back Back to 22B Recordings Home Next to 23B next  
 
23A. Trusting God (Is He willing, and is He able?)

Play All
  speaker icon   1. His Eye Is on the Sparrow, verses 1 and 2   (2:53)
  speaker icon   2. Trusting God   (25:41)
  speaker icon   3. How Firm a Foundation   (2:21)

Selected Verses:

Psalm 125:1.  They that trust in the Lord shall be as mount Zion, which cannot be removed, but abideth for ever.

Luke 5:12-13.  And it came to pass, when he was in a certain city, behold a man full of leprosy: who seeing Jesus fell on his face, and besought him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean.  13And he put forth his hand, and touched him, saying, I will: be thou clean. And immediately the leprosy departed from him.

Daniel 3:17.  If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king.

Romans 10:17.  So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

Matthew 24:35.  Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.

Opening:

It is such a holy experience to know that my heavenly Father watches over me.  But it’s an experience we have to learn better every day.  If we don’t learn it, it’ll be too bad.  I think it was Madam Guyon that says, “We could never perish but for want of trusting Him,” because they that trust in the Lord shall never be removed.  They shall be like mount Zion that cannot be removed—can’t be removed, praise God!  Jerusalem has been removed, but mount Zion is still there.  I was on it not long ago.  Hallelujah!  And you can’t be removed either if you trust in the Lord.  And it’s a wonderful experience day by day to find out that only they who trust in the Lord cannot be removed.

You can see the whole world today like in a quicksand.  All the politicians, all the great nations, they’re all sinking.  Haven’t you seen it?  It’s a strange thing: only about fifty years ago they talked so big—my, they talked so big, even those that looked like lambs, they talked like dragons.  But today they’re whining, today they’re sinking.  The nations are sinking—the great and the strong are sinking.

Oh my Father, where are we going to be?  Are we going to stand before the Son of Man?  The Lord says, “I’ll make him stand.”  Oh, to learn this wonderful lesson: my heavenly Father watches!

Selected Quotes:

speaker icon What kind of an ache have you got?  Jesus didn’t say, “What kind of an ache have you had?” but He said, “Who’s your Father?  Any of you that has a friend at midnightHow much more shall your heavenly Father…”  How much more shall your heavenly Father!  Can I trust that word? 

But the trouble is most people want to see and feel before they believe.  But that is not faith.  Faith is only triumphant when it’s faith before you see, and before you feel, because God said it—not because you feel it, and not because the symptoms are like it, but God said it.  Hallelujah, praise the Lord!

speaker icon Oh, how many people, they’ll go to a promise box and pick up a promise and there it is: “The Lord thy God will heal thee,” “Himself took our infirmities.”  But there’s a little question mark there.  Well, can I know whether He will, whether He wants to?  Well, go to Calvary: that’s your answer—“He that spared not His own Son.”  “He that spared not His own Son.”  When I say, “God, heal me.”  God doesn’t only give me healing, He doesn’t only send new life into my body, He doesn’t raise some vitamins or give me some medicine, but He gives me the life of His Son.  Jesus gave His life for His sheepthat they might have life…”

We ought to believe God, but we believe the devil, we believe the flesh: You’re getting old, aren’t you?  Aren’t you getting old?  Don’t you feel kind of weak in the knees, and kind of rheumatic once in a while, when the weather—when the wind comes from the north, and somebody lets the wind…?  Well, you always expected it, didn’t you?  Sure, positively.  Why, of course.  We’re in Egypt, and we’ve got to bark like the Egyptians!

But why don’t you expect the Lord?  What did He say?  “The Lord is my light… the Lord is the strength of my life!”  Walk out in the strength of the Son of God. 

I can’t understand people: they expect that when they die, and like Lazarus go into corruption—they lie in the grave—they expect Jesus someday to get them out of that grave.  Well, you better take some vitamins with you when you get there—help the Lord a little bit!  Well, it sounds funny, but it is funny, and it’s tragic, really tragic.  Jesus Christ really wants us to take Him at His word, and step out on His promise, and learn our lessons.  Learn our lesson: God will never allow the enemy to get the best of us if He sees that we really tremble at His word.  What did God say?  That’s sufficient for me.

speaker icon Is He willing?  Listen: “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My word shall not pass away.”  And so He said, “I will.  Be thou clean.”  Now God says that to every person in the whole world: “I will.”  It’s in the Bible: “I will.”  “Faith cometh by hearing:” Let’s listen to what God says.  Never mind what people say, never mind what reason says, never mind what your feelings say.  Come on, let’s get our hearts in tune with the word of God.

speaker icon Is He willing?  That’s settled forever.  He would never have given His own Son “to be sin for us,” and to “bear our sicknesses” if God hadn’t been willing to deliver us: “Who forgiveth all thine iniquities, and healeth all thy diseases.”

And then you ask, “Well, is He able?”  That’s another question.  “Do you believe that I am able to do this?”  And that’s where many of us balk again.  “Well, yes, when the time comes.” 

And so we set stakes, we put ourselves inside of a high wall: “when the time comes,” or so and so and so.  Oh, it’s surprising how smart we are when we tell God how He ought to run the world, and what He ought to do.  Why not listen to what God said?  Go to Calvary and see how He raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, and thus—the apostle says—he has fulfilled his promises.  If thou “shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead,” that resurrection life raises you, quickens you, thank God!

speaker icon Jesus says, “I’ll come and answer your prayer.”  He says, “Verily, verily.”  “He sware by Himself,” glory to God!  Beloved, we don’t get it because we don’t believe what God says.  And we don’t believe when we can’t feel, and when we don’t see it.  But that’s the happiest experience a Christian can have: is to believe God and to rejoice when you feel nothing and see nothing but your weakness.  Hallelujah, glory to God!

speaker icon Oh, beloved, God didn’t put us upon this earth to be kicked around like a football by the enemy, but to make “manifest the savor of His knowledge by us in every place.”  Where are you?  Where’s your place?  That’s where Jesus wants to manifest the savor of His knowledge, hallelujah!

Illustrations:

An illustration of importunity.  “If it doesn’t work, then he’ll get on his belly and he’ll call under the crack of the door.  He’ll say, ‘Uncle, can’t you say, “Come in”?  Sure, Come in!’  He’ll answer himself.  Well, I’m conquered.  What would you do?  You can’t do nothing but open the door and let him in, no matter what he’s going to do.”    (from 1:49)

Comments on a Christian bookstore.    (from 5:11)

An illustration of human compassion: a man who needs a pair of shoes.  “If you came to me and you said, ‘I haven’t any shoes.  I know you could buy me a pair of shoes, but I don’t know whether you will or not,’ that would be an insult.”    (from 10:33)

An exhortation to trust the Lord written to a girl in Switzerland: “Put your case in the hands of God, live or die.  Put the responsibility with Him.  See what’ll happen.”    (from 14:30)

A testimony of deliverance from sickness.  “Well, I could have carried that thing around with me longer, you know, if I had chosen to.  God says, ‘They chose none of my ways.’”    (from 18:35)

Another testimony of healing.  “When I got to meeting I found the Lord was there, and the Lord was inside of me.  Praise God!  And every night I experienced a miracle.  Every meeting, it was Christ.”    (from 22:07)

The mortal body is like a loaner violin.      (from 24:21)

German at 24:24:

baufälliges Haus — a dilapidated house

Audio Quality: Fair

 
More Information...

Project Notes:

Original tape marked (41b) C/60.  The sound of another sermon (not backwards) appears on these two recording, mostly on the right channel.  As always, light hiss reduction was run first.  Side A has some speed problems.  After editing, we had to speed up the first 1:29 to about 97% of its original duration, and the next 1:59 to about 99% of its original duration.  This decreases the total duration by a little more than 4 seconds.  The rest of the recording seemed to be about the correct speed.  Some extra notch filters were used to further reduce hum.

settings

settings

Project Files:

The original media and project files are available upon request.


 
 
 
back Back to 22B Recordings Home Next to 23B next