We Need Heroes & Heroines

Good evening.

Welcome to Voice in the Wilderness. I'm Don Noble with

Pure Heart Ministries, and I welcome you today with exceedingly

abundantly and overflowing joy. Well, I have joy because spring

is just right around the corner, and I'm ready to

spring into action. As most of you know, I'm a gardener,

and spring is an exciting time. You see those little

shoots start coming up out of the soil. Yeah, I

get excited. And it's been a hard winter and I've

had a nice long winter rest, but I think I'm

getting ready to be very active outside again.

Amen. Well tonight.

My message is we need heroes and heroines in this

crazy culture of wokeness and DEI influenced by the socialist

Marxist beliefs. I feel we've lost our heroes and heroines.

I really do.

And fact in the last four years under the Biden administration.

You know, it was just as I mentioned a couple

of weeks ago, just the oppression.

You know that just.

It wasn't a time to find a hero and a heroine.

Let's just say that. Charles Lindbergh. Now I wasn't alive

during the time that he became famous, but boy.

He was a hero.

Charles Lindberg became an overnight sensation in nineteen twenty seven.

Imagine there's no social media at the time, no iPhones,

no nothing back then. But he became an overnight sensation

because he was the first American pilot to make a

NonStop flight between New York City and Paris, and he

flew along over the Atlantic Ocean. This flight was thirty

three point five hours. His aircraft, the Spirit of Saint Louis,

which I have seen, became an icon of adventure. He

was the first to fly solo and set a new

flight distance world record, and his achievement garnered him world

wide fame. Charles Lindberg was a hero. Then there was

Amelia Earhart, the first female pilot to cross the Atlantic

solo NonStop in nineteen thirty two, and she received the

Distinguished Fly Cross for doing it. Unfortunately, she disappeared over

the Pacific Ocean in nineteen thirty seven while attempting to

become the first female pilot to circumnavigate the world. Amelia

Earhart was a heirin. She was one of the most

influential American figures from the late nineteen twenties and throughout

the nineteen thirties. This evening, I want to share with

you about some heroes of the faith, people who had

a significant role to play in America. The first person

I want to talk to you about is a man

named Peter Marshall, born in nineteen oh two in Scotland,

who emigrated to the US to attend seminary. Now I

don't know much. I didn't know much about Peter Marshall.

He really didn't know anything about Peter Marshall. And unfortunately

our history books are so empty and devoid of really

really good history that, you know, I feel like my

voice here on the radio has been you know, I

talk to you a lot about historical things, so and

I love history. I was a history major in college,

so I like to bring in those aspects of history

that you may not have learned. I certainly didn't know

of Peter Marshall. But Peter Marshall became a Presbyterian minister

in Georgia and later in Washington, d C. He became

the pastor, at age thirty five in nineteen thirty seven

of Washington, DC's prestigious New York Avenue Presbyterian Church, the

same church where doctor Phineas Gurley was pastor during Abraham

Lincoln's presidency. Braran Marshall stated, he said, I've come to

know Lincoln better the heart and the spirit of the

man since I met him in the tradition of this

church I now serve in Washington, than I ever knew

him in history books. Now, folks, I'm gonna share some

things here with you. I really want you to pay

attention because I've never heard this information before. I doubt

you've ever heard it before, and it's important to understand

this real key thing about Abraham Lincoln, and I want

to give credit where credit is due. I'm sharing information

that Bill Fetterer has put together. And as many of

you know, Bill Fetter is a historian. He I brought

him to Wheeling last year. The man is just so

full of knowledge. Anyway, as the Reverend Marshall goes on,

he said, soon after assuming this pastorate, I happened one

day upon an old safe little used in the church basement.

Fascinating minutes of session meetings were there, dating almost back

the year the church was born in eighteen oh two.

Among these were some pew rental books, and I flipped

up into a page with the inscription at the top

a period Lincoln. The annual rent of the pew was

fifty dollars a year, and the notations of payments began

in March of eighteen sixty one and continued until the

president's fascination four years later. Marshall continued. Upon coming to Washington,

mister Lincoln had sought the advice of a member of

his cabinet on the choice of a suitable church home

for himself, his wife, and his three boys. One of

his stipulations was that it had to be a clergyman

who holds himself aloof from politics.

Now you know.

All the things that I have believed and said on

this program over the last several years about how important

it is for clergy to be involved, not necessarily running

for politics, but to be part of culture talk and

discuss things going on in the culture. The president's choice

was happened to be this church, and the pastor was

doctor Phineas Gurley. As the clouds of Civil War gathered increasingly,

mister Lincoln sought the friendship of doctor Gurley. He liked

to attend the midweek prayer meetings by sitting on the

other side of a glass top door with the door ajar.

On nights when the President would be deeply disturbed by

the horror of Americans having to fight fellow Americans, he

would sometimes send a messenger to fetch doctor Gurley. Later,

doctor Gurley was to tell how the two of them

listen carefully, how the two of them would walk up

and down the south portico of the White House, up

and down all through the night, talking and praying until

dawn flushed pink in the eastern sky. For here was

a man on the horns of that tear dilemma. He

believed that a nation divided could not stand that the

Union was worth saving. Yet he loathed war, all of it,

from Fort Sumter to Appomattox. In the end, according to

doctor Gurley, who knew Lincoln so well, Lincoln found no

way except the route.

Of faith in God.

After being near him steadily and with him often for

more than four years, doctor Gurley said, I can affirm

that God's guidance and mercy were the props on which

Lincoln humbly and habitually leaned that they were the best

hope he had for himself and for his country. He

recognized and received the truth that God is the governor

among the nations, and that our only hope, in the

President's own words, was to humble ourselves, confess our national sins,

and pray for clemency and forgiveness. Marshall added. The biographers

who have rather desperately tried to prove that Abraham Lincoln

was an unbeliever, have wisely ignored doctor Gurley's testimony. The

Minister was present when Willie Lincoln died in the White

House and received from him the little iron bank containing

pennies which the little boy asked doctor Gurley to give

to the Sunday School. And here he was there in

the tiny hall bedroom in the red brick house on

Tenth Street, keeping an all night vigil. Excuse me, it's

just a little emotional keeping an all night vigil with

the leaders of the nation. As the President lay dying,

as daylight broke and the faint breathing died away, the

Secretary of War, mister Stanton, broke the stillness with words

which were almost a sob stating, now he belongs to

the ages. Then he asked doctor Gurley to pray, and

this is what he said. The nation needed prayer more

than ever without Lincoln, that was the note of the

eulogy in the East Room, which doctor Gurley delivered. He said,

it is by his deady confidence in God that he

would speak to us today, and his message would be this,

cling to liberty and write battle for them, bleed for

the if need be, but most important, have faith in God.

I want to stop there a moment because I dare say.

I know, I have never heard this information, and at

times I wondered, because I've read so many things about

Abraham Lincoln's faith that I began to wonder, I mean,

did he really believe in God? While I think this

is proof, this is proof. This is a man, a minister,

Abraham Lincoln's minister, who spent probably more time with Lincoln

than any other person other than maybe his wife obviously

and children. But he knew him well. And any president

that would spend all night pacing back and forth with

the minister and praying all night for the nation, you

can't tell me that Abraham Lincoln didn't believe in God.

So I found that I found that very heartwarming. I

don't know why I'm so overcome with emotion here. I

have always loved Abraham Lincoln, and now I love him

even more. But this this, this doctor or doctor and

Reverend Peter Marshall. He he became the Senate chaplain, he

was invited to become the US Congress Senate chap and

he offered this prayer in nineteen forty seven. He said,

God of our fathers, give unto us thy servants a

true appreciation of our heritage of great men and great

deeds in the past. But let us not be intimidated

by feelings of our own inadequacies. For this troubled hour.

Remind us that the God they worshiped, and by whose

help they laid the foundations of our nation, is still

able to help us uphold what they bequeath and give

it meaning. On July third, nineteen forty seven, the day

before Independence Day, US Senate Chaplain Peter Marshall prayed, this,

God of our Fathers, whose almighty hand hath made and

preserved our nation, grant that our people may understand what

it is they celebrate tomorrow. May they remember how bitterly

our freedom was won, the down payment that was made

for it, the installments that have been made since this

republic was born, and the price that must be paid

for our liberty. He continued, May freedom be seen not

as the right to do as we please, but as

the opportunity to please, to do what is right. May

it be ever understood that our liberty is under God

and can be found nowhere else. May our faith be

something that is not merely stamped upon coins, but expressed.

In our lives.

Let us, as a nation be not afraid of standing

alone for the rights of men, since we were born

that way, as the only nation on earth that came

into being for the glory of God and the advancement

of the Christian faith. Folks, don't ever forget that. Don't

ever let anybody, or any organization, or any group of

folks tried to convince you otherwise. This nation, the United

States of America, came into being for the glory of

God and the advancement of the Gospel. Marshall concluded, we

know that we shall be true to the pilgrim dream

when we are true to the God they worshiped. To

the extent that America honors THEE. Wilt that bless America

and keep her true as thou hast kept her free,

and make her good as thou hast made her rich.

Amen.

Later, Peter Marshall stated, the world has enough women who

are popular. It needs more who are pure. We need

women and men too, who would rather be morally right

than socially correct. Character is what a person does when

he is alone, the decisions he makes away from the

persuasions of his friend and true character must always be

founded upon Christianity. Peter Marshall, interestingly, I wanted to share

this before I forgot. On the morning of December seventh,

nineteen forty one, okay, this is the morning that Pearl

Harbor was bombed, Reverend Peter Marshall was addressing the midshipment

at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, the class of

nineteen forty two at on December seventh, nineteen forty one.

Listen carefully. At the last minute, he set aside his

prepared remarks and preached a prophetic message titled Go Down Death.

Within an hour after he finished, news of Imperial Japan's

attack at Pearl Harbor spread across the nation. So obviously

this was a man who heard from God. He was

supposed to say one thing to these men, and God

changed that message. So doctor Gurley, Reverend doctor Gurley, a

phenomenal clergyman, Reverend Peter Marshall, phenomenal clergyman, hero of the faith.

Abraham Lincoln, hero of the faith. These are mighty men

who have done great things to advance God's work. I

want to just conclude. Oh, something very exciting I've almost

forgot to share with you. Peter Marshall's wife, Catherine wrote

many books, just like Peter Marshall did, and she Peter

Marshall died at the age of forty six of a

heart attack.

She wrote a memoir.

And that memoir became in nineteen fifty that a highly

successful box office hit a movie, twentieth Century Fox's motion

picture movie called a Man Called Peter. I'm going to

try to look that up. I'd love to see the movie,

so I would just encourage you.

I don't know if we can find it on.

YouTube or where we can find it. It's got to

be out there somewhere. But yeah, twenty century twentieth it

was very successful. And nineteen fifty five the movie called

a Man Called Peter and has a little saying there

It says, it took a man to teach me what

a wonderful thing it is to be a woman. That's

what Catherine wrote about her husband. Senate Chaplain Marshall also

said some things and these are prophetic. You know this

is I'm thinking this is a roughly eighty four years

ago or so, He said. Time is running out for us.

We are a country plagued by almost continual industrial strife,

betrayed and exploited by political expediency, disintegrated by a steadily

increasing divorce rate, weakened and sickened by lewdness and immorality,

torn by racial and political hatreds. But I know this,

he said. No nation ever made progress by going in

a downward direction. No people ever became greater by lowering

their standards, least of all by changing laws to suit

the lower standards. That's what we've experienced in the last

four years. We were in a downward direction. We were

making laws to suit lower standards. No society was ever

enriched or improved by a looser morality. We fought two

World Wars, only to slip back into the suicidal path

of apathy, materialism, and the decay that is eating away

the foundations of Christian civilization, turning the world into a

vast slaughter house, reeking with the stench of human blood,

stark with hunger and despair. Where is America going? He stated,

You and I and other ordinary citizens are the only

ones who can answer that. For the call today is

for Christian heroes and heroines who are willing to speak

a good word for Jesus Christ, who are willing to

live by the undeluded values of Christian morality in the

pagan atmosphere of our societ, surrounded by lewdness, pornography, and profanity.

This may be a higher bravery than that of any battlefield,

to face ridicule, sarcasm, sneering, disdain for what one believes

to be right, to fight for goodness and right, fighting

the battle first in our own hearts and souls, seeking

God's help to overcome our particular temptations for the sake

of peace, for the sake of America, for our own sake,

for God's sake. The choice before us is plain Christ

or chaos, conviction or compromise, discipline or disintegration. I'm rather

tired of hearing about our rights. The time has come

to hear about responsibilities. America's future depends on her accepting

and demonstrating God's government. He challenged, we all hate and

loathe war. It is contrary to all principles and ethics

of Christ. Yet there are certain liberties, certain precious heritages,

for which a man should be willing to fight and even.

Dare to die. Reverend Chaplain.

Peter Marshall, you, sir, are a hero.

Folks.

Think about what he said. This is nineteen forty seven.

This is a long time ago. You know it sounds

exactly like now. I mean, if I didn't know that

it was nineteen forty seven, I would believe it's twenty

twenty five. How amazing that he could see then what

was coming to become what is now. Let me close

quickly with two Timothy, Chapter two, verses fourteen through. I

don't know if I can get through it all, but

through twenty one, Paul writes to Timothy, remind them of

these things, charging them before the Lord not to strive

about words to no profit to the ruin of the hearers.

But be diligent to present yourself a proof to God,

a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly

dividing the word of truth. But shun profane and idle babblings,

for they will increase to more ungodliness and their message

will spread like cancer. Imenius and Phylatus are of the

sort who have strayed concerning the truth, saying that the

resurrection is already passed, and they overthrow the faith of some. Nevertheless,

thus solid foundation of God stands.

Having this seal.

The Lord knows those who are his, and let everyone

who names the name of Christ depart from iniquity. But

in a great house there are not only vessels of

gold and silver, but also of wood and clay, some

for honor and some for dishonor. Therefore, if anyone cleanses

himself from the latter, he will be a vessel for honor,

sanctified and useful for the Master, prepared for every good work. Folks,

let's be vessels for honor. Let's be sanctified, set apart

for the holy things of the Lord, and let's be

useful for the Master, so that maybe one day someone

may call you, that's my hero, that's my Heirine. Amen, Well,

this is Don Noble. You can go to www dot

pureheart dot today listen to this podcast again. You can

certainly download the iHeartRadio app. Go to Pure Heart Ministries

podcast and listen twenty four to seven and you can

email me at down at pureheart dot today that's all

lowercase letters, all one, or Dawn at pureheart dot today.

And of course I would appreciate your help. Your financials

a port of this program, and you can send any amount,

big or small. We are appreciative of everything, so I'm

always grateful and thankful for your prayers. I certainly do

look forward, truly, I look forward to being with you

again next week. This is Don Nobles saying Shalom shalom,

Peace be unto you.