1 00:00:01,160 --> 00:00:03,520 Welcome to From the Pulpit in Classic Sermons. 2 00:00:03,780 --> 00:00:05,320 Each week we bring you a different message 3 00:00:05,320 --> 00:00:07,440 from some of history's greatest speakers in the 4 00:00:07,440 --> 00:00:08,060 Christian faith. 5 00:00:08,520 --> 00:00:10,400 And powerful sermons from modern preachers too. 6 00:00:11,120 --> 00:00:12,060 This week we have A. 7 00:00:12,080 --> 00:00:12,340 W. 8 00:00:12,460 --> 00:00:15,140 Tozer with his message, Gird Up Your Mind 9 00:00:15,140 --> 00:00:16,100 and Be Sober. 10 00:00:19,380 --> 00:00:24,320 In the first chapter of 1 Peter, verse 11 00:00:24,320 --> 00:00:25,140 13. 12 00:00:26,500 --> 00:00:30,780 1 Peter 1, 13. 13 00:00:33,440 --> 00:00:38,020 Wherefore, gird up the loins of your mind, 14 00:00:39,280 --> 00:00:43,940 be sober, and hope to the end for 15 00:00:43,940 --> 00:00:47,140 the grace that is to be brought unto 16 00:00:47,140 --> 00:00:50,380 you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 17 00:00:51,580 --> 00:00:56,120 You who attend here regularly know that we 18 00:00:56,120 --> 00:01:02,340 have been going over Peter almost phrase by 19 00:01:02,340 --> 00:01:02,720 phrase. 20 00:01:05,220 --> 00:01:07,280 We have just arrived here now at verse 21 00:01:07,280 --> 00:01:10,940 13 with that word wherefore. 22 00:01:10,940 --> 00:01:17,800 Wherefore, gird up the loins of your mind, 23 00:01:19,200 --> 00:01:24,260 and be sober, and hope for the grace 24 00:01:24,260 --> 00:01:26,620 that is to be brought unto you at 25 00:01:26,620 --> 00:01:28,200 the revelation of Jesus Christ. 26 00:01:30,440 --> 00:01:33,920 Now, there isn't ever a word in the 27 00:01:33,920 --> 00:01:37,780 scriptures that is simply padded. 28 00:01:39,120 --> 00:01:43,160 In human speech, that is, in ordinary workaday 29 00:01:43,160 --> 00:01:45,120 language, there are many words that are just 30 00:01:45,120 --> 00:01:45,440 padding. 31 00:01:46,920 --> 00:01:51,420 They are there because custom has ordained they 32 00:01:51,420 --> 00:01:51,940 be there. 33 00:01:53,580 --> 00:01:55,400 But when you come to the word of 34 00:01:55,400 --> 00:01:59,660 God, you are safe in assuming that this 35 00:01:59,660 --> 00:02:04,100 divinely inspired book has no padding in it. 36 00:02:04,100 --> 00:02:06,760 If it should not be there, it is 37 00:02:06,760 --> 00:02:07,259 not there. 38 00:02:08,320 --> 00:02:12,840 It is there because it has a function 39 00:02:12,840 --> 00:02:16,120 to perform, even in translation itself. 40 00:02:17,300 --> 00:02:19,260 So when we come to the word wherefore 41 00:02:19,260 --> 00:02:24,010 here, we come to the word that means 42 00:02:24,010 --> 00:02:26,390 because of the foregoing. 43 00:02:28,010 --> 00:02:30,550 Wherefore, look back at something that has been 44 00:02:30,550 --> 00:02:32,490 said and forward to something that is to 45 00:02:32,490 --> 00:02:32,930 be done. 46 00:02:33,230 --> 00:02:34,350 Always it's so. 47 00:02:35,870 --> 00:02:38,230 And here again we see the biblical method. 48 00:02:39,510 --> 00:02:41,950 The Bible, like everything else God made, has 49 00:02:41,950 --> 00:02:42,950 method in it. 50 00:02:43,970 --> 00:02:47,650 And you may be sure that you will 51 00:02:47,650 --> 00:02:49,450 not go far astray if you look for 52 00:02:49,450 --> 00:02:49,950 that method. 53 00:02:50,510 --> 00:02:52,810 That is, if you don't pry for it, 54 00:02:52,830 --> 00:02:54,270 but notice it as you go along. 55 00:02:54,270 --> 00:02:56,990 And here is the biblical method. 56 00:02:58,070 --> 00:03:01,810 It is to lay down strong foundations of 57 00:03:01,810 --> 00:03:02,290 truth. 58 00:03:04,490 --> 00:03:08,470 And these foundations of truth are declarations of 59 00:03:08,470 --> 00:03:08,860 God. 60 00:03:10,090 --> 00:03:13,430 Declarations mostly of what God is doing or 61 00:03:13,430 --> 00:03:14,890 has done or both. 62 00:03:16,170 --> 00:03:20,510 And then after this strong foundation of truth 63 00:03:20,510 --> 00:03:25,870 has been laid, then show that this truth 64 00:03:25,870 --> 00:03:28,870 constitutes a moral obligation. 65 00:03:32,240 --> 00:03:34,540 I think I should emphasize this again. 66 00:03:34,660 --> 00:03:38,440 I suppose this would constitute a certain repetition. 67 00:03:40,160 --> 00:03:44,240 That one of the difficulties in the modern 68 00:03:44,240 --> 00:03:47,880 church is that we are content to lay 69 00:03:47,880 --> 00:03:52,220 down foundations of truth and leave them there 70 00:03:52,220 --> 00:03:55,420 without giving them a moral application. 71 00:03:56,580 --> 00:03:59,040 This was never meant to be so. 72 00:04:00,160 --> 00:04:04,380 The great American evangelist Charles Finney went so 73 00:04:04,380 --> 00:04:08,340 far as bluntly to teach that it was 74 00:04:08,340 --> 00:04:11,760 sinful to teach the Bible without moral application. 75 00:04:12,900 --> 00:04:15,380 That is, simply take a course in the 76 00:04:15,380 --> 00:04:19,980 Bible, find out what it teaches with no 77 00:04:19,980 --> 00:04:24,160 thought that there is any obligation hanging there, 78 00:04:24,900 --> 00:04:28,180 that you are obliged to do anything as 79 00:04:28,180 --> 00:04:29,620 a result of what you learn. 80 00:04:30,120 --> 00:04:32,060 That we call Bible classes. 81 00:04:32,880 --> 00:04:34,700 And I am convinced that a great many 82 00:04:34,700 --> 00:04:39,960 Bible classes are nothing more than a means 83 00:04:39,960 --> 00:04:44,720 whereby men are deepened and settled in their 84 00:04:44,720 --> 00:04:50,420 religious prejudices, but when we have moral application, 85 00:04:51,060 --> 00:04:52,420 then we are Bible in our essence. 86 00:04:53,440 --> 00:04:55,580 He says, now this is what God did, 87 00:04:55,640 --> 00:04:57,220 and this is what God did, and this 88 00:04:57,220 --> 00:04:59,480 is what God did, therefore this is what 89 00:04:59,480 --> 00:05:00,180 you ought to do. 90 00:05:00,480 --> 00:05:02,280 And that is always the Bible way. 91 00:05:03,420 --> 00:05:05,100 And there is never any other way in 92 00:05:05,100 --> 00:05:05,540 the scripture. 93 00:05:06,480 --> 00:05:08,780 There isn't one single lonely book of the 94 00:05:08,780 --> 00:05:10,760 Bible that doesn't have exhortation that I can 95 00:05:10,760 --> 00:05:11,180 think of. 96 00:05:11,680 --> 00:05:12,800 There isn't one. 97 00:05:12,800 --> 00:05:15,780 It simply says, now here, I want you 98 00:05:15,780 --> 00:05:17,360 to learn this, I want you to get 99 00:05:17,360 --> 00:05:20,780 this, pack this into your cranium, and then 100 00:05:20,780 --> 00:05:21,240 let's go. 101 00:05:22,620 --> 00:05:25,060 Never, always the Bible gives you the truth 102 00:05:25,060 --> 00:05:27,260 and then says, now if this is true, 103 00:05:27,400 --> 00:05:29,600 then you ought to do something about it. 104 00:05:30,460 --> 00:05:32,080 And gives it moral application. 105 00:05:32,840 --> 00:05:35,040 That's what the word wherefore is and therefore 106 00:05:35,040 --> 00:05:36,400 is doing in the epistles. 107 00:05:37,580 --> 00:05:39,440 Blessed be the God and thought of our 108 00:05:39,440 --> 00:05:41,600 Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his abundant 109 00:05:41,600 --> 00:05:43,680 mercy hath begotten us again unto a living 110 00:05:43,680 --> 00:05:45,640 hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from 111 00:05:45,640 --> 00:05:46,080 the dead. 112 00:05:47,040 --> 00:05:50,160 Unto an inheritance unfading. 113 00:05:51,720 --> 00:05:53,700 And then he says, now because he has 114 00:05:53,700 --> 00:05:57,260 done that, therefore you ought to do this. 115 00:05:59,000 --> 00:06:01,980 Now he says here that we ought to 116 00:06:01,980 --> 00:06:02,420 gird up. 117 00:06:03,800 --> 00:06:07,840 And we'll look at this little expression, gird 118 00:06:07,840 --> 00:06:09,280 up our loins. 119 00:06:10,420 --> 00:06:12,640 It's drawn from a figure, of course, it's 120 00:06:12,640 --> 00:06:15,980 an analogy, as there is much of that 121 00:06:15,980 --> 00:06:16,580 in the Bible. 122 00:06:16,920 --> 00:06:20,700 Figures of speech and analogies and similes, and 123 00:06:20,700 --> 00:06:21,300 here's one. 124 00:06:22,040 --> 00:06:23,900 Gird up the loins of your mind. 125 00:06:24,800 --> 00:06:27,200 Now you and I would have to learn 126 00:06:27,200 --> 00:06:30,120 what that word gird up means, but they 127 00:06:30,120 --> 00:06:31,460 didn't have to learn it then. 128 00:06:31,760 --> 00:06:33,440 They saw it, it was right there. 129 00:06:33,520 --> 00:06:36,920 Just as when the Bible says that the 130 00:06:36,920 --> 00:06:39,400 Lord will make our sins whiter than snow, 131 00:06:40,420 --> 00:06:41,640 you and I don't have to be taught. 132 00:06:41,780 --> 00:06:43,760 We look out the window almost any winter 133 00:06:43,760 --> 00:06:46,280 day, and we know what whiter than snow 134 00:06:46,280 --> 00:06:46,880 would mean. 135 00:06:47,680 --> 00:06:49,720 But there are places in Africa where the 136 00:06:49,720 --> 00:06:52,420 missionaries can't use the word whiter than snow, 137 00:06:52,900 --> 00:06:56,340 because they have no way to tell, the 138 00:06:56,340 --> 00:06:59,060 heathen have never seen snow, and have no 139 00:06:59,060 --> 00:07:00,760 remote conception of what it's like. 140 00:07:01,680 --> 00:07:03,400 So when we come to the word gird 141 00:07:03,400 --> 00:07:06,240 up, you and I will have to have 142 00:07:06,240 --> 00:07:07,540 that explained to us. 143 00:07:07,540 --> 00:07:11,600 Because we do not now dress the way 144 00:07:11,600 --> 00:07:12,380 they did then. 145 00:07:12,920 --> 00:07:15,320 There were tunics in those old days, great 146 00:07:15,320 --> 00:07:18,500 Mother Hubbard affairs, and they were of course 147 00:07:18,500 --> 00:07:19,520 always in the way. 148 00:07:20,400 --> 00:07:23,420 Some of these tunics, they were simply like 149 00:07:23,420 --> 00:07:24,820 a blanket with a hole cut in the 150 00:07:24,820 --> 00:07:26,500 middle and then strung down over you. 151 00:07:27,340 --> 00:07:29,460 And of course you can imagine working around 152 00:07:29,460 --> 00:07:31,660 or walking or doing anything with that. 153 00:07:32,080 --> 00:07:33,940 It was always in the way, any direction 154 00:07:33,940 --> 00:07:36,420 you backed or went sideways or forward or 155 00:07:36,420 --> 00:07:38,440 raised your hand, you always had your tunic 156 00:07:38,440 --> 00:07:38,980 in the way. 157 00:07:39,840 --> 00:07:42,640 Well, the way they handled that was this. 158 00:07:43,440 --> 00:07:46,540 If they were very poor, they simply took 159 00:07:46,540 --> 00:07:48,460 a chunk of leather, a piece of leather, 160 00:07:49,180 --> 00:07:52,760 dry leather, and they cut that out and 161 00:07:52,760 --> 00:07:55,620 tied it around their waist and pulled it 162 00:07:55,620 --> 00:07:57,340 into a loop, and they were girded. 163 00:07:57,680 --> 00:07:59,680 Then their tunic was not in their way. 164 00:07:59,800 --> 00:08:01,920 Then they could run or walk or travel 165 00:08:01,920 --> 00:08:06,060 or climb or work, and their girdle held 166 00:08:06,060 --> 00:08:08,620 the tunic out up so tight so it 167 00:08:08,620 --> 00:08:10,520 did not bother their feet or their hands. 168 00:08:11,400 --> 00:08:15,620 If they were rich, they had woven girdles 169 00:08:15,620 --> 00:08:18,240 of various kinds, just narrow belts. 170 00:08:18,300 --> 00:08:20,300 We use the word belt now, exactly the 171 00:08:20,300 --> 00:08:20,800 same thing. 172 00:08:21,280 --> 00:08:22,840 A man has a belt around his waist. 173 00:08:23,380 --> 00:08:26,120 Some people do not feel they are dressed 174 00:08:26,120 --> 00:08:27,960 unless they have a belt holding them. 175 00:08:28,620 --> 00:08:30,860 And that is quite scriptural and quite in 176 00:08:30,860 --> 00:08:31,179 order. 177 00:08:31,700 --> 00:08:34,299 And they had those belts in those days. 178 00:08:34,440 --> 00:08:37,020 John the Baptist, you remember, came wearing camel's 179 00:08:37,020 --> 00:08:37,200 hair. 180 00:08:37,280 --> 00:08:39,080 That was the great big old tunic. 181 00:08:39,780 --> 00:08:41,480 But he had to get around so much 182 00:08:41,480 --> 00:08:43,020 that he had to gird it with a 183 00:08:43,020 --> 00:08:43,800 leather girdle. 184 00:08:43,900 --> 00:08:44,780 He was a poor man. 185 00:08:44,840 --> 00:08:48,100 He could not afford silk-woven girdles or 186 00:08:48,100 --> 00:08:50,240 linen, so he had an ordinary piece of 187 00:08:50,240 --> 00:08:53,220 leather cut out now and put around his 188 00:08:53,220 --> 00:08:54,520 waist and tied in a hard knot. 189 00:08:54,640 --> 00:08:56,800 That was to give him foot freedom so 190 00:08:56,800 --> 00:08:57,460 he could walk. 191 00:08:58,340 --> 00:08:59,840 Now, that is the explanation of it. 192 00:08:59,840 --> 00:09:01,820 So when it says, gird up the loins 193 00:09:01,820 --> 00:09:03,780 of your mind, the loins being your waist, 194 00:09:04,420 --> 00:09:06,840 gird up the loins of your mind, we 195 00:09:06,840 --> 00:09:08,520 now know what it means, though we'd never 196 00:09:08,520 --> 00:09:10,180 guess it in a thousand years if we 197 00:09:10,180 --> 00:09:12,120 didn't have scholars to explain it to us, 198 00:09:12,180 --> 00:09:14,440 because people nowadays in this country don't wear 199 00:09:14,440 --> 00:09:15,320 dress like that. 200 00:09:17,440 --> 00:09:19,080 But he says, gird up the loins of 201 00:09:19,080 --> 00:09:19,640 your mind. 202 00:09:20,620 --> 00:09:22,880 Now, as applied to the inner life, that 203 00:09:22,880 --> 00:09:26,060 is, the mind, let's put it like this, 204 00:09:26,100 --> 00:09:30,980 that as natural men, as ordinary men born 205 00:09:30,980 --> 00:09:33,000 into the world and grow up in it, 206 00:09:33,080 --> 00:09:36,240 educated or uneducated, black and white, handsome or 207 00:09:36,240 --> 00:09:39,500 homely, rich or poor, just common, plain people, 208 00:09:39,720 --> 00:09:43,040 sons and daughters of Adam and Eve, we 209 00:09:43,040 --> 00:09:46,140 are by nature careless and disorganized in our 210 00:09:46,140 --> 00:09:48,340 inner life, and indifferent. 211 00:09:49,480 --> 00:09:52,260 And we tend to accept the popular way 212 00:09:52,260 --> 00:09:54,960 of life, whatever it may be. 213 00:09:54,960 --> 00:09:57,400 The popular way of life is accepted by 214 00:09:57,400 --> 00:10:00,760 the average man, not because he thinks so 215 00:10:00,760 --> 00:10:02,620 -called, but because he doesn't think. 216 00:10:03,160 --> 00:10:06,540 Even a sinner, if he thinks, rebels against 217 00:10:06,540 --> 00:10:09,040 the tyranny of the popular way. 218 00:10:09,700 --> 00:10:14,500 Men like Emerson and Henry David Thoreau and 219 00:10:14,500 --> 00:10:18,620 Bruno, and many such men, they rebelled against 220 00:10:18,620 --> 00:10:20,160 the day in which they lived. 221 00:10:20,260 --> 00:10:23,420 Occasionally you'll find a stern old New Englander 222 00:10:23,420 --> 00:10:26,620 yet who stands up on his own strong, 223 00:10:26,800 --> 00:10:29,020 hard feet and refuses to bend. 224 00:10:29,740 --> 00:10:31,160 They have to bend to him. 225 00:10:31,340 --> 00:10:32,360 I admire that. 226 00:10:32,660 --> 00:10:36,020 Because it's individuality, it's independence of spirit, that 227 00:10:36,020 --> 00:10:37,220 you don't find it much. 228 00:10:37,740 --> 00:10:40,180 It takes a thinker to stand up and 229 00:10:40,180 --> 00:10:41,540 refuse to bow or bend. 230 00:10:42,620 --> 00:10:44,300 But the average man doesn't think. 231 00:10:45,040 --> 00:10:47,180 He only thinks, I wonder if there's enough 232 00:10:47,180 --> 00:10:49,440 time on that meter while I run into 233 00:10:49,440 --> 00:10:49,980 the store. 234 00:10:49,980 --> 00:10:53,440 Or he wonders, I wonder if Dressen will 235 00:10:53,440 --> 00:10:56,580 manage the Dodgers this year, will Pee Wee 236 00:10:56,580 --> 00:10:57,440 Reese manage them. 237 00:10:58,040 --> 00:11:00,120 Or he thinks of something where it doesn't 238 00:11:00,120 --> 00:11:02,860 mean touch character, doesn't touch life at all, 239 00:11:03,200 --> 00:11:05,640 doesn't touch him inside, it's only a surface 240 00:11:05,640 --> 00:11:06,120 thing. 241 00:11:06,680 --> 00:11:08,660 He never wades deep, he only plays on 242 00:11:08,660 --> 00:11:10,280 the shallow surface of his life. 243 00:11:10,900 --> 00:11:11,660 That's the sinner. 244 00:11:12,340 --> 00:11:15,160 He's all careless and disorganized and indifferent. 245 00:11:16,040 --> 00:11:18,240 And if there's some field where he has 246 00:11:18,240 --> 00:11:20,940 to tighten up his belt, say the mathematician 247 00:11:20,940 --> 00:11:24,340 or the scientist or the industrialist or the 248 00:11:24,340 --> 00:11:27,280 businessman, that has to do some careful thinking. 249 00:11:27,640 --> 00:11:29,000 It's never moral thinking. 250 00:11:29,180 --> 00:11:31,400 It's never thinking that touches his inner life 251 00:11:31,400 --> 00:11:32,200 or his combat. 252 00:11:32,380 --> 00:11:35,520 It's only thinking that touches his business, his 253 00:11:35,520 --> 00:11:37,040 profession, his occupation. 254 00:11:37,700 --> 00:11:38,280 That is all. 255 00:11:38,380 --> 00:11:42,020 The mathematician or the physicist working over the 256 00:11:42,020 --> 00:11:44,080 atom bomb, that's some mighty fine thinking. 257 00:11:44,860 --> 00:11:47,680 But it doesn't necessarily mean it has anything 258 00:11:47,680 --> 00:11:49,080 to do with his moral life. 259 00:11:49,980 --> 00:11:52,680 His moral life is all ungirded and loose 260 00:11:52,680 --> 00:11:55,440 and dragged, and at a loose end even 261 00:11:55,440 --> 00:11:58,180 while he is carefully thinking in his own 262 00:11:58,180 --> 00:12:00,040 little prescribed field. 263 00:12:00,240 --> 00:12:02,900 And so with the author, the writer, the 264 00:12:02,900 --> 00:12:08,540 playwright, I've forgotten how to pronounce that word 265 00:12:08,540 --> 00:12:12,960 that they used to give to a man 266 00:12:12,960 --> 00:12:14,380 who wrote movie plays. 267 00:12:15,100 --> 00:12:17,700 But anyway, they think, but they don't think 268 00:12:17,700 --> 00:12:19,920 anything that touches their moral lives. 269 00:12:20,700 --> 00:12:22,880 Now, the Bible says here that we are 270 00:12:22,880 --> 00:12:25,260 to gird up the loins of our mind. 271 00:12:26,180 --> 00:12:27,820 When we are converted, well, that's one of 272 00:12:27,820 --> 00:12:29,340 the first things we begin to do. 273 00:12:30,120 --> 00:12:32,920 We become sensitive to eternal values. 274 00:12:33,800 --> 00:12:37,760 And we want activities that will endure and 275 00:12:37,760 --> 00:12:41,780 readiness for flight, because that's why they girded 276 00:12:41,780 --> 00:12:43,040 themselves in the Old Testament. 277 00:12:43,280 --> 00:12:45,240 Ordinarily, they just slopped around in their old 278 00:12:45,240 --> 00:12:45,740 tooning. 279 00:12:45,740 --> 00:12:48,500 But when they wanted to work or travel, 280 00:12:48,720 --> 00:12:49,340 they girded themselves. 281 00:12:50,600 --> 00:12:53,640 And Paul, or Peter here, uses the phrase, 282 00:12:53,720 --> 00:12:56,120 Paul used it too, but Peter uses it 283 00:12:56,120 --> 00:12:58,600 meaning you Christians ought to get ready to 284 00:12:58,600 --> 00:13:02,320 do two things, labor and travel, one or 285 00:13:02,320 --> 00:13:02,660 both. 286 00:13:04,460 --> 00:13:07,440 So, he says, gird up the loins of 287 00:13:07,440 --> 00:13:07,920 your mind. 288 00:13:08,020 --> 00:13:11,420 Activity, that is labor, and readiness for sudden 289 00:13:11,420 --> 00:13:12,760 departure, that is travel. 290 00:13:12,760 --> 00:13:15,220 Those are the two things that people do, 291 00:13:15,320 --> 00:13:17,500 travel or work. 292 00:13:18,140 --> 00:13:19,400 And they had to be girded for. 293 00:13:20,340 --> 00:13:22,200 And then we begin to grieve for the 294 00:13:22,200 --> 00:13:22,920 way we're living. 295 00:13:24,040 --> 00:13:28,480 The lax, thoughtless mess of our lives. 296 00:13:29,880 --> 00:13:30,460 Sinfulness. 297 00:13:31,420 --> 00:13:34,380 Not sinfulness in its overt way, maybe as 298 00:13:34,380 --> 00:13:36,950 Christians, but aimlessness and futility. 299 00:13:39,840 --> 00:13:42,120 One of the hardest things that I've had 300 00:13:42,120 --> 00:13:44,720 to get over, or hardest things to understand, 301 00:13:45,440 --> 00:13:47,060 is to find so many Christians that are 302 00:13:47,060 --> 00:13:48,380 living aimless lives. 303 00:13:49,080 --> 00:13:51,080 They're not shooting at anything, so if they 304 00:13:51,080 --> 00:13:52,420 hit it, they won't know it anyhow. 305 00:13:53,300 --> 00:13:55,100 And their lives are all apart. 306 00:13:55,300 --> 00:13:56,800 They're not girded up. 307 00:13:57,500 --> 00:13:58,960 They have a great many talents. 308 00:13:59,160 --> 00:14:00,520 I know a number of men. 309 00:14:00,560 --> 00:14:02,620 I'm thinking right now of a great man. 310 00:14:02,720 --> 00:14:05,080 I say he's a great man because he 311 00:14:05,080 --> 00:14:08,000 has great nobility of character, and one of 312 00:14:08,000 --> 00:14:10,560 the most tremendous thinking machines that I have 313 00:14:10,560 --> 00:14:12,360 ever seen in my life, or ever come 314 00:14:12,360 --> 00:14:13,340 in contact with. 315 00:14:13,740 --> 00:14:15,440 He makes me feel like a little boy 316 00:14:15,440 --> 00:14:18,400 when I'm around him, because of the utter 317 00:14:18,400 --> 00:14:20,580 size and range of his intellect. 318 00:14:21,460 --> 00:14:23,220 And I have never known him to do 319 00:14:23,220 --> 00:14:27,140 or even utter anything that is not noble, 320 00:14:27,820 --> 00:14:29,460 and yet he has been a minister, and 321 00:14:29,460 --> 00:14:31,220 he's been a total failure from the time 322 00:14:31,220 --> 00:14:31,920 I've known him. 323 00:14:32,360 --> 00:14:33,440 A total failure. 324 00:14:33,660 --> 00:14:36,040 Goes from one church to another, has a 325 00:14:36,040 --> 00:14:38,020 run in there, and then goes to the 326 00:14:38,020 --> 00:14:39,920 next one and starts something and it peters 327 00:14:39,920 --> 00:14:41,780 out, and then goes somewhere else and tries 328 00:14:41,780 --> 00:14:44,260 that and it peters out, and it's because 329 00:14:44,260 --> 00:14:45,260 he's not girded. 330 00:14:45,860 --> 00:14:48,500 He has tremendous mind, but he's not girded 331 00:14:48,500 --> 00:14:48,680 up. 332 00:14:48,740 --> 00:14:51,440 It's like a man with a beautiful Stradivarius 333 00:14:51,440 --> 00:14:52,760 violin that isn't tuned. 334 00:14:53,400 --> 00:14:55,600 He's not taking time to sit down and 335 00:14:55,600 --> 00:14:57,720 tune his violin, so he doesn't get any 336 00:14:57,720 --> 00:14:58,080 melody. 337 00:14:58,200 --> 00:14:59,340 People won't stay to listen. 338 00:15:00,160 --> 00:15:01,840 And yet he's a tremendous preacher with a 339 00:15:01,840 --> 00:15:04,140 great mind and a noble character, but he's 340 00:15:04,140 --> 00:15:06,400 no good because he's not girded. 341 00:15:06,400 --> 00:15:10,920 Now that's one extravagant, extreme example, but I 342 00:15:10,920 --> 00:15:13,120 find many have got people, I go back 343 00:15:13,120 --> 00:15:15,580 after twenty years, now twenty years, just nothing 344 00:15:15,580 --> 00:15:17,500 to me anymore, just tossed around like that. 345 00:15:17,640 --> 00:15:19,380 Used to be, you know, and I thought 346 00:15:19,380 --> 00:15:22,040 twenty years would be a lifetime, but twenty 347 00:15:22,040 --> 00:15:23,680 years, you know, you just toss it around. 348 00:15:24,080 --> 00:15:25,940 I go back after twenty years and there 349 00:15:25,940 --> 00:15:28,100 he is, same old fella, little bit thicker, 350 00:15:28,340 --> 00:15:32,420 little bit balder, little bit heavier, but nowhere, 351 00:15:32,860 --> 00:15:35,540 he didn't get anywhere, because his mind was 352 00:15:35,540 --> 00:15:36,460 never girded. 353 00:15:37,420 --> 00:15:39,240 Peter says that we are to gird up 354 00:15:39,240 --> 00:15:42,200 the loins of our mind, and that carelessness 355 00:15:42,200 --> 00:15:45,400 and aimlessness should all go out of the 356 00:15:45,400 --> 00:15:45,800 Christian. 357 00:15:48,760 --> 00:15:52,560 The average Christian won't think when it touches 358 00:15:52,560 --> 00:15:53,460 his moral life. 359 00:15:53,720 --> 00:15:55,660 He won't think when it touches his spiritual 360 00:15:55,660 --> 00:15:56,080 life. 361 00:15:56,220 --> 00:15:58,140 He meditates a little enough to solve his 362 00:15:58,140 --> 00:16:01,320 conscience, and then lives his aimless life. 363 00:16:02,420 --> 00:16:06,180 He's a puppet of circumstances, being tossed around 364 00:16:06,180 --> 00:16:09,340 like a cork on the wave, but not 365 00:16:09,340 --> 00:16:12,280 plowing through like a ship on her way 366 00:16:12,280 --> 00:16:12,740 to harbor. 367 00:16:14,080 --> 00:16:16,120 Gird up the loins of your mind, he 368 00:16:16,120 --> 00:16:19,720 says, and stop this wastefulness, this lax thoughtlessness. 369 00:16:20,860 --> 00:16:25,160 I said not sinfulness, maybe, but only aimlessness, 370 00:16:25,760 --> 00:16:27,000 laxness, and futility. 371 00:16:27,140 --> 00:16:28,980 But I wonder how far you can go 372 00:16:28,980 --> 00:16:32,880 and how long in living an aimless life 373 00:16:33,500 --> 00:16:35,640 and not border on sin pretty soon. 374 00:16:36,200 --> 00:16:38,180 I think it becomes sinful after a while. 375 00:16:38,840 --> 00:16:41,060 When we get so prodigal with our talents, 376 00:16:41,260 --> 00:16:43,160 and so careless with our time, and so 377 00:16:43,160 --> 00:16:45,460 aimless with our activities that we get nothing 378 00:16:45,460 --> 00:16:47,600 done, it becomes sinful after a while. 379 00:16:50,380 --> 00:16:52,140 The Book of Proverbs tells us about the 380 00:16:52,140 --> 00:16:53,860 man that lies on his bed and turns 381 00:16:53,860 --> 00:16:55,420 on his bed like a door on its 382 00:16:55,420 --> 00:17:00,020 hinges, but the weeds grow up in his 383 00:17:00,020 --> 00:17:07,000 garden, choke and kill his crops, and when 384 00:17:07,000 --> 00:17:09,220 the fall comes he has nothing, and then 385 00:17:09,220 --> 00:17:10,040 he has to beg. 386 00:17:11,460 --> 00:17:14,240 Now that's not overtly sinful, but I wonder 387 00:17:14,240 --> 00:17:15,940 if it isn't sinful after all. 388 00:17:16,240 --> 00:17:17,960 I wonder if it isn't sinful to be 389 00:17:17,960 --> 00:17:18,300 lazy. 390 00:17:18,420 --> 00:17:19,180 I think it is. 391 00:17:20,359 --> 00:17:22,660 It's sinful to be intellectually lazy. 392 00:17:22,880 --> 00:17:24,940 I believe it's sinful to be intellectually lazy. 393 00:17:25,440 --> 00:17:27,119 A man that won't lose his head doesn't 394 00:17:27,119 --> 00:17:28,300 deserve to keep it. 395 00:17:29,160 --> 00:17:31,540 And a great many people don't use their 396 00:17:31,540 --> 00:17:31,980 heads. 397 00:17:32,700 --> 00:17:35,260 And if a preacher gives them anything else 398 00:17:35,260 --> 00:17:37,100 except a few stories about a little girl 399 00:17:37,100 --> 00:17:38,520 that went to church and then came home, 400 00:17:38,560 --> 00:17:41,560 and she said, Mama, if you get any 401 00:17:41,560 --> 00:17:43,960 deeper than that, they say he's too deep. 402 00:17:44,040 --> 00:17:45,400 He goes over the heads of the people. 403 00:17:45,520 --> 00:17:47,100 What are their heads there for? 404 00:17:48,760 --> 00:17:51,140 Any preaching I do that they charge I 405 00:17:51,140 --> 00:17:52,680 go over their heads, I deny it. 406 00:17:52,680 --> 00:17:54,280 I may go through their heads if there's 407 00:17:54,280 --> 00:17:56,220 nothing there to stop it, but I don't 408 00:17:56,220 --> 00:17:57,180 go over their heads. 409 00:17:57,960 --> 00:18:00,360 God Almighty gave you a head there, brother, 410 00:18:01,260 --> 00:18:02,640 and you ought to use it. 411 00:18:02,640 --> 00:18:04,300 You ought to take it out, oil it 412 00:18:04,300 --> 00:18:06,500 up and rub the rust off of it 413 00:18:06,500 --> 00:18:08,960 and begin to use that head of yours. 414 00:18:10,400 --> 00:18:12,260 I believe we ought to feel urgent. 415 00:18:12,520 --> 00:18:14,660 I was reading this morning, just this morning, 416 00:18:15,300 --> 00:18:18,260 that old Nicholas Herman, that godly brother Lawrence, 417 00:18:19,200 --> 00:18:22,240 who recommended, he said, Nourish your heart on 418 00:18:22,240 --> 00:18:24,220 high and noble thoughts of God. 419 00:18:25,300 --> 00:18:27,760 Nourish your heart on high and noble thoughts 420 00:18:27,760 --> 00:18:28,360 of God. 421 00:18:29,320 --> 00:18:31,120 You've got to use your head a little 422 00:18:31,120 --> 00:18:33,500 bit to nourish your heart on noble thoughts 423 00:18:33,500 --> 00:18:34,080 of God. 424 00:18:34,940 --> 00:18:38,520 You can't live on yellow tracts and stories. 425 00:18:39,260 --> 00:18:40,260 You've got to think some. 426 00:18:41,340 --> 00:18:43,480 Well, gird up your mind, he says. 427 00:18:43,580 --> 00:18:46,900 Gird up your mind, and we begin to 428 00:18:46,900 --> 00:18:48,460 pull our lives together then. 429 00:18:48,840 --> 00:18:50,240 And we eliminate carelessness. 430 00:18:56,880 --> 00:18:59,940 We eliminate carelessness in word and thought and 431 00:18:59,940 --> 00:19:01,560 deed and activity and interest. 432 00:19:04,180 --> 00:19:06,140 I suppose that if I could know every 433 00:19:06,140 --> 00:19:09,100 one of you, could know every one of 434 00:19:09,100 --> 00:19:10,380 you, and I speak now of our own 435 00:19:10,380 --> 00:19:12,920 people, not any chance visitor who might be 436 00:19:12,920 --> 00:19:15,360 with us, but if I could know every 437 00:19:15,360 --> 00:19:18,900 one of you as God knows you, I 438 00:19:18,900 --> 00:19:21,780 would experience two tremendous shocks. 439 00:19:23,740 --> 00:19:25,020 One would be this. 440 00:19:26,180 --> 00:19:28,280 I'd find so many of you so much 441 00:19:28,280 --> 00:19:29,620 better than I thought you were. 442 00:19:30,340 --> 00:19:31,320 I believe that. 443 00:19:32,240 --> 00:19:33,080 I believe that. 444 00:19:33,160 --> 00:19:35,180 Once in a while, somebody will tell me, 445 00:19:35,180 --> 00:19:37,340 you should have heard so-and-so pray, 446 00:19:37,800 --> 00:19:39,440 or you should know what so-and-so 447 00:19:39,440 --> 00:19:39,800 is doing. 448 00:19:39,940 --> 00:19:41,940 And I never knew they were like that. 449 00:19:42,500 --> 00:19:44,420 We walked around here, and I shake your 450 00:19:44,420 --> 00:19:45,100 hand, greet you. 451 00:19:45,760 --> 00:19:47,840 But you're better than I think you are. 452 00:19:48,400 --> 00:19:49,280 Some of you are. 453 00:19:49,840 --> 00:19:51,420 But I think, on the other hand, over 454 00:19:51,420 --> 00:19:54,600 against that, to offset it, I would find 455 00:19:54,600 --> 00:19:58,080 some far worse than I dreamed they are. 456 00:19:58,940 --> 00:20:03,500 Careless, loose, lax in their thoughts and words 457 00:20:03,500 --> 00:20:04,860 and activities and interests. 458 00:20:05,180 --> 00:20:06,540 Anything but spiritual. 459 00:20:07,600 --> 00:20:09,840 Between Sunday and Sunday, there isn't a thought 460 00:20:09,840 --> 00:20:10,400 of God. 461 00:20:11,520 --> 00:20:13,980 Between Sunday and Sunday, there isn't an hour 462 00:20:13,980 --> 00:20:14,920 spent in prayer. 463 00:20:16,120 --> 00:20:18,540 Between Sunday and Sunday, there aren't three verses 464 00:20:18,540 --> 00:20:19,660 of the Scriptures read. 465 00:20:23,510 --> 00:20:25,490 We can get away with that before pastors 466 00:20:25,490 --> 00:20:27,250 and boards, but we can't get away with 467 00:20:27,250 --> 00:20:28,090 that before God. 468 00:20:28,190 --> 00:20:28,870 That's loose living. 469 00:20:29,070 --> 00:20:29,910 That's laxness. 470 00:20:32,070 --> 00:20:34,890 Now, the Scripture says in Luke 12, 35 471 00:20:34,890 --> 00:20:37,370 and 36, Let your loins be girded and 472 00:20:37,370 --> 00:20:40,630 your life burning, and ye yourselves like unto 473 00:20:40,630 --> 00:20:41,890 men that wait for their Lord. 474 00:20:42,370 --> 00:20:45,090 Come back from the wedding, so that when 475 00:20:45,090 --> 00:20:47,910 he cometh, they may get up immediately and 476 00:20:47,910 --> 00:20:48,530 open to him. 477 00:20:50,730 --> 00:20:58,030 Now, in Isaiah 11 and Ephesians 6, we 478 00:20:58,030 --> 00:20:59,990 learn what we gird our loins with. 479 00:21:01,210 --> 00:21:03,570 It says, Righteousness shall be the girdle of 480 00:21:03,570 --> 00:21:05,890 his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his 481 00:21:05,890 --> 00:21:06,250 reins. 482 00:21:07,330 --> 00:21:09,950 Paul says, As good, let yourselves be girded 483 00:21:09,950 --> 00:21:13,510 round with truth, so we have righteousness, faithfulness, 484 00:21:13,630 --> 00:21:18,170 and truth, as the beautiful shreds of silk 485 00:21:18,170 --> 00:21:22,130 and linen, and perhaps gold, that we gird 486 00:21:22,130 --> 00:21:22,890 ourselves with. 487 00:21:23,030 --> 00:21:24,590 God doesn't mean us to be girded in 488 00:21:24,590 --> 00:21:26,350 our minds only with cheap leather. 489 00:21:27,110 --> 00:21:28,570 He wants us to be girded with the 490 00:21:28,570 --> 00:21:33,630 fine linen of righteousness and faithfulness and truth. 491 00:21:34,570 --> 00:21:37,130 Pull that tight around you, so your mind 492 00:21:37,130 --> 00:21:37,870 isn't loose. 493 00:21:38,770 --> 00:21:40,030 Righteousness, that's right living. 494 00:21:40,190 --> 00:21:42,310 Faithfulness, that's loyalty to something. 495 00:21:44,980 --> 00:21:49,520 When we invented the conception that the Church 496 00:21:49,520 --> 00:21:51,020 was a mistake, as we did at the 497 00:21:51,020 --> 00:21:53,400 turn of the century and around 1910 up 498 00:21:53,400 --> 00:21:56,420 to 1920 in this country, when we invented 499 00:21:56,420 --> 00:21:58,080 the idea that the Church is a mistake 500 00:21:58,080 --> 00:22:01,140 and that it's only tabernacles and preaching centers 501 00:22:01,140 --> 00:22:03,480 and come when you're pleased and leave when 502 00:22:03,480 --> 00:22:06,160 you must and belong to nothing and look 503 00:22:06,160 --> 00:22:08,680 to nobody and submit to no one and 504 00:22:08,680 --> 00:22:12,680 no thing, we played straight into the hands 505 00:22:12,680 --> 00:22:16,460 of that master of all disorganization, the devil. 506 00:22:17,580 --> 00:22:19,600 Right into his hands we played. 507 00:22:20,440 --> 00:22:23,240 And in the name of freedom and liberty 508 00:22:23,240 --> 00:22:27,140 and the deeper life, we went a long 509 00:22:27,140 --> 00:22:29,000 way to destroy the Church of Christ in 510 00:22:29,000 --> 00:22:29,380 America. 511 00:22:30,900 --> 00:22:33,980 Remember, my brethren, it's better to be faithful 512 00:22:33,980 --> 00:22:37,000 to something than have loyalty for something. 513 00:22:38,140 --> 00:22:39,960 For the good it does you. 514 00:22:40,900 --> 00:22:42,960 Sometimes denominations carry that too far. 515 00:22:43,440 --> 00:22:45,180 I never could be loyal to anything that 516 00:22:45,180 --> 00:22:46,460 didn't command my loyalty. 517 00:22:48,100 --> 00:22:51,560 Some denominational churches impose loyalty by decree. 518 00:22:52,440 --> 00:22:53,980 They'll never catch me in that matter. 519 00:22:55,120 --> 00:22:57,040 Nobody's ever going to demand that I be 520 00:22:57,040 --> 00:22:59,420 loyal to something, but if they'll get good 521 00:22:59,420 --> 00:23:02,720 enough to command my loyalty and I don't 522 00:23:02,720 --> 00:23:04,360 give it to them, then I am the 523 00:23:04,360 --> 00:23:05,500 sinner, not they. 524 00:23:07,000 --> 00:23:08,800 If they try to impose loyalty on me, 525 00:23:08,860 --> 00:23:09,520 they're all wrong. 526 00:23:10,680 --> 00:23:13,400 I will not honor a man that does 527 00:23:13,400 --> 00:23:14,280 not deserve honor. 528 00:23:15,140 --> 00:23:17,480 And I will not withhold honor from the 529 00:23:17,480 --> 00:23:18,240 man that does. 530 00:23:19,000 --> 00:23:20,920 And I will not be loyal to a 531 00:23:20,920 --> 00:23:24,120 denomination that has cast the blood of Jesus 532 00:23:24,120 --> 00:23:26,800 out and denied the deep truths of the 533 00:23:26,800 --> 00:23:27,120 scriptures. 534 00:23:28,500 --> 00:23:33,570 But if any church anywhere is spiritually worthy, 535 00:23:33,770 --> 00:23:35,250 then I want to be loyal to that 536 00:23:35,250 --> 00:23:35,530 church. 537 00:23:38,410 --> 00:23:40,030 Now, faithfulness and truth. 538 00:23:40,870 --> 00:23:41,930 Then it says, be sober. 539 00:23:43,510 --> 00:23:44,770 Now, what does it mean by sober? 540 00:23:44,850 --> 00:23:46,210 We know a little more about that. 541 00:23:48,010 --> 00:23:50,810 Sobriety is when the calm reason is in 542 00:23:50,810 --> 00:23:51,290 control. 543 00:23:52,470 --> 00:23:56,390 The mind is balanced and cool, and the 544 00:23:56,390 --> 00:23:58,690 feelings are subject to reason. 545 00:24:00,110 --> 00:24:02,050 And for that reason, I do not believe 546 00:24:02,050 --> 00:24:05,810 much in any kind of spiritual experiences that 547 00:24:05,810 --> 00:24:06,610 dethrone reason. 548 00:24:08,050 --> 00:24:12,610 Men sometimes act unreasonable and then excuse it 549 00:24:12,610 --> 00:24:14,110 on the ground if you're moved by the 550 00:24:14,110 --> 00:24:14,430 Spirit. 551 00:24:14,510 --> 00:24:15,010 I doubt it. 552 00:24:15,990 --> 00:24:19,090 I doubt that the Holy Ghost ever dethrones 553 00:24:19,090 --> 00:24:21,050 reason in any man's mind. 554 00:24:23,390 --> 00:24:26,430 I know in my own personal life, the 555 00:24:26,430 --> 00:24:32,650 highest, loftiest, and most God-beholding moments of 556 00:24:32,650 --> 00:24:37,570 my spiritual experience have been so calm that 557 00:24:37,570 --> 00:24:39,610 I could tell about it, analyze it. 558 00:24:40,430 --> 00:24:43,650 The human reason must always be in control, 559 00:24:44,190 --> 00:24:47,550 blessed and warmed and refreshed and shining with 560 00:24:47,550 --> 00:24:49,410 the love of God, but always in control. 561 00:24:51,800 --> 00:24:53,080 Now, drunkenness is the opposite. 562 00:24:53,540 --> 00:24:55,800 When reason has been dethroned, you know what? 563 00:24:56,060 --> 00:24:58,660 You go down to the corner here and 564 00:24:58,660 --> 00:25:00,460 you'll find a fellow come staggering out. 565 00:25:01,220 --> 00:25:03,560 Reason has been dethroned and the judgment has 566 00:25:03,560 --> 00:25:04,300 been impaired. 567 00:25:05,360 --> 00:25:06,220 Who was it? 568 00:25:06,280 --> 00:25:07,560 Shakespeare or Robert Burns? 569 00:25:08,260 --> 00:25:11,140 It's said that Robert Burns called liquor liquid 570 00:25:11,140 --> 00:25:13,240 damnation, and I think it was either Shakespeare 571 00:25:13,240 --> 00:25:16,000 or someone else who talked about a man 572 00:25:16,000 --> 00:25:19,580 opening his mouth and drinking down something that 573 00:25:19,580 --> 00:25:20,720 made his brain go out. 574 00:25:23,110 --> 00:25:25,050 He probably said it more gracefully than that, 575 00:25:25,110 --> 00:25:26,150 but that's the meaning of it. 576 00:25:27,510 --> 00:25:30,110 When the emotions get out of control, and 577 00:25:30,110 --> 00:25:31,730 that's what happens to a drunk man, his 578 00:25:31,730 --> 00:25:33,010 emotions get out of control. 579 00:25:33,010 --> 00:25:35,730 He's either so happy that he's a bore, 580 00:25:36,670 --> 00:25:38,910 or else he's so sad that he cries 581 00:25:38,910 --> 00:25:41,870 in his beer, or he's so affectionate he 582 00:25:41,870 --> 00:25:44,470 wants to hug you and move over you, 583 00:25:45,090 --> 00:25:47,410 or he gets so generous he gives everything 584 00:25:47,410 --> 00:25:50,130 away he has, or he gets so mean 585 00:25:50,130 --> 00:25:51,290 you can't live with him. 586 00:25:51,990 --> 00:25:52,830 That's the way it works. 587 00:25:53,150 --> 00:25:54,770 I think it usually works that way in 588 00:25:54,770 --> 00:25:55,210 everybody. 589 00:25:55,590 --> 00:25:57,170 They start out by getting happy. 590 00:25:58,290 --> 00:26:01,490 The French used to say the conversation was 591 00:26:01,490 --> 00:26:05,390 impossible that if you didn't have wine to 592 00:26:05,390 --> 00:26:07,590 stimulate you, you couldn't talk. 593 00:26:08,650 --> 00:26:11,170 I've been around a while, I've been talking, 594 00:26:11,330 --> 00:26:13,110 and I never had taste of wine as 595 00:26:13,110 --> 00:26:17,470 much as one gram or seven beer or 596 00:26:17,470 --> 00:26:20,350 whatever it is in my life, and I've 597 00:26:20,350 --> 00:26:22,810 managed to talk, and I think you have, 598 00:26:23,290 --> 00:26:24,350 but that's what they say. 599 00:26:24,550 --> 00:26:26,010 They say you have to have wine in 600 00:26:26,010 --> 00:26:27,650 order to have sense enough to talk. 601 00:26:28,790 --> 00:26:33,170 But I have noticed that if you talk 602 00:26:33,170 --> 00:26:36,910 at him and get too happy, he's ready 603 00:26:36,910 --> 00:26:39,910 to tell stories and laugh and carry on, 604 00:26:40,670 --> 00:26:43,570 and then after that begins to wear off, 605 00:26:43,670 --> 00:26:44,630 he gets affectionate. 606 00:26:45,890 --> 00:26:48,170 You see a drunken fellow throw his arms 607 00:26:48,170 --> 00:26:50,010 around you and cry on your shoulder and 608 00:26:50,010 --> 00:26:52,050 tell you how he loves you, and twenty 609 00:26:52,050 --> 00:26:54,030 -five minutes before he didn't even know your 610 00:26:54,030 --> 00:26:57,150 name, and then they get sad also. 611 00:26:57,870 --> 00:27:01,470 Emotions go out of control, and every bartender 612 00:27:01,470 --> 00:27:06,320 knows, though I am not exactly a friend, 613 00:27:06,480 --> 00:27:08,420 too close a friend to too many bartenders, 614 00:27:08,620 --> 00:27:10,740 but I read a little, and every bartender 615 00:27:10,740 --> 00:27:14,480 knows the fellow who comes in, gets enough 616 00:27:14,480 --> 00:27:16,200 to make him sad, and then sits and 617 00:27:16,200 --> 00:27:17,900 tells how his wife doesn't understand. 618 00:27:19,500 --> 00:27:20,740 And then generosity. 619 00:27:21,340 --> 00:27:23,660 People get too generous, too happy, too sad, 620 00:27:23,760 --> 00:27:27,860 too affectionate, too mean, all because their emotions 621 00:27:31,140 --> 00:27:31,380 get out of control. 622 00:27:31,380 --> 00:27:32,680 A man is drunk when he's like that. 623 00:27:33,540 --> 00:27:34,860 Now the same thing is true in the 624 00:27:34,860 --> 00:27:35,980 Christian life, my brother. 625 00:27:37,340 --> 00:27:39,820 I do not believe we ever ought to 626 00:27:39,820 --> 00:27:42,480 allow our emotions to get out of control. 627 00:27:42,680 --> 00:27:44,400 The spirit of the prophet is subject to 628 00:27:44,400 --> 00:27:47,240 the prophet, and when the spirit of God 629 00:27:47,240 --> 00:27:50,000 moves into a man's heart, it'll make him 630 00:27:50,000 --> 00:27:53,160 generous, but it'll never make a fool out 631 00:27:53,160 --> 00:27:53,460 of him. 632 00:27:54,160 --> 00:27:56,140 It'll make him happy, but it'll never make 633 00:27:56,140 --> 00:27:56,620 him silly. 634 00:28:01,140 --> 00:28:04,400 in the world's grief, but it'll never turn 635 00:28:04,400 --> 00:28:07,040 him into a cynic and a sadhead. 636 00:28:08,500 --> 00:28:11,660 And it'll make him affectionate, but it'll never 637 00:28:11,660 --> 00:28:13,340 make him do things that he's ashamed of 638 00:28:13,340 --> 00:28:13,860 afterwards. 639 00:28:14,840 --> 00:28:16,640 Gird up the loins of your mind and 640 00:28:16,640 --> 00:28:17,180 be sober. 641 00:28:18,060 --> 00:28:19,520 And if ever there was an hour when 642 00:28:19,520 --> 00:28:22,380 we need sobriety, this is the hour, this 643 00:28:22,380 --> 00:28:23,240 is the hour, brethren. 644 00:28:24,120 --> 00:28:26,480 We need to be sober men, but spiritual 645 00:28:26,480 --> 00:28:26,920 men. 646 00:28:32,940 --> 00:28:36,720 Their gravity is perfect. 647 00:28:38,100 --> 00:28:40,020 And they sit through the years and neither 648 00:28:40,020 --> 00:28:43,300 affected by cold nor rain nor snow nor 649 00:28:43,300 --> 00:28:46,980 heat or changes of administration or coronations of 650 00:28:46,980 --> 00:28:50,400 kings or losses or winnings of battles. 651 00:28:50,900 --> 00:28:52,400 They just sit there and look straight ahead, 652 00:28:52,960 --> 00:28:56,700 faithfully reminding the passing onlooker Mr. John M. 653 00:28:56,760 --> 00:29:00,340 Jones, 1861-1932 lies there. 654 00:29:01,420 --> 00:29:02,860 And that's a tombstone. 655 00:29:03,020 --> 00:29:06,600 So some churches, in order to keep sober, 656 00:29:07,800 --> 00:29:08,940 they just stay there. 657 00:29:10,240 --> 00:29:11,780 And of course, you don't want anything to 658 00:29:11,780 --> 00:29:12,960 do with a church like that, and neither 659 00:29:12,960 --> 00:29:13,400 do I. 660 00:29:14,160 --> 00:29:16,900 I believe in spirituality of the loftiest kind. 661 00:29:17,580 --> 00:29:18,860 I believe we ought to be filled with 662 00:29:18,860 --> 00:29:21,200 the Holy Spirit and that we ought to 663 00:29:21,200 --> 00:29:23,320 walk in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. 664 00:29:24,060 --> 00:29:26,800 But I don't believe that the central reason 665 00:29:26,800 --> 00:29:31,440 ever ought to be disowned, nor that our 666 00:29:31,440 --> 00:29:33,280 emotions ever ought to get out of control. 667 00:29:34,880 --> 00:29:39,280 It says here, shout as it were, to 668 00:29:39,280 --> 00:29:40,400 the end for the grace. 669 00:29:40,500 --> 00:29:42,320 But the margin says perfectly in the King 670 00:29:42,320 --> 00:29:44,040 James Version and all other versions I'm acquainted 671 00:29:44,040 --> 00:29:45,400 with say something that's perfect. 672 00:29:45,580 --> 00:29:46,680 I don't know how to the end got 673 00:29:46,680 --> 00:29:47,020 in there. 674 00:29:52,440 --> 00:29:54,920 Shout perfectly to the end, or be perfectly 675 00:29:54,920 --> 00:29:56,340 sober and hope to the end. 676 00:29:57,520 --> 00:30:00,040 Well, hope perfectly is not an idiom we're 677 00:30:00,040 --> 00:30:00,900 familiar with. 678 00:30:01,220 --> 00:30:03,180 Contrary to the genius of the English tongue, 679 00:30:03,280 --> 00:30:06,200 nobody ever heard anybody say he hopes perfectly. 680 00:30:06,760 --> 00:30:08,840 But you heard him say he's perfectly sober. 681 00:30:09,340 --> 00:30:11,180 So I think what he meant here was 682 00:30:11,180 --> 00:30:14,080 to be perfectly sober and hope to the 683 00:30:14,080 --> 00:30:14,420 end. 684 00:30:15,420 --> 00:30:24,680 Now, the sober Christian can't be controlled nor 685 00:30:24,680 --> 00:30:26,680 by scintillating personalities. 686 00:30:27,520 --> 00:30:31,000 If Bob Hope fires Arthur Godfrey, he doesn't 687 00:30:31,000 --> 00:30:32,240 run and read about it. 688 00:30:32,280 --> 00:30:33,100 He doesn't care. 689 00:30:35,730 --> 00:30:40,350 And if Giuliano Sabrosa is not humble enough, 690 00:30:40,370 --> 00:30:41,370 he doesn't care. 691 00:30:43,210 --> 00:30:45,910 He's got his mind set on higher things 692 00:30:45,910 --> 00:30:47,710 and he's not going to be swept off 693 00:30:47,710 --> 00:30:50,830 his feet by the temporary glory of some 694 00:30:50,830 --> 00:30:51,910 national clown. 695 00:30:55,170 --> 00:30:57,730 I've been called worse things than that by 696 00:30:57,730 --> 00:30:58,330 better people. 697 00:30:59,650 --> 00:31:00,810 So I don't care. 698 00:31:01,290 --> 00:31:02,570 And yet I wonder where I'd go to 699 00:31:02,570 --> 00:31:03,370 find better people. 700 00:31:06,090 --> 00:31:08,550 But I'd say amen to that, not sober. 701 00:31:09,210 --> 00:31:14,310 But anyway, scintillating personalities never sweep a man 702 00:31:14,310 --> 00:31:20,120 away nor fear nor feeling nor love of 703 00:31:20,120 --> 00:31:20,900 anything earthly. 704 00:31:22,060 --> 00:31:25,080 He's got, he's sailing by the storm. 705 00:31:28,620 --> 00:31:29,540 There was a young sailor that I heard 706 00:31:29,540 --> 00:31:31,980 about who was put up on, wherever they 707 00:31:31,980 --> 00:31:33,780 are, to steer the ship. 708 00:31:33,900 --> 00:31:35,520 And they said, keep that star a little 709 00:31:35,520 --> 00:31:37,000 off your port bow. 710 00:31:38,320 --> 00:31:40,100 And later on they came back and found 711 00:31:40,100 --> 00:31:41,440 him miles off course. 712 00:31:41,540 --> 00:31:43,600 And they said, why didn't you do what 713 00:31:43,600 --> 00:31:44,080 you're told? 714 00:31:44,180 --> 00:31:59,280 He said, I passed that star and 715 00:31:59,280 --> 00:32:01,140 remember all that came. 716 00:32:02,000 --> 00:32:04,520 There was a converted five-year-old swimmer. 717 00:32:05,540 --> 00:32:06,980 And he took the public eye for a 718 00:32:06,980 --> 00:32:07,340 while. 719 00:32:08,380 --> 00:32:10,960 And then here was a converted prizefighter whose 720 00:32:10,960 --> 00:32:13,680 wife didn't know the difference between radium and 721 00:32:13,680 --> 00:32:16,340 radio in a message she gave. 722 00:32:16,680 --> 00:32:19,680 And then here was the converted actress and 723 00:32:19,680 --> 00:32:28,940 then the converted pyramid. 724 00:32:29,820 --> 00:32:34,400 And the poor people with their loins ungirded 725 00:32:34,400 --> 00:32:36,940 and their minds all out of shape, they 726 00:32:36,940 --> 00:32:39,340 ran wild after these things. 727 00:32:40,500 --> 00:32:42,780 Cynical old Tozer sat back and looked the 728 00:32:42,780 --> 00:32:46,120 whole thing over and said, it's no good. 729 00:32:47,740 --> 00:32:49,820 And every one of those fellows had gone 730 00:32:49,820 --> 00:32:50,620 with a whim. 731 00:33:00,510 --> 00:33:02,250 They were still there and still steering back. 732 00:33:02,770 --> 00:33:04,930 You don't get as much popularity, you're as 733 00:33:04,930 --> 00:33:06,550 big a crowd, you're as much money. 734 00:33:07,690 --> 00:33:09,510 But it will be in the long run 735 00:33:09,510 --> 00:33:13,010 something very precious to know that when men's 736 00:33:13,010 --> 00:33:15,510 minds were all going to pieces, you kept 737 00:33:15,510 --> 00:33:17,750 yours girded by the Lord Jesus' help. 738 00:33:18,870 --> 00:33:30,670 And when others were getting drunk and 739 00:33:30,670 --> 00:33:31,910 getting to the end, I'll get that one 740 00:33:31,910 --> 00:33:33,670 word hope in five minutes and we're finished. 741 00:33:35,210 --> 00:33:37,930 And that word hope, it's a word we 742 00:33:37,930 --> 00:33:40,290 abuse terribly in our day, terribly. 743 00:33:41,170 --> 00:33:42,470 We use that word hope. 744 00:33:43,450 --> 00:33:45,250 Man says, well, I'm hoping. 745 00:33:47,630 --> 00:33:51,550 There's been a Democratic landslide and it's obvious 746 00:33:51,550 --> 00:34:02,070 that the Republicans are out of 747 00:34:02,070 --> 00:34:02,170 the way. 748 00:34:02,650 --> 00:34:06,330 Eisenhower gets a landslide and the Democratic headquarters 749 00:34:06,330 --> 00:34:07,130 says, we're hoping. 750 00:34:08,210 --> 00:34:10,949 Somebody's obviously dying and we say, I'm still 751 00:34:10,949 --> 00:34:11,310 hoping. 752 00:34:12,350 --> 00:34:13,250 He said, I hope. 753 00:34:13,429 --> 00:34:15,949 That word hope is used loosely to mean 754 00:34:15,949 --> 00:34:18,630 I have a sort of a wish that 755 00:34:18,630 --> 00:34:19,330 it might be so. 756 00:34:19,429 --> 00:34:21,409 But in the Bible hope never means wish. 757 00:34:22,170 --> 00:34:23,949 Tom, did you ever know that their word 758 00:34:23,949 --> 00:34:26,409 wish isn't used in the Bible ever in 759 00:34:26,409 --> 00:34:27,370 a good sense at all? 760 00:34:27,409 --> 00:34:28,150 If it's ever there? 761 00:34:28,550 --> 00:34:29,830 Nobody wishes in the Bible. 762 00:34:31,050 --> 00:34:33,630 You either don't want it or else you 763 00:34:33,630 --> 00:34:34,670 pray and get it. 764 00:34:34,710 --> 00:34:36,010 But you don't wish for it. 765 00:34:36,270 --> 00:34:38,250 Wishing is sloppy thinking. 766 00:34:39,330 --> 00:34:40,250 You say, oh, I wish. 767 00:34:40,370 --> 00:34:41,710 No, no, brother, don't wish. 768 00:34:42,610 --> 00:34:43,050 Hope. 769 00:34:43,650 --> 00:34:45,170 Hope is not wish. 770 00:34:46,010 --> 00:34:50,330 Hope is a confident expectation based on sufficient 771 00:34:50,330 --> 00:34:50,909 reasons. 772 00:34:51,830 --> 00:34:53,770 For instance, it says that a man hopes 773 00:34:53,770 --> 00:34:54,530 for the morning. 774 00:34:55,409 --> 00:34:57,790 They that watch for the morning, Psalm 130, 775 00:34:57,870 --> 00:34:59,210 no watchman hopes for the morning. 776 00:34:59,830 --> 00:35:01,370 I used to work in a factory in 777 00:35:01,370 --> 00:35:03,450 Akron, Ohio when I was a young fellow 778 00:35:03,450 --> 00:35:06,150 in my teens, worked 12 hours all night 779 00:35:06,150 --> 00:35:08,310 with a half hour out for lunch standing 780 00:35:08,310 --> 00:35:08,990 on my feet. 781 00:35:09,110 --> 00:35:10,410 That's the reason I never got any bigger 782 00:35:10,410 --> 00:35:10,950 than I am. 783 00:35:11,950 --> 00:35:13,830 I wore myself out in my teens working 784 00:35:13,830 --> 00:35:14,470 in factories. 785 00:35:15,650 --> 00:35:19,410 So I'd stand there on my feet and 786 00:35:19,410 --> 00:35:21,750 watch the light come in the east in 787 00:35:21,750 --> 00:35:23,630 the morning and know that after the light 788 00:35:23,630 --> 00:35:25,530 came there'd only be a couple of hours 789 00:35:25,530 --> 00:35:27,410 or three hours until I could get out 790 00:35:27,410 --> 00:35:30,990 of that rat's nest and back on the 791 00:35:30,990 --> 00:35:32,270 street and up to my home. 792 00:35:33,730 --> 00:35:35,550 And oh, how I hoped for the morning. 793 00:35:36,610 --> 00:35:38,470 I was hopeful for the morning, but it 794 00:35:38,470 --> 00:35:39,590 wasn't a wish. 795 00:35:40,870 --> 00:35:43,190 It wasn't an uncertain possibility. 796 00:35:44,630 --> 00:35:50,050 Morning has broken every 12 hours or 24 797 00:35:50,050 --> 00:35:53,030 hours, I mean, every 24 hours since the 798 00:35:53,030 --> 00:35:55,210 Lord said let there be light. 799 00:35:55,370 --> 00:35:56,430 Morning has broken. 800 00:35:58,230 --> 00:36:01,070 And so when I hoped for the morning 801 00:36:01,070 --> 00:36:03,050 I wasn't simply wishfully thinking. 802 00:36:03,290 --> 00:36:05,930 I had a confident ground of expectation. 803 00:36:06,630 --> 00:36:08,370 I knew the sun would come up. 804 00:36:08,950 --> 00:36:09,990 It never had failed. 805 00:36:10,930 --> 00:36:13,390 So a Christian has even a stronger ground 806 00:36:13,390 --> 00:36:13,850 for hope. 807 00:36:14,350 --> 00:36:16,330 He tells us that Christ is coming. 808 00:36:16,650 --> 00:36:18,230 That there's to be a revelation of him 809 00:36:18,230 --> 00:36:18,930 to the world. 810 00:36:19,030 --> 00:36:20,610 That he's coming for his bride. 811 00:36:21,090 --> 00:36:23,390 He's coming to raise the sleeping dead and 812 00:36:23,390 --> 00:36:25,370 change the living saints. 813 00:36:26,850 --> 00:36:29,150 That's not a dreamy wish. 814 00:36:29,310 --> 00:36:31,470 That's a confident expectation. 815 00:36:32,670 --> 00:36:35,970 We're looking forward to it because he said 816 00:36:35,970 --> 00:36:37,370 it and he can't lie. 817 00:36:38,090 --> 00:36:40,870 So a Christian isn't a dreamer wishing for 818 00:36:40,870 --> 00:36:41,310 something. 819 00:36:42,670 --> 00:36:45,470 He's a realist who knows what he has 820 00:36:45,470 --> 00:36:46,230 and what's coming. 821 00:36:46,370 --> 00:36:48,790 And so he's looking forward with expectation. 822 00:36:48,970 --> 00:36:50,990 I read this verse and that's all for 823 00:36:50,990 --> 00:36:51,410 this morning. 824 00:36:52,130 --> 00:36:54,110 Listen to what the Holy Ghost says here 825 00:36:54,110 --> 00:36:55,410 in 1 Thessalonians. 826 00:36:57,430 --> 00:37:00,630 Therefore let us not sleep as do others 827 00:37:01,390 --> 00:37:05,690 but let us watch and be sober for 828 00:37:05,690 --> 00:37:08,450 they that sleep sleep in the night and 829 00:37:08,450 --> 00:37:10,150 they that be drunken are drunken in the 830 00:37:10,150 --> 00:37:10,430 night. 831 00:37:10,930 --> 00:37:13,130 But let us who are of the day 832 00:37:13,130 --> 00:37:17,450 be sober putting on the breastplate of faith 833 00:37:17,450 --> 00:37:21,210 and love and for a helmet the hope 834 00:37:21,210 --> 00:37:24,010 of salvation for God has not appointed us 835 00:37:24,010 --> 00:37:27,070 to wrath but to obtain salvation by our 836 00:37:27,070 --> 00:37:28,050 Lord Jesus Christ. 837 00:37:30,620 --> 00:37:32,340 You've been listening to the From the Pulpit 838 00:37:32,340 --> 00:37:33,540 and Classic Sermon series. 839 00:37:33,880 --> 00:37:35,940 This week you heard A.W. Tozer with 840 00:37:35,940 --> 00:37:38,100 his message Gird Up Your Mind and Be 841 00:37:38,100 --> 00:37:38,460 Sober. 842 00:37:39,200 --> 00:37:40,760 Tune in next week to hear Francis Chan 843 00:37:40,760 --> 00:37:43,700 talk about being lukewarm and loving it on 844 00:37:43,700 --> 00:37:45,740 From the Pulpit and Classic Sermons.