Thy mercy, my God, is the theme
of my song. The most impossible task for
a man to perform is to exercise faith in Christ. Yet the Scripture
is clear that apart from a belief in Jesus Christ, a man shall
surely perish. The Lord told Nicodemus, For
God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son,
that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting
life. Then he went on to say, He that
believeth on him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is
condemned already, because he hath not believed on the name
of the only begotten Son of God. This was quite a shock for Nicodemus,
who, being a Jew, held to the notion that the physical descendants
of Abraham were the chosen people of God, whom the Lord loved.
The Lord told him plainly that he loved the world, having a
people out of every nation upon the earth whom he loved with
an everlasting love, and which he would make known by the gift
of faith. Most men believe that they possess
a free will, which puts them on a basis of actually being
more powerful than God, since they consider that they can thwart
his purpose by an exercise of their will. They think that they
can choose to believe or not believe as easily as picking
out a pair of socks from their dresser drawer. By nature men
will not believe, since they are dead in trespasses and sins
from which they cannot extricate themselves. Men are slaves to
their own nature, and this is the condemnation that light has
come into the world, and men love darkness rather than light.
Yet today we find multitudes who are convinced that they have
believed in Christ because they decided to. The basis of the
hope of those who have been given faith in Christ is in his resurrection. That hope is null and void if
the dead rise not, because if the dead are not raised, then
it is evidence that Christ is not risen. If Christ did not
rise from the grave, then he could not be triumphant over
sin, nor could the sacrifice of his own body for sin be acceptable
in the sight of the Father, since it would be a mere sacrifice
of corruption. But if there be no resurrection
of the dead, then is Christ not risen? And if Christ be not risen,
then is our preaching vain? And your faith is also vain?
If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all
men most miserable. Therefore if the gospel which
Paul preached is not true, then he says we have believed in vain.
It is not a matter of sincerity, emotional desire, or any activity
which men might perform that could cause their belief to be
true. The basis of the faith which saves is found in the object,
or basis, of that faith. The object of true faith is declared
in the preaching of the true gospel, as it is sent by the
power of the Holy Ghost. The preaching of the gospel is
the declaration of the truth as it is in Jesus. If the substance
of preaching is not the preeminence of Christ, who completely finished
the work of redemption and displayed it by rising from the grave,
in utter triumph over all his enemies and those of his people,
then such preaching is vain, and that upon which men might
claim to have faith is vain as well. Faith which is not in vain
is that which stands completely, not partially, upon its object.
The Jews stumbled at Christ, because they were quite unwilling
to jettison all hope in their own righteousness and forms of
religion. For going about to establish
their own righteousness, they have not submitted themselves
unto the righteousness of God. When my boys were little and
I took them each swimming for the first time, it took each
one of them a while to get acclimated to going in the water. Then we
would progress to being in the water where they could stand
up. Then the day would come when we would go to the deep end of
the pool. Each one would hold tightly to the side of the pool
with a death grip, and I would stand a few feet away and encourage
them to come to me. After a while, they would get
up the courage to let go of the side and come to where I was.
This was a longer process with some of them than the other,
but ultimately they each let go of the side of the pool and
would rapidly make their way to where I was, about two feet
away. Sometimes one of them would try to reach out to touch me
and still hold on to the edge, but I was always outside of their
reach. When their trust in me exceeded their fear of the unknown,
then they cast themselves off, and sink or swim, they came to
me. The man who claims to believe in Christ while still holding
on to a hope of his own righteous deeds, religious superstitions,
or free will faith is like they were when they would reach out
to me while still holding on to the edge of the pool. The
man who has confidence or hope in anything else but Christ has
believed in vain. True faith is that which casts
all its care into his hands. As Job confessed, though he slay
me, yet will I trust in him. Is your confidence in your ability
to believe, or is it in Him who died on Calvary for sinners? If you would like a free transcript
of this broadcast, email us at forthepoor at windstream.net.