translations or versions or perversions or so many perversions and some may sterilize the Bible just about I'm not even fond of the Amplified except where it agrees with me then I like it in the 16th of Acts Paul says the Amplified says that when Paul went down the main street he was angry his spirit wasn't just stirred he was angry why? well I'll tell you why because people do much more for heathen gods than we do for the living God that's why I've said often about a friend I preached at the great missionary conference in Karisau in Japan and after I preached a brother came to me and he said brother Ravenhill do you know how long it's taken how much the gospel has penetrated Japan in a hundred and what was it then fourteen years this is about twelve years ago I said no he said the only impression that Christianity has made on Japanese culture and religion is half of one percent in a hundred and fourteen years think of that and I said brother the rate you're going it'll take another hundred and fourteen years to get the other half of one percent I don't know whether if Japan ever really did have a real revival of the Holy Ghost I'm not sure of that and I'm not in any way trying to belittle the missionary efforts and sacrifices that have been done but I'm saying this is the only way that it's penetrated it's gone as though its feet were made of lead as though it had no wings it's like an automobile that can go downhill but it can't go up the other because it has no motor in it well the president of that group was in Rockford where we were living at the time and he was there on a visit and so I said to Martha the president of the Karizawa Missionary Conference I'd like to go see him we went to the meeting and afterwards I said to him well how are things he said all right I said how are things in Japan and he said well I think pretty bad I said why when did you leave he said yesterday you know we live in a shrinking world and an expanding universe the world gets smaller every time the British people invent a plane and he had he had come over in a plane he said I was in Japan yesterday in Tokyo I had a very bad experience oh from the Sealy Perth no no what happened well everything in Japan is a little cheaper at least it was then so he had a haircut and he said I sat down in the chair and this little Japanese fellow was quiet for a while sniffing my hair then suddenly he said you Yankee well not really Yankee I'm American they don't know the difference anyhow but he said I'm not really Yankee I'm American oh kept quiet businessman no not a quiet spell oh tourist no another quiet spell well then what are you and he said I'm missionary ah he said ha ha ha me missionary too so he said thought you were a barber ah you know they growl those folks at times ah he said barber me barber nine till five missionary at night what do you do fill my pockets with prank have a phonograph I belong to this new group Zagagaki you know combination of religion and politics we're going to drive Christianity out of Japan and everywhere else this is a new thing oh you go out every night at seven yeah I go out every night at seven go home two o'clock come again what did you say ah I go out at seven knock on the door give them a lecture lecture number one read them some literature go back next Tuesday same house I stay in that house half an hour I move to another house and the man said you don't now let's get this straight now you go you go out at seven o'clock and you don't get to bed till two o'clock I didn't say that yes you did no no no no I go bed four o'clock well you go out at seven I go out seven o'clock I work till two in the morning then I go home I get home for two o'clock two o'clock in the morning I pull a curtain on one side and I bow before my God for two hours you know you'd think he'd almost read Isaiah 40 he says I wait on God to renew strength sounds a bit familiar doesn't it they that wait upon the Lord to renew their strength well he said I began to shrink I thought he'd missed my hair at the top cutting it I was going down in that chair like this I felt so humiliated that a man for a heathen God would work from seven till two in the morning and then pray till four and finally he thought oh yeah I know it's a special effort he said well how long have you done this my seventh year seven years yeah this the only thing put this the only thing put my country right well the brother Raymond he said I've been thinking about all the long flights from Japan up into Alaska thinking about a man who has nothing to sell nothing redemptive to say nothing eternal to pass on and yet he labors from seven at night doesn't get home till two and prays from two till four I think my Christian life needs overhauling a bit you know it's a serious thing but I'm going to say reading the Bible will not N.O.T. reading the Bible will not make you a saint it will give you all the information how to become a saint but it won't make you a saint it has to get down in your blood stream it has to be worked out as the word of God says with fear and with trembling let's look at this word the first time it's mentioned in in the scriptures it's in the second chapter of Genesis and the second verse I'll read from verse one Genesis 2 verse 1 thus the heavens and the earth were finished and all the host of them and on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made and God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made now what did he do he did this he made six days here let's do it this way one two three four five six all right there they are and then he has one here and he says these are yours this is mine it says three things about the day when he made this day and sanctified it what did he do in the middle of verse two it says he rested on the seventh day in verse three it says he blessed the seventh day and in the same verse he sanctified the seventh day the same day now notice there is no relationship to man here it's just telling us what God did a bit later we are going to get the same thing mentioned in the ten commandments in Exodus 20 and Exodus 31 now let me emphasize that again because we are so used to hearing about the ten commandments maybe well let me put a line in your mind under the word commandments they are ten commandments they are not ten suggestions they are commands they are not optional what did God do on the seventh day he rested I hear preachers saying sometimes you know this church is killing me I work seven days a week and I've always got a ready answer for that I say you are smarter than God they say what well God couldn't do it he quit after six days and rested a whole twenty four hours somebody said to Spurgeon one day well a lady said you you break the laws of God you work on the Sabbath day he said lady look I don't lick a stamp on Monday well of course immediately you talk about keeping the Sabbath somebody comes up and you know there are two things that people always say if they don't like a thing it's one of two things it's either bondage or legalism anything we don't like oh that's bondage oh that's legalism now God made the ten commandments again they are not ten suggestions he laid down rules well then you say we don't keep the Sabbath no we don't the Jews still keep it that's a proof I think of the word of God it's a proof that there are still Jews the devout Jew still religiously keeps from sundown Friday night as we would say to sundown Saturday night which is their Sabbath the evening and the morning of the first day well you say the seventh day Adventists keep it that way right they do the seventh day Baptists keep it that way exactly well do we have to go back to the real Sabbath I don't care whether we do or not in one sense Paul says one day seemeth more to one man than another you can't keep the same day round the world because right now what is it Monday here it's already Tuesday in Australia and New Zealand they are a day ahead of us you can't fix one day and everybody keep it you can keep a seventh day and they keep the seventh day the Jews keep it alright these are the people but the eighth day is the day of resurrection we keep the Lord's day I don't even call it Sunday anymore that's a pagan title anyhow who wants to worship the sun S-O-N yes S-U-N no it is the Lord's day and we keep the Lord's day and God says if we honour him he will honour us and I find even in our town I suggest things to our people they don't like them but that's alright I can't tell the children of Christians from the children of pagans very often the children of pagans children come from Sunday school they kick in football playing games they shouldn't do that why not because it's God's day if you encourage them to break one commandment how can you stop them from breaking the others you've no pull you've lost your power I lived in a home where we didn't go out of the house on the Lord's day and I've very very much in the last six months about keeping his day holy there's so much activity there's so much fleshliness about it you see God says this is your property you can have those six days this is mine it's sanctified unto the Lord I want it and I want you to be sanctified inside that sanctified area you know what people usually say at least people in the world godly people I mean people that aren't able to come to a thing like this that you have they say you know by the way I'd be much more spiritual if I had more time but listen I'm off in the morning at six I don't get back until six at night I've this to take care of and the other I've got no time and you're slipping to see them Sunday afternoon and they have their feet up and they're watching the goats play the rams or something and they're so beautifully occupied with nonsense I think it's to take time to be holy it becomes a delight but before you get into the error of true discipleship and discipline it seems a bit boring to take time to be holy and yet this is what God is after you see if you had all the vessels I'm not going to try and make vessels say here these are all vessels that are going to be used in the ministry of the tabernacle now first of all in the old testament concept of sanctification it is separation from those days there's a barrier right down the middle nothing crosses out of there into there nothing nothing nothing this is God's area this is a sanctified area so in the old testament concept the sanctification is total separation you might go to the market and you see a lot of vessels and you say all right I'll take this I'll take that what are they for? well they're for the sanctuary or the old tabernacle now once they went in they were separated from everything else they never returned into that area they were not only separated they were cleansed they went through a special purging in order that any anything left or anything unclean would be in them and it would pollute the sanctuary because God is holy holiness substantially means purity this is why he says the very God of peace sanctify you through and through through your body through your emotions through your intellect through your will they have to be purged they become contaminated so you bring these vessels out of the marketplace and you put them over here in the let's say because we're always thinking of buildings like this this is the kind of the building and once they come in here they never go back into the world again once they come in out of the marketplace to here you separated them then they have to be cleansed and then they have to be used they never go back again now this is what God desires of us he desires I'm separate from the world Jesus says I pray not that you take them out of the world but you keep them from the evil in the world I remember the first time I saw a submarine I was a little boy and it was after World War 1 and we were on the English coast and say I'm not an artist in case you don't know I'll have to tell you here's a boat you know it's a boat it's got two funnels on down here there's a big old wreck and I remember as a boy seeing a boat go up here and then I noticed a lot of commotion here then I noticed some pipes go down here no first of all here's a man in the old days it wasn't a scuba diving thing you know a man had an enormous helmet and he had big lead weights on his feet and they slipped the man overboard he came down the ladder and down he went so I said to my daddy where's he going he said he's going to walk on the bottom of the sea I said can I go with him I wouldn't want him to know but then I did and I said he's going to walk in the sea when I got in the sea I nearly choked I was trying to swallow the sea see you're alright when you're in the sea but if the sea gets in you you're in trouble and that's the way with sin too so this man is on board and he goes down here alright so now here's a man that's his head in case you don't know those are legs he's got two tubes one is an intake tube the air goes in this is where the bad air comes out now he can stay down there a friend of mine is a professional diver for the British Navy and he started me one day by telling me that he stayed down as long as twelve hours and this was before they had these powerful lights a ship when it's on the bottom of the water you know a ship if you saw a ship like that that's the deck we see a ship like this usually well ships aren't like that they're like that this is flat but it doesn't sink that way it sinks this way and here there's a staircase going down into the if you're on the Queen Mary you'd have thirteen like a building what were the thirteen fourteen decks now he has to go down there and he has to find some treasure the map or gold that they were carrying for the bank he's got to get down a staircase this way with this enormous weight on him you imagine the difficulties I'm trying to tell you now two things matter he said the thing that matters is I keep my lifeline clear because if I go around the corner in a sunken ship like that and suddenly I bend that thing I'm cut off from here and I'm gasping I'm in trouble but as long as I can get an inflow there I can stay there hour after hour after hour until I get too hungry I think that's a very simple but I think a very effective thing a man isn't made to live down here in the water we were not made actually to live in a world that's full of corruption and sin and violence and all the other rotten things but as long as we are living in relationship with him we're all right you know somebody wrote a hymn years ago we used to sing it as children in England let me sing how does it start Lord for tomorrow and its need I do not pray but keep me guide me hold me Lord just for today somebody says I don't live a day at a time so they went and wrote a hymn I need the every hour most gracious Lord and somebody said that's better and then somebody says I don't live an hour at a time and they went and wrote a hymn and said moment by moment I'm kept in his love now moment by moment while I'm in this dirty filthy sordid world that's going to try and contaminate me all day I'm down here in this dirty world moment by moment I'm kept in his love moment by moment I'm life from above just as a man down here in a dirty rotten atmosphere full of creatures that could destroy him but while he's receiving a life an air from above he's safe while he's down there well by the same token if I'm receiving life from above continually I'm alright let's put it this way now quick you can have a break what was the first call of Jesus come unto me what was the second call of Jesus follow me what was the third call of Jesus abide in me now you can't abide until you start to follow you can't follow until you have heard the call but again it's progressive you know this is a little discouraging maybe right here because I'm sure you think you've nearly got there but there's no finality to the Christian life even if you get a degree at Agape it's disgusting but I'll have to tell you you know if you come out with the best marks or you know the highest grades that have ever been here do you know the devil won't leave you alone isn't that disgusting wouldn't it be nice if Brother Tony and the others said well you know you're the best product this school's ever had and we've got news for you we had a report from Herald this morning they're never going to bother with you if you live for twenty more years they've given up they see you're so mature and strong and able that you've got the devil despairing he's just hanging his head he says well I'm sorry but here's one case I'll never have you know now do you know the reverse thing is really the truth you know we talk about Job but remember it was not the challenge of Satan to God it was a challenge of God to Satan I said I'll consider my servant Job isn't that great do you think God may ever stick you up in exhibition and say look there's all the world oh I can't bother this is this man of Agape here no Satan have you ever considered him he's perfect in all his ways we shy off from the word perfection don't we and yeah that's what it's all about