Let's sing the chorus. Let's
sing the chorus, Lord I Want to Be a Christian. Lord, I want to be a Christian
in my heart. Lord, I want to be a Christian
in my home, in my home, in my home. Lord, I want to be a Christian
in my home, want to be like Jesus. Lord, I want to be like Jesus
in my heart. Lord, I want to be like Jesus
in my heart, in my heart. in my heart. Lord, I want to be like Jesus
in my heart. I want to trust the Savior. Lord,
I want to trust the Savior in my heart. Lord, I want to trust the Savior
in my heart, in my heart, in my heart. Lord, I want to trust the Savior
in my heart. I want to know the scriptures.
Lord, I want to know the scriptures in my heart. Lord, I want to know the scriptures
in my heart, in my heart. in my heart. Lord, I want to know the scriptures
in my heart. Turn in your Bibles to Luke 17. Luke chapter 17. I was going to do a parable this
evening, the parable of the net cast into the sea, but while
reading this passage, I was so struck by one verse in it that
I knew that we had to look at this this evening. Besides, we
have plenty of time to go through the parables. This is a school
that you never graduate from. Let me ask you a question. This
is a very pointed, serious question. Do you have saving faith? You just could not ask yourself
or be asked a more important question, and one that probably
causes you more grief to answer. Do you really have saving faith? Do you really believe in the
Lord Jesus Christ to the saving of your eternal soul? Now, I have a confession to make,
and something of an apology, really. I was greatly rebuked
in the study of this subject and this message, Let me give
you an illustration. Several years ago, I was visiting
a preacher friend of mine, and while attending his—this was
before I really—I don't know if I'd done any preaching yet
or not, but at any rate, I was in his services, his worship
services, and in the course of his message, he said this on
the pulpit. I'll never forget it. He said,
excuse me. He said, unless you have seen
Jesus Christ dying for you on the cross, then you are not a
saved person. Unless you have seen Jesus Christ
dying for you. on that cross personally. You are not saved. Now that greatly
troubled me. And perhaps in hearing this,
some of you are troubled. And it greatly troubled me at
the time. I remember not being able to enjoy myself the rest
of the time I was with him. Not really enjoying the rest
of my stay. I was too ashamed and afraid to admit that I had
not had that experience, that I had not ever really seen Jesus
Christ or really felt like he died for me personally. I felt
like he died for sinners. I felt like I was a sinner, but
I was not necessarily convinced that he died for me. And it troubled
me, and I began, on the way home I remember stopping at another
preacher's And I began to ask this man, suddenly, I didn't
want him to think that I was lost or whatever, or that I was
of my condition. And I began to suddenly ask him
and other different preachers and men, elders in the church,
how they felt about this statement, that unless you've seen him dying
for you personally, Does one have to believe that Jesus Christ
died for him personally to be saved? And I don't remember. Wait a
minute before you answer that question. I don't remember anything
anyone said because I was so troubled by it all. And I don't
recall receiving an answer that satisfied my troubled heart. And today, Several years later,
I, in all honesty and sincerity, I feel like I can say with confidence
that Jesus Christ did die for me, and I feel like he does love
me personally. But I did not have that at first.
And so I ask, now what we're talking about here is assurance,
or full assurance. Full assurance, saving faith. Or rather, is full assurance
necessary to saving faith? No. Somebody ought to be glad to
hear that. No, it is not necessary. to saving faith full assurance
believing that Jesus Christ died for you personally is necessary
to having deep joy and necessary to having spiritual maturity
and necessary for spiritual growth and necessary for usefulness
in the kingdom of God but not necessary to saving faith. And this is the apology that
I make, because I believe I have perhaps intimated or demanded
that up to this point, and I was greatly rebuked by the study
of this message. The question naturally follows,
when you say something like that, then what is saving faith? What
is saving faith? Simply put, saving faith is trust
in Jesus Christ. Trust in Jesus Christ. That's the best description of
faith that you can come up with. Trust. The word trust. Trust
in Jesus Christ. It's like childlike dependence
upon this person, Jesus Christ. You may not know him very well.
A little baby, first born, does not know her mama or her daddy
very well at all. No, no, no, no. They don't. But they trust. They trust this
person who holds them in their arms. Trust in Christ is to trust,
is to believe the record of God's Word concerning his person, who
he is. that he is God, like we talked
about the other night. Anyone who refuses to believe
the record, no matter what it is, it's the reason I say whoever
struggles with a particular point of doctrine, such as election
or whatever, it's fine to struggle with it or not understand it,
but you best believe it. Because that's a saving fact,
to believe the record, whether you understand it or not. To
believe it. To believe the record God has
written concerning His Son. Who He is. God. First of all. God. That He is the Christ. He's God's anointed Redeemer
and Savior. He is the Savior. To believe
His work. That He came as a man to establish
righteousness for sinners and to take their sins upon Him and
shed His blood on their behalf. That's saving faith. That is saving faith. The scriptures
do not demand any more than that. They really do not, folks. And
I'm afraid that I've been insisting upon some babies having full-grown
beards. Now, as to a personal, intimate
relationship with Jesus Christ, As to walking and communing with
him as a man with his friend, as to believing that he died
for you personally, that will come in time. But it doesn't
necessarily come overnight. It doesn't necessarily come immediately.
No, it doesn't. Let me say this. It's not you knowing him first
that saves you. It's him knowing you. Right? It's a new birth. And John came
over to study again today, and we were talking about this another
two hours. When the Holy Spirit comes to
someone, when he creates this new spiritual life in someone,
what he does is he takes the incorruptible seed of God's Word
One, however much he takes, it's up to him. And plants it in the
heart. Right? Plants it in the heart.
And then, by hearing more and prayer, the prayer of the saints,
the prayer of that person, and the prayer of Christ, that seed
is watered. That seed is fertilized. And
it begins to grow. But when God plants that seed,
when He plants a small seed of faith, and I hesitate to use
that because these hucksters on TV talk about seed faith,
but I'm not talking about giving me a thousand dollars. I'm talking
about the seed of faith, of saving faith, the Holy Spirit plants
within somebody. However small it may be, it's
the faith of God's elect. It's the gift of the Holy Spirit.
I don't care how small it is. It's life. It's life. It's life. And whatever being confident
of this very thing, as Paul said, that he that hath begun a good
work in you will perform it, will perfect it, will cause it
to grow. And this ought to be very comforting
for some weak believers out there, that it's not the amount of faith
that you have. It's just the kind of faith.
This ought to be very comforting for you. The scripture says,
by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many. Not by
my knowledge. Knowledge is necessary. Knowledge
and understanding, it's necessary. I'm not diminishing it at all.
We've got to know something of who God is. We've got to know
something of who Christ is. We've got to believe what we
are. But the amount of that is not that important. Hell, it's
not. It's the kind of faith. It's
the object of faith. It's the object. It's not your
holding on to Christ to save you. It's Him holding on to you. Oh, yes it is. It's not your
works that save you. And we tend to make faith a work,
don't we? It's not your works that save
you or recommend you to God. It's not your faith that recommends
you to God. Without faith, it's impossible
to please God, but it doesn't say how much. It's Christ's works of righteousness
that save you. His works, not your works. It's
not your feelings that determine your salvation. It's the shed blood and righteousness
of Jesus Christ that determines your salvation. It's your standing
in Jesus Christ that determines your salvation, not your feelings.
Not your feelings, like the illustration I used. The old fellow, somebody
asked somebody, are you saved? And he said, well, is Christ
at the right hand of God? Oh, yes, he is. He'll always
be there till he comes back. But then I'm saved. Scripture
says I'm seated in Christ. Well, what is saving faith? What
is saving faith? As I just said, it's to believe
God, to believe God's record concerning His Son, period. To believe who God is, that He's
God, that He's holy, that He's sovereign. Do you believe that?
To believe what he says about you. That you're a hell-deserving
wretch. That there's no goodness in you.
None. Now all this, what I'm going on to say here, all of
this presupposes a knowledge of yourself. Or that is, it's
necessary that you know yourself. That you're a sinner. I'm not
talking about just acknowledging the fact. I'm talking about knowing
it and hating it. Hating yourself and longing,
desiring to be free from it. This is the problem with present-day conversions that you see in all
these revivals and so forth. People coming down front, there's
apparently no repentance, no tears being shed, no remorse
on their faces. And all of this presupposes that
you know and believe that you are a hell-deserving sinner and
deserving of the wrath of God, and that he does not have to
do anything. That is first. That's necessary.
That is condition. And God has to give that, doesn't
He? It's the goodness of God that leads you to repent it.
And it presupposes that you have a need, that you want to be saved,
that you need to be saved. So what is saving faith? It's
to believe God, who He is, that He is God, He's holy, He's sovereign. It's to believe what He says
about me, that I'm sinful, I'm condemned already, I'm unworthy,
and who Christ is, that He's Lord. I'm in His hands. He's
the only Savior. that his way of salvation is
the only way, that his righteousness is my only hope of heaven. That's saving faith. Yes, it is. If we try to make
any more of it, we're arresting the Scriptures. Yes, we are. Whosoever believeth, this is
saved. He that believeth on him hath
everlasting life. That's what the Scriptures say.
It's not the quantity of the faith that saves, it's the faith.
It's the object. It's the kind of thing. Now look
with me. I'll show you from Scripture.
Look with me at Matthew chapter 6. Matthew chapter 6. There's great comfort to be had
here in this message for somebody. I was comforted greatly by it.
I've got an article coming up in this book, next bulletin,
by Spurgeon along these very lines. And I'm telling you, when
I was asked that question, and when I first heard that, it shook
me to my bones. It bothered me. It bothered me
greatly. And I'm not sure how many people
can really say that in all assurance and honesty. That they have actually
seen Jesus Christ, that they've heard the voice of God, Speaking
to them personally, saying, I saved you. You know what I'm saying? Anybody
know where I'm coming from? But you can believe, you can
take God at His word, though, can't you? You can do that much. Nowhere do I see it says that,
that you have to see Him hanging there for you. That you believe
the record of what it says about Christ dying for sinners and
that you're a sinner. Now they go hand in hand. You have to
put two and two together. That I'm a sinner and he died
for sinners, therefore he must have died for me. But as far
as having full assurance, that is not saving faith. Full assurance
is not saving faith. Besides, no one has full assurance
all of the time. I feel like sometimes I have
full assurance. But not all the time. And that's
a strange statement, I know. But, you know, you'd think full
assurance would be all you'd be assured all the time. Sometimes
I feel like I'm saved and if I died right now, there's no
doubt in my mind I'd go to be with Christ. There's other times
I think, I don't know if I know him or not. We'll get into that a little
more in a minute, but look at Matthew 6, verse 28. Christ said, Why take ye thought
for raiment? And he's talking to his disciples. Consider the
lilies of the field, how they grow. They toil not, neither
do they spend. And yet I say unto you, that
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 into the oven, shall he not much
more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Look at chapter 8. Matthew 8, verse 23. Matthew 8, verse 23. And when
he entered into a ship, his disciples followed him. And behold, there
arose a great tempest in the sea, insomuch that the ship was
covered with waves. But he was asleep. And his disciples
came to him. They were afraid. They were scared
to death. And they awoke him, saying, Lord, save us. And he said, you know, we can
look at this and kind of, kind of look down on them a little
bit, don't we? What's wrong with those guys? Don't they, the Lord's
in the boat. Boatswain. We'd have been the first one,
I'd have been, Terry, you'd have been the first one up on board.
Wake up! Why are you fearful? Verse 26,
O ye of little. Is that you, Ellen? Little Faith? Look at verse, chapter 14, Matthew
14, all the way through the Gospels. You know how he described these
disciples? Ones of little faith. Little faith. These boys walked
with him, handled him, heard his work personally. We've got
a book. But they heard His words, saw
His miracles. He gave them power to perform
miracles. We're talking about people that actually touched
and handled and slept with and heard the voice of the Son of
God. Yet they just fall in all manners of things, unbelief.
Look at chapter 14, verse 29. And he said, come. This is when
he was walking on the water. 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, he was afraid and he began to
sink. He 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? Why did you
doubt? O ye of little faith." Now, take
comfort. He didn't say, O ye of no faith. He said, O ye of little faith. Didn't he? In another place,
he said, if you had faith as a grain of a mustard seed—now,
that's the smallest of all seeds—if you had that much faith, You
can say this mountain, apart from him, it cast in the sea
and it will be. What he's saying there is they
don't have that much. That's what he's saying. And
that's you and me. Be honest. We don't have that
much. Like Jack Shank said, we don't
have to believe in the sovereignty of God. Don't have to believe
it. Say we do. We act like we don't,
don't we? We don't have that much. How
much we got? Oh, it's so minute. It's enough
to save your soul. This is good news. I'm going
to show you. I'm going to build this case
up. He didn't say, O ye of no faith. He said, O ye of little
faith. Now I ask you, do you need salvation? Do you? Violet, you need salvation.
You need a Savior. Can you trust Christ alone for
your salvation? You know you don't have any good
works, do you? You just don't have a bit. You've tried, and
you just can't. Can you trust Christ alone? I
mean, just say it. He's my only hope. That's saving faith, Father. Yes, it is. That is saving faith. to believe the record that God
says of sinners and that what he says of those that come to
Christ and trust him." Did that save him? That sounds too simple.
That's what Paul was afraid, that Satan would suddenly corrupt
their minds from believing the simplicity or the singularity
of faith in Christ. He said, I fear. I fear that. All faith needs to grow. It needs to grow. And when, like
natural birth, when children are born, they're not all alike
when they're born. Kinsley, that baby looked like
she was about four months old when she was born. And then other
babies are born very tiny, very small, very frail. But there's
just as much life in that framework as there is that big, robust,
and healthy baby. Huh? Oh, yes. And you know, when
they're born, one may look better than the other, but as they grow
older, that weak one may surpass the strong one. And this is the
way it is spiritually speaking. I've ran into some people, I
know, I'm thinking of one person in particular, that when the
Lord saved him, man, on fire. That guy went everywhere telling
everybody about what Christ had done for him, and he was just
consumed with the scriptures and the hearing of the gospel.
And I'm saying that has to be there in principle with every
believer. But this young man, and God blessed him greatly and
called him to be a preacher, and then I know other people that
or saved, much like that blind man who was healed. The Lord
came to him and gave him partial sight. Remember when he said,
I see men walking as trees? He didn't see real clearly, but
he saw something. What does that mean? I mean,
he wasn't blind, was he? He saw something. And finally,
the Lord cleared up his sight. And I know people who have been
saved. I personally feel like that that's
been my experience, that this thing came very slowly to me.
It was a slow revelation. But even so, some seem strong
early on, while others make very, very slow progress. Very slow. Like old Abraham. Oh, Abraham
made a lot of mistakes at first, but his faith, when he first
said that he believed God, when God first came to him and said,
Abraham, come out from among your people, and said, I'm going
to make you a great nation, and he believed God. What did he
know? Not much, but it said that was
counted to him for righteousness, that faith. Doesn't say how much. And later on now, he's called
the father of the faithful. Later on, he took his boy and
would have killed his boy because God said so. He might not have
done that right at first, but God knew, and God caused his
faith to grow. But that faith he had at first,
was able to say, God said it did. Said it was accounted as
righteousness unto him from the start. And he was just as saved
then as he was in the end when he had old Isaac up on that altar.
When God said, now I know that thou lovest me. He said that
for our sake. A diamond is a diamond, no matter
the size of it. Right? Hudson works at the jeweler.
Mr. Stanley is not going to throw
out every little diamond because he's not a full carrot. Not at
all. A diamond's a diamond. That old Peter. And the Lord told him this, he
said, Peter, when you're converted, you strengthen the brethren.
That is, Peter, when you get out of this mess, when you get
solidified and established. Now, Peter knew Christ because
he just said before that, that he was the Christ. And Christ
said, flesh and blood didn't reveal that to you, but my Father,
which is in heaven. And salvation is having God, the Holy Spirit,
reveal Christ in your heart. That's salvation. And he said
that of Peter, that God had revealed who Christ was to him. That's
saving faith. And I beg to differ with anyone
who says Peter was not saved at that time. And shortly thereafter, Peter's
standing around a fire, and a little girl came up and said, You're
one of Christ Jesus' disciples, aren't you? And he began to cuss
and say he never knew him. And just shortly thereafter,
he was going to want to go fishing, just quit it all, just throw
three years down the tube, act like he never knew, never heard
of Jesus Christ. Was he a saved man? Yes, sir, he was. Yes, sir, he
was. Christ wasn't about to let him
go, but he was one of his. And Christ, when he reappeared,
he said, you go tell the disciples and you be sure to tell Because
he's probably feeling pretty low by now. Feels like he's the
only one that isn't saved. And you tell him that I'm risen. And shortly thereafter, take
heart. You were talking about this thing
of being ashamed of Christ. How you clam
up in front of people. Peter clammed up in front of
a little girl. A little girl. But shortly thereafter, Rick,
he preached to 3,000 people in the streets with boldness. Who made the difference? Peter?
Oh, no. The Holy Spirit did. The Holy
Spirit just said, OK, now, oh boy, I'm getting you ready, getting
you ready, and gave him this faith, this faith to preach and
stand boldly for Christ. Faith does grow, it does grow. Now listen to me. Faith must
grow in intensity, in intensity. The kind of, faith does not change,
but it grows. In other words, you believe the
same things, or the same one, rather, the same cry. You just,
later on, you believe a little more firmly. little more convinced
later on, like a little child, a little child holding on to
something. If I put this in my daughter's
hand, I can easily pull it out. She can't hold on to it very
tight. She's weak. She's weak. Put that in my hand,
I need to have a hard time getting it out. And this is the thing
with faith. A man, when you grow to maturity,
a man holds on a little more firmly. a little more convinced,
or a woman, a little more convinced, not carried about with every
wind of doctrine. You know, a young convert may just be taken up
with everything. Oh, boy, that sounds good. I
like that. Like somebody we know. But an older man or a mature
woman begins to stand firm. I went sailing one time, and
we docked in a port down in South Carolina. And there were some
big ships and some little ships. And they all were tied around
the port area. Some of the great big, big ships. Buddy, they had big anchors.
Big anchors. And they were tied up in every
which direction. And the waves could come and
they'd just barely rock. But there's some little dinghies
out there. And one little rope hanging. Boy, they were swirling
around just up and down. Torn all, tossed to the front.
one boat, they're both boats. And that's the same way with
one of weak faith and one mature in faith. One mature in faith. Faith must grow in intensity.
Faith must grow in extent. In the extent of faith. Knowledge
increases. Understanding increases. Your
discernment broadens. All these things make faith grow
in its extent, when your knowledge and your understanding and your
discernment of God's Word broadens. Let me say this. Don't be content
with little faith, though. And I've got to say this, too.
I don't believe that, well, blessed are they that hunger and thirst
after righteousness I really don't believe that anyone who
is content with a little faith is really seeking God, really
wants to know Christ and win Christ and be found. I don't
believe that at all. That's not what the Scripture
teaches. Don't be content with little faith, and don't presume. There may be somebody presuming
that, well, just because I've got it, then I can just go on
my way. That's not so either. strive to have this saving faith. And growth in faith is necessary. It's necessary. Why? Because
unbelief is a terrible denial of God Almighty. Whenever we
are ashamed of Him, it's a denial of God. And we ought to, He ought
to pull the rug out from under us, shouldn't He? He ought to
cast us down into hell. It's a denial of our God. It's
a denial of the Lord who bought us. That's what it is, unbelief. And it's a terrible affront to
God Almighty. So we ought, growth in faith
is necessary. And faith is necessary to, for
the mortification of sin. The mortification of sin. Faith
is necessary to our comforts. Stay with me. Faith is necessary
to our comfort, to hold us up under trials. Weak faith won't
let us hold up under trials very much, very well. The more faith,
I said faith is necessary to our comfort, the greater your
faith, the more your dependence upon Christ, the better you know
Him, the more you're taken up with Him, the more you believe
God's Word, His promises. The less sorrow you will have
and the less worry you'll have. Oh, yeah. Your comfort is dependent
upon saving faith, on your faith growing. The less worry you'll
have, because you'll be trusting the promises. Faith is necessary
for our usefulness. We say we want to be used by
God for his glory. We say we want to be a disciple.
We say we want to be a witness in the world. A little faith
won't get it. Faith, if we scarcely know and
believe Christ, we won't serve Him and we won't tell others
much about Him. It's in direct proportion to
how much you know Him is how you talk about Him. That's just
so. You love that little girl, don't
you? You're not ashamed to talk about her, are you? Oh, no. Love her with every fiber of
your being. And the same thing holds true with Christ. The more
you get to know Him, the more your faith increases in Him,
the more you talk about Him. Now, growth in faith is obtainable. It's obtainable. You know, we look at some people
and we despair of ever being like them. Do you know anybody
that you feel like is a great saint, a strong, mature believer? And you feel like, I'll never
be, I'll never reach that point. But I said before, it's not your
diligence, it's not what you do necessarily, it's the Holy
Spirit's power. So take heart. Here's how you
grow in faith, though. Listen. And I probably took too
long to get to this. Here's how you grow in faith.
Anybody know the scripture that speaks of faith? That faith cometh
by hearing. by the Word of God. Now, I stand
up here and nearly every time I exhort you and myself, I'm
exhorting myself too, to hear the preaching of the Word, to
get in the reading and study of the Word, to pray all of these
things, exhort ourselves, because that's what the Scripture says
about faith. Faith comes by hearing. and hearing by the word of God.
And your faith will grow as you are in attendance to the priest's
work. That's just the way it is. I look at some of these older
folks that are here every single service, at every opportunity
and some other, and I see strong, firm, well-established, grounded,
convinced believers. Lost husbands. Children, I see people like that,
and they're here time and time again, getting strength, getting
strength. Their faith is being watered
and fertilized by the same thing that gave it to them in the first
place, the preaching of the gospel. Always be in attendance to the
preached words. Be in constant study and searching
of the written words. And like I said a while ago,
the more familiar you become with someone, the more you'll
talk about them. The more well-acquainted you
become with a doctrine, the more you'll be convinced of it. The
more you see, like we studied the other night, of the deity
of Christ, the more you are convinced that he's God. The more these scriptures are
solidified in your heart and your mind, like Paul, you'll
say, no man bothers me. Let no man move me. None of these
things bother me. And in the face of trials, too,
having God's promises firmly established in your heart, you'll
be able to say with the Apostle Paul, too, I don't count my life,
dear. I have a desire to depart and
to be with Christ, which is far better. And like I said, the more you
become acquainted with God's truth, the more you'll be convinced
of it. Prayer. And we all fall so short in this
area, prayer. We need to learn to talk to our
God and be spoken to by our God through the Word. Every great
man I've ever read or heard of down through the ages were great
men of prayer. Great men of prayer who talked
to their God and had their God talk to them. Not in a voice
audible, but through the scriptures. Recalling scriptures. And he'll
do it. Have you ever had it happen?
Speaking to God or asking God and have him bring scriptures
to your mind? That's how he speaks. You won't speak that way unless
you're talking to him, praying to him. Communion with saints. You gather strength from other
believers. Yes, you do. Yesterday, we had
a good time, didn't we? Talking, gathering strength and
joy and comfort. Things that you recall, I might
not have recalled. You bring them up and remind
me. Things you might not have been thinking about, I bring
up and remind you. And we gather strength. We build up one another
in our most holy faith. He said, communion with the saints.
If you spend all your time with people who don't even know God,
and I don't think that's the case with anybody here, but you'll
not only not grow in faith, but you'll diminish. You'll diminish. You'll become more like them.
Trials. God sends trials to fire, tempers,
metal. and trials temper or strengthen
our faith. But don't expect all of this
immediately. Don't expect great faith to come
overnight. Now, let me say another word
about this thing of faith and feelings, and I'll quit. Faith and feelings. If you believe
that God is holy and just, and righteous, and on the throne,
sovereign, and you're in his hands, if you believe that. If
you believe you're a hell-deserving sinner, unworthy of the least
of God's favor, unworthy of his notice, rather, you're deserving
of condemnation. If you believe that, you're not
convinced as you should, but you do believe that. If you believe
that, If you repent of what you are, not just what you've done,
but what you are, and what you do, and what you don't do, you
repent of that. Repent not only of your sin,
but repent of your self-righteousness. If you believe that only Jesus
Christ can represent you to the Father, that only Jesus Christ can make
you accepted by God, by His righteousness, by His shed blood. If you believe that only His
righteousness, not yours, His righteousness is your only hope.
If you believe that His blood is the only sacrifice that God
will accept, not your sacrifice of prayer or whatever, or faith
even, then you're justified by God
Almighty. declared innocent of all wrongdoing,
rather holy, unblameable, and unapprovable in God's sight.
That is saving faith. That is saving faith. That faith
has saved you. Somebody said, well, I don't
feel saved. Somebody said that the other day. I don't feel saved.
Well, that's the ploy of Satan, is what that is. That's Satan's
ploy. Because much of the time, most
of the time, You really don't feel saved, do you? Most of the
time, you feel sinful. Most of the time, you feel like
everybody else is saved but you. But Christ, like I said, is still
on the throne, isn't he? He died for sinners, didn't he?
I'm a sinner. Like somebody said, you need
to take the medicine, and the results will come later. I'm
not going to take that medicine until I know it's going to work.
No, no, no. You take the pills and then the
cure will come later. The feeling will come, the good
feeling will come later. You believe Christ. Trust Christ
with the saving of your soul and feelings and insurance will
come later. Some of you, I believe, know from experience what I'm
talking about. That there should be a peace. I'm taking too long,
I know. There should be a feeling of
peace from forgiveness of sin itself. There should be. If you feel yourself to be a
hell-deserving sinner and really trust Christ, there should be
a feeling of peace and forgiveness. But not a feeling, it's not necessarily
something you can put your finger on. It's got to be based on this
right here. Not this right here. I just don't,
I don't feel safe. What is it to feel safe? Somebody
tell me. Huh? If they could take, if they
could come up with a pill to make you feel safe, that'd be
great. But what is it? It's based on
this right here. Not my feelings. Like the poem,
feelings come, feelings go. Feelings are deceiving. My hope
is in the Word of God. There's nothing else worth believing
or trusting. Just the Word of God. This is
our foundation. It's the only thing we have to
go by. The only thing. Not our feelings. There's a lot
of people out there who are confused and are deceived and have feelings. The charismatics have feelings. Don't they? Apparently more feelings
than we have. Yeah, they do, because I don't
see them falling asleep in church. It's got to be based on this
right here. This is the ground and the confidence of your salvation.
Now that ought to give you hope. That ought to give you comfort.
Do you believe? Now say this to someone who is
maybe wavering or whatever. Do you believe? Then why tarryest
thou? Why wait on a feeling? Scripture
says. Be obedient to the faith, that
is, trust Christ, and arise and be baptized, confessing Christ. Don't wait on a feeling, you
might be waiting forever. I did the same thing. This thing
of baptism, I was baptized when I was 12 years old, and I believe
the Lord really revealed Himself to me when I was about 21 or
so, somewhere around in there. Began to work with me. And I wasn't baptized, truly
baptized, confessing Christ until some years later. And why? Because I was waiting to feel
a certain way. I was waiting for a day, and someday, maybe
Saturday, I got to feeling real safe. Got to feeling real safe. And I thought, I'm going to call
him up and tell him I want to be baptized. And maybe Saturday
night, I got to feeling pretty bad, and I thought, well, I better
put her off. Better put it off. Well, do you trust Christ? Do you? Then don't tarry. Rise and be
baptized. Confess Christ. Don't wait on
feelings. You may wait forever. Believe
Christ. Then wait on Him to increase
your faith, to increase your love, and to give you assurance.
Assurance is not saving faith. Don't let anybody tell you Well,
I may tell you different. Although I insist that we know
intimately the person, that we become acquainted with his person.
But like little babies, we don't know much about him.
After all is said and done, we don't know much at all. We know
in part, don't we? We see through a glass very dimly.
Those of us who say we have sight, very, very dim, isn't it? Our
faith is so very, very weak. So it's not the amount of faith.
It's the object of faith. It's Him. It's what He has done.
I hope that gives somebody some comfort. Stand with me and I'll
dismiss this in prayer. Our Lord, we thank You for Your
blessed promises. Whoever trusts Christ, whoever
believes and calls upon and comes to the Lord Jesus Christ for
the saving of their soul, that you have mercy upon them and
you pour out your grace upon them and that you put that righteousness
and shed blood to their account. We believe that. Lord, I believe. Help thou my unbelief. Lord, increase our faith. Increase our faith for God's glory, for Christ's
honor, and for his sake. Amen. Thank you for watching and please
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