<TITLE>04. Par 29-39</TITLE>L-29   There's many people who, coming to the service, likes to always mark down what a minister has to say, or read from the Scripture. And if you do that, I want you to turn with me tonight for just a little reading found over in the Book of Saint Matthew's Gospel, the 15th chapter, the 21st to the 28th verse. I would read this.
Then Jesus went thence, and departed into the coasts of Tyre of Sidon--Sidon.
And, behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts, and cried unto him,... Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil.
But he answered her not a word. And his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away; for she crieth after us.
But he answered and said, I am not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
Then came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me.
But he answered and said, It is not meet for me to take the children's bread, and to cast it to dogs.
... she said, Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat... the crumbs which fall from the masters' table.
Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour.

L-30   If I would call this a text, I would like to speak just a moment, or for a few minutes, rather, upon the subject of: Perseverance.

L-31 I thought, being that Mrs. McPherson and the church has always stood so gallantly for Divine healing, and we cannot preach the full Gospel without preaching Divine healing, because it is part of the Gospel.

L-32   I remember, as a little boy, reading an article in one of the magazines, Life or Look, or some of those magazines. I was just a young lad. Of them making light of Mrs. McPherson, of preaching Divine healing, and they said that she had a--a trick that she did. Said, "Women that had goiters; she put a pin under her finger, and the women put a balloon under her garment. Then Mrs. McPherson would lay hands on the woman, would stick the pin into the--the balloon, and would deflate the balloon.

L-33 I was a sinner, but I had better sense than that, to think such a thing. If the pin stuck the balloon, it would burst. So I said, "No doubt but what that woman is suffering persecution." And then, since I have become a worker in the vineyard, I realize what she had to stand. Standing for truths, you're always hated of the enemy.

L-34   The word perseverant means to be, I think, according to Webster, "persistent." To be perseverant, "persistent in making a goal." And every person on earth, or that's ever been on earth, that ever achieved anything, had... that amounted to anything, had to be perseverant. You've got to be sure, first, what you got your faith anchored in.

L-35 Now, faith is just not a thing that so easily floated around, and some kind of a... we would call it, in a street expression, a hocus-pocus. Faith can only have its--its right position when it's placed upon something that's steadfast.

L-36 If I told you to go out and put your hand on that tree and be healed, you could doubt that. So, why? We have no background to anything. You'd only have my word. And if I told you that washing in a certain water out here in the--in the valley would bring healing to you, it would depend on how much confidence you had in me.

L-37 "And faith cometh by hearing." Hearing what? "The Word of God."

L-38 Therefore, if This be the Word of God, and It is, what It teaches we can rest upon It. God cannot change. God must forever remain God. His Word must be just as true in this age as it ever was in any age.

L-39   Now, we are finite. We can say something this year, and maybe even tomorrow have to alter it. Because, we're not too sure, because we're finite. We're just presuming. And presume means "to adventure without authority."


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