In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of studying the fourth chapter of Paul's letter to the Romans, which focuses on Abraham. He highlights Romans 4:20 as a powerful definition of faith, stating that Abraham did not doubt God's promise but had strong faith and gave glory to God. The preacher also emphasizes the significance of Hebrews 2:3-4, which warns against neglecting the responsibility of preaching the full gospel and despising God's gifts. He challenges those who try to discredit the gifts of the Holy Spirit and revival, emphasizing the need to have faith in God's power. The sermon concludes with the preacher discussing the incredible promises in the Bible, such as being heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ.

And we said about faith, which is, uh, we all preach about so much, but have, I think, so little. And I'm quite sure, like the brother said the other night, that the only way really to exercise faith is to get... As a lady came to me one day, let me put it this way, and she said, you know, I enjoyed the talk about faith. And she said, I really, really would like to exercise faith. And I said, well, this is wonderful. And she says, but how, how do you really exercise it? I said, well, I know one way. I don't think it's the most popular, but there's one way when you can really exercise faith. She said, well, all right, let me just, just let me write this down. I said, you won't need to write it down. I said, because this is the, this is the secret, I think, is to get into such a jam that you can't get out any other way but by faith. Oh, I think about it, she said. I'm sure she wasn't too worried, really, about learning how to exercise faith. But you know, God very often cuts all the props away until we've nothing to lean on, and no one to lean on. And as I say very often to myself, if I have God, I don't need anybody else. If I don't need God, I need every prop I can get to lean on. But if I have God, he's my all-sufficiency. There's no inadequacy in him. Often when talking about John 15, a very wonderful chapter, as you know, I often say to people, before ever you read John 15, you should read Ezekiel 15. Because in Ezekiel 15, you have a description of the vine which tells us that it's no good for anything at all. You don't make furniture out of the vine. The vine is there for one thing only, and that is to produce fruit, and out of fruit, of course, you get the wine. Now by the same token, I think if you're going to study Abraham, you can't skip the fourth chapter of Paul's letter to the Romans, because it's almost entirely about Abraham. And I think that in that fourth chapter of Romans, you have one of the very best, if you want to call it a definition of faith. In Romans 4 and verse 20, it says, He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully persuaded that what he promised, he was able to perform. Now as far as I'm concerned, if you really get that and digest it, masculate it, it gets, as I say so often, truth is no good up here. You've got to get it in your bloodstream. And if you really can get hold of that with both hands of faith, as it were, and say, well I'm fully persuaded that what God has promised, he is able to perform. And you know Abraham in this situation was up against a jam, because two verses previously, it says, remember he was a hundred years of age and his wife was about eighty, and God had promised them that they should have a child. And as I said yesterday, it must have been a bit disturbing maybe for her to go to her mother. You see, we read the story as though they weren't human, as though they're kind of cardboard figures. There's Abraham and there's Sarah, and they weren't like me, they never had emotions, they never showed any shadow of doubt, they were never disturbed. Sure they were human beings. And when the Lord began to work and challenge them, as I said it may be sound almost facetious that she would say to her mother-in-law, to her mother, well, mother we're going. Well where are you going? Well I don't know. Well how far is it? Well I don't know. Well how long will it really take you to get there? Don't know. Well what kind of a country is it? Don't know. Who lives there? Don't know. Well that doesn't sound too positive, does it? I mean it's hardly positive thinking. Excuse me Mr. Peel, but there you are. It seems so negative, negative. Don't know, don't know, don't know. It was a challenge of faith. But then when later Abraham comes up and he says, you know darling, we're going to have a child. Oh my mother will enjoy me writing home and telling her I'm going to have a baby and I'm 80 years of age. This is really something, isn't it? Now are you sure you got this straight? And he is 100 years of age. You know I think, now you can put it in other language, but I believe God had to back off from Abraham because he couldn't win with him. That even when he came to the place where he was willing to slay his son, Abraham says, so what? What's the problem? No problem in me killing my son because God will raise him up again. Oh boy, I can't win with this fellow. Because if I kill him I've got to raise him up anyhow. He said, if I destroy my boy, he is able and willing to raise him up again. So the Lord says, well you've passed the test anyhow, you're willing to give him. And I'm able to raise him up again if needs be. Again coming to this tremendous situation. Again we read it so easy it doesn't mean too much to us. But you know sometimes that thing that looks like a mountain to you, to Abraham, would have looked like a molehill. You'd say, oh what are you sweating and worrying about? There's nothing in there. The God that I trust, why? I'm fully persuaded that he is able to do all that he has promised. I have a phrase in one of my books and folk have written to me about it and said it's blessed them and hurt them and all the rest of it. It's the phrase where I happen to say that I think that we as a generation of Christians were unbelieving believers. And then about three weeks ago I picked up Marie Monson's book. She participated in the Shang Tung revival. And I was reading through this very rapidly for a certain reason. And she said I came to the conclusion that we are unbelieving believers. So in the mouth of two witnesses it's established anyhow. And I think that one of the most embarrassing things when you and I get to the judgment seat. And really that's going to be something isn't it? When the whole game is finished. When the Lord isn't going to measure how high your church steeple is from the ground. Or how big your Sunday school crowd was. When you and I stand naked and bare. I can't lean on my darling wife. She can't lean on me. You on someone else. But I do agree of course I believe that when the two become one flesh there's going to be some sharing in this. Because the word of God says that those who stayed at home got the same reward as those that went to battle. But you know when we stand at the judgment seat I think one of the most embarrassing things. Will be for the Lord to say look at all these exceeding great and precious promises. And most of you never even inherited one of them. I don't know if you've been to Scotland. But Scotland like other countries the capital cities there. Glasgow particularly has big areas of slums. I think it's called the gobbles there. It's an accepted fact as ridiculous as it may sound. That in Scotland there are multiplied millions if not billions of unclaimed dollars. Because people are never bothered to trace their ancestry. Somebody left somebody a million dollars. It's been accumulating compounding the interest. It's getting bigger and bigger. And there are people living in slum property with rats and cockroaches and all the other rotten things around. Who should be living up the country in one of those castles. And having 5,000 or 10,000 acres of land and all the shooting and fishing rights and servants. But they never bothered to sort the thing out. They never bothered to trace and see if really I do inherit these things. You see. Now you can't inherit things because you're a child. Now Paul makes that very very clear in his work. If a boy goes along and says well I'm 10 years of age. My father's John Smith. I've got photographs. Here's the doctor who brought me into the world. Here's my Aunt Mary. She identifies me. And I've got everything I need. And now I've come for my daddy's 10 million dollars. And they say no sir. Because there's a clause in this will. That says you're not to inherit this money until you come to maturity. Now because you're a child you can't inherit. Paul makes that very clear in Romans. I forget the chapter there for the moment. But he says you must come to maturity and then we can inherit. You know why the world is so stricken outside. Because the church on the inside has failed to inherit. We haven't claimed our rights in Jesus Christ. To most people Christianity is escaping hellfire. And a husband that doesn't spit on the rug and doesn't beat you up and doesn't get drunk. And he's a nice guy. And we're all sweet because our pastor says we're sweet. We pay our tithes and as a matter of fact we gave him a colored TV. I remember one hour and I went in to where the preacher preached a lot against TV. And then at Christmas the people in church didn't know what to do. So they bought him a colored TV and he took it. And that solved the problem. See the pastor has one now. So he can't say all about our TV. And that's all right. He took it. But some of the promises in the word of God they shake me to my toes. I can't get over that word where it says we're heirs of God. Now that takes my breath away. But after it says we're heirs of God it says we're joint heirs. And we're joint heirs with Jesus Christ. And Jesus said that he had everything that he asked of the Father. Now why are we living in poverty? As I said the other day there's nothing God can do for the world I live in. He can't give us another Bible it's complete. He can't give us another Calvary. Jesus finished everything including destroying the power of the devil. He can't give us another Holy Spirit. God has done everything he can do. It depends on our appropriation. Sure I believe in the sovereignty of God. But as my good friend Duncan Camelot often says not independent of human personality. God takes human personality and weds it to his will and then he performs. And so here we are we're faced with what the Bible doesn't call promises. It doesn't even call them great promises. It calls them exceeding great and precious promises. And if I can get Hebrews 11 and I've done this. Now I'm not ashamed to tell you this. I remember at Teen Challenge come into a series of challenges there. And I would say to my secretary I'm going out and I may not be back today. But if you do need me ring across to the house I'll be in my room. And I would just go lay on my bed. As I used to say there's only one way to pray. Only one way to seek God and that's face downward. There's a scripture that says that if you search for it. And I don't like to lay on the cold floor. It's not good anyhow. But I always, I always lay flat when I pray. I lay across the bed. And I have laid on the bed after I've opened to Hebrews 11 6. And stuck my finger on it and defied the world and the flesh and the devil. And I've said God is. And he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. But before that it says without faith. It is impossible to please God. Now as I said yesterday faith is not a magic carpet. And faith is not a wishing well. It is not right to say that faith can do anything. Faith cannot do anything. And I quote it again if you won't hear. That if a bunch of us pledge ourselves to live the next week. Just in fasting and prayer. Shut up in a room. Spending day and night in intercession. And fasting and believing for the conversion of the devil. He still won't be saved however much faith we have. There are certain things that God says will not happen. By the same token if you go pray around the grave with John Wesley. We could do with him right now. And we certainly need Luther to come along. And shake the church of Rome for a change. But what are you going to do? Go around his grave and believe for him to be raised up. Oh no no no no. Oh no. We were in a church not long ago. And the pastor in this very fine church. About a penny of money. Had a very fine congregation. I preached there often. And one Sunday morning he stood up and announced that he was going to leave. And it scared the people. And some people came to me afterwards and said. Well what do you think? What are we going to do? Won't the church fall apart? Well if it can. It should. If it's built around the pastor then it should fall apart. If it's built around Jesus Christ it won't fall apart. Well what do you think of it? Well I said I can only say one thing that comes to my mind now. That when God buries Moses he raises up Joshua. This is the divine order. But God I'm sure in these days is looking for men and women of faith. I had the privilege more than once of preaching in the Bible School of Wales. Some of you must know. How many of you have read Reese Harrell's Intercessor? You've read that? Well you should read it. One of the greatest books of our generation. Written by a fellow I've known for about 40 years. Norman Graham. And after speaking in the college to the students and staff. Little Mrs. House says Brother Raymond will come here please. And we walked up this great staircase. You could drive an automobile up it. It's very wide. And we went up and turned left and turned right. And then we stood on the veranda. Of this great old mansion. Used to be owned by a lord or a millionaire or somebody. And as we looked down there was a great block of granite. I suppose maybe 8, 9, 10 feet long. There used to be an equestrian statue on it. That is a statue of a man on a horse. Now I don't know whether they did like the scripture says. The horse and his rider they cast into the sea. But anyhow they pulled the thing off and thrown it away. And they chiseled deep into the block of stone there. Jehovah Jireh. Now it's exciting to talk about faith. It's more exciting to exercise it. But it's pretty scaring sometimes when you think of what men dare to do. And yet in one sense there's no sweat and no anxiety about it. I said very often and I say it over and over again to myself. There are three things that faith does. First of all it reckons on God. He that cometh to God must believe that he is. And that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. So faith reckons on the faithfulness of God. God said it, I'll do it. I phoned the other day about some insurance for driving this automobile. And they said we'll send it. But you're covered from this very moment. Now I have nothing to prove that I'm covered. I haven't a piece of paper. I haven't anything. But I take the word of a girl in an office up in Ohio that at that moment she covered that automobile. And I'm reckoning on the faithfulness of that group. Now the first thing that faith does it reckons that God is and he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. And then what does faith do? Faith risks. Or if you like to put the second thing is that first of all it reckons then it risks. It ventures out on God. So you reckon then you risk and then you risk. Now why did Mrs. Reeshouse take me upstairs? She said Brother Ravenhill isn't this a lovely place? And I said it's a marvelous estate. And the little Welsh woman smiled and she said you know Brother Ravenhill many people in the world hundreds of thousands of people have read books by Norman Grubb and they know she said that Daddy meaning her husband that Daddy bought this estate with a shilling in his pocket. A shilling being about twelve cents at that time. And he went down to an office in town and he said he would buy this estate which I don't know what it cost something like say a hundred thousand dollars. Now when he went in the office they told him he couldn't have it because he said that man going out has just bought this place for the Roman Catholic Church and you can't have it. Now we've got some other, we've got another estate up there called Skitty Fowl you can have that. He said the Lord told me I was going to have Durwen Fowl. That's the Welsh name for it. And the lawyer said now you can't have Durwen Fowl. Now look there you see, you see it's signed already the document's signed. And you can't have it. Here's the cheque, see there's the cheque. Didn't dry yet. That man put a down payment on this estate. You can't have it. Now I've got some other pictures round here. Look I can show you a lot of, you see I've got estates like this. Now, now what place would you like? And he said Durwen Fowl. I've just told you you can't have Durwen Fowl, the Roman Catholic Church. Look, look if you're not, if you don't agree with what I say he said here look this is the, these are the conditions of the estate. Now you take it and read it. And he pointed to the office going up. One of those nuts from religious offices. So he sits there reading it and he says well praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. What kind of stuff in an office? It's bad enough in church but in an office. He said say Mr. Lawyer did you read this? I read it through a dozen times. Would you just read that little thing there? Yeah I'll read it. And under no conditions whatever must this estate ever pass into the Roman Catholic Church. Well that's funny. I've read that half a dozen times. I never saw that before. Well now he said is your document valid? He said no it isn't. Are you going to buy it? You see before he went he got a promise from God from a strange obscure part of the Word of God that God would give him so many wedges of gold. And all he did was find out how much a wedge of gold weighed and then the current value of gold and he worked it all out. And he says thank you Lord. Now what if God tells us you know you're not to strain your faith. You're only going to the measure of your faith. All men do not have faith. You hear somebody say over the radio now every man has faith. Don't worry about that. You get in an aeroplane and sit down and he goes north and you know you're going south. And he goes north and you don't ask any questions. You don't say hey pilot just a minute just a minute you just show me your certificate. You may be a garbage man in that uniform. I don't know whether you're a pilot. Now show me a pilot's license. Now that's all right. Now show me the license for the plane. That's all right. Now just a minute. I noticed a man out on the wing there and he was talking. I'm not sure he filled up with gas. You just let me walk out on the wing and take the cap off and dip in the tank and then I want to go to the other. Oh wouldn't that be a wonderful performance if everybody did. You sit in a plane. As far as you're concerned it's okay. As far as the pilot knows there might be something wrong with it or he fears there might be. One great fellow in the air industry once told me he said if you knew how little your life was hanging on you'd never get in a plane anyhow. Well I don't like them flying for the birds as far as I'm concerned. But anyhow you don't check up like you sit in a plane. But that's natural faith in a natural man. It's got nothing to do with spiritual faith. Because the Apostle Paul says in the second letter to the Thessalonians all men have not faith. Faith is the gift of God upon my repentance. And once I have faith and I can exercise my faith less than you exercise yours. We don't all have the same measure of faith. This man had a measure of faith. He got a promise from God. He says to the man I'll buy the estate. All right. He goes home and he's boy I'm going to have a time of praise now and he got down there and started praising the Lord and do you know what happened? As soon as he started praising the Lord the Lord said shut up. Did you ever hear the Lord say that? Maybe you didn't think he talked English like that, eh? Did the Lord ever tell you to shut up? In other words he says I can't get a word in any way. Why don't you shut up and listen to me? It's more important that you listen to me than I listen to you anyhow. So he shut up. And he said now Lord what's wrong? He said what are you going to pay for a dowry and vows? What? Oh he said I promised um yeah I promised I'd pay for argument's sake $120,000. Fine. How much did I promise you? $100,000. That's all right. The Lord said I'll pay my $100,000 you pay your $20,000. I don't have $20,000. $20,000 is nothing to you. Look out on a thousand hairs. Sure they're mine but they're not yours. All that I'm giving you out of my resources is $100,000. That's all. That's all I promise. That's all I'm giving you. Now you'll find that oh I can't do that. Well go back and tell the man in the office that you can't do it. He'll think I'm a fool. Oh he said don't worry he thinks that already. You don't need to bother about that. All you have to do is go back and tell him that you can't. So he went back and told his story and the man says what do you mean? He said well God won't give me the money. Well why didn't you sign it? Well he promised to give me $100,000 but I can't get the other $20,000. Now he got an assurance from God that he tried to step over what God had promised him and God says no I'm not here for you to pull strings on me. You can't commit me to $20,000 never mind $20,000. Well would you write to the owner of the building and see if he'll do something because I want this for a Bible school and right now they have 350 children there. I think Jimmy Stewart sent his children there at one time. They have 350 students and every one of those children and students there are the children of missionaries. Nobody else can get in the school. He wouldn't take my children. I tried to get them in once he said you're not a missionary. And here I am trying to get all the heathen in America saved and I'm not a missionary but anyhow he wouldn't take my children either. Well Lord what will I do? He said write and tell the man Lord so and so who owns the building will you and he wrote to Lord so and so. Now he was going $20,000 over what God had promised him. But when he humbled himself and saw the face of God and obeyed God this Lord so and so who had expected about $175,000 for the place and was chagrined that even the Roman Catholic Church was going to get it for $150,000. Now he was going to get it $30,000 less than the Roman Catholic Church and he was getting a kick out of that. But he just couldn't put pressure on God for the last $20,000. So when they wrote to this Lord so and so and told him what was happening he wrote back and said in the circumstances I'll be very happy to let the estate go for $80,000. And instead of being $20,000 in the hole he was $20,000 in pocket. Why? Because he obeyed God and he humbled himself. You know it's amazing what we, what, what, you can't tell what God's going to do if you really obey him. A brother came to me last night, he's not here this morning I guess and he said Brother Ray, you were here last May, we had the meetings in the other building there. One night we had a great break and you remember a lot of men thought God and they've wept and they've prayed and he said it took me 3 or 4 hours if I remember his words it took me 3 or 4 hours to get really cleaned out with God. But God met me and changed my life, not only that. I think I'm right in quoting his figure, he said we've been married for 16 years and my wife has had her epileptic fits regularly. And as soon as I got right with God and prayed, God healed her and she hasn't had a fit this year. Since I knelt over there in the concrete of somewhere in one of these buildings and I got straightened out with God and God immediately began to work in my family. Why? Because he obeyed God, that's why. You can go beyond what God wants you to go and, and, and Satan will harass you if you don't watch out. And he'll tell you that God is unfaithful. God is unfaithful, you were unwise in the thing that you did. He didn't want you to go to $120,000. Now faith will reckon on God, faith will risk on God and then faith will rest on God. Now this epistle is a fantastic, it talks about a rest for the people of God but lots of God's people are so restless aren't they? You know we preach on parts of text, come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest and boy we go after the sinner on that. Hey but wait a minute, cross the bridge to the other half of the text. Take my yoke upon you. Oh I thought you got rid of your bondage. Sure you do. That bondage to this bondage. My freedom, Madame Guillaume said, my freedom is thy grand control. When I am free then I make a match of things. When I'm in bondage to the will of God, a delightful bondage, my freedom is thy grand control. Here's a, here's a train going down a railroad track. I remember asking a man on one train, we were crossing the continent, I said what is this train doing now? He said this is the straightest piece of the track and we're touching about 90 miles an hour. I said I hope you keep on the track. Now there's a train with all its energy and all its might but that train is only safe when it runs on the track they've laid down for it. And I don't care how much energy you have, how many baptisms of the spirit you have, how many gifts of the spirit, you're only safe when you run down the track that God has laid for you. And that's inside of his word. You know heresy is truth you push too far. I believe in sanctification, I believe in entire sanctification, I don't believe in sinless perfection. My wife and I went to a conference two years ago and they, it was a wonderful place and we said to the lady who runs the place, you get a lot of wonderful people here and she said we certainly do and we get some strange ones. She said we had a bunch just a few weeks ago that came in the loveliest kind of people you could meet. They were marvelous. Oh how they prayed, how they thanked, how the gifts of the spirit operated. And when they'd gone through one meeting I thought well this is going to be the greatest thing that we've ever had around here. And then she said afterwards to the leader, you know I just discovered one thing that you didn't do that everybody's done all the years I've had a conference here. You didn't open the Bible in your service. Oh no, we gave the Bible up two or three years ago. We believe in direct revelation now. You see when that which is perfect is come, that which is, and the Bible is only part revelation and we've given up that and we have direct revelation. I don't believe it for a moment. Because the word of God said that heaven and earth shall pass away but his word shall never pass away. Before long they'll skid right down, they'll be in a mess before too long because the word is a lamp to our feet, the word is a light to our path. The word is a rod of correction, the word is the source of inspiration. And you can't be smarter than God. God has revealed himself by his son and he's revealed himself through his word and he reveals the word through the Holy Spirit who inspired the word. Now we're not going to deal here again with Abraham. We mentioned a little about him yesterday and then we mentioned again about Noah. And you remember that we said that Abraham on one level he's justified by faith that it says according to James, that's what Paul says, he's justified by faith. But James says that Abraham was justified by works. He was justified by works when he offered his son and was willing that God should take that son. But he was justified by works in the evidence he could give to the world outside. Now if we're right vertically we should be right horizontally. If we're justified by faith before God they should be works, real works of the Spirit through us that justify the faith that we have in works and in the fruits of the Spirit. Otherwise all we do is stand up and I say the kids now they're bored to death. For the simple reason all you and I try to do is somehow safeguard God's reputation and preach about a man who died 2,000 years ago and think we're almost sprouting wings because we believe in the virgin birth and the physical resurrection and I remind you very respectfully the devil believes in them all but he isn't a Christian. The world is not waiting for a new definition of Christianity it's waiting for a new demonstration of Christianity. And I say again if you're an honest interpreter of the Word of God you've got to come to Hebrews 2 and get down to verse 4 as well as verse 3 on how shall we escape. If we neglect how shall we escape? The reason that we're in the mess that we're in we're trying to escape the responsibility of preaching a full old gospel because in verse 4 there it says God bearing the witness with signs and wonders and divers miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost. Now who are you to despise God or his gifts? You give me one scripture where you can outlaw gifts of the Spirit or fruits of the can you give me one? I say again I get chills when I go to some conferences somebody goes well brother glory to God I thank God I believe on this old book from cover to cover and in the next ten minutes he spends explaining why the gifts are not for today and why revival isn't for today and the congregation sang just to give him a bit of a pep before he stood up they sang got any rivers you think are impossible got any mountains you can't tunnel through God specializes in things thought impossible and then he spends time telling you why it can't happen. Now what does the word of God say? The word of God says and this is a terrible thing that if you and I take anything out of the word of God he'll take our place our names out of the book of life you say brother Raymond I would never take a pair of scissors and cut anything out of the word of God well preacher I want to tell you something for the last three years you've been taking it out because you never preached it and it's the same thing if you shut up on it if you try and find some fancy interpretation if you enter some book because this brother taught it it doesn't make it right because anybody preaches it you've got to test it by the word of God and I'm absolutely convinced that many reasons for the bankruptcy in our churches these days is that we do not follow through on the things of the spirit of God they're not just gifts of the spirit they're gifts of the Lord Jesus because when he rose again he led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men now I'm not going lopsided on those things but I'm wanting to see again a full-on gospel that everything Jesus died for should be manifested in his church today and when such things happen you don't have any dead meetings you don't have any problems with money you don't have any problems at all if we follow what God says in his holy word you believe that God is he is a reward of them that diligently seek him you believe that these promises are all underlined by an infallible holy eternal God all right let's skip over we've said a few things about Abraham then we come to Noah that's a very very interesting story but this morning I thought we'd look at another character here in verse 23 of Hebrews 11 it says by faith Moses when he was born was had three months of his parents because they saw he was a prophet and they were not afraid of the king's commandment now I know what some people will say if you say that you're not responsible to the state first of all they'll they'll thumb back into Romans and say now you've got to be in subjection only up to a certain point see it's very easy to raise your hat to heroes of faith isn't it it's something else to be in their situation supposing Daniel had subjected himself to the laws of the state what would have happened there'd have been no Daniel, there'd have been no lion's den, there'd have been no deliverance supposing the three Hebrew children had said well we can't help it you know we love the Lord but the state says you can't do this and you can't do that what would have happened the command had gone forth that any child that was born should be handed over to the powers that be Pharaoh and his company and your precious child that you traveled over and you love that child must go to the state and be destroyed and the father and mother said nothing doing we're going to hide this child and you know what it says it says by faith he was hidden they had faith in the faithfulness of God do you ever read the Bible and it explodes in your face or do you just sit down and grind over it and say oh boy Harry Ironside hasn't got much on this or Schofield either boy this is a tough scripture I better leave it on one side or do you read it and suddenly as one man says it kind of leaks out of the book and takes hold of you by the throat and shakes you and says look at this brother look at this look at this some years ago I'd been reading Hebrews 11 I closed my Bible and kind of relaxed and it was just as though the Lord said son not a single person in Hebrews 11 ever had a Bible did you ever think of that look at all they did and they never had a Bible you have a Bible this morning I have a Bible it's not a book it's a library it's the finished work of God in this area these people did all these amazing things what did they do well they subdued kingdoms we haven't got as far as that with communism or Romanism yet have we they wrought righteousness they stopped the mouths of lions some women got together and prayed and what does it say right they prayed and the husbands of the sons were raised from the dead oh come on now come on now let's be honest about this I know you feel very happy about your marvelous faith and your knowledge of God but brother what's it doing who cares if you can recite the Bible from Genesis to Revelation you've got it all up there who cares if it's not working out tell me this why isn't your son a Christian what's wrong in your home that they don't want your Christianity come on face up to it what right have you to preach to other unsaved kids if your kids are not saved you should resign your church and tell the family look your daddy's going to sweep the streets and humiliate you if needs be until my family tells the line and you become children of God by faith in Jesus and it takes six months or six years to do it have you got faith like that by faith they subdued kingdoms not with weapons not with atom bombs by faith they subdued kingdoms they stopped the mouths of lions women received their dead raised to life again others had courage to stand there and they prayed to death brother that would take some faith wouldn't it knowing that they would receive a better resurrection now you chew that over will you when you go home one day just sit back read Hebrews 11 and then relax and say these people couldn't run when they were in trouble and say oh you know this morning I was so upset and distressed about something in the family or the church that I went back to that precious promise again and I read it for the 119th millionth time Romans 8 28 all things work together for good they couldn't turn to Romans 8 28 if they knew the word of God it was because they'd seen it there in the temple and they'd heard it read and they had to memorize it because every portion of scripture was written by hand and nobody had they could afford it oh the Ethiopian unit did but then he was a wealthy man if you want to find a classic case of hunger for God remember he was down here in Ethiopia and he has to go there across the Red Sea and he has to go right up there to Palestine because somebody told him of the true God quite a journey no blacktop roads nowhere to lodge at night and he'd go right up there and he was an Ethiopian and so he's an intellectual because he got his Bible in Hebrew I'm sure it wasn't translated in Ethiopian but he treasured it he'd given a stack of money for it and he's nursing that scripture but he was one of very very few men and possibly then he only had a very slight part of it do you know there was a time in the history of England when a man would give a whole field of hay for one page of the Bible I was told recently of a country behind the Iron Curtain where even today when the Bible is smuggled over they tear out pages this man has the first page in German the other brother has the second page and they swap it they put it between papers and they nurse it and when they do meet in a clandestine fashion secretly somewhere brother told us just recently of going into behind the Iron Curtain and somebody said well now when you go from here to Prague you go down the main street to Wenceslas Square and then you turn left and you'll see a man with a green tie and a little white handkerchief and you just nod and he'll turn and go away and you'll go to a certain place or you go in the marketplace and when you go in the market you'll see a lady with a red kind of turban on and a bit of white at the side and you'll buy some bananas or something and you'll say we're meeting at soon so it's under a railway arch three miles south and there'll be about ten people there she is what they call an informer and before long she's going to be caught and put to death but they have a waiting list of informers they have a waiting list of people who are wanting to communicate where you can go hear the word of God say how many people did you get driving up in their lush automobiles from their wall to wall carpeted homes and all that how many people do you get midweek with all their devotion to Jesus with all our sacrifice oh we don't think about I talked with brother Andrew that wrote the book Their God Smuggler I've known him for years he'd come into New York and ring up and say Len I want to talk and he came up he prayed nearly a whole night with us once and when you hear the stories of what people are doing now behind the iron curtain to get the word of God we don't value it you can get a bible for a dollar now our kids don't bother to read it no, what? read the bible when you can read the funny oh come on come on now we don't value the word of God maybe we'll have to lose it to value it and here you and I every one of us as I say again preacher Spurgeon didn't have a bigger bible than you or me he just used it better Finney didn't have a bigger bible than I have but boy did he dig into that word of God Joseph Parker one of the great giants of the English pulpit most amazing man I'm not saying we've no great preachers I guess we have but pro rata we don't have the same type and we don't have as many as we used to have where men gave themselves continually to prayer and the word of God and I'm underlining this again preacher it's not your business to visit the sick it's not your business to bury the dead it's not your business to wear yourself out on ten committees if you're going to be scriptural and after all the bible Christianity was only worth one room that's God's work and your problem brother is to get down on your face and get the word of God and rightly divide the word of truth and preach it whether they hound you out or whatever they do preach it that's all God has asked you to do preach it with faithfulness preach it with anointing and when I read Hebrews 11 and I go through the list and see by faith by faith the assurance in the heart of Moses' father and mother was we're going to contradict the law of the state and we're going to put this little child on one side and they managed to keep him covered till he was about three months old and I think his lungs got too much for the job and he started squealing out and they said he's going to be caught now we're going to have to do something now what does faith do faith reckons sure you've read the story they made a little ark they plaited it and they pitched it lined it in with pitch and they put a cover on it and then they pushed it out in the reeds huh would you like to do that come on would you like to reckon on God like that faith what it reckons and it risks it sure risks after all you push the little baby out there in the reeds well how do you know the wind won't blow the cover off it and the little thing gets cooked before the day's out die of sun stroke every time we saw anything on the river at home if we didn't know what was there we all got rocks and hit the thing till it burst open to see what was it supposing mischievous boys did that in those days and started beating the little cradler supposing a crocodile came up supposing there was a swell in the river and a there were a hundred things could have happened to the child that faith reckons on God and then faith rests and then it rests you see the irony of God God is going to take this little mite here and one day he's going to rule a great nation but oh what a long long way he has to go and he's done he and mummy are very poor so the Lord says well I'll let the king adopt him and give him the best education he can have in the world and if you think he wasn't educated well you read the seventh chapter of Acts of the Apostles he was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians I guess he knew astrology I guess he could speak in other languages he had great ability he became a military general everybody bowed down to him his breast was covered with ribbons slaves attended him and one day the Lord said to him son you're going to have a change instead of slaves bowing at your feet you're going to join the slaves instead of riding round town in a gorgeous chariot with beautiful horses and Nubian slaves waving ostrich feathers to keep you cool that was their conditioning they had then you're going to hit the road have you ever tried to imagine what it would be like tramping with a million people on a dirty road do you ever go down a dirty road after somebody else's automobile some ladies were driving an automobile this morning they came in there and I said to my brother look at the dirt we're going to have to follow and the folk behind us were churning we were churning up dirt dust for can you imagine going down the road a million people treading down the road can you imagine them trying to find water come on this is realistic these were the days they lived in it wasn't a blacktop road it wasn't a Howard Johnson's you couldn't stop and get a 7up or a coke or something else that kills you you just had to look for water millions of people kicking coughing and sneezing after you've been riding around in a chariot after your bed was smooth every night living in super luxury and the Lord says get up oh I thought when a brother mentioned the other day here he said something about dying for the Lord and we say you know there's no heroism nobody's going to come and blast me out of my bed and pin me to the wall and shoot me there's nothing much heroic about the Christian life I think there is if you tried it I think brother if you maybe sold your golf clubs and lived without those for the next year you might be being crucified or if you decided not to buy a new automobile and give the balance of money to a mission society or if you said well there's a window down the road there and I don't see why we should spend 75 dollars a week on food and she only spends 25 let's cut our budget down 15 a week at least and give her the 15 for the next month you might do something to make her realize you really had some compassion what do you want the Lord to do wake you up in the morning Gabriel pulling your ear and saying the Lord just had me type this in heaven these are your rules for the next do you want him to do that he's already done it in the book as I said I spoke to some kids not long ago I spoke to these kids in the castle and it was on an island I watched them come up in the great powerboats sailboats powerboats wealthy kids some of the great names of America they just relaxed in the beautiful libraries the magnificent library in this castle and they lounged back there I said well it's a great place and it's a great place and it's a great place and it's a great place and it's a great place and it's a place and it's a great place and it's great place and it's a great place and it's a great place and it's a great place and it's great place and it's a great place and it's a great place and it's a great place and it's a great place and it's great place and it's a great place and it's a great place and it's a great place and it's great and it's a great place and it's a great place and it's a great place and it's a great place and it's a place and it's a great place and it's great place and it's a place and it's a great place and it's a great place and it's a great and it's a place it's great place and it's a great it's a great place and it's a great place and it's a great place and it's a and it's a place and it's a great place and it's a great place and it's a place and it's a great place and it's a great and it's a great place and it's a great place and a great place and it's place it's a great place and it's a great place and it's a great place and it's a great place and it's it's a great place and it's a great place and a great place and it's and it's great great place and it's a great great and it's a great place and it's a place and it's a great place and it's and it's a and it's a great place and it's it's a great place and it's great a and it's a great place and it's a great place and it's a great place and it's a great place and it's a great place and it's a great place and it's a great place and it's great place and it's a great place and it's a great place and it's a and a great place and it's a great place and great place and it's a great place and it's a and it's a great place and it's place and it's a great place and it's a great place and it's a it's and it's a great place and it's a great place and it's a great place and it's a great and it's a great place and it's a great place people, I don't care who you listen to preaching. Jesus had twelve disciples, out of the twelve he had three, out of the three he had one, and then there's a place where he leaves him behind and he goes up. Moses goes up and the Lord says, now Moses leave them, tell us here, and you just come up higher and I'll wrap you in a cloud. So that he couldn't look down and see the crowd, so that they couldn't look up and see him. And the Lord says, I'm not only going to, oh boy you're going to write books, but I'm going to give you the ten basic laws of civilization, you're going to carry them down. I think it's in that book of Schaeffer's, the Death in the City I think it is, Rory Colch, one of the greatest of modern psychologists who is a Jewish fellow, and he says you shouldn't get alarmed that laws are being broken. Why, why should we get alarmed? They've always been broken. They were broken before Moses got to the bottom of the mountain, they'd already made a car for another God. And the different thing about the generation I live in is not that they're breaking laws, but we've totally repudiated them. That's the difference. Men have always broken God's laws, but not, not in the way we legislated this week. As I said the other night, the fiftieth state now has legislated, at least the bill passed the third reading and it's going to be ratified I guess, that in Hawaii they're going to legalize abortion. So it's becoming, it's going to become the abortion mill for America. Everybody, the people that want it are going to fly over there. And we're making it as easy, as easy, as easy, as easy as we can for sin. Side two. Broken and legally broken now. It's been established as a right of man. You can't hold any nation together. You can hold any nation together if you obey the Ten Commandments. You can hold no nation together. One great outstanding politician here, returned from America, returned from Russia not long ago, and he said the thing that angers me is this. There's no rioting amongst the students in Russia. And it's almost totally impossible in Russia to get a divorce. Well out here you can get it almost on any basis. Oh my, how far we've gone. And we've gone that way primarily in my judgment because the church lacks faith. I'll say something about this again tonight I guess. I've heard people say very often, I guess you have, I've heard people say well God has no favorites. Well I think he has. He bestows favors on those who obey him continually. That's the favoritism you get. You know and again in that little old hymn. And the favor he shows and the joy he bestows are for those who will trust and obey. Trust and obey, there's no other way. Now again because the parents of Moses did, as I've said, the three simple laws in this thing. First of all they reckoned on God, then they rested and they pushed that little craft into the bushes and then they rested. And hey Lord behold who came down there but the princess. What should she have done? By every law that her father had made she should have said drown the baby, it's a Hebrew child, or throw it to the crocodile to put a sword through it. But the Lord turned her heart. And she takes the child and nurses it, takes care of it, educates it. The child strange enough is accepted into the, it's ironical, makes you laugh. The king had said I'll destroy every child and now the child he loves the most is a Hebrew child. Isn't it amazing how God can give favor in adverse circumstances. He works everything after the power of his own will, after the counsel of his own will. He made that entry, no other entry could have been made but because they had simple faith. And then once the boy had gone I guess they relaxed and faith rested and said you just watch our Moses. You see Moses go down the street in a chariot today. Everybody bows and he, this is the son of Pharaoh's daughter. Yes but the task came to them too because as I say he had to go back onto the backside of the desert. Boy it's a great place. I'll tell you in case you don't know there's lots of room there. They're still waiting for some more students if you want to go. You could pack up and go somewhere down in Arizona or somewhere down here where it's warm. Maybe one person or maybe two together and say look let's go and find God's will. Let's get together for the next week or next two weeks or next forty days and drive off somewhere where we're not accessible and just take the word of God and get down and find his will for this circumstance that we're in right now. Because the word of God says that he that doeth the will of God he abideth forever. Now again it all comes back to whatsoever he saith unto you. Do it. So it's easy to do what the other fellow's doing isn't it? Oh if I had a church like that boy I'd never look back but look at mine then. And that fellow's breaking his heart only hasn't mentioned it as much as you have. Maybe he turned to learn to take it to the Lord in prayer and one day you'll discover how often his pillow is wet with tears or how many other type situations he had but he believes God. We may trust him fully all for us to do they that trust him holy find him holy truth. There's one word here as we finish that occurs more in this epistle I think than any other epistle in the any other part of the word of God. In verse 13 of 11 it says these all died in faith not having received the promises. And the promises are mentioned twice as many times in the epistle to the Hebrews as any other book in the New Testament. Promises, promises. I once preached for a week with Vance Hartner found him very interesting very witty fellow too. Now remember he said on one day we he said we come to church he said and we sing standing on the promises. He said we don't have many people standing on the promises that are all sitting on the premises. These promises. Say when did you last grasp in despair hold of a promise with two hands and hold it up to the devil in the world and say Lord I believe you I believe you I believe you you've made a promise. It's God's promise. Not Gabriel's. Not the head prophet. It's God's promise. Well then if I'm living in obedience surely I have a right to take that promise and take hold of it I say by God's hands and believe God. And find out he is a rewarder. No those who seek him. That is what the text says. Those who diligently seek him. The woman lost a piece of silver and she thought no no no she didn't seek for it. She sought diligently for it. But what did she do before she sought it? She put the candle there. No good scraping around in the darkness the dirt on the floor. She lit the candle. What's the candle? The word of God. Like the word of God. And then suddenly the thing becomes illuminated. In the darkness. You sought diligently and you seek until you find it. And then when you find it you're in rejoicing. Hey come on God has done the thing that I. I've been expecting to do for so long. She found the piece that was lost. My there's a lot of things we've got to find back in which we live. We've turned so many of our preaches out almost like turning a handle in our seminaries and our Bible schools and they're all stamped very much alike. And here and there a guy dares to be different and break off and say look I'm gonna fast and pray and seek God and I'm gonna get all of these promises. I believe that God is and he's a rewarder when I really mean business with him. Some of the best little books that are out these days are in the Moody series and there's one of them by a little book on a fellow called John Sung. Anybody ever read John Sung's life? Only one. Well you should read that. Cost you 49 cents to get electrified. John Sung's daddy was a missionary in China before the collapse of China. John Sung came to this country he could s-u-n-g it's pronounced soon I guess. And John came to this country with the idea that he was going to be a he's gonna be a scientist I think. And when he got to this country he was here three and one half years. In that three and a half years he learned English so he could speak it eloquently. He learned German and did a study in German for his PhD and his German professor said how many years have you known German? He said I didn't know a word of it six months ago I don't believe you. Well he said it's true. He learned English, he learned German, he got his BA, his MA and his PhD and learned two languages in three and a half years. Which isn't bad going. He was written up in Time magazine, Life magazine as the most brilliant foreign student that ever came to America. And just before he finished he met a fellow one day who said to him John you look like a preacher. Now I don't know how you have to look like a preacher maybe more dumb than anyone else but I don't know you know. Somebody says that's what DD means, decidedly dumb. But I don't know but anyhow you look more like a preacher than you look like a scientist. And he said well my daddy is a Methodist preacher in China. And I really came I was thinking maybe I'd go into the ministry. So this fellow said well look for your daddy's sake why don't you go to the theological seminary in New York and take your last six months there before you leave for China. At that time the president of that college was Sloane Coffin. Not a good name for a dead seminary but anyhow Sloane Coffin and the great high priest of modernism was Harry Fosby. And what that little Chinaman believed when he went in that college he did not believe and he'd been there three months. And one night he talked to himself and he said well Johnson what have you got coming to America anyhow? PhD? Oh you've got a bunch of diplomas you've got a bunch of golden keys you've got diplomas for all over the world but you don't have a bit of faith in God. You're a bigger heathen now than when you came. And he said suddenly just like that he knelt at the side of the bed and he didn't know why he should say it in one sentence and he said God be merciful to me a sinner I am a sinner. And as quick as that the burden loosened he got up and he opened the door and he ran through that seminary leaping and pacing dead like a man in the first chapter of Acts shouting hallelujah and the boys opened the door and stood in their pajamas and said the Chinaman's gone crazy he's gone mad. It was a gossip around the breakfast table in the morning the president sent for him. Do you know what they did those kind Christian gentlemen? They had him certified as insane and they sent him to the insane institution in White Plains New York. When he got there he did what I'd do he got out ran away. The cops sent a message around New York a man a Chinaman he's dangerous he's mad he's hiding somewhere. If I remember right they found him hiding in some bushes in Central Park and they took him back. And he said Lord I didn't come from China to be amongst these guys this fella says he's Julius Caesar and this fella says you're a liar he's not Julius Caesar he's Napoleon I'm Julius Caesar. And they were climbing up the walls and swinging on the lamps and he says Lord I didn't come I've got a PhD I'm a doctor I didn't come to America to spend my days in an institution like this. Now Lord what will you do? And he said the mob said well I'll get you out of here that's no problem but I'll tell you if you'll stay here and I forget the exact number I think it's 193 days if you'll stay in this institution amongst these madmen. So if you want to go to a good university I can get you in. If you go with these madmen for 193 days I'll reveal myself to you and I'll reveal. He said fine this will be it. In 193 days I don't know how he did it he read this book through or maybe it was a New Testament 40 times. He learned eight different ways to analyze a chapter without anybody instructing him. When he got ready for the end of the time he was praying and the Lord said John you're going to go back to China and you're going to live 15 years just 15 years. When they released him you know when Mr. Khrushchev came to this country they rolled the red carpet out and gave him an escort because he was only a communist. But this man is a sweet Christian and so they put a cop on either side of him and watched him every inch to the boat and then put him on the boat in either Frisco or L.A. and were very glad they got rid of the plague. And the government paid for the men to come back. As he got into China see the Lord said John what are you going to do? He said I'm going to do the will of God I'm going to preach. What are you depending on? I'm depending on the Holy Spirit. What about that bag of diplomas and that case of golden keys and all those diplomas and things? Sure you're not leaning? No no no he said I and then what he did he joined the Baptist. He baptized them all he put them in a bag and dropped them overboard. With the exception of his PhD which the Lord said you show your daddy that because he invested in you and he trusted you. But the golden keys and everything and he watched the bubbles go and he said that's the end of any confidence in the flag. He got home. When he got home his neighbor came in. Oh I see John is back from America. Oh he looks so nice in the way he's dressed. And you remember Mr. whatever his name was you promised that if I got a daughter and you had a son we'd get them married. This is a custom you've no choice in it so I'm bringing my daughter over to marry your son. Oh John could have said but I'm a Christian I need to pray two days to find the will of God. He just accepted it the Lord said it's all right. He married the girl he'd never seen. He led her to Christ and he said darling I'm gonna live 15 years. That's all. Well so you read stories you know about Andrew Gee and the rest of the boys there and you know what the fellows do out there once they get really going they buy European clothes and nice ties and immaculate dress. John Sing had baggy trousers a 50 cent shirt he tied on the corner a lock of hair that wouldn't stay back a little prodigal thing there he had trouble with. And he kissed his wife goodbye after a few weeks and he went way way up in the wilds of Mongolia. He went into areas where even Jonathan Goforth couldn't get revival. He went in areas where Andrew Gee could not get revival. And I was saying this one day in a meeting and the lady pardon me a big fat lady that had been playing the organ they were sitting there and the tears rolling down her face and she said oh thank you for talking about John Sing and I said did you read the book. I've never read the book I used to work with him in China. So I said how wonderful tell me this this book seems so exaggerated. She said you couldn't exaggerate his life. He was far holier than anything. She said you know he used to come to the home of a lady that I knew and you know it's true he lived 15 years and for about the last year of his life he was so wracked with tuberculosis. When he came home there'd be a baby born in the home and the kiddies wouldn't know him. Didn't know nobody he'd been away so long. And this woman said when he had finished preaching at night he would have to get on his knees and hold his stomach with one hand because he was so wracked with pain and he would just say come to Jesus now will you. And he'd get home get up and go home. And she said he'd lay across the bed and his body would be heaving like a dog that had been chased and his little cotton shirt sticking to the sweat on his back. Now I've never heard anybody quote this scripture outside of its true context. I guess you haven't. But she said every time I looked at his panting heaving body and I knew he was going every beat nearer to death for the 15 years he'd only a year to go. And she said every time I saw that thin waisted frame beating there I could only think of one text. This is my body which is broken for you. And she said he literally broke his health and strength for 15 years. I have heard people say now that they have come through Formosa and they've had news from China and where the Church of Jesus Christ is strongest it's stronger in those areas where John Fung taught it's stronger there than even where Watchman Lee was teaching and stronger even than where Goforth had revival. And all he did when he stepped off the boat when he'd thrown away all his confidence in the flesh he said the only thing I did was get hold of God's word and say God is. And he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. But I don't believe God put this book here to mock me. He put it there to challenge my faith. Not a faith I have in articles that I've signed to join the Church. An active living vital faith. And then we return to this when we cast off all confidence in the flesh in organization everything else that props us up these days. And say Lord look I'm going to start a new career spiritually I'm putting my finger on Hebrews 11 16 and then I'm going to the fourth chapter there in Romans and let me give you the reverse and quit. Romans 4 and what? Um 21 being fully persuaded that what he promised let's put it in the tenth being fully persuaded that what he has promised he is able to perform for me in the day in which I live. And I'll go out on a limb right here and say there are enough of us here to see a spiritual revolution formed in America if we really believe God to this degree. I talked tonight about stopping the powers of darkness. But friends I want to tell you this book is as valid as the very moment the ink was put down to write it. The resources behind it there's no weakness there's no decay there's no failure there's no unwillingness. All you and I have to do is get to the place of total bankruptcy I have no confidence in the flesh and say again and really mean it nothing in my hands I bring but simply to thy cross I cling. And accept all the finished work of Christ in myself and then by the Holy Spirit take the book the Spirit has written believe him and new things will happen in your life and mine in your church and mine in your nation and mine.