This sermon emphasizes the importance of living a life devoted to God, comparing the value of our actions and words to wood, hay, stubble, silver, gold, and precious stones. It challenges believers to invest in what truly matters, such as devotion to God, purity in speech, and a deep prayer life, rather than seeking worldly entertainment or approval. The speaker highlights the accountability every individual will face before God, urging a commitment to a life that reflects true holiness and dedication to Christ.

In Malachi, it says that God has a book of remembrance. And I think it would do you good, before you go to bed every night this week, to ask God, what did you put in your book today for my life? Even as a believer, with all your work, they're either wood, or hay, or stubble, or silver, or gold, or precious stones. Now let's visualize, we give a man over here $10,000 and he invests it in wood. The next man is given $10,000, he invests it in hay. The next man has $10,000, it's in stubble. The man over here has $10,000, he invests it in gold. Wouldn't get much at $500 an ounce, would he? And the next man at silver, he wouldn't get too much at $12 an ounce. And the other man in precious stones. But when the fire goes through it, what do you have? All you have is that wood going down until you've got ashes, maybe up to your ankle. And that's all there is left. A man's life, all his ministry, it shows. Do you see the difference between the wood, and the hay, and the stubble, and the silver, and the gold, and the precious stones? Wood, hay, and stubble are above the ground. They catch the eye. Silver, and gold, and precious stones are below the ground. Nobody sees them. There's a lot of public ministry in that day that's going to go down in ashes, my brother. Every penny you earn since you became the property of Jesus Christ, you're given account of before God. Your life is wood, the fire's going to come. Hay, the fire's going to come to it. Stubble, the fire's going to come to it. But what if your life is silver, and gold, and precious stones? What is gold a sign of? Gold, I believe, then, is a sign of our devotion to God. You wouldn't get much gold for $10,000 today. What happens when you burn gold? Nothing. All you do is change it from solid to liquid, but you don't reduce it. What's your devotional life this morning? Would you like Gabriel to hand me the book of your devotional life for the last month and read it to this fine audience? The gold is going to be tied to our devotional life. The silver, what is the silver? The book of Proverbs says the tongue of the just is a choice silver. Yes, every idle word you've spoken, even since you were saved, God has a kind of, you know, he doesn't need a tape recorder, but he has an eternal record of it. You know the gossip, the slander, the criticism, the prejudice. Can you think of all those awesome words? Can you think of all the words we've preached to thousands of people over the years? And we're going to answer, and the fire is going to be put to them? Well, will they be hay and stubble, or will they abide the fire? The fire shall try every believer's words. Silver, gold, precious stones. Well, what are the precious stones? Well, when I read that, I think of the breastplate that was on the priest, and he went into the holy place to pray with a breastplate on him. I've said it many times, I've said it again this morning, that no man is greater than his prayer life. I don't care about his organization and his... Let me live with a man a while and share his prayer life, and I'll tell you how tall I think he is or how majestic I think he is in God. I think again of a statement Dr. Totem made to me once. He said, Len, you know what? He said, we'll hardly get our feet out of time into eternity, and gaze on eternity with what we bow our heads in shame and humiliation and say, my God, look at all the riches there were in Jesus Christ, and I've come to the judgment seat almost to pauper. For God has not merely given us Jesus Christ, he's given us all things. And because there isn't enough joy in the house of God, we need entertainment. Because entertainment is the devil's substitute for joy. Because there isn't enough power in the house of God, people are always looking for the last scientific development, and their hair stands up when they see some fancy show on TV. When I see the church in the New Testament, they didn't have stately buildings, they didn't have paid evangelists, they didn't have a lot of money, they didn't have organization, they just couldn't get on TV and beg. But I'll tell you what they did, they turned the world upside down. And I'm embarrassed to be part of the church of Jesus today because I believe it's an embarrassment to a holy God. Most of our joy is clapping our hands and having a good time, and then afterwards we're talking all the drivel of the world. Can he share his sorrow with you? If you're going to get mature in God, all the dwarfs around you will criticize and sneer at you. And say you're trying to be holier than the rest of us, eh? You'll discover this, the men who have been most heroic for God have been the men with the greatest devotional life. I preach out of my heart all I believe, and I'd die for it. But say, am I just a showman? What's my secret life like? You know, if we can't live as a different breed of people on this earth, we have no right to live here. We shouldn't be affected by changing customs or changing styles or changing opinions or whether the stock market goes up or down. We ought to live every day as though we've come out of another world into this world with the power of that world upon us. To live and speak and move and have our being in Jesus Christ. Before all the saints of all the ages, and you and I to stand there alone on the dais and be judged for the deeds done in the body, for every aspect of our lives, for our praying, for our giving, for our living and for our talking. Only one life will soon be passed. Only one's done for God, little lad. And when I am dying, how glad I shall be if the lamp of my life has been burned out for thee. No, it's not so simple to be a Christian. After all, it's a majestic thing. We ought to live eternally conscious in time. It's going to be an awesome day with the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords and the Judge of Judges. You see, there's no possibility of any rehearsal because, again, this is the final judgment. Can you see all the saints of all the ages? And Leonard Ravenhill is standing there before Christ, whose eyes are full of holiness, where the place is breeding holiness, where there's all the majesty of an awesome God, and he reads the record of my poor life before all the saints of all the ages? Can you see the holy dead all lined up there, all the saints in the Old Testament, all the saints in the New Testament? It's not only true that we live in a world of bankrupt politics, we live in a world, and this is the most tragic of all, of a bankrupt church. God stands eternally on my eyeball. When I stand at the judgment seat of Christ and he shows his plan for me, the plan of my life, as it might have been, had he had his way, and I see how I blocked him here, and I checked him there, and I would not yield my will, will there be grief in my Savior's eyes, grief, though he loves me still? Would he have me rich, and I stand there poor, stripped of all that is great, while memory runs like a hunted thing down the paths I cannot retrace? Lord of the years that are left for me, I give them to thy hand. Take me and break me and mold me to the pattern that thou hast planned. Let's look at all the apostles and all the saints of all the ages. There's Finney, look, there's Finney with his amazing revival. There's William Gould, the founder of the Salvation Army. There's John Wesley. Here are all the great heroic figures, we've all read about them, and here they are all watching while the book is handed down, and somebody's going to read the record. When God opens that book of intercession, when he puts the fire to their prayer life, their devotional life, I'll tell you what, there'll be nothing lost. It won't be wooed, it won't be hay, it won't be stubble. Not concerned about human opinion, not asking for more to spend prodigally on ourselves. But say, O God, I want this life of mine adjusting, for I want to stand in your awesome presence. As James says, we shall not be ashamed of his appearing.