I'd like to read from today's
bulletin for our devotional this morning. It's on the inside middle
page, written by Pastor Charles Pennington who titles his article,
True Faith. It is not true faith to trust
Christ only when you feel you are saved. True faith is to trust
Christ at all times. Whether you feel like you're
saved or not. When you have a deep consciousness
of your sin and when you don't. When you have an assurance of
faith and when your faith is so weak you wonder if you have
any faith at all. Person is not saved because he
feels saved, nor because he's aware of his sinfulness. Person
is saved when he trusts Christ, his blood for redemption and
forgiveness of sin, his righteousness for acceptance with God, when
he commits all to him as the author and finisher of our faith. Our feelings may change by the
hour, but our salvation is not dependent on our feelings. It
is dependent solely on Him who never changes. Jesus Christ,
the same yesterday, today, and forever. Amen. I was listening this week to
a message preached by Brother David Edmondson while he was
over at Paul Mahan's church last Sunday, and it gave me great
comfort. I'd like to share with you this
morning some of his comments, and I pray that God may be pleased
to comfort your souls as well. And if it be His pleasure, if
it be our Lord's pleasure, may He use these words to possibly
call one or two of his own lost sheep out of the darkness from
which every one of us who belong to him have also been called
from. Turn if you will in your Bible to Mark chapter 4. Brother David spoke from the
book of Numbers where the Israelites had come to the base of Mount
Sinai They had already come through the Red Sea. The Lord had delivered
them from Egypt. They were being led by a pillar
of fire and a pillar of smoke. The Lord was feeding them manna.
They had food. They complained about that, as
you remember. They had water out in the wilderness
with the rock. Wait a minute, that might be,
you know, I spoke that a little bit too quick. The manna and
the rock hadn't come yet, so I apologize. Back up just a minute.
They had come to the base. Mount Sinai, on one side, went
out into the wilderness, and on the other side, went into
the land of milk and honey. This is the land that the Lord
had promised Israel, and when they had come to this section
of land, the Lord stopped them and led Moses to send out a spy
from each of the twelve tribes to send out and scout the land
of milk and honey. to see if it was what the Lord
had promised it to be. Did you catch what the promise
was? The promise was that this land is going to be yours and
it's a land of milk and honey. So these spies went out and they
went into the land. These twelve spies, one from
each member of the tribes. There's twelve tribes of Israel,
remember? Each one for the sons of Jacob. And they came back after spending
some time out there in that land, and sure enough, it was exactly
what the Lord said it was going to be. They brought back a cluster
of grapes. Now picture this, a cluster of
grapes. My dad used to have a grape harbor
over the back of our house. We had a patio and then a pool.
And it had this wonderful, just lush grape harbor over the back,
covered the whole patio. It was a mess in the fall when
it was all done. Big ol' huge clumps. You could
put a clump and it would just be bigger than the hand. We're
talking about clumps of grapes so big that it took two guys
to carry it. That's huge. Sure enough, the
land was exactly what God had said it would be. Milk and honey,
everything you needed is provided right there. Lush. Then David brought out how things
weren't quite what you might think though. Some of those spies
came back and were worried that the people, the people of the
land would be a problem. Ten of the twelve returned with
their hearts troubled by the people of the land. They said
that their cities had high walls. Oh yeah, the grapes are great,
you know, awesome, all kinds of green grass, all kinds of
stuff, but man, they had high, big ol' huge walls. And the people,
the people were tough. I almost got the feeling when
I was listening to them that they all had tattoos of mom on
their shoulder and rode Harleys. I'm sorry. You get the point. They were tough. They were a
scary bunch of people. They even said, you know, there's
some giants out there, big people. There's giants in the land and
it scared them to death. Are there giants in your land? I got some pretty big ones in
mine. The very land we live in has
some giants, doesn't it? use that word giants to describe
just about anything that's going on in our world. You can use
it to describe the sin that's within ourselves. I don't know about you but I
got some pretty big sins in me. Do you have giants in your land?
That's a good description. of the troubles we have in our
own world, and the plagues, and the pestilences, cancer, viruses, lies from people that lead us. You see what I'm saying about
giants? We all have a giant of some kind or another within us,
don't we? Do you fear? I do. I do. Have you ever stopped and considered
the love of our Lord Jesus has for us in giving us these types
of pictures? as Israel, scouting that land
and seeing those giants in the land, seeing all the high walls,
being afraid of the people. Have you ever stopped to consider
what a wonderful God we serve that gives us these very pictures
that we can relate to these very things in our own lives right
here, today, now. My title this morning is or faith. I know we've been talking
a lot about faith lately, but that's what John 3.16 is
all about, isn't it? Whosoever believeth, whosoever
trusteth. All but two spies had great fear in their hearts
They trusted not the Word of God. Some of you may be sitting here
right now wondering of your own selves, am I trusting the Lord
as the two did, or am I one of the ten? I tell you, That was what crossed my mind
when I listened to this message by Brother David Edmondson. I wondered, is John trusting the Lord as
those two men did? And here's what I came up with.
No. I come up short. We recently considered the Word
of God where a man who had a sick and tormented son, he came to
the Lord for healing. And the Lord responded this way,
in Mark 9.23, if thou can't believe, all things are possible to him
that believeth. And straight away the father
of the child cried out and said with tears, Lord, I believe,
help thou mine unbelief. You see, that's more like what
I am. I see my own sins and I find
myself without strength. I have many, many giants in my
land. Are you with me in Mark? Chapter 4. Will you look with
me at verses 35 through 41? And the same day when the evening
was come, He, our Lord, saith unto them, let us pass over unto
the other side. And when they had sent away the
multitude, they took him even as he was in the ship, and there
were also with him other little ships. And there arose a great
storm of wind, and the waves beat into the ship so that it
was now full. And he was in the hinder part
of the ship, speaking again of our Lord, asleep on a pillow. And they, the men of the ship,
awoke him and said unto him, Master, carest thou not that
we perish? All the wondrous things our Lord
had performed before those very men, and they said, Do you not
care about us? Lord, the world around us is
falling apart. The government has gone crazy.
Everybody around us wants to believe in lies. Do you not care
about us? Oh yes he does. Oh yes he does. And he arose and rebuked the
wind and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased
and there was a great calm. And he said unto them, Why are
ye so fearful? How is it that ye have no faith? And they feared exceedingly,
and said one to another, What manner of man is this, that even
the wind and the sea obey him? They saw it with their own eyes. The Israelites saw it with their
own eyes when the walls of water were separated of the Red Sea,
didn't they not? Did they not walk through those
walls of water on each side on dry land? Absolutely they did. They saw it. And now they come
to this place where the Lord has promised them, and the giants
have brought fear on them. What manner of man is this that even the wind and
the sea obey Him? What manner of man is this that
says He has saved His people completely, fully? 100 percent. Everything that needs
to be done has been done by him. What manner of man that says
this to us? I tell you here this morning
this is a man that we speak of that is like no other that ever
walked this earth. This one has not the seed of
Adam like you and I have. The seed of sin. The seed of sin that has brought
death and destruction to mankind. All mankind. This one came by the way of the
Spirit through a virgin. This One had no guile in His
mouth as the rest of men that walk this earth do. He knew no
sin as all mankind does. He walked perfectly. Everything
He did pleased the Father of all creation. This One is one
with the Father Himself. He and the Father and the Spirit
are one. All the fullness of the Godhead
dwelleth in Him bodily. The wind and the sea answer to
Him because He's Lord of all. He's Lord of lords. He's sovereign
ruler over everything. He's King of kings. He's God
in the flesh. He's the very one that says in
Isaiah 14, 24, the Lord of hosts has sworn, saying, surely as
I have thought, So shall it come to pass. And as I have purposed,
so shall it stand. This is the one that we're talking
about that calms the seas, that protects us from the giants in
our world. He's the very one that in Isaiah
46 says this, he says in verse 11, calling a ravenous bird from
the east, the man that executes my counsel from a far country,
yea, I have spoken it, I will also bring it to pass. I have
purposed it, I will also do it. That's the man we're talking
about. That's the one who calms the
seas, the raging seas that can overflow us at times. That's
the one that we need to look to for our rock of salvation. Folks, I'm preaching to myself.
Do you know 99.9% of every message, one of God's true preachers is
a message that he's preaching to himself? How am I to relate to you my
experience with God if I don't tell you about it? If I haven't experienced it?
This very man is the very one who speaks in Jeremiah 4.28 when
he says, For this shall the earth mourn, and the heavens above
be black, because I have spoken it. Did you catch that? For this
shall the earth mourn, and the heavens above be black,
because I have spoken it, I have purposed it, and will not repent,
neither will I turn back from it." This is the very one who chose
me to be a recipient of his love, a recipient of his redeeming
grace, A vessel of His mercy before the world was ever created. We read in Ephesians 1 verse
4, according as He has chosen us in Him. Chosen us in Him,
in the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. before the foundation of the
world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him.
In love, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasures of His
will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath
made us accepted in the Beloved." There's another article in your
bulletin. written by Pastor Milton Howard
right above this. This very One who calms the seas,
who conquers the giants, is God Almighty in the flesh
and He thinks on His people. Isn't that amazing? You know,
I've heard this said and it just hits home. I can understand Why
God hated Esau. What I don't understand is how
come he loves Jacob. It's not because of anything
Jacob did. That's for sure. But it's because of our Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ. That's how come. It is not of him that willeth,
nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy. He
thinks upon us, and Pastor Milton Howard takes his thoughts from
Psalms 139, 17, where we read, How precious also are thy thoughts
unto me, O God! How great is the sum of them! Pastor Howard writes, Have you
thought what a comfort it is to have a God we can trust? A
God who condescends to think on us? to consider our needs
and then supply them? What if all we had to believe
in was the laws of nature? Mother Nature, the big guy, the
supreme being, or the man upstairs. What if all we had to look forward
to was some set of laws and powers acting apart from God? There
are many who try to get away from the thought of a personal
God, One who redeems, preserves, and provides for His people.
The Bible declares a personal God who takes a special interest
in His people. Did you hear that? He takes a
special interest in us. Despite us. Oh, I love to listen
to these words. He takes a special interest in
his people and he thinks on them with a tender, gracious consideration. This is what David said, how
precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God. How great is
the sum of them. Pastor Howard writes, what a
blessing it is to be able to pray our Father who art in heaven. The greatest blessing is to know
God is thinking of us. We sing the song a moment ago,
great is thy faithfulness. Did you all catch that? How many
churches have people sitting in the pews today? Thinking,
oh, I show up to church every Sunday. I feed the poor. I give to the coffer. I don't
cuss anymore. I don't do this, I don't do that.
See how faithful I am now? I'm a much more faithful person
than I used to be. Folks, it's not our faithfulness. Those two men that went off and
came back praising our Lord, Joshua and
Caleb, saying, that land is ours. is because their faith was in
the one who said it was theirs. And that faith that they had
is what? It's a gift of God, is it not? We are saved by faith. Let me
just read that and make sure I got it right. I don't want
to get that wrong. For by grace are ye saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves, it is a gift of God. The One who chose me is faithful
in all that He does. He's faithful in all that He
says. He is unchanging, unwavering, steadfast, and solid as a rock. We can change our minds in a
moment's notice, right? Women think that only women have
the right to change their minds. I'm telling you, men change their
minds way more. We just don't tell you about
it, we just go do it. Men change their minds about
many things, we do it all the time, but this one that we're
talking about, this faithful one that I'm trying to point
you to, never changes his mind. He set his mind on saving you
before the world was. before anything was ever created.
In fact, the fact of the matter is this, He created everything
that He might save you, that He would save you. All that the
Father giveth me shall come to me, is what our Lord says. There's no if, there's no but.
God doesn't want for anything. If you're serving a God who wants
something, that's a God of your own imagination. The God of Scriptures
is powerful in every way, sovereign, ruling over everything, and that
includes the will of men. I like the fact that my Lord
rules over my will. I look back as that blind man
did, who was blind, and the Lord opened his eyes. He was blind
from birth. He never saw anything. He looked back now and he says,
yeah, I was blind. He probably didn't even know
what blind really was until he actually could see. That's the
way the Gospel is. I never knew what the Gospel
really was until the Lord opens our minds, our eyes, and our
ears, and gives us life that we might hear His Word. This faithful one has set His
love upon me, and He is faithful in all that He has promised to
do. He faithfully gave Himself as my
ransom. as my substitute, as my scapegoat,
as my sacrifice, as my atonement, my payment. The wages of sin is death. And He took my death. He faithfully laid down His own
life in my stead, being made sin for me, that I would be made
righteous in Him. And then when all my sin was
laid upon Him, He faithfully took it to the grave, He raised
Himself. No man took His life. Wait a minute, John, what about
all those guys who took Him and nailed Him to the cross? Those
were men. Yeah, but they didn't do it without His determinate
counsel. He says, no man taketh My life. And then he goes on to say, I
will raise it up again. Faithfully. Laid all my sin upon
him, and he took it into the grave, and he raised himself
up from that grave, leaving all unrighteousness that was mine
behind, never to be seen again. He is my righteousness. He is
my faithfulness. The giants in my land have no
hold upon me. Oh, I still tremble at them. It concerns me dearly of what
my grandchildren will have to go through in the world to come. I don't know about you folks, but
I've heard that from my parents and from my grandparents. And
I believe my mom said she heard that from her parents and from
her grandparents. You know what our Lord says about
that? He says they will wax worse and worse and worse. This is nothing. This is nothing what's going
on around us. It's been going on for a long, long, long time.
It was going on in the days of the apostles. Maybe not exactly
the way we see it, but they didn't have airplanes and cars and all
that stuff either. You get what I'm saying? This one we're talking about
is my righteousness. It's His faithfulness. These
giants have no hold upon me. I still tremble when they approach,
but their roar is like a lion. It's like a lion that's wandering
around out in the grass, roaring as loud as it can. Did you know
this? Did you know you don't have to
be afraid of a lion when they're roaring? They're not hunting. If you don't hear them, that's
when you need to be afraid of them. Because they're very quiet
when they're hunting. These giants around us, they
just roar. Our God works everything out
after the counsel of His will. The roaring is but a noise to
warn me of their presence. The presence of sin. The presence of my lacking in
faith. And when I think of these giants,
I turn to my only hope. I turn to the One whose faithfulness
is perfect, as it is with everything that He does. I turn to the One
whom God the Father first trusted. Look with me, if you will, at
Ephesians chapter 1. Will you turn to Ephesians chapter
1? One of the things our Lord must do,
and that is to break down the strength of men. We come into
this world thinking we can do this and we can do that, and
we take all the glory for ourselves. Oh, how the giants roar. Look at verse 12 with me of Ephesians
chapter 1. I trust in the One who first
trusted His own Son. Verse 12, that we should be to
the praise of His glory who first trusted in Christ." What do you mean? What do you
mean, John? Folks, the covenant of grace
was made before anything was ever created. God the Son promised God the
Father that that people that He gave Him would be perfect. God the Son promised that He
would come as a man so that He could die as a man. And God the Father said, God
the Son is saying, it's done. It still had to be done, but
He looked at it like it was done already. That's what it means
to trust. He who first trusted He who first
trusted in Christ. And I ask you this question.
If God the Father trusted His only begotten Son, can we not
also trust Him? Can we not also trust Him? Oh
yes, look at verses 13-23. In whom ye also trusted, after
that ye heard the word of truth. the gospel of your salvation,
in whom, speaking of this Christ, this One who is trusted in, in
whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed, confirmed, guaranteed, with that the Holy Spirit of
promise. which is the earnest, the pledge
of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession
unto the praise of His glory. Wherefore, I also, after I had
heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and the love of all the
saints, ceased not to give thanks for you, making mention of you
in my prayers that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father
of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom, and revelation
in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding
being enlightened, that means to be illuminated, that ye may
know what is the hope of His calling and what are the riches
of His glory, of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the
exceeding greatness of His power to usward. who believed according
to the working of His mighty power, which He wrought in Christ
when He raised Him from the dead and set Him at His own right
hand in the heavenly places. Far above all principality and
power and might and dominion, and every name that is named,
not only in this world, but also in that which is to come, and
hath put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be the
head over all things to the church, which is the body of the fullness
of Him that filleth all in all." Allow me, if you will, to quote
from Robert Hawker about these verses. Robert Hawker writes, in these
verses, in those verses, amidst many other blessed things, we
have two great subjects of doctrine spoken of. Doctrine means teachings. Two great subjects of teachings
spoken of. The first is that the church
is predestinated to the Lord's glory by trusting in Christ. And the other is that after this
predestinating act of Jehovah, To believe in Christ, the Holy
Ghost is said to seal the persons of believers as that Holy Spirit
of promise. Reader, he says, you and I, he's
talking to, do behold the safety and the blessedness of the church
under those two immense points of security. In relation to our
trust and belief, it should be always carefully remembered that
these acts of ours are not the cause of our safety and blessedness,
but the effect. Our belief in the Lord Jesus
Christ is not our cause of safety. That's not where we put our safety
in. It's in the Lord Jesus Christ
Himself. He is our safety. Christ is the great object of
trust and belief. And wherefore, because what Christ
wrought and accomplished was the result of God's everlasting
love in Christ. Hence, Christ is said by himself
to have purged our sins, as we read in Hebrews 1.3, who being
the brightness of his glory, speaking of our Lord and Savior,
and the express image of his person, and upholding all things
by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our
sins, sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high. There's a lot of words there.
Good stuff though, isn't it? I like to hear that. Oh, I don't
have to trust in me? That's good! That's wonderful! I can trust in Him! I like that! Going on, this then, writes Robert
Hawker, is the cause. Our dependence upon Him and what
He hath done. is the effect. It is indeed always
blessed to live in the comfortable enjoyment of these things by
faith, for the promises the Charter of Grace runs in these words,
that will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on
these, because he trusteth in thee. That's the words of Isaiah
in chapter 26. So then, Our faith is not the cause of
our safety, but the fruit of it. Christ is our all in all. Now I'm going to close with this. Folks, there is always going
to be storms. They're going to splash against
our little boats. And that's really all they are.
We're just like a piece of grass that's growing out there in the
field. It's going to grow up, and then it's going to wither
away. There will always be storms as
long as we walk this earth. Our Lord has said, curse it is
the ground that we walk on. But we have an advocate. Yes. Yes, I'm like those ten whose faith falters a lot. But I have an advocate. His name
is the Lord Jesus Christ. And He has promised me. Not only has He promised me,
He sealed it with his spirit by the shedding of his blood. We have a mediator, one who sits
on the throne of everything saying, this one is mine. I've paid for
him. I will have him. We have a spokesman speaking
on our behalf, and our spokesman cannot fail. He is called Jesus
the Christ for he shall save his people. These pestilent giants
that walk through our land, they are big. Never diminish another person's
giant. They are big. Did that come across loud enough? Look with me, if you will, in
closing at 1 John chapter 1. If you were in Ephesians, just
turn to the right a bit. It's a very small book. You've
got 1 John, 2 John, and 3 John right there before Revelations. While you're turning there, allow
me to quote from Habakkuk. Chapter 2, verse 4, it says,
The just shall live by his faith. My faith is my faith. It's mine. It's a gift of God, yes. It's
inspired by God. It's all of God. But it is mine. Where is your faith this day?
Is it in something that you have done or something that you are
doing? Are you trying to earn your way into heaven? We who are purchased of God by
the blood of His darling Son put our trust in Him because
of Him. He is the author and the finisher
of our faith. His gift to us is faith in Him. We love Him. This is one of Daryl's
favorite quotes. I heard yesterday from a dear
loved one. They came across some notes of
his that just blessed their heart. I loved him, speaking of the
Lord, because he first loved me. Is that not the way you feel? Is that not where your trust
is? We love Him because He first
loved us, so when these giants come our way, we look to our
Advocate. Are you with me in 1 John chapter
5? No? Back up. Back to chapter 1. Last week I didn't have any notes
here, I got notes and I still messed it up. Back to chapter 1, beginning
at verse 5. This then is the message which
we have heard of Him, and declare unto you, that God is light and
in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship
with Him and we walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth.
But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have
fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ,
His Son, cleanseth us from all sin. There's some more of that
good stuff. If we say that we have no sin,
we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess
our sins, He is faithful. Who is it that's faithful? Who
is it? He is faithful. Isn't that what
that just said? He is faithful. And just to forgive
us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If
we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His Word
is not in us. Now go to verse 1 of chapter
2. My little children, folks, my brothers and sisters in Christ,
hear these words. These things I write unto you,
says John, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an
advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. Amen. As David said to Goliath, his
giant, Thou comest to me with a sword
and a spear, things of the world, things created and put together
by man's hands. You come against me as a giant
with your things of the world? Ha! I come to thee in the name of
the Lord of hosts, The God of the armories of Israel, whom thou hast defied. David didn't come with big swords. He couldn't wear the swords.
Remember? Saul gave him the sword and shield and everything. They
were so big because he's such a little guy. He said, I can't
wear this stuff. He came to him with the only
thing that he had on him, and that was a pebble and a sling. And he killed the giant. You
want to kill the giants in your world? Quit trying to come to
them with the things of the world and come to them with Christ. He's already conquered it for
you. He's already conquered it for
you. Amen?