If you take your Bibles and turn
with me to Hebrews chapter 11. Hebrews chapter 11. We're looking
at the first two verses this morning. And I've entitled this
message, The Hope and Evidence of Faith. What is the hope of
faith? What is the evidence of faith?
What is faith the evidence of? And so let's read these two verses
together and then I'm going to give you a context. Scripture says,
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence
of things not seen. For by it, what? Faith. By faith
the elders obtained a good report. I want to give you a background
about this because it's important to understand where the apostle
is coming from. He is writing these believers
who are in the midst of great affliction. These believers are
being pulled in every direction from Christ. Their religion that
they grew up under is trying to pull them from Christ. Their
family is trying to pull these Hebrews from Christ. the lust
of their flesh, the pride of life, all of these things and
afflictions that enter into these people, and they were being tempted
to leave Christ. And so Paul, in the previous
chapter, he gives them an exhortation. He said, forsake not the assembling
of yourself together, as the manner of some is, but exhorting
one another. And so much the more as you see
the day approaching. You see, He encourages them to
assemble and hear the gospel. Hear the gospel of God's grace. Hear what they had received already
by faith. To encourage them to what? Continue. Don't you need encouragement
to continue? Aren't you being pulled in every
direction? Tried in every way? And what
we do is assemble so that we might encourage one another to
what? continue in the faith, to continue
to believe on Christ. Because what is the opposite
of that? What is the antithesis of that? He tells them, He says, if we
sin willfully, if you go away willfully after you have received
knowledge, what remains? but a fearful looking to judgment. There is no other Savior. If you leave the faith, there's
nowhere to go. Nowhere but hell. And in verse 32, He gives them,
He says, look, that's those that go away, but here's a remedy
called to remember the former days. Remember your afflictions
before. Remember your trials before and
how God delivered you, how He kept you in the faith before. Remember the former days in which
after you were illuminated, endured a great fight of affliction. You remember? When you believed,
you endured a great fight of affliction. And He said in 34, this was your
result, you had compassion. You had mercy, you were gracious.
Remember that. You saw grace in Christ and it
made you what? Gracious. You saw forgiveness
and you forgave. This is what it was to walk by
faith. He said, don't cast that away. Don't cast that away, your
faith. Don't cast that away, your hope.
Don't cast that away. He said in verse 35, cast not
away therefore your confidence, your hope. which has great recompense
of reward. But what's the, now encouraged
in verse 38, now the just shall live how? How are we gonna, if
you are justified, how shall you live? You shall live by faith. That's how the just live. And
so as we gather together, we're encouraging you to walk by faith. We're encouraging you to live
by faith. Why? That's how the just live.
They live by faith. But, if any man draw back, what
happens? God says, my soul shall have
no pleasure. But here's the encouragement. You that are still here, here's
your encouragement. But we are not of them that draw
back to perdition, but of them that, what? Believe to the saving
of the soul. You see, now here's the springboard.
He says, faith is how we walk, faith is how we live, we are
saved by grace through faith, and now he then comes to the
definition of faith. He gives us this definition we
have before us. He says, now faith, this saving
faith, this faith by which you walk, it is what? It is the substance
of things hoped for. And so I'm going to ask this
question, what is the hope of faith? What is the hope of faith? Our hope is grounded in the covenant
of God's grace. of which Christ is the surety. Our hope, the hope of faith,
is the covenant of God's grace, that God the Father in grace
chose a people, that God the Son in grace redeemed us, God
the Holy Spirit in grace called us, and listen, God in grace
will keep us. What? In the faith. So then faith is what? It is
the foundation of all we hope for. It's the foundation of all
we hope for. I have confidence in peace with
God. I have confidence in redemption. I have confidence in justification. I have a confidence in my sanctification. And what's the grounds of that?
Faith, I believe. Faith is the grounds of our hope.
You can't hope for something you don't believe in. Can you
hope for something you don't believe in? You're not really
hoping for it, are you? So the Holy Spirit in this chapter gives
us a very clear understanding and instruction concerning this
grace of faith. Now, what I want you to see first
about this faith is this. Real, true faith unites us to
Christ. That's my hope. Isn't that the
hope I mean, you can know all you can know about the covenant.
But if you are not in union with Christ, you have no part of that
covenant. The scripture says all spiritual blessings in heavenly
places are found where? In Christ. So the only hope that
I can have to obtain any of this covenant of grace is that I am
in Christ. In Christ. And what faith does
is faith experimentally unites us to Christ. That's what it
does. It experimentally unites the
elect to Christ. Now, this is true. All of the
elect were in Christ before the foundation of the world. Scripture
just said that in all spiritual blessings and heavenly places
are in Christ according as He had chosen us. What? In Christ before
the foundation of the world. We were in Christ before the
foundation of the world. When Christ came into the world, we
were what? In Christ. He was our head. He
was our federal head. As Adam was our head, we were
in Adam. Even so, were we in Christ when He came and lived
a righteous life? We were in Christ when He died
for our sins. We were in Christ when He rose
again and seated on the heavenly throne of God. We were in Christ.
You read that in not only Ephesians 1, but Ephesians 2. Tells us
we were in Christ. But listen, we weren't born that
way. Experimentally, we were in union with one man, Adam. We were in union with one man,
Adam. Wherefore, as by one man's sin
entered the world, and death by sin, so death passed upon
all men, for all have sinned. But in the time appointed of
God, in the time appointed of God, He gave us a new nature. a new nature. Paul in Ephesians
4 and verse 24 says, put on the new man. You that are believers,
that's an exhortation for you and me. Put on the new man. Put
off the old man, mortify the deeds of the body, and put on
the new man. And then he describes this new man. He says this new
man is what? Created. Isn't that wonderful? Something that wasn't there,
is now there, created after God in true holiness. And so then
now we are a people of two natures. You are a people of two natures.
If you believe in Christ, you are a people of two natures.
The old nature of flesh and sin is still that. It is an old nature
of flesh and sin. It must be mortified, it must
be put off, it must be warred with. But praise God, we have
a new man by which we can do those things. A new nature. A new nature that is holy and
cannot sin. It is by this new heart, listen,
faith comes. You have faith? You believe on
the Son of God, you know why? You have a new nature. That's
not natural. It's not natural to believe on
Christ. It's supernatural. You have a new nature by which
you believe. And by that we may ascertain
this. We are experimentally really
in union with Christ. So much so that he is head and
we are the body. That's how Paul describes it.
You can't separate the head from the body. It's in union with
him. So faith, what faith does, it
experimentally puts us in union with Him. It proves something,
that I'm in union with Him. We are one with Christ. And what's the proof of this
faith and union? Listen, it never draws back. You know, I don't really have
to worry about putting on my head every day. I may miss a
lot of things, but I don't have to worry about that. It's always
there. And so it is with one who is
in union with Christ. It's always there. Therefore,
if we have true faith, it is this. It will never draw back. It will never go away. That's
the evidence of true faith, is that it never turns back. If we have and do believe on
Christ, we have this assurance that we shall persevere. We shall
persevere. Now, this is why we meet together,
isn't it? To encourage you in this, because everything else
is pulling you away from it. And faith stands in opposition
to everything else. Everything you think, everything
you feel, everything men say, faith stands in opposition. It
says, no, no. I believe Christ. I believe this. But I'm in union with Christ,
and I know this, that there is nothing that shall separate me
from the love of God that's in Christ Jesus. That's what faith
says. That's what faith believes. That's
what faith hopes in. I have confidence in that. And so then, rather than these
afflictions drawing us away, what do they do? They draw us
to Him. They increase our faith. And believe me, at the beginning
of afflictions, it doesn't feel that way. It's like your faith
is falling off. It feels like you're going away
and there's nothing anyone can do. But if it's true faith, God never
lets it die. I love that illustration in Pilgrim's
Progress of the fire in the wall. One man is on one side of the
fire and he's throwing water on the fire. And the fire, it
doesn't go out. It just, matter of fact, he throws
water on it, the fire increases. And it's a miracle. He don't
know what's happening. He said, come on the other side
of the wall. And what do you got? You got a man pouring oil
inside there. That's the Spirit of God pouring
oil into the heart. And Satan trying to pour it out.
And the more water he puts on it, the more it increases. So these afflictions don't draw
us away from Christ. So then, during afflictions,
what does Paul say that we should do? Go to Colossians. Go to Colossians
chapter 2. Go to Colossians chapter 2 and look
at verse 6. in the midst of our trials, having
faith, being united to Christ, which is our hope. That's my
hope, because I can't have any of this covenant without being
in union with Him. And if I'm in union with Him,
how do I know faith? And faith always endures, so
how then am I to endure? Look what Paul says in verse
6. As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk
in Him. During the afflictions, walking
in afflictions, walking in trials, walking in difficulties. How
are we to do this? The same way you received Him.
How? By faith. You received Him by
faith, that's how you walk in Him. By faith. And he says rooted and built
up. Rooted and built up. Because men and devils and self
are always trying to remove us, we need to be rooted. Faith roots down when the trials
are heaviest. Faith is built up as a wall,
as a fortress against afflictions and trials and difficulties.
How? It's rooted and built up in him
as you have been taught. That's how we root down. We root
down in faith, believing what Christ said. Believing his word. We are rooted in his gospel.
Why do we have to be rooted? Why do we have to be built up
in the faith? Because he said this, beware. Beware lest any
man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, the traditions
of man. after the rudiments of the world
and not after Christ. That includes heathen religions,
this includes worldly wisdom of man. I can't tell you how
many times this week or this past couple of months, I've been
talking to some men and they say, well, don't you realize
what you believe is totally opposite of whatever? I said, absolutely. But it's not opposite of what
God Faith roots down in what God
says. I don't care what man says. If
it's in opposition to God, faith grabs hold of what God says. So we're not deceived and we're
not moved and we're not tossed about. We must be rooted in this
faith because afflictions abound. Afflictions abound. Thus we are called to live by
faith in Christ continually. reverting back to the law, never
reverting back to the pleasures of this world and the vanity
of religious ceremonies that are seen and felt. Now look back
at your text, look back at your text and see that the very nature
of faith and how it is linked to the covenant of grace. Remember,
we are partakers. If we have believed on Christ,
we are partakers of this divine covenant. We are chosen of the
Father, redeemed of the Son, called to the Spirit, and have
hope to receive all the promises of God. Now, faith hopes in something. What does it hope? It hopes to
receive the promises. It hopes to receive the promises.
Paul said in Romans 5, verse 1 and 2, he said, we have access
by what? Faith. into this grace wherein
we stand, our standing, my standing before God is justified. How
do I have access to that? By faith I have access to that
grace wherein I stand. And rejoice in hope of the glory
of God. Our text gives us not only the
definition of faith, but it also links faith with the things that
are not tangible, but invisible. And hope are linked to invisible
things. Invisible things. I've told you
this many times, and it's important to know this. Hope is not a wish.
When I say hope for something, please, I know that comes into
our minds. We've been taught that as kids. You know, gee,
I hope something. Our language is wrong. Because hope is a confidence. It's a rock-solid confidence
of something. It is like one sitting on the
edge of their seat anticipating it to happen, knowing it's going
to happen. That's what hope is. But our hope is in things not
seen. Our faith is in things that are
not seen. Isn't this what Paul said in
Romans 8, 24? He says we are saved by hope.
But hope that is seen is what? Not hope. So if you see it, it's
not hope. He said, for what a man seeth,
why does he yet hope for it? If you've got it, why are you
hoping for it? You already have it. But if we hope for that which
is seen not, we do with patience, faith, wait for it. By faith,
we wait for it. Remember the Old Covenant. Remember
that Old Covenant? It was visual, wasn't it? The
sights, The sounds, the smells, all of it was visible. I picture
that tabernacle and the beautiful thread. And I've never seen a
gold thread. I don't think I've ever seen
anybody ever seen anybody wear gold, you know, clothes. But
that gold threads inside of this tabernacle, beautiful. Picturesque
thing. But we know why it was that way,
because when Christ would come, we should we should see by those
vivid pictures what he was going to accomplish. His death, His
offering, His sacrifice, He being the tabernacle, God tabernacling
among us. All of that pictured Him. And
when He came and fulfilled it, what happened to that visual?
It was done away. Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness to everyone that what? Believe in. And who
do we believe in? We believe in a person we have
not seen. We hope in a person that we've
not yet touched. I love a person that I've not
yet seen. You know, that law had high priests,
didn't it? And they could actually go up
to that high priest and shake his hand. We have a high priest, Paul said,
that's passed into the heavens. sitting on the throne of God,
ever living to make intercession for us. So my faith is in what?
It's in someone I haven't seen. It's in a work I haven't seen.
I didn't see Christ die, did you? I didn't see Him rise from
the dead. I have witnesses, there are witnesses
that saw that, but I didn't. But I tell you this, true faith
lays hold of it as though you did. It's more sure than if I
actually saw it myself. Faith lays hold of those things
that are not seen. In this religious world, don't
they hang on to things that are seen and felt? Isn't their religion
centered around feelings and emotions and pomp and circumstance,
beautiful buildings and cathedrals? Why? That's their hope. Their hope is in something they
see. True faith hopes in something it doesn't see. It has not yet
fully realized. You see, my faith is in an invisible,
immutable God. A sovereign God. My hope is resting
this today in a sovereign God. What good is a God if He's not
sovereign? My God is sovereign, and my hope rests in that, don't
you? He said this, from ancient times to things that were not
yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all
My pleasure. Now that's where my hope rests,
in a God I've not seen, who's sovereign. And what is His purpose? What is His will? His will is
to save His people. That's His will. Matter of fact,
if you, Hebrews chapter 6, Hebrews chapter 6, I think it's verse
17, right? Let's see. Yeah, wherein God,
sovereign God, willing more abundantly to show to the heirs of promise
the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath that
by two immutable things, which is impossible for God to lie,
that we might have a strong consolation who have fled for refuge to lay
hold on the hope set before us. You laid hold on Christ? That
hope? set before you? God says this,
I'm going to give you something that's going to comfort you.
I swear. I swear you'll be saved. If you've
laid hold of Him, I swear it. He made an oath. Did He have
to make an oath? He can't lie anyway. Why would
He make an oath? Because you and I are weak. And
we need to hear it. that God swore by Himself. When
He can swear by none greater, what does He do? He swore by
Himself. He doesn't swear. I swear to save you. If you fled
to my Son, you listen. I swear by myself, I'll save
you. Now, have I seen that salvation?
I tell you, there's very little we've experienced in this salvation. I have peace with God. Have you
really experienced peace with God yet? Do you really know that you have
peace with God? How much of that have you experienced?
Forgiveness of sin. How much of that have you experienced?
You have it. I tell you this, it's not seen.
Go look in the mirror. What do you see? Sin. What do I have? Forgiveness. I don't yet see it, but how do
I lay hold of faith? Faith. And faith has confidence
in it. I have hope. Why? Because I have
an immutable God swearing it so. Therefore, the earthly feel-good
worship and beautiful stuff, that's irrelevant. You know,
we like to have feelings. We want God to move on us so
that we really pour out our love to Him. But one thing about it
is we don't trust in that. You know you worship God without
tears? You worship God without feeling at times. Sometimes faith
is just cold and hard, but it's faith. We lay hold. Sometimes, God, I can't feel
anything. But I know this. You're my hope. You're all of God. And so, therefore, Paul says
this, he says, set your affection on what? Things above, where
Christ sits. I ain't seen Christ, but that's
where my hope is. That's where my hope is. It's
where Christ sits. And because I can see him by
faith, then I set my affection on him. Peter said this, whom
having not seen, you what? Yeah. And though you see him
not yet, what? Believing you rejoice with joy
unspeakable and full of glory. So then without faith, we cannot
rejoice in unseen things. We must believe. Listen, a man could have hope.
A man could say, I have hope of heaven. I expect to be accepted
of God, but listen, If you don't have faith, your hope is empty.
Wishful thinking, isn't it? If you don't have faith in Christ,
you can wish all you want. You can hope all you want to.
You see how faith and hope are linked together? You can't have
one without the other. You can't have hope of heaven
without faith. You can't have faith without hope. They come together. And so then, it is by faith We
are made to see the unseen realities, the spiritual realities. Faith
is the eyesight and discernment of the soul. And recall your
own experience of grace. When God came to you, you didn't
know your condition. You didn't know your need. But
when God came, He opened your eyes to see your sin. You were a wicked, vile sinner
long before you saw it. But by grace, you were able to
see it. You were able to see it. But
that's not all you saw, was it? I'm glad that God didn't stop
there. I'll tell you this, I've known men that God's exposed
their sin and that's all they've got. What a terrible condition
to know you're a sinner and have not fled to Christ. When God
showed us our sin, what did we do? By faith we fled. It's an
urgent matter, wasn't it? When you saw your sin and the
holiness of God, it was an urgent matter. It was like that man
that fled to the city of refuge. God said, don't pack anything.
Don't go back and try to apologize to anybody. He said, you go run. Run, flee to the city of refuge.
And it was only there that he found safety. And so it is with
us in faith. We were never going to be content
until we are in Christ. We were never content until we
come to Christ. And when we came to Christ, we
trusted Him. You know, faith trusts Christ. Faith trusts Christ above everything
else. We trust Christ's blood and righteousness. Paul described it very well.
God commanded the light to shine out of darkness, to shine in
our hearts, to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory
of God in the face of Jesus Christ. And we, by true faith, fled to
Him as our Savior alone. And listen to this. True faith
cannot go to anyone else. True faith has no place else
to go. Isn't that what the disciples found out? He had this big following. In John chapter 6, he preaches
a message of sovereign grace. And then at the end of John 6,
they're all gone except the 12. And Jesus turns around to the
12 and says, well, you go away also. And they said what? To whom shall we go? Faith realizes
there's no place else to go. There's no one else to turn to.
Faith trusts Christ completely. Faith surrenders to Christ absolutely,
trusting only in His blood, His righteousness, and having no
confidence in the flesh. So where's your hope? Is it in
you or outside of you? My hope is outside of me. Completely
outside of me. It's in Him. whom I've not seen. He is my hope. He is the object
of our faith. Now, let me talk a little bit
about the evidence of faith. Faith is a substance of faith.
What? Hope for the evidence of things not seen. Now, faith, if it is true faith,
has marks. There will be marks by which
we can discern true faith. Now, is it not easy to say, I
believe? Cannot everybody say that? Well,
I believe. Yeah, but is your faith God-given
faith? Is it genuine faith? I know this, true faith loves
a brethren. Isn't that right? True faith,
love the brethren. Jesus gave us that commandment. He said,
love one another. How? As I have loved you. Now faith,
love for the brethren is a true mark of faith. Is a true mark
of one who is saved by the grace of God. Good works. Scripture says in, I won't misquote
it because my mind just slipped in that. Probably quoted a thousand
times. I'm just going to read it. Ephesians 2, it says, For by
grace you are saved through faith, and that not of yourself, it
is a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. For
we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus. Listen, unto
good works. True faith truly works. It's
not idle. It obeys. It believes God. So when the enemy comes in and
accuses us, my own heart condemns me and providence stands against
me, I feel my sin and my guilt, the only comfort then is this,
do I have true faith? If I have true faith, then that
gives me great comfort. But I want you to know this,
that your love for the brethren and your good works are never
to be trusted in. This is one thing about faith
that is often confusing, is that a lot of times we have faith
in our face. Faith is not in our faith. It's
not in our works. Those are marks. We have faith.
We do good works. We do love the brethren, but
do we trust in any of that? No. Faith has one object. Christ. Do I believe on the Son
of God? Now, if you do believe on the
Son of God, you will love and you will do good works. But do
we put any confidence in those things? No. Faith looks only
to Christ. And I want you to know this,
that faith is the only evidence of your salvation. Faith is the evidence of things
not seen. It's the evidence. This gives me comfort and causes
me to rejoice. Do you believe on the Son of
God? This is evidence enough. Go to a couple of places with
me and see. John 3. John 3. Verse 16. For God so loved the
world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth
in Him... What? Should not perish, but
have everlasting life. Notice He didn't say whosoever
shall love the brethren. Whosoever shall do good works.
No, those things will come by faith, but this is it. This is
the evidence that you won't perish. They believe on the Son of God. Look at verse 36. He that believeth
on the Son hath what? Everlasting life. And he that
believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God
abideth on him. See the necessity of faith here?
Necessity of faith. You must believe. And get this, no one's going
to believe for you. You must believe. You must believe. This is why
we beseech sinners to believe. Paul says, I beseech you, I beg
you, in Christ's name, be you reconciled to God. Be you reconciled
to God. How? Through faith, believing.
Trusting in Christ. What are you to believe? Believe
what God said about His Son. John said, this is the record
that we have. Believe the record. Believe the
Word of God. God says, I sent My Son and He
has accomplished redemption. Believe on Him. Trust in Him. He alone pleased God. He alone
satisfied the justice of God for sin. He alone is risen from
the dead and seated at the right hand of the Father. Now listen,
I know God has to open the eyes to do this. I understand that.
But it's my prayer that he'll do that. That he'll open your
eyes even now that you might be saved. How? Through faith. And faith does what? Faith hopes
in Christ. Faith trusts in Christ. How does this faith come? Well,
we know this faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.
This is why we preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ to you, is because
you must, if you are to believe, it will be by this means. This
is the means God chose. You that are today, if you believe,
and what I'm saying resonates with you, if you identify with
it, this gives you comfort, this gives you peace, this gives you
joy, Say, hey, that's me. I have that. I believe. I believe
that. That gives you comfort. It also does something to the
dead. God uses it to give them life. Faith comes by hearing
and hearing by the word of God. So we preach the word of God
for two reasons to comfort the elect and that God might by grace
save his people. And I want you to know there's
some other thing, but one other thing about faith here is this. Faith
will be tried. If you have faith, it will be
tested. Not for God's benefit, but for
yours. We are very weak people. Our faith is very small. To our shame, we have the We
have the full account of God's Word, and I can't even compare
with some of the saints that had gone before me that had so
small a portion. Our faith is weak, and we need
to be strengthened in our faith. And what does God use for that?
The trial of your faith. Peter says, "...the trial of
your faith being much more precious than gold, that perisheth though
it be tried by fire, it shall be found." to the praise and
the glory of Jesus Christ. Why? Because it's God-given faith.
It's going to endure the trial. It must be tested. It must be
tried. And once it is tried and proven,
are we not more joyful? Are we not rejoice more, sing
more, praise Him more? Yes. That's what it's for. Newton, he wrote that poem, "'Tis
a point I long to know." Often it causes anxious thoughts. Do
I love the Lord or no? Am I His or am I not? When I turn my eyes within, all
is vain and wild, filled with unbelief and fear. Can I deem
myself a child? His friend wrote an answer to
that poem. He said, what is this point you
long to know me? Thinks I hear you say it is this. I want to
know if I am born of God, an heir of eternal bliss. Is this
point you long to know? The point is settled in my view.
For if you want the love of God, prove that He first loved you. You desire the things hoped for?
Those things not seen? You do because you have faith.
You want them because you believe them. If you didn't believe them, you
sure wouldn't want them. And you sure wouldn't sacrifice
everything for them. I'm going to close with this
last thing. True faith unites us to Christ. and true faith hopes in those
things that we haven't seen. True faith is tried and tested
and proven, but true faith always obeys. Look at that second verse
in your text. This is the proof that true faith,
this is the evidence of true faith. Faith is the evidence
of our salvation. What's the evidence of faith
for by it? By faith, the elders obtained a good report. Faith in Christ endures, is evidence
of salvation, but the mark of faith is this, that they obey. Verse 2, Paul begins to show
us that those who went before us were saved in the same way
we are. Isn't that amazing? Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses,
They were all saved the same way we are, by faith. Only they look forward and we
look back. They then had a small portion
of Scripture and we now have the full revelation of Scripture. He said, for by faith the elders
obtained a good report. These men were justified and
accepted in Christ through faith in Him, and not because of their
works, but the apostle will show that these men obtained a good
report by their obedience of faith, by their continuance in
faith. In the end of this chapter, he
said these all died in what? Faith. They died in faith. In other words, we are sure that
they were saved even because their faith was manifest by their
obedience and endurance. James said this, show me your
faith without your works. Can you do that? Can you show
that negative? You're trying to show something
that isn't there. Show me your faith without your
works. You don't have any works, so
what are you going to show? Nothing. But I'll show you my faith by
my works. I like this, in Acts chapter
11, verse 22 and 23, the scripture says, Barnabas saw the grace
of God. How'd he do that? How'd he see
the grace of God? Well, I see the grace of God
in you. When I see you, I see your faith,
I see it act, what do I do? That's the grace of God. You
believe on Christ, you endure. What else is it but the grace
of God? And thus this faith As it was seen in the lives of these
elders, even so, it can, it will, and it must be seen in our obedience
to Christ. There are so many in Scripture
who were pretenders, weren't there? Judas. Ananias and Sapphira. Simon Maggots. Our Lord even said, remember
Lot's wife. These people had a profession
of faith. Yet, how do we know that it was
only a profession? Disobedience. They denied Christ. They went away. But all who are chosen of God,
redeemed of Christ and called to the Spirit, these, like the
elders of old, we shall live by faith constantly, daily. I like that. It's been told me
this. It's really good for me to keep
this in mind. Faith in Scripture is always in present tense. Faith ten minutes ago and faith
ten minutes from now will not help me. I need faith now. I need to believe now. And now,
and now, that's how we live. So when Christ says to do something,
why do we obey that? Well, because we believe Him.
We obey because we believe Him. We don't obey to be saved. We
obey because we are saved. I beseech you, therefore, brethren,
because of the mercies of God that you what? Present your bodies
a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto the God which
is your reasonable service. Isn't it reasonable just to give
everything? It is if you have faith. And so now then you should examine
yourself. Do I believe? on the Son of God. What is my
hope? Is my hope in me? Is my hope
to receive the things of this life? Happiness in this world? Is that my hope? Well, I just
want to be happy. If that's your hope, that's not
faith. Faith hopes in those things that
are unseen. My happiness rests in Christ.
My joy rests in Christ. Do you have that For you do if you believe. You can have confidence if you
believe on the Son of God. Listen, you shall be saved. An immutable God swore it so.
I pray God will bless this to us. Our Father, I pray you'd
bless the message according to your mercy. Dismiss us with your
blessings. Cause this to grow in our hearts
and give us comfort and joy that is only found in our blessed
Redeemer. I ask you to do this in Jesus' name. Amen.