Congratulations on the new year
in my home in New York. As I said, this should be a very
comforting message to you. Should be very encouraging as
well. And somewhat convicting we need we always need that.
But we certainly need comforting and encouragement. What the Lord
told. The prophet to do comfort you
comfort you my people and I'm sure that everyone in here and
you can be turning to Matthew six while. Introducing the message. Matthew six. I'm sure everyone in here who
professes to know and love the Lord Jesus Christ mourns
over your lack of faith. You mourn over your lack of faith
in Christ, and you say with that man, Lord, I believe. But help
my unbelief. My unbelief seems to be so much
greater than what little bit of faith I have. I'm sure everyone
in here who professes to know Christ mourns your pitiful faith. And we do well to mourn that. We do well to mourn our lack
of faith because God Almighty has promised to take care of
everything concerning us. Everything. that we just saying, at least
we saying with our lives, I have no cause for worry or for fear.
We'll be worried by the time we get out of here, won't we? And so we have cause to mourn
our lack of faith, because he who promised and cannot lie has
promised to take care of everything concerning us, everything. His names indicate that. Jehovah-Jireh. The Lord will see to it. Jehovah-Rapha. The Lord doth healeth thee. It
may not seem like he will, but he will. Count on it. Jehovah-Nissi. The Lord our banner. Jehovah-Shalom. The Lord our peace. Jehovah-Raiah. The Lord my shepherd. Jehovah-Sidkenna. The Lord our righteousness. Jehovah-Shema. is always present. He said, I'll
never leave you, nor forsake you. Jehovah means God our Savior. That's what Jehovah means. God
our Savior who will provide. God our Savior who will heal
you. God our Savior who is ever present. That's what his very
name means. He said, look unto me and be
ye saved. Look unto me, and I might add
to that, not adding, just commenting. Look unto me and be ye provided
for. Look unto me and be ye strengthened. look unto me, and be ye kept
by my power." And here we're going to look at four different
verses of Scripture. We have four different verses
of Scripture. The Lord says four times in the Gospels, O ye of
little faith. Four different times and in different
situations, different circumstances. four times, he says, O ye of
little faith. And we're going to look at each
one of those and see what it was that the Lord was reproving
their lack of faith for. And we're going to see how that
we also do the same thing that the disciples did. All right? These are situations we find
ourselves in. Matthew 6, reading verse 24 through
31. Matthew 6, beginning with verse
24. No man can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one
and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise
the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. And all that that imports, that
means you should not spend all of your time labor, energy, efforts,
and so forth, pursuing this world when God has promised to take
care of you, your basic needs. This is the context here, verse
25. Therefore I say unto you, take
no thought for your life, what you shall eat, what you shall
drink, nor yet for your body, what you shall put on. Is not
the life more than meat and the body than raiment? Behold, the
fowls of the air, they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather
into barns, Yet your heavenly Father, now he's not condemning
these things, you know that. He's condemning anxious care
and consuming worry and work to accumulate these things. The
Father feedeth them, are you not much better than they? Which
of you, by taking thought, can add one cubit unto his stature?
Why take you thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field,
how they grow. And yet I say unto you, even
Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
Wherefore, if God so clothed the grass of the field, which
today is, and tomorrow is cast in the oven, shall he not much
more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Therefore, take no thought,
saying, O what shall we eat, what shall we drink, or wherewithal
shall we be clothed? O ye of little faith concerning
God's provisions," or God's good providence. And we catch ourselves
doing the same thing, concerning God's provisions. Now, I'm going
to have you turn to a psalm regarding each one of these texts that
we're going to look at. Look at Psalm 37. will see a corresponding verse
of scripture with each time our Lord says, O ye of little faith. Now, no matter how much we have
read this or heard this, we still have anxious thoughts. How many
times have we read that in Matthew 6? Yet we still have anxious
thoughts about the provisions how we're going to be provided
for in this life, worrying about where this is going to come from
or that's going to come from, don't we? Everyone here. And
I will say this to admonish us all. Most of our worries are
not for basic necessity, such as
these, but we worry about where we're going to get the money
for our second or third automobile. But, you know, we may not be
provided with all things that we want or lust after. He hasn't
promised that. That's not in the text there,
is it, John? But our basic necessities certainly
will be provided for, won't they? That's what's promised. We're
promised the things we need. The things we need. And he says,
don't worry about them. I love this verse twenty five.
Verse twenty five David says I've been young and I am now
an old man yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken not one
single believer not one single person who ever trusted in God
rested in Christ has ever been left alone forsaken ever not
one David seen a lot he'd seen him come and go and not one said
I haven't been he should have I gave him Many, many times in
my life that if God was going to forsake somebody, he would
have forsaken me, David. He could have saved me, but he
didn't. That's the reason Stan, he said
that his mercy endureth forever so many times. Didn't he? He
said that so many times. One Psalm he has about, what,
thirty-four times, isn't it? David says, I've been young,
and now I'm old, and yet... Would you listen to an old man
and his experience? Not me. David. I have never seen
the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread." You know,
the same—you've ever thought about this? God Almighty put
Adam and Eve in the garden when he created man. He put them in
the garden naked. They didn't have any tools. They
didn't have any means with which to support themselves or provide
for themselves. Did they go hungry? I mean, Stanley
didn't have a John Deere tractor. He's already there. They're all
grown for him. They didn't have any clothing.
They didn't need any, did they? Everything was provided for.
The same God who took the children of Israel. Now think about the
children of Israel. Took them out of Egypt where
for 400 years, they had been in bondage, were dependent upon
somebody else for their every meal. They were slaves, and they
were dependent upon somebody else to provide for them, as
cruel as it may be. You know, some prisoners, convicts,
you know, have a hard time making it on the outside, because for
so many years they'd been provided for. all their meals and their
lodging and all that, and they can't get by when they get out.
So they end up back in there. And that's the reason there's
some lifers in the army, isn't it, John? But the children of
Israel, who had been provided for and depended upon others,
all of a sudden they were taken out of Egypt, walking out in
the desert. Henry, Walking out in the desert, rocks
and crag and no corn crops, no nothing. Where are they going
to get bread? And that's what they start worrying
about. No worry. It'll rain bread. Is anything too hard for the
Lord? Huh? Well, we're thirsty though. Where
are we going to get water? We're out in the desert. No problem.
I'll roll a rock around and follow you." Do you ever think about
that, Terry? That rock followed him. Wasn't
that a phenomenon? That rock followed him. Rolled
around. That rock scratched him. The
water came out of that rock. No problem. And so we'll never
beg bread. Are these things needful? Shouldn't
worry. We overextend ourselves, yeah,
worry. We might lose our abundance,
but that's all right. We'll still eat. You won't miss
me. We'll still eat. And I believe
all of this speaks of that one thing needful now. That one thing
that we need, which was provided for us before we were ever around.
That one thing needful which we should be anxious about, if
we're unsure of, which we should be concerned to have, and I'm
talking about Christ, our righteousness, whom he said, if you hunger and
thirst after, you'll be filled. You might not have much bread
to eat, and a lot of people have gone without bread. They haven't
starved, but they haven't been begging, but they haven't starved,
but they've been somewhat destitute, but they were full. They were
full. Like that old woman that sat
down to that old dry crusty piece of bread. That's all she had.
Her cupboards were empty. And she said, Well, thank the
Lord. All of this and Christ too. I
have an abundance. I have an abundance. He promised
all who hunger and thirst for him shall be filled. He said,
open your mouth and I'll fill it. He said, you'll learn that
you don't live by bread alone. You don't need as much bread
as you think you do. That you exist, you should live
and be filled by every mouth that cometh from, or every word
that cometh from the mouth of God. And the Lord will provide,
won't he? He has provided. He had Jehovah-Jireh,
Jehovah-Sidkenna, Can you translate that? Jehovah-Jireh,
Jehovah-Sid-Kenneth. The Lord will provide the Lord
our righteousness. That's all you need to know. Jehovah-Jireh, Jehovah-Sid-Kenneth.
The Lord will provide you with Christ your righteousness. And
I'm telling you, I'm telling you, what he's telling us, that's
the one thing needful. Because you kill this body, and
then you're going to have something, you're going to have need of
an everlasting substance. an everlasting substance that
will make your soul fat before God. You can't be lean and naked
before God. You need a covering and you need
to be full. Have Christ in you and that robe of righteousness
on you. The Lord will provide it. He said, Ask and I'll provide
it. I'll provide it. The Lord your
righteousness, Christ your sin offering, you need that, your
substitute, Christ your mediator, you need that all the time. He
said, I'll ever live and make intercession for you. He's providing. Jehovah Jireh, O ye of little
faith, O ye of little faith, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
and thou shalt be saved, and not only that, but all of your
needs will be provided." There's nothing to worry about. Not a
thing. Not a thing. Ever. Ever. All right, the second thing. Look at Matthew 8. The second
time the Lord says this. Matthew 8. Let's read verses
23 through 27. So don't be of little faith concerning
your provisions, your necessities. Matthew 8, verses 23 through
27. And when he was entered into
a ship, his disciples followed him. And behold, there arose
a great tempest in the sea, a storm. in so much that the ship was
covered with waves crashing over the ship, but he was asleep. And his disciples came to him
and awoke him, saying, Lord save us, we perish. We perish. They forgot who was in the boat.
There's no possible way that ship could have gone down. They
should have all just gone to sleep. Snuggled up to him, shouldn't
they? What's the sense in fighting
this? We're being thrashed about, tossed to and fro. Let's go down
and rest with him. Oh, Lord, we perish!" And he
said unto them, Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith? Then he
arose and went out on the bow of that ship, those ten, twelve-foot
waves crashing over it, and he said, Hush. And he laid down
on his feet like a farm pond. And they were a marvel. Verse
27. being marveled. What manner of man is this? Well, there's more coming, fellas. You're going to see. He's no
mere manner of man. Even the winds in the sea obey
him. Which one of us has not been mortally afraid at some
point in time? Even as believers, fearing for
our lives, When we were seemingly in danger which one of us. Not a person in here who hasn't
been mortally afraid at some point in time that that something
terrible is going to happen to you now Hannah thinks that I
don't ever get afraid. You see you got to put up that
front don't you don't you stay. But I'm telling I've been just
as afraid as she has. Just as afraid but I just don't
show it. Turn over to Psalm 91 with me. Psalm 91. You may have guessed
where I was going. Psalm 91. These disciples now,
they had been to sea before. Barbara, these fellows had been
through a few storms. I'm not talking about little,
you know. They'd been through some northers,
and they'd seen some big waves. And now, buddy, they thought
this is it. This is, we've never been in
one like this. This is the biggest ship. We're
not going to survive this. Well, they survived the rest
of them, didn't they? And now the Lord's in the boat with them.
And come what may, there's no way they're going down. It reminds
me of what we're getting ready to come up on when Paul was in
the ship with those men that I can't wait to get to that.
But these disciples, they feared for their lives. They were seemingly
in imminent danger. Danger seemed to be imminent.
Do you know there's no such thing as danger for a believer? Do you know that? There's no
such thing. There's danger for an unbeliever,
Violet. Ellen, for a believer, there's
no such thing. Do you know that? There's danger. You ever thought about that?
If, John, if God Almighty is sending everything your way,
what's there to be afraid of? He's the one that directs everything.
He says all things work together according to His purpose. He's
the one that sent it. If it comes at you, He's the one that sent
it. Is it dangerous? Well, you know, the only danger
is to an unbeliever. He's in imminent danger. He's
an imminent danger. When I was a young man, twenty
one years old, I went out to sea on a boat. I thought it was
a ship when we left the dock, but I found out it was a boat. Six other fellows and myself
were hired to take this forty one foot boat, sailboat, six
hundred and fifty, eight hundred and fifty miles down the coast.
Took ten days. We were one hundred and fifty
miles out to sea. And when we got on that boat, we were in
the harbor at Cape Cod, Massachusetts. We were in the harbor there,
and Buddy, I was all gung-ho, you know. Yes, running around
with my little stocking cap on, you know, turtleneck, ready to
go out to sea, with my little spats on, in those calm waters. Buddy, when we got out just a
little way, now the sky was as black as, well, it was as dark
as my coat on out. And I asked the captain, I said,
well, you know, we're going to turn back? We're going to wait until
tomorrow? Oh, no. He was an experienced
sailor. Well, I know. No, we're going
on out. We can't no turning back. And
we went out, and after we got out of that fair haven, you know,
out in the open sea, And they quit, turned the motor off, and
put up that first sail. The boat went like this, and stayed there. And the waves, they could have
been forty feet for all I care, but they were crashing at about
six or eight foot at the most. But I'd never been out there
before. I was literally mortified. I was supposed to be a shipmate. I was supposed to be doing something.
I was hanging on to the wrangle. My buddy, my buddy who was a
landlubber like me, another greenhorn, had never been out there before.
He didn't have time to get afraid because he had his head in the
toilet from there on out. But I'm telling you, I was mortified,
mortified. You know, I should have been.
That boat had gone down. I'd have gone down a lot further
than the bottom of the ocean. I didn't know Christ. I remember
coming back, too, on the way back. We got down there, and
they flew us back in a little Piper Cub, and we were in gale
forces up in the air in that little Piper Cub. And I thought,
well, that boat ride was a piece of cake. I was mortally afraid. Well,
I had reason to be. I didn't know the Lord. Of course,
I didn't fear for that reason. But you see, my life was not
just in danger, my soul was. And though our lives may seem
to be in danger, they're not, really. I mean, after our body's
dead, man, we're going home. What's dangerous about that? And you can take this quite literally,
people. Psalm 91, it says, verse 4, He shall cover thee with his
feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust. Oh, Jerusalem,
Jerusalem, how oft would I have gathered thee as a mother hen
that thy brood. Christ said. He shall gather thee under his
wings, and thou shalt trust. You should anyway. His truth
shall be thy shield. What truth? I'll never leave
you, nor forsake you. He'll never perish. That's true.
He can't lie. And a buckler. Thou shalt not
be afraid for the terror by night," or you shouldn't be, "'nor for
the error that flyeth by day.'" Old Brother Cecil Roach was a
fighter pilot back in World War I or II, I forget. Boy, I better
find out. That would make him awful old,
wouldn't it, John? Got to be number two. But he came back
from, I forget how many missions. If you want a good tape, mind
me give you a tape. Cecil Roach, elder at 13th Street.
And he came back from, I forget how many missions, flying as
a fighter pilot, and how many bullet holes he found, and how
many mates in different planes went down in all those missions.
You need to hear him tell it. It's amazing. It's amazing. And
the scripture says, you not be afraid for the air that flyeth
by day, nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness, nor
for the destruction that wasteth at noonday. A thousand shall
fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand, but it shall
not come nigh thee. It shall not come nigh thee.
Why? Verse 9. Because you made the
Lord, which is your refuge, the Most High, your habitation. Oh,
I wish we would. Oh, ye of little faith. Oh, me
of little faith. Woe is me of little faith. I
wish I could believe that. Don't you? Quit being so fearful. You know, believers are immortal
until the Lord is done with them. I just gave you that illustration.
They're immortal until the Lord calls them home. And the time,
and at that time, at the time when you face death, he has promised
to give you dying grace, so that you will not be. Though
I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I'll run.
Fair and O evil, he's promised at the time. How do you think,
Charles, how do you think those martyrs could go to a fight,
could, right now, could you have your body wrapped to a stake
and somebody going to set it on fire, burn alive right now? No, you couldn't do it. Well,
if it was coming up, you could. If it was actually going to happen,
you could. They did. How? Well, it wasn't them. He said, you don't need it right
now, Charles. You're not in, you're not faced with that. Like
that man told Spurgeon, he said, I fear I don't have dying grace.
He said, well, are you dying? He said, no, I don't think so.
He said, you don't need it then, do you? But when you need it, John Sheasley,
you're going to have it, buddy, and you're going to face death.
I've seen them. We've seen them, haven't we?
I've seen believers face imminent death, I mean right around their
next breath, with a smile on their face. Not fear and wringing
their hands, but a smile. Fear not, he says, I'm with thee,
O be not afraid, I am thy God. You know, times of great fear
cannot be the end. Can't be? Barbara, think about it. Times
when we're full of great fear, that can't be the end, because
He's promised dying grace. You say, well, I fear the unknown.
Well, if you know Christ, He knows the unknown. If you know
Christ, He knows the unknown. You need not fear it. Right? He controls it, the unknown.
Nothing's unknown to him. Now turn to Matthew 14. I'll
try to hurry. Matthew 14. So, O ye of little
faith, be not faithless concerning physical danger and so forth. Matthew 14. And be not of little
faith concerning provision. Matthew 14. Here's another time
when the disciples were in the midst of troubled seas. It always
seemed like they were in the midst of troubled seas. That's good, isn't it? That's
because we are tossed about. Matthew 14. Look at verses 25
through 33. Matthew 14. Verse 24. The ship was now in the midst
of the sea, tossed with waves. The wind was contrary, and the
fourth watch of the night Jesus went unto them walking on the
sea. And when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they
were troubled, saying, It is a spirit. And they cried out
for fear. But straightway Jesus spoke unto
them, saying, Be of good cheer, it's I, be not afraid. And Peter
answered him and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto
thee on the water. And he said, Come. And when Peter
was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water. to go
to Jesus. And when he saw the wind boisterous,
when he took his eyes off Christ and started looking around, saw
the wind boisterous, he was afraid, saw the waves, he began to sink
and cried, saying, Lord, save me. And immediately Jesus stretched
forth his hand and caught him and said unto him, O thou of
little faith, Why did you doubt? When they were coming to the
ship, the wind ceased. They that were in the ship came
and worshipped him, saying, now they had learned a little more
of a truth. Before standing, they said, what
manner of man is he? Now they said, of a truth. Thou
art the Son of God. What's that tell me? That, to
me, is fear of falling. fear of falling. And never getting
back up again. And we do. We do. There are times when we walk
on the water by faith. In other words, over difficulties
and so forth, we do. The Lord gives us faith and some
strength to get through some trials. Now, don't ever make
fun of the, you know, you hear, this is one of the things that
the world makes a lot, a light of. You know, well, he can walk
on water or, you know, you see these That's sacrilegious, that's
blasphemous. You know, this was a glorious
thing, showing the power of our Lord. And at any rate, I'm not
being cute here, but truly the times when we have walked, as
it were, over great difficulties by faith. And, uh, times we come
to Christ confidently with great assurance of faith when nothing,
the song says, nothing moves and nothing harms us while we
trust in him. And then we fall. Turn to Psalm
27. Psalm 27. And then we fall into some sin
or some temptation. Like Peter, we take our eyes
off of Christ, we put our eyes on something else, and we can
count on falling. We can count on failing miserably. Take your eyes off of Christ,
you'll fail miserably. He'll cause you to. Not only
fail in faith, but perhaps in other areas cause you to fail.
It would be his chastening rod if you did, right? Psalm twenty seven and I need
that rebuke and you do too. At times we fail miserably. Psalm twenty seven. Well, verse
twenty, that's not it. Psalm, let me look and see. That's
not it. Psalm thirty seven. I'm sorry. Psalm thirty seven.
Look at this, Psalm 37. Got it? Psalm 37, verse 23, "...the
steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord." Well, there's none
good, no, not one. There's none righteous. Who's
he talking about? If you live right, the Lord will bless you?
No. A good man. You notice it's in italics? Well, the steps of a man that's
been justified. by God, who has substituted and
made righteous and imputed righteous. They are ordered by the Lord,
and he delighteth in his way. Verse 24, Though he fall, he
shall not be utterly cast down. The Lord upholdeth him with his hand. Peter, help the Lord thy parent. No, you're not my parent. There's
no way you could perish when I'm right beside you. No way. You reckon the Lord quoted that
to him after, that to Peter after that happened? May have. He may
have. It is written. It is written. Look at Proverbs 24. This is
great. I love this. Proverbs 24. If
you don't have it marked, you should have. Proverbs 24, verse
16. Look at this. Proverbs 24, you
got it? Well, hurry, time is running
out. Proverbs 24, got it? Verse 16. Well, listen then. A just man
falleth seven times. Now, is that all? No, that's
just a figure of speech. The Scriptures use numbers. sometimes
because it can't print an infinite number. Like Peter said, how
many times shall I forgive my brethren, Lord? Seven times?
He said, no, seventy times seven. And that's the sense here. He
said, of just man shall fall seventy times seven million. He's going to rise up again. Don't you like that? Huh? I didn't see too many smiles
there. A just man, one who trusts Christ,
rests in him, believes in Christ, who falls into sin, falls under
temptation, who fails miserably, will rise up again. He's not going to stay fallen.
The wicked shall fall into mischief. Boy, I like that. Rise again. How shall he rise again? Same
way Peter did. I'm sinking sand, he lifted me. With tender hand, he lifted me. From shades of night to planes
of light, O praise his name, he lifted me. When my Savior reached down,"
on and on the song, way down. He's got to pull you back up,
right? If he keeps, if he's done it once, John, count on it, he'll
do it seventy more times. His mercy endures forever. So, O ye of little faith, don't
fear falling. Be ashamed and repent, but don't
fear staying down. He'll pick you back up again.
All right, Matthew 16, the last one. Matthew 16. Matthew 16. Matthew 16 is the last one. Oh, ye of little faith concerning
provisions. Oh, ye of little faith concerning
danger. Oh, ye of little faith concerning
falling. And look at this, Matthew 16,
verses 4 through 12. A wicked and adulterous generation
seeketh after a sign, but there shall no sign be given unto it
but the sign of the prophet Jonas. And after he said that, he left
them and departed. And when his disciples were come
to the other side, in other words, they crossed over the sea or the lake there, and they
had forgotten to bring bread. I didn't hear him say anything
about bringing bread. Did you? Harry, do you remember him telling
them at any point in time, don't you all forget to bring bread,
or we won't have anything to eat? One time he did. One time he did. He said, have
you any loaves? Remember? And it wasn't enough.
Was it? It wasn't enough what they had. And well, they said they had
forgotten to take bread. Verse 6, Then Jesus said unto
them, Take heed, and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and
of Sadducee. And they reasoned among themselves,
saying, It's because we didn't bring any bread. We didn't bring
bread. They were so, just like us, weren't
they? So ignorant. Which when Jesus
perceived, he said of them, O ye of little faith. Why reason ye
among yourselves, because ye have not brought no bread? Do
ye not yet understand, neither remember the five loaves, or
the five thousand, and how many baskets ye took up? Neither the
seven loaves, or the four thousand, and how many baskets ye took
up? How is it that ye do not understand that I spake not to
you concerning bread? but that ye should beware of
the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees. Then understood
they how that he bade them not beware of the leaven of bread,
but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and the Sadducees." What's that
talking about? Oh, ye of little faith concerning
your works. They said, we didn't bring bread.
He didn't tell them to bring bread. He just said, follow me,
and I'll provide everything. Now listen to me, this may be
the most important point of all, OK? And are we yet without understanding?
Do we not understand that it's not by works of righteousness
which we have done? He didn't say, make yourself
clean. Well, I've got to quit my drinking and then I'll come
to cry. He didn't say that. He said, come as you are. Don't
bring anything. In your hands, no price should
you bring. You've got to come empty, and
I'll fill you. It's not our faithfulness. It's not our perseverance. It's
not our keeping the faith. It's not any of those things.
It's all about, this is all about being kept. That's what faith
is all about, being kept. Oh, you have little faith. I'm
telling you now, this is important because This is going to be something
that we're going to struggle with all our lives, thinking that we're not trusting
Christ totally, thinking that we haven't done this or done
that. Faith is all about his works
as our righteousness. Let these sayings sink down in
your ears. OK? Faith is all about His works
for our righteousness. Faith, it's His faith. It's His
works. It's His faith. It's not even
our faith. It's His faith. He has to give
us our faith. It's His faith. He's called,
do you remember reading that in Hebrews 12, the author and
the finisher of whose faith? Our faith. In other words, he's the one
that started it. The author's the one who writes it and starts
it, doesn't he? Faithful is he that hath begun
a good work in you. He's the author. Well, then what
does it say? Well, he'll leave you, hope you persevere. He's
the finisher. Faithful is he that hath begun
a good work in you. He'll do what? Finish it. He's the artist, the architect,
the builder, the master planner, the author. The creator, he's
it, he's everything, and we're not left to do anything. No. That's, that leaves a man, that'll
leave a man and woman not doing anything. Good. That's what I'm
trying to leave you. Just trust in Christ. I don't
mean leave a man to just, you know, sin, that's obvious. man that thinks he can just live
like the devil, you know, and just trust Christ. He's not trusting
Christ. If you trust Christ, you want to be like him. But
the fact is, it's not our works, it's his. It's not our faith,
it's his. It's not our perseverance, it's his perseverance. It's not
our holiness, we don't have any, it's his. Don't ever mistake
personal morality for holiness. Don't ever mistake restraining
grace for personal holiness. That's what I meant to say. Don't
ever mistake God's restraining grace for your own personal holiness. That's what people do stand.
That's the reason they can go into the face of a holy God and
say, well, we did this and we did that. We're good people.
No, it was my restraining grace. You didn't do anything. If I
hadn't restrained you, you'd be a devil. But yet they took
it as being something they did. Right? Don't ever do that. Don't
ever mistake restraining grace for personal holiness. Are you
two sisters a bee on the corner of New York City right now, swinging
your chains? Right? I'm telling you it's his. It's his holiness. It's he being
our substitute and our righteous representative. Now turn in closing
to Isaiah 26, and you'll see the companion verse of this. You need to look at this. Isaiah
26. You say, but aren't we created
unto good works? Yes, yes we are. God hath ordained
that we should walk in them, and he exhorts us over and over
through the scriptures, and I do. I exhort us over and over again
at times to walk in good works, but don't ever mistake restraining grace or constraining
grace. Him, don't ever mistake constraining
grace, Charles. If you ever do a good work, one
thing, you'll never acknowledge it. Like the disciples who said,
when did we do these things? They weren't aware that they
had done any good works, but they had. And the ones that thought
they had, didn't. Right? But don't ever mistake God's
constraining grace that causes you to do something as being
your own from yourself, right? No, because it can't prevent
both the will and the do of his good pleasure. It's God that
works within you. Don't ever mistake, don't ever
esteem morality as something God accepts from us. No, no. It'd never be good enough. Don't
ever think of our prayers, our Bible reading, our worship, our
faith, or anything as meriting God's approval. No, it's not
good enough. He said it shall be perfect to
be accepted. Perfect. There's only one place
I know where perfection is. There's only one person I know
who prayed a perfect prayer and said the perfect thing. That's
Christ. Now, we're his workmanship. At the end of that verse, he
said, we're created unto good works. We're his workmanship.
God hath ordained that we should walk in them, but we're his workmanship. He gets to pray. Lord, thou wilt ordain peace
for us, for thou also hast wrought all
our works in us," or for us. Our beauty, like Ezekiel's child,
Terry, is made perfect how? Through his comeliness. Right?
Isn't that what it said? Through his comeliness. So the
point there is, don't ever worry about not doing enough, not being
this way or that way enough, Teresa. You'll never be this,
that way enough. When Christ saved you, he knew
what he was getting. And he knows you'll never be
more than that, until you're created in an absolutely perfect
image of Christ. He didn't save you for what you
were, because you were a sinner. He's not going to keep you saved
for what you are, because you're still a sinner, right? It's going
to be for his glory. He's going to get all of it,
and he's going to share it with another. So don't ever worry
about doing enough, or being enough, or having enough. It's
because we didn't bring bread. Oh, my. I'm all over. and in all. All you need. Oh, you little thing. Believe
Christ. You'll never hear a message that
pointed you to Christ any more than that message. Never. Concerning
anything. The world would take that and
run with it and say, well, there's a bunch of antinomians down there.
That's for sure. The preacher just said, don't
do anything, trust Christ. That's exactly what this preacher
said. Tell the world that. Tell them. Somebody might believe
it. Somebody just might trust Christ. All right, stand with
me. Heavenly Father, we don't want
to do damage to your Word, or we don't want to be faithful
to your truth and not misuse it or abuse it or misconstrue
it or take it out of context or anything of that sort. You
want to be true to your word, to your truth. But we do know
this much, and we preach in part, we prophesy in part, but we know
this much, beyond a shadow of a doubt, Christ is truth. He's the way, he's the truth,
and he is the life. And if this man points these
people to Christ for their salvation, And he's like Moses holding up
that stick. He's only as good as long as
he holds that stick up with a serpent on it. And Lord, that's what
you've told your servant to do, your people to do. And if these
people will trust Christ, they'll be saved. You promised that.
They'll be saved. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
and thou shalt be saved. The Lord enabled us to trust
him. enable us to trust in him and him alone. It's a hard thing.
The flesh lusts against the Spirit, and we are self-righteous by
nature. And, Lord, may we cast aside our self-righteous rags
and be robed in his perfect righteousness by faith. In Christ's name we
pray. Amen. You're dismissed. you