I want you to turn to the book
of Hebrews. I want to say a word to those
of you who are full of doubt. Doubters. And many of us have
gone through a period of doubt. Not lately. It's been wonderful
to live by faith and to trust God when everybody's totally
saying, that's never going to happen. There's always doubters. Thomas was a doubter. Manic,
depressive, bipolar. In the Bible. I read these words
from an old Puritan last night, and I want to read them to you.
This is what he said. He was bringing them. He said,
Some in this place are always busy weaving fresh nets of doubt
for their own entanglement. You ever just doubt and doubt
and doubt? You can't believe anything. Just doubt and doubt
and doubt and doubt. And then you get caught in your
own Net of entanglement. You invent snares for your own
feet. You invent traps for your own
feet by your doubts. And are greedy to lay more and
more of them. I loved my mother. I still love
my mother. But she loved to find things
to worry about. She worried about worrying. The
old Puritan said, you are mariners who seek the rocks. Now that's
crazy if you're a ship captain. You don't seek the rocks. Soldiers
who court the point of the bayonet. It is an unprofitable business.
The old preacher said, practically, morally, mentally, spiritually,
doubting is an evil trade. You are like a smith, you know,
a guy that works with metal. You are like a smith wearing
out his arm and making chains with which to bind yourself.
Doubt is sterile. That means it never produces
anything that's good. Doubt is sterile. Doubt is a
desert without water. Doubt discovers difficulties
which it never solves. It creates hesitancy. It'll paralyze you. You won't
move. It creates despondency. It creates despair. Its progress
is the decay of comfort. The more you doubt, the less
comfort you have. Doubt never has done anything
for you. It is the death of peace. To doubt, you will never have
peace. Believe is the word which speaks
life into a man. But doubt nails down his coffin
if you can only believe. You've heard me say this many
times. Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief. And if I was
to ask the Lord for one special gift, help me to believe you
more. Help me to trust you more. Help me to believe that you're
able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that ask or think. It's true. Faith is the victory.
You're never going to have victory over anything until you believe
God. In fact, you're never born again. You are not a Christian. until
you come to the point of believing God. I didn't say believing in
the big guy upstairs. I get emails all the time from
people who are not, I don't believe they are Christians. religious,
but they're not Christians, about what the big guy upstairs is
doing for Grace Centers of Hope and Grace Gospel Fellowship.
The big guy upstairs gave us the clutch cargo. The big guy?
You can believe in the big guy upstairs and die and go to hell.
Who is the big guy upstairs? What did he do? Doubt. Now, I
want to read a passage of Scripture in the book of Hebrews. Hebrews
chapter 11. Verse 5 first, "...by faith Enoch
was translated that he should not see death, and was not found,
because God had translated him. For before his translation he
had this testimony, that he pleased God." Enoch pleased God. That's the first thing I want
you to see. Enoch pleased God. But without faith, it is impossible
to please Him. For he that cometh to God must
believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that
diligently seek him." So, you want to please God, do you? You
want to please God. That's great. And our old catechisms,
they would write, what is the chief end of man? And they would
answer, to what? Glorify God and enjoy Him forever. They could have shortened that
down in this way. What is the chief end of man?
To please God. Please God. That's the chief
end of man. To please God. Now, the passage is very clear.
Without faith, you can't please God. Do you know that when I
am walking in faith, not doubting, I'm pleasing God? Isn't that
something? We're all, religious people are so busy thinking that
they're pleasing God. Be still, shut up and know that
He's God and trust Him. There's nothing too big for God.
What is your problem? Your problem is you won't trust
God. Honestly, all of our doubts,
all of our fears come out of this. Trust in God. You say,
well, Pastor, do you always, you know, walk inside? No. No. A few days ago, well, it's been
about ten days ago, I was walking through the old clutch cargo
building. I said, Lord, are we going to
make it? I mean, you just need to go in
that thing sometime and take a peek. When you see it finished,
I hope we can all get some real close-up views of what it's like
in there now. The guys tearing out the bars.
Tomorrow, the third floor balcony comes down. And by the way, I'm
thinking about sometime soon when it's safe to go in there
from the construction and maybe have an all-day prayer meeting
and cast out the demons. They're in there. You'd be surprised. I started
to say, you'd be surprised what we're finding in there. But I'm
sure you wouldn't. Ten dollar cover charge, you
could do anything in there you wanted to do. That was illegal. Anything. Anyway, faith. Without
faith, it's impossible to please God. Think about this now if
you're a child of God. And some of you have got off
track. Some of you have relapsed. Some of you have done this or
that. Some of you suburbanite people got away from the Lord.
Maybe you was in a church bus. Church fights. Church split.
And you know, you're all, I don't know, this thing doesn't work.
And you're in a state of just, here's the answer. It's true. You can please God. Things can
be great. With even hell popping. Things
can be great. Trust God. And I know what some
of you are saying, too. That just can't be. It's too
simple. Well, let me ask you this. Your
way, doing it your way, has it been a simple way? I mean, is
all of your doubts and fears working out for you, and life
is good, and you praise the Lord every day? There's no way for
a Christian to be happy separate and apart from trusting God.
No way. And I understand this. You're
probably like myself. I was thinking this last night.
But I have so many imperfections and so many infirmities. I just don't think I can do it. Are you going to believe yourself
or are you going to believe God? You, child of God, can please
God. And it's just this simple. Trust
Him. Knowing that He is. And who He
is. Is there anything... Let me ask
you. How far have you fallen? Have you fallen so far as a child
of God that God can't reach you? Why, God says, if you be found
in hell, I'm there. No little child of God can fall
so far as the eye of God does not see him. Look and live. Just look and live. I understand how you feel. But
if you're a Christian, the highest law of your being, your greatest
desire is obedience to Him who is the Lord God. Above everything
else, if you're a Christian, you want to please Him and you
cannot do it. I know some of you are like this,
I quit smoking. You think God's jumping up and
down with that? Well, I've been clean 60 days. Well, God must
be smiling. First of all, you need to lose
the eye. I did this. I did that. This
thing of trust, this thing of faith, this thing of believing
God, it's the last thing a man will do. How many rehabs have you been
in? It would have been a lot simpler, 16 rehab back, if you
just trust God. Now, I don't believe that. Oh,
no, I don't believe that. I don't believe that. Well, let
me ask you this. Is God more powerful than crack?
Then why don't you trust God? Well, that's something I can't
get away from. How about trusting God? I guarantee you this. If, in true faith, Spiritual
faith. Now, I'm not talking about faith.
If I sit down in this chair, it's an exercise of faith because
I didn't look under the chair, see if all the screws and bolts
and nuts are there. I didn't say, I wonder if that
thing will hold me up. In faith, I sit down. You'll
get a bowl of cereal out. You don't know where that cereal
came from. Open a fresh box. You never say, I wonder if there's
any bugs in the cereal. You don't go through every flake
of cereal. You get out of the refrigerator,
you get some white milk that came from a black cow from who
knows where, and you pour it in that, that's faith. But that's
not saving faith. This faith that we're talking
about today, this faith that pleases God, is a knowledgeable
faith. In other words, it is a faith
that embraces this, I can do nothing to save myself. I know
this God sent His only begotten Son into the world. And it's
an ascent. It is a faith that says, I know
it's true. On Christ the solid rock I stand. All other ground is sinking sand. In the cross, in the cross be
my glory ever. I'll not leave the cross. I'm
trusting God in the power of the blood. And that alone. I dare not trust my own. That
kind of faith. And it's a trust that's active.
When was the last time I believed? Well, just about two seconds
ago. I'm trusting Christ. That kind
of faith. This is the one object of my
life. This is what I'm reaching out
to. You think what God could do with this church and with
a pastor who would believe God? What if all of us in here today
were believers? And I don't mean just believing
there is a God. I mean knowing God and trusting
God. What if all of us in here, when
something was mentioned like clutch cargo? Oh, that ain't
going to happen. That ain't going to happen. You
know, that preacher is after that Bible. It ain't going to
happen. Some of you have been such encouragers to me along
the way. Pastor, I don't want to hurt
your feelings. And you always do it in such a phony religious
way too. I'm all excited. Have you ever
had anybody do this to you? You're all excited about something
you believe God has told you is going to happen. It ain't
going to happen. I don't want to burst your bubble. Then shut
up! I can do all things through Christ
that strengthens me. Nothing is impossible. It's true. I want to live for His pleasure.
And if my trusting Him pleases Him, that's what I want to do
most. You want to please God? You were
created to please God, not yourself. Right? Please, God. I would encourage
those of you who are religious, but you don't know God and this
whole faith thing. You know, there's something in
that story of Cain and Abel. There's something in that story.
I mean, Cain, he brought good stuff. He brought the best stuff. But Abel seemed to have something
Cain didn't have. Abel seemed to embrace that there
was a perfect Lamb of God who was to come. He had some kind
of faith in bloodshedding and believed that there was going
to be a sacrifice, even though it was fresh from the mouth of
God when Adam and Eve sinned. God said, I'm going to give you
a promise. A Savior's coming who's going
to stomp the head of Satan and revert this whole thing for many.
Abel, I don't know what he knew. You think about what we know.
that Abraham did not know. I mean, we look back, right?
You think about maybe the gimpiness in the sense of all of the blood
offerings of the bullocks and the lambs and the goats and all
of that bloodshed in the Old Testament. But we look back to
a cross, to a man at Calvary who shed his blood. Not a type,
not a symbol, but the real thing. God has come to earth. And by
faith, I believe that every day. Every single day. And I have
peace, for the most part. A great peace. You know when
I have the greatest peace? When I'm believing God. You know
when I have a special happiness? When I know it is well with my
soul. I'm trusting God. You know, when
I have a really special happiness, it's when I know for certain,
and we know that all things work together for good to them that
love the Lord, to them who are called according to His purpose.
If I could live in that every day, I'd have a little heaven
on the way to heaven. Oh yeah, but all of this mess
is happening. Ah, God can work that out. God
can work that out. In fact, He's promised to bring
good out of that mess. You know what? I'm not going
to keep my eyes on the mess. I'm going to keep my eyes on
my God. And I'm going to trust Him. That's what I'm going to
do. What you ought to thank God for
is this whole thing here at Grace Gospel Fellowship. It's a whole
faith thing. There is nothing happening here that I did or
you did. This place is a miracle. It is
a miracle place. It's kind of amusing to me when
people say to me, are you full of gospel? I say, full and running
over. I'm full and running over. I
believe that gospel. I lavish in that gospel. I wallow in that gospel. And I run to that every day.
You've heard me say this, many of you, some of you visiting
with us. But every morning I need about $30,000. Every single morning of my life
just to run that ship over there. You think about missing that
for about 30 days and it not coming in. Just think about that. And then look at us. For the
most part, most of us in here, let's see how much I got in my
pocket. Well, I had a dime this morning.
Somebody borrow my dime? I mean, you look at what's going
on here every single day. Faith is the victory. Pleasing
God. God smiling. You want to quit
worrying, quit fretting, quit doubting. Trust God. I really didn't know that we
could put a smile on the face of God. Please God. I don't know
what all that means, but I know this, without faith, you can't
please God. Faith is absolutely essential
to the pleasing of God. Notice that word, impossible.
You probably ought to highlight that. He doesn't say it's difficult
to please God. He doesn't say it's barely possible. But he says, point blank, it's
impossible. So you're not going to please
God at all without faith. It's impossible. Don't think
you're going to please God by some invention of your own. By
some keeping of the commandments? Or by doing something good? Some
of you have been in church so long that you think, and you've
heard the message so much, that you have to be good enough and
finally you win the favor of God. God's favor is undeserved. It's unmerited favor. Some of
you think because you go to a certain church that God's going to accept
you. No church has ever saved anybody,
especially this one. Just between us girls, aren't
we a mess? I mean, look at us. In fact,
here's what the Bible says about all of your doings. All of your
doings are like a menstrual cloth. Literally, a filthy rag. That's the Ken James version.
A filthy rag. All of your work. are a filthy
rag in the sight of God. God isn't pleased with any of
your stuff. God is pleased with you trusting Him and believing
what He said and who He is and what He's done. Without faith, you're as one
who is dead to God. You're dead to God. You're like
a dead thing to God without faith. Faith is the essence of spiritual
life. You're trusting God. You don't
have life if you're trusting yourself, if you're trusting
the Ten Commandments. Besides, you haven't kept the
Ten Commandments. You don't even know them. If you have no faith,
if you have no faith, you can no more commune with the living
God or give Him pleasure than a stone or a horse or an ox. Because you can't commune with
God. You don't trust God. You don't have faith in God.
You say God's a liar. How are you going to commune
with God when you're dead to God? You're going just the opposite
from what He said. Trust Me. Believe on My Son. He's the sacrifice. He's the
substitute. He's the Savior. You know, the
truth is God is first pleased by faith, and then alone is God
pleased with your gift or your work. All of your works God is
not pleased with at all unless you're fully trusting Him for
salvation alone and having no confidence in what you're doing.
Everything you bring to God is an offense to God before you
trust Jesus Christ. So you can slick yourself up
all you want, come all and religious, shiny to God, and He will send
you to hell. Because truly, you don't love
God. You're trying to do it your way.
And you call God a liar. God has said this. I thought
of this verse a lot this week. It repented the Lord that He
had made man on earth. And it grieved Him at His heart.
My soul loathes them, and their soul also abhors me." That's
the state of man without faith. God abhors you, and you abhor
God. It's impossible to please God. So you're sitting here right
now, and you're a Methodist, Catholic, Baptist, Presbyterian,
Episcopal. By the way, I'm getting emails
now saying I shouldn't call. you know, church denominational
names. I'm going to hurt somebody's feelings. I'm going to tell you
this. You can trust all the churches
in the world and spend eternity in hell. Churchianity is an offense
to God if it's put in front of Jesus Christ. You know what got
me thrown out of the Baptist church was? I said, you've got
the cart before the horse. It shouldn't be a denominational
name. It ought to be Christ first.
Right? Christ first. We ought to be
noted not as Baptists or Presbyterians or whatever. We ought to be noted
as Christians who believe Christ is all. And we point to God and
give Him glory and praise and honor. You know, I know there's
churches ten times as big and all the mega-churches just getting
bigger and bigger and bigger. But you know what? I don't mean
this in necessarily a bad way. I've got to hear a bloody Gospel.
I've got to hear there's power in the blood. I've got to hear
there is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins.
I've got to hear it was not me, it was God. It was His grace. It was His mercy. I've got to
hear the wondrous story of God coming to earth. And I believe
it. I believe it. I was thinking
last night, And I was singing it with joy about, you know,
it probably won't be too long. It probably won't be too long
for me. Maybe five, ten years. Maybe at the most. Maybe or maybe
a little longer. It won't be too long. But, but, thank you for that. But
I'll tell you this. I won't be counting on holy water
being flicked in my face when I'm about to cross Jordan. I
won't be depending on this church. I'll tell you what I'm going
to contemplate is this. He died in my room and in my
stead. And the grave is nothing for me. Because there's a resurrection
day. And He saved me. Do any of you
ever think about the things you've done that only maybe one or two
people know? And they're not little things
either. Have you ever thought, what if you carry those right
up to the moment you take your last breath and you're thinking
about them? Do you have a remedy for that?
I mean, what a horrible thing! You know some of you are going
to be shocked when you get to heaven. Because it's important where
you go to church. It's important what you hear. It's important. That's why God
gave you two ears to listen twice as much as you talk. Get you
a Bible. You can prick this Bible. It
bleeds with the blood of Jesus Christ. It's a hymn book. Think about your Himalayas, your
mountains of sin. You say, well, I don't think
I have that many. Well, that's because you're thinking
about things you haven't done. Just think about the things you've
thought about doing. Now they get big. Think about the things you should
have done that you haven't done. Like not trusting God. Like you're going to get up in
the morning. Good Lord, it's morning. Not good Lord, it's
morning. another day that the Lord's made.
I'll rejoice and be glad in Him. I wonder what He's going to do
today. I know this. I won't have to
cross Jordan alone. Jesus died all my sins to atone. When the darkness I see, He'll
be waiting for me. I won't have to cross Jordan
alone. I'm trusting Him. I'm riding
the river with this. Trusting God. Have you ever had
people let you down? If you're alive, you have. Somebody
close to you let you down? You better not trust anybody
else. Not for salvation. It is mockery for us to go anywhere
except to God in faith. It's mockery to Him. Reconciliation
can only be effective through the death of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And if we have no faith in that way of reconciliation, we can't
please God. You think about this. God said,
this is the apple of my eye, this is my boy, this is my son.
Believe on him and thou shalt be saved. And you say, here's
a nice shiny apple I brought you today. I grew it on my tree. All by myself. Don't you love
it? God said, I told you to trust
my son. Let me ask you this, too. If
you only had one boy, and he was a pure, spotless boy, he
was a good boy, he was without sin, and some rapist raped a
little girl, kidnapped her and raped her, cut up her body, went
to prison, was on death row, and, I mean, this is really out
there, but that father was willing to give his only son who had
never done anything wrong. And that boy died in that rapist's
place. And then the father, somehow
or another, was in a restaurant and the rapist came in and sat
near the father and his friend. And the conversation was going
like this between the rapist and the rapist's friend. He goes,
you know, that guy who gave his son didn't do much. Basically,
I'm a pretty good guy. How do you think that father
would feel? Well, I'm going to tell you, that's a poor illustration,
I guess. But think about the Heavenly
Father who gave His only begotten Son, and you're sitting here
talking about, I'm going to go to church and get saved. I'm
going to keep the Ten Commandments and get saved. It wasn't much
what God did. I'm just going to keep on being
religious. You think about what an offense that is. I think about
this. As much as I want to trust Him
more, I want more faith. I think about things like this,
you know, what would he do if I trust him more? I want to give
it a try, don't you? I want to give it a try. I guarantee you this, the more
you trust him, and by the way, when those doubts come up, you
need some powder in your gun. You need to tell Sluput to leave
you alone. I'm telling you this, many of
you don't enjoy life, not because you're not saved, but because
the devil steals your joy by taking you away from just knowing
this. Everything's working for your
good. If you could only believe that, if we all could enter into
that. If I can't trust God, I can't
love God. Don't say you love God if you
don't trust God. If you don't trust God, you don't love God.
Without faith, it's impossible to please God. God's pleasure
in us It is impossible without faith. Think about it. When the
creature dares to doubt his Creator, how can the Creator be pleased? I'm having a lot of doubt in
the One that created me. I just don't think He can do...
Look at you. Without faith, I'm at variance
with God. When I seek another way of salvation,
I'm at variance with God about how to establish a righteousness.
You know, to go to heaven, you've got to have perfect righteousness.
You've got to be as good as God to go to heaven. And I haven't
met a person yet that good. God's love to Christ is supreme. Another way of salvation is antichrist. If you're trusting your church,
your works, your whatever, Antichrist. You are against the Christ of
God. By faith, I embrace the Christ
of God. I say, you're right. I trust
you. I know this is the only way.
I know many of you, many of you come here because that's all
you want to hear. And that's all I preach. That's
right. But some of you come here and
go, is the guy ever going to get off his hobby horse? He preaches
that all the time. For those who are asking that
question, never, no never, no never. You know, one of my greatest
fears is that my last sermon won't be Christ-centered. That's
one of my great fears. That I would die and my last
sermon, you'd go, oh, that last one wasn't really on. Some of
you try to bribe the Lord with money. Do you know that little
widow who gave that half a penny? She gave more than they all because
she gave all she had. It's not how much you give, it's
how much you have left. You can't bribe God that way. Besides, the silver and gold
and the cattle on a thousand hills are all His. Here's the
key word. Must. He that cometh must believe
that He is. Now, I know some of you are sitting
out there going like this. Well, where does faith come from? You know, Romans says this. Faith
cometh. Where does it come from? Let
me tell you this. I've been telling you to trust
God. Do you know faith is a gift? You can't muster it up. I can't
preach it up. I can tell you this, though,
without faith you won't please God. But what happens is the
strength of God comes inside of you. The power of God quickens
you and gives you faith. For by grace are you saved through
faith. And that faith is not of yourself. It's a gift of God. Well, what? Say, well, what am I to do? Stoop. Way down low. You're walking too high. You're
walking too high. Get down real low. I mean, get
way down there. Way down there where you're nothing.
And cry out, Lord, I'm nothing. You're everything. That's what
I'm talking about. I'm trusting you. I'm going to
ride the river with you. I dare not trust my own. A strength
comes inside of us. It's called sovereign grace by
a sovereign God. I heard somebody say, well, you
know, I would go over there, but somebody said this. Clark
believes in election and, you know, he doesn't believe everybody
has a free will. Parsley last night said, God
died for everybody. Christ died for everybody. And now it's your action. God
has done all He can. I'm so glad that's not true.
You got a God that's done all He can? Not me. I'm trusting a God who
can do whatever He wants to, whenever He wants to, however
He wants to. Quit talking about your will.
Your will is enslaved. I said I'm going to reform myself
a bit, but I have to say this. No addict should be trusting
their free will. Look where your free will got
you. Free as a bird. And so stupid
you use white powdery stuff Your free will. You chose it. You
did it. Believe this. You better have
this. That a power comes inside of you bigger than you. Because
if it doesn't happen, you'll go to hell willingly. Deliberately. You'll keep on choosing hell. See, you need to be overcome.
Get down. Hoist the white flag. Lay the
shotgun down. Surrender to Jesus Christ. And
here's how simple it is. If you can just get there where
you're nothing and He's all. And I say this, believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. And somebody back there
goes, oh, thank you God! I came in here such a mess! Hopeless,
helpless! But during this discourse, I
believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. You know what makes today exciting?
I thought about it this morning. Somebody today is going to walk
in that 210 North Perry Building, and they're going to hear the
Gospel of Jesus Christ. And in all of their mess and
mire, they're going to venture on Him. They're going to trust
Him and Him alone. Some folks... Wait till we get
over there. Fancy folks will start coming over there because
they like the looks of the building. They like the music. They like
this, at least for a while. until they find out I'm going
to call them scuzzballs and no good for nothing. But think about this. You know,
I was thinking about this and been praying about this, and
I'm trying to get past this. It's your fault. I was thinking
about this. Wouldn't it be great if some
big shot came in there and got saved? I mean, they came over
to check out, you know, the architecture. The transformation of the bar
to a church building. And God said, Gotcha! Wouldn't that be something? And they come forward in the
service confessing Christ. And here comes Lucy May. She's
been a whore on the streets of Pontiac for most of her life. She's in rags. And she comes
trusting Jesus Christ, and she's born of the Spirit of God. That's
what I'm talking about. That's what I'm talking about. I'm almost Pentecostal right
now in myself. I've got my own goose bumps.
If I can't get you to get goose bumps, I'm going to have my own.
Grace that is greater than all our sins. I'm going to trust
God. I'm going to venture on Him.
I'm going to go home today trusting God. What are you going to do
tomorrow? I've already been thinking, what happens when we fill that
building? What happens when God fills that building? Oh, we're
going to move on. That's a small thing. Don't get
to thinking it's over when we get over there. We're just expanding. Right? Just beginning.