face with Christ. Wouldn't that
be wonderful? Turn to John chapter 11. If someone believes and is in
Christ, though his body is in the grave, he is not dead. He lives, for he is one with
Christ. This is the account of Lazarus,
the Lord raising him from the dead. Now a certain man was sick,
named Lazarus, of Bethany, the town of Mary, her sister Martha. It was that Mary which anointed
the Lord with anointment and wiped his feet with her hair,
whose brother Lazarus was sick. Therefore his sisters sent unto
him, saying, Lord, behold, Him, he whom thou lovest is sick.
When Jesus heard that, he said, this sickness is not unto death,
but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified
thereby. Now Jesus loved Martha and her
sister and Lazarus. If you're a believer, put your
name on it, because he loves you too. When he had heard, therefore,
that he was sick, he abode two days still in the same place
where he was. And after that, saith he to the
disciples, let us go into Judea again. His disciples said unto
him, Master, the Jews of late sought to stone thee, and goest
thou that thither again? Jesus answered, Are there not
twelve hours in the day? If any man walk in the day, he
stoneth not, because he seeth the light of this world. But
if a man walketh in the night, he stumleth, because there is
no light in him. These things said he, and after
that he saith unto them, Our friend Lazarus sleepeth. But
I go, that I may awake him out of sleep. Then said his disciples,
Lord, if he sleep, he shall do well. Howbeit Jesus spake of
his death, but they thought that he had spoken of taking of rest
and sleep. Then Jesus said unto them plainly,
Lazarus is dead, and I am glad for your sakes that I was not
there to the intent you may believe. Nevertheless, let us go unto
him. Then Thomas, which is called
Didymus, unto his fellow disciples, let us also go that we may die
with him. Then when Jesus came, he found
that he had lain in the grave four days already. Now Bethany
was nigh unto Jerusalem, about 15 furlongs off, two mile in
the margin. And many of the Jews came to
Martha and Mary to comfort them concerning their brother. And
Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, went and
met him, but Mary sat still in the house. Then said Martha unto
Jesus, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died.
But I know that even now whatsoever thou wilt ask of God, God will
give it thee. Jesus saith unto her, my brother
shall rise again. Martha said unto him, I know
that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day. Here's one of them great I ams.
Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection and the life. He
that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live.
And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest
thou this? She saith unto him, Yea, Lord,
I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which should
come into the world. And when she had so said, she
went away, and called Mary her sister, secretly saying, The
Master is come, and calleth for thee. As soon as she heard that,
she arose quickly, and came unto him. Now Jesus was not yet come
into the town, but was in the place where Martha met him. The
Jews then, which were with her in the house and comforted her,
when they saw Mary, that she rose up hastily and went out,
followed her saying, she goeth into the grave to weep there.
Then said Mary, then when Mary was come where Jesus was and
saw him, she fell down at his feet, saying unto him, Lord,
if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died. That's where we
need to be, at the Lord Jesus' feet, all the time. When Jesus
therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews also weeping, which
came with her, he groaned in spirit and was troubled, and
said, Where have ye laid him? They said unto him, Lord, come
and see. Jesus wept. Then said the Jews, Behold, how
he loved him! And some of them said, Could
not this man which opened the eyes of the blind have caused
that even this man should have not died? Jesus therefore again,
groaning in himself, cometh to the grave. It was a cave, and
a stone lay upon it. Jesus said, take ye the stone.
Jesus said, take ye away the stone. Martha, the sister of
him that was dead, saith unto him, Lord, by this time he's
taketh, for he's been dead four days. Jesus said unto her, Jesus
said unto her, said I not unto thee, that if thou wouldst believe,
thou shouldst see the glory of God? Only believers see the glory
of God. Then they took away the stone
from the place where the dead was laid. And Jesus lifted up
his eyes and said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me.
And I knew that thou heardest me always. But because of the
people which stand by, I said it, that they may believe that
thou hast sent me. And when he had thus had spoken,
he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. And he that was dead
came forth, bound hand and foot with grave clothes. And his face
was bound about with a napkin, and Jesus said unto him, Lucy,
and let him go. Let us pray. We'll open your
Bibles with me this evening to 2 Corinthians chapter 5. 2 Corinthians
chapter 5. We have got some very sick people
in the congregation. A lot of parents have a lot of
heartache and a lot of things to face and deal with. Our beautiful bouquet of flowers
this evening come out of our garden. It's something to get
up and walk around See all them beautiful things at our place
and those pretty flowers and so many different kinds. Shirley
does a good job, doesn't she, putting them together. That's
the third one she's made just this week. Them flowers are like
us. They look really good. But them leaves, them things
start falling off and they'll start withering and you have
to carry them out and throw them away. But God ain't gonna throw
us away. No, he's not going to throw us
away. Having loved Martha and Mary and Lazarus. Having loved
Donnie, James, Ruby. You can put your names in those
things, can't you? You really can. All right, here's
2 Corinthians 5. Therefore, verse six, I'm gonna
read down through verse six and nine, through nine, three verses. Therefore we are, excuse me,
therefore we are always confident knowing that whilst we're at
home in the body, we are absent from the Lord. As long as we
live in this body, we're absent from the Lord. And here's a parenthetical
statement that he sticks in here. And if you didn't use that, he
said, we are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent
from the body and to be present with the Lord. So since we are
still at home in this body and absent from the Lord, but willing
rather to be absent from the body, we'd like to be done with
this body and to go be present with the Lord. But while we're
still in this body, before we go to be with the Lord, before
we're confident that we're going to be with Him. We walk by faith
and not by sight. We're caught between this world
of this body and this world that we're going to go see. In this
body, we're absent from the Lord. One of these days, we'd rather
be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. But
while we're here, the apostle says we walk by faith and not
by sight. And that's what he's telling
us here. He's talking to us how we walk in this world. The apostles
telling us how he and other believers lived while at home in this body,
this earthly tabernacle. He called it a tabernacle. Dan
verse one of chapter five called it a tabernacle. And as long
as we're in this earthly tabernacle, we're absent from the Lord. And
that's why Paul says we're saved by hope. And yet hope that's
seen is not hope. For if we see that that we've
hoped for, then why do we yet hope for it? And Paul was not
content to live in a body governed by sight, since God had given
him faith. He didn't want to live by sight.
And there's a great, great distinction between walking by faith and
walking by sight. He said, for we walk by faith
and not by sight. And what this distinction between
walking by faith and walking by sight is, is the difference
between the flesh and the spirit. It's the difference between light
and darkness, the day and night, a true hope and a false hope,
walking by faith and walking by sight. Now, I readily admit
I don't have the ability to say or explain fully what this means,
what this text means, but I know it contains a great scriptural
and spiritual principle for all of us. For we walk by faith and
not by sight. And that's a fact. That's a fact
the Apostle states. And it's a position. It's a positive
statement. It's a believer's position in
this world. And it's a fact stated. He said
we walk by faith and not by sight as long as we're in this body.
But before you can walk by faith, Before you can walk by faith,
you got to have life. Dead men don't walk, and they
especially don't walk by faith. We're talking about spiritual
things, and that's what the apostle's talking about. Walking by faith,
that's a spiritual act. Faith is a spiritual gift. Sight
is natural to everybody. But you take a dead man, and
I tell you, you can take a dead man, you can position him any
way you want to. You can set him up, you can stand
him up, you can lie him down, but one thing you can't make
him do, you can't make him walk. You can't make him possess life.
And that's why the scriptures describe believers as this, they
wait on the Lord, they run with patience, the race is set before
them. He said, walk worthy of the vocation we're with you called.
so the first thing before one can walk by faith God has to
give him life you can't walk by faith if God don't give you
life and if God don't give you faith if God and all that comes
by grace and he read that tonight in in John chapter 11 as you
said our Lord Jesus Christ said he that believeth on me shall
never die And they don't. The body dies. That's to be absent
from the body. It's to automatically go and
be present with the Lord. But until that happens, we walk
by faith. And a faith is an active living
principle given to a man, but he's got to have life before
he can walk by faith. And I'll tell you this, and let
me say a few things about walking. We walk by faith. Walking talks
about being active. You know, when you're walking,
you're being active. There's people that go walking
every day for their health. They walk for their health. And
we walk. Walk signifies activity. We walk
as well as wait at our master's feet at the same time. We labor
as our Lord Jesus Christ is resting the Lord Jesus Christ. Look what
Paul said here in verse 9. said, Oh, we want to be from
the body to be absent from the bond to be present with the Lord.
So therefore we labor, we endeavor that whether we're present with
the Lord or absent from the Lord, we may be accepted of him. We
want accepted of Christ. We want to know Christ. And so
we don't just We don't just learn something, we walk patiently.
We don't just learn some things, but we practice what we learn
when we hear something of the gospel. We hear about faith,
we try to live by faith, and we practice what we learn. And
so walking means activity. Activity. I mean, we wait at
the feet of Christ, and yet at the same time we walk. We labor
to be present with the Lord, and yet we rest in Him at the
same time. We're so we're active in whatever
we're doing with faith. And let me tell you something
else about walking, walking by faith. It means there's progress,
progress. Believers are not marking time.
You remember James when we was in the army, when you was in
the army, when I was in the military, they would call you mark time and
you would stand and you would mark, you'd march in place, you'd
just mark time. And then they'd tell you whether
to march or to stop or what, you know. And you'd mark time.
You'd stand there and mark time. And believers are not marking
time. They're not running in place.
No, they're going forward. They're always going forward.
They're getting somewhere. The Scriptures tell Abraham went
out, not knowing where he went. Noah prepared an ark to the saving
of his house. Moses forsook Egypt, not fearing
the wrath of the king, but for the reproach of Christ. He thought
the reproach of Christ was greater than all the riches that was
ever in Egypt. That's what walking by faith
is. We're getting somewhere. We're moving. We're progressing.
And I tell you, a person who never progresses, You know, the
scripture says we walk from faith to faith, from strength to strength,
from faith to assurance, from assurance to full assurance,
from full assurance to full assurance, to the full assurance of understanding.
Look in Isaiah 30 with me. Look at this. Look at what Isaiah
said here in Isaiah 30. You know, somebody don't grow.
You know, if you had a child, And that child wasn't growing,
wasn't progressing right. You want to find out what was
wrong with it. And that's the way believers
are. They're progressing. They're not stagnant. Their life
is not stagnant. We're wanting to grow. We're
seeking to grow. We're pressing toward the mark
for the prize of the high calling of God. Look what he said here
in Isaiah 30 in verse 20. And though the Lord give you
the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet shall
not thy teachers be removed into a corner any more, but thine
eyes shall see thy teachers, and listen to this, and thine
ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way,
walk ye in it. When you turn to the right hand
and when you turn to the left, this is the way. Walk in it. And so you see your teachers
behind you said, that's the way, walk that way, walk in that way. And all, listen, progress. And I'll tell you something,
progress is made in all the graces that God gives us. I know we,
we the last to see it, but yet we do. We grow in grace. We grow
in faith. We grow in assurance. We grow
in our understanding of the scriptures. We grow in our understanding
of Christ. We grow in our understanding
of ourselves. We grow in our understanding
of how desperately we need Christ. We grow in our understanding
of our hope and what we have in Christ. We grow in these things. And yet, believers, progress
is made, and yet we walk. We walk by faith. And I'll tell
you something else that walking by faith does. It tells us that
there's perseverance in walking. There's perseverance in walking.
You don't just start and stop, start and stop, start and stop,
or go back. I mean, to walk, to walk by faith,
that means perseverance. And as you know, somebody that
starts and stops and goes back, that's not walking. That's not
walking at all. That's not walking by faith.
Look what the Apostle said over here in chapter 4 in verse 16
and 17. You know, this is, this is, this
is, this is, this, this, that's not walking. The believer keeps
on walking even when it appears he's not. He says, He says, For
which cause we faint not, though our outward man perish? This
outward man's perishing. Yet the inward man, what's he
done? He's renewed every day. We have new mercies every morning. God's compassion's filled up.
We get up and God renews us every single day. Our lot of affliction,
that's just for a little, that's just for a moment. But it works
for us, works for us, a far more exceeding and eternal weight
of glory. And though the believer, he keeps
on walking even though sometimes it appears he's not, but he is. And let me show you Proverbs
chapter, I believe it's 418. Look in Proverbs 418. This says
something about believers walking. And I don't wanna, you know,
One thing, you know, it seems like to you and me, we don't
make any progress and don't even look like we're walking, but
we are. We're going forward. Believers are going forward,
constantly going forward. I believe that. You know, that's
why we get up every day. That's why we say, I've said
this so many times to you, if God's blessed anybody any more
than me, I've yet to meet him. I could not dream as big as what
God has blessed me with in this world. And blessed me with faith
and grace and hope and life and righteousness. Called me to be
a preacher when the least in the bunch. most sinfulness man
in the building, and yet God gave me, put me in this office,
and then taught me the things that he's taught. Who would ever
have thunk it in a thousand years? But we're making progress. We're
not, we get up, we want to move forward to the glory of Christ.
We want to seek the Lord. We want to honor God. We want
to glorify Him. We want to seek to bless Him
and be a blessing to others around us. That's progress. That's perseverance. We don't
get discouraged and sit down and twiddle our thumbs and say,
well, boy, boy, I ain't going nowhere. I believe I'll just
quit. No, no, no. That don't enter our vocabulary.
That don't enter our brain. Quit what? Do you know when we're quit?
When we're absent from the body and we're present with the Lord.
Look what he said here in Proverbs 4.18, talking about the walking,
persevering and walking. But the path of the just is as
a shining light, as the shining light that shineth more and more
under the perfect day. We're in a path. We're in a path. And oh my. And we're pressing
toward the mark, pressing toward the mark of the high calling
in Christ Jesus. And I tell you, a person that
stops and starts and starts and stops and goes back, I don't
believe they're walking. I don't believe they have life. And when the apostle says we
walk by faith, He means that in our ordinary everyday life
that we live in this world, we walk by faith. Our ordinary everyday,
whatever we do, we are moved and live by faith. The scripture
says that just by live by faith. You women, when you're at home
and you're cooking and cleaning and run your house, you do that
by faith. Your mind is on the Lord. You
want to do it to the glory of God, the best of your ability?
Men work at their jobs in the place that God's put them to
work. And they work there by faith. They work their trust
in Christ. They work their honor in Christ,
hopefully to bring glory to Christ. Paul isn't talking about running
or jumping or fighting, but about walking. He means that we get
up every day and we go about our lives. We walk by faith that
day. WE WALK BY FAITH IN WHATEVER
WE'RE DOING. WE ARE CONSCIOUS THAT WE WALK,
AND WE WALK WITH GOD. HOW DID HE WALK WITH GOD? HE
LIVED FOR OVER THREE HUNDRED YEARS. HE HAD A HOUSE FULL OF
YOUNG'UNS. HE HAD TO WORK BACK IN THE DAY
WHEN HE DIDN'T HAVE AN AUTOMOBILE TO GO IN, HE DIDN'T HAVE A GOOD
CUSHION CHAIR TO SIT IN AT THE CHURCH, DIDN'T HAVE AIR CONDITIONING,
AND DIDN'T HAVE HEAT IN THE WINTER EXCEPT And he got up every day, and
whatever he did, he walked with God, and he walked with God how?
By faith! Abraham walked by faith every
day he lived on this earth after God called him out. That's why
he's called the father of the faithful. And I, oh beloved,
he's talking about our ordinary everyday life. And a Christian's
life, a believer's life is different from another man. A believer
learned to bring faith into everything he does. I believe we bring faith
into everything we do. Why wouldn't we bring faith into
everything we do? God's in everything we do. We
look to God, we trust God, we trust Christ. Huh? Enoch, like I said, he walked
with God. He brought faith every day. He got up and he walked
by faith. The Muslims, they worship, they
got a certain hour that they have to worship and they have
to go in a certain direction. And they called a holy hour.
They have an holy hour. Well, to the believer, every
hour is holy. Every hour of every day is holy
and we can worship all the time. He don't have to have an hour
side and he don't have to be at a certain place and he don't
have to face a certain direction. He worships all the time. And I tell you, believers and
Christians, they don't put religion on on Sundays and on holidays,
Christmas and Easter, But their religion is an everyday, everyday
affair, because it's born of the gift of God, the faith, that's
the gift of God. Ain't that what Paul said here
in verse five of 2 Corinthians 5, 5? Now he that hath wrought,
wrought, worked in us for the self-same thing, who hath also
given us the earnest of the Spirit is God. God wrought this in us. How would you live tomorrow?
If you get up tomorrow, how are you going to live? Are you going to live by sight, or
are you going to live by faith? Are you going to live like the
world, or are you going to live trusting God? That's what walking
by faith means. And then the apostle here, not
only does he talk about walking by faith, but he contrasts walking
by faith and walking by sight. Look what he says here in verse
7 again. For we walk by faith, not by sight. He contrasts the
two. Shows the great difference between
the two. The natural man, the natural man and most men, they
walk by sight. This is what they say. Seeing
is believing. Trust only in what you can see.
Let your conscience be your guide. They love to talk about being
a self-made man. Old Spurgeon said, if you ever
run across a self-made man, you've run across a very poorly made
man. And that's right. Oh, listen, he pulled himself
up by his bootstraps. Oh, my. The title of their book,
if they ever wrote a book, the book would be Self Reliance. There was a book printed years
and years ago, How to Win Friends and Influence People. That's a man walking by sight. We're walking by faith. And they walk according to the
world. And according to the world, the best thing a man can do is
have faith in himself. Have faith in himself. There's a preacher said the other
day, real famous preacher, got his own television network. He's
not a preacher, he's a false prophet. But he said this, that
when God made you, he made the greatest thing that was ever
made. Learn to love yourself. When he made you, he made the
greatest person ever made when he made you. He don't know me. He don't know
me. But I tell you, that's what,
you know, and the best thing that the world tells a man is
to have faith in himself and take care of old number one.
Be sure and take care of old number one. And the natural man,
what he does is he looks on the temporal things that are seen.
Ain't that what he says in verse 18 of chapter four? The natural
man looks on the temporal things, things that you can see and handle,
take and touch and handle. Well, we look not at the things
that are seen. See, we're not looking at the
things that are seen. We're looking at the things that are not seen.
For the things that you can see, they're all temporary. But the
things that you don't see, they're eternal. That's why we walk by
faith. The natural man, he's not a child
of faith. He looks at all the temporal
things. The things that are not seen, that's what moves us. Eternal things, things that abide
and things that remain. Look what Paul said over here
in the Colossians. You know, we're looking, we're
looking for a city whose builder and maker is God. Look in the
Colossians chapter three. We're dealing with things that's
not seen. I've never seen heaven, but I
know it's there. I've never seen Christ, but I
know he's real. I can't see righteousness, but
I have one. I can't see faith, but I've got
it. I can't see justification, but
I have it. I've never seen anybody come
again from the dead except the Lord Jesus Christ by His own
power. And I wasn't there when that
took place, but I believe in a resurrection. I believe, beloved,
that even a minute a person's absent from this body, he immediately
goes to be with the Lord, the Spirit does. And when the Lord
Jesus Christ comes back, he's gonna raise that body and present
it to himself, change it in a moment, twinkle of an eye, and present
it to himself a glorious body. But look what Paul said here
about a child of God, what he does. You know, the world's looking
at the temporary things. If you then be risen with Christ,
seek those things which are above. Not down here above. We're Christ. Christ sits on the right hand
of God. Set your affection on things above. Not on things on
the earth. We love our children. We love
our families. We're very thankful for our homes. We're very thankful for our monies.
We're very thankful that we can go and do and prosper. We're
very thankful for all those things. But our heart is not on this
world. Our heart, this is just a passing
place. We're pilgrims and strangers
and sojourners. And we're dwelling in a tabernacle.
But we set our affections, our hearts up yonder. And look what
he says, for you're dead, dead to the world, dead to sin, dead
to yourself, and your life is hid with Christ in God. Now listen
to it. When Christ, who is our life,
do you hear that? When Christ, who is our life,
shall appear, then shall we also appear with
him. We're at in glory, whatever glory
he has, that's the glory we're gonna have. Oh my, that's what
we're doing. That's why Paul said, if we know
that at this earthly house, this tabernacle, we're dissolved,
we have a building of God, not made with hands like this here.
But this house is eternal in the
heavens. And the world thinks it's wise
for holding on to everything it can't. And they believe a
believer, a Christian's a fool. For not just having his heart
set on this world and making the most of it he can. But we
trust in Christ whom we have never seen. That's why Peter
says, you know, whom having never seen, we love. And whom though
he seem not now, we believe. And I tell you, when we're back
over here in our text, we walk by faith and not by sight. Walking
by sight, you know how childish a thing that is to do? It's a
childish thing to do. When kids run, you know, kids,
they run to you over every little thing. A child judges everything
by what it sees. You give them a dime, a little
old dime, give them like that, and then turn around and have
a new shiny penny. And they'll give you the dime
for the penny because the penny's bigger. Give them a dollar or
$10 and have a new shiny quarter. I'll give you, you want this
new shiny quarter? Yeah, give me that $10. They'll
take the, because they go by what their eyes can see. They go by what their eyes can
see. Huh? But oh, listen. A child doesn't
judge things by their true value, neither does a fool. But the
child that has the faith, the child of God who has faith, he
does. He knows the value of things
in this world. Huh? You know, one time there
was, you know, the world at one time thought the whole, everybody
in the world, everybody thought that the world was flat. and
that if you start in a ship and you start going someplace, you'd
fall off the end of the world. When they never, you know, if
they'd have read the scripture, said God set upon the circle
of the earth. But one time, this fella named
Christopher Columbus, he went to the Queen of Spain and said,
I believe the world's round. And I'll tell you what, if you
give, you provide for me and I'll go as far as I can possibly
go. And they found out, do you know
how people thought the only world they had was the world that they
existed in? But there's a great big world
out here, and that's what people in this world, the only world
they're interested in, is the world that exists for them now. But our world exists outside
this world. Our world exists in an unseen
world, and you can only see that world and walk in that world
and live in that world by faith. Ain't that right? Oh. Oh, my. That's why, you know,
the things that they can taste and see and handle. I don't want to do that if I
can help it. Oh, walking by faith. Let me tell you, walking by sight.
There's a difference between walking by faith and walking
by sight. Walking by sight is low. That's a low, grumbling
thing. But walking by faith is noble
and God-honoring. The most God-honoring thing a
person can do in this world is to believe God. To believe God. That man that's walking by sight,
he honors the flesh. That man walking by faith, he
honors God. One lives for the world, the
other lives for another world. One makes materialism great gain
and possessions to be everything. And when the worms start devouring
the body, will it ever know the difference? Will it know the
difference? But that believer, that man who
walks by faith, he makes the unseen things to be true possessions. Faith is a true possession. That's
a true possession. Forgiveness, forgiveness of our
sin. What a possession to have, and
God gives that to us, and we believe that. And yet we know
that we're nothing but sin, but yet we know we're forgiven of
sin. and repentance in Christ. Oh, God gave us Christ. God gave us righteousness. One grovels for this world down
here, and the other, he lives from above. One believes the man walking
by sight, he believes self is all. The other believes God is
all and Christ is all. And how ignorant is it to believe
only what you can see? Oh my, how ignorant is it to
believe only what you can see? But faith, I'm telling you, faith
comprehends all things. This is my Father's world. I told you that story several
times, I know I have. I was over, and I was standing
outside a store way over in Bledsoe County over towards Spencer.
And I tell you this, I got out and I was standing there, you
know, and bought some gas and stuff, and I stand out there
and said, boy, boy, it sure is pretty. I hadn't been down here
but about a year or so, year and a half, and I said, oh, what
a beautiful country this is, and to think it all belongs to
my father. This fella heard me say that,
and he said, well, I said, don't that don't belong to your father.
I don't know who your daddy is, but I know who owns that land. I said, he may think he owns
it, but that's my father. And he said, who is he? I said,
God. This is my father's world. It
is. It's my father's world. And I'll
tell you, that's what faith comprehends. Listen, these are my Father's
trials. These are my Father's troubles. These are my Father's afflictions. My Father is the one that said,
these come from my Father. Lord, not my will, but Thine
be done. We don't want, nobody loves to
go through trials. Nobody loves to see their children
suffer. Nobody likes to hurt their bodies. But yet we say
this is, this is my father gave this to me. In order to have some understanding
of your own nature and the true nature of things in this world,
if you only walk by sight and only believe what you see, then
what can you believe? What do you believe? Huh? And I tell you, walking by sight
is a very, very deceptive way of walking. Very deceptive way
of walking. Things ain't often as they appear
to be. Things don't always appear as
they, they're not often as they appear to be. God doesn't judge
by the appearance and the way things look. A man has to learn
a lot before he can see things right. Huh? But those who listen
to me, those who walk by faith, they're never deceived. That
man walking beside, who's he gonna go to when he's in trouble?
But when we walk by faith, you know where we go? We're never
deceived because we've got three people walking with us everywhere
we go. We've got God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy
Ghost. And goodness and mercy is walking
around behind us. Ain't that right? Oh, listen. But oh God, we got God to go
to. We got His word. We got His promises. And we got a refuge when we get
in trouble. We can go to the Lord Jesus Christ
and hide in Him. And sight, sight, walking by
sight is a very changeable thing. As long as it's light and you
can see good, You can walk good, but what happens when you can't
see, when it's dark? It's fine to talk about living
in the present, but what's it going to be like when you're
laying on your dying bed? That's just as present as any
present you're ever going to live in. When death comes to deny you
everything you have and everything you see and everything you hold
dear, what are you going to walk beside then? If sight's all you
ever have, that's the way you're going to die. But if you have
faith, and you come down to your dying bed, you can say, oh, listen,
I'm gonna be not naked anymore. I'm gonna be clothed upon with
that eternal home, that eternal house, that blessed building
of God. Oh, and I'll tell you what, that
faith, faith can walk in the dark, but sight can't. Faith can walk when it can't
see nothing. Faith looks and trusts in the
unseen and the invisible God and rejoices in a God who is
invisible. That's why Paul says we are confident
of this one thing, to be absent from the body is to be present
with the Lord. And I'll tell you what, Walking
by faith and walking by sight. Those who walk by sight, they
end up walking alone. Walking alone. Walking by sight
is this, I believe in myself. Walking by faith, I believe God. Sight says, I'll do this and
I'll do that. Faith says, if God wills, I'll
do this and I'll do that. It's not me doing something and
then Christ enable me. It's just Christ and Him alone. And Him alone. And when you walk
by sight, if trouble comes, who you gonna run to? Someone
just like yourself. Someone as weak as yourself.
But walking by faith. We go to God who said, I'll never
leave you and I'll never forsake you. And I'll love you to the
end. And I'll come and take you where
I am, that where I am, you can come be with me too. Oh, when you've walked beside,
you got to go to somebody just like yourself. When you walk
beside, you have to get your own wisdom and judgment and strength
to guide you. to be your own deliverer, to
be your own comfort, to be your own helper. But those who walk
by faith know that all things work together for good to them
that love God, them that are called according to his purpose. And when the storm comes, and
it comes, our Lord Jesus say, be of good cheer, it is I, and
he'll come walking to you on the storm. He ain't never failed
us yet. And let me tell you, I hope I
ain't taking too long, but walking by faith and walking by sight,
these things can never mix. And let me explain what I mean.
Walking by sight, walking by faith can never mix. Let me explain
what I mean. I believe God loves me. I've
prospered ever since I've been a Christian. What's wrong with
that statement? You're walking by faith and sight
at the same time. You can't do that. What if God
had not prospered you? Does this mean that God doesn't
love you? There's a lot of people in this
world never get prospered. There's people down there, there's
lots of believers in this world that they have very, very little. The way to say that is I believe
God loves me and I thank Him for what He's done for me. Instead
of connecting what you have by being a Christian. Thank God
for what you got because God gave it to you. And if you ain't
got something, thank God you don't have it because if you
meant to have it, you'd have it. Faith says, I believe God. And
He said, he that believes on the Son of God hath life, and
I'm a son of God. And listen to this, God says
in His Word, I'm His child. And this is what this is walking
by faith is. God says in his word, I'm his
child, whether I'm rich or poor, healthy or sick, these things
are out of sight. I don't bring them into the equation.
We as faith and believers, we stand on the naked word of God. If you calculate your standing
before God on any temporal circumstances, you're walking by sight and not
by faith. I tell you, that's what preachers
have done years ago. You know, I used to be in, and
I've done it myself. Oh, listen, if you don't, if
you don't live this way, God will do that to you. And if God,
you don't walk that way, God is going to do this to you. And
you know, you're going to pay for this if you do that. And
you know, they based everything, all your blessings on what you
do and what you would do. But now our blessings are all
based on Christ. I believed in Christ, but I'm
afraid I'm not saved. I feel so depressed and unhappy.
Another says, I know I've trusted Christ. I'm sure I saved because
I feel so happy. Both of them statements are wrong.
Both of them are wrong. When you say you've trusted Christ,
that's great. That's good. But to say the other
is walking by sight. If I believe on Christ, I'm saved
no matter what, whether I'm happy, depressed, up, down, in, out,
whatever I'm going through, I'm saved if you believe Christ. I have lots of days I'm happy
and they're great days and I have days that I just feel like I
could just crawl in a hole. You don't have days like that,
I know you don't. You have days when you don't want to see nobody,
don't want to talk to nobody, when the phone rings, I ain't
answering it. And then you have other days
where you're just dancing in the Spirit. But it's Christ. Our feelings never are supposed
to enter into it. If we believe on Christ, we're
saved no matter what. There's therefore no non-condemnation
to them that are where? In Christ. You reckon Paul was floating
on them boards out there in the ocean for three days one time?
He said, woo-wee, God must really, I don't know what I'm gonna do.
I must have really messed up, you know, to be out here in the
middle of this ocean floating on this board. No, him and Silas was in jail, just
got beat half to death, and that midnight they began to sing,
the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. And that's what I'm talking about.
Walking by sight, walking by faith, they don't mix. There's a great difference between
feeling and believing. What's our title to glory? One
of these days, every evidence that we've ever had will be taken
from us one day. And the only thing that'll sustain
us is God's Word and we'll say, it is written. How firm a foundation,
you saints of the Lord, is laid for your faith in His excellent
Word. And if we walk by faith, see
that you walk by the right faith. And where do you get that at? Only from God, only in Christ. Faith cometh by hearing, hearing
by the Word of God. And what is faith's object? It's
the Lord Jesus Christ, His covenant, His righteousness, His blood,
and His work. How do you walk? By faith or
by sight. Our Father, oh, our Father, thank
you for your precious, precious word. Oh, God, to live on the
bare naked word of God. I know we have feelings. I know
we have ups and downs, aggravations and vexations and troubles, sorrows
and griefs, but we also have joys and rejoicing. and peace and rest all based on what your word says. We thank you for your word. Thank
you for our Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you for the faith that
you gave to us that we had nothing to do with it and you gave it
to us by your grace and you made Christ to be the object of our
faith, to whom we look, we constantly continue to look to him and him
alone. God enable us to honor you, live to your glory, forgive
us of everything that's unlike you. Every time we've walked
by sight and deceived, oh, been deceived, God have mercy on us
and help us always to live and look to you for Christ's sake,
amen.