Leonard Ravenhill preaches on 'Paul's Peace', emphasizing the Apostle Paul's unwavering faith and peace amidst trials and tribulations. He reflects on how Paul, despite facing immense suffering and persecution, remained steadfast in his mission, drawing strength from his relationship with Christ. Ravenhill highlights that true peace comes from reliance on God's faithfulness rather than our circumstances, encouraging believers to embrace their challenges as opportunities for spiritual growth. He reminds the congregation that, like Paul, they can find boldness and access to God through the sacrifice of Jesus, who triumphed over sin and death.

But once in the end of the age, he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And having obtained eternal redemption for us, we're told that by the eternal spirit, he offered himself without spot to God. We thank you that that life of which we have been singing this afternoon, the life of the Lord Jesus, was unblemished in every way. And therefore he was able to present himself as a lamb without blemish. Remember the claim of the Old Testament priest was that the lamb should not in any way be defiled. Could not be blind in one eye or lame in one leg. It must be as far as possibly humanly possible or naturally possible a perfect offering. We thank you that Jesus came having triumphed over death and over sin. Having outmaneuvered every temptation that Satan brought to him, having conquered. In every area there was nothing else for him to do. He had offered, made a perfect round of life and then he made a perfect offering. We thank you that he made a perfect atonement. And because of him we have access to thee this afternoon. We think of the kings of the earth. They live behind their palace walls and they're guarded by soldiers and they're inaccessible. And so the great people, so often they're guarded and there's no entrance into their presence. And if we entered they might consider us unworthy to be there. But we thank you that we have this access into the presence of the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. There is none to keep us away, there are no gates up, there are no bars. The only barrier that could come would be that we have defiled ourselves and made it impossible to see thee. But Lord we thank you again for the precious blood of which we have been singing that there is cleansing through that blood. And that we have boldness to come into thy presence, not with arrogance but with boldness. Because again of his unchangeable priesthood we have sent some wonderful things. We trust we grasped them as we sang them. We have talked in our hymn about believing thee, trusting thee. And this isn't always as easy as it sounds. When the sunlight may be yes, in the darkness no. When the road is smooth then we neither need much faith or much courage. But when the way is dark and lonely, when we're isolated, when the winds are blowing and the storms are beating and it looks as though everything would collapse, this is a different situation. And yet Lord we are depending more on thy faithfulness than on our faith. Our faith is not in our faith, our faith is in thy faithfulness. Our faith is in thy promises, they're exceeding great and precious. God we ask you to pity us in the sense we do not explore more and more of the possibilities of grace. Again we're so surrounded by creature comforts. We don't have to trust you for daily bread, we've got today's and we've got some for tomorrow and a day or two after. There's not much we have to trust thee for in this area but when it comes to spiritual things every day we need new supplies of grace and of courage and of strength. Every day we'll see a new warfare, a new challenge. Something that Satan would seek to put as a roadblock in our way. And yet Lord as we think of the course that the church has taken over the years. Two thousand years she's been battered and bruised and baffled. She's been oppressed, she's been to many serious points of putting to captivity. She is now in Russia, China and elsewhere. Nearly thank thee that she has triumphed. And you've given us the assurance that she's going to weather it right through the storm. It gets a thousand times worse, you said the gates of hell shall not prevail against her. And therefore any other gates that come don't matter too much. We thank you for the unveiling you've given us of the, again the possibilities of grace as we draw on thee. If we're weak it's because we choose to be. We can't be strong in thee if we will. If our vision is limited it doesn't need to be. It's because we haven't pierced the depths of thy word. If there's weakness it's because we have not assimilated truth as we should have. If we're bruised it's because we have not come to thee for healing in our spirits. If we're confused and we know that this can happen again and again. There are answers to our situations. They're not always easy we know. We don't bulldoze every hill in front of us otherwise our muscles would never get strong with climbing. We know that there are mountains in the way and yet you said that we can say to this mountain be thou removed. Whether it's a financial mountain or physical or in some other way. We would thank you again for all who have instructed us in any way. All the hymns that have cheered our spirits when we leaned down. The lives of great men and women. They were flesh and blood just like us. They had their doubts, their fears, their upsets. They had those who betrayed them. They had those who lied about them. They had those who misrepresented them. And yet they deafened their ears to every other voice and heard only thy voice. They blinded their eyes to every other path that was leading maybe to more success or other things. And they chose the narrow way that lead us to life. It surely isn't as crowded as the broad way that lead us to destruction. You told us it's a narrow way. You told us few there be that find it. If there are not many people on the way it's going to be fairly lonely anyhow. But again we thank you that you've anticipated every need. We pray that you'll enrich us in this quiet hour in your presence. We would again be still and know that thou art God. We'll be back tomorrow in a competitive world, a greedy world. A world that's striving for things that don't really matter. And they'll give their very lives blood for things that are perishing anyhow. Lord we have to go back into it yet we pray that we should be stronger for having met here. That we should have heard thy voice as we've said in our hymn. I have heard thy voice and it told thy love to me. Reassure us again that we're not treading this way alone, fighting this battle alone, facing the world alone. You said I will never leave thee or forsake thee. And if we have the abiding presence then Lord what else is there? This is surely the greatest thing this side of eternity to know not only you're with us but in us. That you go before us, you guide us. Bless the friends who are absent, some of them by choice, some of them by situations perhaps they can't help. Again bless each home represented here with the precious children that can be influenced for thee. Grant to all that the parents may have that wisdom and grace and love and tenderness. And instruct these little ones with that needed wisdom and gentleness as they too go out back to school again. With all the challenges of school and much evil in the schools we pray that you'll keep them unspotted from it all. Again we ask you for our brothers and sisters in countries where they're not just as privileged as we are. Be their sufficiency we pray. Grant today that the true ministers of the cross may speak as thus saith the Lord. We long again Lord, we seem to feel day by day we're surrounded by giants that we've no davids to slay them. We're surrounded by arrogant kings that will put Daniel back into prison and yet we know you're the God who brings Daniel out too. We're surrounded by hostile forces that would put the three Hebrew children in the burning fiery furnace. And you let them go there because they wouldn't have seen the form of the fourth. Except you allowed your children as it were to go to the very gates of death and in the midst of that you triumph. And this is your way. We're glad you don't work according to our way. We're glad we don't have to give you advice, we'd surely foul the thing up. Lord we just gently walk with our hands in your hand and say we don't know king eternal. We promise by your grace we'll obey every bit of life you give us. Carry any cross you lay upon us and fight a good fight of faith with the strength you endue us with. In Jesus name. Chapter 5. The gospel is recorded by Matthew. Verse 9. Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God. There's a poem, I think it's a poem or a bit of doggle or something that says I'd rather see a sermon than hear one any day. And I guess that goes for most of us. We'd rather see somebody living the gospel than somebody just preaching it. And I think that the strength, in fact I'm sure the strength of the life of the Lord Jesus, because in one sense I know his life was from his father in that sense, but the strength was that Jesus was everything he preached. And I think too that this is the strength of the Apostle Paul. He is the best example of his own philosophy. He wasn't a sign post standing on the road with something painted on, go that way. He was a guide who was leading. And then I thought about this scripture again. Blessed are the peacemakers. As I've said today, it's blessed are the pacemakers. Those who are going somewhere and going fast, even if they're going nowhere. As long as you're going, that's all that matters these days. You may be going in circles, you may be going the wrong way, but keep going. That seems to be the philosophy of the world. We were saying coming down in the car there, these boys have been doing a dirty deal on the wheat. The government isn't going to send them to prison for stealing it, but for not paying tax on what they stole. That shows you how compassionate the government can be. Anybody else would have to go to jail, but anyhow, it's a world of activity. And as we said last week, it's a world of hostility. I think the Apostle Paul is the best example of the peacemakers. For after all, if you're a peacemaker, surely you wouldn't have to have peace. The invasion of sin into the world shattered everything. As we said the other week, it shattered man in his individual life. He's a double-minded man. He's a double disposition man. Somebody has said that Romans chapter 7 is the most tragic thing that was ever written. You can read Dante's Inferno and anything you like, but there's nothing deeper, there's nothing more tragic than Romans 7. Except one preacher said, except some of our sermons may be worse than that, but there it is. But it's an exposure of the double-mindedness of man. I would do good and evil if present with me. Or as James again says, a double-minded man is unstable. And when sin came in, it stripped man's personality. There's a hymn we used to sing a lot, Oh Happy Day, that fixed my choice on thee, my Savior and my God. The last verse of that says, Now rest my long-divided heart. You know, you say sometimes I feel something pulling both ways. Well, I guess you're going to have that all through life anyhow because we're always making choices. But again, Paul is a supreme example of a man who has found peace with God. I never fail to feel totally humiliated when I read even any fraction of the life of this amazing man. If you study his life geographically, the areas that he covered without planes or trains, it's fantastic that he made the mystery journeys that he made in the ships that these days wouldn't be allowed to go down a river. It's amazing when you think of where he started. He started in Tarsus, the historic capital of the world. He ended up in Rome, the military capital of the world. In between, he went to Jerusalem, the religious capital of the world, and he went to, in the 17th chapter of Acts, he went to Athens, the intellectual capital of the world. And right from Athens, where they worshipped the brain, he went to Covent, where they worshipped the body. Athens, where they admired love, he went to Covent, where they admired lust. And so he went not only to the military capital and the intellectual capital, but the next step from that, from these refined cultured people on the mountain there. People that go to Mars Hill of Ptolemy, Dr. Paul Rees said he found it more exciting even than some places in Palestine. Just stand on the hill and imagine the Greeks on the Areopagus, as it's called, the intellectuals and the poets and all the other smart boys were all there. And they found Paul as smart as they were. They came up with history, quoted their history, came up with poetry, quoted their poetry, and they were baffled. Because they thought he was a rather unlearned and ignorant man, he wasn't a muscle man, he wouldn't have been on the football team if they'd had them. He was a small man, we're told, about five feet with a big nose, so if you had one, take courage. And he had a lot of deformities. And he got on all right, well he argued, you see philosophers, poetry with poets, history with historians, and then suddenly he put a trumpet to his lips and he blasted them all off their seats. Not literally, as we say, well he blew them off metaphorically. Because he sounded the trumpet, a thing they'd never heard in their lives, the resurrection of Jesus. And this was just beyond anything they'd ever heard or imagined. I mean that somebody once rose from the dead, they said this is crazy. And then from there again I say he goes right down to the very sewers, the most immoral place in the world. You can roll Las Vegas and Babylon and everything into one and you won't touch the depths. In fact, in the days of the Apostle Paul, instead of saying that a man was sensuous, devilish, this that and the other, all you did, you tagged him and said he's a Corinthian. And then you knew he'd been through hell and back or was living down there anyhow. And it all began when Paul was going down that Damascus road, as you know, he wore a toga, I'm sure he did, a Roman garment. And inside of it he carried what he thought was the death sentence of the church. He had a signed document from those in Jerusalem. If he found anybody in the way of Jesus Christ he could put them to death. I'm going to get hold of them, I'm going to strangle them. And yet you remember the turning point in his life. As somebody has said, and it's so true, the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church. Wherever the church suffers most, she prospers most. And one day they were throwing stones at a boy, maybe 19 years of age. Stephen, full of faith of the Holy Ghost. I don't know why we always hold Peter up and say this is Peter before Pentecost. He doesn't come anywhere near the picture as far as I'm concerned. With the young man Stephen. Because if you read that chapter you'll discover how many things it says about Stephen. And he was filled with wisdom and he was filled with knowledge and he was filled with power. And they couldn't resist him. And here's a man standing and the young man takes his clothes off. And they throw them at the feet of this fellow standing here, this bitter Jew. And the young man did exactly like his Lord. As the blood began to ooze out of his body and he got more faith. He lifted his hands and his face shone like the face of an angel. And he said, Lord forgive them, they know not what they do. And that just ripped the heart out of the Apostle. He wasn't the Apostle then, he was sought. How in the world does a man do that? He ought to be cursing them and arius blessing them. And saying Lord take care of them. I'm alright, don't you worry about me. That was the seed, the blood of the martyr was the seed in the heart of the Apostle. And then God sent somebody along. You know, Paul may plant an Apollos water. And you never know, when you take the wrong end of a deal, how much good it does. You know, if you took the wrong end, you'd be a lot more successful than when you answered back. When you answer back, somebody knows they've riled you. And they're thinking of something to answer you, and you're thinking of something to answer them. Let them win. I've let a man win over me many a time and I knew it was wrong. I thought, well it does him good anyhow. He's doing me no harm, I know I'm right. So what's the good of arguing anyhow, you see? So you sit back and relax and enjoy the whole thing. And the young man there just went to heaven. And Paul went on his way down that Damascus road, breathing out threatenings. I think God needs us according to our disposition. I can't think that Saul was going down that road walking, I'm sure. Because he was going a long way, he was going on the back of a horse. And the Lord picks him off the horse. You know, the red skin bit the dust. In this case, the big shot bit the dust. The heart of Libya opened like a flower. Ever hear a flower open? I never did. They open quietly. The sun kisses them. They don't like that. And the heart of Libya opened. She was a gentle lady. Pretty well to do lady. A seller of purple. That doesn't sound much when you can go to Penny's and buy it. One ninety eighty yard tomorrow in the sale, does it? But when you realize that when they made things, they put every thread in by hand and the only way they could dye it was to gather certain flowers and berries and make a solution and dye it. You remember what it says about the rich man and Lazarus? That the rich man what? He spread some just every day and he wore garments of purple. Jesus had a garment from his neck to his toes just made of homespun. Hot sacking, what you'd make a sack out of. She was a pretty well to do lady. And the impact of the gospel on her was that her heart opened just like a flower opens to the sun. But Paul needs something else. He's a rough man. And if you start praying roughly to God, I'll tell you, one's going to win and it won't be you. You just pray as roughly as you'll pray. And he just sent somebody down and knocked Paul out. And he was blind for a day or two. You know, I've often wondered how many Christians, because there were lots of Christians. Jesus was seen as 500 present at once. I wonder how many Christians that were praying that morning and all they did was say, Lord, take care of me and don't let anybody run into my camel today and give me a good price in the market or something, you know, with the products and so forth. I wonder how many people prayed and that's all they did. You know, give God a shopping list. Lord, do this, do this, do this, do this. Thank you. Amen. Let me go. That's what it works out to some. But one man stayed and listened. The Lord said, come here a minute just before you go. I want to tell you something. There's a man called Peter. Let me give you his name. He's in the house. There's a man called Saul. He's care of Peter in the street called Straight number 177 and so forth and so forth. Go visit him. That's what it said, except the number isn't in. I put that in because you wouldn't understand if I did. But anyhow, he told him the street. He told him the man he was living with. Well, are you going to suggest God doesn't know your name and address? You think the Lord didn't put Olsen's new business house, where is it? Perkins Road, 470 something or is it? Of course he did. They opened their shop there this week, so I'm getting a commercial incentive. I get 10%. I mean, I don't get anything on the deal, but you go down and see their shop. But if the Lord took care of a man like that, do you think he doesn't know your name and address? He surely does. I know he knows ours. If he doesn't know yours, he's your fault. You'd better get on the list. It's the best list you can be on. And he sent him down to the house. And when he got there, they didn't beat him up. He said, brother Saul, the Lord then appeared to me. Isn't it amazing what God will do to get hold of one man? Jesus slipped off his throne that day and blocked him on the road. Saul was sure he could get away with it. I'll liquidate these folks. There's nothing in that Jesus business anyhow. We've had lots of prophets and they came and went and Jesus is the same. I'll rub this thing out. I'm going to make my name in history as the man that liquidated. You see, no sooner was the infant Christ born than Herod was going to kill him. No sooner was the infant church born than Saul was going to kill him. Well, that's the most crazy thing in the world. I mean, so what? The church has been oppressed and suppressed and depressed and everything else in Russia, but it hasn't been liquidated. There are stories coming out of Russia now that they're having tremendous problems with young people getting saved. Some tourists went to a certain place not too long ago and there was a police barrier across the road. You can't enter this city. Why not? Well, you can't enter it. They had heard that there was a revival amongst the young people and they're not allowed to go in. You just can't win against God anyhow. And Saul eventually found he couldn't. But how amazing that God takes all of this man. You know, God's ways are not our ways. I'd be glad about that. Man, if God was as stupid as you, I mean, as we are, wouldn't it be terrible? His ways are not our ways. God is going to break the Church of Rome in two. What does he do? He goes in the middle of the Church of Rome and takes Martin Luther out of it. You'd think he'd start outside with somebody a bit cleaner than that, but anyhow he started with the man in the middle. He's going to shake the Church of England. What does he do? He goes into the middle and takes John Wesley out of it. He's going to break up this system. What does he do? He goes right into the middle and takes the most learned man of his day and gets him wonderfully saved. And you know what? I'm always glad that the Apostle Paul, on that Damascus road, didn't mean to preach him. That would have been the end of it maybe. Somebody would have stuffed a trap in his hand and told him what to do, give him a copy of the four laws or something and tithe and do this and get baptized and that would be the end of it. You can meet preachers and be the same. You can't meet Jesus and be the same. Something radical has to happen one way or another if you meet the Lord Jesus and he met the Lord Jesus on the road. And he explains it all because, you see, on that Damascus road, and then a little later, not very long after, he was given a wonderful experience. He was taken into the bush for about three and a half years. God's Bible school. A lady asked me one day, because she'd only heard me preach one night, but she asked me what university I went to. And I told her Bush University. And she said, Bush University. Do I know anybody that went there? I said, well, I don't know. Moses went. She said, Moses who? You better learn it. And I said, I went to Bush University. It's the best university. It's still open. You don't always graduate after three years or ten years. As a matter of fact, you don't get your graduation papers if you're there 50 years. You get them at the other side of the fence when you get up there, you see. It's a long, long school to be in. And it's a very expensive school to be in. And the Lord took him into that experience. And do you know what? Well, you don't know what, because I don't. I can't tell you. But I know one thing that happened to him while he was there. He was taken up into the heavens. He hasn't given us a clue. He hasn't told us a thing, but we saw that. The Lord told him to keep his mouth shut. That's why I never took a woman up there. He said, alright, you can go into heaven, but you never say a word about it. I remember being in a meeting where a man said, my wife has enjoyed your books. Have you read her book? I said, no. Did she write one about a cookery or something? No, no, no. My wife is the woman that went to heaven, and she was there seven days. And when she came back to earth, she pushed the bed from the wall, and she walked around on the tiptoes for seven days. Didn't eat, didn't drink, didn't sleep, didn't do anything for seven days. She went around on the tiptoes, round the bed, round the bed, round the bed, round the bed, seven days. He said, isn't that wonderful? I said, I don't know. I said, I'll tell you one thing, brother. If I get to heaven, when I get there, Gabriel won't pitch me back in this dirty old room. You won't get me coming down here. Not till the Lord has purged it with fire and made a new heaven and a new earth. But the Apostle Paul was caught up there, and he had revelations. He said, such revelations. I wish he'd given us a clue. I'm as curious as a woman, I'll admit that. I'd like to know something. What in the world did he see? Do you think God rolled a plan of the ages from the incarnation to the consummation? The incarnation, of course, the theological work. The birth of Jesus, right to the final blast when all of life is over and our work on earth is done and governments have ended. There's no banks, no business, and we're out of time. Do you think God showed you a plan and said, look, I want to show you the Apostle Paul. The Romans are going to go into Britain, and this is going to happen, and that's going to happen. There's going to be at least a couple of thousand years of church history. There are going to be wicked systems. I'll tell you who Antichrist is. I'll tell you who the beast and the prophet are. I'll give you all the information. As long as you don't write it down in another book, you know, like you did some stuff to the Romans or anybody else. You know, I believe in spiritual pregnancy. I don't believe women can bear children by the Holy Ghost, like that woman said in England, 18-something, Joanna Southcott. I had a letter from England last year, weak from a man who said that the reason that the world's in the mess it's in is because nobody believed Joanna Southcott. He claims he's born again. And he said that she, it was true, she had all the signs of pregnancy. She got very, very big, and they gave the date of the birth, and nothing happened. He said she was conceiving by the Holy Ghost, which was a lie. It was another deception. But I wonder if, just exactly, what did God show the apostle? Well, I'll tell you this, that somewhere between that experience where Ananias came to him and said, Brother Saul, the Lord appeared, and he sent me to you. And through that three and a half lonely years, I don't believe he had another teacher with him except the Holy Spirit. His revelations must have been astounding. I say I believe in pregnancy, do you know why spiritual pregnancy? Because I believe that as the Holy Ghost came on the Virgin Mary and conceived Jesus in that woman, that the Holy Ghost came on the apostle and conceived all these churches in him, and all these epistles in him. Otherwise, he couldn't have given birth to the church at Corinth, and at Philippi, and at Thessalonica, and Ephesus, and Corinth, and Colossae. He couldn't produce churches, the Holy Ghost had to do it. He couldn't go any time he liked. He sets off, and he's very conscious of God blocking the road, as well as God relieving him to go into certain situations. But somewhere in that situation, he says he exchanged his life. You see, he didn't ask God to get rid of a lot of lousy sins that he had. God doesn't want your sins, he wants you. And he says, I exchanged my life, do you know why? Because he said, it's not I, but Christ that liveth in me. Henry Varley was preaching once in this country, and he was a great preacher, and he shot an arrow at a venture. In the heat of preaching, you often say things you'd like to call back afterwards, and you can't. But in the heat of preaching, he said this, the world is yet to see one man totally committed to Jesus Christ. Well, I don't believe the church has done that for 2,000 years, and everybody's been a disappointment. I guess most of us are a disappointment to God. Let's face it. But I don't believe that everybody that lives since Jesus died and rose again, and could be cleansed and filled, we could be cleansed and filled with the Holy Spirit. Everyone's been just one unbroken succession of failure, failure, failure. Some fail 90%, some fail only 10%. Nobody was totally committed. Well, again, God used it. There was a little guy sitting over there, he wasn't much. Just a little American fellow, not too tall, maybe 5'2", and a bit overweight. And didn't have a very good job. He just sold shoes in a shop. But when Henry Varley said that the world is yet to see what God can do through one man, under his brain, he said, Oh my God, I make a deal with that man. In case you don't know, he became B.L. Moody. Made it. But as you go right back, you discover the first man totally committed, I believe, in the most absolute sense, at least, that we know the outworking of, because, of course, we have the outworking of the life of the Apostle Paul. When people say, you'll get filled, get the baptism of the Spirit, become a superman, well, tell me where they all went out of the upper room. You can't tell me where half a dozen of them went, never mind 120. I've heard people say, well, as you get filled with the Holy Ghost, you become a preacher or an evangelist. Well, you're even a preacher. Everybody's a preacher or an evangelist. You go on out of business anyhow. Paul gives you a lot of secrets. You've got to read between the lines. He doesn't stack them all up in a row, necessarily. But Heraclitus was being called the father of history, which he isn't. He's a father of historians, really. And he tells us in the Temple of Heracles, they kept the altar fires burning 24 hours a day. Priests were on duty every moment of the day. And if a man ran away from his master, a slave, he could run into the temple and maybe wake up the sleepy guy at the fire there and say, brand me, brand me quickly. And he had branding irons like he'd brand cattle. What brand do you want? Brand me in the name of that God. And he would take the branding iron and put it in the furnace, and the man would hold his hand out and he'd brand him in the palm of his hand. And then he'd lift his foot up and he'd brand him in the sole of his foot. And then if he wore a toga or a garment, he'd slip it down and he'd brand it in the base of his neck. He might go out in a public place a few days after, his master might see him and have another slave say, hey, there he is, go, bring him back. The slave would come back, the master would say, listen, I'll slug you with an intruder, you'll never escape again. And he'd pour all his hatred on him and then the slave would stand there and just do that. And the master would nicely see him and say, what? You're the property of a God? Yes, look. Yes, see. The man would say, I can't touch you, you're the total property of God. Naming the name of the God again. And Paul says, finishing his letter to the Galatians, from henceforth let no man trouble me. I bear in my body. Moffat says, I think, I bear in my body the brands of the Lord Jesus. I've been to the cross and the cross had been branded on me. On my feet, so I'm going to walk right. On my hands, so I'm going to work right. On the base of my head, so I'm going to think right. My head to my toes, my hands, they're all branded, I belong to him. So I say, he says, on the Damascus road and subsequently he had an exchange life. Not only an exchange life, he had an exciting life. Because he said he wrestled with wild beasts and deficits. Not only an exciting life, it was an explicit life because he said, this one thing I do. This one thing, he didn't ride two horses, he didn't have two jobs, it's this one thing I do. It was an expensive life because he said, I suffered the loss of all things. You know, like that lovely hymn we sing so often that hurts a bit if you sing it with any conscience at all. My richest gain I count but loss. That doesn't mean selling your house, selling a lot of stuff. It means very often letting somebody rub your nose in the dust and somebody be offensive to you and not retaliate. My richest gain I count but loss. So again, it was an expensive life as well as being an extensive life. Because his life comes right down to the very day in which we live. And in my judgment, the Apostle Paul is the most towering character in the whole of the New Testament. As I was meditating on this this morning, I thought about how long he lived. We don't know, we figure he died maybe not much more than 65, between 65 and 70 at the very most. And yet again I remind you of all that came out of his life, all these epistles, all the churches he founded, all the privations that he suffered and everything else. All count into, well, maybe he was converted at 30 years of age. So 30 to 35 years he had and this was all packed into his life. And then for some reason I never thought of it in my life before, I thought well wait a minute, let me see how long did Adam live. Adam lived 930 years, what did he do? He didn't even build an altar, there isn't an altar in the Bible until we get to the 8th chapter of Genesis. He didn't write a book, he didn't write a psalm, he didn't conduct a service. I don't read how he cared for his children, what did he do? 930 years, what was he doing? And in 30 years, 900 less, Paul does all these amazing things in the power of the Spirit of God. So again, it's not how long we live that matters, it's how we live that matters. Well I'm sure most of us would like Paul's power, wouldn't we? I mean he's pretty powerful, he raised the dead. I like that part, I think I'd like to preach with the same anointing that he had. I'd like the things that characterized his life. He had what we, I mean right around the circle would tell you, he certainly had peace because he says I can glory in tribulation, in necessities, in reproaches. If you saw them coming down the road and you could adopt them, I guess you would, wouldn't you? I mean are you going to embrace hardship? I've embraced difficulty for the fun of showing that you're stronger than the devil. Or he can go around the block and it's going to pass and you can let it go. Who's going to embrace hardship? Who's going to welcome suffering? Who's going to say well Lord if you have a burden, don't lay it on Brother Henry there, give me it. I want to bear it, don't let him have the honor of bearing it. Or are you going to say Lord put it on me because while it's rougher to take right here, when the dividends are paid upstairs you know up in the accounting house, boy it's going to be worth it then. There's going to be no gratis rewards at the other side for us. Yeah I'd like his power and I'd like his peace and I'd like his preaching ability. I'd like his purpose as I've quoted it already. He said this one thing I do, he was single eyed and single hearted for God's glory. I've lost peace and I. It's like a bunch of sweet peas aren't they? Poise and peace and power and personality if you like. What about the others? When you come to privation and poverty and punishment. You see the scripture that really got me going on this thing was this. In his letter to the Acts of the Apostles, the record of Paul on his last journey. Here is a mature man in the 20th chapter of the Acts of the Apostles. You get the story from verse 17 he says, From Miletus he sent to Ephesus and called the elders of the church. When they were come to him he said unto them, We know that from the first day that I came to Asia after what manner I have been with you at all seasons. Serving the Lord with all humility of mind with many tears. What? I thought he was a super man. I thought he was made of iron. Well the strongest man of the gentlest man. He was the strongest man that ever lived and he was a gentle man. He had tears. You know if you took time to think of the Apostle Paul. You find he's got a little bit of everything. You know like you say about a man, he's a genius because he can play the piano like Clyburn. And he can paint like Raphael. And he can sing like somebody else. He's a ten talented man. Well if you make a breakdown in the life of the Apostle Paul. You'll see how the grace of God so worked in him. You can see the characteristics of the giants of previous generations. Moses was a strong man. He was a meek man. Moses prayed one of the greatest prayers in the Bible. When he said and if not. Now that's a prayer. Blot me out. Paul says the same thing in Romans 9. I could wish myself a curse. The literal Greek word there I guess says I'm willing to be damned for their sins. That's pretty strong praying isn't it. You see the patience of Job in him. He's always exhorting long suffering and gentleness and meekness. And so the characteristic of Moses is in him. The characteristic of Job is in him. The characteristic of Jeremiah. Oh that my head were watered. And now he's a fountain of tears. And he says he's prayed with tears over him here. He isn't embarrassed. He doesn't say well excuse me it was in one of my weaker days. I was just getting over a dose of flu and I was a bit emotional at the time. No sir he's as strong as a lion but he's strong enough to weep for them. And temptations which befell me by the lying weight of the Jews. And how I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you. But have showed you and have taught you publicly and from house to house. Testifying both to the Jews also to the Greeks. Repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. Now this is the verse that got me. And now I go bound in spirit to Jerusalem. Not knowing the things that shall befall me there. Saying that the Holy Ghost witnesseth in every city saying. That bonds and afflictions abide me. Now here's the sense of the note. That none of these things move me. Neither counter my life dear unto myself. So that I might finish my course with joy. You see as I said at the beginning. The preacher should be the best example. And Paul guarded his high office very very jealously. He was no beggar he didn't beg money of anybody. He asked for an offering but it was for poor people. He didn't understand that it wasn't for himself. He didn't want you to give him reverence as a kind of a Pope. As being the head of the bunch that's not what he's after. I'll confess this to you. When I read this last night I was moved to tears. I thought of the humble task that the Apostle had. He realizes it's the greatest office this side of eternity. There is no office like the office. Of having the anointing of God for the humble ministry. And I could not help but contrast it with the ministry of the day in which we live. There's so much security in it. And they told me the other day about a man said look it. He said I'm doing my best to hang on to this church for another 18 months. Because I retire at the end of that. I wonder what scripture he has for that. I know evangelists going around getting the biggest money they can from churches. They use the text of Paul. I robbed other churches. Listen to what Paul says here in 2 Corinthians 6. Listen to his esteem of the ministry and think of anything higher if you can. 2 Corinthians 6 verse 3. Giving no offense in anything that the ministry be not blamed. But in all things approving ourselves as the ministers of God. Now this is how we approve ourselves as the ministers of God. In much patience. In afflictions. In necessities. In distresses. In strife. In imprisonments. In labors. In watchings. In fastings. By pureness. By knowledge. By long suffering. By the Holy Ghost. By love and fame. By the word of truth. By the power of God. By the armor of righteousness on the right hand and on the left. Now look at this for a nice mess of pottage for a preacher. By honor and dishonor. Even report and good report. As deceivers and yet true. Unknown and yet well known. Dying and behold we live. As chastened and not killed. As sorrowful yet always rejoicing. As poor yet making many rich. Isn't that something? Giving no offense in strife. In imprisonments. In tumults. In labors. In watchings. In fastings. These he says are the true ingredients of the true man of God. This is all in the deal. If you're ever thinking of throwing your hat in the ring to become a preacher. And I think it will be good in every seminary that we have if at least at the beginning of each seminary period each semester this scripture was read to the students and given them a chance to duck out if they want. You see Paul again here is not thinking in any way about prestige and honor and all this. And here's my question to you. If God reveals to you for the next five years all that's going to happen in your life do you think you'd face it triumphantly? You know like you say I wish I knew what the Lord was going to do next month. Do you really think so? I mean after all you can't get through one day most times. So what are you going to do if he gives you three months, 90 days in a day. If he lifts the veil up and says well there you are. I don't know what it would be like. Again here is a man you see the spirit of God very clearly witnessing that that's a part of the work of the Holy Spirit. He witnesses in conviction. He witnesses in condemnation. He witnesses with joy. And he lets this man go look something is going to happen to you. You better get ready for this thing. The Holy Ghost bearing witness with me that I'm in for a rough time. Bonds and afflictions await me there. Now notice very carefully what he says here or somebody will give you a false deal on it. What does he say? He says but none of these things move me. And you better underline that move in your mind or in your Bible. Because somebody will come along and say if your spirit fills you up. None of these things hurt me. But if they don't hurt you, you don't need victory. Deal? If I hit this table like that. I don't think it's screaming and saying oh I got hurt. But if I reached out this way and hit a certain young lady here on the chin. Now she'd have a chance to retaliate and say well that wasn't fair or something else or something else. And that would be alright in that sense. He doesn't say none of these things move me, hurt me. He says none of these things move me. Or we're going to get hurt. Otherwise why does he say? He says I've been in tears. And I read that in the second letter to the Corinthians. Where he talks about two months. And in labors, in watchings, in fastings, in necessities, in distress. How in the world? Come on you can't have both. Those are all bruises. Some of them are severe. Shall we say you've been hacked with a sword. You've suffered something which is a loss. Now if you say well of course I don't bother about things like that. Oh come on. They're going to hurt you. They're going to get wounded in the battle. But that's exactly where we prove the grace of God, the sufficiency of God. His strength is made perfect in my weakness. There is a balm in Gilead. There is a physician there. The old Scottish said Rutherford was banished into prison. And they put him in a lousy tower. It's out on the vast rock off the coast of Scotland. The waves beat against it day and night. When there's a severe storm it thunders against it and it's misery. You think of this two, three hundred years back. And no warmth of any kind. Slimy walls and food was brought to him. Cold. And everything was as repulsive as it could be. And somebody visited him one day. Kind of suggested that after all maybe he had got his wires crossed. I mean sure he has a reputation as a saint and a great preacher. But I mean is this what God pays out? Is he that kind of a taskmaster? Doesn't he pay better than this? And old Rutherford in essence shook his head and said Hey you've got it all wrong. He said when you're not here. You say that wall. Oh yeah the wall's slimy. It's got snails on it. It's dirty. When you open the door and the sun comes in. And he said you know when you're not here those walls shine like rubies. And he said since I've been in the king's cellar. I found the king's wine. After all that's where you keep good wine isn't it? They keep it in the dark. They keep it in the place where it matures. And he said my great discoveries of God have been here. The thing is he said I've been a little troubled in the last week or two. Because God has offered me no challenges. Well you think he got it all at once for the next five years to be shut up in a lousy hall. Where he can't speak to anybody. And the food's bad. And it's in sanitary. And it's terrifying at night. When the storms are breaking. Twenty feet above his head beating. What if the whole place wobbles over. I mean. But he's forgot all that you see. He's insensible to that. Well he's not saying they don't hurt. Of course they hurt. If he's hungry and he's in pain. But he says they don't move me. There are laws of compensation. God says to Abram get thee up out of thy country. And I will give thee. You see. God always out gives. I don't believe in this stuff they have on radio or TV. You can't out give God. Well you might try to be bankrupt. I know a guy that did. It got him big business. And somebody told him that. And he went in for a big deal to give God. And he went bankrupt. And he was bitter and angry about it. Why did God let me down? God didn't let you down. That guy you were trusting let you down. The man that gave you a lie. He let you down. God isn't in the business of recompensing people. As simple as he is. He's not doing much for his children in Russia and China and other countries. Again God is concerned about our spiritual maturity. And he says the Holy Ghost witnesses that in every city there are bonds and afflictions awaiting me. Well he didn't even ask God to remove them did he? He says I'll tell you this. But none of these things move me. Neither counter my life dear to myself. So that I'm finished my course in joy. He uses all these athletic terms all the time. We'll wrestle not against principalities. Because even a couple of hundred years before the Apostle Paul was around. They had the Olympic Games. Maybe he'd been down the street and said oh that man was a heavyweight wrestler. This man over here was somebody else. That man over there was somebody else. He knew all the outstanding men perhaps. Or he knew the athletic games were on. And so this is what he says. I've set my course. Now if you've ever been to sea you know it's one thing to set course. I don't know about you fellas in airplanes. Again this is true in airplanes. I've been in planes where they say well I'm sorry we won't be landing in 15 minutes. Because there's a big storm and we're going so far north we're going round it. I'm glad we did. I thought we'd gone through it anyhow. But you can't always get round them. And you can set course all right. But you can run into very very serious difficulties. You plan what you'll do. No James says you don't do that. Don't say we'll go here or go there. Say if the Lord will. In England you notice that outside of churches very often the speakers for the next conference will be so and so. D.V. which in essence means God willing. They always put D.V. We used to have a man in our church we called D.V. Because of his name. But every time you left him you might say well you'll be at the meeting Tuesday night. D.V. That's all he would say. D.V. D.V. That's what I meant. D.V. You see. But Paul says I'm going to finish my course. I don't care how big the obstacles are. I don't care how serious the conflict may be. I want to tell you that the Holy Ghost is born witness for this reason. And after all to be forewarned is to be forearmed. He's got a foreknowledge of what's coming up. So he says right I'm going to steel myself against that day. But Lord's made it not. Not exactly the time or the place. But he's given me the nature of those things that are coming up against me. And I'm alive. When I read his record I'm pretty embarrassed about it. When I think of the sloppy little boys and the nice pink little fellows in the double knits. And the teasled hair that will be in the pulpits tonight. Singing silly little things. Mountain over the hilltop. Mansion over the hilltop. What not. You've got to make up your mind one of two things when you enter the ministry. You either please God or please men. You can't do both. And you'd better settle for the right one. Or they'll give you a head if you don't. Paul does not in any way underestimate the thing. As a matter of fact he says look if you want to give me a choice. If you say look there's a whipping post. We're going to lash you to that post. And we're going to give you 40 strikes. Say one. The Lord doesn't let you have 40. But 39. And he says. What did he say? Five times I receive 40 strikes. Five 40's are 200 minus 5. 195 lashes to rip his back off. If you'd seen him slip his shirt off you. They thought somebody'd run a plow hole in his back. It was all scars and cuts. The Lictor did it with a thing that had 9 or 10 tails on it. It had a piece of copper on the end. And boy copper can be pretty sharp. And he. Thank you so much. And he. He said I've had 195 lashes like that. Three times I suffered shipwreck. A night and a day I was in the Mediterranean. Hanging on a piece of wood. Beaten up against a rock. Once I was stoned. They dragged me out of Lictor and said. Well that's the end of him. Forget him. The birds will eat him. Got up with a bruise. I guess if you'd seen Paul when I was down here. And his nose wasn't straight. And he didn't look too good. Why? You think anybody would if they'd been blasted with stones all the time. And you can add up it. Add it up if you can. You've got a computer. Work it out. There's sufferings. A night and a day in the Big D. Go to the end of Romans chapter 8. It's personal testimony again. Which is always the strongest thing. He is the best example of what he preaches. And he says. What shall separate us from the love of Christ? Tribulation. Distress. Famine. Peril. Nakedness. Sword. I've been in perils of the deep. In perils of my own countrymen. In perils of robbers. He stacks it all up. And then what he says. Why? You think he didn't tell jokes? Of course he did. All the best jokes. Because when he had seen his back all scarred. And his eye was down. And they say. You know when he says. See what large letters I've written with my own hands. He'd been brutalized with his eyes. So they were deficient. That may or may not be true. But he does say what large letters I write with my own hands. And then you know how he sums it up. That's enough to break the faith of a hundred people. It's enough to turn a thousand people sour. I mean. Why does it all come to me? The Lord could have shared it out a bit better than that couldn't he? I mean my cup always runs over with grief and sorrow and heaviness. You know what he says? Our light affliction which is but for a moment. Isn't that something? Our light affliction which is but for a moment. Worketh for us an exceedingly eternal weight and glory. And to show you how he values the church. And the cares of the church. And what the world can do. That's why he says this. You can beat me up. And rough me up. You can starve me if you like. And do it. But I want to tell you something. Those things are nothing but that which come up upon me daily. The care of all the churches. He's like a mother who's got children in ten different cities. And she hears there's trouble in this city. And there are burnings in that city. And riots in this city. And there's a plague in that city. And the heart of the mother. The old boy goes to bed and slows his head off. And the mother's waking and anxious. And I wonder how Jim's getting on there. And Jack's getting on there. And Arthur is over there. And Henry's over there. And David is over. The heart of the mother. And Paul says I gave birth to these children in Asia Minor. Sure I did. I sent the preachers off. And nobody's ever taken me up on it. But maybe they thought like doing it. But anyhow. I don't believe that a man has a right to preach on. He mustn't go on again. Until like Paul. He says I travelled in birth to make it possible for you. There's a human responsibility. And he says I travelled in birth. And all over Asia Minor. And I have these children. And I get news of these. I get somebody's backs lit. And Demas have forsaken me. And these all tear me up in my spirit. That which cometh upon me daily. The care of all the churches. That's why I say he's a supreme example again. We mentioned Adam a little while ago. He didn't leave anything. He begat, begat, begat. So what. But as regards construction of the world and the church. There's nothing about him. But you know. Modern man. In 1900. I'm going to say 65, 75. I'm getting behind. Sure he's been to the moon. So what. I don't think he's moved two yards. In one sense since the garden of Eden. You know why. Where did Adam stop. In the garden. He stopped at the tree of knowledge. And man's still stuck at the tree of knowledge. He's still trying to get a little more luscious fruit in this. This week is it. How many is it? 80 scientists are meeting at Cape Canaveral today or tomorrow. We're going to shoot something that's going to land on Venus or Mars or somewhere. And see if there's anybody alive. And maybe by the time we get there they won't be. Maybe we'll blow them off the thing. It'll be like this. Everything we go we mess it up anyhow. Went to the moon and left a stack of old rubber and broken down automobile there. We've lost everything up. Mess everything up. But man is still struggling at the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And God says stop him lest he goes knee to the tree. Wouldn't it be awful if man had partaken of eternal life. In the lousy rotten state he was in and rebelled against God. But God cut him off. And men kind of sneer and say well after all that story Adam and Eve. You know eating an apple is all I mean. It couldn't have damaged them too much. And there's nothing really serious about it. And he doesn't know he's doing exactly the same thing. He's denying himself relationship with God. Fellowship with God. Life from God. He's still playing around the tree of knowledge. He still goes whoop into ecstasy if he makes a new discovery about something. The laser ray that was so devastating. We went to the world's fair. Maybe you did in New York. I went because I got it free. I went a couple of times. Very very interesting. They show you a laser beam going through a forest. They're cutting it down like a knife going through. But the trees falling by the humming. Just this beam going up. Like this. In fact it was noiseless. And as that ray went the whole forest was swept down. So terrible that you can just flash one thing. And one light will go through what about 12 inches of steel. So terrible. Now they're going to cut your teeth with it. You know if you aim straight you may come out without your lips. I don't know. But they're going to cut your teeth with it. This is a new science that we've got. And man is toying all the time with this trivia. And we get worse and worse and worse and worse into the mire of sin. We're heading as fast as any jet plane ripping through the sky for destruction and judgment. And it seems everything comes to my desk these days is warning me about the coming. Not only from the standpoint of spiritually minded men. But even the politicians. Even the bankers. I don't know. We're always getting letters on what to do with your gold. And we don't have any. Some of it is expired there. But anyhow we're always told buy this and don't buy that. And do get something else. And be sure you get Krugers from Africa. Because it's the purest gold. And it weighs one ounce. And all the rest of it. And then underneath dirt. Dirt. Dirt. There is a straining point you know. There's a place where to use the old adage. There is a last straw that breaks the camel's back. Nations thumb their noses at God only so far. Was it last night? The night before? Before I went to bed? I know I've had the news. And I like to get the last news. I'm always interested to see if America is going to buy England as a 52nd state. We turn on the news. And right after they put a man on. An English man. I think his name is Elton John. What a freak. Oh my. It looks as though he'd argued with a bus and got the rest of it. His glasses were so big. He looked like an idiot. And then some other freak came on with him. And I thought well goodness, goodness, goodness, goodness. You know. We had a girl in our street. She got some guy to dance. You ever see anybody with a. They go like this all the time. They can't keep still. They rig them. And they do this. And now they call it dancing. This girl had it all made. But they took her to an institution because they thought she was nuts. And tied her up. But now they do that. And they play music to it. And it's considered the thing that's in. And they were exalting some woman. Faye Dunway. Isn't it? Faye Dunway. Most beautiful woman in the world. Don't believe that. But she's had three kids by three different men. And she's heading for somebody else right now. Morality doesn't mean a thing. God's laws are trampled underfoot with impunity. As I said last week. Bella Hapsburg is in New York there. They've got Bella's bunch there. That are promoting immorality. And wanting to legalize everyone in the world. As well as abortion. Homosexuality. What have you got? And it's fantastic when you think of it. It's awful when you think again of the violence that goes on in the country. The violence that goes on in politics. The violence that goes on in the rotten grain deals. That we've been selling the four sweepings and getting away with it. As I say. They're not summoning the men for selling lousy stuff. They're going to get on their tail. Because they didn't pay tax on the dirt they sold. The condition of the world right now. This threat to North Africa. Maybe the greatest plague of famine the world has ever known. Could liquidate at least 10 million people. This great big democracy of India. That's boasted it's the greatest modern democracy. And suddenly they've turned the thing over and legalized everything that they wanted to get. It was illegal 12 months ago. It's suddenly legalized. You change it overnight. Nobody cares too much. And the thing that again is evident everywhere is lawlessness. It says that in the day before God sent judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah. Or set the flood. The earth was marked with two things. The earth was corrupt before God and violence. And the new statistics on violence are scaring to death. And yet nobody suggests somehow that the church should go into mourning. And get down to business and meet God. It just goes on it's way. Have a little bible conference. Cheer everybody up. Bring a film in for the kids to see. A Christian film of course. And a wiener roast or something. And a few other trivia's that don't matter a hell of a beat. Paul's vision never dimmed. And his preaching was never dull. And the reason his preaching was never dull was his vision never dimmed. He says I believe that if I were to die now. Shut off this mortal coil as Shakespeare said. He said if I were to die now I'd be absent from the body present with the Lord. He said but knowing this also. Knowing the terror of the Lord. Well we don't hear anything about the terror of the Lord now. You put down your bumper sticker they may be rip the bumper off. But Jesus loved you. Everybody said he was a nice keeper. He was still to the first. Okay. But nobody puts anything serious on bumper stickers. It's nonsense you see. But we haven't come down on the serious side of the fence. How do you expect the world to take us serious? We're not serious about it. Paul was. Woe is unto me he said if I preach not the gospel. I think again to use an old phrase of mine. I think that Paul was maybe the most eternally conscious man that the world has ever known. And this was the secret of all the great preachers. It doesn't matter whether they were Presbyterians or Baptists or Pentecostals. The men who were mightiest in the scriptures were men who were eternally conscious. I went up to preach to 175 preachers if they all turn up. First, second week in September up there right on the southern tip of Lake Michigan in Sandusky. And stress again the fact that the preachers have only two things to do according to Acts 6. Give themselves continually to a prayer from the womb of God. Let the deacons bury the dead. After all the scripture says let the dead bury the dead. Let the deacons bury the dead. I told them that in one church and they all gasped. They thought it was terrible. That's not what the scripture says anyhow. But that's what deacons are for. Bury the dead, visit the sick, look after the poor. None of the preachers jump to bury the dead. None of the preachers jump to running and stuffing cups of tea or coffee or going around. That man has so little time to do it that he needs to be as total as he can be. He's barely 12 hours a day. And going to that meeting so that when he goes into the meeting he charges the atmosphere. We have a little thing. We used to have a little thing at home like a spoon with holes in it. And you dip it in the tea and then cover it over the top and put it in hot water. Well if you put tea in it you're going to get tea. If you put coffee in it you're going to get coffee. The old preachers used to say a man is his own atmosphere. I've heard men say well I went to... Now people can foul up the atmosphere I'm sure of that. I usually don't like the last night in a big meeting. I say look please don't ask your friends to come. Because they haven't been in the spirit of the meeting. And they come in curious and they're mulling about. And say oh that fellow talks a bit different to us. I don't want them to come. Let them stay out. Let people get under 4 or 5 or 6 nights of preaching. Let God get a hook in their jaws. The word of God says you get somewhere with them. So many people come and they can't put a barrier up. But by and large the preacher is his own atmosphere. Just as if you put coffee in that plunger you get coffee. If you have tea in it you'll get tea. If you get a silly frivolous man he'll get the congregation laughing. And the silliest thing. What a nice fellow. Boy he's going to preach tomorrow night on tiddlywinks or something. Boy I'm not going to miss that. I think it's great. Next night he's going to preach on something else. And they're thrilled to death. Would you really like to go to a church so pregnant with God the Holy Ghost in the atmosphere. That when you walk through the door you were scared stiff. You've got to be right with God. Or you might drop dead. Nobody dare join the church. It's the easiest thing you can join these days. Nobody's going to shake you up too much. Oh who cares what you've been or where you are. Well I don't. You'll go to heaven back. I don't care. I don't care how rotten the life is. If that man or woman comes to the cross and there they get saved. Born again of the Spirit and the Holy Spirit involves them. They're as precious to God as I am. They mean as much to God as you mean. If they've really repented, turned their back on sin and become a new creature in Christ Jesus. The possibilities of grace are open for all. But you see men don't regard this holy office like this. Some of the children went red carpets. Went as the pastor to Moody. Moody church. Well everything went well. He preached there once and they enjoyed him. And they invited him to come and be pastor. And he came. After the first year of being there they were surveying the ministry. And he came to the annual business meeting of the elders and deacons and what have you got. And they had a presiding deacon there you know. Chairman of the board. The board is spelled D-O-R-E-E-D. But he was the chairman of the board and he sat there and then he said to the pastor. Would you kindly if you don't mind leaving now. We have business to do for the rest of the year. Leave. Yes yes the pastor doesn't take any back. And they said he had to sit outside at the first time. And the board was maybe a bunch of rich women around town that had kept that church going pretty much. And after a while he rebelled against that and certainly he should. But you see again the holy office of the ministry. I don't care a hill of beans that the men regard me. They don't worry me at all. But I am praying. I am praying all the time that Lord as I go to this meeting again. I haven't been out much this year. It will be hard on my voices. I haven't been preaching that much. But I am praying that when we go the atmosphere will be transformed. Not because I am there but God will so impregnate that atmosphere. The spirit of God will so come down that either those men will break up before God and run back home. And I don't care which they do. Because if they face God head on and face truth head on. They are better to get out of it than be hypocrites and try and wear away the time during the week. Knowing it is going to get worse and worse which it surely is. I look to God to do something new then. But you see again Paul's ministry is this. I am not here to be smiled upon. You don't have to give me the nicest house in the neighborhood and guarantee me a new car. Guarantee me this. Let me carry God's burden. Let God put on me what he can't put on anybody else. In other words I say Lord don't give me tasks equal to my strength. But give me strength equal to the tasks. Don't pity me. Don't say well I would like rain on a buddy. I am afraid he is rather deficient in grace and patience and love and tenderness. And I am sorry I can't put it on him. I put it on that creature over there. As I say don't pray that way. Don't get reckless praying because God may take you up on it. That's the whole danger of praying. That one day God may say alright I will cash in on that very thing that man has asked me. You say Lord give me a burden nobody else wants to carry. And the next time it precipitates something on you and you say God I don't understand. I am going to pray so on this issue. I was saying the other day. We haven't done it Martin. Mammy didn't do it. To write to this man Chandler away in Canada. They will die of our thankful ones. Pray them. And the last time I saw him he wrote. He said by the way they laid me out for the third time. The third time I was going to die. He prays and fasts and he is so exhausted. They find him lying at the side of any cabin he can get into bed. And when he gets in bed he can hardly breathe. And so they called all the relatives across Canada. And they said oh we have been twice. Oh well listen you don't worry about this. This is the real thing. He is really going to hop it this time. He is you know. It is finished. He said I could hear them saying that. And his friends are saying you are all being fooled. I just lay there and lay there. And he said God merciful he brought me round again. And you know what? He embraces this troubling spirit God has given it to him. Doesn't ask for publicity. Doesn't ask to be on the platform. Doesn't ask you to write his life story. I am in partnership with God. And he in the sense I am submissive to him. Not just partnership but I am submissive to him. I am his love slave. I am his bond slave. Let my hands perform his bidding. Let my feet run in his way. Let my eyes see Jesus only. Let my lips speak forth his praise. All for Jesus. All for Jesus. Nothing of self all of thee. And this is why again I say Paul says that. He says that the Holy Ghost bears witness and it's alright. You know why I am so sure? Because I look back and say well Lord you have brought me through the last 25 years. I am going to quit now for the next 5. I have faced this. I have faced death. I have faced tumults. I have faced angry moms. I remember the time when 40 men put a vow on we won't sleep until we have cut his head off. And you got me out of that too. You know it's nice when you look back on your personal diary and see how many times you missed death. And strangulation and imprisonment and hardship. It's very strange to us isn't it? We sit in a lovely home. Nice and comfortable. So what does it mean? Well it means we will all go down the drain like everybody else. Unless we perk up and say Lord God what do you want? Don't let me get cheated because I have got a nice house or a nice car. I have a bit of money in the bank. Don't let me go down the drain with the rest of the Christians in the battle that we fought. We are coming into the tightest situation in history. If I could do it I can't. Now I am just saying the Lord might take us up. But if I could you know I said I think to Martha the other day. I said you know sweetie if my days are over I think I would invite Jesus. Get 12 disciples and give them a 3 year course. Stay with them. Walk out and preach. Pray and fast and seek God. And reproduce yourself every 3 years. Wouldn't that be nice if you could do it? And send 12 men out. Just 12 men. And at the end of another 3 years send another. And well I have been on the road a long way now. A long time now. 50 years. If I had done that every 3 years there would be. Well Henry will tell you he is used to calculating. But there have been an awful lot of people around you see. You see you have to make your choices. Let me say this in great. You are just as spiritual as you want to be. So am I. Whether you take Finney, Wesley, Boone. Nobody ever had a bigger Bible than you have. They just use the Bible. Nobody had more access to God than I have. They just use that access better. Nobody ever had more than one brain to think of him. One heart to love him. One body to serve him. One life to yield to him. Just one. But again. What did Adam do with his 930 years? Not much. What did Paul do with his 30? Gave us all these epistles. Founded all these churches. Gave us all these exhortations. Gave us all these fantastic examples. Because he lived in the guidance of the Spirit. The Spirit suffered me not to go there. The Spirit told me what is going to happen. He didn't say just how and where and what. But he said you are in for a rough time. You are going to get beaten up. And he says alright. Let me take you by the grace of God. And the hymn says his loving time passed. Convinced me to think he would leave me at last in trouble to sink. And each Ebenezer we hold in review. Confirms his good pleasure. To see us right through. We didn't sing our hymn. And if we don't Annie will call me tomorrow. So let's sing number 9. Fairest Lord Jesus. Ruler of all nations. Fairest Lord Jesus. Ruler of all nations. O Thou our God and master. Thee will I cherish. Thee will I honor. Have my soul to enjoy and crown. Then on the meadows. And still the woodlands. Open the roofs. Keep our hearts with Thee. Jesus is ever. Jesus is ruler. Who makes a whole world heart to sing. Fair is the sunshine. Fair still the moonlight. As though the trees. We saw before. Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ. And all the angels. And all the angels. Beautiful Savior. Lord of all nations. Son of God. Son of man. Glory and honor. Praise and adoration. Now and forevermore. Jesus. Lord Jesus, we're glad that you are the Lord of the nations. And that yet every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus is Christ to the glory of the Father. As the song says, until then my heart shall go on singing. Until then with joy we'll carry on. Until the day that the Lord shall reveal himself in glory. Keep us fighting the good fight. We thank you as the old hymn says, strength for thy labor the Lord will provide. And we pray that we shall not in any way seek to escape responsibilities. We shall not fail thee in this critical hour of world history. In this day when the church is so impoverished. When she is not esteemed in any way at all. And because they despise her they despise thee really. We pray that somehow the ministry may be visited again. That men may realize what a holy honor this is. What a tremendous responsibility. And touched afresh with the eternal flame we'll go back to a world of bankruptcy and sin. And tell this wonderful story of Jesus and his love. And of the coming of the king of kings and the Lord of lords. Keep us we pray thee in the spirit as we go out again to a world of hostility and opposition. We pray that this peace that passeth all understanding may abide in our hearts. Such a peace that like Paul we'll be able to say none of these things move me. They may hurt us. They may cause us inconvenience. They may cause us tears but they don't need to move us. We can be steadfast and unmovable. Always abiding in the love of God. And for this we'll give thee thanks in Jesus name.