He fell, and the Lord with him
died. Not to the strong is the battle,
swift is the way, yet to the true and the faithful victory
is promised through grace. You may be seated. We've been mighty happy and thankful
to have you here with us this week. They're leaving tomorrow,
so bid them farewell tonight. Thank you both. Like Pastor Paul, when I sing
that hymn, I always think of Pat McGinnis. Katie Baptist Church
in Fairmont. He loves that hymn. He leads
it quite often. I've known Pat for twenty some odd years. He's
been the faithful song leader and supporting of his pastor
there for a long, long time. Dedicated man. Always in the
services. Always encouraging others. Never
married. He took care of his mother, who
she died about two or three years ago, and now he's taking care
of an uncle, Uncle Ed. And he's just so devoted and
he's so precious and so cooperative and has such a good attitude
that all the ladies always want to get him married off to somebody.
They can't stand him to be single. So one of the ladies told him
she was going to aggressively hunt him a husband. I mean, honey,
my wife. And he said, well, tell you what,
son, I'd be willing to marry if you'll find me a wife like
my mother, just like my mother. Well, she said, how was your
mother so special? He said, well, she always took
good care of me. She fixed my lunch. And this
lady said, well, a lot of mothers, you know, wives will fix lunch.
He said, but she'd peel my oranges and take the segments out and
put them individually in wax paper. And the lady said, well, I guess
she could do it. She said, he said my mother also
would take all the seeds out of my grapes, too. I didn't have
to have seeds in my grapes. She said, forget it, don't you
ever, don't you ever get married. Don't ever get married. All right,
that's a true story, too. You can tell that one. Did that
happen? Came to Iceland one time and
I asked him if he'd sing. He said, would you take care
of the crowd control if I agree to sing? I said, well, yeah,
I'll try to keep the people, you know. He said, they don't
get upset so much when I sing as they do when I refuse to sing. But he's a lovely fellow, and
he's just so gracious and so kind. Hebrews 11, if you will
turn there with me to Hebrews 11. I enjoy hearing a message
on the subject of faith. I drive a long ways to hear a
sermon on faith. Because it's, I think I mentioned
here one time, I mentioned several times, to me, the three most
important subjects of faith, hope, and love. And I'll just
go a long ways to hear a message on any of the three. I'm interested
in saving faith, not just in faith. Saving faith. God-given faith. Redeeming faith. That's what I'm interested in.
I'm interested in the faith of Abraham who believed God and
was counted to him for righteousness. I'm interested in that faith
of which our Lord spoke when he said to the man with the troubled
child, said, if you can believe, if you can believe, all things
are possible to them who believe. I'm interested in that faith
that he talked about in Mark 16 when he told the disciples
to go and preach. And he that believeth, go preach
the gospel. And he that believeth and is
baptized shall be saved. But he that believeth not shall
be damned. I want that faith, don't you,
that believes, believes. Our Lord said to Peter, Satan
hath desired thee that he may sift thee. Try thee as weep,
but I prayed for you, that your faith fail not." I want persevering
faith, faith that continues. Not faith that's hot and cold
and up and down and in and out and here and there. I want a
persevering faith. I want a dying faith, don't you?
In faith. And I can tell you this, it's
not the strength of faith. It's not the strength of faith,
it's the fact of it, the presence of it, not the strength of it. It's the presence of faith. It
may be little, it may be great. My faith may be weak, it may
be strong, it may be old, it may be new. But the strength,
the strength is in the hand that holds, not the hand that's held. Daddy walking down the street
with a little boy. The strength is not in the hand
that's held. It's in the hand that holds.
That's right. That's where the strength is.
In Him. In Him. All right. Let's look at Hebrews
11. And then I'm going to give you
eight things. Don't get frightened about that.
You know, I don't preach real long messages. But I'm going
to give you eight things about faith. And the first one is found
in verse 1. Now, you've read this so many
times, but I've got something tonight that you haven't read
about this first verse. Now, faith. Get your Bible and
turn to Hebrews 11, verse 1. Now, faith is the substance,
and you can write there, ground, confidence of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Faith's not a creed on paper. Faith is a person in the heart. It's experience. Faith's not
a creed on paper. It's an experience in the heart.
Faith's not a system of doctrine. A man may be an Armenian, or
Calvinist and not have faith in faith. Faith is not a system
of doctrine. I hear people say, well, I've
come to a knowledge of the doctrines of grace. Have you come to a
knowledge of Christ? You see, salvation is not in
the doctrines of a person. A person can perish in Arminianism
or Calvinism. You don't arrive at Christ through
doctrine. You arrive at doctrine through
Christ. You find out who he is, and then it's easy to believe
what there is about him—his character, his power, his work, his greatness,
his efficacy, his sufficiency—because of who he is. Somebody says,
I believe in the sovereignty of God. I don't. I believe in
God who's sovereign. You see, if he's God, he has
to be sovereign. If he's Christ, he has to elect
the people. If he is the Savior, he saved. He didn't try to save. He saved.
He's sufficient. He can't be the Savior and not
be sufficient. So, this thing of faith is not
a system of doctrine in the head. It's faith in the heart. It's
an experience in the heart, the person who lives in the heart.
Abraham believed God. Abraham believed God. It wasn't
a matter of Abraham believing there is a God. All those Israelites
believed there was a God, but Abraham believed it. They believed
there was a God, and he believed it. He actually believed God. He's not believing that God's
sovereign. He's not believing God elected a people. All those
Jews believed that. Every one of them believed that,
that they were the elect. They were sure of it, that God
was the God of Israel, and they were Israel. We be God's people. We don't pay taxes to Herod.
We're God's people. God elected us. God is a Jewish
God. All these people believe that.
But Abraham believed it. Faith is to believe Him. Faith
is to love Him. Faith is to know Him. Faith is
to walk with Him. God. That's right. All right. Underscore here in
verse 1, six words. Here's faith's definition. Faith
is the ground of things hoped for, the evidence of things not
seen. Underscore six words. Things
hoped for, things not seen. Now here's my illustration. A father comes in at the end
of the day, and he says to his family, mother and children,
he says, now, we're moving. We're moving tomorrow morning.
I have a new job. It's the finest job I've ever
had. I've already been down to see
the people I'm going to work for and the home where we're
going to live. And it's in a beautiful valley.
Might be in the Shenandoah Valley, you know. Beautiful valley, surrounded
by mountains, and there's a creek running right through the place.
And there's a lot of places for you children to play, some things
you've never enjoyed before. It's going to be a beautiful,
wonderful life where we're going to live. And we're going to move
in the morning. And the children and the mother
all go to bed so happy, so excited, so thrilled, they can hardly
sleep. Hardly sleep. They're so excited.
They're so thrilled. Tomorrow we're moving. You go
in, a little fella lying there, he's not asleep now. You go in,
sit down on his bed, and you say, son, your hopes are pretty
high, aren't they? Oh, yes, sir. Yes, sir, we're
gonna move. We're going to this pretty valley.
Y'all heard my daddy telling about it. Like someplace you've
never seen. Well, son, your hope, have you
ever seen that place?" He said, no, I've never seen it. You've
never seen the house? Never seen the creek? Never seen
the mountain? Never seen the valley? Never
seen any of those things? No, sir, I've never seen them. How
can you be so sure you're going there? My father said so. And my father never has lied
to me. I believe him. You can bank on
it if he says it. That's what this is saying right
here. I've never seen heaven. I've never talked to anybody
that's been there, have you? I've never seen justification. I've
never seen Christ with these eyes. I've never seen the things
I hope for. The things I hope for are not
seen. But I have the promise of my Father who cannot lie. Isn't that right? Now man can
lie and still be a man. God can't lie and still be God.
That's right. He can't lie. God who cannot
lie promised eternal life before the world began. And I'm—tomorrow
I'm moving, Joe. Or day after tomorrow, or day
after that. And I fully expect to find everything
my Father told me about, don't you? That's the ground. and the
confidence of things hoped for and the things not seen, he promised. You got any other ground? Well,
I feel like it. Not all the time. Feelings come
and feelings go and feelings are deceiving. But his word never
changes. You can bank on that. That's
faith's definition. Hoped for, not seen. but it rests
on the promise of a person, my Father. Not a God way off somewhere,
my Father, my Father, Abba Father. Now that little boy is some stranger. I don't care how great or how
powerful that stranger is that told him that he's going to—he
wouldn't be near as excited because he don't trust a stranger. They
won't follow a stranger, but they trust the Lord. That's right,
that's my, that's my confidence and ground. All I hear is verse
3. Through faith we understand that
the worlds were framed by the Word of God, so that things which
are seen were not made of things which do appear. Here is faith's
foundation, underscore four words, the Word of God. The foundation
of faith is the Word of God. The author here says that the
worlds were framed by the Word of God. The first creation came
into being by His Word. God said, let there be light. There was light. He said it,
and it was there. He said, let the dry land appear.
It did. He said, let the sea be contained
by certain boundaries and move no further. It was that way.
Let the stars, the moon, the sun—God spoke the Word of God. These things—the new creation
is by the Word of God. We're new creatures in Christ,
and it's God's Word that brought that about. Faith comes by hearing
and hearing by the Word of God. God said, let there be light. Isn't that right? I walked in
darkness a long time, religious darkness. Did you? Religious
darkness. And one day, God said, let there
be light. Man, now Cherokee last week when
I was preaching came to me and he said, I tell you, I heard
and I heard and I heard and I heard and one day I heard. One day, Henry Husky, one day
I heard. And who'd you hear? I heard him. He spoke through his words. That's
right. Look at 2 Corinthians 4. That's what this is saying here
in 2 Corinthians 4, verse 6. For God, who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Christ Jesus. That's our foundations, the Word
of God. the Word of God. That's the foundation
of our faith. Christ is the object of our faith,
but the Word of God's the foundation. I want to read you something
Spurgeon said one time. Spurgeon said, When I came to
Christ in faith. Did you notice how he worded
that? He didn't say, I came in faith to Christ. He didn't say,
I came to faith in Christ. Here it is, I came to faith in
Christ. He said, I came to Christ in faith. It's different. It's not a play on words either.
I came to Christ. I didn't come to faith. I came
to Christ in faith. He said, when I came to Christ
in faith, listen, I had no knowledge of any personal or saving interest
in the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. You hear people say,
accept Jesus as your personal Savior. How can you do that?
How can you know you've got an interest in His death? He said,
I didn't have any knowledge of any personal interest in the
death of Christ, but I did know this, I knew I was a sinner. I knew I was a sinner. And I
knew that God's Word said, Christ Jesus came into the world to
save sinners, of whom I am chief." That's what his words said. He
said, I knew I was a sinner, and I knew his words said this,
God commended his love toward us in that why were we yet sinners? Christ died for sinners. He said,
I knew that. And he said, God's words said,
when I heard that preacher, look unto me. all the ends of the
earth, for I'm God and there's none else." He said, I looked.
A sinner looked. I believed his word. I trusted
him. I said, sink or swim, I'm going
to him. He's my only hope. And he said, that's when I came
to a knowledge of a personal interest in him, when I looked. when I look as a sinner. I think that's so good. So good. The Word of God. The Word of
God. I believe God's Word. I believe
God's Word. I believe God's Word. All right,
thirdly, let's look at verse four. The Word is a foundation
of faith, and you can't make much of the Word, read the Word.
Read the Word of God. Spend some time in the Word.
Books are good to help us, you know. And God sends His preachers
and gives them the ability to write and to preach and to teach,
but oh, how, what a blessing. And I encourage you to read the
Psalms. Read the Psalms. That's the hymn
book of the church. Don't you encourage people to
read the Psalms? personally in your own meditation.
Here is faith's sacrifice. Look at verse 4. My faith Abel
offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which
he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of
his gifts, and by it he being dead, yet speaking. Underscore
four words, a more excellent sacrifice. Here's faith's sacrifice,
faith's offering, faith's sin offering. It's that more excellent
sacrifice of Christ Jesus. That's our sacrifice. Now listen,
four things I know. Number one, the honest seeker
knows something about and is impressed with God's holiness. God's holy. It's impossible for
me to define His unspeakable, infinite, unapproachable holiness. God's holy. This is something
I didn't hear growing up in church. We talked about man's holiness.
We don't talk about God's holiness. But God's unspeakable, unsearchable
holiness. Secondly, I know this. The honest
seeker knows that we're great sinners. I mean we're great sinners. We're defiled sinners, depraved
sinners. There's nothing good about us. There's none good. At our best
state, we're altogether vanity. Now, that's true. I was preached
one night on man's utter lost condition and And going out the
door, someone said to me, well, you made it sound pretty bad.
I said, not as bad as it is. Not as bad as it is. We know that. Thirdly, I know
this. The honest seeker knows there's
got to be satisfaction for sin, hasn't there? Sin, when it's finished,
brings forth death. The soul that's sinning is going
to die. And we've sinned and we're going to die. Now, God's
holy law and justice is going to be satisfied. Sin is going
to be paid for. It's going to be paid for. There was death in every home
in Egypt. Somebody said, no, there was
death in the Egyptians' home. The Israelites' home had blood
on the door, but a lamb died. There was death in every home
in Egypt. There was a death of the firstborn in the Egyptians'
home and the death of the substitute in the Israelites' home. But
there was death. And there's going to be death
in everybody here. Either your death or the death
of Christ. Somebody's going to pay for our
sins. Isn't that right, Rick? We're going to pay for them here.
There's going to be death. God's laws has sentenced, God's
justice has sentenced every son of Adam and every daughter of
Eve to death. That's right. Sin, when it's
finished, brings forth death, eternal death. And there's just
one way to escape that, and that's somebody die for you. He was
wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities,
for our sins, for our iniquities, for our chastisement. By his
stripes we're healed. I'm healed because he died. The
honest seeker knows that the Old Testament sacrifices won't
do. There's got to be a more excellent
sacrifice. Got to be. Turn to Hebrews 9. Back one page. Hebrews 9, verse
23. Now, the patterns and pictures.
Look at this, Hebrews 9, 23. It was therefore necessary that
the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with
these animal sacrifices, but the heavenly things themselves
with better sacrifices than these. For Christ is not in the holy
place made with hands, which are the figures or pictures of
the true, but in the heaven itself, now to appear in the presence
of God for us. Not yet did he should offer himself
often as the high priest entered into the holy place every year
with the blood of others, for then must he often have suffered
since the foundation of the world, because he'd been our substitute
from the foundation of the world. But now, once in the end of the
world, hath he appeared to put away Satan." Read it with me. Everybody, let's read this together.
Ready? By the sacrifice of himself. There's your gospel. There it
is. Now, that's the better, more
excellent sacrifice. That's faith. That's faith sacrifice,
Christ. All right. Fourthly, look down
at verse 5. We meet a man named Enoch. Enoch. It says in verse 5, by faith,
Enoch was translated that he should not see death, Hebrews
11.5. And he was not found, because God had translated him. For before
his translation, he had this testimony that, underscore these
three words, he pleased God. That's faith's walk. He pleased
God. He pleased God. This man pleased
God. He pleased God. How'd he please
God? He believed Him. Now look at the next verse. Without
faith, it's impossible to please Him. He that cometh to God, or
walketh with God, must believe that he is, and that he is a
rewarder of them that diligently seek him, diligently, unceasingly,
with his whole heart seeks him. He knows God is, and he knows
God is merciful. He walks with. Just read about
Enoch over in Genesis 5. You all studied that, didn't
you? Genesis 5, 21. I love to read this. Genesis 5, 21. He pleased God. You know something about old
Enoch? They said, well, Enoch was a well-known man. Enoch wasn't
some mystical hermit sitting up in a cave with his legs crossed
and eating herbs and drinking out of a creek. and folding his
arms, sitting there staring off into space, separating their
body. Enoch was a public man, a public
man. Enoch was a family man. He had
children, children. Enoch was a working man. He supported
his children. Enoch was a man who lived an
old man, like me, some of you, old man. Enoch was a man who
looked to Christ because he prophesied in Jude, remember, of the coming
of the Lord? Enoch was a man who walked with
God. Look at Genesis 5, verse 21. And Enoch lived 65 years and
begat Methuselah, and Enoch walked with God. After he begat Methuselah
three hundred years, and begat sons and daughters, and all the
days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-five years, and Enoch
walked with God. He believed God. He walked with
God. You can walk with God. We do
walk with God by faith. You believe God, you ride with
God every day. You walk with God. You walk with
God. So you believe God. If you do,
you walk with God. And he just walked right on into
heaven one day. He didn't come home one afternoon. Walked right
on into glory. Now listen. Enoch didn't walk
by sight. He walked by faith. Because no
man can see God and live. Enoch didn't see God with these
eyes. He believed God. Even Moses couldn't look on God.
I know Enoch didn't. Enoch didn't walk by law. There
wasn't any law-giver. Everybody tells me the believer's
rule of life's the law. I wonder where Enoch got his
rule of life. Where'd Abraham get his? Moses
hadn't come along yet with the law. He walked by faith, by love. He didn't walk by works. There's
not a thing said here about his works. Not one blessed thing. What'd he do? Build any churches? No. Establish any organizations? I don't see anything in here
that just said he walked with God. Yeah, nothing said about his
works. And I'll tell you this, he didn't walk with God for a
while either. You don't walk with God today
and not tomorrow. God don't keep company with people
like that. And not many wives keep company with a fellow like
that. They'd leave him today and come back tomorrow. You can
take that stuff and get going with it. Nothing to it. He walked with God every day.
Every day. Every day that God took him out
of here, he walked with God. That's right. That's right. This generation's playing religion. It ain't gonna play out one of
these days. It's gonna play out. All right, Hebrews 11, verse
7, here's the faith's response. Faith's response. O Noah, by
faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet. Three
words. His face response, he moved with
fear. I don't run upon much fear anymore. I hear people talking about how
they love God. I don't hear many people talking about fearing
the Lord, but back in the Old Testament, these two terms were
synonymous, worship and fear. It said Jacob feared the Lord,
Joseph feared the Lord, Moses feared the Lord, feared the Lord. And old Noah, here's his response. When God came to him and told
him about things that were in the future, being warned of things
not seen, he moved. He moved. He moved quickly. He
moved with fear. He moved. And he prepared an
ark to the saving of his house by which he condemned the world,
became an heir of the righteousness which is my faith. Let me tell
you something. You can't separate this faith
from conduct. Write it down. You can't separate—doctrine,
man conducts himself, attitude, spirit, like he wants to. Doctrine
doesn't make any—doesn't change a man. Doctrine doesn't change
anybody. Faith does. Faith changes people,
changes them in here, changes them outside, changes them in
their thinking, changes them in their attitude, changes them
in their relationship with other people, changes them. If your
faith hasn't changed you, you ain't got any faith. Moses fears God, fears offending
God. He fears grieving the Holy Spirit. This generation of religionists
to whom I've been preaching for forty-seven years does not fear
God. That's what's wrong with our
country. They don't fear God. No idea. And faith fears God. Faith responds. You can't separate
faith and conduct. How do you know Noah believed
God? He moved with fear. Everybody knew he believed God. Everybody knew he'd been with
God. He's different. He moved with fear. You can't
separate belief and obedience. You can't separate a call and
a response. You can't separate Whom he called,
he justified. Everybody who's called comes
a-running. Zacchaeus, come down. You'd better
move out of the way. Matthew, follow me. You'd better
move. He's coming. James and John,
follow me. I'll make you fishers of men.
Here they come. Now the preacher call them, doctrinal
call them, all these other things, mama call them, but when he calls,
everybody that's ordained to life believes. Thank you. That's right. All that my father
gives me, he's coming. He's coming. He's coming. He's
coming. You can't let him off with a
stick. You can't offend him. You can't offend God with a stick. You can offend the Pharisee.
In fact, he stays offended. But you can't offend. I couldn't
offend you if anything in this world. Couldn't do it. You come
back for more. Tell me the truth. Tell me the
truth. I don't care what it means, how it hurts, how it upsets me. Tell me the truth. You can't
offend me. Make me mad, but you can't offend
me. That's right. God's children don't run. They
come. They don't go, they come. All
that my father gave me, come it. Come it. Come it today. I'm telling you the truth. I
ain't no novice. I know what I'm talking about. God's children come. I've seen
too many fall away. I've seen too many leave. I've
seen some stay. Walk with God. And when they
die, they walk right on into glory. That's right. Can't separate faith and conduct.
Can't do it. All that my Father giveth me,
you'll come to me and hear me coming to me. I'll let no lies
cast down. That's right. That's living truth. All right, number six. Look at
verse eight. Here's faith's trials. That's
what the pastor said a while ago. Our brother, dear, dear
brother, Henry Soward, been sitting there all these years. First
time I ever came here, he's sitting there. I miss him. Faithful. Those are the kind
of folks that a church is built on. Faithful people. Faithful. It's required in a steward, not
that he'd be popular or smart, but he'd be faithful. Faithful. He's going through a trial right
now. And I'll tell you this about trials. Listen to verse 8. By
faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which
he should have to receive for an inheritance, he obeyed and
he went out. Watch this now. Underscore these
five words. Not knowing where he went. That's where trials are, Nancy.
We don't know. I don't know. Why would God touch
a man like Henry and pass by a fellow who don't give a hoot
for his gospel? I don't know. I don't know. Abraham didn't know where he's
going. He didn't know. I know this about
trials. Every believer's going to be
tried. Every believer. Whom the Lord loveth, he's chasing
it. You'd be without chastisement if you're not a son. I know trials
are for our good. That's what you said in your
prayers, for his good. I know that. Works together for
eternal good. And I know it's for God's glory
and God's purpose. I know that. But you know, he
doesn't explain his matters. Listen to this verse in Job.
He gives no account of any of his matters. God gives no account of any of
his matters. He does not explain. You've been
through some rough seas. And God doesn't explain, does
He? We just know He sends it for our good and His glory, and
it'll accomplish His purpose. But He doesn't explain. That's
why He said, Abraham, get out! Go where I show you. He didn't
ask where. He just went. He didn't know
where He was going. He knew God sent Him there. And
God told him that he'd have a son. He didn't know how. And what,
15 years passed, 20 years before that son came? He still believed
God. And then he put Ishmael out,
and he didn't know why. Not knowing where, not knowing
how, not knowing why. And then told him to take that
son of that and sacrifice him as a burnt offering. And he sure
didn't know why. So the believer has trials, not
knowing when, not knowing where, not knowing why, not knowing
how. We just know he knows. What's
that song we're singing, I Know Who Holds Tomorrow? I don't know
about tomorrow. It may bring me poverty, but
the one who feeds the sparrow is the one who stands by me,
and the passage be my portion, be it through the flame or flood.
My father will go with me, for I'm covered in the blood. I don't
know about tomorrow. It may bring me poverty, but
the one who feeds the sparrow is the one that stands by me."
He knows. He knows. That's face trials, not knowing
where, not knowing how. All right, look at verse, quickly,
here's number seven, verse eleven. Through faith also a saver herself
received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a
child when she was past age, because here is faith's confidence,
faith's assurance." Now listen, everybody wants assurance. Where
are you going to get it? Here it is, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6,
7 words. She judged him faithful
who had promised. Everyone wants assurance. Well,
I tell you, assurance has one source. Him. Him. Don't look to that old profession. It stays old. Everybody's trying,
well, I, brother, and when will you say it don't matter? It don't
matter. It does not matter. Don't look
back to an old experience. It stayed old. Look right now. It's not when, it's who. is not
what I know what I believe. Most people do. I know whom I
have believed. And there's a difference in a
whom and a what. But I know I know what I believe.
Well, you sound like it. I know whom. Whom. That's right. Him. She judged
him faithful. It wasn't her faithfulness. It
was his. It wasn't my ability, it's His. He's able. I know whom
I have believed, I am persuaded. He is able. He is faithful. He's my assurance. He's my assurance. And I'm telling you this, I'm
talking about assurance. You, a little brother of Shelton
used to say, you grab ahold of where you're sitting, because
we're going to jump a creek now. If you're not hanging on, you're
going to fall off. You can no more separate a believer
from Christ than you can separate Christ from the Father. That's what he prayed in John
17, I in them and thou in me. that they may be made perfect
in one. We're in Him just like He's in
the Father. That's what He said. Didn't He
say that, Paul? John 17. Read those verses. 21 on through
the rest of the chapter. I in them, thou in me. We're
in Christ. And you can no more. When people
start arguing about just one saved, always saved foolishness,
it's the biggest waste of time you've ever been engaged in.
Biggest waste of time. If you're in Christ, you're in
Christ forever, both ways. Just like the fathers and the
sons. God chose us in Christ. Father in the Son, and I in them,
and thou in me. Thou in me, that's right. And you can no more take Him
out of the Father or the Father out of Him than you can take
one of us out of Christ. Cannot. You see what I'm talking
about? This is a family phone. This
is family. I'm talking about saving faith.
I'm not talking about doctrine. I'm not talking about religion.
I'm not talking about people who here today and gone tomorrow. I'm talking about a family of
believers in Christ that cannot be separated from Christ or one
another. They're one. And John said, if
they had been of us, they no doubt would have continued with
us. If they had been what? Of us. They might have been of
us in doctrine. and of us in morality, and of
us in some other way, but not of us in Christ. Not of the body. Not of the body. Can't leave
the body and mourn the fatherless. Can you imagine the father mad
at the son? Can you imagine the son mad at
the father? Can you imagine the son pouting on the father and
saying, I ain't coming next week when you meet? Can you imagine
that? I can't either. And I can't imagine
a believer doing that. No, not a believer. Sorry. I'm
sorry. I'm talking about faith. I'm
talking about faith that changes you from the sole of your feet
to the top of your head, possesses everything about you and in you
and of you and from you for the rest of your life. Faith. That's
right. That's right. That's right. She judged him
faithful. Faithful. Faithful. Faithful. Faithful. He is. We are. Last, faith, perseverance, verse
13. Faith, perseverance. Five words.
Here it is. And they all died in faith. They
died like they lived. People usually do. Virgie died
like she lived. That's right. That's right. She said she didn't want to go
to that rest home after listening to that bad preacher. And she
didn't have to either, did she? Couldn't stand it. She's another
one that was right there the first time I ever came here. Some of the rest of us, faithful. She died that way. Died in faith. This is faith's perseverance
and faith in. Died in faith. Let me give you
something about these five words. It says, These, believers, children
of God. That's who we've been reading
about. That's, Paul, you said that's the summary of what we've
been studying. These people are for real. They're for real. They're God's people. They're
peculiar. They're holy people. They're royal priests to us.
They're chosen generation. They're God's people. God's people. They're not your run-of-the-mill
religionists. They're God's people. These,
all of them, everlast one of them, without exception, died. Faith didn't keep them from dying.
It did. They died. I got to die. And
I know some of you up in my category are wondering how we're going
to die. I don't know, but I'm going to. Faith don't keep you
from dying. Faith won't keep you from trials.
Faith won't keep you from old age. Faith won't keep you from
pain. Faith won't keep you from death.
But faith will keep you out of hell. It'll keep you out of the wrath
of God. It'll keep you from judgment. There's no judgment to them who
believe in Christ. These all died. How'd they die?
In faith. They died in faith. They died in faith, still trusting,
still believing, still walking with God. I preached Hal Yates'
funeral last Wednesday night. I don't know whether a member
of his family knows anything about the gospel. Two sisters, two brothers, they
listen. One of them has come a time or
two to hear me preach. But our church auditorium seats
three hundred and ninety people. And you'd had to look for a seat
last Wednesday night, just a country boy who loved the gospel. Well, I mean, preached it. And one of his sisters sitting
down there looked around. She said, I didn't know he had
that many friends. I didn't know. I didn't know. Not a lot she doesn't know. God's
people have friends. It came, you said Crossville,
I mean Cottageville Church, Dingus Church, Lexington Church, Pikeville Church,
13th Street Church. Came to comfort his widow. The
family came together. Family came together last Wednesday
night. Family came together. Keep your
family together. Family together. Dying faith. die in faith. I want to die in
faith. I want to be like these men,
die in faith. Our Father, thank you for your
Word. What a blessing your Word is
to us. This is our meat. This is the
children's bread. Our foundation, our precious,
precious Word, precious promises, comforts us assures us, gives
us confidence, the very ground of the things we hope for, things
we never have seen. But we're sure, sure in you,
in your love and mercy through your beloved Son. Thank you for
this dear, dear pastor. How we love him, his faithfulness
and dedication, willingness to leave his home, leave his family,
his friends, and come here and minister to your people. Thank
you for these dear faithful people who've been here all these years,
faithful to the gospel, loving the Word, supporting the Word,
encouraging, exhorting one another, encouraging one another. Thank
you, Father. Bless this church. Lord, bless
this church. Our thank you that here in this
valley, There's a place where men and women, boys and girls,
can come and hear the Lord Jesus Christ exalted, His Word preached,
and fellowship in sweet communion with other believers of like
faith, and encourage one another, love one another, pray for one
another. Lord, continue Your hand upon
them and bless them through the coming years. I pray for the
children of this church and the grandchildren and those that
are not even born yet who are coming along. Pray for them. Lord, continue your mercies upon
them. Don't leave us to ourselves.
God help us. What fools we are. What fools we are. We destroy
the very thing that's the dearest and most blessed thing that we
have. Don't let Satan sift us as wheat. Pray for us. Lord Jesus, pray
for us that our faith fail not. Bless this congregation. Bless
the folks in Ashland. Thank you for them, their faithfulness. Thank you for your people everywhere.
Pray for Henry. Lord, heal his body. Lord, through
your blessed will, encourage her. For Christ's sake, I pray. Amen. Oh, how merciful, how merciful. Blessed Lord, how merciful Thou
art to me. Oh, how merciful, how merciful. Blessed Lord, how merciful Thou
art to me. Thankful for these messages and
thank you for preparing them. You're dismissed. Please. Please.