The title of my message tonight
is The Power of Faith. The Power of Faith. We hear people talk about the
power of their faith or the power of someone else's faith. Let's
see what God says in his word about the power of faith. Look
at Ephesians chapter 1 with me. Preachers and religious leaders
everywhere tell us that everyone has in himself power to believe
on Christ and be saved. We're assured by preachers everywhere,
by religious leaders everywhere, by religious writings given out
all over the place. We're assured that somehow or
other men can muster faith from within themselves and cause themselves
to be born again. You who are yet without Christ,
you hear preachers and you hear the jargon of the religious day
in which we live, and you still think within yourself, somehow
I can muster this faith in myself. Billy Graham, I heard him years
ago make the statement in one of the interviews he gave, he
said, man has a sixth sense. Man has the ability to believe
God. Does the book of God say such
a thing? We're told that faith and the new birth are the result
of man exercising his will. Now that all sounds good to proud
worms who like to think that they control God. And that's
what men like to think. Men like to think that they control
God. Nobody uses that kind of language.
But all of their doctrine teaches exactly what they believe. They
like to think that they control God, but it is completely contrary
to Holy Scripture. Listen to the book of God. Our
God says, all men have not faith. Men and women receive Christ
and are born again, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh,
nor of the will of man, but of God. God says. not by might,
nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord. So then, it is
not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God
that showeth mercy. The Scriptures speak with abundant
clarity and speak constantly, telling us that man does not
have the ability to believe God. In short, the religion of the
world. I mean by that conservative, liberal, and fundamental. Papist,
Protestant, and Pentecostal. Baptist, Buddhist, and Jewish.
Islam, Hindu, and Voodoo. All believe exactly the same
thing about man. They believe that man controls
God by his will. And man controls the work of
God by his will. The religion of this world is
Arminian freewill works religion. The whole world is drunk on the
wine of Babylon's fornication. The religion of the world, the
religion of Babylon, the religion of Antichrist. That's what I'm
talking about. The religion of the world is
the religion of Babylon. It is the religion of Antichrist.
It is against Christ. It is against God. It is against
the gospel of God. It exalts man and brings God
under subjection to man's will. Whereas the word of God debases
man and exalts the power and grace of God. Any doctrine you
hear or read, any sermon you hear or read, Any religious comment
you hear or read that rubs your feathers just the right way and
makes you feel a little bit good about yourself, I promise you
it comes from hell. That which rubs your feathers
the wrong way and abases you and puts you in the dust helpless
before God and his mercy, that's the gospel of God's grace. The
word of God debases man and exalts the power of God and the grace
of God. The religion of the world makes
salvation somehow, somewhere, partly a work of man and partly
a work of God. Not many folks that I know of,
I don't know of any personally, who would all together take God
out of this thing. In fact, Everywhere people talk
about works religion, they talk about God saving sinners. And
they talk about the great bulk of the work being God's work.
But man in man's religion makes salvation somewhere, somehow,
at some point, partly the work of God and partly the work of
man. And I'm here to tell you I want
to tell you as plainly, as forcibly as I possibly can, would to God
the world would hear what I've got to say here. If you think
that salvation in any degree, in any part, depends on you,
you don't know God. If you think that salvation anywhere,
in any degree, in any part, depends on you, you don't know God. If
men don't have the power and ability to repent, preacher,
if men and women don't have the power and ability to believe
the gospel for themselves, then where does faith come from? That's
a question that naturally arises when we assert the helplessness
of dead sinners before a holy and sovereign God. And it's a
question that deserves answer. Here in Ephesians chapter one,
In this first chapter of this great epistle, the Apostle Paul,
writing by divine inspiration, tells us plainly that we believe
according to the working of God's mighty power. We believe according
to the working of God's mighty power. Now, understand Paul's
doctrine. when first God revealed His Son
in us according to the working of God's mighty power. We have
continued to this day believing according to the working of God's
mighty power. And we believe now according
to the working of God's mighty power. And we who have believed
and believe according to the working of God's mighty power
shall believe until the end. according to the working of God's
mighty power. The sovereign will of God alone
creates us heirs of grace, born in the image of his son, a new
peculiar race. The spirit, like some heavenly
wind, blows on the chosen dead. The ransomed souls are born again
in union with their head, partakers of his nature, We are one with
Christ our Lord. I live in Christ. Christ lives
in me. The power of faith from God. The power of faith from God. Let's begin reading at verse
15. Wherefore I also, after I heard
of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints.
Cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in
my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father
of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation
in the knowledge of Him. I pray that God will give you
the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Christ, because
the only way you'll ever get it is if God gives it, or you
don't. The eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that you may
know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches
of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what is the
exceeding greatness of his power to us. I want you to know the
exceeding greatness of God's omnipotence directed toward us. Directed toward you and directed
toward me. The power of God's omnipotence
directed in you and in me. Who believe according to the
working of his mighty power which he wrought in Christ when he
raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand
in the heavenly places, far above all principality, and power,
and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not
only in this world, but also in that which is to come. And
hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the
head over all things to the church, which is his body the fullness
of Him that filleth all in all. Believing on Christ is the simplest
thing in the world. To trust Christ, to depend upon
His power, His faithfulness, His grace, His righteousness,
His blood, to trust Christ is such a childlike act that you
can't see any difficulty in it. It's just, it's as simple as
it can be. It's as simple as it can be.
A child trusts mom. A little child, until they have
other influences, just trusts his dad. They just trust him.
If dad says it, so. Just that simple. Never heard
otherwise. If dad's around, everything's all right. He'll take care of
everything. Never had any reason to suspect otherwise. That childlike
trust is so simple, no one can misunderstand it. And yet, to
bring the human heart to exercise simple faith in the Savior is
the work of God's astounding power. Isn't that amazing? A slick politician can get you
to believe that he can take away all your taxes and provide everything
for you, and the whole world's going to treat you good if you'll
just vote for him. They can do that, talk out both
sides of the mouth, twist their tongues all around, and you'll
say, man, he's great. And you can believe it, and go
cast your ballot for him. because we're easily persuaded
about all things carnal and natural. Persuaded by emotion, persuaded
by intellect, persuaded by experience, but concerning the things of
God. In order for a sinner to believe
God, in order for a sinner to trust the Lord Jesus Christ,
the most simple childlike thing in the world, it takes The power
of omnipotent grace. You can't talk your children
into it. You can't talk your companions into it. You can't
reason folks into it. You can't argue folks into it.
You can't teach them into it. You cannot! You cannot convey
faith to somebody else. You can't convey it to yourself.
Not possible. Only God can do this work. Before any poor sinner, lost,
dead, in trespasses and sins, will come to Christ believing
Him, will come to Christ by faith, that sinner must be made the
subject of and must experience divine power. His pride must
be brought down. His will must be broken. His
passions must be subdued. Otherwise, the sinner will never
accept mercy. The sinner will never accept
grace. The sinner will never accept
salvation freely through the merits of a crucified substitute.
He won't do it. He won't do it. This is the work
that only God can perform. God the Holy Ghost is the author
and giver of all grace, the author and giver of faith in Christ,
It's not of ourselves, it's the gift of God. Twice in this text
of scripture, the Apostle Paul uses the strongest language possible
to show the almighty power of omnipotent God that is exercised
in bringing a sinner to believe on the Lord Jesus and in bringing
that believing soul to heaven at last. The first expression,
the exceeding greatness of his power. the exceeding greatness
of his power. You see that in verse 19? The
exceeding greatness of his power. In our English translation, the
expression seems almost redundant. But Paul's purpose is to use
the most emphatic language so that his meaning could not possibly
be missed by anyone except those who are willfully ignorant. The
expression, the exceeding greatness of his power is really very amazing,
very amazing. I don't know if you noticed or
not, Ruth wisely and properly altered the words of the hymn
she sang a little bit ago. That grace, such grace should
be proffered me. If God doesn't do anything but
proffer grace to you, you'll never know anything about it.
If God never does anything except offer grace to you, you'll never
know God's grace. Oh no, this grace is all for
me. And we believe according to the
exceeding greatness of his power. What an amazing statement. It
might be read this way. The super excellent, sublime,
overcoming, triumphant greatness of his power. The second phrase
Paul uses. according to the working of his
mighty power is even more emphatic. It's a Hebrew way of speech,
forced to do the duty of the Greek. We could read the text
like this, the effectual working of the might of his strength,
or the energy of the force of his power. So, Pastor, that sure
enough seems redundant. It seems that way. But Paul was
not speaking redundantly. He uses such strong, emphatic
language because he wants us to understand the only way we
can and do believe is by the exercise of power no man can
fathom, no man can understand, and no man can exercise. It's
the power of God. Salvation is the result of the
efficacious activity of God Almighty in the omnipotence of His grace
to us who believe. All right, let me show you three
things with regard to this subject in this text. First, before we
come to the text itself, let me do something I'm very, very
reluctant to do. I want to give you a brief description
of faith in Christ. I started to say definition,
but definition is wrong. I say that for this reason. You
can look up the meaning of the word in scripture. You can look
up the word that's used in scripture. Look up the meaning of the word
and find some definition of it. You can look up the word faith
in your English dictionary and find some definitions given of
it. But you will search in vain in this book to find faith defined. It's just not defined. The nearest
thing to a definition is in Hebrews 11 verse 1, faith is the substance
of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. But that
really is not a definition. It is simply a declaration of
fact. The faith that God gives us is the substance of all that
we hope for in everlasting glory. And it is the evidence of our
election, our redemption, our predestination, our calling by
God's grace. The evidence of things that can't
be seen with the natural light. But saving faith, I have no question
at all, has at least three parts. Before any of us can ever have
the knowledge of Christ, The eyes of our understanding must
be enlightened. Before we can grow in the grace
and knowledge of Christ, we must continually be enlightened by
God the Holy Ghost. The eyes of your understanding
being enlightened. Here are the three parts. John
Owen is the one who first, I think, gave these three things. First,
there must be a knowledge of Christ. There must be a knowledge of
Christ. I don't mean a knowledge of theological
terms. I don't mean a knowledge of theological
controversies. You can have the most precise,
ordered theology and write the book that other men learn from
and never know God. I don't mean that you must know
theology, that you must know various doctrines and how to
identify them and how to distinguish them. I do mean that there must
be a knowledge of Christ as He's revealed in the gospel. That's
the necessity of gospel preaching. Faith cometh by hearing, and
hearing by the Word of God. Faith cometh by hearing, and
hearing by the Word of God. The Lord God has ordained foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. It doesn't have to be
clever preaching. It doesn't have to be well-organized
preaching. It doesn't have to be the kind
of preaching that draws big crowds. It doesn't have to be the kind
of preaching that men stand back and say, oh, what a learned man. What a great preacher he is.
What a good speaker he is. No, no, no, no. It is the simple
declaration of gospel truth concerning God's Son. Faith comes by hearing,
and hearing by the Word of God. You can't believe on an unknown
Savior. You can't trust a God that you're
ignorant of. You can't trust a Christ you
don't know. Faith is not a leap in the dark. Faith is walking in the light.
You cannot believe God, except by one means or another, through
the written Word or the preached Word, through somebody conveying
to you, under the power of God, what God has revealed concerning
His Son. You cannot believe, except by
the preaching of the Word. There must be a knowledge of
who Christ is, what he did, what he accomplished. He that believeth
that Jesus is the Christ. Somebody comes and tells you
what the Son of God has done, fulfilling all the scriptures.
And you believe God. You believe God. But it's not
just a knowledge. There must be an agreement. An
agreement created in your heart to that which God reveals concerning
His Son. An agreement in your heart with
regard to your need of a Savior. With regard to Christ's accomplishments
as the Redeemer and Savior of His people. And there must be
a third thing. There must be an active personal
trust. A deliberate willful confidence. in the person and work of God's
Son. We received God's grace, and
I don't know a better way to illustrate it than I've given
you a thousand times here. Somebody poured some water in
that glass. The glass received the water. Now what did the glass do to
get it? What did the glass say, I'm thirsty? Did the glass say,
somebody please give me some water? Did the glass pray for
water? What did the glass do to receive
the water? Well, Don, you dummy, it didn't
do nothing. It was just glass. I'm not as dumb as you thought.
I knew that. It didn't do anything. And if you receive the grace
of God, that's how you're going to receive it. That's how you're
going to receive it. God opens the windows of heaven
and pours his grace into you by omnipotent power. You can't
receive it any other way. But if you've received God's
grace that way, the scriptures use another term for receive.
To as many as received Him to then give you power to become
the sons of God. Do you know what that word is?
Do you know what that word is? Here it is. I'm fixing to receive
some water. Isn't that good? I'm going to receive some more. Well, Brother John, you did something
there. Yes, I did. I sure did. And you will never
know God except you deliberately, willfully, confidently receive
Jesus Christ, His Son. Our Savior said on numerous occasions,
thy faith hath made thee whole. And there's nothing wrong with
that statement. That's exactly right. But understand the faith. by which you receive Him is itself
the gift of God. It is itself the gift of God.
Faith in Christ is the most precious gift of God's grace. Oh, what
a precious gift it is. Faith is the first principle
grace of the Holy Ghost. From faith, all other graces
arise. Without faith, it's impossible
to please God. Without faith, it's impossible
to please God. No repentance, no walking with
God, no serving God, nothing without faith in Christ. But
faith is a progressive grace. That is, it grows. It grows. There are babes in
faith and young men in faith and fathers in faith. There are
some who are strong in faith and some not so strong in faith.
But faith grows. We are born again. And sometimes,
sometimes we have a horrible, horrible
tendency. We see, we see somebody who's
born of God and, and they, man, they just mess up. They just
mess up. Young believers, oh, they say
the wrong thing. They do the wrong thing. They
just mess up. And folks who've been around
a while look at them kind of stern. I don't know about you. Do you know if if I were to see
you scolding your baby because your baby failed the first time
it tried to walk, I'd pull you aside and have talk with you.
You expect the baby who's learning to walk to fall, don't you? God's
people are born babes and not born full grown men. They're
born babes in grace and they ought to be treated as such.
All true faith is saving faith. All who believe in Christ alone
for everlasting life have everlasting life. Whosoever believeth that
Jesus is the Christ is born of God. He that believeth on the
Son of God, our Savior said, hath everlasting life. is also a permanent grace. As
I've already indicated, we believe and we continue to believe and
we will continue to believe because God the Holy Ghost continually
supplies us with grace and continually gives faith to us. And faith
is active. We live by faith. We live by faith. Faith realizes
and confidently expects the hope of the promise of God. Faith
is the substance of things hoped for. Mark, I expect, regardless
of what I experience and regardless of what I do, from this day to
my last breath, I expect heavenly glory with Christ. And that expectation has nothing,
nothing, nothing to do with what I do and how I feel about myself. It's altogether faith in God's
Son. I trust Him alone for all my
salvation. All right, here's the second
thing. The Spirit of God tells us by
the Apostle Paul, that faith can only be produced by the power
of God. We believe according to the working
of God's mighty power. The Pharisees asked our Lord
in John 6, what do we do that we may do the work of God? And
our Savior said to them, this is the work of God that you believe
on him whom he has said. That is we serve God only by
faith in Christ. And it is God's work that gives
us that faith. Our Lord Jesus asked Peter, whom
do men say that I am? And he said, some say you're
Jeremiah, one of the prophets. He said, who do you say I am?
He said, thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And
the Lord Jesus said to Peter, blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah,
for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my
Father which is in heaven. Paul tells us that we as believers
are to think soberly according as God hath dealt to every man
the measure of faith. God deals to each of his own
the measure of faith. God deals to each of his own
the measure of faith, not just initially, but day by day. That means, Lindsey Campbell,
right now, you believe God according to the measure of His grace given
you to believe Him. And you can't believe God more
or less. Not possible. Not possible. Aren't
we responsible? Yes, we're responsible. But our
responsibility has got nothing to do with our ability. Nothing
at all to do with our ability. We read this morning for our
scripture reading in our reading calendar, Matthew 26. And I couldn't
help notice as I read earlier this morning that our Lord told
the disciples, you're all going to forsake me. And Peter said,
not me, not me. And so said they all. Now, we
all give Peter a tough time, but of all the disciples, do
you know which one followed the Lord Jesus? Do you know which
one followed him into Caiaphas' judgment hall, into Pilate's
judgment hall? Do you know which one followed him? Of all the disciples,
Peter followed. I've read countless sermons on
those words, Peter followed afar off. He did, but he followed.
All the rest of them all forsook him. They all forsook him. The
scripture says so plainly. Peter would deny him three times. How his, oh what struggles must
have gone in him. What conflict in his soul. I
can't begin to imagine what must have gone on in that man. But
all the while, all the while he could not muster faith to
believe, to trust the Lord Jesus in the midst of great trial.
He couldn't do it. The Lord Jesus said, Peter, I'm
going to show you. Satan's going to run you through
my seal. And when he gets done, when you
are converted, strengthen your brethren. We believe God, each
of us, according to the measure of faith given to us by our God. We shouldn't be surprised to
read in the book of God that faith is God's work, not man's,
when we realize what salvation really is. Salvation, the new birth, regeneration,
is not a reformation of life. It's not making a decision for
Jesus. It's not coming down a church
aisle and going through the Romans road and saying amen when you
get done and signing a decision card. Oh, oh, what deception. What deception men endure in
the name of Christ. What is it, preacher? The new
birth is a divine creation. A divine creation. What will
it take? for you to be born again. It
will take God creating you anew in His Son. Go out tonight, just stand under
the stars and look up at the stars and the moon and laugh
at all the scientific nonsense that tells you that these things
just somehow willed themselves into existence. That inanimate
matter just willed itself into existence. Oh no. God said let
there be light. There was light. There stood
the sun. And God created the moon and the stars by the fiat
of God. That's how sinners are born again.
By the fiat of God. God wills it and it's done. Nothing else. Indeed, The new creation is something
greater than the creation of the world. Because in the creation
of the world, there was nothing to oppose God in his work. In the new birth, everything
about us opposes God. You will not bow. God must bow
you. You will not believe, God must
create faith in you. You will not come to Christ,
God must bring you to Christ. You will not choose Christ, God
must choose you that you choose Christ. Our sins have to be overcome. Satan's power opposes this new
creation and God alone can do the work. The work of salvation
is described in the book of God as a resurrection from the dead. We are quickened together with
Christ. Quickened, made alive with Christ. You have to be quickened. Brought to life with Christ Jesus. Brought to life with the Son
of God. When the Lord Jesus was raised
up from the dead, We were raised up in life with Him, our living
head. And when He comes in His sovereign
mercy, giving chosen, redeemed sinners life and faith in Himself,
He raises the dead. Turn back to John chapter 5,
John the 5th chapter. Listen to what the Savior says.
Verse 25, Barely, barely I say unto you, The hour is coming,
and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of
God, and they that hear shall live. For as the Father hath
life in himself, so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself. And he hath given him authority
to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of God. Marvel
not at this. For the hour is coming in the
which all that are in the grave shall hear his voice, and shall
come forth they that have done good under the resurrection of
life, and they that have done evil under the resurrection of
damnation. What's he saying? What's he saying?
The new birth is the first resurrection. Revelation 20 verse 6. Blessed
and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection. On
him the second death hath no power. There's no possibility
of him going to hell. And then our Lord Jesus is coming
again and there'll be a second resurrection. The resurrection
of the dead. These bodies shall be raised
up to life by Christ. And the resurrection involves
the power of God alone. We were dead. Like those bones
described in Ezekiel 37, we'd been dead a long time. until
God the Holy Spirit came and breathed on our death. Then we had life from Him. Now
third, let me briefly give some explanation of the analogy Paul
gives us between the faith in Christ and our Lord's own resurrection. We believe according to the working
of His mighty power which He wrought in Christ when He raised
Him from the dead. The Lord Jesus was really dead. And so were we by nature. Really
dead. Dead. Dead. Without feeling. Without desire. Without thought. Without ability. Dead. Dead. No life. No life. You can pour scalded
water on a dead corpse and you'll never see it fledge. You can
stick it in a freezer and you'll never see it shiver. You can
tell it the saddest of stories and you'll never see it weep.
But Brother Don, what do you expect? The corpse is dead. That's
where we were by nature. Spiritually dead. Without the
image of God residing in us. Without any favor from God in
our souls. Without any holiness or righteousness
or truth before God. Without any life before God. Utterly insensible of the fact
that we were dead. Insensible. Insensible. Christ
was among the dead in his tomb. And that's how we live, by choice.
All the days of our darkness and death. Children of wrath,
just like everybody else. Walking according to the course
of this world. Our chosen path of disobedience
and rebellion. Men and women are rebels by nature,
I know that. But you hide from God. and hide
from your own guilt, and hide from the accusations of your
conscience, and hide from the sense of judgment, and try to
find a refuge for your soul in your chosen path of rebellion. Be it the high road, as men call
it, of moral decency and uprightness and religion, or be it the low
road of utter debauchery, you seek to hide from God in your
chosen path, walking in this world according to the lust of
your flesh children of wrath just like everybody else. When
Christ was raised from the dead, God sent a heavenly messenger
clothed with power to take away the stone from his tomb. Isn't
that amazing? I find that amazing. I find that
amazing. Christ is coming up from the dead. Christ
is raised up from the dead. Do you reckon he'd have any trouble
moving that stone? But God sent a heavenly messenger, an angel,
a messenger from God, clothed with power. God gave him for
that specific work, to roll away the stone. Whenever God saves
a sinner from his sins, he sends a messenger from heaven, clothed
with power, that God alone can give the power of God's Word
and the power of God's Spirit to take away the stones that
cover our tombs. Oh, what ignorance, error, pride,
self-righteousness, moral uprightness, despair Satan uses to seal our
tomb and God comes by the word and graciously allows a man to
preach the gospel and the power of his spirit and rolls away
the stones. The stone being removed, our
blessed Savior was raised from the dead. He was raised to die
no more. So it is with all who are born
of God. I've been praying. Sitting there,
as soon as I came in, sitting there before I got up to preach,
sitting there while we were singing, I've been praying. Oh God, make
me this hour a messenger sent from heaven, clothed with power
to remove the stones from the tombs of men and raise the dead. by your power. I can't raise
the dead. I can't give life. All I can
do is declare God's word to you and pray that God will give you
life and faith in Christ. Our resurrection from the dead
was by the power of God. By the power of God. Raised up with Christ. Raised
up in Christ. Raised up one with Christ. And
there's more. He who ascended and was raised, he who was raised
up from the dead ascended and sat down on the right hand of
the majesty on high. And we were raised up with him. and ascended with Him and sat
down with Him. And in the sweet experience of
His grace, the Son of God came to our souls and raised us up
from the dead and lifted us up to heaven and sat us down at
His own right hand. And when He comes again, He's
going to raise these bodies from the grave and calls us to sit
with him forever in his father's throne, sons of God, kings and
priests to reign with him forever. That's the power by which we
believe. Oh, may God exercise the exceeding
greatness of his power to you this hour for Christ's sake.
Amen.