Faith That Faints Not — Manley Beasley

Greetings, friends. It's certainly a joy and a privilege to be back with you again this month. I always counted a joy to be able to come to you by tape and share with you what the Lord is doing in my own personal life as well as in my family's life and the ministry.

We're going through a time right now of real challenge on every hand. The opportunities are so numerous and our ability is so limited and we're just having to trust the Lord every day to get us through, to accomplish what He wants us to accomplish.

And I'm not sure that we're getting everything accomplished that we should. But do pray for us to this end. You may have noticed on the invoice of each tape you've been getting recently, there's been some kind of little special offered.

Through the years we have accumulated a great deal of material around here that's sort of just laying around that's very good. And a lot of it need to be reprinted, but at this point we're not in position to reprint a lot of this.

And so we offer some of this material as some little special each month. So you may notice for that because there's some of the material can be a real blessing to you. Some of it I realize might not be a blessing to you, but that is available.

This particular tape this month is a tape of a message I preached in a church. In fact, I sent you a tape recently where I preached in this same particular church with a pastor that has been told that he has a disease that's terminal.

And right now we're working through the battle, sort of the fight of faith with this dear brother. And if you have to live with someone and have to face them every day, you have to face the reality of the measure of your faith.

And so with this brother I have not been trying to mislead him or misguide him in a faith that he doesn't have or in a faith that I do not have. And so we've been working on that basis. And this particular message this month is a message that I brought to his church encouraging his church to stay faithful to God and trust God and encouraging him to trust God.

And at the same time I found myself extremely encouraged to trust God. It certainly is a privilege to be able to share along these lines with you. I have been rebuked and questioned somewhat because of some of the things that I've said in relationship to healing.

But nevertheless, we have to preach what the Lord has shown us. And we try to harmonize our lives with the Word of God. We do not try to harmonize the Word of God with our lives. And so you just pray that we'll continue to be faithful.

Do pray for us because the battle is extremely tough about the physical part right now. The doctors are still saying kidney machine shortly and then a kidney transplant. And the only word that we get from God that we walk by faith not by sight.

And so we're making our plans to continue to just stay on the line like we have been for these years, trusting the Lord fully. I do thank you. And I do say this, that I just was at the doctor's office last Friday and was told that the disease that I had back in 1971 is not active in my body.

So we're just praising the Lord for that. May the Lord bless you as you listen to this tape. I'll begin reading at the first verse. And if I happen to miss a word in your King James translation, it's because I ended up with a new King James translation this morning.

I've got about, I don't know how many different Bibles. And I read out all of them. I want to hear what they all have got to say. And so I ended up with a new King James translation. So you, I don't think you'll even know the difference if I hadn't told you.

But you might miss a word or two. Or might be a different word or two. But nevertheless, this is one of the more encouraging messages in the Bible to me. And I think you'll understand why it's so encouraging.

The Parable of the Persistent Widow and Faith That Does Not Faint

And I might say this also about this passage. It is a passage that definitely fits into the pattern of possibly what the Lord was doing here Wednesday night. And he spoke a parable unto them that men ought always to pray and not to lose heart or not to faint.

Your King James, regular King James says that. And I want to bring that out because of the title of the message. Saying there was a certain city, a judge, or in a certain city a judge who did not fear God nor regard man.

Now there was a widow in that city. And she came to him saying, avenge me of mine adversary. And he would not for a while, but afterwards he said within himself, though I do not fear God nor regard man, yet because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge her lest by her continual coming she weareth me.

Now you might notice there that I'm so accustomed to the King James that I use the King James word instead of a new English word. The Lord said, hear what the unjust judge said. Shall not God avenge his own elect which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them?

I'll tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he really find faith on the earth? If I had a title for this message, it would be, A Faith That Will Not Faint.

If this woman had a faith, it wouldn't faint. Now as you look at this passage, you realize that all scripture has a literal interpretation. And it also has a practical application. And many times scripture has a prophetic revelation.

Now this is a scripture that has all three. It has a literal interpretation that is somewhat of a prophetic revelation. And it certainly has a spiritual application. The literal interpretation of this scripture is the fact that the church is left in a world with adversity and the church has to face adversity on every hand.

The Church's Perseverance Through Adversity

And I mean the church is not going to get out of a time, not the tribulation, but a time of tribulation. There's not going to be a time when the church does not face adversity. Literally face adversity.

She's going to face adversity. And we are to seek the Lord till he comes and seek his face about coming. And when he comes, will he find faith, a vital faith, now a living faith, not the faith that the Bible says the gates of hell shall not prevail against the church.

The faith. The gates of hell is not going to prevail against people having the faith. I mean the devil will make a strong bid to destroy everyone, but I'll tell you there'll still be people standing for the faith when Jesus comes.

But this faith here is a vital, living, vibrant, now faith that where we are personally trusting Jesus in the now. Will he find that kind of faith on the earth? Now you might say, well, Brother Manley, how in the world could people be saved without faith?

Saving Faith and Victorious Faith

They can't be. They're saved by grace through faith, but nevertheless a lot of people will have a faith that will get them saved, but not a faith that will get them into victory. Now Jude said in Jude 5 that they had a faith that got them out of the land of Egypt, but they did not have a faith that got them into the land of Canaan.

And there was a faith that was genuine that got them saved, but there was not a faith that carried them on in and threw into victory. And whether you realize it or not, unless you and I have victory as children of God, we have no testimony that we're saved by the grace of God.

Now we may be saved, and we can be saved and not have victory, but unless we have victory in our lives, the world doesn't know that we're saved. They just have to take us at our word, and our word is not too good when our lives contradict what we're saying.

And unless we have victory in our lives, we really have no testimony that we're saved by the grace of God. And let me say again, I didn't say that you weren't saved because you could be saved and be defeated, but a child of God needs to have victory.

The Unjust Judge and the Helpless Widow

Now this woman here definitely had victory in her life. I mean, she had victory. And it all came about because she had a faith that wouldn't faint. So what I want you to do is look at the characters in this passage, first of all.

I want you to see that there was an unjust judge. Now let's look at this unjust judge for a moment. This unjust judge does not represent God in any way, shape, form, or fashion. This unjust judge does not represent God.

God is using this ridiculous, uncouth, ungodly, devilish individual to actually create the opposite and show you actually the goodness of God, the readiness of God, the mercy of God, and so on. And God reaches out and pulls this ungodly man that does not have any regard for man, and he doesn't have any regard for God, which means he certainly doesn't have any regard for a heftless widow.

And this ungodly person does not represent God. Now this man was a judge. Obviously he was a man of some authority. And so then we have the woman, and she was a widow woman. Now in America today, the widow women have most of the money in America.

But I'll assure you in the culture in which this Bible was written, the widow woman was not a wealthy person. The picture here is a woman that is economically heftless. She didn't have any money that would talk for her.

She was also socially heftless, because in that culture, a woman without a man to speak for her did not have a great deal of clout. That's right. And you may not realize it. It's still that way today.

You get a widow that doesn't have any money, and you get her just a widow that doesn't have some man to stand up for her. And I see it all the time. People take advantage of women like that. So they still do not have a lot of power.

They may think they do. Some of them think they do, I guess, but they still do not. People will take advantage of women when they'll not take advantage of men. But nevertheless, this woman is a heftless widow woman that has no, no authority and power and strength against this unjust judge.

But she did have a faith that would not faint. I mean, she had a faith that would not let her quit. This is called the prayer of improtunity. I mean, she just kept going to this unjust judge. I mean, she just would not.

She refused to give up. I mean, she refused to give up. She just kept on going and kept on going to this unjust judge. Obviously, he gave her a bad time. He gave her a very difficult time. She was not discouraged by his refusal of helping her.

I mean, she was not discouraged. If she did, it doesn't show up. Nevertheless, she just kept on going. She had a faith that wouldn't faint. Now, you may not realize that's important, but I think we'll come back to it in a moment and we'll realize that this is uniquely important.

The Flesh, the World, and the Devil as Adversaries

Now, you have an adversary in this passage. And you know and I know that we have an adversary. We have the adversary actually manifested in three ways. We have the flesh and we have the world and we have the devil.

And the adversary is constantly out there warring against the child of God. I mean, friend, the adversary hasn't taken a vacation. And the adversary doesn't even sleep. He stays on the run. I mean, he goes all the time.

And he, listen, if he has let up on you, it's because he has got a strategy to come at you a different way. I mean, he is not about to quit because the devil is wide, wide, wide awake. You know, the people that study communism today are quite confused by this latest development in Russia.

And Mr. Gorbachev, I was reading yesterday in the paper where they have recently allowed Bibles to be printed and Bibles to come in and books on the Bible to come in. And I'm involved a great deal in this sort of thing and I know what's going on to some extent there.

But this type of thing is quite confusing about this man who does not believe in God, who represents the devil in a most profound way. And so you can just be assured that when the devil backs off in some way it's because he has got a new strategy of some sort.

I mean, the adversary is out there and he's constantly going to be there. And there's no place that you and I can get as children of God where the adversary has not an opportunity to affect you or me in some way.

You know, some of us get the idea that the devil just takes a vacation on this business. I got tickled one time, and I guess I don't know that that's a good statement to make. I preached on the devil one night and I showed the people how they could learn to clothe themselves in Jesus and resist the devil and that they needed to go home and spend the night in prayer resisting the devil.

And the pastor said, I wish you hadn't have told them that. I said, why? Because he said, we might get the devil stirred up. I mean, that man said that. And can you imagine? Now, let me tell you something, folks.

He doesn't need to be stirred up. He is already stirred up. And if you're not aware that he's stirred up, it's because he is coming at you in a way that you're not aware of. Now, this woman had an adversary, and you and I have an adversary, and I want you to know he's well and very active.

The Devil's Defeat and Ongoing Activity

Now, the amazing thing about this adversary is that he has been defeated. He has been defeated. I like a little story about the adversary that I heard years and years ago about two little birds sitting on a fence by a strawberry patch.

And one little bird said to the other little bird, I would love to have a strawberry. But you see that man out there in that strawberry patch? He'll get you. The other little bird said, I'd like to have one too, but I know he'll get you.

Finally, one of these little birds said to the other one, well, I'm going to get me a strawberry regardless. If he gets me or not, I'm going to get me a strawberry. So one of the little birds hopped into the strawberry patch, and God just stuck that bill in a big old juicy red strawberry and pulled it out and ate that portion of that strawberry.

And he waved to the other little old bird and said, come on. He said, that man is nothing but a scarecrow. Now, beloved, I've got news for you. That's sort of beautiful. But I want you to know the devil has been defeated.

But God has allowed him to stay alive, to be an adversary. And my dear friends, he is there alive and well, constantly working on us. And don't you go running around thinking that he is just a scarecrow unless you know how to make him a scarecrow.

Yes, sir. Now, you can make him a scarecrow. You can bind him. Amen. One of these days, one little old angel is going to come down and bind him and cast him in the pit. But what I'm trying to say is he is active.

But he has been defeated. But a child of God must take his part in relationship to the adversary. You must not, my dear friends, not pay attention and act like he's not there because he is there. For the continuation of this message, please turn the tape to side 2.

When he's not working one way that you're conscious of, he's working in some way that you're not conscious of, and it might be too late when you find out what's going on. Now, there's another person involved here, personality, character, and that's God.

God's Faithfulness to His Elect

And here is God. And I tell you, I love it because God just lets us see a part of him that's so encouraging. And he says, "...God shall avenge his elect who cry day and night to him. Though he bear long with them," listen to this, what he says, "...I'll tell you that he will avenge them speedily.".

Now, that's amazing when God is everywhere and he gets speedily. I mean, how in the world do you get speedily when you're everywhere? Right? He's omnipresent. I think God just really wants us to see, folk, I'm at hand.

And I can really be on the spot. And I can be right there to take care of the situation. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man come, will he find faith on the earth? So we have the Father. We have God the Father that's all-powerful in heaven and in earth.

All-powerful. He is not only all-powerful, but he's all-knowing. He's not only all-knowing, but, beloved, he is absolutely faithful. He is absolutely faithful. That's one of the attributes of God.

And, beloved, he cannot deny himself. He is not a man that he can lie. In him is no shadow occurring. Not even a shadow. Not even a shadow. No bearableness in him. He's not only all-powerful and knows all, but he, my dear friend, is all-faithful.

Yes, sir. It's amazing how faithful he is. Now, this is the Lord that's talking here. And here's what I believe he wants us to see. I believe he wants us to see that here was a woman who had a faith that would not faint.

A Faith That Refuses to Give Up

That simply means she didn't have a lot of faith. That's right. That meant that she simply had a faith that refused to give up. She just refused to give up. Regardless of all of her opposition, she simply refused to give up.

A lot of people said, I don't have enough faith to see this problem through. I don't know that it takes so much faith, but it takes a decision not to give up. Yes, sir. Even when the disciples said to Jesus, increase our faith, he didn't say, I'm going to do it.

He said, just act with what you've got. And I think it increases naturally. You see, this woman had a faith that refused to give up. Back years ago, I was placed in a testing opportunity. And I so committed myself that I could not back out.

You ever get out there? You see, it's so committed you can't back out. Well, if you don't get there, you'll back out, usually. Amen. You'll back out. So the best thing to do is go right off at first and just go and get out there where you can't back out.

You say, well, Brother Manley, what if you fail? You won't. No. You see, there's no marriage that will ever fail. When people get married, they make up their mind there's only one way out. It's death.

The only reason a marriage fails is you think you've got an option. If you didn't have an option, folks, it'd never fail. Excuse me. And my dear friends, if you're set up to faith, I guarantee you where you've got to believe God, you won't fail.

If you know how to walk on through it with it. That's right. You get out there. Now, if you don't know what's going on, you might fail. But when you go into it knowing. Now, you take the preacher and myself.

We out there and we can't help it. I mean, there's nothing we can do about it. God's done us the honor of shutting us up to where we've got to trust Him. We have no option. We have no alternative. Amen.

Amen. That's why we're looking for the answers. And that's why we're going to get them. If we don't have them. Because, beloved, there's no way out but His way. Yes, sir. And this little widow woman, she didn't have a speck of energy to fight that old uncouth, ungodly, just judge.

And God said, listen, if that man, because of that continual coming of that woman, would avenge her of her adversary, He said, how much quicker would an all-knowing, all-powerful, all-loving, all-faithful God avenge you of your adversary?

I'll tell you, God will see you through and me through and make sure that He gets the glory and we get the benefit. If we simply have a faith that will not fail. Amen. I got out there one time when I was first beginning to see a glimpse of this matter of faith before God shut me up to where I had no alternative.

And so I got out there and all the feeling that you would expect to come along with faith left. And then after the feeling left, then something else left. All the circumstances that would cooperate to establish faith and stimulate faith left.

That's what I said, yeah. That's right. They left. And there was nothing else to hold on to but the naked Word of God. And I got so low in the faith issue, I just said, Lord, I refuse to doubt. That's how low I got.

Amen. When doubt would assail me, I refused it. I said, I refuse to doubt. I was so weak I couldn't even choose to have faith. I was refusing to doubt. But you know what? It was a faith that didn't fail.

It was not much. It was not much faith at all. But, folk, it was a faith that would not. There was a man, low on faith, that wanted to go to South America as a missionary. And he was so discouraged he was ready to give up.

And he walked in Cam Thompson's office. Cam Thompson was a Munich man of God. Died, possibly, 25 years ago, possibly. And I met his family. But he was gone when I came along through the area where he lived.

But I met his family. But he had a little booklet out that Back to the Bible Broadcasting Company put out. And, I mean, that little old booklet just literally changed lives by the thousands. And this missionary came into Cam Thompson's office.

Cam Thompson could see that his faith was so weak it was almost gone. He asked this man, he said, Sir, have you done everything you know to do to get to South America? He said, Yes, sir, everything. He said, Why don't you do one more thing?

One more thing. He said, What's that? He said, I want you to go down to the Florida Keys. I want you to get on the last one toward South America. And I want you to walk out in that ocean till all that's left of you is just your head.

And I want you to look up and tell God, Now, God, I've done everything I can do to get there. He never had to go to those Florida Keys. See, right there he just made the choice. I'm going to refuse to let the devil whip me.

I'm going to stand. And just that little word of encouragement took him through. You see, this woman, she didn't have any ability against that old unjust judge. She was a helpless creature. And she had an enemy.

And she couldn't handle him. But just she had a faith that wouldn't faint. She just kept going. And just kept going. And kept going. It's obviously she didn't have any real shouting victory. She just kept going.

She just kept going. She just kept going. But she had a faith that would not faint, beloved. And that faith that would not faint brought her through. Yes, sir. It brought her through. And this morning, I don't know where you are as an individual.

Standing Firm Until God Acts

I do not know where you are at a church. But I do know that God is going to constantly be on the scene. And I know that you're going to constantly have the adversary working on you every moment of every day.

As an individual, as a church. And I know the devil will do his best to get you to give up. And quit. And throw it down. And cast it aside. And say it's impossible. It's improbable. It's not even feasible.

Whatever the issue may be in your life, he's flat there to destroy you. But, folk, if you have got a faith in the Lord that refuses to doubt. That will not faint. God will speedily avenge an adversary.

He will speedily come to the aid of his thanks. He will do it. He will do it. You say, Brother Manley, when will he do it? Very likely he'll do it when he sees that you won't faint. When the world sees you won't faint.

You say, well, God already knows. I know, but he'll give you the last chance. Amen. He has to allow you and me to be tested and tried to the nth degree. Or he wouldn't be just. Amen. You see, the children of Israel, he knew the children of Israel were not going into the land of Canaan.

But he gave them the opportunity. So he can know, see, whether you have a faith that will faint or not faint. But he must let you know. And the only way to let you know is for you to get there. Amen. And see, today you say, well, I've got that kind of faith.

Well, let's wait till all the feelings are gone. Let's wait till all the circumstances are gone. And there's nothing to stand on but the Word of God. Without any kind of feeling. Without any kind of circumstances that would stimulate hope.

Wait till that kind comes. And then we'll see. Now, God already knows. But we must see. The world must see. Yes, sir, they've got to see. To know. Faith that fails has a flaw from the first. And my dear friends, God has to let us see where we are.

You see, along the way we can even be corrected if we get honest. If we realize that our faith can't take it and just simply get honest about it, I believe He'll even correct you along the way to enable us to stand in that day.

Trusting God's Word Beyond Feelings and Circumstances

Yes, sir. May God help you today. You know where you are. You know if you're about trying to throw in the towel. You know where it's not you're about ready to quit. The other day they told me, I called the doctor and they said your test looks awful.

And I was sitting beside the bed and I just opened one of the Bibles I had in there. And the first thing it said, you see it had me confused. Because here they are wanting me to do this and that and the other a year, a year and a half down the road.

And I won't give them much time beyond a year. People want me to say, we want to make plans, we want to make plans. And then you can't carry them out and then they get mad. So Lord, I said, Lord, am I supposed to make plans?

Am I supposed to make plans a year ahead of time? And I went to this doctor and I said, now if this test doesn't turn out good, then I'll know that I'm trying to push things too far and make too many plans.

Well, I shouldn't have told God that. Because, you know, Peter said, Lord, if that be you, then me to come to you. Well, what was Jesus going to say to Peter? He had no alternative. Peter put God on the spot.

You ever thought about that? He put him on the spot. What was Jesus supposed to do? So I said, Lord, if this test is not good, you know, I'll know. So I, that doctor said, Brother Manley, it's bad. I just opened that Bible.

And there it was, red ink. Would walk by faith and not by sight. Yes, sir. He said, what'd you do, preacher? I picked up the telephone and started making plans. Amen. Started making plans because I looked at the Amplified and it says you do not regulate your affairs by what you see or feel.

You regulate what you do by your faith in God. Now, this woman didn't have a lot of faith. But she did have a faith that wasn't faith. And I believe today you've got that kind of faith. So don't faint.