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Joseph: And He Washed His Face
J. Frank Norris

John Franklyn Norris, commonly known as J. Frank Norris (September 18, 1877 – August 20, 1952), was a fiery Baptist preacher and a leading figure in American Christian fundamentalism during the early 20th century. Born in Dadeville, Alabama, to sharecropper parents Warner and Mary Norris, he grew up in poverty in Hubbard, Texas, where his father’s alcoholism and a traumatic shooting at age 15—when cattle thieves attacked his family—shaped his resilient spirit. Converted at 13 during a Methodist revival, Norris soon felt called to preach, later studying at Baylor University and Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, where he graduated as valedictorian in 1905. His early career included editing The Baptist Standard (1907–1909), crusading against liquor and gambling, before he took the helm of First Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas, in 1909, a post he held until his death. Norris’s ministry was as dynamic as it was controversial, earning him nicknames like “The Texas Tornado” and “The Fighting Fundamentalist.” From 1935 to 1950, he simultaneously pastored Temple Baptist Church in Detroit, growing his combined congregations to over 25,000, arguably making him America’s first megachurch pastor. A fierce opponent of modernism, evolution, communism, and Catholicism, he broke with the Southern Baptist Convention in 1924 after exposing evolution teachings at Baylor, founding the Premillennial Missionary Baptist Fellowship (later World Baptist Fellowship) and the Fundamentalist Baptist Bible Institute. His life was marked by sensational events, including a 1926 acquittal for killing an unarmed man in self-defense in his church office, and suspicions of arson tied to church fires. Norris died of a heart attack at a youth camp in Jacksonville, Florida, in 1952, leaving a polarizing legacy of bold preaching, mass influence via radio and his newspaper The Searchlight, and an unyielding stand for his beliefs.
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Sermon Summary
In this sermon, the preacher, Dillon, discusses the importance of human relationships and the need to follow God's law. He emphasizes the significance of presenting oneself in a calm and respectable manner. Dillon also mentions the concept of iniquity and how it can be found in one's service to the Lord. He concludes by referencing a biblical story about a man who asks to be left alone and sends his brother away, highlighting the need to stay on the right path.
Sermon Transcription
It's been cold out here for a wonderful few years, isn't it? Yes, sir, that's right. The international airport will be out there between here and Dallas. It's the finest airport this side of New York. There'll be 10,000 people around your community. You've got about 150, 200 members out there. Just been called that. I want you to quit screwing here. Are we coming out there and going to have a chicken chow and kissing every baby in that neighborhood? You may not get all of my lectures. You'll be in the worst hall if you don't. You've got something about to happen. I'll come out there for it. All right. I don't want to see you around here in two weeks. I don't want to see you here for a week. I'll check your shoes. If any of you have specimens of pictures of me pissing, rotting, and running, walk away to downtown and see me. Do it. They don't like it. I'll fire them. Give them a raise. It's very serious business. One of the boys will have me at a home meeting and say he wouldn't be careful in a few days and people will be insane. If King Markey asks, King Markey's cute. I'm Markey's cute. And that's what I said. Let's do it. Will you do that? Yes, sir. You take that case next Sunday, will you? Yes, sir. I sure will. Don't you show up around here next week. I'm glad to go to Woodward. Sorry. My fault. You got a car? Yes, sir. I have. All right. You're going to be a member on that roll next week. Don't sit down. Just walk in. It's down at the new 5 PM. I need your help. I've come to ask you to pray for me. I want you to invite somebody to come in here and preach. Who lives over there in that house over there? Will you go and help me to bring them to church? You see a sending station down there? Walk up to them and say, My name is David. I'm the pastor over here for you this church. And I want to meet you. I'm going to be out there in this neighborhood for the next 10 years, maybe longer. I'm going to preach a lot of people. Maybe preach your own once you get ready. I'm going to preach. Anytime you have a good meeting, you want a priest to come and pray with you, you get in touch with me and I'll come and pray. I don't care what time of day it is. Two o'clock in the morning, people die at all hours, you know that? Did you know more people die at night than they do at day time? You know that? Or twelve o'clock at day time. Did you know that? No, sir. Well, I'm teaching you, sir. And see all the old people. know what it means to have a chicken child. Hello, Sam. Hello, Tom. Hello, Bill. Hello—everything. You're only going to do it when it's your birthday. No, you're not going to do it, but you're going to do it. Give me your book, young one. All right, when you're going to a place and you like to visit, why not take down the names of everybody that went home? Write them all down. That's helping a wife, 10 children, 14 grandchildren. Pray for every one of them. Call them all by name. Write them all down. All right, that's time to have a word of thanksgiving. Never say prayer. Say thanksgiving, then pray. Then once you get to 8,000, you pray for them. Don't say, Lord, bless the children. Lord, bless Sam, Tom, Sally, William, and Honey. Just call them over, all of them. The scripture says, Watch as well as pray. And that won't save a husband saying, You know, I like that young fella. You'll have them all coming to church. You'll have to build a new church soon. All right, thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. You can have a lot of courses on pastor's gathering. Not worth a dime. Not worth a copper cent. First meeting I ever had, I slept on the bed. Wasn't getting cotton out the front porch. On the way I took a bath, went down to the creek where there was a swimming hole. Go long with it. And had to have some old-fashioned live soap in the morning. I never did like live soap. But you catch your dinner. Went down there and asked them, Ain't no one got time to serve you two in that same hole no more. But I want to see everybody in that whole neighborhood. Remember, the South Angels was all over. Head power, heart power, hand power, heels power, special light. Then the one said to me, Man, it's in that laser. Down right laser. Come around and talk about that. Well, I did well. It's a hundred feet deep. And I found out these are part of Eagle Mountain. They put two hundred feet. Put wire irons around your legs and jump in. Won't kill you one inch. And I'm going to commit suicide. I said, what ride are they showing? They mentioned everything from the gas line. I said, we'll take you to talk about the gas line. So we took the gas line. And we jumped off a tall building down here. Said, you're missing the sidewalk. A little lower than that. So I'm going to get my feet up in the other one. Like the best race, we'll take out all the insurance you can take. And get you to 100 pound race. So I remember it's a hundred feet deep. Over a nine mile race. It's midnight. So we're about to come along. They'll follow up. The race will keep you down. I say, don't float. That's a year. And they can give you a death boost. And you're chilling at the end of that. I said, I'm assuming you've been invited. We can make sure of that. I haven't been invited. But if you haven't asked me, sure. And I want to give you the best ride. She said, you haven't changed. I said, come on. That's what I'm going to tell you every day. People don't want you to change their opinion. They just want you to confirm me. That's all. You ever tell me the other day. You don't know about certain young fellas. You're about to get in love with them. So you're already gone. She said, yes. Well, what do you want to pay that for? I said, look around my bathroom. Well, I gave you a lecture the other day. Obviously. It's where we're getting from. Some of these days, I'm going to ask you one question. Incidentally, there are ten papers that are rejected in those papers. They're unsatisfactory. That's all they are free of. Don't accuse us in general terms of us. And so I measure satisfaction. You judge what's satisfactory. Now, we're going to have a bout. And the fellas are going to be. And God's having a challenge in every number of things. But I oppose you. I'm opposed these fires out. But I want to see a woman. As it happens here. That's how fast you arrest us. Well, let this go by. We've had two, three already. Let that go by. But remember this. You're being spared by recourse. Because we've got to. One out of the other side of the map. Now, I gave you a lecture on Egypt. A section of history of it. But that's not all of it. The next time you go to a doctor. You ask him where to get such a term. He'll tell you he's well educated. And he'll tell you there are two nations or two peoples. Where all medical terms come from. One is Egypt. The other is Rome. So many Latin terms. And you will find that there's much to learn. There's so much that's come down to us from Egypt. I want this morning to just notice how much and large a place Egypt played in the history of the Bible. Begin with Abraham. The woman got him in trouble. He got him in trouble. And the whole world's in trouble now. Three hundred million inhabitants. Because their mother was a legitimate pagan. Egypt is a perfect example of what the world is. Going back to the onions, leeks, and the garlics of Egypt. That's the temptation of every new convert. Even the children of Israel. After they were redeemed. Standing on the Red Sea. Said your brothers aren't here to die. We have plenty down there in Egypt. As it is. I have a well-savored land. The progeny of all the land of Egypt. The land of Goshen. A great thing of Egypt, we think at once. Of the life of Jesse, Joseph, Moses. Jeremiah. He died in Egypt. Pharaoh Necho, who defeated good king Josiah. Young on the plains of Megiddo. Egypt was at war. Continually with the ancient empires of Chaldea. That's a pavilion. Second Babylonian Empire. Assyria. And even after Cyrus the Great. Campanches succeeded him. He took a powerful army. An army of 150,000. He got out there and he owned the whole land. He built his ground in the sea. Not upon those caves. He came back with another army. As did Egypt. Palestine was a battleground. Between the country falling on the Euphrates and Tigris River. And Egypt was a thousand miles away. To exceed the importance of Egypt. Our Lord Himself has carried that from the wrath of Herod the Great. Of course, there are two men. And that means for much of us, Joseph and Moses. One carried that when he was seventeen. The other was born later. Years went on. Jacob thought that Joseph was dead. And grieved. For he was his favorite son. And last, when they brought the brothers of Joseph down to see him. He knew them, but they did not know him. The most dramatic picture in the whole Bible. Is the story of Joseph and his brothers. When he had been put in prison. They spoke in that native Hebrew and said, Oh, do we not remember the annuals of that morning? His blood hath now fallen on us. Joseph prayed. Under different texts. Texts that you can use after a while. That's what you want. If by anybody reflects a dream, you don't get a text, then walk out. They have one of the greatest texts in the whole Bible. When Judas saw his brothers and knew them, and they did not know him. Put this down. I won't have time except to call attention to a few things. Judas was forty-three and forty-one. And he washed his face. You can't preach all that, but don't preach any of it. He turned his side. He could not contain his fears any more. Wonderful lesson. He was with King Jehovah along the water, down there where the city was in seas. And he had the cyclops on the other side, and the purple, royal purple, next to him. And the wind blew, and he saw the royal purple. I was sorry to tell you that, sir. We should conceal it. Great text, sir. Take it and preach it. All right. There are individuals showing their form to the ultimate governor. Remember, Pharaoh was as expensive as I am. And Judas had more power than Pharaoh. He was lord of all the land. He was the full control. He was the absolute. The exegetes are aware of it. The Prime Minister has that certainly, too, in higher ethos. America. The office of governor goes back to the beginning of Egyptian history. He does not, as we use the word government, reference to government. He has limited powers. Government of the Constitution and Bible. So the office was resented. Now, the laws were created for Judas. At that time, the laws had been in existence all the time. All the life, legs, crops, beasts, men, everything. Get that? Do you understand that? Now, the tremendous responsibility of Judas. There were great dreamers. The ancients, there. They gave lives and pensions to dreamers. They had four lawyers. Astronomers. Egyptians. And the Chaldeans are the ancient Chaldeans. These, the priests at the place of the Chaldeans. So it was there, the Fourth Independence. And now it remains. The Egyptians, later on. Astronomers studying the stars. The priests, corresponding to the Chaldeans, the highest intelligence. The Egyptians. The philosophers. Now, when you understand that custody, you can quite understand much that is said here in the history of Jacob, and Joseph, and Moses. They were dream to dreams. They were the same thing. Six years? Plenty. Some thought this mean. Now, here's something that may help you. Even to this day, in the rich land that's here, on the top corn, that's it. If you do less than that, you are discredited. So that is no accident. That was the natural thing, certainly. They have an average of three crops, sometimes more, sometimes less. They have no way of saying it. Now, and all of the thin fat cattle, and the seven lean, the just lean devoured the fat cattle. Very, very struggling. So all of them. Just then, the father says, My son, I've been a captive offender, sir. Yes, and then the children were put in prison, and all of them were captives. The Mohammedans were beheaded, before a great multitude, about that age. And that is true in the days of Jacob. She said it was true. She had evidence of it. That they were put in as the king's prisoners. That God was winning. Now, these two dreams are the same, the baker and the butler. If he were one, he should be beheaded. If the other was, he'd be resorted. And so, when he told Pharaoh, because that's a Hebrew word, that there was two dreams, and the king survived, because like he said, this is what Pharaoh sent for. And that young Jew, at a young age, you don't know, when he knew him, he said, Yes, my son. And when he stood before him, and Pharaoh told him the dream, everybody was looking. Remember their promises had never been exceeded. That the palaces of Connacht led by the excellent and so, and Pharaoh seated on the throne, and all of his courtiers around him. To me, it's always one of the most interesting things, that after he interpreted the two dreams, and said to him, He was ambitious. It's no fault. As Mark Andrews said, over the body of Jesus, he was ambitious, he was the greatest one. If you haven't any ambition to be something, go out and commit higher crimes. And a bunch of three freaks was invading the place. When I got up, soon as I got up, the old man and I were on the ground floor, and the weather was too good, I knew we were all wrong by then, so I just did. So, they never forgave me for it. He didn't down dream once. Every time he'd see me, old father would tell him, The old man likes you. He'd tell him, Peter! So, he recommended himself, if I did it, he said, Now, you better go and ask for the dream. And after he interpreted it, he seemed good to everybody. He even told me, He said, another man that crowd could do a bit. Peter looked at him, he said, Well, I don't know if anybody here understood. Yet, he gathered up one said, each said, what was the deed in the full yard of supply. Now, another thing. It is, it is the truth in the history, that they had a huge group that only had the children. Here's a wonderful story, now. The family was all, Jekyll said, Jekyll said, calm down, I need you to give me a dime. So, you know the story, I said, when he came back, after a while, he said, that calm was nothing. I believed that when the man began to speak. Of course, the conscience was what was pursuing him. One of the greatest features, to trust my opinion, the greatest feature of elephants in the whole environment is the dress of human. Now, here's a real place for us to preach on. I'll now pray that the man in whose hand the cup is found, he should be my servant, Joseph speaking of it. And as for you, get you up in peace unto your father. Then Judah came near unto him and said, oh, my lord, let thy servant I pray thee, speak a word in my law, and let not thy anger borrow me of thee, and let not borrow me of thee, and let not thy anger borrow me of thee, and let not thy anger borrow me of thee, and let not thy anger borrow me of thee, and let not thy anger of thee, borrow me and let not my anger borrow me of thee. You shall not borrow me of the seae. Elecc's was given the lord gave unto him an And he said unto my Lord, we have a father, an old man, and a child of his old age, he liveth in one, and his brother is dead, and he alone is left out of his mother. And his father loveth him. And thou saidst unto thy servants, Bring him down unto me, that I may set mine eyes upon him. And he said unto my Lord, The Lamb cannot leave his father, for if he should leave his father, his father would die. And thou saidst unto thy servants, Except your youngest brother come down, will you see my face no more. And he was from the king of thy servants, my father, with too many words from my Lord, and I was promised that he would go in and buy us a little food. A little food. And he said, We cannot go down, if our youngest brother be with us, then we can go down. For we may not see the man's face, except our youngest brother be with us. And thy servants, my father, said unto us, Ye know that my brother bear me two sons. And the one went out from me, and I said, Sure, let him. And tore him to pieces, and I saw him not sent. And if he take this also from me, and wish it upon him, he shall bring down my three hands. My three hands must follow to the grave. Now, my Lord, when I come to thy servant, my father, and the lad be not with us, seeing that his life is bound up in the lancelot, we see that the lad is not with us. He will die. And thy servants shall bring down the three hands of Christ, he said that. The three hands of thy servant shall follow to the grave. For thy servant became surely an honest type, preaching of Jesus Christ. For thy servant became surely, never least to make a decision for all the common good that I am. He is our advocate. For my servant became surely, and the lad, unto my father shall say, If I bring him not unto thee, then I shall bear the blame to my father forever, and bring him back up, I am assured. And he will bear the blame. Now, my Lord, I pray thee, that thy servant's eyes, instead of the last perfect substitution, be fond unto my Lord, and let the last go up with his present. For how shall I go up to my Lord? And the lad must be with me. This my future. I see the angel coming. That shall come on my father. And that's the most eloquent plea in the whole Bible. Then Joseph could not reprimand himself, for all men that stood by him. And he cried, for every man who left from me. And there stood no man with him, while Joseph made himself known to his father. One day, a strange befewed people now in drags and pauses, and if you look on him whom they have kissed, then you'll recognize him as their Messiah. And they rejected Joseph. And don't let too many things happen, please, for lack of understanding, we're working on that. They still rejected Jesus. Joseph revealed himself to those who had despised him, who had rejected him, who had murdered him. I am Joseph. You couldn't believe that, really. He says, come here, Joseph, in here. You can see that we are both become under the grave. Joseph says, we've found Joseph, he's alive, and now we're here. And we have seen you so much. You're the biggest bunch of crooks. That's what I've sent children to go up there to Joseph and find out what he means. I don't need a word of it. And he did. I haven't seen him. I had the great We saw this. His father, he's sitting far in this way. See that she doesn't have her eye out of the way. And he went up out of Egypt, and came unto the land of Canaan, unto Jacob their father, and told them, saying, Joseph, you're alive. And you, governor, rule over the land of Egypt. Jacob's heart fainted, for he believed them not. And they told him all the words of Joseph, which he had said unto them, and here's what he believed. And when he saw the lions which Joseph had sent to carry him, the spirit of Jacob their father revived. And he, too, said unto them, Joseph, thy son is yet alive. Now, if you can't put you on those wagons—they didn't have any wagons when we were down there, camp of grasses. And here come some big, big wagon loads, long, loaded with corn, loaded with things to eat, bound out of heat. Ah, what a story. When he saw the spirit which he had now given us, and the spiritual spirit, love, and joy, and peace, wagon loads, he, too, the governor of the land of Egypt, asked her, thinking, wagon loads. How much more will you have wagon loads? Wagon loads. Wagon loads. Wagon loads. Wagon loads. Wagon loads. Wagon loads. Wagon loads. Wagon loads. Wagon loads. Wagon loads. Wagon loads. Wagon loads. Wagon loads. Wagon loads. Wagon loads. Wagon loads. Wagon loads. Wagon loads. Wagon loads. Wagon loads. Wagon loads. Wagon loads. Wagon loads. Wagon loads. Wagon loads. Wagon loads. Wagon loads. Wagon loads. Wagon loads. Wagon loads. Wagon loads. Wagon loads. Wagon loads. Wagon loads. Wagon loads. Wagon loads. Wagon loads. Wagon loads. Wagon loads. Wagon loads. Wagon loads. Wagon loads. Wagon loads. Wagon loads. Wagon loads. Wagon loads. Wagon loads. Wagon loads. Wagon loads. Wagon loads. Wagon loads. Wagon loads. Wagon loads. Wagon loads. Wagon loads. Wagon loads. Wagon loads. Wagon loads. 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Joseph: And He Washed His Face
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John Franklyn Norris, commonly known as J. Frank Norris (September 18, 1877 – August 20, 1952), was a fiery Baptist preacher and a leading figure in American Christian fundamentalism during the early 20th century. Born in Dadeville, Alabama, to sharecropper parents Warner and Mary Norris, he grew up in poverty in Hubbard, Texas, where his father’s alcoholism and a traumatic shooting at age 15—when cattle thieves attacked his family—shaped his resilient spirit. Converted at 13 during a Methodist revival, Norris soon felt called to preach, later studying at Baylor University and Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, where he graduated as valedictorian in 1905. His early career included editing The Baptist Standard (1907–1909), crusading against liquor and gambling, before he took the helm of First Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas, in 1909, a post he held until his death. Norris’s ministry was as dynamic as it was controversial, earning him nicknames like “The Texas Tornado” and “The Fighting Fundamentalist.” From 1935 to 1950, he simultaneously pastored Temple Baptist Church in Detroit, growing his combined congregations to over 25,000, arguably making him America’s first megachurch pastor. A fierce opponent of modernism, evolution, communism, and Catholicism, he broke with the Southern Baptist Convention in 1924 after exposing evolution teachings at Baylor, founding the Premillennial Missionary Baptist Fellowship (later World Baptist Fellowship) and the Fundamentalist Baptist Bible Institute. His life was marked by sensational events, including a 1926 acquittal for killing an unarmed man in self-defense in his church office, and suspicions of arson tied to church fires. Norris died of a heart attack at a youth camp in Jacksonville, Florida, in 1952, leaving a polarizing legacy of bold preaching, mass influence via radio and his newspaper The Searchlight, and an unyielding stand for his beliefs.