In this sermon, the preacher reflects on the fragility of life and the blessings we often take for granted. He mentions an Englishman arriving in America on the 4th of July and the significance of the tide's depth being known through scientific knowledge. The preacher also references Job and his scientific inquiries, highlighting the reward of seeing God's face. The sermon concludes with a thought-provoking question about how much we could lose without losing our faith in God, emphasizing the importance of gratitude and appreciation for the blessings we have.

You enjoyed that good English hymn. I was thinking as our brother sang it that one of the rewards amongst the many rewards of the righteous the book of the revelation says and they shall see his faith and that reminded me of a little old cemetery up in New England where there's a great big oversized stone carving of Mr. Barnum, the man who was the head of Barnum and Bailey's circus. Great big massive thing and everybody goes in the cemetery to see it, photograph it and not far away there's another little statue of a man, Tiny Tim, not the famous man that you youngsters worship, the old one, the original little little squat little fellow just 20 some inches high and people go and photograph there. On the back of the cemetery there's no monument, no carving, just a piece of flat stone in the ground and if you know the area you might find it after a bit of effort and you need to brush the dirt off it and maybe brush the mass off it and it just has a single name on it. It doesn't say one of the greatest hymn writers in history, it just says Fanny Crosby. Nobody photographs it, nobody stands around telling stories, they cut it up and somebody said to Fanny one day, she was blind I guess you know that and somebody said to her one day well don't you find this a very serious handicap? She said oh no oh no this is no handicap being blind and well it has no advantage, oh yes it does. Well what's the advantage? Oh her face lit up and she said why I've got a very unique advantage over almost every Christian that ever lived because the first face that I ever see will be his face. My that's wonderful isn't it? Some faces you wish you'd never seen but to see his face what an amazing reward that's going to be. I want to pass a message on to you this morning because I think I need it as much as anybody. So if you want to go to sleep that's all right, don't snore but sleep. Hmm and the text is in the book that we don't talk too much from I guess in the the book of Judges the 18th chapter verse 24 and he said you've taken away my gods and my priest which I made and what have I left? If you want to reduce this to the irreducible minimum it's this uh just a question for you to settle this morning maybe you've already settled it. How much could you lose without losing your faith in God? In about another half hour Mr. Nixon is going to give the nation an injection of hope. He's trying to encourage us, he's trying to tell us the financial situation isn't too bad and I'm sure you're all, I wondered why you're looking happier this morning. I guess it's because the stock exchange went up 19 degrees. That may be why my friend Conrad is smiling here, his shares are secure now and it's amazing what a bit of cash will do or a drop or a rise in the stock exchange makes the whole nation happy and miserable nearly. I find this a very fascinating story. It begins in the previous chapter and it's a story of a woman, a widow who lived on the hills of Ephraim and she had one son by the name of Micah. He was not the prophet Micah, not related to him and it so happened that there came a preacher down the street, he didn't have a slate full and the lady said to him would you like to be a pastor of a church and he said I sure would and tired of running around, sleeping in motels and all these other luxuries and things and I'd like to settle down. So she said well you come and pastor our church. We've only got two members, it doesn't say they always agreed but they had two members in the church and they already had a pastor and so they had two members and they had two pastors. The man agreed for a certain sum of money and so many changes of arraignment and free food and everything seemed to be just right. They screened off the corner of the house, they had a terrapin, they had an ephod and they had almost everything required for worship. But this woman somehow, women are mysterious and this woman had managed somehow to to gather together a fortune of money thousands of pieces of silver. There were no banks in those days and she hid some maybe at the end of the rafter and maybe dug a hole in the floor like Aitken did to hide his treasure and she had all this money nicely sequestered away until one of those bad days came that we all get you have to pay a bill. And when she needed the money she discovered that this little cash of money had gone and that she hid over there was missing and this over here had passed off somewhere and so she remembered the old hymn. What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer. Or the Lord is a very present help in time of trouble. Don't need him too much when everything's going well but when you get a spot of trouble you you really pray that day if you haven't prayed for the six before it. You get down and tell the Lord how much you love him and you're about the most devoted follower he has within 10 miles of your area and so he's really got time to pray for you because you're so good and virtuous and holy and righteous. And so she began to pray and not only did she pray but she did what most of us do gave God advice. I think God gets a lot of advice in prayer more advice than in faith. And she told the Lord that he should really take a hand with a thief. Didn't matter whether he killed him or what in the world he did but do punish him for what he's done for me. And while she was praying there was a knock on the door and her own son stood there. Maybe he got scared the way she didn't usually pray so fervently but she really meant business this time and he was in trouble. And he said mother the money which was stolen behold here it is. And she said the Lord bless thee my son not for stealing the money but for bringing it back. And then she took it down the street and she gave it to a silversmith and he he made an image. Made a beautiful image out of the silver and so now they had a molten image and they had a graven image. They had a cone of the house screened off they had an ephod they had a seraphim two gods two priests two people in the congregation and our two images. And now everything looked to be all right when suddenly there was an invasion. The children of Dan who were a type of the children of the devil came on the scene. When they got to the home of this man amongst other things they plundered the home. You see at that time Israel had no king. And this is as modern as today's newspaper it says everybody did that which was right in their own eyes. That that's really the day we're living in. Day of emancipation. Do as you like to hell with the ten commandments or anything else. We're at all and we're going to do what we want. You know sometimes you think the anger and wrath and convictions of these students were real. They look as real as plastic flowers until they get up and smell the things or try to handle them and discover there's nothing there at all. The kids are against pollution because you see you can't swim naked in dirty rivers. They're not against moral pollution they live like beasts lots of them. They're not concerned about spiritual pollution. They say they don't want to fight. No they don't want to fight I'm not justifying war it's hellish anyhow but they don't want to fight the Viet Cong they just want to fight on their own campus. They don't want to kill other fellows they just want to kill the principal of the school. They don't believe in burning buildings down unless of course they're on the campus. That argument is not a sincere argument really. They just want their own way. They're rebelling against everything that has to do with conformity what they again call the establishment and then there's nothing new under the sun they did that in these days they rebelled against authority. Everybody did that which was right in their own eyes. Why bless you that's come right down to church never mind anywhere else. You try disciplining a church. You know when you joined the church a hundred years ago when you joined the church they gave you a bible in one hand and a book of discipline in the other. Now if you did that today the guy would look at the bible and say you know they got that wholesale it's only worth about 395 and then they'd look at the book of discipline and hit the pastor on the head with it. Who do you think you're running around? Oh if they go to the doctor you know doubled up and say well now doctor doctor you tell me the worst. I mean three people in our family died of cancer and I've had this pain all night and I'm sure it's cancer and he says no it's not cancer it's cabbage and so they come out quite relieved and and but the doctor says you should do this and do that and don't do this and don't do the other and don't eat this and don't drink between meals and all the other things and they say could you write it down. I don't want to forget it because you know that could lengthen my life another 24 hours and oh boy I don't want to go to heaven it's a terrible place. We've just got a house with wall-to-wall carpeting and we're gonna have a swimming pool and I mean what could heaven be after that and I want to live in this dirty world as long as I can so so write it down doctor and I I swear oh I swear with my hand to heaven and the other on my heart that I'll follow every step of discipline that you gave me. Even if you tell me not to drink cokes or things that I like I I just do what you say because I want this all mortal body this bag of dust to hold together as much as long as ever it will. I'm hoping to be topping around on a stick you know and drawing social security for at least 20 years what's good of paying it for 20 if you don't draw it for 20 anyhow and I'm hoping to stay around as long as ever I can. Now if the doctor disciplines oh we follow him implicitly but if the pastor tries it boy we say don't you know there's another church around the corner I can go to and they don't discipline you anyhow. Oh my spirituality doesn't matter too much I mean that's not much the shape of my nose and my hairstyle and you know dear brother Conrad said the other day you can't turn one hair black or white but that was before Clareau and uh but we do look after this mortal body don't we we're really concerned about it and when the children of Dan came in they plundered the nation they came in the home and saw those costly very very precious images and they stole them and they stole the ephod and they stole the tarithim and would you believe it or not they even stole the pastor I guess you wish that somebody'd steal yours but they they they even stole the pastor and up they ran with him and somebody ran after Micah in the field and said hey Micah they've taken away your God and your priest and he ran after the children of Dan and he said you've taken away my God and my priest and where have I left well this is really bad exposition but let's leave the story there and make the rest of it application how much could you lose without squealing huh I mean you've got so many things this morning you don't even value them you haven't even thanked God for them for for months and months and months have you a few years ago in the first Methodist church in Baltimore Maryland the young preacher there preached they said the greatest sermon he had ever preached on and it was on Romans 8 28 he was a handsome man everything had fallen the lines had fallen in pleasant places he had been well educated he had a fine church he had money he had a nice boat a lovely home a fine wife wonderful children they said that morning the glory of God came down and he that walked in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks walked in the midst and going out people couldn't even thank him the tears were still there and they gulped and nodded and that's all they could do they were so grateful for the presence of God except one little old lady standing there till the congregation went I don't know how she was raised but she looked as though she'd been raised in vinegar or pickled in it she was about as wrinkled as a prune and sour and she looked round to see everybody had gone and suddenly she lunged at the preacher and hung on to his lapels and she said sure anybody could preach Romans 8 28 if they if they live like you you get a month's vacation you've traveled much of the world you've had education you've money you've everything laid down who couldn't be happy look at me I'm not too sure he wanted to but he did and she began to tell a tale of war all the things that and you my husband died and left me with children to raise and we've had problems and sickness and and everything else has come on top of me I have had 10 people's troubles and he said do you think if if if the walls fell out and the roof fell in you could preach that sermon again as you preached it today and he said I don't I don't know he said I admit I've never had many storms in life everything's gone very well this church has been more than good to me and and I and I really have pleasant sailing well she vented a little more of a spleen on him and then off she went the next Sunday morning when the pastor came into the church and they took him up the tall steps that go to the pulpit he had to be led there by one of the deacons during the week he was cleaning his gum and it went off one moment he was reading his books his classics and reading his bible his Hebrew and his Greek the next day was totally blind and he stood up that Sunday morning and he said I'm very happy to be here this morning been the greatest week of my life you know what happened on Tuesday my my world suddenly changed and then I'm not I'm not going to see anymore and I can't even see if that little old lady's here this morning that that jumped on me after last Sunday morning service and said supposing the walls go out and the roof falls in do you think your faith will hold up then I like the selection of hymns this good brother has and this morning we sang I hope you did I've anchored my soul you've got to anchor it somewhere and she'd anchored he'd anchored his soul within the veil and he said I want to tell you something Jesus has never been more real to me more intimately nigh than during this week some of the things I've been doing weren't too important enough I just have to live with him and I have to dwell in him and I oh I'm realizing it could have been much more serious than it is even though I've lost my sight and I want to tell that little old lady this morning my faith stands up to the pressure supposing that came your way after all we live in strange days I'm not very fond of flying but it's far more dangerous to drive the roads if these kids really are concerned about life and tidying up the country why don't they picket Milwaukee because they kill more people in one year than being killed in 10 years on the battlefield but we don't picket the brewers if they're really concerned about pollution why don't they uh and I might join them go around the White House and demand that we put an end to importing drugs because it could be done I'm convinced of that because I went to a study in New York with David Wilkerson a few years ago when they showed how the drugs came in and they showed and gave the names of the families that control the drugs coming in why don't they rebel against that why don't they picket dirty films underground films all the filthy things that are really destroying the nation now they only want it easy for themselves they're not sincere I uh some may be but mostly they're not but you see you've got some things this morning and you wouldn't sell them for a million dollars there's nobody really poor here this morning when did you last thank god for your eyesight I said uh two or three years ago that soon you'll be able to pick up the New York Times or Chicago Trib or whatever you have around here and uh there'll be a list you know like you have a list of both list of automobiles uh miscellaneous household things for sale and you'll have a a calendar of spare parts I mean your spare parts you know some fella will say I'm broke I I want to sell my right kidney for $25,000 and some lady will say well I uh I could manage with one eye and so I've got my eye for sale my left eye it's blue and I'm gonna sell it for $50,000 you say that's stupid it's your imagination that's what I thought not that it was stupid but that it was my imagination until I saw recently a scientist said soon in the newspaper we will be advertising spare parts of our bodies in order to raise money now supposing I get you an offer of just a modest hundred thousand dollars for one eye any of you like to raise your hand I'll take your name and address and I'll get you on the list and don't say you haven't any money you could sell an eye for a hundred thousand in fact you could sell two of them for a quarter of a million why not try it I mean you haven't thanked God for them for years have you really when last did you kneel down and say well Lord I thank you that I can see the sunshine every time I drive through here I said to my wife this morning isn't it beautiful you see we lived for two years in a ghetto in New York down in Brooklyn just one stop from hell and when you live there and uh hear shooting at night and all the other things that go with it it's really something to come in the country and then of course you can read the word of God and then you you think of the other wonderful thing you can see tv with them I mean if you'd no eyes wouldn't that be awful and you've just got a colored tv oh boy how bad can things get but it's really a long while since you thought that something like a quarter of a million people in America go feeling around the side of the road and tap with a stick because they want somebody to help them across the street you haven't been too grateful for your eyes your sight have you I remember in a church I pastored a girl was looking through the window watching two boys fighting and one of them picked up a little rock in his anger and he threw it but he held on a second too long and instead of hitting the boy that he hated it came up through the window and just like blowing out a candle put that girl's eyes out you went down the road in Ohio not too long ago and the preacher friend said you see that that ramp there a drunken man came up that ramp a while ago it's the exit ramp but he took the wrong ramp and and he went head on into a family a christian family of a man and his wife and three children and eliminated the five of them with just one crack of his car he'd done it before he'd had a fear in fact he'd had two very serious accidents but you see he was only drunk he wasn't really too dangerous and somebody may come over the white line just just an inch or two I mean I know you're the best driver in the world it's the other guy coming up that isn't good though he says the same about you of course and he's a little reckless you know your boy going down the street down the road there with his arm around the girl and he he can drive sure he can drive but he wants to kiss the girl and drive at the same time which is a bit dangerous and it's a hazard driving oh you could have a crippled body in uh 50 seconds that's all it takes when did you last thank god for hell when did you last really really really adore him and thank him that you can see the beauty of the earth and the beauty of the skies and you can read the word of god and you can have fellowship or not but if we lost our sight what would uh really happen yeah they're going to uh sell spare parts in fact they say that the next major effort of medical science is that not only can we have heart transplants they're going to start transplanting brains a lot of is needed I know that but I think it's a bit risky don't you to uh to let somebody empty your head and put somebody else's mind in there isn't that something but you have your senses this morning I know maybe your husband doesn't think you much but you've got some anyhow and maybe again and again you tell him in a crisis moment you're so stupid I don't think there's anybody else around here as stupid as you are and maybe uh you have an iq that's not too high well you thank god for your sight did you what about your senses you're intelligent enough to get around we're intelligent enough to read to understand to communicate more and more and more we're getting distressed in the nation about this plague of mental health I know there's 50 different reasons for it hmm and I can remember not too many years ago when people who went even temporarily insane were put in straight jackets they don't do this anymore now they give them an injection and put them to sleep and they've no power to fight I think of one of the maybe the greatest evangelist that Ireland ever had was WP Nicholson and he was asked to visit a man who had some mental trouble in an institution in Omagh right in the center of that northern Ireland in the county of Tyrone as he went through the gates and was walking down the pathway there was a man three stories up and trying to get his head between the window and the and the bar that was there and he was hollering hi hi hi and Nicholson is a real rough Irishman now he says you're the fool not me you're not catching me up but the man so insisted he went back he said I what do you want he said I want to ask you just one question did you kneel down when you got up this morning did you kneel down and thank god for your sanity before he could answer he said you see mister somehow my mind goes wrong and uh and uh I have bad spells and I beat my head against the wall and I I pull my hair and I tear my flesh and and they put me in a jacket they tie me up you see while it's possible to put men on the moon and do a lot of things we're beaten when it comes to some things we ought to have mastered I don't think the moon project was anything but a stunt of Russia to bankrupt America and she's done it because we're billions of dollars in debt and I don't feel any better because a guy can stand on the moon nobody else does why we can't even cure a common cold and there's something strangely mysterious about human personality that we'll never define we call people who are mentally deranged lunatics why because that lunar system the moon up there has a control over them if you wanted to come into New York harbour from England in a boat say like the Queen Mary Queen Elizabeth which of course don't come anymore all the other ships in the world could come into the harbour without any uh problem but not the Queen they drew too much water the danger is if they came in at low tide they might rip the top out of the Lincoln Tunnel or the Holland Tunnel and then everybody would be Baptist they drown a whole bunch of people going through so they wouldn't let them come in without a tide and if you asked to come in a man would just turn up a book of reference and say when do you want to go and you say well I want to get there on the 4th of July a very bad day for an Englishman to arrive in America but anyhow uh you get in on the 4th of July and he says sure you can get in the tide will be 43 feet uh three and a half inches deep and he's telling you about 1972 well how does he know the depth of the tide he knows it because of the uh ability of scientists to tell us just how deep the water will be Job talks about the sweet influences of Pleiades a constellation in the sky which controls the frost when there's a certain movement there there's a certain condition of weather on the earth oh Job was nobody's fool he has a lot of scientific questions not that the is a book of science but you can't fault it scientifically either because it's the wisdom of God so here is a man he's deranged mentally he has no control over it it's just like pressing a switch and suddenly he's deranged now you haven't had that problem I trust and I hope you won't have it but I remember being in a meeting where a lady came to me after preaching a message of this type and she said Mr. Ravenhill I happen to be a person who in an accident lost my eyesight for two years and then miraculously God restored my sight and I want to tell you every morning when I open my eyes the first thing I do is say thank you Lord for sight I met someone else in another stage who had been in an accident and it upset their balance of power and they'd been in a mental institution for more than three years and then miraculously the balance came back and this woman said I wake up every morning and the first thing I do is thank God for my sanity you and I don't do it we accept them it's our status quo they're my prerogatives they're my rights I've never been without them so how in the world do I know how to value them my sight my senses they're mine but I could lose them in a moment I could lose them in the twinkling of an eye you see there are some things that are mine there are other things that are not mine oh I live in an area now where people grab the newspaper or watch tv and say hey how's that that new strike doing in Australia boy you you see those shares you know actually some people I have a friend who a few months ago bought some shares in that new strike away there in Australia a strike of um nickel in six weeks he made a straight million dollars he's only a young fellow he's maybe 30 years of age just about he made a straight million dollars in six weeks then he pulled out of the market oh he said I didn't stay in because I thought the whole thing will collapse and when the when the shares went down a couple of weeks ago and we began to get near to the panic situation oh what great distress there was you see there are things you have you've no power over them somebody could not be shooting correctly and you lose your sight somebody not driving wisely you lose your limbs a tornado could come and all your life's possessions have literally gone with the wind and there could be an invasion of the country how do you know there won't be and we might be sharing what the Christians are sharing in China and in Russia this morning the walls could go out the roof could come in and then what you see there are some things that are mine and they're not mine my health is mine it isn't mine I could contract a germ as a girl did in England her daddy took her on a trip around the world for her 21st birthday and somewhere she drank something or inhaled something and for three or four years she was just a gorgeous lovely girl that she'd always been the darling of the home the only child she'd studied music in the conservatoire in Milan she had studied painting under one of the great modern masters in Belgium she seemed to have every gift she could sing like Gali Gertie she could play the piano like Rubinstein she could play the violin oh man just like Paganini and paint pictures like I don't know Van Gogh or somebody and people would say why does she have all the talent but one night she went to bed in the morning her personal maid came and brought her the inevitable cup of tea when she knocked at the door there was a feeble response when she got in a mistress was as stiff as the edge of this desk in a straight and from her shoulders her head down to her feet she hasn't moved a finger from that day to this she can't weave the pattern of paint anymore she can't sweep the horse's tail over the catgut she can't dance down the keys with her fingers she's impotent she needs the attention of a child she has not just a personal maid now she has a personal nurse to give her attention her daddy's pocket isn't deep enough to find the answer he's had all kinds of medical research and they don't know what went wrong and then one man came up he said look I think I know the answer somewhere on a trip in a foreign country either you drank water or or you in you inhaled a germ and it lodged and it went to sleep and it stayed there like a uh a sleeping bear when it's when it's gone to sleep for the winter and then the thing woke up and while you were sleeping it asserted itself and sat on the throne of power and uh and paralyzed your body it's the only answer I can give not much fun living in a house which is like a castle and having servants and sports cars and everything that life could give you and furs and jewelry and she can't wear a thing or go any place at all or see anything except the ceiling she didn't want it she didn't look for it she didn't expect it but it happened and on occasion Jesus used a figure there that we use very often in evangelistic meetings he said what shall it profit a man if he gained the whole world and lose his own soul and usually the evangelist takes all the wealth of the world the thought gold out of Fort Knox and the jewels of Cleopatra and everything you have and he stacks it to high heaven and says there you have the scales and in this pan you have all the wealth of the world and here you have the soul of a man and you know the soul of a man outweighs all the wealth of the world because this is eternal and this is perishing and I don't say he's not right but I wonder if that's what Jesus really meant supposing you switch the emphasis and put it where Jesus put it I think he said what shall it profit a man if he gained the whole world if he lose his own soul you can lose your money because the stock exchange goes down you can lose your home because a whirlwind comes you can lose your freedom because there's an invasion but there's no living person there's no demon there's no man can lose your soul except you and the haughty heavenly that proud pagan defying deity said on one occasion out of the night that troubles me as black as the pit from pole to pole I thank whatever god there be for my unconquerable soul it matters not how straight the gate I'll charge with punishment the scroll I'm the master of my fate I'm the captain of myself exactly who's arguing about it it's your soul if you lose it you will lose it there's nobody else can put your soul in palm there's nobody can put you into hell whether it be a priest or a pope or anybody else that fall is your possession if it's lost you lose it it isn't subject to change and decay I think one of the greatest miracles of modern life is a little Chinaman their watchman knee over there in China still living we understand after something like 20 years of solitary confinement living in a room 11 feet long and four feet wide now how would that go on you wouldn't need too much wall-to-wall carpeting for that would you and no sanitary conditions and they don't even open the door they push his kneel under the door on a little bit of a tin tray that you'd hardly give your featherbred dog and to me he's one of the greatest saints in the world today and he's been brainwashed ten thousand times and somehow they can't break his he must have learned what the hymn says stayed upon jiho the hearts are fully blessed the lord is my strength not my faith in him but he he he himself is my strength he is my life he is my peace he is my joy they've taken everything else he had you see you can start peeling off all i've got till you get to my skin and then from there inward it's all mine externally i'm subject to change and decay to stock markets maybe to the weather to climate to vicious men to germs disease sickness they can all do something they can cut up my body they can strip me and leave me in anguish i've lost everything but there are some things that jesus says well you can take your fist and you can shake your fist in the face of calamity and adversity and tragedy in the face of the world and the flesh and the devil and you say those things were mine sure i had a little in the bank it's all gone my home went with the with the uh tornado and everything else just perished but there are some things i have they're mine i keep them there and no moth nor rust can corrupt them and no thief can break through and steal and they're mine i own them my faith my peace my joy they're not subject to the fluctuations of the world outside to temperature and all it no no no they're mine i was preaching in ireland in a street meeting and an old old methodist preacher came along and he said um would you come to my home and drink some tea and have some good irish cookies well if there's anything free i'm usually there so i went along to his lovely house on the hillside and as i went in his wife came she looked a bit of a novice to me but i didn't pass any remarks but she said you've come to see my husband and i said yes she said you know he's rather odd well i thought there are two of you but of course being uh rather refined i wouldn't say a thing like that at all i just thought it but uh i said here she said yeah do you know what he does i said no she said he he he spends all the day looking through microscopes and he spends all the night looking through telescopes well i wondered when he went to bed i didn't ask any questions i said is that so when we sat down to eat the old gentleman i saw his magnificent telescopes and things and after asking some questions he said to me um mr raismill did did you ever look through the eye of a fly well i've been asked some stupid questions but i thought that was about the worst of all of them have i ever looked through the eye and i said no i haven't the main reason of course because i've never been a fly i said no i've never looked through that would you like to look through the eye of a fly i said i surely would well let me get my microscope he bought his microscope and he had a piece of glass about the length of that pencil about an inch wide and it had a little dot about as big as the end of that that writing spot there and he said that's the eye of a fly you you slip it in the microscope and i i did and he said adjust it what can you see i said well i i don't really know it looks like um let me think what does it look like tapioca pudding from spawn soap bubbles well i said yeah that really is a kind of a description of it that's right but you see he said on on the eye of that fly those bubbles as you say every one of them is a lens a lens on the eye of that fly and this magnification brings up all those lenses and do you know that a fly has 500 lenses on one eye and every one of those lenses is set at a slightly different angle well i said that that's very helpful he said what do you mean i said well the fly's got two eyes hasn't it he said sure i said well there you see how stupid i am i go looking at a fly and it can see me coming a thousand different ways no wonder i can't catch the thing now he said you take your watch and put it and i put my watch underneath i'm sure enough through every one of those lenses i guess there were 350 lenses i said about 300 every one of them my watch at 25 minutes to six i can never forget it 25 minutes to six 350 to 500 times 500 times he said you wouldn't think that the almighty god would bother with the eye of a fly that a little boy pulls the wings off it or you swat the thing and kill it it's a marvelous construction you could never make one it's not a works anyhow and on the eye of a fly you've got 500 lenses and if you catch a butterfly and uh and and and took a half inch off its wing it will be thinner than this india paper and if you put that under a microscope you'd find there are 3 000 triangles in that half inch of a butterfly's wing and you why do you have triangles you always build with triangles for strength don't you you don't have to send butterflies back to the maker to get repaired like you do jet planes when they get fatigue in the metal you say so what we're not here for a nature study what are you talking about butterflies and what does the eye of a fly got to do with me you don't know how pressed i am you don't know the troubles in my life you don't know the care i i i could i could tell you a thousand things this morning that are breaking my heart and the pattern is all wrong oh i see you're suggesting that almighty god designed the eye of that fly but you that he redeemed with his own precious blood you're a football the devil kicks that way if he wants or you're a dry dead leaf and the wind of adversity blows it that way in other words he designed everything except that life of yours huh oh sure he's a good god and everything goes right but you see he works after the counsel of his own will not our petty judgment it's easy to be good it's easy to praise him when everything's going well uh but uh let's look at this little man for a minute there that fella called joe that's quite a book isn't it oh that's a good book to read the book of joe and the challenge remember this the challenge was not not was not the challenge of satan to god it was a challenge of god to satan has thou considered my servant joe oh sure sure sure what are you doing satan says i've been going through and through in the earth walking up and down i'm in trouble what's your trouble i i can get everybody to doubt and fear and complain and repine and grumble there's just one man that has his soul so fortified i can't even get near that man now now he says lord i'll tell you what to do now lord if uh if you think jobs as good as you really say he is why don't you give him a real blast and the lord says well i'll tell you i'm too busy doing other things but i'll tell you what to do you go do it did you ever think the lord might employ satan to make you a saint oh you thought he put you in a glass case and put a sign on thou shalt not touch my darling child huh and the lord says the only way to test your faith is really let the devil have a go at you but wait a minute he couldn't he couldn't do anything until he got a permit from the lord i don't believe the lord can come in the devil can come in on your life and mine without a permit oh no no no where the apple of his eye where where his treasure go on satan now you have a blast so satan comes along and he has a great time job goes to bed amongst a millionaire he wakes up of course but he hasn't got a thing his cattle have gone his herds have gone and somebody comes in and says i want to tell you calamity came and uh and the serbians came and they took something and somebody else came and took your camels and your crops are gone and and job says well that's rough isn't it but praise the lord but what well praise the lord and somebody comes in panic oh what are you doing here i was just telling job he's lost all his money and investment job i got worse news for you uh your children sudden sons and your sudden daughters were having a a feast having a party and and suddenly there was a there was a tornado came and and destroyed them all the first stroke of satan against him was bankruptcy he left everything the second stroke was bereavement a bit rough to go to 14 funerals in one day isn't it very 14 relatives some of you'd like to do it i know but not if they were your sons and your daughters now now satan says now we're watching yesterday was bankrupt today he snowed under with bereavement are you all listening now now now wait wait soon as he gets and they start putting the bodies in the ground you'll hear him grumble and gripe and say and this is what you get for serving god god already has testified i'm the most perfect one in the world and this horrible blast gun well what's the report to satan i see you're back the lord says and he says yes i'm back lord i uh how did he get on not making any progress well did you really beat him up yeah i sure did i sent him bankrupt yesterday lost millions and today he lost his children in bereavement and what did he say well he just looked up joyfully and he said the lord gave and the devil took it all away what a lousy deal no that's not what he said that's what we say when things are going well do you know how we we've just opened another shop you know we'd only won a while ago we got two now and you know we'd only so many cats and we've got more and you know business is really going oh the lord's good and then you see a man a year or two after and say how are things he said well you know the lord prospered for about five years and then the devil came in and took it oh didn't he i didn't know that was in the amplified even the lord gave and the lord has taken away blessed be the name of the lord right he's got bankruptcy he's got there's only one thing now uh well uh will you give me a permit to touch his body and then you hear him oh you let me touch his body after all he can roll his sleeves up and say i might become a millionaire again and uh who knows he might still have another family but but if you let me just get all of that body of his and weaken it and make him suffer and squeal with pain you you you'll hear something heaven i haven't heard for a long long while and the lord says go ahead go ahead say another good time first stroke bereavement second stroke bankruptcy third stroke boils did you ever have any i i once had i think 17 in a row oh brother were they i thought i was job all over again oh were they painful job couldn't walk he had them on his feet and he couldn't sit down and he couldn't sleep and he couldn't rest and he was in real trouble and when everything was dark bankruptcy bereavement boils his friends came along and as somebody said with friends like this you don't need enemies ellis has the team and i sat in that corner build out the shoe height sat over there and the other guy sat here and then and then to make bad words his wife came and she said you know the reason why you're like this now why don't you be sensible and admit that somewhere there's sin in your life and and curse god and that the hebrew there really means why don't you commit suicide get out of it yeah i know what's wrong with you yeah i know your problem you see no man suffers like this bankruptcy bereavement boils everything like this there's a reason for this sure there's a reason god was going to put him on record so nobody else could ever grumble from here to eternity he came to knock all the grapes out of you and out of me and why you should ask any questions and they started pouring all that criticism on him and poor old joe got up and scratched where it itched the most and and he stood there and he says sure everything's bad sure i'm bankrupt sure i'm bereavement sure i've got boys but i want to tell you something and it even gets worse than this and even if i die and worms destroy this body yet in my flesh shall i see god i know that my redeemer lives what do you do with a man like that who won't give it oh there are some things you and i have we've no power over them but there are some things we have that are that belong to me no moth more rust and corrupt and no thief can break through and steal them they're mine they're not subject to whoever is in authority in the white house or any other house there is gift he's built them within he wants them to become stronger not that i weaken in them but these are my shield and my defense and my strength i don't know a great deal about american poetry but i know when i was a boy in england we used to have to recite a wonderful classic piece that some of you must know if you've been to university you'll know it it's called little nanny and it was written by james whitcomb riley i think wasn't it and he wrote another poem called the robbers i think it's a wonderful poem it's a marvelous philosophy in that poem he says this the night was dark and the night was late when the robbers came to rob him they picked the lock of the palace gate those robbers that came to rob him they picked the lock of the palace gate they stole his jewels his gems of state his coffers of gold and his priceless plate when the robbers came to rob him but loud laughed he in the morning red when the robbers came to rob him he was hidden safe as he slept in bed when the robbers came to rob him and they robbed him not of a single shred of the childish dreams in his wise old head and they're welcome to all things else he said when the robbers came to rob him you see what he says you can steal my jewels my gems of state my coffers of gold my priceless place but i've got memories in here you can't take away i've got something in here and it's impossible to destroy it somebody has said that the greatest verse in the bible along this line is in the end of that little prophecy of habakkuk or a habakkuk if you like though the fig tree shall not blossom though there be no fruit in the vine the labor of the olive shall fail the field shall yield no meat the herd shall be cut off from the stall and when it is i'll just sit down and cry doesn't say that he said when it's as black as black can make it there's nothing to eat there's nothing to see it's darkness it's bankruptcy and then he says i will rejoice in the lord i will joy in the god of my salvation and the hebrew there really means this i'll dance in his presence and i'll sing aloud his praises there's a lovely old hem written by charles wesley let me finish with it must finish on a good note and caught a good english hem and charles wesley summarizes the whole of this argument up like this he says the waves and storms go o'er my head the wealth and health and strength are gone the joys are withered all and dead and every comfort be withdrawn on this my steadfast soul relies father by mercy never dies and if you want to put the cherry on top of the cake think of the end of romans 8 get past verse 28 and paul summarizes those things that would threaten to assassinate us spiritually and he runs through that amazing catalog and what does he say well he says there may be tribulation and distress and famine and peril and nakedness and sword and it's easy to swallow the whole lump there but why don't you put them out in a row and say well you see uh uh nakedness that couldn't be on my soul that must be nakedness of my body i could even be stripped to that degree nakedness and sword you can't put a sword through my spirit i might have to face even the fighting land if the communists come into power tribulation distress famine peril nakedness sword hi no death then he puts his shoulders back with a kind of a holy swagger and looks in the face of the devil and he says you can't invent one thing in hell that can separate me from the love of god you can separate me from my friends and tie me up in prison you can take all my earthly goods and destroy them but i want to tell you something there's nothing you have invented or can invent that can separate me from the love of god which is in christ jesus my lord and when you think of it like that surely you want to say hallelujah what a savior