In this sermon, the speaker discusses the marvels of technology, specifically computers, and their limitations compared to the complexity of human beings. He reflects on the thinness of books and the intricate process of their production, highlighting the craftsmanship involved. The speaker then shifts to the story of Sammy Morris, a young African boy who embarked on a journey to America and faced mistreatment along the way. Finally, the speaker imagines the Apostle Paul receiving his reward in heaven and ponders why Paul never wrote a book about his trip to heaven.

...and all I get is this stupid thing. I'm going to get a crown one day, so don't worry. Jeremiah, chapter 18. The scholars say this is the most... the second most spiritual book in the Old Testament, the first being the book of Psalms. I was thinking yesterday I didn't say it, but you know what? You know, when we die we don't go straight to heaven and get our rewards. John Wesley has been blessing us for, I suppose, 2000 or 200 years. And his brother wrote all the hymns. And Honey Cosby, they've been blessing us, and the Lord's setting the bonus up till they get to heaven. And they're going to get rewarded then. He can't reward them when they go to heaven because they're not finished ministering. You minister, we ministers, some ministers minister better after they're dead than when they're alive. Were you gasping or were you saying yes? Both. Oh, both. I told you somebody asked me a while ago if I pray for the dead. I said no, I preach to them constantly. The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying arise and go down to the potter's house, and there will I cause thee to hear my words. How did he hear? He heard through demonstration. So often God speaks through our eyes as well as our ears. He speaks through demonstration. History proves that. He preached through demonstration on the cross. He showed us one who triumphed gloriously. But he remembered he suffered immensely. And he never murmured. He was led as a lamb to the slaughter. And as a sheep before his shearer, he opened not his mouth. An example to us of patience, fortitude. Everybody wants success. Do you want success hanging on the cross? Is that the way to triumph? Bloody, beaten up, ragged, spit running down your jaw? Is that the way into a kingdom? Yes. It's the only way into the eternal kingdom. You see, the reason you don't get blessed, many people don't get blessed, you refuse to die. I picked up a scripture today. When Jesus stepped into a Jordan, the heaven opened. That was his first step to the cross. And the heavens opened. It was the last step in the life of the youngest martyr in the New Testament, Stephen. At the last moment the heavens opened. He saw the Son of God. You know, ever think how that shocked the Jews, the rabbis and others? Oh, we killed him. We got rid of him. Stephen says, you may, I can see him right now. Don't you think that made them mad? I hope it didn't. If it made them mad, it makes me glad. But right in the crisis moment, when everybody else besook him, there that young man sees Jesus. And Jesus contradicts himself. At least, contradicts the scripture. Don't throw him books yet. Because the scripture says that Jesus was sitting at the right hand of the Father. But he says, I see Jesus standing. Do you know what I think? I think Jesus was so excited to see a young man doing everything that he did, lay his life down. He might have lived 60 years and been the greatest rabbi in the world, or the greatest Bible teacher. And God cuts him off. And Jesus jumps up and says, come on fellow, I'm waiting for you. Oh, some of you don't know that chorus. You're not well enough educated. Do you know that chorus, it will be worth it all when we see Jesus? You do. It will be worth it all when we see Jesus. Life's trial will seem so small when we see Christ. One glimpse, one glimpse of his dear face, all sorrow will erase, so bravely run the race, till we see Christ. Sounds more like a choir practice tonight than a Bible study, doesn't it? Jeremiah 18, verse 1. The word of the Lord came unto Jeremiah the son from the Lord, saying, Arise and go down to the potter's house, and there will I cause thee to hear my words. Then I went down to the potter's house, and behold, he wrought to walk on wheels. And the vessel that he made was clay, was marred in the hands of the potter. And he made again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it. Then the word of the Lord came unto me. Actually, when he's seeing this, God is talking about nations and kingdoms, but he narrows it down and says, The word of the Lord came unto me, saying, O house of Israel, cometh I do with you as this potter? Behold, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are ye. Do you want to claim that? He's talking to you, he's talking to me. We're clay in the hand of the potter. So are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel. One of the advantages of travel, which some of us have done quite a bit, is going to other countries and seeing how things are manufactured. I like to see work. I don't enjoy it, but I like to see others doing it. I remember going round the Ford factory about 20 odd years ago, and starting at the beginning, going round, and seeing all those wonderful things that they do. The metal is brought in at one end of the place, and the other end an automobile comes out. And it's wonderful to go there and see the men with all their different, what are they, jobs, functioning so neatly and putting that thing together. For some reason a plane I was in stopped in Saudi Arabia a few years ago. And when we got in the airport, there were all these gorgeous oriental carpets. And I managed to go into a place and see a man weaving a carpet. It was the most crazy thing I ever saw. We went from the back of the carpet, and all I could see was strings of red, red ones, blue ones, green ones, every shade, every hue. There's a poem that says, My life is like a weaving between my God and me. I can't just choose the colors, he worketh steadily. Full oft he weaveth sorrow, and I in foolish pride, forget he sees the upper, and I the underside. You know, a lot of us go for a counselor, and there's no answer to them. You'd be better praying. There are no answers. If you get all the answers, why do you need faith? God does not, God, as I've told you so often, he doesn't owe me anything. He does not owe me any explanation. All he asks of me is obedience. I may stumble, I may stagger, all he asks is obedience. It's going to be worth it all when we see Jesus. I say, why didn't the Lord give this fellow a private rapture? I mean, after all, he took Philip and transported him. Why did he take this marvelous man, Jeremiah? A man who has a marvelous identification. I would that God it would be said of me. Do you remember when Jesus came, he said, Who do men say that I, the son of man, am? Well, some say, well, Moses, some Elijah, and some Jeremiah. Why? Because I believe Jeremiah was the man of sorrows until the man of sorrows came. You know, there's a saying, Laugh and the world laughs with you. Weep and you weep alone. It's true in the church, never mind in the world. I read a statement made a hundred years ago, just a few days ago, and the author of that statement said this, God is not at home in his own world. I got news for you, he isn't at home in his own church either. On the law of averages he isn't. And he's seeking a habitation, a place to dwell, a place to abide, not only in us singularly, but in collectively amongst people. Why did Jesus take this man, I have to say, kind of rapture him and drop him down by the, say, where? The river Jordan, showing the stones that were put there when they crossed the river. They're there as a memorial. Why didn't he take him on to the top of the mountain and say, pray here. This is where Elijah prayed. Why didn't he take him to some other historic place? He's not just giving the man inspiration, he's giving him correction. And he's giving intuition. I'll tell you why, amongst other things. Oh yes, sure, I'm saying where we've been different times we've been traveling. We went into Ireland and there's a place there. Oh, let me do some of my marvelous drawing again. But this thing actually is scooped out like this. And over here there's a great big college of battle, if you like. And it was full of stones. The man was pouring stones in. They came from five different nations. And there they were. And then there's a thing going around that crushes them. I was going to say to you when you start making pottery don't use a hammer. Well, that's exactly what they do. They brought the stones from five nations, stripped them in there. There's a thing going around, it crushed the stones and water was dripping in. And when it got very, very, very thin they moved it in a jug and they poured it into here. That's all they did. This thing's made of clay. Oh, no, kind of a white clay. And they fill it up with this solution that they've made out of all the stones. And then when it's been there for about an hour they take the stuff out and throw it back into the trough, if you want. And they leave those things on one side. Dozens of them. Then in the morning they go take that thing upside down and what happens? A cup comes out. Thinner than the shell of an egg. Martha has her two pieces. I didn't buy them. Somebody gave them, I guess. Where are they from? Belique. Marvelous, marvelous, marvelous. You can read through the thing almost. If you're very good at it. But it's so thin. Now it gets a little thicker and they put it into a tube and a guy has a tube that looks like toothpaste. And I'm watching this little guy with a beard and he presses a button and just a little bit of the stuff comes out of the toothpaste. And he puts it down there and I'm watching something else. When I look back he's taken maybe a six or seven inches. When I look back he's chopped it in little bits. I go around the table and come back. When I get together he's pushed them together. Then I notice a bit further up the roadway or up the factory road or the bench, I should say. Those pieces that have been put together have been put in an oven. They've been baked and they come out. There's no color. Then they're passed on to women that are working there and they paint them. And by the time you get to the end of the line there there's some gorgeous brooches with gorgeous flowers, little roses, little forget-me-nots. All made by a little guy that didn't even look up. He just tipped away. He knew how to do it so well. But you see there were different stages in which that material could be used. Sometimes as a thin liquid just poured into a reciprocal like that. Sometimes it was used for other things. But I marveled when I saw that stuff because outside they had an exhibition. They had some vases I'm sure up to my shoulder. And inside they were just a kind of a pale almost a yellowy white for the vessel. But the roses, the clusters on them, I don't know how long they must have taken months and months to form because they have to keep putting them in the oven and they take them out. They dry the paint. They put them in. They glaze them. Now when that mud is there is there anything with less character than mud except muddy people? It has no beauty that you should desire it. It has no shape. It has no perfection. It has no perfume. A handful of mud you can slam it against the wall. When I saw those marvelous vases there that were worth I think fifty thousand a hundred thousand dollars. I see them over here shapeless. They need somebody with intelligence. They need somebody with character. They need somebody with vision. They need somebody with determination. They need somebody with patience. But God help us we're far worse than that sticky clay. Perverted, twisted, rebellious. Go down and see there are only three things here. You've got the potter. You've got the potter's wheel. And you've got the clay. And he takes that clay. Now they do the same thing. Go down to Marshall sometime. There's a place there there's a potter working all the time. The only difference now as you would expect they've electrified the little, what do you call it, disc. But he's still out of control with his foot. He controls the speed of if you want to call it a lathe whatever it is. He controls the amount of stuff. And you can stand there and he'll be working. He doesn't seem to be very intelligent he's looking around but he manipulates it. And he shapes it. He has a design. He has a patience. He has an intention. Well God does exactly the same thing with us. We sang tonight have thine own way. Thou art the potter I am the clay. Mould me and make me after thy will. The only difference between the clay that he puts on that disc there is it has no will. It has no rebellion. Almost the last thing you know we sing take my life and let it be consecrated Lord take my silver and my gold. Take my moments and my days. Take my hands and let them move. Take my feet and let them move. The last thing in the verse in the hymn is take my will and make it thine. And that's about the last thing that we surrender. I want to manipulate and guide my own life. It's my life. Well keep the stinking thing if it is. And it will stink till you give it to Christ. But once you give it it's his life. Again we're not Christians because we just make a confession. The apostle Paul says you are dead. I said yes because I thought there were only two kinds of people in the world. Those who are dead didn't sin and those who are dead too sin. Well do you mean to say we can die? Is it possible to get into a state this side of eternity where we never sin? No it's not impossible to sin. It's possible not to sin. And I said yes and Jesus when that bad woman came what did he say? Go and sin less? Go and sin no more? That was the other side of the cross. We sin because we want to sin. We sin according to appetites that we have. We've cultivated our appetites. We've cultured our appetites. We've paid we've paid pardon me we've paid thousands of dollars to increase our own perversity. Get soaked enough intellectually and you'll snare at some things let them snare. I don't care how high brow some of these scholars are. Some of the greatest men I meet have not been intellectuals by long way. Our pride gets in our way. We call it intelligence God calls it pride. Self-sufficiency arrogance. I've heard people say you know if that man would ever give his life to the law he's a lawyer or he's this oh he'd be so marvelous. Are you sure? I'm not. You see the crumbling of the will is the hardest thing in the whole world. Because if I've no will I'm under a dictator a marvelous dictator a loving dictator. He's never capricious. I'm glad God doesn't have moods. Aren't you? Go and shout as loud as you like now Dick. When Dick shouts you know I'm right. Isn't it wonderful he's the same there's no shadow of turning. We almost sang it we didn't have time. Great is my faithfulness there is no shadow of turning. Do you know what? If somebody put on the New York Times Len Rangel's a fraud. He runs around with women when he's not at home. He steals money he does this. Somebody kind of threatened one. I said well if you do it send me a copy. Why? I said I like to laugh too. What about your reputation? I took it to the cross a long while ago I don't have one. Come on nail this in your mind reputation is what men think you are and character is what God knows you are. It doesn't make a hell of a difference what people think. They said Jesus took upon himself no reputation. What did they call him? They said he was a prince of demons that's why demons subjected themselves to him because he was boss over them. It was not true. So he takes shapeless clay. I don't know why I was thinking a little while today about one of the great men of our day. Well my day I guess. No not quite my day somebody else's Brother Farrar's maybe. David Livingstone There's a place called Blantyre just outside of Glasgow. I went to Blantyre one day and I went down to the place where he went. It was nine miles from where he lived to the dock side. He walked every inch of it in a fog he could hardly see his way carrying all his own baggage. Dear Lord we'd expect a military band wouldn't we? Oh that's the announcements on TV I'm going to Africa to sacrifice my life. The church would make an offering for you. An old little bologna. He walked the nine miles. When he got there what did he get? He got disease. He was a doctor he was a genius. His wife died he buried his wife there he buried his two children there. And yet he kept going on. The Portuguese traders fought him but he was the first pioneer he really split Africa in two. He made a path where there wasn't a path. God took that man in a marvellous way. At the other end of the spectrum we have a little book. If you haven't got it get it. And if you can't afford it ask Martha. I can't but Martha will get it for you. It's called Sammy Morris and it's by a lady called Baldwin. Just a little black African boy and one night the lights shone and he followed the light through the forest there was no path. He ended up at the dockside. He'd never seen a ship he'd never seen the ocean. He asked what's the ship for? It's going across to America. Where's America? Across the ocean. What's the ocean? This thing here. He got on board the ship and those marvellous white men so intelligent used him as a football they kicked him actually on the deck more than once. But by the time he got to New York he's not David Livingstone with the brain of a genius he's an ordinary African boy the Holy Ghost came upon him. And before he got to New York 23 of the crewmen were saved. I remember in Fort what was it? Fort Wayne. One day it was drizzling snow and rain I went and knelt at his grave. He was an African prince I think his name was Kru was it Kru? Of the Kru tribe. And yet everywhere he went God used him in revival. He knocked at the door of a man in New York and the man said who are you? And he said who he was. A missionary told me you know about the Holy Ghost. She doesn't know about the Holy Ghost. A black boy comes over the seas and gets kicked around and half-stuffed he so wanted the Holy Ghost he wondered if God met him you don't want him you're so satisfied. Oh he has to use you you've culture or you've knowledge or Bible knowledge nothing of the kind. You see it's only when we get to a place where we have nothing that God takes us. And we don't take just verbally we have nothing and we live as though we have nothing. Not self-satisfaction nor ability of our own. Well then the fellow took him to a meeting and going as they were going through New York the man kept saying that's the skyscraper belongs to Woolworths and this skyscraper he stopped the man and he said sir I didn't come here to learn about these things I want the Holy Ghost. And God marvelously met him. He was taken to a fashionable church and the preacher said well just put him in here he's a black boy he'll make these youngsters happy. A crowd of college kids. And the man went to teach the super Bible class of course. And he came back wondering what was happening a strange noise he opened the door all the college boys were flat on their faces seeking God. So one boy who was intimate with he didn't know his Bible very well none of that's wrong but the Bible says doesn't it the people that don't know their Bible shall be strung into exploit doesn't it say that? Well what does it say dear? Know their God. There are very very few people who know God they know theology they know philosophy they do not know God. If you know God if I love someone I want to be in their presence. If I love God I'm unhappy out of his presence. I know he can live in me and he does live in me but there are times I want to get away and adore him and worship him and magnify him speechless adoration that's what worship is. We had a good time of worship no we had a good time of praise praise is a gateway to adoration adoration is a gateway to worship. And if you read the scripture you'll find that almost everybody who worshiped they fell on their faces before God. They didn't fall backwards they fell on their faces. Well there you are that's the exhortation to begin let's look at the scripture now. In 2 Timothy chapter 2 2 Timothy chapter 2 verse 20 but in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver but also of wood and of earth and some are to honor and some to dishonor. If any man therefore purge himself from these from what? You know that word purge is only twice in the New Testament. It's in 1 Corinthians 5 and verse 7 where you purge out the old leaven because there's corruption in it. You have to purge it you get it out clean it which devout Jews still do these days. There are times when they move all their furniture and they at least in our city they used to. I worked in a factory of 8,000 people 5,000 were Jews Jews were all kinds of atheists and what have you got? But when it came to Passover they used to get people to go and buy all new pots and they wouldn't use old things. Everything must be totally cleansed the house must be swept. Purge out the old leaven. You know we're so satisfied God help us to walk along in a crippled state spiritually. We wouldn't have put up with physical health if it was you know when people say oh I love that scripture that says what does it say now in John I pray that your soul may prosper that your health may prosper even as your soul prospers. If people's spiritual health is only as good as their if their physical health is only as good as their spiritual health it's the hundreds of people going to church in wheelchairs. It backs fires on us. I pray that you may be as healthy in your body as your soul prospers. There's hardly any soul prosperity. Come on before God where were you a year ago now? Are you more passionate in prayer? Is your love for the lost greater? Is your communion with God deeper? Is your love to him higher hotter than ever it's been? Are you just gathering news reading books and getting nowhere? I think we'd do well to get rid of most books. Some we wouldn't of course but anyhow. And just stick to the good old word because faith cometh by hearing but not by hearing music. Sure I get mad when you can get thousands of young kids go to sit in the cold to hear a rock concert. You can't get them to a prayer meeting. If there's an option most people don't settle for the prayer meeting. Go somewhere oh we can't come Friday night. Well don't come I don't care. Measure thy life by loss and not by gain. I try to prepare if there's two people there for as much time and prayer and sacrifice or if there's two thousand. Doesn't make any difference. In a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver but also of wood and of earth and some to honour and some to dishonour. If therefore a man purge himself from these from what? Well this people at this time were in a state of flux there was heresy that had entered and therefore he says purge himself from what? Well look for a minute at verse 22. Flee also from youthful lusts. Don't stay with it and say I'm come, flee get away from the wretched thing. Oh I went to so and so. You shouldn't have been there anyhow. You fell into temptation. God says flee from it. Don't try and drive as near to the edge of the precipice as you can, drive as far away from the edge as you can. You don't have to test your strength. The devil will test that alright. Flee from it. Youthful lusts, special lusts, usually lust of the flesh. Or it may be lust of covetousness or some other thing. There are vessels to honour and some to dishonour. I knew this illustration before. When we go to the Bahamas, which we haven't been for a few years, we stayed in a lovely home with quite a few servants. And I liked to come up the back staircase. It had one of these great huge porches there. We'd come up and there's a big black woman there and she'd be sitting there with a kitchen sink. I never knew a house could have so many pans. And sometimes the sink would be literally this high with pans, big ones, little ones, copper ones, all kinds of them. And she was in that steamy kitchen one day. I'd just patted her on the back. I'd forgotten her name. Elaine, Elaine, thank you dear. I said, Elaine, you're doing a wonderful job. Always such marvellous meals. Oh, I wouldn't like to work here. Greasy pots. Oh, greasy dishes. Every crazy thing there. I liked the next room. Good old English style. A great long mahogany table polished. You could see to shaving the thing. I liked dinner served. Oh, they used to serve the fish on a long silver platter like this where a maid would come in and put it down. Never seen a fish so dressed up in my life. It had a green skirt all around it. Parsley. And it had more, I don't know, a kind of tropical fruits. Looked gorgeous. The tables laid out with superb English china. You know, like the crazy people, three knives and three forks and I don't have any spoons. And you can tell who are the Americans, they don't know which to use. And then when they start, but when they start they don't use the knives, they fiddle around with the fork. But you know when I look at that kitchen and I saw those dishes greasy and we'd eat dinner and have a marvelous time and come back and Elaine will be there, now she's up to her elbows in that deep sink washing those things. But the only reason you can have that dinner like that in such wonderful style and all the etiquette and all you've got is because this woman is doing all the dirty work. You don't put the pots, you don't put the dishes where the pans are, you don't put the pans over there. Sometimes you'll see beautiful English china laid out here, they're going to put different vegetables in it. But I never heard any of those dishes arguing with the pans. I didn't hear the pans saying it's all right for you, you go in there, they put something warm on you. They roast me on the stupid thing every day. Every time it goes twelve o'clock they try and burn me out. They put the heat up and I burn and I cringe and they still do it. And sometimes I get my revenge, I burn all the dinner but anyhow. Well God does that with some people. He puts some people repeatedly in the fire. It depends what you're after. We have a big earthenware pot kind of thing at our house. We picked it up on the side of the road once coming from Mexico. It had big handles on it. I don't know anything about that kind of thing. I thought it would have been well baked, you know. I picked it up by the handle one day and it came off in my hands. It had never been in the furnace. It had just been dried in the field in the sun. And you see the degree to which God seems to punish us or seems to be slow in manipulating our lives is the degree to which he's going to use us later on. The other day I was thinking about that scripture. Now we see through a glass darkly. And I prayed, Lord, we've made an excuse of that. I'm seeing through a glass darkly. Why? Because we want to be that way. Oh, we get a book and ponder over it and it feeds our intellects. And I'm not against intellectualism. I've got a bit of my own. Paul's got more. And some son's pretty smart fellows. But it doesn't satisfy the spirit. It satisfies our pride. It satisfies our conceit. It satisfies our ego. It satisfies our self-confidence. I don't know where I can go. I can keep up my voice. So what? I said yes to the crowd. We sing turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look, pull in his wonderful face. And the things of earth will grow strangely dim. That's if we get a true revelation of Jesus now. The things of earth become dust. But when we get there and look back, the things of earth will look strangely grim. We'll find we invested our lives in sawdust, in rubbish, in stuff that didn't really matter. Now, some of these vessels are gold. Well, you can't purify gold in the kitchen. Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look, pull in his wonderful face. You can take a bar of gold. It may have some alloy in it and whatnot. You put it in a crucible. These days an induction crucible. You put it in there, press some buttons. The only thing the heat will do with gold is change it from solid to liquid. It won't change its value. It won't do that with silver either. But the goldsmith sits there and he has a sieve, like the sieve you use sometimes to take something out of the, when you're cooking. And he goes with that sieve and he takes the scum because, you see, gold is heavier even than iron. It's heavier than the dross. And therefore the gold sinks to the bottom and he takes the scum off the top and he throws it away and he throws it away. And he does it over and over again and he goes and looks. Then once he stops. He hasn't taken any out. You say, why did you stop? Because it's pure. Well, how do you know it's pure? You didn't test it with anything. Yes, I did. What did he test it with? I looked in it. When gold is pure I can see my reflection in it. But whatever the scum there, it doesn't matter how thin it is, he cannot see his reflection. Until he's finished refining us, he will not see his reflection in us. It may take him a long, long, long process according to our obedience, according to our willingness. But anyhow, he says, okay, verse 20, in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver but also wood and earth, some to honor and some to dishonor. You know, the best parts of you are on the inside, isn't that good? We had an old man who lived not too far from us and he used to say, beauty is only skin deep, most of us need skinning. But nobody comes up to you except on TV and says, well, how's your liver doing this morning? They say that on TV, but suppose you're going in church and pastor says, well, how's your liver? I heard of a woman who asked the pastor, would you pray for my floating kidney? What, in church? I can't pray for your floating kidney in church. He said, well, last week you prayed for bad livers. Oh, dear. Not bad livers, bad living he meant. Oh, now you're sorry, thank you. The quarter dropped. All this inside machinery that's so fabulous. Oh, when I read how many miles of intestines I have and how many cells I have in my body, I'm a billionaire, but I don't know much about it, but their function, I hope they do anyhow. The good book says we're fearfully and wonderfully made. All these inner workings and the brain, I don't know how many cells it has. I sometimes think my batteries are dying down a bit, but anyhow. What a marvelous thing. I remember when we were living in England, they made the first, what they call it then, electric brain. It was about as big as this room and there were all kinds of things said about it. They brought some professors from the University of Manchester and they went around and saw these, this marvelous machinery. And they said, you know this machine can work out a proposition in 15 minutes that would take a scientist 15 years to work out? Ah, that's wonderful. And one of the men said, well at the side of this machine what is man? And some smart boy said, he's the guy that made the machine. Oh yes sir. Computers are wonderful, aren't they? But they can't reproduce themselves and they reproduce a lot of stuff in them. But again, we are fearfully, we are wonderfully made. You know, the thing that slays me off when I say this, I go in my room. I don't have a big library, maybe a couple of thousand books altogether which isn't much. And I look around and I see a great set of volumes. I think of a history like Brady's or Brady's history of Wesley. It took Brady 17 years to write that book. I look at the other commentators of all kinds of them. I look at the other of all kinds them. I look at the other commentators of all kinds of I look at the other commentators of all them. I look at the other of all I look at commentators of all kinds them. I look at the other commentators of all kinds them. I look at the other commentators of all kinds of them. I look at the other commentators of all look at look at the other commentators of all of them. I of all I look at of all have to earn it tomorrow." He buckled right in with a trace of a grin on his face. If he worried, he hid it. And he started to sing as he tackled the thing that couldn't be done, and he did it. Almost every inventor, people have said it can't be done. If you told my grandfather that I sit in a chair in America and listen to a man talking on the moon, he'd say, Len, you need a doctor. It can't be done and they do it. Livingstone, you can't go to Africa and split Africa over. He did it. A young Baptist stood up in a church in England. The old greybeards were there and he said, gentlemen, his name was Carey, William Carey, God has called me to evangelize India. Well, if he has, he doesn't need your help. He can evangelize India without you. Can he? No, he seeks human cooperation. But they did the impossible under the power of God. Titus Cohen sees the whole nation turn to God. God is looking for men, not movement, not methods, not mechanism, breathing, living men. They're as shapeless as the clay that I said. There's no character in clay. There's no character in us when he finds us. There's no beauty he should desire us even. But he knows if we submit ourselves to him and live in obedience to him. You see, the reason the devil likes to keep you tied down, he's scared to death you'll become mature. He doesn't care if it's your head ten times bigger than it is now, with Bible knowledge. It's the people again that know their God, not know the scriptures. I'd like to read the Bible in Hebrew and Greek. I remember a time when I made the decision not to go to a seminary and I've never regretted it. We've had some young men here the other week decided to quit seminary and take a copy of Gernel and their Bibles and go hide away for a few months up in the hills. There are people all over America right now who are hiding away. They don't want to get on front of charisma. They don't want to get on PHL or 700 Club or some other thing. They're trying to get as near as they can to the very heart of God. And I pray for them every day. God help us, if Brainerd had gone to a college, they'd have brainwashed him, hosed him down. Young man, it can't be done. If any man purged himself of these, from what? Well look at verse 14, he says, of these things put them in remembrance, charging them before the Lord that they strive not about works to no profit. I don't like Christian company much anymore. John Wesley said you can't go in a house and stay there 15 minutes without conversation becoming gossip. And if it does, get up and walk out. There's so many words to no profit. Next time you're going to somebody's company, when you go out, say to your wife, your husband, what have we profited being here? Oh it's nice, we drank tea and we talked. Forget it. That won't save anybody from hell. We strive about works to no profit. We strive about theology, predestination, this, that, and the other. And it doesn't do a hill of beans good. If a man were to purge himself from these stupid things like that, if he had fleed from youthful lust in verse 22, if he had come to verse 23, foolish and unlearned questions of void, you'd get some guys arguing, not even facetious here, whether Adam had red hair or black hair or what he had. Oh, what strange things we get to strive about. Foolish and unlearned questions of void, knowing that they do gender strife. Side 2. ...judging them before the Lord that they strive not about words to no profit. It's the same thing. In verse 23, foolish and unlearned questions of void, knowing their gender strife. And it's mentioned in the next verse, the servant of the Lord must not strive. How many times have you argued with somebody? And you won the argument, you lost a friend. Isn't it better to keep your friend and lose the argument? But we strive. Our little self wants to be vindicated, I'm smarter than he is, I think better than she does. You get rid of your old pride, you'll soon find something else different. The servant of the Lord must not strive, but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach. Now look at the last word there, patient. Watch the second word in the next verse, meekness. Hey, well, is this any way to start a kingdom? Jesus comes in and says, blessed are the meek. But meekness and weakness are not synonyms. Moses was the meekest man in the world, but he got angry, I was thinking of him earlier today. It says you go back into Exodus there, I don't forget, the chapter about 28, where he's praying and God, it's the most wonderful thing in the world that I know of, is when God reaches down and takes hold of a man, as Billy Graham says he did with him. There's one thing greater than God reaching down and taking hold of a man, that's when a man reaches up and takes hold of God. And God says, Moses, let me alone. Moses says, turn away from my fierce anger. Later in the chapter, Aaron says to Moses, you turn away from your fierce anger. Where did he get the fierce anger? He got it from God. God was in that mood, if you like to say. His fierce anger, he had watched the kingdom of Israel, they'd seen miracle after miracle after miracle of deliverance, the sea had been divided, he'd sent manna from heaven, he'd sent other things from heaven. And what did he do? They made a god out of their earrings, and they danced naked round about it. And the man of God, Aaron, who had been sanctified and had a band put round his forehead with holiness on, the man became an immediate liar. He says, I took their gold and I put it there, and this animal jumped out. Isn't that crazy? This golden calf came out on its own. And there were those people, totally fundamental, keeping all the, they'd seen God's deliverance. They'd come out of the bondage of Egypt. Again, they'd seen heaven open every day. They wore clothes for 40 years that never got smelly. They wore shoes for 40 years that never wore out. Miracle after miracle. And yet they turned from God to idols. And they turned from God to their own way. You know what? God doesn't owe America a thing. If he burns us and sends us all to hell, he's given us years of ministry. We've got more Bible schools than all the other nations in the world put together. We've got more gospel broadcasts every day than all the nations in the world put together. Where are we? Are we righteous? Are we holy? We're not even righteous, never mind holy. The world isn't righteous and the church isn't holy now anymore. We've lost sight of his holiness, his awesome majesty. As I said yesterday, there's something coming upon us. I use the illustration when Paul and I were going down east, uh, no, down, yeah, down east 20 the other week. And in the distance there was a spot in the sky and gradually it broke into a thin streak of vapor. It was a plane. And immediately I wonder whether it was checking to see where the enemy were or checking, you know, as they do for weather. And they can spot a tornado and with modern scientific methods, they can tell you the extent of the tornado, how extensive it is. Not only its extensiveness, they can tell you its intensity, tell you its velocity. They can do everything and stop the thing. It still comes and devastates. There's something coming up now. It's more terrible than a thousand tornadoes, brighter than a hundred sunrises. It's coming relentlessly. We can't stop it. I can tell you about it. Whether you want to get ready for it, something entirely different. What is it? The coming of Jesus Christ in awesome, terrible majesty, terrible holiness, frightening majesty. How do you know? Because in the sixth chapter of the revelation, it says that the kings and the rulers, not school boys, not nervous women, not poor people selling stuff at the but the great men of the earth, they call for the rocks and hills to fall on them. We're going to witness that before too long. God almighty's faith is destroyed with individuals sometimes. I believe that if I preach, I didn't preach too good yesterday. Some of the guys thought it was good. I didn't think so. But whether it's good or not, I believe that when I'm preaching with the anointing of God, in every meeting I'm in, there are people born again, whether they come to the altar or not, there are people who died. They look the same. God doesn't suddenly give them snow white hair because he's quit striding with them. I don't know a job more awesome than being a preacher. We have a friend, at least we're friendly with a man, one of the most expert open heart surgeons in America. He's quite wealthy. I'm sure he'd give me more than a thousand a month. He'd give me two, maybe give me a thousand a week. If only I wouldn't go into churches, they're all Babylon, he says. I'll keep you. No, no, no, sir, I don't want that. But I think of him often. I've watched him when he's been at dinner. His lovely little hands there. And he does, I don't know how many open heart surgeries a week. Boy, I wouldn't go to sleep. I won't be able to do it. My hands will be shaking like this. I'd be cutting other parts up. But my job is far more terrible and dexterous than his. He's postponing life for somebody, maybe for a year or two. I'm talking about eternal life. He may be touched that man and kill him. He dies. I'm dealing with people that have gone into the second death. I've heard yesterday, in 70 more odd years, I've gone to Bible conference, never heard a message on the second death. We didn't preach on the first death. As I said, when I, I told you weeks ago, when I preached on it, I read the end of the Revelation 20, only three times in Revelation. Once, twice in the 20th chapter, once in the second chapter. It talks about the second death. And I just sat back in my chair a minute. And then suddenly like that, I began to think about how the description is given there in the 16th chapter of Luke about hell. The man in hell can see right into heaven. And I told people yesterday, and I believe it, some of the preacher's kids will be burning in hell forever. And daddy and mummy will be at the marriage supper of the Lamb. And they'll see it all. You can't see, if there were windows here and it were dark outside, I look out there, I can't see a person. Somebody looks in and says, well, I know that is that so-and-so, that so-and-so. I believe everybody in hell will see right into heaven. One of the comments of hell will be they can see heaven. Because this man that was there in hell, he could see into the bosom of Abraham. He could not only see, he could hear. He could not only hear, he could feel. I'm tormented. Again, remember they pray in hell, but nobody prays in heaven. They pray in hell, but their prayers are unheeded. They don't pray in heaven because their prayers are not needed. They pray in hell, deliver, and God Almighty says no. And when I sat back and pondered that, about hell, there may be a million roads in, there's not one road out. And it suddenly hit me as I said to you, hell has no exits. Hell has no exits. It's forever and ever. You tell me that churches believe that, I don't believe you. If the churches believe that, every prayer meeting will be pulsating with passion, with tears. It isn't like that. Many of the Bible schools around don't have a decent prayer meeting. Hell has no exits. I'll tell you something else hell doesn't have. It doesn't have any parolees. What did the man say? Oh, would you send somebody to preach to my brethren? And Jesus says they won't believe. They have Moses and the prophets. They won't believe it and they'll raise somebody from the dead. You know there's no hope for America by a new organization, a new revival party. The only hope is a divine intervention. God hold your nose from the stink of our nation, without corruption, without violence, without venereal disease, with all the other things we have. Have mercy upon us. But one thing that will keep you from getting here, from becoming messed up with these false doctrines, chapter 1 verse 6. I put thee in remembrance thou stir up the gift of God which is in thee. And I don't care how sanctified you are, I don't care how long you've had the baptism of the Holy Ghost, I don't care what knowledge you have. You have to keep constantly stirring up the gift of God which is in you. It's not you become relaxed. You get satisfied. When that great Quaker poet John Greenleaf Whittier went to Niagara Falls in the 1700s, there was no pathway there, there was no commercialization. And as he got there, he got an Indian guide, a famous Indian guide to take him. I don't see our Indian brother here tonight. He got an Indian guide to take him and he heard the roar of the waters, he was terrified. They were about maybe 20 feet higher then because they'd broken up and fallen down there, the top side. And while he was there the Indian said, nudged him. What's wrong he said? Indian come to kill us. What do you mean Indian come to kill us? You hear that twig snap? Hear what? Twig snap. Indian fed on twig. Niagara. Can't hear anything. Indian coming to kill us. I hear twig snap. He thought the man was crazy. Then the Indian said, nonsense. And here comes out of the bush comes a man with a bow and arrow, an Indian. How could he hear him? These waters deafen me. No, no. Ah, little boy, I frightened. I hear water, I'm frightened. But now my ears no, no, no longer hear the noise. That's our problem. We don't hear the crushing of, grinding of feet of men and women marching to hell. It's a term, it's a theological concept, it's something you say to be a fundamentalist. God pities. I say no man had ever lived, never had a bigger Bible than I have, he used it better. I read Hebrews 11 where those people never had a Bible, but they knew God. They heard his voice, they did the most outlandish reckless things by faith. They couldn't go to a promised book and say, I believe the promise is I do this, that and the other like we do in our dreary way. You know there's one promise God hasn't kept. I think he's about to do it. He says he'll spew us out of his mouth. It'll do us good when he does. I'd like to see every bank in America break this year, except for this fact, that the poor people would suffer more. The other people are all well padded up. All the big evangelists are well padded. They've buffered what they've loathed, they've invested, invested, invested. But God's going to do it in his way. He'll pull the pillars of the world down to glorify his son. It's not going to end up in a communist state, it's going to end up in Jesus' state. I thank God I've got a kingdom that won't abdicate. I thank God I've got a king that nobody can throw off his throne. I'd like to hear the Messiah, if you will do the thing as I've asked you to sing it right now, but we can't. When it says, and he shall reign forever and ever, and the sopranos go up, you know, king of kings, and up they, you think they'll crack up, but they still keep going away there. What a glorious thing. Well I tried, I didn't do too good a job yesterday, but you know some of these smart preachers, I'm sure, when, when Gabriel sounds the trumpet and says, his excellency the apostle Paul is coming for his reward, and all the angels and others bow, and I see this little man, according to tradition he was a bit bent, he was about five feet one in height, his glorified body will be different, but maybe he'll have some tokens, just as Jesus has tokens of his passion. And I see this man coming down, and people begin to shout and scream, and the man that wrote 14 epistles when he wasn't in jail, the man that went to heaven for a trip, and he never, he never wrote a book about it, wasn't he slow? I mean he could have written a book, my trip to heaven, autographed copies, 150 dollars each. But the greatest honor ever given to any man was given to this man, he was flesh and blood like me, he was smart, I know that. But the greatest honor ever paid to a man outside of Jesus, paid to Paul. Because when he was casting demons out, out of a man, the demons jumped up and kicks the preacher around, I think they should do that too. What did they say, Jesus we know, and Paul we know, is there anything greater than to be put on the level with Jesus? Is there anything greater than people who say of Jesus, some say Jeremiah, the man who broke his heart for his nation, the man who was put in prison and they wouldn't feed him properly. Dear God we want to go to heaven in Rolls Royces, we want to go to heaven with all the creature comforts we can get, and God is looking for some men that will throw the whole thing away and don't care a hill of beans about it for creature comfort. And don't care where they sleep or how they live. Sure it's reckless, the most reckless thing in the world is the word of God. In 1934, I was going down the street, at the time I was the pastor of the largest holiest church in England. I went to the back street, there was a man used to sit there, he had a long white beard like Socrates, I never saw Socrates, and he had an abnormally large head, he was brilliant, he'd never been to school. He used to sit in the city library, and boy he could battle the theologians when they had street meetings. I was going up the street with my Bible under my arm and he stopped and said, well pastor you should be arrested. I said for what, I was in court the other day, the cops are always after me for street meeting. No no no no, he said did you know they passed a new law today in London? No, what was it? That nobody's allowed openly to carry subversive literature, he's an atheist. Mr. Avery said that book under your arm is the most explosive book in the world. An ungodly man telling me. I keep hearing of certain people saying, can you tell me the church where they really are Christians? Isn't that something? You know I think you have to wear a lapel pin, I don't know if you're getting in, but if you have to wear a lapel pin to let people know you're a Christian, there's something wrong. If it's a point of reference just just for testimony, that's okay. But you know we're supposed to be living epistles, living epistles. As I prayed the other week, I've prayed since, I'll pray again I guess. Yeah I was reading, my dear wife reminded me, or someone else reminded me today, at the conference I was going to read about Spurgeon. Do you know Spurgeon was nearly 20 years in that church, he won more souls to God than any other man on the face of the earth at that time, he never once made an altercation. If you get saved in the morning service, see me after seven o'clock in the morning for three hours. If you get saved in the night meeting, see me at seven o'clock for three hours. And the reporters said all day long there was a procession of people going to find him, they wanted to know how to get to God. Never once an alterco, and yet more abiding fruit than any preacher of his day. A press reporter said he never once had any healing, anointing people for the sick, but they said his prayers got more people healed than all the hospitals in London put together. And you know what? He never came to have a baptism of the Holy Ghost either. Spurgeon didn't. Some of the greatest souls, I'm not despising that, I'm just saying there's so many people talking high and living low, talking about power but no demonstration of it. But it's going to come, it's sure going to come before very long. So let me finish up with this, verse 16 again, shun profane and vain babblings, stupid talk, they will increase more, that's all it does, increase more to godliness, it doesn't lead us into deeper things with God. Their word will eat us doth a canker. Now if your bible's like mine, there's a reference there, and in the margin it says like gangrene, like gangrene. Blessed are the meek. It's a world where we put all the emphasis on power, on personality. As I said before, the Pentecost of the bible was married to what? The Pentecost of the bible was married to poverty, prisons, privation, persecution. That's what it was married to in the New Testament days. Now what's it married to? Promotion, prosperity, personalities but not much presence of the living God. Well do some homework, see what you have to purge yourself from. Are you mixing with the wrong crowd? Are you saying the wrong thing? Are you wasting time, wasting money, living in a little dizzy circle for yourself? Normally we don't sing but I think we should sing a verse tonight because some of you haven't heard this. When we get to the last stanza if you want to slip out that's fine, I hope you'll stay because the next part of the evening is a power part. We're going to pray and the precious men can pray here. I'm just sorry our brother isn't here from the uh our red-blooded Indian, he's a precious man, he prays with an awesome power when he prays. 29 days, days dying in the west, let's stand.