This sermon focuses on the transformational power of God's grace and the promise that the feeble shall be strengthened like David. It emphasizes the need for humility, righteousness, and the importance of putting on the armor of light, symbolizing Christ. The speaker urges listeners to seek inner cleansing, break free from bondage, and embrace the love of God to become overcomers in the face of challenges.

Now, if you will please turn to the Word of God at Zechariah, don't look in the New Testament for this book, you won't find it. Zechariah, it's towards the end of the Old Testament, and the 12th chapter, and the 10th verse. Now, my dear friends, you know, you don't always begin at a high point, but sometimes you need to, because people have tended to droop, and get so lost in their negative thinking, that they need to apply themselves to some of the positive things, which will hit them between their eyes. And here is something which is going to do so. 12th chapter of Zechariah, and the 10th verse. And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplication. They shall look upon me whom they have pierced. They shall mourn for him as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn. The 8th verse, please. In that day shall the LORD defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and he that is feeble among them, and that day shall be as David, and the house of David shall be as God, and as the angel of the LORD before them. He that is feeble among them at that day shall be as David. Now, my dear friends, I don't know if you feel like that old Hercules, who was supposed to be a very strong person, from which we get the phrase Herculean strength. Now, no more do I see people who feel that confident. On the contrary, people are full of fears. And to use a word which I hate to use, frustration. They say, I'm frustrated about this, I'm frustrated about the other thing. And in the midst of all our fears and frustration, here is God telling us, the feeble among them, the weak ones. You know, after all, when this fellowship began, many years ago, 70 years ago, when I was a tiny boy, and my father had a promise from God, which said, a little one shall be a thousand, and a small one, a strong nation, a weak one, a small one. Now, we do feel small, at least I do. I feel very small. And I feel hopelessly inadequate. That's in myself. And you know, when we turn to the Lord Jesus Christ, we hear the scripture come to us, I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me. So, all things, all situations, all problems. You know, sometimes people come to our retreats and say, well, you know, your retreats appear to be for straight people, not for some of us who have messed up. No, the Lord Jesus Christ did not come for such fine people at all. He came for the people who had messed up. He came to seek that which is lost from every standpoint. Now, therefore, when we come to a scripture like this, what do we say? The weak, the feeble, will be like David, before whom no person or force prevailed? I mean, are we going to see such victories in our lives? Now, my dear friends, I have always believed in being realistic, real. I don't know, some people are full of phraseology and full of theory and full of philosophy, full of big sounding words. I hate them. I want reality. And fortunately for me, at the time when I was missing the road altogether and declining rapidly into the gutter, I was confronted by people who were real. The transformation was real. The power of God in their lives was real. The deliverance from addictions and all the past was real. Real people with real victory. Not just people who jump up and down for an hour or two and then slump into their corner for the rest of the week. Not that type at all. I saw real victory in the lives of people whom you would have dismissed and discarded as totally worthless. Defeated people. Now, my dear friends, isn't that wonderful? The weak one, the feeble, shall be as David. Now, God's method, you know, we're always thinking in terms of, well, if I'm to be strong, I need a lot of money. That's the first thing that seems to hit people, come out of people. I need a lot of money. There again, I was very fortunate to be raised in a home where there was very little money. My father had given it all away, and I would not feel happy to ask him even for some loose change. I would say, Daddy is spending everything for others, and I'm not going to produce my bills. I'm going to pray myself. So, it became a great advantage in the building up of my faith that there was no money in the house. And my sons, my children, as they were growing up, they saw the same situation, and nor did they see their parents appealing or going here or there or running in panic. No, never. See, folks, how disoriented people get when they find there's no money. But if you can see the works of the Lord Jesus in all except when he paid his taxes, when he sent Peter to cast his angle and to take the coin from out of the fish, that bit. You see, folks, except for that, all the works of our Lord were done without a mention of money. Now, I see that our way of thinking today is so different. We don't believe in the hand that multiplies. We don't believe in the Lord who empowers, where money can never do the trick. See, our focus is on the wrong things. That's all it is. Our fears come out of money. Some of these mundane matters, which the Lord has promised to take care of, all these things shall be added unto you. And I want to tell you, teaching people to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, my dear friends, what a day in which to bring in the righteousness of Jesus. Why are families folding up? Why are nations in dread today, incapable of coping in spite of all their firepower? Why? You know, they have no clue from God where their problem really lies and where the solution is to be found. Britain is in that condition today. If we are thinking of legislation to set us free from fear, my dear friends, you've got an airy-fairy world in which you're living. If you see England's history in the 18th century, there were laws in place, but England was getting sodden in drink. Every fifth house in London was an ale house, drunk for a penny, dead drunk for two, was the sign that confronted passers-by. At such a time, it was not legislation that saved Britain. It was the revival under the Westleys and Whitfield that brought a moral transformation right after the Industrial Revolution. You know, some people have not even paid attention to history. When I went to Chartwell, you know, I saw by the bed of Mr. Churchill, Winston Churchill, a biography of John Wesley. Yes, he was a knowledgeable man. He had an essay on Moses. He said, I wonder at that man, Moses. He had to lead a nation through a terrible Battle of Britain and reverse the tides of war under the mercy of God. Now listen, friends, but today we think, oh, we'll do this, we'll do that. We will sit at the bargaining table. We will try to knock some sense into people who will not think. That's a terrible thing to say. But now that is history again. If you say you're going to conquer by the sword and now of course with high explosives, well, what you're saying is you're going to destroy yourself and your neighbor. Now at such a time as this, are we seeking first the righteousness of God? Is there at least a small circle into which you're bringing the righteousness of God? Are we really producing hope where there is no hope? Now friends, God's method is the person. And you would say, well, it must be a very brilliant person. Well, here it is. If you want to debunk that, if you want to contradict that, I stand here as an example. God has chosen the foolish things of the world. You know, the trouble with us is we are wise in our own conceit. We think we know it all. We are wonderful. We are good Christians. You know, I asked a fellow once, a young fellow, how about it? How are you inside? He said, oh, I'm a believer. I'm this and that. I said, what about your relationships? Are you all right? Have you got any enmities? He said, I don't speak with my mother. Well, how long is it? Oh, quite some time. A few years probably. I said, you don't talk to your mother and you want to tell me that you're a believer? This kind of rotten religion has been getting a hold of people in many places. A religion that is good for nothing, which needs to be dumped and ditched. You know, we have been carrying on that way far too long. When I started preaching in Britain, late 50s, 58, 59, I found that people had not even attended to their conscience. Lifting up clean hands, who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord or who shall stand in his holy place? He that has clean hands and a pure heart. People didn't seem to be aware of that. I said, what? What's all the other preaching about then? So people began to return money, return stolen stuff, put things right with their spouses, folks, confess their infidelity, and so on. A clean conscience. Well, if you have a taste for sin and you want to keep declining to lying, lying has become so universal today. I am amazed. And the Bible tells me that all liars will be cast into the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone. So you think because you sit under a steeple or play a church organ, you can say as many lies as possible and get away with it. No. All liars. Lies. Lies in the family. All right. How can you have security when you're building anything on lies? Never. How can you live at peace with anybody who is telling you lies? No, that's not possible. There is no peace there. There is suspicion there. There is fear there. So what is this man up to? What is happening here? You see, my dear friends, we don't see people who can say, I have been delivered from lies. You see, first you begin to speak a lie, then you have to act a lie. And when you act a lie, you live a lie. And your whole life is just a fabric of lies. And today we want to build international peace on a volcano of lies. How is that possible? You're never going to have peace. Peace comes out of righteousness. You know, here's a companion. Here's a partner in business who will never speak a lie, come what may. Ha! You can go to sleep. You don't have to worry about a penny. You know that here's a man who honors, who keeps his word and honors his commitments. And you don't have to have any fear. So God's method is a man, a righteous man. A righteous man whom God can trust with his power. Now that's the bottleneck. Power can make a person top-heavy, and then he loses his balance altogether and crashes. What's the good of giving power to a man without holiness? You see, holiness is something which people don't want to talk about. And when you look at any daily paper and the media of today, what are they doing? They are putting on public display the immoral lives of the news makers, as they are called. So that's all the news that people want, and they want it on the front page of the most prestigious newspaper. What is it all about? Infidelity, breaking marriage once, running off with a mistress, or running off with the bank's money. And this is all the nation is fed day in and day out. And what do you have? You have a nation without the Ten Commandments to begin with. Now as soon as you take the Ten Commandments out of anybody, any nation's foundations, you have taken off the strong pillars on which all morality and truth rest. There's no resting place for your family when you've taken away the Ten Commandments. I am the Lord your God that brought you out of the house of born men. Now we might say, hey, I never lived in slavery. Is there any greater slavery than the slavery to sin? No. He that sinneth is the servant of sin. And the sin nature has to be dealt with. It can't be dealt with by doctrine or dogma. No. It can't be dealt with ecclesiastically or by a high-sounding preacher. No. The sin nature can only be dealt with at the cross of Jesus Christ. What a prize he paid! God of very God. Well, don't let anybody quibble about this. The Son of God was manifest in the flesh, the perfect and complete image of God. For in him dwelt the fullness of God. Now listen, you may raise up a lot of your doctrines against this, but find me anyone who can touch the bootlaces of Jesus. You'll find none. If you are an honest person. And yet, what do we do? We don't go to the cross. We don't humble ourselves. You know, my dear friends, the key is in humbling ourselves. I don't know what it is. I think by nature we are a people invested with a ton of pride. We don't seem to know it. We think we are very humble, very nice people. No, not at all. I see pride that seems to come specially from various sources. I say to some people, your degree is too much for your poor head. You have lost your balance. Well, if you were not a big doctor and all that, you would have lived such a useful life. But your degree is tripping you up. And you can't be humble. You know, my dear friends, I find great delight in humbling myself. I have much reason to be humble. What's the big deal about that? Why go around with a fat head? I don't have to do that. I can go, I can look on Jesus. When I focus on Jesus, I say, hey, I'm not like Jesus. And yet I'm preaching the words of Jesus. What right have I to do it? Now, my dear friends, if you want to be humble, boy, how many sins of omission. Now, is there somebody who will do me a great favor? If you put down on a piece of paper all my sins of omission, if you can, I know you can't, you will do me a great deal of good. It'll get me really humble. So, I failed my Lord in so many ways. So many avenues of service I neglected, sitting around talking. You know how much people talk? I get fed up with talking. I don't know, I'm losing my patience these days, which is not very good. I need to be patient. I need to learn patience. But I tell you, I don't have much patience with talkers. When there is so much need around, what's the good of sitting and talking instead of getting on with the job? So, it has always been my life has been hands on. Get your hands on the job. Get your teeth into the job. Get the thing done. Don't sit around remarking about it and spinning a long tale. You know folks, if the very people who sit in our camps or retreats or church buildings are real, this world can't be what it is. It simply can't be what it is. I just sit overnight in a plane. There are a lot of people in a plane these days, 300 and more. I'm just gracious to the crew, the attendants who'd serve. Nothing so wonderful. I don't go out of my way to say something. But before the end of my journey, the world has gone round. Hey, there's somebody here who is really polite. A member of the crew brought to me a bunch of sweets and chocolates and she said, you're such a sweet person, I must give you this. Well, I didn't do anything particularly sweet to him. However, how? You see, the Lord Jesus said, you're the leaven. You're the salt. If we stayed as salt, things would happen. God's way is to break us, fit us, and endue us with his power. In this connection, I must mention, you know, as you see in 1 Samuel 17, there's a lot of false armor these days. False armor. If you turn to the 17th chapter, they put on poor David the armor of Saul the king. And David tried it on, and this was his conclusion. And David said, 39th verse, 17th chapter, and David said unto Saul, I cannot go with these. Meaning, my mobility, my freedom of movement is curtailed by this stiff armor. I cannot go with them, for I have not proved them, and David put them off him. Look at that. Now, anyone here putting on a lot of false armor, and you feel you need this, and you need that buffer, you know, people insure a lot of things these days. You have to insure yourself before you drive, you know, and certain such insurances you carry perhaps, but there are some people who must. They can't have enough insurance. They must have this security, that security, electronic surveillance, and so on and so forth. But what are we told in the Bible? We are told to put on Christ. We are told to put off the old man and put on Christ. You know, that's what I want to put on. I want Christ living so in me that it is he who is seen. Put on Christ. You know, the 13th chapter of Romans and the 12th verse, the night is far spent, the day is at hand. Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. Let us put on the armor of light. 14th verse, put you on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof. Put on Christ. You know, my father was having a conference for a particular missionary work when they gathered all their leading pastors and workers, and there was a woman worker. She had been teaching others, but she herself was not converted. And during the course of that week or four days of meetings, she was converted. You know, folks? And some very bad news arrived from her home, that her daughter had died. Now, this news was not conveyed to the mother, but she was told, apparently, I don't know who did, that she must hurry and get to her daughter. So she went to my dad for prayer and said, I humbled myself, the Lord touched me, I have come through to the Lord. So when she got home, she saw her daughter laid on a bed and the shroud over her. And she got on her knees and prayed. And all the people who had gathered were wondering, what's this woman trying to do? And at the end of her prayer, she rose and called her daughter. Daughter. And the daughter replied, Mother. She had put on the Lord Jesus. Now, what's the good of a faith that does not work? See, all of us have sad situations which we have to confront. We have to overcome some horrible battles. If you have had none at all, I would be most surprised. But I am in the business of preparing people to become overcomers, not to go under. So, we see the promise of God, the feeble shall be as David. As David. So, the message, the first message is focused on all of us. Oh my, let me tell you, my dear friends, I feel very feeble at times. You know, especially when I see millions of people blanketed by darkness, who can imagine that a monkey is God and a snake is God? What? It is a moral insanity. They have big degrees in science. No matter. They are enslaved by their tradition. And I say, Lord Jesus, I want you to manifest yourself to these people. And I see that happening. And I see people discarding their idols. And all the time, in spite of a threat to their lives. You know, a religion that threatens the life of another, by what token do you call it a religion, even? Religion of what? My dear friends, God is love. Don't you have that concept? Did you never hear that God is love? If you don't know that, you go to the cross. That's where I was broken. That was where I was humbled. And love came into my heart for my neighbor. And you will become a power too. Last of all, we shall read the scripture and close. The eighth verse of the twelfth chapter of Zechariah. In that day shall the Lord defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem. He that is feeble among them at that day shall be as David, and the house of David shall be as God and as the angel of the Lord before them. You know, one of my great dangers, one of those things from which I flee is people thinking I am some great person. I say, oh no, you're very mistaken. If anything, I had an endowment of greater foolishness than nature has bestowed on most people. That is my specialty. So don't you look at me, look at Jesus. Let us pray. Let us tell the Lord, Lord, I need that inner strength, that inner cleansing, that inner work of grace, till everything which restricts me, binds me, enslaves me, and every fetter which binds me is broken. Tell God a minute, Lord, I don't want to be a talker at a time like this. Now if you have a lying tongue, tell God I shall humble myself. I do not, I cannot speak to you with a lying tongue. My prayer will be an abomination in your sight. My prayer will be sin. Cleanse me. Gracious Father, we think of everybody who has been under the sound of your Word during these few minutes. Will you not in your tender mercy touch them wherever they are? Visit them, Lord. Let the light of your countenance shine upon their darkness. Give to them an honest heart. Lord our God, how feeble we feel before some of the things that are happening around us. Lord, we are no corks in the current. We are not to be carried hither and thither like floatsome and jetsome. Are we your children? Did the cross of Jesus Christ and the travail of Jesus upon the cross beget us? Am I born of God? Or is this all a make-believe and some kind of ploy by which to make a living? O loving Father, come manifest yourself. Come confirm your Word, and let it be known and seen that thou art God, and there is none else. Hear our humble prayer in Jesus' almighty name. Amen.