I have a text tonight which is a
question.
And it's a question that we cannot answer
collectively.
It's a question you have to answer individually.
It's found in the very practical epistle, as
it's usually called, the epistle of James in
the fourth chapter, and verse 14.
Maybe we should read from verse 13.
Go to now ye that say today or
tomorrow we will go into such and such
a city, and continue there a year, and
buy and sell and gain, whereas ye know
not what shall be on the morrow.
For what is your life?
It is even a vapour that appeareth for
a little time, and then it vanisheth away.
Can you think of something that was on
earth before Adam was here?
And it was removed and it's in heaven
now.
And it may come back to earth.
I thought you were waving a lady putting
a sweater on.
Well, the tree of life.
Oh, were you raising your hand?
I can't see very well.
The tree of life was there before Adam
went into the garden.
And now we're told the tree of life
is in the other garden.
The paradise of God.
And you know, this is about the most
fascinating study that there is, and you will
never face a more challenging question than this
text.
What is your life?
Now notice what it doesn't say.
It doesn't say what is life, because if
it did, nobody has an answer.
It doesn't say what is our life, otherwise
we could fool all our thinking.
It says what is your life?
And it replies, gives a reply here in
the text, it is even a vapour that
appeareth for a little time.
There are three main questions that come up
in life.
Children ask this question, where did I come
from?
And somewhere, sometime, you better give them the
right answer, because if you don't, somebody will
give them the wrong answer.
And then maybe at your age, right now,
you're asking another question, why am I here?
And then when you get further up the
road, which I happen to be, you say,
where do I go from here?
So there are three basic questions about life.
Where?
Where did it come from?
Why am I here?
And where do I go from here?
I was thinking of what the different poets
have said about this.
One of them said this, life at its
best is very brief, like the falling of
a leaf, like the binding of a sheaf,
be in time.
Francis Henry Light, he lived in Ireland, near
where we used to live, long while before
we were there.
And there's a big memorial to him in
the Royal Pretorius School, that my boys went
to.
Francis Henry Light wrote this great hymn, Abide
With Me.
And in that hymn you may recall, he
says this, swift to its close, ebbs out
life's little day.
Another poet says, the lives of great men
should remind us, that we all may be
sublime, and departing leave behind us, footprints in
the sands of time.
Another one says about great men that, how
did he put it?
Life is fleeting, life is earnest, and the
grave is not the goal.
Thus thou art, to thus returnest, was not
spoken of the soul.
Now if this book is about anything at
all, it's about life.
I was looking while I was away this
past weekend, at a fairly recent issue of
National Geographic.
And it certainly has some fantastic photography.
Part of it was about Somaliland.
And there were women there, lying on the
floor, with a bit of a rag round
them.
Their ribs were standing out.
And there were corpses of babies all over
the place.
And the country right now is in a
terrible grip, of famine.
And while we today couldn't make up our
minds, what kind of ice cream we like.
I mean, you know, we've got 28 varieties,
but surely there must be another one.
And 48 different types of, what do you
call the things with a hole in the
middle?
Donuts?
There must be some other kind of thing
to eat besides donuts.
And you hear people say, well life isn't
just, life isn't fair.
One man said life is a feast, another
wise man said life is a fast.
One man said life is a paradise, another
man says life is a prison.
You see, the question here is very pointed,
and maybe it's very personal, it is impersonal,
maybe it's very painful.
Maybe you could answer the question.
What is your life?
You say it's a failure.
What is your life?
A success.
What is your life?
It's a disappointment.
But actually it's showing to us, by the
very context, that life is like a vapor.
It's like the steam that comes off the
kettle, and you try and get a handful
of it, and it's gone.
And in every case in the word of
God, where life is referred to, that is
this physical life, it's likened to something that's
very swift.
It's likened, for instance, to a weaver's shuttle.
It's likened to a tent that men wrap
up and move on in the night.
Isaiah likens our life to the grass of
the field, which today is, and tomorrow is
cast into the oven.
Now, you know, there's a saying, it becomes
almost facetious to say, but it's said amongst
many Christians, only one life shall soon be
passed, and only what's done for God will
last.
But that's exactly what the poet did not
say.
What the poet said, only one life shall
soon be passed, and only what's done for
God will last, and when I am dying,
how glad I shall be, if the lamp
of my life has been burned out for
thee.
As I said tonight, again, it's easy to
say, the things of earth will grow strangely
dim.
You feel very pious when you say that.
But you know, when you get to eternity
and look back, the things of earth will
look very grim.
We'll possibly discover we've been as earthly minded
as the reprobates outside who are dancing and
lusting tonight.
Oh, we're trying to put Humpty Dumpty together
again, you know.
I used to ask what that was about
when I was a little boy.
I never found an answer to it.
Oh, you can get an illustrated book of
nursery rhymes, and Humpty Dumpty is an egg
on the wall, and he falls off and
breaks himself into a hundred pieces, and all
the king's horses and all the king's men
can't put Humpty Dumpty together again.
Or the old argument, anybody can scramble eggs,
who can unscramble them?
Life.
Men have been trying to manage it, direct
it.
They've kind of considered that if you made
the environment better, we will produce better people.
That's not true.
You know, there's nobody go round in circles
more than the politicians.
I can remember in World War I, before
World War I, so I'm not too young,
there were a group of supermen around at
that time, George Bernard Shaw, he wrote a
fascinating play called Pygmalion that sent him bankrupt,
and so they changed its name to My
Fair Lady, and it made millions after he
was dead, which I think is what he
deserved.
But George Bernard Shaw ganged up with a
bunch of fellas that were called the Fabian
Socialists.
George Bernard Shaw again was there, HG Wells
was one of the leading spokesmen, Aldous Huxley
was there, and all the top-notch guys,
you know.
And they suddenly came to a realisation that
they had solved the problem of inequality, injustice,
a way to empty prisons, a way to
make this world a utopia.
After all, Christianity's had 2,000 years, they
said, it hasn't done too well, so we
don't need the church, we don't need the
Bible.
And they began to tick off things they
didn't need.
In 1912, two years before First World War,
these fellas made a kind of outline of
their philosophy and what they were going to
do.
They were going to pull down the hills
of wealth and fill in the valleys of
poverty and make the crooked places straight.
They said, we can have a new race
of men by intellectual and biological processes.
They didn't talk about repentance and sin, man
alive, that's too theological.
They talked about the adequacy of materialism, the
inevitability of progress, and the sufficiency of man.
That was two years when they declared that
they could have a utopia.
If not a new heaven, we don't need
it, a new earth.
And they gathered people around them, and they
marched on bravely with their little cards, you
know, saying, utopia isn't far off, we will
do all this.
Well, the Kaiser in Germany had another idea,
and he upset the apple cart.
Two years after they made their declaration, World
War I came, 1914 until 1990.
1919 to 1939, I think, were 20 of
the most wonderful years for the Church.
She missed it.
And in 1939, another fella came along.
He had Charlie Chaplin's moustache on his lip
and one stripe on his arm.
His name was Hitler.
And we found we were in serious trouble.
And like every war, every war gets more
diabolical.
The next one is unthinkable.
Why, if you'd been around here a hundred
years ago, you'd have walked down the road
then, Oh!
Dirty Indian shot an arrow in my back.
Uncivilized wretch that he is.
Now the boys from Harvard and elsewhere with
brains, they can drop an arrow on a
city and wipe it out.
That's education.
The uncivilized people killed thought one at a
time, they were pretty decent about it.
Now we can wipe out whole cities.
There's a possibility that a third of the
population of the United States could be liquidated
in less than one minute.
It is a sudden, terrible, horrible, unthinkable atomic
war.
And the situation isn't better.
Do you know that in the third world
we're giving billions of dollars away?
Do you know in the third world right
now, there are more billionaires than in the
free world?
Yesterday showed Mr. Marcos and his wife in
the Philippines.
I think she's just acquired her first billion.
One of her friends in another country that
we're sending money to has acquired her second
billion and is on her way to her
third billion.
And yet tonight with all our progressive education
we have more sin, we have more darkness,
we have more slums, we have more disease,
we have more broken homes, more broken lives.
The world is a madhouse.
Despite all the lives that were laid out.
Oh, how many people perished in World War
I?
I don't know, maybe a million.
And then right after that 16 million people
perished by an epidemic of influenza that swept
the world.
And then we had a time of recovery.
And then again we came back to 16
minutes to 8 on the 5th of August
1945.
When one man in a plane on his
belly pressed a button, dropped a bomb, wiped
out about 100,000 people and left about
300,000, many of them still living, blind
and paralysed.
You'd think these politicians would give up.
What in God's name are they doing?
Apart from wasting money, wasting, dangling a carrot
on the end of a stick when all
the time they know there's no hope.
You know we learn from history?
The one thing we learn from history is
that we don't learn from history.
If we did we wouldn't be in the
mess that we're in tonight.
But you see when that bloody man Hitler
began to wipe out cities and countries, I
remember walking down a street in Sheffield when
people were all listening, holding their ear to
the door of a shop that sold radios
and what have you got, and somebody said
to a fellow, what's going on?
Churchill speaking.
And there was old Churchill with his famous
slur, you know, those Huns he said as
he called the Germans.
They've swept past Paris and they're sweeping down
onto the French coast and they're coming over
here.
But he said we shall fight them with
bottles if we have to.
We shall fight them with sticks.
I imagine myself on a chair trying to
pull a Messerschmitt out of the sky.
And he roused the people.
But the war got more diabolical.
And right in the middle of that war
H.G. Wells who had already designed, along
with his friends, a way to clean the
world up out of its moral sewers and
out of its fanaticism and insanity and injustice,
pull down the hills of wealth, fill in
the valleys of poverty, make the crooked places
straight.
H.G. Wells had written his outline of
history.
He'd written his book Crux Ansata that got
him into trouble with the Roman church.
And then suddenly his brain woke up.
And he wrote his final book and this
was the title of it.
The man that was dreaming great dreams of
a new world order.
And he had the answer along with all
his brothers who were so super intellectual.
And his last book was called Mind at
the end of its tether.
And he wrote the whole human race off
and said there is no hope.
No hope for the human race.
Because he says man has a blank inside
of him.
Well he got almost theological.
Man has a blank inside of him.
You've got life tonight, physical life, otherwise you
wouldn't be here.
You've got emotional life, otherwise you wouldn't laugh.
You've got a social life.
You've got intellectual life, you may have a
religious life.
But you see this book is not complimentary
in any shape or form.
So you find a man saying youth is
a mistake, manhood is folly and old age
is a regret.
Fancy having to be a super statesman to
have a bankrupt philosophy like that.
Youth is a mistake, manhood is folly, old
age is a regret.
Sure it is if you miss the one
place to get life.
And even in the days of his flesh
Jesus complained he will not come to me
that he may have life.
Now do you remember his great statement?
I am the way, the truth and the
life.
I am the way, without that there is
no going.
I am the truth, without that there is
no knowing.
I am the life, without him there is
no growing.
I am the way, that's external.
I am the truth, that's internal.
I am the life, that's eternal.
Now this book is completely lost to one
idea as far as I am concerned.
It tells us the origin of man.
Now I know at school you've got a
teacher who is much smarter than that.
She tells you to go to the zoo
to see your uncle.
And I think when you go back to
school you should take a banana and give
it to her.
And she said, what's it for?
I said, well I saw your uncle George
in the zoo the other day and he
had no lunch.
So why don't you take this for him?
I was told that not long ago the
monkeys had a conference.
And they outlawed the idea that they have
any relationship with the human race at all.
They asked for a show of hands.
There were 10,000 monkeys there.
Chimpanzees and now and now tanks.
I don't know what were there.
Every kindred and tribe, the whole 12 tribes
of monkeys were there.
And they asked for a show of hands.
Anybody here ever taken drugs?
Raise your paw.
And nobody raised a paw.
Any of you ever been in jail?
Raise your paw.
No paws raised up.
Any of you ever been drunk?
No, no.
Any of you ever been divorced?
No.
Any of you go to a village and
tear it up and murder everybody in the
village in one night?
Oh, never think of that.
Well that's what those monkeys do that wear
clothes.
They just raid people at night and kill
them.
And they destroy.
No, no, no.
Here is a wonderful, wonderful fact that God
has given to us.
It's an amazing thing when you think of
it that God gave just one chapter to
tell us about the creation of the world
and seven chapters about the creation of the
tabernacle in the wilderness.
I wish he changed it around.
But you know he never even asked me
for advice these days either.
I give him some in my prayers sometimes.
Of course you wouldn't do a thing like
that.
You're too smart.
But the whole thing is about life.
Every kind of life.
And supremely about eternal life.
And Jesus appears and when he comes he
comes with a miracle birth.
And you know this well enough.
But in other countries they don't know it
too well.
That somehow though the heaven of heavens cannot
contain God he was contracted to a span
and incomprehensibly made man to use Charles Wesley's
wonderful words.
He laid his glory by and wrapped him
in our clay.
Or the hymn we sing at Christmas.
Hark the herald angels sing.
Glory to the newborn king.
Mild ye ladies glory by.
Born that man no more may die.
Born to raise the sons of earth.
Born to give them second birth.
You see the man in the world there.
The man that puts some bits of tin
together and sits somebody in it and presses
a button and shoots them and they can
walk around the moon.
He thinks he's far beyond anything that's got
anything to do with the Bible.
It's all emotional.
That man still has a missing link in
his life.
That man still has a place in his
life that only God can fill.
To use the words again of Augustine.
We have a space within us.
And God made us for himself and we'll
never ever be satisfied until he comes and
occupies that part in our lives.
It's astounding when you think of it that
we human beings with all our failure we
can be made the habitation of God through
the spirit.
Now, you have the classical confrontation as far
as I'm concerned.
Here is a man of impeccable morality.
One of the greatest scholars in his generation.
Maybe he stood on the edge of the
crowd and saw miracles.
Maybe he went to the bazaar to buy
some coffee or something.
Heard people say, you know that fellow's done
some astounding miracles.
And the whole nation had been stirred by
John Baptist.
But John did no miracle.
And then Jesus comes and he does a
miracle after miracle.
He shows he has dominion over death, over
disease, over insanity.
He knocks the demons out of people's minds.
He sets the captives free.
This Pharisee must have said it over and
over again.
Year after year reciting the 35th chapter of
Isaiah that when he comes, oh, when the
Son of God comes, when Messiah comes, the
eyes of the blind shall be opened, the
ears of the deaf unstopped, the lame leap
as a harp, the tongue of the dumb
shall sing.
Do you know that guy and even Saul
after him, those fellows had been to the
anniversary of Pentecost year after year after year
and they accepted Pentecost when it was empty.
They rebelled against Pentecost when God fulfilled his
word and poured his spirit out on all
flesh.
We've got people today that are very happy
to celebrate Christmas or Easter or even Pentecost
on this saloon as nothing happens.
Keep up a tradition.
That world outside there is not waiting for
a new definition of Christianity.
It's waiting for a new demonstration of Christianity.
And there's one thing that life does, wherever
it goes, life begets life.
You can't love theology.
You can't even love your Bible.
You can only love a person.
You can't love a theological concept of God.
I've often wondered what Paul really saw on
that Damascus road when he prayed four simple
words, Who art thou, Lord?
If you read it straight off, it means
nothing.
Who art thou, Lord?
But suppose you read it this way, Who
art thou, Lord?
Here's a man with a colossal intellect.
Here's a man who is in every category,
in the highest category.
He's a Hebrew of the Hebrews.
He's a Pharisee of the Pharisees.
He's of the tribe of Benjamin.
He's of the seed of Abraham.
He had fulfilled the law.
He says concerning the law I was blameless.
And yet he's going down that Damascus road
breathing out threatenings with a heart full of
fire and hatred.
You talk about a miracle of the grace
of God.
That man had murdered people as he says
in the 26th Acts.
He tore families apart.
He chased them off into strange cities.
And that very man whose body, whose brain
was filled with theology and his heart was
filled with hatred wrote the most amazing hymn,
the most amazing poem on love that was
ever written.
Though I speak with the tongues of men
and of angels and have no love, I'm
a sounding brass or a tingling cymbal.
And if I give my body to be
burned, which he was prepared to do on
the Damascus road.
Do you know I think, I'll ask him
in eternity, I think suddenly when he fell
off his horse there, I'm sure there was
a horse rider in front of him to
protect him and a man behind and one
to the right, one to the left.
A man of his class would never walk
all the way to Damascus.
And suddenly he's pitched off his horse.
You say were there only four people there?
No.
You say there was a man riding in
front?
Yes.
One behind, one to the right, one to
the left.
Were they the only witnesses?
Maybe on earth.
I want to tell you I believe every
demon in hell was looking down on that
man at that moment.
I believe every angel in heaven was looking
down.
The demons because he was their best advocate
on earth.
He was fearless, he regarded nobody.
He had some letters in his pocket saying
he could put to death anybody that he
wanted.
And then suddenly Jesus came into his life.
Would you have thought that man in the
dust had inside of him 14 epistles if
you give him Hebrews and I think he
wrote it.
Would you think that he would go through
Asia Minor and establish a dozen or more
churches?
Would you think that man in a lousy
stinking prison they wouldn't let you put a
dog in today would write to other Christians
as he does to the Colossians to the
Philippians and the Ephesians his love letters to
them and as he says rejoice in the
Lord.
And again they should have been sending letters
of comfort to him and he's sending letters
of comfort to them.
Why?
Because on that Damascus road as far as
I'm concerned he came alive.
Religion, formality, ritualism they were banished forever.
And then after that experience he was shut
away in the quietness maybe that's why God's
brought some of you around here so you
can get alone under a tree somewhere and
talk to God and find out where he
wants you to go.
And he had three and a half years
in the wilderness then he's caught up into
the third heaven and then he sets out
on that amazing pilgrimage and as far as
I'm concerned he explains it all when he
said I'm crucified with Christ nevertheless I live
and yet not I but Christ liveth in
me and the life which I now live
here in the flesh I live by the
faith of the Son of God.
If I were to ask you tonight you're
saved do you say yes I'm saved?
When?
Oh so and so preached I got baptized
what are you saved for?
Hell?
Are you saved from bitterness?
Are you saved from lust?
Are you saved from cheating?
Are you saved from lying?
Are you saved from bad manners?
Are you saved from rebelling against your parents?
Come on what are you saved from?
90% of the people in the nation
are not saved they claim to be When
I went to a malt and I confessed
my sins fine, fine that's what the preacher
said you confess your sins and you confess
them do you know they did that in
every Roman Catholic church in the country last
Sunday?
A man needs more than to be forgiven
he needs cleansing he needs more than cleansing
he needs indwelling he needs more than indwelling
he needs undoing I was in a little
place a country place last week the pastor
was away his daughter was expecting a baby
good night it must have been a big
hospital I think every relative they had went
there took a thousand mile journey my daughter's
having a baby our daughter's having a baby
so what?
didn't make all that fuss when I was
born at least I don't remember it but
anyhow but oh when the baby came you
should have heard what they were saying about
it it had everything except wings it had
a halo but it got broken when they
handed the baby over to the nurse oh
and this fellow said to me hmm isn't
the birth a wonderful thing?
it sure is it sure is I'm not
asking you tonight did you one night kneel
down and make confession and after that your
life was no change your lifestyle was no
different your appetite was no different your pair
life was no different come on supposing we
change the language Paul says Christ in you
if I were to start here tonight and
go around the front row and everyone and
say to everyone you stand up brother and
when you stood up I say does Christ
live in you?
what would you say?
would you say oh yes he lives in
me he rules my life he controls me
he pulls me back when I would go
too quickly he urges me on when I
would hesitate the miracle of the new birth
you see the insulting thing about the Bible
is that while you may have a colossal
intellect and you may invent so many things
and you may write great books oh for
some reason right here I think of Lord
Byron he was a contemporary of John Wesley
Byron broke all records for writing poetry and
publishing books the rich people of England would
have a whole row of books in pure
leather binding Lord Byron wrote it Lord Byron
he went into the homes of all the
kings in Europe he went to the palaces
people begged him to come and grace their
home with his presence he was an extremely
handsome man had a pale complexion jet black
hair even curls down to his shoulders and
people swooned when he came in their presence
that he was dissipated if I remember right
he died when he was 39 years of
age he died shivering on the coast by
the waters lapping his feet there in Greece
and he wrote this just before he died
my life is in the yellow leaf the
flowers and fruits of love are gone the
worm, the canker and the grief what a
samurai wouldn't you like I was going down
Orange Grove in London some years ago was
speaking at London Keswick I saw this swell
place and flunkies there in knee breeches you
know and oh they looked so nice boy
I'm glad I don't have to wear that
I've got such terrible legs I've thin, thin
legs if I wore breeches like that I'd
be arrested for having no visible means of
support but here was this flunky standing at
the door and he had his beautiful velvet
coat and a cravat there and his hair
and I stepped back and he said good
afternoon sir I said good afternoon could I
come in there for some oh no sir,
no sir no you can't come in here
to eat well yes you can if his
lordship the Duke of Westminster brings you or
the Duke of Argyll or Lord Tallmash but
you see well it was just before the
Queen our Queen got married in England the
Queen was here last Friday night and her
sister was here too they stayed until two
we close at two in the morning now
you know like most church prayer meetings close
at that time and thank you they you
can't come in here why not?
I'm clean, I'm upright, I'm a preacher I
mean I I've never been to but sir
you're not of royal birth you're not a
distinctive aristocrat you can't come in why would
you like to come in?
I said I would like to see all
the lords and ladies and dukes and society
with a sparkling diamond and I'd like to
get my chair turn it round and stand
up and raise my voice and saying she
that liveth in pleasure is dead while she
liveth oh sir he said you get thrown
out I said well that's what I expected
isn't it offensive to say to people listen
you may be a genius you've a colossal
intellect if you fall out of bed you
invent something that you know right in the
centre of you you're dead because you've no
living relationship with God now there are two
kinds of people in the world only two
kinds not black and white, not rich and
poor there are those who are dead in
sin and there are those who are dead
to sin if I say most people are
half saved will you know what I mean?
I mean this you go to the cross
but you never get on the cross you
go and get your sins forgiven and feel
happy and you go and do the same
lousy thing again the next day come on
what kind of a salvation is that?
I heard a famous preacher and he's an
Englishman terrible he shouldn't have said that and
he said you know the Lord is merciful
you come here tonight he'll forgive your sins
tonight he'll forgive your past sins forgive your
sins for today and he'll forgive your sins
for tomorrow isn't that nice?
can you imagine a man going up to
a judge and the judge says you've been
found guilty of stealing a lady's purse did
you steal it?
oh you did steal it, yeah it had
a hundred dollars in it ever stole any
other purse?
yes I have a record this is the
345th purse that I've stolen are you sorry?
yes I'm sorry well he says you're forgiven
I forgive you for all the purses you've
stolen in the past all that you've stolen
today and all you're going to steal for
the rest of your life wouldn't that be
wonderfully sane or insane you see the miracle
of the new birth is this that when
a man is really born when he gets
this life he doesn't want that life oh
I don't think anybody gives it better than
Paul to wind this up writing to the
Colossians he says if ye then be risen
with Christ or as the literal translation is
if you've been raised with Christ you seek
those things which are above you say to
people are you saved?
they say well I don't really know oh
supposing you're carrying a hundred pound sack on
your back and you're struggling up a hill
and your knees are going down and somebody
whips the sack off your back and you
get to the top of the hill without
the sack and the man says hey have
you lost your sack?
you say I don't really know I kind
of figured he'd know when somebody took a
hundred pounds off his back and by the
same token a man knows because the miracle
of the birth isn't some intellectual somersault Jesus
says it is this that we're dead in
trespasses and in sin and he brings us
to life so now we love the things
we didn't like and we hate the things
we used to love okay so Paul says
if ye are risen with Christ or you've
been raised with Christ seek those things which
are above where Christ sits at the right
hand of God set your affection on things
above not things on the...
come on, come on, come on you fellas
now okay you're saved and yet I guess
you talk more about baseball than you talk
about Jesus is that right?
in the last week you've been more interested
in the return of Jeddy than you are
in the return of Jesus and you've talked
to your buddies about it as far as
I'm concerned the three little bits I've seen
on TV you'd have to be crazy to
go watch it set your affection on things
which are above not things on beneath for
ye are dead and your life is hid
with Christ in God can you think of
anything more wonderful than that?
here is your life it's hid in Christ
and it's hid in God what are you
going to do?
sneak out and drink a bit of the
world's junk?
do you know how you need entertainment?
or any of us you only need entertainment
when you've lost the joy of the Lord
and when we've no joy we need entertainment
and when we've entertainment we've no joy that
went over like a lead balloon but that's
true ye are dead and your life is
hid with Christ now he says if you're
risen with him that deals with the past
ye are dead and your life is hid
with Christ in God not when I die
but even now on this earth I bid
the world goodbye not tearfully but cheerfully all
of its pleasures its pomp and its pride
Paul puts it best as he usually does
when he talks in Galatians 5 and he
says from henceforth let nobody trouble me I
bear in my body the marks of the
Lord Jesus Weymouth translates that I bear in
Weymouth Moffat translates it I bear in my
body the branding they know a lot about
branding round here you might get to see
some cattle branding and when Paul wrote this
a man who was a slave could run
away from his his wicked master his cruel
master that nearly took the skin off his
back every day that demanded a full day's
work and hardly gave him enough food to
last an hour this man gets away the
first thing he does he flees to a
temple and there were priests always awake at
least they were always there maybe not always
awake and the altar fires were burning and
the man runs in breathlessly and wakes a
priest and says brand me brand me in
the name of which God and there is
different irons to brand him and the man
puts his hand out and closes his eyes
and the branding irons put on his flesh
and it sizzles and he yells and then
if he's a garment he's stamped in the
back of his neck and then he lifts
his foot up and he's stamped in his
instep and they rub a kind of ointment
and leave him there for days until he's
able to get out he goes out and
as he goes down the street his old
master sees him and says to his friend
Marcus there's Aristarchus go bring him back here
and Aristarchus comes up and his master says
listen I'm going to take you back and
whip you like you've never been whipped before
you're going to carry loads you've never and
he starts telling him what he'll do and
he says just a minute sir what do
you mean he says look look look there
and the old master says I've got no
claim on you I've got no claim on
you you're the possession of a god and
Paul says listen I got branded there at
the base of my head because all my
thinking is going to be about Jesus this
man being you which was in Christ Jesus
do you think he went to the Olympic
games because they had them in his day
do you think he fooled around with the
material things of the day his head was
branded his hands his feet so a hymn
writer says let my hands perform his bidding
let my feet run in his ways let
my eyes see Jesus only let my lips
speak forth his praise all for Jesus all
for Jesus all my beings ransom powers all
my thoughts and words and doings all my
days and all my hours listen are you
just a Sunday morning Christian do you live
and move and have your being in Jesus
Christ every waking moment of your life has
he got your thinking would he be embarrassed
to rap to you at some certain point
in your life or your habits of life
Paul says I bear in my body the
owner's mark come on now listen you kids
you listen one at a time talking thank
you and I'll do it he says I
bear my brands of Jesus these hands will
never do anything Jesus wouldn't do these feet
will never walk where Jesus would be uncomfortable
this mind will never think of anything that
wouldn't satisfy the heart of God and then
he kisses the world goodbye says henceforth let
no man trouble me I bear in my
body the marks of the Lord Jesus for
the world is crucified to me I can
make a safe guess I've travelled the world
a couple of times round it I've seen
a lot of strange customs in many countries
I've never seen a crucifixion I'm not sure
I'd like to see it but as dear
Dr. Tozer used to say Len you knew
one thing about a man that was carrying
a cross out of the city you knew
he wasn't coming back we just come to
a mountain and we go back the next
week and we're as fascinated we haven't spent
half an hour with Jesus but we'll stay
two stinking hours in a movie house we
haven't witnessed somebody who's going to an eternal
hell according to our theology but we talked
about some tribute to them we sit at
the table with unsaved parents and instead of
being submissive and kind and loving we're sassy
and we don't come in at the time
we're supposed to come in and mother says
you know our John's supposed to be saved
he's no better he's as rebellious as our
daughter is but look at this figure for
a moment here is a man stretched on
a cross as soon as that man is
nailed to the cross he has no rights
of his own you can take a bucket
of filth and throw it over him you
can take a stick if you like and
break his legs you can have a game
of pitching rocks and you knock his right
eye out I'll knock his left eye out
and so forth he's no rights he can
be battered and bleeding and broken and maybe
five thousand or more people are there to
see him die at six o'clock at
night and then the trumpet sounds in the
city and nobody stays after the trumpet sound
you have so many minutes to get in
the city and the gates are locked maybe
five thousand people watch that hideous crucifixion six
o'clock at night six o'clock at
morning there's nobody there I remember going to
India there were bees there were birds that
were this height from the ground they have
about an eight foot wingspan they keep their
necks in until they fly and then up
comes this long neck with no feathers they
look hideous their beaks oh they must be
this length huge curved thing you know what
they do they go onto the arms of
the cross as the light comes up daylight
and those big hideous things reach down and
peck out the eyes if they're still there
and they tear the body and it becomes
bloody and the entrails run out of the
man and the blood runs on the ground
and the doves come out of the city
to drink of the blood even a woman
who saw her husband crucified would never go
back in the morning you didn't see a
woman with her arms around a bleeding horrible
wretched form of a man saying darling i
love you and paul says that's what the
world is to me it's a system of
corruption and rottenness and vileness it's anti-christ
from the world go is the world crucified
to you tonight or does it fascinate you
oh i'm coming down the line i mean
jesus isn't looking for some sissies to serve
him he's looking for some men with guts
and men with grace and men with determination
you still comfortable sitting in a ballpark and
say here somebody take the name of jesus
in vain oh you're saved or you'll go
to hell fire if you're not you've only
gave him a few sins that's all that's
all just gave him a sin now look
you've been in this lovely environment today i
don't know how much forced labour there is
how much time you have to sweat and
grind and what not but surely about one
or two hours did you use them to
sit around and talk to pretty girls and
nice guys or did you get along with
god and say lord i want this to
be the most meaningful week i've ever had
in my life i want to hear your
voice i want to see a vision of
your glory and your power let me finish
with paul's words here again in colossians 3
the past he says we're risen with christ
the present we're dead but look to the
future when christ who is our life there
you've got it there you've got it what
does john say in his epistle he that
hath the son hath life and he that
does not have the son has not life
you can reform your life you can give
up your rotten sex life you can give
up your drugs without the help of god
goodnight i've seen some men come out of
the gutter and transform their own lives that's
on the social level but they never made
it upward to god they never had a
living relationship with god the past he's made
it possible to be risen with him the
present we're dead and our life is hid
with christ in god and then verse 4
the future when christ who is our life
shall appear then we shall appear with him
in glory this is what has to be
done come on you do your part here
he says mortify therefore your members which are
upon the earth while you're in the flesh
put them to death fornication uncleanness inordinate affection
evil cubism covetousness which is idolatry J.B.
Phillips translates that best i think he says
consider yourself dead to all the worldly contacts
love them hate them hate what well have
nothing to do with sexual immorality have nothing
to do with dirty mindedness have nothing to
do with evil desire have nothing to do
with uncontrolled passion don't lust after other people's
goods you see and it's it's hard to
say again if christ has been born in
me he wants to live in me he
wants to talk in me he wants to
walk in me he wants to work through
me it's not a struggle that i'm trying
to be a christian life life because
goliath had four brothers and he wanted to
kill the whole lot while he was at
it he wanted to wipe the family out
do you know what he did the little
boy took a stone i remember years ago
preaching this in another message and i said
a stone went up and a boy in
the back of the church went like that
i said the stone hit him in the
forehead and
he just a little thing there and the
stone came and he knows such a thing
had never entered his head before just a
little boy he didn't bother with the armor
bearer you know we're so busy chasing demons
we're leaving the devil alone you've got a
demon if you sneeze in some churches you've
got a demon if you have a headache
oh you've had it all day oh you've
got a demon in you goodnight they must
multiply like frogs those demons oh i'm longing
to see the church get into the place
where again she pulls down strongholds i'm tired
of writing about revival i'm tired of reading
about revival there are more lost people in
the world tonight than ever in the history
of the world and what are we doing
sitting around the campfire thanking god we're saved
and we've given up our lousy drug lives
or prostitution or some other thing great great
but there's more than that to it i
remember a night i walked down an aisle
in a church in england i got saved
when i was fourteen i read david brainerd's
life when i was about sixteen that knocked
me for a loop i was about nineteen
when i read a great american book by
the name of power through prayer by e
.m. bounds and i was a youth leader
in the church and i got people to
pray i got the youth to pray we
met friday nights and we prayed we went
to the church seven o'clock sunday morning
and we prayed we saw some people in
the community saved and yet there was one
thing that ate me up it was another
fellow in the church i was a youth
leader but boy he was more efficient and
he was breathing down my neck and people
were talking about him and so forth and
i got so filled with envy that my
spiritual life began to shake i remember being
in a meeting where the preacher said there's
something more than salvation there's something more than
cleansing as wonderful it is it's indwelling and
beyond indwelling there's anointing i walked down the
aisle of that church everybody said i wonder
why ravenhill went out well i went out
because i knew that i'd got a inward
enemy worse than any outward enemy somebody came
to pray with me that was a custom
there and the fellow was rather startled he
said well then what do you want i
said i want god to make romans chapter
six verse seven real in my life he
said you mean romans six six i said
i mean romans six seven he said no
it's six six i said well maybe for
you six seven for me what's romans six
seven he that is dead is freed from
sin i'm tired of bondage i'm tired of
fear i'm tired of weakness i'm tired of
vacillating i'm tired of being hot and then
cold strong and then weak i want to
get rid of the old self life i
want to die right here let me tell
you this an experience of god that costs
nothing does nothing and it's worth nothing two
simple things i I
profess to be a king and I'm eaten
up with envy and jealousy I should be
languishing in my palace, near I am over
these rotten roads and climbing up straggly mountains
and dying of thirst when my men kick
up the dust all because I'm eaten up
with envy and jealousy and just before he
died King Saul said this, with all his
royal living I have erred exceedingly and played
the fool that's Saul in the Old Testament,
here's Saul in the New Testament now Paul,
he's come to the end of the journey
he's been whipped and lashed and tormented in
perils of the deep in perilous his own
countrymen, a night and a day in the
deep once I was stoned, thrice I suffered
shipwrecked in weariness, in fastings, in painfulness and
he writes it all off as a huge
joke because he says number one, none of
these things move me and number two he
says, a light affliction which is but for
a moment and he doesn't crumble up like
King Saul looking over a wrecked life he
looks over his life of triumph and deliverance
and he says this I have fought a
good fight and finished my course and kept
the faith henceforth there is laid up for
me a crown of righteousness you know tonight
could be the turning point in your life
tonight if you not only come to the
cross but get on it get rid of
your pettiness and your jealousy get rid of
that erratic living that you get on top
when you come to a conference and whoop
you'll be down in the valley next week
that should not happen if the Christ is
indwelling me he's the same yesterday, today and
forever he keeps me in peace, he keeps
me in joy, he keeps me in power
okay, 35 years of age, John Wesley was
converted about a quarter to nine on the
24th of May 1738 about a quarter to
nine I felt my heart strangely warmed he
was a scholar, he was a gentleman, he
was a clergyman in the Church of England
like his brother and like George Whitfield but
when he was born again, England was born
again across the English Channel was one of
the most vicious atheists by the name of
Voltaire and he said, ha, that thing they
talk about in England, why?
he said a hundred years from now, there'll
only be Bibles in museums you missed it
I think, don't you?
only be Bibles in museums you see a
bloody revolution swept over France and they tossed
the monarchy into the garbage can and they
put the tricolour up, red, white and blue,
liberty and fraternity and equality and Leckie is
a secular historian, not a church historian and
Leckie says this, remember the bloody revolution that
swept over France and swept the monarchy into
the garbage can was going to sweep over
England and God raised up too many, raised
up three Whitfield was the final leader, Charles
Wesley, John Wesley OK John died in 1791,
converted at 35 turn that round it makes
53 add them together it makes 88 because
he was saved at 35, preached for 53
years and you know what he left when
he died?
he left a handful of books a faded
Geneva gown that he preached in all over
England six silver spoons somebody gave him six
pound notes, give one to each of the
poor men that carry me to my grave
and that's all he left, six pound notes,
six silver spoons a handful of books, a
Geneva gown and there's something else, what was
it, the other thing oh I know something
else he left, the Methodist church he could
have died as rich as your famous TV
preacher Sunday sure he made money and he
built orphanages sure he made money, he printed
Bibles sure he made money, he compiled with
Charles the Methodist hymn book and they built
orphanages and he died worth about 30 dollars
how have you heard the little man down
the road oh he wasn't here, he was
at the other place Sunday morning brother Andrew,
did you hear him, how many of you
heard him some of you, good, good, good
I remember him when he wasn't brother Andrew,
nobody knew him he came and I called
a staff, I was working with Dave Wilkerson
in New York then, nearly 20 years ago
brother Andrews called me, he said Len I'd
like to come and see you I said
well come, by the way we have a
staff prayer meeting, will you speak to us
where are you coming from?
he said Cuba, I said he can't come
from Cuba, it's not legal he said well
I went from Cuba to Mexico City changed
planes and came into America, you can always
find a way I introduced him that night,
I said this is brother Andrew, a friend
I've met before very strange man, he's God's
smuggler and he gave his book that name,
I told him the other day I said
hey remember I gave you the name for
that book I mean it's no good being
humble if people don't know is it would
you have thought a few years ago that
little man from Holland he doesn't look like
the heavyweight champion of the world does he?
about the only weight he had to make
a paperweight that he'd been in and out
of countries, that he'd been arrested he told
me, I don't know if he told you,
one time he went in not the last
time, the time before that I think it
was and he's coming back out of Moscow,
he'd taken in about 800 Bibles he's coming
back and they see a car coming, you
never see cars there's only a gas station
every 100, 150 miles and he says to
his friend, ah, ah, ah, here's somebody and
the car stopped and there were two Dutchmen
from his own native city and he said
have you any food, they said no we
have something to drink but we've no food
he says well we've got food and nothing
to drink so they made a meal at
the side of the road and he gave
them a tract each six years after in
Holland there was a knock at the door,
his wife went and is your husband in?
yeah, I'd like to see him brother Andrew
goes to the door and the man says
do you remember me?
no remember meeting two men half way on
the road to Moscow one day?
yeah and he said as they were coming
out from Moscow when they got home, they
heard that two Dutchmen had been arrested and
put in prison and he said to his
wife, you know, I stopped and talked with
those two men I'm sure, the man comes
six years after and says you know what?
you gave me a tract and you gave
my friend a tract they arrested us and
gave us eight years in jail but we
got out after six years because of our
good behavior but he said, you know, in
those six years I read that tract and
read that tract until Jesus Christ became my
own personal Savior would you think that man
had been in and out he told me
this last trip he was on, he went
to Russia then he came back and he
went to, I don't know and there's that
other little guy who'd been here he's about
this width all the way up you know,
he's a tall fellow, about that height dear
little George I'm sure all demons in hell
will get a day off when he dies
the Lord will say, the demons will say
we'll not see a fool like him anymore
that guy sets off to go into fifteen
countries behind the Iron Curtain, never thinks he
might get turned back he just walks in
and says, you should be glad to have
me do you know I'm of royal birth,
do you know who I am I represent
the King of Kings oh, you know what
Gabriel, if you're looking down from heaven I
want to tell you something you don't know
the hidden potential in this meeting tonight only
God knows it there are vast areas of
the Amazon where nobody has been yet the
last time I flew over the South Seas
the plane didn't fly too high there are
three hundred thousand islands and nobody knows if
they're all occupied and I wonder how many
people are squatting in the trees there then
you have that new area up there to
the north of New Guinea there off New
Guinea there New England and New Ireland and
New Scotland vast areas of the world what
are you going to do when you go
to heaven and say Lord, I gave out
six copies of the four laws every day
of my life for the last six months
and I'd like my crown right now hmm
do you ever wonder if there are two
heavens hmm come on, athletic guy when you
stand at the judgment seat oh, I hope
it's not me, I hope it's you I
hope David Brainerd is judged right before you
and then you stand up and say but
I play softball for the church I knock
more home runs in our league all the
angels say oh, your excellency oh will they
say that or will they say you idiot
hmm oh, I know it's revolutionary, that's what
God wants what the church has had in
the last 25 years has not moved this
nation or this world to God it's time
for something new and God wants some men
who are really drunk intoxicated with the spirit
of God who have a love life with
the Lord Jesus and he can ask anything
of you and you'll do it I wonder
how many of you guys are eating up
with lust hmm you women eating up with
jealousy, with pride or is it just chronic
laziness you've no appetite for this love letter
of God's because the only way you can
grow is by eating this word and the
other thing is prayer which is the Christian's
vital breath you see your lifestyle changes you
don't talk about your social life and your
financial life when you get saved you talk
in other categories you talk about your devotional
life and you talk about your prayer life
you know, I will have one of the
most merciless interrogations when I stand at the
throne of God for I stand over preachers
often with hundreds of preachers after preacher and
I see them shrink and I see them
fall on the ground and cry because they've
no prayer life because they're so busy with
all the affairs of the church and they're
not ministering to Him let's pray Lord
we thank you tonight for this privilege of
exploring some of your word I wonder how
many people in the Gulag archipelago would sit
here and weep and rejoice tonight to hear
the truths of God army of the lost
millions in China would hear joyfully Lord we've
ill-treated your word and we've ill-treated
your voice very often we've accepted our decent
living for spirituality but inside we're dead, we've
no life you don't live in us and
move in us and walk in us and
talk in us and love through us God
get hold of that life of that young
man tonight that young woman, it's stale if
they were honest it's really boring to go
to church because that's all they go they
don't meet the Christ there risen and exulting
I'm going to ask you a simple question
tonight how many of you here tonight you've
come from many parts and I'm asking you
to keep your eyes closed not look around
how many of you say tonight I do
not know that Christ lives in me Christ
is not indwelling me, I know that God
bless you, thank you thank you, thank you,
thank you any others?
how many say well I profess to be
saved but all the self-life dominates me
yes, hands go up, hands go up, hands
go up, hands go up, hands go up
you see if I'd quoted the context where
he says what is your life immediately before
that he says you say we'll do this
and we'll do that and we'll go here
and we'll buy and we sell when you
don't know what tomorrow is and you haven't
asked God's will I'm going to pray for
you tonight and I'll tell you what I'm
going to pray a very strong prayer I'm
going to ask you all to stand with
heads bowed and eyes closed now remember you
have to answer the judgment seat for tonight
and I have to answer for preaching it
let's keep our eyes closed those who raise
their hands say I'm willing to die tonight
to my own plans I want you to
put to death selfishness in me and lust
and pride I want to be totally emptied
of self and filled with God I want
you to come and stand at the front
before I pray for you move right out
we're not going to sing I'm not going
to try and move you emotionally forget it
make an intellectual decision tonight can
you move over that way a bit on
the left and let these other folk come
down Father I pray in the name of
Jesus that you make us realize at this
moment we haven't left home and churches and
friends to come here just for a good
time but we're here in divine appointment you
know every life here there's not a secret
in our hearts that you don't know but
Lord we thank you the blood of Jesus
Christ is able to cleanse every part of
our being tonight I pray for these precious
young lives Lord I could not guess where
they might end up they may end up
somewhere on a desert sand or in a
forest in a jungle or I don't know
maybe in a prison cell somewhere in some
strange country of communist domination but I know
tonight Lord if they're willing to die to
self die to their own ambitions if they're
willing to let you put to death that
secret thing the one thing that still has
them in bondage of which the apostle speaks
when he says there in Hebrews 12 lay
aside every weight and the sin which does
so easily beset us I pray just now
in every young man and woman here you
slay that one besetting sin