Pastor Montgomery writes, when
did the Lord first begin to deal with my soul? Is that a question
that's ever crossed your hearts? When exactly did I first begin
to believe? When did I actually become a
Christian? A child of God? Pastor Maurice writes, I gave
up trying to answer those questions a long time ago as being totally
unimportant. George Whitfield once said, I
have heard of a person who was in the company of 14 ministers
of the gospel, some of whom were very intimate servants of Christ,
yet not one of them could tell the time when God first manifested
himself to his soul. Pastor Maurice goes on to say,
it is quite sufficient to me that by the grace of God, I do
believe in the Christ of Scripture. And as a believing sinner, I
continue to pray for grace to continue to believe in Christ. Father, we ask that you would touch our hearts this morning. Touch our hearts, Lord, as only
you can. We can't see the hearts of other
men. We can hardly even see our own hearts. It's desperately
wicked, who can know it? Lord, as we go into your word,
we cry out unto you, Lord, we believe, help thou our unbelief. Help us, Lord, when we're weak. Help us, Father, to turn away
from the things of this world and to seek you, no matter what
it costs to do so. For whatever the cost would be
on this earth, it would be nothing compared to the terrible, terrible place that
we deserve. Lord, open our eyes and our minds
and ears to your word. We ask in Christ's name, amen. For those of you who were able
to join us for Bible study, I will not apologize for what
you're about to hear now because God has placed this on my heart.
And it's wonderful, absolute wonderful blessing for me to
stand before you this morning and preach the same message that
our brother just brought. We never talked And I'll tell
you what's wonderful about it is this, only God would do something
like that. If you hear it once, okay. But if you hear it twice, you
better listen up, huh? Right? Isn't that what it says
in Scripture? The title for my message this morning is, Dost
Thou Believe? Big question. This is a pretty
strange thing, isn't it? the writer of the Psalms, he
expresses it so well, the difference that we go through in faith,
in believing. In Psalms 22, he writes this,
he says, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? This is
a man after God's own heart. A man chosen of God as all of
God's children are from before the world has ever began. The
Lord knew that David was going to write these words before he
ever inspired him to write those words. My God, my God, why hast
thou forsaken me? Understand this, that this is
definitely a Masonic psalm, speaking of Christ when Christ hung on
that cross, but this is also a man who is experiencing these
very things. Just as you and I are right now
experiencing what it was like to go through this message twice.
Or what it might be like for us to be weak in the faith. Or
what it might be like for us to be strong in the faith. Right after that psalm that Dave
wrote, crying out, Oh my God, I cry in the daytime, but Thou
hearest not, and in the night season, and I am not silent,
but Thou art holy, O Thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel. He then writes in Psalms 23,
The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He maketh me to lie
down in green pastures, he leadeth me beside still waters. Do you
hear the faith of one of God's children crying out and does
this not represent you and I at times also? Pastor Gene and I were talking
on the phone yesterday about Scripture in Isaiah, where the Lord says, I create
evil. That means trouble. You know, Israel fell into the
captivity. You think that was outside of
God's sovereign hand? You realize that the entire story
that we read about Joseph, how his brothers threw him into a
pit, and then took him and sold him to the Ishmaelites, and then
they took him down into Egypt, and he was thrown into jail there,
and all the stuff that happened to him, and then he was raised
from that point, and set as the king's right hand, the power
of the king of Egypt, so that his dad and his brothers, when
they ran out of food, would come down to him. This is all a story
that was put together by God Himself, and it was all put together
before anything ever was created. It's called sovereignty. I know
that word is not used in Scriptures, but the entire Bible describes
God Almighty as sovereign over everything. That's why He's called
God. To have the title God means He
rules over everything, including the wills of men. Faith is a strange thing, is
it not? Sometimes my faith, sometimes my faith is very small. My belief, my
trust, my confidence. Sometimes it's so weak that I
feel like the Lord has left me, like the Lord has left my side.
and in other times I see it as clear as bell that the Lord is
right here with me as he is always. It's so strong and peaceful it
just overflows me like a quiet river flowing in the soft meadow. All this trouble around us, not just the things that are
going on in our little world, but the things that are going
on in all the world. The things that are going on
in our hearts. Are you troubled by your sin? I am. What about you? I ask you this morning, do you
believe God? Turn, if you will, to the first
chapter of John, chapter 5, please. The first book of John. First
John, chapter 1. I'm going to get it right, give
me just a second. Truck driver takes a moment to
think his thoughts out before he talks, usually. No offense. Turn, if you will, to 1 John
chapter 5. There we go. Folks, the most essential characteristic
of a true child of God is this. Dost thou believe? If you don't believe, then you
have not been born again, and a true child of the Most High
must be born again to believe. The truths of God, you see, are
foolishness to the unregenerate person. It says in 1 Corinthians
2.14, but the natural man, that's speaking of the unregenerate,
that's talking about what we all are when we come into this
world. Our nature. The natural man is sin. We don't
sin. Because we're not sinners because
we sin. We sin because we're sinners.
That's the way we all come into this world. The natural man. All mankind
who come into this world receiveth not the things of the Spirit
of God, for they are foolishness unto him. Neither can he know
them because they are spiritually discerned. We were speaking Friday
night about how we can look back and see how we once thought of
God's Word and we see the foolishness in our thoughts about it. The
Lord's Word had nothing to do with John. John didn't have anything
to do with the Lord's Word. I didn't want anything to do
with that. Some people went to other religions. Catholicism
or Jewishism or whatever. Seventh-day Adventistism. I don't
even know if that's the right word. You know what I'm saying. It's not in our nature to come
after God. See, our nature is dead in trespasses
and sin. Dead men just don't get up and
start walking. When one turns on the light in
a pitch dark room and sees what's in that room, one knows the difference
between that moment and the one they had just before. It was
dark. You couldn't even see before
your eyes. All of a sudden, the light is turned on, and you see
the room and what's in it. That's what being born again
is. All of a sudden, John can now look back and say, yes, I
was dead. Yes, I was blind as a bat. Yes, I heard the truth preached
throughout my life from either my stepfather or O.C. Harris
or wherever, but I never had any attention to it at all. Why? Because I was blind. Once I was blind, but now I see. Do you believe the record the
testimony, the Word given by the Almighty Creator. Read with
me if you will, 1 John chapter 5 verses 8-13. And there are three that bear
witness in the earth. I'm sorry, verse 7, beginning
of verse 7. For there are three that bear
record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost,
and these three are one. There are three that bear witness
in the earth, verse 8, and the Spirit, and the water, and the
blood, and these three agree in one. If we receive the witness
of men, the witness of God is greater. For this is the witness
of God, which he hath testified of his Son. He that believeth
on the Son of God hath the witness in himself, that he that believeth
not God hath made him a liar. because he believed it's not
the record that God gave of his son. Folks, this entire book,
everything from cover to cover is the record of God about his
son. In the beginning, God created
the heaven and the earth and he created men under the likeness
of them. All three of them. He that believeth on the Son
of God hath a witness in himself. He that believeth not, God hath
made him a liar, because he believeth not the record that God gave
his Son. This is the record that God hath
given us to eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life.
He that hath not the Son of God hath not life. These things have
I written unto you, that believe on the name of the Son of God,
that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may
believe on the name of the Son of God. In 2 Corinthians 13,
5 we read this. Examine yourselves whether you
be in the faith. Now I bring that out for this
reason. Folks, we can't look at each other and judge. And I know, because I try to
do that sometimes. So I know we do. But I can't read the hearts of
anyone. Can't even read my own heart most of the time. Our Lord doesn't say, examine
all those around you. He says, examine yourself whether
ye be in the faith. Do you believe God? It's a heart matter. Examine
your inward heart. Don't examine others, for you
can't see their heart. All you're going to see in others
is the weaknesses of the flesh, and we all have that, don't we? This is a matter for us to search
of our own hearts. Ask yourself this question, do
I believe God? Do I believe all of God? Not just the parts that make
me feel good about myself. Not just the parts that I want
to believe because I think that's right. Do I believe God's word
every bit of it? Look at verses 10 through 12
again, if you would, please. He that believeth on the Son
of God hath a witness in himself. He that believeth not God hath
made him a liar, because he believeth not the record that God gave
his Son. And this is the record that God has given to us, eternal
life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath
life, and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life." This
is the record. This is the Word. This is the
testimony of God. God hath given us eternal life,
and this life is in His Son. So let's consider five points
of God's Word to test ourselves whether we believe or not. Turn,
if you would, to the book of Ephesians. And while you're turning there,
allow me to say this, thus saith the Lord. In Romans 3 verses 11-12, there
is none that understandeth. There is none that seeketh after
God. They are all gone out of the
way. They are together become unprofitable. There is none that
doeth good. No, not one. Well, wait a minute. I've stopped doing all that stuff
I used to do. Now I've turned myself around.
I'm a much better person than I was before. Isn't that what
we hear from most pulpits in today's world? You can do better
if you'll just do this. There is none that doeth good,
no, not one. One of the most difficult truths
of God's Word to accept is the depravity of the unregenerate
soul. It's foolishness to tell a man
that he is dead, spiritually speaking. How can you say I'm
dead? My heart's a-pumpin'. I can feel
myself pinch me once or twice. I get up every morning. I'm breathing
air. Don't tell me I'm dead. I'm not
telling you you're dead. God tells you you're dead. It's foolishness. Yet to one who has been given ears to
hear, one who has had the light of
glory turned on in their hearts, One who was once dead and been
brought to life to see the truth in our depravity. Thus saith
the Lord. Look with me at chapter 2 verses
1 through 3 of Ephesians chapter 2. And you hath he quickened. That means given life. That means
made alive. those that he made alive who
were once dead, as it says, in trespasses and sin. Where in
times past he walked according to the course of this world,
according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit
that now worketh in the children of disobedience, among whom also,
who? We. Among whom also we all had
our conversation. in times past, in the lust of
our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind,
and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others." Those who are a true child of
God will see this very truth. Once we were dead to the truths
of God's Word, once we walked in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling
the desires of our hearts, yet now we see clearly And it is
God who gives life. It is God who raises the dead.
It is God who shines the light into a cold, dark heart. We've
done nothing. We could do nothing. We were
dead. In the day of His love, He brought
us under the preaching of His gospel. He crossed our paths
with the servant of the Most High, and we heard the call of
power. When Christ called out Lazarus,
it wasn't just some weakly little call. It was Lazarus come forth.
And I've heard this said before, if He had not used the word Lazarus,
every dead human being would have come out of the grave at
that time. That's the power of God. It's the same power that
created everything. It's the same power that gives
the new birth to men and women when the Lord comes to us in
His love. Lazarus, come forth! And what
did Lazarus do? He came forth bound, bound by
the grave wrappings. It's so hard for the natural
man to see the truth of death and what we deserve. We deserve God's wrath. We have sinned against a thrice
holy God, yet God has mercy on some. You see, this is the Gospel. All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God, yet God has mercy on whom He will have
mercy. That means He can have mercy
on me. One who deserves hell more than
anyone else. He works with me. He knows it. Folks, we all come short. Yet God has mercy. I'm here to
tell you this morning the Gospel, the Good News, is God has mercy. Look at verse 4 of Ephesians. But God, who is rich in mercy
for His great love wherewith He loved us, Oh, how it bothers
me to hear somebody say, God loved the whole world. Well,
if that's the case, then how can anybody go to hell? If that's
your God, I want nothing of Him. I want a God who stands by what
He says He will do. I want a God who deserves to be
called God because He is the Creator of everything and the
Ruler of everything. Because He has loved us, because
He chose us. Look at verse 4 of chapter 1, please, with me. According
as He hath chosen us in Him, in Christ, in our Lord and Savior,
before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy
and without blame before Him. Whoo! That's hard to see at times,
isn't it? That's hard to see at times.
You come around here when I smash my finger on a nail with a hammer
and you'll say, shake your head at that one. Father, thank you for loving
us from before the foundation of the world. Thank you for making
us holy and without blame before you by giving your son as our
sacrifice. His love was set upon a people
before the world began. It's called unconditional election. In Romans 9-11 we read it for
this way, for the children being not yet born, neither having
done any good or evil. What? What was that? That means
Jacob and Esau hadn't even been born yet? And the Lord has already
set His mind? That's exactly what that means. that the purpose of God according
to election might stand. Not of works, not of our works,
not of our will, not of our getting the baptismal, not of us doing
this, not of anything that we could do, but of Him that calleth. God chose a people before the
world was created, and that people He gave to His Son, Christ Jesus
the Lord. In John 6.37 we read it this
way, And all that the Father giveth me shall come to me, He
says, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. Folks, salvation is not for all
mankind. Many will go out of this life
and enter into an eternity of fire and brimstone. A destination
that we have all earned. A destination that we all deserve.
But get a load of this, my God has taken what I deserve upon
Himself. He has done what I cannot do.
He has fulfilled the law perfectly for me because I couldn't do
it. He has paid the price with His
own blood because my blood is worthless. It's a destination that we have
all earned, a destination that we deserve, yet there is atonement
for some. Payment has been made for some. It's limited, though, to those
that we just spoke of a moment ago. All that the Father giveth
me. In Leviticus, we spoke of God's sheep. Mike
brought that out in his Bible study. We spoke of God's elect,
God's people. In Leviticus 20, 24, we read
this, but I have said unto you, Ye shall inherit their land,
and I will give it unto you to possess it, the land that floweth
with milk and honey." And then this comes right after that.
All that the Father is going to bless this people with. All
the things that the Lord blesses His people with. He says, I am
the Lord your God, which has separated you from other people. From the goats that Mike talked
about. Jeremiah 30, 22, it says it this
way, and ye shall be my people. and I will be your God. There's no maybe there. Like
you said, brother, there's no sheep going to be missing out
on this at all. Every single one of them. No empty seats in
heaven. Every seat will be fulfilled. Everyone for whom Christ paid
with his own precious blood will be in heaven with God the Father,
God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit for eternity. Look at verse 5 of Ephesians
chapter 2 if you would. Even when we were dead in sins,
have quickened us together with Christ, by grace ye are saved.
We are His people by grace and by grace alone. Our sins have
been put away by His sin-atoning death. Look at verse 6. And He
hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly
places. Where? In Christ Jesus. By His irresistible grace. By
His irresistible call. By His holy calling. A call of
power. The power of the Creator. We
come unto Him. Loving Him because He first loved
us. He makes us to sit. That means
to rest. That's a picture of this. Sit
down from your works. Stop doing what you're trying
to do to earn yourself into heaven and rest in Christ. That's what that means. Rest
in Him. Consider all the things the world
does to try to earn their way. Thousands and thousands of different
religions. Some of you are familiar with
some of the wild things that men have created in TV. You know? Star Wars. Aliens. I've sat and looked at that picture
of that alien in Aliens and man, What kind of drugs that guy must
have been on to come up with something that far out? Or maybe it's just an imagination
that God has given us to think of it. Well, what makes any difference
between all the religions that we create? We can create any
kind of religion we want, and they have, haven't they? He makes us to sit. The God of
Scriptures does not want for anything. If you stand before the people and
you say that, wait a minute, if you say that your God is trying, If your pastor or if the man
standing before you says your God is trying, then your pastor
is lying. The God of creation does not
try anything. He does not want for anything.
His desire is fulfilled. His purpose is not thwarted.
Isaiah 45, 5, we read this, he says, I am the Lord and there
is none else. There is no God besides me. I
girded thee thou, though thou hast not known me. that they
may know from the rising of the sun and from the west that there
is none besides me. I am the Lord and there is none
else. I form the light and create darkness. I make peace and I create evil. I the Lord do all these things."
That's God's Word. Plain as can be, brother. You
can't get any different. How are you supposed to interpret
that? Exactly how it says, I form the light and create darkness,
I make peace and create evil, I the Lord do all these things. If God before us, if this very
One that we are reading about in Scripture, this very One that
is spoken of from cover to cover here, if He before us, then can
anything separate us from the love that is in God and the Lord
Jesus Christ? Absolutely not. Not even John
Reeves. You know how much that blesses
me? Because God knows I try to all the time. Just like Jonah,
I want to run off, I don't want to preach to those guys down
at Nineveh. That's like going into a biker bar down in Sacramento
and talking about Jesus down there. I know that's kind of
funny, but seriously folks, going to Nineveh, that's what that
would have been like. I understand why Jonah ran. I also understand
that he had to. That he was purposed to. And
that it was all planned out exactly how our Lord would have it to
be, so that when the Lord put Jonah on dry ground after dying
in the fish's belly, Jonah would stand up before everyone and
say, salvation is of the Lord, alone. God before us, can anything separate
us from His love? Absolutely not. He calls us by
His grace. He saved us by His grace. And
He will keep us by His grace. Look at verses 7-8 of our text
in Ephesians, if you would, please. That in the ages to come, He
might show the exceeding riches of His grace and His kindness
toward us through Christ Jesus. For by grace are you saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves, it is a gift of God." Now, if you will, turn to the
book of John, chapter 10. I thought for a moment, our brother
Mike was going to go there. He went to all the other verses
that we've had already, but that just confirms that this
was the message to be preached this morning. I pray that our Lord may drive
this last point home to the hearts of His sheep. I ask this question again. Am
I a true child of God? Do I believe? Do I belong to
Him? We're going to look at John chapter
10, but before I go there, allow me to read from John 3.16. For God so loved the world, that
He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever That's a word most people want
to look over and say, well, that doesn't mean a whole lot. Folks,
that means everything. Whosoever. Our Lord sent His Son, His only
begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish.
You see, the Lord had to come in the flesh. That was the only
way He could go to the cross and die. Die for all of the whosoever. Die for all of them that believe
in Him, that they should not perish, but have everlasting
life. In verse 17 we go on to read, For God sent not His Son
into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through
Him might be saved. He that believeth on Him is not
condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already. because
he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
And this is the kind of nation that light has come into the
world and men love darkness rather than light because their deeds
were evil. for everyone that doeth evil
hateth the light." This is the natural man right here that this
is talking about. This is the way we came into
this world. Loving our evil deeds, including making ourselves to
be gods. And that's what it means to say
that your will, your decision, is what saved you. It's to say
that your will is above God's will. It's not the God I read about
in Scriptures. This is the condemnation of the
light coming to the world, and men love darkness rather than
light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone that doeth
evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his
deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh
to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they
are wrought in God." Who do you believe in? Do you believe God? Do you believe God's Word? Not
just part of it, but all of it. Look with me at the beginning
of verse 19 in chapter 10. of John chapter 10, please. There
was a division, therefore, among the Jews for these sayings, these
very sayings that our Lord was talking about. He declared who
He was just before this. He had once again declared this
very thing of who He was, what He would do, and where He would
be after that. And yet these religious, self-righteous
Jews could neither see nor believe the Lord of Truth that stood
before them. Look at verses 20 and 21. Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah, and many
of them said, he hath a devil and is mad. Why hear ye him? And others said, these are not
the words of him that hath a devil. Can a devil open the eyes of
the blind? My question for you this morning
is, do I believe? Now look with me, if you would,
at verses 22 through 30. And it was at Jerusalem the feast
of dedication, and it was winter, and Jesus walked in the temple
of Solomon's port. Then came the Jews round about
him, and he said unto him, How long dost thou make us to doubt? If thou be the Christ, tell us
plainly. If you're God Almighty in the
flesh, if you are the Messiah, tell us. Don't hide it from us,
tell us. Jesus answers him, he says, I
told you. He just did. Go back if you'd like to at your
own time and read the full chapter of 10. And ye believed not, he
said. Now here's why. Or here's proof
of what he's saying. He says, the works that I do,
all of the miracles that the Lord had performed, many people
were able to see. What do you think those people
were thinking when they saw a basket? The Lord's up on the hill, you've
got 5,000 people sitting on a knoll. All these people sitting around,
and we're all hungry. Sit down, we'll take care of
this. He's got one little basket. Can you imagine what people thought
about? There ain't going to be nothing, you guys down at the
bottom of the hill, there ain't going to be nothing left for
me. I'm going to be starving here. And here comes the basket. Wow! Look at all this, there's
still food in this thing. You see what I'm saying? That
was just one of the miracles that God performed right there
in the flesh in Jesus Christ. That was just one! You know that blind guy who's
been sitting down here at the corner all this time, begging
for food? Yeah, you know, he's not down
there begging anymore. Really, where'd he go? Well, he's up
walking around, he sees them. What? How could he just all of
a sudden start seeing? Christ proved over and over and
over again who He was. Just like these ones who saw
the works, they would not believe it. Those works that bear witness
of Him, as He says at the end of 25 there, but ye believed
not. That's where we all were at one
time, isn't it? Those of us who believe, we know,
we know very well that we can look back at that time, which
is clear as a bell, no matter how long ago it was, and we can
see there was a time when we did not believe. Because you're not my sheep,
he says. As I said unto you, my sheep
hear my voice and I know them, and they follow me. My last point is this, we are called in Christ, verse
28, and I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish,
neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. We are made righteous in Christ,
my Father which gave to me, verse 29, is greater than all, and
no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. We are
kept preserved in Christ, I and my Father are one. Salvation is of the Lord. Once
again, folks, I have brought before you the gospel of God's
sovereign, free grace. Grace in His Son, the Lord Jesus
Christ. And some may say, that was a
good gospel message, preacher. But how does that help me walk
in this life? I need more than that. You preach that same message
every week. This is a different week. I know
that message. I know that message. I've heard
that message. I know it. Why do I need to hear it again? How does it help me walk in this
life? Folks, I'm here to tell you this morning that we walk
by faith. Not by sight. Stop looking at
yourself. All you're going to see there
is the sin of the flesh. I'm not saying go about through
this life and sin all you want. If you think that's what I'm
saying, you don't know God at all. Go forth and be holy, for God
is holy. But when you fail, And yes, Pauli Mary, you will.
Just as I will, and just as Mike Lovelace will, and Mike, all
of us here this morning. When you fail, we have an advocate in heaven. Amen, sister. Look to Christ. and all these
other things in life will fall into place. When you love the Lord because
He has loved you, it opens your eyes to a whole new way to look
at the world. I could be going just as crazy
as many are about the things that are happening in this world,
the election, the truths, the things that people say are this,
that are lies, and the lies that people say are truths. It would
drive me nuts, I think, if I hadn't had the Lord in my life right
now. But because I know who He is,
because I believe everything including the evils of this world
are under his sovereign control. I can believe this, all things, all things are for the good to
them that love God, to them that are called. Who cares about all that stuff?
I got no reason to care about it. I got no reason to watch
the news on it, even though I foolishly do at times. This world is not my home. My home is in eternity with my
Lord and Savior. What about yours? Trust not what you see. Trust
not the flesh. Yes, the road will be tough and
there will be storms in our lives, but the Lord has promised, I
shall never leave you, nor forsake you. We sing this song. Turn
your eyes upon Jesus. Oh, let's see, how does that
go? Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Full on His wonderful face. And
the things of this world will turn strangely dim in the light
and the glory of what? Glory and grace. Absolutely.
Thank you, James. Thank you, Jim. Do I believe? A man was bringing his sick child
to the Lord. And the Lord hollered out to
him, if thou wouldest believe, and he said, Lord I believe,
help thou my unbelief. Amen. Stand with me if you would
please and turn