Anyway, good evening, everyone.
Let's open tonight's service with hymn number 53 in your hardbacked
hymnal, hymn 53. How sweet the name of Jesus sounds.
And let's all stand together. Number 53. Repeat the last verse or the
last phrase in each verse. How sweet the name of Jesus sounds
in a believer's ear. It soothes his sorrows, heals
his wounds, and drives away his fear. And drives away his fear. Dear name the rock on which I
build my shield and hiding place, my never failing treasury filled
with boundless stores of grace, with boundless stores of grace. Jesus, my shepherd, brother,
friend, my prophet, priest, and king, my Lord, my life, my way,
my end, accept the praise I bring. Accept the praise I bring. Weak is the effort of my heart,
And cold my warmest thought, But when I see thee as thou art,
I'll praise thee as I ought, I'll praise thee as I ought. Till then I would thy love proclaim
with every fleeting breath. And may the music of thy name
refresh my soul in death. Refresh my soul in death. Please be seated. Good evening. So good to have
Pam and Brad and Seth with us tonight. We're happy you all
are here. I want to thank you for your
prayers on our trip to Montana. I feel like that it was profitable
in that there was another preacher there who preached right after
me and didn't preach the gospel. And you know the church there
is without a pastor. And I think most of the folks
there were able to discern the difference. And so it was, we
had some very, very good conversations, just leave it at that, on Sunday
and Monday over the difference between the messages. And I was
very encouraged with the discernment that the brethren had there in
the church. So that was a blessing. Michael, you look confused. I tell you, you know, one of
the things the Lord gives to his church, his pastors, to guard
the sheep against. And they had, you know, they
had invited this man to come and there was really nobody there
to you know, to be a leader in that. But it turned out well. I'd like for us to read from
Hebrews chapter 12 for our scripture reading tonight. And I want to
welcome our brethren in Sarasota I don't know if most of you know
that Eric Burt from over there went with me to Montana, and
I sure did enjoy the fellowship with him, and I think he was
an encouragement. I know I've gotten some text,
Eric, from the brethren. Eric doesn't text. He's old school.
He's flip phone. But I've gotten text from some
of the brethren there that they were so thankful that Eric was
with us. Alright, you have your Bibles
open to Hebrews chapter 12, verse 1. Wherefore, seeing we also
are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, the Old
Testament believers, we're just like them. We're right in there
with them, walking by faith. That's what the whole chapter
11 is about. Let us lay aside every weight
and the sin which doth so easily beset us. Same sin for every
one of us. It's the sin of unbelief. It's
the sin of our flesh. When that father cried to the
Lord and said, Lord, I believe, help thou mine unbelief. He was
saying, Lord, the new man believes, the old man can't believe. Help
keep this old man down. Let us run with patience the
race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, that's faith, who
is the author and the finisher, the alpha and the omega, everything
in between. of our faith, and who for the
joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame,
and is sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him, look to him,
rest in him, believe him, rely upon him, as your advocate before
the Father, for consider him that endured such contradiction
of sinners against himself, lest you be wearied and faint in your
minds. Let's pray together. Our Heavenly
Father, we're so thankful that you've blessed us once again
with the opportunity to come and be at this place, and we
thank you for the promises of that you've made to us, to bless
our assembly with thy presence, for you've said where two or
three are gathered together in thy name, there thou art in the
midst of us. And we thank you, Father, that
the Lord Jesus Christ is the yea and amen to all the promises
of God. We ask, Lord, that your sweet
spirit would cause him to be lifted up, and that you would
cause us to look to him, to rest in him, to rejoice in his accomplished
work, and to find all the hope of our salvation in him as the
author and the finisher of our faith. We pray for our brethren
in Montana. We ask, Lord, that you would
keep them and that you would provide opportunities for Peter
to be able to make a transition, to come there and be their pastor. And Lord, that you would grow
work there for thy glory. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. Let's stand together again. We'll sing
hymn number 88 from the Softback Timnel. Number 88. Again, we'll
repeat the last line in each verse. Number 88. Precious Savior, come to me. Let me see your lovely face. Let me know your love to me. Let me feel your strong embrace. Let me feel your strong embrace. Awaken my cold sleeping soul,
and my languid heart revive. Send your spirit, make me whole. Let me feel myself alive. Let me feel myself alive. Kiss me with your kiss of grace. Put your hand into my heart. Jesus, Savior, show your face. And this deadness will depart. And this deadness will depart. Precious Savior, come to me. Let me see your lovely face. Let me know your love to me. Let me feel your strong embrace. Let me feel your strong embrace. Please be seated. I'll introduce this message with
that passage of scripture in Isaiah chapter 40, where the
Lord said to the prophet, comfort ye, comfort ye my people, speak
ye comfortably to Jerusalem. Tell them their warfare is accomplished. Sinners are always in need of
a word of comfort, a message of hope, And the only hope that
there is, is that our salvation is accomplished. Now that having
been said, I'd like for you to turn with me in your Bibles to
Hebrews chapter 11. Hebrews chapter 11. And I want to ask you this question.
And my sincere desire and prayer to God is that you and I will
be comforted in the answer that God gives us to this question. The question is, what is the
evidence of your salvation? What is the evidence of your
salvation? I just made reference to a message
that was preached this past Sunday out of Montana. Calvinism was
preached. The doctrines of grace were elaborated
on. But the point of the whole message
was that God saves us to serve. And the real evidence of our
salvation is found in our service. A lot of that being preached. If that's the case, Do you find
comfort in that? Do you find sweet release from
your sin in thinking that the evidence of your salvation is
found in the depth and the commitment of your service? Truth is, sinners
are ashamed of their service. Sinners see themselves as hypocrites. Sinners know that there's so
much more they could do than what they do. I was talking to
a man yesterday and shared the gospel with him, and the first
thing out of his mouth was, where is fair in that? He was angry. He was angry. He said, where
is fair in that? And I said, well, Neil, where
is fair in the scriptures? Well, God's not obligated to
be fair. He said, oh, yes, he is. God's fair. I said, where
is that? I don't know, but he is. He is. I said, Neil, if your
salvation is determined by something you do, you have no hope. And he said, well, I know I don't
do enough, but I'm trying. But trying is not good enough.
Not good enough. I was talking to another man
yesterday, and trying to talk to him about the gospel, and
I told him, I said, if I believe what you believe, I'd be afraid
to die too. And he said, he said, well, I
know I make mistakes, but I ask God to forgive me. And I said,
you are a mistake. And no matter how much you ask
God to forgive you, That's not going to be anything to hope
in. I said, we're a mistake. This message of being saved to
serve gives sinners no comfort whatsoever. What is the evidence
of your salvation? I heard a man say one time that
if you were associated with a particular political party, you couldn't
be a Christian. Is that the evidence of salvation? I mean, you hear
all sorts of things. You know, if you listen to a
certain type of music, you can't be a Christian. So the evidence
that you're saved is you listen to certain kinds of music, or
you dress in a certain fashion, or you act in a certain way.
I've heard men say, well, I know I'm saved because I don't do
the things I used to do. It's good that you don't do the
things you used to do. You shouldn't have done them when you were
doing them. And the truth is that there's a whole lot of folks
that quit doing bad things who don't know Christ. There's a
lot of folks that can look at the outward evidence of change
in their life and think, well, I don't drink anymore and I don't
do this anymore and do that anymore. Well, you know, men get sick
and tired of being sick and tired and they reform their lives.
That doesn't mean that they're converted. Don't look at some
evidence of outward behavioral change to get assurance of your
salvation. There's no comfort in that. There's
no comfort in it. And if you are a sinner, you
know that there's not a single sin you've ever quit committing.
Not one. Not in your heart. You know that. So if you're looking to the evidence
of your salvation based on your political affiliation, or based
on something that you're not doing anymore, or based on the
music you listen to, or based on whatever, I fear that you have no real
comfort. You have no real hope. You're that, or you're lying
to yourself. What is the evidence of your salvation. In other words,
what do you have now that you did not have before? A man asked
me yesterday that I was talking to, he said, well, how do you
know you've been chosen? And I was able to tell him. I was
able to tell him what the evidence of my salvation is. Very simply,
I believe the gospel. I believe the gospel. I didn't
believe the gospel before. I have faith. Faith is the evidence
of things hoped for. You see it right here? Look at Hebrews chapter, you know, some
people talk about their love for Christ and their love for
God's people and their love for the Word of God, you know, as
the evidence of their salvation. And certainly the Lord does do
a work of grace in our hearts and gives us, but be careful,
be careful. You start looking at your love
for God's people, I get aggravated at God's people sometimes. You
know, I wanna wring some of God's people's necks, you know, I mean,
I don't always love God's people. You know, and I think about my
love for Christ, how oftentimes I'm so quick and easy to take
my eyes off of Him. Every sin I've ever committed,
I've committed on purpose. I've willingly looked away from
Christ. Love His Word, sometimes going to scriptures and worshiping
God is a chore, it's an effort. I can't say I do it every single
time with great love and delight, so don't look to the love that
God's put in your heart for his word or for his people or for
Christ or for his gospel as the evidence of your salvation. You're
not going to be comforted, not if you're honest, not if you're
a sinner. There's no real evidence in those
things of salvation. There's only one thing that a
believer has that he didn't have. Not only is there not a sin you've
ever quit, but truth is the sins you struggled with before you
were converted, same sins you're struggling with now. Sinners don't see this great
change in their life. To the contrary, to the contrary,
if God has given you faith in Christ and he's taught you the
gospel, you do believe that you are worse now than you were before
you were converted. Before you were converted. So
don't talk about a change of life and I'm getting better.
You're not a sinner if you believe that. It's a matter of progressive
sanctification, thinking that, you know, men are getting better
and I'm going to... There's no comfort there, is there? Is there? There really isn't any comfort.
The only hope and the only comfort can come through the eyes of
faith. The truth is that faith is never
enough for the natural man and it's all the spiritual man has. It's never enough for the natural
man. Oh yeah, I believe. And then they add all these other
things to get assurance of, well, I know I'm not, I know I'm not
saved by that. You listen to where men put their
emphasis in the gospel and you'll learn something about what they
think about themselves and what they think about Christ. You
listen to the free will Arminian. And where does he put all the
emphasis in his preaching and in his teaching? I'll tell you
where he puts it. He puts it on regeneration. And
the reason he puts it on regeneration is because that's the point of
his contribution. And most Arminian, most free
will Arminians will stand and say, once saved, always saved.
No, they've got Jesus as their Omega. They're holding to this,
they're covering up any inconsistencies in their life by saying, well,
you know, I made a decision so therefore I'm in. And all the
emphasis is on their regeneration because that's the point of their
contribution. And men by nature would rob Christ
of his glory and salvation and boast in themselves. You listen
to the, reformed Calvinist. And he will stand against the
free will Arminian with great passion. And he'll espouse the
doctrines of grace. Oh no, you're dead in your trespasses
and sins. You can't make a decision. God
has to sovereignly intervene to regenerate you and bring you
to himself, opening the eyes of your understanding, raising
you from the dead. Salvations of the Lord, they
say. Christ's death on Calvary's cross was only sufficient and
efficient for the elect of God. God chose a people before the
foundation of the world. Oh, they're very strong on those
things, aren't they? and then listen to what they
say about sanctification. Why? Because that is the point
of their contribution. They even have words for it.
Now, I'm gonna give you a little language lesson here. The word
ergon is the word, is the Greek word in the scriptures for work. Ergonomics, you're familiar with
that word. It's how things work. And the
Calvinist speaks of salvation on the regeneration in as monergistic. One does all the work. And he
stands strong on that truth. One does all, mono, one, monergistic. Your conversion, your regeneration
is a sovereign grace, sovereign work of God's grace. It's monergistic. He did all the work. You know
what they call sanctification? Synergistic. Synergistic. We've got to make
our contribution. Whether you make regeneration
or sanctification a work of man, you've destroyed the gospel.
There's no gospel there. Salvation is of the Lord. From the beginning to the end
and everything in between. So what is the evidence of your
salvation? I'll tell you what it is. You believe that. These two men
I talked to two different occasions yesterday. The Lord just gave
me an opportunity to talk to two men. And both of them, after
he said, where's fair in that, the next thing out of his mouth
was, I don't believe that. I don't believe that. Well, that's
the evidence of your judgment, that you don't believe that. If God's given you grace to believe
Christ for all your salvation, that's faith, and that's the
substance Look, faith is the substance of things hoped for. And Philippians chapter one, verse
29 says, for unto you, it is given on behalf of Christ to
believe. That means for by grace are you
saved through faith and that and obvious, it's a gift of God.
unto you it has been given on behalf of Christ not only to
believe but to suffer for his name is what that scripture says
in Philippians 129. So this matter of believing the
gospel is going to bring some conflict. It's first of all going
to bring conflict with yourself. You're not going to know you've
got an old man. You're not going to know you've got this problem
with unbelief until the Lord gives you faith. It's faith that
exposes unbelief. You're going to have a problem
with the world. You're going to have a problem with the religion. Unto you it has been given on
behalf of Christ, not only to believe, but to suffer for His
name. And then we just read Hebrews
chapter 12. Not only is faith a gift of God, but faith is the
work of Christ. Paul goes on to say, let us run
the race looking unto Jesus, who is the author and the finisher
of our faith. He's the Alpha and the Omega. He's the beginning and the end. He is all my hope. He is all my desire. And if you preach anything else
unto me, I'm gonna be burdened with trying to find something
in me, some contribution I make or some evidence, some evidence
of salvation in my life. And if I'm an honest person,
I wanted to ask this guy, I didn't say anything to him, Sunday.
But I desperately wanted to ask him, are you really getting better? Because that's what you just
preached. That we're supposed to be getting better. Do you
really think you're getting better? Faith is more the act of Christ
upon the soul than it is my act of dependence upon Christ. So we have to be careful when
we talk about faith that we don't look to the degree of our faith
to get hope of salvation. Then we put faith in faith, don't
we? So a work of grace in the heart when God gives faith It's
more the work of Christ upon the soul than it is my dependence
upon Christ for salvation. That's what Paul said when he
says, the life, the life that I now live in the flesh, I live
by the faith of Jesus Christ who loved me and died for me.
Oh, the most important part of faith. We've seen this so many
times, but it's so important. It's the object of our faith.
The object of our faith. And the new man completely believes. And the old man has never believed. He's never believed. Lord, help
thou mine unbelief. You see that word substance in
verse one of Hebrews chapter 11? It is also translated in God's
word confidence. Confidence. Faith is the confidence
of things hoped for. It's the only confidence I have.
The only confidence I have. is that God has given me faith
in Christ and that the faithfulness of Christ is the whole of my
salvation. It's the whole of my salvation.
He's made with me an everlasting covenant. It is ordered in all
things and it is sure this is all my salvation. This is all
my desire. Don't lead me away from Christ.
The only comfort that I have is that the evidence of my salvation,
the confidence, the substance of my salvation. Look at chapter
three. Well, yes, go ahead and turn
back with Hebrews. I think it's in Hebrews chapter
three. Yes. Here's the same word translated
substance in Hebrews chapter 11 verse 1 and in Hebrews chapter
3 verse 14, for we are made partakers of Christ. What does that mean? We have union with Christ so
that Christ is my life. that when he worked out a perfect
righteousness, that I was found in him by God. Not having my
own righteousness, which is of the law, but that righteousness
which is by the faith of Jesus Christ. When he died on Calvary's
cross, I was crucified with him. Nevertheless, I live, yet not
I, but it's Christ that liveth in me. So the life that I now
live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who
loved me and died for me. He was offered up for all my
offenses. He was raised again for my justification. When he
went back up into glory, he took with him the names of those for
whom he lived and died and presented them perfect before God. The
word of God never returned back to him void. Here's my hope, and this is what
he's saying, for we are made. You don't get there on your own. God has to make you to be a partaker
in Christ. Here's the covenant of grace.
When Christ came into this world, everyone that has ever been in
Christ was in Christ. When David said, though he make
it not to grow, the church... I've told you all this before.
One of the majors that I had in seminary was church growth.
I learned how to grow a church. The church of the Lord Jesus
Christ has never grown by one person. Never. It's exactly the
same size now as it was before Adam was ever created. And it's
exactly the same size now as it will be when this world is
gone. And all the saints of God are
around the throne of God in heaven. It's the same size. Why? Because God put a particular
people in Christ before the world began. We are made partakers. You see that? We are made partakers
of Christ if we hold the beginning of our, there it is, confidence. If we hold the beginning of our
confidence steadfast unto the end. As you received Christ Jesus
the Lord, so walk ye in Him. You never get beyond faith. Never. Don't look for anything
else. Don't look for anything else. Faith has all its confidence
in Christ. It doesn't look to anything else. It doesn't look to its obedience
or lack thereof. It doesn't look to its behavior
or good behavior or bad. It just doesn't look to a decision. Confidence is in Christ. So, what is the evidence of your
salvation? What do you have now that you
didn't have before? If God saved your soul and he's
made you a sinner, you know that what we're talking about right
now is your only hope. And you didn't believe that before.
You're just like the man yesterday. I don't believe that. You may have always had some
thoughts about Jesus, but you weren't holding to him only as
your confidence. It was Jesus plus something,
wasn't it? Jesus plus some decision you made, a prayer you prayed,
a work you performed, or evidence that you're showing, or doctrine
that you held to, or it was, wasn't it? the only difference that I can
find in my life. I look at my life now and I think,
man, I don't see any difference. Faith. I didn't have that before. And the faith that God has given
me to trust Christ alone as my salvation is the confidence. It is the substance. It's the
ground on which I stand. It's the only place I have to
go. As I said, to the natural man, faith is never enough. To the spiritual man, it's all
he's got. It's all he's got. Got no place
else to go. What's the evidence of your salvation?
God says, faith is the confidence. It is the evidence. In Hebrews
chapter one and verse three, the scripture says, Christ, who
being the brightness of his glory and the express image of his
person. Now the word that's used there
is the same word for substance. It's the same word for confidence.
The Lord Jesus Christ is the fullness of the Godhead bodily,
and you are complete in Him. He's the substance. He's the
fullness of the Godhead. he upholdeth all things by the
word of his power. When he had by himself purged
our sin, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high. By himself he did it. He didn't
look to you for any contribution. He didn't look to me to accept
it or to believe it or to respond to it or to improve on it. He did it all by Himself. Is the Lord Jesus Christ all
by Himself? All by Himself the hope of your
salvation. If He is, then you have evidence of things hoped for. Because the natural man doesn't
believe that. They don't believe that. This is what faith believes. This is the only thing that's
different in your life now than before. Hoped for. To wait on with joy
and full confidence. To trust that it will be so. Oh, faith believes, well look
at verse six, for without faith it is impossible to please God. Why is God pleased with faith?
Why is God pleased with faith? God is only pleased with what
God gives. He's not pleased with anything
that we offer him. All we can do is return back
to him. That's why faithful giving is
such a pleasing thing to God, because the believer's just acknowledging
everything I've got belongs to you, Lord. Everything I've got
belongs to you. I'm just returning back to you
a small portion of what you've given to me. The only thing,
God, if we don't give with that acknowledgement, if we give with
some other motive, then it's not faithful giving. God's only
pleased with that which God gives. It has to be pure. His eyes are,
Habakkuk chapter three, his eyes are too pure to look upon iniquity.
He can't see anything that's not perfect, and so he gives
faith so that we can respond to him in faith. And he says,
without faith it is impossible to please God, for they that
cometh to him must believe that he is. and he's the rewarder
of those who diligently seek him. It's what faith does. It's exactly what faith does.
I got an email this week from a lady who asked me about Philippians
chapter three, and she said, what does it mean, forgetting
those things which are behind? I pressed towards the prize for
the mark of the high calling, which is in Christ Jesus. I said,
that just means that you don't, live on the what-ifs of the past. What if I had done something
different? Maybe my current circumstances would be different. That's just
unbelief. That's denying the sovereignty
of God. And it means that you don't live
off of your successes of the past, whatever they might be.
You're forgetting, I've not yet apprehended that which has apprehended
me, but this one thing I do. I just press towards the mark.
I just keep coming back to Christ. That's why we have to keep hearing
the gospel, isn't it? Wayne, you told me tonight, I've
got to have this message. I've got no other hope. I've
got no place else to go. I've got to hear it. And this
old man is constantly dragging me away from Christ. Tell me about the one who makes
me righteous before God. Tell me about him because I don't
find anything in myself. I don't find any comfort, any
hope. The promises of God are just
as real, more real. More real. The promises of God
are more real to the eye of faith than the physical things of this
world are to the eye of flesh. They're more real. I've got more confidence. I've
got more confidence that God's gonna fulfill his promises and
he's going to bring in everlasting salvation for all those for whom
Christ lived and died. than I do, and I built this platform. It's built out of two by eight,
with two sheets of half-inch plywood on top of it. I mean,
this is one, this platform's gonna fall out from under me
before. But my point is that I, the eye
of faith is more convinced in the spiritual fulfillment of
the promises of God then the eye of the flesh puts its hope
in earthly things. Faith is the substance of things
hoped for. Well, that's my hope. It's the
evidence. This word is translated conviction. It's translated proof. when Paul told Timothy in 2 Timothy
chapter 3, all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is
profitable for doctrine and for, is translated reproof there.
And I always thought that meant, you know, the word of God corrects
us, but the next word says correction. The word of God is profitable
for doctrine, for reproof, for correction. that the man of God
may be thoroughly furnished unto all good works. That word reproof
is the word proof. It's the word conviction. In
other words, the word of God is the means by which the Lord
points us to Christ. Faith comes by hearing and hearing
comes by the word of God. By his own will begat he us with
the word of truth. Here's the proof that we have. Faith is the substance of things
hoped for. It is the evidence, the evidence
of things not seen. We can't see it with the natural
eye. We can't even look back with the natural eye and see
what the Lord Jesus Christ did on Calvary's cross. We have to
receive that by faith, don't we? Faith is such a miracle that
will hang the hope of our eternal salvation on an event that took
place before we were even there. That will hang the hope of our
salvation on promises that God has made for future events that
can't be seen. They can't be seen. For by faith the elders achieved
a good report. A good report. The believers
of the Old Testament, faith just believes God. Now the revelation
of the gospel is so much more clear to us in the New Testament
than it was to Old Testament believers. I haven't had a chance
to listen to the message yet, but I understand Robert preached
on that Sunday. the gospel of the Old Testament, and it's there.
We wouldn't see it if it wasn't for the New Testament. And the
light that they had was so dim compared to what we have now.
God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake to our
fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto
us by his Son, the express image of his person, the fullness of
his glory. They didn't have all that. And yet they believed everything
God told them. There's a whole lot, here's my
point, there's a whole lot of truth that you just don't know. I don't know. But I know this, if you're a
child of God, and God's pleased to reveal something to you that
you don't know, you're gonna believe it. People say, well, how much of
God's Word do you have to believe in order to be a Christian, in
order to be saved? Whatever He reveals to you. There's
passages of Scripture, and I don't understand them. I believe they're
true, but I don't know what to believe about them. I don't know
what to believe about them. But as soon as the Lord opens
that up to me and shows me what it means, I don't argue with
Him. You just believe it. So yes,
you believe all of God's Word, but it doesn't mean you're on...
You know, we don't understand anything we believe, do we? If I say, Jesus is the Christ,
the Son of the living God, there's more in that statement than eternity
will be able to reveal to us. We don't know what all that means. That Jesus, the incarnate Son
of God, was the Christ? What does all that mean? I don't
know. It's infinite in its meaning.
But I believe it. I believe it. And I pray the
Lord as we grow in grace and the knowledge of Christ, we'll
believe it more. What is the evidence of your
salvation? The self-righteous Pharisee, whether he be a freewill
Arminian or a reformed Calvinist, whether he be looking to his
contribution at the front end or at the back end for his salvation,
would have you to believe that the evidence of your salvation
is the fruit that you bear in your life. And so they go around
fruit inspecting. And they get that from a passage
of Scripture in Matthew chapter 12, but like all of God's Word,
they twist it. They only pull it out of context.
Where the Lord said, 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. So if we just stop right there,
we go, OK, we've got to do some fruit inspecting now. in order
to make sure that I'm a good tree. If I'm a tree of righteousness,
if I've been planted by God, there's gonna be good fruit on
me. So let's take a look at it. Well, let's take a look at it.
But let's take a look at the rest of that passage. For the
next verse says, O generation of vipers, how can you, being
evil, speak? good things, for out of the abundance
of the heart, the mouth speaketh. A good man, out of the good treasure
in his heart, speaketh good things, and an evil man, out of the evil
treasure of his heart, bringeth forth evil things. For by your
words, by your words, you will be condemned, and by your words,
you will be justified. With the heart, man believeth
unto righteousness, and with the mouth, confession is made
unto salvation. What say ye about Christ? Whose son is he? Is he all your
salvation? Is he everything to you? Is he
all your hope, all your desire? Did he do it all by himself?
Or did you make some contribution? That's faith. That's faith. Don't look anywhere else. You'll
either be so overwhelmed with fear or you'll be turned in to
the biggest Pharisee, the biggest hypocrite, the biggest elder
brother that you can be. pretending to be something that
you're not. Who's Christ? So I, you know,
I don't know, I can't, I have a hard time, you know, I know,
Pastor, you have opportunities to talk to people and, you know,
I don't really talk to that many people and then when I do, I
don't know what to say sometimes. I asked you this a few weeks
ago, I ask you again. Can you say to what you just
heard from God's Word, Amen? Amen. Amen. I've got no place else to go. If you can, Keep coming. Keep listening. Keep asking God. Study to show thyself approved,
a workman that needeth not be ashamed, rightly dividing the
word of truth, and be ready always to give an answer to them. Yes,
every believer desires to do that. And as you have opportunity,
God opened doors. I mean, it's amazing to me how
the Lord just, He'll put people right in your path. 40-year-old
man yesterday standing just diagnosed with liver cancer, 40 years old. And after hearing the gospel,
he said, I don't believe that. I said, I hope you will. I hope
you will. Maybe he's listening now. I don't
know. I asked him. I encouraged him to listen. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father,
we ask you to bless your word to our hearts and give us faith. Enable us to rest all the hope
of our salvation on Christ. For it's in his name we pray.
Amen. Number 228 in the hard back temple,
let's stand. My faith has found a resting
place, not in device nor creed. I trust the Ever-Living One. His wounds for me shall plead. I need no other argument, I need
no other plea. It is enough that Jesus died,
and that he died for me. Enough for me that Jesus saves,
this ends my fear and doubt. A sinful soul, I come to Him,
He'll never cast me out. I need no other argument, I need
no other plea. It is enough that Jesus died,
and that he died for me. My heart is leading on the Word,
the written Word of God. Salvation by my Savior's name,
salvation through His blood. I need no other argument, I need
no other plea. It is enough that Jesus died,
and that he died for me. My great physician heals the
sick, the lost he came to save. For me his precious blood he
shed, for me his life he gave. I need no other argument, I need
no other plea. It is enough that Jesus died,
and that He died for me. th th