Condition of the Church of Laodicea — Manley Beasley

The Personal Cost of Preaching Experienced Truth

Back to the years, and how I love that, how tedious and tasteless they are, and how precious it is. We do have a special blessing for you, and I think if I told you what we were going to do, some of you would misunderstand, so I'm not going to tell you.

I promise you that it will be in a time that I really believe in my heart that will challenge your life, and I believe it will be along the lines that you are expecting God to challenge your life, that's why you're here.

I believe it will be a very significant moment. I had, I believe, two calls today from different places across the nation. God had used what we're going to involve in tomorrow night. He did bless. Trust that you will make a special effort.

It will be worth your while, if you need to, to make a special effort to be here, because what we're talking about is not available anytime, anyplace at this point, and so it's a last situation. In fact, I will say this, that we're bringing a man in just to be here for that particular service, and so you are, I want to get you involved if possible.

Tonight, I want you to turn to the book of Revelation. I really do not understand that I could have ever preached this message, and I reason, I believe the reason is that as an evangelist, I have never had to preach a lot of truth that I was not experiencing in my own heart, and obviously I would not have been able to preach this message until recently.

Now, I realize that teaching the Bible is one thing, but living it is another thing, and I realize that teachers teach the Bible, and when they haven't lived up to it or experienced it, and I'm not condemning that necessarily, but as an evangelist, you don't have to do that a great deal, unless you just want to, and as a result of that, I have never tried to preach a great deal of material that I have not experienced myself.

I brought this message here to this local church a few sometimes back, and argued a little bit with the Lord about bringing it because of that, but I seem to get the indication from Him that you needed it twice, and so I'm not going to apologize to you for it, and then of course the rest.

Unless you happen to be in my monthly tape ministry, you probably haven't heard it. I know you haven't heard it from me. Now, you heard it from other preachers. But in the book of Revelation, you have seven churches mentioned.

Some theologians believe that that's seven periods of Christian history, from the New Testament day up to today, and some just believe that it's a condition of the church at different stages, which it doesn't represent history.

I realize tonight that I'm not going to try to fit this into any particular category of history. Or interpretation that would fit it into any kind of category. I'm going to make it very personal. In fact, I would not even pretend to say to you that your church is a Laodicean church.

I know some of you, and some of you I don't know. I'd like for this message to be to you personally, and let you just make up your own mind where you are as we deal with this passage. The passage of dealing with the church at Laodicea.

Christ at the Door and the Possibility of Individual Revival

Now, it thrills me to deal with this passage for a number of reasons. But number one is, at the end of this passage, which is actually the end of all seven of them, he's standing at the door, and he's knocking.

And he's saying, let me in. In one way, that looks awfully bad, because he's outside wanting in. Listen, period of history. I'm standing there, I'm knocking, I want to get in. And you know, a lot of people are saying in these last days we can't have revival.

I do not believe there's any place in the Bible that isolates a child of God from having revival any time they'll pay the price individually. Now, corporately it may be a different story. But individually, I believe you can have one.

And revival is, no doubt, you letting the Lord in in such a way that you sub with him and him with you. And the fellowship there will spring into a mighty revival. And this passage closes with that kind of invitation.

So it excites me to be able to deal with it. So I want to begin reading, I believe it's the 14th verse, and dealing with the church at Laodicea. And unto the angel of the church of Laodicea I'm right.

These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God. He says, I know thy works, I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot. I would that thou wert cold or hot.

So then, because thou art lukewarm, neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth. I'm rich and increased with goods, and have need of nothing. And knowest I'm not, that thou art wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked?

I counsel thee to buy of me gold tied in the fire, that thou mayest be rich and white-rimmed, that thou mayest be cold. That the shame of thy nakedness do not appear, and the mountain-tight eyes of thy sight, that thou mayest see.

As many as I love, I will abuse and chasten. Be zealous, therefore, and repent. For I stand at the door and knock, and if any man will hear my voice and open the door, I will come unto him, and I will sit with him, and he with me.

To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and sat down with my Father in his throne. He that hath ears, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.

The Laodicean Condition: Failing to Know Oneself

I ought to see in your church, as a church may represent you as an individual, I ought to see in condition, and distress it, and talk about it in the light of a message on revival. I ought to see in church, the Lord says something very profound and simple, and yet so direct and so needful for all of us.

He says to this church in Laodicea, he said, I know. Now, from that statement, in the context, it's obvious, they do not know themselves. He said, because you think you are, and you're blind, and you're poor.

He said, you think you can see, and you're blind. He said, you think you're cold, and you're naked. Now, it's quite obvious, my dear friends, when he said, I know thy words. They did not know themselves.

They did not know themselves. Evidence of a Laodicean condition. A person does not know themselves. Now, beloved, if you'll study the Sermon on the Mount, different aspects of the Sermon on the Mount, that the revelation of all of them together is reduced to reduce up.

The True Issue of Life Is Relationship With Christ

This past year, I flew up to Canada to be at a meeting. It was the first week out after I went on this particular type of dialysis I'm on. I get amazed, I get fascinated at people coming by and telling me, you know, Brother Manley, I had an uncle this way, and I had an aunt this way, and I had a friend this way, and a friend that way.

I wonder sometimes if people really know what the issue of life really is. Life is not the problem you're having. The issue of life is how you're related to the one that sustains it. And that's the Lord Jesus.

What happened with your uncle may never happen to me. How to get out of us what he wants out of us, and my dear friends, when he gets a proper relationship between us and him together, he has no problem with any problem you might have.

Properly related to him, you don't have any problem with any problem you might have. One lady came by this morning, not known for a good while, and she said, praise God, I'm not going to feel sorry for you anymore.

I wanted to say, well, I never wanted you to feel sorry for me because I'm having a good time. She said, well, what do you mean? She said, when they told me I was going on this particular dialysis, I needed to have to retire when I discovered that I could travel.

With this, I was told God just put a little old lady in the way, a little old lady over in church where I was dealing with a pastor that had cancer, and so I taught him how to live with cancer. And when he learned how to live with cancer, he doesn't have it anymore.

I was over there and a little old lady playing piano said, when you have to face this dialysis situation seriously, you call me. Now, I wasn't planning on going this route, but somehow God keeps pushing me this way just a little bit for some reason.

And so I got ready for this dialysis, and my doctor had told me there was such a thing as C .A .P .D. dialysis, but I said, well, I can't carry all those boxes of fluids. So this little lady was at the right place at the right time.

She said, when you get ready to go that way, she called me. So I called her, and she said, well, now you need to go this way, C .A .P .D. way of dialysis. She said, because if you want to travel, that's the only way to go.

She said, you need to go down and see two ladies. And so I went down in Dallas to see these two ladies, and they told me, I said, now I have a big problem with this type of dialysis. I said, all that fluid stuff that you have to take with you, I said, I can't haul that stuff around.

It takes $400 a week just hauling it around. She said, well, Mr. Beeson, you don't have to haul it around. We have equipment all over the world, and we have a system all over the world. And they have it set in your room when you get there, if they know where to put it.

And I said, well, I've never heard of that. I said, that's interesting. And I said, it must be awfully expensive. She said, well, they may pay you. I said, tell me what? They said, when you have kidney failure after you're 17 years of age, you go on Medicare if you have any kind of insurance at all.

This won't cost you a dime. So it keeps me about $500 a week. I'm enjoying your Social Security. Amen. To get you through all that. So Martha and me, we were learning all this stuff about what I'm doing.

It takes 21 days. I said, if anybody else can learn in 14, I can learn in five. I went down there in five days. They said, where are you headed? I said, Canada. They'd like to have a scout going to Canada.

I said, well, since I'm going to Canada, I thought I'd talk to the man up there. And I said, he has a big camp, a big camp. I mean, really. It's an unbelievable camp. And I said, he has two doctors on the staff.

And I said, they don't know anything about this, but they're there, and they'll try to help me. And so they already checked that, you know, there's a little hospital about five miles away and all that stuff way up in Canada.

And that camp in Canada was downtown in Ontario, Toronto. He was talking to his CPA friend, and he said, I've got a preacher coming up here that's just going on this paraphernalia type of dialysis. And he said, I'm a little apprehensive, but I know God wants him to come.

He said, I'm a little afraid. That man said, well, you know, that's interesting. One of my NIBs at Take Care of His Books is the man who invented that stuff. He said, let's just call him. So they picked up the telephone and called him, and that man that invented this stuff said, well, I'll tell you what, that I'm totally available.

He said, here's my number, and if that man needs any help, you call me. And I will personally take care of him. So see, friends, I'm having a good time. I'm telling you, my God is keeping my appointments, taking care of my appointments, and keeping me going, and I'm just having a time watching him do it.

Isn't that a problem? He just has problems wanting me the way he wants me. The problem is, my dear friends, is this. It's something that helped me to see Ruth Elliott, Elizabeth Elliott, excuse me, the wife of Jim Elliott that was killed by the Afro-Indians.

Her name is Elizabeth Elliott Lynn now. Beautiful, and it's just so blessed to listen to her. And it's a marvelous experience. She got his car gotten over. She said to cut without any sides on it, just the roof on it.

And after her husband was killed, she went into this little village, in fact, it was less than a village, and lived there with her daughter in a hut. She said when she would go to the bathroom every time she'd make a step, somebody would make a step right behind her.

How do you ladies like that? I'm talking about a lady. I'm talking about an elegant, dignified, educated lady. Never saw the country. There she was out there in that primitive condition. And standing by her hut was the man, one of the men who stabbed her husband to death.

And she found out. She thought at first that they just stabbed him a couple times, but she found out that they stabbed him many, many, many times with spears. Even went back and got more spears and came back and just kept stabbing him.

One of those very men was standing at her shack. A string the size of the string around his waist. He's strained now folks. That string. He looked at her so sharply. Simply said to her, what do you want us to do?

Revival Through Conviction and Spiritual Unity

The church could lay out a seal. You're seeing Christians. They do not know their condition. They don't know what they are. In fact, my friend, the tragedy of it is, they just don't know what they are.

They think they're something. You're something that you're not. If you ever have personal revival, you will discover, folks, there's not one thing good. He said, I wish you'd choose me. He wanted to put an interpretation to that statement.

I'll tell you the only interpretation I can get out of that statement is this. The Odyssey in Church. My dear friend, you have a form of godliness, but not the life, the power thereof. What's wrong with that?

He said if you're, because when you're hot or cold, you are not deceptive. And so people look at you, and they see the form, and they'll assume. He said for that reason, I'd rather have you totally out of business, because you're deceiving people.

But you deny you're doing rather well. If you judge yourself by yourself, or your neighbor, you can do well. But if you judge yourself by this blessed old book, no television, no printing prints, all the method of communication they had was basically to tell each other.

And in one day had 3 ,000 saved. And they obviously stayed saved. In fact, somebody said something about the turn of the world. The first missionary movement outside of the New Testament days, power of men.

But when he's come up, and brought in to stop preaching, that bunch lost place. When Christians all over Europe being saved, but quite fragmented in their doctrine, which was covered thousands and thousands of acres.

And among them, the cause of their fragmentation doctrinally, bitterness and resentment and all kinds of reaction. Count Zenderoff being such a man of God, they began to pray. And they prayed and they prayed.

And they prayed and they prayed and they prayed and prayed. And one day in a prayer meeting, the Holy Spirit of God's cleansing power, that He broke those people and let them see what they really were.

And when they saw themselves as they really were, they were so fused together by the unity of the Holy Spirit, that my dear friends, they came out of there as one mighty, mighty army. And they were so committed to Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God, and had to just zeal for the lost and dying world, they had no money to go as missionaries, to go as missionaries.

Now, how do we fit? You're a deceptive person. My dear friends, this side of men and women who've been church members 50, 60 years, and got ready to die and they weren't ready. I'll tell you something.

You've got, my dear friends, to live by. It's going right. But whenever things are going wrong, I'll tell you what, I want to advise you, counsel you. I want to tell you something. He said, I'll tell you what I'd like for you to do.

Gold Refined in Fire and a Life Surrendered to God

I'd like for you to buy some gold, and try it in the fire. He said to that same crowd, folks, I would like for you to buy some white raiment. And he said, I'd also like for you to buy some ice axes. I want them to buy it, obviously solve the problem of the lay out of sin condition.

Buy gold, try it. What is he saying? The size of a mere piece of gold down here, lay it in my hand. I put that gold, try it in the fire. We're going to take that piece of gold, put that gold, what? As you watch that piece of gold burn, you know not lose one ounce.

There's everything in there that's not gold. Right. Purified in that fire. Pure, but it's nothing but pure gold. Let's take it out of the fire. Take it out of the fire, and it's cool enough to handle it.

You can take it in your bare hands, and hold that piece of gold. And that gold is so flexible, and really, in a good word, is so submissive to the pressure of your hands, that you can just mold it into any desire, likeness you want.

Just mold it. So soft. So beautiful image, according to our choice. Place it right here. Right here on the scope. And we look at that gold. See a pure piece of gold. Into the fashion of our choice. And my dear friends, we see something else.

That gold is so sensitive to nature, that you can look real close, and you will see the wrinkles of your hand. The making of that gold into that image. There's the mark of the eternal God. Mark of the touch of the Master on that gold.

About when he said, buy gold fried in the fire. He said, you take that life you've got. Put it in the hands of God, and let him put you in the fire. And burn all the impurity out of you. And my dear friends, so purify you, that you are so submissive to God.

But his opinion. But his ambition. But his revelation. No anticipation, but his anticipation. Twice you're not there. When you get there, folks, he is the only light. You let him make the choices. And you simply, not passively, but simply cooperate.

He stands you up before the world. They have to say, look, I don't understand. But you get a little closer, and you can see the marks of his hand. And you realize, he's in for that life. He is eternal.

And he said, buy that. Turn to gold. We've done for God, not what God has done for us. And people, my friends, wouldn't go down the street to see what you're doing for God. But they'll go around the world to see what God is doing for you.

Rahab, Holiness, and the Glory of God

Charlotte didn't get in on bringing Jesus into the world. By the dedication, and by the commitment, they came out of Egypt. There's one side of it. But she said when she got preached to by those spies, when we heard of what God was doing for you, our defense departed from us, and we wanted to get in on what she was doing.

And old Curtis McCauley used to say, and I believe he was right, long before those spies ever showed up at her doorstep, she had already changed professions. For she was now a dealer in black. Because it was all over her porch.

One thing, she had already had a change, and it was not because of what they did for God, it was because of poverty. Because, my dear friends, she's not submitting to come out as gold while tried in the fire.

Now, White Raymond, you have to go very far to realize he's talking about holiness. You don't have to go far to realize he's talking about a robe of righteousness, holiness. And my friends, as a position of holiness, as a position of holiness, a position of righteousness, that when you get saved by the grace of God, positionally, you are perfect before God.

I understand that. Experiential holiness, experiential righteousness, which means, my dear friends, you are no more holy and no more righteous than you are obedient to the truth God has revealed to you.

Your sins and my sins are not confessed up to date, and our relationship and fellowship is not only right with God, but we're right with our fellow man. We are not a holy people. There's something like a Siamese twin that comes with holiness that doesn't come any other way.

You say, what's that, Brother Manley? You just know when the glory shows up. Explain the glory. The glory is manifesting. I just talked to a boy in Maryland. He just got back from Europe with us. We got back from Europe a couple weeks ago, and this boy stayed over and preached.

And this boy, I mean, folks, he knows the glory. Came to me two and a half years ago. Has a master's degree. Wife has a master's degree in music. A few months before, they discovered that his wife had this rare disease where she was allergic to everything synthetic.

House up in the mountains of North Georgia. Couldn't even find a job himself, but he got a little house up there in 611 where there was no kind of synthetic stuff in there whatsoever. And that mama, all she could do was live in that one little room.

And this preacher with a marvelous education, his wife, a marvelous education, could sing on television. All the qualities, I mean, the beauty and everything. How a wonderful saint of God there she was with this disease.

And he said, Brother Manley, I have nothing else to do but take her up there to that one room. And he said, there's nowhere to preach up there, and there's nothing in this world. First thing you got to do is head to the cross and let God show you yourself.

And when you get there, if the resurrected life of God doesn't show you something to do, I said, you'll die right there. That's all I can tell you. That was a short counseling service. A year later, my church was meeting.

He said, Brother Manley, I took her home. Put her in that one room with her mother. He said, I couldn't find anything to do but got out there and got a little old job planting Christmas trees. And said, one day, sitting on the back end of a truck with a master's degree between 10th and 6th grade dropouts, I said, Lord Jesus, I'll do it for the rest of my life.

If this heart pleases you, it pleases me. He said, Brother Manley, he said, that day, I got a call. He said, I got a call. He said, the church of Maryland said, Charles, I want you to come up here and preach for us.

He said, I'll come and preach. They didn't tell him. They were interested in calling me pastor. He got up there and he preached. They said, we want you to be our pastor. He said, you don't understand.

I can't come. I have a wife that has this problem and she can't go anywhere. They said, oh yes, we know. We have a deacon who has a wife that has the same problem and he has a big, beautiful home up here prepared for your wife until we as a church can build your home and put you in it.

Man, I never thought of that. And they built him a home and when I went there, there was a beautiful room off to the side that was made of gold. And she and that deacon wife would sit back there and she'd step out of there and come and lead the choir in a special and sing her special and go back to that room and bring in on what God was doing.

Something about that pure gold and that glory. And I called my son today and said, I want some tapes from over in Europe. He started naming them. But this man, that man has a Ph .D. Five or six books.

Pastor of the most popular church in the world. Westminster Chapel. Or G. Campbell Morgan pastored. Or Martin Luther King pastored. He said, ah, that white rainbow. We get holy. We get the glory. Comes with it.

That glory is that unexplainable presence of an almighty God. That my, old friend, not only fills you but fills the very atmosphere in which you are born. And people know. They know about the glory. Originators of the Nazarene movement knew that they did not have a good, solid, foundational doctrine.

So he said, boys, if you want to keep this thing alive, make sure you stay in the glory. Because that'll be the only thing. That's tonight, folk. He said, bye, that white rainbow. I was lying in bed in Houston, Texas, the sickest I've ever been for us.

Feelin' bad. And a bunch of men flew in from San Antonio, Texas in a big ol' airplane. Half a million dollar airplane, I guess. They're gonna cheer me up. And they cheered. I'm not makin' fun, folk. They did their best.

They cheered, and they cheered, and they cheered! In the door. They stopped their cheering. Not sure yet. And I'm not tryin' to be mystical. Whether from that room we went to glory or from glory came into that room.

But when courage and doom walked in that door they shut their cheering and got silent. You know why? Because the glory of God filled that room. We had been cheered. We had been in the presence of a holy God.

Simple woman is what we American girls would dress and what glory. I had a great education. Could not read and write because perception problem. And I couldn't see figures right. I couldn't see words right.

Limitations. I had one man of wisdom tell me he said, Preacher, I know you got a lot of limitations. I was just a young boy. And he said, if you'll stay on your face before God, he said, if you let God touch your life, He will make up the difference.

Manifestation of glory situation. Talk to Him. You get that white raiment, you will see. He's talkin' about He's talkin' about The man tried to do that in the Bible. You haven't heard everything I got to say yet.

Spiritual Sight, Wisdom, and Seeing as God Sees

There's more ways to buy things than with money. I'm telling you that He said in Revelation, Buy that I say. And anoint your eyes that I say. You get your eyes anointed. The Lord, not in the words of Proverbs, but I'll add the words of Proverbs to it.

At all cost, you get this. What was He talkin' about? He's talkin' about wisdom. And you know what wisdom is? Wisdom is being brought to the place that you see things like God sees things. You great scholars, check that out in your word study.

You anoint that eyes with I say, and you start seein' things like God sees them. That'll settle you in the midst of a storm. That'll fire you up in the midst of discouragement. That'll take you through.

Loving the Lost Through Spiritual Maturity

This past year, we had the beautiful experience of seeing my mother pass from earth to heaven. In His glory. We always thought it would be. And it was. I'll tell you, Lord, I just can't explain it. They say, Mama's in the hospital.

Doctor says she can't live. Flying out the airport and the Holy Spirit says, it's not time. Mama called us in. I thought this funny, beautiful, little humanistic touch here, but it's so beautiful. My mother lived in Mississippi.

Country girl. All that great country cooking. She picked me up at the airport. Sometime to laugh, you know. Mother just called me in. Things she wanted to tell us. What it turned out to be, she wanted to have a celebration.

And so I got there, and I said, what are you laughing about? She said, do you know what your mother, one of the greatest cooks in the world, was wanting for lunch? About chicken and dumplings and a ton of greens, stuff like that.

Peas, cornbread. She wants a McDonald's hamburger. A McDonald's hamburger. We got in there. My brother met a big old executive. And you know, he travels all over the world. Russia, China, everywhere. And you know, three months before my mother passed away, his company, out of all the places he goes in the world, sent him nine miles from her house.

My God, running this thing. I don't know about yours, but mine is. And I'm enjoying it. There he was. Then she brought us in one by one. Saturday, and I was to leave. She said, I want you girls now to fix the lunch.

She told them I'd fix the cornbread, I'd fix the ton of greens, I'd fix the chicken and dumplings. She said, this is my celebration dinner. I've been lonely. She was having such a good time. Passed away in a few weeks.

A neighbor that had lived by her since 1944, he said, you know something? He said, I don't know where the word Saint came from, but he said, when they came up with that word, they must have had a woman like Mrs. Beasley.

Grandchildren, the letter, they had it read to the general. Story, let me just tell you this. It's in 1971. 1971. They tied me in a lounge chair and seated me right over there. An Appleman came in here.

He'll get here all this week. And the Holy Ghost said to me, said, son, don't pay any attention to it. He doesn't know what he's doing. And after looking at me for a week, by Friday night, he forgot. I sat right over there.

The lowest I've ever been physically in my life. Ever major organ in my body. Lung, liver, kidneys. Everything was affected. It looked like I died before that seventh doctor got back to his seventh story in the seventh month.

So I could go to him. I could be put in the hospital for seven on the seventh floor and stay with him for seven years. And then him dismiss me in the seventh month of the seventh year. Would not even walk by because I so collapsed.

He couldn't stand it. And I don't blame you. And God spoke to my heart and said, you get up and tell them you're not going to die. Everybody said I was going to die. And just before two days before I came over here, my mother visited me.

She gave me her Bible. And said, we think you would want this. And I started looking through that Bible. And I went back in that Bible to a verse of scripture. It had a little note out by it. In 71, she said, I have just visited Manly.

It was the darkest hour of my life. She put in her Bible. We'll be okay. Anointed with ice hair. And she saw something like the Lord saw it. You buy that ice hair. When you get that ice hair, we start seeing lost people like we saw.

You see, if you deal with Romans, you deal with Paul, through the book of Romans, you're almost as if he was a human being writing that. Instead of the Holy Spirit, you have an autobiography. And you know the first five chapters, you see a man getting saved.

And you know in Romans 6, 7, and 8, you see a man getting sanctified. But in Romans 9, you see a man so sanctified, his eyes are so covered with the eyesave of God. Here's a man that said, I'm willing to go to hell for my kinsmen.

Now, if you have any trouble with that, you talk to the author of that book. He puts it in the context, I lie not, the Holy Ghost bear me witness. I would go to hell for my kinsmen. And all these people that call this, and all these people in tongues, and shouting, and healing, and all that spiritual maturity, they ought to read that book.

There you have your sequence of spiritual maturity. You get your eyes covered with eyesave, my dear friends, and you start loving sinners so much that you're willing to change your place in hell for them to go to heaven.

The amazing thing about it, Paul couldn't do that, but he was willing. My what love, can you imagine a man getting that much like Jesus? Some little subjective experience, and something you'd call that God.

Mature in me. Always been determined by love rather than people. Never by enormous amount of experiences. Tried in the fire, by white raiment, don't buy that. I understood Isaiah, I understood this passage.

Presenting the Body as a Living Sacrifice

Remember that passage in Isaiah? Without money? This is for you tonight, folks. You've got something you can buy, that gold and that white raiment, and that eyesave with. And it's not your money. It's not your education.

It's your service. You say, what have I got? You've got something the Lord wants. Not only does he want it, but you have the power within you to do something with it. He said, behold, I stand at the door and knock, if any man will open.

So obviously you have, you've got something he wants. You've got, you can buy it. In the culture of the scripture, the scripture, I beseech you, brethren, the mercies of God, that you present yourself.

James says a living sacrifice. In some of the other translations, it says worshipful sacrifice. My friend, in its primary interpretation, is not a hallelujah little dance. Worship, in its primary interpretation, is a person coming and so committing themselves as a living person to the altar of God, for soul completely, that their everything is on the altar to such an extent that a whole of God can consume that sacrifice with his presence.

That is worship. He says, I've just come to praise God. I didn't. I came to worship. When I say worship, I don't mean praise. I came, my dear friends, to offer myself a sacrifice, a sacrifice that's still alive, physically, very probably, on that altar for God to consume.

Sacrifices on that altar. My friends, the fire will consume it. ...bettering by the mercies of God that you present yourself. And the best I can understand it, it's not a once-and-for-all experience.

He said being transformed by what? The renewing of your mind. In other words, going right back to where you got to go there, to where you got the white raiment, to where you got to go, to where you got the anointing.

You get transformed, victor to victor, glory to God. So why not? That collegiatehood will be the foundation. I don't know. But until you must come to that place, I beseech you, brethren, by the mercies of God, and present yourself for Him to purify that gold-tide in the fire and sanctify you until there's a white robe of righteousness, the price of all your life before Him, you'll never see the glory of God.

It's been good to you. So He's not through with you. I'll have you home. So if you've got a year layoff, there's a vehicle by which to reveal glory. He's got something He wants. Your hard-earned day is here tonight.