Alright. Guys, if you would turn
to Mark chapter 10. Mark chapter 10. And when you get over to Mark
chapter 10, if you would put your bookmark there, and then
turn over to John 6. And I want to read verse 35. Mark 10, then over to John 6.
I just want to read verse 35 before I give you any type of
introduction. John 6, 35 says, And Jesus said
unto them, I am the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall
never hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. Now, two words used here, cometh
and believeth. According to this scripture,
they are the precise same thing. If you're coming to the Lord
Jesus Christ, you are believing on him. If you're believing on
Christ, you're coming to Christ. It is the precise same thing. Now, when I read this verse of
scripture, here's the first thing that pops in my head, the first
thought I have. Lord, I'm coming. I'm coming weak and weary, and
sick and sore, wretched and sinful. I'm coming just as I am. But
I'm coming, I've got to get to Christ. I have got to have Him.
I have to be found in Him. It's my only hope. That's the
first thing I think. Here's the second thing I think.
Am I? Am I coming? Do I even know what
that means? Have I ever come? I'm watching
some of y'all shake your head, and I assume that many of y'all
are probably in the same boat as me. You've had those questions
pop up before. What I'd like to do this morning,
I want to examine this thing of coming to Christ, believing
on Christ. Really examine this concept and see what it means.
To do that, I want to look at this story in Mark chapter 10. It's a very familiar story. It's
the story of Bartimaeus. Everybody's going to know this story. In
this story, this blind, poverty-stricken beggar, he physically came to
the Lord. But his story is a beautiful picture of how a sinner comes
to Christ spiritually, how he believes on him. So if you would
go over to Mark 10. And before we look at that, I'll
give you four questions I really want to answer here. Four questions.
First, who's going to come? Somebody's going to come. The
Lord's going to have a people. Somebody's going to come to him.
Somebody's going to believe. Who's it going to be? Second, how do
they come? How does man come to Christ?
Third, if you're coming, if you're coming to him, you desire something,
don't you? There's something you want. What do we desire?
And fourth, I pray the Lord would give us all the grace this morning,
we'd be able to examine ourselves, and we would know at the end
of this message if I have ever come, if you have ever come. That's what I hope. Now Mark
10, and pick up in verse 46, and I'm gonna read this entire
story to you. And they came to Jericho, and as he went out of
Jericho with his disciples and a great number of people, blind
Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, sat by the highway side, begging. And when he heard that it was
Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, Jesus, thou
son of David, have mercy on me. And many charged him that he
should hold his peace, but he cried the more great deal. Thou son
of David, have mercy on me. And Jesus stood still. And he
commanded him to be called, and they called the blind man, saying
unto him, Be of good comfort, rise, he calleth thee. And he,
casting away his garment, rose and came to Jesus. And Jesus
answered and said unto him, What wilt thou that I should do unto
thee? The blind man said unto him, Lord, that I might receive
my sight. And Jesus said unto him, Go thy
way, thy faith hath made thee whole. And immediately he received
his sight and followed Jesus in the way. The story of Bartimaeus,
everybody loves that story. One of the first things I noticed
when looking at this story is this man's name, Bartimaeus.
What's in a name? As I understand it, this prefix
to the name Bar, B-A-R, in the scripture what that means is
son of. Son of, so Simon Bar-Jonah, that's Simon son of Jonah, that's
what that means. So Bartimaeus is effectively
the son of Timaeus, that's what his name means. Timaeus, interestingly
enough, means one who is honored. As I understand it, that's what
it means. So Bartimaeus' name means son of one who is honored. Now you probably don't need a
scripture for this, but I'm going to give it to you anyways. Who
is it truly that is honored? Turn to Revelations 5, look at
verse 13. Revelations 5 verse 13 says,
And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and
under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that
are in them, heard I saying, Blessing. And what? Honor, and glory, and power be
unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb, forever
and ever. Amen. Honor belongs to the Lord
Jesus Christ, who is God. and who is God's lamb. He is
God's sacrifice before the foundation of the world. He is God's Messiah,
God's Savior. So effectively, if Barnimaeus
is the son of Timaeus, that's what his name means. If Timaeus
means one who is honored, and it is the Lord Jesus Christ who
is honored, and he is God himself, the logical extent of Barnimaeus'
name is he's a son of God. Now, the scriptures have a lot
to say about these sons of God, and I want to show you a few
things. If you would, turn to Galatians 4 and look at verse 4. Galatians 4, verse 4. But when
the fullness of time was come, God sent forth his son, made
of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under
the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. Now in this particular scripture,
the believer's relationship with his God is likened under that
of adopted children. Adopted children. Now a simple
logical question, on this earth, concerning adoption, do the parents
choose the children, or do the children choose the parents? So that's easy. In adoption,
on this earth, the parents choose the children. It is no different
with our Lord. He is the parent. He makes the
choice. And this is the first thing I
see about Bartimaeus. He is a son of God. He's an elect child of
God. God the Father, out of love for Bartimaeus, as Bartimaeus
was in Christ, elected him before the world began and predestined
his salvation. Now, the world. talking about
election here. The world would take issue about
me talking about election in a message about coming to Christ,
wouldn't they? They would say, well, don't talk
about election. If you tell men that there's a finite number of men
who will come, and they will definitely come, they've been
predestined unto salvation, and God is completely sovereign,
well, that'll breed apathy. That'll just say, well, if I'm
supposed to come, I'll come, and they'll become apathetic about coming.
To the many believers I'm looking at here right now, this teaching
that God and His sovereignty chose a people unto salvation
before the world ever began outside our own experience. Does this
make you apathetic about coming, about believing on Him at all?
It doesn't, does it? It actually emboldens you, doesn't
it? Makes you cry from the bottom
of your heart. The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence. The
violent take it by force. Why, why does this embolden you,
this teaching of election? Because you understand election's
true meaning. Now, the world paints this picture of election.
It says there's this large group of people who are crying out
for mercy, real mercy, and the Lord just holds them off at arm's
length. He says, no, I just didn't choose you. I just didn't choose
you. I understand you want mercy. I just didn't choose you. It's
a lie, though, isn't it? See, election does not hold off
men who wish to be saved. It only includes us that would
otherwise be damned. If the Lord would have not elected
a people unto salvation before the world ever began, no one
would be saved. no one would come. But because
he has, because he has chosen a people in Christ unto salvation,
the door of salvation is wide open to any whosoever that will
be saved. Now, let me give you a scripture
and let me explain that statement. If you would, turn to Revelations
22, verse 17. and the spirit and the bride
say come revelation 2217 and the spirit the bride say come
let him that here if say come let him that is a thirst and
whosoever will let him take the water of life freely Someone
says, how can you marry these two statements? How can you tell
me in one breath that the Lord has elected a finite number of
people unto salvation before the world began? That they will
definitely come, no doubt about it. And they will be the only
ones who will come. And in the next breath, tell me that the
door of salvation is wide open to any whosoever that will be
saved. How can you marry those two points? It's actually very
simple. Because there's only the elect that are given a new
will in the regeneration. Now the old man, the old natural
man, he has an old natural will. And this will is contrary to
God. It's contrary to the manner by which he saves a sinner. Somebody
says, what manner is that? It's the manner by which he,
the Lord, gets all the glory and our salvation. And we are
nothing more than a trophy of his power and his grace. And
the natural man and his natural will war against that. Natural
man demands some sort of personal glory in his salvation. And when
he hears the gospel, he rejects it. He says, I'll have nothing
to do with salvation on those terms, and I'll have nothing
to do with that God. He will not. But if you're an elect child
of God, you're given a new will. And that will not only loves
the fact that Christ gets all the glory in your salvation,
it demands it. We demand that he get all the
glory in our salvation because he's worthy of it. Simple question. How does this
sit with you? Will you be saved in this manner?
Will you be saved by a God who will have all the glory in your
salvation? He'll get every bit of it and
you will simply be a trophy of His power and His grace. He'll
look at me and say, see that big trophy right there? I was
able to save even Him. Even that one right there. And
all glory will go to Him. How does that sit with you? Are
you willing? If you are willing, it's because
you've been given a new will. That's not natural. It's because
you're an elect child of God. You were chosen unto salvation
before the world began, just like Bartimaeus. Now, if you
would, look over Galatians 4, verse
6. What does the Lord do for us
because we are his elect children? Galatians 4, verse 6. And because you are sons, God
has sent forth the spirit of his son into your hearts, crying,
Abba, Father. So if you're an elect child of
God, in the process of the Lord's time, he's gonna send his spirit
to blow upon you. And this spirit in the beginning
is a very unexpected thing. It's a withering spirit. It blows
upon us and it tears down all our false refuges. It shows us
a glimpse of truly who and what we are by nature. And you know
what we find? We find that Bartimaeus' physical
characteristics are our spiritual characteristics. So what are
those? First, Bartimaeus was blind.
He could not see. The natural man is blind. He's
blind to his own depravity. He's blind to his own sin. He's
blind to how bad he really is, how black his heart really is.
He's blind to the glory of God. He's blind to the manner by which
the Lord saves a sinner. He's blind to all the wonderful
attributes of who he is and what he's accomplished. What's worse,
though, is that we're blind to our own blindness. The natural
man walks around his entire life saying, I see, I see. And the
whole time we are in the dark. And we do not know God. It actually
takes the spirit of the Lord to blow upon us, to reveal to
us that we are blind, that we are in the dark. that we don't
know God, and more importantly, He doesn't know us. We're blind. Second thing, Bartimaeus was
poor. He was poverty stricken. He didn't have anything. The
natural man is poor. He's poor in righteousness. We
have no perfect standing before God's holy law. In fact, we haven't
kept one commandment one time, not in our hearts. We're poor
in spirit. We're dead in trespasses and
sins. We have no spiritual life in and of ourselves. We're poor
in repentance. We can't change our mind about
who God is and who we are. We can't take sides with God
by nature against ourselves. We're poor in faith. We can't
believe the gospel. We lack the spiritual ability.
We're poor, and we're poor in any ability to change our own
circumstances by nature. Bartimaeus was poor. He didn't
have anything, and neither does the natural man. And Bartimaeus
was a beggar. He was a beggar. By virtue of
this term, a beggar is someone who is completely and utterly
dependent upon the kindness of someone else to have what he
needs to live. If you're a believer here this
morning, that describes you and me right down to a T. We are
completely and utterly dependent upon the kindness or the grace
of the Lord Jesus Christ to live. Bartimaeus' physical characteristics
are our spiritual characteristics. Look back up at Galatians 4,
verse 6. What does the Lord's Spirit cause
us to do? Well, according to Scripture, it causes us to cry,
to cry, Abba, Father. What does that look like? What
does that look like? Bartimaeus cried out. He physically
cried out. What did he say? Mark 10, look
at verse 47. And when he heard that it was
Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, Jesus, thou
son of David, Have mercy on me. This was his cry. There are two
parts to the cry. I want to examine it in two parts. Number one,
how he addressed the Lord, and number two, what he needed. He
said, Jesus, thou son of David. Now understand that all Jews
during this time frame received a religious education, even the
poor and the blind. And one thing that all Jews knew
is that the Messiah, the Christ, was coming. If you think about
John chapter 4, the woman at the well, the Lord speaking with
this woman, she becomes religious, and she says, I know that Messiah
cometh, which is called Christ. When he comes, he'll tell us
all things. She knew that God's Messiah, God's Christ, was coming.
Another thing that all Jews knew was the physical line he would
come through, the physical heritage, and that was going to be through
the line of David. And I'll read this to you. Instead
of you turning there, Matthew 22, 41 says, while the Pharisees
were gathered together, Jesus asked them, saying, what think
ye of Christ? Whose son is he? They say unto
him, the son of David. Now, here's the point. When Bartimaeus
addressed the Lord as the son of David, he was making this
confession. He was saying, you, this one who is passing before
me right now, this Jesus of Nazareth, you are God's Christ. You are
that Messiah. You are God himself. All those
Old Testament types, all those Old Testament pictures that I've
heard of year after year and day after day, they all point
to you. This one, this physical man who is passing before me
right now, they all point to you, Jesus of Nazareth. We examined
Cain and Abel this morning. Abel brought the lamb slain alone.
It was a picture, a type, of Christ and Him crucified. And
Barnabas was saying, that's you. Abel's lamb, it all pictured
you, this one, this one who's passing before me right now,
Jesus of Nazareth. You are the only one where a
man can find acceptance with God. It is through you and your
finished work. Remember the rock that followed
the children of Israel as they wandered through the wilderness. Abraham
smote that rock and life-giving water flowed from that rock.
Bartimaeus was saying, that's you. It's just a picture, it's
just a type of you, this one, Jesus of Nazareth. Very shortly,
you're going to be smitten. and life flows from you. Jesus
of Nazareth. Do you believe he's the Christ?
This living, breathing man that's spoken of in this book, Jesus
of Nazareth, is he God's Messiah? Is he God's Christ? Is he God
himself? Do you believe that he's accomplished what he said
he has accomplished? He hath perfected forever them
that are sanctified. Bartimaeus believed this. He
said, Jesus, thou son of David. That's how he referred to him.
Second part of his cry, have mercy on me. Mercy. What is mercy? Mercy is the Lord
not giving us what we rightfully deserve. That's mercy. Now, a
few thoughts on mercy. Number one, mercy is only for
the guilty. Only a man who truly believes
himself and knows himself to be guilty, only he can cry out
for mercy. Now, I've seen this. I've actually
seen this happen in a court of law. A man was brought up on
charges, and he was brought into a court of law, and we had a
trial. And the jury convicted this man. They said, you're guilty
of these charges. And we moved on to the sentencing
phase. Now the jury's going to determine his punishment, what
he deserves. During the sentencing phase,
this man stands up and says, this is not fair. I did not commit these
crimes. I do not believe myself to be
guilty. Do not punish me. This is not fair. That man wasn't
seeking mercy. He wasn't begging for mercy.
He had no understanding of his guilt. Did not believe himself
to be guilty. He was begging for justice. For justice. Now here what's scary about this
is the Lord will meet us on these grounds. If we come pleading,
this isn't fair. It's not fair that I'm dead in
trespasses and sin through Adam. It's not fair that you're sovereign
and I'm still held accountable for my sins. This isn't fair.
I should not be punished because this isn't fair. The Lord will
meet us on those grounds. But that judgment is guilty. And justice for you and me is
damnation. That's what's fair. Mercy is only for the guilty.
Another thing about mercy is it can rightfully be withheld.
It can rightfully be withheld. If you're truly guilty, you recognize
that if you are not shown mercy, you have not been mistreated.
Now I'm sure you've been asked this question time and time again,
but I'm going to ask it to you again this morning. If the Lord
will come to this room, and save everyone in this room and pass
you by, would he be right? Would he be just? Would you be
mistreated in any way? No, not if you're guilty. Not
if you're guilty. See, the Lord will be merciful
to someone. He has to be. Because being merciful is one
of his wonderful attributes. It's part of his character. He's
going to be merciful to someone. But understand this, he's sovereign
in showing mercy. He will show mercy to whom he
will show mercy. And while he will be merciful
to someone, he does not have to be merciful to me. And he
does not have to be merciful to you. He's sovereign in showing
it. But know this, know this about
the Lord. Turn to Micah 7.18. If you don't listen to anything
else I say this morning, I would ask you to key in right here. Micah
7.18, know this about the Lord. Who is a God like unto thee?
that pardoneth iniquity and passeth by the transgression of the remnant
of his heritage, he retaineth not his anger forever, because
he delighteth in mercy." Now, folks, this should give us some
confidence in coming, some assurance. If this day you are a guilty
man, a guilty, bankrupt, empty-handed sinner, and you come begging
mercy, do you know the Lord is faithful to be merciful to you?
Search these scriptures. Look at all the interactions
the Lord ever had with any man. See if you can find one man that
truly came begging mercy that the Lord was not faithful, was
not pleased to show that man mercy. Mercy is for the guilty,
but if a guilty empty-handed sinner comes to Christ begging
for that mercy, he'll show it. Turn over to Mark 10 and look
at verse 48. Bartimaeus experienced some hindrances
to coming. Verse 48, and many charged him
that he should hold his peace. But he cried the more a great
deal, thou son of David, have mercy on me. Now as Bartimaeus
cried out, he had some hindrances to coming. There were people
who tried to physically keep him from coming. There were hindrances.
Now I cannot say in my personal experience that I have known
too many men who have tried to physically keep me from coming
to Christ. It would have been a discouragement to me. Much like many of you
I was raised in a gospel church. I had a faithful gospel minister
preach the gospel to me. I have not known too many physical
men who have tried to keep me from coming. Furthermore, we
live in a generally godless generation. Men are not concerned with the
Lord. They're not concerned with his
people. It's not like it was in earlier times when a man could be burned
at the stake or fed to a lion for confessing his faith in Christ.
It's different. But while I don't know many physical
men who have tried to keep me from come, I know this, as long
as the Lord has put in me a desire to seek Him, a desire to come,
an interest in Him, there has been one man who has been with
me every step of the way, and he has attempted to hinder me
from coming. And that man is me. It is my
old man. This is the war that rages inside
every believer. The old man trying to hinder
the new man from coming. Shut up, he won't hear you. Be
quiet, look at everything you've done and everything you've said
and everything you've thought. Just be quiet and die with a little
dignity. But thank the Lord, the new man always prevails.
The old man is in subjection to the new man. The elder shall
serve the younger. Now by making this statement,
I understand that I am thereby saying that a new man is present
in a center before he ever comes, before he ever believes. I'm
making that statement. What we must understand is that
our God is a God of order. He does things in a particular
order. And the chronological order in which you and I experience
things is oftentimes different than the chronological order
in which he actually does them. And so I would give you this
example. Is it not your experience that belief in the truth and
spiritual life come at the precise same time? A man believes and
he receives spiritual life. A man receives spiritual life
and he believes. In our experience, it comes at the precise same
time. But in the chronological order in which the Lord actually
does things, spiritual life must logically come before belief
in the truth. Back that up with the scripture, John 6, 44 says,
no man can come to me He lacks the ability, except the Father
which has sent me draw him, and I will raise him up at the last
day. I'll give you this example. Think
of Lazarus. Lazarus was dead. He was so incredibly dead that
his body had already begun the process of decay. He stunk. And
the Lord issued Lazarus this command, Lazarus, come forth. Simple logical question. Can
a dead man hear anything? Can a dead man sit up? Can a
dead man walk? No, a dead man can't do any of
these things. A dead man is dead. So logically, what must have
happened? Before the Lord ever issued Lazarus this command,
he had to will that man back to life. He had to breathe life
back into this man, and then he could hear, and he could obey
the command. Now here's the point. And I pray
that this would give us some confidence in coming and some
assurance. If right now, in your heart, you are coming to the
Lord Jesus Christ, you're coming for mercy, aren't you? I know
I am. I'm coming for mercy. I need
him to be merciful to me. But if you are coming for mercy,
you're just not coming for mercy. It's because you have already
been shown mercy. If you're coming, you're coming
for faith, aren't you? I'm coming. I need the Lord to give me the
grace to actually believe. I need to be given that ability
to trust Christ alone. But you know what? If you're
coming for faith right now, you're not just coming for faith, you're
coming in faith because you've already been given the gift of
faith freely in some measure. If you're coming, you're coming
for repentance, aren't you? I know I am. I need Him to give me the
grace, the ability to change my mind about who He is and who
I am. I need to be given the ability
to take sides with Him against me. But if you are coming for
repentance, this day begging repentance, it's because you've
already been brought to a repentance state in some way. Here's my
point. This is grace. This is sovereign
grace. That before we ever cared a thing
about God, before we ever thought about Him or had any desire to
know Him or find Him or seek Him, He came to us. where we were at. Where did he
first come to Abraham? Abraham was in a tent, worshiping
idols. Did he not find you and me in
a similar circumstance when he first came to us? That's sovereign
grace. He comes to us. Turn back, if you would, to Mark
chapter 10. Someone may be thinking, I want
to come. I want to come, but I don't know how. I don't know
how to come. Look at verse 50. Bartimaeus physically came to
the Lord, and I think there's a lot we can learn from the way he
physically came. Mark 10, verse 50. And he, casting
away his garment, rose and came to Jesus. How did Bartimaeus
come? He was naked, and he was exposed.
He just as he was. And that garment, He cast it
away. He wanted to get as far away
as he possibly could from it. Now, by virtue of my employment,
I come into contact with beggars pretty frequently. I deal with
them quite often. I don't mean to be mean. I don't
mean to be harsh. This is simply just a fact. They are normally
very filthy people. They are dirty, and they are
unkempt, and they're ungroomed, and their clothes often smell
really bad, and they're soiled, and they're putrid, and they're
really repulsive to be around, to be quite honest. That's just
the truth. What's interesting about Bartimaeus in this scenario,
think of how soiled that garment probably was. The standard of
hygiene today is pretty high, right? Back then, not as high.
And he was a beggar. That garment was probably never
washed. Disgusting, dirty, polluted, revolting. Here's the thing about
Bartimaeus, though, he was blind. He couldn't see how revolting
that garment was. That garment is a picture. It
is a type of man's personal righteousness. And that's you and me by nature.
We're blind. We can't see how revolting our personal righteousness
is to God himself. And before Bartimaeus ever came,
he cast away that garment. He didn't gingerly lay it down.
He cast it away. He wanted to get as far away
as he could from that garment of his personal righteousness.
And he came. He came naked and exposed just
as he was. And if we're ever going to come,
if we ever do come, and if we are coming, it's exactly how
we're coming. We are coming just as we are. Somebody says, how
far can you take that? To what extent can you take that?
Take it as far as you possibly can. With all your sin, with
all your guilt, with all your shame, with everything you've
done and said and thought and your evil intentions, your evil
motives, the evil things that lurk in your heart, the contrary
thoughts, the unbelief, you come just as you are. Just as you
are. Because that's the only way you
can come. It's the only way you can find acceptance. Now to someone
who believes that their garment is beautiful, that it's lovely,
that it's something to be prized, this is bad news, isn't it? I
must cast this garment away. My personal righteousness doesn't
count for anything. It's revolting and it's putrid. That's bad news
to someone who believes they have a personal righteousness,
who believes that their righteousness is beautiful. But if you're like
me and you're like every other believer, this is good news because
my garment is filthy. and it's revolting. And we get
to cast it away, and we get to come just as we are. And if you ever come, that's
how you'll come. But if we come that way, you
know he'll wash us clean in the blood of Christ, and he'll robe
us with his perfect righteousness, that beautiful garment. That's
how Bartimaeus came, and that's how every believer comes. Now
if you would, turn over to Mark 10, look at verse 52, and I'll
try to be swift about this, I want to look at our Lord's final response
to Bartimaeus. Mark 10.52 says, And Jesus said
unto him, Go thy way, thy faith hath made thee whole. And immediately
he received his sight and followed Jesus in the way. The Lord said,
Thy faith hath made thee whole. What do you mean by that? What
does that statement mean? Probably the better question
to ask in the beginning is what is faith? What is it? Turn to 2
Timothy 1 verse 12. 2nd Timothy 1 verse 12. In this
Paul gives a threefold declaration of faith. And I want to look
at it. 2nd Timothy 1 verse 12. For the
witch cause I also suffer these things. Nevertheless I am not
ashamed. And here it is, the threefold
declaration of faith. For I know whom I have believed and am persuaded
that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him
against that day." Three parts. I want to examine all three.
I know whom I have believed. Our hope, our faith, it doesn't
rest in rituals. It doesn't rest in doctrines.
It doesn't rest in experiences and feelings. Our hope, our confidence
rests in a person, the Lord Jesus Christ and his work alone. I
know whom I have believed and I am persuaded that he is able. Now, I want to say this right.
I do. I pray the Lord will give me the grace to say it right.
I think that we all struggle with faith in some way, shape,
or form. I've never met a man whom I respected
who said, well, I got perfect faith. I'm really content with
it. I'm really good with it. Everyone I know always wants
more faith, always trying to get stronger faith. They want
more faith. And we all struggle with faith at some point, I think.
But I'll tell you what, I have no struggles with his ability.
He is God. He sets the standard. He sets
the expectation. And then he satisfies himself. I don't struggle with his ability
to save me all by himself, no help from me. You know where
sometimes I get hung up? His willingness. Sometimes I wonder, is he willing
to save me? Now, we should never doubt our
Lord's willingness to save a sinner. Lord said, come to me, ye who
labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. We should
never doubt the Lord's willingness to save a sinner. But if you
notice, Paul doesn't even address the Lord's willingness in this
threefold declaration of faith. He simply addresses his ability. I am persuaded that he is able. Do you believe he's able? Able
to do what? To keep that which I've committed
unto him. against that day. Now this is not a commitment
to where I agree to hold up my end of the bargain if he agrees
to hold up his. This is where I commit the entire salvation
of my soul to the Lord Jesus Christ alone, his work alone. All my eggs are in this one basket.
All my hope rests here. Here's the thing about commitment.
The way we are by nature, if we have anywhere else to commit
to, anything else to commit to, anywhere else to go, anywhere
else to look. We will always look there before we will ever
look to Christ. It is only when we have nowhere
else to go and we have nowhere else to look and we have reached
the end of our rope, and that's when it's easy to commit to him
because he's all you got. I know whom I have believed and
I am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I've committed
unto him against that day. That is faith. Where does faith
come from? Ephesians 2.8 says, for by grace
you save through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the
gift of God. Now, if something is a gift,
it thereby cannot be earned, can it? If you receive something
in return for a work you perform, that's payment, isn't it? No,
a gift can only be freely given, despite whatever the person who
receives it has done. It's a gift. Faith is a gift. And I find this amazing. Find
it amazing that the Lord freely gives a man gift, sovereignly
gives him this gift of faith, and he turns around and he gives
that man credit for having that gift. He said, thy faith hath
made thee whole. Thinking about that statement
for a moment, the only reason I am making an issue out of that statement
is because false religion would seek to twist that statement
to infer that a man gets some sort of personal glory for having
faith. for believing. They make a work
out of faith. It is actually the most subtle form of salvation
by works in our day. A man believing, he gets some
sort of personal glory, some sort of merit in believing the
gospel and having faith. Faith is the gift of God. And
we do not look to our faith as our hope of salvation. We look
to Christ. Faith trusts Him. I hope that
made sense. In closing, if you would, turn
over to 1 Peter 2. I told you I wanted to ask this
question at the end of it. Have I ever come? Have you ever
come? So let's ask the question. Let's
see if we can find out the answer. 1 Peter 2 and look at verse 4. I want you to key in on the first
three words in this scripture. To whom coming. Don't miss that word coming.
As unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of
God and precious, ye also as lively stones are built up a
spiritual house and holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices
acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. To whom? Coming. See, this thing
of coming to Christ, this thing of believing, this is not a once
and done deal where you take some soul winner's hand and you
repeat after him and now everything's right with God and you just go
about your business. This thing of coming is continual. This
thing of believing is continual. I need mercy for yesterday. I
need grace for yesterday. I need mercy for today, for the
sins of today. I need grace for today. And tomorrow,
I need mercy for tomorrow. I need grace for tomorrow. Now, right now, ask yourself
this question. Are you looking to the Lord Jesus
Christ alone? as your only hope of salvation.
Nowhere else to turn. Nowhere else to go. Fully persuaded
that he's able to deliver you, save you, to the uttermost all
by himself, your works absolutely excluded. Can you believe that? You're coming. You're believing. And let me give you this scripture,
and I pray this will be a blessing to you all. John 6.37 says, all
that the Father giveth me shall come to me. And him that cometh
to me, I will in no wise cast out. If you're coming, it's because
the Father gave you. And he won't cast you out. I'll
stop there.