In this sermon, the preacher expresses a desire for manifestations of God that cannot be logically explained, particularly in prison cells in Russia and other countries. He criticizes churches that engage in ritualistic practices and longs for a place where the Holy Spirit can freely move. The preacher then recites an old English writer's interpretation of Hebrews 11, highlighting the power of faith in obtaining material victory, moral success, and spiritual reward. He emphasizes the importance of having a vision and a task, and encourages believers to be missionaries in their own communities.

Lord, we think at this moment of the millions across the world who today have bowed down to gods of wood and of stone. They brought their broken hearts to gods who have no hearts. They've lifted their voices with their desires for healing or forgiveness or some blessing to ears that cannot hear. But Lord, we're reminded of your word as we sing this tonight that God dwelleth in light unapproachable. We thank you, you dim that light by shrouding that light in flesh and blood as I see these precious little babies here tonight. Lord, I think of the time when God was contracted to a span, an incomprehensibly made man. He laid his glory by and wrapped him in our clay. He left the place where they worshipped him to come down where men whipped him. He took flesh, walked in the flesh that we might walk in the spirit. He came and died that we might live. He died that we might have life and have it abundantly. We bless you for that glorious emancipation you've brought in our lives tonight. But Lord, I've thought of your word today, Lord Jesus, in which you said you came into the world or you prayed that great prayer in John 17. Father, the hour has come and you prayed that the world might know thee. The world knows because the world knew you not. But Lord, tonight I believe the church knows you not. I believe you're still standing outside the door knocking, trying to come in. And here we are in a messed up nation, in a messed up generation where every vile thing is loose. There's not a perversion that isn't practiced and practiced with joy and practiced even with arrogance. And yet you sit on your throne and do nothing, it seems. But God, we bless you that you are the eternal God. We thank you. You said you will bring your church through triumphant. We think of the saints of old who made it possible for us to come here tonight. Thank you for men who gave their brains and wrestled with Greek and Hebrew to give us our beautiful King James version of the word of the living God. Lord, we bless you that wherever Jesus goes, there's light. I think of that great hymn of Isaac Watts, blessings abound where he reigns. Or as it means to say, Jesus shall reign. Where'er the sun doth its successive journeys run, his kingdom stretch from shore to shore, till moon shall wax and wane no more. Blessings abound where he reigns, the prisoner leaps to lose his chains, the weary find eternal rest, and all the sons of want are blessed. Lord, maybe today we forgot to thank you that you emancipated us once. You brought the fetters that bound us, the fetters of fear, the fetters of greed, the fetters of lust. You delivered us from the cave we lived in. How often we've sung here in this precious place, out of my bondage, sorrow and night, Jesus I come. Out of my sickness into thy health, out of my poverty into thy wealth, out of my sin into thyself. Dear God, we ought to be leaping with joy. No wonder we ask sometimes for a thousand tongues to sing my great Redeemer's praise. As one hymn says, Jesus is worthy to receive honor and power divine, and blessings more than we can give, be Lord forever thine. Let's sing a chorus, O come let us adore him. Can we do that? O come let us... Okay, Hebrews, the epistle to the Hebrews. I guess it's about, uh, what, 70 years since uh, Dr. Jowett wrote a book on Hebrews 11, at least on some of the characters, and he said about this chapter that Hebrews 11 is, uh, what do you call it? The one? Yeah, I know, that's what he said. You're too young to remember anyhow. No, what he said was, uh, he called it a gallery, was it a gallery? A gallery of heroes. Oh no, I got the phrase now. He called it the Westminster Abbey of the New Testament. Westminster Abbey we build or bury all our glorious dead. You go right up to the high altar and there's a marking. And of all the men that have ever lived in history, guess who's buried there? Right before the high altar, which is the decorated altar, like a Catholic church. David Livingstone. You know, when they buried him, they took his heart out, left it in India, in Africa, because he said, my heart is in Africa. And they brought his body to England and had a funeral greater than any, uh, royal funeral they've ever had. But is this chapter actually a gallery of heroes? Is it the Westminster Abbey of heroes? I'd rather look the other way. You know, there's nobody knows how many millions of people have gone to the top of the Empire State Building. How many of you have been to the top of the Empire State Building? You have. They make you dizzy? I've wanted to go for years and I've never been, even though we lived in New York. And you take a picture north, uh, no, east goes out where, down to Martha's Vineyard and to the Atlantic. Take one to the left, you get, uh, Long Island. Take one to the right, you get the beauties of New Jersey with all the smoke. And you look the other way, it's a mess. You know, a guy came to a conclusion, he'd do something that never have been done in history as far as he knew. Don't he did? He laid on his back and looked up and he took a camera shot of the Empire State Building from that angle. Well, when you're out there, I haven't been as high as that. I've been up 40 stories in some buildings. The automobiles look like this, as though you could slip it in your pocket. But look at Empire State Building and look down is one thing. To get there and look up is something entirely different. And if you see this chapter, there's a list of heroes, people that live out of reach as far as we're concerned. It's one thing. If you look at it as a rogues gallery, you'll be comfortable. You'll be in your own company. We're all rogues anyhow, we were. Don't look so saintly. It doesn't, doesn't match you. We're all rogues, but by the grace of God. Time would fail me. Look at this verse here now, Hebrews 11, chapter 31. By faith the harlot Rahab. Do you think I'd have put a harlot in if I'd been reading that? Oh, I'm sorry. Verse, I get mixed up. Verse 31, sorry, not to chapter 31. You see, Martha, they didn't even know there weren't so many chapters. They were fishing at the back trying to find chapter 31. All except Bob. Would you put a harlot in by faith? Rahab the harlot. Well, when it comes to it as a rogues gallery, who could you put there? Moses, he's a murderer. Noah, he got drunk. Rahab the harlot. There's a whole bunch of them, not worth a hill of beans. Except God got all of them. They had one thing in common, however it was developed. They all had one thing, that precious thing called F-A-I-T-H, faith, by faith, by faith, by faith. The wonderful thing about this precious book, it explodes. Does it ever explode when you read it? You wonder why you've got so old and haven't seen it like that before? That's surely one of the wonders of the Word of God. Knew every morning of thy mercies. Great is thy faithfulness. We were going to sing that today, I forgot. Do you know what? Everybody stresses activity today. Do this, be filled with the Spirit, be this, come on. How many times does the Word of God say, be filled with the Spirit? It says more about be still and know that I'm God. Do you know the dew never falls when there's a wind? The dew, thank you. The professor's back tonight, he's been away for a few weeks. He knows because I told him. Be still and know that I'm God. I waited patiently. There's no patience around. I waited patiently. I was a little rascal. I never kept still. I don't know why I thought about it today. One day my granny said there were two cents. Go up to the shop, and I knew the shop, and tell him you want two cents worth of stamps still. And I went in the shop and I gave my two cents, and I waited and waited and waited and waited. And the man said, now Lenny, you can go. I said, I want my stamps still. He said, you've just done it. You know, lots of us are like that. We want the earthquake, but we don't wait for the still small voice. We like the showmanship. We like the excitement. Boy, I'm so glad the flowers are coming out in our garden. They're gorgeous. Boy, I'm glad they don't open with a bang every morning. It'll be murder. God does the great... Do you know, when we drop an atomic bomb, boy, we shake the earth. The sun wakes up every morning, never says a word. It just silently comes up. And I'm discovering lots of people that, say the least, shine the most. Thank you. By faith to how at Rahab. Okay, now this is where I have empathy with the guy, fellow that wrote this. Verse 32, look. What shall I more say? Time would fail me. It fails me every Friday night. I run out of time. I run out of money a long while ago, the day I got married. But anyhow, time would fail me to tell of what? Of Gideon and of Barak and Samson. But wait a minute. You couldn't write, many of you could not write an essay on one of those people, could you? But who's the next character? David. Good night. You could write volumes on David. David the musician. David who was at top of the charts every year. David who brought the nation to its knees when he wrote the 23rd psalm. He caused us to look up when he wrote the 8th psalm and the 15th. The heavens declared the glory of God. He's a super writer. You can say what you like about modern songs and you can have all hail King Jesus or the other. They're certainly very beautiful. But as far as I'm concerned there's nothing exceeds that 45th psalm. Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of glory shall come in. Who is the King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty. Now some say that's reserved for the millennium. I think it's a song of the resurrection. Anyhow, we've got to, time would fail me to tell of Gideon and of Barak and of David. He'd have to write another Bible to explain all the achievements. David who was a hero when all the nation trembled. David who when Saul, head and shoulders above everybody, dare not go out to fight. When his son, his wonderful son couldn't go fight. Little David comes up that never put a breastplate on, never carried a sword. And he delivered the nation when nobody else could deliver it. And that's going to happen again. God's going to bypass our superstar preachers and raise up guys that have been plowing fields and doing other things today. Young men shall see visions and old men shall see dreams. There's no good going, God help us, without a vision. Dear pastor, you've got a vision to go to Africa. Stay with it. Don't let anybody rob you of it. That's the thing. It's not a head full of theology, God help us. It's not a garage full of books like I have. It's a vision. If you have a vision, if you have a vision without a task, you'll be a visionary. If you have a task without a vision, it's drudgery. If you have a task with a vision, you'll be a missionary. You need a missionary to go down Main Street today. Not just the outermost parts of the earth, the outermost parts of any city. So again, what happens here, verse 33, Through faith they subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mounts of lions. I found an old piece of paper here, hundreds of years old actually, today and I copied it. I'm going to recite it for the simple reason that this will be on the tape and you can meditate on it later. There's an old English writer talking about this wonderful chapter of Hebrews 11. The power of faith is manifested, is set forth in three sets of triplets, each making a progress within itself and a progress in the succession of groups toward which it is more personal. The first triplet describes the broad results of faith the believers obtained in material victory. They subdued kingdoms. In moral success and government they wrought righteousness because they had faith. And the third thing is they had spiritual reward because they obtained promises. The second set of triplets forms personal deliverance. Number one, from wild beasts they stopped the mounts of lions. Number two, physical forces quenched the violence of fire or terror of fire, as somebody has written it, quenched the violence of fire. Okay, three, human tyranny escaped the edge of the sword. The third set of triplets marks the attainment of personal gifts. One, out of strong, they were made strong out of weakness. Number two, the exercise of strength, they turned to flight the armies of the aliens. The writer assuming the hearers have knowledge of biblical history. When did they do these things? Who stopped the mounts of lions? Have you ever thought of Daniel hanging on a rope going down? There's a beautiful little beast waiting to gobble him up. Thought they were going to have a good lunch? And he's hanging on the end of the rope and down he comes. What did he do? He walked round to feel the belly which was the softest. He didn't like hard pillows. So he found the softest and he just went to sleep. I remember a little boy in England was asked why the lions didn't eat him. He said because he was all grit and backbone. Pretty good answer, isn't it? It's so easy to read this, isn't it? They quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword. Now notice they had faith to escape. Notice in the next, that's verse 34. Out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. Women received their dread race to life again. Others were tortured, not accepting deliverance. Do you get that? That's knocked me out this week. These others had faith to escape. These had faith to go every bit of the fiery trial that came upon them. Not accepting deliverance. What a faith. Others had trial of what? Mocking and scourging? No, no. Multiple. Mockings, you've got to put the S on the end. Mockings and scourgings, bonds and imprisonments. They were stoned, they were sawn asunder. They were tempted, slain with a sword, wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins. And then verse 38 says of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains, dens and caves of the earth. Dear God, what kind of people are we? Doesn't take much to offend us and hurt us. Somebody just forgets us, ignores us. Good Lord, could you live on the edge of the sword every day? I've got a comfortable home. Could I live? You see, this is not something that happened. It's not a scourging, it's scourgings. It's cruel, not mockings, but cruel mockings. There's a thousand things in here that we don't even think of. We're so busy thinking about tomorrow. Oh, will I get that thing in the sale or something else? The tragedy, again, we're not eternity conscious. We're conscious of what we wear and eat and every blessed thing. But that's not true in other countries. I had a letter last week that rubbed my nose in the dust from a guy I've never seen in Africa. He told me the workings of God. He told me about the workings of God in his life, in his community, and I was embarrassed. He told me of the hardships and the afflictions of people that will walk 20 miles to a meeting that doesn't last an hour, it lasts five hours. The glory of the Lord fills the temple. We don't need that. Dear God, you can go home, you can turn the TV on as soon as you get home. You've other things that eat up your life. So wonderful. I don't ask people many questions coming on my office now. I ask them one thing, do you know God? I don't care about your degree, I don't care when you was ordained, that's got nothing to do with it. Success has nothing to do with spirituality, that's cleverness maybe. When I hear this fellow saying how they preach, our fellow will walk miles to preach and he never expects a love offering. He said we laugh at your American Christianity with its showmanship and everybody wants a love offering and everybody wants projection, everybody wants that. I'm not saying it, he said it. He said we laugh at your Christianity. It's nowhere near scriptural Christianity. Maybe God's going to have to bring us there to learn to love each other, to bear each other's burdens, not accepting deliverance. For what reason? That they might obtain a better resurrection. I'll go down to verse 39. All these having obtained a good report through faith receive not the promise God having provided some better thing for us that they without us should not be made perfect. God having provided some better thing for us. Come on fellow preacher, evangelist, teacher, would you like to stand at the judgment right after Daniel who went through all the tribulations, that little petty life of yours after his life? Would you like to go up and take your prayer life which has all been recorded right after David Brainard, one of the greatest saints in prayer in America. All he did was go through rivers. He had a buffalo hide, he wrapped around him with a cord, he went through rivers. There were not many bridges in America in those days, they didn't deter him. He slept in Indian camps. He said, I got up this morning, he looked out of this camp here, or wigwam, whatever it was, and he said there the Indians were committing adultery, they were still drunk, they'd been dancing nearly all night, and there I presented Jesus, but not before I had to pray. And he says, I knelt in the forest with snow up to my chin. Dear God, we can't do that with beautiful floor coverings hardly. We've got everything so sweet and sugary and refined, and dear Lord, we ought to sing every day, must I be carried to the skies on flowery beds of ease, while others fought to win the prize and sailed through bloody seas? Are there no foes for me to face? Must I not stem the flood? I wonder how many of us today have really resisted the devil. He just said, thank you, you're so good to me. Oh, I got a bit more money. I got some nice compliments. So what? Every day I'm asking myself afresh, what does this day mean in the light of eternity? Not in somebody else's opinion. I'm bound for eternity, I've got no options. And I read about these precious people. One of the things we used to see mostly in our books in England when I was a child, not more than five or six years of age, there were pictures of the martyrs, and one of them was a, there were, what do you call it, terraces all around this great arena, and here there were, I can't draw as you know, let's say this is where all the, what do you call them, stands are, all the people were, and under this one here, there are bars like this, here there's a beautiful blonde lady nursing a baby, behind the bars here, there are lions, and there's a man comes, and he says to a man there, look, if you will just take three grains of incense, and drop them before that image, and say Caesar is Lord, you can go back to that lovely wife with the baby. If you don't, we'll pull the rope, the lion will come out, and we'll make you stand there, while the babies, well, while the lions eat your baby, and eat the child. Dear God, we can't do that. It may come to that. Somebody said to me the other day, I think it was at Bracey's church, wasn't it, where somebody said, when were we at Bracey's, this week, no, the week before. This, this Wednesday night, Bracey was just getting the meeting going, and a steward came, an officer, whatever you call it, he said there's a policeman at the door, so he went to the door thinking it was an accident in his fellowship, and it was a policeman, he said, sir, we're, I don't, how many, how many assemblies have we got, Arthur, in Kilgo? Not sure. Three or four. There's a, there's a bomb being planted in every Assembly of God church in this town. Clear it by quarter of seven. So he took counsel of some of the elders there, they decided to sit it out, but the chief of police came and stood in at the back, right through the whole thing. Before that, in the young people's meeting on Tuesday night, whoever led it, had been talking to them about suffering and sacrifice. He said, things we've been talking about are going to come in your lifetime, you young people, you better put on the whole armor of God, and I believe that. We're heading for a collision. I would to God we were as afraid of God as we are of Russia. We're not on a head, a head, head to head, what do you call it, head-on collision with Russia. We're on a head-on collision with deity. There's no option to it. You'll have no protection, I'll have no protection. Doesn't matter if your daddy's an archbishop, a multimillionaire, or the biggest preacher in America used to say, stand by yourself dear lady, dear son, dear father. Live with eternity's values in you. These perishing things of clay, these labels we have, they're nonsense. It doesn't say the reverend doctor so-and-so, the evangelist so-and-so. It just gives no titles except they. Who are they? It says that they might accept a better deliverance. They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, they were slain, they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, of whom the world was not worth it. They wandered in deserts and mountains and dens and caves. They couldn't even go home and get a change of clothes. They couldn't even go home and have a good meal. What does it say? Being destitute. They escaped the violence of fire, the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong. Waxed valiant in flight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. Who did that? Well, a Gideon did it for one thing. Little David did it for another thing. Women received their debt. Not a woman, not a woman, women. Again and again, again. You see, the lifestyle of those people was victory over sin, over death, over the devil. They knew nothing about defeat. They didn't have a nice protected little place to worship. Where our Paul is in South America, when somebody's baptized, it isn't done in a cozy room with grandma coming and everybody's saying, what a nice thing and singing. You go out to public humiliation, immediately you go under the water, your parents renounce you, they hate you, you might lose your job. And yet these teenagers are doing that. They have to publicly declare their faith. I'll never, if I have to do any baptizing, I'll never do it inside the building. It will be public. And people have to renounce the world and the flesh and the devil before I baptize them too. Too many, it's just a ritual, they go through it and it's gone. I don't think the most reckless man in the world is a man that leaps out of a plane, skydiving, or a man that goes scuba diving, or a deep sea diver I've seen go down into the depths of the... The most reckless people in the world are people who say we're Christians. They've a right to bring us up to the Word of God and say, how can you prove you're a Christian? It's easy as we sang so joyfully tonight, I know in whom I have belief, sure. Come on, have you had any sweat on your soul today? How do you think these people live, those intimidation and fear and threats, every inch they made, and yet they defied the devil, they defied circumstances. Not accepting deliverance from what? From poverty, from privation, from pain. They wouldn't accept it. Well, you'll get chopped up, that's okay. Absent from the body, present with the Lord. I was thinking a bumper sticker I saw the other day, it said, God loves you. What did Jesus say? He didn't say, God loves you, he says, fear God. Fear the one who has power to destroy and cast you both into hell. There's a lot of kingdom teaching just now. They leave out the most difficult thing. They don't remind us that the children of the kingdom are cast into outer darkness. They don't remind us that the kingdom of God is not visible. It's invisible. It's not a badge you wear. It's not something you do ritualistic on Sunday. It's the very nature of God. I can think about the day, Paul, you've heard it many times, preaching on the kingdom of God within you. Christ liveth in me, does he? If he's the same yesterday, today, and forever, he's going to weep through me. He's going to travel through me. I want to know more about that. I know so little. Boy, the more I, I, I, honest to God, I, I'd like to go away for about six months and be quiet. See nobody except my precious wife and a few tea bags. I must be honest. You know, God is so far away. The average church meeting has about as much joy as a Tupperware party. Where's the supernatural? There's nothing that terrifies us. You can't preach knowing the terror of the Lord. We persuade men. That's what Paul preached. He didn't say, oh, Jesus loves you. It doesn't matter what you do, he'll forgive you. It says, knowing the terror of the Lord, we persuade men. I want to know more of that identification of the apostle Paul knew. Because it's not a different standard for him and for me. Right at this very moment, today in, in, in countries like Russia and elsewhere, there have been martyrs today. Men have died, young women have died. They're suffering. In Africa, areas of Africa where that awesome famine is there. Dear Lord, I'm embarrassed. I'd almost like to say I won't go to a restaurant anymore in my life. We've full refrigerators and yet we go to town to eat. And those people don't have a bite. The picture yesterday of a black woman, a precious, good looking black woman. One breast was withered way, way down here. And I'm not being facetious. It was like a balloon with the air and the little things sucking on the other one. And there she is in terrible need, in poverty, malnutrition. And yet we sit with fullness of bread and fullness of everything else. What was the sin of Sodom? Homosexuality? No, pride and fullness of bread. I'm embarrassed to go in a store. 40 kinds of bread, 40 kinds of cheese, 40 kinds of meat, 40 kinds of everything else. Oh, it's going to be here when I get sweat about it. I know it is, but I'm not going to take it as though it's my right. We may come to bread lines in this country. What does it say? 70,000 more farmers are going out of business this year. What's going to happen in 15 years? Those wonderful fields that we have up there in Kansas will not be there when we need them. Sure we're filling the bread baskets of others. Who's going to fill ours? And yet above all is the starvation that is in the church. Where is the glory of God? You know, I'm dull. I know I'm dull. But by an expression a man made in my office, I belong one of the fastest growing churches. Do you know what? Jesus never had that. Jesus had the fastest diminishing crowd. He got to the place where there were 11 came to see him. They didn't say in the early church, oh boy, we're going to build a new auditorium. No, so what did they say? No man dares join himself. I'd like to know where there's a church like that, where you don't walk in the door if you have duplicity in you, where you have a secret grudge. For you can't be a Christian and have a grudge. You can be a backslider and have a grudge. You see, God insists that we have purity, purity of heart, purity of motive, purity of purpose. For less and less I shrink, more and more I shrink from crowds. I want to hide away and get close to the heart of God. And when I read this, I don't need, somebody says you need a little bit of sin in your heart to keep you humble. The logic is have a lot and be real humble. Do you know a man who's a real sinner who's humble? No, the insistence is we're to be pure. The pure in heart see God, not shall see God. And Peter says to the people, then you have purified your hearts by faith. The great weakness of presentation of the Holy Spirit is power, power, power. No, no, no, no. It's purity, purity, purity. God is pure and we're to be pure. Adam's likeness now we face, says Wesley, stamp thine image in its place. Is Christ living in me? Is Christ living in you? I don't believe you can live two days without heart brokenness if you're living in the will of God today. How in God's name can you do it? There are more billions, not millions now. I used to be worried when it was millions. There are four billion lost people, million lost people in the world today. Does it take sleep from our eyes? Does it give us a holy anger? No, why should it? We have a bit of money in the bank, we have food in the refrigerator, throws a guy down the street. It's no proof of blessing. Very often the proof of blessing is what God can withhold from me. Sure, some had faith to get deliverance. Others had faith not to accept deliverance. You know, rightly or wrongly, I've come to this conclusion. God's work in me, or let me say, put it this way, I believe, I believe in instant, instant purity. If we really go to the cross, get cleansed and fill with the Holy Spirit. I do not believe in instant maturity. Purity is God's work in me. Maturity is my job, availing myself of the resources of God. I don't want to live like anybody else. You do as you like. Compete with the other evangelist, compete with the other preacher, compete with somebody else. What's I got to do with it? You've heard me say this a hundred times. You won't hear it much often, but anyhow. I'm sick to death of mediocrity. God is wanting not superstars as we name them, forget it. Boy, when these dear black brothers come and talk to me about prayer and intercession and travel, I feel like a worm. What do I know? A lady in this meeting last week went home to another city and somebody told her about a lady. She went to a little poor home and there's a little black lady, black as coal. And every day she has a microphone and she broadcasts messages of comfort to people round about. And she has a marvelous prayer life. Nobody knows her. She doesn't ask for support. She's just there serving the Lord. And that's what God wants. He wants us to live in the secret place of the Most High. I couldn't remember your name, brother, come. When do you go to Africa? This Wednesday. You're going to spy out the land, first of all. Great. Well, don't see the walls of Jericho, the giants. Say it's like Caleb said, they're bred for us. I'm looking for God to avenge us of the devil. I'm sick of the devil's dominion over our youth. I'm sick of reading reports. So many came forward and you go a week after that time, you can't find one of them. I want to see people that dare not make a profession an empty profession. Some of the teenagers now they've been to an altar 20 times. I was in a house a while ago and it was Friday night. And the phone rang. The lady came to it. All right, darling. Oh, that's Peggy. It's our Peggy. She's 12. This is the fifth time she's been to, I was going to mention the name. It doesn't matter. It's a Baptist camp anyhow. It's the fifth time she's been. And the last five years she's been, she's been saved. Isn't it sweet? I said, it's tragic. Five years. I spent an hour in a room with a woman, with a pastor who for the 14th time had come to the altar and never got through. And she was vehement. She said, if it doesn't happen tonight, Mr. Rainey, I'm through with Christianity. I want what you talked about. I want a new birth. I want a new nature. I want a new heart. I want new desires. I want to be a new creation. God isn't in the business of patching people up. I've used our precious sister next door here tonight. I've used often when the baby was born, she didn't get up and go off. She stayed with that precious. He's a beautiful little guy now. God help them. I think that one of the most horrible things, I'm going to put a lot of horrible things in my new book. One of them is mass evangelism, mass suicide, mass murder. Yes, it is the way it's done now. Everybody that comes to the altar and doesn't get through to victory, the preacher is going to see them at the judgment seat. Without question. I would like to be a brain surgeon. I'm glad, I'm sure other people say amen to that. I can't even use a hammer and chisel. But I have a friend that does open heart surgery. What's open heart surgery? Do you know what? Holy ghost visitation is open heart surgery. Sin is exposed. Sin becomes a serpent. I haven't done so well. I haven't been so kind. I haven't been reading my Bible. Forget it. It's enmity against God. And there's no forgiveness for enmity. Crucifixion is the answer to it. Enmity against God. I believe a pillar of fire is going to come. I had a letter today, a lovely letter from a fellow in the, in where? New, in Carolina. What's NC? North Carolina. Yeah, I remember that. North Carolina. He said, Brother Raymond, if God sent us up here some years ago to prepare a garden, I'd like to come and see. I can't tell you the marvelous things the Spirit of God is doing. He said, I figure within two years a holy ghost fire is going to hit this area. But that's, that's good. It's not enough. We need a fire in every pulpit. We need a prophet in every pulpit. We need to go in the sanctuary. And as soon as we go in, our hearts begin to tremble. I have something concealed. I have something hidden. I have a grudge. I have some jealousy. I have some pride. It isn't the prostitute that's holding up revival in America. It's sin in the church. Uncleanness in the church. Unbrokenness. Self-satisfaction. Reading this little book, it's a book of comfort. Come on. What is Jesus? Is he described as a nursing mother? No. This came to me so forcibly today. He's the captain of our salvation. What's a captain? He's the head of an army. Where in God's name is the army today? Where are the people pulling down strongholds? Samson did it. It cost him his life, but he did it. Escaped the edge of the sword. Escaped the violence of fire. Who did? The three Hebrew children. There they were in the fire. And again, it was only there that the fall of the fort. You know, sometimes when God is going to bring you into the greatest victory, you ask a dozen people to pray for you, and the blessing of God went. You wouldn't go through the fire. What did the fire do? All it did was burn off them what the world put on them. The boys in the fire didn't have a penknife, so they couldn't... Their legs were burned. Their hands were burned. And so what? They just stood there in the fire, and the fire burned off the fetters. And it was then the king said, I see the form of the fourth, like unto the Son of God. My daily prayer is that somehow in some of those prison cells in Russia and these other countries, that there'll be some manifestations of God that have no explanation. I'm tired of going to church where you can explain everything logically. You know what's going to happen. In the churches, of course, they're not ritualistic. They just stand up for the same 15 minutes every Sunday morning and say the same things. It's ritual, ritual, ritual. I'm looking for a place where God, the Holy Ghost, will have His way. He can't have it on TV because they're paying from the first minute to the last. Again, that one thing I'm through with, that wonderful story about the Welsh Revival, when the preacher had 800 people and he went to the front seat and sat there for three solid hours and never said a word. Dear God, our congregation would go out. They say the preacher's asleep. But after three hours of stillness, mark you, he was 26 years of age. Listen to it. If you want to be used of God, forget all the rituals, the rituals of becoming a preacher and evangelist at school. I told you, get along with God. That young man, 26 years of age, had been praying 13 years. What's your 13-year-old doing? Watching Channel 6 or something? You see, God had been molding that man. When other boys were playing, he wouldn't play. I remember at college, when I got two other guys, we used to go down by a river to pray. There was no sports in the college because Mr. Chadwick said, you don't come here to do that. Once you got on the college ground, you stayed there for a year, with the exception of slipping home at Christmas or Christmas dinner, you came back. It was ritual from morning till night, discipline. And it made men, it turned out men. And the outstanding thing was not some of the world's preachers. People ask me, did you ever see Gypsy Smith? I had lunch with Gypsy Smith half a dozen times, maybe more. I had the privilege always of sitting at the head table. The world's celebrities came. I don't remember those men. I remember them, of course, but the outstanding thing were the times of prayer, the anointings that came on men. There was no outline. They're just a burden for lost souls. I remember a town called Skipton, which is a corruption of sheep town. It's in the beautiful valleys in England, hills, sheep all over the place. We were having a half night of prayer. I've never been in a prayer meeting in my life, except once like that. The glory of God just moved on us. Every man prayed as I never heard them pray before. And our leader had been in America around the big camp meetings. And he came in and I said to him, Maynard, when the prayer meeting was over, it lasts about three hours. I said, well, anything like that in America? No, not once, not once. Big camp meetings, ritual, wonderful doctrine, clever teaching, interpretations of sanctification, interpretations of the spirit-filled life. So what? You see, we're all looking for something big. When AB Simpson put up a wooden building in New York, he had been in the largest Presbyterian church in Cincinnati. He went to New York. Now that Christian Missionary Alliance have about 1500 missionaries around the world. Do you know the first afternoon that he preached, there were seven people there and it gradually grew, grew, grew, and until they had the meetings, Sunday afternoon of all meetings were in Madison Square Garden. They didn't have the backing of all the churches. What these men had staggers me, their faith, their achievements. But the thing that staggers me most is what they didn't have. They wouldn't accept deliverance. Lord, heat the furnace up if need be, increase the burden, because with increased burden, we'll get increased blessings. Increased brokenness means, it means increased abundance. It's so illogical to the man outside. And yet all these things are obtained, what, through faith. Then I'll wind it right up here, right up here. So he starts the next chapter, wherefore seeing we all so accomplished about with so great a cloud of witnesses. What do you mean? Who are the cloud of witnesses? Well, on earth, the spectators on earth. I believe there's spectators in heaven. I believe there's spectators in hell. I'm not knowing a hill of beans, carrying a hill of beans where my name's known. I'd like to be known in hell. That's my ambition. You know, oh, I went to a town once, there's a banner across Main Street, Leonard Raven, the British Billy Graham, forget it. What's that? Nonsense, I never agreed to that. But I would like demons to know when I pray, whether I pray publicly or in a secret place. If my name's not on the devil's list, I'm not much good, that's what I say. Jesus I know and Paul I know, but who are you? Then he goes on in this chapter quickly, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. I hope you get that book. Remember, three words, 700 pages on that three words, written in 1691 by Isaac Ambrose and a good brother there sells it. It's a $26 book or something. Get the third, what do you get? What is it, 10, 30% off? I'll be giving you two bigger percent. I'm no businessman. In fact, I give you the book, but anyhow. But look at verse four in chapter 12. You have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin. Have we? There's a new definitive study of one of the greatest women in the world, a little Irish woman, Amy Wilson Carmichael. It's just been written. Get it, get it. Because God wanted to produce some new characters like that. People have dimension in their hearts, vision in their eyes, passion in their souls, tears in their eyes. I had a lovely call from a couple, I don't know where, up in New England. And the man said, we'd love to come to a prayer meeting tonight, but we can't come. But what we've been doing for the last week, we meet at half past seven. I meet my wife in a room at half past seven. And we pray till nine o'clock every week. Somebody was telling me at a church, what do you call that fella? Clady what? Clady? Clady Keith. Somebody told me he has a prayer meeting now at six in the morning and has had it for months. And a whole crowd come. One of the pastors caught some fire while we were down in Kilgore. It opened up some new, what do you call it, dialogue for Bracey. And one of the preachers said, my church isn't very big, but I've asked the men to meet. And ten of them have been meeting every morning for two weeks. They've asked, it goes on. And all over the country, there's an awakening coming to the awesomeness, the awesome privilege of prayer. We're going to be sure we get to heaven where we missed it, where we missed it, where we missed it. That's why I said at the beginning, be still and know, we're so active. Do you know that we've got three things against us, the world or four, the world, the flesh, the devil and the automobile. You know, if Sonny had gone to town in a buggy, it would take him all day to get there and get back. I can go there and back in an hour. It's the biggest cheat I think the old devil's ever invented. It consumes people. They're running everywhere, shopping centers, you can't get a parking place. And it's a trick of the enemy. It's a historic fact that when the bicycle was invented and sold in New York, church attendant went down like that. People started cycling into the country. What has the automobile done? You see, there's so many subtle things that the enemy brings in and we don't know we're being cheated. We need to do some stock take, at least I do. Looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith. Okay, isn't that great? It didn't say so. Okay, well I thought it was. Okay, okay, well what? Now look, this is the 10th year I've come to the prayer meeting for 10 years, every Friday night, beginning at Browns. A little while we went to what was second chapter of Acts and then here for 10 years. I've never taken the note. Somebody asked me who's going to take it over. Do you know any evangelist wants to come and preach for 10 years, not get an offering? Kill him. He'd die on the spot. So what? There are different chapters in our lives. So for 10 years I've come every Friday joyfully, not asking for anything, had no Christmas gifts, birthday gifts, other gifts. My joy is seeing some of you develop in your prayer life. That's my thrill. You pray with brokenness, you pray with an anointing you didn't used to have. That's my wage. I don't know why, brother, but somehow tonight God tells me, put that man on your prayer list. It's a wonderful thing when somebody, you know what? Oh wait, we go to the fastest growing church, we give to missionaries. I'm not concerned what you give to missions. How many missionaries have you laid up? I was in a pastorate for three years and 10 people went to the foreign field. My best people went and I was glad they went. And this dear brother's going out of this soft, comfortable culture to Africa and his precious wife to meet everything different, language, vocabulary, atmosphere, environment, customs, food. Everything's a new world. So even tonight before he goes, he's going Wednesday, pray for him and God will guide him in what he's to do and others. And these other precious guys. We've got some wonderful black fellows here. They stir me to my depths. The devil's making a colossal bid for Africa. It's not going to last much longer. Even Idi Amin says the people ask him to go back. A dirty liar, the butcher that he was. Well, we're going to build a stronghold, are we? And are we too satisfied trying to get a few more people to our meeting? Forget it. Ask God to give you a burden maybe for a nation, for Africa or India or somewhere and pray until God works through in that area. There's not much time left. Well, okay, so I'll tell you something you won't like. I tell a lot of things you don't like. So anyhow, my chapter's finished. Next Friday night is the last night for me to teach in the prayer meeting. Not to make it easier, I've got the biggest task I've ever had. I've got to get down to writing a book. I've had it in my belly, on my heart for 10 years. It's on the judgment seat. I go to bed as early. I've told you what to do. I've told you go eat as little as you can, sleep as little as you can and another thing, talk as little as you can. I read that scripture in Proverbs. We're snared with our own words. If you go through the garden there, you see an obstruction, you go past it. The snare is hidden and no wonder the psalmist says so much about the lips. We're snared with our own conversation. Every conversation you have on the telephone is recorded up there to be replayed. Every conversation I have with people in my office is going to be replayed there. That's going to be an awesome. There's no secrets with God. The lid is off everything. So I'm giving myself now intensely to writing this book and to prayer. I try to do what I tell you to do, otherwise I'd be a hypocrite. I want to go to bed between 9 and 10 and I get up at midnight and have whatever time I can take, two or three hours, either in the living room or mostly in my office. I must get this book done on the judgment seat. It's awesome. What's that buddy got on his shirt, sonny boy? God is awesome. Great. Keep it there. God is awesome. We'd rather sing that sweet little hymn of Wesley's. Gentle Jesus, meek and mild, look upon us. What about this? Lo, he comes with clouds descending, once for favorite sinners slain. Every eye shall behold him, clothed in dreadful majesty. I can't wait to hear, to see Mussolini kneeling before Jesus Christ, or Genghis Khan, or Stalin, or Hitler, or the kings of England, or Roosevelt, or Teddy Kennedy. Everybody, without exception from Adam. You see, Hollywood has made films about Bathsheba. They can do that without rehearsal. They've made lousy Bible stories. They'll never make a picture of the judgment seat of Christ. It's too awesome. There's nobody can write the scenario except to just take scriptures, literally. So, I want you to pray for me, that, well, I'll be here next Friday night. I've got a word from the Lord about that. And then after that, the meetings are over. I feel what you should do now is work out what God's been working in. Start a prayer meeting in your area. Start a prayer meeting over here. Start a prayer meeting over there. But let's keep up the barrage of prayer. Some people don't pray because some of us are loud and long, and you get nervous about it. Well, then start at the bottom of the ladder again. I don't want to pray loud and long to be heard, God forbid. But there's an urgency. There's something going to happen before long that's never happened in history. On every level, economically, socially, militarily, and spiritually. This is a crisis year, 88 to 80. Everybody that writes to us says 88. There's some dear folk here told us months ago that God told them in 82, 88 is a crisis year. The brother that wrote to us today from North Carolina said the same thing, this is a crisis year. And everybody that's writing 88 to 89 is crisis. You know what? In fact, I'm sick to death of trying to clean up after the devil. Why aren't we ahead of him? Why don't we help with him? We're cleaning up the garbage. He has to destroy something. We go and try and put it together. We ought to be ahead of him. Embarrass the devil and the powers of darkness. Stand in faith against him. Not in our strength, not in our faith, but in the finished work of Jesus Christ. Not accepting deliverance. Don't say, Lord, lighten the Lord. Every time he lightens it, it lessens your reward up there. There's a guy in my office talking about receiving love gifts. That's okay. Live by them. I said, listen, I want to tell you something about that. God has no matching funds. If you've got a thousand last week for preaching a revival, he didn't match it in heaven. Maybe he said you got too much. In heaven you'll get a hundred dollars for If he's going to reward those who have been mission field for years, they're going to have their reward for all they've missed. Then those who are getting too much are going to get taken off. It's going to be vast adjustment. It doesn't matter much what we have here or down here. It's going to be over very quickly. I hope you read that chapter through again and realize again, this is happening in our day. It's an ongoing thing. Scourgings, imprisonment, poverty, particularly again in China, Afghanistan, and Russia. And we can affect them for time and eternity. Let's sing a verse of I am thine O Lord. And then as we come to the chorus, if you want to leave, you can leave. I want, I'm going to have some special prayer tonight for brother, brother crumb, pray for what the first assembly in where Lindale. Have you got a pastor yet? Who goes to the first assembly in Lindale? You've got one coming. Good. And you've got one coming at community Christian. So two pastors we pray for and they've got pastors. Our David's in Arkansas this weekend. You can remember to pray for him. Paul's having the battle as usual down there. Bless his heart. I don't know how he keeps it up except by the grace of God. But I'm glad he's having it tough and have a bigger reward. What we're going to sing? I forgot now. 349. Thank you.