Leonard Ravenhill emphasizes the call to holiness as a fundamental aspect of the Christian life, urging believers to reflect God's holiness in their daily conduct. He critiques the church's focus on spiritual gifts over the fruits of the Spirit, asserting that true holiness is essential for seeing the Lord. Ravenhill highlights that Jesus' sacrifice was not merely for forgiveness but to restore humanity to a state of holiness, challenging the notion that Christians are 'just forgiven' rather than called to perfection. He encourages believers to embrace their identity as holy people, kept by God's power, and to live out their faith authentically in a world that often rejects holiness.

1 Peter, the first chapter, verse, pardon me, verses, um, 15 and 16. 1 Peter 1, 15 and 16. But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation, or all manner of living, because it is written, Be ye holy, for I am holy. I think if we'd placed as much emphasis on the holiness of the Holy Spirit as we have placed on the gifts of the Holy Spirit, the world might be shaking with revival right now. After all, Jesus did not say, By their gifts ye shall know them, but by their fruits ye shall know them. The gifts are very seldom mentioned in the scripture. Holiness runs right through the book from beginning to end. The psalmist says in Psalm 92, Holiness becometh thy house forever. And then again he says we're to worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. And in that great age that some people don't believe in, I happen to believe there'll be a millennium, it says there'll be holiness on the pots and pans. Wouldn't that be lovely making the dinner? Holiness on the pots and pans and holiness on the bridles of the Lincoln horses. I don't think there'll be any automobiles in the millennium. They're a sign of the curse. But in the millennial age, there'll be holiness even on the sides of the horses. And then again there's a tremendous prohibition in the epistle to the Hebrews, it says, without holiness. Doesn't say without a good record of preaching or of miracles. It says without holiness no man shall see the Lord. And I think that one of the tragedies of our generation is that speaking with a kind of blanket almost condemnation of the church, we're more afraid of holiness than we are of sinfulness. We make every conceivable argument for the abiding of the old man in us. We defend him. Demosthenes was not the most eloquent man that ever lived. The old man is the most eloquent. He'll argue with every bit of logic or illogical stuff he has that you still retain the flesh as long as you live. Now of course some people say this flesh is evil. Well if that's so I'm glad I don't weigh 300 pounds. And you'll be happy you weigh 120 if you weigh so much. No it isn't this flesh, it's talking about a fleshly nature. There was a great distinguished preacher in England by the name of Moffat Gawtry for a number of years, he filled with distinction John Wesley's historic pulpit in City Road, London. He wrote only two books. I have both of them and I treasure them. But he said the man who only wants forgiveness for his sins is toying with religion. Jesus didn't die so you would escape hell. That's a fringe benefit as vast as it is. He died to restore to us all that was lost in Adam. There's an old hymn that says, O loving wisdom of our God, when all was sin and shame, a second Adam, no there was not a second Adam. Jesus often is called the second Adam. He was not the second Adam because if he was a second Adam you might have a third Adam and a fourth and a fifth. He was the last Adam. The first Adam came into a world that was perfect. It had no bugs or fleas or thorns or briars or raging animals. He came into a perfect environment and erect the thing. Jesus came into an imperfect world and he lived a perfect life before God. And after all this call to holiness, that's another phrase for it, be ye therefore perfect. And we try and get by, you know, say well look I'm not perfect. You see silly bumpers if you have one teared off on your car. Christians are not perfect, just forgiven. That's nonsense. God's standard for you and me is perfection. Whatever else you make of it, it's perfection. It's not Adamic perfection. I don't think any of you fellows look like Adam. I can't see you too well for these lights. Let me look here's Ed, no he's not, no he doesn't come up. Not even Tim, a handsome Tim. No I can't see even Sonny does. It's not Adamic perfection. It's not angelic perfection. You ladies don't look like angels. You may have put a bit of war paint on this morning but it hasn't done too much for you. The Lord doesn't look on the outward appearance, he looks on the inward appearance. The king's daughter, you ladies read it. I preached once on spiritual cosmetics or at least I said I wouldn't be. Spiritual cosmetics, he's a nut. Well Psalm 45 says the king's daughter is all glorious. Well we're then, we're then. There's an old saying beauty is only skin deep. A friend of mine says well most of us should get skinned. But uh beauty is something internal. Now this text is a little frightening as he which hath called you is holy. You see well it's related to God. People have tried to be holy by shutting in up in monasteries and they went moldy. Monasticism became corrupt. Do you know why? Because it became rich. That's why it became corrupt. Everybody that died left their money and investments to the monasteries. There's one big shot, he preaches, he's somebody said he's the best gospel singer in the country and the worst preacher. And now he has a man, he sent a flyer out the past couple of weeks. We, I will send one of my representatives to your house to help you make your will so you can make it and leave it to me. Now that's about as holy as you can get isn't it? I mean h-o-l-e-y. A man who already has a multi-million dollar corporation is already seeking for your property. I think you know we all enjoy the bible till it hurts us. It's the most devastating book that there is. There used to be a man in the town where I lived, he, of course I'm not old enough to remember Socrates. A lady asked me one day, you knew Mr. Tozer personally didn't you? I said yes, I spent many hours with him. She said did you know John Wesley personally? I said no, he died just before I was born. He died in 1791. But this man in the city where I lived, he would come to our street meetings, he would come when the university Christian groups came and you know he could tie them up. He'd never had an hours education in schools or colleges but he spent years in the local city library and he'd read everybody from Schopenhauer to Schopenhauer right down and he was brilliant. As I went down the street one day he said to me you should be arrested. I said well I've been to court more than once for preaching so what, what, why? Why he said don't you know they passed a law in parliament this week that also anyone carrying subversive literature should be sentenced to a period in jail. And he said look at that book peeping under your arm that's the most subversive thing in the whole world and he was right it was the bible. Again Christianity has not been weighed in the balances and found wanting, it's been tried, found difficult and rejected. The gospel is not only too big for the world, it's too big for us. If you come right down to it and it says that you're not to have a penny in the bank that lay up treasure in heaven now how's your sanctification? This is an alternate word too, the word sanctification is an alternate word to holiness. Oh let me go back a minute lest I left you a thing unfinished. You can't have Adamic perfection, you can't have angelic perfection, we can't have mental perfection but we can have perfection of love. Thou shalt love the Lord God with all thy heart and all thy soul and all thy mind and all thy strength. Now there's nothing left if you do that. Again the old old saying if Christ isn't Lord of all in our lives he isn't Lord at all. A few years ago a party of tourists invaded one of our old English villages the likes of which I've seen often. In fact I tried to rent a house in a in an old village. When I got there I was kind of dumbstruck with its beauty. The houses were all thatched, the stately church there in mouldy granite was erected a thousand years ago and the house I tried to rent was 800 years old and it hadn't a termite in it. It was beautiful, the floors were polished. These folk descended on the village like this and they took photographs of everything, an old Celtic cross worn out with the ages and uh the church is over a thousand years old and stocks in the middle of the town where they used to put people and punish them and and an old well that's supposed to have some kind of water with virtue in it and they photographed and photographed and photographed till there was nothing left and as they were coming out of town there was an old bearded man there and he was you know his hands on his cane and looking around at these busy folk rushing here and there and uh one of them said hey old-timer any famous men born in this village of yours? And he looked up with a smile and said no only babies. If you see some of those athletes in the Olympics, doesn't matter how athletic they are they were once babes. If you see a giant of spirituality, if you read somebody like Arthur Pink or any of these great men of God, well don't get scared off they were once babies too, spiritual babes, and they had all the struggles you have and they had all the disappointments you have. You know if you've got a baby and it's even healthy and vigorous well uh you don't just go along when the baby falls down to the ground you don't call the doctor you you say well well get up and then you come home at night husband comes home and he says do you know what the baby fell down again that's why it's got a black eye you don't call the doctor and you get it upon its feet and you send it on its way. Then you may fall many times not necessarily into sin but you may get this fall into discouragement. You may fall into fall into dark periods in your Christian life. One of the old mystics wrote a book called the uh the the the what was it the night of the soul or the dark night of the soul and every and everybody somewhere gets a tunnel experience in their lives. But I remember once being rushed in a train in England we were we were in this train and suddenly the the thing just lurched into this tunnel and I thought well where in the world are we going because there was no light in the train and suddenly I realized that the engine or the the engine as it's called that pulled the train into the tunnel was the same thing that was going to pull me out of the tunnel. And it's God's prerogative you can't set anything in your life except obedience. You can't tell God how long you want to suffer or you don't want to suffer because if you follow the Dallas theology you won't suffer at all you'll get the baptism and the bank balance. That takes care of everything. But if you're going to be a Christian according to the New Testament one of the guarantees of Jesus was this in the world you shall have tribulation. And one sure thing when people say I don't understand why this has all come on me I've been so tempted and so tried I don't understand it well I do. Oh you say well give me a clue. Well I'll tell you what my answer to that is it's God's confidence in you. It's not the devil kicking you around. It's God's confidence that you're mature enough to take a beating. Because he says he won't let you be burdened above what you're able. You don't know what you're able to do but he does. All right let's start here. I'm not going to preach. I'm just going to talk this morning. I'll try not to preach. I may backslide. But look at the first word in this first epistle of the first. Let me get the first right now. The first epistle of Peter in the first chapter in the first verse in the first word. Peter. Well isn't that thrilling? We all like Peter. Why? Because he's so much so like us. Always in trouble always talking when he shouldn't and dumb when he should speak and saying the wrong things at the wrong time and the wrong things at the right time apparently. He's always in a mess. But here he is Peter an apostle of Jesus Christ. Now I don't know I've never fathomed this. If you have the answer tell me. But Martin Luther once said of the epistle of James. He said it's an epistle of straw. Now I've never understood that. If you take another hundred commentators on the epistle of James they'll say this. James the practical. He gets down to earth. But for my choice nobody gets down to earth like Peter. Again a man with an experience is never at the mercy of a man with an argument. And the reason that I can listen to Peter is because he trod the path I've trod and uh made some messes I've made and uh I can see the the the hand of God in his life all the way. Now when Jesus found Peter he wasn't Peter. You say well who was he? He was Simon. The very name Simon means shifty irresponsible. If you take a grain of sand and put it under a microscope you'll discover that that tiny grain of sand has peaks on it like that and it has cavity cavities like that. Well you can't build on sand. But if you put that sand under pressure those peaks and those cavities will fit together like that and they'll make sandstone. We used to live in the city of Bath in England. The Romans were there in 55 BC. One of the oldest cities in the country. And the abbey and everything in the city is made of sandstone. You cannot build with brick or wood. You can only build with stone that you quarry in the quarries around in the area that's a very uh productive area for that kind of stone. And you know the men take the stone and they measure it and they actually saw it with a saw like you do wood. Now if you put sand up like that the wind will blow it away. But if you put that sand under pressure and you get it all knitted together then you can build with it. Now in the fifth pardon me in the 16th of of uh of Matthew there Jesus says thou art Simon. You're but thou shalt be Peter and on this rock I build my church. And the Romanists have tried to make capital out of that but it's sheer folly that they've done that. Because the word that Jesus gives for Peter is masculine in the Greek and the word that he gives for rock is feminine. The church is never described as a bloody warrior going forth with a sword. Though we are told to be soldiers of Jesus Christ but from the divine standpoint the church of Jesus Christ who is Jesus coming for? A bride. Keep that in mind not a widow. That's why he's not coming now. The church is too filthy. As I told you I was at a wedding a while ago in took part in a wedding of a the daughter of a friend of mine. He's a multi-millionaire. She inherits everything. He's a couple of mansions and a yacht and I don't have any millions of money. He never told me that but uh he's extremely rich. She came down the aisle looking beautiful radiant. It's always the man that looks heavy when at a wedding but she she looked radiant. She captured him after all she'd been trying for two or three years and here she got him tied up now. And you know she came down the aisle in that gorgeous dress. Her cheeks were flushed and I thought oh you look so beautiful and just as I looked like that the Lord said look at the bride. How many brides have you seen? And I ran it over while she's coming down the aisle. I've seen tall ones and small ones and fat ones and thin ones and rich ones and poor ones and wise ones and otherwise. And uh but you've never seen a dirty bride. No I've never seen a dirty bride. I saw girls in the in the 1930s who were so poor that they made a bridal dress out of a pair of lace curtains. But I'll tell you what that bride comes down the aisle sparking and beautiful. The supreme need of the church of Jesus Christ this morning. Is a revival of holiness. You say well that's what the Holy Spirit is doing. Hold it a minute. It says in the book of the Revelation not the Holy Spirit. It says the bride hath made herself ready or as it says there that the wife hath made herself ready. Holiness is not God's obligation to you. He demands it of you. In the Old Testament it says Saul the king of Israel had an evil spirit and therefore he did evil things. Jesus says a man had an unclean spirit he did unclean things. Well if a man with an evil spirit does evil things and a man with a with an unclean spirit does unclean things then surely a man with a Holy Spirit will do holy things. Jesus died that we might be made partakers of his holiness. And Jesus says thou art Peter. Oh I know who you are Peter all right. You know the Lord could see through Peter just as he can see right through you. You haven't got a hidden spot of bitterness or a secret luster a thing that Jesus Christ can't see from eternity this morning. And maybe that's why you're a heartbreak to him. It says thou art but thou shalt be. And you remember all the various paths we don't have time to go through this morning but eventually they led him to the upper room. There he was for 10 days. They had 10 days of heart searching. 10 days of humiliation and brokenness. And Peter finally gives a record of this in Acts 15 8 and 9 when he's recording the coming of the Holy Spirit to the house of Cornelius and he says and God who knoweth the heart bear them that is the house of Cornelius witness giving them the Holy Ghost even as he did unto us and he put no difference between us and them. And everybody jumps on the bandwagon and says well they spoke in tongues or had some miracles maybe they did. That's not what he says. He says the thing that impressed me in the upper room was not a ball of fire on my head not being shaken with a rushing mighty wind he said he purified my heart by faith. He purified me. He took out the dregs of sin. He not only got rid of my lousy past but he did something inside of me. I don't know how you get on but I think that this area of Texas must be the breeding ground for all the spiders in creation. I'm forever swiping them off. You do that Red? He nods his head. He must do it. You can have my share. I'll give you them free. They've just come spiders what a mess. And here's a lady she's on a chair and she's dusting a spider's web off the corner of the of the wall there and the little boy comes up and he says what are you doing ma'am? She said I'm knocking this spider's web down again. I have to do it every week. And you know out of the mouths of babes and sucklings he said ma'am why don't you kill the spider? Hmm? I've got carnality. I've had a bad temper but why don't you get rid of it? Do what our dear sister sang so beautifully this morning. Go to the cross. Now don't just go to the cross. Get on it. So easy to admire the fact that he died for us but we don't want to die for him. That lovely hymn that was written in America. My faith looks up to thee. The second stanza is my favorite. May thy rich grace impart strength to my fainting heart. My zeal inspire as thou has died for me. Oh may my love to thee pure warm and changeless be a living fire. I think a lot of us are like the fellow he he'd been reading one of these exciting love stories and he thought boy next time I'm out with my girl just as well she's going home I'll tell her this and he heard the bell ring and she said I'd have to go. The church bell's going. Dad wants me home. He said I want to tell you something. Just let me hold you a bit tight. I want to tell you something. Do you know I love you so that uh if you were in a burning building I would rush in and rescue you. And if I thought you were drowning I can't swim but I'd plunge in and oh he went on with this dramatic presentation of his love and she said let me go it's time I was going and he said all right but you just remember I'd dive you in any situation and I'll see you tomorrow night at half past six if it's not raining. Isn't our devotion like that? Lord I'll do this if Peter got to the place. Oh yes we always tried Peter. You say well he stepped out on the water. Well that's more than most of us would have done. We'd have wanted a life jacket on us before we stepped out of the boat. And you say didn't walk on the water. He sure did. Not very far. Yes he did. You think Jesus carried him back on his back? Sure he was sinking and Jesus lifted him up. He didn't say hold him. He was holding him up. I believe from that moment the mere moment he touched Jesus he walked by faith on that water as though it were concrete. And in any case how many times have you sunk under the water anyhow? So don't throw rocks at Peter. You look very happy. Okay uh let's get down in this chapter here. The second verse is what? Elect. Well if you don't know anything about the election uh you could see um let me see Tim, Sonny or Ed after the meeting. And is Winky here? Are you there Winky? Where are you? Oh Winky is there so he'll give you a class this afternoon on election. I think the best simple definition of election is that it's divine control of all the steps that lead us to God. If that's election I'm uh I'm all for it. We tie it up with predestination but so often in the word of God we're elected to be a holy people. You can read that again in Colossians 3 12. Elect according to the foreknowledge of God by sanctification of the spirit unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Christ. Now here's a tremendous verse. Those three blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away. Now what more do you want? Do I have to say like some preachers say can you say amen? Well if I have to pump you to say amen you'll be dumb the rest of your life. If it isn't a spontaneous amen it's not worth asking for. If you don't have something in that wants to yell a hallelujah now and again well forget it and improve after being to the seminar this week. Anyhow what is it for? It's to an inheritance. How do you like that? You haven't got one? Well I have. I've got an inheritance that's undefiled. That means it's beyond the reach of sin. I skipped that verse that third verse for a special reason. I'm getting to what he has purchased with his death for us. I have an inheritance in eternity. It's undefiled. I'm never going to see a drunken man anymore. I'm never going to read a report about rapes. I'm never going to hear about marriage casualties. I've got an inheritance incorruptible that is beyond the reach of death. Undefiled beyond the reach of sin. It fadeth not away. It's beyond the reach of time. Won't it be great to walk anywhere in eternity whether it's up there or down here because there's a new heaven and a new earth and never see a gravestone and never see a hospital and never see anybody sick? That everything that God designed for the universe will come to pass because of his beloved son? And I've got that inheritance and you have if you're redeemed. Let's go back to verse 3. One of the greatest most amazing texts or dealing with the most amazing thing in in history in the history of Jesus even. What's it say? Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ. I think that's amazing that a poor mortal like me can bless God. I don't know how I can bless him except lay my life out for him. But the psalmist says I will bless the Lord at all times. Not sometimes. Not be put on Sundays and left carnal the rest of the week. I will bless the Lord at all times. I'll bless him with my mouth. I'll bless him with my body because Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 5 23 the very God of peace sanctify you holy. That word sanctify again is h-o-l-y. That's that's a synonym for it. And then he says the very God of peace sanctify you holy which is w-h-o-l-l-y. Holy. Make you holy. Holy. Make you h-o-l-y w-h-o-w-l-y. Make you holy. Holy. And then in case you don't get it he says so that your whole spirit and soul and body. Well how much have you left after that? Your whole spirit and soul and body. Isn't that lovely? The soulish part of your emotions and your will and everything else and your spirit that God made that you worship him with. Your spirit and your soul and your body can be a living sacrifice. Your spirit soul and body be preserved blameless. He doesn't say faultless he says blameless. Unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. All right. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ which according to his abundant mercy hath begun us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Do you know that gives me goose pimples or turkey lumps whatever you want to call them every time I say it. The resurrection of Jesus from the dead. The coming of the Jesus into the world is called by the theologians that is again I don't understand the heaven of heavens cannot contain him and you press him into the matrix of the Virgin Mary. How does an unbeginning God have a beginning in a woman and then no ending? How has God contracted to a span and incomprehensibly made man? How did he lay aside his supreme intelligence because he and the Father and the Holy Spirit used to sit down and have government meetings there in eternity because they said let us make man. And he laid his glory by and wrapped him in our clay. And did you sing the other week down from his glory someone another young lady sang down from his glory. I like that. What condescension does that ever overwhelm you? Does it ever knock you out so that you can't even make a request known unto the Lord? What condescension bringing us redemption? When in the dead of night not one faint hope in sight God gracious tender laid aside his splendor stooping to woo to win the lost. Do you wonder if she breaks out then and says oh how I love him how I adore him my breath my sunshine. That was written by one of the grandchildren of William Booth the founder of the Salvation Army. Mrs. Booth one of the greatest women that ever lived. You can buy a life story over there a part of it buy it. Give it to somebody send one to the Pope. But anyhow you could you could read it and enjoy it because she was one of the you know you know a hundred years ago back in 150 pardon me 1856 she put her children to bed every night and cradled their arms their head in her arm and to every child and she I don't know over 89 of them and every night while they were sleeping she prayed and then she whispered in their ear sleep on darling the world is waiting for you. They didn't have a mediocre child every one of them had a kind of a supreme intelligence they were great preachers or poets or artists or or instrumentalists they were all abnormal. What condescension bringing us redemption? I don't understand how God became man but I'm left breathless when I read not only he became man he became sin. There came a moment when on the cross when God Almighty couldn't look at him. The artist couldn't paint the crucifixion as they best tried no man saw the crucifixion not even God himself because in that moment when he became sin for us God turned his face away and God pulled a blind over the sun and the whole world rocked. Diogenes not the Greek Diogenes the Egyptian said in that moment when the earth shook he was a pagan a heathen but the whole world became dark in the moment that Jesus died for sin he became as black as the sin for which he died and the world became black and in that moment Diogenes said either the great God is suffering or somebody that he loves is suffering. The English are not supposed to be very emotional and I guess they're not. Some of us are a little more emotional. One of the greatest preachers in the country and he was contemporary of course with Alexander McLaren up in the north of England and I guess with the greatest of all Scottish preachers Alexander White and also with Spurgeon but I think the greatest preacher of them all in one sense and you should read his sermons you can get them bet them all in about 25 volumes and if you don't read one of them read the prayers that precede the sermons because he lifts you to eternity before ever you start he starts expounding the word but one day he was preaching on the resurrection of Jesus to a stately packed house in England and he preached as only he could and then he paused and he said with that magnificent trumpet voice that he has and he pointed up he said he lives and the whole of that stately English congregation broke out with tears and clapping their hands I'm not too sure the devil was too nervous about the incarnation he got a lot of plans he's a lot of things up his sleeve I'll destroy him before he can go to the cross but finally he went to the cross you remember and I like to think of the day when they they put Jesus there in a in a tomb as I said often the first countdown was not in America the first countdown was two thousand years ago the first countdown was when they rolled a stone over that over that grave pardon me Jesus had already demonstrated he said I am the resurrection you remember he went to a house one day and when he got there an impetuous young Jew I said well you didn't care for my brother anyhow if you did you'd have been here a couple of days ago he's dead and he's in the cemetery and he stinks by now he's corrupt Jesus said your brother will rise in the last day and she was as miserable as most fundamentalists he said I know my brother will rise in the last day I believe in the book of Daniel as well as you do I know he's going to rise in the last day but that's a long way off and as though he looked a bit puzzled she said I believe in the resurrection well Jesus didn't he went better than that Jesus says I am the resurrection isn't that something people got excited because he raised the dead he said listen don't let oh don't get all excited about that do you know there's coming in a day when this voice of mine will speak and the man Adam wherever he's buried to the last creature millions and billions and maybe more than the stars of heaven for multitude and at the sound of my voice every grave will open and every person will live I am the resurrection and he says to the group why don't we go to the cemetery take him some flowers no we're not going to take him flowers I'm going to have a little talk with your brother you're going to talk to my brother he's dead that's why I need somebody to talk to him he's dead that's why I preach but uh after all that's what preaching is 30 minutes to raise the dead in my case 60 but anyhow so Jesus goes to the tomb and he says he cried with a loud voice I'd like to have seen Jesus there everybody else is wondering what's this all about it's never been done before I can see Jesus I think he's about six foot one or two you know splendid type of man he stands there and says with a trumpet voice Lazarus do you know why he said Lazarus because if it said come forth all the cemetery would have come then he wasn't time for them to come yet so he just said Lazarus I knew what Lazarus did he got up and he came out now he was alive otherwise he couldn't have shuffled out he came out of the grave like this what did Jesus say he says loose him and let him go you know we've got a few million people worshiping this morning and they're all Lazarus's they've been raised from the dead but they've never been loosed bound with the grave clothes of carnality superstition dogma what my church believes dried up crusty musty fusty theology lose him and Jesus gave him a first class revelation of the fact that he was a resurrection I said to you let me emphasize again as I skip on here I think the resurrection morning in the life of Jesus was the most distressing sorrowful morning in his life why because he'd been training a little select group of 12 disciples and telling them over and over and over again I will rise I will rise when one big shot there in his artificial kingly robe said listen you better watch yourself young man because I'll put you to death and Jesus smiled and said no man takes my life from me I lay it down and listen friend I'll take it up again but that resurrection morning there wasn't a disciple believed on him if they were they'd have been standing there at the door waiting to shout hallelujah he's kept his word again he's risen there wasn't one of them there and in case you feel superior did you get up this morning and say well thank you lord you're risen indeed how did he just say you'll burn the bacon again that usual gratitude that spills over at breakfast time here is Jesus lying on a slab there is as cold as the eye as icy cold as the slab that he's lying on and there's a stone over the tomb and there's wax over the stone and the seals over the wax and the soul is over the wax and the seal and the stone and satan calls every demon in hell together and he says hey come here a minute the third day he arrives again from the dead and it's getting dangerously near the time now we've only about one minute left what you suggest we do I feel nervous about it I've never beaten him yet I want to beat him once for all what shall we do one demon raises his hand what do you what are you saying he says your majesty uh why uh I know the stone is there I checked it and the wax is there and the seals are there and the soldiers are there I suggest to you that we roll the sin of the world against that stone that's a great idea that's a great idea and they roll the sin of the world against the stone and satan says we've about 30 seconds you know I still don't feel comfortable any suggestions and one says your majesty why doesn't every demon with his supernatural power get against that stone you know he'll never shift there I mean we've got the stone and the wax and the seal and the soldiers and all the sin of the world and every demon he's got no chance that's a good idea and so they've rolled the sin of the world and they have the stone and the wax and the seal and the soldiers and every demon straining every muscle that he's got and satan says we've almost got him there listen only only 10 seconds now 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 and he was just going to say one and the holy ghost flipped him and beat him to it how do you know because romans 8 says the spirit of him that raised up jesus from the dead and there's a person the holy god family the devil forgot all about the power of the holy ghost and jesus at that moment he shattered death he made it possible for me as the word of god says to be an heir of god and a joint heir with jesus christ an heir of salvation heir of hope he's risen from the dead and to put the nice piece at the end of the book of the revelation whatever he is said by paul in 1 corinthians 50 at the end you remember jesus stands there himself he says listen i want to tell you something i am he that liveth and was dead and behold i'm alive forevermore i knew what he did in between being dead and ascended he went down into the caverns of hell and told every demon and every lost soul over the ages and he led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men well i say reverently my god how is it people can sleep in church with a resurrection message like this how is it some university men said not long ago the worst thing about where we go it's compulsory to go to church sunday morning that's boring and the most boring part of the boring part is you have to listen to a sermon fine man we ought to go out of every sanctuary if god is there feeling 10 feet tall and as luther said if there were more demons in your neighborhood than there are tiles on the roof of the houses you ought to say well it makes no odds because i'm risen with him we've got a hymn that it was somebody give you i'm gonna ask there's no reason there's nothing in the uh laws of america or even a greater part of that the agape force which says you have to go right through him i'm gonna ask you to stand and sing a tribute to jesus right now i want the ladies just to sing the first stanza and then all the men thunder out they thunder out the chorus ladies sing low in the grave he lay sing it like a whisper and then pull every stuff out and make the old devil sick this morning that we believe is risen from the dead let ladies sing sing it jesus my savior waiting the coming day up from the grave my lord now sing it up from the grave up from the grave he arose with the mighty triumph on his foes he arose a victor from the dark oh hey sing it triumphantly death my savior let's just sing once more to very nicely warmed up he lives he lives christ jesus lives today just that chorus he lives he lives christ jesus lives today he walks with me and talks with me a long life you ask me how i know he lives sing it rejoice rejoice so christian the hope of all who seek him the health of all who find none other is so loving so good and kind sing it he lives he lives christ jesus lives today he walks with me and talks with me a long life not away he lives thank you thank you thank you side two there's only about 50 verses to go the end of verse three the resurrection of jesus christ from the dead means what that i have an inheritance you can only get an inheritance because someone has died you receive it because something has been willed to you and again the inheritance is that we have an inheritance that's undefiled beyond the reach of sin uh what is it what an inheritance incorruptible beyond the reach of death undefiled beyond the reach of sin and that fate is not away beyond the reach of time and listen and i get a hold of this reserved in heaven for you how do you like that when we were living in ireland we live in part of an old castle and across the fields from us was a castle in which a young man lived by the name of lord delmore i went into his uh into his uh library one day it was about half nearly half the size of this room and there was a big golden harp there and a lot of ancestral things he had and then there were two chairs and uh the back in needlepoint it had er on each chair and a little tab on the corner so i went up he wasn't in the room i went up and looked and it said reserved for lord delmore none the other reserved for lady delmore and i said to one of the servants there hey were these lovely chairs oh well uh his lordship and ladyship they went to the coronation of the queen of england i think that was 1952 and the cathedral uh abbey westminster abbey was so crowded they had to put extra chairs down the aisles and if you sat on one of those chairs you could buy it you couldn't buy the pew if all the family was sitting on it but they didn't want the chair so you could buy them so he bought a chair for his wife and the one for himself and they wanted their grandchildren to know that they were at the coronation i came into uh flew into chicago that day no i didn't i came by train i'm so old i've been on train and i came into chicago on the train and a very gracious man one of the greatest artists in america chase came dr chase and when we got to his house for dinner uh his wife said you know we've had a wonderful day today we've been to england three times i said well that's pretty how did he do it oh we're going to pull the the domino up you know at the end of the the the dinner table tonight that's the tv in case you didn't get it what they've got is called the plug drug so they pulled it up to the end of the table and sure enough there was a queen of england sitting on her throne and all the retinue it was in black and white it would have looked breathtaking if it had it been in color mrs chase said to me brother right now have you been in england would you have been at the coronation and i said no lady i i don't think i would she said why well uh i can give you some answers my name is radon hill not churchill and uh he'll be there i won't be there would you like to have gone to the coronation well i i it would be no good because when i got to the door one of those great big men with a a sword and all the trimmings would say what's your name he has a social register and i say my name is leonard ravenhill and he looks and said well there's a lord raven c and there's another lord raven something else there's a few no raven can't come in come here a minute you see all the seats right through the abbey 3000 everyone has a name right down the aisle where those chairs are there's a name on every seat well if you get in there you see you will never see it anyhow i guess you feel real bad don't you say no nothing to me what do you mean nothing to you this is a coronation of the queen of the greatest empire or what's left of it that's ever been that's insulting you you you really mean that you're not disappointed no no not at all friend this is nothing to me why you mean you wouldn't like to see your name on one of those chairs leonard ravenhill no not interested well what makes you so superior well as a matter of fact i have an appointment a few years from now do you know sir i'm going to a coronation that will make this one look like the dishes in the kitchen sink and you want to know something else i've got a seat reserved how do you know because it says so here may not say in so in the amplified but it says it here it says uh where to an inheritance undefiled that fate does not away reserved in heaven for you who are kept by the power of god you say well that's one reason why i'm almost so nervous when they say come and yield your life i know myself too well well it's not knowing yourself so well that matters the trouble isn't you know yourself too well the trouble is you don't know him well enough i brought a bit of paper here i thought you'd like to see it i see it's come loose too oh let me stick it in here now this this you can buy in a good bookstore we don't have them but in some of the good bookstores christian bookstores there it is look it way measures an inch and a quarter by an inch and a quarter what is it i'll tell you what it is it's every word of that bible microfilmed into an inch and a quarter by an inch and a quarter three quarters of a million words are microfilmed into that little bit of uh what is it cellophane whatever it is there it is now look what it says underneath on february the 5th 1971 this bible and that's it because one of the astronauts stuffed it in his shirt pocket and the folk at uh houston sent it to me afterwards on february 1971 this bible was carried to the surface of the moon by the astronauts on apollo 15 this it was the first time a bible had been taken from planet earth to another celestial body now you can buy that for three dollars in a bookstore you can buy that this one you can buy for a hundred if you're rich like winky and you want to offer me a thousand i don't consider it and i'll give the thousand dollars to missions this actually was on the moon and then the government also sent me a stack of pictures like this oh they're gorgeous i think i'll give my little grandson they're leaving this afternoon to go back by the way paul and irene the family so pray for them they're leaving this afternoon for argentina and i gave him all these pictures they're breathtaking and one of the astronauts said that the most amazing thing is that when we got off earth and got nearly to the moon and look back the earth was hanging in space like the moon hangs in space when we look at it it's incredible it made you creepy you know this government wastes money we made a uh a rocket and we put a man in it and we shot it up it cost a couple of billions of dollars i think and now every time we send one maybe cost a million or more to a three million ten million to send a rocket up i could have saved the government all that money no nearly all of it what would you do well i would have got the first one made then i'd have sent it to japan because they'd make them half price or a fraction of the price if we had them made in japan you'd buy them at woolworths you could shoot them to heaven every week but this man says i sat in that rocket going up and i look back and there was the world hanging on nothing poor guy i knew that when i was 10 years old i read it in the book of job he hangs the world on nothing and he says it it was stunning and the further up we got and you saw the world floating in a space here it is supposing it's like this and when you see it there's there's there's an ocean at the bottom there's australia there's water at the top water at the bottom what's wonderful about that well you get a handful of water in the morning and try and stick it on the bottom of a bucket and you'll find out how does the ocean hang on the world which is hanging on nothing i've been across that place many times in australia a number of times new zealand flown across a winky has he has a free pass but the uh the thing is that that there's the ocean and you're upside down you see the stars up there and you say well there's a cross you can't see that in america and it's a different world but but it's upside down he hangs the world on nothing we were out fishing in the bahamas i don't often go fishing i chased some preachers once that talked about fishing all the time i was at a conference so while i was preaching i said and one of them said after this i want to ask you a question do you think it's wrong for preachers to fish i said no not at all i said i said peter did it when he was backslidden but by the same token you can go fishing now and again it'll do you good to have an hour's relaxation and i caught a fish on my friend's yard it was about this size well this size evangelically that size but really this size you know and we took it home and the the lovely colored lady she can cook oh she's she's just something else and as we served it you know they had the table all english style you know three or four five knives and forks and spoons and all the trimmings and servants and whatnot and so they said hey the preacher caught that fish give him the first piece so i got the first slice it was a kingfish it weighed i'll tell you what it weighed it weighed 32 pounds and they said do you like it i said no it's got no taste they said did you put salt on it did i what did you put salt on it salt what the water around the bahamas is the saltiest water in the world what does it need salt for it's been living in it for about 20 years that fish and the skin on the fish is no thicker than the paper on my bible and yet the salt in the ocean can't get through that little bit of paper into the fish and you say you asked me to live a holy life in a filthy rotten world like this i want to suggest you there's something between the filth of the world and your soul uh it may not be as thick i don't know how to measure it but i'll tell you what it's thicker than if it were 50 feet of pure steel because it's the blood of jesus christ that can keep you pure in a hell hole if need be because paul says there were saints in caesar's household and that was the last stop before hell oh god can hang the world on nothing but he can't keep me paul says we're kept by the power of god through faith and this is what he says there's an inheritance incorruptible undefiled that fadeth not away reserved in heaven for you who are kept by the power of god through faith and i don't care how the devil tries to come in your life he shows you some crooked deacon and he shows you a preacher that ran away with somebody's wife and he shows you somebody else that ran off with the church funds and he shows you a lot of hypocrisy and duplicity and the world church looks more like a carnival the only thing he's after is to try in some way to destroy your faith or cripple your faith and that's why like peter he was going down the road one day in a hurry and he bumped into jesus he says hi peter how are you he says fine lord and jesus just a minute just a minute i want to tell you something peter when you get two blocks down the road the devil is going to give you the biggest beating up you've ever had but cheer up i'll be praying for you now that's not very good why didn't jesus say he was going to ambush you i saw him i said you come out of that corner and you don't put your hands on my darling little boy called peter because he's very precious and sweet to me and you see if he loses his fishing business he uh he believes in prosperity it might break his heart jesus says you're gonna get beaten up but i prayed for you you say well of course if he came to me when i get out of bed in the morning and feel half dead let's take tim here because he won't be offended i'm sure tim i've prayed for you did feel excited well you must have forgotten it because that's exactly what he does the longest prayer meeting i know amongst people was when it broke out 11 o'clock in the morning it's a wednesday morning uh 13th of august 1727 and it lasted 100 years without stopping little boys and girls eight years of age traveled in birth you could go two o'clock in the morning two o'clock in the afternoon 12 at night 12 in the morning made no difference for 100 years that little prayer meeting room never emptied with the moravians that's the longest prayer meeting i know on earth the longest prayer meeting was the one in eternity jesus had been praying for 2 000 years he isn't kneeling in front of his father with his name and nerves all torn and sweat on his brow saying oh god be merciful to my children no no no he's not doing that he lives to make intercession in those crisis moments when i need him he lives to give me power and endurance so i won't get into those crises i could get to him but you put a hedge around about him take the hedge away and the lord said no i won't but we'll deal with that another time we're kept by the power of god through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time the six wherein ye greatly rejoice though now for a season if need be oh you say that's what i like i hope you come to that whereas we greatly rejoice i like ecstasy and i like to live on cloud nine well listen there's another half to the story there's another side to the coin wherein ye greatly rejoice though now for a season you may be in heaviness through temptation no through manifold temptation there used to be an old colored lady in this country never got upset one day a new preacher went along to see her and he said they tell me you never get upset at all you're always the same whether it's adversity or tragedy or good things or bad you you've always a smile and you've always got peace and she said that's right brother that's right and he said what's your secret did you have a special scripture she said yes i do what is it uh she said it came to pass he said a scripture you have a fake it came to pass well he knew greek and hebrew but he didn't know that he said i don't understand what you mean it came to back she said well i just sit down there and said now mary jane you see that big cloud of trouble coming you don't worry a bit it came to pass boy that would have saved you a lot of trouble if you'd been as smart as that wouldn't it and you know when you feel as though you'll never get down to earth again i've been to such a meeting i'm so thrilled and exalted and full and whatnot and tomorrow morning you feel oh boy jimmy carter hasn't got all the troubles i got a few of them around here what am i gonna do about ye greatly rejoice though now for a season you're in heaviness and you know you're in good company because it says of jesus he began to be very heavy there's one thing you can't stabilize for sure and that's your emotional life there's no guarantees we're all fluid in that area anyhow we're kept by the power of god through faith unto salvation you greatly rejoice though now for a season you're in heaviness through temptation no no we're in heaviness through manifold temptation when when temptations come like waves falling over each other and there are all kinds of temptations we could take a whole day or a whole week on this you see there are temptations to the flesh and there are temptations to the mind and there are temptations to the spirit there are temptations to a little but you'll hardly believe this because i was such a model child that my mother made the best jelly in town i know she'd make jelly and she put it on a shelf and i thought to myself one of these days when she's out boy i'm gonna try that jelly or jam whatever you want to call it and i get a chair and i climb up and get a spoon and go hmm oh that's wonderful that's the best she ever made and i thought yeah but uh you see my dad believed in the laying on of hands and he could lay them on i'll tell you that he uh i i thought well i'm gonna get i'm gonna get whipped for this so i better have another share i mean you may as well be uh you know you may well be hung for a sheep as a lamb and so i i took another dip on the jam and then i take another and i remember one day mother called and she said len and i said uh i'm busy in the garden she says all right there and she called again and said lenny i want you and i said mommy i'm still busy she said uh okay we'll do when your dad comes oh oh oh no it won't oh no it won't i i don't mind mother giving me a beating but not my dad i didn't want that now do you know uh we when we're on the road as you lots of folk are often stay in nice homes and you know what i often go to a home and and i can be in a home a week and i'm you know i never steal jelly oh you may laugh but i'm serious it really is true you say of course you don't steal jelly at your age you're over 36 that's right i'm over 36 but when you're six or five all the temptations to a child are one thing the temptations to a full-blooded young man or woman is something else the temptations to old age is something else the biggest temptations of christians is to want to live without temptation the lady said not long ago she said you know i i got i've been an ordinary christian so long i get filled with the holy ghost and suddenly the the stars went out of the sky and the sun and the moon and i've been in darkness and temptation and try what do you think's wrong i think i i i think you really got filled with the holy god it's a good sign why well because um the greatest man to ever live was filled with the holy spirit of god and immediately was tempted for 40 days in all points like as we are and then you see if temptation won't work it says this next that the trial of your faith you see faith that's going to be trusted is going to be tested you better write that in your mind as well as your notebook faith that is going to be trusted by god is going to be tested by god fear not i prayed for thee that my faith it didn't say about his health or his income he said that thy faith fail not can you get it in that little mind whether it's a stupid mind or a clever mind the only reason you're on earth right now this is a dressing room for eternity when you get up in the morning you should say lord i'm going shopping with you shopping with the lord oh didn't you know the lord sells things no i thought it was all free free great is free the gifts are free everything's free everything's free well you better read the revelation he says there i counsel thee to buy of me what gold and white raiment no we're not all going to be the same in eternity there's going to be some terrible shocks in eternity some of the last will be first some of these big boys hollering for money and building their kingdoms are going to be way back and some tiny little widows and i know some of them they're going to be right up the front when rewards are given now the trial of your faith i was reading this morning about paul and silas imprisoned well it's not so bad when you go in jail but when they take you into the second jail and the third jail and in the inner prison and then on top of that they fasten your feet in the stocks i can hear silas saying hey paul is this romans 8 28 all things work together for good i don't i don't think it's working out very well hmm i mean these stocks hurt they're too tight anyhow wrong side they weren't made for preachers they were made for criminals sometimes it's the same thing but anyhow uh he says we we shouldn't be down here don't you think things have gone wrong i mean we're wasting time there's a world to save and we're not going to get out of here you know they took us to one and two and three we're in the third prison and our feet are fast in the stocks paul says yes i was thinking of that well i wasn't really thinking of that i was thinking of all the wonderful things god's done in our life hey silas why don't we sing surely goodness and mercy have followed me all the days all the days of my life i've no records but i'll make one if you want it two men looked through prison bars one saw mud the other saw stars we're in jail feet fast in the stocks paul says it's a new experience for us i'll tell you what god's gonna do it let's sing it's midnight it's past midnight and forget the jailer let's have a hallelujah time so he says come on let's sing surely goodness and mercy and the whole place started shaking my i've heard some singing recently of modern kids singing i thought the place would shake too but this was shaking in another way and you remember the jailer came in and he says what must i do to be safe and then uh i think silas said i'm sorry i'm sorry i felt so grumpy about it boy boy wasn't it worth it being in jail here i got a letter to this week from a lady who'd been on tour with a bunch of christians and one of them didn't say too much but she acted very beautifully and she was very self-sacrificing and a lady wrote back and said you know it wasn't what that woman said all the trip that we had in europe it was just for being who she was and jesus says follow me and i will make you and he counsels you to buy of him every day you buy by your choices you buy by self-denial you buy by saying no when everybody else says yes as the old saying is others can't you can't he's making you not them if they want to live extravagantly waste their time the most precious thing in the world isn't money nor brains it's time you say i have plenty of time oh no you haven't and the hymn writer was smart who said take time to be holy and speak off with thy lord and spend much time in secret with jesus alone if you don't become a saint over the weekend i believe in instant purity i do not believe in instant maturity if a couple of yelling babies in our house and i've enjoyed them that was a little fellow there the other day and he's a bright little fellow he's very intelligent he has that family mark on him and uh and he looks up and smiles when i talk to him i think well there he is he's a lovely babe isn't it a blessing god makes them the way if the government made them we'd have to return them every six months for you know something had gone wrong but uh god made them supposing they develop like frogs two legs the first six months and the right arm the third year and the left arm the fourth year and the one year the eighth year another year that oh no no there they are beautiful and you know what they've got inside between their ears they've got a brain but they've no knowledge and they've no wisdom they're perfect as a babe they're not perfect as a man and that business of maturing us is a long painful difficult business but god's in it and as i said at the beginning the greatest man who ever the greatest athlete was once a baby his mother carried him and fed him the greatest saint whatever he's done was once a very simple christian and but somehow we learn how to absorb these truths in the word of god my time's up let me just give you a couple of things one problem the devil gets at young people out is this they come time after time after time and say brother abner look i'm a i'm a i'm a christian but there's one thing gets me down what is it oh i'll tell you what is it your thought life right satan accuses me and says look if you're a real christian you wouldn't eat you've got dirty thoughts in your mind now jesus never had thoughts like that and and and if your thought life's so corrupt why do you say you're spirit filled because that means a holy life a pure life well uh let's get it straight um let me ask you this do you know the difference between evil thoughts and thoughts of evil i often meet people who say brother abner you're you're looking better nobody ever says you're better looking same two words only when you twist them around there's a world of difference between looking better and better looking there's a lot of difference between a houseboat and a boathouse there's a lot of difference i guess they don't like the word too much it's an old-fashioned word a negro spiritual i like those negro spirituals they were tremendous nobody sings them anymore but a negro spiritual is one thing a spiritual negro is somebody else evil thoughts are one thing thoughts of evil and another thing well you say how do i know the difference because jesus said evil thoughts come from here this is where they're manufactured evil thoughts come up out of an evil heart thoughts of evil come from the outside from the devil and look as long as you're this side of eternity you'll try and shoot something in your mind but the word of god says gird up the loins of your mind i think it's peter that says you put a phonograph disc on your phonograph don't don't don't get it don't press the button just take some sugar or sand and pour it on what do you get you get a pile of sugar or sand well take that off and put a new phonograph record on and press the button and it whizzes like that then put some sand on it see what happens it flies in every direction why because that thing's engaged and busy it can't get a hold now if you keep your mind busy and the best way to do it i think is that is to keep singing in your spirit keep your mind engaged gurned up the loins of your mind and then satan won't come in another thing that paul goes p pardon me peter goes on to say this in the second chapter verse 19 it is thank worthy if a man for conscience toward god endure grief suffering wrongfully what glory is it if when you be buffeted for your faults you take it patiently now i know a lot of you ladies don't have faults your husband got so many there's no room for you to have them but uh did you have any faults there are some faults you can cure i took over a church once and there was one lady came in every sunday morning just as i was going to preach and she waddled down the aisle and and made a noise and sat down she's a bit short of breath and she i thought then why she was giving me the raspberry for preaching or what but she and she did this week after week so i said to the deacons i said hey that woman comes just as i'm giving out the text every sunday oh she's done that for years i said this sunday morning lock the church up her favorite topic was sanctification she lost it that sunday morning when the meeting was over she was at the door and she said do you know the door was locked i said sure i ordered it to me you ordered me a lot yes why should everybody else come and i agree i think once you cross that door you shouldn't open your lips you can prepare the atmosphere and make it easy you go running there running there talking you're helping the old enemy i believe once you come in there you can help create atmosphere get your spirit still and receptive i cured that woman's faults all right i wish i could cure everybody else's as quick i cured it that sunday morning now we've got faults let me put it this way supposing for instance ed might say to me i've got a letter i believe you're going into dallas i say yeah i'm going to see my son off at the airplane this afternoon would you put this letter in because it's urgent it can catch a connection to new york tomorrow and i say yes and i slip it in my pocket well i don't usually wear this suit and i go home in a hurry we're excited having the last dinner with the family there and i'm getting things ready i hang my suit up and i don't put it on for another week and i put it on as oh boy oh boy i've got that letter so i slip it in my mailbox coming up and as i come up ed says did you mail that letter brother rain i say yes sure i did kind of acting alive but i i mailed it all right i didn't mail it in time for him to get that contract for agape or whatever it was now what am i going to do when i say to him no i didn't uh as a matter of fact i just put it in my box now he wouldn't say this someone else would say i shouldn't have trusted you anyhow you're never dependable i should have kept that letter i knew you'd mess it up i'm not going to sit down and cry why because my motive was all right it was my head that was wrong if i'd said i know what they're trying to do at agape they're trying to get a contract for a million records and i think they're rich enough so i'm going to see they don't get it and i'll keep it in my cold pocket now that i've got a motive for doing it but i wasn't faultless but i was blameless like the little girl whose daddy's shoes were warming drying by the fire and she heard daddy say i've got to be in church tonight very quickly have my supper ready i'm going to bathe and shave and come down he came and the shoes were not there and he said to his wife mary my shoes where are they i put them here she says i haven't been there at all i don't know little mary came to say hi daddy he said hi have you seen my shoes she said yes mummy had been baking the oven's hot so they wouldn't dry there so i just put them in the oven put my best shoes in the oven well daddy they had to dry and he opened the door and you know they were dry the toes were going that way the heels were going that way what did he do beat her up no he didn't beat her up why because she was not faultless but she was blameless you see the old enemy tries to insinuate now you've got to watch him and don't you sit down and cry because every time you cry he laughs check your motives on the thing think of this as i finish with this verse 21 here's a christian life for you verse 21 of first peter chapter 2 for even here unto will ye call because christ also suffered for us leaving us an example that ye should follow in his steps now if it was there we could put our construction on that but this is the steps read the steps one he did no sin two neither was guile found in his mouth three when he was reviled he reviled not again four when he suffered he threatened not but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously you know i wish i'd found out something years ago i wish i'd found it out when i was 22 instead of when i was about 52 through a crisis in my life i discovered this that if if you were to vote leonard raven as the finest christian in the world in 1979 and then next year you vote me the worst christian you know do you know what god wouldn't change wherever i am on his list and say by public acclamation leonard raven is the greatest christian in the world he's number one christian and then next year cross it out and put it at the bottom leonard raven is the worst christian in the world look you can change everybody in the world's opinion about me if you like but i'm sure of this you can't change god's opinion of me only i can change god's opinion of me you don't need to sweat and worry about public opinion if you do you better go to the cross no sirree god's going to keep me in his will i can be kept by the power of god so i can live a holy life and yet not be faultless but be blameless i can live a holy life and have severe trial i can live a holy life and be tempted i can have a live a holy life and be misunderstood read that chapter consider it you know sometimes i think that the only exercise that christians take is jumping to conclusions one of the most famous i'm through with this one of the most famous preachers in england years back he was called out to a hospital about after midnight and he stayed and prayed and coming home he found the subway wasn't working and he couldn't get a cab and so he took a shortcut and he came through an area that used to be very very well a wealthy area and as he turned the corner there was a girl sitting on a step it wasn't a day of short skirts but hers were mighty short and she had a costly fur on her arm and she had an expensive leather bag and as he went past her he thought oh i've seen her a picture's often in the paper she's the queen of the prostitutes as he went past she groaned and he got about half a block and the lord said this he passed by on the other side he went back to the girl and he said excuse me could i help you she said yeah i'm sick i had another attack and i just can't walk where do you live i live in the next block all right he said could you stand and he picked her up he said let me put this fur over my arm and let me put your handbag over this arm and now you you put your right hand in my my left hand here and i'll put my arm around your waist and see if we can make it go steady i have lots of time it's two o'clock in the morning i've no no engagement and he moved the girl very cautiously very slowly all right yes every few steps you all right yes and then the block ended and he had to cross a street to go to the block where the girl lived and he crossed the street he looked out of his eyes oh boy if he'd met the devil it wouldn't be so bad but it was a deacon and he thought oh i know what he's gonna say i've got my arm around this gorgeous prostitute a bag in my arm i'm in trouble the deacon stepped back and watched he stood in a doorway it was raining and he saw the pastor go in that door and go up there on the first floor the second floor and and he figured just the bedroom the light went on and he stayed there an hour and two hours and the light was still on and he thought yes i'll unload this tomorrow he could hardly get up before he you know he was full of love so he testified a deacon's wife and somebody else there's a woman said you don't trust me she said i trust you it's the folk you tell i can't trust well anyhow so uh it was passed around and when the preacher went wednesday night to church there was the whole full board of deacons never had them since they were put in office and the preacher says hey we must be having a revival seeing all the deacons here at once and they all looked glum and one said tell him you tell him you're the chairman of the deacons well you saw him didn't you and the preacher said you remind me of jesus when he said to his disciples have i been so long with you you saw me with a prostitute it's not that you were in a bedroom for about two hours he said i was in a bedroom two minutes i put her on the bed and she said go to room 315 and tell the lady who manages this and and and she'll phone and get the doctor well it so happened the phone was out of order and uh the lady said could you slip to the doctor he lives two blocks away go out at the back door you know that old deacon was there shivering in the rain the pastor was home in bed but you see it looked oh it's not what it looks if god judges us all by what we look have been bad shape ah isn't it nice to consider others in love as you would have others consider you isn't it great to know we go out to a world that gets more crooked every day two men were arguing about the world one said it's flat the other said you're stupid it's round the other said you're both stupid it's crooked it gets more crooked every day we live and yet we can go back into that crooked dirty filthy world and live a holy life we can be kept by the power of god through faith unto salvation let's stand and sing surely goodness and mercy surely goodness