Leonard Ravenhill emphasizes the necessity of putting on God's armor to withstand the spiritual battles we face, reminding us that our struggle is not against flesh and blood but against spiritual forces of evil. He reflects on the importance of humility, gratitude, and the power of prayer, urging believers to recognize their identity as prisoners of Christ rather than victims of circumstances. Ravenhill challenges the congregation to mature in their faith and to engage actively in spiritual warfare, highlighting the need for strength in the Lord to carry the armor effectively. He encourages young people to pursue a life of purpose and anointing, rather than settling for mediocrity, and to be aware of the spiritual realities that govern their lives. Ultimately, he reassures that greater is He that is in us than he that is in the world, calling for a commitment to live out the fullness of God's power.

Our Father, we're grateful again for the access that we have through the finished work of our Lord Jesus Christ. We thank you that he ever liveth to make intercession for us and because of this we come with boldness, not with arrogance, we come with humility, we come with a recognition that it's only of thy mercy. Lord if you had a school of failure most of us might have graduated with honours. But we thank you for your patience and your loving-kindness. We have not always followed thee as closely as we should, we have not always heard thee as clearly as we should, we have not always obeyed as implicitly as we should, but you have been patient and we thank you for that. As one of old said, oh how great thy loving-kindness, vaster, broader than the sea, oh how marvellous thy goodness lavished all on me. We bring thee no gifts of gold and frankincense of myrrh, we do bring thee the gold of our adoration, we do bring thee the frankincense of our gratitude, we do bring thee the myrrh of our love. As we've sung often, there is no love like the love of Jesus, there is no eye like the eye of Jesus, piercing so far away, there is no arm like the arm of Jesus which is long enough and strong enough to lift us from the dunghill and make us princes unto God. We thank you Father for the revelation you've given us in your word, we thank you for the men who were inspired to write it, and those who preserved it often at the cost of their own lives. We thank you for the declaration of this word, we thank you for the many who have dedicated their abilities to translating this word, particularly in this day of ours, when the book has been locked up mostly in English and then in Latin and other tongues. Now we're grateful for those who sweat in jungles, struggle with vocabularies, listen to guttural noises and try to make words out of them and then build up grammars and vocabularies and write. We're so glad Lord that you're the judge of all the earth and you see it every day. You know every heartbeat, we think of the missionary on the lonely jungle path this afternoon, maybe they have aching hearts and aching feet and tired bodies and frustrations, maybe they revolt at the heathenism, they're very conscious they're in a prison house of superstition. The food they eat is not palatable and the people are not hospitable and the climate's hardly bearable and yet we thank you that they are following the lamb with us whoever he has led them. We pray again as we come to your word you'll bless it to us. We recognize again it needs more than their mentality to understand it, to explain it. We need faith and obedience to accept it and obey it and live it out and we pray that this may be our lot today. We ask that even in some of these young lives here that some seed may be sown today that will germinate and bring forth a harvest of fruit for your glory. We were reminded earlier as we came in the sanctuary of how you've met in such strange ways. You met a man one day exhausted and bewildered and confused and though he had only a stone for a pillow it was there where he met God. Another man came to a bush that maybe he'd seen a thousand times and sheep had nibbled at it. But one day you inflamed that bush until it became like a torch from heaven itself and he heard your voice calling him. We think of the many ways that you call men sometimes with their fishing nets, sometimes at a desk or in some other place. We've sung very often Jesus calls us all to the tumult of our life's wild restless sea. We thank you for the escape for the little time we have from a troubled world, from a world that seems bent on suicide and determined to destroy doing the flesh what can only be done in the spirit. It is determined to still try to work up what can only be sent down in some majestic operation of your mercy and love. We pray for these young people here we're glad to see them and we pray if Jesus tarries you will anoint their lives and scatter them to the very ends of the earth. Proclaiming this message of redeeming love that there is one who is able to save to the uttermost all who come unto God by him. May they never settle for mediocrity. May they never settle to be out of Egypt but push on to the promised land. Not settle just to be good students but seek that they may have that anointing which none other can give but God himself. Again we ask you to anoint your word to our hearts and may it stir us and move us and quicken us and edify us. May it be a rock beneath our feet, a pillow for our heads, a light upon our path, manner that we can feed upon, illumination in the darkness of our maybe individual lives or this period of life in which we live. Get great glory out of this simple service today we ask in Jesus name. The epistle of Paul to the Ephesians, I'm sorry Ephesians chapter 6. From verse 11 put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against the spiritual wickedness in high places. Before we plunge into this study which may take us a few weeks, because I think it's very essential that we recognize as maybe never before in our history that we'll need the whole armor of God for what's ahead of us. It's a very easy thing, it's a very challenging thing I say, think to say that the apostle Paul exceeded all of us and excelled all of us in discipleship. I'm always staggered by his life, I'm challenged by the thousands of miles that he covered without modern transport. He's the best example of his own preaching. To use an old phrase again, a man with an experience is never at the mercy of a man with an argument. And we have said repeatedly, and will continue to say of course, that there are only two kingdoms in this world. The kingdom of darkness, the kingdom of light. The kingdom of darkness is governed by Satan, who is called in one phrase, the prince of the power of the air. Notice it is a prince not a king. The kingdom of Jesus Christ is ruled by the king, the Lord Jesus Christ himself. The effects of the kingdom of darkness are misery. The effects of the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ are mercy. Paul exceeded us all in service, in suffering, in sacrifice, in prayer, in purpose, and in passion, in daring, in discipline, and in doctrine, in faith, in fight, and in fruit. This is a prison epistle of the apostles. And somehow it seems that he reaches his highest phase of praise and adoration when he's in prison. Notice he begins that third chapter, and then the fourth chapter he says, for this cause I the prison of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles, in verse one of chapter three. In verse four, I therefore the prison of the Lord beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called. Now will you notice what he says, I'm the prisoner of the Lord. He won't even give the devil credit for getting him into jail. He doesn't say I'm the prisoner of Caesar. He doesn't say I'm the prisoner of circumstances. He doesn't say I'm the prisoner of the devil. He doesn't say I'm the prisoner of my enemies. He says I am the prisoner of the Lord Jesus Christ. Again reminding ourselves of Job when he was in his days of success, he says the Lord gave it. Yeah I'm a multi-millionaire, I have more cattle, more sheep than anybody else, I have more territory, the Lord gave. But when he lost it all he didn't blame the devil. He says the Lord gave, and the Lord took it away. Now if my times are in thy hands as the psalmist says, I can only get down to a state like this, when as Paul says elsewhere, I have learned whatever state I'm in, herewith to be content. He's not asking for anybody's sympathy, anybody's compassion. Again he will not give credit to Satan. He doesn't say Satan you've been dogging me ever since I was born there in the ancient city of Tarsus. You've followed me around all the capital cities, for after all he'd been to the capital cities of the world. He'd been to the intellectual capital in Acts 17. He'd been to the religious capital when he went to Jerusalem. He had been to the immoral capital when he went to Corinth. He had been to, and he ends up, he's going to end up in the military capital. Now I know, will you notice what he says? He says I am the prisoner of Jesus Christ, and I want to stop and ask you a question. It may go over your head, it may have nothing to do with you, but I feel it has for somebody. Whose prisoner are you this afternoon? And you know there's only one way to know that I'm really in victory. It isn't whether I can raise the dead to do miracles. I believe that one great sign of the fruit of the Spirit is you can sing in prison. Paul shut up in jail. When did the angels appear to Paul? At midnight, when for 14 days and nights there had been no cessation of a storm. The people were fasting, weeping, groaning, shrieking, the ship was rocking, the seas were boiling, the spars were breaking, the sails were ripping, and everybody's terrified. And then he says they stood by me last night an angel of God. You know a lot of us would like angels to appear to us, but we don't want midnight. I'd like all the blessings of heaven, but Lord don't put me through hell, so I have to cry for them. When did Peter and Peter find an angel at his side? When he was chained in prison. An angel came to him at night. Out of the darkest circumstances, the greatest blessings of life come. Are you a prisoner? Say no, I'm sitting here free. Well you could be, but and you're smiling, but inside maybe you're drowning. Inside maybe of a load that you couldn't even explain. You say I'm a prisoner of a trial that God isn't lifting from me. I'm a prisoner of doubts that come upon me. I'm a prisoner of a sickness that somehow it doesn't please God to, to move. I'm a prisoner of divers temptations. I'm a prisoner of fiery trial. Some poet somewhere said that, that stone walls and iron bars do not a prison make. I believe there are prisoners down in the Gulag archipelago tonight, this afternoon, that some of the freest people in the world. And there are people in their mansions on Main Street somewhere, Fifth Avenue New York, and they're prisoners. Prisoners to fear, prisoners to doubt, prisoners to habit. But again Paul will give no recognition that Satan somehow has tricked him, or trapped him, or somebody's engineered this calamity that's brought him into this prison. All right. Now in this sixth chapter he says, that we're to put on the whole armor of God. Now that's usually the emphasis we put in this story. The emphasis is we're up against a militant godlessness, and the only way to combat that militant godlessness, is by putting on the whole armor of God. Not so. What does he say before the whole armor of God? He says be strong in the Lord. The armor won't make you strong. You need strength to carry the armor, and you'll feel stronger because you have the armor. But listen, all God's children are not caught, they're called to warfare, but they don't all engage in it. You see that was one of the conflicts Paul had with the church at Corinth. He says you want me to come round with a milk bottle and a nipple on it, and feed you, and caress you, and comfort you, and look after you. Why don't you get up and move? You're babes. I'd like to declare some more profound things. I'd like you to become a maturing God. Maturity has nothing to do with years. I know people who've been saved 50 years that aren't five months old yet spiritually. I know young people who get saved, and get anointed of the Spirit, and man alive. I've listened to some of them preach and wonder where in the world. In fact I talked with a man the other day. He said Mr. Raven, look I've been to college, I have degrees, I study well, and he said I go out with a with a team of young men, and one of them has been a drug addict. Now he said the thing that gets to me is this, he's never been to Bible school, he hasn't much grammar, but when he stands up, man he just turns that audience on. Something happens. Well I said it proves my point, there are two ways of knowing the Word of God. One is by education, the other is by revelation. Now notice here Paul the Apostle is not passing an opinion. He's not saying this is my considered judgment. He's not saying I give you advice. In the third chapter, he gives you the secret of the whole thing. Chapter 3 verse 1, Paul says for this cause, I Paul the prisoner of Jesus Christ to you Gentiles, if you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given unto me to you Lord, how that by revelation there was made known unto me the mystery. In the next verse, whereby when ye read ye may understand my knowledge is in the mystery of Christ. Now I checked that because it rang a bell in my mind. Paul is always talking about the mystery, and I discovered that he mentions the mystery in his epistles 17 times. Mystery is only mentioned five times in the whole of the Bible, not in the Old Testament at all. Once in the gospel recorded by Mark, and four times in the book of the Revelation. Paul has, it's a recurring thing, it's something in his vocabulary that he's always talking about. The mystery of godliness, the mystery of iniquity. Behold I show you a mystery. Now a mystery is not something which cannot be fathomed, it's something which is known only to the initiated. And Paul is declaring here, you see again, he's not living in easy street. He emphasizes he is a prisoner of the Lord Jesus Christ. But again you can wall somebody in, you can't roof them in. You can cut them off from fellowship, you can come up, cut them off from the telephone or the TV or any outward communication. You cannot shut a man off from relationship with God. There is a communication by the Spirit which is worth a million times all the other dross that's coming around. Now he says again, he's speaking by Revelation. And this is his authority for speaking. Will you remember this? If you don't you do him an injustice. Will you remember this man is coming up with a message that can put the world together again. I pity politicians, I think the most dumb people in the world. And very often the most arrogant. Everything that men are saying today, they were saying 40 years ago when I was in my 20s. Everything is a repetition, it's a blue carbon copy. Paul is following the massive intelligence of the Greeks. They're the greatest schools in the world. They're the greatest philosophers the world ever known. And when the Greeks couldn't do it, then the Romans came up with conquest to subdue every other heathen tribe. And Rome, the Roman Empire did not perish because of the Goths and the Vandals and the barbarians. It rotted on the inside. I don't believe there's a nation big enough to kill America in the whole world. We're rot on the inside. The third century report said the other day, the January issue, that the capital city of the state is a dying city. And a man gave a report just the other day on England which was the most distressing thing you could ever hear. And I am old enough to remember when we were warned at school, we better watch out, the Americans are going to get a Navy as big as England, we better watch. We used to sing, what is the meaning of Empire Day? We used to sing Kipling's recessional, oh God our help, pardon me, Kipling's recessional, part of it which says, far-called our navies melt away, or dune and headland sinks the fire, see all our pomp of yesterday's, one with miniver and tire, God of the nation's stare as yet lest we forget. If drunk in sight of power we loose, while tongues that have not thee in awe, such boasting as the Gentiles use, or lesser breeds without the law, God of the nation's stare as yet. In his book, read it, Racing to Judgment, David Wilkerson's gives us the decline and fall of America from the very day, that away in Bulgaria, Mr. Nixon stood up and said, we've got a man, we need him in America, we need more of the spirit of Apollo. Apollo happened to be a heathen God. It so happens that Habakkuk, I think it is said, when you set your nest among the stars, I'll pull it down to the earth, and Wilkerson goes down and says, look at all the deterioration since then. You see, Paul is anxious, this man is no playboy, you can't rent him. Sometimes I wish it would be illegal to accept money for preaching. I do, before God I do. It would sift out the chaff, it would shift out the false shepherds, the playboys. This man has had a revolution in his life. He isn't a drug addict, he isn't a drunkard, he didn't break commandments, he says he spotless as regards the law. But he realized that there was something that all the education of the Greeks could not get out, and all the marching armies of Rome could not get out. Because he realized that deterioration is in man. There's a law warring in his members, and you can't blast that war out, you can't inject it out by giving somebody a swine flu shot or something. You can't legislate it out, how stupid it is to try and draw a straight line with the crooked ruler. I wonder why men in Washington and London expect us to keep laws they make, when they won't keep laws God has made. Half of them are divorced anyhow. And the drunkenness amongst them. A man whispered in my ear the other day, he said, you know brother Abner I think if so-and-so got converted in this country it would draw, it would draw, multitudes of people would become converted if that man got converted. And you know as quick as anything what the Lord said to me? Why didn't that happen in the case of the Apostle Paul? He was the greatest scholar of his day, he would have been a bigger rabbi than Hillel or any other man that had ever been. And he got drastically, what happened? Did the nation of Israel turn to him? Forty men vowed they wouldn't shave their heads until he was dead. He was setting up something which was a rival thing to the old Jewish religion. Now Paul is trying to stem the tide. You know there's something frightening in this, in this verse I think, in this fifth chapter. It says we wrestle not. You see all the politicians, and it doesn't, it's not just politicians, it's the learned men, the scientists and the philosophers, all they do is try and fight a visible fault. We're not fighting a visible fault. That's the rash on the skin. If your child gets measles I hear there's a plague around. Will you get a razor? Even one with two blades and scrape all the spots off? Or will you go down to the cause of the trouble? I don't care whether they're politicians or educationalists, they're only dealing with the effect not the cause. The cause is the sinfulness of man. Paul alone has that answer. But will you notice he says that we wrestle not against flesh and blood, that the thing here is not something visible but invisible. Now listen to this terrifying thing. He says we're wrestling against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. I've said and still say if I were 20 years younger I'd start a school in this country. It would be a school of prayer. I won't put any limitations on it except a man has a vision and a passion to pray. It's the greatest thing that's needed. Now don't get terrified of that because it says that we're not wrestling against it. We're not wrestling with communism. We're not wrestling with doper dicks. You know just a week ago this morning I was going to preach in this big church. And I was awake half the night, I'll admit that. And it was just in the middle of the night the Lord said this, you know Sam look, look there's a great column of smoke. And I visualized this black smoke ascending you know when you burn tires from cars it makes a big black stinking mess. And there's a great big pyramid of smoke going to heaven. And here there's a, there's a white smoke. A white smoke. It doesn't pollute the atmosphere as much. It isn't as objectionable to watch. And God said to me every day I watch that pollution come out of America, out of England, two nations have had more chances than anybody in history with a gospel. That, that column of filthy smoke is obscenity, profanity, the depraved speaking of men, the filth of the human heart that becomes articulate, blasphemies, the taking of the name of Jesus in vain. And God says in the psalmist I will not hold him guiltless even if he knows the name of Jesus. He'll go to hell for knowing it and not accepting it. And God says I hear this filthy, I see every prostitute selling a body. I see every night where men defile themselves. I see every drug addict. I see every drunkard. I see the men who are engineering it. I listen to these torrents of impurity, curses, blasphemies, obscenities. They come up and they stink. And the only way to offsite that is a column of sweet, pure incense of worship and of adoration and of thanksgiving from the hearts of the minority who really love the Lord God with all their hearts and soul and mind and strength. Now you can measure the height, length, depth and breadth as you like of what Paul says in this twelfth verse of the sixth chapter. We wrestle not against flesh and blood. Maybe we could quit and say we wrestle not. Forget the rest. I said facetiously sometimes and preachers get angry. Why don't you have that over the door of your church. I go to churches 318 Sunday school, 1500 Sunday school, 48 buses running, so much last week, so much this. I never find anybody advertising the prayer meeting. It's the Cinderella of the church. And if it isn't so important why does Satan fight it? Everybody gets sick prayer meeting night. The best shows on TV either Sunday or prayer meeting night. Not a lie the devil isn't afraid of our preaching, or our organizing, or our pamphleteering, or our writing books. He's afraid of prayer. We wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world. But wait a minute, wait a minute let me tell you something else before you get too troubled about it. Listen to what Paul says in the first chapter of the epistle to the Ephesians. He says in verse 18 that the eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that ye may know what is the hope of his calling and what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints. Not our inheritance in him. I've come to this, look you don't have to do it but I do. I want to ask God at least every day, or at least every week, is your investment in me worth it? Come on now, he hasn't redeemed me just to make more money. He hasn't redeemed me just to do this that and the other. He's redeemed me in order that he may find in me what he's desiring. Maturity in the spiritual life. So he says the glory of his inheritance in the saints. Now we've talked about the greatness of the power of Satan. Look at this in verse 19. What is the exceeding greatness of his power toward us? Huh? Who believe? His power toward us who believe. I'm going to tell you something for nothing. I tell everything for nothing anyhow. But I'm going to tell you something else for nothing right here. And that is we haven't even tasted the power of God yet. I don't believe we've got water to the ankles brother, never mind water to the knees. I heard a tape recently of a woman who has a marvelous church out in on the West Coast. They get blessed, people dance down the aisle, they've prophecy, they've tongues, they've healings, they've miracles, they've everything. And I listen, I thought boy what a church. Whoo, going to that church every Sunday. I listened to another tape. Now she said, I get tired of the same thing every Sunday. We know what's coming, a miracle here. She said, I think someday, one day the glory of God is going to break on us. And I thought well sister you're talking my language now. Yes sir I'm waiting to see the glory of God manifest. Maybe we'll have a famine. Man told me the other day, buy all the meat you can, it's cheaper than ever. They've slaughtered all the cattle on the West Coast. The hay crop failed in Louisiana. You can get good steaks for a dollar eighty right now, they cost you four dollars at the end of the year. There's going to be a famine. There's more trouble coming up. God's gracious enough, you see whom the Lord loveth, that you say God loves our nation, or rather you scourge our nation. That's all there is according to the scripture, the logic of it. Well then let's go a bit further in this verse, verse 20. No we didn't finish 19 yet. The power to us who believe, according to the working of his mighty power. Oh my I feel like saying Lord Jesus, step from your throne right now. I'm so tired of the paralysis of the church. I'm so tired of these honky-tonky boys on TV that do nothing but bleed people for money. I'm sick to death of them. God's going to raise his prophets. I don't know why, but you can tell him Bob and Deb. This week Mark Spengler's beat on my heart. I don't know why. I don't know whether he's sick or God's calling him to something. And when I came up here, the name came up again. So I'm saying it now because I believe God wants me to say it. So tell him I pray for him every day. Maybe God's going to launch him into another ministry. I don't know. I feel he is. Now that's my feeling. I feel his time's up. He's finished his probation there. God's going to do something else. According to his mighty power which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead. That's the miracle of miracles. We're not saved by the death of Jesus Christ. All you hear is we're saved by, we're not saved by his death. The word says we're saved by his life. If he doesn't live this afternoon, there's no life for us. The miracle, the greatest of all miracles to that time surely was the incarnation. God can track, heaven can't contain him. And God pressed him into the matrix of the Virgin Mary. How did he do it? I don't know. Omnipotence can do anything. It's a headache to me. It was no problem to God. He rolled the stars off his tongue. He rolls worlds off his tongue. But he put that wonderful precious gift, the most precious gift the world has had. What did it do? I wonder why we expect such good treatment from folks sometimes. All the world did was crucify the best man that ever lived. All he did with his hands was offer mercy and healing. And they drove nails through them. All he did was show the love of God and they kicked him around like a dog. But you see God was contracted. We have what the theologians call the incarnation. But then you have to have the resurrection. Without the incarnation, the resurrection is impossible. Without the resurrection, the incarnation is incomplete. And we're reminded here that the greatest thing that God has done was not create worlds. It says at the end of this 19th verse, pardon me, in the 20th verse. He wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead and set him on his own right hand in the heavenly places. Now we heard about principalities and powers. But I'll tell you what, there's somebody above those principalities. There's somebody above those powers. Because this verse says the same thing. That Jesus is far above all principality and power and might and dominion. Measure the length and depth and breadth of hell if you can. Count every demon in the army of the devil. And when you've done it all, I'm going to tell you that God is mightier than all their combined efforts. He's waiting for the church of Jesus to tap these resources. And he says every name that is named, not only in this world but in that which is to come. And he has put all things under his feet and given him power. Isn't that lovely? I think today we're in the biggest power struggle of the ages. I had a letter from a distinguished English scholar this week. He spent 44 years studying prophecy alone. He's quite convinced we're in the last week. Before the greatest manifestations of God. We're heading up for the greatest struggles in history. If you put all the Hitler's and Mussolini's and Genghis Khan's together, with all their might, they're nothing compared to what the Church of God is going to face. One thing that the Lord showed me this week again, in meditation was the, when we talk about the mighty power of Satan. Well I'll tell you what, he doesn't need to do anything in the corner anymore. Things that use, people used to blush to do, they boast of now. Nudity, who cares? Obscenity, who cares? It seems that we're, we're determined to, even in this country, in England, we're determined to dismantle the Ten Commandments. No death penalty, don't hurt people who have murdered and slaughtered other people, don't murder, don't hurt them too much. And we will legalize abortion, and we will do everything in our power that will pull down the very fibers that build nations up. We've got aggressive iniquity. Why you wouldn't have thought a few years ago, a man like Sun Moon could come, and in about three years, get something like 15 million dollars. But people are, you see God says if they won't believe the truth, he'll send them a lie. If they won't obey Christ, and accept Christ, he'll send Antichrist. Look at all the gurus, there are 2,000 gurus in the country, from the filthiest country in the world, India. Not long ago, we listened to an interview, in the morning today news, on the Mormon Church, the president was being interviewed. And when the man interviewing said to him, well, well really, you are a big business aren't you? He said, well yes, and, and, and what, what do you handle? And without batting an eye, he said, three million a day. So they've plenty of money to propagate their error, heresy. You see, we get disturbed, and rightly so, you needn't read in newspaper, a girl's going down the street, and somebody mugs her, somebody rapes her. A man, some old people in the home, the other week, somebody broke in, and slaughtered, cut the throats of two of them, took everything they had. We hate violence. But listen, when you transfer that onto a spiritual level, every diabolical thing that's being done, spiritually is being done. Mormonism rapes people, Jehovah's Witnesses mug people. They've been spiritually raped, spiritually killed, spiritually maimed, spiritually blinded. Not just for time, eternity. You see, this is why this man, again he's a prophet of God, and the prophet, the prophet, as Brooks Basin put in my mind about a couple of years ago, Jew that died after he was converted. And Brooks Basin says, listen, by the very nature of his calling, a prophet is a tragic figure. He has a fierce loyalty to God, and he has a fierce loyalty to the nation. He suffers for the people, he suffers with the people, he suffers by the people. And Paul did that. You see, there came a day in Paul's life, when Paul went out. He said, I don't just follow Jesus to the cross. I got on the cross, and I was crucified with him. After that, I had no will, no desire, no choices of my own. For me to live is Christ, and if I die, it's gain. He said, I win either way, living or dying, to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. And from the very moment that God came and cleansed his life, and indwelt him, Paul said this, I'm a debtor to the barbarian, to the scythian, to the bond, to the free. I'm a debtor to a man in prison, I'm a debtor to a man on the throne. God give me the chance, and he got it. He shared prisons more than once with men, he got more than once before kings. He had no, he didn't pair his message. I noticed that Dave Wilkerson said in, I think it was Dave Wilkerson in his book, that 18 different men went to preach to Nixon, not one of them got through to him. That's a reproach in our modern preaching. Not one of them disturbed the man. But that could be true in multiplied churches, even this very day. But I'll tell you what, I'm not too sure I would have enjoyed everything Paul said, but I'll tell you once he preached, he never forgot it anyhow. I think he'd leave blisters on our souls. I think we'd say, no I can't go again. By the way we're not going to have Tuesday night meetings, we're not going to have Tuesday night meetings, at least for a season, because of various reasons, but we're not. But we're gonna keep up that prayer meeting on Wednesday night, and I'm going to give you a double dose every Sunday, so you can lift till the next Sunday, all right. But you know, I'm quite sure of this. In the pulpits today, we've more puppets than we have prophets. We've more men who are pulled by strings, or engineered by money. I have to do this. There are some voices, yes sir, and I'll tell you what, not only some voices, there are some prayer warriors too. And though we face right now, a massive arrogant iniquity. Good night. I think it was yesterday, they said that they'd been censoring two of the, magazines get worse and worse. Playboy, ah it's a Sunday school magazine now, compared to the others. There's not a thing that's hidden. They photograph every conceivable thing, and they publish it and get away with it. We know who runs the dope addicts in this country, sure we do. We know who brings all the traffic in, but they happen to be multi-millionaires living up north. Somebody showed a picture of all their homes not long ago, because they kill thousands of people. But you see, do you see the monopoly, that's what I'm trying to show you. Do you see the monopoly of Satan? He's got the racetracks, he's got the movie houses, he's got pornographic literature, he's got the false cults, he's got the ancient cults. Man, it seems as though he's dominating the very world. And it looks as though the church is on the side of the road, watching the parade go by. And she does that until the anointing of the Spirit of God comes. And just the other week, before I was going away, I read some snatches about the Welsh Revival. I read some snatches about the Spirit of the Living God falling on those people in that wonderful camp in Moravia. Just at 11 o'clock in the morning, a Wednesday morning, 27th of August, 1737. The Spirit came on a group of people. Do you know how long the prayer meeting lasted? 100 years. That room was never empty for a hundred years. There were boys and girls, seven and eight years of age, prayed in the Spirit, prayed with the anointing of God, prayed with tears, that the heathen would be saved. You see they'd be instructed that every man outside of Jesus is lost. My daddy stuffed that in my mind, I've no apologies for saying it. I'm glad he did. The best treasure my daddy ever gave me, was to take me to a night of prayer, when I was 14 years of age. And once I'd been, but I got a baptism in that, I wanted to go back every time they had it. You see this man's vision never dimmed. But he's quite aware of this, as you and I are. You can't put the roof on the house before you get the walls up, and you can't put the walls up before you get a foundation. And so when he's writing here, he says in this, in this fifth chapter again, this is part of the foundation he lays. Chapter 5 verse 19, he says, speaking to yourselves. You know, people think you're crazy if you talk to yourself, but you have to talk to somebody intelligent now and again. So why not do it? Speaking to yourself in Psalms, and in hymns, and in spiritual songs, singing and making melody into your heart unto the Lord. All right, what does it say? It says, speaking to yourself. So one of the foundational truths is it, you've got to have harmony within. You can't sing songs to the Lord with discord inside, you'll be off key, and heaven won't hear you. So it says you're to sing to yourself in Psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs. So that's harmony within. In verse 20 he says, giving thanks always, unto God the Father, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. So that's giving thanks, or that's harmony with God, giving thanks to the Father. And then in verse 21 he says, submitting yourselves one to another. So that's harmony with others. Now not only does he say that, but he says in this same chapter, that we've got to do a little bit of something a bit more different. Do you know what it is? Well he says a little further down in verse 21, submitting yourselves one to another, in the fear of the Lord. What do we sing? Perfect submission. Easy to sing, hard to do. Submitting yourselves one to another. Now hold your breath a minute. Do you know what he says in the next verse? Wives submitting yourselves. Did I hear an amen? Oh sorry. All right, so verse 21 is submitting yourselves one to another, harmonious relationship in the fellowship. And the next verse, harmonious fellowship in the family. Wives submitting yourselves, one to another, in the fear of the Lord. Over in chapter 6, children submitting themselves. Children obey your parents. In verse 5 of chapter 6, servants submitting themselves, in obedience unto their masters. And then in verse 9, and masters ye do the same things unto them. You see if you submit yourself to God in humility, you'll never be a bully to anybody you employ. You won't be a bully to your children, you won't be a bully to your wife. You submit yourself in love, and in fear to him, and you transmit that very same thing in the home, to the wife, to the children, to the fellowship of the people of God. All right, look another foundational truth here. In the third chapter, verse 19. He says he wants them. You know, if you, if you, if you read the fourth chapter, verses 1 to 16, I think it's about the most super, superb interpretation of the Christian life. You'll find anywhere in the sacred record. That's in the fourth chapter, verses 1 to 16. But look at verse 19 of the 13th chapter. He says he wants them to know this incredible thing, to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge. Now how can he know it, if it passeth knowledge? Because again, it is not something intellectual. You see again, those Romans had tried, they'd tried every way possible. But you see, they came up to the truth of God, and did not Paul says, and this is, this is a terrifying thing to me. May not be to you, but it is to me. That these Romans even received so much light, that he says in verse 21 of Romans, when I'm back, backing up a bit. Romans 121. Because when they knew God, they glorified him not as God. Verse 22, professing themselves to be wise, they became fools. Do you know the one thing we learn from history, is that we don't learn from history. I'm old enough to remember before the United Nations, there was what? A League of Nations. Before the League of Nations, there was a nation, a gathering of nations at the Hague. 1914, I remember the end of it, was the war to end wars. They were going through all the drivel we've been going through recently. Saying this will do it, that will do it. Give us more education. That's pure rubbish. Some of the most educated people violently opposed God's laws. They blatantly, the girls say, I'm having a baby. I don't know who the father is, except with so many guys, I couldn't even remember. Well women said recently, well of course I've had 12 men, and I told this man I've met now, well you'd like to marry me, but I want to tell you, I've had 12 other men live with me before you came along, so what? You know there's no shame anymore. Man alive people can't blush anymore, we're arrogant. But you know what God did with these proud Romans who shook the world? They were in England 55 years before Jesus Christ was born. We lived in the old city of Bath, the ancient city of Bath, it was shown on TV the other morning. It's a beautiful city. It's colonnades, it's aristocratic, it's marvellous. The Romans with all their culture, this is what God says, professing themselves wise, they became fools. People say the church should get interested in urban renewal, the church should teach about sex. I don't think so, not first and priority. The church just needs to teach men and women they're sinners, and unless they get saved, you can put a pig in a palace, but he won't put a dinner jacket on, a tuxedo, and have good manners. He'll grunt and spit and do all his filth all over the place. It's not enough to take a man and put him in a new environment, unless he's transformed by the grace of God. Sure I don't like ghettos, I lived in one for two years. I don't like suffering. But you see we've outlawed God so long in the affairs of men. We're going to put the world together again. Well I'll tell you when I believe you, let me break an egg and you put it back together. That's Humpty Dumpty that sat on the wall. And it isn't a children's story, it's a philosophy. You can't put the world back together. Only God can do that. But will you notice what happened, and it's happened to every generation since. Again the Roman Empire was not destroyed from the outside, it was destroyed from the inside. The reasons given, number one, they had too much divorce. Number two, they spent too much on armaments. Number three, they spent too much on circuses. Number four, they were taxed too heavily. Those are four of the five, I forget the fifth, major reasons given in the greatest classic ever written on the Roman Empire. That's Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. And the very five things which ate up that marvellous empire, ate up the British Empire, and they're eating us up today. And we may as well take a broom and push the tide back. As hope there is no salvation in legislation, you can increase the value of the value, you can get all the oil flowing, what will people do? Have you ever realised this, only one nation came out of World War II, not only with an economy that was sound but better than what it went in, and that was the United States. The economy of Germany blasted to smithereens. The economy of England shattered every nation. I can show you that in black and white. Involved in World War II came out worse, we came out better, no bombs fell on our country, we gave men true enough. But the economy thrived, we made machinery, we made other things. Are we being more grateful? I don't think so. Now notice now, now wind this up. It says in verse 22 of Romans 1, professing themselves wise, they became fools. Verse 25, God gave them up to uncleanness. Verse 25, they changed the treason, got into a lie and worshipped and served the creature more than the creator. And verse 26, God gave them up. And again the same thing in verse 28, God gave them up unto a man who made wine. My God, where do you go when God gives you up? The only thing you should do is dig a grave. You know I'm tempted to say, the church is nearly as sick as the world outside. Our present paralysis is pitiful. I told you students the other day when I finished, I want to tell you something. I'm embarrassed to be part of a church of Jesus Christ, which is an embarrassment to him right now. One man came and said, I want to quarrel with you too, the church is always healthy. Well what did he say to the church? He didn't say to the Nicolaitans, he said to his own church, if you don't get healthy I'll spit you out of my mouth. Why did he say remove your candlestick? He has removed the candlestick of the seven churches. There's a pitiful representation, sure, but they're no longer the lights of Asia that they were. Well that's all the things that's needed, and I'll finish and we'll go on next week in this I guess. Mercy of the Lord. I'm in the wrong book here. Back in Ephesians again. He says in verse 19 of the third chapter that they may know the love of God which passeth knowledge. You see, he loves this church. You notice there's no miracles in it, no gifts in it, fruit is mentioned just once going past. He's concerned now about a spiritual church, a church that's strong in the grace of God. A church that has healthy vision, a church that has healthy passion, and he says not only that they be filled with the knowledge of God, but be filled with all the fullness of God. Isn't that a notion to swim in? John Wesley said the holiest man that had ever lived on earth since the Apostle Paul was his friend. All you say was biased because he said John Wesley, because he said John Fletcher was the holiest man that ever lived. Wait a minute, out of the mouth of two witnesses, what if you get an enemy of the cross? One of the most vicious men in the days of John Wesley was Voltaire, brilliant French atheist. Some men were arguing one day about Jesus Christ being the greatest man that's ever lived, and he snapped his fingers and said, listen, don't you say that again, why not? There's a man living now who is as holy as Jesus Christ, oh come on. Can you give us his name? I'll give you his name, I'll tell you where he lives. He lives in a little village in England called, he must be the holiest man that ever lived. John Wesley said he was too, and an atheist said. But you know he said this amazing thing one day, he said to me it is comparatively small, that the blood of Jesus can cleanse me from all sin, that he can purify me. That I do not find too difficult to understand because the blood is so powerful it can cleanse me. But he said the difficulty for me is to realize that I can be filled with all the fullness of God. How? Well to the same degree that you take a glass that you drink water from, and you put it in the ocean, and you take it out. The difference in the ocean and the glass is only a difference in quantity, not quality. All that's in the ocean is there in that glass. Very well, all that's in God can be in me, can be in you. You see this is the purpose of redemption. To restore us back to the image and the walk that God had, pardon me, that Adam had before he transgressed, before he sinned. All right, he wants us to know the love of God which passeth knowledge. Now this is how it works out. He says in the second verse of chapter 4, with all holiness and meekness, with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love. Isn't that nice? And then in verse 15 he says speaking the truth in love. And in verse 16 he says edifying one another in love. And in verse 2 of the fifth chapter he says and that we walk in love. I think that's beautiful. You see again this man is still the same apostle. In a lousy prison cell, with water running down the walls, rats on the floor, maybe stinking. Too hot sometimes, too cold others, as miserable as a human earthly hell could be. And you know what he says in verse 20 of the sixth chapter? I'm an ambassador in bonds. Oh I think that's beautiful. It's like seeing the garbage man come in a tuxedo. You look down the yard and you say hey man what are you dressed up in? He says well I want to tell you I was at a dinner party last night and I'm as good a man collecting the garbage as I was last night. Sitting with the duke and the lord and the lady and the peasant. I don't change just because my clothes change. And Paul says I don't go up and down like a yo-yo. Oh no, no, no. I don't sit and say well lord I've done more than anybody else. I've written more epistles. I've suffered more. I've been a night and a day in the deep, in weariness, in pastings, in painfulness, in tribulation, in distress, in perils amongst my own kind. He doesn't go through it at all. I think maybe Paul's the only one who gave the devil a headache. Poor devil had no aspirin. Do you know why? Because Paul says this. Do you know what I do? I glory in tribulation. I say lord if there's any tribulation around let me take it because that guy's a bit weak. Put it on me. Put it on me. Put it on me. Ah, you've got some place where you can say that. I glory in tribulation, in necessities, in good conscience. Again I remind you that this man has every right to speak. Again he's not saying I'm giving you advice here. He isn't saying like some people like to say you know the Holy Spirit comes and oh after that life is so beautiful. Oh it's so easy, you just sit around. You dream of everlasting bliss and you go to banquets and you have a marvellous time. I'll tell you what, when I read this chapter I said to myself you know there's not much in this chapter like transcendental meditation. Wrestling against principalities and past. What was the first ministry Jesus had when he stepped out of Jordan? He had a battle with the devil for 40 days. What was the last ministry? He had a battle on the cross. And in between Satan never left him. The moment you step out of darkness into light the devil has grudged that one step you made and he'll fight like hell itself to get your back if he can. Now if we're founded in love. If this love is shed abroad in our hearts by the Spirit if we consider one another in love. Pray for one another in love, speak of one another in love, edify one another in love, forbear one another in love. I don't like all the things you do. You don't like all the things I do. I'm going to argue with you about it. I forget that they used to irritate me. Some things, not that you do, but other people do. Now I forget it. Part your hair down the middle, that's all right. It's your business. Wear this, wear that, that's your business. But you see when it comes right down to the nitty gritty this is a life to live. It's not a philosophy to embrace. People say, you know, one of the greatest things, Jesus was the greatest man of it. No, no, no, no, come on. The Bible is a great book. No, it's not. Well, it's better than other books. No, it's not. It's the only book. Christianity is not a superlative. It's not a comparative religion. It's not just a superlative religion. It's the only religion. You know when the church was persecuted and Peter and John came out. They established a rule forever in the church of Jesus Christ. When they were threatened by the powers that be. Do you know what they said? Well, we're not even going to say we're sorry. We want to tell you something. We have discovered a person, the Lord Jesus Christ. He did a miracle in us. I want to tell you something. There is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we can be saved. We're not sharing Jesus with anybody. He's not like another brother. No, sir. He's not like Confucius. Jesus Christ stands on his own. This book is not a comfortable book with anything. It stands on its own. It's not a revelation from God. It is the revelation from God. It is not the best book. It's the only book. Your life and mine will stand by this book. America will stand or fall by this book. England and every other society will stand or fall by this book. God has established his laws. And he's going to see that we keep them. Next week we'll get to the whole armour of God. I think people are foolish who think that Christian life is easy. As a man said a while ago, the man that says that is either ignorant or he's a hypocrite. If I'm worth anything, Satan's going to contest my life. Same with you. Whether it's a long chapter or a short one doesn't make any odds. He's striving to get us back under his control. Now even if we're spiritually healthy, let's remember this fact again, against us there are principalities and powers and the rulers of the darkness of this world. They're terrified. I just assessed or tried to assess some of these heathen religions, some of the cults. They shame us with their devotion. Somebody told me in that temple of Satan worship in Los Angeles, they don't begin till midnight. And the meeting goes till six o'clock and they spend much of their time chanting to the devil to abolish Christianity. I don't let it cost six dollars every time you go in. But I was told that they have a waiting list of 10,000 people who want to join the two churches there and in San Francisco. We don't have a list like that, do we? Because you see you can do as you like and live for the devil and be controlled by the devil and appetised by the devil. You see when men talk about controlling this, they've forgotten one thing, a man has passions and desires. He's got more than a brain, he's got a will. He's got ambitions, he's got lust. He's got motivations that even I guess psychiatrists don't know too much about and philosophy. But thank God there is a remedy. Don't go away disgusted and frightened, remember will you this, that we've still a bit more to go and it'll get worse. But I want to tell you something. You see if you blow up a balloon and tie on it. If you could sink that balloon down in the water it would be all right till the pressure outside got too big and then it would go. As long as the pressure inside is greater than the pressure outside you don't destroy it. Well that's the reason why the Church of Jesus will not only survive but end triumphant. Because the good book says that greater is he that is in you. Not just he that sits on a throne above all those principalities and powers and rulers of darkness that are there. But he's a greater power, he's exceeding power, he's exceeding strength, he has exceeding wisdom, he has exceeding knowledge. And somewhere up there he sits and everything is under his feet. And below that of course you have satanic power and then you have the power of the world in which we live. There's some distressing news flashing around the world right now, I'm not going to share it with you. But I'm not going to hang my harp on the willows. I know who's going to win. I know the Church isn't going to end with a whimper, the world end with a whimper. Or the blast of a bomb, it's going to end with every island, every part of the world becoming another garden of Eden. Every part of the world becoming a kingdom of our God and of his Christ. And not temporally, but he shall reign forever and ever. As the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. It would be great one day when we see Paul and we ask him to explain some of these mysteries he didn't really explain. Sit on a cloud with him somewhere or sit under a tree. If you get thirsty give a signal to an angel and he'll bring you a glass of water from the river of life and fruits there, you know, it says all that. You know if we got one glimpse of eternity, I think part of this, and I must quit. But you know I think one reason what nerved the Apostle Paul was that he had a vision, he got caught to heaven and he never said a word about it. That would put a strain on most of us. We want to write a book about it, surely I could tell so and so. Well couldn't I just give a lecture once? And the Lord says Paul I'm going to, do you know what? I have a kind of idea in my mind he had a super vision of what John saw in the book of the Revelation. And when he saw Christ in his majesty and his glory. Well I guess he said like all Rutherford's hymns, with mercy and with judgment my web of time he wove. And I the dew of sorrow was lusted by his love. I'll bless the hand that guided, I'll bless the heart that planned. When thrown where glory dwelleth in Emmanuel's love. And then he finishes off a bit better, notice he says. The bride eyes not her garments, but her dear bridegroom's face. I will not gaze on glory, but on the king of grace. Not at the crown he giveth. Did you think the first thing you look at when he puts his hand up were your crown, see how many diamonds you have and where did your husband get more or something. Not at the crown he giveth, but on his pierced hand. When thrown where glory dwelleth in Emmanuel's land. Well we've sung it many times. It's still true. It will be worth it all when we see Jesus. No wonder God's going to wipe tears from our eyes, do you know why? Oh we wish we hadn't wasted so much time on other things. We wish we'd been geared up in the spirit to obey every prompting, to make more sacrifices. You say we're not saved by works, no sirree, but we're rewarded for them. You may get a free ticket to heaven, you won't get a free crown. All the crowns are not the same, all the rewards are not the same. I think the apostle when he wrote this epistle must have secretly known in his heart that that epistle would be read. How many people do you think have read the epistles of Paul today across the world? Millions of them, and they all got blessed, and God put it on his account up there. He's going to be a super edition of Paul Getty and every other millionaire that lived. I mean spiritually, when he gets to heaven. God's going to reward him for all his labours, all his trials, he has that vision. So the hymn writer says, Father we thank you again for your word. It stirs our hearts, it challenges us, it humbles us. We think of how much you got out of the life of this amazing man. We thank you for all the secret saints this afternoon. Those who never surfaced to come and tell us how much they pray and how much they give and what they do. They've learned to serve their master and let not one hand know what the other hand does. We bless you for them. We thank you for the prize of the high calling that is before us. Pray again for these precious young people, their vision will not get dim. They'll not get out of line with your will. And for the rest of us Lord, that we'll constantly obey thee in the different revelations you give to us. May we be strong enough to put on the armour and then be stronger because we've put it on. Grant that even out of this little fellowship we'll be on the danger list in hell itself. That Satan will know we exist because we've learned of our privileges and rights. We've learned to wrestle in the spirit against principalities and powers.