Standing on the promises of God. Standing, standing. Standing on the promises of God,
my Savior. Standing, standing. I'm standing on the promises
of God. Third as the last. Standing on
the promises of Christ the Lord, bound to Him eternally by love
strong for. Standing on the promises of God. That's a good hymn to sing in,
when the howling storms of doubt and fear assail. That's good. Glad you played
that, Sheriff. All right, back to Hebrews 11.
We're going to look at one verse. Hebrews 11, one verse, and it
contains a very plain, very clear outline. Verse 13. These all died in faith, not
having received the promises But having seen them afar off,
and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed
that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. Now we've been looking at Hebrews
11, and the faith of several persons mentioned there, the
lives of those persons, those Old Testament believers. Turn
back now to Genesis chapter 5. We read there in verse 13, it
says, these all died in faith, with the exception of Enoch,
of course. But the rest, all of them mentioned,
died in faith. Genesis 5, look and see if this
is something It doesn't stand out to you as we read this. Verse 1, this is the book of
the generations of Adam. That is, the sons of Adam. Verse
5, look down there. All the days that Adam lived
were 930 years and he died. Verse 8, Adam's son Seth, all
the days of Seth were 912 years and he died. Verse 11, the son of Seth was
Enos. All the days of Enos were 905
years, and he died. Verse 14, all the days of Canaan
were 910 years, and he died. What stuck out to you? What did they all have in common?
died, no matter how long they lived. Methuselah being the oldest
person, 969 years, but he died. These all died in faith. It's appointed, Hebrews 9 says,
unto man once to die. And that time The month, the
day, the hour, the means is appointed by God himself. Those bounds
are set, Job said, and they cannot be passed. Is that right? That's what the scripture said.
These all died in faith, and we too shall die. Now, it's important how we live. It is. It's very important how
we live. The just shall live by faith. But even more important than
that is how we die. Isn't it? That's really the most
important thing. How we die. It says these all
died in faith. Let me die the death of the righteous. Let me die in faith. Let me die like I've seen some
of our dear ones die, trusting Christ. There's that laughter. These all died in faith. In faith. And I want to too. All right. What does it mean?
Faith. What does that mean? Let's look
at it again. Go back to Hebrews 11, now Hebrews
10, I already quoted it to you. Hebrews 10, these all died in
the faith, in faith, faith being. Faith is believing God. Faith believes God is God. We can't stress that enough,
can we? The Lord himself throughout this book says, I am God, there
is none else, doesn't it? Particularly Isaiah. He constantly says that, doesn't
it? I am the Lord, there is none
else. Someone may say, well, everyone
believes that. Oh no, they don't. Oh no. We believe God is God. Not trying
to be. Not will be if men cooperate. That's not God. That's a person
like me. I can't do things unless you
cooperate with me. I can't have my way unless circumstances
allow it. I'm not a God. God's will and God's purpose
is not altered by circumstances, not dependent on circumstances,
not in any way, shape, form or fashion dependent on His creatures.
He's the creator. We're the creatures. He's the
controller. We're the controlled. That's God. And that means everything. He said all souls are mine. I kill. I make alive. I wound. I heal. I save. I damn. I, the Lord, do all these things. That's first, that's the fundamentals
of faith, is it not? I can't stress that enough. And
I don't get tired of saying it. Do you get tired of it yourself?
You're smiling right now. You're smiling at the very thing
that the world grits their teeth at and gnashes their teeth. But
we love, and I'm getting way ahead of myself, but just believe
God. is to believe and trust God's
Son. Faith is to believe and trust
God's Son as our salvation. I mean only trust Christ. Not
faith in your faith, not faith in your perseverance, not faith
in whatever. It's faith in Christ alone. That
all your hope of salvation is dependent on the person and the
work of Jesus Christ. One hundred percent. That's faith.
And if you die, you'll be in the faith. You'll be like Brother
who thought he was facing death at one time. And he was, he was
on the brink, we thought. And he said he was worried about
his life, how he, if he had not done this enough, he had not,
not even, his faith wasn't even strong enough. These things entered
his mind. And he said this scripture came
so powerfully to his mind and his heart and gave him such peace.
unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity. Blessed is the man whose transgression
is forgiven, whose sin is covered." Now, buddy, when you're facing
a holy God, and you're facing death, and you're about to leave
this place, what are you going to hope in? You dare not trust anything.
The sweetest frank, whatever, but one thing, Jesus Christ. Your last breath, our last breath,
needs to be Christ's name. God will receive you, and He
will. Him that cometh to Him, he'll have no wise guess there.
That's to believe and trust. Faith is to believe and trust
God's Son as your salvation. Faith believes and looks for
a better country. Verse 16 of Hebrews 11 says that
they desire a better country. Well, you're in Hebrews 10. How do we know that these people
that we mentioned, how do we know these people died in the
faith? How do we know? How do we know
they were really believers? Hebrews 10, verse 38. I quoted
it. Now, the just shall live by. You know why they died in the
faith? They lived by faith. That's what's wrong with these
deathbed confessions people. You know, people, preachers do
this all the time. These charlatans do it all the
time. They get a profession out of somebody lying on the sickbed,
out of deathbed. What they're doing is chalking
that up for their own you know. But people in desperate circumstances
will do anything. But you really only die. There's only one thief on the
cross. There's only one 11th hour believer mentioned in scriptures. Thief on the cross. So that no
one may despair. It is possible. God does save.
He did save that man on his deathbed. But there's only one. These all
died in faith. The reason you know they died
in faith is because they lived in faith. They lived by faith.
The just shall live by faith. The justified shall live by faith. Live. Live means eternal life. Eternal life is what it means
to really live. Really live it. The life of God. Spiritual life. is also to live, to walk, to
talk, to have your being in this life concerning this faith. All right, now James said this.
James said this. You show me your faith without
your works. He said, I'll show you my faith by my work. And these people we mentioned
The reason we know they died in the faith is because they
lived in the faith. They showed it by their life,
okay? Did Abel believe? Did Abel believe? How do we know? Well, he brought
the blood, did he not? God said, bring the blood. Without
the shedding of blood, there's no remission. What did he do?
He brought the blood. And he died for it. He died in
the faith. How do we know Noah believed?
Did Noah believe? Did Noah die in the faith? How
do we know? We prepared an ark. God said prepare an ark for the
saving of yourself and your house, which is a picture of the gospel.
Did Abraham believe? Did Abraham die in the faith?
How do we know? Abraham left home. God said leave
your home and your family Go to where I send you." He did.
God said, take your son up on the hill and kill him. That's
a picture of Christ. He did. Did Abraham die in the
faith? Yeah. How do you know? He lived
it. Well, on and on we could go. Did Moses? Do I? Now, that's
the question. Do I believe? Will I die in the
faith? Well, all right, let's look at
verse 13. describes us, or people who believe. Let's see if we fit the character
described here in verse 13, okay? I want you to ask yourself as
we look at this, because this says, this describes all of these
people that died. It's a very clear description.
They all died in the faith, and it goes on to give description.
Brother Scott Richardson, he said, we can't But we can't claim
the promise unless we fit the character described in the promise. You can't claim the promise unless
you fit the character described in the promise. What's the promise? Well, verse 16 says, God's not
ashamed to be called their God, and He hath prepared for them
a city. Whoever dies in faith has a place
prepared for them. Alright, that's the promise.
But here's the character. Alright, verse 13. Read it again. These all died in faith, not
having received the promises, but having seen them afar off. Number one, if you're taking
notes, this is the eye of faith. They saw things far off. They didn't see them actually
with these eyes. He said that not having received
the promises. Not having received the promises.
But they saw with the eye of faith. They saw with the eye
of faith. Things that were far off. Things
that were in the future. What do we look for? Huh? Things that are far off. Things
in the future. Have you seen God, Brother John?
Have you seen Christ? Have you seen heaven? Have you
seen? No. Have we received the promise
of eternal? I mean, have we received eternal
life yet? We've received the promise. Have
we received eternal life yet? Barbara, we're not there yet.
Paul said, I haven't arrived yet. I'm not there yet. So he
said, this one thing I'll do. I'll press. So we're no different than them,
aren't we? We're in the same All our hope,
Brother Henry, is the same as theirs, isn't it? We hope in
things unseen. That we believe. We see things
that are unseen. We believe. That's what it means
to really believe. You see. Turn with me to Titus
chapter 1. Titus chapter 1. Now, it says they hadn't received the promises,
but having seen them afar off. They saw the promises afar off. Now, this is all about this whole
verse is about promises. As a matter of fact, this whole
book is one big promise to God's people. Everything we believe
and hope for is based on promises. Right. Again, we haven't seen
God, we haven't heard his audible voice. We haven't seen Jesus
Christ. But everything we believe and
hope for is based on promises and found those promises are
found here. Titus chapter one. Now, there are many things told
of. Where is Titus? I can't find
him. Right after Timothy. All right.
You thought you were the only one, didn't you? There are many things told of
in the Scripture, many promises made, things told of that we
can look forward to. The Scripture says, I have not
seen, neither have ear heard, neither have entered into the
heart of man the things, plural, that God hath prepared for them
that love him. Things. But all these promises,
Things are based on one promise. Eternal life. Now listen very
carefully. There's a reason I'm saying that.
It's all in one promise. Life. All these things are based
on having eternal life. And our Lord called it life more
abundant. real life. I mean really living. I thought as a youngster that
I was full of life. I thought as an 18, 19 year old
that boy I was grabbing all the gusto in life I could get while
I was dead. You understand what I'm saying? Real life is abundant life. It's spiritual life. You don't
appreciate this life until you have spiritual life. You haven't
begun to have life, or really live, until you have this abundant
life. And I can't say too much about
it. But it's life without limits. We don't know, I can't describe
that. To love without, I mean, pure
love. To know as we've been known.
Life without limit. That was our Lord in Him as life. The life was the life of man.
Perfect knowledge. Perfect understanding. Perfect
peace. Perfect comfort. Perfect contentment. Perfect love. Perfect. That's
abundant life. We just got a foretaste of it. It's life without limits. It's
life like that, eternal peace, joy and happiness with no end,
no cessation of happiness. Have you ever had something you
were enjoying yourself so much that you didn't want it to end?
This doesn't. Now get a hold of that, would
you? Our Lord said, abundant life, more abundant. That's all I can say about it.
That's all I can say about it. But it's all based on, you see,
this one promise, eternal life. And it's all, this promise is
in one place. One person. Titus 1, look at
verse 2. It says, In hope of eternal life
which God that cannot lie promised before the world began. Promise, promise of eternal life
to who? Who's this promise of eternal
life that I tried feebly to describe? Who's it to? Who's it for? Who's
the character described in the promise? He that believeth in
me, Christ said, all the Father giveth me shall come to me, and
him that cometh All that believe Christ. This promise of this
abundant life is for all that love Christ. I don't mean in
theory, I don't mean in lip service like, oh, I mean really love
Christ, that He's Christ. Huh? It's all that love Christ
and all that live to know Him. That's what Paul said. And I
don't mean this superficial, I'm serving Jesus, that stuff.
That's a bunch of self-righteous, I'm going to say it, crap. That
people bragging on their service for Him. No. I'm talking about
people who said, oh, for me to, that I might win Christ and be
found in Him. That I might know Him. For me
to live is to know Him. That I want to grow in grace
and the knowledge of Him. That's what it means to live
for Christ. Not brag on your service. But it's for those, this promise
of abundant life is for those who want to see him bad. They're
going to. All right, who made the promise?
Who made the promises? God. Now, if I make you a promise,
and I illustrated this not too long ago down in the basement,
you remember your husband's reaction? from my dear friend Sammy. I
said, Sam, if I promised to give you a thousand dollars tomorrow,
would you believe me? And he sat there, and I wanted him to say yes, but
he couldn't. Well, that's fine. That serves
as a good illustration tonight, but I'm just a man. I may make
a promise, but something may come up and I can't fulfill it.
I may have a thousand, And it gets stolen, or, you know, a
good-looking horse come along. And with Sammy, I'm sorry, I
meant to, I really wanted to, I intended to, I made the promise,
but God cannot lie, will not lie. It's impossible for Him
to lie, and nothing can alter His promise. It's as good as
done when He promised that it was done. because he promised,
and nothing can alter that. I like that, don't you? All right,
go back to Hebrews 11. Now, we haven't received the
promises, but like Abel, Enoch, Noah, we've seen them afar off.
Where did we see them? Right here, in God's Word, haven't
we? Faith cometh by hearing, and
hearing by the Word of God. We've seen these things. Like
David said, open mine eyes that I might behold wondrous things
from thy word. While the world is looking, our
Lord said, an evil generation looks for a sign. This whole
religious world is looking for things. Excitement, feeling,
all of that. And they're seeing some things,
there's not a doubt. Because our Lord plainly said,
right here in this book, He said this, no sign will be given. But to God's people, He shows
them thing after thing after thing. Reveals truth after truth
after truth. See, this never changes. Signs
and visions and so forth. You may see it, Brother Dan,
but I don't see it. So that makes you have more faith
than I do. But no, we can both see the same
thing in this book, can't we? We can both receive the same
faith and assurance, because it's right here. God shows all
his people the same thing from the same source. And they're
all resting in the same thing, the truth. They're grounded and
settled in the truth, and their faith is being nailed down. Their faith is being nailed down,
so that anything that happens, world war, Can't shake their faith. Why?
Their faith is in something that was settled before the world
began. Their faith is in someone and
something that said these things would happen, and here they come.
So we expected it. Right? But if you're looking
at things, these things change. Right? But this doesn't change. You see the wisdom of God in
His Word only as a source of faith? All right, we've seen
these things in God's Word, but God hath revealed these things
unto us by His Spirit, Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 2. And this
spiritual eyesight, this faith, cometh by hearing the Word. All
right, that's the eye of faith. We believe, we believe. All right,
look at the next thing. These all died in faith, not
having received the promises, but having seen them afar off,
and were persuaded of them. We see from God's Word. We see. We believe. Don't we? We see who God is from
His Word. We see the things He's promised
afar off. We see who Christ is. We see
ourselves. We see the truth. We see. We
see. We see. We see the future just as clearly as it's... We've
read the last chapter of the book. We know. We know how it's
going in. We see afar off. We haven't received
it yet, but we see. And it says we're persuaded of
them. These all died in faith. They
were persuaded of the promises. Now, it's one thing to say, well,
I believe. It's saving faith to be Have
you ever been persuaded of anything? Of course you have. Are there
any Democrats in here? Or any Republicans? What's the chance of getting
you to change parties? No way. You're persuaded. If you're a Democrat, I don't
know how. But here's the thing is, here's
my illustration is, if people are staunch Democrats and there's
nothing, no one will persuade them to be a Republican. No way. No way. And vice versa. Right? Well, every one of us started
out believing wrong. And many of us lived for years
in religion, believing the wrong God, a God who was not God at
all. Right? Hearing a false gospel. And on
and on. Right? It's called Arminian religion,
for sure. Believing we were saved. Sure,
for heaven's sake, we were already there. That sort of thing, you
know. Many of us. Firmly persuaded, weren't you? And then one day, it's impossible for a Democrat
to become a Republican. Well, something even more difficult
is to take an old self-righteous Armenian person who's, you know,
made his decision or her decision and saved, and you can't convince
me otherwise, and convince them they're lost. and absolutely firmly persuade
them that the God they used to believe wasn't God at all. And this is what happens. Him
to Brother Henry. You were there, you were a Methodist,
weren't you? A Methodist. And I don't mean, I'm not making
fun of Methodists. I'm making fun of all religion,
Baptists and so forth. So the Baptists' work. Catholic,
Muslim, or whatever it may be. There's a truth. And what it
is, is only God down in the recesses of their
being where you can't convince him or her otherwise. Nothing.
I've never seen a believer go back to being Arminian. Have
you? Once somebody hears of the true God,
they're persuaded. Firmly persuaded. Firmly persuaded
that God is God. Are you persuaded that God is
God? Sure you are. You look at this
book and on every page, every line, you see He really is God.
Are you persuaded that this is the truth? Are you persuaded
that Jesus Christ is salvation? That Jesus Christ is reigning
and ruling? He's not trying to do anything.
He's seated on a throne. All things are in His hands.
Are you persuaded of that? Well, Jeanette, you didn't used
to believe that, did you? Huh? Are you persuaded now? Can I convince you otherwise?
Can anybody or anything convince you otherwise, change you? Well,
who persuaded you, Jeanette? This persuasion is of God Almighty. Firmly persuaded. Cain said to
Abel, I'm sincere. My way can't be
wrong. I'm just as sincere as you are,
Abel. No, okay, no way. God's just one way. Abel, you
can't be that dogmatic. Yes, I can. That's being too narrow, Abel.
God said the way is narrow. You've got to broaden your mind,
Abel. No, no, no, no. The road to destruction is broad. firmly persuaded, firmly persuaded. This persuasion comes from God,
God only. It may be possible to turn a
Democrat into a Republican. It's possible with God, and only
God, to persuade a human being that he's in control of nothing,
that his whole life that is in his God's control. And all his
hope is based on somebody else. That comes from God. And we can
say, like Paul, can we say with Apostle Paul, I know whom I have
believed and am persuaded. Persuaded. Look at the next thing.
And these things naturally follow. They naturally follow each other.
You see. You see clearly. Oh, I see now. Yeah, I believe
that. Oh, I'm persuaded of that. And
it says, and they embrace them. It's one thing to say, I believe
that. And another, oh, I firmly believe
that. But it's saving faith altogether to say, I love that. You can convince some people,
like that college professor of Sharon Nybert, Brother Todd Nybert's
Later on in life, up in her forties, attended a college class, some
kind of class, and the professor, it was some kind of religious
class, and he said this, this fellow was an agnostic, he claimed
no religion at all, but he said, if I were a Christian, if I believed
this book, the Bible, they were studying something in the Bible,
he said I would be a Calvinist. He said because that's what this
book teaches. Oh, the hands shot up. Nearly
every hand in that room said, but, but, but, but. He said,
I'm not taking questions here. He said, that's what this book
teaches. He said, I don't believe it, but that's what this book
teaches. That's one thing to say, I believe
that. I'm firmly convinced of that.
Yes, I believe God is God. Here's true faith. This is what
will make you die in faith. You love it. You embrace it. This is called
the love of the truth. It says some people receive not
the love of the truth, but God's people all receive the love of
the truth. They don't only believe God's
God, they love that He is. They don't only believe that
God chose the people, that's His divine right, they love Him
to have all the rights. If you really love God's glory,
you insist upon it, don't you? I defy all these people that
despise God's sovereign, sovereignty, sovereign electing God. I defy
them to answer me, why? Why don't you believe that? They
really don't love God's right to be God. They love man's right
to be something, a little God himself. But God's people who
really love God as God insists upon it. Don't they? Do you love hearing this, Brother
Ed? Can't get enough of it, can you? I love God being God. I'm telling you, if you ever
find that out, if somebody ever finds out that you, your children,
this world of everything is absolutely under His sovereign power, you'll
love it to be so. Why would anybody want it otherwise?
Why would anybody want Satan as powerful as God? Why would
anybody want man in control of anything? We kill each other.
I'm glad God does the killing. I'm glad God does the the wound
and the healing. I'm glad God's in control. Don't
you love that? Where is there peace? Where is
there comfort to be found anywhere but in a God who reigns, huh? Why believe in a God if he can't
do anything unless you let him? He's standing by idly. Well,
who needs a God like that? I need a God who's ordered everything
concerning me and my family, and I don't have to worry about
a thing. Now that's a Father in that you
can trust in. That's God. You can have this
peanut God out there. My God reigns. I love it so. If you really love
His glory, you'll love Him to have all rights. Do what you
will with whom you will. Job loved God to be God. He said,
even if He slays me, I'll trust Him. Abraham said it, you could
kill my son-in-law a lot and be just, the judge of the earth
will do right. Didn't he? That's loving God
to be God. That's loving the truth. And
Christ to be Christ. Brother John, Oh, who needs this Jesus today?
Huh? This Jesus that is no more powerful
than me. Who needs somebody like that,
huh? Who shed His blood, but I might go to hell anyway. Don't
you love Christ to be your Christ? I mean that there is someone
right now pleading his blood on your behalf right now. And
God Almighty hears, as all we heard, will always hear, and
cannot turn away, cannot deny him. And he says, John Davis
is mine, no matter what. Now, don't you love that? Good look at him, he's a sinner.
Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God
that justifies. Who is he that condemned him?
Christ died. There's someone right now pleading
for his people, standing on behalf of his people, and everyone he
stands there for will be saved. Don't you love that? Don't you
love that, that your salvation is not dependent on you? Huh? Don't you love that? That's to
embrace it. That's to embrace it. Don't you love Christ to be all?
I don't want it to depend on me at all. I want Christ to be
all, and He is. And I'd love to have it so. Real
sinners, here's where the rubber meets the road. Did you read
that article Sunday morning by my pastor? The reason people
don't need a God like that, they're really not that helpless. They're
really not sinners. The reason people don't need
a sovereign Christ is they're really not sinners. The reason
people don't need this sovereign saving mercy for a God to uphold
them all their lives is they're not sinners. They think, really,
there's some way God's taking note of me. Right? But real sinners, buddy. need
a real God, a real Savior, and a real gospel, and they love
it. They love it. They lay hold of
it. They lay hold of it. Imputed
righteousness? That's just naked sinners covering. All right, how do we know that
we love and embrace the truth, though? Look at chapter 11, verse 13. They embraced them and confessed
that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. They confessed. Confession. We confess what we
really believe. out of the abundance of the heart.
You see, this is where the affection is in the heart. Something or
someone you embrace, you do it from the heart. You love. Out of the abundance of the heart. What happens? What does the Scripture
say? The mouth speaketh. You can't help it. Remember that
Democrat I was talking about? Quit picking on Democrats. Republicans. Republicans, you're going to
hear about it. It's going to come out, isn't
it? If things start being talked about, it's going to come out,
isn't it? So it is with the believer. He
confesses Christ. He confesses his God. It's an open avowal. We confess
what we really believe. We confess what we really love. are who we really love. We confess
them, and I'll give an illustration in a minute. But we confess our
belief of the truth, we confess our love for Christ, his people. Here's a good illustration. A young woman She, and this is a God-given
thing, that God puts within young women and men to someday, when
they get older, to fall in love and get married, and that's God-given. That's natural affection that
God gives. So here this young woman hopes
someday to be married. Little girls, you know, they
play. house. They want to be married someday,
have children. Well, one day she meets a young
man. She meets a young man and she
falls in love. Oh, there were many, you know,
for a while there, but she finally meets the man and falls in love
with him. And they get to know each other. She becomes persuaded of him. his character, she gets to know
him, his word, his trustworthiness, his love to her and her love
to him. And then what happens? How do
you know that that young lady really loves that fellow? They get married. That's it. That's the absolute show. That's the confession. That's
the public confession or a vow of what's in the heart. You must. There is no love without that
commitment and that public commitment. Right? Living together is trying
one another out. Committing lock, stock and barrel,
say I'm yours until you kick me out. Now that's love. Commitment. It's a confession.
That's a good illustration. Whoever you really love, you'll
confess before everybody. This is mine. I am her. She is mine. There's a, I think
it's called an acrostic, acrostic where you take the letter and
form a word from it. Is that it, Sherry? Help me here. Alright, I think it's across
the faith. F-A-I-T-H. Faith. F-A-I-T-H. Forsaking all,
I take him. That's what a woman does when
she stands down here. She has all these former boyfriends. You can have them all. This is
the boy. before everybody, right? Do you promise before all these
witnesses? That's confessing. They confess. Christ said, he that confesseth
me before men, I'll confess to my Father before the angels in
heaven. Baptism is the public confession
of faith. where wherein we say, I love
this Christ, I love this gospel, I want everybody to know it.
Forsaking all, I take Him. Forsaking my old God, who wasn't
God at all, this is my God. Forsaking that which I formerly
believed, which was a lie, I now believe the truth, faith, confess it. And they confessed,
it said, that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. I
tell you what, if you believe this gospel, you'll be a stranger. That's what they said to Paul.
And Mars Hill, they said, what is this strange doctrine that
you're trying to tell us? This is strange. What you believe
is strange. Isn't that what they said, Brother
John? They said, well, he's a third or fourth of a strange God. None of us believe in a God like
that. We've never heard of a God like that. That's a strange God.
If you believe this God, this truth, you'll be strange. You'll be a strange man in a
strange land, a strange woman. You'll be the only one at work,
Tammy, that believes like you do. Is that the way it is? That's the way it is. When I
worked on the railroad, all the live long day. Everybody's religious. There are preachers a dime a
dozen, you know. Oh, I hated seeing them come. You smell them. They all have a certain look.
Like mine, I do, right? No, certainly they had more hair,
most of them had more hair. Where was I? I was working on
the railroad, all the way along there. Everybody was religious. Everybody was religious. And
nobody believed like I did. Except one fellow named Dale
Parker, a member of of the same church. And I've told you before,
when he and I would see each other, we would be working midnight
shift, you're seeing those movies of two lovers running at each
other across the field? Honestly, I'm telling you the
truth. That's the way I felt. A kindred
spirit. Oh, there's a brother. There's
somebody that doesn't hate me for what I believe. Everybody
got together against me. That's a lonely place. Our Lord
said that you shall be hated of all men for my name's sake.
That's what he said. He was. You'll be thought of as strange. You'll be a stranger. Yes, you
will. You're not trying to be. You're not dressing strange.
You're not trying to act strange. You're just like they are, but
you'll be a stranger. You'll be a cast out and a pilgrim. Oh, this world is wanting to
hold on to this world. God's people are looking for
a better world. They really believe. They're
persuaded. There's something better than
this. They embrace it. They're looking for it, anxiously. And they make some pilgrims here
on this earth, passing through. All right, let's stand. Our Lord, thank You for Your
Word. Thank You for these examples of faith. Thank You for giving
faith to each of these ones in the Scripture. Thank You for
their story. Thank You for commending them and setting them up as our
example. love your word and thank you
for it. We don't love it as we should,
but we do love it. We don't love thee as we should,
but we do love you and your gospel. Lord, increase our faith. Now,
we pray that you might plant this in the hearts of your people.
Let nothing remove it. Give us firm confidence in our
God who cannot lie. In His name we pray, in Christ's
name, amen. Bye.