We're here today on Mr. 60th
wedding anniversary. 60th wedding. Me and Mary will
make that easy. When you get married as kids, you might have
60 years in and still be young. Can't you? That's wonderful. And David and Pat Pledger have
their 50th wedding anniversary next Sunday. Got an email about that. Congratulations
to them. Some folks can't stay married
six, seven months, a year or two, and that does it for them.
I don't even bother getting married anymore. It's a wonderful thing. I want to ask you a question. How can I know I have saving
faith? You know, I brought a message
last Sunday, Seven Things Every Saved Person Knows. Well, how can I know I have saving
faith? How can I know that? You know,
Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them
that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness
of God and our Savior, Jesus Christ. He's writing to a particular
people, he says, they've obtained this precious faith. And they
obtained it through God who is righteous. They wasn't born with
it. In fact, it says that He gave
it to us, which I'll get to that in a minute. But how can I know
that I have saving faith? How can I know? Well, the short
answer is, saving faith has one object. If you believe something,
anything, you've got to have something or someone to believe
in. Faith is not in and of itself anything. You can't have faith
unless you have something or someone to believe in. I believe
in gravity. Why? Because things up has to
come down. I can see that. I can understand
that. And so what true preaching does
is sets before Men and women's minds are one object. And that's
the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, John the Baptist, he
had one message. He was a one-note preacher. He
said, Behold of the Lamb of God. They said, Are you the Christ?
I'm not He. There's one coming after me. I've just come to prepare
His way. He's mightier than I. He's before
me. He's preferred before me. Everything He said, He said about
Christ. He has to increase. I've got to go down. He's got
to go up. I'm nothing. He's everything. And our Lord Jesus Christ Himself
said, I'm the way. There's only one way to God.
If you're going to come unto the Father, you've got to come
by Me. God the Father said there is one person that we're to hear.
He said, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. You
listen to him. Moses is not your Savior. Elijah is not your Savior. Some by-prophets are not going
to do you any good. He says, the only person that
can do your soul any good, that can save your soul and teach
you and reveal himself to you, is my Son. So you listen to what
he has to say. And that's why Simon Peter said,
who are we going to turn to? You have the words of eternal
life. And the Holy Spirit reveals one
way in one person. Our Lord said this, He said,
When he, the Holy Spirit, is come, he shall not speak of himself,
but he shall take the things of mine, and shall show them
unto you. The things that the Father hath given me, that's
what he's going to teach you. So what true preaching does is
it presses men to faith in one person. And that's the Lord Jesus
Christ. The scriptures were written for
this purpose. Let me show you that over here
in 2 Peter. Look in John chapter 20 and verse
31. The scriptures were written for
that very purpose, is to make us and press us to faith in the
Lord Jesus Christ. John 20 and verse 31. You know, that's why Paul says,
you know, we men and brethren, there's only one man, one man
by whom you can be justified from all things. To him, all
the prophets give witness. But here in verse 31, it says
this, but these are written. Well, let's read verse 30, set
the context up. And many other signs truly did
Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written
in this book. But these are written that you
might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that
believing you might have life through His name, through His
authority, through His person. You know, let me say this about
saving faith. As we set Christ before the minds
of men, saving faith has some peculiarities about it that distinguish
it as saving living faith. And that is this, again, as I
said, saving faith has one object, and that's Christ Jesus the Lord.
Saving faith rests upon His person. We believe that He is the Christ,
the Son of the living God. We believe that He's the only
Redeemer. that he's as much God as if he
was not man, and as much man as if he was not God, and see
the necessity for God to be manifest in the flesh, to bear sins in
his own body on the tree. And beloved, we, saving faith,
rest upon his work, not our work, as only one person ever worked
their way to glory, and that was the Lord Jesus Christ. And
he had such merit, such worth in his own person, that He can
give all of His merit and His Word to all for whom He died,
and make every one of them accepted in the Beloved. And all we trust,
we believe Him and His offices as our Prophet, Priest, and King.
And of Him being in glory right now. Now when faith is brought
into question, like we're going to do this morning, like I'm
doing now, when a person's faith is called into question, You
ask somebody, I said, you know, I said, how can I know you have
saving faith? How can you know? How can I know?
And when faith is rested, saving faith is questioned, put in the
fire, looked at, examined, it never runs to an experience it
had. Now, hear what I'm telling you.
When you are hemmed up by the gospel and hemmed up by Christ,
and your faith is being hemmed up and questioned, It never runs
back to an experience it had. That's one thing that's horrible. People have an experience that
always stays old. Saving faith never runs to what
it did in the experience. Well, I know the time, I know
the place. I felt that. A woman told me one time, she
don't go anymore. She's been here for several years.
She said, you know, I was sitting in front of the courthouse in
my car and I began to call on the Lord and this great light
come into the car with me. So I know I'm saved. She went
through that experience. You cannot go to an experience. If you go through a good experience,
what are you going to do when you have a bad experience? The
devil is an angel of light. The thing that the devil tries
to do, he's like a funeral director. He wants to make the dead look
like they're alive. Oh, not only does it not run
to experience, it don't run to prayer. Oh, I know what I'm saying
because I pray. I can't help that. You know,
I pray all the time. I pray three times a day. Run
to their merit. Oh, you know, I help these people
out when their house was burnt down. Oh, you know, I give to
the health people. I help people when they're sick.
And I do all kinds of works and all that. Or I make my decision
for Jesus. But when faith, saving faith
is questioned every time at Trinity Crucible, it automatically runs
to Christ. Got no place else to go. It just turns to Christ without
thought, without feeling. I mean, it just does it. It can't
help itself. And oh, and if your faith, when
it's examined, runs to something, somewhere, someplace other than
Christ, let me be the first to tell you, you ain't got saving
faith. And oh, saving faith runs to
Christ as the souls only plead before God in a guilty conscience.
Let me give you some things about how can I know I have saving
faith, and I say Christ as its object. If your faith, if your
faith is saving faith, it has Christ as its object because
it was born of God. Ain't that what it tells us here? Ain't that what it says in verse
2 here? According as His divine power
hath given us all things that pertain unto life, Oh my! Verse 3, He's the one
that gave us this power to believe. He gave us everything that pertains
to life. And we've obtained like precious
things. How did we obtain it? Through
the very righteousness of God Himself. God gave His Son, and
the Son gave Himself. So that Christ and God could
give us faith. He wasn't born with faith. It's
not natural to us. So if we get it, God has to give
it to us. For by grace are you saved through
faith, and that's not of yourself. What is it? The gift of God. Could not possibly be a worse.
Why? Because if it was worse, a man
would boast. Oh, it's born of God. And it
says there, Whereby, in verse 4, whereby are given unto us
exceeding great breadth, not only does he give us life, but
he gives us precious promises in Christ. He gave us Christ
to believe because he is righteous. Look on you, Chief Pius, and
look with me in John's Gospel, Chapter 1. You know, this business of salvation
is too Eternity is too long, souls are too precious to be
mistaken about this. Ain't that right? Eternity is
too long, souls are too precious. And here it says in John chapter
1, in verse 11, talking about being our faith. If Christ is the object of your
faith, it's because it was born of God. Here he said he came
unto his own, verse 11, and his own received not, that is, to
the Jewish nation, to Jewish people. But as many as, and you
go through the scriptures and how many times you find as many
as, as many as were ordained to eternal life, believe me.
To as many as the Father hath given him. So there's a whole
bunch of as many as, but as many as received him, to them gave
he power to become, power to become the sons of God, even
to them that believe on his name. Now watch this. How did you receive
him? How did you get the power to
become the sons of God and to believe on him? Which were born,
not of blood, not by generation, not the will of the flesh, the
flesh and the free will of man didn't do this, nor the will
of man, but of God. Huh? That's where life comes
from. God gives it to you. Huh? Oh, everybody that's born of
God believes. He that believeth that Jesus
is the Christ is born of God. Alright, let me give you another
thing. If your faith has Christ as its object, it was born of
God. Second thing. If the Lord Jesus is the object
of your faith, And you have true saving faith. Your faith was
born of need. Born of need. Born of need. Pertain to life. Pertain to godliness. Obtain like precious faith through
God's righteousness. Look down there in the last part
of verse 4. Having escaped the corruption
that's in the world through lust. If you have saving faith, and
Christ is object of your faith, it was born of need, I mean,
beloved. Now, I know this, that where
there is no need, there is no faith. Huh? If you've never been lost, you've
never been found. That's true. I know that as well
as I know my own name. You've got to be lost before
you'll ever be found. Christ came to seek and save
what? That which is lost. Huh? Come to call not the righteous,
but who? Sinners to repentance. You see,
the Holy Spirit works upon the heart of the sinner. The heart
of the sinner. To convince him of sin. And that
word convince means to convict. Convict. There's lots of people
that's been convicted of crimes, but never been convinced that
they're guilty of the crime. But when the Holy Ghost convicts
you and convinces you what He does, He convinces you of sin. You're a sinner from the top
of your head to the sole of your foot. You're full of wounds,
bruises, and putrefying sores. And I'll tell you, your righteousness
becomes as filthy rags. Ain't that right? And, beloved,
then He comes and He turns around after He convinces you of your
sin. He sets forth Christ and His light and His glory and His
righteousness. And in light of Him, in light
of Him, we see our sin. You don't see your sin turn to
Christ. You see Him as we see you sin. Isaiah said, I saw the Lord high
and lifted up. Then he turned around and said,
woe is me, I'm undone. Job said, I heard about you with
the hearing of the ear. Now my eye sees you. I'll bore
myself and repent in dust and ashes. Oh my. Let me show you something over
here in John's Gospel chapter 9 about our Lord Jesus Christ
and people with a need. If you've never been a sinner,
you've never been saved. That's just all there is to it.
And I'm not talking about a preacher-made sinner, an eye-walking sinner,
a decision-made sinner. I'm talking about a Holy Ghost-made
sinner. Holy Ghost conviction is something people know very
little about. The only people who know anything
about Holy Ghost conviction is people who have been convicted
of the Holy Ghost. They don't want to know anything about it. That's a foreign language to
people, outside of God's people. But look here in John 9, in verse
39. Our Lord had just opened this blind
man's eyes, and these Pharisees were very, very upset about it.
The religious leaders were very upset about it. And our Lord
Jesus said this, for judgment I am come into this world. And
you know, he says, the Father judges no man, but has committed
all judgment to the Son. And he said, I am the one who
executes judgment. This word judgment in here, I'm
the one who decides. When a person sets in judgment,
I pass judgment on some, And the judgment I'll pass will be
according to righteous judgment. Now watch this. I am come a judge
into this world, and here's what he judges. This is the decisions
he makes. I come that they which see not
might see. That they which are blind, people
who cannot see, might see. I've made that judgment. If you're
blind, I'm going to make you see. That's the judgment I've
made. I've come into this world to
make that judgment. And some of the Pharisees which were with
him heard these words and said, are we blind also? Well, let
me go back up to verse 9. I've jumped ahead of myself.
And then the other judgment he makes is that they would see.
Oh, preacher, you can't tell me nothing. I know the way. I know when I'm saved. I know
how I'm saved. And I see You know, that I'm living right,
I see that I'm doing the best I can, and they tell you all
the things that they see. I see the prayers, this, I see
them, all these things. And he says, if they were seeing,
might be made blind. The blind are going to see. That's the judgment I came to
give. And the people who says, I can see, they're going to stay
blind. Now, it's a quickie, they say.
People who see are going to be left in blindness. People who
are blind are going to be able to see. He turns the world upside
down, don't he? Now watch this. And some of the
Pharisees which were with him heard these words and said, Are
we blind also? Are we one of these people that
are blind? Jesus said unto them, If you were blind, if you could
not see, you would have had no sin. But now you say, we see, we see
God, we stand in the streets praying, we pay tithes of everything
we possess, we know how to live right, we know how to keep the
law. Because you say, we see, your
sin is going to live with you until you die and go with you
into eternity. Huh? And you go through the Scriptures. Everybody that God's done something
for, Christ's done something for, they all had a need. Barbara
Mayes, sitting by the roadside, begging, said, Jesus, thou Son
of David, have mercy on me. What's the matter? I'm blind.
What do you want me to do? I want to see. Well, I said,
that's why I come here. That's the thing we still see.
The woman with the issue of blood, she said, if I could just but
touch the hip of his garment, he may hold. That thief on the
cross, he looked over and he saw a king hanging on a cross.
He saw the Lord of Glory hanging on a cross. He saw a wall he
was fishing to go into paradise and enter into his kingdom and
glory. And he said, Lord, when you come
to your kingdom, remember me. I'm here justly. I deserve what
I need to get. But this man's done nothing amiss.
And when you get there, will you remember me? And the Lord said, Today, shalt
thou be with me in paradise. Lepers came to him. And you know
what they said? Lord, if you will, If you will,
you can make me clean. Why do I need to make me clean?
Because I'm filthy. And he said, I will. Now, where
in the world is the people who see their need? Do you see a
need? Have you ever had a need? Do you need forgiveness of sins? Do you need cleansing from your
pollution? Do you need save from the world? Do you need save from
a wicked heart? Do you need save from self-righteousness? Do you seem safe from yourself?
Do you mean to be safe from your own flesh? Where are the people
who see their need? People will line up for miles
to see the Pope, but they don't see their need.
They'll go a long way to hear the Quartet, but they don't see
their need. They'll go to a religious movie
and just cry and carol and say, that's the most glorious thing
I ever seen, but they don't see their need. They'll stand in
line to go see the healer and the famous preacher, but they
don't see their need. Oh, there was a man like that
one time. He said, I had a righteousness
after the law. But he said, but when the law
came, sin got stirred up in me. When I saw that which was ordained
to be life, I found to be death. I found it cursed me. And he said, all my soul, he
said, I thought I was righteous. Now I look at that law and it
condemns me. It finds me dead. Finds me guilty. Shut my mouth. And he says, that
that I would do, I don't. That that I wouldn't, I do. I
see a war in me. If you ever had a war in you,
you don't know nothing about sin until you get converted.
You don't know nothing about righteousness until you get converted.
You don't know nothing about the warfare that goes on in a
man's heart until you get converted. I never had a benefit. Did you
have any problem with sin when you was unconverted? Never bothered your conscience
a bit to go lie and steal and cuss and drink and run somebody
else's wife? But now an evil thought can go
across your mind, pride can go through your mind, and it condemns
you. Oh, it makes you, oh, it just
hides your face in shame. What made the difference? Born
in need. You had a need. Christ put a
need in you. Huh? I needed Christ. And guess what? I need Christ. Peter said it this way, to whom
coming? as under a living stone. When
you come, you just keep on coming. When you have a need, you just
keep on coming. Ain't that right? And I know
why folks can find something more important.
They don't have a need. And the Lord Jesus is more precious
More precious, where the need is the greatest. He told Mary
when she washed his feet with her tears, and there's old Simon
in his self-righteousness, this woman whose sins are many are
forgiven, for she loveth much. Let me give you the third thing. Not only is it born of God, saving
faith is, not only that it has Christ as its object, and it's
born of need, But those who have Christ, whose faith has the Lord
Jesus as its only object, genuinely, genuinely agree with the justice
of God. And what do I mean by that? You
take side with God against yourself. You'll do like David. You know,
he sinned against Uriah, he sinned against Bathsheba. But you know what he said? It's
against you, you only, that I've sinned and done this evil in
your sight. It's against you that I've sinned.
When Abraham was asking God about what he'd do down in Sodom and
Gomorrah, he got down before him and said, Who am I but dust
and ashes that should be able to speak unto my Lord? Dust and
ashes to speak to God? That Syro-Phoenician woman came
to the Lord asking something to be done for her daughter.
Now, our Lord Jesus Christ said, He just ignored her and ignored
her and ignored her. And finally she just kept on
and on and on. And He said, I'm not sent but
to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. I never deterred her. She might
have been one of these lost sheep. She didn't know. But she just
kept coming. And the Lord said, It's not good
to give the children's bread to dogs. You know what she said
about it? She said, yes, Lord, you're right. I'm a dog. I'm
a dog. There's no doubt about it. I'm
not an Israelite. I'm not a Jew. And I'm a dog. Yes, you're right, I'm a dog.
But even dogs that hang around on the table get the crumbs.
And the Lord Jesus said, be it unto you. Huh? And she went away happy. Boy,
when you agree with God, you turn on yourself and you say,
God, everything you say about me is true. People say God's
way is not equal. Let me show you what equality
is. Look at Matthew 20. Look at Matthew
20. Just a moment. And you know, here's the thing
about it. People, you know, they won't argue with you, you know,
they'll want to talk about, well, if God, we agree with God's justice,
and what about the people in this country? What about the
people in that country? And what about my grandmother?
And what about my daddy? He didn't believe this way and
that way and the other way. That don't enter into the picture
when God, when you say Christ is the object of your saving
faith. Mama's got to do what she's got to do. Daddy's got
to do what he's got to do. And they done gone. There ain't nothing
we can do about it. We can't undo what's done anyway.
The only one we're interested in, huh? Will God accept me? Will God
have anything to do with me? That's the question. Now look
here at Matthew 20 and verse 10. Now he had been out hiring people
all day, this good man of the house, and he went out and hired
at 6 o'clock in the morning, 9 o'clock, 12 o'clock, 3 o'clock,
and 5 o'clock. At 6 o'clock the day was over.
And verse 10 says, But when the first came, the people that hired
at 6 o'clock, they supposed that they should have received more.
And they likewise, every man received a penny. And so when
they received, they lined up first to get their pay. And that's
what a lot of folks are going to do. They're going to line
up first to get their pay. Now watch this. And when they
received it, they murmured against the good men of the house. Oh,
this just ain't fair. This ain't right. These last
have brought but just one hour. And you've made them equal unto
us which have borne the burden and heat of the day. They had
something to brag in. They had something to boast in.
Now watch this. But he answered and said unto them, Friend, I
do thee no wrong. Dost not you agree with me for
a penny? Take what's yours, and go your
way. I'll give unto this last, even as unto thee. Now watch
this. Is it not lawful for me to do
what I will with mine own? Is your eye evil because I am
good? You mad at me because I'll treat
the last as good as the first? I'll give everybody exactly the
same. I'm not going to reward somebody more than somebody else.
I'm going to make everybody stand exactly the same in my sight.
Are you mad at me for doing that? Now watch this. Now watch this.
So the last shall be first. That fellow says, I'm nothing
and I'm nobody. I'll take the first. I said that
the Lord said I'd be privileged to be a doorkeeper in the house
of the Lord. And the first, oh listen, God
owes it to me. That's just not right. That's
not fair for Him to do like that. And the first should be last.
You want to be first? You want to take your place above
everybody else? You want to think you've done
something? You'll be last. For many a call, He calls a lot. But there's only a few that's
chosen. Alright, let me move on to my
next one. Those whose faith has the Lord Jesus as the only object
genuinely agree with the justice of God. And if the Lord Jesus
is the object of your faith, you will love, love the way God
saves sinners. You'll love it. You won't get mad when you hear
about election. No! You know why you won't? Because
you'll understand that He's not chosen me. I'd have never chosen
Him. That everybody's lost. Everybody's dead. Everybody's
without hope. And had not God chosen some,
everybody would have perished. Election don't close the door.
Election opens the door. Huh? Oh, and when you hear predestination,
you won't get bite in your fingernails. No! He says you predestinate
to be conformed to the image of God's Son, predestinate to
the adoption of children. And you believe because God ordained
you to believe? Oh! You certainly, when you hear
about God's high sovereignty, God rules and reigns and does
what He will, when He will, for whom He will. And He gives no answers to no
man. When you hear His sovereignty,
you don't get upset at that. You just bow down and worship.
See, even so, Father, it seems good in your sight. Now listen
to me. When men in some degree lay hold,
and they do this by the grace of God, lays hold of the holiness
of God, the righteousness of God, the immutability of God,
the holiness of God, the purity of God, the eternality of God.
When they, by some degree, by the grace of God, lay hold on
to that. And secondly, when by the grace of God, to some degree,
they lay hold of their corruption, the corruption of the flesh,
their unholiness, their wretchedness. When he sees the awesome distance
between him and the difference between him and God, He'll ask
one question. How can God be just and justify
me and have anything to do with me? That distance is so great,
and that difference is so great, that how in the world are we
going to span this great difference? Well, then God says before you,
the Lord Jesus Christ, the Gospel, being the power and wisdom of
God, God made His Son to be made of a woman. made under the law
he came here into this world as made under that law he faced
that law and beloved God laid on him the sins of his elect
and there is the wisdom and power of God to lay him on a substitute
to lay him on a sin bearer and beloved in Christ went to that
cross Made to be sin. Who knew no sin. The sins of
men and women upon Him. The sins of His elect upon Him.
Wounded by transgressions. And God laid it on Him. And look at the power of God
to put it on Him. And the wisdom of God to do it
unto Him. And when our Lord Jesus Christ
cried out, My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken Me? The cry
comes back, Because you're holy. Christ bore our sins away! And now when we hear Christ as
the sinner's substitute, Christ as the sinner's sin offering,
Christ is the one who satisfied God. That'll satisfy your conscience. Huh? Oh my. And when he learns these two
things, taught by the Holy Ghost, there's three things he'll bow
to. He'll bow to God. He'll let God be God. No arguments against His sovereignty,
His holiness, His justice. And the second thing He'll do
when He sees this, He'll long for, He'll desire for mercy. He'll desire forgiveness. He'll
want a place among the redeemed. He'll want God's acceptance.
He'll want God's approval, regardless of what anybody else says. And
oh, he'll love and embrace that way of salvation which God lays
down in His Word. Oh, election, you know why it
must be so? It must be this way. The only
way God could save me was somebody else bury my sins. I came down.
The only way I can be accepted of God is for somebody else to
be accepted in somebody else. Somebody who is holy. Somebody
who is righteous. Somebody who has already borne
sin. Somebody who sits at the right hand of the Father. And
I am the one, my God. That's the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, I want God to save me. That's
where you'll come to. I want God to save me. He's the
only one who can save me. And you'll come to this place
and you'll say, I do not, under no circumstances at any time
in my life, want to be responsible for my eternal salvation and
my destiny. I want to put my soul in the
hands of Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, and trust Him with
it for time and eternity. And if I had 10,000 like Him,
I could trust Him with every one of them. And I don't want to be
trusted with my own soul for one second after I've trusted
Christ. And oh, I've been loving, I'm
going to tell you something right here. So, oh, what's his name? L.R. Shelton used to say, boy,
hold on, we're fixing to jump a creek. Those who don't believe in God's
sovereignty, God being absolutely so, saving whom He will, saving
sinners through Jesus Christ alone, Saving people by election. Electing
them in Christ before the foundation of the world. Those who don't
believe in God's sovereignty are lost. And you'll say, why? Because everybody who knows God
knows that He is God, and He ain't a pretender after the fact.
They're not fussing with Him. They're not fighting with Him.
They're not arguing with Him. They're not got their fists raised
in His face. And said, what about my chance? What about my choice?
What about my power? What about my rights? He won't
do that. Huh? That's what He says, according
as His divine power hath given unto us. It's He that gave us
life. He that gave us godliness. He's
the one that caused us to be a partaker of His divine nature.
Alright, let me give you one couple more thanks and I'll be
through. Those whose faith in Christ alone, those who has Christ
as the object of their faith, and I say, do you have saving
faith? It is Christ's object. Those whose faith in Christ alone,
who He's the object of their faith, every single one of them
will persevere. You know that? Nobody will quit,
nobody will backslide, nobody won't get mad because things
didn't go right at the church and just leave. You can't run the sheep off.
In a goat, all he knows to do is butt, butt, butt, butt. You know why? Because his way
is established. Who established it? God established
it. He is that tree planted by the
rivers of water. Now let me tell you something.
A man's salvation is as good as the author of it. He which hath begun a good work
in you, what will he do? He'll perform it under the day
of Jesus Christ. I want to show you two things.
This is wonderful. Psalm 73. Psalm 73. This is absolutely wonderful.
I'm going to bring a message on some of these things here
real, real soon. Psalm 73, 71, excuse me, in verse
3, look what it says. Be thou my strong habitation,
whereunto I may continually resort." To whom coming? Now watch this.
Thou hast given commandment to save me. He sent a commandment. To do
what? To save me. Provide my rock and
my fruit. Why you saved? God said, go get
him. Look at Psalm 138, and then I'm
through. Psalm 138, verse 8. And I'm done. Saving faith. Have you got it? The cross is the object of it,
you do. If you ain't, you don't. Verse
8. 138 Psalm. The Lord will perfect. that which concerneth me." Mercy,
O Lord, endureth forever. Now, watch this. Forsake not
the works of thine own hands. Don't forsake them. It's His
work. It's His work. As He gave you saving faith,
as He gave you Christ, the Lord of God, the Lord of need, Jesus
is the justice of God, loves the way of God's salvation, and
He'll persevere. He'll persevere. Our Father, in the precious holy
name of Your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, thank You for this wonderful
privilege to be able to preach again concerning Your Son, our
Savior, our Redeemer. Bless the words to hearts, bless
the word to minds, bless it to understanding. Oh, Father, if
that soul has saving faith, and they've realized it this morning,
they've agreed with everything I've said, and it's touched their
heart, it's touched their soul, I pray that they'll be like the
Ethiopian on the Exodus. Lord, what doth hinder me to
be baptized? What doth hinder me? So Lord,
God, bring men to the confession. Bring men and women to faith
in Christ. Lord, we pray that you would save sinners. Save
your people in this place. Oh God, sinners need saving.
And they won't know they need saving unless you create the
need. And oh God, create the need. Create the need for Christ's
sake. Amen.