If Any Man Be in Christ - Part 1 (Cd Quality) — Leonard Ravenhill

The Lamb of God and Access to the Holy of Holies

Ever in joyful song. You want us to sing another one? No, that was when Christ is coming. Okay, okay. Very good. Okay, shall we pray? We thank you, our Father, tonight, that those of us who were afar off are made nigh by the blood of the Lamb.

We thank you that your blessed Holy Word says that he, the Christ, was the Lamb flamed from the foundation of the world. And then in the book of Revelation, you remind us, the Lamb is in the midst of the throne.

We thank you tonight that we have boldness to enter to the very throne of God. We're not kept in the outer court, not permitted just to come to the holy place, but into the very Holy of Holies. We thank you for such a Savior tonight.

For our sins he suffered and bled and died. Not just for the people in Africa, not for the people last century, not the people who are unborn, but for our sins he suffered and bled and died. We thank you for that amazing fact, that just as by one man's sin this world has been corrupted, by one man salvation has been accomplished.

We bless you for your Holy Word. You say that in the epistles of the Hebrews, that Christ himself, when he had by himself purged our sins, not with the help of the Virgin Mary, not with the help of some high priest, not with the help of cherubim and seraphim, but by himself.

Lord, I wonder how angels felt when Adam transgressed and lifted the floodgates and let the whole human race be polluted. But Lord, we wonder how they felt when he rose from the dead. And in heaven there was a sound proclaim, lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors.

The King of glory has come in. Lord, we thank you that what all the blood of beasts could not do through millenniums, countless offerings were made, sacrifices, burnt offerings, and yet what they could not do, one did.

What no other lamb could do, the Lamb of God did. Took our sins in his body on the tree, lifted a burden, not a million Samson's could never lift. Solved a problem, a million Solomons with all his wisdom could never solve.

We thank you that we're reconciled to God through him. And we thank you tonight he lives to make intercession for us. Lord, this is beyond our paltry, terrible, limited comprehension. We remember so often, Lord Jesus, that you took our sins, that you also took our griefs.

Lord, maybe a million people have cried in their grief today. Some from the prisons of Russia, some from Martyrdom away there in China, some from sickbed, and yet you've heard more than a thousand languages and you understand them all in the same second.

If you have a million different needs, we bless you that you're so infinite, so majestic, so awesome, there are no problems to you. Lord, we bless you again. There remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, if this also made of solid gold, and we brought the most precious beast in America tonight, it would be no good at all.

We thank you that once in the end of the age, he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And because of that, Lord, we know it's possible for us to say that sin shall not have dominion over us.

The Authority and Permanence of God's Word

We thank you for your holy word tonight. I thought as we drove up here tonight, how often we've driven through the streets of England, we've seen marks on the road where martyrs were buried, burned to death to give us this holy word.

And yet, Lord, how little likely we esteem it. Lord, it's a Gibraltar, nobody will ever dynamite it. We bless you, Lord, your word is settled in heaven. They may not settle it where they're amongst the theologians in Dallas, but you've settled it in heaven.

We're glad you're not sitting on your throne, nervously waiting for an envelope to say that men in Dallas agree with you. You've already said this is the word of God, and you've said no man shall add to it, and no man shall take from it.

Lord, we bless you, it's valid tonight, and if the world lasts a thousand years, it will be valid. We bless you, Lord, behind it is your integrity, your majesty, your glory, your jealousy, your word. Give us a holy jealousy for it.

Lord, don't let men trample it underfoot before us. Every one of us here is redeemed, has proved your word to be true. We thank you again, Father, that coming into your holy presence is fresh every time we come.

We feel how impoverished we are, we feel how unworthy we are. Dear God, why should we call you the maker of the universe, the one who'll throw the billions of stars into space, the one who controls all the great systems in the skies, the one who has made everything that lives, and yet we can say, our Father.

Not the father of Abraham merely, not the father even of our Lord Jesus. Jesus, I send to my father and to your father, and long because of that we're sons of God. Lord, we're unworthy to be heirs. We don't live as though they're heirs.

Forgive us. And we're joint heirs. Lord, nobody has explored the possibilities of grace yet. God, don't let this generation die impoverished because we preachers don't explore the depths. We don't dig deep into the mind of God, of divine revelations.

Lord, take the veil away from your holy word. As our brother mentioned tonight, I think, Lord, we thank you for those times it wounds us. You wound us to heal us. You strip us to clothe us. You cast us down to lift you up.

You steal everything in us and empty us, that you may fill us. Think of our blessed apostle praying that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. I don't know what that means. But Lord, I'm a candidate for it.

And I believe these people come tonight, they're going to be at home or somewhere else that they came, not just by choice, but because you constrained them by your love. Bless this word to us. We thank you again.

Lord, this is fresh bread. It's the bread of life, the word of life. We thank you. Everything you have is life. You said, I am the life. I am the water of life. I am the bread of life. I am the light of life.

We thank you that you are light and there's no darkness in you. That you are life and there's no death in you. We bless you for the provision that you've made for us for eternity. Lord, we think of this moment again as we must.

Faithfulness Amid Persecution and the Hope of the Bride

Of our precious brothers and sisters, away there in Russia, imprisoned. They prayed a thousand times and you haven't liberated them. But then Lord, I remember in Hebrews 11, after you tell us the wonderful things, our faith was a key that unlocked the biggest gate.

And yet you tell us about some people and you say of them, not accepting deliverance. They chose continual torture. They chose continual starvation. They chose continual misery. They chose to rot because they believe it pleased God.

Lord, I believe this is happening in Russia tonight. I believe it's happening in China and other countries. Lord, help us to enjoy our liberty. Lord, with no proof it will be like this a decade from now in America.

Your word is out of the schools. Prayer is out of the churches mainly. But Lord, again as we are reminded tonight, you have a remnant. You've always had a remnant. Lord, I don't just want to go to heaven.

There's something better than that. I want to go to the marriage supper. I don't want to go to the marriage supper. There's something better than that. I want to be part of the bride. Lord God, give us a greater longing.

Give us a greater yearning, not only in eternity but here to see your face. To know that binding. It's a paradox. You free us only to bind us. You take away our will to give us your will. You take away our strength to give us your strength.

Lord, I have no strength tonight. Physically I haven't much strength. I need strength for my voice. But I pray Lord, you'll illuminate the sacred page. For as we've sung often before, beyond the sacred page I seek thee Lord.

My spirit pangs for thee, thou living word. We give you thanks in Jesus name. Okay, let me give you a verse anyhow. In the second epistle of Paul to the Corinthians. Yes, chapter 5. 2 Corinthians 5 and verse 17.

The New Creation in Christ

Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation. All things have passed away and behold all things are become new. Now if I'd preached on this when I was 22 instead of being 82, I would have said this is one of the most exciting verses in the whole of the Bible.

But I've thrown that word excitement out. It belongs to the world. It belongs to football and all that junk out of the world. I don't think it's an exciting verse. I think it's a very inspiring word. What does it say?

If any man. Think of it like a telescope. You have a telescope. So the barrel of the telescope is the text. If any man, and then I'll extend it. Being Christ. Any man, anywhere, anytime. Being Christ, he's a new creation.

Well who says this? If there was such a thing as holy arrogance, I would say that this man has it. But there isn't such a thing as holy arrogance. There's holy boldness. Who is this man? This little Jew, 5 feet 2 according to tradition.

A little hunchback, the big nose. So take encouragement if you're a big nose. And yet he throws this text in the face of the world, the flesh of the devil. If any man, being Christ, he's a new creature.

All things are passed away and all things will become new. I hardly ever know how to begin. Do you know how to begin to talk about the Apostle Paul? Was it Spinoza said that he talked about a God intoxicated man.

Well if ever there's a God intoxicated man, it was the Apostle Paul. He reduced everything to this. This one thing I do. He said everything is done that I may gain Christ and be found in him. Okay? If any man, being Christ, he's a new creation.

Paul's Shipwreck and the First Anchor: An Eternal Home

Let me go back a minute here. Go to the fifth chapter, verse 1. We know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

Remember in the 27th chapter of the Book of Acts, the Apostle Paul is in a storm. It's called Europlidon. It's a kind of a super storm. It's a tornado and everything else rolled into one. The most terrifying thing that can happen at sea.

I remember once being in mid-Atlantic on the Queen Mary. And I don't know whether we hit the storm with a storm hit us, but it nearly rolled over. Of course I think they like to make you feel famous, you know.

And one of the officers said to me, Mr. Adrian, I've crossed the Atlantic about 300 times. This is the worst time that we've ever been in this way. It almost went over. Well Europlidon was like that. It was a storm of storms.

And it got so bad, you remember, they threw all the cargo overboard. They cut the lifeboats off. And for 14 days and nights, can you think of that? 276 people on the boat. We wouldn't allow it to go for river these days.

And it's going through the Mediterranean. Loaded with, I think, grain usually, grain ships. 276 people on board. And when a man got on board, everybody laughed at him. He was in chains. He got on board as a prisoner.

He ended up the voyage as a pilot. They ran into trouble everywhere. 14 days and nights, no starlight, no sunlight. The seas were boiling. The waves were rolling. I'm sure the sails were tearing. And the bars, what do you call them?

The masts were all snapping and breaking in pieces. And day by day, can you think of it? Women saying to that gentleman, well darling, maybe the sun will shine tomorrow. You said that yesterday. Oh well, maybe tomorrow.

You said that the day before. We've no food. I'm sick. Everybody's sick, weeping, crying, screaming, roaring, panic. I believe it's a picture of the end time that we're moving into. What happened? Again they threw the treasure overboard.

Finally they cut the lifeboat away. And there they were in helplessness. And yet Paul says to them, look, oh they're going to jump over. He says, look, if you don't abide in this ship, you won't make it.

And if you and I don't abide in him, we won't make it either. We'll panic. We're going into the worst situation of world history. And so he says, you stay on board. And if you stay on board, you'll be saved.

But then it says, when all hope was gone, it wasn't until he took over, he cast four anchors into the sea. And I thought of that today. I remember I used to have a Bible class in the Bahamas. A lot of young wealthy millionaires, they had their private planes and private yachts.

One came in one night as we started the service. Somebody said to him, well, how was your trip? Oh, wonderful. He bought a new yacht. Not a big one, he said, only 40 feet. Three-decker gorgeous thing.

And he said, but you know, when we got round a certain island, a squall hit us. And he said, I was terrified. He made a phrase I've often thought of. He says, I have great respect for the sea. I remember in Mid-Atlantic, once the sea was up there.

And I said to an officer, hey, what's that mountain? He said, what mountain? I said, that thing. He said, that's not a mountain, it's water. I said, where's it going? He said, it's not going, it's coming.

I said, oh, that's worse. So it came, and the next thing, it lifted the boat up there, and we were looking down there at the sea. So I know a bit about the trouble. So this young man said, you know, I didn't know much about my boat, but I cast out my strongest anchor and hoped that it would catch underneath on a rock.

And he said, there, the sea was beating us onto the rocks all the time. And the whole night, he said, I was in a state of fear. My children were on the lower deck. My wife was in a bedroom in the next deck.

I had the captain and the other guy, and he said, it was terrible. Well, that's something like the situation here. Paul cast four anchors. Let me suggest that in this chapter here, 1 Corinthians 5 and verse 1, he says, here's the first anchor.

We know that if the earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God. What does he call it? We have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. Let me apply this.

I've never been in my life before until thinking about this night. What does it mean? Get hold of this a minute. Here is Paul, and he says, the number one anchor I have, I have a home eternal in the heaven.

Did you get that? Suppose you change a bit and say, I have an eternal home. So what? That was his anchorage. How do I know? Well, I'll tell you. Go into 2 Corinthians chapter 11. I think somebody mentioned coming up in the van tonight about troubled trials for Christians.

2 Corinthians chapter 11. And he says in verse 24, of the Jews. Notice that? Of the Jews? Elsewhere he says, I'll tell you, I can boast exceeding anybody else. I'm a Hebrew of the Hebrews. That was being the most elite person of the most elite folk in the world.

I'm not only a Jew of the Jews, I'm a Pharisee of the Pharisees. And yet with all he had, his scholarship and ability, he says it was the Jews that beat him up. Of the Jews, five times received I forty stripes, saved one.

That's quite the thing. Now there's an awful, awful list of things here. Christ, I was beat with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I suffered shipwreck. A night and a day, 24 hours. What? 36 hours.

I was in the deep. Now listen, he's got a series of perils here. If he'd been a modern man, he'd have said, listen, I've got seven new books coming out. They're all perils. Number one. Now you can have them for five dollars each if you buy the set.

They're cheap, $4 .95. And he's gone through the whole list. In perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by 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 false brethren.

You see what's happening? You don't. Okay. He says five times, I receive 40 strike. What's times five times 40? 200 minus five. Well, these things didn't all happen in a week. He's tied to a whipping post.

And the first time it's excruciating. A man comes with a whip. It's got five big lashes at the end. And on the end of them, there's a spike of copper, which is sharper than glass. And they rip it down his back.

And he knows he's counting. Oh my, that's 10, that's 13, that's 15, that's 20. 40 strikes? They stop at 39 because that's the legal measure. You can't go further than that. Well, listen. How in the world do you think?

When they were torturing him, do you know what he was saying under his breath? Tear up my flesh. What do I care? I'd rather hold me to him in the heavens. This thing will only last a few minutes. When did he do it a second time?

And then he did it a third time. His skin was raw. His back was raw. The flies were buzzing around him. He's bleeding. He's suffering. And he says, well, it's okay, keep going, keep going. I'm not breaking.

Do you know what? The glory of God came to him there. The only way you'll get the glory of God is by suffering. You won't get it by sitting in a book, reading the deeper life. You'll get it if we suffer with him, not for him.

There are people suffering for God in Russia tonight. But they're not suffering with him. They're suffering because they won't bow to communism. They're supposing you liberate them tomorrow. Do they know anything else except they've suffered?

And I don't minimize that. I know it's terrible. I pray for them every day of my life. So my name is Leonard Ravnev. Maybe if I was in Russia it would be Leonardo, or Ravnilov. And somebody, a relative of mine, and he's been tortured for 20, you know there's been so many in Russia, been in prison since 1917, in the bloody revolution.

And we shake hands with Gorbachev, one of the most wicked men in the world. One of the most handsome, quiet looking men, like the Pope. He's a sweet old looking guy, isn't he? They call him Holy Father, but they dress him like Mother.

But this blessed man says, listen, you can do as you like. He's hanging on a piece of wood. The wood bashes him up against a rock, tears his clothes, wounds his body. And he says, it's all right, I've got a home in heaven.

You can't wash this out of me. You can't strike it out of me. You can't terrify me. Do you know what? A man who's intimate with God is never intimidated by men. You can't threaten him. Why did this man know he's a home eternal in heaven?

Because John 14, Jesus says, I go to prepare, not repair. No, there'll be no work for a son and his boys repairing old property in heaven. No, I go to repair a place. I go to prepare a place for you. But listen, more than that, you talk about a man having scope.

Do you realize this man is one of the few men, maybe Moses did it, I don't know. He's one of the few men in history who had a vacation in heaven. I think Bill Brady went to inspect his mansion, to see how big it was.

It has room for all his books and things. I don't need a big room for my books, but anyhow. I have a home eternal in heaven. You won't move me. Dear God. You know all these titles men give each other, I'm the bunkhouse, don't I, don't you think?

Somebody wrote to me, Reverend Leonard, I hate that R .E .B. Somebody wrote the right reverend, what do you do with the left reverend? Then somebody else, the very reverend. Go on with the other, abominable reverend.

Bishops, archbishop, you're past it. I thought he was a bishop. I stood here there, and he's got an arch at the front. He's an archbishop now. All these silly titles. I don't care a hell of beans. The most covetous thing this side of eternity was on the Apostle Paul.

If you could have slipped in the back door in hell, you'd hear the amplification saying, all you demons, every demon, get out of this place. Get down to earth. The Apostle Paul is going on a mission of destruction.

This man could pull down strongholds by himself. Mighty in God to the pulling down of strongholds. All hell is alerted. Do you remember somebody tried to, what was the son of Stephen, was it? Tried to drive a demon out of the land?

And the demons have some self-respect. They said, Jesus we know. Sure, Jesus kicked them around. And Paul we know. You talk about a man for all seasons. This man has power over demons. He's power over disease.

He's power over death. Dear God, when are we going to come out of apostolic? When are the Pentecostals going to get Pentecostal? Take the title off your plate. It isn't Pentecostal. Methodists take the title.

They aren't Methodists. Presbyterians, where are they in God's name? What an amazing thing. They're on the Damascus Road. I believe all hell trembled when the Apostle Paul met Jesus on the Damascus Road.

That was in a meeting. Do you think the Apostle ever dreamed that inside of him, he was going to conceive like a woman conceives children. He's going to conceive 14 churches or Epistles if you give him Hebrews.

I got through one point there. I hope you got all of it anyhow. We know. Not Paul doesn't say, I know. If you've entered in with Christ, you should know. We know. I've got a dear brother here walking across America.

How far have you done now so far? 2 ,700 miles carrying a chain ball to show people what bondage we have to sin. I'm glad he's doing it. I'm not going with him. That's his job. Do it. I pray for you. You are the works I love to say.

Oh, that's pretty reasonable, isn't it? Believe it's not painful for me. Well, why in God's name do you get under the weather? When some little trivial thing comes, why do you go down? Get up every morning and say, whatever comes today, I have a home eternal in the heavens.

I'm not going for the weekend. I'm not going with the scum of the earth. I'm going with the greatest geniuses who've ever lived. I'd be able to take a year or two or a hundred years with Isaiah or Jeremiah.

Dear God, we're not paupers. What does John say? John says of the scripture, I will not leave you comfortless. I think it's Moffat's translation. I won't leave you orphans. Dear God, I've got a home eternal in the heavens prepared for me by Jesus Christ.

That's number one anchor. I'm not shifting. I'm preaching this to myself tonight. The last two or three weeks have been the hardest I think I've ever lived. I've told my darling wife. Such opposition of the enemy.

Such confusion. You know, people make promises what they'll do this, that. They don't do them. You can just about be sure if somebody promises you something, that's the thing they won't do. Isn't that right, Sonny?

There you are. It's correct. Sonny says so. What did he say? We have a home. That's number one anchor anyhow. We have a home eternal in the heavens. Okay, well, okay. Of Jews I received five, forty stripes, save one, five times.

Paul's Suffering and the Cost of Apostolic Ministry

Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Listen, do you remember how this man started? He watched the first young man, maybe a teenager, stoned to death. And he did nothing about it. It's a modern universe.

Here's a young man, and I think he's the smartest. In fact, he became a deacon by a majority vote. Stephen, the young man full of faith of the Holy Ghost. He did signs and wonders. God, don't let him get stoned to death.

We need him in our little church. We're opposing the Roman Empire. We're opposing the Jews. We're opposing the Greeks. This young man is our hope. He's a genius. He's a God-given genius. I know that one of the greatest preachers, maybe the greatest preacher America ever had was Jonathan Edwards.

Dr. Martin Lloyd Jones told me that once himself, talking face to face. He said the greatest genius America had as a philosopher and as a teacher and a preacher was Jonathan Edwards, who later became the principal of Princeton School.

And he said of the Apostle Paul, the Apostle Paul is equal with Plato and Socrates and the greatest geniuses of the Greek splendor. Yes? No. Because you see, the philosophy of Plato and Aristotle and others, they came to their brilliance by reason.

Paul came by revelation. One's talking about the visible, the other's talking about the invisible. One's talking about this world, the other's talking about the other world. Paul had movings in his spirit that no Greek ever had in all his lifetime.

And so right through this terrible catalogue here, in journeyings, in perils of waters, in perils of the robbers. Can you imagine him held up and the stupid robbers are checking on him? You know, they knew all these Pentecostal preachers were rich.

So the robbers got over there and checked all his pockets and found nothing. He's an amazing man, he had nothing. He says that. Isn't that wonderful? He says, I have nothing. I have no acceptance with my people, I have no acceptance with the Jews, I have no acceptance with the intellectual.

They say he's the biggest fool on earth. So he was in the eyes of the world, but not in the eyes of God. I had a man in my office on Saturday night. I said to Martha, darling, we'll have a quiet day today, we won't have any visitors.

Well we didn't, we'd only have five, that's low for us. This fellow came in just before bedtime and he says, look at those. So I looked. He had some black alligator shoes, $300. I had to get shoes like that to mix with, and then I mixed with in Dallas.

Well, let them blow bubbles. Have you got $300 shoes, Joe? If you had, I'd never own you up again. Our dear Paul was on a wonderful missionary and he came in one day before he went back to South America.

He says, darling, look at these. What in the world have you got? I've been to Canton Fair, I've got these old cowboy boots for $10. I said, what? He said, I bought these cowboy boots. Look at them, Dad, underneath, they've no hole in the bottom.

I said, listen, some old drunk cowboy boots, I don't care who had them, they're sanctified now I've got them, he said. $10 for a pair of worn out, almost 20 year old cowboy boots. Came in the other day, Dad, I've got some boots.

Have you bought boots yet? I got another pair for $10 at the Army Surplus in town. His wife went out with $25 or $30 and she came back with a stack of used clothing for the children. They're missionaries and they don't waste money.

They count it precious. It's got blood on it, sacrifice on it, and the Blessed Apostle, he had no, he had nothing. They tell me now that Mr. Wiseman, you know, Solomon Roberts, Alder Roberts, has come up with a new theory now that Jesus was rich because he had a dress, a seamless dress, and he had a donkey, and also he had a thriving business.

He was a, what do you call him, a carpenter. And he put those three things together and made Jesus rich. He was, he was very rich. Do you know how rich he was? He had nowhere to lay his head. There are still missionaries like that.

Maybe God will have to bring us down to this before we get a revival in America. I used to be silly enough to say that the Church of Jesus Christ in America is going to suffer for the sin of the nation.

No. A nation's going to suffer because of the sin of the Church. Paul does that. Does he say in Timothy, so that he was ordained? What does ordination do? A guy told me, I've been ordained. Oh, wonderful.

What does it do? Are you taller? Is your head bigger? Oh, I'm ordained. So he said to me today, do you know, Tammy and Jimmy are back on TV? I said, so is Senator Edward Kennedy. He committed murder, but he's back on TV.

What's TV? Junk parade. TV, terribly vicious, terribly vulgar. All the rotten things you can think about in. But here is a man, he's driven with a holy passion. I don't care what he says. Come hell or high water.

I have a home eternal in the heavens, that not a thief in hell can take it from me. When he goes to prison, he won't give the devil the credit. He doesn't sign the prison of the devil. He doesn't sign the prison of Caesar.

He says, I'm the prisoner of Jesus Christ. He orders my steps. He orders my stops. Dear God, what a weak character like this. Where's our integrity? It only takes a week now, we can't go to prayer meetings.

I've told you before, I'll tell you again, Andrew is going to concentrate in prayer, or he's going to pray in concentration camps. Don't you, don't you worry about that too much. It's going to happen.

God's going to get a bride, and he doesn't care how he purifies it, he's going to purify it. In John, in chapter, I better get on here, eh? What do I get? I've got to number one. Okay, number two is verse 10.

The Judgment Seat of Christ and the Second Anchor

We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. That's his second anchorage. We must all appear. I've got that broken down. I can't give you it tonight, because it's so lengthy. All of us, we must.

It's inevitable. There's no alternative. You know, once, once you slip out of time into eternity, whether you're on the broad way to destruction, or the narrow way to life eternal, there's no u-turn.

If I tell you there's a better place than heaven, will you believe me? Of course you won't, but there is. A better place than heaven, where is it? Here and now. Because you've time to put right the wrongs in your life.

You've time to strengthen what remains. You've time to adjust. Your prayer life is too weak. Your anticipation is too weak. Your faith is too weak. Well, get it right. Once you're over the bar, it's too late.

The only reason you're alive in the world is this life is a preparation for it. It's a preparation for the next life. That's all it is. And Paul says, listen, you can't rob me of anything. We have this treasure in earthen vessels.

Beat this body, bruise this body, starve this body, toss me in the sea. I'll be as redeemed tomorrow when I come out of this, when I went in it. Take all the skin off my back, it'll grow again, I'll still be sanctified.

None of these things move me. Listen, he didn't say none of these things hurt me. Of course they hurt him, but they didn't move him. You've got a thousand things will hurt you, not one of them needs to move you.

It's easy to sit in church, is it? My hope is built on nothing less on Christ, a solid rock I stand, and the wind blows tomorrow when you go over. The first thing you do is not call on God, you call on the pastor.

What do you live on, God or the pastor? Many times I heard D. Campbell Morgan, the greatest preacher in the world, when I was 28 years of age, I heard him say this one day, if I was out of the pulpit for a week I'd backslide.

That really troubled me. I thought, dear God, I thought you lived on God, not preaching. And I heard him say once to a crowd of preachers, I talked to my friend there and asked him, how did you get on last night preaching?

He said, my friend said, I enjoyed myself. He said he did. He enjoyed his eloquence. He enjoyed his exposition. He enjoyed the rapport with the people. Is that what preaching is about? Preaching is not a profession, it's an obsession.

You don't preach because you want to, you have to. Worries me if I preach not. As long as you have breath in your body, you're debtors to this generation. I love these dead fellows like Bill Cook and others that go down on the square.