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Transcript of message from TV Broadcast 483 -- taken from Closed Captioning Text -- Brother Thomas: There was this man and his wife. They were, you know, pretty devout Christians. And she died and she went up to heaven, went to the gate and it was closed. And so she rang the bell and St. Peter came out. He said, "There's one word that you have to spell to get in here." And she said, "Well, what is that?" He said, "It's love." She said, "l-o-v-e, love." And then a little later on--oh a few weeks later, St. Peter said, "Look, I've got to do something else, would you mind watching the gate for me?" She said, "I'll be glad to." And so while she was there her husband died and he came to the gate. She said, "You have to spell one word to get in here." He said, "Well what is that?" She said, "Czechoslovakia." ( laughter ).( laughing ). Oh boy. Help me Lord! Maybe that's why I've got so many afflictions. I don't know. Turn with me to Hebrews chapter 11. (I figured you'd like that.) "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good report. Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear. By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaketh. "By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased 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. By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith. "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. Through faith also Sara herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised. Therefore sprang there even of one, and him as good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the sea shore innumerable. "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. For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country. And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned. But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city." That's good enough-that's the 16 verse. That's enough. I want to talk to you this morning, if I can, by the grace of God, on this subject. "What are you living for?" Just let that question apply to you personally. What are you living for? And then we could say, "Who are you living for?" It could be yourself, it could be the devil that controls you, it could be some fantasy and still not be God. But I want us to just explore that thought. What are you living for? First I'd like for us to just explore some of this scripture we've read here this morning. Notice in the third verse, well, let's take the first verse first of all that I read. "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." Now American Standard Version says this, "Now faith is assurance of things hoped for." Weymouth says, "Now faith is a confident assurance of that for which we hope." And then Moffat says, "Now faith means that we are confident of what we hope for." "Faith is being sure of the things we hope for," Beck. And let me say this. What does it mean? It just means in Romans chapter 10, verse 10 it says, "For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation." Now I believe that faith is something you believe from your heart. For instance, I was standing over there just now, I was talking to the Lord. I said, "Well, Lord, I'm ready to go anytime." I believe I'm right with God, not being presumptuous, but I believe that. I believe that my sin debt was paid. I believe that I'm ready to go anytime God wants me to go. I want to stay as long as I can to help His people. I've got no other purpose for living. God's got me to the place where I don't enjoy this life. It's very difficult for me to enjoy it. But let's notice some of these individuals now. Let's take Noah. That's verse seven, Hebrews eleven. "By faith, Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith...." You know something that drives me...I don't like to use that word...it motivates me...today is to help his people get ready. I believe He's coming. Whether He comes or not in the next ten years, five years, I don't know. I can't say positively. No man knows the day nor the hour, not even the Son, just the Father, according to Matthew, chapter 24. However, there's something in me that's motivated me for over 50 years. When I found the Lord, or He found me, it revolutionized my life. I've had something to live for. It's the most important thing I've ever come in contact with--that's God, that's eternity, that's heaven. That's the things of God. There's another life. Praise God! I'm not a gonna die even if I go by the way of the undertaker. They'll have the body but that's all they'll have. This'll rise to meet him. Praise God! And Noah, he must have been lonely back then because nobody had that message but him. But he preached it and his family listened to it. You're my family--you who know God--more so than my flesh and blood are my family because we are gonna spend eternity together. If my flesh and blood family don't know the Lord, we'll be parted. They'll go some other place. But I'm gonna meet you there or you'll meet me there. We'll meet there. Praise God! And Noah, he preached that there was a flood coming and he built an ark. That was a foolish thing in that day. I imagine some of the things I preach people say, "He's foolish. Why he didn't go to school, didn't learn it like we do?" I'm glad I didn't. You know I went off to go to school--a good Baptist school. And I stayed there a solid week. I got more miserable every day--so miserable. So in the dormitory where I was staying, I went into my closet, I guess on Saturday morning or Sunday, and I fell down on my knees. I said, "Lord, I don't know what's wrong. Everybody said I ought to go to school and learn how...." I'd a been programmed there. See? And I really wanted to pastor these churches. But, I preached all I knew--that wasn't much, but I preached it. And I said, "Lord, I'm pretty stupid. If I know my will, I want to do your will. But you're gonna have to reveal it to me." And I got up from there. I'd put the burden at Jesus' feet like the song. I got a measure of relief. I'd turned it over to Him. I walked down that hall and a radio was going in one of the rooms and I walked in there and there was a program that we usually listened to on Sunday morning--Charles E. Fuller from California. And I asked him about that and he said, no, he don't come on here on Sunday morning, he comes on in the afternoon. You know, that's like our program that goes out---The Midnight Cry Broadcast. Some stations play that thing twice a day. So that's what they could do with that program. I guess that man's been dead for many years but he was a very gentle man. He had a lot of pathos in his voice. And I tell you it just gripped your attention when he talked to you about the Lord. Anyway I went into this room and I started out. And I got to listening to the man on the radio. And he seemed to be anointed. I sensed the anointing there. And he just spoke out. He said, "You out there, whoever you are." He said, "If God led you to go someplace, you go. Don't doubt. God'll take care of you." That's the hardest thing in the world for people. They want to see what they're going to. That's not faith. But I felt a sense of relief. I knew what to do. I left there and said, "Lord, I'll go." And that's what I did. And so I accepted my first pastorate of a church. Didn't stay there long, though. There's so many things wrong until one Sunday morning before I went down there I told my wife, I said, "I'm going down there today and preach. I'm going to tell them what's wrong with this church." She said, "Well, I'm not going." Of course, you've all heard that before. She said, "I'll come down after a while and pull you out from under the church house." But I didn't have to get under the church house. Praise God! Now, let's notice Abraham. This is in verse 8, this same chapter. "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." He just launched out. God just spoke to him and so he went out. Then God revealed Himself to him later on. As the need arose, He'd reveal himself to him. And so he went out, he went to this place which he should receive for an inheritance. "By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country." You know you hear people today talk about the Holy Land. Well this is that Holy Land. But the way that he lived there was as in a strange country. Now why? He knew that wasn't no Holy Land. He knew it was somewhere else. The scripture comes on down here and tells you. These all--that means Abraham, it means Enoch, it means Noah, it means all the rest of them. "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." I hear people today talk about the Holy Land. I remember reading about some lady. "Oh," she said, "there I was, I could just feel that ground it, was so holy." No place is holy except where God's at. No dirt, rock or anything else makes a place holy. However, if you worship God under a tree and He meets with you---and that's what an angel told us several years ago---he said you can worship God under a tree. All of these fine buildings you're building, they're gonna go up in smoke. They're pouring their dollars into that, right and left. I saw two or three churches going up coming this morning. It's amazing how they do that. And you know, are we living for time or eternity? I believe a lot of this church building, a lot of this money being poured in big auditoriums, and poured into educational buildings, I believe it's like---well I'll tell you what Paul calls it in 1st Corinthians, chapter two, I believe it is. He says it's wood, hay, and stubble. I believe it is wood, hay and stubble. Hallelujah! But I want you to see something about God, what kind of God we got. First of all, let's go to...you know he said we understand that the worlds were framed by the Word of God. I want you to see now in Psalm chapter 19. This is one of David's Psalms. He says, "The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge. There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard." Do you know what that means? You can't look at the universe, you can't look at the stars, you can't look at the moon, you can't look at the things. They were made by something that don't appear. No scientist made them. No contractor made them. Somebody made them besides us. Praise God! This God is a great God. Now how big is this universe? You got any idea? I've got some facts typed out here, Brother Enlow fixed for me a good long while back. How big is this universe? Think about it now. It's not some little shotgun house. It's not some palatial mansion. Well here's what this card says. It says there's a quasar, a star-like object far out in space. Now light travels 186 thousand miles per second. In one year, light would travel six trillion miles--light would, six trillion miles. It would take 18 billion years for the light to travel to that quasar. That's a fur piece! The distance--here's the distance to that quasar. The distance, 108 billion trillion miles. Now the earth down here is just a tiny speck in the universe. You can't imagine how small it is. The sun is a one and a half million times larger than this earth. Think about it. It's one of a trillion stars in the Milky Way, the sun is. There's a trillion stars in the Milky Way. That's just one galaxy. I don't know how many galaxies there are. The Milky Way galaxy is six. This book, "Lying Signs and Wonders" has been updated. I don't know how many chapters been added to it, but it's been updated and I feel like those out in the TV audience or radio audience, wherever they hear this might like to have one. We don't charge anything for them-send them to you free. And so it's called, "Lying Signs and Wonders." We cover quite a bit of territory in it, and Phil updated it. I asked him to here a while back, and so he did and it's good. I mean, I think he gets into some of this stuff that's going on. You know what I mean? Shaking and falling out, saying it's God. Can you imagine Jesus on the hillside, people out there and Him just falling out, shaking? You can't imagine that, can you? I can't either. 
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