Hebrews chapter 11. Hebrews 11. The title of the message, FAITH
IS. FAITH IS. In the closing part
of chapter 10, verse 38, Paul wrote, Now the just shall
live by faith, but if any man draw back, my soul shall have
no pleasure in him. But then he says in verse 29,
But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition, but of them
that believe to the saving of the soul. But this verse, NOW
THE JUST SHALL LIVE BY FAITH, is written, he's quoting from
Habakkuk chapter 2 verse 4. This is written in the Old Testament
first, and then it's quoted again in Romans chapter 1 verse 17,
and then it's quoted again in Galatians 3 verse 11, and then
here in Hebrews 10 verse 38, And being quoted this many times
tells us how important this is. The just shall live by faith.
How important this matter of faith is. It's very important,
isn't it? You know the interesting thing
here when writing about faith, Paul reaches back to the Old
Testament. to show faith, to give an illustration
of faith. He reaches back to the Old Testament
to show that they were saved by faith and not by the works
of the law and the ceremonies which some of these Hebrews were
wanting to go back to. And he reaches back there in
that Old Testament and he shows them and us THAT ALL THOSE WHOM
GOD HAS SAVED WERE SAVED BY FAITH. THEY WERE SAVED BY FAITH. THE
VERY THING THAT SOMEONE WANTED TO GO BACK TO DID NOT SAVE ANY
OLD TESTAMENT SAINT, NOT ONE OF THEM. IN FACT, HE REACHES
BACK TO THE BEGINNING BEFORE THE GIVING OF THE LAW TO CAIN
AND ABEL. to show that the just have always lived by faith, all
the way back to the beginning, reaches all the way back to Abel,
before the law was ever given. The just shall live by faith.
After the law was given, the just shall live by faith. And
now, the just shall live by faith. And it'll be that way until time
shall be no more. The just shall live by faith.
Now, whatever we know and say about faith, must come from the
Word of God. It doesn't matter what I think
about faith. That doesn't matter, does it?
What does God's Word, what does His Word say about faith? Well,
here's a few things, a couple things, and we'll go on through
this in a little bit here in these first six verses, but first
thing is this. First thing I know about faith
is the gift of God. That's the first thing that came
to my mind when I began to think about this subject of faith. The first thought was, it's the
gift of God. Ephesians 2.8, for by grace are
you saved through faith, and that not of yourself. That faith
is not of yourselves. It's the gift of God. It's the
gift of God. Now a gift is something that's
given to you. It's not something you earn.
I believe that's called wages. The wages of sin is death. You earned it, if that's how
you end up. All those who end up perishing, they're just getting what they
deserve. They're getting what they earn. God's giving them
exactly what they earn. But the gift of God the Scripture
says is what? ETERNAL LIFE! It s a gift, it
s given to you, not something you earn, it s something that
s given to you. And how ELATED, EXCITED we ought
to be! It s a humble excitement, it
s an excitement that is tempered with humility. God s given us
faith because Paul wrote this in 2 Thessalonians Chapter 3,
verse 2, all men have not faith. Not everyone has faith. The Lord said, when the Son of
Man cometh, will he find faith on the earth? Henry said this once and I've
many things, nuggets, he just said and they just stayed with
me. He said he'll find it where he's given it. You'll find it
where he's given it. Faith's a gift of God. And then
listen, secondly, faith is the work of the Holy Spirit. It's
the work of the Holy Spirit. It's a gift and it's the work
of the Holy Spirit. Colossians 2.12. It says, We
are buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with
him through the faith OF THE OPERATION OF GOD. FAITH IS AN OPERATION OF GOD,
GOD THE HOLY SPIRIT, WHO OPERATES IN THE HEART AND THE SOUL OF
A MAN. AND HE WORKS FAITH. I KNOW NOT HOW I BELIEVED AND
WHY I HAD SUCH AN INTEREST, BUT ONE DAY I DID, BUT NOW I KNOW
IT'S THE WORK OF GOD. IT'S THE WORK OF GOD. SAVING FAITH IS NOT NATURAL TO
A LOST SINNER, IT'S NOT IN A LOST SINNER TO BELIEVE GOD, AND HERE'S
WHY. BECAUSE THE SCRIPTURE SAYS THE
CARNAL MIND, WHICH EVERY ONE OF US IS BORN WITH A CARNAL MIND,
A MIND OF THE FLESH, THE CARNAL MIND IT SAYS IS ENMITY AT WAR. against God. The word enmity
has the meaning of hostile. Our natural mind, every human
being, is hostile to God. Not the God of our imaginations.
You know, we can whip up one that we're not hostile to, but
the God of this Bible who is, and He is who He is, He's not
going to change. Our natural mind, and it's so
sad. This is what sin has done to us. This is the effect of
sin, is that it's made us hostile toward God. God feeds us every
day, doesn't He? The just and the unjust, it says
it rains on the just and the unjust, and the sun shines on
the just and the unjust. God feeds everybody every day.
Everybody breathes God's air. The murderer, HE BREATHES GOD'S
AIR! THE THIEF WHO BREAKS INTO THE
HOUSE AND HE'S RUNNING FOR HIS LIFE! HE'S RUNNING NOT TO GET
CAUGHT, HE'S BREATHING GOD'S AIR! And yet they're hostile to God.
They're hostile to God. Everybody's hostile to God until
God saves them. That's that Paul wrote this in
Romans 8, 7, Because the carnal mind is enmity against God, he
is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. God gave him a law and they said,
We'll keep it. No, you won't, you can't. You can't, it's not
subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. The carnal mind
will not be subject or submissive to the will of God. You know why we get upset when
things don't go our way? We're irritated with the will
of God. It's our will and God's will
that clashes. And we get disappointed, get
upset. Next time you get upset when something doesn't go your
way, you just mark it down. You're upset with the fact that
God's will and your will are clashing. Christ's will never
clashed. His will never clashed with the
Father. He said, NOT MY WILL! not that His will was any different,
but to show us how submissive He was to the will of God, even
to the death of the cross, even to the death of the cross. But
the carnal mind will not be submissive to God's will, it will not be
submissive to the way of God's salvation. Christ said, I'm the
way, I'm the only way, I'm the only way to God, there is no
other way. There is no other way. It doesn't like and does not
like to submit to the providence of God. Whatever comes in my
life throughout my whole life is of God. God has providentially
brought it into my life. And there's one thing I've learned
about providence. Everything is providential. You know how something happens,
you say, boy, that's providential. What is it? What is it? Everything is. Everything is
providential. And the natural mind will not
be submissive to the gospel. WHO HATH BELIEVED OUR REPORT,
AND TO WHOM IS THE ARM OF THE LORD REVEALED? The natural man
will not believe the report and he won't submit to it. A natural man will die and go
to hell before he'll believe God. He will. He will. And John, listen, in John 6,
28, 29, Then said they unto him, unto the Lord, What shall we
do that we might work the works of God? And Jesus answered and
said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him
whom he hath sent. This is God's work. Faith, he's
saying right here, faith is God's work. This is the work of God,
that you believe on him whom he hath sent. This is God's work. Now, verse one. That was my introduction. Faith, it says, Now faith is
the substance, it's the confidence over my margin. It's the ground
or confidence. It's the assurance of things
hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. What are the things
hoped for? Well, forgiveness. These things that are hoped for
are all spiritual. Righteousness, justification, to be justified, to be with Christ, to be absent from the body, to
be present with the Lord. I've never seen Jesus Christ,
but I believe He is. I believe that Jesus Christ is,
and He's seated at God's right hand as much as I believe you
are sitting where you're sitting. I believe that. Saving faith makes the unseen... Now listen, this faith here,
this is of God, this is a gift of God, this is the work of God,
and it makes the unseen seen. That's what it does. It makes
the future present. I believe there's going to be
a new world, don't you? There's going to be a new earth. I believe
that and it's just it makes and here's what faith does, it makes
that future of that new heaven, new earth present. It makes it
present. It lays hold on the promises
of God as realities. They are realities. The promises
of God are real to you. They're real and all that's been
said in the last 10 chapters is real to you. The New Covenant,
the priesthood of Christ, His blood, everything that's been
said up to this point is real to you. It's real. It's not real to the unbeliever.
to the unbeliever when they walk out the door it's gone, not to
you who believe. Saving FAITH is a SPIRITUAL EYES. I SEE, you see, I SEE. Lord, I see, I see these things. Now when I say see, I understand. Seeing is understanding in the
spiritual realm. You see by the Spirit and Word
of God the spiritual realm and you embrace these things. You
embrace the promises. You embrace the Lord Jesus Christ. You embrace Him. Peter, do you love me? He said,
Lord, you know all things, you know I love you. That's embracing
Christ. When you love Christ, you embrace
Him. And it's spiritually, it's spiritually. I like to think of it like this.
Faith gives substance, it gives reality to those saying, which
at one time were not real to me. And why are they real to
me? Because of that faith that God
has given to me. and it receives everything that's
of God, everything that's of God. Now faith does not give
them existence, they exist whether I believe or not, but it brings the reality of
them to me. In other words, faith enables
me to sip of the cup of blessings of future things in the present. Turn over to 1 Peter chapter
1. 1 Peter chapter 1, this kind of
gives us a little understanding of what he's saying. Verse 8, Whom having not seen,
I've never seen, Jesus Christ, you love. You love someone you've
never seen. But by faith, by the spiritual
eyes that God's given you, you see Him, don't you? You see Him. Though now you see Him not, yet
believing, you rejoice with joy unspeakable
and full of glory. See, that's a little taste of
heaven. This rejoice and joy and unspeakable,
it's unspeakable and it's full of glory, that's a little taste
of heaven right now. It's a little taste. We'll get
the full-blown taste in a little while. And I look at this congregation,
I mean from the youngest to the oldest, and it's just a little
while and we'll all be standing before God. I realized, and the Lord gives
this to me, I know this, and I tell you, God-given faith gives
this to me. You know, I was telling Madison,
she was talking to me here some time ago, and I think I already
told you, but I'll tell you again. But she was talking about, school and you know having to
go through some things and and uh what she was going to do and
i said i said you know i said life is in front of you you know
this earthly life i said it's all behind me now she said that's
sad she goes that's sad papa i said no it's not i know it's
not you know we're going through exodus and the children of israel
have just now gone through the red sea They've gone through
the Red Sea. They've come out on the other
side and are just getting ready to go through the wilderness.
This is her wilderness journey. She's just getting ready to go
through because I baptized her a few months ago. She's ready
to go through this wilderness. But for me, I feel like I'm and
for some of us here, we're standing on Jordan Bank, aren't we? The
wilderness, I've already been through it now, most of it anyway.
I've been through most of the wilderness. I feel like I'm standing
on Jordan's Bank looking across. Young believers like Matt, Matthew,
they're just now getting ready to go through this journey of
faith and this wilderness journey. They're getting ready to walk
through this journey. But now some of us have already
lived most of it, but we're standing on Jordan's Bank And we're looking
across. It's like you can see it, it's
real to you. Far more real to me now than it was 50 years ago.
Far more real. And that's where I'm at, and
that's where many of us are at, and that's what they're in 1
Peter. And I just read to you, you know, it makes, it brings
these things to reality. All of it to reality. And we
rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. I'm not depressed. She's like, that's sad, Papa.
I said, no, no, you don't. I hope by God's grace, I hope
by God's grace, you come to see what I see. I hope you do. God, Christ, the promises, They're
all enjoyed now. In a measure, they're all enjoyed
now. We have a foretaste of glory divine in a measure. And he says here, it's the evidence
of things not seen. Turn over to 2 Corinthians chapter
4. 2 Corinthians 4. Look in verse, let me look in
verse, verse 17. For our light affliction, which
is but for a moment, whatever that affliction is, Paul said
it s light. It don t seem light, but he says,
For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh
for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while
we look not at the things which are seen, WE ARE NOT LOOKING AT THE THINGS
WHICH ARE SEEN, IT IS NOT OUR LIFE, BUT AT THE THINGS WHICH
ARE NOT SEEN, FOR THE THINGS WHICH ARE SEEN ARE TEMPORAL. THE TRIAL IS TEMPORAL, THE PAIN
IS TEMPORAL, SO IS THE PLEASURE AND THE JOY IN THIS LIFE IS TEMPORAL. BUT THE THINGS WHICH ARE NOT
SEEN ARE ETERNAL. THAT IS WHAT WE ARE LOOKING AT,
THE THINGS THAT ARE NOT SEEN, THEY ARE ETERNAL. The evidence
of things not seen, this evidence here is the SOUL CONVICTION of
things not seen to be real. I am convinced these things are
real. I am convinced they are real.
Against the evil of this world and against the evil of my own
heart, the revelation that God has given us of Himself and in
His Word is TRUE! I tell you, this is the TRUTH!
If not, there is no God. If this is not true, there is
no God. You might as well just whip one up or do whatever you
want to do. It wouldn't matter. But this
is true, so it does matter. It does matter. The Bible is
the revelation of God. This is the Word of God. I AM
CONVINCED WITH STRONG CONVICTION THAT ALL THE BLESSINGS OF THE
NEW COVENANT IN CHRIST ARE MINE. I'M CONVINCED, THOUGH I DON'T
FEEL LIKE IT ALWAYS, I DON'T ALWAYS FEEL IT, BUT I'M CONVINCED
THAT CHRIST HAS PURGED ME FROM MY SINS. AND HE'S PURGED YOU,
YOU WHO BELIEVE, HE'S PURGED YOU FROM YOUR SINS. THEY'RE GONE. THEY'RE GONE. and they're not gonna raise up
against you ever again, they're gone. And all the blessings of
His covenant is mine, all that the head has, the body has. And
we are the body of Christ. And then faith, the faith that's
of God strengthens all other graces. If faith fuels hope, you know,
without faith, you don't have any hope, do you? Hope is a product
of faith. YOU BELIEVE THESE THINGS AND
BECAUSE OF THAT YOU HOPE, YOU HAVE A REAL EXPECTATION OF THESE
THINGS HAPPENING. GOD DOING WHAT HE SAID HE'D DO.
WHY? BECAUSE YOU BELIEVE GOD. YOU
BELIEVE GOD, THAT'S WHY. I CALL FAITH, LISTEN, I CALL
FAITH THE BULLDOZER GRACE. IT CLEARS THE WAY FOR ALL OTHER
GRACES TO TRAVEL ON. love, joy, peace, all of that
is because of FAITH. It's the bulldozer grace. It
clears the path for all these other ones to travel on. And
then FAITH is the evidence of SALVATION. How do I know I'm
saved? How do I know I'm saved? I BELIEVE GOD. Believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. I believe. Lord, I
believe. Help thou mine unbelief. I believe. I do. I believe God. Do you believe on Christ? Do
you have a real interest in the Lord Jesus Christ? Thomas Manton
wrote this on the evidence of faith. I put it in the bulletin.
I think I put a couple things in the bulletin that's in my
outline. But Thomas Manton wrote this,
I put copy because I couldn't remember at the time who wrote
it. I went back this morning and found it. But listen, do
eternal things move you as present things do? Do you endure trials denying
worldly gain for heavenly hope? Do you cherish God's promises
as your inheritance? Does your mind dwell often on
heavenly things? Are you weaned from the world?
Do you rest quietly in God's Word even without immediate fulfillment? When I read that, I can honestly
say, in a measure, I can identify with every one of these. I can
identify with every one of these. I think upon Christ every day. And I know this, every child
of God, the Holy Spirit brings Christ to your mind. It may just
be for a brief moment, but He'll come to your mind every day. Every day. That's the Spirit
of God doing that. And you rejoice in it. You rejoice
in it. I woke up again early this morning
And I was thinking upon this message, and upon Christ, and
upon faith, and that's with God. Now in verse
2, He gives us examples of faith. And He reaches back, as I said,
to the Old Testament. He's going to reach back to the
Old Testament as examples of faith. You see the Hebrews, some
of these Hebrews, were wanting to go back under the law. HE
DOESN'T GIVE THEM EXAMPLES OF THOSE WHO KEPT THE LAW, NONE
OF THEM DID. HE GIVES EXAMPLES OF THOSE WHO
WALKED BY FAITH. FOR BY IT, THAT IS FAITH, THE
ELDERS OBTAINED A GOOD REPORT. FROM WHO? GOD. HERE'S THE GOOD
REPORT, THAT THEY WERE RIGHTEOUS. LOT IS CALLED JUST LOT. It said he vexed his righteous
soul. That man went down, Abraham went down to Sodom and Gomorrah
and lived and raised his family. We don't hear one good thing
about Lot, but we know this. He was a child of God, he believed
God, and it says he was just. He was just. By what? By faith. The just shall live
by faith. We are justified, it says, by
faith. That is, we are justified by faith in Christ, not just
an act of faith, but the object of faith. By this faith that the just shall
live by, the elders received a good report. They were not
accepted by their works, their exploits, their heritage. They
were justified by grace through faith, the same way we are. It
has always been that way, always has. And now look at this in verse
three, understanding, understanding the word of God, understanding
the gospel, understanding how God saves sinners comes through
this God-given faith. Through faith we understand.
Have you ever heard anybody, and I've had people say this
to me, I don't understand. Well, if you believe God, you
would. People want to understand it first before they believe
God. No, you believe God. This is God's Word. Take God
at His Word and understanding will come. He'll give you understanding. Through faith we understand that
the worlds were framed by the Word of God, so that the things
which are seen were not made of things which do appear. It's
interesting here how faith starts with God as the Creator. You
know, if you really ever got the opportunity to witness to
someone, and especially someone just not religious, you know,
to the hilt, which would be hard to find, but the first place
to start is with God, the Creator. Look over in Acts 14, Jason read
this Thursday back in the study. Look over in Acts 14. Paul is preaching to some heathens. And God, through Paul, heals
a man. And they think Paul and Barnabas
are gods that have come down. They thank their gods that have
come down. They called one Jupiter, and I think the other Mercury. And they called Barnabas Jupiter,
and Paul Mercury, because he was the chief speaker there in
verse 12. And they started to do sacrifice to them. And Paul
says this, he stops them. Paul stops them. And Paul says
this, WHY DO YE THESE THINGS? WE ALSO ARE MEN OF LIKE PASSIONS
WITH YOU, AND PREACHING TO YOU THAT YOU SHOULD TURN FROM THESE
VANITIES UNTO THE LIVING GOD." And notice what he says, and
I went back through the Old Testament. I have some of them written down
here. We don't have time to go through
these, but many of the Old Testament prophets said the same thing
that Paul says here. HE SAID, IT TURNED FROM THESE
THINGS INTO THE LIVING GOD, WHICH MADE HEAVEN AND EARTH, THE SEA,
AND ALL THINGS THAT ARE THEREIN. Let's start right there. Let's
start with the Creator. This is where we get our responsibility.
God's our Creator. Here's where we get our responsibility.
It all belongs to Him. It all belongs to God. We are His, we are responsible
to Him. And God as the Creator is the
only Creator. He's the only Creator. But He
starts here with God as the Creator, and then He'll go into the Gospel.
But He's got to get their attention off all these gods, Jupiter,
and Mercurius, and Zeus, and you know, they had many gods. And he brings their focus down.
No, there's one God who created all this. Now let me tell you
about Him. I like the way they did that.
The prophets of old did that. I don't like this shock value. I got saved. Well, I'm sorry. Why don't we just say, well,
tell me about the one that saved you. And maybe we'll have an
opportunity to actually tell them about Christ. Maybe we'll have an opportunity
if we just say, well, tell me about this one that you claim
has saved you. And then take the Bible, like
Philip did, and preach unto them Jesus. Preach unto them the Lord Jesus
Christ. If we ever see us in them, we'll
be a lot more merciful the way we deal with them. If we ever
see us in them, sometimes we get too far down the road and
we forget about, we forget where we came from. We forget where
we came from. Through faith, we understand
that the world's were framed by the work of God, God did not take pre-existing
material and create anything. You see, we can't confuse or
mix evolution with creation. It's one or it's the other. It's not a mixture. It's not
a mixture. You know, God made a cow. And
you know that cow is still a cow? It still looks like a cow, that's
the way God made it. However God made it, that's the
way it is. Now animals and even people, we adapt to our environment. You know, you go up north, animals
up there, they got thicker fat, they got more fat because of
the cold. Down here, they got less, don't
need it. That's not evolution, that's
just adaptation. We just, we adapt to where God's
put us. But we never mix human logic
with the Word of God. God said, let there be light
in Genesis. And then He created the, He started
creating all these things. And we see, we have now. And
He created them out of nothing. He just spoke. He just spoke
and they come into being. And this God who spoke all these
things into existence is Jesus Christ. Because it tells us in
Colossians 1, all things were created by Him and for Him. Nothing is made that He didn't
make. and the Lord Jesus Christ is
that God in Genesis who created all things. He's that God. And then we see here the OBEDIENCE
OF FAITH and TRUE WORSHIP. There's no worship without faith,
you know that. God's not worshipped here this
morning by anyone apart from faith. WE BELIEVE EXACTLY WHAT
HE SAYS. WE BELIEVE THE GOSPEL. BY FAITH,
ABEL OFFERED UNTO GOD A MORE EXCELLENT SACRIFICE THAN CAIN,
BY WHICH HE OBTAINED WITNESS, HE WAS RIGHTEOUS, GOD TESTIFYING
OF HIS GIFTS, AND BY IT, HE BEING DEAD, YET SPEAKETH. HOW IS IT,
YOU KNOW, I READ THIS AND I THOUGHT, HOW IS IT ONE OFFERED THE PROPER
SACRIFICE AND THE OTHER ONE DIDN'T? BOTH GREW UP IN THE SAME HOME.
BOTH HAD THE SAME PARENTS. BORN WITH THE SAME NATURE, BOTH
HEARD THE SAME MESSAGE, AND YET ONE BELIEVED GOD AND
THE OTHER ONE DIDN'T. What do we attribute that to?
The grace and mercy of God. Why do you believe God and others
don't? There's others in this congregation
who's never confessed Christ and some probably never will.
Why? the grace of God that's all I
can say the grace of God and notice this I'm going to
let me point this out to you God did not keep Cain from believing
you know God doesn't keep any person here from believing In
fact, when Cain offered the fruit of the ground, the work of his
hands, God said in Genesis 4-7, He gives him space to repent.
He said, If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? Cain
was angry and God said, If you do well, if you offer the same
sacrifice in faith, you'll be accepted too. And he wouldn't
do it. He wouldn't do it. NOT A PERSON ON THIS EARTH WILL
BELIEVE GOD UNTIL GOD SAVES THEM, AND THEN THEY'LL BELIEVE, THEN
THEY'LL BELIEVE. And it's interesting how man
contends for his free will and when God gives it to him, he
says that's not fair. He says that's not fair. How
is it not fair? That's what you wanted. That's what you wanted. And then we see here the life
of faith, how it walks with God and triumphs over death. By faith
Enoch was translated that he should not see death and was
not found. He never came back home. He never found his body. He never came back home. God
took him to heaven. God took him to heaven. You go over in
Genesis, I don't have enough time, I've spent more time than
I was going to. Go over in Genesis 5, 21 through 24, it says Enoch
walked with God and he was not, for God took him. He had this
testimony, he pleased God. How did he please God? He believed
God, that's how. He believed God, he walked with
God by faith. You see, faith, this faith shapes how we live.
It shapes how we live. We either walk in the Spirit
with God or we walk in the flesh without God. It's one or the
other. It's one or the other. Faith and the world are contrary
one to the other. The walk of faith is never easy.
Walking with God is not easy. It never will be, not in this
life. Faith will always have to contend
with internal and external warfare constantly. But this faith that
God gives Listen, it overcomes the world and it is victorious
in the end. 1 John 5 verse 4, For whatsoever
is born of God overcometh the world. This is the victory that
overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh
the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God.
He believes God, believes on Christ. And then last of all,
BUT WITHOUT FAITH, WITHOUT THIS FAITH THAT HAS BEEN SPOKEN OF,
IT'S IMPOSSIBLE TO PLEASE HIM. WITHOUT IT, IT'S IMPOSSIBLE TO
PLEASE GOD. BUT HERE'S THE FLIP SIDE. WITH IT, IT'S POSSIBLE
TO PLEASE GOD. IT'S POSSIBLE TO PLEASE GOD.
IT'S POSSIBLE TO WALK IN A MANNER THAT'S PLEASING TO GOD BY FAITH. WITHOUT FAITH, WE WILL TRY TO
COME TO GOD LIKE KANE DID BY OUR MERITS. WITHOUT FAITH IS
TO BE WITHOUT CHRIST THE ONLY WAY TO GOD. WITHOUT FAITH IS
TO CALL GOD A LIAR. BUT WITH FAITH, WITH FAITH, IT'S
POSSIBLE TO PLEASE GOD. AND I'M GONNA CLOSE WITH THIS. WE ARE GIVEN TO MUST. HE THAT
COMETH TO GOD MUST BELIEVE THAT HE IS. That He exists, but that's not
just it. But that He is who He says He
is. God is who He says He is, not who we think He is. Who He
says He is. And God revealed Himself in this
book. We never, ever, ever have to guess who God is. We have
a complete book on who God is. He's given it to us. He that
cometh He that cometh to God, he must believe that God is who
He says He is. And here's the second one. He
must believe that God will fulfill every promise in Christ to those
who believe. You must believe! You MUST believe
that He is! He's a rewarder, in other words,
He will fulfill the promise that He has given in Christ. Lord, You said, He that cometh
to You, to you, you will in no wise cast out." I believe that. I come. Lord, I come because
you said, He that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. Lord,
I come. I believe that. I believe it. Faith is the gift of God. Faith
is the work of the Holy Spirit. It's spiritual. It's not carnal.
It's not of the flesh. It's of that new nature that
God creates righteousness and true holiness. Faith is the foundation
grace of worship. There's no worship in God apart
from faith and faith is the life of the believer and it triumphs
over death. It wins the victory over death. Faith is. All right.