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Welcome to Faith of Our Fathers. Today we feature Vance Havner. He was born in 1901 in Jugtown, North Carolina. Through his ministries, Dr. Havner maintained a love for the quiet and simple ways of his more rural past. Eventually, Protestant leaders from many denominations would call Havner the dean of America's revival preachers. Today, Vance Abner presents a study on the word alas.

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There is a little word alas, an exclamation and an expression of disappointment, sorrow and woe found many times in Scripture. I want to mention a few of them this morning. The first one is found in Joshua, the seventh chapter. You remember that the invasion of Canaan had just begun and God's people had suffered a severe setback. At AI, Joshua fell on his face and said in this seventh verse, alas, O Lord God, wherefore hast thou at all brought this people over Jordan to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites to destroy us would to God we had been content and dwelt on the other side of Jordan. But God said to him, get up. There's no time for a prayer meeting. There is sin in the camp and must be dealt with. And when Achan was pointed out, you remember that victory followed when they dealt with him. Now, in application, we have what we might call here the alas of a defeated church. It is admitted on all sides and Joshua is on his face today. We've been put to rout in a good many quarters and put to shame. And the pagans go by asking, as Joah put it, where is now your God? And the answer is not to be found in lamenting that we ever crossed over Jordan. The answer is to be found in the word of our Lord. Get up, Israel. It's sin. And even though it may be only one man involved in the transgression, the entire corporate body is involved. So you have in that chapter what they did about it. God said to Joshua, verse 10, wherefore liest thou thus upon thy face? And then Joshua said in the 13th verse, Up. Sanctify the people. God said to him, and say, sanctify yourselves against tomorrow. You have that same command over there. In the third chapter and the fifth verse. We need to do a lot of sanctifying ourselves against tomorrow for one reason, we don't know what tomorrow is going to bring. Then for a second reason, we do know what some tomorrow is going to bring. It's going to bring death, it's going to bring judgment, it's going to bring a lot of things. And then we ought to do it. Because it also says that if we sanctify ourselves against tomorrow, then God will bless us. We're doing everything today, beloved, but deal with sin in the church. We dare not touch it with a 40 foot pole. Achan gets away with the wedge of gold and the Ananias and Sapphira club are not rebuked. The stone is not rolled away from before the sepulcher because it might create, as Martha suggested, you remember, it might create an unpleasant situation. God hasn't called us to raise Lazarus. God will do that. He has called us to roll away the stone. God won't do the supernatural thing till we do the simple thing. We try to do what only God can do and we don't do what we must do. Some people say, well, I don't want to preach against sin in my church because it might dig up more snakes than I could kill. Well, you don't need to be afraid of that. It's always been the command of our Lord and the proper procedure. It's not enough to call a prayer meeting. Joshua was on his face. How much lower can a man get before God? But there won't be any victory until sin is exposed and the sinners are brought to repentance. Now, Joshua could have said, as I hear some of our church leaders say today, oh, let's forget our differences and regroup our forces and square our shoulders and march ahead and everything will come out right. It wouldn't have come out right at AI. They would only have marched away to another defeat. He could have increased his force and put on a bold front and marched off to another disaster. We step up the program of the churches today and one defeat follows another and will until we do what's indicated here. There are four A's in this seventh chapter of Joshua. AI. May I ask you this morning, do you have an AI in your life? A place of defeat where the Canaanites have got the better of you. And then there's an alas, the alas of desperation. Have you come to that point? Because if you have, there's some hope for you, then there's an Achan. In this chapter, the trouble, what's wrong, whatever it is, is, have you dealt with Achan in your life? And then when they did deal with Achan, they did it in the valley of Achor. And the valley of Achor is the place of confrontation, where you face up to what's wrong and do something about it. And don't Forget that Hosea 2:15 says, the Valley of Achor shall be a door of hope. I believe the door of hope for the church today lies in the valley of Achor, where after the defeated aib, we cry to God with the alas of desperation, then get up and do something about it. And the valley of Achor shall be the door of who the second alas is found in 1 Kings 13 and I call it the alas of the disobedient prophet. God had sent his messenger to rebuke Jeroboam, and he had told him, I don't accept any hospitality in Bethel. Come back home. He started off very well, but an old prophet overtook him and prevailed upon him to come back and eat dinner. And the prophet who had turned down a king let another prophet deceive him, and he was overtaken by a lion. And the last thing I read in that story is really the epitaph on his grave. Alas, my brother. This strange story has always fascinated me. Every once in a while I get out. Alexander White's sermon on frightens me every time I read it, but I do it for my edification. Why did this prophet collapse when he was just about to become one of the greatest spokesmen of God in the Old Testament and now we don't even know his name? Was he just tired? He had confronted a king, the arch apostate of his time, and had brought him to his knees. His conscience was clear, his stomach was empty, and his nerves were on edge. That makes a bad combination. He got under the tree and said, maybe perhaps I should have had dinner with the king. Maybe I am following too severe a policy of exaltation here. You know, the prophets never have fared very well in the shade. Elijah had trouble under the juniper and Jonah under the gourd vine. Seems that the prophets don't get along too well in the shade, and neither did this one. And maybe he said, I shouldn't be so austere. I can't maintain this attitude all the time. Maybe I'd better let my hair down. So he went back for dinner with that other prophet. Alexander White says to preachers, your people will not care one straw what you say from the pulpit if you sup heartily with them afterwards. John Bunyan said that many a sermon is lost in the Sunday dinner. G. Campbell Morgan spoke about more profits being ruined by eating out than any other way. Robert Murray m' Cheyne warned of the danger of a preacher being too much a lover of good eating. And Charles G. Finney said, do not make the impression that you are fond of good dinners and like to be invited out to D. It will be a snare to you and a stumbling block to them. Now that's something you haven't heard in a long time. Many a revival begins with a solemn message and dies when the preacher gets into the homes to laugh and talk it away in a round of halari. I used to think of the preachers of my boyhood days as stern, and they were. But I prefer them still to the Hail. Fellow well met who starts out to be the life of the party finds out it's the death of the prophet. When you get to the place that your parishioners call you by your first name, you are in trouble. You are not supposed to be one of them, you are supposed to be ahead of them. And the preacher who jests and jokes too much cannot stand on Sunday and reprove and rebuke and exhort. I'm sure that when this Bethelite prophet and his sons got this preacher into their home for dinner, they were a bit awed at first because here was a man who had started a revival. God was with him. But as they ate and as they laughed and as they talked, the prophet of God lost his owl and became as one of them. Beware of these Bethelites who are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph. Beware of hobnobbing with those that rest at ease and Zion, and don't get too chummy with Sodom and Gomorrah. This disobedient prophet not only lost his life, but the revival went on the rocks and Jeroboam reverted to his old ways. Nothing confirms evil men in their course more than the backsliding of the righteous and beloved. You and I are under serious orders, and many a preacher's tombstone might well bear the lament. Alas, my brother. I remember Dr. Farren up in Providence saying to me years ago concerning a certain preacher that many of you know that started out so gloriously and ended under a cloud. He said, there was a day when he was my greatest inspiration, but there came a day when he was my greatest warning. We're not going to see another revival until the ministry recovers its solemn commission and learns to say no to Jeroboam and all the priests of Bethel. They'll offer rewards to break down any preacher whose old fashioned devotion to duty makes him a poor mixer. He makes them uncomfortable by contrast, and they want to reduce the disparity by clever devices so innocent in appearance that he appears ungrateful, gracious if he declines their favors. The third, alas, is the alas of departed power. 2 Kings 6:1, 7. Many of you have preached from it. The lost axe head. There is a lot of wood chopping going on today, but the chips are few and the results are meager. These young preachers took off on a wood chopping expedition, and this one individual started out, I'm sure, with a good deal of vim and vigor, but the axe head flew off the handle and into the water. When he was asked where he fell it, he happened to know, which is a very good thing, but he was concerned for the loss of it. Alas, master, for it was borrowed. We've come to a day of lost axe heads, and there are a lot of preachers trying to chop with the handle and chopping twice as hard to keep everybody from seeing that they don't have any axe head on the hammer. You and I work with borrowed power. Remember the man in our Lord's parable who had company at midnight? Nothing to eat. You know, company can show up at the most miserable times. Then he goes to a friend's house and bangs on the door and says, lend me. I'm out borrowing. Lend me three loaves. Well, it's borrowed provision. And here it's los power with the axe head. And when this prophet was asked, where did it fall, he knew a place to get back in God's will is where you got out. Why did the Holy Spirit go to all the trouble of saying, and he showed him the place. You might know he would, have you ever shown God the place? He knows where it is. But have you ever dealt specifically with where you lost the pipe? He that covereth his sins shall not prosper, but whoso confesseth and forsaketh him shall have mercy. Then thank God the iron did swim. God restores lost power. He is the God of another chance. Not hereafter. But now Jacob and Samson and David and Jonah and Peter all had another try. Now, why does the Holy Spirit go to all the trouble of saying, and he put out his hand and took it? Well, you might know he would. Why all that extra information? Well, James tells us that when you need wisdom, pray for it. And then believe you've got it. Put out your hand and take it. We lie to God in prayer if we don't rely on God after prayer. Mark 11:24. Whatsoever things ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them and ye shall have them. Now, that's strange grammar. I know that. Dr. Torrey said once he worried about the grammar a lot. Believe you've got it and you will get it. That's the way it is. Don't worry about the grammar. Do what God says when you ask for restored power, take it by faith if you have dealt with the trouble first, we have lost our accent. Elisha's young prophet was concerned, and I do thank the Lord that he quit chopping till he found it. There are some today who keep on chopping after the axe head's gone. At least they go through the motion. We grab a substitute and labor in the energy of the flesh and pound because we can't expound. Somebody said there's an abundance of energy in the church today, but it's not conquering energy, conscious of its power, but feverish energy, conscious of its powerlessness. But you say my church work has to go on some way, and if we can't do it the right way, the budget has to be met, the expenses have to be paid. Beloved, God's work must be done by God's people, God's way. And if it isn't done that way, you might as well not do it at all. Then also in 2 Kings, the sixth chapter, there's another alas in the life of Elisha my he was a good man to have around. He was equal to any emergency. If the food was poisoned, he made it fit to eat if the water was bitter, he made it sweet. He could recover lost axe heads and put a widow in the oil business at a good profit. He was a mighty man, and Naaman came to him with his troubles, and kings sought his counsel, and he was never at a loss to know what to do, whether the issue be trivial or whether it be tremendous. They sent an army after him. The army of the Syrians came and pitched around all over the neighborhood, I imagine. Next morning that servant went out on the back porch and looked, and there were soldiers to the right of him and soldiers to the left of him. Here a soldier, there a soldier, everywhere a soldier. You ran back in and said, alas, my master, how shall we do the alas of desperate crisis? But old Elisha wasn't disturbed. Neither lost axe heads nor large armies upset his equilibrium. He came out and looked too, but he didn't bother looking down. He looked up and there were angels to the right of him and angels to the left of him. Here an angel, there an angel, everywhere an angel. Because the angel of the Lord was encamping round about them that feared him to deliver him. He said, lord, open this fellow's eyes so he can see. Ephesians 6:12 in one of the newer translations goes like this in part. We are up against the unseen power that controls this dark world and spiritual agents from the very headquarters of evil. The devil has mobilized his reserves for a fight to the finish. And we ought not underestimate our adversaries. That's a great mistake, militarily or spiritually. Teddy Roosevelt had a little dog that was always getting in fights and always getting licked. Somebody said, colonel, he's not much of a fighter. The colonel said, oh, yes, he's a good fighter. He's just a poor judge of dogs. It's a good thing to know what you're up against. But, beloved, we're too inclined to count our adversaries and discount our allies. Oh, how we need to list our assets instead of bemoaning our liabilities. The saints of the past are on our side. The saints of today are on our side. The angels are on our side. And best of all, God is with us. I was in a little southern town where there was a little repair shop run by a fellow called angel, and he had a sign in the wind. The angel service. I said, I've had that all my life. Are they not all ministering spirits? Ah, I think of that glorious hour when Paul took stock of his adversaries in Romans 8, made a wide sweep and took in the visible and the invisible on earth and in heaven, tribulation, persecution, distress, famine, peril and so on. You'd have thought that would be enough, but he's just getting started. He starts with death and goes through life and rises up to include angels and principalities and powers, comes down to earth for things present and dips into the future for things to come, and goes up for height and down for depth. And to make sure he hasn't overlooked anything, he adds, any other creature that's taken in the territory. Friend. Ah, what a formidable aggregation. But he declares that the whole combination cannot separate us from the love of God. And that's just another way of saying, fear not. They that be with us are more than they that be with them. It's time we stopped groaning over our adversaries and started glorying in our allies. The battle is the Lord's. The victory is already won. Our Waterloos behind us and even the statistics that we gloomily quote so much are on our side. Do you realize that the statistics are in our favor? There be more, more that be with us than they that be with them. I agree with the old Scotchman who said, who ever heard of anybody ever drowning with his Head that high above water, there's nothing to fear if you believe the word of God. My Lord said, open his eyes. Jesus healed at least three blind people. One he just touched, another he touched twice, and another he sent to the pool of Siloam. I can imagine those fellows getting together later on and getting into a discussion about it. One said to another, I see you've got your side. How did it happen? He said, well, the Master touched me just once. If the second had been like some Christians, I know it. He said, that's not the orthodox way. You got to be touched twice. And the third one would say, you're both wrong. You gotta put mud on your eyes and go wash it off. In the Polar Siloam, they had started two new denominations right there, the Mudites and the Anti Mudites. Oh, I don't care how it happened, friend. If it happened, Lord, open his eyes. It's no time for an alas. It's time for an alleluia. And that's exactly what you find over in Revelation, the 18th chapter. It's just full of alasses. Have you noticed in verse 10, it's all about Babylon? Alas, alas, that great city, Babylon. And in verse 16, alas, alas, that great city. And in verse 19, alas, alas, that great city. But when you get over to chapter 19, he switched from alas to alleluia. And it's hallelujah in verse one, and it's Hallelujah in verse three, and in verse four and in verse six. Have you ever made the switch, friend, from alas to hallelujah? Now, what is Babylon? I know that the Bible scholars have argued about that, and I don't have time to go into it. I don't personally think it's the old metropolis of antiquity restored. Is it Rome that Peter called Babylon? Was that a code name? I believe it's the heart of the last confederacy, political and ecclesiastical under Antichrist. A gigantic popular system. And it's shaping up now in the world church before our very eyes. And a lot of good people think they're building the new Jerusalem when they're just building old Babylon. I read in this chapter that it's for the birds. A cage of every unclean and hateful bird. Friend, I'm not building for the birds. Today all Christians belong to the holy nation, the heavenly kingdom in this world. But when the professing church starts working with this world to create the kingdom of heaven by the devices of men, we are in the wrong business. And we become Part of the Babylon that we are told in chapter 18, verse 4 to come out of. Oh, you will be despised and persecuted if you are going to be a stranger in Babylon today. But I am not affiliated with a movement that ends in the last. And that's what this world order is going to end up with, alas. But thank God I'm lined up in a cause that ends in an alleluia. The alleluia of a victorious Christ. The rider on the white horse. The holy city that's soon coming down. I believe in civic pride. I don't belong to any civic clubs down here. But I belong to the big one, the New Jerusalem. I joined that one considerable time ago. I think about old Bud Robinson. Somebody gave him a trip to New York one time. Some of his friends. Bud had never been there. And he went up and down Broadway and Fifth Avenue. And saw the skyscrapers and the ships leaving for Europe and all that sort of thing. And it was pretty much to see, even in that day. But that night, praying, Bud said, lord, I thank you that I got to see New York. Got to see the skyscrapers, Broadway and Fifth Avenue and the ships pulling out. Thank you, Lord. But I thank you most of all that I didn't see anything I wanted. That's a good way to feel. Today in this situation. I'm interested in another city. My citizenship's in heaven. I'm looking for a city that hath foundations. Whose builder and maker is God. Some people don't believe in this city anymore. Some preachers don't. They've been told in seminary maybe that this New Jerusalem business is just symbolism. Well, I'm anticipating it. When I was a little boy, I carved on one of the bricks on the old chimney at home. Heaven. I hoped to win. I don't know why I put it that way. But I set out for that fair city. Because I'd been told in Sunday school about it. And I wanted to get a good start. I started out as a boy to preach. My old father used to meet me when I'd come in from my preaching trips. I can see him yet, standing by that little old depot at Newton, North Carolina. Standing there in that old blue serge suit that never had been pressed since the day he boated. Standing with that old fashioned Ford roadster. And when I'd come up to him, he'd always ask one question. How did you get along? You know, the train. And we do have a train yet right by Newton. And it goes by that little old depot. They don't use it anymore, but it's still standing. Every time I go by, I fancy I can see Father standing there and I remember his question. One of these days I expect to make the last trip. When I make the final round in the glory. Wouldn't be surprised. The first one to meet me over there wouldn't be Father. Not in the old blue serge suit but in the robes of the redeemed. And wouldn't be surprised if the first thing you'd ask would be how did you get along? I think I'll say pretty well, thank you. But it's mighty good to be home. There's an old song that's corny now to some ears and some who look down from their stratospheric heights in lofty condescension on us poor mortals of low estate Think we're out of date if we like to sing it. But when the going gets rough and the newspaper headlines look scary and my aches and pains remind me that my get up and go has got up and went I find myself singing with this cracked voice of mine When I think nobody's listening. In that white city Pearly white city I have a mansion, my heart and a crown and I'm waiting Watching and waiting for that white city that soon, thank God. Coming down.