Thank you tonight for that love so amazing
and so divine.
We ask ourselves in the language of the
hymn, How can it be, thou heavenly king,
that thou dost us to glory bring?
Make slaves the partners of thy throne, decked
with an ever-fading crown.
We thank you for that love so amazing,
that measureless love.
The love the apostle prayed that the people
he knew that they might know the height
and depth and length and breadth of the
love of God which passeth knowledge.
We know, Lord, that men can take the
temperature of the sun today.
They can weigh the world or estimate its
weight.
They've solved many things which were baffling to
our fathers.
But Lord, we bless you that you have
something that cannot be fathomed.
That we can experience it, though we can't
explain it.
This love so amazing.
Lord, we think of the world right now
seemingly on the edge of more wars.
Only because it rejects the Prince of Peace.
We see the world so restless because it
will not come to the one who said,
Come unto me and I will give you
rest.
The people who think they're free and yet
they're in bondage to sin.
They think of other people who are in
bondage and we're free.
Free from the law, free from the power
of men.
Free from the fear of death.
Free from the fear of tomorrow.
We thank you, Lord, you hold tomorrow and
that's all that matters to us.
We thank you for our great King, our
great Lord Jesus Christ.
Lord, as we sang that moving verse tonight.
Face to face, O blissful moment.
Lord, we think and know we see all
the saints of all the ages.
Abraham and Isaac and Moses and the apostles
and prophets.
And all the martyrs of the ages.
A blood-washed throng.
Many of them died in their own blood.
But Lord, we thank you that they knew
the blood of the Lamb.
By which they have access to your eternal
throne.
And we have that access tonight.
Lord, we thank you.
It will be worth it all when we
see Jesus.
Life's trial will seem so small when we
see Christ.
One glimpse of his dear face, all sorrow
will erase.
And so by your grace we will bravely
run the race till we see Christ.
Lord, we think of all your servants through
the world tonight.
We think of those nations.
As Wesley said, fast bound in sin and
nature's night.
As yet, Lord, nobody has sounded the alarm.
Nobody has taken the light into their darkness.
Nobody has taken food, spiritual food for their
starving souls.
We thank you for every missionary.
Maybe some lonely missionary up the Amazon today,
feeling forgotten.
Maybe he hasn't had mail for months.
And yet there he is doing the will
of God.
We thank you for others in isolated places.
We think of the saints in Russia, the
saints in China, the saints in Albania.
Areas we know so little about and very
often unfortunately don't care much about.
Lord God, we are so overfed and overstuffed
and overtaught.
Our responsibility at the judgment is terrifying, Lord,
as I think of it.
And Lord, we ask you to bless your
word to our hearts tonight.
Again, we thank you for this holy book.
Written by the Holy Ghost.
And holy men of God speak as they
were moved by the Holy Ghost.
And Lord, I'm sure that wherever the Holy
Ghost is, there's movement.
It may not shatter a community, but it
moves individual hearts.
We thank you for the Spirit who draws
us more and more into Christ, into the
deeper things of God.
That makes us realize, Lord, everything in this
world has death on it.
It's all perishing things of clay that are
born but for one brief day.
But Lord, we bless you again.
You've opened our eyes.
We remember you prayed on the Damascus, on
the road to Emesh.
You said to the men, you opened their
eyes.
And then you opened the eyes of their
understanding.
And then you opened the scriptures.
We ask you to do this tonight.
That Lord, in the language of the psalmist,
we may say, Lord, we want tonight to
behold wondrous things out of thy law.
That we may glorify you.
Bless all who are absent.
We think of the last day's staff away
there in Hawaii and ask you to bless
them.
Grant, Lord, that what they're seeking, they'll find.
And come back renewed and strengthened.
And God, again, we ask you, quicken us,
as the psalmist said again, quicken us according
to your word.
Not to our ideas, but according to your
holy word, quicken us.
We give you thanks in Jesus' name.
The book of Job.
Very interesting book.
Book of Job.
Said to be the oldest book ever written.
I don't know, I'm not smart enough to
know that.
Do you know about that, brother?
It's a wonderful book anyhow.
Chapter 23.
Chapter 23 and verse 10.
But he knoweth the way that I take.
And when he hath tried me, I shall
come forth as gold.
Now let's get back to the first chapter.
In Job.
Let's begin at verse 6.
There was a day when the sons of
God came to present themselves before the Lord,
and Satan came also among them.
Now notice this, the Lord said unto Satan.
I wonder if he said this about you
and I today.
The Lord said to Satan, have you considered
my servant Job?
And then here's the testimony.
I missed verse 7, 8.
The Lord said unto Satan, whence comest thou?
Satan answered the Lord, from going to and
fro in the earth, and from walking up
and down.
The Lord said unto Satan, hast thou considered
my servant Job?
There is none like him in the earth,
a perfect and upright man, one that feareth
God and escheweth evil.
It's not a record.
The devil had been going up and down
in the world all day, and God said,
have you considered my servant Job?
There's nobody like him, he's one of a
kind.
Paul said in one of his epistles, we
have made a spectacle unto the world.
In other words, you and I have an
exhibition.
Why are you working in that office?
To be an exhibition of righteousness.
Why are you teaching in school?
To be an exhibition of righteousness and holiness.
And God testifies of this man, that he
is upright and he feareth God.
Then Satan answered and said to the Lord,
that's just like the devil to answer back,
isn't it?
You know, when people say to me, do
you know what Satan said to me today?
I say, no, I think he conceited.
Why?
Satan said something.
I don't remember, I didn't check up, but
I think as far as I know, there
are only three times in the whole of
Scripture, the voice of Satan is heard.
He was heard in the garden, when he
accused man before God, God before man, when
he says, you're being told not to do
this, not to do that.
And he says, hath God said?
In other words, he's challenging God.
Hath God said?
So he kind of mocks God before man,
but now he kind of mocks man before
God.
Hath thou...
Satan answered the Lord and said, doth Job
fear God for not?
Okay.
Well, the third time was in the garden,
pardon me, in the 40 days of temptation,
when Satan came and talked over and over
and over again to the Lord Jesus.
You know, when people say, Satan spoke to
me, I say, I think a bit conceited.
I've told you many times, if the devil
has a danger list, I want to be
one of the most ten famous men on
his list.
I want the devil to hate me, I
want him to fear me when I go
preach, when I go pray, wherever I am.
I want to be one of the danger
men on the devil's list.
As I said before, I think the greatest
honor in the scripture given to a man
is when those demons jumped on a preacher
that was trying to cast out demons, and
the demons said what?
Jesus we know and Paul we know.
I wonder how many of the famous big
shot TV preachers have feared in hell.
How many men and women are feared in
hell?
They have such a hold on the throne
of God.
Or as the word of God talks about
laying hold of the horns of the altar.
That's the only thing that's going to move
our generation to God, nothing else.
Some holy men spake as they were moved
by the Holy Ghost, it's got to come
back to that.
Satan answered and said, the Lord and said,
doth Job fear God for naught?
Now look at the things he says, hast
thou not made a hedge about it?
Isn't that an admission?
Come on, are you a leaf?
That the wind blows around?
Are you a football for the devil to
kick around?
I believe that if you live in the
will of God, the devil has to get
a permit every day to come and touch
your life, or get some agency to touch
you.
We're precious in his sight.
I told you about going to Ireland, sometime
I told you.
I went to see an old preacher up
in the hill.
When I got there his wife came to
the door.
I've never seen such a woman in my
life, I won't try to describe them, she'd
exhaust ten dicks for it.
And she said, come to see my husband.
I said, well he invited me to come
and drink some tea and eat some scones.
So she said, you know what, he's a
bit odd.
I thought, well that's true of you.
So we sat down and she said, he's
really odd.
He spends all the day looking through microscopes
and all the night looking through telescopes.
He's a wonderful husband.
I talked with him, he said, have you
ever seen through the eye of a fly?
Then I knew he was odd.
I said, have I seen through the eye
of a fly?
No, maybe the reason is I don't believe
in reincarnation, I don't believe there ever was
a fly.
No, he said, let me show you something.
So he brought a piece of glass out
with a little dot on it.
He said, what's that?
I don't know, tapioca pudding or soap, I
don't know.
He said, it's the eye of a fly.
Let me magnify it.
He said, what do you see?
I can see slanting things on the eye
of the fly.
He said, the eye of that fly, less
than the size of a pinhead, has 350
different lenses on it.
They're set in every conceivable angle.
And the more I looked, the more I
wondered.
The eye of a fly has 350 lenses
on it?
I said, you've solved a problem for me.
He said, what's that?
I said, it's got two eyes.
That's 750 lenses.
And stupid me, I said, no way.
No wonder I can't catch the thing.
Then he said, have you seen the wing
of a butterfly magnified?
No, so he showed me that.
He said, you know, a butterfly's wing has
3,000 triangles on it.
I remember once in mid-Atlantic flying through
the ocean there and we saw a gorgeous
butterfly flying about 10 feet above the water.
How it made it from New York, we
were 1,000 miles away from New York,
I don't know.
But you build in an angle like that
and the eye of a fly has 350
lenses on it.
The wing of a butterfly has about 2
,000 of those things on it.
I said, well, that helps me a lot.
He said, why?
I said, are you suggesting that God Almighty
was the architect of the eye of that
little fly on the wall that doesn't mean
that much to anybody?
And the wing of a butterfly?
And yet my life has no design?
I'm kicked around this way with sorrow and
kicked away the other way so that I
can heal when they hate me?
Forget it.
I said, I believe God Almighty.
I believe in the sovereignty of God for
the universe, I believe in the sovereignty of
God for myself.
And this man recognizes this.
Satan has to go to God for a
permit.
Has thou not made a hedge about him?
You bless the work of his hands and
his substance is increased.
What he's saying here, this man is so
holy for this simple reason, prosperity.
Kick his prosperity away and you'll go flat
on his face.
He serves you for what he's getting.
He doesn't serve you for naught.
Nobody serves God for naught.
Face to face shall I behold him.
Maybe I've got the kind of vision I
have to see those millions of people in
eternity.
You know, if you knew that by investing
a dollar today, 20 years from now you
get a million for it, you'd stick that
dollar down quickly.
But the dividends for serving Jesus Christ God
is no man's debter, the word of God
says.
And we're not collecting the answer here, we're
collecting the answer when we get into eternity.
When he said that your servant Job, so
what?
Let's say this is Job, he says you
put a hedge around about him, take it
away.
He said no, I'll bring it a bit
nearer to him.
So what happens when you get a series
of wonderful things?
Verse 11, he says, put forth thine hand
now and touch all that he hath and
he will curse thee to thy face.
Again, he's tied up with his prosperity and
that's why he's so pious.
In verse 12, the Lord said unto Satan,
Behold, all that he hath is in thy
power only upon himself.
That is upon his life, put not forth
thy hand.
So Satan went forth from the presence of
the Lord.
There was a devil, there was a day
when the sons and daughters were eating and
drinking.
Verse 14, there came a message and said
to Job, the oxen were ploughing and the
asses feeding beside them.
You usually find that.
Verse 16, while he was yet speaking there
came another and said the fire of God
is fallen from heaven and have burned up
the sheep and the servants and consumed them.
While he was yet speaking there came also
another and said the Chaldeans what we sing
a hymn sometimes when sorrows like sea billows
roll and these things are falling out over
each other.
We're going to ship this man.
We'll dislodge him.
We'll drag his anchor.
Before we're through with him he'll curse God
and die.
He'll be an embarrassment to God.
And so the Lord says do as you
like with him.
So what's the first blow he gets?
The first blow is bankruptcy.
He lost all his possessions.
The second blow is bereavement.
He lost his children.
The third blow is boils.
He got boils all over his body.
And yet despite his world has fallen apart.
The walls have gone out.
The roof has gone in.
And yet he doesn't curse God and die.
Verse 20 says then Job arose and rent
his mantle and shaved his head and fell
down on the ground and cursed God.
No, no, no.
He worshipped.
Do you know what he worshipped when he
got lost rid of all his property?
It doesn't mention him worshipping until he was
bankrupt.
He didn't have to run after his cattle.
He didn't run after his investments.
He didn't run after this, that and the
other.
Everything had gone.
And there's a hymn, you know Jesus, you
lover of my soul Charles Wesley wrote that
in the 1700s.
And in that hymn he says other refuge
have I none hangs my helpless soul on
thee.
And you know, God wants to get us
all to that place of total responsibility on
him where we've nothing to lean on.
He's going to pull the rug from under
us before very long in America and elsewhere.
But if we're safely grounded in him it
won't make any difference.
It was for him I was thinking of
earlier tonight.
I'm going to have it now for tonight.
What was for him as he sat on
the rock?
Yeah.
My hope is built on nothing less than
Jesus.
On Christ the solid rock I stand all
other ground is sinking sand.
When darkness veils his lovely face does it
do that?
There's been an eclipse of the sun today.
There's an eclipse of the sun S-U
-N and an eclipse of the sun S
-O-N for many people.
And if he's not always smiling and handing
out blessings they get disturbed.
It's a day of prosperity.
There's so many people prosperous religiously but not
truly spiritually.
It's time to worship now.
He said naked I came out of my
mother's womb and naked I shall return.
The Lord gave and the Lord has taken
away.
Blessed be the name of the Lord.
In all this Job sinned not nor charged
God foolishly.
Let's look at another chapter now.
What was it?
22.
Remember Job's gone through a lot of confusion
and trial and testing.
He's lost his material possessions.
He's lost his family.
Can you imagine the grief?
He goes out a millionaire and wakes up
in the morning and they have a penny
to his name.
He goes to the funeral of what 7
or 14 people all in the same day.
The devil mocked him and scorned him.
He was torn up materially was torn up
emotionally.
He was torn up spiritually.
Look at the beginning of chapter 23.
Job answered and said even to this day
is my complaint bitter my stroke is heavier
than my groaning.
In the bewilderment he said in verse 3
all that I knew all that I knew
where I might find him that I might
come even to his street.
Verse 8.
Behold I go forward be it is not
there and backward but I cannot perceive him.
There's a poem that's written on this that
says I went forward and couldn't find him
backward I couldn't find him.
Is there anybody there?
Have you felt sometimes as though God's forsaken
he's a million miles away?
That's not unusual.
In fact it's par for the course.
I go forward he's not there and backward
but I cannot perceive him.
On the left hand where he doth work
but I cannot behold him.
He hath himself on the right hand and
I cannot see him.
But here's the crux of the thing that
he knoweth the way that I take and
when he hath tried me I shall come
forth as gold.
When he hath tried me.
You know we say the devil's doing it.
People say well are circumstances handling you how
are your circumstances?
Circumstances shouldn't brush around.
If people say well how is the world
treating you?
I remember I was about 16 a man
asked me one day he said Leonard how's
the world treating you?
I said it doesn't treat me I treat
it.
You see either you kick the world around
or it kicks you around.
But we don't rise and fall with circumstances.
We're hoping to get a change of weather
this weekend I am.
I detest this hot weather.
I'm going to import some English weather this
weekend.
But you know there's a thermostat on the
wall there.
If you open that door and it was
freezing outside it wouldn't do a thing for
this room.
That thing would fight back and fight back.
A thermostat is there to control the atmosphere.
You put a thermometer outside the window and
it goes up and down with the weather.
Well all of us ride a thermostat to
thermometers.
Either we have control or circumstances have their
control.
And I refuse to let the devil control.
I say I've got a thermostat within I've
got the presence of the living God.
Notice he says all that I may knew
where I may find him he doesn't say
I wish I could find a place to
recover my prosperity.
I wish I could get my children back.
I wish I could get my material.
He isn't concerned about that.
I've been thinking so much this week of
the psalmist when he said my flesh and
my blood my flesh, my heart and my
flesh cry out for the living God.
For God.
You know people are seeking blessing today they're
seeking prosperity.
We've got a utility God.
He's not the one who staggers us with
his majesty.
Often we sing Friday nights immortal, invisible God
only wise in light inaccessible.
Or we sing Oh worship the king all
glorious above whose robe is the light whose
canopy is space.
The earth is his footstool the clouds are
the dust of his feet.
We've lost all sense of the majesty and
holiness of God.
We don't tip people don't go to church
to meet God they go to hear a
sermon about him.
They don't expect to be stunned and leave
the place staggering with the revelation of God's
holiness and majesty and glory.
No we have a utility God praying he'll
send you this asking me he'll send you
that.
I'm convinced today to most people they have
a utility God in the church convenience store.
They just come up weekends for help for
this.
Ask the pastor to do this.
The lady comes and says do you think
the deacons would pray for my hangnail.
Mostly honest we've just destroyed the majesty of
God and holy things.
He says he knows the way that I
take and when he hath tried me.
Isn't that wonderful?
Not when circumstances have tried me not when
the devil has tried me not when the
restless friend of mine God himself has done
his work in me I shall come forth
as pure gold.
We have a lady friend who often says
to us I'm going for the gold.
Remember when they were in the what was
it they had the other week other month
other year I got it straight now.
The other year they had the Olympics we're
going for the gold we're going for the
gold.
I noticed in a newscast a man had
been in a tremendous race with a million
dollar automobile and what not he came in
second and they said oh you did a
marvelous job you came in second he said
that doesn't count.
If I'm not first I'm not happy.
I've been training this machine costs a million
dollars we worked on it all the night
through instead of going to bed to get
it in prime condition.
You know those people are so jealous for
the things of the devil but this man
isn't asking again that he may be restored
in wealth restored in health restored socially.
He says oh that I may find him.
The man who has no God is derelict.
I saw something on TV last night I
don't often watch it but some of you
saw maybe that what was that was it
Admiral Dunwall anybody see that show?
Well it was in 2020 it's one of
the admirals that isn't in the American Navy
he's retired now.
He was the one that gave the order
for that aid orange to be spread over
defoliating all the trees and when the machine
went over with that orange stuff his own
son was in a boat there an American
Navy boat and as it went over some
of the stuff came on him but daddy
gave the order the boy is crippled he's
going through his he's gone through his second
surgery he's had two kinds of cancer the
marrow in his bones has dissolved his sister
was there to give him some out of
the bones and I thought as I looked
at that I thought what a man will
go through then they showed a couple of
middle aged couple adopting a baby most hideous
thing you ever saw physically and the doctor
says the head of the child will grow
but not its body it will be retarded
and with all its twisted body the precious
little thing is blind on top of that
and the couple said we took it no
one else wanted it well somebody has suggested
now you hand it over to the state
no no no no the man said I'd
rather die he said this precious little one
needs so much love and so and I
thought what amazing compassion the child will never
respond they said it was born without brain
it has a cavity instead of a brain
it has no sight it has no sense
it has no strength it's about as neutral
or empty as a creature could be but
he says we love it we're going to
hold on to this child he said I'd
rather lose anything than lose my child well
I thought you know that's just about the
way God found us smart as we are
with all your university degrees you weren't a
bit of use to God empty headed with
all your degrees empty hearted no strength no
power no moral courage nothing and he took
us derelicts and that verse I quoted tonight
comes to me so often he makes slaves
the partners of his throne I love that
hymn that was written in England of course
a good hymn by what an amazing grace
how sweet the sound and the man that
wrote that remember he used to take boats
and raid the coast of Africa and drag
women out of bed and their babies and
separate them and load the ships with slaves
and one day he became a slave on
a ship and he had to row a
boat but one day God came in amazing
grace to him when you think of those
you know those guys used to those guys
sorry that's American saints that's English you know
those men used to meet in the morning
John Newton the hymn writer and William Cowper
the hymn writer and George Whitfield maybe the
greatest preacher ever and George and John Wesley
and Charles Wesley about six of them used
to meet in what they called a holy
club you know those men weren't really born
again and they used to meet for prayer
at four in the morning it didn't take
John Wesley long to realize he was in
the kingdom of Jesus Christ and from that
time on his life was totally totally transformed
we didn't sing it Charles' hymn tonight and
can it be that I should gain an
interest in the Savior's blood you know people
talk as though they've done God a favor
oh you know what I've done for the
Lord this week forget it you've done nothing
do you know that I gave up for
Jesus hell I totally gave up oh I
was going to be a singer well I
I wonder what went wrong with the voices
I was going to do this nothing of
the kind no man ever living has ever
done God a favor I don't care whether
it's the Apostle Paul or Moses or John
no man has ever done God a favor
God does all the favors he got Charles
Wesley a gentleman a scholar a man of
impeccable morality and it was he who wrote
the hymn and can it be that I
should gain I'd like to have Jacob sing
it for you but he's tired and I
want you to stay in the room as
well I like that standard of his in
which again remember this man isn't dragging a
record of crime and impurity and immorality and
drugs he's been a a worthy I was
going to say I guess it's to say
a worthy partaker in the Church of England
all his life and then he says in
the second standard long my imprisoned spirit lay
fast bound in sin and nature's night thine
eye diffused a quickening ray I woke the
dungeon flame with light my chains fell off
you know the story about a woman here
down in the south who didn't hear that
slavery had been abolished and she was scrubbing
the front of a great big mansion and
a man came up and said lady what
are you doing oh I have to do
this for a living how long have you
worked here oh the boss is good I
work here all these years do you get
tired of it yes well why do you
do it because I'm a slave he said
didn't you hear that slavery is abolished no
she said I didn't know that oh it's
been abolished for a month and now she's
working and all the time slavery had been
abolished of course it was abolished before that
in the British Empire as you know and
it was abolished by Christians it was abolished
by Wesley and Wilberforce and those great men
of God they were the ones that got
all the crime stopped in England they got
the we talk in England about when the
people are going mad a bedlam and there
was a bedlam in which they put people
who were insane and half insane there were
people living in terrible depravity and darkness and
these men got legislation they prayed and they
worked Wilberforce was built like a frog and
I'm not some kind to say that he
had a short body and extra long legs
extra long arms but when he stood up
he'd jump on on the dispatch box or
the table in the middle of Westminster not
Westminster Abbey Parliament there and he'd stand up
there and he'd start with all the authority
he had speaking about the bondage of sin
and about these slaves and men said he
was transformed by the time he finished preaching
you didn't see his extra long arms and
legs there was a radiance about him of
another world you know I'm realizing more and
more the awesomeness really of preaching the gospel
of the grace of God the difference between
the Puritan preachers and ours is that ours
go golfing and goofing all the time and
then at the last minute want to make
a sermon for Sunday the Puritan preachers lived
in eternity six days a week and came
down on the seventh day loaded with the
majesty and awesomeness of God and it's got
to come back to that I read again
before I came out tonight to make sure
of it there's a little book by Colson
dare to be different dare to be a
Christian in it he asked this question how
is it that Japan is a heathen country
how is it in America a Christian in
quotes Christian country has a hundred times more
burglaries than Japan which is a heathen country
why do people want our Christianity why should
they want more divorces than anybody else American
Christianity is rubbish like English that's why the
world is in a mess sin we've transported
American Christianity to other countries English Christianity but
not Bible Christianity there's going to have to
be a revolution God Almighty is going to
do it people aren't praying and traveling and
weeping and fasting for nothing I think of
that word often in revelation what are these
under the altar the prayers of the saints
prayers never die let me skip over here
quickly before I wind this up let's go
to chapter 29 I'm
going to skip through this quickly because I
want us to pray tonight chapter 29 verse
1 verse 2 all that I were as
in months past as in the days when
look at the when when God preserved me
when his candle shone upon my head verse
4 when the secret of God was upon
my tabernacle verse 5 when the Almighty was
yet with me when my children when I
washed my steps with butter verse 7 when
I went out to the gate when I
went and prepared my seat in the street
in other words he sat with the judges
he said in those days the princes verse
9 refrained from talking you see this is
the time of his affluence the time of
his acceptance the time of the claim he
was number one man in the world in
the sight of God there's nobody like him
in holiness and righteousness and here he has
all everything's going his way again verse 9
the princes refrained from talking and laid their
hands on their mouths the nobles held their
peace verse 11 when the ear heard me
and it blessed me and when the eye
saw me it gave witness I delivered the
poor and cried and the fatherless to him
the blessing of him that was ready to
perish came upon me and I caused widows
to sing skip quickly down the other part
verse 14 I put on righteousness and clothed
me my judgment was a robe verse 15
I was eyes to the blind verse 16
I was a father to the poor verse
17 I break the jaws of the wicked
then I said and he goes on again
with his achievements but now look how he
starts chapter 30 but now they are younger
than I everything's changed for him verse 19
I am their song I am a byword
they abhor me they flee from me they
spare not to spit in my face verse
13 they mar my path and set forward
a calamity they set
forward a calamity they set forward they set
a they they