In this sermon, the preacher challenges the audience to reflect on their personal relationship with God. He emphasizes the importance of worshiping God and the cost it may require, such as revising one's social calendar. The preacher also discusses the need for discipline in the Christian life, citing examples of early Christian leaders who had strict devotional practices. He distinguishes between praise and worship, stating that praise is the prelude to true worship. The preacher also highlights the danger of relying on entertainment as a substitute for joy, and encourages the audience to find joy in Jesus, who offers his joy to his disciples.

It's customary, I suppose. Can you hear? This one? This is OK. OK. Thank you. Thank you. Preachers usually put their watches on the desk and when Brother John Garlock is teaching over our way, he repeatedly looks at his watch while he's talking. But when I'm preaching, people keep looking at their watches. I put my watch down on the podium in a large tent in Ireland a few years ago and while I was preaching I hit the watch and it went down in the sawdust. And it took offence. It wouldn't go. So the next night I said to a farmer, would you kindly loan me your watch? Big husky Irishman reached up, gave me his huge watch and he said, Len, you don't need a watch. You need a calendar. Normally I consider myself an evangelist rather than a teacher. But tonight I felt the Lord wanted me to share some thoughts more in the line of teaching. Normally I wait between three and four in the morning. I have a quiet time, usually make some notes. And this morning I made a note of the title for this message tonight. And, excuse me, the title is A Lost Dimension in Christian Living. And to condense it to one word is the thing that you were singing so beautifully a few minutes ago. Worship. Normally we stand to sing. We kneel to pray. But we prosperate ourselves to worship. Very often I go to meetings and someone says, everybody stand or raise your hands and let's worship. I don't accept that as worship. I think that's praise. And praise is the prelude to true worship. Prayer is preoccupation with our needs. Praise is preoccupation with our blessings. Worship is preoccupation with God himself. I've read and read and re-read that 17th chapter of John, I suppose thousands of times in my life. And I remember the day when I discovered the natural divisions in the chapter. Verses 1 to 5 Jesus prays for himself. Verses 6 to 19 he prays for his disciples. Verses 20 to 26 he prays for the world. But recently I revised that idea because in the very first verse he says the supreme desire. And he's praying just about a week before he went to the cross. And it seems to me that the whole of the 26 verses are for the disciples. And he says this one thing. That they may know thee the only true God. And Jesus Christ to whom thou hast sent. I wonder if we were put on the spot. How many of us would actually dare to say that we know God on a personal level. All right the story, I want to read part of it tonight. It's not very exciting. Not in the framework of jets flying over us and computers all around us. And men walking on the clouds without being tethered to a machine. And other men walking on the bottom of the ocean. It's a very undramatic story. Often preachers refer to Matthew, Mark, Luke and John as the four gospels. Well if we had four gospels we'd need four Christs. There are not four gospels, there are four. There's only one gospel told by four different men. And yet the story that I want to read is told by each of these, as we'll call them evangelists. Taking the story from Luke chapter 7 and verse 36. One of the Pharisees desired him that he would eat with him. And he went into the Pharisees house and sat down to meet. And behold a woman in the city who was a sinner. When she knew that Jesus sat at meet in a Pharisees house brought an alabaster box of ointment. She stood at his feet behind him weeping and began to wash his feet with tears. And did wipe them with the hairs of her head. And kissed his feet and anointed them with ointment. Now when the Pharisee which had bitten him saw it he said within himself if this man were a prophet. He would know what manner of woman this is that touches him for she is a sinner. Jesus answering said unto him Simon I have so much to say unto thee. And he said master say on. There was a certain creditor which had two debtors. One owed him five hundred pence and the other fifty. And when they had nothing to pay he frankly forgave them both. Tell me therefore which of them would love him most. And he said I suppose he to whom he forgave most. Jesus said unto him Simon pardon me. And when he had nothing to say he frankly forgave them both. Tell me therefore which of them would love him most. Simon answered and said I suppose that he who was forgiven most. And he said in essence this is why the woman loves me because she's been forgiven most. It took me about fifty years to find out what this story was all about. I read sermons, I heard sermons. And preachers seized on one particular part of the story. One man I remember went on preaching about the different Mary's in the Bible. How many there were. Somebody tried to value the box of ointment that she put on his feet. And so forth and so on. But I discovered a very satisfactory answer as far as I'm concerned about the woman. She went to see Jesus specifically for one thing. Not to see the guests. Not to shake hands with the host. Not even to get a close up view of Jesus. She went to worship him. You say how do you know? I know for two reasons. Number one she took the costliest thing that she had. And number two she never said a word. I said prayer is preoccupation with our needs. Praise is preoccupation with our blessings. True worship I believe is complete silence. Captivated by the majesty and the glory of God himself. There's a poem I haven't, I like to memorize poems. I haven't memorized this. But the writer is right on as far as I'm concerned. He said my goal is God himself. Not joy, not peace, not even blessing. But himself my God. Tis his to lead me there, not mine but his. At any cost dear Lord by any road. One thing I know I cannot say him nay. One thing I do I press toward my Lord. My God my glory here from day to day. And in the glory there my great reward. It's necessary to put this story in the framework of the day in which it happened. I guess we need to go back and remember between Malachi and Matthew. You have a period of 400 years of darkness without any prophetic light. And then just like Haley's comet streaks across the sky. There comes a very difficult man by the name of John Baptist. I love to tell the Baptist that the first man who preached the baptism of the Spirit. Was not a Pentecostal he was John the Baptist. They don't accept it too well but it's true. Then I tell the Pentecostals they were not the first to preach it. It was a Baptist who preached it. Well he shook up the whole of society. 400 years of stillness without any prophetic voice. Is every considerable disadvantage. It says one thing about John the Baptist it doesn't say about Jesus. It says he was filled with the Holy Ghost from his mother's womb. It also says John did no miracle. Nobody ran after him saying heal my child or my husband is blind. He did no miracle. He didn't raise the dead. He did more than that he raised the dead nation. You know there is a famous English art critic by the name of John Ruskin. Somebody asked him once could he define preaching. He said yes 30 minutes to raise the dead. Now don't laugh in class in the morning when you think of what that means. But anyhow. I think it's a good definition. I wonder the other day when they said a chaplain had to go speak to about 20 men on death row. I thought well I have a bigger task than that. I preach to the dead on every row every night nearly. But right after John Baptist is disturbed he has shaken the city, the community, the synagogue, the temple. And then Jesus comes. Now when you read this story you have read it so often it doesn't mean anything. I believe this is the greatest social event in that city that year. People couldn't believe that this miracle working man, this man who claims to be the son of God. They couldn't believe that he was going to die in the house of a very ordinary person. Now you've got problems when you have a banquet. I think first of all he had difficulty because he limited seating accommodation. He had to make a list of his guests. You've got to have the right folk there you know. And he crossed one name out and put in another. He got the mayor of the city and the merchants and the millionaires and everybody. It's rather amazing isn't it when you read this story that we don't know who was on the guest list except the woman that shouldn't have been there. She was a gatecrasher. It's a totally unexampled story. I'm sure it was premeditated. I can think of her there at the door of the house. You could almost see her heart beating. She's going to gatecrash a stag party. Maybe one of the best known if not the best known woman in the city. And next he goes and again she has just a treasure with her. She has an alabaster box of ointment. If you read the version of the story that's given by John. In John 12 it says that she carried a box of ointment that weighed one pound. So what? Who cares whether it weighed a pound or six ounces or five pounds. Well I think it makes a very significant mark on the story. She goes into this party. She sees this amazing man. Maybe she'd seen him many times heal the sick and cleanse the lepers and raise the dead. And there she is nervously jostling at the side of him. And no doubt he was lying on a couch as they did in those days. The Roman style eating his meal. And suddenly she goes up. Now the custom was going into the door to have your feet washed. You see you could label this chapter the complaining Christ. He said I entered into thine house thou gavest me no water. Thou gavest me no oil. Thou gavest me no kiss. But this woman she said wash his feet with water. No never. So she washed his feet with her warm tears. Wipe his feet with a costly towel. No. She pulled the pins out of her hair and let her hair down and dried his feet. With the hair of her head. Which was considered the very wrong thing to do in those days. And then she took the alabaster box of ointment. And she brought it over his feet. You have to read all the versions of the story to find all the details that I am giving. They are not just in one version. But she poured that pungent fragrant ointment on his feet. And then she wiped his feet with the hair of her head. Well do you get the point? The fragrance that she poured out on him came back on her. And the reason why so often we carry little fragrance of Christ. Is we make prayer a convenient place to dump all our problems. We fail to worship him. They said after the people there had gathered at Pentecost. They took knowledge of them that they had been with Jesus. And wherever the woman went she carried the fragrance. That she poured out on the son of God. Charles Wesley has a beautiful hymn in which he says. Oh let me kiss thy bleeding feet. And bathe and wash them with my tears. The story of thy love repeat in every drooping sinners ears. Till all mankind with me may prove thy sovereign everlasting love. Frieda Hambria Allen. An English lady wrote a wonderful poem. I can't quote it all maybe but it begins. Within the veil. You know in the old economy let me say this. In the old testament you had an outer court. Three classes of men in Israel. In the old economy a man could not be a soldier until he was 20. Because both then and now you didn't need brains to kill people. He could not be a soldier till he was 20. He could not be a priest until he was 25. He could not be a high priest until he was 30. Jesus didn't minister till he was 30. Neither did John the Baptist, neither did the apostle Paul. Does that mean you have to be 30 years of age? No 30 is like the number 7. It's a number of completion. The walls of Noah's ark were 30 cubits high. The walls of the house that Solomon built were 30 cubits high. Now in the outer court you had daylight. In the holy place you had lamplight. In the holy of holies there was no light. Daylight in the outer court. Lamplight in the holy place. In the holy of holies no light at all. And no windows. Unless the shekinah glory of God came it was total darkness. A man staggered around. We don't need to wait for the glory of God to come. We start with music and clapping and we try and work up something because there's nothing coming down. So very often. It must have been awesome to go into that pitch dark room when suddenly the glory of God. God who is light. In him is no darkness. He comes. And that blazing glory. An American wrote to him in the 1700s. Before thy never blazing throne. We have no luster of our own. A lady called me. She goes to one of the greatest churches in this country. It was Saturday. And I said well you going to church tomorrow? Yes. I said you expect to tiptoe out of the church tomorrow morning overwhelmed with the holiness and majesty and glory of God? She said never at our church. Let me ask you a simple question. Did you come here tonight to meet God? Or did you come to hear a sermon about him? How often do we go to expect to be overwhelmed with the majesty and glory of God? I believe we have to return to a rediscovery of the majesty of God's glory. Of the holiness of God. It's a fascinating story to me this anyhow. Again she didn't go there to meet the host. She didn't go there to meet the guests. She didn't go there to hear a sermon. She went specifically because I believe she'd been overwhelmed. And recognized something in Jesus Christ that nobody else had recognized. And even if they throw it out on her neck she didn't care. She'd been in his holy presence. She must have been very excited the week after when there was a crowd watching that same man hang on a cross. With blood running out of his feet and out of his hands. And she thought back to the week before when she had those precious feet in her own hands. And she washed and bathed them with her tears. Nobody else thought to do that. If she's the sister of Lazarus and it seems that she was. She didn't love Lazarus enough to take that one pound of ointment and anoint him at his burial. You know there's no evidence that Jesus ever took a bite of food or a drink of wine or anything at that banquet. I can almost imagine Simon, for that was his name, healing angry. Or saying to Jesus, do you realize what this banquet cost me? Do you know I've got the most precious foods? Do you know all the labor involved? And you turn away from the meal? There's no evidence he partook of it. He was satisfied with the worship that that woman gave him. He did not need food. Again it's interesting she came with an alabaster box of ointment worth a lot of money, about 300 pence, which was a year's wages. And broke it on his feet. Go to the 19th chapter of the Gospel of John and it says there that there was some men trudging up a hill. They had a pole and on it they had a hundred pounds of this same ointment. Somebody estimated it was worth more than a million dollars. What were they going to do? They were going to embalm Jesus. But isn't it better to give him a pound of ointment while he's living than a hundred pounds when he's dead? I hear people say sometimes about their money what they're going to do with it after they die. I love dear Dr. Tozer. I spent many many hours with him just the two of us talking. He startled me one day when he said Len, Christians don't tell lies. They just go to church and sing them. Well isn't it true? I mean how many times have you sung with the whole realm of nature mine? It was an offering far too small but you don't give him your bank balance never mind the whole realm of nature. How often do we sing a hymn, a favorite hymn of mine? Beneath the cross of Jesus I fain would take my stand. And in the second or third stanza it says this. Content to let the world go by, to know no shame nor loss. And then there's another part of that hymn that says I ask no other sunshine than the sunshine of thy face. Is that true? I'm not grasping after anything else to be the best-known Bible teacher or have a great ministry or a famous person. I ask no other sunshine than the sunshine of thy face. And if you've got there you've learned how to worship him. People want to go to this place to worship. You remember in the fourth chapter of John? The woman there said well you can't worship here. We need to go to Mount Gerizim. And Jesus says no neither there nor in Jerusalem. The day is coming when you won't need to go to a holy place. Some people want to go to Rome. Some people want to go to Mecca. Some people want to go to some other place. The Irish and I've lived in Ireland it's a wonderful country. The Irish singer Hayman in it it says this. Where'er we seek thee thou art found and every place is hallowed ground. Within the veil Frieda Hanbury Allen says. Be this beloved thy portion within the seat of thy Lord to dwell. Beholding him until thy face is glory. Thy life is love thy lips is praise shall tell. Within the veil for only as thou gazest upon the matchless beauty of his face. Canst thou become a living revelation of his great heart of love his untold grace. Within the veil his fragrance poured upon thee without the veil that fragrance shed abroad. Within the veil his hand shall tune the music which sounds on earth the praises of thy God. I can remember more than once Dr. Torso would say to me. Len well forget all our other people. You and I will seek God face downward. Well if you're gazing only down at the rug you're not distracted by anything else round about. But unless you're absolutely captivated with the Son of God that position down there isn't too attractive. Anyhow this woman worshipped him. Again I don't know if anybody else spoke to him. I know that she didn't speak to him. There's no record of him speaking. She was satisfied to take in the most precious thing that she had. And if you're going to learn to worship God it will cost you something. It will possibly mean that you have to revise your social calendar. We're the most undisciplined age that the world has ever known. I hear about people saying I'm discipling so-and-so. If you disciple somebody it will hit you on the head with a handbook. You say you need to be in bed by 10 o'clock at the latest every night. And up at 4 o'clock by the latest every morning. There's a remarkable book written by a man called, what's his name called? Gouge. He wrote it I think about 1604. It's on the epistles of the Hebrews. It has about 1140 pages. It's worth buying. Keep you busy all year reading it. He finished, not began, he finished his devotions by 2 o'clock every morning. John Wesley rose at 4 every morning. So did Whitefield. I don't know what there is magic about that 4 o'clock figure. But I noticed in reading great biographies and autobiographies. That so many men were, they'd been praying 2 or 3 hours by 5 o'clock in the morning. Do you wonder that they had such expanded intellect? Do you wonder that they discovered something of the height and depth and length and breadth of the love of God? That other people didn't discover? Dr. Tozer didn't hide the fact that he loved to worship. He quoted Faber so often. One of his favorite phrases was, Oh Jesus, Jesus dearest Lord. Forgive me if I say for very love thy sacred name a thousand times a day. Or maybe he'd quote the first verse, My God how wonderful thou art, thy majesty how bright. How beautiful thy mercy seat in depths of burning light. Oh Lord, oh Lord how wonderful will it be. Prostrate before thy throne to lie and gaze and gaze on thee. You think back, how long it is since you went into God's presence. Not to praise and not to pray, but just to adore him. To worship him, to magnify him. To think of his holiness. To think of how many times he could have destroyed you before you were saved. When you were blaspheming, when you were breaking every law. And he kept a list of them. And you'd thin enough to damn the whole neighborhood, never mind yourself. And then he came and intervened in your life and snatched you as a brand from the burning as the word of God says. It's very remarkable isn't it that this woman is in the house of a man by the name of Simon. If you take the story as it's recorded in the 26th chapter of Matthew it says, Jesus went into the house of Simon a leper. Ridiculous. You couldn't go into the house of a leper by law. I can imagine Simon one day goes to his wife and he says, Oh, you haven't used the towels have you? You've got leprosy. How long? Oh about a week. Why didn't you tell me? I didn't want to leave you and the children. Go to the temple immediately and they'll pronounce you unclean. And they cross him off the religious register. Go to the gate of the city, they cross him off the social register. Now here Jesus is sitting in the house of Simon a leper. Well how can it sit in the house of Simon a leper? Only one way he could do it and that was that he'd been healed by Jesus. And yet Jesus has to say to that man, Simon I came into your house, you gave me no water, you gave me no oil, you gave me no kiss, but this woman. The only reason you're sitting in your home here at this meal is that I cleansed you of leprosy. And you got back on the social register and you got back on the religious register. And here you are. You've never even done the very humble task of what the slave used to do at the door. Wash the feet of the person who came in because they wore no hose. And they got grip between their toes and that was uncomfortable. And so the foot washing ceremony was the first thing. And then the anointing of the head. She could have anointed him with oil, that was the cheapest way. But she anointed him with this very, very precious ointment. Have you noticed when people came to worship they brought costly gifts? They came wise men from the east, what did they do? They brought gold, symbolic of deity, frankincense. And the only way that fragrance will come out of frankincense is you put fire to it. And myrrh, a type of suffering. They gave him that myrrh on the cross. This woman brings this costly, most pungent, most expensive gift that she has. She isn't satisfied to just put it on his head, on his feet. She isn't satisfied to kiss him, she can't, she is so passionate. With that sensitivity she has, maybe she already had a preview of the cross. And she doesn't care whether the men kick her out, throw her out. She's got a witness that this man really is who he says he is, he's a son of God. And therefore again she seizes his feet, washes them with those warm tears, wipes them with the hair of her head, pours that costly ointment on him. I say a week after when everybody else was weeping round the cross, I believe she was the only one with a smile. I was terrified before I broke into that house, that I get thrown out. But oh, I'm so glad now I took the risk. I'm so glad even though one of the disciples said, this is a waste of money, isn't it? Why wasn't it sold for 300 pence, not that he cared for the poor. He might have pocketed some of the money. But here she is content because she has worshipped him. And Jesus said to the woman in the fourth chapter of John, remember, that when we worship, we must worship in spirit and in truth. There's much about holy places, they're not holy in the sight of God. It's idiotic, now we're building super churches, no, super church buildings. Two of them being built in Houston right now, both costing over 14 million dollars each. They're really sanctified, one of them has a five lane bowling alley in it. I suppose they have a text on the wall, bodily exercise profit us little. The other one has five sauna baths in it. Well, I believe people should go to church to be cleansed, but not that way. You know, the less we have of the glory of God, the more gimmicks we have to have. Here's a simple thing the Lord spoke to me about two years ago. Entertainment, and I'm sure many of you are drug addicts, you're drugged with TV. But entertainment is the devil's substitute for joy. And the more joy you have, the less entertainment you need. We think of Jesus always as a man of sorrows, but just before he leaves the disciples and gives that marvellous prayer in John 17, in the 16th chapter he says, I give you my joy and no man taketh it from you. They can take everything else we have, it looks as though they will before too long. Take the clothes off your back, but they can't rob us on the inside. We have treasures that nothing can steal. Moth and rust can't corrupt it, and thieves can't break through and steal it. Do you think this woman ever regretted doing the thing that she did? I'm sure it was gossip all over the city the next day. You know that woman, that wretched woman, she broke into a party last night. Well, I suppose they kicked her out. No, they didn't. In fact, the chief guest there received her. You see, she brought a gift. What did Jesus do? Well, he recognised it, and he rewarded it. He said, the fragrance that this woman has broken upon me, it will be remembered until the world, to the end of the world. Let me prove my point I began with before I finish here. I said, we stand to sing in Europe, we stand up for every hymn. We kneel to pray. If you watch the First Baptist Church service Sunday morning with its vast crowd, everybody in the place kneels to pray before the pastor prays. We stand to sing, we kneel to pray, we prostrate ourselves when we worship. In Revelation 1, it says in verse 17, John says, when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. Do you remember Daniel says the same thing, that when the glory of the Son of God was revealed, he withered up, he shrank to the ground. He says, I had no strength left. Revelation chapter 5 and verse 8. You see, there's a superior praise, because worship is a combination of what? Adoration, meditation, contemplation. John says here, when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. Chapter 5 and verse 8. There's a twofold doxology as you read that part of the story there. But in chapter 5, you have a fourfold doxology. Every creature which is in heaven and on the earth. No pardon me, the verse before, verse 12. You have many angels round about the throne, and ten thousand times ten thousand, which is a hundred million, plus thousands. Saying, worthy is the lamb that was slain to receive power and riches, and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing. You have a fourfold doxology. Now, in this fifth chapter of Revelation, verse 1, it says, I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne a book, written within and on the back side, it was a scroll. And there were seven seals. And the seals are going to be broken. I saw a strong angel, proclaiming with a loud voice, who is worthy to open the book and to loose the seals thereof. This is being called the most awesome moment in eternity. What is the book? The book is the title deeds of the universe. The forfeited deeds for the universe. And John by Revelation says, no man in heaven or in earth. Wait a minute, here is one sitting on the throne, he is the title deeds of the universe that was lost by the sin of Adam. And no man in heaven or earth. Wait a minute, wait a minute. There is Isaiah. Isaiah, would you come and take the title deeds out of the hand of him that sits on the throne? No, I can't do that. Well, Moses, would you do it? No. Well, surely there is the greatest man that ever lived after Jesus, a man with a colossal intellect, a man that wrote fourteen epistles, a man that established churches in hell holes, a man that did every miracle Jesus did, except walk on water, by the name of Saul of Tartus, the king of rebels, who became the most outstanding Christian the world has ever known. Paul, would you come and take the book out of him that sits on the throne? What about Josiah? What about Isaiah? He says, there is no man in the whole span of heaven, in the whole span of history there is not one person that can step out and take the book out of the hand of him that sat on the throne. And he said, I wept much. Now let me tell you this, if you get a full view of God, in his holiness and majesty, it's not all going to be laughter. My neighbor is David Wilkerson, my other neighbor is sitting here, precious Quaker brother, spirit-filled Quaker brother. Don't know what David is, except he's a nuisance to the devil. I used to get hours with Dr. Tozer, now I get hours every week with David Wilkerson. We never talk about books, we talk about crusades, we don't consider others. For the last few months we've talked just about the holiness and majesty and glory and faithfulness of God. John says, I wept much. Okay, you say to people, cast your burden on the Lord. Okay, tell me this, who does God cast his burdens on? Oh, he doesn't need them, he's omnipotent and omnipresent and omnipotent. God doesn't cast his burden, yes he does. Because Jesus says, my yoke is easy, my burden is light. Some months ago I was reading Philippians, what is it, 3.10? Here is the apostle, he's lived 33 years, he's written all these epistles, he's been caught up to the third heaven. You wonder he didn't write a book on that in itself. They do that today. They've got ten versions of it, make a million dollars out of it. But he got into the place where he dares to say in Romans 9, I could wish myself a curse. In Philippians he says that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, which is lovely. What about the next part, the fellowship of his suffering? Do you know I was stupid enough to ask God to let me know the fellowship of his suffering? And almost all the commentators say, well it means like Paul suffered in prison, that's not what he's talking about. People say today, don't tell young people when they get saved, they have to take up their cross, it's bad psychology. Well then God has bad psychology. Because he told Ananias, go tell Saul, not what he must suffer, but what great things he must suffer. He wrote the record book in suffering. And he says, but that's not enough, I want to fill up the sufferings of Christ. That I may know him and the power of his resurrection, the fellowship of his sufferings. He wasn't saying he wanted to suffer for Christ, he wanted to suffer with him. Do you know what that means? It means that every time he went through Jerusalem, he saw the temple like Jesus saw it. A boneyard. He saw the hypocrisy of the Pharisees. He remembered those holy men had walked there and now look at the country. It's given up to idolatry. New moons and sabbaths. With the knowledge of God, but no power of God. Isn't it amazing that we put in our coins in God we trust, but we won't trust him to listen to the prayers of children in school. OK. The writer here says, no man in earth or in heaven was worthy. And I wept much, that word wept is used only once in the New Testament, apart from this occasion. And it's when Jesus wept over Jerusalem. And it doesn't mean a shuffling little tear you wipe away embarrassed. It means sobs and groans and agony. And he says, there's no man able to take the title deeds out of the hands of the invictus upon the throne. Then he says, I beheld verse 6 and lo a lamb in the midst of the throne. A lamb as it had been slain. And when he had taken the book, the fallen twenty elders held down before the lamb. Every one of them had their harps and vials full of odours which were the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song. Verse 11, I beheld and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne. And the beasts and the elders, the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands. Saying with a loud voice, word is the lamb that was slain to receive power and wisdom and strength and honour and glory. In Revelation you have a doxology with two words in it. In the fourth chapter you have about four words. Here you have six words. Then that very chapter finishes. The four beasts said to Amen and the four and twenty elders fell down. You see every one of them fell down. And they fell down to what? To worship him that liveth for ever and ever. Now look, if there are holy beings in eternity and all they do is sing Holy, Holy, Holy, Holy, Holy day and night. And if they fall on their faces to worship, don't you think we ought to get a bit of practice in? Chapter 7 verse 11 says, Verse 10 says they cried with a loud voice saying salvation to our God which sits upon the throne and unto the lamb. And all the angels stood round about the throne and about the elders. And the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell on their faces and worshipped him. Now you have a six fold doxology. Saying Amen, blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honour and might and power be unto our God for ever and ever. Let me go back a minute and read this as I finish. Verse 11 of chapter 5 of Revelation says I beheld I heard the angels round about. And there were again ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands and thousands. And listen every creature which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and in the sea. Did you get it? You know it's going to get warmer soon. And one thing you get free in Texas, not many things you get free but you get some marvellous mosquitoes. They'll nibble at your ears and bite your nose. If you fall asleep in a chair out in the garden they'll have a feast on you. Do you remember how the 150th Psalm finishes? It says let everything that hath breath praise the Lord. Now it says here that every living creature above the earth or under the earth or in the sea. Everything, every animal, every creature they're going to join in one awesome magnificent hallelujah chorus to the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. And they're going to sing again he shall reign for ever and ever. And the four and twenty elders also they fall down, everybody falls down in the revelation to worship him. It's not easy to do in a world like this with all it's distractions. In the modern church we've taught people to work. We've taught them to witness, we've not taught them to worship. Yeah sure I get preachers from the ends of the earth come to my house, I don't know why. I'm not King Solomon. But they've got two vulnerable spots, every one of them I know where to punch them real hard. When a guy tells me his church isn't doing well or his own life I say well tell me be honest before God. How much time do you spend in prayer a day? Now tell me how much time do you spend in worship? Do you know what the answer is? They may have degrees this length behind their name. Almost every man without exception whether he comes from Australia or Japan or New Zealand or England. We've some Englishmen here that just this past week. Almost every one of them says brother Amy I don't know how to worship. I've no idea how to worship. I believe again a good introduction to worship is to take a good hymn book and really sing those hymns. Or if you believe you can or sing them in your spirit to God. And then from there you start to kind of the runway and you get off from singing and praise into worship, into adoration. You know one of the a lot of people in England have grudges against America. Not because your lifestyle is better but I mean in the church. There was a certain conference held in Amsterdam a few months ago. Four thousand preachers and evangelists went. It cost eight million dollars to run the conference. And one of the most famous preachers in America wrote to me and he said Len it was good. We had four great sermons and they were all delivered by Englishmen. And what would you expect? But anyhow. You see the difference between the American preacher and the English preacher is the American preacher has an office. And the English preacher has a study. The English preacher, the American preacher has to be a business man. He has to run this and run that and the other. He has to know how to repair the typewriter and the computer in the office at the back. You know I believe a preacher has only two things to do. Talk to God about men and talk to men about God. I have read over and over and over the false chapter of Jeremiah in the last three weeks. You know what he says? He says oh my bowels, my bowels, my bowels. Now can you imagine a well-dressed preacher? He's just had his wife's big blow drying it and making him look nice. She's sprayed him with old spice that doesn't help the old man anyhow. But anyhow. Can you imagine him go there all speculate and of course he puts his hand up to show you he's got nine diamonds in his ring. Can you imagine you say oh my bowels, my bowels, they're breaking with compassion over Dallas. I haven't slept for six nights. Have you heard a preacher come to the desk and say oh thou that dwellest between the cherubim come forth. Come and save us. Cause thy face to shine upon us. I'm trying to write an article right now on passion and compassion in the pulpits. It was said you know when George Whitfield preached on heaven you'd think he'd live there a week. And when he preached on hell you'd think he'd live there a week. When our preacher preached you know he's been in the bowling alley the last six days. And he got to bed last night because he was so sunburned after playing 18 rounds of golf Saturday afternoon. I don't believe a preacher should visit the hospital. Visit the sick. Well one man said well what do you do about the dead. I said well the scripture is very clear about that the deacons should bury the dead. Why? Because it says let the dead bury the dead. When did you last hold your breath when you saw a man march up to the deck because you knew he'd been dwelling in the secret place of the most high for a week. And he added if a man's heart doesn't burn he shouldn't preach. Richard Baxter said in the 1500s I preached as a dying man to dying men. I preached as though I would never preach again. You know the man who's been beholding the face of the son of God and has been bathing in the majesty and glory of Jesus Christ isn't coming to mutter shibboleth. He isn't going to present the gospel as though it's optional. He has a mandate from heaven. I've often said to my Friday night class the force of revelation and I threw it in. There's a door open in heaven. When we were little, I was a little boy in England my mother would often say now Len you don't go to the front room don't go look in the front room. She thought that was a command I thought it was a challenge. I'd go look in the front room. I'd go open the door and just about a half inch because the old door would groan if you opened it too loud and she'd hear that. Then I'd go to my sister and say Annie you should see what mother's got stacked up in that front room. You know if I could push that door of eternity in heaven open a half inch tonight and you saw the glory that's got to be revealed you'd never backslide again. Your praying would never be called. You'd never drag your feet in ministry or witnessing. You know that song that says turn your eyes upon Jesus look full in his wonderful face and the things of earth will grow strangely dim. Well I turn right around and say when you and I get up there and you see the way we've travelled and how we wasted time and money and effort and how many times we missed worshipping the Most High God and were satisfied with some lesser things the things of earth will look strangely grim. One of the greatest hymn writers in American history was a blind girl, Fanny Crosby. She was blinded when she was six years of age. If I remember rightly she died at 84 years of age. She wrote 3,000 hymns. One day somebody said to her, Auntie Fanny you're such a wonderful thing. You inspire us with your great hymn, Blessed Assurance, Jesus is Mine and so many other hymns that she wrote. It doesn't seem right that God would let a lady like you be blind for over 80 years. There are other scoundrels, there are other Christians that don't walk worthy of Christ. You've missed so much. Why I wish I could tell you about the colour of the flowers and the sunset but you can't see. You don't understand colour. You're at a tremendous disadvantage. She said, I have a great advantage over every Christian. What's the advantage? You can't read, you can't see. You're so helpless. What's your advantage? She said, My dear, don't you realise the first face I ever see will be his face. All those hymns we used to sing, Face to face with Christ my Saviour, face to face what will it be. When with rapture I behold it. I hear people say, I went to church and it was dead. Well how can you have a dead service if the living Christ is in the midst? How can you get so easily offended if day by day you approach his throne and you lie prostrate before his throne and you gaze on his holiness and his faithfulness and his mercy and as soon as he's coming to reign in majesty throughout the whole world. Again if we came to the house of God to meet God instead of hearing sermons about him and we'd walk out of these buildings with faces so radiant with the other world. We'd have made such contacts with eternity that nothing would get us down. We would be totally intoxicated with the majesty. Often when I am studying and I stop studying I doodle, you know I take a pencil. I'm very fond of eagles. I have an office, people have given me different pictures of eagles. I have a whole lot of them. But sometimes I draw them. And a while ago I'd been drawing one and a man came to the door, I let him in and as he came in he looked at my desk and he said, Oh I hear you draw sometimes, did you draw that eagle? Yes. He said, could I have it? I said yes. Oh, well he said, I'll say to people I've got a number of Ravenhill's books there but look, I've got one of his sketches here. He stayed about 55 minutes, it was 50 minutes too long but as he was going out he said, will you do me a favour? I said no. He said, you don't know what I'm going to ask? I said I do. He said, what am I going to ask? He said, you're going to ask me to take my pen and autograph that drawing. Yes, I was going to ask you that. Do autograph it. I said no. He said, well, I'm sorry. I can't prove you did it. Well that's why I didn't want to sign it. I'd like to see it on my office wall with your name on it. I said, well I wouldn't. I said it's disproportionate, I wasn't thinking when I did it. And he went out in a huff, you know, Christians don't swear, they slam the door as they go out. So he slammed the door. And just as he slammed the door the Lord said this to me. You are my workmanship. Can I autograph your life at the end of every day? You're not proud of your drawing. Am I proud of the way that you've responded to my manipulation, to my orders, to the way you've walked with me today? I tell you that rocked me on my heels. After all, isn't that why we're here, to be his workmanship in the midst of the crooked and the first generation? If he bathed in the light of his glory, in the light of his holiness every day, in the light of his mercy, he wouldn't have to turn and say, well today you gave me no kiss. I believe you could fill the altar a hundred times a day with a hundred people there and still disappoint the Lord. I wonder how many of you went to that meeting of Robinson's and heard Dave Wilkerson say that night that he'd been substituting service for worship. And he says there's been sin in my life but all he meant was he grieved the spirit. And then Dr. Choll stood up if you were there and he said look I'm the largest church in the world, 350,000 members. People come from all over the world to look at my church. I'm trying to build a church and he says I've been like Brother David. I've failed God, I've offered him service instead of worship. Listen, you can't make God rich if you give him a million dollars every hour on the hour. You can't make him wise, he's a source of all wisdom. The only thing that will satisfy God out of your life is not that you're the most wonderful soul winner that ever went out of this school or any other. The first and greatest commandment is I shall love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and soul and mind and strength. And he wants us to worship him in spirit and in truth and in the beauty of holiness. And Jesus says the Father seeketh such to worship him. So I trust tonight somewhere you'll get alone and get quiet and make some apologies to God that you haven't been worshipping him, you've been serving him, you've been busy but you haven't worshipped him, you haven't satisfied God, you've still been in the outer court, you've not got into the holy of holies where the glory comes down. Father we thank you for the privilege of being enlightened by your spirit. Pray for everyone in this fellowship tonight. We thank you for your word, you've nothing to add to it because you've give us a complete revelation. And I pray you'll teach us how to worship you in spirit and in truth. Teach us the language of love, the language of holiness, the language of sacrifice that we may do your will. Bless this school and the outreach of it I pray and the teachers with us. And may we day by day seek the will of God and do it. Because your word says he that doeth the will of God abideth forever. We thank you in Jesus name. Well blessed and good to see you. May this merge.