Blessed Are the Persecuted — Leonard Ravenhill

So I don't want to put a strain on you, but on the Lord. I often begin a discussion or a series of meetings by particularly reminding preachers that two men were arguing about the Bible, whether it was inspired or not.

And one man said, well, I can prove that easily. He said, okay, prove it. They said, it must be inspired, it survived so much bad preaching. Here beginneth the first lesson. The Scripture again is the twelfth verse of Matthew 5.

Rejoicing in Persecution With the Prophets

Rejoice and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven. For so persecuted they the prophets which were before you. Now I don't doubt that many of us would like to be prophets, but remember with prophets there's persecution.

I remember one day going into Mr. Chadwick's, pardon me, into Mr. Tozer's office and he said to me, Len, I'm sure I'm a prophet. Well, he never boasted, and I said, well, what's gone wrong with you? He said, I must be a prophet.

I'm always getting stoned. Every letter I get, somebody's hurling something at me, accusing me of something, misinterpreting something I said, and bruising me in one way or another. So he said, this is the apostolic succession.

You know, we think apostolic succession is just miracles and the sign of Noah's shirt is the other side of the coin as well. There's persecution, even for the prophets. Thinking again about this wonderful Sermon on the Mount.

At one time I would have said it was fantastic, but there's a fellow called Newman that speaks, I think, for the NBC, and he's written a book on the English language. And recently he was questioned about it and he said, well, we misuse words.

Words have changed completely from what they were meant to be. For instance, he said, you say about a thing that overwhelming, it's fantastic. Well, he said, that's sheer nonsense, because if you say it's fantastic, you say it's a fantasy.

It's unreal. It isn't quite, well, it's like, say, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. It's something somebody's concocted. Well, the Sermon on the Mount certainly is not fantastic. I would have said it's fabulous, but that's very much the same kind of a word.

But I would say it's stupendous. Somebody has said if you go see the Grand Canyon and look at it, day after day after day, you'll never see it's the same. It's never twice the same. The sunsets have been very wonderful this week, most of them anyhow.

And notice what variation there is. You know, there's no pattern in the clouds. There's no pattern in the Christian life. In one sense. And yet this sermon, again, is the foundation of the, if you want to use a big word there, philosophy of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And there are three things you can do with it, and I think only three. One is totally reject it. Read it and say it's the most beautiful thing you ever read, but it's just out of reach. I mean, you can't live as clean and correct in a world like this with a sermon on the Mount.

Demands that we should. You see, as we've already previously said, and the word says, it talks about righteousness. And another word that we use, which is equally unpopular, is holiness. Now what's the difference between holiness and righteousness?

Holiness as the Root and Righteousness as the Fruit

Well, I think that holiness is rectitude of character, and righteousness is rectitude of conduct. Holiness is the root, righteousness is the fruit. If the root is right, the fruit will be right. If the tree is good, the fruit will be good.

If the tree is bad, the fruit will be bad. Now, it talks about blessed are the pure in heart, and and Peter of all people says later in his epistle, you have purified your hearts. It's not an unattainable ideal.

So let's say you can throw it out and say, well, it's too lofty, it's it's a dream, it's a utopia, but it can never become real. The second thing to me, it seems, the second way to interpret it is to say it's a kind of a harness.

It's something God puts on us to keep us under control with the unholy human tempers that we have. We're going down the road, and it isn't a paved road. It's a road with a lot of potholes in it, and you young folk won't remember, but I remember going down roads and Martha's father had a buggy, as you would say, they call them a trapping island, and we had a rather lively horse, and you couldn't always just keep it where you wanted, and you'd hit a pothole in the road, and whoops, you'd go this way, and the next one you'd hit it that way, and you got bruised a little.

Well, you know, life is like that. The road of life is not a flat top road. It isn't a black top road. It isn't a smoothed out road. It's a road full of potholes, and if it wasn't, the Lord had put them there to see we got jolted anyhow, because the last thing he wants us is to be smooth and comfortable and easy in our Christian pilgrimage.

And so again, I say you can say, well this, I know I wouldn't throw it out, but I wouldn't say it's a kind of a harness. It's, oh, it's almost like the Ten Commandments of the New Testament. It's very, very demanding.

The Human Heart, Eden, and the Need for Purification

The third way is to say that, as I figure it, that God is a gardener, and he knows the weeds that are in the human heart. You know, it must have been very wonderful when Adam was first made. Everything about him was perfect.

If the women, if the Lord had made a woman first, we'd have heard a lot more about that. But he made a man, and we don't shout too much about it, and he was very perfect and very wonderful, and there was nothing in him of rebellion.

There was nothing in him of hatred and animosity and bitterness and so forth. But just as in the Garden of Eden, the garden had no snares and no tares and no weeds and no wild things and no vermin and no snakes.

Nothing that could hurt. The bees didn't have any sting, and the roses didn't have any thorns, and everything was just as idealistic as it could be. And then the curse came, and the ground was cursed.

Everything was cursed. Now just as you have an idyllic, a perfect picture of the Garden of Eden, so you have a perfect picture of the human heart. Adam was made perfect. There was no flaw in him. I've often wondered what it was like for Adam at the end of the day to to go down the garden, really singing, he walks with me and he talks with me and he tells me I am his own.

He was the first one that sang that, in case you didn't know. But there it is. That he walked with God in the cool, in the garden, and pollution came. And the heart of man is the most diabolical thing in the whole world.

Just as Satan was once the most perfect being, if you read there in what, 28th of Isaiah, where it says every precious stone was his covering. And he walked in the Garden of Eden, and he walked in the midst of a fire, and he didn't get burned.

He was a, he was a just a fantastic personality. But he fell, and look at his corruption, look what he's done since. And by the same token, man, whether you say he inherited depravity, well we know he is depraved.

He's corrupted, his mind is corrupted, his heart is corrupted, everything about him is corrupted. And the tragedy of the day in which we live is this, that men are not in sin because they have to be, but because they want to be.

They choose sin, they love sin, they buy sin, they sell sin, they invest their money in sin. And all because of that transgression of Adam. Now if in the heart of man you have rebellion, and you have pride, and you have a hatred, and you have venomous, and you have murder, and you have licentiousness, you've every unclean thing.

The heart of man is like a cage of unclean birds. Now if you say to a man in that depravity, well look, God says you're to be pure in heart. Then he begins to ask you some questions, how does it happen?

I've said before and say again that this to me, this 15, pardon me, this fifth chapter of Matthew here, is a picture of a spirit-filled life. It is not possible to live the sermon on the mount unless one is filled with the spirit, and it should not be less than that that satisfies us if we are filled with the spirit.

You see, we're living in a day of lopsided theology too. I don't deny gifts and fruits of the spirit, sure, but remember this, that God is always after character. It's character that God is after. And I say holiness is a condition of, it's a character of the heart.

Righteousness is the outflowing of that character. Holiness is the fruit and righteousness, holiness, pardon me, is the root and righteousness is the fruit. Now there's a verse in in Matthew 15 that I have never heard anybody preach on.

Lots of verses haven't heard people preach on as a matter of fact. And I'll have to live a long while if I'm going to preach on them. I don't think I'll make it. But pardon me, in Matthew 15 and verse 13 it says this,.

Now one of the pictures of God is that he is a husbandman. He's a husbandman. I was reading a book, I bought a book recently in a sale where I buy most of my books, even at the bookstore, but I buy all the books I can on sale, and this was on roses.

We have a few rose trees and some we borrowed, and I like roses very much. I was born in June, which I'll give you the date later, but June is the month when all the roses bloom in England, so I came along blooming with the roses.

And I was amazed in reading that book about the different types of soil. And you know, you can buy plants, stick them in a hole here, and then buy some and put them over there, and then at the end of the year these didn't come up and those didn't prosper properly.

Why? Well the soil here was wrong for that kind of plant, the soil there was wrong for that kind of plant. These should have been put in the sunshine, and you put them in the shade, and those should have been in the shade, and you put them in the sunshine.

And these need sandy soil, and those need heavy soil, and you've got your whole garden messed up, mixed up, and so it doesn't prosper. Now God never does things like that. His ways are perfect. If God starts snipping here and pruning there in your life, are you going to argue with him about it?

Hmm? He talks about persecution. Well there are three things you can do with persecution. You can gripe about it, you can be fatalistic and said it was coming anyhow, or you can do as the Word of God here says, rejoice in it.

Just one of three, that's about the only way you can go. Now why does he say every plant that my father hath not planted should be rooted up? For the simple reason that the Pharisees earlier in that chapter have been arguing about righteousness and holiness.

You wash your hands. You don't wash them just before meals, you wash them between every course. See how dirty most of you are? But anyhow, you're supposed to have one course, run and wash your hands, come and eat the other course, run and wash your hands, and they counted and they watched, and if you didn't do it, somebody said, filthy creature, you didn't wash your hands after that.

And so they're laboring about external things. And the words of Jesus did what they so often did. You see, Jesus didn't always talk smoothly. Sometimes he said, these are hard sayings. Oh, they're hard to understand, and they're hard to digest, and they're hard to live out.

No, no, it's not an easy road. I don't like that hymn too much. It's a song that cries on your shoulder a bit, but it's still true anyhow. And Jesus says to the disciples, well, don't get worrying about the Pharisees.

External Religion Versus Cleansing of the Heart

I want to tell you something. Every plant that my father hath not planted shall be rooted up. And then one of them scratched his head, who do you think it was? Right, Peter, always there. You know, Peter taught more to Jesus, not only than any other disciple, but all the other disciples put together.

He was always ready there. And conversely, Jesus spoke to Peter more than he spoke, not only to any one disciple, but all the other disciples put together. And Peter says, Lord, this is, I'm pretty dumb.

Declare unto us this parable. And Jesus says, are you without understanding? I wonder if he'd ask any of us. I don't suppose he would. Are you without understanding? Do you know what I'm trying to get at?

Go down to verse 18 of that chapter, that those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart, and they defile a man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemy.

These are the things which defile a man. But to eat with unwashed hands doesn't defile him. Now, it's that context in which Jesus says, every plant that my father hath not planted shall be rooted up. Did God sow in the heart of man defilement?

Did he sow lust there? Did he sow avarice there? Did he sow greed there? Did he put the seeds of murder there? Did he put the seeds of selfishness there? Did he put all those things that fill our jails, and break up our homes, and make a hell of the world in which we live?

Did God put them there? No. Well, then every plant that my father hath not planted, he'll root it up. If you'll let him do it, he says. So again, this isn't out of reach at all. It's not a harness merely which keeps us under control.

It's more than that. It's coming to him that we may find cleansing, and we may find purging. Well, how are we made clean? Three ways. One is by the blood. It says in Hebrews chapter 9, if the blood of bulls, and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctify for the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience?

The conscience was never purged, none of the old economy. I like a hymn we used to sing at every communion service in England, not all the blood of beasts some Jewish altar slain. Can you think how many bullets, and how many offerings were made?

Burnt offerings, and other offerings were made, to cleanse men. But they were only ceremonially clean. Not all the blood of beasts on Jewish altar slain, could give one guilty conscience peace, or wash away one's state.

But Christ the heavenly Lamb takes all our sins away. One act, by one man's transgression, sin came into the world. By one man's transgression, all that sin can be cancelled. But you see, there's more than forgiveness here.

How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works, to serve the living God? There's a word here, in the fifth chapter of Ephesians, verse 26, which puts another aspect on this, that he might sanctify and cleanse it.

What is he talking about? He's talking about the church. How does he sanctify and cleanse it? With the washing of water by the word. The blood is there, and the word is there. Remember in Psalm 119, somewhere around verse 9, wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way, by taking heed thereto according to thy word.

Do you remember the prayer of Jesus? The only prayer recorded, full reprayed, John 17, sanctify them through thy truth, thy word is truth. Or, two chapters back, in chapter 15, what does he say there?

Well he says, now ye are clean through the word which I've spoken unto you. You see, there's the blood, and then there's, there's the word. The word is a detergent. That's why the psalmist says, thy, thy word abideth in my heart that I might not sin against thee.

He doesn't say it's impossible to sin, but he says immediately you come into a certain situation, the word will hit back, if you know that word. Jesus says, the work of the Holy Spirit, who is the third partner in this, the blood, and the water, and the word, the Holy Spirit will bring to our remembrance all those things which ye have heard of me.

The Christian’s Witness in a Hostile World

You know, you may say, well, well look, okay, this is, this is the most perfect thing in the world. A sermon on the mouth. God expects everybody. I don't believe that God ever intended that the only way to identify his people was stick a steeple on a building.

What good is that? You think when a man's in sorrow, he goes photographing a steeple and says, well I'd like that at the side of my bed, it's a real comfort when I can see the church steeple. I don't think God ever intended buildings in that way.

He intended fellowships. Graham said not too long ago in a broadcast that he anticipated a day not too long when the church might be dissolved, and we have to run for safety and hide in, in holes in the earth almost.

There's a great hostility against righteousness. And you may say, well if, if this is, if this is so wonderful, why doesn't the world embrace it? After all, the only reason you're taxed up to your ears is, is to keep a devilish thing called war going.

I look at those boys playing with those toys all over my house and think, there's a kid playing with a 14 million dollar thing. It could blow like that, he's gone and it's done. Only 14 million dollars, not much, not, not the way they count it up in Washington.

But you see, we, we pay up to our ears to keep police forces and armies and navies, which are all trying to put down something, and the more we put it down, the more it comes up. Since about 1865, there have been 8 ,000 peace pledges made in the world, 8 ,000.

Billy Graham said the other week that at present, I think he said, there are about 42 countries that are armed to the teeth, all ready to be aggressive against each other. Right now we're in a dilemma, what shall we do?

Shall we go to Angola or shall we let them fight it out? If we go to Angola, we'll have another Vietnam. If we don't, what's going to happen? I see another nation on the side there has put an army, its army on the, on its borderline because they're afraid Russia is going to go over.

Somebody says this is the first step of aggression, Russia wants to get hold of Africa. What, because he wants to educate them? No, no, no, because there's a lot of minerals there and potash and gold and all the things that countries like.

Saying that to say this again, as I said last week, don't think that if you're going to, to live the holiest life possible, you're going to be people knocking at your door to photograph you. Coming to the door and say, does St. Mary live here?

Does St. John, is this where St. John lives? Or no, they're not coming around taking pictures of us. You know, I, I, I, sometimes I get staggered, I feel as though somebody hit me by two by four, I, I feel a text hit me like that, and I just relax in my chair and ponder over it.

Why doesn't the world love purity? It's a hell hole anyhow. What are they fighting down in, in San Francisco? More and more nude shows, night after night, they pay, they pay, sure they pay. So let's open more of them.

What are we fighting in Congress? We're, we're, we're fighting lawlessness. Well, why doesn't the world admire us? Well, if I were to give you an answer, you might say it was a wrong one. Sure it wouldn't be, but anyhow, in case you think it was, let, let me give you one from the book.

And this one really sent me into a tailspin the other day. Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we right now should be called the sons of God. Now listen to it. The world knoweth us not because it knew him not.

And you know what I saw? I saw myself at the judgment seat watching Caiaphas and Pontius Pilate and Alexander and those other people in the early, that persecuted Jesus, all coming and standing flabbergasted.

I'll tell you a miniature of that. Some boys one day were asked to go in a room and when they got there, there was a man looked like an Eastern potentate. He had a great crown on and gorgeous garments and everything else.

And he said to his henchmen, go out, go out, take your axes and your spears, go out. And when they all got out, he took off his garments and he said, I'm your long lost brother. And they were terrified.

Joseph's brethren said, what? And immediately I can imagine they could feel the blood running down their necks. He'll chop our heads off. What's going to happen to us? The world knew him not. Smart Pontius Pilate.

All he could see was a little guy trying to start a religious concern. Somebody else saw Jesus as one of the zealots because there's always somebody rising up going to overthrow the Roman kingdom. And it didn't cost them that to dismiss Jesus.

I think he's a good man. I mean, nobody ever heard of him doing anything wrong. He never said anything wrong. He's never done anything wrong. He's never legislated. They say he's a king, but I mean, after all, he clowns it up, doesn't he?

You know what he did the other day? Went on the back of a donkey and a lot of screaming women, some took off their turbans and other snatched branches from the trees. And they were saying, hail, king, king.

I mean, come on now. A man on a donkey is no threat to Rome, is he? And to Caesar? And a bit later they see him in some other situation. And to them it's, it's a burlesque. Well, you're the son of God, huh?

You do miracles. All right. I'll tell you what to do right now. We're going to blindfold you. And the six of us standing here, one of them's going to hit you in the mouth. Now, do you mind telling us which, which hit you in the mouth?

Can't do it. He could, but he wouldn't. They didn't have any trouble with Jesus, got rid of him. He's just a smart man. And I guess he did do some miracles. There was a fella called Lazarus running around town that was dead.

And there's a few other people being blessed, but we don't have to take him serious. Can you imagine Caiaphas kneeling before Jesus with a thousand billion people looking on? The world didn't know him.

So what did he do? Treated him like anybody else. And if the world knew him not and the others didn't know him, religious men didn't diagnose him. Mark you, they had no excuse. They knew the law and the prophets.

They knew where he was going to be born and he was born there. They knew a virgin should bring forth a child and she'd done it. They were without excuse. Wasn't it Paul that said, standing before a king, a king of gripper, believest thou the scriptures before he could open them?

I know that thou believest, he said. Why? Because a gripper was the last Jewish king. He'd been trained like all infant children of the Jews in the history of Israel. The first king of Israel was a fool, Saul, made havoc of his job.

The last one was there, a deputy receiving a big wage for acting as a Roman soldier and a Roman ruler. And Paul says, understand this thou, I know that thou understandest, he took the words out of his mouth.

You imagine Caiaphas one day is going to have to explain how it was he initiated every man he ordained into the ministry and every high priest and other, other person because he knew the scriptures and when he met the Son of God himself, he didn't know him.

And John says, don't you be surprised if they just pass you up like that or they ridicule you or they despise you. You ought to be happy about it because that's exactly what they did with Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

The world knew him not, the world knows us not. After all, men are scratching their heads and saying, well it's going to make no difference who gets in power because they're all a bunch of hypocrites and they all forget us when they get up there.

What did they do this year? They put their own salaries up and dropped everybody else's and said do this. So what, there's no sincerity. And here is the answer to the whole problem because a man can have a pure heart, a woman can have a pure heart.

Pure in this sense that the blood cleanses them and they're kept clean as they abide under the word and they're kept clean as they obey the promptings of the Holy Spirit. They're not perfect, they're not infallible, they'll make mistakes, but their motives can be pure.

And as best they know how, they can live in total submission and obedience to God. It's not easy. Who said it was easy? Jesus didn't say it was easy. He said it's hard. You may stand at the side of the road and watch me take my cross, but he said I'll tell you something else.

If you're going to be my disciple, you've got a cross to take. So what, he wanted to carry his cross. No, he took it up again. Nobody could carry his cross. You can't carry his cross, I can't carry his cross.

The cross you have is sufficient for you. There's an old song, the cross that he gave may be heavy, but it ne 'er awaits his grace. And the verse, the chorus says the cross is not greater than his grace.

The storm cannot hide his blessed face. I'm satisfied to know that with Jesus here below, I can conquer every foe. Isn't it, wasn't it Mrs. um, the lady that wrote Streams in the Desert, Mrs. Cowman, that said one day there was a sale and it was open only to Christians.

A lot of lovely things, a lot of bargains. People went along and they noticed that everything was in the shape of a cross. Wooden crosses, iron crosses, golden crosses, crosses with flowers, crosses, crosses, crosses.

And, uh, one person came along and said, well, uh, oh, I don't like my cross. Mine's a big heavy stone cross. I'd like that one. All right, you can have it. Wait a minute. What about your cross? Oh, I don't like mine.

Mine's solid gold, but gold is heavier than lead and gold is heavier than stone. And my cross is getting me down. I'd like that one. Well, wait a minute. I went right down, but everybody wanted that cross.

It was beautiful, beautiful, beautiful, beautiful roses. And everybody, hmm, it's so fragrant. Oh, I'd like this. All right, you turn around and lift the big cross up and put it on the back. And as soon as they got on, they, oh, everybody jolted.

Why? Because all the thorns were sticking to it. Looked nice on one side, thorns on the other side. You know what they want? Everybody wanted to go back to his own cross. Much better than the other cross.

Hmm? Oh, I could carry your cross. If you carried mine, what would it be like? But the cross is not greater than his grace. He will, with the temptation, make a way of escape. Now, it's talking here about those who have come through the eye of the needle, you know, blessed are the poor in spirit.

And then they've climbed another rung in the ladder. Blessed are the meek. And blessed are the merciful. And blessed are they who hunger and thirst. And blessed are the pure in heart. And you think now, boy, it's going to be wonderful.

You see, there's so much in this chapter, when you read it, that says what? They shall, they shall, they shall. You say, Lord, I wish you'd give us a bit right now. They shall. Says that five times over.

They shall. Now, some people say this Sermon on the Mount is just an explanation of the life we're going to live in the millennium. Oh, come on, don't be ridiculous. Nobody's going to have to be the salt of the earth in the millennium.

He's going to be purified. He is the light of the world. Nor neither the light in the millennium. He's the light. You suddenly think you're going to outshine him. You'd better think again. No, no, no, this is not a millennial state.

It's talking about now, what does he say? He says he sets us down in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation. That's right where we live now. And he says you're going to shine as lights in the darkness.

Salt, Light, and the Joy of the Kingdom

You can't light the whole world. You can only light the corner where you are. Lighten the place where you live. Illuminate that situation which is dark to everybody else. And somebody says, you know, I don't understand this.

He never gets under the weather. I don't understand him. He, he never seems to crack up and get furious and mad like we do. Why? Because God has pulled out the plants that were there. We used to have an old man in England by the name of John Thatcher.

He was the most ridiculous man I ever met. He's a Nazarene. Wasn't ridiculous because he's a Nazarene. He was ridiculous because he had more joy than any other, any other man I ever knew. And I didn't mind him getting blessed in prayer meetings.

He could lift a prayer meeting, 200 degrees when he got the joy of the Lord. In a testimony meeting, he could set it on fire. But you know, that old guy, he had a habit of getting blessed in a streetcar.

I don't think that's a place to get blessed. I mean, let's do everything decently and in order. And in any case, he could have got blessed when I wasn't there. Because you see, everybody on the streetcar knew me.

It happened to be going home in the direction, everybody knew me and nobody knew him. And I thought, every time I get on this streetcar after this, I say, oh, that's right. Oh, he had that knolled nut with him, that crazy old guy.

You know, he'd sit in a streetcar and clap his hands and say, hallelujah, I got the blood red, snow white, sky blue experience. I'm as happy as a lark and as free as an eagle and it's sunshine and smiles and strawberries and cream.

God is my father, Jesus is my savior, the Holy Ghost my comforter and the devil's no relation at all. Well, would you like to sit at the side of someone in a bus like that, that came out with that tar and do stuff?

As much victory as you've got and you're full of the Holy Ghost. Well, I'll tell you, that finds out where you live, you see. People in streetcars reading newspapers going, as much as, do you think he'll explode again?

I'm sure enough. He'd just give me about 10 minutes to cool down. Oh, he blew his top like a volcano again. Because he'd been lifted out of a horrible pit. You know what the psalmist said? He said, yeah, he, he says he lifted me up.

Well, that's not very far. You know what he says? He put me on a rock, so then he set me up. He put a song in my mouth and he must have tuned me up. He lifted me up, he set me up, he tuned me up, even praise unto my God.

All right. Then, we come into the present tense, not they shall be, they shall, blessed are the pure enough, they shall see God. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after that, they shall be filled.

But right now, he comes right down into the present tense and he says, ye are the salt of the earth and ye are the light of the world. But let's step back a minute. Rejoice and be exceeding glad. For what?

For persecution? No. No, no, no, no, not for persecution. For trial? No. For hardship? No. For things that blast all your plans? Not necessarily. What does it say? Well, read what it says. It says, blessed are what?

Rejoice and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven. You see, you've got to keep your eye on that distant goal. Looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith. Listen to Paul.

He's writing to the Philippians. He's writing from a lousy prison cell. He's possibly half-starved. He's possibly half-clothed. He's possibly living in a thing that's swimming with water and rats and dirt and everything.

And he's writing to some people sitting at home comfortably, not in the pews, they didn't have them. Sitting in a house like this maybe. And what does he say? I hope you're praying a little extra for me because it's rough here.

My faith beginning to shake and the rocks trembling under me and I, I, oh it's not an easy road. I really feel like giving up. He doesn't say a word about himself. Do you know what he says? He says, finally my brethren.

And notice really he writes 44 verses after that. So if I say finally, don't argue with me because I've gone a bit longer. Because I've got an apostolic success before me you see. Finally my brethren.

Rejoice in the Lord. Rejoice what? In circumstances? Do you rejoice in your pedigree? No, because he shatters that just too. In verse 5, I was circumcised the eighth day of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, of the seed of Abraham, a Pharisee of the Pharisees.