In this sermon, the preacher focuses on the story of Abraham and highlights key moments in his journey as described in the Bible. The preacher emphasizes the importance of following God's word and leaving behind familiar surroundings. He also discusses how Abraham chose to suffer affliction with the children of God rather than enjoy the temporary pleasures of sin. The preacher mentions Abraham's trip to Egypt during a famine and the mistake he made by claiming his wife as his sister. Overall, the sermon emphasizes the significance of walking in step with God and being cautious about the offerings we make.

Well now though, some fellows are coming up from where? Jimmy Swaggart, did you come? Have you any? No. That's two weeks they got lost. Okay, Hebrews 11, and remember again that this is a faith chapter, and the word occurs, what, 300 times in the New Testament and only twice in the Old Testament. The key in this chapter is faith, but the key verse is verse 6. He that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. For them that diligently seek him. Let me recite that again. Verse 6, without faith it is impossible to please God. Notice that? Doesn't say without education, doesn't even say without Bible knowledge. You know, we're putting such an emphasis today on Bible knowledge, and yet the word of God does not say that people that do not know their Bibles, it says that people that do not know their God shall be exploited. Boy, if Bible knowledge could change the world, we just changed it months ago. We're reaping with Bible knowledge. As I tell you, you could put a four-lane highway from Detroit to the Gulf of Mexico with tapes. Christian tapes, there's so many of them around. But they don't do much. But people that do know their God shall be exploited. Okay, let's go back into the Old Testament. Let me see where I want to go here. Into Genesis chapter, what, let me see. Genesis chapter 11. Let's read verse 30 of chapter 11. Sarah was barren, and she bare no child. And Terah took Abraham, his son, and Lot, the son of Aaron, and son's son, and Sarah his daughter-in-law, his son Abraham's wife. They went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldees to go into the land of Canaan. And they came to Haran and dwelt there. And the days of Terah were two hundred and five years, and Terah died in Haran. Now the Lord said unto Abraham, Get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred. This is a demand. Get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred. And from thy, you see, it gets tighter and tighter and tighter. Getting out of your country may not be too difficult. Getting away from your family is. All you have to do is to tell your daddy and mommy you're going to the mission field, they'll never relapse. They'll die nearly. Of course if there's a war, and you say, well I can't imagine Jesus with a machine gun mopping people down. And I can't do it. I can't fight on the battlefield. Oh you better do that, you'll bring disgrace to the family. We're very, very quick to keep people from going to a mission field, but get out and serve your country. That may be right, I don't know. But what about serving the Christ? But you see, the basis of true Christianity is sacrifice. An experience of God that costs nothing, is worth nothing, and it does nothing. And if you want to graduate with a double zero, that's it. Be nervous about God. Don't believe that God is. Don't believe Hebrews 7.25, he's able to save through the eternal. Don't believe that he's able to make all grace abound. Don't believe he's able to keep you from falling. It's just a piece of paper. You see what these men did? They really believed God. Isn't it later said in the scripture, Abraham believed God. And all that came out of him was because of one thing, he believed God. That God is able to make all grace abound. That God is able to guide me, O thou great Jehovah, pilgrim through this barren land. You see the trouble is this world isn't barren to many people now. It's supplies of everything, in luxury, luxuriating. The Lord said unto Abraham, get me out of thy country. That's number one. From thy fathers and from thy kindred, number two, and from thy fathers house. To a land that I will show thee. Now that's a demand. But look at the reward. Next verse, I will make of thee. Next line, I will bless thee. And then I will make thy name great and thou shalt be a blessing. And verse three, I will bless them that bless thee and curse them that curseth thee. And in thee shall the families of all the earth be blessed. And verse four, Abraham was seventy and five years old. Isn't that something? Seventy and five years old. And you think the Lord's late in calling you. Maybe he's waiting to get rich enough to smash all the crutches you lean on. Seventy-five years of age. The Lord is not slack in saying his promises. Okay, seventy-five years of age God called him. A hundred and seventy-five, God finished working on him. So cheer up, you have a long way to go. Just one more century. Well doesn't it say in the tenth chapter of Hebrews, that ye have need of patience after you've done the will of God. What happened to Noah that we described last week? Noah built his ark for a hundred and twenty years. Which we worked out, dear Martha, whether you have any on that little computer she kept. It was a million and a half hours. From the time he started to the time he... And then you think God is impatient. A hundred and twenty years building the ark. What was it? Thirty-eight thousand four hundred hours. One and a half million... No, thirty-eight and a half... What was it? Thirty-eight thousand four hundred hours. No it wasn't, what was it? Days. Days and a million and a half hours. Do you wonder the word of God says, the patience of God, the long suffering of God, waiting, waiting, waiting. He's very slow, but as someone said, God is never in a hurry, but is never late either. He keeps a score card and he keeps a timetable. And nobody hurries God. I've got to do some spots through here. Genesis chapter twelve and verse seven. And the Lord appeared unto Abraham and said unto him, I see you and I give this land. And there he built an altar unto the Lord and God appeared unto him. Time and time again this man is building an altar. Remember we said about the first man in Hebrews 11 was who? Abel. What did he do? He built an altar. For why? To worship and sacrifice. So Abel built an altar. The next character is Enoch. He walked with God. And we stress that. Abraham walked with God. Adam walked with God. You have one of the outstanding stories in the New Testament of the men on the Emmaus road. What were they doing? Miracles? No, they walked with God. And that's the greatest thing in the whole world. Not the exploits that we do, but to know that day by day we're walking in step with God. We're not behind Him. We're not before Him. We're walking according to the dictates of His Spirit for our individual lives. Let's go down to chapter now. Verse ten. There was a family in the land and Abraham went into Egypt. What in the world did he go there for? Well, his resources were running out, so he went and borrowed from Egypt, the land that had a curse on it. Remember that Cain slew Abel, his brother. Why? Because Abel's sacrifice was accepted. The sacrifice Cain brought was cursed because it was out of the ground that God had cursed. We've got to be very careful about the offerings we make. I remember some years ago in England a young man held a crusade in a country church and he met one of his college friends. He said, Well, how was your crusade? Anybody saved? He said, Yes, two and a half. Well, that's good, he said. Two adults and a child? He said, No, two children and an adult. What do you mean two and a half? He said, That man, half of his life was already spent, so he's only half. We look at it the other way, don't we? There was one of the smallest crusades ever held in England, again in a village, and a man by the name of Thomas Cook, you remember he wrote the book New Testament Holiness, and after three weeks, you know, the greybeards met together, and they said, Well, what's come out of this crusade? It cost us so much in lighting, it cost us a heating, it cost in love offering, it cost in travel expenses. Now, what are we to show for it? Oh, just one boy called Thomas Cook. Oh, you know that widow lady? She has one son, 14 years of age, Thomas Cook, and he's not very bright, he's retarded. Thomas Cook became the president of the Methodist Church and the founder of the college I went to. Not much to look at. What was it? Well, it doesn't matter who it was, anyhow. I was going to give you the name, it doesn't matter. The poem that says, Ill that he blesses is our good, and none blessed good is ill, and all is right that seems most wrong, if it be his sweet will. Or Madame Guin says, Could I be cast where thou art not? That were indeed a dreadful spot, but with thee my God to guide the way, is equal joy to go or stay. All right, verse 10 of Genesis 12. There was a famine in the land, and Abram went down into Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine was grievous. It came to pass, that he came near to enter into the city, Sarah his wife, he said to her, Sarah, behold now I know that thou art a fair woman, to look upon. She was a lovely blonde. And verse 12 says, Therefore it shall come to pass, when the Egyptians shall say to thee, they shall say, this is his wife, and they will kill me, and save thee a life. So what happens? Say I pray thee, that thou art my sister. You see here's this superman, what's the first thing he does? He makes a mistake, he goes to Egypt. But if you read the 7th chapter, you must read it after, don't read them now, read the 4th chapter of Romans, it's all about this amazing man Abraham, read the 7th chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, about Abraham. What does it say? The God of glory, lest we forget it, the God of glory, the God of supermajesty, appeared to our, what did he tell him now? Let me read it to you correctly, from the good version of course. Acts chapter 7 verse 1, Then said the high priest, I'll read things soon. He said, Men and brethren, the father's hearken, the God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia. In other words, that was a hell hole. It was then large, type of, well Sodom, which was a type of course, or today we say Las Vegas, and all that filth rolled into one. And yet the God of glory comes when he's in a horrible city, in Mesopotamia. The God of glory appeared unto Abraham. You see, there's no way you can predict where God is going to come. Moses goes on the back side of the desert and the God of glory appeared unto him in a bush. Somewhere he was at a banquet I think, he was at a banquet with the kings and lords and ladies of the earth, and somebody said, you know, Moses is stargazing. Sure he was, you know what he was doing? He was looking into heaven, he was seeing the glory of God. Not in a Bible, because there are no Bibles, but there he is, in the strangest place, the God who appeared to Abraham appears to Moses at a burning bush and appears to him somewhere in a banquet. What does it say? Because it says in Hebrews there, he was supposed to be the son of the Pharaoh's daughter, and what did he do? He had a vision of what? Well he had a vision of the glory of God. He chose rather to suffer affliction with the children of God than enjoy the pleasures. Oh we sing, you know, for thee all the follies of sin, forget it, sing the scripture, for thee all the pleasures of sin I resign. Of course there is pleasure in sin, but it only lasts for a moment. People don't borrow money to go to Las Vegas and have all the thrills to sit there miserable, boy they laugh and cry and carry on, but it lasts for the night. Fading is the sinner's pleasure, all is boasted, pomp and show, solid joys and lasting pleasure, none but Zion's children know. And Abraham and Moses chose rather to suffer affliction with the children of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin which are but for a season. Well where did he see the pleasures of God? Somewhere when he was in some tremendous experience there in Egypt. Come in, welcome. Let me find my scripture here a minute. Chapter 20 of the Genesis I think, chapter 20 in verse 14. What did Abraham say? He said when you go into the city they are going to look at you and they are going to say that beautiful blonde get her right to the king's harem right away. What did he do first? His first mistake was to go down into Sodom, into Egypt. Why? Because a bit later it says when he gave a choice to Lot, young Lot, looked to the north the south, the east and the west and he looked towards the well watered plains of Jordan and it says he pitched his tent towards Sodom. The next moment he is in Sodom. The next moment he is the king of Sodom. The next moment he is out of Sodom, Bangkok. But why did he go to Sodom? Why did he pitch his tent towards Sodom? Because he said it looks like unto Egypt. Well who took him to Egypt? His godly uncle. Don't you blame God or anybody else. If you buy your youngsters a TV for their own bedroom you leave them alone they'll take all the junk there is. They'll get lustful and you'll be to blame not them. If he'd not gone down to Egypt and seen all that was of the flesh, the world of flesh and the devil, the lust of the eye and the lust of the flesh and the pride of life he'd never have pitched towards Sodom. But he went towards Sodom. He lived in Sodom. He sat in the gate. I used to wonder as a kiddie when the gates of hell will not prevail against the church you think well who's going to carry the gates around? The gate is symbolic of government. The government met in the gate. And he sat in, the Lord sat in the gate the word of God says. But then you get this amazing thing that's said about in Joshua chapter 24 and verse 2. Joshua said unto all the people thus saith the Lord God of Israel your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood in old time even Tyre the father of Abraham and the father of Nacor and what? And they served other gods. So what happened? God said get thee a part of thy country. You see there are things you can't do today they did in the Bible days. Let me tell you what it says here. In chapter 13 and verse 1 it says Abraham went out of Egypt he his wife and all he had and lot with him. And Abraham was very rich in cattle and in silver and in gold. He's very very wealthy. And he says to the cowboys round up the cows bring up the cattle. And he's living I used to be able to tell you I can't let's say it's down here in over the Calvin. It's going up to over the Calvin. And here's a river called the river you wouldn't guess what river that is. The river Euphrates. If he's going to go up there which he did and then come down into Palestine or as it was called in those days. It's all those cattle it's all those other things to take you have to keep them alive. Now you go down the road tomorrow say tonight the Lord says I want you to get up and go and live south. Even if you're only two or three cows and a couple of pigs go down the road you get arrested for being on the main road. Abram takes all he has and sets off on the journey not knowing whether he went the word of God first. Let's look at the 7th chapter of Acts a minute here. In chapter 7 verse 3 And the Lord said unto him get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred and come into the land which I will show thee. He came out of the land of the Chaldeans and dwelt in Charon or Charon from thence. And when his father was dead when his father was dead what's he doing there? What did God say to him? Look at this 51st what is it 53rd chapter in Isaiah I think it is no 50 pardon me 51 Isaiah 51 Hearken unto me verse 1 Hearken unto me ye that follow after righteousness ye that seek the Lord look unto the rock from whence ye are hewn and to the hole of the pit from whence ye are digged look unto Abraham your father and unto Sarah that bear you for I called him what? Alone I called him alone and blessed him and increased him I called him alone Did he go alone? No he didn't He took the rest of the family with him What's the penalty? Let me go back a moment there I'll skip these things if you know well enough Exodus where were we? Oh sorry I'm sorry Genesis Genesis again verse 13 13 of chapter 12 Say I pray thee that thou art my sister that it may be well with me for thy sake and my soul shall live because of thee and so she went in there but I'm thinking of a scripture that you remember he says that well he says say you're my sister well she was his half-sister and there's another scripture I can't just remember at the moment that says she was born of my father but not of my mother she was his half-sister so he was telling half of the truth but he was making it convenient for himself because it's in enemy territory and so he says well she's my sister so what happened? You can't say you can't hide sin you can cover it up and do what you like but your sin will if it isn't found out and don't swallow the idea that someday that sin you buried will be found out it may not tell a judgment it will find you out it will wake up at night and haunt you I remember a story that Shalima used to tell of a man that was killed in New Jersey working a night shift and a man hit him with a shovel and killed him and threw him into a furnace and for 12 years that man was haunted and finally away in California he woke up one night screaming I did it I did it I can see his eyeballs and he told the detective I've seen that man's head fall back when I threw him feet first in the furnace his eyeballs were reflecting like mirrors and he said every day of my life I've seen those rolling eyeballs now his sin was not found out it found him out there are more people suffering from all kinds of nervous complaints away in California than anywhere at all and a leading psychiatrist said recently most of them are suffering from guilt they call it some other name they've covered it and it comes because of sin so what happens this beautiful lady goes into the harem what's the result verse 17 the Lord plagued the house of Pharaoh with great plagues because of Sarah now Sarah had nothing to do with it Abraham allowed her to be deceitful and he told a lie so you've got a man that God uses that went to Egypt got his nephew contaminated tells a lie to get out of trouble so there's another big mistake again I've told you these people in Hebrews 11 and all but by no means are they perfect characters I wouldn't have put Noah in he got drunk I wouldn't put Abraham in he was a liar I wouldn't put David in he was adulterer but all in Hebrews 11 I sure wouldn't put a harlot in but God did he talks about Rahab the harlot Moses he's a murderer I would have put characters in and out there I would have put Enoch I would have put Elijah he isn't there I told you why that old lady told me but anyhow there are other characters I would have put Joshua he's there by inference by faith the walls of Jericho fell down well who was the captain Joshua good night what's the good of being humble if you don't tell people about it they'll never be suspicious will they ok let's skip over this now into the 14th chapter and verse 9 verse 9 has one of those big wonderful names Chedorlaomer the king of Elam with the title king of nations Anamraphael the king of China Anariot the king of Elalasa fought the battle of the four kings against five and it says the valley of Sidim was full of sign pits and the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah remember those cities the capital cities of iniquity had a government they had kings they had everything set up like we have today and yet like us today they were fighting verse 11 says they took all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah and their peoples and went away and they took Lot Abram's brother's son and dwelt in Sodom and Gobes and departed and there came one that escaped and told Abram the Hebrew for he dwelt in the plain of Mamre the Amrit brother Eshkol and brother Anna and these were confederate with Abram what did he do when he heard that his brother was taken captive what did he say oh that's Lot the stupid Lot I told him about you see when there came a moment of choice Abram says in chapter 13 and verse 6 they so prospered according to the promise of God the land wasn't able to bear the weight of them and so there was strife between Abram's servants and Lot's servants and so Abram good old Abram says Lot well do you know what Lot was he was a bad Lot because when Abram said choose this side of the valley and I'll take that side he looked to the plains and he said oh I'm going to take that who's going to take those mountains well the grass is so short that the sheep would have to kneel down to eat it but look at the lush valley look at the water everything there will make me prosperous and so he chose the well watered plains he chose everything according again to the lust of the eye and the lust of the flesh everything for me you see a simple definition of love is that love desires the supreme best for the person it loves I go after the picture I do everything for that one I love so Abram says well myself he always says Sarah did you ever see anything think of this little twerp we have with us if we had left him in the old country he would have been a slave we looked after him educated him clothed him and now he is a smart business man he is taking stocks and bonds and he's got the land he's got everything he wants and Abram goes on a bald mountain but when God is going to speak what does he do well he doesn't hold true friendship though he says shall I hide from Abraham the thing that I do and when the word of God says he won't hide anything from the eyes of the prophet I don't think that means you have visions in the night and dreams it means that God has revealed through his word be up to date with the word of God and find out what's going on Abram heard that his brother was taken captive he armed his trained servants born in his own house 318 dear Lord if I had 18 I'd think he was a pretty tall guy 318 servants good night paying insurance for that car would be a lot wouldn't it sonny do you have as many as that no you don't 318 servants Abram doesn't say that young guy needs to learn his lesson let him get scout let him lose his money what did he do he took what 318 servants that were raised in his own house he didn't send for mercenaries he didn't say go out and ask fellows to become soldiers and fight he had trained 318 servants and they knew their master and they loved him and they went out and fought the battle and won it dear Lord if every church was really a church even evangelical church if we really taught the word of God we wouldn't need bible schools why should people have to go to church at 25 years of age and then go to a bible school that's a disgrace to the church you know the Roman Catholic kids the Roman Catholic slogan is this give us a chance till it's 7 years of age we'll cut it loose on the world and they'll never go into anything else that's why it's so hard to win them they're indoctrinated about the virgin Mary they're indoctrinated about what do you call it purgatory they know the doctrine they don't know the word of God but they know their doctrine and in some ways they're steadfast and movable so here is a sample for us that's why I say because it's always when you get to my age when you have most of the wisdom anyhow but you realise what a fool you'd be if I could go back I think I'd take a dozen men like Jesus did and say you'll come for three years and we're going to go through the word of God and you're going to go through the middle as well you're going to have nights of prayer and days of fasting read church history by the grace of God make some history as I tell you I'm sick to death of reading church history let's make it by the grace of God but he took his three hundred and eighteen servants and he wiped the mob out and he got this young fellow back again now look at verse seventeen the king of Sodom went out to meet him that is he went out to meet Abraham after the slaughter of that king whoever he was the judge in the gate by the name of Lot he went to a man praying on the mountain the man that hasn't got a dime invested in Sodom and Gomorrah the man that was considered old and archaic he's always building altars he's always praying he's always interceding but if you're going to be wise in the eyes of the world you'll be a fool no if you're going to be wise in the eyes of God you'll be a fool in the eyes of the world you can't have it both ways but which empire is going to last you sang it tonight I trapped you thine is the kingdom of power and glory forever and ever ages and ages if there were a thousand eternities Jesus Christ would still be living there are not a thousand eternities there's one because eternity is duration without ages cycles of ages it goes on and on and on there's no end at all and he shall reign forever and ever how many of you have a record of the Messiah let me see two three well now you know what to buy your wife for Christmas get a good recording of the Messiah from England if you can get it I mean an English version there's one of the London Philharmonic and it's super you know when they start singing king of kings and they go up and up and up I think good lord it'll all break down and it's just awesome to hear he shall reign forever and ever king of kings and lord of lords and so we have this wonderful example here ok the man said blessed verse 19 of chapter 14 blessed he blessed him and said blessed be Abraham the most high god possessor of heaven and earth isn't that great not that Abraham possessed heaven and earth God did the earth is the lord God possessed heaven and earth God possessed heaven and heaven and God possessed heaven and earth God 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possessed heaven and God God possessed heaven and God God possessed heaven and earth earth God possessed heaven and earth God God possessed heaven and earth God possessed heaven and God possessed heaven and earth God possessed heaven and earth God possessed heaven and earth God possessed heaven and earth God possessed heaven and earth God possessed God possessed heaven and earth God possessed heaven and God possessed heaven and heaven and God God possessed heaven and earth God possessed heaven and earth God possessed heaven and heaven and God God possessed God possessed heaven and God God possessed heaven and God possessed heaven and God possessed heaven and earth God possessed heaven and God earth God possessed heaven and earth God possessed heaven and earth God piece went against the other, the birbs he divided not. When the souls came down upon the carcasses, Abram drove them away. Listen, I don't care what sacrifice you make, I don't care whether you're emotional or not emotional, you can be cool intellectually and make a stupid decision for God and the next morning the birbs are there and will come and try and take away your sacrifice. You'll have to beat them off, drive them off. Every inch of progress that you get in favour with God, you get into disfavour with the devil. Every drop of air that he loses in your life enrages the devil. He's not concerned about the stock market going up and down, lots of believers are, but he isn't. He does not want us to be completely faithful to the living God, that's what antagonises the devil. The sun was going down, a deep sweet fell upon him and then a horror of great darkness fell upon him. What do we read? Abraham the friend of God. I sent a poem to somebody this week, I'm trying to think how it starts. Well part of it is, I'd rather walk in the dark with God than walk alone with light, in the light. I'd rather walk by faith with him than go alone by sight. Oh blissful lack of wisdom, it is blessed not to know, sure it is. We sing a hymn sometime, abide with me, keep thou my feet, I do not ask to see the distance seen, one step enough for me. Look if God gave you the chance of having the veil lifted in your life to see the next five years, do you think you have enough courage to take it? Abraham what? He was a great friend of God. We draw the birds away at the end of verse 11, verse 12. When the sun was going down a deep sweet fell upon Abraham and lo a horror of great darkness fell upon him. And he said unto Abraham, know thou surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not thine. Listen now. And shall sow them and they shall afflict your children for four hundred years. What if I came to you tonight and said last night, well I do, I go to bed about half past nine, get up about half past eleven, went in my office, chose lot this morning, I was praying and reading. Tomorrow morning I said to you, Lord lift up the veil and told me that two years from now Russia is going to invade America and totally demoralize, take over everything that we have, our industry and everything for the next fifty years. Would you like to know that? God said your children are going into slavery for four hundred years, not four hundred weeks. They are going to be slaves for four centuries. And yet we never find Abraham backing off. He obeys God in every one of the circumstances. Let's take one more thing in the 16th chapter. Sarah Abram's wife bare him no children and she had a handmaid, an Egyptian whose name was Hagar. And Sarah said unto Abraham, behold now the Lord hath restrained me from bearing, I pray thee go into my maid, that I may obtain her. There she is talking again. And the end of the verse says what? And Abraham hearkened to the voice of Sarah. God had given him a promise and yet his wife said, you know the custom round here? If the wife is barren you take one of the best people on the staff, have a child by her, when the child is born you lay that child on my lap and legally the child is mine. And this man who had been forgiven for the crazy things he had done, going to Egypt and polluting his nephew, and had done other, he lied and God had forgiven him. And though God says your wife will bear a son. Just for a minute jump forward to chapter 17. Abraham was ninety years old and nine, verse 1. When the Lord appeared to Abraham and said unto him, I am the almighty God, walk before me and be thou perfect. You see God demands perfection. Then we say, oh smarty you know, we can't have Adamic perfection, we can't have angelic perfection, we can't have intellectual perfection, and we make every excuse. What do you expect of your watch now? When I was a little boy my daddy thought his watch was good because it only lasts 15 minutes a day. Now the watches don't lose 15 seconds, they'll give you some watches now, but they guarantee we'll not lose 5 seconds in a year. Perfection is when a thing fulfills the things which it was commissioned. You can walk in perfection because we think perfect submission, all is at rest. Perfect submission, blessed assurance, perfect submission, all is at rest. What's the other standard with perfect in it? Oh perfect submission, perfect delight, visions of rapture, now verse, I want to fulfill whatever God has for my life up to the T, I don't want to be behind in anything. So he said, what was the chapter, I've got it mixed in here, chapter 16, verse 14, she conceived and bear a son, and when she conceived a mistress was despised in her eyes, there you are, you see you old wreck, I've borne your husband a wonderful son, and you is absolutely out of the picture. Verse 2 of that same chapter, verse 17, chapter 17, I will make my covenant between me and thee, and multiply thee exceedingly, and Abram fell on his face, and God told him, a bit later in the chapter he says, Abram verse 17, when Abram fell upon his face and laughed, and said in his heart, it shall be done. We used to sing years ago, you won't remember it maybe, we used to sing a hymn, a chorus regularly, faith, simple faith, the promised seed, and looks to God alone, laughs at impossibilities, we've more faith preachers now than ever, and every blessed one of them is in debt. It's not a paradox, it's a tragedy. I had a very distinguished preacher came to see me this week, and he is a distinguished preacher, I'm an extinguished preacher, he's a distinguished preacher, and he said, you know all that bunch that are talking in Dallas, they're parasites on the body of America today, bleeding it for every ounce of money they can, parasites. You don't find that in the word of God. So what's going to happen here? Abram fell upon his face and said, shall a child be born of him who is a hundred years of age, and a woman who is nineteen? Don't you think it was a joke? Can you imagine this dear old lady, ninety years of age, writing to a mother and saying, mother I'm going to have a baby. She says, what you crackpot? I told you never to marry a preacher, they're all crazy. And he's got you to believe at ninety you're going to have a baby, come on you're crazy. Laughs at impossibilities. We want to iron it all out and reason it out and rationalize it, make it easy for God. God doesn't need any help. Isaac once again wrote a little hymn, when mountain walls confront my way, why sit and weep? Arise and say, be thou begun, and they shall be thy power of God cast in the sea. Be thou removed, faith bids thee start, beyond the sea arise, depart. I may, I can, I must, I will, the purpose of my God fulfill. The best thing in the world would be if every bank in America went broke next week, except for the poor people. These big boys that talk about God are not the first thing about God. They've bled the people, they rob His children and they talk about it. As I said to you last week, we go to the house of God, we read the word of God, we sing the praise of God, where is God? Preaching isn't preaching Christ anymore, it's lecturing. And I told you last week, if I didn't I'll tell you now. I've said for years now, one thing that really crushes me is when I think that America has five hundred evangelists and not one revivalist. Not one man that can shake a city. Read the 8th chapter, not that one, when you go home, read the 8th chapter of the Acts of the Apostle. What's it about? It's by a man by the name of Philip. And people say, well that's another Philip. No, it says in that chapter that Paul the Apostle went with others to the house of Philip, one of the seven. So he was one of the seven deacons. And what did he do? He did miracles and signs and wonders. Go back afterwards to the 6th chapter of Acts. You have a man there by the name of what? He got stoned. Stephen, thank you. Stephen, maybe not twenty years of age, he did signs and wonders and miracles. And the rabbis and chief priests there and the scribes and the Pharisees were angry. Here's a young man going through the city and he says to a paralytic, why isn't he walking? He does. He says to the blind man, why don't you do it? He does. He goes through there and signs and wonders were done. And the whole city was stirred. What happened? They stoned him to death. And he had a greater triumph in his death. Because all that bunch of hypocrites there said that Christ, we stoned him, we know he's settled because he's dead. And when they were crushing the ribs, one rock hits this young man on the chest and there his ribs crack. Somebody else throws a rock and it breaks his arm. Somebody else hits him in the eye. He's blind, his body is bloody and broken. And he looks and he says, I see Jesus standing. Boy, was not a shock. They thought Jesus was dead in a cave up there. He said, I see Jesus standing. When? When he died. When he suffered. When he was bleeding. When you haven't got a friend there. The greatest intellectual of the day, the greatest theologian is a man called Saul of Tartus over there, watching this young man die. Never dreaming that he himself a few years after will be stoned. What do you think when a rock hits him? When he felt his ribs cracking and his body was bleeding and he's fainting. What do you think? I guess he was thinking about Stephen, the young man that was stoned to death. And you, you, you get stoned to death. If you decide to follow the Lord, if they don't crucify you physically, your friends will crucify you, other people will crucify you. And then when you get there, all your prayers of the last ten years will be answered. Heaven will open, you will suddenly realize the majesty of Jesus Christ. And the only way to get you there is to break you in every other area. But we don't want it, we're aggrieved, we're saying, I'm crucified with Christ. We want a painless crucifixion. We want a painless Pentecost. And God doesn't play that game. OK. So Abraham in verse 3 of chapter 17 laughed. Verse 17 of the same chapter, Abraham fell upon his face and laughed. Go across into chapter 18 and verse 12, and Sarah laughed within herself, saying, After I am waxed old, shall I have pleasure, my Lord? My Lord. There you are ladies, watch it now. You're supposed to call your husband, my Lord. And you thought he was there just to empty the garbage. He's there to be Lord and direct the house. My goodness, the ladies frowned at me then. Then verse 17 again, he says, Shall I hide from Abraham the thing that I do? Listen, if you want to be in line with God's will in these last days, for there's always going to be some days you won't be able to find pleasure even in eating. You'll be so full of sorrow and anguish. You sing, Oh to delight thee, blessed Redeemer. Well, he was a man of sorrow. We're trying to find a resurrection without dying. We're trying to find a room without tearing the cross. Shall I hate? No, no, no, God says that's not friendship. Shall I hide from Abraham the thing that I do? Verse 17, Sing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation. All the nations of the earth shall be blessed with him. Now listen, get hold of this. I was thinking of brother Bill here when I read this today. Where's Bill? There's Bill. Where's the Indian chief? There he is. How many of you have children? Raise your hands. You have two, haven't you? Four? Wonderful. I thought you had two. You didn't have two others this week. Well these days you don't know what will happen. How many others have children? Good. Well look at this verse. Nail it down in your mind. Verse 18, I know, God says I know that he will command his children. Did you hear that? Not advise them, command them. A lady told me one day in Chicago years ago, oh my son isn't doing too well. Oh he's all right materially, he's very well off, but he's not doing very well. And she said, no Mr. Renner, I've talked to him ever since he was a tiny, I've told him about missions, I've told him about the Lord, and yet he's turning away. And the scripture says, what, teach a child and he'll not depart from it. Is that what it says, teacher? What? Training. Imagine a man in the field there and he's talking to a horse, you say, what are you doing? I'm telling this horse he's going to win the Grand National, he's going to win the Derby next year. And I'm going to stick a label on his runt. I'm going to take him in the field and you'll see that, no, no, no. Those jockeys get up at four o'clock in the morning, months in and months out, year in and year out, training a horse for three years to run in whatever age it runs at. God said I will bless it, listen, the blessing of your home hangs on how you train your children. Don't blame the system that you call the school or anything else. Train your child, be the priest in the home and be the, be the priest and be the king in the home, direct it with love. Shall I hide from Abraham? No. I know that he will command his children and his household after him. And they shall keep the way of the Lord to do justice and judgment that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he has spoken. He can't bring it unless Abraham is faithful. He doesn't say, Abraham you're the greatest man in the world. He was at that time. By this time he's the greatest landowner. And God gave him all the land that reads the seven steps of Acts. It says he never put a foot in it, he never owned an inch of ground. And yet ultimately the earth is filled with the blessing of Abraham. What happened to Ishmael? Ask them in Washington. What are we doing? They're fighting the Arabs on every level. Hey God, we got that child. They tried to help God out. Listen, it may look very smart, like Abraham, he got away from the wrath of his wife for a while, then she, the other girl bears a beautiful child and now we've got millions of them. The curse of the earth, the Ishmaelites. You try and help God out of trouble, you'll land in trouble. You'll never, never, never get away with it. You'll heap up trouble for somebody else as well as yourself. Let me go back for a minute and then I'm going to close right here. Talking about, there in that earlier chapter, when Abraham says, I won't fight with anybody except those who are trained in my own house. I had a good week this week. A man came Thursday from Sweden, a big fine Swedish fella. I began to ask him about his trip. Very good, he said, could I share something, share anything, even money? And he didn't share any money at all. He said, Mr. Raymond, only a few weeks ago I was in Russia and I went to Leningrad, one of the greatest cities. I walked into the cathedral there. It's Greek Orthodox. And the men were there, the priest in the garments, and these were the funny hats they were, and a bunch of them to the right of the altar, standing together, and they seemed to be chanting. And I went up, and I think he said, somebody struck up a hymn or something. One of these priests put his hands up like this, began to worship the Lord. So he said, I thought I'd let him know that in that wicked, vile country. He said, I went to him, I put my hands on this fellow who was smaller, put my hands and said, brother, I want you to know something. In America we're praying for you. And he said, the man said, no don't. What? No, no, no. He said, you are praying for us? We are praying for you in America. The church in America is drowning in materialism. And he said that in the heart of Russia. And I talked with a man on the phone today, some of his friends had been in China. And he said, I told him what I'd heard. He said, well a man coming out of China told me the same thing. They were with some Christians in a home because they can't worship publicly. And this man said, look, I want you to know when I go back, I'm going to ask our church to pray for us. They said, don't bother. Your church is very believing in the medicine of our Lord. You're just absolutely choking on materialism. I said, brother, you turned me upside down, inside out to say that. I keep praying for Russia and they don't care a hill of beans whether we pray or not. Why should they? Going back for a minute, I was praying today, brother, Sunday. Not about you, but about deacons. You know, if we're going to have a revival in America, we'll have to put our house in order. We'll have to go to every church, particularly Pentecostal, and see if every man who's a deacon is full of faith of the Holy Ghost. If not, we're wasting time. How can we pray for purity in other churches if our temple is desolate? We've got to get all those guys lined up and say, are you really full of faith of the Holy Ghost? If so, do your thing. Your thing is to go out, whether the priest is there or not, and heal the sick and do the other thing. And speak prophetic words. Not prophesying of the future, but speaking with an anointing of God on the thing that you're saying now. That's the only thing we're going to have, where we're going to have revival. So you've got the men there in that Greek Orthodox church praying every day, we pray for America that you may know the true religion, the true Jesus Christ, praying for us in China. And I said to this fine young man, I said, well, I said, that must be awesome to go in there. He said, it is. He said, to stand with those men, oh, by the way, he said, this man that put his hands up, as I went out to that fabulous cathedral, somebody touched on it, I looked around, and it was this priest. And he thanked me for going. I said, I put my hand in my pocket, and I bought out some small testaments in Russian. And I opened it, and it says here, the word of God. And he said, he burst into tears, uncontrollable. I never thought I'd have a piece of God's holy word for myself. And he said, he wiped his eyes, giving a million dollars. Had the word of God for himself. There are 600 million Bibles in America today, for 240 million people. And most of it on the shelves. They're gathering dust every day. People go and sing, all hail King Jesus, and they lift the King's sport. All the rest of the week, about five minutes saying, all hail King Jesus. And they go to the corner and worship that dumb devil in the corner, the TV. And when they're not worshiping the King, they're worshiping his Queen. His Queen is called entertainment. And they're trapped in that vulgar thing. Well brother, I said, you really shocked me what you said. Oh, I'll say something else, come on. He said, last week I was in Portugal, you know Spain? I said, yes Spain and Portugal. You get port wine, it comes from Portugal, that's where it came from. So now you've learned something. He said, you know Mr.Ramiel, you can go down the street, main street in Portugal and turn to the side, and have a street meeting. And he said, as you preach the word of God and say, if you want Christ to come forward, you'll get twenty to thirty people saying every meeting, I want to know Christ, I want to know Christ. Dear Lord, you couldn't give them that if you gave them a ten dollar ticket to come to a private meeting in America, or England. But they've been in darkness so long, they've been in bondage to Rome so long, that when somebody comes along and gets marvellously transformed, and that's what the new birth is, it's not just giving up a few lousy sins, it's Christ coming to live in me. The Spirit that created Jesus Christ in the matrix of the Virgin Mary, created Jesus Christ, Christ in you the hope of glory. Not when I get to glory, but now. Now we're born of the Spirit, washed in His blood. And he said, brother, you have no idea what it's been. Now here's a young man, I still is, I think in his early, thirty five I think he is, and he said, you know we have teams over there in Sweden, I sent teams. Do you know where they sent a team this summer? Oh, on the beach in Southern California. No, to Lebanon. The last place on God's earth you could get any preachers to go to. Try and get those stuffy little boys that got their degrees in Dallas Cemetery, seminary. You couldn't get them to go there if you give them a pension. I looked at this blond young man, I said, well, good Lord. And then he said, you know how he got saved? He was in jail, he was a victim of lust, he was a victim of drugs, he was a wreck, big handsome blond guy, a wreck. And somebody gave him a copy of the Cross and the Switchblade in cartoon. I never thought much about cartoons, I thought they were crazy. But when he says that's all I got in jail, I thought of it, and I read it, and I prayed over it, and I was born again as a spirit of God. So he went out and got other wretches like himself, that were saved, and they'd formed teams. And he said, every year we send at least one team behind the Iron Curtain. You know Brother Andrews came to see me a couple of years ago, and in the course of talking I said, well how do you get on with young people in America? Oh they're excited about, they missed Brother Andrew, I think I'd like to go to Hungary, or Latvia, or Estonia. Could you get me behind the Iron Curtain, I'd love to go. He said, yes, but you have to get out yourself. I can get you there, I can't get you back, that's the end of it. They don't want to die, martyrs. They'd rather sit in a stuffy little thing, or get two or three back slidden guitars, and go around town making money. They don't want to suffer, for I'm devastated when I think young people like that. I think he said we have five teams every year. We send them behind the Iron Curtain. One team he said, this summer has been in Lebanon with all it's shooting, and all it's killing, and all it's dangers. But they volunteered, we didn't ask them. Somebody said, I feel God wants us to go, pray about it, I feel God wants me to go. And they sent them there, and they came back rejoicing. They weren't sun tanned. They ain't worship God devoutly for an hour in the morning with some nice guy talking, and then play tennis the rest of the day. There's one group, if you want to, if you want to, if you want to rough it smoothly, I'll give you the address of some boys in Dallas. They go to pray for revival in the hills of Switzerland, in one of the nicest hotels. And you can take your skis with you. And then they pray for an hour, then you go ski. And then you have a big fat lunch, and then you get on a train, and you go through the tunnel, and going behind the Iron Curtain, and buy leather goods cheap, you know. And then serve your conscience at night after you've skied another afternoon. And you pray at night, Our Father which art in heaven, thank you we didn't break your legs. They're so busy trying not to get a broken leg skiing, they don't care about a world that's got a broken heart. There's so much hypocrisy in the church today. So if you don't have time, here, go home and pray for those young folks like yourselves that go behind the Iron Curtain, five teams that go. Pray for those fellows that say, it doesn't matter, let's pray. If you have an anointing, pray for the fellows away there in, in that big, what do you call it, Cathedral in Leningrad. Or pray for the young people of a fire will really burst out of Portugal and come over the borders into Spain. We're always trying to design it, we'll take a little team, we'll fill our pockets with these little things, you know. God has a plan for your life, all you have to do is nod to God when you're in the Kingdom. Forget about this hypocrisy. God demands the same of you as everybody else. Not just your lousy things, your commission, your life, your future. You're going to be a doctor late on the altar, take it to the cross. You're going to be a lawyer, take it to the cross, does He want you to be that? You're better to be the least in His Kingdom than the biggest outside of it. And remember, His Kingdom is forever and forever and forever. Thine is the Kingdom, the power and the glory. Let's remember the team up there in, the teams in New York. That, that really shook me up. I think, did I tell you last week about the guy that called me about running up the sidewalk? In West 42nd Street, that's the middle road in hell. And he said, we're falling over each other's feet, giving out tracts. Oh, I'm from, I'm from Tulsa, I'm from Tulsa. They're giving out tracts. Now they've got little microphones and they run to the side of you and say, Jesus loved you, Jesus loved you, Jesus died for you. He said, you can't walk up West 42nd Street. You're falling over other kids that have come halfway across the nation. They never did the same. They didn't, didn't chase people who are damned and lost in their own town. But it's a thrill to go to New York. I'm not saying they shouldn't go. But when they're falling over each other, and he's talking serious. His daddies were the most famous preachers in the world. And he said, I have to call you brother right now. I'm so sick of walking up and down the street giving out tracts, morning, noon and night. It's daylight 24 hours a day, day with artificial light. The street is full of transvestites, men with little skirts on and makeup and heavy perfume and handbags and wigs and all the other junk. And it's pimps and prostitutes. And everything is done openly at the side of the street. There are outlines of women in neon signs. Nakedness is advertised. Come up here, there's a nude colony. Come up here. And he said, Mr. Ramey, we're giving out thousands of tracts every week and we're doing nothing. And these were his words. Mr. Ramey, what do we do when evangelism fails? I said, fast and pray till the Holy Ghost comes. I said, get hold of that book, Seven, what's it called? Seven Pentecostal Pioneers. Read the middle story there of Stephen Jeffreys that could go into a town without any backing. Rent a hall seating 2,000, not asking people to come and start the meeting. And within a week he packed it to the rafters. And after that, people come out to the meeting at 10 o'clock at night, walk round the building and stand in line for the meeting next afternoon at 3 o'clock. That's revival. It doesn't need finance. You don't need TV. You don't need radio. The Holy Ghost is the biggest attraction. I read a letter and I'm through with this last thing. Somebody wrote to me recently, we're starting mimes. We're teaching mimes. We're teaching drama. We're reaching people that cannot be reached by any other thing. You're insulting the Holy Ghost. How did these men reach them? There's no TV and no mimes and junk in the 7th of Acts and young Philip goes on and he says that there's much joy where in the house of those who were healed. In the synagogue, no not in the house, not in the synagogue, where? In the city. The whole city was ablaze. He goes down the street and sees a man who's been at that street corner blank for 10 years and he heals him. It becomes immediate gossip around town. That crippled man is walking, that blind man is seeing, that lame man is absolutely physically transformed. It's not the whole of the gospel but it's a part of it. What's going to turn this nation around? Dear God, the last 25 years I guarantee we spent a billion dollars on TV advertising and meetings and radio. There are 3,000 gospel radios in America every day. And where are we? And England's much the same. Goes to Leicester Square in England, it's comparable to West 42nd Street in America. It's full of filth, it's full of people falling into over each other, giving out facts. You know we've almost pushed the Holy Ghost out of the picture. We're so full of flesh, so full of designs, so full of trying to help God in our own feeble way. And he's waiting till we get to the place where we're naked and we are naked in its sight. We're helpless. The nation goes to hell with all the evangelistic meetings we have and crusades. What in the world do you have God? I said it, I'm sure I did. I said a few minutes ago, I said it for 2 years, the trouble is we do not have one revivalist in the country. And you know what? I woke up this week and I worked over it. Not only do we not have one revivalist in America, we don't have one evangelist in America. Tell me one that fits into the season. I don't care whether you go to Jimmy Trigert College, or you go to, where is it there, Springfield, or you go to Christ for the Nations. Tell me where is an evangelist who can go out without money and do, and he's a deacon only, he's not an ordained man, and go out with the anointing of God upon him. Go out like Stephen, the whole city shakes because of one penniless little guy, that follows the despised man that those bearded old guys over there crucified. And then he's willing to die at more than 20 years, less than 20 years of age. And the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church. It will take some bloodletting I think in America to really wake up the church. Get really persecuted for Christ's sake, and nobody likes that, and I don't, I know that. But again you see, this God of Abraham is our God. He's the same yesterday, today and forever. And if there's something wrong in your house, check up, are you the true father in the house? I will command, I will bless him because he commands his children. There's a curfew and they obey the curfew. There's a lifestyle and they fit into the lifestyle. They don't run the house. You rule it in love. And let's be sure we're not bringing to birth Ishmaels. The biggest Ishmael that's been born is PTO. They knew what God could do in a loser's treat. They couldn't wait, so they put that playground up. And it's going to be a millstone round the neck. It's going to be a bonfire at the judgment seat. It's going to be the greatest gathering of wood, hay and stubble that anybody's done in 20 years in America. You may not like that, I'm not there to please you. I'm there to tell you the truth. I'd like to go to another place in Berlin but I won't get there, I know that. But you see, this is the gospel. Nobody's going to twist God's arm. Nobody's going to twist the scriptures. They're going to have to come humble and naked before him and say God, I come with the rags of my ability. I come with the rags of my riches. I come with the rags of my vision. I come with the rags of my eloquence. Whatever I'm trusting in is rags in his sight. Let me get rid of them and say, Dear God, strip me naked that you may be released to bring blessing and joy and other things to my life. Amen, glory to your name. Let's remember then, where's Joe's horse, anybody know? Giving the devil trouble somewhere, I don't know, I'm sure. Huh? Anywhere? Oh good, well, let's pray for Joe. When are the Indians going back to Oklahoma? Oh, next month, good. Pray for Dave Wilkerson up in New York and I think there were 200 wild llamas living on Staten Island and coming on the ferry every day into New York. And I keep getting guys come in my office, I've been in New York two weeks, I've been in New York a week, that's good. How are you going to, how are you going to touch 10 million people giving tracts out every day? You may get old.