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(Men God Made) Caleb
Willie Mullan

William “Willie” Mullan (1911 - 1980). Northern Irish Baptist evangelist and pastor born in Newtownards, County Down, the youngest of 17 children. Orphaned after his father’s death in the Battle of the Somme, he faced poverty, leaving home at 16 to live as a tramp, struggling with alcoholism and crime. Converted in 1937 after hearing Revelation 6:17 in a field, he transformed his life, sharing the gospel with fellow tramps. By 1940, he began preaching, becoming the Baptist Union’s evangelist and pastoring Great Victoria Street and Bloomfield Baptist churches in Belfast. In 1953, he joined Lurgan Baptist Church, leading a Tuesday Bible class averaging 750 attendees for 27 years, the largest in the UK. Mullan authored Tramp After God (1978), detailing his redemption, and preached globally in Canada, Syria, Greece, and the Faeroe Islands, with thousands converted. Married with no children mentioned, he recorded 1,500 sermons, preserved for posterity. His fiery, compassionate preaching influenced evangelicalism, though later controversies arose.
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Sermon Summary
In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of living as heirs of God and joined heirs with Christ. He shares a personal anecdote about a friend who believed that if people knew their true identity, they would show them respect. The preacher encourages the congregation to trust in the Lord and not be afraid, even in the face of opposition. He references a biblical story about ten spies who doubted God's promise, causing the congregation to weep, but Caleb remained courageous and ready for battle at the age of 85. The sermon concludes with a call to action, urging listeners to shake off complacency and continue fighting for God.
Sermon Transcription
One hundred, six hundred and ninety-seven, please. Six hundred and ninety-seven. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord. He is trampling up the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored. He hath loosed the faithful lightning of his terrible twist sword. And our God is marching on. Six hundred and ninety-seven, please. And we've got a great chemical this evening. We've got Caleb. And the word Caleb means wholehearted. And I assure you this evening that no man in the Scriptures apart from our Lord Jesus, of course, lived up to his name like Caleb. You know, this character that we're looking at tonight, and what a character he is. This character was wholehearted in everything he did. And everything that God gave him to do, you can say this twice over, he did with his might what his hands found to do. He was wholehearted in everything. The old Puritans, and the old Puritans, I have to say this now, were among the greatest character preachers in the world. You'll find that they took characters out and they preached about characters. And the old Puritan preachers called Caleb Mr. Greatheart of the Old Testament. When John Bunyan wrote Pilgrim's Progress, he had the character in there called Mr. Greatheart. And so the old Puritans called Caleb Mr. Greatheart of the Old Testament. And you can examine every phrase that the Holy Ghost has given us in this book, and you can look at every moment of the revelation that the Spirit gives us about Caleb, and in his whole history, you're going to find that there was never an hour when he was depressed. Never depressed. You can't find him in this book depressed. And I assure you he went through some stormy days, but he was never depressed. You will never find him down in the dumps, you will never find him under the juniper tree. Not a bit, is he? Oh no. No matter what he faced in life, no matter how gigantic or powerful or mighty the foe before him was, you can't find one moment of fear in this man. He was neither depressed nor afraid. So we have a great character on our hands. A character that's sometimes missed, and I don't know why. But we're going to take time about it anyway, because we've got to learn. And there's one thing about him that stands out in this great glowing character, and it's this, there was no jealousy at any time, and no envy in this man. Remember, he was one of the twelve spies that went to spy the land. Moses sent twelve spies to spy the land. And the boys and girls in the Sunday school know that ten were bad and two were good. And Caleb and Joshua were the two that brought the good report. And the Lord Caleb stood before the nation and moved it to go forward. Yet when the day came that Moses elected Joshua to fill his shoes and take leadership of the nation, you'll find that Caleb was at Joshua's elbow, playing second fiddle. But playing it with all his heart, no jealousy. Behind the leader, shout! Just taking the place that God gave him. We've got a lot to learn here. You will find that when even Aaron and Miriam, brother and sister of Moses, criticized Moses for his marriage, talked behind his back and were criticizing and backbiting. Caleb was never mixed up in that. His name, Caleb, the word Caleb means wholeheartedly. He wholeheartedly sought the Lord, and he wholeheartedly followed the Lord. And he wholeheartedly waited for forty years for the Lord to bring him into the promised land while the others had to wander for forty years and were buried in the wilderness. And he was the only one with Joshua that came out of Egypt that could enter. But he waited. He could wait on God. Yes, you'll find that he wholeheartedly sought and followed and waited and trusted in the Lord. He trusted in the Lord with all his heart. Sometime when you go to that great book of Proverbs and you take those two verses in chapter three, trust in the Lord with all thine heart. And lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy path. Just remember that you're looking at Solomon's picture of Caleb, that's Caleb. Yes, he trusted in the Lord with all his heart, wholeheartedly. And never once leaned on his own understanding. Even when he could see the giant from the mountain, and he was an old man. Oh, he doesn't get that at all. He sees God. He never leaned on his own understanding. And in all his ways he acknowledged God all the time. And God directed his steps into the promised land. This fellow had only one goal as he left Egypt. He'd gone to the land that God promised. And there's nothing keeping him back either. And he never lost sight of it. And though he had to wander with that miserable, unbelieving crowd for forty years, he never lost sight of the goal and eventually came there. So we have a great character on our hands. And I think before we run away from that sort of characteristic introduction, we ought to remember that we bear a great name too. Because my people, which are called by my name, we're God's people, you know. And the way we murmur, and the way we groan, and the way we complain, and the way we cry, and the way we worry, you wouldn't think we were God's people at all. You would think we were people without God at times. And remember we are Christians. That's our name. We're Christ's. Oh. Oh how proudly we should march down the street. We're heirs of God. And we're joint heirs with Christ. The old man who trained me a lot used to say to me as we walked down together, he had a lovely white beard and he would look round and say, if the people really knew who we were, they would take their hats off to us as we passed by. We've got a name. We should wholeheartedly live on to it. And so we want to watch this character this evening because I'm positively sure you can learn things. And I shall have to confess as I go along, that I have learned many things in life from Cato. You'll catch me on, but I don't mind. I learned them there. So I don't mind. And I'll tell you when we're up there. Now we're commencing in Numbers chapter 14, the book of Numbers, chapter 13. Book of Numbers, chapter 13. And I want to take a moment or two here because sometimes Sunday school teachers, sometimes young preachers, sometimes those who lead young people's meetings, have a problem here. And they cannot get it settled very easily. And I'll settle it for you and then you'll know from this day forward. We're at number 13. And the Lord speak unto Moses, saying, Send thou men that they may search the land of Canaan, which I give unto the children of Israel. Of every tribe of their father shall ye send a man, every one a ruler among them. For there were twelve tribes, and twelve men were to go, and every one was to be a ruler in the tribe. And Moses, by commandment of the Lord, sent them from the wilderness of Paran. All those men were heads of the children of Israel. And these were their names. Of the tribe of Reuben, Thamu'ah, want you to get the hold of him. Then verse 5, of the tribe of Simeon, Shalfat. And then of the tribe of Judah, and of course that's the loyal tribe, Caleb. That's where he came from. And then of the tribe of Issachar, Igo, of the tribe of Ephraim, Osir, the son of Nun, of the tribe of Benjamin, Paltai, of the tribe of Zebulun, Gadalil, of the tribe of Joseph, namely of the tribe of Manasseh, Gadai, of the tribe of Dan, Amael, of the tribe of Asher, Zeher, of the tribe of Nastali, Nabai, of the tribe of Gad, Durel. And there are twelve tribes there, and there are twelve names. One of the Sunday school teachers, here just before me now, and you don't need to blush while I say this, because you're not the only one, came to me one Sunday and said, I'm doing these tribes, and I'm doing these twelve spies, and I've got the names of these twelve spies. Now I can find Caleb's name here, but I can't find Joshua's. Now he's not the first fellow that said that, you know. And if you go down to the mall, you see, you'll find, if you go over the mall again, you just can't find Joshua. And yet you know that Joshua was one of them, don't you? Ah, it's very easy, just an easy one, and you just have to watch it carefully. You can see Caleb all right in verse 6 of the tribe of Judah, Caleb the son of Jethronim. Now when you come to verse 8, it's the tribe of Ephraim. Oshiah is the word. Now that's the old word for Joshua, and that's why you didn't find it. Now just to make you sure that I'm sure, you see, let's look at verse 16. These are the names of the men which Moses sent the spy of the land, and Moses called Oshiah, the son of man, Jehoshua. And then it's shortened afterwards to Joshua. So there's no problem, is there? These are just little tickly problems, but sometimes a Sunday school teacher can be asked by a child, well, here's the twelve men, and there's no Joshua, and you might just stand there looking, you know, and that doesn't help you at all with the class. So you'll remember we've got to settle now. There's always an answer, you know. You just need to take time. And you must remember that nobody can blame you ever for your ignorance. If you don't know, just say you don't know. When Dr. Ironside would walk into the class in the morning, he'd just look round all the boys, and he'd say, stand up, will you? And I would stand up like a fool I was, and he would say, now tell me the difference between the father's house and the everlasting kingdom. And I would say, sir, I don't know. And when you don't know, please say you don't know. Don't sit with me, because you'll learn like that. Some good fellow will tell you. But you know now, and so that settles that bit. That there'll be no more trouble. I want you to get the hold of this, that these twelve spies went to search out the land. Verse 21 says, so they went up and searched the land from the wilderness of Din unto Rehob, as men come to Hamas. And I'm not taking time to go into the geography, but remember it's very important. And when I learned these chapters, I had to learn the geography. And I would think I know the geography of the land better than I know from Donegal to Cork. But we're not taking the time to do that this evening. That clock moves on. Verse 22, and they ascended by the south and came to Hebron. And I can remember the day that I walked up the hill into Hebron. And there was a whole lot of things that had gone through my mind that I knew about it. And this is where the spies came to. Verse 23 says, and they came unto the brook of Eschol and cut down from thence a branch with one cluster of grapes and they buried it between two upon a spouse. And they brought of the pomegranates and of the figs. And the place was called the brook Eschol because of the cluster of grapes which the children of Israel cut down from thence. And they returned from searching of the land after forty days. And they went and came to Moses and to Aaron and to all the congregation of the children of Israel unto the wilderness of Paran to Kadesh and brought back word unto them and unto all the congregation and showed them the truth of the land. And they told him and said, we came unto the land where thou sentest us and surely it flows with milk and honey and this is the fruit of it. Nevertheless, this is where they spoiled it. Nevertheless, the people be strong that dwell in the land and the cities are walled and very great. Moreover, we saw the children of Anak there. And the word actually means giants. The Amalekites dwelt in the land of the south and the Hittites and the Jeduites and the Amalekites dwelt in the mountains and the Canaanites dwelt by the sea by the coast of Jordan. And they are inoculating the people with fear. Now, this is where Caleb just took the coat off. On his own. Verse 30 And Caleb showed the people. Did he get the hold? Because he just got up on a rock as far as I can see. He's just taken over against ten of them just now. That's what he's doing. Joshua's not in the yarn at all, you know. This Caleb. Not standing back any longer. Because anything he had to do, he did it with his might. And Caleb stilled the people before Moses and said, Let us go up at once and possess it. For we are well able to overcome it. He had never any doubt. You can't find this fellow with any trembling about him at all. He steps out like a man. Now, I want you to get the hold of this phrase. Stilled the people. Because I believe that this is a great ministry in life. It's a mighty part to play. I shall tell you now, it's a Christ-like part. Because remember when the storm was frightening the disciples, Christ stilled the storm. And remember when Paul penned that letter to Philemon about Onesiphorus. You know, he was just standing up to still the storm. Philemon was ready to pounce upon Onesiphorus because he was afraid he would run away. Oh, but Paul was stilling the storm. And there's a ministry, you know. That's if you're built like a man. But to still the people. I was just cuddled into bed the other evening. Not last evening, but the evening before. And it was Sunday evening, just five past twelve at once. Actually, I was fiddling through these very verses when the phone rang. It cracked my elbow. There's a lady on the phone. She says, I'm sorry for ringing you. I can't go through this night like this. I said, just tell me who you are first. And she told me she was Mrs. Chapman from Belfast. I said, look, this won't forgive me for disturbing you. But my husband and I are both here, in this home, replying. I've got a letter. This is the fourth one I've got. And it's telling me to do certain things. And if I don't do them, it says there will be a death in our family. Any of you received these sort of letters? And she said, look, I want to say this to you. I didn't bother with the other three at all. But there's been three deaths. So I'm sitting up now. I can see the thing quite clearly. There's somebody inoculating her with fear, with terror. So I've got to play the part of killing. I've got to still her. I said, now put that phone in between you, where both of you can hear. Are you trying to tell me that somebody can just take away life when the life's like this? Without murder, just thinking about it. What are you thinking about? Come out into the open. Are you thinking about black magic? She said, we think it's something like that, or else it's the devil himself. I said, all right, we'll take it out of source. Do you think the devil can kill saints? That would be good time to tell me in the middle of the night. Because if the devil can kill saints, I'll not be here in the morning. I would likely go, Paisley would go back before me, I would think. Say amen. What are you sitting there for? Oh no, that just won't do, should it? Somebody's frightening her. You see, you can think a period in life of six months, say the last six months. Oh, the night the big crooks belonged to you died. Yeah, I'm sure we've all lost loved ones. It's got nothing to do with black magic. I said, dear, if Satan could do this, he would have us all way long ago. And I shall prove to you that when he came to destroy Job and was determined to do so, God just allowed him to go so far and no further. God said to him, alright, you see, if he loses the farm and loses his health, he'd curse me. I'll take you on. I have a better faith in him than that. You can take his farm away. You can take his health away. But save his life. You don't go any further. He couldn't kill Job. If he kills Job, he's bigger than God. He's not bigger than God. You see, I got her onto the place where I could let her see that her times were in God's hands. That her breath was in God's hands. That the key of death is in God's hands. We thought on into the early hours of the morning, and I stilled the storm. You've got a part to play in it. You'll get folk who are terrorized. Oh, I'll tell you this. Turn the key in the door and trust the Lord tonight. Some of you women around here, you're frightened now. All these criminals. Trust the Lord, dear. Just you trust the Lord. If this is the sort of character he'll have, he'll just steal the people. But you know the devil goes on doing the thing, doesn't he? And I'll tell you this. These other ten went on doing it until we come to chapter 14. We're at number 14. And all the congregation lifted up their voice and cried, and the people wept that night. Fancy the whole nation weeping over these ten boys. Oh, what the devil can do at times. And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron, whose is always the leader that gets the blame. And the whole congregation said unto them, Would God we had died in the land of Egypt, or would God we had died in the wilderness, wherefore hath the Lord brought us into this land to fall by the sword, that our wives, our children should be afraid, were it not better for us to return into Egypt. And they said unto him, God let us make a captain. Oh, you know when people get inoculated by the devil, and get terrorized a bit by him, and get out of touch with the Lord. They're always ready to make a captain to get away from the Lord. I've seen this in assemblies, you know. Somebody just blinks long at somebody else, and they don't like it. So they make a captain out of this thing, you know. Now the trouble is the Lord of Egypt. If you're making a captain out of something, if you haven't got enough grace to go on with the Lord, just because somebody doesn't say good morning the way you want it, it's a pity for your life, that's all. My dear friend, you need to have more guts and grace than that. You don't make a captain out of everything, you know. I say to Chuck there sometimes, sitting there now, you pray far too long. And he laughs, and he says, you know, you're going to scold me and reason. But he's got enough grace to come back and pray over again. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord for him too. Pray on. Yes. I'll tell you this, just don't make a captain out of everything. If I didn't wear the right color of shirt for some of them, they would nearly leave. Ah well, leave you, would be better without you. Yes. What is he doing back there? I'll tell you this now. What's this? Verse 6. Joshua the son of Lamb, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, which were of them that searched the land, rent their clothes. And they speak unto all the company of the children of Israel, saying, The land which we pass through to search is an exceeding good land, if the Lord delight in us. I want you to get the hold of that. You see, this is the claim that Caleb makes. You see the F there? It's not the F of a question, mind you. Oh no, there is no question marked behind it even. No, it's the F of a conclusion. Actually, the way it's in the Hebrew, it could be the word since. It's what our teacher the other Sunday morning was preaching here about. If God is on us. And he pointed out, it could be since God is on us. It's not the question at all. It's the conclusion you come to. If God gave his Son, and spared him not, how shall he not with him give us all things? Since God is on us. It's the same thing here. Since God delights in us. What are you afraid of? This is what Caleb was claiming before the nation. You know, friend, when you see Christ coming to this earth, and you see him going to the cross, and you see him being made a curse, and you see him crushed between the upper and the middle stones of God's wrath, you know the reason for his coming, and the reason for the cross, and the reason for the curse, and the reason for the crush. It's just because he delights in you. His delights were with the sons of men. Can I put it clearer when I say, for the joy that was set before him. Oh, let's get that worked up this evening. I think that's great to know. But I'll tell you this, you know, you can preach like this just as much as you like, and you can get it over, and you can stand up, and you can be a man. Now watch this very carefully. Verse 8. If the Lord delight in us, then he will bring us into this land and give it us, a land which flows with milk and honey. Only rebel not ye against the Lord, neither fear ye the people of the land, for they are bred for us. Their defense is departed from them, and the Lord is with us. Fear them not. I'll tell you the outcome of this. But all the congregation, barbs, stone them with stones, or I'll throw stones at you. You think you get medals for preaching like this, don't you? Oh, you must be joking. I've been through this, you know. You take your coat off, and you do your best to still the people, and help them against the enemy. And then that's the crow that throws stones at you. Now, the stones didn't worry Caleb. Not a bit. I tell you, he was bigger than that. If you're going to be any use to the Lord, you'll need to be a bit bigger than that. I'll tell you what the Lord did. The Lord did something here that's very wonderful. See verse 20. I must see if I'm here somewhere. Verse 20 of Numbers 14. And the Lord said, I have pardoned according to thy word, but as truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord. Because all those men which have seen my glory and my miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tempted me now these ten times, have not hearkened to my voice. Surely they shall not see the land which I spread unto their fathers, neither shall any of them that provoke me see it. But my servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and hath followed me fully, whom will I bring into the land? And did you see what God did? I picked this fellow out, you know. There's a whole tribe in D.C. There are countless thousands. He knows the man that's trusting him. You put your trust in God, and God will look after you. You don't need to worry whether Callaghan gets in or Mrs. Thatcher picks it up or anything like that. It's not a big deal. The Lord is looking after you. I'll bring Caleb in. Caleb's got to wander for forty years so this crow dies off and gets buried in the wilderness. God's bringing him in. If you honor me, he says, I'll honor you. Oh, we can learn lessons here, can't we? I want you to get the hold of all this. I think we've got to go way over to the book of Joshua now, chapter fourteen. Book of Joshua, chapter fourteen. And this cloud has died off now. And Joshua has got the job of bringing the people in. And the only one that was left of those that came out of Egypt was Caleb. And they're bringing them in for the land of promise. He's in now. We read Joshua fourteen in verse six. Then the children of Judah, of course that's the tribe that he belonged to, came unto Joshua in Gilgal. And Caleb, that's him, the son of Jephunneh, the king of the night, said unto him, Thou knowest the thing that the Lord said unto Moses, the man of God concerning me and thee in Shibbish Barnea. Forty years old was I when Moses the servant of the Lord sent me from Kiddush Barnea to spy out the land. He was forty when he was sent. And I brought him word again as it was in mine heart. Nevertheless my brethren that went up with me made the heart of the people melt. But I wholly followed the Lord my God. Greatly you can say that. And Moses swore on that day saying, Surely the land whereon thy feet are trodden shall be thine inheritance and thy children's forever because thou hast wholly followed the Lord my God. And now behold, the Lord hath kept me alive. Isn't that a mighty phrase? I like this bit, you know. Because you know, you could take this text and take your time with it now. Because I can look back a yard or two, you know. The Lord has kept me alive. Yes, He has. And I just put your life into His hands now. You know, can I talk to the younger ones? You know, when you're young you're going to die a whole lot of times. I'm sure some of you older ones remember this all right. You had the flu, got pneumonia out of it and one thing and another. And I can remember, you know, times through life. You lay in the little room, you know, and you thought the end had come, not a bit of it. Oh, no, the Lord has more to do than that. The Lord has kept me alive. And I lay out in the fields for three and a half years too. And one morning, woke up with a little fellow beside me, dead. Died in the middle of the night. The Lord kept me alive. The Lord has kept me alive to this moment. Watch what He says here. The Lord has kept me alive. Verse 10. These forty and five years ever since the Lord spake this word unto Moses, while the children of Israel wandered in the wilderness, and now, lo, I am this day fourscore and five years old. You know, he was eighty-five now. You have to wander with this cloud in the wilderness. He's eighty-five. I want you to get the hold of this, because this is the confidence. The Lord has kept me alive. You know, I think it's a great thing to go through this book and see all the old men and old women. And I talked to the old men and old women here for a minute or two. You know, when you come to Daniel, you come to a place in the story of Daniel where he could see from the writings of Jeremiah that Israel would go down in Babylon for seventy years, and he knew the seventy years had almost run their course. Now, the scholars say he was brought to Babylon as a young boy of sixteen. If you put seventy to that, he's eighty-six now. And you will find that when he's eighty-six, he gets down on his knees and he prays for twenty-one days without stopping, the terrible, to pray this thing through. Good to God we have a lot of old men. You're not left here just to draw attention, you are. I'll put that with you. Oh, you could pray, I bet you do. Yes, I can see Jacob when he was one hundred and forty-seven years of age and his eyes were dim, and he's leaning on the top of his spout, and he gathers his children on his bed, and he preaches the greatest sermon in the prophetic book, tells each one by prophecy the things that shall happen to him in the last days. And the old book says, and Jacob, when he was a dying, leaned upon the top of his spout and worshipped. And went into heaven, worshipping God. Now glory, no! Worshipping. Oh, that we had the determination of Daniel. Oh, that we had the joy of Jacob. Yes, remember Moses finishing the journey? His eye was clear, his strength was not abated. There he was, he had done his three forties, forty in Egypt, forty in the wilderness, yea, forty at the back side of the desert, a hundred and twenty, and he's as strong as when he began. Oh, I tell you, God can work with old men, you know. Let's get the hold of it. You know, this man is 85, should be pulled on the slippers. He's no motion of pulling on the slippers. He's going to work for God this time. Oh, give yourself a bit of a shake. Yes. I tell you this, God can make men. I want you to get this. This is very important here. See verse 11. Oh, this is the courage of Caleb. He says, As yet I am as strong this day as I was in the day that Moses sent me. As my strength was then, even so is my strength now. For war. I'm ready for war. This is an old fellow we're listening to. He's 85 years of age. Don't you think I'm sitting back? I'm going on with this battle. There was no retirement in his mind. Oh, the courage that he has. You know, I think, I think I've got to say this, that the courage and strength and stamina that belong to Caleb, belongs to James and Donny Gunning, who's gone back to the equest. I think that's the way the servant of God should do. If you're half able at all, way back to the job. My God, we have so many in retirement. I don't know what they're doing. Yeah. The Lord will give us strength, won't He? You know what the old negro, nearly 90, said? He said, If the Lord tells me to jump through that wall, it's up to me to make the jump. It's up to Him to get me through. Yeah, that's all. You just trust the Lord. You see, As thy days, so shall thy strength be. That's what I believe, of course. And I don't think it all got to do with the length of your days. As thy days, according to length. I don't think it means that. It just means, As thy days, according to kind. Whatever kind of day tomorrow will be. Oh, I'll get strength for it. If tomorrow is the day I must go through the valley of the shadows, you know, I'll get strength to puddle into the water. And He'll take me the rest. You see, friends, I think if we could get the spiritual thing right, if we could be like this, clear, get our eyes on God, I believe the spiritual would help the physical. I'm positively sure of this. You know, I'm very sure of this, that if you could get your thoughts from the Master, it would help your mind. Sure of that, all right. I think if we could begin to acknowledge the Lord in everything, it would help your ears a bit. Just let's acknowledge the Lord. That's all. Ah, this is the courage he has. You know, I want you to get the hold of this. See verse 12? He looks at Joshua. He's eighty-five. He maintains he's as strong as when he began. And he says, Now, therefore, give me this mountain. He says, now listen, Joshua. I've come a long way. I want you to give me this mountain. You see, this mountain, it's Hebron, you know. When I went up the heights of Hebron, I remembered all this. Now, therefore, give me this mountain, whereof the Lord spake in that day. For thou heardest in that day how the Anakims were there. You know, He knew they were still there. The giants were there. Now, I shall let you into a secret, you know. You see, for the past six months, and more, for the beginning of this year, two of us have made a pact. We're two old fellows still. I could see the Iron Hall like a mountain in the east of Belfast in Ballymackasm. I said, Lord, Lord, give us this mountain. And it's surrounded by good men, you know. And there are dames and iniquities. And pubs and drinks, and every cursed thing that comes from hell. But you can go in and take the mountain, you know. And then, you see, a month before it happened, my strength seemed to collapse. Oh, the old devil came to crush me, didn't he? And that's the easy question. And doctors and everybody else says you can't do it. God says you can't. I'll tell you, we've seen them. You see, you may have a boy or girl, and they're not saved. And they're away on the mountains, wild and bare for life. And the whole church says, take the mountain, man. Go in and take the mountain. You know why? You're never taken. You're never on your knees. You're no Caleb at all. You're no anything even like Caleb. You're just fiddling at it. And while you fiddle, they'll go to hell. Oh, I wonder, could we stand up tonight and say, Lord, all right, you've given me strength. Give me the mountain. Let me take the mountain. You see, this is what I think that Paul had in mind when he went into Cairns. Oh, it's a big place, this Cairns. Oh, it's full of all kinds of shit. I'll tell you this. He took the mountain. Oh, what a character we have before us of people. Did you see the character of Caleb? And then the counsel he brought, and the claims he made, and the confidence he had, and the courage. See the conclusion. He took the mountain because, because he followed the Lord fully. Oh, let's follow the Lord. Now, we're moving from Caleb to Elijah next week, just to fulfill the thing. Let's bow before the Lord. We'll sing no more tonight. Off the frosty night, I'll let you out. Lord, we bow at Thy feet. Thank You for Yourself. Oh, keep our eyes upon Thee. Don't let the devil inoculate us, or scare us, or frighten us. Oh, God, make our confidence to be only in Thee. Help us to trust Thee wholly. Help us to know that without faith, we cannot please Thee. Help us to know that when we honor Thee, Thou will look down from heaven and honor us. Oh, God, there are more mountains to be taken. Help us to take them. Part us now in Thy fear and with Thy blessing, for Thy name's sake. Amen.
(Men God Made) Caleb
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William “Willie” Mullan (1911 - 1980). Northern Irish Baptist evangelist and pastor born in Newtownards, County Down, the youngest of 17 children. Orphaned after his father’s death in the Battle of the Somme, he faced poverty, leaving home at 16 to live as a tramp, struggling with alcoholism and crime. Converted in 1937 after hearing Revelation 6:17 in a field, he transformed his life, sharing the gospel with fellow tramps. By 1940, he began preaching, becoming the Baptist Union’s evangelist and pastoring Great Victoria Street and Bloomfield Baptist churches in Belfast. In 1953, he joined Lurgan Baptist Church, leading a Tuesday Bible class averaging 750 attendees for 27 years, the largest in the UK. Mullan authored Tramp After God (1978), detailing his redemption, and preached globally in Canada, Syria, Greece, and the Faeroe Islands, with thousands converted. Married with no children mentioned, he recorded 1,500 sermons, preserved for posterity. His fiery, compassionate preaching influenced evangelicalism, though later controversies arose.