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"Abraham's Faith" | July 2020
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Lester Roloff was the pastor of Peoples Baptist Church in Corpus Christi, Texas and founder of Roloff Homes for troubled teens, men and women. He went to Heaven in November of 1982.
“But as God is true, our word toward you was not yea and nay. For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us, even by me and Silvanus and Timotheus, was not yea and nay, but in him was yea. For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us. Now he which stablisheth us with you in Christ, and hath anointed us, is God; Who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts.” (II Corinthians 1:18-22) “But as God is true, our word toward you was not yea and nay.” (II Corinthians 1:18) Brother, that is the strongest oath in the Bible. Let God be true and every man a liar, but as God is true, our word towards you was not yea and nay. “...yea, let God be true, but every man a liar;...” (Romans 3:4) God is true! I asked a man the other day, I said, “Are you a Christian?” He said, “Yes and no.” Isn’t that a stupid answer? That meant a good plain no. Are you a Christian? “Well, in a way.” No….. “Well in my way I think I am.” You don’t get saved in your own way. “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” (John 14:6) “For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us, even by me and Silvanus and Timotheus, was not yea and nay, but in Him was yea.” (II Corinthians 1:19) In Him was yes. You get in Him, you get a yes. You may go to the bank and get a “no”, but you can go to Jesus and get a “yes!” Amen! All the promises of God in Him are yea. I am not interested in nay and no, I am interested in yes, and so he said, “And in Him, Amen!” Under the glory of God by us. “Who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts.” (II Corinthians 1:22) You know, I had to put up a $2,500 for a retainer fee for a man that is in jail. I love him. He stayed with us nine months, and then, an old charge came up and we were working it out, but they took him and put him in jail, and because back in his dope days he was a bond jumper, I have got to have $15,000 cash bond. Now, I wouldn’t mind putting up $50,000 if I had the money because I know that he has been saved. He is one of the best workers, and one of the best men that I have ever had. I had a man a banker to pick me up last night and took me home, picked me up this morning, carried me back from the airport. He said, “Brother Roloff, I took Brother Jerry down there. He is one of the finest boys I have ever had as a worker, and a good man to his wife.” He said, “Brother Wayne checked him into the City of Refuge when I came.” Brother Wayne has been up in jail in Fort Worth’s County Jail, and they want to try him for habitual, which means the rest of his life. Now, we are not going to put up with that. I believe the Lord is going to set him free to go to work for the Lord, but you don’t work in this kind of work without working in the jails, the prisons, the lawyers, the judges. It is amazing how many times the judges give them to us now. They know that the state system is absolutely zero as far as a track record and accomplishing nothing. It is crowded, they don’t have any room. In Corpus Christi, the District Attorney, the county attorney, and all the judges, they give me nearly every man I go to court and ask for. One of my superintendents got 50 years in the pen. He is the superintendent in the City of Refuge right now. It is amazing to have the compliments of the judges and the various leaders across this nation, and we have the largest attendance in the City of Refuge right now. An old man, 78-years-old, came in the other day. He said, “I am just tired of living for the devil. Can somebody help me?” Boy, he barely made it. I mean, he is on his last leg. I will tell you one thing, he is already praying, and he can’t work except sitting down, but he wants to do something. Aw, listen dear friend, our field is white. We have got a generation of wrecked Americans, shattered homes and hopes and young people, and so we’ve got a zeal, we got a taste of salvation. God said, “I have given you an earnest payment, a down payment, when I gave you the Holy Spirit.” That is a guarantee that you are going to finish it up. God will never lose the down payment on anything that He puts it on. He has already put a down payment on getting me to Heaven, and I know I am going. You know, that down payment reminds me, He said it is an earnest. A lot of you all look just sorta countryfied to me, and act that way, and I like that. I have been brought up like that. My dad and mother were old fashioned and didn’t have much education, but they had a good deal of regeneration, sanctification, separation, and they taught their three boys right. My daddy would say, “Son, I am going to let you take the cotton to the gin on Saturday morning. You had to finish a bale on Saturday morning, and I had a two bale wagon. I would get on there and drive those big horses to the cotton gin, just a little old boy sitting up there, and man I am telling you that I was as proud as a peacock. I had me a time. I liked to go to the gin. I dreaded picking that cotton, but I liked to ride it and go into the gin and then go up in town. My daddy would give me about 15 cents, and that is back when you could buy a hamburger with meat on it for a nickel. You could buy a triple-dip ice-cream cone for a nickel, and you could buy half of the town for a quarter, it looked like! I mean, that is back when your money went a long ways! But my daddy would say, “Now Lester, I want you to go by, and you got bale or two of seed, and I want you to get 100 pounds of ice, put it in the wagon, cover it up with the seed, and I want you to come on home and get that wagon off the road before dark.” I said, “Yes sir.” So, I got home, and I put that big old chunk of ice, me and my brothers would put it in the seed pan, and that was back before we had ice boxes. A lot of you are refrigerator people. I lived in the old cooler days. I lived in the time when maybe you would drop the milk down in the cistern underground to keep it kind of cool. Of course, it is kind of bad when you spilled it in the well. Anyhow, after we would get home, my daddy would say, “Sally, how about you making some homemade ice-cream”, and three boys spoke up and said, “That’s right Momma!” So, we had her outvoted to start with. Four against one! She went in there and busted those great big Rhode Island Red eggs. She would take that rich Jersey milk with cream. You have never seen so much cream. She would fire up that old coal oil stove, and fix that cream and let it cool, and she would say, “Boys, y’all go get the ice and get ready to turn the freezer.” One gallon and a half. Not a quart, but a gallon and a half. We would run outside ya know, then we would chip up the ice and I would turn it, and I would have to sit on the fridge. I had the cold shakes. I didn’t weigh but 80 pounds. I would sit there, and they would get to turning it, and they would say, “Lester, hold it down!” I said, “I got all I got on it now boy.” Each brother would turn a while, and after a while yell out, “Mamma, I think it’s ready.” I am talking about an earnest. Mamma would come out there with a little drying towel, a spoon, and a little water. She would just kind of wash off the top, and she was so careful. That was before ice-cream salt was invented. We just had plain old salt. While she was doing that, I made a circle through the house and cut through the dining room on one wheel and picked up a great big goblet. Do you remember seeing those old goblets? I am not talking about little bitty teeny glasses. I picked up a goblet, and I got me a spoon, and I went out there and I was playing a little tune. I said, “Mamma, I am ready!” She carefully took the top off and it was just beautiful golden ice-cream. It looked like it was waving at me. I said, “Mamma, here is my goblet.” “Get some off of the top there, it is about to run over.” She looked up at me and said, “Sonny boy, we are going to let it sit awhile.” Now really, if I had ever doubted my mamma’s salvation, I would have done it right there! I said, “Mamma?” She said, “We are going to take the dasher, then, we are going to let it set awhile.” She saw how disappointed I was. When you pick cotton all week and sweat out all the water you can drink, you are just so hungry for ice-cream, and yet we got a gallon and a half and I can’t get into it. Now, she said, “But I tell ya what, I am going to let y’all lick the dasher.” Man, listen, she pulled that old dasher out, a gallon and a half, and the cream was stacked all over it, and we took three spoons, Melvin, Edell, and Lester, and talk about perpetual motion! Man, we went up and down that thing. Listen, you know what that was? That was an earnest. It was just a little taste because we knew that we had a gallon and a half coming a little later. Brother, when I got saved, I got an earnest, a down payment, a promise of what’s to come. I have been enjoying that earnest for over 50 years. One of these days, we are going to open the whole freezer and enjoy it all. You wait and see. Oh yea! Well, that is what he is talking about there. “Who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts.” Notice, he gave it in the heart. “Not for that we have dominion over your faith, but are helpers of your joy: for by faith ye stand.” (II Corinthians 1:24) By faith ye stand! I wonder how many people are going to stand in the coming years? Folks, it’s the 4th quarter, the 4th down, we do not have 10 to go, and I know we are in the endzone. We better pray for God’s mercy. I do not believe that America deserves for God to save her. This nation is wicked. When we licensed liquor and turned out a generation of drunkards, when they began to kill precious little babies, and turned sodomites loose, I think we will say goodbye to America. If God were to spare America, it will be the first nation in the history of the world that ever was spared that was as wicked as we are. You say, we are a Christian nation. That is a joke! There is no Christian music unless you go to a church like this. There are not many Christian homes today that honor Christ and teach children the Bible. There are not many Christian schools today that amount to anything. The public school system is as rotten as the devil Himself. They teach evolution and humanism in the school. They teach more sin than they do anything else in our schools across this country. Violence and blood shed right in schools payed for with our taxes. Greenville is where the teacher heard a knock and said to the class, “Excuse me, I’ll be right back.” He never did come back. He fell dead right outside the classroom door when a girl stabbed Him. That is in the public school system. They talking about phasing out the busing down in Texas. I said, “No, phase out the schools.” God never did tell the state to educate our children. I tell you who ought to educate the children. That is the mothers, daddies, and the pastor. Why? Because they know the truth. Let their mothers and daddies be the Christians. God gave the baby to you. He didn’t give the baby to the state. The state never has had a baby no more than a homosexual has a baby. Wake up, brother! Children belong to their parents, and the parents are going to give an account to God. The Bible said, “Children obey your parents in the Lord.” Every parent is supposed to be in the Lord. You are not fit to raise a child if you are not saved and obedient to God. You ought to be kind enough to not even get married until you get saved. You ought not treat a little girl in an ugly way. If you are not saved, you probably say, “I am getting mad.” Alright, get saved and you will get glad. You live in the land of Hollywood where the harlots and whoremongers and drunkards come right into our homes and we sit and watch them. It’s destroying the minds and lives of your children. I am not just jabbering. We are working with them all the time in our homes. When I hit the ground at midnight, I guarantee you there will be desperate souls on that farm tonight. There will be people longing for rest. People that have just come in. It will be a brand new world. No television, no rock and roll, no tobacco, no booze, and no filth. I mean, it is a little piece of Heaven. People have been trying to get me to go to the Holy Land, and I tell them I already live in it. I like to be where Jesus is King! Now, let me give you another verse, and you will find out directly where I am headed. “For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” (II Corinthians 5:1) Now skip to verse 7. He said we know we are on our way to Heaven. We have a building of God. Abraham said to the fellas over in Ur of the Chaldees, “Boys, I am packing up and pulling out.” They said, “Where are you going?” He said, “I don’t know.” “What are you looking for anyhow?” He said, “I am looking for a city.” They said, “Why don’t you stay here in this great city?” Abraham said, “No I’m looking for the city built by God.” “By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.” He was looking for an eternal city. Charlotte, Greensboro, Winston-Salem, New York, Washington – they are not here to stay. These cities are going to pass on. “(For we walk by faith, not by sight:)” (II Corinthians 5:7) Without faith, it is impossible to please God. “But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.” (Hebrews 11:6) “... for whatsoever is not of faith is sin.” (Romans 14 :23) You know, there could be a sin besides cigarette smoking, liquor drinking, dope taking, stealing, robbing, killing. It could be just the sin of not living by faith. When you do not live by faith, you dishonor God, and you cannot let God do his work. Jesus said he could do no mighty works there because of their unbelief. I believe that is the meanest “un” in the Bible -- unbelief. The disciples, do you remember when they took a walk with Jesus, Peter, James, and John, and a couple astronauts come in by the name of Moses and Elijah, and they had a great time there on the Mount of Transfiguration. The Father said, “This is my son, and you better hear him.” Peter said, “Well we ought to just stay here and build three tabernacles, one for Moses, one for Elijah, one for Jesus.” Moses probably said, “Forget ours, we are heading for home -- we don’t want to be down here no more. We just wanted to come see about the promissory note. We just want to know he is heading on to the cross to pay the price for sin.” Jesus might have said, “Go back and tell all of them that went to Heaven on credit that I am going on to Calvary.” So Moses and Elijah pulled right on out. They walked down and came to the camp, and a man was waiting on Jesus with his demon-possessed son, and he was in bad shape. They brought him to the disciples and said they just couldn’t do anything to help him. Here’s what Jesus said: “Then Jesus answered and said, O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you? bring him hither to me.” (Matthew 17:17) They brought that little old epileptic boy to Jesus, as result of how he fell in the fire and fell in the water, he had a lot of scars on him. Would it strain your imagination if I told you that I believe when Jesus healed him that he probably took all those scars away, too. Jesus fixed him, and he said, “Daddy would you look at that! I don’t have any scars left.” That thankful dady said, “No, they’re gone! You have been healed completely.” He doeth all things well. You say, “I don’t believe that.” Well, we can ask the Lord all about it when we get to Heaven. Brother, I know Jesus healed him. That little boy never had another spell the rest of his life. Now, the disciples dwent off in the corner and said, “We got a question.” Whatever habit that you have got that ought to be done away with, whether you have a need of health, whether it’s your mind, your pocketbook, or whatever it may be, why don’t you join me in praying and fasting one meal and reading the Bible and trusting the Lord? When I walked out of the studio after making the message, something said, “There went your burden.” Jesus told those disciples, “There reason you couldn’t heal this boy was because of your unbelief. This kind only happens by prayers and fasting. “And he said unto them, This kind can come forth by nothing, but by prayer and fasting.” (Mark 9:29) Now then, I want to give you a message that I have not brought to you before. I am preaching to you on the most marvelous gift that God ever gave me. It was the gift of faith. God gave me faith. Now, there are two things that everybody has the same amount of. Everybody! Now, this will encourage you tonight. You don’t have to be a preacher, but I believe that God gives everybody the same amount of saving grace, and it takes as much grace to save a little child as it takes to save an old wicked sinner. Now, it takes as much of the blood of Christ to save a little seven-year-old sweet girl, as it does to save an old, worn-out drunkard. You say, “How much blood does it take?” All of it! All of it!! Jesus gave His life, that was all of it. You know what would be interesting? If you ever figured out who killed Jesus. You say, “It was that bunch of folks that cried out ‘Crucify him’ and nailed him to the cross.” No, they didn’t. If they could have killed Him, they could have kept Him dead. You say, “Well how did He die?” If I could say it lovingly and reverently, He made himself die. The Bible says He willingly gave up the ghost. “When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.” (John 19:30) He died by His own word. I believe He had to. There wasn’t anybody that could kill him. You can’t kill God. I believe that He came to the place when He said, “It is finished. The price is paid.” “And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit: and having said thus, he gave up the ghost.” (Luke 23:46) I think He said to himself, “Die. Quit breathing right now.” He said, “If I lay down my life of my own accord, I will take it up again.” So he did. Habakkuk 2:4 says, “...the just shall live by his faith.” “Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.” (Hebrews 10:38) Folks, that is the theme of the entire Christian life in the Bible. “The just shall live by faith.” You know what, that changed Martin Luther’s life. Martin Luther was a Catholic tangled up in religion. He was climbing up the stairs trying to do penance and get God in good humor with him, and it dawned on him, “Now the just shall live by faith.” Boy, he jumped off his knees, wrote his 99 Thesis and nailed it on the door at Wittenburg, and said, “I won’t be showing up for confession anymore.” You know, when Jesus came back to His hometown and they said, “Are you going to read us the scripture this next Saturday morning?” and he said, “Yes sir.” He went in there and preached the message. When he got through preaching, every one of them was still unsaved. You say, “Well, how do you know it?” The Bible said every one of them rose up against Him. That is what the world thinks about God. Are you listening? You know why they fought Brother Roloff? It is not because I am so great. A little old clodhopper like me that came off of the farm and nobody is looking for me. I didn’t have any sense and didn’t have any charisma, personality, or nothing else. Didn’t have any help. Didn’t have any money. Didn’t have anything. You know who they are jumping on? They are not jumping on Lester! They are jumping on the Holy Spirit inside of me. I would be a fool to stand here tonight and say that I built up a Roloff kingdom. No, the Holy Spirit did it. This old Book did it, brother. My mama got me in trouble when she gave me a King James Version! Bless her old sweet memory. I am so glad that she did. Oh, listen! That old Book has gotten me in more trouble than any book I ever had in my life, and I love it more than any other book and don’t read nothing but this Bible. That is all that I got! I am not going to have any of these hybrids or perversions. That’s right!!!! I am going to stay with this one. Don’t ever tackle what I have tackled, and don’t ever try to work with these girls and boys and men and women unless you have got this Book right here. We don’t need to rewrite it! We need to REREAD it! Brother, if you have got a bunch of that new junk, throw it away and get you one of theseKing James Bibles and stay with it. Folks listen, I am not going to put up with these little old “new Bibles” they got out (Revised Standard Version, Good News For Modern Man, and The Living Bible for Dead People)! Brother, you don’t want that. Let’s stay with this Book. Hear me, there has never been a revival in the history of the world come out of any book except this one. These new Bibles that they have got out, they are bearing no fruit. No souls. They are sponsored by nothing but the stinking modernist. Forty people penned the Bible and it took them 1600 years. The first man that penned the Bible, Moses, he never did see the man that wrote the last book, and yet all of it fit right together and made a tremendous powerful Sword of truth. Now they said it took 130 scholars to revise the book! I am getting tired of them talking about mistakes in the King James Version. I can’t find none. I have been walking through this precious old Bible for 60 years, and I have never found anything wrong with it in my life, and if you have, I think you are a liar! Boy, you have got to have the right Book and God will bless you. Now then, I want to give you a story tonight of a man that has blessed my soul for the last six months more than any other revelation in my life. There was a man in the Old Testament, and I have already told you his name, Abraham. He was called the Man of Faith, the Father of the Faithful, and the Friend of God. Now, that is a pretty good title, isn’t it? I would like to be a friend of God, wouldn’t you? I know He is my Friend. I would like to be His friend. Jesus said, you are my friends if you do whatsoever I tell you to do. So, one day, God called him and said, “Now Abraham, I want you to leave Ur of the Chaldees, and leave all of your kinfolks behind, and I want you to go to a place that I will show you after you get out of here.” God said, “I am going to build you a great nation and your descendants and your children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren, they are going to be innumerable, more than the stars in the sky. You are going to have one big family. Abraham said to Sarah, “Honey, you better get to packing, we are pulling out.” She could have said, “Well honey, where are we going?” and he would have to say, “I don’t know; God didn’t tell me yet, but we are going.” Now, that is faith, isn’t it? I know the world calls it foolishness, but that is faith. So they pulled out, and headed down the road, but they took Lot. They weren’t supposed to. Lot said unto Abraham, “I believe I will go along with you. You know, I want to go sightseeing, too. Man, I would like to go out and explore the universe. I will go with you.” Abraham said it was alright. So they got out there and God began to bless them and the cows began to have calves and the sheep and the oxen, and everything began to multiply. One day, Lot come running in and said to Abraham, “We have got trouble on our hands.” He said, “What kind of trouble, son?” He said, “Our cowboys are fighting with each other. Man, we’ve got so many cattle, I am telling you that the grass is getting a little short, water running low or something, and they are all feuding over it. What are you thinking we better do?” Abraham said, “Well, we better divide up.” He looked at Lot and said, “Take your pick. Where do you want to go?” Look at old Lot now, attracted to the world, and ought to be ashamed. Lot looked way down in the Jordan Valley and the plush green grass is waving at him saying, ‘Come on down here.’ Lot said, “I believe I like that grass down in Jordan better.” So Lot chose grass, but Abraham stayed with grapes of Eschol, the fruit of the Promised Land. That is the difference right there, boys. This has been the generation of grass, hasn’t it. They even smoke it. Boy, this is the grassiest bunch I have ever seen in my life. Old Lot pulled out from Abraham’s caravan, and pitched his tent towards Sodom, and pretty soon he wound up in Sodom, and he became, I guess, the Mayor, because he sat at the city gate. The sodomites began to take over. Oh brother. Man, one day, the angels showed up. They came up there and said, “Abraham, I just want to meet you. Where is Sarah?” Abraham said, “Where do you think she is? Down at the Bridge Club? She is in there in the tent.” Why she is at home where she belongs, taking care of home and family. Maybe she’s churning butter. They said, “Well, we are headed down to Sodom and Gomorrah and we are on an arson trip. God said He wants us to burn that thing up.” Can you imagine God’s angels coming down to set those cities on fire? They did. Do you remember when the angels got down there and they were going to warnLot and his family? Did you know that the sodomites came that night and wanted to rape the men they saw. They said, “Bring the men out.” Lot did the lowest thing that he ever did in his life when he offered his two little girls that never had a date. That shows you what you can stoop to when you get after grass. You say, “What do you mean?” Business, money, pleasure. America is a money lover and a pleasure lover. I don’t know if anybody will win another war except Jesus, and He is going to fight it with the sword of His spirit, the Word. That’s the same thing that He used on the devil and won. Do you remember that? The devil came down to the baptismal service. Jesus said, “John, how about we have a baptismal service, and he said, “I am delighted to be baptized by You.” Jesus said, “No, you are going to baptize Me.” John said, “I have the need to be baptized of You,” and Jesus said, “It behooves Me to fulfill all righteousness. “ “While he yet spake, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them: and behold a voice out of the cloud, which said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him.” (Matthew 17:5) When the Lord walked out of the baptistery, God the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit were all in attendance, and then the devil showed up. Well that booger never misses a service, does he? The devil said, “I would like to meet you.” He set the time and the place and went out in the wilderness, and Jesus hit him three licks with the King James Version Bible. You say, “Can you prove it?” Yes sir. He WAS the King James Version, the Word made flesh. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not. ...He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: ...And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.” (John 1) Folks, God never has had but one Word. He not only wrote it, He protected it. We’ve still got it. There is not a man alive today that can walk across our campus and talk to all the people there and say that this Book is not God’s word, because they have been saved by listening to this Word. That is all that we have. We memorize it by the chapter. We don’t memorize by the verse. When you get it in your heart, the Bible says it will do a work in you so that you will not sin against God. Do you want an answer? There it is. Mothers and dads, if I could get you all to memorize scripture, and young people too, one chapter every thirty days, you would revolutionize your life. You think of 12 chapters a year, five years 60 chapters, 10 years 120 chapters. Brother, it would make you a great Christian, because that is God’s Word. It is the living Word. It is the healing Word. Do you remember that centurion? He said, “Speak the Word only. I don’t need you to come. I just need your Word.” God said, “I will set my word above my name.” Now then, brother Abraham got a call one day. Old Lot had been captured and Mrs. Lot, and all the little Lots, and everything else. They hauled them off. They are gone. Boy, here comes the runner, the messenger He said, “Mr. Abraham, Mr. Abraham, Mr. Abraham!” Something happened down yonder!” Abraham said, “Well, tell me what is going on.” He said, “They have captured Lot. They have got him, and the whole family. He is gone.” Now let me ask you a question: “Will faith make a fighter?” Is it right for faith to fight? Do you think faith makes a sissy out of anybody? Abraham could have said, “Just tell him that his dear old Uncle Abraham will be praying for him.” He could have said, “Well, you just tell my dear nephew that I am behind him all the way.” Boy, I have heard that so many times. They say they’re behind you, but when you turn around and look, ain’t nobody there! I have got more standing ovations than probably any preacher in America that is alive right now, and when they get through with standing ovations, and I appreciate it, but I have often said, “Ya know, I would rather have the donation than the ovation.” I can’t build dormitories and feed these children with ovations. I am just trying to be practical. I want to help somebody. Brother Galloway, he is one of the finest missionary pilots alive today. I gave him an airplane. I thought I was going to get me another one you know, and nothing ever happens you see, but I am glad he got it. He about wore the thing out and they overhauled in it. Listen, can you imagine how many times he has crossed the water in a single engine airplane. Now the just shall fly by faith! Oh what a friend to the missionaries this missionary is right here. I have asked the Lord to let me do more for our missionaries this year than I have ever done before. God is going to answer that prayer. I know He is. Listen, Abraham must have rung the cow bell or the dinner bell. Man, 316 hillbillies came running up to the house and said, “What in the world is going on?” He said, “Boys, get you a crowhandle, crowbar, sword, stick, anything. We have got to go fight and rescue Lot and his family.” Don’t you imagine maybe one of those fellas could have said, “Can’t we just pray and believe, and trust the Lord will take care of it?” Abraham said, “Yes, God is sending us to fight.” They took off down there, and they didn’t have any modern weapons or nothing. They went after those kings and whipped the daylights out of them. I mean they picked up old Lot, scared to death, his family, and said, “Now let’s go home boys. You would have been a lot better off if you would have stayed up there with Canaan’s grapes instead of heading for Sodom’s grass.” Well, Abraham got back over there with Lot, and the bunch of sodomites came, the mayor, the leaders and the treasurer, and they said, “We are ready now to write your check.” Abraham looked at him and said, “You couldn’t give me a shoestring for them busted shoes I am wearing.” You see this old torn shirt I have got on? You couldn’t give me a thread to patch that. I don’t want nothing you have got hanging on me. I am not a sodomite. I am heading back for the hills. God will take care of me. I belong to Him. You don’t pay God’s bills, He pays them Himself.” I am living by faith and praise God for the privilege. The Bible said Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness. About that time, the Lord came a walking up to him and said, “I am thy exceeding great reward, and I am your shield and I will protect you.” I am not going to be afraid. This is the most blessed thing I have ever seen. Melchizadek, King of Salem, Priest of the most high God, met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him, also. Abraham gave a tithe to the King of Righteousness, King of Salem, which is King of Peace. He was without father, without mother, without descent having neither the beginning of days or end of life, made like unto the Son of God. There are eight great characteristics right there. God the Son who stepped out of eternity didn’t have a mother or a daddy. He had no beginning of days. He had no end of days. He was King of righteousness. He was a King of peace. You say, “Who in the world can that be?” Nobody but Jesus. Nobody but Jesus. Jesus, I believe, saw the fight and said, “Father I am going down to visit with Abraham.” He met him on the return from the slaughter and blessed him. God endorses the right kind of a fight, boys. I believe that I am standing, in a sense, where Abraham stood after the slaughter of the kings. This fight of eight long years I have stood and tried to be faithful. Jesus has come down to bless me and to bless the work more than He has ever blessed before. More people have been saved. Hundreds come to the altar. More liberty. The greatest place on this earth to preach is in the church that I pastor in Corpus Christi. The greatest response I have ever known in my life I am seeing right now. I am just simply saying that God blesses us when we take the right kind of a stand and stay with this Book right here. Brothers, my hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’s blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame but wholly lean on Jesus’s name. Folks, God’s way is the best way. His way is the only way. Would you trust him tonight? |
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