In this sermon, the preacher begins by acknowledging that he has previously preached on the topic of being born again, but feels the need to cover it again due to its importance in our lives. He emphasizes the significance of worship and how it is a demonstration of our allegiance and recognition of God's superiority. The preacher shares the story of the woman with the alabaster ointment, highlighting the depth of her worship and sacrifice. He also mentions the importance of prayer, missionary work, and raising up ministers in a church as indicators of its spiritual temperature.

We were in a shopping mall a few months ago and two boys came and stood by the side of me, I don't know why. I guess they were about 15 years of age and one said to the other, have you seen a certain film? And he said yes. The young man that asked the question said, I've seen it three times. And the other young fellow said eagerly, I've seen it 13 times. I just wondered in my mind, if you went to church or wherever you fellowship and the preacher preached the same sermon 13 Sundays, what you would do? And there was a great preacher in America once by the name of Henry Morehouse and he was conducting a series of meetings and the first night he preached on You Must Be Born Again. He did the same, used the same text the second night, the third night, the fourth night, the fifth night. And when he left the platform, a bunch of deacons were there and they grabbed hold of him and said, listen, we're getting complaints, you preach on the same text every night. Will you give us a promise that you change the text for tomorrow night? He said yes. So they spread the rumor all over the small town, he's got to preach on another text tomorrow night. And some that got a bit tired of hearing the first text, you know, they crowded in the next night. And now he said, I've got a different text for you. And they all were breathless. I preached for five nights on He Must Be Born Again. And now I've got another text. Have ye been born again? Well, I'm saying that not for an excuse or a reason, but I've covered some of this area before. But I want to cover it again because I'm sure you didn't grasp it all. And I'm sure it's very vital in our lives in these critical days in which we're living. When God wanted to explain to us how he made the world, he took only one chapter in the Bible with 31 verses. And when he wanted to explain how the tabernacle in the wilderness was built, he took seven chapters and 243 verses. Now this proves again to me that God's thoughts are not our thoughts and our thoughts are not his thoughts. I would much rather God had taken 273 verses to tell us how he made the world. And I'm not that interested or fascinated with the tabernacle so much. But he turned it around. One chapter for the whole of creation. Seven chapters for that rough-looking thing in the wilderness. But it's called again the tabernacle in the wilderness. I want to start tonight because I want to talk about this great subject again of worship. In the church of Jesus Christ today, we have taught people to work and we have taught them to witness. We have not taught them to worship. Prayer, speaking generally, is preoccupation with our needs. Praise is preoccupation with our blessings. Worship is preoccupation with God himself. As one hymn writer said, my goal is God himself. Not joy, not peace, not even blessing. As I said last night, the Pentecost of the New Testament is married to what? It's married to poverty, persecution, prisons, and privation. Pentecost today, at least, we're trying to marry it to prosperity, personalities, and any other thing that lifts our senses and stirs our emotions. You see, the Pentecost of the New Testament dealt with character. Character. And you seldom hear anybody interpret purity. Today we have lost the anointing of Pentecost because we have lost purity. And we've lost purity because we've lost piety. And you can't have piety without purity, and you can't have purity without Pentecost. In Acts chapter 15 and verses 8 and 9, Peter is reporting what happened there in the house of Cornelius. And he says, God who bare them witness in the house of Cornelius, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us. And people grab that and say, well they must have got the gift of tongues, and maybe they did, I'm not arguing. But that's not what he stresses. I remind you again that when they went up into the temple at the hour of prayer, Peter and John had been in the most amazing manifestation of God in history. The descent of the Holy Spirit on men. It wasn't the first time the Spirit of God had invaded personalities in the Old Testament, but not generally. And again, I remind you, the first martyr in the church of Jesus Christ was not an apostle. He was just a deacon. The great revival that they had down in Ephesus there, it was not through one of the twelve apostles. It was by an ordinary deacon by the name of Philip. You see, no longer was the anointing tied up to the hierarchy, the great high priest. All the old system had been abolished. And yet Peter says the remarkable thing there in the upper room is this, that God who knows their hearts, purified their hearts by faith. You don't find Peter backsliding after Pentecost. You don't find him going up and down. He doesn't vacillate. I said the Old Testament and the New Testament had an urgency. Their urgency was like Paul, he said, I pressed toward the mark. The attitude of the church today is relax and eruption. Eat, drink and be merry, Jesus is coming and the world goes to hell fire. And the whole thing is due to one thing, which is a part again of this wonderful mystery, if you like, of worship. It's due to lack of L-O-V-E. Look at the 24th chapter in the book of Exodus. I won't exhaust this tonight, don't worry. I might exhaust you, but I won't exhaust the message. If I preach it all, it'll take about three hours and ten minutes. At least you'll be home by midnight or midday tomorrow, one of the two. So thank you. So maybe just Don and I will be here at seven o'clock in the morning. Bring us some lunch, breakfast. Matthew, pardon me Matthew, Exodus chapter 24. And the first verse, he said unto Moses, come up unto the Lord, thou, Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and the seventy of the elders of Israel, and what? Worship. He doesn't say build an altar, he doesn't say bring a gift, he doesn't say have a choir. Now look, if he's going to go up with the seventy and about four others, they had left behind, oh well, they juggled with the figure. Some people say there were a million people came out of Egypt into, across Jordan, and some people say there were five million. But there had been a process of elimination. I want you to watch this. If the seventy-four leave all the millions that are there, then there are seventy and four of them, and gradually there's another process of elimination. Now look at this staggering verse. I've never preached on it, I hope I dare to do it one day. Maybe you have, if you have, tell me after the meeting. Verse nine. Then went up Moses, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and the seventy elders of Israel. Now they're all together, Moses, and Aaron, and Nadab, and Abihu, that's four of them, and the seventy elders of Israel. Now look at this. And they saw the God of Israel, and there was under his feet, as it were, a paved work, and a sapphire stone, and as it were, the body of heaven in its clearness, and upon the nobles of the children of Israel he laid not his hand. Also they saw God and did eat and drink. There's nothing comparable to that till you get to the Revelation. He's on a throne in majesty. He has a pavement under him like a sapphire stone. Now notice verse twelve. Pardon me, go back to verse two. We finished the first verse by saying the seventy elders of Israel there to come up and worship, but notice what it says. What does it say? Afar off. Worship afar off. And the next verse says, Moses alone shall come near unto the Lord. Now you know in that old, that tabernacle there that's mentioned again in the twenty-fifth chapter there. It tells you in the twenty-fifth chapter the Lord spake unto Moses saying, and he told him what to do. This is the offering, verse three, that ye shall take of them, gold, and silver, and brass, purple, and blue, and scarlet, and fine linen, and goat's hair, and ramskins, dyed red, and badgerskins, and acacia wood. Well heavens, what's attractive about that? It's about the most unattractive thing you could ever see. If you'd seen that big building in the wilderness with badgerskins, you'd have said some old sheikh lives there. And yet in this place is the place where God is going to come in his glory. There was an outer court, there was a holy place, and there was a holy of holies. In the outer court there was daylight, in the holy place there was candlelight, in the holy of holies there was no light. Now in the economy of Israel a man could be a soldier when he was twenty years of age, because then and now you don't need brains to kill anybody, you can be an idiot and kill people. A man had to be twenty years before he could fight, he had to be twenty-five years of age before he could be a priest, and he had to be thirty years of age before he could be a high priest. Now, again, outside there's daylight, here there's candlelight, inside there's no light. But a man could not go into the holy of holies until he was thirty years of age. Jesus didn't minister one moment until he was thirty. John Baptist didn't minister one word until he was thirty. The apostle Paul didn't minister until he was more than thirty. Moses was more than thirty. As a matter of fact he was eighty. The apostle Paul was more than thirty. You say, do I have to wait until I'm thirty? No, no, no, no, I don't believe in this economy you have to do that. The only thing that I can work out of that figure of thirty is this, that when the ark was built that Noah built, the walls had to be thirty feet high. And the house that Solomon built, the walls had to be thirty feet high. It seems to me it's symbolic of perfection. In other words, it's symbolic of maturity. The priest must be an ordinary man and then a priest and then a high priest, and then when he's a high priest he goes into the holy of holies where there is no window, where there is no light, when that curtain goes over it's pitch black, but there happens to be something there. Look in the twenty-fifth chapter and verse seventeen. Thou shalt make a mercy seat of pure gold. Two cubits and a half shall be the length thereof, and a cubit and a half shall be the breadth thereof. Skip over to verse twenty-two, and there will I meet with thee and will commune with thee above the mercy seat from between the two cherubims that are upon the ark of testimony. Can you imagine the glory that must have been there? There's no light, no light at all. There's a lamp stand in the holy place. There's no light in the holy of holies, except the presence of God comes. After all, God is light and in him there is no darkness at all. And suddenly the blazing light of God comes and flashes. Can you imagine how that light reflected? You know when sometimes you say, I wish you'd dip your headlights as you come up the road, you're blinding me. Do you think the man could hardly stand the presence and glory of God when the light came and descended and suddenly the glory of God flashed back from those wings, those golden wings? The scripture calls it the shekinah glory. You know, we don't see much of that glory anymore, do we? When did you last tiptoe out of the sanctuary breathless? You couldn't say a word. There'd been such an impact of divine life, such an impact of the majesty and glory of God. You just felt, please, please don't say a word to me, you'll spoil this whole thing. You see, the priest is having communion alone with God. If you go back into this 24th chapter, it says in the 16th verse, the glory of the Lord appeared upon Mount Sinai and the cloud covered it six days and the seventh day he called unto Moses out of the midst of the cloud. And the sight of the glory of the Lord was like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the eyes of the Lord of Israel. And Moses went into the cloud. Now, look, he had left the millions of people, he had come out with the 70, and now he's left the 70, he's with the four, and then he leaves the four and he's by himself up there in a cloud. And the scripture says that God did not speak to him until the sixth day. People have tried to label this generation. Some say it's the most scientific age in history, some call it the atomic age. I would suggest it's the most impatient age. We want everything doing immediately, instant coffee, instant this, instant something else. Here's a man that leaves everything, he's leading a nation, and he goes with 70, and then he leaves the 70, and there are four, then he leaves the four, and he's by himself in a cloud. And he struggles up the mountain, there was no elevator to get him there. And you'd imagine, we would think the trumpets would be there. We'd expect the red carpet to be there. We'd expect Gabriel to be there. You did a great job leaving Israel, and struggling up the hill, oh how marvelous. And God kept him waiting for six days before he spoke to him. And yet we expect to rush into the place of prayer and immediately say, Lord, are you listening to us? Because we're very busy and we suddenly don't have all day. How much time do we take to worship him, in spirit and in truth, and in the very beauty of holiness? He says a little further down here, let me find the chapter for you. In the 30th chapter of Exodus, it tells us in the 23rd verse that thou shalt make unto thee principal spices, and it gives you a catalog of the ingredients of the anointing oil, that the anointing oil here is for inanimate things mainly. And then verse 26 says thou shalt anoint the tabernacle of the congregation therewith, and the ark of testimony. Verse 30 says thou shalt anoint Aaron and his sons, and consecrate them, that they may be ministers unto me in the priest's office. You notice that? The junior priest is in the outer court. What is he doing? He's ministering to people. They bring their sacrifices, and he is ministering to people. But it says here that there is one man who is to minister to God alone. Now how can I minister to God? I can't make him rich, he owns the whole world. I can't make him wise, he's a source of all wisdom. There is only one way that I can minister to God, and that is to worship him in spirit and in truth, and in the very beauty of holiness. I can't make God's heart glad in any other way, but the priest shall minister unto the Lord, and he shall minister this way. It says in the 31st verse, thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel, saying this shall be a holy anointing oil unto me throughout your generations. Now there's one anointing that goes on the testimony, the people in the congregation. There's an oil that goes on the inanimate things, that have to be used in the process of sacrifice. But here is an oil which is put upon the head of the one who is going to minister. You know the most indefinable thing about a meeting often is this. You go to a meeting and there's a mysterious anointing there. Or you go to a meeting and when you come out you say, you know, I didn't get much out of that meeting. Well that's not the criterion of a meeting, what you got out of it. You may have been too sleepy, you may have been preoccupied, you may still be shopping yesterday. You're trying to get that bargain tomorrow on a sales list. The criteria of any meeting is not what I get out of it, it's what God gets out of it. Have we satisfied the heart of God? Oh, you get crappy and your feet go and you stamp your feet and have a great time. But that's soulish. And not many people can define between what's soulish and what's spiritual. We say I had a good meeting, why? Because it made me glad. I went to the meeting heavy and I came out full of joy. I've heard people say that about a movie. I went in a movie, oh I was so depressed, I was so happy. And you know those guys made me laugh when I came out. I felt, boy, I was on top of the world. Because it was merely emotional and soulish. But this again has to do with our character in God. This second anointment is an amazing thing. I could spend all night on it, I won't. But not as it says in the thirty-first verse, Thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel, saying, This shall be a holy anointing oil through all generations. Upon man's flesh it shall not be poured, neither shall he make any like it. Verse thirty-three, Whosoever compoundeth any or maketh anything like it, whosoever putteth anything upon a stranger, he shall be cut off from the people. And then the Lord gives the ingredients of this. But he says in verse thirty-five, Thou shalt make it a perfume, a confection after the art of the apothecary, tempered together, pure and holy. Verse thirty-seven, Ye shall not make to yourselves according to the composition thereof, it shall be unto thee holy. Now Norris, let's go back a minute. It says in verse thirty-two, Upon man's flesh shall it not be poured, neither shall ye make any like it. There is to be no substitute for the holy anointing oil, and we try and substitute it. The preacher knows when he's having a hard time. He knows when the congregation's sleeping. The atmosphere's too warm. We blame the devil sometimes when it's the janitor. A meeting's much better cool than it is hot. People get sleeping. I saw people struggling this morning to keep awake. God in mercy. I pour my heart out in prayer. I fast. I wait on God to preach to dumb people sleeping. Not on your life. The holy place should be so filled with God's glory and man dare hardly blink, never mind go to sleep. But the preacher knows when he's losing ground. He claps his hands and he does something dramatic like this, you know, and he gets your attention. It's purely soulish. There is a holy anointing oil. I thank God that God never bends to anybody's money. You can't buy anointing. You can buy education, but you can't buy wisdom. You can learn the tricks of preaching, histrionics, get a very big vocabulary, learn to be dramatic, learn this, that, and the other, but there is something which is indefinable, and it's God's prerogative to give it, and that is anointing. And this holy anointing oil, he says, you shall not put it anybody else on the penalty of death, and you shall not make a substitute. I was talking the other day, we were talking about laying on of hands. I don't think there's anywhere in the scripture where it says you lay hands on people's heads. And if somebody comes in your house and wants to put their hands on the head of your children, well, watch it. I wouldn't let anybody touch the heads of my children. They may communicate something evil, but this oil was poured. It wasn't just sprinkled, it was poured upon the head of the ministering servant. And then that overflow of oil ran down his face. No, it didn't. The 133rd Psalm says how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. For there the Lord commandeth the blessing. It is like the holy oil that was put upon the head of Aaron. Listen carefully. It was put upon his head. It ran down his beard. It ran off his garments. It went down to the floor. It never touched the flesh. God never sanctifies carnality. God never sanctifies the flesh. There is no substitute for this holy oil. And one needs that holy oil if he's going to worship. I told you before, many stories about Dr. Tozer. I spent so many hours with him. And I remember one day going into his office, and he said, Len, you see this rug here? And I said, yes sir. I guess it was about three and a half feet long and about 30 inches wide. And he said, I come in my office some days and I take the phone off and I call my secretary in the other office and I say, Margaret, you go home. Because today I can't dictate any letters. Today I can't interview any people. And I remember he pointed, he said, I get down on that rug, he used a good old Bible word, on my belly at eight o'clock in the morning. I'm still there at 11 o'clock and 12 o'clock. And I haven't said a word of prayer. And I haven't said a word of praise. I've just been lost in adoration. A lady wrote me a letter last week. And she said in 1976, I went to a service there in a certain city in Florida. And I remember you preached on worship and it revolutionized my life. And she put it this way, you said that prayer is spoken communication with God. And prayer actually is spoken preoccupation with our needs. And praise is spoken preoccupation with our blessings. And worship is total silent adoration before God. And she said, I pondered it, I went home and thought about it and from that day my life was changed. Can you imagine a man laying in the presence of God for four or five hours without going to sleep and isn't quoting hymns necessarily, or at least isn't using praise in the accepted sense of the word. And he isn't praying. He's so lost in a majesty of God, as you were saying tonight. And the wonder of God and the holiness of God and the character of God and the faithfulness of God and the immutability of God and the omniscience of God and the omnipresence of God. He says, my God, how wonderful thou art, thy majesty so bright. He says, oh Jesus, Jesus dearest Lord, forgive me if I say for very love thy sacred name a thousand times a day. Burn, burn within me love of God, burn fiercely night and day, till all the dross of earthly love is burned and burned away. How beautiful, how beautiful the sight of thee must be, thine endless wisdom, awesome power and glorious purity. The trouble with modern Christianity is we're too earthbound. We live too much in time and not enough in eternity. We're swayed by events, the headlines of the newspaper. We're more concerned with what Walter Cronkite says than the Holy Ghost says. We go up and down like the yo-yo because of circumstances and changing markets and depression and oppressions. Worship, just the mature people know to worship. Just the priest who's gone through all the preliminaries is allowed to go into the holy of holies in the total darkness and then God comes on or he's still in darkness. But so often when there's a lagging in the meeting we get up and try to whip up a more bright hymn, you know. I went in a service a few weeks ago, a place I'd never been before, may never go again, I don't know. And as soon as I got in there was a fellow there, from beginning to end, till I was weary of it. He nearly shattered my nerves. Worship is speechless adoration. We stand to sing, at least in Europe all hymns, you have to stand to sing. And we kneel to pray and we prostrate ourselves to worship. I'm not just sure if we can worship collectively. I think it's something very private, something very holy. Why if we learn to worship, if you got along with God an hour every morning you'd never fall down during the day. Do you know why we pray at the end of day about sins we've committed or wrongs we've done for the simple reason we didn't safeguard ourselves before we went out into the world, that's why. And if we fortified ourselves then we'd never have collapsed during the day. We're asking God to do a repair job every week. I was preaching up in the snows of Canada among the Chippewa Indians and the Muslim and the, what do you call them, the Eskimos some years ago. Oh it was a kind of a stately church and the preacher got up and we sang some one or two hymns and he got up and he said let us all pray. And then he said we have heard and strayed like lost sheep today. We have left undone the things we should have done and done the things we shouldn't have done and we have transgressed and we've offended and done the whole man. What a miserable thing. A couple of nights after he said to me hey you're preaching something I don't know much about. You're preaching about having dominion over sin, about having the world, the flesh and the devil beneath your feet, of being more than conquerors through him that loved us. Why I said friend if I'd come in your meeting the first night, Saturday night, when all those Chippewa Indians were there and those other people, those Eskimos and others, I'd have walked out and said you know that poor preacher's in the same boat that I am. He falls into sin every day. You see immediately you say that you can have victory every day over sin, somebody sticks a label on your sinless perfection. I preached in a certain university a while ago and there was a national speaker of one of the great groups there. And he had it you know we're always falling down and getting up we're always sinning and failing and this this that and the other and at the end of the meeting I said to him I understand in your church every Sunday you recite something like this. Well we've sinned today in thought and word and deed. Well the devil can't do more than that. And we've left undone and he went on and on and on and he said yeah we do say that. I said well well didn't Jesus say one day to a woman go and sin less? He said what? Didn't Jesus say to a woman go and sin less? No he didn't say that. What did he say? He said go and sin no more. What? And she lived at the other side of the cross. And he says to a woman there go and sin no more. The preachers today say you see you're born with something that makes you sin. There's nothing inside of your outside can make you sin until you bend your will to sin. We don't sin because we have to we sin because we want to. If we have to commit sins every day why don't some preacher get honest and write out a list of sins and say look young people you're the most confused young people in history and you see this side of the page are the sins you can commit and at the other side of the page sins you can't commit. Would you dare do that? You see we've got the idea that Jesus came into the world to make bad men good. No he didn't come to make bad men good. That's a fringe benefit. I know lots of people I admire more than I admire Christians. I know some Christian businessmen I wouldn't buy sausage from them. I'd be afraid they'd put sawdust in it. And I know some men who are not Christians but boy they're a hundred percent in morality and ethics. It's difficult for a well-educated man who's lived in a clean environment to come into a church and hear somebody thundering about adultery and all those kind of things and he says well I don't need them so what I don't need saving. Ah but you missed it by a million miles. You see as this young lady testified tonight she wanted to praise and magnify the Lord. Why? Because I was made to do that. Now God's argument with a man is not that he's bad first. The argument of God is we're dead. Not just bad, dead in trespasses and in sin. There's no way that a sinful man can respond to God except the Holy Ghost comes upon him and quickens his conscience. And then amazingly enough the Christian religion is the only religion in the world where a man's God comes and lives inside of him. That's the most breathtaking thing ever. As I said today the great rage around the country isn't Mormonism and Spiritism. The great rage around the country right now is born againism. Everybody's born again from the picture house, movie house. But there's no transformation of character. If any man be in Christ, any man, anywhere, anytime. I don't care how corrupt he is. I don't care how hell bound he is. Well I've been dealing with men lately that have had nothing but prison records for the last 15 to 20 years. They've raped, they've murdered, they've done everything. They're still scarred. See the devilish thing about sin is that when God has forgiven you, you can't forgive yourself for it very often. These fellas say I wake up I think of the time I put the pistol to that man's head and then I raped his wife and then I stole his money then I did something and it comes back to me. And sometimes people throw it up at me. Let me tell you something, God never will. Have you ever thought about the fact that Moses was a murderer and God never once threw it up in his face? That when he disobeyed God for 30 seconds he got 40 years punishment for it. You see we think we're God's little darlings and if we do wrong or something it's not very serious. It is serious. Every time you disobey God you retard your spiritual life. You slip back somewhat. And until a man is really born again and the Spirit of God indwells him, how can he in any shape or form worship God? And you know how precious, I'll tell you how precious worship is. Worship is so precious that one day a man called Jesus went through all the school of temptation and won it. Won every round. And then Satan came and said look you see all the kingdoms of the world? I'll give them to you. And Jesus didn't say you're a dirty sinner get back to hell they don't belong to you. Because they do belong to him. He's the prince of the power of the air. For a little season he has a certain area of dominion in the world. But you see that amazing being that we call Satan had once been the chief of the archangels in heaven. Every precious stone was his covering. He was full of wisdom until deceit was found in him. And he had seen God worship with an angelic host. As I said this morning, I'll come to it a bit later, if I could push the door of heaven open just an inch like John did in the fourth of Revelation you'd never backslide. You'd never you'd never get under the weather. You'd never let the devil oppress you and depress you and impress you. And say I wonder sometimes if it's really worth it. Dear Lord if you say that you've never seen the glory this to be. Worship is so great that Satan says look I'll tell you what I'll do. You just fall down and worship me for five minutes. No one minute would have done. Because immediately you bend the knee you're in subjection. You're admitting somebody is superior. That somebody deserves your allegiance. That you feel your inferiority. And Satan says I'll surrender the whole world if you fall down and worship me. That's how precious worship is. You see we've got mixed up with soul winning. Some people do soul winning like Indians collecting scalps. I believe you could win a hundred people a day to Jesus Christ and still disappoint him. Why? Because you didn't worship him. You're more fascinated with work and worship. Jesus says my father is a spirit and may the worship him in spirit and in truth. You know there's a beautiful story I skip over it quickly in the seventh chapter of Luke. The same story is told by Matthew Mark and Luke in different with variations. It's the story of the woman that came with a box of alabaster ointment to the feet of Jesus. Do you know it took me 50 years to find out what that story was about? I heard every interpretation that didn't satisfy me. Everybody majored on the fact she bought a very precious vessel with some very precious ointment to Jesus. Well she did. But do you know why she came? The main reason she came? She came to worship him. How do you know? Because she never said a word to him. Because she fell at his feet and because she brought the most costly thing that she had. She shouldn't have gone there at all anyhow. It was a stag party. She's a woman of bad reputation. The man's so busy watching through the window to see the mayor coming and the millionaire coming and the important people and and the servants has to. Master, master. Oh I'm busy. There's just a minute just a minute. You know that certain woman inside. Yes if she comes near turn the dogs on her. She's already here. Where? In the kitchen. And I suppose she's stealing food or something. No no she's at the feet of the miracle man that you got. You see this was going to be the greatest day in the life of this man. Everybody wanted to go to the party and he didn't have enough room to get them all there. They'd have given ten thousand dollars for a ticket to sit at the feet of the most amazing man that had ever been on the face of the earth. You talk about stirring the hearts like that lady said with his name. They'd seen his dominion over everything. He cast out demons. He raised the dead. He did all the miraculous things. And he gave us the pattern for world peace. And two years after, two thousand years after, we're on the edge of the hellish war, most hellish war in history. The woman had no right to be there. She had no ticket. She'd gone in and she came to his feet. This was going to be a day this man never wanted to forget but it became a day never wanted to remember. Everything went wrong. People are going to leave this banquet talking about my extravagance. But they didn't talk about his extravagance and his generosity. They talked about his stupidity. He missed it by a million miles. He was busy engaged with somebody else and the woman is there washing his feet. And oh he turns around the corner and says boy I blew it this time. This man's no prophet. If he were a prophet he'd know what manner of woman she is. She's a sinner. And Jesus says listen I know what's in your mind. I want to tell you something. There was a certain man had two creditors. One owed him 500 pence. The other owed him 50. And when they had nothing to pay he frankly forgave them both. Which of them would love him most? The one that had the biggest debt obviously. I remember going into the chapel when we worked for two years with Dave Wilkerson. He's our neighbor now. But David at that time was struggling in New York with Teen Challenge. I went in one morning. There's a little Puerto Rican fellow and as I went in he said ah he didn't speak too good English. Brother Ravenhill here. Brother Ravenhill going to speak this morning. Hey hey we stand and sing our national anthem. Stand and sing the national anthem before you preach. Good night there's a place for everything. But you see I wasn't smart. I thought he said the national anthem and he didn't. He said our national anthem. And this place was packed with lovely girls. Prostitutes. Not five dollar prostitutes. Prostitutes to the Hollywood boys. This side was filled with murderers. A boy had been 10 years in Sing Sing. This boy had shot somebody when he was eight. And then he was in a double murder when he was 12. And those boys had crime and sin and filth running out of their ears. And they'd been rescued from a horrible pit. They knew their fetters were broken. They knew their lives were transformed. They knew they'd been brought out of darkness into his most marvelous light. And the little man said let us sing our. Everybody stand. Let us sing now our national anthem. And I thought go ahead. The little guy said everybody sing now. Amazing grace how sweet the sound. Boy I've heard that song in many countries but I never heard it sung as well. And you know before we got through the first stanza every girl's blouse was wet through with tears. Every boy was struggling there with it. When we got to the end the little fella said we sing the last verse again. Let us sing this time when we've been there 10 million years not 10,000 years as he said. And I thought well brother why don't we make it 10 billion or trillion while you're at it because it won't make any odds anyhow. But what are we going to do in eternity? We're going to worship him. Don't you think it's time we practiced a bit down here? You want to go to God's kindergarten when you get to heaven because you don't know a thing about worship? And those little faces lit up and the tears poured down their faces. And I was thinking to myself these guys are thinking what? That one day there was an arm long enough to reach them and strong enough to lift them. And do you wonder that they love him with all their heart and soul and mind and strength. Do you wonder this time he says bless the Lord oh my soul. Because they had adultery on this side and they had murder on the other this. And I got in an accident with Bathsheba. And I put her husband to death. Do you wonder he gets so thrilling. You can write all the modern choruses you like there's not one of them will touch the Psalms. You can talk about praise as much as you like in modern churches. And all the best songs of praise are written in the old testament. I'll bless the Lord when the Lord sends that money. Boy I'll bless the Lord when my aunt dies because she's going to leave me a house. I bless the Lord when my husband gets that raise they promised it for three years he's going to have it this week. Is that what the psalmist says? The psalmist says I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall be continually in my mouth. Bless the Lord because he says he forgives all my iniquities and he heals all my diseases. What is the left? Do you wonder Charles Wesley says oh for a heart to praise my God a heart from sin set free. A heart that always fields of blood so freely spilt for me. A heart in every thought renewed and full of love divine perfect and right and pure and good a copy Lord of thine. This woman kept running in maybe she wasn't able to get for the crowd was so big. And she says well I'm going to see him I don't deserve to go but I'd like to give him a gift. I've never seen anybody give him a gift. It's amazing we we celebrate Christmas but we never give Jesus any gifts. We were at a little birthday party there I didn't get a gift. I'm the guest in the house I didn't get a thing. I got a bit of meat and spuds but I mean the the other folk there Dorothy got some gifts and uh Kathy got some gifts. Supposing we'd all gone there and we all gave each other gifts and left Kathy out and left Dorothy out. We said Dorothy we're celebrating your birthday. Boy I just got a shirt and new tie and some lovely nice things and this is the modern way. We don't give gifts anymore to folk you know who are having birthdays. But that's what we do at Christmas isn't it? We give gifts gifts spend money money money and don't give him anything. The woman comes in with the greatest treasure she had a box of ointment. I guess if you sign two that's just like Jesus to do things like that. Nobody else went with a gift and Jesus says Simon I want to tell you something. I entered into thine house thou gave us me no water thou gave us me no oil thou gave us me no kiss but this woman from the moment I came in has not ceased to kiss my feet. No no no she wasn't copying us. We all copy each other you know. You go to one meeting it always starts the same. We go on the established churches they're so ritualistic. So we've our own ritual. We always have the first 15 or 20 minutes singing and then we have the next thing. We're as ritualistic as anybody else. Thou gave us me no water thou gave us me no oil thou gave us me no kiss but this woman she hath not oh wait a minute you see this was this was premeditated. What did she do? She didn't wash his feet with water. She washed them with tears. She didn't wipe his feet with a beautiful towel. She pulled the pins out of her hair and wiped his feet with the hair of her head. Jesus says my head with oil that no she didn't take oil that was the cheapest way of getting out of it. You could use oil or you could use expensive uh very costly perfume and she didn't go the easy way. Not water tears not a towel the hair of a head not oil ointment. What did she do? She poured the ointment upon his feet. Then what did she do? She wiped his feet with the hair of her head. Then what happened? You mean you didn't catch it? That she poured on his feet the most costly ointment that the world has ever known? And then she dried his feet again when one of the story says and wiped his feet with a hair of a head. So obviously all the fragrance she poured out on him came back on her. A boy came up on the platform in a meeting that we had in Windsor Ontario. Little smart guy straw colored blonde hair blue eyes. Smart as you could imagine. He's always been on a military parade to be inspected. You know his shoes were shining everything else. Can I speak to you sir? I said sure hey what do you want? He said uh I said how old are you? 11. Oh good. Uh what do you want? He said I want to tell you I've just read your book Why Revival Tarrys and it's great. Well then I knew he was intelligent of course. And I said you read my book? Yeah. And I'm reading your other book Meat for Men. He said would you give me your autograph? I said sure here it is here it is. I said you should do something for me. He said well give me your autograph. I said I never lots of preachers won't read the book never mind an 11 year old had read through the book and reading the second book. And he went down and then his mother came on the platform. Same you know beautiful hair and you know she wasn't one of those suicide blondes dyed by her own hand. She was a natural blonde. And beautiful blue eyes and she smiled and she said that little guy is my boy. I said don't tell me. She said why not? I said because he's a carbon copy of you. She said but he's a wonderful little guy. He loves his bible. He loves your book. He prays. He testifies. She said will you come? I have to go now it's late. It was after 10 o'clock. And she said could you could you could you come to my house tomorrow? And I said yeah. What time's your husband home? All three o'clock. Oh I'll be there at 3 15. I went to the house. Where's your house? Uh about three blocks from here. Three blocks from here downtown? You must live in a rat hole. Now I went the next day knocked at the door and the bright face lady said come in my husband's home. He's just drying off. And I went in the house you know and I ran very quick like that. But oh boy you have to be quick to catch a woman. She was quicker than me. And she said uh it's not much of a house is it? I said it sure isn't. I won't give you ten dollars for everything in it. And she smiled and she said no it's not much of a house brother Ravenhill but it's a beautiful home. Some people have beautiful houses but they're not homes. When I see a sign on the road homes for sale I think somebody should be in a mental institution. You can't sell homes. You can sell houses. A home is what you make it. I've lived in a castle with my wife. A gorgeous castle with everything you can imagine for a month and all the boats we needed and everything. It's wonderful but I'm as happy if I lived in a slum area with her. I preached to thousands in ballpark. Preached last week again in a church packed with 1400 people and 75 percent of them were college students. We had a marvelous weekend but I preached up there in Thailand in a leper colony where people had no fingers and they were bloody and the pus was running off and they came on one leg on a not on a crutch on a piece of wood or the branch of a tree and some of them didn't have a cheek. You could see down where their tongues were joined in their throats and some of them had a string of flesh that mercifully had been left there to hold an eyeball in and some had no ears and they stunk like a sewer and the young lady that took me had been in the bible school he was at in Minneapolis years before and she went and sat and she said brother Avery you don't need to shake hands with them if you don't want to and you don't need to stay very long. They think it's wonderful you're leaving coming here because nobody comes in here. There's a big notice you know do not pass here. Do not pass by this gate. This is contagious. There's no cure for this. All the warnings were up and that beautiful blonde girl sat right down in the middle of that bunch of decrepit stinking humanity and she said now we have a friend here from America Mr Raymond although he's an Englishman and he's come from America to talk to us and they nodded their heads and the blind shook their heads a lot of them were blind and she said I think we should sing. Don't you think we should sing? Oh they made noises you know. Why do we sing? My Jesus I love thee I know thou art mine and they started clapping those stumpy leprous hands that had no medication the pus was running off and the blood was running off and I thought Jesus looks from heaven and sees this and maybe he's getting more adoration from these folk than he's getting out of Westminster Abbey today. They loved him and the little woman there she said Mr Raymond it's not much of a house but it's a lovely home. I said well yeah I saw one boy last night do you have more? She got six of them. I said wow that's a lot for these days and she said you know what when daddy comes home as he's done now we have supper and then all the dishes go in the sink and then we meet round the table and we have one hour bible study every night and after we've had an hour's bible study I put five of them to bed of course the little one's too small and then we take one at a time I take one tonight in that room and give that child another hour bible study. Come on now you were singing and clapping your hands a little while ago how many of you men are not priests in your own home? Oh you may be a deacon in the church are you a priest in your own home? Or are you just like a communist you never open the bible with your family? You expect the church to work a miracle on them at one hour in Sunday school and I said come on come on come on I believe I'm where I am because my dad took out the word of God and he read and prayed with me every day even when I went to work started going to work and the little lady said not only I said don't the children rebel yes they do sometimes oh I thought they would oh they only rebel when they say daddy you're finishing and it's only 10 minutes to seven we want 10 more minutes and she said I discovered the only way I can keep sweet with a house as busy as this washing diapers you know this is 10 years back they didn't have those fancy things now women have nothing to do anymore you expect the babies to be born diapered soon or something they don't have to bake bread you don't have to cut it you want to make some money you get a machine that butters it and then it can have it cut and buttered and everything right my mother used to scrub all day on Monday at the washing tub and then all day on Tuesday she was trying to dry and she put a line outside and sometimes put too much weight on it and bang it would go down in the dirt and she'd pick all the mess up and come in and she'd be singing blessed assurance and you women go and say this soap does it hot to cold so you can't go wrong then you lift them out with tremendous energy and you get tired lifting them out of here into the next thing that drives them and they don't need pressing because the permapress what in the world do you do you don't bake you don't wash what do you do play golf but tell me this have you turned that time into devotion and worship uh are you invested it for god i are you sitting there watching the dumb tv and somebody artificially feeds you i'll tell you what you'll never become strong and become a good soldier of jesus christ watching pete yeah oh i didn't mean to say that actually but i'm now watching ptlsm hundred club it's too frothy doesn't get down to the stuff that puts blood in your veins and puts passion in your soul it's all done by proxy you you you send us a few dollars we'll be your missionary well god won't accept any excuses but wasn't that little woman smart he said i'm up before six o'clock every morning i get one solid hour with god and when my spirit is quiet the kids can do as they like mary jane knocks over a milk and somebody knocks something else off and a kid put mustard in when he should have put sugar in oh boy there's always a turmoil with six kids but she said do you know or not i never get frustrated i've learned the meaning of the song the song take time to be holy speak off with thy lord the woman poured do you know why we lack so much because we say our prayers as much as we say god there's the things for the day would you answer those six petitions and we're an officer and we never stay to worship him in spirit and to adore him and to magnify him we pour the ointment out we don't wait until he comes back upon us and jesus says that it's one i entered into that house now i'll skip this quickly you go to the 26th chapter of matthew he tells the same story and there's an addition there that's startling he says he went into this banquet in the house of simon the leper oh no come on that how could he go in the house of a leper a man couldn't stay at home if he was a leper well there's a miracle one day he said to his wife darling i've got to tell you this i didn't want to and she said you've got leprosy don't touch the children have you used those towels you you go you go to the sanctuary now to the temple and they declare you're unclean go to the gate of the city they'll cross your name out you're no longer a citizen you're unclean and he has to go to the temple and he leaves his wife and kisses her very tearfully and says goodbye to the children and then he goes to the gate and says goodbye to his citizenship and then he goes up the road to be a beggar and now he's in the house and he's thrown a banquet that cost him stacks of money isn't it interesting that not one of the evangelists says jesus ever took a bite of anything he didn't need food the devil's no idiot he says listen if you are the son of god why don't you turn these rocks into bread and he didn't do it i think he did well the scripture says he didn't so he didn't but he did when did he do it i think he did it on the resurrection morning it was hardly daylight and they said this is a ghost somebody's coming over the water somebody there waving to us and he says come on in the greek it says come on lads and they knew him by his voice and we used to sing a whole old hymn years ago come and dine the master callers come and dine there they met their heart's desire bread and fish upon the fire are you going to suggest jesus went fishing i was going to suggest he knocked the baker up at one o'clock in the morning i believe he put now you'll never find that in a book but i i it came to me one day praying that that morning he put all those rocks out of all them and he said become bread and they did and then he says to the devil you'll see i'll do it when i want not when you want you can never do the wrong thing at the right time but you can do the right thing at the wrong time he went into the house of simon the tables bending under the luxuries and i can't find jesus ever ate anything or drank anything this woman dares to go in and she takes those holy feet and about a week after he's there on a cross with blood running out of them and everybody's sobbing and weeping i suggest you the only woman that was had a smile on her face was saying i'm glad i did it when i could i'm glad i washed those holy feet i can still feel the hair of my head wiping the oil off his feet the ointment off his feet i can still smell the fragrance he went into the house of simon the leper and he'd been healed who healed him there was no known healing there isn't to this day but some leprosy but there happened to be one called jesus that could heal him and it's not written in the story but it's the only logical answer that there is and that one day he cried have mercy upon me and jesus said to heal and he was healed and he ran to the gate of the city and they said hey simon that was his name don't you dare come in this city you're defiled and he says where look at my hand what beautiful hands back you go in the city he runs to the temple and the priest says don't you pollute this holy place with your body that's diseased and he says where's the disease and the priest says what happened and he says jesus heal me and he goes home and his wife's in the kitchen and she turns around and there he is what are you doing in the house don't touch your children you're a leper he says are you sure darling look at that your hands are better than mine who did it jesus did it and the man who was healed of leprosy the man who was a far off is made nigh the man who was away lost is brought into the family of god as it were he's allowed to come to the temple he's restored to his family he forgot to worship jesus but before you throw your hymn book at him tell me how often have you got with jesus along in the past week and said lord jesus i'm not coming i'm not bringing any burden i'm not bringing any request to you right now i'm not just going to pray i want to adore your majesty and your holiness let me wind this up with the best thing of all here it's from this fifth chapter of the book of the revelation i don't know you get on with this book it's some book revelation chapter five this is a book of mystery and it's a book of misery and it's a book of majesty a book of majesty a book of mystery a book of misery because it shows me the doom of all the lost people revelation five one says i saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne a book written within and on the backside sealed with seven seals and i saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice who is worthy to open the book and to lose the seals thereof now notice this no man no man in heaven or earth or under the earth was able to open the book neither to look thereon and i wept much because no man was found worthy to open and read the book neither to look thereon and one of the elders sat unto me weep not behold the lion of the tribe of judah of the root of david hath prevailed verse six i beheld and low in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts in the midst of the eldest of the lambs that had been slain having seven homes and seven eyes which are the seven spirits of god and he came and took the book out of the right hand of him that sat on the throne now i suggest you this is one of the most awesome moments in eternity because nothing jesus can do he died he rose again he's triumphant but there on the throne there's somebody sitting with a book not a book like this it's a book like a scroll and it works from the back and when a man had made all the entries he turned it over and he sealed it with wax and then the second thing he sealed it with and there are seven seals and it's held in the right hand of him that sits on the front what does it mean it's a sealed book a sealed book with a standing sign in those days of an alienated inheritance here are the title deeds of the universe and johnny spielberg come on now we're not in a little room like this we're with every redeemed person that has ever lived i believe this will be and not at the judgment of the sinners that's going to be awesome harnett the philosopher defined christianity as a very simple but a very sublime thing to live in time for eternity under the eye of god and by his help look if you got up every morning in the light of eternity and lived every day and thought every thought and said every word and prayed every prayer in the light of eternity i went to bed in the light of eternity we turned the world upside down in six months tomorrow when material conscious the church is mesmerized by materialism today never mind the world isn't it easy to get clapping your hands and singing and when all of life is over and the work on earth is done and the role is gone are you sure you'll be happy about it when we see the redeemed of all the ages oh i think i think that one of the exciting things in history in eternity pardon me will be that when we see the judgment of all the lost people everybody from adam right down to the last being i can't wait to see hitler bow the knee to jesus christ because philippians 2 says one day every tongue is going to confess that jesus christ is god to the glory of the father and i'm going to see hitler there and mussolini and genghis khan and the books are going to be open and the 18 minute tapes that mr nixon forgot about are going to be played before billions of people and that scruffy deal that uh mr nixon made and pardon me that teddy kennedy made you know when that girl got murdered for that's what happened and he got away with it he violated almost every law in the statute but because he's rich and god's going to expose teddy kennedy before everybody that ever lived and the man that has a preview of eternity says i saw the dead small and stand before god and the books were open there's not a thought you ever thought that god hasn't stood up you've forgotten them he hasn't if you're unsafe tonight he has a catalog against your name enough to damn a thousand people never mind damn you the books are going to be open all the unholy dead god's going to lift as it were babylon you know that great wicked city and pour out of it all the iniquity that was ever demonstrated there he's going to las vegas he's going to the other gambling joints he's going to soho in london he's going he's going to gay paris ancient babylon every night club is going to be reviewed every girl that sold a body every pornographic piece of literature every man is going to answer in that day why polluted other lives and damned other lives it's the only thing that keeps me sane in this day when there's injustice everywhere and corruption everywhere shall not the judge of all the earth do right people say god can't die god can't lie no he can't and you know what he can't make mistakes either but what about the holy dead and we see all the saints of all the ages these these marvelous kings you know and nehemiah and isaiah and jeremiah and and ezekiel and daniel and oh brother when we see the spurgeons and we see all the people who have been in revivals we see all the men that wrote books on the bible we see all the people that were ever redeemed we saw the martyrs who were beheaded in russia and china today even they're gonna stand before god and everybody's looking on and there's one thing has to be done somebody has to go and take the book out of him that sits on the throne and it says no man i see jeremiah jeremiah would you walk to the throne he says i'm not worthy to do it moses you're the greatest figure in the old testament would you take the book he says no that's out of my area isaiah you gave us the greatest prophecy no i can't do it is he killed you do it what about michael joseph or somebody where apostle paul you're the greatest solver and ever you gave us 14 epistles you established churches you shed your blood for the gospel will you slip up and take the book out of him that sits on the throne he says i can't do that so what does john say he says i wet much that word that greek word for wept is only mentioned twice in the new testament this isn't a man who's broken his finger it's a man with a broken heart there's nobody in heaven or in earth at the end of the earth and we can't move until that the title deeds are taken and there's nobody worthy and he says i wept the same word is used when after jesus made his triumphant entry into jerusalem and he's coming out and they would not receive him and he says oh jerusalem jerusalem in plain words he says you idiots a holy god has sent you men like isaiah and jeremiah you've got the greatest men that ever walked the earth the greatest men that walked the earth are not scientists or multimillionaires or billionaires the greatest men are the men who live near to the heart of god and they see what god sees and feel what god feels and jesus says you've had all these prophets and you wouldn't hear them and last of all he sent his son and you turned the son away and they thought they were getting rid of jesus and jesus was getting rid of them you know what i think america is within an inch of god spewing it out of his mouth and england and the so-called christian countries oh jerusalem and he says as jesus came out thinking of all their privileges why he says if sodom and gomorrah had the chance you have they'd have repented long ago we've got more gospel preachers in a week than all the nations of the world have in a year and yet our jails are full our homes are broken we've more divorce we've more immorality with more perversion they ask you in god's name what's the sense of stamping coins within god we trust when this week we kicked his 10 commandments out of the schools who in the world do you think we're fooling god finishes with nations like he finishes with individuals and they thought they got rid of this man who was a thorn in their flesh and jesus turned away and he wept over jerusalem it's the same word that's used here it means to weep with grief and anguish and sorrow it means to weep with a heart that cannot be healed somehow we think god's dependent on the dollar to run his kingdom my dear friend why don't you wake up you know 94 percent of the church of jesus christ is outside of america the only places in the earth i know that are touched with real true i hate to say pentecostal because we think of one thing apostolic revival of i don't know the breadth of it in america do you do you know a place where they go to church every day say prayers every day break bread every day and people added to the lord every day i can show you places in other countries a man was in my home a week last thursday he got talking about revival and i saw he got a bit fidgety and then finally says just a minute brother right now you're talking about prayer you you say that we can get our young people today to go to all night things you know for five bucks a night but you can't you can get five thousand to do that you can't get 50 to spend all night in prayer he said you know i was in a prayer meeting the other night and there were 1 million people praying and the night before that there were 1 million people praying and the night before that there were 2.7 million people in one great praise service and over a million of them stayed to pray all night not in america we're so lush so comfortable with need of nothing except the holy ghost and a bit of life but after all you've got nice pews you could go even to sleep on them the padded and the lush carpet and the average church is rich and increasing goods and has need of nothing and god sails past it we clap our hands and have a bit of joy to you know make ourselves believe and having a marvelous time as i said last night the new testament church was supernatural and the present church is superficial the early church the new testament church had passion now we have fashion i worked much because no one was able to take the book out of the hand of him that sat on the throne and suddenly a voice says weep not weep not there's nobody in heaven or earth but there is one who is worthy the lion of the tribe of judah hath prevailed to take the book out of the hand of him that sat upon the throne and he takes the book out of the him of the hand of him that sat upon the throne now look what it says in verse 8 of chapter 5 of revelation when he had taken the book before beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before the lamb having every one of them vials and odors odors odors what did they do they fell down people say i went to a meeting and people were falling backward well let them i'm not interested in that because everywhere in scripture they fall forward and they fall on their faces and the place to worship as dr dozer said to me one day lamb let other people do us in life you and i will worship god face downward if you're on your back you can see what's going on if you're on your face you can't see anything he came and took the book out of the right hand of him that sat on the throne and when he had taken the book the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before the lamb having every one of them vials and odors which are the prayers of the saints and they sang a new song saying thou worthy to take the book and later in the verse thou hast redeemed us by unto god by thy blood out of every kindred and nation and people and tongue and you've made us unto our god kings and priests and we shall reign on the earth and behold i heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the beasts and the elders and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands everything is numbered in the book of the revelation except the number of saints ten thousand times ten thousand happens to be a hundred million plus thousands of thousands and a little later there's 144 000 with harps in their hand man that's going to be some singing isn't it can you imagine a choir of a hundred thousand people and 144 000 as i say harps not guitars the guitars are backslidden harp but with harps perfectly tuned everybody on perfect pitch every woman singing better than galley gertrude every man with a better voice than paparotti who is the greatest thing in the world today a multitude which no man can number singing and adoring and magnifying the one worshipping him in the highest form that we will ever celebrate this side or even in eternity itself and it says in verse 12 they were saying with a loud voice worthy is the lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing at the end of the fourth chapter there's a threefold doxology thou art worthy o lord to receive glory and honor and power now it's stretched it says they were saying blessing and honor and glory and power be unto him that sitted on the throne in the seventh chapter it says at the end of the 11th verse that they fell down on their before the throne on their faces and worship god where on their faces and what they were doing they were saying amen blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might now you've got a sevenfold doxology like a swelling chorus all this redeemed host and magnifying the lord do you remember how the book of psalms finishes how many psalms are there 150 what does the last psalm say let everything that hath breath praise the lord and you say well it doesn't mean that that that's what you call poetic license that's what you call hyperbole that's you know stretching it a bit let everything that hath breath praise the lord well look down in this chapter what does it say in verse 13 every creature listen which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and those that are in the sea all of them heard i saying blessing and honor and glory and power be unto him that sits on the throne and unto the lamb forever and the four beasts said amen and the four and twenty elders fell down and worshiped him notice how many times in revelation they fall down and worshiped him when jesus appeared at the door of abram's tent he fell on his face and worshipped him when moses saw the glory of god he veiled his face when abram saw the face of god he fell down in the dust you know it says a bit earlier in the book of the revelation and and it's not far off i'll tell you that he talks in the 17th and 18th chapters about the collapse of commercial babylon the collapse of religious babylon it says there's coming a day and you and i are going to see when you when you buy a loaf of bread for a penny you say well that's not much no it isn't till you interpret it in scripture what was a penny it was a day's wages it's going to take a day's wages to buy a loaf of bread before too long oh a famous preacher won't agree with this but i i what i believe anyhow you know what i believe i believe that the church that the nation of america is going to suffer for the of the church rather than the church suffer for the sin of the nation when you get past the acts of the apostles the whole balance of the new testament is not to a lost world it's in a church god's problem in the old testament was amalekites he touched jebusites and perizzites he was israel god's problem today is the church she's polluted she's faithless humanism has crept in we know how to raise money on tv you send me a letter with your uncle's name on and i'll go to israel and plant it in the dirt so what you may as well put it in the garbage can for god says it's not in this place nor in jerusalem where men worship god and don't be fooled by it i worship god in a coal mine i worship god in an airplane 40 000 feet above the between australia and and and the philippines remember a special time there's no such thing as a sacred building again the most amazing thing in the world is a chinese scholar said i've read the quran i've read the vedas the most amazing thing i ever read is in the end of ephesians 2 where it says are you a christian the man said yes i'm a christian oh you're the most amazing thing in the world what's amazing about me well because it says in ephesians 2 if you're a christian that you are the habitation of god i don't ask anybody if they're born again everybody's born again these days because they're still living in lust and and worldliness they're still living in hollywood and blessing the lord and trying to give god a bit of prestige because they're being filled with the spirit and still live in that hellhole well we better remind ourselves god isn't looking for sponsors he isn't looking for prestige he isn't even looking for a moral majority he's looking for a holy minority and as much as miracles are marvelous the greatest miracle god almighty can do is for him to take an unholy man out of an unholy world and make that unholy man holy and put him back in an unholy world and keep him holy takes all the power of the blood and the power of the spirit of god for him to do that and if that has happened he ought to know how to worship god in spirit and in truth and in the very beauty of holiness he ought to anticipate this day when everything that hath breath and i happen to believe it i happen to believe those little annoying mosquitoes that were there in the thousands where we live this year buzzing around my and i say yes one day you'll be singing hallelujah not trying to bite me one day those elephants instead of saying like they do you know they'll all be saying glory glory glory glory and every bee and every bug and every creature god didn't make the beast to sting us and the lions to eat us he wanted to get glory out of us as i used to say that's why we're made that's what it says at the end of this at the end of the fourth chapter thou oh lord are worthy to receive glory and honor and power for thou has created all things and for thy pleasure they were and they are created what is worship well it's a mixture of a lot of things i'm through with this it's a mixture of admiration uh it demands concentration it's fascination it's meditation it's being able to blank everything out of the mind and just concentrate on his holiness and his glory and his infinite mercy what's admiration the dictionary says admiration is to stay with wandering esteem upon somebody that's lofty well that's pretty good isn't it have a wandering esteem of the holiness and majesty of this god in the book of the revelation and find pleasure and delight in it it's adoration what is adoration well i i think it comes near to it when paul says there in the uh second letter to the corinthians chapter 5 adoration is a kind of um insanity of love if you like because paul says in that letter chapter 5 of 2nd corinthians chapter 5 and verse 13 whether we be beside ourselves it is to god or whether we're sober it is indeed he says whether we're mad or we're sober it is for god's sake why because the love of christ constrains us and one of the most amazing things about this uh the adoration and worship demands that we sacrifice or it demands that we love and somewhere in love there is sacrifice the woman brought an alabaster box of ointment and it weighed a pound the scripture says i'm glad it mentions that because you see a week after some men were going up a hill and they were carrying a hundred pounds of the same ointment worth somebody said 10 million dollars when the woman brought a gift it was received it was recognized it was rewarded jesus says this fragrance doesn't fill this as long as men live on the earth they'll marvel at this beautiful story of this woman the fragrance will still be there some of our prayers don't get answered they get showed i'll tell you what all the adoration we give is received it's recognized it's rewarded it comes back into your spirit paul says you think i'm crazy you think i get tied to a whipping post and get lashed 195 times you think i've suffered shipwreck three times you think i've been beaten with rods and i've been stoned and left dead at the side of the road and do you wonder why i didn't scream because inside that love was burning so much and i said lord if it gets 10 times worse than this i'll still be rejoicing and praising you anyhow he didn't say i keep my chin up and just get through the day he says i glory in tribulation lord don't let that man have the tribulation put it on me he may break down i'll take his tribulation and so what he'll get his reward in heaven yes somewhere if you're going to love him oh i think we get away with words we persuade ourselves with our words but the book says be ye doers of the word and not hearers only god doesn't take too much about notice of our words if we say extravagant things about loving him then we're stingy again it's easy to sing love so amazing so divine demands my soul my life my all when we won't give something we have that could be spread to the mission field well in our church we love god do you there are two things that characterize a church to me i take its temperature this way what's the size of your prayer meeting secondly what's your missionary budget thirdly how many people have you turned out of the church to the mission field or to be ministers i passed at a church in my 20s in england people used to line up sunday night outside like a movie house we had a marvelous time on this thing got really rolling we had five prayer meetings a week we usually had a half night of prayer every week i wasn't i was a great preacher i was jammed in prayer prayer prayer and in the three years 20 people went into the ministry 20 young people some married some single either went to service in foreign fields or they went into bible college and became preachers fruit in that three years it was our offering you see this woman was not only giving she was giving till it hurt she was going to have this great funeral and she decided to give it to jesus if it's the mary that had a brother called lazarus she didn't love her brother enough to put it on his feet or embalm him when he died she kept it for herself but when she heard about this amazing man she said can i withhold the greatest treasure that i have i thought as i meditated on this today about two bible schools i've been in and somebody would say hey we've got all the freshmen in do you know one of them did you hear about him he's this this this this and this boy is he something and he thinks he's going to india going somewhere and i always said under my breath he won't get out of this bible school he's too brilliant to go to the foreign field we're going to keep him for ourselves when this angel says do you know who's taking the book the lamb that word is only used once in the new testament it's used when jesus says feed my sheep feed my sheep feed my lamb but it actually says feed my pet lamb do you remember in the old testament children would take a lamb in the house and when he got bigger daddy would say this is the last day no no no don't take our lamb yes the lamb the lamb has to go you couldn't give anything on the altar that was blind or lame you gave the best and i've seen bible schools keep the best oh you're so useful you can teach you can do this that and the other come on give god the best and trust god to send somebody in the other place two things at the end of the revelation it says one of the glories of heaven will be to see the face of jesus it says earlier in the book that when god pulls the anchors up out of all these islands of the sea and and when the political system collapses and when the financial system collapses men are going to be weeping and howling and saying rocks and hills fall on us and hide us from the face how amazing the saints are longing to see his face the sinners say hide us from the face of him that sits on the throne and the second psalm says the kings of the earth have taken counsel together against the lord and against his anointed and i sometimes wish we'd kick the united nations into the sea because you see any nation there you can mention the name of god but in the charter you cannot mention the name of jesus christ if you say god the muhammadan thinks you mean his god the jew thinks you mean his god somebody else the word god is an offensive it's christ who is the offense paul says i tell you weeping that there are people who are very religious and devout but their enemies of what christ no the roman church makes a lot of christ the mormons make a lot of christ jehovah's witnesses they're not enemies of christ they're enemies of the cross of christ