And are you here this morning? You say, that's a silly question.
No, it's not. You can be here and not be here.
You can have your body sitting in a pew and you, which is your
mind, your heart, your affection, your soul, somewhere else. This
is not you. You know that? And I want to deal with things,
hard things, difficult things, just like that this morning. It's going to require you to
do a little thinking with me. I did a whole lot of thinking
in preparation of this, and I hope that you will stay with me, that
you'll do some thinking. It's going to require that, a
little thoughtfulness on your part. We're going to talk about
faith, which should greatly interest you. Because without faith, no
man can please God. You're justified by faith. You're
saved by faith. All assurance and comfort and
peace and strength and encouragement and zeal comes by faith. We walk by faith. The just shall
live by faith. Faith, faith. We're going to
deal with faith, what it is. It's a mystery. It's a difficult
thing. Now, Peter said that there will
come in the last days scoffers walking after their own lusts,
saying, Where is the promise of his coming? Since the fathers
fell asleep, or since early days, all things continue like they
had been from the beginning. Well, no, they haven't. Those
people don't have their eyes open, do they? Things aren't
the same. You're greatly changing. Men
are pretty much the same, but things are rapidly changing. And yet he says they're ignorant.
He says they're willingly ignorant, Peter said. They're ignorant
of the creation. They refuse to believe in a creating
God. They're ignorant of the flood.
That was one day the flood. The earth was destroyed, even
though even the rocks and hills and everything proved that. The
absence of dinosaurs only proved that. Just many things prove
that, yet they willingly ignore that, and they're ignorant of
the sure judgments of God. Now that God every day judges
mankind, yet they're willingly ignorant. It's like you walk
around, not you, but we men are walking around blind. And we
are. They are. You know, we believe
what we want to. You know that? We believe pretty much what we
want to believe. What suits our fancy is what we're going to
strive to believe. We can make ourselves believe
the most ridiculous, the most fantastical. Witness all of the
people all over the world following these nuts and these crooks and
these charlatans on TV. How could so many people follow
and be taken in by those fellows? That's what they want. You believe
what you want. And we don't believe what we
don't want to believe. You know, we can make ourselves
not believe the obvious. And that which is very clear.
You know, God. God can be clearly seen. You know, God doesn't have to
you know, I don't have to stand up here, people don't have to
be given proof that there's a God. All you got to do is look in
the mirror. All you got to do is look. You want proof that
there's a God? I'm talking about an all-wise,
magnificent, unfathomable, or that is, one who cannot be figured
out, infinitely above us, creator that made all things. You don't
have to look any further than your thumb. Everybody look at your thumb.
I'm serious. You don't see those lines all
over your thumb? Why do they call it a fingerprint?
It's a thumbprint. It's a fingerprint. You know,
that's the only one that's ever been in the world like it. I mean, billions of people have
lived on this planet. Billions! Joe, you've got the
only one like yours. There's never been one like yours.
That sure is by chance. Evolution sure is smart. That's
amazing. God, for the sake of justice
and order and law and so forth, he makes his thumbprint so we
can catch crooks. Really. God can be clearly seen. As Scripture says, invisible
things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen.
Look at a tree, look at a flower, just look. Doesn't a man or a
woman Just open your eyes and look. This just happened. Big
bang. I believe in a big bang, but
it was the voice of God. It wasn't happenstance. It wasn't
circumstance. It wasn't a chance luck thing,
planets colliding. It was God speaking. It said,
it was a big bang, all right. His voice is the sound of many
waters. His voice is spiritual. He said, let there be this and
that and the other. And it was. The fools that men
are, they'd rather believe that just, boom, and it happened. Why not believe God? And God
said this is the way it's going to happen. Which is harder to
believe? I say it's harder to believe
evolution. Well, the invisible things are
clearly seen, understood by the things that are made, even His
eternal power and Godhead, so that they're without excuse.
Scripture says they're without excuse. People say, prove that there's
a God. No, he's already proved that. He's not going to speak
to you. Why should he? Huh? Why should
God speak to Carl Sagan? Why should God speak to anybody
for that matter? People refuse to believe in an
almighty, sovereign Creator. Why? Because that means they
have to answer to him. Right? If God created me, that means
he's bigger than me. He created me, I'm his. He made me, he can do with me
what he wants, and I've got to answer to him. And people don't
like that. Like I said, you don't believe
what you don't want to believe. You believe what you do want
to believe. And men don't want to answer to an Almighty Creator,
so they prefer to believe in evolution, and that makes man
in control of his own destiny. Brother John Chapman said that
people like to believe that man began as a monkey and has turned
into a man because they can say, look how far we've come. Some of us didn't go too far,
if that be the case. But he said, but men don't like
to believe that man was created upright and became a monkey,
because that way you'd have to say, look how far we've fell. And so, says God, gave them up.
Romans chapter 1 says, so since they don't believe that there's
God, they won't recognize I'm He. It's clearly saying there,
without excuse, He gave them up, didn't He? Gave them up to uncleanness through
the lust of their own hearts, dishonor of their own bodies
between themselves. Thus, we have a world that is
just like it's Just piled on top of one another with wickedness
and corruption. Just smart. Oh, we're smart,
aren't we? Isn't our generation so smart? Professing themselves to be wise,
they become fools. Change the truth of God into
a lie. Worship and serve the creature
more than the creator. Who's God blessed forever. Amen. And without excuse, are we? So this is the excuse man says,
well, seeing is believing. I don't believe there's a God
because I can't see him. Man says, I don't believe there's
a God because I haven't heard him talk to me yet. Oh, yeah,
he has. Just not in the voice that you
wanted to hear. And you didn't hear it when he
did speak. Men say, seeing is believing,
yet God, yet he will not believe the obvious. Men say, seeing
is believing, yet he won't believe the obvious, right? Because he's
clearly seen, he said. So, what happens? Since men won't
believe the obvious, what happens? God sends them strong delusions. He sends them things to see. He sends them things to hear.
He sends them strong feelings. That's what they're looking for.
An evil and adulterous generation, an unbelieving generation, seeks
a sign. So what happens? God gives them one. But it's
not so that they might be saved. It's that they might be damned
and believe a lie. Is that right? Is that what the
Scripture says? So what does God require of every
human being first? First thing, to understand the
mystery, to have things proved to him, believe. Believe. Christ said, Said I
not unto thee, that if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God? Let me repeat
that to you. Seeing is believing. God says
believing is seeing. And Christ said Himself, said
not unto thee that if thou wist believe thou shouldest see the
glory of God. And so for those who don't believe,
but who want things proved to them, it's hopeless. God sends them strong delusions
so that they believe a lie. See, he's God, Dickie, and he's
supposed to be believed, not proven. I don't have to prove
myself to you. What about God? Huh? Do I have to prove that I'm a
man to you, Joe? Step up here and I'll prove I'm a man. I might
prove wrong. But God, why should God prove
himself to a worm? Well, if he'll just speak, I'll
believe. Why? Why should he? Is he going to
stop what he's doing and condescend to speak to a worm? You know,
he does, but he doesn't have to. But to those who believe, simply
believe because God said it, and don't have to see. God sends strong proof of himself. Did you follow what I was just
saying? For those who just believe, based upon God saying it, God
sends strong beliefs and strong proof to substantiate their faith. And then faith itself becomes
the substance of things hoped for and the evidence itself of
things not seen. I don't expect anybody in here
to understand that except those who believe. Faith becomes the
evidence. It says, I'll believe that when
he shows me. No, you say, I believe that when he shows you. He said, If thou canst believe,
all things are possible. But then it believes, doesn't
it? Oh boy, I'd sure like to believe,
wouldn't you? There's a lot of things that
I need to know and understand and see. The first thing required
is believing. Man says seeing is believing,
yet God says believing is seeing. Now let me illustrate this. Look
at our text here. He says in John 20, verse 29,
Christ said unto Thomas, now Thomas' problem, and I could
have preached on this, Thomas' problem was he wasn't with everybody.
He had forsaken the assembly of himself together, didn't he?
Thomas missed out. Eight days, Nancy, he went without
assurance of the Lord's resurrection. He was in trouble, wasn't he?
Don't you know everybody else was excited and thrilled and
full of zeal and all that? Huh? Waiting for Christ's arrival,
Thomas wasn't. He was distraught. He was torn
up. But I'm not preaching on Thomas. Verse 29, Christ said
unto Thomas, Thomas, because you've seen me, you believe.
But blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed." Do you see this thing of sight?
Are we to trust our sight? No. Sight is unsure. You can't always believe what
you see. It might be an optical illusion.
It might be a trick of your eyes, right? They say people that are out
in the desert, you know, that haven't had water or food to
drink, they see this mirage. You've heard of that, haven't
you? They say it's real. I mean, they really see a mirage. And what they want to see, they
see is an oasis of water, you know. They're thirsty, and so
they conjure it up, and they see it. But that's an illusion. You can't believe it's an optical
illusion, a trick of the eye. The scripture says that which
is seen is temporal. That's what I said to you to
begin with. I said, this is not you. I mean, this is not me. That's
not you. Joe, pick on somebody else. I
always call on you. Nancy Hudson. When we lay your
body in a casket and bring it down here And if it's open, if
you're not horribly disfigured in a car wreck or something,
if we lay your casket open and we come down and people are going
to gather around your body and say, well, there's Nancy. No,
that's not. It's just the same as I get in
the car and I'm driving down the car and somebody sees me
and says, there's Paul. Which is Paul? The one driving the
car or the car? The car is a vessel that I'm
riding in. That's so is your body. That's
not you. What happens when you sleep? Huh? Your body is dead for all
practical purposes. Are you dead? No, you're living
somehow. It's the reason you think. It's
the reason you dream, right? That's the you. That's the real
you, okay? That which is seen is temporal. That which is not seen The soul
is eternal. It's going to go somewhere, right? To live by sight. Think about
this. You know, to live by your eyes, by your eyesight alone,
is to be very weak and very immature. To live by sight is to be very
weak and immature. I'll give you an example of one
of these children. Maybe not John Henry, but one
a little younger than him. one of our, say Brittany, all
right? If I took Brittany and brought
her up here and held out in this hand a handful of dimes, and held out in this hand a handful
of nickels, which one is she going to take? Oh, she's going
to take a nickel. They're bigger, right? I guarantee you. If I had a handful,
two handfuls of bright, brand-new copper pennies, and over here
I had two $50 bills, she'll take the pennies. Guarantee you. Guarantee you. That's eyesight.
That's weak. That's the beggarly element,
see? That's immature, isn't it? Children are ruled by their eyesight. So are carnal-minded people. They're ruled by their eyesight.
Not by what's not sane. You can't trust your eyes. And
I'll get into that a little more in a minute. Feeling. What about
feeling? You know, religion today is all
caught up in feeling. That's all it is about. Everybody
wants a feeling, don't they? Everybody wants a feeling. So
consequently, preachers and all these churches are getting caught
up like a ball game. You know, let's have a feeling.
Let's drum up religion. Religion is not based on feeling.
Religion is based on the word of God, and I'll get to that
a little more in a minute. But feelings are unstable. Feelings
are conditional, aren't they? I told you you'd have to think
with me. Feelings can be produced by drugs. Feelings can be produced
by circumstances. Feelings can be produced by this
happening and that happening. Feelings, right? Feelings come,
feelings go. Feelings are deceiving, John Newton said. That was Martin
Luther. Your hope better be in the Word
of God. There's nothing else worth believing. And like I said,
religion today is all caught up with and motivated by feeling,
by sight, by miracles, by signs, and they're getting them. And
they're believing lies. These things are happening, people.
Some of these things that's going on is happening. There's a spirit
out there, all right, but it's not the Holy Spirit. Constantly through the Scripture
is called the spirit of truth. The spirit of truth. He will
guide you in all truth. He'll take the things of mine,
Christ said, and show them unto you. He'll show you who Christ
is. He'll show you who God is. He'll show you why Christ came.
He'll show you why you need Christ. He'll show you who you are. He'll
show you, teach you, He'll guide you, He'll lead you, instruct
you. Knowledge turns into faith. Faith into knowledge of God. voices. People trust voices.
You know, you can't trust voices. You can't trust what you hear.
You can't trust... I sure can't. I'm hard of hearing. Half the
time I don't hear what somebody says or hear wrongly what I think
they did say. You can't trust voices. Voices
are mistakable. There are many voices, many forgeries,
many copies. You can't trust voices. What
have I got up here today? and spoke very eloquently and
very forcefully in the most resounding voice you've ever heard, and
you were absolutely impressed with my oratory and my ability
to speak and my recall of this and that and the other and my
memory and all of the great tales, and I gave you all sorts of illustrations,
and you just went out of here, wow! That's what happened when
Herod got up one day. Herod got up, and after he finished
his little speech, he said, They didn't go away thinking,
what a gospel, what a Savior, what a sinner I am, how I need
cry. They went away talking about
Herod, what happened. God consumed Herod with worms,
killed him right there on the spot. Can't trust the voice.
I don't care how eloquent, I don't care how much a man waxes eloquent.
You can't trust him. You can't trust the voice. You
can't trust what you hear. God spoke to me. Oh, did he now? Oh, did he now? What did his
voice sound like? Well, it was the voice of a woman. That wasn't God. God's voice
is like the sound of many waters. Besides that, God speaks like
this. He doesn't speak any other way. You know that? God does
not speak any other way. You know why? You know why? Because every jerk coming along
can say God spoke to him. And nobody can prove him wrong.
But if I say, God spoke to me right here, you can prove me
wrong, can't you? You can find out for yourself
if God spoke to me, can't you? If they speak not according to
this word, there's no light in them. They're dark. So none of these things can be
trusted, your sight, your feelings, your ears, only by faith in an
unseen God. Can we really see clearly? Only
by faith in an unseen God can we hear clearly. Scripture says
we walk by faith, not by sight. Scripture says we live by faith,
see by faith. So what is faith? All right? What is faith? Good question,
isn't it? Are you here? Come on now. Are you interested? What is faith? What is faith? Faith is believing God. Faith is believing God. Now,
I didn't say just believing in God, did I? The devil believes
there's a God, the Scripture says, and trembles. He does a
lot more than the average man. He's scared. He trembles. If you believe in one God, you
do well. Faith is not just believing in a God. Faith is believing
God. That is, believing who He is,
all that He says about Himself. How do you know what God's like?
Well, you can't go out in the woods and find out, can you? Sam, you can go out in the woods
and find out He's a marvelous Creator. You can look around
you and tell that He's magnificent, wise, all-powerful creator created
thing, but you don't know who he is. You don't know how you
can talk to him. You don't know if he's ever talked to anybody.
You don't know if he'll have mercy. How do you get to him?
Do you? You don't know if he loves. You don't know what he's
like at all, do you? How are you going to know? Right
here. Only way. Only way. The faith is believing all God
says about himself. Now men got this thing down to
believe in but one thing about God. They, Joe, they believe
what they want to. And they searched and searched
and searched and finally went over to 1 John and found over
there where it says in 1 John that God is love. God is love. 1 John 4 verse 8. That's just part of that verse.
But they take it there we go that's what I want to hear. God
loves me and I found out where it says that Jesus died for me
he came as a good man found out that. And he died for me. And
where they came up with, accept him as your personal Savior,
I'll never know. That's not in the Bible anywhere. They made
that up. They made that up. And so they've got what they
want to. God loves me. Christ died for me. I accept
him. Whoopee, I'm saved. Sure, for
heaven's sake, it's already there. No, no, no, no, no, no. No, no,
God is not first love. Is it? Huh? Ask the angels. Which kept not their first to
stay. See, man was not the first one to fail. Man was not the
first sinner, was he? Angels were. What happened to
the angels? Did God send those angels to
die for the angels? No, he took not on himself the nature of
angels. Scripture says, God sent them down to hell immediately.
Every one of them. John, every one of them that
failed, God put them in hell. Is he loved? You would not know
it yet, would you? What do you know by that, John?
What do you know about God then? He's holy. He will by no means clear the
guilty. Right? He's just. He'll punish sin. Right? You hear that being preached
today? No. Can't believe what they want
to. But faith believes all that God
says about himself. And the first thing he says about
himself is he's holy, he's just. Right? He hates sin. And he'll
do something about it. So what does that produce? When
a man believes that, when a woman finally sees God as God, holy,
just, by no means clearing the guilty, punishing sin, The very
thought of sin, punishing it. Some of those angels didn't do
that. They just thought. God punished them. What does that
do to a man or woman who finally first sees that? Oh, a fear. Don't they? The fear of the Lord
is the beginning of wisdom and the beginning of faith. Ain't
nobody walking these aisles accepting Jesus as their personal Savior
is being saved. Count on it. But that man or
that woman or that young person who sees God as holy and just,
they're well on their way to being saved. And then they see
Christ. Then they see Christ. Faith is
believing all that God says about Christ. That he's the only way to get
to God, the only holy man, the only acceptable man. The punishment
for your sins. Blood, you won't get here without
blood. And they believe. And all of that's based on what
this book says. You'll not find that out. Ellen,
you'll not find that anywhere, except right here. And you're
not even hearing it from the average pulpit. You're not hearing
that. You're hearing this generalized
gospel that says, God loves you, Jesus died for you, and you'll
accept him, and you'll go to heaven. Why? Why? Why? I wish
somebody would ask why. My daughter, when she was about
four years old, she'd be watching TV, and somebody, some preacher,
so-called preacher, you know, I hate that. These men are called
reverend. They're called ministers. That
jerk that's got two or three wives, he's called a minister.
Doesn't that cast reproach on this? They're called reverend.
They're called preachers. They're not preachers. They're
crooks. They'll all be in jail. But one of them got on TV one
day, and my little girl, smart enough to ask this, is he preaching
the truth? Four years old. Daddy, is he
preaching the truth? Is he preaching the gospel? Good
question. Oh, how I wish the world was
asking that question. Every time some fella got up
on TV and said, I'm a reverend. Oh, are you now? The minute he
says that, I say he's not. But he says, I'm going to preach.
Well, let's hear it then. What? Well, come back again. I didn't hear any gospel there.
My daughter can do that. My little girl, my babbling infant. So faith is built upon the unchanging,
immovable foundation of God's Word. Foundation of God's Word. And number one, faith is not
believing things. Faith is not believing there
is a God. Faith is not subjective. Faith is objective. That's important. Number one, faith has an object. You say you believe? What do
you believe? Well, I believe there's one God.
I believe in virgin birth. I believe blood, the book, the
blessed hope. Facts? That save you? Will it
save you if you believe there's one God and that Jesus came down
and died and was buried and rose again? Will that save you? How? The devils believe facts, Sammy,
don't they? Then I say, so doesn't it require more than
that? Faith? Number one, faith has an object,
a person, and that person is the Lord Jesus Christ, who he
is. He's Lord over all. You don't
make him Lord. Anybody that says that doesn't
have faith. They've conjured him up a Jesus to worship, haven't
they? Faith sees that God made him Lord, that he was Lord to
begin with, John. He came to the earth and he was
Lord then with a job to do to save a people. He got the job
done, went back to heaven, sat back down as Lord. He always—he
was Lord, he is Lord, he always will be Lord. The same yesterday,
today, and forever. Jesus Christ is Lord. You don't
make him that. You don't decide that. He is. He that cometh to God must believe
he is. He's Lord, sovereign. And it
says there in Revelation 1, he's got keys on his belt. work one time told me he said
you know people don't. God never sends anybody to hell
he said. So he said you know he had a Jesus it was all love
and a God who loved everybody and so forth and Jesus who wanted
to save everybody and couldn't and so he's up to man see he
said to me Steve on the railroad he said you know God never sends
anybody to hell I said whoa where does it say that? I said, it
says in Revelation 1, he's got keys of hell and death on his
side. And whoever dies, he decides
where they go. That's what that means, doesn't
it? Huh? That's the Lord men and women
are going to have to come to believe. That he decides where
they go. Who goes where. It's his heaven,
and do you know it's his hell? He created it. He did. To punish all rebels and unbelievers. Who he is, he's Lord over all.
He's Lord in the truest sense of the word. Lord over all. What
he did, he came down to this earth, not just to set an example,
but to be a substitute. He came down to this earth to
be a substitute. To do for us what we cannot do
for ourselves. This is the heart of the gospel.
Christ came not to set an example, not to show us, if you'll do
like me, you can get to heaven too. No! If you trust me, believe
me, that I'm the only way you're going to get there, that only
by what I'm doing are you going to get to heaven, that's the
only way you're going to get to heaven. To do for us, not
to show us what to do, but to do for us, right? To be a substitute. You know what a substitute is?
Everybody knows what, in a ball game, a fella's up going up to
bat, you know, he's getting ready to hit, the coach says, whoa,
stop, umpire, hold the game. Is there a daysman betwixt us?
Do I have a substitute here? This guy's batting zero. He never
got a hit all his life. That's us, isn't it? He's failed
miserably all his life. Do I have a substitute here?
Somebody that can get him home. Yes, there's a daismon between
us, seated with the Father, with the umpire himself, Christ. Christ
comes down and says, I'm a substitute. Now he doesn't stand up there
and say, Joe, now here's how you take a bat and hold it and put the
bat in our hands. He goes to bat. He goes to the cross without
the wages of sin and death, without shedding of blood, there's no
remission. That's where I need to go, Deborah. That's where
I should have gone. I should have been crucified. suddenly over the side and he
himself hung there and took the full force of God's wrath. Went
to bat for me. That's a poor illustration, but
that's what he did. Became a substitute and took
God's wrath and God's punishment against my sins and took his
righteousness and put it on me and made it appear like that
I had lived a perfect life all my life. And God looks at me
and says, you're acceptable. And you can come to heaven, be
with me. And in the process of time, he actually makes that
happen. He actually makes me like Christ. You are what you wear. You wear
his robe of righteousness, you'll become like him. Faith is where
he is now. He's seated on a throne, he's
not walking the banisters of heaven like these preachers. I've done all I can do. Jesus weeps and loves me still. I'm making fun because it deserves
to be. Is that our Lord? Huh? Is that the Lord? Oh, I
wish so and so would do that. I wish he'd let me, let me. I mean, a God who has the universe
in his hands. No hands. I wish they'd let me
do something for him. I want to, but can't. He won't
let me. Doesn't that put this in the
true light, what these people are saying, huh? Where he is now, you know where
he is now? Seated. God, his arms folded. His feet up
on a stool. You know what this stool is?
His enemies. Satan's his puppy dog. You know that? Satan's not loose. He's on a
chain. God's got the other end of the leash. That's my God. That's your God. That's the God
of the Bible. And that's the Lord everybody better know and
better bow to and better believe. You ain't got no Lord at all. And you're not justified. You're
not saved. Is that too hard? No, I'm glorifying
God. I'm exalting Christ. I'm showing
him for what he really is and what we really are. And faith
sees a desperate need. John, only then will a man or
a woman come begging for mercy. You know, that's the first reaction
a man or woman comes to. It's not accept Jesus. It's not
do this or that. It's ask for mercy. Look it up. Every time in the scripture somebody
is saved, brought under conviction, they ask for mercy. Ask for mercy. Why? God's holy. I've sinned. I deserve
hell. How am I going to get to heaven?
Mercy. Grace. I need grace. I need blood. I need blood. Oh boy. And faith sees one's desperate
need of Christ and comes to him and appeals to him for mercy
and grace. Don't let, like to Moses, don't
let the Lord speak to me or I'll die. God's a consuming fire.
You go for me. You be my mediator. Would you
be my substitute, Lord Christ? Did you die for sinners? I'm
a sinner. Did you die for me? I need that. Lord, can you say to my soul,
you're my salvation? Come unto me. He says, come unto
me, I'll take you there. And a believer believes the gospel
to the saving of his soul. What's the gospel? I just preached
it to you. And believes that to the saving of his soul, then
follows, becomes committed to, changed into Christ's image,
walks like him, talks like him, thinks like him. He begins to
have eyes like Christ. Now this, let me go on a little
bit here, OK? Stay with me. It has an object. Number two,
faith depends entirely upon the Word of God. How do you know there was a Christ? Just because Christmas goes on?
Huh? Because somebody said so? You know, in that sense, Thomas
was right. He shouldn't have just taken somebody's word for
it. He should have taken the Lord's word for it. But faith depends entirely upon
the Word of God. You know, faith, belief, not
sight, not feelings, not voices, not thoughts, not man's opinion,
you know, the opinions of the day. God says, My thoughts are
not man's thoughts. My ways are man's ways. Don't
you dare believe the opinion of the day. What can you believe? God's Word. It's been around
a lot longer than Albert Einstein. It's been around a lot longer
than the smartest people that have ever lived, hasn't it? It's
been around a lot longer, I will take the word of experience.
I will take the word of him who's been here from the very beginning.
Who spoke and it was done, whose word never changes. It's written
in heaven. Written in heaven. You know,
it wasn't written by men, it was written by God in the first
copies in heaven. Still there, the word. And faith
believes God because God says so. Faith believes entirely upon
the Word of God, because God says so. Noah, build a boat. It's going to rain. Oh, now, come on. And this is
what the world did. Rain? It's not going to rain. I don't believe it's going to
rain. What is rain, anyway? You know, it never rained. It never
rained on the earth. And God said to Noah, build a
boat. It's going to rain so much that the boat's going to float.
And only those that get in the boat are going to float and be
safe. It's going to rain. Rain? What if Noah would have said,
no, I'll believe it when I see it? A hundred and twenty years
later, he'd have drowned with everybody else, wouldn't he?
God said, build a boat. And Noah said, well, I've never
seen rain. And I don't even know what the word is. But I'm going
to build a boat. Why? God said so. And do you know who saw rain? He saw it in the best place to
see it. Not on the outside. On the inside. He was on the
inside looking out. He saw rain. He was safe. You know, it was the overflowing
scourge of God's wrath and a wild delusion, judgment. You know
what he saw? He didn't see judgment. He saw
mercy. He was in an ark. He saw rain, but it didn't touch
him. He didn't fear, even though he saw the rain. It was a miracle. God's judgment. He saw mercy.
He saw grace. He was in an ark. Why? He believed
God. Just based upon God's word. God
said, build a boat. Build a boat. Isaac, Abraham,
I'm going to give you a son, and that my seed is going to
come from that son. The Messiah is going to come from that sun.
You're going to have the seed of the stars of the heaven. Have a son.
His name's Isaac there. Now you take him and you go up
there and kill him. Oh, why, Lord? How? What if Abraham didn't
know? How am I going to have it? He
didn't. I don't know how God... He said, I don't know how. You
see, his sight... Rebecca, if he'd have trusted his sight,
if he'd have trusted his reasoning, if he'd have trusted his ear,
that doesn't make sense to the ear. He wouldn't have done it
with him. He trusted, who did he trust?
God. God is immutable. God never changes. Everything he said is right.
Faith believes everything God says is right. Election? You
better believe it. You better believe it. It's not a play on words. You
better believe it. Election? A man says, I don't believe anything
but predestination. Well, you're not going to be
saved then. Right? I just don't believe that. I
believe everything God's worried about. I don't believe that election.
Well, you're not saved then, buddy. Right? Faith believes everything God
says. Whether you understand it or not. Right, Stan? Everything. Election, predestination, reprobation.
What about, you want something hard to believe, let's talk about
hell a little while. I don't have, I don't know what hell's
all about. But I believe it. You know the difference between
a sheep and a goat? I've told every one of you so
many times, you know what the difference between a sheep and a goat is?
God's people are called sheep. They believe. They believe. They
said, my sheep hear my voice and they follow me. How are you
going to, why are you going to follow somebody, John? You believe
it's them, it's him, it's the master, it's he, it's the Lord.
And why are you going to follow him? You believe what he said,
he's going to lead you right, everything he does is right.
Everything he says is right, you believe him, right? That's
a sheep. Everything God says is right.
I mean, I don't understand it. I don't know where I'm going,
but I know who I'm going with. Right? Abraham believed, not
seeing where he was going, but seeing who he was going with. Faith doesn't question. That's
a sheep. You know what a goat does? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
God says. A goat says, But why? But, but, but. Election. God
says, I elected the people for the foundation of the world.
You know what a goat does? But, but, but, but, but, but. You go into a pasture And there's
a sheep and there's a goat, and they may look alike, OK? Some
of them do. Brother Bill said they do over
in Africa. They look alike. You go over there, you don't
know how, which one's a sheep and which one's a goat. Just
walk over there in front of them and expose a certain part of
your anatomy to them. And one of them will bite you.
Every time. It's so. You've run into many
of them, haven't you? Out on the street, on the job
plate, out in the supermarket, wherever. Oh, God's an electing
God. God predestinates all things.
But, but, but, but, but, but, but, but. You don't have to prove it to
him. That's what God says. You can take a piece of twine,
man. Huh? Read it for yourself. I
have, but, but, but, but. Well, that's plainly he's not
a sheep. He's a goat. Go from the presence of a fool
when you perceive not in the words of understanding. He's
a goat. Leave him alone. He's following
a blind man. He's blind. They'll both fall
in a ditch. But the sheep follow the master. They hear his voice.
They believe it. They don't buts. No buts about
it. They follow. They hear. They believe. They
don't understand everything, but they believe it anyway. totally
understand sovereignty and responsibility. I get those questions all the
time. If God is sovereign, why is he not? I don't know. Why
not God? Ask God. I'll ask him, and you
ask him, too, and we'll both come up with an answer. Maybe. He doesn't have to tell us. Another thing. Faith believes
entirely upon God's word, because he said so. Another thing is
faith. lets a man come directly into contact with God. This is
the blessedness of faith. Now, this is good, and I'll hurry,
OK? I'm going to have to make this
a two-part message. Faith enables you to come directly into contact
with God Almighty. This is important, people. How
are we going to be saved? How are we going to be saved? Here am I, and I see my need. I'm a sinner, and God's holy
and all that. How am I going to be saved? Well, come to the
preacher, and he'll take you by the hand, and he'll take you,
and one of our counselors will take you back in the back room,
and they'll pray with you, and give you a book, tell you how
to lead the Christian life, and you slip him five in his pocket,
and then y'all talk it over a little while, and you keep coming. You
go to a man? Is that what faith does? Go to a man? Go to a man, depend
on what he says, what he does. I've already said you go to the
Word of God, first of all. The Bereans, Barbara, went home
and searched the Scriptures to see if what was preached was
so. And then you know what Christ says us to do? Call a soul winner? No. Get in your closet and call
upon God. Go directly to the source. OK? Don't get the middle man. Don't
go to the middle man. except one, the Lord Jesus Christ. And I
emphasize that. You can't go to God except by
Christ. He is God. You've got to come
to Him. You've got to come to Christ,
who is the mediator. But not a man, not a soul winner. We
don't need a soul winner. We need a soul savior. All right? We don't need a soul winner.
We need a soul savior. We don't need a man. We need a mediator.
And the soul that believes that comes to God goes to God himself.
You know, Joseph, remember when Joseph's brethren were down there
in Egypt and Joseph was hidden to them, he began to speak in
Egyptian. And the brothers didn't know him, did they? Why? He was trying them. They didn't
know him. He was trying them. He was seeing
if they were repentant. He was seeing if they were fearful.
He would see if they were sorry for what they had done, if they
were going to acknowledge what they had done. And he tried them,
didn't he? And all the time he kept himself hid from them, didn't
he? Finally, Nancy, after they were sufficiently broken and
fearful, they were fearful, he said, everybody get out of here,
didn't he? You remember that? When Joseph said, cause every
man to go out from me. Get out of my way. This is what
Christ does to every sheep he comes to. He says, so winter. He gets that person out of that
miserable mess to hear the message. Out of the mess to hear the message.
Gets them out of Southern Baptist religion. Gets them out of the
Methodist. Gets them out of this and that and the other. Gets
them out of all this paraphernalia and all these symbols and all
this stuff, all this riffraff of religion, and he comes to
him himself. Joseph came to his brother and
said, Get out of here, everybody. I'm going to talk to him personally.
And it says Joseph revealed himself to his brother, face to face. He talked to him. And when people come to me, you
know, asking advice or wanting to know this, I'll do what I
can. All I'm going to try to do is say, you go to Christ. You go to Christ. But people
today are blindly following men, and they're both going to fall
in the ditch. And let me go on real briefly. Faith gets into the reality and
heart of things. Faith gets into reality and the
heart of things. I already told you that sight
often deceives you. And the site often veils the
spiritual. You know, if you looked at this
church, you'd think. Modern religion, you know, nobody
would be impressed with this, wouldn't they? How do you know
God's somewhere? How do you know the blessings
of God? Huh? How do you know the blessings
of God? Here you've got a man sitting in a palace, and he's
got all these servants. He's got Rolls Royces. He's got
all the food he could possibly eat. He's got millions in the
banks. Is he blessed with God? He might be cursed. God may have
given him all that to curse him and send him to hell. Now here's
that old, poor old woman sitting down in a shack with barely a
crust of bread to eat, and she's lost all her family, and she's
a widow living on Social Security. Is she cursed? No, she may be
the most blessed person on the earth. She may know Christ. And
God took all that away from her, just so she'd have nothing but
him. And then when she finally gets to glory with him, she'll
have everything. The rich man will have nothing.
That's exactly what the Lord gave that parable about. Faith
veils the spiritual. Faith unveils the spiritual on
that. Sight veils the spiritual. Faith
unveils the spiritual, takes the scales away from the eyes,
see very clearly. So you don't see with these eyes,
you see with this eye. You don't hear with these ears,
you hear with this ear. You don't feel with this, with
the loins, you feel with this. You feel with this. And you know,
faith will take fewer false steps and make fewer mistakes. What
am I going to do? That's what I'm going to deal
with tonight. What shall I do? What shall I do here? Well, I think
it's wrong. Guarantee you. Why? There's a
way that seems right in the man that the end is death and destruction.
Guarantee you every way we take without Consulting God's Word. It's going to be wrong. Unless
God overrules it, right? What am I going to do? Where
am I going to go? Who am I going to marry? And this week, Lord, where am
I going to go? What am I going to do? Would
you send me somebody to marry? Then it'll be right. Then it'll
be right. Every time. Faith sees through
God's eyes, not man's, not your own. Faith thinks like God, not
man, thinks like God. Faith doesn't hear anything with
man's ear, doesn't see anything with man's eyes, so you don't
come to any false conclusions. You say God's right about everything.
He's right, and tonight we're going to deal with it. You want
an answer? You'll get one. Faith sees through things, gets
right sees through and gives a proper estimate of things.
Faith gives a proper estimate of things. And faith sees the future as
present. The future is present. You know
that this is not now? I've said you're not you. This
is not now. Try it. Say, uh, now. Now it's too late. It's gone.
The minute you say now, it's gone. It's changing. Everything is finite. You can't
say now. You can't, like I said before,
you can't say I am. No, you're not. You're different
than what you were when you first said I am. You change. Only God can
do that. Only God never changes. Only
everything spiritual never changes. It ever remains the same. Youth's
renewed like the eagle, Joe. It sees the future as present.
This is not now. That's now. And that's going
to be then, and that's going to be always, and that's going
to be ever, and that's going to be eternal. And I better be
looking into it, haven't I? So I pray. So faith has an object,
which is Christ, and Christ alone, to get to God, sees God who he
is, sees us who we are. sees Christ and who he is and
what he did and our desperate need of him and appeals to him
and lives like him, follows him as a disciple. Faith takes God
at his word. Faith is based upon just the
bare word of God, not because the world out here is doing this
or doing that, but because thus it is written. And faith sees
through things, sees things as they really are, sees with the
eyes of Faith won't allow you to make the wrong moves. Faith
is a blessed thing, isn't it? Huh? It's a whole lot more than
believing facts, people. And you see, you know what a
blessed thing it is, a blessedness of faith? You know how blessed
it is? It's so blessed, it's so rare. It's a gift. You can't earn it. You can't
work for it. You can't drum it up. God has
to give it to you. Face the gift of God. He's the
only one. It's a rare jewel called faith. If you don't have it, there's
only one place to get it. Ask him for it. All right, stand
with me. I'll dismiss it.