In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of disciplining children with love. They suggest that if something is taken away from a child, it should be replaced with something else. The speaker also encourages the establishment of a family altar in every home, where children can be instructed in the word of God. They mention a set of tapes called "Bible in Living Sound" as a helpful resource for teaching children biblical stories. The sermon concludes with a reminder that obedience is the secret to the Christian life, and a moment of prayer is offered.

I'm just going to ask the question, and I'm going to let them answer. Uh, if I disagree with them, I don't know what I'm going to do. I'll just have to wait until I get it. But, uh, we're going to try to speak, you know, uh, not out of opinion, but out of the Word of God. So I'm just going to ask the first one. Uh, I'll ask it to Brother Leonard. How does fasting and prayer, how does fasting make prayer? Either one of y'all can answer this. How does fasting make prayer more effectual? You have to obey, Dave. Go ahead. You know, a proverb says that even a fool, when he keeps his mouth shut, is considered wise. And I wasn't, I wasn't planning on blowing my cover this morning. But, uh, I think, first of all, it's obedience to the Word. That, uh, is important. That, uh, you know, Jesus stressed. Be a little louder, BC. Okay, go ahead, Dave, put that up a little closer. Uh, first of all, I think it's obedience to the Word. There are certain situations where fasting is necessary. I remember in the case of the, uh, disciples came to Jesus and asked Him why they couldn't cast out a particular demon. And He says, this kind will not go out but by prayer and fasting. I think, too, it shows a desire and an earnestness that is sacrificial in the sense of determination. I really mean business with God. Now, it's not a works in that sense. I don't think our prayers are answered on the basis of works. They're answered on the basis of His grace and His love and so on. But, nevertheless, it shows a desperate situation where you're willing to forego that, uh, you know, food if necessary in order to see that prayer answered. I think also in the, uh, in the natural sense that when you do fast you tend to be more alert. Uh, food tends to deaden very much your, uh, thinking capabilities and so there's, uh, there's certain reasons. Uh, I think it makes us more, uh, effective in, uh, combating the powers of darkness. Remember that Jesus chose to fast in the wilderness. Uh, He could have very easily turned the, uh, stones into, uh, bread if He'd wanted to, uh, even before the devil tempted Him. But, He, He chose to fast in order to, uh, be more effective against the powers of darkness. Again, I think He was, uh, uh, practicing what He was preaching to His disciples. That if there was a certain, uh, type of, uh, demonic power that you had to fast in order to overcome. How much more then when we're, uh, dealing with, uh, uh, the devil himself. So, um, those are just a few. Letterman, you want to comment on that? Uh, the apostle Paul himself, you remember, said in fasting often. I find in reading the biographies and autobiographies of great men, great Christians, that most of them had a period of fasting. They had a regular day. Uh, some of the churches we've been in, we have stressed the fact and, and they've taken up the idea that the church, all the parents in the church should fast, say, on Wednesdays. Uh, not permissions. Although that's not excluded, but specifically for the children in the day in which we live. They're living in the worst conditions ever. Uh, schools, many of them are not much better than brothels. They're not much better than, um, headquarters for drugs or crime or, and the children need, uh, they need protection. Another thing is that fasting, uh, shows that we have mastery over our bodies. That we're not subject to our, um, appetite. And I think it's good, um, normally we fast Wednesdays. Uh, John Wesley fasted Wednesday and Friday. Maybe that's why he kept so fit. But, uh, it certainly has a lot to do with, uh, as David said, keeping a clear mind. And, uh, again, not merely the, the time factor. Uh, in, in a home a lady takes an awful lot of time preparing a, a meal. Well, she can save that time, particularly if her husband agrees with her about that. If, if he doesn't, well, she'd have to do some preparation, I know. But, uh, and then the money that's saved. I was in a church at one time where, not everybody, but it was a, a stated fact, the church fasted on Wednesdays. And the church was open from nine in the morning till the, uh, prayer meeting 7.30 at night. And it was a day of fasting, particularly, in that case, for missions. And we, we had a box at the door. And, uh, people put what they considered they would spend for a meal. They gave that as extra on their particular missionary offering. So that they got body control. They got, uh, uh, their minds clearer. They upped the missionary offering. And, uh, part of that day was given to audible prayer, which meant again that we strengthen each other. As a good book says, as iron sharpeneth iron, so the countenance of a friend is friend. And, uh, just thinking of prayer here, I remember when I used to go with teams around England. And I always tried to get between, uh, a certain couple of preachers because they kind of sparked me off. I always felt warmer. I always felt that if either of them prayed, he, he had that, uh, you know, he's a kind of a spark plug. I'm quite sure that it does give us some mastery over the body. I'm sure that it, uh, gives us a clearer mind, gives us more time. And in every way it's more beneficial. You know, one, one thought on that. The Bible doesn't say, uh, if you fast. The Bible says when you fast. It doesn't say if you do, it said when. And somebody says, well, that was just for the gospels. No, Paul said in fastings often. So, uh, I think it's something that's very needed today. Uh, I believe a person can fast, say, if they, the Holy Spirit does not impress them to fast a whole day, they can fast two meals or a particular meal for a situation. So it's just a matter of the Holy Spirit leads you as an individual, how you'll apply that to your personal life. All right, the second question is, uh, can a person bind a demon from someone who is not in his presence? In other words, maybe it's somebody, maybe we're in Mobile and they're in, uh, Birmingham. Can a person bind a demon from someone who is not in their presence? Dave? Yeah, well, I think the scriptures, uh, teach that over in, uh, Mark chapter 7, right? Put that mic up so it can hear that. Mark chapter 7, verse 24, talks about the woman there that came to Jesus because her child was possessed with an unclean spirit. And, uh, we won't read the whole thing. But verse 29, he said unto her, because of this hand to go your way, the demon is gone out of your daughter. And going back to her home, she found the child lying on the bed and the demon having departed. So, uh, there's a case in which, uh, you know, the child was at home. Uh, the mother was there. I don't know how much distance there was. I don't know. But I would, uh, think that, uh, that's true. Of course, there's so many things that, uh, need to be considered in a situation like that. I believe that demons enter a person because there's, uh, first of all, some sin or some sort of landing strip, as somebody said, in their life. And, uh, it's not enough. There's been a lot of, uh, books written on, in recent years on exorcism and so on, which I don't go along with all of them. But, uh, most of them, uh, you know, maybe tell you how to get the demon out. They don't deal with the problem. Uh, the demon is only the, uh, sort of the, the fruit, if you like. It's not the root of the problem. It may be bitterness. It may be resent, uh, uh, somebody's resentful towards somebody else, an unforgiving spirit, maybe some sin in the life, or whatever it is. Jesus said, Satan cometh, he has nothing in me. In other words, there's no area that he can claim as his own, and therefore have a foothold in, in the life. And, um, so, you know, the, the person that you may be trying to bind the demon in, that person may love the particular sin he's involved in. And in that case, there's not going to be any, uh, benefit from it, really. You know, there has to be, in one sense, a cooperation on the part of the person where he wants deliverance. And he's willing to repent and turn from whatever he's involved in. And, uh, so there's a lot more involved, I think, than just that. You know, that's a very important thing that I hadn't heard clearly said, that you can come, say you see a particular area of a person's life and believe there's demonic influence there, or, or what if, uh, uh, uh, harassment, and you can come, come against that demon, but that person has got to be cooperative in it. In other words, if he has, uh, has a demon of lust, or say of bitterness, or, uh, even drunkenness, we might say, he has got to be willing, you're saying, to, to break with it. If there's no willingness over his part, you can't overrule his will. Does that work? Is that what he's saying? Is that, is that right, Dane? Well, you've got the case, you know, where the, the demon was cast out, and then it came back after a period of time, because he came back to his house, he found it swept and garnished, and, uh, there was nothing there that had replaced the, uh, the vacuum, in other words, being cast out, but there was nobody there that was in, uh, control of his life, and so the demon came back in. So you may, again, be successful in casting the demon out, but it needs, then, that area needs to be satisfied with something. And, uh, of course, as we know, that Christ needs to come in and, and fill that, uh, that vacuum, uh, where that sin has been, you know, so. Bill, do you want to comment on that? Yeah, I was reading, uh, I guess this morning, that very scripture, the prince of this world cometh and findeth nothing in me. Uh, we used to have a, an old Nazarene preacher in England, he was about twice as noisy as Arthur there, so you can imagine what a character he was. And, uh, he used to leap and shout and praise God and whatnot. And very often he used to say, uh, quoting the psalmist, um, let me think now, uh, bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Now he said, that's, to me, a proof we can be cleansed, because all that is within me, if it's going to bless his holy name, sin will not bless God. Whew, that's good. Some secret, uh, reset, I, I think about Dave said that, that point's very good, you know, there are some things attracted by vinegar, there are some things attracted by honey. And if we have a secret lust, we do attract, uh, demonic power to come and, and take up residence. And, uh, well we have some pretty bad experiences of that. But, the thing is for us, if we, uh, know that whatever area there was that God has cleansed again, that area must be occupied by the Spirit of God, otherwise other demon, demonic powers will, will, will try, at least try to get back, maybe get back. So the thing is, you know that word that says the blood of Jesus Christ, God's son, cleanses, in the Greek it is continually cleansed. And I use the illustration of when the kids used to go to the river and throw a rock in the river. And as you threw it in, you'd see the water would wash the, the mud off it. But you go there two or three days after, or maybe, uh, six months after, that rock at the bottom of the river was still clean, because there was a continual flow of water over it. Now, if I stay in submission to God, I'm going to stay clean. There are no degrees of purity. There are degrees of strength, degrees of wisdom, there are no degrees of purity. A thing is either pure or impure. Your heart and mine is either pure or impure. You don't buy a thing, because butter is on, on sale for, uh, ten cents a pound. You say, is it pure? They say 95%. There's 5% spritanin in it. And you say, well that's all right, my mother-in-law's coming to lunch. But, you, you, you don't, uh, take it, because there's a degree of impurity. And, and we back off from this. We, we've so many alibis for covering up the old nature and heaven knows what. But the scripture's very clear that God in, uh, the, the demand of Jesus was, blessed are they, what? Pure in heart. And again, this is something we stumble over, but if we read the scripture carefully, people say, well you'd get very arrogant if, if, if there's purity. You wouldn't. The, the, I, I don't see, I, I don't understand when people say, they talk about spiritual pride. That, that's, um, like talking about light darkness or something. How in the world can they have spiritual pride? What have we that wasn't given to us, Paul says. Paul wrote all the epistles, but he never got proud. And he could say, the prince of Israel come up and find us nothing in me. So the thing is to stay obedient. Amen. A guy asked me the other day, what's the secret of the Christian life? I said, two words, not two sentences, two words, pray and obey. Or if you want to sing it, trust and obey. And if you don't, you'll rust and decay. Check. All right. Um, uh, we're not supposed to get on the conviction to answer these questions, but, uh, there are no degrees of purity. Okay. I heard that. We will. All right. Here's a good question. Uh, all of them are good, but who has all, this is coming from second Corinthians three, six. It says, who has also made us able ministers of the new Testament, not of the letter, but of the spirit for the letter. Kill it. But the spirit gave it a life that second Corinthians three, six, who also has made us able ministers of the, uh, who has also made us able ministers of the new Testament, not of the letter, but of the spirit for the letter. Kill it. But the spirit gave it life. Two questions. What is the letter? And two, how does the letter kill? Whoever's going to ask that day. I think first of all, the letter is the, is the word without the anointing of the spirit upon it. Uh, Duncan Campbell, some years ago, I heard him on a tape, gave the illustration of, um, having a dream one night over in Scotland. And in this dream, he saw himself coming into a marketplace and there was a vast crowd of people. He recognized the town or the, uh, the village. And as he came in, he saw this huge crowd of people and somebody, uh, speaking. And as he made his way up to the edge of the crowd, he, he saw that the speaker had a sort of very hideous look upon his face. And, uh, after the, uh, meeting, uh, was over, he went up to the, uh, speaker who by this time he recognized as being the devil. This was in a dream. And, uh, he said to the devil, he said, well, uh, what on earth are you doing preaching the word of God? And the devil answered to him in this, uh, particular dream or vision. He said, uh, Duncan Campbell, don't you realize that the greatest weapon I have is the preaching of the word of God without the anointing of the spirit. And, um, I think all across America, all across the world today, we've got, uh, you know, our churches, uh, we call them liberal churches or whatever. But, uh, they read the word of God. You have an illustration here, I think, in, uh, Matthew chapter 2 of, uh, of Herod. The wise men come into the, uh, into town and they're following the, uh, the star and so on and so forth. They meet up with Herod. They tell him what's going on. And, uh, Herod then sends for the scribes and, uh, where are they, the chief priests and the scribes, the religious leaders, uh, of the day. And he inquires of them in verse 4, where, uh, the Christ is to be born. And verse 5, and they said to him in Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet. Now here, here was a situation where, uh, Herod wanted to know something from the, from the word of God. He calls in the scribes. He asks them this question. And immediately they rattle off, uh, not just the, the book, but they rattle off the, the exact context, uh, context. And the verse, they quote the verse to him. And they knew the word of God. You could ask them almost any question and they had an answer for it. But the sad thing is that they never found the Christ. Uh, they had the letter, but the letter killed. You know, if they'd really believed that letter, if the spirit of God, uh, had, uh, quickened that letter to them. They would have gone with the wise men, no doubt, and bowed down and worshipped the, uh, the Christ that was born. But instead, it was just the letter that killed. It was, uh, head knowledge. Again, they had their phylacteries, uh, phylacteries, uh, full of all the scriptures that they'd memorized on their, on their heads and so on and so forth. But, uh, you know, Jesus said to them, you search the scriptures. For in them you think you have, uh, you know, eternal life. But you won't come to me that you might have life. And he said, the scriptures testify of me. So they had the letter, but the letter killed. It kept them from, uh, realization and, uh, uh, reception of Jesus Christ as their Lord and Master. And so, you know, it's not enough just to read the word of God. The, the spirit of God has to quicken that word to us and breathe, uh, upon that word and make it life to us. Otherwise, it's just like any religious book. You can read it and memorize it and have all the facts and figures and, uh, everything else. But, uh, unless it's being imparted and made real to you by the spirit of God, then, uh, it's of no avail. I think that's what, uh, the disciples said. Even after the day of, uh, Pentecost, they came back and they said, uh, you know, pray for us that boldness may be given to us. To the, to declare the word of God. And it needs, the, the word of God alone is not sufficient. It needs to have that authority backing it. Again, they said of Jesus that never a man speak like this man. He speaks with authority. Now, obviously, they were used to the word of God being proclaimed week after week after week after week. But here was somebody that suddenly made that word, uh, have conviction and power that when they sat under it, they trembled. Again, about Stephen. You know, they couldn't resist the wisdom by which he speaks. Uh, the day of Pentecost, again, it says they were pierced to their hearts. Uh, from what I understand, the, the Greek word there is a stronger word than, than, uh, the word that is used where they thrust the sword into the, uh, or the spear into the side of Christ there on the cross. And so, that word went forth with tremendous conviction and, and penetrated the hearts of the people. And so, the, the letter kills. The spirit gives life. And it needs to be both. You know, something comes to my mind there. Uh, in that context, some people say that, say that he's talking about the Ten Commandments. Yea or nay, it doesn't really matter. Here, here's the thing. We've always said, well, if the word of God is read and preached, no matter who does it, God is gonna, God's gonna use it. That's not true. That's just not true. Because, first of all, it's not true because we see it every day. You know. Uh, the word of God read, uh, and talked without the spirit of God produces death. It really does. It has to be the empowering of the Holy Spirit. You say, well, what about that verse in, uh, Hebrews where it says the word of God is alive and powerful. And sharper than any two-edged sword. Where does the life and power come from? The author, the Holy Spirit. And if he's not on that word, it's dead. You know. And you can be doctrinally sound, fundamentally orthodox, and preach the Bible. But if it's preached in the flesh, it'll produce death in the church that it's in. That's why there's so much death. Bernie, do you have anything you want to say on that? Well, I guess the best example, again, is the Pharisees. They kept the law immaculately. They kept new moons and Sabbaths and, uh, they knew every conceivable law. And yet, they were the deadest bunch around. Uh, on the other hand, quoting, again, from, uh, Duncan Campbell, I, I talked with him many hours and once. Um, in the course of talking, he said that in Scotland, particularly in the Hebrides, those islands out in the ocean there, that in every home, at least once a day, usually breakfast or, uh, as you say, supper time, they say tea time. Uh, they, the children are gathered round the table and the father read the word of God. Uh, they memorized the scriptures and also they memorized, and they have to do that in church, they have to memorize, pardon me, what is called a shorter catechism. Uh, they have to go up before a board in Sunday school and, uh, after a period they have to take a test and then they receive a certificate to say that they have memorized the whole of the shorter catechism. Plus the fact that maybe once a week, we used to do it as children, we had to learn one psalm a week. Not 119, but we had to learn a psalm every week. And I, I'm grateful for that because I realized that as a good book says, Paul may plant an Apollo's water, God gives the increase. And I believe the secret of revival in the Hebrides was the fact that the word of God had been in the hearts of those children since they were able to understand what words meant. And it had been stored there in, in their memories and then God comes and revives it and the spirit came on that word which was already there. And the result was that they had whole communities, not, not just churches, but they had communities. As I said the other night, places when the spirit dropped on the church and the spirit fell on a tavern at the end of the town, and the spirit fell on a dance hall at the other end of town. And it was real because those places didn't open again. Somebody once asked Duncan Campbell, what do you do for follow-up work? And he said in his typical Scottish, ah, you didn't need follow-up work if the spirit did it. Oh, okay, I got one, I got one. Oh, I, yeah. We got so many we need to go on with. We just got, you know. Ah, go ahead. Well, who was speaking? Jesus, but he was speaking it in the spirit. The words I speak under your spirit, he was speaking in the spirit. He never spoke anything except in the spirit. In Isaiah 61, that prophetic word of Jesus, which he quoted afterwards, the spirit of the Lord God is upon me. As I said the other day, Jesus never attempted to preach. He was a son of God, I guess he, he knew as conceived by the Holy Ghost. If you take the analogy, we say you can be born of the spirit, and afterwards Phil was, well, he knew for 30 years, or most of the later years, the last 10 or 20, that he was a son of God, he was born supernaturally. And he was born of the spirit, but he did not minister until he was anointed of the spirit. And this is my gripe with Bible schools and seminaries. We don't ask a man, in fact I have met dozens of preachers, even Baptist preachers, that didn't know the Holy Spirit was a person. They thought the Holy Spirit was an influence. But the answer to that question is that the spirit of the Lord God is upon him, he said that. And therefore the word was quick and powerful, and as David said, as mentioned in the 7th of John, that the temple guards, who were the policemen of the temple, the temple guards were sent to arrest Jesus, and he arrested them. With his words. Okay. Alright, here's a good question. How does a child of God know the Father's will in a decision for his life? If he is willing to do either yes or no. I'll read it again. How does a child of God know the Father's will in a decision for his life if he is willing to do either yes or no? And I'll ask Brother Leonard to answer that. It brings to mind a statement a man told me many years ago, that Satan drives us, or at least he likes to drive us. God draws us. I believe that in seeking the will of God, and of course you've got a hundred different illustrations, you might be trying to find the right husband, or the right wife, or the right house to live in, or something. But the secret obviously again is peace. It may be very much against perhaps what you want to do. I find this, that maybe number one, the most difficult thing in the world is to find the will of God. Perhaps the second most difficult thing is to do it when you find it. Because it's not what it costs me to do the will of God. I gave up a very nice church to start going around the world in 1949. That meant I left my wife at home with the children and the three boys, and I was having a good time, best I could anyhow. I'm traveling and seeing things. She's tied up in a house. Sometimes six months at a time, eight months. I stayed away as long as ten months. And it cost her more in that sense, that I did the will of God, than me doing the will of God. And yet we both have peace about it. And I feel that this is the deciding factor. Satan wants to drive us. He wants us to do things quickly, which we shouldn't do. That's true. We've got to ponder it, we've got to find. Sometimes we have to consult with others. The, is it Proverbs says, in the multitude of counselors there is safety. And sometimes that's the worst thing you can do. Because the Apostle Paul says, I conferred not with flesh and blood. So you still have choices. But I'm sure that in a thing that looks terrible, and the most difficult, and to some people the most unreasonable thing, that we still have peace in our hearts about yes or no. Alright. This is a question I think would be helpful to so many. Please give any help or guidelines for bringing up children in a home. Please give any help or guidelines to bring up children in a home. Priorities for bringing them up in this world, but not of this world. In the world, but not of it. I made some notes here on this. The folks that know how to bring up children best have none. Wow. Oh man. Well, do you know there used to be a lady in the 1950s, there was a lady and I don't know her name. She ran a column in about 500 newspapers in America on raising children. And the lady I know in Chicago used to cut that column out everyday and paste it in a book. And she did that for about 20 years. And then the lady died and she found she was a spinster and she was disgusted. I put here number one, home is not a military academy. Number two, that we've got to rule, but rule with love. Number three, if you take something from a child, maybe you've let your child do just what they liked about TV. You suddenly realize it's having a bad influence. Well, in the first place they shouldn't have had it by themselves. But you have to supply alternatives. I think the stress that's put today on TV programs and other things is you have to keep your child amused. Now that's wrong, I don't think you have to keep the child amused, you have to keep the child interested. And if you want them to see Mickey Mouse, you didn't give me the watch. But if you want to keep your child amused, well let the child just look at nonsense, you know. Tomorrow morning is what, all cartoons I think. A lot of insane, ridiculous stuff. Now if you want to make an idiot of the child, that's your responsibility. God will hold you responsible for it. But again, these days there are so many instructive toys that can be educational. Or you can take part of a child's time up with having a pet. Or having a hobby like collecting stamps or maybe growing plants or something like that. You can't leave the child with a vacuum. You can't just say, well you're not going to play with this or do that or do the other. Of course, basically again, the child has to know something about the word of God. David has three girls. And somewhere he picked up some records. Now they're made by, well FDA, 70 Adventists I think. The guy himself that has done them is a 70 Adventist. But they're not colored with their doctrine in any way at all. And they're magnificent. There's about 75 tapes. You can get one a month or you can buy the whole lot for maybe about $200. And when we're traveling in the car, I frankly sometimes get a bit weary. But that's alright. They put it on in the morning. They put it on straight after lunch if we're traveling all day. They wanted a game at night. And David says they must have played them hundreds of times. They're very dramatic. They're very interesting. And everybody that has bought that set has been very, very thrilled that they got it. You know, we don't realize, I'm sure, how receptive children are. I understand in Tokyo. I was out there but I didn't see this. I understand that they have a lesson for children in one of the auditoriums on a Saturday morning. 2,000 children under 3 years of age learning the violin. I guess that sounds like 2,000 cats with their tails caught in the door. Can you imagine 2,000 violins squawking and, oh wow, it must be... But what they say is this, again, that the child is so receptive. And as I mentioned to you before, that Mrs. Booth, one of the most successful women, again, one of the most spiritual women I think in history, one of the most prayerful women, a woman that said, I'm not going to raise mediocre children. I'm not going to raise average children. I don't know if you've faced that. You kind of say, boy, the schools are in a mess these days. Well, the schools didn't give birth to your children. They only have them a few hours a day. The influence of the home is far greater than the influence of the school, and I don't care what you say about that. You've a right to know every day what the child has learned and try and unlearn it if you can, but by the same token, the home should be the university. Mrs. Booth said, I'm not going to train normal children. Mrs. Wesley said the same thing. What did they do? They both left some of the most illustrious children in history. Again, Mrs. Booth putting her arm around the head of the child at night when it was sleeping, praying for it while it was asleep, whispering in its ear while it's asleep. Sleep on, darling. The world is waiting for you. Now, whether that went into the subconscious, I don't know, but the fact is, though she did a lot, in fact, I think she was the powerhouse behind William Booth, the founder of the army, he gets the credit. I'm sure she was the powerhouse behind it. But she said, it's my children that matters. And you know, the children will rise up to bless us or curse us somewhere. And we've got to start right at the beginning. They'll kick, they'll squeal, sure they will. In case you've forgotten, so did you at one time. You were no friend. If you are now, you weren't then. You kicked and squealed and argued and didn't want to do this. We've got to discipline them, but discipline them with love. If we take things away, we've got to put something else in the place. We ought to see that they do this, and I tried to stress this earlier, there should be a family altar in every home. If the father won't take it, well, the mother should take it. And that child should be instructed, and years after, that word will come back again. What's the name of that set of tapes there that you were talking about? The Bible stories, is that what they are? It's, I think, called Bible in Living Sound. Produced by Sentinel Records, and they've just moved from Simi, California to Nordland, Washington, but I don't have the address with me. And it's called what? Bible in Living Sound? Bible in Living Sound. It's 75 tapes, and I think 38 cassettes. And they take every major sort of Bible story in the Old Testament all the way through. A lot of things that you'd never think of giving your children, but they're tremendously well produced, all professionally done, and they could be a real blessing for any age, really, from the age of, I guess, about five years of age on through, for adults. I've known ministers that have taken them on vacation, instead of reading books, just listen to them one after another, so that's how good they are. I was going to say, I think you have a right, you don't have to do it because I say, I know that, but I think you have a right to claim for your children something that they can't claim already, like the pastor said last night in the prayer meeting, his mother claimed after what she'd have three daughters. Four. Four daughters. No wonder she wanted to change. But she'd have four daughters, then the son came and he claimed that the son would be a preacher. As I told you the first day I was born, my mother claimed that. I think you have a right to make claims like that. Hannah did it, she didn't just pray for a child, she prayed for a man child. She didn't just get a man child, she got a prophet. There's so much that you can put in. I thank God, I guess, almost every day of my life, still for my godly mother. My dad was great, he's a good hellfire preacher, but my mother had more saintliness. I guess I'd have to say she had more character. The mother's influence can't be measured in the home. Okay. Alright, next question is, we could stay on that, but we'll need to move on. What should be our basic motivation for service and sacrifice? What should be our basic motivation for service and sacrifice? The love of Christ or rewards in eternity. How do these all tie together? What's my basic motivation? Because of the love of Christ compelling me, or I want rewards at the judgment seat, or are they intertwined? What is the basic motivation for service and sacrifice? I think both come into play, because Paul says the love of Christ constrains me. He also says that we must always appear before the judgment seat of Christ, knowing the fear of God or the wrath of God. Another place he says that I've finished the course, I've run the race, henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness. I think it's 1 Corinthians 9 at the end of the chapter where he says, I run the race in such a way that I may win. And so he was very much concerned with the fact that he was winning and that there was, you know, you do it for an imperishable crown, we do it for a perishable, we do it for an imperishable. I think both of them are involved there. The fact that it's the love of Christ, you do it because you love him. You do it also, in a sense, because of the reward, I think. Right. Well, you know, one verse comes to my mind where Paul said, and he was the one who said the love of Christ constrains me, he says, wherefore we labor, that whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him. And I think he was thinking about his service that he was going to present to the Lord. Brother Leonard, do you want to say a word on that? Yeah. Excuse me, I'm just having this thing around my neck. I was going to quote the verse that David quoted from 2 Corinthians 5.14. In that chapter, Paul has given a kind of summary of his theology. And then if you question why he did so much sacrifice and laboring, you know, when I stress the fact that, well, he says we are laborers together with God. We're living in a day when everything, you know, people want to live in euphoria, they want to live on cloud 9 or 99 after they're filled with the Spirit. But the Spirit is given only that we may be adequate in the job that God has called us to. And he says in the beginning of this chapter in 2 Corinthians 5, in verse 2 he says, for this we groan earnestly. And then in verse 4 he says, while we're in the tabernacle, this body we groan being burdened. And this is tied in with the fact, the reason he carried a burden nobody else could carry, the reason he did more than other men did, he prayed more than other men prayed, he fasted more than others, was that he's motivated by love. As I said the other night, he believed God so loved the world, he believed Christ loved the church, but he says the most amazing thing of all is, he loved me and gave himself for me. And I think it was old Samuel Rutherford that said, when the wonder of your salvation ceases to startle you or amaze you, you need to get down and have an extensive time of prayer. Because after all you knew your own heart, nobody else knew it, your mother didn't know it, your husband, your friend, you knew your own heart, up to a degree. You know I think when we get to heaven, we're going to look back on the track, we're going to see that we got within an inch of going over the precipice, we got within a little fraction of a kind of, this isn't good theology I guess, but committing spiritual suicide are sabotaging. There are accidents in the spiritual life as there are accidents in the physical life. Like when a man, you see an athlete and he falls and injures his back, a footballer and he's paralyzed from the neck downward. He's no more good the rest of his life. I've known people who've had a spiritual accident that's put them out of Christian service, Christian usefulness for the rest of their life. So we need to keep short accounts with God. We need to see that that love is kept fresh. Because after all in the book of the Revelation chapter 3, people quote that or they misquote it as we do often other scriptures. And they say you know, you've lost your first love. It doesn't say that. It says you've left your first love. There was a deliberate choice where you were to give time, interest, affection to something, maybe business. Maybe you prayed Lord bless my business, you opened a second shop, you opened a third shop, and business ate you up. You made a choice. Where will you find the blessing? You find it like the man who lost the axe head in the river. He didn't go down the river, he went back where he lost the axe head, and he was obedient and the axe head came. And we retrieve our blessing where we lost it. But I'm quite sure that the whole motivation is the motivation first of all for love, not for reward. You see a lovely girl and somebody says she's not only pretty, she's rich. She's not only rich, she's a good cook. You say boy I'm going to marry her. Number one because she's rich, number two because she can cook. Well you might have a big shock coming up. She should be married, you should choose her because you love her. And the cooking will come up bad, she'll burn the toast sometimes and she'll do some other funny things. And if you've only married her because she can cook, boy you're in trouble. It should be love. And I believe that this is the secret of all men, great service for God. The love of Christ constrains me. He'll take care of the rewards all right, so I'm not the judge of all the else do right. Right. Okay. This I think is going to be helpful for us. How do you pray for others? Many times I find myself saying exactly the same thing every day, almost like a memorized speech. What should I do? In other words, a person saying I pray for people but I find myself praying the same thing for them day after day. What about, you know, what should I go for? You made some notes on this, one of you all did if you want to. Well sometimes people put it this way. You know I get a little weary of praying. I feel, Shakespeare said the devil can quote scripture. It can shoot them in our minds or something else. And people say this, we're not to use vain repetition. And I feel that every day I'm using vain repetition. No, I don't think so. We're not saying 500 Hail Marys. We're not trying to get merit. Somebody says, well what about the parable of the unjust judge? And some people suggest that woman had to kind of twist the arm of that judge to get him to do that. That's not the accent of that parable. The accent is, Jesus said she's going to be blessed for her persistence. How many times have you started praying for something you thought was terribly important, and then you dropped it all together. Somebody afterwards, a week or two said, did you pray for something? Oh no, I forgot about that. But there are some things, for instance Hebrews, what is it, 5. Talks about the Lord Jesus, who with strong crying and with tears. Now again, the end bound says some tears are just like slush. On what, on a glacier. If you climb a mountain, and they say this is a frozen river, you step into it, you may go down 6 or 7 inches because the surface is slush. It's solid rock of ice underneath. And I used to pray with a man, and before ever we got to the ground he wept. Now I know some men, my daddy, every time my father prayed he wept. And when I was a teenager, I said to him one day, daddy, I want to ask you something. Whether you pray at home or pray in church, you always weep. Nobody else does. And he said Len, I'll tell you what, years ago, I'd been reading Jeremiah and his concern for Israel, and I asked God to give me a ministry of tears. And he got a ministry of tears. We used to pray every morning before we went to school, every morning before we went to business. We had to get down in the house, and my brother-in-law used to come. And we used to kneel there and pray, and very often it was repetitious, but to me it was never dry. You know, I've heard people say sometimes, well a man said to me recently, you know I've heard you preach that message on Isaiah 6 four times. I said you'd be surprised how many times I heard it. But I'm not embarrassed to preach a message four times, I preach it 400 times, as long as God uses it. If he doesn't use it, then I quit on it. But you see again, the secret again is if the freshness is on it, I feel that until God gives me an assurance. Now you say, do I have to pray 20 or 30 years for somebody? No. You pray until you get assurance. When you really get assurance, in your heart God answers prayer, you quit praying, you start praising. I've done that more than once. I've been in a jam and I've said, Lord I'm not good. Very clearly, when I've been in my office by myself or with my dear wife, and I've said, sweetheart look, we're going to pray about this for the last time, and we're going to put it on record. From here we start praising God. And in two big jams in our lives, we have prayed and prayed and believed and believed, and it didn't seem much was moving. And I remember once saying, all right sweetheart, this is it. For instance, you couldn't get a house in England during the war time. I'd gone down to a city called Bath to take up a new church there. You couldn't buy a house. The Admiralty moved up from London. They were paying four times the regular rent for a house. We had a lady in our church, she was a busybody, she was a nuisance. When she came up to me I thought, oh, something else he's got to say. And she said one Sunday morning, I want to talk to you. I said, well I'm really busy, it's important. I said, well just, I'll give you one minute. And she said, I've found your house. I thought she was a lovely woman. And she said, the house is at so and so, and it's a beautiful house, and this is the rent. Now the rent was my total wage for every week. Nothing for food, nothing to run my karma, but I took the house. Because somebody else could have rented it four times. No, it was the only way for me to get my wife and children there. But right before that, just a week before that, though we prayed for months, we said, Lord, we're not asking any more. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, for giving us an answer to prayer. And I believe there's a place where we move up. Caught one thing again. Where George Muller was told that somebody had been saved. And somebody said, you'll be very happy your friend got saved last night. He didn't seem excited, and this person said, well, aren't you excited about it? You've been praying for him 15 years. Yes. Well, God answered your prayer last night. No, he said, God answered my prayer 15 years ago. He gave me assurance. Last night was the evidence of the answer. And so there's a place where we move from prayer to praise. Amen, amen. You know, only God, the Holy Spirit, can show you where that is in any given prayer situation. You know, there's no rule. You just pray until God says, all right. You know, the Spirit moves on you to say, Lord, I believe you for the instant. Then you praise from then on. It doesn't mean you stop calling the person's name in prayer. You just praise the Lord for what he's going to do for us. All right? Now, since we do not want to present salvation as only an insurance against hell or a ticket to happiness, how should we present salvation? Should more scriptures be used than the Roman road? In other words, how do we present salvation to let a person realize that it's their life or so forth? I think you understand the question. Somebody had some notes here. I think one of the big mistakes we make in presenting salvation, and I was telling this the other night to a few of you there, is that because man basically is selfish, when he looks at the cross, his first reaction is, what has Jesus Christ done for me? How can I benefit by his death? And so we tend to emphasize the one aspect of the cross, which is, of course, the cleansing and forgiveness of sin. But Jesus Christ really did not die on the cross to take away our sin. The reason that Christ died on the cross was to redeem us for himself. And if you like, a byproduct of the work of the cross was your cleansing. But what he was after was yourself. I use the illustration, I think my dad used it there one night, of going into a city there or going downtown and buying an old car. And I take that car back home and I wash it and I clean it. I spend the rest of the day taking all the filth and the dirt off that car. I vacuum it out and then I take all the contents of the vacuum cleaner and the filth from that car, dump it on the table and say to my wife, honey, look what I got for $500. Now, obviously, she's going to think I've been out in the sun too long, or, you know, something's gone wrong and so on. My reason for buying that car was not to obtain the dirt. My reason for purchasing that car was because I intended to use that car. And because I happen to be a finicky sort of a guy, and that car is going to represent my character and my nature, I cleanse it before I use it. And when Jesus Christ died on the cross, he died in order to redeem your life for himself. And because he's a holy God, he washes you and cleanses you, but he is not interested in your sin. The Bible says as far as the east is from the west, so far as he removed our transgressions from us. There's a verse in, I don't want to preach my whole sermon, you'll be here for another hour, but in Titus there, that sort of balances up both sides of this. Titus 2 and verse 14, it says he gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from every lawless deed. Now here's the one aspect. He gave himself for us, in other words referring to the cross, that he might redeem us or set us free from every lawless deed. But then it says, and purify for himself a people for his own possession, jealous for good works. Now what we've done, we've embraced the one aspect of the cross, but we've refused to surrender ourselves to God. And again the Romans wrote, somebody said leave the Roman. I don't know if that's totally true or not, but I gave the people the other night a verse, which I think summarizes the whole message of the cross, better than any other single verse of scripture in the Bible. It's in 2 Corinthians 5 and verse 15. It says this, he died for all, that they who live should no longer live for themselves, but for him who died and rose again on their behalf. That was the purpose of the cross. That he died in order to revolutionize and to change our whole direction in life. Not just to take away our sins, but that they who live should no longer live for themselves, but for him who died. And that is what the cross is all about. It's to bring about again, a restoration from everything that Adam lost. And to bring us back again, that we might become his possession. In Colossians it says all things were not only created by him, all things were created for him. And you and I exist and were created for one reason, one reason alone that we may become God's property and his possession. And if we've never come to that place, then we're far short of the whole purpose of the cross. You know one thing you said that I find, that the Lord had troubled me with a number of years ago, as I began to hear what people were preaching. You said by nature man is basically selfish, so the first thing he asks you is what's in it for me. You know, we need to say well, if you're a master, somebody's going to master and control your life. You know, and live through you. You know, a verse that came to my mind, we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good work, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. I'll get down, go ahead. I think the other aspect needs to be stressed too, that so often we say to people well, sin will hurt you and sin will hurt the people that you mess around with. But first and foremost, sin hurts God. Every sin, however big, however small, is a violation of conscience, it's a violation of God's commandment. Very often, again, it's a violation, at least in civilized areas, it's a violation of at least some knowledge of the word of God. And again, I think we've overdone the bit, you know, that you see on most automobiles. Smile, God loves you. Well, you ought to balance that with a sticker at the other end of the bumper, where it says that God is angry with the wicked every day. As the pastor said last night, I think in prayer, if you read it carefully, you'll discover in the Bible, there's a great deal more about the wrath of God, the anger of God, the severity of God. Paul says again in 2 Corinthians 5, knowing the terror of the Lord. You see, that was an aspect that the old time evangelists like Phineas and Mordecai and Ham, they preached a whole number of nights on the wrath of God, on the terror of God, knowing the terror of God. We persuade men. Then there's the other scripture at the end of Ephesians 2, that God has made us to be a habitation. And as I said, I stop asking. I find lots of people, if you say, oh yes, we're all saved right from the White House right down to our house and everybody else's house. I heard Billy Graham quote a Gallup poll today that 75% of people in America are born again. I don't believe 7% are born again. Not biblically born again. It's a miracle. It's as big a miracle as Christ being conceived in the matrix of the Virgin Mary. Because Christ has come to live. Christ will dwell in your heart by faith. So I don't ask people if they're going to heaven, are you saved? I say to somebody, does Christ live in you? You know, you think he was saying to them, hey, give me a check for $10,000. What? Well, why haven't we done that? Because as David emphasized, this is what God wants. He hasn't saved us, just go to heaven. He doesn't fill us all with the Holy... You don't know where lots of people out of the upper room went after they were filled with the Spirit. They just became godly mothers and godly fathers. We kind of suggest you get filled with the Spirit immediately. You drop everything, get a full-time job as we say. Every Christian should be a full-time job. Your life is as full as mine. You don't have to get paid in the same way. Maybe you travel as much, all that. But it's a full-time occupation. We're to be filled with all the fullness of God. We're to be the habitation of God through the Spirit. And once the Lord Jesus, the King of Glory of course, lived in a stable, but not after that. He doesn't want your heart to be a stable of mine. He wants purity. And purity should precede power. But again, the stress today is not on the Holy Spirit. The stress today is on the power of the Spirit. All right. I asked Brother Leonard at lunch one day, I said, where should the church place its emphasis? And he said, three areas. Prayer, purity, and then I'll use the other words, passion for people, the lost and the unsaved. And I think if you have that perfect balance, prayer, purity, and then passion. I think I'll ask this last one. I don't know how they want to deal with this, but I'll let them deal with it. Is it unscriptural for women to speak in the church? If so, how can there be ministers, evangelists, teachers, and so forth? Is it unscriptural for women to speak in the church? If so, how can there be ministers, evangelists, teachers, and so forth? I suppose if we can solve this in the next few minutes, we'll really, you know. I'd like to look on it. I think there's a difference, first of all, obviously, between speaking and teaching. You know, otherwise you're all pretty unscriptural from what I've heard of the meetings before they start. But in Timothy there, Paul says, but I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man, but to remain quiet. And again, I think it's the aspect of the teaching and authority are very much linked together. There's an aspect of authority in the teacher, and it's that aspect of lording it over somebody else that I think he's really referring to there. I believe that, at least this is my opinion, we should have said this at the beginning, like a lot of talk shows, are the views that are expressed on this program, and not necessarily those of the First Baptist Church, but we didn't. You know, I don't have any problems myself listening to a woman teach, provided she's not trying to usurp authority over a man. I mean, I would have problems going to a church that the only sole pastor in that church was a woman as such. But I think, again, it's tied together here in the sense of teaching as being a position. You know, he gave some as teachers. Well, he didn't give... You know, he gave apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers. Nowhere in the Word of God do we have a woman as being a teacher in that capacity. Now, Philip had seven daughters that prophesied. Four. Four, was it four? So, obviously, they stood up in the church, and they were able to speak, they were able to prophesy, and it was the Spirit of God. But I think, again, it was different than the function of a person's teaching, which is an authoritarian position. And then he goes on to say, of course, that Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived, all in the same context. And, you know, I don't want to get stoned to death here, so I'm not going to say too much more. But, seemingly, a man is much more logical, in a sense, than a woman is. I understand what you're getting on dangerous ground. No, if I understand what you're saying, you're saying that a woman teaching, you know, if she is not in that usurping the authority over any man, that certainly you wouldn't mind sitting and listening to her teach. But if you think of a woman, say, as one of the leaders, or the official capacity in the church as a teacher with position and authority over men, you see that in a different light. Is that what you're saying? Well, the classical... Part of the answer to that, surely, is in the Salvation Army, some of their greatest preachers, in fact, most of them, I know a man, at least I knew him, he's gone up to the glory land, but I talked with him one afternoon. I wish I'd had a tape recorder. It was in 1931, you won't remember that. And we talked for the whole afternoon. He was the right-hand man of William Booth in the Salvation Army. He told me about the early days of revival that were just unbelievable in the majesty and power of God. But he said that Mrs. Booth was a far greater preacher than a hundred officers in the town and let the women there have total authority, which again, I think is wrong. I think a woman can teach women. But, you know, this business of equality, is getting in the church in a way I don't like anyhow. I think women should keep out of it in one sense. But listen, let me say this. Somebody asked the woman that first brought pantsuits in for women, are you, do you think they're going to continue? Yes. Do you like to wear them? I'll always wear them. Why? She said, because I feel I have more authority when I wear them. So number one, that was it. Now, I was in the First Baptist Church in McCallum, preached on Sunday. A very lovely lady came to me after the meeting. She had rings on her fingers and bells on her toes and she was really something. And she said, Mr. Ravenhill, could I come to your classes each morning in my pantsuit? And I said, yes. She said, thank you. I said, there's a condition. She said, what's the condition? I said, if your husband comes in a skirt with a handbag. Oh! My, she said, my husband is the most distinguished surgeon in the southern United States. I said, lady, I don't care if he's Gabriel. I said, if you come in your pantsuit, and that's why I don't say it the first day I came, I said, I prefer you to come like a lady. Well, she was quite huffed about it. I didn't know a thing in the life of that woman. The following Sunday, I stayed in a church for two Sundays, which I don't often do. We went to a home. They had a magnificent home. And it, a swimming pool the size of this place, nearly kidney-shaped. It was gorgeous. I went to introduce her to my husband. The husband said, hmm, so you're the man that wanted me to come in a skirt with a handbag? I said, that's right, that's right, don't mistake it. So he smiled. He said, let me tell you something. I'd been out of town till Thursday morning, Thursday night, came home Thursday night, said to my wife, darling, you're looking great. I think we've found the right psychiatrist. I think we've found the right answer in those tablets that you're taking. She was going to a psychiatrist paying a dollar a minute, and she went for 50 minutes every week. She was buying tablets that cost more than a dollar each. And he said, we've found the answer. She said, sweetheart, I haven't taken a tablet since Sunday night, and I haven't been to the psychiatrist, and I never felt better in my life. Well, what in the world happened? And then she told him, she said, I've been rebelling. God had been talking to me about wearing hand suits, particularly going to church. Now, I'm not trying to condemn you. I'm telling you this, that if God talks to you about a little thing that somebody else can do, you've got to do as Mary said, whatever He says unto you, do it. The key to power, I'm sure of this, and the key to progress, and the key to spiritual health, again, is trust and obey. Obedience is the nitty-gritty of everything. Dr. Charles Stanley, just before we left Atlanta, said he had been up talking with... There came a man to our house when I was just a teenager, and talking over the table to my father when they talked about the secret of the Christian life. This person said, the secret is obedience. And he said, I latched on to it, and that's been the secret of my life. Oh, sorry, Bill Goffert, not Bill Gaither. Bill Goffert. And Bill Goffert said, the secret of my life is obedience. It's the secret of everybody's life. Trust and obey. Okay. I believe that's all the time we have. We do appreciate you coming. And there were many, many other questions given. We couldn't deal with them all. I'll let Brother Leonard then look over them and select some of them, you know. But let's have a moment of prayer before we go, okay?