God the Holy Spirit tells us
plainly that in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth
anything, nor uncircumcision, but faith which worketh by love. The Epistle of 1 John states
that very same thing over and over and over again. This epistle
is an epistle written by divine inspiration to convey to God's
saints a confident assurance of a saving interest in Christ.
The purpose of the epistle is to teach us to believe God. And so repeatedly, John deals
with these two basic principles, faith and love. He tells us that
faith works by love. Wherever you find true faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ, you will find true love for God's
people. And wherever you find true love
for God's people, you find faith in Jesus Christ. I want this
evening to address this subject. Three facts about faith. Open your Bibles to 1 John chapter
5. Faith and love simply can't be
separated. God deals with all men, with
all men upon the one ground, the one foundation, the one basis
of Christ's finished work, his accomplished redemption for our
souls. God deals with people only upon the foundation of Christ's
finished work, His blood, His righteousness, His accomplished
redemption by the sacrifice of Himself. And God accepts all
men upon one condition, faith. Faith. Now, our acceptance with
God in Christ Jesus is an eternal acceptance. But that eternal
acceptance is known consciously only when we believe on the Son
of God. God loved us with an everlasting
love. He loved us before the world
began, unconditionally and freely. But no one has any reason to
even fondly suspect that maybe God loves them until you believe
on the Son of God. That love is revealed only to
faith in Jesus Christ. God accepts us on the foundation
of Christ's finished work. And if you would come to God
and find acceptance with him in your soul, the only way you
can come to God is by faith in that crucified Redeemer, the
Lord Jesus Christ. Faith, which worketh by love. Without faith, it is impossible
to please God. Without faith, it is impossible
to please God. People are always wanting to
do something, do something. Enoch walked with God, we're
told. Hebrews chapter 11, verse 5. And he was translated. But before
he was translated, he had this testimony that he pleased God. What does that mean? What does
that mean? This is how it's generally understood.
Enoch had such a close, intimate walk with God. He was such a
devoted, saintly, godly man that he just grew riper and riper
and riper for heaven. He got so good, rather than dying,
God took him to heaven. Now anyone who understands anything
about this book knows better than that. And yet that's how
Enoch is generally understood and portrayed. The very next
word in scripture is this. Enoch walked with God. And it was translated. And before
it was translated, he had this testimony that he feared God,
but without faith. It's impossible to please him. He had the testimony that he
pleased God, and the only way you please God is by faith in
his son. You understand that? The only
way you will find acceptance consciously with God Almighty
is by faith in Christ Jesus. Our religious knowledge may be
great and extensive, but without faith it's vain. Man can memorize scripture, memorize
scripture, memorize scripture. Sometime back I heard a fellow,
I'm going to read from memory the scriptures. And some folks
are impressed with that nonsense. That's just arrogance, pride.
I want you to see how I memorize scripture. Now, memorize it for
your advantage, but don't try to show it to me. I'm not impressed.
I'm not impressed. You can memorize the Word of
God and never know the Word of God. You can memorize John Gill's
theology book and never know the God John Gill served. Knowledge
without faith is nothing. Our religious experiences may
be wonderful, may even be miraculous, but without faith in Christ,
experience is nothing. There were many folks, thousands
of people, thousands of people who ate the loaves and fishes
our Lord multiplied that day. Can you imagine eating miraculously
made bread and miraculously made fish, miraculously prepared for
you from the hand of God? Oh boy, that'd be something.
Not without faith. Not without faith in Christ.
We may reform our lives and walk outwardly in moral uprightness
in the performance of great religious activity and devoted service,
but without faith in Christ, it's all vain. We may make great
sacrifices and perform noble deeds that cause men to look
at us with astonishing admiration, but without faith in Christ.
a personal, living, heart faith in the Son of God, it's all vain. Without faith in Christ, all
that we are, all that we do, all that we experience is an
abomination to God. Everything. This is what the
book says. The plowing of the wicked is
an abomination to God. That's what the book says. A fellow goes out and plows his
field to feed his family. That's an abomination to God.
Everything we do that we think is righteousness, God calls it
filthy rags. And that faith that's true and
genuine works by love. Now hold your Bibles open here
at 1 John chapter 5. And I want to show you three
facts about true faith. Three facts about faith in Christ
Jesus. And I want to tell you a little
something that has just been settling in my mind in recent
weeks and months. I can take you in the scriptures
and show you how God defines the gospel. I can show you many
places. I challenge you to find me a
definition of faith in this book. You won't find one. Faith is
never defined in the Word of God because it's not just theory
and word. Faith can only be known by experience. So faith is continually illustrated
for us. but never defined. Continually
illustrated, showing us that which faith is, but it's never
defined in words. Now these three things I want
you to see. First, true faith is a heart confidence in Christ,
in Jesus of Nazareth as the anointed of God. Second, true faith is
loving and obedient. And then third, true faith is
victorious. Saving faith is not an idle,
dormant, lifeless creed. Saving faith is not just mental
ascent to religious dogma. It is a living, powerful, vital,
essential life in a man. Saving faith is that which is
created in us by God the Holy Spirit Now this is the first
thing I want you to see John tells us in verse 1 that true
faith is a confidence of the heart in the Lord Jesus as the
anointed one of God 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. Saving faith has Jesus Christ
alone for its object, not Christ and my works, not
Christ and my experience of the new birth, not Christ and my
experience of life walking with Christ, not Christ in my religious
deeds, not Christ in my feelings, not Christ in anything else,
but Christ alone is the object of faith. And if our faith is
true and genuine, it rests entirely upon God's revelation of his
son in his word as he opens his word to our hearts. Our faith
in Christ rests entirely upon God's revelation of his son in
his word by the spirit of grace, so that faith in Christ is not
based upon and does not depend upon the words of men, not in
the past or in the present. When I was in training, as they
call it, Bible college, Both the schools I attended, both
the schools I attended had strong, strong emphasis on what's called
personal evangelism. And they taught you how to win
souls for Jesus. And it was a marvelous, marvelous
thing to go out and knock on doors and win people to Jesus.
To go to the shopping center and talk a drunk into professing
faith in Christ and when he walked away just as drunk as he was
when he met him. But you could talk him into it. Oh boy, we
got another one saved. No, you just met another one
twofold more the child of hell than he was before. People wonder
all the time, even in churches where I go preach, why don't
you do this or do that? Because I'm not playing games
with your souls. I don't chase ambulances. I don't
try to strike where the iron's hot and get people to make a
decision for Jesus. I don't con children into making
a profession of faith. Don't somebody comes out. I want
to be baptized. I say why? And if you can't give me an answer
I ain't gonna do it Children come on, but John I want I want
to be baptized. Let's lay to wait a little while.
I want you to know what you're doing. I Want you to know what
you're doing? Why is that? Mark if I can talk
you into faith Somebody else can talk you out of it You understand
that? If I can program the services
so that we have just the right music and just the right atmosphere,
just the right feeling, and get you to decide for Jesus, somebody
else come up with a better program and get you to decide for somebody
else. Paul said, when I came to you, I came not with the excellency
of man's speech, not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ
should stand in the wisdom of men. I came to you preaching
the gospel. What do we do? We preach the
gospel and wait. Wait for what? Wait for God to
work. All of my life as a believer,
I've watched fellows. Everybody talks about revivals
in the past. And I'll be honest with you, the stuff folks call
revival, read the history. Merle a fella Running up there
now ripping his shirt open screaming. That's not an indication of God
the Holy Spirit Folks falling in the floor wall around a slobbering
and screaming all around. That's not an indication of God
the Holy Spirit folks Waving their hands and and speaking
in tongues. It's not an indication of revival Well had a revival
and all the people did they just sat in their houses and read
their Bibles seven days a week Somebody's got to go make some
money Somebody's got to do work. That's not God. That's not a
movement of God. No, sir. No, sir. But people read about
revivals and great movings of God, and we don't see those things
happening now. So what we've got to do is change
what we're doing. tone down the message, improve
our methods, and start fasting and praying and get God in a
hammerlock, and he'll come down and do something for us. No,
faith isn't based upon the testimony of men. It's not based upon miracles
and visions and dreams. It doesn't rest in mere historic
facts. Faith rests entirely upon the
Word of God. This is the essence of faith.
We believe that Jesus, that man born in Bethlehem 2,000 years
ago, that man who walked on this earth, David's son, that man
whose genealogy was never questioned, I had one of my friends, a young
friend, asked me just recently, or just last week, about the
genealogy. He said, I wonder why they're there. He said, I
know they're there for some reason. And I responded to it in this way,
and I'll deal with this sometime soon, Lord willing. Of all the
things the Jews raised against our Lord, Of all the things,
they thought of every accusation they could, everything they could
to try to denounce him. This is not the Christ. This
is not the Messiah. He said he's the king of the
Jews, but he's not. He can't be. There was one way
they could have proved he wasn't. One certain way. All they had
to do was find a hole in his genealogy. That's all they had
to do, just find one hole. One hole. But you read the New
Testament. And you find out that his genealogy,
they were maintained in perfect accuracy. And the Jews did that by divine order until God sent
and tagged us in to destroy Jerusalem in 70 AD. And today, Nobody, nobody in Israel has
any idea what his ancestry is. He just knows he's a Jew. That's
all. But not with Christ. His genealogy
was maintained perfectly and was never questioned. Our faith
rests entirely upon the testimony of this book. He who is Jesus
of Nazareth, that one born at Bethlehem who died at Calvary
at the hands of Romans by the demand of the Jews, he is the
Christ, the anointed one of God, the Savior that God sent into
the world. This is the one issue that Philip
asked Eunuch. He said, here's water what doth
enter me to be baptized. And Philip answered the eunuch,
if you believe you may. And this is what the eunuch answered.
This is what he answered. Oh, I'm a man of strong faith. Those are good words, aren't
they? Oh, she's a woman of faith. She believes in that door there. She believes in astrology. She
believes in Zeus. She believes in the Pope. She
believes this, that. No! Do you believe? Philip understood, I believe
that Jesus is the Christ. Any other faith is just a delusion. Just a delusion. Oh, he's a man
of strong faith. He's a Muslim. No, he ain't.
He's Muslim. He's a man of strong faith. He's a Jew. No, he ain't.
He's a Jew. He's a man of strong faith. He's
a devout Baptist. No, he ain't just a Baptist.
He's a man of strong faith. He's a devoted Catholic who goes
to Mass every time he can. No, he's just a Catholic. Whose
faith? He that believeth that Jesus
is the Christ. What's that mean? What does that
mean? What does it mean to say that Jesus is the Christ? He
is that one, the only one. He opened his book and read all
the Old Testament scriptures and say he fulfilled it all and
showed that he did it. Now, then you're going to work
tomorrow and if you've got 50 people in the office building
and they've all been to church tonight and they say Jesus is
the Christ, ask somebody to show you in the Old Testament. Show
me right here. Show me right here. Well, the
book says he'll be born of a virgin. He was. The book says he would
be born in Bethlehem. There were two of them. The book
said he'd be born in Bethlehem, Ephrata. Only one of those. The book says that when Christ
comes, he will fulfill, bring in everlasting righteousness. Make an end of sin. Fulfill the
covenant and the prophecy. He did. Nobody else. Nobody else. He accomplished
everything, everything that the prophets said he would accomplish.
This one, when he had finished redemption, ascended up into
heaven. Poured out his spirit upon the
nations of the earth by the preaching of the gospel He sends out his
spirit Demonstrated on the day of Pentecost when he poured out
the Holy Spirit as the inaugural act of the anointed King David
sitting on his throne just like Joel said he would To believe
that Jesus is the Christ Is to trust him in all his glorious
offices Moses said God's gonna raise up a prophet and from among
you, and that prophet you will hear." You will hear. But he wasn't talking to Abraham's
physical seed. He wasn't talking to the physical sons of Israel.
They didn't hear him. They didn't hear him. He said,
God's going to raise out of you Abraham's physical seed, a prophet
whom all Abraham's spiritual seed will hear being taught of
God. He's going to give you a priest.
A priest, look at Aaron, see him in his gorgeous apparel and
that effort and that breastplate and all that fine priestly garment
in his services and sacrifices day by day and week by week and
month by month and year by year. See Aaron? He typifies this priest
who's coming. See Aaron as he takes off that
gorgeous apparel and puts on the holy linen garment and goes
into the Holy of Holies with the blood of the Passover lamb.
That's what Christ is going to do when he comes. But Aaron is
not a perfect picture. So God sends another priest.
And I've been right about as often as I've been wrong about
who Melchizedek was. Folks ask me all the time, was that Christ
or a type of Christ? I say, yes, sir. That's what
it was. Melchizedek, having neither father nor mother, this one who
had no beginning of days nor end of years, king of peace and
king of righteousness, he met Abraham, returning from the slaughter
of the kings, and Abraham paid tithes, Levi paid tithes to him
in the laws of Abraham. Jesus Christ is our Melchizedek. Read the book of Hebrews. He
is that one who came a priest after the order of Melchizedek.
And our Lord Jesus Christ is our omnipotent king. That one
raised up of David's seed, seated on David's throne. Peter said,
this is what's happened today. God's enthroned David's son. He's took his seat in glory.
He's the king over whom, or to whom God's given power over all
flesh. His faith. It's much more than
just acknowledging those things as undeniable facts. This faith
in Christ is looking to Him, meaning on Him, casting our care
on Him, resting in Him, coming to Him, trusting Him, submitting
to Him, committing our lives to Him, trusting the crucified
Christ. and bowing to the King Christ
Jesus the Lord, submitting all things to Him. Faith in Christ. It's not a one-time thing. It's not, well, I remember when
I believed on Jesus, my soul, what good's that gonna do you?
Oh no, to whom coming. Faith in Christ is a continual
way of life. Faith in Christ is continually
coming to him. It is recognizing that everything
is done by him, in whom we find acceptance with God, on whom
we rely for all things, because this is the gift of God. This
is the gift of God. Notice how our text begins. Whosoever believeth that Jesus
is the Christ shall be born of God. You can't even buy a modern translation
that says that. How come? Because that's not
what the book says. Whosoever believeth that Jesus
is the Christ, that fella, he's born of God. Because faith doesn't
cause God to give you life. Is it the cause of life? Faith
isn't the cause of God, the Holy Spirit working in you. Faith
isn't the cause of grace. Faith is the result. The person
who believes that Jesus is the Christ, he is born of God. Those and only those who have
this faith are born of God. And this is the result of God's
mighty, omnipotent, irresistible power. Have a great picture in
Ezekiel 37. I've got to think about this
message earlier today, and I wrote a hymn in the bulletin Sunday,
but I won't be here singing with you, so let me give you a head
start on it. Eternal Spirit, heavenly wind, breathe on your
slain, these dead in sin. Bid the dry, scattered bones
revive, and make the dead in sin alive. is that gift of God that causes
sinners like you and me to trust his son, Jesus of Nazareth, the
Christ of God. Number two, true faith is loving
and obedient. If my faith is true, if we are
indeed made partakers of the divine nature, Our faith produces
within us a loving obedience to Christ. Beloved, let us love one another,
John said. And it tells us here that God's
people truly do love one another. Look at verse two. By this we
know that we love the children of God. whom we love God and
keep his commandments. For this is the love of God,
that we keep his commandments, and his commandments are not
grievous. True love for the brethren arises
from love for God. True brotherly love doesn't arise
from and does not depend upon carnal relationships or carnal
things. You love me. And that's obvious. And I'm thankful you do. Not for the same reasons she
does. Now, she loves me for the same
reasons you do. But you don't love me for the
same reason she does. We have a different relationship. And
that relationship is altogether carnal, delightful as it is.
It's a carnal relationship, husband and wife. We're married to each
other. We enjoy one another's company. I don't know whether she's getting
to be like me or I'm getting to be like her. We think alike. We'll start to
say the same thing at the same time. Some of you folks know
what I'm talking about. I'll start to say something,
she'll come out with the same words. We just think alike. I hope I'm
getting to be like her. I think that's the case because
she ain't got any meaner. But we love God's people because
they're God's people. We love God's people because
they're one with Christ. We love God's people not because
of their personalities, not because of their likes and dislikes,
not because they do this or they don't do that. No, no, we love
God's people because they're God's people. We love God's people
because they're one with Christ. We love each other. Believers do. True love arises from this union
with Christ. and this faith in Christ, the commandments of God that
you believe on his side and that you love one another. First John
3.23. His commandments are not grievous. Isn't that amazing? His commandments
are not grievous. Now, it's a grievous burden,
much as we may desire to do things to keep the commandments and
ordinances and ceremonies of the law. Can you imagine what
a grievous burden it was just to try to keep the Sabbath day?
Some of you tried. You know what a grievous burden
it is. Oh no, can't do that. Sabbath.
I recall the first time I was in England, I was kind of bored
with the theological jargon going on and kids were standing around.
It was on Sunday afternoon one day, waiting for the next meeting
and a bunch of kids standing around. Bill Clark's little girl,
Allie Jellett's three boys, just tiny little shavers. And they
were standing around with their hands in their pockets, bored
stiff. And I said, y'all want to play
some ball? You would have thought by the look on their faces and
the preacher's faces, I'd ask them if they wanted to get naked
and go swimming. We can't do that, it's the Sabbath. His commandments do not grieve
us. It's the easiest thing I've ever found in my life. Believing
on the Son of God. Now when I don't, life gets to
be a burden. Is that true or is it not true? When I pace the floor and wring
my hands and stomp my feet and shake my fist, life gets to be
a real burden. Oh, it gets to be a burden. Can't
sleep, can't rest. When I believe God, I lay me
down and sleep. That's the easiest thing in this
world. And love? Oh, what's easier than that? What's easier than that? You
get upset with somebody? You get upset with that woman
you love dearly? You lay down, you want to stay
mad because you're just ordinary like that, and you turn over
and you grit your teeth and can't sleep a bit. And you ladies do
the same thing. That's grievous, isn't it? That's
a burden. Ah, but you walk together in
sweet love. That's a delight. I woke up this
morning tired. I didn't sleep much last night.
And sometimes I wake up like a bear. I hate it, but I do. And this gal comes and brings
me a cup of coffee with a big beaming smile on her face and
says good morning. I want to hit somebody, but I
can't hit her. That just changes everything. That just changes
everything. Oh, that's easy. That's easy. His commandments
are not grievous. Do you understand what I'm saying?
Faith and love, not grievous. Everything else that men invent
and call religion is grievous. Everything else, all the religious
rules and traditions and customs and practices, not faith in love,
not faith in love. Somebody wrote to me just this
week, wanted to need to practice some church discipline. And I,
I tried to bite my tongue. I want to say you probably ought
to be the one put out, but I don't know. I don't always say just
exactly what I'm thinking, but now that gets grievous. That
gets grievous. Got to put, we got to figure
out some way. to put Bob Potts out of church. And we've got
to get everybody on our side so we start conniving. That gets
grievous. Faith and love, his commandments
are not grievous. Forgiving somebody, overlooking
sin, overlooking faults, keeping your mouth shut, that's not grievous.
Oh, no, no, no. All right, now one more thing.
Here's the third thing. This third fact, this third characteristic
of true faith, Whatsoever is born of God, that's talking about
you and me, overcometh the world, and this is the victory that
overcometh the world, even our faith. Faith is the victory! No! No! The object of faith is the victory.
The object of faith. Let's see if I can make good
on that, and I'll send you home. Turn to Hebrews chapter 11. Who is he that overcometh the
world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God? Hebrews chapter 11, verse 33. These saints of God overcome
the world. How do you overcome? Man, how
do you overcome the world? I want to do that, overcome the
world. Through faith, They subdued kingdoms. Oh, man! What faith those people
had coming out of Egypt! Do what? Do what? Why, Moses like they never got
him out of Egypt. And when it would come time to
go, Moses himself had to be parted. Oh, what faith they had! Not
talking about the strength of their faith. Christ the Lord
overcame Egypt. Read this book. God said, I overthrew
him. I overthrew Pharaoh. I destroyed
Egypt. I brought you out with a mighty
hand and a high arm. They want righteousness. Oh,
boy, he so believed God that he, oh, look how good he is. No, no, no. Abraham believed
God. And it was imputed to him for
righteousness. They obtained the promises. They obtained the
promises. God's made a promise. All you
got to do is obey it. No, you believe on the Son of God and
every covenant blessing sealed to you by the Spirit. They stopped
the mouths of lions. Now, I thought I'd get to preaching
a big way about Daniel, you know. Oh, Daniel, he just went over
there and took those lions and shook them up good and laid down
a bit of salt filler for himself. No. The book says God stopped
the mouths of the lions. God stopped them. Christ the
Redeemer stopped the mouths of those lions. Daniel believed
him. Read on. Quenched the violence
of fire. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego
cast into the fire first, and the fire couldn't burn them because
they didn't believe God. God delivered them. The Son of God
walked right in the furnace with them. They escaped the edge of
the sword out of weakness were made strong and waxed valued
in fight and turned to flight the armies of the aliens. True
God-given faith. True faith in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Trust Him. It is loving and obedient before
Him. And it overcomes the world because
we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us. More than
conquerors through Him that loved us. Oh, God graciously give you
faith. And God give us faith day by
day and hour by hour as we meet the difficulties of life. So
we walk before Him, believing God, trusting Christ. Oh, I want to trust Him. I want
to trust Him. Just trust Him. in the totality
of my being, with all my life, all the time, with everything,
so that I live in this world without care for anything but
Him. With no fear, no dread, no apprehension,
just believing God and love one another. What on this earth is more wonderful,
peaceful, delightful, less grievous than sweet love of the brethren
in Christ Jesus the Lord. Amen. Amen.