And he said unto me, it is done. Bert brought up a good point.
I made the point in the first hour that the difference between
the gospel of man's free will and the gospel of God's free
grace is the words N.E. And he said that N.E. is an acronym
for not enough. And there's a lot of truth to
that. A lot of truth to that. It is done. I am Alpha and Omega,
the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is
a thirst of the fountain of the water of life. Say, well, I got
to be thirsty. If you're thirsty, it's because
God made you thirsty. If you're thirsty to know the
truth, to drink from the water of life freely, the Lord said
to that woman at the well, if you knew the gift of God and
who it is that saith unto you, give me to drink, you would ask
of him and he would give to you living water. So you have to
know who he is first, and for that to happen, he has to reveal
himself to you. And when he does, he'll reveal
himself as the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the
end. He that overcometh, that's not your effort either. That's
believing God to the end. And if you do that, it's because
he kept you. The faith that he gives doesn't
fail. When he gives faith, it lasts all through this life. The Lord finishes everything
he starts. And so he says, he that overcometh
shall inherit all things, and I will be his God, and he shall
be my son. Let's stand together. Tom's gonna
come lead us in the hymn on the back of your bulletin. you Wherewith shall we approach the
Lord, And bow before his throne, By trusting in his faithful word,
And pleading Christ alone? The blood, the righteousness
and love of Jesus will we plead. He lives within the veil above
for us to enter. Sure ground and sure foundation,
too, we find in Jesus' name. Herein we every blessing view
and every favor claim. Then let His name forever be
to us supremely dear. Our only all-prevailing plea
for all our hope is there. This is the name the father loves
to hear his children plead. And all such pleading he approves
and blesses them indeed. Please be seated. Good morning. If you would turn,
please, in the Word of God to Ephesians chapter 2. I told Brother
Greg that God is providential. The last few weeks, these messages
on faith have been such a blessing to my soul. This is a verse probably
everyone in this room can quote. I pray God give us the ability
to understand it and believe it. And John, He writes that
the law came by Moses, but truth and grace came by the Lord Jesus
Christ. Verse 8, it says, 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. We would not err if we said,
for by Christ. That's what it is. Christ is
all grace so that we can say, for by Christ are we saved. Christ is our salvation. Through
faith. Our faith doesn't save us, Christ
saved us. And faith gives us the ability
to look to Christ and live and lay hold of him and believe and
trust on him. And that, not of yourselves,
this faith is not something we have. It's outside of us. We can't learn it. We can't earn
it. And then he goes on to tell us,
it is the gift of God. It is Christ giving us the faith
to believe Christ. I always think, and as any gift,
it's the right of the giver to give it to whom he pleases, when
he pleases. I always, when I read this, I
always think, if I came to Logan, I said, I'm going to let you
give me a gift. You'd think, how arrogant, but
that's what goes on in religion. And it's not of works. Because
if it was works, the first thing that happened is this sinner
would boast about it. Oh, that God would give us the
faith to believe him and to rest on Christ. May we try to pray. Lord, we've come here confessing that we have no righteousness
of our own. We have no faith, Lord, unless
you give it to us. And we're pleading today that
you would give the message of Christ to your servants who you've
sent to preach and to shepherd over us. Give them the ability
to speak clearly and concisely, Lord. Comfort them, encourage
them. And as your people, we pray,
Lord, give us the faith to believe it, to rest on Christ, to look
to Christ, To believe in and on Christ and to know that salvation
is all of the Lord. And Lord, if you don't give us
faith, we have no hope. It is the gift from you. We ask
these things for your glory. Amen. Let's stand together once again.
Hymn 294 from the hardback. 294 from the hardback. Savior, like a shepherd lead
us, much we need thy tender care. ? In thy pleasant pastures feed
us ? ? For our use thy folds prepare ? ? Blessed Jesus, blessed
Jesus ? ? Thou hast bought us, thine we are ? ? Blessed Jesus,
blessed Jesus ? Thou hast bought us Thine, we are. We are Thine, do Thou befriend
us. Be the guardian of our way. Keep Thy flock from sin, defend
us. Seek us when we go astray. Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus,
Thou hear us when we pray. Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus,
Hear, O hear us when we pray. Thou hast promised to receive
us, poor and sinful though we be. Thou hast mercy to relieve
us, grace to cleanse and power to free. Blessed Jesus, blessed
Jesus, early let us turn to Thee. Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus,
early let us turn to Thee. ? Early let us seek thy favor ?
? Early let us do thy will ? ? Blessed Lord and only Savior ? ? With
thy love our bosoms fill ? ? Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus ? Thou hast
loved us, loved us still. Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus,
Thou hast loved us, loved us still. Please be seated. Brie Wachey
is going to bring some special music now. ? It is not that I did choose thee
? ? Nor that could not be ? ? This heart would still refuse thee
? ? Has thou not chosen me? ? ? Thou found the saint that
stayed in me ? ? Thou'st cleansed and saved me ? But hold thou
as the baby I should be. Your love had no beginning,
causing me to stop. But you should choose to save
me, a sinner strongly found. ? What for was purpose for my soul
? ? For any salvation of the poor ? ? Has He been grateful
to me ? ? But sovereign mercy called me ? ? And took my opening
line ? and told me to let me know he's
blind. My heart goes on recalling all
thy rich grace and gifts. This knowing if I love thee,
thou willst have no fear. Thank you, Brie. I mentioned in the first hour
that Digna fell yesterday. Laura Saner said she looks like
a raccoon. She didn't break anything. We're
thankful for that. But she's really bruised up.
I don't think she would mind me telling you that she's 89
today. Today's her birthday. So give
her a call today. I know she'll be in. If it's
busy, call back. It's her home phone. No, she
uses a cell phone, doesn't she? I think. Cell phone? I think
so, yeah. I know she'll be encouraged to
hear from you. I've titled this message, Strangers
and Pilgrims, and I mentioned in the first hour that this was
going to be the theme to both messages. If you would like to
turn with me and your Bibles to Hebrews chapter 11, this message
is for strangers and pilgrims. If you're not a stranger to this
world, then you're probably not going to find much hope or comfort
in this message. If you don't see yourself as
a pilgrim, a temporary resident just passing through in a very
brief time, then you may not find any encouragement from this
message. But if you are a stranger, If
you're becoming stranger and stranger to the things of this
world, and the things of this world becoming stranger and stranger
to you, if you're longing for a city which hath foundations,
whose builder and maker is God, that's what our father Abraham,
the father of the faithful, was looking for. then I think you'll
find some great encouragement from God's word in Hebrews chapter
11. Let me preface the message by
repeating just a couple of things that I said Wednesday night.
What is there, if you are a child of God, what is there about your
life now that's different than it was before the Lord saved
you? Now, if you're trying to look
for a difference, somebody said, well, I don't do some of the
things I used to do. Good. You shouldn't have done
those things anyway. And there's a whole lot of folks
that quit doing bad things who never heard the gospel. Religion
or self-help or determination can cause you to quit doing bad
things. You say, well, I love the gospel. Well, how much do you love it?
You see, once you start talking about your love, then you're
back to another problem, aren't you? In that you try to judge
things by the degree and the sincerity of your love. And if
you're an honest person, you must conclude that there's only
one thing that you love all the time. And that's yourself. So we have
a hard time doing that, don't we? The answer to the question, if
you're a child of God, is very simple. It's faith. It's faith. You just simply cannot not believe
the gospel. You can't. If the Lord saved
you, that's the only difference. Number one, you know if you're
a child of God, God's made you a sinner. You know there's not
a single sin that you've ever quit doing in your heart. Not a single one. So you can't
judge your salvation by that. Man looks at the outward appearance,
God's looking at the heart. My heart's deceitful. Hebrews chapter 11 verse 1, now
faith is the substance of things hoped for, it is the evidence
of things not seen. That's it. That's the only answer. You just believe the gospel. God's given you faith to trust
Christ for all your salvation. You believe that he's all and
that he is in all. You believe that he's all your
righteousness before God. You believe that his death on
Calvary's cross is the only hope you have of satisfying God's
divine justice. You believe that you are completely
dependent upon him to give you faith and to keep you in the
faith and to present you before God. It's all your hope. Faith, the substance of things
hoped for, the only evidence that I have, the only difference
that I see in my life now from what it was before, is that I
believe the gospel. I just believe the gospel. If we go through Hebrews chapter
11 and compare the account that is given of these believers as
it's recorded in Hebrews chapter 11 to the actual historical events
that are recorded in the Old Testament, we'll find them to
be quite different. Quite different. The historical
events of the Old Testament describes their life in the flesh. The actual account that's given
by God in Hebrews chapter 11 is God describing their life
as he saw it in faith. And what a difference. What a
difference. You know, Abraham, the father
of the faithful, is spoken of in such glowing terms here, and
no less than two times did Abraham deny Sarah, his wife, to save
his own skin. No mention of that in Hebrews
chapter 11. Moses, the scripture says in Hebrews chapter 11, gladly
gave up the riches of Egypt to suffer with the children of God.
But in fact, Moses was a murderer in Egypt and had to run out of
Egypt to flee for his life. Yeah. You see the difference? And so it is with you and so
it is with me. We live two lives. And those
two lives stand in stark contrast to each other. The life that
we live in the flesh, the life that we live in the flesh, If
you take a record of it and try to get an encouragement for your
salvation, you're going to find yourself just as faulting and
just as frail as Moses was, as Abraham was, as Lot was. If you looked at the life of
Lot, you would not conclude that Lot was a child of God. And yet, scriptures refer to
him as God's elect. Righteous lot. Righteous lot. And then you have the life that's
lived in faith. And that's the only hope we have.
That the Lord has given us a new nature, enabling us in the new
man to put our hope and our trust in Christ for all our salvation. All the natural man can see is
his natural life. The truth is that faith is never
enough for the natural man. He wants something else. He wants
some other evidence. He wants some other proof. And
there's a part of you that's always looking away from Christ
to try to find encouragement and hope outside of Christ. Either
in something you do or don't do, or in something you have
or don't have. That's the old man. That's the
old man. Faith is never enough for the
natural man. And faith is all the spiritual
man has. It's all he has. He's got nothing
else. So now in verse 13 of Hebrews
chapter 11, these all died. Now let's just stop right there
for a moment. I want you to think about dying.
I do. You say, well, that's too depressing. It's too discouraging. Not if
you have hope in salvation, it's not. If you have hope in Christ,
you know in your new man through faith that to die is gain. To die is gain. Don't you love
the Old Testament genealogies when the scripture goes on and
on and says, well, so-and-so was born and he begat so-and-so
and so-and-so and they lived a certain number of years, and
every one of them, and he died. And he died. And you're gonna die. And I'm
gonna die. Sooner than later. There's no
getting around it. It has been appointed unto man
once to die. I wanna die well. I want you
to die well. I want to die in faith. If I'm going to, since I don't
know when I'm going to die, then I need to know that I'm in faith
now. Since faith, the gift, the scripture
says that God does not give his gifts with repentance. In other
words, he doesn't take them back. Whatever gifts he gives, those
are forever. And the first gift that he gives
in salvation is the gift of faith. The gift of faith. Michael, you
just read it. For by grace are you saved through
faith. And that, nod of yourselves,
it is a gift of God. He doesn't take it back. Lord, I want to know now. Right now. Today is the day of salvation.
First Chronicle says our days upon the earth are as a shadow,
are as a shadow. David said this in Psalm 39,
Lord, make me to know mine end. Can you pray with David with
me right now and ask the Lord, Lord, make me to know mine end.
Keep me from from investing all of my effort, all of my time,
all of my energy, all of my resources in a world that is slated for
destruction and in a life that's going to end? Lord, would you
give me the grace to lay up treasures in heaven? And to have as the hope of my
salvation a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God? This life doesn't have any foundations. Lord, make me to know my end,
the measure of my days, what it is, that I may know how frail
I am. And they all died. James put it like this in James
chapter four, O ye that say, here's what God says to you and
me. Oh, how much we need to hear this. O ye that say, today or
tomorrow, we will go to such and such and such a city and
continue there a year and buy and sell and get gain. You know
not what shall be on tomorrow, for what is your life? It is
a vapor that appeareth for a little time and vanish away. Now that's what God says about
this life that everybody is clawing and scratching to make their
life. That's what God says about it. These all died in faith. In faith. Looking to Christ as the alpha and the omega, the
author and the finisher of their faith. We have an advocate with
the Father. That's what faith does. It looks
to the advocate. Jesus Christ, the righteous one. Oh, how sinners are comforted
by that. These all died in faith, resting
in, trusting in, relying upon the Lord Jesus Christ, not their
accomplishments or lack thereof. In faith. How do we know that we have faith. This verse goes on to tell us, they all died in faith, not having
received the promises. Well, what was true of their
faith is not true of our faith. What do you mean by that, preacher? We have received the end of our
promises. For all the promises of God,
the scripture says, are yea and amen in Christ. They had faith
to believe that God would send the Messiah. It's like I told
you the Jewish lady I was talking to recently, she said, yes, there
is one who's able to keep the law. And the difference between
you and me is that you think He's already come and I'm still
waiting on Him. I'm still waiting on Him. These
Old Testament believers were waiting. They were waiting for
the Messiah to come to satisfy the demands of the law and to
put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. And to make all the
promises of God sure, we now look back to that event that
took place on Calvary's cross. We're not looking to an experience.
A lot of people get assurance of their salvation by a decision
that they made, or a prayer that they prayed, or an aisle that
they walked, or a feeling that they had. Well, I had this warm
feeling. You always have that feeling?
No. Don't place your faith, don't
place your hope in any of those things. Our hope is knowing that
the Lord Jesus Christ has fulfilled all the promises of God. Paul put it like this in 1 Corinthians
1, he said, our preaching toward you was not yea, nay. I hear a lot of yea, nay preaching.
I heard some yea, nay preaching last Sunday. Last Sunday in Montana,
I heard some yea, nay preaching. He started out saying yay about
election, saying yay about total depravity, saying yay about limited
atonement, saying yay about irresistible grace. And then when he got to
perseverance, he said nay. He said, now all this is for
the purpose of you making your contribution. so that everything
God did will work for you. And he made salvation a means
to an end. He made everything that God did
a stepping stone to get to what you need to do. Now that's yenai
preaching. And Paul said, we did not come
to you preaching yea, nay. For the Son of God, Jesus Christ,
who was preached among you by us, was not yea and nay, but
in Him was yea. For all the promises of God in
Him are yea, and in Him, amen, unto the glory of God. Now that's what faith does. Faith
is not yea, nay. Faith doesn't believe that, well,
God does his part and I gotta do my part. All the promises
of God are yea and amen in Christ to the glory of God. Do you believe
that? Do you believe that? If you do,
God's given you faith. Natural man doesn't believe that.
I believe he's got to do something. These all died in faith, not
having received the promises. God made lots of promises in
the Old Testament. Promises to redeem Israel, promises
to save his people, promises to put away their sin, promises
to fulfill the law, promises to satisfy divine justice. All
these promises are yea and amen in Christ. That's just what faith
believes. These all died in faith, not
having received the promises. Well, we have. We have. God, who at sundry times and
in divers manners spake unto our fathers in times past by
the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son,
who is the express image of his person. the brightness of His
glory. He is the fullness of the Godhead
bodily, and you are complete in Him. That's faith. Are you going to die in faith? Are you going to die in faith?
It's the only faith there is. Any other faith is a feigned
faith. It's a false faith. It's a spurious
faith. It will not save. Somebody was
asking me, well, does that mean that that gospel doesn't save?
Yes, that's what it means. That gospel does not save. We're not just tweaking our doctrine
here. We're not just improving salvation. We're saying that any gospel
outside of the finished work of Christ will not save. Why? Because you put your hand
to it. That's why it won't save. You
put your hand to it. And just like when Uzzah reached
up to steady the ark on the cart, God killed him. God said when you make an altar,
don't put your hand to it. Don't hew the stones, just stack
up the rough cut stones. Why? Because as soon as you put
your hand to it, the sacrifices made on that altar are no longer
acceptable to God. Anything you touch is defiled. Faith believes that Christ is
the yea and amen of all the promises of God. Do you believe that?
Do you believe that? If you do, you have hope for
change. Having seen them, You see that? Having seen them afar off. He's talking about these Old
Testament saints looking forward to the fulfillment of the promises
of God. We still look forward. We look
forward to that day when the trump of God will sound and the
dead in Christ will be raised and those of us which are alive
be caught up together with them in the air. And so shall we ever
be with the Lord. We look forward to that day when
the Lord said, You believe in God? Believe also in me. For in my Father's house are
many mansions. If it were not so, I would have
told you. I go and prepare a place for
you. And if I go, I will come again
and receive you unto myself, so that where I am, there you
may be also. We look forward to the fulfillment
of that promise. But we also look afar off to
the past, don't we? We look back to Calvary's cross.
We're not looking to an experience in our life. This is just what
faith looks like. This is what God-given faith
looks like. It believes that the promises
of God are yea and amen in the accomplished work of the Lord
Jesus Christ. It looks afar off and it sees. I can see. I can see through
the eyes of faith. I can see back 2,000 years. I
see an event taking place that I wasn't there for. I've read
about it, but I see it. I see it through the eyes of
faith. I see the Lord Jesus Christ hanging on Calvary's cross and
crying, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? I see him becoming
my sin bearer. I see God placing in his body
upon that tree all the sins of all of God's people and wedding
the sword of his justice in the very blood of his own son, offering
him up as a sacrifice for my sin. I see that. I see it. You know what, I can see back
further than that. And you can too if God's given you faith.
You see back before the foundation of the world. You see beyond
time. You are able through the eyes
of faith to look into eternity. and see God Almighty choosing
for His Son a bride, and writing their names in the Lamb's Book
of Life, and the Lord Jesus Christ entering into a covenant promise
with the Father to be their Redeemer, and God so much as slaying Him
in that covenant before time ever began. You see the Holy
Spirit entering into that covenant of grace and agreeing with the
Father and with the Son to make this gospel of God's free grace
effectual to the hearts of those for whom God chose and Christ
died. You see that. That's what faith
does. Faith is not looking at any experience
in itself. It's looking to the promises
of God. and believing that he cannot lie. Faith is the only substance you
have. If you're a child of God, you've
got nothing else. And you don't want anything else.
Because everything else will fail. Everything else will fail. Here's what the Lord Jesus Christ
said, Abraham saw my day and he rejoiced in it. Abraham, 2,000 years before the
Lord Jesus Christ came, he was looking as far into the future
as we look into the past and God said, Abraham saw my day
and he rejoiced in it. And so faith does. Abraham's
called the father of the faithful. We see his day and we rejoice
in it. Those who are of the true circumcision,
who worship God in the spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus have
no confidence in the flesh. No confidence in the flesh. That's
just what faith does. And as soon as we start putting
confidence in ourselves, oh, what a sad state of affairs we're
in. This is the only comfort there
is. He's the only one that can do it. The Lord told Nicodemus, Nicodemus,
you can't see. You cannot perceive, you cannot
understand the kingdom of God unless you're born again. You
see, seeing is not the cause of your salvation, it's the result
of it. You say, well, I can't see much. Can you say with that man that
the Lord received his sight when he was being interrogated by
the Pharisees to try to defend himself and try to explain the
gospel? And what did he finally say?
I don't know. You know, I can't answer your
questions. All I know, all I know is that once I was blind and
now I see. I see something I never saw before.
I can't tell you about it, but when I hear it, when I read it,
I see it. So what's faith look like? These
all died in faith, not having received the promises. We have. And having seen them afar off
and were persuaded We're not talking about well, you know,
it could be this way could be that way I think so I was talking
to a guy this past week. He said He we were talking about
the gospel and he said if I believe that I would lose all my faith. I Said yeah you would He said I'd lose all my faith And then he went on to say, well,
I'll consider it because I'm open-minded. I hate it when people
say that. I mean, I guess that's the PC
thing to say nowadays. I'm open-minded. I'm intellectual. I'll take into consideration
all the information and I'll come to conclusions with my own
intellect that will lead me to the truth. And I looked at him and I said,
well, I'm not. And he was literally physically
taken back. I mean, physically he was taken
back. I thought you were an intelligent
person. What do you mean you're not open-minded? I said, I'm
not open-minded. I said, when God teaches you the truth, you're
just persuaded. I know whom I have believed. And
I'm persuaded. You can't persuade me otherwise.
I'm convinced. I'm persuaded that he is able. I'm not able, he's able. He's
able to save to the uttermost. I need his ability. Someone said,
what about responsibility? That's my response to his ability. He's the only one able. These all died in faith. Do you
have faith? You're gonna die. You're gonna
die. And if you've got faith, there's
a part of you that's looking forward to that. Now, I know
your flesh is tethered to this world, and when you get close
to dying, you're gonna do everything you can. Your flesh will do everything
it can to hang on. That's natural. But there's another
part of you that rejoices in knowing that you're gonna get
a new body. And you're gonna see him as he
is, and you're gonna be made like him. The fullness of his
splendor, which he's never displayed before in this world. You're
gonna see it. Oh, die in faith. Don't die any other way. There's
no hope outside of faith. Faith's the only thing you got.
And here's what faith looks like. It receives the promises in Christ.
It sees them afar off and is persuaded of them. Now this word
persuaded also is translated in the New Testament, trust.
In Hebrews chapter 10, the Lord Jesus Christ is speaking to the
father and he says, I will put my trust in him. Now, how persuaded was the Lord
Jesus Christ that the father was going to be faithful to raise
him from the dead and reward him for his work of redemption?
How persuaded was he? Oh, I'm persuaded. Galatians chapter 3, Paul put
it like this, O foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you that you
should not obey the truth. That's the same word here, persuaded,
only it has the Greek letter alpha in front of it, which means
that it's not persuaded. Who has caused you to not be
persuaded of the truth? That's what he's saying. Oh,
foolish Galatians, be convinced, trust God, be persuaded. Don't be like Agrippa. Remember
Paul was preaching the gospel to Agrippa? What did Agrippa
say? Paul, you're mad. You're out of your mind. Nobody
talks like that. Nobody believes what you believe.
You've got too much education, Paul. But before that, he said,
almost thou persuadest me to become a Christian. Almost persuaded is not being
persuaded. When you're persuaded, it means
God has shut your mind. And when God shuts, no man can
open. You can't be talked out of it.
You can't be persuaded otherwise. They shall be taught all of God. If God teaches you the gospel,
nobody can unteach it to you. That's what faith does. Luke chapter 16. The Lord told
that story about Lazarus and the rich man, and the rich man
gets into, he's in hell. He's in hell. And he cries out
to Abraham, and he says, Father Abraham, send someone to warn
my five brothers of this place. For surely they'll hear if somebody
goes back. And what did Abraham say? They've
got Moses and the prophets. And if someone be raised from
the dead, they will not be persuaded. They will not be persuaded. The
natural man won't be persuaded. Only faith is persuaded. Remember,
faith's a gift of God. So when God gives you faith,
you're persuaded. What are you persuaded by? That
one has been risen from the dead. and that the law and the prophets
had been fulfilled? What does faith look like? Here
it is. They all died in faith, not having received the promises,
but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and
embraced them. Now, the cordial thing to do
when you meet a stranger is to shake hands. But there are certain
people in my life I don't shake hands with. Why? Because they're not strangers.
They're my dear, dearest family members, whether in the flesh
or in the faith. And I don't shake hands with
them. I embrace them. That's the word here. It's to embrace. Lord, this is all I've got. I'm
not just being cordial. This is my hope. Here's what
the Lord said in the Psalm, Psalm 2, kiss the sun. Kiss the sun. I understand in
the East that the tradition was to embrace and kiss on one side
of the cheek and then kiss the other. That's the idea here.
And He's saying, kiss the sun. lest he be angry with you, and
lest a little bit of his wrath be kindled." Oh, you don't want
to suffer even a little bit of his wrath. And the only hope
you have to escape the wrath of God is faith in Christ. That's it. God gives you faith. You know that all the fiery wrath
of God for all your sin has been quenched. That the Lord Jesus
Christ has satisfied all God's justice on your behalf all by
himself. And you embrace that. You embrace that. One more word,
look here. and confessed. For with the heart man believeth
unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made
unto salvation. In other words, what think ye
of Christ? Whose son is he? What do you
believe about the Lord Jesus Christ? That's what determines
your faith. I mean, that's what expresses
your faith. What do you believe about the
Lord Jesus Christ? That's the expression of your
faith. What did Ethiopian eunuchs say? Philip said, if thou believest
with all thine heart, thou mayest. And the Ethiopian said, I believe
that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Make a tree good, and its fruit
will be good. Make a tree evil, and its fruit
will be evil. For a tree is known by its fruit.
Now the self-righteous religionist will stop right there and he'll
say, now we need to do some fruit inspecting. We need to see whether
or not we got faith by how we're living. Oh, read on. How can you, being evil, speak
good things? For out of the heart the mouth
speaketh. For by your words you will be
justified, or by your words you will be condemned. Out of the
treasure in a man's heart, he'll speak good things. When the Lord
was talking about fruit, he was talking about the fruit of our
lips. What do you say about Christ? When you hear lies being told
about Christ, do you cringe? Or can you sit there and listen
to someone tell lies about Christ? I was in Montana last Sunday,
and Eric was sitting there with me. He said, well, now I know
what you look like when you're having to listen to somebody
who's not preaching the gospel. He said, I was squirming all
over the place. No, I just couldn't. Can you go back and listen to
someone tell lies about Christ? Can you do it? If you have faith, you can't.
You just can't. You can't go back. You know the truth. The truth
has set you free. You know that Christ himself
is the truth and they that are of the truth hear my voice and
they follow me. Let's just read the next three
verses and I'll conclude. Verse 14, for they that say such
things declare plainly that they seek. Now you see that word country? It means fatherland, not just
a country. It means the country of their
birth. That's what it means. It means
the fatherland. It means where their family is,
where their father is, where they were born. They want to
go back to their fatherland. Oh, that's what it is. That's
what heaven is for us. They that speak such things say
plainly, are you seeking your father's land? Are you seeking
that place from which you were born? Not physically. Paul talks about that in 1 Corinthians
chapter 15, that which is the body is born physically and then
the spirit is born spiritually and the body comes first and
spirit comes second. Here we're talking about the
spiritual birth, the new birth. And truly, if they had been mindful
of that from which they came out, they might have opportunity
to have returned. Now what that means is that if
you don't have faith, and you are capable of going
back to a false religion, you will. You will. If you can, you will. If the Lord's delivered you from
it, you can't go back. If they were mindful of that
country from which they came out, they would go back, but
they can't. But now they desire a better country. What is your
desire? Is it wrapped up in this world? Is it? Oh, what? What hope is there in that? They seek a better country. That
is a heavenly, Wherefore, God is not ashamed to be called their
God, for he hath prepared them a city. I go and prepare a place for
you. When the Lord Jesus Christ ascended into glory, he presented
himself before the Father, and at that moment, everything necessary
for the salvation of God's people was prepared. It's prepared. He's sitting there now, interceding
on behalf of His children. You're going to die. I'm going
to die. Oh, my God, give us faith to
die well. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father,
we ask You that You would bless Your Word to our hearts. We pray
it in Christ's name. Amen. I ask the men to come, if they
would, please, and distribute the bread and the wine. We'll
have the Lord's table. We'll just remain seated. We'll
sing number one from the soft-backed hymnal. Well, that's the thing, so here
we go. See the table spread before you. See the feast of bread and
wine. These are symbols of our Savior,
tokens of his love divine. Bread that's broken is his body,
crushed beneath the wrath of God. Wine poured out is a reminder
of our Savior's precious blood. Children of our God, remember
how he bought your soul and mine. In remembrance of our Savior,
eat the bread and drink the wine. Jesus came, the God incarnate,
to fulfill God's holy law. On the cross he made atonement
and retrieved us from the fall. Let us ne'er forget the promise
Jesus made to come again. Soon he comes, our King, to call
us Home to glory, praise his name. With this hope and expectation,
We rejoice to keep this feast, celebrating our redemption till
we lean on Jesus' breast. This bread is unleavened. great
care was taken to make sure there was no yeast put in this bread. The Lord said, a little bit of
leaven leaveneth the whole lump. Just a little compromise to the
gospel, just a little bit of your contribution, just a little
bit of your work ruins the gospel. The Lord said, this is my body
which has been broken. His body is the only body without
leaven. It's been broken for you. As often as you do it, do
it in remembrance of me. When God the Father plunged the
sword of his justice into the side of his son outflowed water
and blood. Our sanctification, cleansing,
our justification, the water, I mean, the blood. The Lord shed
his blood on Calvary's cross in order to be a covering for
our sin. God said, when I see the blood, I'll pass by you.
It's the only hope we have. satisfy God's justice, we take
this wine, confessing our faith in the shed blood of Christ as
the only hope for our justification before God. We do this in remembrance
of Him. And all God's people said, Amen. Let's stand together. Brother
Ed Burnside, would you dismiss us with prayer, please? Heavenly Father, we thank you
for bringing us to this place today to hear about your dear
son. We are so thankful as to him to provide all of our salvation. Thank you for showing us who
our flesh is, what it is, and the comparison between that and
our Savior. Call us, Father, to live in Christ.