Pure of Heart Shall See God — Leonard Ravenhill

Paul's Storm and the Anchor of God's Word

Turn now to the second letter of Paul to the Corinthians and chapter 5. In the 27th chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, there's a story of the Apostle Paul on board a ship. When he got on the ship, he was the prisoner.

When he got off the ship, he was the pilot. When he got on the ship, they scorned him. But remember, the ship ran into what they call in those days, Euroclidan, which is about the greatest storm you could ever be in at sea.

I crossed the Atlantic about 20 times, and about 16 times on boats. And once in mid-Atlantic, we got caught in a storm. Well when I got on that ship, the Queen Mary, it's a football field and a half long, 82 ,000 tons.

I didn't think the thing would ever move. But when we got into mid-Atlantic, the Atlantic tossed about just like a cork. Everybody was sick and everybody was distressed. When Paul got onto that ship, it says they ran into a storm that lasted 14 days and 14 nights.

There were no stars visible, no sun in the day, no moon in the night. Panic struck them. The seas were boiling, the sails were ripping, the spars were breaking, the women were screaming, the children were sick.

And it was a, can you imagine 14 days, what would happen if in America the sun didn't appear for 14 days? There were no stars in the sky. Well that's what they went through, all the toil and tribulation and all the navigation stunts that we have today.

But remember, it says that because of the distressing situation, and because they couldn't do anything else, they threw the cargo overboard. And then they cut the lifeboat off. And then they threw all the possessions overboard.

And then it says of the Apostle Paul, when all hope was gone, it was then he stood up and said, there stood by me an angel of God this night, whose I am and whom I serve. You see, they rejected a prophecy at the beginning of the voyage.

He told them it was a disaster. What does a crazy preacher know? Listen, you better get with it if God talks with you. One of the most charming young men I've met in years, I met this past week. He'd been going to a Presbyterian church, and not everybody's like him, I guess.

Anyhow, his dad is a multimillionaire, he has his own private car, he has a phone in it, he has everything he could desire. Got a wonderful wife, he's married to a multimillionaire, the wife, the father of the wife is a multimillionaire too, so they've got everything.

Well they have three lovely children, a fourth came along, and the sonogram showed that the new baby that was coming had no kidneys, it was at Down syndrome, it had a hole through its heart, the doctor said, give up, forget it.

Now he's one of those folk who don't believe in healing. You won't need it till you need it, you'll ridicule it, your seminary professor will tell you it isn't for the day, but boy, if he's dying, he'll ask for prayer.

Forget it, don't pray for him. What's good of contradicting God's will if he doesn't believe in healing? So what happened? They prayed for the child, took it back to the doctor, examined it again, no change, the child can't live, it has no kidneys, the child can't live, it has a hole through its heart.

If it lives, it would be a freak. Forget your faith, you're nice people, sure enough, but don't stretch it too far. It's amazing they're afraid to overburden God, as though you can put a strain on omnipotence.

Everybody said, listen, you're disgracing us, we're Presbyterians, we're not those fanatical Pentecostals or, you know, those half-Pentecostals called charismatics. They went back for the third time.

The doctor came out from checking the baby up. He said, listen, I don't know what happened. He said, the baby's perfectly normal. The kidneys are there, the hole is healed, the child looks different, have a baby.

Boy, he never had the most beautiful baby, because Lee's had one since. That's the latest edition. I mean, I don't say it's the last one with them, but it's the latest. But the baby's perfectly healed.

The doctor said, I don't understand this. Listen, if you're a worshipper of God, then you can understand you're in trouble. God owes me no explanations. He's going to work everything out to the counsel of his own will.

And sometimes when we won't believe, he takes us through the most painful ways. Oh yes, the Lord's my shepherd. He leadeth me by still waters and green pastures. That's okay, but when he leads you in the valley of the shadow of death, how do you stand it?

That's the test. Anybody can live by green pastures and still waters. But what do you do when the walls go out, the roof comes in? Well, this is what this is all about. Let me hurry and read this, or you'll be here till breakfast time.

The Heavenly Home as an Anchor in Troubled Times

Okay, we're in 2 Corinthians chapter 6, chapter 5, pardon me. I mentioned the apostle being on that ship when all hope was gone. And he says, we threw out four anchors. And this is a day in which we're sailing into a storm.

I have three different prophecies from people that don't know each other. That said, when Mr. Bush comes into power, there's going to be a period of four years of intense evil and trial. Particularly for Christians.

My neighbor was with, Billy Graham. No, our neighbor was with Dave Wilkerson two weeks ago. And the last prophecy David has made is that by October this year, the whole market is going to collapse. We're going to go into a state of chaos beyond anything we've ever known.

So then if you don't have an anchor, you're in trouble. This fellow says, Paul says, we cast out four anchors and we wished for a day. Let me take the first anchor in chapter 5 verse 1. We know if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a doing of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

So you see, he has assurance. He has a home in heaven, he doesn't say that. He says, we have a home eternal in the heavens. So come hell or high waters, the point says. What does it matter? We have a home eternal in the heavens.

You know, once you've got into heaven, five minutes after you've been in heaven, you'll wish you'd been more sacrificial. You'll wish you'd been more prayerful. You'll wish you'd been more spiritual. You'll wish you'd been more worldly.

Do you know, do you know a place better than heaven? If you do, stick up your hand. I thought you were ignorant. Nobody raised their hand. What place is better than heaven? Earth. This hell hole, for this reason, while you're like this in mortality, at this side of the barrier, you have a chance to repay your life.

You have a chance to sacrifice more. You have a chance to fast more. You have a chance to pray more. Once the thread of life snaps, whether it's on the narrow way that leads to destruction, or the broad way that leads to destruction, or the narrow way.

Once the thread of life breaks, between here and the judgment seat, there's no U-turn. You're making your score right now. Oh, heaven is beautiful, there's no tears. Who says so? The book of the Revelation, it doesn't.

Yes, it does. Give me the verse. You give me the verse, OK. But what do you do with the other verse that says, He wipes away all tears from their eyes. When is that? Is it embarrassed believers, who suddenly wake up in eternity and say, Oh God, if you give me ten years on earth, I'd pray as I've never prayed.

I'd fast as I've never prayed. I'd ask for vision I've never had. Is it appalling? I know these rascals who've been on TV and got messed up with women, OK. Do you know what happened? The devil took them to the top of the pinnacle and said, jump down.

And they did, and crashed. They thought they could ride the storm on popularity, and they can't. You see, the greatest work this side of eternity, is ministering the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's the most painful, and it's the most profitable.

It will give you more joy, it will give you more sorrow. You see, you've got the thrust in your hand. You are just as spiritual as you want to be. I know you've made vows you won't watch football. Did you watch it?

Come on you guys, stick your hands up if you go to it. How many of you watched the whole, what do you call it? Superbowl. How many watched the Superbowl? Come on. One hand. Two. Come on the rest of you sinners.

Three. Come on, be honest, you'll be honest to the judgment seat. Preacher, did you watch it all? Did you watch the Superbowl? Good for you. He's grown in grace since last year. Pardon? I did check the final score.

Oh, he checked the final score. What, 50 minutes before it finished? He said, we know if this earthly house were dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

Wait a minute. If you read through the writings of Paul, you'll discover that over and over again, he talks about that the ministry be not blamed. And he talks about the discipline that's needed in the ministry as well.

Paul's Sufferings and the Reality of Eternal Things

Okay. Nobody suffered more than the Apostle Paul. What does he say in his catalogue of sufferings in 2 Corinthians 11? He says, are they ministers of Christ? I speak as a fool. Now, here's what he got.

These are his wages. Five times I receive 40 stripes save one. What's five times 40? 200. Minus five, 195. Well, look, the first time they put him into a whipping post, tied him to that post. There was a lictor's lash, which was a main piece of leather with at least five strands at the end.

On the end of every strand, there was a pin, not made of metal. Yes, I mean, it was made of metal. It was made of copper. And copper is the most tearing, sharp thing. Imagine he gets 40 stripes, and all the time that's happening, you know what he's saying?

Under his breath. Every time that lictor's lash came and clawed his back. And by the time he'd done his back, it was like a mass of jelly, like a ploughed field. And every time that rotten devilish thing came on him, do you know what he was saying under his breath?

None of these things move me. He didn't say none of these things hurt me, but he said they don't move me. I don't change my attitude to God because things have gone bad. 195 times his lash. Well, the first time he had 40 stripes, I'm sure he counted down.

But the second time his back was more tender. The third time he was worse. And each time he went, his back was more sore, and more sore, and more sore. So what? He'd already written to the Corinthians and said, at the end of the fourth chapter, We look not for things that are seen, but the things which are not seen.

For the things which are seen are temporal. And every moment that thing tore his back, he was saying, this is going to pass. I have a home eternally in the heavens. Tear my body apart if you want, nor do I care.

It's only temporary, it's only a few minutes. It won't last very long. You see, the last thing we want to talk about, particularly in America with all our comforts, is suffering. You know, it's one thing to get a good dose of salvation, and a good dose, if you like, of sanctification, get the anointing of the Spirit.

But it's maintaining the fire that matters. This week I was thinking over in my mind, I love to go to the old Methodist hymn book. And here is the greatest man that ever lived after Jesus, as far as I'm concerned.

The Apostle Paul, and yet he has the greatest catalogue of sufferings. John Wesley and Charles Wesley. Two of the most brilliant men that ever lived. They came onto the scene in a time of absolute death in Christianity in England.

Every other shop was a gin shop. There was open immorality in the streets when they had voting and so forth. And a bloody revolution swept over France. And the French people tossed the monarchy into the garbage can.

They put up their standard liberty, fraternity and equality. And Leckie, a secular historian, another Christian historian, and Leckie, a secular historian, says that terrible river of blood was going to engulf England.

And then two men stood up. There weren't two, there were three. And the first wasn't Wesley, it was George Whitefield. And they proclaimed the everlasting gospel. They didn't talk about issues. They didn't talk about adultery.

They didn't talk about drugs. They were opium men. What did they do? They preached the everlasting gospel. Today we're preaching trivia. We're preaching drugs. We're preaching about divorce. We're preaching about other things.

But it's the eternal verities. Paul preached the whole counsel of God. And I say again, when Wesley came on the scene, it was a dramatic thing. Remember, he was the most religious man you could find in England.

He's a reproduction of Nicodemus. He's a scholar and a gentleman. He belongs in the next highest family to the royal family. And he's already a very expert in religion. He could have recited the Apostles' Creed, the Belgian Creed, every other creed you like.

He could have recited the Thirty-Nine Articles by Pearson, which is basic in the Church of England. There was hardly a thing he couldn't do. But he was still unsaved. He was still unborn. And Mrs. Wesley, that amazing woman that had what?

29 children? No, 19 children. 29, it's gone up. Inflation. 19 children. And they became one of the most amazing families in history. And one day she had a little book, and she gave it to Charles. She said, you read this thoroughly.

Then pass it to John. And John read it, and it set him on fire. And then, after John read it, and Charles got it, and he said to a man sitting in the base of a window there, in Christ Church, at Oxford.

He said, George, read this. This is the best thing you'll ever read. If you want. Life of God in the soul of man. You're not a Christian because you gave up smoking, because you joined a church, because you were baptized.

All that happened when you got baptized was, you went in a tank of wet, a dry sinner, and you came out a wet sinner. You need more than that. You need to be born again of the Spirit of God. A supernatural working of the Spirit of God.

So, it came to George. It came to John Wesley. It came to Charles Wesley. And it came also to George Whitfield. But listen, you've got John Wesley. Dear God, that man had more zeal when he wasn't saved, than we have when we are saved.

Do you know, he came over the Atlantic. It took him, you can do it in three hours now, if it's a good English plane. Not American, they fall apart. If you're going to England, go in the Concorde. It'll take you three hours.

It took Wesley three months to come. In a ship, they wouldn't allow up a river these days. It came to Georgia. Because he was about Indians, who were deprived and forgotten and neglected. So, he came there to preach the gospels at a very, very sincere Church of England minister.

What happened? Well, there were no hotels. Even McDonald's wasn't there. So, he ate what he could. He ate off berries. He slept in the mud. Woke up in the morning with his hair fastened in the mud. Pulled one arm loose.

Pulled the other arm loose. Pulled one leg loose. Pulled the other leg loose. Then stood up. Brushed the snow off his body, he said. And I stood up and rejoiced. And sang the doxology. That's the man before he's saved.

He had a zeal and a compassion for those who are lost. And have such great need. But what does he do when he gets the anointing of the Spirit of God? That's the whole secret. How many times have you been to an altar and get a stir of it?

And then a week after it's gone. You see what Charles Wesley did was set his brother's theology to music. So, Charles Wesley wrote a hymn. And it became a favourite of Wesley's. Give me the faith which can remove and sink the mountain to a plain.

Give me that. Give me the faith. Which can remove and sink the mountain to a plain. Give me that childlike praying love which longs to build thy house again. Thy love, let it my heart or power. And all thy simple soul devour.

Listen to him. Here's a man with a colossal intellect. Here's a man who has more genius about him than any man in England. Here is a man. Who read his Bible in Spanish. Read his Bible in English. Read his Bible in French.

He memorized scriptures. Memorized so many things. He wasn't wasting time at all. He redeemed the time. Then he says, Enlarge. Enflame. And fill my heart. I had in the last 5 years. If you hit the devil, he will hit you back.

In the last 5 years, about 3 strokes and 2 heart attacks. They took me into a ward in the hospital. Took me into a, I don't know what they did with me. All kinds of stupid things. And anyhow. The doctor came in.

He said, you know. He said, you know that pain you had in your head. He said, we checked. And we thought maybe you had a growth in your head. But he said, don't trouble preacher. There's nothing in it.

Well, that wasn't very nice. He took another test a few days after. And he said, pastor, preacher, you've got an enlarged heart. I said, praise God. What do you mean? I said, the psalmist was crying for one country.

Enlarge my heart. Enlarge my heart. So I got one. So Wesley says, this man of vision. This man who had already crossed the Atlantic a couple of times at least. This man who sacrificed. Sold what he had and gave it to the poor.

Sure he made money. Just before he left England. Well, it was before that. It was 1942. When the Germans bombarded London. The whole of the Admiralty, the aristocrats, moved out of London to a city called Bath.

Which was founded in 55 BC by Julius Caesar. It's a very beautiful city. And I forgot my connection there. What was I going to say? Okay. When I went to a school. The Admiralty were in a very wonderful old grey granite building.

Big marvelous place. All the officers were there with a gold braid and all the rest of it. But you know that was the building that Wesley put up in the 1700s. He built almshouses. He built homes for the poor.

He put his money into Bibles. He put his money into hymn books. He put his money into supporting preachers. Listen, do you know what? In Wesley's day when a man went home and said. Well darling, I want to tell you something.

What are you looking so happy about? I've been in a Methodist meeting. They were singing that hymn. The joyful news of sins forgiven, of health subdued and peace with heaven. And do you know what? No, don't tell me.

Don't tell me. Tell you what? Tell me you joined Wesley's traveling preachers. Well darling, I had to do. The way he presented the need and told me I'm a link between an eternal living God and a damnation of sinners.

I told him I'll sell my farm if need be. I want to be a preacher. But she said darling, you know that none of Wesley's preachers lived to be more than 32 years of age. Dear God, our preachers don't get their mouths open till they're that age.

And they're all looking forward to a pension. Most of them, I'd pension them off tomorrow. But you see, this man has a holy fervor. Enlarge, inflame and fill my heart with boundless charity divine. So shall I all my strength exert and love them with a zeal like thine.

And turn them to a pardoning God. And quench their brands in Jesus' blood. You say that's 200 years ago. Before we left Ireland, I went to a mission hall that may not be standing after the bombing in Belfast.

It was about the size of the middle of this room. It was made of tin. When I went in the door, there's a picture behind the desk of a lady with lovely little curls and a lace choker collar. And it looked exactly like my mother.

It was one of the most amazing women that Ireland's ever had. Amy Wilson Carmichael, a woman who got a one-way ticket to India. There's a new life on Amy Wilson Carmichael by... Come on, where's my Irish wife?

Yes, Elizabeth Elliot has written it. And it's fabulous. You need to get it. Anyhow, she went, thank you dear. She went out to India. Do you know when she went, she had a curvature of the spine? Do you know the last three years of her life, they lifted her in and out of bed?

Come on you lazy guys, what do you do? I hear Tyson was fighting last week. I saw just one comment. Somebody asked him, when you're not fighting, what do you do? And he said, I do the same thing I do every time.

When I'm fighting and not time, I'm up at four in the morning. I run so many miles. And I just keep up the same diet. I must keep in condition. Come on, dear God. Do you keep in condition or do you keep alive because you come to meetings?

Lots of Christians are not living in Christ, they're living on meetings. Particularly sensational meetings. That Paul says, it's Christ in you, the hope of glory. You see this man on the Damascus road had an encounter with Jesus.

You can listen to preaching and die listening to it. But nothing will happen if you have an encounter with Jesus. And that's why this man is so bold. You see a man with an experience is never at the mercy of a man with an argument.

So that's why he throws this text to the people. That I didn't read yet, but there it is. Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation. All things are passed away. And all things become new.

He doesn't alter this. What I was saying here, let me go through it a minute. He says of the Jews five times received I fought his stripes save one. And when they're tearing the flesh off his back he's saying, A light affliction?

Dear God. Let me read this to you for a minute. Here's what he suffered. Of the Jews five times received I fought his stripes save one. Three times I was beat with rods. Once I was stoned. Wait a minute.

He stood and said nothing. When young Stephen was stoned to death, he didn't interfere. But it's a model universe. When he was being stoned, nobody helped him either. Can you imagine the first rock when he was young Stephen?

We don't believe he was twenty years of age. And there is suffering for Christ's sake. And nobody went to help him. So when he comes back on Paul, nobody comes to help him. Thrice I was beaten with rods.

Once I was stoned. Thrice or three times I suffered shipwreck. A night and a day I was in the deep. In journeyings often. In perils of waters. In perils of robbers. In perils by my known countrymen. In perils by the heath.

In perils by the city. In perils in the wilderness. In perils of the sea. In perils amongst false brethren. You know if that guy had been smart he'd have said, Now look out. I've got seven books coming out on perils.

Number one, perils of the deep. Perils of the... Isn't it amazing? This guy wrote twelve, fourteen epistles. If you give him Hebrews. And he never got a dime of reward. Can you imagine what he's going to get in eternity?

And for all this suffering. It's easy to read, Jesus led his lamb to the slaughter in church. But supposing persecution will come to America unless there's a revival. I'll guarantee you that. So young people you better get anchored to something.

Because before too long. Well the option right now for America is concentrate in prayer. Or pray in concentration camps. If you hang on to Acts 4 .12 that neither is there salvation in any other. You'll suffer for it before long.

Isn't it amazing? A guy's written, What did he write? These Satan's letters. What are they called? I can't hear. Satanic verses. The whole world is talking about it. The whole Islam world is raging mad against it.

But dear God. When they sent a filthy, devilish, diabolical picture of Jesus, the last temptation. You didn't march the streets. Oh well it's the last days. Come on you are cowards. You should have marched through the street protesting.

This is our Redeemer. This is our Saviour. I don't think you have to get violent about it. But dear God you have to get vocal about it. Oh you stand in church and sing, we're the whole realm of nature mind.

Forget it. You won't give him an hour out of bed every morning. You won't give God his own day. You spend that Saturday or Sunday afternoon as if it was some other day. We're going to get narrowed down out of this.

There's going to be circumstances before long that will divide the sheep from the goats. There'll be more backsliding than any period in history. It doesn't matter what you do. This man hangs on to a piece of wood in the Mediterranean.

He's biased up against a rock. He says, I'll lie to affliction which is but for a moment. This isn't much. I've got a home eternal. I'm not going to heaven. I have a home eternal in the heavens. I don't know about you but I'm not going to heaven for the weekend.

I'm going to stay there forever and ever and rejoice in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. But that's not all. Then he adds this. In weariness often, in perils, in weariness, in painfulness, in watchings, hunger, thirst, fastings, cold, nakedness, but either of those things is without.

That which comes upon me daily, the care of all the churches. You see, it doesn't matter what you do to his body. You can afflict him. You can tear his flesh. You can half starve him. He says, in weariness, hunger and painfulness.

And he says, add them all up together. They're nothing compared to the agony of loving the church of Jesus Christ. You know again, I'm sorry that these wretched men have got the... They tell me, and I don't watch TV at night.

They tell me that the comedians have had a great time joking about the wickedness of the PTL leader with that woman and Oral Roberts or Swaggard. And they scorn and ridicule and now talk about evangelism.

I have preachers come in my office. I say, what do you know in Asia? They burst into tears. I'm embarrassed to say I'm a Pentecostal. I said, some of the best saints I know are Pentecostals. But listen, when you finish arguing about pre-trib, post-trib and mid-trib, nearly everybody agrees that we're living in the day of the Laodicean church.

Listen fellas, if you're not happy, go out. If you're not serious, I am. I don't sweat and pray in blood to be laughed at. Kids in the street in China today. A girl, 14 years of age. I have a document on this.

She went and was witnessing to people in the street. She's 14 years... How old are you? 14? Yeah. Not far off. What about your buddy? Oh, he's 11, I should think. 15. Well, you should act as though you've grown up.

So what, this girl's on the street. I've got a document on my desk that shows me about this girl, 14 years of age, witnessing. And the police came along in China and got all of her and gagged her and carried her to a place.

And they beat her up and threatened her. And they cut the ropes and let her free. And she went back and witnessed on the same spot with tears pouring down her face. I'm glad to suffer for Jesus. At 14 years of age?

It's staggering what's happening these days. That's not going to come on TV. It's not sensational enough. The spiritual things are not projected, only the carnal things. Paul says, well, here's one of his anchors.

We have a home eternally in the heavens. It's not difficult to surrender everything when you really get a concept of the wondrous cross on which the Prince of Glory died. Again, to go back to Amy Wilson Carmichael.

For 30 odd years, she never went home to Ireland after she got out to India. And for the last three years of her life, they had to lift her out of bed because of her weakness. So what? Here she is with hundreds and hundreds of children that were going to be thrown in the rivers.

And she becomes mother to them. And Wesley said, give me the faith which can remove. Amy Wilson Carmichael says, give me a love that leads the way. A faith which nothing can dismay. A hope not disappointments tired.

A passion that will burn like fire. Let me not sink to be a cloud. Make me thy fuel flame of God. Oh, we want a good exciting meeting. Life is not just exciting, it's more than exciting if the indwelling Christ is there.

And you get up each day with the presence of the spirit of the living God. Makes all the world of difference. So I'm going to skip over this now. Because he said, we have a home. A house not made with hands.

Eternal in the heavens. He's saying emphatically. He's emphasizing points in his life, but he brings us into it. In 2 Corinthians 5 and verse 6. He says, we are confident, I say. To be absent from the body, to be present with the Lord is better.

Wherefore we labor, that whether we are present or absent, we are accepted of him. Now listen to this awesome thing. He says, we must all appear at the judgment seat of Christ. I think it's, is it Montgomery Boyce, or Boyce Montgomery has a book.

Where is history going? I'll tell you where history is going. It's going to the judgment seat of Christ. And Paul says, knowing therefore the terror of the Lord. You see, we don't talk about that. Everything is loving and sweet and sugary.

But there's no anger like the anger of God. Oh, I like to sing Wesley's lovely hymn. Gentle Jesus meet, forget it. That Jesus is coming is not gentle. It says in 2 Thessalonians what? 2 Thessalonians in chapter 1.

It says that Jesus is coming how? I can't find it here. It says he's coming from, to earth with 10 ,000 of his saints. Pardon? Yes. Yes. 2 Thessalonians 1 verse 7. Well, can you imagine that? Wesley has a hymn in which he says, Lo, he comes with clouds descending.

Once for favoured sinners slain. Thousand, thousand saints attending. Swell the triumph of his praise. Listen, Jesus may talk to your heart tonight. You'll turn him off. You've got your own life. You can do something else.

It's my life. It isn't if you're saved. The moment you are saved, you lost rights to your life. You lost rights to your career. You've no right to plan the future without him. He's coming once for every favoured.

You may obey or disobey Jesus Christ tonight. I've got news for you. If you die and go to the grave, at the voice of the Son of God, everybody who's lived since Adam is going to rise. No disobedience.

No postponing it. No holding off. No saying I'm rich or wealthy. Or I've done a lot of good. Forget it. I'll tell you the last thing that Teddy Kennedy thinks is he's going to stand before Jesus Christ.

I give an account of the girl that he was with that night when she was drowned at Chappaquiddick. She didn't drown. For the simple reason at the, what do you call it, the autopsy. There was no water in her lungs.

She had air there. She died of asphyxiation. She had nothing in her lungs. She had a baby in her belly. Whoever put that there. Do you think that this man who paid off his religion and got to the Pope and got an absolution for his sin does he ever think he's going to stand there not as a Kennedy but as a sinner with a billion, billion people watching him.

And every sin he's ever committed is going to be read out to the record of God. And the same for everybody. Al Capone, it makes no difference what the Mafia's done. It's going to come up at the end. I'll tell you one thing.

I'm not very smart. But I'll make a guess. I guess there isn't one evangelical in the Mafia. Take the inference. What was it saying? We must all appear at the judgment seat of Christ. That we may give an account.

You see, that's for the believer. The judgment seat of Christ is for the believer. The great white throne of Revelation 20 is for the sinner. But in both cases, doesn't it say in Revelation 20 that heaven and earth passed away?

Doesn't it say in the 6th chapter of Revelation the kings of the earth, the great people, the merchants, the capitalists, the governors, everybody. It's the last round up, the cowboy said. I've been trying for 10 years to write a book on the judgment seat.

I haven't got through the first part. But I cancelled all preaching this year except maybe one place. And I'm going to give my time to this awesome aspect of the judgment seat of Christ. Listen fellows, you better watch your step.

I may sound rude to you, but I tell you this. You won't have your daddy, you won't have your preacher, you won't have your wife, you won't have your husband. You're going to stand there. You say, I couldn't stand up before the crowd.