Leonard Ravenhill emphasizes the call to present our bodies as living sacrifices to God, reflecting on the profound mercy and grace that God has shown us. He highlights the importance of not conforming to the world but being transformed by the renewing of our minds, urging believers to fully surrender their lives to God's will. Ravenhill draws on the apostle Paul's teachings, particularly from Romans 12, to illustrate the necessity of living a life wholly dedicated to God amidst a corrupt generation. He encourages the congregation to embrace their identity in Christ and to actively engage in the battle against sin and societal decay, trusting in God's strength and guidance. Ultimately, he calls for a radical commitment to follow Jesus, who gave everything for us.

Lord, I think of the poet who said that something lives in every hue that Christ's eyes have never seen. There's something very beautiful in these hymns that we have sung. Many of them were born of grief and critical experiences. They're born out of the depths of the spirits of men and women. This beautiful phrase captures my heart at this moment, since he bids me seek his faith, believe his word and trust his grace. The kings of the earth hide themselves from us. Presidents and the famous people are not accessible, and yet we thank you that we have the consolation that we can come any time into your presence again by this new and this living way. We thank you for the light that we've received, not just a light you give us, but Christ himself is our light. We thank you for the strength, not something you'll pass on. But the psalmist said, the joy of the Lord is my strength. And again he says, the Lord is my strength. And again he says, the Lord is my shield. And again one has said, if God is for us, who can be against us. We thank you for this victory during the past week against this Sodom-like thing that is sweeping the nation. Maybe your desire is to purify as much as anything the woman that fought it, to show all the vanity of many things. She has been blessed as our brother has said, and lives in a mansion, and yet she declares she's willing to let it all go, to fight the good fight of faith. And we thank you for this courage. With and hope some men will take this up too, and that there'll be a warfare wage that will let people know again, that there are people who desire wholly to follow God, in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation. There's no question about it, that as the old hymn writer said, abide with me, the darkness deepens, Lord with me abide. We shall need your light more than ever we've needed it before, because if there's no light, we'll fall in the holes in the road. But Lord if we walk in the light, we shall see those pitfalls, if we step out of light, we fall into them. Our obedience depends so much on our progress, and our maturity. We're not trying to cast on thee the responsibility that is ours, nor are we trying to abrogate to ourselves, what must be of grace, and of mercy, and the peace and joy of God. We thank you Lord, I thank you for the last weekend, with its encouragement to see the beggars lifted from the dunghill, and made princes unto God. Thank you those who were once feared by men, feared by their own relatives, feared even by the police, and now loved, and esteemed, and people have to stand in awe, and wonder how the knots in them are untied, wonder how the impurity was purified, wonder how their filth was somehow cleansed from their hearts, wonder how their wills, which were so weak and water-like, have become so strong, wonder why those who were once hell-bound, and sin-bound, and doing everything they could, they dedicated everything they had, it seems to the devil. They didn't tithe their time and money, they gave all their time, all their money, all their interests, and they served him willingly, and they served him successfully from some angles. But we are glad Lord, that somebody loved them enough, and sought them, that somebody rescued the perishing, and cared for the dying, and snatched them in pity from sin and the grave. And we pray now, as they've gone back to other cities to rescue others, that they'll be strong in the grace of God. They face many temptations, many trials, but again we thank you who said, that greater is he that is in us, than he that is in the world. We thank you for those who have been patient with them, they've stumbled and staggered sometimes, they've almost given up, but somebody picked them up, and lifted them up, and encouraged them, and we thank you for that. Thank you for the testimony of David Wilkerson, that his voice is heard around the world, and his staff that labour so faithfully. Thank you for the Agape force, the way that you've blessed them, and the wonderful signs we saw of your presence there, and the manifest power of God. We thank you for other stations like this around the nation, we are glad again Lord, you said in the last days, you'll pour out your spirit and all flesh, and that young men will see visions, some of us are too old to see them maybe. Old men will just dream dreams, but you said on my servants and handmaid, you said your sons and your daughters shall prophesy. Lord when it looks as though the house, the walls are going to go out, and the roof come in, you said at that terrible moment, when the enemy shall come in like a flood, the spirit of God shall lift up a standard against him. We pray again out of that school, the Agape school, and out of that training school there of Wilkerson's, that you send forth prophets, and teachers, and evangelists. But men will do things we've dreamed about doing, and prayed about doing, and long to see done. It won't move us to jealousy, it will move us to joy, and admiration, and praise. To see these individuals go down, and pull down the strongholds of Satan, scattered all the myriad forces of hell itself. We think again of lonely missionaries, toiling maybe through steaming jungles, and not having enough to satisfy the cravings of their thirst. Thank you for those who brave the dangers, political dangers, and economic dangers, and dangers of climate, dangers of wild beasts, dangers of disease. Think of those who labor in leper colonies. I remember once going in one, and they're certainly terrible, and repulsive. Yet there are those who do not fear the contamination. Some who would even embrace it, in order to get into those areas. Lord we thank you that you see every precious child. You grade us. If we were left to grade each other, it would be a pitiable thing. We'd grade people by our emotions, or our affections, and some other things. You wouldn't even have the sense enough to grade them correctly. But we're glad with thee there is nothing in of that at all. We thank you that your judgments are perfect, and the race will soon be run for all of us, and the prizes will be given, or the prizes will not be given, according to our faithfulness to obey thee. Bless your word to our hearts again today. We thank you for it. Thank you for its eternal freshness, like the manna that comes from, came from heaven every morning. We thank you again for those who braved death in order to preserve it, and smuggle it to us. Thank you for those who had vision. They said one day they'd lift it from the hand of the scholar, and out of the seclusion of the monastery, and give it to the plow boy in the field. We thank you that day has come. We think of the Wycliffe translators, at 1200 or more of them around the world, doing this very same job, and we give you praise for all that's done in that way. It's unheroic. They don't get photographed. They don't get shouted from the housetop. They don't get to be prominent characters in big crusades. But again we thank you that you see them, and the God who sees in secret will reward openly. Click in our hearts today, and enrich as we pray. We remember all the friends who are absent. We thank you for preserving them, bringing them safely back on the on the busy roads. We remember brother John, and ask you to bless him. We remember the TLC students, wherever they're scattered. We thank you for them, and pray you'll bless them. Bless those who are seeking guidance from thee, that they may know it, and have the courage, and grace, and strength to do that thing that you reveal to them. And we give you praise in Jesus' name. Oh let's look at the epistle of Paul to the Romans chapter 12. Romans the 12th chapter. We'll take the first two verses of this marvellous chapter right here. I beseech you therefore brethren, by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God. I'm always amazed when I reflect on the versatility of the apostle. He writes to a young man about being a good soldier of Jesus Christ. He writes to the Thessalonians, and he says that he's attended with them as a nurse. Now if he wrote to a young man, and told him he needed a nurse, he might be offended. But he writes to the young man, and says you've become a good soldier, and and you put on the whole armour of God. He writes to the Thessalonians, and he says that uh, he's attended with them as a nurse, with her children. He writes again to the Thessalonians, and he says he's praying night and day. I'm, I'm always arrested by that statement, that he prays night and day. And he's not praying for a lost world. He's praying for the church. He's praying for those who have been partly established in the things of God. And he says I'm praying night and day, that I may see your face, and I may perfect that which is lacking in your faith. He doesn't say they have no faith, he says they have a faith that needs strengthening. And he wants to get there, and he wants to strengthen and quicken their faith. When he writes to the Romans, he says in the first chapter, for I long to see you that I may impart unto you some spiritual gift, to the end that ye may be established. Now, I know that scholars, Bible scholars, disagree as to the uh, the depth of the epistles Paul wrote. Some disagree that he wrote Hebrews. I think he did write it. And it's a very profound book. But I'm sure that he did write the epistle to the, to the Romans. And in it we get some almost terrifying revelations. The only reason why he's, he uses his therefore. He uses that therefore so many times. Somebody says why does Paul use so many therefores? And somebody said well they're there for a certain reason. You see, he has a therefore in the, in the second chapter. And he has a, he says therefore thou art inexcusable O man. He has a, that's a therefore I think of condemnation. He has a therefore in chapter five. Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God. There's the therefore of justification. In the eighth chapter, he says there is therefore now no condemnation. That's the therefore of liberation. And in this twelfth chapter, again in the first verse, I beseech you therefore, he's talking here about sanctification. Now the only reason he gives the therefore in the twelfth chapter, is that he has established a tremendous foundation for this. In the first, I forget how many verses there are, what is it 250 or something. But anyhow there are 11 chapters. And in the twelfth chapter, it seems to me he's putting the roof on. But you can't put a roof on. It will float away if you have no foundation, and you have no walls. And therefore he's built up his argument therefore. Which means because of these things, because of everything that's gone in the eleventh chapter. Now I come to the twelfth and he begins to establish another tremendous truth. Paul has some very, very, very challenging words in all his writings. For instance if you agree or disagree, it's still the word of God in Hebrew 725. He is able to say to the uttermost, all who come unto God by him. Now one of the signs amongst others of the last days, is that we're going to finish where we started. Because when the earth was, eventually when man fell, you remember there was a progressive deterioration. Until we get to that place where it says in the days of Noah, that violence filled the earth, and the nations were corrupt before God. And we made a full circle despite all our intelligence, and all the ramifications of our scientific knowledge. We're as rotten and corrupt, and more rotten and corrupt, because we have light and want to be it. If I remember right, it was that great scientist Einstein who said that we have, what did he say? We have denatured the atom, but we cannot denature man. Over a hundred years ago, Sigmund Freud came along with his psychology, and the psychiatry, and all the stuff. He could make diagnoses, but he could not give us a right cure. And we've no need to tuck our heads under our wings, or go with our heads down in a world that's so arrogant and so proud, because we're ripe in corruption right now. I was staggered to hear twice in the last two days, that the government has said that no children can be refused contraceptives. Children, it's legal. If they go in any place and want them, serve them and ask no questions. As it matter if they're 10 or 110, mind your business. This is the land of the free. You're free to go to hell as quick as you like. Not only here, but other countries. This is tragic. Now Paul takes us to the abyss of the human heart. Nobody searched it like the apostle Paul. He wasn't anticipating Freud. He had revelation from above. It's as though God opened the heart and said, there's the cesspool, there's the abyss, there's the cage of unclean birds. You better sit down and count the cost. I'm humiliated when I think of him, every time I think of Paul. Again I remind you, he started his life in the ancient capital of the world, Tartus. He ended up in the military capital of the world, Rome. In between he challenged the religious capital of the world, Jerusalem. He went to the intellectual capital in Acts 16, which was Athens. And he reasoned about their philosophy with the Stoics and Epicureans and the poets. This man can fight them with one hand tied behind his back and lick the whole bunch of them. They were spellbound when they heard him, because finally he says, the man that I represent, listen to this he says, the Jews took him and they crucified him. He emphasizes that again and again, even in Acts 2. Ye crucified the Lord of glory. But I want to tell you something. He did something nobody ever did in history, and nobody under his own power can do again. He not only died, he not only carried away the sin of the world, he rose again from the dead. And he led captivity captive, and he's given gifts unto men. And so knowing that, he bravely goes. You talk about Daniel in the lion's den, that was the Sunday school class to what the Apostle Paul faced. When he went to Corinth for instance. You didn't say about a man in those days, he was a homosexual, and a liar, and a thief, and a perverter, and run 50 adjectives behind his name. Say he's a Corinthian. And you said he's a child of hell, he's as depraved as anything that walks on the earth. But you see this man had a full revelation of the majesty of the Son of God. I got a letter the other day from a man I consider quite an intellectual. He is not a preacher as such. He's a brilliant man. He met God in a crusade we had in a certain city about 19, I don't know 20 years ago. Do you know from that day that man gave up his business except to do little things on the side, and has given himself to the Word of God. He could live in a mansion, he could live stylishly, he runs a little car, he lives in a little home. They work a little patch in the garden, he's one of the most knowledgeable men in the things of God. You get what you're going for. If you're going for money you can be a millionaire. I don't doubt that at all. That's a common philosophy. If that's all you want, get it. If you want scientific wisdom give your genius to that. I noticed this week that science is going to make a another survey of the human mind. It baffles men how the mind works. And you know what, if Jesus tells you it'll baffle them a hundred years, and a thousand years from now. There are mysteries that God is never going to reveal to covetous men, and ambitious men. You see that man has given himself, Paul did the, I'm sure of this. But one of the great secrets in the life of the Apostle Paul, he refused to be tempted by anything. The slogan of his life, and if you're going to serve God you better make up your mind. Particularly you young fellows, and I pray God you will. I pray for you every day anyhow. This one thing I do, you can't ride two horses. Now if God's called you to be a millionaire, be a millionaire and give your money to mission. I noticed a man last week in a plain old jacket going round, and he was a blessing to people. He gave a, I don't know how many, fifty or a hundred dollars to a little, God told him to tell that Chinese girl here, God want you to have this. She hung on his neck, she hugged him and kissed him, and he said I was looking to see if my wife was watching. She'd wonder why this girl was, well I have this need and God met it through you. He was going all over that campus in Agape, he didn't come to me but that's all right. And you know he left a trail of blessing. It's not what you have, it's how you use it. Percentage wise, it's easy to give it if you've a lot, it's hard to give if you don't have much. But I'll tell you what, as Herb often reminds me, I keep saying this over and over, remember this, God keeps a score. He won't give you a penny for anything you haven't invested. He'll give you full benefits better than any bank, if you make the investment for him. David Wilkinson says to his people here on this street, those of you who invested money, look at these 35 people, they're worth a million dollars each. There's no value on them, worth a thousand million dollars each. They're going to be saved, not for the years of time alone, but for eternity. They're not only going to do that, they're going down to people and sit at the side of some lousy dirty prostitute and say, listen darling I want to tell you something. I used to sit like this, I used to sell my body on the street for so much. What do you mean? You're fooling. Or you go out at night like our kids used to go, but they didn't have drug experience sure enough. But I'm glad our kids had training down in, and I told David the other day, I said Dave I'm glad that we ever went to team challenge and those three boys got a baptism of going down back alleys and meeting dirty people and coming home two or three o'clock Sunday morning worn out, after being in town four or five hours. Or you could do that in Houston, you could do that in, in San Antonio, there's plenty of place to do it. But you see you've got to be sure of your ground, you've got to know in whom you have believed. Just this past two weeks I heard of three men, one man I have admired to a certain degree. He suddenly felt a call to become a congressman. He has a fine church, he has a radio station, but, but there's a fascination. I, I don't believe God called him to be a congressman. If God called him to bid to the ministry to call it gifts and callings of God without repentance. Either he missed it 20 years ago, or he's missing it now. Another man, oh yes he's a personable, he's a wonderful man. I've talked with him, been in his church, that suddenly he's developed a minister on a lecture tour. And it's very rewarding. You know you can pick up five hundred thousand dollars a night, but his church has gone down. It's bristling with problems. Two assistant pastors have left him, he's got a domestic situation. Another man that I've known and worked with for a while, and he got friendly with the millionaire who says, listen I can get you in the oil business. And he sold his ministry for a pot of oil. Isn't it tragic? Paul made up his mind, look he says, I didn't spend three and a half years, I've got some students right now in different parts of the country that gave up some of vacation and summer jobs, except a job that's convenient, to get out on a farm and finish at five o'clock at night, and spend every night in prayer till September. Prayer and reading the Word of God. This one thing I do. And I believe that this is part of the great motivation in the life of the apostle. You see there came a day when Paul went out and Jesus came in, in all his fullness. He says not only am I in Christ, not only is Christ in me, but I'm in him. Boy that's, that's double safety isn't it? He's in me and I'm in him, so what? There's an old hymn that says, let the world despise and leave me, they have left my Saviour too. What do you expect of it? It's a lousy Lord anyhow. And so Paul lists the veil in this, pardon me, in this first chapter. We've come right back again, I remind you of the abyss of the human heart. Look at it in verse 24 of chapter 1. He says, wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lust of their own hearts, to dishonor their own bodies. Isn't that what we're doing again today? He gave them up to uncleanness, that's wrong living. Verse 26, for this cause God gave them up to vile affections, that's wrong loving. Verse 28, even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient. So that's wrong being. So you've got three deciding fact, decisive factors there. Verse 24, wrong living. Verse 26, wrong loving. And verse 28, wrong being. Now look what he says about this pit of the human heart. Verse 28, God as, and even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind. Or my margin says, a mind void of judgment. You realize what that means? They can't tell the difference between right and wrong, darkness and light. Their minds are perverted. Sure they'll defend homosexuality, they'll defend anything, these are our rights. The most disturbing thing in the world is when, well isn't there a saying, yes there's a saying, it is a fearful thing, the scripture says, to fall into the hands of the living God. Robert Louis Stevenson said, there's only one worse thing for a nation. And that's not when you fall into the hands of a living God, it's when you fall out. And God says I'm through with you. He gave them over to a reprobate mind. They loved their darkness, they loved every unclean thing. And he tells you what it is in the next verse. Verse 29, being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity, whispers, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, bolsters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents. Skip over the page into the third chapter, verse 19. As it is written, there is none righteous, no not one. There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They're all gone out of the way, out of God's way, into their own way. They're all together become unprofitable. There is none that doeth good, no not one. Their throat is an open sepulcher, with their tongues their views deceit. The poison of asps is under their lips, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery are in their ways. The way of peace they have not known. And there's no fear of God before their eyes. Well if they don't fear God, do you think they're going to fear policemen or courts? They don't fear the holy eternal being that they have to stand before one day, in naked helplessness. This is a, this is a horrible condition of those who are without God, without hope in the world. Oh we could spend a lot of time there that we won't spend. But I'll tell you what he gets triumphant in that third chapter. Because he says in verse 24 of chapter 3, being justified freely by his grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. And then in the fifth chapter, being justified by faith. And in verse 5, the love of God is shed abroad in their heart by the Holy Ghost. Do you know any alchemy that can do a thing like that? For thousands of years men have dreamed that somewhere they're going to find something that they can pour all the lead and it becomes pure gold. There's something infinitely greater than that. There's a slimy, sinful, warped, wicked, wild, human heart. That's full of the venom of hell. It's the poison of the serpent that's in them. There's no form, no godliness, no decency, no purity. I think of Nicky Cruz, when he came to Teen Challenge. And after he had professed conversion, they, they sent him to a psychiatrist. And the psychiatrist took him to the zoo. He didn't know why, but he tried to fool Nicky. But Nicky got the best of him. Then they took him out on the boat, on the lake, and began to ask him some foolish questions. The psychiatrist said to him, you're a Puerto Rican. He said yes. Well he said, they took a boat load of men out to, off the coast of Brazil, and asked them would they jump overboard, for the love of their country. And they said yes. They went to Venezuela and did the same thing. And those men said, we'll jump overboard, in love for our country. And then they said, do you love Puerto Rico enough to jump overboard? No he said, I don't. But he said, I'd jump overboard for Jesus, if he wanted me to. Oh the psychiatrist said, I can't get anywhere with you. And Nicky says, you know I don't need help. He sure that needed the help. And boy he felt real bad about that. Sure it is. Is there anything more wonderful than the potter taking the clay? I saw potter's wheel this week. And the man takes a slab of junk, and you wouldn't give him 10 cents for it. And he talks, and he works, and he bakes it, and paints it. And you ask him how much, and he says a thousand dollars. After 50 cents worth of clay. That's better than looking after sheep. They get you goat, but it's better than sheep. But you see what happened? God takes a shapeless character. Not only shapeless, but it's got every disease, and defect, and damnation in it. And he takes it, and he purifies it. The apostle Paul is the man himself, you remember, who was breathing out threatenings. And God in infinite mercy, redeemed him. All right he says, because of that redemption. If I read the first 11 chapters, what Paul is saying, I'm trying to tell you this. It may be a that Jesus did something for you, you could never have done for yourself. He did something for you, education could not do. He did something for you that science could not do. He did something for you even that religion could not do. He did something for you that penances could not do, and fasting could not do, and living a life as a, in a monastery could not do. There is not a way it could be done, but Jesus did it. Now he says, because he has saved you from sin, and because he has come to indwell you, I beseech you, that's a very strong word. I think it's Phillips who says, I plead with you. Another translator says, I entreat you with earnestness, to present your body a living sacrifice. I beseech you therefore, by the mercies of God. Oh that's, that's the reason. What's he done in the previous 11 chapters? He's shown you the mercy, the mercy, the mercy, the mercy of God. I like that hymn that says, mercy there was great, and grace was free. Pardon there was multiplied to me. If God only forgave one sin, but if he gave a multitude of sins. I don't run it out, we've stumbled and staggered all of us on our pilgrim way, and yet he's extended mercy. You see Paul himself is a debtor, and he knows that. He was never a hireling. He says, I don't care whether it's the Jew, or the barbarian, or the Greek, whether it's intellectual, or he's in a prison. I'm a debtor, I'm a debtor. And listen, you and I better remember that. You're not doing God's service because he gives ten thousand dollars to mission. I'm not doing God's service, because I give my life every day to prayer and working. No, no, no, no, wait a minute. It's all of his mercy that we're not consumed. And Paul has no catalogue of iniquity like some other people. But he writes to Tim and he says, God who is rich in mercy. The only reason we're not roasting like Sodom and Gomorrah this afternoon in America and England, is that God is rich in mercy. He's still holding off, but I wonder how much longer he'll hold off in our iniquity. Hold off and just watch us break every law. Dismantle the ten commandments and go on our way to destruction. I beseech you by the mercies of God. Mercy there was great and grace was free. I remember a preacher who said, don't you tell people to come and ask for mercy. That's no good. There's no, there's no mercy anymore. There was one act of mercy and that was on the cross. It's of grace we're saved. His mercy was manifested that he could have taken the sword and slashed the nations into and destroyed the world. But he said look, ah you've had thousands of years of opportunity. I'm going to give the world my only begotten son. You know I don't think we often think much, too much about the loneliness of God. Do you think we do? Hmm? For 30 years God was lonely. That's a long life. Well is it, is this today's Father's Day? Father's Day every day, but is it Father's Day today? I think it is. No it's not. Oh it's next Sunday, next Sunday. All right. Well you know my boys won't call me. They're too far away. That doesn't trouble me at all, not a bit. I'm glad they're where they are. You know sometimes I'd like to see them after Sunday's week, be nice to see the family. Sure it would. But you know those boys might be lying under six foot of earth or two feet of earth in Vietnam in some way. They think on certain ways. But there they are on the mission field, not the battlefield. And I rejoice in it. But I still happen to be a father and I know that there are times when it will be just nice to sit down and say hey Paul let's just have a nice talk. I have a friend, a brother I've met and he's a very precious preacher. And he married a very beautiful girl and man they had babies as quickly as they would come. They had four babies in their house under four years of age. That's pretty quick going. And he goes away preaching quite a bit and he came home one day and he said his wife met him at the door and she put his arms around him and said well how are you darling. She said listen just drop your bags, sit in a chair and will you talk some adult language to me. All I've heard is yeah yeah yeah. I've never had an intelligent conversation since you left. Sit down. I don't care about a meal. I don't care whether you change your suit. I don't care if you haven't had a bath for a week. Sit down and talk intelligently to me. You know I heard that just this week and I sometimes, I wonder if God Almighty sometimes says that about us as his children. When do you sit down last and have an intelligent conversation with God. You know what kids are. Mommy give me this. Can they, can I do that. Well they're gonna and one hour and you're all in bed. Every one of you. I don't care. Let's clean the house up. Okay he says amen. Well that's all right. Don't you think that God himself often longs for a spiritual conversation with us. No we snatch. No no no no. If you were living in Washington and you could get one hour with a president. Somebody asked H. H. Humphrey once since he's missed the presidency and missed so many other things. Well what about the job you have now. He said well there's one thing you know. I can always slip into the into the Oval Office and talk with the president almost any day. Just and I would rather spend he said about 20 minutes with the president than talk to Congress for months. Well you elevate that and think of the King Eternal the only wise God who said you've been rushing here and going there and so on. You haven't sat down this week and had an intelligent conversation with God. Come on on up to it. You shot him a prayer. You prayed for somebody on the road. You prayed for me. Prayed for somebody else. Fine. But what communication did you have with him. I'm convinced that God is starved of love. I'm convinced God is starved of fellowship. I'm convinced that God will be saying secrets to us if only he could get our ears. Now God is a God of love isn't he. He's a God of compassion. We like that. Well that's not wrong. But I was reading some of the Proverbs. I read a statement well from the same man. This man who has four children. And he says you know I wouldn't buy a book on how to raise a Christian family. I wouldn't if you give me a truckload I wouldn't even look at them. And they were all different ones. Because every time you turn to another book you're saying this book doesn't tell you how to do it. He said I've raised my family on Proverbs. That's all I've done. I've just read the book of Proverbs. And here's a scripture I was reading this morning. It says chastise thy son while there is hope. Let not thy sons thy soul spare for his crying. That chastisement there really is discipline. Discipline thy son while there is hope. There may come a time when there's no hope. But discipline while there is hope. And spare him not because of his crying. Now listen he's going to kick up a row. The first time you lay a rod on him if you tickle him he'll scream. And all the neighbors will say boy he's at it again he murders that kid. You know those kids have a wonderful defense mechanism. They'll howl before the, all they have to do is they show them the rod. And before you get it down whoo they're screaming their heads off. That's great but don't give up. Why not? Well for the simple reason that the 23rd chapter of Proverbs verse 13 says withhold not discipline from the child. For if thou beatest him with a rod he shall not die. Now make you believe he's dying. Yes sir he'll howl and say don't do it I'll die. He's all the time he's laughing inside and say dad will give up, mother will give up. No no no no. Now I didn't write this. This is not Dr Spock. This is the, happens to be God himself who knows a bit more about children than many of us. And he says withhold not discipline from the child. For if thou beatest him with a rod he shall not die. Thou shalt beat him with a rod and shall deliver his soul from hell. Do you get that? Now I didn't say that, God said it. I believe the hardest thing in the world should be for a child to go to hell out of a Christian home. If you start at the right time and the right place. Now you don't, you've got the discipline but you've got the discipline in love. Well I guess I could read a lot more of these but I better not. But read that that marvelous book. There's no book like it in the world to tell you how to raise children. Sure they'll scream, sure they'll scream. They can get away with it, they have every right to scream. But I'm saying that to say this. If God, if God, and he did, I've read you the scripture. If God says that you as a wise father will beat that child, you'll discipline that child. Your wife may scream her head off, let her scream, beat her if she can't stop. But the thing is that the word of God says if you apply that rod in love, you'll beat, you say sometimes I'll beat the hell out of you. That's exactly what our scripture said, I'll beat hell out of you. You've got to correct that child, you've got to discipline that. All right if God is so concerned that you as a father correct your children, do you think he's less concerned that he should correct his children? Whom the Lord loveth he taketh. God, God a million times. No, no, no, no. God cannot be accused of hypocrisy or double dealings or double standards. He says you have to beat your child. And you know what? I'll beat you to get you into life. And he gives you the classic story of the Lord Jesus, who learned obedience by the things that he suffered. Now that's not the popular stuff for the day in which we live is it? In Isaiah 30, 18 I was reading this morning. Therefore will the Lord wait that they may be gracious unto you. Oh that's loud. Now, now you're getting up my alley. That's the more kind of a guy I want. God I want. Not one that corrects me and beats me and straightens me out. Oh no, I want a God that will be gracious. That's his promise. Right. Verse 19 of Isaiah 30 says, the people shall dwell in Zion at Jerusalem. Thou shalt weep no more. He will be very gracious unto thee at the voice of thy cry. When he shall hear it, he will answer thee. Ah now, now that's nice. Now you're talking my language. I want a God that when I call, he answers right away. He delivers the goods very quickly. But wait a minute, there's a verse after that. And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction. No amens, but that's still there in the book. Yet shall not thy teachers be removed into a calm anymore, but then I shall see thy teachers. You know I believe that if you and I are seeking truth, God will supply it some way. Somebody will come up and have the answers that we need. All right. I beseech you therefore by the mercies of God that you present your bodies. Well, well, well, why? Well I can give you one simple answer. Because Jesus presented his to you. Didn't he? Isn't that what he did? And if I say here, here's my watch, I give you the watch, I give you the works, I give you the hands, I give you everything that's in it. If it had a battery in it, I just give you the total contents of the watch. Well then if I give God my body, in my body I have my will, I have my affections, I have my ambitions. Everything is in the case of my body. Now we present our bodies a living sacrifice. So different from the sacrifice in the Old Testament. Present your body a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable, that word holy really, it comes from another word, it means whole. In this case, the whole thing. You see Paul has realized again, as some of us maybe have not, that somehow, I don't know how corrupt human nature is. There are two theories about the corruption of human nature. One is the old theory you know, that every baby is born with a spark of the devil and hell in it. And the other is that God is such a just God, he wouldn't do that. Well suppose you get two sanctified people. There's a father who says he's sanctified, his heart has been purified, the Spirit of God indwells him. And his wife has the same testimony. And they bring forth a child. Well how can you pass depravity on, if you're both clean? Are you suggesting that depravity is in the bloodstream? You may have a child born, it may have blood in it, but it has no spirit in it. It was born dead. Now Mr Finney did not believe in inherited depravity, he believed in acquired depravity. That there comes a place in the life of a child, where that child says yes to sin, and at that moment, it becomes contaminated. The argument is, if I die unsaved with sin in me, God put that sin in me at the beginning, and then he sends me to hell for having something I didn't want. If you were going to have a child, a new child, you have the choice of a child with cancer or without it. Would you, would you have a baby with cancer in it? A thousand times no. Now I'm just giving you the arguments of two schools of theology here. But whatever you say about it anyhow. We're to present our bodies a living sacrifice, wholly acceptable to God. Which is, which is on your reasonable service. As you know I like that hymn, My Faith Looks Up to Thee, it was written in Boston. And I like the second stanza that says, As thou hast died for me, all may my love to thee pure, warm, and changeless be a living fire. I think that's beautiful. May thy rich grace impart strength to my fainting heart, my zeal inspire. Now isn't it only reasonable in the light of everything that's been done in the previous 11 chapters. Oh you can magnify that corruption, I don't care how much, can you make black more black than black? Can you make more sin more terrible than it really is? Can you make poison more terrible than it really is? You can take it all, you can get the best vocabulary in the world, and say what sin is, and get the most concise definition. And then I've got something to tell you. That Jesus not only bought our sins, but the word says he became sin for us. He not only took our nature, he not only took human nature, he took our perverted nature, you can call it what you like. It was a devilish something that rebels against God. You wonder a girl wrote a hymn that says, None of the ransomed ever knew how deep were the waters crossed. There is no way, there is no way until we get to heaven, and God shows us the agony and sweat of the Son of God in Gethsemane. Before ever he took the total load finally to the cross. And Paul says in the light of the sacrifice, are you going to talk about sacrifice? In the light of surrender, are you going to dare to mention the same word in the light of what he did? I think there's a man in Congress now, if I remember right, who was injured, what in Vietnam, he lost both legs and lost one arm. They say he's one of the most cheerful characters around there. That's a price to pay. He's so dismembered, so disfigured. But when you think again of the disfigurement of Jesus, there on the cross, that the Father turned from him, that was the bitterest hour, that was the most terrible thing that happened to Jesus. Not driving nails through him, not Peter and John forsaking him, the moment God turned his face from him. And he cried in grief, my God, my God, my God, my God, why, why, why has God forsaken me? Because God is of holier eyes and to look upon iniquity. I can understand, because maybe I'm built a bit that way myself, not too much, but I can understand the man like C.T. Studd surrendering everything he had and saying, if Jesus Christ be God and died for me, no sacrifice that I can make can be too great for him. I don't wonder a man said, oh for a thousand tongues to sing, I'd like to write a poem this one day, or for a thousand lives to give, or for a thousand hearts to love him with, or for a thousand wills to serve him with. I beseech you therefore brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies, your bodies, these wonderful faculties. I think the hymn writer got it straight when he said, let my hands perform his bidding, let my feet run in his way, let my eyes see Jesus only, let my lips speak forth his praise, all for Jesus, all for Jesus. Worldlings prize their gems of beauty, they cling to gilded toys of dust, they both boast of wealth and fame and pleasure, but only Jesus will I trust. There won't be a man if he's surrendered all the world, and some men have surrendered far more we never dream of. There won't be one man has a regret when he stands before the Son of God. When the dividends are paid in that great day. You know this book's never wrong, I tell myself that so often. And he says, one day some of the first will be the last, and some of the last will be first. Some of the top will be at the bottom, some of the well-knowns will be almost unknown. Present your body, you young people present your intelligence to him. Because he's praying here that they may have a renewing of their minds. Oh my, my, my, my, how we need that. I saw kids come to team challenge whose minds were completely blown. And in a year God restored their minds, and they came out top in the class studying. You've got an intellect to use it, don't, don't use it on dross and useless things. People say, well God isn't dependent on intelligence. Well I'll tell you what, the greatest books we have on the revelation were by intelligent men. I've been in churches where almost they despised intelligence. Then I go in the pastor's office and say, hey I see you've got a bunch of books. Oh I love Adam Clarke. I say you should throw him out. There's a brilliant doctor, Dr. Adam Clarke. Oh I've John Wesley's 44 sermons and all his standard works. Oh you should throw him out. He's an intellectual, he's a teacher at Oxford University. God doesn't despise, this is one of the richest things God's ever given us. Between our ears, develop it. How in the world are you going to translate languages if you don't get down to sweat. I've known fellows back off. They did everything that was going, except they couldn't get down and grind and study and not to get hold of languages and wrestle with them. You've got a body, use it for his glory. You've got hands, use them for his glory. You've got eyes. Look on things that are pure and lovely and good report. There's a lot of vile rotten stuff there that will seep its way into your being and stir your imagination. And before long you'll lust after this, that and the other. Turn your eyes from it. Let your hands perform his bidding. Let your feet run in his ways. Let my eyes see Jesus only. Present your bodies a living sacrifice, wholly acceptable unto God. But wait a minute, he says be not conformed to this world. I like, I like Phillips here. Phillips says don't let the world press you into its mould. You know that world soon rubs off on us more than we rub off on it very often. Courageous, greed, success. Oh yeah, we can justify it. Oh sure we can justify it. Think Satan doesn't have a reason with us? Logically do this, that and the other. I'll tell you what, as we get further into the vortex of the end of this dispensation, it's going to be harder to live purely for God than ever it's been in history I believe. The world presses it into its mould. And we don't even know we're there. I thought it was very interesting in the, David Wilkerson did some broadcasts, TV broadcasts and he blasted the Hollywood boys. The, the saved men in Hollywood and the safe fellows in Las Vegas. And the fellow writes back to him, your remarks on Hollywood holiness are vitally needed. Recently a so-called celebrity convert was trying to justify his Las Vegas appearances in the sleaze in the nightclub with female nudes. He said God sent him there and he conducted, quotes, Bible classes for them during their breaks. Must be nice teaching a class of nude women the Bibler. Can nudity and Christianity be compatibly asked? Listen to this, I'm not a Christian. But I heard you talking on your TV program about Christians who perform in drinking clubs and bars. I say amen to you sir. Because there is an instinct in me that cries out, Christians don't belong here in my territory. If and when I do become a Christian, I want to believe Christ has the power to take me out of this environment. Those people being in my old haunts offer me no ray of hope. If their religion isn't powerful enough to keep them out, I don't want that kind. I think Christians should stay away unless they come down here to really preach Jesus. At least that's what I feel instinctively. Now the young man says I was in the band for the top for Tom Jones and famous singers. I was in the Tonight Show among others. I know what it means to be deep in the celebrity scene. But when Christ saved me, I walked out from it all. Right on brother Dave, I agree a hundred percent. It's all a matter of big money. It's hard to give up all that ease and money to the and the applause of the crowd. And it's wrong to use witnessing as an excuse to justify staying in that old life. I came out and God has met every need in a miraculous way. Don't quit preaching separation. Isn't that something for a man? One who says I'm not a Christian, but they know. You know the world knows how we ought to live like Jesus. Even if we excuse ourselves, they have a high standard. All right now he says look because of what he's done, you present your body a living sacrifice. You know in the Old Testament they brought a dead sacrifice. But listen, a man could not bring an offering. He could not bring a sacrifice to the altar until he first had been consecrated. The world can't bring anything to Jesus Christ. The only offering he'll accept is for those of us who've been washed in his precious blood. And the other thing is this, immediately that man put his offering on that altar, he lost its ownership. He didn't withdraw it. Or they brought different gifts. One man could bring a wedge of gold, another man could bring a turtle, another man according to his ability. But now Jesus Christ asks, or the Apostle through the Spirit asks, that you present everything you have. Your spirit, your soul, your body, your mind, your will, your business, your affections, every part of your being, put it there on the altar. And once you put it there, it's in the Aries tense in the Greek. It means it's something you do once and for all. You never take it off again. You remember in the days when Jesus needed disciples more than any other time. They pressed on him and Jesus says, just, just hold a minute, don't, don't get swayed, don't have sympathy on me, because I'm losing a few people. Listen, would you sit down and count the cost. I never knew a man count the cost to go to hell. I never knew the devil say to a man, hey do you know it's going to cost you, before long this is going to rip your life up. You may die blind of some venereal disease, you may die in jail, you may do. No, no, no man doesn't do that, he goes on blindly. Old William Booth said he used to wonder why, why such generous sinners became such stingy saints. Not just with their money, he said. But the man of the world goes out on a Saturday night, he doesn't say, well I've got to be back at 11, you know, for my health. I've got to be back. I mean, I, I like to dance, but I wouldn't stay till, oh after 11. Oh I've got to be in bed at 11. My dear, dear, dear, dear, dear, I've got to take something before I go to bed. He doesn't care what time he goes home, whether it's night or day, whether he's drunk or sober, when he's any money left, he hasn't a shirt on his back. And so dear old William Booth says, how men can yield all they have. They'll give their bodies, their minds, their money, their everything, for the God of this world. We were singing the other day, I think it was the Agape, singing that old, old song, you know, for thee all the pleasures of sin I desire. Everybody changes it to follies. Why? That's nonsense. Scripture says pleasures. So stay with the book. Doesn't it? Doesn't it say Moses chose rather to please God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin. All right, it's in the book. Do you think a man goes and pays five hundred dollars for something that's going to make him sick and mad? It's pleasure, it may be wrapped up in something else, but it's excitement, it tingles about it. Didn't it say how many thousands of people yesterday went to see a horse race? It may make history. They said to somebody, how do you feel? Oh I'm, I'm all excited, I've been thinking about this for days, I'm all tingly. Just to see a horse go like that and it's gone. That's all it is. It costs some of them a thousand dollars to go see it, some even more. Sure they get their thrills, they're earthly, they're sensual, they're devilish. But oh there are some things that don't just excite me, and turn my tummy, and excite my mind, and make me thrilled physically. They're spiritual treasures. Like the hymn writer says, there's love and life and lasting joy, Lord Jesus found in thee. Well he can't get much more than that, because he couldn't hold it anyhow. There's love, on a higher level than anything physical, or intellectual, or social. There's love. The apostle says he, he found it there in the fifth chapter. The love of God is shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Ghost. You know one of the famous novels, they used to write decent novels in old times. On it Charlotte Bronte that wrote Jane Eyre. I went to Charlotte Bronte's home once. It's way out in the wilds, not far from where I live. I asked somebody in town where Charlotte Bronte lives. She says who? I said Charlotte Bronte, never heard of her, she doesn't live here. I said no, she lives in the graveyard over there. But well I never heard about her, lived in the same town. Remember she wrote Jane Eyre about the girl that went to live in a beautiful mansion, and fell in love with a man who owned the mansion, whose wife was an incurable, incurably insane. And he got to the place where finally the only thing the precious girl could do, was flee out of the house. That's good biblical theology. It says flee youthful lusts, run away from them. That's the bravest thing, not to stand up and try and fight them, if you can't. Get away. And she went away, with an aching heart. The man loved the girl. There'd be no physical contacts in anywhere at all. They just saw something in each other, perfect admiration. That's the type of man I'd love. She's the type of character I would like. And after a while you remember the mansion caught fire. That beautiful stately home was ruined, and the man in his despair trying to find that insane woman, his eyes were burned. He lost everything that he had, and lost part of his sight. And then when his wife had died in the wreckage, and he just not much left at all, he thought in his heart, my there's one woman could make my happiness, that's Jane. But I got nothing. Shell of a house, shell of a body, nearly blind, what can happen. And you remember she returned, became his wife, and his eyesight was partly restored, and they settled. Like the good story says, they lived happily ever after. You know the devil's a devil, don't you think he is? I do. I think he's a real devil. I think he's a dirty devil. I think he's a rotten devil. He's a cheating devil. I noticed the other night in the news, a celebrity, a very, very fine actress as far as I'm concerned, on a legitimate stage. It's true that two husbands had walked out on her, and she'd married another man, a third man. And she's had all the accolades, you know, the honor, and the glamour, and made the money, and lives in a mansion, everything else. And somebody said, when you look back on your life, what do you think about it? What would you do if you were to come over? It could all come over again. She said, I'd very happily settle to be a housewife, and have some children. You don't mean that. I mean, your name's all over the world. You've hit the record books. You've filmed your best. I reached, and it wasn't there. Do you remember the first time you took a bite at Candyfloss? I nearly bit your head off, and your teeth met. Then you wondered, where has it gone? Horrible stuff. Well, isn't that what life offers? It allures, allures, allures, and fascinates. No wonder, again, the hymn writer says, there's love, and life, and lasting joy. Sure, there's pleasure, but the word of God, again, gives you the answer. It's for a season, and it's a very short season. The body can't keep up with life, and then people sit down and mummy can't keep up, something else can't keep up. And you know what? In the Christian life, it's the very opposite. That the old body, yeah, my body isn't as vital as it used to be. The outward man perishes. But I'll tell you what, the inward man is more alive now, he's ever been, I think, since I started at 14 years of age, being saved. I love Jesus more. I love his will more. I love my dear wife more. I love, I love the things of God more than ever I've done in my life. It's permanent. So you present your body a living sacrifice, and you can't take it back. Well if you do, you're in terrible judgment, and condemnation. You present your body a living sacrifice, for I am wholly acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may prove what is that good, acceptable, and perfect will of God. I like those three qualifications. You know, the will, the will, what your backbone is to your body, your will is to your mind. And we say sometimes about, well he's a nice man, she's a good person, but not very weak willed. Well if they're weak in will, they're weak everywhere. That you may know what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God. Now you see, we've gone through all this to come to this. You present your body a living sacrifice. You give it unconditionally to him, to dispose of as he likes, where he likes, how he likes. And all that brought us right up to this, that we're not to be conformed to this world, but be transformed, which is the same word as he was transfigured. You know, it's very beautiful really. I get more and more involved in my thinking about being born again. I'm aching to see Billy Graham's book, see what he did with it. He's going to tell us how to be born again. It'll be very interesting. You know, I'm convinced these days, we don't really preach about being born again. We ask people if they want to be forgiven. Do you want to go to heaven? Do you want peace with God? Sloppy, sentimental. But to be born of the Spirit of God. Wasn't it Charles Wesley said, thy nature gracious Lord, isn't that wonderful? Say what you like about human nature, and corrupt nature. I believe when a man is truly born again of the Spirit of God, as Paul says in Romans chapter 6, if you're really buried with him in baptism, like a man goes under the water, and once he goes under that water, he doesn't breathe the air above it, he doesn't look above him, he doesn't think about it, he's under the water. Well if I'm born in Jesus Christ, the world above has no attraction for me. A hymn writer says, all of its pleasures, its pomp, and its pride, give me but Jesus my Lord crucified. The man says, well I teach these nude girls, I take a Bible class. But I'll tell you what the good book said, before ever he was around, it said if a man loved the world, the love of the Father isn't in him. And over and over again, John says in his epistle about love, the love of the world. An old bishop many years ago in England, defined what he said was the world. The world is a system of men organizing themselves apart from God. Because in this world system, there is no place for God. Among its rulers, its legislators. You're not going to tell me that men had a night of prayer, before they invented an atom bomb. They sure didn't. You see again, we're heading for destruction faster than we can even think. Boy Mr Carter said something yesterday, didn't he, about him defying Russia and China, and these other nations on the, in the area of human rights. I think it's great. I think he's taking a step higher than Abraham Lincoln did. But I'll tell you what, it may cost him his life, it may cost him everything he's got to do it. Sure it's heroic. I think it's Christian. But we don't happen to live in a Christian world. We live in a hell of a world. We live in a world which is dominated by that which is earthly, sensual and devilish. And the Christian is still despised. So why, why worry? He says, if you come and you've accepted all that is in those first 11 chapters, and you come and bring your body as a living sacrifice, with everything you have, and put it on the altar, and know you're not going to take it back. Then he says, you can do this. Not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. You know, I sometimes think that one of the most shameful ways we treat the will of God, is this. Go to any cemetery. Somebody said they went to a cemetery a while ago, the old-fashioned ones you know, used to have gravestones. And they went around and found the most common verse. Do you know what it was? Thy will be done. Isn't that something? I mean it's a bit late to start doing his will, when you're six foot under the sod. A suggestion, oh well the doctors did their part, and somebody else, and so Lord here's a mess. Take the whole mess, thy will be done. Isn't it tragic? Man alive, I need, you know, I say again that your will and mine is to your mind, what your backbone is to your body. And when you know the will of God, which he says is, is that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Now usually we, we seem to interpret the will of God as though it's something, boy you've got to really put up with it. It's rough, and it's distasteful, and it's hard. The psalmist said long, long before the apostle, he says I delight to do thy will oh my God. I delight to do thy will. It may be the toughest thing that we ever face, but once God's will is known to us, we'll have no peace, we'll have no rest, until we really embrace that will of God. And he says it's good and acceptable and perfect will of God. I'm not saying it's always easy to find. I remember in Matthew 23 19, it says there what, that the altar sanctified the gift. You see, people say well I would like to give all I have, but you know what, I, I don't feel holy enough, I don't feel spiritually equipped enough. But wait a minute, the question is asked in Matthew 23, which is greater, the gift or the altar that sanctifies the gift? What was the lamb or the beast that the priest brought in the old days? Not much to it, but immediately it touched that altar, it was acceptable to God as a holy sacrifice. And immediately I come to God, as long as I've been washed in that blood, as long as I want to do God's will, as long as I say I hate the world, the flesh, and the devil, and Lord I want to live a full stretch for thee, immediately my all touches the altar. The altar sanctified the gift. And this man knows the whole scope of human personality. Read, read, and I'll finish with this. He writes there to the Thessalonians, the people he loved very much. You remember in it, he says this, the very God of peace sanctify you wholly. And there it's w-h-o-l-l-y. And he, and, and in case they miss it, he says, the very God of peace sanctify you wholly. And I pray God you hold spirit, and soul, and body. Be preserved blameless unto the coming of the Lord, not faultless. He's going to present us faultless one day. Now there are faults we ought to try to correct. We should try and help God as best we can. If you know of a particular weakness, fight against that weakness. You see God demands perfection in us. Well it's not intellectual perfection. It can't be the perfection of Adam. It can't be the perfection of angels. But he demands two things in, in the area of perfection. One is I love him with a perfect heart. I like that old, old hymn. It's older than me, so it must be old. Oh happy day that fixed my choice on thee. That's a great hymn. And the last stanza says now rest my long divided heart. Fixed on this blissful center rest. Nor ever from my Lord depart, with him of every good possess. Happy day. And every day is happy when I do the will of God. It may not be easy. It wasn't easy to do the will of God in the lion's den. God doesn't always lay the whole plan out. He says step out in faith. Listen I've all the promises to give you. I've all the strength you need. I've all the wisdom you need. And again that good hymn says, and it's in our book we should sing it sometime. His wisdom never faileth. His sight is never dim. He knows the way he taketh. And I will walk with him. You know sometimes the the adversities of life turn out to be the biggest blessings. There's a little man stood up, young fellow stood up in a Baptist church in England more than a century ago. One thing he determined he would never let anybody flatter him or say nice things about him. And he had a notice outside his shop. He didn't say he was a shoe repairer. We've changed all the names now haven't we. You don't see a cobbler advertised anymore. At least I never see a cobbler advertised. Always a shoe repairer. The barber has become a hairstylist. Somebody else has become something else. Just had a notice on the door, cobbler. He took a piece of leather and he cut the map of India out and made it red and he stuck it there. And every time he used to put nails in the margin and hit this way and he would look at that thing till India, India, India, India, India burned there in his in his mind. Eventually he went to India. He got some support. He built a church. He built, I preached in that church in the Black Hole of Calcutta once. Very beautiful church. And he built a print shop. And he made up his mind that he would get the gospel into every one of those many languages in India. Quite a task. And just when everything got going. They got the manuscript for so many languages. They got the machinery. They got the people. And he went away. And when he came back, the whole thing was in ashes. Burned to the ground. And he stood and he said, I just said, well Lord, I do not understand it. People's tithes are all wasted. The machinery is ruined. I have to get new machinery from England. Manuscripts, hours of translation, sweat that people have done. It's unbelievable that such a thing could be consumed. And he sent a message back to England and said, everything we've dreamed about has gone up in ashes. Gone up in smoke and left as ashes. He said we're in, we're in a difficult situation. But we leave it with God. Well, it so happened the press picked it up in London. A missionary society couldn't afford to advertise in the London Times and so forth. And it became a story of heroism. And before long they were submerged in a deluge of money that bought them a bigger place and better printing sets and everything else. And he said, well, that's God's way. He turns the curse into a blessing. Remember years ago, reading a very simple story of a man who was wrecked on a boat and he managed to make it to an island, found it was uninhabited. But he got some driftwood and stuff and he got some vines and he tied these things together and made himself a protection from the heat. And he, he was able to fish a little and he found some fruit, but he couldn't find anybody living there. And he lived there for quite a while. And he was away at one part of the island looking for something. And as he turned to come home, he saw smoke going up and his, his whole little home had consumed. Everything he'd saved from the wreckage had gone. He wasn't a Christian. He sat down, he said in despair and just said, my, my. I didn't, even God would let that happen. Now I have no protection. Now I've no food. Now I've no anything. So he climbed a tree and he slept where, where he was nice, put his legs over and he slept with his head against the tree and, and away went to sleep. And he woke up in the morning and he heard a thump, a thump, a thump, a thump. And he looked and there was a boat. And for months he'd been there ready to whip his shirt off and wave it. Nobody came. The smart man got out and said, good afternoon, sir. We saw your signal yesterday. That smoke signal he sent out. He sent no smoke signal out. Strange ways God has of moving other people on, and moving us on in his own way, hasn't he? Isn't it great, he never makes a mistake. His timing is always perfect. Again, he's never in a hurry. But he's never late. Present your body a living sacrifice. Give him every bit. I said that once in a meeting when a little woman, I've told you maybe before, ran from the back down to the front. Went in a room and prayed. Fifteen years after Martha and I were in a, a missionary conference of the worldwide evangelization crusade. And this lady was asked to testify. She set that congregation on fire. The preacher got nowhere fast. And he quit. Somebody said, you give us a word of testimony. We're 15 minutes before tea time, as you'd say, supper time, tea time. You know, she had that congregation just, just eating out of her hand, excited. Oh, I remember as I finished that meeting in Cherryfield Mission in Dundee, Scotland, saying, look, God is able to take your all, burn up, and then take the ashes, and do more with the ashes than you can do with a total personality. And she said, every time I heard about sanctification or a spirit-filled life, the devil said, it's not for you. You sweep the floor in the factory. It's only for clever people, college people, preachers, missionaries. Not for you. She stood there when she said, Brother Ravenhill said, I thought, good night. Where did I meet that little woman? Little red-haired woman. That afternoon in Cherryfield Mission, you said, if you put your all on the altar, the fire will fall, and God will burn up all your base things, and your perversion, and your desire to do this, and they'll purify you, and indwell you, and, and direct you. And she said, that was the only chance I ever got, so I headed to the altar. She said, that night I wrote to a missionary society, to a Bible school, and they accepted me. And she said, I, I, I, the devil always saying, well, you've no brains anyhow. But she said, in that Bible school, I came out in the top 10 in studies. Then I went to the School of Languages in France, and I came out in the top 10 there. And then I went to Africa, and I came out in the top group to learn the language there. And I'm learning another language right now. And she said, I used to be afraid if I saw a white man, I couldn't talk to men. Now she said, I go through the forest at two o'clock in the morning, to deliver a baby, or help a woman that's sick, and I won't let the man come back. I said, no, no, no, no. She said, I go through the forest, I hear the roar of a lion. I see some big snake going across the path. But you know what, he took all the fear away. I just yielded myself a living sacrifice to him. And she said, I've been on the mission field since then. And she said, I don't know why we have to stay home a year, but we have according to the law of our Bible society, our mission society. I'd like to get back this afternoon. Just a frail little thing that God took and sanctified and indwelt and directed. She gave it all and took nothing back. And he took it and used it for our life. And that's just the way God does it. Not the great people, the small people, not the wise, very often the unlearned. He takes the things that are not, to bring to the things that are, that no flesh should glory in his presence. Our father, we thank you again today for your word. It so enriches us, encourages us. We pray again that out of our midst, you'll get those who will become the great warriors in the faith for these evil days in which we live. Save us from despairing of human personality with all its perversions, with all its wickedness, as warped as it is, and as wild as it is. We thank you that there is a blood in Jesus Christ, your son, that's able to cleanse from all sin. He's able to make men who have been Satan's slaves, become loved slaves of Jesus Christ. So keep us, we pray, looking to Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith. And we give you praise in his name.