In this sermon, the speaker begins by acknowledging the power of faith in connecting with God. He emphasizes the importance of being honest about one's spiritual life and not mis-evaluating it. The speaker shares his personal experience of blaming others for his failures until he realized that his value lies in his ability to believe God. He highlights the significance of obedience to God's truth, which allows individuals to place themselves at God's disposal and experience His presence and guidance in their lives. The speaker concludes by emphasizing the need to live in the present and have faith as substance in order to connect with God.

On your program, I think it says, Brother Jack, so I get to preach to his crowd this morning, but because of the nature of the messages, we feel that this is the best route to take, and sometimes that is the case. The Lord does direct in different ways, and sometimes we anticipate. Now, the other morning, I spoke to you on the subject of faith, and dealt with the matter of the three different areas of faith, the gift of faith, or the grace of faith, to put them in order, the grace of faith, and the gift of faith, and the impartation of faith, and in that order we discuss each one just a little, but basically we settle down on the grace of faith, saying that the grace of faith is that God-given ability, God-given ability whereby we are enabled, or where we have the privilege and have the responsibility of responding to divine truth, revelation, divine revelation. And of course, I stayed there for a while and dealt with the matter of the will, the mind and the emotions, and in that I'd like to go on and share this morning a little further into that particular area, because I believe this is the key that actually gets God in all of his sufficiency and man in all of his problems together. I believe this matter of trusting the Lord is the key of getting all that there is of God and all that there is of man in his needs and getting them together. If you were here last night, I could never improve upon the how over last night. As far as I'm concerned, man in other weaknesses discovers how to get to God. So I'm not going to try to repeat what I said last night, even though if you were here, it certainly would help a great deal in this particular service this morning. In Hebrews 11, we find these words, Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good report, and through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which do appear. I'll tell you, there are some baffling statements in these first three verses and all the way down, but these first three verses really have something to say to us that baffles the natural person and the natural mind. It's a constant pull of God in the life of a believer to get a person into another realm of living. Let me just make a comment or two about that. It says, Now faith is the substance of things hoped for. Hoped for things are things that are out there that are not within your grasp at the moment. And then the evidence of things not seen. So faith operates in an area that's not really earthy. Faith has to operate in a spiritual area. I think we could use the word spiritual area, or in an intangible area. I think it would maybe even be better. And he goes on and says, By it the elders obtained a good report. And then he says, Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God. And that's so unusual. And so that the things, listen to this, the things which are seen, these things that we see out here, were not made of the things which do appear. And of course the scripture tells us that faith works on calling things that are not as though they are. And faith is calling something out of nothing. Now this really sends us into a mystical tailspin if we're trying to understand it on a human level. But the truth is not to be understood until it's first been revealed. And then of course comes understanding. And this matter of faith, of faith life, is so important to each of us because it's the way to release God. It's the key to releasing God and all of his potential in each and every one of us. It's a matter of trusting the Lord. It's by faith or through faith that God does things. Now I might just say this right off, faith doesn't work in one sense of the word. It just releases God so he can work. And this is really true. And of course you can say in another sense that faith does work, and it really does. And a faith that doesn't work, my dear friends, is not real faith. James really puts us down there, doesn't he? He puts us in our place and says, now listen, you say you've got faith and it doesn't work. And by the way, you can take that any way you want. If it doesn't work, you just back up and just admit your faith is not real. Because any faith that's real works. Amen. And when God works, he works in three areas. He works in you, he works through you, and he works for you. So I don't know which area of work you need, but wherever it is, if you've got real faith, God is at work in you, through you, and for you. And by the way, God working in you may be just as important as God working for you and God working through you. A lot of folks get a little tangled up in the faith life because they're wanting God to open up a Red Sea and when all their need is, it's to have victory within themselves. And so they're not allowing God to be sovereign in his manifestations in them. But when we believe, when we have real faith, it works. It genuinely works. I have people come to me all the time and say, well, Brother Manley, you know, I had real faith and this just did not happen. Now, what are we going to stand with? The word of God or that person's testimony? Well, what are we going to say to that person? If we're honest, we're going to say, friend, you better go back and readjust your faith because obviously your faith was not real. You say, well, Brother Manley, can a man ever be sure of himself? Sure, the Bible says there's the position of full assurance of faith and you can be assured of yourself when it works. Amen. Now, I wish all of us would get so upset with ourselves that we wouldn't be satisfied until it worked. Amen. If you ever get that upset with yourself, it'll work. Yes, sir. Our problem now is that we have entered into a state of permissiveness until we're satisfied like we are. We have reduced our standard of obligation to the point whereby we are totally capable of living up to our standard and therefore we're satisfied with where we are. Amen. Our, my dear friends, we have said it's impossible. God never expected that of man. That's the potential plan of God and all God expects man to do is the best he can. We've come to one of those two positions and we have failed to enter into the realistic position that God really has for us that, friends, what God expects, he expects out of us. God has, through Christ Jesus, made provisions whereby you can measure up to God's standards and not only that, but by faith in him you can release him in you to live up to what God expects out of you. Yes, sir. Now, if I could get all that down and remember what I said I'd be in good shape today but I want you to know that's the truth. Amen. Now, this faith life operates in an unseen world. I want to just approach the thought of believing God this morning on this level. Back a number of years ago when the Lord was sharing this truth, beginning to share this truth with me I went through some experiences. The experiences, to tell the experiences is not worthwhile except it might stir you up a little bit but to pick out the happenings of God the finger of God in those experiences could be rather enlightening because I asked the Lord a question and I responded to that issue myself and we have been right here in this meeting and since we have I think it wouldn't hurt for me to just share this with you. I believe the reason that there's so much immaturity and lack of fruit in each of our lives in the Christian world today is because of our unwillingness to commit to the lordship of Jesus Christ on a practical basis. Now, I like to say it a different way. I believe there's an unwillingness on the part of the believers to commit to the discipline of God. Now, that's the same thing. We are unwilling. Our unwillingness may be because we do not believe he's really God. We have more faith in the devil than we do in the Lord. In other words, we believe the devil can do more, more capable than God. And we recognize the devil so many times when we shouldn't and yet he's doing it, he's doing the work but we should recognize God. Now, what I'm saying is this. When I got saved, I didn't know much about a lot of things but I knew one simple thing. My mother told me this and this is just an offshoot of the word of God but it was her way of presenting something to me that I've never gotten away from. She said, son, when a person is what God wants them to be their life is totally fulfilled. They are satisfying to God. They're meeting the needs of the world and their own needs are being met. I don't know of anything to be more satisfying than that. Amen? And she said, son, if God wants you to be a ditch digger and you're there this will happen in your life. So when I got saved that little truth that came out of the word of God in her own way captivated my heart to be the ditch digger. You follow me? So I prayed a prayer that God has been answering for over 27 years. In fact, I think he's been answering her prayer for 45 years but my prayer has been being answered all those years since I got saved. I said, Lord, I want you to do to my life whatever I need to make me what you want me to be. Now that's the prayer I prayed the night I got saved. And I hear people saying all the time oh, Brother Manley, I wish I could trust God like you can or I wish I knew the Lord like you will, friend. You can. If I know him any better than you do. I don't think I do. But if there's anything about my life that I can put my finger on that's given me the history that I have as a Christian it's been my willingness with hesitation with tears amen balking. You know what balking is? Balking is not rebellion it's the state just before you get to rebellion. Amen. We used to have horses that would pull a wagon when I was a little boy and they'd start up a hill and they'd start balking. That meant that they wouldn't just get mad and turn around and run the other way. It just flat meant that they wouldn't stay in there. You know? They'd start balking. And I'll tell you what I haven't I've balked along the way but friend as I've balked I've bowed my head and said God be patient with me. I'm coming. I'm not running. I'll come on. I'll let you have your way. Now we have preached we've been preaching this heavily this week getting your hands off and letting God have it about finances and everything else. Amen? Boy as old Bill preached these sermons I've wanted to balk a little bit. And then when God said okay give five hundred here you know give a thousand here I just thought well Lord you be patient give me a few days to think about it. Amen? I've been balking but I believe it's this unwillingness to commit to the lordship of Jesus in a practical way is the reason that we are not more of what God wants us to be. And so I ask the Lord though to do what he wanted to in my life. And through the years some things happen in a strange way and one of the things that's happened in my life that's blessed me is the fact that God has let cross my path the greatest Christians alive in my day from all over the world I don't know how in the world like Miss Bertha Smith when she, the very year she returned from China she and I became very very close friends and I believe she says now that was fourteen years ago or something like that but anyway when she just returned from China and all, some of the great Christians of the world now not Baptist but all over the world Oswald J. Smith and Dr. James A. Stewart and some of the greatest men that ever lived and these men were all men that walked with God and I wanted to walk with God more than anything else in this world and I wanted to walk that only Jesus would be the answer in other words I didn't want to be like anyone else I wanted to be what Jesus wanted me to be and so a lot of things happened but one day it came time for me to enter in what I call the school of faith the school of faith up to this time I had had a salary and up to this time everything had gone real well without any kind of conflicts but when this thing of discovering what is faith came about it became a new issue and the Lord began to deal with me by dealing with my wife now she would come to me and she'd say Manly what kind of meeting did you have last week I'd say great she'd say well what's great oh I'd say this is just wonderful she'd say what's wonderful oh I'd say you know God just really blessed and if you knew my wife you'd know this is very typical of her she'd say well what kind of blessing I'd say well what do you mean she'd say well how many people got right with God and got saved I mean friends she just kept she kept pushing me down so I had to come up with some answers as to what really genuinely happened you know what I had to face reality that's what the Lord was doing making me face reality I'd say well you know we would have had a better meeting if the pastor had prepared you may not realize it but boy this is right the first phase was trying to avoid reality amen now the second phase that I'm entering into here is trying to shift responsibility and reality I said the preacher didn't prepare or I could say legitimately say well you see there was a WMU president that was just full of devils amen you know you can't have a meeting with a lot of discord in the church and I'd say boy there's a beacon we're all split up and but you know what it wasn't hard to find explanations for my failure sometimes I'd even get so theological in my explanations and I'd say you know we're living in the latter days and you just can't have revival in the latter days amen right I would pull out all kinds of explanations to excuse my failure now listen to me and you know what she'd do she would make me face the evidence of my faith because God says three times in his words according to thy faith so be it you know what the translator really says they say that that says that God is working in you through you and for you in direct proportion to your you see you can tell how much faith you've got by what God's doing in you through you and for you and by the way you're supposed to and I do not compliment the living letters very often if you need a simple translation that will give you a 5th grade level for reading go get the New English Bible amen and you'll have your translation right down the line the living letters a lot of people use it and I usually read it a little bit before I go to sleep but it's not a translation it's a paraphrase but I'll tell you what it will if you ever read Romans 12 3 out of the living letters and take it seriously it will shock you you know why it will tell you that your value before God in the world is your ability to believe God that's right and he tells us in that regardless of what translation you get in Romans 12 he tells you to not be deceived about your condition be honest about your spiritual life and to be honest and not miss evaluate your life because your life is evaluated by your ability to believe God how do you like that I mean friends it's really something when you find that your value is in your ability to believe God boy I tell you you keep listening to Bill he'll push you out there and make you believe God more amen but friends here's what happened I began to see that I was blaming folk for my failure you see I had to come up with an explanation to my wife as to why I was failing that's right and you say well how do you know you're failing well here's how God dealt with me as long as it's spiritual matters like souls being saved and souls getting right with God let me ask you something who can be your judge except the Lord right but most of us aren't even willing to get quite enough long enough to let the Lord be our judge and I'll tell you we're always so busy that we'll not let the Lord deal with our hearts and our consciousness and make us realize that we're failures so I'll tell you when God doesn't when we will not be sensitive and take time out and let the spirit of God deal with our spirit I'll tell you what he'll do he'll reach out there and let something happen to you that will flatten you down and cause you to face reality well he gave me a material problem a material problem you say why did he give you a material problem well you see no one could be my judge about spiritual things if I had 15 saved how did my wife know that wasn't what God wanted to do I mean there's no one could be my judge but I'll tell you what God has a little problem with every one of us and that is the fact that we're constantly living in the past and the future and we're relegating the blessings of today to a tomorrow that never comes and you'd be shocked this morning how many people in this place think they are pleasing to God when they have not been obedient to the revealed truth of God to the degree that God has to work a miracle this week even not today this week to keep his word to them and friend if you're not out there you're not pleasing to God amen you may love him but you're not pleasing to him for it's without faith it's impossible to please him you say well I've got faith you mean you've got faith you mean your faith is of that nature that you have been obedient to the revealed truth of God to the degree that if God doesn't keep that truth to you then you're in trouble in his words of life are you living in that kind of obedience before this week gets over then friend you'll have something to tell won't you and friends when you have something to tell you won't have to tell it to the world and know it right amen or oh me there's two kinds of preaching amen and oh me well you see the Lord let me have a problem that I had to face and I'm just being honest with you it involved thirty thousand dollars well thirty thousand dollars then was like a million to me now it really was it was tough oh I mean thirty thousand dollars well make some thing about that thirty thousand dollars was that it had a day that it was due in other words friends I couldn't live in the future couldn't live in the past I had to live in the now and I could see myself going into that banker and saying sir sir you see the church didn't prepare there was a WMU president that wasn't right with God or there was a deacon body that was all crossed up that deacon banker would have said to me what mean is that to me it's payday and friends you know what I had to face the now and I got into trouble I mean you know God just miraculously got me into trouble amen yeah we have to we don't realize that we blame the devil but God has God has to work a miracle to keep a child of God from having their needs met yes he does and brother Tom you could have a dude think on but he does you see backsliders have their needs met you don't have to be right with God to have your needs met whoopee boy God's supplying our needs boy I'm right with God but friends that's no compliment to you he met all of those Israelites needs while they were in the wilderness till they died Bible says in fact they lacked nothing he meets backsliders needs when your needs are not being met friends it's a sign that God has worked a miracle in your life to get you readjusted not God so my friend I'll tell you what God had shut me up to the day that the note was due came due it came due on Friday so naturally you could wait till Monday to pay it off anybody could be that lenient anyway that thing came due that weekend and my wife came to get me we had only one car and I had to go in three meetings and it cost two hundred and forty something dollars on plane tickets to go to those three meetings and you know what happened my wife's car caught on fire and burned up in a rain storm laughter that's what I said God miraculously shut me up and I had to have two hundred and fifty dollars almost to buy those plane tickets and I'll tell you that thirty thousand dollars was due and I was in trouble and when God finally gave me a problem big enough for me to quit talking shut up long enough to get down to business with God enough I said Lord what's wrong he said you've done everything in this world but trust me and I said Lord you know I trust him you know what it is I pulled out a history of about almost fifteen years of walking with the Lord and I told him about this miracle and this miracle and this one and this one and I think I pulled out five over fifteen years and I said Lord what about those times and then he let me see that the only reason I trusted him and it was with the faltering type of faith but it was enough and God will honor any level of faith and friends it was enough but I trusted him only on the basis that I had to it was either to the point of either denying God and quitting the ministry or going on and through my struggling I trusted him enough that he worked the miracle here and here but friends my life was not a miracle every day it was only occasionally and so the Lord wanted to show me something he was teaching me this truth about faith and so I was in real need of substance, real need that was my need I saw this, well I was doing some research work with some fellows on salvation and I was talking, looking into saving faith and I naturally was in the 11th chapter of the book of Hebrews and here's what I saw in Hebrews 11, it says now faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen and you know how the Holy Spirit will take the word and make it real to your heart Amen? He'll take the word and make it real to your heart and boy the Holy Spirit took three words out of that first verse and just spoke to my heart look at them, faith is substance and there it was, faith is and is is not was and is is not will be, is is now right? I'm glad I didn't see that now, if I'd have seen that now I'd have died I guess, because it says now faith is substance, now faith is substance well I'm glad I didn't see that then and maybe I shouldn't be loading you down with that now right now but I want you to know that's something else, now I mean friends, God has a problem with us living in the past and the future not for now, but you see my now had come amen my now had really got there, it had got there, I mean it was time to face up, and I want you to know God was bringing me in, shutting me up to face it up it says now faith is substance, but I only saw three words, faith is substance now boy you can go and get a hold of any translation you want, but I want you to know you can't get away from the fact that the principles of the truth that I'm sharing with you right here, with any translation you want to get a hold of unless you write your own and that's about what most of us are doing we read the Bible and then live by our own translation, don't we amen that's about what we do, here's what it says faith is substance, I never will forget it when I saw that word substance I said Lord that's just exactly what I need that's what I need, Lord is substance, but listen to it friends it says faith is substance I said Lord you know I've got faith he said no where is your substance I said Lord, that's what I asked you for I still missed it, I still missed it, and you may be missing it, you know what the word says faith what is substance and when I saw that it was a it just like a a new world had opened up, God had made the truth real, you know what it says it says faith is substance and I saw it I saw that when faith is real it's substance I saw it and the only thing I could do then was this when I saw that when faith is substance is faith is action is when faith is friends when faith is real God is real in whatever form to that same measure see you say what do you mean faith is and God is real in whatever form you need to that same measure a lot of people get hung up saying you're just supposed to trust Jesus and that's a cop out because every time you trust Jesus you trust him for something right when you put your trust in him and believe and got saved you believed unto what oh you got something didn't you and then you got Jesus of course as a person but you see this well I'm just trusting the Lord that's a cop out you say what do you mean you see you're saying I've got faith but I'm not giving you any evidence I've got faith and James says that a man is justified by his what works in other words friends James tells us that the works of God in through and for our lives lets the world know that our faith is real amen that's what he says he said brother Abraham's faith he said his works justified him of course naturally faith in Christ justifies you before God works before man justifies you before man all it does is if you've got genuine faith in God that genuine faith works before man and lets the world know you've got genuine faith in God I said Lord God I don't even know what faith is that's what I told him and he showed me that when my faith was real then in my instance substance would be real then now friends I want you to know you're talking about entering into a spiritual realm in the unseen and hope for things you're entering into and what you're doing when you enter into trusting the Lord you're being brought out to him and I want you to know you do not tip toe or run in skip in or laugh your way in to the presence of a holy God who cannot look upon man in his sins even though the redeeming blood has justified us before God to get into the presence of God takes a state of desperation to the point of repentance that brings about a condition in you that makes it feasible for a holy God to fellowship with you and talk to you and reveal to you his word amen you see repentance doesn't save a soul repentance is a state or condition within a man that makes it possible for a holy God to do a work in man right and repentance does not is not worship but repentance is a condition within the life of a believer that's necessary for worship because repentance is bringing a man to the place that he has a change of mind about himself and about God and we're constantly having a change of mind as we grow in grace about ourselves and about God and that's the reason why I say that discipline is so necessary you see I would have never learned the key to this matter of faith I would have never learned that faith is really coming to the place where you not only know God can do something and you want him to do it so bad that you finally get to the end of the rope to where you are brought to the place that you see what his truth is and when you see what his truth is it contradicts what your eyes see, what your mind thinks, what your emotions feel, yes sir it contradicts all of that you say what do you mean? why God did not tell me that he had to do something to solve my need he told me that he'd already solved it and asked me to believe it he said I've already solved your $30,000 problem and asked me to believe that, how in the world was I supposed to believe that when I couldn't see it amen I couldn't smell it amen I couldn't taste it I couldn't hear it I couldn't feel it and God says you believe it all of the apparatuses that I have by which I can come to understanding to feed my mind to reason to understand all of those things contradicted what God said God contradicted what they said in fact God didn't say I'll have to do anything to solve your need he says I've already done it does that make sense well that's why he puts there in Hebrews 11 2 he puts faith before understanding amen that's the reason it's there like that and I said Lord you mean to tell me you've already solved this problem I'll just be very honest with you I said I can't believe it, he knew that but I said Lord but I want to believe it and I believe you can he said you either will believe it or you'll not get in and he said what happened preacher I cannot possibly relate to you the emotional state of my being amen I'm sure I was standing at the window I'm sure I was in the middle of the floor I'm sure I was on the couch I'm sure I scratched my head ten thousand times I'm sure I did everything I knew to do to keep from trusting Jesus with all of that trying to you know to keep from trusting him I was saying Lord I'm just balking I'm coming I don't know how to do it I'm coming and in my faltering way faltering way there came that moment when the decision was made sink or swim, live or die be a failure forever I'm going to take you to work well I want you to know it was some experience and the moment I believed you know what it released God to move on my situation hundreds of miles from where I was and start putting that thing together you know that burn car that was on Friday on Saturday a man let me have a car out of all the cars I get about every two years all over these twenty something years my wife and I have been married twenty five next year that's the best car I've ever had on Saturday a man let us have it but that old burn car was hauled from Mississippi to Texas by a wrecker on Friday now it happened Friday evening he did it on Saturday and Monday morning he sold that car paid it off and called me and said Manly I got $250 cash here for that old car what would you like for me to do with it I knew where that $250 was supposed to go it was supposed to buy those airplane tickets amen and I mean God put that thing together put the $30,000 problem together through a man that didn't have one idea that there was a need in my life he meant it but friends I had to believe it was so when it wasn't so in order for it to be so because God had said it was so I'll let you know amen you don't tiptoe skip, laugh your way into the presence of a holy God and walk out with evidence that God's real but friends it's that obedience to the truth that places you at the disposal of God that enables God to be God in every facet of your life and I want you to know the folk who are really pleasing to God today including me or the whole bunch of us are those people who have discovered the will, the plan, the word of God about a given situation been obedient from the heart to that light, that truth to the degree friends that by that obedience they have placed themselves at the disposal of God where God has access to that individual and if he doesn't work, keep his word that person is sunk and his word is not true and you give me a bunch of folk that that's daring and I want you to know you'll give me a church that will have a new testament testimony a new testament testimony testimony you say how do I get there preacher just surrender all and say I'm ready for the discipline amen he'll give you a problem and he'll even relegate the devil to deliver it to you amen and that'll upset some of you cause you'll get so tied up with the delivery boy you won't get the message and it may take you 10 years to get over that but he'll let you have such a problem he'll reduce you to the place that you can be obedient to the truth and trust him to convert the truth of this book into reality in your life amen and oh me amen you've been sweet to listen and I hope we haven't disturbed your schedule by reversing the order here today and so may the lord bless you