<TITLE>04. Par 11-14</TITLE>L-11 Many times we are led to that spot. "Why is it? If I go to church, and I live before God with all my heart, I try to be a just, honest person, and all that Christianity requires, why is it that these things happen?" But you know, many times they are blessings in disguisement. Many times we can't understand them. If you'll just let them alone, God will work it out just right.
Now, I want you to notice. This perhaps was the darkest hour this little family had ever seen. They'd left their church; their Friend, seemingly, had forsaken them. And all that they held dear was gone; the breadwinner was gone, their brother laying in the grave, and this two little helpless women, excommunicated from the church, marked as a holy-roller, fanatic for following the Lord Jesus... Could you imagine the scornful fingers of the city of Bethany pointing at them? Could you imagine hearing them say, "Now, where is that holy-roller friend of yours? You see, when the showdown comes, He's gone somewhere else and refused to come, help you."
You know that devil hasn't died since then. He still lives, scornful. But somehow another, when the darkest hour come... After four days the man was rottening in the grave; then they heard that Jesus was coming. And Martha had been dilatory in making ready for different things and so forth in the house, but she showed then what she was made out of. Oh, I believe...

L-12 To you Pentecostal people, that out here in the Methodist, and Baptist, and Presbyterian, and Lutheran churches, there's a many a Martha out there tonight. I believe when the showdown comes, they'll show what they're made out of. I believe it.
And when Jesus came to the city, little Martha looked like had a right to go out and fuss at Him, but Martha had read a story once in the Bible; that where a Shunammite woman had lost her son, and the Shunammite woman recognized that God was in the prophet. And if God was in His prophet, how much more was He in His Son. She wasn't so much about the prophet; she was recognizing the God of the prophet. And she wasn't recognizing the Man that seemingly had disappointed her, but the God that was in the Man.
Oh, there it is. Not the action of the church, but the power of God that's in the church. Watch. Oh, in that hour no one knows how to sympathize, unless they have come to that dark hour.

L-13 One time way down in Babylon, there was a scene, a drama being set. And that was, that one morning a furnace had been het seven times hotter than it ever was het--or heated. Then when the issue went forth, that three of the believers of God that was standing firm on God's eternal promise...
Oh, I want you to see it. God has always respected any man who will stand firm on His promise. Oh, it looked like a dark time. When Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, with their hands tied behind them, and as it was, the king setting on his throne said, "Now, boys, if you want to make a little compromising here, and would like to change your decision, we'll give you a chance." But you know, that doesn't belong, a compromising in the heart of a believer who's solemnly set on THUS SAITH THE LORD.
They said, "Our God is able to deliver us from them flames of the furnace. But nevertheless, we will not bow down to your images."

L-14 Oh, if the world tonight, if you women tonight, if you man tonight... You women, when the devil comes to tempt you when this sun gets a little warmer, to put on these old scandal clothes, and get on the street, and be popular, if you would say, "I'll take the way with the Lord's despised few. Regardless of what takes place, I made my decision for Christ."
And if you men would get that wishbone out of your back, and a backbone in it, and would take your wife by the hand, and not let her do such a thing, God would respect you more for doing it. And you know that's right. There is times when man's got to stand and the devil will toe the mark with you.


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