Testimony and Message — Venus Brooks

Psalm 27 and Confidence in God

To each of you. This is the day the Lord has made. We will be glad and rejoice in it. Oh, it's like North Carolina weather. You like it a little cooler, but it suits me just fine. Please turn with me this morning to Psalm 27.

Psalm 27. The Lord is my life and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid? When the wicked, even my enemies and my foes, came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell.

Though a host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear. Though war should rise against me, in this will I be confident. One thing have I desired of the Lord, and that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple.

For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion. In the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me. He shall set me up upon a rock, and now shall mine head be lifted up above mine enemies round about me.

Therefore will I offer in his tabernacle sacrifices of joy. I will sing, yea, I will sing praises unto the Lord. Hear, O Lord, when I cry with my voice. Have mercy also upon me, and answer me. When thou saidst, Seek ye my faith, my heart said unto thee, thy faith, Lord, will I seek.

Hide not thy faith far from me. Put not thy servant away in anger. Thou hast been my help. Lead me not, neither forsake me, O God of my salvation. When my father and my mother forsake me, lift me up. Teach me thy way, O Lord, and lead me in a plain path because of mine enemies.

Deliver me not over unto the will of mine enemies, for false witnesses are risen up against me, and such as breathe out cruelty. I have fainted, unless I have believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.

Wait on the Lord, be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thy heart. Wait, I say, on the Lord. One verse from the New Testament, if you desire to turn there, 1 John, chapter 4, and verse 17. In your rendering, I believe it is, herein is our love made perfect, that we may have wholeness in the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world.

I'd like to change the first part of it somewhat, the corrected rendering. Herein is love perfected toward us, that we may have wholeness in the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world.

And thus my subject, wholeness in the day of judgment. Now perhaps throughout the week you've wondered why we stress the things that we have stressed with such great emphasis, and perhaps at times seemed a wee bit critical.

Judgment, Sin, and the Finished Work of Christ

I believe the word judgment is the word Christ is often in the word of God. Now certainly, in 1 John, chapter 4, and verse 17, there's a day coming that men and women fear. If there was not that fear within their bosoms, as far as after death is concerned, then death would hold no terrorist farther.

But built into the framework of every human being is a consciousness that there is someone to be faced beyond time, and so fear lays hold of them in relation to what is to come. For the child of God, certainly, there is no judgment for us in that sense of the word, judgment for sin.

God will never again raise the question of sin so far as the child of God is concerned, and verily I feel as far as the world is concerned. Really, in my own way of thinking, it is no longer a sin question but the son question.

I believe God is perfectly satisfied with the work of the Lord Jesus Christ at Calvary. Sin has been put away forever from the face of the Holy God, and so men and women are going to be asked, what did you do with my son?

How deep died their crimes? No matter how distant and alienated from God, no matter how wicked the life, the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, suffice as a remedy for sin in its totality. And I praise God for that.

So that men now must answer to God for His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, who has put it away forever, and God will not raise the question again, for to raise the question would bring into question the reality of the finality of the work of Christ at Calvary.

And we praise God it is finished. I thank God indeed that every job and tittle, everything against the individual child of God has been put away to God's satisfaction, and the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ and His being seated at the right hand of the Father might assure us that sin is gone forever.

As far as the east is from the west, so far hath He removed our transgressions from us. Thy sins and thy iniquities will I remember no more forever. No sins have been cast into the depths of the sea. They are out of God's reach.

They are out of God's mind. They are gone forever, for they are out of His sight, out of His reach, out of His sight, out of His mind. My sins are gone. There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.

No death and judgment are behind us. Grace and glory are before us. All the billows rolled over Jesus. There they spent their utmost. Praise God, my sins are gone. And thus we rejoice continuously in the presence of God that we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins.

Praise the Lord. And I'm sure you rejoiced this morning that there is no longer any wrath in the heart of God toward you as an individual. He loves you with tenderest love. And so as far as that future day is concerned, after sin, the question never again will be raised, but certainly the judgment seat of Christ for our service here in this world.

The Judgment Seat of Christ and Faithful Service

What have you done with your life since the day you got saved? All must come and demand His patience at that particular time. And let me say, there'll be no sense of jealousy. None of these things will be there.

There will be the realization of loss, assurably. But I'll move every skeleton out of the closet and they're going to come out then, all of them. We will be thinking with His mind. We will be seeing with His eyes.

We will be feeling with His sensibilities. Therefore, we will want everything out of the way completely before we go into the marriage supper of the Lamb and it's going to be put away. And if there are any tears at all in heaven, some suggest that that's going to be the place where the weeping will take place.

Give God the opportunity to wipe all tears away from our eyes. Well, that's someone else's thought. I'm not saying whether I accept it or whether I reject it. But at least there will be loss when we see what the mind of God wants for us as individuals and then what He has to give us because we live for self rather than Christ.

And so for service, yes. Behold, I come quickly and my reward is with me to give every man as his works, not his words, his works shall be. Oh, we may talk a lot. I've preached to this before. You may run off with the mouth quite a lot.

But that day of manifestation is going to reveal that many of us who were first are going to be on the tail end of the line and some washerwoman who was never seen, she's going to be at the head of the line because in her closet, on her knees, she laid hold of the living God that those who were out at the front might indeed convey a little of the mind of God to His people.

And so don't you think for a minute that I'm not aware of that. And whenever I show up sometimes, there's always a rebuke. We have been speaking as we have because there is a crisis that will come in your life unless the Lord comes today or before that time arrives.

Facing Death With Absolute Victory

And that crisis in every one of our lives is the time when we leave the earth, the interglories, and eternity. And we seek to minister the word as we do minister it, that at that moment there may be the realization of absolute victory in your own individual life, no fear of death whatsoever, but rejoicing that death is the capstone of life, that it is not gloom, but introduces me into glory and all of its perfection.

My, what a people of God if we could face that day in that particular manner. Then we would not fear whatever it was that came along the way. We would not get canceritis and heartitis and all the rest of the itises troubling us whatsoever.

Whatever came our way, it would be but the means of hastening us. And whatever storm it is that drives my little heart closer to that haven of rest, praise God it's good. Is it not? I'm sure you acknowledge it.

As I saw the peace things this morning, I recalled a young woman, nearly eleven years old, in August of fifty-one I think it was, they amputated her left leg close up to her body. February, I don't recall just the day, but I was so far early in the morning, early morning hours, to go to the hospital.

She was in an oxygen tent. Soon when I entered in, she looked at my face and said, pray for me. I prayed for her. Shortly after, her mother and father were standing at the end of the bed. She looked at them and she said, goodbye, I'm going to heaven.

And then she said to me, hold me and pray for me. And I held that little, eleven-year-old girl in my arms as she passed from time into eternity. No struggle, just goodbye, I'm going to heaven. Victory?

I heard in the meeting I have not seen any other. Yes, I must acknowledge, I'll tell you of another, that we're in February of this year. He was much, much older, a man of mature years, mature in the word of God.

February the eleventh, he went home to heaven. But prior to that time, he was confined to bed for several months. We gathered with him night by night, read the word of God, we sang together, and generally he was the one to begin the prayer circle.

Or, of course, how often he would begin, thank thee, Lord, for saving my soul. And that would be the chorus that we would sing. People who came to visit him, he would tell them, I've got death over there in that jam and he won't come out.

I dare him to come out. He was a spectacle for the country round about, as they came to visit from all directions. A beloved brother, and thus he triumphed. He had a facial cancer, his face was being eaten away.

When he became very weak, he could still move about somewhat, they wanted a registered nurse in the meeting to take care of him. He said to his wife, I don't want her to, because it's so dreadful to look at.

He was doing it himself. He was a child of God, that these things had made hold of the warmth and the warmth of their life, the framework of their life, controlled by the truth of the Word of God. And death, that great crisis, fell no terror for him.

It could only seduce him, and he longed for an introduction into regions of glory. He loved the people of God. He served continuously, and I miss him very much because he is the only laborer. He worked with his own hands for his own living, but he gave of his time unreservedly to minister amidst the people of God wherever he found them.

He's responsible for the third assembly that has been established amidst the Indians in that particular period. Mature in the things of God, a real poet, greatly beloved. I want to read you something of another also.

Blasting his thin hands together while tears flowed down his face, he said, My precious Lord Jesus, thou knowest how fully I can say with awe to depart and to be with thee which is far better. Oh, how far better!

I do long for it. They come and talk to me about a crown of glory. I've been conceived of the glories of heaven. I've been installed. I am not wanting crowns. I have himself, himself. I am going to be with himself.

Ah, with the man of sorrows, the man of succor, with him who stayed to call Zacchaeus, with the man of Johnny, with the man who hung upon the cross, with the man who died, oh, to be with him before the glories, the crowns, or the kingdoms appear.

Be wonderful, wonderful, with the man of succor alone, the man that gave the city of Nain, and I'm going to be with him forever. Exchange this sad, sad scene which cast him out for his presence. Oh, the man of succor.

In a short time, J. G. Billet was with the Lord. I wonder if it should be my lot today to face this crisis. Could I face this in this manner? I mentioned yesterday, I believe it was, of the surgery that I endured.

Prior to it, you remember, a beloved brother in the Lord, a fellow laborer, Paul Prudell, had an operation on the right side of his heart. The Thursday after, the Lord took him home to heaven. The brethren in Washington tried to get the word around so that no one would tell me.

A brother in the meeting, visiting one night, he told me about Paul Prudell, and this was quite some time before I had my surgery. His wife was standing beside him, and her face turned blood-red, as he told me.

She rebuked him for it. She said, oh, and you've been a spaghetti. And I smiled. Actually, I laughed at her because of the chagrin that a person puts on her face, and so on. Not the fact that our beloved brother was taken home.

For I wonder why I remain. And he was taken because he was such a fruitful laborer of God. There is another one of those things. I'm here this morning. Paul is in glory. Why? Our Father knows for Him.

Anyway, the Thursday after, with my surgery, my pressure suddenly jumped up and various other things occurred. They were very busy around about me. It looked like perhaps the Lord was going to take me home to glory.

I had no fear whatsoever, and I can say this before my Father, God. There was not one ounce of fear from the beginning to the end of that period, from the 3rd of October until the 27th of October, when I went into the operating room.

The 7th of November, I walked out of the hospital on my own feet. So that Thursday after, at least it seems to me it must have been around the Thursday after, things seemed to be rather crucial. I had, of course, a tube in my thigh, and there was fluid going in at my foot.

There was a tube down in my abdomen. I was in the oxygen tank. In the midst of it, the Lord brought very distinctly to my heart, because I was not concerned whether I should live or die. It didn't make any difference to me.

And I think that the Lord brought this verse to me in order to awaken me and make me to realize that I should be concerned about it. And Psalm 50, verse 15, has been given here before this week. And call upon me in the day of trouble, and I will answer thee, and thou shalt glorify me.

You know, folks, it wasn't long after that all the tubes, except the one in my thigh, were gone. The next morning, the surgeon came into the hospital, took this one from my thigh, lifted me up, placed me in a seat, and I ate my breakfast sitting up.

One of the most glorious experiences in my life, and I would not trade it for any sum of money, are not men to terrorize or to destroy, but God in his wisdom sends them, that he might make us pit vessels to display his glory in this world.

I rejoice that he entrusted that particular time to me as an individual. I rejoice that. Today I want to try to bring these five thoughts before you quickly that I have enjoyed from Psalm 27. Boldness and the day of judgment.

Boldness Through a Life of Service

And I'm sure any particular crisis that may arise in your own individual life during World War II, we have 11 German divisions in the Keremtman Press. They were trying to break out in our own vicinity.

An officer asked me to seek out some men who would volunteer to surround our forward echelon, the combat command group, so that we might not be surprised. I couldn't find a single man that would volunteer to go in the forest close at hand that they might be on guard for us.

And then the man who worked under me, the man who worked under the S3, they said, Sergeant, we'll go with you. And that very day I had received a telegram that my wife was critically ill. We had four children at that time.

Her gallbladder ruptured, and in the process her mind went from her to the hospital, and she tried to jump from the third floor of the hospital. I took these men and went out into the forest with a carbine cradle across my knee.

I can't expect them, not knowing what moment I would be facing death. And of course, certain things came before my mind. No need to mention them here. But there, before God, I determined if it pleased Him to deliver me, bring me back to America, I would seek to devote my life to my people.

I went into the educational field planning to help them in that way, while helping them in that way to bring the word of God before them, that they might be saved. Before I had completed that, the board of a large school came to my house and said, Mr. Brooks, we'd like for you to take our school and run it.

Some of the school superintendents at the gospel hall, young people of truth, composed, teenagers, college students. I had a good group. We were having a nice time over the word. I had no freedom whatsoever to accept their proposition.

And finally, I went to the brethren of the meeting and said, I am exercised about giving myself to the Lord. Tears were in their eyes, and they rejoiced before God that one out of the race should devote himself in that particular manner and from that meeting.

I've been seeking to serve my people since then in a higher position. And I say it without ostentation, without any desire to be a vain showman. But across the race, across the race of twenty to thirty thousand people, my name is known and revered.

I've become a moral standard for them. They often ask the question that comes to me, would Venus do this in such and such a place? So God in his mercy, it's all the grace of God, there's not one ounce of credit due to the speaker, not one ounce.

It's wretched, miserable, a sinner of the worst sort. God has picked me up out of the mud, the clay, the filth of sin, and made me a son and heir. And I love to visit and visit my people, that they too might learn to know Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour.

As far as our origin is concerned, we are called Indian. There's a question mark because no one can prove that we are the remnants of John Wright's lost colony, who were supposedly, are supposed to intermarry with the Croatan, the Croatan Indian.

Perhaps some of you know something of the history. But there's a stigma associated with it, of course. All kinds of difficult circumstances. In the body of Christ, to look forward to glory to come. They have to live in the circumstances that they live in, and die in their sins, and they are doing that, despite everything that they've done.

Perhaps it was last, I'm not sure now. Young early fellows, ground to pieces at one time under the train, whether they were murdered and placed there or not, I don't know. I preached the funeral of one of them.

Another young man, ground to pieces under another train. I had his funeral. Another man, three years older than I, because his wife had abandoned him deliberately, laid down on the railroad track, and dared anybody to take him over.

He had a knife and a sandal. All that was left to recognize that the human being was a part of an ear and a part of a hand. I had his funeral. So it goes. They might know God in redeeming grace. The power of sin is present there, and the power of hell just as present there as any other place.

And the first thing that I have enjoyed from this is the boldness of assured illumination. I know where I am and why I'm there. I know where I am going and why I'm going. I know who has procured it. The boldness of assured illumination.

There is no right and there's no room to have God's divine revelation before us. The Lord is. It doesn't say the Lord gives life, but that the Lord is. And Jehovah, the Old Testament, is Jesus of the New Testament.

The Lord as Light, Salvation, and Personal Guide

John chapter 8 and verse 12, I am the light of the world. He that follows me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of 1 John chapter 1 and verse 5. This is the message that we have received of him.

God is life. That is always the message. God is life, and men and women must be brought to him. But in that very place, as we've already mentioned prior to this, there we have the token to the redemption of our Lord Jesus Christ.

So the light reveals what we are, and yet at the same time what God is in his redeeming life. The Lord is my life, praises me. It's present, it is. There's light now, I pray. Not only did I have life back there in the initial phase of my salvation, when I knew deliverance from the guilt and the penalty of sin, and I knew that great truth for myself, but as the people of God, we have light for the present.

Apostasy is around us indeed. Some are wondering, what should I do? If the foundation is to be destroyed, what can the righteous do? Keep on being righteous. Keep on walking in the light and according to the light.

Keep on walking with him. I say this, and to that, and to run away from your local assembly, because this condition or that condition, the Bible says where two or three, not two or three, not one, where two or three have gathered together in my name, there am I amidst, whether it's a prayer meeting or a worship meeting.

That's where your encouragement or mine. We are not to look for numbers. It is not quantity that we are interested in, but quality. God developed quality amidst us, the two, and so this light is present.

He is shining now for you and for me. They looked unto him, and their faces were radiant, I believe Psalm 34. And so we too may look unto him, and be men and women of a radiant face. This light is present.

It's for your procreation now. God has provided it for me. No need to be ignorant of anything. I would not that ye should be ignorant, brethren. Somebody has said we've got Baptist brethren, Methodist brethren, Presbyterian brethren, Divinist brethren, and Plymouth brethren, and we've got ignorant brethren too.

And that's just that part of us. We should not be ignorant. There is no reason for ignorance as far as where God wants me to be. I hear over the radio often, and I proclaim it from the housetop no matter what I'm preaching.

Go to the church of your choice. I said that didn't come from God, so it had to come from somebody else's. God is not an energizer of lawlessness. I said I have no more right to choose where I'm going than I had to choose how I was going to be saved.

It's this, or it is nothing. Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Except a man be born a orphan of the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. I either take that or go to hell.

When it comes to the matter of gathering, do not left me in doubt at all. The word is ample and sufficient to show me where I ought to be. And I have no choice in the matter. The Lord is very present for every one of us.

As we search this book, the Spirit of God will illuminate its pages. The fullness of assured illumination. It's not only present, but it's personal. God is not an impersonal God. It's not in great company, but as our Lord Jesus Christ spoke to men and women individually along the way, and so He is individually interested in you and me.

In 1950 there was an Indian boy, thought of a bill of keep but drink, and all that follows drink, and laid hold of him and spoiled his life. And he came to the place after he had tried everything, even religion.

He said God is an impersonal God. He isn't interested in me. And on September the 10th, 1950, the car that he was driving at terrific speed, he deliberately threw it into an approaching car. Picked him up and carried him to the hospital, and the doctor took a look at him and pushed him over to one side with no use.

And for some reason or other, went back and gave him some kind of a shot or something, did something to him. He lived. Between life and death for weeks. And darkness. And his testimony afterwards, he came out of it blind.

His testimony afterwards was that God took him and shook him over hell. In the midst of that time, came out of the hospital. That child was free of use in the world. But he wanted to be a preacher so bad he pushed himself out too far.

He accused me of holding him back, and the brethren were accusing me of pushing him forward. I was caught between two fires. Anyway, he got away from the meeting and started preaching in a Baptist church.

Now, he overcame the blindness somewhat. He received a little sight, and with the aid of books and so on for the blind, he went on back to college and finished it and he's a teacher now. I trust he is really saved.

He says he is. I hope it is so. The Lord is mine. Mine. And he has learned that God is a personal God. He's interested in your individual problems. The least to the greatest. Our greatest failure, I suppose, is trying to carry things on our own shoulders.

Small things. And we should go to God with everything that concerns us. Because he's concerned about us. So the Lord is my life. Present, it's personal, and then praise God it's perpetual. It's the Lord.

The sun went down in Calvary, but praise God it arose in glory, and it shines for you and for me. So it's perpetual life. Any moment you look to him, he'll cast light on the page for you. He'll give you the guidance that you need.

He'll give you the help in your particular situation. If any of you like wisdom, let him ask of God. We've been giving already this week. He never upgrades because he didn't use the wisdom he gave you yesterday.

You come here today for it, he's still ready to give you wisdom for the day. So we praise God for the wholeness of assured illumination. Secondly, the wholeness of assured salvation. And I like to think of this not only as a sense of the past tense.

Most of our minds encompass the cross of Calvary alone, but the tabernacle of old has three compartments. The court, the holy place, and the holy of holies. Though may we not just make a racetrack around the cross, but may we go on to know the Lord.

Consider him that I, yes, that we may know him. An ever-increasing knowledge of himself. Truth unfolding continuously through our hearts and our minds. So the Lord is my salvation. The complete roundup.

He delivered in the past, he delivers in the present, he's going to deliver in the future. There are some folks who will say it, though, but they don't know too much about deliverance, do they? I wonder if it is you.

Deliverance. The Lord in his death has defeated all of our foes, throttled them all down by being taken the sword, the very weapon of the enemy, and destroyed the enemy with it. To call himself the nature or a body like you and I possess apart from sin.

That through death he might destroy him or unknow the power of him who has the power of death. That is, the devil. And deliver him who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.

Praise God. There is no fear in life. Perfect love can't sit out all fear. And I wanted to remark, and didn't do it, that our verse from 1 John chapter 4 and verse 17 does not indicate we are to look inward, but we are to look to the cross of Calvary, and there is seen perfect love in its manifestation.

It's from God's side. I'm never going to see perfect love within as long as I'm down here. But I look away to that place where the Son of God, who was holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners, where he died during an agony and shame for a rebel sinner like me, and I behold perfect love.

It gives me quietness in my bosom. This is as he is, not as he was or as he is going to be, but as he is. First of all, he's the judge over all the earth, and if I'm as he, then I'm just like the judge.

I'm going to take the seat with him, and that's his judgment. Praise the Lord. Aren't you glad? My, that should give us much boldness as we go through this world. We're just like the judge of all the earth, like him, who sits now in throne in the right hand of the Father.

Our great high priest, our intercessor, our advocate, O saints, may we lift up the feeble hands and those weak knees, O God, give them strength, that we may make straight paths for our feet, lest the lame be turned out of the way.

God help us, individually and collectively. And I'm sure if some of these things are worked within the framework of our lives, we're going to be such men and women here in the world. There will be all boldness, and it certainly becomes those who know the Lord Jesus Christ to be bold as far as their faith is concerned.

The source of this salvation indicates its sufficiency. The subject of salvation indicates its scope. I'm a subject. Fine. The apostles say, with the chief of sinners, and I oftentimes say, if the chief could get saved, his lieutenant certainly can too.

And so I'm saying, raise his hand. Aren't you glad that you're saved? I'm sure you are. No matter whether your life is a protected life, you have to rejoice before God, that in his grace he kept the violence of that heart from being seen, for the Lord Jesus sent out the heart to receive evil thoughts.

Adulterous, murderous, thefts, fornication, and so on. All of these evil things are found in these human hearts. The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? Praise God for every person who has been saved as far as your life is concerned.

Mine was badly marred. Thank God he took it up, restored me to a place of service before him. So the subjects of salvation indicate the scope of that salvation. The substance of it indicates the satisfaction, because it doesn't say, I give salvation.

It says, I am salvation. This day, it says exactly, this day of salvation comes at this hour. Who is salvation? Salvation is in the person. The person of our Lord, Jesus Christ. So those who are saved, they have trust.

And with Christ in the vessel, we can smile at the storm. They surely can. That ship can never go down with the Creator on board. Praise the Lord. Thirdly, there is the boldness of assured preservation.

Preservation, Consolation, and Waiting on the Lord

And I'm going to go quickly, because I did not intend to keep you over time. I like to make it short and sweet. Somebody has said, stand up, speak up, and shut up. I try to do just that. But thirdly, the boldness of assured preservation.

The Lord is the strength of my life. How often people say to me, I'm afraid if I say that I'm saved, I can't hold out. And I say to them right away, you might as well acknowledge that. Now you can't. Nobody can.

But God will hold on. Praise the Lord. Isn't that nice? Yes, He holds my hand. I hold His hand. I'll illustrate it to some of our people. We have Lumber River nearby. It's dark and blank and rushing. It's called drowning creek.

It is dead waters, and many have been drowned living there. I say to them, suppose there's a very narrow path across Lumber River. And you have your darling little girl along with you. And you must go across that path.

Do you say, honey, take my finger and let's go over. Is that what you say? I say, certainly not. If you do anything, you reach down your big hand, you get that little hand in your big hand. Or better still, you reach down both arms and take that precious little jewel up, put it in your bosom, and it indicates where you're kept.

On the shoulder, on the wrist, the strength of His love, preserving us. You are kept by the power of God unto salvation, ready to be revealed. In the psalm, the psalm is certainly new, the nearness of the Lord.