In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of not getting entangled in the distractions and temptations of life. He urges the listeners to put their focus on eternal things and to stir up the gifts of God within them. The preacher also encourages the young man he is addressing to be strong in the grace of Christ and to endure hardships like a good soldier. He warns about the danger of people seeking teachers who will tell them what they want to hear, rather than sound doctrine.

Stone to Paul's, Tommy Paul's second letter to Timothy. Isn't that, that's a fabulous thing, I could sing that all night I think. Sometimes I do, when my wife's asleep. I yield my flickering torch, what does it mean? This little flimsy thread of life I have, I yield my flickering torch to thee. If we owned a million woes and gave them to God it wouldn't be enough anyhow. O light that followeth all my way, O joy that seeketh me through pain. I thought as we sang that, you know, we're trying to find joy without pain and you can't find it. We're trying to find life without death. I had some preachers in my office the other day. They were going to come tonight but they didn't, they must have got scared, I told them too much. But I reminded them, I said, you know, there are only two kinds of people in the world, not rich and poor, not black and white, not educated and illiterate, just those who are dead in sin and those who are dead to sin. There's no middle ground. Either we're dead in sin, it's sin, the world has dominion over us, or we have dominion over sin and over the world. Second letter to Timothy, okay. Let me just give you a brief introduction about this thing, you know. Biblical scholarship quarrels about how many epistles Paul wrote. I think he wrote 14 and if I get that number I have to say he wrote Hebrews, which some people are not sure about. People say, do you know who wrote Hebrews? Yeah? Well, Dr. Sonsor doesn't know, surely don't. That's why we have a Friday night meeting. That's why all these boys have driven all the way from Baylor. How long? Three hours? Three hours to come to a prayer meeting. Isn't that wonderful? Where are you young ladies from? Dallas. Dallas, you've been before, you've been before. Are the others? Yeah, they're good. Good. We take anybody here. I think great young men coming all that way to a prayer meeting. Praise the Lord, that encourages me. But going back to that, yes I know who wrote Hebrews. Who wrote it? The Holy Spirit. I don't know who used the pen, but that doesn't matter. We're not talking about penmanship, we're talking about authorship. And this wonderful book, Holy Men of God speak as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. And I'm sure that when the Holy Ghost is present, there's always a movement somewhere. Well anyhow, this is the last epistle that Paul wrote. Scholarship agrees there anyhow. It's the last epistle that he wrote. You could call it, if you like, his last will and testament. You know when a will and a testament are being read, everybody's ears go up in case there's something left for me in it. Well, there's a lot in this for you if you want. Where's it written from? Well, it was written from the 14th floor of the Waldorf Astoria in Rome. No, that's my version. That's a poor version. Where was it written? It was written in a dark, damp, distressing prison cell. With no amenities of life. Where they put slaves, where they put criminals. And Paul never asked for anything else anyhow. In the epistle to Philemon, is it in chapter 1 or the last chapter? Jack would know that. It's verse 9, either in chapter 1 or the last chapter. Well, it's in chapter 1, because there's only one chapter. And so that's the first and the last chapter. But in verse 9 he says, Paul the aged. Here's a young, blistered, battered, broken-bodied man, bloody and bent. I think you'll see creases in his face where rocks had split his face and then they healed up. I think he limped. This man's been through deaths often, he says. He says, for Christ I die daily. It means dying in his choices. Well, here is an old man, he's writing to a young man. Some years ago I was preaching to a lot of young people. I don't get to preach to too many now. And the preacher said to me, you know, you get a bit too strong. You discourage these young people if you say, take up your cross. But Jesus says you can't be a disciple without taking up your cross. But Paul doesn't in any way pull punches here on this young man. He calls him his son in the gospel. Why? Because Paul never assumed anything. He never said, listen, I have the greatest theological mind in the world. I have the most vivid history. I've out-suffered everybody, out-preached everybody, out-fasted everybody, out-travelled everybody. Never said a word about it. He's so consumed with Christ there's no room for Paul. He's nothing to promote. He's no church, he begs no money. He wants to give Christ the preeminence. He says that in all things he might have the preeminence. Forget all the riches I've brought you. What's he saying now? I'm an old man, I'm in prison, I've no friends. It's spent two years in prison. You know, it's the best way for some people to go. I know a lot of preachers I'd like to put in prison. For a number of reasons. But Paul is there for Christ's sake. What does he say? He says, you know, Timothy, I've just been thinking, if I could relive my life, I sure would go a lot easier than I've been going. I'd get longer vacations, I wouldn't sacrifice. I'd worn my body out. As I look back I see, I should have changed things up. No, he doesn't say a thing about that at all. He has no recriminations, he doesn't blame those who beat his body. He has no apologies, he has no regrets. He says every inch of the way has been just gorgeous. There's a poem written by F. W. H. Meyer, if you can find it. I wish somebody would reprint it. It has about 72 stanzas and it's called Saint Paul by F. W. H. Meyer. You won't find it in a shop. If you do, tell me and we'll get 20 copies. It was written somewhere around about 1889. I said to a friend, if ever you see it, buy it. So he bought it and it was autographed by F. W. H. Meyer. And on the inside his wife had autographed it to Lady Campbell of Scotland. My boys have it somewhere. But it's a fantastic interpretation of the life of the Apostle Paul. He lived and moved and had his being. What in God's name does he mean? Do you live and move and have your being in God? Or do you switch something on Sunday morning and get devout Saturday night so you'll get something for Sunday school next morning? How many of us live and move and have our being? In other words, in modern language, he orbited all the time in eternity. He wasn't time conscious, he wasn't suffering conscious, he wasn't personality conscious. He's conscious only of the indwelling Christ in him. And so I say, here, he has no regrets. He has no regrets and he has no apologies. I love this wonderful epistle. Do you know what an old saint said about it? The two epistles, particularly the second epistle of Paul to Timothy, is the most beautiful writing in the whole of the Word of God. It really is a love letter. He's talking to his son in the Gospel. I say, he didn't assume because of his knowledge. He didn't assume because he said, I'm different from every man on earth. I've been to heaven for three days. I've lived in eternity. I've seen Christ face to face, even as Isaiah saw him in Isaiah 6. He doesn't boast about anything like that at all. He's concerned only that he can deliver the goods to this young man. And he said, he can say, what things you've seen and heard in me do and the God of peace be with you. Peace be with you. This whole thing rings with reality. I had a man in my office. He'd been through Africa, West Africa, East Africa, a lot of places two months ago. He just laid back. I don't have a couch now. It sounds like a psychiatrist's office. He just leaned back on the couch. I had that. And he said, brother, tell me one thing. Tell me one thing. He's in tears almost. I said, I will if I can. He said, Brother Rainer, is there a reality anywhere in the church of God today? Is there a reality? Is it all professionalism? These TV things are productions now. There's no instantaneous breathing of the Holy Ghost. You turn the knob, it's exactly a blueprint of last week. It starts there, it finishes there, and in between, pop up and down. You don't get that in revival. When God the Holy Ghost moves, there's no pattern. There's no blueprint to revival. But there's one thing that's always there, and it's what the Apostle Paul, he said, my little children, for whom I travail in birth. For what? That you become evangelists. You become missionaries. No, it says that Christ may be formed in you. I ask you again tonight. I wouldn't ask you if you saved everybody that's saved. I say that facetiously. From the White House to the Beer House, the Jail House. My question is, does Christ live in you? Oh, you say, I got saved. I didn't ask you if you got saved on a certain night, I knew the preacher was. I ask you, does Christ live in you? If he doesn't, we're not saved. We may be good, you may, you know, lots of people turn over a new leaf, but what they want is a new life. And you can change your own life, radically, psychologically. You can cancel your habits and so forth. But Paul, battle scarred, is saying to this young man, well, maybe I stoop and I limp, but my face is pleated. I've endured hardness, a night and a day in the deep, in weariness, in fastings, in painfulness. Once I was stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, in perils of the deep, in perils of my non-country. He goes on, but he says, listen, I want to tell you, there's an excellence in Jesus Christ. He found life. Through all his batterings and persecutions and suffering, I've got life. So he says, you know what? As I told you before, I used to think that Paul's secret was in, what was it, 2 Corinthians 5, 14, where he says, the love of Christ constrains. I don't believe that's true anymore. I believe the text is true. I believe the secret of his life is this, that Christ may be magnified by my body, whether I live or die. I've used that before. I notice the dandelions are out, so get one and look at it that way. And with your 20-20 vision, it's not very pretty. You don't go to church with a dandelion in your coat usually. You take a magnifying glass, oh, it's gorgeous. In other words, your 20-20 vision cannot see that beautiful flower. And Paul says intellectually, you look on Christ, you don't see anything. But Lord, let people look through my life, through my body, through my brain, through my being, and Christ will be magnified. I got again this morning a wonderful little letter I have on my desk. We used to say facsimile, now we say Xerox. But they know Xerox is in 1734. But Jonathan Edwards' little daughter says, you should see my mother when she comes out of her closet in the morning. She needs a veil over her face. The grace of God, the glory of God, is on her face every day when she comes out of the chamber where she's had intercession with God. You think there's anything on earth like that? You think going to Hollywood would make you like that? You think a boom on the stock market would do anything for us? Or your intellectual expansion? This man, as far as I'm concerned, had the greatest intellect in the world. And God used that intellect. He wrote the epistles, the Ephesians and the others. But again, here he's concerned. What does he say? He says to Timothy, my son, that's in chapter 2, verse 1. Thou therefore, my son, be strong. Strong, why? Because he's going to say in another verse, in a third verse, be a good soldier of Jesus Christ. You need to be strong. But go back a moment there into the sixth verse, or verse 5. When I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith which is in thee, which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois, in thy mother Eunice, and I am persuaded in thee also. Somebody has said about this, this epistle, it begins in the nursery. And it ends up in the armory because he ends up by saying he's a good soldier of Jesus Christ. But he says, wherefore I put thee in remembrance that God stirs up the gift in you. He doesn't say that. He says, you stir the gift of God up that's in yourself. This is chapter 1 again, and verse 6. Stir up the gift of God. We're all prone to laziness. When Mr. Baldwin was the Prime Minister of England, I guess that was in my day, a few years ago, maybe, well, maybe 50 years ago, Baldwin was the superman in the world, wizard in politics. Prime Minister of England, Prime Minister of British Empire. Somebody handed him a life of John Wesley. And he read it. He said, I've just read about a man. And though I have all the affairs, the affairs of this great empire to handle, he said, John Wesley makes me feel I'm unemployed. Do you ever sing a hymn, give every flying minute something to keep in store? Work for the night is coming when man's work is o'er. Wesley redeemed the time. Even when he was on horseback in the moonlight, jogging along, he'd be reading a Greek primer, or Latin, or something. One day he was going through the woods and he'd been declaring, what's in this same epistle? God hasn't given us a spirit of fear, but of love and of power. He said, I'm not afraid of anyone on earth or hell, demons or men. He's going through the forest on the back of the horse, jogging away in the moonlight, trying to read his primer. Suddenly a man jumped out of either side of the ditch in a white sheet, and he got some chants, and he rattled them and shouted. And Wesley drew his horse, stood in his stirrups, he's only five foot one, he looked over the head of the horse, and these men were growling, making horrible noises, rattling these chants. He said, well, who are you? One of them said, who are we? We're the devil's brothers. He said, let me pass by, I married his sister. That's a historic fact. That precious sanctified man, you know what she did, the biographer says, when he was in Ireland, he knocked at the door, Mrs. Wesley came to the door, and in her fingers, she had the grey hair, she pulled him across the room by the hair of his head. Boy, you've got to breathe an entire sanctification to go through that. You think you could stand that, Sonny? Your iPhone, do it, it should be blushing. But you see, we want to be strong in the grace of God without adversaries. Step up the gift of God which is in thee. I keep looking at a motto on my desk, on a side table there, every day. Lord, keep me eternity conscious. This precious man lived in eternity. Like the marvellous Puritans, those men of staggering intellect, but with a greater concept of the holiness of God which the church has lost today, and the righteousness of God, and the majesty of God, and eternity than anybody else in history. As I say, they lived six days in heaven and came down to earth to preach. Do you wonder how many of the people went to meetings and stayed for four hours? No backs on the chairs, no lighting in the building, no heating in the building, no choir, no music. Nothing. What do you mean nothing? They had nothing of preacher comfort. They had no transit system to get them there. They walked through the rain, they walked through the snow, and yet they'd listen to a man preach for two hours, and then walk home ten or twelve or fifteen miles. But dear Lord, our people won't come out this Sunday if it keeps as cold as this, and the heating system has gone off the car. They'll be at home. Expect to have a house visitation from the pastor. We're so pathetic, aren't we? Look at chapter 2, verse 1. I'm just giving you some thoughts tonight, not preaching really. Chapter 2, verse 1. Thou, therefore, my son, be strong in the grace in Christ Jesus, and the things that thou hast heard of me amongst many witnesses, the same thou commit to faithful men. Verse 3. Thou, therefore, endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. OK, he's calling him to be a soldier. Some very common things about being a soldier. First of all, the sacrifice. In World War I, pardon me, well, I remember World War I too, but World War, in World War II, you know, lots of the upper class, people who could do it, they shifted their families into desk jobs in the admiralty or somewhere else. They sheltered them, protected them. But it didn't matter what you were doing. At a certain period when the country was in a jam, they withdrew medical students, they withdrew young preachers who had been hiding in seminaries. And everyone had to go. It's no good arguing about it. You see, some men, when we had depressions in England, men would sign up to join in the army. They'd join up in the reserves. So they only went about three times in a year for a weekend for training. But other men signed up. And if you signed there, you took out your pen and they said, sign here, you signed. And then suddenly you thought, oh, goodness, my wife's expecting a baby. And, oh, I couldn't pay my expenses in the army. And you say, excuse me, sir, but I decided. He said, no, you haven't. You've made your decision. You go. Once you put that ink there, you'd know rights. You can say, I'm in the middle of my medical career. They might have said that to you. It doesn't make any difference. But I'm studying law. I may be called to the bar. Well, it makes no difference. You signed. The country needs you. And so they say goodbye. There's separation there. There's sacrifice there. And Paul says the same thing. No man, in the next verse, but woreth and tangeth himself with the sins of this life. He doesn't say that. He says, with the affairs of this life. You know, Paul had a marvellous team of men. Dear Lord, I'd love to have been with them. I guess you would, Sonny, too. Wonderful men with him. Four or five men. And one of them got fascinated. With what? Wealth. And Paul says, Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world. And then he goes on. Let me skip up there a minute. And then he says, all men forsook me. You'll never know your strength in God until you're deserted by everybody. The only time you can say, Christ is all I need, is when He's all you have. You can say, Christ is all you need while you go to a fancy church and to a nice group of people. Christ is all I need when He's all I have. Other refuge have I none, says Charles Wesley. Hangs my helpless soul on thee. We don't hang on God. We hang on newsletters for money. We hang on popularity. Ernest, I'm glad you're going home. I'm sorry and I'm glad. If you stay here, they'll have you on TV, 700 Club, or PTR, or some other, one of these Christian menageries. So many men come to this country and get spoiled. You say, well you can't get on 700 Club. They've been after me for months and I won't go, but that's by the way. No man want that warreth and tangleth himself with the affairs of this life. Not the sins of this life, the affairs. What did Paul do? Paul says, you know that towering figure, Demas, one of my best students, one of my best preachers. There's a great future for him. But Demas hath forsaken me, having what? Committed adultery. Stolen money. What did he say? Having loved this present world. Remember what Paul says in Philippians? There's a certain group of people, I've told you, Roman Catholic Church, the Mormons, all the others, they do not oppose Jesus Christ. They oppose the cross of Christ. And he says, I tell you, even weeping, they're enemies of the cross. The Church of Rome makes its money out of plaster crucifixes. The Mormons say that it's the Church of the Latter Day Saints. They don't hate Jesus Christ. They hate the cross of Jesus Christ. And what does he say? He says, I tell you, even weeping, listen to the group. They're enemies of the cross of Christ, number one. Number two, whose God is their belly. Number three, they mind earthly things. He doesn't say they've gone into adultery and wickedness and vileness. They got fascinated, mesmerized. The Church of Jesus Christ tonight, on the average, its people are as mesmerized with money as the people outside. Mesmerized with fashion and style. I love that phrase in Hebrews 11 again, of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered around in sheepskins and goatskins. It was the only fur coat you should have. Sheepskins and goatskins. Being destitute, afflicted, and tormented. And yet they were in a sense of God's will. What does Paul say here? Endure hardness. How can you be a soldier without getting bloody? How can you be a soldier without adversity? He says, endure it. You may not enjoy it, endure it. I got such a wonderful thing out of that the other day. It doesn't seem connected, but it is. I told you about the lady who asked me when I preached. I preached very well one night. I do that about once a year. And this lady enjoyed it, and she said, what university did you go to? I said, Bush University. She said, Bush University? Do I know anybody who went there? I said, yes, Moses. She said, Moses who? If you read the 7th chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, it says of the Apostle Paul, pardon me, it says of Moses, he was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians. He studied astrology. He could maybe speak a dozen languages. He's a scholar. He's an intellectual. What does it say of him? It says even when he was in Egypt, he, what does it say, he? No, it doesn't. Yeah, you can say it's not the report you have, for sure. But wait a minute, what's the scripture there? As I told you, I'm not losing my mind, I'm just losing my memory. Trying to get the whole context there. Pardon? Yeah, well, it was partly that, that's true, but there's something. Oh, he was mighty in what? Pardon? What version have you got? The nasty imperfect. You should burn it. As you go home through town, there's a goodwill box. I'm like the old lady in England who said the King James Version was good enough for the Apostle Paul, it's good enough for me. What does the, I was going to say, what does the Apostle Paul, what does the scripture say? Oh. That's right. He was mighty in word and deed. And that's when he was in, in Egypt. He was mighty in word. He made the, oh. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, partly that, yes, thank you. But he was mighty in word and deed. He got all the scholarships, all the degrees. What happens? Endure hardness. If he'd stayed in Pharaoh's court, they would have bowed down to him every day. He would have gone down the street, they would have saluted him. They would have got royal robes, a crown that have, that have made him like a deity. And God Almighty says, the only thing for you to do is cancel all this stuff and get on the back side of the desert. For 40 weeks? 40 years? Boy, that's a slice. Somebody cheered me up the other day and said, well you're 80. Yes, I'm 80, almost 80 now. I said, well I didn't start preaching until I was 80. And he died at 120, so I have a good way to go yet. You know his life is divided into three 40s. The first 40, he learned a lot. He learned the wisdom of the Egyptians. And the universities of Egypt, Alexandria and what not. And he learned a lot there. First 40, he learned more the second 40. He lived with his mother-in-law. And if you can't learn there, why could you learn? And then at 80 years of age, think of him, don't you think the devil tormented him and said, I'm just tired of these stinking sheep. You could be sitting at a banquet with the kings of the earth. You could have been in parliament right now showing your power, your wisdom. And here you are. What have you done the last 40 years? Shear sheep, eat sheep, eat mutton. What are you doing here? He's enduring hardness. If he hadn't stayed 40 years out in the desert, he'd never made it 40 years to the wilderness. He'd have been too flabby. God says, get alone. That's a hard place, isn't it? Get alone. Now that's good preaching if you don't know, I'll tell you. No, it's that just thought really gripped me today again. If he hadn't stayed 40 years on the backside of the desert, he'd never have made it. God started stripping him of all the crutches he could lean on. He's no self-confidence now. He's enduring hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. You see, a man may join the army, but sometimes there are some guys called deserters. And that was the kind of person that this other man had by the name of Demas. Suddenly the world began to pull. It had a magnet. And he wasn't rooted and grounded. Imagine a man living with the apostle Paul, hearing Paul praying, seeing Paul's tears, his extravagant love for the Lord Jesus Christ, his recklessness. He's no regret about it. He's an old, bent, broken, bleeding man. But he doesn't care. He says, Timothy, come on. I want you to be a good soldier of Jesus Christ. Let me jump over some of these things. We're still in what? Chapter 2 and verse 3. Therefore, endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life. With the affairs of this life. Go down to verse 16. 15, which is well known, of course. Study to show thyself approved. What did he say? He said, be strong. Be strong in what? Do you remember what he said in another place? I forget the scripture for a moment. He said, I keep my body under. The body didn't take sleeping time. The body didn't take eating time. He controlled his appetite. He controlled his sleeping time. If somebody steals your purse, they could do that, like our dear brother got his Bible stolen. I got mine stolen in Japan. If somebody steals your purse, you can make the money up. But if somebody steals your time, it will never come back. One of the tricks that the devil pulls on young people, you have plenty of time. No, you haven't. No, they have plenty of time. If you have 40 clocks in the room, you have only the same time as a man that's one. You can't buy it. Time is the most precious thing. Why do you want to be a good soldier? What does a soldier's life involve? Number one, I say sacrifice. Number two, suffering. Number three, discipline. Boy, that's an abominable word these days. Discipline? Whose discipline? What people will endure for sports. I don't watch much TV, but I do like to see some interviews. I showed one a few months ago. A young fellow, he's still in his thirties. He climbed Mount Everest. I think it's 29,000 feet high. There's an Englishman nearly at the top. In the 1932 expedition, he died. And he's over there frozen till the judgment morning. These guys went up. And it's 29,000, I think they got to 26,000. And they camped for the night. Just the smoothest snow. And they put some kind of a blanket and they slept. But the wind got up and the frost was so keen that when he woke up in the morning, all his toes were frozen. They had to get him down the mountain. Not only were his toes frozen, his ankle was frozen. So they said, well, your days are over as a climber. We have to take that foot off right by the ankle. He said, go ahead. They took his foot off. He must be the only man in the world with three feet. He's one made of flesh. He has a wooden foot in a shoe that he walks with. And they made him a special one to climb with. He has a wooden foot. And then he climbs up 10,000, 20,000 feet. He said, I'm not going to let a thing like that, a thing like that. Dear Lord, most of us would almost die. We'd expect the whole neighborhood to get an offering for us or something. He said, I've lost my foot. I haven't lost my love for climbing. I haven't lost my zeal. In other words, I'm not subservient to circumstances, I'm master of them. And I've said to you often, we're born with disposition, but we make character. You make your character. You know, I hear people say sometimes, oh, I asked John to come to our house. He said he'd be there at 9 o'clock. He came at half past 11. A young fellow called me a few months ago. He said, I'm coming now, but actually coming to see you. I said, wonderful. He said, I'm leaving California. I get in New York. I get in Dallas about 9. I can make it to your house for 11 o'clock or just after. He didn't come at 11. He didn't come at 1. He said, oh, I'm late, but I guess I'll be there at 2. He didn't come at 2. I'm delayed again. I'll come at 4. He didn't come at 4. He came at 6 at night. I said, you wouldn't dare do that to a psychiatrist. He'd charge you a minute for every moment you've held on. You can't waste my time. I won't give it to you. I hate to hear young people say this when they've done something. Oh, that'll do. In other words, it isn't done right. Come on, have some character. Our precious principal in the little school I went to, 35 students, he said there was a turning point in his life. His daddy used to wear those boots up here, you know, and they didn't have that spray paint to put on them. They had some stuff like black mud. And you mixed it. Mother would say, well, mix it under the tap so you go to the tap and stir it. And when she wasn't there, you're just spitting it. But you mixed up that black mud and stuck it all over the boots and you'd wait till they dried. And it was murder. It'd take you two hours to clean a pair of them. And he said, well, these were very bad. They'll do. He said, a voice said, if those were the shoes of Jesus Christ, would you pass them on? Oh, no, no, no, no. I'd do them perfectly. Well, you're doing it for a preacher. And as much as you do it to the least of these, you do it to him. He said, it changed my life. I never said that will do. I made up my mind everything I did will be done properly as it was expected of me. It builds character. Get your body under discipline. Paul says, I keep my body under. He didn't mean under the clothes when he should be up either. He didn't mean under the table when he should be fasting. This man has such vast fastings, such balance. One of the things we need to get over in our minds today, particularly in doctrine and teaching, there's a thousand different things, is balance. Paul says, I'm in fasting. He said, I know how to abound. I can't find where he abounds. Where does he abound? You better tell me after, Jack. Where does he abound? He abounds in grace. He abounds in courage. He abounds in strength. But abounding as we know it, no sirree. What did he say? He says, be strong. Be strong in what? Body? Endure hardness. Be strong in your mental powers. Verse 15, chapter 2. Study to show thyself approved unto God. A workman that needeth not to be ashamed. Come on now, supposing you die before twelve o'clock tonight. Would it be okay? You say, believe in the rapture. Well, you're not going to get any notice about it. It's going to happen instantaneously. I think of a little boy years ago in England. He said he'd done his need saying his prayers. And he prayed the usual, you know, bless daddies and mummies and aunties and uncles and grandmas. Grandma said, go on. No. Well, you've said this a hundred times, say it. And if I die tonight? Excuse me, granny, he said. And he ran off to the nursery. And he came back and she said, what's wrong? He said, granny, I couldn't die tonight. I took Mary's things and I buried them out in a place where she couldn't find them. I took a dog and I buried it in the cupboard under all the stuff. I would like, that was naughty. That was wrong. I shouldn't do that. In other words, I want to be living straight. Paul says, endure hardness. Study to show thyself. Let's go back to verse 4 for a moment. No man that walleth and tangleth himself with the affairs of this life that he may chose him that he may, what? Please him. It's not a case of me being the smartest man on earth, the smartest preacher, smartest something. Am I pleasing him? That's my one continual goal every day of my life. It should be. It explains the life of Jesus. I do always those things which please the Father. They don't please me, they don't please my flesh, they don't please other people, but they please the Father. And since I've signed up to be a soldier come hell or high water, prosperity or adversity, liked or disliked, it makes no difference. I'm going to do this one thing, I'm going to please the Father. What do you do to please the Father? Who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross? You know, the artists all covered Jesus. I don't believe Jesus had a stitch on the cross. It was a humiliation to be exposed nakedly. And he didn't enjoy it, but he endured the cross despising the shame. It was the joy set before him. Andrew Bonner, one of the three great preaching brothers, Andrew Bonner and Horatio Bonner, and I forgot the other one. Last century in Scotland, Andrew wrote to him, Go labour on, spend and be spent. Thy joy to do the Father's will. It is the way the master went, should not the servant tread it still. Toil on, and in thy toil rejoice. For toil comes rest, for exile home. Soon shalt thou hear the bridegroom's voice, the midnight cry, Behold I come. Men die in darkness at your side, without a hope to cheer the tomb. Take up the torch and wave it wide. The torch that lights time's thickest gloom. You see, he lived in the, if you like, the backwash, if you want to call it, of the Puritans. They were still soaking themselves, they were eternity conscious, which we are not. Let's go down here a minute then. Just keep that in the background, the background music. There is no man that woreth and entangleth himself with affairs of this life. Verse 14 it says, Of these things put them in remembrance, charging before the Lord that they strive not about words to no profit. Look in verse 22 of the same chapter. Flee also youthful lusts. Don't stay in a place of temptation. Maybe I told you, I was in a meeting and a husky young fellow came. Boy, he was a picture of a young man. Curly hair, bronzes, short sleeves. I said, what's your problem? He said, lust. I said, we've had three meetings today. This is the first when you've been out. Where were you? Oh, I was down on the beach today. Doing what? Oh, I went for a swim. I said, how long? What time do you go there? Two o'clock. What time do you leave? Half past five. Were you swimming three and a half hours? No, no, no, not three and a half hours. What were you doing? Oh, I was ogling the girls on the beach. I said, you go watching and you see nakedness. Flee youthful lusts. He says, run from them. There are some things you're not big enough to handle. And don't tempt God and don't tempt your own weakness. Get out of the way. It says, free also youthful lusts. Something about being entangled with the affairs of this world. Verse 23 says what? But foolish and unlearned questions avoid, knowing that they do gender strife. Or he said in verse 14, words to no profit. Did not amaze me the first time I came to America. That was 1950. I went to a pretty well-known Bible school and spoke, went to lunch. I never heard a word about Christ or missions or anything. It was sports, sports, sports, round the dinner time. I thought, well, we'll get over this. Supper time it was the same. Every day it was the same. Supposed to be a holiness school. The affairs of this life. Oh, well, it's the American way of life. If your boy's in football, you mustn't go and miss a Friday night prayer meeting. Go watch him. So what? What eternity quality has it? That's the hard thing when you start crossing over in-laws and out-laws and other people. As I said the other day, what was it, it was Pontius Pilate said, but ye have a custom. I'd like to make a sermon on that. Ye have a custom. What's the custom? To send Christmas cards. Why? Any Christianity in it? No. Easter cards, Easter Bunny. A custom to do this, do that, do the other. It's custom. It's nothing to do with spirituality. But the church does it. We're tied up with customs and ritual and things which are absolutely, it's such a thing as pure trivia. Golly, we've got it these days. It has no eternity quality about it. Now he's laying the charge to this young fellow, by the way. Number one, he says, stir up the gift of God which is in thee. Do you realize that? What's the word of God say? The word says, the gift of God is eternal life. What does it say? The gift of God. It doesn't say gift from God. A fellow falls in love with a girl, he gives her a ring. After that he gives himself to her. And she to him, hopefully. I do not receive a gift from God. It isn't as though God has something called eternal life and he snaps them off and says, there you are, that's for you. It's not part of, it's God himself, the gift of God. God indwelling you. Read Romans 8, it says the spirit of God dwells in you. It says in Romans 8, the Holy Spirit dwells in you. It says the spirit of Christ dwells in you. Well if you have the Father, Son and Holy Ghost in you, you can be more than conquer, but without him you can't. You can tread on adversity, calamity and tragedy. And that's what it's going to take in the days that lie ahead of us. Let's look at chapter 4 verse 1 for a minute or two here. Here we go. Okay. Again 2 Timothy, chapter 4 verse 1. This is a young man he loves so much. He's kind of, as it were, passing his mantle on to him. But he says, don't take anything lightly. You're dealing with eternal things. Keep, stir up the gift of God. Don't let that vision get blurred. Stir it up. How do you stir it up? Put some rags on and go down a hell hole in your native city and see what it's like. Get some book and read that that will stir you to your toes. Stir up the gift of God. Listen, you, you, you, me, every one of us here tonight, you're just as spiritual as you want to be. It isn't God's problem. It isn't your environment. It isn't the in-laws. It isn't the church and the backstreet deacons. You are as spiritual as you want to be. You read the same book that Wesley read. You have the same access to the Father. You're the same holy ghost of their witness. Well, what man refers, don't we, to thee? You've heard me cry many times in this room, Oh God, deliver us from mediocrity. I'm so sick of living amongst dwarfs, spiritual dwarfs. I tell you what, I'd like to get away sometime and read this epistle and study it with a bunch of people and let them ask questions about it. He says, I charge thee before the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead. He's reminding him of eternity. He shall judge the quick and the dead. Ask the kingdom, preach the word. The instant, in season, out of season. Preach the word. We're not preaching the word. We're preaching about abortion. We're preaching about crime. We're preaching about drugs. We're preaching about divorce. And they all need to be hit, but that's not this. That doesn't save people. You can't live on the negative way to preach Christ. The living Christ, the hope of glory. It says, preach the word. Don't, oh, everybody's getting psychology. All the churches now. All they're having inner healing meetings. Inner feelings. Inner healings. Inner feelings. You never heard of that a few years ago. We were so consumed with Christ. You couldn't get, you know, I'm hurt, I'm suffering this and some other junk. I tell you, when Christ is in you, Christ is your hope, Christ is your strength, Christ is your peace, Christ is your joy. Instant, in season, out of season. He's telling a young man yet, we'd say figuratively, it's hardly dry behind the ears. He says, listen, this is what you do. You see, if you have the indwelling Christ, you have authority. Can you imagine a guy coming straight from Baylor if he's been at the other religious section, don't you? It's supposed to be a religious school, but they're more famous for football and bears and all that junk. That won't get me an invitation to preach there, but that's okay. Reprove, he says, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine. Let's tie this up anyhow, quickly. Look at verse seven, he says, I fought a good fight. Isn't that wonderful? Why doesn't he say, I'm the greatest fighter that ever was? I wrestled with little beasts at Ephesus. I stood before Felix, and that guy trembled from head to foot when I presented the gospel to him. I stood before Agrippa, and notice he changed his tactics. Went to Agrippa, he says, King Agrippa, do you understand the prophets? He never said that to Felix. The first king of Israel was Saul. The last king of Israel was a vassal king by the name of Agrippa. And he says, King Agrippa, believe us not the prophets. I know you believe the prophets. You can recite the first five books of the Bible. You're no ignoramus. You've just become a slave to the Roman Empire. But he doesn't boast about his record. He doesn't say, when I preach, people tremble, kings quake. He doesn't say, when we pray, the building shakes. He's not concerned about that. He says, get a hold of this one thing. Your business is to preach Jesus Christ and him crucified. To the Jews, the religious beaten a stumbling block. To the Greeks, the intellectual, it's still foolishness. But to those of us who know him, it's the power of God and the salvation. I've fought a good fight. He's a soldier. I've finished my course. He's a runner. Doesn't he say in the other chapter there? He talks about wrestling. Oh, he says in verse 5 of chapter 2. If a man also strives for masteries, yet is he not crowned. He's talking there about wrestling, striving. The Christian life is a fight from beginning to end. On every level. You have to fight bodily weakness sometimes. You have to fight in-laws and out-laws other times. You have to fight the threatening depression. You have to fight a hundred things. I may, I don't know, maybe next Friday night talk about the devil. Some of you know him anyhow. Look at verse 3 of chapter 4. The time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but after their own lusts heap unto themselves teachers having itching ears. You know, the more fascinating and foolish it is, the bigger crowds you get. Teachers having itching ears. As I say sometimes, I have no commission from God to scratch them. All I have to tell you is what I see, again from the word of God. He said, I fought a good fight. There's no greater fight. If you want to lay your life out, lay it for Jesus Christ. Forget your career. Life is so short, it's a span. Eternity is endless. What are you singing tonight? It's easy to sing it in the living atmosphere and it moves me profoundly. I lay in dust, life's glory dead. I had a letter today, from Jock Purvis, you know he wrote Fair Sunshine. And that precious man, one of the most brilliant men I've ever met. He's absolutely soaked in the church history of Scotland. He can give you the name of strings of martyrs, where they died, how they died, their suffering, their enduring. He lived on the roof of the world for about three years with Rex Babington, who a while ago was a Bishop of England. They let their beards grow, they tied rags around their legs so they wouldn't freeze. And they plotted up those yak tracks about this width, on the side of them, and a drop of ten and fifteen thousand feet down there. Ernst was rebuking us tonight in a quiet way. I say this, I'll say this as long as I die. A Christian church without the supernatural is superficial. I don't care how eloquent the preacher is. I don't care how big his Sunday school is. Don't get a few more buses on the ground bus station. That won't scare the devil. Ernst talked about the supernatural manifestation of it with power. There was an old man, I heard him once, I'd preached for two weeks for Dr. Tozer. And the last night, we were in the, where were we, in the opera house in Chicago, like Belshazzar's Feast, it's gold plated walls, it's fabulous. And there's an old man sitting on a chair there, and somebody took his hand and said, come and pray. He put his hand there. I wish I'd had a tape recording of that. If I had, I wouldn't sell it for a thousand dollars. That dear old man, boy, he had one hand on the throne of God and the other on an audience. He could feel the vibrations of eternity. I had to close my eyes, I couldn't watch him. He's just pouring his spirit out for a visitation of God the Holy Ghost. Asking for a more intense hatred towards the world, the flesh and the devil, and the release of divine power. There's a life on him, I'll have to read it. Let me say this, he's going up a yak track. Here it is, a little footpath. Not eighteen inches wide, not more than eighteen. There's a drop-off ten or fifteen thousand feet. And he got round the corner and looked, and there were three priests in their saffron robes, their head shape. And the three priests were struggling up there, where the big yak, you know yak is something like a goat but much larger. And they were struggling up the hill and he thought well, when they go round that bend, they start going down to the village. It's going to take them at least two days to get to the village. And he said then this one who put his hand up stopped suddenly, and he's standing on this peak like this, this corner, and there's a gap of about thirty or forty feet. And then there's a peak coming out from the other mountain at the other side. And if he could jump from there to there, he could save two days going down and maybe four days climbing to the other peak, to the monastery. He said instead of that, they stood there, this man did some incantations and a dance, and he walked on the air, not the water like you talk about Jesus dear brother. I believe Jesus walked on the water. He walked on the air. Supernatural power. So when this dear old man of God got there, he wasn't so old at that time, but he's wearing these old rags and clothes. He was a friend of one of the greatest men that ever walked American soil, Dr. A.B. Simpson, a Presbyterian minister that was getting a five-figure salary and had the courage and horses to take him to church. He renounced it all to establish the Christian Missionary Alliance which today has about fifteen hundred missionaries out of one man who laid in dust life's glory dead. Well now we have this brother. He's seen his men walk across that space. There's no bridge. He stands there and he looks and the devil says you can't do that. Your Christ isn't alive. You put your foot out, you'll go spinning down there fifteen thousand feet into that river or bouncing your body off the rocks you'll be broken to pieces. And he said I stood there and said if you can do that in the name of the demon power, I can do it in the name of Jesus Christ the Son of God because he said Lord I'm with you always so here it goes. And he walked across without a bridge. About thirty feet. I told that story in a meeting and the guy said but boy you better have more than twenty seven feet of faith if you're going thirty feet. But you see he had assurance. There was no TV camera. He wasn't going to write a letter to people and say I did one of the most great wonderful miracles. Paul didn't do. Jesus never walked on. But I did it. I believe we're going to see things not to gratify our curiosity. But in a stupid world it lives only by what it can see and weigh and feel. I look for meetings there and I hope you'll be around a bit longer too. Where the power of God will go. I told you last week and I'm through with this. There was a man sitting here over there two weeks ago tonight from West Germany. I said well where are you going? Where are you living now? He said West Germany. I've just got a beautiful home there. Got settled down and the Lord said go to the Zulus in Africa. Zulus? We used to crack jokes about Zulus in England. Thought they were the most dense hopeless people in Africa. They must be further south than you are are they? The Zulus? Further down. Further down in more ways than one. He said I'm going there. The Lord has taught and he's a brilliant guy. He speaks about seven or eight languages and he said Brother Raymond the Lord told me to go to the Zulus. He said I was praying and the Lord said go to the Zulus for at least six months. He said I'm cancelling my programme. I want to go to Nagaland and see the results of that point in north of North India. Nagaland. Where the acts of the apostles have been repeated again. I want to go there. The Lord says go to the Zulus. He said I'm going to stay six months. Oh boy would I love to go with him. Go and sit in front of illiterate men that many of them never seen a TV bless them. Maybe not seen an automobile or hardly ever. They're none of our creature comforts. But they have what we don't have. They've got the Holy Ghost. And he said in a stable. I love that. Jesus came to a stinking stable. Not Waldorf or Story where I live. He came to a lovely stable. It had wall to wall manure carpeting. The stink of it from urine. The heating system. The sweating beasts. The curtains cobwebs. If it had a light at all. It was a flickering light. I hear the light of the world is born in that darkness. The purest person this world's ever known is born in the midst of that corruption. Well these men were sick of church and churchianity. And the usual stand up sit down all this junks we do. And they began to cry to God. And one of them said oh God manifest yourself. We're so lonely. We're so cold. Lord manifest yourself as power. As fire. And he hadn't got the words out of his mouth. When one of the men cried out. He said my eyes are burning like coals of fire. And the other man cried my feet are burning. I can't stand my feet are burning. And the other man said my lips are burning. And before long people came in. Do you know what happened? You talk about glory. I think you mentioned it too in some building at once. He said the glory of God like the Shekinah glory that was in the holy of holies came down. And there was no light. No switches. No lighting. It was just the glory of God in such a blaze that people just came to the door and peeped in. What's the secret of this thing? Who's flashing there? There's no light at all. What happened? Those men got touched with a fire of God in 1966 and that revival is still going on. I hope you'll go sometime Ernest and see it and send us a report on it. That revival is still going on. Now they have a compound. They have those little African crawls do you call them? Those round buildings with a what? Yeah. With a spike. A spire. What do you call it? Oh I see. It depends on our English. We call them little huts. They're called crawls I think. C-r-a-a-l-s. They have about 70 of them on a campus. They have a building that seats 7,000 people. There's no TV show. There's no newsletter. They just pass word of mouth. And Tony said to a pastor who was here last year, do you know in our town meeting they had recently? There were 15 nations represented. Not 15 denominations, 15 real nations. Denominations are not real nations anyhow. But anyhow. You see what happens? They have no financial backing. They have no exact... They have... They don't have to report to headquarters. You know some Pentecostals are so Pentecostal they think when they die they go to Springfield. And some Baptists think they go to somewhere. The Nazarenes think when they die they go to Kansas City. And some be satisfied to get there. I doubt if any of us here apart maybe from Ernst and... I can remember 60 years ago seeing a little... see the glory of God. When God takes over in a town. When people don't want to go to work. People lined up outside the little church and... Well, little church for America, big for England, 600 people. On a Sunday night people lined up like a movie house to get a seat. Young people crowded in. In the three years we were there at least 11 people went into full-time service. Went to India, went to Bogota, Columbia. Gave up their careers. Some postponed their marriage in order that they might do the will of God. Let's get tough. There's a modern slogan I like. I almost wish I had written it. What does it say? When the going gets tough, the tough get going. Well, that's good. I'll tell you what, it's going to get tougher. If some of us don't get more than what we've got now, we'll collapse in the next two or three years. If America doesn't have revival, we're sunk. Forget it. I don't care who gets to be president. Whether it's Robinson or Pap Boone, it weighs no pounds. Neither of them can do much for it. Ordinary visitation, a divine invasion, get that book, get that book. Did you bring any with you John? How many? 20? What was it, 150? It's on the Welsh revival. I've got, I don't have any book on the Welsh revival. This is the very best. And the man who wrote it, I preach with him often, he's a Scotsman. It tells you about the moving of the spirit of God and truth. When the meeting's over, look on TV, I don't care whether it's Jimmy Roberts or Jimmy Robinson or James Robinson or Billy Graham or what's the other boy? Preacher boy down in Swaggart, thank you. What happens? Oh, the meeting's over, off they go. They have to get through the door, they're smoking or they rush off to do something. In revival people do not leave the sanctuary for hours. This precious 26 year old young man finished preaching, walked out of the building at 10 o'clock, got down on his face and prayed all night and all the next day for the next meeting the next night. Our guys are guzzling some junk or running home from TV. There's no brooding of the Holy Ghost but when the Holy Ghost takes in an area, watch it. You can't explain it. You can't predict it. You can't direct it. God becomes sovereign. And I'm aching, aching, aching in my spirit to see a sovereign move of God, the Holy Ghost. Where no men will get the glory. No denomination. No church. I'm humiliated when I think of this precious brother. Saying, well God you've called me. He did this when you saw me before. Not evangelistically, but anyhow. Somebody gave him a TV this size and he sold it and it paid his fare over here. And then when he feels he has to stay, a church says, well come up and see us. They don't know him. He goes and somebody says, well as long as you're in school we'll pay your fees I think. And pay his fee back to that country. And if you can't make it we'll take a collection and bring you back. But you see this is what God wants to use. He's a pastor. Were you ordained? Good for you. He has the only ordination that's good. John 15. I have ordained you. All the others rubbish. Even from Baylor. Even from Dallas Theological Seminary. That's no good either. The only thing that's going to stand is the anointing of God. It's without money. It's without price. It means brokenness. I say God I don't depend on my education. I don't depend on my Bible knowledge. I'm not depending on a denomination or an abomination or anything. Lord of all I crave the fire of God to come and consume in me whatever stops you from having your way. Two days ago this man asked me what hinders revival? I said I'll give you one answer. Why don't we have revival? Because we're content to live without it. We want to go to nice meetings and nice people and hear the choir and all the junk. That's going to be swept away. We're going to come in someday and the glory will fill this place. We'll all have to fall down. End your hardness. Let's get tough. Toughen up on your prayer life. Toughen up on your giving. Toughen up as dear Ernest said on your praying. Let's get down to business. I'm not going to say God this is a bloody battle. I'm going to talk about the enemy next week I think so pray about it. There's a lord coming in from Dallas and some fellows are coming from El Paso. That doesn't matter. All we need is God in this sanctuary. And he's sure been here the last three or four Friday nights. We're going to go to prayer. Some of you can't stay too long. I hope you'll stay a little while. Anyhow, you'll get home just as well. And I hope, you know what I want you to do. I think we ought to agree as a fellowship to fast from Tuesday night supper to Wednesday night supper. To pray for revival and particularly to pray for our children. Let's all know we're praying for each other on Wednesdays from Tuesday night to Wednesday night. And then when you come to the prayer meet, ask the lord tomorrow. When I get home tonight, I start planning for next week. I used to be able to sit down and prepare a message in a couple of days. It takes me almost a week. As soon as I get out here, I want a word for next Sunday, next Friday night. And we have to let God see we're really a living sacrifice. He can consume us. Not just give us thrills on Sunday, but dominate our thinking, our acting, our desires. Putting a curb on our spending, a curb on our talking. Totally his. Take my life and let it be consecrated. Take my lips and let them be consecrated. Take my feet and let them move at the impulse of my love. Take my love. Take my servant, my God. The last thing, take my will and make it done. We've got to get there. You have to roll up some of your plans for tomorrow, your career, and say God almighty, I don't care if I never become a doctor, if I never become a professional preacher. I'm concerned that I start getting the burden in my heart right now. The life and the power. So at least some of you heavyweights, what I want you to do is come every Friday night with a burden. Not here to get one, but come to deliver your soul. Say, Lord, what do I pray next Friday? I know what God told me to do two or three days ago. For my prayers tonight, we're going to concentrate on the pastors that are in the area. I've been revolving about Jeremiah and about the weeping part, and today I got Dave Wilkerson's letter Not that that matters he wasn't saying anything. He's talking about the same thing. About men who weep. He says revival means you weep between the altar and the door post. We don't do it. You can't take a career in learning to pray even. The spirit must do it. Emotions, some people will turn them on and off like that. I can't. God doesn't take any notice of emotional tears. It's when the heart is broken. It's something you're living with. I've never missed in my life and I am now because I know we're heading for Armageddon unless there's a tremendous move of the Spirit of God.