Faith Series - Part 2 — Leonard Ravenhill

The Steadfastness of God's Word

Hebrews 11 again, the emphasis that the pastor just made on the words was on my mind last night. I turned up some scriptures within the compass again of this epistle to the Hebrews. What we've been trying to say again is that God has spoken, and he reminds us in the second chapter that the word spoken by angels was steadfast, and if the word spoken by angels was steadfast, how much more steadfast is the word of God.

And later, you remember it says there, see that ye refuse not him that speaketh, in verse 25 of the twelfth chapter. I guess we've all had the experience somewhere along the road of life where somebody doubted your word.

You said something to somebody and they didn't act on it. And when you saw them, you said, well, um, oh, so you didn't believe me, eh? Well, yes, and they kind of hum and ah as we say, but there's a sense there all the time that they didn't take your word at, shall we say, its face value.

And I'm sure this is true when it comes to the word of God. I was thinking over the message I preached last night, things I should have said I didn't. Um, but, uh, one thing again that Dr., amongst others, Dr. Tozer used to say, the, say Len, the thing that scares me is not just I have to see Jesus in all his resurrection majesty, and uh, I'm really not too concerned about the things that I've done, it's the things that I could have done that trouble me.

In other words, all the availability of God that we, we don't use. The, uh, again to use Lowry's words, the possibilities of grace, or to use the, uh, figure in Ezekiel 47, the river, you know, the river, uh, everything in Ezekiel he seems to measure and, um, it's all in stages.

Uh, there's, there's a valley of dry bones, well, uh, he could have said stand up and go, but instead of that he speaks, and it changes from a valley of bones to a valley of skeletons. Uh, from skeletons they get, uh, sinews on, on them, and then from sinews they get flesh, and then on top of that they get skin, and then finally he talks to them, they get up, and God breathes into them, it's, it's all in stages, and so by the, the river, there's water to the ankles, and water to the knees, and water to the loins, and water to swimming, and uh, I don't know how far you are in that river.

But, you know, when you go to a hospital, almost the first thing they do is take your temperature and ask some questions, and they put a chart there, and the next person that comes on, he, he checks your chart, oh, you're so old, oh, I see your temperature, oh, I see your blood pressure, oh, I see this.

Now when people come to church, you take the whole lump of them, you don't know whether they're sheep or goats, they just sit in the pew and look how, they're dead, some of them, and you try to preach, and, and again, you don't know whether they're interested or disinterested, you don't know whether they're two days old in grace, or twenty-five years old in grace, and you put one message out, and they expect them all to assimilate it, which is not, not really possible.

Uh, this is really, I'm sure, the, the advantage of teaching, that you can grade people, not just merely intellectually, because some people are very sharp intellectually, are very dull spiritually, and some people are comparatively dull mentally, are very quick spiritually, very perceptive.

I think of a coal miner on the hills of Wales, I used to hear him handle the Word of God. Uh, he excited me more than Dr. G. Campbell Morgan, and I heard him preach many times, but he didn't have the insight, you see, there are two ways of knowing the Word of God, as I say, it's one thing to know the Word of God, you get to know that at Bible school, but you may not know the God of the Word.

And there are two ways to know God, one is to know him by education, that is on the Bible school level, and the other is by revelation. And we make so much of the education, as I say, if you're, if you're going to candidate for a church, if you're a preacher, you could be backslidden until you get the job.

They won't ask you how much time you spend in prayer, they won't ask you if you worship God in spirit and in truth, they, there's a lot of things they won't ask you. They'll ask you, um, how many people worshipped in your last church, what was the Sunday school when you went, what was it when you left, how many buses did you have when you started, how many, this bus minister's getting something.

I was in a church not too long ago and they had so many doctors, men, I was, I was, ministers, I was amazed. They had the minister, they had the assistant minister, they had a youth minister, they had a psalm minister, and they had a bus minister.

I, I couldn't find it, I looked, you know, and it says he made some apostles and some evangelists and some bus ministers, well, it doesn't say it in my book, but you know, it's getting so important. I know a man that left a church, I preached in his church, eleven hundred members, a marvellous church, and he left it to take over a bus minister in another church.

I think that's crazy, to leave a passport of eleven hundred people, eleven hundred sheep, and then go down and look after some of these buses, because some other guy's keyed in and said, this is the opposite of the public.

Knowing the God of the Word

As I said before, I think the slowest growth of all things is growing in grace. And again, not only in grace, but in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. And you know, after all, you can reduce the whole thing.

The only reason we're on this earth is to get to know God, that's all. Not to be famous, or clever, or even write books, or be somebody's, and be the pastor of the first Baptist church, or the first something else.

That's not what God's after. God's after men who are totally, entirely committed to him, in every sense of the word. And again, we've been trying to say in Hebrews 11 here, that the processes that God has are so very different, there are not, there are no duplicate copies in Hebrews 11, they're all singular.

But again, let's, let's just stay here a minute. The emphasis in Hebrews, again, oh, there are so many key words. One word is, they endured. I mean, notice how many times that word comes in the epistle.

There are so many studies in Hebrews 11. For instance, you could, you could start here at the beginning and go through all the heavenlies that there are. There's the heavenly calling, the heavenly gift, the heavenly things, the heavenly country, the heavenly Jerusalem, and the names written in heaven.

There's a dozen different studies in Hebrews. Some of you, I'm sure, must have read Arthur Pink. Have you read Arthur Pink, anybody? Good. Well, Arthur Pink claims, I think, he has 49 commentaries, or commentaries, on Hebrews alone.

I have a friend who says he has more than that, just on the epistle to the Hebrews. And scholars debate whether Hebrews is more profound than Romans. Well, they're both very, very deep. The book is an emphasis on the better things.

What does it say? The Lord Jesus is, well, better than angels, and you have a better hope, a better testament, better promises, better sacrifice, better substance, you seek a better country. Another discussion, I'll study.

But then this morning, or last night, as I was turning over the pages, I noticed how often the Word is mentioned. How often we say, we quote, the Word is a lamp to our feet. And one of the words we use the most about the Word is, in Hebrews, isn't it, the Word of God is quick and powerful.

Oh my, when the Spirit of God quickens the Word of God, somebody's going to get hurt. You know, we think sometimes, as I say again, the Holy Ghost, the Comforter, that's a bad English word. It's nearly like the word ghost, that we talk about the Holy Ghost.

The word ghost, actually, is a corruption of an old, an old, I'm forgetting what it is now, but it's an old English word, anyhow, guest. He's not the Holy Ghost, he's a holy guest. A guest comes in, when you invite him, a guest stays as long as you want him to stay.

That's why you can grieve the Spirit, that's what the good book says, doesn't it? You can resist the Spirit, you can quench the Spirit. The word comforter, again, is made up of two Latin words, comfortis, with strength.

As dear Chadwick used to say to us when I was at Cliff College, the Holy Ghost is not a nursing mother for spiritually sick children. Now it's true that the Word of God will comfort us, but by the same token, as Dr. Havner said, I had a letter from him last night, dear old soul, of his precious wife, he's written a new book on that, I see, but Vance Havner often says, remember, the Word of God is such that it comforts the disturbed and it disturbs the comfortable.

It's a two-edged sword, it cuts in two different ways. And so here we have an emphasis again on the Word in verse 3 of chapter 1, upholding all things by the Word of His power. In chapter 4 and verse 2, the Word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith.

Again, we make such an intellectual ascent to the Word. Sometimes when people are leaving church Sunday morning, I feel we ought to stop now and say, what did the Word mean to you this morning? Oh, I enjoyed you this morning, that illustration was nice, and I think the choir gets better.

And I love to hear Mary Jones sing. It's seldom that the Word of God gets really through to them. I don't believe the Word of God is always scorching, but I do believe it's always searching. It ought to get down into areas, whether even it's a devotional message where it disturbs us to some degree, disturbs us so that we do find that comfort that God alone is able to give us, because we find consolation in so many other things, in success, in achievements, in social standings, in intellectual standings even.

Then verse 12 of chapter 4, the famous verse, the Word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit. So much in our meetings is soulish, particularly singing, it's soulish.

People, they weep, you know, they sang my mother's favorite hymn. Now that's not wrong, I'm not saying that's wrong, but it's wrong when you try to disturb people on the emotional level in order to try and satisfy them or comfort them or, you know, just get them at ease in a meeting.

Worship, Hymns, and Reverence in the Church

I, as you say, about our hymns, I'm amazed, well, very often I go to a church and I say, I notice you don't have a hymn book, and they have a beautifully balanced thing, you know. New hymn book, boy, we've all given six dollars recently, you know, each to buy a hymn book.

Well, most of our hymn books are not hymn books anyhow, they're song books. One of the finest hymn books is the old Baptist hymn book, a hundred years old, it's got great hymns in it, and, you know, we keep amputating hymns, we cut a limb off here and a limb off there, till, heavens, we've got nothing.

For instance, if you don't look now, but I guess if you look in your hymn book, When I Surveyed the Wondrous Cross has four verses, it has four verses in ninety-nine, ninety-five, ninety-nine hymn books out of a hundred.

But Isaac Watts, when he wrote the hymn, did not write When I Surveyed the Wondrous Cross on which the Prince of Glory died, he wrote When I Surveyed the Wondrous Cross where the young Prince of Glory died.

And then he added a fifth verse, His dying crimson, like a robe, spread o 'er his body on the tree. Then am I dead to all the globe, and all the globe is dead to me. Now, maybe it's as good we don't sing that.

As Dr. Totes used to say, Christians don't care a lie, they just sing them in church. Well, that's what happens so much, don't they sing tearfully when you pass out the elements, well, the whole realm of nature, they won't give him what they've got now, never mind the whole realm of, they won't even give him Wednesday night at a prayer meeting if he can go play tennis or swim or do something, it's a lot of nonsense.

And very few of our hymns, I like hymns like Fairest Lord Jesus, I very seldom sing that hymn without choking, Ruler of all, it's a marvellous hymn, that old German tune, oh holy, holy, holy. I, I, we go to church, I say to Martha, same old thing here, you know what they're saying, well come on everybody stand up, he lives, he lives, you know.

Well those hymns, as you say, as far as I'm concerned, many of them become redundant. We went to one place, they sang Amazing Grace every night, now that's a great hymn, but boy, I don't want to hear it every night, there's some fantastic hymns.

We were in a big church of a thousand members just a few weeks ago, and I said I'd like you to sing, which I wish we could sing tonight, if you know it again, Beneath the Cross of Jesus, I say, and you'll take my stunt, sorry we don't know that, oh, do you know 174 in your hymn book, Holy Spirit breathe on me until my heart is clean, one of the greatest hymns in the book, and they don't know it, written by Edwin Hatch, who also wrote the hymn, not a Holy Spirit breathe on me alone, but what was the other one he wrote, Breathe on me breath of God, fill me with light, fantastic hymn.

A man that wrote those hymns, not because he was spiritually bankrupt in one sense, he had a popular church, it was full, they had more money than they could use, but he said the atmosphere isn't in sync with God, God doesn't breathe on us, we go into church and out, it's mechanical, we stand up, sit down, stand up, sit down, the choir will sing, pass the offering, good, good, good, good, good.

This is why many of the kids are bored to death, they know what's coming. You know what's coming, you mimeographed it last Wednesday, so what chance have the Holy Ghost, you've already told him what he's going to do, what he isn't going to do, and so we become static and stale and redundant, and I believe there ought to be times when a hymn will so captivate us that maybe you sing one's standards over ten times, and everybody gets more and more blessed and you get deeper into it, as you say, like a hymn, this hymn I like so much, Break Thou the Bread of Life, there's so much in that hymn, beyond the sacred thing, I seek Thee, O my Spirit, answer Thee, Thou Living Word, the second standard, Then shall all bondage cease, isn't that great, wouldn't it be nice to think that everybody's bondage was broken when they came, no, no, no, we sing it and looking around and say, then shall all bondage cease, you know, sometimes I wonder if I'm in church or at the snack bar, as I told the other night, rebuke them, there's a fine young woman there, she's a member of this church, a charming fellow, looking at her boyfriend and she suddenly shoots bubble gum out in the house of God, that's ignorant, pigs do things like that, I don't mean cops either, I mean the animals, dirty, and one woman blushed and another woman reached for a gun very quickly and, you know, but there's no reverence, there isn't a dignity given to the house of God, as I say, I believe when people cross that door, they shouldn't say another word, they should come and bow and meditate and maybe read a devotional hymn, read a scripture and set the pace for the pastor, as Dr. Sangster used to say in Westminster, there's something strange and mysterious about atmosphere, you know, usually I say in the crusade, I say, well now look preacher, I have the back three seats roped off and once I start preaching, nobody comes to the front, keep them at the back, somebody comes in, a woman's carrying a Bible and you see a watch and you say, oh, oh yeah, oh boy, I left my watch at the repair, I wonder if I can get it, you know, you distract people in so many areas with the slightest thing, as I say, you have three problems, first is to get them to church physically, second, get them there mentally, third, get them there spiritually, settle down in spirit and then they're able to absorb the things of God and it's the word of God, this is why the old devil, as I say, faith comes by hearing but not by hearing the choir as good as they are, but we're building up, we go to a church sometimes and they have two specials every Sunday morning by the choir and sometimes two solos and the announcements and the preacher gets up about 20 minutes to 12, now I didn't go to hear the choir sing, I've got enough phonograph I could, I didn't go to hear all about the notices, the announcements, but lots of preachers like it that way, do you know why, because there's so little to say anyhow, the preacher should need at least, I think, 40 minutes if he's going to get any work through, that wouldn't do for me anyhow, but most guys it would, you see, but this is why we're such weak Christians, we're not feeding them on the word of God really, as somebody said, we give them sermonettes that make Christianettes, it used to be in West, in fact, Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones, who just resigned his church, what, three or four years ago in Westminster, people would say to me in this country, I'm going to England, I'll be in London for a week, who should I hear preach, can I go to Spurgeon's Tabernacle, I'd say go hear Martin Lloyd-Jones in Westminster, and when they come back they'd say, by that's amazing, hardly anybody goes to church in England, they're nearly as bad as Sweden and most countries in Europe, but I suppose it's 1 ,500 people in a couple of, and you know what, most of them are lawyers and doctors and professional people, and he never preaches under an hour and five, an hour and ten minutes, and that isn't the most amazing thing, they'd say, well, I'd say, what amazed you most, hmm, boy, I just couldn't, I just couldn't understand it, you know, he said, let's sing this hymn, he never has a choir, never has a musical special, never has a trumpeter, that's forgotten, he's a real old puritan, it's all God's work, and after they've sung a hymn, they say, let us pray, he prays about two minutes, it's through, and then they sing another hymn and then he may say, we shall have something on Wednesday or something, oh, don't forget the Friday night Bible class, class of exposition, and then they'll take the offering, while the organ plays, then they'll say, let us pray, and everybody that has heard him, I think, has come back to me and said, the thing that amazed me most, was that he prayed from 15 to 20 minutes, and when he finished praying, he said so much, that you feel, well, why doesn't he raise his hand and ask for benediction, we can go home, I've got so much, you know, Spurgeon used to do that, the men used to give time to pray, it's not done anymore, as I say, very often we sing a hymn and say, well, Jack, you pray after this, Jack's no more idea of what God wants in that meeting, than that pussycat has walking down the road, in most cases, I think the preacher should preach himself, he knows his theme, I think he should choose the hymn, what's the good of singing hymns on the second coming, if I'm going to preach on prayer, what's the good of singing hymns on prayer, if I'm going to preach on the second coming, let the song lead again, he doesn't know a thing, he says, hello, how are you taking him, books, things, so and so, he's miles away, we were taught in, if we learn any homiletics, and pulpit department, what have you got, we were taught that this is, this is the essential thing, people have come to meet God, I say again, I don't believe our people come to meet God, they come to hear a sermon about God, and if you don't cross the right lines, or the T's or the I's, they kick you off, boy, I'm glad he's not our regular preacher, you know, he didn't emphasize this, I'll emphasize that, you see, they want you to tell them what they already know, or they want you to tell them what they like to know, but I disagree, I'm not going to do either, I'm going to tell them what God wants them to know, again, it won't make you the most popular preacher, I, okay, I get crowds, get a packed church now and again, not too often, it doesn't worry me, because we're living in a day of such flimsy and sloppy and sloppy evangelism, and anything goes, you see, when you get down to the word of God, again, it's the word that helps, all right, where do we get to, we go to the fourth chapter in verse 12, for the word of God is quick and powerful, but not as it comes again in the first chapter, in verse 13, everyone that useth milk is unskillful in the word, you check up with some of the young folk in your church and ask them what they believe, they don't give you a parrot-like reputation, I believe in this, that and the other, but when you've done that, not only ask them what they believe, then put the pressure on, say, why do you believe it, well, because the pastor told me, oh, I see, we're told, at least we're supposed to be able to give a reason for our faith, but I wonder how often we can do that, all right, let's, you can go through, follow through in the chapter on how many times that word is referred to and so forth, let's go into the chapter again, Hebrews 11, yesterday, you remember, we took Abraham on his long journey, the demands God made on him, his unfaithfulness, that you don't have to stand back scared stiff when you go into Hebrews 11 and say, what amazing men, oh man, Abraham and Moses, no, they're a bunch of rogues, what can you admire about Noah, he got drunk, what can you admire about Abraham, he disobeyed God, he lied when he got in a tight corner and he had a baby by another girl to try and help God out of a situation, now what kind of a man is he, again, Noah got drunk, David's mentioned in the chapter and he's an adulterer and he murdered somebody to cover up his adultery, Jephthah's in the chapter and boy, what a stupid vow he makes, and if I'd been writing Hebrews 11, do you think I'd have put a harlot, a prostitute in to prove faith, but God did, talks about the faith of the harlot, Rahab, would I have put Samson in with all his problems, no, I wouldn't have put any, many of those people, I'd have found a better selection than that, I would have talked about real men of faith, like Joshua who commanded the sons of Stanfield, but he's not mentioned in the chapter, I would have put Elijah in, boy, he had some faith, but he's not mentioned in the chapter, again, you see, God isn't giving us a perfect record of men of faith, he's giving us a pattern, again, let's remember, the first man that's mentioned there is Abel, who built an altar, which is for two things, sacrifice and worship, yesterday we mentioned Abraham going up onto the mountain, taking his son, you would have thought, you would have said, I and the lad will go yonder and sacrifice, but he did not say that, he said, I and the lad will go yonder and worship, but worship involved the dearest thing he had, which he does in most of our lives, I've heard preachers weep and say, you know, I don't have much time for this, and boy, I'm such a busy Joe, well, you shouldn't have, that's your fault, nobody else's, if you're a preacher, you have two things to do, and only two, according to the word of God, give yourself to prayer, continually to prayer and the word of God, and it'll take you a whole week to get two good sermons for Sunday, if you do, what about visiting, that's not your job, it's the deacon's job, if you read the New Testament, it's their job to dispense with tithes and offerings and help the poor and visit the needy, it's not your job as a pastor, some of you must have read McLaren, Alexander McLaren, one of the greatest Baptist preachers ever in England, he ruled the North like Spurgeon ruled the South, and I've been in his church, we have meetings in his church, he was a fabulous man, when he went to that church in Manchester, the dear old deacons, in those days, they were usually older men with beards, and they're a bit nervous, you know, and they sat there, and the head deacon sat there, and Alexander McLaren sat at this end, and the other grave dignified men were there looking, and oh, they asked McLaren a lot of questions, and finally they agreed that they would call him as a pastor.

Faith, Sacrifice, and Obedience in Hebrews 11

Well, he said, before I accept it, tell me this, if I come here, it's very good of you to buy me a new horse and carriage, you know, that's the same as buying a Cadillac in those days, I'm a new man in a nice thank you so much, that's good, but tell me this, if I pass through this great church, it's each, I suppose, 1500, what do you want?

Do you want my head or my feet? You can have one but not both. See what he meant? You want me to use this thing and get down and study and meditate, and you know that every one of those sermons in his expositions, if I remember, the edition I had, I think had 32 volumes plus an index volume, and he preached every one of those sermons from Genesis to Revelation in that church.

They have a set of them put there, you know, as a monument to the great preacher, but he said you can have one or the other, my head or my feet, but not both. If you want me to run around, drink cups of tea, visit everybody, run around this building, I'll do that, but don't expect me to teach anything deep and profound and get to the word, I wouldn't have time, but if you deacons will take the burden and let me get to the word and pray, I'll preach.

And when he preached, you couldn't get a seat. Church was jammed to capacity all the time he was there. Why? Because he obeyed the book. You can't be smarter than the book. Oh, I'm so busy. I hear wives say, no, my husband doesn't take a day off.

Well, he's back to it, and if he doesn't, what do you mean he's back to it? Well, he's disobeying God, isn't that, backsliding? Why? Because six days shall thou labor. Somebody said to Spurgeon one day, you're not a good Christian.

Why? You work on Sundays. He said, I work hard on Sundays, you work all week. Well, the Bible says six days shall thou labor and do all thy work. He said, I do that because on Mondays I don't even lick a stamp.

See, you can't be smarter than God. If you're going to do what God says and expect God's blessing, well, do as he says. Don't lick a stamp on Mondays. If you play golf, that's your business. If you play it on Tuesday, I'll be chasing you.

But I believe a man has a right to have a day off, according to the word of God. You need it mentally, you need it emotionally, you need it in every way. You're warm. Or some prayers say, well, you know, preaching, I mean, it's having a policy, it doesn't cost me anything to preach.

Well, if it doesn't cost anything to preach, quit. Quit. I've seen that I could hardly walk home at night. And when I've got home, I couldn't sleep for hours. Still two, three, maybe four o 'clock in the morning.

After all, Jesus, when somebody touched Jesus, he perceived that virtue went out of him. Well, are you suggesting you're stronger than he is? I believe that preaching is the costliest thing in the... I believe that every time you preach with even any anointing, it cuts something off your life.

One of the old Puritans was it? One of the old Englishmen, anyhow, said you have to bleed to bless. That's the order of blessing. You bleed, you give all you have. Now, again, God made these men in Hebrews 11, he made them all in different ways.

There are no duplicates here. Sure, this man goes on the mountain, he takes his son, his only son. As I said yesterday, if he'd said to him, take thy son, he'd have taken Ishmael and got rid of him. You almost wish he had.

I guess Kissinger does, anyhow. But the Lord wouldn't take his son of the flesh. No, no, no, take thy, thine only begotten son, he says. That's something. The choice is the best thing that he had. The gift from God, take thou thy son, thine only begotten son, offer him on Mount Moriah.

So, worship involves sacrifice. The first man in Hebrews 11 is Abel. He's there because he built an altar, worship and sacrifice. The second man is Enoch, and he's there because he walked. But you can't really walk with God until you learn to worship God.

And the third man, at least the third character he took there, is Noah. He built an ark, he worked. You see, your faith isn't a mysterious, funny thing. It isn't a wishing well. It isn't a magic carpet.

Faith is substance. And faith, in the case of Noah, put a hammer in his hand, he used it about a hundred and odd years. Remember the fact we say what patience we need, what patience we need. God works on Abraham, starts when he's seventy-five and finishes when he's a hundred and seventy-five.

That's a good long while, a hundred years to make a man. And Noah is a hundred and twenty years about building an ark. And everybody's looking for a book on how to become a saint in six easy lessons. Boy, if I could get to that conference, I'm sure it would change my life, you know.

I mean, so-and-so went and said, what a blessing. No, it wouldn't. God doesn't make people over the weekend. There's a building process. And you find it all through this book. And you see again, I don't want you to wear my sackcloth.

I wish you would, but I'm going to make you. God lets one man trek, and oh, he sees the beauty of the earth, and he has his problems, sure enough. But this little boy is down in a jail. He's only about seventeen years of age, and he stays in jail for thirteen years.

That's rough, eh? I wonder how many that are in jail this morning. Did you think and pray for them in Russia and China, or were you too busy because the toaster's burned or something? It's amazing how often people come after me and say, Mr. Ravenhill, I'm afraid I haven't prayed for China for...

I don't know if I ever prayed for China or Russia. I just think, you know, dirty, rotten communists, they're just... Well, don't they need compassion and consideration and prayer more than our folks? The difference is, you see, our folks could go to church if they would, whereas lots of those people would go to church if they could.

There are no churches to go to. I remind you again that eight hundred years ago, China had a thriving New Testament church in every town, in every city. Eight hundred years ago, eight centuries ago, China had those churches thriving, throbbing.

What have we got today? You think it couldn't go the same way here? The pastor of the First Baptist Church in a certain place told me the other day that four Southern Baptist churches a week have left the association since January this year.

And I forget how many hundred have left in the last ten years, because of liberal trends and other things. Oh, which is happening in other denominations. Sure, there's a deterioration of spirituality.

Sabbath Observance and Spiritual Priorities

On the other hand, it's phenomenal, isn't it, that this man Bill Gofford has just finished a meeting in Minneapolis, and they had a hall seating twenty thousand, and they had to put the extra closed circuit for seven thousand.

He got twenty-seven thousand a night, and he's going back in the fall, and they're fixing up a place. Forty thousand people. And he doesn't have broken down film stars, and he doesn't give them five hundred dollars for testifying because they play for the Rams, you know, worship the Lord under a stack of flesh on a Sunday afternoon.

Good Christians, but they break the Sabbath. Of course, they read the Scripture before they go belt another man's head off. I don't know how you reconcile it with love, I don't know how you reconcile it with Christianity, but it's one of the phenomenas of the day, you know, Christian athlete, real great guy.

Break the Sabbath, one of the great tennis players, fine Christian, goes to youth camp, breaks the Sabbath, draws hundreds of people. Oh, can't go to church this morning, because if we go, of course, we won't get a seat at the tennis match.

So they break the Sabbath, youth man, it doesn't mean a thing, except that God says in Isaiah, what, 58, withdraw thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy days, a condition of revival.

You see, you give God a tenth of your money, if you're still in the Old Testament, but he demands one day, and you'll have to find ways of fencing off for your spiritual life. Somebody was talking about, I think this brother, about books today.

I had a friend, I don't know where he is now, I've since left England, but that man, every third week in his life, he never read a newspaper, and he never read a book. All the available time every day for a week, he read the Bible.

It was a pattern in his life, the third week, no books, no newspapers, just the Bible. Built himself up in the Bible. When we were at home as kids, Sunday, if your shoes weren't cleaned, they weren't cleaned, that's all.

You got a belting on Monday for sure, but you cleaned your shoes Saturday night. When I was a younger man, I used to shave at 10 minutes to 12 on a Sunday, Saturday night, because I wouldn't shave on Sunday.

A Sabbatarian, okay. You see, in Scotland, where they had revival in the Hebrides, I found the secret, I think, talking with Duncan Campbell, do you know what it was? That amongst those Presbyterians in Western Scotland, and over in the Isles, the Hebrides, not the new Hebrides, they're in the South Pacific, but in Hebrides, do you know that every morning and night, they have family devotions.

Daddy says to one of the children, Hamish, maybe, which is Gaelic for John, Hamish, bring the book. And they lift the dishes off the table, Daddy opens the big Bible, and he reads a psalm, usually, and he prays, and the children go to school, come home at night, have supper, the dishes are moved off the table, the Bible comes out, he reads the Bible, and he prays.

The amazing thing is, they have devotions twice a day, and they're not saved people, they're just good Presbyterians. But I believe that because the word was hid in their hearts, from youth up, Paul may plant a pollis water, God gave the increase, that's why they have revival.

In the way that they have revival there, because the word, the seed, was already planted in their hearts. In our house, if I whistled on Sunday, going to one, Daddy would call, Len? Yes, Daddy? It's Sunday.

Oh, sorry, Daddy. Now, if you're walking through a room, and you're given an orange, and you started doing this, it's Sunday. Sunday, you sat on a chair, you read a book, of the Bible, and got down to it.

Oh, you mean a hell of thing. Got a church Sunday morning, let's go to the beach, amongst the half nudes, and all the rest of it. Let's have a wiener though. We were in a church not too long ago, in California.