In this sermon, the preacher tells a story about a man who was on a journey to find a bride for his master Abraham's son. The man encountered a young woman named Rebecca at a well, and she showed kindness by offering water to him and his camels. The preacher emphasizes that this story is a type or symbol of the bride of Jesus Christ. He also highlights the importance of being in subjection to God and enduring hardships for the sake of Christ. The sermon concludes with the man being invited into a house and being provided with food and care for his camels.

Lord, we remember tonight the word of the psalmist in the last of the psalms in which he says, let everything that hath breath praise the Lord. And then that wonderful echo of that in Revelation chapter 5, everything in the earth or under the earth or in the sea or under the sea, everything, the fishes, things that fish and fly, everything shall praise the Lord in that day. Now, one of the songwriters said, in a nobler, sweeter song, we'll sing thy power to save. When these poor lisping, stammering tongues shout victory o'er the grave, we bow before thee tonight, Lord Jesus. The place whereon we stand is holy ground. Your presence makes it holy. No man can sanctify it, but you have sanctified it. You've guaranteed your holy presence, not where two men are gathered together, but where two or three are gathered. We thank you. You're meeting with people in a sick room tonight. You're making a meeting with people behind iron bars, away there in Russia, away there in China, away there in Afghanistan. These poor men, these poor Cubans, disillusioned as they are and distressed. Lord, somehow manifest yourself there through somebody. Raise a testimony, we pray tonight. Lord, we've sung already in this hymn, holy, holy, holy, casting down their golden crowns. Lord, whether they're gold or anything, we don't care. One day we want to bow with that multitude which no man can number, in the song which no man can sing, except the redeemed. Before the one whose name no one knows but God himself. Lord, what a day. I believe it will be brighter, as on the Damascus road you blinded the eyes of Saul on that Damascus road. In that great eternal morning you'll be brighter than any sun that ever shone. Heaven has no need of sun, because the other sun is there, the son of God. He himself being the light of the world and the light of eternity. We bless you tonight, our father, for such a redeemer, who did, though he didn't see leave his throne and his kingly crown to come to earth, to leave the splendor of spotless heaven without its sin, to come to earth with all its corruption, to a stable, stinking, smelly stable, typical of the human heart, to which he can come and cleanse and purify and indwell. We thank you for the going forth of your word tonight. Lord, we ask that there may be a tremendous urge of your spirit. I think at this moment some of you are not here tonight. Maybe many of you have gone to Jimmy Swaggart's meeting. Lord, we ask you to invade it with a special moving of your spirit tonight. Thousands will be gathered there. Lord, make it just not a theological Pentecost, make it a living Pentecost. May it not be a sermon preached by a man, but an upturns from heaven. Lord, shake those people until they hardly know whether they're in the flesh or out of the flesh. Lord, tear the veil of eternity away that they'll never be the same again, never think again the same way, never act the same way, never spend money the same way, never be content the same way, either with themselves or with a world that's lost without God and without hope. Lord, we're tired of paper theology. We're tired of terms and phrases and doctrines. We need the living Christ. As you walked in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks, walk in our midst tonight. Make your word live, make it vibrate, and as we pray, God, God, give us groanings which cannot be uttered. Break the inside being of us. That part that yearns to be released and even yet with all our testimonies and talk of the Spirit has not yet been released. Lord, we feel the whole world is on the edge of crisis in a very different way tonight. Everything about us is breaking up. Nobody can be trusted. Politicians can't be trusted. Preachers can't be trusted. Governments can't be trusted. Banking systems can't be trusted. Everything has a smell of death. But you're the Lord of life. No wonder your word says, Lord, accept the Lord, build the house. They labor in vain. God, as the psalmist said, quicken us according to thy word. Not even our understanding of the word, but according to your word itself. The word which is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword. Lord, we do not blush to tell you we're hungry for God tonight. We're tired of men's ways and church ways and preachers' ways. Lord, we've sung tonight, have thine own way, Lord. Have thine own way. Lord, we bless you who came to mend the fishermen and the tax gatherer and others. You came to that man on the Damascus road whose hands were bloody. He witnessed the death of the saintliest man that maybe had lived for centuries. That young man Stephen and Saul, or Paul as he would be, stood there and watched it. And then later he went through the same experience. He was stoned and nobody cared for him. But Lord, we bless you that you can take the whosoever will. We thank you still as we sang tonight, have thine own way. We are the clay, you are the potter. Lord God, give us a willingness to be willing in the day of your power, a willing to hide if need be, a willing to fast if need be, a willing to be unknown, a willing to be unseen. Lord, this fake of a thing called by your holy name is not the true Christianity. Come in this dark hour, we pray, before the world shakes with a bloody revolution of communism. Shake it, Lord, shake it with the blood of Christ. Lord, I think of that word of Newton's again, when he said, Thou art coming to a king, large petitions with thee bring. Lord, I pray for every missionary, whether he's in China, on Timbuktu, up the Amazon, in Afghanistan, wherever he's hidden in the world, the eyes of the Lord run to and from the whole world. Let every missionary feel the impact of your touch tonight, because we believe God for them. Whether it's weariness of body, whether it's tiredness, struggling with a new language that's so difficult, whether it's indigestion with food that they're not used to, Lord, touch every one of them. Revive them tonight that they may be quickened and edified. Lord, deepen our love for thee, and if you do, you'll deepen our grudge against the world. The more we love you, the more we'll hate the world, its systems, its bondage, its cruelty. Lord, we want to be a people who have a holy love, not a sloppy, sentimental love, a holy love, a love that can sacrifice. Like that love that will not let me go, may I say my love will not let you go. Not tearfully, but joyfully to say I lay in dust, life's glory dead. Dear God, Bracey, would you want to pray? Well, let's go to the book, the book, the good old Bible. How many of you only brought a testament tonight? Let me see how many only brought a testament. Good. Oh, you need a double barrel, you need the old and the new. Okay, we're going into Genesis chapter 24. Genesis 24. The first two lines apply to me tonight. Abraham was old and stricken in years. Okay, I'm just going to go through step by step through this thing pretty slowly. Some years ago, I was preaching in Ohio, a place called where Toledo, and two ladies, middle-aged, about 40. Thank you. They were sitting on the right in a kind of a covered part of the church, and they kept nudging each other and nudging each other. I thought, what's wrong? You've got some fleas? Scratch and get away. And finally, this lady came. Hey, that was good this morning. I said, it usually is, but anyhow, maybe you needed it. Okay. She said, did you ever hear of a man called Follett? I said, yes, Follett. I'll tell you something about him. His grandparents came to America when the Huguenots were driven out of France in that bloody revolution. And he comes from wonderful stock. She said, he's a great Bible teacher. And the last two mornings we've been here, you've reminded me so much of Mr. Follett. Boy, I thought that was good. Quite a compliment. Of course, there's a difference between us, about a million dollars, but that's okay. But this is a study that he liked, and it's a study I like. And in some parts of it, I got ahead of him, but in others, I catch up with him. So let's mix it tonight and give you what you can take. Genesis 24. Chapter 22, you have the story of Abraham, a type of the father. And then in the next chapter, you have Isaac, a type of the son, and also a type of Israel who was put on one side for a while. Abraham said to his eldest servant of his house that ruled over all he had. Notice that? That wasn't his wife, it was his servant. Ruled over all he had. Put I pray thee thy hand on my thigh, and I will make thee swear by the Lord God of heaven and the God of earth, that thou shalt not take a wife unto my son of the daughters of the Canaanites among whom I dwell. Thou shalt go to my country and my kindred and take a wife for my son. And the servant said unto him, per adventure the woman will not be willing. Boy, he knew women, didn't he? You don't come the first time you call. Suppose she's not willing, so what? Suppose she's not willing to follow me unto this land. Must I needs bring thy son unto the land from whence thou camest? And he says no. Remember this, this is a type of the bride of Christ. She's not taken out of the world, she's come from a special group. And he says, by no conditions at all are you taking my son back to Mesopotamia. God had delivered him from that land. And he says, I want, I want somebody of my kindred, my spiritual kindred is meaning. Verse 6, and Abraham said unto him, beware that thou bring not thy son hither again. The Lord God of heaven, verse 7, took me from my father's house, and the kindred, and which spake unto me, and sware unto me, saying unto thy seed will I give this land, and he shall send his angel before thee. Isn't that fantastic? One man going on a journey and God says he'll send an angel. What did he say of us? What did you say when he got up this morning? Oh, it's rainy, what a day. Who wants to go? What if you have an angel going with you? He shall give his angels charge concerning thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. That's the very word that Satan tried to quote, but he misquoted it to Jesus. He will give his angels charge concerning thee. Unto thy seed will I give this land. He shall send his angel before thee, and thou shalt take a wife unto thee from hence. Verse 8, the woman will not be willing to follow thee, then thou shalt be clear from my oath, only bring not my son hither again. And the servant put his hand on the thigh of Abraham, his master, and sware unto him concerning that matter. And the servant took ten camels of his master and departed. For all the goods of his master were in his hand. How many camels? Ten. We say seven is a perfect number, but ten is a perfect number in scripture as well. Noah was of the tenth generation. The ten comes up so often. Noah was of the tenth generation. There were ten plagues on Egypt. There were ten commandments. Take it right through the book. There are also, when I think of it, ten clauses in the Lord's Prayer. You didn't think of that, but there are. All the goods of his master were in his hand. And he arose and went to Mesopotamia and to the city of Nahor. And he made his camels to kneel down. Have you ever ridden a camel? Some of you used to smoke them, but I know that. Till he got smarter. Most difficult, I haven't, I've seen or been near them, but boy, I'm not getting on one. Takes you half a day to learn how to sway. And when they go down, you go over there, and when they get back, you go the other way. But what does it say? He made his camels to kneel down without the city by the well of water at the time of the evening. What does that mean? He had control over them. You know, camels are about one of the most ugly things. I think the only thing they get beaten in a beauty competition with would be rhinoceroses. Ugly camels. I used to do some painting. I've done some with a brush so wide, you know, but I used to do some watercolors. I like doing watercolors. And we used to try in Australia. When they wanted to do a job there across the great deserts, they couldn't get horses, and so they took hundreds and hundreds of camels, and when the job was over, they left them there. So if you want a free camel, go over there. But the camel is ugly, okay. But he made his camels to kneel down. That point shows me they were in subjection. It doesn't matter how ugly the situation is, we ought to be, it should be in subjection to us, which we'll see as we go down the chapter. Verse 12, O Lord my God and my master, of my master Abraham, I pray thee send me good speed this day and show kindness unto me. Behold, I stand here by the water, and the daughters of the men of the city come to draw water. It came to pass the damsel to whom I shall say, let down thy pitcher, and you know the rest I guess. Verse 15, When it came to pass, before he had done speaking, Rebecca came out, who was born of Bethuel, the son of Melchah, the wife of Nahor, Abraham's brother, and with a pitcher upon her shoulder. Now again, this is a type of the bride of the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 16, The damsel was very fair to look upon, and had not known any man. And she went down to the well, and filled her pitcher, and came. And the servant ran to meet her, and said, Let me, I pray thee, drink a little water of thy pitcher. And she said, Drink of my Lord. And she hasted, and put her pitcher down, and gave him drink. When she had done giving him drink, she said, I will water thy camels also. Now he had asked for favor, and here is this one young woman come with all the rest of them. But she's fair to look upon, she's distinguished, she's pure, and yet she offers, this precious young woman offers to, what? Give water to the camels. In other words, she accepted the situation. I doubt if she'd ever done anything like that before, being confronted with ten camels. And yet she, she feeds one, or waters one, or waters another, and she goes on, and on, and on, and on, until every one of them has been satisfied. Now sometimes when troubles come in our life, we'd rather starve them to death. But there are times when you feed the camel. God has a purpose in this. There's a hymn that says, His purposes will ripen fast, unfolding every hour. The bud may have a bitter taste, but sweet will be the flower. I will draw water for thy camels over, I will draw water for thy camels, until they have done drinking. Good night. How many gallons can a camel gone, how many miles can a camel gone a gallon? Oh, they can drink, and drink, and drink, and yet she never gave up. She went on, and on, and on, drawing water, until maybe she's exhausted. But she was going to be pleasant to this strange man. She didn't know anything about him anyhow. And she hasted, and emptied her pitch in the trough, and ran again unto the well to draw water, and draw for all his cattle. Verse 22, It came to pass, as the camels had done drinking, the man took a golden earring of half a shekel weight, and two braces on her hand. I'm not going to stay there, but remind you afterwards, look at Psalm 40. In other words, it's typical of her ear being open to the voice of the master. Verse 35, She said, Moreover unto him we are both strong provender enough, and room to lodge in. And the man bowed down his head, and worshiped the Lord. And he said, Blessed be the Lord God of my master Abraham, who hath not left destitute my master of his mercy and his truth. I being in the way, the Lord met me in the house of my master's brethren. I being in the way, the Lord met me. As I've said to you often, maybe the two hardest things in the Christian life, number one is to find the will of God, the second one is to do it. And God always comes to busy men, not lazy men. He comes to mostly with all the responsibilities of government. Learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians. Right at the top, A plus, number one student in the university. The seventh chapter of Acts will tell you that. He was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians. And he made commandments before ever he wrote the Ten Commandments. Because he had authority. He was delegated authority. And yet God comes to him in the way. In the best way in the world. He takes a man who wears a crown. He takes a man who goes down main street, and everybody waves to him and cheers to him. Do you think that when Moses surrendered all he had, why did he do it? Well, we know why Abraham did it. He endured as seeing him, no, he endured what? Because he saw a city that hath foundation, or looked for a city that hath foundation, whose builder and maker is God. What does it say of Abraham? He looked for a city whose builder and maker is God. Moses it says what? What did he do? Yes, but what did he do? He gave up the what? The pleasures? The pleasures and treasures of Egypt. And goes to the back side of the desert. Don't you think the devil taunted him a million times in the 40 years? What are you doing with these stinking sheep? Your claws are ragged with reaching for sheep. You've got thorns in your feet. You could be riding in a chariot down main street, you idiot. But remember when the chariots of Pharaoh weren't able to come and destroy them, what did Moses do? He sang a song, didn't he? What is it, the 15th chapter of Genesis or Exodus? Exodus 15. I'm looking it up for a minute. Exodus 15, look at verse 1 please. Then sang Moses and the children of Israel this song unto the Lord, and spake, saying, I will sing unto the Lord, for he out triumphs gloriously. The horse and his rider he cast into the sea. The Lord is my strength and my song. He has become my salvation. He is my God. I will prepare him a habitation. And then verse 11 he says, Who is like unto thee among the gods? Who is like to thee? Glorious in holiness, fearful in praising, doing wonders. Somebody said that's the finest exaltation in the whole of the word of God. But remember where the man is. Do you think when he saw the all the blood and all the carnage of the children of, not the children of Israel, the Egyptians, the bodies floating in the sea, maybe a million of them. Do you think when he was at the backside of the desert, some days in the heat, unbearable heat? Or do you think when he was taking a million people, disgruntled, dissatisfied, they said one day, were there no graves in Egypt? If I'd been ruling them, I'd have said, yes, you could have had one each when you were there. You didn't ask for them. Sure there were graves in Egypt. Do you think he ever thought in those pressures when even the holy man, Elijah, holy man, what's his name, Aaron, compromised and made a golden calf? Do you think he ever thought that one day in eternity with a thousand billion trillion people there, do you think he ever thought that one day somebody would stand up one of the archangels and sing tonight or this morning because there's no night there? We're going to sing right now the greatest song ever sung forever, better than Handel's Messiah. What are they going to sing? The song of Moses and the Lamb. The song of Moses? Not the song of David, the psalmist, who wrote the most glorious things. Talk about praise and glory as much as you like. There's nothing gets higher to eternity in my mind than some of the verses of the psalmist. I say, well, Psalm 45, lift up your heads, O ye gates, be lifted up, ye everlasting doors, the king of glory shall come in. Typical of the resurrection, typical of the day when Jesus comes in, ultimate triumph, and every nation and every person in the whole universe is going to praise him. And as we said earlier tonight, everything that hath breath shall praise the Lord. Fish is under there, so what? I don't know whether Balaam's ass will be resurrected. If it does, it will sing. Everything is going to sing, everything, nothing. All that should have been given to Jesus during the ages. All the stuff that people said yesterday and didn't mean much to it. All they'll say at Christmas and it doesn't mean a hill of beans to them. All that Jesus should have had since creation. It's all going to be in one colossal manifestation of praise, as though you took every orchestra in the world and put them there. They won't be able to touch that angelic host. And this we need to keep in view as we visualize the days in which we're going now, full of darkness. They're going to get worse, not better. But there's a hymn that says, The eternal glories gleam afar to nerve my faint endeavor. So now to watch, to work, to war, and then to rest forever. I thought of an old hymn of, whose was it today? Isaac Watts. He said, Should all the hosts of death and powers of hell unknown put their most dreadful forms and rage and malice on, I shall be safe for Christ displays superior power and guardian grace. Now let my soul arise and tread the tempter down. Thy captain leads me forth to conquest and the crown. Again, I shall be safe for Christ displays superior power and guardian grace. There's going to be an awful lot of embarrassment in heaven and part of it will be the exceeding great and precious promises of God that we haven't used while we've been here on earth. We've been so near to failure, so near to breaking down in sorrow, so near to breaking down because of opposition. And that's not our business. Our business is to be more than conquerors over the world, over the flesh, over the devil, over human frailties, over government frailties, over banking frailties. His kingdom is not of this world. If it was, boy, I'd go into the atom bomb business. I'd blow the Vatican up first afternoon I was busy. Then I'd blast all the other rotten systems. Our kingdom is not of this world. Your rewards and mine are not going to be in gold and silver, they're going to be in suffering, in hardships, in brokenness, in the things we've endured for Christ's sake. You see, all that's laid up here for this beautiful bride, more than that's been given to us. Let's go down to verse 31. And he said, Come in thou blessed of the Lord, where thou standest? Why standest thou without? For I have prepared a house and room for the camels. And the man came into the house and ungirded his camels and gave... Oh, mostly fancy being camels in the house. And he gave him strong provender for the camels and water to wash his feet. And the men's feet were with him. Isn't that strange? Think that one out, Brother Bracey. The men's feet were with him. In other words, they're willing to tread the way that he goes. And there was set meat before him to eat. I will not eat until I have told my neighborhood. Isn't that great? You know, we had a precious man here last week, remember? A big black brother stood there last week, six foot something. He knocked at our door a few minutes before we came to church. I'd never seen the man in my life. And he said, Months ago I got a copy of my Revival Taris. I read it and I cried for three days without stopping. That's what God wants, he said. We tried to get him to eat. He wouldn't eat. We took him home after the meeting. Do you know he'd been on a bus for two days from Cleveland, never had a bite of food, hadn't a pen in his pocket. We couldn't get him to eat. He said, It's too wonderful to talk about God. Years ago, God said, I'll let you see Leonard Raven. You've enjoyed his books. He came and he hadn't a dime when he got to our door. He hadn't had a meal. He'd been on a bouncing bus for two days and a night. Boy, to hear that man talk of God made my dear Martha and I embarrassed the way he talked about God. God in his majesty, God in his glory. Oh, how they pray over there, he said. That made me, that sparked me off by that verse. Meat was set before him to eat. And he said, I will not eat till I've told my Aaron. That's what the boy did last week. And he said, I'm Abraham's servant. What do you think the man did? Good night, I wonder he didn't jump and hit the ceiling. Abraham? Do you think they didn't have a grape vine in those days? Do you think they hadn't heard of Abraham offering his son? Do you think they didn't already know that Abraham was a friend of God? And this man is here at my door, his servant. Thus said he, By the Lord hath blessed my master greatly. He is come become great. He hath given him flocks, and herds, and silver, and gold, and men's servants, and maid's servants, and camels, and asses. And Sarah, my master's wife, bare him a son when she was old. And unto him he hath given all that he hath. Isn't that amazing? Let me go to verse 48. This is patchy, but here it is. Verse 48. I bow down my head and worship the Lord, and bless the Lord God and my master Abraham, which hath led me in the right way to take my master's brother's daughter unto his son. And now if thou wilt deal kindly and truly with my master, tell me, and if not, tell me that I may turn to the right hand or to the left. And Laban and Bethuel answered and said, The thing proceedeth from the Lord. We cannot speak unto thee bad or good. Behold, Rebekah is before thee. Take her and go and let her be thy master's son's wife, for the Lord hath spoken. And it came to pass that when Abraham's servant heard their words, he worshipped the Lord, bowing himself to the ground. Why? Because the word, prophetic word, that had been given to him was fulfilled to the very letter. And here he's seeing the unfolding of God all the time. Verse 55. Her brother and her mother said, Let the damsel abide with us a few days, at least ten. There you've got the ten again. It's amazing how, how delightful people are until you come to the place where you want to do the will of God, and it's going to cost them something. Then you find the in-laws are outlaws. Oh, you can't go, darling. Oh, you can't, you can't go. Let others go to the mission field. You know, the first year of your life, I carried you around on a pillow, and she's been on a pillow ever since. Not you, darling, somebody else. They'll come with every kind of counsel and false and ridiculous. God comes on the... I had to deal with a man last night late, and the area of his trouble is in his affections. They, the Christ, have crucified what? The affections and the lusts. The lusts, it's all right. Get rid of the lousy things. But the affections, tenderness, gentleness, kindness, my association with someone, I've had to break that sure. No, they said, Stay here ten more days. Verse 56. He said unto them, Hinder me not, seeing the Lord doth prosper in my way. Send me away, that I may go to my master. And they said, We will call the damsel and inquire of her mouth. And they called Rebekah and said unto her... Let me step back a moment here. In verse 51 it says, Behold, Rebekah is before. Take her and go. Now they're willing to let her go, but come to this verse right now. Verse 55. Let the damsel abide with us a few days, at least ten that she shall go. Verse 57. They said, We will call the damsel and inquire of her. They called Rebekah and said unto her, Will thou go with this man? And she said, I will go. Isn't that a remarkable step of faith? I will go. What do you expect of it? You know, the first time I came to America was 1950. Boy, I didn't know anything about American language. Boy, was I confused. Going for a hamburger. Do you want everything on? Well, I knew what everything on meant. I said, Sure. And so they piled, you know, you start hamburgers I mean, evangelically this size, but this size. They'd onions running out at one side and pickles at the other. And what do you call that? Tomato juice all over your shirt and all the other junk. Then somebody told me their daughter was going on a blind date. Well, I've eaten hundreds of dates, never knew they had eyes. A blind date? What's a blind date? Well, I found out. This is the first blind date on record. Go to a man. She didn't say, Is he tall? Is he fat? Is he rich? She could have asked a hundred questions. She didn't ask a question about him. She didn't say, How far is the journey? How long will it take me? Can I come back and see my mother every Wednesday? Do I have to give all my friends? She didn't ask a thing. Why? Because she'd been told it was Abraham's son. Everybody in the world adored Abraham at that time. And his son, the son that submitted to the father, maybe only 18 years of age. You try and tie an 18-year-old boy up with his feet, his legs, and his hands, and then take a knife over him. He'll maybe curse you to all eternity. And there he was looking into the eyes of his father and never said a word. The type of the Lord Jesus is led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before a shearer is done. He opened not his mouth. And this precious young woman, beautiful, the fairest, the loveliest, in the whole of Israel. She has a blind date with a fellow somewhere over there. She doesn't ask how tall he is, if he's oversized, or if he's over wealthy, or what. She doesn't say, Is it a dangerous journey? Is it risky to go all that way? How many days journey will it be? Are there any fast food services on the way? You know, we kind of think that she went so far and caught a bus. Do you know what humbles me? Thousands of things. One of them is turning to the back of my Bible, and just following some lines that show me the missionary journey of the apostle Paul. Look at them. It didn't go on a jet. If they had something donned on me, boy, I could have shouted. You know, in the world, they have a jet set, don't they? They're very wealthy, the Hollywood people have a jet set. You know, the Christians have a jet set made up of preachers. You have a whole gang of them there in Dallas that own, personally own, a private jet. One of them, that young black man that came to me last week said, a young man in my country has been asked to teach what they're teaching in Dallas, and they've given him a private jet. That's a million dollars to spread it through Africa. We've got a jet set now amongst the Christians. Where in God's name are we going? They don't have any more power. You see, she's willing to go, I know not. As the hymn says, I know not what awaits me, God kindly veils my eyes. It goes on to say, so on I go not knowing, I don't know whether this is true, I would not if I might. I'd rather walk in the dark with God than walk alone in the light. I'd rather walk by faith with him than go alone by sight. Oh blessed, lack of wisdom, it is blessed not to know. Is it? You remember the more common hymn that says, keep thou my feet, I do not ask to see, the distant scene, one steps enough for me, lead kindly light. It was written by a cardinal in the Roman Catholic Church, Henry Newman, a brilliant scholar. He couldn't find what he wanted in the Church of England, he went to the Roman Church. But let me tell you this, after about 40 years in the Roman Church, when it pronounced absolution and all the crazy things they do, he was leaning over the gate in England, over his little cottage, leaning over the gate, what doing? Sighing, I haven't found it. Lead kindly light amidst encircling gloom. And 50 years after he was still in the gloom of Romanism, when Martin Luther came, he rose up after the dark ages. What did he do? One man, with the anointing of God, blasted the Church of Rome. It's still as evil, but listen today, our task is a thousand times more difficult than this. We've the Roman Church, we've Mormonism, we've Humanism, we've Moonism, we've a dozen other isms, and we, God help us. I'm sick to death of a little guy sending me a paper that says, the Lord has, the Lord's, my people tell me, I'm the pastor of a little church, but I have a message for the world. I thought, brother, upset the village first. Everybody's going to do something for the world in God's name, do it here! Do it here! I'm sick of all the paper theology. I'm tired of saying, God can do it. I know God can do it! Do it! You tell your children about things, and one day they'll turn around and say, don't tell me, do it! Show me, show me! Go home, and then it's, I'll speak on it, maybe next week, anyhow, I won't tell you too much about it. She said, I will go. Will thou go with this man? And she said, I will go. So this man's going to take us to the other man. She doesn't ask again if he's tall. She doesn't ask how spiritual he is. She doesn't ask if he can play guitar or something. If he's musical, she said, okay, I'll go. I'll take your word for it. You say he's like his father. Isn't that the greatest thing you can say about anybody? Usually a boy wants to be like his father. Today, yesterday Martha said, do you want to answer this letter from Africa? I said, no, dear, it's from a man called Roger Volk. Roger Volk, his parents went from England to Africa. And how did that work out? Let me get it straight here. Oh, that's right, thank you, dear. Yeah, he's, their firstborn, which means, of course, the oldest when you get up the road, was in England. And the father and mother went to Africa. And years and years after, decided they would send Roger to England. And he lost a photograph of his brother when he was coming. And he had no news. In those days, it was a P&O liner, Pacific and Oriental. And it used to go up the English Channel, come up the River Thames, and it used to dock right at London Bridge. So this fellow's on the boat, everybody's getting anxious and excited. They saw people by the hundred lining up the dock. And this fellow thought, oh goodness, this boy thought, what if my brother isn't there? Little by little, the people went away, hundreds of them. And finally, there was one man, he thought, well, I don't know whether that's my brother or not. And so the man, as he looked at him, the man turned around, put his hands behind his back, and he walked with a roll. Hey, that's my brother. He walks exactly like my father. And he went down, he said, are you my brother? Yes, yes, oh well. Well, how did you know? You walk exactly like your father. That takes me back to a Sunday school story we used to tell in England, of a man that used to go to the tavern often. And he didn't want his boy to know, but anyhow, one night it had snowed, and the man was going to the tavern, and he told the boy, don't stay, don't, don't come out, stay in the house. And when he got halfway across the field in the snow, he saw the little guy putting his feet in his daddy's footsteps, and following him to the tavern, he turned and went home. Enoch walked with God, when? When his son was born. The very day his son was born, he said, I have more responsibility than ever, I have a son. And so he made it a matter of prayer every day, my son, my son, my son. Here is Isaac, lived with the most godly holy man the world had seen up to that time, apart from maybe one or two others. Walking, walking, walking. She said, I will go. And they sent her away with a nurse, an Abraham's servant and his men, and they blessed Rebekah, and said unto her, thou art my sister, the mother of thousands of millions, and let thy seed possess the gate. I've skipped some parts there, obviously. But you know what they did? They loaded her with jewels, as was the custom. They gave her earrings, typical of the rear being sanctified. They put bracelets on her, and they showed her all the wealth of her husband. It's all theirs, and you'll be a partaker of it. You'll share the whole thing. Okay, let's go down to verse 63. Remember, here is this woman again, Rebekah. She makes one of the greatest steps of faith. She goes to a man she's never seen. He doesn't know his disposition. Knows very little about him, except he comes from a father who was a very holy man, and a woman, a mother who was a very exceptional woman. He says, Isaac went out to meditate in the field at eventide, and he lifted up his eyes, and saw, behold, the camels were coming. These ugly brutes, yet they're all laden with treasure. The verse I missed, anyhow. But it says also, and it doesn't quite matter, the fact is that she rode on a camel herself, and it was subdued under her. In other words, she got on top of the trial. Oh, verse 6, Rebekah arose and her damsels, and they rode upon the camels. You know, we had a friend, and he used to quote this often. He used to say, circumstances are like feather beds. They're all right if you're on top of them, but if they get on top of you, they'll smother you. I've seen camels. They're very easily intimidated. They get terribly angry. They're hard to control. And yet she gets up, and there she has authority over it. She says, well, this is a burden. This thing's going to destroy me, or I'll destroy it. And she got on top of the thing. She rode on top of it, and it had to follow every whim, every desire that she had. She manipulated it. And you know, that's what God wants us to be, to us to be, to be more than conquerors, through him that loved us. Now, you can go home, not just for a minute, but when you go, turn to Ephesians, read the first chapter, and you'll find out God there is telling us all that he has laid up for us. But you know what? I don't believe that maturity comes by age. Maturity comes by obedience. I was reading the fourth chapter of Galatians today. What does it say? A son, because he's a son, cannot inherit, even though he's a correct heir to all the estate. He cannot, while he's a juvenile, he cannot inherit all the possessions. Legally he can have them. In the, in the, in the, you get the New York Times, maybe some of you. Well, before that, a hundred years before that, we have the English, English Times, London. And there's a common in, column there every day for people anticipating inheritances. They'll ask you how much you're going to inherit, and they'll give an advance on that money, and they'll salt you, of course, for interest. But very often a father will say, well, I'll give you a million dollars. Not until you're 21. The guy's making up his mind, I'm going to get eight, money when I'm 18. And when the will is ready, he finds that even though he's the rightful heir to it, he cannot take it. There's a provision in the will. You can't do it until you're 21 years of age, till you come to maturity. And there are things in this blessed book. Spurgeon said this is a bank book. It's signed. The checks are signed. By faith, take them and cash them. But God says not until you're mature enough. You've heard me say time and time again in this prayer meeting. God, don't say to me before a billion people in eternity reign you, I've many things to tell you, but you couldn't bear them. You're too immature. I preach in that great church, great Catholic, not Catholic, in a great Catholic, great Catholic city of Dublin. There's a massive Methodist church, and I preach there at a conference. I'll tell you, it's memorable. I'll tell you who was there. John Purvis, the fellow that wrote Fair Sunshine. Eva Stewart-Watt, she wrote the books on revival for James Stewart. I remember a man called Leonard Evans saying one night, a handsome guy and very good at sports, cricket, swimming, everything. He'd been to school. He'd been to Cliff College. And he says, I'm just wanting to mature. And he mentioned the town he came from. I think it was St. Natalie in Wales. And he said, my mother was going across the square and she saw another lady. She says, oh, whatever her name was, one of those wonderful Welsh names, Gwen, I think. Gwen, how are you? When's your baby due? Oh, my baby's due in about three days. When's yours? Two days, I'm going to hospital now. She said, well, when your baby comes, send me a note. And I'll send you a note when my baby comes. So this lady got a lovely boy, unusually nice, so she called him Leonard. And here he is preaching to us. And he said, three days after, my mother got a note from this woman saying, I've got my baby too. And that was all. He said, I went home. By the grace of God, I matured. I became an athlete. I went to school. He was an ordained minister with his dog collar and all the trimmings. And he said, I'm physically developed. I'm intellectually developed. And I'm trying to get spiritually developed. But he said, the boy that was born three days after me is still lying in the, in the wicker chair. You hear Swaggart say sometimes, this is a basket case. Because, you see, they used to take people out with spinal injuries in a, in a chair about six feet long. And it was made of basket stuff. And he said, that boy has been a liability. His mother has to pre-digest his food, chew it, and then give it to him. She feeds him with a bottle. She changes his diapers. For 30 years, he's been a slave. He said, I've been able to develop my mind, develop my body, pay my people, help my family. This child is a burden to his mother for 30-odd years. He has never once articulated motherhood. Not, he makes a guttural noise. He's never helped himself. He can't put on his socks. He can't bathe himself. She's been his slave for 30 years. And he said, how many of you Christians? And we're in a stately Methodist church. How many Christians are there like that? They're born, and yet they're crippled with carnality. They're not really genuinely born again of the Spirit of God. They're crippled. They're a libel to the, to the God above. I said to somebody yesterday, isn't it amazing? If you want to be a Jehovah's Witness, you can't be a Jehovah's Witness and smoke. You can't be a Mormon and smoke. You can be a Christian, a Best Baptist, a Methodist and smoke. Or even Pentecostal. Some of the world has better standards than we have. You see, God is wanting us to become mature. After all, apart from Mussolini, of course, they do it in other countries now. Children now have machine guns and they're shooting each other down in Central Africa, Central America. But normally that's not so. Soldiers come to maturity, manhood. And God isn't raising an army of Boy Scouts. He's trying to raise an army of warriors to fight the good fight of faith. This woman receives her inheritance because of obedience. Whether it's a long journey or not, I don't know. She didn't say, how far is it? She didn't say, is it rough going? She didn't say, are there bandits on the road? She didn't say, I've heard rumors about that area. She just said, all right, if you say, I'll go, I'll go. And she went. What did she receive? She received the whole inheritance that he had, just because she said, I will, I will go. And God has an inheritance for us. Not when we get to the other side in eternity, there's a song that says the hill of Zion yields a thousand sacred sweets before we reach the heavenly fields. As I've told you often enough, the more joy we have, the less entertainment we need. You find me a church with a big entertainment program, they've no joy. What is joy? Joy is bringing to birth. With joy shall ye draw water from the wells of salvation. Our salvation is supposed to supply all I need. In Christ I should, thou O Christ art all I want. He's my strength, he's my wisdom, he's my joy, he's my peace. God has left nothing out. As long as I say, Lord, wither thou ghost, I will go. Thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God. He just wants that implicit blind obedience to do the will of the Father. Well, there you are, few thoughts. Let's get on top of these circumstances by the grace of God and say, I'm going to triumph. I'm not going to accept defeat. I believe there comes a place, and we've done it, my dear Martha and I, more than once in life. We've come up to a situation and prayed and prayed, nothing happened. Then we said, Lord, from this moment I'll never ask you again if I live to be a hundred years old. From here I turn from prayer to praises. I praise you for doing it. I don't see, I don't feel it, I don't see it. The outlook is black, but I praise you. You are that same God. You know, we're going to have to live on this book more than ever in the years coming, if there are years left. We're going to have to really mean it when we sing, my hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but only lean on Jesus. On Christ the solid rock I stand. This precious woman didn't have a Bible. She's living in the early days of civilization. She's never read a newspaper. She's never read a Bible. She takes the word of a man of God. Well, God help us. How many men of God do you know who you can rest your faith in? That their word is their word. That they have two rare things, honesty and integrity. That's what the world is looking for. All Roberts can see Christ 900 feet high. I want a Christ that walks in the midst of the candlesticks. I want a Christ that walks with me. That restrains me when I'm going too fast. Constrains me when I'm too slow. That's why it's business. And he's waiting to endow us with riches we've never dreamed of. I know there are people, and I'm right through here, people who say, I don't want to go back to Pentecost. I want to go beyond that. Brother, I'd be glad to go back to the upper room for a while. Anyhow, I'll share some things with you next week. That God has been pushing onto my spirit day by day, night by night. I haven't slept. I've got up in the night and pasted my bedroom about these things. It's time for a showdown. It's time to get rid of, I think, somebody prayed to you, pray about labels and denominations and all that, for God to raise a new breed of men. Holy men, pure men. Men who won't be contaminated, can't be contaminated. Dear Lord, if a man can keep faithful to his wife for 50 years, can't he keep faithful to God? Many a man has said, yes, I'll stay with you, darling. And a month after being married, an accident has come, and she's been crippled. And she's been in a wheelchair for the last 40 years. And he's been faithful to that wife. Are we going to get upset because one or two trials come? There are some worse than others. I know that. But you see, people are watching us. No man liveth unto himself. You remember that statement of John Donne in 1550, every man is an island? No, not, what was it, what did he say? No man is an island. Well, I turned it around, every man is an island. I'm an entity, I'm a person. There are not two of me in the world, you should be glad of that. I'm an entity, you're an entity. I'm totally responsible for my being under God, for my working, for my thinking, for my acting, for my faith. I'm responsible, I'm the one that God deals with. I watch him deal with others, but he's dealing with me. And he makes us individually. And yet this precious woman is prepared to leave everything. At home, they say, stay just 10 days. If she had it, say, stay 10 months, it would have got worse and worse. She has the grace to say, no, I'm going. You don't know a thing about the man, I don't need to know a thing about him. I'm sure, I'm sure she'd heard rumors about this precious man. Maybe she'd said many times, you know, that wonderful son, that wonderful hunter, the son of Abraham, you know, the Lord spared him. I guess she said, oh boy, I'd like to marry that fellow. Just be the man I've, and here the Lord supplies the need in that way. But you see, God is making me individually, making you individually. And somewhere you say bye to your kindred and your stock and everything else and step out. It may be out of a denomination, I don't know what it is. But I don't want to be missing the wealth I can have in Jesus Christ. Because God has not merely given Jesus Christ, with him he has freely given us all things. All the patience you need, all the grace you need, all the love you need, all the, all the, uh, what's the other commodity that's so scarce? Patience. Most of us need that, don't we? I think of a woman that prayed, Lord, I want patience. I want it now. That's about what we want, isn't it? We've got to do some praying tonight. Where's my Indian brother? There's a few of them. Spence, when did he go to Auckland? When did he go? Good. Shall we pray for the Indians? Anybody from Joe Fossey's place here tonight? Where is Joe? Helping Jimmy Sagan? Yeah, I thought, I guess they were. Well, tell him that's the last chance he has. He's done that before. He should be here. Did a bunch of them go? I thought everybody. See, that's why the seats are empty. So tell them that they get a double welcome coming back next week. We'll have to get some more chairs because it's all filled up. Well, I'll tell you some difficult days ahead. We need to pray more than ever for the strengthening of the saints in these other countries. The honeymoon's going to be over for us before too long. We need to take deeper root, their root downward and fruit upwards. I could quote statistics but I won't. I'll tell you what, the corruption amongst the teenagers in the countries is devastating. It's unbelievable. And the the spreading of this New Age, you know, this New Age stuff is old hat actually. And this stuff that, what's that woman who's been pushing? Actually, it's spiritism, isn't it? That's all it is and other guys. And everybody's falling for it. And some of these guys, Earl Roberts linked up with a bunch of fellows like Earl Polk and those other guys that talk about talking to the dead. You know what? You young people won't live till they get to my age. Jesus will come before that. But, you know, in another decade we'll be freaks if we just live by this word of God. We'll be freaks. We'll be despised and rejected and then and there'll be all kinds of taxes put on believers, I believe. The net's closing in. But again, greater is he that is in us than he that is in the world. Our meeting's going good, Brother Bracey? Praise the Lord. Brother Bracey's pastoring a church now. So we're going to go to a prayer and remember it just says call upon me. Don't think you can't pray as loud or as long as somebody else. Just pray what's on your heart. Pray for gates of life. Have you any new projects this weekend? Or next weekend? Okay. Okay, let's sing a verse. What can we sing? Oh, let's sing a verse of to God be the glory and then you can slip out if you wish or stay a while and pray with us.