In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of using our time wisely and seeking a meaningful relationship with God. He encourages the audience to prioritize their spiritual growth over worldly distractions. The speaker highlights the incredible truth that as believers, our lives are hidden in Christ and in God. He challenges the listeners to surrender their own desires and submit to God's authority, recognizing the need for discipline and studying the Word of God.

I have a text tonight which is a question, and it's a question that we cannot answer collectively. It's a question you have to answer individually. It's found in the very practical epistle, as it's usually called, the epistle of James and the fourth chapter, and verse fourteen. Maybe we should read from verse thirteen. Go to now ye that say, Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell and gain, whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour that appeareth for a little time, and then it vanisheth away. Can you think of something that was on earth before Adam was here? And it was removed, and it's in heaven now, and it may come back to earth. I thought you were waving, a lady putting a sweater on. Well the tree of life, oh, were you raising your hand, I can't see very well. The tree of life, was there before Adam went into the garden. And now we're told the tree of life is in the other garden, the paradise of God. And you know, this is about the most fascinating study that there is, and you will never face a more challenging question than this text. What is your life? Now notice what it doesn't say, it doesn't say what is life, because if it did nobody has an answer. It doesn't say what is our life, otherwise we could fool all our thinking, it says what is your life? And it replies, gives a reply here in the text, it is even a vapour that appeareth for a little time. There are three main questions that come up in life. Children ask this question, where did I come from? And somewhere, sometime, you better give them the right answer, because if you don't, somebody will give them the wrong answer. And then maybe at your age right now, you're asking another question, why am I here? And then when you get further up the road, which I happen to be, you say, where do I go from here? So there are three basic questions about life, where, where did I come from? Why am I here? And where do I go from here? I was thinking about the different points I've said about this, one of them said this, life at its best is very brief. Like the falling of a leaf, like the binding of a sheaf, be in time. Francis Henry Light, he lived in Ireland, near where we used to live, long while before we were there, and there's a big memorial to him in the Royal Pretoria School that my boys went to, Francis Henry Light wrote this great hymn, Abide With Me, and in that hymn you may recall, he says this, swift to its close, ebbs out life's little day. Another poet says the lives of great men should remind us that we all may be sublime, and departing leave behind us footprints in the sands of time. Another one says about great men that, how did he put it, life is fleeting, life is earnest, and the grave is not the goal, thus thou art, to dust returnest, was not spoken of the soul. Now if this book is about anything at all, it's about life. I was looking while I was away this past weekend at a fairly recent issue of National Geographic, and it certainly has some fantastic photography. Part of it was about Somaliland, and there were women there lying on the floor with a bit of a rag round them, their ribs were standing out, and there were corpses of babies all over the place, and the country right now is in a terrible grip of famine. And while we today couldn't make up our minds what kind of ice cream we like, I mean you know we've got 28 varieties but surely there must be another one, and 48 different types of, what do you call the things with a hole in the middle, doughnuts, there must be some other kind of thing to eat besides doughnuts. And you hear people say, well life isn't just, life isn't fair. One man said life is a feast, another wise man said life is a fast, one man said life is a paradise, another man says life is a prison. You see, the question here is very pointed and maybe it's very personal, it is impersonal, maybe it's very painful, maybe you could answer the question. What is your life? You say it's a failure. What is your life? A success. What is your life? It's a disappointment. But actually it's showing to us by the very context that life is like a vapour, it's like the steam that comes off the kettle and you try and get a handful of it and it's gone. And in every case in the Word of God where life is referred to, that is this physical life, it's likened to something that's very swift, it's likened for instance to a weaver's shuttle, it's likened to a tent that men wrap up and move on in the night. Isaiah likens our life to the grass of the field which today is and tomorrow is cast into the oven. Now, you know, there's a saying that it becomes almost facetious to say, but it's said amongst many Christians, only one life shall soon be passed and only what's done for God will last. But that's exactly what the poet did not say. What the poet said, only one life shall soon be passed and only what's done for God will last and when I am dying how glad I shall be if the lamp of my life has been burned out for thee. As I said tonight, again, it's easy to say the things of earth will grow strangely dim. You feel very pious when you say that, but you know when you get to eternity and look back, the things of earth will look very grim. We'll possibly discover we've been as earthly minded as the reprobates outside who are dancing and lusting tonight. Oh, we're trying to put Humpty Dumpty together again, you know. I used to ask what that was about when I was a little boy. I never found an answer to it. Oh, you can get an illustrated book of nursery rhymes and Humpty Dumpty is an egg on the wall and he falls off and breaks himself into a hundred pieces and all the king's horses and all the king's men can't put Humpty Dumpty together again. Or the old argument, anybody can scramble eggs, who can unscramble them? Life, men have been trying to manage it, direct it. They've kind of considered that if you made the environment better, we will produce better people. That's not true. You know, there's nobody go around in circles more than the politicians. I can remember in World War I, before World War I, so I'm not too young, there were a group of supermen around at that time, George Bernard Shaw, he wrote a fascinating play called Pygmalion that sent him bankrupt and so they changed its name to My Fair Lady and it made millions after he was dead, which I think is what he deserved. But George Bernard Shaw ganged up with a bunch of fellows that were called the Fabian Socialists. George Bernard Shaw again was there, H.G. Wells was one of the leading spokesmen, Aldous Huxley was there, and all the top-notch guys, you know. And they suddenly came to a realization that they had to solve the problem of inequality, injustice, a way to empty prisons, a way to make this world a utopia. After all, Christianity's had 2,000 years, they said, it hasn't done too well. So we don't need the church, we don't need the Bible, and they began to tick off things they didn't need. In 1912, two years before WWI, these fellows made a kind of outline of their philosophy and what they were going to do, they were going to pull down the hills of wealth and fill in the valleys of poverty and make the crooked places straight. They said we can have a new race of men by intellectual and biological processes. They didn't talk about repentance and sin, man alive, that's too theological. They talked about the adequacy of materialism, the inevitability of progress, and the sufficiency of man. That was two years when they declared that they could have a utopia. If not a new heaven, we don't need it, a new earth. And they gathered people around them, and they marched on bravely with their little cards, you know, saying, utopia isn't far off, and we will do all this. Well, the Kaiser in Germany had another idea, and he upset the apple cart. Two years after they made their declaration, WWI came, 1914 until 1990. 1919 to 1939, I think, were 20 of the most wonderful years for the church. She missed it, and in 1939 another fellow came along. He had Charlie Chaplin's moustache on his lip and one stripe on his arm, his name was Hitler, and we found we were in serious trouble. And like every war, every war gets more diabolical, and the next one is unthinkable. Why, if you'd been around here a hundred years ago, you'd have walked down the road then, oh! Dirty Indian shot an arrow in my back, uncivilized wretch that he is. Now the boys from Harvard and elsewhere with brains, they can drop an arrow on a city and wipe it out. That's education. The uncivilized people killed thought one at a time, they were pretty decent about it. Now we can wipe out whole cities. There's a possibility that a third of the population of the United States could be liquidated in less than one minute. It is a sudden, terrible, horrible, unthinkable atomic war. And the situation isn't better. Do you know that in the third world we're giving billions of dollars away? Do you know in the third world right now there are more billionaires than in the free world? Yesterday showed Mr. Marcos and his wife in the Philippines. I think she's just acquired her first billion. One of her friends in another country that we're sending money to has acquired her second billion and is on her way to her third billion. And yet tonight with all our progressive education we have more sin, we have more darkness, we have more slums, we have more disease, we have more broken homes, more broken lives. The world is a madhouse. Despite all the lives that were laid out, oh, how many people perished in World War I? I don't know, maybe a million. And then right after that 16 million people perished by an epidemic of influenza that swept the world. And then we had a time of recovery. And then again we came back to 16 minutes to 8 on the 5th of August, 1945, when one man in a plane on his belly pressed a button, dropped a bomb, wiped out about 100,000 people and left about 300,000, many of them still living blind and paralyzed. You'd think these politicians would give up. What in God's name are they doing, apart from wasting money, wasting, dangling a carrot on the end of a stick, when all the time they know there's no hope. You know we learn from history. The one thing we learn from history is that we don't learn from history. If we did, we wouldn't be in the mess that we're in tonight. But you see, when that bloody man Hitler began to wipe out cities and countries, I remember walking down a street in Sheffield when people were all listening, holding their ear to the door of a shop that sold radios and what have you got, and somebody said to a fellow, what's going on? Shh, shh, shh, Churchill speaking. And there was old Churchill with his famous slur, you know, those Huns, he said, as he called the Germans. They've swept past Paris and they're sweeping down onto the French coast and they're coming over here. But he said, we shall fight them with bottles if we have to. We shall fight them with sticks. I imagine myself on a chair trying to pull a Messerschmitt out of the sky. And he roused the people. But the war got more diabolical. And right in the middle of that war, H.G. Wells, who had already designed, along with his friends, a way to clean the world up out of its moral sewers and out of its fanaticism and insanity and injustice, pull down the hills of wealth, fill in the valleys of poverty, make the crooked places straight. H.G. Wells had written his outline of history. He'd written his book Crux Ansata, that got him into trouble with the Roman church. And then suddenly his brain woke up. And he wrote his final book, and this was the title of it, The Man That Was Dreaming Great Dreams of a New World Order. And he had the answer, along with all his brothers who were super-intellectual. And his last book was called Mind at the End of Its Tether. And he wrote the whole human race off and said, there is no hope. No hope for the human race. Because he says, man has a blank inside of him. Well, he got almost theological. Man has a blank inside of him. You've got life tonight, physical life, otherwise you wouldn't be here. You've got emotional life, otherwise you wouldn't laugh. You've got a social life. You've got intellectual life, you may have a religious life. But you see, this book is not complementary in any shape or form. So you find a man saying, youth is a mistake, manhood is folly, and old age is a regret. Fancy having to be a super-statesman to have a bankrupt philosophy like that. Youth is a mistake, manhood is folly, old age is a regret. Sure it is, if you miss the one place to get life. And even in the days of his flesh, Jesus complained, he will not come to me that ye may have life. Now do you remember his great statement, I am the way, the truth, and the life. I am the way, without that there's no going. I am the truth, without that there's no knowing. I am the life, without him there's no growing. I am the way, that's external. I am the truth, that's internal. I am the life, that's eternal. Now this book is completely lost to one idea as far as I'm concerned. It tells us the origin of man. Now I know at school you've got a teacher who's much smarter than that. She tells you to go to the zoo to see your uncle. And I think when you go back to school you should take a banana and give it to her. And she said, what's it for? Say, well I saw your uncle George in the zoo the other day and he had no lunch, so why don't you take this for him? I was told that not long ago the monkeys had a conference. And they outlawed the idea that they have any relationship with the human race at all. They asked for a show of hands. There were 10,000 monkeys there. Chimpanzees and now run out tanks and I don't know what were there. Every kindred and tribe, the whole 12 tribes of monkeys were there. And they asked for a show of hands. Anybody here ever taken drugs? Raise your paw. And nobody raised their paw. Any of you ever been in jail? Raise your paw. No paws raised up. Any of you ever been drunk? No, no. Any of you ever been divorced? No. Any of you go to a village and tear it up and murder everybody in the village in one night? Oh, never think of that. Well, that's what those monkeys do that wear clothes. They just raid people at night and kill them. And they destroy. No, no, no. Here is a wonderful, wonderful fact that God has given to us. It's an amazing thing when you think of it that God gave just one chapter to tell us about the creation of the world and seven chapters about the creation of the tabernacle in the wilderness. I wish he'd changed it around. But, you know, he never even asked me for advice these days either. I give him some in my prayers sometimes. Of course, you wouldn't do a thing like that. You're too smart. But the whole thing is about life. Every kind of life. And supremely about eternal life. And Jesus appears and when he comes, he comes with a miracle birth. And you know this well enough. But in other countries, they don't know it too well. That somehow, though the heaven of heavens cannot contain God, he was contracted to a span and incomprehensibly made man to use Charles Wesley's wonderful words. He laid his glory by and wrapped him in our clay. Or the hymn we sing at Christmas, how the herald angels sing, glory to the newborn king. Mild ye ladies, glory by, born that man no more may die, born to raise the sons of earth, born to give them second birth. You see, the man in the world there, the man that puts some bits of tin together and sits somebody in it and presses a button and shoots them and they can walk around the moon. He thinks he's far beyond anything that's got anything to do with the Bible. It's all emotional. That man still has a missing link in his life. That man still has a place in his life that only God can fill. To use the words again of Augustine, we have a space within us. And God made us for himself and we'll never ever be satisfied until he comes and occupies that part in our lives. It's astounding when you think of it that we, human beings with all our failure, we can be made the habitation of God through the Spirit. Now, you have the classical confrontation as far as I'm concerned. Here is a man of impeccable morality, one of the greatest scholars in his generation. Maybe he stood on the edge of the crowd and saw miracles. Maybe he went to the bazaar to buy some coffee or something, heard people say, you know that fellow's done some astounding miracles. And the whole nation had been stirred by John Baptist, but John did no miracle. And then Jesus comes and he does miracle after miracle. He shows he has dominion over death, over disease, over insanity. He knocks the demons out of people's minds. He sets the captives free. This Pharisee must have said it over and over again. Year after year, reciting the 35th chapter of Isaiah, that when he comes, oh, when the Son of God comes, when Messiah comes, the eyes of the blind shall be opened, the ears of the deaf unstopped, the lame leap as a harp, the tongue of the dumb shall sing. Do you know that guy, and even Saul after him, those fellows had been to the anniversary of Pentecost year after year after year, and they accepted Pentecost when it was empty. They rebelled against Pentecost when God fulfilled his word and poured his Spirit out on all flesh. We've got people today that are very happy to celebrate Christmas or Easter, or even Pentecost, and they shall learn as nothing happens. Keep up a tradition. That world outside there is not waiting for a new definition of Christianity, it's waiting for a new demonstration of Christianity. And there's one thing that life does, wherever it goes, life begets life. You can't love theology, you can't even love your Bible. You can only love a person. You can't love a theological concept of God. I've often wondered what Paul really saw on that Damascus road when he prayed four simple words, If you read it straight off, it means nothing. Who art thou, Lord? But suppose you can read it this way. Who art thou, Lord? Here's a man with a colossal intellect. Here's a man who is in every category, in the highest category. He's a Hebrew of the Hebrews. He's a Pharisee of the Pharisees. He's of the tribe of Benjamin. He's of the seed of Abraham. He had fulfilled the law. He says concerning the law, it was blameless. And yet he's going down that Damascus road, breathing out threatenings with a heart full of fire and hatred. You talk about a miracle of the grace of God. That man had murdered people, as he says in the 26th Acts. He tore families apart. He chased them up into strange cities. And that very man whose body, whose brain was filled with theology and his heart was filled with hatred wrote the most amazing hymn, the most amazing poem on love that was ever written. Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels and have no love, I'm a sounding brass or a tingling cymbal. And if I give my body to be burned, which he was prepared to do on the Damascus road. Do you know, I think, I'll ask him in eternity, I think suddenly when he fell off his horse there, I'm sure there was a horse rider in front of him to protect him and a man behind and one to the right, one to the left. A man of his class would never walk all the way to Damascus. And suddenly he's pitched off his horse. You say, were there only four people there? No. You say, there was a man riding in front. Yes, one behind, one to the right, one to the left. Were they the only witnesses? Maybe on earth. I want to tell you, I believe every demon in hell was looking down on that man at that moment. I believe every angel in heaven was looking down the demons because he was their best advocate on earth. He was fearless, he regarded nobody. He had some letters in his pocket saying he could put to death anybody that he wanted. And then suddenly Jesus came into his life. Would you have thought that man in the dust had inside of him 14 epistles if you give him Hebrews and I think he wrote it. Would you think that he would go through Asia Minor and establish a dozen or more churches? Would you think that that man in a lousy stinking prison they wouldn't let you put a dog in today would write to other Christians as he does to the Colossians to the Philippians and the Ephesians his love letters to them and as he says rejoice in the Lord. And again they should have been sending letters of comfort to him and he's sending letters of comfort to them. Why? Because on that Damascus road as far as I'm concerned he came alive. Religion, formality, ritualism they were banished forever. And then after that experience he was shut away in the quietness. Maybe that's why God brought some of you around here so you can get alone under a tree somewhere and talk to God and find out where he wants you to go. And he had three and a half years in the wilderness. Then he's caught up into the third heaven. And then he sets out on that amazing pilgrimage. And as far as I'm concerned he explains it all when he said I'm crucified with Christ nevertheless I live and yet not I but Christ liveth in me and the life which I now live here in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God. If I were to ask you tonight you're saved do you say yes I'm saved? When? Oh so and so preached I got baptized what do you say? What are you saved from? Hell? Are you saved from bitterness? Are you saved from lust? Are you saved from cheating? Are you saved from lying? Are you saved from bad manners? Are you saved from rebelling against your parents? Come on, what are you saved from? 90% of the people in the nation are not saved they claim to be. When I went to an altar and I confessed my sins fine, fine that's what the preacher said you confess your sins and you confess them do you know they did that in every Roman Catholic church in the country last Sunday? A man needs more than to be forgiven he needs cleansing he needs more than cleansing he needs indwelling he needs more than indwelling he needs undoing I was in a little place, a country place last week the pastor was away his daughter was expecting a baby good night it must have been a big hospital I think every relative they had went there took a thousand mile journey my daughter is having a baby my daughter is having a baby so what? didn't make all that fuss when I was born at least I don't remember it but anyhow but oh, when the baby came you should have heard what they were saying about it it had everything except wings it had a halo but it got broken when they handed the baby over to the nurse oh, and this fellow said to me hmm, isn't the birth a wonderful thing? it sure is it sure is I'm not asking you tonight did you one night kneel down and make confession and after that your life was no change your lifestyle was no different your appetites were no different your pair life was no different come on supposing we change the language Paul says Christ in you if I were to start here tonight and go around the front row and everyone and say to everyone you stand up brother and when you stood up I say does Christ live in you? what would you say? would you say oh yes, he lives in me he rules my life he controls me he pulls me back when I would go too quickly he urges me on when I would hesitate the miracle of the new birth you see the insulting thing about the Bible is that while you may have a colossal intellect and you may invent so many things and you may write great books oh for some reason right here I think of Lord Byron he was a contemporary of John Wesley Byron broke all records for writing poetry and publishing books the rich people of England would have a whole row of books in pure leather binding Lord Byron wrote it Lord Byron he went into the homes of all the kings in Europe he went to the palaces people begged him to come and grace their home with his presence he was an extremely handsome man had a pale complexion jet black hair even curls down to his shoulders and people swooned when he came in their presence but he was dissipated if I remember right he died when he was 39 years of age he died shivering on the coast by the waters lapping his feet there in Greece and he wrote this just before he died my life is in the yellow leaf the flowers and fruits of love are gone the worm, the canker and the grief what a summary wouldn't you like I was going down Orange Grove in London some years ago I was speaking at London Keswick I saw this swell place and flunkies there and knee breeches you know and oh they looked so nice boy I'm glad I don't have to wear that I've got such terrible legs I have thin, thin legs if I wore breeches like that I'd be arrested for having no visible means of support but here was this flunky standing at the door and he had his beautiful velvet coat and a cravat there and his hair and I stepped back and he says good afternoon sir I said good afternoon could I come in there for a second oh no sir, no sir no you can't come in here to eat well yes you can if his lordship the Duke of Westminster brings you or the Duke of Argyll or Lord Tolmache but you see well it was just before the Queen our Queen got married in England the Queen was here last Friday night and her sister was here too they stayed until two we close at two in the morning now you know like most church prayer meetings close at that time and thank you you can't come in here why not? I'm clean, I'm upright, I'm a preacher I mean I've never been to jail but sir you're not of royal birth you're not a distinctive aristocrat you can't come in why would you like to come in? I said I would like to see all the lords and ladies and dukes in society with their sparkling diamonds and I'd like to get my chair, turn it round and stand up and raise my voice and saying she that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth oh sir, he said, you get thrown out I said well that's what I expected isn't it offensive to say to people listen, you may be a genius you've a colossal intellect if you fall out of bed you invent something but do you know right in the centre of you, you're dead because you've no living relationship with God now there are two kinds of people in the world only two kinds, not black and white, not rich and poor there are those who are dead in sin and there are those who are dead to sin if I say most people are half saved you know what I mean, I mean this you go to the cross but you never get on the cross you go and get your sins forgiven and feel happy and you go and do the same lousy thing again the next day come on, what kind of a salvation is that? I heard a famous preacher, he's an Englishman terrible, he shouldn't have said that and he said, you know the Lord is merciful you come here tonight, he'll forgive your sins tonight he'll forgive your past sins, forgive your sins for today and he'll forgive your sins for tomorrow isn't that nice? can you imagine a man going up to a judge and the judge says you've been found guilty of stealing a lady's purse did you steal it? oh you did steal it, yeah it had a hundred dollars in it ever stole any other purse? yes I have a record, this is the 345th purse that I've stolen are you sorry? yes I'm sorry well he said, you're forgiven I forgive you for all the purses you've stolen in the past all that you've stolen today and all you're going to steal for the rest of your life wouldn't that be wonderfully saying, or insane? you see the miracle of the new birth is this that when a man is really born, when he gets this life he doesn't want that life oh I don't think anybody gives it better than Paul to wind this up, writing to the Colossians he says, if ye then be risen with Christ or as the literal translation is if you've been raised with Christ you seek those things which are above you say to people, are you saved? they say, well I don't really know oh, supposing you're carrying a hundred pound sack on your back and you're struggling up a hill and your knees are going down and somebody whips the sack off your back and you get to the top of the hill without the sack and the man says, hey have you lost your sack? you say, I don't really know I kind of figured he'd know when somebody took a hundred pounds off his back and by the same token, a man knows because the miracle of the birth isn't some intellectual somersault Jesus says it is this that we're dead in trespasses and in sin and he brings us to life so now we love the things we didn't like and we hate the things we used to love ok, so Paul says, if you're risen with Christ or you've been raised with Christ seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God set your affection on things above, not things under come on, come on, come on you fellas now ok, you're saved and yet I guess you talk more about baseball than you talk about Jesus, is that right? in the last week you've been more interested in the return of Jeddy than you are in the return of Jesus and you've talked to your buddies about it as far as I'm concerned the little bits I've seen on TV you'd have to be crazy to go watch it set your affection on things which are above not things underneath for ye are dead and your life is head with Christ in God can you think of anything more wonderful than that? here is your life it's head in Christ and it's head in God what are you going to do, sneak out and drink a bit of the world's junk? do you know how you need entertainment? or any of us you only need entertainment when you've lost the joy of the Lord and when we've no joy we need entertainment and when we've entertainment we've no joy that went over like a lead balloon, but that's true ye are dead and your life is head with Christ now he says if you're risen with him that deals with the past ye are dead and your life is head with Christ in God not when I die, but even now on this earth I bid the world goodbye not tearfully, but cheerfully all of it's pleasures, it's pomp and it's pride Paul puts it best as he usually does when he talks in Galatians 5 and he says from henceforth let nobody trouble me I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus Weymouth translates that Weymouth Moffat translates it I bear in my body the branding they know a lot about branding round here you might get to see some cattle branding and when Paul wrote this a man who was a slave could run away from his wicked master his cruel master that nearly took the skin off his back every day that demanded a full day's work and hardly gave him enough food to last an hour this man gets away the first thing he does he flees to a temple and there were priests always awake at least they were always there maybe not always awake and the altifiers were burning and the man runs in breathlessly and wakes a priest and says brand me, brand me in the name of which God and there's different irons to brand him and the man puts his hand out and closes his eyes and the branding irons put on his flesh and it sizzles and he yells and then if he's a garment he's stamped in the back of his neck and then he lifts his foot up and he's stamped in his instep and they rub a kind of ointment and leave him there for days until he's able to get out he goes out and as he goes down the street his old master sees him and says to his friend Marcus there's Aristarchus go bring him back here and Aristarchus comes up and his master says listen I'm going to take you back and whip you like you've never been whipped before you're going to carry loads you'll never drink and he starts telling him what he'll do and he says just a minute sir what do you mean? he says look oh look look there and the old master says I've got no claim on you I've got no claim on you you're the possession of a god and Paul says listen I got branded there at the base of my head because all my thinking is going to be about Jesus this man being you which was in Christ Jesus do you think he went to the Olympic games because they had them in his day? do you think he fooled around with the material things of the day? his head was branded his hands his feet so a hymn writer says let my hands perform his bidding let my feet run in his ways let my eyes see Jesus only let my lips speak forth his praise all for Jesus all for Jesus all my being's ransom powers all my thoughts and words and doings all my days and all my hours listen are you just a Sunday morning Christian? do you live and move and have your being in Jesus Christ every waking moment of your life? has he got your thinking? would he be embarrassed to rapture you at some certain point in your life? or your habits of life? Paul says I bear in my body the owner's mark come on now listen you kids you listen one at a time talking thank you and I'll do it he says I bear my brands of Jesus these hands will never do anything Jesus wouldn't do these feet will never walk where Jesus would be uncomfortable this mind will never think of anything that wouldn't satisfy the heart of God when he kisses the world goodbye he says henceforth let no man trouble me I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus for the world is crucified to me ha I can make a safe guess I've travelled the world a couple of times round it I've seen a lot of strange customs in many countries I've never seen a crucifixion I'm not sure I'd like to see it but as dear Dr. Tozer used to say Len you knew one thing about a man that was carrying a cross out of the city you knew he wasn't coming back let's come to a malter and we go back the next week and we're as fascinated we haven't spent half an hour with Jesus but we're staked two stinking hours in a movie house we haven't witnessed somebody who's going to an eternal hell according to our theology but we talked about some tribute to them we sit at the table with unsafe parents and instead of being submissive and kind and loving we're sassy and we don't come in at the time we're supposed to come in and mother says you know our John's supposed to be saved he's no better he's as rebellious as our daughter is but look at his figure for a moment here is a man stretched on a cross as soon as that man is nailed to the cross he has no rights of his own you can take a bucket of filth and throw it over him you can take a stick if you like and break his legs you can have a game of pitching rocks and you knock his right eye out I'll knock his left eye out and so forth he's no rights he can be battered and bleeding and broken and maybe five thousand or more people are there to see him die at six o'clock at night and then the trumpet sounds in the city and nobody stays after the trumpet sound you have so many minutes to get in the city and the gates are locked maybe five thousand people watch that hideous crucifixion six o'clock at night six o'clock at morning there's nobody there I remember going through India there were bees there were birds that were this height from the ground they have about an eight foot wingspan they keep their necks in until they fly and then out comes this long neck with no feathers they look hideous their beaks oh they must be this length huge curved thing you know what they do they go onto the arms of the cross as the light comes up daylight and those big hideous things reach down and peck out the eyes if they're still there and they tear the body and it becomes bloody and the entrails run out of the man and the blood runs on the ground and the dogs come out of the city to drink of the blood even a woman who saw her husband crucified would never go back in the morning you didn't see a woman with her arms around a bleeding, horrible, wretched form of a man saying darling I love you and Paul says that's what the world is to me it's a system of corruption and rottenness and vileness it's anti-Christ from the world ago is the world crucified to you tonight? or does it fascinate you? oh I'm coming down the line I mean Jesus isn't looking for some sissies to serve him he's looking for some men with guts and men with grace and men with determination you still comfortable to sit in a ballpark and say here's somebody take the name of Jesus in vain? oh you're saved or you'll go to hell fire if you're not you've only gave him a few sins that's all, that's all just gave me a sin now look you've been in this lovely environment today I don't know how much forced labor there is how much time you have to sweat and grind and what not but surely if I had one or two hours did you use them to sit around and talk to pretty girls and nice guys or did you get along with God and say Lord I want this to be the most meaningful week I've ever had in my life I want to hear your voice I want to see a vision of your glory and your power let me finish with Paul's words here again in Colossians 3 the past he says we're risen with Christ the present we're dead but look to the future when Christ who is our life there you've got it, there you've got it what does John say in his epistle he that hath the son hath life and he that does not have the son has not life you can reform your life you can give up your rotten sex life you can give up your drugs without the help of God good night I've seen some men come out of the gutter and transform their own lives that's on the social level but they never made it upward to God they never had a living relationship with God the past he's made it possible to be risen with him the present we're dead and our life is hid with Christ in God and then verse 4 the future when Christ who is our life shall appear then we shall appear with him in glory but this is what has to be done come on you do your part here he says mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth while you're in the flesh put them to death fornication uncleanness inordinate affection evil concupiscence covetousness which is idolatry J.B. Phillips translates that best I think he says consider yourself dead to all the worldly contacts loathe them hate them hate what? well have nothing to do with sexual immorality have nothing to do with dirty mindedness have nothing to do with evil desire have nothing to do with uncontrolled passion don't lust after other people's goods you see and it's hard to say again if Christ has been born in me he wants to live in me he wants to talk in me he wants to walk in me he wants to work through me it's not a struggle that I'm trying to be a Christian life, life, life he says I'm come that ye might have life and that ye might have life more abundant you know if you have life I guess it's a sign of life maybe there's some other things too but a sign of life usually is you have a good appetite I guess they found, the cooks found that out today you have a good appetite look if you haven't got hold of this get hold of it now you can't impress God now if you're a Christian you're supposed to be living a full stretch you can't impress him now if I'm going to live I'm going to eat if I'm going to live I'm going to eat this world because Jesus says what? I am the bread of life man cannot live by bread alone the only earthly bread but he can live by the bread which is Christ he says I am the water of life that's essential to life you can't live without water he says I am the light of life and he says I'm not merely come isn't it John 10 and 10 in which he says I'm come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly you know I hear people go to conferences meetings and they say boy that was good boy were we challenged every meeting we were challenged and the question isn't were you challenged the question is were you changed were you changed Paul runs his flag to the top of the mast oh I like his statement there in what is it 1 Corinthians 5, 7 in which he says if any man be in Christ any man anywhere at any time if he be in Christ he is a new creation he isn't patched up he's made a new creation he gets a new heart a new spirit new desires new hopes new longings that cannot be satisfied at the broken systems of the world do you remember the climax to the life of King Saul Saul got pretty mad because a young guy was coming up behind him and King Saul had been writing songs that were at the top of the charts and then after him there came another young fellow by the name of David and boy he broke all records for publication and people going down the streets clapping their hands and singing Saul has slain his thousands but David his tens of thousands and then there's a man that terrified the nation big man oh mercy oh was he about 10 feet high and Saul didn't go to him and Saul's brave son didn't go and the chosen men from West Point didn't go and a little boy comes up with a sling and a stone and his brother says hey you go back and look after those sheep he says well do you mind if I kill Goliath before I go and his brother says now go on go on look after those few sheep and somebody says I'm going to tell the king and the king says that little boy you mean bring him here oh he was handsome ruddy good looking country boy and the king says is it true you want to go tackle that man there that's 10 feet high and you're only 5 foot 6 I'd like to do it just before I go see my dad what makes you think you can do it oh the other night I was looking after my sheep and a lion came and I got hold of him by the beard and I punched his nose and said if you come back I'll kill you and the next night a bear came and I took my slingshot and I killed him I got rid of him so I killed the bear and I killed the lion and I'd like to make it three in a row do you mind if I just kill this fella he says well you can go put my suit of armour on you know he put his helmet on came down on his shoulders he couldn't see where he was going put his suit of armour on it came down to his knees he couldn't walk I can't go kill that giant like that he said why not he said because the weapons of our warfare are not carnal no he didn't say that but he thought it and he goes out with his sling and his stone and Goliath came and Goliath had an armour bearer in front of him Mark you and little David had nobody in front of him except God do you know what David said to Abraham I am thy son and thy shield not that I'll give you a shield I am the shield and if God is between me and that situation did anybody ever get past God and beat him David goes to the brook and he chooses his five stones and the old guy is getting so angry send a kid like that I'll break him over my knee and feed the birds with him and David says well that's you know two minds with a single thought I've just been thinking I'll do that with you and he took five do you know why he took five stones because Goliath had four brothers and he wanted to kill the whole lot while he was at it wanted to wipe the family out do you know what he did the little boy took a stone I remember years ago preaching this in another message the stone went up and a boy in the back of the church went like that I said the stone hit him in the forehead and he said you know well you see he got he got armor plating all over and just a little thing there and the stone came and you know such a thing had never entered his head before just a little boy he didn't bother with the armor bearer do you know we're so busy chasing demons we're leaving the devil alone you've got a demon if you sneeze in some churches you've got a demon if you have a headache oh you've had it all day oh you've got a demon in you good night they must multiply like frogs those demons oh I'm longing to see the church get into the place where again she pulls down strongholds I'm tired of writing about revival I'm tired of reading about revival there are more lost people in the world tonight than ever in the history of the world and what are we doing sitting around the campfire thanking God we're saved and we've given up our lousy drug lives or prostitution or some other thing great great but there's more than that to it I remember a night I walked down an aisle in a church in England I got saved when I was 14 I read David Brainerd's life when I was about 16 that knocked me for a loop I was about 19 when I read a great American book by the name of Power Through Prayer by E.M. Bounds and I was a youth leader in the church and I got people to pray I got the youth to pray we met Friday nights and we prayed we went to the church 7 o'clock Sunday morning and we prayed we saw some people in the community saved and yet there was one thing that ate me up it was another fellow in the church I was a youth leader but boy he was more efficient and he was breathing down my neck and people were talking about him and so forth and I got so filled with envy that my spiritual life began to shake I remember being in a meeting where the preacher said there's something more than salvation there's something more than cleansing as wonderful it is it's indwelling and beyond indwelling there's anointing I walked down the aisle of that church everybody said I wonder why Ravenhill went out well I went out because I knew that I've got an inward enemy worse than any outward enemy somebody came to pray with me that was a custom there and the fellow was rather startled he said well Len what do you want I said I want God to make Romans chapter 6 verse 7 real in my life he said you mean Romans 6.6 I said I mean Romans 6.7 he said no it's 6.6 well maybe for you 6.7 for me what's Romans 6.7 he that is dead is freed from sin I'm tired of bondage I'm tired of fear I'm tired of weakness I'm tired of vacillating I'm tired of being hot and then cold strong and then weak I want to get rid of the old self life I want to die right here let me tell you this an experience of God that costs nothing does nothing and it's worth nothing two simple things I don't know I thought of this man he came and joined our revival party in 1932 that's a good way back he was standing in a meeting one night he had his lovely sweetheart at the side of him she'd been the means of his conversion he'd been a fighting drinking swearing lusting lying man and this beautiful lady led him to Christ they'd been engaged about a year he'd bought a house full of furniture they got a house in view and he was standing there and they were singing a hymn and as they sang it he turned it over in his mind and thought boy I've sung this but it's had no meaning until now and for some reason the song leader said let's sing this last stanza again here I give my all to thee friends and time and earthly store friends that's my sweetheart time that's my life earthly store I've got a room house full of furniture here I give my all to thee friends and time and earthly store soul and body thine to be only thine forevermore as they went down the steps of the church he said to his sweetheart I've got news for you is it good? he said well I think it is what is it? he said well we're postponing our marriage till I get up postponing what? well I had to make up my mind whether I loved you more than the Lord and the Lord says he wants me to serve him I'm not in a state to serve him I need some discipline I need some correction I need some authority over me I need to study the word of God and it's going to cost a lot and even if you give me up you can have the furniture but I'm going to follow the Lord he became one of the outstanding men of the day in England at that time ok let me quote the final scripture 2 Samuel there where Paul is being chased pardon me where Saul is chasing after David because he's got envious of David the song writer envious of David who can throw the enemy down and he chases after David and tries to find him and you remember how he David's men cut a piece of the royal garment off and they showed it and then another time they shouted over the valley and David says hey King Saul you know you're acting the fool over there I could have killed you now here I am and you're chasing me he said like a flea over the mountain like a partridge and the king suddenly saw the idiocy of it I profess to be a king and I'm eaten up with envy and jealousy I should be languishing in my palace and here I am over these rotten roads and climbing up scraggy mountains and dying of thirst when my men kick up the dust all because I'm eaten up with envy and jealousy and just before he died King Saul said this with all his royal living I have erred exceedingly and played the fool that's Saul in the Old Testament here's Saul in the New Testament now Paul he's come to the end of the journey he's been whipped and lashed and tormented in peril of the deep in peril of his own countrymen a night and a day in the deep once I was stormed twice I suffered shipwrecked in weariness in fastings in painfulness and he writes it all off as a huge joke because he says number one none of these things move me and number two he says I'll lie to affliction which is but for a moment and he doesn't crumble up like King Saul looking over a wrecked life he looks over his life of triumph and deliverance and he says this I have fought a good fight and finished my course and kept the faith henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness you know tonight could be the turning point in your life tonight if you not only come to the cross but get on it get rid of your pettiness and your jealousy get rid of that erratic living that you get on top when you come to a conference and whoop you'll be down in the valley next week that should not happen if the Christ is indwelling me he's the same yesterday today and forever he keeps me in peace he keeps me in joy he keeps me in power okay 35 years of age John Wesley was converted about a quarter to nine on the 24th of May 1738 about a quarter to nine I felt my heart strangely warmed he was a scholar he was a gentleman he was a clergyman in the church of England like his brother and like George Whitfield but when he was born again England was born again across the English Channel was one of the most vicious atheists by the name of Voltaire and he said ha that thing they talk about in England why? he said a hundred years from now there'll only be Bibles in museums you missed it I think don't you? only be Bibles in museums you see a bloody revolution swept over France and they tossed the monarchy into the garbage can and they put the tricolour up red white and blue liberty and fraternity and equality and Leckie is a secular historian not a church historian and Leckie says this remember the bloody revolution that swept over France and swept the monarchy into the garbage can was going to sweep over England and God raised up too many raised up three Whitfield was the final leader Charles Wesley John Wesley ok John died in 1791 converted at 35 turn that round it makes 53 add them together it makes 88 because he was saved at 35 preached for 53 years and you know what he left when he died? he left a handful of books a faded Geneva gown that he preached in all over England six silver spoons somebody gave him six pound notes give one to each of the poor men that carry me to my grave and that's all he left six pound notes six silver spoons a handful of books a Geneva gown and something else what was it the other thing oh I know something else he left the Methodist church he could have died as rich as your famous TV preacher Sunday sure he made money and he built orphanages sure he made money he printed Bibles sure he made money he compiled with Charles the Methodist hymn book and they built orphanages and he died worth about 30 dollars how many of you heard the little man down the road oh he was no he wasn't here he was at the other place Sunday morning brother Andrew did you hear him how many of you heard him some of you good good good I remember him when he wasn't brother Andrew nobody knew him he came and I I called a staff I was working with Dave Wilkerson in New York then nearly 20 years ago brother Andrew has called me he said Len I'd like to come and see you I said well come by the way we have a staff prayer meeting will you speak to us where are you coming from he said Cuba I said he can't come from Cuba it's not legal he said well I went from Cuba to Mexico City changed planes and came into America you can always find a way I introduced him that night I said this is brother Andrew a friend I've met before very strange man he's God's smuggler and he gave his book that name I told him the other day I said hey remember I gave you the name for that book I mean it's no good being humble if people don't know is it would you have thought a few years ago that little man from Holland he doesn't look like the heavyweight champion of the world does he about the only weight he had to make a paperweight that he'd been in and out of countries that he'd been arrested he told me I don't know if he told you one time he went in not the last time the time before that I think it was and he's coming back out of Moscow he'd taken in about 800 Bibles he's coming back and they see a car coming you never see cars there's only a gas station every 100 or 150 miles and he says to his friend ah ah ah ah here's somebody and the car stopped and there were two Dutchmen from his own native city and he said have you any food? they said no we have something to drink but we've no food he says well we've got food and nothing to drink so they made a meal at the side of the road and he gave them a tract each six years after in Holland there was a knock at the door his wife went and is your husband in? yeah I'd like to see him brother Andrew goes to the door and the man says do you remember me? no remember meeting two men halfway on the road to Moscow one day? yeah and he said as they were coming out from Moscow when they got home they heard that two Dutchmen had been arrested and put in prison and he said to his wife you know I stopped and talked with those two men I'm sure the man comes in six years after and says you know what? you gave me a tract and you gave my friend a tract they arrested us and gave us eight years in jail but we got out after six years because of our good behaviour but he said you know in those six years I read that tract and read that tract until Jesus Christ became my own personal saviour would you think that man had been in and out that man he told me this last trip he was on he went to Russia then he came back and he went to I don't know and there's that other little guy who'd been here he's about this width all the way up you know he's a tall fellow about that height dear little George I'm sure all demons in hell will get a day off when he dies the Lord will say the demons will say we'll not see a fool like him anymore that guy sets off to go into fifteen countries behind the iron curtain never thinks he might get turned back he just walks in and says you should be glad to have me you know I'm of royal birth you know who I am I represent the king of kings oh you know what Gabriel if you're looking down from heaven I want to tell you something you don't know the hidden potential in this meeting tonight only God knows it hmm there are vast areas up the Amazon where nobody has been yet the last time I flew over the South Seas the plane didn't fly too high there are three hundred thousand islands and nobody knows if they're all occupied and I wonder how many people are squatting in the trees there then you have that new area up there to the north of New Guinea there north of yeah off New Guinea there New England and New Ireland and New Scotland vast areas of the world what are you going to do when you go to heaven say Lord I I gave out six copies of the four laws every day of my life for the last six months and I'd like my crown right now hmm do you ever wonder if there are two heavens hmm come on athletic guy when you stand at the judgment seat oh I hope it's not me I hope it's you I hope David Brainard is judged right before you and then you stand up and say but I play softball for the church I'm not more home runs in our league all the angels say oh your excellency oh will they say that or will they say you idiot hmm oh I know it's revolutionary that's what God wants what the church has had in the last 25 years has not moved this nation or this world to God it's time for something new and God wants some men who are really drunk intoxicated with the spirit of God who have a love life with the Lord Jesus and he can ask anything of you and he'll do it well how many of you guys are eating up with lust hmm you women eating up with jealousy with pride or is it just chronic laziness you've no appetite for this love letter of God's because the only way you can grow is by eating this word and the other thing is prayer which is the Christians vital breath you see your lifestyle changes you don't talk about your social life and your financial life when you get saved you talk in other categories you talk about your devotional life and you talk about your prayer life you know I will have one of the most merciless interrogations when I stand at the throne of God for I stand over preachers often with hundreds of preachers I have to preach to and I see them shrink and I see them fall on the ground and cry because they've no prayer life because they're so busy with all the affairs of the church and they're not ministering to him let's pray Lord we thank you tonight for this privilege of exploring some of your word I wonder how many people in the Gulag archipelago would sit here and weep and rejoice tonight to hear the truths of God how many of the lost millions in China would hear joyfully Lord we've ill treated your word and we've ill treated your voice very often we've accepted our decent living for spirituality but inside we're dead we've no life you don't live in us and move in us and walk in us and talk in us and love through us God get hold of that life of that young man tonight that young woman it's stale if they were honest it's really boring to go to church because that's all they go they don't meet the Christ there risen and exalted I'm going to ask you a simple question tonight how many of you are here tonight you've come from many parts and I'm asking you to keep your eyes closed not look around how many of you say tonight I do not know that Christ lives in me Christ is not indwelling me I know that God bless you any others how many say well I profess to be saved but all the self life dominates me yes hands go up you see if I quoted the context where he says what is your life immediately before that he says you say we'll do this and we'll do that and we'll go here and we'll buy and we'll sell when you don't know what tomorrow is and you haven't asked God's will I'm going to pray for you tonight and I'll tell you what I'm going to pray a very strong prayer I'm going to ask you all to stand with heads bowed and eyes closed now remember you have to answer the judgment seat for tonight and I have to answer for preaching it let's keep our eyes closed those who raise their hands say I'm willing to die tonight for my own plans I want you to put to death selfishness in me and lust and pride I want to be totally emptied of self and filled with God I want you to come and stand at the front before I pray for you move right out we're not going to sing I'm not going to try and move you emotionally forget it make an intellectual decision tonight can you move over that way a bit on the left and let these other thoughts come down Father I pray in the name of Jesus that you make us realize at this moment we haven't left home and churches and friends to come here just for a good time but we're here in divine appointment you know every life here there's not a secret in our hearts that you don't know but Lord we thank you the blood of Jesus Christ is able to cleanse every part of our being tonight I pray for these precious young lives Lord I could not guess where they might end up they may end up somewhere on a desert sand or in a forest in a jungle or I don't know maybe in a prison cell somewhere in some strange country of communist domination but I know tonight Lord if they're willing to die to self die to their own ambitions if they're willing to let you put to death that secret thing the one thing that still has them in bondage of which the apostle speaks when he says in there in in Hebrews 12 lay aside every weight and the sin which does so easily beset us I pray just now in every young man and woman here you slay that one besetting sin