I don't think you've memorized the 119th.
Anybody memorize it?
Nobody.
Okay.
It's said that every other verse in this
psalm has something about the word of God.
Go back to verse 1.
Blessed are the undefiled who walk in the
law of the Lord.
So, that's one aspect of the word, the
law.
The next verse has what?
His testimonies.
Verse 3, walk in his ways.
Thou hast commanded us to keep thy precepts.
Verse 5, thy statutes.
Verse 6, thy commandments.
Verse 7, thy righteous judgment.
Verse 8, thy statutes.
Makes a tremendous, tremendously interesting reading to go
through.
Again, to keep us kind of limited down
to the word of God.
But what I wanted to remind you of
here, that at least, I don't know how
many, 6, 8 times, the psalmist says, quicken
me.
Do you remember, what does it say there
in Hebrew, the word of God is what?
What is it?
You're right, don't worry, go on, say it.
The word of God is quick and powerful
and sharper than any two-edged sword.
That's verse 12 of the 4th chapter.
Well, this is what the psalmist is saying
here.
Notice in verse 25, my soul cleaveth unto
the dust, quicken thou me according to thy
word.
Now, notice what he says in the first
place, my soul cleaveth to the dust.
Which again, is an act of humility.
He has no self-trust, he has a
distrust in himself, which is always a healthy
thing to have.
Our confidence is not to be in ourselves,
our confidence is to be in God.
I think people are in trouble when they
start teaching things from the standpoint of experience.
It's not a case of, however much experience
you have, it's not going to do me
too much good.
I've got to have it from God's word,
I've got to build, I've got to be
established again on the word of God.
And here he says, my soul cleaveth to
the dust, quicken me according to thy word.
Why?
Because the word of God is quick and
is powerful.
Now, we think of quick as somebody running
and saying, well, he was quick the way
he was.
But it doesn't mean that actually, it means
it's something that stabs me, it's something that
awakens me.
It's something that provokes me, the word of
God is quick.
Well, it's quick in the sense again, that
if I've got it hidden in my heart,
God brings it very quickly to my remembrance.
I don't have to wait and say, oh,
I wish Gabriel would hurry up, they've got
the computer wrong upstairs.
No, no, no, no, thy word of thy
hid in my heart and then immediately God
touches and then it's quick and it comes
to my defense.
Or it comes to build me up, it
comes to stimulate me.
Or again, it's quick to correct me.
Or again, it's quick to cast me down
if I'm getting exalted.
The word of God is quick and powerful,
quicken thou me according to thy word.
In verse 37 he says, turn away mine
eyes from beholding vanity and quicken thou me
in the way.
Remember that word over in Exodus, I being
in the way, the Lord met me.
And this is where I'm going to be
quickened because I'm right in the way of
obedience, I'm in the way of truth.
Verse 40 says, behold, I have longed after
thy precepts, quicken me in thy righteousness.
Now again, as we said earlier, I have
a responsibility in this.
His word will quicken me, His word will
inspire me, His word will correct me.
His word will lift me up or His
word may cast me down.
But look at the human side of this.
Back in verse 23, it says, princes also
did sit and speak against me, but my
servant did meditate in thy statutes.
And right through this one psalm, particularly again,
it's statutes, commandments, precepts, laws.
They're repeated over and over again, thy precepts,
thy commandments, thy laws, thy statutes, thy judgments.
They run right through this amazing 119 psalms.
And David says, I've meditated upon them.
Notice he says it at the end of
the 48th verse.
My hands also will I lift up unto
thy commandments, which I have loved, and I
will meditate in thy statutes.
Which is another way of saying, I'll meditate
in thy laws, I'll meditate in thy commandments.
Now verse 88, he says, quicken me after
thy lovingkindness, so shall I keep the testimony
of thy mouth.
Now quicken me after thy lovingkindness, it is
urged me to seek after thy lovingkindness and
thy tender mercies.
In another psalm he says, why art thou
cast down, O my soul?
Hope thou in God.
Well if I'm going to get rid of
those, they'll come to everybody, there's no question.
You know when people, we used to sing
a hymn, I remember in England we were
singing, one day I'm living on the mountain
underneath a cloudless sky.
I'm drinking of a fountain that never can
run dry.
And I was sitting next to Dr. Fawcett
on the platform that day, and he gave
me a nudge and said, well look at
all those faultless, don't you wish you were
like them?
Living on a mountain underneath a cloudless sky,
drinking of a fountain that never shall run
dry.
He said, I find my experience more in
a hymn that says, Days of darkness still
come o'er me, and sorrow's path I
often tread, but the Saviour still is with
me.
And by His path, and by His hand
I'm safely led.
There's no immunity from temptation as long as
you live.
As long as you and I live we're
going to be tempted, as long as you
and I live we're going to try.
You know the biggest temptation to believers is
to want to live without temptation.
Now if I have God's Word hidden in
my heart, after all, the greatest, holiest man
that ever lived was who?
Okay.
And after the anointing of the Spirit came,
he was led of the Spirit into the...
And there he was tempted for...
40 is a sign of probation.
How many books are there in the Old
Testament?
Oh you don't know, well, okay.
39.
So Matthew is number what book?
40.
40, alright.
And it's a period of probation for the
Jews because God sent His Son amongst them
for a period of testing to see what
they'd do with Him.
Now Moses was how long, how many days
was he in the mount?
And then he came back and he went
back for another and it seems, it seems
to me it's an incredible thing that I
can't find that he ever ate anything for
80 days, not 40, because he went straight
back in the mount.
Alright, after the resurrection of Jesus, he was
with them for how many days?
Well there was 40 days of temptation after
anyhow, there was 40 days of trial for
them.
Now Jesus was in the wilderness and the
Scripture says he was tempted what?
No, but he was tempted in all points
as we are, yet without sin.
Now temptation is not sin unless you yield
to it.
Temptation is the normal Christian life.
But again let's consider this, there are degrees
of temptation.
There are temptations to the mind, there are
temptations to the body and there are temptations
to the spirit.
There are temptations to children, there are temptations
to youth and there are temptations in old
age.
I've given an illustration for years of how
when I was a little boy, maybe you've
heard me say, my mother made the best
jelly and jam in the whole city.
And when it came to fruit, you know,
I used to say, mum's going to start
making jam again.
All I got was to lick the dish
out, you know, when she cooked it and
I used to get a spoon and scrape
it.
Man, when I'd scrape that dish, a fly
couldn't have got a mouthful of it.
I really skinned that dish, I really, really,
you know, I actually boiled the fruit.
I used to stay there and get this
big thing in my hand, go around with
a spoon and stick my finger in and
clean it up, you know.
And then she'd put it up in what
we call a pantry, a dark room, you
know, and she'd leave it there and have
it all labelled strawberry and raspberry and gooseberry
and bilberries and all the other jams and
jellies she made.
And, you know, I'd go steal it, I'd
go up and steal it.
When she'd gone out sometime later, I'd go
steal it and, you know, I'd take the
top off and I'd get a spoon and
go like this.
Ooh, that was great, that was great.
Then I'd suddenly, oh, oh yes, but there's
a great tribulation ahead.
I'm going to get spanked for this.
So I may as well take another spoonful
and, you know, it's worth getting spanked twice.
It's delicious.
Then I'd take another and before long it's,
ooh, I didn't intend to take so much.
I'd lick the spoon and smooth it over
and put the lid on and put it
right to the back of the shelf, you
know.
You know, somehow my mother got a habit
of going to the back of the shelf
first.
And I remember one day she brought this
out and I was in the yard, in
the garden.
We had a, in England you don't call
it a yard, you call it a garden,
you see.
You have a vegetable garden, you have a
flower garden, you have a lawn if you
have grass.
And I was working in the, I guess,
in the flower garden because I liked flowers.
My dad liked them, he did an awful
lot with flowers.
We all had a beautiful garden.
I was working there and my mother called,
Len, Lenny she called, Lenny.
And I thought, now what's she after?
Oh, I, she, oh, just before I came
out she got cooking things out and she
got some dough, I guess she's making pie
and I guess she's going to use some
jam and I guess something else too.
I said, Mummy, I'm, I'm busy.
She said, all right, dear.
And she called about 50 minutes after, Lenny,
I want to see you.
Mummy, I'm still busy.
Okay, dear, it will do when Daddy comes.
Oh, no, it won't.
Oh, no.
No, that, that, that couldn't wait till Daddy
came.
As I say, my daddy believed in laying
on of hands and he could lay them
on too when he, when he started, you
know.
And I would go in and, and she'd
say, did you steal?
Oh, yes, I had to admit that I'd
done it.
Now, you know, I, I usually give that
in the part of a message on Peter
to, you know, help people after the week.
They always say I scalp them or skin
them or something.
So I try and build them up on
the first epistle of Peter, the first chapter
there on, you know, what, what is consistent
with a Christian life, what isn't, temptation isn't.
And I use temptation, I use the illustration
of jelly.
And, you know, by the next meeting, before
I leave next morning, some lady comes with
a bag of jelly this size, you know,
jars of jelly.
I come home with loads of jelly.
So I'm, I'm trying to find a way
to use the illustration on Mummy and see
if it works that way.
But, you know, when I, I stayed in
a home recently, a beautiful home.
And, you know, I was in real victory.
I realized at the end of the week
I hadn't stolen jelly once.
You say, well, you've outgrown that kind of
temptation.
Well, that's what I'm saying.
You see, you can outgrow certain temptations.
And there are certain temptations you don't know
until you come to a certain age.
A child will steal jelly, he'll steal cookies.
A man doesn't steal them, he snitches them.
But, he doesn't steal them, but he, he,
he isn't worried about any consequences.
He knows his wife made them.
She says, well, darling, help yourself anytime you
need one.
He does it.
A child is tempted on one level.
A full-blooded young man is tempted in
another area.
Very often in the area of sex.
This is a, this is a curse.
If I didn't know the Bible said the
number of a man in Revelation is 666,
I'd think it was 666.
Because we're a sex-mad age.
It has never been as wild, it's never
been as acceptable.
Perversion and cleanliness, violation of God's laws in
this area, don't mean a thing in the
way, in our, in our present lifestyle.
So, temptation that works on a, a, a,
a boy up to 10 years of age
wouldn't work on a 17-year-old boy.
Temptation on a 17-year-old boy wouldn't
work on a 6-year-old boy.
Temptation to a 6-year-old boy wouldn't
work on a man 60.
Temptation to a man 60 wouldn't work on
somebody that's younger.
You see, one of the temptations that is
not recognized as a temptation amongst young people
particularly, is prodigality.
You say, in, in morality, no, no, no,
no, I'm not thinking of that.
We're prodigal.
For instance, you say, well, I'm only 19.
Good night, Mr. Radner is over 70, and
I've got, I've got, phew, I've got another
good 50 years coming on.
No, if you go up the road there,
and you care to take a nice inspiring
walk in a cemetery, you'll find somebody died
at your age.
Sometimes you hear people say, do you know
who the richest man in the building is?
I say, there isn't one.
I was in a meeting where a man
pointed a man out.
He said, that man there, I, I know
for a fact he has $750 million.
There's a man in a First Baptist Church
in McAllen.
Actually, he's the father of Senator Benson, the
Senate, one of the Senators for Texas.
And his old dad was in the meeting.
$750 million.
I said, it must be good when he
tithes.
But anyhow, he's $750 million.
No, he doesn't.
What does he have?
He has one beat of his heart.
That's all he has.
You see, we, we become so generous.
We become so generous.
We say, well, I, I have this, or
I have that.
No, no, we don't.
Now, do you know what temptation does?
Well, it's like trials of life.
What do they do?
In that epistle to Peter, you'll find this,
that when Satan gives up on temptation, what
does he swing to?
He swings to fiery trial, which is a
temptation.
It may be over like that.
You can, you know, the hymn writer says,
I need thee every hour.
Stay thou nearby.
Temptations lose their power.
When?
When thou art nigh.
Well then, is this the insulation I have?
Well, what do I have?
Against me, I have the world.
I have the flesh.
I have the devil.
What do I have for me?
Well, I have the indwelling of the Spirit
of God.
I have the exceeding great and precious promises
of God.
I have somebody pleading at the right hand,
but why do I stumble and stagger?
Now, it's not failure on God's part.
It's failure on my part not to appropriate
those things that God has laid out for
me.
I can fight the devil off the way
Jesus fought him off.
How did Jesus fight him off?
He threw the book at him in our
language.
Satan came and said, do you know this?
And Jesus says, yes, but it's written, get
out.
Threw the book at him.
It is written, yes, but Jesus said, and
notice again, Satan did not quote the scripture.
He misquoted scripture, as people often do.
Now, you read that and do a little
homework on that and see where the difference
is between what Satan said and what the
psalmist said.
But again, you see, we have this defense
mechanism, if you like, set up for us.
There's no way that I'm going to go
in grace and in the knowledge of God
without going through what...
Jesus was what?
He was tempted in all points like as
we are.
And Hebrew says what?
Of the Lord Jesus Christ that he grew
in grace.
He that spared not his own son.
Well, if God didn't spare his own son
from trial and tribulation and testing, is he
going to spare me from it?
Do you think there was any variation in
the...
Do you think Jesus had his peaks and
had his...
as we say, do you think he had
his highs and he had his lows in
his spiritual life?
I don't think he had.
In his emotional life, he had.
Because I read going into Gethsemane that he
was very heavy.
Now again, these boys, so many of them
right now teaching about Abraham.
But you see, it says there in that...
what is it?
15th chapter of Genesis, where
after he makes a sacrifice, he took a
heifer from...
pardon me, Genesis 15 and verse 9.
He said unto him, Take me a heifer
three years old and a she-goat three
years old and a lamb three years old,
turtle, dove, and a young pigeon.
And they took unto him all these and
divided them in the midst and laid each
piece one against the other.
But the birds he divided not.
And when the fowls came down upon the
carcasses, Abraham drove them away.
Now I don't care how much sacrifice you
yield to God, whatever you yield, the old
birds of doubt and fear and criticism and
somebody else's opinion are going to try and
steal that sacrifice that you made.
And you're going to have to drive them
off.
How do you drive them off?
Again with the word of God.
It is written.
This is what God says.
Now remember, they're always stressing, you can be
so rich.
Do you know how rich Abraham became?
Do you know what God wants you to
have?
But they never give the other side of
the coin.
It was one thing for him to make
a sacrifice.
It's another thing for him to let it
stay there permanently.
And again in New Testament language, I don't
care whatever commitment you make to God.
Before long, the challenge to the believer is
come down from the cross and save yourself.
You see, that brother isn't sacrificing like you're
doing.
He doesn't take as much time.
And look, I mean, he gets more favor
than you do.
Some people like him.
It seems the staff like him better than
they like me.
But that's not your business.
What is that to thee?
Follow thou me.
God's making you not them.
If he thought you needed that, he'd put
you there.
You see, get this sure in your life.
If you're climbing the ladder of spirituality, if
the devil can't keep you at the bottom,
he'll help you to get to the top
and then he'll push you over the top.
Why?
Because so often, as it says about in
the year that King Uzziah died, is it
to...
I forget the chapter, somewhere there in...
But it says of Uzziah anyhow.
I think it's in the 26th chapter of
the 1st or 2nd Chronicles that he was
mightily helped of God until he became strong.
He was a wise man.
He was an inventor.
He ran the nation very well.
He took it over when he was 15
years of age.
He ruled it for 50 years.
And everything expanded.
He had a midas touch.
He did marvelous things until he became strong
and his strength was his weakness.
He fell.
Now look, you settle this in your mind.
You're on the ladder of spirituality.
You're in the service of the King of
Kings.
If God wants you on the top rung
of the ladder, there's not a demon in
hell or a deacon on earth or anybody
else who's going to keep you from getting
there.
As long as you're humble and you walk
with him.
If he doesn't want you there and you
get pushed up by promotion and, you know,
you're uncluttered to be the boss in this
group and that group and they give you
a promotion, you'll make it.
You know, in the early days of the
Salvation Army which came, as we said yesterday,
out of the Revival that swept America and
then it swept England.
Do you know the secret of the Salvation
Army was this?
William Boole had a large family but he
never promoted one of his...
because they were children of the General.
Now they were on a military basis.
You know, you became a soldier then you
became a corporal then you became a major
then you became a lieutenant and I don't
know what in the world it was.
And they had brigadier generals and then they
had finally the General himself.
But he never gave any of his children's
accolades or he never gave them promotion unless
they earned it.
With the result that when his children became
very efficient and they were very brilliant.
I've told you the mother used to put
her head hand round the head of each
of them when they were in bed at
night and they were still babies and unconscious
in sleep and she used to pray the
same prayer every night.
She said I'm not raising children for the
devil and while they were sleeping she would
pray this over them God bless you darling
sleep, the world is waiting for you.
Every one of them became distinguished poets, writers,
preachers, missionaries but you see when they got
up and they got adequate to run the
Salvation Army themselves they didn't like to take
orders from Daddy and Daddy didn't promote them
above other guys Oh no, you'll get seniority
when I think you should have it and
so what happened?
He lost his family.
They broke up and went off here and
went off there.
That was William Booth.
After him, I saw William Booth as a
tiny little boy and I saw the second
General, Bramwell.
Oh, he was all personality he had a
shock, great shock of white hair.
Man, he was very imposing.
But when his family was raised he promoted
them whether they deserved it or not.
He gave them key positions all in the
Salvation Army after all, he's my son, she's
my daughter just has a lovely personality to
choose and do this job.
What happened?
The first General would not promote them except
they were adequate and therefore he kept the
Salvation Army intact.
The second General promoted his family and he
kept his family but he lost the army.
They voted him out.
You see, now that holds in a spiritual
life I'm quite sure of this out of
long experience and out of reading other people's
lives and after conversing with some of the
greatest men in the world men that seemed
they weren't at the starting line in the
race, brother they were a hundred yards behind
and yet they overtook so many men who
were far more brilliant.
I went to a Bible college in England
for about 8 months.
When I got there I was totally embarrassed
I was disintegrated the first week I was
there because I'd had no...
I left school in the 8th grade I
hadn't been to high school I had to
take some lessons in English which I certainly
didn't master and I had every disadvantage like
the Irishman said all my advantages were against
me.
I just didn't have a thing to go
on.
And you know, fellows would come out we
had an exam every Friday night and the
list was always put on the board and
I was always in one important position usually
at the bottom holding all the others up.
And guys would come out, you know, with
in England you never get 100% marks
nobody would ever give you that not in
university which isn't healthy.
Nobody does it.
If you get in the 90's you're a
genius.
I'd be around the 40's usually.
These other guys would all...
but I determined one thing after one day
receiving a book called Bound's Power Through Prayer
I made up my mind I'd go through
that book I didn't go through the book
it went through me.
But I anchored on to that truth that
what Bound says it takes God 20 years
to make a man I said alright, here
I am, try it.
And when other boys went to do things
now we did not have any basketball.
Chadwick said you've only one life you don't
have time to play a game.
There were no girls there you get too
interested in girls they're distracting.
Now I don't think I think if I
had a school I wouldn't be as rich
I'd have basketball I certainly wouldn't enter competition.
I wouldn't waste hours running after other groups
and going all over the place I wouldn't
do that.
I'd do it for health sake.
All the recreation we had with a pair
of rubber shoes and we put on shorts
and a swim shirt and we ran a
five mile run every Wednesday afternoon.
You could go with a fast group or
the slow group.
And part of it you had to go
through a river that was ice cold and
nearly took your legs off you didn't know
if you had any legs by the time
you got through.
And that was the only exercise we had.
See Mr. Chadwick said listen gentlemen you do
this this one thing I do you don't
have time for trivia.
Now this is again where discipline comes in.
They do it let them do it.
Hey we're going down shopping oh it's Christmas
shopping I don't have any money well come
with us alright I'll come and look at
the windows.
Why?
Now this seems nitty gritty no no no
perfection is made up of trifles.
But perfection itself is no trifle.
When I think of as I've mentioned before
the last time I went to the Bible
School of Wales Mrs. Howell said come upstairs
and talk and we went and stood on
the veranda and as we looked over the
ocean over the sea there then she turned
around and said you see that room Daddy
meaning the husband went in that room at
six o'clock in the morning and he
didn't come out till six o'clock at
night and he did that every day for
eleven months with the exception of the one
day that his mother died.
Now do you know any how many people
we talk about ability and we need stickability.
Could you stay twelve hours a day in
a room for eleven months?
What was he doing?
He was building himself up in his faith.
You don't fly you don't leap from here
to there in faith you build yourself up
in the word of God.
You get to the place where you're absolutely
sure again that the secret is in Hebrews
11 6 that God is and that he
is the reward of them that diligently seek
him.
But God has to do some refining some
correcting.
If I'm going to have perpetual fire in
my life God can do a lot of
stirring.
What does Paul say to Timothy?
Stir up the gift of God that is
in thee.
Well there's another meaning to that word there
it is actually it's the same as saying
keep yourself in revival.
It doesn't say God will stir you up
it says you stir up yourself in your
most holy faith.
Or stir up the gift of God which
is in thee by the laying on of
my hands.
Now again I do not believe that my
Christian my love toward God needs to ebb
and flow.
I don't believe my faith in God needs
to ebb and flow but my emotions will
change.
David said of one occasion my heart is
fixed.
Now do you know that's about the only
thing that is fixed.
Sure in a world like this the world
could blow up tomorrow.
We're sitting on a powder keg.
We don't know what in the world's going
to happen through this Ayatollah Khomeini.
We could have third world war world war
three on our hands before very long.
We could have the first and the most
awesome atomic war in history.
We could have a holocaust that would supersede
all other holocausts.
We don't know what but we know our
hearts my heart is fixed David said.
His emotions weren't fixed.
He had a son trying to pull a
throne from underneath him and steal a crown
off his head.
His social life wasn't fixed.
He didn't know where his enemies were.
Everything else is fluid but he says my
heart is fixed.
But if my heart is fixed God cleanses
my heart through the blood.
He corrects my head with a rod.
And whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth and
scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.
Now we don't we say because we love
our children well I won't spank you this
time.
Well you don't love him that's why.
You'll have to love him you'll have to
spank him twice as hard up the road
for the ones you miss now because children
don't understand love like that.
There is correction with love you don't beat
the daylights out of him but you correct
him and Proverbs again says if you correct
him you won't kill him.
Now God has promised so much to Abraham
sure he's going to have children like the
sands by the seashore but when he's made
his sacrifice he has to beat the birds
off in a school like this or anywhere
else.
Your eyes so very often turn sideways what's
she doing what's he doing.
Now God's making you he isn't making Agape
he is in one sense but he isn't
in another sense he's making you.
He's maturing you he's bringing you to maturity.
He's bringing you to the place where he
can strengthen you.
He's bringing you to the place where he
just takes Peter and James and John maybe
out of this class God got free select
persons that he's going to lead to eventually
to leadership somewhere in the world that you
don't dream of even now.
I remember when I went to Bethany in
1950 I went first and then we went
to live there in 58 as a family
and I'd been many times in between.
And I remember one night a young man
came out I think in 1950 or 50,
50 exactly 50 or 51 and he came
to the altar it was a nice clean
cut Lutheran he had been saved through Ted
Eggers ministry he came out that night wanting
to be filled with the Holy Ghost and
as soon as he hit the bench there
he let out a roar that they said
you could hear you know a mile away
just a groaning in his spirit for God
and he said Oh God he said cleanse
me and fill me with the Holy Ghost
and the joy of the Lord came on
him he's one of the best leaders they
have in the world today he's gone to
a certain country and built a staff around
him and he's seen a measure of revival
I think of other kids that I looked
at that didn't seem to have much potential
I remember when we went to Cliff College
Mr. Chadwick said I looked at him the
first day he said gentlemen there were only
men there you know gentlemen are you sure
God called you are you sure if you
are nod your heads we all nodded our
heads he said it's a good thing he
did he said I never would have called
one of you by the look of you
you know that's a nice way to set
off isn't it I mean you know all
the confidence the school has in you kind
of thing but God he's going to do
his probing he's going to do his correcting
and he says you've made your sacrifice you'll
have to fight the birds off if God
leaves you alone the devil won't and sometimes
he uses the devil because you remember Jesus
said Satan hath desired thee so who was
it to Peter again Peter's going to be
one of the out Peter is going to
be the man that stands up at Pentecost
it wasn't John that stood up it was
Peter the problem boy that God has purged
and empowered it's Peter that ran away when
a girl put her finger up well Elijah
did the same thing so it's in the
apostolic succession but he put his finger up
she put her finger up he ran but
then you find him in acts pointing his
finger to the whole nation he ran away
from one woman he stands up and he
says you crucify the Lord of Glory but
look at his ups and his downs and
his ins and his outs as it were
Peter talked to Jesus not only more than
any other disciple he talked to Jesus more
than all the disciples put together and conversely
Jesus not only spoke to Peter more than
any other individual he spoke to Peter more
than all the disciples put together we don't
like to see the weaknesses in him and
going down the road Jesus said when you
get round the corner Satan's going to try
and ambush you he's going to clobber you
but cheer up I've prayed for you well
how many people have said that to you
and you thought phew you know you can't
pray for yourself what are you praying for
me for kind of thing but Jesus didn't
say Peter I saw Satan down the road
there and I said what are you doing
here he said I'm waiting for Peter I'm
going to beat him up and I said
Satan you go back to hell and leave
my little boy Peter alone I love him
and I'll take care of him the Lord
didn't say anything to Satan he said to
Peter I've prayed for thee because what your
faith needs it needs a shaking it needs
a testing it needs a purging it needs
a strengthening and the only way you can
get it is combat it's one thing you
know to put a lot of sketches on
a board and put guys in combat uniform
and then say you know when you meet
the enemy they don't all have blue eyes
and they don't all have white faces some
are yellow and some are this that don't
do you a hill of beans good five
minutes of combat and boy you you know
you can't say mother you know they said
when some of the troops American troops came
to England then got in combat in Europe
and got into some wretched situations that at
the end of the day some of them
asked where the showers were the others said
where what I need a shower and I
need some old spice or something showers boy
the only shower you'll get if the sky
starts leaking you may not get a bath
for the next two months what?
I get a bath every day at home
well mummy isn't here to bring you in
a nice warm towel you're in military service
now get down to it you see and
there'll come a time when and this is
the big test after all isn't it it's
when God takes what I call a protective
atmosphere from us it's easy to make vows
in a meeting when emotions running high and
somebody puts their arm around you and says
praise God I'm glad you did it oh
you've made this commitment I love you I'll
be praying for you and tomorrow morning they
run into trouble and the next 10 days
in fact if you met them 50 days
after and say how many times did you
pray for me after your promise oh I'm
sorry but you know the next day I
got news from home my sister was sick
and the next day my dad had a
somebody scraped his bumper on his car and
the next day my grandmother fell down pulling
roses or something and you had so many
problems you never thought about Marianne you see
God takes that supporting atmosphere you need it
so long then he takes it out it
becomes a walk of faith then the temptation
comes down from the cross and save yourself
alright let's stay in the context of this
15th of Genesis the vows came upon verse
11 down on the carcasses Abram drove them
away verse 12 when the sun was going
down a deep sleep fell upon Abram and
a horror of great darkness came upon him
did you ever have an experience like that
did you ever read a classic who wrote
it Teresa it's a famous book it's it's
more than one book called the dark night
of the soul you never had one cheer
up you got one coming the dark night
of the soul we make it all joy
bears praise the Lord let's clap our hands
have a great time that's alright I'm not
against it but I'll tell you what there'll
come a time when clapping your hands won't
lift your spirit there'll come a time when
you sing a verse of a hymn and
it'll fall dead on your ears and on
your heart and all you have is a
naked trust in God a horror of great
darkness came upon him so the hymn writer
said right when he said days of darkness
still come on me but in that sorrow's
path I often tread but the Savior still
is with me again the emotional side of
my life is in chaos but right down
in the center notice these boys when there's
a hurricane they say well we flew out
over the Atlantic and we got right into
the eye of the storm there's a still
spot in the middle of that thing that's
swirling at whatever it's going 150 miles an
hour whatever it's doing but there's a dead
spot in the center a dead silence a
dead stillness the old Methodist used to sing
a hymn that said the storm may roar
without me my heart may low be laid
but God is round about me shall I
be afraid well he didn't have it quite
right God isn't only round about me he's
in me how am I fortified against adversity
because he said peace I live with you
no no no he said peace I live
with you my peace I give unto you
what was the reward for the holiest man
that lived in this life?
a crown a thorn that's what he gave
for living a holy life his reward on
earth was a crown of thorns his reward
on earth was desertion by some of his
closest friends and that will be the toughest
thing in your life after some something Satan
that you know is directly a work of
Satan or the powers of Satan and then
one day somebody breaks off in your life
for no real reason at all and you
feel you've leaned on this person and the
Lord says well that takes that away you're
leaning on Mary Jane or Jim Smith too
much and your prop goes the Lord by
God is a jealous God I remember once
leaving in a plane from Manchester England I
wasn't particularly fond of going to Ireland because
the plane was terribly slow you know with
rubber bands or something it just you know
sit in the plane it was only about
50 miles and it took about an hour
to go and oh it was a dreadful
thing and over the Irish Channel it's always
rough and dark and when I got on
the plane we had to walk about 150
yards to the little plane that held about
20 people and it was pouring rain I
put my coat collar up you know and
when I got on the plane yeah I
was wet my trousers were sticking to my
legs and I sat in misery on that
plane and I thought well this is horrible
I'm flying all the way to Ireland in
this pouring rain and it's as black as
night and then the little thing got up
in the clouds and you know we were
hemmed in in fog and the motors were
going 10 times louder you know and it
was so dark and we kept going what
a miserable I'm miserable inside I'm wet through
and I'm in a dark plane like this
and I can't see a thing and then
suddenly whoop like that and it was like
being like this and I saw the top
side of the clouds and you know it
seemed I could see for hundreds of miles
and they were pure gold because the sun
was shining on them and when I looked
at the other window it looked as though
it was all beautiful snow because they weren't
getting the sun from the angle I was
seeing it just exquisite now here on earth
it was pouring rain here it's thick cloud
I can't see through it when I get
above the cloud the sun is shining well
very often between me and God there are
clouds days of darkness still come over me
and sorrows pop I often fret but the
saviour still is with me faith that is
going to be trusted is going to be
tested you say I've been having some tests
well cheer up you'll get some bigger tests
before long why because God has a bigger
task further up the road and if you
haven't developed as it were the muscles of
your heart you won't be able to take
the pressures when you get further up the
road just by the same token if you
won't be led by somebody you'll never make
a leader you may kick sometimes about something
you're asked to do but wait a minute
a bit further up the road you'll be
giving commands to somebody and they don't want
to do it either again one of my
old cliches a man with an experience is
never at the mercy of a man with
an argument a man with an experience is
never at the mercy of a man with
an argument you later say you go to
a mission station in another country and you
say to somebody listen we need somebody to
dig a cesspool I didn't come here to
dig cesspools I came to be a missionary
and give out tracts and talk to others
well you go do it do you ever
do it oh yes I remember digging something
at agape or somewhere I didn't want to
do it and I got blisters on my
hands and boy or it may be some
other situation and you say but listen I
passed through this school myself they give you
a sense of authority all right to rush
over this then a horror of great darkness
came upon him a horror of great darkness
came upon Jesus in Gethsemane do you think
it was fun he took with him the
same three men why did he give them
that glorious revelation on the mount it was
Peter and James and John that had it
and it should have fortified them when they
got into the black hole of Gethsemane but
it didn't somehow now don't you get too
worried that people don't hear what you're saying
and when you get to teach a class
or become a leader of a group that
they don't all go on quickly because by
a long shot the disciples didn't do that
as I said often enough they said Lord
teach us to pray and when he took
them on the mount of transfiguration to pray
they all fell asleep and then he let
them off that time and he took the
same three men to Gethsemane and would you
believe it what did they do and he
came back a second time and they were
and he came back a third time and
they were I can't imagine that's real I
get all kinds of people asking can I
come and spend a day in prayer with
you can I do this I'd love to
pray with you well sometimes they come sometimes
they don't if everybody came I'd never get
off my knees but I know certain men
very very few that I'd like to spend
a day in prayer with I know guys
I like to talk to there are not
many men I'd like to spend a day
in prayer with but they were permitted to
pray with the greatest man of prayer that
ever lived and he prayed all night was
that the reason they fell asleep they weren't
used to they had no stamina they weren't
used to praying more than an hour or
half an hour and and when he prayed
on and prayed on and prayed on it
was too much for them wouldn't you wouldn't
you have thought that they would have learned
that lesson there on the mount of transfiguration
and yet when they had a chance to
stay with him in his most critical hour
they fell asleep Lord do you think God
may be as grieved with the church today
that we spend so little time in prayer
I'm convinced we've come into a form today
of Christian humanism that's all it is we'll
do it you bless it Lord you've got
to bless our TV program you've got to
bless our tracks we give out or our
records or something who says we have we
want to do in the energy of the
flesh we sanctify the flesh to a great
degree we put personalities up just like the
world does there was a big rock concert
recently up on the north east coast various
groups were there to sing one of the
star guys comes up he demands $13,000
a night well if I get $12,000
for teaching here this week it would be
unusual but he gets $13,000 for one
night and they don't pray they just stand
up and sing and pull faces if it's
singing I don't know if it is you
make a noise with the guitar anyhow