The Perils of Paul — Leonard Ravenhill

Opening Prayer: Access Through Christ and the Living Word

We thank you tonight that we come by a new and living way. We're so glad we haven't to build an altar, shed the blood of bulls and goats, seek for a mediator amongst men. We thank you for the one who for two thousand years has been living to make intercession for his saints.

And therefore because of him we come with boldness, with confidence we now draw nigh to father our father cry. Lord we bless you for the gift of your holy word. We thank you that holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.

We thank you spirit of the living God you're still the same tonight. Lord take the things of Jesus and reveal them to us. Lord give us a glimpse as it were of eternity tonight. Father we live in such a troubled world.

There is no balm in Gilead according to the ideas of some men. But we thank you that that fountain is still open for sinners and cleaners. Millions there have been supplied but still it flows as fresh as ever from the Saviour's wounded side and none need perish.

We bless you the light of the world shines in the midst of the terrible darkness that's over the earth. And he's going to shine forever and forever. Again Lord we bless you for our freedom tonight. We think of those areas of the world ravaged by war.

Some are ravaged by poverty. Some of them with disease. Some of them with terrible floods that have overtaken even millions we're told in some parts of the world. Tonight Lord we live in such luxury. We live at ease.

We pray jobless tonight. We thank you as some old saint has said that your word, the word of God comforts the disturbed and disturbs the comfortable. Lord we recognize tonight we've just made one stop here tonight on our pilgrimage to eternity.

Again Lord we just plead that the Spirit will take the things of Jesus and reveal them to us. And we give you thanks in his name. Thank you be seated. I spend most of my days it seems at this present stage in my life counseling people.

On Thursday we had what 14 visitors to the house. And Martha gives them all a cookie that she makes and a cup of tea and you can tell the preachers they always take more cookies. But this week over and over they've asked this question, what do you see in the future?

The Need for Revival in a Troubled World

Well I do know this, that this is not just the most critical hour in America's history, it's the most critical hour in world history. We either have revival or we're sunk. America cannot last another decade without a divine invasion.

And revival is a threat to our system. It's a threat to our way of life. It's an invasion as D. M. Panton said over a year ago, revival is a breath from God on a situation that threatens to become a corpse.

And I think that's pretty good. As we came up tonight I was thinking of a statement by Jesus when he said one sign of the end of the age is what? Not just wars and rumors of wars, but distress of nations.

But he added something else. You see if you talk about that people knowing history will say there have been times, many times when the world has seemed as though it's going to collapse, be destroyed. But Jesus said at the end time the perplexity of nations with what?

What did he say? Distress of nations with perplexities. Nobody knows the way out. So we're the biggest air force in the world. He doesn't got those men out of Lebanon. He doesn't got that little rascal out of Panama.

What has he done? You see we're driven right back to one tremendous need in this hour and that is a tremendous outpouring of the spirit of God. The other morning I usually go to my office about midnight or half past eleven for two or three or four hours and I've done the opposite.

I went to bed about ten, woke up about two and a verse at the end of what? The 18th or 19th chapter of Revelation began to turn over in my mind. It talked about men who deal with silver and gold, men who deal with flesh, men who deal with precious stones, men and women who deal with cloth and silks and it says of those who deal with the souls of men.

Well who deals with the souls of men? The Ayatollah Khomeini can get hundreds and hundreds of men lining up every day because he said if you die in battle you go immediately into eternal bliss, dealing with the souls of men.

There are some people who say well if you die don't worry we'll pray you out, you'll get deliverance and we're dealing in the souls of men. There's a revival which is causing a lot of anxiety. There are two manifestations of it.

Revival Reports from Africa and South America

One is in Africa. Three weeks ago we were preaching, my dear son David, soon you heard him, he's a super preacher, should be preaching here tonight, and we were preaching in a hotel in Tulsa. A lot of students came from ORU, not who are you but ORU, and they said Mr. Regan when are you preaching at ORU?

I said the same day that the Pope gets married. That's about the same chance that I have anyhow. But a lady waited for us after the last meeting, a very lovely lady, a great big black lady, beaming, radiant.

She said Mr. Regan, she said you mentioned twice in the last two days about a man called Reynard Bonnke. I said yes. She said well I'm a missionary in Algeria and she said recently I was in Zimbabwe at a meeting of this famous black man.

He's not a black man, famous man that's preaching in Africa, Reynard Bonnke. I said quite a meeting. Meeting she said. You know what lovely voices these black folk have, I wish I was like that. Meeting she said.

I said yes. Five hundred thousand people there. Wouldn't you like to go to a meeting like that? What happened? She said Mr. Regan when you go to a meeting often it's a hundred thousand, a hundred and fifty thousand, two hundred thousand, two hundred and fifty thousand.

And she said just like you see the sometimes the wind comes with great force and bends all the coal down, the spirit will come in the meeting and thousands, not dozens, thousands just fall there prostrate and strike cry for mercies, cry for forgiveness.

Now you tell some of your big shop preachers and other theologians all that's emotion. I'll tell you how much emotion it is. I met a man since then who had just come from Africa and he said Brother Lenin in Nairobi where this man had been preaching there was such a move of the spirit of God that a month after he finished preaching boys were lined up by the hundreds of every police station in the state confessing sin, confessing crime, bringing all their rotten things that they'd stolen and crying to God forgive us, God's forgiveness, don't bring the law on us.

Now that's revival. Our revivals don't get over the threshold of the church. The same people come for repairs every time they have a revival. You can tell they'll go to the altar. Every time they come up.

One woman told me she'd been at the altar fourteen times. Well think how many times she'd said it's the blessing of God. But this great revival is moving there in Africa. There's maybe a greater move in South America.

There's a Bible school up in North, West, United States. Is it called Montneman? Is that the name? Montneman. What pedigree are they? Presbyterians of Pentecostals, Methodists, Ammonites. What are they?

Fun? Interdenominations? Very good. So am I. They belong to my group. OK. There's a revival. OK. This is from the Associated Press, October 2nd of this year. President Ezra Taft Benson addressing the World Congress of Mormons says this.

My good saints. I don't know the word I mean. My good saints. We have a very great work to perform in a very short time. We must flood the earth with the Book of Mormon. And get out. Listen. Get out from under condemnation that we've treated the Book of Mormon so lightly.

So what? Then it says we have the Book of Mormon. We have the members. We have the mysteries. We have the resources. And the world has the need. And so now is the time. OK. Now let me go to how this has affected the revival.

This is an article written by Mr. Aldrich of the Montneman Bible School. As a matter of fact, I'll tell you where he is at this very moment. In Iraq, as maybe you know, they're rebuilding the city of Babylon.

And the government of Babylon has sent him an invitation. He's gone out there to see how much has been rebuilt. They've put $200 million in the city already. They're going to rebuild it. It's going to be a cultural center of the world.

They're going to have all the classical concerts there. They're going to have the greatest speakers there. They're going to have the greatest speakers of any religion there. And that's been rebuilt right now.

But this is what he says. He says that the spiritual battle, the spiritual battle in Argentina is an enigma to most of us. We don't understand it and can't comprehend much of what we hear. I'm not talking about British Harriet Jets and Falkland Diamonds or their own forces as a greater battle raging.

The implication may well shake Christianity to its roots. God is shaking Argentina. He has turned it upside down. Now this is his opinion. And he's a very classic kind of individual. There's been a God shaking, a wavening in Argentina.

The country's been upside down. So what happened? Jesus said if you drive evil spirits out of the room and leave it empty, what happens? Seven times more come in. So there's been a wavening of the Holy Ghost, signs and wonders and miracles in Argentina.

So what happens? Did you send all the students, the seminary students from Southwest? Did Old Robert say send all my spirit-filled 5 ,000 students? Did Christ from the nations say there's no, not one of them?

And there's a tremendous need. So what happened? There's a vacuum. So the Mormons have sent down 25 ,000 young men and women rushing in behind. You've only got part of the truth. You're just awaiting.

You don't have a Bible. Here's a book of Mormon. It's the only word of truth. We have the message. Listen to this, you ambitious young preachers. The Spirit of God has moved to this degree that young Christians are pastoring megachurches or meager churches.

Isn't that something? Numerous young Christians are pastoring meager churches. Numerous ministers are shepherding congregations of tens of thousands. Some young men only just learning to walk themselves are pastoring churches of 5 ,000 and 10 ,000 people in Argentina.

All-night prayer meetings are assaulting the forces of hell. When did you find, if you don't know, find out and drop me a notice. When is the last time there was an all-night prayer meeting in Southwest Bible Seminary?

Come on, you've got all the truth. You're more light than anybody else and you've more responsibility than anybody else. Okay. All-night prayer meetings are assaulting the forces of hell and God is breaking demonic strongholds which have held whole regions in satanic darkness and bondage.

Outpourings of the Spirit of God is no denominational boundary. The Baptists have been visited. The Presbyterians have been visited. The Brethren have been visited and dozens of other Christian groups.

So what does a church in America, in its Laodicean lifestyle, do? It says here, I'll read it exactly as it's printed, this is a month-and-a-half message that this is from. To most of us, this revival in Argentina is frightening.

It doesn't fit into our neat little theological and sociological boxes. We find ourselves wishing God would stay within the category of our creeds and not, seemingly in brackets, violate our sacred traditions.

Such outpouring may lead us to question whether or not we're really serving the Jesus Christ of the Bible. Let me tell you how it finishes. Is this outpouring in Argentina a precursor of what God wants to do in our increasingly pagan culture?

Do we know that, what do we know? Come on now, you seminary men, second year, third year, you didn't know either. Ask your professors, in God's name, what do they know about casting out demons? What do they know about pulling down strongholds?

They're so busy building up funds. What's he saying? It is a precursor of what God wants to do in our increasingly pagan culture. What do we know of exorcisms, demonic confrontation, physical healing and all-night prayer battles?

The revivals in Korea and now in Argentina seem to be forcing the American Christians to learn the ABC of spiritual warfare. What do we know about demonic sealing, satanically controlled villages, towns and cities and the demon part?

My sons in South America have been there for twenty-odd years. Every nation in South America except the nation that is in Paraguay has had revival. They're having revival in Argentina, they're having some revival in Brazil, they've had revivals in Peru, even Bogota has had its revival.

But the town he's in, the son's in, the capital city of Paraguay has never in its history had a revival. And when Paul got there he was praying and he saw a great big wall around the city, or actually around the nation.

And the devil was on top saying, listen, I've been in this territory for one thousand years and I'm going to keep it to the end of time. You won't break my power. Your normal Christianity won't do it.

We have missionaries who have fifty years. They don't pollute. They don't pollute the nation. The nation pollutes them. They backslide. They get normal and formal and rigid and careless and accept the status quo.

Well, dear God, what are we going to do? We the Bible, we've twenty-six translations amongst them, a murderous translation, or at least comments of Schofield. I would like to be that poor old guy in the judgement.

But this is, is it serious or not? Has the center of gravity spiritually moved from America and England and down to the third nations? Come on! Oh, you listen to a preacher this morning, oh, he was so nice, because he never crossed the little line of your theology.

All you've heard the last ten years or twenty years, you've heard the gospel that Paul said my preaching was not with enticing words of man wisdom, it was in the power and demonstration. When do we have the demonstration of the Holy Ghost?

When do people go home and can't sleep for nights, convicted of sin? It doesn't happen anymore. The only answer to this invasion that's gone down there into Argentina is really, and I'm not facetious or playing with words, it's the sense of you young men and women, you old guys, misters, turning the road somewhere.

The last days says, in the last days God will pour out his Spirit on all flesh. Not on America, not on England, on all flesh. Your sons and your daughters should prophesy. What do you want? Do you want your sons to be as spiritual as you are, at your age, without vision, without power, without revelation, without fears?

In God's name, what good is it? Tell me this, do you have a Bible? Do you have a chapel service in your seminary? Every morning, if you do, raise your hand, let me see. You do. Well, what's the difference between sitting behind a desk and reading the Bible and going to chapel?

Does it become another Bible? If you're a tutor, if you're a teacher, if your professor can't ignite you, it's time he got fired. Or else you'll leave and go to a school where you'll get the fire. Listen, without all these years of normal Christianity, these are not normal days.

These are abnormal days. They demand abnormal men, abnormal methods. And I'm not out for all the shingling and shouting and so forth. But anyhow, this pierced my heart very deeply. I'm going to spend a little time and a lot of time in the parish.

That was just to warm you up, now I'm going to preach. Lock the door so they can't get out. No, honestly, I believe that the only answer to the day in which we are living is anointed preaching. In one case, since I don't care who gets in the White House, as long as it's not the Catholics.

The answer for America is not in the White House, in God's house. The answer for England is not the United Kingdom, it's His glorious kingdom. Do you remember when the distressing situation of Paul was in?

Paul’s Perils and the Authority of the Gospel

He's on a ship with 276 people and you rocked it and hit the ship and it tossed and they were screaming, what, for hours and days? Everybody was screaming and shouting and whimpering and yelling and they threw all the goods overboard, cut the lifeboats off.

And it wasn't until all hope was gone that Paul stood there and said, listen, I'll take charge. You see, when he got on the boat he was a prisoner, when he got off he was the pilot. You know, when you've been to that situation where the nations would be glad to hand over the anarchy and rebellion and sin of our nation, every nation, to the preachers.

There's no way out. God's appointed, Holy Ghost anointed men. I was thinking the day of Charles Wesley. You know, I was in a meeting once and I kept mentioning Dr. Tozer. So a lady came to me after about three days.

She said, hey, you talk so much about Dr. Tozer. Did you know him personally? I said, sure I did. I talked with him and ate with him and prayed with him. Oh, how wonderful, she said. Well, after a few more days I talked with Wesley quite a few times.

She said, by the way, did you know him personally? I said, no, he died two years before I was born. He died in 1791. But Charles Wesley wrote 7 ,000 hymns. You sang one tonight, A Thousand Tongues to Sing.

He also wrote Love Divine or Love Excelling and all the others. Charles was the great hymn writer, but also he was a preacher. In one of his hymns he says this, my heart is full of Christ. Not my head is full of theology.

My heart is full of Christ and longs this glorious message to declare. And then he says, oh, for a trumpet voice and all the world to call. You see, God finds men. God doesn't raise up denominations. Committees raise those up.

What do committees do? Spend hours making minutes. No, God raises up men. He didn't raise up Methodism. He raised up Wesley. He didn't raise up the Salvation Army. He raised up William Booth. He sent men into far corners of the earth with the equipment of being filled with the Holy Spirit of God.

Well, look for a minute. I want to read you a record of a very famous preacher friend of mine. His name is the Apostle Paul. In the second letter of Paul to the Corinthians in chapter 5, he runs through a whole list of his theological positions.

But listen, gentlemen, this man didn't shape his theology in an air-conditioned room with a glass of ice water on the side of him. And a, what do you call it, a word processor? He poured this theology on the bloody mission field in prisons.

You know, people in the world have a contempt for the Jetset. Well, I have a contempt for the Jetset preachers. There isn't a preacher in America who needs a jet except for his vanity. Get to the back of your Bible one day and look at all those lines of the Apostle Paul from Israel on his four missionary journeys.

What does he do? You see, we want revelations of John. A lady said to me, I don't get revelations. I don't get revelations. I said, go to Patmos. She said, where's that? I said, it's where John got his revelation, in the book of the Revelation.

You see, we want them in a meeting. We want them to go to a seminary, a seminar, or either of them, or a cemetery, but anyhow. But we don't get it that way. Sitting in a chair reading the most profound theology you have will not make you a saint.

It's got to get in your bloodstream. And that's why, like the Apostle Paul, he is the best argument for his theology. Everything he says, he's backed up with his life. Well, look at it here. Second Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians chapter 5.

These are the strong points. Again, I tell you, this theology was hammered out on the mission field, in persecution, in poverty, in prisons, in pain. He doesn't have angels accompanying him all the time.

He can raise his best officials in a prison, in a lousy prison cell, saying to other people, rejoice in the Lord, rejoice in the Lord. And he hasn't had a decent meal, he hasn't had a bath, he hasn't had a new soup, or anything for years.

And yet he's tasting of the majesty of God. Look at it in 5 verse 1. We know, notice where, if the earthly house of this tabernacle is dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

So in verse 1 he says we know, in verse 2 he says we groan, in verse 4 he says, and we that are in this tabernacle do groan. Now look at verse 6. We are always confident. In verse 7, we walk by faith.

Verse 8, we are confident. Verse 9, we labor. I'll give you a silence. Look at verse 23 of 2 Corinthians. Are they ministers of Christ? I speak of the fool, I am more. Listen, these are the ministry benefits.

In labors, more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths of, of the Jews, of the Jews, not the Romans, the Jews. His blood brothers, why did they hate him? Because they said he preaches the faith that once he destroyed.

Once he was going down the road to Damascus inside his toga, he had conditions there, signed by the high priest he could liquidate every Christian. And there was a moment that he said before Agrippa in Acts 26, I was going down the road and they shone round about me and never judged me, the light from heaven, he never said he saw Jesus, he saw the blinding light.

And he said what, thou Lord? And immediately he met the Lord, he was convicted of sin, convicted of all his blindness, convicted of all the terrible things that he'd done. But let me finish this a minute here and go back to that.

He said in verse 26, in journeyings often, in perils of water, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own country, my good Lord, I'll send you home, won't I? Boy, supposing you can't get any hot water in your beautiful apartment over there at the seminary, or the lights go off for a day or two, would you be writing home for help?

This fellow takes it all in his stride. Immediately Adam stepped out of the garden, he stepped into enemy territory and we're in enemy territory today and we'll be in it till we get to glory, or till the Lord delivers us.

So he has perils in my own countrymen, in perils of the heath, in perils of the city, in perils of the wilderness, in perils of the sea, in perils of all small spreading. Listen, these are his ministerial benefits, in weariness, in painfulness, in fastings, in hunger, in thirst, in nakedness and cold.

Who is weak and I'm not weak. And is this man sane? Adam said all that happened to Paul on the Damascus road was he had an attack of epilepsy. Well, Lord sent us away for the epilepsy tonight. It will make you as radical as he was, make you as independent of creature comforts, make you to disregard social standing, every other standing, and see that you're a debtor.

As long as you're breathing your body, you're a debtor to a lost world. In chapter 12 and in verse 9, verse 10 he says, I take pleasure in my love offerings. I take pleasure in my creation. I take pleasure in banquets.

Oh, I'm a superman. Now that's how we interpret it. How many people here do you think if you're desperately on it before God, how often do you take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions.

I'm just going to answer it before God. If I'm going to die five minutes from now, I tell you, I glory in tribulation. I'm glad I bear a bigger burden for the lost than you do. I'm glad I weep when you're laughing.

I'm glad I'm alone when you're in the crowd. That's what Paul says. You see, we want to go on our own little way, mix up with the crowd in seminary, be nice, be accepted. God doesn't mean anything like that.

He separates men. The greatest man in the Old Testament, according to some Jews, Moses, 40 years, a third of his life on the backside of the desert. His own son was 30 years in the desert before he started ministering.

John Baptist was 30 years. Paul had the most colossal intellect in the world. And then he had to go into Arabia to study the quietness. You see, we can't be still. We can't be still. We're all activists.

We're rushing here. We're doing this. We're doing the other. And God says, be still and know that I'm God. Do you know that dew never falls when there's a wind? And God says, I will be as dew unto Israel.

And when the branches are still, the dew falls. And when we're still, we find and we know God. Because we're swallowing activity. A young Baptist preacher sent me his brochure for, what do you call it now?

His schedule, or schedule, according to which school he went to. And in 1988, in the 52 weeks, he has 30 revivals. That's as fast. Do you know in America tonight we have 500 evangelists and not one revivalist?

What's the difference? Evangelists raise funds. Revivalists raise hell. Evangelists get off a plane tonight. They go in somewhere tomorrow. But no sir, in the great revival, this is the one that Bonnke has had.

He goes to a town for six, seven and eight weeks until the town is seething with conviction, until the gossip in the street, the gossip on the side of the road, the gossip in the coffeehouse is Jesus.

The Jesus that used to live is living again. He works through Bonnke. He prophesies through Bonnke. You can explain it as you like. I'll tell you what, my heart is hungry to get away from this desolation in our Protestantism.

I believe we ought to go to the sanctuary and come out either dumb with joy or dumb with gladness. Tears of joy running down our eyes that millions of our fellow men are lost without God and without hope.

They've got church. A few weeks ago I happened to preach in a meeting with Dr. Adrian Rogers, spoke after I spoke. Well, not after him, but anyhow. What did he say? He said, people are coming down the aisles of our churches, they're getting a little inoculation so they won't get the real thing.

Well, isn't that true? He's in necessity, in persecution, he says it's for Christ's sake. He does it for Christ's sake. He's nothing to ask, he's not trading in something, he isn't selling his books. Well, dear me, wasn't it slow?

Do you notice there, when he says, in perils among his countrymen, my false countrymen, perils of the deep, five times he mentions perils. He could have written five books on perils. Volume number one, perils of the deep, number one, volume number two, he could have made a fortune writing on perils.

Our preachers would today. So here's the matter, he's blinded. On the Damascus road he saw Jesus, what, he went blind. What, he never recovered his eyesight again. Physical eyesight, yes, but the world changed.

How often have you sung that hymn that says, heaven above is soft, the blue earth around is sweet, agree? Something lives in every hue, Christless eyes will never see. You know, one day you'll be watching the Macy's parade in TV and you suddenly realize every person in that crowd is lost.

You'll see a football match when they're roaring and shouting and screaming, deacons that can't say amen in a whisper, horned, yell themselves hoarse watching the Baylor crowd. Baylor crowd plays football.

It's an awful day in which we live. All our vision is distorted. We're not seeing eternity. We're not seeing men and women who are forever and ever are going to live in eternal hell or eternal heaven.

He says a compensation to stay with this chapter here. Verse ten he says, I'm sorrowful yet always rejoicing, as poor yet making many rich, as having nothing and yet possessing all things. Now the church has everything and possesses nothing.

He has no backing, he has no sponsors, he has no private plane, he has no jet. If he had anything, it's an old donkey or something he'd travel on. He has no material comforts, no creature comforts. He has no fellowship.

Surely he got a team of men together. They were full of faith and of the Holy Ghost. Would he have less? Would a man who is the most anointed man after Christ himself ever have a bunch of rookies with him?

He has the best men around, full of faith, of the Holy Ghost. But he got so desperate in his fasting, in his praying, in his weeping, that everybody left him. And that's the test when godly people shun you.

And he says, oh all men forsook me, nevertheless the Lord stood by me. And sometimes God has to take some of the best things out of our lives in order that we may find him. And there's a law. In your life, as long as you live, the good will be the enemy of the best.

There's nothing wrong in something they don't do. They're keeping you from the best. Tell me, what were you guys doing at 2 o 'clock this morning? Were you smooching around town? Why in God's name is there a, what do you call it, a curfew at 2 o 'clock on your Sunday morning?

Why? Have you been to prayer meetings? Have you been after prostitutes to get them saved? What in God's name do you want to be out all that time for? You can tell what a man is by what he does with his spare time.

I'll tell you what to do. Don't change your lifestyle this week except for one thing. And every time you sit down to TV, pull a chair up and say, Lord Jesus sit with me and watch through this program.

Particularly the one when your wife's on the bed. And see, she's comfortable to do that. You see, young people are more prodigal with time than with anything else. You can't get it back. You can't get it back.

Time like an ever-rolling stream bears all its sons away. They fly for God as a dream that flies up the opening day. We live on an island called time. We're surrounded by an ocean called eternity. When are you allowed to have some on eternity?

Huh? You know this how spiritually a pastor. I'll tell you what he won't do. He won't preach on flee from the Lord to come and all the other things that the apostle mentioned in this chapter. In 2 Corinthians 5, look at these.

Go back a minute. Verse 7, he says, we walk by faith and not by sight. He's writing to Christians. In verse 8, we are confident. In verse 9, wherefore we labor that being absent, we may be accepted. We are accepted of him.

Who is he writing to? The Corinth. Corinth? What is Corinth? In Greek, or if I could read German, I'd read an old commentator by the name of Meyer. Not F .B. Meyer, M-E-Y-E-R, but M-A-Y-E-R. He was in Germany a hundred years ago.

And he says regarding Corinth, blessed and sublime miracle of God, that Paul could plant a church in Corinth. If a man was a model leper, if he was a pervert, and every dirty thing you could mention, you didn't string a whole list of adjectives, just say he's a Corinthian.

And you know everything is vile about him. Every passion, everything about him is distorted and unclean and vicious. And there, the apostle Paul writes to these people in Corinth. Which Corinth? The second Corinth.

The first one was burned down. This one was built by Julius Caesar. The first one was built when Mummius was the king. What happened? Well, let me just step here and read this verse. And the fire shall try, elsewhere he says, the fire shall try everything that you have.

You can't escape fire. And the only way that we can meet this world that's going to hellfire is Holy Ghost fire. Or like the fire shall try every man's word. What did it mean to the Corinthians? Well, they knew that the first Corinth had been destroyed by fire.

At this site of their own, houses were made of precious stones. They were made of granite. They were made of marble. They were made of rare stone. At this side of the street, the houses were made of wood and hay and stubble.

They mixed clay and straw together. And when the fire came, it consumed all the poor houses. And all the houses of the rich with precious stones were still standing after the fire. And he says, your life and mine, you're investing it in wood, hay and stubble.

That's ministry above the ground. Still there's all those precious stones, ministry below the ground. And one day, before the eyes of millions, little Leonard Raven is going to stand there and God have mercy, I hope I don't go to the judgment seat right after the Apostle Paul or Phineas or Brainard or some of the great warriors and saints of the ages.

But I'm going and you're going. And your professor's going, remind him. And he's going to be charged with teaching you heresy. He'll be charged with telling you that miracles ended at the end of the scriptures.

Or he can't give you a proof text of it. And he can't show you. It's an excuse for his bankruptcy. It's an excuse for the powerlessness of the Church. When the Church moves away and people in South America, they go to hear a preacher on Monday night.

They go Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. Friday night they go after supper. They listen to the preacher. They pray all night. They pray all day, Saturday. They pray all Saturday night. And go to a church full of power of the Holy Ghost.

They don't need entertainment. You don't need Christian shelters and all this junk. You see, entertainment is the devil's substitute for joy. And the more joy you have in the Lord, the less entertainment you'll need.

But this is going to be an awful day. Every penny these rich, marvelous young preachers we've had these last two years. What did Schragert get? Over a million a week. Billy Graham gets a million. Or Robert's got a million a week.