Turn with me again now to John
chapter 5. John chapter 5. And it says there in verse 4,
For whatsoever is born of God overcometh
the world, and this is the victory that overcometh the world, our
faith. I want to talk about overcoming
faith, overcoming faith. What in the world, what would
be the most God-honoring thing, Christ-honoring thing that a
member of the human race could possibly do? To believe God. to believe God. That's the most God-honoring,
Christ-honoring, Christ-exalting thing a human being can do on
this earth. It's believe God. Believe His
Word. Believe God. That's why God,
you know, said Hebrews 11, 6, without faith, without faith,
it's impossible to please Him. For he that cometh to God must
believe that he is. Believe that he is. Now I've
told you this time and again, not just believe that there is
a God. That he exists. But he goes down
through there and tells you what faith is. Said these all obtained
a good report. Who reported on them? God did.
He gave Abel a good report. when he said by faith Abel offered
a more excellent sacrifice he gave Noah a good report when
Noah prepared an ark to the saving of his house when he moved with
fear when God warned him Abraham obtained a good report when he
went out not knowing where he was going so faith is precious
infinitely precious gloriously precious Abraham was strong in
faith giving glory to God now how did he give glory to God?
God said he gave glory to him how? by believing strong in faith
being persuaded that what he had promised he was able also
to perform And so I tell you they believe God and God testified
of their faith. Faith has power. It has power. Faith has strength. Faith, what it is, is trust.
It's commitment. Where faith is, it produces fear
of God. It produces an awe and a reverence
for God. It produces in a man's heart
and soul, faith does, such a reverence, such an awe, such a blessedness
when the thought of God comes across their mind. When they
find out how He describes Himself. And they believe Him as He describes
Himself. And you know God says that what
He does more for Himself than anything else is bring glory
to Himself. Everything He's done, He's done
to bring glory to Himself. And everything His Son did was
to bring glory to Himself. So if that's God's objective,
if that was Christ's objective, is to bring glory to God, then
may God enable us by His grace to live and do the same thing.
May that be our objective, to bring glory to God. Bring glory
to His Son. How do we do that? By faith. By faith. We certainly don't
do it any other way. We don't do it any other way.
And I tell you, do you know, faith produces obedience. It
said here the commandments of God are not grievance. And it produces in faith where
it's at, it produces a desire to please God, not to dishonor
Him. And faith also, it works. But do you know how it works?
It works by love. Faith works by love. Faith doesn't
do what it does for a reward. Faith doesn't do what it does
and believes God to keep out of hell. Faith does what it does
is because it can't do anything else but believe. Can't do anything
else. Can't do anything else. And look
what it says here now. Faith is precious. Oh, it's infinitely
precious. Faith, by faith, all things are
possible. It says there again in verse
4, for whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world, and
this is the victory that overcometh the world, our faith. You know,
without faith, you know what you're left with? You're left
with luck. That not being any believer's
vocabulary is luck. I know with, you know, we've
used it so long that people use it and don't even conscious that
they've done it. That you know, poor Albert Blalock,
he said all the time, he said, boy, good luck today brother
Donnie. You know, and he just had it.
They don't mean nothing by it. But yet it ought not never be
in a believer's vocabulary, luck. And without faith, not only do
you have nothing left but luck, Without faith, all you got left
is chance. And you know what chance is?
It's a game that you play. You hope you win, but you also
hope you don't lose. Chance, you roll dice when you
take a chance. You go buy a lottery ticket,
you're taking a chance. You go to Las Vegas and pull
on a one-armed bandit and you're taking a chance. And everybody
tells you that God offers you a chance. Without faith, that's
all you're left with. Luck, chance, and fate. You're
left with fate. You know what fate is? I'm in
the hands of fate. I don't know what it's going
to do for me. But I tell you what, when you have faith, when
you have faith, you say God said, and that's all you need. God
said, and that's all you need, huh? God takes, faith takes God
at His word, His unfailing word, His immutable word. Psalm 119
verse 89 says this, Forever, O Lord, thy word is forever settled
in heaven. Psalm 33 said, He spake, it was
done. He commanded, and it stood fast. My God is so his word is so quick
He says the heavens and earth will pass away, but my word shall
never fail And I look over here in John keep John 1 John here
and look in John chapter 21 verse 25 in John 21 25 Look what he said here, talking
about taking God at His Word. Our Lord Jesus opened their understanding
to the Scriptures and the things concerning Himself. He didn't
open it to their opinion, and that's their opinion about it.
He opened the Scriptures Thanks concerning himself and he said
here in verse This is John the same disciple that we're reading
after right now about the verse over here in 1st John 5 This
is the same man who wrote this he said in verse 24. This is
disciple and which testifies to these things and wrote these
things and we know that his testimony is true. And there are also many
other things which Jesus did that if the witch, if they should
be written ever one, I suppose that not even the world itself
could contain the books that should be written. He said this
should be written. Well, back over in our text now.
Who has faith? Who has this faith? Well, it
tells us in verse 1, look what he said. Whosoever believeth
that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. That's the first thing
that you have to happen before you can ever have any faith.
You have to be born of God. You have to have a new birth.
You have to be regenerated. And man is not able to regenerate
himself. Man is not able to give himself
a new heart. Man is not able to give himself
a new nature. When God created the world, He
never entered into that creation. He just created it. Without nothing,
He spaked things into existence. But when God brings us faith
and regenerates us and saves us and we have the new birth,
what He does in that new birth is that He comes in and takes
up an abode inside us. He comes to dwell with us. He
makes us partaker of His nature. He, you know, He didn't make
Himself partaker of the nature of creation, but when He regenerated
us, He come to us and gave us a new heart, gave us a new nature,
gave us a heart to believe, a will to believe, and beloved, He Himself,
Christ in you is the hope of glory. God said that we made
us partakers of the divine nature. Now I know I had a conversation
with a man one time several years ago, and he said a man only had
one nature. And I said, now listen, if there's
a man who only has one nature, and he's a preacher, and he still
preaches and still pastors the church. And I said, if a man's
only got one nature, what nature is it with him that he communes
with God? What nature is it with him that
enables him to understand the Word of God? What nature is it
that makes him desire God? What nature is it that makes
him call on God? What nature? If you've got one
nature, that means you've got the nature you're born with.
And if God don't give you a new nature in regeneration and in
the new birth, you're in trouble. Because all we got in Adam was
a sin nature. But what we got in Christ is
a new nature. Being born again. That's what
he said. Being born again. Not of corruptible seed, but
incorruptible. How? By the Word of God. So if
we have been born of an incorruptible seed, that means that we had
a corruptible seed. We had two seeds. We got a seed
from Adam, corruptible. We got a seed from Christ, incorruptible. And he that has Christ's seed
in him, he can not sin. Ain't that what it says? And oh, listen, there are people
who say, well, I'm born, you know, you're born again Christian.
There is no such animal as anybody but a born again Christian. You
got to be born again. And I'll tell you what, you have
nothing to do with that birth. Let me tell you something, I'm
talking about faith that overcomes. But you can't believe until you
have life. Until God comes and gives you
life And it says here he that's born of God By his own will began
he us with the word of truth So when he talks about being
born of God, and that's what he says there he that's born
of God loves everyone That's began of him God began us And
you go through the Old Testament, so-and-so begat so-and-so begat
so-and-so begat so-and-so. Well, God said, I begat this
one, and I begat that one. And He begat another too that
no man can number. That's why it's called being
begotten of God. Being born, not of the will of
the flesh, not of blood, not of the will of man, but of God. So being born of God, and I tell
you, beloved, that's the first thing, being born of God. Without
the new nature, without a new birth. And I'll tell you something,
I believe everybody that's not been born of God knows they've
not been born of God. You know, and here's the thing
about it, if you've been born of God, do you know where you
have the witness at? I don't give you the witness.
I can't witness to you that you're a child of God. I can't tell
you if you've been born again or not. I certainly can't give
you faith. But you know who has the witness?
Look how it says there in verse 9 here, 1 John 5, 9. If we receive the witness of
men, and that's what you're doing, you're receiving my witness today.
I'm telling you the truth today from the Scriptures. The witness of God is greater.
What word does God witness at? He witnesses in the heart, in
the spirit. God witnesses to the conscience,
to the soul. For this is the witness of God
which he hath testified. And he that believeth on the
Son of God, listen to this, hath a witness in himself. Who witnesses
to him? God the Holy Spirit witnesses
to him. He comes and witnesses to you.
Well, I'm a child of God. And the only people who ever
doubt that they are a child of God is a child of God. A hypocrite
would never consider that. All the rest of you can have
doubt, I ain't got none. The rest of you can talk about
being sinful, but I ain't sinful. The rest of you can talk about
being weak, but I ain't weak. Those are the things we have
the witness of ourselves that God gave us. He gave us the witness
that we were sinners. He gave us the witness that Christ
died for us. He gave us the witness that Christ
bore our sins away. He gave us the witness that he
that believeth on the Son of God has life. He bore witness
that we have faith. He bore witness that the blood
was enough to wash away all our sins. He bore witness to all
those things. And if he don't bear witness
to what's going on in your heart, what believe in me won't do a
thing. You know what I say ain't gonna change nothing. But he's
the one that bears the witness. You got that witness? The Spirit
himself bears witness with our spirit that we're what? The children
of God. Well now back over here in our
text. This faith, you gotta be born of God. That's the first
step. And look what it says, it overcomes the world. It overcomes
the world. Well, what in the world is the
world? Well, the world is everything that's against God. That's all
you say about it. I don't know how to describe
the world. I wouldn't know how to describe the world. I know
there's different worlds in the scriptures, but when we talk
about the world, love not the world, neither the things that
are in the world. For thus all that's in the world
is the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride
of life. But to faith overcomes the world. It overcomes the world's philosophy
and the world's wisdom. The world's philosophy is to
be a successful, get us educated, do everything you possibly can
to get ahead in this world. That's the world's philosophy.
Get a great education. Make it just go just as high
as you possibly can. Make a name for yourself. Leave
a mark in the world. And the world's philosophy talks
about pride. Self-will, self-love, pride and
self-righteousness and self-confidence. That's the philosophy of the
world. The philosophy of the world is self-esteem, self-esteem,
self-esteem. The philosophy of the world is
make no distinction between men and women. That's the philosophy
of the world. I heard an old black preacher
one time, I'll tell you what the philosophy of the world,
he said it is, he said it says, get all you can, tend all you
get, and then set on the can. That's pretty much the philosophy
of the world, ain't it? Get all you can, tend all you
get, and then set on that can. I thought, I never did forget
that. You won't either now, me. But
oh, listen, when it overcomes the world's wisdom, The world's
wisdom. Oh my. The wisdom of this world
tells you. Oh my, you don't need God. You
don't need Christ. You don't need saving. Trust
in science. Trust in evolution. Trust in the doctors. Trust in
the people that tell you the world's, the climate's changing
and everything's going to go to hell in 10 years, 12 years,
the world's going to be gone. If it's going to be gone, it'll
be God that destroys it, I'll tell you that. They said, you know, people used
to be scared to death about an atomic bomb. Listen, God ain't
going to let nobody destroy this world but He Himself. And he
uses all this stuff that they claim right now just to confound
them and confuse them and make them trust in their own wisdom. I got the answer for you if you'll
believe me. That's what they'll tell you.
Read Dr. So-and-so's book. Read Ph.D.'
's book. Just read that one over there
and listen to what this man's got to say. But faith says you
know what about all that? God said that's foolishness.
And we say it's foolishness. How come we say it's foolishness? We have faith. We believe God. We don't believe in people. As
Floyd used to say, save your breath to cool your coffee. Go
along with that mess. I'll tell you faith, faith is
not interested in being recognized or approved in this world. Why do we need the applause of
this world? Why do we need to be approved of this world? Why
do we have to be accepted of the world? John Newton, he used
to say, he said, when you go out in the world to do business,
it's like going out in the world in a rainstorm and you go out
sometimes without a coat and you just get destroyed. You come
back miserable. And he said, oh my. And then
faith, faith not overcomes the world's philosophy and wisdom,
it overcomes the materialism of this world. Materialism of
this world. Listen, most of us got, you know,
how many of you recently and have right now got it in your
mind that you got to go through all your stuff and get rid of
so much of it? Go through your closet. Listen,
I've got to get rid of some of this stuff. We've got a whole load of stuff
we're going to take and give away this week. And it'll take
a pickup truck probably two trips to get it. But we're not taking
up with this world's materialism. I tell you, television, magazines,
Everybody's set to make you think that you've got to have this
particular thing and if you don't have it, you don't know what's
going on. You just got that. Did you see
that on TV? I've got to have that thing. Isn't that right? The Lord just
got to have it. Just got to have it. Oh my. Oh my. Listen. You know what
the only answer faith needs? It's like our Lord Jesus Christ
said. He said, Father, I thank Thee that Thou hast hid these
things from the wise and prudent. And this is all faith needs,
even so, even so, Father, it seemeth good in Your sight. That's
all we need. Father, it seems good in Your
sight. God can do what He wants to.
God can do what He wants to. And what is the faith that overcomes
the world? Look again here in verse 1. What is this faith that overcomes
the world? Not only is those who have been
born of God, but look what it says, Whosoever believeth that
Jesus is the Christ is born of God. And there down in verse
5 it says, Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth
that Jesus is the Son of God? You say, well boy, that's not
hard. Oh yes it is. Yes it is. You know what it is to believe
that Jesus is the Christ? That Jesus is the Son of God? Now you're talking about a man
that's a historical figure. You're talking about a man that
was a poor man. Raised a poor man. Lived a poor
man. And everybody that was anybody
turned thumbs down on him. But here was a man that when
he came into this world, he was God before he ever got here. He was the eternal God before
He ever came into this world. And when He came into this world,
He had to come in a way that He wouldn't be associated with
the son of Adams. And how did He do that? God picked
out a woman, gave her grace, and said, I'm going to give you
a child. And I'm going to put a child in your womb. And it's
going to be my son. and when he is born said he shall
be called great the son of the highest and the kingdom of the
heavens and the kingdoms of the earth are going to be his dominion
forever and ever and he grew up like any other
baby grew up he sucked on his mother's breast he had to learn
to walk he had to learn to eat He grew teeth and he lost teeth
like a child would do. But he grew up and he grew up
into a man and one day when he was 30 years old he walked into
a synagogue and he picked up the scriptures of Isaiah and
he said, the Spirit of the Lord hath anointed me to preach the
gospel to the poor, to bind up the brokenhearted, to set in
liberty the captive, and to preach the acceptable
year of the Lord. And he closed that and he said,
Miss May, is this scripture fulfilled in your ear? And he walked out
of there and from that day forth, he did not do nothing but good
for everybody he come in contact. He raised the dead, He healed
lepers, cleansed lepers, He gave sight to the blind, He made the
lame to walk, and He forgave sinners of their sin. And when it come time for His
time to leave this world, He went off and He prayed and He
said, sinless man, a holy man, perfect
man, the God man. And he went off and prayed and
he said, Father, if there's any other way to let this cup pass
from me, oh God, if there's any other way. But he said, nevertheless, nevertheless, your will be done. And he said, Father, you gave
me a cup and shall I not drink it? When did he drink that cup? When
they carried him out of the garden, took him before the high priest,
took him from the high priest to Herod, took him from Herod
to Pilate. Pilate got up and said, let this
man go, let him go, let him go, he has not done anything. Crucify him, crucify him. Well they took him outside Jerusalem,
nailed him to a tree, and when he was thirsty they
gave him vinegar. Spat on him, ridiculed him, derided
him, mocked him. Oh, he's a savior. Come down
and save yourself. And he was so mighty and so glorious
even in death. He told that one thief on his
side, he says, today you're going to be with me in paradise. And you know when he got through
drinking that cup, and he drank that cup for six hours on that
cross. He took the wrath of God. He
took all of the wrath of God against all of his elect. From
Abel to the last person on this earth. He took all of the wrath
of God. All of the justice of God. And
a cup full of sin. Of all the sins of his people.
And he took that cup and he turned it up and he drank it and drank
it and drank it and drank it and it turned dark for three
hours and he was still drinking it. Son come back out when he
was through drinking that cup and draining it, you know what
he said? It is finished. That's what you call believing
that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. If I was on a cliff, 10,000 feet
high, and I know Christ was there, I'd jump off right into His arms
and He'd catch me. He's promised me. He's going
to keep me. Amen. Well, what is the faith
that will become the world? He that believeth that Jesus
is the Christ. The Son of God. And look what it says here now.
Oh my, look what else it says down here. In verse 6, and this is something
else you got, you know, this is something else I'm talking
about believing that Jesus is the Son of God. This is He that
came by water and blood. Jesus Christ not by water only
but by water and blood and it is the spirit that bears witness
because the spirit is truth When it talks about being born of
water and blood You know in a natural childbirth. There's water in
blood So he came that way in his maternal birth Then at baptism
at baptism. It says there are three that
bear record. There are three that bear witness.
And all three of them bore witness at the baptism of our Lord Jesus
Christ. When He came and He was baptized, the Holy Spirit come down and
bore witness that this is the Christ. Christ was buried in
baptism and he rose up again and he said, this is fulfilled
all righteousness and God spoke from heaven, this is my beloved
Son in whom I am well pleased. You got the Spirit, you got the
Son, and you got the Father. They all bear witness. And I'll
tell you something, under the law there was water to wash and
the scripture says to be washed by the water of the word. The
water is used to purify. to cleanse, cleanse the body. The water is used to sanctify
under the law, under the Old Testament types and pictures.
And the blood was to cleanse from sin. And in the Lord Jesus
Christ we have the water in the blood, the water to sanctify
us and the blood to cleanse us from our sin. So we're sanctified
in Christ and we're washed in the blood of Christ. He is both. He's ever justification and sanctification
in our Lord Jesus Christ. Look in John 19.34. Let me show
you what I'm talking about. John 19.34. Look what it says.
But one of the soldiers Christ is already dead now. But
one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side and forthwith
came there out blood and water. And the Holy Spirit bore witness
to that on the cross. The Holy Spirit bore witness
to that that everything our Lord Jesus Christ did The Spirit bore
witness at the baptism, the Spirit bore witness at the cross. And
that's what he said in verse 8 down here. And there are three
that bear witness in the earth, the Spirit, He bore witness to
Christ in His baptism, bore witness to Christ on the cross, bore
witness to Christ and the water that came from His side and the
blood that came from His side. And all three of these agree
together. You can't have one without the
other. You can't. You can't have the blood or sanctification
without the Spirit. Alright, let me hurry on now.
Let's talk about the fruit of faith. The fruit of faith. You know what faith does for
us? I understand that. Faith is a
gift. We know that. We've heard it
so many times. For by grace are you saved through
faith that is not of yourself, it is the gift of God. Let's
talk about the fruit of faith. Faith by faith we're justified. Being justified by faith we have
peace with God. We're sanctified. God told Paul,
he said, I want you to go and preach to them that are sanctified
by faith in me. The just shall live. How? By faith. People say, well
how in the world do you all deal with the law? If you go to Christ and you get
your sins forgiven, how do you know how to live in this world?
Same way Abraham did, by faith. The just live by faith. And then we stand by faith. This
is the faith wherein we stand. And the scripture says we walk
by faith. We don't walk by sight, we walk
by faith. If we walk by sight, we would
stay in an uproar all the time. We'd be biting our fingernails
off. That's why so many people, I
mean, they got a bit to the quicks. But I'm telling you, we walk
by faith. I don't want to hurt nobody's
feelings here. We don't walk by Democrats. We don't walk by
Republicans. We don't walk by politics. We
don't walk by religion. We don't walk by anything but
by faith. Faith in who? Christ. Faith in
what? God's Word. This world is going to hell.
You know, I told somebody the other day. I said, you know,
there's not been a generation on the earth that didn't think
that this is the worst generation to ever live. This is the worst
time that the world's ever seen. generation on the earth. When
I was a little boy, everybody was building bomb shelters. I
lived in North Carolina and people were digging big holes and pouring
concrete in there and putting great big concrete things over
it because they were scared to death that we're going to have
an atomic bomb and they'd fill it full of food, And oh, when I first got down
here, all the old timers said, I've never seen such a time in
this world. This is the worst time it's ever
been. You've been hearing that all your life. Paul had to tell
the Thessalonians, they sat down and started twiddling their thumbs
and said, Jesus is coming back, so they stopped doing anything.
Paul said, listen. He said, you wait, when Christ
comes, the first thing you're going to notice is there will
be an apostasy, a great falling away. Now what does he mean a
great falling away? He's not talking about falling
away out of the church and away from Christ. He's talking about
people falling away from the revealed truth. Falling away
from this. I told you about a fella that
said, you know, Ask God. I sent him a t-shirt on Ask God.
And he's a youth pastor at a big Baptist church here in Crossville.
And I said, well, what would you ask God? If you had an opportunity
to ask God, what would you ask Him? I gave him about a half a dozen
questions that ought to be asked. And you know what he told me?
He said, well, yeah, you're right, you're right. But you know, I
got saved when I was seven years old. Now I'm going to get, I'm going
to listen. As old Henry used to say, I'm
going to drive down a stake. I'm going to drive down a stake
right here. If you're old enough to be saved
at seven years old, you're old enough to go to hell at seven
years old. If people don't get a hold of
that right there, getting all these little 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 year
old kids to make professions. If they're old enough to be saved,
they're old enough to go to hell if they don't believe. So they
don't even believe their own doctrine. They say, well you've
got to come to an age of accountability. Well, if you're accountable to
God at 6 years old or 7 years old or 8 years old or 5 years
old, if you're accountable enough to believe and to be saved, then
you're accountable enough to perish if you died then. People
don't, that's what I'm telling you, they've moved away from
the revealed faith, from God's Word. from God's Word. That's why we
walk by faith. And by faith we have access into
this grace wherein we stand. Let me tell you something else
about faith. Faith doesn't need a sign. Faith
doesn't need a sign. You know what I mean by that?
We don't need any evidence. We don't have to close the Bible
and see what God's got to say. I'm going to put out a fleece. See if it's going to get wet
or dry. We don't need a sign. We don't need sight. We don't
need sight. Faith sees the things that are
invisible. Moses Trusted in Him who is invisible? Oh my, we don't need sight. Faith
doesn't need a feeling. You don't have to have a feeling. If we went by our feelings, none
of us would ever have any evidence that we had faith. Would you? Huh? So we can't go by faith. Faith doesn't need feeling. You
know what faith needs? That right there. Black and white. Huh? Black and white. Faith only
needs God's Word. The Word of Him who cannot lie.
And I've got to hurry. Oh my goodness I've got to hurry.
I took Let me give you this and then I'll wind it up. Tell you
something else about faith. Faith is progressive. Faith grows. When it says there that faith
overcomes the world. And he that overcomes the world
is he that believes that Jesus is the Son of God. When it talks
about faith overcomes, it means it grows. It has overcome, it
does overcome, and it will overcome. Huh? It will overcome. Faith
is living. Faith is a living principle in
us. It's active. It's never inactive. Faith is always believing. Never inactive. And it grows. Faith grows. As our knowledge
of God grows, as our trials get longer and greater and deeper,
faith grows. And as our knowledge of God grows
and our knowledge of Christ grows, our faith grows with that. Faith increases as we see the
fullness and faithfulness of God in His Word. Abraham asked
God a question. He said, Father? He said, God,
I have no heir. I don't have an heir. I'm the
wealthiest man. I'm wealthy, wealthy, wealthy.
And I don't have an heir. Who in the world is going to
be my heir? Ishmael can't be. Who's going to be my heir? Here's an old man when he asked
that question. God said, oh listen, you'll have
an heir. Sarah's going to have a baby.
When? 25 years went by and she did
have one. Was God faithful? Yeah, he was. Faith cannot be driven. Faith
can't be forced. You know all faith can do is
follow. That's all it can do, is follow.
Who does it follow? It follows Christ, follow God's
Word. It only grows, and I'll tell
you something, it only grows as it's fed. It grows as it's
fed. And the only thing that will
feed it is the Word of God and the promises of God. And I'm
going to close with this. Faith, it grows from faith to
faith. Romans 1.17 is that we go from
faith, righteousness is from faith to faith. Now what does
he mean from faith to faith? I'm going to give you two answers.
Here's the first four things. First of all, the gospel in Christ
is received by faith. It continually depends upon faith. Thirdly, the gospel produces
faith. And fourthly, it ends with faith. Receiving the end of your faith,
even the salvation of your souls. And then it's talking about,
let me give you another one. When it goes from faith to faith,
it goes from the faith of a baby. We're babies. We're just babies
in Christ. We desire the sincere milk of
the word. Then it goes from babies to children
to young men and then to old men. I can show you that over
here in 1 John 2.12. Let me show you this and then
I'm going to quit. Well, I know I won't say that.
I better not say it or I might speak too soon. Look what it
says here. Verse 13, excuse me, verse 12.
I write unto you little children. There we are, little children.
I'm telling you your sins are forgiven you for his name's sake.
That's where we start. And we stay there. And I write
unto you fathers because you've known him from the beginning.
You knew him a lot longer than I did. And I write unto you,
young men, because you've overcome the wicked one. I write unto
you, little children, because you know the Father. I've written
unto you, fathers, because you've known Him, that is, from the
beginning. I've written unto you, young men, because you're
strong, and the Word of God abideth in you. So you see, you've got
babies, young men, fathers, And so we go. And then it's called
the faith of God. Mark 11.22 says, this is the
faith of God. They asked the Lord Jesus Christ,
what good work can we do? And you know what our Lord answered
them? This is the work of God that
you believe on Him whom He has sent. Now why did He mean this
is the work of God? A work that you have to do? No,
it means it's a work that He does. It's the work of God. God's work that you believe.
And I tell you, faith in God's Word, it won't fail. It won't
quit. It will grow and it will eventually
reach its final destination, which is in glory. Faith will
cease to be Faith, it will be sight then. It will be sight. Our Lord, we bow our hearts before
you. Oh, we bow our hearts. Again, we stand in utter amazement.
Utter, absolute amazement. that Your love, Your grace, Your
power, Your mercy, Your forgiveness, Your righteousness, and Your
blessed word, oh, the truth that's contained in it, truth with all
of its power, truth with all of its reality, truth in all
its nakedness, as it speaks to us, does something for us that
nothing else in this world can do. We thank You for it. God
bless the word to the hearts, minds, and understandings for
Christ's sake. Amen. Amen. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. There's just something about
that name. Master, Savior, Jesus. Jesus, like the fragrance after
the rain. Kings, Jesus, Jesus, let all
heaven and earth proclaim. and kingdoms will all pass away. But there's something about gladness. See you tonight, God willing.