Love is the theme of my song. Redeemed, redeemed, redeemed
by the blood of the Lamb. Redeemed, redeemed, redeemed. His child and forever I am. I know I shall see in his beauty
the king in whose law I delight, who lovingly guardeth my footsteps
and giveth me songs in the night. Redeemed, redeemed, ? Redeemed
by the blood of the Lamb ? Redeemed, redeemed ? His child and forever
I am Thank you, be seated. Hymn number six, hymn number
six. Come Thou Almighty King, help
us Thy name to sing, help us to praise Father, all-glorious,
O'er all victorious, Come and reign over us, Ancient of days. Come Thou incarnate Word, Gird
on Thy mighty sword, ? Our prayer attend ? ? Come and thy people
bless ? ? And give thy word success ? ? Spirit of holiness ? ? On
us descend ? ? Come holy comforter ? Thy sacred witness bear in
this glad hour. Thou who almighty art, now rule
in every heart, and ne'er from us depart. Spirit of power, to
the great one in three. Eternal, let praises be, hence,
evermore. ? His sovereign majesty ? May
we in glory see ? And to eternity love and adore ? Matthew chapter six. But I'll also be turning to 2
Peter chapter 1 in a little while. Matthew chapter 6 and verse 5. And when thou prayest, thou shalt
not be as the hypocrites are, for they love to pray, standing
in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that
they may be seen of men, Verily I say unto you, they have their
reward. But when thou prayest, enter
into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy
Father which is in secret, and thy Father which seeth in secret
shall reward thee openly. But when you pray, use not vain
repetitions as the heathen, for they think they shall be heard
for their much speaking. Be not ye therefore like unto
them, for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of before
ye ask him. After this manner, therefore,
pray, Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be
done in earth as it is in heaven. Our Lord and our God, blessed
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, we come, as we always
do, with thanksgiving, praise in our hearts. Lord, we've come
to worship, praise, and bless your holy name. And as we sung,
come thou almighty King, give us thy presence, thy presence
bless us with it. And oh Lord, we Pray that you'd
cause the gospel, the word of God, to be a blessing tonight.
Cause it to be an encouragement tonight. Cause it to be edifying. And Lord, we pray for those who
are not with us through sickness, frailty of body, through your
blessed providence, Lord. We pray for them that you'd restore
their health as seemeth good in your sight. And we pray for
Fran especially. Lord, please continue to strengthen
her. Be her, be her comfort, be her
strength, be her stay. And Lord, we pray for that mother that just lost her baby.
God have mercy. Lord Jesus, we look unto you. We look unto the hills from which
cometh our help, and your present help in time of trouble. We don't
have to go far. to, Lord, get help from You.
All we've got to do is just ask. You said, Lord, here in Your
Word that You know what we have need of before we even ask. So, Lord, but we do ask, and
we ask the Lord Jesus to have mercy, pity upon our lost families,
children, grandchildren, husbands, wives, great-grandchildren, O
Lord. We commit them into Your blessed
hand. Meet with us tonight for your glory and our good, for
Christ's sake, amen. Hymn number 58, number 58. Jesus, the very thought of thee
with sweetness fills my breast. but sweeter for thy face to see,
and in thy presence rest. Nor voice can sing, nor heart
can frame, nor can the memory find, A sweeter sound than thy
blessed name, O Savior of mankind. O hope of every contrite heart,
O joy of every heart. of all the meek. To those who fall, how kind thou
art, how good to those who seek. But what to those who find, ah,
this nor tongue nor pen can show. The love of Jesus, what it is,
none but his loved ones know. Jesus, our only joy, be thou. Back here then with me in Matthew
chapter 6. Our Lord's talking about praying.
He started talking about, you know, be careful where you pray
and how you pray, where you pray and how you pray. Don't use vain
repetitions. Don't pray to be seen of men.
And then He said in verse 9, after this manner, therefore
pray ye. He tells us how to pray. And
the first thing He says is our Father. Our Father, which art
in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Now, when he tells us to pray
for the Father, Father speaks of reverence. He's our Father. And when we call Him our Father,
it's talking about our faith. Only faith can call Him our Father.
I know people use this as a repetitious thing, call it the Lord's Prayer. But O my Father, when we call
Him Father, we speak, Hallowed be Thy Name. He's holy, we reverence
Him, we bless His holy name. And then when we call Him our
Father, our Father, what we're doing is we're calling on Him
in faith. And what does, and that's what the title of my message
is tonight, Praying in Faith. What does praying in faith mean?
What does it mean? Well, before you can pray in
faith, you got to have faith. You can't pray in faith if you
don't have faith. Is that not right? It'd be impossible
to pray in faith if you don't have any faith. You know, without
faith, it's impossible to preach Him. James said it like this,
he said, If any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth
to all men liberally, and upbraideth not. But let him pray in faith. not wavering, not wondering,
Well, you reckon God will hear me? You reckon I'll get it? You
reckon He'll do what I ask Him to? Not wavering, not wavering
as the wave of the sea, but oh my, you pray in faith, and I
tell you what, you can't pray in faith unless you have faith,
so when you are praying in faith that means that you DO have faith
because you've got to have faith before you can pray in faith,
And how in the world do you get faith? I want you to look with
me now over here in 2 Peter chapter 1. I want you to look over here
with me in 2 Peter chapter 1 and verse 1. 2 Peter chapter 1 and
verse 1. What is faith and how in the
world do I get it? That's what we're talking about.
What is faith and how do I get it? Well, the first thing we'll
say about faith is that it's a gift of God. For by grace are
ye saved through faith, and that's not of yourselves, it's the gift
of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. If we've got
faith, God gave it to us. If we've got faith, God Himself
brought it to us, put it in our hearts, and gave it to us, and
made it to be something to us that's something we never had
before. And that faith not only comes as a gift of God, but it
comes by HEARING. Faith comes by HEARING. Hearing
by the Word of God. Now, I don't know about you,
sometimes I feel like I don't have any faith at all until I
come and hear somebody preaching, or else I'll pick up God's Word
and start reading it, and then I'll understand that my faith
will begin to work. It'll begin to burrow up in me
and bubble up in me and look to God and believe on God. Sunday
morning, Lord willing, I'm going to preach on thing our Lord marveled
in, two things He marveled in. He marveled in FAITH and He marveled
in UNBELIEF, the only two things He marveled in, that s the only
two things, FAITH and UNBELIEF. He called some that had great
faith, He talked about some who had little faith, but here s
the thing, great or little, it don t make no difference as long
as it s the gift of God, and when you hear in the Gospel,
when you hear in God s Word, FAITH comes into your ear by
hearing. And you know how you know that
you've got faith? And another way is that you AGREE
with what you're hearing! It causes SOMETHING to go on
in your heart and in your mind that says, Yes, that's right!
That's true! That's so! I agree with that! My heart agrees with that! And
so look in here in II Peter chapter 1 and verse 1, Simon Peter a
servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ and now listen to this
to them that have obtained like precious faith Obtained like precious faith
now, how do you obtain faith like I've already said it's a
gift of God and And it comes by hearing but it's also called
here the precious faith the precious faith them that obtained like
precious faith. He s talking about I have faith,
and this faith is precious to me, and the faith will be precious
to all people who actually have it. And it s the most precious,
precious thing, faith is. You know why? Because look what
else it says, THAT HAVE OBTAINED LIKE PRECIOUS FAITH WITH US,
THIS IS WHAT FAITH AND HOW WE GET FAITH, THROUGH THE RIGHTEOUSNESS
OF GOD AND OUR SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST. NOW HOW CAN GOD GIVE US FAITH
AND DO IT IN THE RIGHT WAY? HE JUST DOESN'T SAY, LIX, I'M
GOING TO LOOK DOWN THROUGH TIME AND I'M GOING TO GIVE FAITH TO
THIS ONE AND GO WITH THE OTHER. THAT'S NOT THE WAY HE DOES IT.
GOD HAS TO DO EVERYTHING ACCORDING TO HIS NATURE. and God is righteous
in His nature. So if He gives us faith, He has
to do it in a righteous way, according to His nature. Now,
how in the world can He give us faith through the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ, through Christ obtaining for us everything
we need? And I'll tell you something,
Christ Himself obtained faith for us. God can righteously give
us faith based on what Christ our Lord did. That s the only
way He can give us faith, based on what Christ, His blessed Son,
did. If He can t give us faith, and
He can t give us ANYTHING, ANYTHING apart from His Son, never has
and never will. Abraham went out not knowing
where he went, and God came to him and appeared to him, and
Abraham believed God. Now, how in the world did he
believe God? God gave him faith. How come God gave him faith?
Because he was a righteous man, and God made him righteous. You've
got to have a new nature before you can believe. God's got to
give us LIFE before we can have FAITH. He's got to give us HEARS
before we can HEAR. Oh, my! It's the most precious, precious,
precious thing. They that are of faith, the scriptures
tell us, they're the children of Abraham. And I'll tell you, as I said,
it was purchased for us by the Son of God by His death. It's the fruit of His death.
Here's something I know I've told you before, but it's worth
repeating. Everything that God requires
of us, it has to be perfect. It cannot have a spot in it,
it cannot have a blemish in it, it cannot have a flaw in it. And so anything that God gives
us, it has to be perfect to be accepted. Now, where in the world
is the person that has perfect faith? Who believed God perfectly
other than His blessed Son, the Lord Jesus Christ? And so Christ,
that's what I mean by the righteousness of God, God give us faith. All
spiritual blessings were given us in heavenly places in Christ.
And I tell you, He purchased this faith for us. He bought
everything that you and I have, whether it's faith or repentance,
patience, long-suffering, grace. He purchased grace. God gave
us grace on the basis of what Christ would do as a Lamb slain. He was a Lamb slain from the
foundation by the world, but He was slain in time. So God
could give us freely all things through His Son. And I'll tell
you another reason why it's precious. He said, obtain like precious
faith. You know why it's precious? Because the scarcity of it. All
you gotta do is look around you and see how scarce faith is. I mean, it's scarce. Everybody
claims to have it. Everybody claims you can get
it. And that, you know, and there's gonna be a lot of places, you
know, that, that, that gonna be filled up, but oh my, the
pre- faith is precious because it's so scarce. It's a scarce
thing. You know, in the days of Noah,
there's only eight people that had it. Only eight. And in the days of Noah, they
were just Noah. And his Sons and daughters, three
sons and three daughters. You know, that's the only people.
No one in his family. That's how scarce faith is. In
Abraham's day, Abraham was the only one that had faith as far
as you and I know. Job had three friends, and they
all claimed to say something good about God and said a lot
of things about God, but Job was the only one out of the three,
out of the four people that talked to him, Job was the only one
that had faith. God said, I'm gonna have Job to pray for you.
Faith is scarce. I mean, it's scarce. We talk
about scarce as hen's teeth. When you find a hen that's got
teeth, then you'll find out how scarce faith is. It's a scarce
thing. It really is. Just look at us
where we're at tonight. Scarce, scarce, scarce. Keep
1 Peter and look over here in 2 Thessalonians 3. Look over
here with me. 2 Thessalonians 3. Look what
it says here. I'll wait till you get there
so you can see it. He says that you may, verse 2,
2 Thessalonians 3, 2, And that you may be delivered from unreasonable
and wicked men, for all have not faith. All have not faith. Oh, John
said it this way, if you walk in the light as is in the light,
you believe. If you walk, if you're walking
in darkness, you do lie and the truth ain't in you. So, oh, it's
scarce, it's scarce. And here's another, oh, how scarce
it is. Oh, how scarce faith is. How
many people do you know? Do you know other than just believers
that have faith? How many do you know? You don't know many, do you? The only people that you've got
any confidence in, that they've got faith, it's so scarce, is
people that you know. That you know. And oh my, I'll
tell you what makes it really precious, is when you fix it
to leave eternity, it sure will leave out into eternity, it'll
sure enough be precious. And then I'll tell you what,
it's precious. It's called this like precious faith. It's precious
because of the object it takes hold of. FAITH IS OUTSIDE ITSELF,
IT TAKES HOLD OF SOMETHING OUTSIDE ITSELF. HERE HE SAYS, YOU KNOW,
WE PRAY, OUR FATHER, OUR FATHER, YOU'RE IN HEAVEN, WE'RE DOWN
HERE, YOU'RE HOLY, AND THE ONLY WAY WE CAN BE HOLY IS BEING IN
YOU. AND I TELL YOU WHAT IS PRECIOUS BECAUSE OF THE OBJECT IT TAKES
HOLD OF, IT TAKES HOLD OF GOD, THE FATHER. It believes that
God Almighty is the Father, that God is sovereign, God is immutable,
God s unchangeable, and faith lays hold of the Holy Spirit
because there s no way we can hear the truth, know the truth,
and believe the truth except the Holy Spirit teach us the
truth. So we re dependent on the Holy
Spirit in every service for God to bless the truth to our hearts.
And then, oh my, in the object of our Lord Jesus Christ, his
death, his burial, according to the scriptures, his risen
from the dead, according to the scriptures, and we, lo and behold,
the Christ crucified, the one who lived for us, died for us,
buried for us, and rose again for us, raised for our justification. Oh, it's our faith. Faith is
precious. It takes hold of some things.
I mean it, and you know, when we talk about faith taking hold
of things, we're not talking about with hands. We're talking
about faith, that thing that's of the heart, that thing that's
of the soul, that living, that living, breathing faith, as faith
is a living faith. And this living faith embraces
God, embraces the Holy Spirit, and embraces the Lord Jesus Christ
as crucified for us. And another reason why it's precious,
because it unites our soul to the Lord Jesus Christ. It makes
us one with Him. That's what faith does. It unites
our souls to the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, he said it this way,
Paul said it this way, we're bone of His bone, flesh of His
flesh. We're one with Him. Paul said,
I'm crucified with Christ, but yet I'm living. How are you living,
Paul? I'm living by the FAITH of the
Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. Faith unites
us to Christ. It joins us to Christ and Christ
to us. Faith makes us and Christ to
be one. Nothing else can do that. Church
membership can't do it. Joining a church can't do it.
READ THE BIBLE CAN'T DO IT, PRAYING CAN'T DO IT, THE ONLY THING THAT
UNITES THE SOUL TO CHRIST IS FAITH. FAITH BRINGS CHRIST TO
US AND US TO CHRIST, AND IT UNITES US, MAKES US ONE WITH HIM. THAT'S
WHY PAUL SAID ABOUT, IN GALATIANS 3 HE SAYS, ABRAHAM HEARD THE
GOSPEL BEFORE, AND I TELL YOU THOSE THAT BELIEVE WITH ABRAHAM,
THEY'RE THE SAME ONES THAT HAVE FAITH. Oh, they have faith. We're one with Christ. That's
the most wonderful thing that we'll ever understand and have
in this world, is how we're so united to Christ. What Christ
is, we are. What Christ did, we did. Where
Christ is, we are. Now that's exactly what it means
to be united to Him. When God views us, He cannot
NEVER look at us. If He looks at us outside of
Christ, we don't have a hope, but He only VIEWS us in Christ. When He's looking for righteousness,
He can only see the righteousness of Christ. When He looks for
faith, He looks for the faith that Christ gave us and died
to give to us and obtain for us. And with everything that
God looks for, He gave to us in His blessed Son to be one
with Him. Marriage is supposed to take
two people and make them one, two people and make them one,
and in the sight of God, that s right. But still yet we both
got separate personalities, we got separate likes and dislikes,
we got different things that we think of and look at and do
all those things, and though we re one, and yet in Christ
we exactly like Christ as far as God s concerned, We've got
the same personality, we've got the same rights, we've got the
same faith, we've got the same obedience, we've got the same
death, we've got the same resurrection, and I'll tell you what, the Scripture
says we're seated together with Him, we're in heavenly places. As He is right now, so are we
in Christ, right now. I was reading a preacher today,
and Who was I reading about? Tim James, that's who it was.
And he got on this thing, this word NOW. NOW. Where Joshua and
them was going to go into the promised land and he says, and
NOW I'll give you, NOW I'll give you the inheritance. And he went
through so many NOWs in the scriptures. Whenever you find that word NOW,
that means it's right NOW. Not tomorrow, now. And if God
lets us live, every time we read now, it'll always be now. There
is never no past or everything's now. Everything we have is now. Oh my, it unites us to Christ.
And I'll tell you another reason that this, he calls it the precious
faith. is because it justifies us before God. Now, what do I
mean by that? Therefore, being justified by
faith, we have peace with God. But the first before that, Romans
4.25 said He was DELIVERED, delivered up, God gave Him up for our offenses,
for our offenses against God. God delivered Him up for all
of our offenses, But then He raised Him up for our justification. So faith really don't justify
us, Christ justifies us, but faith looks to Him at His justification. Christ justified us, faith believes
that He did. I don't feel justified. I don't feel righteous. I don't feel holy. But according to the scriptures,
I'm ever one of those things. Christ is the one who justifies
us, and now listen, and you know what I said, being justified
freely, freely. Don't, think of that word freely.
There's not many free things in this world, but everything
God gives us is free. Oh, Christ justifies us, and
that's why He says, Therefore He is raised for our justification.
THEREFORE, since He is raised for our justification, THEREFORE,
since Christ was raised, delivered, and raised, THEREFORE, we are
justified, our faith, we are justified by our faith. Faith
looks to Christ, and that faith justifies God and everything
He's ever done, clears God of everything. Oh, my. And I tell you, let me give you
a couple other things, I won't take long. Here's another reason
why I called it Precious Faith, obtained like Precious Faith.
It's precious because He that has it, people that have this
faith, that God gave them faith, Christ obtained this faith for
them, has had His understanding enlightened to know the state
and condition He is by nature. where God gives faith, you know
why? The person that has faith, he
understands what his state was before God. Helpless and hopeless,
without God, without Christ in this world, and knew what we
were by nature. Until you got faith, you didn't
know what you was by nature. You didn't know what you was
by state, your state before God Almighty. And that s what faith
does, it enlightens our mind, brings our understanding into
the Word of God, and it says, Oh my, I m a sinner, I NEED SALVATION! My STATE before God. Now, there
s a difference in state and standing, and state is a condition you
re in, standing is before God s perfect, but here in our state,
where we're at right now, and that's what, when a person has
faith, you cannot believe God and not believe everything that
God showed you about yourself. That's one thing about faith.
Faith will make you see yourself like you've never seen yourself
before. That's what Job said, he said,
I heard about you, now my eye sees you. I bore myself, and
I repent in dust and ashes. Oh, my. I tell you, that faith
is precious because this gave us an understanding to know our
state and condition by nature. And you know, who was this preacher
the other day? Was it Cody? Talk about being saved, being
saved. Oh, my. And here's another thing
about faith being precious. It's precious because the one
who has it knows this, that no righteousness of his, no works
of his, no merit of his had anything to do with their justification.
Faith makes you know, that's how precious it is, that nothing
you did had anything to do with God justifying you and clearing
you and declaring you righteous. Didn't have a thing in the world
to do with it. We didn't do anything to become sinners. And we don't
do anything to become righteous. Huh? Oh my. We know that our
righteousness will avail nothing with God. Our works won't avail
nothing with God. Nothing but Christ and what he
did will avail anything with God. And here's another reason
it's precious, because he who has it, the person who has faith,
remembers the time when he didn't have it. I remember the time I didn't
have it. I had religion, I had legalism, I had fundamentalism,
I had self-righteousness, I had works, but I didn't have faith,
and I remember not having it. I remember not having it, but
oh my, it's precious because I remember the time I didn't
have it. Now I know I got it. God gave it to me, and it's the
Christ. And let me show you something over in 1 John 5, and I'll wind
this up. 1 John 5, look with me over here. You know, faith is so precious. So precious. It's a gift of God. It comes by hearing. It comes
so by hearing. And oh, here's what makes faith
so precious. Look what it says in 1 John 5
and verse 4. 1 John 5 and verse 4. Who is he? Excuse me, I'm sorry. For whatsoever
is born of God overcometh the world, and this is the victory
that overcometh the world, our faith. How come the world don't overcome
us? We've got faith. You know, I know you all know
this. The worst enemy you and I have
is our own self. our own flesh. But that world
out there has such an allurement, and next thing you know, you
HAVE to go work in it! You have to go out to make a
paycheck in it! You have to get up in the morning
and go do whatever you do, and you have to go do things in town
and all that, you HAVE to do that! But just all you do is
you try to do what you HAVE to do in the world, but the world
does not overcome you. Why not? Because your faith overcomes
it. That s a victory that we have.
The world is not going to get us. The world is not going to
defeat us. The world is not going to be our master, Christ. And the world is an attitude.
It s a nature. It s an attitude that people
want to live without God, without I read a lady today said you
know talking about a singing group said now they do a little
bit of gospel don t they? She said and you know maybe I
could put up with it even though I m an atheist. I'd like to meet
an atheist one of these times. I'd really like to meet one.
But when I tell you, whenever you do meet one of them, you
let them get in trouble, and the first thing they'll do is
say, oh Lord! Oh my, but oh, through faith
is precious because it overcomes the world, overcomes it, overcomes
it. And last of all, let me tell
you this, it s precious because it cannot be lost. It cannot
be lost. We can lose a lot of things in
this world. We can lose our health, we can
lose our strength, and even a man s faith may get so weak that
he feels like he don t have any at all. You may lose the strength
of your faith. Faith may at times feel like
it's non-existent, but oh my, no, we may sometimes act ways
that we don't even manifest any grace at all. But one thing is
sure and true, where God plants that seed, that faith and that
seed, it can never be lost, can never ever be lost. You know,
that's what our Lord said. He told Peter, he said, Satan
sought to sift you just like wheat. But you know why his faith
didn't overcome him? Why his faith, the world didn't
overcome his faith and his faith overcome the world? Because our
Lord said this, I prayed for you. I prayed for you. That's why we ain't never gonna
lose it. As long as Christ's sitting at the right hand of
God interceding for us, I prayed for you. that your faith fail
not. And He ain't gonna let our faith
fail. It looks like sometimes it's going to. I know for myself
it looks like I'm going to. But He said, it ain't going to.
You know why it ain't going to? I pray for you. I pray for you. Our Father in the precious name
of our Lord Jesus Christ, thank you for allowing us to meet here
this evening. Thank you for these dear, dear
saints of God. Thank you for those who listened,
those who are watching. May the word be made a blessing
to them. May the word be made encouragement
to them. And Lord, we're so thankful that
you gave us faith. And this faith indeed is precious.
Oh, it's so precious. I wouldn't give it up for 10,000
worlds like this. We can get up for all the gold
that's in this world. I wouldn't give it up for nothing
because, Lord, you gave it to me. And you'll never, ever let
it be extinguished. And we bless you and praise you
for that, for Christ's sake. Amen. Let's sing a couple of
verses of 327. Stan, we'll close with this.
327. Oh, for a faith that will not
shrink, though pressed by many a foe, that will not tremble
on the brink, Of any earthly woe, Of any earthly woe, That
will not murmur nor complain Beneath the chastening rod. But in the hour of grief or pain,
we'll lean upon its God. We'll lean upon its God. A faith that shines more bright
and clear when tempests rage without. That when in danger
knows no fear, in darkness feels no doubt. In darkness fears no
doubt. Lord, give me such a faith as
this, and then what e'er may come, I'll taste in now the hallowed
bliss of an eternal home, of an eternal home. See you Sunday, God willing.