Leonard Ravenhill emphasizes the profound teachings of the Beatitudes from the Sermon on the Mount, illustrating that entry into the Kingdom of God requires humility, mourning over sin, and a deep hunger for righteousness. He highlights that true righteousness is not merely external but must be internalized, as Jesus calls for a transformation of the heart rather than adherence to mere religious rituals. Ravenhill draws parallels between the struggles of early Christians and the modern-day challenges of living righteously in a world that often rewards the opposite. He encourages believers to seek a genuine relationship with God, which leads to true fulfillment and the manifestation of His righteousness in their lives. Ultimately, he calls for Christians to be living examples of Christ's love and righteousness in a world desperately in need of hope.

In the past few weeks, we've been taking the, uh, Matthew's version of the Sermon on the Mount. And, uh, again, it's a bridge. It's not quite the same in the sixth chapter of Luke, because that's the Sermon on the Plain. But this Sermon on the Mount is, again, the manifesto of the Kingdom of Jesus. It could be said that it's, uh, it is, uh, an almost word, uh, perfect letter or life of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. We thought about the, the fact that, that anybody, no, there's no class distinction, no priorities for scholarship, no priorities for wealth, no priorities for kingship. But everybody that enters the Kingdom must enter it the same way. Blessed are the poor in spirit. And that poor means emptying out of ourselves all arrogance and self-sufficiency and feeling that we're approachable to God. That, that for some strange quirk, that we do not need redemption. That we can work our way to a church or, or through some other religious effort and become children of God, which is pure nonsense in the light of the Word of God. Blessed are the poor in spirit. And then blessed are they that mourn. They mourn over their poverty. And then blessed are the meek. And in each case there's a compensation. Blessed are they that mourn, for they receive the comfort of God. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inhabit the earth. Blessed are the poor. Blessed are they that mourn, for the compensation is they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inhabit the earth. Now verse 6 of Matthew 5 says, blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst. You know, often when we've gone out west, and we've gone into the desert areas, and you know it gets hot, and even if you have air conditioning on your car, the sun is striking through the upper part of the car, your chest is hot, and your legs are freezing nearly with your air conditioner. And you pull your shades down if you have them, and then before long the desert seems like a sheet of white paper. And almost every time we've gone, I've said to my dear wife, well, however did those pioneers come over here without shades, without, you know, they couldn't stop and get, there wasn't even a McDonald's in those days, there wasn't a place to get a cup of cold water, they were scared to death of being attacked by Indians. But above all, it's the drama, the, what shall I call it, the courage of men to pioneer through the wilderness. Well, you know, in one area when they were doing this, they'd made a breakthrough, they'd made a kind of a settlement, and they startled the Indians, and the Indians decided on a massacre. And there was a famous Indian by the name of Black Eagle, he had a double dose of devilry in him, and he was going to slaughter these people who'd come into his territory. And they'd heard that on Sunday morning that these people all gathered together to sing hymns. And so he planned the massacre for that morning, and, you know, with the skill that Indians have, they could swing from tree to tree and then slide through the grass, and it was such a hot day, they had all the windows open, the door open, and they just stopped singing as these men were snaking their way through the grass. And then they heard a dignified man begin to read, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for they spring up to the brave. And they listened right through, Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy, Blessed are the pure in heart, for they seek God. Well then he said, if this is the white man's teaching, we need them, we shouldn't destroy them. At the other end of the scale, some people think the greatest, of course, president America ever had, that's been disputed, of course, some think it was Washington, I suppose it was because it's part English, but I think actually Abraham Lincoln is usually considered the greatest of all. Not too long before he was dying, a friend went to see him and he had a Bible on his knee, and he began to talk about the things he'd done and the things he hadn't done, and he said, well, I'm not so sure about if I'm really pure in heart, I'm not so sure about a number of things, but this I am sure about, I hunger and I thirst after righteousness. It's a pity we hunger and thirst, hunger is normal, thirst is normal. I remember a lady whose name you all know, I won't tell you who she is, but she came and took a convention that we had over in the Bahamas in a beautiful mansion there, and after one meeting she came home almost breathless, she said, I've never seen such hunger, oh my, the hunger, the people's questions, oh, I've never seen such hunger in my life, so what, what's wrong with that? If your child comes in hungry, Mother, I want you, yeah, I gave you something an hour ago, you don't say, you're hungry again, oh, get in the car, let's take you to the doctor's. You expect a normal child to be hungry, you expect to be thirsty. And if you and I are normal in our Christian life, it's not abnormal to hunger and thirst after righteousness. And the compensation is that if we hunger and we thirst after righteousness, we should be filled. Now righteousness, amongst other things, means purity, it means moral rectitude, it means to be straight in our relationship with God. And you'd imagine that if we lived in a world like this, living this attitude, that the world would welcome us and say, well, I want a righteous man. They used to tell me when I was a boy that if the devil was in business, he wouldn't let his own kids be the treasurer and secretary. Well, maybe that's true. He wanted Christians to run the cashier's desk, you know, if the devil was in business. He wanted Christians to run the other sections of it. And yet it's strangely true that in this same statement that Jesus makes, verse 10 says, blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake. Isn't it a strange world in which we live? If you murder somebody, they'll put you in jail, not for too long, just till they change the bed and get coloured TV. You'll get out, a skilful lawyer will get you out. If you go to war and you drop a bomb on a city and liquidate it and kill 100,000 people, you'll maybe get a big medal. And yet if you're righteous, you'll get to jail as well. Isn't that the history of the Puritans? Weren't those old wonderful Presbyterians back in, what, 1665 massacred by the English? They didn't like the way they stood up for the things of God. They wouldn't be pressed into a mould of Romanism and so they stood up. And there are just incredible stories of their suffering. Young men in their 23, 24 years of age, marching to the scaffold with their shoulders back. When one said to one of them, oh, ach, he was weeping. And somebody in the crowd, this was a fellow called Huey that was going to the gallows, the fellow in the crowd was called Huey. And Huey goes down the street with his shoulders back, six feet free of him, with a smile on his face and he turns right and this guy sees him and wept, oh, Huey, Huey, he's crying. Ach, Huey stopped and pointed and said, man, why are you greeting? In Gaelic, greeting is weeping. Why are you weeping? Ach, Huey, Huey, ach, you're such a fine young man. You're great, you're our apostle Paul and you're going to die. I hear you're going to die. Ach, man, he says, going to die? In three days I'm going to see the king in all his beauty. Now what do you do when you kill a man like that? You don't spoil his life. In other words, you say, I'm just going to start living. I've seen the king. I'm going to see the king in all his beauty. No trembling and say, well, couldn't you make an appeal and go to the king and the governor and try and get me off it? I mean, I'm only 24 years of age and I don't want to let my head roll in the dust. They used to stick them on a spike outside of Edinburgh Cathedral as a sign of humiliation. I never knew a corpse would be humiliated anyhow, but that was something that they passed on to them. You see, they lived in the era of the spiritual. These beautiful things here are all internal. You see, Jesus, a little later in this very chapter, he says, in verse 20, I say unto you that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven. Now, again, you've got to think of Jesus. I get sick, I get weary of all the pictures of Jesus. We don't have a picture of Jesus in our home. I wouldn't have one. If you're a good artist, paint me an eagle, but don't paint me a picture of Jesus. It'll go in the garbage can. And if your grandfather has one that's worth a lot of money, well, sell it and give it to missions. I don't believe anybody has a true portrait of Jesus. And when I see portraits of Jesus, I kind of shrink because usually he's effeminate, you know, has a nice dress on that's been so well pleated and his hair's faultless and whatnot. I don't believe Jesus was like that. I think Jesus was about six feet four. I think he was rugged, a Jewish in appearance, a nice beard, kindness oozed out of him. I don't think he was like any of the pictures that men have given us of him. But, you know, the thing that comes back to me time and time again is the heroism of Jesus. You see, when he's talking here, I don't doubt the Pharisees were on the edge of the crowd and the Sadducees. You know the difference between the two, the pun we have on that. The Pharisees believed in the resurrection and the Sadducees didn't. That's why they were Sadducees. All right. But that's a fact. Now, Jesus is living in constant antagonism. He doesn't go in a corner and say what he thinks is wrong with mankind. He shouts it from the housetop. He went the last day, the great day of the feast in the seventh chapter of John. That temple held six thousand people because there's a record of one when somebody spilt some holy water or something there and there was a riot in the temple and there were six thousand people and hundreds of people were trampled. And Jesus stood up on the last day, the great day of the feast. The previous six days, the temple orchestra had gone down the shoulder of the hill to the pool of Siloam. They'd taken an urn made of pure gold, not solid because there was water in it, but it was pure gold. And at a given point, they lifted water out of that pool, put it on the shoulder of the priest and he balanced it there and the orchestra stood up and they praised and they magnified the Lord. And in the middle of the temple, they poured it out six days in a row. Why? To remind them that one day, God, the God of Elijah, the God of miracles, split the rock and that water became the water of life to them On the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood in exactly the same place with thousands of people looking up. Now the Jews believed it was their prerogative. There was only one God and he only had one family, they were the Jews. And so they're recording the history of what God has done with them. And on the last day, Jesus went and stood in that very place. He didn't pour any water. They didn't pour any water. He stood there and said so courageously, it thrills me, that Jesus stood there and hollered right through the temple. Now, Isaiah says, My servant Christ shall not cry in the streets. He didn't cry in the streets. He cried in the temple. After all, they didn't have any amplification. How in the world do you think 6,000 people? Maybe he put his hand up and he cried, if any man thirsts. What do you mean any man? The Jews are a monopoly on God. You mean the Greeks? Anybody else can come? If any man thirsts, let him come unto me and drink. He didn't say to the socialites, come all the millionaires, come all the distinguished scholars, come all the rabbis, come, he says, if any man. He cuts the whole thing down. Last Sunday we tried to think of what is called the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem. T.E., triumphal entry. Was it a triumphal entry or was it a tearful exit? Do you remember the scripture? We use it at Christmas usually, though I've never heard a sermon on TV or radio or anywhere at Christmas. He came unto his own and his own received him not. Not once. He came unto his own again in the temple that day with 6,000 people. Do you think they accepted him? They actually sent some men to arrest him. If you read the first verse of that chapter, it says that when he went to the temple, the Jews sought to kill him. And yet he walked down into the middle of the trap. He's like a man going into the middle of a cage of wild tigers and he has no defense on him. And he walks in the middle and he's going to say, Hi, like that. What are the tigers going to do? Chew him up? But even with a price on his head, he stood in the middle of the feast there. And he said, if any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. Now he marched into Jerusalem. Each one of the evangelists recorded it. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. It's the answer to Zechariah chapter 9 and verse 9. Rejoice, rejoice greatly, O Zion. Thy king cometh unto thee, meek and lowly and sitting upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass. You see, a beast that was going to be used in a sacrificial ceremony or a holy ceremony must never have been used. It must be totally clean. And so he sat on what? He sat on a donkey. What type of a donkey? A young donkey, a colt. Where on? No man ever sat. Now I understand you can... I've seen men train horses. I understand you can't train a donkey. The only way you break it is get on its back. If you can stay on, maybe I'll be on your back in the next minute. But that's the way you break it in. And Jesus gets a stride, a wild colt, because in the beginning God had promised that Adam should have dominion over all the animals. And he comes not the second Adam, he's the last Adam. And he has dominion. But he goes through the streets of Jerusalem. There were over a million people. Josephus, if you can trust him, says there were six million people in the city at that time. It was the greatest celebration. It was the Passover. Isn't it awful, isn't it dreadful to think as we celebrate tomorrow the crucifixion of Jesus that they actually slaughtered a lamb that very day in the temple that the Lamb of God was hanging on a cross and they didn't even understand it? Isn't it amazing that it says the same thing? That they said if Jesus comes this way we'll get him, we'll arrest him. Why didn't they? I mean, this is a silly thing. This is a carnival. I mean, did you ever see a king riding into a capital city with a few sweaty old garments on the back of a donkey and thought that had nothing to give tore some palm leaves off and only John, I think, it is mentioned there. And they were palm leaves and they strewed the way. Well, the Romans must have laughed their heads off. You should see Caesar come into Rome. When Caesar comes in he has a chariot blazing red and it's drawn with white horses and he has slaves to fan him and an old man, everybody bows down and says, Hail Caesar! And all you have here is a few screaming women saying, Hail. To this man they say the Son of God. I think Jesus may be, as a human being he felt very humiliated about it. But again, the bravery that he marched into the city when there was a price on his head. Now again, he is speaking these truths and if you notice very carefully in the third verse it says, Blessed are the poor in spirit. Now, he is talking to a third bunch there. When you come further down he says in verse 13, Blessed are ye. Blessed are ye. He talks to a third party when he says, Blessed are the poor. He talks to a second party when he says, Blessed are ye. And then he comes right down to speak verse 18, For verily I say unto you. Now let's go back into verse 17. Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets. I'm not come to destroy the law but to fulfill. Now that word fulfill is mentioned twice in this, I was going to say epistle in Matthew, which is obviously the first gospel. But fulfilled is mentioned 16 times in Matthew. He's trying to get through. This gospel is mainly addressed to Jews and he's trying to get through to them that all that their fathers prophesied is fulfilled in himself. He is the ultimate of all that the prophets declared. Now they don't like this. He says, You say that Moses said I say unto you. Where did he get his authority? Why? When he went in the temple they sent a bunch of men to arrest him. And when they got back their chief priest said, Well, well, where is he? He has no bodyguard. Where is he? We send you to arrest him. And he arrested them. Not with his hands, with his words. Oh, they said, Never man spake like this man. You know, when you go to church and a fellow preacher gets ready to get up and recites a few things, particularly the doctrine of his own church. And he's nice and he's kind and he smiles. He wants to shake hands with everybody going out. And if it's near Christmas he doesn't want to offend anybody. He may not get Christmas gifts. The preacher goes in there. He's not offering people a prize. He's not saying, If you feel disposed to accept Jesus, we will be very glad to receive your membership. He offers you an ultimatum. It's not an option. You either become a member of the kingdom or perish. Oh, these days we must not offend people. Well, Jesus isn't a bit concerned about offending people at all. I'm not come to destroy the law and the prophets. He says, I'm come to fulfill. Fulfill. Now he says, If you hunger and thirst after righteousness we shall be filled. Filled with what? Filled with everything that the human heart craves for. Number one, it craves for peace. And there is no peace outside of Jesus Christ. None. I don't care who the man is. I don't care what his philosophy is. There is no peace until the prince of peace comes to set up his kingdom in our hearts. There is no joy. Oh, you should see when we have TV on how we laugh. That's not joy, that's entertainment. And much of it shows the barrenness of people's intellects these days. The very things that we covet most, the external things don't mean too much. Where your treasure is, there will your heart be. Well, what's your heart filled with tonight? Drought? Huh? Worldly ambition? What's it filled with? After all, this is treasure city in here. What you have outside socially, that doesn't matter that much to God. Now Jesus is saying to these men, oh brother they were Pharisees indeed. Accept your righteousness, exceed the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees. So, it doesn't say if your righteousness is different. It says, accept your righteousness, exceed the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees. I used to work in a factory where there were 8,000 people. And almost 6,000 were Jews. And I got to know some of the habits, some of the customs. I used to eat bagels and hamantash and all kinds of stuff, every piece. They brought a different kind of cake and I used to enjoy it. It was free and that's one reason. But I used to enjoy it because they were always so delicious. And you know, sometimes they talk about the Ten Commandments. Now you know, there are people who say that when Jesus came, the old law was destroyed. The first revised version of the Bible was the reversed version of the Bible. Do you know that in the second century of Christianity as we call it, there was a man by the name of Marcion. And he rewrote the whole of the New Testament, leaving out everything that referred to the Old Testament. Everything. You imagine, that's a task for you. Now when I was a little boy, which is about 200 years ago as I feel tonight, but anyhow, when I was a little boy, we were taught about the Old and New Testament like this. The new is in the old, come feel. The old is by the new revealed. You see, whatever the law and the prophets said about the sacrifices, Jesus is the fulfillment of all their sacrifices. Whatever they said about the priests. Again, you remember the Ephesians to the Hebrews where the writer says, strengthen the weak hands and confirm the feeble knees. Why not? Because all these Jews recently converted were beginning to feel a bit upset, you know. And beginning to think, well after all, are our relatives right? Are we wrong? Have we got hooked on a cult as we'd say today? Imagine one man goes down the street, let's call him Abraham, not the old Abraham, another man Isaac, not his son, and Abraham says, hey Isaac, you haven't been to the synagogue for a while. I hear you're going to that new group up that back street there. You know, they didn't have a 17 million glass palace. Some people have, but they didn't have that. They had an old shanty, it didn't have stained glass windows, it didn't have a rogue choir, it didn't have a rug all full. It maybe was very near to the stable Jesus was born in, but all mercy did they worship and adore the Lamb and worship God? Now look here, you know what, people always try to get at you, I mean you're too intelligent to be a Christian. I thought most people were too intelligent to go to hell but they're not. I mean, do you accept the Christian teaching? Yes? Well now, listen Abraham, I don't want to steamroll you, but you know, you don't have any temple like where you have, look there's a high priest going in the temple. Oh by the way, you don't have a high priest. Oh by the way, you don't have a sacrifice. And he goes on and the poor Christian begins to feel, you know, as though he's been having his clothes, his covering ripped off him and then he says, well are you through? And he says, yes. Well he said, now let me tell you the good news. What's the good news? We have a temple. You have a temple? Oh, is it that new place they're building just up the street called Straight? No, no, no. Well where's the temple? You're looking at it. You mean you're the temple? Yes. God doesn't dwell in temples made with hands. He dwells in your own personality. Well you don't have a great high priest. Ah yes we do. Well he hasn't shed any blood. Oh yes he has. As a matter of fact, he shed his own blood once. You have to keep doing the same old silly thing year after year after year after year and our high priest just once made a sacrifice and our high priest ascended. Your priest dies every few years. Our priest never dies. And boy he turns it all over and says, you think I've left everything? Man I've got everything. In the words of Scripture again, I've found the pearl of great prize. Now when Jesus is talking about these things, remember they're all internal. You know the Pharisees used to wear phylacteries. They're phylacteries. I remember when I used to travel a lot. I went on a train from New York. Well it was that beautiful silver bullet train that goes down the eastern seaboard and I got on that train that night. It was the longest night of my life I think. I was poor you know. I couldn't afford to go to bed and I sat up on that chair and I sat down on the chair and I turned round the chair and goodnight. I don't know what I didn't do. About five o'clock in the morning I thought, oh I'll have a wash. I'll feel fresh before we get to West Palm Beach where I'm getting off the train. And I went in there and there was a guy with a scarf round his neck and a phylactery, a box on his forehead and a box on his arm and he carefully had the two pieces of leather in his fingers there. And he was going through his, I thought well bless you at least. You're very brave about it. You're not a Pharisee. You didn't stand in the middle of the train. He was there in the men's washroom and there he was going through his spiritual ablution. Do you remember Jesus talked about the Pharisees who made broad their phylacteries in case anybody didn't see them? They wore one little box here with scriptures on their left arm so that when they put their hands up the law was very near to their heart. Well that's the very thing Jesus would argue against. It's all on the outside with you. I write my law on the fleshy table of your heart. Well they had the Ten Commandments. Yeah that's true they had the Ten Commandments. Do you know what else they had? They made 248 new commandments of their own. Boy it must have been difficult trying to remember them all don't you think? But on top of that they had 365 prohibitions. That makes about 500 and what? I don't know 503 or 506 laws and prohibitions which they had made. If they were gathering mint in the garden they tied a bunch up the old Pharisees sat there and said how many bunches is that? That's nine. No I think it's eight. Count them again, count them again. Nine, ten that one's for God. Nine, ten that one's for God. Jesus said you tied your mint and you're coming you count your apples and put one in a box for God. I don't know how he got them but one in a box for God, one in a box for God. They were very meticulous about it. Now Jesus says you keep up all the external things but you remember one day he used a very disgusting analogy. He said you Pharisees are like whited sepulchres. You know in the east they always put whitewash or white lime on the outside so you know there was a corpse in there. And Jesus said you keep it all clean and you put flowers around I wonder why they take flowers to graves. I mean the folk in the graves don't get up and smell them do they? Why do they do it? As dear old Van Tadden says, in his drawl I can't imitate it, his drawl there from South Carolina he lives way up in the hills but he says I never understood cemeteries. They put an iron railing around them I don't know why because people outside don't want to get in and people inside can't get out. So what's the good of iron railing? We do a lot of strange things don't we? And yet the strangest thing of all is that people will go for the external. Do you know what would happen today if we all wore phylacteries? We'd have got little pearls around them or diamonds around them. We'd have embroidered them we'd make them out of plastic. You say I don't think so we'd have more reverence. Well tell me why people wear the cross when many of them are blasphemers. Why do they decorate the cross of Jesus with diamonds? At least I'd put rubies there to remember the blood. But I've seen ladies I remember a lady came to our fellowship she'd rings on her fingers and bells on her toes as the nursery rhyme says and she came one day with a cross about this length a huge cross and children didn't know what to buy her so they bought her a cross about four inches it must have been a quarter or three eighths thick of solid pure gold. What good is a cross outside? The cross has to be on the inside. Wearing a cross outside some people wear it you know oh if I forget to wear my cross I might have an accident today. You might have one somebody might snatch it off your neck if you're in New York. They tell me down in Miami women don't wear chains around their necks anymore. As a matter of fact in New York I think 400 were stolen in a little over a week and one woman was actually choked because she had a deep necklace on and the man that tried to snatch it he dragged her on the street and she choked on it. You see people are so superstitious if I wear a cross somewhere. The cross is a curse. It says clearly there in Galatians cursed is everyone that hangeth upon a tree. The symbol of the church of Jesus Christ is a tongue of fire. But Jesus again is going out to the to these disciples and saying listen I am going to fulfill the law and the prophets. What did the prophets prophesy? Well Isaiah prophesied a word perfect picture of the crucifixion 800 years before Jesus was born. Jesus was crucified. Who hath believed our report? To whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? He shall grow up before him as a tender plant, as a root out of a dry ground. He hath no form nor comeliness and there is no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected of name. A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. Thou hast made his soul an offering to sin not his body. People look at the blood running from his head, from his hands and we sing it see from his head his hands his feet. But that wasn't the sacrifice it was soul that was made an offering for sin. We were dead. He had to die in order to bring us life. And if you read carefully through the law and the prophets what you discover. You discover the law is three things. It's doctrinal and it's prophetical and it's ethical. All the doctrine of the Old Testament consummates in Jesus Christ. Ever noticed if you get a very good map of America that all the roads seem to end up in New York. You see all these red lines go up and there are streaks and streaks of red and they all end up. And if it's a good map and it's bigger than America you'll see a lot of black lines going out and it will show you a sweep like that and it will say Cape Town Africa or some other place in Africa you know 8400 miles away Honolulu so far through the Swiss Canal. Everything converges into New York from the land side. Everything leaves New York to go to the ends of the earth. All history in one sense ends at the manger of Jesus Christ. All prophecy begins at that manger. Jesus was before the world began. He was incarnate. That is he's God made manifest in the flesh. And when he comes he begins to speak prophetically of things that will happen. Now this is the foundation actually here. This is the foundation of his eternal kingdom. And there's only one way into that kingdom. That's in the gospel recorded by John. What shall I do to enter the kingdom of heaven? Do you remember what Paul said in the 14th of Romans that the kingdom of heaven is not meat and drink but righteousness and joy and peace in the Holy Ghost. Do you think the world is ever more in a mess than it is now? What do the Russians say? The Chinese say they have a million men on the border between themselves and Russia. 90 divisions of men outside of Poland right now. Oh we forgot all about, we forgot all about Afghanistan. We spent hours talking about the peace of something went up and it came down again. And yet people were slaughtered and destroyed in Afghanistan all day today. But that doesn't make news. It's stale. Cambodia was raped and people there are dying like flies but so what? Gasoline's gone up two cents today. Isn't it amazing how we get out unbalanced? Isn't it amazing how unrighteous the world is? Isn't it amazing that men still prefer to commit suicide rather do it shortly in the long run? They still prefer to live without inward peace, without inward joy. Jesus comes to set up the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is within you he says. It's not visible to the natural eye. It's like Jesus again going into Jerusalem and they say well what chance has this fellow been a king? Do you happen to know his address? Does he live in a castle? Huh? Does he have a bodyguard? I don't see it. Does he have financial backing? Everybody despises him. Yeah but I reminded you Sunday morning if you were there about the man that was preaching in North Philadelphia some months ago. The church is a big church, black people almost entirely and the preacher there's a superman, he's a black man the assistant is a white man about 34 years of age, he has an earned PhD he's quite a preacher. And he preached in one of these conferences you know they preach from nine at morning to nine at night with breaks in between. And this white man was to preach before his old boss there was going to preach after him. And when the young man sat down he said I thought I had the best time in my life. He said when I sat down I just leaned over to my senior pastor and said can you talk there? And he just said boy you ain't heard anything yet. And he said he got up and all he said for about an hour was it's Friday now but Sunday's coming and he said he went on that and developed it till he had that place just a hive of power you could feel the anointing of God. And all he would say was now they're bringing Jesus through the door. He has a torn purple garment on him and his brows all sweaty and bloody and he has a reed in his hand. It's Friday now but Sunday's coming obviously meaning this is the death Sunday's coming the resurrection. And then he got him before Herod. There's Herod in all his glory. It's Friday now but Sunday's coming. And then he had him up before Pilate. It's Friday now but Sunday's coming. And all the people were scorning him and everything he said he backed it up with it's Friday now but Sunday's coming. And he said that last day got him on the cross and he said it is finished. And he paused and he said it's Friday now and the whole congregation yelled back that Sunday's coming. My head would have jumped out of my seat if I'd been there I'm sure that would have set me on fire. You know as I said Sunday when people think of oh come on you say he's the king of glory. You know when Isaac Watts wrote that hymn first when I surveyed the wondrous cross on which the prince of glory died. He didn't write that at all. What he wrote was when I surveyed the wondrous cross where the young prince of glory died because he was still young. And they see him coming to the city on the back of a donkey and I feel like saying yes brother it's Friday now but Sunday's coming because Revelation 6 tells me that same Christ is going to come sweeping through the skies on a white horse to take dominion over the whole earth. When as John Ellington said earth's proud empires will pass away. Keith was saying tonight something about Exxon that have made how many billion was it? 103 he keeps checking on that he must have some stock in it he won't admit it but anyhow as 103 billion dollars they made man that's more than the whole nation made in profit outside I think of that one company 103 billion dollars heh of the voice of Jesus it's all going to be ended like that earth's proud empires pass away he's going to rule as again it was Isaac Watts that wrote the hymn Jesus shall reign where'er the sun doth its successive journeys run his kingdom's going to stretch from shore to shore till moon shall wax and wane no more now this righteousness it's the miracle of God you know a few years ago Freud startled the world with amazing ideas of psychology and he said we need a new depth in psychology and somebody came up and said we need more than that we need a new depth in morality and I say more than that we need a new depth in spirituality and brother you get down to the deepest things when you get into this chapter that the righteousness of God can be revealed in us through the death of Jesus Christ after all that's what John says that he that doeth righteousness is righteous even as he is righteous look at Jerry look at Jeremiah 31 and verse 33 this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days saith the Lord I will put my law in their inward parts you don't have to wear it on your forehead you don't have to wear it strapped to your left wrist you don't have to wear it woven into your belt you see people today with their name in their belt woven at the back you know they used to weave scriptures into their belts years ago starving scriptures and God makes a promise here that you won't need the law outside I will put my law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts and I will be their God and they shall be my people now look at Ezekiel 36 and in verse 27 I will put my spirit within you and call you to walk in my statutes and ye shall keep my judgments and do them now here is that which exceeds everything the law and the prophets ever knew anything about it was all external now he says I'm coming to take up residence in your heart but after all there is only one way to do that and that's when the when the heart has been cleansed but even when the heart has been cleansed and the spirit abides then we start getting on the stretch for God a man was telling me the other day he'd been to London and he'd been up City Road there and he'd been in that famous historic church of John Wesley there's a monument there showing John preaching his mother's buried across the road it must be the world's most amazing graveyard there let me see is John Bunyan buried there I believe he is remember him he wrote Robinson Crusoe that classic you all read and he's buried there, Isaac Watts is buried there Mrs. Wesley is buried there there's going to be a row at resurrection morning when they all get out the founder of the Quakers is buried there what a wonderful old place what a gathering of the saints that is there ok what I'm going to say about that is this that the true sign of health was stated by a man who followed John Wesley right after Wesley as a matter of fact he preached in my early days he was a man what I call with an elastic vocabulary he had a colossal fascinating you know he didn't use dry words he wouldn't talk about scents he'd talk about perfume he always had a better word, a kind of a college word you know and he fascinated the crowd people used to listen to him and I remember just one thing he said he said this the man who only wants his sins forgiven is toying with religion toying with religion well he wanted to run away from guilt and condemnation but the man who really has a heart has a heart like the psalmist look at psalm 63 in verse 1 there maybe you know it by heart O God, thou art my God, early will I seek thee my soul thirsteth for thee my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and a thirsty land where no water is psalm 84 in verse 2 verse 2 my soul longeth, it even fainteth for the courts of the Lord my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God now come on you can find out where your spiritual life is is it theological just today somebody said to me well after all it is not much good having it all in your head, is it working out I mean what have I done for God today not have I printed so much, not have I preached so much have I really satisfied God he thirsts for my fellowship do I thirst for him is that number one priority in my life my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God I think it was Robert Mary McShane that famous Scotsman who died I think at 29 years of age who said that anything that didn't have eternity in it wasn't worth his time do you know what it means it means that the priority in his life is to hunger and to thirst after the living God and Paul says the same thing he says that I may know him that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his suffering being made conformable unto his death do you remember that scripture in which Moses says even after he's seen the revelations of God and he's still thirsting after God we've seen the deliverances of God but in his prayer he doesn't say Lord give me a greater ministry, he doesn't say Lord I want to see miracles, he says show me thy glory with all that he's seen of God's manifest power in delivering them from Israel with all the miracles he's seen he says Lord show me yourself show me thy glory and the chapter after it says he came down from the mountain well he was 80 years of age and he may have had a ring or two and yet it says when he came from the mountain he had to get a veil and cover his face like Jesus had a transfiguration on the mount of transfiguration he has a transfiguration he radiated the glory and beauty of God at 80 years of age do you remember the apostles when they came out of the upper room and they'd been around doing their work and the people puzzled about them and then they said well I'll tell you what there's only one explanation for these people they've been with Jesus I think that's great I remember getting on a bus in England it was a dirty day oh mercy what a day and it was down in a dark park near Manchester and I got on this bus I was already wet through there was not much point getting on the bus except to get home a bit quicker and when I got on it oh oh mercy it was almost filled with women I thought they must all have a bunch of roses no no roses there but the fragrance and there were no Avon ladies in those days you know and that bus was it didn't stink of tobacco like usual it was then I noticed a lady pulled a coat oh she had a red a white jacket underneath with a red collar and I looked oh they've all got red collars oh yes at the end of this road less than two miles away is the firm that makes English leather soap and English leather perfume oh so as they're coming out they get a squirt and squirt everybody coming out no they don't into their clothes and when they got in a bus all together they changed the atmosphere well isn't that what happened with the early disciples they took knowledge of them that they'd been with Jesus all the qualities that were in Jesus were working out in them well isn't that exactly what this is all about Jesus doesn't abolish the law he perpetuates the law he doesn't write it again on phylacteries that we wear on our foreheads and on our arms he writes it on the fleshy table of our hearts and you know what's inside is going to come out you can say I'm saved I'm sanctified I'm living a holy life and then suddenly you bump into someone and you tear away and suddenly oh well he she put a sanctification on one side for 5 minutes or 10 minutes no no no if it's inside it will come out we had a very rough fellow converted not far from where I lived he was a typical Yorkshireman I'm a Yorkshireman so that's why I'm rough and he got marvellously saved and at the Bible school I went to a little college the professor there said this man was the only fool that God ever sanctified because he had the most senseless humour he'd get up in a meeting and he'd tell 10 jokes right on you know and I remember one night I was in a meeting and he said well I saw a strange thing today I was out at a farm there and he said I heard a duck and she was quack quack quack quack quack and he said after her came about 8 little ducklings tiny little things and they went down to the edge of the farm and he said man they were waggling more than ducks and he said to the farmer what happened and he said well I'll tell you what that duck really isn't the mother of the duck the mother's there look that hen running after them here's the old hen coming up full speed trying to get the duck away from her and he said what happened was that the duck that was laying the eggs got run over with a farm wagon and there was a hen just round the corner and a boy kicked a football and it went and smashed all the eggs so we put the duck eggs under the hen and she hatched them all out and she never had any kids like that before I mean they weren't a bit like the other kids she'd had they were little duck tails and they looked funny and the first thing they did was shoot for the water and he said when they got there they had one foot in the water and they had the other one on the sand and they were going around the pool saying cock-a-doodle-quack cock-a-doodle-quack cock-a-doodle-quack and you know everybody laughed and he said well that's like some of you you have one foot in the world and another foot on land and god doesn't know where you are and devil doesn't know where you are so come on well it's a rough illustration but I think it bears out what's true in many lives there's one foot in the land and one foot in the water but you know as a lady said to me the other day on the phone a lady called me the other night she's a very wealthy lady I believe they're multi-millionaire and she wrote something about reading last day's newsletter as she read it she said it's great I've read it I've passed it on to friends they've sent in their names for it and we're quite excited about the paper but she was checking up about something that had happened in somebody's life and she said I don't understand it because when I was born again I became a new creature god doesn't give us a new part he gives us a new heart we don't turn over a new leaf we get a new life he comes to govern he comes to rule he comes to abide he comes to indwell and in a crooked and perverse world like this god wants to establish his righteousness we live in a world of unrighteousness we live in a world of self-righteousness but this is god's righteousness made possible by the blood of christ made possible by the indwelling of the holy spirit but now we can be thankful to the lord of god we can please our heavenly father isn't that what we delight in I delight to please my wife anything I can do sometimes when it's gardening I backslide but other times I like to I like to please my wife so watch out now but that's the law of life and it works the other way that that's the way it should if you're really in love with a person you want to obey them you want to do whatever delights them and paul said we can delight in the inner man as much as we delight it for the things of the world as much as we delight it for the unlawful unclean unseemly things we've received a new life we've received a new nature and I told the story and finish with it our boys we were in Ireland at my wife's father's place and we went to what they call the bath they cut out this turf and then they let the water go in you know and we were going down this lovely lane beautiful spring day and there were some rushes they were about this height and they were within reaching distance and they were about 8 feet of water and I got on the branch of the tree and boy did I grip it the boys wanted me to get this and I pulled this rush out and as I did a dragonfly came oh man I ducked as though it was an aeroplane oh the boys weren't interested in me they weren't interested in getting the bulrush out they said what was that it was a dragonfly well where does it live how old would it be where did it come from you know all the kids can find out how ignorant you are very quickly and so I said well let me see as far as I know let's see the mother dragonfly went over this pond this murky pond some months ago and she dropped an egg and it went right to the bottom of the pond in the mud and it stayed there so many months and then it came to the surface and it has a buoyancy and then the sun dries it and it opens like that and out comes that beautiful beautiful double winged dragonfly and it was coming back and it dipped right down near the water I said to the boys do you think it wants to go back there I think it was David said no daddy it wouldn't want to go back in all that mire and muck and dirt down there would it I said I don't think so look at the flowers round here oh the wild roses and other things the honeysuckle was fragrant I think it's enjoying being up here it's come out of the darkness and muck and mire well if a man is a new creation in Christ do you think he wants to go back in the muck and in the mire into the filth into rebelling against God into eating dry crusts of newspaper instead of the living springs of water from the word of God if he's in Christ he's a new creation but that's not enough he reaches because the apostle Paul reached heights I guess that few people have ever reached and he's still after being the greatest man living in the world at that day he's still saying that I may know him these fellows that went up in that piece of tin the other day they're going to check them up for 9 days what did you see the other astronauts didn't see we believe we're going to get to a star well you can believe take 2000 years you'll have to build a maternity block in a cemetery in the thing that goes up at least you'll have to have a maternity block if you're going to have anybody nobody's going to live long enough to get up there anyhow and you couldn't get there in less than 2000 years in the present rocket system I don't think we'll ever get on star I don't think there's time I think Jesus is going to come before that anyhow okay the two final things what did he say about those who are indwelt with his righteousness he said I want to put you on exhibition that's what Paul says we are made a spectacle to the world God isn't going to convince the world by angels flying around the sky he's got to convince the world through the church of the living God when it really is salt when it really is the light of the world that's what it's all about and he doesn't want to purify me just for my own satisfaction he doesn't want to fill me with his Holy Spirit that I may feel well thank God I don't do the lousy sins I used to and I'm not peevish and selfish and backbiting and unlovely I've got all these graces of God in my life and now I can just relax and be raptured no no no he wants to put me on exhibition the father and mother in the home the school teacher in her particular job working as you do in the print shop or somewhere else or in your home or in your factory he wants to put us on exhibition so that your life something flows out of it even when your lips are silent that's something about your disposition that's something about your graciousness somebody has said that love is something the deaf can hear and the blind can see I think that's a nice definition and after all it's what the world needs more than anything what can we do now? we've got TVs all we get is a 5 foot screen in the house what else can we do? Winky's got a machine there a gadget he was showing me the other day that he works on it can register 80 80 million I don't know what they call them vibrations or something a second 80 million a second and the new one that's coming up in about 2 years will register 800 million in a second and some guy with a brain like mine only more polished made that you see one of the signs of the end of the age is knowledge shall increase well I bless you I'm not old, I'm antique you know when I was a kid there were no airplanes there was no radio, no TV we were sensible, we went to bed like the animals do when it gets dark got up like they do, when it gets light slept longer in winter and shorter in summer, that's God's way we think we're smart because we've turned night into day that's the most idiotic thing we've done health has gone down ever since the electric light started we've tried to conquer the world it's another act of rebellion, we're not going to do as God says go to sleep at the right time, go to bed at the right time to hell with all those things, we're going to go our own way and if you filter out all the rebellion against God, you'll be stagnant and so what God wants to do is to come into these hearts of ours as I said last week, blessed are the meek and we've changed that to blessed are the weak there's nobody stronger than a meek man or a meek woman Moses was the meekest man in the world but he got angry when they made a golden calf he got angry when they left the true God my king cometh unto thee meek and lowly sitting upon an ass and the next thing you find him in the temple whipping them before he whipped, he wept and if you and I are going to whip folk let's be careful that we weep before we whip them that's the divine order we live in an ugly world a world that could be at peace but it rejects the Prince of Peace therefore there is no peace we've more money sunk in armaments at this moment, we've more men wearing uniforms than any period in history don't you think it's the height of insanity that when we've got all these gorgeous buildings and art collections that somebody can drop a bomb on a city and liquidate four or five thousand years pictures of history pictures that could never be repainted art collections we could never put back to shape again and above all that we destroy millions of people it's not God's fault and the only way we'll convince men and women that this thing works is when it works in our own lives and when the beauty of the Lord Jesus Christ is seen in us well, we're through now we'll all be with you come to the wedding Saturday morning let's pray Father we thank you for the provision you've made through your only Son our Lord Jesus Christ we're glad we don't have to wear signs on our foreheads, on our arms but oh God we pray that that inward sign of the cross may work out because we have a meek and a lowly spirit and the beauty of the Lord our God may be upon us that we'll stand for your righteousness in this unrighteous world bless again the fellowship here we pray it will go from strength to strength bless each one of us now in Jesus name Amen