I invite you to turn with me
tonight to Psalm 68. While you're turning, let me say that I'm thankful both to
God's providence and to your pastor for allowing me this privilege
and honor to preach to the saints of God. That's not a word we
use much anymore, is it? But David's believers are saints.
That's what God calls them. That's what the Holy Spirit inspired
these men to write. They're saints of God. And privileged
to be so. And I say that for myself as
well as for you. Paul addressed God's people as
beloved. He does in the second letter
to the Thessalonians, he calls them beloved of the Lord. Isn't
that something to think that the Lord loves you? Oh, what
a assurance and confidence that is, that he loves us, beloved
of the Lord. But my point is this, when I'm
preaching to people, I need to remind myself all the time, this
is God's people. This is God's people. And if
he gives me anything, he's giving it to me to give to you. To give
to you because he loves you. He loves you. You're precious
to him. And what a blessed and wonderful privilege it is to
minister to God's sheep. Four or 400. I don't care. I'm past all that. I just, it
doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. One of these
days, we'll see that as it ought to be looked at, and we'll think,
wow, what a privilege. What a privilege this is. Now,
if you found your place, just leave your Bibles open to the
text, and let me give you a little background on it before I get
into the message itself. My subject is the issues from
death. You'll find that in verse 20
there in that text. And death is something all of
us have to deal with. We all want to put it off, but
we all have to deal with it. We deal with it in our families.
We deal with it, unfortunately, even in our children. We have
to deal with it from time to time. And death is certain. You may put it off and put it
off and put it off, but one of these days, it's going to be
in your face. Death is certain. All of the genealogies in the
scripture but one end this way, and they died. They died. Some of them lived 900 years,
but then they died. It's not a matter of if, but
it's a matter of when, and it's a matter of how. And while philosophers
and doctors would have you believe death, I've heard this so much.
I told David today at funerals, I like to just, instead of, you
know, talking and milling around, I like to get in a corner and
listen to people talk. I like to hear what they have
to say about death and heaven. And they're not going to talk
about hell at all at a funeral, but they do talk about heaven
and they talk about their hope and it's really telling what
people say at funerals. But, you know, doctors and philosophers
and people, they all want to comfort you by telling you that
death is just a natural process of life. That's a bunch of hoots. Death is not a natural process
of life. It is the judgment of God upon
sinful men. That's what death is. Romans
5.12 said, wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world,
and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men. Sin entered,
death passed. Romans 5.18, therefore by the
offense of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation. Death is not a natural process
of life. but it's the judgment of God
because of sin, and even the sinner's substitute must die. All sinners, the soul that sinneth,
listen to what God told Moses. Moses said, show me your glory.
He said, I'm gonna pass by before you. I'm gonna show you my glory.
And he said, I keep mercy for thousands. I have forgiveness. But Moses, you hear me, I will
by no means clear The guilty, the soul that sinneth, it shall
surely die. That's what death is all about. And the scripture said, those
of us who have a hope, that we were reconciled. He reconciled
us in the body of his flesh through death, through death. Death is the result of sin. It
is also the means of justification. He died. Christ died for us. All right, so what is death? We talk about death, and first
thing pops in your mind is going down the cemetery, and there
lays your loved one in a casket, and you look at him, and he's
not breathing, and he's not talking, and he's dead. And that's how
we But there's three things concerning death. And the first of those
three is spiritual condemnation. That's death. That's death. Spiritual death. And spiritual
death is the effect of sin upon the nature of man. Paul talks about this over in
Ephesians chapter two. He said, and you hath he quickened
who were dead in trespasses and sins. So what's he talking about? Well, wherein in time past you
walked according to the course of this world, according to the
prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now worketh in
the children of disobedience, among whom Also, we all had our
conversation, our behavior, our tenor of life in times past in
the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of our flesh and
of the mind, and now listen, were by nature the children of
wrath, those children under the judgment of God, were by nature
the children of wrath even as others. Spiritual death. Adam died spiritually and immediately. And a lot of
people say, well, he did this, he partook of the forbidden fruit. I don't know if he actually partook
of it or not. Satan didn't do anything. Satan
just said in his heart, I'm gonna do this. And he fell from heaven
like lightning. Sin is conceived in the heart
and then it manifests itself in our actions. But he experienced spiritual
death immediately. And you say, well, how do you
know that? Because the first thing he did is went and hid
in the garden. Adam, he never had hid in that garden, not one
minute since God formed him. He didn't hide in that garden.
He walked with God in the cool of the day in that garden. Now
he runs into the garden and hides, as though you could hide from
God. And what else does he do? Well,
he picks some fig leaves and weaves an apron and puts them
on. Now he feels like he's covered his nakedness. And I told our
folks not too long ago, what little bit I know about an apron,
it doesn't cover your backside, it just covers the front. So
you're still exposed. And that's the same with all
these false righteousnesses that people go out and they produce. They're no better, they are as
ignorant of God as that fig leaf apron. It's just that silly. As though he could put on a fig
leaf apron and hide himself from God. And then here's the second thing
about this. Sin, he said, when it is finished,
bringeth forth death. Natural death. Natural death. One day you and I are gonna cease
to exist as we now do in this world. We're gonna stop. This
is not forever. And I know people want it to
go on forever. We want this to just go on and
on and on and on. But the more we experience the
sin of this world and that effect of that sin in our bodies, the
more God prepares us to be willing to leave this world. But we're
gonna cease to exist. These tabernacles or tents which
house our souls are gonna be discarded. Dissolved is the word
he uses in 2 Corinthians 5. He said, we know if these tabernacles
be dissolved, we have a house in heaven that we're gonna dwell in. So
they house our souls, and they're gonna be discarded, and we're
all gonna stand in the presence of Christ our King. And this
tiny space in time, you know, when you begin to study the word
of God, and you see the eternality of God, and you see here's a
vast eternity, it goes back farther than you can even, I have no
concept of eternity. And you look this way and it
goes that way. And it just goes on forever. And here we are in
this little speck of time. And God has chosen in this little
speck of time, he created everything to manifest his glory in this
little speck of time. Time itself, the universe in
which we live, the earth on which we walk, These bodies, all of
these things were created to manifest the glory of God. If
you read Colossians chapter one, that's what he said. Our savior
was the creator. And he not only created all things
and all these things were created for him and by him, they're for
him. This creation was made to manifest
the glory of God, and the Son of God's gonna come down in this
little speck of time. And you think about that. I mean,
as long as the earth exists till he comes back, still gonna just
be a speck in the light of eternity. But he's gonna come down here,
he's gonna take on himself the form of a man. The living God. housed in human
flesh, and then he's gonna manifest
the very glory of God as a man. You think about that. And that's what all of these
things is about. And this tiny space in eternity
is that time when God, he not only manifests his glory, but
he He begins to work in our hearts and in our minds and through
the preaching of the gospel and through the hearing of the gospel.
This is that time. This time was not before and
it's not going to be after. It's just right in this little
speck. And the more you know that, the more these other things
just fade away in the light of the glory of that. This is what's
going on. And still, we look around, and
this COVID thing, I'm not even going to get into that. I'm so
sick of it, I can't understand it. Somebody told me to put my
mask on the other day, and I don't want that. I just don't like
it. I just don't like it. All of this is going to come
to an end, and we're going to go to our long home, the old
writers would say. And then thirdly, he speaks of
a second death. All three of these have to do
with death. And this second death, John said, he saw the dead, small
and great, stand before God. And he said the books were opened.
Now listen to what he says. He saw the dead, the spiritually
dead, the physically dead, he saw them stand before God. When the books were opened, what
are these books? I don't have a clue, but I know
these books have to do with our works and our natures and our
sin, and it's recorded, and it's true, and it'll be stated to
you. I don't believe God has a book
in his hand. He don't need a book, but he's
saying that for our benefit so that we know that these things
are not gonna be forgotten. These things are, are there, recorded. The books
were opened. And then he said another book
was opened, which is the book of life. So here are these books
and another book. And the dead were judged out
of those things which were written in the books according to their
works. Revelation 20, 13. And he said,
and the sea gave up the dead which were in it. And death and
hell were delivered up, and the dead which were in them, and
they were judged every man according to the works. And then death
and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And it's a death without end.
It's an eternal separation from God. It's called everlasting
punishment in the scriptures. tormented, he said, day and night
forever and forever. Those are the words of Christ
our Lord. Now this is the death of guilty
sinners, and if God is pleased to save some from it, there's
certain issues which must be resolved. Now look with me at
my text here in Psalm 68 20. He that is our God is the God
of salvation. And unto God the Lord belong
the issues, he didn't say of death, he said from death. He's gonna save some from death. But there's issues, there's issues,
and these issues must be resolved. And if he's the God of salvation,
then I think we can assume that he's purposed to save some. But in order to save some, or
any for that matter, from death, there are issues that must be
resolved. What are these issues? Well,
if we have time this evening, I'm gonna try to hurry. But there's
five things, five issues. There's many more than that.
But these are the five main issues that I see that men are dealing
with all the time and which God causes us to deal with as he
calls us to himself. And that's what I wanna mostly
focus on tonight. And the first issue is this.
What of the dead? They're dead. I've just read
to you from the scriptures how they're dead. They're dead in
their natures. They're dead spiritually. They can't do anything spiritual. They can't think anything spiritual. They can't walk according to
the spirit of God. They have no concept of God. The natural man receiveth not
the things even of the spirit of God. For the foolishness unto
him, neither can he know them. In order to save some or any,
these issues have to be resolved. So what about the dead? Will
God just leave them to themselves? He did the fallen angels. He said, well, God wouldn't just
leave us to ourselves. He did the angels. Read the book of
Jude. They sinned and they kept not
their first estate. and God reserved them in chains
of darkness under judgment. There's no period of mercy for
them, there's no preaching to them, no gospel, no messengers,
no nothing, no grace. He put chains of darkness on
them and they're reserved under judgment. No understanding, no
nothing. He could have done the same thing
to men if he purposed to, but he didn't. He didn't. But will God just leave them
to themselves? He said destruction and misery are in their ways,
and I tell our folks all the time, you leave a man alone,
he'll self-destruct because destruction and misery is in his ways. Perhaps God's gonna do a few
things and then leave the rest up to the dead. What will become of the dead. Well, people I talk to, they
tell me, well, here's what I think, or it seems to me, or from what
I understand, listen to this, to God the Lord belong the issues
of death. It don't matter what you think,
and it don't matter what I think. what he says. Now that's just
it. It matters what God says. So
what does God say? What's gonna become of these
dead? What's gonna become of mankind?
Well, God tells us in his book that he's purposed to save a
people out of Adam's fallen race for the glory of his name. God's
purpose to do this. He purposed to do this before
the world was, before ever Adam fell. He purposed to do this. And Paul tells us in Romans 9,
29, and here he's talking about Israel, if you will, or you can
apply the same thing to all of us. He tells us in the 29th verse
of Romans chapter nine, except the Lord of Sabaoth had left
us a seed, we'd been like Sodom and Gomorrah, we'd been ashes. And he tells us again in Romans
11, 5, at this present time, there is a remnant according
to the election of grace. And if it's by grace, then it's
no more works. And what kind of works could
a dead man do anyway? I lived right beside the cemetery
down in Louisiana years ago. I mean, 30 feet from it. And people would come down to
visit, and I said, don't that bother you, living this close
to a cemetery? I said, I ain't worried about
them. They're dead. They're not. It's the living
I worry about. But he tells us even clearer
in Ephesians 1 through 3 that all he was pleased to bless in
eternity past. Paul said, I think he's the God
and father of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we thank him because
he blessed us with all spiritual blessings and heavenly places
in Christ. Now watch this. According as
he had chosen us in him before the foundation of the world.
having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus
Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will. He didn't leave this thing in
the hands of dead men. They're in the hands of the Lord. Now, at first, a man says, well,
you know, it's like he's hanging on this rope and you're telling
him to let go. I got you, let go. He ain't gonna
let go of that rope. And he wants to hang on to his
ideas and he wants to hang on to his refuge and hang on to
his ignorant understanding and all of these things. He wants
to hang on. He don't want to turn loose of it. Salvation's in his hands. He's the God of salvation. And these issues are in his hands. He tells us that in Romans too. No man liveth unto himself, no
man dieth unto himself. So whether we live or die, we're
the Lord's. Is that right? So it's in his
hand. So what of the dead? God has
purposed to save a people out of every tribe, kindred, nation,
tongue, and people under heaven. You reckon he can do it? He's
the only one who can. All right, here's the next issue.
Who decides who's going to be saved and who ain't? Religion said, it's all up to
you. But that ain't what God said.
God said to him, God the Lord belong to issues from death. And this is issues settled in
Christ. Let me show you something over
here in Ephesians 1. Paul tells us something of the
mystery. He works his way down through
there, tells us about predestination, tells us we're accepted in the
blood, tells us we're redeemed through his blood. And then he
begins to talk about how God has abounded toward us in these
mysteries, these things which we'd never thought of, never
entered the heart of man, the things that God had prepared
for them, never entered our thoughts. And he begins to abound toward
us in the wisdom that this world knows nothing about. And then
he begins to talk about it in verse 10. He said that in the
dispensation of the fullness of times, he might gather together
in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, which
are on earth, even in him. In whom also we have obtained
an inheritance being predestinated according to the purpose of him
who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will,
that we should be to the praise of his glory who first trusted
in Christ." That's God who first trusted in Christ. I told our
folks in our Genesis study, it said, and God rested from all
his works. And I said, Reckon God didn't
know that man was gonna fall? This man that he was about to
create and he was gonna fall? You reckon he didn't know that
Satan gonna be cast out of heaven and come down into this earth
and work among men in the spirit of antichrist, in that spirit
of Satan that works in the hearts of men? You reckon he didn't
know any of that? Yeah, he did. Why could he rest? Because he trusted it into the
hands of his son. Everything. Everything. When you understand that, that
Sabbath will open up to you. That's the rest. He says this in the Book of Romans.
In chapter 9, he said, hath not the potter power over the clock? Of the same lump to make one
vessel under honor, another under dishonor? What if God, willing
to show his wrath, make his power known, endures these vessels
of wrath fitted for destruction, these vessels that he condemned
way back yonder in the garden and he'd been putting up with
and tolerating ever since. What if he endured all those
things? And then that he might show his
mercy and grace on these vessels of mercy aforeprepared unto glory. Who decides who's going to be
saved and who's not? Well, I tell you, I'm glad he
does. Because if it had been in my hands, I'd still be doing
what I was doing when he found me. And so would you. To God the Lord belong the issues
from death. In Romans 9, the apostle reminds
us of Isaac's two sons who weren't even born yet. And he came to
the mother and he said, the elder is going to serve the younger.
Boy, that was never done. and with the Jews. The elder's
gonna serve the younger. Why? That the purpose of God,
according to election, might stand. Not of works, but of him
that calleth. And having done that, he said
to her, the elder gonna serve the younger, as it's written,
Jacob have I loved, and Esau have I hated. And so Paul comes to this conclusion
in verse 16, he says, so then it's not of him that willeth,
and it's not of him that roaneth, it's of God that shall have mercy.
Nobody's gonna be saved in the end whose name is not written
in the Lamb's book of life, nobody, nobody. And in Revelation 17, eight,
it says whose names were not written in the book of life from
the foundation of the world. See, religion, when you make
a profession of faith, they told me God's writing your name in
his book. No, those names are already there.
They're already there. God decides who will and who
will not be saved. And then thirdly, who decides
how these elect sinners shall be saved? Is that up for grabs? Does he just say, well, I'm going
to save some people, and you figure out how. So depending
on how evil you thought you were, you have to do a little less
or a little more and on it goes. Does God just give us a few hints
here and there and then turn it over to us to figure out?
Or does he save some one way and some another? Or is this a work in motion evolving
as time goes on? He does something in this age,
and then in this age, he does something different. Again, I
go back to my text, to God the Lord belong the issues from death. He's the God of salvation. And
God has left nothing to do with our salvation to chance or circumstance. He orders everything. He has
arranged this meeting here tonight. I wish I could press that on
you. That just thrills my soul to even think about it, that
as time goes on, he arranges these things. You can't make
them happen. You try your best to make something
happen. It don't work. It just don't work. Paul wanted
to go over where Lydia lived. He wanted to go there so bad
and the Holy Spirit absolutely forbade him in his providence. He just shut up, shut the door.
And then he come to find out that the place where the Lord
sent him is where Lydia was. And she was meeting with that
group of people down on the river. Paul preached to her and God
saved her. Isn't that something? God left nothing to chance. He
worketh all things after the counsel of his own will. Well, how does God save sinners?
If it's in his hands, he decides how he's gonna save sinners.
How does he save sinners? Well, he saves sinners first
by putting them into an eternal union with his son before the
world was. That's the first thing he does.
He chose us. in him. He's our head. He's our representative. As Adam
was of mankind, Christ is to his elect. Now, if you go through
Romans chapter five, you'll see that stated over and over and
over and over. As Adam did this, Christ did
this. We stand or we fall in him. He said, as by the offense of
one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation. Even so, by the righteousness
of one, a free gift came upon all men to justification of life.
Everybody that Adam was the head of fell in the garden. Everybody
that was given to Christ by the Father was going to be made alive
in Christ. Scripture said, as in Adam all
die, even so in Christ. all gonna be made alive. And
you find this all through the scriptures, and yet men deny
this and hate this, and I just, I don't understand. We're accepted
in the blood. We're not accepted on what we
did, or we're not accepted, you know, you get these, I went through
this period in time when I was hearing things about percentages,
I have to go the way, they never said that, but that's how they
were preaching. And I thought, now wait a minute. He just says believe. And the
disciples said, well, we believe, but help our own belief. Well,
how much did they believe? I don't know. But you can't believe
anything unless you're born again. So if you believe anything about
Christ, Because a dead man can't believe. He can't do anything.
But they were making it out. You have to hit this percentage
point. You have to hit this plateau. You have to get to this place.
Now you say, no. No. But I will tell you this. Everything you believe concerning
him has to be the truth. Has to be the truth. But you
don't have to be a theologian to have faith. Scripture said in him God abounded
toward us in all wisdom. He's our wisdom. Scripture said he's the end of
the law for righteousness to everyone that believe it. His
resurrection is our justification and his presence and glory is
our intercession. Christ is all and Paul said for
me to live is Christ and therefore to die is gained. Death wasn't
a terror to him anymore. Death is a graduation for a believer. It shouldn't be a terror to him.
Everything God requires of the sinner, he's furnished in the
Savior. Listen to this. He said, now
don't follow these philosophers. Don't follow these worldly preachers,
these antichrist hounds that are always at your, He said,
in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. Now listen, and you are complete
in him. That's good news to me. I don't
know about you, that's good news to me. And then fourthly, here's another
issue. How do chosen sinners know their
election of God? God has an elect, I showed you
that in the scripture. He's purposed to save some of
these dead men and put them in Christ. But how do these people know
if they're elect or not? Well, preacher, I believe what
you're saying, God's gonna save his elect, but how do I know
if I'm an elect? How do I know that? Well, Paul
writes his first epistle to the Thessalonians and he tells them
in verse four, knowing, brethren beloved, your election of God. Are you listening? For our gospel
came not unto you in word only, but also in power and in the
Holy Ghost and in much assurance. I had a young man in my church
and he struggled and struggled and struggled on assurance. And
he said, I just, I don't feel like I have any assurance. I
said, you don't believe that Christ is the son of God? Oh,
I said, I believe that. And I said, well, you don't believe
that he came down here as a man and lived 33 and a half years
and obeyed that law and never dropped until and died? Oh yeah,
I believe that. I said, you don't believe he
was raised from the dead and ascended up into glory and sitting
at the right hand of God? Oh, absolutely I believe that.
And I said, let me tell you something. Assurance is not confidence in
your confidence. Assurance is confidence in Christ. It's confidence in Christ. And
that's what he's telling them. This thing came in power and
in the Holy Ghost and in much assurance. You saw what Christ
did and you believed on him and rested in him and you're trusting
in him because of who he is and what he's done and where he's
at. How do chosen sinners know their election of God? In John
chapter six, verse 37, Christ himself said, all that the Father
giveth me shall come to me. They're not gonna come down an
aisle. They're not gonna come to a mourner's bench. They're
not gonna come to gifts like speaking in tongues and all of
this other stuff. They're not gonna do that. They're
not gonna sign pledge cards. They're gonna come to Christ.
Why are they gonna come? Because they hear who he is. Who is this man? Why did he come? What did he do and where is he
now? Now you hear that and see that in the scripture, you'll
have assurance. But your assurance won't be in
you, and it won't be in your assurance, it's gonna be in him.
In him. And then lastly, how does the
salvation of God's elect differ from the false professions of
men? Believers walk by faith. We're hearing things, Dave and
I both, hearing things about these are not really issues of
faith, that's what we're facing here in our, I beg your pardon,
everything in your life is a matter of faith. We walk by faith. We don't walk by sight, we walk
by faith. That's how I live in this world.
That's why I do what I do. We walk by faith. There's no
other reason to try and cover our shame with fig leaf aprons
and pretended righteousness. I'll never forget one time, I
was still in an Armenian church and hadn't come to really hear
the gospel. And we were trying to do things
to raise money because the people were so tight they wouldn't give
anything to the church. We'd pass an offering plate and
they'd take one of those little plastic change purses And then
they'd fish around in it, put something in a plate. And so
we were having a car wash. And we never dreamed. We're way
out in Illinois. We must have had, I don't know,
I'm just guessing, 20 or 30 cars. And there was four of us out
there washing cars. And we were washing them and
wiping them all down and all of this to raise money for the
church. Finally the day come to an end at about 6 or 6.30
and we went in the house and my wife's hair was just hanging
down in her face. And some of us guys were standing
around and we were talking about these things. And we were talking
about Christ is the end of the law for righteousness. And it's
not of works. Absolutely not of works. And
we were really emphasizing that in our conversation And I looked
over, and there's my wife standing there, her hair's all down like
this, and she's all wet and tired. And she said, you mean we did
all this for nothing? But that's exactly what I'm telling
people who are steeped in religion. You're doing all that for nothing.
Paul prayed for the salvation of the Jews. And he said, I bear
witness I have a zeal of God. But it's not according to knowledge.
for they being ignorant of God's righteousness are going about
to establish their own righteousness and have not submitted unto the
righteousness of Christ. He's the end of the law for righteousness. And no reason for us to go on
doing things like that. Christ is our righteousness.
And we walk in faith, which sees in Christ a perfect justification. God raised him from the dead. And his resurrection, he was
delivered for our offenses, raised again for our justification. And our sins crushed him to death.
He stood before God in my room instead. And even so, when he
arose, he raised us up with him, Paul said, and seethed seated
us with him in glory. We're already there. We already
have possession in Christ. We walk that way by faith. And
we walk in a faith that sees the love of God in Christ and
is therefore, we're constrained by it. We're moved by it, inspired
by it. We rejoice in it and we rest
in it. Our walk differs from the walk
of antichrist professors in that we anxiously wait for our Lord's
return. Patiently, but anxiously. Old
Brother Don used to say, on the tiptoes of faith. Get up on them
tiptoes. Expecting to see Him. And then
Paul said, you've not received the spirit of bondage again to
fear, but you've received the spirit of adoption. And that's
why you cry Abba, Father. But what are those who don't
hear this gospel? What are those who don't advantage
themselves of the gospel of Christ? Well, he tells you in Psalm 68,
21, having given us the good news, he now says, but God shall
wound the head of his enemies and the hairy scalp of such an
one who goeth on still in his trespasses. And Paul tells us
that again in Hebrews. If we sin willfully, having received
the knowledge of the truth, and then you go back to that old
religion, you go back to doing, there remaineth no more sacrifice
for sins. He's not saying you can't ever
be saved again. He's saying Christ is the only
sacrifice there is for sins. And if you drop that, what hope
could you possibly have? Years ago, up around Niagara Falls, my wife
and I went up there. We always wanted to go, so one
day we went. And I bought one of these big
coffee table books. You got to have them when you
go visit a place. And I brought it home, and I
set it down. Never did read it, just set it down, because I'd
already seen the falls. And one day, I got it down. I
was dusting it off, and I started reading in this book. And they
were talking about these daredevils back around the turn of the century.
And they stretched cables and rope across Niagara Falls, across
that big gorge in those falls. And they'd walk that tightrope
across there. And there was some women, some
men. But there was one who stuck out
from all the other daredevils. He was head and shoulders above
all of them. And he went by this title, the
Great Blandin. And there was a lot of people
there, but there was none as great as that bold tightrope
walker called the Great Blandin. He did things on that rope that
was seemingly absolutely impossible. You know what the maid of the
mist, that's that little boat that takes you up and you tour
the falls and come back. Well, out on that rope, he has
a rope, And he gets out there and he lowers that rope down,
and they've got a little tray down there with a bottle of wine
and a glass, and he pulls it up. Now he's standing on this
rope way up over top of these falls. And he gets that up there
and he opens the bottle, pours him a glass, and drinks it out
in the middle of Niagara Falls on rope. And then he lowers it
back down, throws him the rope. And he walked across there pushing
a wheelbarrow. He walked across it wearing peach
baskets on his feet. He'd just done about everything
there was to do. But his crowning act came right
down to the last. He went out in the middle and
laid down on his back on the rope, put his hands behind his
head, and he was just laying there on the rope. And then he
got back up. And he came over and his promoter
was waiting for him. Man, he was applauding and just
going on and on and shouting to the people, you know, the
great Blandin, the great Blandin. He was pointing at him. And he
came over and he said, Harry, he said, do you now believe that
I can do everything that I said I can do? And his promoter said,
without a doubt. I've seen you do it all. He said,
I believe you can do everything you said you can do. And the
great Blandin went like this, and he stooped down, and he said,
get on. And he did. And he carried him
across to the other side. Do you believe what I'm preaching
to you tonight? Get on. And he'll carry us to the other
side. He can do it. You can't. And I can't. And both of us together can.
But he can't. He can't. And what he asked us
to do, get on. That's what it is. That's what
it is. Thank you.