Paul, if you were here last Sunday,
that we looked at the first part of Hebrews 11, verse 1, and I
told you we would take the next part this Sunday on faith. Hebrews 11, 1 reads this way. Now, faith, faith is the substance
of things hoped for. the evidence of things not seen. Faith. He's not describing faith right
here. He already did that in ten chapters. But here he's saying, now that
faith that I just wrote about, that's your confidence. That's what substance means. That's your grounds. That's the
reason, the basis for believing that you're going to get what
you hope for. This faith. We hope for, and
we looked at this, what believers hope for. We hope for eternal
life. He's going to talk about things
not seen. All of these things are unseen things, spiritual
things. The things hoped for. The things
of God. That's what we're doing this
morning. We're about the things of God. We're not, this is not,
well, a club meeting and we're going to talk about collecting
things. This is a spiritual gathering.
We talk about spiritual things. And they're all unseen. The eternal
life. Things that believers desire,
forgiveness of sins, mercy, grace, peace, joy, love, God. We want to see God, be with God,
Christ. We've never seen Him. Nobody in here has ever seen
Him. Unseen things. We hope someday to be with God,
to be with Christ, to be in His heaven. To be with those people
whom we do not see now, to see them again. Eternal life and
all that that means. This faith. That's the confidence
you have that you're going to receive these things you hope
for. So you see what he's saying? This faith. Now, what is faith? Very quickly. Faith, the fundamentals of faith. Look at verse six. Verse six. Without faith, it's impossible
to please him, or that is, God. For he that cometh to God. Here we are this morning. Whether you believe from the
heart, whether you're here, whether I'm here, with a real true motive or not. I might have come because it's
Sunday. I might have come because my
wife wanted me to come. I might have come because my
parents liked for me to be here. Nevertheless, we come before
God this morning. We're sitting before God's Word,
not my Word. We're sitting right now before
God's Word to be judged by it, to hear it, to heed it, Here we are, supposed to come
here to worship God. He that cometh to God, he that
cometh before God, he that comes to worship, he that comes to
here, he that comes to God, may be in reality for mercy, for
grace, for health, for salvation, must believe that he is. What does that mean? You're going to worship God,
you must believe He is God. God is God. It's like coming before the king.
You come before the king, you better act like he's king. And you better believe he's king.
And you better address him as such. You just don't rush into
the king's presence. You just don't call him by his
first name. You just don't... You're coming for a king. He
that cometh to God, any human being that wants to approach
God, better believe he is God. This is the fundamental of the
faith. God is God. God is God, not trying
to be. We don't approach God. We're
not sitting back and decide to let God approach us. You see that, what that's saying?
He that cometh to God must believe he is God. All right, and the second fundamental
of faith is God wrote a book. God wrote his word. In the chapter
one of Hebrews, it says God, who in sundry times, or past
times, in a different manner, spoke unto the fathers by the
prophets. That's the Old Testament. It's
God's Word. It's not just the Old Testament. It's God's Word. If we're going
to sit before the Word, we're going to have to believe it's
God's Word. We don't argue it. We don't come to debate it. We
don't come to ask questions of it. We don't come to judge it. We come to be judged by it. It's God's Word. And after these
last days, Spoken unto us by his Son, he said, New Testament
days, God, the Word, was made flesh. Alright, let me make myself
clear here. We come here this morning, for
whatever reason, we're sitting before God Almighty. And God wrote a book, and everything
in it is God's Word. And we better believe it. We
better believe it. We better, we better bow to it. We better
hear it. Over and over he keeps saying, he that hath ears to
hear, let him hear. Faith cometh by hearing. Let him hear and let him bow
and let him believe and let him call on the word who was made
flesh. God became a man. Here's the
third fundamental of the faith. Three things. God is God. God's
Word is God's Word to be believed. God's Word is the record concerning
God's Son. That's what this whole book is
about. It's not a book of good living. It's not a book of moral
stories, Jewish fables. It's a book of Jesus Christ telling
who he is. This is life. They might know
him. And this book tells about it. who he is, what he did, why
he came. All right? That's the fundamentals
of the faith. And he spent ten chapters telling
us who Christ is. Ten chapters telling us who Christ
is. He's better than Moses. He's better than Aaron. Oh, he's our high priest. He's a priest forever. He talks
about all through The tabernacle, the sacrifices, Christ is all
of that. Salvation is in Christ. We must
know Christ. To ever hope to live eternally,
to live with God, there's something after this life. If a man were wise, a woman,
a person were wise, they'd consider the latter end. This thing's
going fast. People are going fast, aren't
they? God's plucking them out of our midst. This little congregation,
we're seeing them go right and left. It's something else. Oh, that
man were wise and consider his latter end. Man's going to his
long home from which he's not going to return. If you ever
hope for eternal life, it will be
by this faith, faith in Christ. So you see, now he said, now
faith is. So that's what he's saying here. This faith, knowing God, believing
God's word, taking him at his word, and believe in God's Son, you're going to realize you're
going to have what you hope for. Yes, you are. That's the confidence
that you have. No confidence in yourself. No
confidence in your works. No confidence in the flesh. No,
no, no. All your confidence. And it's good hope. It's good
confidence. So much so, you can come boldly. is in Christ. Everybody that's
ever come to God through Christ is with him now. All right, so he says, Faith
is the confidence of things hopeful, and it's the evidence of things
not seen. Are you with me? This will be, I think it will
be a blessing to you. I've already preached this. Tried
it on at Ashland first. I tried the first part here,
then took that up there Well, I tried the second part
on them, and now here I am back to you. They seem to enjoy it. Maybe you will, too. What I'm
going to try to show you is that this faith, if you believe God
is God, if you really believe God is God and love that He is—I don't mean
just in your head, I mean you're persuasive and you know it and
you trust Him. and that God's Word is God's
Word, and you really believe it and act upon it. And if you
believe God's Son, if you totally, completely, 100 percent trust
Him and Him only, and all your desire is toward Him, that's
not of yourselves. That's a gift of God. That's
evidence of these unseen things. Do you understand what he's saying
there? Do you understand that, John, what he's saying? That's the
evidence. If you believe, that's the evidence. What are we looking
for? We're looking for signs and miracles
and wonders to prove that we're children of God. Lord, and I'm
not above this. We're not above this. Lord, show
us a sign. Where's the promise of his coming?
Show me a sign. Say something to me out loud.
I believe you, if you just one word out loud, in a dream, something
miraculous, let me see it, then I'll believe you. No? No sign. I'm getting ahead of
myself. All right, this faith is evidence of things not seen. Turn over, where does faith come
from? Romans chapter 10. Turn over there quickly. And
I just quoted this, but look at it with me. Romans chapter
10. Now, we're living in a day when
preaching has become such utter foolishness. What's being said and done in
the name of preaching is just absolutely, it's utter foolishness,
isn't it? It really is. Nevertheless, God still uses
preaching. It's said in 1 Corinthians 1.21,
it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. Read
on. Believe what? Look at Romans 10. It says in
verse 13, Now whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord
shall be saved. Our Lord said, Call upon me.
Speak, you shall find. Call, ask. Knock. Call upon me. Who? Whoever comes to God must believe
that He is. It's not Jesus this, Jesus that.
No, no, no. You're going to come to God.
You're going to call on the Lord. You're going to call Him Lord.
You're going to ask the Lord for mercy. That's the first thing
you're going to ask for. Mercy. You're going to call on
the name for mercy. Because we're worthless. We're
unworthy. We're guilty. You see that? That's a fundamental. You're
going to call on the name of the Lord. You shall be saved. You see, that's what it's all
about. Saved from damnation. Saved from this evil generation
that's going to receive this. Saved. You're going to be spared. That's not speaking of a God
who's only love. That's speaking of a holy and
just and angry God. You're going to call on Him.
You're going to call on Him for mercy. to save you, to spare
you. Verse 14, how do they call on
him whom they do not believe? Call on the Lord for mercy, they're
just accepting Jesus. You understand? In Acts, when Peter got through,
they were begging the Lord for mercy. Not accepting Jesus. They were bowing at the feet
of this sovereign God in whose hands they were. Well, how are
they going to call on him whom they've not believed? How shall
they believe in him whom they've not heard? If they don't hear
a preacher or somebody telling them who God is, they're not
going to cry out for mercy. How shall they hear without a
preacher? How shall they preach? No preacher, no fellow is a true
preacher. No man. It's a true preacher
who does not stand up and say this, Behold your God. That's
what he told Isaiah to preach, didn't he, in Isaiah 40. Isaiah said, What shall I cry? He didn't say, Tell them God
loves you. Tell them Jesus died for you. He said, You tell them,
Behold your God, that all flesh is grass. And the good that is
thereof is the flower of the field. The flower withers and
the grass fadeth. And God, the Spirit of the Lord,
is going to blow upon it. It's all going to be burned up.
Tell them to hold your God, bow down and worship and cry out
for mercy. They're not going to preach that
except God send them. That's what God's preachers are
saying. And then over in chapter 42 of
Isaiah, he said, You tell them to hold my servant, my elect,
in whom my soul delighteth, the Lord Jesus Christ. He shall not
fail. You tell them he shall not fail.
You preach a Christ who's on the throne. You preach a salvation
that actually is saved. You preach a grace that's not
an offer, but a bestowal. You preach a God who's sovereign. You preach a blood that actually
saves. You preach a Christ who's seated,
not knocking on doors. You tell him, to whom are my
servants, and whom I delight, and the only one I delight in,
and you're accepted only in the beloved. You preach him. That's what they're going to
preach if they're sent. That's all they'll preach. Nothing more,
nothing less. Oh, and how, if they preach,
how beautiful are their feet. Verse 16, But they had not already
made the gospel. Isaiah said, Lord, who hath believed
our report? Who's going to hear this message?
Isaiah said it. Who's going to hear this message
of sovereign grace? Who's going to hear that God
is God, and man is dead, and Christ is all? Who's going to
hear that? There are a few people in the world that want to hear
this. Who's going to hear it? He said,
my sheep will hear my voice. I know them. They'll follow me.
They'll hear my voice. My voice. Every one of them. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me as God. They'll believe to whom the arm
of the Lord is revealed, the arm of the Lord is revealed.
But Isaiah 53 wants it, to whom the arm of the Lord is revealed.
It's a revelation to his people. You tell them that. Why do you
preachers always preach an election and all that? It gives God all the glory, because
God said it, and God's people have just said it. What further
need a reason have we? Need we? See, we're not calling on men
to do anything for God. Preaching is not all about calling
on men to do anything for God. Preaching is declaring who God
is, thus saith the Lord, what God's word says, and who God's
Son is, and why he came, what he did, and where he is now,
and what's going to happen later. Because of what he did, and why
he came, and where he is now. That's what preaching is. It's
not asking anybody anything. It's declaring. And this is the
power of God. This is what God takes in the
power of the Holy Spirit and brings sinners to themselves. Opens ears, eyes. Verse 17. So faith cometh by hearing, and
hearing by the Word of God. Faith cometh by hearing.
Hearing by the Word of God. Now, not just Bible stories,
the Word of God. This faith doesn't just come
by a man standing up and reading the Bible, or a person reading
the Bible, or telling Bible stories, or just saying Bible words. Peter
said this. Listen to what Peter said. He
said, We're born again by the Word of God, which liveth and
abideth forever. And this is the Word. Peter said,
this is the word. What is it that God uses? The
word of God. Peter said, this is the word
which by the gospel is preached unto you. It better be the gospel, or there won't be any faith. It better be the gospel. And
if you want a description of the gospel, well, I've already
given it to you. Who God is. God's Word. God's Son. Romans 1, his first four verses,
is one of the clearest descriptions of the gospel in all of the Bible.
And Paul starts out saying, I'm separated from the gospel of
God. That's how Hebrews 1 starts out. This is where it starts
at. In the beginning, God. That's
how John 1 starts out. God. And really, the last thing in
Hebrews, before he says goodbye to them, is fire. God is a consuming
fire. Faith cometh by hearing the Word
of God. The Word of His power concerning the Son. God's Son,
who's declared to be the Son of God with power. It's whom
God reveals the Son to. All right. Now, who believes
that? Has anything I've said thus far—and
you know I've been reading Scripture and alluding to Scripture and
just commenting truthfully on scripture, having twisted one
verse. So anything I've said thus far
that you take issue with, that you don't believe, that you don't
like, Do you believe everything that's
been said thus far? I mean, you really believe in
your heart, not just your head. The devil believes there's one
God, and he trembles. That's not salvation. I believe
God's sovereign. That ain't it. Love God. He is sovereign. Love Him. Follow Him. Hear Him. Heed Him. Worship Him. Walk with
Him. Believe His Word. He said, he
that hath my word abiding in him, he it is that loveth me. Christ, Christ is their pursuit.
Christ is your, really is Christ. You really want to win Christ
and be found in him? Can you say that from the heart?
That all that I might know him, the power of his resurrection,
be made conformable to his death. All that I might win Christ.
I want to know him. I want to see him. I want to
be with him. I want this salvation. I want to be like him. Can you
say that? That's not of yourself. That's the power of God. He says
that's the operation of God. That's according to the working
of his mighty power. That's this faith. And if you
believe, if this is in you, that's evidence. That's all evidence
you need. You follow me? This faith is
evidence. It is the evidence. Peter said, The word of God which
liveth. Paul said, The word of God is
quick. It's alive. And I quoted it a while ago.
Christ said, My sheep hear my voice. Not the voice of a man. They actually hear Christ speak. This book is not by any personal
interpretation. Men didn't just say, oh, I'll
sit down and write a good book. Holy men spoke as they were moved
by God. This is the Word of God which
liveth. It's alive. And there was a time,
everyone in here that's alive, unto God. There was a time when
you were dead to this, and you were thinking, you sat and you
heard, but you didn't hear. You sat and you saw, but you
didn't see. You read, but you didn't heed,
didn't understand. You had ears to hear, eyes to
see, but you didn't hear and you didn't see. You had a heart,
but it didn't love these things. But one day, in God's power,
in God's Spirit, not the power of the preacher, but in God's
Holy Spirit, in his good time, in the fullness of time, God
sent forth his Son, revealed his Son in you, revealed his Son in his glory,
and glorified you. Open those eyes. I told you my
story. Surely you could tell me yours.
And I saw it. I've seen it. I've seen eyes
literally fly wide open. They finally see. I've seen ears
perk up, whereas before they were zippity-doo-dah, zippity-day. And a heart broken, tears begin
to fall, flesh begin to tremble, and the life given. The Word of God is, He said,
My sheep want to hear my voice. And you thought, tell me if you
didn't think this. Some of you said it to me. I
thought you were just talking to me. I felt like I was the
only one in there. Who is that? Huh? Who is that? It's not me. It's
not the preacher. My sheep hear my voice. Very
really, very powerfully, and very personally. This thing is
between Christ and one of his sheep, just like it was between
Christ and Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus has a personal confrontation. And that's what happens to every
one of his people. Not saved in crusades, but saved by personal
confrontation. God in his Word. Paul said this to the Thessalonians,
I thank God that when you heard the Word, when you heard it,
you received it. effectually worketh in us that
believe." Oh, thank God, because Paul said this. He said, I'm
less than the least. I'm not fit to be called a disciple.
He said, who is sufficient for these things? Paul said, we have
this treasure in earthen vessels. Paul, physically speaking, Paul
was a short, bald-headed man with a physical affliction. He
was apparently not very good to look at. bad eyesight, and just not a very imposing figure.
He was not a very, physically speaking, charismatic man, you
know, like one of the preachers today, with every hair in place
and all of that. He was just plain, and people
came to hear Paul and said, huh, it's just plain bad. Who's that? Just like all the rest of his
preachers. Elisha and a bunch of kids came out and said, Hey,
Baldy. Made fun of the preachers, and
Baldy the preacher. Bears, Elijah called bears out
of the word, made fun of them. Honestly. I think of that quite often.
Men make fun of God's preachers, I think. You better be glad they're
not Elisha. Anyway, Paul wasn't anything
special to look at or even to hear, but he was God's man. And what came out of his mouth
was the Word of God. And they're going to hear from
God, they're going to hear from him. And some of them did. Some of them took up stone with
the stone, Paul. Other ones dropped them. You see, this faith is the evidence.
It is the evidence. God uses earthen vessels that
the excellency of the power might be of God. That it might be clear. This is God speaking. This man is not capable of this. May I use this illustration?
I know you don't. I hope you don't think. It was the text, the verses,
the exposition of those verses. It was just a faithful exposition
of God's Word. But God laid hold on this man
with power and verse after verse. Liberty is when verses of Scripture
comes to the preacher's mouth, that the Word of God may have
free flow, a door of utterance. Remember when he said that back
then? You ask him in private to quote
something, he might butcher it. But in preaching, it just comes
to mind. Benjamin said, when he wrote Pilgrim's Progress,
he said, God's word just kept tumbling in. Just came tumbling
in. He just repeated it. And I was
listening to this preacher, and it just, word after word after
word. And I know this fellow because,
and he wasn't educated, and he didn't go to seminary, and he
didn't have this in himself, and if you ask him in private,
You know, he might not have put two words together clearly, but
oh, the words are going forth. It blessed my heart to hear him.
You know who it was? It was me. I'm telling you the truth. I
heard, I thought, I can't do that. Somebody come to me in
private and say, Get me to just stumble, fumble, and mumble and
can't take a one verse of scripture. Now that's the truth. It just
amazed me. I was just amazed. You know,
I'm not... I may never preach again for
telling you that, but it's a good illustration. I didn't go to
college. I didn't go to seminary. I remember making one speech
in my entire life. There's an illustration in scripture
that illustrates well what I'm trying to say. Paul said, we
have this treasure in earthen vessels that it might be clear,
that the excellency of the power might be of God, that you'll
know it's God. You've heard Brother Bruce Crabtree
preach. Brother Don Bell had him down
recently to preach in their conference, and Don, I said, Don, how'd it
go? He said, oh, Brother Bruce, he
said, oh, he couldn't even put it into
words. He said he heard things unlawful to utter out of the
mouth of that man. What does Bruce Crabtree do for
a living? First of all, he has about a ninth-grade education.
Have you seen him physically? You know what he does for a living?
You know what he has to do to meet expenses? He drives one
of these Dempsey dumpster trucks. He's a garbage man. That to excellency of the power
might be of God and not of man. When they heard Peter and James
and John and all of them, they were fishermen, Dan. They were
fishermen. All their friends and relatives and all that heard
them stand up. And they said, where did they
get this I didn't go to school, I've known
him since he was a little boy. All I ever heard him do was curse. That the excellency of the power
might be of God and not of men. There's this story, and you've
heard me tell it, of a young man in one of the Philistine
Israel was fighting the Philistines. Ahab was the king. God, through
a prophet, told Ahab he was an evil king. God, through his word,
through a man, came to Ahab and said, You're going to die and
the dogs are going to lick your blood. Who is that fellow? Put him in
jail. Put that prophet in jail. I don't like that. They were going out to battle
against the enemies, and Ahab said, I don't believe that prophet,
but just in case, just in case, he said to his friend, you dress
up like me. Boy, he sure was a courageous
one. You dress up like me, and you
go out there. I'll get in the back here, but
I don't believe a word that prophet said. Anyway, Steve, he got in the
back of the line where nobody or anything could touch him.
Well, to make a long story short, not a shot was fired. Nobody
fired a shot. They all had bows and arrows
back then. Nobody fired a shot. There was no battle. And they
were all going home, and Ahab was going to say, that's nothing
to worry about. That prophet ain't nothing to
him, ain't nothing to this God of his. Let's go home, boys." Well, from
the other side, they were all turning around to go home, too.
And one little Philistine boy had just bought him a new bow
and arrow for the battle. His dad finally let him go out
to war, and he bought this new bow and arrow, and he didn't
even get to shoot it. He said, I want to shoot somebody
or something. Do you remember as a boy, some
of you fellas, it's the man thing, you girls might not understand.
Well, some poly might understand. Some of you other ladies that
like to hunt, you might understand. You get your first gun. I remember
going out to hunt with my brother, oldest brother. When he died,
a friend of his took me hunting. And I was about 13, 14. And got
a new .410. Magazine 410. Man, I want to
shoot that thing so bad. I want to just blast every squirrel
I saw. He took me hunting, and I remember
being with him, and he said, there's one. There's one. Where? Where? Right there. I don't see
it. Right there. I don't see it. You know, untrained
eye, little hunter. You remember that, Steve? You
act like this happened to you, too. I don't see anything. I
want to shoot something. And when the day was over, we
hadn't shot anything, you know. Fished all day, didn't catch
anything. So you shoot a true. Oh, that's what this little fella
did. I want to shoot somebody or something. The scripture says
he shot a bow at a venture. This poor, this little fella,
shoot. I'm going to shoot somebody and
fired it in the air at the armies of Israel. Thousands and thousands
of people. You know who that arrow hit?
Ahab. He was wearing a coat of armor,
helmet, everything covered all. It was one little joint in his
armor. Where it came together right
there, they couldn't sew it. One little joint in his armor,
that arrow flew over thousands of people and... King. And he died, and the dogs licked
his blood. Now if you'd have gone and told
that poor little fella, you know, you know that arrow you shot?
You killed the king. Oh, come on. I wouldn't be naming. You see the picture there? And the brethren and I got a kick
out of this. We preachers, God uses poor vessels and poor preachers
and poor attempts at preaching. But we have powerful errors. That's where the power is. And
us preachers all the time, you know, grab for errors. Drop them. Break them. Shoot ourselves in
the foot. Shoot our friends. Friendly fire.
Don't preach at him. Don't be mean to him. He believes. Shoot him. Aim over here. What does God
do? He directs the air. He must. He knows what, who, when, how,
where, and pierces the hardest of hearts. Let me tell you this
story, and I've got to quit. John Warburton, some of you have
read his autobiography. He went to hear William Gadsby
preach, the famous William Gadsby, a great preacher back a couple
hundred years ago. And Warburton was a young, wild
man at the time. Young, rogue, street urchin,
you know. And he had a bunch of his cronies.
They were in their early twenties, you know, carousers over in early England. And it was for them to go and
make fun of They would go and sit out there and heckle him,
heckle the preacher, holler at him. He and his buddies went,
and they were going to go hear the famous William Gadsby, and
they got him a bunch of tomatoes. They were going to go throw tomatoes
at him and heckle him. And they all sat back there in
a bag and were waiting on their opportunity. And William Gasper
got up to preach, and he was apparently a slow-talking fellow,
and he had some kind of accent. It would be like some Southerner,
like Brother Terry Worthing, getting up here and just talking
like this. Open your Bibles. Barnard used
to preach that way. And they were back in the back
waiting on an opportunity. And John Warburton told this
story later on. He said, I remember thinking,
what an old fool. When he heard him start this,
what a fool. Listen to him. Laughing. So he got those tomatoes ready
and the man started reading and preaching. He dropped the tomatoes. A tear began to go down his face. His buddies laughing carried
on. John Warburton, the power of God, broke his whole old hard
heart. And what did he become? One of
those preachers. See, faith is the evidence. The fact that you're sitting
here and love what you're hearing, that's not of yourself. John, the fact that you're sitting
here believing, loving, and not heckling, that's not of yourself. That's evidence of the unseen
power of God, of the Holy Spirit of God, the power of his word. It's evidence. illustrations of people that
did things that you just don't do, that you just can't do in
your own power. And they were evidence that God
is. This is real. Honestly, I wish
you could have known me twenty-five years ago. I really
do. I wish you could have seen the
before and after. You're looking at evidence of
the unseen God. Yes, you are. Evidence. Faith is the evidence. Does that make sense? Faith is
the evidence. And some of you self-righteous
religionists here, some of you murderers. All right, let's sing a song
in closing, Faith is Faith. You have one to pick out? 256? 256, all right. 256. Let's sing first and last
verse. Let's sing. 256, first and last
verse. When peace like a river rushes
in that my way, When sorrows rush deep in a soul, I have no regret, regret, regret
with my soul, regret with my soul. ♪ In praise with my soul ♪ ♪ And
Lord, haste the day ♪ ♪ When my faith shall resound ♪ ♪ Thou
love me, O God, evermore ♪ ♪ When my soul is bound for the Lord
♪ It is well with my soul. It is well with my soul. It is well, it is well with my
soul. is What? so so Thank you.