If you would, open your Bibles
with me to Acts chapter 5. As you're turning, let me make
a couple of announcements. You see in the bulletin and on
the table there in the vestibule the church directory. If you
have any changes or anything to be made to your information,
if you do that, we'll get those changes made and reprinted and
distributed to everyone. Also, I talked to Deb Sparks
yesterday, and Novi's surgery went much better than expected. They found out several things
they thought they would have to do, they did not have to do,
so they could do the whole surgery laparoscopically, and they had
expected her to stay in the hospital until the end of this week, and
as long as her blood work stays good, she's coming home today.
So they think the surgery is going to be successful and give
her so much relief and able to be more active and things. So we're very, very thankful
for that. And unless I can convince Joyce
and Ken to move to Ashland after they get married, I still think
this is a good place to settle. This will be Joyce's last Sunday
with us for a while. And our hearty congratulations
to them. They'll be married. Lord willing,
next Saturday. And I wish you every happiness,
every happiness. All right, Acts chapter five.
Let's begin our reading in verse 12. This will serve as our text
this morning. And by the hand of the apostles
were many signs and wonders wrought among the people. And they were
all with one accord in Solomon's porch. And of the rest durst
no man join himself to them, but the people magnified them.
and believers were the more added to the Lord. In multitudes, both
the men and women, insomuch that they brought forth the sick into
the streets and laid them on beds and couches, that at the
least the shadow of Peter passing by might overshadow some of them.
There came also a multitude out of the cities round about unto
Jerusalem, bringing sick folks, and unto them which were vexed
with unclean spirits, and they were healed every one. We'll
end our reading there. All right, let's all stand together.
Shawn leads us in singing our call to worship. Let us love and sing and wonder. Let us praise our Savior's name. He has hushed the walls loud
thunder. He has quenched the mountain's
flame. Let us love the Lord who bought
us. He has washed us with His blood,
called us by His grace, and taught us. He presents our souls to
God. Let us wander, grace and judgment
join and point to mercy's door. When by grace in Christ our trust
is, justice asks for nothing more. Let us praise and join
the chorus of the saints enthroned above, all who trusted Christ
before us, Thou Lord worthy Lamb of God. OK, if you would now
turn in your hymnal to song number 352, Jesus Lover of My Soul.
352. Jesus, father of my soul, let
me to thy bosom fly. While the nearer waters roll, ? While the tempest still is high
? ? Hide me, O my Savior, hide ? ? Till the storm of life is
past ? Safe it to the haven guide, O receive my soul at last. Other refuge have I none, hangs
my helpless soul leave me not alone, still support
and comfort me. All my trust on thee is staid,
all my help Cover my defenseless head with
the shadow of Thy wing. Thou, O Christ, art all I want,
more than all in Thee I find. Raise the fallen, cheer the faint,
heal the sick, and lead the blind. Just and holy is thy name. I am all unrighteousness. False and full of sin I am, Thou
art full of truth and grace. Plenteous grace with Thee is
found, Grace to cover all my sin. Let the healing streams
abound, Make and keep me pure Thou of life, the fountain-armed,
freely let me take of Thee. Spring Thou up within my heart,
rise to all eternity. Turn with me, if you would, to
Isaiah chapter 40. Isaiah chapter 40. We'll start here in verse nine.
O Zion that bring us good tidings, get thee up into the high mountains.
Oh, Jerusalem, that bringeth good tidings, lift up thy voice
with strength. Lift it up. Be not afraid. Say
unto the cities of Judah, behold your God. Behold, the Lord God
will come with strong hand. His arm shall rule for him. Behold,
his reward is with him and his work before him. He shall feed
his flock like a shepherd. He shall gather the lambs with
his arm and carry them in his bosom and shall gently lead those
that are with young. Who hath measured the waters
in the hollow of his hand, meted out heaven with the span, comprehended
the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in
scales and the hills in a balance? Who hath directed the Spirit
of the Lord, or being his counselor, hath taught him? With whom took
he counsel? And who instructed him and taught
him in the path of judgment, and taught him knowledge, and
showed him the way of understanding? Behold, the nations are as a
drop of a bucket and are counted as the small dust of the balance. Behold, he taketh up the aisles
as a very little thing, and Lebanon is not sufficient to burn. I
thought of that verse when we were out in Sequoia seeing those
enormous trees, those enormous trees. Lebanon, these Lebanon
trees were bigger. Lebanon, all those trees, Lebanon's
not sufficient to burn. nor the beasts thereof sufficient
for a burnt offering. All nations before him are as
nothing. They are counted to him less than nothing in vanity.
To whom then will ye liken God? Or what likeness will ye compare
unto him? The workman melteth a graven image, the goldsmith
spreadeth it over with gold and casteth silver chains. He that
is so impoverished that he hath no oblation chooseth a tree that
will not rot, He seeketh unto him a cunning workman to prepare
a graven image that shall not be moved. Have ye not known? Have ye not heard? Hath it not
been told you from the beginning? Have ye not understood from the
foundations of the earth? It is he that sitteth upon the
circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers. He that stretches out the heavens
as a curtain spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in. that bringeth
the princes to nothing. He maketh the judges of the earth
as vanity. Yea, they shall not be planted.
Yea, they shall not be sown. Yea, their stocks shall not take
root in the earth. And he shall also blow upon them,
and they shall wither. And the whirlwind shall take
them away as stubble. To whom then will ye liken me?
Or shall I be equal, saith the Holy One? Lift up your eyes on
high, and behold, who hath created these things, that bringeth out
their host by number. He calleth them all by names,
by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power,
not one faileth. Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and
speakest, O Israel, my way is hid from the Lord, my judgment
is passed over from my God? Hast thou not known, hast thou
not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, The Creator of
the ends of the earth fainteth not, neither is weary. There
is no searching of his understanding. He giveth power to the faint,
and to them that have no might he increases strength. Even the
youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly
fall. But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings
as eagles, they shall run and not be weary. They shall walk
and not faint. We'll end our reading there.
Let's pray together. Our holy Heavenly Father, we
pray that your holy name be lifted up in this place this morning.
And we pray that that we see Christ and his his sacrifice
that we see Your mighty sovereignty and your mighty justice and your
mighty love and mercy met together on and in Christ because of his
sacrifice, because of his greatness. I pray that you send your spirit
to be with us as we hear and to be with our pastor as he declares
your word. We repent and acknowledge that
at best, well, Left to ourselves, we would see nothing, but at
best, we see through a glass starkly. We pray that you forgive
our error and correct us and direct us in the way that you'd
have us to go. We're thankful that we do see. We pray that
you increase our sight, increase our faith according to your will.
We pray for our young ones, that you would be with them, continue
the good work here as you've seen fit to for so many years,
that in this in this dry desert that your name continue to be
declared and and that you continue to give life to those dry bones
and give them life, give them breath and raise them up, raise
them up to worship as as we ought as your name ought to be worshiped.
I pray that you leave us not alone, leave us not alone, but
continue to to lead and to direct our steps,
to direct our steps. We pray for those that are undergoing
trial. We thank you for the good report
on Novi. Pray that you continue to keep
your hand on her and on her family comfort and direct and lead and
heal according to your will and for others. We're thankful that,
Lord, you know the trial and that you know the need. and pray
that we ask that that you feel that need and that your trial
work its purpose according to your will. And that in the midst of trial,
we pray for ourselves that in the midst of trial that you'd
allow us to see your face for comfort and for direction for
reassurance. Remember that we're dust. Pray
that you can continue to be with us. We Pray for our pastor and
we thank you for strengthening him this week, bringing him here
to us this morning. I pray that you'd be with him
in a special way this morning. Give him a message from yourself
and give us ears to hear you this morning, Lord. That saints
would be encouraged and sinners brought to Christ's throne of
mercy according to your will. And we pray this thankfully in
Christ's name, amen. All right, now if you would,
open your Bibles back to Acts chapter five, the passage that
we read to open the service this morning. I've titled the message
Believers, Believers. I took my title from verse 14,
which says, and believers were the more added to the Lord, multitudes
both of men and women. Now these believers were added
to the Lord And what I want to know is this, what is a believer? And am I one of them? Am I one
of them? I don't know that there's a subject
I'm more interested in knowing than this. Do I believe on the
name of the Lord Jesus Christ? Has God given me saving faith
in Christ? So what is a believer and how
can I tell if I'm one of them? Well, number one is this. If
you are a believer, you know this. You have been saved by
an absolute miracle of God's grace. Look at verse 12. And by the hands of the apostles
were many signs and wonders wrought among the people. And they were
all with one accord in Solomon's porch. Now you know very well
that all these miracles of healing of the sick and the lame and
the blind and all these These miracles that our Lord himself
performed and the apostles performed, they're all pictures. They're
pictures of spiritual healing. Now, the person who was healed
physically had a great, great benefit, didn't they? But these
things are pictures of spiritual healing. The Lord gave the apostles
those gifts to perform these miracles so that people would
know this man sent from God. Nobody could do these miracles
they were doing except God be with them, so that they listened
to him preach. Today, people can't perform those
miracles. If you have someone telling you
that they can perform these miracles, I promise you it's either A,
a sham, or be done by another spirit. But this is not done
by the Holy Spirit of God today, because if you wanna know if
a man sent from God with a message from God today, all you gotta
do is see, does his message match the scriptures? Is he preaching,
thus saith the Lord? So these things were pictures
of spiritual healing. And what a great miracle. I'm not diminishing these things
to make a lame man walk, to make the deaf hear, to make the blind
see. What a great miracle that those were. But you know, if
God has saved you, you know, he's performed a miracle of his
grace upon you. There was a time that you hated
God. Now, I know you didn't hate the
God of your imagination. You didn't hate the Jesus of
your imagination, but you hated the God of this book. You hated
the sovereign savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, when you heard
him preach. And now you love him. I mean, you love him that
you once hated. Now you're trusting. I mean,
you used to trust yourself. You used to, you know, compare
yourself to other people. And you'd always pick somebody,
you know, that society calls, you know, not very good, and
compare yourself to them. And you kind of trust yourself.
You know, I'm doing better than most people, and I've done this
for God, and I've done this for God, and that's impressive. God
will accept, man, let's trust in yourself. Even if it was trusting
in Christ, plus something that you've done. Christ saved you,
but you've done the work to keep it, Let's trust in yourself.
Now, you trust Christ. I mean, you trust him. Your faith
is not what you want it to be. It's not perfect, but you trust
Christ. That's a miracle, isn't it? That
you trust him. You were spiritually dead. I
mean, you were dead so that the gospel had no effect on you. These spiritual truths and the
glory of Christ our Savior had no effect on you because you're
dead. Now you have eternal life. Now
you have life. Now you have a heart that hungers
and thirsts after righteousness because you've been born again.
I mean, this is a miracle of God's grace that he caused you
to be born again, born spiritually from above, from spiritual seed,
the incorruptible seed, the word of God, so that you have been
born again with a nature that cannot sin. Now your nature of
the flesh is just as rotten and just as sinful, just as depraved
and filthy as it ever has been. The new birth does not change,
the old man. But you've been born with a new
man, a new nature that cannot sin, a new nature that believes
Christ, that loves Christ, that trusts him. This is where all
this miracle of God's grace comes from. It comes from the new birth.
So that no believer would say, I've done something perfect.
You know, oh, I've done this and this was a righteous work.
There is nothing good of me. Nothing good of me. But Charlie,
there sure is something good in me. God put it there in the
new birth. That's a miracle. That's a miracle. Nicodemus couldn't understand
it when the Lord talked to him about it, could he? And I'm sure
Nicodemus was a brilliant man. He couldn't understand it. But
if you've been born again, you know exactly what I'm talking
about. A miracle of God's grace. There was a time that you couldn't
hear the gospel. I mean, you heard it and it was
the most boring thing in the world to you, you couldn't believe
it. It just didn't mean anything
to you. And now you're thrilled by it.
Now you need to hear it again. Now this is what you need for
your soul to hear the gospel and be fed. It's a miracle of
God's grace. You can hear and believe the
gospel now. You were spiritually blind. I mean, you couldn't see
a thing. You couldn't see your own sin.
You thought you were pretty good. Your mama's been telling you
you're a good boy from the time you could understand language.
You thought you were. You couldn't see your sin. You
couldn't see your need of Christ. You thought, you know, I can
do some of this on my own. You know, I can make myself you
know, more savable, so it's easier for Christ to save me than, you
know, some rotten sinner somewhere, you couldn't see. You couldn't
see what the big deal's about. I mean, you'd be sitting around,
people hear the gospel, and then, boy, the message is over, they're
so happy, they've been refreshed, and they're rejoicing in the
gospel, and it's, who's playing the game of the week today, is
what you're thinking, you know, it means nothing to you. Now
you hear. Now when you hear the gospel,
oh, this is what I need, I see now. Not just that I see my need,
I see Christ, who's everything that I need. Now I see, God's
given me eyes to see, what a miracle. And here's another miracle. God
won't let me leave him. My flesh still tries to get me
to trust in myself every day. but the new man won't let me.
Won't let me leave Christ. That's a miracle of God's grace. Any believer will tell you I
am an absolute trophy of God's grace. What a miracle that he
would save a sinner like me. And here's the second thing.
If you're a believer, you want God to see you as you are. You want him to see everything
about you. Verse 13. And of the rest, durst or dared
no man join himself to them, but the people magnified them."
Now, remember what just happened here with Ananias and Sapphira.
They cooked up this secret plan, you know, they're going to sell
their land and they're going to keep back part of it, but
they're going to tell everybody, I gave the whole price, you know,
to the church. And Peter knew they were lying.
Now this is a secret only Ananias and Sapphira knew. And Peter
knew it. Peter knew it. And when he called
them on it, they both died. I don't want to be around that
guy. I don't want somebody seeing my secret sin. I mean, the most
humiliating thing I can think of is for somebody here to see
in my heart and see my secret sins. Those things that I would
never tell you about myself. for you to see him and then me
to die because you saw him? And you know, if I tried to deny
it or try to cover it up, you know, too high risk. I don't wanna be around this
guy named Peter. But a believer wants God to see
me as I am, to see everything about me. I want him to see everything
that's in my heart. I want him to see everything
that's in my soul. I want him to see every sin,
the sins that I've committed, my secret sins that I think nobody
else has ever seen. I want him to see my sin nature.
I want him to see it all. And not because I think I've
got less sin than anybody else, because I don't. I'm ashamed
of my sin. This is what a shameful, shameful
thing sin is, sin against God. But I still want my father, my
savior, to see all my sin. Look at Psalm 139. Here's why
I want God to see every one of my sins. Because if he sees every
single one of my sins, then he's going to lay them all on Christ
and he won't miss one. If all my sin is laid on Christ,
then Christ put my sin away and I'm redeemed. I never have to
worry about him again. But if somehow I'm able to hide
even one sin, one sinful thought, one sinful desire, if I can hide
that from God, and he didn't lay it on Christ my Savior, I'll
be damned. That's why I want him to see
them all. Now I'm sure this is what David's talking about here.
Look at verse 23. Search me, O God, and know my
heart. Try me, and know my thoughts,
and see if there be any wicked way in me. and lead me in the
way everlastingly. Now that's David talking, you
know, I want the Lord to search me, I want him to know my heart,
I want him to know my sins, so that he lays them all on Christ,
that not one of them is being missed, being laid on Christ,
the perfect sacrifice. But this is also Christ our Savior
speaking. Before he went to the cross,
he could tell his father, you search me, you search my heart,
you search everything about me, And you'll see there's no sin
in me. That's what makes him the sacrifice
who can put away the sin of his people. Christ had no sin. He did no sin. That's what makes
him the sinless, perfect sacrifice. So if the father sees all my
sin and lays them on him, I'll be redeemed. I want God to see
me as I am. And you know what? There's no
use trying to hide anything about myself from God, is there? You
wanna try to hide anything about yourself from God? That's an
exercise in futility. God sees everything. But if God
sees me as I am, in my sin, in my helplessness, you know what
that makes me? A candidate to be able to save
by grace. If God sees the filth of my soul, that I can't do anything
to save myself, to even contribute or help me to be saved, then
I'm a candidate to be saved by the Lord Jesus Christ. I want
the Father to see that in me. You know, if the Lord sees all
of your sin, and he sees all of your sin sicknesses, all the
filth of your sin, he'll heal them. Look back in our text,
Acts 5, verse 15. Inasmuch that they brought forth
the sick into the streets and laid them on beds and couches,
At the least, the shadow of Peter passing by might overshadow some
of them. And there came also a multitude
out of the cities round about unto Jerusalem, bringing sick
folks and them which were vexed with unclean spirits, and they
were healed every one. Now, I'm confident of this, and
there's no record of this, the shadow of Peter didn't do anything
to heal anybody. I think this was just superstition,
something that people thought. People weren't healed by the
power of Peter or by Peter's shadow. They're healed by the
power of God. But anybody that the apostles
came to, you see that they always say, you know, be healed in the
name of Jesus of Nazareth. It's always by the power of Christ. It wasn't by something that,
you know, just Peter walking by. That's silly. But everybody
that was brought to them that they, you know, However they
did it, saying this in the name of Jesus, they were healed, every
single one of them. And it's the same thing if the
Lord sees all of our sicknesses, sin sicknesses, He'll heal every
one of them. Only a man can make this statement,
while I'm getting ready to say. Women would never do this. Only
a man would make this statement. When I would go to the doctor
for an annual checkup or something, I wouldn't tell him everything.
If there's something, you know, I'll just say, I'll get better,
I'm not gonna tell him, I don't wanna deal with this, I don't
wanna, you know. That's not smart. If there's something wrong with
you, tell your doctor. It's the only way that he can
help you. In the same sense, this is why I want the Lord to
see all of my sin. Because if he sees it, he'll
heal it. He'll heal it in the precious
blood of Christ. And this thing of sin, as I've
told you so many times, a whole lot more than breaking the rules. It's a disease. It's a sickness
of the soul. And only Christ, the great physician,
can heal. And who does he heal? Not the
righteous. He said, I didn't come to call
the righteous to repentance. I didn't come to heal the righteous.
I came to heal the sick, to call sinners to repentance. I want
the Lord to see all of my sin sicknesses so that he'll make
me whole in the precious blood of Christ. And I also want him
to see me as I am in Christ. This thing of being redeemed,
this thing of being made holy and being made righteous is not
a pretend thing. I want the Lord to see me as
the righteousness of God. in the Lord Jesus Christ without
any contribution. I want him to see me as I am
in Christ so that when God comes looking for me, he doesn't see
Christ in me hiding in him. All he sees is Christ. All he
sees is his beloved son. That's how I want God to see
me. And that's how God sees all of his people. He sees them as
they really are. He saw his people. as we are
in Adam. That's why he purposed a Redeemer.
And the Redeemer came, and now he sees all of his people in
his Son, as they are. It does not yet appear what we
shall be. Oh, but you just wait. When he appears, we'll be made
just like him. Then we'll be, then we'll see
each other like the Father sees us, as perfect in Christ. All right, here's the third thing.
If you're a believer, God has added you to Christ. Verse 14
says, and believers were the more added to the Lord. Multitudes,
both of men and women. The Lord has taken his people
and added them to the Lord. If you're a believer, you'll
know this. You're not a believer because you made a decision to
let Jesus into your heart. That's not why you're a believer.
You're not a believer because you made the decision to start
believing. You're not a believer because you decided to do whatever
it is some false prophet gave you to do, and now you're a believer.
If you're a believer, you know this. God added you. He added you. And look what it
says here, they were added to the Lord. They were added to
the Lord. Not added to a denomination,
Not added to a creed, not added to a list of rules and regulations. The Lord has taken his people
and he's added them to Christ. Added them to the body of Christ.
God took you from where you were in Adam and he put you in Christ. He added you to him. Look at
Colossians chapter one. Paul tells us about this in Colossians
chapter one. Verse 12, giving thanks unto the Father,
which hath made us meet. He's made us fit. He made it
right for us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints
in light, who hath delivered us from the power of darkness.
The power of darkness had a hold on us and he delivered us. He
reached down and took us and delivered us from the power of
darkness and has translated us, has transferred us, added us,
into the kingdom of his dear son. And here's how you can tell
if God has added you to the Lord. If God has added you to Christ,
now you wouldn't leave him if you could. Now you wouldn't leave
him if you could. You can't anyway. I mean, it's
an act of God, but even if he did leave it up to you, you wouldn't
go anywhere else because God's added you to the Lord. You think
what a blessing it is to be added. to the body of Christ. We talked
about that in the lesson this morning, about believers being
the body of Christ. If you've been added to the body
of Christ, it's the most amazing thing that you could think of,
that God would do that for you. He's added us to Christ. And
then the fourth thing is this, a believer. Believers, says here,
were the more added to the Lord. Believers are those who believe. I mean, that's just the simplest
way I can think of to say it. Believers believe. Believers believe because God
has given them the gift of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now
this thing of belief, it's more than believing true facts. I
believe, Becky's a math teacher, she'll be so glad I believe this,
that two plus two is four. I believe that. I believe that.
I memorized it because I memorized my addition and multiplication
tables and stuff. But as much as Becky hates this,
I can count it on my fingers. Two plus two is four. That's
not faith. That's just a fact that's been
proved to me. Faith believes what you cannot
see. Now, the gospel. The gospel that
we preach, the gospel of God's free and sovereign grace is the
only message, the only religious message, the only message of
salvation, the only message of righteousness that I've ever
heard that makes sense. None of the rest of them make
sense. If I know anything about myself, the message of free will,
the message of, you know, this decisionism, the message of ceremonies,
none of those things make any sense. The gospel that we preach,
the gospel of Christ, the gospel of his glory, the gospel of how
he saved sinners. by satisfying justice for them,
by suffering what their sin deserves, by taking their sin away from
them and trading them His righteousness, that's how He made us meet, fit
to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light. The death
of Christ makes it right for the believer to die and us to
lay the flesh in the ground and the new man to go immediately
into the presence of God Almighty. That's the only message that
makes sense. But I don't believe the gospel
because it makes sense. I believe the gospel because
God's given me the gift of faith in Christ. And this word believers
here, it has to do with commitment and to entrust. Faith commits
to Christ. Faith commits everything to Christ. Either Christ is gonna save me
all by himself, all by his obedience to the law, all by his sacrifice,
all by his death, all by his resurrection, all by his choice,
that he'll give eternal life to as many as the Father hath
given him. It's all of Christ, or I'll be damned. Faith is a
commitment to Christ. It also means to entrust. I mean,
I have entrusted my soul Anybody who believes Christ, I mean,
I trust and trust it all to him, all. Either he's gonna save me
or I'm gonna perish. Saving faith, belief, this thing
of being believer, it's a need of Christ. I need him. I need Him to choose me. I need Him to redeem me. I need Him to call me. I need
Him to give me faith in Christ. I need Him to keep me. I need
Him. I need Him every hour. Oh, I need Him. I need Him to
worship. I need Him to preach, and you
need Him to build so you can hear and worship. I need Him. Sometimes the Lord really teaches
us that, don't He? He'll put us in time of trial when all
earthly means of comfort and support is gone. And you need
Him. And He gives you a sense of His
presence, which is better than Him taking the trial away. I
need Him. I need His presence with me.
If I have faith in Christ, I love Him. I do. I love Him. Like I said in the lesson this
morning, I wouldn't dare brag on my love for God. I only love
him because he first loved me. But I want to tell you, I love
him. I love him. And I am so happy
to entrust my soul to this one who loves me. I love him. And I want to say this carefully,
make sure that this is reverent. But it's true. If I have faith
in Christ, if God the Holy Spirit has given me faith in Christ,
I wouldn't be saved any other way even if I could. Even if
I could be saved by me keeping the law and me doing good and
me doing enough to earn a righteousness before God, if God's given me
faith in Christ, I see it as so much more glorious, so much
more precious, and so much more sure if Christ saved me and gave
me faith to trust him. I wouldn't be saved any other
way. That's a believer. That's what
a believer believes. Now this thing of believers being
added to the Lord, like I told you, the most simple way I can
think of to say it is a believer believes. Well, believes what? Believes what? And you can go
to the creeds of men and books of men and all these things,
you know, people will tell you that a believer believes. But our faith comes from this
book. What does this book say that a believer believes? And
if God's given you the gift of faith in Christ, you're gonna
believe these things. We won't turn to them for time's
sake, but just let me read them to you. Genesis 15, verse six. And Abraham believed in the Lord,
and he counted it to him for righteousness. Every believer
believes this. I'm not saved by my works. any
way before conversion or after. I'm not saved by my word. Abraham
was not saved because he was willing to offer Isaac on that
mountain as a burnt offering for the Lord. He wasn't. Abraham
was not saved because he left his father's house and started
walking into the desert to a place God would show him. That's not
why Abraham was saved. Abraham was saved because God
gave him faith to believe the word of God. God said, Abraham,
you're gonna have a son, and the Messiah's gonna come through
that son, and Abraham believed God. That's the gift of faith
in Christ, that I'm saved because Christ did all the work for me,
and I trust him to do all the work for me. Matthew 9, verse
28 says, when he was coming to the house, the blind men came
to him, and Jesus saith unto them, believe ye that I am able
to do this. They said unto him, yea, Lord,
I believe that he's able. I believe that the Lord Jesus
Christ is able to save my sinful soul. Earl, I have the slightest
doubt about it. There's not the single doubt
in my mind he's able. He's able to do whatever it is
he promised to do in this book. Whatever it is. Even if I don't
understand it, I cannot possibly imagine how that can come to
pass. If he promised in this book,
I believe he's going to do it because he's able. Paul said,
told Timothy in 2 Timothy 1.12, I'm not ashamed for I know whom
I have believed. I don't just know a what. I know
whom I have. I know Christ. I know who he
is. I know his character. I know
his word. I know his promise. I know who
he is. I know him whom I believed. That's why I'm persuaded that
I'm confident that he's able to keep everything that I've
committed unto him against that day. I've committed everything
to Christ because I believe him. I know him. I don't just know
Calvinistic doctrine. I believe Christ. And since I
know who he is, I know this, he'll do what he promised to
do. Every believer believes that,
that Christ is able to save me all by myself because that's
what he promised to do, because I know him. Mark 9 verse 24 says,
and straightway the father of the child cried out and said
with tears, Lord, I believe. Help thou mine unbelief. I think the most shameful thing
that I know about myself is unbelief. It's weak faith and unbelief.
After I can tell you, I mean, this is really true. I know whom
I have believed. Yet all I see in myself is faith
that I'm ashamed of. It's weak. I'm just ashamed of
it. But I'm thankful. It's not my
faith that saves. It's Christ that saves. It's
the object of my faith that saves. And I trust him. I do. I believe him. I trust him. And
it's my constant plea, the same plea as his father. Lord, I believe.
Help thou mine unbelief. Forgive me of my sin, particularly
this sin of unbelief. What a shameful thing that a
child of God would find themselves Not trusting Christ in any situation. Then there's this, Acts 8 verse
37. Philip went and met that eunuch
and began that same scripture and preached Christ unto him.
And as they were going along, somewhere in his preaching, Philip
must have said something about baptism. He must have said, you
know, somebody that believes this, they confess Christ and
believe it's baptism. And the eunuch asked him, well,
you know, here we're passing by this body of water, whatever
it is, a pond, a stream, a lake, whatever it is, what does hinder
me from being baptized? Is there anything that makes
me unqualified to confess Christ in baptism? And Philip said,
if thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered
and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God. I really believe. that this man,
Jesus of Nazareth, is the son of God. Come in the flesh to
save his people from their sin. And if I really believe Christ,
sooner or later, this is gonna weigh so heavily on me, I must
confess him in believer's baptism. I must. Not only is it his commandment
that those who believe confess him in believer's baptism, it's
the first commandment that he's given to us. But I want to. I want to confess the Savior. I want to confess that Jesus
of Nazareth is the Son of God who came in the flesh and took
my sin into His body on the tree. And when He suffered and died,
I died in Him. When He was buried, I was buried
in Him. And when He rose again from the dead, I was raised to
new life in Him. The only reason I have eternal
life is the Son of God. came in the flesh and died for
me. I believe that. I really do believe
that. By God's grace, I do. And what
a joy and a thrill to be able to confess him in believer's
baptism. Whenever we have a baptismal
service, it's such a special time, isn't it? And I hear y'all. I don't weep and cry and I get
emotional, but I hear you all do when someone's closing in
prayer here. It just, oh, so it almost makes
us like, I want to confess him again and I want to confess him
again. Well, I'm showing up here every week you do. Identifying
with God's people you do. If God's given me the grace to
believe Christ, I want to confess him. Because Paul said, Romans
10, 10, with the heart, man believeth unto righteousness. This thing
of belief and faith is a heart work. God does in the heart.
But with the mouth, confession is made unto salvation. If God's
put that faith in your heart, like Brother Henry said, it's
going to leak out on you sooner or later. You're going to have
to confess him because you love him because you believe him.
Then in Acts 15 verse 11, I love this statement our brother Peter
made. But we believe, talking about the Gentiles, the heathen,
we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, we
shall be saved even as they. And I love that he didn't say
they're gonna be saved same way we are. He said we'll be saved
even as they, even as those heathen. I'm saved by grace. If God has
given me faith in Christ, this is what I believe. I believe
that I am saved by grace. It takes the same grace to save
me as it does the worst heathen you can find anywhere. Is that right? Every believer
believes that. Move over, Paul. I'm the chief
of sinners now. You may have been then, but now
it's me. It took the same grace to save
me as it does the worst person that you can think about because
salvation is by grace and grace alone. Romans 10 verse four says
this. Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness to everyone that believeth. Now what does
that mean that Christ is the end of the law for righteousness?
that if I'm a believer, I believe this, I don't have to add any
of my own obedience to the law in order to make myself righteous.
I can't add to the righteousness of Christ. Christ has made me
righteous all by himself. And after the Lord saves me,
after I'm converted, after I'm born again, Christ is still the
end of the law. He's the end of the believer's
relationship with the law. God's not going to bless me because
I'm keeping the law. God's not going to be more happy
with me than he is somebody else because I'm keeping the law.
God's going to bless me for Christ's sake because Christ made me righteous
by his obedience for me. God's happy with me. That's a big statement. God's
happy with me. because of who the Lord Jesus
Christ is and what he's done for me. Not because of what I've
done. Christ is the end, he's the end
of the believer's relationship with the law. Don't you look
to the law to see how well you're doing. Don't you look to the
law to see how you ought to live. God's already put that in you.
You already know how to live. Look to Christ. Look to Christ
and keep looking to Christ. Romans 10 verse 14. How shall
they call on Him in whom they've not believed? How shall they
believe in Him in whom they've not heard? And how shall they
hear without a preacher? 1 Corinthians 1 verse 21, it
pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that
believe. If you're a believer, you don't
know more than likely the exact moment that you first believed.
I don't. I don't have the slightest clue.
I do know this. There was a time I did not believe
and there was a time I did. When did that exact moment change? I don't know. But I do know this.
I only came to believe Christ after I heard Christ preached.
I mean, how could I believe on him when I heard he was? I wasn't
saved under a false gospel and then came to a knowledge of the
doctrines of grace. No, sir. I was only saved after
I heard Christ preached and God gave me faith to mix with what
I was hearing to believe Christ. It took the preaching of the
gospel. Rolands 15 verse 13 says, now
the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing. A believer who believes Christ
finds real joy in trusting Christ. Well, I have such joy and peace
of heart in trusting Him. I can't find any real lasting
joy and no peace in anything about this world or anything
about me, but I have such joy in trusting Christ. Such joy. I know how this thing's gonna
end up. It can't end up bad. I have such peace in trusting
Him. 2 Thessalonians 2 verse 13, but we're bound to give Thanks
to God always for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because
God has, from the beginning, chosen you to salvation through
sanctification and belief of the truth. If I, God's given
me belief, the belief of the truth, this is what I know. Before
God created anything, he chose me into salvation. He elected
to choose me, that's my only hope. If God did not choose me
before the foundation of the world, I can promise you this,
he's not gonna choose me after I was born. Not gonna do it.
God chose a people just because he would so that his son would
get the glory in saving him. I can say I fit that bill. If Christ saves me, he's gonna
get glory for doing it, saving such a wretch like me. 1 Peter 1 verse 18, whom having
not seen, You love. In whom though now you see him
not, yet believing you rejoice with joy unspeakable and full
of glory. If you believe Christ, you love
him. You love him. It's a sweetheart
love. You love him. You love to hear
about him. You love to talk about him. You
love to think about him. You love to read about him. If
you believe Christ, you love him. And then Peter said, 1 Peter
2 verse 7, unto you therefore which believe, he is precious. He's precious. The literal translation
of that is he is preciousness. He is preciousness itself. If
you believe Christ, there's nothing as precious to you as Christ. That's why you love him, why
you love to hear about him, why you love to talk about him, because
he's precious to you. His obedience is precious. His blood is precious. His sovereign
electing love is precious. He's precious. And then last,
1 John 5 verse 1, whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born
of God, and everyone that loveth him that begat loveth him also
that is begotten of him. If I'm a believer, I know this.
The only reason that I believe is God birthed me with a nature
that can't do anything but believe. The only reason I'm a believer,
I didn't choose it, I didn't decide one day, yeah, this makes
sense, I'll believe this instead of believing something else.
I believe because God Almighty birthed me with a brand new nature
that believes Christ. And I love him. And if I love
him, I love his people too. Even though they're sinful like
me. Even though they have idiosyncrasies. I love them. I love them. They
can't help it. You can't help it. I tell Janet
frequently, this may surprise you, I have some idiosyncrasies. And she'll just, She's gotta
look, you know, when she's being patient, you know, with me. And
I'll tell her, you love me, you can't help but get me. This is
the way I came to you. Believers love each other. We
got idiosyncrasies, we got, you know, things about us, but this
is the way we came to one another. And we love one another because
we've been born again. Every believer can say that. God help us. May he be pleased
to grant us faith in him and make us believers. All right,
let's bow together. Our father, we thank you for
this passage that we've been able to look into this morning.
And father, how we thank you for the miracle of your grace,
that you be pleased to give sinful men and women like we are faith.
to believe, to trust the Lord Jesus Christ, to put all of our
eggs in one basket, the salvation's in Him, in Him alone. Father, I pray you would deliver
us from trusting in anything about ourselves, our works, our
morality, our doctrine, our faithfulness, our learning. Father, give us
faith to trust Christ and Christ alone. Father, it's in his name. For his glory and his sake, we
pray. Amen. All right, Shawn. If you would, turn in your hymnals
to song number 299 and stand as we sing day by day. 299. Day by day, and with each passing
moment, strength I find to meet my trials here. Trusting in my Father's wise
bestowment, I've no cause for worry or for fear. He whose heart is kind beyond
all measure, gives unto each day what he deems best. Lovingly it's part of pain and
pleasure, mingling toil with peace and rest. Every day the Lord Himself is
near me, with a special mercy for each hour. All my cares He faint would bear
and cheer me, He whose name is Counselor and Power. The protection of His child and
treasure is a charge that on Him shall be laid. As thy days, thy strength shall
be in measure, this the pledge to me He made. Help me then in every tribulation,
So to trust Thy promises, O Lord. That I lose not faith's sweet
consolation Offered me within the Holy Word. Help me, Lord, when toil and
trouble meeting, E'er to take pass from a Father's hand. One by one, the days, the moments
fleeting, Till I reach the promised land.