<TITLE>17. Par 120-128</TITLE>L-120 Peter, he was all steamed up, one night on the sea, when he got in desperation. And he begin to cry out, "There is something wrong. I see a spirit come, walking to me!" The ship was about to go down. He said, "If it be You, Lord, bid me come to You on the water." And he stepped down out of the ship and started; and he got scared when he got started, and he started to sink, and desperation... Though a mistake, in trying to follow the commandments of God,... I hope the church gets that. The man was doing what God told him to do.

L-121   Now, you Christian tonight, you're in the line of duty, trying to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit; and a cancer grabbed you, or a--a death grabs you, a cancer, tubercular, whatever it is. In the line of duty, you have the same right that Peter had.
"Lord, save me, or I'll perish." In desperation he called out, and a hand reached and picked him up. You have the same thing. But he screamed out, "Save me, Lord!"
He heard my despairing cry,
From the waters lifted me, now safe am I. See?

L-122 That's it, when you cry out!

L-123   Maybe this woman, mother, whatever it was to her, a little son, or a grandson, or nephew, whatever it was, cried out in despair. God heard.

L-124 Then we find out that, in the sinking, God heard him. In the line of duty, he started to sink. He failed. No matter if you fail, that don't have nothing to do with it. We all fail. We're a failure, to begin with. But we got Somebody standing now with a strong hand, Who can reach us and take us above the water.

L-125 If you've made a mistake, some woman made a mistake, some man made a mistake, some boy or girl made a mistake; don't sink. Scream out, in despair, "Lord, save me, or I'll perish!" Get desperate about it. God will hear you. He always hears a desperate soul. That's what I'm trying to tell you about.

L-126   Our dear Lord Jesus, Himself, in the world's greatest battleground, Gethsemane, He cried out, in despair. Should He take the sins of the world, or should He just remain on earth with His beloved disciples, what He wanted to do? But watch His humility as He humbled Himself, "Not My will but Thine be done," humbled Himself to the Word, the promised Word of the God of Heaven.
Notice, then, He went a little further. And if He went a little farther, how much more ought we to go a little farther. See? And notice, the Scripture says here, in Luke, that He prayed earnestly. Brother, sister, if Jesus had to pray earnestly, how much more have we got to pray earnestly. If Christ, the God of Heaven, made flesh, had to pray earnestly, then how much more are we, sinners saved by grace, pray earnestly! If--if the decision throwed the Son of God into despair, what will it do to you and I? Desperately we must cry.

L-127 God, in these last days, has manifested Himself so to us, by His great signs and power, should make us desperate. That's right. And His willing to heal us and save us, ought to throw us all into desperation to get to that healing Stone. That's right.

L-128   Look, if Florence Nightingale... The great-granddaughter of the late Florence Nightingale that founded the Red Cross. You seen her picture in a book, weighed about thirty pounds. Cancer had eat her up. In London, England; they brought her from Africa, to London, England. And there in despair... Brother Bosworth wrote back and told her, said, "We can't come to Africa."


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