The California Collection/TheCaliforniaCollection.cdr/his101/homeless.arj/HOMELESS.TXT

Text File | 1991-09-05 | 47KB | 909 lines

"THE HOMELESS CHRISTIAN" by Peter S. Ruckman


     Turn in your Bibles to Hebrews chapter 13. Now, I'm going to
talk this morning for a while about my favorite subject. My
favorite subject is heaven. Folks say, "All you people are always
giving us 'pie in the sky by and by.'" Absolutely! Absolutely! As
a matter of fact, that's the only place you're going to get
dessert. You're not going to get it down here. There's an old
saying down here, "You can't have your cake and eat it too."

     All right, Hebrews chapter 13, and I'm beginning at verse 8.
"Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever. Be
not carried about with divers and strange doctrines. For it is a
good thing that the heart be established with grace; not with
meats, which have not profited them that have been occupied
therein." The Bible speaks about sincere milk and bread of the
word and strong meat. It's all right to know about strong meat;
it's all right to eat strong meat; it's all right to digest
strong meat. But don't be occupied--occupied with strong
meat.

     "We have an altar, whereof they have no right to eat
which serve the tabernacle. For the bodies of those beasts, whose
blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin,
are burned without the camp." And my subject this morning is
"The Homeless Christian"--"without the camp. Wherefore Jesus
also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood,
suffered without the gate." That is, outside the gate. "Let
us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his
reproach."

     Notice verse 11, "without the camp." Verse 12, "without the
gate." Verse 13, "without the camp." "Bearing his reproach.
For here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come."

     Now, Father, we speak this morning by faith, and not by
sight. We walk by faith, and not by sight. I've preached about
these things hundreds of times, and I want the reality of these
things to be upon this congregation this morning. There's no use
trying to say, "If what you say is true," for what you say is
always true. But it isn't real enough to us, Lord. It isn't plain
enough to us. We need your help. We need your assistance. We pray
this morning these great themes of eternal happiness and joy be
clear to us and real to us, and especially to these in the
congregation this morning who have a great need of seeing these
things as they are--as you set them to be. Father, please this
hour, by the power of the Holy Spirit, make these matters real.
We ask this blessing and assistance in the name of Jesus Christ.
Amen. Amen.

     Now, I'm going to talk for a while this morning about what I
call "The Homeless Christian." When I say, "The Homeless
Christian," I mean there are certain positions that a child of
God should have in this age which many Christians do not have.
And I want to check you this morning to see if you're in these
positions. When you begin to talk about heaven and talk about
eternity and talk about suffering outside the camp with Christ,
and talk about your eternal home, it's an unpopular message
today. Worldly Christians cannot stand it. You people who listen
to Chuck Swindoll, I haven't heard him preach one message on
heaven yet. You're not going to, either. You people who listen to
that fellow Schuller out in California, you never heard him
preach a message yet on heaven, and you probably never will.
Worldly Christians are always concerned with what's going on
right down here.

     I was at Bob Jones University for six years. I never heard
Bob Jones Jr. or any speaker from that school ever speak about
heaven, one single chapel message. I think I heard two messages
on heaven that were preached by visiting speakers who came in.
All the emphasis on the ministry today is on the church and the
school and the attendance and the enrollment and the income, and
the work--how to keep "P.T.L." on the air. Get it off the air!
Aren't you against "air pollution"? Clean up the airwaves; get
rid of "P.T.L."!

     I probably have heard somewhere, but I don't recall anywhere
hearing Billy Graham or Jerry Falwell preach a 40-minute message
on heaven. I've heard them mention it, but not preach about
it. Maybe they have, but it's a very seldom type of thing, like
they say.

     Now the modern child of God in the twentieth century have
four positions that I'm going to talk about. And these four
positions are described in Hebrews chapter 13. And if you're
saved, you should be in these positions. And if you're not in
these positions, you're out of place, according to Hebrews
chapter 13.

     Number one, you should be outside the camp. That's the
first thing. What's the camp? That's where the Jews tabernacled
around the tabernacle, and they had their tents pitched, some on
the north, some on the east, some on the west, some on the south.
And when a man was said to be leprous, they put him "outside the
camp." If a fellow had leprosy, they quarantined him; they said,
"Get outside the camp!" He had to stay outside and say, "I'm
unclean! Unclean!" and couldn't come into the camp. That's your
case. If you're saved in the eye of the world, you're like a
leper. You're outside the camp.

     You look so shocked about it? Tell me, where was Christ
crucified? Wasn't it outside the camp? All right, number one,
you're outside the religious camp--or should be. You're
outside the social camp--or you should be. And you're
outside the political camp--or you should be.

     You're outside the religious camp. A lady phoned me up on
the telephone about a month and started this stuff; if there's
anything I hate, it's some nut on the phone using your privacy in
your home to try to sell you something you don't want to listen
to! They get the number and they phone up, "Hello, this is the
utility department at K-Mart, we have a new plan for a shopper
which I thought you might be interested in. And this new plan
will only cost you fifteen dollars a month, and if you'll write a
check...blah...blah..." Shut your mouth, and get off my phone!
And this lady comes on the phone, and she comes in and says,
"We're making a survey here on churches. And what convention does
your church belong to?"

     "No convention."

     "Where are your headquarters?"

     "They're in glory."

     This lady on the phone says, "What liturgical pattern do you
follow?"

     And I said, "Lady, we believe that only unsaved pagans have
liturgy in their church."

     Click! She hung up!

     Now, I don't know whether that lady was sent by the FBI or
the IRS, or who, but somebody's taking a survey there to make
sure you are all in an organized headquarters, where they can get
their hands on you and run you.

     People want to belong to conventions so people won't think
they're a cult. They want to belong to associations and
presbyteries and groups, so people won't look at them as
oddballs. If you're a child of God, you're outside the religious
camp.

     The devil in America today is not persecuting the churches
in America; he's joining them right and left! He might be
persecuting them overseas, but not over here. Over here, they're
joining them. Up there at Baptist Fundamentalism, Brother
McGaughey and Brother Neidlinger and Brother Reed about got
thrown out; they got in a fight before that thing was over,
because it was just more than we could take. It was just so
carnal you couldn't imagine. And we left there. A few months
later, I was down at Carl Lackey's church in North Carolina, and
I thought to myself, "Why, this couldn't be the same body! It's
supposed to be all believers; it's supposed to be in Christ. Why,
it's just like going from paradise to purgatory, man! Or reverse-
-purgatory to paradise!" You can't imagine the groups even being
connected with each other.

     You say, "What's the difference?" Well, Falwell's bunch was
inside the camp, boy! And Lackey's bunch was outside the camp.

     Outside the camp socially. Do people want to get along
with people and be social-like? Jesus didn't get along with
society. John the Baptist didn't get along with society. Jeremiah
wasn't accepted by the big-wigs of his day. If you get along with
the folks in your generation who are big wigs, you are in the
wrong place. If you're a child of God, you're outside the
sociable camp. There are no "respectable" Christians in the
New Testament. I get so tired of hearing that, "Don't hang out
with Brother Ruckman; he's not a 'nice' Christian." I'd like to
see you find a "nice" Christian in the New Testament. Show me
where the word "nice" appears! The word "nice" doesn't occur
anywhere in the New Testament. Society molds and builds
characters according to its standards, not according to Bible
standards. If you're in good with the news media in society, then
you're not outside the camp. You're in the camp. The news
media wants a report. We haven't had them phone up yet for a
report on that parade, but when they do, you know what I'm going
to say. I'm going to say, "No comment."

     The religious world wants a respectable set-up. The social
world wants a "respectable" visitation program. If you're going
to be inside the camp and have a respectable visitation program,
then you knock at the door: "I'm So-and-So, and I'm So-and-So;
we're from the First Baptist Church; and we knew that you were a
new neighbor in the community; we just want to welcome you. And
come and have cake and coffee on Sunday. We have a wonderful
Sunday school class. We have outings and picnics twice a year,
and we give so many awards if you come so many times. And I'm
sure there's something there that your family would enjoy. And do
you know So-and-So? Oh, yeah, they're akin to me. And So-and-So
is akin to me. You don't really have to come to church, but come
to Sunday school until you're an honorary member--and then later
on we can talk about church membership."

     That's a fine visitation program! That's inside the camp.
That's inside the camp. I'll grant you, when you first knock that
door, you may have introduced yourself, and identify yourself,
and have some small talk. But don't talk small talk for fifteen
minutes! I mean after a while, don't circle the field all day;
land on the strip! Why, this modern religious movement inside the
camp--it's not a saved movement.

     From Rotterdam in Holland, I read this article by "Father"--
bless his heart!--Father J.C. Augment says married two queers, 24
and 26 years old. Had a marriage ceremony and exchanged rings.
There's a Catholic priest administering the "holy" sacrament of
marriage to two queers--26 and 24. Then he had a separate mass
for the opening of a new bar. That's in Newsweek of 1968.
When he was asked why he married the sex perverts, he said,
quote, "We need to reach out and keep in touch with these people.
They are among the faithful to be helped." They are? You help
them by giving them a sacrament and putting rings on them; that's
how you help them, is it? They're among the faithful, are they?
Christ said, "He that is faithful in least is faithful in that
which is must." Paul said, "He counted me faithful, putting me in
the ministry." That's "faithful," is it? Two sex perverts trying
to swap rings? That's something.

     You know where that stuff is? Inside the camp. Reach out and
touch 'em? What do you want to do? Get A.I.D.S.? What do you want
to do, get a venereal disease? Reach out and touch 'em? You
touch 'em; I don't want to touch 'em. As far as I'm
concerned, they're untouchables.

     Outside the camp. A child of God should be outside the camp
religiously. A child of God should be outside the camp socially.
You say, "That's a terrible place to be!" Yes! That's where your
Lord was! The trouble is, you want to be "in," don't you? You
want to be "in." You're supposed to be "out." The word "ekklesia"
means a called OUT assembly! Not called in.

     Outside the political camp. You don't find Jesus hobnobbing
with the politicians of his day. You don't find Jeremiah
hobnobbing with them. I'm not a member of the Moral Majority. I
appreciate what they're doing. I believe he does a lot of good
politically. I thank God for him. But I'm not going to get in
with the Moral Majority, and "fundamentalism" at Liberty--they're
too near the Pope. They're too near the Pope. You get the dangers
of commercialism; you get to going after money, instead of after
souls. I heard Bob Jones Sr. say a dozen times, "The greatest
temptation I ever had in my life was to get involved in
politics." I heard him say that two dozen times. He would have
made a great politician. Bob Jones Sr. would have made a great
President; he had a lot more wisdom than Reagan's got--a lot more
wisdom. And as much character. And is saved. And has just as many
contacts. He never did get into politics. He had to avoid it all
his life; he had to work at it.

     I'm for Christians getting into politics. Sure I'm for that-
-but not preachers. Not preachers. If you're called to preach,
don't get into politics. You've got a higher calling than getting
into politics. I'm for Christians getting into politics. I think
they ought to be in politics; I think they ought to vote, put out
petitions, sign papers--I believe all that kind of stuff.
But I don't believe a preacher has any business going into
politics and running for office. You let somebody else run for
office if you've been called to preach. There's a danger. You get
near these right-wingers, and first thing you know, you're over
there with the Kennedys, and over there with the Pope, and over
there with the demagogues. First thing you know, you're tempted
to do something wrong. You're tempted to put out a little sign
saying, "The Surgeon General says tobacco smoking may be
dangerous for your health," and won't tell you that going to a
spa where a bunch of queers are being may be dangerous to your
health too! You get into those kinds of things.

     You get into these things where "Abortion is murder!
Abortion is murder! Don't abort! Right to life! Right to life!"
And never open your mouth about the liquor stores all over town!
You stay in the ministry, you can hit anything--as long as the
country holds up.

     Bob Kennedy says, "Some people see things as they are and
ask why; I see them as they should be and ask why not?" That's a
political demogogue.

     Here's an article: "I realize tonight watching, that Robert
Kennedy show, that in the next issue we're going to have to talk
about what happened in the 60s. Just to see the face and remember
the times. Beautiful Bob Kennedy--a saviour!" A saviour? "A
new kind of politician who spoke like a human being." A new kind
of politician? Why, that kind of four-flushing, double-tongued,
two-faced liars are as old as politics. "A new kind of a
politician." "Taking care of the po' folks." He never had to fix
a commode in his life! I'll bet he never even had to screw a
lightbulb in! Why, I've got more callouses in my hands right now
than Jack Kennedy and Bob Kennedy and Ted Kennedy had together.
"Who carried progress in his heart, who grew and changed to carry
this country toward its intended future. Was something that never
was before, and never will be again. When we watched the Martin
Luther King documentary the other night, my daughter's new
boyfriend was deeply moved by it. He had never actually heard or
seen him. And suddenly, he had a hero!" He had a hero? He had a
fornicating communist is what he had! "We lost them all--the
Kennedys, Martin Luther King--the real kings of this country!"

     Thank God they're gone! Let's don't get any replacements.

     "And everything died with them in peace, and we forgot the
promise of what real brotherhood is all about. When you hear the
music of his voice the words of Martin Luther King preaching,
teaching, 'Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the
Lord'--" Why, that liar! He never saw Christ come back. You
haven't either. "How inane and how vacant are the bellowing words
of Jimmy Swaggart or Mister Reagan, quoting Scripture to justify
more bombs." "The bellowing words of Mister Reagan," with this
"great, new" Martin Luther King, Jr., who can't even have his
private life looked into while you're looking into Hart's life.
"Bobby Kennedy said if we fail to dare and we do not try, the
next generation will harvest the fruit of our indifference. In
his '68 primary campaign for the President of the United States,
Robert Kennedy kept trying to remind us that the rest of the
world has always looked to America for moral leadership. There's
only one diplomacy--the personal kind. And yet it is only Gromyko
who goes to Washington, and Gorbachev goes to London and Paris to
plead for mutual accommodation. Meanwhile, the rest of mankind
watches in unabated horror as Ronnie 'RAY-GUN' has his
conservative gang lock themselves deeper--" Look at that stuff!
The only people for peace are Russian Communists, and your
president's a war monger--that kind of stuff! That's politics.
That stuff wouldn't pay for the dice to play the game, boy.

     If I were you, I'd stay out of politics. If you're called to
preach, I'd stay clear out! Outside the political camp.

     All right, now here's your second position. You ought
to be bearing His reproach. The Bible said, "Let us go
without the gate, bearing his reproach." How? Well, number one,
as a troublemaker. As a troublemaker. Amos was a famous
troublemaker. The Lord said, "The land can't stand his words; get
him out!" Stephen was a troublemaker. "Stone him!" Ahab runs into
Elijah down there, and Ahab points his finger at ol' Elijah and
says, "Art thou he that troubleth Israel?" And the old street
preacher says, "I'm not troubling Israel; you're the
trouble! You're the problem!"

     Street preachers have a reputation for being troublemakers.
You're going to get your reputation here in the town as a
troublemaker. You're not making the trouble! The trouble in
this town is not caused by a bunch of young men hollering
Scripture at people! That isn't what the trouble in this town is.
The trouble in this town is the faculty in West Florida
University sitting out there, and the town council down there,
and some of the mayor's crowd, and some of the sheriff's crowd--
that's where the trouble is. It isn't a bunch of young people out
there on the corner with scripture signs. But if you're bearing
His reproach, you're going to be called a troublemaker, you know.
Some of you fellows get out and get to preaching at church,
you'll have a big split in your church, and they'll say, "The
preacher tore our church up. The preacher's a troublemaker. The
preacher split our church." I would say of all the churches I've
seen torn up, I'd say about one out of twenty was torn up by a
preacher. Churches aren't torn up by preachers. They're torn up
by cliques in a church who want power. I said only one exception;
I don't know of more than one exception in twenty. I know of
about twenty cases where a church has been torn up by the
misconduct of a preacher; about one out of twenty. The other
nineteen are torn up by ambitious Christians who want to ride on
the gravy train and run things for themselves. I say that after
39 years in the ministry. I didn't pull that out of my hat. I say
that after preaching in 800 churches in about 45 states.
Troublemaker. Troublemaker. Troublemaker.

     If you're a child of God, you're going to cause trouble, but
you're not a troublemaker. And, listen, if you're called to
preach the word of God, you're going to cause plenty of
trouble! That doesn't make you a troublemaker. That kind of
trouble is good trouble. Any kind of trouble that gets
folks upset about their sin and concerned about God and the Bible
and worried about going to heaven or hell is good trouble.
You ought to bear His reproach. How? As a fanatic.

     Does anybody think you're a fanatic? Does anybody
think you're a fanatic? I'll settle for one! How many of you
people have one precious soul who thinks you're crazy--let me see
your hands? GOOD! Now, if you couldn't raise your hand, get busy!

     Why, listen, did you know in Leviticus chapter 25, verse 23,
"The Lord who made this earth says, You people are strangers and
sojourners in this land with me"? That's weird, you know that?
I'll bet you can't find another religious book in the world where
the Author, who professed to be God, says, "I'm a stranger here."
The God who wrote that Book said in Leviticus, "I'm a sojourner
and a stranger with you--" in the land that He made.

     I don't belong in the land where I'm made. How about you?
How about you? You ought to be looked at as a fanatic. A fanatic.
A stranger in his own world.

     I'll never forget when we left Baptist Fundamentalism, I
think Brother McGaughey bought some bee-bee guns for his kids.
And they looked kind of real. And we were loading them into the
car out of the hotel, and some Christians from that
Fundamentalism stopped by and talked to us. We told them we were
Christians. They said, "Christians?"

     We said, "Yes."

     They said, "Christians with guns?"

     And we said, "Yeah! God, guts, and guns! That's what this
country takes. And if you lose any freedom, you're going to lose
the whole thing."

     "I never heard of that kind of a Christian."

     I don't guess you ever did!

     Fanatic! Fanatic!

     I imagine you got a pretty good reception at that parade. I
imagine a lot of colored folks probably appreciated you. Because
you've got a lot of saved folks in this town, you know, who've
got more sense than some white folks. And maybe there are
probably some folks who like you--but I'll guarantee you the
upper crust didn't care for it. I'll guarantee didn't give you
headlines in the Pensacola News-Journal. I'll guarantee you they
didn't give you an award for the most unique thing in the parade.
I'll guarantee you. You know what they thought about you folks?
They thought you were crazy! Going around there, marching about,
holding those Bibles up in the air--those Scripture signs!
Fanaticism! That's the way it ought to be!

     You ought to be outside the camp, you ought to be bearing
His reproach. I say, bearing His reproach as a criminal. They
ought to be after you to put you into jail for something. They
got Jesus in jail, they got Paul in jail. What's respectable
about naked capital punishment? You folks who profess to love
Jesus Christ? I profess to love Him. You profess to know Him? I
profess to know Him. You realize what kind of company you're in?
Here's a criminal out here, condemned to death--capital
punishment--hanging there without a stitch on his back. That's
your kind of crowd?

     Did you ever think about the shame connected with that? The
disgrace connected with that? What a shameful, contemptible,
horrible way to die! That's your crowd? The Bible says, "He
suffered without the gate. Let us therefore go to Him without the
camp, bearing His reproach." They'll look at you as a criminal.
Want to lock you up.

     Back in the Civil War they would drum them out of camp. Just
to show you how much progress we've made, back in the Civil War,
when they caught a soldier stealing, you know what they'd do?
They'd turn his rifle upside down, strip him of his chevrons and
medals if he had any, and his insignia, and then take out of camp
blindfolded and drum him out of the camp and dump him outside of
the camp. They wouldn't allow a thief to stay in the barracks.
Can you imagine that in a modern army? If you got rid of thieves,
you wouldn't have any army left! And then once in a while, they
would really treat you like a criminal. There's Pastor
Sullivan up in Nebraska a couple of years back; they arrested
him; they put him in jail; they put him in jail without bond.
They arrested his deacons. They tried to get his deacons'
families. People had to flee the state to keep from getting
arrested. They were "criminals"! Bearing His reproach. Bearing
His reproach.

     They treated Lester Roloff like a criminal. They caught him
and put him behind bars. Treated him like a criminal. Over there
in Mississippi, they broke up a home about four or five months
and took the kids and put them in jail, and told them, "You can't
read the Bible and can't pray in jail." Criminals! You know what
those kids are doing? They're bearing His reproach.

     All right now, further in this text, I learn something else
about my position. My position (1) is outside the camp, my
position is (2) bearing Christ's reproach, and my position is (3)
no continuing city. I have no city that continues. It
appears like Pensacola will be here forever--but it won't. Some
people believe it will be here forever; it won't. Everybody acts
like they're going to be here forever. But you aren't going to
be. You're going to leave. If you don't leave via the ground,
you'll leave the way of the airlift. But you have no continuing
city here. You're homeless.

     I get a message from Kim Wyks the other day, a Korean lady
up there in Tennessee who came here one time and sang for us.
She's an opera singer. She was trained in Vienna. She didn't
train in Vienna as an opera singer to start with. She got blinded
in Korea when a bomb hit the house and killed some of her family.
And then her daddy wanted to commit suicide because he couldn't
feed the family, and tried to throw himself in front of a truck.
And finally she was left homeless. Homeless! Homeless! And then
got saved and got over here and got to singing for the Lord. But
that little old girl was left with no home at all. You say, "What
a terrible thing!" No more terrible than your situation; you
haven't got a home. You haven't got a home. Not here.

     I never will forget one time out at Brent we said, "How many
visitors do we have here today?" And old Gruber stood up. Old
Brother Gruber. Remember old Brother Gruber? About 65 or 70 years
old. He stood up as a visitor. He had been a member of that
church for four years! And he lived a block down from the church.
"Now, how many visitors here today?"

     And Gruber and his wife stood up.

     And I said, "Brother Gruber, your home's right here!"

     And he said, "Nope, my home's in heaven!"

     I said, "Well, that makes sense, you know."

     I mean, people say, "Where do you live?"

     "I live in Pensacola."

     No, a Christian lives in Christ.

     "How's he getting along in this world?"

     Which world? The one down here or the one up there?

     No continuing city. Folks, this is not home. This isn't
home. Do you look at those cockroaches and mosquitoes and say,
"This is home?" Do you look at the screen door and the washing
machine that doesn't work and that busted down car and say, "This
is home"? You get that trailer in the winter, you know, when it's
30 degrees a foot off the floor and 70 degrees a foot above the
floor, and you say that's home? That ain't home!

     "What is this splendor that beams on me now.
     "God never meant that we should call this home.
     "This world of woe,
     "We use a strange misnomer and cheat ourselves in thinking
so."
     "If this were home, no flower would lose its bloom.
     "No leaf would fall.
     "No life would decay.
     "No shadow from the tomb our hearts appall."
     "Is this home? Then none would lay their armor down in
helpless weakness,
     "But step by step
     "Life's work would be rounded out to full completeness."
     "If this were home, then walking with us here with glory
crowned
     "Would be those we laid to sleep covered with scars
     "Beneath the ground,
     "No palsied limb,
     "No wearied brain,
     "No aching heart is found at home.
     "But joy and peace and life divine are there and there
alone.
     "Thank God we know this earth is not our home.
     "No fond illusion can make us think our Father left us here
     "In blind confusion."

     Maybe you're sitting here this morning and you're fooled. I
AIN'T FOOLED! This ain't my home! "This world is not my home. I'm
just passing through. Treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the
blue. The angels beckon me from heaven's open door. And I can't
be at home with this mess any more!"

     It appears like they'll last forever. Pensacola has all
kinds of nice appearance. "Come down to Seville Square. Come down
to the Historic Section. See the Beautiful Beaches. Yeah. And go
to Codova Mall. 1983." And a girl says to her daddy, "There's a
teenaged lady here wants me to go get in the car with her."

     And her daddy says, "Phone the police."

     And they phone the police, and this teenage girl trying to
get her into the car with her is not a girl, and it's a man--and
he's got an axe strapped inside his thigh. You say, "Where's
that?" Cordova Mall! Ever been to Cordova Mall? Beautiful place,
ain't it? All them fountains, all that marble stuff there.
Nothing could go wrong there. A guy's got a hatchet strapped
around his thigh.

     One of these girls from Pensacola Christian College was
downtown at a grocery store; three blacks picked her up in broad
daylight and took her out there and raped her for an hour and a
half--and turned her loose. Probably some Christian girl raised
in a Christian home, and never drank anything stronger than
buttermilk. Broad daylight.

     Did you ever go to Barnes' Grocery? Nice looking place,
ain't it? All them packages set up just right, and they're all
just in the right order on the shelf, you know, and the checking
out system. You know, folks? There are tigers out there! Right
outside that door, there are twenty million men who would ruin
your wife or ruin your sister or ruin your daughter just as quick
as look at her. Right outside that door. We have no continuing
city here. It appears so, but it isn't so. Everybody believes so,
but death will destroy the illusion.

     Rome--the eternal city? Why, I've heard sailors say that
Rome was the second dirtiest city in the world! I've talked to
thirty-year Navy men who say the dirtiest city in the world is
Cairo, and the next filthiest is Rome. Where is the glory of
Babylon? It's gone? Where's the glory of Madrid? You say,
"Madrid?" Why, listen, man, back there in the 15th century, the
conquistadores owned the world! They ruled the seas. They owned
all the western hemisphere! You ever go to Madrid today and watch
them eating sparrows. You can't find a live sparrow anywhere in
town; they eat 'em. We have no continuing city here. Everybody
says we have a continuing city here; we don't.

     Finally, I bear His reproach, I have no continuing city, I'm
outside the camp, and, finally, if I'm a Christian, like a Bible
Christian should be, if I'm a Christian, I seek a city to come.
If I'm a real Christian, I'm looking for a place that's going to
come down from heaven where things are going to be right. Folks,
doesn't something tell you that this isn't it? Doesn't something
in you keep looking out to the future, "What's next? What's next?
What's next?" Something tells you this is not it. It isn't here.
I'll tell you what I think--and the older I get, the more I think
it. The older I get, the more I think, the only thing real is
heaven. The older I get, the more I think is what you can see is
what isn't so, and what you can't see is what's so.

     "Oh, what is this splendor that beams on me now?
     "This beautiful sunrise that dawns on my soul?
     "While faint and far off the stars lie below,
     "And under my feet the golden streets roll.
     "To what mighty King does this city belong,
     "With its rich jewel walls, and gardens of flowers,
     "With its breath of pure incense,
     "Its praise and its song,
     "And the light that is gilding its heavenly towers?
     "See, for from the gates, like a bridal array,
     "Come the princes of heaven. How brightly they shine!
     "They welcome a stranger to show me my home and to tell
     "Me that all that I see is mine.
     "No sickness is here,
     "No bleak winter cold,
     "No hunger, death, prison,
     "Or wearisome toil.
     "No robbers to steal our treasures of gold,
     "No rust to corrupt, no cancer to spoil.
     "My God, 'twas but a short time ago, I lay in a bed
     "Of unbearable pains,
     "All cheerless about me,
     "Weeping and woe,
     "Now the wailing is changed to angelic strains."

     It has to be that way! Folks, if it isn't that way,
there isn't any God in the heavens! I speak as an atheist! If it
isn't that way, there's no God there! If there's any God up
there, it's got to get fixed right some day! And it isn't going
to get fixed down here.

     Don't you know that? I wish I could pound some sense into
your head. Don't you know that? Haven't you been alive long
enough to know that? I was twenty-seven years old when I was
saved, and had better sense than some of you've got. When I was
27 years old, I didn't know very much, but I knew one thing--it
wasn't down here! I found that out at 27. Some of you folks are
near 30, 35, 40, 45--you're kind of slow, aren't you? I didn't
know the answers, but I knew the problems, brother. And I knew it
wasn't down here. I found out where it was. I'm seeking the city
to come.

     All right, three things about this city. Number one, it's a
prepared city. Hell is a prepared place for a prepared bunch of
folks, and heaven is a prepared place for a prepared bunch of
folks. No garbage strikes! You can walk in the city park at night
without getting mugged! You can stroll down by the water of life,
where the tree of life is on both sides, and paradise renewed,
without worrying about somebody coming out there behind you and
grab you by you pant leg and trip you up there and going through
your pockets. It's a prepared city; it's got light; there's no
night there.

     A Negro preacher friend of mine once said about his
congregation, "Cockroaches! Cockroaches! Every time de light
shows up, dere goes de running off!"

     I know some folks who wouldn't like heaven. There's too much
light. It's a prepared place for a prepared people.

     Why, it's not even safe to walk in the city parks of New
York and Pittsburgh and Philadelphia at night. Not even safe. Do
you think that's what God intended?  I read this stuff here; this
hymnbook has a hymn in it called "America the Beautiful." And it
says, "Thine alabaster cities gleam, undimmed by human tears.
America! America! God shed His grace on thee. And crown thy good
with brotherhood, from sea to shining sea!" You better stay off
the streets of Philadelphia after nine o'clock at night, if you
talk about "alabaster cities" gleaming. Why, you folks have been
in some places; are you going to tell me, or am I going to tell
you? Las Vegas--that thing is just a garbage disposal for money.
That thing is a circus without a tent. I've been out there about
three times, and I took notes on it. No clocks in the casinos;
they want to have you get in there, and it's so bright, it's like
daytime; and they won't want the guy to know how long he's been
in there. There are no clocks. The dealers don't have any
wristwatches. They just sit there and deal. Parking lot
attendants, $10,000 a year. When they turn that thing down that
strip, bright at nighttime, the glare hurts your eyes. You think
that's heaven? That place? Nothing grows out there; you can't
grow any food out there. If you got rid of prostitution and
gambling, the place would fold. That's all it is; prostitution
and gambling. Junior high school teachers come across the
mountains from L.A. over the weekend and hustle to pick up a
little extra money that they're not making in grade school.
They'll proposition you with your wife sitting right next to you
in your car, down there in the main street. That's heaven? That's
bringing in the kingdom? That's an improvement? A lot of folks
stay out there because they lose all their money and don't have
enough plane fare to get back; I think that's probably about it.
Wayne Newton got $500,000 a week for 32 weeks for performing out
there. $500,000 a week for 32 weeks. Liberace out there! A bag of
venereal disease! Sitting there going through his motions. That's
heaven? That's the kingdom? That's "Mine eyes have seen the glory
of the coming of the--"

     NO SIR, BROTHER!

     Miami? Have you been down to Miami? You put one more hotel
on the beach at Miami, and you'll sink the whole Florida coast.
They drive out there, and you see a sign on the car saying, "Will
the last American please bring the American flag with him when he
leaves Miami." You think that's the place to go? Miami Vice? You
know, Dallas Vice.

     Why, I'm going to a real city. I've been to all kinds
of cities. I can walk through any airport in the world and look
at the sign and say, "I've been there. Been there. Been there.
Been there. Been there. Been there. Been there." Every now and
then I'll find one I haven't been at. Port-a-Prince, you know,
San Juan, Bermuda. Detroit? Been there. Pittsburgh? Been there.
Frisco? Been there. L.A.? Been there. Salt Lake City? Been there.
San Francisco? Been there. Memphis? Been there? Miami? Been
there. Jacksonville? Been there. Boston? Been there. New York?
Been there. I've been there. I know what those cities are. Those
cities are hell holes, that's what they are. They're not
"alabaster cities, undimmed by human tears." There are people
crying and dying in those things 24 hours a day. They're filled
with hospitals, they're filled with graveyards, they're filled
with criminals, they're filled with moral filth.

     I was out there preaching in the street one time. I was
drawing the Prodigal Son. I drew a young lady in an evening dress
there, sitting at the table. And I begin to get a crowd when I
draw that, you know. A couple of guys come by, and one of them
whistles at it. One of them came up to me while I was drawing,
and said, "What's that going to be about?"

     I said, "Stick around, sonny, you'll find out."

     He didn't stay around very long, boy. About two more squares
in that picture, and he was gone.

     Dirty city!

     Pensacola's a dirty city. Pensacola's got dirty people in
it. A lot of dirty ideas, a lot of dirty mouths, a lot of dirty
talk. We had one of our young men the other day out there
witnessing, and had a fellow pull a .38 on him--a Derringer--and
threatened to kill him if he didn't get out.

     That's heaven? That's what God intended, is it? God intended
a place for you to live, where your kids aren't safe in the
street, and your wife isn't safe in the street? A fellow pull a
gun on you because he doesn't like you, and go by the adult X-
rated theater--that's heaven, is it? That's the kingdom, is it?
That's the great new city, is it?

     Not me. I'm looking for a city prepared of God. I seek one
to come. I'm going to get my pie in the sky by and by.

     I no longer think bums are funny.  I used to think that, but
after ministering to them and working with them for years, I
don't think bums are funny any more. They're pitiful. They're
pitiful.

     I was in Washington, D.C., recently, and going through the
parks there. We saw so many bums lying around there, they
couldn't even get them in the jails. Just let them sleep out all
over the lawn, all over the parks. And that place, there are so
many of them there, why, I've been through cities, where half the
people in the street were talking to themselves going down the
street. Everybody talks to himself when he gets alone once in a
while, you know. But I've been in cities where you go down a
block, and there are ten people who pass you--talking to
themselves.

     That's heaven, is it? That's everybody happy, you know--one
big happy place? That's hell on wheels. Hell on wheels.

     A lady said to a preacher one time, "You know, preacher,
you'd really go places if you didn't get so excited." She was
like some of you folks here, you know. And he said, "The place
I'm going, I get excited about, every time I think about it. I'm
going to a real place--no slums!" No welfare!

     It isn't like Honolulu. I've been down in Honolulu, and
Hell's Half Acre, and Hotel Street, and see them look out the
windows, smoking the opium, glazed eyes, people dying of V.D. You
ever go through Honolulu Chinatown at 2 o'clock in the morning?
You'd walk across there and have to step over bodies lying in the
gutter. Pretty boys, American boys, lying there in their own
vomit and puke. Get up the next morning and come back and talk
about what a great time they had. They told one of my friends,
"Boy, we had a great time last night."

     And my friend said, "I'm sure you did."

     I used to slop hogs, and they really enjoyed just rolling in
it. I'd come back there, and a fight was going on, you know, and
I'd see a guy standing there, and he's got something on the end
of a cord, and he's going--WHACK--like this, and--WHACK!--like
this, and--WHACK!--like this. And every time he goes WHACK!
somebody falls over. I never did find out what he had; I think
it's what they call MIRIKI GUSALEY. But he had something on the
end of a chain there, and he'd just flip it down like that and
hit people in the forehead, and they'd go out like a light.
That's the city where you want to live? Fall all over the place?

     People, I've been in Tokyo at 3 o'clock in the morning. That
ain't the city! I've walked the streets of New York and Bronx and
Brooklyn when I was 17 years old, looking for a place. That ain't
the city! I've been down in the red light district down there in
New Orleans across Canal Street and Bourbon when I was 17 years
old. Pictures down in Pirates' Alley, playing drums down there in
Laluna. THAT AIN'T THE CITY.

     I'm looking for a city whose builder and maker is God. I'm
for a city, boy, when you get up there, you just relax and rest
back, and all you got to do is just praise God for how good He's
been to you. Folks, it's got to end that way! I'm not trying to
paint a picture to make you feel good. I'm telling you, it has
to be that way! If there's any God up there, and if there's
any truth, and if there's anything real, it has to end RIGHT!

     Those old fellows used to write fairy stores and fairy
tales. I'm talking about real fairies--I'm not talking
about fruits. I'm talking about real fairies. You have to
qualify everything you say these days. When they'd write those
things, they would write at the end of that book and say, "And
they lived happily ever after." Did you ever hear that? That's
how it's got to be! It can't be that way down here. It can't be
that way down here. It's going to be that way up there.

     Sam Jones said, "You folks don't believe in heaven. Why
don't you get a little bit before you go?" I know what he meant.
I know what he meant. That particular time, he was talking about
being at home there, a little old shack 'way out there on the
plantation where a Negro had been dying for about four months of
cancer, and he and his wife had been helping them out, you know,
and paying the bills and giving them food. That old dying colored
man was dying, and ol' Sam came the last time to see him and put
a couple of dollars in his hand there on the bed, and closed his
hand there around the couple of dollars. And that old colored boy
dying said, "Young master, in a few hours I'm going to be dead
and home in glory. And the first thing I'm going to do is tell
them angels how good you've been to me."

     Sam said, "Now, if you want a touch of heaven, you do that
awhile, and go out. You'll get an ideal of what it's about."

     I'm not a spiritualist. I don't believe in allegorizing
heaven. I don't talk about having your heaven here on earth, and
your hell. I don't believe that kind of stuff. I believe it's a
real place, but I believe this. I believe you can get a foretaste
before you go.

     O glorious land of heavenly light,
     Where walk the ransom clothed in white,
     On hills of myrrh through pastures green,
     No curse, no cloud upon the scene.
     Land with the crystal river glides,
     And fruit immortal decks its sides.
     O land of rest in Eden bowers,
     No dreary days or weary hours,
     No nights of unavailing grief,
     No hours of crying with no relief.
     For God shall wipe away all tears,
     Into the paths will banish fears.
     What shall I care then,
     For all the way that led to thee at last?
     For every dark despairing day forever passed?
     If 'ere the loved of earthly years
     Shall welcome me to Thee,
     What shall I care for all those tears
     All flowing bitterly?
     If I may stand before His throne
     And look upon His face,
     What shall I care,
     Tho oft alone, like Him,
     I ran the race?
     Safe am I in the ever-blissful plain,
     My heart's own treasure gather there,
     Farewell, forever! sin and pain,
     Farewell, bereavement, sorrow, care!
     My, my.  My, my.

     Now, are you saved? Christ said, "I am the way, the truth,
and the life. No man cometh to the Father but by me." You want
these things I've been talking about? You've got to come to Jesus
Christ.

     Father, bless the message this morning. I pray for some
worn-out sinner here, who's tired of this earth, and worn out
with trying to find something that isn't here. And beaten to
death by sin and frustration and disappointment and misery and
despair, and all these things that accompany our earthly sojourn.
That you might put a desire in their heart this morning to go to
heaven, and you might put a desire in their heart for New
Jerusalem, the city that comes down from God. May you put a
burden in their heart this morning to seek release from bondage
and pain and sorrow forever--and have the liberty and joy and
pleasure you promised us sinners for the asking.