In this sermon, the speaker focuses on the importance of faith in pleasing God. He emphasizes that without faith, it is impossible to please God. The speaker also highlights the concept of worshiping God by gazing upon His attributes and redemptive work in Jesus Christ. The sermon mentions the example of Enoch, who cried out to the people about God's judgment, but was ignored. The speaker concludes by reminding the audience that faith is what enables individuals to achieve great things and overcome challenges.

Remember the old saying, if you don't trust and obey, you'll rust and decay. Okay. Hebrews chapter 11. Since we've got more fresh men than old men here tonight, let's just say one or two things. Recap as you smart people say, recapitulate, go over the thing. Hebrews 11 is obviously the faith chapter. In the epistle to the Hebrews, faith is mentioned 32 times, and it's mentioned more than 20 times in this one chapter alone. It's usually called the faith chapter. But if you look in that wonderful little book, very practical book of James, you'll discover that he too runs most of the chapter on faith. He mentions faith there about 15 times. Now, the theologians, and I'm not a theologian, have discussed and argued long ago about the first verse here in Hebrew 11. Now, faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Another addition is that faith is a conviction of the reality of the unseen, a conviction or an assurance of the things that are unseen. Now, this is a remarkable chapter. I call it the heroes of faith. It's being called the arena of faith, my definition is best. It's a catalog of faithful men and women. If I had written it, I would not have put the characters that are in. I wouldn't have put Moses there, he's a murderer. I wouldn't have put Noah there, he got drunk. I sure wouldn't have put Rahab there, she's a harlot. But, you know, it's dangerous to accept what preachers say. Don't accept what I say, though I'm always right, but apart from that, don't accept it till you check it up with the Word of God. It's God's Word. I don't care how big the man's head is, or how old he is, or what experience he has, what he says must tally again with the Word of God. I remember 60 years ago reading a book by one of the best of English preachers, F.B. Meyer. F.B. Meyer was preaching at the same time that Spurgeon was preaching. They were preaching in two Baptist churches in different parts of London. Further over on the east end, the rough end, William Boole was preaching hellfire every week. Cameron Liden, I believe, was preaching in St. Paul's Cathedral, Church of England, but he packed the place every Sunday afternoon with Bible teachings, and it holds 3,000 people. There were other great celebrities at that time, before I was born, but anyhow, it's very wonderful to think of what those men did and how their books are still abiding. But it was F.B. Meyer who called this chapter, Hebrews 11, the Westminster Abbey of the Old Testament. In Westminster Abbey, England, we bury our famous people. You can walk over them now. They're buried down the main island, the sides and everywhere. When I mentioned this one day, a lady came to me. She said, you know, I've been listening to the Beatles today. I said, why? She said, I think they should be buried in Westminster Abbey. I said, I do today. Of course, one or two of them are still hanging on. But, you know, it makes all the difference which way you look at this. As I said last time, you know, here is, this isn't a correct copy of it. You never guess what that is. It's the Empire State Building in its original condition, but anyhow. If you get up here and take photographs, which millions of people have done, you get marvelous views. You get views of, say, Staten Island. You can see the lady with the lamp. You can see up to Martha's Vineyard. You can see into New Jersey and all over the place. But one day a man said, millions of people have taken a picture that way. So he got on his back here, and he shot his camera this way, and he took a picture that way. It was the same thing, but it looks very different taken from top to bottom, from taken from bottom to top. It's the same thing with Hebrews 11. You know, everybody in this chapter, it doesn't matter how fantastic their faith was, they were all human beings. I say this to you because I say it to myself almost every day. I see all the achievements of these people, who by one thing, not brains, not riches, not royal standing, but by faith, what did they do? Subdue kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions. Women received their dead raised to life. Others were persecuted and tortured by tradition, which is a very uncertain thing. It's said that Isaiah was hung upside down and sewn down the middle with a wooden saw, which would be terribly painful. But they suffered unbelievable tortures and agonies and pains. And yet, you know, the amazing thing amongst others to me is this, that with all they did, and this really balls me over honestly before God. With all their achievements, subduing kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of, wrote marvelous epistles and prophecies, and yet not one of them ever had a Bible. Hey, you better calm down a bit on your Bible knowledge. I know you know almost everything in the first six weeks you've been here, but apart from that, there are other things to learn, believe me. But you know, the more you boast, the more God will hold you responsible at the end of the track. You know, there's a final checkout counter, call it the judgment seat if you like. Call it what an American cowboy called it, the last roundup. We're all going to meet there, no matter who you are. The Pope's going to be there, but the judgment of sinners he'll be, not the saints. But anyhow, there's going to be a judgment for everyone. We're going to finally end up there. And God has nothing to say. I like that hymn, Our Firmer Foundation, Ye Saints of the Lord. Do you remember? There's a clause in it that says, What more can he say than to you he has said? Now, if the world goes on another million years, God has nothing to say to mankind. He said it all here. There's not another word to add to it. It's no good saying, I wish I'd lived in the year 2080. What revelation there'll be? Forget it, there won't be. I don't think the world will be here anyhow. But by the same token, God has given us everything that we need to know in this amazing chapter, book I mean, for our faith and our confidence. What is the epistle to the Hebrews? It's a commentary, a commentary if you like, on the first five books of the Bible, on the five books of Psalms, because the book of Psalms is five in the Hebrew, five books, it's so divided. It's a commentary, commentary, I always forget which word to say there, commentary on the wilderness journeys of the children of Israel. That essentially, oh, you can say, well, of course, the tabernacle is unveiled there, and all the altars and sacrifices and priests and so forth, yes. But the supreme task of the Holy Spirit here in Hebrews is to show us the majesty of Jesus Christ. That very first chapter, let's look at it just a minute here, because I want to get further on. Just look at the first chapter for a moment there. Here's the thing, stick it in your mind forever and ever, there is not one word in the whole epistle to the Hebrews to unsave people. Oh, you say my daddy's a preacher, well, you tell him that, what I said. But my daddy has one of his best sermons on Hebrews chapter two, verse one, we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, we ought to the thing we have heard, lest we let them slip. Who's he talking to? You see, it doesn't start like the epistle to the Romans, Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, to the Thessalonians or the Romans, it has no address, it does. The address is in the third chapter, verse one. Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, now if you're born again, you're in that classification, this is addressed to you, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the apostle and high priest of our profession, Jesus Christ. Step back into the first chapter a minute. God who at sundry times and in divers manners spake unto the fathers by the prophets. I'm quoting now from King James version of the living bible, it's the best version still. God who at sundry times and in divers manners spake unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in what? In what? These last days, and that was written 2,000 years ago, where do you think we are today? How does the book of the revelation begin? It says about the things which will shortly come to pass, and they were written 2,000 years ago. You know, if God has a clock, he doesn't, but if he had, if God had a timepiece, put it like this, this is 12, and you've got a big hand in a little one, I think it's about one minute to midnight in the affairs of man. We're deteriorating so much. You see, these things are written for our learning upon whom the ends of the earth has come. Verse 2 of, in chapter 1 says, he hath in these last days spoken to us by his son whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the world. Verse 3 says that when he had by himself, that cuts out the virgin Mary, doesn't it? The modern church, Roman church, says that Mary is co-redemptrix with Jesus Christ. That's blasphemy. The scripture here says he had by himself purged our sins. You see, these people are having a real bad time, these Hebrews. They just stepped out of traditional religion, they were still good Jews, they were in a hostile country because they were in captivity, but they were having trouble. They were being converted in huge quantities, numbers we'll say, to the Christian faith. Somebody going down the street says, hey Isaac, I hear you, you join that folk that are worshipping up in that back street there, are you worshipping with the Christians? Yes. You poor soul. Why am I a poor soul? Well look, there's the high priest just going into the temple with his garments of glory and beauty as they're mentioned in the Bible. He has a breastplate with 12 precious stones. Each of those stones has the name of a tribe. He walked into the holy of holies with the breastplates on and made intercession for the 12 tribes. There he is going into the holy of holies. You don't have a high priest, oh well, just a minute, you don't even have a temple. You don't have a sacrifice. You're in bad shape. And the Christian's face lights up like these hot lamps here, and he says, what do you mean we have no temple? Do you have a temple? Yeah. Where? He says you're looking at it. What? Well isn't that what Paul says? Know ye not your body is the temple of the holy ghost? You're not a Christian because you believe in the virgin birth and the physical resurrection of Jesus. The devil believes that. Demons believe it, but they do more than most Christians, they tremble. And I don't know most of our folk, except out of time into eternity. But there is the temple. This is the temple of God. Where's your high priest? Where's your high priest? Oh, he died three months ago. We're installing a new one. Oh, he says, well, you know, my high priest never dies. You have to shed blood every day on the day of atonement. Jesus, my Lord, once at the end of the age, he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins. We don't have to build altars. We don't have to shed blood. Come on, let me ask you, when you prayed, I hope you all prayed today, I won't ask you. I should start right here and see how long you prayed, but I'd better not. You might go home tomorrow. But anyhow, say, when you knelt in prayer today, did you believe that the God who heard the prayer of Elijah on Mount Carmel heard your prayer? Did you believe that? Or is prayer just tossing words in the air and angels grab them and take them somewhere? Do I believe when I kneel and pray, that a man that was down in the belly of hell, he said, at the bottom of the Mediterranean, his name was Jonah in a fish, from the belly of hell I cried and the Lord heard me. Do I believe that same God hears me when I, and I feel I'm in the belly of hell sometimes, in circumstances, darkness, difficulties, bondage through certain things? Do I believe that same God hears me? People call me from many parts of America, sometimes all over the world. Would you put me on your prayer list? I say no. You won't? No. If I put everybody on my prayer list that calls or writes, I'd never go to bed, I'd never eat, I'd never sleep. I'd be praying from morning till night. Oh, I thought if I were on your prayer list, I'd say no, sorry. I'll tell you somebody who has a remarkable prayer list, who has a continuous ministry of intercession, who's that? Jesus Christ. I'd feel better if you prayed for me every day. Well, maybe you would, I don't know. But isn't it enough that you have him? I mean, what do you sing blessed assurance for if you've no confidence? There he is at the right hand of the Father, he made one, he is the altar, and he is the sacrifice, his is the blood, and he is the priest, it's all contained in him. That's why this epistle, you see, shows us that Jesus Christ is the center and the circumference, the first and the last, the beginning of the ending of the Christian faith. That's what the whole business is about here. If you get lost in this epistle, and not many people do, if I were a new young preacher, you didn't know what I'd do? Well, I'd learn to handle the word of God for sure. But I would make it my business become the master of one book in the New Testament, and that book would be the epistle to the Hebrews. I've been to conferences all over the world. Mr. Brown is coming, not Dale, but another Mr. Brown's coming, and he's going to speak on Romans. Oh, Jack Smith will be here Thursday, and he, he's going to speak on Ephesians. I've never heard anyone yet preach on the minor prophets, and I've never heard anyone yet take a whole series of meetings on Hebrews. It's a most astounding book. I think the devil wants to drive us off from it because it's so full of majesty and full of glory. Faith is the substance of things, or faith is a conviction of the reality of the unseen. Faith is a conviction of the reality of the unseen. Okay. There are three things that faith does. Faith reckons. You see, the key verse for the book, and I think for your life and mine too, is verse six. Without faith, it doesn't say without doctrine. It doesn't say without a ministry. It doesn't say without prosperity. It says without faith it is impossible to believe God. For he that cometh to God must believe that he is. That he is what? Well, let me suggest that between now and next Tuesday, because you may not come next Tuesday, but for this coming week that every day, morning and night, you read the 40th chapter of the book of Isaiah, or as Martin Luther called it, the gospel according to Isaiah, because you've a perfect portrait of Jesus in Isaiah 53. Read the 40th chapter that shows you the magic. You can't trust somebody you don't know. That's why our faith is so willy-nilly. The greatest tragedy of the church of Jesus Christ today is that we don't know God. You came to Bible school to learn the Word of God. Well, I hope you'll learn it. There's one thing greater than knowing the Word of God, that is to know the God of the Word. You can know the Word of God intellectually. You can study Hebrew and Greek and get to definitions and derivations of words, and they're certainly very profitable. But they're no substitute for a personal walk with God. He that cometh to God must believe that he is. He is what? He's everything that Isaiah 40 says he is. You know what Isaiah 40 says? It says you look up to the stars, and this God I worship knows the name of every star. Do you know how many stars there are? Forty sextillions. Do you know what a sextillion is? It's a one with 23 zeros behind it. That's in America. In England it's better. It's a one with 36 zeros behind it. So you put a one with 36 zeros behind it, multiply it by 40, and that's the number of stars. Of course, they may have missed one or two, but anyhow, that's what science says. But Isaiah says he counts them and he calls them all by name. Come on, don't look so forlorn. Are you all orphans? You look like it tonight. You've got a heavenly father. He knows you by name. He sits on the circle of the earth. Isaiah 57 inhabits eternity. Another scripture says that the earth is his footstool, a pretty big footstool, and the clouds are the dust of his feet. Do you know what this generation needs? It needs a new concept of the majesty of God, followed by a new concept of the holiness of God. Because when you see the holiness of God, you see the corruption of men. Who's the first character here in verse 4? By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain. Well, if he offered a sacrifice, he came to worship. I love to talk, think, pray, sing about worship. There's a lovely hymn, O worship the King all glorious above. I love that hymn. His robe is the light and his canopy is space. Isn't that majesty? His robe is light, space is his canopy, the earth is his footstool, the clouds are the dust of his feet. Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain. You see the prototype, God had already shed blood. He had shed blood to cover the nakedness of Adam and Eve. They tried to cover their nakedness with what? With leaves. What did leaves do? They crumbled up, they were left naked again. But God made a permanent covering for them by sacrificing blood, a beast, and taking those skins and making garments for them. Now this man follows in the same type, by which, by faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts. Now if you go back into Genesis and read that, you'll discover that he offered, what was he saying, the firstlings of the flock. So he offered a lamb. In Hebrew, it means either Greek, it means either a lamb or a goat. We believe as a prototype, it was a type of the Lord Jesus, that it was a lamb that was slain. Cain brought the labor of the earth, but the ground had been cursed. How can you offer to God that which is cursed? And therefore God rejected it. By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice. Let's go down here to what we had last week, partly. By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death, and he was found, and was not found, because God translated him. Before this translation, he had this testimony, that he pleased God. Now Abel is remembered for worship. Enoch is remembered in this list of the heroes of faith, not for an offering, not for worship, but for walking. But you can't walk with God until you worship him. What is worship? Speechless adoration. To say a thing that always stirs me when I say, one day I walked in Dr. Tozer's office, he said, Len, you see that rug? Yes. And he just said this, he said, well, he said, I lay on that rug often, from eight o'clock in the morning till twelve or even one o'clock, that's four or five hours, without saying one word of prayer or without saying a word of worship. I am just saying a word of prayer, without saying a word of prayer or a word of praise, I am just worshipped. God says, worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. How do you do it? Gazing upon his majesty, gazing on his attributes, gazing on his love one day, on his mercy another day, on his compassion another day, on his redemptive work in Jesus Christ. He said, I caught favor often, Jesus, Jesus, dearest Lord, forgive me if I say for very love thy sacred name a thousand times a day. Burn, burn within me, love of God, burn fiercely night and day, till all the dross of earthly love is burned and burned away. How beautiful, how beautiful. Do you ever get stunned when you pray the beauty? Do you rush straight in with the prayer list? Look, we need this and we need money at home, and they're building a new wing on the church, and I promised Joe Smith I'd pray for him, he's going to New Zealand. Do you stay and worship him, adore him? How beautiful, how beautiful the sight of thee must be. Thine endless wisdom, boundless power, and awful purity. Oh, Jesus, Jesus, dearest Lord, forgive me if I say for very love thy sacred name a thousand times a day. Thine endless wisdom, boundless power, thine awful purity. They're all stunning, you could spend hours meditating on them, at least I can. If you learn to worship God, you'll walk with God. We're told that Enoch walked with God, he walked with him, he didn't walk before him, he didn't walk after him, he walked with him. Isn't it Amos 3 that says, how can two walk together except they be agreed? Oh, this may sound facetious, it's not really. I would like to walk behind Enoch and God, and got a tape recording of what they were talking about, wouldn't you? I'm sure they didn't talk about sports. What did they talk about? Well, I'll tell you in a few minutes. Let's come to the next character here in Hebrews 11 tonight. Verse 7. Now let me step back into verse 6, the end of it. Let me quote it all, it'll do you good anyhow. Without faith it is impossible to please God. For he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. Remember the woman that lost a piece of silver and she sought for it? No she didn't, she sought diligently for it. She missed it out of that band of things she wore around her forehead, it was precious to her, and she'd lost it there. She'd had it since her wedding day, and she filters through the dirt, and at last she finds it, and runs away rejoicing, because she found the piece that was lost. Notice it was only one piece that was lost, not the whole bunch of things. There's only one sheep that was lost, it was only one man that was lost. One sheep, one coin, one prodigal. C.T. Studd said, I think he was right too, that God would have sent Jesus to die for sinners if there was only one sinner in the whole world. The old hymn says, we used to sing in England, never heard in America. Tell me the old old story that I may take it in that wonderful redemption, God's remedy for sin. Tell me the story always. You're valuable to God. Your church may have forgotten you were there, now you're at school. Somebody else may have, but God never forgets. We're precious to him, and he is a rewarder of those who seek him earnestly, those who diligently seek him. By faith, nor being warned of God of things as not seen as yet, moved with fear. The exact translation there is moved with godly fear. He's not moved with terror, he's not moved with threats, he's moved with the fear of love, the fear that is almost terrified of disappointing someone. Moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his soul. He's warned of God of things not seen. What were the things not seen? Go back to Genesis chapter 6 a minute. Genesis 6. He was warned of things not seen. What were the things not seen? They were the things not unveiled. What are they? Well look at verse 3. The Lord said, my spirit shall not always strive with man. Verse 7. The Lord said, I will destroy man whom I've created. Verse 13. And God said, unto Noah, the end of all flesh is come before me, for the earth is filled with violence through them. And behold, I will destroy them in all the earth. Now let's go back a minute, a bit further up into the fifth chapter. Chapter 5 and verse 22. Enoch walked with God. Now do you remember, can you carry over in your mind where it says in Jude, in Enoch, the seventh from Adam. What's interesting about that? Look at the last verse of chapter 4. Or verse 17, pardon me, it's not the last verse. Look at verse 16 in chapter 4. Cain went out from the presence of the Lord and dwelt in the land of Nod on the east of Eden. Cain knew his wife, she conceived and bear Enoch, and he built a city, and called the name of the city after the name of his son Enoch. But that's not the same Enoch. Enoch the seventh from Adam, which is quoted again in Jude, is a man who walked with God. So verse 22 of chapter 5 in Genesis says, Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah. You know, every Hebrew name has a meaning. And the meaning of Methuselah is, when he is dead it shall be sent. And immediately after he died the flood came. But Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah 300 years, and begat sons and daughters. And all the days of Enoch were 365. Now some of these fellows walked with God, lived 600, 700. Enoch walked what, 365 years. Methuselah lived 969. Well that'd be good going down the street and you meet the old fellow coming out and say, hey, is this your cousin? Cousin? My younger brother. He's quoting a girl. He's 145 years old. He's quoting a girl, 76. My mother doesn't like it, says she's too young. But anyhow, what amazing that all these old people toddling around, six, seven hundred years of age, nine hundred years of age. Now don't laugh in class tomorrow, you'll get me into trouble. But here's the clincher about this. Verse 22 of chapter 5. Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah 300 years, and he begat sons and daughters. Now hold on to that a minute. Verse 26, Methuselah lived after he begat Lamech 782 years, and he begat sons and daughters. Where did they all go? Well, where did they all go? Come on now, you've read it many times. Ever stop to ask where they went? Hundreds and hundreds of sons, daughters, father, sons and daughters and grandchildren. Now there's an interesting verse in chapter 6 here. It's all interesting for that matter. Do you have to go before midnight or what? Okay. Verse 3, the Lord said, my spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh, at his day shall be a hundred. And there were giants in the earth in those days. Giants in the earth. Turn over to, let me see, where is it? Numbers. You know where that is, now you're in Bible school, Numbers. Chapter 13, excuse me. Chapter 13 and verse 33. This is the search party that went out, you know, looking for the new country. And there were the good spies and the bad spies. Sounds like the good guys and the bad guys, doesn't it? But it's good spies and bad spies. Verse 33 of Numbers 13, and we saw their giants, the son of Anak, which come of the giants, and we were like grasshoppers. In other words, we're looking up at these awesome characters, these huge men here. Fallen angels, it seems, have cohabited with the women of the earth. Notice how often it mentions first, when you come down to looking at the pedigree of these folk, it mentions the daughters first. It does in chapter 6 here. It came to pass when men began to multiply on the face of the earth and daughters were born unto them. The sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were fair and took them wives of all they chose. The Lord said, my spirit shall not always strive with man. Now let's jump down the chapter because the clock's going too fast. What verse do I want here? Verse 13. God said unto Noah, now notice this is direct communication. A brother said to me today, he said, I had such an experience recently, God spoke to me about something. And he said, I ran out of one room in the house to the other, in and out, all the time, just saying, well, God has finally spoken to me and he's confirmed something in my mind, and now I feel so sure. You know what we say, people say, get a promise, you know, when the devil comes, throw it at him. I think that's pretty good. After all, when the devil came to Jesus, what did he do? Threw the book at him. Didn't he? It is written, it is written, it is written. You know, people say, you know what the devil said to me? I say, no, you're very fortunate. What? Very fortunate, the devil spoke to you? All I know, he ever spoke to three people, he spoke in the garden of Eden, he accused God before man, and then he spoke to God about Job, he accused Job before God, and then he spoke Jesus into the, in the 30 days of temptation. I don't find the apostle Paul ever said the devil spoke to him. So if he spoke to you, you, you get ready for something, you're going to be a superstar. No, you're going to go through the mill. Excuse me, I got it wrong. God said to Noah, the end of all flesh has come up before me, the earth is filled with violence, and through them, and through them and behold, I'm sorry, God said unto Noah, the end of all flesh has come before me, for the earth is filled with violence through them, and behold, I will destroy them with the earth. Now God has spoken to Enoch, just stepping back a moment here, you know, it doesn't say about his wife that God spoke to her, doesn't say about his children God spoke to them. You know, if you're going to walk with God, you're going to walk alone. You'll only have a crowd around you for so long. Enjoy the fellowship. What if you get stuck up the Amazon there, where there's no radio? You take a radio and the batteries go out the first week. You don't see a white face, maybe for months. Nothing nice to eat, everything's against you. Climate's rotten, people are terrible, the food's terrible, the atmosphere is terrible, you feel terrible. Then what do you do? What? Tune into XKG and get blessings, showers of blessings? No, no, no. If you don't learn to live on God here, you'll never make it out there. No possibility. God said to Noah, the end of all flesh has come before me, okay. Now, verse 14, make the anarcha go for wood. That doesn't matter too much what kind of wood it was. Thou shalt line it within, pitch within and pitch without. That's that black substance, you know, like you see that black tar we have. The same word is used for redemption, by the way, that is used for that pitch. It was lined within and without with faith. Do you remember what James says? Show me your faith. Well, Noah could show you his faith. Remember, he's a pioneer. All the people in the first book of Genesis there are pioneers, pioneers. It said in verse 15, and this is the fashion which thou shalt make of it, the length of the ark shall be 300 cubits. Now, if you say, which is usually accepted, a cubit is 25 inches long, it's 300 cubits. Then the ark was 625 feet long, that's pretty good. The beam or the center was 104 feet across. The height of it was 62 and a half feet. Do you know that until the, I was going to give you the date, I think I can, until the year 1880 from the time that this boat was made, remember it has no motor, it has no sails, it isn't made to sail. Well, you say it isn't made to sink. No, it isn't, it didn't. What's it made to do? Float. That's all it has to do, float. It's 650 feet long, it's 104 feet wide, 62 and a half feet high. Even until 1932, which is 50 years ago, only 1% of the ships in the world ever exceeded the size of Noah's ark. Isn't that something? You can find that in the records of ships. What about its capacity? Well, according to the scripture, if you read it, it has three stories high. Now, I'm no artist, I don't need to tell you, I've got a son who's a wonderful artist, but he didn't inherit it from me. We usually think of Noah's ark something like this, you know, and then there's a boat round it like this, there's the decks. What's that? That's a window. What's this? A door. Well, why isn't the window in the side? I'd often wondered, I didn't know, but you know, I've got two sons who are great preachers, that's my wife, they both preach better than I do, and I willingly concede that. My wife's nodding. And David is a great devotional preacher, great expositor. And he said one day, Daddy, you know, do you know why the window was in the ark, was up here on this, where for one thing it let more light in. Had it been here, Noah would have looked out and seen the millions of carcasses floating around, death, death, death, death, death everywhere. And God didn't want him viewing those corpses and death and judgment all the time. There's only one window. Why? Because there's only one light in the world, which is Jesus. Only one door. Why? Because there's only one door, by which if any man enter in. Now, if you go to a jungle, I remember going to a leper colony up away in the north part of Thailand. I was never more sick in my life. One of the most beautiful girls we had at Bethany Fellowship was there with her husband. She's a Swedish girl, blonde, gorgeous, blonde, blue eyes, and she was sitting in the midst of people who had half an arm and the blood and the pus were running out, one leg, cheeks eaten away with that horrible plague of leprosy. And there she was in the midst of that crowd. You know, if she hadn't been rooted and grounded in God, she wouldn't have stayed there a month. When we went through the jungle, you could smell the stench of that camp. They had little sanitation of any kind, little medication. And there she was, that beautiful girl, pouring her life out. She's at the headquarters of Worldwide Evangelization Crusade in Fort Washington right now, which is the other side of Philadelphia there. You need to get rooted and grounded. Remember this, as I said Sunday, God is not capricious. He doesn't play tricks. He isn't testing you to find what's in you. He's testing you to show you what's in you. He knows what's in you. He doesn't have to check up. Going to this Noah's Ark, twice this week I've talked with people about Noah's Ark. You know, a company of young Americans are going to try and rediscover Noah's Ark. You know, it's supposed to be resting up in Mount Ararat, north of India, somewhere. Yeah, the back of it is in Turkey. Say this is the mountain here. This is Noah's Ark here. It's sheathed in ice. Some men flying over said they saw some pieces of wood sticking out and so forth. So the idea is, you know what, they're going to bring a piece of wood from Noah's Ark to prove the Bible's true. Isn't that wonderful? I wonder what they'll do if they find electricity in it. Listen, don't let anybody fool you. The Bible isn't true because anybody proves it. It's true because God said it. Somebody's digging the other side of Texas right now and find some dinosaur bones. So what? We're hoping we'll find some human remains to prove what? To prove the Bible's true. Forget it. Do you know what Jesus said? They won't believe if one rose from the dead. If a man came from hell and said, I don't need to go to hell, I've been there. It's burning torment. There's no water to drink. There's nothing. It's burning hell. It's agony. It's full of demons. People are mourning and groaning. Do they sing in hell? Yes, they do. They sing a chorus. I discovered about 50 years ago when I was preaching on that. Preaching on the 8th or is it the 8th chapter? The end of the 8th chapter of Jeremiah. Do you know they sing in hell? The harvest is past. The summer is ended and we're not saved. No, nobody's going to believe just because we find some bits of wood and say it's Noah's Ark. Nobody's going to believe because dinosaur bones are there and it looks like human remains at the other side. Forget it. When I was a young man, which is many, many years ago, centuries it seems like sometimes, I get so tired. Do you know what they discovered? Look in a good encyclopedia that somewhere around at the end of the turn of the century, Brother Dale said he remembered this, not from last century, but from reading it. They found a whole bunch of dinosaur, not, no, forget the dinosaur bones. What's this thing with a little tail at the end? What are these? Mastodons, N mastodons. They were super elephants but they had long fur and they found the skeletons of them all going in one direction and in their tusks they still had hay that was preserved there. And the guys came up, there that shows the Bible's truth. They were all running away from the area where the flood had been. They're all up there in the hills, they're frozen in blocks of ice and they've still got the stuff in their mouths. So there we've got proof anyhow there was once a flood, forget it. I don't care what men say, I don't care if I was the last man on earth, I still believe there was a flood. Jesus says as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be in the day when the Son of Man cometh. Now, Noah is remembered for what? A number of things, what are they? Well, I'll tell you one thing he's remembered for, he built a knot. But that's not what he's remembered for in God's judgment, I'm sure of that. Well, Mr. Raymond, what's the other thing he's remembered for? He got drunk. He got drunk. Well, don't read it now, I want to interest you without reading it. When you go, you'll say home, but when you go back to your whatever it is, read Genesis 9 and verse 21 and it says that Noah had a vineyard. He planted a vineyard, he was a vine dresser. Maybe he looked after apple trees and other things, but essentially he was a vine dresser. But when he came out of the ark, what happened? He got some wine, he got some wine, and what happened? He got drunk. You've seen a sphere of the world like that, haven't you? And the axis of the world goes through that way, doesn't it? Doesn't it? On a sphere. What happened? Well, I believe that when the flood came, it tripped the earth, and it hasn't turned back yet. I think he'd often drunk wine. He did not drink it with the intention of getting drunk. He drank it for refreshment, but the Hebrew word there is yayin, which actually means fermentation, intoxication. That was the last thing in his mind. He'd drunk it many times before, it took no effect, but the tilting of the earth caused fermentation. Fermentation changed the whole structure of things, the whole structure of the world. And so there he is. He was innocent. No patterns before. God said build an ark. What? Let me go back to that seventh chapter, what was it, sixth chapter in Genesis again. We said the length of the ark was what? 625 feet long and 104 feet wide, 62 and a half feet high. The space in it, the tonnage capacity of it was equal, this is according to a scientist, the tonnage that that ship could carry with its three stories high in its vast space was equal to 600 freight cars. Can you imagine the load? That would be a train, let me see, that would be four miles long, a train four miles long, loaded to capacity, could all be stored in that one ark. And again it was not made to drive to a place, it was carried by the currents God made, it was made only for one thing, to float. The Lord had said again, my spirit shall not always strive with man, this is in this sixth chapter. God saw the weakness of men in the earth, chapter verse five. The weakness was great, and the earth, every imagination of the thoughts of his, man's heart was evil continually, every thought without interruption. If it's every thought, it's without interruption. Every thought, it was without mixture. Continually, it was without interruption. He lived and moved and had his being in filth, in corruption. Let me go into, uh, excuse me here. Noah was known for three reasons. Noah was known, he built an ark, he had no example, there had never been a boat before that. He did it all by faith. He had a conviction that what God had spoken was real, and he did it. Can you imagine people saying, I hear Noah's bought some more land. Do you know what he's doing? He's cutting trees down like mad. The biggest, finest, most seasoned trees we have, he's cutting them down, for what? He's going to build an ark. A what? They'd never seen a boat. What's going to happen? He says there'll be holes in the sky, and rain will come down, and holes in the ground, and rain will come up. He's a nice guy, I mean he's honest. He's never done a dirty trick in his life, but he's a lunatic. Well, maybe some of your relatives think you are too, so cheer up, you're in good company. They'd never seen rain. God had watered the earth with dew. They'd never seen a shower of rain, certainly never seen an umbrella. Never seen rain come down. What's he say? He says that, well, don't look there, he's built the thing. Why didn't he build it in the valleys, build it up here? He says water is going to cover the whole world, the whole known world. I think it's crazy. Can you imagine him staying there with all the ridicule, and scorn, and the jokes about him? Don't you think people went outside the ark, and clapped their hands, and said, come on you lunatic, we'll excuse you. You've been building this thing more than a hundred years. I mean, isn't it time to move? Get going. He doesn't care, why? Because faith has grounded him in God. God has said it. It's going to happen. Now look at the, oh let me come back to that. Go to the next, to the end of the Bible. Remember the book there, Jude? Do you know what Jude is? Jude is an epitome of the whole of the Old Testament. In fact, it may be said it's an epitome of the Old Testament. Jude verse 14, And Enoch also the seventh from Adam, there you have it, prophesied of these things, saying, Behold, oh let me go back, because you won't get it right if we don't, go back to verse 11, Warned to them, I suppose you know what went before, Warned to them, for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the heir of Baalim for reward. You see, you see the deterioration? They'll go the way of Cain, the way of unbelief, they go a bit further down into the sin of Baalim, and they finish, finish up in the gainsaying of Kore. These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear, clouds they are without water, carried about with winds, trees whose fruit withereth without fruit, twice dead plucked up by the rope, raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame, wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever. Now who comes on the scene? Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh. Now you've got it. What did he walk and talk with God with all that time? God lifted the veil of eternity and showed him into it. If he told him that the Lord would come, which he, let me read it, finish it here. The Lord cometh with ten thousand of his saints. Don't you think he told him about the first coming of Jesus as a babe? Do you think he started with the end of the chapter? How did they walk together? How long? I don't know, maybe 200 years. And God reveals, because you see, he'd learned to worship God. He must have worshipped God too. He not only worshipped, he walked. He not only walked, he talked. He not only talked, he listened. Now how much does God talk to you? You just rush in and say your prayers and that's it. My brother told me today, he revised his style in praying. He said, I used to get down and pour all my heart out. Everything I could pray for, I prayed. Then I picked up the Bible and read it. One of the greatest modern men, well modern, last century, but anyhow, that's fairly recent compared with what we're talking about. George Muller, the little man who lived not far from us in England. I wasn't there at the time. George Muller, a remarkable, remarkable man of faith, said that for years he would go and pour his heart out before God, and then when he finished, he would read his Bible. Then one day, God said, you've got it backwards way. Now George Muller, some of you are interested in orphans, eh? If you'd like to go to a country and raise an orphanage, that would be great. Do you know what happened with George Muller? Let me put it this way. My principal, dear Samuel Chadwick, said, I've heard young men praying, oh God give me faith like George Muller. But he said they were very careful not to adopt 2,000 orphans so they'd need it. He had 2,000 children. He never once took an offering, not even a plate at the door. Didn't send out newsletters. Didn't take offerings when he preached. I love my children. I'd take the shoes off my feet, take the shirt off my back for them. If I love them, isn't God's love a million times more intense for them than mine? Here is a man at the beginning of history that gets a revelation like John got on the Isle of Padmas. He has no Bible. He has God. I don't know who he talked with. Maybe he did talk with his children, I don't know. I've written a book, I've written a few. Read them. But I got one called, Sodom Had No Bible. Sodom didn't have a Bible. I should have, I didn't add, I should have added to it. Maybe I'll write another one. Tell you what Sodom did, I did add two of the greatest preachers in history. What did it have? It had this man called Enoch. Enoch also the 7th from Adam, reading from Jude 14. I've got to wind up now. The 7th from Adam prophesied saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with 10,000 of his saints. Why didn't he come that way the first time? Why didn't he come when there were three million people at the feast of Pentecost, five million people, when he was there at the feast of Tabernacles? Why did he come on the midnight sky in the chariot that Elijah went to heaven in? With 10,000 angels. Oh, the whole world would have fallen down. But that wasn't God's way. God's way was, he was to come into the world through the womb of a woman and live as a man. But here this man is given a preview of eternity. The Lord cometh with 10,000 of his saints to execute judgment upon all the ungodly, of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him. Every blasphemy. You might go down a street and hear a man say, For Christ's sake, do you know that's going to rise up to judgment? He better have been born at a cannibal feast than know the name of Jesus and reject him. He knows that somebody called Christ, it's going to be brought up before a billion people at the judgment seat where you and I will stand. Every idle word we've spoken, every blasphemy that's been uttered. He goes on in verse 16, These are murmurs, complainers walking after their own lusts, and their mouth speaketh great swelling words, having men's persons in admiration. You know what? You go back again to the sixth chapter of Genesis. We've got a 2 Peter chapter 2 verse 5. Let me read it to you, save time. Verse 4, If God spared not the angels which sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them in chains of darkness to be reserved unto the day of judgment, and spared not the old world, but saved Noah. You see, he had been informed that when men disobey, or angels disobey, God casts them down into hell. He's been warned that God's spirits will not always strive with man. The day of grace, the day of mercy is running out. That in the eyes of God, the whole world is full of corrupt people. He spared not the old world, but saved Noah, a person. Do you know why he failed? What were the three things about him? Number one, he built an ark. Number two, he got drunk. Number three, what does he remember for in the records of God? Building an ark? No. For what? He was a preacher of righteousness. Now you can preach anything you like today, you can preach about angels coming, preach about prosperity, you get lots of Christmas gifts, and more invitations to Thanksgiving dinner you could take, but people then and now will not stand for righteousness. Preaching holiness doesn't say preach prophecy, doesn't say preach prosperity, doesn't even say preach love. He preached righteousness, that God has made you to be the habitation of God. Supposing somebody comes to you tonight and says, does Christ live in you? What would you say? Oh, I got saved in a billy gram. No, I got saved on the rock. That's not the question. The question is, does Christ live in you? If not, you're not saved. You may know about him, you may be able to tell the story about his virgin birth, his physical resurrection, his second coming, and a host of wonderful information you've gathered. But you see, Christianity is the only religion in the world, and remember this, if you go to some hellhole up the Amazon or somewhere, or you're going to a hostile country, a Mohammedan country, Christianity is the only religion in the world where a man's God comes and lives inside of him. Christ in you, the hope of glory. Or as the end of Ephesians 2 says, habitation of God through the Spirit. Without faith, it is impossible to please God. Let me skip back to Jude a minute here before I wind this up. Here is Enoch. He's got no Bibles to sell. He's got no lectures to give on the second coming. But here is Enoch, way out on a limb at the beginning of time. The one authorized prophet at the moment, though Noah is going to prophesy after him. He says, the Lord is coming with 10,000 of his saints to execute. Now come on, are you going to tell me that this man who knows the doom of the world is just a few steps ahead? Are you going to tell me he went down the street with dry eyes? Are you going to tell me that Noah could sleep much after God said to him, you know, I'm going to, there's going to be a cutoff point. There's going to be no mercy. I'm going to flood the whole world, everybody that's in it. You know, when I read this and pondered over this afternoon, I wonder how many preachers really believe it. Could they stand up with dry eyes and talk the way they talk if they believe? And they must believe. Even science says we're running into a bottleneck. We're going to have the bloodiest, most horrible war ever. There's going to be an atom bomb that's going to scorch the earth. You know, it's awesome when you think there are more people living in New York City tonight than the whole world in the days of these men. Many of our cities have more people. For instance, you take Scotland, wonderful country of scholars, very wonderful preachers. There are more people living in, in, I could say Dallas, not Dallas, but anyhow, Los Angeles. In that one city than the whole country of Scotland or the whole country of Northern Southern Ireland. You know, numbers don't mean much to us. You know, you can see a preacher cast whoremongers and liars and thieves and rogues and all the rest, cast them into hell and they don't even shed a tear. You know, the scripture of Paul, he writes to Timothy, what is it? The second chapter, I think it is. 2 Timothy 3. Here it is, the last scripture tonight. 2 Timothy chapter 3 and verse 1. This know also, in the last days perilous times shall come. Men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, true speakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, high-minded, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God, having a form of Godness. Well, aren't we living there today? Come on. Whenever in the history of America has there been a scourge of what we got today, people brutalizing their own children. You can't put your children even in a private school, they may get molested sexually. Wife beating is a new hobby through the country. Perversion. Jesus says as it was in the days of Noah. What was it in the days of Noah? They were given up to homosexuality. But Noah was a preacher of righteousness. I don't understand the scripture that says Lot vexed his righteous soul every day. But when some rotten, corrupt men came to the door of his house, homosexuals, he was willing to give his children, his daughters to that bunch of rotten people. He must have been backslidden, and I'm not facetious here. He must have lost all his bearings. You know, if you want information about next year, don't bother with newspapers. Wesley said he used to read newspapers sometimes to find what God was doing in the earth. All the corruption that is outlined in the scriptures, but just before Jesus comes, as it was in the days of Noah, they were what? Drunk, they were married, and given in marriage until the very day that Noah entered into the ark. What did God do? He tested his faith. Imagine the folk outside, come on fellow, why don't you back down, I admit you had a nightmare. I mean, this thing isn't going to float away anyhow, they'd never seen a boat. You're stocking it with food for how long? Well, I don't know, he had enough food aboard, they say, for to last two years, I don't know how they know that. But there he is, laughing at a world that laughs at him, the only one with peace, and he obeys God all those years, and he goes up into the ark, and what happens? Well, God honors his faith, and immediately the heavens split, and the earth splits, water comes up, water, no forget it, what happens? He sits there for seven days before God ever does a thing. He let him do everything, he let him build the ark, he let him put some protection outside, in this black stuff, and black inside, he let him put a window up there, and a door here, but there's one thing he couldn't do, couldn't shut the door. God said, I'll shut the door. When mercy runs out, God shuts the door. God's spirit isn't going to strive, so why does the door need to be open? Like people say, God's going to take the church away, so what if he does? The only reason America isn't rotting tonight, it's not because we have a nice man in government again, it's the mercy of God. We've out sinned Sodom, we've out sinned Sodom and Gomorrah, so has England, so has my generation, we're trifling with the wrath of God. Well he hasn't done it, so he can't do it. He hasn't done it, but he will do it. His spirit, he only tolerates iniquity up to a certain point. Sometimes he cuts people off like that, cuts people off, he cuts nations off. Well here we are, this people had a man that walked up and down the streets prophesying, can you see him walking up and down the streets as I close? With his hand, God is coming. Who? You see the stars at night? Well my father, my God made them, and his son is coming with 10,000 of his sons sweeping through the skies in awesome majesty that will be blinding and terrifying. When's it going to happen? I mean have you got a calendar on this? No, I don't need it. All I know is God is sure in all he says, that's what he's going to do. Again I said, do you think he walked down the streets dry-eyed? I don't think so. Do you think not? I said, well listen, you've watched this so long, I want to tell you, do you want to come in the ark? Do you know what I think? I think all those sons and daughters I mentioned to you, that are mentioned in the chapter, Methuselah's children, I think they helped to build the ark. I mean, how did they build it? Those colossal beams, I'll tell you how they built it. Do you ever see that great big Russian that can lift, what is it, 500 and some pounds above his head, isn't it? I can hardly lift five. 500 and something he lifts. Those giants in that six chaps, I believe, were the ones that lifted those great big beams up, and they put them there in the ark, and they fixed them. I believe those giants did that. I believe hundreds of people there built the ark, and wouldn't go inside. They're like the men that build our churches, but never go in them. They're like the men that print our Bibles, but never read them. They're like the men that print our hymn books, but never sing out of them. There are men that know the name of Jesus, use it in blasphemy, and it's all going to be totalized one day. The world isn't getting away with it. The man that deserts a girl that has a baby or twins to him, he got away with it, and goes and sins and messes up somebody else's life, and he doesn't get caught. The girl's left with the reproach and the shame. He gets away, tells a sweet story to some other girl, and gets her into trouble, and makes hell of her life. But there's a payday someday. There are men tortured now. Some of you after you get saved, you're tortured with past memories. That's part of the work of the devil to to try and get you upset. But you know, it can be useful too. It can keep you humble when you realize how many mistakes you've made, and it's forgiven you, and wiped them out. And your whole record, hellish it may be, may be full of crime, adultery, sin, but in his mercy he forgives it. No, there's a payday coming. Every drop of blood. What did Cain do? He thought he got away with it. Did somebody split on him? Yes, who? Cain, your brother's blood is crying through the ground to God. I believe the blood of every martyr that's been slain since the beginning still cries to God for judgment. I believe all the blood shed in the recent wars, or other words, war. You see, blood is life. It's all going to be accounted for at the judgment day. We're living in awful days. Enoch cried his heart out, and called and told them what the Lord's going to do. They totally ignored it. God gave them a second chance. He gave them Noah. Did they listen to him? A preacher of righteousness. Forget it. We've heard some of that stuff before. What do you think we're going to do in America? We've got more Bible schools in America than all the nations of the earth put together. How do you think we're going to get by? We've got more radios in one day than all the world has in a week, or a year. We're always talking about how favored we are in America. Sure we are. When you think of it on the level of social standing, and food, and creature comforts, and lovely homes, and automobile, sure. But listen, for everything you have, you're a debtor to God. And we're a debtor to lost men and women. That's why our precious friends will be on the way to India a month from today. At least in middle age. They're not old, but they're young. They're middle age. Here a bit, there a there. And they could stay at home and relax. They've got a burning compassion for that vast country that has, what, 400 different religions, and 400 different vocabularies. I'm always going to stop. You notice that? But you know, people say, you say, uh, finally. I say, sure. So did Paul, but he went on and preached another chapter, and I'm not as good as Paul. And then he said, finally again, and he didn't finish. You can go down streets in New York, and between that street and that street, in a certain section where my son was living when he was studying out there with his wife. They lived in a section where Portuguese was spoken. No English, just Portuguese. Everybody in the tenement where they lived was Portuguese. Go down the street, the next area is Italian. Go in another section, and there they speak Greek. Go another section, it's all Hebrew. You know what I wish? I'd like to see the Holy Ghost hit New York, and men get saved and give up their careers and all their ideas of marriage and everything else, maybe for a while. You see, all the people already have the language. They could go into other countries now. I often wonder why, why the black people in this country don't go to the black people in Africa? Why don't the Chinese people? Big settlement of Chinese people in Los Angeles, they're saved. They have their little meetings. Why don't they go to China? Tonight, the press said that Los Angeles has the biggest Mexican crowd outside of Mexico. Well, why in God's name don't they rush back there while it's daytime and get the job done? Night is coming, judgment's coming. It's not going to be rain that comes next time, it's fire from heaven. So, come to the prayer meeting Friday night and pray. Father, we thank you for your word. We realize an awesome responsibility in knowing the way and not guiding others, in having light and not letting it shine. Pray for these precious young folk, you'll quicken their minds and their hearts and their consciences, but above all deepen their love. May they say as that hymn says, as thou hast died for me, so may my love to thee, pure, warm and changeless, be a living fire. Thank you for your presence with us in Jesus name. Amen. I ran over time, I'm sorry, it's the first night I've done it, but you'll listen so well.