I started listening to her singing
that. I thought to myself, I remember when the Lord had called me out
of darkness and she still walked in it. Our paths were going different
ways in a way. And the Lord spoke to her heart
from the preaching of the Gospel. What a difference in our lives
that we have today. Not a holier-than-thou difference. We're the same flesh that we
were before. We still deal with the problems
that most couples deal with. Kathy and I don't have a perfect
relationship, but we have a pretty good one, one that's lasted for
43 years now. Actually 45 if you want to count
those days in high school. God has been gracious to us in
a great, great way. But not in that He hasn't changed
our lives in any way that makes us any different than anybody
else, other than that we have a Savior. We have a hope. We know what we are, but our
hope is different than what we used to have. We saw something different when
the Lord showed us what happened at Calvary for his people. Like
I said earlier, in my prairie, cut away that heart of stone
that would say, this man shall not rule over me, and gave us
a heart that says, my Savior is God of everything. That's the truth. He is God of
everything. I'd like to ask you to open to
Romans chapter 9. Where do we go in today's world
for something that we can grab a hold of that we know is truth? Now I want you to put aside what
I'm about to say in a political sense and think about it in a
sense of truth and lies. I realize these two subjects
may be political in some ways, but I want you to understand
the truth of the matter. In today's world, they say a
child is not a child until they breathe. That's a lie. It's an outright lie. The truth
of the matter is, within eight days, within eight days, that
little human being being formed in the mother's womb takes a
heartbeat. But the world around us, they
say, is completely different. No, no. It's not a child. It's not a human being. Or what
about this other thing? I feel like I'm a woman. So therefore I am. That's a lie. It's an outright
lie. You cannot be a woman if you
were born a man. We have certain things called
chromosomes in us. Wise and all kinds of other stuff.
Garrett's studying on these things right now. Go ask him afterwards.
He'll tell you. He's getting an A in that class. I'm sorry,
Garrett. We have these things in our bodies
that tell us what we really and truly are, and that's the truth
of the matter. We are men and women, male and female. And the
world's got it all backwards. It's whatever I feel is truth.
I can turn whatever I want. You listen to a politician speak,
you know that they're lying to you. Because their mouth is open. And it doesn't matter what field
they're in, whether Democrat or Republican or Independent,
whatever. It's all lies. Where do we go for truth? Amen. Right here. Chapter 9, verse 1. I say the truth in Christ. I lie not, my conscience also
bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost. You want truth in this
life, in this world that we walk through? Go to God's Word. We cannot look to our leaders
of our country for truth. Oh yeah, you know, you're going
to get some truth here, a little bit there. Do you know the devil
gave a little bit of truth? Unfortunately, it was the wrong
part of truth. God said to Adam and Eve, He
said to Adam first, He said, If you eat of this tree, you
shall surely die. And the devil came along a little
bit afterwards and he says, No, you won't surely die. Actually,
what's going to happen is this. And the first lie right there.
That's it. The lie was made. You'll see yourselves as gods. And that was truth. Because mankind
have thought themselves of gods ever since, haven't they? My subject matter today is, can
you, can you, those of you who hear
my voice right now, can you believe God? In Mark 9.23 it says, Jesus
said unto him, if thou canst believe, all things are possible
to him that believeth. Now I'm going to speak to you
for a little bit this morning on this very subject, Can You
Believe God? And I have three texts. The first text is taken
from Romans 4. I'm going to go through them
kind of quickly, so if you want to just set your Bibles down, If you'd like a list of these
scriptures afterwards to go through and check, I'd be happy to give
them to you. In Romans chapter 4, it talks
about Abraham. Abraham was the father of the
faithful, it is said. He is the pattern of faith. Abraham
was the one to whom God showed such grace and mercy that he
was called a friend of God. It says in Romans 4, verse 23,
Abraham believed God. That is what made the difference.
He believed God. That's the only thing that made
the difference. And it was counted to him for righteousness. And
the fact is that he believed God, it was imputed to him, or
reckoned to him, in other words, to be counted unto him for holiness,
or for righteousness and acceptance. Paul, the writer of this scripture,
he goes on and he says something else to you and I. He says, Abraham
believed God. He believed God and it was counted
to him for righteousness. This was not written for Abraham's
sake alone. It was righteousness that was
imputed to him through faith, but also for us also. This same
righteousness that was imputed to Abraham in holiness and acceptance
shall be imputed to all if we believe God. Now isn't that something? Can you believe God? His word is truth. I say the
truth in Christ. Abraham was a man, right? Just
like you and I. Flesh and blood. Bones. He was flesh just as you and
I are. He was a man with like passions. He could get angry. He could feel love. He could
feel disappointment. He was a family man, a working
man, a laboring man, a farmer you might say. Abraham believed
God and it was counted to him for righteousness. That wasn't
just written for Abraham. He wasn't a special character
in this sense of the word. This was written for us also,
to whom this same righteousness there, it was imputed to him,
holiness and acceptance by the same God shall be given if we
believe God. So I ask you again, can you believe
God? In the book of Mark, chapter
16, verse 15, it says, Our Lord gathered His disciples about
Him after He had been crucified and raised from the grave. This
was before that He was ascended back to the Father. And Judas
was dead already. And Paul would join them a little
bit later. And He said to these 11 apostles, You go into all
the world and you preach the Gospel, My Gospel. You preach the Gospel of My grace,
the Gospel of My glory. You go and preach that Gospel
to everybody and to every creature. And then He says this, He says,
He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. It doesn't say
He that makes a decision or He that gets baptized or He that
comes on Saturday or He that does anything else. It says He
that believeth. He that believeth God's Word.
He that believeth the truth in Christ. But he that believeth not shall
be damned. So many of the world today, they
want to stop where he that believeth shall be saved. That's where
they stop. And they don't want to go on
and tell the rest of those who are listening to them, but if
you don't believe, and you go through that door marked death,
you're going to hell. The place that we all deserve
to go to. Now the next question is, can
you believe the gospel? These are the words of Christ
himself. He said, you go preach this gospel, and wherever you
go, and to whomever, I can say that word in a moment, you preach
to. And as they listen to you, that person who believes this
gospel shall be gloriously, eternally, and unchangeably saved. And the
person who does not believe this gospel shall be damned. In Mark
9.23 it says, there was a man who came to our Lord, and this
man had a son that had some sort of disease. Possibly epilepsy
or demon possessed. There was definitely some problem
with him. And he said to the Lord, I brought my son to your
disciples and they couldn't do anything for him. Now if you
can do anything for him, will you help us please? And our Lord
looked at the man and he said this, he said, If you can believe,
all things are possible to him that believeth. And that is what
I ask you today. Can you believe God? Can you
believe His Word? Now, if there is any one thing
that is established in these three texts, I would have you
read 3,000 different ones and you'd come up with the same thing.
This one thing that is established in the Word of God, it is the
importance of believing God. Listen to Hebrews, what it says
in 11, verse 6. Without faith, it is impossible to please God. Without faith, without believing,
without trusting. He that cometh to God must believe
that God is and that God is the rewarder of. the Redeemer, of
all those who diligently seek Him. If any man comes to God,
he must believe God. There is no alternative. Without
faith, it is impossible to please God. That's what His Word says.
Four times the Scripture says in Habakkuk, Galatians, Hebrews,
and Romans, the just shall live by faith. This is how they live. They live by faith. This is how
we live. We live by faith. We have faith that God is going
to provide for us everything. It may not be everything that
we want, but it will be everything that we need. When the doors
first closed and we began the services, we were few. Some more filtered in, praise
the Lord for those that are here. My comment was this though, where
two or more are gathered in the name of the Lord, so shall he
be. That was our faith. We had faith. Do you realize that's a work? That's a work that God does in
his people. Not a work that you and I have
done. For faith is a gift of God, is it not? The very fact that we can believe
the gospel is because our Lord has already started a good work
in us. All the promises of God are to
those who believe. There are no promises to the
people who don't believe. There is no love, there is no
grace, there is no blood, there is no redemption for a person
who does not believe. All the promises of God are in
Christ Jesus and they are yea. The promises of God are not yea
and no, they are yea. The promises are to those who
believe. And also in Hebrews chapter 11,
it talks about Noah, Enoch, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Sarah, and
Rahab. This chapter talks about all
these people of the Old Testament who walked with God. Do you know
the one thing that all these people had in common? They believed God. That's what
it says. The one thing, according to Hebrews
chapter 11, is faith. It says, by faith, Noah, being
warned of God, prepared an ark. It says, by faith, Enoch walked
with God. By faith, Abraham was called
out of his father's house to go in the land that God would
show him. By faith, Jacob. By faith, Isaac. All things are
possible to them that believe, so can you believe God? Let me
ask you this question, and then try to answer it from the Scriptures
if you can. What is it to believe God? You hear everybody talk
about faith, faith, faith. So what is faith? And what is
it to believe God? Well, I can tell you this, it's
not just to believe that there is a God. James tells us that ye
believe God, and that is, ye believe that there is one God,
and ye do well. But the devils also believe,
and they tremble. So it is not just to believe
that there is a God, but to believe Him. to believe his word, not
to believe that there is a God. Everybody thinks there is a God.
You go over here to the other churches, you ask, do you believe
that there's a God? Oh, yeah. Yeah, he lives in that tree right
out back out here. Come on, we'll show you how to
worship there. You go to the Muslim countries,
you ask them, do you believe in God? They say, oh, yeah. Yeah,
and if we kill you, we get 20 virgins. Isn't that great? You
can ask anybody. They all believe that there is
a God. But you have to believe God and what He is and what He
says He is. It's not enough just to have
the knowledge that there is a God. You must believe Him. When our
Lord Jesus Christ encountered the man with the evil spirits,
those evil spirits said, we know who you are. You are the Holy
One of God. Have you come to torment us before
our time? You see, they acknowledged that
Jesus Christ was God, didn't they? They acknowledged that
they had a time when He would deal with them in judgment. They
said, have you come to torment us before our time? So to believe
God is not just to acknowledge His presence, His power, and
His judgment. It is to trust Him and to lean
on Him. You have to believe on Him, trust
Him, and lean on Him. It is not just to profess a faith
with the mouth. It is to act out of that faith
in coming to Him. What is it to believe God? Well,
the answer to believe God and trust Him, I have to cast myself
upon Him, to lean on Him and to come to Him and keep coming
to Him. Paul sums up faith this way.
He says in 2 Timothy 1.12, Paul said, nevertheless, I am not
ashamed. I know whom I have believed and
I'm persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed
to Him. Now here is the definition of
faith. Here is a man of faith. Here is an apostle. This is the
man God used so mightily and greatly. He is a man of great
revelation. He wrote 14 of the 27 books in
the New Testament. Here he gives his summary of
faith. This is the way he gives it. He says, I know whom I believed. I know whom I believed. You see, salvation is a person. I know whom I believe. I believe the Lord Jesus Christ. I believe Him when He says He
is God Almighty the Creator. I believe Him when He tells me
that I went to the cross for you and paid your sins with my
blood, the perfect blood of Christ, the perfect blood of the Son
of God. I believe that my sins were laid upon Him. When His
Word says, He was made to be sin for me, I love that. I believe that He was made sin
for me. You see, it's not just to profess
faith with the mouth, it's to act out that faith in coming
to Him. I know that He is a sovereign God. I know that He is the Almighty. I know that He is a just God.
I know that He is merciful. I know that He is God in Christ. I know that He is Jehovah, the
Lord my Savior. I know He is my Redeemer. I know
whom I have believed. Oh, that I may know Him more
in the power of His resurrection. Oh, that I may win Christ, that
I might know Him more. More about Jesus would I know. That's what they said about Abraham
in the old days. He believed God, and he believed
that God was able to do all that He promised. That's exactly what
Paul is saying here. He says, I believe God, I know
Him, and I'm confident and persuaded that what He says He can do,
He will do. When He says He is able to save
to the uttermost, He will save to the uttermost. None of my
sins can be imputed to me. There is now no condemnation
to them that are in Christ. He is able to keep us from falling.
He is able to raise our vile bodies and to make them like
His own. He is able to accomplish His divine and holy will. I know
it and I'm confident of it because He has given me that confidence. Notice the last words that Paul
said there. He says, I know whom I have believed and I'm persuaded
and I'm confident that He is able to keep that which I've
committed unto Him against that day. You see, this is faith. It's not only a knowledge where
he says, I know God. He says, I know who He is, but
it is also that I know what He did. I know why He did it, and
I know where Christ is right now. He's at the right hand of
God. I am persuaded that He is able
to fulfill and to do all that He promised and is able to keep
that which I've committed unto Him. Oh, yeah. Don't you? Aren't
you committed? Aren't you faithful? Aren't you
able to say the same thing that Paul does there? None of these
things are secondary in knowledge or confidence, but I'll tell
you this. Faith, if it is faith, acts and
commits. Faith, if it is faith, surrenders.
God said, Abraham, get thee out of thy father's house to the
land that I will show thee. Abraham believed God. You ask
me how do I know he believed God? Because he got out of his
house and he went out. How do I know you love God? How
do I know that you believe God? God tells his people, love your
brothers and sisters in Christ. Love thy neighbor. Look at the
love. You realize we come from all
kinds of different places, you and I. Some are bikers. Some are golfers, some are carpenters,
some are painters. Whatever place you come from,
look at the love that people have for each other in this room. How do I know you believe God?
Because you're doing what God tells you to do. He tells you
to gather together. Do not forsake the gathering
together. Where are you right now? You're
sitting here. Come to me, he says. What are
you doing right now? You're not coming to me. I'm
just some fool sinner standing here before you. You're coming
to God. You're coming to Christ. You're
coming to hear His Word. To hear more about Jesus. Abraham,
we know he was faithful. We know that he believed God
because he left his home. Rahab was told to hang a scarlet
line out the window and she would be spared. She believed God. How do we know? Because she hung
the scarlet ribbon out the window. The Lord said to Moses, put blood
on the door and when I see the blood I will pass over you. So
how do we know that those people believed God? Because they put
the blood on the door. In the book of Romans it talks
about justification of the soul. By faith we are justified. We
are not justified by works of righteousness, which we have
done, but according to His mercy we have to conclude that a man
is justified by faith without the works of the law. That's
what Paul teaches in Romans. We are justified, forgiven, pardoned,
redeemed by His death. We are justified by His life,
by His work, by His doing and dying. We are not justified by
anything that we have done. James comes along a little bit
later and he teaches that justification of faith is works. You see, the
justification of the soul is by Christ through faith. How
do you know that a man's faith is genuine? Well, the answer
is by his works. Faith without works is dead works. So Paul said, I know whom I have
believed and I am persuaded that He is able to do all that He
said and is able to keep. I have proved my confidence in
Him and I have proved my faith in Him and I have proved I know
Him by committing everything I have to Him. You're committing your Sunday
morning to our Lord Jesus Christ right now. That's what our Lord
has told you to do. All worship and glory goes to
our Lord Jesus Christ. You're all here today because
there's nothing in you worth glorifying. You've come to hear
the One who is worth being glorified. Our Lord Jesus Christ. That's
the Word of God. That's what He's telling us to
do. Worship Him, not us. Go to one
of these other churches. Go ahead. I'm not worried about
it. Our Lord says that My people, even if a viper bites them, won't
bother them. He'll protect us from that. Go
to these other churches and tell me what you hear there. Do you
hear the raising of men? Do you hear the glorifying of
men? I've gone to a few and that's all I've ever heard. The glorifying
of men. In God's churches we don't glorify
men because there's nothing to glorify. But we do worship and
praise the one who is worth all glory and praise. You see, obedience is what separates
false faith from true faith. Christ says, if you love me,
you will keep my commandments. He's not saying keeping my commandments
makes you love me, but rather loving me makes you keep his
commandments. Christ said, you're my friends,
if you do whatsoever I command you. I'm not a friend of God
because I do what He says, I do what He says because I'm a friend
of God. Do you understand what I'm saying?
I know we don't do it perfectly, no. We're not going to do anything
perfect until the Lord takes us home. But in my heart, my
desire is to do the things that satisfy and bring glory to my
Lord. Isn't that what's in yours? Faith produces works. Real faith
will produce a labor of love and works of faith. If a person
claims to believe God and doesn't live like it, walk like it, talk
like it, and act like it, then he really doesn't believe God,
does he? Abraham, he said, take your son upon the mountain and
sacrifice him to me. Abraham believed God. How do
I know? Because he took Isaac up to the
top of the mountain. He did what God commanded him
to do. You see, to believe Christ is to receive Him. You have to
receive Him as your Lord, your Master, the Lord of your life. Bow to His will. No man can serve
two masters, is what our Lord says. There are people out in
this world who claim to believe on Jesus, yet they give no evidence
of it. They're selfish, greedy, unthoughtful, unholy, and indifferent.
They are not identified with God's people. They don't believe
God, for if you believed God, you would walk with God. To believe
Christ is to receive Him. To believe Christ is to come
to Him in your body and your soul. What did Ruth say to Naomi? She said, I love you, and where
you go, I go, and your people are my people. Where you lodge,
I will lodge. Where you die, I will die. Where you are buried, I will
be buried. Now she loved that woman. Wouldn't
you say? If a person loves Christ, will
he say the same thing? Will he say, where you go, I
will go? Your will is my will. Your commandment
is my command. Your people are my people. Where
you lodge, I will lodge. When I die, I die in confidence
and faith in you. To believe Christ is to trust
Him. Trust Him for our needs. We have some things that are
of great consideration here at Rescue right now. And we have options. And some
of those options are not good options. You know, we're studying
the book of Isaiah, and Isaiah has just beat up Israel for going
outside and getting help. from the Assyrians. God led Israel
into bondage to Assyria for that very thing. Some think that maybe we should
go outside. I don't believe so. I don't know how the Lord is
going to do it, but he says he'll provide one way or another. Some of you may not know this.
We were supposed to get a three-ton unit put on this roof last Tuesday,
or last week sometime. What you see sitting out there
right now is a big, big five-ton unit. What we paid for is a three-ton
unit. But they sent the wrong one,
and they didn't have any of the right ones, so they sent a bigger
and better one instead. Now, you tell me that's not God providing
what we need. That unit out there is big enough
that it might heat and cool this entire building on its own. where
we used to have three. That's God providing the ways.
And this is something that came from within us. What God gave
us to give to the church. What God has provided through
us. We didn't go outside of the church
of Israel at all. To believe Christ is to trust
Him for our needs. Spiritually. Materially. and physically, to trust Him.
He said, take no anxious thought for what you're going to eat
or drink or wear. Your Father knows you have needs
of these things. Seek ye first the Kingdom of
God and His righteousness. If you believe God, then you
will walk in His Word. To believe Christ is to continually
to believe Him. Not just today, not just maybe
for a little while here, but to continually trust in Him. Continually look to Him. You know what John says about people
that run hot for a little while and then they get cold? He says
they serve God for a little while and then they quit. They come
to church for a little while and then they, yeah, they disappear
for a time. He says they'll believe a little
bit while and then they'll quit believing it. They walk with
this crowd for a little while and then they walk no more. John
said this, he says, they went out from us because they were
never of us. They claimed to be for a little
while and professed to be for a little while, but they were
never of us. How do you know that they were
not of us? How do we know? Because if they
were with us, if they were of us, they would have no doubt
continued with us. That's what the word of God says.
We are the house of Christ. If we hold fast to the profession
and our faith, hold fast to the faith firm until the end. If
anyone asked me what it is to believe God or what it is, what
is saving faith, I would say to them right now, it is to have
confidence and be persuaded that he is able to do all that he
has said he would do. It is genuinely continually committing
in my heart and body and soul and all that I possess to the
one that I love, my Lord Jesus Christ. This is not a sign that
I would put out in the front of my house. This is an experience
in my heart. He is my Lord. He rules over
me. Sometimes He allows me to step
out what I think is my own way, but He still rules over me. He is sovereign over everything.
If He's not sovereign over everything, then He's not God. Then we're
wasting our time. You could be watching golf or
something, right? So alright, here's a second question
for you. You see, this saving faith has
a chief objective. It's not just a general faith.
I know that in a sense we do believe the word of God from
Genesis to Revelation. We know that God can't lie. We
believe the word of God. The word of God is an object
of faith. God said, my word will not return unto me void. I believe
the Bible. And secondly is to believe the
promises of God from Genesis to Revelation from the first
promise of the seed of the woman to the very last promise, we
believe God and we believe His promises. We believe in His mercy. God is plenteous in mercy, it
says, really and truly. Listen carefully to me, folks.
What is the chief objective of saving faith? This saving faith
is brought together in one point. There is someone who I believe. I believe God, and I believe
His Word, and I believe His promises, I believe His mercy, and I believe
His grace, and all of this, all of that, is delivered perfectly
in Christ Jesus our Lord. Christ is the Word. He's the
only way that I know that the Word of God is in Christ. No
man has seen God at any time save the Son, He to whom the
Son will reveal Him. He is even called the Word of
God. So I believe Christ and therefore I believe the Word
of God. He is the Word of God that the very revelation of God.
Then I believe God and Christ is God. I believe the promises,
all of them. There is nothing for a sinner
outside of Christ. Every promise of God Almighty
is centered on the Lord Jesus. And when I believe Christ, I
believe the promises of God and the mercy of God. Paul keeps
saying over and over again, grace, mercy and peace unto you, from
God the Father through our Lord Jesus Christ, in all of his letters. That's the reason now to listen
to this. I'm coming to my point. This is the reason that when
the jailer of Philippi asked Paul, he says, Sir, what must
I do to be saved? Paul replied in one sentence.
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Whosoever believeth in Me shall
be saved. Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord..." How are you going to call on Him if you
don't believe in Him? How are you going to believe in Him if
you've never heard of Him? When I believe Christ, When I
receive Christ, when I embrace Christ as my Savior, as my Lord,
as God Almighty, when I rest in Him, then I am resting, trusting,
and believing all the Word that He has given me in this book. This is the reason that John
said in 1 John 1, 10-12, it says, this is the record God has given
us unto eternal life. This life is in His Son. He that
hath the Son of God hath life. He that hath not the Son of God
shall not see life, but the wrath of God that abideth in Him. In
1 Corinthians 1.30 it says, Of Him are ye in Christ, who of
God is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.
In Christ dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. Everything
is in Christ. Paul himself says, I preach Christ
and Him crucified. I determine not to know anything
among you, save Jesus Christ. When you preach Christ, you preach
God. When you preach Christ, you preach the Word of God. In
the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the
Word was made flesh. When you preach Christ, you preach
the promises of God. When you preach Christ, you preach
the mercies of God. When you preach Christ, you preach
the wisdom of God, the righteousness of God, the redemption and the
sanctification of God. The reason is because it's all
about Him. How does His saving faith generally
come to a person, you might ask? Can you look to Christ and believe
Christ? How does His saving faith generally come to a person? How
does God work faith? It says, for by grace you are
saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is a gift
of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. How does God
work faith? How does He personally and generally
come to faith and ordinarily? I know that God works when He
will, with whom He will, and the way He will. Here are four
things that you might want to listen to. First of all, How
does God generally work faith? The Lord, by the Word, is never
without the Word of God. God hath chosen by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. How does He work faith in His
people? Well, how did He work faith in
you? It was very simple for me. Very
simple. Our Lord brought tragedy into
my life. He brought sorrow. And as I came here one day to
hear, to cry on my brother's shoulder, I heard the gospel
preached. Every time I hear the gospel
preached, my faith, God works faith in me. Reminding me of
who He is and what He's done for me. Faith cometh by hearing. Secondly, the Lord, by His Word
and by His Spirit, will continually convince man that he is a sinner.
So he will shut him up in the Lord's mercy in Christ. Oh, how
quick it is for us to forget who our righteousness is and
think that we have some of our own. See the good things that
I did today? Oh, how I love the Lord will
take me and just shut me up. No, John, it's not what you did.
It's what I have done in you. This comes to us glorifying our
Lord even in what we do, doesn't it? I don't need to share with you
the good things I do. For anything that I have done
is what my Lord has worked in me. All glory in heaven and earth
go to Him. Paul said, when the law came,
I died. Or in other words, in the flesh,
no man can please God. So we are shut up to the mercy. We are shut up to His help and
to His will. The leopard said to the Lord,
Lord, if you will, you can make me whole. And he certainly needed
it, didn't he? He couldn't make himself whole,
could he? Isn't that interesting? Leprosy. A disease that could
be healed, but there was nothing you could do to heal it. Even
in today's world. Thirdly, the Lord will then,
by His Word and by His Spirit, reveal Christ to that sinner.
That very one who He shuts up to his own righteousness and
He shows the righteousness in Christ. He reveals Christ in
his life as our righteousness. And in his death, by his blood,
as our atonement. We will find out who died on
that cross and why he died on that cross and where he is now.
The Lord by his spirit reveals that salvation is in Christ and
Christ alone. Because he died, I don't have
to die. He lived a perfect life and it
counts to me for righteousness because I believe God. Fourthly and lastly, The Lord
by his word and by his spirit will work repentance and saving
faith in the sinner's heart. He will make us willing in the
day of his power. The goodness of God will lead
us to repentance. He grants us eyes to see his
son, the Lord Jesus Christ. He gives us ears to hear his
voice in the preaching of his word. Then the Lord by His Word
and by His Spirit will continue to reveal Christ and we will
grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior. Day by
day we feast upon the Word and we feed upon the Word. We feed
on Christ who is the Word. We grow and we come to know Him
better. You see we have been saved and
we are being saved and our salvation is nearer than we believed. There is the confidence of faith. We might ask, the Word of God
gives us assurance. Yeah, yeah, that's right. The
Word gives us assurance. By God Himself, it is in the
confidence and assurance of His Word. God is almighty, He says. God is unchangeable, He says.
God is faithful, He says. He will never leave us and He
will never forsake us. Is that not giving us assurance
for our faith right there? Is that not our faith turning
to Him? The assurance of His Word? Our confidence is not in ourselves.
Our confidence is in Christ alone. The truth is in Christ. The truth
is by Christ. And the truth is for Christ.
And all glory belongs to Him. Even our faith comes by hearing,
and by the hearing of His Word. Amen?