In this sermon, Peter and John are described as performing a miracle at the beautiful gate of the temple. Instead of seeking fame and fortune, they redirect the attention of the people to God, emphasizing that it is not their own power or holiness that has made the man walk, but the power of God. The speaker highlights the importance of faith in the resurrection of Jesus and the belief that God is able to fulfill his promises. The sermon also references the story of George Miller of Bristol, who demonstrated the power of trusting in God by starting orphanages based solely on faith.

And it seems kind of cruel when God says, without faith it is impossible to please him. Well, what does he expect? Why doesn't he do something? Then we'll believe him. That's the way the Jews dealt with God. And when Jesus was upon this earth, he made that statement too. He said, except ye see signs and wonders ye will not believe. God wants us to believe because of the Bible. The Bible is sufficient. All scripture is given that the man of God may be perfect. And here are the commands of the New Testament which make us eligible for the inheritance of the saints in light. He has made us made to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light. In one place he says, I commend you to God and to the word of his grace which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance. And this inheritance is eternal. It's undefiled and it fadeth not away. It's all the exceeding great and precious blessings that Jesus Christ has purchased for us. And God wants us to come with that faith, honoring God, knowing that what God has promised, he not only is able to perform, but he has already performed it. He has already purchased for us this great inheritance. It's there. It's for us to come and take it, no matter what things seem like. And I think we ought to really learn that lesson that without faith it's impossible to please him. For instance, when he says, in nothing be anxious. Well, we have somehow associated some religious significance to being anxious. That's the way I was raised in the Baptist church. I was taught that we ought to get into a dump when we make mistakes and when we don't fulfill. And that alone creates defeat. And we thought somehow that that was religious, to make religious grunts and make a long face. But without faith it is impossible to please God. That does not please God. We are commanded to come with boldness unto the throne of grace, because he is faithful, that promise. And unless we come like that, we don't have to expect anything from the Lord. It also sounds cruel to have God say, let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord. And that man, seemingly, to judge by, as you read between the lines, that he's been praying a lot. He's been praying with a wavering attitude, up one day and down the next day. Let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord. I was blessed the other day by reading in the diary of Mrs. Robinson how she came to God with a wavering attitude. She was seeking healing, and she had seen so many people that were healed. And she said that she was chattering like a crane, like Hezekiah said when he prayed for healing. And she was running from one meeting to another, and she was constantly saying, why, why, why am I not getting healed? Sometimes she was full of joy and full of confidence, and the next day she was down in the dumps again. And so one day, one man came to her, one of the brethren, and he said, Sister, you don't stay put. And he used that illustration, which we have often heard of Moses, when God showed him the rock and said, now you stand by that rock, and I will allow my glory to pass by. And he said, now what do you suppose Moses did when God gave him that promise? Well, he stood on the rock. What else? Well, nothing else. Don't you think he ran down the road once in a while to see whether the glory wasn't coming? Didn't he get anxious and wonder why God wasn't coming more swiftly? Maybe he had forgotten his promise. And she said it didn't need any explanation. That's exactly what she had been doing. She was fully persuaded that what God had promised, He was able also to perform. And she was persuaded from the Bible that it was God's supreme will to heal the sick, to heal her. She knew that. She had settled that with God, because by His stripes we are healed. And she understood, too, that God had Himself taken her infirmities and that Jesus Christ was the guarantee of all the promises of God. They were all yea and amen in Him. But she said when for a long time she was tested in her body, she became anxious. And that's the reason she didn't get any healing. And then when this man used this illustration, she said then she settled it with God. And she realized that she had to stand on the rock and not jump off every once in a while and run down the road and see whether the glory wasn't coming. She was sure it would come. And she said it did come in a marvelous way. And she, of course, received a great deal more than she expected, but not until she gave up her wavering attitude and gave up all her anxiety. And when the Bible says casting all your care upon Him, He means that we're not only to think that we're going to get something, but really to cast all our care upon Him. I learned a marvelous lesson about that when I was a young fellow and people were trying to push me into the ministry. And down in my soul, I had the call. I somehow knew that God was going to get me into the ministry, but I wasn't going to let people push me into it. And I wasn't going to make any effort myself. And then God gave me that word, commit thy way unto the Lord, trust also in Him and He shall bring it to pass. One thing that helped me greatly was the fact that I didn't want to get into the ministry. And so it was easy for me to commit my way unto the Lord. But it gave me great joy to know deep down in my heart that God was going to work this thing out. And it took years. And all these years, from time to time, God gave me encouragement in my soul, but it kept me happy. I wrote that verse on my board where I worked and I looked at it a thousand times. And every time I looked at it, I especially rejoiced over that one phrase, He shall bring it to pass. And more and more it looked impossible. I remember today, I can just close my eyes and see that verse, how many times I looked at it. And especially when it seemed as if the way was absolutely boarded up and there was no possibility of it ever being, ever coming to pass. But I knew down in my soul that I had committed this matter to the Lord and that He would bring it to pass. And He did. And when He did, He did it so perfectly. And He did it in His own way. If I had pushed, or if I had allowed people to push me, or if I had become anxious, things would not have happened. But that simple trust, that simple confidence, He shall. I like those shells of God. He says they shall recover. Why do I waver? That's what prolongs the agony and the faith. He shall have whatsoever He asks, the Bible says. Why is it that I don't receive? Why He was not able to perform many miracles because of their unbelief. And that is very strange. It was in His own father's city, where the people had invited Him to come and hold a campaign. They had heard about His campaign in Capernaum. And now they said, come to your own hometown and do the same miracles. And He couldn't. Not because the people didn't want to see miracles. They wanted it bad enough. But they wanted it their own way, not by the way of faith. They didn't want to glorify Jesus Christ. Why? They said, He is only the carpenter's son. They didn't have that confidence in Him. And so He was not able. And it's a strange thing. We shall not be able to please God except by faith. And faith is triumph over all symptoms and over all things that seem contrary, because God is triumphant. Because Jesus Christ has won the fight. And no teaching is more plain and made more real in the Bible, especially the New Testament, than this, that all the promises of God in Him are yea and in Him amen. What the law could not do because it was weak through the flesh. And that's where the devil often tempts us. We look at our flesh and we think, well, maybe I made a mistake here. Maybe I don't know how to believe. Maybe this and maybe that. Why, that's the wavering attitude. You have no business to be like that. My business is to look steadfastly at the Lord Jesus Christ who commands wind and waves, who has all power in heaven and in earth. And we rob Him of His power and we rob Him of His honor and His glory when we begin to waver in our attitude and when we begin to be anxious. I ought to fear anxiety as much as I fear any other sin or even more. That's the sin that does so easily beset us. And we don't realize how we have been saturated with unbelief. It's in the warp and woof of our being and we don't realize it until we have a real test. But then the Word of God comes to our aid. Jesus Christ is the author of faith and all that He has caused to be written in the Bible authorizes me to believe God for every promise, all the promises of God, the Bible says. All things are possible, they in that believe us. I ought to practice faith and when I come face to face with a test, no matter how severe it is, I ought to remember that God allows that test for that very purpose, that I might find the way of escape which is Jesus Christ. And as long as I try to find another way, and that's what we often do, I missed the mark. I do not glorify my God and God wants me to put my trust in Him. And that teaching is so plain in the Bible. I was reading this morning the teaching the Apostle Peter gives when he tells us how that we have been begotten again unto an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Why He is risen from the dead, that alone is very wonderful. But when I think that He's risen for me, that God raised Him for me in order to to be my savior and my healer and my redeemer and my all and in all, God had to raise Him from the dead. Christ had to suffer these things and He had to enter into His glory and now He must manifest the exceeding greatness of His power to us who believe. The Bible says that He must reign. That doesn't mean that He must be defeated. Jesus Christ will never tell us when we get to heaven. Well, you know, in that particular instant, in that particular trial He went through, I was defeated. I wasn't able. I wasn't up to it. He'll never say that. He is always up to it. And the Apostle Peter tells us that though now, if need be, we are in heaven is through manifold temptations. He says these temptations must be for what purpose? Not that we might be defeated, but that the trial of our faith might redound to the glory of God. Though it is tried like gold tried in the fire, but this is more precious than the gold that's tried in the fire. Gold that's tried in the fire may feel the heat, the intense heat, but it cannot be destroyed. It can only be purified. And so my faith cannot be defeated and cannot be destroyed. And if we believe not, yet He abideth faithful. He cannot deny Himself. I think we would do ourselves a very great favor if we studied about faith in the Bible. We would be surprised that faith is only faith when it is absolute and total faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, not in our ability to believe, not in our holiness or in our power or in our attitudes, but faith in a great fact. God has raised Him from the dead. We see that at the beautiful gate of the temple where the people came running together to see this miracle. And Peter and John were very foolish. They should have done like these evangelists too. They should have gone to the press and gotten out the magazine and have a picture of John and a picture of Peter on every page, and a picture of the great multitude that came around, or a picture of the man that was leaping for joy. Why, they could have hauled in the money by the barrelful. And instead of that, they turned the attention of the people away from themselves. Why look ye on us? All right, come on, get your Klieg lights around, get your television cameras now. Focus them on Peter's face. Now, Peter, be sure you smile. Make a very holy face, or rather very determined so people can see what a wonderful man of faith you are. Raise one hand and with the other lay it on the man's head, and then we'll take your picture. Why look ye on us, as though by our own power or holiness we had made this man to walk? Not our power, not our holiness, but the God of our Father hath raised up His Son, Jesus, whom He crucified and hanged on a tree. And this Jesus whom I crucified, to whom I brought such suffering and such sorrow, who was delivered for my offenses, who had to drink that bitter cup in order to save me from my sin, this Jesus hath God raised from the dead. Is He alive? Yes, He is alive. He is the way. Well, is He here? Yes, He is here. Is He the same yesterday, today, and forever? He certainly is. Does He want to manifest Himself today like He did when He was in the flesh? Yes, only much more so. That's what He says to Thomas when He says, reach hither your fingers and put them in my nail prints, and be not unbelieving. Be believing and not unbelieving, because you've seen me, you have believed. Blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed. And that is my privilege, to belong to those who are blessed of God, because having not seen, we have believed. The fact that we don't see doesn't make the fact of none effect. The fact that I don't see Jesus Christ doesn't mean that He is not here. It only means that He is now here as the life-giving Spirit. He said, I cannot do for you now, but when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He shall guide you into all truth. He shall teach you all things, and He shall answer all your prayers. I have sent to my Father and your Father, and verily I say unto you, whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, that will I do. There is no greater joy than to go through the trial with Jesus Christ in this faith. But it's a great tribulation when you go through wavering and wondering in your heart. God will take all that wonder out of you. Faith comes by hearkening to the Word of God. And that Word of God is absolute and absolutely sure. Forever thy Word is settled in heaven. And when I meditate upon this Word day and night, it is bound to create faith in my soul. In fact, that's where faith comes from. That's where the kingdom of God comes from. A sower went forth to sow. Unfortunately, the seed falls on hard soil many times. Or it falls into hearts that are overgrown with thorns and thistles. And what are the thorns? He says, the cares of this life. The thing that makes you anxious, those are thorns that choke the Word. I've got to get rid of them. One of the greatest victories God performed for me was to take those thorns and thistles out of my heart, because I was a great worrier when I came to God. I worried not only about my physical condition, but my spiritual condition. It caused me a lot of carefulness, a lot of anxiety. But oh, when God showed me Jesus Christ, I entered into rest. It is a wonderful, wonderful experience. And who is it that enters into rest? At that time, I asked a Pentecostal preacher, how do we enter into rest? And he or she, it was a woman, she said, I don't know. So I went to the Bible and I found the answer. We who have believed enter into rest. Believe what? Why believe what God has done? To them, the Bible says the gospel was preached as well as unto us, but it didn't profit the many, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it. What marvelous offers God made to Israel, but it didn't profit them. Look how they defeated God 10 times. They defeated him. And why? Because of the tests and the tests that God allowed them to go through were real tests. I think you and I would have failed also when finally they came to the border of the promised land. It was bad enough to hear those giants howling and hollering like thunder. My, that struck terror to their heart. But when the spies came back and made their hearts melt and told them, we cannot take this land. It's a land that devours its inhabitants. You cannot get in there. Why? Then they defeated God. Now that was a real test. And when Isaiah came to Hezekiah and told him, now thus says the Lord, you shall die. Why? That was reason for him to give up, but he never gave up. Somehow Hezekiah had experienced his God and he didn't give up. And God says that man ought always to pray and not to faint. That's where we fail. We faint. We pray for a while and God seems to stretch forth his hand and do something for us. And then when another test comes, then we fail again and we stop praying and we wonder and we jump off the rock and we run down the street and we wonder why the glory hasn't disappeared. It's an awful thing, but that's exactly what Israel did of old. And God finally said, all right, have it your way. He turned them over to their own counsel because they wouldn't have the counsel of God. But I tell you, the counsel of God is very direct and very strong and very real. And when Hezekiah prayed, that same God who had pronounced the sentence of death pronounced the sentence of life upon him. Wasn't it wonderful? And yet even that pronouncement was tested. He had to stand it for three days. He was still sick. God said, after three days you'll be healed. And then Hezekiah said, but now after you pronounce the sentence of death, I want a sign. And God gave him a sign. And you and I have a sign. And what is that sign? Why? It's the resurrection of the Son of God, the exceeding greatness of His power, which He wrought in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that world is to come and gave Him to be head over all things to the church. Thank God He is head. He is my head. I'm a member of His body. And why do I not believe Him more? Look how we have defeated God. Why is it that now the world is full of religious organizations? Because like Israel of old, we didn't want God to be our King. It costs something to recognize God as King and to let Him reign. It takes real faith and it takes real abandonment and it takes a real patience in the hour of trial and testing. And that's where we fail. We take an easier road and we go to the doctor and we go to the clinic and we go to the drugstore. One man called me up at two o'clock in the morning and said, my wife is so sick. Will you come and pray for her? He said, you know, it's too, it's so late. I can't get the doctor and the drugstore ain't open and nothing. So now the Pentecostal preacher was good enough and God healed that woman. And that's the way we are. But all to thank God and to honor God. Abraham gave glory to God. He was not weak, but he waxed strong through faith. The longer the trial lasted, the more the test tempted him and tested him. The more he looked at the promise that the stronger his faith became. And that's the mark of true faith. It grows strong in trial. Out of weakness were made strong. They waxed valiant in faith. And there is a purpose in our being tested and tempted and tried. It's to give us the real kind of faith. It's to test our faith and to make us have an inheritance among the saints. And we, we play with faith that we don't realize that without faith, it is impossible to be saved. It is by faith that we put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make not provision for the flesh. And that's the reason God allows us to be tested. It is not only that we should have the victory, but that Jesus Christ should have the victory. That's what the apostle Peter makes clear when he says, though now, if need be, ye are in heaviness through many fold temptation, we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom. That's how it will be that we shall receive a crown of righteousness. If we keep the faith, if we finish our course with joy, and then Peter goes on to say, if need be, you are in heaviness, what for? That the trial of your faith might be found out to praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. It will finally bring testimony to the world that Jesus Christ is abundantly able and that he is truly faithful. I like George Miller of Bristol, and I like his testimony. When he started out with his orphanages, he had nothing to go on but faith. And he made up his mind that he would never talk to men about his need. And he kept that promise to the end of his life. And he said, I'm going to bring an evidence to the whole world that it is perfectly safe to trust God. Now we have his diary, and it is wonderful, wonderfully interesting to find that every day he was tested, his faith was tested, and every day God proved himself. And every day his faith proved itself true. And God proved himself true. And what a wonderful testimony God gave. And I think that speaking reverently, this work is also an evidence of it. When we started out in this work, we started out with the same purpose, to trust God implicitly and absolutely for every penny. And really, I hate to talk about it, but Gordon spoke of it Saturday morning, and I was glad he did. He spoke of it in a way that I didn't think of. But he says, have you noticed how these magazines come around to your house, and on every page there's a picture of the evangelist, and then there are these subtle suggestions that you better send him the money or they'll have to go off the air. He said, Mr. Waldfogel has never done that. We talk in bread of life sometimes about his exploits and his travels, but there's never been any suggestion of wanting money. Not only that, but he, you never see his picture appear alone in any of these issues. And so on, Mr. Gardner spoke of it. And it is really true. If I were to tell today what God does in this work to supply our needs, you'd be greatly surprised. For instance, yesterday I was surprised. We had a large meeting, large meeting, lots of people there. When I opened my offering boxes, they were empty, both of them. But I said, here I need a hundred dollars for the broadcast in Luxembourg. And someone gave me an envelope, and it came from a man that never comes to meetings. And there were a hundred dollars in it. Now how does that happen? How do those things happen? How is it that God supplies our needs? When you consider the needs of this work, the needs of the faith home, the needs of the church, the needs of the camp, and all these needs of our traveling expenses, and we never say a word about money. If we do, it's by the command of God in order to create faith in the hearts of people. Now how is it that, well, we've had our arrangement between ourselves and God never to speak of our needs, and to trust God implicitly, and the way God has taken care of us has been exactly as phenomenal as the way He took care of the Israelites in the desert, proving that Jesus Christ is the same today. And that's what God wants to prove. And how is He going to prove it? God chose the Israelites so that the whole world might be filled with His glory. And when they failed Him at last, then God decided to destroy them as in a moment. And only by the intercession of Moses were they saved from such destruction. God said, all right, have it your way. Your carcasses will die in the wilderness just exactly the way you wanted it. And your children of whom you said they shall become a prey, I will bring them in. But by myself have I sworn, says God, that the whole earth shall be filled with my glory. Now God wanted to use Israel to fill the world with His glory, and He did. All the nations heard about the wonders that God wrought for Israel. But what would have happened if they had believed Him every moment, and in every trial? But God, I tell you, God is going to fill this earth with His glory. He will, no matter what you and I do. But we can't do it if we want to.