In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of presenting one's body as a living sacrifice to God. He highlights the need for transformation and renewal of the mind, as well as the necessity of fervent desire and repentance. The preacher also shares a personal example of giving up a passion for photography in order to prioritize his relationship with God. He calls for a rejection of worldly influences, such as television and certain types of music, and urges listeners to prepare their hearts as altars for the fire of God's presence. The sermon emphasizes the simplicity of following Jesus' commandments and the promise of abundance for those who truly seek Him.

Jesus says, I am come. Now we know that he has come. What did you come here for? We used to sing a song in Sunday school, what am I in this old world for? There must be a reason why God let me come to this world. Evidently not to live like an animal and not to fulfill the lusts of the flesh and then go to hell. God put me upon this earth for another purpose. And Jesus says, I am come. Dear Lord, what did you come to do? Did you have anything in mind toward me when you came to this world? Dear Lord Jesus Christ, I'd like to know whether you really did something for me, whether you came to save me, to bring me out of my bondage, sorrow, and night into thy freedom, gladness, and light. It is such a wonderful study to go to the New Testament and find out how much God has willed toward us. I told some time ago of a young man in Germany who received a letter from the government of the United States, and when he was asked to pay one mark and 20 penny, due, postage due, he refused to have it. He sent it back. He said, that evidently comes from an uncle in America and he, I've never had anything to do with him. I'm not going to pay a mark and 20 pennies. That's about 30 cents for that letter. So he didn't. But 20 years later he found out that that letter was an official letter offering him an inheritance of more than 100 million dollars, which his uncle had left, and he was found to be the only heir, the sole heir to that vast fortune. It was closer to 150 million than 100 million. And he lost all that because he was not willing to pay one mark and 20 pennies for that letter. And you don't know your loss. You don't, you positively don't know your loss. Whether, whether you prefer softball or television or the lust of the flesh or the lust of the eyes, you're preferring Satan. You're preferring the devil. You are. And there's a fire prepared for the devil and for his angels and whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire, the Bible says. Now the Lord hasn't come to fool us. He hasn't come down from heaven and humbled himself and took upon himself the form of a servant. He did not go to the cross in order to fool humanity and tell you after all it'll be okay. You can live as you please. You can do as you please. It'll be all right. Yes, you can do as you please. You can serve the devil. You can serve the flesh. You can be blinded by the God of this world. You can satisfy every whim and every desire of your heart. You can let Satan blind your eyes. You can rise up in pride like all these unbelievers and all these agnostics do. You can do that if you please. God somehow allows man to make his own choice between heaven and hell, between light and darkness. And what is the world doing today? Why just a few weeks ago I said this morning they discovered another skull. They stick their nose into every mud hole they can find upon this earth in order to get away from the light that shines from this wonderful book. One of them has confessed upon his death that the reason I wrote against God is because I was scared stiff. He knew there was a hell. He knew there was a God. Everybody knows that. The Bible says they will all exclude everybody in the world if you'll just have one fraction of an ounce of brain. We'll know that in him we live and move and have our being. Glory to God. But the Bible says when they did not like to retain God in their memory, and they did not worship God, and they did not glorify him as God, my humanity ought to be so happy today. All of humanity ought to be serving God, ought to rejoice in the fact that we have such a wonderful God, and that today we can call him our Father who is in heaven. Instead of that, they're digging holes. They're trying to find all these skeletons. And so they found the skull that's 200 million years old, and now they're happy. They found many other skulls, but they had to discard them, because after a while they found out they were full. But here's another skull. Another link between a monkey and a professor of biology. My goodness, what a discovery. What a different thing it is when you discover a testament. When you discover that your name is at the top. When you find out that he that was rich, this unspeakably wonderful, marvelous God, this king eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God has fought upon me, and he saw me plunged into his thread, and he flew to my relief. We think that man has fallen into terrible judgment because of the war. When I came to Germany the first time, there was a lump rising in my throat when I saw the bombed-out cities, and when I saw the prisoners coming back from Russia, hollow-cheeked like skeletons. I said, and when I met the ministers, and when I came into their homes, and I saw the poverty, and when I came into the meeting, and I found out that the people didn't have Cadillacs and Lincolns with power steering to come to church with, or they wouldn't go to church. I saw old ladies in slippers walking for five miles through the snow to get to meeting, come to a hall where there was no heat at all, and maybe no benches, where they had to stand up all through the meeting. I had hundreds of people standing in front of me in the rain there in Stuttgart, listening to the preaching of the gospel, and nobody made a move to move out. I said, well, these are the happy people in these bombed-out cities. God saw them, plunged in deep distress, and He fell to their relief, and my God saved me tonight, and He knows what He created me for in His own image, thank God. Not a monkey, although some people look like monkeys, and they act worse than monkeys. That's because of sin. But beloved, we're going to be like Him. Glory to God. And Jesus says, I am come for a purpose. Oh, Raja Gajjo, he that was rich became poor. He humbled himself. He became obedient unto death when devil came along and fooled Eve, and she said, you shall be as God. Pride got into that heart and caused her to fall with all humanity into the mud and mire of sin. Beloved, how is it that man is not ashamed of himself? How is it that men don't repent? How is it that they don't run to the arms of Him who says, come, let us praise Him together. Though your sins be as starless, they shall be as white as snow. It cost my God something to make that offer to me. Tell me, have you come to Him? Have you washed your robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb? I hear that most people today who claim they're saved are not saved at all. Ask them, where do you say he's from? They smoke and chew tobacco and chew gum. They love their fancy dress. And some have wronged their fellow men, refusing to confess. And all the idols behind the door, not only behind the door, but in the heart, and like the Athenians in Athens, the Bible says, Paul went about and he saw them so religious, the city full of idols, and there was one little corner devoted to the living God. And isn't that the condition of many hearts? That Jesus came with a very definite purpose to save you and me to the uttermost. And does He do it? Ha yara, have you gotten acquainted with the power of salvation? I mean, it's salvation that goes with you into your shop and office and kitchen, into your home, that makes everybody in your house and everybody in your shop know that you're a saint, that you're saved, that you're following God. Not only that, but you enjoy religion, you enjoy Jesus. I have no interest in a religion that I can't enjoy. But I tell you the joy of the Lord fills me so. Glory to God. I never envy the people in this world, never. Oh what they have to bow to, what they have to stoop to. You can't look into a newspaper and you can't look into any of their magazines, but you find out what slaves they are. What slaves? They're worse than pigs. When I left Switzerland, my neighbor had a pig's pen, and that pig's pen didn't smell very good. Fifty-two years after, when I came to that town, it was still the same, excepting that his pig's pen had a new coat of paint, but they smelled the same way. And that's what's the matter with civilization. They just put on a coat of paint, but they stink the same way. I looked into a paper today, the New York Times. I bought it because I wanted the radio program. And I saw the advertisement of the books. Books. Today, people are not satisfied to read deceased and breathing matter. It's got to be sick. Is that the stuff you read? Why does the pig wallow in the mire? Because it's a hog. Because it's a pig. Why do men swallow that stuff? Why they have to. They have no appetite for the bread of heaven. They're corroded. They're corrupt by Satan, by the devil. God has given them up to a reprobate mind to defile their own bodies. That's exactly what humanity is doing today. And the very church is letting down the bark. And the very preachers preach adultery and fornication and whoredom today instead of purity. And Jesus says, I say to pass fire upon this earth. A fire that will burn up to God. The fire of God. Dear Lord, I want that fire. I need that fire. I've got to have it. Oh, I've got to have something that comes down from heaven or I'll never get into heaven. Never. Jesus Christ has gone for you. He said, I must be baptized. I must go through. And when Peter says, don't let them do that to you. He said, get behind me, Satan. That's what I came for. Thank God. I came not to fill the churches with hypocrites and above all, not to fill heaven with hypocrites, but to win for myself a dry body without wrinkles, without defilement. I came to cleanse and to purify unto myself a people zealous of good works. Jesus, did you really come? Did you really finish the church? He says, I must be baptized with a baptism. And you haven't any idea the price that my Lord paid. But listen, he paid it. Whether you accept it or not, I told you, you can go to the devil if you like. Receive the New Testament blessing and be partaker of his divine nature. The choice is entirely yours. Jesus Christ has absolutely paid the price. Thank God he is able to save to the uttermost all. Are you satisfied with a half salvation? When testimonies are called for and you sit there like a bump on a log, I know there's something wrong. You shall be, the fire isn't burning. Why not? Listen, you're making your choice tonight. Somebody this morning said how it was 40 years ago. I don't like that. You love it? It's different now, isn't it? Different, better. It's better. Day by day, it's getting better. Why? Because I've chosen Jesus Christ. Because I make my choice every day. And like my sister said, I had to make my choice when I was a boy, when I had to work 10 and 12 hours a day. I had to make my choice to get up an hour ahead of time in the morning. I had to be baptized with the baptism of the Holy Ghost. Don't you have to? Jesus Christ had to do it. And unless that Holy Mosque is upon your soul, I fear that God's going to give you up to a reprobate mind. Or you'll be a church member, sure. And if you don't like it here, there are a dozen other churches where they'll welcome you with open arms. You'll show your nose there one time and they'll elect you to be assistant vice president to the athlete and you'll be an approximate. Sure. But Jesus Christ says, I've chosen you. I have chosen you. Have you chosen him? Oh, my Lord Jesus. This wonder of wonders. I know people complain about hard preaching, but you should have heard Apostle Paul. He says for three and a half years, I warned every one of you night and day with tears. I came across an old photograph this evening, just before coming to church, where a group of us young fellows were together in the Baptist Church. I was about 17 or 18 years old, just been saved. And there's a picture of a young fellow. He has his eyes closed. I guess it was a flashlight picture. And as I looked at him, I thought, oh, dear Adolf, that was his name. He was a little younger than I. And just about that time, the Holy Ghost came upon me and made me go to his house and plead with him to give his heart to God. I didn't know why the Lord did that, but he just pleaded with me. I couldn't stay home. I had to go and talk to Adolf. He was such a nice young fellow, intelligent, good looking. The girls ran after him. What more did he want? I was pleading with him to give his heart to God and get right with God. Oh, he was Sunday school boy, yes. But I knew he wasn't born again. And I'm so glad when I saw that picture, I was so glad that I did that, because a few weeks later, he was dead. It was strange. Sunday school, he was always late. Church, he was always late. That didn't matter. But when they had a picnic and they had an outing, his shop, he belonged to, he worked for the Western Electric Company in Chicago and they hired, they chartered a few boats to take them across Lake Michigan. He was the first one there. He was about an hour ahead of time. He was in the bowels of the ship there, shaving himself or doing something when the ship tipped over and in 15 minutes time, more than 800 people had lost their lives. I crossed the river just after it happened. Had no idea that Adolph was there until his sister called me and said, Adolph was on that ship. Strange, strange. He got there on time. He got there ahead of time. He couldn't go to meeting ahead of time. He didn't like meeting. He didn't like Sunday school. Oh, listen, Jesus Christ has a fire that'll make you passionately in love with Jesus. That'll give you a heavenly mind. That'll fill you with the Holy Ghost. Why? Because he must be baptized. Jesus Christ had to shed his precious blood. Tonight the fire is burning. Tonight, thank God that fire is burning for you and for me. And if you will, you can be set on fire for God. Oh, how different it is. And beloved, today Jesus has more really baptized filled saints in the world than any time through the, in the whole history of the world. And I fear sometimes that other denominations are going way ahead of us. They're really filled with the Holy Ghost. I know young men and young women that are wholly dedicated to God, and we are being fooled. Like our brother said, it isn't softball. It isn't anything like that. The Bible says, all these things shall be added unto you if Jesus is hurt. And tell me, could anything be hurt in a life that has seen the face of Jesus? That has heard his voice? And we've heard it many times, but this is what happens in this meeting. In every meeting a miracle happens. God is here. He says, I will walk along. I will speak to them. And he does. And either you open your heart to the word of God and you're circumcised with a circumcision, not made with hands, or that heart becomes hard and the light becomes dark. He works that way. Unto him that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance. And from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he receiveth perhaps. Do you know that we're responsible for this meeting tonight? We are. But the question is, are we so used to it that it doesn't touch us anymore? I saw a flock of pigeons the other day, and they were feeding. Somebody was feeding them. And they were crowding around, and suddenly there was a noise of crows. There's a flock of crows that used to perch on a church roof in Germany. And when the bells started ringing, they all flew away. Then they found out that there was no danger, and now they can go to sleep there. The bells ring, don't bother them anymore. Just like we in the meeting. Oh, I've come to cast fire upon this earth. Jesus, I know you'll come. And when I found out that you came to me, when I found out that this wonderful life of victory and over-overcoming was for me, I came to thee. That's what makes the difference. And the Lord Jesus Christ has given a certain sign. You'll know when you're born again. You'll become a new creed. And you'll know when you're baptized with the Holy Ghost. You'll love and pray. You'll make care of your first business, worshiping God in spirit and in truth will become your nature. You will draw an eye to God, and he will draw an eye to you. Let me ask you, have you received the Holy Ghost? I don't ask you whether you speak spoken in tongues. That's being imitated in these things. This is not a storm. Now this is a flower. If a storm blew, why, the storm would have broken that off itself. But I can't create a storm by breaking it off and shaking it. You can't create the baptism in the Holy Ghost by speaking in tongues or imitating it. But I tell you, when the Holy Ghost comes in, he will, he will become the driving force that life will possess you, where sin reigns, where flesh enslaves you, where the devil had his way, where the works of the flesh were manifold, which are thieves, adulterers, fornicators, uncleanness, inarticipation, evil concupiscence, covetousness, idolatry, variance, emulation, wrath, strife, sedition, heresy, enemy, murderous, drunkenness, and the like, of which I told you that they that do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. There will come love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness. Do the bells ring? Goodness, faith, meekness, temperance, gold, pride in the fire. I like Jesus. I like the way he went about it. He didn't beat people with a slick hammer and say, now you gotta get paid. Like lucky balls. He punched a fellow in the jaw because he wouldn't get paid, which is a less embarrassing. He would say to him, now Jesus says, no man cometh unto me except the Father, which is sent to draw him. Oh, the drawing power of God. Oh, the blessed opportunity God gives us. Prayer. Have you found out the secret of prayer? Oh, I don't mean something false. But above ye girdadio, below thy balsam, and I go low and don't below busajilo, but a child clamoring, my Father who art in heaven. How much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Ghost to them that pass? Yes. There is not enough hunger. There's not enough desire. Our meetings would be so different if there were a real desire, a real hunger. You wouldn't have to be patted on the back and told to come to the altar. You'd come. You wouldn't have to be told to pray. You'd pray. You'd cry. You'd call. I always think of that sacrifice of Elijah. When Israel was back to him and God said, now go, I'm going to let rain fall. And he gathered all Israel and here were the prophets of Baal in their robes with their scarlet colors and with their litanies and their liturgies and all their bells and tingles and rings on their fingers and bells on their toes and dancing around the image of Baal and around the altar and nothing happened. And Elijah says, come on. The God who answers by fire shall be God. Who is your God? Who is your God? He'll answer by fire. Elijah knew that he would answer by fire, but there was something in the way. Not the prophets of Baal. They were going to be eliminated. But the altar of the Lord was broken down. You know, that's what's the matter with us. Oh, and that altar is repaired. The Bible talks about preparing yourself to seek God. Of Daniel we read that he set his faith to seek by prayer and fasting in sackcloth and ashes. No wonder God said a man greatly beloved. There are men greatly beloved by God. God who is maligned and who is cursed and who is blasphemed by his very people. Jesus Christ was being crucified again every day by those who claim to be followers of the Son of God, and in works they deny him. Oh man, greatly beloved. Why was he greatly beloved? Why? Because when he saw the promise of God, he didn't let go until that promise was fulfilled. When he saw in the testament what God had promised to do at that time, he knew it was time. He looked at the Bible and he looked at the calendar and he said, God, it's time to fulfill that promise. I'm going to hang on. I'm going to raise the roof. You ever shall call on the name of the Lord. You know, God has a promise for you to fill you with the Holy Ghost, not just to give you a good feeling, but it says rivers of living water shall flow. Yea, my Jesus, that's gold fried in the fire. I ought to test my experience by the Bible. I ought to make sure that this is that and this is and if it isn't, then let me do like Daniel. Set my feet unto the Lord my God to seek my prayer and fasting and sackcloth and ashes. If Jesus Christ set his feet like a thief to create salvation for you and for me from the Father. A little mouth, and especially if you're young, don't let laziness keep you out of the kingdom of heaven. Oh, my Father, promise? No, it's a testament. It's a covenant. It's the blood of the everlasting covenant that soothes me, that cleanses me, that calls me. Oh, repair that altar that is broken down. Our brother Summer spoke of things that get into you and God. With me it was photography. I was a boy. I had a camera. I was passionately fond of taking pictures. That thing had to go into the court. It had to take secondary place. I found a man in my shop who was willing to develop my pictures for prayer, God. Why, of course. Why certainly. Now those of you who've been in love, you know how easy it is to love. How easy it is. Some people say they like me and then when I say I'm going to Germany, won't you write to me? Yes, I'll write. They'll never write. But we have one of these lovers in our home, a young minister. You don't know who it is. He stayed in bed in the morning until the postman rang the bell. How he was like a shot out of a gun. He wanted to be first. Every day he got a letter. Every day. Every day. Every day. How could that girl do it? They say they have no time to write their life. One day I got tired of it. I said, listen, next letter you get, I will answer. You sign it. You'll never have another one. He got married. And I've been singing. Oh, oh, oh, please. And I'm a little pity on a poor married man. I did have pity on him. You know, when you're really in love with Jesus, that's the fire. Oh, repair that altar. Make sure that God is hurt. He must be. Without me, he can do nothing. This Christ who says, I am your all in all. I am then and thou in me. And my Lord, you make the way so easy. He said, behold, I send the promise of my Father, you. And he says, rivers of living water. Why this very body? That's what's the matter. I beseech you by the mercies of God that you present your body. A living sacrifice. You know what is meant by the vessels? The foolish virgins took no oil in their vessels. This body, this body is the power of death, the power of blood, the power of Christ. There is God in your body. It'll take deeming desire. It'll take honest repentance. It'll take a real getting down into the very grave. And Elijah knew that. He repaired the altar of the Lord in accordance with God's command. How is it with your altar and your home? Is the altar there between you and your husband and your wife and your children, your family? Is that the first thing in the morning, the last thing at night, worshiping God. Do you think that God's going to answer your prayers? He's not out of great mercy. But do you think that God's going to walk among you and live in you if you have these implements of hell peering out, poison of hell, and you neglect the stream of life and the presence of the Holy Spirit? Every home in Pentecost ought to be a sanctuary where God dwells, where he lives. How is it with your home? The altar of God. I saw that right here in Austin. When we were there, Edwin and I, ten years ago, there were some boys that messed it under the power of God, one especially, five years old. When he heard the preaching of the gospel, he always said, I want to be like that. I came back. Father and Mother are in meeting. I said, where are you all? Back again. What happened? Oh, you know, the Mother's ghosted up these boys. Whatever they wanted, they could do. They didn't have to go to Sunday school if they didn't want to. They didn't have to pray. There was no such a thing as a family altar. The boys had gone to the devil and somebody else passed that message to them. Father and Mother, God has commanded you to let the fire burn as Jesus Christ has kindled at the cost of his own. He is the king of glory. Soon there will be another king. Many things in the clamoring for entrance into your home. And if it isn't filled, then he'll repair the altar. And then he dug a trench around it and filled it with water after he had cut that sacrificial animal in pieces so he couldn't run away. Oh, beloved, we sacrifice. That's prayer. Oh, dear Lord, are you able? I know God will do it. God will have a fancy gospel church upon this world before the rest. God will have a people that are holy kids without question are men and women upon whom the fire of God has descended and from whose body of life. They're divine virgins who have presented their bodies for living sacrifice. That's what this body is for, not to be eaten by germs and viruses and stuff, but to be burning with the fire of the presence of God, to be a temple of God. Oh, repair that altar of the Lord tonight. I had to deal with a young couple that I married some years ago in Germany. They came. She complained. He complained. She had one complaint. He had another complaint. So bad that he beat her. I said, listen, I have a wonderful message. Whenever one of you two gets mad, the one that gets mad, you go to the other one and say, come, darling, let's praise the Lord. Come on, baby. Hallelujah. Glory to God. I think they've done it because they've been getting real blessed. Oh, repair that altar of the Lord. What a trench around it, all around filled with water. What is the meaning of baptism but separation? Come out from among them. Come out from among them. Come out. You can't come out of Brooklyn or New York, but in your heart you can be separated completely from all that monkey business of the devil and the world and the flames. You can drown. I was interested to see that the government of South Africa has prohibited television in their whole country. They said it might be very useful, but it does more harm to our young people than it'll ever do good. And so the government has prohibited other governments. Nations that we used to look down on. They prohibit our jazz and our rock and roll. They won't have it. America has played an awful role, I tell you, in spewing out this poison of hell into other nations that have not been contaminated by it. It's time that we woke up and prepared the altar of the Lord until the fire falls upon us, until God can send us into every part of the world with this wonderful light. That's what God wants. I've come to cast fire upon this earth. Lord Jesus, why didn't you open Bible schools and universities and cemeteries and stuff? Why didn't you write libraries full of books? He said, he that hath my commandment. How simple is the sermon on the mount. How simple are his words. I will manifest my health in him. I will come and make my abode with him. Children, we all can have the choice. You can find your God tonight. You can repair that altar of the Lord. You can make sure that your prayer life is first, last and all. The passage to heaven is open, wide open. And God speaks to your prayer. And God sends his angels to guide you. And to say, oh man, great is his loving. Dear Lord, what can these people do with a talk like this? Now, this comes from Germany. How many times have I said, oh God, can't I say something nice? I did say something very, very, very nice tonight. I brought you the proposal of the prince of the kings of the earth to your soul. He wants you for himself. He wants you for himself. And in order to make, he went to the cross in order to deliver you and me from all the of the world. And who is the prince? The one that says, I am.