Luke chapter 17. There are dozens of messages from these
remarkable passages here in Luke 17 and 18, dozens of messages.
But not only do we find in these two chapters the account of the
ten lepers who were healed, and we have talk of Christ's second
coming. There's the parable of the importunate widow, the praying
widow, the parable of the Pharisee and publican. And there's a rich
young ruler, blind Bartimaeus, and many, many messages from
these two verses, or two passages of Scripture, and all of which
are familiar to most of us. But there are also many powerful
verses of Scripture which all of us quote time and time Look
at verse 5 of chapter 17. I quote this all the time. Lord,
increase our faith. Lord, increase our faith. In
verse 6, Christ said, if you had faith as a grain of a mustard
seed. In verse 10, we are unprofitable servants. In verse 32, remember
Lot's wife. Just on and on, and many, many
notable passages throughout these two chapters. But I want us to
take a panoramic view of these two chapters, a panoramic view
of it all, and start with chapter 17 here, and we'll end up in
a verse in chapter 18. Verse 8 of chapter 18 will be
our text. Let's go ahead and read that.
Chapter 18, verse 8. Christ says in the last part
of chapter 18, verse 8, the last part of that verse, he says,
Nevertheless, when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith
on the earth." The search for faith is what I've entitled this. When the Son of man cometh, shall
he find faith on the earth? Now, our Lord continually, look
here in chapter 17, the first two verses. Our Lord continually
talked of false and true professors, believers. He said unto his disciples,
verse 1 of chapter 17, it is impossible but that offenses
will come. Or that is, it's absolutely certain
that offenses will come. But woe unto him through whom
they come. It were better for him that a
millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the that
he should offend one of these little ones. He's talking about
a believer there. Christ continually talked of
false and true professors in the church. Wheat and tares he
talked about. He talked about goats and sheep. And here he says that offenses
will come. They will come. Another place,
he said, there will be many false prophets, that is, preachers,
and we have those. False disciples, that is, Christians,
and he says, Woe unto them. Woe unto these people. Then in verse 3, he says, Now
take heed to yourselves. Now he's talking to the disciples
here. Take heed to yourselves. If your brother trespass against
thee, rebuke him, and if he repent, forgive him. And if he trespass
against thee seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turn
again to thee, saying, I'm sorry, I repent, thou shalt forgive
him." He tells the disciples that one sure mark and evidence
of a true Christian or disciple is this loving and forgiving
spirit. And the disciples take a look
at themselves after hearing this, and look at what they say. Lord,
you've got to help us. Oh, Lord, increase our faith. Increase our faith. We need help. And the Lord says in verse 6,
well, if you had faith. They say in Christian, he says,
if you got it. If you have faith—it's not that
he meant they didn't have it, because he knew whom he had chosen.
He knew whom he had called. He knew whom it was that he had
given this faith to. He knew who were his disciples.
He knew all men. He knew who it was that truly
believed him, but he wanted them to examine themselves, to see
if they were of the faith. as we should do ourselves this
morning. And then he goes on to describe,
if you did have faith, this is what faith could do. It move
a mountain, say under a tree, be plucked up, planted in the
sea. It says faith, this great conquest of faith, great conquest
of saving faith. And then down in verse 10, but
he says, Even after you've done all that faith could do, even
if you've lived a life totally devoted to God, if you could,
and done great and marvelous things through faith in Christ,
you'd still have to say, after it's all over, verse 10, you're
unprofitable servant. After all, it's just your reasonable
service. It's what you ought to do. Whatever
faith is required of faith is what you ought to do. God is
God. We belong to Him. We ought to serve Him. We ought
to believe Him. That's the reason, Terry, that's the reason we don't
ask people to do anything for God. That's the reason we don't
beg men to accept Jesus. That's the reason we don't thank
people for coming to church. Men ought to. It's a privilege. God's God. Men ought to worship
God. They ought to thank God. They ought to serve God with
everything. Read that in the bulletin. Service
toward God is worth everything that we can give of ourselves because
He's God. But he says, after it's all said
and done, you still have to say, I'm unprofitable. I'm still no
good to God, but I'm doing what's required of me, what I ought
to be doing in the first place. Then, verse 11, then he gives
this account of ten lepers. Now stay with me, this is all
an introduction. He gives this account of ten
lepers that were miraculously healed. Let's read it, verse
11 through 17. It came to pass, as he went to Jerusalem, that
he passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. And as he
entered into a certain village, there met him ten men that were
lepers, which stood afar off. And we're all lepers. We've all got the disease of
sin in us. It's eating away at our members
and it's going to kill us. We've all got spiritual AIDS
that is deadly. There's no cure for it except
one, the blood of Christ. But here these ten lepers came
to Christ and they lifted up their voices, verse 13, and said,
Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. They went to the right one. They
appealed in the right way. And when he saw them, he said
unto them, Go show yourselves unto the priests. And it came
to pass that as they went, they were cleansed." What a miracle. Cleansed. It would be like ten fellas that
were dying, wasting away of AIDS today. Eighty pounds, sores all
over their bodies. This is what leprosy did to people
back then. It would be like them coming
to Christ if he were here now and saying, have mercy on us,
heal us. And he did, immediately. Oh, they became robust and healthy,
cured, all by this one. And verse 15, and one of them,
one out of ten, One of them, when he saw that
he was healed, turned back, turned back, and with a loud
voice, praised God Almighty, glorified God, and fell down
on his face where? At his feet, at Christ's feet,
came back and worshiped Christ, and giving him thanks. And he's
just an old Samaritan. The rest of them must have been
Galileans. Samaritan. Can anything good come out of
Samaria? Samaritan? One poor, ignorant, despised
Samaritan. He calls him a stranger. Jesus
said, verse 17, Were there not ten clans? Where are the nine?
There are not any family returned to give glory to God save this
stranger. One. Where are the nine? That's
what I feel like saying this morning. Where are the nine? We got a little room in here.
One-tenth of, one-thousandth of a percent of the population
of Franklin County. Where are the nine? Some going through the motions
and all, yeah, but there's not many really worshiping God this
morning. Where are the nine? Where are the nine? Now, all
this man did, and you say, well, this man, he made his decision
for Jesus. He decided to follow... No! All
he did was open his eyes! Look! All he did was open his
eyes to see what had been done, and turned around and gave thanks
to the one who's responsible for it. And if men would just
open their eyes to this world around them, to the Bible, that's
what you and I were just talking about. If a man just read the
Bible, Honestly, before God Almighty, and see where it says, you'd
best be saved by grace. But they'd go where grace is
preached. They'd give glory to who it belongs.
All glory to God. God won't share His glory with
another. If men just opened their eyes and see where all glory
belongs, who is the all-glorious one, they wouldn't give glory
anywhere else. And verse 19, Christ said unto
this man, he said, Arise, go your way, your faith hath made
you whole. What did he do, Henry? He didn't
do anything, did he? He didn't go out and witness
for Jesus. He hadn't done it yet. He'd do it after this was
over. But he hadn't done anything yet. He hadn't won any souls
to Christ. He hadn't gone to Sunday school
for ten years then. He hadn't quit drinking and smoking
and everything yet. He just worshiped God in Christ,
fell at the feet of Christ. And Christ said, that's what
will save you. That's what will save you. This makes me think of the vast
majority of this world who is mercifully and graciously dealt
with by God Almighty, spared. Like Barnard said, every day,
everything this side of hell is mercy. God gives space to
repent, like those seven days after the ark was completed.
Seven days! Now understand, God's not waiting on anybody to do
anything. If He waits on you to do something, you'll never
do it. We wait on God. God must draw us into the ark
like He didn't know we are. But nevertheless, the judgment
is out, condemnation is against us, there's space to repent.
Come, Christ said. No, we will not come. That's
what Christ said. He won't. But God has mercifully and graciously
provided for and spared this generation, yet they remain unthankful. Rich and poor—this stands for
both—rich and poor, young, old, healthy, unhealthy, Jew, Gentile, all alike deserve
the wrath and condemnation of God. Because Paul said in Romans
1, that which may be known of God is manifest to them. God
has showed it to them. The invisible things from the
foundation of the world think they're clearly seen. His eternal
power and Godhead clearly seen that there's a God. And me and all think, God, with
every fiber of their being, we ought to worship God, bow to
God, serve God. It's a reasonable service, isn't
it? It's a reasonable thing to do.
Why? Because God's God and He's given me life and just lavishes
me with everything I own. We ought to serve God. But no! And not much faith to be found
in this kind of faith. Faith that gives God all the
glory, worships God. But there's a remnant, just a
little remnant, one out of ten. It's not that many, really. It's probably one out of eight
hundred and fifty, like Elijah and the prophets. Then, okay,
there you have it. You have the lepers. They were
miraculously healed and delivered, yet one out of ten came to them.
And now here you have the Pharisees. Here come the Pharisees. Verse
20. Here come the Pharisees. First
you had the disciples. God was winnowing and Christ
was examining the disciples. First, the disciples were found
to be fearful and unbelieving. Then the lepers, who were miraculously
healed, yet remained unbelievers, unthankful. And now here you
have these religious fanatics, religious fanatics, who spend
all their time being religious, studying the Bible, playing the
part. Now, if anybody's going to be
devout and worship God, these fellows are, surely. Yeah, they'll
recognize this master, this teacher. Well, here they come. What do
they want to say? What do they want to talk about? Why did they come to Christ?
Look at verse 20. And when he was demanded of the Pharisees
when the kingdom of God should come. All they wanted to have was a
little conversation on eschatology. That is the end times. What about the end times, they
said? You know, the disciples were no different over Luke 24
when they walked on the road to Emmaus. Remember? Christ himself
was standing beside them, just risen from the grave. What did
they talk about? We thought he'd restore unto us the kingdom.
Prophecy. This is just like our generation,
our religious generation, who's taken up with the rapture and
the second coming of Christ, who don't even know that Christ
is coming. I want to say that to people,
to talk about the second coming of Christ. I want to say, I'm
not so much concerned with that as the time He already did come.
I'm not so much concerned with the millennial reign of Christ
as His reign right now. That's what I'm interested in
right now, that He reign and rule over me and actually save
me by His grace. The Antichrist, one man said,
the Antichrist is leading the search for the Antichrist. The Pharisees wanted to know
about the kingdom, but they refused to bow to the king. Think of it. It's absurdity of
it. Nobody let anybody else go in.
Christ said, you won't enter, and you don't let anybody else
go either. But you sure want to know about the end times. They didn't want to know about
the end times, because it would be their end. Christ said, this is an evil
generation. that seeks after a sign, a miracle,
a blessing, a handout, health and wealth gospels. Evil. And
these fellows that preach it are evil. You can see it in their
eyes, can't you? Evil. I was watching the preach
of devils this morning, Oral Roberts. Evil comes out of that
man's eye. They say claim your blessing.
You ain't got nothing to claim from God. Vow your vow. You'll break it. Expect God to give you. You don't
expect anything of God. You're begging for mercy. Expect
your miracle. You better hope He does show
a miracle on you and a miracle of salvation, not just a balance,
a checkbook. Look for big things to happen
to you. Big things are going to happen. Christ said, look at verse 20,
he said, the kingdom of God doesn't come with observation. That is
outward show. Kingdom of God is not all about
signs and miracles and speaking in tongues and all that. Kingdom
of God is not about meat and drink, doing and not doing. Verse
21, no, the kingdom of God is not, well here, look over here,
look over there, would you? Would you look at that? Well,
look at this. That's what we're doing over
here. What are you doing over there? That's not the kingdom
of God. Behold, the kingdom of God is standing in front of you,
he said. And these fools take this pastor's
scripture and put it up on their bulletin boards today, don't
they? I saw that down at the church down the road on 220,
just first right here. The kingdom of God is within
you. Christ says, some people, you have just followed the devil.
The devil's in you. That's not what that means. Christ
was saying, the kingdom of God is standing right in front of
you. I'm the kingdom of God. What is the kingdom of God? It's
the dominion of the king. That's what the kingdom of God
is all about. That's what the gospel of the
kingdom is all about. All about the king. Unless they're talking about
this king and bowing and worshiping him, they don't have the slightest,
the foggiest idea what the kingdom of God is all about. They're
looking for the coming kingdom. The king's here right now, Henry. They're looking for the coming
of the kingdom. The king is here reigning and
ruling right now. Whether men acknowledge it or
not, he is. You don't make him Lord, he is Lord. The kingdom of God is all about
the King, all about a person. A person. Salvation is bowing
to, worshiping, submitting to, believing in, coming to know,
trust, love, follow after a person. The King, King Jesus, bowed to
his sovereign claim. And these Pharisees, they were
looking for answers to their questions about God's kingdom,
perhaps even heaven itself, when God stood right in front of them. Maybe even us, we're going
through the motions perhaps right now, somebody in here, going
through the motions, pretending to worship God, got our Sunday
go to meeting vest on, here we're going down here to find out about
God when our hearts are so far from worshiping God. God Almighty is standing right
in front of us, looking at us. Yeah, I see you. You look real
good, don't you? Folks, this thing is so serious. God's Word tells us this. Oh,
it convicts me. The blindness of the natural
man and religious man. Christ said, you search the Scriptures. He said, men and women. He said,
I grant them, they read the Bible. Men and women search the Scriptures,
and in them, that is, the doing and the keeping of laws and the
doing of this and that and the other, searching the Scriptures.
In them, they think they have life, the way to live, and they're
living it. I grant them that. They're trying,
anyway. And they think God—now, God, he accepts me. God is pleased with my religious
observances. my church attendance, and my
sincerity. See, my tears? God's pleased
with that, and surely God accepts that. But Christ said, no. You search the Scriptures, and
in them you think you know how to live. But they're not testifying,
telling you how to live. They're telling about me. They're
talking about me, who must come and give you dead sinner life. Turn over to John chapter 1 with
me. John chapter 1. Men and women are all taken up
with this world. They're all taken up with this
world, but could care less about the God who made it. All taken up with this world
and could care less to give a flip, never acknowledge the God who
made it. The things that we have that are freely given of us,
Men are not thankful. It boggles my poor little brain. Men and women are all taken up
with their religious buildings and committees. We were over
at a large, maybe the largest one here in town, so-called church. It ain't a church. It's an abomination. It's a den of thieves over at
this large Southern Baptist place. And I looked on that bulletin
board, I was over reading that bulletin board, and I counted. They had
all of the officers, the positions, titles, committees, programs,
all this. I counted 25 officers in that
church. I mean, you had the superintendent
of the diaper committee, superintendent of bus ministry, choir director,
music director, pastor, assistant pastor, associate pastor, associate
associate of the associate pastor, just all in all in all, I counted
25! And I counted 12 committees. Now if you get that many people
on different committees, everybody's on a committee! That's what they
gotta do to make everybody happy, keep everybody in church safe.
Preaching the gospel's not enough. But men and women are taken up
with their religious buildings, committees, programs, offices,
choirs, gospel scenes, prophecies, seminars on prophecy, youth groups,
social services, endless programs asking endless questions, and
all in the name of God. And John says in verse 26, there
stands one among you, you don't know. In the name of God, whom they
profess to worship, God is in the middle, and they don't even
know it. Somebody said He'd take the Holy
Spirit out of most places. Well, He's not in them, but if,
hypothetically, He'd take the Holy Spirit out, nobody would
ever miss Him. If folks, listen, if folks
were really taken up with Christ, If they were really preaching
Christ, really believing Christ and taking up with Christ, their
messages would be full of what? Christ! Their songs would be
singing praises to who, to what? Christ! Their studies, their
Bible studies would be all about Christ! Nobody's name would ever
be mentioned. Oh, we'd like to recognize so-and-so.
No! We'd like to recognize the Lord
Jesus Christ. See, this morning, that's what
we'd like to do. That's what this is all about. That's why
we're here. We'd like to thank the Lord for
coming, not Brother John. Superstitions. If men were taken
up with Christ, preachers, and people alike, superstitions,
traditions, pagan and fleshly slurred shows of religion, we'd
be gone out the window with this junk, rubbish. That's what old
Nehemiah said, wasn't it? We can't build a wall. There's
too much junk. going on. Robes, hats, bonnets,
titles—crack a window! Crosses, pictures, ceremonies—away
with it. It's an abomination. And men would be rejoicing in
the gospel and the gospel alone, wouldn't they? Look back at Luke 18 now. Luke 18, verse 8. When the Son
of Man comes, this reason I have to ask the same question right
now. When God, when Christ comes back to earth, will He find any
faith on earth? When Christ comes back, will
He find faith, I mean real faith, worship in a God, the living
God, not just ceremony? Will He? Will He? Will He? Our Lord asks this question of
the disciples, though. And I think we ought to use this
to examine ourselves, to see whether we be of the same. Not
other people. I've been talking about all these
other churches. I think we ought to use it to examine ourselves
right now. I'll leave it up to, like I said,
the millennialists. I can hardly even say it. The
millennialists. to discuss whether there will
be revival or apostasy right before Christ's coming. I don't
know. Look back at chapter 17, verse
26. It seems that both is true. Apostasy and revival. I don't
know how to explain that, except that Paul said in Romans 11,
he talked about the Jews, Jews being something great happening
with the Jew. Can't deny that. But here he
says, in verse 26, as it was in the days of Noah, so shall
it be also in the days of the Son of Man. They did eat, they
drank, they married wild. Now, there's nothing wrong with
eating and drinking. Now, the Lord's not condemning
eating and drinking. He has to. He's sure not condemning marrying. He's the one that ordained it. But he's just saying things are
going to keep going on and on like they always have been. They
were given in marriage until the day Noah entered into the
ark. Now here was a little small congregation meeting in a boat
down here, worshiping the true and living God. And the man was
standing up, Jephthah's coming, Jephthah's coming, just like
I am this morning and every other morning. God's, do you want to
judge this gentleman? Get to Christ. Say it in the
articles of the bulletin or in the newspaper and all. And the
flood came and destroyed them all. Eight people out of, some
people say, seven or eight billion. Likewise, verse 28, also, it
was in the days of Lot. They didn't eat, they drank,
they bought, they sold, they planted, they built. Now, there's
nothing wrong with these things. The Lord's not condemning these
things. He's just saying they were doing the same things back
then, that they're doing now, the day the Lord comes. And the
same day that Lot went out of Sodom, there was only four people
then, and one of them died on the way out. And the same day that Lot went
out of Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and
destroyed all of them, a whole bunch. Our generation did. I'm thankful
to parents. Disobedient to parents. Man,
anarchy reigns in our children. And I say, I worry. The love of many shall wax cold
in the end times. The love of many shall wax cold.
Many depart from the faith. We've already seen it since I've
been here, two short years. This is the reason we need to
ask ourselves, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith
in me? Shall I be among the faithful? Those who have true saving faith,
is that going to be me? Come on now, listen up to me,
please. Shall I be one of these faithful? It behooves us then. It behooves us to know what saving
faith is. Are you interested? Do I have it? It behooves us
to find out. Oh, it behooves us. What is true saving faith? We've
got to have it. When the Son of Man comes, He's
going to be looking for it. It's not a word, I'll tell you
that. All right, let's look at what
true saving faith is, all right? Look at chapter 18. Here's the
context of why the Lord said this. Look it with me now, just
a little while. Can you watch with me for an
hour? I know I'm not going to be another hour, but we hadn't
been here that long. He spake a parable unto them
to this end. Chapter 18, verse 1. He spake
a parable to this end that men ought always to pray and not
to quit. What do you do when you pray?
You beg God for mercy. That's the chief, foremost means
of prayer. Begging God for mercy, repenting
of your sins, and asking Him, well, I need some bread today.
That's about it. And thanking Him for everything
else He gives you. That's about it. Men ought always to pray, not
to faint, ought to ask God for mercy and not quit asking for
it, because he sure needed it. And this is what he said. Here's
the story he gave. Now, there was in a city a judge.
Stop right there. We are standing and living before
a judge. God ain't our granddaddy. God
ain't this loving, kind, old, gentle, grandfatherly type with
a long, snow-white beard who just loves you so much and wants
so badly for you to let him do something. He's a judge. And whether we believe it or
not, as old-fashioned as it may sound,
it's true. One day we'll find out. There was a judge then. There
is a judge now. The Lord God of heaven is the
judge of the universe before whom all must stand. We stand
before him now. Someday, we don't see him. That's
the reason we don't believe him. Why don't we have any use for
these things? Why? Because we don't believe him.
We don't see him. That's what they say in 2 Peter
3. All things go on like they always have been. That's a bunch
of hogwash and baloney. That's old-fashioned. Jud, hell,
fire, and damn near. I don't need that stuff. That's
what they said then. That's what he said, they said
back in Noah's day. I, Noah, ain't never laying no
nerve, Noah. They found out. And then they
were begging. Open the door, Noah. Please,
Noah. back in the last day I've seen
this one that mocked judgment's coming God told me that that
there's going to burn this place at all you're not going on with
that stuff are you. Well I'm losing. So you like
your life. By. Where you going I'm going
to church to worship God. Who's who. And we're going to stand before
this God. Yes, yes, we are. Yes, we are. Yes, we are. Before whom all should bow right
now. Right now. So how do you know? I've got 66 books right
here that tell me so. If you diligently, carefully,
honestly study this, you'll find out. If you just open your eyes.
You'll find out. There's a God. Boy, He's strong. He's powerful. And in here it
tells you He will by no means clear the guilty and everybody's
guilty. That's including me. And He'll send me to hell without
saving faith in Christ. Okay, preacher, what's this faith
all about? Well, first thing, like I said, there's a judge.
There's a judge. And The Scripture says, Christ himself
says, no man comes to this judge but by me. All right? We're all going to have to stand
before this Holy God. Everybody. Everybody. Believer and unbeliever
wants to stand before this Holy God. And Christ said nobody is
going to come to this judge and stand in front of this judge
accepted, acquitted, forgiven, received into eternal life but
by one person. One person. One person. Who's that? Pope. Pope's going
to hell. Yeah, he is. Yeah, he is. Well, the priest? No, the priest
is going with him. He's going to follow him. The
preacher, most of them are going there too. Who is it then that we must come
to? Well, the scripture says there's one lawyer. He's God's
judge, his one advocate, lawyer, one person who can plead our
case. You know what he pleads? Guilty. One lawyer, one mediator, one
go-between, as Scripture told us, one baseman betwixt us, one
person who can grab hold on God and grab hold on me and bring
us together. Except to do away with this vast
gulf betwixt us. One! One hope of acceptance, one righteousness,
not my Sunday school attendance, one sacrifice, one Lord, one
faith. And it's in the one person, the
Lord Jesus Christ, who God says, now I've placed all judgment
in his hands. He's the judge. One way to stand
holy and accepted and approved and acquitted and forgiven by
this holy judge, one way, that's in Christ coming to him as your
righteousness, as your blood atonement. Because he's got to
shed the blood. Is there faith like this? That's
the reason Christ said, is there faith like this on earth? Is
there? When the Son of Man comes, are
you going to find anybody really looking to Christ and Christ
alone? And not their this and that and
the other duties. Is there faith on earth when
Christ comes? A lot of faith in man, isn't
it? A lot of talk about man's filthy
rags of righteousness. Not many people looking wanting,
diligently seeking, hungering, thirsting after that blessed
robe of Christ's righteousness, are there? Huh? Not many. Secondly, faith, true saving
faith, look at this, verse 5. There was in a city, verse 2,
there was in a city a judge which feared not God, neither regarded
man. And there was a widow in that
city, and she came unto him saying, Avenge me, my adversary. She came to him. And he would
not for a while, but afterward he said within himself, though
I fear not God, nor regard man, yet because this widow troubleth
me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me." She keeps coming,
and coming, and coming. She came to the judge at first.
You got to help me. I'm in trouble. Please have mercy
on me, old judge. You're the only one that can
help me. Save me, judge. Then she left and never came
back. No, no. She was there that morning, that
afternoon, that night, the next morning. She camped out on his
doorstep. The next, the next, the next. Kept coming. Kept coming. She wasn't going to let that
judge go until that judge lost her. The Scripture says that
faith is to whom? Coming. We keep coming to Christ,
continually coming to Christ. It's not a one-time profession. It ain't a Sunday morning religion. Faith is not coming to Christ
one day a week and one service at that. Faith is not making
one decision, appearing baptized, now set, I'm all set. Let me
backslide a little bit, but you'll get there, it's alright. Making
one decision, there's a life of following, looking, seeking,
trusting in, hungry and thirsting after this person, studying him. It's not beginning with Christ
and going on to other things. It's not like Paul said, beginning
in the Spirit. I mean, it's so foolish, he said.
Do we begin in the Spirit and then are made perfect by the
flesh? I have to say that people that
do that, they never begin in the Spirit. Men say that, yes, Christ is
important, but no! We don't begin in the Spirit
and then are made perfect by the flesh. We don't get justified
by Christ and sanctify ourselves. No, 1 Corinthians 1, there it
is. He's made unto us all these things. Wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, redemption. True faith, listen, true faith
sees Christ as all and in all. All I need. All I need. All of
these things. All I'll ever need. I don't come
to him and say he's made unto me wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption. Then I go down the road and look
for the law of it. Look at the law of how I'm going
to live. No, I keep coming back to Christ. Complete in Him. He's all my
strength. Well, I've got to keep on keeping
going. I've got to pray through. No, you don't. He sure does,
though. And he did. It's to whom coming? He's all my strength. Without
me, you can do nothing, Christ said. He's my only hope. We've got to say with that widow,
I'm not letting go until he blesses me. I'm not going to let go of
Christ and my only hope until I get to heaven. And I tell you
what, I ain't letting go other than then. Then I'll just spend
the remainder of eternity blessing him. Then you'll never get me
away from him. Oh, you can't keep me from worshiping
God. Not now, and certainly not then. What's it gonna take to take
me away from worshiping God? What'll it take now? The world? Now here's this. Wouldn't like
to have that? Yeah, I sure would. Up there? Here's your yo-yo to
play with. Here, I'll give you a chunk of
this street of gold. If you've ever seen the King,
I'm telling you, if you've ever seen the beauty of Christ, if
you ever really need Him and His righteousness, I'm telling
you, you're going to be so taken up with Him and nothing's going
to keep you away. I'm telling you, that's just the way it is.
That's just the way it is. God's people, they want to worship
Him. And there's nothing that delights
their heart and soul anymore. I know the flesh is weak, but
the Spirit sure is willing. And the Spirit, if we're led
by the Spirit, will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. That's
the promise of God. I'll be honest with you, I don't
all the time feel like coming over here. But I do, and I'm sure glad I
did. Sure glad God led me to, gave me the strength to go through
with it. And after it's over, I think,
how in the world, where in the world, where would I have gone,
and what would I have done, and how would it have benefited me?
and what I would have missed. I think about that about some
people sometimes I think oh my. I'll be honest with you I get
mad sometimes a lot of times but most of the time I think
oh my what they missed. If only they could have been
in on this. They sure could use it because I know I did. I used
it. I needed it bad. Verse seven. The Lord said, do you hear what
the unjust judge says? Shall not God avenge his own
elect which cry day and night unto him? Here's the third thing
about true saving faith. True saving faith comes to God
in Christ. True saving faith keeps coming.
And true saving faith hollers, cries out unto God for mercy. There's people in here right
now that I've never seen a tear in their eye, never heard one
single word or comment on any message that's ever been preached
here. I've already preached over—I forget how many, but I counted
it not too long ago. I stacked sermons on that. Never
heard one single word or comment on one single message, never
seen a tear in one not a drop, a smidgen of emotion
about this gospel that ought to move the very inner parts
of our soul. And I can only come to one conclusion. Just like these—I'm telling you,
true saving faith is heartfelt. True saving faith doesn't have
a thing to do with feelings, but I'll tell you what, true
saving faith has them. You can't hear this word indifferently. And you can't hear it occasionally. Where there's no true saving
faith, there won't be any heartfelt, neat feelings of need for Christ. Do you need Him? Say, yeah, of
course, I don't need to be here to hear Him. Go ask people who have left where
they're worshiping. Go ask them. They're not going
anywhere. They're going down to the lake.
They're going to the ball game. They're going down to Aunt Mildred's
on Sundays to worship and go. Like these TV crusades. Do you see them coming down the
front? The mass of the people Billy
Graham I stand there. And they see a massive coming
down. Where the tears. People like
on the day of Pentecost. Well. You'll see you soon. You
want to go yeah. I want to go with you. Where are the people weeping
like Mary Magdalene over the feet of Christ? Lord God, I'm
such a wicked sinner. And I tell you what, we're so
dead and so insensible to sin that we can go and commit it
and not feel it, hardly. Go through and hear messages
and unmoved. I will give you a plug nickel
for a feelingless religion. Not a plug nickel! Tell you what, true saving faith
has a heartfelt need for Christ in the gospel. I mean you need it! You need it. And only Christ
can give it. When the Son of Man comes, will
He find faith on the earth? True saving faith continually,
importunately cries out for mercy from God Almighty like this word
of praise. Praise! Man, this ought to go without
saying. But a child of God who doesn't commune with God and
talk to God, who doesn't call on God? There ain't no such creature.
Babies cry. That's the first instance in
the life of breath, and I tell you what, their cries get louder.
The older they get, the stronger they cry about something. Proof
of life. And as I said before, prayer
is really only thanksgiving and repentance and requests for a
little bread, but mostly mercy and grace. Will the Son of Man
find faith on the earth? Do you cry? Listen, and I'll
let you go. At a time when everything in
the Bible is being called into question, at a time But everything in the
Bible is being carefully scrutinized and criticized by even so-called
conservatives. Here you've got the Southern
Baptists meeting together to see, to try to decide whether
or not the Bible is God's inerrant, infallible, inspired word or
not. Trying to decide. The most conservative
people, religionists on the face of the earth, now are getting
together to try to decide whether or not to believe the Bible or
not. At a time like this, is there
faith left that dares to believe every word that God says? Why? Because God says it, that's why. Is there faith like this left?
There ain't much, is there? I don't see it much anywhere.
But you can read some of it to people and they'll get mad at
you just for reading it. At a time when evil is called
good, Homosexuality. Or what have you. This is the
way God made me. When evil is called good, and
good is evil, is there faith to stand up and to say, that's
moral! God is true! That's wrong. Why is it wrong?
Because God said it was wrong, that's why. And does not even
nature itself teach you that it's wrong? Like my pastor said,
we don't preach against homosexuality because it's just wrong. We don't
have to even discuss it. We ought not have to discuss
anything else that's true concerning God's Word, should we? That Jesus
Christ actually saved sinners? We ought not to have to discuss
it. It's just true. Salvation is by grace. Should
we have to discuss that? No, we just declare it, Joe.
No. God's God. Why don't I have all this? Why? When should we ever have to prove
that? At a time when the old-fashioned
preaching of the sovereign grace of God, the blood atonement,
the substitution of Christ, when the gospel of God is being discarded
as out of date. Incidentally, on that program
of that church, they have 148,000 cantatas and songs and prayers
and all that right down at the bottom there. But it lasted about
15 minutes. It was on Mother's Day. I think
it was about Mama. When preaching of the gospel was relegated to
the scrap heap, that's the reason we've got these podiums where
we've got the preacher as far away as we can, and we sit. If
I ever built a church, I'd make two rows. Two rows, and go all
the way around there so nobody could sit on the back row. Everybody,
I sit right up front, and I put the pulpit right in front. Because
what is this all about? I want you to hear what I'm saying.
I want you wide awake, and I want you looking at the Word of God
and hearing what I'm saying. I want you in this thing. In it!
Not in the building, but in this. In this Word. That's what this
is all about. I know we stick him up on a platform,
back in a hole, and put a disguise in him real good, make him look
as good as you can, you know, or else people are not going
to come see him anyway. And he disguises his voice so
that they'll listen to him. Cover up all of Kentucky, ain't
it? But at a time when the preaching
of the gospel is discarded, is out of date, unnecessary bigoted
narrow prejudice is their faith. To stand in the teeth of the
onslaught and say, let God be true, that's a man a liar. If
you ain't gonna talk about God and preach his gospel, sit down,
man. There's somebody up there who will. Is there such a faith
left? There ain't much. There just
ain't much. By the time when most say, all
things are going on like they always have, come on preacher,
where's the promise of this coming? And many people go and walk no
more with me. go back at a time when people
dropping out like flies because they don't like the way the preacher's
attitude or whatever. Granted, that's so, but is there
faith left to say, for somebody to say, where are we going to
go? I know he's cool. I know he's
uneducated. I know he gets mean. So do I. But where are we going to go
and hear the gospel? Besides, he's trying. Trying
is bad. I believe God helps every now
and then. I believe God's in it. At a time when iniquity abounds
and the love of many waxes old in our materialistic society,
when the consumer is consumed with the goods, Will the Lord
find us watching and waiting on him or asleep in the enchanted
ground of this world? That's the reason. So you could
go on and on. That's the reason the Lord said,
when the Son of Man comes, is he going to find one? Me? When the Son of Man comes, will
he find faith in me? Faith like this, am I going to
have it? 70 years old. Am I going to be found among
the faithful? I tell you what, I want to say with Moses this
morning, who is on the Lord's side? Let him come to Christ. Who is? If not, then go do what you want
to do. Go where you want to go. Be with
whomever you want to be. Who's on the Lord's side? Who
wants to be with the Lord? Who wants to be with Christ? Who
loves Christ and his gospel? Huh? Who loves the people of
God, the things of God? Who's concerned about the things
of God? Who is really, desperately, heartily, desiringly of the things
of God? You come out tonight, we're going
to talk about the same thing. Can you say to that man who brought
his lunatic son to the Lord, Lord, I believe. I am on the Lord. I want to be
on the Lord's side. Help me. Would you help me? Can
you say that in all sincerity? Lord, I do believe. Would you
help my unbelief? Lord, I do want to be on the
Lord's side. I do want to worship you, but oh, the flesh tugs and
pulls. Lord, please, please help me. Please help me mortify my member,
would you? Can you say that? Will a son
of man find that kind of faith in you right now? Can you say
with Joshua, in all confidence, in all sincerity, in all heartfelt
earnestness, can you say, as for me and my house? My wife, my children, we're going
to serve the Lord. We're going to be right here.
Can you? Can't a man say that? Well, you
better believe. You bet your bottom dollar he
can say it. As for me and my house, we're going to serve the
Lord. Hannah, you're going to think
Daddy's cruel to you someday for making you come to church
when you're 16 years old. But I'm hoping and praying the
Lord God's going to save your soul. And you're going to be
here to hear the gospel that's going to save your soul, if it's
going to be saved. And if you love your children,
you're the same. People ask me, is it right to make my children
come to church? Is it right? It's all together wrong and wicked
if you don't. They're going to go to hell,
you children, my babies, you and your baby! If they don't
know Christ, is this true or is it not? Huh, Rick? Man, if
we don't believe that, let's throw it all away. Let's quit
playing games. Let's take serious, indeterminate. Man, and I tell you, I wish I
could get even more serious, not morose. I don't mean to be
mean. God forgive me. I don't mean to be mean and harsh
and overly sober and melancholy and serious, but Jeremiah was
called the weeping prophet. He didn't get up and tell jokes,
did he? I just guarantee you Isaiah didn't
get up and pop a hole. I just bet your bottom dollar
John didn't. I'm willing to stake my life
on the fact that Peter didn't get up and put on a show. I had the hearts and the souls
of the people that heard him at stake on his mind, his heart,
so he told them the truth. God help us, please. God help
us is my prayer. You're dismissed.