In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of trusting in the Lord and living a life of faith. He acknowledges that many Christians struggle with exercising faith and urges the audience to pay close attention to his message as they will be held responsible for it. The preacher focuses on the second verse of Hebrews, which states that by faith, the elders obtained a good report. He shares his personal journey with dyslexia and how it has affected his study of the Bible. The sermon concludes with the preacher mentioning a book he received on the exposition of Hebrews 11, which further deepened his understanding of faith.

The second verse of Hebrews and we're going to spread out and include all that has been said in the last two nights about trusting the Lord and I trust bring all of us to some understanding that will make us forever responsible. I have never failed or when I have preached these messages I have discovered that people become responsible for and it seems like that when I preach these on faith it becomes a special responsibility to people because it's very obvious that we are exercising in our living in the realm of exercising faith like we should. So I want you to pay close attention to what's being said because the Lord's going to hold you responsible for it. Amen? Or oh me? There's two kinds of preaching. There's amen preaching and there's oh me preaching. Now this to me is the key to the Christian life for me and I have been working on this sermon about thirty years and I have been preaching it for twenty-five and I have never gotten tired of preaching it because I get under conviction more than anyone else when I preach and of course you just stay with me I'll try to take you as slow as possible but if you've been here the last two nights you should have a little foundation for this. Now faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. Immediately you know when you start reading that verse you realize that faith is in the mystical. When you're talking about faith you're talking about the mystical side of this business of being a Christian and it's very difficult to understand. You do not understand it apart from divine revelation. And then the second verse is the verse where we're going to stay this morning. For by it the elders obtained a good report. Now I was never led by the Lord to go to school and prepare myself as a normal preacher. I was led to go a different direction and so I never picked up the habits of the typical preacher and neither did I do some of the studying they did such as in the languages such as the Greek and Hebrew and I did take Spanish but that has very little to do with the Bible. But anyway I had this real serious problem and I still have it. I've learned to learn with it called dyslexia and it's a real serious problem with me. Under certain circumstances I see everything backwards and it's really rare. I've just had to learn to learn but with this in studying the Bible I was never sure that I was reading it right. So I would always ask the Lord to let me experience you know what I was reading and as a result of this my problem has turned into a great blessing because I'm able to speak out of what I've experienced with the Lord and rather what I think and so that's been a great benefit to people as well as myself. Well since I know the author of this book you know he is able to lead you about this book and I was reading that second verse of Hebrews 11 and the Lord began to disturb my heart and he said there's something there. Well I kept looking at it and by it the elders obtained a good report. I thought well that means that these great men and women of God that are mentioned in Hebrews 11 believe God and God gave them a good report. Gave brother Abraham an A. Gave brother Moses a B+. Gave him a good report you know for living by faith and Sarah you know she had her doubts but she had her moments of faith too and God gave her a good report and I really thought that's what that meant but the Lord kept disturbing my heart and you remember the meeting I was telling you about last night with Miss Bertha Smith was sitting on the front pew. Did you know during that meeting she walked up to me and she said Manly the Lord has impressed me to give you a book and I took the book to the house where I was staying and I looked at that book and it was an exposition on the 11th chapter of the book of Hebrews and the second chapter was an exposition of the second verse of Hebrews 11 by G. Campbell Morgan. Boy I mean it was just God sent. There I was seeing something in that verse and I didn't know what it was. I knew there was something there and here was God touching a saint to give me a book that was out of print that just just unraveled that verse and this is what I discovered. I discovered that that verse really indicates that there is a two-fold witness here. Now what I'm saying to you is this that the Spirit of God bore witness to these great men and women and by this they got a good report. Now I'm going to do my typical type of preaching this morning inductive instead of deductive. Ok so you may think we're gone from this verse but we're just going to take a little trip and on this trip I trust that you can learn some things from the Lord that the Lord has really shared with me. When you get saved by the grace of God you take on many things but one thing you take on is the capacity to know God and I can't explain knowing God. I don't have to explain knowing God to those that know Him. You just know Him and when you got saved by the grace of God you took on that capacity to just simply know God and when God makes himself known to you you know God is doing it. You just know and you don't know how you know you just know you know but God just makes himself known. People say God speaks to me. Well that's no mystery to a person who is saved. You take on the capacity to just know God and not only do you know God but the thing I probably want to emphasize even more than that is the fact that you take on the capacity to live in two worlds at one time when you get saved. Now you're in this material world but when you get saved by the grace of God you take on the capacity to live in the spirit world and you're in the same you know you're both you're both here and there and there and here at the same time you're in you're just one right and in other words all that God ever was ever all the God is and ever will be he is in you right now. I mean there is and I mean you're in you're just in this world and this world is in you and here you are and and so on you take on this capacity to know God and live in the spirit world and what I'm saying to you this spirit world becomes not only alive to you but available to you right now the only way you work into this spirit world the way you move into the spirit world is in the spirit but you are inhabited by the spirit now with this ability God says it in different ways and I think he's doing that to reach out and help man but God said let us know that we can see God are we can hear God right and there is a real genuine sense in which you can feel God I think it's a little dangerous to talk about that I think the Bible talks about hearing God and seeing God more than it talks about feeling God right you're not sure I mean y'all are really looking hard don't just let up a little bit just relax I'm not going to kill you if you don't understand that's alright because if I ministered life to you still will have gotten some okay now the Bible talks about seeing God now what I want to do is just give you several Bible examples of the fact that that a child of God has the capacity to see things spiritually now in first chapter of the book of Ephesians I believe it's the 18th verse Paul said I'm praying for you that the eyes of your heart the eyes of your heart may be open and you may see any list those things that they may see now that's a spiritual seeing in it that's a spiritual seeing that was a prophet enclosed by a mighty army in the Old Testament and young prophet with him in the young prophet went out and saw this mighty army and camped about that had come to take him captive and he ran back in to where the old prophet was and the old prophet prayed to let the scales fall from his eyes that he might want that he might see and he went out that time and he saw what the mighty host of Israel the mighty host of God now these things were not visible to the naked eye but they were visible to the spiritual I mean they saw these things the Bible just full of this job said in Job 42 5 you don't have to turn to these verses and be best if you just write them down and stay with me you know I like that's what I like so your preacher does it the opposite direction but you can you do it this way for a week and then and then go back to his style that's reason the Lord makes us different so we'll get a little change up now and then he said I that was a time when I heard you with the hearing of my ears but he said now in the original I understand it says now I see you with my spiritual eyes I'm just wanting to give you a few verses that's about two occasions maybe two more John was on the island of Patmos and this may be the key to this whole thing he was in the spirit on the Lord's Day that's probably the basis right there he was in the spirit on the Lord's Day and the Lord pulled back the curtain and showed him things to come and told him to write down what he heard what he saw right well I'll tell you what he wrote down theologians still trying to figure it out but anyway the principal is still here you follow me what is it second Corinthians 417 is that the verse Paul said we look not at the things which are seen but at the things which are not seen by the things which are seen a temporal but the things which are not seen are what eternal tell me when did eternal start when's it gonna stop it just is right I mean it's fixed Paul said I am not looking at the things which are saying he said I am looking at the things which are not say I want I'm trying to lay out here before you is that you see as a child of God you have the capacity to see the spiritual things that Paul's talking about in 2nd Corinthians 417 even though you're inhabited by the Holy Spirit and even though you have the Word of God which is the two basic potentials for you knowing God and walking with God in his will seeing God hearing from God God still opens your spiritual eyes to see these things he opens your spiritual eyes now not only do you have that capacity but I'm gonna put it this way there are some things to be seen there are some things to be seen you would probably recognize it better if I just simply call it the will of God when you are the mind of the Lord are God's will God's mind God's attitude you could think of several different phrases that would describe it but it would all come back right to the will of God I call it a report I like it because they got it they got a report and when I talk about the Saints these great Saints getting a report I am talking about they saw a thing as God saw it they saw it as God saw it now there are some things to be seen let's just look through this pattern for a moment Jesus was teaching his disciples to pray and it's said hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come thy will be done where in earth as it's being done where amen do you pick up on that pray that the will of the Father that's done in heaven might be done in earth now I'll give you this verse Matthew 1619 and the King James it says I'm going to give you the keys of the kingdom give you the keys of the kingdom and in the King James it says whatsoever thou shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven whatsoever thou shall lose on earth shall be loosed in heaven but your Greek interlineal New Testament and some of your other translations put it this way whatsoever you bind on earth must be already bound in heaven did you hear the difference what you lose on earth must be already loosed in heaven now in other words what I'm saying here is what you bind down here on earth must originate in heaven it must already be bound in heaven what you lose down here on earth must be already loosed in heaven that sounds like what Jesus was teaching his disciples to pray how low it be thy name thy kingdom come thy will be done in earth as it's what Jesus already been done in heaven now what I'm saying to you is this man does not originate and get God to participate man discovers what God is up to any joins him now what I said to you is this there is something to see and you know what it is the will of God now follow me about every given situation underline that situation every given situation in your life God has a will and that will is already fixed in heaven and God wants to move that will out of heaven into earth so there's not only something to be seen but you have the ability to see it I made this statement last night and I'd like to I think it fit better even here today faith is not a leap into the dark faith is a leap into the light now what I'm saying to you is this these great men and women of God that are mentioned here the thing that made them different than you and me is that they learn how to handle their situations and I hope that you are learning that they they took their situation as an opportunity to turn to God and get a report now it's beautifully laid out in the 13th verse of Hebrews 11 but I I'll just read it pass on these all died in faith not having received the promises but having seen them what what did they say what did they say the promises what what what is the promise it's the truth it's a report it's the revelation of God about what about a given situation they wish they saw they were persuaded in other words they they had any doubt about this coming from the Lord they made sure it came from the Lord and then after they got the promise made sure it was of the Lord and they believed it and then what they believe they confessed and what they confess God did what's all laid out right there in that 13th verse beautifully you can't confess anything and everything and God do anything you can only confess what you have believed and you only believe what you've been persuaded of that comes from God originates with God I that that 13th verses what you know we're not doing justice to it but I'm passing over it to illustrate to you what I have just said the 19th verse of Hebrews 11 just really lays it out in a beautiful illustration but you'd have to know something about this man Abraham to know that's what you know all that he's talking about so I'm going to read the verse and then I'm going to talk to you about Abraham a little bit to illustrate what I have been preaching to you 19th verse accounting that God was able to raise him up even from the dead from whence also he received him in a what figure all right what's he talking about all right he's talking about the fact that God said to brother Abraham I want you to take Isaac and offer him up in an offering of sacrifice you know what that meant that meant that that father was to take his son take his son take him up to a particular mountain bind him to an altar with cords take a knife and stab him let his blood drain from his body and build a fire under that body and burn that body to ashes you say how could God do that when you see God can God can do anything he wants to first of all but God knew the outcome from the beginning so God knew that this was only a test but I'll tell you what it's some test when God checks you out to see if you will throw everything that's precious to you down just to obey him but anyway Abraham had this situation I would call that a situation and you know what Abraham did with this situation he turned to the Lord and he got such a report from the Lord once he saw him in a figure he received him in a figure excuse me that he had so much faith that he believed that God would raise this boy from ashes father that's faith a man he exercised that faith at the foot of the mountain when he said Abraham said to his servants you stay here with the animals and we'll go and worship and we will be brother that's a confession in that was confession that was a Abraham knew nothing about the round he only knew something about the lamb you say what do you mean we get a little insight on this from John 8 56 just write it down stay with me Jesus was preaching to a bunch of Pharisees and they said we are of our father Abraham he said yes I know if you were of your father Abraham you'd be doing the works of Abraham he said I'm on quote the verse Abraham rejoice to see my day what you talking about he said Abraham rejoice to see the incarnation of Jesus Abraham rejoice to see my day and you know what is this and he saw it you know what else is there and he was glad I've been glad to bother while you say what do you mean he was in a situation that demanded his attention and he turned into the Lord and the Lord let him see his son in a figure they have to know the life of Abraham pretty thoroughly to realize this but I believe me if you don't know it this well I'm not pulling your leg Abraham had been promised that Jesus would come through he actually been promised that Jesus would come through Isaac before Isaac ever got there and for God to call on Abraham to offer up Isaac meant no Jesus and when Abraham had this predicament he saw the Lord and the Lord let him see his son in a what do you think he saw he saw him Jesus amen he saw him in a figure he saw the incarnation of Jesus I think he just had sense enough to know well if Jesus is going to make it then my God has a remedy for my son and the only thing he could see was what resurrection amen Lord I mean was believe in God for a resurrection brother that's something you know just the best just a glimpse of the lamb sales what I meant a while ago when I said he he knew something about the lamb just a glimpse of the lamb in this situation gave him a report and on the basis of this report he could believe he could believe God for a resurrection brother he just and he stepped out on that report and announced it and obey didn't and that beautiful he saw the promises he was persuaded of him and he confessed this lays down a principle of life if you could see it would change your life today and change everything about you and then let me just give you two well let me and honor God when I talk about getting report what I believe these great men and women of God did when they had situations in their life they turned to God till they got a report they were persuaded of it they embraced it and then they confessed it I mean so beautiful course we're talking about major issues in your life are you come back tomorrow and I'll talk about minor issues ok you're not sure you need to hear what I've got to say tomorrow about minor issues but look at this by faith Moses 23rd verse of Hebrews 11 by faith Moses when he was born was here three months of his parents because they want they want what do you know the opposite of fear is faith the opposite of faith is fear did you know they were fearful of the king but when they saw this child did you know they lost their fear where do you suppose their faith come came from from getting a report but I believe they knew this kid was don't you I believe they knew brother this is God's man to deliver this much I believe that's where their faith came from they saw he was a proper child it said so beautiful that mother of Moses got so much faith that she wasn't afraid to put that baby in a basket and I want you know she could trust God and she did trust God that the Egyptian daughter the king's daughter came down heard that baby crying and loved that baby at first sight and anytime friend you can get a Egyptian to love a Jew that's a miracle and I mean that there was a miracle right there and did you know God so was in charge of that thing that did you know the devil's daughter loved that baby took that baby hired that baby's own mother paid her a salary to raise him and the devil paid the diaper bill and the milk bill and the educational bill and old brother Moses went through the University of hell itself and came out glorifying Jesus why they actually great illustration of me I have to love that illustration amen where did that faith come from in mother Moses mother and dad where did it come from they saw he was a proper job it's all in there 27th verse for he was of Egypt not fearing the wrath of the king for he endured as seeing him who what he was seeing the Lord who cared about the wealth of Egypt when you can see the wealth of glory right who cared about the position as king of Egypt when he was a king with the king of kings I mean he saw all of that it's right there back when I was two and a half years old I was dying with an infection or should have died with an infection the doctors were called out we lived about 18 miles in the country and two doctors came out to my house and looked at me and told my mother that said well he'll live about two and a half hours just long enough for the fever to go around his head and when it meets it'll go in cook his brain and it'll be over so that was my mother's message she had a situation and spiritual maturity is the ability to know God and cooperate with him not to sit by and let the devil get victory and my mother is sometimes I think she's more angelic than human or she's 72 now and you know you have a tendency to grow up through the years if you walk with the Lord but anyway she's I don't know how to describe her disposition she's quite very quiet person and was reared in going to a Baptist Church one Sunday and the Methodist Church the other Sunday you know the old-time country people had to do that and her dad was the probably the wealthiest man in town and her mother was the music teacher in town and she lived in a very very high culture type atmosphere if you could say there is such a thing in the little town like she was in but she wasn't exposed to anything emotional it was very foolish to be emotional intellectual would be in the order you know and yet what I'm trying to do is give you a picture of a woman that would go out and challenge God just wasn't in her liking you know she just didn't appeal to be a person like this but anyway when those doctors told her that I was going to die she slipped out of the house and went down in the woods and got on her face and saw the Lord and she said the Lord showed her that's why she put it to me showed her that I was born to preach and that's all he showed her and she said I had sense enough to know he couldn't preach and you know what she did she walked in the house and told the doctors they could go home and they said well miss Beasley he'll be dead in about 30 minutes she said oh no he's not gonna die and you know two days later a preacher came by and said miss Beasley said I believe God wants that boy to preach and I was two and a half years old you know I can remember that I didn't know that I could remember till I when I was two and a half till I remembered that man gave me a penny and some years later when I was about 35 years old about 10 years that's about there's about 10 or 12 13 years ago now I I was talking to my mother and I said mother do you remember that preacher that came by the house and gave me a penny when I was a little boy she said yes I said do you know I dropped that penny down in a crack in that house do you suppose that penny is still in that house and she said well I think it would be in the next time I was in Jackson Mississippi I got me a car and drove out that house and got pulled the board off the side of that house and I was at penny and I remember that and two and a half years old but brother I want you to know something my mother got a report amen she just simply got a report amen now isn't that simple your situation whatever your situation is if you've been listening to what I've said God is in everything that comes to you and so God has designed your situation to bring you to him to discover what his will is about a given situation it's just all put together if you've been here this and you get a report what is the will of God about this given situation you become persuaded of it you embrace it you believe it you step out I want you to know I take everything you've got in you to do that amen and start believing right now you say preacher what if I fail well you're sure to fail if you don't trust so I'd rather fail trust in Jesus amen then be sure to fail not trust when you amen