All right, brethren, let's go
to Hebrews chapter 11. This is really going to be more
or less a jumping off spot for us. We're going to start here. Hebrews 11. Now faith is the substance of
things hoped for. The evidence of things not seen. Think about that statement. When
you believe God, that's all the substance you need is faith believes
God. That's the substance. We don't
need more evidence than faith. You believe God, it's all the
evidence you need. You see him, you behold him,
you believe him through faith. Look at what he says. For by
faith the elders obtained a good report. God was pleased with
them. They believed God. Through faith,
here's what he's talking about, the substance and the evidence
of things not seen. Through faith we understand that
the worlds were framed by the word of God so that things which
are seen were not made of things which do appear. So you understand
that? We don't understand it so that
we could explain it. That's not what it means. But
by faith, we understand it. We understand God made everything
by his word. He created everything out of
nothing. Faith believes God. It's all
the substance we need, all the evidence we need. We believe
God did what he said. By faith, Abel offered unto God
a more excellent sacrifice than Cain. It's faith, by faith that
we worship God. By faith we obtain a good report
from God. That's how you're going to please
God, believe in Him. By faith we understand We believe
that's how we understand the things of God and by faith we
worship God. By faith Abel offered unto God
a more excellent sacrifice than Cain by which he obtained witness
that he was righteous. God testifying of his gifts and
by it he being dead yet speaketh. By faith Enoch was translated
that he should not see death. and was not found because God
had translated him. For before his translation, he
had this testimony that he pleased God. It's by faith that we're
going to enter into God's presence. You see, why faith's important?
If by faith you please God, you obtain a good report, by faith
you understand the things of God, by faith you worship God
like Abel did, by faith we're going to enter into God's presence.
be resurrected as Enoch was translated. Enoch didn't even die, he was
just translated into glory. But now watch verse 6, but without
faith it's impossible to please God. For he that cometh to God
must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that
diligently seek him. By faith, Noah, being warned
of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared
an ark to the saving of his house, by the which he condemned the
world and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith. See, he didn't see, it didn't
ever rain. He'd never seen a flood. But
he believed God by faith. He believed by faith Abraham
when he was called to go out into a place which he should
have to receive for an inheritance, obeyed. And he went out not knowing
whether he went. Faith is not sight. He didn't
see where he was going. He didn't know where he was going.
believes and follows God. By faith he sojourned in the
land of promise as in a strange country dwelling in tabernacles
with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise.
For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder
and maker is God. Through faith also Sarah herself
received strength to conceive seed and was delivered of a child
when she was past age because she judged him faithful who had
promised. Faith believes God's promise
and God's ability to fulfill his promise. Therefore, sprang
there even of one and him as good as dead, as many as the
stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the
seashore innumerable. These all died in faith, not
having received the promises, but having seen them afar off,
and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed
that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they
that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country,
And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from which they
came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned.
But now they desire a better country. God's people are kept
by God so that we're not of them that draw back. We're not of
them that go back to the country we came from, keep pressing ahead. Now they desire a better country,
that is a heavenly, Wherefore God's not ashamed to be called
their God. Scripture says you won't be ashamed
for believing God, and God's not ashamed of his people who
believe him. For he hath prepared for them a city. By faith Abraham,
when he was tried, he offered up Isaac, and he that had received
the promises offered up his only begotten son, of whom it was
said that in Isaac shall thy seed be called. God told him
this is the one through whom that innumerable seed of children
is coming. Now go sacrifice him to me. And
he did, accounting that God was able to raise him up even from
the dead. From whence also God received
him in a tithe, in a figure. In other words, God saw Abraham's
heart and Abraham really killed that boy. And God, as it were,
received him from the dead, even though Abraham, he stopped him
before Abraham killed him. By faith, Isaac blessed Jacob
and Esau concerning things to come. By faith, Jacob, when he
was a dying, blessed both the sons of Joseph and worshipped
leaning upon the top of his staff. By faith, Joseph, when he died,
made mention of the departing of the children of Israel and
gave commandment concerning his bones. That's faith, wasn't it? He knew God was going to come
and deliver Israel out of Egypt. And so he told them, when he
does, you take my body, you take my bones out of Egypt with you. By faith, Moses, when he was
born, was hid three months of his parents because they saw
he was a proper child and they were not afraid of the king's
commandment. You think of the faith involved
in that. Not only was it faith, trust, and God, they put their
child three months old, three months younger than Eli. And they put this boy in an ark
of bulrushes, put him in the river. Alligators in that river
and everything else, they just put him in that river and let
him go. And on top of that, they weren't
afraid of the king. By faith, Moses, when he was
come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter.
Now watch this. Choosing rather to suffer affliction
with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for
a season. Esteeming the reproach of Christ,
greater riches than the treasures in Egypt. for he had respect
unto the recompense of the reward. By faith he forsook Egypt, not
fearing the wrath of the king, for he endured as seeing him
who is invisible. That was the richest, most powerful
man on earth, Pharaoh was. And Moses was next in line. And
Moses turned all that down to suffer reproach with the children
of God. because he esteemed that greater
riches than the riches in Egypt. By faith he forsook Egypt. Look
down at verse 28. Through faith he kept the Passover
and the sprinkling of blood, lest he that destroyed the firstborn
should touch them. By faith they passed through
the Red Sea as by dry land, which the Egyptians a saying to do
were drown. By faith the walls of Jericho
fell down after they were accomplished about seven days. By faith the
harlot Rahab perished not with them that believed not when she
had received the spies with peace. And what shall I more say for
the time would fall me to tell of Gideon, and of Barak, and
of Samson, and of Jephthah, and of David also, Samuel, and of
the prophets. who through faith subdued kingdoms,
wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths
of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of
the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in
fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. Women received
their dead, raised to life again, and others were tortured, not
accepting deliverance. that they might obtain a better
resurrection. And others had trial of cruel
mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover, of bonds and imprisonment.
They were stoned, they were sewn asunder, they were tempted, they
were slain with a sword, they wandered about in sheepskins
and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented, of whom
the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and
in mountains and dens and caves of the earth. And these all,
having obtained a good report through faith, received not the
promise, God having provided some better thing for us, that
they, without us, should not be made perfect. But we're going
to all receive the promise one day, together, aren't we? Wherefore,
seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of
witnesses, Let us lay aside every weight and the sin, the sin which
just so easily beset us. You know what that sin is? It's
unbelief. So easily gets us off track. Lay it aside and let us run with
patience the race that is set before us looking unto Jesus,
the author and finisher of our faith. who for the joy that was
set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set
down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him
that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest
you be wearied and faint in your minds. You've not yet resisted
unto blood, striving against sin. Let's pray together. All
right, brethren. I want to just focus your attention
here briefly on Hebrews 11, verse 6. Hebrews 11, verse 6. And really I just want to focus
your attention on one phrase. Without faith, it is impossible
to please God. And here's what I want to focus
on. For he that cometh to God must believe that he is. He that cometh to God must believe
that he is and that he's a rewarder of them that diligently seek
him. My subject is believing God is. Believing God is. Now this is
a fundamental part of faith. He that cometh to God must believe
that He is. Now, every believer has a new
man and an old man, a new nature and an old nature. And our sinful
nature is just what it's always been. It's nothing but unbelief,
nothing but enmity against God, nothing but pride. And so it's
very common for believers to struggle with unbelief. This
is a common thing. I want you to be warned about
that. I want you to be on guard about
that. I want you to know what to do
when you experience seasons of unbelief. Bury yourself in the
word of God. Go to the Word and go to the
Gospel. Hear the Gospel preached and
listen to this Word. Listen to the Gospel. And also,
though, I want you to know that it's not uncommon. I don't want
you to think that something has happened to you out of the ordinary
that doesn't happen to other believers. it's a common thing
for believers to experience unbelief. That's just so. I have had times,
and I'm in the Word of God all the time, and I've had times
when the thought came across my mind, does God exist? Is this real? It seems so wonderful. Is there really a God? Have you
ever experienced that? Believers do. Believers do. It is the sin which so easily
besets us. And then there are those professing
atheists. And I say professing atheists
because I don't believe there really are any atheists. An atheist is defined as one
who disbelieves the existence of God. Now in the past 100 years,
self-professed atheists theorize, and it's all a theory, but they
theorize that we are religious because we do not have the moral
courage to face a meaningless life. And the atheist would rather
life be meaningless. He'd rather everything just be
left up to chance and life be meaningless rather than, as the
scripture says, it's according to God's purpose. So that all
men shall glorify God. But God tells us in His Word,
He tells us in His Word Men are without excuse who try
to convince themselves God does not exist. They're without excuse. God's given way too many witnesses
for a man to escape the truth that God is, and that we all
must stand before Him in judgment. Now, the Bible never attempts
to declare the existence of God or to prove the existence of
God. The Bible just starts out with,
in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. So
it's not my purpose to try to prove the existence of God. That's
not what I'm trying to do. But instead I want to show you
three witnesses that God has given which show us that all
men have a sense that God is. even though they may try to deny
God. I want to show you three witnesses
that make men without excuse for not seeking God and for not
bowing to God and make men without excuse for denying the existence
of God. First is our heart and our conscience. Secondly is creation. And thirdly, the Word of God.
Our own heart, our own conscience, and I'm talking about the natural
heart, the natural conscience. Creation and the Word of God
all bear witness that God is, that God is. First of all, go
with me to Romans chapter 2, and I want you to hold your place
in Romans 2 because we're going to come back to Romans 1 here
in just a little while. Every man comes into this world
with the law of God written on our heart and in our conscience. We have a conscience that God
is. Everybody comes into the world
this way. Romans 2 verse 14 says, Romans 2 verse 14 says, when
the Gentiles which have not the law, they don't have the oracles
of God, they don't have the Bible or anything to do with God. They
don't have the law, but when they do by nature, by nature,
that is naturally, the things contained in the law, these having
not the law are a law unto themselves, which show the work of the law
written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness. and their thoughts, the meanwhile,
accusing or else excusing one another. Now, God created man
in his own image, in his own likeness, and though we fell
in Adam and became guilty before God, though we are conceived
of Adam's corrupt sin nature so that we come forth with a
mind corrupted by sin, though we fall far short of the glory
of God, There is in every man the law of God written on the
heart. You know when the Hebrew writer talks about God writing
the law on our heart, he's not talking about the moral law. You know that. We've covered
this. He's talking about the law of faith, the law of righteousness,
the law of love. He's talking about the gospel.
But here, he's talking about the law of right and wrong, the
moral law. Everybody, by nature, has this
law written on their hearts. And everybody has a conscience
that tells them God is. And you're going to have to stand
before it. You're going to have to deal with this one. Everybody
has this conscience. It's corrupted by sin. It's terribly
corrupted by sin, but it's enough to make all unregenerate sinners
have a sense that God is and that we must stand before Him
in judgment. Now, don't misunderstand me.
It will not lead men to have a true saving knowledge of God. It will not even lead men to
seek God. But all men by nature have a
sense of moral obligation to God and to man. They have a sense
of right and wrong. He's talking about these Gentiles
he talked about over in Ephesians 2 when he said they were without
God in the world, aliens to the commonwealth of Israel. And yet
he's saying right here they still know right and wrong. They have
a sense of right and wrong. They accuse or excuse one another. Why? Because they have the law
written on their heart and they have a consciousness of God.
You think about it. Think about this. The very fact
that some so adamantly deny God's existence, that in itself proves
that they have God on their conscience. You do not try to deny someone
that never crosses your mind. You just don't. Even the ancient philosophers,
as wrong as they were on most things, even the ancient philosophers
got it right on this. Plutarch said, if you go over
the earth, you may find cities without walls, letters, kings,
houses, wealth, and money, devoid of theaters and schools, but
a city without temples and gods, and where is no use of prayers,
oaths, and oracles, nor sacrifices to obtain good or avert evil.
No man ever saw it. And then Cicero said, there's
no nation so wild and savage whose minds are not imbued with
the opinion of the gods. Many entertain wrong notions
of them, but all suppose and own the divine power and nature. And this is so, brethren. There
are isolated men and women who try to claim that they don't
believe God exists, who call themselves atheists. But by the
majority, if you look at any nation in this world, every nation
believes in some kind of God. Every nation believes that there's
a God, whether they have it totally wrong and are worshiping a stump
and calling it God, but they have a consciousness that there's
somebody you have to answer to. And that's because God created
us in His image. And though it's corrupted, we
still have His law on our heart and we still have a consciousness
of God. So that's the first thing that's
a witness to us. You and me and every man in this
world, we know God is. We have a sense
that God is. It may be corrupt, it won't bring
us to God, but we have a sense God is. Now secondly, I want
you to go to Psalm 19. I'll show you the next witness.
The next witness is creation. Psalm 19. I'm trying to fix my clock so
it won't go off while I'm sitting here so I can just glance at
it. All right. Creation. Psalm 19.1. The heavens declare the glory
of God and the firmament showeth his handiwork. Now in creation,
we behold the glory of God. Jeremiah 10.12 tells us we behold
his glory three ways when we look at creation. We behold the
glory of God's power. He said, He hath made the earth
by His power. You remember Isaiah 40 verse
25, God says, To whom then will you liken me, or shall I be equal? saith the Holy One. Lift up your
eyes on high. Behold who hath created these
things, that bringeth out their hosts by number. He calleth them
all by names, by the greatness of His might. For that He is
strong in power, not one faileth. God created everything by His
Word, the Word of His power. And Hebrews 1.3 says Christ upholds
all things by the Word of His power. You and I have never created
anything with our hands. Never. We've never made something
out of nothing. That's what creation is. We've
taken some things that are made and put them together and invented
something, but we've never created anything. And God created, and
not only did He create it, He didn't have to have hands to
do it. He spoke it into existence. And then we not only behold the
glory of His power, we behold the glory of His wisdom in creation.
Jeremiah said, He hath established the world by His wisdom. He created
it by His power and established it by His wisdom. What wisdom was it by which He
established this world? What's the one reason God says
this world's held in store? Because He has a covenant people.
He has an elect people. that He will not suffer to perish. He will bring them to repentance.
And therefore, this whole world is held in store because of that
covenant word. That's the wisdom of God by which
He established this world. That's the word of Christ's power
by which all things consist and held in store, the word of His
covenant to God. I'll bring them to you. I'll
bring them to you righteous and holy and unblameable and not
one will fail. I've told you this before. When
people are telling you about how we're going to destroy the
world and all the things we're going to do, just remember this.
God has sworn using the heaven and the earth. He's used the
seasons. He's used night and day. He's
used the rain coming down and the snow and going back up to
heaven. He's used those things to promise
to His people that He will not fail to keep His covenant word
to us. You know what that tells me?
Those things aren't going to fail. Because He says the seasons
are going to change and there will always be seasons and there
will always be a time to plant, a time to harvest as long as
the world exists. So my covenant will not be broken
with you. If you can break the covenant
of day and night, then can my covenant be broken with you.
That tells me, brethren, these things aren't going to be destroyed.
These things aren't going to stop because God's covenant can't
be broken. That's His wisdom. He established
the world by His wisdom. And then creation declares the
glory of God's skill. His discretion. Jeremiah said
God had stretched out the heavens by His discretion, by His skill. When He uttered His voice, there's
a multitude of waters in the heaven. God speaks and it starts
to pour. And He calls at the vapors to
ascend from the ends of the earth. What causes the water to evaporate? God does. He makes lightnings with rain
and He brings forth the wind out of His treasures. God's only
ever made one water. One water. Think of all the thousands
of generations and the water still exists. I'm still drinking
it right here. Same water that flooded the world
in Noah's day. Right there. Some of that very
water right there might have rubbed up against Noah's heart.
I'm telling you. God has never created any new
water. He's held it in store. He's held
it in store. Around five years ago, we took
a few days and we were traveling down from Oregon down to rescue
California and we stopped and we built a fire on the beach.
And it's the first time I ever watched the moon rise out of
the ocean. And we watched the moon rise
out of the ocean. And the stars, you could just
see from one horizon all the way to the other. You could just
see just this huge canopy of stars. And we're sitting there
just in awe, just how beautiful it all was. And Emma was probably
what, 13 or 14, something like that. And she said, there's no
way you can look at this and believe that it all came about
by a big bang. You can't look at this and not
believe God created it. You can't unless you're willfully
trying to deny it. It takes effort to deny the existence
of God. It takes effort to deny the Creator. And God tells us that. The rain
and the lightning and the thunder along with all the witness of
creation. It speaks to every man on this
earth every day and every night declaring God is. That's what
it's declaring every night. Look at Psalm 19 verse 2. Day
unto day uttereth speech. Night unto night showeth knowledge.
There's no speech nor language where their voice is not heard.
Their line's gone out through all the earth and their words
to the end of the world. In other words, no matter what
language a man speaks, he can understand the voice of creation. He can understand what God's
declaring through his creation. That God's the creator. He's
before all things and by him all things consist. He's the
Creator, and He's declaring it to everybody. And not only do
we see the witness and hear the witness, we feel the witness.
He says in verse 4, In them hath He set a tabernacle for the Son,
which is as a bridegroom coming out of His chamber, and rejoiceth
as a strong man to run a race. His going forth is from the end
of the heaven, and His circuit unto the ends of it, and there's
nothing hid from the heat thereof. You think about the glory of
the Son. It's so bright that we can't
even look at it. That's how bright it is. So bright
you can't look at it. If you are foolish enough to
look at it, you're going to mess yourself up. How much more the
Son of Righteousness? How much more Christ Jesus the
Lord? He's the blessed and only potentate,
the King of kings and Lord of lords, who only hath immortality,
dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto, whom no
man hath seen nor can see, to whom be honor and power everlasting. Amen. You think the sun is full
of glory. It's like a candle compared to
the glory of Christ. when a believer beholds the sun
rising in the morning, and when this whole world beholds the
sun rising in the morning. You know what creation is declaring?
You know what creation is declaring? You that believe, you can see
this and you can behold it. But that son rising in the morning
is declaring Christ Jesus the Lord, the Son of Righteousness,
who is the bridegroom of His church, His elect people, who
when He had come down and He had redeemed His people from
the curse of the law by being made a curse for us, when He
had finished the work God gave Him to do, He arose Like a bridegroom
coming out of his dressing room, like a bridegroom coming out
of his chamber, he arose with healing in his wings, healing
in his rays. That's what this creation is
declaring every time the sun comes up. Men are going to stand
before God and try to deny God and God's going to say, how many
times did you watch the sun rise? I was declaring my glory every
time you saw it. God's people see this and the
whole world sees it but they don't acknowledge it. We behold
the sun go forth from the east to the west. And as it goes on
its way, it's as a strong man running a race. And we're reminded
of the Lord Jesus Christ who for the joy that was set before
him ran the race set before him. He ran this race looking to God
the Father. He ran this race looking to that
day when He would have fully have gathered all of His people
together, unblameable, spotless, unapprovable, dressed in His
righteousness, created in His holiness, when He would have
the whole church and present them to the Father. The joy set
before Him. And He ran this race, set His
face like a flint, like a strong man. Nobody could turn Him from
what He came to do. And now he's set. It's like the sun when it's finished
running its race, it sets. He's seated now at God's right
hand in the throne of God. That's where he's seated because
the work is finished. And because he ran that race,
that's the race you and I were supposed to run. That's the race
we couldn't run. We could not make ourselves righteous
through that race. He ran it. so that He is for
every believer the author and the finisher of our faith. It's
by His faithfulness that the righteousness of God is manifest.
You want to see how God can be just to save you, sinner? You
want to see how God's the justifier of you? Look to Christ on the
cross. That's how. It's by His faithfulness,
brethren, that our sins have been put away and we've been
perfected forever. It's His faithfulness that is
the perfection of faith by which God's going to receive us. Why
is faith so pleasing to God? Is it something so great that
God looks at your faith and says, oh, your faith is just magnificent,
it's just wonderful? No. It's because our little grain
of mustard seed that we call faith, He's laying hold of that
one whose faith was perfect. That one who ran the race for
his people. That one who God looks upon and
beholds all the glory of the noonday sun. And just like you
feel the heat of the sun and wherever you are you can feel
the heat of the sun, God says there's nowhere a man can go
where he doesn't feel the heat of the sun. Everywhere. And as you behold the heat of
the sun everywhere, God's declaring there's nobody that can hide
from the all-knowing Lord Jesus before whom we all must stand
and give account one day. He hath appointed a day in which
he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained
whereof he's given us assurance unto all men in that he raised
him from the dead. Now go to Romans 1. Hold your
place in Psalm 19. Don't lose it. And go to Romans
1 now. Since every man has this witness
of creation, God says men are without excuse for not acknowledging
His existence and seeking Him and bowing to Him to save them. Look at this, Romans 119. Because
that which may be known of God is manifest in them. God has showed it unto them. Now, there's not everything that
might be known of God. You're not going to behold righteousness
in creation. You're not going to behold how
God's just and justifier in creation, but it does show you God is.
It is light. to show us this, but he says
God's manifested. God has shown it to every man
for the invisible things of God from the creation of the world
are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made.
Now what invisible things of God am I to behold from the creation
of the world? What invisible things of God
am I to understand by the things that are made? Look, even His
eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse.
In creation, He says there, these things are clearly seen. In creation,
we behold clearly that God is eternal. How do you get that? Because He created all things. That means He existed before
they were created. He existed eternally. You know,
the men say, well, it was just these little particles that all
were floating together and they banged together and that's how
it was all created. Well, who created the particles?
You keep going back, you've got to come to a point where you
say, somebody had to make that. God's the one who existed before.
He's eternal. We look at creation, we behold
God's power. As we said before, you see the
power of God in making everything. We behold His Godhead, that He
is before all things and by Him all things consist. You know,
there's a lot of things you can look at in creation. But just
consider the human body. Just consider we've been studying
the human body forever and we still don't understand it. We
still don't understand why certain things happen to the body. That's
how wonderful. That's why the psalmist said,
I'll praise thee for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvelous
are thy works and that my soul knoweth right well. And brethren,
all this first creation, everything God created, even your body,
as wonderful as it is, the first creation is just a foretaste
of Christ's new creation. All of this has been tainted
with sin and corrupted by sin. Christ came forth into this sin-cursed
world and out of nothing Not using something of us out of
nothing, just like He created the first creation. Out of nothing,
Christ is creating a new heavens and a new earth with a new people
to inhabit it that are righteous as Christ is righteous, holy
as Christ is holy, and everything that will be in that new creation,
He created it. Out of nothing. You think this
body is amazing. You wait till you behold our
glorified body. You wait till you behold the
whole body of God's elect, His church gathered together and
singing praises to God. We've never had an orchestra
or anybody in this world come close to what that's going to
be like. So why does the fool say in his heart, no God? He's
got all these witnesses, so why does the fool say, no God? What makes men claim they don't
believe God exists? Look at Romans 1.18, verse 18. For the wrath of God is revealed
from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who
hold the truth and unrighteousness. That's why. That's why. The flood in Noah's day. Why
do men try to deny that the flood happened? because that flood
in Noah's day declares God's wrath against all ungodliness
and unrighteousness. That's why. God destroying Sodom
and Gomorrah, showing God's wrath against homosexuals, against
the conduct that was going on in Sodom and Gomorrah, ungodliness
and unrighteousness. Why did God overthrow the Tower
of Babel? and confound our languages. That's
where all these foreign languages came from. At that point, right
there. And he divided the earth, the
scripture says, split the continents. Why'd he do that? because he
was revealing his wrath against all ungodliness and unrighteousness
of men. Do you know that in every continent
in this world that there is in religion, in vain religion, but
in every continent there is a story about the Tower of Babel? Every
religion has a story about the Tower of Babel. And most places
you go, they all have some little smaller towers of some sort in
their religion. But men hold down this truth.
They behold it. They see it. But men hold it
down. They suppress it. Like you have
to hold down a big coil or a big spring and you take effort to
push it down. And men are trying to suppress
this. That's why they get so adamant about there not being
a God. Pressing down and trying to convince
themselves there is no God. Why? Why? Why does men do this? Because the only way that a man
can live in ungodliness and unrighteousness and enjoy himself in it is if
he can convince himself he's not going to have to stand before
God and experience the wrath of God. That's why. He hath said in his heart, God
hath forgotten, he hideth his face, he'll never see. But man can't obliterate a consciousness
of God. He just can't. God may sear his conscience and
turn him over to a reprobate mind, but he's still going to
have these moments of God consciousness to where he's reminded there's
a day coming. There's a day coming. You're
going to stand before God. You're going to answer for this.
And so what does he do? What does he do? Most of the
time, he creates a God like himself that will help soothe that conscience.
He gets religion. Look on, read on, Romans 121.
Because when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither
were thankful. Brethren, let me tell you something.
You know God? You know God? Do you know God?
Glorify Him as God. Sing praises to Him. Speak to
Him and glorify Him for sending His Son and for working out salvation
for you. Glorify Him and thank Him. Thank Him. He said they didn't
do that. What did they do? But they became
vain in their imaginations. And there's where we'll go. If
we don't constantly glory in God, Paul said, whatever's pure
and honest and holy, think on these things. Go around singing
to yourself. And I don't think there he's
talking about singing to one another. Well, he is singing
to one another, but mainly sing to yourself. Remind yourself
about God's righteousness and about this wonderful Redeemer
that we have. Because if not, If God left us
to ourselves, we would immediately become vain in our imagination. This is what natural men do.
They don't want to believe God, so they just become vain and
imagine some other kind of God. Look. And their foolish heart
was darkened, professing themselves to be wise. They became fools,
and they changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an
image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed
beasts, and creeping things. Wherefore God also gave them
up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts to
dishonor their own bodies between themselves, who changed the truth
of God into a lie, and worshiped and served the creature more
than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. For this cause. You want to know why we're seeing
what we're seeing go on in the world today? You want to know
why things are happening like they are? This ought to prove
to us the existence of God. Think about what's going on in
this world today. Why is it happening? For this
cause, God gave them up unto vile affections, for even their
women did change the natural use into that which is against
nature, and likewise also the men, leaving the natural use
of the woman burned in their lust one toward another, men
with men, working that which is unseemly, and receiving in
themselves that recompense of their error which was meek. And
even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge,
God gave them over to a reprobate mind to do those things which
are not convenient." And you can read the rest there and it
sounds like he's describing our day. Now lastly, We have the
witness of our conscience, we have the law written on our heart,
we have the witness of creation, and we have God's Word. God's
Word. Back in Psalm 19, verse 7, he
says, the law of the Lord is perfect. converting the soul. The testimony of the Lord is
sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the Lord are
right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is
pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean,
enduring forever. The judgments of the Lord are
true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than
gold, yea, than much fine gold, sweeter also than honey and the
honeycomb. Now I'm out of time, but let
me say this quickly. The Bible is the inspired, infallible,
inerrant Word of God. There's no contradictions in
this book. It's perfect. Because the prophecy came not
in old time by the will of man, but holy men of God spake as
they were moved by the Holy Ghost. Men wrote this book, but it's
God's Word. It's God's Word. Now some in
religion would try to convince us that religion came about by
politicians who wanted to try to have a book written that would
keep all men in subjection. Well, no one's ever been able
to tell us the name of that political leader or that political group. Nobody's ever told us the age
in which they lived in. You know how we like to brag.
Anything that worked this well would have been documented. Somebody
would have talked about it and bragged about it. And nobody's
ever been named that did this. Sinful man could never write
this book. Just impossible. And if man did
write this book, he wouldn't say that all men are totally
depraved. He wouldn't write in this book
and say that men are nothing but enmity against God and incapable
of receiving the things of the Spirit of God. If men wrote this
book, they wouldn't say that Christ came into this world and
laid down his life for the sheep only and accomplished a particular
redemption of a chosen people alone and no one else. They wouldn't
write that. If men wrote this, they would
never declare that you must be born again and you can't make
that happen. It's of the Spirit of God who
gives us faith and repentance and all things that pertain to
life and godliness. Men would have never put that
in the Word of God. You remember this. This book
is written in three languages. It was written in Hebrew, Aramaic,
and Greek. This book was written by 40 different
authors. They lived on two separate continents,
and it was written over the span of 1,500 to 1,600 years. And yet, this book is this perfectly
one message. as if they were sitting right
there in the same room across the table from one another. How
can that be? Because they weren't speaking
of themselves. They got it from God. God was
the author. That's why prophecies that God
declared in minute detail came to pass exactly how God said
they would, when God said they would. You know, the fortune
teller, he'll give you some ambiguous, fuzzy thing that's going to come
to pass so that you're looking for something that meets that
in anything you see. You'll go, yep, yep, it came
to pass. Not God. God gave minute details about
what was going to come to pass and then brought it to pass exactly. You consider how long this book
has been preserved. Moses wrote the first five books
of the Bible around 1400 BC. 1400 years before Christ came
to this earth. Do you think about that? Moses'
writings are about four to five hundred years older than the
oldest secular writings. Homer. Homer didn't write the
Iliad and the Odyssey about 400-500 years after Moses wrote the first
five books of the Bible. That's a long time for a book
to be still on people's table, isn't it? The New Testament was
written in the first century AD. That's 500 years before the
Koran. 500 years before the Koran was
written. Let me give you this from Martha
Pink and I'm going to be done. He said, you imagine 40 persons
of different nationalities, possessing various degrees of musical culture,
visiting the organ of some great cathedral, and at long intervals
of time, without any collusion, whatever, they didn't talk to
each other about what they were going to play, striking 66 different
notes. which when combined yielded the
theme of the grandest oratory ever heard. Would it not show that behind
these 40 different men there was one presiding mind, one great
tone master? As we listen to some great orchestra
with its immense variety of instruments playing their different parts
or producing melody and harmony, we realize that at the back of
these many musicians there is the personality and genius of
the composer. And when we enter the halls of
divine academy and we listen to the heavenly choir singing
the song of redemption, all in perfect accord and unison, we
know that it is God himself who has written the music and put
this song into their mouths." That's a good quote. So with all these witnesses,
sinful man still attempts to deny God's existence. That's
why God takes this Word, the incorruptible seed, and through
the preaching of this Word, causes His child to be born again. And He gives us faith. And the
law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. The testimony of the
Lord is sure, making wise the simple. It makes it so that it's
more to be desired than gold, yea, than much fine gold, sweeter
than honey in the honeycomb. And when He's given you that
faith to believe Him, that God is, and that Christ is everything
God says He is, all our salvation, when He gives you that faith,
brethren, He'll never, ever let you lose it. Never. Oh, you're
going to have seasons of unbelief. You're going to have seasons
where you deny the existence of God and doubt the existence
of God. But God's not going to allow
your faith to fail. Christ said, I've prayed for
you that your faith fail not, and it won't. It won't. This
is the record. This is the testimony God's given
to us eternal life, and this life's in His Son. He that hath
the Son hath life. He that hath the Son hath life.
Oh, but I doubt. He that hath the Son hath life.
Oh, but I just don't understand. He that hath the Son hath life. And he that hath not the Son
hath not life. I pray God make you have the
Son through faith. He'll never take it away. Verse
13, wherefore, it says, wherefore take unto
you the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand
in the evil day, and having done all to stand. Stand therefore,
and here's the armor, having your loins girt about with truth,
and having on the breastplate of righteousness. and your feet
shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. And above
all, taking the shield of faith. Listen to how powerful this shield
of faith is. He says, wherewith you shall
be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And take
the helmet of salvation, the sword of the Spirit. What is
this helmet? Which is the word of God. That's why I say to you, when
you begin to doubt or have unbelief, it's in our head. We get in our
head and we get to thinking and we get in these imaginations.
What's the cure for that? Put on the helmet. Go to this
word of God and get turned back to God. Get turned back to Christ
and hear his gospel preached and have your feet shod and your
loins girt about and your breastplate of righteousness on. This is
the armor. That's what he's telling us.
So when you get in this place, go to the word and hear this
gospel and God, he'll put this armor on you. And you'll be fine. You'll be fine. All right, brethren.