"The man is mentally ill. No man could put a bridge across that."

Now notice this. All people, everything, men are knowed by their works. When the great Municipal Bridge was built in Sydney, Australia, when they sent around the world to get bridge builders, architects, and from... One across the peninsula at--at Sydney, Australia, to span over to South Sydney... The architects and all, came and dug up the soil and tested it. And all of them come to this conclusion: "It cannot be done." Said, "The whole bay is full of quicksand, and the soil will not hold together enough. It'll shift from place to place. Therefore, if the bridge would be built, it would be a dangerous thing to try to pass over it."

 

 And finally, there was a man, who was a man of vision, a bridge builder in England. He came over, and he looked at the sand. He--he surveyed it. He tested the soils. He sounded the water. He looked it all over first. Oh, I love that. He looked it all over first.
Jesus said, "A man buying a ground, or going to meet a army, first he sets down and counts the cost."
If every one of you here at the altar this morning would set there in your seats before you'd come to be anointed and would count what it means, it wouldn't be just going through a prayer line haphazardly; it would be going there with a firm confidence, that God had promised it, and God was able to keep His Word. [Matthew 13:44], [Luke 14:28]

 

 So this man tested the soils; he tested the--each bed in there that had the quicksand. And finally he went to the officials; he said, "I will build the bridge and it will be safe."
The bridge builders of America and different parts of the world only laughed and said, "The man is mentally ill. No man could put a bridge across that." Said, "Even if a chicken should walk the bridge that would be built, it would sink. The bridge cannot stand it. The vibrations of even the dog running across the bridge, which will vibrate the bridge..." Said, "It would shake the sands, and the bridge would go down. It could not be done."

 

 But this man was a man of vision. And he knew what he was talking about, for something down in him told him he could do it. God, give us men in the church like that.
Now, from all of the scientific research that it could not be done... Science proved that it could not be done, but this man had a vision he could do it. So he took the contract. Quickly he went to work. He went to testing the soils. He went to testing and sounding the depths of the quicksand bed. He tested every bolt. He tested every piece of--of wood, every piece of metal, every concrete. Everything had to be perfectly tested, because his--his great name, and his character, and his ability rested on whether that bridge stood or not.

 

 And if a man of this earth, by a vision, would be sure that everything was tested perfectly before he put it in the bridge because of his character, and because of his name, how much more did our blessed heavenly Father test every Word that was ever said, or wrote in the Bible. He tested every Word, every prophet. And every son that cometh to God must be tested. The material that goes in this great highway, every rock, every material, before it's placed into the--the Body of Christ has to be tried, chastened. Every son that cometh to God must first be tried, no exceptions, every one of them. Every prophet before he could write in that Bible, he was tested by the Holy Spirit. [I Corinthians 11:32]

 

 Just as he... the bridge builder, I'm sorry I forget his name; I knew it. Couple days ago I was reading the article how that he had everything tested. He got the best mechanics he could find. He got the best concrete men. He got the best that he could find to put together the best that he had.
Oh, my soul would cry, "Hallelujah to God," when I think that God puts in His Church the best that He can find. God takes His children and tests them with a acid test. Then He places them into the Body of Christ because they are tested. They believe. They've went through the trials. They've had the experience. They are witnesses of His, and know what they're talking about. Not just an intellectual conception, but they've been borned again of the precious Holy Spirit, and time-tested and tried, until their souls are set like flint towards Calvary.

 

 Yes, they are time-tested. They are witnesses of His power. And through that, God's building a bridge from earth to glory, that the wayfaring man may come on the highway, set down under the tree in the cool of the day by time-tested material, those who take God at His Word. No matter what the symptoms are, the circumstances, that doesn't stand in the way. God's got time-tested material as a witness, and He places it.
And this great bridge builder, when finally the architect stood along on the side, and said to the builder, many of the critics, "It'll never stand."
So have they said the Church will never rise. So have they said the days of miracles is past. So, have they said that old time religion cannot be enjoyed any more.

 

 But, oh, when this man placed all those materials together, he dug; he got blowers, and he blowed out those quicksand beds. He went on down, down, down for hundreds of feet beneath the water, until he blowed that shifting sands away, until he put this concrete anchored in the rock on the bottom of the sea. Oh, it was a price, yes. And anything that's worth having, has a price attached to it. How great this salvation, what a great price.
But he finally got down under the shifting sands. And God has taken Christians and tried them, and tried them, He had to brush them off, and brush them off, and brush them off till finally one of these days He comes down to the solid rock. Some men just takes this little wishy-washy of experience of shaking hands, and joining the church, and being sprinkled a few times, or baptized, or something. And he washes all the shifting sands back until he's anchored on the Rock, Christ Jesus. All devils of torment can't move him.

 

 The bridge builder knowed what he was doing. And when finally it was completed, some of them said, "It won't stand. It'll be dangerous for anything to cross it."
He got around a bunch of engineers and with railroads, and that day, when they passed from South Sydney going to North Sydney, across the span he put about eight big freight trains loaded down. And he put the mayor of the city in a car, and he got in the front of it, walking, packing the flag. And as the great army and the big--eight big steam engines loaded down, marched across that bridge with the builder taking the first place, going in front, she never even moved.

 

 And Jesus Christ, God's Son, Who's the Architect of the Church, come to this earth and laid down the foundations. When He met the devil, He was tested by the Word of God, and He said, "It is written, men shall not live by bread alone." When he took Him to the pinnacle of the temple, He said, "It is written." See the material He was putting in His Church? He took Him to the mountain and showed Him all the great programs He could have. He said, "It is written."
All the Word of God was time-tested. And He's the great Captain that's going before us with His own bloody coat waving. But to the redeemed bought by the Blood of Jesus Christ, has bought a Church by the Holy Spirit that's tested every bolt, and every person that's ever anchored in this great Church of the living God. It's a time-tested material, that does it. [Luke 4:4], [Matthew 4:4]

 

 And as He marches on, the great regime coming behind Him, and as the borned again Church of the living God, She don't move because we have received the Kingdom that cannot be moved. It's dug plumb to the solid Rock, that's Christ Jesus, being that she's...?... on. Then as He goes before us with His own bloody coat making the way, it's a sign of redemption.