Thank you, everyone. Let's open
tonight's service with hymn number 37 from your Spiral Gospel Hymn
Book, number 37. Let's all stand together. Approach, my soul, the throne
of grace in every time of need. There's mercy for the needy one
who Jesus' name shall plead. Though I'm a weak and sinful
wretch, I will approach the throne. I'll lean upon Christ's mighty
arm and bleed His blood alone. The blood, the precious blood
of Christ has opened up the way by which I can draw near to God
and to my Father pray. Though Satan tempts my heart
to sin, I'll call upon my God. And if I fall, he'll lift me
up and cleanse me in the blood. The way is open, God will hear
my groans and cries of grief. Nothing can keep me from His
throne but my own unbelief. ? O Lord, my unbelief reboot
? And turn my heart by grace ? Come tell me to approach your
throne ? And there spread out my case Please be seated. Good evening. Let's open our
Bibles to Hebrews chapter four Hebrews chapter 4 and we'll begin
reading in verse 9. There remaineth therefore a rest
or a Sabbath to the people of God. For he
that is entered into his rest He also has ceased from his own
works as God did from his. Let us labor, therefore, to enter
into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of
unbelief. For the word of God is quick
and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even
to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of the joints
and marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of
the heart. Neither is there any creature
that is not manifest in his sight, but all things are naked and
open under the eyes of him with whom we have to do. Seeing then
that we have a great high priest that is passed into the heavens,
Jesus, the son of God, let us hold fast our profession. What is our profession? Jesus
Christ is the son of God. For we have not a high priest
which cannot be touched with the feelings of our infirmities,
but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore, in light of
the fact that we have a high priest, in light of the fact
that we're not under the law, we're under grace, let us therefore
come boldly, and that word boldly is confidently, confident that
Christ has made the way, confident that he is able to save, let
us therefore come confidently unto the throne of grace that
we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Let's pray together. Our gracious and merciful heavenly
father, we thank you for your word The
revelation that you have given to your people about. Your son. Father, we thank you for the
ministry of your Holy Spirit. And we ask in the name of thy
dear son that you would be pleased. This hour to send your spirit
in power. That you would open the mystery
of the gospel to our hearts. That you would reveal to us once
again the glory of your son. We confess to you, Lord, that
our faith is fraught with unbelief. And yet, Lord, you have caused
us to believe, and Lord, we pray that you would help our unbelief. We ask it in Christ's name, amen. Number 318, 318 from your hardback
teminal, 318. And let's all stand together
again. I need thee every hour, most
gracious Lord. No tender voice like thine can
peace afford. I need Thee, oh, I need Thee. Every hour I need Thee. Oh, bless me now, my Savior,
I come to Thee. I need thee every hour, stay
thou nearby. Temptations lose their power
when thou art nigh. I need thee, oh, I need thee. Every hour I need Thee, O bless
me now, my Savior, I come to Thee. I need thee every hour in joy
or pain. Come quickly and abide, for life
is vain. I need Thee, O I need Thee. Every hour I need Thee. O bless me now, my Savior, I
come to Thee. I need Thee every hour. Most Holy One, O make me Thine
indeed, Thou Blessed Son. I need thee, oh, I need thee. Every hour I need thee. Oh, bless me now, my Savior. I come to thee. Please be seated. Will you open your Bibles with
me to Psalm 98, please? Psalm 98. My hope and my prayer is that
we will leave this place tonight with a renewed assurance of our
salvation. Renewed assurance. I've titled this message Christ
revealed and believed on. Christ revealed and believed
on. Psalm 98. Verse one, we saw Sunday morning,
oh, sing unto the Lord a new song. God would make it new and
fresh to our hearts every time we lift our voices in praise.
For he hath done, he hath done, completed marvelous things. He's finished the work of redemption. He's fulfilled the law. He's satisfied divine justice. His right hand and his holy arm,
and we know who that is, hath gotten him the victory. Not when
we repent we win the victory, but the Lord Jesus Christ got
the victory at Calvary's cross. He defeated Satan. He conquered
death, he put away sin, he fulfilled the law, he satisfied justice,
everything victorious the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished for
the salvation of his people. And then in verse two, the Lord
hath made known his salvation. Now Christ Jesus the Lord and
his work of redemption is God's salvation. And here we read,
the Lord has made him known. He's made him known. He causes
us to know Christ, to know him, the power of his resurrection,
the fellowship of his suffering, that which was accomplished in
the resurrection of Christ, that which we were in union with him
in his crucifixion, crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, we
live, yet not us, but Christ liveth in us. The life that we
now live in the flesh, we live by the faith of the Son of God,
who loved us and gave himself for us. Here he says he's made
known, made known. Paul said, I know, I know. I don't know much, but I know
whom I have believed, and I'm persuaded that he's able. I'm
confident. If I'm confident in anything,
if I believe anything at all about anything at all, I know
that Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living God. Everything
else is questionable, but not that, not that. The Lord hath
made known his salvation, his righteousness, his righteousness. One of the ways I know I'm in
Christ is that he's made it known to me that I have no righteousness
outside of the Lord Jesus Christ, none whatsoever. My most fervent,
sincere prayer would send me to hell if God judged me by it.
So we, we, we know that. We're hell-deserving sinners.
We have nothing to present to God other than the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ, who himself is our righteousness. He's made that known. His righteousness
has he openly showed. He's openly showed it. This thing's
not done in a corner. It's not hid. It's not veiled. It's revealed. It's openly shown. unto the heathen. Those who, apart from the grace
of God, would not know God. Now I want to introduce this
message by saying that I love believers. I really do. And I
love being around believers. I love being around believers
because as people that have been forgiven by God, they are forgiving. I love being around believers
because having experienced the goodness of God, they are kind
one to the other. I love being around believers
because believers are generous. I love being around believers
because believers are honest. They don't lie to you. They're
trustworthy and considerate and faithful. Now, there's two problems
with those statements that I just made. The first problem is that believers
aren't always forgiving. Sometimes they're unforgiving.
Sometimes they carry a grudge. for a time, the Lord will correct
them. Believers aren't always generous.
Sometimes they're stingy. Believers aren't always kind.
Sometimes they're unkind. They're not always trustworthy.
They're not always dependable. They're not always considerate. So though these are character
traits that we love seeing in one another, What about when
those traits are not there? The second problem with these
statements is that unbelievers can demonstrate these character
traits. Unbelievers can be kind. Unbelievers
can be generous. Unbelievers can be sacrificial
and considerate. They really can. So what is the one sure evidence
of a believer? What is it that never changes?
These outward acts of character might come and go, they may change,
but what is it that never changes in the life of a believer? Well, the answer to the question
is in the question. They're believers. They're believers. They can't
not be believers. They believe the gospel. They
believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. And
all you've got to do is spend some time with some unbelievers
and you see a stark difference. You may have an encounter with
a believer that's not good, and you may have an encounter with
an unbeliever that is good. But you're not gonna have an
encounter with an unbeliever who's a believer. And you're
not gonna have an encounter with a believer who's an unbeliever. I said I was hoping that the
Lord would give us assurance of our salvation. And what I'm
trying to say to you right now is, The Lord will work in our hearts. He will, causing us to will and
to do his good pleasure. But if we start looking to these
things in ourselves or looking to these things in one another
as the evidence of salvation, we're gonna have a lot of doubts.
We're gonna have a lot of fears. But once the Lord shows us that
the one thing that distinguishes a believer from an unbeliever
is faith, belief, belief in the gospel. Turn to me to 1 John
chapter 3. Verse 23, and this is the commandment. Now, prior to this, the Lord's
talking about keeping his commandment. And this is the commandment,
that we should believe on the name of his son, Jesus Christ,
and love one another as he gave us commandment. Now, our love for ourselves is
so strong that it's hard to evaluate the sincerity of our love for
anything else. It is. It's hard for us to evaluate
the sincerity of our love for God, for one another, because
we're so head over heels in love with ourselves. But the truth
is that God's people do love one another. They do. They love Christ. They love the
gospel. They love the truth. You know, don't look at the quality
of your love any more than you look at the quality of your faith.
But here the Lord, the Lord's made it clear that we believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ and we love one another. We love
those people who believe Christ, who believe God. And he that
keepeth his commandment dwelleth in him and he in him. And hereby
we know that he abideth in us by the spirit, which he had given
us. It's the spirit of God that causes us to believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ. The natural man doesn't believe
the gospel. Let's talk to the unbelievers. They don't believe the gospel.
Oh, they'll say Jesus is Lord. And then they'll deny Jesus and
they'll deny Lord. No, when the Ethiopian eunuch
asked Philip, what doth hinder me to be baptized after Philip
preached to him Jesus from Isaiah chapter 53? Does the prophet speak of himself
or does he speak of another? And Philip preached unto him
Jesus. No, this is about Christ. The
Lord Jesus Christ is the one that was bruised for our iniquities.
He's the one by whose stripes we are healed. He's the one that
the prophet was talking about. He's the one that God said, I
saw the travail of his soul and was satisfied in all the passages
in Isaiah chapter 53. And somewhat a believer talking
to an unbeliever told me this story. that the unbeliever wanted
to hear some scripture. So he opened his Bible to Isaiah
53 and he read Isaiah 53. And the unbeliever, who was very
religious, said, I don't want to hear that anymore. That's
too negative. That's too negative. You see, a believer just can't
believe the gospel. What did Philip say to that Ethiopian? If thou believest with all thine
heart thou mayest. And what did that eunuch say?
I believe, I do believe that Jesus, Jehovah saves, that one
you just told me about. The one who did all the saving
all by himself. I believe that he's the Christ,
the anointed one, the one sent of God to accomplish the salvation
of God's people. I believe that it was impossible
for him to fail. And I believe he's the son of
God. I believe that. I don't know
much else, but I know that's true. We come boldly before the
throne of grace. with confidence, believing that
Jesus is the Christ, the son of God. Faith is the substance. And that word substance is also
translated confidence of things hoped for. Let's say Hebrews
chapter 11. Hebrews chapter 3 verse 14 says,
we are made partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our
confidence unto the end. I'm more confident now than I've
ever been. And by God's grace, I'll become more confident that
Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living God. And I pray that when I draw my
dying breath, I'll be more sure of that than I've ever been,
ever been. We are made partakers of Christ
if we hold the beginning. of our confidence. How did we
come to Christ? As you receive Christ Jesus the
Lord, so walk ye in him. We received him as the Christ,
the son of the living God, the savior of sinners. And so faith
is the confidence. It is the substance of things
hoped for. It is the evidence or the proof
of things not seen. We look not on things which are
seen, but on things which are not seen. For the things which
are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are
eternal. We're not looking physically
at the body of the Lord Jesus Christ. The only evidence we
have is what God's given us in his word. But that's what distinguishes
us as a believer. We believe everything that God
says and we know that the substance of this book is the Lord Jesus
himself. He's in the volume of the book. We look to those things which
are eternal. Now, if a person is looking to
a change in their life, if they're looking to the fact that they're
not doing what they used to do, and there's things we ought not
to be doing, I pray God will deliver us from them. They're
looking to things that they are doing that they didn't used to
do, they're serving God fervently. They're not looking at the eternal,
they're looking at the temporal. But faith is, we look not on
the things which are seen, We look at the things which are
not seen for the things which are seen are temporal. The faith, the things which are
not seen are eternal, eternal looking this, this passage in
Hebrews concludes in chapter 12. where the Lord says, seeing
that we're encompassed about by such a great cloud of witnesses,
let us lay aside every sin that easily besets us, the sin of
unbelief, and let us look unto Jesus, the author and finisher
of faith. Looking to Christ, looking unto
Christ. We quote that passage often in
Timothy for the Word of God. All scripture is given by inspiration
of God and is profitable for reproof, that's the first word,
for correction, for instruction in righteousness. The man of
God may be thoroughly furnished unto all good works. That word
reproof, just lead the preface RE off of it. Because that's
what that word means. All scripture is given by inspiration
of God and is proof, is proof of your salvation. In other words,
we look to God's word and we say, amen, yes Lord, I believe. We're not like that king in the
Old Testament who took out his pen knife and cut the Word of
God and sliced out the parts he didn't like. We're not like
that unbeliever who says, don't read that passage of Scripture
to me anymore. That's too negative. No, we rejoice in every part
of God's Word. The Word of God is given by inspiration
of God and is profitable for proof. Proof of who Christ is
and proof of who we are in Him. So what is it that believers
believe? Well, another way to ask that
question is what is faith? And let me answer that question
by saying what faith is not. Faith is not believing that God's
going to do something in the future. You hear people say,
well, I just, I just believe with all my heart that that's
going to happen. And if I just believe strong enough, it's gonna
happen. And all they're doing is putting themselves on the
throne of God, convincing themselves that their faith is what's gonna
activate future events. I thought about this and I can't
think of but more than five things that the Lord has given us that
we know for certain about the future. Now we believe some future events,
but only because they've been revealed in God's word. Not because
we think that our faith is somehow gonna make something happen. All God's people will be saved.
No question about it. When the last of God's lost sheep
is called into the fold, then that's it. No more need for this
world. All of God's people will be saved. In the meantime, there
will be seed time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter,
day and night, for these things shall not cease. Three, wars and rumors of wars. There will be no world peace
in this world. None. Fourth, The Lord Jesus Christ
is coming with a shout of the archangel, with the trump of
God. The dead in Christ shall rise and those of us which are
alive will be caught up together with them in the air. The Lord
Jesus Christ is coming. He's going to take his church
home. And fifthly, this earth will be destroyed by fire. Other than that, I mean, if you
can think of something else that the Lord's revealed in his word
about future events that, you know, I'd like to know what they
are, but we believe those things because they're revealed in scripture.
Other than that, we don't know what God's going to do tomorrow.
And our faith is not going to make something happen. So faith
is not believing some future event other than the ones that
the Lord has already revealed. Faith is believing everything
that God has said. Faith is resting one's hope on
the Lord Jesus Christ. Turn with me to John chapter
six. I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son
of God. And immediately, Philip baptized
him. And right as they came out of
the water, the Spirit of God caught Philip away, and the Ethiopian
continued on his journey rejoicing. Rejoicing. God had made him a
believer. John 6, verse 45, it is written
in the prophets, and they shall be all taught of God. The Lord will teach his children
what his word means. They come to his word believing
that it's the word of God. They come to his word as teachable. Lord, they like those disciples. Lord, tell us what that, what
that, what that parable meant. Or we know, we know what you
spoke was true. We know that everything comes
out of your mouth is true. We know that it ultimately is
about you and about our salvation. Tell us, tell us what it meant.
They shall be all taught of God. Every man, therefore, that hath
heard and hath learned of the Father cometh to me." God uses
his word and his spirit to bring us to Christ, to believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ, to rest all the hope of our salvation on
him. I said that I wanted us to leave
here with a renewed assurance of our salvation. I believe that Jesus is the Christ,
the son of God. You believe that you can't not
believe it. Can you? The believer doesn't believe
it. Doesn't love it. Doesn't have a need for it. All
they may give lip service. Yeah. I've quoted a verse I did
this past Sunday and I've done it several times. Um, and I fear
that, that it has caused some of us to doubt our salvation. And I don't want that. The passage
of scripture I'm speaking of is found in Isaiah chapter six
is the most often passage of the Old Testament quoted in the
New Testament. They will have ears, but they
will not hear eyes. They will have, but they will
not see. And you know what the believer says? Oh Lord, could
that be me? Could I be deceiving myself?
Lord, is it? I know what the disciples said,
Lord, is it? I, well, let me speak. If I can, a word of encouragement
to you. Number one, if you're asking
that question, it's probably not you. Number two, that passage of scripture
is so clearly seen in the religious world of our day. Okay? They talk about Jesus. They talk
about grace. They talk about faith. They talk
about God. You tell them the truth. And
they hate it. They hate it. You don't hate
the truth, do you? God's given you eyes to see who
the Lord Jesus Christ is. He's given you ears to hear and
to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And you rejoice in everything
that God says. You've got God as your father.
I love what John said when he was talking about loving the
brethren. He said, he said, I don't have to speak to you about, about
loving one another. You, you love each other. Lord's
going to put that in your heart. You shall be all taught of God.
No, that passage in Isaiah chapter six is for the 99.9% of people
in this world that call themselves Christians who hate the gospel. They hate Christ. You just talk
to them about it, and you find out they're not believers. They're
not believers. They honor God with their lips,
but their hearts are far from the gospel. They don't believe
Christ. They don't believe that he's
Jesus. They got Jesus little J. Not that Jehovah does the
saving, but he makes saving possible. That's not what Jesus means.
They don't believe that he's the Christ, the anointed one. the one son of God in the full
power anointed with the spirit of the oil of gladness above
his fellows. The spirit of the Lord is upon
me for he out anointed me. They don't believe that he's
the Christ. I believe he's doing what he can, but he can't get
it done by himself. He's got to have your help. You
don't believe that, do you? And they don't believe he's the
son of God. Well, they call him the son of God. I got something
in the mail just today here at the church. Some religious organization
wanting some help and contribution. I read the whole confession of
faith. They got it all spelled out. And I mean, it's just got so
much leaven in it. There's some things that in there,
if you just pulled out some individual statements of that's true, that's
true. But you read the whole thing, you find out they've got
a different definition for Christ. They've got a different definition
for the son of God. They don't believe he's the sovereign
savior. So child of God, believer, believer,
you believe. because God's given you faith
to believe on Christ. And you are confident that he
is able to keep that which you've committed unto him against that
day. You're not confident in yourself. You come to the throne
of grace with confidence, with boldness, knowing that Christ
has done everything necessary to make it possible for you to
be able to come. Give you the, the, the, the ability
to Christ has done it all. Look, look at, um, look at verse
46. Not that any man has seen the
father save he, which is of God. He has seen the father. The Lord Jesus Christ has seen
the father. Show us the father and suffice
it thus. What the disciples asked the Lord. We'll be, we'll be
satisfied if you just show us the father. Oh, Philip, have
I been with you so long that you don't know if you've seen
me, you've seen the father. I'm the father of one. We believe
that Jesus is God and he's the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And everything that we'll ever
need to know about God, we'll learn about it in the person
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Believe that. I don't know much
about anything, but I know that if I, if I believe, you know,
he said, well, I wonder if I believe enough. If I believe anything at all
about anything, I believe the gospel. I start looking at the quality
of my faith. It's kind of like looking at
the quality of your love, isn't it? It's just hard to determine
who do you love and what do you really believe. The Lord, I do
believe. You've made me to believe. I'm
a believer. I'm a believer. look at verse 47, Verily, verily,
I say unto you, he that believeth on me hath everlasting life, casting all your care upon him. I heard an illustration one time
about a boy that was in a burning building on the second story
at the window and the fireman's down at the ground and he's And
he's encouraging the boy to jump, jump out of the building. And the boy was going through
this questioning, I believe in him. I believe he's able to save
me. But I believe on him enough to
take the leap, to jump out and trust him to catch me. And believers
just, they don't have any place else to go. Lord, where else
can we go? Or we don't just believe in you, we believe on you. We
believe that you are able. I am the bread of life. Your
fathers did eat manna in the wilderness and are dead. The Israelites saw the acts of
God. Moses knew his ways. Hey, you
know, there's so many religious people. They, they read this
book and they see the acts of God and they say, well, I believe
that they don't know why God's done anything. And they don't
believe on Christ for their salvation. This is the bread, which came
down from heaven. that a man may eat thereof, and
not die. I am the living bread which came
down from heaven. If any man eat of this bread,
he shall live forever. And the bread that I will give
is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world." What is that? Now they were,
you're going to see, they were offended because they thought
he was talking about, you know, eating his body physically. He's
talking about his life in the flesh. He laid down his life. He was obedient to the Father,
even unto death, even the death of the cross. So his life now
becomes our life. And we believe, we believe that
our life before God is bound up 100% in the life of the Lord
Jesus Christ. The Jews therefore strove among
themselves, saying, how can this man give us his flesh to eat?
Then Jesus said unto them, barely, barely, I say unto you, except
you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you
shall have no life in you. Whosoever eateth my flesh and
drinketh my blood hath eternal life, and I will raise him up
in the last day. What is it to eat his flesh and
to drink his blood? It's to believe that his life
is my life. The only life I have before God
is the perfect life of the Lord Jesus Christ. I can't look to
anything in my life for the hope of my salvation. And I believe
that the only hope that I have for my sin being put away in
the sight of God is to be covered by the blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ. You see, eating his flesh and drinking his blood is believing. You just, you just Take the word
eat and drink out and put the word believe. If you believe
in his body and believe in his blood, it's the life and the death of
the Lord Jesus Christ. For my flesh is meat indeed and
my blood is drink indeed. Verse 56, he that eateth my flesh
and drinketh my blood dwelleth in me and I in him. He's not
talking about participating in the Lord's table. We just did
that Sunday and what a blessing it is, but that's just symbolic.
This thing of faith is believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. What
do I have outside of the life of Christ that will merit me any favor
whatsoever with God? What do I have? Nothing. The unbeliever doesn't believe
that. They believe they've got something outside of the life
of Christ that will merit them favor with God. Whether it be
a decision that they've made or some improvement that they've
done in their life or some evidence of salvation that they're looking
to, they're not looking to Christ alone. What do I have other than
the blood, the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ to cover
my sins in the sight of a holy God? Nothing, nothing. I've got nothing else. I can't
make up for my sins. I can't cover my sins, whatever
they are, all of them. Verse 58, this is that bread
which came down from heaven, not as your fathers did eat manna
and are dead. He that eateth of this bread
shall live forever. What is it to eat of the bread
is to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And the child of God says. I
do believe. I do believe. Hey, if I look at that, I believe
a lot more than I do, but I believe God's God's not giving me a choice
about it. These things said he in the synagogue,
as he taught in Capernaum and many, therefore of his disciples.
And that's not have word disciples. There doesn't mean believers.
It means that throng of curiosity seekers that were following after
him. They were following and listening. and calling themselves
disciples. And many, therefore, of his disciples,
when they heard this, said, this is a hard saying. Who can hear
it? Well, the gospel is a hard saying.
Because it strips men of all of their pride. It strips them
of all of their righteousness. It leaves them completely naked
and dependent upon Christ alone for all their salvation. It's
a hard saying. Who can hear it? Those have been
given ears to hear. Those have been given ears to
hear. Those have been taught of God. They hear it and they
rejoice. They're glad. They're glad that
their salvation doesn't have anything to do with them. They're
glad that it's completely accomplished by Christ. They rejoice in jumping
out of that window and casting all their care upon the one who
cares for them. Yes, I believe. I believe. When Jesus knew it himself that
his disciples murmured it, he said unto them, doth this offend
you? What, and if you shall see the Son of Man ascend where he
was before? And the Lord Jesus Christ did,
he ascended back into glory, was given his rightful place
at the right hand of the majesty on high. You didn't see that
happen. There were some disciples there
on the Mount of Olives that heard the Lord say, you know, I go
and prepare a place for you. They heard the angel say the
same Jesus, which has been caught up in the heavens to come in
like manner. They went back into Jerusalem,
but we have their testimony. And here's the, here's the miracle
of grace. You believe their testimony.
Don't you blessed? Are you Thomas that
you've now seen me and believe I'm not going to believe unless
I can touch him and see, but blessed greater are those
who have not seen and believe. They believe on the testimony
of those who have seen. We believe when Peter said, we
bring not to you cunningly devised fables, we didn't make this up.
We handled the word of God. And we have a more sure word
of testimony. We've got his word. And you just
believe, don't you? You see, we do love being with
believers because they are kind, and they are forgiving, and they
are compassionate, and they are generous, but that's not what
distinguishes them. You'll find unbelievers that
have those qualities, and you'll find believers that fail to demonstrate
a lot of those qualities, particularly in your own life, won't you?
But the one thing that distinguishes a believer among an unbeliever
is that they believe. They believe. They can't not
believe. Verse 63, it is the spirit that
quickeneth. It's the Spirit of God that gives
life. The flesh profiteth nothing. We have this confidence. We look
at that which cannot be seen through the eye of faith. Where'd we get that from? Spirit
of God. Nicodemus, you got to be born
of the Spirit. Spirit of God enables you to see. The flesh
profit at nothing. It's the spirit they give it
life. I speak unto you. The words that I speak unto you,
they are spirit and they are life. So I said, Sunday, the natural
man, only all he's got is the flesh. And, and, and, you know,
you just look at what religion's promoting. You know, the thing
that, that they dropped off at our church today, it was all
about, you know, we want to, we want to come in and help you
train your children to realize their potential in life. And
I read the whole brochure and it wasn't a word in there about
the saving of our children's souls. They're not interested
in that. He said, the flesh prophet is
nothing. Only a believer is interested
in hearing about the Lord Jesus Christ. The unbeliever, all he
wants to hear about is, you know, give me something that's going
to help me in this world. Tell me about Jesus. Tell me
about Christ. God has made me to believe on
him. In closing, turn with me to Hebrews
chapter 11. Hebrews chapter 11. You remember what the word substance
there is in verse one? It's the word confidence. And
the word evidence in verse one is the word proof. Now, faith
is the substance. It is the confidence of things
hoped for. It is the evidence or proof of
things that are not seen. We look not on things which are
seen, but things which are not seen. For the things which are
seen are temporal. Things which are not seen are
eternal. For by it, The elders obtained
a good report. And I'm so thankful for this
next verse, for the Lord's describing faith to us. We weren't there
at the beginning when God created the worlds, but we know that
God made them. We know that. Conscience tells us that, creation
tells us that, but more importantly, God's word tells us that. And
we believe God's word in the beginning. God said, let there
be light. God spoke to worlds into existence
through faith. We understand. We do. We understand. We don't, we don't need to figure
out the questions that, that, uh, that the so-called scientists
are asking about how these things came to be, we understand God
made them to be. He spoke them into existence.
Through faith, we understand that the worlds were framed by
the word of God so that things which are seen were not made
by things which do appear. These things didn't evolve. We
believe that, don't we? We believe in evolution, that's
things which are seen being created by things which do appear. No,
we believe that these things came to be by the word of God. By faith, Abel offered to God
a more excellent sacrifice than Cain. What Cain offer? The works
of his hands. What Abel offer? Blood sacrifice. Adam told him about that. How
many times Adam must have told his boys the story about the
fall and what God did. And I'm sure he described it
in great detail about how the Lord took this lamb and slew
it and, and fleeced it and covered their nakedness. And that, and
that this was a picture of the seed of a woman that was going
to crush the head of the serpent that would come as the savior
of God's people. And it had to be a blood sacrifice. It had to be death. And Abel's
offering was a more excellent sacrifice than Cain's, by which
he obtained a witness that he was righteous. He obtained a witness that he
was righteous. What is your witness that you're
righteous? It's Abel's sacrifice. It's the
lamb. And this whole chapter just describes,
now all these characters of faith, you go back and read their Old
Testament experiences and you'll find them not always to be very
faithful. Abraham's mentioned here, Sarah's
mentioned, well, none of them are going, their lives lived
out were not always a demonstration of faithfulness, but they believed
God. They believed God. And it was counted unto them
for righteousness. The Lord hath made known his
salvation. They shall be all taught of God.
He's taught you, hasn't he? You believe, you believe. His righteousness, his righteousness
has he openly showed in the sight of the heathen.
Christ revealed and Christ believed on. What distinguishes a believer
from an unbeliever? They believe. They believe God. They believe everything God says.
Unbelievers don't believe God. They don't. Well, they pick and choose what
they want to believe, but the hard sayings, The hard sayings,
who can hear them? Tell them about a hard say. Tell
your religious friend that God doesn't love everybody and Christ
didn't die for everybody and God's not trying to get everybody
saved and see how much they believe. They don't believe. You do, don't you? Our heavenly father. Thank you for revealing. The
glory and the accomplishments of thy dear son. Forgive us. Lord for. So often we take our eyes off
of him. The Lord, you've been so faithful.
To bring us back again and again and again. Lord, we trust that
you will be To keep us. From falling. And to present
us faultless before thy throne. In faith. For Saint Christ name
we ask it. Amen. 31 let's stand together number 31. Yeah. ? Hear the voice of grace and glory
? ? In our dying Savior's cry ? ? Rending rocks and hill asunder
? ? And the veil to bring us nigh ? ? It is finished, it is
finished ? Our victorious Savior cried. It is finished! It is finished! Our victorious
Savior cried. ? It is finished, see God's pleasure
? ? Prosper in our risen Lord ? ? Covenant blessings without
measure ? ? Flow to us by Jesus' blood ? ? It is finished, it
is finished ? Oh, how sweet the Savior's word! It is finished! It is finished! Oh, how sweet the Savior's word! Finished all justice demanded,
Finished all required by law, Finished all portrayed and promised
in the shadows of the law. It is finished. It is finished. Thou believe, rejoice with all. It is finished, it is finished. Thou believe, rejoice with Jesus
finished our salvation when he died upon the tree. Righteousness and full redemption
for his loved and chosen seed. It is finished. Hallelujah. Praise the Lamb of Calvary. It is finished. Hallelujah. Praise the Lamb of Calvary.