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A Sure Thing
Walter Wilson

Walter Lewis Wilson (May 27, 1881 – May 17, 1969) was an American preacher, Bible teacher, author, and physician whose unique blend of medical practice and evangelism earned him the nickname “The Beloved Physician.” Born in Aurora, Indiana, to Lewis and Emma Wilson, he moved with his family to Kansas City, Missouri, as a young child. Raised in a Christian home, Wilson strayed from faith in his youth until a pivotal moment in 1896 at a tent meeting in Carthage, Missouri. There, a preacher’s pointed question—“What are you trusting to take you to heaven?”—pierced his heart, leading him to fully surrender to Christ at age 15. Wilson graduated from Kansas City Medical College in 1904 and began a successful medical career, but his spiritual calling grew stronger. In 1904, he married Marion Baker, his lifelong partner of 58 years until her death in 1962, and together they raised eight children—five daughters and three sons. His ministry ignited in 1913 when J.C. Penney, a patient and department store magnate, invited him to teach a men’s Bible class in Kansas City, launching a decades-long preaching career. Wilson founded Central Bible Hall (later Calvary Bible Church) and served as president of Kansas City Bible Institute (now Calvary University) from 1933 to 1951, shaping countless students with his practical, Christ-centered teaching.
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Sermon Summary
In this sermon, the speaker discusses a book called "Yes, It's Then Forever" by Henry Bicker Stepp, which is an allegory about the author's death and his encounter with Jesus. The speaker expresses their emotional response to the book, particularly the idea of seeing Jesus and his wounded hands and feet. They then mention seven reasons why Jesus said, "Surely, I come quickly," and encourage the audience to associate these reasons to help remember them. The speaker also shares a personal story about delivering a baby and relates it to the importance of relying on God's presence and expecting miracles in our lives. They conclude by discussing the significance of tears and how they are a common experience for everyone.
Sermon Transcription
Like the everything I know, I learned out of books and from listening to men preach, reading his precious words, and so I brought along 50 books written by a man named C.J. Baker. It's called Life and Death, and the only thing I know of in print is a strange yard on what happens at death, that hell and the grave are not the same place. There are three great denominations teaching that they are the same place, and that arises, that causes a lot of false doctrines and false hopes. But you ought to know, beloved, that death and hell and the grave are not the same thing at all, and that little book is only 50 cents. I brought 50 of them along because I find that people read novels more than they'll read the doctrinal books. But there are 50 of them over at the bookstore, and if you want to know how to answer those who come to your door and tell you that death ends all, and that hell and the grave are the same thing, you get that book and you'll be able to talk to these friends and perhaps win them for if you do. Now, after listening to Dr. Allen, there's a question in the Bible that says, what shall we say to these things? These dear men that are preaching to us are wonderful. Remember that these men that God reveals his word to are gifts to the church. Paul tells us so. Thank God for the men that stir our hearts and stir our minds, as these dear men are doing. I thank God for them. I want to talk with you today about some of God's sure things. Everybody's looking for a sure thing. Those on the stock market found some sure things recently. I won't ask you to raise your hand how many of you had some of it, but God has some sure things in the word, and the first one is in Judges chapter 6, the assurance for boldness. Judges 6, and reading at verse 16, well verse 15, the angel of the Lord said to Gideon, and then Gideon said to the Lord. It's a conversation between the Lord and Gideon. Let's see, let's read at verse 14 to get the connection. The Lord looked upon him on Gideon and said, Go in this thy might, and thou shalt save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Have not I sent thee? And he said unto him, O my Lord, wherewith shall I save Israel? Behold, my family is poor in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house. And the Lord said unto him, Surely, I like that word, surely I will be with thee, and I shall smite the Midianites as one man. This is a wonderful story, and do you notice what it is that gave him the might and enabled the Lord to say, surely? You find it back in verse 13. Gideon said unto him, unto the Lord, O my Lord, and I know this, beloved, because this applies to each one of us in this audience. If the Lord be with us, and we claim that, don't we? We claim the Lord is with us, we have trusted him, he has saved us, he's taken up his dwelling place. By the way, all three persons of the Trinity take up their dwelling places in this. Do not remember the Lord Jesus said, My Father will love him, and I will love him, and we will come unto him, and we will make our abode with him. That's the Father and the Son, in addition to the Holy Spirit. If the Lord be with us, now notice, why then is all this before us, and where be all his miracles which our fathers told us of, saying, Did not the Lord bring us up out of Egypt? If the Lord be with us, why don't we see something happen? Where are his miracles? If the Lord is with me, with us, he said. What the Lord said was, The Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of valor. But he answered, If the Lord be with us, where are his miracles? There are churches that claim that they are the center of God's blessing in the city. Well, do you see any miracles happening? And we individually, and we claim the Lord is with us, do we see any miracles, any unusual things happen in our lives that are real miracles? If the Lord be with us, where then are his miracles? Now, notice the two things. If the Lord be with us, see, he linked himself with the rest of God's people. Beloved, you can't run a peanut stand by yourself, and sometimes we get kind of huffy, and we decide we're going to leave the outfit, and we'll start some joint ourselves somewhere. Beloved, you can't do it. The Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of valor. But he said, If the Lord be with us, that's the first thing. Where are his miracles? That's the second thing. And the angel said, Go in this thy might. What is his might? His love for being with God's dear saints, and linking himself up with God's gracious people, and expecting God to do things that are miracles in his life. Those are the two things. No wonders. Surely, look at that verse. Surely, I will be with thee. That's the first shoe of things. You know, if I was going to go around the world in a model key, well, that'd be all right. If Mr. Ford was there, I wouldn't mind. When I performed my first operation in the operating room, of course, I was glad the woman was asleep, because I was kind of shaking a little bit. And dear Dr. Frick leaned over, over the body, and said, Go on, cut her open. If you cut the wrong thing, I'll sew it up for you. So I went ahead and did the job, because he was there. When I was lost on the backside of Mount Wilson one time, I saw the guide coming through the bush. Right away, I felt at home. I was just lost, I've learned before. But he was there. Now, let me ask you, precious souls, does his presence, is his presence a sure thing with us? We face sorrows, and troubles, and griefs, and disappointments, and frustrations. Does he say to us, Surely, I will be with thee. In one place where his presence is salvation. He doesn't tell us he'll keep us out of trouble. He says, I'll be with him in trouble. That's all right. That's the reason our brother Alan was telling us about Paul singing in jail. He was in jail in Christ. The Lord was there with him. No wonder he could sing. I saw a girl one time bound down to four boards. Two arms bound down to two boards, and her two limbs bound to two other boards with cotton ropes. Because she had what we call in medicine arthritis deformans, the kind of arthritis that draws you all up into a knot. And her father, the mother was dead, and they were living on a farm, and the father did the farm work and took care of her. He had bound her arms and her limbs to these boards so they wouldn't grow up out of shape. She couldn't do a thing, absolutely helpless. And I went out to take some cheer to her, but I was mistaken. She gave it to me. That precious girl was as radiant as a sunbeam. I've seen that in sick room good many times. Not as many times as I wish I had, but I've seen it. Absolutely helpless. Like a woman that came in and asked me to tell her if she had a cancer. And I put her on that operating table and examined her, and I said, you have, sister, and you're only going to live about 12 or 14 weeks. And she looked up to the tears of joy streaming down her cheeks, said, thank you, Lord Jesus. You're the great physician. You let me have it. I thank you for it. I thought I was going to have to live to be an old woman before I came to see you, and now I'm going to see you in just a few weeks. Oh, I love you for that. I love you for that. And she sat there, the tears of joy streaming down her cheeks, because she's going to see the Savior so soon. Surely I will be with thee. There's another lovely one in Psalm 23 at verse 6. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. Surely all the days, the dark days and the bright days, the days of smiles and the days of tears, the days that are cloudy and the days that are sunshine, the days of victory and the days of defeat. Every kind of a day, said David, only surely goodness and mercy shall follow me, pursue after me, chase after me, hunt me up. Surely. And when he was in the cave, you remember he sang Psalm 63. What a wonderful psalm it is. He sang it while he was in there with the owls and the bats and the dripping water and the stones. He said, my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips when I remember thee upon my bed. And the bed he had was sticks and stones and sand and mud in that dark cave with the owls and the bats. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days, every kind of a day, the day of that terrible headache and the day of that terrible disease and the day of that terrible calamity in the home. All the days, surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. That's because David believed God. There's a strange expression in 2 Peter, first verse I believe it is, where we read about those who have like precious faith with us in the righteous acts of God. That's the way your Revised Version reads it. Like precious faith with us in the righteous acts of God. That's the way David was. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days while Saul was chasing him, while he was in danger of his life, when he was trampling through the woods with the thorns and the thistles and the briars and the brambles, eating wild berries and catching what he could with the wild animals, clothes torn, no place to rest. Only goodness and mercy, surely goodness and mercy. Beloved, that's the path of peace when we believe in the righteous acts of God. So when the automobile is wrecked, which actually that's all paid for, you can sing hallelujah, it is done. That's right. And have you noticed that every time David got in trouble, and I'm not talking to you out of my hat, because I've been through some troubles myself, lots of them. When David was having trouble, he always ended up the psalm with singing. Have you noticed that? He wrote the third psalm when he was being chased by Absalom, and he was ascending the Mount of Olives barefooted. Now, I've been up the Mount of Olives, and I want to tell you it's hard to go up on your shoes, let alone barefooted. And weeping as he went, but he sang that third psalm. He said, I laid me down in peace. And the fourth psalm is connected with it in the Hebrew Bible, third and fourth are together. I laid me down and slept, and I've been in sick rooms where they had a sick headache and couldn't sleep, or something's gone wrong with the children that couldn't sleep, or something went wrong with the business and they couldn't sleep. David said, I laid me down and slept. I wept, for the Lord sustained me. You see, beloved, he believed God. He believed in the righteous acts of God. Never once did he complain that he had the anointing oil of a king on his head, therefore he ought to have the kingdom. He said in that 63rd psalm, I seek thee. He didn't say anything about seeking his army. He had an army of 1,500,000 men that was never once whipped. But he didn't say, I'll seek my army. He didn't say, I'll seek my money, my fortune. It's been estimated he was worth four billion dollars when he died. That's more than Dr. Allen, Dr. Culbertson, and myself put together, Scott. Four billion dollars. But we don't believe that he, I'll seek my fortune. He didn't say, I'll seek my crown. In fact, he didn't say he was going to seek anything for himself at all. Early, well, I seek thee. Only, or surely, goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. Do you remember at the end of the book of Revelation, where he says, surely, surely I come quickly? And it isn't a word of time, that word quickly. It's a word of manner. Suddenly. It doesn't mean he's coming soon in that verse. That isn't the word that's used. It's the word that means the manner of his coming, like a flash of lightning, like the flip of the eyelids. Suddenly, instantly, that's what he's talking about. And you know, beloved, we can test our spirituality by seeing what that does to us when we read it. Does it stir the heart? Say, oh, that's wonderful. I'm going to see the Savior. I'm going to be with Him. I had a patient, 97 years old, a dear Godly old buddy. And I went to see her one day, not long before she died. She had her hands up. And when I came in the room, she said, Doctor, why doesn't Jesus come to get me? I want to see Him. He knows I want to see Him. Why doesn't He come and get me? And I listened to her heart. I said, Grandmother, He's coming. I expect tonight. And beloved, I wish you could have seen her face. I tell you, it was like an angel. Oh, how that face lit up with joy. You mean I might see Him tonight? I said, yes, Grandmother. And she did. She went that night. She went that night to see Him. I'd like to have been there when she married. What do you suppose she said to Him and He said to her, did you ever try to figure out what it's going to be like to see the Lord Jesus personally? Did you ever try to figure that out? And what do you say to Him? And what do you say to you? There's a little book written by Edward Henry Bickerstaff, Bishop of Exeter in England, called Yesterday, Today, and Forever. It's out of print. I don't suppose you could find one, because I scoured the United States and got every copy I could find of it. Such a wonderful book. I got, I had Leary's in Philadelphia advertised for it, and I got, I think, six or eight copies to give to my friends. And in there he tells, it's an allegory, he tells of his own death and how he felt when his guardian angel took him to see Jesus. I tell you, I couldn't keep my tears back. It's wonderful to be transported in your mind and fancy to what it's going to be when you see Jesus Christ, and see those wounded hands and feet inside. Surely I come quickly. There are seven reasons why he said it. I'll not bother you with them now, but you can look them up yourself. Seven reasons why he said that. Surely I come quickly. He isn't going to send an angel. He's going to come himself somehow, and you shall see his face. And then in Isaiah 45, verse 24, you know the memory is something you forget with, so I have some notes. Isaiah 45, and verse 24, surely, shall one say, in the Lord have I righteousness and strength. The assurance, the surely assurance of salvation. I want you to think about that. If we are, whenever we think we're saved by being good, or by good works, we always have doubts in our mind because we know ourselves so well, don't we? Does anybody here would like to get up and tell us about your life? Just start in. How good have you been? Nobody knows as well as we do the faults, the failures, the sins, the iniquities. You know, we read a wonderful verse in Isaiah 53, all our iniquities were laid on him. God has laid on him all our iniquities. Now, iniquities are the things in the heart that may never come out. Wicked things, wrong things in the heart, in the mind. You wish you could do it, but you don't do it because it's wrong, and you know it's wrong, so you don't do it, but you wish you could do it. I heard of a fellow who walked up to a policeman, an Irish fellow, and he said, Mike, if I hit you in the nose, what would you do to me? He said, I'd take you down to jail. Well, he said, what would you do if I just wanted to? He said, I couldn't bring it to you unless I said I want to. You see, the want to was iniquity. If he'd hit him, that'd been a sin. Sins are the iniquities that we do put into practice. You stop and think a minute that God laid on the Lord Jesus all our iniquities, evil thoughts and evil desires. Can you imagine, beloved, the weight that Savior bore at Calvary carrying our iniquities? You don't need to say what they are. Everybody has them, all kinds of them. And here, surely, shall one say, in the Lord have I righteousness. I like that. Have you noticed in Romans 5 that six times he speaks of righteousness as a free gift? I don't know why they put the word free in there, for a gift is always free. But to emphasize it, we'll know that the righteousness that takes us into heaven makes us acceptable to God is absolutely a free gift. Six times he tells us so in that chapter. It has to be a righteousness that suits God, a righteousness that pleases God. There's an expression we read, in the sight of God. It occurs, I think, five times. In the sight of God. Not what we see in each other. It's strange how we see things. I looked at a wee little baby. I buried a little baby one time, six months old, died of pneumonia, only been sick two days, and it was the sweetest little doll lying there. And strange enough, I had crazy thoughts. I get the craziest ideas sometimes. At funerals and weddings, I see the funniest things. I have to fight it all the time. Well, anyway, as I looked at that sweet little baby, I looked at it through the mother's eyes, because we had eight of them at our house, and it was a beautiful little thing. The mother was standing there, it was her first baby, and she was weeping over it. And I thought to myself, as I looked at that baby, if the melon spoon people could see that, they'd want that baby for an advertisement. Then I thought, if the calendar people could see it, they'd want it put on a calendar. Then I thought, if a man whose specialty was anatomy saw it, he'd want to dissect that baby. All kinds of crazy thoughts about that sweet little baby that I was looking at. And then I thought, in connection with the Lord Jesus, some of us look at him one way, and some look at him another way. There are many ways of looking at the Savior. In fact, there are 226 ways of looking at the Savior, and each one tells you something different about that lovely person. And as you look at him, and you remember, he is our righteousness. I wonder if you've noticed in Jeremiah 23, his name is Jehovah Sidkenu, the Lord our righteousness. That's his name in Jeremiah 23. But in Jeremiah 33, we read, verse 16, this is the name whereby she shall be called Jehovah Sidkenu, the Lord our righteousness. It's his name in the 23rd chapter. It's her name in the 33rd chapter. Because, you see, when we marry him, we get his name, don't we? When you marry, you're married with him. You took your husband's name, and when we trusted Christ Jesus, that's being married to him. He's got Romans 7, 4. We're married to him. We take his name, the Lord our righteousness. This is the name whereby she shall be called, because he is our righteousness. That shows, beloved, that when you trust him, you have the uniform, shall I say, the dress, the robe, the garment, it's absolutely spotless and stainless. That sure thing is there. Verse 24, Surely shall one say in the Lord have I righteousness and strength. And that's a sure thing. And when the devil comes along and says, yeah, but look at you. You did this, and you did this, and you thought this, and you thought that, you say, that's right, I did, I'm sorry, but he is my righteousness. We're going into the presence of our Lord wearing a robe of righteousness that came from him. Do you know, beloved, that you are the only animal born into the world without clothes? I brought babies into the world for 35 years, I never brought on even a cellophane wrapper on them. But everything else that's born into the world brings us clothes with it. Feathers, fur, hair, wool, something. Everything that comes into the world except us. And I think the reason for that is that God is teaching us from the very day of our birth that we have to go into glory with a robe that somebody else made for us. I always wear second-hand clothes myself. You see, a sheep wore this before I got it, and a cow wore these before I got them. We have to have garments from outside ourselves, and this precious robe of righteousness has to come from somewhere else. We can't make it, but aren't you glad he makes it? And it's free, and it fits. That's the reason the prodigal son got the best robe. Bring forth the best robe. And I won't tell you the seven reasons why it's the best robe, but it is. It's wonderful. And it's a robe that God accepts, and it's the only robe you take with you when you go. One of the sorrows I've had in my life has been going into the home after the funeral and seeing the clothes he used to wear, the shoes the baby used to wear, the clothes that they once wore and never wear again. That's the heartbreak. But our lovely Lord made a robe, and surely, this is the next, surely in the Lord have I righteousness. Now, look in Isaiah 53 at verse 4. I like that. Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, and haven't you noticed that everybody has tears? Everybody. President Coolidge in the White House stood at the casket of his 16-year-old boy who died of streptococcus infection. He had bought him a pair of new shoes, and the heel rubbed a blister. The shoe rubbed a blister on his heel, and he got streptococcus infection and died very quickly. That's a deadly thing. And dear Coolidge stood at that coffin and said, "'Tears invade the White House.' You've had them. Tears are phosphate of soda, sodium chloride, mucus, and water. That's tears." Now, come to see the baby crying, we don't say, look at this phosphate of soda running down her face. We're not interested in the chemical composition. We're interested in what made them. Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, and we go to him and pour out our hearts to him. And somehow, someway, he becomes to us the God of all comfort. You can't understand it, but you can enjoy it. Someone has said that he should be the God thou art, and thou shouldst love me as thou dost, and be the God thou art. It is darkness to my intellect, but sunshine to my heart. That's how it is, beloved, with comfort. And we ought to comfort one another. And remember, your worst enemy is going to have some bitter tears someday, and will need you. It's a wonderful thing, beloved, to live in such a way with your neighbors and your friends that when they get in trouble, they want you there. That's a wonderful thing. And so with our lovely Lord, he bore our griefs and carried our sorrows. Now, griefs are things that happen, and then they disappear, but sorrows are things that come and stay. The one is transient, and the other is permanent, and he has both of those. Now, there's such a thing as living on tears. You know, God has a strange restraint in the Bible. In one place, he said that Ephraim feedeth on tears. In another place, Ephraim feedeth on ashes. In another place, Ephraim feedeth on wormwood and gall. In another one, Ephraim feedeth on the east wind, hot air. And some people do. They live off their tears all their life. Do you know what the closing of a meeting, one time a woman came to me, she was weeping. She said, Dr. Wilson, will you pray for me? And I said, I will if I know what to pray about. I said, I see you've had a sorrow. Have you lost someone? Yes, your husband died. I'm sorry. I'd be glad to look to the Lord to comfort your heart. Was it yesterday? No, she said it was 21 years ago. That is some husband. The Lord doesn't want us to feed on tears. He wants us to drink the living water, the Holy Spirit the living water, the Lord Jesus the living bread. And we want a bread and water diet. Live on the blessed, blessed Lord himself. He's the man of sorrows, and he bore our griefs and our sorrows. I wonder if we make use of him in all his wonderful offices. I mentioned he has 226 offices, the Lord Jesus does for you and for me, things he wants to do for us. And we don't make use of him in very many of them. But in this one, bearing our griefs and sorrows, we all have them. Sometimes it's financial, sometimes it's physical, sometimes it's in the family, sometimes in the neighborhood, sometimes in the church. I wonder if we make use of him. Surely he bore our sins, bore our griefs, surely he bore our griefs and carried our sorrows. And then in Ezekiel 33.16, I want you to notice that one. Ezekiel 33.16. That's easy to remember, isn't it? By the way, in memory, try to associate things together. It will help you to remember. It's a lovely study. None of his sins that he had committed shall be mentioned unto him. Isn't that wonderful? None of his sins that he's committed shall be mentioned unto him. He hath done that which is lawful and right, he shall surely live. I like that. Now, when I brought babies into the world, sometimes they didn't look like they were living. I remember one baby I brought, a lovely little Swedish girl, pretty little thing, and lying there in the bed, and I had a new nurse. She'd never been on a job before, and she looked at that, and she turned as white as a sheep, and she said, Doctor, the baby's dead. Oh, I said, I'm sorry. Pick it up and see if it's dead. Hit it. Well, I said, Doctor, it hasn't any place to hit it. So, I picked it up by the heels, and so I said, You can hear it all over the place. You know, some of God's people are like that. The Lord wants us to be living lives more abundant. Don't you like that word? Lives more abundant. I was in the home of a pastor up in Iowa one time, and breakfast was in an alcove, sort of a bay window, and outside there was a calf running up and down in the pasture. Just having a great time. A kite, it'd tail up like a kite string. And just having a wonderful time. And I said to Bob, well, I said, What's the matter with the calf? He said, Nothing, it's life more abundant. I thought, Wouldn't it be wonderful to see a lot of God's dear people like that? Life more abundant. That's what he says here. Surely, you shall live the life, Paul calls it the life of his life indeed. Well, there's a way to have it. He's telling us in that passage, a life that's exuberant. So no matter when you meet the person, wherever you meet the person, the joy of the Lord is there. We're glad they're alive in Christ, glad to have a Bible, glad to have a Savior, glad to know the Holy Spirit, glad to be with God's dear people, glad they're not mad at anybody. What a joy. Let us pray. We look to thee, blessed Holy Spirit, to make thy word effective in all of our hearts. Keep us from being dry Christians. Keep us, our Lord, from just barely gasping for breath. Enable us, we pray, to lay hold of the life, of his life indeed, and know these sure things that will make us victorious Christians for the glory of Jesus' name. Amen.
A Sure Thing
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Walter Lewis Wilson (May 27, 1881 – May 17, 1969) was an American preacher, Bible teacher, author, and physician whose unique blend of medical practice and evangelism earned him the nickname “The Beloved Physician.” Born in Aurora, Indiana, to Lewis and Emma Wilson, he moved with his family to Kansas City, Missouri, as a young child. Raised in a Christian home, Wilson strayed from faith in his youth until a pivotal moment in 1896 at a tent meeting in Carthage, Missouri. There, a preacher’s pointed question—“What are you trusting to take you to heaven?”—pierced his heart, leading him to fully surrender to Christ at age 15. Wilson graduated from Kansas City Medical College in 1904 and began a successful medical career, but his spiritual calling grew stronger. In 1904, he married Marion Baker, his lifelong partner of 58 years until her death in 1962, and together they raised eight children—five daughters and three sons. His ministry ignited in 1913 when J.C. Penney, a patient and department store magnate, invited him to teach a men’s Bible class in Kansas City, launching a decades-long preaching career. Wilson founded Central Bible Hall (later Calvary Bible Church) and served as president of Kansas City Bible Institute (now Calvary University) from 1933 to 1951, shaping countless students with his practical, Christ-centered teaching.