"Who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained
promises, stopped the mouths of lions, Quenched the violence of fire, escaped
the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant
in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. Women received their
dead raised to life again: and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance
that they might obtain a better resurrection: And others had trial of cruel
mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment: They
were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the
sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute,
afflicted, tormented; (Of whom the world was not worthy:) they wandered
in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. And these
all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise:
God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should
not be made perfect." --Heb. 11:33-40
Now turn back, if you will, to verse 24 of Hebrews 11, then carefully
follow in the reading of verses 24 to 27.
"By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the
son of pharaoh's daughter; Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the
people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; Esteeming
the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for
he had respect unto the recompense of the reward. By faith he forsook Egypt,
not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured [notice very carefully
the next line], AS SEEING HIM WHO IS INVISIBLE."
Now brethren, let's face it. We are in the fight of our lives. It has
been made exceedingly difficult in my town. For six or seven years I have
been standing in my town and fighting. Norman Vincent Pealism, National
Council of Churchism and all the rest of it, and my folks believed what
I said. Now there come those who preach the same message that I preach,
yet embrace those whose doctrine I have fought through the years. My people
come to me and ask me the same questions your people ask you: "Brother
Hyles, we have always thought Norman Vincent Peale taught a doctrine that
is wrong and lacked the punch. And we have always thought it was wrong
to affiliate with the National Council. We have always thought it was wrong
to associate with World Council people, and yet, Brother Hyles, there are
people today who preach basically the same message that you preach who
associate with those people."
I lose people from my church, and many of you do--people who can't understand.
They feel perhaps through the years we've been too narrow, our message
has been too biased, and we have been a little prejudiced against some
people and jealous and what not, because we have preached through the years
some basic fundamental things. Now those who preach basically the same
message we preach embrace those who formerly were our enemies. Black used
to be black and white white; but now it has become a dirty gray till a
person can hardly tell what is black and what is white.
Now brethren, how are we going to take these things? I don't know about
you, but I get discouraged sometimes. Sometimes I think nobody is left
but me.
I say to my wife, "How did you like my sermon?" With her tongue in cheek
she says, "Good." I know what she means. And the dog won't wag his tail
at me; the cat won't even come and let me feed him milk. It seems as though
the whole world is down on me. I can walk under the door without bending
over. I can sit in the gutter and dangle my feet. It seems nothing is going
right. I get discouraged, and so do you. Many times you, like me, shed
tears of loneliness and sorrow.
Sometimes I wish some preacher with convictions would come to my town
with whom I could agree. I wish he would come to be pastor in my town so
my own folks wouldn't think I was the only one in the world who was against
something. It seems everything that goes on I have to get against. I get
out of one scrap right into another. I don't mean to fight. Really I like
people and want to get along with them; yet it seems there is one scrap
after another.
So I get discouraged. you laugh now, but you are laughing because you
were crying yesterday! When two people get together who have tuberculosis,
and they cough, your cough doesn't sound so loud if somebody else is coughing
along with you! We get discouraged and down in the dumps and wonder if
it is worth it all.
You think the battle is raging now--it has just begun. The same Devil
that fought yesterday is alive today. The same Devil that put these Christians
into lions' mouths and in flames of fire is still alive today. Are we going
to take it?
Look at Moses. Moses chose to serve God rather than all the riches of
Egypt. Moses, how did you take it?
"I've seen Him who is invisible."
You are not going to take it unless every once in awhile you get a glimpse
of Him who is invisible.
Aren't you tired of just going to church? Aren't you tired of singing
the "Doxology" and "How Tedious and Tasteless the Hours" and "How Dry I
Am"? The preacher does the best he can; he tries to get in touch with Heaven,
but the line is busy. The operator is off for the week-end and you can't
get through. Aren't you tired of going to church, then going home and feeling
you haven't heard from Heaven? But when we go to church and God comes and
talks to us and we feel His presence, then we go home and feel so good!
There are times when I go to church--it's one of those mornings we slept
a little later and I had to dress all three kids by myself. Just about
the time we are ready to leave, we discover Linda Lou's right shoe is on
her left foot and her left shoe on her right foot. We get in the car and
David wants a drink--got to go back and get him a drink. We go to church
and Becky feels that she doesn't look just right, and my wife's dress is
wrinkled because the baby wallowed all over her. I get up in the pulpit
and try to get in touch with Heaven but can't. I go home and realize I
have failed.
Brother, when your people come to hear you preach, they come to hear
from Heaven. And if you fail to give them something straight of the altar
from Heaven, you ought to resign your pulpit and let somebody in there
who can get a call through to Heaven. Now you had as well face this. you
will kill yourself if you don't see Him who is invisible every once in
awhile.
In the last year I have been voted out of everything. I got voted out
of the Dallas County Baptist Association on October 19,1957. It's funny
now; it was sad then. Do you know what October 10 is in the Bible? The
Day of Atonement! (Both Joe Boyd and I were voted out the same time.) The
Day of Atonement was the day the high priest took two goats. Do you recall
the offering of the scapegoat? On that day the high priest took two goats.
He killed one of them and left the other out in the wilderness and said,
"Don't you ever come back." Now that happened to me.
Oh, I don't want to preach if I can't get in touch with Him who is invisible.
I don't want fellowship with God's people if I can't have God's fellowship.
The reason you are at this conference is because you want to see Him who
is invisible. If you go home from this conference after hearing these men
but have not had fellowship with and seen Him who is invisible, you have
cheated yourself out of $20, or whatever you spent to get here.
There are three basic things about people who see Him who is invisible.
Moses saw Him in the burning bush. Saul saw Him on the Damascus Road. Stephen
saw Him when he was being stoned to death. Paul saw Him when he was outside
the city of Lystra. The Hebrew children saw Him in the fiery furnace. Jacob
saw him wrestling at midnight. Daniel saw Him in the lions' den. And others
saw Him. And if you want to see Him, you will have to have these three
basic things these men had.
Only in Heartbreak, Perhaps, Will You See Him Who Is Invisible
Every man in the Bible who saw Him who is invisible was a man of heartache.
he was a man of loneliness. he was a man who bore reproach. These three
things accompanied those in the Bible who saw him who is invisible.
Brethren, the times when I have seen Him who is invisible were those
times when my heart was broken. Those were good times. It seems the Lord
has a wonderful way of turning heartache into victory, and times of loneliness
and despair into victory. Preacher brethren, isn't it good when you get
in the middle of the battle and get discouraged and down in the dumps,
to know that God really called you to preach?
I recall several experiences in my life when I have seen Him who is
invisible. There are times when I get lonely, discouraged, down in the
dumps. In those times it seems God has given me a vision of him who if
invisible.
My first experience took place when I was a small boy. I promised God
on my daddy's grave that everywhere I would tell this experience. My daddy
was a drunkard, I was raised in a poor home with no conveniences--just
a little cabin on the edge of town. Because she couldn't afford a dress
to wear to walk across the platform, my sister couldn't get her diploma
with the rest of her class.
It came time for me to graduate. The morning of the commencement exercise,
I had nothing but a pair of blue jeans and a tee shirt to wear to my own
graduation. I looked in the closet and said, "O God, give me something
to wear to commencement tonight. I can't wear blue jeans and a tee shirt."
When I went to the mailbox at noon there was a $50 check from one of my
old uncles. He wrote, "Spend it for your graduation present." I went downtown,
bought a suit and graduated with as pretty a suit as anybody had.
I was raised poor. My little old mother--God bless her--had a life full
of heartaches. Her daddy was mean and beat her; he didn't love her as he
ought to. She married a drunkard at seventeen and had a little baby girl
when she was eighteen. This baby was born in invalid, never walked or talked.
When she was seven she died. My mother had another little girl and at seven
she died.
I shall never forget one night. My dad didn't come home. He was out
drunk. We had nothing to eat, so Mamma came to me and said, "Son, let's
go to bed early tonight." I thought, "Well...okay." Then I heard Mamma
crying. I didn't know then why, but not I realize it was because there
was nothing to eat, and no wood to put in the stove. About four o'clock
in the morning I heard Mother open the door. Daddy came stumbling in. The
car was torn up; he was broke and bloody. There wasn't anything worth living
for, it seemed.
I can recall wishing Daddy would go to church. It was Saturday night.
I can recall going over as a little boy and getting on my knees and looking
up and saying, "Daddy, why don't you go to church tomorrow?" Daddy would
shove me away and say, "I don't have time for church."
Somehow God spoke to my heart that day and I went to church. That night
I saw Him who is invisible. I got saved that night.
So you know God gives us experiences with Him who is invisible through
heartaches and tragedy.
When I became a teen-ager I saw my daddy leave home, and Mother and
I had to rough it the best we could. I went to work and tried to take care
of Mother as she had taken care of me. I still try to take care of her.
Even to this day I still pay my mother's rent and take care of the food.
She is a member of my church now, is seventy-odd-years-old, and I get to
preach to her every Sunday. She thinks I'm better than John Rice!
I went to work to take care of Mother, but it seemed we couldn't make
ends meet, couldn't pay the bills. One day I went to church so forsaken
and so forlorn--I just didn't know what to do. you know what the Lord did?
God called me to preach that day! I saw Him who is invisible.
So in every deep experience I have ever had, I had to cry before I laughed.
You have to go down before you can go up; have to get sad before you get
happy.
Loneliness, the Price of Seeing Him Who Is Invisible
Then I went through other experiences. When my daddy passed away I stood
on his grave and asked God why. From that day to this I have not been the
same man. God gave me a vision of him who is invisible.
I wasn't going to say anything here about getting voted out of the Association,
but I almost have to. You've heard about Lone Ranger and Tonto. Tonto is
the Indian companion of the Lone Ranger. They went out in the desert in
Texas. Ten thousand Indians came toward them and attacked them from the
north, and so they took off south. Then ten thousand Indians came from
the south, and so they took off east. Then ten thousand Indians came from
the east, so they took off west. There were the Lone Ranger and Tonto,
his Indian companion, out in the middle of forty thousand Indians, no way
to go. They were coming down upon them quickly. The Lone Ranger looked
at Tonto and said, "Tonto, what are we going to do?" Tonto looked at him
and said "Ugh, what do you mean 'we,' white man?"
That is what they said! When I was voted out of the Association, I had
lots of friends [I thought they were friends]" so I went to them and said,
"What are we going to do?" They said, "Ugh, what do you mean 'we,' Jack?"
There we wee. Friends gone, revivals canceled. The first day after it happened
four speaking engagements were canceled. A revivalist was coming to my
church. Within two or three weeks he had canceled our revival. It just
seemed like the whole world had fallen in.
Actually, our people never even heard of the Association. They didn't
know there was a Dallas Baptist Association. We belonged to it, but our
folks didn't know it. They thought we had lost our charter. They thought
we couldn't have services anymore. Lots of them said, "What are we going
to do with the building now that we can't have a church anymore?" They
thought that. Finally it dawned upon us what had happened, and for awhile
we felt lonely.
I had been to a Southern Baptist college and seminary and pastored four
Southern Baptist churches, and for awhile it seemed lonely. People we never
dreamed would leave us, left us. Folks we never dreamed would break their
friendship, broke their friendship. I mean the best friends I had, I thought,
turned their backs on our church and upon me just like that.
Preacher boys whom God had saved and called to preach under our ministry,
and everything they knew had been taught from our pulpit, left us just
in a moment. They were gone. It seemed like the church was rocking and
reeling. It seemed for awhile as if the whole thing was breaking in. I
said, "Lord, I'm going to leave. I feel led to be an evangelist. I'm going
to leave." So I decided to go.
One night I was sound asleep, just enjoying a good night's rest. (I
love to dream. I pray to God every night when I go to sleep, "Lord, let
me dream something tonight. I don't want to waste my time while sleeping.
Let me dream something tonight." I love to dream. Listen! I've been to
Shanghai, China; I've been to Rome, Italy; I've been to London, England;
I've preached city-wide revivals in New York City and Chicago; and I've
never been to any of them. I did it in a dream. Wonderful experiences!
I have seen literally thousands of people saved in my dreams. I love it!
It's wonderful. You ought to get in the habit. Eat a hamburger before you
go to bed every night and ask God to help you dream! God will do it!)
So I was sound asleep and dreaming. The telephone rang, and oh, the
horror of a preacher's telephone at two o'clock in the morning! I thought,
"I wonder who is dead now." I went to the phone and picked up the receiver.
One of my custodians said, "Brother Jack, come to the church quickly."
"What in the name of common sense happened?"
"A tornado hit the educational building."
"Oh, no! Oh, no, no! A thousand times no. I'm still dreaming."
He said, "You're not dreaming. A tornado hit the educational building.
Come quickly."
It was pouring down rain. Hail was on the ground. I rushed down to the
church house in the midst of the pouring down rain and hail, looked up
and saw through the top of our educational building. The top story was
blown off and was down against one of the other buildings. The water was
going through and you could swim in the bottom floor. Furniture was broken.
I looked at my associate pastor, who went with me--we lived four houses
from each other--and said, "Brother Jim, this is it! I can't take it anymore.
I just can't. This is it! Friends are gone, members are gone, deacons are
mad, preacher boys have left--now the building blown down. This is it!"
That was Friday night. Saturday morning I went down to the church house,
and folks came by the church. One thing about our church in Garland--you
don't have to know what's going to happen; something is always happening.
If it's not a tornado, somebody has dropped dead in the church (it has
happened right in our church). Folks were driving by to look at the building.
I was crying. I said to the associate pastor, "Now, Brother Jim, this
is it. you better look for a place to go because I'm quitting. I'm just
going to quit!"
The next morning I got up in the pulpit. What did I preach on? On Job;
what else was there to preach on? I told the people about Job, and really,
honestly, I was sitting in ashes and burning and scraping my old sores
and feeling sorry for myself. I got down to where I was trying to show
them that God gave Job the victory and he said, "I know that my redeemer
liveth." Usually I would say, "Boy, I KNOW that my Redeemer liveth," but
that morning I didn't know. So I said, " I know...that my Redeemer liveth."
The people didn't know either. I was going to show them where God came
down and gave Job the victory, gave him children, and gave him more than
he had had before, and God blessed him bountifully. I got down to that
place and I said, "Look here!" I wasn't convinced myself. I said, "God
is going to bless us--I know He is." I didn't know it, but I said it. "I
know God is going to bless us. Look here," and I read the Scripture...
and you know what it said? It said when the Lord came down to tell Job
that victory had come, He came in a whirlwind! "Oh," I said, "Victory has
come! The Lord came in a tornado and told us that victory is here, and
defeat is over!"
Boy, the people shouted for joy, the choir rejoiced, and folks were
saying, "Praise the Lord!" All of a sudden like a bolt out of the blue,
we had a glimpse again of Him who is invisible, and from that day till
this we haven't been the same.
More than anything else in the world, we need some hard times! We need
some times to be broke and lonely and forsaken and forgotten! We need some
enemies, and some heartaches, some battles!
In my own crooked, wicked, vile life, if I didn't have heartaches and
times of despondency and loneliness, I wouldn't seek help from Him. But
I want you to know, when those times come and it seems like nobody understands
and really you can say nobody does understand--nobody understands but Jesus.
He is the only one who ever had the problems that we have, like we're having
them.
Dr. Rice, bless his heart, will come to the rescue of anybody who stands
for God anywhere--I don't care who he is. if I had my life to live over
and could be born with any daddy in the world, I'd say, "Let me be John
Rice's son." Walt, I congratulate you. If I had found one of these Rice
girls before I married, I believe I would have been a bigamist! I really
do, I really do, because I'd like to be in his family. Anyhow I appreciate
him and he comes to your rescue. But even John Rice doesn't completely
understand your problems and I don't completely understand his problems.
Neither my little old mother nor my wife completely understand my problems.
There are times when nobody understands, and the only hope you've got is
to see Him who is invisible.
God is so good and so wonderful, and about the time we get down to the
bottom of the barrel, it seems as if he lifts the shutter of Heaven and
says, "Say, look at Me again." We get to see Him again and we say, "Fill
'er up. We're on our way again," and off we go. So times of heartaches
seem to accompany times of seeing him who is invisible.
In the second place, it seems men who have seen Him who is invisible
are lonely men. I didn't intend to say this, but I will: Don't ever get
to the place where you depend upon these conferences for your spiritual
strength. Get a straight line through to Heaven. Get through when there
are no conferences going on! He who is invisible is available for conferences
any time. Depend on fellowship with Him, speak with Him--the God who lives,
the God who rained fire on Elijah, the God who filled the oil in the little
lady's pots, the God who changed water to wine, the God who fed the five
thousand, the God who raised His Son from the dead. He is a God who lives
and you can have fellowship with Him who is invisible.
I think how lonely Dr. Rice must get. I'll tell you, loneliness is the
hardest thing I've had to face since I've been preaching. I was raised
in a Southern Baptist church--licensed, married, baptized, spanked, everything
else in a Southern Baptist church! That's all I knew. When I started preaching
my preacher preached pretty good and I thought every preacher stood against
sin. So I took off with a pitch-fork in one hand, to stick folks in the
seat of the breeches and wake them up, and a Bible in the other, to tell
them what to do when they woke up. I found out right away that everybody
wasn't for me. I was brutally shocked! The pastor of the First Baptist
Church where I was pastoring then didn't feel led to co-operate with me.
Talk about co-operating with modernists--he wouldn't co-operate with me
at all! It just seemed nobody understood.
It seems the lonelier the road has gotten, the sweeter it has been.
I couldn't say that before I read the whirlwind, but the lonelier the road
has gotten, the sweeter it's been. It seems when you get to the place where
you say, "Who can I turn to?" Somebody says, "Did you ever think about
Me?" You look up and He pulls back the shutter and you get a glimpse of
Him who is invisible.
Bearing Christ's Reproach Must Come With Seeing Him Who Is Invisible
The third thing notice very quickly. The main thing I want to say is
to see him who is invisible, you have to bear reproach. This modern-day
popular Christianity is not the kind the Bible talks about--this Jane Russell
type, this Roy Rogers type--teach them how to kill on Saturday and tell
them what the Lord means to you on Sunday, I don't care how good the testimony
is.
In Dallas they had Pat Boone down (can you feature it?) for a religious
rally, packed the city auditorium with 10,000 people. Pat Boone got there
and told them what Jesus meant to him. Isn't that something? That may sound
good, and Grandma, Agnes, and Oswald, you can sit out there and cry and
say, "It sure is good to see a young man that is popular be so religious."
I tell you what, that isn't the kind the Bible has anything to say about.
Show me anybody in the Bible worth his weight in salt who wasn't hated
by the crowd. There wasn't one socially popular character in all the Bible!
Abel was killed by his brother. Noah was hated by his people and could
get but seven converts in preaching 120 years. Joseph was sold into slavery.
Moses was hated by his family and his race. Elijah was chased until he
thought he was the only one. Elisha was hated and called "bald head." The
more hair I lose, the more I appreciate Elisha. He was the first bald-headed
Baptist preacher boy! Isaiah preached to deaf ears. Jeremiah was a weeping
prophet. Daniel was put in the lions' den. The Hebrew children were put
in the fiery furnace. David was chased by Saul. John the Baptist lost his
head. Peter was crucified upside down. Stephen was stoned ;outside the
gates. Paul was left for dead outside Lystra. John was exiled on Patmos.
James was martyred. Jesus Christ was put to Calvary!
How in the name of common sense do you think you can walk the streets
of this world, in your city, in your town and have folks think you are
a nice fellow? You can't be a master mason, president of the Lions Club,
pray at every dog show that comes into town and be the kind of preacher
you ought to be. We need some John the Baptists again who will rise up
in our town and call folks to repent. When you walk down the streets in
your city, folks ought to spit at you, make fun of you, laugh at you. I
don't mean because you want them to spit at you, but because you hold forth
the banner of Calvary, the blood, the Book, the blessed hope, and fight
sin, exalt Jesus Christ, and fight the things you ought to fight. I don't
care where you live--they will hate you. The Bible says, "The servant is
not greater than his Lord" (John 13:16). They hated Jesus and nailed Him
to Calvary; they spat upon Him and plucked out His beard. Are you better
than He is?
I tell my people that I want it to be so in my town that when folks
drive by my church they get rebuked by looking at the building. One lady
told me, "We have to drive by your church to go to work every morning,
but we drive around the block to miss it." I asked, "Why?" Her reply, "We
don't even want to be reminded of you."
When I walk down the street in my town and people look at me, I want
them to think about the sin they are committing or have committed. I want
their sin rebuked by my very presence. I often say, "When you come to Garland
and mention Jack Hyles, you duck or pucker--one or the other!" You'll get
hit in the mouth or kissed, I'll guarantee you for sure.
We've got the idea nowadays that a preacher is like a lawyer. The most
respected folks in town--the doctor, the lawyer, and the preacher. That's
the Devil's lie. There was a day when preachers ran for their lives, yet
we say we're premillennialists and we say the world is getting worse. If
the world is getting worse, why aren't we running for our lives? It seems
to me that our churches ought to fight sin and stand against modernism
and sin and unrighteousness until folks will think we are screwballs, fanatics,
cranks, and fools for Christ. Yet those of us who are fundamentalists nowadays
have gotten so soft. Talk about "Yesterday's fundamentalists" and "second
generation fundamentalists." The last generation of fundamentalists started
churches in garages and tents and brush arbors and fought the city council
and fought the school board. They fought for all they got. They were hated
and misunderstood and laughed at. Now we have doctors' degrees and we are
Rev. Hyles and Dr. Rice, Dr. Malone.
We've got Doctor of Divinity and Doctor This and Rev. This and Brother
This! Our preachers have gotten so respectable we can walk down the streets
in our city and folks look at us and say, "There goes a good man." The
bootleggers in my town ought not to like me. The modernists ought not to
like me! Some of you preachers say, "I appreciate Dr. Rice. He's gotten
his name ruined in many places because of his stand." Pray tell me, why
don't you go to your own little town of 500 or 1,000 and take the same
stand--have the same reputation locally he has nationally? The Bible says,
"Woe be unto you when all men speak well of you" (Luke 6:26), and "If I
pleased men I should not be the servant of God" (Gal. 1:10). We're afraid
somebody will think we're different or won't like us and we won't be respected
in our town.
You say, "Brother Hyles, I don't believe in sticking your tongue out
at everybody." I don't either--just at some. I'll tell you one thing: we
dead sure need more fighting going on in our churches. A man yesterday
said, "How do you get folks to come to your church?" I said, "I just stay
in a scrap all the time. Anybody will come to watch a good fight."
A man said not long ago, "Jack, how do you get a crowd to come to hear
you?" I said, "Just get against a bunch of stuff and preach against it.
That's the way to do it." Like I said last year, if you can't be against
anything else, preach against Hershey bars! I mean just get a series of
sermons on Hershey bars and get up there and act like you mean it. Don't
get up there and say, "The trouble with our country is too many Hershey
bars." Boy, get up there and say, "BROTHER, THE THING THAT IS WRONG WITH
OUR COUNTRY IS THAT OUR TEETH ARE ROTTING OUT BECAUSE OF THE SUGAR IN HERSHEY
BARS, AND WE NEED MORE FOLKS WHO WILL FIGHT HERSHEY BARS!"
I'll guarantee you one thing--your house will be filled! You preach
to empty pews and empty houses because you don't stand for anything or
against anything. you are like the old Negro who said, "I jes' throws myself
in neutral and whichever way you pushes I goes." That is not what God called
us to do.
When I think about men of God, prophets of God of yesterday, and I think
about Jeremiah who sat in the dust and cried, "Is it nothing to you, all
ye that pass by? behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow..."
(Lam. 1:12); when I think about Isaiah and how folks stopped their ears
and wouldn't hear him; when I think about the head of old John the Baptist
lying on the platter of the king; when I think about old Paul lying outside
Lystra, I want to say, "O God, I'm sorry I'm such a sissy. I'm sorry! The
same world is alive, the same Devil is alive today, and I'm sorry I don't
suffer more."
Brother, if you ever want the curtain pulled back so you can see him
who is invisible, come to the place in your life where you bear His reproach.
Bible Christians Who Saw Him Who Is Invisible
Would you take a walk with me for awhile...down a little road. We see
some people. As I walk down the road I wonder what I'll do for Jesus. A
man beside the road is preaching. He has the Bible open, the book of the
law. There are not many there--oh, some--but some stop, then pass on by.
The man knows what he is talking about; he speaks with authority. I believe
if that young man were a lawyer, he could be a success. If that young man
were a doctor, he could be very prominent in the city. if he wee a businessman,
I think he could make a million, because there is something about him that
looks like he has talent. He is a little crude in his tactics, yet beneath
that crudeness and that uncouth attitude I see something that has possibilities.
I say, "Sir, what is your name?"
"My name is Isaiah."
"Isaiah, what are you doing?"
"I'm preaching to the people."
"Well, Isaiah, you're doing a very fine job. I don't agree with what
you're saying, but listen boy, you could amount to something somewhere.
If you'll just trim your message a little, the Sanhedrin would have you
on the top shelf. I bet they would do you right. They'll take responsibility
for you. Isaiah, look! Those folks are stopping their ears; they are hissing
at you. Don't you realize that you're not appreciated? Why, if you put
it to a vote, they would probably vote you out next Sunday morning. You
are not appreciated."
Isaiah looks at me and says, "But, sir, I'm not trying to be appreciated."
"Well, Isaiah, you are an unusual man. You're not normal."
"No sir, I'm not!"
"Well, what's the matter."
"I'll tell you. Back yonder when King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord high
and holy, lifted up, and I said, 'Woe is me,' but the angel, the seraphim
came and with the tongs of the altar he took a live coal and put it on
my mouth and I could not help but preach. I couldn't be a doctor, I couldn't
be a lawyer, I couldn't be a businessman, because you see the fire of God
is upon my lips and I: have seen Him who is invisible."
I scratch my head and walk on down the street. I come to another little
fellow who is preaching. Pretty soon I see the crowd rise up and take stones
and throw at him. He runs and pretty soon he falls beneath the stones.
He is about to die. I pick him up and hold his bloody head in my hands
and say, "Sir, what is your name?"
"Sir, my name is Stephen."
"You know, you ought to be smiling now, because you're dying."
"But," he says, "Sir, you don't understand."
"Stephen what are you?"
"Well, I'm a deacon, sir."
"A deacon? I saw you preaching."
"Yes, I'm a preaching deacon."
"I'll tell you, Stephen, it seems to me you ought to be on the finance
committee where deacons ought to be. I mean you ought to be in those committee
meetings trying to tell the preacher how to run the church. After all,
that's what deacons are for."
"But you see, sir, God didn't call me because I was smart. God called
me because I was full of the Holy Ghost."
"But Stephen, old boy, you're losing your mind."
"I'm beginning to see Him who is invisible."
"Well, you're about to go off now, old boy; you're just about to crack
up."
He says, "Wait a minute. I see the glory of God."
"Well, wait a minute now, don't get beside yourself."
"Oh," he said, "I see the glory of God. I see Jesus standing at the
right hand of God."
"But, Stephen, I belong to the Sanhedrin and I happen to know that Jesus
is not standing at the right hand of God; He's sitting there."
"Yes, but He's standing up to welcome me. I'm about to go see Him. Oh,
I'm so glad I did what I did because I have seen Him who is invisible!"
I walk down the street a little ways and I come to a man, blind, groping
in the dark, on the road to Damascus. I recognize him immediately to be
a successful young man, one who could have reached the top in the religious
field. I say, "Sir, what is the matter with you?"
"I can't see. I can see, but I can't see. I can't see you, but I sure
can see lots of other things."
"Sir, you are a pretty smart fellow. I know you. I've heard you speak
before. You've got talent. Listen, we'll go down and see the optometrist
and he'll fix your eyes up. I'll tell you what I'll do. I'll recommend
you to the First Jewish synagogue and you will be the leading moderator
of the Jewish Association. I'll see to it that you go all the way to the
top."
A fellow told me that one time. he said, "Brother Jack, if you'll trim
your message, you'll go all the way to the top."
I said, "I've fished some, and I know one thing. When fish are alive,
they stay at the bottom; when they are dead, they come to the top. I'll
stay alive!"
So I say, "But, Paul, don't you realize I'll take you to the top?"
And old Saul of Tarsus looks up and says, "Sir, I cannot." I like what
he said there. He said on the road to Damascus, "Who art thou, Lord?"
Paul say, "I've seen Him who is invisible."
I come down the road a little further and I see that same little fellow
outside a city. he lies there; it seems he is unconscious. I reach for
his heartbeat and there is no beat, no pulse. I say, "It's that same little
fool that sold himself down the river. I knew he ought to have taken my
proposition and gone to the top. I knew he should have." I reach down and
I try to pick up his body and call the undertaker. I say, "Paul, Paul"
but there's no answer. pretty soon I see an eyelid flutter. I say, "Now
wait a minute, be still."
But Paul looks up and he says, "Boy, this is great."
"Now wait a minute, Paul. Just be calm. We'll get the doctor in a minute.
We'll make you live."
"But I don't want to live. Let me die."
"Wait a minute, Paul.. You're crazy. knew you were crazy when you gave
up your job with the Baptist headquarters as the executive secretary's
office boy. I knew when you did that you were dear sure crazy. But listen,
Paul, you just it there."
Paul says, "Don't worry about me." Paul gets up, brushes the blood and
the dust, and all the grit and grime off, and says, "Listen, you know what
I was? You wouldn't believe it if I told you. But I saw...aw, I can't tell
you. It isn't lawful for me to tell you and if I told you, you would call
me a liar. But I'll tell you one thing--I've seen him who is invisible!"
I walk down the street a little while longer. I come to three young
men inside a furnace. I say, "Young man, what's your name?"
"My name is Shadrach."
"Sir, what's yours?"
"Meshach."
"What's yours?"
"Abed-nego."
I say, "I've seen you fellows before. You were training to be leaders
in the kingdom during the captivity period, weren't you?"
"Yes, sir."
"And here you are. What are you doing in the fiery furnace?"
Shadrach says, "Shoot, boy, who turned the air-conditioning on?"
Meshach says, "Ooooch, it's cold; I need my overcoat."
But I say, "Wait a minute, fellows. You're just about to die now. What's
wrong with you? What are you in there for?"
"Well, the king built up an old image out here and said bow down and
worship it. We could have done it. The king said if we didn't do it we
would get thrown in the fiery furnace."
Just about that time I see a fellow coming. It is the king! Standing
at attention, I say, "Hello, your majesty." (I'm trying to get to the top,
you know.) "Hello, your majesty," and I salute.
The king says, "Wait a minute. Those three men are supposed to be dead.
Why, they have been in that furnace long enough to have burned to a...oh!...Who
put the extra one in there?"
Old Shadrach looks up and says, "Sir, the extra one is He who is invisible."
I go on down the street and see a young man praying at a window. I ask,
"Young man, what are you doing?"
"I'm praying."
"What's your name?"
"Daniel."
"Well, Daniel, you know it's not right to pray, don't you?"
"Yes."
"Don't you realize that you're next in command? You'll go to the top
of the kingdom. If you will just quit praying in front of that window you
can get to the top of the kingdom and witness to everybody in Congress
and win the whole Congress to the Lord. Daniel, if you'll just keep your
mouth shut for awhile right here, someday you can be at the top and you
might win the whole empire and win the world and bring in the kingdom.
You might do it."
Daniel says, "No, I've got to pray. If I don't pray here, I'll deny
my God. I've got to pray."
"But don't you realize, young man, you've got a future ahead of you?
Stop and think! Don't run with that John Rice crowd. He'll ruin your reputation.
your reputation is gone if you appear on the same program with Jack Hyles
and Tom Malone and John Rice and these others.; now wake up! Get some sense
into your head, you little crazy nincompoop! Get some sense in your head."
Daniel says, "Sir, I cannot do it, because I have seen Him who is invisible."
I walk down the road a little further and see an old grayhaired man
who hasn't had a haircut in years. His beard comes down across his chest
and his locks flow down over his shoulders. He has one of the sweetest
looks on his face you have ever seen. I say to him, "Sir, what is your
name?"
"My name is John." "John, how many folks live on this island here?"
"One."
"I see that old age is affecting you some. What is the population?"
"One."
"I guess you are that one."
"Yes."
"Well, I want you to know, old man, I love you and I appreciate you.
You have my sympathy."
"Why sympathy, sir?"
"Well, I know it must get awful lonely out here."
"Lonely? Oh, no, for I've seen seraphims and angels and cherubim. I've
seen the great wedding feast and the marriage of the Lamb. I've seen the
saints coming in the clouds of glory and all of them on white horses. I've
seen the millennium. I've even seen the golden streets of the new Jerusalem."
I say, "Now, fellow, sometimes when one gets up in years he has hallucinations
like that."
"Oh," he said, "don't worry about me, because all these years out here
I have been seeing Him who is invisible."
I don't know about you, but I'm tired of deadness and coldness. I'm
tired of formality. I'm tired of going to church and just studying and
going home. I want to see Him who is invisible, don't you? Don't you want
again somehow a breath of God, and to hear from Heaven and pull the curtain
back and once again see him who is invisible?
I see a little fellow leading a band of Israelites. I hear one of them
cry, "Oh, you rascal. We wish we wee back eating cucumbers and leeks and
garlic in Egypt, and you led us out here." The other one says, "Yeah, I
make a motion your work is finished here. I feel some man who can work
with young people might be better qualified for the position. yeah, I make
a move we do."
God says, "Moses, what shall I do?"
Moses said, "Kill them."
"No," God says.
Pretty soon God said, 'Okay, I'm ready to kill them."
Moses said, "No, God, don't do it after all."
Somebody said if Moses and God had ever gotten in the killing mood at
the same time, there wouldn't have been anybody left but God and Moses!
Moses said, "No, no, don't kill them."
I walk up and I say, "Moses, aren't you the young man I used to see
over there in the Egyptian palace?"
"Yes, sir, I am."
"Well, Moses, it's nice to have a hobby, some recreation, but I'm sure
you are the head of the great kingdom now."
"No, sir, they won't let me in the palace anymore."
"Well, what did you do?"
"I went and tried to get freedom for the Israelites."
"Israelites! You did?"
"Yes, you know back yonder when I was in the wilderness, I was keeping
some sheep one day and I looked over and saw a bush burning down--it just
kept burning down. I walked down the road a little piece and looked back
and that bush was still burning. I looked up there, and you know, I saw
Him who is invisible in that bush. He said, 'I want you to do my work.'
I said, 'I can't do it, I haven't got anything.'"
Listen! Did you know God does better work with folks who haven't got
anything when He calls them, than He does with folks what have a bunch
of stuff. You just start with nothing.
Moses said, "I haven't got anything."
God said, "What have you got in your hand?"
Moses says, "I've got a rod."
"Throw it on the ground!"
It became a snake.
God said, "Pick it up." (I don't know about you, but that's where me
and Moses would have parted company right there.) Now I want you to get
this. I'm no theologian but I can read in the Bible and I get some thoughts
once in awhile. If Moses had not thrown that whole rod on the ground, Moses
would have had half of that snake in his hand. I don't know theology, but
that's true, and I believe he would have had the biting half! Boy, the
most dangerous thing you'll ever do is to give God half your life.; Give
Him all of it!
I say, "But Moses, what is the matter with you? Why, don't you realize
you cold be the leader of a kingdom?"
But Moses says, "No, I could not be disobedient to the heavenly vision,
because I have seen Him who is invisible."
As I look at the hall of heroes, I bow in shame and say, "O God, I'm
a sissy! There's Moses--he gave up a kingdom; there's Paul--he gave up
a future; there's John--he lost his head; and Abraham--he lost his home;
and the Lord Jesus--He lost everything on earth."
And I sing with the poet,
Must I be carried to the skies On flow'ry beds of ease, While others
fought to win the prize, And sailed thro' bloody seas?
Sure I must fight, if I would reign, Increase my; courage, Lord; I'll
bear the toil, endure the pain, Supported by Thy word.
If every once in awhile You'll just pull the curtain and let me see
Him who is invisible.
