I invite you to read along with
me in our bulletins this morning. On the inside middle page, the
top right-hand side, is a small article by my dear pastor, Gene
Harmon. He was reminding me this week
that I'm not a pastor anymore, John. There's a lady down in
L.A. who's trying to get a hold of him. He's just not able to deal with
people like he used to. And so he's asked me to take
care of the situation, and I reminded him, you are still a pastor.
You talk to me every day, you're still Pastor John Reeves. And
I just, I love that man more than anything I can say in words. He takes his thoughts from Scripture
8, Romans 8 verse 31, where it says, If God be for us, who can be
against us? Nobody. Nobody, absolute nobody,
nobody, nobody, nobody, nothing. Absolutely nothing, nothing,
nothing, nothing. Amen. Why? You see, that's a wonderful
thing that a child of God can say, but why, he says, why? Because
God's blood-bought children are more than conquerors is what
it goes on to say, isn't it? More than conquerors through
Jesus Christ who loved us and gave himself for us. And we know that all things work
together. for good to them that love God,
to them who are called according to His purpose. And I not only
quote Gene, I just sing it out with him, Amen, Amen, and Amen. I'd like to ask you to turn to
the book of Mark, if you would, chapter 9. You can take your Bibles if you'd
like and sit them right there in your laps. We're going to park
right here. I'm going to refer to a lot of
scripture this morning, so if you'd like, I'll be happy to
give you those references afterwards. You can look them up for yourself.
But to save ourselves a little time, I'm just going to go through
them. This morning I'd like to talk
to you a little bit about this faith. Faith that the Almighty Spirit
of God inspired men to write about. You see, many people believe
in a God. Did you know the demons believe
in God? They believe in God and they
tremble, is what Scripture says. But what is this faith that the
Lord speaks of? This saving faith for His children,
His chosen? What is this gift of faith spoken
of that we read in Ephesians chapter 2 verses 8 and 9? For
by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves,
it is a gift of God, not of works, lest man should boast. Well,
look with me, if you would, here in the book of Mark, chapter
9, and look with me, if you would, at verse 14, and we'll read through
verse 24. And when he came to his disciples,
he saw a great multitude about them, and the scribes questioning
them, and straightaway all the people, when they beheld him,
were greatly amazed. When they saw the Lord, oh, is
this the one that you folks were talking about? See, a bunch of
people had come around, the disciples, and they were, what's this all
about? What's this salvation that you're talking about? We
thought we had to go to the church every Sunday. We thought we had
to get down on our knees until they were rubbed raw five times
a day. We thought we had to do this
or do that. What is this grace salvation
that you're talking about? They beheld Him and were greatly
amazed and running to Him, saluted Him, greeted Him, and He asked
the scribes, what question ye with them? And one of the multitude
answered and said, Master, I have brought unto thee my Son, which
hath a dumb spirit. And wheresoever he taketh him,
he teareth him, and he foameth, and gnasheth with his teeth,
and penneth away. And I spake to thy disciples
that they should cast him out, and they could not. And he answered
them and said, O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I suffer you?
Bring him unto me. And they brought him unto Him.
And when he saw Him, straight away the Spirit tear him, and
he fell on the ground and wallowed, foaming. And he asked his father,
speaking of the Lord Jesus. And he asked his father, how
long is it ago since this came unto him? And he said, of a child. And often times it had cast him
into the fire and into the waters to destroy him. But if thou canst
do anything, have compassion on us and help us. Jesus said unto him, If thou
canst 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. What is this all about? These are the words of a father
who had brought his poor sick son to the feet of our Lord and
Savior, Jesus Christ, and he said unto him, Lord, if thou
can do anything, If you can do anything, please, please help
me with my son. But I want you to notice something
in verse 23. Our Lord turns it around and He says to that father,
He says, if you can believe, all things are possible to him
who believes. And that's when the man cried
out, I believe. help thou my unbelief." Do you believe? Not as we want to, huh? I have recoiled at my own actions that I'm ashamed to share with
you this morning. Out of stubbornness and rebelliousness,
and that's what it is, rebelliousness. I refuse to wear the mask even
at work where our company has embraced it to a point of no
return. I wish I could laugh along with
you at that but it's not laughable. I'm going to share this with
you because I want you to understand what I'm talking about this morning
about believing. You see We have a personal relationship
with our Lord. Many say they believe God. As I pointed out a moment ago,
even demons believe God. But they don't have a relationship
with the one who saved them. I say that I believe But like
this man, I must also add, the Lord helped my unbelief. As I came so close to being terminated
again for the second time in two weeks, I forgot that these things, as
in everything, are brought on by my Lord. You see, I wasn't rebelling against
This man who's pushing for me to wear the mask, he's just doing
what he was told to do by somebody higher up. I was rebelling against my Lord. And I share this with you because
I wonder, is there anyone else out there like me? You know,
that's what this experience is. This is what we do. This is what
we do when we witness to people about who our Lord and Savior
is. We tell them about our experience because it's a personal thing. And I come short of that trust,
of that faith. My faith is not perfect. As everything else with John
Reeves, it's not perfect. The Apostle Paul says the same
thing. He says, I'm not perfect, I haven't arrived, I haven't
laid hold upon that which the Lord hath laid hold of me. I must continually examine my
faith. I ask, do you? Peter said it
this way, he says, give diligence, brethren, to make your calling
and election sure. If you do these things, you will
never fail. Paul says to the Corinthians,
he says, examine yourselves whether you are in the faith. In other
words, examine yourselves whether you are in the faith of Christ.
Not in a faith, not in some faith, but are you in the faith? Know ye not your own selves,
he goes on to say, how that Christ dwelleth in you, except ye be
a reprobate? Folks, every time we come to
the Lord's table, we should take these words to heart. Lest a
man examine himself, and so let him eat. This is why we don't
have close communion. Close. Close is personal. If Christ Jesus is your Lord,
then it's a personal thing between you and Him to come to this table
and eat of this bread and drink of this cup. It's completely personal. And
to most people that's a pretty solemn thing, because it's my
sins that were laid upon Him. It's my sins that He went to
that cross for. It's the very sin that John committed
this week in rebelling against my employer. I'm begging you folks, don't
take this subject lightly. Don't presume on God's mercy. Examine yourself. Don't be afraid
to examine yourself. Don't be afraid to take inventory. Don't be afraid to search your
heart. I can tell you this, death is certain. Judgment is too sure and eternity
is too long for you to neglect these very things. Do not be
presumptuous on the faith of Christ. John Newton put it this
way, the gospel preacher, the very one who wrote the hymnal
Amazing Grace, he says, when I get to heaven, there will be
three things that amaze me. First will be, I will be amazed
to see some people in heaven that I did not expect to see.
Then he said, the second thing that I'll be amazed to see is
that he's going to miss some of the folks that he thought he would see. And then thirdly, even more than
the other two, he's going to be amazed to see himself there. I can still cry. when I sing
that song, Amazing Grace, because it means so much to my heart. Do you have that kind of spirit?
Do you have that kind of attitude? Well, if you do, then you don't
mind taking a look, taking a look at your true heart,
do you? Lord I believe, help thy mine
unbelief. And I want to take a look this
morning at this matter of heart faith, the faith that saves. My title this morning is Faith
of the Heart. Now first, everything that goes
by the name of faith is not heart faith. Everything that goes by the name
of believing is not saving faith or believing faith. Throughout
the Word of God, religious people have had much that looked just
like faith. But it wasn't faith at all. There
were a lot of religious people that produced a whole lot of
things that looked like faith and appeared to be faith, and
this faith made them think that everyone around them knew God.
Now I'll give you a couple of examples of that. Remember the
Pharisees? They acknowledged God to be their
Father. They looked at our Lord Jesus
Christ and they said, we're not sinners, we're not born of fornication,
God is our Father, we have one Father, even God. Isn't that
what they said? And then what did our Lord say
to them? He said this, this is going to shock you. If you were
of God, He says, you would hear me. You would believe me. for God sent me, you are not
of God, you are of your father the devil." That's what he said
to those Pharisees. That's what he said to them and
they claimed that they were of God, that God was their father,
they were the Israelites, they were Abraham's seed, and they
were keeping the Sabbath. They were paying their tithes,
they were attending the synagogue, they were trying to keep the
law, but they had missed the gospel. They had a zeal But it
was a zeal for their own righteousness. It was not a zeal for the righteousness
of Christ. Another thing, some spoke well
of Christ. Pilate was no Christian, yet he spoke well of Christ,
didn't he? He says, I find no fault in this man. The soldiers
were not Christians, but yet they said, never spake a man
like this. In fact, those that came to arrest
him one day, they came back without him. Why? The authorities said,
what are you doing back here? Why'd you come back here without
him? And they said, because surely this man was of God. You see, a man can claim that
God is his Father. He can speak well of Christ.
He can even reform his outward self. We know that the Pharisees
in the temple were not saved. They were not children of God.
We know that because Christ said He went home not justified, speaking
of the publican that went home that day. The very one who stood
in the temple and said, Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Father,
that I am not like this beggar who is over here. He also said, I tithe, and I
fast twice a week. I give tithes to everything I
have. He says, I give alms to the poor. I am not an adulterer. I am not an extortioner. I am
not unjust, and I am not like that publican. Do you see what
I'm trying to tell you, folks? There are a lot of people in
the world today who claim that Christ is their God, but have
no personal relationship with Him at all. They know of a God. They know of the Lord Jesus Christ.
But they don't know Christ, the One who died for their sins. I've heard this said before,
true Christians are the most miserable, happy people on this
earth. I thank my Lord that I was able
to go into work on Friday morning with a new attitude. I thank my Lord when He changes
my attitude about a lot of things. People experience sorrow. over
sin. Sorrow that drives them to look
for a Jesus. Judas came back with 30 pieces
of silver for which he had betrayed his Lord and he said, I'm sorry. He said, I betrayed innocent
blood. He just threw it on the floor.
Esau sought repentance with tears. He sold his birthright for a
bowl of beans. Folks, we run into that all the
way through the Bible, scenes just like that. People who show
great remorse after they're caught or after they have lost something.
King Saul himself, after God had taken his spirit and kingdoms
away from him, he did a lot of crying after David. Gave large gifts to the church,
you may say. Some do. The man is a good giver. Well, let me tell you about Ananias.
Ananias and Sapphira were good givers also. And God killed both of them for
lying to the Spirit, didn't He? You might say, well, He was baptized
and joined the church, right? Remember Simon Magus? Peter said
of him, your heart's not right with God, you are in the gall
of bitterness. You might also say, well there's
been preachers. They've been preachers. They
preached. Judas preached. In fact, they
preached in your name, Lord. Demas did too, and so did Judas,
but they both held an office in the church. In fact, at the
time, Judas was the only officer that held a position in the church
at that time. He was the treasurer. He took
care of the money for the disciples so they wouldn't have to worry
about it. Don't worry about Judas. examine
yourself before God. Many perform great works in the
name of our Lord and Savior, but listen to this, listen to
this at the judgment in Matthew chapter 7, Lord we preached your
name and cast out devils in your name and did many wonderful works. They'll say, in the name of Jesus,
we do this. In the name of Jesus, we do that.
There are thousands and thousands and thousands of people going
into huge churches all over the world, and they see this huge church
Don't get me wrong folks, I'd love to see the Lord bring more
people into this building, but you know our group is exactly
what the Lord talks about in the world and throughout all
time so far. It's called a remnant. If there
was only but one my wife to sit here this morning, I would preach
the same message. Those very ones who think that
their works is what's saving them. Look at all the good things
we do, all the people that come into our church, all the poor
that we feed. Our Lord shall profess to them,
the very ones who said that they cast out devils in the name of
Jesus, the very ones who thought they were doing wonderful works
in the name of Jesus, our Lord says, I shall profess unto them,
I never knew you, depart from me ye that work iniquity. I want to be very plain with
you folks this morning. This is no joke. This is no party
that we're coming to on a Sunday morning to have a great time. We're here to worship our Lord
and Savior. And I don't want to see anybody
who sits here today having a worship of their own faith, of their
own works. I want you to worship in the
true and living God, Jesus Christ. I want your worship to be true.
according to God's Word? Our Lord says, woe unto the preacher
that won't talk plain. You see, true saving faith does
involve the mind. Man can't believe what he doesn't
know. He can't believe what he hasn't
heard. That's what we read about in Romans where we say, Who shall
ever call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved? How shall
they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how are
they going to believe on whom they have not heard? And how
are they going to hear without a preacher? I know that our mind
is involved in this. It takes thought. I know that in saving faith,
the mind and the understanding are certainly involved. We have
to know some things. We know that we've got to believe
God's Word because it says, faith cometh by hearing, and hearing
by the Word of God. These are facts. And I have to
believe that God is and is the rewarder of them that diligently
seek Him. I have to believe that in Adam all died. By one man
sin entered into the world, and death by sin, so death passed
upon all men. I know that, do you? But these are head facts. There's
a lot of people who know that very same thing. We know we're sinners. We know
that it's so much easier to do wrong than it is to do right. It sure is a lot easier for me
to get upset than it is to be happy. And proof of my actions
at work have been exactly that. I believe that God in eternity
past has determined to save some people. That's just so and it's
a fact. It says in our God's Word, in
our Lord's Word, whom He foreknew. He predestinated to be conformed
to the image of His Son. Whom He did predestinate, He
called. Whom He called, He justified. Whom He justified, He glorified. And those are facts. Just as
this is, salvation is of the Lord. It's a fact to me that the Virgin
Mary had a child. It's a fact to me that He would
be called Jesus, for He shall save His people. It's a fact to me that He would
go to that cross as an adult, 33 years old, and shed His blood
for everyone that the Father hath given Him before time began. And it's a fact to me that He
sits on His throne right now, resurrected from the dead. Death
could not hold Him. Nothing can hold God. These are all facts. A head knowledge. But my Lord says this, and He
says this to you, My son, give me your heart."
It's faith of the heart. The love of God is shed abroad
in our hearts. It's a matter of the heart. Our
Lord says, The Lord saveth such as be of a broken heart. The Lord is nigh unto them of
a broken and contrite heart. Keep thine own heart. Out of
it are the issues of life. Our Lord said once, He said,
These people draw nigh unto Me with their lips, with their hands,
and with their feet, but their hearts are far from Me." You see, that's the problem. These
people draw nigh unto me with their lips, he says. They may
say, praise the Lord, thank you God, hallelujah, all these good
things, but their excitement in their lips are saying, blah,
blah, blah, blah, blah. I had a lot of fun putting that
down in my notes. Well, that's what it is. You ever listen to
a TV evangelist now that you know who the true living God
is? It's blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Give me money, give me
money, give me money, send me your dime, send me your dollar,
do this. There is excitement in their
lips. They wave their hands and they walk up and down the aisles
and God said this about their hearts, their unbelieving hearts
are the problem. You know, a man may never open
his mouth or even wave his hands and yet his heart could be knit
to the Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord says this in his word,
If thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus to be Lord, and believe
in thine heart God raised him from the dead, thou shalt be
saved. For with the heart man believeth
unto righteousness." It's not a mental assent of a
few facts. It's a heart matter. You don't
walk down the aisle to get to Christ. He's not down here. You come to Christ right where
you are from your heart. That's where He dwells. In the
hearts of His people, He cuts out that old stony heart that
once said, I will not have this one, this one who has all authority,
even over my will, I won't have him rule over me. Yes, He does. You just don't know it. He comes and He takes that old
heart out, cuts it away. It's called being born again.
called the new birth. And it gives you a heart that
realizes, I am unworthy of anything that He would look upon me, but
yet He does. He looks upon me for His Son's
sake. Because all that sin that John
has created and done and will do was laid upon His Son. And He took it all into the grave,
and our Lord sees no sin in every single one of His children. I never get tired of hearing
that, even if it's me speaking. He said, I'll give you a new
heart. I'll write my word on your heart is what he says. You
will be my people and I will be your God. It's a heart faith that causes
a person to forsake everything that they have. It's a heart matter for John
to say, Lord, I'm sorry. I know my sin was to the man
at the dock, but my sin was against my Lord. It was against Him for not trusting
Him. I didn't understand it at first,
but I remember Pastor Gene standing here in this pulpit one time
and he said, you know, we don't need to harp on anybody
about coming to church. God's people just come. You know,
we don't need to ask you to give. God's people just give. We don't need to hound anybody. We don't need to try to persuade
people to do this. We don't need to pull you to
this. Promise you rewards for something. God's people know
that our reward is the Lord Jesus Christ and we're going to go
wherever we can to hear about that. I went to Gene and Steve Doyle
once and I said, I don't know what's going on here. I don't
understand this at all. John likes to ride motorcycles
and watch golf and do all kinds of other things on Sunday afternoon. I'm giving all that up to come
here. I don't understand why. They both just said, well, God's
doing the work in your heart or something. They were right. And the more I came, the more
I wanted to be here, hearing about my Lord and Savior. That's
where my heart was. I allowed my heart to get away
for a little while this last week and be angry about something
that's being imposed upon me that's just plain foolishness
to me. But my Lord has a will for everything and a purpose
for all things. And if for no other reason And
I'm sure there's other reasons, but for no other reason, God
brought this whole thing about that so John Reeves would fall
on his knees and say, I'm sorry Lord, it's all in your hands. Turn me away from the desires
of my flesh and turn me to my Savior. That's what it's all
about. It's heart faith that makes a
wife submissive to her husband. It's heart faith that makes a
husband loving to his wife. It's heart faith that makes a
child obedient to their parents. It's heart faith that makes a
workman a diligent laborer. It's heart faith that makes a
boss generous and kind. It's heart faith that rejoices
in Christ and has no confidence in the flesh. It's heart faith
that makes a person a giving person, a generous and forgiving
person. It's a heart faith that believes
this, not my will Lord, but thou be done. Henry Mahan wrote this, he says,
it is heart faith that will worship God in sunshine or in shadow. It is heart faith that looks
on the things of others more than your own welfare. It is
heart faith that counts all things but loss for the excellency of
the knowledge of Jesus Christ my Lord. It is heart faith that
says, oh that I may win Christ and be found in Him. It is heart
faith that says I am content wherever God puts me. and with
whatsoever God gives me, oh, that I may know Him more. It
is heart faith that lives, speaks, prays, walks, and gives the glory
of God in all things. That's what true heart faith
is. My dear friends, that, my dear friends, is saving
faith. Heart faith. with the heart man believeth
unto righteousness is what our Lord says. Consider with me four
things in closing. It doesn't matter what experiences
you may have, what feelings you may have, what works you may
do, what decisions or professions that a religious may make or
produce. There are four things that a
religionist cannot produce. Four things. If all you are is
religious, if all you are is someone with a head knowledge
of some facts that we see in scripture, eventually your unrejoiner heart
will be prideful with goodness Like we read in Psalms 51, there
was a man who had a broken heart. Now listen to these words, Lord
have mercy upon me according to thy loving kindness, according
to the multitude of thy tender mercies. Blot out my transgressions. Wash me from mine iniquities.
Cleanse me from my sin. My iniquities and sins are ever
before me. A true religionist will never
get to that point and stay there. Eventually they'll get to the
point of, you know what, I'm not as bad a guy as I was before. I quit smoking. Did you notice
that? Back in 1999 when I came to the Lord Jesus Christ, when
I walked down the aisle and said that prayer, that was all I needed.
Now I'm a good guy. You'll never get an unsaved religionist
to talk about his sin. He'll talk about everybody else's.
He'll talk about sin in general. Oh yeah, we all sin. We all sin,
absolutely. But eventually he'll come to
that point where he's like the Pharisee in the temple. He will down the publican, but
he won't acknowledge his own sins or his own transgressions
before God. When David sinned with Bathsheba, when he sent
her husband off to die, did you know he said to the Lord,
against thee have I sinned. That's where the Lord brought
John. That's where the Lord had to
bring me so that I would see. Father, against Thee am I sinning.
It's against my Lord and Savior that I've turned my back on what's
happening and said, I shall not have that. If I say He rules
over everything, I have to I have to believe that he rules over
that too, doesn't he? He either rules over everything,
folks, or he's not ruling over anything. Another thing the religionist
cannot produce is that he cannot acknowledge that he has no righteousness
and no goodness. Like I said a moment ago, eventually
they'll come to that point where their pride will say, see how
much better I am today? That's why so many who start
off what we think of as sovereign grace religion, and then they
bleed away. They fall away. This is not enough
for me to hear about Jesus. I need more. I need to go do
something. And they start doing works. And
then the works creeps in, and next thing you know, it's all
about works. And then there's no more grace. Man may talk about his sins,
he may talk about his faults, and he may talk about what a
rascal he used to be, but the trouble is that he's going to
brag about what he's doing right now for God eventually. They don't realize that their
righteousness is as filthy rags. They don't see that there's enough
sin in their very prayers to damn them. They don't see that their tears
need to be bathed in the blood of Christ. They don't see that
the repentance needs to be repented of. They don't see that nothing
they do pleases God in the flesh. They don't repent of their own
righteousness. A natural heart cannot see either
of those things. Another thing, the false religionists
will never acknowledge that salvation is wholly, completely, and totally
of God. Salvation is of the Lord. The
Lord quickeneth whom he will, is what scripture says. It's
of God, not of the will of flesh, not of the will of men, but of
God that we are born again. It is not of him that willeth,
nor of him that runneth. It is of God that showeth mercy,
is what we read in scriptures. There was an old leper in the
Old Testament, and he knew this. He knew that it was God who shows
mercy. He came in his scaly, corrupt
condition, and he looked at Christ and he said, Lord, if You will,
You can make me whole. Is that the way you come to the
Lord? Knowing what you are before God? Has He shown you the truths
of the sin that is in you? If He has shown you the truth,
then He will show you the truth of who He is. What mercy! What grace! Today the preachers look at the
sinner and they say, if you will, God will. Folks, they have it
backwards. The real statement should be
this, if he will, then you will. We are made willing in the day
of his power, is what it says in scriptures. Last I want to share this last
point with you and we'll call this a message to an end. An unsaved, self-righteous, religionists
can never receive Jesus Christ alone, plus nothing, and minus
nothing. This includes wisdom, it especially
means righteousness, but it's also sanctification, redemption. We read this, nothing in my hands
I bring simply to Christ Jesus and Christ alone I cling. Is your faith a faith of the
heart? I ask you this morning, examine
yourselves whether you win the faith. Amen.