All right. Before we begin the message, we'll go to God in prayer again. Ask your prayers for me. I've been over this message a lot. It seems like I go over the message, and the more times I go over it, the more it grows. And the more it grows, the less I get to tell you. I'm not going to be able to tell you all that I got. I can't give it all at one sitting.

So I do pray that God would bless the word today and make it effectual, pray for that. Pray that God would use it. And I'm so thankful for his grace. What would we do without grace? What would we do without mercy? Could you ever live without knowing The mercy of God, it would just be too hard. There would be nothing if I didn't have His mercy. If I didn't have Christ, there wouldn't be anything.

But I do. I do, and that means everything. It means everything. If you have Christ, you have everything. I pray that God would show us today, I'm gonna be speaking about, I'm gonna be talking about faith. Faith in Christ. So, put this on your heart. What in the world is genuine faith? What is that? What does that look like? The serious question is, am I genuine? That's the question, isn't it? I mean, we worry about other people believing. I worry about my children believing and other people believing. We should be concerned with this, is my faith real?

The Lord's gonna reveal to us what real faith is. And every believer that has it is going to identify and say, well yeah, that's it, that's right. And by God's grace, we can rejoice. If we are sure that our faith is a gift of God, then man, what a joy that is. So pray the Lord bless the message to our hearts today.

Pray for other churches without pastors. Please don't forget to do that. Think of others that are without and pray God would send men into the ministry. I learned of at least one or two the other last few weeks, so that was good news. I was really encouraged to hear of some men taking up the mantle that God has given them. And that's good news. So pray that God would send men to the ministry.

Pray for those that are sick. If your brethren are here, if there's people around you not here, there's reasons. And we ask that God would heal those things and draw his people back to himself. And I'm confident that's going to happen. So pray for it, and I know God will bless it. Let's go to him in prayer. Our gracious Father, we bow again before you, thanking you for Jesus Christ, our Savior.

Father, I confess that I have no strength in myself, no ability this morning in myself. I completely lean upon you to deliver your word to your people, confessing I am merely a vessel. And I desire, Father, this morning to be filled with thy spirit, and by the grace and power of thy spirit, that you would pour out your word to your people in their time of need. that you would comfort them, that you would strengthen them, encourage them. And Father, I do pray this day that if there are some outside of Christ, that you would even this day bring them in, draw them to yourself with an irresistible power of your Spirit and demonstration of that power by giving them faith. I pray, Father, that you would bless this congregation, bless us, and continue to bless us with unity and love. Father, you would not allow the things of the world to creep in here, but you would shield us from this present evil world and shield us even from the abiding sinful flesh that dwells in us.

Give us this time that we should rejoice and give praise for Jesus Christ, our Savior and our King, our God and our Friend. Help your churches. What we're asking for for ourselves, we ask for them. We pray that you'd give them pastors after your own heart. Raise up men to preach the word. Heal those in our congregation that are sick. Show again your power to heal to strengthen, to encourage, and forgive us our sins, break our cold hearts. We should adore Thee and worship Thee. And I pray this in Jesus' name and for His sake. Amen. John chapter 8. John chapter 8. The text will be found in verse 30, down to verse 32. I'm not gonna get much to verse 32, but I'd like to mention it, so I'm just gonna read it.

Scripture says, and as he spake these words, many, many believed on him. Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If you continue in my word, then are you my disciples indeed, and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. I've entitled this, True faith tried. True faith tried.

Now it says, And as he spake these words, these words began back in verse 12 when the Lord declared this statement, I am the light of the world. This statement was clearly understood to be of the Christ. I'm not going to take the time, but there are many scriptures in the Old Testament, and I'll give you a couple of them, that the prophecies concerning the Christ was that He would be the Light, the Light. In Isaiah 42, in verse 6, it says, I the Lord have called thee in righteousness, and will hold thine hand, and will keep thee, and give thee a covenant for the people, listen, for a Light unto the Gentiles. In Malachi chapter 4 and verse 2, He is described as the Son of Righteousness, rising, healing in His wings. So when He said that, I am the light of the world, this was readily known.

And this is why the Jews began immediately to denounce Him. They said, Your word's not true. You're testifying of yourself. Your word's not true." And he said, look, if I testify of myself, my word is true. But I'm not the only one that testified of me.

The Father has testified of Him over and over by giving Him power to perform these miracles. They witnessed it with their own eyes. They heard His Gospel with their own ears. They felt the power of His Word just before when He did that woman taken in adultery. You remember when He said, He is without sin among you, cast the first stone. They felt the power of that. And they left. Their own conscience pricked them and they left.

And He confessed His power by forgiving that woman. And then He confesses, I'm the light of the world. I'm the Christ. I'm the Christ. And so they began to doubt Him. But these words caught me. These words right here in our text. As He spake these words. And he's speaking about his deity, about him and the Father. The Father sent him. He's going to come and he's going to be lifted up. He's going to die. And he says, when I am raised up, you shall know that I am. You're going to know something when I am raised up again. And the scripture says, and many, after he spake these words, believed on him. They believed His testimony. And so this morning, that's a question we should ask ourselves.

Do I believe? Do I believe on the Son of God? Do I believe that He was sent of the Father? Do I believe that he is God manifest in the flesh? Do I believe that he died for the sins of his people and was raised again for their justification? Do I believe he now sits on the throne of God ruling all things after the counsel of his own will? Do I believe he is all my salvation? Do I believe? These confessed. They professed. But our Lord was not content to let them just say it. Look what our Lord does, he puts it to the test.

He said this in verse 31, to those that believed. Listen, if, if, now if you believe, if you really believe, listen to what he said, if you continue in my word, then are you my disciples Indeed These people profess now if you read the rest of this chapter, you're gonna see something that happened Though there were some of those people that profess to believe on him by the end of this chapter. They want to kill him That's not all of them But some professed, and by the end of His message, they were ready to stone Him. That's why He said this, If you continue in My Word, only then are you My disciples indeed.

And so I want to point this out first, the necessity of faith. Faith is necessary. Go to John chapter 3. Look over a few pages, John chapter 3. I want you to see the necessity of this. Because only those that believe on Christ shall be saved. Nobody else. Only those that believe. Look what he said in verse 13. No man hath ascended up to heaven.

What does he mean by that? Because we know this. Enoch ascended to heaven, didn't he? Elijah ascended to heaven. So he's not talking about no man has ever gone up to heaven. That's not what he's saying. He said no man ever ascended to heaven by his own merits. That's what he's telling you. No man hath ascended unto heaven, but, there's one, he that came down from heaven, even the Son of Man which is in heaven.

See, he came to provide righteousness by which we may ascend into heaven. How'd he do it? As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up. That's how we should ascend to heaven. That's how we should attain righteousness, is by His righteousness and by His death. And here's the result that whosoever believeth. Whosoever believeth in Him, listen, should never perish, should not perish, but have everlasting life.

And what's the root of all this? God's love, isn't it? It's God's love, for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. You want proof of love? That's proof of love. God gave His only Son, listen, for this purpose. Not for everyone, but whosoever. Not everyone, but whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. You want to know who God loves? Whosoever. That's who he loves, whosoever believeth on him. Someone once said, he said, God loves whosoever will. God doesn't love whosoever won't. God loves whosoever will, whoever believes.

And so we who believe know this. We could never have been accepted by our works. You that believe, you know that? We could never be accepted. We know this, that Christ came into the world and He obtained righteousness for us by His obedience and redemption for us by His death. And His resurrection proves that satisfaction. And what? We believe. We believe.

Now, is it not easy to say, I believe? Can't anyone say that? I think they did a survey a long time ago. I don't have a recent one. 350 million people in this country and over half profess to be Christian. You believe that? I don't. I don't believe near that many. That'd be a wonderful thing if it was. But it's easy to say. That's what I'm getting at. It's easy to say you believe.

But listen to this, there are always true marks of true faith. There's always things that come with faith. When faith is genuine, when faith is a gift of God, there will always be marks of true faith. And Jesus puts this condition, IF. If your faith is real, this will take place. He gives a mark. IF you continue in my word. Then are you my disciples indeed. In other words, there is always a trial of faith. Now listen, this happens to everybody. Everyone who says, I believe. God will put that to the test. Whether it's true or not, God always puts it to the test. Never going to leave it alone.

Peter said this, the trying of our faith being much more precious than gold. What's precious? Faith is precious, friends. Without it, Paul said, without faith it is impossible to please God. You cannot please God. You cannot be in Christ without faith. Faith is precious. But what makes faith more valuable is when it's tried.

You take a piece of, you dig in the ground, you find something you think is gold, looks like gold, feels like gold. And to you, it's valuable. But how do you know it's gold until you put it in the fire? You don't. And so when true faith is put in the fire, it's revealed to be what? Pure. It's revealed to be valuable. But what happens when your faith is put in the fire and it burns up?

God's going to try your faith. It doesn't matter who you are. He's going to put it to the test. He doesn't put it to the test for his knowledge. He knows if your faith is genuine. He does it for you. So that you should know whether it's true or whether it's not.

Now I know this, people who have empty faith do not like it to be tested. It's offensive. How dare you think that I don't believe? How dare you ask me the question, do I believe on the Son of God? Of course I do. Okay. It'll be tested. Not by me, I don't test your faith. I don't even test my own.

But one thing a believer does is he desires to know if his faith is real. Can you imagine the horror of standing before God, believing you are going to heaven, and in that moment you find out your faith is gone. Faith was empty. I don't think there's ever a more terrifying thought to a believer's mind as to believe that my faith might not be real. You know, when those disciples were told, the Lord asked them, he said, one of you will betray me.

Isn't it astounding that all of them but Judas went up there and said, is it me? Why? Because true faith desires to be tested. I have to know, am I his or am I not? That's what Newton said, Lord, decide the doubtful case. And that's what we're doing here this morning. I want you to decide the doubtful case. Is it real or is it not?

Now, I've got six marks of faith this morning. And but the last one is the most important. The seventh mark is going to be most important. But I know this, that everybody who has true faith has these marks. But I want you to understand true faith, never trust in the mark. We never look at the mark. We never look at the evidence. We're always looking to Christ. True faith is always looking to Christ. But I'm going to give you these marks. And I'm reminded of this one preacher is preaching the gospel to his mother.

And he really sincerely wanted her to believe Christ, trust him. But she could not be removed from this one thing that happened to her. Her faith rested in some thing that happened, some miracle that took place in her life. And she knew she was going to heaven based on that miracle.

True faith never looks at the mark or the evidence of some thing. True faith looks to Christ, but yet true faith is going to have these things. It always has. First one is this, repentance. True faith is always accompanied by repentance. Why? Because when God reveals Himself, He reveals this, that we are sinners. We are sinners. Not just that we sin, but that we are sinners. From the sole of our foot to the crown of our head, there is nothing good. That's what God reveals to His people. And so what does this bring? It brings repentance. When we see who we are, we turn from it. We don't want any part of it. We once trusted in our works, we trusted in our religion, we trusted in our knowledge, but once we revealed that, what do we want to do? We want to get rid of that. We don't want any part of that. And that's what repentance is. It is turning from that to Christ. Go to Isaiah chapter 55. Isaiah chapter 55. Look at verse seven. God said, Let the wicked forsake his way.

Didn't you have a way? You had a way, didn't you? I had a way. I thought this was the way. I knew this was the way. I had a way to God. Until when? Until God showed me that wasn't the way. And what did I do? I forsook that way that the wicked, that's me, forsake his way.

And the unrighteous man, his thoughts. I had a lot of thoughts about salvation. I had a lot of opinions about salvation. I thought, like Naaman, Naaman thought it should be done a certain way. He said, I thought when I came down here, he'd put his hand on me, something miraculous would happen. And that's not the way it went, did it? I thought that's how it would go.

Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts, his opinions. And do what? Repent. Have you repented from your thoughts and your ways, your opinions? Let him return unto the Lord. You see, I know this, Jesus Christ is the way. I've forsaken every other way. I don't want any other way. That's the way.

And I've forsaken all my thoughts about God. What I think and what I feel about God don't matter at all. It only matters what God reveals about Himself. That's the only thing that faith understands is that I want to believe what God says. I don't want my own thoughts and feelings about this.

And my thoughts and feelings are deceptive, aren't yours? So faith repents. Second thing is that faith believes this, that Jesus Christ is all our salvation. This is not a cooperative effort. Faith is not a cooperative effort. It's not Christ and me. It's just Christ. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 1. Faith believes this. 1 Corinthians chapter 1 and verse 30.

But of God are you in Christ Jesus? Well, who puts you in Christ Jesus? You that are in Christ Jesus, who puts you in Christ Jesus? But of God are you in Christ Jesus? An eternal act of sovereign decree and will and purpose, God puts you in Christ Jesus. And listen what God did. But of God are you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom. You that believe on him, he is all your wisdom as to how God can be just and justify you.

I don't need any other argument. That's it. How can God be just and justify me? Him. God made him to be my wisdom. God made Him to be my righteousness, not a cooperative righteousness. Faith believes He's all my righteousness. Faith believes that He is all my sanctification, not part of my sanctification. He is all my sanctification. Faith believes He is all my redemption.

There is no part His offering and my offering. My offering of praise and thanksgiving contribute nothing to my redemption. Nothing. Paul said we do offer praise and sacrifice and thanksgiving unto God. What does that mean? That means nothing about my redemption. All of my works, all of my deeds, all of my prayers have nothing to do with my redemption. He is all my redemption.

Do you believe that? Faith believes that. Thirdly, true faith always bows in submission to Christ and His law. In everything, true faith submits to Christ and sets Him above everything else. How do you know that? Look at Luke chapter 14. This is a hard saying, unless you believe. Then you say, well, it's just right. It's just right. Luke chapter 14, look at verse 26.

If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sister, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. Well, that rubs the flesh the wrong way, doesn't it? Tell me it doesn't. Tell me that doesn't hit your flesh right in the face.

It does. Because you know what faith says? That's right. It's only right for him to be exalted above everything else. Above those that I love the most. He must have the preeminence. Isn't that how heaven's going to be? You think that when I get to heaven, I'm going to look at her like I look at her now? She'll be my sister. We'll both be looking to him. We won't have any affection like we have now. So what must I do now? Faith sets him above everything else. True faith does. And true faith seeks only to obey his law. What is his law? It's not the law of Moses. John tells us this in John chapter 3, he said, and this is his commandment, that you should believe on him.

Is that, is that not, is that grievous to you? Is that commandment grievous? You that believe, isn't this always your desire to believe more? It is. And that you love the brethren. Is is it not the desire of our hearts to believe and love the brethren? It is. And these aren't grievous to us. John says that in John, first John, five, three, he said, this is the love of God that we keep his commandments and his commandments are not grievous to us. Are these commandments to set him first? Is that grievous?

Faith wants to do that. Desires it. Longs for it. And then we long to obey his law of faith and love. And then the next thing is this. Love of the brethren. Faith. Genuine faith always loves the brethren. It's easy to say I love God, isn't it? Can anybody say that? Everybody can say that. I love God. What's the evidence that we really love God? He said we love one another. That's the fruit of real love toward God is love for the brethren. John said this. I love this. He said, if you don't love the brethren, you're a liar. I don't care how much you could jump up and down to your blue in the face. You are a liar. If you don't love the brethren, which was true, true faith loves the brethren.

And fifthly, this True faith always has a conflict with the flesh. Isn't that so? Paul said in Galatians 5, he said the flesh lusts against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary one to another. So when you hear things like, you know, if any man come after me and hate not his father and mother and sister and brother and his own life also, when that hits you in the face, you know what that is? That's flesh. Isn't it? And so what does faith do in the new man is it's constantly warring against the old. Do you have that conflict? Do you believe you have that? That's a mark of faith is that we have this spiritual conflict.

Paul said, I know this in me that is in my flesh dwells no good thing. You know that. How to perform that which is good I find not. He said, O wretched man, that I am. Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? Boy, the flesh can bring you down to the dust, can't it?

But you know what faith says? I thank God through Jesus Christ. Regardless of how I feel, I thank God through Jesus Christ my Lord. There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. So faith has a struggle, a constant struggle.

And the last mark is this. Faith always grows. It just does. It grows. Our Lord tells us that, you know, those that he plants, some will grow 60, some 100 fold, but everybody grows in faith. Now, how do you suppose this happens? I know how you want it to happen. I know how you want your faith to grow. You want your faith to grow. You want the heavens to open up. You want to be able to feel the presence of God. You want to be able to hear His word and it pour over you like oil running down Aaron's beard. That's how you think faith should grow. That's not how faith grows. Faith grows one way, by trial. The only way it grows is by fire, testing. but it will grow.

And so then there are some who profess faith in Christ, who seem to run well in these things. Now I've given you these things, repentance, Christ is all our salvation, full submission to Christ, love for the brethren, conflict of the flesh, and growth. All those marks accompany true faith.

And there are many who profess to believe that have all of these marks. and they run well for a while, but then, for whatever reason, they just fall away. They never intended to. I don't think they ever set out to fall away, but they do. By and by, the trials of their faith separate them from the gospel instead of endearing them to the gospel. And so true faith will have all these marks. But now the Lord puts to the test a mark that runs through every other mark. And that is the mark of perseverance. The mark of perseverance. True faith perseveres.

Look what he says in your text. He said, to you that believe. He's saying it to them. Listen to me. He's saying it to you. Who profess to believe. Listen. Your faith is genuine. Listen. If you continue in my word. Continuance. If you profess to believe, He said, if you continue in my word, then are you my disciples indeed.

Now listen, I've known men who seem to have all these other marks. I've watched them come into the church. I've watched them. They seem to repent. They seem to confess Christ as all. They seem to love the brethren. They seem to sacrifice everything for the gospel of Christ. I've seen them move from their own family and friends and go to a gospel church. They sacrifice a lot. And they sit under the gospel, and it seems as though they're just trying to grin and bear it. And by and by, they just fall away. What does that prove? They are not His disciples.

That's what our Lord said. True faith perseveres. We do not merely profess His Word, but we continue in it. We who are saved by His grace, we have put our hands to the plow and will not turn back. Our Lord said that in Luke 9. He says, No man having put his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the kingdom of heaven. Our Lord said in Matthew 24, 13, He that endureth to the end the same shall be saved.

We who have heard the word of God been quickened by the Spirit, we worship God, we walk by faith in Christ. And I'll tell you this, the only reason that we persevere is simply this, we have been kept. Our perseverance is totally dependent upon His preservation. So these two things are together.

You must persevere! How can I persevere when everything seems against me? When my own flesh is pulling me in the opposite direction? Every relationship in this world is pulling against believing in Christ. All of the temptations of the world are seeking to pull me away from him. How then can I, who am so weak and frail, persevere?

Here's your hope. You're preserved. You're preserved. You know what Peter said? He said that we are kept by the power of God. by the power of God. So true believers in Christ will end this race the same way they started, by faith. The just shall live, shall live, shall live by faith. Constant, daily, Perpetual faith. That's what? That's perseverance. Regardless of the circumstance, regardless of the trial, regardless of the difficulty, we cling tenaciously and only to Jesus Christ.

We're constantly turning from everything else, aren't we? You ever stop turning from things in the world? I mean, we're constantly doing it. Not turning from one sin or another sin. We're turning from all of it. Constantly rejecting it. That's what Paul said, I counted and do count all things done that I may win Christ. I did count it, but that's what I'm still repenting, still turning, still keeping from that. I don't want any part of that.

We constantly are looking to Christ as all our salvation, aren't we? That wasn't a one-time thing. We're constantly doing that. We're constantly submitting ourselves to Him, setting Him above all other loves. We're constantly loving the brethren and believing on Him. We're in constant conflict, aren't we? This thing don't end. Until this body's dead, it won't end. And this is constant growth in faith. You see, this is perseverance. The word perseverance has to do with endurance. Does that sound pleasant? Does endurance sound pleasant? No, it's painful, isn't it? If you have to endure something, it's painful. And believers endure. You see, our religion is not spasmatic. Our faith is not spat back. We don't jump from one object of faith to another, do we?

There's a lot of times I can't understand what God's doing. I don't know, you run into that problem, because I'm telling you, I do. I mean, I'm looking at providence, and I'm looking at circumstance, and I sure as heck can't tell what in the world He's going to do.

There are things that I desire, and I'm allowed to pray for those things. I desire to be free from trouble, don't you? You can pray for that. Why? Because God is a help from trouble. He's a help in trouble. I tell you, I get confused. If I look at the circumstances, I get confused.

God is telling us we are to continually not look at the circumstances, but look to Christ. What does the circumstances really matter? What does it matter? It doesn't have anything to do with us. God swears this, that I will work all things together for your good. And faith just rests in that. It doesn't have to have evidence of it. It just rests in it. God's Word is sufficient for us.

And so then what do we do? We persevere. Why? Because we are preserved. Isn't that comforting? I know I shall persevere because I am preserved. Someone wrote this, perseverance is the, preservation is the cause of perseverance. Perseverance is the fruit of preservation.

So I'm gonna give you some things in closing as to know you that truly believe. How can I be sure that I will endure? How can I be sure I'm preserved? so that I might endure." I'm going to give you a few things here. First of all, you shall persevere because God has made a covenant saying you will persevere. Isn't that outstanding? God's covenant is like this, I will and you shall. Any question in that? Is that left up to any circumstance as to change that?

No. It is a simple covenant. I will forgive their sins and remember their iniquities no more. They shall loathe their flesh. That's all in the covenant of grace. You read Jeremiah. He tells us that. He said you're going to loathe your flesh. Isn't that true? You that believe, don't you loathe your flesh? So I'm going to give them a new heart. put my law in their heart, and they will never turn from me.

That's a covenant. And God swears to you that you shall endure. You that truly believe, you shall endure. Second of all, we shall endure because the blood of Christ can't fail. Isn't sin the cause of our doubt? It's a matter of perseverance. It's sin that causes much doubt. We sin and we fall and we fail and our faith becomes so weak. We feel like we're about to fall off. How do you know you're not going to fall off? Because the blood of Christ is already atoned for all your sins, including that. The blood of Christ can't fail. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, say the Lord.

Speak comfortably to them because of this, our warfare is accomplished. Man, I don't feel like my warfare's accomplished. When you're enduring, does it feel like your warfare's accomplished? What does that have to do with it? No, your warfare's done.

It's accomplished. For she hath received of the Lord's hand, listen, double for all her sins. Payment has already been rendered. That's why you'll endure, because it's already been paid. Thirdly, you are sealed with the spirit of promise. That's what he says in Ephesians chapter 1.

He says you are sealed. I love the picture of that. A king would take his ring in the wax and seal a letter. And when he sealed it, no one was allowed to open on that on pains of death. If they opened that, they were treasonous. God said, look, you're sealed and no one can open it. No one can take you from me. Boy, that burden lifted off my shoulders. No matter who Who shall in thy presence stand and match omnipotence? Unfold the grasp of thy right hand and pluck the sin of it's. Who? Tell me. No one. Sealed. I just told you the other you can't. kept by the power of God. You're not kept by your own power.

Isn't that good? Isn't that wonderful? It's not your power that keeps you. You feel like you're enduring. You feel like you're grabbing on and you're hanging on for dear life. Do that. But know this. It's not you holding Christ. It's Christ holding you.

You shall persevere because God promised. God promised. Jesus said, no man is able to pluck them out of my hand. That's a promise, isn't it? He said in Romans chapter eight, who shall separate me from the love of God that's in Christ Jesus? Shall tribulation, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? I'm persuaded that neither height, nor depth, nor any other creature, in case I miss one, is able to separate me from the love of God. That's a promise, isn't it?

And you shall persevere because God's immutable. God don't change. Your circumstances change, don't they? Your faith even fluctuates, doesn't it? But you know what doesn't change? Him. He who promised, he who made a covenant, he who shed his blood, he who promises to keep you. Listen, he doesn't change.

So your preservation doesn't change you that believe. And not even sin can remove us. Not even sin can remove us, seeing Christ has paid double for all our sins. And so then what is faith going to do? Faith is going to continue in His Word. Faith. Listen, we cannot leave this Word.

Remember what the disciples said when they could not understand. I mean, they had 10,000 followers in one day. They had 10,000 followers. The very next day, there was only 12, Our Lord wasn't upset. He wasn't. I mean, isn't that something? I mean, if all of you left, I'd be kind of like, oh, what happened? Next time I come in Wednesday or Sunday and all of y'all are gone. I mean, man, I'd be so discouraged. I'd be so disappointed. You imagine how that disciples felt. They felt that way. Our Lord did not feel that way.

He said, have I not chosen you and one of you is a devil? And he said this, will you go away also? Isn't that the question to faith every time, will you go away? Is this too much now? Is it too much for you to trust me? What does faith say? Lord, to whom shall we go? Faith has no place else to go. And faith doesn't want to go anywhere else.

I have to have him. Without Him, I have no life. Without Him, I have no hope. I must have Christ. So as I'm holding on to Him, my hope is this, that He's holding on to me. I shall persevere because I am preserved. Jesus said this, and you shall know the truth. Don't you know he's the truth? He's the way, he's the truth, and he's the life, and no man comes to God but by him. I know what he said is true, and I don't care what anybody else said. Faith ignores anyone else for what he said. I don't care. I don't care if the greatest theologian in the world, if he says something contrary to what Christ says, I don't care.

I know he's the truth. What does he swear? The truth shall make you free, free from the guilt of sin, free from the power of sin, and one day free from the presence of it. And so what does faith look to? Faith has all these marks. Do we look to any of them? Do we trust in any of them? Do you trust in your repentance? Oh, no. Do you trust in your doctrine, in your theology? that Christ is all, is that what you, no, I trust in him. And we that truly believe shall persevere. That mark runs through all the rest of them. Are you his disciple indeed? Well, if you believe and you continue, he said you are. But good news to someone who believes. I pray God will bless this to you. Let's stand and be dismissed in prayer. Glenn, would you dismiss us in prayer, please?

Our Father in heaven, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Thank you, Lord, for allowing us to hear the gospel once again of our Savior, Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, we suffer such a successful Savior.

Lord, we're going to redeem all the people that you gave to us, and for this Lord we give Thank you, Lord, for loving us, for fighting as you did, to give us our chance. I want us to have a look at that morning, that our serenade satisfied your holiness and your justice. Thank you, Spirit. Thank you for giving us beauty, thank you. Glory, we thank the Lord for that. As you know, the wind level has smashed into the people who came before us. We will protect them, and bring us back forward to finish what we started. We will fight as we go. Grandma, put something on your arm when you walk to the car.