Good morning. Let's open this
morning's service with hymn number 42 from the Hardback Tymnal,
number 42. And let's all stand together.
? All hail the power of Jesus'
name ? Let angels prostrate fall ? Bring forth the royal diadem
? And crown him Lord of all ? Bring forth the royal diadem ? And
crown Him Lord of all ? He chosen seed of Israel's race ? He ransomed
from the fall ? Hail Him who saves you by His grace ? And
crown Him Lord of all Hail Him who saves you by His grace, and
crown Him Lord of all. Let every kindred, every tribe,
Hond this terrestrial ball. To Him all majesty ascribe, And
crown Him Lord of all. To Him all majesty ascribe, And
crown Him Lord of all. Oh, that with yonder sacred throng
we at his feet may fall. We'll join the everlasting song
and crown him Lord of all. We'll join the everlasting song
and crown him Lord of all. Please be seated. Good morning. Bert and I were talking yesterday
and we We could relate a little bit with Daniel and Jeremiah
and Ezra and Nehemiah as they were exiled in Babylon lamenting
for the day when the Lord would allow them to return to Jerusalem
and build the temple and participate in public worship. And that's
our heart's desire. Hopefully won't be 70 years now. Let's I want to try to bring
a message this morning on saving faith, saving faith. So let's
ask the Lord's blessings on our time together. Our merciful Heavenly
Father. We come into thy holy presence. Looking to and resting all our
in thy dear son, who himself is our righteousness, our sin
bearer, all our satisfaction before thee. And father, we ask
that for his namesake, you'd be pleased to bless us with your
spirit, to enlighten us with the truth of understanding, to
reveal to us the glory of thy dear son. We pray that you would
put away our sins by his shed blood. We ask Lord that you would. Restore our fellowship. That
you would enable us as your people. To gather together for public
worship soon. We thank you for your church.
We know Lord that it's a building, and yet this is the place where
we are able to rejoice together. Lord, we pray that you would
strengthen the bonds of faith and grace and love in our hearts,
one for the other and for you in this time of separation. We ask it all in Christ name.
Amen. It seems like twice a year Christmas
and Easter. All the false prophets and blasphemers
come out. And they take the name of our
God. And they strip it. Of all of
its glory and all of its meaning. And. They speak peace to men's
hearts when there is no peace and they deceive men with lies. I hear more of those today and
yesterday as we approach this religious holiday than I typically
hear. And it causes my heart to say,
Lord, enable me to speak the truth, because there's a lot
of lies being told out there. Enable us to hear the truth and
to rest our hope in all that you have declared about thy dear
son." The Lord said, if you know the truth, the truth, the truth
will set you free. A lot of talk about faith these
days. People talking about faith and
the evidence of faith and the faithful ones who are all watching their favorite false
prophet from wherever they might be. And I want to know what God
says about faith. What does the Lord say about
saving faith? Faith is a natural experience
that all men have to one degree or the other. It's trusting in
something that you can't see or trusting in something that
has not yet happened. We have faith every time we get
in our automobiles. We have faith when we take a
bite of food, believing that it's not going to kill us. There's
lots of different types of faith that men have. What is saving
faith? That's what I want to know. I
want to know that faith we know is the substance of things hoped
for, the saving faith. It's the evidence of things not
seen. I want to know if I have saving
faith or if I am being deceived like so many people are. So many
people being deceived by the lies of false prophets. We'll begin with Ephesians chapter
2 verses 8 and 9. That's a very familiar passage
of scripture. For, by, oh, by the way, if you have a copy of
your bulletin that was emailed to you, the outline for this
message is in the bulletin. So those points that I made in
the bulletin are the ones I hope to cover quickly as we consider
the substance of saving faith. What is saving faith? For by grace are you saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. And we know that our salvation
is all of grace. Faith is not what saves us, grace
is what saves us. Faith is the evidence of salvation,
not the cause of it. What an important distinction. We hear people talking about,
you know, how God's done his part, and now you've got to do
your part. You've got to throw in your two cents worth, and
your two cents worth is your faith. And if you'll just believe,
then God will reward you for your faith, and he'll save you,
and that's a lie. It's a lie. That's not saving
faith. That's works. That's all that
is. It's just works. It's something that I do. Grace
means that I didn't have anything to do with my salvation. That's
what grace means. Grace means that God did it all
and he did it all by himself. In election, I didn't have anything
to do with election. That happened before the stars
were made, before the earth was created. God, according to his
own will and purpose, chose a particular people. That's grace. We didn't have anything to do
with that. That's all of God. Redemption? The work of the Lord Jesus Christ
satisfying the demands of God's justice, shedding his precious
blood to cover our sins, and presenting himself to the Father
for all our righteousness. We didn't have anything to do
with that. That's grace. Regeneration. You see, now this
is where the religious world puts in works, isn't it? They
will say, oh, yeah. Most of them will deny election,
but they'll say, yeah, that was, you know, That was the work of
grace, redemption was. I got a text from somebody yesterday. or Friday I guess it was, celebrating
Good Friday. And the text said salvation is
not based on what we've done, it's based on what Christ has
done, not based on what we do, but based on what Christ has
done, it is finished. That was the text he sent me.
And yet this guy goes to a religious organization that doesn't believe
that. He doesn't believe it. He believes that He made a contribution
to his regeneration. Regeneration's a work of grace.
God unilaterally takes out the heart of stone and puts in a
heart of flesh. He gives us a new nature. He
arrests us in our tracks and he births us by his spirit. We don't have anything to do
with that. That's what the Lord was saying to Nicodemus. Nicodemus,
you've got to be born in the spirit. Now which is of the flesh is
flesh, that's all we are. The flesh profiteth nothing,
it's the spirit that giveth life. This is the message of grace
and faith that we're not hearing in the world today. The whole
world's talking about Jesus resurrecting from the dead and yet they believe
that their salvation is based on works. Our holiness before God? The
imputation of righteousness and the new nature that we have,
that's all of grace. And whatever ability God enables
us to have to follow after Christ in our sanctification, that's
of grace. It is God that worketh in you, causing you to will and
to do after his good pleasure. We don't make any contribution
to that. That's the Lord. Our glorification being brought
into his presence and being made like him, that's all of grace.
We're not gonna have, we're gonna take our last breath and then
we're gonna be completely dependent upon the Lord to receive us in
glory. That's all of grace, isn't it?
For by grace, we're not saved by faith, we're saved by grace. For by grace are you saved. Through
faith. Through faith. So what is faith? Well, let me make three points
as to what faith is not. James says you believe that there
is one God, you do well, but the devils also believe and tremble. Believing in God is not saving
faith. The three great monotheistic religions of the world would
all billions of them stand and say, we believe that there is
one God. The Muslims believe that there is one God. The Catholics
believe that the Jews believe that there is one God and the,
and the, the quote, Christians believe that there is one God.
That's not saving faith. It's not saving faith. Believing that God is going to
do something because I believe it is not saving faith. That's
nothing more than the power of positive thinking. How many people
you hear say, well, you know, all things are possible to him
that believeth. And if I just believe strong
enough, God will heal me. If I believe strong enough, God
will do this for me and God will do that for me. That's not saving
faith. That is presumption. As a matter of fact, that is
blasphemy because it's putting yourself on the throne of God
saying, if I believe it's strong enough, I can make it happen.
That's not saving faith. You hear people say, you know,
all things work together for good. And that's my faith. I believe that there's a silver
lining to this dark cloud. You know, just keep the faith,
stay strong, don't give up. Everybody's hanging on to their
faith. That's not saving faith. Saving
faith is not believing that you are saved. Before the Lord called me out
of darkness, I believed I was saved. Was that saving faith? I had a false sense of assurance,
thinking that I was saved when I wasn't. Assurance of salvation is not
saving faith. And yet we hear the false prophets
say, well, you know, you just pray this prayer, you can nail
it down and you can be sure today if you'll just accept Jesus.
I heard a man say that yesterday, probably the most renowned preacher
in America. He said, you can nail it down
and you can be sure. Promoting a false prophet, a
false gospel. Let me ask you a question. I
have more doubts and fears now than I had in some senses before
I was a believer. Is it possible for a person to
have faith and unbelief at the same time? Absolutely. Absolutely. Why is that? Because we have two natures.
Our new man, perfect in Christ, believes everything and our old
man doesn't believe anything. And that's what that father who
brought his son to the Lord, who was possessed with a demon,
and the disciples, they brought him to the disciples, the disciples
weren't able to cast out the demon. And so the man brought
him to Christ and said, Lord, if you can do anything, if you
can do anything, help us. And what did the Lord say? If
you can believe, all things are possible to him that believe
in, what did that father say? What did he say? Lord, I believe. Help thou mine unbelief. That's
always the believer's experience. We've got faith and unbelief
going on at the same time, don't we? Job said this. He said, I am
escaped with the skin of my teeth. Now let me just tell you my experience
when it comes to faith and the gospel. Every time I think I
have a clear view of it, it begins to get cloudy. Every time I think
I've got a hold of it, it begins to slip away. It's like I'm always on the edge
of believing and understanding. This unbelief that's there always,
and it causes me to say, With the Apostle Paul, I've come to
you with weakness and with fear and with much trembling. Now,
Paul wasn't saying, I'm fearful and much trembling because I'm
fearful of men. I'm fearful of losing this gospel
that I have. I feel like I've only, you know,
we look through a glass darkly, don't we? Paul said, I've not yet apprehended
that which is apprehended me. I haven't gotten a hold of it
yet. This unbelief that you see what I'm trying to say is that
assurance of salvation is not saving faith. Because there's
with real saving faith, there is this element of doubt and
fear that goes along with it. Oh, my God, be pleased to comfort
our hearts with assurance, but that's not that's not saving
faith. We've not yet apprehended that
which has apprehended us. I cannot tell you how many times
I've tried to talk to people about religious people about
the gospel. And the first word I'd they'll sit there and they'll
listen, they pay attention. And the first words out of their
mouth is, well, I know I'm saved. And that's their comfort. That's
their comfort. I don't believe what you just
said, but I know I'm saved. And that's my hope is the assurance
of salvation that I have. A lot of people have assurance
and don't have saving faith assurance of salvage. Don't look. I've quoted this before. I think
it was Spurgeon that said it. If we look to Christ, the dove
of peace flies into our hearts, and as soon as we look to the
dove of peace, he flies away. Isn't that our experience? Assurance
of salvation is the byproduct, it's the result of saving faith.
And as soon as we start looking for assurance, we're looking
somewhere other than Christ. If you're going to look for assurance
instead of looking to the Lord Jesus Christ, you're going to
have to look for something outside of Christ. You have to look to
some evidence of salvation in your life. And then you immediately,
if you've got any honesty about you, you're going to lose assurance.
Don't look for assurance of salvation. That's not saving faith. Look
to Christ. And as you rest all your hope
in Christ, then, and only then will you have assurance. And
as soon as you have it, it'll start slipping in a way. Why? Because as soon as you have peace
and joy, you start looking to the peace and joy, and you start
relishing that, and you lose sight of Christ, and you lose
sight of your assurance. And then, isn't that our experience?
As soon as I think I've got a hold of it, I lose it. Well, I don't know if I'm saved.
Well, I have to admit to you, sometimes I don't know if I'm
saved. I have to cry out, Lord save me, Lord save me. So what is saving faith? And
here we're going to get to our points in your bulletin. If you
want to go quickly, I'm going to try to cover these eight points
very quickly. First of all, without saving
faith, no man can please God. Without faith, it is impossible
to please God. He that cometh to him must believe
that he is, that he is, and that he is the rewarder of them that
diligently seek him. Not seek assurance, but seek
after him. That's what saving faith is.
And without it, no man can please God. If we're seeking, if we're
pursuing anything else, God's not pleased. If we're looking
to our works, God's not pleased. If we're looking to ceremony,
God's not pleased. If we're it. God's not pleased with our good
intentions. David said in Psalm 51, thou delight us not in sacrifice
else. I would give it thou desirous,
not burnt offerings. No, the sacrifices of God are
a broken spirit and contrite heart, and that he will not despise. Why? Because he gave it. He gave
the broken spirit and the contrite heart. He gave us that spirit
that enables us to find no comfort and no satisfaction and no hope
in our own works. And he caused us to rest our
hope in Christ. And without that, without that,
nothing else will please God. God's not pleased with you. He's
not pleased with me. He's not pleased with anything
he does. We do. He's pleased with what
Christ has done. And he's pleased with those that
are looking to the Lord Jesus Christ alone for the hope of
that's what saving faith is. Without that faith, it's impossible
to please God. Now, I've sort of covered this
already, but saving faith, according to Romans, Ephesians chapter
two, is the gift of God. For by grace are you saved through
faith and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. Faith is not our gift to God.
That's what you're hearing the false prophets say. This is what
God's done. Now, if you'll do your part,
throw your faith into the mix, And God will reward you. No,
no, no, no. No, faith is the reward. Faith
is the reward. I am thine exceeding great reward
is what the Lord told Abraham. And Abraham believed God and
it was counted unto him for righteousness. You see, faith is what God gives
us in salvation. Not for salvation, but in salvation. The baby that's born alive breathes. If it doesn't breathe, it's because
it wasn't born alive. Faith is our breathing. Faith
is as natural for the believer as breathing is for the newborn
baby. Breathing for that baby didn't
give them life. They were alive and so therefore
they breathed. That's so clear to me. And that's
what faith is, it's the gift of God. We're birthed by the
spirit of God and he enables us to believe on Christ. Romans chapter 10, turn with
me there. Romans chapter 10. Oh, Lord, give us the grace to
speak the truth about Christ and about what true saving faith
is. So many, many people. I mean, I get aggravated and
I get sad and I get angry all of the time, same time as I listen
to these false prophets and the masses of people are just swallowing
hook, line and sinker everything they're saying. And they're all in agreement.
The Pope and two prominent evangelical, they call them, preachers in
America, and the two preachers this morning said, well, we agree
with everything Pope said. We may have some differences
on our theology, but we're in agreement about who Jesus is. He's the Son of God, and he's
risen, and he's alive, and that's our faith, and everybody says
amen. I don't want to be deceived.
Look at Romans chapter 10 at verse 17. So then faith cometh
by hearing and hearing cometh by the word of God. Now, Peter
makes it clear that this is the Word of God which by the gospel
is preached unto you. So just because a person is,
you know, I know a lot of fundamentalists that will say, I believe this
book from cover to cover. I heard one preacher say, I haven't
believed the cover. It says genuine cowhide, you
know. But they don't believe it. They
don't believe the message of the book. They don't believe
the This book has one message. It's the message of the Lord
Jesus Christ, who he is and what he's come to do. And if we miss
that, we've missed the word of God. The Lord Jesus Christ is
the living word. We don't separate the living
word from the written word. Faith cometh by hearing and hearing
by the word of God. So the living word speaks to
our hearts through the written word and reveals himself who
is the substance and subject of this whole book in the volume
of the book it is written of me. This is all about Christ
is not the primary theme of the Bible. He's the only theme of
the Bible. He's the only message of the
Bible. And yet men don't see that. Faith
comes by hearing. We've got to hear His voice.
We've got to hear what He has to say about Himself. We're not
talking about an audible voice here. You know that. You know
that. People talk about hearing an
audible voice from God. They're just, well, they're robbing
Christ of His glory because, in fact, God only speaks directly
to His Son. The Lord has said unto my Lord,
sit thou here at my right hand until I make thine enemies thy
footstool. You see, everything that we get from God comes through
Christ. God's never spoken to a single individual, nor has
a single individual ever spoken to God apart from the Lord Jesus
Christ. And for men to say I've heard
an audible voice of God is to rob Christ of his mediatorial
glory and pretend to have access into the presence of God by themselves.
That's just not true. It's a lie. Faith comes by hearing. We saw Wednesday night from Psalm
110, the rod of thy strength shall go out of Zion. The rod of his strength is the
gospel. How can they call upon the name
of the Lord and thou shalt be saved? How can they call upon
him in whom they've not heard, believed? And how can they believe
on him in whom they've not heard? And how can they hear without
a preacher? What did that Ethiopian say? What did he say? He said, when Philip asked him,
believest thou what you read? How can I lest a man should guide
me? You say, well, Paul had a private, Saul of Tarsus had a private
audience with God. You know, I remind you that Saul
was blinded on the road to Damascus and remained blinded for three
days. Now, I'm not gonna try to pinpoint
the moment of Paul's conversion, but I know what being blind means.
It means you can't see. And biblically, it's a physical
picture of spiritual blindness, and it wasn't until Ananias preached
the gospel to him that his eyes were open. So even the Apostle
Paul had to have a humble preacher. You know, we never hear of Ananias
again. The Lord told Ananias, go to the street called Straight,
to Judas' house, and you'll find Saul of Tarsus there. Ananias
was reluctant, wasn't he? He said, I haven't heard about
him. He's going around killing Christians. You go preach the
gospel to him. And he did, and his eyes were
opened. The preaching of the gospel is the means. Faith comes
by hearing. You're not going to get faith
because you've You've noodled it out, or you've studied it
out, or you've worked it out, or you've gone to seminary, you've
taken, you know, some classes and you've, no. God uses preaching
because preaching is the primary means of humbling us. It humbles you because it doesn't
give you any contribution. And take my word for it, if you've
ever tried to get up here and preach before, you'll know what
I'm saying. It humbles the man behind this
pulpit more than anybody else. And God loves humbling us. He gives grace to the humble,
doesn't he? He resists the proud. Faith comes by hearing the gospel. Turn with me to 2 Corinthians.
This is what saving faith is. Second, according to the scriptures,
according to the scriptures. That's all I'm concerned about.
What's God say about it? I don't care what the Catholics
say about it. I don't care what the evangelicals
say about it. I want to know what God says
about it. And here's what he says about it. Second Corinthians
chapter five, you have your Bibles open that we'll begin reading
in verse one. I want you to see that believers
walk by faith, not by sight. This is not something we can
see. We're not looking to some evidence
of our faith in order to prove faith. We're looking to something
that we can't see. And only the eye of faith can
set one's affection on things above where Christ is seated
at the right hand of God. It's not physical. The world
says, if I see it, I'll believe it. And that's not just true
with the irreligious, that's true with the religious as well.
They're looking for some outward evidence because all they have
is one nature, all they've got is the flesh. So they've got
to see it in the flesh in order to believe it. The believer's
got a new nature. He walks by faith, not by sight. And he sees it because he believes
it. We don't believe it because we
see it. We see it because we believe
it. Look at 2 Corinthians chapter
5, for we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were
dissolved, and one day it will be, you know that. Oh, the older we get, the more
we realize how brief this life really is, don't we? When this
earthly tabernacle is dissolved, we have a building. A building of God, a house not
made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan
earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is
from heaven." There's the believer's experience with this struggle
of faith. Oh, who shall deliver me from
the body of this death? Lord, I'm carrying around this.
Help thou mine unbelief. That's what the man was saying.
Lord, I believe in my new man, but this old man is, help me,
help me. And the believer longs for that
day as he walks by faith, when this corruptible be made incorruptible
and this mortal be made immortal. And we won't have the struggle
anymore, anymore. David said, as for me, I will
behold thy face in righteousness and I shall be satisfied when
I awake in thy likeness. They see the child of God's never
satisfied it. We were satisfied with Christ.
We're satisfied with his righteousness. We're satisfied with his atoning
work. We're never satisfied with our
experience. We're never satisfied with ourselves.
And David said, I'll be satisfied when I awake. And then I'll be
in thy likeness. And that's what it is to walk
by faith. Look what he goes on to say. Verse 2, for in this
we groan earnestly, desiring to be clothed upon with our house
which is from heaven. If so be that being clothed,
we shall not be found naked. For we that are in this tabernacle
do groan, being burdened. Not for that we would be unclothed.
Listen to this. This is very important. What
he's saying is we're not groaning to be unclothed. In other words,
we're not longing for the experience of death. Don't pretend to be longing for
death. That's exactly what he's saying.
We're not longing to be unclothed. We do everything we can to preserve
our life, don't we? But we are longing to be clothed. You see, it's not the departure
from this world that we long for. It's the being with Him
and being satisfied when we're made in His likeness. It's seeing
Him for who He is and being made like Him. That's what we long
for. That's what we long for. You see, we're not longing to
be unclothed. We're longing to be clothed. That mortality might
be swallowed up with life. We're not looking for mortality,
for death. We're looking for mortality to
be swallowed up with life. See the difference? Now he that hath wrought us for
the self same thing as God. The one who gave us this desire
is the Lord. Faith is the gift of God. He's
the one that put this desire in our hearts. Who also has given
us the earnest of the spirit. Therefore. We are always confident,
knowing that while we are at home in the body, we are absent
from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight. We're not walking this Christian
life by what we can see. Faith looks to that which cannot
be seen with the natural eye. What is it? It's Christ. It's
the Lord Jesus Christ himself. That's what we long for, to be
made like him. Fifthly, saving faith is, oh,
let me say this. The one who has faith that's
not saving faith evaluates the eternal by the temporal. And the one who has saving faith
evaluates the temporal by the eternal. That's the difference. In religion, they're always trying
to take their experiences, because they're not walking by faith,
they're walking by sight. And they're translating the temporal
experiences into that which is eternal. We look at the eternal. and then we are able to have
a proper understanding of what's happening temporally. Romans Chapter 3, turn with me
there. Romans Chapter 3, about to move,
got to move quickly. As the, you know, we may just
save the last point for, no, I can't do that. Let's go to
Romans Chapter 3. The fifth point is that saving
faith is the opposite of works. It is the opposite of works.
Look at verse, we'll begin at verse 19 in Romans chapter three. Now we know that what things
so ever the law sayeth, it sayeth to them who are under the law,
that every mouth may be stopped and that all the world may become
guilty before God. That's the purpose of the law,
to make sin utterly sinful and to shut our mouths and to declare
us as being guilty lawbreakers. Therefore by the deeds of the
law shall no flesh be justified in his sight for by the law is
the knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of
God without the law is manifested being witnessed by the law and
the prophets. The righteousness of God, Christ is the end of
the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth and the
righteousness of God is witnessed By the law and the prophets.
Everything in the law points to Christ. Everything the prophets
had to say points to Christ. Even the righteousness of God,
which is by faith of Jesus Christ. The righteousness of God is by
the faithfulness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Unto all and upon all them that
believe, for there is no difference. For all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God, is the best definition of sin there
is. We know nothing about sin because we know nothing about
His glory. I mean, we really don't. And everything that falls
short of His glory is sin. being justified freely by his
grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom
God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to
declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are
passed through the forbearance of God, to declare, I say at
this time, his righteousness, that he might be just and justifier
of them that which believe in Jesus. Where is boasting then?
It is excluded by what law of works? Nay, but by the law of
faith. And what's the Lord saying? The
law of faith and the law of works is two opposing laws. The law of works will kill. The law of faith gives life. The law of works is the law.
The law of faith is grace. The law of works is what you
do. The law of grace is what he's done. We're justified through
faith. Faith is the opposite of works. Now, if there's one point in
this message that we could say is most important, it's the next
one. Saving faith is to believe on
the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul said,
I'm not ashamed. I know whom I have believed,
and I am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I've
entrusted or committed unto him. What did Paul commit to him?
Everything. Everything. He had all his eggs
in one basket, didn't he? That's not the way the religion
of this day is. They look to this and look to
that and they've got hedged up here and there just in case one
fails. I am persuaded that he is able
to keep that which I've committed unto him. How many times the
personal pronoun is used in Paul's confession of faith? He's not
looking to what he believed about God, he's looking to God. Now, doctrine can't save you
anymore than the law can save you. The sovereignty of God can't
save you, but a God who is sovereign? Believing in total depravity
can't save you, but believing in a God who is holy? You see,
that's the opposite of total depravity, isn't it? We believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ. In Acts chapter 26, Paul had
been arrested and he was standing before the governors of Judea
and Festus, after hearing about the resurrection, Festus said,
Paul, much learning has made thee mad. And Paul said, I'm
not mad. He said, you know the things
that I'm telling you are true. This thing was not done in a
corner. You know what's being said. You know what happened.
And then he turned to King Agrippa and he said to King Agrippa,
who was part Jew, he said, King Agrippa, do you believe the prophets? And then he didn't even wait
for King Agrippa to answer. He said, I know you do. I know
you believe the prophets. Was King Agrippa saved? No, because
King Agrippa's next statement was, Paul, almost thou convinced
me to become a Christian. Thou persuaded me to become a
Christian. You almost got me. You see, what was Paul saying?
Festus knew what had happened, Agrippa knew what had happened,
and they believed everything that the prophets had to say,
but they didn't have saving faith. Why? Because they didn't believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. Almost being persuaded is not
being persuaded. Paul said, I know whom I have
believed and I am persuaded that he is able. Our faith is in a
person. It's not an experience. It's
not in a doctrine. It's in the person of the Lord
Jesus Christ. For those of you that are watching,
we're going to take 10 minutes. So if you want to come
back in 10 minutes, we'll try to finish this message, and
then we'll be looking at parts of Psalm 110. OK? All right.