In this sermon, the preacher uses the analogy of a chemical being transformed into a vegetable, then a cow, and finally a man to illustrate the process of spiritual transformation. He emphasizes that our efforts to change ourselves through self-discipline or positive thinking are in vain. Instead, it is only through the grace of God and belief in Jesus Christ that we can escape perishing and enter into the kingdom of God. The preacher also highlights the misconception that people in the world are happy and fulfilled, pointing out that their happiness is often artificial and dependent on external substances.

I thought we'd turn to John chapter 3. We're talking about perishing, and I didn't quite have the nerve to say that the subject was, saved but still perishing, because I thought it would be misunderstood. But now you're here, and you've got guards at the door, you can't leave until I explain what I mean. So, we're going to read this, we're going to read just a few verses, and we're going to remember who it was to whom our Lord spoke, and then we're going to try to find out, from the word of God, what the meaning of this word perishing is, and how it could possibly affect us, those of us who are Christians, and how it would undoubtedly affect those who are not Christians. I think I'll begin reading when, with the very first verse, this will give us the sense. There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God, for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him. Jesus answered and said unto him, verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus saith unto him, how can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second time into his mother's womb and be born? Jesus answered, verily, verily, I say unto thee, except man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, ye must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth. So is everyone that is born of the Spirit. Nicodemus answered and said unto him, how can these things be? Jesus answered and said unto him, art thou a master of Israel, a teacher, and knowest not these things? Verily, verily, I say unto thee, we speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen, and you receive not our witness. If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things? And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of Man, which is in heaven. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. Nicodemus had a great deal more than most church members, many preachers, and religious leaders. He was a Pharisee, and the Pharisees were fundamental in their theology, and they were evangelistic in their zeal, and they were missionary in their fervor, and they were premillennial in their hope, and they were devout in their practice. In addition to being whited sepulchers, they were this, they had all of this. Theology that was fundamental, zeal that was evangelistic, fervor that was missionary centered, hope that was fixed in the coming of Messiah, and devotion of life that they fasted, they two days a week, they tithed all they possessed, they prayed at least three times a day, and the shortest of their prayers would have occupied at least 10 minutes, unless it was rushed through. And this was the part and parcel of the life of the Pharisees. And he was a master, a teacher, he was a ruler of the Jews, one that had great responsibility. And our Lord says, you're perishing. Now we understand why. He made it perfectly clear that Nicodemus had not been born again. And thus, because he had not been born again, because he possessed only the life, which is of this world, he was obviously perishing in every sense. He was perishing at the time, his future was one in on earth that was marked by perishing, and certainly when he died, if he were to die in this state, his end would be to perish. But you'll notice that our Lord Jesus indicated that there was a kingdom. You've heard it, it's axiomatic but nonetheless illustrative. There are five kingdoms with which we customarily deal. We deal with the mineral kingdom, the vegetable kingdom, the animal kingdom, the human kingdom, and the kingdom of God. Nothing gets from the lower kingdom into the higher kingdom except by the power of the life of the higher kingdom. For instance, if I could give personality to a little globule of chemical sitting in the ground, I would, it would become restless with its state, and say I, it's good to be chemical, but oh look at that nice weed there, with its roots down around me. And I'd like to be grass, I'm just tired of being nothing but a little piece of chemical here, this is no way for me to be, and mineral is, this isn't what I should be. I have hopes and aspirations. So it gets a short course in how to change chemicals into vegetables, and tries by pulling on its shoelaces to get up, but it doesn't. It remains what it's been, just a little globule of chemical. But you see, finally, one of the general, the little almost filament-like capillaries of this weed, this piece of grass, puts itself around the chemicals. And there's a process that goes on, a process of absorption. And the first thing you know, the chemical has now become vegetable, not because of effort of its own, but because life reached down, surrounded it, and involved it, and drew it up. But the little blade of grass has its frustrations, and it's peeking up above the soil, said here I've been all my life, and no prospect of moving. My, how marvelous it would be if I could crawl, if nothing more than this little ant, or like that worm over there. But oh, how marvelous it would be to be a cow. Look at that cow, it can walk where it will, but one day the cow comes, and in its hunger, wraps its rough tongue around the little blade of grass, and the first thing you know, the grass has been entered into a new, a new kingdom. And so the cow, after a while, says it's all right to be here inside a fence, but there's the fellow that made the fence. It'd be much better to be him. So try as it will, it endeavors, by some short course of self-discipline, to become a man. But it doesn't. But one day, the hungry man just makes arrangements with the cow, and the first thing you know, the cow has been transmuted into man-like. And so the man sees another kingdom, the kingdom of God, with all the beauties and the wonders that it possesses, and his heart is stirred, and he said, oh, to enter into that kingdom. Oh, to share in that life, to enter into that which I see, and am so weak in reaching. And so try as he will, he fails. One does it by concentration, one does it by positive thinking, another does it by self-abnegation. One puts himself on the ground, measuring the continent of India, hoping that as he does somehow, this degree of penance and pain will succeed in changing him, bringing him into that state of nirvana, or that state of rest and peace and realization. But all the efforts are in vain, until a gracious God with nail-pierced hands reaches down and surrounds the sinful man, and by his grace, effects in the man a change, so that this one is born from above. He partakes of life that's imparted, he responds to instruments of love that are given, and he is the object of grace, rather than the originator of it. It is from God to him, rather than from him to God. Loved by God, sought by God, provision made by God to meet his needs. And this is what our Lord Jesus told this poor, bewildered Pharisee, that thought that by all of his penances, by all of his ceremonies, his ritual, all of his sacrifice and service, somehow he could fit himself for that kingdom which is above. But he couldn't. And our Lord Jesus met him head-on, with the, right here, without any discussion or argument, saying, except a man be born again, he cannot see or in any wise participate in the kingdom of God. This whole realm, this whole world that God has and is, and is willing to share, is kept from him, because he is of the wrong nature. He has to be born again. This was difficult for the Pharisee to comprehend. He was bringing to bear upon it his experience, he wasn't willing at this time at least, to learn that there's a whole new dimension of reality that exceeds the definitions and the experiences that he's had. And so he was in ignorance. But our Lord left for anyone who will, the simple fact that we have man life, we have human life, and that that which prevails in the kingdom of God is God's life. And thus he concludes this statement and testimony to Nicodemus, this wise man and ruler and teacher, by saying that whosoever believeth in him, that is the one who was pictured by the serpent in the wilderness lifted up on the crossed sticks by Moses, and is, he's referring to that which is going to happen to him of course, when he the son of man is lifted up upon a cross to die for Nicodemus, and for you, and for me. Then he states whosoever believes on him should not perish, but have everlasting, have eternal life. And later in the 16th verse he says everlasting life. Notice now that he has presented us with the fact that to be born again requires belief. This word belief is to be the key to escape from perishing, and in just a moment we're going to deal with the extensions and the implications of this word perishing, but right now consider for a moment what it means to believe. There is through the years of time a process that I call, for want of a more, a better word term, weaseling of words. This refers to the chicken coop process when the little weasel squeaks in somehow, takes his teeth, bites a hole out of the egg, holds it in its four paws, and draws the meat out of it, leaving the shell there in the nest almost whole, except for the little break, and yet emptied of its meat. And so I think that this process goes on. Sometimes it's done deliberately, but more frequently it's just the erosion of time. When you read the word, you apply to it your present-day definition and miss its meaning. For instance, when Paul wrote to the church at Rome, he said, I would have come to you many times, but I have been let hitherto. And one reading this would say, well if he was let, why didn't he go? Until he begins to realize that the Anglo-Saxon word let meant prevented. And we use it in tennis, when the ball hits the net, some people think that they're saying net ball, but if they're speaking correct tennis parlance from the old Anglo-Saxon word began, they will say it is a let ball. That is a prevented ball, a hindered ball. And so through the years there's been this process of changing the meaning of words. And the word here that's the key to every aspect of the Christian life is the word believe. And unfortunately this process has been of weaseling or changing the meaning of words has nowhere been as devastating and as tragic as it is in respect to the word believe. Because the common use of the word today is to agree with, to hold to be so, or to intellectually assent to. And the word in the Anglo-Saxon use, as it was employed by the translators, was a far stronger word. Leave comes from the same root as love or and it has its idea of wanting to go along with. The idea of the word love is to desire to accompany. The Anglo-Saxon used l-u-f as love. And it meant to be in agreement with, in accordance with, or in this sense, if you love somebody you wanted to walk with them, you desire to share with them. And so the word l-u-f has another form, leave. And this means in accordance with. The little first part of this word, be, is simply as we would commonly use it. Be to exist or to have being. And thus to be l-u-f or to be leave would be to be in accordance with or to go along with. And we had the sense of meaning, and I've used this before, but it brings it to point. Here in ancient England would be a free man living on his little plot of ground and trying to make his living, but without possession of arms or horses or soldiers, dependent upon the feudal for protection. So the time would come when some kind of international or national disturbance would threaten the peace of this free man, and he would have to decide what was for his best interest. And so the call would go out that the Earl of such and such was taking volunteers, and deciding that it would be to his advantage to throw his weight in with the Earl or Duke or whoever it might be, he would go to his estate, make his way to him, and he would take the coin of this nobleman. He would take the gold sovereign, if you please, and he would by this means identify himself with the one who now he pledged to serve. And he would then return home and tell his wife that evening in front of the fire that he had believed on the Earl of such and such. This meant that he had put himself in accordance with, and he wanted to walk alongside of the Earl, or the Duke as the case might be. And he was by so doing had said that he would pledged himself to obey, he was ready to leave his home and family when he was called, he was willing to accept all the duties of a soldier and all the consequences of war. He had pledged himself, he had believed. And this is what was in the mind of the translator when they used this Anglo-Saxon word to translate the Greek word for faith, which means to commit yourself to. And you can see the reason why the word had significance. It meant a committal of one's life and property and person, his past as well as his, and his future to the Lord Jesus Christ. And thus when our Lord is said by the translation to have given these in words of instruction to Nicodemus, that whosoever is willing to commit himself to the Son of Man and go alongside of him and walk in accordance with him, but you see you've now got a word that has considerable strength and significance and meaning. And it's gone far past the intellectually agree with something that is said. It's now included a moral act, an act of abandonment, an act of submission, an act of surrender, an act of commitment. And so it is that the only one who can escape perishing is the one who sees Jesus Christ to be exactly as the word describes him, God come in the flesh, very God of very God, as well as perfect man. That he died for him and was buried and was raised from the dead and that he invites us to walk alongside with him or to commit ourselves to him or surrender to him and obey him. All of this I say is implicit in the word belief. Well let's leave this point and proceed to the next, should not perish. Here is the man that has stationed, he's a ruler of the Jews, he has ministry, he's master or teacher of Israel, he has religious system that would bolster and secure him, give him confidence for the unknown future, and he's accepted by his group. In fact in most ways you'd say here's a well-adjusted successful man who has everything. And yet our Lord says by the inference I draw that Nicodemus is perishing. Now is perishing means that it's going on at the moment. So frequently we use this word perish only in its future tense, only in its ultimate destination. And we recognize that unless Nicodemus is born again, unless his past sins are forgiven, unless he passes from death to life, unless he's born from above, unless he believes on Jesus Christ, he shall continue and finally perish. No question about that. But the thing I want you to see is that at this time he is perishing. Not that he's going to, but right then he is perishing. And this is the aspect that we seldom understand. We look outside of our own company of believers and we see people in the world. Oh they're seeming to have a good time. They're jolly, jovial, happy people apparently. Of course that they have to depend upon narcotics of one sort or another and continual submission to them in order to maintain this happiness would prove that it's somewhat artificial. But nevertheless they seem to be happy. And many times Christian people living within some framework of their own making rather than his, with rather longing eyes look out to the world and say oh my it used to be fun didn't it. It's amazing. You know there's an amazing quality here. Have you ever discovered it in yourself? You move from a place, you move from a situation and no sooner you get settled where you're going when you're talking about something about it to someone you tell how wonderful it was back there where you left. Amazing you know. You can hardly wait to leave but now that you've arrived at the new place there's a haloing effect around the past. And so it is when people come to Christ many sometimes they look with longing eyes back and around and they see the world and they say isn't he having fun? Isn't this a happy life? And he's going through the slough of despond or some other hurdle in the Christian pilgrimage and it's rather difficult. But the fact of the matter is this person is perishing now. Not that he's going to, he is in a state of continuous perishing. Because you see the word perishing is a word that's in the continuous tense. Not something out in the future, it's something that happens now. And I think we're beginning to arrive at the point where the definition of the word to perish will have meaning to you. And it is this, to perish is to fail of its intended use. To be lost or to lose or in some way to destroy the meaning of now as well as the meaning of the tomorrows, the meaning of yourself. And he is perishing who is living in less than that for which he was intended. You see the children when mother's down shopping or has gone visiting, go into the house and they want a tent in the backyard. They found a greasy sawhorse, they found some things and they need something big enough to cover it. And one of the little children with great inventiveness and clear and keen memory says old mother has a piece of canvas that we can use for a tent, it's in the drawer. And there in the bottom of the drawer is her starched linen tablecloth, the one that she saves only for the finest of her friends. But to the little child it was of course, it was stiff and it was canvas. So when she comes home she discovers that they've taken it out of the tissue paper in which it was nicely wrapped, they've carried it out into the backyard, they've slid it over the greasy sawhorses, they've covered it with mud, they've torn it on the slivers, and they've ripped it on the nails. And when mother looks at it she says it's perished. Now it's all there, it's all there. And children come and say but mommy don't cry so hard, it's all here, I know it's tore. And you can put flowers over that greasy spot, but the mother knows better than that, it's perished. What do you mean it's perished? It's simply no longer useful for that for which it was intended. And this is the meaning of the word perish, to fail of its intended use. And therefore when a person lives in whatever degree of prosperity they may live, in whatever degree of honor they may live, in whatever degree of apparent satisfaction they may live, if they are living in less than what they were intended to live, they're perishing as far as that moment is concerned. So here are people living in great wealth, and great luxury, and great ease, and great comfort. And looking at them we would say my my what a what a lovely life theirs must be. But the fact is they're perishing, because they're having to substitute that which has no meaning in loss, in lieu of the fact they've lost that which has all meaning. If man was made simply for clothes, then the possession of clothes will fulfill him, and if he doesn't have clothes he's perishing, if he does, he isn't. If man is made just for food, then the fact that he has food will mean that he isn't perishing, he's being fulfilled. But if he doesn't have food, then he's perishing. But if you see, if man was made for something beside clothes, and food, and house, and possessions, and he doesn't have that which is besides this, or in other than the necessities, physical necessities of life, then he is perishing, regardless of how much wealth he may have. In our family, his man, the only one in all the connections, was very wealthy. His grandfather was a lumberman, you know, back in the days when they would take a section of land a mile from the road, and then they'd cut a road into it half a mile wide on each side, cut all the timber off. It was a very convenient way to take the timber without paying the taxes and so on. And so by this means the some of the money came to this relative of mine, and he lived there in great affluence and display, and he would have to at times, in years gone by, I remember learning of it as a little child through some accident, that he would go into his bedroom and take a bottle of whiskey and sit there and drink until he was quite intoxicated, and then just would roll over into his bed. Now he never embarrassed anyone. He didn't certainly get drunk on the street, but you see he had discovered that all of his wealth, that all of his possessions, that all of his numerous possessions, didn't satisfy his heart, and he felt he was perished. And somehow to obscure the deep longing, the deep insatiable discontent, he took this means of narcotizing his brain so that he could get a little rest, a little sleep. He had everything but that which made him a fulfilled human being. Later on I talked with him and found that he had come to see the Lord Jesus Christ and opened his heart to him in some measure, but the fact is that in those years at least, he demonstrated in these early formative years of my life, that things and position and place could not complete a man, could not make a person happy. It would require some kind of a narcotic, some kind of an escape, and this to my mind is why I would contribute to my definition of the word perish. That Nicodemus wasn't only going to perish at some future time, he was living in a state of failing to fulfill his purpose. Even at the time that he thought he was happy, there was discontent. Even at the time that he thought he was living a satisfied life, there was a deep inner dissatisfaction. And so when you're seeing the unsaved, you have this to know, that if they're not in a right relationship with God, they are basically unhappy people, even though they may not admit they're unhappy, even though they may not agree with you. They may look at you in your threadbare cuffs and your rundown clothes and say to you, if this happens to be your case, look, what do you have to make you happy? Well, you have someone to make you happy. Your happiness doesn't depend upon the clothes, and it doesn't depend upon the possessions, and it doesn't depend upon pains, because a complete person is a person that's in right relationship with God. A happy person is a person that's a fulfilled person, and he is only fulfilled who is in right relationship with God. Augustine knew it and said it eloquently, Lord, thou art so made as we cannot rest until we rest in thee. And it's a right relationship with God that gives meaning and significance to life. And anyone who is not in a right relationship with God is, at that moment, perishing. And if they continue in that state, then they will be finally perished. This we understand. You must be born again, you must have life imparted, you must come into a beginning relationship with God that will transfer you out of the kingdom of men into the kingdom of God, allowing you thus to partake of his life in the miracle of the new birth. We are agreed on that, if I speak to any here tonight that do not know that you've been born again, then I say it in truth, you are not only going to perish, you are perishing. That is, you are not understanding or realizing what it was you as a human being were intended to be. Well, we weren't intended just to have food to satisfy our need for nourishment, and clothes to protect us from the elements, and a house to secure some privacy and pleasure. No, no. We were made for more than that. We were made for God, and to live with all these things without God is to be deprived indeed, and to be wasting these precious days and hours of your life. Now having said that, I hasten on because I speak probably largely to people that have professed faith in Christ. Is it possible to be saved and yet to perish, as far as today is concerned? Is it possible to have your ultimate destiny secured, and your present time wasted? The answer is an unqualified yes. It's absolutely possible for one to be, have their past pardoned, to be justified from all things that they've done, that if they were to die as they are in the present state, they'd go to heaven, and yet have tomorrow to be utterly wasted, as far as real significance of life and being is concerned. For he that has pardoned from past sins and a certainty of heaven is far better off than the one who does not have this life from above, and this forgiveness of sins, and this salvation from hell. But oh, why should one settle for crumbs when the whole loaf is theirs? Why should they settle for a portion? Why should they settle for less than all that God has intended? God didn't only want to take you where he is, he wanted to come where you are. He wanted to live not only with you when you come to him, but he wanted to live in you while you're here. And if you are living in any state other than in Ephesians 3, then we are living in a state which means that tomorrow, to some degree at least, and probably almost entirely as far as eternal consequences are concerned, is going to be wasted. For the normal Christian life is expressed, Christ taking up his lasting dwelling place in our hearts through faith, that we might be filled unto all of the fullness of God. God's destination of our Lord Jesus Christ when he left heaven wasn't just a stable in Bethlehem, nor a refugee's home in Egypt, nor a carpenter's home in Nazareth, nor a hillside or synagogue in Capernaum. It wasn't the temple in Jerusalem, nor a cross on outside of Jerusalem, nor a borrowed tomb, nor was it even the right hand of the throne on high, for he'd been there from eternity past. When our Lord Jesus became flesh and dwelt among us, it was that he might do a new thing and establish a new covenant. His old covenant had been good, but not good enough. The law was written on stone and kept in the ark of the covenant, and he dwelt between the wings of the cherubim with his presence manifest by a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. But he said, this covenant which you did not keep, and the reason they didn't keep it was because it was too far away. God was too far. So he said, I'm going to make a new covenant. I'm going to write my law upon your hearts. Then he said, I'm going to take away the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. Then he said, I'm going to put my spirit within you and I'm going to cause you to walk in my statues. Then he said again, I will dwell in them and walk in them and I will be a father under them. And so the whole purpose of this new covenant, the new testament, if you please, it means new covenant, was to teach us that the Lord Jesus' destination when he left heaven and was incarnate was your heart. Not heaven for you when you die, but your heart, your life, your body while you're alive. Now if you are forgiven of the past, secured against hell in the future, and are walking in less than the fullness of God tonight, as far as tomorrow's concerned, it's going to be relatively wasted. You're going to lose tomorrow. You're going to lose its joy, its possibilities of full fellowship with God. You're going to lose the prospect of God witnessing through you. You're going to lose the impact that you could make on the lives of those that greatly need it. You're going to lose the lessons that you would be in a prepared state to receive. Tremendous loss is going to occur to you, even though you may, if you die, go to heaven. But if you live tomorrow with less than the fullness of Christ, then in one sense, tomorrow is going to be wasted. You say, well, I know, but if I've been born again, is the spirit of God in me? Yes, certainly. Or if any man is not the spirit of Christ, the spirit of God, he's not in me. What do you mean? If one thing for him to be in you, it's another thing to fit you. You were born of the spirit, but you weren't born full of the spirit. Well, the scripture says, be filled with the spirit. And if you had been and were at your birth of being born again, then there would have been no commandment for you to be filled. And this is a matter in which you must participate. This is a place where God demands your fellowship. You see, here is where we come to the implications of sharing. He has shared with you his son. His son has shared with you his life. He poured out his soul on the dead. And he's died and been raised from the dead. But this is a matter of fellowship. As he shares with you his son, his son and the father ask you to share with him. First, they ask you to share with him the cross. For it was not only his going to the cross for you, but you're going to the cross with him. And it's a matter of sharing then his death, that you are crucified with Christ. This deals with you. This deals with the ego. This gets the driver that has been using the vehicle of the body and personality as an instrument of selfishness out of the way, and makes the body and personality and faculties available. So, you're to share with him the cross. He died for you. You died with him. You are to realize that tomorrow lived in your energy and strength is wasted, as far as eternity is concerned. So certainly, if you give your body to be burned in someone's place, they'll benefit. If you give the goods to feed the poor, the poor will eat. If you have faith to move mountains, it may improve someone's view. But the fact of the matter is, this will not endure for the eternal glory of Christ, in spite of it. And then in that sense, the day will be wasted. And so it's imperative that you should recognize that that which he had, that he shared with you, demands reciprocal sharing. And he is insisting that you share with him in the cross, crucified with him, dealing with yourself, with all that stands in the way of his full freedom and affecting his plan and purpose in your life. Secondly, he's demanding that you share with him your body. He shared his body to the cross. You went with him, not in body, but in him, in your union with him. Now his body is at the right hand of the throne on high as the first fruit of the resurrection. And so he says, share with me your body. You used it, but you used it always in sin and failure. Now present it to me. Present your eyes, your ears, your brain. Give it to me. Give me your faculty. Give me your body. The only thing you have that he asks for is your body. Did you know that? He says, I beseech you, brethren, that you present your body, a living sacrifice. This body that's been the instrument of your own vanity and the instrument of your own imagination and sin, tongue used to hurt and hands and feet and the whole body, the instrument of ourselves. Now he says, present it to me. And then he says, I will fill you. I'll walk in you. You can know the fullness of the Holy Spirit. You can be filled with war. Now this is the normal life. This isn't some victorious higher life. I'm not talking about some extreme for a few religious fanatics. I'm talking about what God intended for everyone. And I'm saying that if you and I are prepared to go into tomorrow with less than this, then we might just as well face it. Tomorrow is going to be wasted as far as the eternal glory of Christ is concerned, as far as our joy is concerned. The thing I seek to impress upon your mind tonight is that you have tremendous to gain and much to lose. And it's a matter where we should do away with all contentedness that's willing to let us go on. You ought to put yourself in the way of saying, Lord, why should tomorrow perish? Why should these hours be wasted and squandered? Why should I just blunder through it? Why should I be content? Lord, put into my heart tonight, quicken tonight, release tonight, such an insatiable desire for yourself, that I'm going to early, even tonight, come to the place where thou art satisfied and I'm satisfied. Perish, what does it mean? Fail at its intended use. What's your intended use? To be a vehicle for the revelation of the presence of Christ. You can't, but he can. And this is what he's asking for you. Now, if you go through tomorrow, forgive and pardon. 24 hours are going to have been lived in the energy of your own strength, your own experience, your own wisdom, and you will have robbed the Lord Jesus of the vehicle of revealing himself through you. This is too expensive. Whatever help you do will only be a fragment of what it could have been if he had lived in us the way he desires to live in us. So it's possible for us, you see, to be saved, and yet to waste tomorrow. And look at how little sand remains in the glass of our lives. See how few grains are left. They grow so swiftly. One of these days, none of us know when the last sands will sift through. Some of us think we have years. So easy for us to say, I'm only 30. I have another 40 years or 50 years. But it isn't quite that easy. You see, from the outside of the glass, we can't tell how much sand there is within it. For God seems to paint all glasses the same, but the sand behind the paint is known only to him. Think of it, tomorrow may be the last day that any of us, you or I, may have. This may be the last week. This may be the last month. This may be the last year. We've got to live every day in the light of his coming or our going. Isn't it imperative that we should live these days, as few or many as there may be, in that normal and full relationship with him, lest they be wasted, and he be deprived, and he be robbed. This is what I'm seeking by the Spirit of God to impress upon your heart, that this is a sharing. You share with him your body, your faculties, your personality, and he shares with you himself by the Spirit. And he wants to do in you what you can't do. You see, there's nothing wrong with the body, your eyes, your ears, your brain. The trouble isn't there. Trouble is in you. So if you'll share his cross with him, then you'll share his spirit with you. And he will animate and possess and empower that which you can't animate and properly possess and empower and use. And then we will be approaching what the Apostle said, I, I share his cross with him, I'm crucified with Christ. Nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. I believe this is what he couldn't see, you see, unless you've been born again. This is what can't see the kingdom of God, unless you've been born again. And I think that when you see that his kingdom is in you, and that you're his territorial rights, and he wants to live in you, and manifest himself in you, that which he's purchased. Then you begin to realize how easy it could be for tomorrow to perish, as far as eternal results for his glory are concerned. But he that believeth on him shall not perish, but have eternal life. Eternal life is a person, Jesus Christ. And when he comes into you to, quote, to bring life, then you, your destiny is secured. But when you give over to him the whole house, all the rooms, and allow him to fill you with himself, then, whereas your destiny was, was assured by his coming in, the fulfillment of his purpose is assured by your giving to him what he purchased. Oh, what a pity it would be to have tomorrow wasted. It's a new day, we've never written on it. If you live it in the energy of what you are, it will be. But if he can live it in what he is, great good will come to others, and great glory will come to you, and joy to you. Let us bow in prayer. Think for just a moment. Press this truth home to your heart. Lay hold upon it. Ask the Spirit of God to ask you how much of your life has been wasted since you were forgiven and pardoned, and your destiny was secured. I personally have to look back on the 14 years after I was born again and pardoned. There were nothing but ashes, because they were lived solely in the energy of my own personality. Wasted, perished, far as eternal consequence was concerned. How much of your life do you know in his fullness? Are you walking in the fullness of the Spirit? Say, what'll I do? Well, we've told you what to do. You share the cross with him. Lord, I know I can't. I'm not adequate. I haven't the energy, the ability to live this life. Thou said it's normal. So I'm going to go where you told me, and stay where you put me, on the cross, crucified with you. But Lord, there's that body that I used as the instrument of my sin. Now I'm turning it over to you, praying eyes, hands, feet, heart, lip. Oh Lord Jesus, fill me now. Fill me now. Come, oh come, and fill me now. Fill me with thy Holy Spirit. Come, oh come, and fill me now. You know, when you see and understand that there is fellowship with him, in his cross, in your body. You go where he took you, and he comes where he sought to come, to live in you his life. Then you realize that your life need not longer be wasted time, energy, strength. You become a vehicle for his work. Save the perishing, wasted. Oh, not as far as destiny is concerned, but as far as today and tomorrow are concerned. Is there in your heart a desire to know him? What are you going to do about it? I wonder tonight, if I deal with someone with a very hungry heart, say, oh I want so much to know the fullness of his spirit. I feel that God has prepared me, and I would like to have counseling and help. I wonder if you'd like to just stand where you are now, and say by your standing, my heart is so hungry. Then after a moment, as others have stood with you, we'll go into Wilson Chapel, where we can talk and pray together, and join our heart's longing and desire with you. The word can be opened. Are you prepared to do that tonight? Are there those with a hungry heart who'd say yes? I don't want tomorrow to be wasted. I want him to get out of my life all that he deserves. We're not going to press this invitation, but we're going to allow you to sit. I encourage you and urge you to stand now. In just a moment, others who will stand with you, will go here to my right and your left, into Wilson Chapel for a time of prayer together. Would you care to do that? We'll wait just a moment for you. Are there others? Anyone else? All right. For you that are standing, please slip out the dearest way. The one or two of the deaconesses, will you go with them, please? We'll join you so shortly. Anyone else that wishes may go as well. Just slip out now, if you will, please. Go into Wilson Chapel and the deaconesses will join you.