Paul is writing this letter. It's a circular letter. It's called the Ephesian letter, but it's written to all the churches. Paul was a man of God. He was an absolute example of someone that came out of false religion, that fought against God, and then God turned him around, And when he turned him around, he sought to give the rest of his life for the work of God. There are people in my life, in my life, I think like I've lived lifetimes. It's right, nearly eight decades now. I was raised in a Indian village. My family came from Oklahoma, Indian Territory, to California, to be mistaken for White Okie, so they could have something. My grandfather raised me, and my grandmother. My grandmother was from Falls Valley, Oklahoma. Her family were the Pauls. There in Falls Valley. Sam Paul, the real rooster-cogburn character. And they were pretty wild people in many ways. And yet, They were brilliant in handling funds if they could keep it. And my grandfather, Charlie Woburn's father, John Woburn, was shocked for trespassing on his own land because he would not sign another treaty. He was Cherokee Indian. And they came to California. First thing they did was build a little acre of ground. And that was our inheritance. I really cherished that acre of ground. I did finally give it away, actually, nearly. And I hoped it would be passed down to my family, which it wasn't. But the things that they gave to me, I cherished. My grandmother had very little. She had a good insurance policy, which helped us tremendously when she was killed. She was killed by a drug driver. And that helped us a lot coming along at that time on. My mother gave me up after I was one day old, basically, and my grandmother took me and raised me. But also, that was my physical life. In this world, we sometimes have a physical life, an inheritance, and we have a spiritual life, an inheritance. I was raised basically in Pentecostal churches. I don't ever remember going to Baptist church. And there wasn't a lot of preaching going on. It was pretty much emotional. But I really fell in love with a boy's family. Their family, I just loved them. And they were Pentecostals. But they helped me a lot. I was saved in that church even though the gospel wasn't really preached. But my great, my step-grandmother, ex-step-grandmother came down and led me to the Lord. To her, I attribute the ability to come to God. That's when I came to God and was saved. I was saved at her hands, at her love. as she came down to the altar with me. Nobody else was there. Nobody else cared. They were talking in tongues and shouting and praising and hallelujah and whatever. But she led me to the Lord. And whatever good I have done, I attribute to her leading me to the Lord because that is where I was introduced to my God and Savior. I started studying languages and history. And it led me to Baptist. And I had several men in my life that really had a great effect on me. But one man especially, Dr. Carl Farrar, Dr. D.S. Madden. These people had a lot of effect on me. Martin Kahneman, Roy Reed. I have a Bible here. It's a Thompson Chain Reference Bible. And I show this to you with great emotion. I want you to see this. Presented to Travis Hubbard. By Ron Stone, Brother Milton Hayes, Brother James L. Roberts, brother J.H. Gage, Jim Gage, brother Dieter Berkshawshire, which was another one of my teachers, Howard A. Davis, Mike and Donna Darling. Sarah Hubbard gave this to me, brother Hubbard's only child, his daughter, but he looked upon me as his son. Sarah Hubbard Camel gave this Bible to me at Brother Herbert's funeral, 7-21-1998. This was the only Bible and only book that he took to Shawnee, Oklahoma. There are several of his sermons in here. This Bible that he had. And he was truly my father in the faith. I took care of his car. and kept him on the road until I moved to Fish Lake Valley. And that was in the 1980s. He was always there for me. I'd call him on the telephone. He was my Greek and Hebrew teacher, and he was their Greek and Hebrew teacher, and English etymology and demonology. I wish I'd have had a part in giving him this Bible, but that was later. I did give him some books. He gave me books. He gave me knowledge and he showed me something that he had no worldly ambitions at all. He had one daughter. He was married to a beautiful young woman. And shortly after she gave birth to her daughter, his daughter. She committed suicide. Later on in life, he got married again and she ran off and left him. So he had nothing in the world except for his daughter, which his father M.B. Hubbard raised up by, in Northern California. His father was a great preacher. and to help establish the seminary up there. Brother Hubbard went there and he worked in that seminary too when he left Arkansas. I started his classes in Belfire, California. He lived in a little trailer for three days a week there behind the seminary. He drove a car and he was not very mechanically inclined. He would take his car to dealership and had everything done to it until he met me. And then he would drive to my place, which was in Beaconsville, California, near Beaconsville, and I'd change his oil and I'd fix whatever needed, air cleaners, whatever he needed in that car, I did it. But the first thing I did, I said he wasn't mechanically inclined. He called me and he said, but Jim, he said, I can't get my heater to work. I take it to the, to the dealership and they tell me everything's alright. But he said, I can't make the thing work. He said, you know what, I can work on a Model A, I can work on an old Ford or something like that. You just do this, you do that. But he said, this car is just beyond me, you have to adopt it. That's before they became Nissan. And so, he said, I have to carry all these rags and when I'm coming from Lancaster, California, I got to keep wiping off my windshield and running my windshield wipers and all this. And he said, it fogs up and everything. It's just constantly, I have to do this. He said, can you do anything with this? And I got in the car, and I turned on the heater. I turned the switches over there. And I turned on the heater, and a few minutes, it was hot. He was just jumping up and down happy. He said, how did you do that? I said, well, you just turn these switches. He said, they never told me that. He said, you're a genius. He said, nobody ever told me that before. He said, you showed me how to do this. And then he didn't have to carry his rag with him anymore. And then he began to bring his car, like I said, and I'd change oil in it, I'd fix the brakes on it, whatever needed to be done, I did it. He called me rabbi because he said, you've got a physical trait and you've got a spiritual trait, like the old rabbis did. Well, he was in my home. He stayed in my home. always came by when he later on went to Fresno, California to start teaching up there. And he'd always stop at my home and he'd rest for a while and use the restroom and everything before he went on up there. And he had a key to my house and he was my father in the faith. He wrote, he was preaching from the book of Ephesians one time. And it says, it was an honorable thing for Paul to be suffering for the cause of Christ, H.T. Hubbard, as he was in Ephesians 3.13. It's an honorable thing to try to teach the Word of God. Brother Hubbard, Brother Carl Farrar, he was struck with muscular dystrophy when he was five years old. He thought that God was going to call him to preach, but he couldn't baptize anybody, so he thought he'd become a Methodist, so he could just sprinkle him. And then he gets convicted by God that that wasn't the way to go. He taught at least 65 years in the seminary. Brother Hubbard taught at least 65 plus years in the seminary. God has given me a long enough life to where on discovertheword.com and sermonaudio.com slash DTW and Discover the Word with Dr. Jim on YouTube, you have more lessons out there than what you could ever get in a seminary. They're not short lessons that cover the whole subject. And I thank God for that. I never look up to myself as some type of a pillar of the faith except I preach the Word of God. These are the men that handed it down to me like Paul was handing it to all of us in this book. Pray for me as I try to finish my race in this world and try to keep up the good work, as Paul said. And that's in the next verse. Keep up the good work. Keep up the good work. Let's see if I can find this in this book here. I haven't used it a whole lot. Let's see if I can find even the New Testament. Well, I know it's in here somewhere. Here we go. The printing is so small I can't read it, so I'm going to give up. I can't read it. Too small. We'll go over to this book, Ephesians 3, verse 13. Ephesians 3, verse 13. Amplified Bible. So I ask you not to lose heart. at my sufferings, on your behalf, for they are for your glory and honor. For this reason, grasping the greatness of this plan, by which Jews and Gentiles are joined together in Christ, I bow my knees in reverence before the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. We all try to hand down something to our children. We try to make our children's lives easier than they were, than our lives were, and mine was rough, I'm gonna tell you. Raised in a shack with a dirt floor and no door on it, just a tarp flat. Starving half to death, eating beans and sometimes onions. Sometimes fried potatoes when they were in season, when we could go get them out of the field. The only thing my grandmother and grandfather bought was beans. We got water out of the canal. We didn't have a water well. They had water there, but we didn't have a water faucet or anything. We hadn't done that yet. Bought some pretty bare land down there. Moved the chicken pen over. My mother lived in the chicken pen. And it was built up into a little bit of a house. And we lived in a shack that my grandfather nailed boards together. Rough life. I've worked hard all my life. I have a roof over my head. I pay my bills. I've never gone bankrupt. I have an automobile to drive myself here and there. We have a little church here that we take care of. But the most important thing that I can hand down to you is the Word of God. Brother Hubbard, in his last days, when you see God's people suffer, when they get old and they can't take care of themselves anymore. It's terrible. My brother, D.S. Madden, I found out that they were going to buy him a house. He didn't have a house. He didn't have a home. He worked all his life in lower churches pastoring as a treasurer for the American Baptist Association. And I sent money for him to buy a house. Part of it. Many people gave money. And he would die with Alzheimer's, which is terrible. Brilliant man. Brother Hubbard had dementia and Alzheimer's so bad, he was still trying to teach. He would drive from Lancaster, California to Fresno. He didn't live in Fresno, he lived in Lancaster in a little mobile home. He had a little library and his little life. That was his life. And then seeing me, talking with me, going out to dinner and eating fish, Bob the Big Boy and wherever. That was his big thrills in life. But he became, had dementia so bad that he could find his way from Lancaster to Fresno, barely. He run off the road, tore his cars up. He did all kinds of stuff, run through barbed wire fences and cut himself up pretty bad, got cancer and overcame that. But the dementia was killing him. And finally, his daughter, Sarah, came and got him. He couldn't find his way to the classroom. He can't remember where he was supposed to teach. They had to take him there. But once he got there, he would preach. He'd teach. That was an example for me. Don't give up hope, even when you get old and sick and whatever. Just keep on going. My plan is to preach until I'm dead if I don't have a stroke or something to stop me. I'm going to do that for you. This is very beautiful here. Don't give up hope. Don't give up hope. Don't quit. Don't quit. Paul said, don't quit. And in this, in these verses here, we're going to read this from Greek now, 313. Deo aetomai me egkakein entes thelepsis mu hepater himon hetis esten doxa himon. Wherefore, a little word there comes from dia and ho, it's because of this, I request. He said I request, first person to think of the present indicative mental voice, that comes from iheo. I request for myself, not, a little particle of negation, not to faint, present infinitive active from egg cocaine. It comes from egg and cockio, cockio means evil to some extent, it means to give in to, don't give in to doubt, don't give in to sin. To not faint in the presence, that is the pressures, the afflictions and the tribulations. Don't let my tribulation, don't let my Old age scare you away from your Christian walk. Don't let my shortcomings scare you or make you fall from your Christian walk. A lot of people back in those days, their Christian walk could cost them their lives and all of their property. Everything. Paul the Apostle was a very wealthy man. He was a Pharisee and they were wealthy. He was a Pharisee of Pharisees. He was a Hebrew of Hebrews, and he was on the upper escalon, and he ended up being a pauper. He ended up his life, two terms of prison in Rome, and ended up being beheaded. He had nothing left. As far as history tells us, his wife and children left him. He said, I have a right to get married again, but he said, I don't want to. He said, it would slow me down. He said, I don't want any encumbrances to encumber me at all. The pressures, the afflictions, the tribulation on behalf, on your behalf, which is glory. He said, please be proud of me as I lead you through this tribulation of mine. In the book of Revelation, In the second chapter, the book of Revelation, the second chapter, if I can find it. It's over here someplace. Revelation chapter 2. There was a church. Now, in the second and third chapter of the book of Revelation, it tells us the church age. It tells us all about what's going to happen during the church age here. whole church age. Now we live in the age of Laodicea, and we will go read that in just a few minutes. But we're going to look about the word of suffering, the church called suffering, smyrna, bitterness. He said, I know your tribulation and I know your poverty. But you are rich, and the blasphemy of those who say that they are Jews or not are the synagogue of Satan. Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to cast some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and that you will have tribulation ten days, ten periods of time. Be faithful unto death. And I will give unto you the crown of life. And he who has an ear to hear, let him hear what the Spirit says unto the churches. He who overcomes shall not be hurt by the second death. In the Laodicea church, let me get back over here. This is the church age we live in now. Don't faint, don't give up. Paul's praying for these people. We're going to get into that prayer in just a moment. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the angel of the church of Laodicea, and this is the pastor here. The word angel here is a figurative term for pastor. Pastor is a messenger. To the messenger of the church in Laodicea write, the amen, the faithful, the true, the witness, the beginning, or the head of the creation of God says this, I know your deeds. that you're neither hot nor cold nor hot, and I would that you'd be either cold or hot. So because you are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you, I'm about to vomit you out of my mouth is what it literally says. Because you say I am rich, I've become wealthy, and have need of nothing, and you do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, and blind and naked. I know what it means to be poor and I know what it means to be hungry. But these people are starving to death and they don't know it. In many of the churches of the Lord Jesus Christ and even the churches of the world today, we have a worldly church and a churchy world. They're not being fed, the Word of God. I have so many of my faithful supporters out there and students out there that I just pray for all the time. that they are starving to death in the churches where they're going. They said, I am the only pastor they have. I keep on trying to preach the Word of God. That's the most important thing. When I started preaching, you can go listen to me on Sermon Audio back in 1969, 70, 71, 72. Not all of my sermons are recorded, so I don't have them, but a few of them are out there. And I preach very simply. I didn't know anything. I could hardly stand up in front of anybody. But God would bless, people would be saved. I'm preaching the Word of God. I was preaching the Word. And the Word does it. I advise you to buy for me gold refined by fire, that you may become rich, and white garments that you may clothe yourself, and that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed, and eyeslabs to anoint your eyes that you may see. Those whom I love I reprove, and I discipline. Be zealous. Therefore and repent. Behold I stand at the door and knock. Now this is not salvation. God is standing at the door of a church and knocking. I want to come in. I want to come in and people leave him outside. Because they're doing their own thing. Churches become entertainment centers. They become entertainment centers. They want numbers. They want support. I stand at the door of your church, and I knock. If any man hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in him, and I will dine with him, and he with me. He who overcomes, I will grant him to sit down on my throne, me on my throne, and I overcame and sat down on my father's throne. He who had an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches." And now the end of the story over here. In Revelation, the 19th chapter, we're talking about true churches now, real churches. Not make-believe churches, not churches that don't have a foundation on the Lord Jesus Christ, that didn't come from historically accurate churches. I saw heaven opened up and behold a white horse, a leuca. a white horse. And He who sat upon Him is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war. And His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on His head are many diadems. And He has a name written on Him which no man knows except Himself. We don't know how to say the name Jehovah, people. That's just a misnomer. But that's who it is. This is Jesus. He is clothed with robe dipped in blood, and His name is called the Word of God, Jehovah. The word Jehovah, basically, or the word word, comes from the word Hathabar. And in the Old Testament, when they came to that name of God, Jehovah, they'd say Hathabar, the word, or Hashem, the name. The word of God, the Christ, Jehovah, you shall become. And the armies which are in heaven are fine-limbed and white and clean, following him on white horses. And from his mouth comes out a sharp sword, that with him he may smite the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. treads out the winepress of the fierce wrath of God Almighty, El Shaddai. And here's something that we need to see real closely. And on His robe and on His thigh is a name written, Adonai ha-Adonaiim in Hebrew, but King of King and Lord of Lords. And I saw an angel flying through heaven. Now those that are coming with Jesus are His brides. His bride is not coming to fight, but his bride is coming to watch her husband slay the wicked. Slay the wicked. Slay the wicked. And that bride that's coming with him has made herself ready. How does a bride make herself ready? We're not talking about salvation now, we're talking about brideship. There's the family of God, those all that are saved, and they are the true New Testament churches throughout the world. that really preach the gospel, that really have a found foundation, that come all the way from the seashores of Galilee, and those churches, those people that are faithful. Not everybody in the church is going to be a part of the bride. That's a faithful. It's not works for salvation. This is works because of salvation. Salvation is all those that are saved, the family of God. In heaven there are going to be many degrees. Just like in hell, there are degrees in hell. In heaven, there's going to be God. There's going to be Israel. There is going to be the apostles. And there is going to be His bride. His bride. His bosom bride. That's so faithful to Him. That's faithful to Him in doctrine and practice. down through all the ages. And there are many guests at the weddings. You look at the ten virgins that were called to the wedding, the bridesmaids. They're not the bride. Some of them made it, some of them didn't. Some of them weren't even saved. Some of the people that call themselves churches, they aren't saved. All the calls, You have an opportunity in this land, in this time, to be part of that bride. You have an opportunity to be faithful, even if you're suffering over it. There are martyrs' rewards, too, I'm telling you. There are people all over the world today under Islamic rule, and wherever you're under Islamic rule, they're going to kill you, or try to kill you, or castigate you, or torture you, or do something. allow other religions to make converts in those countries. If they do, the convert dies, and so do you. You're living out there in those countries like that, and I know people that have, and I have students that are there right now. That's a very special place of service of the Lord, under extreme pressure. You can't pray in public, and yet you're there to help these people, but you can't pray in public. You can't lead anybody to Jesus. All you can do is do a little handiwork for them and be looked upon as a Christian. I know one Islamic man that came to America He was a part of a settlement. He was a settler. You go in and you settle. You be part of this group here and you found a mosque and then everything you claim around there is an Islamic neighborhood and that is the kingdom of Islam under Sharia law. A nation within a nation, so to speak. He came in and he got in a real bad car wreck. And he had never had much really communion with Christians at all. They went into this hospital where there were Christians in that hospital. I mean, a lot of Christians. And he saw something there that he didn't see among his own people. They cared for him. And he was introduced to Jesus. And he was saved. And he became a great spokesman. An Islamic spokesman. He was part of a terror group, terror cell. And now he's a preacher of the gospel. In his own country, if he went back there, there'd be a price on his head. Sometimes serving the Lord isn't easy, but it's always best, no matter what. Our Father, we send out this message for your honor and glory. I hope it is encouragement to your people wherever they are in the world. I hope it calls them to the surface. and to whatever stress and extremes and hard times they're going through, that you give them the strength to go on. Please forgive me where I failed you, in Jesus' name I pray.