If you would, open your Bibles
with me to Hebrews chapter 11. Titled the message this morning,
Now Faith Is. Let me give you a word from your
brethren at Hurricane Road Grace Church. You all have been in
our prayers constantly. Your pastor, his dear family,
these children, your grandchildren, and this congregation. This is
a hard time, and I assure you, those of your brethren who you've
not beheld their face, they're praying for you. You're in a
heart, and you will continue to be. All right, I've titled
the message this morning, Now Faith Is. Let me give you, just
kind of show you the connection. I don't know where Darwin was
before he was in Ashland, but I knew him in Ashland. And he
came up to preach our conference last year. He came over to the
house for dinner, and we took a walk around our old neighborhood.
And he said, we're just walking around. He just makes this offhand
comment. Yeah, right there is where Kathy and I got married,
just around the corner from our house. So kind of a small world
to go way back. All right. Now, faith. is one of the most important
subjects that we can study in the Word of God, because we cannot
be saved without it. We can't know God without it.
Part of our text this morning says, without faith, it's impossible
to please God. The just should live by faith.
He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life, and he
that believeth not the Son He that does not believe him, has
no faith in the Son, shall not see life, but the wrath of God
abideth on him. Now, when I say faith, I don't
mean our creed or our version of religion. You know, people
ask, what faith are you? What they mean is, what's your
brand of religion? What is it that you like? Now,
hold your place here. Look at 2 Timothy chapter one.
That's not what faith is at all. Faith. All has to do with a person,
just like all of the gospel. Faith all has to do with a person,
the Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Timothy 1, verse 12. For the witch cause, I also suffer
these things. Nevertheless, I'm not ashamed,
for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he's able
to keep that which I've committed unto him against that day. Now this is a mighty good definition
of faith, isn't it? And it all has to do with the
person. I know whom I have believed. It's not what I believed. I know
whom I have believed, the Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, come
into flesh. Faith has confidence in Christ. I'm confident he's able. I'm
confident I'm not. I'm confident he is able. And
faith is committed to Christ. He is able to keep that which
I've committed unto him against that day. Believer, what have
you committed to him? Absolutely everything, haven't
you? That's faith's commitment. And all of God's elect, no matter
where you find them, have this faith in Christ, because God
gives it to them. It's a gift of God he gives to
his people. The apostle Paul called it the
faith of God's elect. It's the faith God gives all
of his people. I want to, as briefly as I can this morning,
give you eight marks. of faith in Christ, this is saving
faith. Number one, here's faith's definition,
Hebrews 11 verse one. Now faith is the substance of
things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen, for by it
the elders obtained a good report. That's how they were accepted,
they had a good report by faith. Now this word substance here
means the ground or the confidence of. The ground, the reason for
the believer's faith is the Lord Jesus Christ. We can believe
him. We should be able to believe
him. He's the reason for all. Who
he is is the ground, the reason of our faith. And faith is the
evidence of things that we have not yet seen, but things we hope
for, things we expect even though we've never seen them. Now what
are these things the writer's talking about, things not seen?
Well, God's election of a people. How can I know that I'm elect
of God? How can I know that God chose
me unto salvation? There's only one way. It's faith
in Christ. Do you believe God? Do you believe
Christ? That's the evidence that God
elected you. I tell you what, and I thought about this before
I wrote this down, make sure this is a true statement, and
it is. By God's grace, it is. I would rather have faith in
Christ than to be able to go open that great scroll and find
my name written in the Lamb's Book of Life. I'd rather have
faith in Christ, because it's more certain. How about the new birth? That's
something I've never seen. I can't see a new man in me,
can you? Well, how can I know I've been born again? How about
heaven? How can I know that there's a
place called heaven? And more importantly, how can
I know there's a place there for me? I've never seen it, have
you? Never talked to anybody that
has. How about the resurrection? We went out yesterday, and I
don't, for the believer, I don't think of those cemeteries as
a place of burial. That place is a place of resurrection
one day. One day, that's a place of resurrection. How can I know
that's so? I've never talked to anybody
that's been raised from the dead, have you? One way I know those things, faith.
Faith in Christ. How can I know that a man named
Jesus of Nazareth lived and died on a cross? And more importantly,
how can I know that he lived and he died for me? Can I know
that? Yes, you can. It's by faith. And this hope is an expectation. It's not like, well, I hope it
don't rain today. But I don't know if it will or
not. I hope, and that's not what we're talking about. This hope
is an expectation. Is it presumptuous? Is it wrong
for the believer to expect the ultimate salvation of my soul.
Is it wrong to expect that? Is it wrong for the believer
to expect eternity with the Lord Jesus Christ? Not if I have faith
in Christ, it's not. It's not. We ought to expect
it. That's faith's definition. Now here's faith's foundation.
Secondly, it's the word of God. Verse three. 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. Now why is it that we believe what we believe? We
are talking this weekend about trusting the Lord, about salvation.
Young Clara, why do you believe what you believe? It's not because
your mama told you. It's not because your papa told
you. It's the word of God. Somebody preached, somebody dared
preach the word of God and God gave faith. Everything we believe
is because this book says it. How do we know that God spoke
this world into existence in six days? How do we know God
didn't take things that are already out floating around out there
in space and put them together and make the world? How do we
know that? How do we know that there was absolutely nothing
and God spoke and the sun appeared? God spoke and the earth appeared,
the waters drew. How do we know those things?
How do we know all this didn't slowly evolve from some sort
of primordial ooze over billions of years and now it's what it
is today? How do we know God spoke it into existence? I tell
you, the only way you can possibly believe such a thing is the Word
of God. The Word of God says it, then it's so, isn't it? Well,
how do we know that God chose a people to save? They didn't
choose God, but God chose them. How do you know that? How do
you know Almighty God saves sinners? You don't have to be good enough
to be saved, you gotta be bad enough. How do we know God saves
sinners and not good people? How do we know that though our
sin be as scarlet, the blood of Christ washes them white as
snow? How do you know that? How do we know that the Holy
Spirit comes? He uses this Word of God as a
seed to give life to God's people in the new birth. And there's
a new spiritual man born that never existed before. And God
spoke it into existence just like he did the creation. How
do we know that? Because the Word of God says so. That's right. As far as who God is and who
we are, as far as the salvation of our souls is concerned, The
only thing faith believes is what's recorded in God's word.
It's not logic. It's not why I see this and this.
I'm trying to put two and two together and get four or get
five or whatever. No, faith believes what's written
in God's word, even when it doesn't make sense to my natural mind.
If it makes sense to our natural mind, it's not believed by faith,
is it? Faith believes what doesn't make sense to our natural mind.
Even though I don't understand it, I don't understand how can
that be so? If it's written in the word of
God, we believe it. I'll give you an example. God says that
I am righteous. His son has made me righteous.
But Marvin, I look at myself, all I see is sin. I don't see
any righteousness. Then how can I believe I'm righteous? Because the word of God says
so. That's all I need. Now you apply that to everything
you read in this book, and you can't take it too far. Just apply
it to everything you read in this book. Now I'm gonna give
you another illustration. Are you a sinner? Now I'm not
talking about somebody that does something wrong every once in
a while, you know, but I mean, are you a sinner? Are you nothing
but sin? Can you do or think or say nothing
but sin? Well, you know God's Word says
you are. The only way you know that is you believe in God's
Word, because otherwise our mama tells us what good boy we are,
we get mistaken. God's Word says you're a sinner.
You know what else God's Word, He didn't leave us in despair.
He didn't just say you're a sinner and leave it there and leave
us in despair, did He? You know what else God's Word says? The Master said
it in His Word, if you're a sinner, come unto Me. I'll save you. Are your sins great? Come to
me, I'll forgive him. Then come. Right where you sit,
you come to Christ, believing he'll do what he said he'll do,
that he'll save your soul. And you know why? Eventually,
sinners come to Christ. You know why? God's word tells
them to come. And face it, I believe that.
I'm coming to him for salvation, because he said he'd save me. All right, here's the third thing,
it's faith sacrifice. Faith just trusts one sacrifice,
and it's the sacrifice of Christ. Verse four, by faith Abel offered
unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained
witness that he was righteous, God testifying to his gifts,
and by it he being dead yet speaketh. Now God can only be worshiped
with a blood sacrifice. There's got to be a sacrifice. That was true from the time Adam
left the garden, was it? God told Adam, you can't come
in this garden anymore, thrusting you out of my presence. But God
didn't send Adam out there in those fig leaves he tried to
make up, did he? No, he killed an animal. And
he clothed Adam and Eve. And God's to be worshipped with
the sacrifice. And Adam taught his sons that.
And one day, Adam's two sons, they're grown men, they're not
boys, they're grown men, heads of their own households, and
they come to worship God, and they both, both those boys, brought
a sacrifice. Now Cain, evidently, was a farmer,
and he brought the best fruits and vegetables he had. I mean,
can you imagine what the earth produced at that time? I mean,
the tomatoes, and the beans, and the corn, and the watermelon,
the things that he brought were big and colorful and beautiful. He didn't bring any bruised produce
to the Lord, but the Lord did not respect his sacrifice. And you know why? Because those
fruits and vegetables are pictures of us bringing our works to God. Cain did. I'm just sure of this. Cain brought the very best that
he had, and it wasn't good enough. It wasn't good enough. That ground,
the fruits and vegetables he brought grew from the ground
God cursed because of sin. God's not gonna accept that.
And that's our works. The very best works that we can
produce come from a sinful, cursed flesh. Well, a holy God will
never accept those, those works. But Abel, he offered a more excellent
sacrifice. He brought a lamb like God commanded.
I mean, God didn't leave it up to you to try to find out, well,
how should I come? No, God said, you bring a lamb.
That's what Abel did. He brought a lamb. And when Abel
offered that sacrifice, he did it in faith. Already, Abel was
looking forward to that lamb who would come, the Lord Jesus
Christ. He was already looking by faith
to Christ crucified. And when he sacrificed a lamb,
he confessed several things. He confessed his sin. He confessed
without the shedding of blood is no remission. I need blood
to pay for my sin. He confessed his need of a substitute. I've got to have a substitute
to die and die the death that I deserve. And thirdly, he confessed
God's holy. God must punish sin with death. The soul that sinneth, it shall
die. And I need a substitute to be
punished in my place. And the sacrifice of Abel's lamb
was accepted because it all pointed to Christ. It all confessed faith
in Christ. That's why God had respect to
that sacrifice, because it pictured God's Son. And this is the sacrifice
you and I must have. We must have the sacrifice of
Christ. God's holy. It's still true today,
just like it was in Abel's day, the soul that sinneth, it shall
die. Well, faith says, I need a sacrifice.
I need a substitute. I need Christ to die in my place. I need him to shed his blood
to put my sin away. And faith also, now faith says
I need a substitute. Faith also says Christ is all
I need. I don't need his sacrifice plus
some things I can do. I don't need his sacrifice plus
my works. I don't need his sacrifice plus
my faithfulness. I don't need his sacrifice plus
my morality. I need no other argument. I need
no other plea. It's enough that Jesus died and
that he died for me. And God said Abel was righteous
through faith, through that faith in Christ, by offering that land
that pictured Christ. And Abel's been dead a long time.
6,000 years, I reckon he's been dead. And Abel's still preaching
this message, isn't he? Salvation by faith in Christ. It's all through Christ. Faith
says the sacrifice of Christ is all I want and it's all I
need. Because the Father says the sacrifice
of Christ is all I want and all I need. It's all he wants, all
he needs, then it's all I want and all I need too. All right,
fourth thing, verse five is face walk. By faith, Enoch was translated
that he should not see death and he was not found because
God had translated him. For before his translation, he
had this testimony that he pleased God. Now, Enoch had this testimony. He walked with God. He pleased
God. Now, how did he do that? Well,
the only way it's possible is by faith. Look at verse six.
Without faith, it's impossible to please God. He didn't please
God, then it had to be by faith. Without faith, it's impossible
to please him. For he that cometh to God must
believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that
diligently seek him. Now, the father is only pleased
with his son. He's pleased with the sacrifice
of Christ. He's pleased with the perfect
obedience of Christ. And the father is pleased with
everybody who's in him. He's pleased with everyone who
has faith in Christ without any of their works added to it. Enoch
lived that way. He lived a life of faith. And
his life, his walk, pleased God. Now how did Enoch decide, okay,
what's my rule of life? How am I gonna walk so God's
pleased with me? It wasn't the law, was it? The
law's not gonna be given for more than 2,000 years. So Enoch
didn't use the law as a rule of life. He walked by faith. He walked looking to Christ. Now don't think that Enoch is
any different than you and me. He's not some like super Christian
and nobody's like that today. No, Enoch's just like you and
me. Enoch was a family man. His son
was Methuselah. His great-grandson was Noah.
He's a family man. And this is what I know about
family men. They can't afford to be a hermit. They've got to
get out there and work. They've got to go support their
family. I mean, it takes money. You've got to support, you've
got to feed them, you've got to clothe them. Kids keep growing, you've
got to buy them new shoes, you've got to buy them bigger clothes.
He went out and worked and supported his family. And while he was
out there in the world doing whatever it was Enoch did, He
walked with God. He went out there and did everything
he had to do, looking to Christ by faith. Enoch had God-given
faith in Christ. This afternoon, if you want to
read the book of Jude, verses 14 and 15, you'll find this.
Enoch prophesied of Christ, his first coming and his second coming. Now this is the man's seventh
from Adam. How could he know not just about
Christ's first coming, but his second coming? His faith. And he just walked looking to
Christ. And one day Enoch was out there
going through his daily routine, walking with God, and he just
walked right into glory. He walked right off the field,
whatever, and into glory. And nobody could find him. Where's
Enoch? How come he didn't come home
this evening? They went out looking for him, couldn't find him. Because he's translated. Just like Elijah. Just like believers
who are alive on earth when Christ comes, in a moment, in a twinkling
of an eye, they'll be changed. That's what happened to Enoch.
He has walked into glory. Now, what's that got to do with
you and me? Can you and I please God by walking with God by faith? Yes, we can, and I can tell you
how to do it. Just go about your daily responsibilities
looking to Christ. Walter, you can walk with God
at a tire factory, can't you? By making tires, doing what it
is you do, looking to Christ, expecting that he's enough. Do your job. You're the salt
of the earth. Go out there and work. Go out there and be part
of the community. Do your job. Provide for your family. Love
them and teach them. Teach them Christ. Point them
to Christ. Just live your life. Whatever responsibilities God's
given you to do, whatever it is he's put to your hand to do
today, do it with all your might. Diligently. While you're doing
that, keep one eye out. Diligently looking for him. Diligently seeking Christ. Diligently
depending upon him. Diligently expecting his return. Expecting him, do what he said
he'd do. He said, I'm coming back. Then he will be looking
for him. That's walking with God by faith.
And that walk pleases God. Because it's by faith in Christ.
All right, fifthly, here's faith's response. Verse seven. By faith, Noah, be warned of
God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear. prepared an
ark to the saving of his house, by the which he condemned the
world, and became heir of the righteousness, which is by faith.
By faith, Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place
which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed, and
he went out, not knowing whether he went. Now this is faith's
response. It obeys. Faith without works
is dead. Faith that does not act and cause
us to obey God is not real faith. Noah had real faith in God. You know how I know that? Noah
moved with fear. He moved with respect, and he
got to work building an ark. And you can imagine Noah's neighbors.
Here's Noah. He's out here building this ark,
big old boat. And they said, Noah, what you
doing? He said, I'm building an ark. He said, Noah, why are
you building this big old boat and there's no sea? There's no
river, there's nothing to put it in. What are you doing, Noah?
And he said, God told me. God told me it's going to rain.
God told me it's going to flood this earth. Well, Noah, have
you ever seen rain? No, he hadn't. At that time,
the earth was water with a mist that come up from the ground.
He'd never seen rain. Noah had never seen a flood before. Well
then, Noah, how do you know it's going to rain? How do you know
it's going to flood? God told me. I believe God. And this is faith's response.
It's not like, well, I know it's going to rain. I know it's going
to flood. Oh, well, I'll just sit here and hope it turns out
all OK. No. Faith obeyed, and he built an
ark. And Noah got in it when it was done, didn't he? He said,
I believe God. I believe. God's gonna preserve
my life in this ark. And he obeyed and built an ark.
That's faith. Now faith says, all that picture
of the ark is redemption. God says he's gonna punish my
sin with death. God will punish every sin of
every human being with death, without exception. But, God said,
if I hide in Christ, Christ will bear the punishment for my sin.
He will preserve my soul from damnation, that I'm obeying God
and I'm hiding in Christ, just like Noah hid in that ark. Well,
Frank, I mean, how do you know there's gonna be a judgment?
How do you know God's gonna judge? Have you ever seen the judgment
seat of Christ? Have you ever seen hell? No, I haven't. Well, how do you know God's people
will be safe with him in heaven? Have you ever seen it? Never
have. Then how do you know it's real?
Because God said it. And I'm trusting all my salvation
to Christ. See, faith believes what's written. And then faith has a response
to what's written. It's obedience. Abraham did that. He had faith in God. I know he
did because God told him one day, Abraham, go to your father's
house and go to a place I'll show you. And Abraham packed
up and went out into the desert, having no idea where he was going.
And scripture says Abraham was made righteous by faith. Abraham
believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness. Abraham
even obeyed God. When God came to him one day,
he said, Abraham, take your son, your only son, Isaac, that you
love. You take him to a place I'll
show you, and you offer him there as a burnt offering to me. Now
Abraham didn't understand what the Lord was doing, but Abraham
packed up again and started walking, started walking. And he took,
got to that mountain, built an altar. They must have had a conversation,
Abraham and Isaac must have had a conversation. Abraham's too
old to take that, Isaac was a full-grown man. He could not, against his
will, tie him that altar. They must have had a conversation.
And Isaac was willing in this thing, laid down that altar,
and Abraham took that knife to slay his son. And he's going
to do it. In his heart, he did it. And
God said, Abraham, stop. Stop. And he turned, and behold,
a ram, caught in the thicket by its horns. And Abraham took
that ram. He took Isaac off that altar.
He took that ram and he put him on the altar in Isaac's place
and he offered up that ram in the stead of his son Isaac. And the Lord said, Abraham saw
my day and was glad. That's the day he was talking
about. That day at the top of Mount Moriah, now Abraham understood. He wasn't glad, I mean, he was
glad, but that's not what the Lord, that Isaac lived. He knew
Isaac's coming down from that mountain with him, didn't he?
He said, me and you stay here with the donkeys. I and the lad
are gonna go yonder and worship, and we will come again to you. Abraham was gonna kill his son,
and he believed God raised him from the dead. Read over the
next page, see if that's not so. He believed God raised him
from the dead. Abraham was glad. because he saw Christ. This is
how God is going to save his people by taking them off the
altar of God's justice and his son willingly taking their place.
That ram caught in the thicket by its horns was caught by its
power. The horns of a ram's power. Christ our Savior was constrained
by his power to save. He went willingly the power of
his love for his people, the power of his love, his determination
to please his father, and he went willingly and was sacrificed
in the place of his people. All right, that's Abraham. Abraham
seems different to me, I don't know. How can I obey God? I'll tell you, it's by surrendering. It's by surrendering to God's
terms of salvation. I obey God, not by bringing my
works to God like Cain did. I obey God by trusting Christ
to be all my salvation. I obey God when I just quit. Did your parents ever tell you
to just quit? Just quit. Every time you think about bringing
one of your works to God, every time you think about, I'm going
to establish my own righteousness. If I do this, God will be happy
with me. Just quit. We obey God and we just quit.
going about to establish your own righteousness and trust Christ,
our righteousness. That's obeying God. Obeying God
is not keeping the Ten Commandments. Obeying God is believing Christ.
Now, you believe him. Right now, you believe him. All
right, verse eight. Here's the sixth thing is faith's
trials. At the end of verse eight, it says, Abraham went out not
knowing whether he win. By faith, he sojourned in the
land of promise as in a strange country dwelling in tabernacles
with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise,
for he looked for a city which hath foundations whose builder
and maker is God. Now faith must be tried so we
know it's real faith. It's gotta be tried so it's made
stronger and more precious. And we all want faith, we all
want more faith, we want stronger faith, but now the only way that's
possible is through trials. and they will be hard ones. Now,
the trials of Abraham are well-documented. I won't go into all of them today
for time's sake, but I do want to look at this. What made Abraham's
trials hard? It's a two-word phrase here,
not knowing. Not knowing. It was a trial to
leave his father's house, but it was a hard trial not knowing
where he's going. He had to wander out there in
that desert, not knowing where he was going, trusting God to
lead him. He wandered the rest of his life through that land
and never did have a permanent home, but he trusted God. God came to him one night and
said, Abraham, you're going to have a son. Oh, I'm glad. I'm glad for that. Got a baby
coming. We're glad for that, aren't we?
Oh, this baby. But when? When's he coming? It's been all
these years. He's still not here. When? What made it hard is not
knowing when. And you know, most of us would
be very happy to endure trials if I just knew when it would
end. I'd be very happy. I'm not just making this up,
honestly. I would be happy to endure trials
for Christ's sake. I would. If the Lord just said,
come sit down with me and Janet, our kitchen table, and tell us,
now, here's my purpose in this. Here's the end of this thing.
Here's what I have for you to learn in this. But he doesn't
do it, does he? What makes trials hard and what
makes them productive is this two-word phrase, not knowing. Not knowing. See, when it's not
knowing, when we don't know, then what do we have to do? I've
got to walk by faith, not by sight. See, if the Lord came
to me and said, now here's this trial, Frank, for you and Janet,
it's going to end in three days, or three months, two days, and
seven hours. All right. Lord, honestly, I'm
happy to endure this. But you know what I'd do? I'm
a big basketball fan. Games get close. I'm watching
the game. You know what I'd do? I'd watch the action with one
eye, but I'm watching that clock. When is it going to get to zero?
I don't have to worry anymore. I'd start my clock. Three months,
two days, and seven hours, and I'd watch it. I'd watch it tick
down. I'd be walking by sight, not
by faith. Faith is not knowing and trusting
the Lord to accomplish His will in this matter. Faith will be
tried. It will be tried. It must be
tried. So we know this is true faith. It's not a man-made shelter for
the time of the storm and then I'm going to abandon it when
the storm's over. No, true faith perseveres through the trial
and always arrives at our seventh thing, the victory. Here's faith's
victory. Verse 11. Through faith also,
Sarah herself received strength to conceive seed and was delivered
of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful
and promised. Therefore sprang there even of
one, and him as good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky
multitude, and as the sand which is by the seashore innumerable. Now, you remember the story of
Genesis 18, when Sarah first heard that God was gonna give
her a son. You know what Sarah did? She laughed. She laughed. It's impossible. I'm too old.
God can't give me a son. And that was the Lord, a pre-incarnated
appearance of Christ sitting there. He said, I will come and
give her a son. And he asked Abraham, he said,
why did Sarah laugh? And Sarah's back there, you know,
listening behind the tent. You know, she said, I didn't
laugh. And the Lord said, oh yeah, you laughed. She laughed. But at some point,
Sarah believed God. And I know that's so because
the word of God tells me she believed him. But you'll notice
here in the New Testament account, not one thing is said about Sarah
laughing. Not one thing is said about Sarah's weak faith. Because
here, Sarah is seen in Christ. She's seen in faith. And the
point of all that is this. Sarah didn't receive the victory.
She didn't receive that baby boy. through whom the Savior
would come. I mean, this is the blessing.
And Isaac shall thy seed be called. She didn't receive the victory
because she had such strong faith. You know why Sarah received the
victory? Because God promised she'd have a son. She's going
to have him. She's going to have the victory.
Faith always receives the victory that God promises. Again, this
is given to us as a picture. God promised salvation to his
people in and by and through. the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, brother
and sister, live your life expecting it. It'll often look impossible,
but you remember this, nothing's too hard for God. Now, he will
do what he promised he'll do. And between here and there, we're
gonna lose a lot of battles. We're gonna lose battles with
sin. We're gonna lose battles with this world. but you will
receive the victory that God promised you if you believe him.
Now, we ought to believe God. Our faith ought never waver a
bit. But thankfully, we're like Sarah.
We're not going to receive the victory because of the strength
of our faith. We're going to receive the victory
despite the strength of our faith. We're going to receive the victory
because God is faithful as promised. He's going to give the victory. because the object of our faith
is the mighty conqueror, and we'll have the victory in him. And our sister Kathy has received
faith's victory. I hate it when people say, oh,
they lost their battle with cancer. No, she didn't. No, that cancer's
dead. Kathy lives like we cannot imagine. We can't imagine that life. And she can sing victory in Jesus
like we just can't imagine. She's received the victory. All
right, here's the last thing. That's the victory every believer
will have, is faith perseverance, verse 13. These all died in faith,
not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off,
and were persuaded of them and embraced them and confessed their
strangers and pilgrims in this earth. For they that say such
things declare plainly that they seek a country. And truly, if
they'd been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they
might have had opportunity to have returned. But now, they
desire a better country that isn't heavenly. Wherefore, God
is not ashamed to be called their God, for he hath prepared for
them a city. Now, faith perseveres to the
end. If God gave it, it'll never quit.
If you're fascinated with the preacher, real soon you're gonna
be more fascinated with another one and quit. If you're fascinated
with the doctrine, real soon you'll be more fascinated with
another one and quit. But if you have faith in Christ
and you're fascinated with him, you're not gonna become more
fascinated with anything else and you'll never turn from him.
If you have faith in Christ, you're not gonna turn from the
things of this world, because you're just passing through.
I thought this morning as I was going over my nose in the hotel,
I wasn't real thrilled with that carpet, were you? It didn't look
very pretty. But I didn't think about changing
it. We're just passing through. Believer, forget trying to gather
up the dung of this world. You're just passing through to
something better. A better country. If this is
all there is, I'm going to be right depressed. But we're looking
for a better country. A heavenly. Now keep pressing
towards it. If we have faith, we'll be
like those disciples after the multitudes left. They said, this
is a hard saying. Who can hear it? We're not going
to follow him anymore. And Lord made it clear, I'm not
holding you here against your will. Will you also go away? Door's open. And faith answers
with Peter, no sir. We're not going anywhere. I'm
not gonna leave you. To whom shall we go? We believe and are sure thou
art to Christ. You have the words of eternal
life. You're the savior. I'm not gonna leave you. See,
faith is in a person. And faith won't leave the person
that they love. I use this illustration from
time to time. I'm a real big fan of marriage. I love it. Jay and I have been
married 31 years. And you know, I don't stay married
to her because I'm such a fan of the institution of marriage. I love a person. All the difference
in the world. That's what faith is. I love
a person. I'm pressing towards him, see
that? All right, now last, I'm quitting here. Look at 2 Timothy
chapter four. You know, we think about Enoch
and Peter and Abraham and Paul, these great giants of faith. And I think, well, I'm not the
same as them, I'm not. But you know, you are, if God's
given you faith in Christ. And we may not all travel the
world and do the things that the apostles did, and do what
Enoch did, do the things Abraham did, but if we have faith in
Christ, there's coming a day we will say exactly what the
apostle Paul said. 2 Timothy 4, verse 6. If faith perseveres, let me get
in the right book, 2 Timothy chapter 4. For I am now ready
to be offered. The time of my departure is at
hand. I fought a good fight. I finished my course. I've kept
the faith. Faith perseveres, I've kept the
faith. Henceforth there is laid up for
me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous
judge, shall give me at that day. And not to me only, but
unto all them that love his appearing. Unto all them that believe him,
and keep believing him to the end. All right, let's bow together
in prayer. Our Father, how we thank you
for God-given faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Father, I pray
that you'd give each heart here this morning faith to believe
Christ, to believe him, to look to him, to have the sweet rest
of resting from all of our works and resting in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Father, cause our faith to persevere.
When times are so hard, it's so difficult, the trials that
you send your people, give us faith that perseveres to the
end. Give us the victory to allow
us to close our eyes in this life and then to open them to
behold the face of the Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior, and then
we'll have the victory. Father, we ask these things for
the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. Do this for your glory. Give
much glory to your name in saving your people and keeping them
and comforting them all the way to the end. It's in the precious
name of our Lord Jesus Christ we pray and give thanks.