To Live Is Christ, to Die Is Gain — Leonard Ravenhill

The King of Kings and Lord of Lords

Not to the man of Galilee on the dusty roads, but the one whom Paul calls even now. Before the final coronation, we remember, he calls him the Blessed and Only Potentate, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.

Lord, we bless you tonight for your majesty. Who are we to stand in your presence when the elders fell on their faces? Who are we to keep silent when those cherubim and holy beings have not ceased? From the very day you ascended to heaven till now, they have incessantly called, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts.

We would say with with you tonight, Lord of all beings thrown afar, thy glory flames from sun and star, center and soul of every sphere, yet to each loving heart, how dear, our midnight is thy smile withdrawn, our noontide is thy gracious dawn, our rainbows, thy rainbow's arch, our mercy sign, all save the clouds of sin are thine.

We thank you again, as he says, before thine ever-blazing throne, we have no lust of our own. We're glad, Lord Jesus, tonight you have no competitor in our lives. We've given them up, good, bad, indifferent.

We thank you that Satan himself has nothing to fascinate us with. Everything about his kingdom is corruption and death. We think now of the powers that be of earth meeting together in Europe, and Lord, they've very little power, maybe as much as the children playing in the yard here.

The Word of God and the Church's Need for Healing

The power belongs to God. We believe you overrule in these things. We think of how quickly earth's proud empires pass away. Two hundred years ago, the most feared man in the world maybe was Napoleon, he's gone.

Fifty years ago, forty years ago, the most dreaded man was Hitler, he's gone. But we thank you as the Hebrew writers, writers of the Hebrews says, thy throne, O God, is forever and ever. Lord, we're glad nobody can dethrone you.

Lord Jesus, you've no reason to back down. You've won every victory already. We don't have to ask you to defeat the devil, you defeated him. Help us to enter into your majesty, help us to be joint heirs with Jesus Christ.

I'm convinced, Lord, America is sick tonight because the church is sick. The church is sick because the preachers and deacons are sick. We need you to come as a healer, not healing flesh, but healing hearts, wounded spirits, broken minds, discouraged people.

Sweep over us tonight in this house. May we be able to say it was good that we went to the house of the Lord, that we didn't see this man or hear Raven, we heard God. We came face to face with new realities.

As the old hymn says, we used to sing it, beyond the sacred page, we seek thee, Lord. Our spirits pant for thee, thou living word. Our job is to come with a, thus saith the Lord, whether they hear or whether they forbear.

Whether they will listen or reject, that makes no difference. For ten years I labored under a self-made delusion, that's a horrible thing. Oh, it wasn't theologically wrong, I'm never that, you know that of course, but anyhow, it was a delusion.

The Motivation of the Apostle Paul

I thought I found the secret of Paul's motivation in the first book of Corinthians, chapter five. I'm going to skip through this very quickly, I think I got that wrong. Second book of Corinthians, chapter five, here's the first thing in its theology.

We know if our earthly house of this tabernacle is dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. That's number one rung on the ladder of its theology. The second rung of the ladder is verse ten, we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ.

I thought the source of inspiration and power, why this man was able to out-preach everybody, out-fast everybody, out-pray everybody, out-reach everybody in missions, was due to the fourteenth verse, where he says, the love of Christ constraineth me.

But I don't think that's right. I think I was wrong. I believe the secret of his life is given in the verse that we read in Philippians one and verse twenty. The last part, that Christ may be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death.

In other words, at any cost, by any road, let Christ be magnified by my body. Paul is the best example of his own theology and so he should be. Again, a man with an experience is never at the mercy of a man with an argument.

I can't listen to a man who preaches one thing and lives another. If ever you think I do, you come and challenge me about that. Paul was everything that he preached. He says here, Christ must be magnified by my body.

Presenting the Body as a Living Sacrifice

Do you remember what Romans twelve, one and two is? You should do. You should memorize it. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your body a living sacrifice. Not your brain, not just your eyes, not just some part.

But you cannot be departmentalized sanctification. They all must go on the altar. And don't anybody fool you that the fire falls on the altar, it doesn't. The fire falls on the sacrifice. And the reason why you didn't get consumed with God was that you wanted just a section of sanctification.

That Christ may be magnified by my body. There's an old hymn that says something like this, let my hands perform his bidding, let my feet run in his way, let my eyes see Jesus only, let my lips speak forth his praise.

All for Jesus, all for Jesus. All my beings ransom powers, all my thoughts and words and doings, all my days and all my hours. That's it. Totality. No reservation. And once that creature is on the altar, it's lost all its rights.

Just like when a man was on the cross, he had no rights, he had no civil rights. Nobody could get a petition to get him off that cross. He had no religious rights, his priest couldn't get him off. He had no family rights.

Once he was named to that cross, he had said goodbye to the world, he'd had a total divorce to it. The trouble today is we ask people to come to the altar, pray the sinner's prayer, and they go straight to hell after praying it.

Because it doesn't save anybody. There has to be repentance. That's a dirty word in evangelism today. And if there's a word that's more dirty, it's restitution. Go put right. Remember the man in the scripture who says, if I've got anything by a wrong deed, I'll pay fourfold back again, that Christ may be magnified by my body.

Paul’s Pattern of Life and Ministry

The other day I tried to preach at our little fellowship, which has moved out and down to Van now, on the Apostle Paul, and I used the letter E, and I said his life. It was a very exciting life. He wrestled with wild beasts at Ephesus.

It was a very expensive life. It cost him all things. It was a very expensive life because it comes right down to where we are right now. Let me change the figure here, or the word, and describe his life under the letter P.

That Christ may be magnified. This man says, for me to live is what? Christ. Not for me to live is to preach. Not for me to live is to write more epistles than anybody else ever wrote, which he did. Not for me to out-pray everybody, but for me to live is Christ.

While ever I'm here. So I say that, he says that Christ may be magnified under the letter P. The pattern of his life magnified Christ. It was the most selfless life ever lived after the Lord Jesus Christ himself.

The pattern, he lived so closely, he says, you follow in my footsteps, and when we get to the judgment seat, I'll be accountable for the way you've lived. I want to God every preacher in the country did that.

The pattern of his life. The preaching of his life. Woe is me, I'm under, every time he saw a man, it didn't matter whether it was black or white or yellow, Greek, Hebrew, or what. He says, I'm a debtor.

I told somebody, I think it was today, I thank God I have no debts. I have, I have a consuming debt. I'm a debtor to every man in the world. I heard C .T. Stutz speak once, what a fellow he was. You know, he was consumed with a passion for teaching.

He wrote this phrase. My daddy cut it out and had it stuck up in the house. I used to carry it in my Bible until I memorized it. If Jesus Christ be God and died for me, no sacrifice can be too great for me to make for him.

Very simple, very profound. He's a debtor to every man. You know, on that Damascus road, you remember that he was blinded. You know what? I don't believe he ever got his eyesight back. Physically, yes.

Spiritually, no. He was blinded to everything that everybody else was reaching for. His social standing, his religious standing, his national standing. I'm of the tribe of Benjamin, the seed of Abraham.

Boy, he's got two good things going there. A Pharisee of the Pharisees. My father was a Pharisee. Therefore, I inherit certain special rights because of that. And he says, yet I counted them all but dung.

He becomes almost offensive. They stink like manure, all your honors that the world has. Forget it. You can't charm him. You can't get him to step one degree out from the straight and narrow path that God has designed for him.

He preaches and he says, Roi is me. If I preach not the gospel. Did any man ever preach it better? Did any man ever write more profoundly about it than writing here in Philippians, which this epistle, of course, is an epistle of joy.

I don't think there's any sin mentioned in it. Galatians is different. Romans, of course, is the backbone of his writing. So he magnified Christ by his preaching. He magnified Christ by the pattern of his life.

Paul’s Poise, Patience, and Persecution

He magnified Christ by his poise. We used to live in the ancient city of Bath in England. One day as I got down to the city square, I was at the side of the old cathedral. The foundation of that cathedral, Abbey, was laid in the year 444, quite a while ago.

A Rolls Royce pulled up and two young ladies got out. Teenagers. Oh, boy. I just stood back and watched them. Come on, you boys, you're thinking wrong. They weren't sex symbols. You know what they were?

Two very dignified, cultured, beautiful young ladies. One about 19, I would say. The other about 16. And the way they strode across that square, it was paved. And got to the door and someone opened it and they walked in.

And I suddenly realized who they were. Our present Queen and their sister, Princess Margaret. There was something royal about them. Paul talks about the Bereans. Didn't he say they were more noble than other Christians?

Come on, in God's name, are there first class Christians and second class Christians? They were noble. They were dignified. They brought the very character of Jesus Christ. I'm speaking about Paul now.

But immediately those young ladies walked out. I sensed they'd been trained. Maybe walk with books on their head, you know the stunt they do to make them walk upright. They walked gently. They bowed courteously.

And then they went into the Abbey. I've said this before. I may be wrong, but I'm going to say it again to be sure I'm right. I really believe with all my heart the day that the Apostle Paul was killed, that all hell had a day off.

Keep the letter P in your mind. What do we say? His preaching is superb. The pattern of his life is a total immaculate example. Impeccable spirituality and morality. Well then, what are you going to say now?

I'm going to say this. That he magnified Christ by his poise. He magnified Christ by his patience. He magnified Christ by his persecutions. Poise? You can't knock him off his balance. He's the most unique man in history.

This man went to heaven for a vacation. Say so in the book. Don't look so staring at me. I'm not making it up. Is that right, Matt? Third heaven. Oh, thank you. He's the theologian of last days. He doesn't know it all yet, but he knows a good bit.

No more after tonight, of course, but anyhow. He went to the third heaven. He was known in heaven. He was known all over Asia Minor. He pulled down the devil's estate. He destroyed kingdoms. He had dominion.

He had poise. He had dominion. He had power. Over what? Over demons. Over death. Over disease. Isn't that something? He was the despair of the devil. All hell had a vacation. How do I know? Because one day there's a man with demons in him, and some preachers jumped on him, and the devils have a lot of self-respect, you know.

And they jumped up and beat the preacher up. I think they did right. Because he was a fraud. Do you remember the testimony of the demon? The demon said, Jesus we know, and Paul we know. There's no higher honor than this.

I don't care how big your head gets, and how many degrees you get, and how far you travel, and how big your church is, and how many people you talk to on TV. You can do that and still be a fraud. Matthew 7 says that men are going to come to the very judgment seat of Jesus Christ and say, we prophesied in thy name.

Oh, and we cast out devils in thy name. Oh, and we raised... And Jesus is going to say what? I never knew you. Well, doesn't he know all things? Yes. Why did he say I never knew you? He didn't say I never knew your ministry.

I never knew you in a love relationship. You never kissed my feet. You came for power to preach. You came for power to strut and show your ability. You came for power to do the miraculous. You were swelling with your own ego.

I never knew you. You know, when Judgment Day, when rewards are given out, I expect some old washerwoman to go right up to the front and be rewarded before all these big TV preachers. Preachers strut.

Praying people never strut. Have you heard My Lady's record? No, and I don't want to. Do you want to grab one of my cassettes? No, thank you. I never found a man who punished prayer. People have asked me to put my prayers on tapes, not on your life.

That's my most intimate moment with God. I'm not going to sell my prayers for sure. The demons said Jesus we know and Paul we know. I believe every time Paul moved, hell trembled. They never knew what he would do is the most unpredictable.

The Unpredictability of the Holy Ghost

We know what happens when you go to church to give you notice coming in at the door. They told the secretary to type it all out for the Holy Ghost to read on Sunday morning. The choir will sing, or try to sing anyhow.

Then Miss Jones will gargle to music. Of course, she's got her own background music. You call that music? You can get as much music fastening a cat with its tail in the door. Is this man given to exaggeration?

Do you think? Let me read here. I'll find it in a moment. Is he exaggerating? What is he saying? He says none of these things move me. What things? Let me find it for you. You get a lesson in patience tonight.

Still can't find it. My memory won't work at the moment. It will come up in a minute, don't worry. I'm looking for that list of all his troubles and trials and tribulations. Where is it? Corinthians? Pardon?

Come here. Oh, 2 Corinthians 6. That's not the one I wanted. Pardon? 11, that's right. Now it rings a bell, 11. Thank you. 11, 22 with me. Thank you. Now this is a man that says none of these things move me.

Get the rundown on it, will you? Verse 22, Hebrews 2, 2, pardon me, 2 Corinthians 11. 22. Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they the seed of Abraham? So am I. Are they ministers of Christ?

I speak as a fool. I am more. In labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in death soft. Of the Jews, five times received I forty stripes. What's five forties? Two hundred minus five.

A hundred and ninety-five lashes with a whip that had about ten lashes on it, and at the end of each lash there was a spike made of copper, which is more dreadful to tear the flesh than steel. He received a hundred and ninety-five till his back was like a plowed field.

Verse 25. Thrice I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Thrice I suffered shipwreck. A night and a day I've been in the deep. That must be thirty-six hours. In journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of mine own countrymen, in perils of the heath, in perils of the city, in perils of the wilderness, in perils of the sea, in perils among us false brethren, in weariness, in painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often.

Beside those things that cometh upon me, upon me from the outside, daily, the thing that hurts me, he says, is not ripping that my flesh, the bits on my back. That's common to me. I've had that five times.

Forty stripes. Minus five. Five times over. Three times I've suffered shipwreck. Three times I've been stuck in a corn. Everybody's allowed to throw a rock. Do you think he walked tall and dark and handsome?

I'm sure he dragged a leg. I'm sure his face had been slit. I'm not sure his eyes were straight. I know nothing about him physically or psychologically, but this I do know he was never, never, never far away from his own theology.

And he talks about us being rooted and grounded in God. There wasn't a stone that hell could manufacture that could blow him off his spiritual course. Lash him until he's in anguish. Makes no difference.

Enduring Suffering for Christ’s Sake

When I read this fellow, I preached in a certain church in, I'll just say Chicago, in 1950, 50, 50, 50, 51. After two weeks of preaching in that church, the renowned preacher who's world famous and has written dozens of books, said to his deacons, you know, when Ravenhill finished preaching last night, after ten nights of listening to that guy, I don't even know if I'm saved.

Well, I haven't manufactured any theology. All I've done, I've put lots of pieces together regarding what the Christian can endure for Christ's sake. He isn't trying to get on the Guinness Book of Records or something.

He isn't trying to impress God because you can't impress God. He isn't trying to impress men because man's opinions don't care a hill of beans anyhow. He's wedded to the will of God. Beat me to death if you will, I'll get up and go again.

Lash me, starve me. He says, I know how to be abased and how to abound. I can understand his abasement reading this stuff. I can't in the world reading the scripture find out where he abounded. You know, one of the worst days in your life would be better than the best days in his.

He couldn't go in a room and turn the air conditioning on because he's a bit too warm. He couldn't get another sandwich. He couldn't help himself. He kept his body under. He kept the body under control.

It's right to eat. It's wrong to be a glutton. It's right to sleep. It's wrong to be lazy. It's wrong to exercise your body and keep it fit. But it's wrong to become a competitor as far as I'm concerned.

This man is one of few along with Isaac Watts who wrote the hymn who could really say my richest gain I count but loss. And what? Poor contempt? On all what? All my pride? What are you to be proud of?

The first time I went to Australia somebody said don't make a common mistake when you go there. You go to America and you say well, who are you? Oh, my name's Santa. Do you know the biggest ship that ever sailed?

I sailed the Atlantic about 20 times on the United States boat on the Queen Mary, Queen Elizabeth. And one day as I pondered I realized the biggest boat that ever came across the Atlantic was the Mayflower.

Everybody's grandfather came over on it anyhow. It must have been about three city blocks long. Everybody likes to boast of the pedigree in America. I'm partly Scotch. I'm partly this. I'm partly that.

Wanting to become thoroughbred English. But anyhow. Let's forget that right now. But when you go to Australia don't say well, who was your great-grandfather? Do you know what it was? It was a criminal colony.

They shipped all the criminals from England to Australia. They know they couldn't swim back anyhow. 12 ,000 miles. And there were no boats. Somebody said to a man in Australia well, your granddad came over from where?

Ireland. Did he get shot? No, he said he died of throat trouble. He did? They hung him. But it's a nice way to disguise it. He died of throat trouble. You don't ask a man his pedigree when you go to Australia if you have a go.

This man takes his colossal staggering pedigree that everybody envied. The tribe of Benjamin again. The seed of Abraham. A Pharisee of the Pharisees. He had the most colossal intellect of any man that ever lived.

You can have Socrates and Plato and all the other Greeks that you like. Apart from Jesus, he was the greatest, wisest, most wonderful man that ever lived. But he says this brain of mine, I want it to glorify God.

So again, he goes up on Mars Hill and he talks with the Epicureans and the poets and the philosophers and they were amazed. What will this... What did they say? What will this... What was the scripture?

What will this little idle babbler say? Tradition said he was five feet two. So was Wesley. In case you're five feet two, take courage. They looked at him, these athletes. Oh, look at this little Jew.

And you know what? He's smart. Oh boy, he knows religion. Boy, he can... He has recited the whole of the Old Testament. There are lots of Jews in New York today that still do that. And you lazy guys looking at sports magazines and sports results.

No wonder you're dumb. Make up your mind that between now and when you leave here, you'll learn so many verses of the scripture before you leave. They'll be in there until you die. Thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee.

Oh, he's a wise man. He can recite all the kings of Israel. Oh, he's fantastic. He's fabulous. And he got their admiration. And then one day he said, Well, I notice you have many altars to strange and unknown gods.

I've come to tell you about the unknown god. He not only made the universe, but one day you're going to stand in the judgment before him. And do you know what he did? He's the god of all gods, the king of all kings, the lord of all lords.

And every knee is going to bow to him one day. But wait a minute, he says. Let me tell you something. I've told you about the Hebrew system of sacrifice, he says. I've told you about the high priest. He's the superior edition of every high priest.

He's greater than Melchizedek. And he runs through the whole thing. And he said, you know what he did? He did what Moses could never do. He did what all the blood of bulls and goats could never do. As the poet says, not all the blood of beasts on Jewish altars slain could give one guilty conscience peace or wash away one stain, but Christ, the heavenly Lamb, he abolished the old system.

The Lamb of God did more than the hundreds of thousands of lambs that were slain before. And he said, I'll tell you, he went with a cross. He died on that cross. And they buried him. And three days after he rose up.

Oh, what? Boy, that's a new one. We never heard any religion like that. Well, I'm telling you that Jesus Christ is superb and superior to every being that ever lived. He died. And he rose again on the third day.

What did they do? They showed him the gate. Get out of here. You fascinated us with some of your teaching, but when you expect us to read it, that's incredulous. That's impossible. We're not idiots. We're scholars.

We're philosophers. Well, isn't that the trouble with lots of our scholars today? Lots of our theologians. I read you that horrible record there. And yet, he kept his poise. Oh, this is way out. Well, I'm way out as you know.

If you don't want anything way out, don't come. I'm not trying to make you incredulous. I wonder if I spring, as it were, any surprises on Jesus Christ today with my life. The early church was a very wonderful church.

It had the first martyr, a young man by the name of Stephen who we consider was less than 20 years of age. And Jesus looks down from heaven and he sees this little fellow here being tortured. He goes through all the shame and humiliation and degradation of being an outcast in a very, very religious, prim and proper religious society.

And finally, they take him and they stone him. Put him in a corner. And what happened? They thought they'd knock his eyes out. What happened? He saw more than anybody else. He said, I see heaven opened.

Isn't that great? Don't nod your head because the Lord may let somebody stone you this week so you can see heaven opened. Oh, it's theology. It must have been wrong. I see heaven opened and the Son of God is standing.

No, He isn't. He's sitting at the right hand of the Father. I suggest to you if I could use a word. I don't like to talk about excitement. I'll use it with a holy connotation here. I believe that when Jesus Christ saw in that young man and the trouble of his soul that Jesus jumped up in excitement from His throne and said, there He is.

This is the pattern. The only way to live is to die. And your problem, we won't die. I was turning over in my mind again today the sixth chapter there of Isaiah. When Isaiah saw the Lord, what did he say?

Seeing God’s Holiness and Our Own Depravity

Oh, my prayer life needs a bit tightening up. Lord, I need a little bit more zeal. Lord, I need a fresh Bible study. He is a man of God who had had a total revelation in the first chapter. He has another revelation.

But the revelation was not out. It was in. It was up and in. It was a vision of height. He saw God. It was a vision of depth. He saw in Himself. It was a vision of breadth. He saw the world. It was a vision of deity.

He saw the holy being. It was a vision of depravity. He saw in Himself. It was a vision of duty. He saw the world outside. It was a vision of holiness. He saw a holy God. It was a vision of helplessness.

He saw inside Himself. It was a vision of a lost world. He saw hopelessness. I quoted that Quaker hymn tonight, Greenleaf Whitty wrote that gorgeous hymn, Lord of all beings, thorned afar,. Our midnight is thy smile withdrawn, Our noontide is thy gracious dawn, Thy rainbows arch our mercy's sign,.

All but save the clouds of sin are thine, Lord of all life, below, above, Whose light is truth, whose warmth is love,. Before thine ever-blazing throne,. We have no lust about it. What happens? The nearer you get to God, you see your own corruption, until he removes that corruption.

Read the story of Job, and then finally he says, Woe is me, woe is me, woe is me, I'm unclean. Peter had known Jesus, he comes near to Jesus and he says, Depart from me, I'm a sinful man. Now I don't believe you have to live there permanently.

I read part of a new book today that made me sick. You can just as well be a Mohammedan, or you can deal with your sins of the past, you can take them all and throw them in the sea of his forgetfulness, but you're going to have corruption, you're going to have corruption inside until you die, that's a lie from hell.

You say, well, many of the things inside of me don't die, for the simple reason you won't let God crucify you, that's right. The key of this man's life again is, I am crucified with Christ. That's why he has a passion.

He's been so liberated, so emancipated, so educated by the Spirit, he stands before kings and kings tremble, isn't that something? The guy hasn't got a penny to his name, and then he stands before a king who's a vassal king of the Roman Empire, Agrippa, and Agrippa says, You almost make me want to be a Christian.

He stands before Felix, another wart, he had a wartess as a wife. What did Felix do? Felix could put men to death, he can dip them in kerosene and put them on the walls of his castle and light them up at night to illuminate the sports that go on at night, but he trembles before a penniless man.

God pity us. I wonder how many people will leave church this Sunday and go home not to sleep for two or three nights. We do that when the Holy Ghost starts an earthquake in your life and he shows you a cell in your body of corruption, where there's deception, where there's lust, where there's greed, where there's anger, where there's pride, and you feel you're just a pile of manure walking around.

What did this blessed man do? He didn't say, Lord, help me, I need to be better. He says, woe is me, number one, I'm undone, I'm unclean. You cannot minimize depravity. It's more than of the earth earthy, it's of hell hellish.

People say, well, you need a little bit of sin to keep you humble. I'm not facetious, but I've heard people say this. You need a little bit of sin to keep you humble. The logic is, why not have a lot and be real humble?

Tell me one sin that will do you good. Tell me one sin that will glorify Jesus in your life. We're not preaching against sin anymore. Preachers don't talk about iniquity, they call it infirmity. I don't watch TV very much, hardly ever, but the other day I listened to the news and right on came an advertisement for beer.

And it said, buy your beer here and do this, that and the other. Wait a minute. It was saying about the quality of beer. Right after that they said, well, of course, we recognize that some of you are very bad drinkers.

Of course, alcoholism now is a disease. Dear Lord, am I that dumb? You tell me that men go behind a bar and ask for a bottle of disease? Do they sit in the bar and say, hey buddy, how many quarts of disease have you drunk tonight?

We're excusing sin on every level. There are no adulterers anymore, they're just having affairs. There's no iniquity, it's just infirmity. There's no wickedness, it's just weakness. But listen, when you change the name of it, it's the same damnable thing anyhow.

My sister and I didn't get on too well together often. We would quarrel and my sister would go to her mother and say, Mommy, Len told a fib. You know what a fib is? It's a lie. But to children, it's a fib.

Or she'd be more kind some days. She'd say, well, Len told a story. And then when you go to school, you learn that you're a liar. When you go to college, you learn you're a prevaricator. When you go to university, you're guilty of terminological inexactitudes.

So watch out, Ronnie, don't get new words. A lie is a lie. There are no white lies, they're as black as hell. Sin is not weakness, it's wickedness. It's not infirmity, it's iniquity. Adultery is adultery, not an affair.

The Church of Jesus Christ is cursed with adultery right now. The little boy on PTL, he should know, he said adultery is as bad in the pulpit now as in the pew, that's something. I would like to have heard this man Paul preach.

Oh boy, I'm not sure I could have stood up to it very much. But it must have been awesome. It's consuming passion is to live for Jesus Christ. I don't care if you skin me. I don't care if you put me in prison.

I don't care if you stone me. I don't care if you throw me in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea. And I stay there 36 hours without food. And ships almost tear me up at night as they come. I don't care.

So long as Jesus Christ is magnified in my body, Lord, experiment on me. Dare you say that? Dare I say that? Experiment on me. Not for your sake, for my sake. I don't have to prove myself to God. He knows me better than I know myself.

What he has to do is to prove me to myself. I'll tell you what I found out. You can't live wrong and pray right. Prayer is the most demanding exercise in the Christian life. Paul magnified Jesus by the pattern of his life.

By fastings and willingness to travel and as much traveling as traveling. He magnifies Jesus by the pattern of his life. He magnifies Jesus by his preaching. He magnifies Jesus by his purpose. This one thing I do.

And you know what? He magnified Jesus. God gave me this. Just come in the building tonight. He magnified Jesus by his pain. Why? Because he had a thorn in the flesh. I'm a great prayer warrior than he was.