It's so good to be here. Let's
open up tonight's service to the hardback hymnal number 13.
Number 13, Praise Ye the Lord the Almighty. If you could please
stand. Praise ye the Lord, the Almighty,
the King of creation. O my soul, praise Him, for He
is thy help and salvation. All ye who hear, now to His temple
draw near. Join me in glad adoration. Praise ye the Lord, who o'er
all things so wondrously reigneth. Shelters thee under his wings,
yea, so gently sustained. Hast thou not seen how thy desires
there have been, granted in what He ordained? Praise ye the Lord, who with
marvelous wisdom hath made thee, decked thee with health and with
loving, and guided and stayed thee. How often grieved hath
not he brought thee relief, Spreading His wings for to shade thee. Praise ye the Lord, O let all
that is in me adore Him. All that hath life and breath,
come now with praises before Him. Let the amen sound from
his people again. Gladly, for I, we adore him. Be seated, please. Thank you, Bert. Good evening.
And good evening to our brethren in Sarasota. Glad they're joining
us tonight. If you would turn with me in
your Bibles to 1 John chapter 5, 1 John chapter 5, verse 9. If we receive the witness
of men, how many things do you believe because a man tells you? A lot of things. A lot of things.
If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater.
For this is the witness of God, which he hath testified of his
Son. He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in
himself. He that believeth not God hath
made him a liar, because he believeth not the record that God gave
of his Son. And this is the record. We have
a full record of who Christ is and what he's accomplished for
his people. It's God's word. Do you believe
it? Just believe what God says. That's
what faith is. Faith is believing God. This
is the record that God hath given us eternal life. Eternal life, remember, doesn't
begin at the moment you believe and last forever. Eternal life
is God's life. It's eternal, from everlasting
to everlasting. This is the record. This is what
God says. God has given to us eternal life,
and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life,
and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. These things
I have written unto you that believe on the name of the Son
of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that
you may believe on the name of the Son of God. And this is the
confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according
to His will, He heareth us. What is His will? His will is
to save sinners. Lord, I'm a sinner. I believe
what you've said about Christ. And if we know that He hears
us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petition that
we desire of Him. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, we thank
Thee. for the revelation that you've given to us in your word
and by your spirit to our hearts, enabling us to believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that you would increase
our faith. We pray that you would reveal more of his glory to us
and give us that confidence of knowing that if we ask anything
according to thy will, coming into thy presence for thy glory,
according to thy will, thou hearest us. Lord, we would come before
you now and ask you to bless us with your grace and comfort
us in the person of thy dear son. For it's in his name we
ask it. Amen. We're gonna stand again and sing
to Him from the hardback hymnal number 352. 352, Jesus lover
of my soul, 352. Jesus, lover of my soul, let
me to thy bosom fly. While the nearer waters roll,
while the tempest still is high, hide me, O my Savior, hide me. Till the storm of life is past,
Safe into the haven guide, O receive my soul at last. Other refuge have I none, Hangs
my helpless soul on thee. Levi, leave me not alone, still
support and comfort me. All my trust on Thee is stayed,
All my help from Thee I bring. Cover my defenseless head With
the shadow of Thy wing. Thou, O Christ, art all I want,
More than all in thee I find. Raise the fallen, cheer the faint,
Heal the sick and lead the blind. Full and full of sin I am, Thou
art full of truth and grace. Just and holy is Thy name. I am all unrighteousness. Plenteous grace with Thee is
found, Grace to cover all my sins. Let the healing streams
abound, Make and keep me pure within. Thou of life the fountain
art, freely let me take of Thee. Spring Thou up within my heart,
rise to all eternity. Be seated, please. You still have your Bibles open
to 1 John chapter 5. That's where we're going to be
tonight. And I want to try to speak to you and hope the Lord
will speak to us about the most important thing in your life. The most important thing in your
life. We all have lots of needs. Life
is full of needs. needs physical, we have needs
emotional, we have needs spiritual. Every day we're seeking to try
to meet those needs that we have and yet there is one thing that
is most important and the Lord's revealed it. He revealed it in
the passage we just read and it's revealed here in Chapter
5 at verse 4, and this is our text for tonight. For whosoever
is born of God overcometh the world, and this is the victory
that overcometh the world, even our faith. Faith. Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's the one thing needful. This life, the scripture says,
is a sojourn. We're just passing through. We
are to pass our time of this sojourning in this world with
fear. Trusting God, relying upon Him,
believing Him. That's my hope tonight. My hope
tonight is that God will give us faith. that he'll enable us
to believe the record that he has given to us about the Lord
Jesus Christ. For in fact, without any controversy,
that is your greatest need, and that is my greatest need. This life is called in the scriptures
a warfare, and it is a warfare. There's conflicts and troubles
and trials. If you're not in one now, Thank
God for it. One's coming. It's just the way
it is. It's the way it is for man. Sin
has caused our life here in this world to be filled with troubles. And the only hope that we have
is that God would give us faith in Christ. Scripture says that life is a
journey. And David references that journey
as going through the valley of the shadow of death, that we
would fear no evil. We often hear that passage quoted
from the Psalms relating to our experience when we are departing
this world. In fact, this whole journey of
life is a valley of death. Death is all around us, and we're
in need, and we're dying. We're just dying. We come into
this world dying. And if the Lord doesn't lead
us through this valley of the shadow of death, then we'll die
spiritually, and we'll be separated from him for eternity. Our need
is that he would give us in this journey, in this sojourn, in
this warfare that we experience in this life, aside from all
the other needs that we have, and they vary from person to
person, we all need faith. The Lord says it's the one thing
that enables us to have victory overcoming the world. It's the one thing needful. Let's
back up to verse 13 of chapter four. whereby know we that we dwell
in him, and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. It is the Spirit of God that
gives us faith, and it is the Spirit of God that works through
faith, enabling us to cry, Abba, Father. Without the Spirit of
God, well, he goes on to say, if you have not the Spirit of
God, you're none of his. Lord, we need your spirit. We're completely
dependent upon you to send your spirit in power to enlighten
the eyes of my understanding, to unstop my ears, and to give
to me the gift of faith. And we have seen and do testify
that the Father sent the Son, the Savior of the world. Notice
the verb to be is in italics. The Lord Jesus Christ was sent
into this world by the Father to save sinners. Did he accomplish
what he came to do? Do you believe that he accomplished
what he came to do? Do you believe that he was successful
in doing what the Father sent him to do? Did he come as the
Christ in the full anointing of the Spirit of God to fulfill
the requirements of righteousness and justice on behalf of his
people? Is that who he is? Whosoever shall confess Whosoever,
here's God speaking now, this is God's testimony. Whosoever
shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God dwelleth in him and
he in God. Now that's a confession that's
made with some conviction. That's not honoring him with
our lips and denying him in our hearts. That's not saying that
Jesus is the Son of God like every religious organization
that calls themselves Christian confesses and then denying the
very deity of Christ by saying, well, he's really not able to
accomplish what he came to do. If you confess that Jesus is
the Son of God, what did that Ethiopian eunuch say? When Philip
said, if thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest,
I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Here's our confidence. I read a book this week by an
author that I've benefited from some in the past, and he was
talking about evidences of faith. And he spent a whole chapter
in this book talking about how you need to evaluate your life
and look at your works and find out if you have faith. That's
not, I read, I thought, you know, did you even know Christ? There's
no hope there. There's no hope there. If I try to evaluate my life
to see if I have faith, I'm gonna find great discouragement and
great despair. Faith is looking to the Lord
Jesus Christ and believing that he is the Son of God. And we
have known and believe the love that God hath to us. Why would
God send his Son into this world? Why would he do it? What was
his motive? His motive was love. He loved
his people with an everlasting love. And that's what caused
him. God so loved the world that he
gave his only begotten son. It was the love of God. This
is his testimony. Do I believe that? Do I believe
that it was God's love that caused the Lord Jesus Christ to come
into the world and to accomplish the salvation of his people?
God is love. And he that dwelleth in love
dwelleth in God and God in him. I love the gospel. I just do. I've got no other hope. I love
Christ. I love God's people. I love his
word. Why? Because this is the hope
of my salvation. It's the hope of your salvation.
Now when we say this, we're not trying to encourage somebody,
well, you know, you need to evaluate the quality of your love. You're
gonna find, you're gonna find that anytime you do that, that
if you're an honest person, that it's mixed with things that are
not love. Nevertheless, we do love. If
we love, if God's people love anything at all, they love Christ. They love the gospel. It's all
I hope they have. And they love the fact that God
loved them. We do love him. because he first loved us. Herein
is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day
of judgment. Herein is our love made perfect.
How are we gonna have boldness in the day of judgment? How are
we gonna stand in the presence of God in the day of judgment?
The next phrase tells us, herein, that's what he's making reference
to. Herein, here's the gospel. As he is, so are we in this world. That's the only boldness we can
have. To stand in the presence of God, we can only stand in
God's presence being found in Christ. That's our boldness. We have no righteousness of our
own. And there's no fear in love.
There's no fear in love. Perfect love casteth out fear. Because fear hath torment. The
law torments. The law condemns. The law judges. Your flesh torments. If you try
to evaluate your salvation by your own life, you're gonna be
in fear. You're gonna be in fear. But
if you have the hope of knowing that as He is, so are we. Through faith. We have union
with Christ and we stand in the presence of God. This is what
we believe. This is just what we believe.
This is the substance of faith. That our hope is in Christ. It's in His righteousness. It's
in His satisfaction of justice. It's in Him. I know whom I have believed. and
I'm persuaded. Are you persuaded that He's able,
He's able to keep that which you've committed unto Him? We
commit ourselves to a lot of things. We commit ourselves to
people, we commit ourselves to jobs, we commit ourselves to
lots of things. Have we committed ourselves to
Christ? Is there investment of our soul
resting on Christ? That's what faith is. We've got
no place else to go. When the Lord asked the disciples,
will you lead me also, Peter said, Lord, where should we go?
We've committed everything to you. We don't have any place
else to go. You've shut us up to yourself.
We believe and are sure that thou art the Christ, the Son
of the living God. We just know that. There's no reason to fear God
if we're found in Christ. Not having our own righteousness,
which is of the law, but that righteousness is by the faith
of Jesus Christ. He that feareth is not made perfect
in love. We love him. Why? Because he first loved us. If
we know anything at all about love, It's the love of God that causes
us to love Him. If a man say, if a man say, I
love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar. For he that loveth
not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom
he hath not seen? God's people do love God's people.
They just do. The love of Christ is in their
hearts. They love those that, and the more they grow in grace
and the more they see the hatred that this world has for their
God, the more they're drawn in fellowship to their brethren. It's the evidence, isn't it?
If there's any manifestation, it's our love for the brethren. And this commandment we have
from him, And he who loves God loves his brother also. Whosoever believeth that Jesus
is the Christ is born of God. That, you know, that's just so
simple. I mean, believeth that Jesus
is the Christ. The nature of saving faith The
nature of it is that it comes from God. The object of saving
faith is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ. The most important
thing about saving faith is its object. Who do we believe? What do we believe? Well, we
believe that He's the Christ. He's the Christ. Jesus of Nazareth. The one that hung on Calvary's
cross. Saul of Tarsus didn't believe
that, did he? He believed he was an imposter. He believed
that he was a liar. He believed that these people
were blaspheming against God and he was intended to stamp
it out, didn't he? And when the Lord knocked him
off his high horse and that voice came down from heaven, Saul saw
why persecutest thou me. Who art thou, Lord? The voice
didn't come back, I'm the Lord. Saul knew that. He had already
called him Lord. The Lord didn't say, well, I'm
God. He said, I am Jesus whom thou
persecutest. I'm that one that hung on Calvary's
cross. I'm the savior of sinners. That's my name. That's who I
am. He shall save his people. That's what we believe. We're
talking about faith here. Is the Lord Jesus Christ himself
the object of your faith? Or are you looking to faith as
the object of your faith? Or somehow the works of faith
as the object of your... No, we look to Christ. The most
important thing about faith is in whom it is placed. God said, get in the ark. We
had no choice but to get in the ark. That's the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the city of refuge. When
the law threatened to kill us, The avenger of blood came after
us when God revealed to us that we were sinners. What did we
do? We ran to Christ. We fled to Christ. He's that
lamb that was slain by God before the foundation of the world.
It's only by his shed blood that we can be safe when the death
angel comes through. That's what we believe. We believe
Him. We believe that He's God. He's the Son of God. He reigns
sovereign over all the affairs of man. He saves whosoever He
wills. All our salvation is placed in
hopes of Him. We don't bring anything to the
table of salvation. We don't say, well, I'll bring
my faith, or I'll bring my works, or I'll bring my prayers, or
I'll bring my religious activity, or I'll bring my gifts. No, we
don't do that. We just look to Christ. He is
the object of all true faith. He's the rock. He's the rock
that followed the children of Israel through the wilderness.
The only hope that they had for any water was coming from that
rock. Otherwise they were going to
die. And that rock was a smitten rock. It was Moses, the picture
of the law, that took his rod and smote the rock in order for
the water to come forth. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
one in whom we believe that the rod of God smote him on Calvary's
cross. He's that serpent that was put
up on a pole. And God said, if you look, you
live. If you look, you live. Is Christ
Jesus the Lord, the Son of God, the Christ, the Messiah, the
one Son of God? Is He your only hope of salvation?
Your only hope? That's faith. That's just faith. You know, wait, wait. Our flesh
is so attracted to the things of this world and we get so distracted
from the Lord Jesus Christ, but when we hear about Christ and
when the Spirit of God confirms the testimony of who He is and
what He did through the preaching of His Word and in our daily
lives, we can't ever get away from Him. The Spirit of God is
always reminding us of who He is and what He's done. And faith
doesn't say, well, you know, I'm not so sure about all that.
No, faith doesn't say with John the Baptist, are you the Christ
or should we expect another? We know who he is. He's the object of our faith. We're not trusting in the strength
of our faith. We're not trusting in the circumstances
of our faith, we're trusting in the object of our faith. He's the anchor of our soul. He's the seed of a woman that
crushed the serpent's head. We just believe that. We believe
that when the Lord Jesus Christ bowed his mighty head on Calvary's
cross, that he conquered Satan. He conquered death, and he conquered
hell on behalf of his people. And that his death was the only
thing that conquered that. That's why the scripture says,
whosoever is born of God overcometh the world, and this is the victory
that overcometh the world, even our faith. Our faith. This is the victory. This is
the only hope we have. Faith is the substance of things
hoped for. Oh, God, give me faith. Give me faith to look to Christ,
to rest in Christ. He's Abel's sacrifice. He's that blood sacrifice. He's the one that was slain in
the garden to clothe the nakedness of Adam. He's the Christ, the Son of God. And God has given to Him all
power over all people to do with them whatsoever He wills. And
we believe that. We just believe that. We believe
the witness of God. We don't believe in a Jesus. that is unable to save. A Jesus
who wants to save but can't is worse than not believing anything
at all. You might as well be an atheist.
You'd be better off as an atheist than to believe that Jesus wants
to save but he can't, that he loves everybody, he made an offering
to save all men, and he's waiting on you to do your part. We don't
believe that. That's not the object of our
faith. The risen Christ, the one who got from the Father His
approval and His satisfaction for having accomplished the salvation
of His people. He's risen from the dead. He's
alive. He's ascended back into glory.
My little children, look what John says in chapter two of verse
one. Chapter two of verse one. My
little children, these things write unto you that you sin not. Oh, and we don't want to sin,
and yet we're so full of it in so many ways. These things I
write unto you that you sin not. And you see that little preposition
if, It's unfortunate that it's translated that way here, because
in most places, that word would be better translated, sense.
It's not, well, you know, if by chance, on occasion, you slip
up and sin. That's not what the Lord's saying.
My little children, I write these things. Faith is the thing that
keeps us looking to Christ. If we have any resistance to
the devil, any hope of not engaging in sin is through faith? But he says here, my little children,
I write to you that you sin not, but since you do sin, since you are a sinner, you have
an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous one. You have one who ever lives at
the right hand of God to make intercession for you. We should
believe that. The hope that we have is that
we have an advocate with the Father, and he's never lost a
case. Never, Adam. He's won every case
that he's brought to trial. Look at, go back with me to our text.
The most important thing about faith, is the object of your
faith. No question about it. Now I want
to talk about a couple other things relating to faith, but
the number one thing to remember about faith is in whom is your
faith? And what record has God given
of him? And do you believe the record?
Do you believe the record that God has given? record of water
and of blood look at look at look at verse 6 and this is he
that came by water and blood even Jesus Christ not by water
only but by water and blood now what is that a reference to well
some have said well it's a reference to his birth And it's a reference
to his death, when the spear was placed into his side, water
came forth and then blood, and the water being a symbol of sanctification
and the blood being a symbol of justification before God.
And certainly those things are true. But here I think the reference
is to baptism. The Lord told Adam, the Lord
told John, suffer to be so. For we must fulfill all righteousness. And the Lord Jesus Christ's baptism
is the fulfillment of righteousness. That's what it's a picture of.
And the blood, of course, is his death on Calvary's cross.
And what was his death a fulfillment of? Justice. So that he was offered
up for our offenses and raised again because of our justification. So here the Lord Jesus Christ
is spoken of as having come by water and by blood. And it is
the Spirit that beareth witness because the Spirit is truth.
The Spirit has confirmed to me that the Lord Jesus Christ is
the only righteousness that I have before God. He's the only righteousness
I have. We're told in chapter three,
look back with me to chapter three in verse 20. If our heart condemn
us, God is greater than our heart and knoweth all things. Beloved,
if our heart condemneth not, then we have confidence towards
God. And whatsoever we ask, we receive
of him because we keep his commandments and do those things that are
pleasing in his sight. Well, don't interpret that as
the Ten Commandments. You've never kept the Ten Commandments,
except in Christ. As he is, so are we. He's kept
the commandments. How do we keep the commandments
in Christ? Well, look at the next verse. And this is the commandment
that we should believe on the name of his son, Jesus Christ. That's the commandment of God.
And we believe that in Christ, we've kept the law of God. There's
no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. Our faith
holds to that. We hold to Christ as the fulfillment
of the law. Go back with me now to chapter
five. Verse one, whosoever believeth
that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. And everyone that loveth
him that begat, loveth him also that is begotten of him. So here
we have faith and love. two most important things in
life. That God would love us, that
we would believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living
God. With conviction, believe that.
With certainty, believe that. That he's the Son of God. The
Spirit of God has convinced us of that. Look at verse two. But this we
know, by this we know that we love the children of God, when
we love God and keep his commandments. What is the commandments? To
believe on Christ. For this is the love of God, that we keep
his commandments, and his commandments are not grievous. Whosoever is
born of God overcometh the world, and this is the victory that
overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh
the world? But he that believeth that Jesus
is the Son of God. He's the sovereign Savior. He's my only righteousness before
God. That's the water. He's my only
hope of justification before God. That's the blood. And that's
the testimony that the Spirit of God has given to His people
in their hearts. To believe that, we just believe
it. If we believe anything at all, if we believe anything at
all, we believe that. We believe Him. Now he is the
object of our faith. What is the nature of faith?
What is the nature of faith? For by grace are you saved through
faith, and that not of yourself. It is the gift of God. You can't decide that you're
gonna believe. Faith is not a decision. Faith
is not a work. of man, it's a work of God. It's a work of grace. Only the
Lord can give us saving faith. Only He can reveal to us the
person of Christ and enable us to put all our hope in Him. The nature of faith is that it's
a miracle. To believe on Him is a miracle. God, you've heard me say this
before, this is so very important. Here's the nature of faith. Faith
is the evidence of salvation, not the cause of it. God does not reward us with salvation
because we decided to believe. If you want evidence of salvation,
if you want confidence before God, if you want to know that
you have acceptance before God, it's only going to be found in
the object of your faith. Looking unto Jesus, the author
and the finisher of faith. He's the one who causes it, he's
the one who keeps us in it, and he's the one that will finish
it all the way to the end. God's people cannot not believe. They just can't do it. John makes that clear. He said,
they went out from us because they were never of us. For had
they been of us, they would have remained. You just can't not
believe. Why? Because the nature of faith
is the new birth. It's a miracle of grace. It's
a work of grace that God does in the heart. When he takes out
the heart of stone and puts in a heart of flesh. When he gives
us eyes to see. Once God gives you faith, you
can't lose it. You just can't. Before the Lord gives you faith,
you absolutely cannot believe. You just can't believe. You don't
have any interest in Christ? Not the Christ of Scripture.
Oh, you may have interest in religion, you may have interest
in doing good, you may have interest in turning over a new leaf, you
may have interest in your imaginary God, but you can't have faith
until God gives it to you. And once he gives it to you,
you can't lose it. You just can't. He's gonna keep you from falling.
Oh, you stumble, look away from Him, get caught up in things
of this world, but the nature of faith is the nature of the
new birth. And when God gives you a new
birth, Father, I thank Thee that Thou hast hid these things from
the wise and the prudent, and You've given them unto babes.
The Lord told Nicodemus, if you Want to enter into the kingdom
of heaven? You're going to have to be born again. You're going
to have to be born again. How can that be? How can I go
back into my mother's womb? Oh no, Nicodemus, you don't understand.
That which is of the flesh is flesh. That which is of the spirit,
now that's a whole other matter. The flesh profiteth nothing. It is the spirit that giveth
life. Here's the testimony of the Spirit of God. He's given
to me faith. The nature of my faith is that
it came from God. It wasn't a decision. It wasn't
a prayer. It wasn't the reward of something
that God gave me. I didn't entice God to save me
because I decided to believe. The fact that I believe is evidence
that God has saved me. The Lord told that, when Paul
told that Philippian jailer, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Believe and thou shalt be saved. That's the promise of faith.
That's the promise. How many promises God has given
us in His Word? Not only do we have the object
of faith and the nature of faith, but the Lord has given us so
many promises. And the ground and hope of our
coming to Christ is based on the promise of God. Why? Because He can't lie. He can't
lie. The truth is that when the Philippian
jailer cried, what must I do to be saved? The Lord had already
done the work of grace in his heart. The evidence of your salvation,
Mr. Jailer, will be that you'll believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. That'll be the evidence of your
salvation. Not the cause of it, but the
evidence of it. That's the nature and promise
of faith. Turn with me to Romans chapter
three. Here's our encouragement, here's
the witness of God. Faith comes by what? By hearing, and hearing comes
by what? The word of God. So if we're
gonna have faith, God's gonna give it to us by the testimony
of his word. And here's what he says in Romans
chapter three at verse 19. Now we know that what things
soever the law saith that saith to them that are under the law,
that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become
guilty before God. No hope there. No hope there. All the law does shut my mouth
and make me guilty. Therefore, by the deeds of the
law shall no flesh be justified in the sight of God, for by the
law is the knowledge of sin. It's all it does. It's all the
law of God, it just makes me a sinner. Therefore, by the deeds of the
law, there shall no flesh be justified in his sight, for by
the law is the knowledge of sin, verse 21, but now the righteousness
of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and
the prophets. Who's the, who's the righteousness
of God? Well, Paul goes on in Romans
chapter 10 to say they have a zeal for God, but it's without knowledge.
They're ignorant of God's righteousness for Christ himself is the end
of the law for righteousness. Even the righteousness of God,
which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that
believe for there is no difference. There's no difference. We all
have a different life. We all have different needs.
We all have different problems. We all have different trials
and different troubles in our sojourn. But when it comes to
faith, there's no difference. There's no difference. Doesn't
matter. Young or old. Male or female. Jew or Gentile. Rich or poor. Doesn't matter. Faith is the
gift of God. It enables us to rest in Christ,
to trust Christ, to believe that He is the Son of God. Whosoever
believes that Jesus Christ is the Son of God is born of God.
He's born of God. You want evidence that you're
born of God? You want evidence that you're a child of God? Your
faith is the only thing that's going to give you that evidence. for all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God, being justified freely by his grace
through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God has
set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood."
Who do you believe? Do you believe the witness of
God? That word propitiation, to be made propitious, means
that the wrath of God has been taken away. That the sacrifice
that the Lord Jesus Christ made of Himself to the Father quenched
the fire of God's wrath so that now in love there's no fear.
There's no fear of judgment. As He is, so am I. Right now,
why? Because I believe Him. I just
believe Him. To declare His righteousness
for the remission of sins that are passed through the forbearance
of God, to declare, I say at this time, His righteousness
that He might be just and the justifier of him which believeth
in Jesus. Do you believe in Jesus? Do you believe Him? Do you believe
in him? Do you believe on him? Are you
trusting him for your righteousness? Do you believe that your only
hope of salvation is that blood that he shed on Calvary's cross?
That's the only thing that's gonna cover your sin. It's the
only thing that's gonna put it away. You believe that? We believe
a lot of things, don't we? And if the testimony of man is
a sure thing in some of the things we believe, how much more sure
is the testimony of God? Here's the testimony of God.
Yes, Lord, I believe. Help thou mine unbelief. My flesh
is so prone to look away from Christ. But the new man, he just
believes God. He does. With all of his heart,
he believes God. The new man never sins. The new
man is the man of faith. We have the mind of Christ. We
believe God in the new nature. In the new nature, we believe
God with all our heart. And we believe that Jesus is
the Christ, the Son of the living God. Here's our confidence. Here's our hope. Where else we're
going to get any hope? You're there in Romans. Look
at Romans. Look at Romans chapter 4 at verse 20. Speaking of Abraham,
he staggered not at the promise of God. through unbelief, but
was strong in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully persuaded
that what he had promised, he was able to perform. Abraham believed that in the
new man. His new nature believed that,
just like your new nature believes that. But Abraham was a man of
flesh, just like you and I are men of flesh. And we stagger
in this world, don't we? Therefore it was imputed to him
for righteousness. Why? Because he believed God. God looked at that faith, why?
Because God gave him the faith. Just like he gives you faith
and me faith. God looks at that faith and he
sees that it's a perfect work. Why? Because of the object of
it. Because of the object of it. There's no question in that
faith about who it is that we're trusting. Who it is that we believe
on. And God's pleased with that.
And it's perfect faith and it's righteousness before God. God
imputed it to him for righteousness. Now it is not written for his
sake alone that he imputed it him, but for us also to whom
it shall be imputed if we believe on him. Believe on him. Do you believe
the Lord Jesus Christ is the son of God? Do you believe he's
all your righteousness before God? Do you believe the only
hope you have of having every one of your sins put away? Do
you believe that He's interceding on your behalf right now? That
the only hope that you have of making it through this world
is to have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the Righteous
One? Do you believe that? Faith comes
by hearing. This is the Word of God. Do you
believe the witness of God? If the Lord's given you, if you've
been born of God, I know you do. I know you believe this.
If you've been born of God, I know you believe it. If we believe on Him that raised
up Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered for our offenses
and raised again That word for is really the word because. His resurrection did not accomplish
our justification. His resurrection was the evidence
of our justification. He was offered up for our offenses
and raised again because of our justification. God was saying
to you and to me, the resurrection, that's what John didn't have,
did he? John didn't have the testimony
of the resurrection. John wondered, John didn't have the cross. He
didn't have Pentecost. But we do, and we believe. Go back with me to 1 John chapter
five. The result of faith. Look at verse four. Whosoever
is born of God, if you've been born of God, you believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ. Whosoever believeth that Jesus
is the Christ is born of God. You see that in chapter five,
verse one. If you believe that Jesus Christ
is the son of God, you've been born of God and whosoever born
of God overcomes the world. What does that mean? To overcome
the world. Even our faith. One thing I know for sure it
means is that you overcome the religious world. You don't believe
the lies that men are telling about Christ anymore like you
used to. You've overcome the world. God
has made that which we thought was straight crooked and it's
the work of God and it can't ever be made straight again.
We know that the religious world that we once hoped in is a lie
from Satan, and we can't go back to it, won't go back to it. We've overcome, overcome that
world, even our faith. It is our faith in Christ. that causes believers to believe
that the material world is a vain thing. It's our faith in Christ
that enables us to believe that. That the promise that riches
make for happiness is deceitful. We believe that. Now we, we're,
we're, we're, we're drawn to those things, we're attracted
to them. But that's the flesh that does that. Faith knows what
those things are. Faith knows that. Your faith has overcome this
world, this material world. The social world, your faith
has overcome that. How is it that you can be delivered
from the pressures and expectations of other men? How is it? Faith. Faith. The Lord said if you love
mother and father and brother and sister more than me, you're
not fit for the kingdom of God. When God gives you faith, you
love Christ. And if that means that there's
got to be divisions between you and your family and you and your
friends, your faith enables you to overcome those things that
would draw you away from Christ. In the end, in the end, it will
be your faith that will cause you to overcome this physical
world. Turn with me to Philippians chapter
one. Verse 20. According to my earnest expectation
and my hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed. but that with all
boldness as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in
my body, whether it be by life or by death." It is the faith
of the new man that believes that when I come to that place
of death, you say, well, I don't know if I'm ready to die. Well,
if you're not dying, then you haven't been given dying grace
yet. But in that day, when you are dying, your faith will be
that thing that will enable you to overcome this physical world,
enable you to pass from this life into the next with hope,
without being ashamed. For to me, Paul said, to live
is Christ, and to die is gain. Do you believe that? Do you believe
that? that when death comes, it will
be your gain. I know your flesh is still hanging
on and you'll, if you get sick, you're gonna do everything you
can to try to make yourself better. But faith believes without any
doubt that your death is going to be your graduation day. It's going to be the best day
of your life. The day of death is better than the day of birth,
Solomon said. And that's so true, and believers
believe that. We believe that the day that
God has appointed, and it's been appointed. You're not going to
change it. You're not going to get it here sooner or make it
any later. It's appointed. We're dying. We're going to die. And faith just believes that
in that day, I'm gonna see him as he is, and I'm gonna be made
like him. And all these things that hinder
me from believing like I would are gonna be left behind. Whosoever, is that you? believeth that Jesus is the Christ,
is born of God. That faith is evidence of your
new birth. And whosoever is born of God,
overcometh the world. And this is the victory that
overcometh the world, our faith. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, we ask that
you would bless the hearts of your people with the grace of
faith. For we ask it in Christ's name.
Amen. All right, let's stand together,
Brother Burt. Number 64 in the Sopac Temple. We're just going to sing this
a cappella to the tune of There is a Fountain. Faith is the gift of grace alone. Faith is the gift of grace alone. My God, how can it be that you
should choose in saving love to give that give to me. A fallen, guilty sinner, I deserve
eternal wrath. Helpless, I would not come to
Christ, could not escape my death. Hey God, you sought this sinner
out. You called and now I live. You gently for me to your son. and cause me to believe. A sinner saved by sovereign grace,
my praise I cannot hold. Hail, sovereign, free, unchanging
grace, salvations of the Lord. Thank you brother. Thank you. And every time you hear God's
Word, your faith just sits there.