And that's a subject of faith.
Faith. Romans chapter 10. Let's look
at verses 9 and 10. that if thou shalt confess with
thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart
that God raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For
with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with
the mouth confession is made unto salvation." Now the Apostle
in both of these verses used the word heart. The heart of
man. I believe in thine heart. with
the heart man believeth. And Acts 16.14 says you know
that Lydia was down the cellar of purple from Philippi. She was down from Thyatira. She was in Philippi. She went
down to the riverside where some of the Jews met. There was no
synagogue and there she was. She was down there. And the Apostle
Paul began to preach to a group of people on the beach now. And
the scripture says the Lord opened her heart to give attention to
the things that the Apostle spoke. And she believed in her heart.
She says, listen, I will be baptized in my whole house. But God opened
her heart. And when it comes to open somebody's
heart, only God can do that. Preachers all the time tell people,
open your heart and let Jesus in. Jesus is standing at your
heart's door. No, no, that's not so. If Christ is going to
come to your heart, He's going to come and He's going to open
it. And He's going to do something for your heart that only He can
do. And He does that. And while she was sitting there,
Paul didn't know what was going on in her heart until she said
something. Ain't that right? But we make
faith oftentimes hard to be understood. We make distinctions, those of
us that know the gospel, between head faith and heart faith. And
head faith has to do with just agreeing with some things. Heart
faith has to do with receiving those things, embracing those
things, rejoicing in those things, delighting in those things. Temporary
faith. We make heart faith a temporary
faith as opposed to saving faith. Oh, how many times we've seen
folks, you know, and down over the years, you know, they come
in and they hear the gospel and they say, oh, that's the best
thing I've ever heard. And they'll go on for three or four or five
months, maybe even a year or two, and then they're gone. But
boy, those that have saved in faith, you can't run them off.
You just can't. And we make a distinction between
natural faith as opposed to spiritual faith. You know, our Lord Jesus
says, He that believeth in his heart, from the heart, that Jesus
is the Son of God, that man should be saved. He that believeth not
should be damned. And you know the Ethiopian eunuch,
everybody remembers in Acts chapter 8, when that Ethiopian eunuch,
when Philip began to open the scriptures to his understanding.
And they rode along in that chariot. And he said, came to water and
said, what doeth hinder me to be baptized? And he said, if
thou believe with all thine heart that Jesus Christ is the Son
of God, you may. But if you believe with all your
heart, and out of these two verses that I read to you, they distinctly
say, believe in thine heart, with the heart man believeth.
And the scriptures is full, full of lots of things, lots of scriptures
that deal with the heart. With the heart, I read it tonight,
God is nigh unto them, just a minute ago, God is nigh unto them that
are of a broken heart. Broken heart. The heart's deceitful
above all things and desperately wicked. He says, keep thy heart
with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life. My
son, give me your heart. Give me your heart. If God's
got a man's heart, He's got that man. And that's why people, when
they fall in love, they try to win somebody's heart. If I could
just win her heart, Valentine's coming up. And you know what
the symbol of Valentine is? A heart. A heart. Trust in the Lord with
all thine heart and lead not to thine own understanding. And
Paul talked about those whose hearts were purified by faith.
And out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh. You
don't have to tell me what you believe, just start talking and
folks can find out pretty quick what's in your heart. Is that
not right? Now let me try to explain a few things here. And
like I say, I've dealt with this so many times over the years.
When we understand faith, when some things, some truths
and facts are presented to the mind, presented to the understanding. And when the understanding hears
these things and work these things out and hear them and understand
them, they accept them and say, well, that's true. You know,
there's some things that's presented to the mind. And the understanding
is they hear those things presented to the mind. They begin to work
those things out in their mind. And they say, well, is that so?
Is this so? Is that so? And you know, and they begin
to work these out. And they accept them to be true. And we know
that God doesn't work apart from the mind. I'm not saying He does.
He works through our mind. But this is talking about the
heart. The heart. The heart, the mind, not just
the mind, not just the understanding, but the heart that believes.
And let me give you three reasons why I believe the scriptures
distinguish between mental asset, mental agreement, believing facts,
and heart faith. Three reasons why I've difference
between giving mental agreement to something. Believing facts
and heart faith. I was just with Walter Gruber
down in Mexico a couple of weeks ago. Walter, be 80 in June. And he was watching me preach
and watched a conference on his computer. Him and the kids and
everybody there, they was watching this meeting. And I was in that
meeting and when I first got there, Walter says, you know,
I watched that meeting and I heard you preach. He says, and I'm
not blowing my horn here. He says, but your message, your
message went straight to my heart and blessed my heart. And that's
what I want. He said, I want somebody when
they're preaching to preach from their heart to my heart, to my
heart. And I tell you what, so let me
give you three reasons why there's a distinguish between mental
assent and agreement and believing facts and heart faith. The heart
is used in reference to faith, indicates sincerity. When it
talks about the heart, used in regard to faith, it means sincerity. You know, our Lord Jesus told
the Pharisees, He says, you know, with your mouth you drive nile
into me. But your heart is way over yonder. You come and you talk about me,
and you mention me, and you say you know me, and you say you
like me, and you say you love me, and you say you believe the
scripture, and you draw nigh unto me with your mouth. But
your heart is way over yonder someplace. And that's what he's
talking about here. You know, I tell you, heart faith
is sincere. It's not hypocritical. That's
why David says, Search me, O God, and know me. Know my heart. Know my heart. Try me and know
my thoughts. He didn't say search my mind.
He said search my heart. Know my heart. And that's what
we ought to tell you, beloved. Then the word, the second thing
is the word heart distinguishes between traditional faith and
personal genuine faith. Now what do I mean by traditional
faith? I'll give you an illustration. I was talking with two men the
other day. We was in a horse barn, big ol' huge horse barn.
And we got to talking, visiting, and this fella started talking
about primitive Baptists when he was 16, when he was riding
around with the primitive Baptists taking him somewhere. And we
got talking, and this one fella's talking about what happened,
how they were and all that. And this one fella says, well,
I was born and raised in the church of Christ, and I don't
know anything but that. So I don't know what you're talking
about. And this fellow was telling a story. He said, well I was
raised a Baptist too. And that's all they know about
it. I was raised in the church of Christ. I don't know anything
else. I don't know nothing about anybody else's religion. Well
I was raised a Baptist too. And I just remember that happening. And that's what I'm talking about.
They talk about born and raised in something. We're talking about
being born again by the Spirit of God. Forgetting whether he
was raised a Baptist, whether he was raised in Primly Baptist,
or Southern Baptist, or General Baptist, or Free Will Baptist,
it don't make no difference. Baptism don't, Baptists don't
enter into this equation. And I tell you about that, most
folks take on the faith of their country. You go to most countries
and you go to India and you'll run into Hindus, cow worshippers,
rat worshippers, and people who believe in reincarnation. So
they do the best they can so they don't come back as a bug. That's what I mean, beloved.
And I tell you, you know, in America, you're a Protestant. In Japan, you worship your ancestors. In China, you're a Buddhist.
In Vietnam, you're a Buddhist. In Italy and certain places you're
Catholic. That's where you're raised. Born
in a Baptist home, always be a Baptist. And I tell you that's
what you'll always be unless God does something for you. Now
look over in Galatians chapter 1. Let me show you exactly what
I'm talking about. The word heart distinguishes
between traditional faith and personal genuine faith. Here's
a man who had traditional faith. And he talks about his traditional
faith. And he says in Galatians 1.13,
he said, For you have heard, you heard about me, and you heard
of my manner of life, and time passed in the Jews' religion,
how that beyond measure I persecuted the church of God and wasted
it. And I profited, oh I mean I profited in the Jews' religion
above many my equals. in my own nation being exceedingly
more, exceedingly zealous of the, what's this, traditions
of my father's. But now here's what happened.
But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's
womb, what happened to Him? Called me by His grace, what
for? To reveal, to reveal, to reveal
His Son. Where at? In me. Now that's the
difference right there. There's an illustration of the
difference. And then thirdly, the word heart. When we talk
about heart faith, we're distinguishing between material, carnal, covetous
desires and genuine affection to the Lord Jesus Christ. And
Job's a perfect illustration of that. Job lost everything
that he had. And he come down and he says,
though he slay me, yet I'm going to trust in him. Now Satan accused
Job that the only reason you worship God is because he blesses
you with all these material possessions. You've got a home, you've got
lots of kids, you've got thousands of dollars, you've got more than
ten people could ever want. And oh listen, God took everything
the man had. Everything the man had. Satan
says now he's going to cuss God to his face. Now if he just had
head faith, he would have. But oh listen, he had heart faith. It had nothing to do with the
clothes he had, the friends he had, the wife he had, the children
he had, the environment he lived in, his surroundings, his home.
Job, beloved, he didn't have nothing to do with the world's
popularity or religion. Everything he had was gone and
you know what he said? Naked came I from my mother's
womb and naked I'm going again. And he says the Lord gave, the
Lord took it away and he lost everything that he had. But one
thing he still had. He still had his God. Still had his God. And of all we have to have in
this world, we've got to have Him. Right? And oh, let me tell
you, I'm going to give you several things about this business of
heart faith if I can. I told you, I've preached this
so many times. Heart faith, how do I know I
got it? Has one object, the Lord Jesus Christ. Here again in verse
9 of Romans 10. The heart faith has one object,
the Lord Jesus Christ. Look what it says there. that
if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, believe
with thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead." Huh? What did Paul say? What is it
to believe? To believe that Jesus Christ is Lord. And confess that
with your mouth. That He's your righteousness.
That's what it means. And what does it mean to have
this object of the Lord Jesus Christ? Well, first of all, you've
got to have the right information about Him. You must be told the
true things about Him. That our Lord Jesus Christ, when
He came into this world, He existed before He was born of a virgin
and laid in that stable in Bethlehem that night. His deity. I mean, He was God. We believe
that and that's why we confess Him when we say that He's Lord.
And oh, we believe and oh, we confess. And this is the thing
we believe if you believe Christ, His sinless life. Sinless, holy,
blessed, immaculately, holy life. And all in this, and I tell you
to believe on Him is to believe that He died, but not for His
own sins, not for anything that He ever did. That when He died,
He died in the room instead of a people that was given to Him
in a covenant of grace before the world ever began. that He
bore my sin. And when it comes to the place
where you say, well, He bore my sin. When you come to the
place where you see Christ died for me. When you come to the
place where you say, He bore my sin, you mean that man? That man who was God, hanging
on that cross, was dying there, was my sin, my iniquity, my rebellion,
my guilt, my shame? on Him. That will do something
for you that nothing else will ever do. Until that happens and
oh beloved then you confess that you believe in your heart that
God raised Him from the dead. Nobody of their own power has
ever been raised from the dead. I've never seen anybody raised
from the dead. I've been around a lot of dead people in my life. And you have too, a lot of you
more than I have. But I've never seen one of them
come back to life. But this man, this man that Paul
says that heart faith said if you believe in your heart, that
Jesus Christ is Lord and that God raised Him from the dead,
you'll be saved. Our Lord Jesus says, I lay down
my life for the sheep and no man takes it from me. I've got
the power to let it down and I've got the power to take it
up again. And I tell you why, beloved, He was raised again
from that grave. And I tell you what, saving faith
rests upon Christ. rest upon His blessed character,
that blessed man, and His personality, and His works, and all of His
offices, prophet, priest, and king, and His glory as the God-man,
His glory as the one who sits on the right throne of heaven
itself right now. I'll tell you, saving faith,
if you look into Christ and Christ alone, Then you got genuine saving
faith. You got faith that was born in
the heart. That got past your brain and
got down here. Got in your emotions, got in
your affections. Got in the place where God sits
on the throne. When Bunyan's holy war, when
Emmanuel took the city of Mansoul, you know the place where he ascended
the throne? He sat on the throne of the heart. He got through here, Dave. Like
I said, he went through the mind. But when he got there, when he
got in, he walked down the avenue of man's soul and he sat down
on the throne. Self got up and said, here, take
it. Take it. And let me tell you
something about saving faith. Saving faith does not rest upon
any experience you ever had. No, no, no. Do you know there was a time
that I spoke in tongues? Yeah. There's a time that I could
lay hands on somebody and they'd fall like a bullet, just like
somebody shot him. Then there's a time that I was
a fundamentalist and legalist. Would have a television. One
time I turned on the radio, it was either for the news or to
hear somebody preach. And that's the way I was. I had all kinds
of religion up here. I mean, I had it, boy. And some
of you had the same thing. You had religion up here, and
I mean you had it up to there. And everybody knows you had it.
And everybody, the only people that can stand you is people
just like yourself. Everybody else I had nothing to do with.
And then, and then, I heard the gospel. And I believed in my heart in
the Lord Jesus Christ. And God in His sovereign mercy
made me see that. So I don't, we can't look back,
I don't look to my prayers. Don't look to any merit, don't
look to any worth, don't look to any decision, but oh, listen,
saving faith, heart faith, looks to Christ and Christ alone and
drops everything else. Paul said, forgetting those things
that are behind, I pressed toward the mark for the prize of the
high calling of God in Christ Jesus. And I say the second thing
about heart faith is this, Our faith is always born of need. Always born of need. If there is no need present,
faith won't be present either. Do you understand what I'm saying?
That's why the Lord says, they that are whole, they don't need
a doctor. But they that are sick. And here's the thing about it.
That's why I always pray for my children and for my grandchildren.
Lord, you create in them a need. They don't have a need for Christ.
If they had a need, they'd be sitting right there. Or they'd
be sitting right over here. Do you know why, folks? People's
got to have a need. And when you need something,
and you really need something, you'll do your best to get a
hold of whatever it is you need. And what I mean by that is if
you've never been lost, never been lost, then you've
never ever been found. Our Lord said, I came to seek
and to save that which is lost. And let me tell you something.
You may not know you're lost. And you're not going to end up
being lost. You was born lost. And only God's
the one that can get you lost. Paul got lost. Where did he get
lost at? On the Damascus Road. Is that right? That Philippian
jailer got lost when? The day that Paul walked in there
and says, oh listen, put that sword down, don't do yourself
no harm. And he began to preach unto him the Lord Jesus Christ,
the Word of God. If you've never been stripped
naked, Never be stripped of your own righteousness. Never be stripped
of your own self-confidence. Never be stripped of your own
self-reliance. Never be stripped of your goodness. Never be stripped of your strength. Never be stripped of all hope
in yourself. Then you've never been clothed
with the righteousness of Christ. Now, look over in Luke chapter
9 with me just a minute. And I'm telling you something,
beloved. If you ever, ever have this need, you know what will
happen? The need just gets greater the
longer you get. The need don't never go away.
In fact, sometimes it gets so intense, huh? The first work
the Holy Spirit does is to convince men of sin. Of sin. Sin. S-I-N. Look what it says
here in verse 11. And the people, when they knew
it, knew what? That the Lord Jesus Christ was
coming. And the people, when they knew
it, followed Him. And He received unto them and
spake to them of the kingdom of God. And now listen to this.
And healed them that had what? Need. Need of healing. Need of healing. It's like Barnabas. God, He had a need. He had a
need. And when He had that need, He
began to cry out. Have mercy on me, O thou Son
of David, Jesus, have mercy on me. What do you want? I want to see. The woman with
the issue of blood, she had a need. And what would that need cause
her to do? It caused her to get on her hands and knees and crawl
through a crowd. Crawl through a multitude. Crawl
around people's feet and push them away and get around their
hands and on her hands and knees. And she got up there and she
said, if I can just get close enough to touch the hem of his
garment, what will happen? I'll be made whole. But what
caused her to crawl like that? She had a need. She had a need. And I know this. Our Lord Jesus Christ will be
more precious where the need is the greatest. Oh, where the
greatest need is the greatest. That's where He's going to have,
that's where He's more precious to. It's like that woman in Luke
chapter 7. We've looked at it so many times. Simon the Pharisee said to ask
the Lord to come to his house and eat supper one evening. He's
in there eating. And in comes this woman. She
didn't knock on the door and say, do you mind if I come in?
She didn't say, Simon, I'd sure like to come in there for a minute.
I need to talk to somebody. No, no. She just walked in the
door. And she walked in the door, and
you know what she did? She got down at the feet of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And what old Simon said, she
come uninvited. She come unasked. And Simon said
in his mind, if this man was a prophet, see, he had this head
faith. If this man was a prophet, he'd
know what kind of woman this is. She's a sinner. That's the
awfulest thing in the world for a Pharisee to be a sinner. office
thing for most people is to be a sinner. Most folks don't like
to be sinners, don't want to be all sinners. But you can call
me, Mary said, I don't know how many times in the last six months
of her life, oh listen, the more you can convince me that's my
sin, the more you entitle me to the mercy of God. Christ died
for sinners and I know that Christ died for sinners and I'm one
of them. I couldn't tell you how many times she said that
to me. Man asks her, says, Mary, what do you hope when you leave
here? She says that I'm a sinner and Christ died for sinners. I'd go out into eternity facing
God knowing that I'm a sinner, but Christ died for sinners. And oh, listen. That woman, she
crawled in there and she got down at the feet of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And old Simon, our Lord looked
at Simon and noticed exactly what he was thinking. He said,
Simon, let me ask you something. If
a man owed 50 pence and 500 pence, but the fellow who he owed them
to frankly forgave them both because neither one had anything
to pay. He said, I suppose that the one
who loves you the most is the one who forgave you the most.
He said, you rightly said. He said, I come into your house,
you never kiss me. I come into your house, you never
anoint my hand. I come into your house, and you
never wash my feet. But this woman, since the time she came in, she
has not ceased to wash my feet with her tears. She anointed
me And she dried them with the hairs of her head. And because
her sins, which are many, she'll love much, and all of them are
gone. You know what made her go in
there in that Pharisee's house, uninvited, unasked, and didn't
care what anybody thought about her and felt about her and said
about her? She had a need. She said, I'm
going to have Christ. I'm going to have him. I don't
care if he's in the Pharisee's house or wherever he is, that's
where I'm going. Oh, listen, let me tell you something
else about heart faith. Heart faith is genuine. I mean, it has Christ as its
object. It's born of need. Oh, do you need Christ? Do you
need Him? Do you really need Him? Do you really need Him? Really, really need Him. Or you just got it in your head
that yes, well, I accepted Jesus back when I was 22 years old
and I'm alright. I ain't never felt my need, but
I've accepted Jesus and the preacher told me I was alright and I joined
the church and I'm okay. Let me tell you something else
about heart faith, genuine saving faith. It agrees with the justice
of God. Let me show you that. Look over
in Psalm 51. I mean, where there's heart faith,
it agrees with the justice of God. It agrees with the way God
does things in this world. Look in Psalm 51. This is what I'm talking about
right here. David says this, verse 2. Psalm 51 to wash me throughly
from mine iniquity. Cleanse me from my sin. Oh my. Now listen to what he
says. For I acknowledge my transgression
and my sin as ever before me. And look what he says about his
sin and his iniquity that he has to be cleansed from, that
he acknowledged. He said, it's against you and
you only. Have I sinned? I've sinned. I acknowledge my sin. I acknowledge
my transgression. They're ever before me. But it's
you, it's you, it's you who I've done sin. And it's the evil that
I've done. You looked at me when I did it.
And you know what? When you've done that, he says,
you've justified. When you speak this, and you'll
be clear when you judge. If you don't forgive me, you're
clear whatever you do. Whatever you do. If you don't
want to cleanse me, you're still judge. If you don't want to wash
my name with it, you're still God. Because it's against you
I've done this. And oh beloved, and I'll tell
you why he said over here in this text that I gave to you
just a minute ago. God raised him from the dead.
Believe in thine heart that God raised him from the dead. Why
did God raise Christ from the dead? Why did Christ our Lord
die? Why? Why was the purpose of the death
of Christ? Why did God raise Him from the
dead? Why did He die? He didn't have any sin. The Father
delighted in Him, rejoiced in Him, and always found pleasure
in Him. I'll tell you why. Because God
was satisfied with his sacrifice. God was satisfied with his sin
offering. And God's justice says that's
enough. And raised him from the dead.
And set him on his own right hand. But people will say, well,
and he only died for those sins that God gave to him. And the
people have got sins. And people say, well, that's
not fair. God's not equal to just save His elect, to save
His own people. God raised Him from the dead.
He died for His people. God raised Him from the dead
for the justification of their sins. To set them free from their
sins. They said, well, that's not fair.
But God said to children, being yet not born, having done neither
good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election
might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth. God said,
Jacob hath a love, Esau hath a hate. And I tell you, I remember
one time, and you do too, in Matthew 20, a fellow went out
to hire some people to work for him that day. Went out to hire
some people to work for him. Six o'clock, they went out there
and they went to work. He went back at 9 o'clock, didn't
have enough to work for him, went back out there at 9 o'clock,
found some other fellas, took him out there and put him in
the field of work. He come at noon. He said, boy, still ain't
got enough. Found some more, put them at
work at noon. Then went at 3 o'clock, said, boy, I need some more workers.
Took them, put them to work at 3 o'clock, and then went at 5
o'clock. 5 o'clock. They're going to quit work at
3 now. I mean at 6. They're going to quit work at 3. He went out
at 5 o'clock and said, I still need another hand. So he took
them fellas out there at 5 o'clock. 6 o'clock rolled around. The boss said, go up there and
line up. He said, you'll get your pay
for the day. Well, that last fella, he got in line first.
You see, the last is always going to be first. Fella that ain't
got nothing, don't know nothing. Didn't do any labor at all. They
handed him a penny. He went down the line and said,
boy, that fella got a penny. He said, we started work at six
o'clock this morning. He went up the line and said,
hey, wait a minute. You mean that fella only worked
an hour and he's going to get the same thing we did? He says, it's my penny and you're
my labors. Can I not do what I want with
my own? Is your eye evil? You gonna find fault with me
because I'm good that I give the same to everybody? And people say, boy, that's just
not right. It is right to. You know, I'm telling you. It's
God's vineyard. It's God's penny. And we're God's
people. He'll give to us what He will.
And the last one, that person who always puts himself first.
I'm good. I'm righteous. I'm strong. I
can make it on my own. Ah, Jesus may work for you, but
He don't work for me. Well, I tell you what, let Him
go on and be first. I'll be last. Don't mind a bit.
Do you? Don't mind a bit. Oh, my. Let me ask you something. Do
you really want to accuse God of inequality? Inequality? Do you really know what's equal
for all? Do you really want what God would
give everybody equally? I don't. No, no. No, no. Whatever he gives me
is fine with me and you because you know what he gave me and
who he gave me. He gave me Christ Gave me forgiveness Gave me righteousness
Give me grace. Give me love Give me strength. Give me hope give me forgiveness
Give me justification gave me everything And I let me tell
you this. Let me hurry on Heart faith True
genuine saving faith has a love for God's way of salvation. They
have a way, a love for the way God saves a sinner. And you know
how God saves a sinner? I believe I preached it last
week. First thing He does is He elects them. He chooses them. Then He redeems them. He sends
Christ to die for them, pay for their sin. Then He predestinates
them to be called and justified and glorified. And He is sovereign
in doing this. I mean, He's sovereign. He's
sovereign to save whom He will to elect His people chosen in
Christ before the foundation of the world. Then He pays for
those people, pays for their sin, redeems them, and then predestinates
them all the way to glory. And I tell you what, beloved,
when a man, when a man to some degree lays hold by the grace
of God, and this is the only way you can do it, when they
laid hold of the holiness and righteousness of God, who God
is, majestic, eternal, immutable, pure, holy, oh my, righteous
in all of these dealings, just and pure, when you lay hold of
that, and then you lay hold by the grace of God, the corruption
of this awful flesh, this horrendous fallen nature that we have. And
we lay hold of his own wretchedness and his sinfulness. And he sees
the awful distance between him and God. He sees God and he sees himself. When he learns these two things
taught by the Holy Ghost, you know what he'll do? I'll tell
you what he'll do. And I know this is what he'll
do. He'll go home and he'll bow. He'll bow. He'll humble himself. And he'll say, God is God. And he can't be changed. No arguments
against his sovereignty. No arguments against his holiness.
No arguments against his justice. I heard about you with the hills
of the earth. Now my eyes sees you. And I abhor myself. And I repent, dust and ashes.
And the second thing He'll do, He'll long for it. He'll desire
mercy. Oh, God, mercy. I need mercy. I need forgiveness. And oh, He'll
pray and say, God, give me a place among the redeemed. Oh, God,
accept me, if you will, for Christ's sake. And the third thing he'll do
is he'll love and wrap his arms around that way of salvation,
which God puts down in His Word, that's in keeping with His attributes. He'll understand the election,
that it's absolutely necessary. Had not God chosen some, none
would have been saved. All men dead in trespassing,
all men have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Had
not God chosen some, none would have been saved. They'll understand
and they'll say, oh Christ, it's necessary that Christ should
come. It's necessary that Christ should
die. It's necessary that there had
to be a covenant between the Father and the Son because I'm
so unable to do anything for my own salvation. And he'll understand,
beloved, why God must intercede for him and must take up his
case and his cause. He'll understand those things.
And I'll tell you, that gospel will become the power of God
to him. That'll be the gospel that'll save his soul. And that'll
be the gospel that'll become the wisdom of God to him. And
let me go move on. I've taken too long. But, oh,
listen. Have you got this faith, this
saving faith? Let me tell you something about saving faith.
Heart faith will persevere. You know why it will persevere?
Because His way is established. Who established it? God did. He said there will be as trees
planted by the water. Who planted them there? God did.
Look in Matthew 15 with me just a minute. Look in Matthew 15.
This is what I'm trying to say. Look what our Lord said here.
Oh my! Trees of the Lord's planting.
Trees of righteousness. Vine that God planted. Oh my! He has set my feet upon
a rock and established my goings. And put a new song in my mouth.
Even praise unto God. Look what He said here. In verse
12, Matthew 15, 12. Then came his disciples and said
unto him, knowest not that the Pharisees were offended after
they heard this say? But he answered them and said,
every plant which my heavenly Father hath not planted shall
be rooted up. Oh, if God plants you, If
God plants you, I tell you, the winds will blow, the storms will
come, and the leaves will even stay
on. Look what he says, just let them
alone. They don't want it, they don't
want the truth, just let them alone. They're blind leading
the blind, for blind lead the blind, they'll fall into the
ditch. Oh my. And all men who logically,
men who logically, mentally accept something, they can be persuaded
to change the same way, logically and mentally. A man can be changed
with an emotional experience. Emotional experience. They made
a movie here just recently and this is going to make big splashes. This little boy, said that he
was taken to heaven and he walked around heaven seeing everything
going on in heaven and all that and they made a movie that I've
seen heaven. I went to heaven. Well this little old boy finally
he's grown up quite a bit and you know what he told them? He
said I made all that up just to get attention. Made it all
up just to get attention. They made a movie about him.
Big stars was in it. And he made it all up. So folks
say, boy, what a fine little boy. Fine little boy. Ah, he's been to heaven. Jesus
loved him so much, took him to heaven, let him see things. Oh,
my. Oh, listen. Saving faith perseveres. Perseveres. I'm telling you,
it perseveres. Oh, my. Well, I've lost one. What did I do with it? Did I
lose something? Here we go. Perseveres. I've lost one somewhere. But
anyway, hard faith will persevere. I believe I can finish without
it. I do know this, that hard faith will persevere. You know
why it will persevere? Because it's born of God. God said every plant which my
Heavenly Father hath not planted, it will be rooted up. And they go, listen, if you can
quit, I do know this, if you can quit, you will someday. If you can leave the gospel,
you will one of these days. And that scares me about myself.
I know that much about me. And I often pray, I pray this
way, Lord, you don't let my temptations and the opportunity meet at the
same time. If I've got the temptation, don't give me the opportunity.
And if I've got the opportunity, don't give me the temptation.
Don't let the Lord keep me. Preserve me. Edge me about. And
let me tell you something else. Heart faith. When you want heart
faith. Well, always those who have it
will die in that faith. They'll die in that faith. They'll
die believing. They'll die trusting. Die looking. Where they first started out.
To the Lord Jesus Christ. Let me show you that in Hebrews
11. Let me show you that in Hebrews 11. And all I will prevail in the day
of death and everything that God gives us. We understand that
it comes from the hand of God. Oh my. You know, God's the first
cause of everything. God's the first cause of everything.
And whatever the secondary causes He uses to teach us, to instruct
us, to humble us, or to take us out of this world, it comes
from the hand of God. It comes from God's hand. And
I tell you, heart faith will prevail in that day when a man
dies. These all died, right? In faith. In faith. This faith that I'm talking about,
this heart faith, is the foundation that we have in this life. And
it'll be the foundation that will be ours in the day of our
departure. This hard faith, this saving
faith, this obsession with Christ and our dependence upon Him and
our love for Him is something that only God can do. God can
give. This faith, this salvation, this
Our Lord Jesus, it's our life. We live by Him. And we'll look
to Him when it comes time to leave this world. I'd hate to
think I would dread to think that if I had to wait, I'd hate
to believe that and go out of here and be in an accident and
go into eternity without even saying a word. What hope would
a man have? Salvation is on this side of
the grave. And once you're in that grave,
there ain't no coming back. It's either there or there. No middle ground. Heart pays.
Saving pays. Have you got it? Our Father in the blessed, blessed
name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you for your gospel. Oh,
thank you for this faith. That faith that's the gift of
God. That faith that Lord is born
of you. That faith that's born of need.
That faith that has Christ and Christ alone to look to. And
only to Him. Oh, that faith that keeps us
looking, keeps us believing, keeps us cleaving, keeps us trusting. Keeps us walking by faith, not
by sight. Oh, thank you, Lord. Blessed
be your name. Grant, son, here to have that
faith. Give that faith. Strengthen that faith. Encourage
that faith. We ask in Christ's name. Amen. Amen. Turn to 327. And let's stand and we'll say
this and you'll be at liberty to go. This is the majestic sweetness. Oh, for a faith that will not
shrink, though pressed by many a foe, that will not tremble
at 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 feels no
doubt Lord give me such a faith as this and then whatever may
come. I'll taste it now, the hallowed
bliss of my eternal home.